Sisterland

by Salla Simukka

  Then she remembered. She wasn’t alone. She didn’t have to turn to her imaginary friend. She had a real friend.

  Alice gently woke up Marissa.

  “I can’t sleep,” Alice said. “The fate of the dragons makes me sad. They should get to fly. They should be free.”

  Marissa stroked her arm.

  “I agree. But think about it: They’re dragons, the most terrifying creatures in the world. If they wanted to get out of their chains, they would. I think the answer and the courage they need can only be found inside of them.”

  “But how can we help them?” Alice asked.

  “Maybe they have to realize it themselves,” Marissa said with a yawn.

  She looked as if she could fall back asleep at any moment.

  Alice wasn’t completely satisfied, though. They didn’t have time to wait around for the dragons to find their inner power and free themselves. The longer they were in Sisterland, the more they forgot their own homes and their own world, and why it had to be saved.

  Marissa’s breathing slowed, and Alice saw that she was asleep again. The smallest dragon, the blue one, turned over and yawned. Its mouth opened wide, revealing sharp rows of teeth. Looking at them, Alice got an idea. Maybe the answer really was inside the dragons!

  Going over to the blue dragon, Alice carefully nudged it in the side.

  “What now?” the dragon asked.

  “Do you have strong teeth?” Alice asked.

  “You’d better believe it! Want me to bite you?”

  “No! But could I use your teeth for something else?”

  The dragon considered this and then said, “Why not?”

  So Alice began to rub her key on one of the dragon’s sharp fangs. Every once in a while, she tried the key in the lock. Finally, it went all the way in! Her hands trembling with excitement, Alice turned the key in the lock, and the small dragon’s chain fell away. Alice and the dragon cried with joy and woke up the other dragons and Marissa, who all wondered what was happening.

  Alice began unlocking the other dragons’ shackles with her key. The jingling and jangling filled the whole island as the dragons shook off their chains and kicked them away. They straightened their limbs and stretched their wings, and that spark of excitement returned to their eyes. Marissa looked at Alice and said, “I never would have thought of that!”

  “That’s why there are two of us. As you said, we complete each other,” Alice said with a smile.

  * * *

  —

  The next day, the dragons began flying practice. For such handsome, beautiful, and magnificent creatures, the dragons looked as pitiful as baby chicks who had just begun flight school. All of them fluttered their wings and tripped and fell. Ai-La did her best to coach the others, but her skills were rusty too. Alice and Marissa helped as best they could by pushing and lifting and encouraging the dragons. Even though the whole thing looked hopeless at first, somewhere deep inside the creatures knew they could fly, because by the end of the day, their jumping and flapping looked much more natural. And old Ai-La flew again as if she’d never forgotten how.

  “How can we ever thank you?” asked a beautiful green dragon with graceful lines.

  Alice smiled at the dragon, then said to Ai-La, “The prophecy said something about us needing to become dragon-handed girls. What could that mean?”

  Ai-La thought. She huffed as she mulled the riddle, and small wisps of smoke came from her ears.

  “There is one way,” she finally said. “But I’m not sure you’ll be able to handle it.”

  “Let’s try!” Marissa said confidently.

  The dragons gathered a pile of their hottest chilies and boiled them into a powerful drink. Then they gave Alice and Marissa each a gobletful and encouraged them to down it all in one gulp. Alice looked at Marissa. Marissa looked back and nodded. At the same time, they lifted the goblets to their lips and drank quickly, without stopping to test how hot and spicy the drink really was.

