I looked closely at Charlotte.
"I think I can help you. You need some Dahlia treatment."
"What's that?" she asked, eyes wide.
"You'll see, but first of all, tell me more about Morpheus."
"Like I told you before, I've never seen him, but if you want to find your mother, finding him is the only way. You'll have to be clever, and you'll have to seduce him. You'll also have to go to Urbis. He's not once been spotted outside of the city."
I nodded. I'd already made my mind up to go to Urbis. I was born there, or at least I think I was. It was like everything was coming together, and the path I needed to take was an obvious one.
"If you do decide to come to Urbis, you are very welcome to stay with me. My apartment is small, but I have a spare bed. It's the least I can do after your hospitality."
"Thank you. I might have to take you up on that. How do you know all this? I mean, how do you know that the dream world exists, and how do you know that Derillen found Morpheus and got him to close my mother's exits?"
"I know of Morpheus because I dreamed about him once. I've always had lucid dreams, which makes me more susceptible to him. He came to me when I was in the dream world. He was so beautiful, I knew right then I wanted him . He told me his name, but then he left me alone. I woke up completely in love. I'm not a religious person, but I'd heard about the god Morpheus. It was then, I decided to learn more about him at university. There have been many sightings of him over the years. Some, I'm not sure are true; but some, I believe.
"As for Derillen, I stumbled upon her story in my second year. As I was researching Morpheus, I looked for any articles that were about sleep. The fact that Derillen had the ability to stop your mother waking up was what made me know that Morpheus was involved. No one is more powerful than the gods. Not fae, not mages, not even witches. The gods are about as powerful as you can get, so if anyone was stopping your mother from waking up, I knew it was him."
"Do you have concrete proof?"
She shook her head. "No, but I know everything there is to know about sleep, and there are only two ways to stop someone waking up. Either kill them or lock them in the dream realm. If your mother is still breathing, it has to be the latter, and if it's the latter, it means Morpheus is involved. There is no other explanation."
I tried to think around her reasoning. "What about illness? People in comas don't wake up."
"People in comas don't wake after a hundred-year sleep, not having aged a day either."
True," I conceded, "but could it be that she is in a coma now?"
"I don't know for sure, but Caspian told me that your father has had her looked at by many doctors, and they all agree there is nothing wrong with her. If there is nothing wrong with her, then she's trapped. There's one way to tell for sure."
"There is?" I wanted to believe her so badly, but I was the type of person that needed proof rather than guesswork. Even four years of study wasn't enough unless I could see it with my own eyes.
"I'd need to see her, and then, I can tell you if it's a coma or not."
The maid was by my mother's bed as I entered her room. She held a book in her hand as she had the last time I'd been to visit.
"I've been reading to her," she explained. "I thought maybe if she could hear a soothing voice, she might respond to it, you know."
"Thank you," I said, giving her a warm smile. Behind me, Charlotte whispered that a freight train could go through the room, and my mother wouldn't hear it.
The maid gave Charlotte a funny look as she walked around us to leave the room. No doubt she'd go straight to my father to tell him that I was here with a strange woman, not that it mattered. By the time my father came up the stairs to find out what was going on, we'd already know what was wrong with her.
"My father has hired the best physicians and healers in all the land. They'll all be arriving soon. The castle will be full again."I took my mother's hand. It was so cold.
"Just like your grandfather did all those years ago with the mages and fae, not that all the people of magic in the world would be able to help her if I'm right." She looked me in the eye. "I hope I'm wrong and that this is something else. Then those healers will be able to help her."
"I hope so too," I said. "So what do we need to do to tell if she's in a coma? Some kind of spell?"
Charlotte gave a small mirthless laugh. "I'm not magic. I'm originally from Arcadia, and there are not many people of magic there. No. This is something much more simple. If she is in a coma and you pull back her eyelids, you'll see her pupils. Most coma patients don't react to light. Some do."
