Amber and Willem by Naomi Jessica Rose

Author:Naomi Jessica Rose [Rose, Naomi Jessica]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2020-01-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty One: The City in the Mountains

They walked along the streets in the bright morning and Amber held tight to Dariel’s arm. She felt so small! They had been in the city for many days already, but had barely seen half of it, and everything new Amber saw surprised her and filled her with delight.

​And Dariel laughed at her, because none of it was new for him. “Wait till you see the academy!” he said.

​Dariel had visited this city many times in the five years he had been away travelling the world; it was his favourite place, he said. He knew people there, like Saami and Prithika, the two tall women whose house they were staying in, if house was the right word, since it was more like a palace. Dariel ignored the busyness of the streets and as they walked he chatted to his friends in their own language, which Amber could not understand.

​She didn’t care though, for there was so much to look at. Everything was white stone in the city, the roads and the houses, carved in patterns and glittering in the sun. There were silver-leaved trees on either side, and golden statues of animals, bears and horses and grand lions. The mountains stood all around, magnificent and endless, and there was magic everywhere. Amber saw a blacksmith breathe fire into his own forge and a woman make sticks grow and shape themselves into the furniture she was selling outside her shop. They turned away from the city square, towards the king’s palace, uphill, where a stream ran in a channel down the centre of the road.

​Amber had seen the king’s palace already, the outside of it anyway. She tugged at Dariel’s arm. “Can we go in?” she asked. The palace was encircled by a high wall, but its wide wooden gate stood open, and many people wandered in and out.

​“Maybe tomorrow,” Dariel said. “But you won’t get to see the king; he isn’t there.”

​“I know that,” Amber said. “You told me, remember?”

​The king who lived in this city was said to be the most powerful in the world, because his people had so much skill with magic. He was away making war with his magical army, conquering new lands, but all the same he was supposed to be a kind, mild man who could not do any magic himself at all, and was always sad because his beloved queen had died. Amber was fascinated.

​She slid out from under Dariel’s arm and stood looking through the gate into the beautiful gardens. You could see the palace itself, a low, wide building in the distance. It did not look like any palace Amber might have imagined, had she ever thought to imagine such things, but it was so perfectly white it sparkled in the sunshine.

​“Amber, come on,” Dariel said. “The tour starts at midday. I don’t want to miss it.”

​Amber turned about guiltily, but not in time to stop something else catching her eye; a shining bay

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.