The sun beat down hard upon the landscape below, and Basil could still recall , though it seemed already a distant thing , when this had been nothing more than green grass, wildflowers sprouting up erratically here and there, as only nature knew how to arrange them, careless and lovely all at once.
It had been quiet once too. He missed that part also.
More than once Basil had taken himself for a walk through it, back in those days before the garden filled to bursting with the countless guests the crown now hosted for the coming tourney.
That was no longer possible. The great influx of workers and beasts labored about with such constancy that any notion of a peaceful walk withered before it could properly form in his mind.
