by Cameron Jace
The huntsman stepped forward. “Night Van Sorrow didn’t send his men,” he said. “He sent his black panthers.”
Chapter 54
The Queen’s Diary
“Oh my!” The two servants gave up on me, shrieking.
“The black panthers, my Queen,” Van Helsing said. “They are here to kill you and the King. My assumption is that when the intruders failed in breaching the enchanted borders, they sent their panthers. They are capable of going anywhere.”
Angel looked me in the eyes. “Are you sure you want to keep her?” he said, tightening his grip on my hands.
“I will not give up on my daughter!” I screamed one more time. How many times did I have to shout it out? I was the Queen! Why didn’t anyone obey me in this room? “I don’t care about black panthers, and I will fight until my last breath.”
“As you wish,” Angel said to me. “And I will fight with you for our daughter. There is only one way to give birth to her.”
“But, my King, she is—” Van Helsing started.
“Stop it!” Angel waved his hand. “We will take her to the Black Forest. I know a safe place by the Avalon Tree. Pomona, the Goddess of Vegetables and Fruits will protect us there.” Angel stood up and ordered the servants to help me walk to the carriage, a special one with bars on the windows, which was used in the wars.
As they pulled me out of bed, the pain was starting to become unbearable. I gripped Van Helsing’s sleeve on my way out. “If you want to be useful, then tell me what I should do to bring this baby into the world.”
“What do you mean?” He looked puzzled.
“What is the most important thing I should keep doing, no matter what happens to me? If I get stabbed or decapitated, is there still something I could do to help her birth while I am dying?”
“Breathe, my Queen. Breathe. As long as you do your very best to breathe, you will be able to give birth to her.”
Angel tucked me in the carriage.
“You will be safe here,” he said. “I will be driving the carriage. I had it designed with a barred door for an occasion like this. These are two of my best horses.” He pointed at the front of the carriage. “They are unicorns, actually, and they will get us there.”
“Unicorns?” Although I was in great pain, I also felt a moment of awe, as I had never seen a unicorn. I never knew they existed in the first place. With all the magic that surrounded us, and with all I knew about my husband’s past, unicorns were always the one myth that was actually a myth. Seeing them for the first time, pulling my husband’s carriage, which he had apparently designed exclusively for such an occasion, made me want to go out in the snow and watch them with my own eyes.
But the pain, as sharp as a spear, hit me in the back again, and then my daughter kicked me from inside out. I let out a horrible scream.
“She really wants to come out into the world.” Angel looked dazed as he watched my stomach. “There are two other carriages behind us. They will be of great help,” he said to me, waking up from his daydreaming about our daughter. Angel was an alert leader, and distraction didn’t linger long within his consciousness. “When the panthers show up, don’t show any fear. Understand?” He told me, “They feed on our fear. You just keep breathing, my love. Just keep breathing. I’ll take care of the rest.”
His words had already set my lungs on fire. I breathed in and out, remembering that this was what Van Helsing had said to do. I reached for Angel’s hand before he closed the barred door. “Take care of yourself, my love.”
“I will.” He kissed me on the forehead. “I will kill every single panther they send after me. Our daughter will be born today.”
The carriage took off, and I fell from the bunk to the floor, unable to keep my balance. The fall increased my suffering, and I started breathing hysterically once I heard the sound of the panthers padding on the snow outside.
On my knees, I looked out and back. It was a mistake to look. The panthers were swift, with reddened eyes, and they had already killed everyone in the first carriage following us. Blood splattered on the snow, red trails of liquid spreading on the white of the ground, followed by the black panthers. The three colors hurt my eyes for some reason. Part of it was reminding me of Angel’s past. We had seen these three colors hunting us before, giving us nightmares for the rest of my life. I hated them. Red, white, and black: blood, snow, and panthers.
I screamed, holding the bars with my hands. Another mistake. The panthers diverted their gaze toward me.
Chapter 55
The Queen’s Diary
As they ran after our carriage, birds fluttered away from the trees. The most imminent sound was the panthers’ heavy breathing.
Breathe, Queen of Sorrow. You have to breathe. Your daughter’s life depends on it.
I kept breathing, more like panting, as the panthers followed us.
Angel was a master at controlling the unicorns, and they were fast and did not lose breath. Looking through the bars, I glimpsed at part of their fabulous bodies, and wondered if they could kill these panthers with their horns — or maybe they could fly this carriage high to the full moon above.
The panthers started jumping, hitting the carriage with their bodies. I didn’t know if they did this to scare me, or if they thought they could actually breach through to me.
I didn’t even understand what they wanted exactly. I still couldn’t figure out Night Von Sorrow’s intentions. Again and again, why did he let us live when he knew I was going to give birth to the Chosen One? And if he had some devious plan that I don’t know of, why would he send his panthers after us today? Did any of this have anything to do with the witch who cursed me? I had the feeling this was all connected, but I just couldn’t figure it out with all the pain I was going through
Then I remembered the coffin in the Demeter. What was that all about? But this time I think I realized something. “Oh, my God,” I wailed inside the carriage. “Angel!”