"So what happens if she isn't in a coma? If she's cursed?"
Charlotte leaned over my mother and gently put her thumbs on her eyelids. "If she's in the Dream Realm, she'll not have any pupils at all." She pulled back her eyelids.
I looked down. Pain gripped my chest as my worse fear was realized. All I saw were the whites of her eyes. My mother was definitely cursed.
19th January
"Dahlia asked me to tell you that there is a reporter from the Sentinel waiting to speak with you," Milo said after my good morning kiss. "Oh, and she said to dress up nicely...her version of nicely, not yours. She said they are waiting in the main hall, so hurry up."
"Urgh!" I sighed as I opened my wardrobe and pulled out a dress. I had too much going on to care about reporters. I had a trip to Urbis to plan. There were way too many reasons for me to go there now. I needed to find out who I was, but I also had to save my mother from Morpheus's clutches. The only way I was going to get close to doing any of those was to travel to Urbis.
I'd sent the three parts of the competition to the Sentinel by way of one of the castle staff a couple of days before, so I expected that was the reason they wanted to see me. I'd also done it without showing my father first. I didn't want to give him any more reason to make me do the whole thing again. I had too much on my plate to worry about a competition that I had no intention of holding, and my father was equally as busy. I was doing him a favor, really.
"I'll leave you to it," Milo smiled, "But maybe we could do some more sword practice when my shift ends?"
"Sure thing," I replied as he shut my bedroom door behind him.
I pulled out a beige dress that matched my mood perfectly and pulled it over my head. After running a brush through my hair and tying it back with a ribbon, I was ready to face whatever the Sentinel reporter had to throw at me. He'd no doubt want a couple of pictures, and for that, I should have put on some makeup, but I just wanted to get the whole thing over and done with as quickly as possible. I needed the time to plan my trip before I went out with Milo. I couldn't ask for his help because I wasn't planning on telling him I was going. He'd only try and stop me. The only person I was planning on telling was Nyre because I was planning on taking her with me. I'd be spotted if I tried getting to Urbis on the Urbis Express or on the train, which left me with three options. Walk, go on horseback or fly, courtesy of my little dragon friend. Nyre was the quickest option.
The main hall was packed with people, all of which turned their eyes to me as I entered.
"What's going on now?" I whispered to myself as I walked between the men, for they were almost all men. The only woman in the whole room was Dahlia, who bustled towards me when I walked through the door.
"What's going on?" I asked, though I was sure I didn't really want to know.
"Didn't Milo tell you? The Sentinel people are here. They want to do a feature as a way to build up excitement for the competition next week."
"You're telling me they sent this many reporters?" I asked as she hustled me up to the raised throne area.
"Don't be silly. The two in the front row are the Sentinel reporter and photographer."
"So, who are the others?" I asked, gazing over the heads of all the men. There were so many of them. Hundreds.
"They are the people we've selected for the competition. We invited them here today to meet you before t
hey compete for you."
"Oh, you did, did you?" I asked weakly. So much for planning my getaway. I wouldn't even be able to practice my sword fighting with Milo at this rate.
"It wasn't just me. It was the castle administration team."
"What did my father say about this?" I inquired, looking around the hall. He was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Caspian or Milo. I knew Milo was working, but I had no idea where Caspian was when all this was going on. Hopefully, asking Charlotte out on a date so I could cancel this whole thing. Dahlia shrugged and moved back without answering my question.
"I'll do a quick interview afterward," the Sentinel reporter piped up, "but first, we'd like to get some shots of you talking to your suitors."
"Great," I said, not doing a good job of hiding my sarcastic tone.
"Andrew, first!" Dahlia said as I sat down in my father's throne. It was the first time I'd ever sat in it, not that it brought me any joy to think about it. I'd prefer to be literally anywhere than right where I was.
"This is Andrew," Dahlia said, bringing a shy-looking boy up to me. He didn't look much older than me, and the way he kept his eyes down told me he was nervous about meeting me. You and me both, Buddy.
