by Cutter, Leah
“Since we’re, you know, supposed to get along together, I figured it would be better if we actually talked,” Kyle blurted out.
Elaina looked from him to the servants, to her chaperone, and nodded, finally smiling. She had a nice smile, Kyle noticed, and dark, friendly eyes that peered at him from a tanned face. “Thank you,” she said. “I wasn’t sure what you wanted, bringing me all the way out here and away from everything else.”
“I knew I couldn’t ask you to just go for a walk or hunting or something,” Kyle said, already feeling a little more comfortable.
“You hunt?” Elaina asked, looking interested.
Kyle pressed his lips together for a moment before he admitted the truth. “Some,” he said. “I’m better with a falcon or bow than a horse and sword.”
“Why?”
Kyle gestured at Elaina’s shadow where it leaned toward the side as if it were hungry and reaching toward the baskets there. “Horses are pretty grounded,” he said. “We’re not,” he added, indicating his own lack of shadow.
Princess Elaina looked at what Kyle indicated, puzzled, then her eyes grew wide when she realized the difference between them. “Oh!” she said. “I knew—I’d been told—I just hadn’t bothered looking. What does it feel like?” She put her hand in front of her mouth. “I’m sorry. I’m always saying just what I think and getting in trouble.”
“No, it’s all right,” Kyle said, relieved. “I wanted to ask you the same question. What it’s like to have a shadow?”
“I don’t know. I’ve always had one,” Elaina said slowly. “I don’t know what it would feel like without one. Here.” She reached out her hand and pointed her shadow at him. “See if you can touch it, feel it.”
Kyle reached out his hand until their fingers touched, then he slid his hand under hers, trying to catch her shadow. For a brief second he felt something warm and heavy around his arm, then it slid away.
Funny—he’d always thought a shadow would be cold.
“What does it feel like without one?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never had one,” Kyle teased. “The older people tell me that without their shadow they feel less heavy. They tell me I can climb trees and hills better than other kids, do flips and fall without hurting as much. And I like to watch the sky and think about flying.”
“You’ll have to show me,” Elaina said. “I’d love to be able to fly. I’ve always dreamed about it.”
Kyle nodded, dumbstruck that a shadowed person, who he’d always been told was more grounded, might feel the same as he did.
“It’s one of the reasons I like riding horses,” the princess continued. “That’s when I feel as though I’m flying.”
“You’ll have to show me,” Kyle said with a smile. “Tell me about your trip here,” he added after a less awkward pause.
“The official version? Or what I saw?” the princess teased.
“Tell me what you saw.” Kyle wondered if this was why his parents talked so much to each other even after all these years: They were still trying to see through the other’s eyes.
* * *
Peter sat in his hut most days now, going out into the graveyard only when he had to dig a grave. The restless spirits always tried to talk with him, to complain to him about not being able to sleep, when he wanted to complain about the exact same thing. His place of solace and quiet was no more. He used to walk between the graves early in the morning, contemplating the little wonders he saw, like a spider’s web or the colors of the fall leaves. Now, he stayed away, as did everyone else.
A rumbling noise made Peter look outside the door of his hut. Up the tiny dirt track came a carriage. No, three carriages. No, five! All were painted gold and white or royal purple and brown, the colors of the court.
Peter scratched his head. He didn’t have a funeral until later that afternoon, and it wasn’t royalty: They were buried closer to the castle. Out of the first carriage came Prince Kyle. Peter had never seen him up close before, but he recognized his clothes—no one but a prince wore such fine clothes.
The prince walked over to another carriage and helped down a young girl who looked to be the same age. She was just as beautifully dressed. Peter assumed it was the visiting princess. He was disappointed that she looked perfectly normal, and not like some kind of sea creature as he might have thought, her coming from a sea kingdom.
