Rescuing the Prince

by Meghann McVey

  Tolliver’s response smacked of Fiona’s arrogance. There was no way he was lying to make me feel better.

  “I’m glad,” I said. “Maybe when I get back, we will be on speaking terms again.”

  “When you get back?” Tolliver’s tone darkened. “Where are you going?”

  “That’s the second thing I was going to talk to you about. Gerry is alive, and I’m going to find him!”

  “How can you know this?” Tolliver said, his tone sterner than I’d ever heard it.

  I recounted Gerry’s appearance in my dream and showed him the button and pin. “Anyway,” I continued somewhat breathlessly. It would be a relief to finish my story; Tolliver’s face was getting more serious by the second. I felt worried what he’d say at the end. “Reldion le Valen knows the way to the dragon rider! Queen Arencaster asked him to be my guide -”

  “Forgive me, Lady. I know Gerry is your intended. But while I can believe in your dreams, I must oppose this journey.” Tolliver sounded…angry. “It is too dangerous.”

  “How is this any different from you and Fiona,” I gave the name a heavy, ironic emphasis, “battling Latule?”

  “I shall not endure your traveling practically alone. You should have a company of soldiers for protection at the least!” Tolliver protested.

  “Reldion le Valen will be with me,” I said. “I don’t know much about him, but he does know how to fight.”

  Tolliver’s eyes flashed dangerously. “That rouge’s company is little better than nothing, and in some ways, worse. Be wary of him, Leah. He has ruined many women’s lives with charm and false promises.”

  “He’s all I’ve got, Tolliver! I have to go!” I said, knowing I was going to worry about this later.

  “Every time I get you back, you must leave again, and I fear I may never see you again,” Tolliver said, his voice choked with emotion.

  My heart broke for Tolliver. Though I longed to touch him, I couldn’t. I knew simply placing my hand on Tolliver’s would destroy my decision to go with Reldion. I’d sit in the castle and live for the moment I could sneak out to see him again. “I’m sorry, Tolliver. I came to this world for Gerry, the man I love. Now I have the chance to get him back. I can’t miss this opportunity.”

  “Your words are noble, Lady,” Tolliver said. “If only…”

  “If only?” My every nerve thrilled in anticipation. I fully expected him to say if only their love were mine.

  “No. It isn’t important.” Tolliver turned back to Autumnstead Village.

  “Please tell me,” I whispered.

  “If only I believed you did it for love.”

  My body went as cold as the blue snow shadows. I hadn’t expected Tolliver to speak so harshly. Or was the truth that keen? How much truth was in that statement, and how much desire to shock or hurt? He certainly had reason for the latter.

  “For that reason,” Tolliver said, “I cannot stop hoping that your heart will answer the call of mine.”

  My resolve wavered like moonlight’s reflection in a disturbed pond. “Tolliver…” There was so much I longed to say, but none of it would come out. “I have to go. Please take me back to Autumnstead Village.”

  I felt grateful we both wore hoods. It meant Tolliver couldn’t see me battling tears.

  We did not speak during the walk back. I’d hoped that when we reached the square and parted for good, Tolliver would say something to let me know everything was okay between us.

  Not a syllable was uttered.

  Back at the deserted marketplace, we gazed at one another, hidden beneath our hoods. Then Tolliver drifted away.

  In numb disbelief, I made my way to the castle, back through the secret passage.

  I barely slept that night and woke early, still troubled, thinking about what Tolliver had said.

  I shuffled to the table across from the bed. I still had plenty of writing supplies left. I shuffled the papers and ran my finger along the quill feathers.

  My journey with Reldion might be a long one. There was no telling when or if I would return, whether Tolliver would be here when I got back. There were things I felt I had to tell Tolliver, especially if I was never going to see him again.

  And so I began a letter, though I didn’t know if I would send it.

  In it, I acknowledged that Tolliver had rightly perceived my longstanding feelings for him. Admitting them brought me a measure of peace and clarity that denial could not. I hoped Tolliver would be comforted, in hearing his love validated. (And hear it, he would. I hoped Peiser was kind when he read this letter.)

