Forest & Kingdom Balance (37 page)

“Evangeline,” the stranger’s smile almost made her
pain bearable, “the High Councilor has something he’d like to ask
you.”

The High Councilor stood and came over to her. “We
would like you to accept the post of Councilor to the Kingdom. Do
you accept?”

“Why me?”
She thought as
another shock battered her fragile balance.

“Because I requested you.” The stranger seemed to
answer another question she had not asked. “Dionara needs you more
today than she ever has, please accept the post.”

“Yes I accept.” With those words a flood of love and
friendship seemed to flow through her, Her strength seemed to
return, and with it, hope.

“Thank you.” The stranger squeezed her hand.
“Ordinarily an new councilor would have some time to adapt to their
role within the Kingdom. Unfortunately I cannot stay, I have
another young charge in need of my help, and his mind will not
allow me to veil today’s events the way I have Dionara’s.”

“They call me the Caretaker, the High Councilor will
tell you about me and give you the details you will need to proceed
with Dionara.” The Caretaker rose and addressed the room. “Today is
a dark day for both Forest and Kingdom, this grief will not easily
fade. Please do not allow your grief and anger over events you
cannot change to dampen your acceptance of Evangeline. She has a
strength and compassion that Dionara and the Kingdom will sorely
need.”

The Caretaker walked to the door, then turned for a
final thought. “I should not need to remind you all that as
Councilors of the Kingdom, you are not better than the subjects you
serve, just better informed.” With that he exited, and the hallway
was flooded with an emerald green light.

The High Councilor came over to Evangeline and sat
next to her. “Hmmm, well?” He seemed to wonder what to say. “Time
is of the essence so for our first discussion I’m afraid I’ll need
to give you the short version” He paused. His loss for words was
evident. “Perhaps the slightly longer short version.” The High
Councilor talked, and Evangeline listened.

“Secrets. Now I have to keep
secrets.”
Evangeline thought, which reminded her that she
never was very good with secrets.
“At least no
one will know I’m a councilor.”
She had all the rights and
privileges of a Councilor of the Kingdom, though no one would know
of her position, especially Dionara. As councilor, her soul
responsibility was Dionara. She was the Caretaker’s connection to
her.

The first few months were rough, for everyone.
Eventually she adjusted to the Caretaker’s voice in her head,
although at first she would startle every time he entered her mind.
Then came Froggy.

As bad as it was, life eventually started to have a
rhythm again. One of the rhythms was Dionara’s tirade at her
councilors. Dionara was fourteen and acting out of course, but most
of the time Evangeline actually agreed with Dionara. One morning
before Dionara met with the councilors, the Caretaker contacted
her.
“Please meet me in the anteroom off the
Great Hall.”

“Good Morning Evangeline.” She heard his voice but
didn’t see him. “Down here.” He said.

She was surprised to see a frog in the castle. She
bent down to pick it up so that she could carry it outside. As soon
as she lifted it, the frog said, “Thank you, that’s much better.
Now we can talk.” Evangeline shrieked, dropped the frog, and ran
for the door. The Caretaker came into her mind.
“Evangeline, it’s just me. Don’t worry, the drop didn’t hurt
me, frogs are sturdy. If you would return please, we need to
discuss Dionara’s councilor meeting.”

She walked slowly back, bent down, and stared the
frog. “I believe it’s time” He started to say, but before he could
finish his sentence, she shrieked again. “All right, good. Now that
we have that out of the way,” the frog said, “I believe it’s time I
introduced myself to Dionara.”

Evangeline watched unseen from the anteroom as
Dionara sat crying on the floor. “Ribbit, ribbit.” She heard.
“Oh sure! He scares me half to death, but for her
he goes, ribbit, ribbit!”
She watched as Dionara handled the
introduction a great deal better than she had. Evangeline almost
gave herself away when she had to choke down a laugh as Dionara
made him High Councilor.

