Responsibility Ch. 07

The building in the center of everything, was it truly a castle's keep?

Enormous.

Tremendous.

Vast and soaring.

Windows, towers, pillars, branching sections, balconies, verandas, chimneys, and anything else one could imagine putting on a stone building. There was so much of it. Sensory overload. It was the most overbearing, most tangled, most convoluted piece of architecture she'd ever seen. She could never have even imagined such a ... such a thing. It looked like it could move! Like it had rows upon rows of fangs waiting to scrape her tiny body away!

"Your Highness!!"

Her lips were under one of her palms. Her eyes were wild.

"Your Highness!! Are you ill?"

Some pulled her up to her feet. She had to lean on that someone. A female not much taller than her. Ah. Oksana, had to be her. Rahela looked down to the road. "I ... I'm weak from traveling for so long." A lie indeed, but it was all she could scratch up.

"You'll have a bath and the finest food in a few minutes," Oksana promised. Then she said, "Yana! She needs some water!"

A few sips from a flask, and Rahela cooled her brain. She decided not to look at anything that was too much for her senses. If that meant she couldn't even describe the shape of a particular building, or room, or anything else, then so be it.

One of the soldiers approached and asked if anything was wrong, but Rahela told him there was no problem. The maids-in-waiting then escorted Rahela closer to the main entrance, where the Emperor and his boys soon met them.

The entrance itself wasn't too disturbing for Rahela. It was mostly normal. Tall and wide doors of strong wood. Each door had quarter of a circular shape, so together the entrance had a rounded top. There were detailed carvings in the wood, though, running and leaping wolves of various sizes moving through trees and bushes. The style was nearly delicate.

Guards were on standby, waiting to be told to open open the doors. The Emperor gave the order. The guards bowed and marched over to the doors' large, round drop handles. The hinges didn't creak, but there was still a heavy dragging noise. When there was enough room, the Emperor led the group into the keep.

Their shoes met a wide rug of dark red with gleaming gold and silver braiding. The floor had square tiles, some groups of squares bordered by plain black rectangles. Those colorful tiles had a variety of images, each image contained within a single square. Shields in the center of a frame of leaves. Jousting warriors, horses and lances and all. Eight pointed stars with little circles dotted between the long branches and points. Grids of squares formed by two separate triangles. Large daisies. Many, many different little images.

The exterior of the unbelievably huge keep wasn't the only part that had been whitewashed. Most of the walls were white. The colors of the tapestries and banners all seemed more colorful because of that. There was a grand set of staircases leading up to a landing. There were also plenty of doors and archways.

In guards in this location were all still. They were like statues. The Emperor called out, his voice like a horn, "Where are the chambermaids?!"

A single male servant, he hurried through an archway up on the landing. Then, panting and keeping his palm on a railing, he rushed down one of the wide staircases. Once he was on the red rug, he sprinted over to the Emperor, his calf-length gown flapping about. Trembling, flushing, the man deeply bowed and stammered out his words. The maids were coming. Thank you so much for returning home. Would you like a cup of water? Shoe licking words. Ring kissing words.

Not even three seconds after the flustered servant finished speaking, a group of girls hurried on the same path he'd taken, from the landing to the foyer. They seemed to range in age and size. Fairly small to fairly tall. Maybe ten years old to maybe seventeen years old. The colors in their clothes were soft. Aside from some short and simple headdresses, their heads were uncovered.

Pointing at Rahela with a thumb, the Emperor said, "This maiden with the ribbon braids is Princess Rahela of Testoa. She's my Betrothed." He made a separate gesture, tight fingers and palm upwards, near the chambermaids. "Are you the servants The Empress Dowager has assigned to serve this princess?"

Bowing, the girls said in near unison, "Yes, Your Majesty." The smallest girl's voice lagged behind the rest.

Calmly, yet also tightly, the Emperor said, "Then now is the time to earn your pay. Princess Rahela is your Mistress, and her maids-in-waiting are similar. Have you been taught the way to my Betrothed's bedchamber?"

Again, almost simultaneous, the girls said, "Yes, Your Majesty."

"Then lead your Mistress and her maids-in-waiting off to her room so that they may have lunch and anything else they might need." The Emperor turned to Rahela and gave a nod and a little smile. "I'll come to you later today. You'll be introduced to my mother soon."

Bowing, Rahela said, "Thank you, My Lord, for your kindness. I wish nothing but comfort upon you."

The Emperor and his boys went up the other set of stairs. Rahela and her girls followed the chambermaids up the first one. The two groups were soon going in opposite directions.

