TRAVELLER (Book 1 in the Brass Pendant Trilogy) by Amanda May Bell Page B
Authors: Amanda May Bell
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also ensure that she was able to retire unscathed.
It wasn’t long before I was wrapped in a soft cloth and, although I was a reluctant subject, I could see Harmony was, indeed, very good at her job. Although she’d only recently been employed by the House, I wasn’t surprised she’d already been promoted to my mother’s private staff. She asked me to lie still while she smoothed a sweet smelling salve beneath my eyes and I even managed to relax a little as she massaged my neck and shoulders with scented oils. I closed my eyes…….but I couldn’t relax completely, even under Harmony’s expert hands. In an effort to tame the remains of my restlessness, and because I was always interested in news from the Quest, I asked Harmony to tell me about herself before I asked her about her husband and his recent quests.
Harmony told me her parents were fruit growers and herd owners, and she told me their farm was just over the hills we could see on the horizon. She said, a turn ago, she’d been selling fruit in the streets outside the Tournament arena when Aaron had walked a Tournament horse past her stall. She told me he’d stopped at her stall on the way back from the Tournament and he’d persuaded her to join him at the Tournament celebration. It seemed their romance had progressed very swiftly from there.
Aaron’s father was head groom in the Palace stables, so tradition had required him to spend his teenage years training for the Quest, but Harmony said his true passion was for the horses. Once he’d finished his quest training, he’d been able to return to the Palace stables and was employed as a groom now himself. As a quester though, he was called upon often to make quests into the past and he’d recently returned from the Nomadic Era. He’d joined a team who’d been required to challenge the warriors of a roaming desert tribe in order to acquire from them a breeding mare of a particularly rare and much sought after variety. Harmony told me the mare had been brought back to Aldiris successfully and her beloved Aaron, to her relief, had also returned unscathed.
“Before that, he’d made three short quests into the ancient past to gather textile seeds to be sewn in the spring,” said Harmony conversationally. Unlike me, she’d relaxed completely now. “And, at the beginning of last winter, he was part of a discovery quest. He was sent to a marker which had just moved out of the Black Era and was scheduled to be explored,” she added. I sat up a little straighter as my interest peaked. Now that, was my kind of quest. I hoped to be included in as many discovery quests as possible once my finals were complete.
“What did they find?” I asked her eagerly.
“Thick jungle,” she said, as she took the braids out of my hair. “And illness,” she added quietly, as she shuddered slightly. “My Aaron returned with a dreadful fever, as did the rest of the team. They were so ill when they arrived at the city marker, we were surprised they had so many vegetation samples with them in their packs. It had only been a four day quest. The healers tried for three full days to break their fevers, but to no avail, and a quester from the group was lost to the illness on the third night. The healers were trying everything, but all our usual fever remedies seemed only to make it worse. The fever was so severe, Aaron was not himself in its grip and, through the worst of it, he called out to names unknown in a voice not his own,” she said quietly, and she shuddered again. “It was as a last resort that the healers warmed them. It went against all known wisdom in treating a fever, but it worked almost immediately. Despite the fever, the illness had to be poured out through the skin and recovery was swift once a simple heating remedy was applied. After Aaron returned to himself, he and the others told the healers they’d not felt the effects of the illness at all until they’d made the drop to come home. Aaron thinks
It wasn’t long before I was wrapped in a soft cloth and, although I was a reluctant subject, I could see Harmony was, indeed, very good at her job. Although she’d only recently been employed by the House, I wasn’t surprised she’d already been promoted to my mother’s private staff. She asked me to lie still while she smoothed a sweet smelling salve beneath my eyes and I even managed to relax a little as she massaged my neck and shoulders with scented oils. I closed my eyes…….but I couldn’t relax completely, even under Harmony’s expert hands. In an effort to tame the remains of my restlessness, and because I was always interested in news from the Quest, I asked Harmony to tell me about herself before I asked her about her husband and his recent quests.
Harmony told me her parents were fruit growers and herd owners, and she told me their farm was just over the hills we could see on the horizon. She said, a turn ago, she’d been selling fruit in the streets outside the Tournament arena when Aaron had walked a Tournament horse past her stall. She told me he’d stopped at her stall on the way back from the Tournament and he’d persuaded her to join him at the Tournament celebration. It seemed their romance had progressed very swiftly from there.
Aaron’s father was head groom in the Palace stables, so tradition had required him to spend his teenage years training for the Quest, but Harmony said his true passion was for the horses. Once he’d finished his quest training, he’d been able to return to the Palace stables and was employed as a groom now himself. As a quester though, he was called upon often to make quests into the past and he’d recently returned from the Nomadic Era. He’d joined a team who’d been required to challenge the warriors of a roaming desert tribe in order to acquire from them a breeding mare of a particularly rare and much sought after variety. Harmony told me the mare had been brought back to Aldiris successfully and her beloved Aaron, to her relief, had also returned unscathed.
“Before that, he’d made three short quests into the ancient past to gather textile seeds to be sewn in the spring,” said Harmony conversationally. Unlike me, she’d relaxed completely now. “And, at the beginning of last winter, he was part of a discovery quest. He was sent to a marker which had just moved out of the Black Era and was scheduled to be explored,” she added. I sat up a little straighter as my interest peaked. Now that, was my kind of quest. I hoped to be included in as many discovery quests as possible once my finals were complete.
“What did they find?” I asked her eagerly.
“Thick jungle,” she said, as she took the braids out of my hair. “And illness,” she added quietly, as she shuddered slightly. “My Aaron returned with a dreadful fever, as did the rest of the team. They were so ill when they arrived at the city marker, we were surprised they had so many vegetation samples with them in their packs. It had only been a four day quest. The healers tried for three full days to break their fevers, but to no avail, and a quester from the group was lost to the illness on the third night. The healers were trying everything, but all our usual fever remedies seemed only to make it worse. The fever was so severe, Aaron was not himself in its grip and, through the worst of it, he called out to names unknown in a voice not his own,” she said quietly, and she shuddered again. “It was as a last resort that the healers warmed them. It went against all known wisdom in treating a fever, but it worked almost immediately. Despite the fever, the illness had to be poured out through the skin and recovery was swift once a simple heating remedy was applied. After Aaron returned to himself, he and the others told the healers they’d not felt the effects of the illness at all until they’d made the drop to come home. Aaron thinks
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