Andria smiled at the heavy man with the permanent sweat on his forehead. She had just acquired her first two allies—a thief and an officer.
“Consider yourself under my protection, Officer Wooly. You have the princess’s gratitude from now on!”
Back at the palace, King George had gotten even more furious about his daughter’s second disappearance, and almost lost his control, when he saw Andria casually coming in along with Erica.
“I visited the prisons to see for myself the conditions of the inmates and to better understand the meaning of deprivation of liberty,” she explained innocently.
The king’s anger abated as he listened to his daughter’s reasonable explanation.
“I thought you wanted to … I don’t know. I see now, it was a good thought of you to learn more about this world and understand all the services that we are responsible for, however; next time you should first ask me so that I can provide security guards for you and prepare it a bit better. Don’t run away like a thief, Andria. And who is this?” He had just noticed Erica, who was nervous to be in the palace before the king himself.
“This is my new personal assistant. I think that I need one now that I have started having duties and responsibilities,” Andria answered with confidence.
King George watched his daughter retire to her apartment and for the first time he realised that she grew up to be an individual and independent woman, ready to enter the adult world.
Part 2:
The Forbidden Forest
T he Seven Kingdoms of the underground Earth were always in a good relationship with each other, bound by an alliance and defensive pact, that protected them from hostilities. Even though the kingdoms weren’t equal in strength, they possessed the same power at the Council of the Seven Kings, who would meet once a year at the Forbidden Forest so as to discuss important matters that concerned the whole of humanity.
The Forbidden Forest was actually a huge open hole in the ground, wide enough to host a tropical forest of thousands of square meters, and deep enough that the dangerous heat of the sun couldn’t burn it down. Thousands of species of animals, insects and plants survived there, where the valuable fresh air was the main source of oxygen for any living being in this underground world. The forest was well-guarded and protected by seven huge gates, one for each kingdom, and no one had access there without the permission of all the kings, and there had never been given such a permission throughout the centuries. However, the royal families of each kingdom would gather there to join the Council of The Seven Kingdoms.
This time, Andria could follow her father to this event because she was eighteen and only adults could attend the gathering for the safety of the forest. It was a good opportunity for the families to get to know each other better and maybe one day a royal marriage between their heirs would make their bond even stronger. Andria was disgusted by such an idea but she tried not to show it. She was against the idea of marriage, defensive against the notion of love, of being connected with someone. She had seen her father grieving for his wife all her life as he made the “mistake” connecting, even if that “mistake” created her, apparently she preferred to see things more practically rather than emotionally.
The royal staff prepared the supplies for the trip. Clothes were packed loaded onto the wagon with the four white horses, as no engines were allowed in the forest. The police closed all the main streets of Ardonia so that the king could pass in his royal carriage and there was a celebration of peace and humanity, the main causes that the council symbolised. Andria was rather excited that she would spend seven days with her father, far from all the responsibilities that were keeping him busy. She would visit an exotic heaven with him, a place where they could see wildlife and have a taste of how the Earth was before the sun’s overheating. The gathering usually would last about one week, but occasionally it would last even longer depending of the matters they had to discuss and the disagreements that would result. The wagon arrived at the huge gates of the Seventh Kingdom which opened loudly and slowly as they passed between the soldiers that were standing in a row saluting the king holding rifles stiffly at their sides. Erica, who came as Andria’s personal maid, was checking carefully the gates and the security systems after Andria asked her to. Her experience as a thief could be useful to Andria as she might notice a weakness that they could use to break through one day.
“Well, what do you see?” Andria whispered.
“Aside from the first control point that was heavily guarded by armed soldiers, barbed wire and anti-tank obstacles? Or maybe the thick, steel gates, the cameras, the movement detector lasers and the dogs?”
“Yes, do you see anything else?” Andria asked, without seeming to be worried about all these security measures.
“Well, I noticed that the gates are controlled, fully electronically and digitally.”
“So, what’s good about that?”
“They can be hacked! A skilful hacker could order them to open.”
“Do you happen to know anyone?”
“Just because I lived on the streets and I was a thief, doesn’t mean that I know all the scums of the underworld,” Erica replied sharply. “But … as it happens, I know someone that knows someone that knows a very skilful hacker.” Erica couldn’t suffer Andria’s sceptical gaze and finally confessed. “Alright, alright, I used to hang out with a guy that turned out to be one of the greatest and most dangerous hackers in the world. Oh my God, stop looking at me like that!”
The king’s personal assistant, Roy, a slim man on his forties with a few hair left at the rear and back of his head wearing glasses and crisp shirt while nothing could escape from his restless eyes, drove the wagon into an area of low vegetation which slowly became thicker and higher as they approached the forest.
“Where is your hacker now, can you contact him?” Andria whispered while she felt the cool breeze on her face.
“Last time I heard he was in jail,” Erica answered, a bit distracted by the view.
“For hacking?”
“No, for arson. Oh my God, look at that, it’s the sky!”
