There were a few moments of silence while everyone processed what the girl had said. She only appeared maybe twelve or so, but then again, Amber was five thousand years old and still had the youth of sixteen.
“Of course,” the girl continued, “there is a slight price for the information I have and the skills I possess, a price that I must demand of the Water Princess and Fire Prince.”
“What is it?” asked the Water Princess.
“Oh, nothing unreasonable,” Laura assured. “However, I think it would be better if I broached the topic later when the two of you are in a better mood. For now, I’ll give what aid I’m permitted, and the two of you can decide later if it was worth my price or not.”
“Humph,” said the Water Princess. “I’d rather know now, but I guess if you’re willing to do all the work and risk us still saying no when you present your ‘price,’ we won’t stop you from helping.”
“Ah, that’s the spirit!” said Laura.
Conversation lagged as the tour continued up a very steep spiral staircase which required more energy than permitted conversation. At last, however, they emerged at the top of a very tall tower.
“This is the highest point in all of Rizkaland,” Phillip explained. “The air’s a bit thin here, so mind your breath.”
Andrew felt the Water Princess’s hand tense inside of his as they approached the wall surrounding the parapet. They faced the Ea part of Klarand, and Andrew could just barely make out the blur of orange water that formed RivRe, the border between Klarand and Rizkaland.
“You okay?” he asked, glancing down at her.
She looked up and nodded weakly. “Perfectly fine, just … not used to being this high up, that’s all.”
“Ah,” said Andrew. “Well, this looks like a pretty strong wall, and I have a firm hold of you. I don’t plan to let you fall.”
Her smile was weak as well as they turned to Lower Klarand. Andrew was surprised that he could make out the forest where he had spent his first several weeks in Klarand. If he squinted hard, he could just make out a streak of red that he was quite certain was the Firefall and RiFi, which had been his door to Klarand. The sky on this end of Klarand glowed an angry red, something he’d never noticed from the ground
“The Lake of Fire, in which Rizkaland rests, is only visible from this height,” Laura explained, appearing at Andrew’s other side. “The Firefall leaks from there. That’s why it flows upwards until it can meet with RiWa and extinguish.”
“Oh,” said the Water Princess. “I thought they just mixed.”
“They do at first,” Laura explained. “But at length, the water evaporates and the fire is extinguished, quite rapidly at that, the only reason it lasts so long down in the Mountain is that there’s so much of it. The evaporated water rises, then condenses and collects in basins throughout the Kastle, and much of it turns purple due to exposure to the Fire. And that’s why the Kastle has running water.”
The Water Princess narrowed her eyes. “That makes sense,” she admitted.
Laura shrugged. “I’m only repeating what I was told, but I have it on the best authority.” She glanced up at Andrew and winked, as though they shared some secret.
“Interesting,” said Andrew, hoping that she wasn’t expecting him to add any further explanation.
“Isn’t it, though?” asked Laura.
“So,” said Andrew, “I was wondering why we can see further this way than towards Rizkaland itself?”
Laura laughed. “Aren’t you the one whose father is the scientist? Yes, I believe that’s correct. Come now, Rizkaland is a cylindrical world…”
Andrew realized what she was getting at, and smiled sheepishly at not remembering that fact for himself. To the Water Princess’s questioning glance, he explained, “Our world is round, so anywhere you look curls away from you – that’s how Columbus figured out that the world was round, watching ships disappear off the edge of the world. But Rizkaland is a cylindrical world. When you look Up or Down, you can see as far as the landscape or your vantage point allows.”
“Which, in this case, is all the way to the bottom,” said Laura, with a giggle. “Oh, Columbus, now he was a fellow. I tried to convince him that the Earth was bigger than he thought it was, but he wouldn’t believe me. But I suppose it’s just as well, after all, since if he hadn’t been so convinced that it was just a short trip to China, how else would he have been able to motivate his crew to sail all the way to America, I ask?”
She shifted from one foot to the other. A distant, dreamy look came to her eye as she leaned onto the tower wall. “His son fancied me, though, but I told him he was much too young for me. Ah, Francisco, such a sweet boy, but with my world traveling ability, I can’t ever settle down. Raising Amber and Granite was about as much as I could handle.”
“Ah,” said the Water Princess, and then she shook her head, her hold on Andrew’s hand tightening. “I wish you wouldn’t do that Laura.”
“Do what?”
“Lean on the edge. Have you any idea how far down it is?”
“Pretty far,” Laura acknowledged, straightening. “However, I happen to know that I’m not going to fall today. It would mean my death, and I know the day I’ll die.” Her voice was distant as she wandered off to another portion of the tower, looking Wea, towards Amber’s Island. “I watched it happen, so many years ago.”
“You watched your own death?” the Water Princess asked, a tinge of horror in her voice.
“Yes,” said Laura, turning back to them. “Because of my world traveling ability, my timeline has folded in on itself many, many times, something I’ve come to expect. ‘Twas a sad day indeed, and I the only survivor – the me that didn’t die, that is.”