  With my love confession penned, I paused. When I found Gerry, we would have to talk and rethink things, I decided. Not only our relationship, but (as cheesy as it sounded), the world as we knew it. If Ben and I were able to find a way back to California, would Gerry, or I, or both choose to go? One thing was certain: a lot of things would have to change between Gerry and me in order for us to continue being together.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Journey to Edonai

  I debated all morning whether to send the letter. I finally did when the servants brought my lunch on a tray. I was too keyed up to eat most of it, so I shared with my guard. He scarfed it down and gave me a grateful look.

  The afternoon seemed to take forever. At about midafternoon, the guard answered a knock at the door.

  I looked up from one of Queen Arencaster’s books just in time to see a messenger carrying a silver tray of rolled papers. The guard handed one to me and smiled knowingly.

  I blushed a little. Tolliver had replied so quickly! In a way, it was a relief; I hadn’t wanted to leave with him angry at me.

  With slightly trembling hands, I unrolled the parchment. The handwriting looked different from Peiser’s, messier with many inkblots and even fingerprints.

  Esteemed “Princess Fiona”,

  Greetings! With my business in the forest at last concluding, I advance on Autumnstead Village. Meet me tonight at the temple of the First People when the chimes sing midnight, and I shall honor my debt to Queen Arencaster.

  It was from Reldion! Disappointment took over my initial excitement. I reread his brief scrawl, trying to get into a business state of mind. This was something I had to do.

  An untidy map was scrawled below the trip trotting letters. I felt glad I had seen the temple already with Tolliver; I wasn’t sure the map was good enough to get me there.

  Ornate initials filled almost the entire remaining space. I rolled my eyes at the RlV. He was probably proud of the flourishing letters.

  I was so distracted by them that I almost missed the postscript at the bottom. The queen has alerted me that you are under guard for your safety. If you have difficulty sneaking out, use this. It will put a grown man to sleep for at least an hour.

  A scrap of cloth had been pinned to the bottom corner of the letter. Inside was a paper triangle, and within that, a white powder. I was glad Reldion had specified the powder’s effects. The Wagoner was disturbingly good at killing people. He might not have seen anything wrong with using poison.

  Using Reldion’s potion, I easily escaped to the passage again. Perhaps because I had done it the night before, the way seemed easier this time.

  What must it have been like for Fiona to grow up this way, I wondered as I left Castle Autumnstead behind me. Any time she wanted to do something for herself, she had to sneak around. That must’ve influenced her not telling me. I wished I had thought to write to her before I left with Reldion.

  As I crossed the market square alone, I was tempted not to follow Reldion’s map to the temple, and to go instead to the barracks. It wouldn’t take many inquiries to find Tolliver, I was sure.

  Suppose I came upon him while Peiser was reading my letter? That would be rather embarrassing. I wondered how he would react. Would he think I was hypocritical for writing one thing and then doing another?

  At this crossroads of my own making, I stopped for a moment. I reached almost to the bottom of Fiona’s
cloak pockets and closed my fingers around Gerry’s button and pin. I had brought them to remind myself of what I had to do. Now I took a moment to hold them and be still. When the pull of the easier way passed, I continued on my way.

  Without Tolliver, the road to the temple seemed longer and darker, perhaps because of the clouds obscuring the moon. Among the broken columns and crumbled walls, I couldn’t make out any people. Not a sound broke the silence of the night. Reldion hadn’t specified where at the temple, so I just kept going until I reached the stairs leading to the main building. Remembering how Tolliver had told me not to go beyond this point, I stopped. I would wait here, I decided.

  The night around me remained still, snow whispering soundlessly down.

  I wondered if Reldion were late. That would be funny. I could enjoy a private laugh that I had beaten him to the meeting spot.

  A hand came down on my shoulder and spun me around. Before I could scream, another hand slapped my voice back into my mouth.

