by Talia Haze
“My dowry,” the girl answered. “And the drops of blood were supposed to help me along my way.”
Then, I smelled it. The girl reeked like stale lake water, old straw and rotting feathers. I gagged, but after a sharp look from Angel, I concealed it with a cough. I looked all around, trying to focus on something, anything, but the smell burned my nostrils. Sean and Saramine did their best to talk in conversation, while Angel scanned the girl, searching for the key.
“I am hungry,” the girl said suddenly. Connie had set her pack down at her feet, but took a deep breath as she reached for an apple. She walked closer to the girl, but could never hope to be as indifferent as the rest of us.
“I kindly beg your pardon,” she politely said, bobbing a curtsy and handing her pack to Sean. She turned to leave, but let out a shrill scream, almost as if she were under the grip of the jewels again. We spun to her as she collapsed, covering her eyes and trembling.
A horse’s head hung behind us on the wooden post of the low-ceiling barn, under the stone alcove. It hung right by Depash’s head; he probably brushed against it a couple of times unknowingly. Now, he tumbled away, just as alarmed. I blinked several times as I focused on it. Did its eyes just move…?
Poor Connie buried her face into her lap and wailed every time Sean tried to get her to her feet. The smelly girl stared at the horse sadly, and it calmly returned her gaze. “Alas, Falada, hanging there.”
It was all too much. Saramine left the girl and joined Sean, whispering and trying to make Connie stand. Angel gritted her teeth, and bunched her hands at her side, resisting the urge to grab her daggers. Ryan paced back and forth, rubbing his nose.
Did it move? I thought I saw it blink from the corner of my eye, but every time I focused on it, it remained motionless. I didn’t know what to do. With each passing moment, the girl grew more and more gray. I knew the tale of the Goose Girl, but how could I help? What was the secret? How could we make her queen?
Depash still read my expressions. “Pick up the pack,” he ordered me. Everyone else was too distracted. I did as told and followed him to the girl. She held out her hand and I quickly handed her an apple. The rotted stench churned my stomach; it took all I had to keep from retching. He sat on one side of the girl, motioning for me to sit on the other. I obeyed, breathing through my mouth slowly and deliberately.
“Another.”
The command was directed to me. I reached into the pack and handed the girl another apple. She ate so quickly. As we watched the others, she watched the horse. “Alas, Falada, hanging there.”
The horse didn’t respond. I leaned forward and said quickly, “Alas, young queen, how ill you fare.” The girl turned to me in surprise and I relaxed, finishing the verse, “If only this your mother knew…”
“Surely her heart would break in two,” the horse head agreed. At his voice, everyone cried out, leaning away from the grisly beast. The girl stood to her feet, smiling at the horse head before vanishing in a flash of light. In another flash, she returned between Depash and I as a beautiful queen. The goose girl’s unplaited golden hair fell in ringlets down her back, and she wore rich purple robes with dazzling stones all around. The terrible odor disappeared and was replaced with the fragrance of flowers and oil. She turned to face us, and curtsied graciously. After a final blinding flash, all disappeared; the goose girl, the horse head, the barn, everything.
A golden key (9) lay in the grass where she stood.
Stony appeared in its place the instant my fingers brushed the key. I fell back into Depash with a small scream. “Catch the thief. Then let him be your guide.” Stony vanished.
The field ahead stretched far into the darkness. A bunch of large apple trees grew in a tight clump just in range of our lantern light. Angel nodded her head towards the trees.
“We will stay by those trees,” she said. “We will have the better vantage to catch anyone who dare steal from us.”
Saramine and Connie began dinner while Sean and Ryan gathered firewood. Angel quickly scaled one of the trees and I lay on my side, flipping through my book. All the challenges had been clever versions of the original tale. There were certainly several thieves in the tales, but which one would now become a guide?
I could feel someone staring and I looked up in a start. Depash sat just out of range of the fire, the pale light barely illuminating his sharp features.
“What is it?” I asked. He quickly diverted his eyes.
