From: prauda@dol-guldur.hut.fi (Kristiina Prauda)
Newsgroups: alt.romance.chat
Subject: Christmas at the Castle, part I
Date: 27 Jan 93 14:06:26 GMT
Organization: Helsinki University, Finland



More Christmas reminiscence... 
This continues straight from the snowfight. 



Kristiina


************************************************************************



In the middle of the snowfight, no-one noticed how Lady Elaine, after
finishing her snow sculpture, slipped back inside. Nor did they
notice her a while later, as she came out again, stopping at the huge
oaken doors to examine the scene in front of her. It was a beautiful
evening, as the snow clouds had receded enough to reveal a gorgeous
winter sunset and now a sky of deep blue velvet. One would certainly
have expected an evening like this to be equally peaceful, but the 
crisp air was full of noise - screams, hoots, squeals, laughter... 
and of course, muffled cries of protest, as an especially large and
accurate snowball hit its mark straight on the mouth (or muzzle, as
it were). So far, there were no signs that the snow war of the century
would stop or at least calm down - quite on the contrary. 

Elain sighed and shook her head to Lady Morgana, who had come to her
side, a child in each arm. 

"Utterly hopeless!" Elaine smiled, and yet there was a hint of almost
maternal pride in her countenance, as she looked over the happy crowd
of the Castle dwellers, all of them lost in this joy of childhood. 
"How are we ever going to make them hear us?"

"Truly, only a war horn would carry over that din", Morgana smiled, 
her expression reflecting a similar maternal contentment, though as
much over the sleeping bundles in her arms as anything else. 

"Hmmmm - why did I not think of that myself?" Elaine exclaimed, a 
twinkle coming into her eyes. 

She disappeared back through the door and returned in a short while, 
and in her hands was a large, ornately carved silver horn, decorated
with golden filigree - an incredible piece of workmanship that had
not been used for centuries, not even in the Battle for the Land, as
it was too big and heavy to be carried around comfortably. 

"*Elaine*!" Lady Morgana protested, half amused, half horrified. 
"Surely you are not going to blow *that*?!"

"I certainly am!" the gentle Lady answered, smiling beatifically, but
with a mischievous sparkle in her eyes. "This horde is too deep in 
the battle to hear anything but a battle-horn!"

She lifted the great horn to her lips with both hands and then, very
softly, blew a single long note. The sound of the horn - clear, 
silvery, unbelievably musical - began low, but grew and grew in 
intensity, until it seemed all the voice in the world. Everyone 
stopped in the middle of their action - some still in the pose of
throwing - confusedly coming back to reality. The voice was that of
war, of battle, of alarm, but the note was so sweet and ethereal 
that it brought no feeling of threat. They looked around, until they 
saw, through the opening of the gate, Lady Elaine standing there at 
the door, and with her, Morgana, her sleeping twins in her arms. 

"Dinner is waiting", Elaine announced serenely.


***


A while later, as the happy crowd had drifted in and changed for their
party clothes, almost everyone was already sitting behind the long 
tables that had been set around the Great Hall. Firelight blazed in
every corner of the huge room - in the great fireplace that was big
enough for a man-high fire, in two smaller fireplaces on other walls,
in torches high between the windows (those had to be kindled magically 
every time, since they were simply too high to be reached by ordinary 
means), and in the great candelabras scattered around the room. All
the light reflected and glittered in the Christmas decorations - 
precious tapestries woven in gold and red, blue and green and silver, 
depicting the events of the celebration; gold and silver and red
ribbons; delicate glass and gold stars in wreaths of evergreen boughs. 
And of course, the magnificent feast set on the tables was a 
decoration in itself - especially after the appetite-raising tumble 
in the snow.

T'zu sat on his haunches near Lady Brianna and the Feral Knight, while 
they waited for everyone to arrive after changing clothes. The Lord 
and Lady of the Castle were the objects of a constant stream of 
congratulations, which they received with radiant smiles and occasional 
long glances at each other - looks so full of warmth and light that 
they excluded all the rest of the world, wrapping the two into a very
private glow. Their happiness added to the glory of the celebration in 
the perfect way. 

