Recap from previous 12 chapters:
Rienna has lived in the kingdom of Vieryen for all ten years of her life, but suddenly she is forced to follow her magical cats through a hole in the magical barrier that protects her kingdom after stealing a crystal from a spy. During the time that she is forced to stay outside the barrier, her cats Xio and Xia convince her to explore the Alyene for a little while longer. During what was supposed to be a one-day trip, Rienna and the cats run into a witch and are swallowed by the earth while they run away. They wake up with no idea where they are and consult a magic goat. With no true idea of where they are going, the trio travels across grassy plains and finds a kingdom called Rufdand. Unfortunately, the king wants the magic crystal that Rienna stole to make himself more powerful. In an attempt to get Rienna out of Rufdand, a Rufdian girl named Jen ends up trapped outside the kingdom. As Rienna and Jen look for the entrance back into Rufdand they are kidnapped and brought to a work camp. They are able to quickly escape though, with the help of Xio and Xia, and have now found the gates into Rufdand.
A Second Audience
Rienna stepped back as the tall wooden doors swung inwards, revealing a part of Rufdand that she had not seen before.
It was surprisingly empty. She could see the main city farther along the road that originated from the gate, but the area in front of her appeared to be mainly farmland. Rienna found it a bit strange that the doors were placed on the side of Rufdand facing the mountains and that it was basically the place farthest from the city itself. However, she also felt that she shouldn’t make any judgments since her kingdom was completely inaccessible without the use of magic.
“Uyin. Hvem ufrond og hu trat?” An armored man said, coming forward as the gates opened. He and the three other soldiers at his side looked at Rienna expectantly.
Jen stepped forward and in front of Rienna, “Bror, ufil er Rienna. Kos vet yentrander ueltid.” she said in Queltan. She turned to Rienna, “This is my brother, Bror, he is a soldier of Rufdand.”
“Hello, Rienna. You… know where … children ….” Bror attemped, “Å, wundertrof, hvor er ueltid.” He finished giving up on speaking Rienna’s language.
“Yes. They are up in the mountains.” Rienna said, pointing towards the mountain range behind her, “We need to save them!”
Jen’s brother grumbled something and then ordered the soldiers back. Jen rolled her eyes, “He is going to take us to the king now. He doesn’t like proving me right in any way whatsoever, for some reason he takes it personally that I have always been seen as the smarter one even though we are six years apart.” She started following her brother through the gates.
Multiple things with what Jen said didn’t make sense to Rienna, but she decided to only ask about one. “Does that mean he is twenty-one and he is already an official soldier?” She asked while walking next to Jen.
“Technically he is still twenty; my birthday was only last month. And yes, he is an official soldier, and fairly high-ranked for his age as well, you saw how he commanded those older soldiers. I was always seen as smarter because of my book smarts, but he is a better strategist,” she said, “And for some reason, people think Bror is rather charismatic.” She scoffed, “He is definitely not. He is always so bossy, he just manages to say the right things to the right people.”
“Huh.” Rienna didn’t know what to think of Bror yet, but she wasn’t sure it would be wise to take a younger sibling’s word on their brother as fact, even if it sounded like it made sense.
As they passed, the gates started closing again and Rienna could see a couple of soldiers in short towers on either side of the gateway working a complex pulley system to haul the giant doors closed. The towers, and really this entire side of the doors, were rather unimpressive compared to the gander that the beautiful designs on the doors had suggested. From this side, the doors looked like regular, though giant, doors with almost no designs whatsoever. They must not get a lot of ‘important’ visitors. Rienna thought, thinking about what kingdoms used to look like according to her teachers.
“Uynkle trofitov.” Bror said, stopping in front of a carriage similar to the one Rienna had originally taken to see the king. The two other guards took their seats up in the front of the carriage with the horses and Bror opened the door and gestured Jen and Rienna inward. Once they were both inside the carriage he stepped in himself and sat across from them. After a moment the carriage started moving.
“Hva trouktre guvan dire!?” Jen’s brother suddenly said, almost yelling, “Kuyvdan yutran vienn!”
“Kuvran tovon yill!” Jen replied in a similar tone.
“What did he say?” Rienna whispered to Jen, feeling a little like an intruder of some sort.
“Oh, nothing. Just some nonsense about how we shouldn’t have left Rufdand.” She said, not breaking eye contact with her brother, “Med krov yuntrov trill!” she suddenly said, talking once again to her brother.
The siblings yelled back and forth, making Rienna feel rather awkward. She looked out the window and pretended not to notice them. She didn’t know whether she was ignoring them to give them some form of privacy or because she didn’t want any part of their conversation.
