Rise of a Prodigy: Chapter three.

Rise Of a prodigy: Chapter Three

“You awake yet girl?” came a voice from behind the door, as Elisa
stirred beneath the covers, her eyes opening to the flash of the dawn
sun coming in through the window. For a brief moment she looked about
the room, unsure of where she was. As her memory quickly returned
however, she practically leapt out of bed, barely able to contain her
excitement.

“I’ll just be a minute!” she called towards the door, hurrying to get
dressed and ready, almost tripping over as she put on her socks.. She
wished she could just fly out of the window and head straight to the
tower, like the Benayin glider’s she had read about.

When she was dressed she walked straight out of her room, where the
driver was standing in the hallway waiting for her. He looked tired,
with bleary eyes and unkempt hair, and seemed a lot less friendly to
Elisa than he did yesterday. He said nothing to her, not even a good
morning, as he walked down the stairs gesturing for her to follow him.
She asked him if she could have some breakfast, but he didn’t answer
her. That argument with the farmer was not all that had kept him from
getting to bed, it seemed.

Heading out past the now empty main hall, that was surprisingly clean
given how busy the place had been last night, the two of them stepped
out into the cold sunlight of the early morning. The coach was ready and
waiting for them outside, with the two youths that had ran past Elisa
the night before standing by it.

“Good day too you miss!” they called out, almost in unison with each
other, both of them looking bright and cheerful for such an early
morning. While the driver put a few coins in the hand of the older and
bigger lad, Cobba, the younger and skinnier Shawcroft helped Elisa into
the coach.

“Fortune and safe journey to you miss” said Shawcroft with a smile.
Elisa smiled back at the sweet young lad, glad that she had seen at
least one friendly face this morning. With a crack of the whip the
driver got the horses moving and they rolled away from the inn, the two
young lads waving as they left.

The sun continued to rise over the hills, bringing the heat of late
spring to the fields and meadows. The bluebells where now in full bloom
along the approach road that led to True Wind gate and Elisa could see
little children picking them as she looked out of her window. All of
this seemed to glide by far quicker than it had yesterday, as the driver
was pressing the horses harder, keen to get to the gate quickly so he
could go home.

It wasn’t long before they were in sight of the high banners of
Kerrenheim that stood on the twin hills of Aswei and Ekotta that flanked
the mighty true wind gate. The only surviving part of what had been the
wall of King Stokeharten The Defender, true wind gate stood at sixty
feet high, built with stone from the Odil mines. The battlements were
still strong, with a great portcullis for archers, and catapults on the
high wall above the gate itself, which was forged from reinforced iron.
Anyone who wished to attack the capital would have to get through the
gate first, and Elisa couldn’t imagine the army that could manage that.

A cart was waiting for them before the gate when they pulled up. As
the carriage slowed, Elisa could see that there were five people in the
back of it. They were all around her age, three boys and two girls. They
all looked at her as she stepped out of the carriage, which made her
nervous. They looked hungry and tired, having obviously been waiting for
her for a while. They were the other youths selected to be prodigies of
Gardena, and Elisa was going to have to spend a lot of time with them.
Elisa had always felt awkward when meeting new people, and she was sure
she was making a bad first impression.

Before she could even thank the driver, he was on his way, turning
around and heading back down the way they had come. The ground was
muddy, and her boots and skirt became covered in it as she trudged over
to the cart. She felt like even the gate was watching her, judging her
silently as she made her way to the others.

She climbed up into the cart, which was already cramped enough
without her. The three boys where all slight and thin, and wore simple
green tunics embroidered with a white circle, which meant they came from
Pawl township in the western province. Every town in the west had a
unique symbol, and the locals always wore it on themselves when they
travelled away from home, to show their pride in where they came from.
They turned their eyes away from Elisa, staring at the sky with blank
looks on their faces. The girls were no friendlier, a pair of freckly
red haired lasses wearing farm clothes. Elisa was hoping that she would
not have to spend too long waiting here, as she began to feel pangs of
hunger again. She wished she had had breakfast at the running hound, and
hoped that there would be a meal for them at the tower.

The wait may only have been five minutes or less, but it may as well
have been three hours as the silence and hunger bore down upon them all.
At last they heard the sound of horses coming through the gateway, and
they saw a dozen soldiers ride towards them.