“You look so much like your sister,” he replied. Ryan gave him a quick look over his shoulder. “I apologize; I missed seeing her face.”
I pinched my lips and looked back to my book. I suppose I was the next best thing. I changed the subject. “How did you become part of this, anyway? If you were once out there?”
“I did not study enough,” Depash replied, softly. “I was in such haste to leave the red land, and so thirsty after such a meal, that I paused without thought to drink from the river. I was caught unawares.”
Now, I looked up and stared at him. “Caught unawares? What happened?”
“The troll under the bridge overtook me,” Depash replied, standing and moving to sit beside me. “By the time I awoke, he was long gone with my keys. I found the (8) key around my neck and a scroll appeared at my side. There are rules that must be followed. If we abide by the rules, we can trick people into giving us their keys and then we are free.”
“Is every challenger here trapped?” The little angry Rumpelstiltskin came to mind. I suddenly felt so guilty of our accomplishments, but Depash shook his head.
“Not all,” he responded. “Most enjoy living here and consider it a profession…a life forever. In here, if you’re a challenger, your death is temporary.”
So, all the trolls Angel killed would just return for the next person.
“Others simply enjoy tricking people into being trapped here, and many trolls enjoy the easy meals,” Depash continued. “Only a handful desire to get out, and I ran into one of the unlucky few. I have been waiting for someone else to come through, but you were the first. This is why your sister allows me to keep my key. As long as I have it and stay close to the other keys, I will not go back.”
I nodded, looking back into the fire. Depash still stared at me. “If it is a thief that we are to face next, you should guard your other keys closely as you can never know who is content here and who is not.”
“They are no longer together.” Angel’s voice sounded from the treetops. “They are divided among us. Even if this thief were to overtake us, he cannot get to them all.”
Connie and Saramine announced dinner. We ate silently around the fire, Angel staying up in her tree. Black clouds soon covered the sky and concealed the moon and stars, forcing Angel to call out.
“I can only see so far out. I will need guide fires.”
“As you command, Nik’dalo,” Depash answered, standing to his feet. Angel followed him with her eyes as he set to work gathering tinder. Sean and Ryan joined him. Soon, along with Saramine, they went off into the night in four directions, leaving Connie and I to tend the fire under the trees. After a few minutes, a light shone in the distance.
“There’s Sean’s,” I said. “And…there’s Saramine’s.”
“Then let us make ours bigger,” Connie replied. “I do not want them lost…out…there…” She trailed off and I started, looking up towards her face. Her gaze fixed behind me and she froze, pale and trembling.
The dark silhouette of a hooded figure stood just barely out of the firelight. I wasn’t even sure what I saw; it remained so perfectly still. I quickly scanned the ground, searching for the bag Sean left. The bag was close, but the figure turned and climbed the tree, arm outstretched towards one of the apples. I grabbed the dagger I found in Briar Rose’s palace and threw it. I wasn’t expecting to hit the figure; I never threw a knife before, but my aim was right on. The hilt struck the figure in the hand, startling him so that he fell from the tree.
Angel heard the nois
e, and quickly scampered down from her perch. We had to catch the thief. He could run away before Angel made it down! The figure stood, but I grabbed him, using my weight to pull us to the ground. He didn’t fight me, and I flipped him to his back, pinning him down by his shoulders.
A boy! He looked a little older than Connie and had shaggy brown-orange hair that swept in front of his perfectly round eyes. They were a bright, almost shining, orange-brown, with vertical slits.
Not much of a guard I was. I trembled so violently that I shook his hair. I wasn’t sure what he was. The slits in his eyes were much wider than dragon slits. Black circles bordered his eyes, not as if he hadn’t enough sleep, but as if they were a part of his eye. His nose was mostly nostril and his jaw was much longer than it should have been.
I let him go as soon as Angel reached us. The boy turned his head, resting the side of his face on the ground as he watched me, eyes unblinking. I shrank away, but Angel was near.
