Excerpt: Castle of the Winter Crown

Chapter One

‘Has it really been ten years since Vanessa had died?’ James thought, as he shivered against the freezing cold wind and snow along the pathway to the magically heated room in the palace gardens of the city Wolfford.
It seemed like yesterday that James had been talking with Vanessa along the pathway to the town of Merrowville to discuss the new taxes with the residents. That had not gone well at all, resulting in Vanessa’s messy death by a villager. The villagers had eventually accepted the new taxes, but James no longer had his friend. If only it had gone differently.
James opened the door to the palace garden rooms, and after shaking off the cold and snow that had gathered on his clothing, took off his jacket and hung it up on the wooden peg that was next to the front doors of the rooms. He was supposed to meet up with his good friends King Vincent and Jonathan today. James didn’t think that they would mind if he was a little early. They all knew what the past week had meant to him. He just wanted a little time to himself.
Sinking into one of the comfortable chairs, James gazed out into the wintery landscape that was outside. It had been a day much like this when Vanessa died. There was cold, blustery wind and lots of snow. It still hurt to think about what happened, and it wasn’t getting any easier. He wondered why things had turned out so badly. Except for the king, everyone had to pay a tax of some kind. No one really enjoyed paying it, but it was something that needed to be done. Killing over it seemed like such a waste of life.
James was jolted out of his thoughts by the front door of the garden rooms opening. Two men walked in, it was King Vincent and Jonathan, both ducking slightly so as not to hit the top of the doorframe. It had been a bit of a design flaw, but it wasn’t too bad. Neither of the men minded having to do so, and it was really too late to do anything about it.
“Hey James,” said Vincent, “how are you feeling today?”
Both men were slightly worried about James since this was the week one of his best friends had been killed in action while upholding the law.
“I’m doing generally fine.”
This was mostly true, James thought, as he gave a half smile to his friends. His friends traded a slightly disbelieving glance at each other, not entirely believing him, but not wanting to stress James out any more.
“If you say so, but let us know if we can do anything for you”, it was Jonathan who spoke this time.
“I will, don’t worry.”
James motioned to the chairs beside him, “Please, sit down, and let’s have some drinks to pass the time?”
“Sure we can do that.” Said Vincent, anything to make his best friend James feel more comfortable.
Just as they were about to call for some drinks, the door opened again. This time it was someone none of them were too happy to see, but all felt obligated to be at least somewhat nice to the man, Leopold. After all, he had helped with the take over of Panavona. That being said, the man had very little sense of tact, and was a bit of a social climber, only caring about how he could gain more power over how the kingdom was run. Needless to say, James and Leopold didn’t get along too well. But they put on a good front for Vincent, even if it was only when talking about things that didn’t have to do with how the kingdom was run.
“Good afternoon, everyone!” Leopold’s slightly overpowering voice boomed through the garden room’s walls.
They all greeted him with a mix of fake happiness to see him, and surprise at his happiness today. Usually Leopold wasn’t this happy unless he had something good to talk about, which wasn’t very often.
“You seem very happy today.” said Vincent curiously, raising an eyebrow in interest. “What has you in such a good mood?”
“Well, my daughter, Alexandra, has been doing quite well practicing playing her harp and keeping up with her studies.”
“That’s good.” Said Vincent, even though he was wondering how a father could be that interested in his twenty-six year old daughter’s life. Turning to Jonathan, Vincent asked how Jonathan’s son, Sam, was doing handling all of his studies.
“Oh he’s doing well, but I think he wishes he could go outside and play more. He is eight years old after all, but other than that he’s doing okay.”
“Perhaps his next lesson could be outside?” James asked hesitantly. “That might give him a chance to not be so cooped up and learn at the same time.”
“That’s a good idea, I’ll have to suggest that to his tutor,” said Jonathan, happy that he could finally help his son in at least some small way.
Leopold then sat down at the last available chair, stretching his legs out briefly before relaxing. An uncomfortable silence fell on the men until James suggested that they order their drinks.
Soon after, the drinks came, carried in by a servant named Brenda. She had been working at the castle for about seven years now, and seemed to be on good terms with everyone, especially James. She placed the drinks on the table and then James took her hand and asked how she was doing.
“Oh, I’m doing quite well today.” Brenda said blushing slightly, as James was quite attractive. “Thank you for asking.”
“That’s good to hear.”
Brenda smiled slightly, and then when James let go of her hand, backed off a bit so that the others could have a more private conversation.
