by Day Leitao
“Did I have a choice?”
Cayla looked down.
Lylah addressed Nia, “I know why you came, and I will do everything I can to protect your son. I’m grateful to you.”
“We’d better move then,” Nia said. “There is talk of an attack on the castle.”
“Nia!” Cayla protested. “Are you going to turn against us?”
“I’m not against you,” Nia replied. “One day you’ll understand.”
“I was hoping this would be the day,” Lylah said, then turned to Cayla. “Have you ever considered that most of what you heard in your life were lies?”
“Now I’m hearing lies,” Cayla said. “You’re saying Odell’s your brother, but that can’t be. He’s always helped us. I trust him. He’d never be against us.”
“But he’s not,” Lylah said. “Why do you think he disguised himself for sixteen years?”
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Cayla replied.
“To protect you,” Lylah said.
“You are lying.”
Lylah was still calm. “Don’t you trust Nia?”
“She’s paranoid.”
“Paranoid against your father, you mean,” Lylah replied. “Could it be because he’s threatened her with death? Have you ever wondered what happened to your sister’s mother? Or your mother?”
Cayla got up and pointed her finger towards Lylah. “Don’t you dare mention my mother.”
Karina remembered what the girl had told her and felt guilty and sad.
Lylah closed her eyes and sighed. “Nia’s right. Time’s running out. I’ll tell you what I want from you; then I’ll explain why.”
“We’ll never help you!” Cayla said.
Nia grabbed the girl’s arm, and sounded stern, “First you listen, then you say whatever you want to say.”
Cayla pulled back her arm but remained quiet.
Lylah continued, “As you noticed, this is a prison, and the tunnel from where you came is gone. I need you to free me and free yourselves. There are two people who can free me. Either the person who built this castle, or the last person who locked it, and left me here, thinking he defeated me.” Lylah looked down, took a deep breath, then continued, “I happen to be the one who built it, but I cannot free myself; I could only open the passage to other dimensions.” She turned to Karina. “And that’s how I came to your world.” She then turned to everyone else, “And how I didn’t die. The other person who can free me is the king. He locked me here. Unlike you might have heard, I have no army, and no assistants, except my brother. All I want is freedom, to be reunited with my family, and to help restore peace to the kingdom.”
Cayla slammed her hand on the table. “You do want to take power!”
“Not necessarily. There are other people already fighting this war. I had to wait until you were old enough so that you’d come on your own free will.” That last part seemed to be addressed at Cayla. “But now I can help them.”
“You tricked us,” Cayla protested. “You and Odell.”
Lylah stared attentively at the girl. “Not really. You came to bring peace to your kingdom. That’s what I plan to do.”
“By force!”
“Listen,” Lylah’s voice was lower pitched, “I need either my daughter, or the daughter of the king, to open a door behind me. If you walk close to the wall, you will see it. This way we’ll all be free.”
Karina didn’t see any door, but on the other hand, she was the only one to see the fire, so perhaps that prison offered a custom view for each of them.
“You’re lying,” Cayla said. “And I won’t free you. I’d rather spend the rest of my life here.”
Karina began to wonder how the rest of her life would be then. She hoped at least that Lylah would bring them some nice food from time to time. Not that it made up for losing her freedom, her life, her youth. Ugh, Karina didn’t want to consider staying in that place.
But it was Nia who protested, “Cayla, my son!”
“Don’t you see?” Cayla insisted. “He’s safer if she’s locked.”
“You are the one who’s not seeing it,” Nia said. “Can’t you see who she is? Because I can. Perhaps it’s just that you can’t look at yourself.”
Cayla squinted. “What?”
To be fair, Karina had a similar mental reaction. Nia wasn’t usually that enigmatic.
Lylah waited for a while, then continued to address Cayla, “In time, I’ll tell you everything. For now, I need you to trust me. Cayla…” The woman paused mid-sentence, open mouthed, as if considering how to say something important. “Odell, you know how much he cares about you. I hope you trust him, and you should, because of all he’s done for you.”