Andria looked up at the blue sky, an infinite ceiling on the vast space surrounded by vertical, natural walls. The sunlight couldn’t reach the edges of the walls, but as they were traveling to the middle of the hole, the sun was shining on them and warmed their faces. The trees were bigger, coloured flowers were everywhere and animals appeared running in the distance. Erica was crying from the emotion. King George turned smiling to his daughter who was looking amazed at everything around her smelling the thousand natural smells this forest could produce.
“Do you suddenly feel your heart beating faster and your chest burning from joy? Don’t worry, it happens to me every time that I come. You are in love with our mother nature, we missed her!”
Andria had never seen her father so emotionally vulnerable before, except when he was speaking about her mother. The two girls stared, astonished at the tall trees that surrounded them. The trees in the royal garden couldn’t compare to these giants. The forest became even darker as they moved deeper into it and the path was difficult to discern, but Roy was an experienced driver, with high observation and orientation skills that helped him avoid mistakes. Birds were singing all over and they could see brightly coloured parrots and swinging monkeys. A whole animal kingdom was preserved there, an independent ecosystem which had survived through the years, away from human touch. Andria thought that it was such a pity that so many people would never have the opportunity to be there and enjoy this rare, yet so natural and simple, luxury. The thought of how unfair this was motivated her even more to find a solution that would make this world liveable again.
After one day of travelling they arrived at a complex of ancient temples made of huge marble columns, some of them burnt by some long-ago fire, while just next to them there were some new stone village houses with a round plaza just in the middle of them. A few people were gathered there already, wearing casual clothes, ha
ving a barbeque. The smell of the roasted pork, beef and chicken was an interesting contrast to the fresh air they had been enjoying until then, but it was welcomed to Andria as she was hungry. The wagon stopped in front of a house marked with their family heraldry, a red bird with open wings in a yellow and green shield. Inside, the place seemed abandoned and dusty, but after some cleaning, they made it civilized and cosy. Andria had never before seen her father cleaning the floor with a brush or doing manual work. It was a precious moment to see him acting like a commoner and she realised that she preferred him like that. He was wearing casual, comfortable clothes, he grabbed a pack of steaks and beer and, with Roy’s help and they started to barbeque the steaks at the plaza with the other people. The girls followed them after a while, wondering about this entirely different situation and totally casual behaviour. They had a feeling that they were living in a parallel dimension, where even the kings enjoyed the simple things in life, eating with friends, drinking, laughing and relaxing, without worries and hostilities, ambition and greed. Andria found her father in the plaza holding a plate with a big piece of pork steak on it, drinking a glass of beer and speaking loudly with some men about his age. She guessed they were kings from some of the other realms. King George proudly introduced his daughter to everyone and then continued drinking with the others. Everyone was calling each other by their first names, without any formalities. Slowly Andria managed to correlate the names with the faces of each king. There was Marcus, handsome and dark; Arabat, dark skinned; Yo-Si, the shifty-eyed; Martin the fat one; and Kingsli with the biggest moustache and Dimitri the bold with the cold eyes. They all were eating different kinds of food and drinking champagne, beer or rum, while they were dressed in very simple yet sild or cashmere clothes. These village-like men, including her father George, were the kings of the Seven Kingdoms! Andria couldn’t recall the last time she saw her father laughing and being so light-hearted. “Why couldn’t it be like this every day?” she wondered.
At the end of the day they all went to sleep a bit late as they were drunkenly singing until, one after the other, they would almost fall asleep in the small field of grass in the middle of the plaza with stomachs full and heavy after the feast.
The next morning King George woke up his daughter.
“Come on my lazy princess, we have work to do!”
“What?” she replied sleepily, trying to open her eyes but being blinded by the morning sun.
“Get dressed, gather your gear and report! We are going fishing,” he said with a wide smile.
That day was even weirder than the previous one had been. Everybody met at the large lake nearby; Andria and Erica were excited by this—it was the first time they had seen a natural lake. Andria waded in to her knees and called Erica, who was still standing on the shore.
“Come on Erica, don’t be afraid, it’s just water!”
But Erica didn’t dare to get in until Andria dragged her, screaming, by force.
“You see, it’s not that bad,” Andria told her after Erica relaxed a bit.
“It’s cold, but I like it,” Erica said, trying to smile a bit. Still dressed in their trousers, they went deeper, even though they were shaking, and then they took off their clothes and threw them onto the shore, trying to cover their breasts and screaming with excitement. They splashed each other, laughed and played whilst the kings and their wives gathered wood and prepared for the fishing. More royal sons and daughters ran into the cold water and played all together, swimming and exploring the lake, looking for fish and plants. It was very different to the swimming pool that Andria used to go, and far more interesting. She could explore the unknown depths, follow the fishes trying to catch some and watch the blue sky as she was floating face up on the surface.
Later, the families gathered around a common fire and ate their cooked fish and then they drank tea or coffee, sitting on the ground, telling stories and fairy tales, until it was dark and late. But before they slept, they had a small party and danced each kingdom’s traditional dance all together. The funniest was Arabat’s, which was more like a rhythmical war dance around the fire, shouting wildly as though to scare the enemy. The animals were sure to be scared with all those strange screams! Dimitri’s dance was for the men only, standing in a row, moving their feet at the same time and executing some exhausting moves, while the women were watching, admiring the man with the greatest stamina in performing this exhausting dance. After the party they easily fell asleep at their homes, looking forward to the next day’s fun.