“Hang tight, love,” he shouted from the front of the carriage.
“No, it’s not that,” I shouted, aching, my bones almost cracking. “I think I know what island the huntsmen on the Demeter were talking about.”
“What?” Angel’s voice was barely audible in the wind, but I could make out the confusion in it. He was like what is she talking about?
“On the Demeter, they said they have to send the coffin to the island,” I said. “We thought it was the island of the Tower of Tales.”
“Why is this important now, Carmilla?” Angel sounded angry.
“Because the coffin, for whatever reason, and that whole ship, they were heading to Atlantis. The coffin had to be delivered here in the Kingdom of Sorrow.”
“How do you even know that?” he yelled, as we were about to bump into a tree, but he managed to steer the unicorns away.
“It’s the only explanation. Night Von Sorrow let us live because he wanted us to find Atlantis. And don’t ask me why!” I said. We hit another bump in the forest, and I had to scream from the pain, unable to finish my theory. I managed to tell Angel that now that we’ve found Atlantis, where the Piper’s flute may have existed, Night Von Sorrow decided to kill us.
Angel rode the unicorns fiercer now. He was thinking. I needed to know what was on his mind. My theory was just a theory. I needed him to confirm that he found it plausible.
“What do you think, Angel?” I had to pressure him.
“I think you’re right. We’ve been fooled,” he said. “My father had to kill us so the Chosen One would never be born, but he may have also known that Lady Shallot was planning to grant us Atlantis as a home. I don’t know how, but he preferred to let us live until we found it. It explains why he started attacking us again once we settled here. The Kingdom of Sorrow isn’t just our home. It’s not just a hideaway for the Lost Seven. It’s what the Piper has always been looking for. Where his flute is.”
I couldn’t have said it any clearer than Angel, but we both knew the realization c
ame too late. Right now, Night Von Sorrow was going to kill my daughter — daughters.
Then in the distance, I heard the howling of wolves.
“Keep on breathing, love!” Angel screamed from outside, whipping the snow away as the unicorns took off even faster. “I won’t let our daughter die.”
I heard a panther moaning and thudding to the ground. That had to be Angel. He’d killed it with his bow, I assumed.
Curious, I neared the bars again to get a glimpse of my husband’s courageous endeavor. It seemed the black panthers were not alone. They’d been supported by fierce wolves. Strange looking wolves like I had never seen. Even in these horrid circumstances, I couldn’t look away. The wolves both scared and fascinated me. Why?
Then suddenly one of the wolves jumped right in front of me, its paws holding on the bars as if it were human, staring at me with reddened eyes. I fell on my back.
The first thing I did was check on my daughters by touching my belly. “You’re going to be all right,” I whispered to them, still wishing they were both alive and that neither of them had killed the other in my womb. “I will not let them hurt you.”
But the wolf, like an acrobat, still hung onto the bars of the carriage, staring at me with those human-looking eyes.
Still lying on my back, I saw there was a rifle in the carriage. I reached to pick it up and shoot it. That was when I realized that the wolf was actually human.
“I will come for her, even if she grows up,” the wolf said. It was a boy’s voice. “Remember that.”
I was paralyzed with shock, and even then, I didn’t know it was one of Wolfie’s parents, the boy who later fell in love with Death itself, but for all the unimagined reasons.
Chapter 56
The Queen’s Diary
It was true that wolf had left, but it didn’t mean the danger had subsided. Not only were we being chased by a horde of black panthers, but something else happened.
I heard a heavy thud on the ground, followed by Angel’s screaming outside. I stood up, held the bars and peeked outside.
To my surprise, I saw Angel sprawled on his back in the snow.
The unicorns continued their escape, though, pulling me along in the carriage.
“Angel!” I screamed, holding the bars with my hands like a prisoner pleading for her innocence. “Beware!”
Some of the panthers were approaching Angel while he lay unconscious on the ground. They were going to cut him into pieces.
I kept breathing hysterically, unable to think, only knowing that I was in the hands of the unicorns, who, I supposed, knew the way into the Black Forest and the Avalon Tree where Pomona lived so I could deliver my children.
It was only minutes until we entered the Black Forest, so I assumed the unicorns were trained. I didn’t know if they were capable of surviving the panther attacks, though.
Breathe, Queen of Sorrow. Breathe.
But breathing wasn’t enough, though; the unicorns went down. They thudded to the ground and let out moans that shook the whole forest. I had heard about how a unicorn’s shriek made you sympathize for it so that it could tear your heart out.
That wasn’t the case with the panthers, though. They started ripping the unicorns’ flesh out, and then, when they were finished, they brought the carriage down on its side.
I lay on my back in the shaking carriage, looking at the full moon in the sky through bars.
“Marmalade,” I screamed. “Can you hear me? I know who you are. I knew your mother.”
But the moon didn’t respond to me. And before too long, two of the panthers were standing up, trying to find their way into the carriage.
Staring them in the eyes, I kept breathing. It was time. I could feel the children kicking inside me.
I had never thought I’d give birth on my own, let alone with all those monsters around me. I assumed my servants were dead by now, attacked in the other carriage that was following us.
