by A. M. Miller
“She’s sorry for scaring you and she wants us to try it again,” Raven said to them.
“She’s sorry? The little demon almost gives us a heart attack and all she can say is sorry?” Tiffany glared at the space behind Raven.
“I’m not really sure what’s happening here but she seems to have some answers. Please, Tiffany.” Raven held out her hand again. Tiffany hesitated a moment before grabbing on to Raven’s hand. Raven felt relieved the moment their hands touched. She didn’t think she could face this alone.
“Come on, Dion. This crazy train ain't leavin without you,” Tiffany said looking down at Dion.
Dion stood up. His unsure gaze shifted between Tiffany and Raven. Out of all of them Dion was probably the most rational. He had what most would consider a reasonable fear of the unknown. Raven couldn’t blame him for being hesitant.
There was a change in the air, a sense of stepping into the unknown. Very few moments had the ability to completely change the course of life. Raven got the feeling that this was one of those moments.
“Would you stop being a baby and put your big boy pants on. Unless, of course, you want Raven to have to do this alone.”
Raven looked at Tiffany. She stood with her hand against her hip, eyeing Dion. Raven though back to what she’d seen inside of Tiffany’s mind. The way Dion looked and how he held onto the other Raven’s hand left a strange feeling inside of her heart. Before she’d thought Tiffany had been just teasing when she talked about Dion and her getting together. Now she questioned what was hidden in the undertones.
Dion narrowed his eyes at Tiffany and frowned. When he glanced at Raven his gaze softened.
Not good, the voice in the back of her head said, but Raven pushed the thought away. She sent a silent plea Dion’s way. She needed him for this. Deep down she knew she couldn’t do this without him.
Dion shook his head and placed his hand on top of Tiffany’s. “Fine, let's do this.”
The ring glowed again, wrapping their hands together just as it had before. They looked up at each other, understanding that this moment meant something more. A pack, sealed with the touching of hands.
Guilt swelled up inside of Raven’s chest. She knew that whatever happened in the future, any shortcomings or mistakes would tie back to this moment.
“Hello.”
The girl spoke from behind them. They all turned to look at her. She stood in front of them different than before. Her face was painted and hair pulled back. For the first time, Raven could sense an incredible amount of power inside the girl. It seemed to radiate off of her. She was something to be feared.
The girl folded her hands in front of her. “I am Lulana, fallen Queen of Heart, and I’m here to help you destroy the greatest evil this world has ever known.”
41
The Heart Queensland
The Heart library was located inside the castle walls. It wasn’t as grand as some of the White’s libraries, but it held it’s fair share of information. The shelves stretched high above Lu and smelled of dust and yellowing paper. She probably wouldn’t have known how to find it were it not for Leo. The library wasn’t a place many women ventured.
As a princess, Lu’s time was expected to be spent training, not reading. For the most part, the unspoken rule hadn’t bothered her. Running around and fighting was much more fun than maintaining her studies.
There’s power in keeping you ignorant. Meshi’s words bothered her. Leo had taught Lu how to read and write, but she never considered the oddity of not being given a tutor. Even a princess should have been taught the basics.
Lu caught the attention of a few scholars as she passed down the aisles. Their eyes watched her, not daring to speak a word but sending silent messages that she was not welcomed.
“Excuse me.” Lu looked down the aisles at one of the robed men.
He looked up from his book, eyes widening. “My queen?”
“Blessed morn.”
“Blessed morn,” The man repeated with a bow of his head. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m looking for something, but I don’t know where to start.”
“You are looking for something in here?” The man sounded flabbergasted.
“Yes, here. Why else would I ask?”
The man cleared his throat. “Well, um, what are you looking for?”
“A book.”
“A book?” The man’s brows rose into his hairline.
Lu did her best to keep the frustration off of her face. She may have been a woman but she was also his queen. It wasn’t like she wanted to be here surrounded by dusty old men and even dustier books, but she was tired of sitting around waiting for new information to turn up.
“My queen?” A voice called from behind.
Lu turned to see Tomerin standing behind her. They held a bundle of books against their hip and a candle in their hand. Lu’s eyes widened to see them standing there. She’d not seen them since their mission.
Tomerin looked different out of their uniform. The gray tunic they wore stretched down to their calves and their curly hair was pushed back by a simple silver pin revealing more of their oval face.
Tomerin leaned slightly to the side looking over Lu’s shoulder. “If you seek assistance, know that the minds of these men are often feeble and prone to confusion.”
Lu glanced over her shoulder at the man. He bowed his head low but did not say anything.
Lu looked back at Tomerin. Their eyes met and she saw a frustration in their eyes she understood perfectly. A gilu’s place inside the library was about as contradictory as a queen’s. The rules were neither forbidding nor welcoming.
“What book are you looking for?” Tomerin asked.
Lu moved closer to them. She glanced down at the books in their hands. The titles were on plants and herbs. She looked back up at their brown eyes assessing the risk. The less people who knew about what she was up to the better.
Tomerin waited patiently for her response. Their eyes did not plead for her trust or guarder any truths; they simply stared back at her.
