Thronegarden

by Andrew Dickerson

  Chapter 2

  The Happiest of Times

  When Damselfly woke up, her room was still lit with a late afternoon glow. She could make out the familiar silhouette of a wardrobe and desk. Beyond that was the corner where she played with her toys, and clearing up her dolls was Old Nana.

  “Good morning,” Damselfly greeted, stretching and wiping her eyes.

  “Good morning,” Old Nana replied.

  The princess’s nursemaid was actually not so old; the term was more to do with her sage wisdom than actual years passed. Old Nana had streaks of warm chestnut in her silvery hair, which gravitated just above her slim shoulders. Kind blue eyes turned towards Damselfly above a slim restrained smile that suggested a deeper struggle within.

  “Tell me a story,” Damselfly requested.

  It was common for the pair to spend hours every day with Old Nana reciting tales while Damselfly listened intently, no matter how many times she had heard it before. “What would you like to hear?” Old Nana asked.

  “I don’t mind, you choose,” Damselfly answered, still feeling a little sleepy.

  Old Nana considered her options as she crossed the room and gently perched on the bed. She brushed a knot of red hair away from the young girl’s face, and finally settling on a decision, she began.

  “I will tell you the story of Once Upon a Time…”

  Once Upon a Time

  Where did magic begin?

  That is what everyone wants to know,

  Listen close to this story you could not imagine,

  I will tell you where, why and how.

  It started when the dragons breathed fire into the planet deep,

  The giants laid down their mountainous frames to sleep,

  Rivers burst forth when the first phoenix did weep,

  A unicorn pierced the sky so that the stars we could keep.

  Where did magic begin?

  Well, it was where the first bell did chime,

  Listen close and I will tell you a story you could not imagine,

  This all happened when the first voice spoke

  Once upon a time.

  Why did they create magic?

  Well, that is a question both joyous and tragic.

  For the birds needed magic to fly,

  The clouds needed magic to scorn gravity,

  The lion needed magic to roar, the rabbit needed it to flee,

  The moon needed magic to obtain liberty.

  Why did magic begin?

  Listen close and I will tell you a story you could not imagine.

  The moon needed to escape the Lady of the Lake’s possession,

  As he was taken prisoner for an unknown crime,

  He tricked the Lady using his reflection,

  It all happened with the first person saying

  Once upon a time.

  How did magic happen?

  Well, that brings us to the story of the very first garden.

  When the first child was born, he was scared so he began to shout,

  They thought he might be cold so they had the sun come out,

  Then they considered he might be tired so they had the moon come about,

  At last, the child stopped crying and they had the stars watch over him devout.

  How did magic happen?

  Well, it was with the first child in the first garden.

  A whispered word telling a simple rhyme,

  It all happened with the first sharing of

  Once upon a time.

  “That’s my favourite,” Damselfly responded once the tale had ended.

  “You say that after every story I tell,” Old Nana teased.

  “I just love them all,” the princess expressed.

  Their morning ritual was disturbed as Queen Etherelle entered the room, dressed in a flowing emerald gown. It was unusual for the queen to see her daughter before breakfast as it was Old Nana’s responsibility to see the princess was prepared for each day.

  “Good morning, Mother,” Damselfly spoke while Old Nana bowed respectfully.

  “Good morning, daughter,” Queen Etherelle replied with a smile.

  “Do you know what day it is today?” she asked.

  “It is the same day it has been for ages.” Damselfly was surprised by the question.

  “Today is a very special day,” the queen revealed.

  “Why, what is so special about it?” Damselfly questioned.

  “Today we are going to throw you a grand birthday party.”

  Damselfly’s eyes widened while her mouth dropped open in surprise. She hugged her mother joyfully and looked at Old Nana in wonder.

  “Your first gift is here.” The queen walked across to a hardwood chair where the clothes were laid out.

  The princess often wore rather conservative clothes as she felt awkward in dresses or gowns that her mother bore so beautifully; however, the outfit for today was something entirely different and specially crafted by the seamstresses. Damselfly leapt out of bed with a scream of delight. Old Nana barely got out of her way as the young girl charged across the room and embraced her new clothes.

  “Hurry up and get ready; there is a lot to do today.” Queen Etherelle grinned at her child’s happiness.

  “Happy birthday, Damselfly.”

