by S R Ahuja
“So?”
“Well, I don’t know you, but do you think that sounds like you? Maybe that’s just who you are, but maybe not.”
Jade barely had time to think about it before she heard a great splash from behind her. Whirling around, she saw the ripples near the base of the waterfall from where some great thing had entered the water. A moment later, another boy’s head appeared. This boy had long dark hair that was now plastered to his face by the water. His skin was darkly tanned.
He saw Jade and Cadwr standing on the shore and immediately struck out toward them, ignoring the mermaids that had started to swarm around him the second he’d hit the water.
“Nice,” Cadwr said when the other boy had made it to the shore. “But I still won.”
The boy shook his body like a dog to rid himself of the excess water hanging to his hair and clothes. The water sprayed the other two children and made Jade shiver. He looked older even than Cadwr, maybe 12 or 13, old enough that her aunt probably wouldn’t have wanted Jade to play with him.
“Whatever,” the boy said. “You didn’t have to deal with Hugh. He started crying like a little baby when we got to the waterfall. I swear, I don’t believe you two are related. He’s such a wuss. Wouldn’t go over the fall at all. Said he’d walk down the mountain.”
“Don’t blame me for him. I wish he didn’t have to tag along with us everywhere.”
The other boy looked at Jade for the first time. “Who’s she?”
“That’s Amalthea,” Cadwr said, nodding his head in her direction. “She’s looking for adventure.”
“Adventure?” The other boy walked toward her, sizing her up. “Are you gonna be a wuss, or will you actually keep up?”
Jade stood up as straight as she could, but she was still a good foot and a half shorter than this boy. “I can keep up.”
“Yeah? ‘Cause I’ve never met a girl who actually wanted adventure. Especially a little pip-squeak like you.”
“I said I can keep up,” she repeated, looking straight into the older boy’s fierce black eyes. “You lead the way, and I’ll follow. I can do anything you two can do.”
The older boy laughed, but he softened at the same time.
“Alright, kid,” the older boy said, holding out his hand to her. “I’m Channing. And as long as I won’t have to wait around for you, I’m fine with you tagging along for some ‘adventure.’”
Jade smiled and shook the boy’s hand.
“I did not say she could ‘tag along,’” Cadwr said sourly.
At just that moment, another boy appeared from out of the mist. This boy had to be Cadwr’s brother. His hair was slightly lighter than Cadwr’s, but his eyes and facial features were exactly the same. He was also skinnier and had a look about him that said he had not been properly cared for.
“Come on, Cadwr. There’s no way she could be worse than him,” Channing said.
The skinny boy didn’t respond to the insult. He just went and stood next to Cadwr.
“Yeah, you’re right. Fine. But there’s no way we’re slowing down for you,” Cadwr said.
“Agreed,” Channing added. “Now, what are we going to do? You won, so you pick.”
Cadwr thought for a moment, and then his face lit up. “I have the perfect idea.”
“What?” Channing asked.
“We are going to catch a unicorn.”
“A unicorn?” Jade asked. “They’re real?”
All of the boys ignored her.
“How are we going to do that?” Channing asked incredulously.
“With her.” Cadwr nodded toward Jade.
“Her?” Channing asked.
“Yeah, you know the stories. Unicorn’s like sweet, innocent little girls, and they can’t resist helping one in trouble.”
“What are you talking about?” Jade tried to cut in, but once again they ignored her.
Channing smiled widely at Cadwr. “That is so perfect.”
“Just think about what we could do with a unicorn’s magic.”
“Uh, Cadwr,” the skinny boy tried to cut in, but just like with Jade, they ignored him completely.
“I bet we’ll be rewarded. My mother is going to be so pleased,” Cadwr continued.
“Cadwr,” the skinny boy said a little louder. “You know that a human can’t possess a unicorn’s magic, right? You would have to befriend the unicorn and convince it to do what you wanted, and there is no way our Mother would ever be able to get a unicorn on her side.”