“Okay…” the Water Princess drew out. She and Andrew joined Laura to examine that portion of Klarand. Before them were scorched farmlands and desolate villages.
“Ea Klarand has suffered the worst of Amber’s ravage,” said Laura.
“It’s terrible,” Andrew agreed.
The Water Princess frowned. “Somehow, I was under the impression that Amber had a whole army besieging the front gate, and that’s why Andrew and I couldn’t get in that way.”
Laura pointed to the desolate village that lay at the foot of the mountain. “Oh, she does, but her army is different from what you read in books, and she likes to be comfortable. She’s made herself a home out of that village, where she can keep an eye on the Kastle, and torment the people of Ea Klarand with ease.”
They wandered over to the other side of the tower, where most of the others were looking at Upper Klarand, a mountainous region that Andrew was glad he didn’t have to travel through. The forest had been bad enough.
“Jasmine!” the Water Princess announced, “I think I can see your house from here.”
Jasmine giggled and pointed to the tiny castle that could just barely be seen right as the Klarandish horizon ended. It stood at the foot of a mountain from which flowed the Waterfall and RiWa that had served as the Water Princess’s door. “It looks so tiny from here!” she announced.
“Doesn’t it, though?” said the Water Princess, sighing and leaning slightly into Andrew. “To think, we came all this way…”
“I know,” Andrew agreed.
“Well,” said Sarai, “if you’re through with taking in the view, I think we need to continue our tour.”
Clara relaxed as soon as they left the tower, and going down the steps was much easier than going up. However, her hand was still in the Fire Prince’s and that was annoying. Sure, she occasionally almost forgot about him, and it actually felt reassuring, but she didn’t want to depend on him, and that was what she’d found herself doing.
With this thought in mind, she glanced down at their hands and decided she would try to separate them again. Her fingers resisted the mental order for a moment, and then just as she was going to give up for the hundredth time that day, her hand flew out of his, tingling as tho
ugh it’d fallen asleep. She stared at her hand a moment, and then looked up at him. He was staring at his own hand with a bewildered, almost hurt expression.
She clenched her left hand into a fist and turned and marched away, tucking it into her other arm. She didn’t need him. And yet…
She looked back at him. He’d folded his own arms over his chest and was staring after her, having stopped walking completely. He glanced away as soon as their eyes met.
She fought against the nagging guilt, tried to ignore the pins and needles in her hand. With a sigh, she returned to his side. “This isn’t going to cut it, is it?” she asked.
He seemed hesitant about answering. “Ah, well…”
She rolled her eyes and thrust out her right hand. She wasn’t sure it would work, but since it’d be much more convenient for hallway navigation, she thought she’d experiment. He stared at her hand for several seconds, then uncurled his from his chest and took her hand. Immediately, the tingling in her left hand vanished.
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, it seems we’ll just have to keep putting up with this for a little while longer,” she declared. “Just don’t get any wrong ideas about me starting to like you.”
He stared down at her for a few moments, but then, to her irritation, he grinned. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Clara wasn’t sure she liked the thought she saw flash through his eyes, so she twisted away and began marching again, pulling him along with her. Heat rose in her cheeks as she realized that they had earned an audience.
“Ah, don’t be embarrassed, that was sweet!” Laura piped up. “But, since it’s over, we’ve got a tour to finish, so let’s move right on along!”
Clara nodded distantly, leaving the Fire Prince to do the talking.
“Yes, that sounds like a great idea,” he admitted.
Frankly, Clara quite lost track of the rest of the rooms and hallways she was shown, and she hoped that the Fire Prince paying better attention than she, since she didn’t want to get lost here. Eventually, the tour was over, and they rejoined the others. Kath and Rich were delighted to see Laura, as, apparently, they’d met a few times before, and lunch was served.
The rest of the day was spent examining more books of laws and data that they would need to know if they were to take Klarand onto their shoulders. Clara was exhausted just thinking about all of it, but on the bright side, she and the Fire Prince could let go of each other without threat of pins and needles before supper was served.
Despite the tour, Kath and Rich insisted on escorting them to their bedrooms. It turned out that, they weren’t the rooms they’d slept in two nights before, and besides that, they were in a small wing that they’d not been shown on the tour.
The annoying part? They were side by side with a connecting door. Clara locked this door immediately and went to bed as soon as Jasmine had helped her change. It had been a long, confusing day after a long, confusing night, and she was ready for this nightmare to be over.
Chapter 6
Andrew awoke the next morning to find travel clothes laid out for him. They were brown this time, but there were stripes of red down the sides of the pants and on the sleeves of the shirt. Apparently, as Fire Prince, he wasn’t going to be getting out of wearing that color anytime soon. The fact that the Wind Prince and Leaf Princess had worn predominately gray and green for the last three days also seemed to be strong evidence.
He dressed quickly, as he saw no reason to dally.
His sword and circlet had been put away in the velvet boxes where the Wind Prince had told him to put them the night before, but apparently, he wasn’t to take the ring off. He already all-but forgot that he was wearing it, most of the time, so that wasn’t really an issue.
