The Dragon and Princess Madeline

by Kirstin Pulioff

  Sparks flew from the tips of their wands. On a silent cue, the wizards gently blew on the sparks, sending a wave of embers and smoke toward the cells. As the smoke fell to the ground, the eyelids of the prisoners began to close.

  Elias lowered his hands and walked forward, looking around the cell doors. He shook his head and smiled at the heap of men curled up together.

  Emmett stepped forward from the group and pushed open the wooden door. “Once again, Your Highness, our tunnel awaits.”

  Princess Madeline smiled at him and squeezed Daniel’s hand, bringing him with her into the darkness.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Madeline bounded ahead, exhilarated by the darkness surrounding her. She had already traveled these tunnels, and she moved quickly. Daniel trudged behind her, avoiding the broken cobblestones as the path turned from pavement to dirt.

  “Madeline,” she heard Daniel yell. “Slow down. We need to wait for the others.” He caught up to her and grabbed her hands, searching for her eyes in the darkness. “Don’t get too far ahead; we still have a long way to go.”

  She sighed, knowing once again that his calm words were right. “Can you feel it, Daniel, the magic in here?” she spun around. “I didn’t notice it before, but this time is different.”

  Daniel looked around at the broken cobblestones on the ground, the hardened walls, and her, noticing her expectant look. “I may not see it, but I’m sure you do.”

  Madeline smiled and walked deeper in the tunnel.

  “I was thinking,” he said, walking beside her and reaching for her hand. “What did you want to name our new territory?”

  She tilted her head toward him and bit her lip. “I hadn’t thought about that,” she murmured. “I guess you’re right; it can’t be Soron.”

  He lifted her chin up toward him. “I was thinking we could call it Hope. That’s what you’ve given me, and that is what you bring to our future. What do you think?”

  The silence in the tunnel grew as Madeline looked at him.

  “That would be perfect.” She looked up in the darkness and touched the outline of his jaw, rising to her tip-toes for a kiss.

  Quick footsteps interrupted their moment.

  “Ah, here you are,” Elias said, handing a torch to Daniel while shooting a reproving glance at the princess. “You shouldn’t be up here alone without light. You know how treacherous these tunnels can be. We need to stay together, and besides, we have a lot to discuss. I’ll be back soon with the others. Wait here.” Elias turned before she could utter a sound.

  “I guess we wait,” she said, snuggling close in the darkness.

  “I guess we do,” Daniel smiled back.

  A cloud of dust swept over them when the trailing group caught up. Madeline’s breath caught in her throat as the air shrunk around her. Her fear of the tunnels returned.

  “Elias,” she coughed, hiding her face from the onslaught of dirt circling around her.

  “Your Highness,” he said rushing to her side, offering a green sash to cover her mouth. “This is why we stick together,” he began as her coughs died down. “We have a large group, and as we travel, our path strikes up a wake of dust in front of and behind us. By sticking together, the dust will surround us but not subdue us. We have a long road before us in this tunnel.” Elias continued walking, holding his torch high, his hood pulled deep over his face. “We can rest when we reach the chamber,” he yelled back to them.

  “The chamber,” Madeline whispered. She knew exactly where Elias meant.

  Walking as a group took longer than Madeline anticipated. On her last trip here, with Emmett and his brothers, they had moved quickly. This trip was slower, allowing her mind to focus on everything around her, finding details she had overlooked before. Beauty abounded in the symmetry of the tunnels and the sporadic etchings on the walls. Small differences in the hues of the walls spoke to her, beneath the haze of dust. As she concentrated on the walls, a light mist appeared.

  She stopped at the side, allowing part of the group to drift past her. Her fingers traced the different shapes on the wall. The soft dirt crumbled beneath her fingers, leaving new impressions in its place. She grew oblivious to the dark shadows passing behind her or their curious stares.

  “What are you doing?” Sophia asked, stopping by her side.

