by S R Ahuja
None of the Sisters seemed surprised to see Jade sitting there when they walked out. They just glided down the steps and toward the center of the Hamlet. Helena walked out behind them. She stood next to Jade without speaking.
“What happened? What did they say?” Jade asked her.
Helena was staring at the ground. She wasn’t scared anymore. Her face seemed blank. She didn’t say anything.
“Lena?” Jade asked, reaching out to touch her shoulder.
The touch brought Helena back to herself. She looked at Jade and her eyes filled with tears. “I have to go.”
“What? Why?” Jade asked as Helena hurriedly brushed past her. “What did they do to you?” Jade called after her, but it was no use. Helena was already gone.
Chapter IX
The One
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Helena was not at school the next day, or the day after that, or the day after that. Jade tried to ask Ms. Hastings on the third day where she was, but Ms. Hastings just got angry and snapped at Jade to get on with her arithmetic lesson. It was over a week before Jade saw Helena again, and it was not at school.
Jade had just returned from school the following Friday. She was sitting in her room with a book she had borrowed from the library. Menelwen was sitting in the corner, mending one of Jade’s school dresses, and Jade was lying on the bed, flipping through page after page of epic adventure and heartbreaking romance, when there was a light knock at the door.
No one ever came to Jade’s room besides herself and Menelwen. Jade wasn’t quite sure what to do. Menelwen, however, got up and went to answer the door.
She opened it just a crack at first, to see who was behind it. Apparently, she knew the person because she opened the door all the way.
Helena was standing in the doorway, and behind her was Lady Morgause. Jade stared. Helena was different. She was clean, her face pink and shining and her hair pulled away from her face in a braid. Her clothes were also new. Gone was the ratty, holey smock that was far too large for her. She wore instead a simple brown dressed that fitted her nicely. She was looking at the floor, avoiding Jade’s gaze.
“Helena,” Jade gasped, “what are you doing here?”
“Amalthea,” Lady Morgause spoke instead, “we are here to ask for your help.”
Jade slipped off the bed. She felt very small standing in front of them. “What do you need my help for? Where have you been all week, Lena? No one at school knew.”
Once again, Helena did not answer. Instead, Lady Morgause answered Jade’s first question. “Helena is going to be a part of a formal announcement this evening, and she doesn’t have a formal dress to wear. It is too short notice to have a dress made, but we thought you might have something that would fit her.”
Jade stared at Helena, who continued to refuse to meet her gaze. “Umm, yeah. I guess that’s fine.”
Menelwen lead Lady Morgause to the closet where they started looking through dresses.
Helena didn’t move. Other than the fact that she was clean and her clothes were changed, Helena was exactly the same as she had been when Jade had last seen her on the steps of the school house. She stood very still and didn’t meet Jade’s eyes.
“What kind of announcement is it?” Jade asked.
Helena finally glanced up quickly at Jade, but just as quickly looked back down. “I’m not supposed to say.”
“It’s supposed to be a surprise,” Lady Morgause said as she came forward, holding a velvet green dress. “You’ll be there, I’m sure. Don’t worry.”
Jade watched as the Sister and Helena left. She looked to Menelwen once they had gone. “Do you know what it’s about?”
“I’ve no idea, Princess, but while we’re at it, let’s pick a dress for you to wear tonight. You know the Hamlet people love to see their princess all dressed up.”
After eating dinner alone – the King was once again too busy to eat with her – Menelwen helped Jade put on the fluffy violet dress she had picked out earlier, and they went to the large balcony off the front of the castle.
Jade had never even stood on the balcony before, but she knew from Menelwen that it was where the King made important announcements, both good and bad, to the citizens of Avalon. The people would fill the castle courtyard to see the King speak.
Tonight, Lady Morgana was waiting by the doors with Helena at her side. It was strange to see her there, dressed like a princess. That was not where Helena was supposed to be.
She was supposed to be in the school house or running barefoot across the lawn with Jade. She was not meant to be in this part of Jade’s life. This could not be punishment for the trick they had tried to play; if it was, they wouldn’t have dressed her up so nicely and it would be both her and Jade together. But the only other explanation was…
The King walked up then and broke the silence that hovered in the air. “You must be Miss Helena Cox. It is an honor to meet you, milady,” the King said, and bowed at the waist to Helena.
Jade was shocked, not least because she had never seen the King bow to anyone besides maybe herself.
“Shall we begin the festivities?” He said rubbing his hands together. He did not wait for a response before continuing. “Amalthea, as part of the Royal Family, you will enter with me first. After I make the announcement, Miss Cox, you and Lady Morgana will enter.”
The King stood to Jade’s right, and held his elbow out to her. She reached up and grabbed ahold of his arm so that he could lead her out.
Someone had lit many torches out on the balcony so that, even though it was now night, everyone could see their faces illuminated, and it was everyone. It seemed like the whole Hamlet had crowded themselves into the grounds of the castle. Jade could see the familiar face of a royal guard here and there controlling the crowd, but every other face was turned up to the balcony, and they screamed when the King and Amalthea walked out.