  Damselfly was still admiring her gown when Old Nana eventually managed to get her ready. It was a tight-fitting silver tunic with a subtle pink dress and black stockings. A new pair of polished shoes adorned her feet, hand made by Master Colter himself; they were a fiery red that matched her hair. By far her favourite part of the design was the symmetrical pair of fairy wings that had been hand-stitched to the back. They looked so real, Old Nana was worried the girl would suddenly fly away. A missile struck Damselfly as she reluctantly departed her room where she had spent the longest time admiring her new outfit in the mirror. The princess was bowled over and viciously licked by the family pet, a large Dalmatian called Trigger. The dog was kept as a last line of defence and could be especially vicious to those he did not know, but he loved Damselfly enough to pounce on her every chance he got.

  “When will that dog learn?” Old Nana complained.

  Damselfly hugged Trigger, accepting his rather wet greeting with pleasure and after making sure her wings were not damaged by the encounter, they walked down the corridor towards the dining room where they normally had breakfast. Trigger strutted ahead of them like a personal guard. He was as tall as Damselfly and heavier than Old Nana, his coat was white with black spots, except his ears which were all black.

  Damselfly’s bright start to the day was darkened, literally, by the shadow of Orion who stood before the banquet hall dressed in his usual red sorcerer’s cape.

  “Today breakfast will be taken in the atrium,” Orion announced with mild annoyance.

  Of all the people within the royal apartments, Damselfly disliked Orion the most. He always seemed to be watching her, scolding her for the slightest infractions and never once offered a kind word or smile. Damselfly did not trust Orion, and the sorcerer seemed to know it. The problem was Orion and his twin sister, Luyna, were the only magicians in Thronegarden and her father, the king, relied on their powers as well as their wisdom to help him run the kingdom.

  Damselfly could never remember eating breakfast in the atrium before. Orion led them outside the royal apartments where Damselfly had rarely been and down a short flight of steps. Trigger ran ahead, wagging his tail with delight as he caught the scent of something delicious. Damselfly kept close to Old Nana while sneaking

  suspicious glances at Orion whenever she thought the sorcerer was not looking.

  A blast of music greeted their arrival as the minstrels played a jaunty tune. Polter and Geist tumbled in their colourful acrobat uniforms as Lark provided a harmonious melody. Damselfly was surprised to see so many people at breakfast. The large dining table was full of wonderful food and Trigger was already sniffing around for scraps. Damselfly was impressed by the spectacle that greeted her, y
et there were no other children her age apart from Luyna’s daughters, the twins, Coral and Celeste, who were always horrible to Damselfly when no adults were around. Damselfly’s father was absent again, leaving only a small party to actually enjoy the fine meal. With Orion’s lingering presence never far away, Damselfly sat down at the table, uncomfortable, and waited, uncertain of what would happen next. Queen Etherelle encouraged the musicians to play while they began eating. Damselfly had pancakes with maple syrup, which she would never normally be allowed for breakfast, and that made her feel a little better. She even snuck some under the table for Trigger; the Dalmatian happily licked the syrup from her fingers with his coarse tongue. Beside Damselfly sat Old Nana who barely touched any of the delicious food. On the other side was Queen Etherelle who tasted every dish once (Damselfly did not know if she was checking the quality of the fare or simply trying to enjoy as many different dishes as possible). Then came Orion, sitting next to his twin sister, Luyna. In close quarters, their differences were striking, and it was almost impossible to believe they were twins. Celeste and Coral sat next to their mother in complementing blue and green dresses. The young twins were almost identical with golden hair, blue eyes and a smile that made your hair stand on end. Damselfly could only tell the twins apart by the crescent birth mark that was on the left side of Coral’s neck and the right side of Celeste’s.

  The final two seats were occupied by Damselfly’s tutor, Palen, and the Master of Bells, Pariah. Centuries ago, according to Old Nana, bells were imbued with magic by powerful sorcerers seeking to create powerful talismans. The most famous example was Sereth, the so called ‘voice of death’ that was part of Death’s timepiece. The bell had the power to take a person from this world into the next. Pariah was wearing a dark brown robe with his head largely covered by a draping hood. He ate little and spoke to no one, so Damselfly wondered why her mother had invited him in the first place. After breakfast they were entertained by Nova the pyromancer who created shapes in the air using fire and smoke. Then Pan juggled a dozen lit candles, Lark performed her melody and Harlequin performed a beautiful dance, which earned a nod of approval from the queen. Pilgrim the bard offered a traditional tale from his repertoire. Old Nana’s husband was an excellent story teller and yet Damselfly found herself distracted and unable to enjoy the telling. After the performances, there was a slight lull while the next round of activities was prepared. Old Nana went to find her husband who she did not see often with them living at different ends of the castle. This left Damselfly alone with the other adults engaged in their own conversations or duties. She did not notice Coral or Celeste sneak up behind her until they began pulling on her red hair.