  “No, no, Princess! Or should I say Leah?” The tiny light hovering at Reldion le Valen’s shoulder turned his grinning teeth to sharply-pointed shadows.

  “What’s the big idea?” I said growled after Reldion had taken his hands off me. (I’m sure he waited a little extra just to infuriate me!)

  “I’ve been watching you for quite some time now! Didn’t you see me?”

  “Where were you?”

  “I was sitting on the first Temple column. I waved to you from a stair that leads nowhere, then climbed a tree without you ever seeing. So let this be a lesson to you: be more careful! Never travel alone in the dark if you have a choice!”

  I crossed my arms. “You would have seen me more easily if I’d had a light!”

  “But you would have seen me, and so, been able to fight back.” Reldion snorted. “Possibly. I think a blind, deaf man would’ve been more aware than you just now. And I suppose if you knew your way around weapons, the queen would have asked for directions, not a guide and protector.”

  I found a stone temple bench and sat down, wondering if my heart would ever stop racing. First Reldion had nearly scared me to death, and now he was making me mad.

  “You don’t need to change your petticoat, do you?” Reldion said with mock concern.

  I hadn’t packed a stitch. “I, er…” It took me a minute to realize what he meant. “No, of course not!”

  “Well then, what are you waiting for? You aren’t afraid of the temple, are you?” His voice held a challenge.

  “No,” I said. “But other people seem to be. So you actually go inside.”

  “All the time, my dear —!”

  “Call me Leah,” I said.

  “Very well, dear Leah! Darkness is nothing to the eyes of Reldion le Valen. But for you, I shall light our way.” Reldion waved his tiny light away. Tinder cracked against flint, brought forth orange flame that was blinding after the absolute dark. When my eyes adjusted, I saw that Reldion had made a torch from a branch. This, he handed to me and led the way to the temple interior.

  My first impression of the temple was an empty open space, like churches back home with the pews removed. Beneath the dust, ghosts of faces and animals peered out at me from the walls. Reldion went all the way to the back, where the floor was hollowed out, forming what resembled a rectangular wading pool with two steps on either end to get inside.

  Behind the pool, a travel pack, some colorful but faded and worn clothing, a walking stick, several old swords, and a sack of unknown contents were piled up against the wall.

  “Yours?” I said, waving the torch at the stuff.

  “The villagers are too afraid to enter here. It’s a very good place to stash lali when I have any.”

  “What is —?” I blinked at him.

  “Oh. Loot in your dialect. Booty. Plunder. Treasure!” Reldion seemed more enthusiastic with every word.

  “You made this place into a robber’s den?” That didn’t seem right. Temples were like churches, right? Places where you were on your best behavior. Places it really wasn’t right to make part of your crimes.

  “Oh hell, Leah! Just look at this place! Whoever keeps it up has been gone for ages! They may even be pushing up daisies! They won’t mind anymore than dead men don’t mind being parted from their coin!”

  Doubting that Reldion and I would reach an understanding, I didn’t pursue the subject further.

  “So what did you come in here to get?” I said.

  “Nothing. This is the way out of Autumnstead.”

  I’d been in the Other World long enough to realize he knew something I didn’t. “How?”

  “Just step into the pool.” Reldion’s eyes and teeth glinted in the torchlight.

  “You first,” I said.

  His grin widened, but he did as I asked. I slowly counted to ten, waiting for something to happen to him. The silence within remained unbroken, the shadows unmoving. Reldion, realizing what I was doing, beckoned to me, and when I didn’t move, did a capering little dance. “Harmless,” he said when he’d bowed. “Now, dear Leah… Do you have the courage to follow me or not?” His breathy voice recalled Tolliver’s warning, that Reldion was some kind of lady-killer. I wondered if he bathed before moving in on his prey. But this was neither the time nor place.

