“What do you mean?” Clara asked, narrowing her eyes again as she glanced back at the girl.
Laura turned to Clara, a sad smile tugging at one corner of her mouth. “I have been a daughter, a sister, even a mother to many, many people, truly related and not. I know the love and rejection that can come with each.” She paused a moment to sigh, her eyes fixed on Amber’s camp. “But, in truth, I must walk my path alone; never know what it is to have someone at my side to share my burdens, joys, and sorrows.”
Clara glanced down at her ring again. Sure, she didn’t want this now, but she had always fully looked forward to love and marriage one day.
“Are you sure?” she asked, not sure what emotion Laura was trying to evict from her.
“Quite certain,” said Laura. “I have spoken with myself from the day that I die, and she warned me of this. Ah, do not stare. I live my life out of order, going here and there from world to world, my age changing every time I step through a door whether I like it or not. I have folded in on myself many times. Indeed, many times have I played mother, daughter, or sister to myself.”
“Oh,” said Clara, not sure she comprehended that. She glanced back towards Amber’s camp. “It must be hard for you to fight against her.”
“Indeed, but the choice is clear,” said Laura. “She rebels not only against Klarand and Rizkaland, but against Alphego Himself. Rizkaland is as dear to me as my native world, and I do not regret it. Besides, you and Andrew are dear to me as well. Much of your future lies in my past.”
“You know what is to come of this war?” Clara asked.
“I know it well, for it becomes one of the great legends, and I have heard it told many times,” said Laura, smiling. “You become the example of love to Rizkaland for many thousand years to come. Ah, to have the union of the Water Princess and Fire Prince!”
Clara shifted uncomfortably. “We barely know each other.” She knew that this excuse was rapidly losing its validity, but what else did she have?
“Alphego knows you both better than you know yourselves and He chose you for each other,” said Laura. “I know your future, and I opened the doors for you to come here, so that you might meet each other.”
“You opened the doors?”
“It is my job, given to me by Alphego Himself,” Laura explained. “Andrew can say he saw me, though I had to be subtler with you. I was the woman who found you by the river, and the Leaf Princess helped from her end.”
“Kath,” Clara breathed. “So, you mean she knew…”
“She knew as assuredly as she knows you are here now,” said Laura. She sighed and shook her head. “Don’t be angry with her. She could not help her memories. The question put to you now is this: What shall you do with your Fire Prince? Shall you take him to heart and love him as you ought, or shall you keep him at arm’s length while he slowly fades away to a shadow of himself?”
Clara glanced away, staring out at the village in an effort to focus her nerves.
“It is almost amusing, how both of you try to stand at arm’s length because you think it is what the other wants,” said Laura, a smile playing at one corner of her mouth. “Ah, how you love each other even in your denial!”
“You think this is funny?” Clara asked, avoiding the question.
“No,” said Laura, “I think it is serious. I smile only because I can look back and know what will come of this moment. But you must choose. You say that you wish to fight Amber, and give your all against her, but you cannot do it alone. The prophecy calls for your Union, your Tylith, your binding together. Klarand has waited for you because only you can win, and you can only win together. You cannot do it if you allow anger and resentment to tear you apart.”
Clara took a deep breath, leaning against the railing, not even noticing how high she was from the ground, focusing on Amber’s camp to keep her resolve from faltering. “Yes,” she said quietly, and to make sure, she repeated it.
“Yes, I shall stop fighting this. It may interfere with the plans I had for my life, but Alphego’s plans are higher and greater. I – I will stand with the Fire Prince against the Dragon, and I will not forget who is the enemy again.”
“Oh, delightful, I just love it when my opponents actually put up a fight.”
A gasp caught in Clara’s throat as she realized that Laura was no longer standing there. Instead, there stood the frizzy-haired girl whom she had met at the first ball, whom she had seen again just hours before talking to the Fire Prince.