“Research,” Lu said. She glanced at the shelves that surrounded them. “I wish to know more about our enemies.”
“’To know your enemy is to know yourself’ Dona Cavila, The Tale of Despriter.” Tomerin held out their candle for Lu to hold. They turned and began walking. “He believed evil was individually defined. He was sentenced to fifty lashes when it was discovered that he was running an underground gambling house to fund his literature.”
Lu quickly followed behind gripping the candleholder with her fingers. “The enemy I look for hides beyond the wall.”
“Ah, there is much to be learned on the subject, and yet information is so very scarce. Why do you think that is?” Tomerin glanced back over their shoulder at Lu.
Lu stared back at them not knowing what to say.
Tomerin didn’t wait for her answer. “Though perhaps it is for the best. Most do not realize that even knowledge comes with a cost.”
They moved deeper into the library. Lu noticed how the lighting seemed to dim as they walked. There were the same amount of candelabras but the glow of the flame seemed to fade.
The darkness devours here. The thought chilled Lu.
They stopped near the back of the library. Tomerin gestured down the hall. “Here we are, my queen. All the information the Heart holds on the orcestral forest is inside these shelves.”
Lu’s eyes scanned the shelves of books. She plucked one randomly from the shelf. The book was bound in worn brown leather. Turning it over she looked at the title. Alahin’s Labyrinth, the story of the high priest’s holy journey through the orcestral forest. The only reason she knew about it was because of the passages Leo used to read to her.
Lu glanced back at Tomerin. “Thank you.”
Tomerin bowed their head.
Lu held out the candleholder to them but they shook their head.
“Keep it. I have what I need.” Tomerin shifted the books
against their chest.
Lu nodded looking down at the candle. She took a breath and looked back at Tomerin. “About the mission, I…I just wanted to thank you again, all of you.”
She’d told Domicin she’d visit but somehow it slipped her mind again. Looking at Tomerin she felt the shame of her absence.
“Tyla misses you. She is excited to learn more about our new queen. Though, honestly, many things excite her. She is troublesome to understand at times, but worth the try.”
Lu thought of the multi-colored eyed girl. From what she’d seen the two were rather opposite, and yet, when Tomerin spoke of her, there was a softness in their eyes. It made Lu jealous in a way she did not fully understand. The feeling was much like when they’d first set out for their mission and Lu recognized the bond between the other members.
“There is much I must see to right now, but when I have time I’d like to sit down with all of you,” Lu said.
Tomerin offered another bow. “Thank you, my queen, but do not worry yourself too much. There will be more missions to come and through all of them we will be here for you.”
They left her alone with the shelves. Lu stood for a moment thinking of the ninth. They were interesting people, perhaps even good. She was the one that was wrong. More missions meant more death. Her duties would not disappear; the only hope was that she grow numb to them. One day she might not even see them as deaths.
Lu turned her attention back to the shelves. Walking down the aisles, she grabbed several other interesting books. When she finished she walked towards the front of the library, arms full of books.
“My Queen.”
Lu turned around and saw the same man from before standing behind her. She arched a brow at him.
“The books,” the man said with a look of alarm.
“Worry not, if I can be trusted to keep a queensland safe surely these books won’t be too much of a problem.” Lu gave the man one final smile before opening the library door. Someone was sure to hear about this, but Lu would deal with it later. For now, she had what she came for.
42
The Heart Queensland
Lu dragged one of her chairs over to her chamber window. She placed the stack of books on the ledge and settled into the chair. Grabbing the first book she prepared herself for perhaps the longest unfortunate period of study she’d ever been victim to.
The backdoor creaked open a few hours later. Eleaa stepped in holding fresh bedding. She smiled when she saw Lu. “What kind of trouble are you up to?”
“The worst kind.” Lu closed her book and rubbed her eyes.
Tomerin was right about information being scarce. The books were either filled with things she already knew or useless information. Scholars could be the strangest creatures sometimes. Their way of wording seemed almost purposely confusing. Reading through sections of the text it seemed like oracles, white ichion, and piker’s vein, were descendants of the orcestrals, which was in clear contradiction of the agreed upon fact that the land of the three queens had been cleansed.
Sections on the mid to late Merion period were even less clear. There was mention of the eleventh Heart Queen’s second naming ritual, but no clear mention of how or when the first ritual spell was broken. Everyone knew he was behind it, but the text made no point to connect the two.
Thinking about it made Lu’s head spin. She focused her research on what Leo had told her about the roses. There was a thick section in one on the toxicity of blood sap but it only listed the white rose for treatment.
Lu’s eyes hurt from reading. Written words did strange things when she tried to read them. They jumbled all around, switching places. Reading one passage took forever. Her finger tracked along each word to avoid any confusion.
“Poor thing.” Eleaa walked over to the bed and began to strip it. “You know you shouldn’t let those things fill your head with silly nonsense. Those old hajes in cloaks get to looking at those papers and think they know all there is to be known about the world.”
“They seem to know more than we ever will.”
