By Katerina Martinez
A shadow chased me as I soared through the clouds, and it was gaining on me. I could see it in my periphery as the sun broke past me in brilliant shafts of golden light, but I wasn’t afraid of the shadow. The thought of it near me filled me with comfort, and even joy. It had been there my whole life. It wasn’t my own shadow, but it may as well have been.
I’d never seen its body. Even now, it was only a dark splotch against an otherwise gorgeously bright morning sky. If I had to guess at what it really looked like, I wouldn’t have been able to make my mind up. It changed its shape just as easily as the clouds themselves did. Right now, though? It felt like I was being chased by a pet dragon.
Grinning over my shoulder, I ducked down, folded my kithe at my back, and dove deeper into the puffy white clouds. The dragon dove behind me, its movements so quiet I almost couldn’t hear them—wouldn’t have been able to hear them if I didn’t know what to listen out for.
Underneath me, the clouds parted to reveal a glittering, floating city of glass and stone. Clouds snaked between buildings like tendrils as they passed through it. Tall spires covered in massive glass panes reached into the sky from the center of the castle sitting at the city’s highest point. Beside it, a huge crystal dome glimmered against the morning sunlight.
I dove for the dome, skimming along its reflective top and catching sight of myself against its panes. My wings were white, long, and slender; agile, but also muscular in all the right places. My feathers ruffled with the wind, my white hair pulling along with it. As I glided along the dome’s surface, I reached with my fingertips for the glass and let them skim across it until I caught sight of the shadow at my back again.
“You really wanna play today, don’t you?” I called back, and then I made a hard right toward the castle, my wings carrying me swiftly towards it.
Gracefully I moved between the towers, the spires, beneath its bridges and around its parapets. Winged guards wearing suits of golden armor stared up at me as I sped above them at breakneck speeds. If I had been anybody else, they would’ve taken to the skies behind me and tried to catch me. Try being the word. Not that they could catch me if they wanted to; the guards were slow, and I was fast. Really fast.
But being the Royal Princess of this place had its perks.
When I reached the castle’s central spire, I angled myself down and spun around and around it as I dove, going lower and lower. The wind rushed past my ears, and soon I started to hear sounds of people talking on the streets. The smell of freshly baked, fruit filled pies reached my nose, and my mouth watered, but I couldn’t stop.
Not now.
Pulling up only a few feet from the ground, I pushed through a wide street and went speeding through the gates and bursting into the city proper. People, winged people like me, watched as I soared above them. Many of them pointed and cheered at their princess as she rushed past them like a whisper. Others watched. Others still got on with their daily business, setting up street carts and preparing their shops.
Rising above street level I caught sight of the town center; a massive, circular garden with a pristine fountain at its heart. I made a dash for it, noting the position of the shadow at my back. It hadn’t slowed down, but it also hadn’t made any progress toward me. Sometimes I wondered if it would let me stay ahead of it, and that would sting a little. It took the edge of our little chasing games.
But I didn’t dwell on that. Instead I made tracks toward the green city center, listening to the people beneath me call my name and cheer. They loved me. They loved us, our family. We treated them right, and they loved us. That was something I could be proud of. In a world of tyrants and monsters, we were a shining beacon of what was good and fair.
A psychic tug pulled at the back of my mind.
Mother.
Damn.
I took a hard right at the fountain, making such a sharp turn that I almost went right through it. I’d avoided a direct hit, but I’d also managed to soak my entire left side in the process. She’s gonna kill me, I thought, as I raced toward the castle again. I found her waiting on one of the central spire’s balconies, her wings folded at her back, her arms crossed in front of her chest.
She was beautiful, my mother. Her hair was as white as mine, her skin sun-kissed and always seeming to glow, her eyes as blue as the summer sky. To someone meeting her for the first time, she’d look downright delicate with those fair features of hers. They’d think her meek, and defenseless.
I knew, though, and so did everyone else in the kingdom, that she didn’t need the two guards stationed on either side of her. She was a fierce warrior, a renowned sorceress, and easily the most intelligent person under the twin moons. If I grew up to be even half the woman she was, I would count myself lucky.
By the look on her face, though, I could tell I probably wouldn’t even come close to her level of awesome; she didn’t get to where she was by goofing around.
“You’re late,” she said, as soon as my feet touched the ground. “And you’re soaked… what happened?”
“Sorry,” I said, padding down my wet side. “I got held up.”
A shadow passed overhead, darkening the sky above us. It was gone in an instant, and the sunlight returned. My mother frowned, disapprovingly. “You understand this is the most important period in your life?” she asked.
I stared at my feet. “I do.”
“Then maybe next time you won’t be late. You need to take this seriously.”
“I will, mother. I promise.”
“Good.” She angled my chin up with two fingers and smiled at me. “Did it catch you?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“That’s my girl. Come with me.”
The guards stepped aside as my mother headed toward the opening into the castle proper. They followed us as soon as we were through the threshold. Inside, there was only light. The walls were all made of glass to let the sunlight pour in. On the ceiling was a huge mural depicting a gorgeous sunrise over a shining dome and castle. The words “With each new dawn, hope” were inscribed into a painted banner along the foot of the castle.