“He’s a liar.” Cayla sounded sad.
Lylah shook her head. “He only did what he did to protect you. Odell…” Lylah looked down and took a deep breath, then faced Cayla, “…is your uncle.”
That was underwhelming. With all that suspense and emotion, Karina was expecting some big revelation, expecting perhaps Odell to be the girl’s father or something more dramatic.
Cayla for her part laughed. “You just said he was your brother. Your lies don’t even make sense anymore.”
Lylah fell silent. Nia also looked down. How could Odell be Lylah’s brother and Cayla’s uncle at the same time? Then it hit her. Oh, it was obvious. The first time Karina saw Cayla, she’d reminded her of Lylah, and, now that the two were together, the similarity was there, although not obvious.
Lylah continued, “Cayla, all these years, I’ve been waiting to see you. I could not come to you, and I could not let you know anything that could endanger you, but I never forgot—”
“Forgot what? How you killed my mother?”
Karina covered her face with her hands. Lylah stared at the girl in silence.
Nia held Cayla’s hand and said softly, “Cayla, dear.” She pointed to Lylah. “She is your mother.”
Karina had guessed as much. But still, to hear it like that was somewhat shocking.
Cayla was still upset, looking incredulous and hurt. Tears ran from her eyes and she said, “Even if it’s true. You don’t expect me to come here and simply free you. Now. After an entire life.”
Lylah just looked in silence.
Nia addressed Cayla, “She couldn’t. Don’t you understand?”
Lylah looked nowhere while tears ran down her cheeks.
Ayanna walked close to her and asked, “And do you know what happened to my mother?”
More and more tears ran down Lylah’s eyes. “I’m so sorry. I tried. Odell really tried. He could not save her. He was too late.”
“What happened? I’d rather hear it,” Ayanna said.
“She tried to run away. With you. But the king caught her. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. My brother could never forgive himself. At least he tried to give you the love your mother couldn’t give. I know it’s not the same.”
Ayanna shook her head. “I’m sure he did his best. He’s always been there for us.”
Lylah had a half smile.
The younger princess then asked, “You need the king’s daughter to free you? Can that be me?”
Lylah seemed surprised, then nodded. “Yes, it could.”
Ayanna pointed behind Lylah. “And all I have to do is open that door?”
Again Lylah nodded.
“Ayanna, don’t!” Cayla pleaded.
Ayanna turned to her sister. “Sorry, but I’m not going to spend the rest of my life here.”
Karina, who was following their conversation, still didn’t see any door. And the shoes hadn’t been mentioned yet. Karina felt safe to assume they had been forgotten, and she was thrilled. Somehow, she’d never felt comfortable about giving or destroying them.
Ayanna walked to the back of the room, right beside the fire. “This?”
“I can’t see it,” Lylah said. “But if you see a door, that must be it.”
Cayla watched in silence. Her sister moved her arms, as i
f opening an invisible door, but no real door appeared. In fact, nothing happened.
Ayanna turned to Lylah. “And what now?”
Lylah looked puzzled. “It should… Unless…” She looked at Ayanna. “But you saw the door, right?”
“It was here,” the girl replied, then pointed and looked. “But… not anymore.”
Could it be that Lylah had made a mistake? That was what it seemed. Apparently, something should have happened when Ayanna “opened” the door, but it didn’t. The woman’s expression worried Karina more than anything. This time she feared they would be locked there forever. A thunderous rumbling put an end to her worries. Lylah looked relieved, but just for a second. Her expression became grim. The floor and walls trembled. At first, Karina feared the whole place would collapse on them, but since she didn’t see anything falling, she decided to look. The place wasn’t collapsing, but instead closing on them. Walls were getting closer together, the ceiling was coming down, and the floor was coming up. If that movement didn’t stop, they would all be crushed in a minute. Maybe much less, but Karina didn’t want to calculate that.
