The Ashen Queen

by Sidney Gray

  “I do,” she smiled, “they wore me out, besides I like watching them, they all seem so happy.”

  “So do I.”

  “Yes, I have noticed that,” She commented, “why aren't you up there dancing?”

  “I have never been much of a dancer.”

  “Wow so there is something you can't do,” she exclaimed feigning shock, she had noticed that Reed seemed to be a man with many talents.

  He surprised her by laughing.

  “Nobody's perfect,” he replied with a shrug.

  They watched in silence for a while longer before he suddenly turned to her.

  “I want to show you something.”

  “What is it?” she asked, surprised.

  “It’s a surprise, but it will be worth it,” he said smiling, she had never seen Reed this excited and she curious to know why.

  But still, she hesitated, “you know that’s what Ella said to get me here.”

  “And look how well that turned out,” he replied grinning, “I promise I won't leave you again,” he said, correctly guessing at her hesitation, “I just really think you will like it.”

  “I just wish you would tell me what it is first.”

  ”If I do, it will ruin the surprise.”

  She frowned, now she was definitely curious. She jumped to her feet, surprising him, “Okay then, lead the way.”

  To her surprise, he held out his hand, and she took it, this time without hesitation. It was dark and quiet in the woods, they could only just hear the music from the village, but surprisingly she wasn't scared, maybe that wine was stronger than she thought. But she still didn’t want to be left on her own again, so she squeezed Reeds hand tighter, just in case.

  He turned to her concerned, “I promised I wouldn't leave you again.”

  “I know, just making sure,” she said with a small smile.

  They walked for a while longer before he suddenly stopped, “Alright close your eyes.”

  “You’re joking,” she replied amused, and he sighed heavily.

  “Just close them.”

  She closed her eyes reluctantly, and he pulled her forward a few steps.

  “Now you can open them.”

  She opened her eyes to reveal a small pond surrounded by flowers, sparkling in the moonlight, and above the pond were fireflies, hundreds of them. It was completely magical.

  “It’s beautiful,” she whispered, “How did you find this place?”

  “I just stumbled upon it one night.”

  “You like exploring don't you?”

  “Yes, I love being outside surrounded by nature and magic, I couldn't imagine living in a palace,” he said after a moment, “our grandmother tried to explain it to us once, the city, I couldn’t understand why people would choose to live like that, doesn't it feel suffocating?”

  “Yes, it does,” she admitted, she paused before continuing. “When I was younger, in the summer we used to travel to my grandfather's estate in the country. It was huge, he had horses and other animals and it was surrounded by gardens, there was so much green, and a lake where my sisters and I used to swim. It was my favorite time of year.” She added sadly, suddenly missing her grandfather more than ever. Reed reached over and squeezed her hand again.

  “It must have been amazing growing up here,” she said changing the subject, “surrounded by all this.” She waved her arms about encompassing the whole clearing.

  “It really was, it’s the only world I know,” he said quietly.

  They lay down in the middle of the clearing and watched as the fireflies flew around them, Reed even managed to coax them into creating pictures to amuse her.

  They lay there for what seemed like forever before finally making their way back to the party. No-one had noticed them missing, and as soon as they arrived back, Ella dragged her out to dance. Reed disappeared, and she didn't see him for the rest of the night. It was very late when they all finally went home; Sofia fell exhausted into her bed dreaming of dancing on a sparkling lake with her sisters, surrounded by fireflies.

  CHAPTER 28

  Sofia woke the next morning shaking and covered in sweat, she hastily pushed back the covers and crept quietly from the room so as not to wake Ella. She needn't have worried though; Ella slept like the dead and could rarely be woken before dawn.

  She stood outside the house staring out over the town. She shivered, her dreams had turned into yet another nightmare, the fireflies had disappeared, and she had been trapped in darkness, she could hear her sister crying and calling for her, but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't move, she couldn't do anything.

  She had tried to distract herself from thinking too much of her sisters in the last couple of weeks, or she thought her guilt would consume her. She could only hope that Evelyn was taking care of Lucy. She sighed loudly. It was too late to turn back, she reminded herself, she had to see this through. All the same, she realized she dreaded going back and facing all those she had left behind.

  Ella found her still sitting on the rock hours later as the sun rose above the horizon.

  “Are you okay? You’ve been getting up early lately, I thought a princess would want her beauty sleep,” she teased.

  Sofia smiled half-heartedly, but Reed interrupted them before she could reply, calling from the doorway of the house “Ella, we have to go, the others are waiting.”

  “We haven't even had breakfast yet.”

  “We'll eat on the way. I’ve packed plenty of food, but we need to leave now if we are going to make it back before dark.”

  “Where are you going?” Sofia asked curiously.

  “Not just me, you as well Sofia, come on, we should get ready.”

  Ella dragged her back inside to change, and then they all set off.

  “Why won't you tell me where we are going?”

  “I can’t, you just have to see it,” Reed replied.

  “I wish, for once, you would just tell me,” she muttered.