Even Mikandric, the nimble thief, seemed properly impressed by the
prevailing mood, as he came to present his good wishes. For once his
quick wit failed him, but his bow to Brianna was as graceful and
carefree as ever. 

"My Lady - My Lord - please accept my congratulations on this further
increase of your happiness. I hope that the future of your heir will
be as blessed as the beginning."

"Thank you, Mikandric", Brianna said gently and held out her hand to
him, seeing how uncharacteristically moved he was.

"No ominous gifts this time, eh, my friend?" the Feral Knight grinned,
slapping Mikandric's back. 

"No, none this time", he grinned in response - but the grin suddenly
disappeared, as his mouth fell open and his stare fixed on something
behind T'zu's back. 

They turned to follow his incredulous gaze - and were left staring
as well. More than one conversation in the room faltered, and even
the Wandering Minstrel struck a wrong note from his harp out of 
sheer amazement. 

Kathrea was coming down the left-hand side of the wide staircase that 
led to the upper parts of the Castle on both sides of the entrance 
to the Great Hall. Her expression was self-conscious, almost (but 
not quite) shy, but she held her head high. Still, her cheeks were 
burning and her eyes were brighter than usually. Her hair was 
fastened up in a complicated cascade of curls and braids, held by 
gold chains, but it was not her hair that had made the jaws drop. 
She was wearing a dress like nothing they had seen before. Its
upper part seemed to be made of golden flames that grew out of her 
waist, licked her body closely, and parted in the front to snake
around her bare shoulders. The pouffed sleeves began under those 
flames and were of the same material as the wide, flowing hem: some 
sort of iridescent silk, its color changing between deep red and 
purple, with a golden sheen to it. The dress did... *things* to her 
anatomy - or revealed things about it - that no-one had paid attention
to before. 

Mikandric whistled softly. Brianna reached out and gently closed the 
Feral Knight's jaw with one finger. The elven mage, Fenwyck, commented 
something on the other side of the room, but the words disappeared
into a yelp, as Elotheria kicked him sharply on the kneecap. T'zu, 
in his current form mostly immune to the physical allure of the
human female, tried to hide his wide cat-grin by turning graceously
towards the wall, but he could not help chuckling. What a pity that 
Baron Silverwind was not here to see this!

Or - maybe not such a pity, after all. 

T'zu remembered that the young Baron had left the Castle, to go back
to his own lands, soon after Kathrea's Telling. The parting must have
been bitter (he had not seen it himself, being on his quest at the
time), for Silverwind had become and integral part of the life in the
Castle, and had been a great leader in the Battle for the Land. But
especially bitter it must have been for Kathrea, who believed she was
the cause to his leaving, and was probably right, and would still do
everything the same way again. She had whispered this, and many other
things, to T'zu as he had lain curled at her feet - things she might
not have confided to anyone in a human form. T'zu knew how much comfort
she had drawn from Silverwind's friendship, and how much pain it had 
brought her to burst his illusions on herself. For friends might forgive 
anything, but those who secretly hoped for more than friendship were 
often uncapable of acccepting the inevitable conflict between their 
hopes and the reality of the object of those hopes. And in some cases, 
it was for the best. 

T'zu got to his feet and glided lithely over to where Kathrea had
reached the foot of the stairs. She was still blushing, unsure of
the reaction she had caused. 

"My compliments, my Lady", T'zu grinned. "Perhaps next time, however,
you might make the spell a little less potent - the rest of the male 
population of the Castle seems to have been rendered incapable of 
speech. But that only gives me the perfect opportunity to ask whether 
you would grant me the honor of escorting you to the table?"

"I would be honored to have you as my escort", Kathrea smiled. "But 
I certainly did not expect - well, maybe I should have restrained my 
imagination a bit?"

"My Lady, I must say you have a very vivid imagination", T'zu answered, 
still grinning, as he fell into step beside her, her fingertips just 
grazing his sleek fur. "But don't we all love to be surprised once
in a while? Especially in such a lovely way..."

"Why, T'zu, where did you learn to flatter like that?" she laughed.

And they went to the table with Brianna and the Feral Knight, and 
when everyone was seated, the feast began.