HRH the Crown Prince Julian 1st chap.

CHAPTER ONE

The boy’s feet pattered eagerly on the tiled floor of the palace. He ignored his mother’s sharp cry of, “Prince Julian, you come here this instant!” and continued headlong to the North Wing of the palace of Elsia. This was his favorite part of the day.

As he burst through the heavy oaken doors standing slightly ajar, he skidded down to a slower pace and breathed the delicious smell of flowers and sunshine and birdsong. He remembered his twin Luella laughing at him once, saying that birdsong didn’t smell nice, in fact it didn’t smell at all; but he knew that such a nice sound must.

The courtyard garden was filled with green and yellow and red and blue and rich brown... how he envied the gardeners who worked there all day! And the beautiful colored light playing on the leaves and earth, filtered June sunlight coming through the stained glass dome on the yard. He sat patiently on the creamy marble fountain edge, watching the crystal water splashing and swirling out of the mermaid’s hands.

I wish I was a mermaid, he thought. A boy one, though; one made of marble, sitting quietly with birds chattering around and water flowing out of my perfectly carved hands. No-one would scold me or make me study, I would just sit and listen and watch and feel the blue water bubbling around my tail and smooth marble orb seat...

There he was, the man now whom the boy had been waiting for! Julian jumped up and ran to him. His eyes crinkled up in fun and he dropped his golden staff a second to wrap the boy up in his dark arms. “Your royal highness!” he laughed. “The crown prince of Elsia, eh?”

“Oh, Ndarmna. Come on, you know you don’t need to say that. It’s too long!” Julian stepped away from the old man and watched his long white beard moving as he picked up his staff again and they walked together across the remainder of the courtyard and into the door on the opposite side of the garden.

“How are your Royal Mother and Divine Father?” asked Ndarmna as they strolled down the cool hall. By ancient tradition and law, he was required to call the King and Queen by their official titles, even in pleasant conversation.

“Oh, they’re fine. Same as usual. They said I had to study some more today, but I wanted to come and see you. Anyway, I want to escape the hunting trip this afternoon. Such outings are sooo boring, don’t you think?”

“You should not talk so of your rulers!”

“But it’s true. You always say that, and I don’t see why it’s so important. They’ll never find out, they hate coming into the North Wing. Why do you think that?”

“It might be on account of me here, young Prince. I am a foreign court magician, and this is my dwelling place. They respect me, and perhaps are cautious towards me.”

“Huh. Some king. Frightened of his own court magician! Hey, Ndarmna, I overheard Alicey talking to Mother recently. Do you know what she said?”

“I hope you are not repeating some gossip.”

“No! She said you are a wizard. A real live wizard! Is that true?”

Ndarmna chuckled. “Of course not. They have died out, I told you about it; remember the War of Wizards?”

“Oh yeah. I forgot. Also, a kitchen hand said you could shape-change.”

The magician laughed long and loud this time. “You spend too much of your time with servants and workers. Do not listen to their chatter; only a few can shape-change, and I assure you a simple court magician cannot!”

“Do you know everything in the whole wide world?”

“Oh, no. I know more than the average person, but only a fraction of what this wide and mysterious land holds.”

“I think you do.”

“Hah! Oh, my dear little prince, here we are at my study. Come in with me, and we shall talk.”

Julian did a little skip into the study. It was covered in strange old musty papers and ink and leather bound books. Ndarmna didn’t tidy up much, it was evident.

An old black cloak was lying crumpled on the floor. The magician looked at it and held his fingers to his lips for the boy to be silent. Puzzled, he obeyed and watched as his friend sighed loudly and said, “Oh dear. That apprentice Naje of mine must learn not to throw his clothes around! I had better get it out of the way.”

The man kicked it from his path and a yelp emitted from it. It rolled away and spun taller until lithely dark hands pulled it away from a teenage face. “Master! You knew I was practicing my preliminary invisibility studies. Don’t be cruel.” He glanced at Julian, and his smiling face turned into a scowl. “And especially don’t set a bad example for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince Julian.”

Julian burst into laughter. The apprentice sneered. “Sorry, Your Royal Highness the Crown Prince Julian. We’re doing lessons now. Didn’t your Royal Mother tell you to scram and meet the new tutor?”

“Naje, you have not completed your assignments yet,” replied the old man. “Go and catch up on that reading you missed from last time.”

