“How did you learn to find tracks in the woods, fix all these things and even drive a wagon in the forest?” Erica asked him shyly.
“First, I observe and investigate anything around the king and I also read books. The most important is to pay attention to details, look for potential dangers” he answered without even turning his head from the broken chair that he was fixing.
“Are there any dangers out there?”
“Dangers could be found even in here.” He winked at her and smiled cunningly.
Erica was confused by his answer. Could it be possible that Roy knew that she was a thief? It was his job to gather information so did he make the effort to find out about her? That would put her in danger as she would be the first suspect should anything go wrong there.
On the sixth day the families played the game of the lost treasure. They separated into teams and they had to follow evidence and solve some riddles to find the map, read it and recover the treasure. Each family had its own way to find it and they either divided into small teams of two people or stayed in one big team. Erica was in a team with Roy, who had a natural talent in solving riddles and following evidence. Andria was following her father or, more accurately, he was following her and protecting her. He admired her as she confidently led him through unknown ground, from one clue to another. She was walking through high grass, speaking to her father when he stopped for a while.
“And ‘the River Head’ should be the big rock we saw yesterday that looks like a giant’s head.” She didn’t hear any response and she turned to her father, who was looking proudly at her. “Are you even listening to what I’m saying?” He stayed silent for a while.
“Your mother would be proud to see you grown up like a proper young lady,” he said, with a warm voice, whilst she looked at him with surprise. “I think it’s time for you to have this.” He gave her a small, metallic box with shiny gemstones fixed on it.
She opened it and found a half empty bottle of pink perfume inside. She looked at it impressed trying to understand the meaning of this unexpected present.
“What is it?” Andria asked her father.
“This perfume belonged to your mother and it’s enchanted with magic.”
She opened it and sniffed it, but she couldn’t smell anything and King George laughed at her effort.
“This is not a common perfume. When you wear this perfume the only one who can smell it is someone who is truly suitable for you—a soul mate! For the rest of the people, the smell will pass totally unnoticed.”
“Is this how you met mom?” Andria asked her father, intrigued by the magical story of the perfume and his expression changed to one of nostalgia as he remembered the moment he met his wife.
“I smelled the perfume before I saw her. She was holding a white lily that she had just cut from her garden. Nausika, had the most beautiful garden in the kingdom! She was gifted in bringing the plants to life and making them look impressive. Gardening was not just her hobby but her life.” Suddenly King George stopped his narration and his eyes clouded. Andria pretended that she didn’t notice. He took a deep breath to concentrate on the present and smiled to her. “Now, it belongs to you. Keep it and may you find the prince of your dreams, the one who will bring happiness in your life.”
Roy was trying to read some traces to understand if they were going the right way while Erica was watching him carefully.
“Do you see this one? It seems that two or three people passed from the swamps and walked to the opposite direction of all the teams. They might have found the map and …” He looked around and Erica was gone. He started calling her around, but she didn’t reply. After a few minutes, she appeared smiling proudly holding a map.
“Where have you been and what are you holding there? Why do you smile? Is this the map?” Erica just nodded at the last question. He opened it, surprised and impressed. “Where did you find it?”
“I listened to you carefully, paying attention to the details, but thinking a bit more alternatively and I followed my instinct and voila!” She beamed. Roy tried not to show his admiration to his student and simply recommended that they start following the map. Their team seemed to be the closest to the treasure. On their way, they crossed paths with King Martin and his family. He was a fat man with a distracted look, which always confused the interlocutors; they wondered if he understood what they were saying or not. He had a naive way of seeing things and he was very clumsy in his movements.
“I think that someone followed us and stole our map! Have you seen my stolen map or the thief?” King Martin asked Roy, who looked suspiciously at the map that Erica was holding.
“I didn’t see anything your Majesty, but I assure you that if I find it, I will inform you immediately,” Roy replied with a steady voice and a tension in his eyes that passed completely unnoticed by King Martin.
“Good, good! It’s unbelievable what some people do to win just a childish game like this, isn’t it Mr Roy! You can’t trust anyone now days, can you?”
“Tell me about it,” said Roy, looking at Erica persistently.
After King Martin left with his family, Erica tried to ignore his suspicious glances and continued studying the map.
“So, according to this map the treasure must be—”
“I hate lies!” Roy interrupted her.
“Sorry?”
“Did you really believe that I’d let you win using your insidious and sneaky tricks, thief?”
She started feeling nervous and Roy took it as a proof of her guilt and continued his accusations.
“For a moment I believed that you had really changed, but I was mistaken as it seems once a thief, always a thief! Even if you seem to have the potential to be someone useful, you will always be only lies and deception. I’m deeply disappointed in you.”
Erica started crying as she heard the harsh words from the man that she admired and she felt despair that her faulty past had returned like a ghost to destroy her future. Roy took the map from her hands, threw it to the ground and stomp on it, tearing it apart. They returned to the square in silence to await the announcement of the winner.
