Promises of Glory

“All the world is yours to explore, all the world is yours for the taking, if you only take the steps to make it yours.”

-Julian Michaels III, the king of Highground

Scribbled scraps of papers piled up around her, her small frame looked even smaller amongst the towering piles. Rhode sketched out the vast amount of hallways that she had explored, the billiards rooms, the dining rooms, the several dozen kitchens.

Her map was almost complete. All she needed to map out was the lush gardens that she could see from her window.

Her window overlooked the front lawn on the west wing of the house. It was truly a beautiful view, with rose bushes lining the walkway and elaborate fountains centered in gorgeous displays of plants she’d never seen before. She might have told herself that the walk through the gardens was purely for map making purposes, but she would enjoy it none-the-less.

She started her trek down the stairs and outside. These days she was seeing more maids scurrying around then ever before. The first days she had only seen two at most and that was only because they followed Alys into her room. Now she was running into them and shooing them out of her room. Rhode enjoyed the clothes they brought her though, the jeans and canvas pants, the linen tops. It seemed Alys knew exactly what she liked wearing, and that the dresses she first wore upon her arrival were not to her liking.

On her way out she spotted some windows poking out at ground level.

The pansies stretched up to greet the sunshine, Rhode played with the rays of light on her hand as she walked under canopies of flowers and arches. Someone had put up some stain glass windows in the bushes that now casted beautiful symphonies of colors on everything around.

Rhode found that her feet made an awful lot of noise in the silence that the garden held. She spotted some gardeners around one of the immaculate fountains, trimming away at branches and pulling weeds she couldn’t see.

Maybe one of them had a clue as to where Alys was always disappearing to.

She stopped in front of one on a ladder. The boy looked young, but who knew when it came to Fae. He had sandy blonde hair, and, though she couldn’t see his eyes clearly, she guessed that they were vibrant and beautiful. She waited for his eyes to catch her, but his attention stayed glued to the twisting vines in front of him.

Rhode cleared her throat, watching with horror as the boy stumbled and almost fell face first into the paving stones. Rhode rushed to hold up the ladder, “Are you okay?”

The boy wiped his brow in relief, “Yeah, I’m good. Boy that sure was scary.”

“I bet.”

She took his hand when he stretched it out to her, after he had wiped off any dirt and sweat onto his pants. “The name’s Theo.” He bowed his head to her.

“I’m-” she began, but he cut her off.

“Yes, I know who you are. You’re the mistress’s granddaughter, Rhode.”

She eyed him almost warily. She didn’t like the idea that word had spread about her. “What do you know about me?”

Theo laughed, “It’s not like we gossip for fun. “ He paused, shrugging and rolling his eyes, “Well, some do. But that’s not the point. The point is that you’re now one of the ladies of the house, meaning of course we know about you. I don’t know any of your secrets or what you do all day.”

Rhode nodded. “It’s a lovely garden here.”

He beamed, “This is my section, I take care of the front western portion.” He bowed deeply, “It’s truly an honor to hear you say that.”

She backed up a step, “Oh, please don’t do that.”

His head tilted. “Do what?”

“The bowing, I don’t like that.”

“Then how will I show you respect?”

“What respect? I haven’t done anything to deserve such treatment.” No, she really hadn’t done anything at all to deserve any type of respect, given how she had sustained herself the past couple years.

“You’re the granddaughter of Alys, are you not?”

“I am.”

Theo eyed her, “Then you are in line for the throne, are you not?”

In that moment, everything was sputtering, stuttering. There was a crash in her ears and she stayed silent for a long moment. “What?”

“Of course you aren’t a direct candidate, but the Novak family has had long ties to royalty and the current High King of the realm is cousins with the mistress herself. But his offspring is not flourishing the way we’d all hope, so it might come down to Alys taking the throne. And if that were to happen, you’d be right under her for the right.”

Rhode placed her hand on a pillar to her right. She ignored the vines that winded there way around the pillar, almost like they would wind themselves around her. She wished they would, that they’d pull her in and she could pretend she didn’t hear that. “How does one go from nothing one day, and a princess the next?” she mumbled.

“Well, you aren’t technically a princess.”

“Shut up Theo,” she snapped at him, “it’s close enough.”

He held up his hands in surrender.

“How come no one told me all that?”

Theo glanced up, to the sides, then back to the girl. “Um, I thought you knew. I think everyone thinks you know.” She narrowed her eyes. He gulped.

She waved it off, “Whatever, that’s not what’s important right now anyway.” He nodded like he understood but honestly, he looked very lost. “Is there a basement in this place?”

Theo nodded quickly before shaking his head.

“Well? Which is it?”

“I’m supposed to tell you no.”

“Says who?”

“Alys.”

“And you just do everything she says?”

He shrugged, “I mean, yeah. She’s my employer and she is not a lady that you want to be on the bad side of. She’s a scary lady.”

“Where’s this basement entrance. I didn’t see any stairs that led to a basement inside the house.”

He cringed, “I’m not supposed to tell you though.”

“Just spit it out already.”

“Around on the back side of the east wing.”

Rhode thought for a moment, that was pretty far from her room. Perhaps there was a reason for that. “Thank you Theo. I won’t tell Alys a thing.”

She started to walk away when he sighed in relief. “Thank you madam.”

“Oh, and one more thing,” she turned around to say, “no more of this over the top respect thing. I don’t deserve it and we both know it.”