He didn’t know that he dared sit next to her in her current mood, but he didn’t seem to have much of a choice. She flashed him a glare as he sat down, but said nothing.
“Ah, good,” said the Wind Prince, “now that you’re here, Fire Prince, we can get to business.”
“I thought we were eating,” the Water Princess spoke up.
“Eating is a serious business,” said the Wind Prince, solemnly, though his eyes twinkled. “However, we have a lot of matters to discuss today, as we’ll be quite busy. First of all, let’s pray.”
All heads bowed as the Wind Prince thanked Alphego for the food and for the safe arrival of Andrew and the Water Princess, and asked for guidance and wisdom in the upcoming battles against Amber. Andrew’s stomach twisted, and had he not been so hungry, he would have lost his appetite.
“Now then,” said the Leaf Princess, as he concluded, “down to the actual business. The Water Princess has apprised us of your skills, and we think that allowing her to continue training you is our best option. I don’t know if there’s any teacher better than her—”
“My mom,” the Water Princess interrupted.
“Ah, true,” the Leaf Princess admitted. “But may I point out that your mother isn’t here in Klarand. Neither is your father. You are, so you can continue his training with the sword and whatever else you feel it’s necessary for him to learn. Rich and I can give him pointers with the bow, even though it’s not quite his weapon, it still doesn’t hurt for him to be the best he can be with one.”
“That’s what I keep telling him,” said the Water Princess with a toss of her head.
Breakfast was very much vegetarian – fruit, and some sort of biscuit.
“They don’t have much meat here,” the Water Princess explained aside to him. “Sometimes birds when one flies over, but they haven’t had one in a while. But Kath has a lovely garden and orchard … somewhere. They showed it to me this morning, but I forget how we got there.”
“So,” said Andrew, “I believe someone said something about ceremonies today?”
“Ah, yes, quite important ones at that,” said the Wind Prince. “Today, the two of you shall officially become the Fire Prince and Water Princess.”
“I thought we already were,” the Water Princess countered.
“In name, yes,” said the Leaf Princess. “But you must be properly crowned so that you can take our place when Rich and I leave.”
“Leave?” questioned Jakob, who was seated on Andrew’s other side.
“Yes, of course,” said the Leaf Princess. “We can’t stay here forever, after all, and now that the Water Princess and Fire Prince are here, we’re no longer really needed. I don’t know when we’ll be going,” she fiddled with the ring on her hand, “but it’ll be soon.”
Andrew didn’t like the sound of that, either.
“All right, ceremonies tonight, you’re leaving,” said the Water Princess. “Anything else we need to worry about, beyond the actual war? How exactly are we going to fight a war with just…” she paused a moment to count the people around the table, “thirteen people? I don’t mean to be superstitious or anything like that, but it sounds pretty unlucky when you put it that way. We need a burglar.”
“I’m not sure how a burglar can help us,” said Alith, with a shake of her head, “but the Kastle is not as closed off as it seems. True, we have disabled our methods of travel these last few years, in order to protect ourselves, but opening them is actually quite a simple matter.”
“Then why didn’t you open them sooner?” asked the Water Princess. “It would have saved a lot of time, and we wouldn’t have almost starved to death traveling through that mountain.”
Andrew could hear the unspoken, And I wouldn’t have almost fallen to my death in that river of water and fire.
The Wind Prince shook his head. “You’re still getting used to the ways of Klarand,” he said. “Here, we do nothing without first consulting the instruction of Alphego. That’s why Alith is here. When she Spoke that the two of you would come to us through the Mountain, we had no choice but to allow it to happen.”
Andrew frowned. “Spoke?” He’d heard that term frequently, and knew that it had something to do with the prophecies, but still had as yet to know how it worked.
Alith smiled. “I’m a Bookdaughter,” she explained. “My father was the Bookholder thirty years ago when the Wind Prince and Leaf Princess arrived. It doesn’t happen frequently, but sometimes Alphego chooses to Speak through me, usually when consulting the Book is impractical.”
“Oh. That makes sense.”
“Now that you’re here,” Wind Prince continued, “we can now use the Hill again. However, to do that, we must first show Rizkaland that you’re here, and before we can do that, we must have the two of you properly crowned. So really, everything is hinging on these ceremonies we’ll have tonight.”
“Lovely,” said the Water Princess. “However, I’d like to point out that you keep saying ceremonies – plural – but so far, the only one you’ve named is the crowning. What are the others?”
“Knighting,” said the Leaf Princess, too quickly. “No man can rule in Klarand without having first been knighted. It’s optional for women, but, based on the nature of your prophecy and what I know of you personally, Clara, I’m quite certain that you’d want to do it.”
“Whether I want it or not is another matter,” said the Water Princess. “I’m guessing that I won’t be allowed to take part in an actual battle if I don’t?”
“That would be complicated,” said Dular.
“What I thought. All right, knighting it is. Next order of business? Any secret weaknesses of the Dragon’s that I should know about?”
The Leaf Princess shook her head. “If you’ve read the legends, you’ve read all there is to know. The first time she was banished by Alphego himself, the second time by the Doorkeeper raised Amber and her husband Granite, and thus holds personal sway over the pair.”