  It was very, very hot. They didn’t feel it immediately, but a few seconds after swallowing, Alice felt as though her insides had exploded in flames that burned her mouth and throat and stomach and everything. Alice began to sweat and shake. Her face turned bright red. She was sure she was going to start spewing flames like the dragons. And she saw that Marissa’s situation was just as bad. With her right hand, Marissa took Alice’s left hand, looking for support or help, but nothing eased the girls’ agony. Alice’s head felt dizzy, and for a moment she thought that leathery, scaled wings would soon sprout from her back. But that didn’t happen. Instead, the girls’ clasped hands began to change. They swelled. Their fingers thickened, and their nails grew. Lumps and scales began forming under their skin. The girls looked on, mesmerized and horrified, as Marissa’s right forearm and Alice’s left forearm changed into dragon hands with savage talons that could tear a sheep, limb from limb. When the transformation was complete, the agonizing burning stopped. The power drink had done its work.

  “Now we’re ready to meet the queen,” Alice said, and moved her hand to feel how it worked. The claws of the dragon hand were long and terrifying, and when she scratched the ground, they left deep scars. The hand felt strong.

  “But we still don’t have the third key,” Marissa said.

  Then the smallest dragon, the blue one, stepped forward and shyly said, “I’ve been doing a little thinking. Since you two are meant to defeat the queen together, maybe your keys must be shared too. So far, your keys have opened the gate to the Garden of Secrets and unlocked our chains. I suggest that we melt down the keys and forge a new one for you to share.”

  All the dragons cheered for this suggestion. Alice and Marissa also let out a whoop. Together the dragons blasted their fire to create a forge where the keys would melt, and then the small blue dragon was given the honor of shaping the new key. The result was a big, beautiful key with the letters A and M fashioned at the top.

  “Now we need someone to take us to the queen,” Alice said.

  Ai-La stepped forward.

  “I will take you,” she said. “I am the best flier, and besides, I have a rage burning inside me because Queen Lili kept us prisoner for so long!”

  The other dragons cheered at Ai-La’s words. Then they bade the girls a tender goodbye. They cried great shimmering tears and promised to fly high and free, and always remember them.

  “You are brave girls,” Ai-La said as they prepared to leave.

  The girls placed breathing masks they’d made out of leaves over their mouths, because even though the dragons weren’t blowing smoke into the wall around the island anymore, it was still thick.

  “We have to save our world from drowning in snow,” Alice said. “Our only choice is to be brave.”

  Ai-La shook her head.

  “You are saving your world from something much worse than an eternal blizzard,” she said.

  “What do you mean?” Marissa asked. The girls climbed onto Ai-La’s back.

  “You are saving your world and its people from the freezing cold. And I don’t just mean the cold that comes from outside. Cold can also come from within.”

  “Why is Queen Lili destroying our world?” Alice asked.

  “I don’t know. But I do know that the queen is a much more powerful and wicked opponent than you may imagine,” Ai-La said with a sigh.

  Then she took off. Alice took care not to sink her dragon hand’s claws too deep into Ai-La’s thick, scaly hide, instead squeezing her legs to stay in place. Although the dragon’s words worried Alice, she couldn’t help squealing with delight as they rose into the air. So this was how it felt to fly free! It was something Alice would never forget.

  Alice and Marissa shut their eyes tightly and took small, careful breaths through their masks as Ai-La flew them through the thick gray veil of smoke. Alice knew the drago
n had special senses to help her navigate when she couldn’t see. Ai-La had told the girls that she felt as if she’d been asleep for a long time and they had finally woken her from a dream. She knew things that she had forgotten before. Dragons could sense distances with their wings as well as their eyes. The tips of their wings told them what was north and what was south.

  Finally, the smoke dissipated, and the girls felt a cold, fresh wind on their faces. They had arrived at the base of the White Palace’s steps, which began in the air and climbed high above. The stairs were wide and shone as if they were made of glass. When Alice touched their surface, she realized that in fact they were made of ice. In the distance, they could see the majestic White Palace, home of Queen Lili.

  “I wish you luck and wisdom, dragon-handed children,” Ai-La said solemnly in her scratchy voice. It sounded as if she were choking back tears. “It was an honor to meet you and—”

  Suddenly a horde of small creatures who appeared to be made of ice crystals came swarming down the stairs. Instantly the creatures attacked them with sharp teeth and claws. Their bites were like pricks of frost and froze the girls’ skin.