  “Stop that,” Damselfly demanded.

  Apart from the colour of their dresses, the twins appeared to be almost reflections of each other; they even shared the same vindictive facial expressions they now turned upon the birthday girl.

  “What are you wearing?” Coral asked mockingly.

  “Those look like fairy wings. You’re short and ugly enough to be a fairy,” Celeste teased.

  “If you have wings now maybe you can fly away and we can all really enjoy the celebration without you,” Coral snickered.

  “Leave me alone or I’ll tell my mother,” Damselfly threatened.

  “Oh, we’re so scared,” Celeste pantomimed.

  “Your mother does not have any real power. The king listens to our mother and she is a sorceress so she could turn you into a toad with a look.”

  Damselfly knew magic did not work that way. Luyna had rarely shown her magical powers but turning people into toads was extremely unlikely. Unfortunately, their words brought tears to Damselfly’s eyes, a sign of weakness the twins were quick to seize upon.

  “The little princess is crying.” Celeste pretended to rub her own eyes. “Her face is all puffy and her eyes are red to match that horrible hair,” Coral bullied.

  Thankfully for Damselfly her mother was looking for her in order to start the parade in her honour. Queen Etherelle wanted everything to be perfect for her daughter and was aghast to find her in tears.

  “What is going on?” she queried.

  Coral and Celeste at least had the notion to look at their feet while the queen cast them warning looks.

  “I don’t want a birthday celebration,” Damselfly sobbed.

  Queen Etherelle wiped her daughter’s eyes with a silk handkerchief, giving her a brief embrace; she looked her straight in the eye.

  “All these people came to celebrate your birthday. We can’t let them down, can we?”

  Damselfly looked at the throng of people clearing the breakfast table, the performers mulling around reflecting on their performances and those desperate to be part of the parade and decided her mum was right.

  “I suppose,” she agreed.

  “That’s my brave girl.” The queen smiled.

  A shadow fell upon them as Orion hovered malevolently. Damselfly felt herself blush with embarrassment under his exposing glare.

  “Shall we make our way outside? The parade is about to begin,” he suggested.

  Damselfly felt suddenly vulnerable, remembering what the twins had said. What could any of them do against sorcerers? And then she thought about her father. The king was powerful enough to defeat anyone: he had exiled the Fairy King to the Evergarden and brought peace back to Fable. Hoping that Orion would soon get his just deserts, they followed the sorcerer as he escorted them to the parade.

  Damselfly watched the cascading fireworks that signalled the end of the parade. They rose into the unchanging sky from a ship now trapped by the barren ground where a large lake had once been.

  The ship was called The Captive.

  Like the moon that had once been taken hostage by the Lady of the Lake, it remained trapped.

  The last ship of the fleet.

  Damselfly rarely left the castle so she had never really understood the effects that the Fairy King had wrought by stopping time. Without a change from day to night or season to season, many of the plants were failing or lost altogether. Animals struggled to adapt. The once abundant fields were now sparse and even the skies above seemed eerily silent. While everyone else watched the extravagant parade, Damselfly looked at the kingdom and wondered what would happen to them if time did not return.

  “Look at the horses,” Queen Etherelle cried, caught up in the pageantry. “There is your father’s horse Bolt.”

  “Where is Daddy?” Damselfly asked.

  “He is sorry to miss the parade but he promised to make dinner.”

  Damselfly was not convinced by her mother’s words as her father had been breaking a lot of promises lately. It never used to be that way when Uncle Abeldine was king though recently her father had not been himself. The whole castle had been involved in the parade; they had enjoyed the revelry and opportunity to share their talents. Now, though, with proceedings coming to an end, they all felt a sense of foreboding about what would happen next: night would not come and many of them had forgotten what rain smelt like. The sun remained setting in the west yet refused to move any further. It provided a diluted light and insufficient heat upon Thronegarden which slowly withered.

  “Damselfly, choose one present to take home with us and the rest will be brought up later,” the queen explained.

  During the parade dozens of presents had been offered to the princess on her birthday, from new shoes to a tiara. There was a small treasure trove of items spread out before them on the grass. Every craftsman or designer proud enough to be chosen to present their gift to the princess held their breath as she deliberated over which one was her favourite. The person responsible for the princess’s favourite gift would not only have a great story to tell, they would be rewarded with increased reputation and fame.