The next few weeks were, to say the least,
interesting. First, Evangeline had to calm everyone who saw Dionara
having a conversation with a frog. Of course to their perception,
she just pretended to get an answer. Dionara was the only one who
heard the Caretaker. Well, perhaps not the only one. Most of
Evangeline’s communications over those weeks were,
“Evangeline, Dionara failed to feed me again, could you stop
by please.”
Or,
“Evangeline, could you
replace the box’s bedding please.”

It came to a point where she thought to herself,
“He’s more work than Dionara was as an
infant!”

“I heard that.”
The
caretaker noted.

Slowly life found a new normal. Most knew that
Dionara had a pet frog that she liked to talk to. The Caretaker’s
visits, while frequent, were not constant, and life carried on that
way until Dionara became a young woman.

She had to admit that the councilors complaints had
some merit. Dionara was breathtakingly beautiful, which combined
with her disdain for clothing and interest in boys, was not a good
combination for keeping royal decorum. Evangeline however, saw
Dionara’s side and became her champion.

There was one time that Evangeline was summoned to
the council room. Dionara was sixteen and fully developed, though
the boy phase was yet to come. Little did the councilors know that
this phase of their complaints would pale in comparison to what
would come later. However at this time, nudity was the cause of
their indignation.

The High Councilor spoke for the group. “We would
like you to speak with Dionara, she has continued to sunbath nude
in full view of her guards despite the council’s request that she
stop that behavior immediately. It is inappropriate, undignified of
a monarch, and such provocations can only lead to unfortunate
circumstances.”

“Of course councilor,” Evangeline’s voice held a
soft, accommodating tone. “I will remedy the situation at once.
Please let me know which individuals of the Royal Guard you feel
are such pigs that simply seeing a woman in her natural state would
cause them loose all reason and act inappropriately. I’ll have them
assigned to digging ditches in Second Valley.”

Evangeline paused in thought. “Unfortunately, that
would not alleviate the danger completely. There is always a chance
that they could see a mountain lioness or she wolf, the animal’s
lack of clothing may cause the men to loose control. In which case
those ‘unfortunate circumstances” would truly be unfortunate, for
them.” Evangeline smiled and bid her fellow councilors good
day.

Then the day came. She was so nervous that she had
lain awake in bed all night. Well, most of the night. Some would
say that it was still night when she woke Dionara. “Big day!” She
shook the Princess awake by candlelight. “You wanted me to wake you
early remember, today is your ride at sunrise with Froggy. Time to
get up!” By this point in her life, Evangeline had stopped noticing
Dionara’s non-verbal disapprovals.

Dawn came and the Caretaker did not. Evangeline
watched from the window to the courtyard as Dionara paced back and
forth.
“Evangeline,”
she heard the
Caretaker’s contact,
“Please have Dionara call
for me by the east side door to the courtyard.”

She went down to the courtyard. “Are you still here?
I thought you left.” She goaded Dionara.

“Froggy’s late and I’m about to go back to bed.”
Dionara sighed.

“Maybe he’s looking for you, it’s a big castle.”
Evangeline led her to the east side of the courtyard, near the
door. “Have you tried calling for him?”

“Froggy, if I don’t see your little green ass soon,”
she yelled.

“Thank you.”
The Caretaker
sent to Evangeline.

A few months later, Dionara once more rode beneath
the portcullis past white marble walls.
“Home.”
She felt, while at the same moment it was if
she were seeing the castle for the first time. She was no longer
that little girl who rode out on a day trip with her friend Froggy.
To her new eyes the castle took on meanings she had never seen
before.

She had spent the last four days with the families
of the Royal Guard Elite who had died defending their kingdom. She
pledged to herself that she wouldn’t enter the castle until that
was done. She dismounted and handed Foil back to the stableman. She
wondered what Foil thought of the Kingdom now, after all that time
at Spirit’s Vale. She made a note to ask him the next time she was
in the Forest. She couldn’t talk to John, but they could feel each
other, she sent him a purr.

She felt a strange sensation when she entered her
rooms, they were completely familiar, and yet felt like they
belonged to a complete stranger. Bathed and redressed, she went to
visit Evangeline.