“So why can’t the Doorkeeper do it this time?”
“Because no two legends ever play the exact same way,” Alith explained.
“Okay,” said the Water Princess. “That makes sense. Anyways, I’m done eating. Anything else planned for the day until those ceremonies happen?”
“No, not really,” the Wind Prince admitted. “It appears to me that the Fire Prince is done eating as well, so you may as well start his training for the day.”
“Sounds like fun.”
Andrew found his wrist clenched in her vise-grip, and he had no choice but to follow her.
“I’ll show you the way to the sword hall,” said Sarai, standing up. “It’s not hard to get to, but the directions are hard to explain, as is true of most things here in the Kastle.”
Clara drilled the Fire Prince for the next hour. Perhaps she was a bit harder on the fellow than he truly deserved, but she didn’t really care. She had a lot of frustration to take out on something, and he seemed to be a good enough candidate.
He didn’t say a word about her being too hard, though that might have had something to do with the fact that he had to use all his concentration to keep up with her.
“Get that sword higher,” she chided after she had to do a quick twist upwards to avoid hitting him with a swing that he should have blocked easily. “If I wanted to kill you, I would have just done so.”
“Good to know. Can we take a quick break?” he asked, stepping back and mopping sweat off of his brow, letting his sword fall.
She folded her arms over her chest and shifted all of her weight onto one leg as she considered physically pointing out his mistake in dropping his guard, but … he did look spent.
“Tired, huh? I’ve barely gotten warmed up.” She tilted her head to the side. “I guess, for your sake, we can have a quick break.”
He sheathed his sword and collapsed onto a nearby bench. She started pacing up and down, attacking an invisible foe.
“I do
n’t suppose you want to talk about it.”
She spun around and frowned at him. “About what?”
“You’re clearly upset about the Wind Prince and Leaf Princess.”
The fight went out of her. Sighing deeply, she sheathed her sword and plopped down beside him.
“It all makes sense now,” she said, shaking her head. “Everything.”
“That’s right…” said the Fire Prince, in a whisper. “She was the one who was teasing you about … redheads.”
She forced a half-smile, realizing how close he’d come to saying himself. “It’s other things, too. They were never the same after those hang glider crashes, and now it makes sense.”
“I guess I’d find it rather upsetting to meet a thirty-years-older Kevin,” he admitted.
“I know.” She pressed her hands to her forehead. “It’s so disorienting. It’s them, but it isn’t. The me that they know is a year younger, and as clearly as I can see that it is them, they’re older.”
“Uncomfortable all around,” he agreed. He placed a hand on her shoulder, as though to pull her in for a reassuring hug, but at that moment, the light of Kath’s knowing eyes appeared in her mind’s eye. She spun away, hugging her own arms to her chest.
“All this time, she’s been teasing me about redheads, about you,” she pointed out, furiously. “Kath would never tell me why, but now I know! I see it oh so clearly now. It’s because of this. Because we’re the Water Princess and Fire Prince. They knew.”
It wasn’t his fault, and she knew that. He hadn’t asked to come here and get stuck with her any more than she had. He was being a good sport about it, unlike her, and that made it almost worse.
He was quiet for a long time, then, at last, stood up and drew his sword again. “I think that’s enough of a rest, don’t you agree? Shall we practice again?”
She wanted to, she didn’t want to, she had no choice. She drew her sword and attacked him with a vengeance once again.
Andrew was very sore by the time the Wind Prince came in search of them to inform them that it was lunchtime. The Water Princess seemed reluctant to leave the fight, but Andrew was more than ready to do so. He had hoped that this would have gotten the frustration out of her system, but based on the glare she sent her older friend, it wasn’t likely.
“I thought you were going to be training him, not nearly killing him,” the Wind Prince pointed out as they made their way through the winding passages.
“In the middle of a battle, no one’s going to take it easy on him,” she pointed it out. “He’s got to know the threat of a life or death battle.”
“Well, you’re his teacher, I suppose,” said the Wind Prince. “Just don’t kill him. Both of you are necessary for this battle.”
“Do you think I want to get saddled with the rule of a country all by myself?” the Water Princess pointed out. “That’s about the only reason that I’ve even let him get this far. He’s a good leader, much better than I am, at any rate.”
“Ah, at last I hear a vote of confidence from your lady!” cried the Wind Prince. Andrew winced at the glare that the Water Princess shot him.
“It’s not a vote of confidence. It’s a statement of fact,” said she. “I’m not a leader, he is. I’m a fighter, he’s not. We don’t have to like each other to appreciate the other’s strength.”
“How long have the two of you known each other? A few weeks, didn’t you say?” asked the Wind Prince. “I don’t think that’s long enough for you to have determined your love for each other. Alphego chose the two of you for each other, and that’s a vote of confidence that I would never doubt.”
The Water Princess gave a low growl that the Wind Prince didn’t seem to hear.
“So, about the leadership thing,” Andrew interrupted, deciding that abandoning this train of conversation was the safest course of action. “Anything you need to tell me before you shrug Klarand’s weight onto my shoulders?”