“You’re not going to kill me before I bring them into the world!” I screamed at the panthers, and they understood me, growling more fiercely, as their saliva dropped down on me.
“Push, Queen, push,” I told myself, feeling my guts tearing apart. I knew I couldn’t stand, and that I would faint, if not die, but I had to give it all I had.
The panthers kicked hysterically against the carriage. The red in their eyes glowing brighter. Another panther’s drool slapped my face, as my bones almost broke from the pain.
My eyelids were throbbing in agony, and it hurt me that my daughters were going to come out with no tender hand to cradle them as they came into the world. They were simply going to lie down on the bottom of the tipped-over carriage, and one of those evil panthers might drool on them.
I was aware of the fact that I was too optimistic thinking both my daughters were going to be born tonight. It was inevitable that one had already killed the other, but I couldn’t help but hope. And that thought seemed to be last before I felt the world fade to black…
Chapter 57
The Queen’s Diary
I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t know if I was dead. The world around me went silent, and blackness consumed my vision. Somehow, I was sure my eyes were still open, but I couldn’t see. Was this the passage to the afterlife? Had I given up on my daughter so easily?
I tried my best to move a hand or muscle in my body, but I was gone. My body wasn’t mine anymore. It was just a vehicle I used in this world, and it was time to leave it.
But no! I wasn’t ready to go. I was the Queen of Sorrow.
Please, God, if I am going to die, don’t make me die a bad mother. Give me the strength to come back, just for a little while. Let me give birth to my daughters. Let me give them a chance to live, to grow up, and to see their first sunrise, to walk for the first time, to say “Mama” and “Dada.” To go to school, to learn and show their talents, to grow even more. To love, to have their first kiss, to get heartbroken, to cry, to be miserable, only to rise from the ashes to be alive again.
In my darkness, knocking on heaven’s door, I finally saw someone. It was a woman. She wore a yellow hood, and held a scythe. I saw fluttering red from under the cloak, although I couldn’t make out her face. She seemed so familiar, but I didn’t recognize her, although the scent of swans that came with her was unmistakable.
“Do you really want to bring her to the world?” the woman asked.
“Them,” I insisted.
“You know that is a lie,” the woman said. “You know only one of them survived. You sacrificed the other.”
“I still have to hope.”
“You can’t hope,” she said. “Because it will only make things harder. One of them won. Either the white, the Chosen One, or the black, the Evil One.”
“Can’t you just help me?” I didn’t care for all this talk anymore.
“Are you prepared to give birth to her, even if she kills you?” the woman asked.
“Yes,” I nodded, or so I thought. There was nothing to be sure of in this medium. “Please, give her a chance.”
“I have a daughter too,” she said. “Her most favorite color is red.”
I blinked, having no idea how this was related.
“My girl is a sort of monster, too,” the woman said, smiling the most amazing smile I had seen. “She’ll be like me. She will have to inherit my role in the Kingdom of Sorrow one day.”
“Your role?” I said. “What do you do in my kingdom?”
“I’m Death,” she said this as if saying ‘good morning.’
“You’re Death?” I said reluctantly, knowing it meant all my chances were dust in the wind. Who was I fooling? I was asking Death to save me from death.
“I know you should kill me now, but all I’m asking is to give me a chance. The gift of living. Kill me, and let them live.”
The woman resided to silence for a while. “I assume you’ve heard about Red having its say in the final battle between black and white,” she finally said. “Red w
ill also have its final say in the beginning of the battle.”
“I am afraid I don’t know what this means.”
“It means this,” she took off her yellow coat, and now I could see who she was underneath. It explained the scent of swans. The woman was Brighid from the Swan Lake. She was all red underneath. The Queen of Swans was Death itself, and ironically she lived in Swan Lake and took care of the unborn, whom she will later in life was going to take their lives.
Chapter 58
The Queen’s Diary
And that was it. She just left.
In spite of her leaving me behind, I was grateful. No one really wants Death nearby while giving birth.
I continued breathing and trying my best to stay awake.
Slowly, I was feeling again. I could move my hands and my legs, although, I could also hear the panthers growling.
Although I was on the verge of dying, I didn’t stop breathing. My body, and my inner soul, didn’t stop breathing, not for a minute.
And even more than that; I finally gave birth, sadly to one daughter only.
With all the pain I was suffering, my daughter’s first cry into the world was as sweet as the sunshine on one’s face on a victorious day; that moment when you have defeated your enemies, and overcame the struggles of life.
I had succeeded in bringing one of my babies into the world.
I hugged her closer to me, as if the place around me wasn’t a mess. As if there wasn’t liquid and blood everywhere. As if I wasn’t exhausted. And as if there weren’t panthers breaking into the carriage.
One of the panthers bit on the tip of my cloak, and pulled me out to the snow. Shivering, I still held onto my daughter in my arms. I couldn’t believe it as they circled around me, and I didn’t know what to do. I was barely breathing from exhaustion now.
Then something unexpected happened. The panthers started to moan and bow their heads closer to the snow, as if reciting a hymn or a prayer. Their eyes were fixed on my daughter, and they were suddenly paying their respects to her.
