The Whipping Tree

I: Charcoal and Cerulean

I
Charcoal and Cerulean

 

          He takes the stairs two at a time, his coat fanning about his legs as his chest heaves. He ran from Larkinholt to Brevinham, a good two hours of travel by horse, a distance he covered on foot.

         “Message for Lord Ailemer,” he gasps, upon arrival at the mansion’s grand entrance.

         The doorman casts his eyes at the messenger’s dishevelled state. He wrinkles his nose, a movement that irks the other.

         “What is your name?” he asks with a dash of displeasure. His hair greys at his temples, and there is a fine set of creases that line his forehead and accent the furrow in his brow.

         “Terrin,” the courier replies, still winded.

         “I would advise you to make yourself more presentable before entering,” the man goes on to say.

         “By Imorda, this is a pressing matter!” He puffs and doubles over with his hand on a pillar next to him. Though he knows it not, he worsens the doorman’s already-poor opinion of him when he wheezes continuously.

        “I am sure it is not so pressing as to prevent you from looking your best.” The doorman looks ruffled as he continues. “Brevinham may be a small town, but allow me to assure you, we—”

        With a roar, Terrin pushes aside the middle-aged man and flings open the doors to the mansion. He is unsure where the lord is exactly; nonetheless, he storms through the grand house feeling as though his lungs cannot function fast enough.

       “Lord Ailemer!” he shouts, just wanting to travel home to his newly wed wife and nurse his aching feet. He is a courier for one of the five central townships, and this is the one occasion he has ever travelled out of Hildegard.

         Almost immediately, a servant rushes out of a set of doors to the messenger’s left, fear mixed with irritation on his face.

         “Did Gavin grant you entrance?” the young man asks, peering past Terrin to stare at the doors. “What is the matter?”

         “I have an urgent message for Lord and Lady Ailemer,” Terrin says. He pushes past the servant and stalks into the dining hall, where the lord and his wife are sitting down to an early lunch. There is a third set of plates, complete with steamed vegetables and polished silverware, the knife and fork sporting engravings of vines spiralling up the handles. The food is untouched.

         A city messenger, sent to deliver a warning to Brevinham, one of the most rural places in all of Drachmere, Terrin harrumphs to himself.

        “What is the meaning of this?” the lord says, rising out of his seat. Speared upon his fork is a limp head of broccoli, the produce and livestock in the past few months having been far from plentiful.

         “Urgent message, my lord.” Terrin is tempted to bow, to mock the man in front of him. The estate he lives in can be found on any street in Hildegard, he thinks.

         Mathieu Ailemer reseats himself in his chair, and waves his cutlery at Terrin, gesturing for him to proceed.    

      “Lord Kalion would like to warn you”—he smiles, tastes the reverberating tang of bringing unfortunate news upon his tongue—“that there has recently been a series of Noci attacks, and they are following the Otius River west. I trust you understand where west leads to.”

         A sharp intake of breath comes from the lord. His wife sits still, her clear blue eyes focused on the messenger, somehow knowing that he is not finished.

         “He would also like me to add that they are…more restless than usual.”

         The fork clattered onto the lord’s plate before Terrin even finished speaking.

         He nods at the lord and lady, straightens his coat, and leaves the mansion.

(**A/N: Thoughts thus far? This probably seems a little in medias res, and it will continue to be for the next few sections before I jump into explaining. The entire explanation of what happened will be very jumbled. You'll see fragments of the present mentioning the past you don't know of yet, and flashes of the past as well as the past of the past, some sections relevant and some not at all. I think this kind of storytelling suits the plot itself, so I'm sticking with it.

For those of you that have read Imaginer, you'll notice the writing style is very different in this novel. I've also decided to test the unfamiliar waters of present tense, so if you catch any mistakes (this is my first time writing a novel in present tense) do not hesitate to inform me! Doesn't help much that the sentence structure and vocabulary used is really formal, haha.

Thanks for reading!)