Naje frowned, but did as he was told. Julian shivered when he gave a last spiteful look at the boy. He knows I won’t dob, sighed the prince inwardly. He shouldn’t treat me like that, but he also knows I’m to have met the new tutor whatsisname already. I’d need a jolly good excuse for being here anyway.

Ndarmna sat on the large study armchair and drew Julian on his lap. Julian could smell the strange spices on the magician’s exotic clothing. “Where are you from?” he asked. The old man smiled and gladly told of his country.

“I am from the Land of Yenom, far from here, in Africaoli. Yenom means riches and gold, and indeed, once it was such a kingdom.”

“Once?”

“Alas, now it is old and crumbling. The old King Shar died, and left his heirless throne to be squabbled over by arrogant princes and nobles. A man named Lascati Mbe came up with a fatal compromise: the Compromise of Peace. Far from it being a compromise of peace, it consisted of each of the leading contenders for the golden Yenomish throne to be given a small portion of the land.”

The boy snuggled closer into the man’s white beard and soft robe. “What’s fatal, Ndarmna?”

“If something is fatal for a country, in means that the country will soon plummet into ruin and crumbling. If a wound is fatal for a man, the man will close his eyes and never see the light again; his lungs never to taste the fresh air.”

“I know why it was fatal for Yenom. The princes would fight and unity would not be there anymore. Then an baddie would come along and kill all the little parts and make it their kingdom instead. There wouldn’t be any Yenom anymore. Like what happened to Nidnai. Is that right?”

“Quite right. Technically, King Shar’s distant cousin rules the land, but no-one, even his own relatives and friends, pay any heed at all to him.”

“Who’s gonna conquer it?”

“No-one knows. This cousin of King Shar, Stsenbali, knows his country is failing and dissolving. He hopes one state will become more powerful than the rest and take them all over, and Yenom will once again be great.” The magician was looking into space, remembering.

Julian fixed his eyes on a tassel dangling from Ndarmna’s collar. It swayed back and forth as the man breathed in and out. “But what’s your home like? Your village, your house, your family?”

“I do not know. I was chosen when born to be apprenticed to... the court magician of a state called Gwanillo. I was chosen as I chose Naje. Magicians feel at once when a babe is born that has potential to become an apprentice and learn the art of magic. My master fled when Gwanillo was swallowed up by a larger neighboring state, Po. I went with him, and we came here to Elsia after traveling for many months.”

“Where is your master now?”

“He erthemmed. To erthem is to catch Magician’s Plague. He died soon after I became court magician here.”

“When was that?”

“Long before you, your father, your grandfather or even your great-grandfather was born.”

“You must be very old. Very, very, old. My great-grandfather was old. He was born over a hundred years ago.”

Ndarmna laughed. “Oh, my dear prince. Yes, I am very old.” He cocked an ear. “There is Naje now. He must have finished his reading.”

Julian listened too, but he could hear nothing. “I don’t hear him.”

“Look behind you, Julian!” grinned the master magician. Julian did.

What he saw knocked him over backwards. A ghoulish terror shaped as a tall man robed unfathomably in a dark cape loomed before him. The boy could see right through him. “Th.. th... that’s not Naje!” he squeaked in terror. “W... w... what is it?”

Julian turned back to look at his friend, then back at the specter. Except... where was it? Only Naje, strolling and whistling into the room. Uncontrollably, the apprentice laughed out suddenly.

“You should have seen your face, Your Royal Highness the Crown Prince Julian!” he jeered. “When you’re king you can’t be scared of an apprentice court magician practicing his invisibility techniques. Hah! I sure did scare you, eh?”

“Naje, you had the boy witless!” reprimanded his master. “I forbid any more tricks like that again. And your left foot was patchy.” Turning to Julian, he said, “Sorry, dear prince. Naje loves to prank at the wrong time. Maybe you should go and meet your new tutor now, eh?”

Wide-eyed, the boy nodded and scampered out of the study fast. He ran down the corridor past quizzical servants and only slowed down when he came to the courtyard garden. Sitting down again on the fountain edge, he drank some and cooled his parched throat. Yes, perhaps it was time to go and meet the tutor.

Why had he been so scared? Naje had done that sort of thing before, but now Julian had felt a strange tingling at the base of his spine, a cold prickling. Again, the boy shivered. This tingling made him feel helpless and frozen. He didn’t like it.