Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-Five - Early to Bed and Early to Rise

We did end up spending the night at the palace, but only after returning to the inn where our stuff was. I might have been able to clean all of our clothes really well, but my friends still insisted on changing their underthings and taking baths.

So we spent the rest of that day walking across Goldenalden, eating at the inn, and generally wasting time and having fun. The weather was nice and chilly, and we even got a flurry of snow that quickly melted away.

When noon hit, all of us started to feel really tired, and I think we were reminded that we hadn’t slept at all the previous night.

We ended up heading to bed early in one of the guest wings of the palace.

I slept like a rock, more or less blacking out for who-knows-how-long, until a knock at the door woke me up.

“Miss, I was told by Lady Amaryllis to awaken your group at this hour,” an unfamiliar voice said from the other side of the doorway.

I yawned. “Thank you!” I called back.

Then, because I could, I stretched my arms and legs out until every bit of me was shivering with tension, then melted back into the floofy mattress. The sylph really knew how to make a good bed.

After lazing about for a bit, I rolled over and off the bed. Then I found my things where I’d dropped them on a clothing-chair and got dressed for the day. I found Awen in the corridor, walking the slow shuffle of someone who wasn’t entirely awake yet. “Good morning!” I cheered before giving her a morning hug.

“Awa?” Awen mumbled weakly. She stuffed her face against the crook of my neck. “Hmm. Morning.”

“Did you sleep well?” I asked as I backed off.

She nodded. “I guess so. The bed was nice.”

“I know! We should get some for the Beaver. Do you think Caprica would help us grab a few?”

“You want to steal beds from the royal palace to put them on our airship?” Awen asked.

“Of course not. The beds here are nearly as big as our cabins. We’d need much smaller ones. Besides, stealing is wrong.”

Awen nodded along, then stifled a yawn. “Did you see where Amaryllis went?”

I shook my head. “Just came out of my room, sorry. Let’s wander around until we find her.”

That turned out to be a very inefficient way of finding our harpy friend, though we did end up wandering into that big dining room where we’d spoken to the king the other day. Caprica, her little sister Gabrielle, her bigger sister Stephania, and the queen were all at the table having breakfast.

“Hello!” I said. “Good morning, and have you seen Amaryllis anywhere?”

Caprica looked up from her meal. It seemed like some sort of porridge with lots of sweet sauce and jam on it. “No, I haven’t,” she said. “But you can wait here. There should be enough for a few more. Unless anyone minds?” She glanced at her family.

“Of course we don’t,” Gabrielle said. She grinned and gestured to the seat across from hers. “Come, sit! There’s enough for everyone.”

I noticed that they all sat a bit apart from each other, though all four of them also had books and papers out on the table. Stephania was looking over a newspaper and the queen had some reports. Gabrielle was the only one not working while eating.

“I’m sure Amaryllis will show up eventually,” Caprica said. She frowned at the breakfast laid out before her. “Should we hide the eggs?”

“Ah,” I said. “I guess? I don’t know if Amaryllis is all that easy to offend... well, actually, yes, she is easy to offend, and she did say that eating eggs is quite taboo among the harpy, but I don’t think she’d make a fuss over it.”

“Aren’t there eggs used in baking all of our pastries?” Gabrielle asked. “I haven’t spent a lot of time in the kitchens, but I think there are eggs used there.”

“Oh,” I said. “Well, I don’t think she’s allergic to them?”

I sat down across from Gabrielle and Awen took a seat next to me. She kept glancing at the queen, but the older sylph woman was focused on her paperwork and her jam-covered toast.

Caprica gestured to one of the butlers hiding in a nook next to a pillar, and he swept in and swept the eggs away with one hand while laying out fresh plates for Awen and I, with little folded napkins and shiny silverware.

Butlers were so cool!

“Please, serve yourselves,” Caprica said.

“Thank you!” I said before I did just that. Sylph breakfasts were heavy on the bread, pastries and jams, with a few meats here and there that I avoided. I didn’t need a tummy ache so early in the day, even if it smelled nice.

“I heard that you went on a big adventure at the Dungeon of the Lullaby Knight,” Gabrielle said. “Was it scary?”

I nodded. “Oh yes, very. Some of the floors were easy, but there’s this one floor where you have to cross this room that’s filled with all of your worst nightmares. It was awful!”

Gabrielle gasped, hands over her mouth, but for all that, she still looked interested. “But you braved past those, right?”

“Yeah!” I said. “Me and my friends are real brave.”

“And humble,” Stephania mumbled.

“We’ll be putting that bravery to the test later,” Caprica said. “We found a way to carry you to the location of that quest father gave you.”

“Caprica,” the queen said. She didn’t look up from her papers. “Is it wise to discuss secretive matters over breakfast?”

“Usually, no, but Broccoli can’t keep a secret. All a spy would have to do is ask and she’d spill it all. Besides, we’re in the heart of the palace, if we can’t speak here, then nowhere is safe.”

My cheeks, already filled with a mouthful of toast, puffed out. I could totally keep a secret! I... just didn’t have any secrets to keep, was all.