After a few very long minutes, the two Rufdians stopped bickering and sat in silence, each refusing to even look at the other except in quick glares to see if the other was glaring at them. If I had a sibling would we be like this? Rienna thought to herself. She knew that siblings could be annoying, but she also knew some brothers and sisters who appeared to be like best friends.
Eventually, the path they followed became more substantial and they started leaving the farmlands. "What Crops do they grow here?" Rienna asked. She recognized plants like wheat and corn, but most of them were unfamiliar to her.
"Well, our main vegetables are carrots and squash. However, we do also grow potatoes, ofacils, corn, and other such vegetables." Jen responded. "About a quarter of it is sold to outer places like Vieryen or the four towns."
"What are ofacils?" Rienna asked as they left the very last bit of farmland and houses started popping up all around them as they went further into the suburban area of Rufdand.
"They look like blue radishes and taste kind of like cabbage but worse. They are supposedly highly nutritious, but nobody really likes them." Jen said, making a disgusted look on her face. "Do you not have any in Vieryen?"
"No. We don't."
"You are very lucky; they taste terrible," Jen said with a smile.
"Ha!" I wonder what makes them blue... Rienna thought. "... What do you think your king is going to say?" She asked worriedly.
"King Hoyand is a fair King, but I do not like how interested he was in getting your crystal. I am afraid he may try to use it or another crystal to gain control over magic as the crystal sorceress did and become almost immortal. He may be fair, but the promise of power and an immortal life can get the best of any good ruler. They may even search for such power for good reasons." Jen paused, "I think he will do his best to get the kidnapped children back, but that he will at some point ask for the crystal and accuse us of leaving Rufdand, even though there is no law that says we cannot."
Jen's brother, recognizing the king's name, eyed them suspiciously. "Hva sverchie du?"
"Nada su on quen." Jen responded to her brother's question. "Sometimes I forget how loyal he can be to King Hoyand," Jen told Rienna. "I guess it is good seeing as he is a soldier and all, but I do not think he would agree with me about the King and your crystal."
"Oh..." Rienna couldn't tell how Jen felt about the matter, so she attempted to change the subject, "Did you say Sovergein Jenni is immortal?"
"Somewhat. No one really knows, but your Sovereign has been around for three centuries, so it at least makes you live longer." Jen said.
"Huh." I guess that makes sense. I just never thought about it.
Rienna looked out the window of the carriage and watched the houses go by. They were definitely in the more city part of Rufdand now; the road had turned to stone and the buildings were closer together. Soon they reached the part of the city that they had gone through before for their first visit to the king. Except this time they weren't expected and had just been running away from him, even if they weren't sure he knew that.
The carriage rolled to a stop in front of a set of heavy metal gates that had been open before so Rienna hadn't noticed them the first time. She leaned her head outside the window and looked intensely at the gates. After a moment of observing the tall black gates, she decided that they were ugly and that she did not like them.
Bror tapped his foot either impatiently or nervously, Rienna couldn't tell which, as the two guards directing the horses got up and went to the gate. "Du svold yentred qvon." He told Jen as the gates began to open, "Svilche ao trillod."
"Ja, Ja. Jeg hval con trod." Jen said, crossing her arms. "He is just telling me to remember to thank the king for letting me see him, blah blah blah." she rolled her eyes, "I have been training to be a diplomat, of course I know to do that."
"Maybe he's just trying to look out for you?" Rienna suggested.
"Yeah, maybe..." Jen said dismissively.
The carriage jolted slightly as they began moving again. They passed the ugly iron gates quickly and entered a less crowded neighborhood with lots more plants. Not too far ahead of them loomed the castle.
Rienna had never gotten to see any of the few castles in Vieryen, so although she had already seen the Castle of Rufdand, it still seemed pretty magical. The tall stone towers, the cute yet shabby drawbridge that created easy passage over a small stream that didn't even make a full circle around the castle. Sure she had seen fancier, less fortress-like, castles in pictures, but this was the only castle that she had seen with her own eyes.
They crossed the drawbridge and entered the official castle grounds, coming to a stop just in front of the castle itself. The soldiers in the front got up and opened the carriage door. Bror got out first, followed by Jen, and lastly Rienna. The soldiers led them through the front door of the castle along the long red carpet and to the room where they had met the king before.
Not surprisingly, King Hoyand was not waiting in the room for them.
Bror turned to the other two guards and told them something in Queltan. They exchanged a look, then left quietly.
"De quon yillet. Ve dhilliont cær." He told Jen and Rienna. Jen translated, "The other guards are notifying the staff that we're here. Meanwhile, we will wait."
"He said all of that in just those few words?" Rienna asked.
"No, I embellished it some," Jen said, sitting down on a nearby chair. "King Hoyand could be busy, so we may be here a while."