Peter didn’t have time for any more thoughts as the royal couple had started walking, not into the graveyard, but directly for his hut. He raked his fingers through the remaining tufts of his hair and stood in the doorway. He bowed as deeply as he could, as if he’d overfilled his shovel and couldn’t lift it. But he couldn’t look at the ground forever. Eventually he had to look up.
“Greetings,” the prince said, his voice sounding even younger than his clear face. “What is your name?”
“Peter. Sir. My lord. Your lordship.”
“Peter. You tend this graveyard?”
“Yes, sire,” Peter said. “I’ve been digging graves here since I was your age.”
“Princess Elaina is visiting our kingdom from Ipsilion. She would like a tour.”
Peter blinked rapidly. “A tour?” He rubbed his hand along the back of his neck. “I—I can do that. Follow me.” He quickly turned and marched behind the hut, following the dirt trail that went from there to the top of the nearest rise. He didn’t look around again until he was almost there. The prince walked in the grass so he could walk next to the princess. He held his arm out for the princess to take, but it looked as though she laughed at him. He flushed, then appeared to tease back. At least a dozen servants followed the royal couple, looking on fondly.
When they’d assembled, Peter cleared his throat and began. “Back in the olden times, instead of a single grave, a wealthy merchant or guildsman might be buried in a mound. Like this, for example,” he said, indicating the raised ground before them. “They were buried with goods, sometimes with horses and livestock. I know about this one because there were grave robbers once, who tried to break in and steal this good man’s things. I don’t know who he was, but he deserves a peaceful rest.”
The prince and princess nodded, and Peter walked away, heading toward another older grave. “Excuse me,” the prince interrupted. “But what about the modern graves? The spirits?” He waved his hand toward the other part of the graveyard.
“You want to meet the spirits?” Peter asked.
“She is visiting,” the prince said. “And it’s a unique phenomenon.”
“All right. Let me introduce you to the first.” Peter walked bravely back from the older parts of the graveyard, which were relatively quiet, and into the newer part, where the restless spirits roamed.
The princess took the prince’s arm now, as they approached. The restless spirits constantly whined and moaned. The noise crawled up under Peter’s skin, made his hair stand on edge.
“Farmer John,” Peter said, rousing the man from where he sat, head in his hands. “These people would like to meet you.” He didn’t bother to introduce them as the prince and princess: The restless spirits couldn’t distinguish between the living.
“How do you do?” the prince said gamely.
“Poorly.” Old Farmer John sighed.
“What do you need?” the prince asked. “To feel better?”
“I want to sleep with my bones,” the old farmer whined.
“Why can’t you?” the princess asked.
“Nothing to keep me in the earth,” the farmer said with a sigh. “Nothing to keep me grounded.” He sat heavily on the ground again, head in his hands. “I just want to sleep. But it’s too light. Too noisy up here.”
Peter added, “They do tend to slip under the ground at night. However, they rise with the sun, moaning and complaining.”
“Thank you, Farmer John,” the prince said.
Peter introduced them to other spirits. They all said the same thing: they wanted to sleep, but they couldn’t. “Not much for conversation, I’m afr
aid,” Peter apologized as the prince and princess started back toward their carriages. “All they want are their shadows.”
The prince turned to Peter with a strange look in his eye. “How do we bring their shadows back?”
Peter shrugged. “Ask the shadows what they need.”
* * *
Princess Elaina invited Prince Kyle out for a second picnic the week following. They’d spent the intervening time mostly in the presence of the king, the queen, their tutors, or members of the court. Every once in a while Kyle and Elaina would get a quiet word together, but they couldn’t say much.
After they ate, Princess Elaina asked about the war. “They let me tour the stockpiles of arms, the siege engines, and the extra armor. Why so much preparation? Your kingdom’s been preparing for years now.”