He belted on the sword without hesitation but did hesitate as he came to the circlet. According to the Wind Prince, he wasn’t to ever to put it on himself, but always let someone else do it. As he was considering options for getting it onto his head, there was a knock on the door that led to the Water Princess’s room.
“Um, come in,” he spoke up.
The door flew open to reveal the Water Princess, also dressed for travel, predominately in blue, and tightly gripping her circlet. She stood there a moment, just staring at him, and then she stalked over and thrust the circlet towards him.
“I’m not allowed to put this thing on my own head,” she informed him, “and Jasmine’s refusing to do it. She seems to think that you’re better qualified or something like that.”
“Oh,” said Andrew, accepting it from her. He placed it on her head, and then she spun around and retreated back to her own room. It wasn’t until she had reached the door and was about to close it when he recovered enough to call her name.
She spun back around. “Yes?” she asked.
He pulled his own circlet out of its box. “I, uh, have one, too.”
“Oh.” Her expression softened slightly as she returned to his side and took it from him. Then she frowned. “You’re tall,” she pointed out.
“Oh,” said he, glancing down at the much smaller girl. “Um, well, um…”
He did the first thing that came to mind. He knelt in front of her. She shoved the circlet onto his head, and then was out of his room, the door closed and locked behind her before he could regain his feet again.
He sighed and made his bed. It didn’t take him long – he hadn’t messed it up that badly the night before. Sure, he was the Fire Prince now, and the servants in the Lower Kastle had tried to convince him that he didn’t need to do it, but old habits die hard. After five years of being the one who made sure that the beds got made, he just did it automatically.
That done, and laundry set neatly in a corner, he left the room, somehow at the same time that the Water Princess chose to leave hers.
“Uh, hello.”
She glanced over towards him and frowned. “Hello. We meet again. You didn’t plan this, did you?”
“No, did you?”
She glared at him. “Right. So, do you know the way back to Camelot? I know the general direction, but I’d rather not get lost.”
“They showed us the way last night,” Andrew pointed out. “Weren’t you paying attention?”
“Yes. I said I knew the general direction.”
Andrew smiled and held out a hand. “Come on then, let’s make sure you don’t get lost.”
She stiffened, and for a moment, Andrew thought for sure he’d said something wrong again, but then she grabbed his hand and nodded fiercely. “Let’s go.”
Her grip was painful, but Andrew managed to get them safely to the Round Table Room, which was empty. They then decided to go outside instead, where they found the Wind Prince and Leaf Princess waiting for them. The Water Princess let go of Andrew’s hand immediately upon emerging in the courtyard.
“Ah, good morning, Clara and Andrew,” said the Wind Prince. “You have a busy day ahead of you.”
The Water Princess stiffened. “Tell me we don’t have to attend any more terribly important ceremonies that will determine how we’ll have to spend the rest of our lives.”
“Oh, no,” said the Leaf Princess. “You just need to go negotiate a treaty this evening. And Alith and Dular will be going with you, so you’ll do fine.”
Andrew shared a glance with the Water Princess. “And where, exactly, are we going?” he asked.
“Rizkaland,” said the Wind Prince. “They’re our greatest ally, after all.”
“Oh,” said the Water Princess. “You know, when you said negotiate, I was under the impression that meant we would be forming one that didn’t previously exist.”
The Leaf Princess laughed. “Oh, I like that one. No, our treaty does exist, but you need to go tell Rizkaland that we need their help.”
“Why can’t you two do it?”
“First of all, you two need experience,” said the Wind Prince. “Secondly, Rizkaland needs to know that the two of you are here before they can send the aid – it’s been th
e only thing preventing them before now – and the simplest to let them know is to send the two of you. That’s why those ceremonies were so urgent. Besides, as we already said, Alith and Dular will be going with you, and they’ll handle anything complicated.”
“Right, and what are we going for again?”
The Leaf Princess sighed this time – it seemed that even she had limits when it came to her friend’s foul temper. “Because the kings and queens of Rizkaland need to see the two of you in person and because you need to gather experience about this sort of thing. We’re trying to be nice! Ease you into your new position!”
The Water Princess was about to say something else that would have no doubt been mean, so Andrew interrupted her. “Okay, sounds fair, but how exactly are we going to get out of the Kastle?”
“No need to worry about that,” said the Wind Prince. “Alith and Dular have gone to make those arrangements. Until they get back, we’re going to run the two of you through a quick crash course with your rings.”
Clara quite enjoyed her ring once she got the hang of it. Summoning any color further from blue than green or purple still proved difficult, but she was making progress, and she could usually get it to shoot out water when she wanted and stop when she had enough.
The Fire Prince had considerably more trouble than she did, and was barely able to create little more than flares. He claimed it was because he had fire and he didn’t want to hurt anyone. Rich called that a noble trait. Clara just rolled her eyes and noted that it was so very like him.
The lesson ended when Alith and Dular returned, riding on the back of a magnificent silver winged horse. An unmounted golden one just a few feet behind it.
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