Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Day 6 and Counting: Iana's Story #37


The countdown continues, which is appropriate considering the season.
Will Iana be ready to fight when the time comes? Or will it be too late

#37 At Day 6: Arrivals and Curses, again

I barely saw Joli the next day. I was too busy and, I think she was avoiding me as well. She could have easily found me in the kitchens collecting lunch for the villagers, or when we collected the roses and locked them away in an iron chest. Olwen kept the key to the chest, and Mother locked the chest in closet and kept the key hidden. That way no one would be tempted by them.

On the sixth day before the Lion and Wolf returned, the first of the summerguards arrived. A"boy" dressed in a long hooded cloak, who fancied herself in disguise with long trousers. She said her name was Ben. 



Soon after Ben, another summerguard arrived, a crippled boy named Shawn, but we needed all the help we could get. Ben was sent to work with the villagers building defenses. Shawn we asked to keep watch at the castle gate with a tiny drum. His duty was to announce arrivals. One loud thump for anyone familiar coming and going. Three loud pounds - a dun dun dun - for any new faces, particularly those who might be coming as summerguards. For the debt collectors, and he was to know them by their finery, we told him to drum a loud rattle tap tap, a steady constant beat. That way everyone in the castle would know.

With our defenses secured as best we could make them, Olwen and I turned our attention to finding a weapon. We needed chimes to fight them, since they feared the soft, sweet sound. Why else make us destroy all the chimes in our chime tower?

"Unfortunately, his majesty the King ordered me to collect all the chimes," Olwen explained. "Not just from the chime tower here, but from all the kingdom. The metal we melted down, and the wooden we burned." 

"Surely someone must have kept one hidden away. We just have to find it," I said, even as Olwen shook his head. "And if we can't find one, someone will make another."

Soon both a woodworker and a blacksmith promised to make us new chimes. However, by the next day, the fifth day counting, the woodworker suffered a terrible accident, both hands crushed under timbers. He would never carve again. As for the blacksmith a forge fire broke out nearly killing him and his wife. And a curse fell on anyone else who attempted to make one.

Curses were everywhere it seemed.

Four days before their arrival we'd had no luck finding a chime hidden away somewhere. It sounded impossible, surely somewhere there had to be a chime. 

It seemed Olwen was very throughout in his search, and people had not made anymore since then, or if they had, they weren't sharing them with us. . 

Father returned with three days remaining. He brought with him three Rothenmen willing to serve as summerguards. Several more would arrive the next day and Lord Ambress sent all seven of his sons. That brought our number to a total of sixteen.

They all looked good in the purple and gray summer uniforms, even Ben, though there was no hiding the fact she rather too pretty for a boy. Olwen turned his focus to training the guards, drilling them and preparing them for the fight ahead.

Then only two days remained, and our plans stood only half ready. How would a sword or arrow work against these creatures? The only real weapon we knew they feared was the chimes and the sounds of children laughing. I'd sooner give myself up before using any village children. Besides what was there to laugh about?

It seemed hopeless. Without a weapon how could we fight?

Then the morning before their return, as I took breakfast to the crippled drummer boy I noticed him smiling and whistling to himself from his post near the castle gate. His uniform hung off his scrawny shoulders, flapped around his knees, and crippled feet. He held his drum at his side, his mallet at the ready. I asked him what tune he was singing, and his answer surprised me.

"Can't you hear it, your highness, the whistle of the wind as it sneaks around the corners and through those windows and along the wall." He pointed to the wall, up the stairs to the battlements and over toward the Storm Tower. "This is the castle of Harmony Wind, isn't it?" He asked me, as if I'd forgotten.

Perhaps I had. 

I sat there in silence listening as he indicated. The wind always blows around the castle, be it a gentle breeze or in a stiff puffing gusts. The windmills to the north never stop creaking and turning. The sounds were familiar to me, I'd grown up with them and tended to ignore them. There were certain places where the wind made a pleasant whistling noise. Sometimes it even sounded like chiming, but in an awkward way. It stuttered, and made a sour, unpleasant kind of tune.

I gasped, why of course it was blocked. The windows in the Storm Tower had boards over them, throughout the keep we closed the shutters and covered any cracks with straw or mud, and larger gaps with quilts or tapestries. "That's it!" I declared, "Thank you Shawn!"

I ran back, and raced through the castle opening every door I could,  I pushed back all the shutters, and pulled off the boards from windows. My aunts shrieked and complained about the cold air, but I ignored them. 

I ran until I was out of breath, all the way up the Tower of Storms, unblocking everything along the way. Returning below, I came to the great hall last. My arms shook so hard I could barely push the doors open. Then I felt a firm hand beside me, "Can I help you Princess?" Olwen asked, pushing at the door with me. "What are you doing?"


to be continued . . .

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