“The war—it’s pretty hopeless, you know,” Kyle said, dropping onto his stomach and scratching at the dirt. “The Blue Fairy has magic and spells. We’re not sure how to fight her. So my father is moving slowly. It frustrates his generals.” Kyle didn’t add how he’d gotten into a fight just before the princess had arrived when someone had accused the king of being cowardly. His father wasn’t scared of the war. He didn’t want everyone to go and be killed with no chance of winning. “I think he’s hoping that someone will come up with a plan that will at least give us some hope.” Kyle had thought a lot about his own shadow since that day in the graveyard.
“You know that’s one of the reasons they brought me here, right?” the princess asked.
“No, really?” Kyle asked, turning over to look at her. “I didn’t know that.”
Elaina—or El, and she’d insisted Kyle call her—nodded. “We had to battle the Sea Fairy once.” She shivered. “She drowned the king’s army that he sent after her. Kept attacking the fishermen. We were desperate. She wanted us to cede our homes and the sea to her, to leave her all the shipping lanes and land.”
“How did you defeat her? Magic?” Kyle asked, thrilling to the possibility.
“No. A single fisherman defied her. Claimed he loved the sea more. He couldn’t know it as well as she did, but it had been father, mother, and lover to him his whole life. She couldn’t stand in the face of belief, and so relinquished her control of our seaways.”
“But how could someone do that for a shadow?” Kyle asked. “I don’t think anyone knows their shadow, or even realizes it’s there until it’s missing. Or even wants it back.”
El nodded. “I think the king is calling for heroes now. So instead of sending an army to fight, maybe there’s a chance that just a few, one at a time, will have to die.”
“No one should have to die,” Kyle said firmly. “She shouldn’t have taken our shadows in the first place.” He might not want his back, but he still knew it wasn’t right for it to have been stolen.
“She’s very rich now, from all the gold and diamonds they’ve mined for her,” El said. “The Sea Fairy had grown very rich as well. Maybe the Blue Fairy just needs for someone to tell her it’s time.”
Kyle shook his head. “She’s probably too greedy.”
“True,” El said, nodding and looking at him expectantly.
Kyle sighed silently. He knew what El wanted from him, knew he’d have to try if there was ever going to be a chance at them being together like his parents. So the prince squared his shoulders, took a deep breath, and chose to be brave again. “How do we get our shadows back?”
El beamed at Kyle. The brightness of her smile took Kyle’s breath away. “That’s the first sensible thing I’ve heard you say this week,” she teased.
So they plotted and they planned how Kyle could steal away and save them all.
* * *
Every year, as summer turned to fall and the air grew cooler and the trees brighter, the court went on a hunt. Before their shadows were stolen they ranged the field on brilliant steeds, racing each other through hedges and across the woods. Now, they took carriages to the hunting fields, riding individually only at the end when the hunt was on. Even the courtiers who worked the hardest had never been able to regain the skill they’d had.
Princess Elaina accompanied the court, though she complained of feeling ill the day before and spent the trip to the hunting ground in her carriage. During the evening her maid brought the princess’ excuses for why she wasn’t joining the feasting.
The prince rode alone, ahead of the carriages, with the beaters and criers. All the court noticed how well he fit on his horse. His tutor bragged to anyone who would listen how much the prince had been practicing, then slyly added how the princess had been helping him, encouraging him and teaching him. When the prince learned the princess ate alone, he took to eating alone as well, away from the court. No one thought anything of it: He often spent time alone at the castle, though usually he crouched on the roof high enough to scare his tutor.
The king toasted everyone on the morning of the first day of the proper hunt, wishing them luck and promising prizes to the grandest conquest. He led the hunt: A wild boar had been spotted in the bush. He hoped it was a good omen and that they’d have a successful kill early.
Only the king and his two main huntsmen followed the break through the reeds to the far side of a small pond. There, the boar turned on them, suddenly breaking from its nest. The first servant flew through the air several feet after the boar solidly butted him. The king braced himself with a pike, ready for the next onslaught, a brief thought for his queen all he allowed himself.
A sudden whirlwind came from the other direction. Arrows sprouted out of the boar’s side. It ran a few more feet before it fell to the side.