  “I don’t know,” Madeline stammered, looking at the new impression, under the haze of the tunnel. “It’s these drawings. They just seemed unfinished. This haze keeps covering them up…” she trailed off, scratching at the wall in anticipation.

  Sophia looked from Madeline to the wall and shook her head, pulling her along. “You know, Princess, sometimes you worry me.”

  Madeline gave her a sideways glance. “Did you see the pictures beneath the haze?”

  Sophia just looked at her with raised eyebrows. “I see the pictures but no haze. Are you feeling sick?”

  “I’m not seeing things, if that’s what you mean. It’s just that when I stopped and saw the pictures covered by the haze, it made me think about other things that are covered by haze,” she said, trying to explain.

  Sophia looked at her with concern. “You mean your dreams.”

  “Well, yes,” Madeline said, looking at the wall again. “I just started thinking,”

  “That’s what worries me,” Sophia interrupted. “Sometimes when you start to think, a crazy plan gets hatched. Let’s keep going.”

  Madeline feigned injury and pouted as they rejoined the group. It felt good, walking with her. Her best friend since childhood, with whom she had shared every adventure and misdeed, stood by her side. She smiled. Then she remembered her father, blackened, dying, and she felt cold. She wondered if she might throw up.

  They walked in silence, and before long, they turned the corner into the main chamber. Madeline watched Sophia’s mouth drop. Their group’s eyes revealed surprise and wonder.

  Something in the pit of her stomach spoke about the importance of this room. It had to be more than just the chamber where the routes connected. The air tingled with condensed energy. This was a chamber of magic, secrets, mystery.

  The room was as she remembered: circular, with ten evenly-spaced openings. Their marble markers shone beneath the flickering light of their torches. Cobblestones wound around the room, settling into a large star in the center of the floor, where Elias and the wizards congregated.

  It looked the same but felt much different. The anticipation and rush of her last trip had numbed her senses more than she realized. As she stood in the room, a new sense of awe rolled over her. She tingled from the tips of her toes to the top of her head as the energy in the room swirled around her, and a quiet reverence filled her.

  The knights, merchants, and builders stood on the outer edge, watching her with curiosity. Her stomach tightened, and her insecurities rose as she saw them looking to her for direction. She straightened her dress, attempting to brush off the dust.

  Elias caught her eyes and nodded briefly. It was that look she had seen throughout her life from her father, a quick reminder of her duties. Somehow, in the reverence of the room, with the positioning of the wizards in the center, she had assumed that Elias would take charge. However, looking around, she saw all eyes focused on her. As ruler of their new territory in Dragon’s Gate, the expedition fell under her control.

  Brushing off her hesitation, Princess Madeline walked to the center of the room and closed her eyes. With a deep breath, she closed her mind, forgetting the smell of the dust, ignoring the threat of the dragon, and setting aside everything except that moment. When she looked upon her people, a new confidence flowed through her.

  “You left your home,” she said, meeting their eyes and acknowledging their fears. “You left the comfort of what you knew and the normalcy of everyday life for the chance to begin again. This is the chance to grow and build a future on your own terms. I do not claim to know what will happen, nor do I claim to have all the answers.” Small murmurs filled the outer edge of trave
lers.

  She lifted her hand and continued. “What I do know is that this is our chance. This is our future, our starting ground. I, along with Prince Daniel, will lead you the best way we know how. With understanding, ambition, and heart, we will build our future in Dragon’s Gate.”

  She walked along the chamber’s rim, stopping at each marker, feeling a thrill as her fingers traced the etchings. “We have started this journey with the clear intention of beginning anew, and we depend on the teachings of old to get us there. This is the time. This is the turning point to our destination. Before us lie ten roads, to different parts of the kingdom. If you wish to turn back, now is the time. With no consequences and no persecution…” she stopped and looked, noticing the doubt creep up in some and fade away in others.

  “I am not going back. I only know one way, forward, and that is to Dragon’s Gate. Those who wish to join, please follow me.” With a quick nod to Elias, she walked across the chamber, missing the smiles that crossed both his and Daniel’s faces.

