The Crystal Heart

by Sophie Masson

  ‘It hardly sounds like feyin philosophy,’ I said, with a catch in my voice.

  ‘There are all kinds of feyin, my lady,’ said Glarya, with great dignity. ‘And who is to say what is the right sort and what is the right way?’

  ‘Who, indeed,’ I echoed. Impulsively, I kissed her on the cheek. ‘Oh, Glarya, you are truly wonderful!’

  ‘Isn’t she just?’ said Amadey, and his expression was of such open adoration that Glarya flushed again.

  ‘Now then,’ Glarya said quickly, ‘with your permission, my lady, I will leave at once for the Outlands. I will send a message to the Erlking through my family. It will be the quickest way.’

  ‘You hardly need to ask my permission, dear Glarya,’ I said. ‘You have my deepest thanks.’

  ‘And if you will agree, I will accompany you,’ said Amadey, his eyes on her face, ‘for I would have you stay safe, my lady Glarya.’

  ‘I told you, I’m no lady,’ Glarya said, tossing her head, ‘and I think the Princess needs you here to –’

  ‘No, I do not. What I do here I must do on my own,’ I said softly. ‘Take Amadey with you – it would ease my heart to know you are in such good company.’

  ‘Then, gladly.’ Glarya smiled impishly at Amadey. ‘You may receive quite a shock – the Outlands aren’t the city, you know.’

  ‘And pleased I am to hear it,’ said Amadey, ‘for I’m no city boy myself. The air here is much too rarefied for my taste.’

  ‘Then let us delay no further,’ Glarya said, taking up her cloak. Just as they reached the door, she turned to me. ‘We will hurry back, my lady, never you fear.’

  ‘I do not fear,’ I said. ‘Not anymore.’

  For the first time in a long time, I felt truly free.

  Kasper

  The room was not what I had expected, from what I’d seen of the Palace so far, with its splendid opal halls lit by glittering salt-crystal chandeliers. This was a small, almost cosy, room lined with books. The Prince gestured for me to sit, and sat down in his turn. He was only a short distance from me and we were alone. It was clear he was not expecting an attack. When I struck, I would at least have the advantage of surprise. Even if that only lasted a moment, it might be enough.

  There was no pleasure in the thought, no feeling of any kind. Behind his head, on the wall, was a small portrait, and that disturbed me far more than the thought of what I was about to do. It showed a woman with red hair and green eyes – a woman with a striking likeness to the Princess, only a little older, wearing the same crystal heart pendant around her neck.

  The Prince saw me looking at it, and smiled. ‘They are very alike, my wife and my daughter, are they not?’

  I did not meet his gaze. ‘Yes, Sire.’

  ‘I loved her, you know. Even though our natures were so different, that love was real. Whatever anyone has said to you.’

  I looked at him. ‘Yes, Sire.’

  ‘Has anyone spoken to you of this?’

  I hesitated. The hard eyes of the Prince of Night, the same shade as my own, but with the narrow pupils of true-blood feyin, were fixed on my face. I swallowed and nodded.

  ‘The Commander,’ he said, startling me.

  ‘I’m – I’m sorry, Sire. I do not under–’

  ‘The Commander must have spoken to you of it.’

  I quickly collected my wits. ‘He did, Sire, though I did not pay much attention.’

  ‘I don’t suppose you did,’ he said, a strange expression flickering in his eyes. ‘In the circumstances, it is not surprising.’

  I remained silent, not trusting myself to speak.

  ‘I hear they treated you badly, the barbarians.’

  I looked back at him steadily. ‘I survived, Sire.’

  ‘Yes, thanks to my daughter.’

  I swallowed. ‘Yes, Sire.’

  ‘We did not seek your ill-treatment, Bator,’ the Prince said, in a voice that might almost have been kind, if a feyin can truly be said to harbour such a feeling.

  ‘No, Sire. I know that.’

  ‘You rescued my daughter, and for that I will always be grateful. You do understand that?’

  ‘Yes. I do.’