When a family found the treasure, seven golden necklaces, one for each kingdom, in a jewellery box, they received gifts from all the royal families along with the title of the best treasure hunters. Everybody congratulated them and celebrated. Roy wasn’t that curious to know who had won after he gave up, but he had to give his respects even if he didn’t believe that they deserved them. When he arrived at the award ceremony, in the biggest building of the temples, he found King Martin standing in the middle surrounded by his family and the gifts, and the rest of the families who congratulated him and talked about their adventures, funny moments and accidents. He couldn’t believe that this, King Martin the naïve, found the treasure before the others, and without a map!
“But how is it possible?” Roy asked as they shook hands. “Your map had been stolen, hadn’t it?”
“My map? No, I was mistaken, it was in my pocket all this time, but I forgot to check. Isn’t it funny?” At that moment even King Martin noticed that Roy looked mortified. “Sorry for the confusion. I hope I didn’t put you in any trouble.” His innocent tone infuriated Roy even more.
A cold realisation came over Roy at these words and guilt hit his door of perfection and morality. How did he get so caught out by this stupid man? Instead he blamed a young lady without clear evidence of her action, just because of her bad history? He had never made such a mistake in his life and the only thing he could think in that moment was to find her and apologise from the depths of his heart. He immediately left to look for her, but Erica was gone. With nightfall, when everyone returned to their homes, he stayed outside to find her. He returned to the place where he had thrown the map, found the pieces, he collected them and put them into his pocket. He would put them together and save them to remind him of his mistake. It was already midnight and the sounds of the tropical forest started to scare him. The nocturna
l animals were out hunting and some of them were dangerous even for a man. He started to walk back quickly as he could hear noises around him, creatures hidden in the bushes. Something big was lurking in the dark and when Roy searched for it with his torch he saw a black long tail and a shape of an animal, probably puma, behind some trees, watching him. He started to run and while he was looking back he crashed into Erica who was returning too.
“Erica, it’s you. You scared me! Where have you been?” Before she could reply he grabbed her hand and pulled to run with him. “Come on, this way.”
“I wanted to apologise for my behaviour and my unfair insult against you today,” he said loudly, as they got closer to the house. “I hope I can make it up to you.”
“I understand that you can’t trust me,” Erica replied. “I wouldn’t trust me either. I used to be a thief and I don’t know if I can change so fast as I have been stealing all my life. I knew I should try to find a work, but after I got used to the easy money it was difficult to convince myself to make effort to earn it instead. Maybe I should have stayed in the prison.”
“No, no, no! You are nothing like that, you’ve been taught to live like that, otherwise you wouldn’t do it. You can change! I was completely wrong to judge you because of your past.”
They arrived outside of the King George’s house and they stopped, breathless. They checked back to see if any animal was following them, but there was nothing; the animal was gone. Then he turned back to her and kneeled in front of her, holding her hand.
“What are you doing, a marriage proposal?” Erica asked surprised.
“I wanted to apologise properly for accusing you and losing the game. I feel sick about it.”
“I don’t mind that we lost the game. We both know that we were the real winners anyway,” she replied and tried unsuccessfully to hide her smile of relief. Roy smiled back.
“I do understand your point of view though, and, believe me, if I had been born in your position, I would have done the same probably, except the part where you got busted for bread.” He winked at her.
“I’m sure you wouldn’t, Mr Perfect,” Erica said sarcastically, while he was looking into her eyes.
At that moment Andria opened the door and found them outside in the weird situation.
“What are you doing out there, people? Are you coming in?”
“It’s not what it look like,” said Roy apologetically and stood up immediately. He realised that he became more suspicious for trying to excuse themselves so said nothing more and they both entered the house under Andria’s questioning look.
The seventh day came, and the families celebrated as it was the last day there. They all had mixed feelings about it. Some were sad to be going back to reality, others were looking forward to it, if they had unfinished business, and some just had a feeling of emptiness because they were not quite sure how they should feel. Andria just looked melancholically at the sky which was like a reflected lake. She knew that she would have to wait one year before she could come back there. The day passed quickly and before the next dawn the place had been emptied and the wild life had returned to its rhythms. When the wagon passed the gates, Erica whispered to Andria’s ear.
“Do you still want to go to the surface to see the sky?”
Andria didn’t respond immediately and then she turned to her.
“More than ever before,” she said confidently and she touched her mother’s perfume inside her pocket.
Part 3:
Ivorin
A few days after their return, King George was back into his routine like everybody and Andria and Erica were ready to visit Ivorin to find out if there was any way to go the surface and even to the sun. The council gathered in the king’s presence to discuss the latest disaster of the royal crops due to a strong cold wave that came from the Big Well of Wishes. This well was exactly in the middle of the capital and it was the main cold air provider for the stuffy city. For the citizens of Ardonia, it was a great fortune to have it as it protected them from the merciless heat, their number one enemy. They even believed that something was living there, listening to their wishes and sending them good luck.
