by D. L. Boyles
Finally, they reached the Lonely River, where she decided they could allow the horses to rest. “This is it,” she told him with a wave at the narrow stream. “It gets deep in some spots, but it is not very big.”
“You named it Lonely River?” he asked. She nodded. “Well, it is lonely, isn’t it?” Philip scanned the countryside. They could see for a great distance and there was nothing at all nearby.
“My…friend…and I. We came here together often.”
Maybe he could see the sorrow on her face or hear the longing in her voice. Whatever it was, he turned to her with a sad smile. “Audora. It has only been a few hours, but I already feel the need to tell you that I’m not sure this match is right.”
She nodded. “I agree. I’m surprised how quickly I knew. Do you feel uncomfortable being here? I didn’t mean for you to. And I honestly thought that after our time together in Endari that we’d have a connection when you arrived today, but…”
“But you can feel the wrongness of it, too?”
“I can.” She agreed.
He nodded along with her, a sad but understanding look on his face. Philip reached out and took her hand in his, guiding her along the edge of Lonely River, their shadows trailing them at a safe distance. “It will not disappoint your father, I’m afraid. He was set against this match from the moment I entered his office.”
“He was?” she asked. Her father had been ecstatic for Philip’s arrival, so she couldn’t understand the sudden change in his opinions. “Well, maybe he knows something we don’t.”
“Maybe. But we know that something as well.”
She laughed and allowed him to pull her closer to his side. “Will you stay the night at least?”
“Of course. You promised that your cook would make mountain pie.”
Audora relaxed beside him then, holding onto his arm as they walked with no real destination in mind. “I’m sorry you came all this way for nothing.”
“It wasn’t for nothing. I have very much enjoyed our friendship, Audora, and I hope you will still think of me fondly even after I’m gone.”
“I will.”
“I am sorry it wasn’t me.”
“What?” she asked.
“Your true love. You deserve it, Audora, and I hope that you will find it someday.”
“I think I already have.”
“Then, go after it, Audora, and do not let anyone sway you.”
“And you? Will you find true love?”
Philip sighed. “I’ve been searching for it for years. For so long that I wonder if it truly exists.”
“Then, I hope you will find it one day, Philip. In the meantime, we should return to the horses and get back in time for you to try that mountain pie.”
When they reached the horses, Philip stepped close to help her into her saddle. Before he did, he bent and kissed her cheek. The gesture surprised her, but it did not heat her blood as she had hoped. Philip lifted her up before getting to his own horse and racing her back to the stables.
Audora enjoyed her time with Philip, and the response of Rebecca and Sloane to his attentions added humor to her evening. Her mother was oddly absent, and her father was his typical quiet self. In some ways, she was glad that her mother wasn’t there. She would have added a tension to the evening that would have detracted from the newly formed friendship she had with Philip. It was nice to have a friend – someone who understood her, even just a little. Peter had been her only other friend. Maybe even Florian in some way. Yet, those friendships had not withstood the tension created by her curse. This friendship with Philip, however, felt secure even if they would not see each other often.
After dinner, she and Philip toured the castle.
“Will you leave in the morning?” she asked.
“I think it best.”
They said very little as they strolled along through the hallways. “Can I tell you something, Philip?”
“Anything.”
“I was in love once. And I think he loved me.”
“You alluded to that earlier. What happened?”
“I don’t know. He did something terrible and ran away. I can understand it, I think, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less.” She leaned her shoulder into him then sighed. “How about you? Have you ever thought, other than me, that maybe you’d found that person you’ve been searching for?”
He seemed to contemplate his words for a moment as they walked. “Yes. But I lost her, and I don’t think she will ever come back.”
“If she loves you, she will.”
Philip smiled. “We’ve come to your door. I would say that I will see you in the morning, but I plan to depart with the sunrise. It was wonderful to see you again, Audora, and I wish you the best.”
