Voices floated from the parlour. One of them was Vidar’s. The other’s sounded older.
“I’ve just heard, Queen Ingrid is dead,” the older voice said. My breath hitched at those words.
The reply came from Vidar as I moved closer. “Don’t worry, Father. I have the princess in my grasp. She will be crowned queen and, soon after, I will be made king.”
I clamped a hand over my mouth to silence my cry, shaking with anger.
“I’m proud of you, my son. You’ve outdone your father this time. Celebration is in order.”
I’d heard enough. I ran from the manor, knocking a silver candlestick over on my way out.
“Auralina!” Vidar’s voice echoed from the doorway. Once I told my father what he’d done, he’d be banished from the kingdom.
I jumped into the sleigh. “Take me to the palace,” I ordered the young driver. “Hurry! Quickly!”
He snapped the reins, and the pair of horses trotted off toward the heart of the kingdom.
I climbed the stairs two at a time up to my mother’s chambers, where I’d left my father.
A ridiculously large guard stood with his arms crossed at the door. “Your Highness.” He bowed.
“Is my father in there?”
“I’m sorry, Your Highness. He left moments ago to speak with your uncle.”
I opened and closed my mouth. The tears had dried on my cheeks, but I could feel more waiting to spill. This day was a nightmare.
I rushed to my own chambers. Curious, wondering eyes followed me. Courtiers and servants alike; I was drowning in their stares.
“Your Highness?” “Are you all right, Your Highness?” “I’m so sorry, Your Highness.” They reached out to touch me, their pity dragging me down further.
“Don’t touch me!” I shouted at them.
I shoved my door open and slammed it shut behind me.
I didn’t even make it to my bed before I collapsed like a broken doll. Tears stained my snow white rug. Wake up, I begged. This must be a nightmare. How could my mother be gone? How could she leave me like that? Without one last goodbye.
And Vidar… I’d believed him different than the others, better than the others. He was so much worse. I felt so lost, so used. I didn’t know if I’d have the will to ever get up again. Queen Ingrid had been a good ruler and a great mother. She didn’t deserve to die so young. I didn’t understand.
I didn’t hear the soft knock on my door, and I barely heard Star’s weak voice call my name.
I lifted my head, peering through a tangled mess of silvery hair to find my sister standing in my open doorway. I lost control. “Get out,” I said too quietly. I didn’t want her seeing me like this. I was supposed to be the strong one, the older one… the queen.
“Aura,” she repeated with desperation.
What happened next, I can’t explain. It was like lightning shot through my veins as I screamed, “Get out!” I flung my arm out, and an unnatural wind knocked her backward, out of my chambers. The door slammed shut. But not before I saw my father standing in the corridor.
I was frozen, my arm still poised at the door. I remembered to breathe and dropped my arm back down, hanging my head. I couldn’t believe it. My power had been dormant for three springs. Three springs! This couldn’t be happening. Not now when I was to become queen. Fear crept over me like a dark shadow, eating me up from the inside. Breathe. Keep breathing.
My door flung open. My head snapped up as two grim faced guards entered my chambers, my father behind them. And with him… Star. My little sister clasped my father’s hand with a face wet with tears, tears that still fell from her fear-filled eyes.
“Come with us, Princess,” one of the guards said, taking me by the arm and dragging me up off the floor. “It’ll be easier if you don’t struggle.”
“Father, please,” I begged him. “It’s not what it looks like.”
He watched me with sadness in his eyes but kept his mouth shut.
I looked to Star then. “Tell them it was a mistake.”
She cried harder, and I realized she wouldn’t help me. She was afraid of me.
I let them take me, my eyes fixed on my sister. Of everything that had gone wrong on the worst day of my life, my family’s betrayal hurt the most.
The guards forced me down the set of winding stairs into the bowels of the palace. I knew exactly where they were taking me. When we reached an empty cell in the dark, reeking dungeon, I stepped inside without a fight and sat on the cold, hard floor as they locked me in.
