Before the Dawn

by Kristal Lim

Raven shot Trevor a glare of resentment. "I suppose you won't reconsider your decision at all?" he asked.

  Trevor shook his head. "Absolutely not."

  "Very well then." He nodded and made a languid gesture with his hands. "You may take me to Meran now." He settled back against the passenger seat, looking completely bored as if Trevor wasn't doing him a favor.

  Trevor merely rolled his eyes at the other man’s haughty manner. "Sure, whatever, Your Highness." He started the car then and soon they were on their way to see the Meran girl Raven was so worried about. Trevor had called Detective Roman earlier and told him he wanted to see her. The detective had agreed and set the time for the appointment. Trevor was a bit worried about it all since he wouldn’t be going to see Meran alone, but Raven assured him he would have no problem glamoring people to ignore him. Trevor gave his strange outfit a pointed look, but made no comment regarding that claim.

  While he drove, Trevor snuck glances at his companion from time to time, still trying to believe that all of this was really happening and he wasn't having the strangest extended dream. Everything was just too unreal. Here he was, in a car chauffeuring a being who should not exist outside of fairy tales and they were on their way to rescue a Princess, or the reincarnation of one, from a magic spell. That was the kind of thing that only happened in books or movies. He couldn't believe that he had somehow gotten caught up in all of it.

  Raven suddenly let out a sigh. "I can't believe I'm doing this," Trevor heard him mutter as he scowled at the rows of houses they passed by. If that wasn't an opening to a conversation, then he was going to make it one. He asked Raven something that had been bugging him ever since the other guy had showed up in his room.

  "Why is this Meran girl so important to you?" he wondered. "Why is she, as you mentioned before, under your protection? You certainly don't care what happens to Aline, but you seem to care a lot for this girl."

  Raven flashed Trevor an irritated look. "I do not care for Meran," he pronounced very distinctly. "Not personally. But since she is under my protection, then I have an obligation to look after her. Otherwise, the Courts would think that I am weak and ineffectual, and I would never hear the end of it. It's bad enough that I'm considered to be the irresponsible son, simply because I am not interested in ruling, but I refuse to be thought of as a weakling whom other people can trifle with without any repercussions. Benwyr and his little toadies will rue the day they decided to toy with what is mine."

  "Wait." Trevor frowned. Something Raven said set off a thought in his head. "I thought you were just one of the courtiers who hung around the Prince. What do you mean you're not interested in ruling?"

  "Oh, the Prince is actually my half-brother," the other man shrugged, like it was an insignificant detail. "And I was not hanging around him. I sort of lost a wager and I became bound to his service, and I had to attend to him for some time. But then he gave me the condition that he would free me from that if I could help him get his Rosamund back, so of course I did that. Then I left his Court because my brother is not exactly one of my favorite people, and 'hanging out' with him is not my idea of a sporting time."

  Trevor stared at him. "So, what? You're actually some kind of Faerie Prince?"

  "Faeries!" Raven snorted, rolling his eyes in disgust. "We're not Faeries, bite your tongue. But I am one of the Princes to one of the many, many kingdoms in the Strangelands, actually. Our Father, as you humans say, really got around in his youth. And, trust me, meddling mother aside, I am the nicest one you could ever hope to meet. My other brothers, again to use a human term, are all jerks."

  Trevor had to laugh at that. Imagine, Raven calling his brothers jerks. Like he was actually any better. "Well, what about your mother?" he asked next. "You sort of said I met her or ran into her before. I did get to talk to this beautiful woman with black hair in that same park where you and I saw each other. Was that her?"

  "Most probably. She had been chasing me for days then, trying to involve me again in one of her many plots to make me the Crown Prince. Honestly, that woman cannot seem to comprehend the phrase 'not interested'. It's gotten bloody tiresome after all these years to avoid getting caught up in her machinations. I'm sure she's the one responsible for breaking Meran free of the spell, though God alone knows how she managed it." He shuddered. "Probably did something obscene with Benwyr so he'd grant her that boon."

