Orlando
Fiamma looks at Shadya and then looks at her horse. "and that is Noor? That is wonderful. I can tell a story at some point about how I got my horse, Star, but I think it is Nasir's or Orlando's turn. I am curious, in particular, to know of his lands and the small, dark haired ladies therein...."
Orlando smiles and says, "Alas, sooner or later all my companions learn that, in fact, I am mad.
"My land is a far off place, a nation of farmers and other simple folk, for the most part. There is a city to the south of us that is filled with merchants, explorers, and disgruntled nobility - but that is, as someone has already said, another story. Our ships do not travel so far, nor are they so numerous nor, in some respects, is our land so rich. But we prosper and, so far as I know, most are able to live lives of relative comfort and happiness.
"There are many who live their lives content to stay within the borders of our land, never venturing to find adventure in the vast world beyond our lands, and I might have been such a one had it not been for a dream I had one night.
"I had been attending a state function at my father's request, paying dutiful attention to all the nobles' daughters my father thought I might choose a wife from someday. Not that this was such an unpleasant task, mind you, for most were pretty, some beautiful, and a few were good company. But - well - I knew very well that my father didn't actually want me to choose, only to keep everyone interested so that he might choose the most advantageous match. The only saving grace is that the game has been played by so many for so long that everyone is aware of the rules; the young ladies play as well as the men.
"There was dancing, gaming, and a great deal of talking as ever there is. At some point late in the evening I was overcome by a wave of drowsiness such that I nearly fell over. Lady Bellamira caught my shoulder as I toppled and kept me from falling too dramatically. With the usual pleasantries about tiring of her company, Lady Bellamira gave me over to the servants to get me to my bed. "Perhaps we can continue our discourse in your dreams," she said with a smile. The dreams that night made that seem like prophesy of a sort.
"I fell into a sound sleep very quickly and somewhere in the night I did, in fact, dream. I dreamt of a castle unlike any I had seen before. It was day and the sky was pale blue; the white spire of the castle rose p from the ground amidst strange curving buttresses. I was riding towards it as the dream commenced. The gate opened before me and I rode into a hall. Something inside me recognized this as a dream, but somehow it was more real than any dream I'd had before. The castle seemed amazingly real, even though it was unlike any castle I had ever seen, and was built by arts unknown to any land I've seen in this world.
"I had dismounted and was walking along a corridor, guided by some invisible hand that opened doors in front of me and closed them behind. I found myself in a sumptuous chamber, with a bath drawn and a light meal waiting on an elegant table. I stood for a few minutes, wondering what to do. Eventually my invisible friend must have lost patience, for it began to undress me in the manner of my own valet when irritated by my apparent inability to take care of myself without his constant supervision. This bemused me sufficiently that I allowed myself to be prepared for the bath without complaint. It felt luxurious and a small part of me was amused to think that I had been too tired to bathe before going to bed, so here I was bathing in bed.
"All this time I had a growing feeling of excitement, as though all was building towards something or some event. Ah, how right I was, for when I had bathed, dressed and eaten, I was ushered out into the corridors again. After winding through the castle, marveling at its exotic appointments, I found myself in a ballroom not unlike the one I had nearly fallen asleep in that evening.
"Ah! Such an evening! There was much more of dancing and far less of gaming and talking; my feet seemed to know steps and dances I'm sure I'd never done before and it was as though all the most graceful of the ladies of all the world had gathered there to dance. Lady Bellamira was there, and amongst them all she shone most brightly. Perhaps it was that, for once, I could actually pay attention to someone without angering my father, but I was more delighted by her company then, than I ever had been before. Still, something in my heart bid me to wait, and so I continued to banter and flirt as always - with as little extra feeling as I could manage.
"As it is not proper to dance with the same partner too much, I changed often, occasionally coming back to Bellamira, but often whirling away with some lovely stranger in my arms. One such change of partners brought me to -- ah, me -- brought me to my fate.
"She was slight and small of build, with dark hair and dark blue eyes, and she was far and away the most graceful and light of foot of all the ladies there. Dancing with her was like flying, like falling, and the music changed twice before I realized that I had not changed partners. Bellamira was not pleased and I must confess I made things worse by trying to cajole her into finding out the stranger's name; she even went so far as to say that the other was just a dream and of no consequence. This awoke the little voice inside of me and I was amazed how much it pained me to realize that this was true.
" I tried to make the dream last as long as I could and danced with the dark-haired beauty that had so bewitched me as often as I felt I could without causing a fuss. It is odd, for although I knew it was a dream, still I didn't wish to overstep the bounds of propriety by too much." Orlando smiles wistfully.
"Eventually I awoke from the dream to find that I was tired and sore as if I had ridden long and hard and danced all night indeed. This, combined with my melancholy, was enough to cause my father to confine me to my tower with none by doctors and priests for company; ill company indeed for breaking one out of an ill humor." Orlando smiles again, a trifle mischievously.
"Within a few days, I returned to my usual duties and habits, but found that my heart wasn't really in it. Whatever friendship I had with Lady Bellamira was no strained - probably by my foolish guilt at having slighted her in a dream. Somewhere in all this, I conceived the idea of finding the dark-haired lady. At first, I dismissed it as a foolish fancy, but the idea persisted until I finally gave in and started asking questions. I asked one of the sages my father had sent to me when I had been 'ill', and told him of the dream, which I had told on one of until then. This was something of a mistake, for the sage went to my father, revealed that this was some sort of curse and that I was probably mad and should be 'cured' if at all possible before I did myself great harm. This, strange to say, was not what I had in mind at all. The results were predictable. My father did not wish to let any hint of the 'malady' out, so he locked me up and had all manner of priests and sages and doctors and other respectable folk come and make fools of themselves trying to 'cure' me. All this served to do was convince me, somehow, that my unknown lady was real; that, like Bellamira, she was a real person that I had met and I only needed to search around me and I would find her.
"My father never dreamed that I would actually try to escape, so it must have come as a surprise to him that I did. I took little more than a horse with me; not so fine a horse as Noor, but I did not expect to have to go too far or too long. I knew all the daughters of the nearby nobles, so I reasoned that it had to be one that had visited within the past few years, and went off to pay visits to all the ones I could think of. I suppose my father must have had fits trying to figure out where I was going and how to catch me safely. My escape had doubtless proved my madness to him, for he sent troops of guards after me wherever I went. Indeed, I remember hiding from them on several occasions, laughing as they passed by on the way to where I had already been.
"Ah me, my story grows too long. Suffice to say that you find yourselves in the company of a man who has been searching the world for a lady he has only met in a dream, and is held by his own father and many learned men to be in possession of but few of his wits, if indeed they still believe me to live. I have traveled far from home and doubt that any there have heard of me in some time. Still, in a fit of youthful rashness, I swore to the priest who came to counsel me to forget my dream that I would find her, no matter where she was, and I keep that quest as well as I may to this day.
Copyright 1996 C.Ebert. The contents of this site are copyright 2004 Sheryl A. Knowles unless otherwise specified. All rights reserved.