"Andrew is my son," Dahlia said proudly, giving me a wink and pointing to him. "He's perfect," she mouthed silently behind his back. I smirked. The poor kid looked like he was about to lose his lunch.
"Hi, Andrew. I've heard a lot about you," I lied. All I'd heard were complaints that he wasn't doing as well as he could be in school.
"Really?" he said. His voice was almost a whisper. I talked to him for an excruciating two minutes while the photographer snapped away. The poor guy could barely string a sentence together and replied to everything I said in monosyllables.
"He's just a little shy," Dahlia explained as she ushered him off the stage. "You'll need to go through the rest more quickly or we'll be here all day. Just a how do you do and on to the next." What followed was no better. In nine hundred men, I would have thought I'd like at least one of them, but between the oafs, the men who forgot to speak, the men that thought they already owned me, not to mention the man who asked when his coronation would be, I was thoroughly bored and annoyed by the time it came to eat. To my chagrin, all these men had been invited to eat, and tables full of sandwiches were brought in.
There was no escape for me. Every time I tried to leave, Dahlia was there, reminding me of my duty. In the end, I grabbed a sandwich and sat on the floor in the very back corner of the room behind my father's throne. It wasn't ideal, but at least, I was mostly shielded from view, and no one else was allowed up here, so I'd get a little peace before it would all start again in the afternoon.
A shadow loomed above me. I was all set to tell them where to go when I looked up and saw Caspian with a tray full of food and a couple of glasses of wine.
"I thought you might want a bit more than a soggy sandwich," he said, sitting down and putting the tray between us. It was filled with fruit and pastries. My stomach grumbled at the sight of it.
"And I thought this might help you get through the afternoon," he said, handing me the wine. I took the glass from him and downed it in one go while he picked up a pastry for himself.
"You know, I never thought I'd say this, but you are looking quite the catch compared to the competition."
His mouth curled up at the edges in a picture of smugness.
"You brought this on yourself," he reminded me. "You could have had this." He indicated his body.
"You are hot," I agreed, probably because the wine was strong, and it had already gone to my head.
"There's still time. We could call this off. We could elope..."
"I could throw myself out of my bedroom window," I said, taking Caspian's wine and downing that too. If I was going to have to repeat this morning, I was going to do it drunk.
"I mean it. I could go and speak to your father right now. I know it's what he wants. He's sick of all this as much as you are."
He swept his head toward the rest of the hall, where nearly nine hundred men were eating.
"I suppose you can't be much worse than the guy whose feet smelled so bad that I almost threw up on him."
"Let's do it then," Caspian urged.
"You are forgetting one thing," I said, "You are a total ass, and I hate you."
"Hate is such a strong word," Caspian lamented, but the smile was still firmly on his gorgeous face. Urgh. Two glasses of wine, and my brain had completely given up.
"You are in love with that Milo chap, huh? Do you really think he can beat me?"
"He kicked your ass before," I reminded him of the time in his bedroom. "I see no reason why he won't be able to do it again. Besides. I'm not in love with him. I'm not in love with anyone. I just like him a lot. A lot more than you anyway."
"So you aren't in love with him? Well then, you won't mind if I do this." He leaned forward, and before I had time to react, he was kissing me. My mind was outraged, but my drunken brain wouldn't get my body to work quickly enough. My mind was saying move, but it felt so good, and the room spun around me.
Slap! Caspian brought his hand up to his cheek as I slapped him hard.
"How dare you!" I hissed, glaring at him.
"I notice it took you more than a few seconds to pull away," he remarked, grabbing another pastry. "And I didn't feel any resistance. In fact, I would say that you rather enjoyed it."
With that, he popped the pastry into his mouth, gave me a wink, and walked away, leaving me on my own, hiding behind my father's throne.