She pushed up on her toes and kissed his cheek. His eyes widened in surprise, which made her blush and smile all at once. “Good-bye, Philip. I hope you find her.”
And that’s how she left Prince Philip Mullein et Linzen, on amicable terms and with hopes that their dreams would come true.
∞∞∞
“I, for one, am relieved that your father forbade such a union. It would have been an awkward thing for you to marry a fae—someone who would still look youthful and spry as you aged and wrinkled.”
“Mother, as I told you, it had less to do with Father’s refusal and more to do with our own mutual understanding.”
Her mother gave her a sarcastic look, one that said she doubted everything Audora said.
“Darling, I know you are trying to be brave with your eighteenth birthday so near. Prince Philip was our final hope.”
“Not our final hope, Mother. I am planning to leave.”
“Leave? Audora, what do you mean? Is there someplace you’d like to go before…well…before your birthday? One last thing you’d like to do?”
“Yes.”
Her mother plopped down on the couch beside her, grasping her hands with her own. “Anything, my sweet, sweet Audora. Tell me and I will make it happen.”
Fauna flitted into the room with tea and shortbreads then disappeared just as quickly. Audora hesitated, allowing her mother to hand her tea before continuing.
“I would like to see The Wilds.”
“The Wilds? Audora. That I will not do.” Her mother nearly spilled her tea in her lap. With shaking hands, she set her cup and saucer back onto the tray. “Whatever made you think to go there?”
“I want to look for Peter.”
“Peter? The stable boy who murdered Captain Florian?”
“I know he did something terrible; that he should be punished for it…”
“And so, you would have me traipse off to The Wilds with you in order to exact punishment upon such a fiend? Is it so important that you see justice meted before you fall into an endless slumber?”
Audora felt sick to her stomach the way her mother was talking about the curse. In a week, she would celebrate her eighteenth birthday and then, somehow, she would prick her finger and fall into a deep sleep. Forever. Or until her one true love came along and kissed her. It was unlikely Peter would come back, since he believed he was not her true love…or maybe he was just saying it so it wouldn’t hurt her feelings. She wasn’t sure. But if there was even a possibility that Peter was her true love, she had to take it.
“If I do not find him, Mother, I worry that I will never wake.”
They argued about it until her mother firmly informed her that there would be no trips to The Wilds. It was then that Audora acquiesced to her mother’s pleas. But in the back of her mind, she knew she would not listen. Even her father, when he joined them, echoed her mother’s refusal to allow her to go to The Wilds.
After dinner, Audora retired to her room, claiming a headache—something she seemed to get frequently lately. Merriweather brought her a special tea meant to ease the pain then left her alone—also something that happened frequently lately. Everyone seemed to be withdrawing from her. Or maybe it was her imagination. The closer her birthday loomed, the more d
istant she felt.
Not tonight, though. Tonight, she would take control of her own destiny.
When the castle was quiet and Audora was certain everyone was asleep, she slipped from her bed and into her riding clothes. She pulled on the dark cloak she secretly borrowed from Elivia, one of the girls from the kitchen, and with boots in hand, quietly tiptoed through the hallways and corridors that led to the cellar.
A thrill of excitement shivered through her as she anticipated saddling her horse and charging forth into the night. From there, she would venture into The Wilds and eventually, she knew she just had to find Peter. How she would find him, she didn’t know, but even if she had to enter The Wilds and shout his name at the top of her lungs until every magical being knew she was looking for him, that was what she would do. His note said that was where he would be and had discouraged anyone from following him. Her father forbade anyone from going, an order no one was willing to disobey. No one but her.
Pushing up gently on the cellar door, Audora did her best to wriggle quietly out into the alley. Before she realized anyone was there, hands grabbed hold of her and hauled her to her feet.
“Princess Audora? What are you doing?”
She stared up into Merriweather’s stern face.
