The Stone Of Anidem - Part 3 - Miscellaneous - http://maxpages.com/emilysrealm/The_Stone_Of_Anidem_Part

Continuing the same story.....

The two old ladies were deep in conversation again but they were talking too low for me to hear them. The two teenage girls were both reading books, Camri still seemed angry, and the blond haired man was looking at us all with undisguised contempt. We all took this for about five minutes and then Camri lost her temper and shouted at him.
“IF WE’RE NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU WHY DON’T YOU GO INTO THE THRONE ROOM AND TALK WITH THE KING?! YOU TWO PROBABLY GET ALONG FINE, DON’T YOU?!”
This was obviously an insult because the man stood up, his face contorted with fury.
“I’LL NOT BE TALKED TO LIKE THAT BY SOME GIGGLING LITTLE TEENAGE BRAT!” he roared
“A BRAT, AM I?!” Camri yelled. “AT LEAST I HAVE THE GOOD MANNERS TO-“ she started, but the blond haired man cut her off.
“MANNERS, HAVE YOU?” he shouted. “YOU CALL INSULTING A BRAVE, HEROIC MAN MANNERS?!”
“OH, I’M SO VERY SORRY TO HAVE OFFENDED YOUR ESTEEMED HEROICNESS!”
“ARE YOU MOCKING ME?”
“OH, NO SIR!” Camri exclaimed in mock surprise. “I WOULD NEVER DREAM OF MOCKING A GREAT MAN LIKE YOU!”
“I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW,” the man shouted, “THAT I AM ZAMERI ELLEHCIM!”
Camri let out a gasp, as did Siri, Maude, and Yelhsa. They all dropped to the floor on their knees as if he was a king. Camri started to stammer and apology but Zameri cut her off. He turned to Beth and me and said-
“Who are you that you do not bow to the great Zameri?” he asked us. He was perfectly calm now.
“We’re foreigners,” I said, and Beth nodded in agreement.
“Foreigners?” Zameri said in confusion.
“Yeah,” said Beth. “We’re not from around here.”
“I am known through the whole world of Aeslehc,” said Zameri proudly.
“Well, we’re not from this world,” I said.
“I see,” said Zameri. “You must bow anyway.”
“Who are you that we must bow to?” I asked, imitating his way of speaking.
“I AM THE GREAT ZAMERI!” he thundered, as if this explained everything. He waited for a moment and when neither of us moved he said, “On your knees, peasants!”
This last phrase decided me. Until then, I had been wavering between kneeling and not kneeling. He had obviously done great things, but he was so in love with himself I decided that this cancelled out his great deeds, no matter how great the deeds had been.
“Let’s not and say we did,” I told him and didn’t move. Beth stayed perfectly still also.
Zameri stared at us in amazement for at least five minutes, as did the four others in the room. After a while Zameri seemed to recover his powers of speech and spoke in an angry voice, “Do you honestly refuse to kneel to audacious Zameri?” he asked us.
“We do,” Beth said, and I nodded.
“I will not have peasants speaking to me this way,” Zameri roared. “What are your names?”
“Surely a great man like yourself has no call to know our names,” Beth told him. “We are only lowly peasants and you are the great Zameri.”
“You refuse to give me information?!” Zameri exclaimed. “I will not have it! What are your names peasants?”
“If you were more polite, maybe we’d be more cooperative,” I told him.
“What are your names PLEASE?” said Zameri. You could tell he was really offending our dignity by lowering himself to be polite to us.
“Katherine,” I said.
“Beth.”
“Well Katherine and Beth. Are you nobles in your world, that you don’t bow to me?”
“Nope,” I said cheerfully. “We’re just everyday normal people.”
“Then bow to me, the great Zameri, hero of the Kingdom of Eire!” he said this as if there could be no doubt as to our answer.
“We’d rather not,” said Beth.
“Yeah,” I said. “What makes you think you’re better then us?”
“YOU DARE-“ began Zameri, but he was cut off as Mendal and Lakem walked back in. They called us all around them and Lakem began-
“I suppose you are all wondering why the king has called you here,” he said.
“But-“ began Beth, but Mendal cut her off.
“The King has decided to include you too,” he told us.
“Include us in what?” I asked.
“In his great quest!” Lakem said.
“What quest?” Camri asked.
“The quest to find a Stone of Anidem,” said Mendal.
“What?!” said Siri.
“US?!” exclaimed Maude.
“What?! These peasants?!” (I’m sure you can guess who said that.)
“He certaintly needs it,” commented Camri.
“Now, now everyone,” said Mendal. “Calm down. The King has his own reasons for choosing each one of you. Now-“
But Zameri cut him off. “IF YOU THINK!” said Zameri indignantly, “THAT I’M GOING OFF ON A QUEST WITH THESE, THESE PEASANTS YOU’VE LOST EVEN MORE MARBLES THEN THE KING!”
“You know,” I commented. “My mother always said that you shouldn’t speak unless you can improve the silence.” Zameri glared at me what I said this and I’m sure he was going to start telling me off, but Mendal interrupted.
“Don’t lets have any fighting,” he said hurriedly. “You’re horses and supplies are all ready for you to leave tomorrow but for tonight you will stay as guests in the King Nadroj’s great palace.”
“HAVEN’T I ALREADY TOLD YOU?!” Zameri thundered. “I AM NOT GOING ON A QUEST WITH THESE, THESE PEASANTS!”
“Is that like your favorite word, or something?” Beth asked.
”WHY YOU LITTLE-“
“PLEASE!” said Lakem, interrupting, “PLEASE! We can’t have this fighting. Mendal and I will escort you to your rooms now and the nine of us will start out at dawn tomorrow.”
“Nine of us?” Siri asked.
“Yes, Lakem and I will be accompanying you on the quest. Now, if you all please, I will take Katherine, Beth, and Zameri to their rooms and Lakem will escort the rest of you.”
“IF YOU THINK I WILL LOWER MYSELF TO BE IN THE COMPANY OF THESE, THESE PEASANTS YOU’VE GOT ANOTHER-“
“You know,” said Camri loudly, “Katherine’s mother always says you shouldn’t speak unless you can improve the silence.” (She had obviously gotten over her sudden meekness.)
“Yeah,” I said, “That means to shut your big mouth.”
And with those words, Mendal and Lakem lead all of us to our rooms, the great Zameri stuttering in rage.