Numbness blossomed inside my heart, like all my emotions had leaked out and left nothing but a gaping hole of emptiness. Other prisoners shuffled in their cells, trying to see who the newcomer was. Some of them let out high pitched wails. Some laughed hysterically. Thankfully, I had my cell to myself. Maybe Celestia had a little mercy left for the ancestor of Pavanas.
I put my head in my hands and tried to breathe slower. I could barely see in the darkness. I wanted to slip away into it and never wake up. I don’t know how long I wished I could turn myself into a shadow before footsteps crunched, distant at first but growing closer. I looked through the iron bars to find my father’s face illuminated by a torch, his eyes full of regret. “Please don’t do this,” I pleaded. “I’m to be queen.”
He cast his gaze to the side. “Not anymore. Star will be taking the crown.”
“What? No, please. She’s not prepared to rule. She’s too young. I didn’t know I had this power. I don’t want it. Please, Father.”
But he wouldn’t look at me. “The tower is being prepared for you. You won’t be down here long.”
The tower, the one Queen Pavanas’s brother had kept her in until her death. I grabbed onto the bars. I needed to make him see I didn’t want this power. It was my right to be queen. “You can’t lock me away. I love you. Please!”
He shook his head. “I’ve lost my queen.” And then in a strangled voice he added, “And now I’ve lost my daughter too.”
I swallowed the sob I didn’t know I still had left in me. “What about Mother’s death ceremony? I need to see her again. I need to say goodbye.”
But his fading footsteps were his only answer.
“Father! Father!” I screamed for him to come back until my throat became raw.
The laughs of the other prisoners surrounded me, and I covered my ears.
“Poor princess,” a woman with a voice rough with age mocked. “Locked away and forgotten about.”
“Shut up.”
“Ohh, she’s a feisty one,” she teased.
“Shut up!”
More laughter echoed into my cell. I ignored it.
Somehow, I fell asleep on the slimy floor with my head propped against the bars.
I awoke to the sound of the chain holding my cell door shut jingling. I rubbed my aching neck.
A guard opened the door and pressed his lips together before bending to pass me a tray with a bowl of steaming stew and a goblet of wine.
I looked up at him.
His face held only sorrow. “I’m sorry, Princess. I cannot free you, but at least the food is warm.”
Kindness, I realized. I didn’t know there was a shred left of it in the world.
“Thank you.” I bobbed my head.
He stepped out of the cell and locked the chain back up. “You’ll be moved somewhere more comfortable soon.”
He left me with the stew and the wine. I ate some of the stew but found I wasn’t hungry. I drank all of the wine, and then I moved to lean against the back wall of my cell and waited.
Chapter 7
I waited for days. I do not know how many, but it felt like forever. There were no windows in the dungeon, no sunlight. I tried to keep track of how many meals I’d been brought, but I lost track between sleeping and waking. I sometimes woke to find a tray of food in my cell. I’d slept so deep, I didn’t hear the guard open my cage.
The guards all said the same thing. They were sorry. They felt pity for me,
but not enough to help me. Cowards. At least one of them agreed to bring me a clean gown and a bucket of water. I’d cringed as I wiped the grime from my pale skin.
I managed to get into the long sleeved, plum coloured gown on my own with a bit of difficulty. Just because I was a prisoner, didn’t mean I had to look like one.
I combed my loose hair with my fingers. My tiara stared up at me from the floor. I could barely make out its silver glint. I’d thrown it there. Useless piece of metal. I’d been condemned to remain a princess forever. A princess without a crown.
A shuffling tore me from my self-pity.
“It’s time,” the guard who’d brought me the water and the clean gown said, pulling his keyring off his belt.
I stepped forward. He wasn’t alone. Two other guards waited behind him. My father was so afraid I’d try to escape that he thought it’d take three men to hold me down. I suppose if I knew how to actually use my power he might have had reason to fear. But I didn’t. Not even a spark. I’d wished for wind, for a small breeze to blow away the stench of the dungeon. Nothing had happened.