Lylah yelled something, but, with all the noise, Karina couldn’t hear it. The woman had her arms spread out and gestured for the others to come under, as if she were to protect them, but she still looked troubled and afraid. Karina had known Lylah for a short while, but long enough to realize that she wouldn’t be scared of something silly. Karina was about to run to the woman when she saw the fire. Instead of bigger, it got smaller and smaller even though the wall moved forward. It was about to disappear.
Nia came close to Karina and yelled, “The shoes, use them! Or give them to Lylah!”
Karina realized all their lives were in her hands. Or waist. Karina had to think faster than she had ever thought in her life. Did the shoes contain Lylah’s power? If they did, why would their destruction harm her? If the shoes had any power, it would, in fact, be released. If Karina’s logic made any sense. Karina then remembered Zoe’s strange accident, and her own infatuation with the shoes. She also remembered Nia saying that the shoes would bind her. Karina had been bound for a long time. Too long. Lylah gestured for Karina. She wanted the shoes. The shoes. The power was in the shoes. Lylah’s power. In a fraction of a second Karina made her decision. She untied the shoes from her waist, and instead of giving them to Lylah or trying to use them, she tossed them on the dwindling flame.
19
Going Separate Ways
Something happened all right, because the noise increased, and the floor trembled even more. Karina fell down. The walls started to crack, and she thought they were about to crumble upon them for real this time. More than ever she regretted having left her bedroom and having to make decisions about things she didn’t understand. What a terrible way to die: for a stupid mistake.
But soon Karina realized that although the ceiling was collapsing, no piece hit her. In fact, no part of the ceiling or wall reached the ground, as they disappeared mid-fall. As the ceiling opened, Karina could see the blue sky with a few clouds. After much trembling and noise, the castle, or rather, prison, disappeared. They all sat on muddy sand. Regular, beige sand, on the island in the river. The rest of the food lay on the floor, likely meaning that it had been real. Good to know that she hadn’t eaten disappearing magical stuff. Everyone was alive, as they were moving, getting up from having fallen on the trembling floor.
Lylah walked to Karina and put a hand on her shoulder, “How did you know? How did you know you had to throw the shoes?”
Karina was flushed. “It’s just… I guess shoes should never be that important.”
Lylah smiled. Karina was glad to have made the right decision. She was trembling, perhaps because she learned that the danger had in fact been real.
Cayla was getting up, when she said, “Something’s coming.”
Nia looked around, not seeming to have heard anything. “Should we hide?”
“No time,” Lylah said, “but I doubt we’ll see more than four lifts at once. I can handle them.”
Either she was indeed all-powerful or she was quite presumptuous. Karina hoped for the first possibility.
“There are two lifts,” Cayla said. “Maybe they are friends?”
A few seconds after, a lift appeared in the sky, above the mountains, then a second one. Something like a cannon pointed at them from the top of the first lift. Karina didn’t remember lifts having weapons, or perhaps she simply didn’t know. A huge ball of blue fire came in their direction. Her guess was that they weren’t friendly. Karina considered jumping on the ground or the river, but before she did anything, the ball turned around, split in two, and hit both lifts, which fell on the valley.
“They’ll survive,” Lylah said.
One thing Karina noticed was that the lifts fell but didn’t explode.
“More of them are coming,” Lylah said. “We have to teleport somewhere away from here. I can do it, but only one at a time.”
She turned to Ayanna, held her hand, then disappeared. In a matter of seconds Lylah was back alone. She then grabbed Karina’s hand. The girl felt a now familiar feeling of falling, then found herself beside Ayanna, near the summit from the previous night, but beneath some trees. Lylah soon came with Nia, then disappeared. Some more time then passed, something like one or two minutes, before Lylah showed up with Cayla, who then sat on a rock and looked down. Lylah closed her eyes and kept them closed for a long time.