Amalthea was just tall enough to see over the small wall that stopped them from walking too far and plummeting to their deaths. There was a small platform raised at the front of the balcony, but the King did not lead her to it. Instead, he led her to the left of the platform. He himself stepped up onto the platform and raised both hands for quiet. Jade smiled serenely down at the crowd as the King waited for the cheering to cease.
Once it was quiet enough, the King began to speak in a booming voice that echoed around the balcony and then shot forward, being absorbed by the crowd of people.
“Thank you all for being here with us today. Today is a very important day that I am sure we will all remember for as long as we live. It is extremely rare that a human child is born with the potential for magic inside of them, but, as Lady Morgana informed me last week, just such a child has been discovered, and we are here tonight to introduce her to the world!”
Jade’s heart sank right to the bottom of her stomach as the crowd erupted into cheers. The smile on her face faltered, and she couldn’t do any more than look down at her feet. It didn’t matter. No one in the crowd was looking at her anymore. Some part of her had known this was what would happen, but she just couldn’t believe it…
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the King began again over the still raucous noise of the crowd, “I am extremely pleased to be able to introduce you to Lady Helena Cox!”
The doors behind them were flung open, and Lady Morgana escorted Helena forward hand in hand. The King stepped down off of the platform to allow Lady Morgana and Helena to stand taller. All eyes were on Helena.
Helena stared down at the faces screaming up at her, and very slowly, she raised her free hand to wave at the crowd.
The screams of the crowd were so loud that Jade wanted to cover her ears with her hands. She wanted to run inside, slam her bedroom door, cover her head with a pillow, and never come out again. But she couldn’t do that. All she could do was stand there, so she did her best to smile and watch as Helena had her moment in the spotlight.
Chapter X
Return
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Helena did not return to school again. Ms. Hastings told the whole class that Helena would be studying with the Sisters for the rest of her life. She would never come back to school. In one week, Jade had lost her dream and her best friend. At school, she now had to sit with Lilly, who was annoying, and Audrey, who was just insufferable.
In all the excitement, Jade had almost given up on Peter and the other boys. Weeks turned into months, and soon snow began to cover the ground, and still she hadn’t seen any sign of them.
Jade went to school and came home. At home, Menelwen wouldn’t let her sleep with her window open any longer. She had come in in the morning more than once to find Jade, dusted in snow, bundled up tight in her bed with the window wide open.
Menelwen threatened to put a lock on the window if Jade kept doing it, so finally she had to stop. That didn’t mean that, every once in a while, she couldn’t creep out of her bed in the middle of the night to sit on the windowsill and gaze out at the stars.
She would always pick out the brightest star in the sky and wish with all her might that an adventure would come and find her, but her wish didn’t seem like it was ever going to come true. All that her future held was school and home.
It was on a very cold night that she was awakened by a light tapping on the window pane. She had fallen asleep on the window bench again, and when she opened her eyes, she saw, hovering just inches away from her face, a small, dark figure with a pale white face. She jumped back at first, but within moments her senses came back to her and she threw open the window.
Peter flew in along with a good deal of cold air that snuffed out the candle she had left alight on her bedside table. Quickly, she closed the window after Peter and latched it in place. Then she turned to the boy. He looked exactly the same as the last time she’d seen him right down to his hodgepodge pants although the leaves held no more color anymore. Every one of them was brown.
“Milady,” he said with a bow, “are you ready for another adventure?”
“No,” Jade said flatly.
“No?” Peter asked politely like she had gotten an answer wrong and might want to consider revising.
“No,” she repeated.
“Are you sure?” He straightened and smiled at her mockingly. “Because, I don’t think little girls usually sleep on windowsills when they aren’t waiting for someone to come through the window.”
“I didn’t say I wasn’t waiting for you,” she amended. “What I said was I wasn’t ready for an adventure. You and I need to talk first.”
Peter rolled his eyes. “Oh no! The princess isn’t going to use her big scary words on me, is she? Please, sweet Sisters, save me!” He did a very exaggerated faint onto her bed.
Jade glared at him but ignored his little outburst. “You promised that you wouldn’t let me get hurt.”
“Yes, I did,” Peter said, standing up again, straight as a soldier. “Quite the gentleman, aren’t I.”
“No, you’re not. You broke your promise. You said you wouldn’t let me get hurt and then you left me with those mermaids. They would have drowned me if Cadwr hadn’t jumped into the water.”
Peter was serious for a moment. “I find a few flaws in your reasoning. First and foremost, do not paint a picture of little Cadwr as a hero. He didn’t jump over that waterfall to save your life; he jumped to win a game with his little friends, and if my memory serves me, he too left you when he had to save his own… skin. Secondly, I fail to see how any part of this story proves I ever broke a promise.” He said it all quickly.
“What do you mean? It totally proves you broke your promise. You promised you wouldn’t let me get hurt and then you left me with people you knew would hurt me.”
“Princess, did you get hurt?”
“No, but…” Jade tried to continue, but Peter cut her off.