So I went with the guards, up the winding stairs and through the maze of corridors. I saw no servants, no courtiers on my way to my new chambers… my new prison. The path had been cleared in honour of my arrival.
We stopped at the end of a corridor, where the walls opened up, and the ceiling was as high as the sky. I’d been to this section of the palace only once before, when Star and I were little girls playing hide-and-go-seek. The door to the inside tower of the Crystalline Palace, the one that had remained locked since before my birth, was open. The guards shoved me inside and escorted me up a set of narrow, winding stairs. We passed one door but kept moving towards the top.
One guard opened the solid steel door at the end of the stairs, and then the other two pushed me inside. I didn’t struggle. I knew I didn’t stand a chance against three armed men.
“These are your new chambers,” the guard who’d unlocked my cell told me. “Get some rest.”
The three guards in purple and white left me, and I heard the lock click. My worst fear had come true. I’d been locked away like Queen Pavanas, to be forgotten until my death. If only my mother were here. She would’ve fought for me. She wouldn’t have let my father take my throne away. But she wasn’t, and she never would be again.
I sat on the plush carpet covering the wood floor, staring at the door as though I could open it with my will. I stayed there until my legs fell asleep. I only got up when the lock turned. Hope fluttered in my heart. Maybe someone had come to set me free. I should’ve known better. Hope was useless. Hope got me nowhere.
Aslaug opened the door and slipped inside. “Good day, Your Highness.” She curtsied, fanning out her little white dress with the black apron.
“Don’t call me that, and it’s not a good day,” I shot.
Aslaug’s azure eyes widened before she dropped her gaze to her clasped hands. “Apologies, what shall I call you?”
“Aura is fine.” I twisted around to find a place to sit. My jaw dropped. An easel was set up in one corner with paints on the table in front of it. In the corner across from it, a chess board waited to be played. Ivory blankets and puffy lilac pillows covered a large bed. My violin leaned against a wall beside the bed. Beside me, sat a long lounger covered with dark purple satin. Next to it… the bookshelf was the best part about the chamber. Its wide shelves reached high above my head. My favourite books, and ones I had yet to read, filled those deep shelves.
“Do you like it?”
I faced the young handmaid again. I had no words. It was the most wonderful chamber I’d stepped foot in. Yet, the fact I was to spend the rest of my life locked inside took away any joy I would have felt.
“Hilda was in charge of setting it up. She hoped you’d love it,” Aslaug explained.
“Hilda,” I closed my eyes. “Where is she? Why are you here?” I had barely thought about my mother’s head handmaid since my imprisonment.
“She—she wanted to see you. Your father wouldn’t let her.” My eyes snapped open. Of course he wouldn’t. “I’m to be your handmaid,” she continued. “My new chamber is right below yours. It’s been filled with everything I need to serve you, Your—er—Aura. Would you like me to prepare you something to eat?”
“I’m not hungry.” I wondered what she was being punished for, ordered to serve the broken princess inside the tower.
“All right.” Aslaug took a step back, reaching for the door. “I’ll be back later to help you prepare for sleep.”
“Wine,” I said hurriedly before she could leave. “Bring me wine, please, when you return.”
“Yes, of course, my lady.”
I scowled as she gave me another curtsy before she disappeared again. It was better than ‘Your Highness’ I supposed.
I moved to the tiny glass covered window, no bigger than my face, on the far wall and peered outside. I felt like a bird trapped inside a cage. The bright white, snowy world outside called to me. I’d never feel the cool air brush my cheek again… never feel the fresh snow crunch under my feet. I’d never smell the fragrant pine trees, and I’d certainly never fall in love.
Maybe the last part was for the best. My judgement in men had only added to my suffering. Vidar had betrayed my trust. I’d never forgive him. I placed my hand to the frosty glass. Luckily, I could still see the sky… a blessing. I closed my eyes and imagined myself flying between the clouds, soaring beneath the moon.
