Prince of Penance

Chapter Ten: Jewels and Gossamer


Monteray was exactly as Gusto remembered it. How could he forget the beauty of this little island? How had he so easily let slip the wonders of this place? Back in his mind he should have been longing for his return to his place which held his childhood, his past, in its loving embrace. Yet dread darkness and fell dreams had brow beaten any thought of returning from his head.

The city sat like a jewel atop of hill, many buildings stacked upon one another and rolling down with many twisting white stone steps winding around beneath them down to the very shore, cascading like a waterfall to the water. A thousand ferns and golden flowers burst from around every corner, along every walkway and in every window sill, even the homes of the poorer people boasted the colourful creeping rainbow vines and pygmy Gummi berry bushes that were bred for their beauty as well as their function. The boats like little wooden toys were dwarfed by the city which spiralled up from the shoreline to the very tip top of the island where the gloriously exquisite Palace of Magic stood, the home of the Royal Court, the Wizarding center of education and knowledge, and the seat of the governing Council.

The people of Monteray had been pushed from their island by humans, outcast by other Gummi clans for their similarly human trends and behaviours, and ultimately had refused to bodily follow the steady immigration of Gummis who passed through Monteray on their way to New Gumbrea. A golden city had been built with much struggle hardship and timeless care by the Monteray Gummis, and none had any inclination to abandon it.

Gusto's friends had been so astonished that such a large colony of Gummis existed that it took a long time of him having to remember and explain the history of his people. Monteray wasn't actually 'West' of England, as Chummi had said, it was more south-west, an existed in the warm tropical waters of the Caribbean ocean. The Spanish sailor Cotez had left with many men from Spain to find the New World, and Gummis had followed in his wake, inhabiting tiny tropical islands that dotted the along the route in between. Nobody was really sure that The New World was New Gumbrea; Gusto assumed that New Gumbrea was more in a directly western route from England, far far to the North-West of Monteray. But nobody, Gummi or Human, had ever been there and back.

But Monteray, and the Palace of Magic, was just as he remembered it. And Court was just as stuffy and nose-in-the-air as he remembered it too. He didn't know what compelled him to enter court in his plain clothes, besides not having much else to wear. He did know that he was just as shocked by the visible similarities between him and his nephew as Prince Bryton was.

Gusto had imagined Jenka's only son to have the same roan fur, seedy greasy fur and bony limbs as his father. Not so; Bryton took entirely after his mother with smooth blue fur and a brawny adolescent build and stature that gave him a regal look and hid any other misnomer in his personality. But he was still a young man, and some of Jenka's defiance and arrogance could be seen in the lines of the boy's face; he clearly wanted to be in charge, and was chafing under the restrictions of his station. But his attitude was that of a nobleman, and his character seemed honest, at least so it seemed from their brief interaction with one another.

Gusto had waited patiently for the young Prince to make a decision as to where to house him. He was being presented to Court as an exiled convict, wasn't he? Or was Gusto forgetting himself how Court worked and business was managed by the Crown? Or were they waiting for someone?

Then the herald had announced the arrival of the Queen and Gusto had spun around to find himself looking upon the only woman whose life and happiness he would die for, kill for, even face his darkest nightmares and deepest fears for.

Thistle Rose was the only daughter born to Kings in almost two centuries, which made her The Prince of Monteray. She also was the only Queen to rule without a husband, for nearly fifteen years in proxy for her under aged son. But taking one look at his beloved sister and Gusto could understand how the Patriarchal society of Monteray would allow a woman to rule over them.

She was a jewel. A shimmering beautiful oasis in a desert of stuffy snuff box smoke and acridly perfumed duchy. Her sky blue fur was like the softest cleanest velvet, smooth as the very ocean over which she held regal command. She wore a diaphanous dress of many layers of creamy pink gossamer and silk, which must have been the envy of the entire country, for all of it shimmering layers were blanketed with thousands upon thousand of tiny glistening diamonds and pearls in knotwork woven patterns which cascaded down to the floor to braid and blend with the silken webbed hemmed lace. Her smooth neck was encircled by a plain gold band with a teardrop aquamarine, the colour of the Queen. She wore very little other jewelry than this, and of course her many lengths of glistening ebony black hair was rolled up into a soft corona upon her head topped with the golden tiara of many diamonds rubies and emeralds.

But beneath all the layers of this beautiful soft woman was his sister. Her eyes were a warm deep green that he so remembered from his childhood. Anyone merely had to look upon her to understand why Gusto had acted as he did. He had freed her from her agony, her bondage and despair, so that this bright and beautiful jewel could laugh, and sing, and stand before him now smiling.

Upon her appearance into the hall all motion stopped and all present, from his own lowly peasant family, to the Prince upon the throne, bowed.

Gusto half bowed, not able to take his eyes off of her. It was her. His sister! His beloved Thistle Rose!