“Don’t get a big head,” said the Wind Prince, “don’t be afraid to ask for advice and help, and listen to the Bookdaughter, or the Bookholder if he’s available.”
“Ah, right.”
“And don’t forget to work together. There’s a reason that kings or queens, princes or princesses, lords or ladies are not allowed to rule alone here in Rizkaland. We understand the value of shared power.”
At that moment, they arrived in a room with a large circular table piled with plenty of food, around which were seated all of their friends – a welcome sight after the grueling practice the Water Princess had just put him through.
“Welcome to Camelot!” the Wind Prince announced.
“Camelot?” asked Jakob, turning to the Wind Prince with a raised eyebrow.
“A myth in our world, which Rich and I believe inspired the building of this table,” the Leaf Princess explained with a laugh. “There was a king named Arthur who ruled a kingdom named Camelot, and he was famous for his Round Table.”
“So we like to call this room Camelot as a personal joke,” the Wind Prince finished. “Now let’s eat and attend to business.”
Andrew found himself lost in the discussion thrown about. The food was good, though once more vegetarian. Sarai and the Leaf Princess were apparently the cooks here. The Water Princess mentioned that Andrew enjoyed cooking, so they both declared that they’d have to show him the kitchens. Andrew decided he liked that prospect.
Kitchens were something he was used to. Granted, this was another world with different technologies, but he’d been cooking over an open fire for quite some time. He’d get used to it.
After eating, Sarai and Phillip whisked away the plates and leftovers, and then the Wind Prince and Leaf Princess pulled out several maps and charts and books of law and proceeded to launch into a lecture about the contents. Andrew did his best to follow, but with the Water Princess flashing him glares every few minutes from across the table, he found it hard to concentrate.
Chapter 3
Their lesson on the laws and customs of Rizkaland lasted until Alith stood up and announced, “Now is the hour.”
Clara had no idea what that meant and wasn’t sure she liked the sound of it, but everyone else stood up and filed out of the room, so she did likewise. She fell into step beside the Fire Prince since he was the only other one who didn’t seem to know what was going on. Jill Anna and Sarai directed the children away, though, announcing that it was their bedtime.
It was time for those ceremonies, Clara realized, fingering the hilt of her sword. The weight she did not want pressed down on her already and made it hard for her to breath. She glanced up at the Fire Prince, but his face was unreadable.
She didn’t want his support, she reminded herself. Didn’t need it. She could handle this. Whatever waited for them with these ceremonies, she didn’t have to lean on the Fire Prince to survive. She had agreed to work with the guy, but that was all.
Clenching her hands behind her back, she found her temper. Perhaps that wasn’t the best emotional support, but it what was what she had.
She paid little heed to the winding passages despite the nagging thought that pointed out that this was now her home and that she ought to get to know it. She just followed those ahead of her. They plunged deep into the castle, and the further they went, the more cave-like the place seemed. They were still in the Mountain, just now the sunshine was readily accessible.
At last, they entered a room that was lit with the same purple glow that had filled the chasm. She couldn’t see where the light was coming from, but her attention was stolen by the Alphego’s Hill that stood in the room.
It was like the Hill that she had seen in the Upper castle, emerald green with golden stairs and a perfectly flat top, but bigger in every proportion. Like the other, warmth seemed to come from it, but she wasn’t sure that it provided the light. Kath, Rich, and the two elves each ascended the Hill, each using a different set of stairs.
The silence was oppressive for s
everal seconds, but then Dular and Rich began talking simultaneously, Dular in Rizkan, the language of the elves, and Rich in natural, normal English. Or, at least, as natural and normal as anyone spoke here in Klarand.
“Alphego, we come before you this day to crown the Fire Prince and Water Princess, who have come to us at last,” said Rich. “They are young and from another world. They are unfamiliar with our ways. We ask that you guide them. Keep them in your ways. Teach them your laws. Help them to guide the people of Klarand and uphold your laws. Give them the courage and strength to defend their people from threats that would otherwise destroy Klarand. Give them friends and advisors who will help them to uphold your laws and defend Klarand. They are yours, Alphego.”
Kath motioned for Clara and the Fire Prince to join them on the top of the mountain, so they climbed the steps nearest them.
The moment they stepped onto the top of the Hill, a surge of something – some emotion, energy, she wasn’t sure – shot through Clara. The structure seemed alive – and this Hill was only a replica!
Kath and Rich guided the two of them to the exact center of the circular top, facing each other, though at a slight angle.
“Hand me your sword,” Kath whispered in Clara’s ear. She did so, noting that Rich simultaneously claimed the Fire Prince’s.
“Kneel,” they were then instructed, and they did this too. Rich positioned himself beside Clara, in front of the Fire Prince. Kath took her place beside the Fire Prince and in front of Clara.
“Before you can be crowned, you must first be knighted,” Rich announced, his stern gaze on the Fire Prince
Kath added, “And since the Water Princess intends to fight in the battle against the Dragon, she will be knighted after the order of Princess Isabelle.”
Rich then placed the flat of the sword against the Fire Prince’s shoulder. “Fire Prince, do you promise to defend the weak and helpless, assist the fatherless and widow, and to protect the woman and child?”
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