The following day started a bit more at ease, eating breakfast at their homes and loitering under the shadows of the trees. The servants prepared the food and each family ate individually. Erica was trying to learn as much as possible from Roy, who was skilful in everything, but also a bit strict in teaching her, especially when she was slow or she made mistakes. So often she would try to impress him, but would only succeed in doing the opposite at the end.
After the lunchtime nap, the kings gathered again in the middle of the plaza, under the protection of tents that the servant’s pitched, and played cards until the night. Andria asked Erica to come with her to explore the surroundings a bit, but Roy asked her to stay with him to prepare the dinner. The other royal children stayed together, playing video games or reading. None of them had the eagerness and curiosity to explore like Andria, so she left alone.
“Don’t go far and don’t get into trouble!” her father said to her before she left.
Her instinct drove her to the remains of the ancient temples. The burnt walls and columns reflected a fire or battle that probably occurred there a long time ago. There were some murals of people in tunic others in armour holding spears, swords and shields while everywhere there was the sign of the sun. Inside there was one room, with black lines on the floor like concentric circles probably part of an ancient ritual. When she returned, she found her father preparing the fire in the fireplace indoors as it was a bit damp outside. They sat on the brown sofas and he started telling stories about her mother, his childhood with his strict father and the beautiful days after he became a king and married his wife. He was always nostalgic when he spoke about those days and even if it wasn’t the first time that Andria was hearing these stories, she never got bored listening to them again, because she had the feeling that this was one of the few moments when she could see how sensitive and vulnerable her father could be. He was the only person she had in this world and most of the time he was a king, ruling and deciding for his people. Rarely had she seen him as a commoner with a human side. “He must have loved my mother too much because he never got married again since then or even dated someone,” she thought. “How lonely must he feel, sitting on his throne by himself all these years, not able to share his sadness.” Maybe that’s why he was overprotective with her as she was the only one he had too.
The following morning everyone prepared for a small exploration into the forest. They followed an old path, hidden under a lot of bushes and leaves that ran parallel to a river. They managed to follow it thanks to Roy’s memory and all the families reached the source of the river, a fifteen meter waterfall, which was extremely beautiful and majestic. They swam at the small pool just in front of it and some of the bravest, or craziest, jumped from the top of it in the deepest part of the water. As they returned they saw a deer, foxes and some traces of an unknown large animal, about which they were inspired to tell some scary stories in the evening. People enjoyed stories that made them feel fear or happiness. King Marcus was a good storyteller as he could make people laugh and then suddenly shock them with a nasty surprise, playing with their moods skilfully. The strange thing was that all the stories took place in the forest and none in their own kingdoms. It seemed that their royal life wasn’t that inspiring after all.
On the fifth day all the royal families and the servants played sporting games and competitions with short, bloodless fights and at the end of that day each family stayed at home so King George and Roy took the oppor
tunity to bake some sausages and potatoes in the fireplace.
“When are you going to discuss politics and stuff?” Andria asked the question that had been bothering her over the last few days.
King George exchanged a glance with Roy, smiled conspiratorially and turned to her slowly.
“As you probably noticed,” he said, “we don’t have any conversations because we have other interesting activities.”
“But I don’t understand,” she replied. “What is this about, all these activities, all this fun? Are you going to speak about problems at all? This is what important people do all the time, isn’t it?” Andria was confused and frustrated for she was hoping to hear someone complain about life underground so she could present the idea of travelling to the surface at the right moment and that some of the kings would support her.
King George smiled at her, like a child revealing a surprise and Andria guessed the answer already, but she wanted to hear it from himself.
“Andria, important people, even your father, need to relax from time to time. There will be no political discussions here, no debates and arguments. We all have met here to enjoy life a bit—the luxury of nature, the feeling of being a common human without so many responsibilities. We use phones, video meetings and technology to communicate with each other about any important issues every day.”
“So, is this your vacation?”
“Exactly, these are my vacations. Our vacations,” he answered, smiling kindly at the same time.
Andria was wondering if “our” included her or the other kings, but it didn’t matter as she had the opportunity to have a vacation with her father anyway, and she decided to abort the plan to speak about the “trip to the surface” project in front of the kings. Erica was enjoying her time there too, mostly, learning from Roy. He was ten years older than her, experienced, skilful and a perfectionist in everything he was undertook. He was able to learn fast, he was confident and reliable in any action, including driving the wagon, scouting the area for hidden paths, fixing the broken door, lighting a fire, washing the clothes and even putting a couple of stitches on a wounded teen Arthas, the son of King Martin, a few days ago. Roy had a pattern in everything he did, almost like performing a ritual, a precision to his movements. He was loyal, sincere and a discreet advisor, which made him the closest, unrelated person to the king. He was intelligent and he knew it, making him a bit arrogant sometimes and excessively confident, but still, he was the eyes and ears of the king. One of his jobs was to keep the king safe at all times, so he was always observing and investigating anything around him, looking for potential threats.
Farnath: The Frozen Heart Page 2