  “What are these?” Marissa screamed as she tried to ward off the snapping creatures.

  “Icelisks!” Ai-La replied. “They are devilish, but we can handle them.”

  With that, Ai-La took a deep breath and then blew a thick cloud of smoke at the swarm of icelisks. Alice and Marissa quickly turned their heads away, but the smoke still invaded their mouths and nostrils. When they could finally open their eyes again, they saw the icelisks lying on the stairs, flopping and helpless.

  “Quickly, before they recover!” Ai-La exclaimed, and began climbing the stairs.

  “Weren’t you supposed to return to Dragon Island?” Alice asked.

  “It’s best if I escort you to the door. Who knows what else might be waiting,” the dragon replied.

  They had barely made it halfway up the steps before the next enemies set upon them. They were wispy creatures made of gauze, who flew through the air and had no eyes at all. They only had great gaping mouths, through which they sucked air in.

  “Heat eaters!” Ai-La bellowed. “Fend them off with your dragon hands. Don’t let them suck the heat out of you, or you’ll freeze.”

  Alice felt a terrible sucking and pulling as the heat eaters approached. There were dozens of them. She raised her dragon hand when the first one came within range. Alice’s dragon talons ripped the gauze apart, and the creature disappeared. Out of the corner of her eye, Alice saw that Marissa was doing the same. However, the heat eaters attacked from every side. The girls swiped with their dragon hands, and Ai-La attempted to protect them as best she could. One of the creatures managed to sneak up behind Alice, and suddenly she felt a freezing-cold mouth on her neck, sucking and sucking. In an instant, she froze in place. It felt as if all the warmth and strength had disappeared from her.

  Then the feeling was gone, and Alice could breathe again. Marissa had ripped the creature apart with her claws.

  After what seemed like an eternity, the heat eaters had been destroyed. All three of them were exhausted, but they continued up the stairs. The door to the White Palace was not far off.

  Then three enormous creatures who looked like icebergs and had cannons for arms appeared on the stairs and began shooting thick, icy snow at them.

  “Blasted snow blowers!” Ai-La growled.

  The snow blowers bombarded them with the white stuff with such force that Alice didn’t believe they could fight the creatures for long. Snow pelted their faces and bodies, making them stumble.

  “We’re going to drown in snow!” Marissa cried.

  “You won’t drown if I have anything to say about it!” Ai-La vowed, and moved to shield the girls.

  Then she did something she hadn’t done in years, maybe not in centuries. She drew a breath. Her whole old, scaly body trembled from the tip of her tail to her nostrils. Ai-La opened her jaws and spewed forth fire at the snow blowers. The first snow blower melted into a stream of clear water before Alice’s and Marissa’s eyes. The other two began to shoot snow toward the dragon’s head at an even greater rate. Alice and Marissa tried to help Ai-La by raising their dragon hands, but snow quickly covered their claws, and they had to let Ai-La handle this battle.

  The girls crouched as low as they could to hide behind Ai-La. They heard the fire and snow doing battle. They heard hissing and the roaring of the flames. They heard as Ai-La coughed, wheezing as she drew another breath and spat more fire. For a moment, everything was confused, and the air was full of flames and ice crystals and smoke and water.

  Then everything was perfectly still. Absolutely silent.

  Alice and Marissa opened their eyes and looked at each other in horror. Then they jumped up. The snow blowers were melted. But Ai-La was no longer moving. Her eyes were closed, and her head lay against the stairs. Her sides were not rising and falling.

  “Ai-La!” the girls screamed.

  No answer. No reaction.

  Both crying, they stroked the dragon’s scaled head. Then a tremble went through Ai-La’s body, and she drew a breath. But it sounded hoarse and rattling and grating.

  “Go,” she gasped.

