Gardener

Chapter 5

No Fault of Yours

                   

I stood at the base of a great oak still young in its thinking, as it should be it had grown to full height and beyond just that morning while Kalini looked on in awe. Kalini had climbed to the top most part of the oak in perhaps half the span of an hour and now she sat somewhere beyond my sight dismantling the chandelier as I had requested so that we may distribute the magic imbued stones throughout the leafy canopy. "Are you sure that we're allowed to take this apart?!" She exclaimed for nearly the hundredth time.

"Not particularly, but if asked we'll say Dara allowed it!" I called back, I could hear her laughter echo through the trunk of the tree, something I'm sure she did on purpose with the use of her magic, no way I'd hear her otherwise.

"Ahh look, the Head Gardener's pet," I turned from the trunk my hand rested upon to see Prince Ang and Prince Jin strolling towards me.

"I see but one animal in this room fair Prince and it isn't me," Sir Chiang trailing behind the two chuckled softly. "It is good to see you again Sir Knight," I raised my hand in greeting to him.

He returned the gesture, "Same to you Gardener Manoban, I am awed to see you in action. Is this great oak your creation?"

"It is, with the aid of my fellow Gardener," I gazed up high into the canopy unable to see her, "She is a bit busy at the moment."

"Afraid of heights Manoban?" Prince Ang taunted stepping closer.

"You are asking a plant mage if she fears heights, when she stands before a great oak she has helped grow..." I gazed at him allowing him to become a bit uncomfortable in the silence. "No tree I have touched would dare let me fall and so the answer to your poorly asked question is no."

"You don't know how to speak to your betters do you?" Prince Jin asked not unkindly.

I smiled softly, "I see no one better than me here Highness and only one that may be counted as my equal," I looked to Sir Chiang as I spoke, he tipped his head in respect better than he had the first time, showing that he had practiced. "If you think that your title makes you better than I, then you are mistaken, a title is just a word after all, a word created to separate the masses, and that word to some equals power, but not to me. And so I will treat you with the respect I feel you deserve regardless of the word that comes before your name just as you do me. It is the way Angileri works does it not?"

"I am a Prince..."

"And yet I have yet to see you show it, ask any servant, a title is earned..." I watched his face grow red with rage while Prince Jin looked on not knowing how to respond, "And you have not earned yours."

He stepped into my personal space, I did not move nor lower my eyes, "I am going to destroy you." He breathed silently through his rage.

"Ang, Ang," I murmured so only he could hear. "You say all these words, you make all this threats and yet I have yet to see you actually do anything..." He struck me then with the flat of his palm, it stung a bit but I did not move. "No Prince stands before me. Just a boy crying for power that will never be his." I finished.

Sir Chiang caught his hand before he could strike me again, "Do not strike her again," He warned roughly pulling the Prince away. "She is not some tavern wench you can place your hands on when you are angered, she has the Queen behind her and as she said regardless of the title that sits before your name you can and will be punished for harming any who belong to the Queen." Chiang warned proving he had read up on our customs more than I had realized.