“Shut up, Hugh,” Cadwr shoved his shoulder just hard enough to make Hugh stumbled backward.
“Hey,” Jade spoke up. When they ignored her again, she went and stood right in front of Cadwr, looking up defiantly into his face. “Don’t shove him. He was just trying to help you. It’s not his fault you didn’t think it through.”
Cadwr glared at her. “You’re lucky my mother taught me some manners or else you’d be on the ground.”
“Well, I don’t know what your mother taught you, but I don’t think it’s very mannerly to shove your brother and then threaten a ‘sweet, innocent little girl,’” she said, fluttering her eyelids facetiously.
Cadwr’s rage was visibly written across his face just simmering beneath the surface, ready to boil over.
“Cad,” Channing said from behind Jade’s back. She did not turn around or take her eyes off of Cadwr’s face. “Just let it go. Don’t let some little kid bother you.”
Cadwr continued to stare at Jade even as he spoke over her head to Channing. “None of it matters right now anyway because first we have to catch the beast.”
Cadwr pushed his way around Jade and started walking off into the mist with Channing. Jade and Hugh followed.
The four walked that way through the mist for quite a while. Cadwr and Channing were whispering to each other up ahead, but Jade couldn’t hear them properly, so she turned instead to the skinny boy walking beside her.
“I’m Amalthea,” she said, extending a hand to the boy.
He looked at her hand warily for a few steps before he said, “I know.”
Jade dropped her hand back to her side but continued talking to the odd boy. “How do you know?”
“Our mother told us about you,” he said, glancing briefly at Cadwr, as though to check to see if he was listening, and then back to Jade. “I’m sure Cadwr recognized you too; he was probably just too arrogant to admit it.”
“What did your mother tell you about me?”
“She said that you were here to fulfil a very old prophecy, that you were…” he trailed off and looked away from her before he finished his thought, “…that you were the princess.”
It was quiet for a minute while Jade tried to decide how she should respond to that. All she could hear was the whisper of the older boys up ahead. “Well, I guess she was right about the princess thing, but I don’t know about that other part.”
He glanced back at her face briefly before looking ahead again. “Have you met the Nine Sisters? They’re the ones who make the prophecies.”
“I think so, yeah. I met so many people my first few days here it’s hard to remember.”
“Well, you should at least know about the Nine Sisters,” he said. “The Sisters are the magical protectors of Avalon. Even Cadwr, Channing, and I know about them, and we don’t even live in Avalon.”
Jade was so shocked she stopped walking and had to hurry to catch up. “Don’t you?”
Hugh looked anxiously from her face to Cadwr’s head disappearing slowly into the fog and back like he was worried he might be saying too much, but then he continued anyway. “No, actually, we don’t. We live with our mother in Lyonés.”
“What’s Lyonés?”
“It’s the kingdom on the other side of the Fog Plains. It’s not as beautiful as Avalon, but there we’re free from the rules you have to follow.”
“Rules? What rules do I have to follow?”
“You probably don’t have any trouble following the rules. Th
ey’re pretty simple, like the laws you would have had to follow in the Northmanni World: don’t steal, don’t hurt other people or their things, don’t kill, mostly things like that. Our mother didn’t like the rule about who could and could not have magic though, so she brought us to Lyonés when we were just little kids.”
“Oh, I guess I didn’t know there were rules about who could have magic.” Jade thought for a moment, recalling something Sehali had told her earlier that day. “Is it true that that’s where all of the evil creatures live?”
Hugh shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t know for sure, but I think that is where the King sends any creatures he thinks are dangerous, but they mostly keep to themselves. Cadwr and I have never had any trouble with them before except when Cadwr goes looking for them. I don’t think they like to be disturbed.”
They continued walking in silence until Cadwr and Channing stopped abruptly. When Jade and Hugh caught up, she saw it was because they had reached the edge of the fog. When she stepped up beside Cadwr, she looked out across the kingdom she now knew was called Lyonés.
