Asher pulled around the side of the castle, driving around a kind of paved moat, to a wide lot at the back. There were a number of slick black vehicles, a couple of large trucks and another van, all shiny black.
“Oh, you’ve got two creeper vans, do you? Do you do a lot of kidnappings?” It was meant to be a joke, but my voice came out shaky.
Asher smiled at me, “Yeah, all the time. Hey, I joke. Don’t look so nervous.”
“It’s nothing…just….” I glanced out the window, at the huge brick building that stretched up into the clouds, “it’s…a freakin’ castle.”
“I know it must seem weird,” Asher stretched back, leaning between the two seats to grab his knap sack. His shoulder brushed mine, “don’t worry though, everyone is really laid back…” he grinned, “at least, my dad’s side of the family is.”
“Your mom isn’t?” I hopped down from my seat, taking a deep breath of cool evening air. The sun was just setting now, sinking down into the snowy mountains in the distant in a flare of oranges and reds that looked like an oil painting.
“No way, my mom is really relaxed,” Asher hiked his knapsack higher on his shoulder, and I hurried to follow him as he strode across the parking lot, “it’s the frostie advisors, they’ve all got sticks up their butts…”
I wrinkled my nose at that particular description, “why? What’s the matter with them?”
Asher shrugged, “Dunno, really. They’re always going on about tradition and protocol and procedure and all that. What my parents should do and shouldn’t do….all that garbage.”
“Sounds fun.”
“Oh yeah, they’re a barrel of laughs,” Asher was heading for a wide wooden door in the side of the castle, where a tall, swarthy faced guard was standing. We passed under a brick arch way, and Asher waved. The guard didn’t dignify this with a wave back, only tightened his fingers around the spear he held, but there was a small curl of his lips on both sides, hinting at a smile, “Prince Asher.” He said curtly.
“Hail, Favian! Feel like letting me and the lady in? Or are you just going to stand there jutting your lip out at us?”
Favian’s mouth twitched again, he appeared to be fighting a smile, “I am most certainly not sticking my lip out.”
“You are,” Asher said, “I can see you’re trying to look all deadly serious, but it’s coming off more sulky…” here he dodged, laughing, as Favian suddenly struck out with the shaft of his spear, jabbing at the air where Asher had been seconds ago.
“Still too slow! You’re improving though!”
The guard rolled his eyes, but he pushed the door open, the hinges creaking loudly, holding it open for us to pass through. Asher gave him a playful nudge on the way by, and Favian sighed in long-suffering fashion. Once we were inside I stopped, gaping around at the room I’d found myself in. It was obviously just a entrance room, a cloak room, or whatever they called it, but it was still massive. There were iron brackets on the wall that held wooden torches, and a series of hooks on the walls held leather and fur capes of various shapes and sizes.
“Wow,” I breathed, “it’s full on medieval in here…”
“I know,” Asher grinned, “isn’t it awesome? The ice palace is the opposite, everything is glass and marble and ice statues of swans…this…this is somewhere you can get good and sloshed off of ale and stumble around without worrying about breaking the place. It’s solid.”
“Do your parents know you get sloshed off of ale?” I raised a brow at him, and his cheeks colored slightly, “maybe not,” he shrugged, grinning, “come on, this way. My parents are probably in the great hall.”
YOU ARE READING
Fire
Fantasy**Completed**Can smoldering resentment and attraction exist at the same time? Jess Parker has made a number of mistakes. The first was burning her school to the ground. The second, getting caught by the handsome, yet maddening boy who calls himself...