We walked through too many hallways and passageways to count. We also walked through many different rooms. Most of them seem like a blur but I do remember a few of them. One was filled entirely with musical instruments. Flutes, clarinets, trumpets, French horns, saxophones, almost every instrument known to man. As we walked through the room I wondered how it had happened that the people on Earth and the people on this world had developed the same instruments.
Another room was filled entirely with portraits. They were hanging on the walls, leaning against the walls, and just standing upright, in the middle of the room, without any support at all. Some were of men, some were of women, some were of old people and some were of young. The women were all dressed in long dresses that came down past their shoes and every woman’s hair fell to at least her waist. All the men were dressed in suits, the only thing that varied between them was the color. They reminded me of people I had seen in pictures from the late 1800’s.
I would have loved to be able to examine every room that we passed through but the great Zameri made that very difficult. He complained through every minute of our journey to our rooms.
“I can’t believe the castle people are so ill-mannered as to put me in a group with these, these peasants! I won’t have it I tell you! I am the GREAT ZAMERI and these people are just, just peasants! I will not lower myself to be in a group with these, these peasants! I am the hero of all the kingdom! All nobles bow to me and the King treats me as an equal. I am high, high above these, these peasants! And these two little brats refuse to bow to me. Why, it’s not to borne! It’s not be born, I tell you! They are just, just-“
“PEASANTS!” I snapped. “We know! I would think that a man of your greatness would have a lot of interesting things to say, instead of repeating the same things over, and over, and over until everyone is thourghly tired of hearing them.”
“You little brat! How DARE you talk to me that way! I am the GREAT ZAMERI, hero of this entire kingdom. You need to show respect to a man of my magnitude! You are nothing but, but peasants! You have absolutely NO right to talk to me that way! I will-“
”Can’t you stop whining for half a minute?” Beth asked irritably.
“You little-“
“Here we are sir!” said Mendal with strained cheerfulness.
He took a large silver key out of his pocket and unlocked a door to the right of us. He opened the door, told Beth and I to wait for a minute, and showed the Great Zameri into his room.
We stood waiting in the hall for about five minutes and the whole time we could hear the Great Zameri complaining about his room. It was too small, it was too hot, it was too cold, it was a peasant’s room, on and on it went. When finally Mendal got out of the room his smile was completely wiped from his face. He nodded to us and told us to follow him to our own rooms.
We only went down a few corriders and through a few rooms before we came to our own. They were right next to each other and a door connected the two together. Mendal unlocked both doors, told us he would be back to take us to dinner in twenty minutes, and that there were suitable clothes in the wardrobe.
After he left, Beth and I went into our rooms. They were both exactly the same. There were bay windows looking out to the north with window seats, a four poster bed, a mahogany wardrobe, and a writing desk. When I looked in the drawers I found writing paper, envelopes, stamps, and quills and ink.
Beth came into my room about ten minutes later, looking worried. I found out why a few seconds after she came.
“There aren’t any clothes in my wardrobe.”
“But there has to be! Mendal said so.”
“Maybe they’re just in your wardrobe,” Beth said. “Go check.”
I walked over to the wardrobe and opened the big wooden doors. And there was nothing inside but a blue hanger.
“There’s nothing in it!” I said in surprise.
“Well, there’s no clothes in mine, and none in yours, so we’ll just have to go down dressed like we are.”
“I don’t think we can do that. I doubt the clothes we’re wearing would be suitable for a dinner with a King, even a crazy king.”
“Then what are we going to wear?!” Beth wailed.
“Search me. There must be some sort of trick, I think. Maybe a magic word.”
“Maybe your right,” said Beth, and she walked over to my wardrobe, closed the door, and said, “Abracadabra!” She opened the door again and saw- nothing but the blue hanger. She closed the door again and muttered, “Open Seasame!” She opened the door-still nothing. “Well I don’t know then!” she shouted angrily.
“There’s got to be some way to work it,” I said.
“What makes you so sure?”
“Mendal told us there were clothes in there.”
“Oh yeah, and he would never tell a lie, would he?” Beth asked me sarcastically.
“Maybe your sort of right.”
“How can I be sort of right?”
“Maybe Mendal thought there were clothes in there but there really isn’t.
“That sounds about right,” said Beth. After a couple minutes of silence she asked, “What would you wear if you could wear anything?”
“I’d like one of those dresses you always see princesses wearing in fantasy books. In red.”
“Me too, only I’d like mine in yellow.”
All of a sudden, the wardrobe door sprang open and there were the exact dresses Beth and I had been thinking of, one in red and one in yellow. We both gasped and ran to the wardrobe. I took out the red dress and Beth took out the yellow. After a second of silence Beth went into her room and we both changed into the beautiful dresses, and not a minute to soon. Just as soon as we were ready, Mendal knocked on our doors.

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Page Updated Sat Sep 30, 2000 2:16am EDT