“Have you been studying your recitations?” my mother asked.
“Uh… yeah, sure,” I lied. I’d skimmed over them, but there were pages and pages to memorize.
“You’re a terrible liar.”
“Or maybe you’re just really good at catching lies?”
“Maybe a little bit of both.”
“Are all those words really so… necessary?”
“One day you are going to understand that words have power, real power.”
“You’re talking about magic, right?”
My mother and I reached another balcony on the other side of the tower. Without preparing me for it, she took to the air, and I followed—as did the two guards, their cloaks flapping with the wind. “I am talking about magic, yes,” my mother said, her voice effortlessly rising above the wind. “But I am also talking about people. The people will want to hear you speak, they will want to know you are intelligent and capable, a ruler they can trust.”
Ruler. Hearing the word made my skin tingle with excitement. Ruler. I was going to rule one day, and one day soon. Because that’s what happened to princesses—they grew up and became queens of their kingdoms.
The first time I’d been introduced to the idea of being queen, I’d thought I’d have to get married off to some other prince before I could inherit my title. But no, that wasn’t how things worked here. I was going to inherit the kingdom whether I was married or not, and that already was enough to make me feel powerful.
Never mind that the title came with all the perks I had now, and a great deal more. It also came with responsibilities, though. Responsibility not only to the people in my kingdom, but also… to the stones. That was where my mother was taking me to now. The stone room. Because there was a condition to my becoming queen, and it was heavier than having to marry some guy.
Even kno
wing that guy couldn’t be the guy I loved… Draven.
I thought of him as my mother and I descended upon another balcony. The guards landed beside us and proceeded to open the doors for us to walk through into the cold chamber beyond them. All the while, Draven played on my mind. His jet-black hair, the sharp features of his face, his broad shoulders. I couldn’t shake him even as I approached the huge set of doors protecting the stones from the outside world.
“Are you listening to me?” my mother asked.
“Listening? Yeah, totally… what did you say?”
Mother sighed and paused when she reached the doors. She turned to the side and looked at me, her eyes soft and warm. A mother’s eyes. “I know this is going to feel like the weight of the world,” she said, “I remember what it was like for me when I turned eighteen and the stones became mine to watch over. I know what you’re feeling, and I understand.”
“I’m sure you do, and I don’t want you to feel like I’m not ready. I’m ready. I just wish there weren’t so many secrets being kept from me.”
“The secrets have been kept for your own protection. I always worried if you knew what was being asked of you, you’d flee the city well before your eighteenth birthday and we’d never see you again.”
“I think you forget I’m your daughter.”
“And your father’s daughter. You’ve certainly inherited a degree of stubbornness.”
“Yeah, doubled. You’re both as stubborn as each other. I don’t want to say you’ve created a monster, but…”
My mother smiled, and her smile filled me with the kind of warmth that washed away my anxieties, my worries. Nothing could hurt me as long as she was here. I was invincible. “We can only hope your little brother doesn’t turn out like you. I fear you’d need to live a world apart to stop from constantly locking horns.”
She nodded at the guards, who between the two of them proceeded to open the doors. I’d watched my father open them with magic before, this wasn’t the first time I’d been here. Something felt different this time, though, even if I couldn’t quite put my finger on what, or why. As soon as the doors opened, and I saw the little stones shining in the dark, whatever else I’d been thinking about melted away.
The stone room was kept dark always. It was the one place in the world that always got my hackles rising. The skin on the nape of my neck prickled as I approached the mouth of that dark chamber, but the closer I got to the center of the room, the brighter my hair seemed to shine. My mother’s, too.
Between the two of us, we beat back the darkness until it was confined to the deepest recesses of the stone chamber. And there were the stones, sitting on a marble platform, cushioned in soft velvet. There were five in all; a golden one, a blue one, a green one, a purple one, and one that appeared both red and black at the same time. They weren’t stones at all, but crystals, and each seemed like they had fireflies floating around inside them.
My mother examined them for a long moment, studying them from where she stood. She stretched her arm toward me and bid me to come a little closer to her. I hadn’t noticed until that moment, but I was standing at least two arms-lengths away from the podium. Swallowing hard, I approached the stones, giving the red and black one a wide berth.
“What are they?” I finally ventured.
“A long time ago, Aevian kind made pacts with many of the different Gods of this world. We weren’t the only ones who could reach out and speak to the divine, but we were the only ones who had been tasked by the Gods in return for their patronage. Each of these stones was a gift from a God with whom we have made a pact, and they represent different things.”
I cast my gaze across the assembled stones, watching the light bounce around inside of each. I remembered seeing them before as a child. I’d always known our family had them, I’d always known one day they’d be mine, but I’d never asked what they were.
“What do they represent?” I asked.
“This one,” she said, pointing at the blue stone, “A gift from the Goddess of the Air. To her we pledged we would keep the skies safe for all those below, and she in turn promised we would not be harmed should we fall from a great distance.”
