“I am Clarissa—senior Swan Maiden, as I have been cursed the longest,” said the lone redhead. Her wavy hair cascaded over the shoulders of her white dress and cloak like red syrup rippling over a scoop of vanilla ice cream. “This is Amber, Derry, Janette, and Lucy.”
“We asked Brinkley to bring us to speak with you,” Clarissa said to me, alluding to the wing-armed Swan Man. “You are the first hero in a long time to come to this lake and not . . .”
“Be a jerk?” I finished.
She smiled. “Something like that. Anyway, we want to thank you for leaving us be.”
“It’s okay,” I replied. “And I’m sorry you’re stuck like this. You must get really bored.”
Clarissa sighed. “It’s not so bad. Von Rothbart took away our freedom, and during the day we have to be birds, but once the sun goes down we do more than simply bathe in the lake. We pursue our interests from before we were cursed. Our Swan Men have kept this castle stocked with everything we need.” She started gesturing to the individual girls. “Amber here studies law, Derry is a brilliant pastry chef, Janette plays the violin, Lucy likes to dance, and I am learning to be an herbalist.”
“I have a question,” Mauvrey said, stepping forward. “Do you have any idea how to end your curse? I do not mean getting married and being in pain forever. Is there a way to break the enchantment Von Rothbart put on you entirely? All darkness has a counterbalance of light. I know that it was difficult to discover the cure for my curse, but Daniel and several other heroes I know banded together to do it.”
“There may be,” Amber replied. “That is actually the other reason we wanted to speak to this hero. We hoped he could help us.”
I looked at the Swan Maidens. “I’m listening.”
“Our lake has a spirit guardian,” Clarissa explained. “She has not risen since the last hero with noble intentions tried to free one of our Swan Sisters from this life, as Mauvrey has suggested is possible. This Swan Maiden was a princess named Odette. The hero we speak of was a prince who truly fell in love with Odette, and she fell in love with him. He wanted to spend eternity with her but not at the cost of causing her pain forever. Our lake’s spirit guardian rose and told him that to break Odette’s curse, he must demonstrate his love for her in front of his whole kingdom. The prince planned a ball to do just that, and Odette was meant to meet him there. However, Von Rothbart captured her and sent his now-dead daughter in magical disguise. The prince mistakenly proposed to her and when he did, Odette’s heart broke, which caused her curse to warp and she became a swan permanently. The prince only realized his mistake when it was too late. He went to Von Rothbart’s castle to reclaim Odette, but the prince and the princess were never seen again and have been presumed dead for years.”
“That’s terrible . . .” I said. “But how do I come into play?”
“Talk to our lake’s spirit guardian,” Derry chimed in. “She only appears for the worthiest of heroes. If she rises for you, perhaps you can ask her what happened to Odette, and find out if there is any other way to break our curse aside from true love.” I stared at them, caught off guard. I knew heroes should help others whenever possible, but I had a deadline. My next flame was out there and we had to get to it before Von Rothbart did. What if this lake spirit asked me to perform another crazy quest for these girls that waylaid my mission? It might be rude, but I kind of didn’t have time for this.
Unfortunately, as I opened my mouth to voice this, I looked a little too long into the girls’ hopeful eyes. Dang it. I had to help them.
For one, the swans were lending us their magic feather cloaks, cutting half a day off our journey. We owed them. Two, how could I not? Despite literally just meeting them, I found—to my surprise—that I cared about what happened to them. I guess Knight and Jason and my other friends had rubbed off on me. It was a frustrating, risky thing to care about innocent people, but after so much time around such compassionate heroes, it seemed like I now lacked the ability to turn off that quality.
Hopefully talking to this lake guardian would be swift.
“I can try,” I said to the Swan Maidens. “Which way to the spirit?”
he Swan Maidens and the Swan Men escorted my friends and I outside the castle to where the lake lapped the shore.