“Who are you?” she demanded. The boy tried to sit up but was instantly kicked back into submission by my angry sister. “I do not repeat myself.” Angel reached for her daggers, and the boy covered his face.
“Ah! Do not harm me and in return I will give you some good council!”
Those words were familiar. I jumped forward, quickly grabbing Angel’s hand to make her lower her weapon. “I know which tale,” I whispered in her ear. “We must trust him.”
Angel wasn’t so convinced. “Speak!”
The boys and Saramine had finished with their fires and returned, standing their distance, but watching carefully.
“This evening you will come to a village in which stand two inns opposite to one another,” the boy said. “One of them is lighted up brightly, and all goes on merrily within, but do not go into it. Go rather into the other, even though it looks like a bad one.”
“A village?” Ryan repeated. “Out there? We just came from out there; there is not a village for miles!”
There was a sudden movement behind the boy. Angel’s bow was out, but before I could stop her, she fired past the boy, at his large, flicking tail.
I blinked and we stood on a dark road before a silent town. Lamps burned high atop huge wooden lampposts on both sides of the street, yet everything still seemed so dark. The wind howled through the empty street and large weeds rolled by.
“Where are we?” Connie’s soft voice broke the silence.
“This is the tale of the Golden Bird,” I said. “That boy has to be the fox. We have to follow exactly what he says.”
We picked up our belongings that lay in the same spots we had set them. Angel and Sean did a quick tally of keys, and finding nothing missing, we followed Angel down the dark and lonely streets. All was silent. It wasn’t that late, but all of the houses were dark and still. Soon, the street narrowed, and noise and laughter echoed.
“There!” Sean pointed ahead. On one side of the street was a brightly-lit inn, music and laughter sounding. “That is the one we must avoid.”
We turned to the building directly across from it and paused in the street. The building was old and dilapidated; the door hung askew, the steps were rotted, and the roof was riddled with holes.
“Hey! Stop there!”
A man stood at the door of the brightly-lit inn and waved at us. “That place there has been closed for years! Come, come here! We have plenty of wine and warm food for you, travelers!”
Connie hesitated, but Saramine gripped her hand. “Thank you,” Angel replied. “But we are seeking something.”
The man’s countenance quickly changed. “You are seeking to do mischief. Now, come down from there, I won’t ask again.”
Angel ignored the threat and stepped to the door. With a crack, one of her feet fell through the floor, but that was the least of our concerns. Several people joined the man at the other tavern door, and their eyes glowed. “I said come!”
We quickly ran after Angel up the rotted stairs. Depash and Sean stood on either side of the threshold, helping everyone over the hole in the floor before following us in themselves. The dusty air made me cough and each of our steps shook the entire building. We ran down the damp, narrow hall in single file, often stumbling over each other’s feet. The hall suddenly ended in a small dining room. The lamps were lit, but the windows were all boarded up.
Angel’s eyes quickly searched the room, and with a deep sigh, she turned and walked around us, standing before the hallway in fighter’s stance. Depash and Saramine joined her, bent into stances on her either side. Such a wonder. I quickly forgot about the danger we were in. Oh, to see the three on the field of war! They looked so calm and cold; Angel seemed more annoyed than alarmed.
The noise of the trolls echoed in the hall. Soon, the first troll appeared and leapt into the air. Angel’s stance broadened, but the troll disappeared.
We stood in a dazzling meadow of lavender plants. The stars shone so brilliantly that the whole night illuminated, and we could see all around miles. Purplish clouds streaked the dark blue sky and the full moon hung so low that it looked as if I could reach out and touch it. The Inzi slowly released their stances, carefully looking around. Ryan stared at me hard.
“Gabby…”
That same instant, I felt the warm breath on the back of my neck. I spun around, facing the fox-boy. I stumbled back, but he suddenly grabbed my arms, keeping me to my feet. His orange eyes were so large and menacing, and his jaw, though beautiful for a fox, looked so unnatural on a smooth, human face.