“So, you have a big day coming up tomorrow eh Vincent?” Jonathan said. “Ten years of ruling Panavona. You’re still doing a great job by the way. Much better than when you first started out.” Jonathan winked at that last part.
“Ha ha, you’re very funny.” Said Vincent while smiling; “But thank you for the compliment. I appreciate it.”
“No problem,” said Jonathan, laughing slightly, “I do what I can.”
“So is everything pretty much prepared for tomorrow?” asked James, while taking a couple of sips of his drink.
“Yes, just a few last touches, and then everything will be ready.” said Vincent. “It feels just like yesterday that I finally took over, no offence meant Jonathan, I’m sure you would have made a great king.”
“No offence taken.” Said Jonathan, “I know that at least some of the time you listen to what I have to say, and that’s good enough for me now.”
“Glad to hear it,” said Vincent, while drinking from his own glass, “you usually give me good advice anyway, so it’s not a problem. I just need to make a couple of last changes to my speech and then it will be ready.”
“Excellent.” said both Jonathan and James, both drinking from their glasses after speaking.
No one spoke for a while, as they enjoyed the silence for a few minutes. Beginning to get bored, Vincent looked over at James, who was beginning to look a bit flushed.
“Hey, James, are you feeling okay?” said Vincent. “You don’t look that great.”
“Now that you mention it, I am feeling a bit ill.” said James, while wiping his face with a napkin. “I felt fine when I came in, a little cold, but nothing out of the ordinary like this.”
James frowned, not knowing what was happening to him. It couldn’t possibly be anything he had eaten or drank recently. He knew all the servants pretty well, and they seemed to like him well enough. Maybe he was coming down with something. That could be it; he would just have to rest for the remainder of the day.
“At least let me have one of my doctors check you out.” said Vincent, “It could be something serious just as much as it might be nothing.”
“Okay, if it will make you happy then we can do that.” said James. “Although, it’s probably not serious Vincent; you worry too much sometimes.”
“You’re my best friend James I’m supposed to worry about you when you aren’t feeling well.”
Vincent leaned over to where James was sitting and put his hand on James’ forehead.
“Your temperature feels like it’s gone up a lot.” said Vincent frowning. “I’m definitely having a doctor look at you.”
Turning to Brenda, he asked her to go fetch one of his doctors from inside the palace. She nodded quickly, and fled out of the room, running as fast as she could to get the doctor.
“Sorry to put a damper on things everyone,” said James, “I just hope it’s really nothing to worry about.”
“You aren’t putting a damper on anything,” protested Jonathan. “We just want to make sure that you’re okay and that you’ll get better quickly.”
“If you say so.” said James uncomfortably. Was it getting colder in the room or was it just him? That wasn’t a good sign at all.
“I do say so,” said Jonathan firmly, “now just concentrate on staying still and getting better until the doctor gets here.”
“I’ll do that.” said James, not wanting to stress out his friends any more than he already had.
Just then the door opened and the doctor came into the inside garden room. He took one look at James and said, “All right, let’s see what’s wrong with you. Hopefully everything will clear up quickly.”
While Vincent, Jonathan, and Leopold looked on with varying degrees of worry, Leopold showing the least, the doctor checked up on James, asking him many questions on what sort of symptoms he was experiencing, anything he did today, and anything he ate within the past forty-eight hours. James answered all the questions to the best of his ability, even though he was starting to feel worse and worse as time went on.
“I would suggest going to bed for a while, drink lots of liquids, and hopefully your temperature will go down.” said the doctor, while frowning and looking worried, as if he wasn’t entirely sure what was happening to James, but wanting to do the best he could do for James.
“I think that sounds like a good idea,” said James, “I’ll go do that.”
James slowly stood up just in case he might feel dizzy when standing, and it was a good thing he did, because a second later he was gripping the table attempting not to fall over.
“I really don’t feel that good you guys. Vincent, would you mind helping me get to my room?”
“Sure,” said Vincent, “not a problem. I hope you feel better soon.”
“Me too.” said James, as Vincent walked over to where he was standing and steadied James as he let go of the table.
“Oh,” said Vincent, turning to the doctor, “I’d like James’ drink to be looked at just in case. Keep it under watch until we can find a detective to properly look at it.”
“Don’t you think you’re being a little over protective?” asked James, “Not that I mind really, I’m just curious.”
“You’re my best friend,” said Vincent, “of course I’m not being over protective. I’m just covering all our bases.”
“If you say so.” said James, shaking his head slightly.
“I do say so, James. Now let’s get you to your room so you can get some rest.”
Vincent then went outside of James’s bedroom to give his friend some privacy.