“We must leave you here,” Clarissa said. “The lake guardian will not rise for us. Run your hand on the surface of the water. If she sees pure intentions in your soul, she will show herself. If not, we have wasted our time and hope.”
“That’s encouraging,” I said.
The Swan Maidens and Swan Men returned to the castle.
Kai came up beside me. “We shouldn’t be wasting our time on this. At the end of the day you could turn to stone. Our time is precious.”
“I know,” I said. “But I have to help them if they’re helping us.”
“Why?” Kai asked. “We have these cloaks.” She gestured to the feathered garment bundled in her arms. “We could just leave now and get the flame. Their curse is their problem.”
“If we all thought that way then Mauvrey and Mark would still be trapped in Nightmare,” SJ said. “Although logically we should not waste time, I have learned from our quests that you have no idea what good can come from being selfless. Doing what is right matters more than doing what is convenient. I feel that way, and clearly so does Daniel.”
“How would you know what Daniel feels?” Kai faced her, arms crossed. “You think having a few bonding moments on quests means you know him? You don’t.”
“Oh, and I suppose you do?” SJ challenged.
“Of course. You’ve been in his life for a year. I’ve been there for all of it. He’s only doing this because he wants to fit the hero mold that you, Crisa, and the others play into. Someone has to have the courage to tell him that he doesn’t have to be the same. He can stay true to his character.”
“Does he know yours?”
The two glared at each other.
All right, this just got notably more tense and awkward.
“Hey, I don’t know what’s going on with the two of you,” I said, coming between them. “But unless you want to share with the class, can we focus?”
SJ looked like she really wanted to say something, but she held her tongue. “Now is not the time.”
She and Kai backed away from each other. Something was wrong there, and maybe I could ask Mauvrey, who’d been staying out of it, about it later. For now, lake guardian.
“Can you hold my swan shirt?” I asked Kai, passing her my feathered tee.
She accepted the shirt and I walked toward the lake, knelt, and placed my hand on the surface of the water. It was surprisingly warm. After a moment, the water around my hand started to bubble like liquid in a boiling kettle.
I leapt back, my hand red from the heat. The middle of the lake started to bubble and steam. It churned up like an angry whirlpool. Then, from within that disturbance, a specter rose. She was translucent blue with dark, flowing hair and black holes for eyes. While she had the face and torso of a woman, her lower half was like the tail of a giant tadpole. Ghostly wings with sharp points sprouted from her back and dripped water continuously.
I glanced at SJ, who stood at my side. “She looks so much like the Lady of the Lake from Avalon. Minus the tadpole body and wings.”
“They are bound to share similarities. They are both Undines,” SJ replied. “Elemental beings associated with water.”
“Undines take the form of female spirits and guard sacred rivers, lakes, and even the occasional well,” Mauvrey added, coming closer in awe. “Mermaids are thought to be descended from them.”
We looked at her.
“What?” Mauvrey shrugged. “SJ may be top of our class, but I told you Tara paid attention in school too.”
“No hero has approached Swan Lake for some time,” the specter said, gliding forward. She spoke with the same multilayered voice as the Lady of the Lake. It was like the echo of a dozen different women speaking at onc
e. She paused in front of us, floating above the shoreline. “I am Melior, Lady of Swan Lake.”
I tilted my head. “Do all Undines have that title? We met the Lady of the Lake at the Isle of Avalon.”
“The spirit you speak of is the eldest Undine, and therefore she is the original Lady of the Lake. All my sisters share such a title because we protect the sacred waters we are charged with. Before Von Rothbart desecrated this water with his cursed birds, Swan Lake was a paradise where maidens could become swans at their leisure. It was a way for them to escape and fly away—both literally and figuratively—from the sexist oppression that consumed their lives in old Camelot. Now then, how may I serve you, noble hero?”
“The swan princess called Odette,” I said. “Can you tell me what happened to her? And can you tell us how the remaining Swan Maidens can break their curse permanently?”
Melior didn’t say anything for a moment. Then she lifted a hand and beckoned me forward with her finger. “Come closer,” she said.