“Why do I feel… good… looking at it?”
“Each of these stones resonates with an emotion. This blue stone represents Hope.” She pointed at the golden stone. “Courage. A gift from the Sun God himself.” She pointed at a purple stone, and called it Tenacity. Then Wisdom, the green stone.
I pointed at the red and black one. “I don’t feel great about that one.”
She took in a breath. “Wrath… a gift from the Fire God.”
“Wrath? That’s a negative emotion. Why would we want that…?”
“Because with all the stones together, our kind can rule over our world. Four stones filled with positive emotions and concepts, one pulsing with negativity to balance the others out. All necessary. Individually the stones are powerful, but together they allow us to use the power that is within our blood, and ours alone.”
I watched her eyes carefully, not noticing that my heart was pounding hard from all of this. It was a lot to take in, a lot to process. I’d seen the stones before, I’d been in this room. My father had shown them to me when I was younger, and I’d known they belonged to my family, but that was it. The stones didn’t really affect my life one way or another, but they were going to soon… on my eighteenth birthday, in fact.
They would belong to me.
“The power within our blood…” my words trailed off. “What power is that?”
A soft smile touched her lips. “The Gods didn’t charge the entire Aevian race with maintaining the peace in our world. Only us.”
“Us?”
“Me. You. Your children. Their children. The stones will pass to you when you come of age. You will say the words, and they will bring you closer to the Gods than you have ever been, and there you’ll sign your name like others have before you. Like I have.”
I swallowed hard. “And then what?”
“Then… we’ll see.”
I frowned at her. “That’s it?”
“For now. You have to memorize your speech, and the incantation to unlock the magic of the stones. We wouldn’t want for you to be embarrassed on your birthday, would we?”
I rolled my eyes. “No… I still have a couple of days, though.”
“You do, but this isn’t one of those occasions where you should play first and work later. Work now, Seline. Please. This is important.”
“Alright… I’ll go back to my room and study them right now.”
She brushed a few loose strands of hair out of my face and tucked them behind my ear, then she cupped my cheek with her hand. It was warm and soft. I shut my eyes. “Good girl… I’ll come and get you for supper.”
Nodding, I moved away from her and headed out of the stone room. One of the guards followed me until I reached the balcony. Without wasting another second, I took to the skies on my white wings and made a straight-shot to the castle. Maybe the gravity of what my mom had told me hadn’t quite hit me yet. Maybe I didn’t think it was all going to be nearly as real as she’d said.
Metaphors and exaggerations. That had to be it.
Meeting the Gods? Signing my name under my mom’s? The Gods were real enough, sure, but nobody ever saw them. Not since the fracturing. Not since the days when sorcerers had some real power in their fingertips. The thought that I was going to meet them in only a couple of days was just… too much for me to process.
Besides I had more important things to do, like memorize my royal birthday speech and the incantation I’d be performing in front of the entire royal court. That… and I was seeing Draven tonight for the first time in almost over a full week. It was the longest we’d gone without seeing each other in months, and my stomach fluttered at the thought of getting to spend some time with him before my big day.
Seeing him again would definitely help me get through it a lot better.
Ni
ght fell around the city like a curtain, the glittering sunlight replaced by scattered torchlights. I watched the change from my balcony every night, as the sun set, the way the torches would come to life one after the other. It was like a dance, a fluid ballet of light and darkness, the final note struck by the crystal dome—the last light to come alive at night.
It was beautiful, the way the light radiated out from inside. It wasn’t torches that caused this, or even magic, but flowers. Huge, bulbous flowers that, when they bloomed, released large bulbs that would light up. I rarely got to watch them open at night, but I always stood and watched result of their waking. This warm, incandescent glow that kept the castle sparkling even after the sun had gone.
I took a deep breath of evening air and exhaled it. We were in the height of summer, where the nights were warm enough that only light clothing was needed, but cool enough that soft breezes could roam. Then, slowly, I fastened the necklace Draven had given me to my neck; a gift he’d surprised me with early in our relationship.
It was only a slight thing, thin and silver, but the jewel at its crest was magnificent. A small crescent filled with silvery light. It represented one of our moons, Nuruna. My favorite of the two. She was the smaller one, but she was closest to the sun, and shone the brightest of the two. The other, Kennia, was larger, and usually hung in Nuruna’s shadow.
Draven had another crescent moon pendant he’d made for himself. Together, they were the twin moons, forever bound to walk the stars alongside each other. One drinking in the sunlight, the other enjoying the shadows. Nuruna and Kennia. Seline and Draven. Yeah, for all his swordsmanship and his muscles, he was a romantic, and I loved every bit of it.
Once all the lights in the city had sprung up from nothing, I took a step away from the balcony edge, unfurled my wings, and then took a running jump over the edge. The wind whooshed past my ears, invisible fingers moving through my hair, my wings. I shut my eyes and enjoyed the sensation of falling, a feeling most other creatures probably wouldn’t enjoy. Then, when I was close enough to the ground, I straightened myself out, bid my wings to beat, and began my flight through the castle.
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