Lucinda knelt to the floor to meet the girl’s eyes and embraced her, still considering what the princesses of the south had said to her. “You are the most beautiful princess I have ever seen Prisma.” The girl said nothing but looked at Lucinda with wide eyes.
“She is shy,” Merline said. “But we hope she will grow as strong and fair as you, my lady. We had nothing fit to bring you for your birthday, but we give you our allegiance.”
What did all these words mean? Lucinda thought in confusion. Merline bowed and turned away from her with the little princess in hand. Lucinda was called up front to where King John and her father were seated. Near there, a large cake of three tiers was placed. John, Gwendolyn and Matthew all stood by it and they extended a hand over to her. She hadn’t talked to Matthew since the morning. There were so many people between them taking their time, but she felt his eyes on her from the distance. As she approached him, he smiled at her but his smile was tired and dark circles were forming under his eyes.
“King Hamlyn,” King John spoke. “On behalf of my entire kingdom we thank you for allowing your lovely daughter to spend the summer with us. It’s with a heavy heart I let her go.” He turned to Lucinda. “For a short time, I was able to know how it felt to have a daughter. It was nice to have a woman’s voice in the kingdom halls once more. You are a gifted young lady, and the kingdom was honored to have hosted you.” He raised his glass to her and all the guests followed. She dared not to look at her father. She was starting to feel faint. Matthew grabbed her arm.
“You’re shaking,” he whispered. “It’s alright, the time has come.” She looked at him. Something was different about him. He didn't look quite like himself. Yet, she felt strange herself.
“What do you mean—” she started.
A loud scream enveloped the courtyard, followed by another scream, then more. “Fire!” someone shouted.
Fire had begun consuming the courtyard. Orange and yellow flames caught on the lace cloths on the banquet tables and the surrounding vegetation. The screams continued and many were moving quickly around her. Where did it come from? She thought. Unthinkingly, she lifted her hands and commanded the flames. “Enough!” She shouted and the flames disappeared. The screams faded after a few moments. It was followed by a silence. What have I done? She thought in fear.
“She did it,” someone shouted. “It is true! The Green eyed witch has returned for her revenge!”
“She will kill us! She should have never been brought to our kingdom!”
“No,” She heard herself say. “No, I’m—” She couldn't remember her name.
“Your majesty we must seize her! She will bring back the kingdom of old and overpower us!”
King John bellowed something to silence the crowd but hysteria had taken its course.
The Prince pulled her back, “Run.” He said to her. “It is time. Don’t look back.”
“No, I can’t.” Her breathing was heavy and she thought about the box in her dream. “I won’t leave you again.”
He looked at her sternly. “I know you will return. They can’t hurt me anymore. Go!” He raised his sword to the crowd. A group of men dressed all in black stepped out and unsheathed their swords.
“My Queen, go!” He shouted at her.
Where? She might have asked him. Where was she supposed to go? She ran out of the courtyard toward the Green Sea. The shore was empty in the nighttime. She fell to the ground in the sand. What was happening? Where did the fire come from? Could she have started it not knowing? No, she was in control now. It wasn’t her. She wished Geenessa was with her now to give her counsel.
“My lady,” a voice came from behind her.
She turned quickly and raised a hand in front of her. “Stay back,” she yelled at the old woman who came from behind her. She recognized her. It was Nigina, her old governess. “What do you want?”
“My lady, it’s alright.” She raised her hands in front of her. “I will not hurt you. I, just as many of your followers, have waited centuries for your return.” She laughed. “And now, on the anniversary of your death you have returned to us. You will bring our kingdom back.”
“Stop it!” She put her head in her hands. “Stop it, stop it, stop it! I am not who you say I am! I am not the Queen.”
“It’s alright my Queen. You are still remembering. It will all come back to you soon.”
“Enough!” She felt the anger rising in her. “I am not your Queen. I am, I am,” She couldn't remember her name.
