James Linniad and the Golden City - Caleb Baker (the two towers ebook .TXT) 📗

a small bite out of her baked good. 

"That it does, but please, call me Mary," Mrs. Linniad said beckoning the group forward and down a long hallway, "did James tell you about the great Viking Raid of fifteen twelve?"

Alice almost choked on her cookie, "No he didn't," she gave James a look of utter distaste, which made him and Lucas snigger when she wasn't looking, "you must tell me about it!"

"Perhaps another time, now you must warm up with some of my famous hot cocoa," Mary said as she turned and guided the kids through the swinging kitchen door.    

The kitchens were a solid white color. Although, probably at the request of Mrs. Linniad, they too were decorated for Christmas. Men and women, at the moment, were working on making dinner. The gourmet chefs creating delicate soufflés and soups, and the bakers making gorgeous breads and pastries. Mary moved towards the pantry, walked inside and returned with a box labeled something in another language. She asked a chef next to her for dishes and he soon handed her intricately designed white tea cups. She set the stove and began boiling water. 

"We get our chocolate from the Duke of Switzerland, he's a close friend, so it's likely that this will be the best hot cocoa you ever drink," she said with a light laugh. 

James and Nathan both rolled their eyes at the same time. She was showing off to her company, and she clearly was not above name dropping. 

"How about we wait in the dining room?" Nathan suggested, to rid himself of further embarrassment.    

The kids all gave a murmur of consent as they moved as one through another pair of swinging doors into the dining room. This room was significantly brighter than the kitchen, a diamond encrusted chandelier hung high from the chapel-like ceiling, sending its light to collide with that of the window, which was now darkening. 

"Sorry about my mum," James said, his brow furrowing. 

"What about her?" Lucas asked as he took a seat at the dinner table. 

"Are you joking? Did you hear her? 'We get our chocolate from the Duke of Switzerland'," Nathan said in a mock voice of his mother. 

"That's not nice," Alice said taking a seat next to Lucas and waving her finger. 

James took one look at his brother and laughed at his bewildered face, then he turned on his heel and sat opposite to Alice. Juliet followed him and took a seat next to his left, leaving Nathan standing alone.    

A door behind Lucas oscillated open, groaning as it did. James's father, Dave, stood under it's threshold, the pipe in his mouth ablaze with a cinnamon based hash. His eyes seemed to sparkle as he entered the room, and his graying jet black hair glistened under the holiday lights. 

"There you lot are," he said, a twinge of relief in his voice, "I was beginning to get worried."

"It was getting too cold out, so we came back in," James said.  

A large puff of smoke emerged from Dave's pipe, and once it cleared James could see him nodding his head absentmindedly. 

"So I take it you never found a tree?" he said after a minute of silence. 

James shook his head no, accompanied by his friends. 

"Well, it's no problem, we can always go into town to get another," Dave said. 

"Don't you think we have enough? I mean the castle is full of them," Nathan said tentatively. 

"Yes, well, I suppose you're right," Dave agreed simply, "I daresay we haven't any room for more. I think the library has five or so."

"Eight," James corrected. 

Mr. Linniad didn't answer, instead he merely uttered the lyrics to the tune gently playing from the speakers in the corner of the room.    

Mrs. Linniad waltzed into the room balancing a plate adorned with the cups she received from one of the workers. They were filled to the brim with a muddy looking brew, each steaming and sending off a wondrous smells. She served the hot chocolate to each person in the room, collecting gracious smiles as she handed them out.    

After successfully burning the back of his throat, Lucas let out a very high pitched squeal loud enough to make Juliet jump in her seat. 

"Sorry," he uttered to Juliet as tears formed in his eyes and James began to laugh aloud. 

"So how does everyone like the place so far?" Dave asked, hiding his mouth behind his mug. 

"It's wonderful!" Alice exclaimed, her excitement evident. 

Dave's cup lowered to reveal a proud grin, his eyes sparkling again.  

"I especially love your library," Juliet said calmly and placing her words carefully. 

Mary's head nodded firmly, smiling broadly. She turned to face her husband who returned her grin and accompanied it with a knowing look. 

"Our library is our favorite part of the castle too," Mary said. 

"Why is that?" Lucas asked, sparing no rudeness. 

"Well," Dave began, "it's beautiful, for one," he paused and looked at all of the kids, each one in the eye, "And secondly," his break was longer this time, so long that it gave Lucas an opening to shift in his seat, "it's the only room that we have not done anything to. We haven't changed any of the books, or the paintings. We just refurnish every now and then."

Alice almost choked on her hot chocolate. 

"You mean, that your library still holds books from the medieval ages?" she said through a napkin. 

"Well yes," Mary answered, "but we do add more books to it every so often. Just to keep it current."

"I didn't even know that," Nathan said, amazed. "I never noticed anything when we were on the tour," Lucas said, his eyes unnaturally bright. 

"Well you weren't exactly looking for anything, were you now?" Dave said smiling happily. 