“And remind me again what I had promised you.”
“That you wouldn’t let me get hurt, but…”
“Well, it sounds to me like I promised you wouldn’t get hurt and you didn’t get hurt. Wow, I really am a gentleman, aren’t I, protecting princesses and what not. Why, I think I deserve a medal, or maybe I’ll go try to pull a sword from a stone; I hear that wins you sympathy with the ladies.”
“Stop, stop, stop,” Jade held up her hands, “you didn’t know that I wouldn’t get hurt.”
“You, Princess,” he tapped her on the nose before falling back gracefully onto her bed, “have absolutely no way of proving that.”
“So, you’re saying that I was never in any danger? That could only be true if you were watching me the whole time.”
“It doesn’t matter how I did it. All that matters is I kept my promise, so you can still trust me. Now, once again, are you ready for another adventure?”
“I don’t believe that you were actually watching the whole time.”
“Believe what you want, but now is time for adventure. So, are you coming with or do I have to see the dragon all on my own?”
Dragon was the magic word. Ever since Sehali had mentioned the dragon, Jade had been drawn to the idea. She just had to know more about them.
“Fine, but you are on thin ice, mister,” she said, holding out her hand for him to take.
He pursed his lips but his eyes sparkled as he took her hand. “Quite right, milady.”
“Can we see the ice dragon tonight?” she asked excitedly, her anger completely forgotten.
“If that’s what milady wants, that’s what we shall do,” he smiled at her in earnest this time. “Are you ready to fly again? It didn’t seem like you liked it too well last time.”
“I loved flying!” she cried indignantly. “I just didn’t like the trip back. But let’s be fair, you were flying way too fast. I thought you were trying to kill us.”
“I was just trying to get you back before your precious king realized you weren’t home and led a princess-hunt for you, terrorizing every citizen in your kingdom.”
“Whatever,” she rolled her eyes, “just promise to not let me get hurt, and I guess we can go.”
He held both of Jade’s hands and looked into her eyes so intensely it made her a little uncomfortable, “Jade, I will not let anyone or anything harm you.” The moment was over in an instant, but it left her with an odd feeling in her stomach. She wasn’t sure if it was a good feeling or a bad one, but it didn’t matter because the next moment, Peter had pulled her through the open window and they were flying once more.
It was much colder this time than it had been last time. She immediately wished she had thought to bring her cloak with her. Despite her involuntary shivering, she kept her eyes wide open, watching everything on the ground below.
They were flying in a different direction and the sights were all new to her. When they flew over the pointed green tops of the forest, she could see a perfect little circle with several streams of smoke floating up where the Elves lived.
They flew over the Sisters small cottage and the river that runs alongside it. Jade thought she could see one of the Sisters waving her hands over a large pot in front of the cottage, but she couldn’t be sure, they flew over the whole scene so quickly.
They flew farther south than Jade had ever been in Avalon. It was difficult to gauge distance so high up in the air, but a few minutes past the Sisters’ house there was another grouping of trees similar to the Forest, but these trees were different. They weren’t green like the pine trees of the forest; they were bear of all leaves. Their limbs made delicate lace patterns across the snow.
At some point, they must have turned west because Jade could see in the distance but getting closer every moment, the great fog plain that divided Avalon from Lyonés. It was an immense wall of clouds that stretched up as high as she could see, but the wall dissipated at the foot of a large mountain. It was toward the mountain that they were headed.
The trees on the mountain were once again evergreens like the ones in the Fore
st. Probably no other tree could survive on the mountain because of the weather. The closer they got to the mountain, the colder Jade felt. She longed for her cloak, the one she knew was lying across the foot of her bed at that moment.
Peter flew them right to the very top and brought them down gently at the base of an enormous pine tree. Once they were on the ground, he seemed to notice Jade shivering because he waved his hands in the air and out of nowhere appeared a gorgeous, purple, velvet cloak.
“You can do magic?” Jade asked in delight as he wrapped the thick cloak about her shoulders.
“She asked of the boy who just flew her to the top of Draconis Mons.” He laughed as he fastened the clasp at the base of her throat.
She wrapped the cloak about herself and was instantly warm again. “Where are the dragons?” she asked as she pulled the hood up over her head.
“This way,” Peter whispered, taking her hand and leading her forward.
They climbed to the top of the incline, but it was not a point like Jade expected to see at the top of a mountain. They were actually looking into a very deep, very wide crater. It looked like some giant had taken a melon baller and scooped out the tip of the mountain.
Within the crater, there was something of a split terrain. On their side, there were many bare trees covered in snow growing out of the rocky, icy ground. On the opposite side, the side they were facing, the ground was rocky as well, but it was far from icy. There seemed to be patches of something very hot splattered all about. It looked like glowing rocks; they were red hot and pulsating. Running down the middle of the two sides was an uneven strip of rocks with neither ice nor fire.
“Do you see them?” Peter asked, crouching down on the ground.
Jade crouched right next to him but wasn’t sure what she should be looking at. “See what?”