***

Rahela's bedchamber was similar to everything else she'd seen so far. So huge that she could barely understand it. She'd been a queen, raised as a princess. She'd lived in castles. She'd had privacy and extravagance. But this palatial fortress was so high up, on such a unconventional degree, that Rahela didn't know what to think. The amount of space in her whole bedchamber was five times as large as the room she slept in as Queen of Testoa.

And the bedchamber wasn't the only room dedicated to her. Rahela soon found out she had a whole set of rooms called an apartment. There was a little dining room, not a table with some chairs inside the bedchamber. Oh no! There was a whole damn room just for eating. It wasn't as huge as a dining hall, of course, but it was still notable.

A private garderobe, not a room of clothing or other storage, but an alternative to a chamberpot, was available only to Rahela. That wasn't strange to her. What was strange was the extra space. There was enough room for her to pace back and forth a little in front of the stone ledge that the user would sit on. The hole on the seat had an obvious purpose. Another thing that was strange was a special cabinet in a corner of the room. Inside, there were jars of water, a pitcher, a bowl, and green bars of soap. Instead of having to carry her hygiene products into the garderobe, they were lovingly arranged beforehand, apparently because there was enough room for that.

There was also a tiny library! A special little reading room only for her! It was full of scrolls and even a few books! They seemed to be for her education. History, culture, politics, and other important subjects were there for her, but there were some sillier things too.

Another room was a bathing room. A god damn bathing room. Now, Rahela had always been in a private room when bathing, but there had never been a special room just for bathing alone. Normally, a tub would simply be placed wherever it was needed.

But ... there wasn't a tub. That had confused Rahela. Where was the wooden tub she was meant to soak in? And why was so much of the floor dipped down? Well, she later learned that the giant hole in the floor was the tub itself, and pipes with decorative stone carvings were meant to guide water down to that hole. There was enough space for ten people to comfortably sit down and relax.

There was a large balcony with a roof supported by thick columns. On the ceiling, there was a grand mosaic scene. Nubile looking maidens innocently playing in a river in a forest. Pet dogs played with them and a few different kinds of birds were in the sky.

The floors in these rooms were mostly tiled, as the foyer downstairs was, but there were differences. There were slightly less colors, no black border tiles, and much fewer individual images. The floor in the garderrobe was plain stone, and the tub portion of the floor in the bathing room was polished and smooth. The balcony had rather simple tiling in the floor, large squares of white and gray.

The most common items would be rugs, mats, and tapestries. The mats would be made of woven rushes, and they'd have herbs and flowers dusted on top so that as one made a step pleasing aromas would rise. The rugs would be made of fur. One of them still had a bear's feet and head.

Men had soon finished putting all the luggage in the area. The chambermaids were supposed to put all the things away soon, but for now they had to tend to the Princess.

For a time, Rahela stared at one of the hanging tapestries while some of the chambermaids combed her hair for her. They were going to wrap it all up in cloth. Someone was running hot water into the bathtub. Yana and Oksana were caring for their own hair, but they were already giving a few orders to the servants. Oksana gave the most orders. Yana had more difficulty, the poor dear.

Rahela and her maids-in-waiting disrobed to be washed, and this time there was more help. A girl would hold out a rag. Another girl would help them reach certain points on their backs. When they were clean enough, the trio walked to the bathing room. One of the servant girls got down on her knees and tested the water with her wrist. Then she got to her feet and confirmed that the water had a fine temperature. Another girl brought in a basket full of flower petals and leaves. She scattered the material onto the water.

Yana and Oksana both sighed so loudly, so greatly, that it sounded like they'd just held their breaths a bit too long. Quietly, Rahela congratulated them both for enduring so much travel. Then she said that they might be promoted soon.

"You'll have to find new little maids-in-waiting soon," Oksana said as one of the chambermaids went to find some planks of wood. The trio was meant to kneel near near the tub's edge, leaning a bit, and eat their food from the edge. The planks would serve as very low tables.

Her cheeks already rosy, Yana said, "Thuh-thuh-the Empress Dowager wuh-will help you. She must n-n-nnnn!" Her eyes nearly shut. Her nose scrunched up. Her tongue swirled out of her mouth, then retracted. The rest of her words were rapidly given. "Must know all the best families."

Food was served soon. Spicy and sweet food. Expensive food. Yana and Oksana squealed and laughed when they saw it all. Little pasta envelopes filled with ground chicken and cheese. Small loaves of walnut bread. Bowls of bean and cabbage soup with chopped mushrooms and ground peppercorn. And a thin pie with a bright yellow filling that was essentially cheesecake. The yellow color had apparently come from saffron.

Rahela almost caught the hiccups.

But she calmed her body down.

She needed to be somber.

The Empress Dowager was waiting on them.

***