“I am leaving, Merriweather. To find Peter. I love him. He’s my true love; he always has been. My birthday is less than a week away, and I have to find him, let him know how I feel.”
“If he loves you, he would be here now, Princess Audora.” Her voice was angry, but her face softened some as she stared up at her. “I’m sorry, Princess, but the queen suspected you would try something like this. She’s sent me to retrieve you. Will you come along without a fight?”
Audora thought about it for a moment. “No. No, I will not.” And with that, she began to stomp past her mother’s maid. Sadly, she didn’t make it far before she felt a strange sensation tingling down her spine. Turning, she saw magic twinkling in the air between her and Merriweather. She’d known that Merriweather possessed magic, but she never saw it like this before. It swirled in a great arc, an iridescent sparkle of blue and green, rising up behind her and stretching to where Audora stood, or rather, hovered, above the ground. “Merriweather?”
“I am sorry, young one, I truly am. I tried. More than you might know. However, there are some things even I could not save you from.”
She tried to speak, to shout, but no sound left her lips. Merriweather turned away and somehow, her magic pulled Audora along like a tether, the two of them shrinking in size to be nothing more remarkable than a housefly. They floated past guards and castle staff without attracting the least bit of attention. No one noticed them at all. No one saw as she was pulled through the castle and along a secret corridor she did not know existed until then, her heart beating wildly in her chest. And no one said a thing—not Merriweather, not Flora or Fauna, and not her father as she was thrust into her mother’s private chamber. They all stood outside in the hallway with varying looks of fear, regret, and blankness on their faces. Merriweather’s magic released her, and when her still stockinged feet hit the floor, she was back to her normal size.
“I knew you would not be obedient to me in this, Audora.” Her mother flitted over to her with a mocking frown on her face. “This is not the way I wanted it to go. You were supposed to sit by meekly and allow the curse to happen, not try to run off and find your true love.” The queen pulled her in front of a full-length mirror that she stood next to. With a firm grip on Audora’s face, her mother turned her head so that she was facing the mirror. To her surprise, in addition to her reflection, there were several others who gazed back. It frightened Audora. She turned around to see who those people were crowding around her in the room, but she saw none of them. Her mother squeezed her chin tightly as she forced her gaze back to the mirror. “Look more closely, Audora, and you will see what your heart has longed for.”
Audora obeyed, searching the crowd of faces standing around her reflection. A figure pushed forward just a little, his face sad, full of worry and fear. He shouted something but there was no sound. Not a word was audible, but she could see that his neck strained and his face streaked with a red fury as he tried to make himself heard. “Peter?” She formed the word, she knew she did, but like the man in the mirror, there was not a sound. Audora pressed her hand to her throat, cleared it, and tried her voice again. Nothing.
A woman who looked alarmingly similar to her mother slammed her hand against an invisible wall as though she might beat against her glassy prison. With them, a man who looked so much like Philip that she had to look at him a second time to be sure it wasn’t, shouted something, shaking his head wildly. Another face surfaced, strained with fury, shouting to be heard but no sound reached her. “Prince Lionel?” she asked, gazing now more closely into the depths of the mirror.
“You see, my dear Audora, I never wanted your curse to be lifted. Sweet Merriweather insisted it was the right thing to do at the time, but we never believed you’d find true love.” Audora turned a frightened, disbelieving glare to her mother, who stood with her back to the mirror, impervious to all of the rage reflecting from that glass behind her.
Audora reached her hand out, wondering if she could touch Peter, feel him somehow, but all she felt was the cold, smooth surface of the glass. When she returned her attention to her mother, she was holding a flower in her hand, a too exaggerated frown on her face for Audora to believe it was sincere. Her mother never even glanced at the mirror, simply swiveled it on its stand so that Audora could no longer see inside. Reaching out, she took Audora’s hand in hers then pressed the flower’s stem into Audora’s grasp. It hurt. Something pierced her skin.