I was a bit unnerved—her eyes were like empty sockets—but I stepped forward anyway. Melior put her pointer finger to my forehead. Though she was a spirit, I felt her touch. Her ice-cold finger sent a shiver down my entire body and my eyes glazed over. I started to see visions as she spoke.
“Odette and her prince still live,” Melior said. “A potion of Von Rothbart’s making has wiped the prince’s memory of everyone he once loved. He remains in the castle, serving as a slave to the warlock. Odette is imprisoned there as well. Only the most selfless form of love can restore the princess from the eternal swan form she is trapped in.”
My vision zoomed in on a castle tower with a diamond-shaped stained-glass window. Beneath it, the balcony doors were open and curtains flapped in the breeze.
Then I saw a swan—Odette, I assumed—trapped in a cage hanging near the ceiling of a large living room. My next view was of an older man mixing ingredients into a boiling cauldron. Von Rothbart, I guess.
My mind wandered out of the potions lab and traveled down a stretch of hallway lined with cages. The vision shifted to a meek man crouched on the floor and scrubbing it desperately. This guy looked seriously beaten down by life. Though his clothes were tattered, faded golden emblems on the fabric clued me in that he must’ve been the prince.
“While a public declaration of true love can break the spell of the Swan Maidens individually”—images of swans consumed by cyclones of light filled my mind—“only that same act of love that will free Odette can be transferred to another form that will end the curse of Swan Lake entirely.”
The clearest vision yet overtook my brain: the five Swan Maidens I’d met stood in the shallows of the lake holding hands. In the background, Von Rothbart’s body floated over the water. The sky was light gray tinged with pink and orange like sunrise was about to break.
My vision returned to normal and I saw Melior had moved away. “But what does that mean?” I asked.
“A hero would not be deemed as such if others solved his problems for him,” Melior responded, continuing to float backward. “Trust your instincts. Your flame, the freedom of the Swan Maidens, and your own freedom from the darkness that holds you back, are all connected. Good luck.”
When she reached the churning whirlpool, the water tightened into a funnel and engulfed her. There was a big splash and she was gone. The lake became peaceful and the atmosphere quiet once again.
“She’s as charismatic as her sister in Avalon,” I commented dryly, turning to my friends. “What do you think she means by the darkness that holds me back?”
“How would we know?” Mauvrey responded. “You are not exactly an open book.”
I looked at her in surprise. “What?”
Mauvrey bit her lip and thought on her words carefully. “I can tell you are kind and honorable, Daniel, but you are quite . . . guarded. As a result, I do not have a strong sense of who you are.”
“Mauvrey, we just met a month ago. It’s not like we’ve spent a lot of time getting to know each other.”
“True. But unlike most of the others—SJ, Jason, Javier, and so on—you seem to avoid opportunities to get to know me or let me get to know you.”
I blinked. I couldn’t believe another person was calling me on this.
I looked over at SJ. “Do you think that?”
She sighed. “You have a lot of strong suits, Daniel. But sharing how you feel is not one of them. Think about the way you and Crisa were in the beginning. Think of how much sooner you could have become friends if you had not had your walls up so high. For a more recent example, look at what you and I just went through in Xanadu. I am so happy to have reached this new place in our relationship, but do you really think it should have taken this long for us to connect like that? After everything we have been through together?”
It felt like a punch in the lung, like I’d been partially deflated.
“I am sincerely not trying to insult you,” Mauvrey said, remorse in her voice. “But that is honestly how you are. Given that, I doubt SJ and I will be able to help you decipher what Melior meant. Only perhaps Kai could offer some insight. As she said, she has known you the longest.”
I turned to my girlfriend.
“I’m sorry. I don’t have the answer to this either,” she said. “You have a lot of darkness in your past, Dani, but I am not sure how that connects to the Midnight Law flame and freeing the Swan Maidens. I would help if I could, but Melior’s riddle doesn’t make sense to me.”
