Starsong
Page 5
As I stepped over their legs, people touched the hem of my skirt, a sign of Dramanian respect for a leader. I wanted to weep at their loyalty, but I knew that in this time of uncertainty, I needed to appear strong.
“Gather everyone who is healthy and can be spared on the upper deck,” I told everyone I passed. “I need to speak to them.”
The days of hiding in my bedroom while my father and mother dealt with royal matters were gone; I was the only Dramanian royal left.
I STOOD on one of the chairs so that the hundred Dramanians packed into the upper deck could see me. Sweat poured down my body and was soaked up by my robe; my hands trembled against the damp, rough velvet.
“People of Draman,” I began. My voice shook, but over the sounds of the ship, they probably couldn’t tell. “According to this ship’s navigation system, we are about to enter Balu’s orbit. I do not know what will await us there, and it is possible that another ship has already found its way to these lands. If, when we open that door, we meet our foes, the only order is to fight. We will not—we cannot—keep running like the humans, frog hopping from planet to planet.”
“But we’ll all die, Princess Nimue,” someone called from the back.
“Yes. But to be captured is worse.”
“Is it?” someone asked from the back. “Being captured is worse than the possible extinction of our entire race?”
“And what about the children?” someone else called out. “And the elderly? Are you asking them to fight too?”
Was I? I didn’t know. Like usual, I had made a rash decision, but ordering my people into certain death wasn’t like picking out a hat for a royal occasion. Could I live with the knowledge that I had sentenced all Dramanians to death? Could I die with it?
“She’s right,” another voice said. When I turned, I saw Aduerto in the doorway. “You remember the stories of Merlin and his wizards, their ten-year imprisonment? The robots will figure out how our powers work, and then they will take them away from us. Worse, they will use them to conquer other lands or kill other species. We cannot aid them in their destruction.”
“Exactly,” I said, my confidence regained. “I will not rot in a cell waiting for some old man who might never come, and I would rather die fighting the robots than spend a day as their prisoner. Who’s with me?”
One man in the front row began to thump his chest. Then another. And another. Soon the whole room was thumping, clapping at the part of themselves where their dragon hearts lived.
“We are the people of Draman,” I yelled, “and as long as we live, Draman lives too.”
I could barely hear my own voice over the thumping and the cheers moving through the crowd. “Draman lives! Draman lives!”
The crowd dispersed, but all night, as the spaceship orbited and then descended onto Balu, the cheers rang on. As I moved through the deck to the engine room, then back through the bedrooms to find Aduerto and give him my sympathies about his father’s passing, I heard the call. Even as the ship landed, sunk its metal feet into this new dirt, the words were whispered in my ear.
Draman lives.
Chapter TWELVE
SARA LEE
THE PLANET with the dots of life was not Balu, but according to Bando, we were close.
“Then why stop?” I asked as I stepped out of the spaceship. “We could be on Balu by now. I don’t know if you remember, but we’re in a bit of a hurry.”
“Destiny?” he answered with a shrug. “I can’t explain it, but I just have a feeling we should be here right now.”
“Well, I hope your feelings don’t get our entire race killed,” I muttered, then put an arm around Skelly when the child looked as fearful as I felt.
The new planet was wet and dark, like a worldwide swamp. Water pooled in our footsteps, and slimy vines brushed against our faces. Unlike the deserts of Draman, this new planet teemed with life, at least of the floral and fungal kind. Dawn and Bando snapped pictures on a digital camera they had brought from Earth, while Skelly and I tried not to get stuck in the mud.
“I feel it too,” Skelly admitted suddenly in their cautious voice.
“Feel what?” I stepped cautiously over a tree root.
“Destiny. Only it’s not just a feeling; I can hear it calling me.”
I stopped and faced the child.
“What do you mean, you can hear it calling you? What is it saying?”
“I don’t know.” Skelly listened carefully. “Can’t you hear it? It’s like humming, only I’m not hearing it. The sound is in my brain.”
“No, I can’t hear it.”
“Only because you’re not listening.”
Fine, I thought as I sat down on the tree root and tried not to get my borrowed clothes too muddy. I closed my eyes and listened, waiting for this so-called Destiny hum to tell me why we were following it instead of trying to help the Dramanians—and Nimue, though I tried not to let my thoughts wander to her fate—defeat whatever had landed on our planet. “Nope, not a thing—” I began, but then I did hear it, not humming for me but words said in a singing voice.
Follow the roots of the Uncanny Tree. Find me, and you’ll find your destiny.
“Did anyone else hear those words?” I called out, but no one else had. I repeated what the voice had told me, then pointed out the root where I had perched to listen.
“Maybe the voice travels through the trees?” Dawn asked.
“I don’t know, but we should listen to it,” Bando said.
Did he really believe that, or had the magic of this place made him believe it? Were we walking into a trap, the voice like the light of a fairy drawing a traveler into the woods? Unlike Nimue, I had never been interested in all of that historical folklore, but I’d heard enough of her stories to doubt the voice’s legitimacy. However, I was outvoted. The other three found the next Uncanny Tree with big roots, and the next, and the next, leading us farther and farther into the woods.
