‘Her Ladyshiphas asked me to guide yer around so that yer may seek the malignillness in the palace. The getting around shouldn’t be too muchtrouble providing yer stay in the service corridors. Yer maindanger is being spotted by one o’ the wizards’ familiars. Place iscrawling wid ‘em. They come down the service corridors sometimes toannoy me fellows but go back pretty fast if I catch ‘em.’ he saidwith a smile.
‘I was thinkingthat you might be one o them. Unfortunately, I can’t spend too muchtime wid yer. We’ve got a ball to get ready fer. However, I’ll showyou around a bit and spread the word so’s all me people watches outfer ya’.’
Bellen took himon a short tour around then teleported to a hidden room deep withinthe foundations of the palace.
‘It is withgreat sadness that I brings yer here to see the shame of me people.This is the room of faces. It is here we make faces for our people.We were the first to be affected by the curse on our land. Many ofour children are born malformed both in body and face although notyet in spirit. Here we equip the worst of them with faces thatallow them some dignity in the presence of others and hopefullystop them from turning to the outcasts. The faces are carved out ofa special wood and imbued with a glamour that gives them a normallooking face which changes with their mood.’
‘Please MilordI beg of yer. Find out what has caused this cursed disease and fixthe problem or I’m afraid before long us trixies will only be foundamong the outcasts.’
‘Now tell mewhere I’m not allowed to go. That’s where I’ll find someanswers.’
Bellen had thelook of one who was trapped.
‘Oh. I wasafraid you’d say that Milord. Please understand that it happened along time ago and we tried to fix the problem but we weren’tallowed and now we can’t fix it.’
‘I’m sorry butI didn’t understand a word you said. You better start from thebeginning.’ said Aquitain.
‘Well ithappened 47 years ago. Augustus a second cousin of mine on memother’s side was leader of the team directed to clean up thethrone before the Spring Ball. I bumped into him at the time and hesaid he was excited, as the Queen had suggested that he might liketo brighten up the throne. It was a secret surprise for everyone atthe ball.’
‘Now during theball the throne would sometimes talk into people’s minds. It eventalked to me one time asking about Mudrun. Somehow it knew I hadcome from there a year or two earlier. Anyhow everyone wassurprised that year when the throne was silent. It had happened onseveral occasions over the centuries so no one was too alarmed. Thetrouble was that it happened the following year as well.’
‘Augustus wasterribly worried but wouldn’t tell me why. Eventually he went tosee the Queen and we never saw him again. In fact everyone inAugustus’s team disappeared. A new team was formed and they cleanedthe throne as we always have done but still the throne wouldn’ttalk. After five years the Queen decided that instead of cleaningthe throne every year they would put a golden cloak over it and shecancelled the annual cleaning altogether. She also banned everyonefrom going near the throne and put in four bronze statues asguards.’
‘What did theother Elendari say about this. It must have affected them as well.’asked Aquitain.
‘Somecomplained to Queen but she said that it was out of her hands. Atfirst she said it was normal for it not to talk every year thenlater she blamed my kin for not maintaining it correctly.Eventually after a few years people stopped asking about it.’
‘So you thinkthat you and your people have been cursed by the throne.’
‘Yes Milord.Many believe the malformations started when the throne stoppedtalking to us although some of the older ones of my kin say thatthe problem started much earlier.
‘Do they havethe problem elsewhere on Moonmist?’
‘I don’t knowMilord. We’re not allowed to travel too far from here and we don’thear much as the Queen and the Lords are only here for a month ayear. The rest of the time they’re at one of her other palaces.However, last year I heard two Lords talking about the problem tothe west. They said the Queen had stopped going to her westernpalace because the storms were getting too bad.’
‘What sort ofstorms?’ asked Aquitain.
‘I don’t knowMilord. It’s dangerous these days to ask about anything.’
‘Okay, let’scheck out the throne.’ replied Aquitain suddenly curious.
**
Aquitain and Bellenteleported to a service corridor near the throne room and thetrixie left Aquitain briefly to see whether the throne room was inuse.
Aquitain hadbeen there before. He briefly wondered who had stunned him when hehad noticed the Queen was dominated. There was another wizardaround for sure and he or she was the real danger. With luck he orshe wouldn’t be around until the ball, but he or she woulddefinitely be there.
He had a strongfeeling that this throne was sentient. Some fancy type ofconstruct. He had seen them before in Panmagica. Statues that actedas travel guides to the city; doors that asked your name andbusiness before letting you enter; chests of drawers that walked;swords that talked to their owners and tried to persuade theirowners to pick fights and many other benign and sometimes nastythings.
Bellen returnedand said that it didn’t appear that there was any one around andnow was as safe a time as any so they both walked out into theroom. It was a large circular room at least a hundred Newman paceswide with a smooth marble floor.
The grey stonewalls were clearly visible this time and he noticed that there wasa circular second floor balcony most of the way around the room.Here and there on the walls were small tapestries but he was toofar away to see what they depicted.
In the centreof the room was a circular area of wooden parquetry that wasprobably a dance floor considering the Elendari love for thearts.
Around thesides of the dance floor were three long curved banquet tables thatwould each hold at least a hundred