  Sophia was the first to scurry into line behind her. The rest followed suit, picking up their packs and torches, walking down the path marked by the Dragon’s Gate arch.

  They made their way slowly, keeping a pace that allowed everyone to stay together. Their muted conversations filled the air. It granted privacy, as each conversation blended into the next.

  Hours passed before Elias made his way to the front, pulling Madeline into confidence. “Princess, before we get too far up the tunnels, we need to talk.”

  His tone caught Madeline’s attention.

  Elias’s raised eyebrows warned her to stay quiet. He continued with a whisper, “We have talked about the history of Dragon’s Gate, and the stories of old, but never about the tunnels in full detail.” He looked around before continuing. “There is a strong possibility that the tunnels are collapsed.”

  “Collapsed?” she asked in a forced whisper.

  “The land in the north is more volatile. All the histories mention it, even back as far as the time of Lord Hawthorne. There is a chance it is still that way.”

  “Have they not been excavated since then?” Her mind raced at his suggestion.

  “Not necessarily, Princess. The tunnels have been out of use for the past two decades. This one has been abandoned even longer. We simply revised our routes if we needed to go north. It didn’t seem necessary to take the risk at that time.”

  Madeline’s eyes cut into him. “And you’re just now telling me this?” she hissed between clenched teeth. “What do we do when we get there? What do we do if it is blocked?”

  “That is something we will have to deal with when the time comes. We couldn’t risk traveling above ground with the dragon. This will hopefully get us close enough to where we need to be.”

  “Elias, you can’t be serious.”

  “I’m afraid I am, Princess. I am well aware of the seriousness of our actions, and the risk involved. Like I said, I am hopeful that this will lead us where we need to be, but I wanted you to be warned. Shhh,” he said, stopping, holding up his hand and listening.

  A slow rumble shook the ground. Small rocks jumped by their feet, and dust circled around them. Their voices rang out above the growing rumbling. Elias looked up with fear.

  “People, stay still and quiet,” he said, pressing his finger to his lips.

  Their yells of shock and confusion died down. A large boulder fell beside Elias, extinguishing his torch in a moment. Madeline ran toward Daniel, grasping the slick chainmail beneath her fingers. She looked at him, panic running wildly through her eyes as he disappeared underneath the cloud of rising dust. The frightful cries of her people were swallowed in the shaking of the ground and the suffocating cloak of darkness.

  All at once, the earth stilled, and the dust slowly settled. Daniel stroked Madeline’s hair with one hand and held her close with the other.

  A spark flared in front of them, and she caught a glimpse of fear in Elias’s eyes. The wizard turned his gaze to the people further down the tunnel.

  “There’s plenty of time to talk more as we move along. We have a long way to go.” He whirled around and continued on the path.

  Looking back, Madeline saw the torches being relit, highlighting the faces of their people. She saw the small streaks of tears on their dust-brown faces, and heard their coughs as they struggled to breathe in the tight confines of the tunnel. Sophia met her gaze, tears teeming in her eyes.

  Daniel pulled on her hand, tearing her eyes away from Sophia’s. “It’s time to go.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  The days blended together; the dark confines of the Dragon’s Gate tunnel hid the passage of time. Even after the earthquakes ceased, they walked carefully, watching their steps as they inched along. The stagnant air, whispered conversations around her, and dark shadows erased her excitement. It reminded her how much she felt pressed in by the tunnel. The crush of people amplified her claustrophobia. Even after walking for days, her heart jumped at each loud thud or scuffle.

  The further in they went, the more constricted she felt. She hadn’t inhaled completely in days. The shortness of breath and lack of real conversation wore on her patience. Her only lengthy talks were with Elias, and those dealt with her dreams and training.

  Princess Madeline walked up front, beside Elias, leading their group through the winding passages of the tunnel system. The walls shrunk as evidence of cave-ins increased. Her head hung low as she watched the uneven ground before her.