The only light came from the crescent moon high overhead. It was the same moon that had hung outside her window at the palace, but its light seemed hazy somehow like some kind of shield was blocking it. The ground was cracked and dry with no grass to speak of anywhere in Jade’s view. There was an occasional rock or dried out, dead tree, but other than that the only thing that stopped them being able to see right to the other side of the kingdom was one very large mountain rising up in the distance. She could see a castle off to the left, with a small village that looked like the Hamlet nestled beside it. The castle looked small, but Jade knew that was only because they were so far from it. She was sure that if she ever saw it up close it would be just as big as her palace in Avalon.
Seeing the castle in the distance made her wonder about what the mermaids had said before, about the queen. She wondered if her mother had ever lived in that castle. She wondered if she would ever learn anything more about her mother than what the King had told her. He had been reluctant enough to tell her what he had. She wanted the whole story.
“All right, here’s the plan,” Cadwr said, pulling Jade out of her reverie. “Channing and I are going to go do a thing, and all you guys have to do is wait here. Got it?”
Hugh nodded, but Jade stared at him incredulously. “A thing?”
Cadwr glared at her. “Yeah. A thing.”
“What kind of thing?” Jade asked heatedly.
“It’s just a thing, ok?” Cadwr shot back.
“Listen,” Channing cut in. “The whole point of the plan is that you don’t know what the thing is until it’s happening, or it won’t work. We know what we’re doing, and this is probably the only way you will ever see a real, live unicorn.”
Jade glared at the two older boys as she thought about it. She’d already trusted one stranger that night with monstrous consequences. She didn’t want to make the same mistake twice. “What you’re going to do, is it going to hurt the unicorn?”
“No way,” Channing said.
“A broken unicorn isn’t any good to us,” Cadwr pointed out.
Jade thought so more. “Ok, I’ll go along with your plan on one condition.”
Cadwr let out his breath in a huff of exasperation. Channing on the other hand just asked, “What is it?”
Jade took a deep breath. “I get to have final say about what happens to this unicorn.”
“No,” Cadwr said immediately.
“Why not?” Jade asked. She could feel her pulse jump start a little and her face flush warm.
“Because, we are the ones who are going to be doing all the work, so we’re the ones who should get to keep the unicorn,” Cadwr said.
“But you can’t get the unicorn without me. You already said so. So, the only way I’m helping you is if I know the unicorn will be safe, and the only way I’ll know that is if I’m the one who gets to decide what happens to it.”
“No.”
“Fine,” Jade said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “Then you can go find some other girl to help you catch a unicorn because I’m not doing it.”
Cadwr sighed again, but this time it came out more like a growl.
“Cadwr,” Hugh tried to break in, but once again Cadwr ignored him.
“Fine. But if you ruin this, I swear that I won’t treat you like a lady. I’ll treat you like the traitor you are.”
“Cadwr…”
“Good. When did I ever ask you to treat me like a lady anyway?” Jade pointed out.
“Cadwr…”
“Just shut up, will you?” Cadwr grimaced at her.
“Cadwr…”
“What?!” both Cadwr and Jade cried in frustration, turning to look at Hugh.
He shrunk back momentarily but then pointed at the distant sky. “I don’t think it matters right now what the thing is. We won’t have time…” Where he was pointing, Jade could see the first bright streaks of light coming over the edge of the horizon.
“Stercus!” Cadwr shouted. “We have to get home before Mother gets up!”
“See you guys!” Channing called as Cadwr took off running and Hugh followed him.
“Oh no,” Jade started to shake her hands frantically. “I don’t know how to get home, and my father will be looking for me too.”
Channing just looked at her for a minute and then sighed. “Listen, you’ll find your way back pretty easy if you just keep in a straight line. Don’t take any turns no matter what you see. Keep walking in a straight line. I would take you back myself, but… uh… I’m not… allowed.”
