TRAVELLER (Book 1 in the Brass Pendant Trilogy) by Amanda May Bell Page A

stood. I turned around, and my beautiful rooms mocked me with their silence and their emptiness. I sat on my bed and took Josh’s music cartridge from the bottom of my bag; and I slipped it carefully beneath the corner of the wool packed mattress on my bed before I reached down and pulled off my leather boots. A thin mural was painted on my walls and it depicted brightly coloured, painted fish swimming through a sparkling blue ribbon of water. It was painted at head height around the room. The scales on the fish glistened with sparkling minerals which were inlaid into the paint, and the fish had brightly coloured fins and flickering tails. I’d always loved this mural.
    My furniture was simple. There was fine, wooden bed frame with the sun rising above the hills carved into the bed head. This dominated the room, and a plain, wooden robe stood against the wall beside the window. A carved wooden chest sat at the end of my bed and a golden edged mirror leant against the opposite wall. A light cylinder was mounted on the wall above my bed too, and when night fell, it would light my room with the softest of lights. I smoothed my hand across the woven blanket which was folded neatly across the bed.
    Not surprisingly, I was feeling restless already and I stood up and wandered aimlessly into my other rooms. My bare feet trod upon woven mats. There was a study adjoining my bedroom and an archway in the wall beside my mirror led me through to it. This room had originally been my playroom, but now, the toys were gone and it held just a fine, wooden desk set and a cushioned wicker chair for reading. The same mural continued on the walls in here, but the window in this room was filled with coloured glass blocks which had always delighted me. As the afternoon sun sunk lower in the sky, it bathed the room with colourful light, but today, the beautiful pattern didn’t calm my spirits, or my restless legs. I turned around and walked into my bathroom. It was a small room patterned with tiny green and blue tiles. The sunken bath was small as well and soon servants would fill it with water carried from the well, and a heating rod would heat the water until it was very warm.
    “Pardon, your Highness, but I was sent to prepare you.”
    I jumped and put my hand over my heart.
    “So…so sorry…..your Highness. I had thought you heard me arrive,” stammered the girl. I smiled quickly and assured her it was of no consequence that she’d startled me.
    The girl looked to be only a few turns older than myself. She had light brown hair braided loosely down her back and plump, rosy cheeks. Her wide, blue eyes were fringed by long lashes and her apron was tied loosely over her dark blue servant’s dress.
    “Are you a quester?” I asked her straight away. She was certainly good at sneaking up on people, and all those who lived or worked in the Royal house were either questers or wed to one.
    “No your Highness. My Aaron is the quester. He works in the Palace stables when he’s not on the Quest……..I’m called Harmony, your Highness,” she stammered nervously. I nodded. This girl must be from the Community and she would have joined the Royal House when she’d been wed to a quester. Questers were required to take partners from the Community and Royalty was no exception in this as my mother had so recently reminded me.
    “May the gifts of the River Zahar remain among us through time, Harmony,” I said to the girl, and she looked surprised when I greeted her in the manner of our people.
    “And may time never be lost between us Princess Livia,” she said, when she recovered her composure. “I’m to make sure you’re ready by set seven,” she added carefully, and I smiled.
    “Well Harmony, I guess you should tell me what you’d like me to do first,” I said resignedly. I had no desire to put this girl in any danger of suffering my mother’s verbal wrath. My cooperation would ensure she’d finish her working day safely and it would