Their leader was probably the silliest looking individual Elisa had
seen in her whole life. For a start, he looked like he had just got out
of bed, with a matted mop of black hair that fell about onto his face,
adding to his bleary eyes and scruffy beard. With gaudy plate mail
armour that was shining in the sun, Elisa could not imagine anyone being
more out of place anywhere then he seemed to be right now. He made some
vague sounded grunts that the soldiers seemed to take as orders, though
it didn’t really look like any of them where listening to him.

While she stifled the urge to giggle, the rest of the soldiers
gathered around the cart, flanking it on both sides. One got off his
horse and set it to pull the cart, sitting himself behind it to drive.
The leader got himself to the head of the group, and barked something
that sounded like “follow me”. With that they got moving, heading down
the road and through the gate.

The soldiers seemed even less friendly to Elisa than the others in
the cart with her, and her morning’s excitement was beginning to wane
somewhat. This wasn’t how she had imagined it would be at all. It seemed
to Elisa that she and the others were being treated more like goods on
the way to market than future prodigies. Hopefully when they got to the
tower things would improve. Someone important, like a Virtuoso, would
come to welcome them, and they would be treated as valued servants of
Gardena, rather than sheep.

Elisa was more anxious than ever now to see her sister Lalea, if
anything just to be around someone familiar. She hadn’t seen her in over
three years, and had missed her terribly. Lalea had always been the
cleverest girl in town, never without a book in her hand. She had
practically taught Elisa how to read, and always had a smile on her face
whenever she and her brother where being silly. When they got to the
tower, Elisa wanted to run inside, find Lalea and give her an almighty
hug, then ask her everything she could about the tower. Lalea would have
all the answers, like always.

The cart slowly climbed up a hill, the driver not doing much to speed
the horse along. Elisa could barely see anything beyond the soldiers on
either side of the cart riding with them, her attempts to stand up
hampered by the constant tiny bumps in the road. The smell of the horses
so close to her was overwhelming, and the man in the plate armour kept
swerving as he struggled to control his horse, further slowing their
progress.

Eventually, after what seemed like forever, Elisa caught her first
glimpse of the one thing she had been waiting to see for nearly eight
years. Over the top of the soldier’s heads, she could see the limestone
spire of Elleden tower.

The tower was a thousand years older than Gardena itself, and the
knowledge of who built it and for what purpose was shrouded in myth and
legend. The first Maestro and prodigies had arrived in the reign of king
Perendia The Kind, and had established a centre of learning there. From
that tower the fate of the kingdom was forged, and well did the
citizens of Gardena’s capital, Abelia, know this, as the tower stood
well in sight of them.

In the clear light of the sun, the tower seemed to shine, the purity
of the limestone still unspoiled after countless years, as if somehow
the immense mystical power of that had stayed with the building for
centuries somehow kept it that way. Standing at four hundred feet, the
tower was comprised of three main parts. At the top was the thin
circular spire, leading up the roof, on which there rested a small round
observatory, from which the Maestro could observe the stars and read
the meanings in the constellations.

The middle section was wider, and square in shape. Here were many
large windows, with stained glass designs that Elisa was sure were very
beautiful up close, and couldn’t wait to have a good look at them

The bottom section of the tower formed the base of the building, and
was the largest part of it. Here, at the end of the narrow path on which
they were travelling, there was a large stone stairway that lead up to
the large, stainless steel grill gates of the tower itself. Around the
tower’s base were a scattering of houses and other buildings that Elisa
supposed must serve as accommodation for guests or barracks for the
soldiers.

As Elisa took all of this in, the cart began to slow, the man in the
plate armour holding up his arm as a signal to the soldiers. All this
time, the other future prodigies had barely seemed to notice that they
had arrived at the tower. Elisa looked back at them to try to encourage
them to be excited, only to then truly realise how hungry and tired they
all looked. She didn’t know how she couldn’t have noticed it, but they
really where worn out, and she could see how shabby they all looked. How
long had they been waiting for her in this cart?

Elisa would definitely ask someone about this, as this was surely not
right. The Maestro of Elleden tower would surely not allow these sorts
of things to happen. She turned her attention to the tower gate, more
anxious than ever to get inside and allay the doubts creeping into her
mind.

Then, without warning, the cart turned off the main path to the gate.
The man in the plate armour steered his horse down a separate path
heading towards the left side of the tower, and the soldiers followed
him. Before Elisa could fully understand what was happening, they were
heading towards what appeared to be a kind of side entrance, like they
were kitchen servants rather than future prodigies.

She could no longer lie to herself. Something was very wrong about
all of this, and she knew she had to find out what it was. Now more than
ever she wanted to find Lalea, not just to get some answers, but
because she was afraid, for both of them.