  They reached the middle of the village and found Elder Yarrow and Elder Sage along with a handful of hunters waiting for them, she was glad to see Clay was amongst them. They left the village, and although they still wouldn’t tell her where they were going, she realized they were taking her in the opposite direction to the mountain, which had been her first guess. The hunters set a fast pace, but she didn't find it difficult to keep up now that she didn't need to worry about being quiet, all her training with Mal had kept her fit.

  The group made its way up one of the hills surrounding the village, the walk was steep, and she could feel her muscles burning. They stopped for a quick rest at the top, and it gave Sofia a chance to take in the view. It was breathtaking, she couldn't even see the village because of all the trees, but she could see the mountain in all its beauty, rising up from the trees and stretching up into the sky. It was so much larger than she had expected, everybody talked about the great mountain, but she hadn't realized just how big it was.

  “I’ve never seen so much green in my life!” she exclaimed.

  Reed chuckled as he came up to stand beside her, “a bit different to what you are used to I suppose.”

  “Yes, just a bit.”

  After a brief hesitation, he spoke again, “what’s it like?” he asked.

  “What?”

  “Your city, the palace you grew up in? Our conversation last night made me wonder, I’ve heard stories of dirty streets and houses falling apart, packed in so tightly that people can barely move.”

  How strange it must be she thought, to know nothing of the outside world.

  “That is true, but it’s not all bad,” she replied honestly, “the city is right next to the sea, which is a beautiful, sparkling blue, and it stretches out as far as you can see. The streets are mostly paved with stones although some are dirtier than others,” she admitted. “but it’s actually quite beautiful, in its own way. There are trees scattered among the streets and in some areas the houses are all painted different colors and palace has
the most beautiful gardens, full of flowers and water fountains, although it doesn't really compare to this.”

  Reed was staring at her intently as she talked. She realized it wasn’t often that people actually listened the way that Reed did, without interruption and as though he really did want to hear what she had to say. She would have gone on, but they were interrupted by Elder Yarrow telling them it was time to move on.

  They walked, or in Sofia's case, slid down the other side of the hill, then skirted around a sparkling lake the Ashen called Lake Ebony, before reaching the mouth of a narrow canyon. The canyon was normally full of water during the winter months, but since it was dry, they could cut through and would reach their destination a lot quicker.

  She felt it before she saw it, a sense of dread that settled inside her. Her steps slowed as the dread increased, the trees in front of her were slowly getting darker, leaves were falling as they moved further in. It started getting quieter, and she stopped dead in her track as she realized this was what the mountain had shown her. The trees in front of her were now completely black, the ground was black, there was a dark mist shrouding everything that only got darker the further back she looked. It was just like she remembered from the mountain, from her nightmares, the silence was suffocating, she could feel everyone watching her, and she turned on them furiously.

  “This was what I felt in the mountain, you lied to me, you said you didn't know what it meant,” she said accusingly, directing her anger at Elder Yarrow as everyone else shuffled uncomfortably.

  “I'm sorry Sofia, we didn't want to overwhelm you, we believed it would be better if you had time to process everything you had experienced in the mountain before we showed you this.”

  Elder Sage approached her cautiously and put her hand on Sofia's arm as she backed away from the darkness.

  “Sofia, It's ok, it won't hurt you this far out.” Elder Sage said reassuringly, “We learned that the hard way, unfortunately, we sent people in and they never returned, we have kept careful watch since then. But It’s moving, creeping closer every day, and faster. Like it's gaining strength.”

  “It probably is, if it's draining the land,” Sofia muttered.

  “Is that what the mountain told you?” Elder Sage asked, surprised

  She paused for a minute thinking, “the mountain didn't tell me anything, it just showed me, but that's what it felt like, it felt like it was draining the life out of me.”

  She still didn't mention the boy, again something was holding her back.

  “It makes sense doesn't it, that’s why the trees are black, and there are no animals. Everything has had the life drained out of it,” she paused, releasing something, “I think it might be affecting people as well. A healer in the city, she was sick, and her niece said her hands were black.”

  Everyone was silent as they took in what she had said.

  “But why her, and why so far from the woods, have you heard about other people getting sick?” Reed finally asked.

  “Not in the city but there were rumors of sickness in villages near the edge of the woods. I'm not sure if they were true or not.”

  “Didn’t they send people out to investigate?”

  “I'm not sure,” she admitted reluctantly, the King had not deemed it important enough during the tournament and with her disappearance; they might be using all their resources to look for her.

  The thought that the disease might be affecting people had everyone on edge, and Elder Yarrow made them all move further back from the edge of the darkness, just in case.

  They followed along the edge of the darkness as Elder Sage talked about when they first discovered it, only a year ago. Ella said it had spread a lot since she had last seen it, which worried Sofia. After a while, they came to a stream and just like the trees, the color faded to darkness as it wound its way into the darkness.

  “Is the clear water still drinkable?” she asked.

  “As far as we can tell, yes,” Elder Sage responded, “it doesn't seem to be tainted at all, we tried testing the darker water before it gets completely black, but whenever we tried to get a sample it destroyed whatever we tried to put it in, dissolved it completely.”

  “What about fish?”