Clara glanced out of the corner of her eye to see Laura standing in the doorway. The Doorkeeper gave one apologetic shake of her head, then melted into the crowd inside.
“We meet again, Water Princess,” said the newcomer, fiddling with something she had just pulled from a pocket. “Again at a ball, again on the balcony. You do enjoy finding your resolve on a balcony, don’t you?”
Clara narrowed her eyes, as she turned back to the girl at hand. “You.”
The girl smirked. “Me.”
“Who do you think you are? I have never met anyone…”
“Who do I think I am?” the girl asked, raising a thick eyebrow, catching Clara in the depths of her amber eyes. “What a question. I know who I am. I’ve had five thousand years for self-reflection and discovery, after all. I think a better question would be, who do you think I am?”
Clara took a step back, clenching a fist as she tore her eyes away from the girl, as details clicked together and made sense. “You’re – you’re Amber!”
Fire danced in those amber eyes for whom the woman had been named, as Clara knew from the legends. “Yes. Ah, but you’re a clever one, Water Princess. Alas, but I must quiet your clever for a time.”
And before Clara had a chance to react, Amber’s hand shot forward with the object she had been fiddling with, and she struck Clara’s arm. Clara gasped as her arm shot cold. It began to spread throughout her body, and she lost feeling and movement.
The last thing she saw before the ice overtook her eyes was Amber’s laughing face.
Where had the Water Princess gone? At first, Andrew hadn’t worried about her, but as dance after dance had been done and she had not returned to his side, he began to search for her. Sure, she didn’t like to be at his side, but…
People began to ask after her, and he made up excuses. She had gone for a breath of fresh air, she had told him. He hoped that she hadn’t left the room entirely.
There were doors leading out to balconies, and Andrew began to search them. With her fear of falling, he wasn’t confident about this plan … but he had to at least look.
On the third balcony he checked, he found her. He breathed a sigh of relief and called her name – but she didn’t answer. She stood frozen, a look of horror on her face as she stared at nothing. His heart hammering, he took a step forward and took her arm, drawing back immediately – she was as cold as – no. She was ice.
He glanced about, horror settling in his own stomach. There was one person who could have done this, one person who surely had. Amber.
There, leaning against the door was the girl from the halls, fiddling with a hard, black object which she thrust into her pocket a moment later. “Oh, I was wondering when you would join us, Fire Prince,” she said. “A party is no fun when it’s only two and one of them frozen.”
Andrew’s hand went to his sword, but she was faster, her hand on his wrist as she jerked it away from the hilt. “Oh, no, don’t you dare spoil my game, Fire Prince. Laura has promised it to me and I will play it. Alas, but you are fire. I fear that my ice would find you as disagreeable as it did Ralph and Jane. No matter.”
And then she let go of Andrew’s wrist, leaped onto the railing, and jumped.
Andrew rushed forward in sickened horror – but she had not jumped to her death. She rose from the ground in dragon form, an inhuman laugh rumbling in her throat as she regarded the Fire Prince.
Before he could move, or say anything, her claw closed aro
und his waist and she tore him away from the Kastle.
Minutes later, the Dragon dropped Andrew in the middle of the burnt out-village, and he landed in an undignified heap. By the time he regained his feet, she had resumed her human form and had positioned the frozen Water Princess in the middle of a shed.
Amber wore such a self-satisfied smirk as she stared at her terrible handiwork, it made Andrew’s blood boil. Tossing care aside, he drew his sword and rushed towards her, perhaps to drive the blade through the woman’s heart and put an end to her wicked deeds.
At the last moment, Amber sidestepped, and Andrew had to draw up short to avoid striking the Water Princess. Amber took advantage of Andrew’s moment of uncertainty. Reaching forward, she grabbed the blade of his sword with her bare hand, surprising Andrew so that she was able to easily able to pull the sword from his hand.
Andrew stared. Her blood stained the blade where she gripped it, yet her eye betrayed no pain.
“Fire Prince,” she said, her voice calm and even. Lethal. “You will not be the first to learn that I am not easily killed.”
