Darkspur

Chapter 12 - An Undesirable Guest

Princess Milentiana Indridan had woken late that morning; the noise from the banquet had kept her awake long past her normal bedtime. She lay in bed reading a thick paged tome that her grandfather had enthusiastically thrust into her hand a few days earlier. The book was the story of the Indridan family line, her family line, but unfortunately that didn't make it any less boring. She had skipped most of the earlier chapters, full of 'thees' and 'thous', and the way it was written was so conducive for nodding off, she hardly remembered any of it. The story was starting to get more interesting as she began to recognised some of the names but it was still far from gripping. Milly looked up from the book as the sound of muffled shouts came through her closed bedroom door. She threw back the light summer bed covers and jumped from her large four poster bed, scampering barefoot across the room. Opening the door, she instantly recognised the bellowing voice as her grandfather, and he wasn't please about something.

"Ordwin, get the hell out of bed, now," Caden scream as he ascended the stairs from his chambers.

Milly's door opened onto a large landing with the wide staircase on the far side to the floor below. Egrinlast had his head stuck out of his room, looking down the staircase. He noticed Milly, raising his eyebrows and giving her a smile before disappearing back inside. Milly had only met Egrinlast briefly the evening before in a rather awkward encounter concerning his rear. She'd always wanted to meet an Elf, imagining them to be a proud, mystical race but never envisaged that said elf would be bent over a table with his trousers at his knees. The meeting didn't quite live up to her expectations.

Out the corner of her eye she noticed her mother, hunched over, scurrying close to the wall, trying her best to keep out of Caden's view. Keria motioned to her daughter to get back inside and she followed Milly in, leaving the door open just enough so she could peer out the gap.

"What's going on, mother?" Milly enquired.

"Lets just say, Ordwin, isn't in your grandfather's good books at the moment," she said, still with one eye to the gap.

"Ordwin," Caden continued to scream.

A minute later they heard Ordwin's deep voice. "What is it, Caden? All that shouting's very unpleasant for my hangover."

"How dare you, Ordwin. How dare you, without my permission?" Caden's voice was now measured and lower but Keria could still hear the fury bubbling beneath.

"I take it you're referring to the Shadowsongs?" Ordwin asked, already knowing the answer. "Because, you would never have given your permission, Caden. It's that simple." Keria could now see the towering man, still dress in his nightshirt.

"Of course I wouldn't, you of all people know the reason why I wouldn't," Caden's face was a bright puce colour and he was flexing his fists, staring his friend in the eye.

"Caden," Ordwin tried to reason. "We need them, we need them all, including him. He was their leader and you can deny it all you want, but they are considerably weaker without Hanian's direction."

"I should throw you in the dungeon for this, Ordwin," Caden continued.

"But you won't, will you?" Ordwin said, cocking his head. "Because, you know I'm right."

"No, Ordwin, you are not right, this was my decision to make and no-one else. You have stepped way over the line. I am the King, I make the calls," Caden was speaking through clenched teeth. "What's more, you let all of the birds out, every last one of them. What were you thinking, man?"

Keria could see Ordwin was studying Caden and he was quickly coming to the conclusion that the king was serious about the dungeon. Something was passing between the old friends, Keria could see this plainly. They had fought in the past, of course, but never had Caden been so irate as this. His leadership had been challenged and on a subject that obviously still troubled him deeply, Ordwin had misjudge the situation drastically.