"Do you mind if we see it again? I would really like to see all the books," said Alice. 

"No not at all, although, there will be plenty of time for that. For now, I believe dinner is almost ready," Mary said, giving a wink on her last few words.    

Dinner went by with many laughs, burps and stories. Mr. Linniad took his time on a particularly long tale of a young knight who lived in the very castle they now sat in. James and Nathan both sat bored, with their hands holding up their heads, and forks full of spaghetti in their mouths. They had both heard this story many times by now. Mrs. Linniad was just adding to the lore when a black telephone in the corner of the room began ringing. No one said anything initially, but the room got eerily quiet. 

"Who could be calling this late at night?" Juliet asked, breaking the silence. 

Dave looked at the pocket watch that he had withdrawn from the inside of his jacket. 

"Seven-thirty," he proclaimed after stowing it away, "I think I'll answer it."

He left his seat and did not return for several minutes, but finally after many grunts into the phone, and silent nods of approval he put it back in its holder. Dave rejoined the table, put his hand on his chin and began scratching his scruff. 

"So, who was it?" Mary asked quietly. 

"That was work."

James looked over to his mother, who at that moment looked as though she were releasing a sigh of relief, but when she caught James's eye she drastically changed her expression and spoke again, this time louder. 

"What did they want?"

It took Dave a second to reply, his face told James that he was carefully measuring his next words, it must be something important. During this juncture James, again, noticed his mother's aloofness. Despite her position in the conversation she displayed an air of boredom, having her hand on her chin, and staring out the window behind Alice. 

"They want me to come into work tonight, and tomorrow. . ." Dave said after some time, and watching his wife from the corner of his eye. 

Mrs. Linniad did not respond, and soon after Mr. Linniad's news she got up from her seat looking rather haughty. 

"Dad you can't!" Nathan exclaimed from the dinner table, "tomorrow is Christmas!"

"I know . . . I know . . ." His father said sincerely. 

"Can I see you in the kitchen please?" Mary said to her husband, who looked as though he already knew what it was about. 

Saying nothing at all, Mr. Linniad stood up and motioned towards the door to the kitchen that was already swinging due to Mrs. Linniad's hasty departure.    

Lucas's face epitomized the rest of the tables current emotion; pure confusion. James wondered what his mother wanted to talk about, and why his father needed to work on Christmas. But most of all, why there were workers dashing out of the kitchen. 

"Excuse me!" James said to one particular man who looked completely flustered, "what's going on?" he asked. 

The man took off his chef hat and merely stood solemnly before answering.  

"Your mother has gone mad, she's saying things I've never heard her say before," he said to James. 

Now James was really confused, what was that supposed to mean, other than that his mother was angry. From the look of Nathan's face, he seemed to be pondering the same thing. The rest of his company stood awkwardly, a couple paces from their chairs, all assuming dinner was over. The kitchen worker took his leave just as abruptly as he tried to before.    

"Perhaps we should go upstairs," Juliet said intelligently, but careful not to overstep her boundaries. 

"I think your right," Lucas answered first, already making his way to the door that led to the hallway. 

"You guys go on ahead," James said to his friends, "I'm gonna stay behind and clean up," he indicated the dishes on the table. 

"Oh! Let us help!" Alice piped up, from behind Lucas. 

James waved a hand and began picking up plates and silverware, "don't worry about it, I'll be up in a minute," he insisted.    

A shrug from Lucas, and a wary look from Alice and they were all gone, leaving James to pick up the dirty dishes, or as he wanted it; to eavesdrop on his parents. So ignoring the plates and glasses completely James stuck his right ear to the door to the kitchen. He could barely hear his mother's voice, she sounded muffled but James could definitely tell she was furious about something. He pressed his ear harder to the door, making the voices come through closer.    

"Mary, I realize why your angry, but you have to understand, it's my job," his father said,

"I know it's Christmas tomorrow, but the kids will accept that I can't be there."

"That's just it, you don't understand," his mother sounded more mad than he had ever heard her before, "it's not about your job, or Christmas! It's about the kids!"

His dad laughed, James's jaw dropped, how his father could ever laugh in the face of such anger, James would never know. 

"Mary, I see what your getting at, it's about the Prophecy isn't it."

Prophecy? James's jaw dropped even more. 

"Now you get it," Mary sounded sarcastically relieved. 

"Look, their not supposed to find it until the first storm of the Winter Solstice," Dave said. 

"But what if that happens when you aren't here?" His mother's voice drastically changed to unnerved. 

"Then we deal with it later, for now, lets just wait for them to find it. I daresay that Alice girl is quite smart, she'll find it first I tell you."   

James took his ear away from the door, he was sick of listening. He didn't know what to do, he couldn't find any possible answer for what his parents were talking about. Prophecy? first storm of the Winter Solstice? and they talked about him and his friends, and something they had to find, but he couldn't imagine what they meant by that. He knew the others would love to hear about this.