Estra Jasini's Flower Garden
Part 1
Note: The Princess Janomi stories occur approximately 1300 years before the Tolly & Glorina stories (definitely over 1000). The prologue about the building of the wall took place approximately 400 years before that.
And yes, I named my online persona after the Estra Jasini in these stories.
Estra Jasini sighed as she looked over her garden. Even with watering it, there were plants dropping from the drought. She would save all she could of this year’s crop, though, even if it meant diverting what remained of the river into her garden. But first, she had to see what became of Princess Janomi. It had been against the Queen’s wishes for her to come at all, so if anything happened to Princess Janomi, Jasini would surely be blamed.
“I wish,” she whispered, then stopped, for there were many things that she wished for, and the thing she wished most for she dared not say aloud. “Where have you gotten to, Princess?” she shouted instead. “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”
Not surprisingly, the princess did not appear, but the shaking of the tree branches gave Jasini an idea where she was. She swiftly stepped to the trunk of the tree and grabbed a small ankle that hung down from a large branch. “I have you now, Princess,” she said. “Trying to hide and leave me to do all the work, were you? See how soon I’ll invite you back with me. And you know your mother doesn’t like it when you climb trees. You might tear your dress.”
“It’s only my gardening frock,” Princess Janomi said, as she slid expertly from her perch. “And I can come to your garden whenever I want. I’m a Princess.
“Just because you’re a princess doesn’t mean you’ll always get what you want.”
“What does it mean, then?” Princess Janomi asked, her eyes wide.
“You’ll find out soon enough, I’m afraid,” Estra Jasini said. “Come on and help me water.”
After Princess Janomi and Estra Jasini made several trips to the river and back, shouldering the heavy yokes, Jasini let them rest for a bit. She leaned against the parrin tree with her eyes closed, letting the light breeze play across her face and hair. She listened to Princess Janomi play among the flowers behind her, singing her own made-up words to the tune of an old ballad about Queen Teli. Jasini smiled. As long as Princess Janomi was singing, she wouldn’t be getting in trouble. Not for a while, anyway.
Jasini rested for a long while, then awoke with a start. She had not intended to fall asleep.
“Princess!” she called. “We’re running late. We have to be back at the castle by dark, or the Queen won’t let either of us out until after harvest-time.”
“I’m coming,” Princess Janomi called from the other side of the tree. She came dancing into sight, all bedecked with flowers. There were the long white stalks of clanan braided into her dark hair, a crown woven of rust-colored ye-penen flowers on her head. She had a necklace made from the silver and scarlet leaves of the solemn plant, and a girdle of yellow and gold morning flowers, interspersed with the fragrant green leaves of healall.
“Did you leave any flowers in the garden, your highness?” Jasini laughed when she saw the costume.
Princess Janomi ignored that question, as she did most questions she deemed beneath the dignity of a Princess.” “Aren’t I beautiful?” she said, twirling around so her skirt swirled out.
“You are, indeed, Princess,” Estra Jasini said. But inwardly she thought that the bright colors made her skin appear to be all the more pale, and her frame still frailer. “The flowers would last longer if they weren’t picked,” she added, practically.
“There’s lots more,” Princess Janomi said carelessly. “Let’s go back so that they all can see me.”
“It’s getting late, Princess. They’ll have been expecting us for a while now.”
“Will you be coming again tomorrow?”
“I will be. Gardens don’t let you take a rest from them. I don’t know if the Queen will let you come again. She won’t be too happy with me for letting you come in late.”
Princess Janomi wrinkled her nose. “She never lets me do anything. Every time I get out of her sight for more than a minute she comes looking for me. That’s no fun.”
“If you stayed out of trouble more often, she might not look for you so much,” Estra Jasini said lightly, as they continued to gather the things to take back. “She’s worried about you being sick so often.”
“Jornath’s sick more than I am, and she doesn’t bother him so much.”
“That’s not true, Princess, and you know it. The prince was ill frequently this past winter, but he’s never been sick before then.”
“I wish I’d get well all the time so that they would leave me alone.”
“So do I, Princess.”