The Castle Palatine
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 50182
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The mighty gates swung open and waiting on the other side was an honor
guard of the royal household.
Trumpeters raised their gilded horns and heralded Fred's long awaited
arrival. And then the royal guard
fell in before Fred's carriage and led the way to the Castle. From the
wide expanse of the Battlement
Green they trotted across a long bridge that spanned a deep blue moat.
Beyond it were the grounds of
the Palatine. The King had everything he needed there; stables, riding
yards, archery fields, and combat
arenas for jousting and for personal melee. There were smithies and
workshops, abodes for fletchers and
tanners, the offices of the King's quartermaster, his supply rooms and
guarded vaults, and the Royal
Apothecary's white tiled hospital house. Within the grounds of the
Palatine all of the King's fell arsenal
lay at his disposal and if ever a time for war came he could field an army
so great that the earth itself
would tremble beneath the thunder of metal-clad foot and iron-shod hoof.
But there were also granaries and storehouses and thick-walled garrisons and towers. And in time of great need the people knew that they would find steadfast refuge within the King's mighty halls. Among the many buildings though that stretched out before him, two in particular caught Fred's eye. To the west of the Great Castle stood a daunting spire that rose up like a mighty spear. Built of giant green blocks and overlaid with walls of dark mahogany, this was the Tower of Ganthet where the wizards of the White Hand plied their arcane crafts. And to the east of the Castle Palatine rose up the golden domed House of Lords. Flags and banners of a host of duchies and lordships fluttered from the crenelated walls of that vast House, each one a loyal vassal to the Great King of Allaria. But far mightier than any other structure that rose up within the guarded ring of the royal grounds was the Great Castle itself; the Palatine. Grand battlements and tall towers of thick stone rose up like a tremendous, jagged mountain from the green covered ground. Magnificent balconies high above overlooked the lawns and courts down below like eagles' eyries. In the bright sunlight, innumerable panes of colored glass twinkled and flashed from a thousand different windows. Fred looked up at the beautiful and daunting Castle and felt a familiar awe, awe at the might and the splendour and the majesty of the court of King Emry, of the Great Redoubt of the High Lord and King of his beloved Allaria. And with the blast of a hundred trumpets Lord Fred, heir to the House D'Honaire, son of the Duke of Suffex, Hero of the Kingdom, and Slayer of the Dragon, was escorted through the red-timbered doors of the Castle Palatine and, in a gallant procession, brought into the presence of the King.
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WolfRun
4/27/2005 7:40:35 PM
21494471 episodes viewed since 9/30/2002 1:22:06 PM.