Lady Thessela made haste to the entrance hall to greet the new arrival. She surveyed the newcomer with interest, taking in clothes which featured gold brocade, an attractive, intelligent face with eyes that seemed to pierce into your very soul, surmounted by a mane of reddish-gold hair, not one strand of which was out of place despite her journey.
“Madame, you are warmly welcomed to Castle Jollyrei! May I offer you food and drink for refreshment after your journey? Perhaps a room for as long as you may wish to stay?”
Eulalia gracefully and gratefully accepted Thessela’s kind offers, and one servant provided the comestibles while another ensured that her things were taken to a suitable room.
For a while, Eulalia and Thessela made small talk. “I saw something very interesting on my way here,” remarked Eulalia, after a while. “A naked woman on a cross, just outside the town?”
“Oh, that’s Dorothea! Repertor had her crucified, but she’s due down the day after tomorrow. She tried to steal a particularly valuable sword.”
“Would that, by any chance, be the Sword of Goliath?”
Thessela looked at her, narrowly. “Yes….it would. How did you know?”
“I got searched three times on my way here by men looking for it!”
There was a silence. Thessela eyed her expectantly, feeling perhaps that now might be the right moment for Eulalia to come to the point.
“You are wondering why I am here?”
“That, and who exactly you are?”
“I am Eulalia of Ystragarth, High Priestess of the Silver River. I have a very good friend whose name is Merlin.” She stressed, ever so slightly, the word ‘very’. Thessela knew exactly what she meant. “He has a brother whose name, as it happens, is ‘Repertor.’ This Repertor has spent many centuries duelling with a being from the underworld called Kibonreju. They fell out after a misunderstanding over a lovely girl called ‘Barbaria’. Repertor thought Kibonreju was a good guy, and he allowed him, as he thought, to rescue Barbaria, who had been crucified by an evil emperor named Arborius. Instead of rescuing her, Kibonreju abducted her, still on her cross, and took her to a secret underground location, where she remains to this day, a mere plaything for Kibonreju.”
“Correction. She remained till yesterday. Today she’s here! She has been rescued!”
“Really? Well, that is wonderful news! Although it does mean that my journey here has been wasted. Merlin knew that Repertor had got this far, but now he’s lost touch, and he felt that he might need help. But if he’s rescued Barb he’ll be ecstatic!”
“Er, ‘ecstatic’ is not the word I’d choose right now.”
“Why?”
“Because, although Barb is safe, Kibonreju has captured Messaline and Malins, and I understand that Kibonreju has crucified them instead!”
“Malins?” Eulalia looked at Thessela as if she’d slapped her. “Do you mean ‘Malins’, the ‘Sleeping Witch’ of Bavaria?”
Thessela was somewhat taken aback by the ferocity of the question. “Yes, I do believe that’s who she is….”
“WHERE IS HE????”
“Repertor? He’s in the garden, feeling rather sorry for himself, in fact….just through that door over there….”
Eulalia stormed through the indicated door, with a surprised and concerned Thessela following in her wake.
Repertor saw her, and leaped to his feet. “Eulalia, what are you…..”
“NEVER MIND THAT, YOU IDLE WASTREL!!! WHAT’S THIS I HEAR ABOUT YOU GETTING MY SISTER CRUCIFIED!!!!?????”
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