"Insufferable jerk!" I said loudly to no one in particular. The worst part was, he wasn't wrong. I had enjoyed it. I'd enjoyed it much more than I wanted to admit. Damn the fae!
He stood watching me all afternoon. Everywhere I looked, I could see him in the corner of my eye. His smart pale blue outfit stood out amongst the grays and blues and browns that the other men had elected to wear. I hated that I'd enjoyed kissing him, that it had been exciting, passionate, and forbidden, hidden behind my father's throne in a room with nine hundred men, all of which wanted to marry me. I couldn't even tell anyone about it either. If I told my father, he'd insist I marry the fae. If I even hinted that I'd kissed Caspian to Dahlia, she'd be ecstatic once she got over the fact I wasn't going to marry her beloved son. And I really couldn't tell Milo. Sweet, beautiful Milo, who didn't deserve this. I'd told him time and time again that I didn't want a boyfriend, all the while stringing him along, kissing him at every available opportunity. And I loved kissing Milo. It was a beautiful thing, and when our lips met, it was just right. Perfect. I was at home. But with Caspian, it had been full of raw danger, excitement, and a whole host of negative emotions that were currently swirly around my mind. My stomach did the same, thanks to the wine that I was most definitely not used to. I swear I was slurring my words by the time I'd managed to speak to all the men. After an extremely brief interview with the Sentinel reporter I hurried up to my room before anyone else could take more of my time. To my relief, Milo had already left for the day. He must have seen what was going on and realized I wasn't going to be able to put in any practice that day. I would have to tell Milo about the kiss. It was only fair, but I wasn't in any fit state to do it now. I yawned as I sat on my bed and tried to put my feelings together. It was no use. My feelings for Milo eclipsed anything I'd ever felt before, and yet I could still taste Caspian on my lips. I remembered clearly the feel of his lips on mine.
"Urgh," I cried out in frustration, falling back on my bed and pulling a pillow over my face.
I probably would have stayed that way all evening if it wasn't for the tapping on my window. Looking up, I saw Nyre outside.
I opened the window, and she hopped in quickly. A minute later, she was sitting on my bed in her transformed form as naked as the day she was born.
"Here," I said, throwing her a robe. She laughed as she pulled it around herself, covering her body with the soft downy night robe. She snuggled into it b
efore looking up at me.
"You humans are so uptight. We don't wear clothes up on the mountain."
I made sure my bedroom door was closed as she paraded up and down in front of my mirror, gazing at herself in the robe. I'd have to throw her a pretty dress next time.
"That's as may be," I said, "but down here, we do, and if anyone was to walk in, they'd get quite a shock to see a naked woman on my bed."
"A naked dragon!" she stated but grinned at me, all the same.
"What can I do for you, Nyre?" I asked. The truth was, I was glad to see her. I didn't have any female friends, and beyond my mother and the female staff in the castle, I didn't know any other girls.
"Nothing. I thought I'd come down and see how you are holding up. My father has all the dragons on guard, ready for attack from your father. The plan is to make sure everyone is down in the settlement apart from the egg layers. Dragons have laid eggs in nests for generations because the altitude is good for them."
I sighed and sat on the bed. "I don't think my father is going to attack the dragons anymore. The people of Draconis want him to, but he's got a lot going on. He's trying to bring in the best doctors from the other kingdoms for my mother, and all his attention is there at the moment."
"Well, that's great news...Not about your mom, but about the doctors. Do you think they will help her?"
I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't think so. She isn't sick. She is cursed."
I told her about Derillen and Charlotte's theory of where my mother was. Just thinking about Charlotte brought back the guilt of kissing Caspian. She was completely besotted with him. Milo wouldn't be the only one upset by the kiss earlier. I finished my story and broke down in tears.
"No frowns, babe," Nyre said, bringing me into a hug. "Dragons don't cry."
"I'm not a dragon," I reminded her.
"No, you're the freaking Queen of the dragons! My father says so, and so it must be true."
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