SJ put her hand on my arm. “Let us go inside and speak to the swans about what we have learned. We can figure out how to break their curse at a later time.”
I nodded and tried to push aside the frustration, confusion, remorse, and several other emotions I regularly tried to block out. With heaviness in my soul, and at a loss for what else to do, I soldiered up the embankment.
The Swan Men had a rule about ladies changing in private. Even though my friends were only putting on cloaks and I was swapping shirts, our hosts asked we do so in separate bedrooms. It seemed like overkill, but whatever made them happy.
I placed my sword sheath on the oak end table and took off my jacket and shirt. Then I picked up my white feather tee and slid it on, leaving the top button undone as instructed. I turned to face the mirror in the bedroom.
Hm. It could’ve been worse. I didn’t look like a chicken or a showgirl, which felt like a sizeable risk when putting on clothes made from feathers.
The door to the bedroom opened and Kai came in, black-feathered cloak in her arms.
“Hey,” I said. “I thought you were going to change in the room across the hall.”
“The Swan Men are too conservative,” she replied, shutting the door. “I don’t see what the big deal is.”
“I agree, but they’re our hosts. I think we should at least try to respect their rules.”
“Calm down. You used to be happy when I would sneak out of my room to see you.”
Kai and I were finally in a good place compared with earlier today. I wasn’t in the mood to argue with her again, so I swallowed my response as she lay her cloak on the emerald green sofa. The couch matched the canopy bed. They were the only items of color in the stone room. Even the various floral works of art hanging on the walls were painted in shades of gray.
Kai came over to stand next to me. She met my eyes in the mirror as she put an arm around my waist. “Well, it’s official. No matter what you wear, you’re still the hottest hero in any realm.”
I felt her hand slink inside my shirt. Her fingers grazed my spine. For a second I got distracted, then something happened and I backed away hastily. “Um, I should go see if SJ and Mauvrey are ready.”
What was that? Kai’s touch had always been something I craved. Just now it was like a shiver or small shock had struck me.
I got my sword sheath from the table.
Kai huffed indignantly and went back over to her swan cloak, shaking it out. “You don’t need to try so hard, Daniel. Thos
e two clearly aren’t used to feeling close to you. If your instincts have told you not to lower your walls to them before then don’t try and force it now just to appease them.”
I frowned, my conscience (and regret) snapping at the back of my mind. “Kai, do you think I’m too closed off to people?” I asked as I put on my jacket.
She slid her hands through the arms of her feathered cloak, then lifted her hair free. “Yes, of course you are.”
Her casual tone surprised me.
“You don’t think there’s something wrong with that?”
“No,” she said, beginning to tie the satin ribbons on the front of the cloak. “Why would you want to let a lot of people in? Why would anyone? Most people are terrible and can’t be trusted. It’s simpler to stick with yourself, and maybe a couple of choice people who understand you. Besides . . .” She finished fastening her cloak and approached me again. “You have every reason to be closed off.”
We stood in the reflection of the mirror. Our swan garments made us seem like stark opposites—an elaborate black swan squaring off with a simple white one.
Kai took my hands in hers. “Your family died when you were very young, Daniel. You lost the people you loved most. I know how much pain has haunted you since then, so I completely understand and accept your natural guardedness. Why open yourself up to the risk of that pain for more people than absolutely necessary?”
“But who’s to say how many people are absolutely necessary in life?” I argued. “I have lived super guarded for a long time, but I feel like I’ve become a better version of myself with the addition of every friend and ally in the past year. Clearly I still have a long way to go, but maybe I should lean into the change I’ve started and truly commit to being a new version of myself.”
“You don’t need to be anything new, Dani. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. And as far as who is absolutely necessary . . .” She lifted one of my hands and put it against my chest then her own. “There’s you and me. That’s the way it has been since we were kids. I am helping you save Crisa so your conscience can be clear and you can move on with your life, but I love you just the way you are.”
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