  “I am still trying to figure out what your mother knew, the message behind her cryptic words. ‘He who recovers the orbs holds the line of the future.’ What does that mean?” Elias asked. They continued forward, aware that each step seemed to bring new quakes as rocks trailed down the sides of the tunnel.

  “I don’t know, Elias. It’s a riddle, but it has to mean something. Everything she’s left us seems to be a clue of some sort. She knew the dragons were coming, and she knew it would take great magic to win. How that relates to orbs and a race, I don’t know.” Madeline paused for a moment before continuing. “You said when my mother died that she died to protect me and Braden, right?”

  His sorrowful eyes swept over her face. He took a deep breath. “Yes, that’s the message she left for us. When she died on the day you were born, it was to offer you her wisdom and power, so that when the dragons returned, you would know what needed to be done.”

  “That’s what I thought. So why don’t I know? Shouldn’t something make sense? Shouldn’t I know what we’re doing or how to win?”

  “We can only hope her sacrifice makes sense eventually.”

  Madeline looked at her feet and noticed the puffs of dirt that arose with every step. “I just wish she could’ve told us. I know she wouldn’t have made that sacrifice if it wasn’t necessary for our survival. I just wish I knew what it meant.”

  “If your dreams can’t help us, then we’ll just have to be patient and wait for things to unfold around us.”

  The thought of waiting for her dreams to help unsettled her.

  “About my dreams,” she mumbled under her breath. “They feel like they’re closing in on me. Just like the tunnel: the longer we are in it, the tighter it is. That green fog in my dreams is getting thicker. The closer we get to Dragon’s Gate, the more blocked I feel. Maybe it’s the tunnels; maybe it’s my own mind being cluttered. I don’t know. I just don’t feel myself these days...” Her voice trailed off under Elias’s warm eyes, feeling comfort in his gaze. “I’m even beginning to see things.”

  Elias raised his eyebrows but remained silent.

  “It started a few days ago. When I concentrate on the walls, I see a light layer of mist. I don’t see it unless I really look for it, but it’s there. Sophia can’t see it and neither can Daniel. What’s going on?”

  “Princess, we’ll all feel better when the tunnel opens above us. Wait,” Elias said, lifting his finger to his lips and closing his eyes.

  “No,” Madeline
whispered, placing her palm against the soft dirt of the wall, feeling the ground pulsate. The rocks danced around her hand.

  “This is not good,” Elias said, looking past her down the long line of villagers. “This is it, it’s a big one. Get ready to run!” he shouted. The ground began to move. The shaking started slowly and grew until the air around them filled with dirt and dust. The walls began to crumble around them.

  Their feet could not keep up with the movement below them. Princess Madeline’s ribs ached as an elbow struck her. Bodies pushed her forward in their rush. Voices shouted out as people ran into others, trying to escape the shaky ground and tumbling rocks.

  “Daniel,” Madeline cried out when a rock nearly fell on top of her. She reached out and grabbed Daniel just in time, throwing her body into his arms and into safety. The rumbling continued, escalating until they disappeared into darkness.

  The days passed slowly for King Theodore, as the strict orders from his healers kept him restricted to his chambers. Remaining captive in his room exhausted him mentally as much as his injuries did physically. Instead of the daily routines of meetings, handling disputes, and balancing the treasury, he occupied his time with visits from the healers, checking his wounds and changing bandages. The sadness in their eyes, slow shaking of their heads, and sorrowful expressions darkened the dim room.

  King Theodore braced himself awkwardly against the windowsill, watching the sky. His eyes scanned the distance, searching for a sign. The dark shadow of the dragon swooped overhead, taunting him with its presence.

  “Where is it?” he yelled, slamming his fist down in frustration. It throbbed in agony as the king forgot his tender skin in a moment of rage and desperation. His steward ran to his side as the king exhaled.

  “Your Majesty, please,” his steward began, looking between the king and his cradled hand. The attendant’s eyes softened. “You must lie down. Let me help you.” Gently, he held out his hand and supported the king’s arm as they went back to the main chamber.