She looked down at her hand, opening it and allowing the flower to fall, a faint trickle of blood dripping to the floor along with it.
“The curse said by your eighteenth birthday, not on, and really, we are so close.”
Audora’s legs became weak, sending her crashing with a crack to her knees on the white marble floor. A pain radiated up to her hips that made Audora’s entire body shudder and seize. She looked up at her mother, a question forming on her lips. “I’m not sorry, Audora,” she whispered, patting her face sweetly as she’d done when Audora was a little girl.
Her mother, the queen, grinned as she twirled the mirror back around and stepped in front of it. For a long moment, Audora could only stare down at her trembling hand, vaguely aware that the woman she’d loved as a mother admired her own reflection and tapped her finger against the glass. Not so gently, she turned and gave Audora a shove and she found herself immobile, lying on the floor glancing up at the mirror. From that angle, she could not see the reflections any longer, but she knew they were all raging against their captivity as a darkness settled over her and drew her in to nothing.
Her body did not move; none of her senses worked the way she knew they could. It was like being engulfed in complete nothingness, unable to tell the world that she was still there, that she was still Audora and she longed to open her eyes and be free. The curse settled on her with a metallic tang in her throat, an absence of smell in the air, no ability to feel whatever it was she touched. There was just a darkness and the echo of voices, never clearly saying anything, just murmurs that let her know they were there. So, this was her curse. This was how she would spend forever.
Chapter Nine
The Secret and a Ship
“I think it is my fault that the girl’s true love is gone.” The three men, one hunter for each of the three seasons, sat around a table in the corner of the inn. The Hunter was sitting with his fellow hunters, their heads hung low. Each of the men had a tankard full of ale and had already finished several before. None said a word, simply sat quietly with their hoods drawn up over their heads, anonymous patrons passing through.
“You cannot blame yourself,” Autumn spoke up, sipping on his drink.
“If we can find Mazin, perhaps we can find the stable boy.” It was wishful thinkin
g, but he voiced it anyway.
“We cannot afford to look for him much longer,” Spring Hunter grumbled.
“But if we can find Mazin before the contract is up, the evil queen will have no leverage, no way to pull us into her snare. I cannot help but think that if we can find Mazin and stop her, everything will get better,” Autumn said. He continued to be optimistic, but Philip could not echo the feeling. “I completed a task for her this week. A maid who ventured where she shouldn’t have.”
“Did she give you a useful clue?” Philip asked immediately.
The Spring hunter tossed a piece of paper onto the table.
LOOK INTO MY FACE AND I AM SOMEONE. I AM YOU, BUT FROM BEHIND I AM NOT THERE AND NEITHER ARE YOU.
“Another riddle,” Philip groaned. “One more thing that makes no sense and leads us no closer to finding him.” Philip huffed out a breath and kicked the foot of the table, jarring everyone’s drinks. “It seems I will lose my wager to her,” he said. “And soon, I will have to face the fact that I have single-handedly brought about the demise of all our kingdoms.”
They all contemplated their lots quietly, thinking of the many things they could do, should do, and would do were it possible. Yet, no one spoke another word. They’d had this conversation so many times there was no need to waste the energy in saying it again. When they finished their drinks, they sauntered to their respective rooms and sometime in the night, they woke, switching places in an attempt to confuse anyone who was watching.
In the morning, they parted ways, each for a different destination and a different plan in mind, their paths crisscrossing and overlapping, backtracking, slowing down and speeding up until they were sufficiently spent after their night of drowning their sorrows. Then, they were gone, ghosts, anonymous hooded riders drifting to the three corners of the world.
∞∞∞
She watched carefully as the foolish prince nodded sleepily in the saddle. He was too drunk to realize he’d been being watched. She sighed, her gloved hands gripping the rough bark of the tree. It was not part of her original plan—not in the slightest—but as she’d followed Princess Audora, she realized there may be an easier route to get to what she wanted. Or, to where she wanted to go.