The Moon Palace-Chapter 5

Zendra finds a place to stay. But how long will she stay?

They step out of the Mariater and carefully approach the gate like cats, ready to pounce at any moment. Behind the gates was men. Just men in a golden city. Men with glowing green eyes like Zendra’s. Zendra scans the crowd for anything, anything at all, to calm herself. Jace says something in Italian too fast for Zendra to even begin to comprehend and the beautiful gate creaks open. Before she can even step through, she is stopped by a middle aged man with eyes just like everyone else’s. Except his eyes were filled with more than just green…they were filled with layers and layers of facades trying to shield his constant agony and painful memories. This guy had been through heck and back and Zendra automatically adored and respected him.

“Hi! I’m Link. Link Welston. You must be Zendra Johnson, correct?” His voice just may be the most normal thing Zendra had heard in days. He beams at her like she just discovered gold. Zendra weakly smiles.

“Yes. Nice to meet you.” She says uncomfortably. She had next to none people skills since she hadn’t ever had a chance to meet any people.

“I will be your servant while you are in the City of the Defenders.” He says happily. City of Defenders. It all sounded so familiar.

“Why is it called the City of the Defenders?” Zendra asks. Link shifts awkwardly. Zendra could tell this question wasn’t going to be answered anytime soon.

“Time will tell…” he coughs. “Anyway, enough with all this education stuff! Let’s see if I can find you a place to stay. The boys live in the Moon Palace where they train, learn, and everything else in between.”

“There is no place for her to stay. Everywhere is occupied so she’s just going to hop back on the Mariater and stroll on home.” Keith says. Zendra glares at him and shakes her head.

“I don’t think so. I could live up on the mountain next to that little pond.” Zendra insists. Link’s face drains of color, and even the guys stiffen a bit.

“No,” Keagon says firmly. “Too dangerous out there for a little girl like you. Well, we best be going back home. See you later, Link.”

Keith’s eyes lazily flick over to Zendra before turning to walk to the center of town; the glorious Palace. Preston nods in Zendra’s direction and dashes off to catch up with the other two boys.

“Keith is right. Every place in town is full. Except for the Moon Palace. Only he, Keagon and Preston live there.” Link explains. Zendra perks up.

“Then I could live there, right?” she says hopefully. Link bites his lip and runs a hand through his ginger hair. After a minute of thinking, Link finally speaks.

“Why not? There will be rules though. You may not under any circumstances go in the weapons room, the training room, or any other room I forgot to mention.” Link says with a nervous smile. Zendra hugs him which turns the heads of working men. The city didn’t have a single gap between the small little shops which meant no where to hide. It kind of made Zendra feel little weird, like she was showering with a see through shower curtain. But she didn’t have anything to hide. Or did she? Link shows her the butcher shop, the shop where they weld swords, the Grand fountain, and everywhere that the sun touched in the city. Except the little pond. There was a tailors shop, a cozy little inn, fruit stands, and everything you could ever need. It was around sunset when they finally finished the tour and Link suggests they go to the Moon Palace to get Zendra settled in. She happily agrees, happy to lie down after a long day.  The Palace was a shiny silver and reminded Zendra of the books Evon read to her when she was in around 2^nd grade with the knight’s and their shiny armor. Only this was a different story. This was her story. Zendra wondered why it looked so brand new when she knew it had been here longer than her. Link knocks on the steel doors rapping a pattern so long it made Zendra dizzy. They walk into the palace and surprisingly, it was decorated with purple. Purple marble creeping up the walls, slithering on the floor and even climbing the stair cases. There were a few banners hanging above the huge stair case which as the first thing Zendra saw. The stair case branches off into two more identical ones that branched of with even more staircases with one on the left and one on the right. To the sides of the main staircase were five halls that looked never ending with countless doors. Resting on the floor is a large rug with a purple moon and wild flowers growing all over it. Just as Zendra starts to wonder how on earth she is going to find her way around, Link leads her to an elevator that moved up and down, left and right.

“You will be on the Right tower. The boys are in the Left tower so if you ever need anything just feel free to go over and ask them. Looks like you have the whole tower to yourself. It has been forever since we have a lady stay here in the City.” Link says. Zendra nods as she attempts to keep her balance through the jerking movements of the elevator. The elevator comes to a stop, and Zendra finds herself looking down a hall with no doors, just empty spaces where the doors should be. Zendra pokes her head in one of the rooms and sees rows and rows of books, a neat little desk and a cackling fireplace with a big window and a window seat. The next room was a dining room with a long table with a chandelier that had nine moons. 

Zendra reaches out and feels the texture of the ninth moon. It was smooth unlike the other bumpy ones.

“Why are there nine moons instead of one?” Zendra asks dazed. She turns to face him.

“Time will tell,” he repeats. “Now, lets go and check out the other rooms.”