Andria grabbed the opportunity of her father’s absence to go with Erica to find this mysterious and crazy scientist named Ivorin. After traveling for one hour with the underground train they reached the edge of the city where, according to Erica, Ivorin was living. She didn’t know exactly which his house was, so they started asking the residents of the underpopulated area.
“Ivorin’s house? It’s at the end of the street, you can’t have missed it,” answered an old man who was lingering outside of his house.
The last house was really different from the shacks of the poor neighbourhood. It was well built, with two floors and three thin smokestacks on the flat roof, emitting grey, blue and white smoke. The double door was five meters tall, made from thick steel with two heavy doorknockers on it. They knocked one of them and it made a deafening sound that resonated inside the factory-like house. The door opened slowly, squeaking, and they went inside. A strong, but inoffensive smell of chemicals came to their nostrils, while everywhere they could see small inactivate robots, buttons, machines, crates and unknown devices, all made by the crazy scientist. In the middle of the high chamber there was a pink robot that was cleaning the floor. It suddenly stopped and came towards them.
“Is there anything you need?” it asked in a robotic, but feminine voice.
“Oh, it can speak!” Erica said surprised.
“I have a vocabulary of 9,999 words,” the pink robot answered.
“Can you do anything else apart from cleaning?” Andria asked, but the pink robot didn’t respond. “I guess you don’t answer open questions. Dance for me!”
“What dance would you like?” answered the robot.
“Mm, that’s interesting. Robot-dance!”
“I think we shouldn’t,” Erica started to say, but then the pink robot started to dance clumsily and funny. It was doing the moonwalk; its parts were turning around themselves and it even pretended the broken robot.
“Now I want a Cossack’s dance!” Andria said while they were laughing, and the robot followed her orders. “Tango!” Erica was half-heartedly trying to make her stop, but she was enjoying it. “Now take her as your partner!” Andria said, pointing Erica who unsuccessfully tried to escape from the robot’s grasp.
The pink robot danced tango with Erica, leading her perfectly all over the room while Andria was laughing and giving them some new ideas of dances to try. Suddenly the pink robot stopped and walked away fast as a shadow rose behind the surprised girls. They turned and saw a two and a half meters high, wide robot with horns, red lights for eyes and strong arms, moving on caterpillars towards them. Scared, the girls stepped backwards until they reached the wall, where they stood, waiting to see what would happen. The robot brought its face close to Andria’s and stared at her green eyes. She suddenly found she wasn’t scared anymore and she dared to touch its chin, ignoring Erica’s disapproval.
“Is there anything you need?” it asked, with a deep robotic voice.
“A dance…?” Andria answered uncertainly.
The robot didn’t respond and Andria saw there was someone behind it, controlling it. Ivorin. An average bald man wearing hi-tech glasses with red lenses, totally shaved and dressed in a white scientist coat. He was staring at his visitors with curiosity while his glasses where analysing their identity, health, body temperature, heart beats, even some personality traits based on their physiognomy. White female, around 18, healthy, temperature normal, brave, curious, intelligent, moral, high quality clothes, noble, DNA analysis: Andria the Princess of the Seventh Kingdom. White female, around 35, hormonal disorder, temperature normal, observation skills, tolerate morality, submissive, medium quality clothes with discreet colour, royal servant, DNA analysis: Erica Terney, convicted ex prisoner for thievery.
“Ivorin welcomes you, Princess Andria and… Erica. Please fo
rgive Taurus if he has scared you, he is completely harmless besides his size.” He spoke with a heavy accent.
“You are exactly as I was imagining you,” Andria said. “Nice to meet you.” She wasn’t sure if she should laugh at him or admire him. “Your robots are quite impressive and very advanced. Do you sell any of them?”
“Sell? No, no, of course not. Ivorin isn’t interested in selling and Ivorin isn’t interested in money either. Ivorin constructed them to serve him.”
“Why do you speak in third person? It’s weird, don’t do that!” Andria said sharply.
“Ivorin doesn’t understand.” He looked very confused by her comments—he probably didn’t even realise that he was speaking like that.
“Andria, don’t insult him,” Erica whispered, still frightened.
“I came here because I’m interested in a trip to the surface and even to the sun. Can Ivorin help me?” Andria said in one breath.
Ivorin froze suddenly and looked at her in an awkward silence.
“Just that?” he said finally.
“Well, yes. Is it possible?”
“Ivorin has the solution. Easy, no; possible yes. Follow Ivorin to the basement.” He turned his back to them and the Taurus robot followed him.
Farnath: The Frozen Heart Page 3
