Devan Chronicles Series: Books 1-3 (4 page)

* * *

Julia landed. “Ow?”

She sat up only to find she was kneeling astride a darkly tanned man with long black hair frosted with grey at the temples. What the hell was he doing here... Julia gaped at her surroundings. She was about to ask what the hell was going on when her landing cushion shoved her unceremoniously onto the floor and ran off.

“Hey! Who do you...” She called after the retreating figure.

The man didn’t look back, but Julia was beyond caring about him. She was sitting on a patterned marble floor in a medieval throne room complete with guardsmen and a real throne. The pattern on the floor was like a coat of arms. There was a solid green circle with two gauntleted fists crossed in the centre. Above her head was a chandelier hanging from chains. There were four of them altogether. There must have been a couple of thousand candles up there. The vaulted ceiling was very high and supported by stone columns. There was something odd about them, but she couldn’t quite think of what it was. The walls were covered in tapestries and banners—more banners hung at intervals from the ceiling. It was almost as if she was in a castle or something. Ha! A castle, yeah right! She frowned at those huge columns again. They were very tall, but that wasn’t what had caught her attention. There was something bugging her about them, but what? They were all of one piece instead of in sections, and they looked too delicate to support the weight of the stone ceiling.

The tapestries depicted battles mostly, but some showed fanciful creatures like griffins and dragons. She looked back at the guardsmen who were busy ogling her out of the corners of their eyes as if she couldn’t see them. The swords looked okay, but the armour seemed to be made of leather. Shouldn’t they have been wearing metal breastplates? Julia shook her head at her preoccupation. She should be in the gym! Had she hit her head when she fell? Yes, that was it! She was in a hospital and dreaming all this. She felt much better about her situation knowing that. She hoped it wasn’t serious. She needed to be fit for the games no matter what.

Julia stood and walked around rather than freeze her behind off on the cold floor. The men standing together with her landing cushion took no notice of her as they tended to someone lying on the floor. All of them were wearing colourful robes. The blue ones were nice, more like an aquamarine than plain blue. She didn’t think much of the yellow ones, but one man had decided to make a fashion statement by wearing green. On her right the guardsmen continued to watch her without moving more than their eyes. They were as motionless as statues and looked uncomfortable.

“Hello, are you standing like that for a particular reason?” Julia said on her best behaviour. What she really wanted to say was that if they didn’t stop ogling her as if she were the only woman ever born she was going to slap them silly.

The man in the front was a sergeant if Julia understood the purpose of the chevrons on his armour. He glowered at her when his friends laughed, but when he didn’t answer, a man on his left answered for him.

“We be magicked, young missy.”

“Shut yer face Brian,” the sergeant said.

“Magicked? Are you serious? Magic is all tricks and nonsense...” Julia began but then swallowed nervously remembering they wore swords and this place definitely wasn’t her gym. “Isn’t it?”

The sergeant growled a no, but another of his friends answered more informatively. “Don’t say that where they can hear you,” he said nodding at all the robed figures. “The little one in green stuck our feet to the floor.”

“Really? Why don’t you take your boots off then?”

The guardsmen gaped at her, then looked sheepishly at their mates. As one, they started to pull their feet out of the magicked boots. Julia tried to lift one of the vacated boots but she couldn’t move it. They really were magicked! Thoughts of ogling went out of Julia’s head as a solvable problem presented itself to her. She gratefully latched onto it.

“I’ll just go over and ask the one in green to get them unstuck for you.”

“Wait! Don’t—” the sergeant began, and tried to make a grab for her, but his feet were still trapped within his boots. Julia side-stepped and easily evaded him.

This place was truly amazing. She hadn’t thought her imagination was this detailed. Everything was so vivid and colourful. She studied a tapestry on one of the walls and loved it on sight. Dragons flew overhead while on the ground below more were roaring and blasting fire at soldiers in armour. The soldiers were winning of course, but that didn’t detract from the artistry. It was gorgeous. The colours were so vivid and lifelike—all the reds and the gold’s, it was wonderful work. Maybe Jill was right about her working too hard. She might have had a nervous breakdown.