She made a sound which was somewhere between a laugh and a cry of despair, and started moving down the hall at a bright clip, her satin embroidered shoes making tiny elegant pitter pattering steps as she moved quickly down the row.

"Brother!"

At one she stopped before Gusto, ignoring the court, looking into his eyes, her face breaking into a bright and joyful smile that made his heart break in his chest.

"Brother Augustus!" she said sweetly, her voice like the tinning of soft bells, and threw her arms around his neck to kiss him upon his cheek. "Dearest Brother! For so many years have I dreamt of his day!"

"Thistle Rose," Gusto heard himself croak. "By the Great Gummies alive!"

She laughed heartily, and kissed his cheek again. He was aware uncomfortably of hushed whispering around him, and he didn't care anymore, but returned her hug with one of his own, spinning her around in his arms until he faced the throne and her back was to it. She laughed again.

"Still a mischief maker," she teased, then turned t o glide in her shimmering little steps towards the throne.

"Mother..." Prince Bryton leaned down to offer her a kiss upon her cheek and she returned it.

"Is the business of the Court concluded?" she asked, settling herself into the golden chair at the right of his throne.

"No..." said the Prince uncertainly, then leant down to whisper into her ear.

She whispered back, and then rose to address Gusto's friends, turning towards them graciously.

"I would like to appologise for my late arrival, and I welcome our guests, the Gummies of Gummi Glen. For you have travelled many days in poor health to be here with us. There is certainly a place for you in the Palace. Our visitors will have no want as they settle themselves here into Monteray, let all who dwell here welcome them!"

A smattering of polite applauding followed her pronouncement from the Court, which was not an official proclamation, and once she had sat, her son, who had the only power to dismiss the court, rose in her place to give his official word.

"We welcome all new Gummies to the Island of Monteray. We will provide rooms in the Palace for you to live as you seek to find a manner in which to provide for yourselves and your family. We have many tasks in the palace and idle hands, of any class, are welcome to take up these tasks as their own."

Which was Crown speak for, you're peasants, so you have to work if you want to stay in the palace. Gusto swallowed, and found his eyes locked once more upon his nephew's. There was a pause, and it seemed as if Bryton was still not sure exactly what to do with them.

Then Gusto watched, with a pang of disgust and hatred, as Karse, seemingly now an Admiral where he only remembered the bear having been a captain before, came around the throne to whisper to Bryton in a conspiratorial manner. Karse was a thick set, handsome and stately bear, with every ounce of his body covered in gray fur, but not an inch of fat or wrinkled; the bear was solid muscle under the decorative layers of his military uniform. Gusto could certainly understand how this man gone on to finally become an admiral; he was quite intimidating.

"Very well..." Bryton nodded, and seemed to settle upon something.

Thistle Rose pursed her lips but said nothing. The Court silenced in anticipation.

"I would, of course, be remiss if I were to seperate the Glen Gummies from one another, kin from kin and friend from friend. My uncle Augustus will therefore be rooming with them of course, in the Palace."

"Is this wise my Prince?" Karse said thickly.

"I would rather not have my long lost relative prancing around in some dark street alleyway, or locked away somewhere out of site where I can forget his existence. I would like to keep my own eyes upon him."

"Yes my Prince," said the admiral, bowing low. "Any further orders?"

Bryton turned back to look at Gusto again, and Gusto swallowed.

"Yes, let it be known that in forty-eight hours from this day the Council and Crown will convene in order to discuss the pending matter of his previous exile, and my Uncle can consider himself under probation until further notice."

Which was about as polite and unofficial as an official utterance ever could be from the Crown. Gusto breathed a sigh of relief that he hadn't been carted off to a cell right away. The Court broke out into a gaggle of whispers and the Prince raised his hands.

"I shall appoint my honored Mother the duty of providing Augustus with robes that befit his station, and I shall leave the business of appointing quarters for our guests to her own hands. I now announce the business of the Court successfully concluded."

At once the royal pair arose to exit the Hall and the Court was suddenly swarmed with the young people who, now that business was over, could socialise and flirt until the dinner bell. Gusto prevented any of his old friend from coming to him before he was ready by resolutely heading over to Gruffi and Grammi and the others.

"I thought it would be much worse than that," he admitted, laughing.

"Its certainly a lot hullaboo about little us," Grammi admitted. "So now what do we do?"

"Now, we can stay in here and chat with people until dinner is served, or leave and go find where we're going to be living," Gusto said with a tired yawn. "I think I'm going to bed now whether its polite to leave this soon or not."

"Same here," Gruffi muttered. "The way folks are looking down at us, really you'd think they'd never seen Glen Gummies before."

"Probably haven't," Gusto admitted, as they made their way to the exit of the great hall with little fuss. "Most of the people of Monteray live in houses more like humans do."

"Not very Gummi," Gruffi agreed, and heaved a heavy sigh of relief once they got out into the less crowded antechamber.

Gusto decided that this was going to be a very very long night.