by V F Sharp
“I did.” He was expressionless.
“I hope you know we weren’t using magic for evil,” she said.
“Nor am I.”
“But you have a dragon. We were only using it for a game.”
“Funny, I don’t seem to recall any game exclusion in the scrolls. I believe it said all magic was forbidden. Or perhaps I didn’t look well enough.”
“You know it’s not the same,” she said.
He paused and then smirked, which wasn’t the reaction she expected. “Where did you get your magic from?” he said.
She hesitated, but knew she had to tell him something. Anything.
“One of my friends had it,” she said. “I think he… or she… got it from an ancestor, but I don’t ask questions. I—”
“But you do ask questions. Plenty of them. It’s a peculiar habit.”
The prince smiled again, which made her realize he was actually enjoying this.
“We didn’t cause the magic in the forest,” she said, firmly.
“I know that. I’m reasonably convinced that you and your friends are innocent.”
“Reasonably?” She wasn’t sure what he meant by that.
“Unless you convince me otherwise,” he said, smiling. “You do tend to keep things to yourself, Lady Arrow.”
“Me!? What about your dragon?”
“Ah yes, Trycernius. I suppose it’s only fair I tell you, now that you’ve seen him. He’s quite temperamental, and I have to admit he’s getting more difficult to control.”
“I could see that.”
“When I was a boy exploring these grounds,” he continued, “finding his egg was beyond my wildest dreams. It was a relic from the magic world that I had only heard about, and here it was in my possession. I’d found quite a few things but nothing as breathtaking as that. I turned the rest in, but the egg I kept for myself.”
“Why did you keep it?”
The prince stared blankly.
“At first? Curiosity. I had a true fascination with the days of old. Of course, I never dreamt that it would hatch. But several years later, you can only imagine my surprise when it did hatch. Not only that, but the little creature had three heads! Why he waited until then to enter this world is still a mystery to me. I may never know. Anyway, I spent my teen years secretly tending to his needs in an abandoned barn and I watched him grow. But I knew even then that the writing was on the wall. It wouldn’t be long before he grew too large to keep secret any longer, especially once I’d been crowned the Prince of Vynterra. It was clear I had no choice.”
“So you had your knights hide him and keep him?”
“No, on the contrary. I sent him away. The scrolls command that for any magical creature. He couldn’t fly yet and he was the size of a large hound. So I built a small craft out of wood. In the darkness of the night, I did exactly as the scrolls commanded and sent him off from the shores of the Forbidden Sea. They say those currents lead right to the Magiclands.”
“But I suppose they didn’t,” she said.
“The truth is, I’ll never know. Somewhere between the Vynterran Coast and the Magiclands, he must have learned how to fly, because several months later—I remember it was an autumn evening just like this—he appeared at my window in this very castle. I called for Sir Aldus immediately, who I knew I could trust with my life.”
“Sir Aldus,” she repeated. “I saw him in the Black Castle. He was one of those men in the black masks.”
The prince nodded. “It was Sir Aldus who helped me reestablish the Valorian Order from among the most elite and trusted knights of the Vynterran Guard. In the old days, Valorian had created the Order for his most urgent and dangerous missions. In my case, I needed them to keep and care for Trycernius, which is a pretty dangerous mission in itself.”
“So the men in the masks—they’re the Valorian Order?”
The prince nodded. “They are. Unfortunately, things have become a bit more critical recently. So, we’ve begun training Trycernius for a possible war. Or at least trying to.”
“A war!? With who?”
“I’m afraid that’s the big question. I hope I’m wrong, but the signs are growing more severe.”
He seemed distracted as he spoke. Ezstasia noticed he had been somberly staring at all the objects on the table with deep sadness in his eyes.
“If it makes you feel any better,” he continued, “I haven’t so much as touched anything in this room and I hope I never have to.”
Ezstasia felt as if the weight of a thousand boulders had just been lifted off her shoulders. She should have trusted her instincts about his innocence from the beginning rather than making such horrible accusations. She just knew the prince had no part of the magic in the forest.
A thought occurred to her.
“Prince Alazar, can anyone else access this room?” she said. “Is it possible someone else is using any of this magic in the forest?”
He shook his head.
“You’re standing in one of the best kept secrets in all the kingdoms, which leads me to what I need to say next. Please listen carefully.”
“Of course,” she said.
“I don’t have to tell you the grave dangers that will come upon all of us if the wrong people find out about what’s in this room. I need to know that I can trust you. You can’t repeat a word about what you’ve seen here, not even to your sister.”
“You have my word,” she said.
“You’ve accused me of many things,” he said. “Do I now have your confidence? Your full confidence?”
She nodded.
“I need to hear it from your lips, Ezstasia.” He held a hand on her cheek, which sent shivers down her spine. She felt butterflies fluttering in her stomach as she looked into his eyes.
“You have my full confidence, my prince. Please trust that I won’t mention a word of anything you’ve told me or shown me here today. This I promise you.”
“Good.” He smiled. “Then let’s go get your friends.”