“You are Nycilla, Queen of the kingdom of the Green Sea and you have been waiting for a body strong enough to hold your spirit again. Your followers are still loyal to you, after all these years. We are ready my lady. Many have tried to stop this day and hurt you, but your followers have put an end to them. We have protected you, my lady, from your enemies.”
She stood then and looked the old woman in her eyes. “Protected me? You left me! You couldn’t make me into what you wanted. You tried to use me but failed!”
“My Queen, they sent me away! How desperately I wanted to train you! To be the Queen you were before, but many have tried to stop us. Yet, they couldn’t stop us today. They couldn’t stop the flames. Only you could my Queen.”
She felt her hand wrap around Nigina’s neck. “It was you? You started the flames?”
Nigina started trembling. “My Queen, we only wanted you to see how the people really are! They wanted you to trust them but they are your enemies! We are your loyal subjects my Queen!”
“Silence!” She tightened her grip around Nigina’s neck until the old woman started gasping for air. “If I am the Queen, then kneel to me.” A painful cry came out of the old woman. She fell to her knees.
“No my Queen! Please don’t! I’m sorry to have angered you! Please forgive me.”
She felt her other hand wrap around the woman’s neck as she knelt on the sand below her. “I am sorry too, but I have no use for weakness.” She released her hands and let the lifeless body fall.
“Lucinda! There she is! The Princess!”
Lucinda, she thought. Yes, I am Lucinda, Princess of the East Kingdom! She took a step back and tripped over the body on the floor. What had she done? “No, no no!” She cried. The far off shadows were coming closer to her. She needed to run.
Matthew I'm sorry. She thought. I’m sorry. She lifted herself out of the sand and ran into the sea.
Epilogue
“Your Majesty, We have searched the surrounding islands in the West and East. We must expand. I will send word to Commander Ronaldon to dispatch the Eastern Guard to the North and Matthew can lead our men to the South.”
“No.” King John looked up at his brother. “Matthew will pull back. You will send another man to lead the men to the south or you will do it yourself.” It had been a year since the incident. The garden within the courtyard had been restored. Lush grass replaced the scorch ash the fire had left behind. Yet the scars still remained. The fire had come out of nowhere, sending several to the infirmary. If she had not stopped the blaze it may have become a day of mass mourning. But the kingdom did mourn. The Princess had disappeared into the waters that night. Several of the knights and villagers had witnessed it. The people were divided since that day. Many hoped the waters had consumed her, but more prayed that somehow the Princess had survived. For a year’s time the Western and Eastern guards had searched the wide expanse of water that was the Green Sea. Though how many more years would it take to search all of it? The King wondered. Was it even possible? And to what end? No one would speak of it, but as the days went on the hope of her survival was dwindling.
He had feared on those first days that her disappearance would bring blame and war from the East, but King Hamlyn had grown solemn since that day. “I should have never let her come here.” He told King John as he departed the West. “I was supposed to keep her safe. That’s truly what her mother wanted but she was so adamant to let her spend the summer of her fifteenth year in the west. ‘Promise m
e! Promise me!’ She would say over and over again on her last days. ‘It must be done.’ Could she have known this would happen? Was this what she wanted all along?”
Some nights King John wondered the same himself. When children were born in the kingdoms it was common to have enchanters predict the outcome of their life. Most gave broad predictions, “A Son who will have a long life,” or “A beloved Prince born to prosper greater than any before him” or “A maiden set to be the most beautiful of all.” But the little princess’s birth was given a prophecy while she still remained in her mother’s womb. “A Queen will Rise in the East. Her Strength sought in the West. Her Kingdom restored in the Sea.”
There were so many questions left unanswered. He knew it was dangerous to bring the girl to their land, but what choice did he have when his brother presented the East Queen’s letter to him seven years ago? How could he refuse her dying request? He was grieving his own queen then and he knew if she was alive she would have wanted to protect this girl as well. Protect the girl. How naive he was. She was never just a simple girl who needed protection. He knew the stories surrounding her. He knew the legend of the old Queen and the Kingdom of the Green Sea, but he never truly believed any of these tales until the girl had come to them. He couldn't ignore how the people reacted to her; the whispers, the threats to her life, the mysterious incidents, and the deep rooted loyalty she instilled amongst many. That’s what she had unearthed out of his son. At first he thought it was youthful infatuation, but since her disappearance his son relentlessly searched the sea for her. He hardly slept, and when he did he was plagued with nightmares. Several nights the King passed his son’s bedchambers to hear him calling for the girl and gasping for air. He never spoke of the dreams but the King knew his son was seeing her drown.