Rienna sat in her own chair and thought back to the last time she had been in this room. The two situations seemed rather similar; both times Rienna was worried that she was in trouble, and she was pretty sure that she was sitting in the same chair as the last time. "I hope it goes better this time." She said.
"Yeah..." Jen said quietly.
They sat in silence for what would have been a long time had a well-dressed man not come into the room and broke it, "King Hoyand will see you shortly." he said with much purpose. The man looked to be of the older sort. He appeared bald, though he had a hat on, so it was hard to tell, and had a short white beard that looked like he applied lots of products. He paused, then said, "He is very excited to talk to you."
"Deter ikke god." Bror said. He was leaning on a wall in a corner of the room and seemed to have understood what the man had said despite it being in Rienna's language.
"No, it is not," Jen said in agreement, shaking her head. "Ugh. I do not think this is going to go well. I just hope that he believes us and goes and helps all of those kids."
"I hope he gives us fish!" Xio piped up from under Rienna's chair.
"Aaaugh!!" Bror yelled in surprise. He had not seen Xio under the chair and probably didn't know he even existed. Xio and Xia had stayed in the shadows their whole time in Rufdand. "En katt!? Og det prod sniffer!?"
"Ja. Jeg prod sniif. Jeger Xio." Xio said, bounding up to Bror and sitting at his feet in a friendly pose.
More than just Bror were surprised this time. "You can speak Queltan, Xio?" Rienna asked curiously, not expecting him to even understand Jen's brother.
"Of course I can!" Xio said defensively. "I can speak and understand any language."
"Really? Even ones that are lost to time?" Jen asked excitedly.
"Well, I have to see or hear it first," Xio admitted. "So if it's lost language and you don'ts haves any writings, then no."
"That's spectacular!" Jen said. "Imagine what we could learn..." she trailed off, lost in thoughts of ancient civilizations.
"I woulds be mores than willing to help you if we can visit after Rienna gets back home." Xio said enthusiastically.
Yes... home. Rienna thought to herself. But could she go home? Ignoring the fact that she had illegally left Vieryen, she wasn't sure she wanted to go back after what she had learned about Sovereign Jenni and the fairyeld guards. She did really miss her parents though... but then again, could she go back and pretend nothing had happened? After learning that she and the citizens of Vieryen had been deceived and lied to for centuries? She didn't like these thoughts; they irritated her and despite them being in her head for five days, she never had any true answers.
Fortunately for her, the old man from before walked into the room and said with just as much importance as before, "The King will see you now." He then stepped to the side to make room in the doorway.
The King sauntered in, a red velvet cape trailing behind him. His arrogant posture only boosted his air of importance and authority. Bror and Jen immediately stood up and bowed, the cats were already back in hiding under Rienna's chair, and Rienna herself only got up and bowed after seeing the Rufdians do so. "Oh please don't bow. I already know I am King." Hoyand said, obviously pleased with their response to his entering the room. Rienna and Jen quickly sat down.
"I was rather worried when I heard you two had been forced outside the hedge during that strange storm." He said, sitting down in the chair so obviously reserved for him with its cushioned armrests and gold-lined frame. "Could you tell me your tale of how you survived outside, or would you rather get down to business?" He asked, acting like Bror wasn't there.
Rienna and Jen looked at each other. The King's friendly tone and phrasing made them think he didn't know that they had purposefully left Rufdand. "We would rather get down to business," Jen answered, looking back at the King.
"No worries." He said. "I am told you know where the missing children are?"
"Yes! We were captured by a group of mercenaries after the storm who seem to be paid by the fairyeld guards at the... camp that they brought us to." Rienna recalled.
"And who are these fairyeld guards?" The king asked curiously.
Rienna hesitated, "They're... soldiers... from Vieryen." She hung her head in a mixture of guilt and embarrassment.
"I see..." He said thoughtfully. "And this 'camp'?"
"It's called V4," Jen said before Renna could. "Essentially, the kids are put to work farming crops for The Crystal Sorceress and are released once they reach a certain age or will not work. The ones that make it back to us are always mute or close to it. We do not know why."
"Where is this camp?" The king's tone lost all its friendliness and he leaned forward slightly.
"It is at the base of the mountains directly up from Rufdand." Rienna said. She was ready to do whatever she could to right the wrong that her Kingdom had caused.
King Hoyand stood up, "I will send a rescue mission immediately." He turned to the man at the side of the doorway, "Ogerwald, please alert General Jegfor that I request his presence. Rienna, Jen, thank you for this information, I will want to see you after we get those children back." Ogerwald nodded and left.
The King looked at Bror for the first time and said, still talking to the two girls, "You will be led back to your carriage." Then, with a sweep of his cape, he strode out of the room, leaving the three of them alone once more.
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