* * * *
As Prince Alazar led her out of the room, he didn’t return to the stairs, but took her through a hall on the left. As she followed, he led her through countless corridors and rooms that she didn’t recognize.
“I don’t remember any of this,” she said.
“Neither do I.” The prince grinned.
“Are we lost?”
“The entrance is always the same. The exit always changes. One of Valorian’s great feats of design. In fact, you may never see this path again. But I can assure you we’re going in the right direction.”
“How do you know?”
“More of your questions, Lady Arrow. But this last one I’m going to keep a mystery.”
Soon they came to a barred wooden door. As he lifted the bar and led her through the doorway, she heard the bar slam shut behind them. This part of the castle felt more like a dungeon. Even the air was dank and chilly.
They descended a set of steps into a narrow, exposed-brick hallway lined with guards. The guards stood at attention and tapped their swords on the floor as the prince passed. She realized she was walking on a slight decline just as she felt a rush of cool air hit her face. She wondered if they were beginning to walk underneath the castle.
She followed the prince through another arched hall that seemed more like a tunnel, and through a thick iron door, which a decorated knight politely opened for them.
Two guards instinctively followed them. It must’ve been an established practice.
The room they entered was dimly lit; the only light came from the sconces on the walls that had been strategically placed next to each dungeon cell. Groaning voices echoed throughout the room. They were coming from people in the dungeons.
“This is where you have my sister and friends!?” she said, horrified at the thought.
“Anyone who breaks into a royal domain gets placed in the lower dungeons by default,” said the prince. “It’s the law.”
She couldn’t
believe the prince had allowed her friends and sister to be locked up in this place, but she had to remind herself they were here because of her.
As they passed by each cell, prisoners walked toward the bars and reached their arms out. Some prisoners held onto the bars and just stared at them eerily and intently. A few yelled profanities, which the prince ignored. The guards smacked weapons against their cells to knock them back.
Ezstasia covered her nose and mouth as they continued past more prisoners. The smell was awfully pungent and the curiosity of what they’d all done to get locked in here had piqued her interest.
They turned a corner and she noticed a disheveled woman with black, knotted hair standing in the cell just ahead to her right. The woman stared at her with wild eyes as they approached, smiling as if she knew something they didn’t.
“The crumbling oak turns to ashes,” said the woman, baring her crooked teeth, “and the chains no longer bind.”
“Silence, woman,” said one of the guards.
“In their almighty hands, the fate of man grows weaker still. You’ll see. You’ll all see.”
“In whose hands?” said Ezstasia to the woman.
“Eximum venirum sangamort,” said the woman, laughing. “Eximum venirum sangamort!” She kept repeating the same words as they passed her cell.
Ezstasia glanced over just in time to see the woman practically glide back to her small bed, repeating the same three words as rats scurried at her feet.
She couldn’t stop looking back at the woman and nearly jumped out of her skin when the prince grabbed her arm.
“Don’t worry about her,” he said. “She’s lost her mind. She’s been in and out of the dungeons for years, spouting the same nonsense.”
One guard went back and banged a sword against the woman’s cell, though it didn’t seem to faze her as she kept talking.
Ezstasia quickened her pace to keep up with the prince. They approached a much more illuminated area with an oversized cell up ahead.
“Your sister and friends are in there,” said the prince. “I’m sorry they had to be detained, but I couldn’t violate our own laws.”
Ezstasia shoved right past the guards and the prince and ran straight towards the cell.
She saw Lanzzie sitting on the floor holding her ears. Fin, Randin, and Zander were crowded around her.
“What happened to her!?” yelled Ezstasia.
Fin jumped up first.
“Ezstasia!” he said. The others looked up, including Lanzzie, who jumped up and ran to the bars.
“You have to get us out of here, now!” said Lanzzie. Ezstasia didn’t like the tone of her voice. She sounded panicked and afraid.
“She’s been holding her ears because that crazy woman won’t shut up,” said Zander, walking up toward the bars.
“You don’t understand,” said Lanzzie, tears welling in her eyes. “I heard her yelling the same things that I heard in the forest!” She pointed in the direction of the woman’s cell.
Prince Alazar and the guards approached the cell bars. “The forest? What are you talking about?”
Ezstasia had no idea what her sister was talking about either. And from the looks of the others, neither did they.
“When we were in the forest,” said Lanzzie to the prince, “so many eerie things happened. But at one point, the ground lifted from below me and formed a pale, partially skeletal face of an old woman, bigger than my entire body. And that’s not all, Prince Alazar. She spoke.”
“And you didn’t think to mention this before?” said Zander.
“I figured you’d think I was crazy.”
“All our stories are crazy,” said Zander. “Yours would’ve just added to the craziness.”
“Hold on, hold on,” said the prince. “What does the lady in the cell have to do with what you heard in the forest?”
Lanzzie looked back toward the prince. “I don’t know how or why, but that lady in the cell is using the same words I heard in the forest!” said Lanzzie, terrified. “But the woman in the forest was old and decrepit—at least her face was. And she was made of roots and trees and dirt.