  Trevor grimaced at that, his head suddenly full of uncomfortable images. He quickly changed the topic. "So remember our deal, okay? We go into the hospital. You do your magic thing to the detective and other people in the way, get Meran to somewhere safe, then you help me rescue Aline."

  "You make it sound like rescuing your beloved Aline is the easiest part of the plan. Remember I said we'd need to go into Silverhaven for that, and then somehow convince my brother to release her from his spell, which he is definitely not going to do. Why won't you just believe me when I say that it's impossible?" Raven looked at Trevor like he was mad.

  Maybe he was, because he was going to do it anyway. "I have to try," Trevor said to him. "Just get me to wherever that place is, help me find Aline, and that's it. That's all I want from you."

  The Prince shook his head. "All this trouble for a girl you can't even remember. Humans! I will never understand you people!"

  Trevor didn't even fully understand it himself. All he had were Raven's memories of her. But he knew, in that way that people just knew certain things like something was a good idea or not, that this was the right thing to do. He may have been pulled or manipulated into this very position, but now that he was here, he intended to see things through. It then occurred to him again that maybe he was simply having some kind of breakdown after the emotional mess he went through last year.

  "There's the hospital place," Raven suddenly pointed out.

  Trevor cursed at almost missing the turn, but he quickly adjusted and soon found a space in the parking lot. The two men got out and proceeded to the reception area where Detective Roman said he would be waiting for Trevor and, sure enough, there he was sitting in one of the drab-looking arm chairs with a paper cup of coffee in his hand. He stood up when he saw Trevor approach while Trevor glanced worriedly at Raven for a moment, who just crossed his arms and looked annoyed. The Detective never even seemed to register Raven's dark-clad presence in his sight, so Trevor assumed that the black-haired Faerie or whatever he called himself had already done his magic to make himself invisible to others.

  Detective Roman nodded at Trevor in greeting. "It was decent of you to want to do this," he said. "All right. Follow me."

  They matched his pace and he led them through the hallways until they reached a room that had a uniformed cop guarding it. There he paused and turned to give Trevor one of his suspicious, searching looks again. "I'm going to go in there with you and I'll let you talk to the girl, but if you upset her in any way, we're getting out of there immediately. Understood?"

  "Perfectly," Trevor assured him.

  Then the detective took a breath and opened the door.

  Meran was lying in bed on her side, but she started when she heard people come into the room. She immediately sat up and looked at the newcomers like she was ready to defend herself. However, her wary expression slowly changed when she got a good look at Trevor’s face.

  "Oh, my God." Tears suddenly appeared in her eyes, and what had been a tense moment now became an awkward one. "Trevor, is that you?" Her voice sounded raspy from disuse. "Trevor!"

  Without any warning, she jumped off the bed and threw herself into his arms. "I wasn’t sure the other night because I was so tired and confused, but I thought you were the one who helped me. Oh, God. I thought you were dead." She started babbling, a crazed light appearing in her eyes. "I thought they did something awful to you because you just disappeared. I remember seeing you with Aline’s dad and you looked like you had been drugged, then Aline said something to the Prince and they argued, and after that there was just dancing and dancing until my fee
t were bleeding but they wouldn't let us stop. And Raven was nowhere to be found and I didn’t think he’d just leave me like that–but he disappeared too, and Aline became stranger every day until it was like she couldn't even remember who we really were anymore, and the Prince didn’t like it that I spent so much time with her so he locked me away and it was terrible, and I thought I was going insane every day, and then this woman showed up one night and said that I was free to leave. But I wouldn't, not without Aline and the others, and then she told me things, that I had to go and bring you back so you could help us, and the next thing I knew, I was running and then you were there and I was brought here, but no one remembers me, not even my mom and dad. Trevor, please. I don't know what's going on. I don't know what's real. I don't know." She was shaking so badly as the words spilled out of her in a rush that Trevor could barely hold her in comfort.