  She couldn’t even open her eyes.

  “But we can’t leave you!” Marissa said.

  Ai-La’s breathing was labored. Then she said, “I…have…already…left…this…world…behind.”

  A single, sad curl of smoke rose from her nostrils. After that, she did not move again. She wasn’t breathing anymore. She had beaten the snow blowers, but the fight had been too much for the old dragon.

  Alice and Marissa each placed a kiss on Ai-La’s forehead and bathed her with their tears. Then they took each other by the hand and climbed the final steps to the door of the White Palace. This was why they had come here. Because of that, Ai-La had wanted to defend them to the last.

  The White Palace was dazzlingly beautiful, with its many towers and balconies and pillars. However, the girls weren’t at all interested in admiring its beauty. They were cold and tired and just wanted to meet the terrible being who was responsible for Ai-La’s death and the eternal winter in their own world. They pushed open the great door. No one came to hinder them. The whole palace seemed empty. The girls walked into the enormous entrance hall, which had icy chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and a floor covered by a rug as soft as a cloud. They continued toward another large door, which they guessed would lead into the main hall. Above the door were the words “Step into my heart.”

  “Another heart,” Alice said quietly.

  Marissa had already thought the same thing and produced the key they had found on Heart Island. The girls tried it in the lock, and the door opened easily, without a sound. They were now inside a soaring, brightly lit hall. Alice was startled to find that opposite them, in the center of the hall, stood two girls. Then she realized that it was their reflection. In the center circle of the hall was a large mirror with a keyhole in it.

  “Where is she?” Marissa asked Alice.

  Alice could tell from her voice that Marissa was just as frightened as she was.

  Just then, someone stepped out from behind the mirror.

  “Welcome!”

  It was Queen Lili.

  Queen Lili was the most beautiful and most terrible creature Alice had ever seen. Her long hair was like white threads or spider silk. It floated and glowed as if it were alive. The queen’s long dress was also a shimmering white. It looked as if it were made simultaneously of lace and velvet, of snow crystals and drifts, of white gems and sheer, cold light. Her face was smooth and unwrinkled, but still it was the face of an old woman. Her eyes were as hard as ice, and their gaze seemed as if it could pierce and kill a person with a single glance.

  And yet the queen was so beautiful and enchanting that Alic
e had to remind herself that they had come to do battle with her. Otherwise she would have run to the queen and asked her to hug her and stroke her hair and tell her how lovely she was. Alice felt Marissa shift next to her and guessed that she felt the same. Alice squeezed her hand tightly. They stayed where they were.

  “Alice and Marissa,” Queen Lili said with a smile.

  Her voice was like frigid water that poured over the girls.

  “Finally, you’ve arrived. I’ve been waiting for you.”

  Queen Lili spread her arms as if she really expected them to run into her embrace.

  “For many years, perhaps centuries, I have longed for you. And now you come here to live with me.”

  Alice and Marissa looked at each other. What was going on?

  “We didn’t come to stay,” Alice said. For a moment, Queen Lili looked dumbfounded.

  “What do you mean, you didn’t come to stay? Even though I’ve made Sisterland the most wonderful and enchanting place in the world?”

  The queen’s tone was sincere.

  “We came here to put an end to your tyranny and to save our own world!” Marissa said in a firm voice.

  Alice was happy that Marissa could remain so assertive. The whole time, she felt like rushing to the queen and assuring her that they really did want to move into the White Palace. Something in Queen Lili’s voice and bearing utterly beguiled Alice.

  “Does your world need saving?” the queen asked.

  “Of course it does!” Marissa exclaimed.

  Now Alice’s irritation boiled over too. She remembered her dream of her parents and sister suffering.

  “People are drowning in the snow there and are going to start freezing to death soon.”

  The queen seemed to ponder this. Then she waved her hand and laughed. Alice had never heard such a frightening laugh, yet even so, it captivated her.