  ‘That is why you are sitting here now,’ the Prince said, steepling his fingers, ‘and why I have not simply taken these papers of yours and had your throat slit from ear to ear. I do not like traitors, Kasper Bator.’

  ‘No, Sire, I am sure you do not.’ A cold fury was mounting inside me, but I managed to suppress it. I took the package of papers from my shirt pocket. ‘But I think you will be interested in these, Sire.’

  ‘We shall see.’ The Prince did not come out from behind the desk, as I’d hoped, but just reached out a hand for them. He opened the package and extracted the sheets of rice paper. ‘Lord Parigan has told me the story of how you came by these and of how you escaped. But I want to hear it from your own lips.’

  I told him the story the Commander suggested. The Prince listened, expressionless and unmoving. When I finished, I expected him to ask questions, but he only nodded and looked at the sheets again. ‘Well, if these are what they seem to be, they are indeed valuable.’

  ‘Which is why they don’t come cheap …’ I began.

  The Prince held up a hand. ‘There is something that puzzles me, and it is another reason why I have spared your life once more,’ he said, putting down the papers. ‘You do not have the smell of a traitor, Kasper Bator. You swear you have not come for my daughter?’

  ‘Sire, I have not!’ I said, more explosively than I had intended.

  ‘Yes, I think you are telling the truth.’ The Prince smiled and added softly, ‘And that pleases me, for my daughter has promised to marry the Erlking’s son in three days.’

  The words sank to my stomach like hot lead, but I mastered myself enough to say, ‘And I am not the one to ask her to break it.’

  ‘Good,’ he said, watching me. ‘But why?’

  Unease crept along my veins. ‘Why what, Sire?’

  ‘I saw the love between you and my daughter. It could not be, but it was strong.’ He paused. ‘Love is a great power, even stronger than death. So why did it go?’

  I had not expected this. ‘Stronger than death it may be, Sire. But it is not stronger than life.’

  For the first time, something approaching surprise flickered in his eyes. ‘Explain yourself.’

  ‘Life brings lessons with it, Sire. Hard lessons, such as the true nature of things and people.’

  He gave me a long glance. ‘Ah! I see now. Why would a man like you become a traitor? Because of these lessons they made you learn.’ He paused. ‘The lies they told you.’

  Black agony gripped my chest. ‘I do not know what you mean, Sire.’

  ‘They told you she betrayed you, that she led us to your hiding place. Yes?’

  I nodded, unable to speak.

  ‘They lied and you believed them. Why?’ His voice hardened, his eyes glared. ‘Answer me!’

  The pain was almost unbearable. ‘I didn’t at first. I believed in our … But then they showed me proof that could not be denied.’

  ‘Not denied, perhaps. Faked, certainly.’ The Prince smiled.

  I could feel the pain within me turning into murderous rage. I began to rise from my chair.

  ‘Sit down!’ roared the Prince, startling me so much I did as he bid. He picked up the papers. ‘They have turned you inside out till you no longer know who you are. Yes, you believed my daughter had betrayed you. But somewhere deep inside, you understood whose betrayal it truly was. The men who locked my daughter up for ten long years and who lied to your people, who tortured you and destroyed the hope and love and all that was good in you, and who have profited handsomely from it all – you hate them, don’t you?’

  His eyes were locked on mine, and I felt the force of his will like the brightest of lights, searching fiercely in the dark. I bit down on my lip so hard I could taste blood. ‘Yes.’

  ‘But you hate us, too.’
<
br />   The time for evasion and half-truths had passed. ‘Yes.’

  The Prince rose from his seat and came towards me. I scrambled to my feet, my hand already clenched around the needle case. But the Prince walked past me and opened the door.

  ‘Come in, my daughter.’

  Izolda

  ‘You heard what we said, did you not?’

  I nodded without speaking. ‘Hate is a power as great as love,’ my father remarked. ‘But hate built on lies has no strength at all. So, my daughter, you will tell him. He will hear from your own lips what really happened.’