  At this point, it was obvious that his presence had upset her and the detective looked outraged. His expression said he was about to kick Trevor out and ask some very uncomfortable questions, but Raven then decided to step in and do what he was supposed to have done minutes ago. He touched Roman on the head and the man just went down, completely unconscious. Whatever he did must have also made him visible because Meran's eyes suddenly widened and she glared at him. "You!" That one word was loaded with enough bitter accusation to sentence anyone to death.

  He gave her an apologetic little smile and a shrug, then he did something else, something magic, and the three of them slipped past the guard at the door while the man stood completely motionless. They passed other people–nurses, orderlies, doctors, patients–who were all frozen in some kind of enchantment and, soon, they were back in the car and driving back to Trevor’s house.

  Raven had given up the passenger seat for Meran and he now lounged in the back looking very smug and pleased with himself. Trevor glared at his reflection in the rear view mirror. "Should I be worried about Roman coming after me once he wakes up?" he demanded.

  "Oh, there's no need," Raven answered. "I took all his memories of you when I put him to sleep."

  "What about that cop and all the other people who saw me?"

  "I cast a cloak over you as well. It made them forget your face as soon as they saw you while we were walking around that place, so there's no need to worry about that either," he assured Trevor.

  "And what about me?" This question came from Meran.

  He suddenly didn't seem so suave anymore. "Well, you have just disappeared as mysteriously as you appeared. But it doesn't matter. I'll find someplace you can stay where you will be safe and you don't have to worry about all of this."

  "What about my parents?" she asked. "Will they still not remember me? What about the life I was going to have before I met you? What about all the years I lost while I was dancing in that ballroom?" Each word out of her mouth sounded more and more bitter. It was disconcerting because she appeared like a teenager, but the rage Trevor was seeing in her eyes was that of a woman's. He suddenly realized that although time had not touched her physically, she had continued to age in her mind. And she was pissed off at Raven.

  "You know, I learned a lot of things while I was in your brother's Court." The look she gave him was cold, and that actually seemed to affect him because he sort of flinched before he controlled his expression. "And, yeah, that's one of the things I learned. He's your brother and the one most likely to become Crown Prince while you're the screw-up."

  "Now wait a–" he tried to make some protest, but she just cut him off.

  "However, the really interesting thing I learned was that you started all of this," Meran almost hissed. "It's all your fault. You’re the reason why we got so much time stolen away from us. So what are you going to do to fix this mess you've made of all our lives?"

  Raven now looked very pale and he was clearly biting back words as angry as Meran's. To Trevor’s complete surprise, he chose to remain silent and merely looked out the window, ignoring the two humans who were staring at him and waiting for answers.

  "Typical." Meran sat back in her seat, still furious. Then she turned to Trevor. "What about you? What are you planning to do?"

  So he told her, everything he knew about the whole thing. About how he actually didn't remember any of it and the only memories he had were actually Raven's. Meran filled him in on some of the things she knew. She told him more about Aline and the person her friend had eventually become as the Prince's wife. She also recited, in a flat unemotional voice, what the Prince had done to her just because he didn’t like the closeness she shared with Aline.

  "He's evil, Trevor," she said with a shudder when he asked her about the Prince. "Actually, he and his people don't really have a sense of right and wrong because they're too powerful to ever have to worry about the consequences of their actions. But that guy is evil. As soon as Aline was completely caught up in his spell, he made sure to marry off our other friends to his Lords so they wouldn't be around as much. For some reason, though, he was never able to do the same thing to me and I remained by her side as much as possible, until he separated us, too. The last time I saw Aline, she had changed so much. I didn’t even recognize her anymore." She grew very somber. "I'm afraid that even if we do succeed in rescuing her, it would be another person we'd be bringing back."

  That didn't sound very encouraging, but Trevor smiled at her. "Well, I guess we'll just see. We can't leave her and the rest of your friends there either. None of them ever wanted to get caught in that spell."

  She nodded but didn't say anything more.

  They spent the rest of the drive in silence, each thinking their own thoughts.

  ~~~

  Chapter 21