“What exactly did you hear in the forest?” said the prince. “Do you remember?”
“I won’t ever forget it for as long as I live. She said: As pure as light, as dark as night, the chaos is released.” Then she looked down at me and said, “The blood has already been spilled. The great battle begins. She then said the same exact words that that lady’s been repeating over and over. Eximum venirum sangamort. I’m sure of it.”
“What do those words even mean?” said Ezstasia.
“I don’t know,” said the prince, “but I know who might. Meanwhile, I’ll have my knights take the prisoner next door for questioning to see what we can discover about her.”
Ezstasia felt her stomach move up into her throat at the thought of that creepy woman having anything to do with the forest.
“Now you, Miss Lanzzie,” said the prince. “I need to know everything. Including what exactly you saw.”
Lanzzie stood frozen, apparently still unsure of whether or not it was safe to trust the prince.
Ezstasia reached between the bars to pull her sister close to her as the guards yelled from behind her to stand back.
“It’s okay,” she whispered into her sister’s ear. “He has nothing to do with the magic in the forest. I know that now. I can’t explain, but trust me.”
Just as Lanzzie nodded and accepted her advice, the prince blurted out, “Guards!”
The next thing Ezstasia knew, the guards were pulling her back away from her sister.
“Please escort Lady Arrow back to her room,” he said. “And see that she stays there until further notice.”
“What!?” said Ezstasia, as the guards forcefully led her away by her forearms. “What’s happening? I don’t understand.”
The prince didn’t respond.
She could hear Lanzzie calling for her as the guards led her past the other cells toward the exit. She tried fighting to get free, but the two large men had a tight grip on her arms.
“Let go of me!” she yelled. “Why are you doing this!?”
The guards remained silent and dragged her away. She felt like a criminal.
They led her out the heavy iron door. She realized that struggling wasn’t any use; they weren’t going to let her go. She let her arms go limp in defeat.
Ezstasia felt utterly alone and nobody offered any explanation. Who was that creepy woman in the cell that knew the same words Lanzzie had heard? Why hadn’t Lanzzie told her about hearing something in the forest? They always told one another everything. What did those words mean? None of this was making any sense. Even worse, Ezstasia now wondered if the prince was, in fact, being duplicitous. She couldn’t think of any valid reason he could give to explain what had just taken place.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Ezstasia paced around her chamber, deconstructing everything that had happened in the past several hours. As much as she tried to make sense of any of it, she couldn’t. She was humiliated, and the prince’s actions were every bit as confusing as the gibberish words the imprisoned woman spoke.
She stood at the window and stared out into the darkness. Soon, her confusion turned to anger. She could feel the blood rising to her face as she thought about the prince and his deceit toward her.
Time went by, and she wondered how long it would be before someone told her what was going on.
She spotted a silver tray with tea and scones on the table next to the bed. She picked it up with fury and threw the entire platter and all its contents to the floor. Maybe that would get their attention. Unfortunately, it only brought a moment’s relief until she saw the broken teacups and scones strewn out all over the floor. It only took a minute until she began to feel guilty. Miss Tee had surely prepared it all for her enjoyment.
Just then, the bedroom door swung open.
To her surprise, it was Lanzzie.
“Looks lik
e you dropped something,” said Lanzzie, smirking, as she gingerly stepped over the upside-down tray, broken teacups, and crumbled scones on the wet floor.
“Lanz!” Ezstasia ran to her sister and wrapped her arms around her tightly with tears of relief pooling in her eyes.
“It’s okay,” said Lanzzie, patting her on the back. “He let us all go.”
“I’m glad, but I still don’t forgive him. In fact, I hate him.” As soon as the words left her mouth, Ezstasia realized that she might have been just a little bit dramatic.
“Oh no you don’t! In fact, we all know it’s the exact opposite of that.”
Lanzzie walked over to the bed and sat down on the soft blanket. She patted the spot next to her, so Ezstasia took the hint and sat by her sister.
“Think about it,” said Lanzzie. “As soon as the prince began to pull information out of me, you whispered in my ear. How do you think that appeared to him?”
“It shouldn’t have appeared to be anything. We’re sisters. We whisper things.”
“Be realistic. Think about the timing of that. It made it seem as if we were plotting to hide something from him.”
“He should know me better than that by now.”
“He just wanted to be certain he could trust us all.”
“And does he? Trust us all? Because I thought we were past that already. Or maybe I was mistaken.” She knew her tone sounded bitter, but she didn’t care. She still wasn’t convinced of the prince’s motives behind sending her away, and it was obvious Lanzzie could read her anger.
“Ezstasia, he may be a prince, but if he really isn’t behind it, then I’m sure he’s just as scared and unsure as we are about that forest. With even the slightest inkling of uncertainty, he has the whole kingdom’s safety to think about. And that means that he can’t leave any stone unturned. It’s what any prince worthy of his people would do.”
“And how did you reassure him when apparently I couldn’t?”
“You, my dear sister, were the main reason he was reassured.”
“What? How?” She was confused again.