She let go of the sword and it clattered to the ground, yet Andrew paid it little heed. She held her injured hand outstretched, and even as Andrew watched, the sliced flesh closed, knitting itself back together, leaving no scars. Soon, only the stain of her blood remained, and she wiped that off on her skirts.
“Perhaps you’ve heard that I cannot age,” she continued. “And that’s quite true – I’ve been sixteen for over five thousand years now. However, the root of the matter is that I can’t change, neither me nor my husband. We can’t age, we can’t get sick, we don’t stay injured long, and we can’t die. What pain we do face, we share - he felt the bite of your sword even as I did. And so it shall be until we are slain at the hand of the one appointed. You, Fire Prince, are not the one appointed. Even if you had succeeded in driving that blade through my heart – though I assure you that I had no intentions of allowing that – I imagine that I would have still recovered.
While she was monologuing, Andrew used the opportunity to retrieve his discarded sword, and consider her words. What was she driving at? What reaction did she hope to get from Andrew? Fear? Rashness?
Though he kept his sword out and at the ready, Andrew stood his ground, neither advanced nor retreated as he stared at Amber with as little emotion as he could manage.
“Release her.”
Amber tilted her head to the side and pretended not to understand him.
“The Water Princess. Release her from your spell.”
“Oh.” She shook her head as though in sympathy, letting that sickly-sweet syllable sit on the air for far too long. “Oh, Fire Prince, even if I wanted to, even if I thought that her release was to my advantage, I can’t.”
“Can’t, or won’t?”
“Can’t. I’m afraid that I don’t possess any sort of magic that will reverse this state of ice.” She shook her head, then gave him a twisted smile. “Perhaps you can try?”
Andrew chose not to answer. It seemed the wisest option.
“You intrigue me, Fire Prince,” she continued, “such as I’ve had few people do. There’s a great potential about you, a promise of greatness, and I’m afraid you’ll never reach it toiling as the Klaranders expect of you.”
“They expect me to be their Fire Prince,” said Andrew.
“Yes, but is that what you want?” she asked. “If you will join me, I shall give you the life you’ve always dreamed of.”
“How? You don’t know what I want, so how can you make such a ready promise?”
“I need not know,” she said, shrugging. “You shall provide the dream, I, only the means.”
“What if my dream is your death?”
She shrugged again but said nothing.
“What’s in it for you?”
“Can’t you accept a token of generosity?” she asked with a shake of her head. “Come now, Fire Prince. Don’t tell me that you’re entirely satisfied with your life. You’ve been cruelly ripped from your own world, and the people of this world make naught but demands on you. You surely wish for something better.”
“No.”
“You don’t?”
“Perhaps I do, but whatever means you mean to offer me, it’s sure to be cheating, and it won’t be true. No, I won’t accept your offer.”
“Your loss.” She stepped out of the shed and touched the wall. Iron bars shot out of the ground, trapping Andrew inside with the Water Princess. “But since I’m nice, I’ll give you time to think and come to a better decision. In the meantime, you’ll find that there is plenty of food, should you get hungry, and you can attempt to free your Water Princess if you’re bored, I’ll be back tomorrow.”
With that, she turned, and red skirts billowing, she disappeared down the empty road.
Part 4
The
WAR
In the clutches of the Dragon, Water and Fire found their bond. Together they rose. The Dragon fled, and they reigned triumphant in her stead.
Chapter 1
Andrew paced the confines of his cell, trying not to look at the Water Princess who stood frozen in the middle of the room. For two weeks, he’d been trapped here, her icy form: his only companion.
Oh, Amber had visited – daily for the first week. She had come to taunt and tempt, and to ridicule him because the Water Princess still stood a statue in the middle of the prison as though he could do anything about it. Amber had been the one to enchant her.