The Uncanny Trees were so high that we could not see their tops through the dense canopy of other trees, and their trunks so round that I could not have wrapped my arms around even one side. Their color, instead of the usual brown, was a dark purple, and they seemed to be humming.
As I looked closer at the other flora, almost everything looked familiar and yet not quite right. The vines were the usual green color, but their leaves were completely round and lacked veins. The moss, a fuzzy blue, glowed ethereally. The mushrooms housed in the ground seemed to wave slightly back and forth, though there was no breeze.
Eventually, the Uncanny Trees led us through the dense forest to a cave. Above the entranceway were water symbols I recognized from the old runes of Merlin’s tales, though time had worn them down to barely perceptible grooves. No wider than two humans shoulder to shoulder, the cave narrowly led through two rocks and into blackness.
“You’re just going to follow a voice into a dark cave?” I asked Bando. “What if this is a trap?”
“It’s not.”
How could he be so sure? I wondered as he and Dawn went first, followed by the child and then, lastly, me. Perhaps they were simply used to following hunches, having spent their days traveling all over the universe, while Skelly, despite their maturity for their age, still had a child’s trusting demeanor. Perhaps they were all insane.
On and on through the passageway we traveled, with no light to guide us except a small flashlight keychain Bando carried from his days on Earth. From the small circle of light, I saw crystal formations littering the floor and glittering in the walls. Water ran in small rivulets down between the stones, and far in the distance, the mother supply gushed. Cautiously, I felt my way through the dim tunnel while the others rushed ahead of me.
Finally, after what felt like a day, we reached the end of the passageway. Just like in the stories of Merlin’s adopted mother, Allanah, this cave was no ordinary natural structure. In the middle of the cave was a lake, and in the middle of the lake was the face of a woman. She was old, ancient eve
n, with so many wrinkles that her eyes disappeared into her cheeks. Her white hair ran through the water to the bank we stood on.
“It’s just like the Cave of Pamuya and Donoma from the stories,” I whispered.
No one else seemed to know what I was talking about, and when I looked in their faces, I realized that no one else could see the woman in the middle of the lake.
They are not one of us, a voice spoke in my head. Instinctively, I took a step back. Those who enter the Cave of the Mother are tested, and you alone have passed.
Cave of the Mother? I asked, somehow able to regain my telepathy inside these walls.
The Cave of the Mother is the oldest sacred cave in history, she explained. Older than those trapped princesses, or any other lake goddess. Here the Mother holds the secrets of the universe, and only she can entrust them to others when they are deemed worthy.
But why me?
The Mother cannot explain why or why not. She only knows who, and even then, she has been wrong.
“What are you doing?” Dawn asked me when she noticed my intent stare.
“Shhh,” Bando hushed her. “I think she’s talking to the cave spirit.”
What do you want me to do? I asked, my voice reluctant even in my head.
Do? The Mother’s Secret Keepers do not do anything. They merely keep the secrets the Mother entrusts them with and, when the time is right, release them.
And how will I know when the time is right?
Destiny.
None of this was making any sense, but I followed the Mother’s instructions anyway. At that point, I would have tried anything, even something as strange as taking a swim with an invisible woman, to save our people. After removing my shoes, I waded into the water until the lake covered everything below my waist and the Mother’s face was a mere foot from mine.
Deep breath, she instructed, and I followed her orders. What other choice did I have? Oxygen filled my lungs, and my mouth and nose closed. Fall forward.
Like a tower, I kept my back rigid as I fell into the water. Our faces connected, and a set of images filled my mind: a ticking clock with its hands spinning backward, a star’s birth in reverse, a very white light, and finally, empty space. A voice whispered a spell over and over in my ear, while the picture of three sisters with matching white hair floated into my consciousness. Then the whole sequence moved in reverse, until my eyes opened under water and all I saw was blue.
Keep this secret with you, the Mother whispered as her face began to dissolve. Care for it until its Destiny reveals itself.
Then the Mother was gone, and I was left sputtering in the middle of the lake.
“Are you okay?” Dawn called from shore.
“I think so,” I called back. After the visions the real world seemed unfamiliar.
“Did you get whatever we came for?” Bando asked as I waded back to shore.
“Yes, but I can’t tell you. I can’t tell anyone.”
Bando and Dawn looked disappointed, but the child simply turned and walked back toward the tunnel. How magical to be a child, to have an adult’s explanation be enough. Their planet had been seized, their parents possibly killed, and their only hope was a ramshackle starship and a few outcasts. The poor thing had enough to worry about without adding the ideas of Destiny and magical secrets into the mix.
As we exited the tunnel, something heavy touched my thigh through the fabric of my pocket. Reaching one hand in, I discovered a stone, smooth and egg shaped, with a pattern of rune writing along the center that matched the symbol above the entryway. Destiny, the egg whispered when I touched it. We’ll see, I whispered back.
