I extended a hand to her. She reached to accept it.
Our hands met. We shook—and the witch screamed.
I tensed, expecting an attack, but the witch fell to her knees, thrashing and shrieking.
“What–what’s happening?!” I cried. I looked to my friends. They were as much at a loss as I was.
Queen Coralee fell to her sister’s side, holding her.
“Is she—?” Jenn began.
“We have to help her!” Clay shouted.
As he said this, the witch fell still. For a moment, I feared the worst, but then she opened her eyes and forced a pained smile. Before our eyes, her veins turned black and her skin flaked away.
“I made a promise,” the witch gasped to her sister. “One I could not break.”
“You are protected by the kingdom’s timelessness and magic,” the queen said. “No curse nor death can reach you anymore.”
“It was a poisoned promise with your king’s killer,” the witch breathed, agony raking her words. “He got me here. I promised him to end the kingdom. To end you. And if I failed…” She shuddered harder, her skin flecked away to show red, atrophied muscle.
“We have to…,” I murmured, desperate but unable to think of a solution. “Meghan?”
My sister dropped beside the witch and put her hands on her chest.
“Poisoned promise break your tie, let the woman before me cease to die.”
Meghan’s last word became a cry of pain. Golden sparks flared around us, but the witch continued to fade. She smiled once more at her sister and her eyes found the ocean. Its light shimmered on her face.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “For everything. Forgive me.”
Queen Coralee let out a sob. Edith slipped lower in the queen’s arms and exhaled one last time and lay still.
I didn’t know what to do. Had the witch died? It shouldn’t have been possible. Could we have done more to help her?
We knelt by the queen. I put a hand on the queen’s shoulder, guilt heavy on my heart. The witch had been cruel, but she had shown true repentance. She had not deserved this. And yet, she had known of the promise she’d made and the consequences of not keeping it. She had chosen to let her sister live, knowing she would perish.
“Rest in peace, sweet sister,” Queen Coralee whispered.
A gust of wind picked up. Edith’s body disintegrated into ashes and was borne away as Queen Coralee cried. We all joined her, mourning the girl named Edith who had shown her face one last time.
CHAPTER 57:
Many Happy Returns
When we descended from the upper balcony some time later, we saw the Watchmaker face-first on the Rotunda’s floor, surrounded by a lake of blood. There was a jagged puncture wound in his back. It pulsed with an irregular heartbeat. Clay pushed past us, shouting for his friend. I feared the worst for the Watchmaker. As we got closer, I thought I could see ribs. My own ragged heart ached at the sight and I had to grab onto the queen to maintain my balance the rest of the way down the stairs.
Master Malleator and Page Trey were at the Watchmaker’s side, offering comforting words. Clay skid to a stop beside them, eyes wide and harried.
“Come on, Watchmaker,” he pleaded. “You’re alright. You’ve walked away from worse than this.”
The Watchmaker moaned in unbearable agony. He didn’t even seem to register that Clay was there.
“You’ve got something worth fighting for,” Clay implored. “Fight for it.” He looked desperately to Page Trey and his master. “Can’t you do something?”
Clay shouted at the page and his master, pleading for them to make it stop.
“This is beyond our abilities,” Page Trey said.
“We haven’t much training in bending magic to heal,” Master Malleator said. “We could wait for healers, but he will be in a great deal of pain.”
“Would it not be better to let him go?” Page Trey offered tenderly. “We will ride with him along the shore, past the Bolts and the magic’s scope, and let him pass with peace.”
“No!” Clay shouted.
“Clay, he shouldn’t suffer,” Jenn said, her voice quiet.
Master Malleator knelt beside Clay. “There’s nothing to be done. The poor man’s heart has been crushed. A man can’t live without a heart.”
I felt dizzy with all this talk of hearts. My own still felt funny beating weakly in my chest. Thank goodness the magic had returned, or else the I would have been dead too.
Suddenly, Clay let out a shout.
“It’s the things we love most that keep us going,” he said, his mind somewhere else. “It keeps your heart beating.”