My hair tickled my cheek. Somehow, a breeze fluttered through the chamber. I opened my eyes, and it vanished as quickly as it had formed. I scurried over to the stool by the easel. I picked up a vial of blue paint and spilled it onto the table. I focused my attention on the paint and thought about flying. I imagined the wind in my hair, my feet high above the ground.
The pool of blue paint rippled, a breeze blowing the thick liquid in a stream down the length of the table. A laugh escaped my throat. I couldn’t believe it! My power! It worked!
I poured out the red paint and tried again. The red spread and mixed with the blue, creating a deep shade of purple.
If I could control the air, perhaps I could set myself free somehow.
By the time Aslaug returned with the wine, I’d poured every colour of paint out and onto the table. A giant blob in an ugly shade I didn’t have a name for stared up at me.
My handmaid set down the decanter of ruby red wine and the goblet she’d brought. She peered over my shoulder. Studying the mess I’d created. “Why didn’t you use the canvas? You’ve ruined the table.”
I stared down at the paint covered table. It took a moment for her words to sink in. “Huh? Oh, it was an accident.”
She breathed out her nose and then said, “I’ll try and get you more paint tomorrow. Try not to use it all in one day.”
I rose from the stool and poured the wine into the goblet. “Thank you, Aslaug, for the wine. I find myself wary. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I wasn’t wary at all, but I wanted to plan my escape. I couldn’t focus with her in my chamber.
“Will my lady be eating tomorrow?”
My stomach was feeling empty with the possibility of getting out of the tower, and I’d need to keep up my strength, so I replied to the handmaid, who was about a decade older than I, “Yes, bring me a meal fit for a warrior when you return in the morning. I’ll surely be famished by the time the sun rises.”
“Yes, my lady.” She curtsied. I wished she would stop.
She pulled out the key to unlock the door but paused when I called, “Wait.” I clasped the watered down wine as I questioned, “My mother’s death ceremony, has it already passed?”
“Indeed, it has.”
I cocked my head to the side. “Tell me about it.”
“It was the most beautiful death ceremony I’ve ever been to, my lady. Your mother was dressed in a gown of violet and silver and wore a crown of diamonds and amethysts. She looked—peaceful.” Aslaug smiled, as if remembering
the very moment. “Her body was encased in ice and then taken to the Cave of Eternal Rest.”
I knew the cave. I’d been to that cave to visit my grandfather, the previous ruler of Ventosa. It was an icy sanctuary beneath the Temple of Celestia where Ventosa’s previous rulers were laid to rest when their spirits returned to Celestia. Only the priestesses and the royal family knew of its location.
“The whole kingdom came out,” she continued. “Many brought gems and coins for the queen.” While it was custom in the other kingdoms of Sarantoa to bring flowers to a death ceremony, Ventosa’s cold climate made such a thing impossible. The only flowers I’d seen were either brought in dried from another place, or they were in the paintings from artists who travelled to other lands.
I swirled the wine in my goblet, picturing my father and sister thanking the members of Ventosa for their gifts. I should’ve been there. It should have been me thanking them for honouring my mother.
“The priestess said prayers, and songs of farewell were sung,” she added in a soothing tone, as if she could see the distress written on my face.
“Good.” I gulped back the wine and set the empty goblet beside the decanter. “Thank you, Aslaug.” I wanted to be alone with my thoughts.
“Goodnight, my lady.” The golden haired handmaid ducked her head and exited my chamber.
I touched the goblet. I remembered the time my touch had turned the glass to ice. I tried to cool the air around my hand, imaging the way frost spread like tiny spiked snowflakes.
Nothing happened. I sighed and refilled the goblet, taking another sip. I’d made progress with part of my power, but I still didn’t fully understand it.
I focused on the solid steel door keeping me away from the rest of the world. I imagined wind whipping through my hair… imagined flying like an arrow through the sky.
The crystal decanter fell off the table and shattered on the floor, staining the wood red like blood leaking from a fatal wound.
I kept hitting the door with the strongest wind I could muster, but the door didn’t budge. It was built to keep an air elemental in.
The Elemental Diaries - Complete Series Page 76