Forest Kingdom Trilogy 1 - Blue Moon Rising

spite of himself.'
    'I wonder,' said Darius softly. 'We're taking a lot on ourselves. If anything should go wrong ...'
    'Dear cautious Darius,' said Cecelia. 'Nothing's going to go wrong. You've planned it all so carefully.
    What could go wrong now?'
    'I don't know,' said Darius. 'But no scheme's perfect.'
    Cecelia sighed, rose to her feet, and brushed her lips across Darius's forehead. 'It's been a trying evening, dear. I think I'll go to bed.'
    'Ah yes, how is Gregory?'
    'Still having problems from when Julia hurt him, but I'm helping to cure that.'
    Darius chuckled, and Cecelia smiled at him affectionately. 'Dear Darius. Sometimes I wish ...'
    'I'm sorry,' said Darius. 'But you know I've never been interested in that sort of thing.'
    'It was just a thought,' said Cecelia. 'We make a good team though, don't we?'
    'Of course,' said Darius. 'Brains and beauty, an unbeatable combination. Good night, my dear.'
    'Good night,' said Cecelia, and hurried off to her tryst.
    Darius sat quietly in his chair, thinking of the meeting he had to plan for the Prince Harald. There was much to do.

    What the hell am I doing here?thought Julia as she followed the Seneschal down yet another dimly lit corridor, but she already knew the answer. With so many worries and problems crowding her head, she'd had to find something to do, or go crazy. The Seneschal's expedition to rediscover the lost South Wing had seemed a heavensent opportunity, but she was beginning to have her doubts. She'd been
    walking for what seemed like hours, mostly in circles, through what had to be the most boring corridors Julia had ever seen. She was beginning to think the Seneschal was doing it on purpose.
    He hadn't seemed all that pleased to see her when she'd first approached him about the expedition, but then, the Seneschal rarely seemed pleased about anything. Tall, painfully thin and prematurely bald, his aquiline features were permanently occupied by doubt, worry and a frantic desire to get as much done as possible before everything fell apart around him. He was in his mid-thirties, looked twenty years older, and didn't give a damn. His faded topcoat had seen better days, and his boots looked as though they hadn't been polished in years. He was fussy, pedantic and bad-tempered, and those were his good points, but he was also the best damn tracker the Castle had ever known, so everybody made allowances. Lots of them. When Julia first found him, he was scowling at a large and complex map, while a dozen heavily armed guards waited impatiently and practised looking evil. One of the guardsmen spotted Julia approaching, and tapped the Seneschal on the arm. He looked up and saw Julia, and his face fell.
    'Yes? What do you want?'
    'I've come to join your expedition,' said Julia brightly, and then watched interestedly as the Seneschal rolled up his eyes and shook his fists at the ceiling.
    'It's not enough that the maps are hopelessly out of date. It's not enough that my deadline's been brought forward a month. It's not enough that I've been given twelve Neanderthals in chain-mail as my guard!
    No! On top of all that, I get lumbered with the Princess Julia as well! Forget it! I'm not standing for it! I am the Seneschal of this Castle and I will not stand for it!'
    'I knew you'd be pleased,' said Julia.
    The Seneschal seemed torn between apoplexy and a coronary, but finally settled for looking terribly old and put upon. 'Why me, Princess? It's a big castle, there are hundreds of other people you could annoy.
    Why not go and persecute them instead?'
    'Now don't be silly,' said Julia briskly. 'I promise I'll try really hard to be helpful and not get in the way.'
    The Seneschal winced. 'Must you? You always do so much more damage when you're trying to be helpful.' He noticed the stormclouds gathering on Julia's brow, and sighed resignedly. 'Oh, all right then. If you must. But stay close to me, don't go off on your own, and please, Princess, don't hit anyone until you've checked with me first.'
    'Of course not,' said Julia innocently. The Seneschal just looked at her.
    Which was why, some time later, Julia was boredly following the Seneschal down a dimly lit corridor somewhere at the rear of the Castle, and rapidly coming to the conclusion that this had not been one of her better ideas. And then the Seneschal took a sharp right turn, and everything changed. With all its many corridors and halls it was inevitable that parts of the Forest Castle would fall into disuse,