  Steeling myself, I took the first step. During my brief descent, I became acutely conscious of the faded, chipped tiles. Something about them continued to draw my eye, though there seemed to be nothing remarkable about their pattern and hues. The pool bottom held just enough water to make it slippery. I moved carefully so I wouldn’t fall. I had nearly gotten to Reldion’s side when a blinding white light filled the area. I covered my eyes with my hands, and still the light streamed through, until suddenly, it no longer did. I lowered my arms and attempted to look around. The dimness after the glare might as well have been total darkness.

  “Reldion?” I said in a voice just above a whisper, unsure who else might be listening.

  “I am flattered that you’ve called my name so soon, dear Leah.”

  Ugh. Well, we couldn’t be in much danger if he was talking like that.

  “What happened?” I said.

  “Look around,” Reldion said, deliberately vague.

  I wondered if his strange blue-fire eyes that saw so keenly in the dark were also immune to the effects of bright light. By degrees, my eyes adjusted.

  “It doesn’t look different,” I said. We still stood in the rectangular pool, with the temple, shadowy and still around us.

  “Look again.” Reldion pointed to the back wall where his pile of lali and belongings had been, but now was no longer.

  “Did you move it?” I had the gnawing feeling I wasn’t catching on to something.

  “No, foolish girl, I did not.” Reldion laughed. “You are in for a surprise.”

  He exited the pool and started down the center of the large, empty room. I hurried behind, not wanting to be left alone in the strange place.

  Reldion opened the temple door on a diamond-dusted snow plain.

  “How beautiful,” I murmured. “But where has the temple brought us, exactly?” I asked, looking around for Zellia.

  “We are at the border of Ivenbury and Autumnstead,” Reldion said.

  Just as he said it, I found Zellia at my left shoulder.

  “We are nearly to Ivenbury,” Reldion added. “Not bad for less than an hour of traveling.”

  “I don’t get it. The temple could be really useful. Why are Autumnstead people so afraid of it?” I said.

  “There are tales of Wagoners, vagabonds, and others who camped in here and other places like them. They all just…disappeared, most agree, to a terrible fate.”

  “But no one knows what really happened to them?”

  “No. They assume the worst, and why not? Is not death the most feared event of our lives, and the greatest unknown?”

  I had to agree with the Wagoner. Still, I felt very curious, even excited about the identical temples. When
we had found Ger, I would have to write to Ben, if not go to Valeriya myself. Maybe the temples could show the way back to California.

  “I must say, I’ve never seen the tiles shine like that before. Like sunlight upon a mirror, it was.”

  That remark gave me chills, and not just because of the pool’s possible reaction to my mirror magic. I’d forgotten that on top of everything else, Reldion was was a storyteller whose voice had the power to transport listeners to places they might get lost in.

  The nickering of horses brought me back to the moment. “They’re ready to ride,” Reldion said, leading me to the trees where he’d tied them. The two horses were brown to Bella’s soft gray. I wondered how the mare had fared among Latule. “How did you get these two all the way out here?” I asked to take my mind off her.

  “It was part of my business in the forest.” Reldion smirked. “Latule had a generous selection. I chose the ones I wanted and brought them through the portal.”

  I sighed, though I shouldn’t have been surprised. Then it occurred to me. Two horses. Uh-oh.

  “Can I ride with you?” I asked, my cheeks burning as I did so. “I’m still not up to speed on the whole horse thing.”

  I had expected Reldion to give me a you’re kidding, right? look. He smiled alright, but it wasn’t the condescending, pitying look I’d come to expect from Faxon (well, Fiona). Instead, it was distinctly wolfish. “You’re more sly than I thought.” Reldion chuckled to himself.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Your timidity to ride is a fine cover for getting near me.”

  I should’ve known Reldion would twist it around. “It’s not like that…”

  “And protesting! I haven’t played a game of virtues in many years. This should be a most interesting journey.”

  With that, Reldion helped me onto his horse (which he called Marksman). He secured the other unnamed horse to ours with a rope and tied his pack onto the empty saddle. Then we were off, with Reldion riding in front of me.