  I looked at Kasper. His back was straight as a pillar, his handsome face set in inflexible, expressionless lines. But somewhere, deep inside the man of stone he had become, was the boy who once loved me. I had to be strong for his sake, and not give way to the bitter regret that was seeping into my veins. Flinging back my hood so he could look me full in the face, I said, ‘I did betray you, Kasper.’

  Kasper turned his head to look at me. At last, our eyes met, and the urge to go to him, to hold him, was so strong that it made my knees buckle. But he remained impassive. ‘So, the truth at last.’

  ‘I betrayed you by thinking I was doing the only thing I could do.’

  ‘Of course,’ he said flatly, though I saw something flicker in his eyes.

  ‘I took my word as my bond. Worse, I made it your binding, your prison.’

  A small, terrible silence followed. They were both staring at me now, my father as though he had never seen me before. ‘What are you talking about?’ Kasper said finally.

  ‘I gave my word in return for your life, my word that I would never try – not by word or deed or thought – to come for you.’

  Kasper stared at me, his face as still as before. But I could see his hands were clenched and there was a convulsive movement in his throat.

  ‘I thought it was the only way,’ I continued. ‘The only way you would be safe. I tried to accept that I would never see you again, but I couldn’t. I waited. I hoped. And all the time, with every day that passed, I did nothing to help you. I betrayed you over and over again.’

  ‘Izolda!’ came my father’s disapproving voice. ‘That’s enough. Stop this.’

  ‘No, Father.’ I drew myself up. ‘I will not.’

  ‘You are my daughter. You will do as you are told.’

  ‘I am your daughter, Father, that is true. But I am also my mother’s.’ I motioned to the portrait. ‘You loved her, Father. I know that, though there have been times when I have doubted it. And so I ask you – what would she have had me do?’

  A shadow moved across my father’s face, transforming it for an instant to the face of the passionate young man who had captured my mother’s heart. ‘She would also not be told,’ he said, with a ghost of a smile.

  My mind was so clear, my vision so sharp now. I could see the things he never spoke of, what he kept hidden – the burden of power. The heartbreak that turned to a madness that sent Night to war. The last of the chains that had bound me broke as I said, gently, ‘Then would you have me do otherwise, Father?’

  He gave a long sigh. ‘I would if I could. But I find … I find I cannot.’

  ‘Then, Father, I will continue.’

  All this time, Kasper watched us with an expression that would frighten me if I did not guess what lay behind it. The numb shell that had formed around him was cracking, the pain of it so acute that written on his face, it reads like fierce anger, like murderous fury. ‘Kasper, do you remember Fela?’ I said quietly.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘She never reached Almain.’

  Something that could have been called a smile – if such a twist of features could pass as that – flashed briefly across his face. ‘Yes. You sent her to your mother’s house.’

  It threw me for a moment. ‘No, of course not. Fela got lost and, when somebody found her, she and the message she was carrying were handed over to the authorities.’

  Kasper looked at me. ‘Even if what you say is true, there was nothing in the message to say where we were.’ He paused. ‘At least, nothing in the message I thought you had sent.’

  ‘That’s right. There was nothing in our message to betray where we were. There was only our plea to the Grand Duke. But, you see, there was one thing we did not count on.’

  ‘Oh yes?’ There was a definite curl to his lips now.

  ‘The Commander had told my father what had happened days before.’

  ‘The Commander?’ he echoed.

  ‘On orders from the Council,’ my father answered him. ‘They knew I would find out in time, and preferred to cut their losses and make a deal with me.’

  ‘Both Night and Krainos were looking for us, Kasper,’ I said. ‘But even before they found Fela, they already had their first indication of where we might be.’

  ‘What? I don’t understand,’ he said, and for the first time, there was real emotion in his voice.

  ‘Kasper, it was the domevoy. It is a kind of goblin, only more benign than the kind we have here,’ I explained, ‘and when it touched the crystal –’

  ‘The pulse of light that came from it was felt here, giving off a faint signal,’ my father interjected. ‘When a goblin touches a feyin talisman, an alarm is sent in order for us to locate the intrusion and destroy it. In the land above, there are too many obstacles in the landscape for us to pinpoint the exact location, but it still allowed us to narrow the search. Finding the pigeon, of course, gave us the last piece of the puzzle.’