  “We haven't seen any go near it.” One of the hunters spoke this time. “They are afraid too, even they can sense it’s dangerous.”

  “Have you tried to stop it?” she asked Elder Sage.

  “How?”

  “I don't know, can’t you put up some kind of barrier spell like my people used in the banishing?”

  “We don't know how to perform that kind of magic,” Elder Yarrow replied, “but perhaps that's your purpose, to find out how your people performed the banishing, we may be able to do the same to the darkness,” he added thoughtfully.

  “Maybe that's why the mountain showed you the banishing.” Ella added, “Do you remember how they did it.”

  “Not really, I was too far away to really hear what they were saying, not that I would have understood anyway.”

  “The mountain showed you that vision for a reason, just remember that.” Elder Yarrow replied, “perhaps something will come back to you that you didn't realize was important at the time. We need to head out now, or we won’t make it back before dark.” Elder Yarrow added, looking up at the sky.

  He led a brisk pace back to the village, but Sofia was so deep in thought she barely remembered any of it, consumed by the realization that the darkness was real, and she was supposed to stop it.

  CHAPTER 29

  The next day Elder Yarrow decided it was finally time for Sofia to start her training, she wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but meditation surely wasn't it.

  Elder Sage was to be her instructor and Sofia soon realized why, she had a soothing voice and she spoke softly as they sat in a small clearing with their eyes closed for hours as Elder Sage tried to get her to open up her other senses to the forest, focusing on all the sounds and smells around her. All the Ashen did this as children to open them up to the woods and all the magic surrounding them.

  Elder Sage explained that some Ashen found it easier to connect with animals, insects or fish, while others with the land, plants or trees which was why everyone had different jobs in the village.

  She struggled at first. She was too impatient, until one day, she felt it, like a buzz of energy coming from a small bird in a nearby tree. She gasped in surprise when she felt it, and she could tell Elder Sage was excited as well. Although being able to feel the magic in a bird was still a long way away from actually being able to connect with it, she was happy she had made some progress, and she continued to find it easier as the days went by. She found it a lot easier to feel the magic in birds, but Elder Sage insisted that she continue practicing with trees and other things as well.

  One day she became so focused on her meditation that she completely lost track of time. She was focused on a bird, following the buzz of magic as it moved from branch to branch when there was a noise from behind her, and the bird flew away startled. Her eyes snapped open, and she spun around to see Ella appear from the trees behind her.

  “Sorry I didn't mean to interrupt, but it was getting dark,” Ella said.

  “Oh that's my fault,” Elder Sage said apologetically, “I didn't realize how late it was.”

  Sofia looked up to see the sun almost completely hidden by the trees. She followed behind Ella as they walked back home, it was strange how much she thought of the little cottage as home even after only a couple of weeks. Ella's mother was great, she was warm and caring, unlike her own mother. She had yet to ask Ella what happened to her father, Ella never talked about him, and she didn't want to push her.

  Sofia was surprised about how much she enjoyed spending time with the Ashen, even though she now knew about the darkness and felt that weight of responsibility on her shoulders, she didn’t feel the pressure from the Ashen like she often had at home, they didn’t expect her to be perfect. Elder Sage especially was in
credibly kind and patient while teaching and Azalia treated her as if she were her own child, she spent her nights with her learning how to mend clothes and mix herbs to treat injuries.

  She also began exploring the woods more and more with the help of Reed. She guessed he was still trying to make up for leaving her alone in the woods, but he was a great companion to have. He was incredibly knowledgeable, he knew all the different types of plants and showed her how to tell the difference between them, some were familiar, they were in the gardens at the palace, but most she had never seen before. He also showed her how to track and identify birds from the noises they made, but most importantly he taught her how to move silently through the woods. She found the more time she spent in the woods, the more comfortable she was and she no longer jumped at every sound and movement she saw out of the corner of her eye.

  It also gave her a chance to get to know Reed better, he was a lot like Ella, they were both strong and cared a lot about their people. She realized that his anger was because he was trying to protect his people, at least he seemed to stop blaming her for the banishing.

  She started meditating on her own as well as with Elder Sage. Exploring further than she had ever gone before, moving from tree to tree she opened herself up to their magic. That’s when she felt it, a small tug, she had never felt anything like that before, but she followed it anyway, curious. The tug led her to what she thought was a small bird, she still found it difficult to tell when she was so far away. But she decided to try moving closer to it, so very slowly she stood, still concentrating on the tug and she opened her eyes. To her surprise she didn't lose the feeling, normally when she opened her eyes, it broke her concentration, but the pull was so strong. She walked slowly in the direction of the pull, she hoped it wasn't too far away, it didn't seem that far but she still often found it hard to tell distances. She didn't want to wander too far from the village although she was a lot more familiar with the woods now and Reed had shown her how to use the sun and stars to navigate.

  Luckily it wasn't far, and she soon found the animal causing the pull. She let her concentration drop, gasping in relief, she had never done that before, and it had drained her energy. She moved closer to the animal surprised to see it wasn't a bird after all but what looked to be a small dog curled up under a bush, shivering. She moved closer, cautiously.