“Dionara!” Evangeline gave her a big hug.

“Councilor Evangeline, it is so wonderful to finally
meet you. I have a tale to tell you, and you have a few tales to
tell me. The two women who have been together since Dionara’s
birth, spent some time getting to know one another. Tears flowed on
laughter’s wings as they reminisced long into the night. Only those
two will know what words passed between them, with the possible
exception of, “You dropped him!?!” Which was heard by half the
castle.

II

Farmer, Trader, Spy

Tressan, the sixth child born to a farm family in
the Kingdom’s Second Valley, never was one to take common knowledge
as fact. Whenever he was faced with a problem, he would just find a
new and creative solution that fit his needs and moved on. By the
time he reached his teens, it was common knowledge in the Second
Valley that Tressan was a bit unusual. His reputation puzzled him
because he felt that he merely looked at the world a little
differently.

As he approached the age of sixteen, his parents
turned the family farm over to his oldest brother, and Tressan
found himself a stranger in his own home. His solution was simple,
he packed what little he had and left his family a note that said
he was off to see the world and headed west.

He had excellent trail skills. His favorite pastime
growing up had been to wander alone in the virgin forests beyond
the Second Valley. So as he left to seek adventure, he was
confident in his ability to make his way to the coast, and doubted
that he would run into any situation too tough to handle. A few
days into his journey as he rested at midday, a woman’s voice spoke
to him. He was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he literally
jumped, but found no one.

“I’m so sorry Tressan, I didn’t
mean to startle you.”
The voice said.

“That’s all right, you didn’t startle me.” He
assured her and continued to search as his heart raced. “Very
little takes me by surprise.” He approached a fallen tree on a
knoll and hopped over it, “Ha! There you are!” He said to a pile of
leaves. “Where are you?” His words were more exasperation than
question.

“Well, apparently not
there.”
He experienced a wonderful sensation of happiness as
her laughter joined with his.
“I’m afraid I need
to interrupt your journey, we need to speak.”
She added.

Over the next two days she only spoke to give him
directions. On the second day he came upon a beautiful waterfall
and a young woman seated beside the water. “Hello Tre, welcome to
Angel Falls!” She said and gave him a hug. “Off to the coast, are
you?”

“Yes, how did you know?” He was a little confused,
but he’s never let that stop him before. “I’m going to see the
world and find adventure!”

Catherine couldn’t help but smile at his bravado.
“What if I told you that you’ve already found it?”

“Here? This is the Kingdom, nothing ever happens
here.” His skeptical look said it all.

“That’s actually a good thing, but we’ll get back to
that.” She took his hand and led him toward the shallows beside the
falls. “Why don’t you come with me, adventure is just a few steps
away.”

Tre grinned. “I have never in my life turned down an
invitation from beautiful woman,” the sixteen year old said, “and
I’m certainly not going to start now.”

“Just close your eyes and follow me.” Catherine
smiled. She led him through the falls and on through the gate.
“Open your eyes Tressan of the Second Valley.”

He wasn’t disappointed.

Once the shock had worn off Catherine introduced him
to Dorian and the three went to sit under a tree in the meadow. Tre
had nodded a few times when spoken to, but hadn’t uttered a word.
The two took turns telling him the history of the Kingdom and what
conditions were like on the coast, especially for the Mindow.
Catherine showed him images in his mind of the Red Knight, war, and
conditions in the Far Lands, then allowed him join her as she sent
her awareness to the coast. When they returned, he finally
spoke.

“Oh.” He no longer had either the look of adventure
he had at the falls, nor the expression of wonder he had at the
gate. “You’re right, nothing is a good thing.”

“Tre,” Dorian handed him some fruit from the basket,
“we’d like your help. We of the Kingdom could be self sufficient,
but we’d go without a lot of the essentials that make life
worthwhile. So we go to the coast and trade for what we need in
secret. No one knows were here, not the coast, the Mindow slaves,
the Red Knight, or anyone in the Far Lands, and we need to keep it
that way.”