  When Kasper spoke, every word seemed like a terrible effort. ‘But you … Oh, Izolda, you must have known …’

  It is the first time he has used my name. My stomach churned with a mixture of joy and sorrow. ‘No, Kasper,’ I whispered. ‘I swear I did not.’

  As if in a dream, he took a step towards me. Then he stopped and put his hands stiffly by his side. ‘You are from here and you had the crystal all those years. How could you not know it would betray us?’

  ‘In the Lady’s name!’ my father cried. ‘How could she know such a thing, you fool? She was just a small child when she was taken. The crystal heart had been made for her mother, and its magic was asleep during her time in the Tower. And it most certainly didn’t betray you! It acted as it must when vermin touches it. It’s a talisman.’

  ‘Yet it did not protect her from being taken,’ Kasper said harshly. But there was a change in his eyes. I longed to cover the ground between us but I knew I must not. He must come to it of his own will. If he still can …

  ‘It doesn’t work like that,’ snapped my father. ‘It’s not a shield or a weapon. But in the end, it did help her, because it found you.’

  Kasper

  ‘It found me?’ I echoed. While I was speaking to the Prince, I was distracted by her presence. It was as though everything else had turned to mist and shadows. She was so beautiful, more beautiful even than I remembered. Her hair shone like silky fire upon her shoulders, her eyes the colour of the deepest green of the woods. She was standing so close that, for an instant, I felt as though I could not bear it and must go to her. But the next moment, I desperately wanted to flee as fast as I could. It was too late for hope. If she knew what I had really come for, if she knew what dark plan was in my murderous mind, she would turn from me with a cry of disgust. No, there was no hope in me but there was something else, and it hurt, hurt so bad, the numbness that had shielded me for so long dissolving like snow, exposing my raw and bloody heart, my shattered soul. It was an ugly sight, and I would spare her that, at least.

  ‘There can be no other explanation,’ the Prince said, watching me. ‘The vision you had came through the crystal heart.’

  ‘But how?’ I asked him, then looked at her.

  ‘Oh, Kasper,’ said Izolda, ‘remember how I told you that I’d dreamed about you long before we met? Those dreams – that was how the crystal found you. Dreams are a magic the Tower could not touch.’

  I had forgotten. No, not forgotten. The numbne
ss had frozen it out of my mind and now the memory flooded back, clear as sweet water: the two of us sitting by the fire wrapped in each other’s arms, Izolda telling me about the dreams. It was so vivid, so sharp, I almost staggered back. I could smell the scent of her hair, feel the warmth of her skin against mine. I met her eyes and saw the same memory in hers, and a piercing sweetness flooded through my veins like honey as we moved towards each other …

  But I was rooted to the spot, unable to move or speak. Just a step, yet I could not take it. There was a gulf between us, and this time it was not a gulf of my own making. Izolda stood there as helpless as I. We were like two flies trapped in amber, the amber of feyin magic holding us apart.

  ‘So you did come for her, though you swore you did not,’ the Prince hissed, ‘and now you shall pay the price.’ His eyes shone with a strange light, like fires in the deepest of black opals. On his lips I could see dreadful words forming, words that I did not understand but that seemed to burrow into my very flesh and run in my blood like a hungry growth. I watched helplessly as he drew a long knife, black as his eyes, as he raised his arm and …

  ‘No, Father. No more. You will not do this.’ Her clear voice rang out and she stepped from the magic as easily as if she were stepping through a door. Yet I could still see it clinging to her, like strands of golden cobweb. She held up a hand, stopping her father, halting the knife in midair. I remembered the Commander saying that she had never developed the powerful magic they thought she would possess. Her father must have thought so too.

  Izolda came towards me and took something out of her pocket. It looked like a plaited strand of thread – half red, half black – and she touched me with it, on the head, the shoulder, the lips, the eyes, and I saw it was not thread but two strands of hair. Hers and mine.

  I could feel a burden slipping off my soul like a nightmare fades at daylight, and I was no longer lost, I was myself again.