Chapter THIRTEEN
SKELLY
WHILE SARA Lee waded in the water of the Cave of the Mother, I snuck away to discover who or what had been calling me to this planet. Sure, Sara Lee heard the voice of the Mother and followed it, but that feeling of “destiny” that had brought us to this planet? That was my doing.
I couldn’t explain how I had developed these powers since refusing the master of ceremonies, but I knew that the two events were linked. Perhaps I had always had the ability to influence peoples’ minds, but like my first transformation into a dragon, I had never tried it before. Or perhaps I had changed that day, both inside and out, and this little magical trick had come with it.
On the far wall of the Cave of the Mother, I found a small passageway too short and narrow for a regular human to fit through. Hesitantly, I tiptoed into the crack, then followed the same rune markings that had led us to the cave in the first place. Alone, I had time to study them, and I was surprised to find that I could read most of the words as easily as a schoolbook. The ones who cannot lie nor grow will find their answers in myrddin and the leaves of the Uncanny Trees.
I would have followed the passageway farther into the dark, but I hit a dead end almost immediately and was forced to turn back. Sara Lee was just walking out of the water, and in the excitement no one had even noticed I’d been gone.
The ones who cannot lie nor grow. Was that me? Had I told the truth at the Naming Ceremony not because I was brave, but because I had no choice?
After we left the Cave of the Mother, we journeyed back through the forest to our ship. Falling to the back of the group, I looked longingly at the purple leaves too far above my head to reach. If being short was a prerequisite for finding the meaning of the message, why did the answers lie in something so tall? And because I was a terrible liar, I could not climb the tree or transform into a dragon without arousing a suspicion I would not be able to explain away.
On instinct I pressed my hand to the thick trunk of the nearest tree. Though of course it was impossible, the bark seemed to press in at my touch, like the lock to a secret door. When the bark pressed back out, a few leaves fell from the top of the tree, and I caught them between my eager hands without anyone spotting me.
Later, once we were back on the ship, I feigned sleep so that I could leave the others. Under the pile of sheets, I removed the leaves from my pocket in hopes of figuring out the cryptic cave message. Maybe there were more runes imprinted on the back, or a magical spell I had to say to make them show me the way to the next clue? Something that made the Uncanny Trees’ leaves so “uncanny”?
I didn’t have to wait long to find out. In my hand the fallen leaf pulsed a bright purple light so strong it illuminated the entire room and a straight line of space outside the window.
So strong that it could be a beacon.
Chapter FOURTEEN
NIMUE
UPON LANDING on Balu, we were greeted by a patrol of Earth humans, who looked exactly like Dramanians with tans, and some kind of green people. Some of the Earth humans wore robes, while others were dressed in what I assumed to be normal Earth clothing. Together, the group looked more like a punchline to a joke than a real army. At least the different groups had apparently learned from their mistakes on Earth and had banded together to try to protect their new home.
“We are allies,” I said with my hands raised as I walked off the ramp. Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me. “I am Princess Nimue of Draman.”
“If you’re an ally, then why are you riding in a robot spaceship?” one of the green people demanded as he took a menacing step forward.
I was suddenly aware of the fact that I was standing on the ramp completely alone. All of my so-called loyal subjects, so willing to follow me into battle just hours before, had stayed on the ship.
“The robots invaded our lands,” I explained, trying to make my voice as confident and steady as possible. “They killed many Dramanians and captured my father, the king. According to their general when he questioned me about your whereabouts, they are trying to find this place; to find you.”
Whispers went through the crowd. “They’ll kill us all,” one woman in the back in a blue robe said with a shudder, while others simply put their hands together and prayed. A few fell to their knees, though in worship or in fear, I did not know. Finally, now
that the Earth people were as afraid as they were, my people shuffled off the spaceship to take their places behind me.
“We have come to speak to Merlin,” I told the group, who could barely hear me over their fretting. “Can you tell me where the great sorcerer is?”
The whispers stopped abruptly.
“Merlin is not… himself,” the Igreefee with the spear said. The rest of the group lowered their eyes.
“What do you mean, ‘not himself’?”
“Hundreds of years have passed since the wizards and Igreefee ancestors were transported by Merlin to this place,” a human in plainclothes explained. “Even longer for humans, who had to travel through space and time to get here.”
“Yes, I know all of this,” I said impatiently.
“But do you know the power of love, young princess? Nothing in the world is stronger, and nothing more able to break a man in its absence.”
The wolf-boy, Lup. I had heard stories of Merlin’s love, who had grown into a young man while Merlin slept for ten years in the robots’ laboratory and lived with Merlin on this planet after their escape. Of course he could not still be alive, and even Merlin could not bring back the dead. Only the great sorcerer would live forever, reborn into a new form like Mani who would, for a brief time, forget the pain of his previous lives.
“Take me to him,” I demanded, trying to keep my voice as strong as possible. “Even a broken heart must be forgotten in times like these.”