“You’re not allowed?”
“Long story. I’ll tell you some other time. You probably want to get going. It’ll take you at least an hour to get to the Avalon castle from here even if you run.
“Oh no.” Jade looked up at this older boy she barely knew and tears filled her eyes.
He mumbled something under his breath before he pat her on the shoulder. “Don’t worry so much, kid. That King of yours isn’t that bad. Trust me, Cadwr and Hugh will be getting it much worse if the Queen finds out they were out at night.”
“The Queen?” Jade stopped worrying about getting home for one moment.
“Faex,” he mumbled. “Just go, or you’re in for a whipping when you get there too.”
That scared her enough that she took off running into the fog. She tried to run in a straight line, but it was hard when she couldn’t see where she was going or anything around her except dense white clouds. After a moment of running though, she ran into something dark. She bounced back onto the ground, and when she looked up she saw Peter standing in front of her.
“There you are!” he yelled like he’d been looking for her. “Come on. I have to get you home or the King will know something’s happened.”
He grabbed her hand and leapt into the air. He flew so fast that the whole world turned into a blur and Jade felt like she might get sick midair. She wouldn’t have thought it possible for any creature to move as fast as Peter was pulling her along, but then they were back at her window in less than ten minutes.
The sun was just peaking up over the horizon when her feet touched the cold stone floor of her bedroom. She felt and heard Peter take off from her windowsill. She turned around to say goodbye or maybe to ask for an explanation as to why he’d abandoned her, but he had already gone.
Chapter VI
The Other Kingdom
____________________________________
Jade kept waiting all that next week for someone to say something, but it seemed that no one had noticed her flying out the window in the middle of the night or returning at sunrise. She had been completely exhausted the next day and the rest of the week. Every night after her little adventure, as soon as Menelwen had tucked her into bed and told her a bed time story, Jade would wait to hear the door close. Then she would leap out of bed, rush to the window, and sit on the window bench, staring up into the stars, waiting f
or Peter to come back. More than once, she had fallen asleep on the bench and not woken up until Menelwen came in to wake her the next morning.
When Menelwen asked Jade about it, Jade told her she had had a dream that Aunt Anna had come through her window to take her home. It wasn’t a total lie. She did still have dreams about Aunt Anna all the time; not as frequently as when she had first moved to Avalon, but enough to keep her in Jade’s thoughts.
The only lie was that Aunt Anna was the reason why Jade kept falling asleep at the window, but the lie was worth it because it made Menelwen sad to think that Jade still missed her aunt, so she didn’t ask any more questions.
At first, Jade didn’t know if she really wanted Peter to come back. After all, he had lied to her about not letting anything hurt her and then left her to drown with the mermaids. He didn’t seem like a good person at all, and she frequently thought that if he did come back to her window, she would have to say, “no,” and not go with him. But he had come to get her and take her home when she had really needed him. Without Peter, she never would have made it back before Menelwen woke and discovered her missing.
Despite all this, she didn’t spend much time thinking about Peter; she spent most of her time thinking about the other three boys and specifically what Channing had said just before she’d had to run.
“That King of yours isn’t that bad. Trust me, Cadwr and Hugh will be getting it much worse if the Queen finds out…”
What had he meant by that?
Did he mean just that there was a queen of Lyonés?
That’s the only thing he could have meant, but the way he’d said it, comparing Cadwr and Hugh being punished by the Queen with Jade being punished by the King, made it seem like the Queen was the boys’ mother.
If she was, why wouldn’t they have told her that?
It seems like the kind of thing you would tell another royal kid. If she ever met another prince or princess, that would probably be the first thing she’d tell them. It was something not everyone could relate to.
Of course, if they were the princes of Lyonés, that was extremely problematic as Jade had by this point put two and two together and decided that, if there was a queen of Lyonés, the land of evil where all the evil creatures are kept, she had to have had something to do with Jade’s mother’s death if not been directly responsible for it herself.