He was onto something, I knew it, but I had no idea what he was doing.
“The witch healed you by having me place my hands on you,” Clay said, pointing at Jenn. “Your wedding ring glowed. It’s your most prized possession. We just need what the Watchmaker loves most…”
Clay began to feel around the Watchmaker’s belt. The queen shouted in protest, but from the belt, Clay held up two small, golden pocket watches. Their gears were still.
“This is the watch of his wife,” Clay said. “And this is his mother’s. The two are his most prized possessions. They’re conduits for magic, right?”
Master Malleator’s eyes lost focus. Page Trey raised his eyebrows.
“He said so,” Clay insisted. “It can prolong life, heal wounds!”
Master Malleator looked back at Clay and nodded. He took the pocket watches and, holding them tightly together, squeezed them as though trying to break them.
“Where your treasured watches reside, may a heart beat with pride,” he muttered.
Gold light shone through his fingers. The next instant, the watches had reformed into the rough shape of a human heart. The gears, intricately reorganized within the shape, shook in their spots as though ready to spin again.
“If you have a weak stomach, I suggest turning away,” Master Malleator said.
None of us did. We owed it to the Watchmaker to bear witness.
Master Malleator reached into the Watchmaker, pulling apart skin and bone, yanked out his crushed heart, and placed the new heart-clock in its place.
“Do you know the witch’s incantation?” the master asked Clay.
He shook his head. He hadn’t heard it.
“Let me try,” Meghan said.
“Lady Meghan,” Page Trey warned.
“I’ll be okay,” she insisted and placed a hand on Master Malleator’s. “Prized possession and blood entwine, beat for your owner, magic and life, combine.”
Meg panted as she fueled the magic spell. She wavered on the spot, but maintained consciousness.
Before us, the Watchmaker’s back healed over and his body jolted. He gasped for breath. His eyes shot open. The tick tock of a two-clock heart filled the air.
“What the devil?!” the Watchmaker shouted. He got up quickly, spinning around and reaching for his back.
“Be calm, Watchmaker,” the queen insisted. “You are badly injured. You may have broken bones or bruised organs.”
“I’ve walked away from worse,” the Watchmaker grumbled. He found Clay. “What did you do to me, boy?”
No longer intimidated by the mountain of a man, Clay said, “We saved your life. You have a new ticker. Your wife and your mother will live on with you.”
The Watchmaker puffed up his chest and looked ready to scold Clay, but a tear grew in his eyes. He deflated and put a hand over his new heart.
“I can feel her,” he said quietly. “I can feel both of them.” He looked to each of us. With heartfelt understanding in his eyes, he said, “Thank you.”
He looked to the queen. Tears in his eyes, he bowed to her.
“Omnia Aeterno,” he said. “May you reign forever, my queen.”
“Omnia Aeterno,” we all repeated, except for Master Malleator.
“I hope to,” Queen Coralee replied. “The kingdom has been saved. The curse is broken. The witch
has passed.”
The Watchmaker let out a whoop so loud, so joyous, the Rotunda seemed to ring with delight. I tensed, sensing sadness from the queen, but she didn’t let it show for anyone else.
We heard the pitter-patter of footsteps and weaved through the columns to see who was coming. Running toward us was the seer and her daughter, Emily. My heart burst with joy at the sight of Page Hybore’s family.
“My queen,” the seer said, kneeling. “Forgive me. I was a fool tricked by my Sight and the witch. I doubted the kingdom and its future. I abandoned you when you needed me most. Words are not enough, but I ask for your forgiveness and, within my mortal abilities, I will never leave you again.”
Queen Coralee beamed. “Welcome home, Lady Sinclair. A kingdom will always need its seer.”
The Watchmaker gave Master Malleator a stern look.
“I believe you have words to share with the queen?” he said to the combat master.
Master Malleator looked to his queen for the first time, and it indeed seemed he had a great deal on his mind. But then, the moment passed, and his scarred face softened.