Andrew didn’t know why she hadn’t killed him yet and rid herself of his threat to her power. Instead, she had daily made an offer to take him to her own palace and give him the life he always dreamed of, never telling him how she planned to accomplish this, or what was in it for her, so he stalwartly refused. How could he agree to something without knowing what it entailed?
But after a week, Amber seemed to lose interest and only came every other day, if that. Andrew didn’t mind. He didn’t lack food, for this cell seemed to have been a warehouse at one time, and there were plenty of dried foods and grains in sacks and barrels, a stove in a corner, a large barrel of blue water, and two smaller barrels with orange and yellow.
So, he kept himself busy and ate well, but the Water Princess still stood frozen in front of him.
“Do you not know the power of Alphego’s fire, Fire Prince?”
Andrew turned at the new voice, one that sounded vaguely familiar, though he couldn’t say for certain why. There, on the other side of the bars, stood a man of about Andrew’s age, for his jaw was still smooth, though his muscles were solid and hard. He bore no scars, but his face was weathered, and his granite-gray eyes held the memory of a thousand battles.
“Granite,” Andrew said, realizing who this was.
“Indeed,” said the man, nodding slowly. “That is my name. Rizkan history knows me as the husband of Amber. I have won little other mention.”
Andrew folded his arms over his chest and stepped defensively between the man and the Water Princess. “So, she has sent you here in her stead to torment me? No, I haven’t figured out how to free the Water Princess, and no, I don’t want her to give me the life I’ve always dreamed of, whatever she means by that. You can go now.”
A smile worked at the corner of Granite’s mouth. “Amber doesn’t know that I have come, and indeed grows bored of you in your cell. She fully expected you to have freed the Water Princess and attempted your escape quite some time ago. Your refusal of her offer also chafes her. I am glad you do – I do not know what dark magic she means to use, but I am certain that it is not for your benefit. To only one other person has she made this offer – Princess Renee of Lower Klarand. She refused as well.”
“The life I dream of is me out of bars, her out of Klarand, and the Water Princess restored to flesh and blood,” said Andrew, frowning. “I don’t think she would be willing to give me that.”
“Save in insubstantial dreams,” remarked Granite. “Now, I see that she ha
s left you your sword and ring, and though you do not wear your circlet, it is there waiting to return to your brow as soon as someone worthy is there to place it.”
“Yes,” said Andrew, not sure what else to say.
“Fire Prince … I am not like my wife,” Granite said with a shake of his head. “The evil magic that corrupted her heart has never touched mine – praise be to Alphego. I have stayed true to the narrow way that the Doorkeeper set us on, and I shudder to think what a force I would be had I gone to evil. I don’t think Klarand or Rizkaland either would be standing were I truly fighting at my wife’s side.”
“So, you’re saying that you’re here to help?” Andrew asked.
“You need no help,” said Granite with a shake of his head, “save the help of Alphego. Amber clearly intends for you to escape, since she has left you with all of the necessary tools and a prison flimsy enough for you to break. I’ve given up trying to understand my wife anymore, but she does love her games.”
Andrew reached forward and grabbed one of the iron bars that formed the front of the prison. “I’ve tried to escape, but…”
“You cannot escape without the Water Princess,” said Granite. “Ah, but she is only frozen, not corrupt and a chain around your neck, rather than the joy to your soul. She is easily cured.”
“How?” Andrew asked.
“Have you not heard that the only cure for Amber’s ice is the fire of Alphego?” Granite asked. “During the first days of Rizkaland, Jane and Ralph wielded it. When Amber ventured from the island five hundred years ago, Laura had a paper bag of fire that had been given her by Jane. Do not think me ignorant of the rings belonging to the Wind Prince and Leaf Princess. I see one like them glittering on your own hand. No doubt you can conjure fire with it.”
“I can,” Andrew admitted, clenching the fist.
“Well, then,” said Granite. “Your Water Princess is safe. I also see a ring on her frozen finger. That is your way out. Ask her to soak these bars with a combination of red and orange water, and then ignite it with your fire.”
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