Julia reached out to tug the sleeve of the man in green. “Excuse me. My friends would like their boots back if that’s not too much trouble,” she said politely.

The man in the green robe turned toward her with a distracted air about him. Julia thought his eyes were going to fall out of their sockets when he focused upon her. Anyone would think he’d never seen a woman before. He stared down at her as if mesmerised by something. She squirmed starting to feel a little exposed.

“I
said
, will you let my friends have their boots back please?” She growled becoming annoyed. Behind her back the guardsmen groaned in unison.

The pimply faced man shook off his distraction. “I’m sorry, but your raiment... it’s a little... and I can see your...” He blushed so red he looked as if he had chronic sunburn. “Never mind. What did you want again?”

Julia sighed.
Give me strength!
Suddenly she did feel stronger and clearer headed. “I said,” she began slowly as if she were talking to a simpleton. “My friends would appreciate it if they could have their boots back. This floor is cold you know.”

He glanced over Julia’s shoulder at the guardsmen and blushed again with embarrassment. He quickly went over to apologise with Julia following closely behind. “I am so sorry about this—truly. I didn’t want you to start fighting. You can see our lord is in no danger. Now let me sort this out.”

Julia watched the magician intently and blinked in amazement at what happened. It was weird, but she thought she saw... she didn’t know what it was but it was something. The man in green glowed with an inner radiance before something flew away from him to touch each of the boots in turn. After it touched the last one the glow faded away.

“There you are. You can put them on again now,” the magician said before inclining his head politely to Julia all the while keeping his eyes focused over her shoulder.

Julia frowned and watched him leave. What was it she saw? She turned back to her new friends. “There, that wasn’t too difficult. Do any of you know what his name is?”

The sergeant seemed in better humour now that he could move without showing the holes in his stockings. She had noticed they were in a terrible state.

“I’m Sergeant Burke, lady. His name is Mathius.”

“He wears the green robe,” another soldier added helpfully. “That means he’s an initiate.”

“An initiate into what? Into magic I suppose. How high is green?”

“Third rank, lady. The colours go: white, brown, green, yellow, blue, red, and black.”

One of the guardsmen leaned around Burke’s shoulder. “Shouldn’t we get her some clothes? What she’s wearing might be all right for bedroom games, but we’re standing with the high and mighty here.”

Julia was about to snap that he could ask her what she wanted, but the sergeant spoke first.

“Good thinking. If you follow Brian, lady, he will get you some
proper
clothes.”

Julia was feeling a bit chilly in her leotard, so she ignored Burke’s emphasis and nodded her agreement. She followed Brian out of the throne room and into an entry hall. There was a large door ahead that opened into what she assumed must be a courtyard. She could only see a glimpse from here, but the ground did seem to have cobbles. The foyer was less ostentatious than the throne room. The walls did have some ornamentation in the shape of large portraits and a few small tapestries, but the floor was made of stone not marble. The stone was granite. To the right and left a corridor stretched into the distance.

This place is BIG!

Brian was frowning down each corridor.

“What’s the matter Brian?”

“Oh nothing much miss,” he said frowning both ways. “I’m trying to think of ways to get you into the women’s quarter without anyone seeing you. T’aint decent for a lady such as yourself to be seen in her night clothes.”

Julia grinned, nightclothes indeed. “My name is Julia, Brian, not miss. This is a leotard. I don’t sleep in it. It’s for gymnastics—do you know that word?”

Although he obviously wanted to, Brian was trying not to look at her. “No miss, I mean, Lady Julia. Do it be some kind of magic?” He said and finally succumbed. He peeked at her before going bright red and looking away.

Julia sighed. Men could be such children sometimes. “Not as you mean it, but I must admit it does feel like magic if you perform well. Does your country have sporting events where everyone comes to compete?”

“We have a tournament in Devarr every few years. I think not this year though ‘coz of the invasion.”

“This tournament, what events do you have?”

“Sword play, archery, lance work, wrestling, boxing, and... oh, all sorts of things. The prize is a gold medallion with a picture on it. A sword for sword play, and a glove for boxing, and such like.”