“I seek your forgiveness, as well,” he said to the queen. “In our darkest, final hour, my faith faltered. I may not have always agreed with your choices—”
“Never would have guessed that,” Meghan mumbled under her breath.
“—but my loyalty to you should never err. To serve you is to serve Dembroch, and I do so with honor.”
Queen Coralee nodded, taking the small offering of peace that the combat master was extending.
As they spoke, Little Emily thanked Clay and Jenn, giving both of them hugs. When she came to me, I knelt to her level. I grit my teeth, fighting to keep my composure while pain radiated through my body with every heartbeat.
“Sir Nicholas,” she said, her brown eyes gleaming just like her father’s.
“Emily,” I replied, my voice weaker than I wanted it to be. “Your father loved you more than anything.”
“Even though I’m unconscionable?” she asked.
“Incurable,” her mother corrected.
“Even still,” I replied. “Without him, my friends and I couldn’t have been here. We couldn’t have saved Dembroch.”
“He knew you would,” Emily said with a smile and she kissed me on the forehead.
Meanwhile, Jenn reunited with the seer. When they embraced, they could see the near future, one of joy, happiness, and prosperity. They burst into tears, a bond forming that could never be severed, a hope that could never be broken.
With a burst of speed unfit for a man who’d just been crushed and had open heart surgery, the Watchmaker grabbed Clay, hoisted him up, and squeezed, popping the vertebrae in Clay’s back.
“That’s for taking my sword and my axe!” the Watchmaker said. He set Clay down and gave him a sturdy, appreciative thump on the back. “And that’s for being the knight I knew you could be.”
Page Trey wandered over to Meghan. They traded laughs about the hardships of rowing boats around the islands, and Page Trey invited Meghan to join him in training recruits on Ryderwyle.
“You have substantial skill,” Page Trey commended. “Both in fighting and a quick tongue. With magic, I mean.”
Dare I say it, Meghan blushed.
Clay and Jenn ended up next to one another after some time. They reached to hold hands, but a shock of pain made them hesitate. Blushing at one another, Clay pulled her wedding ring from his pocket.
“All this time, your wedding ring was your most prized possession?” he asked.
“For what it represents,” Jenn said. “Every time I look at it, I think of you. My knight in shining armor.”
“You did always like shiny things,” Clay joked.
He tried to slide the ring on her finger once more, but Jenn pulled away, cringing.
“It’s part of the curse, I think,” Jenn said. “It burns. Maybe…for now…you keep it.” She tried to laugh it off. “I don’t need a ring to know you’re mine.”
Clay put the ring back in his pocket, but he knew better. His wife had always loved shiny things and what they represented. He could see the sadness in her eyes that she could no longer wear her ring. But it was a cost they had to pay for saving the kingdom.
“You knew,” Clay said. “Down in the Aerary.”
“I saw it,” Jenn said, showing the eyeball in her hand. “But I couldn’t let it happen. You would have died. Dembroch would have fallen.”
“Thank you,” Clay said. “At least I—well, all of us—will live to see another day. Even if we’re cursed.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Jenn said, a newfound optimism making her cheeks rosy. “No curse can keep us apart.”
Through the shock and the pain, they embraced, locking lips. Deep down, their hearts fell slightly. Marriage was tough enough without physical pain when embracing one another. Though they didn’t say it aloud, for speaking such a bold promise had gotten them into this mess, they vowed to find a way to break their curse and be together once more.
While Meghan and the Watchmaker groaned at Jenn and Clay, I made my way to the queen. I bowed disjointedly to her. We looked at one another for a minute, plenty passing between us that we didn’t know how to say.
“Thank you, Sir Nicholas,” she finally said. “This kingdom owes you and your friends a great debt.”
“It’s been an honor,” I replied, suddenly remembering the queen’s decree: that if my friends and I managed to save Dembroch, we would be exiled for our initial petulant behavior. In my quest, I’d learned that the queen’s words were law. She couldn’t show favoritism. My friends and I would have to leave.
She seemed to know what I was thinking.