He wasn’t bothered by my terror and pulled me close against his chest. His grip was a vice; I couldn’t get away, pull as I might. “I have a bit of good council for you. Go straight forward, till you come to a castle, before which lie a whole troop of soldiers fast asleep and snoring: take no notice of them, but go into the castle and pass on.”
He disappeared. I spun to the others who stood baffled. When I turned again, we stood on a dirt path and in the distance loomed a dark castle, the bright moonlight reflecting from its windows.
“This must certainly be the last key,” Depash muttered. “How many more challenges must we face?”
We quickly made our way up the path and in a few minutes, reached the top of the hill before the castle. Angel stopped suddenly, dropping to the ground and hiding behind the top of the hill.
Trolls. Trolls all around. There had to be at least a hundred crowded around the gates to the castle. Connie opened her mouth to scream, but was quickly grabbed by Ryan, who pulled her down with the rest of us. Angel leaned against the bluff, staring over her shoulder towards the many trolls.
“I do not know how to get past them,” she said in a near whisper. “Even with Depash…” she trailed off and looked over our faces. “How are we to defeat so many at once?”
I rubbed my arms and peeked back over the hill. The fox-boy said that they would be asleep, but they certainly were wide awake. They talked and grunted and made all kinds of noises as they patrolled the entrance. There had to be a way. “Stony said we had to trust him…”
“Trust him?” Ryan was frustrated. “Bittersweet, do you not see how many of them there are? We can’t fight them all!”
“How does the tale go?” Sean asked. I opened my fairy tale book. I knew it, but perhaps I skipped over something.
“’Before the castle gate all was as the fox had said: so the son went in and found the chamber,’” I read before looking up to them. “So, perhaps we just go in.”
We sat in silence for a moment. “Stay,” Angel commanded, slowly rising to her feet, her eyes fixed on the troop of trolls. Depash was closest to her and wrapped his large hand around her wrist.
“Na-izik…!”
“Tapo, quiet!” Angel pulled away before nodding back down the hill from where we came. “There are a few trees over there. If I command, run to them and climb…”
Ryan covered his face with his hands. “Please, Angel…!”
“I know what I am doing, Ryan,” she answered, softly. “Sta
y, unless I command.” With a deep breath, she walked towards the trolls. The rest of us moved our feet under us to crouch, preparing to run.
She was soon out in the open. We held our breath as she neared the first troll. Angel didn’t touch him, but he collapsed on the ground as she passed. She jumped back, but the other trolls went about their business. She stole quickly between them and each fell over as she passed. She made it to the gate and waved for us to follow.
Our nik’dalo made it look easy. We followed in a line, dodging the trolls and making our way towards her. I gazed into the eyes of a troll as I passed. He looked right at me but didn’t seem to see me. I waved my hand before his face, but he didn’t even blink. Perhaps they were asleep; perhaps they were sleep walking.
I wasn’t paying attention. Depash quickly grabbed my waist, stopping me from running into one. We stood in fear until the troll turned away.
Once we made it to the gates, we followed Angel up the steps and into the still castle. Though no lights were lit, the moon and starlight poured in through the windows, reflecting off the marble and casting the interior in a soft, blue light. We followed Angel down the halls until she stopped so suddenly that we all ran into one another.
Someone sat on a chair in the back of the room. A single lamp was lit, illuminating the eyes of the fox-boy. He calmly opened both his hands, indicating the two birdcages that sat on tables on either side of him. “Choose,” he simply said.
Angel turned. “Gabriella!” she called. I slowly walked to her side and the fox boy stood to face me.
“Choose,” he repeated. At his left, was a birdcage made of gold. At his right, a simple one made from sticks and twine. I dared not reach around him, and simply pointed.
“That one.”
The boy smiled, revealing a long line of sharp teeth. I drew back, but he grabbed me by the arms again. “You’ve followed my advice. No evil will come upon you.” He pulled me so close that his long jaw brushed against my cheek. “Claim your prize.”
He released me and I walked to the birdcage made of sticks and twine. I reached my hand in and under the straw, lay the golden (10) key.