Julia frowned in disappointment. “All your events are about fighting. Don’t you have any for woman, like swimming, or running, or jumping?”

Brian’s eyebrows shot up. “Course! We have all those, but women don’t compete. They’re too weak and fragile like.”

What!
“Oh really? Too fragile, I see.”

Brian didn’t recognise the signs of an imminent explosion, so continued regardless. “Everyone knows women need protecting. Why, any man would die before seeing a woman come to harm, or he be no true man.”

Julia listened to Brian and realised he meant every word. She didn’t bite his head off. After all, how could she argue with him when he was determined not to let harm befall her? As she listened to the intricacies of honourable behaviour, she noticed someone coming down the corridor toward them.

“How about if you take down that smaller tapestry, Brian. I could wrap it around myself before that man sees me.”

Brian glanced the way she had nodded and yelped in dismay. He quickly jumped onto a chair and tugged down the tapestry. It was a nice one. It had pictures of horses running along a river. The spray was clearly defined and the colours were vivid. It must have taken years to make. Brian quickly wrapped her in it, and snapped to attention as the man reached them.

The newcomer was about a head taller than Julia was, making him about five feet ten inches. He was heavily muscled in the shoulders and beardless. The tight leather trousers he wore displayed his muscled legs to perfection, and incidentally made Julia feel a little hot in the face. His sheathed sword was thrust through a blue sash tied tightly around his waist. His armour was the same kind Brian wore and seemed to be made of boiled leather. The same emblem she had seen on the floor of the throne room adorned his chest on the right side.

Julia didn’t think the armour offered much protection against the swords all the men carried... not unless it had some kind of hidden strength. Magic perhaps? He was wearing his dark hair long with a leather band around it to create a ponytail, and diagonally across his chest from left shoulder to right hip he wore a blue sash. It probably denoted rank. From Brian’s reaction she guessed he was a captain of the guard.

“Report!”

“Darius died, Sir. He made a wall out of light and brought Lady Julia here through a hole in the air!” Brian said in awe. “I’m taking her to the women’s quarter now, Sir.”

“Darius is dead you say?”

Brian nodded. “He was glowing like the sun and then he fell. He was an old man, Sir.”

“Hmmm. The lord?”

“He was very upset. The mages stopped him from hurting himself.”

The captain’s lips thinned. “But he is well?”

“Yes sir.”

Julia listened as Brian concisely reported the facts. She was extremely interested to hear about Darius who it seemed had died trying to summon her to this place. Served him right too. She had been minding her own business and then wham! Here she was.

The captain turned toward her with a supercilious smile on his face.

You... I... do... not... like.

The captain inclined his head in a small bow. “Lady Julia, I am Marcus. As you can see,” he indicated the blue sash, “Senior Captain. I will escort you to the women’s quarter if you wish.”

Actually, Romeo had a very nice voice, but Julia had no intention of going anywhere with him. “That’s very kind of you, Captain, but I thought I heard your lord roaring about someone called Marcus just a few moments ago. Are there perhaps two people of the name here?”

The captain’s smile wilted and he hastily excused himself to enter the hall. Julia listened and grinned as she heard someone call to him.

“Ah, Marcus. I have something—”

Brian looked at her strangely. “How did you know, Lady?”

Julia shrugged. “I just made it up. I have a feeling I wouldn’t like to be alone with your so Senior Captain Marcus.”

Brian nodded, and indicated with a polite wave of his hand that she should follow him. “He knows his job, no question of that, but I’ve heard from the serving girls that he takes... you know...
liberties!
One girl said he slapped her on the... on her
rear
.”

Julia gaped in disbelief. Brian sounded positively scandalised. Perhaps she’d been a little hard on Marcus if all he’d done was pat some girl’s rump. The more she heard, the more she realised this place took protecting women entirely too far. In most women’s minds that would be good news, but she was starting to realise how wearying something like that would be. She wouldn’t be able to leave the castle without armed escort, wouldn’t be able to compete in the tournaments, she would go mad with boredom living like that.