“I hope you will not leave yet,” she said. “There is much work to be done and many hard days ahead. And there is the matter of your heart. We must make efforts to heal it so you will survive beyond the realm of Dembroch’s magic.”
I gave her a nod. “My life is in your hands, however long you intend to hold it.”
And I meant it. Whether it was a short day or longer, no matter the pain of living with a ruptured heart, I was going to enjoy every minute of being with the queen and the kingdom that we’d saved.
CHAPTER 58:
Still Much to Learn
The summons was sent out the next day, calling for Civium and Hospite to return to the saved kingdom. The queen feared none would return, but Jenn and the seer said otherwise.
While we waited, the small group of us got to work. We swept the castle for the moss remains of the mage and collected them in an urn. It was buried with honor in the catacombs with the bodies of the deceased, including the Bridgemaster, ferryman, and librarian. Corpses of the deceased defenders were replaced back in their coffins.
Hanging from a limb of the catacombs trees, I spotted my satchel. I retrieved it and stored it in my quarters, hoping to find new secrets within.
Across the island, we began to rebuild. The skybridge to Ryderwyle was painstakingly reconstructed. I kept recommending we use magic, but the manual labor, as Master Malleator said, made a man honest. The magic of Dembroch was reserved for more important matters, not simple tasks that could be accomplished by calloused hands and a strong back.
Plank by plank, wall by wall, we reconstructed the village of Verum and Amaranthine, villages for Hospites who may have needed to stay on the isles long-term. The Watchmaker’s cottage was rebuilt and every pocket watch was repaired. As my friends and I helped, we learned more of Dembroch’s lifestyle and grew to love it for all its uniqueness. It really was an eclectic, well-meaning kingdom, and I was proud to have helped save it. All the while, I knew that one day very soon, the Civium would return, I’d be given a relatively clean bill of health, and the queen would have to ask us to leave. I just hoped I’d have the chance to talk to her before we were kicked out.
One afternoon, during a break between rebuilding another Amaranthine home, I got my chance. The queen asked me to join her in a
walk around the castle grounds. We walked in silence until we found the flowers along the southern wall.
“I’ve been thinking about your sister…” I said. “I’m sorry we hurt her.”
It was the first time we’d mentioned Edith since her passing. The queen was not perturbed by this though. She nodded to me kindly.
“You didn’t,” the queen said. “Simply put, you forced her hand. You guided her to the light and, with the help of the flames, pushed her in. And, in the end, she chose love over hate. In the end, I had my sister once more. But in so doing, she ensured her demise.”
“The king’s killer,” I mumbled darkly. “How could this guy do something to Edith out there—” I waved my hands at the world beyond that I had grown up in “—that affected her in here? What about Dembroch’s magic?”
“I have considered this as well,” the queen replied. “Do you recall what Edith said before she passed? A poisoned promise.”
“Like Clay and Jenn’s?”
“Worse,” the queen said. “Whatever promise she made with the king’s killer, it was more powerful than Dembroch’s timelessness. It utterly destroyed her.” Queen Coralee hung her head. “We can only hope she has passed beyond the grasp of her mentor and her lust for revenge. If her soul was just and prepared, she may yet have reached Avalon.”
I absorbed this information in silence, wondering about souls and their ability to grow old and dark or become young again. My own had renewed these last few days. But if I had died, where would mine have gone?
“So this guy, this king’s killer,” I said, the words like venom on my tongue. “Who is he?”
Queen Coralee shook her head. “I know not. I have asked the Civium as well and no one knows. Everyone assumed Edith killed King Richard. Alas, whoever he is, the king’s killer is a formidable enemy to be sure. He has attacked defenders and Hospites to the point we closed our borders and dismantled our Praesidio. He sent my sister to our shores with knowledge and his promise brought about her death despite the protective nature of our magic. It’s all too clear to me that our enemy is cunning and dangerous, but he shall pay penance for his crimes. We shall learn his secrets and identity, and strike swiftly and justly.”
The Age of Knights & Dames Page 31