It was odd to him now how his son was born the same year to the day as this mysterious Princess. He never thought too much of the prophecy given at Matthew’s birth until late. “He will gather his wisdom from warriors of old. Kingdoms will be built and brought to ruin upon the strength of his dagger.” It seemed an appropriate prediction for a future commander of the kingdom. So he thought, long ago.
“Your highness,” His brother continued. “The Prince will not willingly be drawn away from this mission.”
“The Western Guard is to protect the entire kingdom. As Commander he should be reminded of his duty. It will not do to have all of his attention and all of our resources set to finding one girl when there are hundreds missing across all the kingdoms. It doesn’t matter how close this mission is to his heart, there are other needs to be attended to.” It was true. There were reports of others missing within the kingdom. The other kingdoms have reported similar disappearances over the past year, yet everything was overshadowed by the Princess’s disappearance.
“Brother, may I speak frankly?”
King John sighed. He was growing tired. He spent more energy this past year then all of his fifty years of life. He was king but his brother was by far the more unrelenting of the two. He did not know how many more years he had left and his brother was the only one he trusted to give his sons sound counsel after he was gone; just as his brother had given him sound counsel for so many years. He nodded and Jonathan proceeded.
“In many ways I have brought this devastation onto the kingdom. I persuaded you to bring the girl here, and if she is dead her blood is on my hand, but something else is amidst here. I know that you do not want to accept it but we cannot deny it any longer. There are ancient spirits at work—”
“Jonathan—“
“Matthew knows his duty, but your son is not always in control of his actions. The ancient prince has his own duty. He will not rest until he finds the Queen.”
“I told you I will not hear more of this superstition!” Jonathan had invested heavily throughout the years in the stories of the lost fifth kingdom, King John knew. He gathered many tales throughout his travels of how the kingdom would be resurrected, but John never thought his brother truly believed them. Yet, since the Princess’s disappearance Jonathan had been adamant that the stories were true and they were unfolding just as predicted. Many of the people believed the same, but the King refused to give in to the superstitious talk that flooded the kingdoms.
“How do we account for so many of our own people not having recollection of that night’s incidents? The Queen’s return was planned for centuries. The spirits of her followers were waiting for an opportunity—“
“Enough.” His voice was low and hard and his brother immediately stopped. “I do not have the answers to everything, but I am King. My people will follow my lead. If I give into this hysteria of ancient spirits from a lost kingdom, then what do I command my people to do? How do we defend ourselves from shadows?”
“We can’t defend ourselves. We must find the Queen.”
A large rumble shook the throne room. Frantic cries permeated the castle walls. The rumbling continued for several minutes before stopping. The King and commander exchanged concerned looks and cautiously left the throne room. Though possible, quakes were not common in the West. They made their way out the castle doors, where many people surrounding the castle were shouting and pointing toward the Green Sea. From a distance, amidst the large expanse that was the sea, a mass had permeated the surface.
“My God,” Jonathan mouthed breathlessly. “Is that a tower?” A large stone pillar stood erect in what seemed to be the middle of the waters. From the distance it looked as if the pillar contained one window close to the top, with a bright light shining through it, glistening onto the waters.
No, King John thought fearfully. It was a message. The Queen has returned to her Kingdom.
Note from the Author
I hope you enjoyed my debut novella! The Whispers of Shadows is book one of The Fifth Kingdom novella series:
The Whispers of Shadows (2015)
A Castle of Ashes (2016)
A Realm Forgotten (2017)
The One True Queen (2018)
Happy Reading!
The Whispers of Shadows (The Fifth Kingdom Book 1) Page 7