Eleaa snorted. “If I wrote a passage that said rubbing shit on your head was the best cure for baldness and snuck it inside the shelves, half of those men be walking around with a nice stinky chocolate topping by midday.”
“But you can’t write.”
Eleaa turned around with her hand on her hip and eyes narrowed. “You know what I mean, my queen. You can’t go believing everything you read.”
“I need something to believe. I’ve spent hours looking at these and found nothing.”
“Stories, believe in the stories.”
Lu arched a brow at her maid. “Stories? Like those old tales you use to tell us.”
“Exactly.”
Lu shook her head. “I may be young, Eleaa, but not young enough to still believe those stories are real.”
“Why not? Because some man didn’t write it down and proclaim it as true?”
“No, because in those stories men talk to trees and marry them as wives.”
“They sure do.”
Lu chuckled. There was something stabilizing in Eleaa’s unchanging mannerism. So many other things in Lu’s life were different now. It was good to know that Eleaa had stayed the same.
“And what stories do you have of the blood sap?”
“Vengeance,” Eleea said.
“Vengeance?”
Eleaa nodded. “A tale of injustice and the angered tree princess Carsathia.”
Lu leaned back in her chair. “Do tell.”
There was a knock at the door before Eleaa could start her story.
“Lord Ramor is here to see her majesty,” the guards announced from outside Lu’s door.
“Let him through.” Lu looked at Eleaa and said in a softer voice, “We’ll finish later.”
Eleaa bowed and stepped out of the room through the door she came in.
Lu stood from her chair and sat down her book. The doors opened and Ramor stepped through. Two guards followed behind him carrying a wooden chest. Golden scripture adorned the top and a thick lock held it together. The guards sat the chest down in the middle of the room before turning to leave.
Ramor smiled at Lu. “Good afternoon, your majesty.”
“What is that?”
Ramor looked at the chest and then back at Lu. His smile widened. “It’s a surprise.”
“I’m generally not fond of surprises.”
Ramor’s smile faltered. He cleared his throat before speaking again, “How are you? I know the last time we talked you were feeling a bit… unsettled.”
“I’m well. What’s in the chest?” Lu asked, wasting no time. She really did hate surprises.
“Um…well…It’s a gift,” Ramor said. He was fidgeting again. He walked over to the chest and opened it. Lu stepped forward to see what was inside. One egg, about the size of her head, rested on a satin pillow. It was covered in what looked like black scales, but when Lu looked at it from a different angle the scales seemed to be a dark greenish purple.
“Is it a-“
“Jabber? Yes, it is,” Ramor answered her unspoken question.
“How did you find it?” Lu asked in amazement.
“One of the traveling priests found it in an abandoned nest. I bought it from him. I’ve been holding onto it for some time now.”
“And you’re giving it to me?”
Ramor nodded.
Lu reached into the chest and pulled out the egg. It was heavier than she anticipated. She cradled the egg in her arms, enjoying the weight of it. The egg was warm with life, almost too incredible to believe.
Judging by the weight of the egg the baby inside was sure to grow up big and strong. Most jabbers grew to be as tall as her chamber ceiling and had a wingspan as long as her dining hall. Their size and speed allowed them to cover three times the speed of the fastest horses.
They were a grand sight to behold, or at least that’s what the stories said. Lu had never seen one in real life.
/> “Do you think it is a boy or a girl?” Lu asked, looking back up at Ramor.
Ramor shrugged. “It is hard to tell when it is in egg form.”
Lu admired the shiny scales. They were absolutely beautiful. “I think it will be a girl.”
“Well, your majesty, there is only one way to find out.”
Lu looked back up at Ramor. “You want me to do it?”
“You are the only one who can. Though, we could ask The Red Queen if you’re feeling so trusting. She may let you see it for a moment before stealing it back to The Red Queensland.”
“No, you’re right.” Lu wouldn’t trust anyone with the precious egg. She was both excited and afraid. Jabbers were strong creatures but everything was vulnerable in infancy. If Lu messed this up she would never forgive herself.
“Do you think she’s ready?” Lu asked.
Ramor nodded. He placed his hand on her shoulder and guided her back over to the bed. Lu sat the egg down. She crouched so that she was eye level with the egg.
Jabbers hatched very different from other eggs. The mother jabber used mental wavelengths to communicate with their offsprings while they were still in egg form. It was similar to the way birds knew how to fly in formation but far more advance. A mother jabber had to convince the baby that it was safe enough to come out of its shell in order for it to hatch.
Lu’s great-great-grandmother had been the first to learn how to recreate the wavelength without the mother jabber. It was much like opening the third eye but required more focus. Not many could secure an egg and even less had the ability to hatch it.
Lu took a deep breath and focused on the egg. Meshi hadn’t necessarily trained her to crack open eggs but Lu had spent years stretching her mind. She imagined herself reaching past hard layers of scale, each layer harder to brake than the one before.
Lu felt for the jabber’s mind. Once inside she did not stop. She reached deeper, focusing only on the task ahead of her. The world around her faded into nothingness. It felt as though she was forcing herself through a small straw. Her head began to throb but still she did not stop.