An unfamiliar shout rang through the air. The king recognized the horse and the dress of the individual—the prince had just saved him.
But that wasn’t the prince.
“Who are you? What have you done to my son?” King Franklin stormed forward.
Large eyes stared at him, and for a moment he thought the strange boy would whirl and race away, but then the boy slid down his mount. “Your son is safe, sire.”
Disquiet spread up the king’s spine. Who was this person? He seemed familiar, somehow.
“He’s gone to rescue your shadows.”
King Franklin stiffened. “Princess Elaina,” he said formally.
She grinned at him, unabashed. “We didn’t think I’d be able to fool you for this long. But no one really looks at the prince. Just what he’s wearing. And most people don’t know him by sight.”
“He left before we went on the hunt,” the king said, understanding.
“Yes. And—”
The king held up his hand. He didn’t want to hear more.
His only son, the kingdom’s only heir, had gone on a fool’s errand to his death.
* * *
Kyle looked over the edge of the cliff, his stomach unsettled, shivering with fear. If he could have turned around and gone home, he would have. He’d always been afraid of the dark, sleeping with one or more candles all through the night.
Now he was faced with days of darkness.
Kyle took the bridle and saddle off his horse, then stared directly into the sun, soaking up what he could before he forced himself to start that endless climb down into the belly of the earth.
It took Kyle longer than he’d planned to reach the bottom; then again, he wasn’t familiar with moving in such blackness. His steps often fumbled. At least when he fell he didn’t have as much of a shocking landing.
The dark valley was worse. At least while he was going down the cliff, the actions of moving were as foreign as the landscape. Now, though Kyle could walk upright, it was still a nightmare. He longed for the sun, recalling it as fondly as he thought about Princess Elaina. They became one in his mind, the separate lights of his life.
A huge cave greeted Kyle on the far side of the valley. Candice hadn’t exaggerated: The entire castle could fit in the mouth of it. He crept slowly from the side, unsure if unfriendly eyes followed his halting trail.
> It wasn’t hard to find the shadows. They’d moved closer to the cave entrance. He was surprised he didn’t see any traps, though. The way was clear. Why hadn’t their shadows come home?
The first shadow Kyle saw had him scrambling for a niche in which to hide. He’d never seen such a creature: it looked like a man, with a man’s face, hands, and clothes, but its eyes were lit by the moon, hollow and white. He took a few breaths to calm himself, telling himself that the creature wasn’t cursed, just different, half of a man.
But that meant Kyle was also only half a man, and he didn’t want to think about that.
Kyle came out of his crevice to find the shadow still standing there, looking at him curiously. “Sorry,” Kyle said, nervously. “I’ve just—never seen one of you before. A man’s shadow.”
“You’re from Illumignot—born after we were stolen?” the shadow asked.
The prince nodded. “Yes.” He thought about telling the man that he was there to rescue them, but he still wasn’t sure how he was going to do that. “I’d like—I’d like to meet my shadow,” he said shyly.
The shadow man shrugged. “I’ll bring you to the entrance, where you can watch, to look for your shadow. It may take a few days. We work shifts.” They walked a short ways, through tunnels and broad, open caverns. The shadow man eventually pointed to a wide archway, down a level. “All of us will pass through that at some point the next week. You just have to wait and keep your eyes open. Good luck.”
With that, the shadow man turned and left. Kyle made his way slowly down to the archway, stumbling over unseen rocks the half-light hid. He sat and ate a little while he waited, then stood when a deep bell echoed through the rock and the shadows started streaming both directions.
It took two days of waiting before Kyle felt an unfamiliar tug. A young man walked toward him, dressed just as he was, in a dark vest, tunic, and trousers. The shadow seemed to have felt Kyle as well, because he started looking around the hall as soon as he entered, head turning one way, then the other.
Feeling silly, Kyle waved. The shadow stopped as if he’d been struck. “You.”
“You,” Kyle said, staring just as hard.