After the dining room they find the kitchen with an island in the center and guess what? Purple marble countertops. Around the mammoth island was nine stools. Zendra wondered if there was nine everything around in this city. They go through the lounge area that included a big couch, another fireplace, a love seat, and a big overstuffed chair. Next was a room dedicated to space. A whole wall was glass so she could look at the stars at night. The truth was; she didn’t want to look into the darkness. It was just too terrifying. In the corner was a huge telescope and the walls were covered with pictures of nine moons. Zendra’s eyebrows knit together in concentration. Why were these people so obsessed with nine moons? From what she heard of, there was only one. But who was she to judge? She hadn’t been outside for the majority of her life, for all she knows there could be hundreds.

“The sunset is simply gorgeous, isn’t it?” Link says. Zendra absentmindedly nods. She is too concentrated on the beautiful music coming from the next room. She peers inside the room with the music and finds Preston’s fingers glide over a piano’s keys. She awkwardly knocks on the outside wall. He abruptly stops playing and just sits there without turning around.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt.” Zendra explains. She does a 360 around the room. In this room there were no moons. Just pretty handcrafted instruments.

“No. It’s fine. I shouldn’t be here anyway.” Preston finally says. Zendra frowns. She wished he hadn’t stopped playing. His music just made her feel like she was walking on air.

“You can stay here as long as you want. What was that you were playing?” she says. Preston turns around and tosses her the notes. Zendra quickly scans the pages.

“It’s called Moonlight Sonata.” He says. Link looks at his watch and winces at the time.

“Looks like I better be going. Preston can you finish showing her around?” Link proclaims. Preston shrugs and stands up from the piano bench. Zendra hastily thanks Link and wishes him goodnight.

“I will send one of the boys over to wake you up tomorrow, and then they will explain this place to you.” Link says and walks out the door.

Preston and Zendra stand there awkwardly for a little bit.

“So…there’s even more to see than this?” Zendra asks. She shifts her feet around to the door and starts walking, hoping he would follow. Sure enough, he did. “Believe it or not, yes,” he leads her into another room. “Like in here, you have your very own art studio.” Zendra hadn’t even picked up a paintbrush in her life.

“The last person who stayed here loved to paint. Do you?” he asks. Zendra shrugs.

“I don’t know. I’ve never tried. But I do know I love writing.” She says. Preston raises his eyebrows.

“What kind of writing?” he asks eagerly. Zendra picks up a paintbrush and twirls it around. There were many shelves in the room which many were filled with blank canvases and paint supplies.

“Any kind. I like writing stories, and describing things so poetry, I guess. I am not a good poet though. Maybe someday I’ll show you something I wrote.” Zendra says. And she meant it. Preston and her had a pretty good chance of being friends if he kept acting like he was now.

“I would love to read some of it. I love writing too. Sometimes, when I am depressed I just take my laptop and write for hours.” He admits. Zendra smiles at him.

“It’s hard not too.” She says. Preston nods.

“We could make this your very own writing room! Wouldn’t that be nice? Anyway, I’m so sorry for being rough when I busted in your house.” He blushes a little. Zendra thought he looked really adorable when he did that. This made her think of how horrid she must look…

“It’s fine. I would have been happy if you nearly killed me if it would just mean I would get to see the sunlight.” Zendra says quickly.

 "Well I guess we can go see the rest of this place." Preston says as he briskly walks over to a tall door at the end of the hallway.

The doors creak open and reveals a beautiful four poster bed and what looked like some antique furniture. The room was shaped so that there were nine equal walls. Hanging on the walls were some paintings of the moon and sunsets. Next to the bed was a small nightstand and by the door was a desk with a laptop sitting on it. The odd thing about this room was the walls and the floor were one big shiny mirror. This seemed to be the exact opposite of what she was used to. There was an open door probably leading into a bathroom. So far, Zendra really liked this new place.

She strolls into the bathroom and discovers there is a huge tub and shower on the left, to the right there is nothing but counterspace and a vanity, and in the middle there are two more doors. Zendra gasps in wonder at this beautiful bathroom and proceeds the the two doors. Inside was a walk-in closet filled with shoes, purses, dresses, makeup, anything a girl would ever need.

"This is just amazing." Zendra says breathlessly.

"You'll need all these clothes to choose from tomorrow night. There's going to be a fancy little ball for you." Preston says.

"Why would there be a ball for me?" Zendra asks taken back.

"Because you are the only woman in the city. It's a good excuse for men to take a night off and check you out. I find that really sad." Preston says.

"I do too. I would rather just not go, but since it's a whole ball for me...I guess it would be rude to do that." Zendra admits.

Preston yawns, but Zendra can tell it's fake. She was actually pretty worn out from the days events, so she was grateful when Preston said his fairwells and she settled down in her cozy bed. She could see the moon from outside the big window on the tenth wall, and well pretty much everywhere she looked because of the reflection.

"Oh, Moon," Zendra whispers. "What secrets do you keep?"

Author's Note

I'm sorry I haven't posted more of this in such a long time! I hope you all enjoyed. As you can see I am just as good at grammar as a 1st grader so ignore that and any misspellings. Thanks for reading!

Reviews

[Raven Starhawk]

This is a rich textured delight. I have missed your writing. Glad to see you have started to post again because I like your stories.