“How are we going to get to the Trenten Flats?” Awen asked carefully while glancing at the queen.

Caprica grinned. “I recall you mentioning that Paladin Bastion--” she ignored Stephania’s snort and Gabrielle’s sigh-- “Promising you that he’d let you ride some wyverns. We have some knights who would be more than willing to fly over the Trenten Flats to drop you and your companions over to a predetermined location.”

“Oh, that sounds fun,” I said. “Is riding a wyvern anything like riding a dragon?”

“You’d have to ask someone who rode a dragon to learn the difference,” Caprica said with a grin. Then her eyes narrowed. “You... don’t know anyone who has ridden a dragon, do you?”

I had kind of forgotten that the sylph really didn’t like dragons.That dislike wasn't mutual, though. From what I gathered, dragons loved the sylph, as in-flight snacks.

“Of-of course not?” I stammered while cringing away from Caprica’s curious look.

“You were right,” the queen said. “She can’t keep a secret.”

“She really can’t,” Amaryllis said as she entered the room. She crossed the space, paused to bow to the queen--wait, were Awen and I supposed to do that too?--then continued on and pulled out a seat next to Awen. “What is Broccoli failing to keep secret now?”

“Amaryllis! You could have distracted them by changing the topic, at least,” I said.

“I didn’t feel like it,” she said. The butler swept by and placed another plate before her, and she started loading it up with things.

“I was just telling Awen and Broccoli about our plan to get you to the Trenten Flats quickly. It involves taking a flight of wyverns over the flats.”

“Not exactly inconspicuous,” Amaryllis said.

“Less so than you’d imagine,” Caprica said. “Wyvern are native to the Sylphfree mountains, but the wild ones range over the flats in search of prey. Seeing a group of them isn’t as common, but it isn’t unheard of. From the ground, it’s difficult to tell that a wyvern has a rider at all.”

Amaryllis considered it, then nodded. “That’s one way to make it there. How do we return? On foot? Can we charter a ship back from one of the towns in the Trenten Flats?”

“We can give you a magical device to signal us,” Caprica said.

“You have long-range magical signalling devices?” I asked. If that was the case, why didn’t they have telephones and the like?

“I was thinking of giving you a special banking ring,” Caprica said.

Oh! Like the one Amaryllis had that connected to the bank in the Harpy Mountains. That was less a communication device as one that let people teleport things back and forth. I'd consider getting one for myself, but we kept travelling far from any central banks -- too far for their limited range.

“That could work,” Amaryllis said. “Do you have any more details for us, other than ‘go to the Trenten Flats and find the diplomats?’ That’s a little too vast of a mission for just three people.”

“Three very talented people,” Caprica said. “But yes, we have a few potential leads you can follow up on. I’d suggest that you travel to Fort Middlesfaire. It’s one of the many fortress-cities the cervid have built as they pushed north. One of the first ones, actually. From what I’ve read, it’s a prosperous-enough little city now, centering around the fort. There are dozens of smaller towns around it which provide the food and supplies needed for the city to function.”

“You think we’ll learn about the expedition there?” I asked.

Caprica nodded. “If you ask around, most likely. Fort Middesfaire is a central hub for the region, and an important stop for the trade caravans circling around the Harpy Mountains over land. Keep in mind that most of the trade in the Trenten Flats is done over land. They have long convoys that require frequent stops. Bandits are an issue as well. So traders enjoy having forts less than a day’s travel apart.”

Bandits? That sounded awful. And a little exciting.

“Don’t worry! I’m sure we’ll make lots of new friends that can help us figure out what happened to the diplomats,” I said.

“Your conviction is appreciated,” Caprica said. "The wyverns should be ready to take off within a few hours. I know it’s on short notice, but I think that haste might be more important here than caution.”

“That’s okay, we’re always ready for adventure, right girls?”

Awen was finally looking awake, and Amaryllis just made a vague so-so gesture in the air.

I pouted. So much for that. “Well, I’m always ready, in any case. Just let me get Weedbane and... do you think we’ll have time to prepare a lunchbox or two?”

“Of course,” Caprica said. “I’ll have the cooks prepare a meal that you can carry with you. We’ll have some packs with ready-to-eat-meals as well. They’re... frankly barely edible, but they keep for a long time and do provide all of the nutrition you need. Perhaps you can even just bring a normal soldier’s kit with you. It will have everything you need.”

“And will paint them as coming from Sylphfree,” Stephania pointed out idly.

“Ah, that is true,” Caprica said. “I’m not well-versed when it comes to this kind of subterfuge.”

Stephania nodded. “Even Gabrielle is subtler than you.”

Gabrielle giggled. “No one expects the Gabquisition!” she said before her giggles cut off with a cough. She still laughed though, even as Caprica patted her back.

“Right, once you’re done with breakfast, you can head out to the Wyvern Tower, that’s where you’ll find the wyvern knights and Paladin Bastion, who is no doubt dutifully waiting for us.”

“I can’t wait,” I said.

Awen and Amaryllis both perked up a little too. I think they were almost as excited to fly on wyvern back as I was!

***