Karina didn’t feel comfortable at that place, although it was unlikely that anyone would do anything to them with Nia and Lylah there. She felt a little sad and empty without the shoes, knowing that her mission was over and that she would no longer be important. At least she was still alive, so no regrets there.
Lylah looked down, thinking, then looked distraught, as if in pain. She looked at one of her bracelets. A red stone shone brightly.
“What’s wrong?” Ayanna asked.
“Odell,” Lylah replied. “He’s in danger.”
Nia grabbed the woman’s hands. “My son. We have to go. Please take me there.”
“It’s not as simple,” Lylah said.
“Please, just teleport me there. I know you can. Let me do something for my son. I’ve done a lot for Cayla.”
Lylah closed her eyes for a moment, then said, “I’ll come with you.” She then turned to the girls. “Stay here and wait. I’ll come back.”
Nia looked worried. “Isn’t it dangerous to leave them here?”
“No,” Lylah replied. “And they can teleport if they are only two.”
Karina didn’t understand that, but maybe it had something to do with Cayla being her daughter.
“Actually, I’ll take Ayanna as well,” Lylah said. “I know a safe place for her. Come.”
The dark-haired woman soon disappeared with Ayanna, then came back and disappeared with Nia, who still looked worried but did not protest. Karina wasn’t upset at being left behind because she figured going to the castle would have been dangerous. Plus, that way she could keep Cayla company.
The girl sat down on the floor and plucked leaves of grass, looking sad.
Karina crouched beside her. “I know this may be difficult for you, but maybe you should give Lylah a chance. Just hear what she has to say. Maybe… talk to Odell. Perhaps, you know, you might see things differently.”
Cayla shook her head. “It’s not even that. I mean, it is, but… Either way you look at it, it’s disturbing. Even if it’s true that she’s my mother, and that Odell is my uncle, it means I’ve been lied to my whole life. My whole life. It means there isn’t a single person who hasn’t been lying to me.”
Karina looked down, then tried to come up with something to cheer her up. “I don’t think Ayanna ever lied to you.”
Cayla got up and gesticulated her arms. “Cause she’s just a child! In the same situation as me. Or slightly better. You know, cause there’s no chance her mother might be evil and take the kingdom. Because of me! It’s all my fault.
Trust me; I sure hope she isn’t evil.” She looked down. “But then, my father…”
Karina put her hand on her friend’s shoulder. She had no idea what to say.
Cayla looked around. “I think we can see the castle from the other side. Let’s look.”
They walked to the other side of the summit. They could see an ocean of clouds, a valley with lakes, some hills, and, far away, a river. Karina couldn’t see the castle, and it made sense, because it was so close to the hills by the river. But there was something she saw: fire near the river, like the fireballs and the fire that had consumed the lift the previous night. Karina remembered the attack Darian had mentioned. She felt sad that he hadn’t kept his word, but on the other hand, she didn’t know how much he could do.
Cayla looked shocked. “How is that? How can Lylah be doing that already?”
“Lylah has just teleported,” Karina said. “I doubt she’s responsible for the attack.”
“Who is it then?”
Well, the rebels, of course. Karina looked at Cayla. “You know who’s doing that.”
“We have to do something. My father! Even if he’s guilty, I don’t want him to be killed.”
Karina didn’t think that was necessary. “Nobody said—”
“I need to make sure.”
“And what do you want to do?”
“Go to the castle!” Cayla said as if it was rather obvious.
Karina didn’t want to remind her that they’d been told to wait. By now, she understood Cayla was not good at following orders. For her part, she would much rather sit on the mountain and wait for all the trouble to stop. Either way, they were far from the castle. “How?”
Cayla pulled her necklace. “Darian. Darian.” She sounded angry. Karina wondered how much she knew.
The stone, or rather, Darian, replied, “Cayla, are you alright?”
“I am.”
“I see where you are. Please stay there and hide. I’ll come for you as soon as I can. Right now, I can’t… I’ll explain everything when I see you again. Just stay safe now.”
