Myth

by Terri Todosey

  “If we’ve been sleeping for almost a month, then how come the f-f-food hasn’t gone bad?” I asked.

  “It all nasty trick,” he said. “Deception is what you eat, not food.”

  It was hard to imagine that all the beautiful, decadent food spread over the table could be a deception. Then looking past the frozen platters, I saw Emily hunched over in her chair and covered with frost. She looked horribly white and lifeless.

  “No more delay. Get up! Help me wake others.” Yeri watched me and waited for me to move.

  Lifting my head slowly off the slab of ice I managed to wedge my arm under my chin. My legs were beginning to thaw and tingle with pain. My whole body had fallen asleep and waking it up felt like waking the dead.

  “It’s so c-c-cold in here.”

  “Dis is goot, you start to feel again.” He tried to encourage me, though it didn’t seem enough. “Sit up,” he pleaded quietly.

  He watched and waited for me to move, but I couldn’t. My body was too weak to fight its frozen state.

  “Maybe I could nap just a little more?” I sighed. I still felt awfully lethargic.

  “No, no, dis is no goot,” he paced on the table in front of me. Behind him I could see a full plate of blueberry pie. It looked delicious and my stomach began to moan for food.

  “A spoon of that blueberry pie might help give me some strength,” I suggested.

  “NO!” He stopped pacing and hopped closer to my face. “Do you have any taste bud?”

  “Huh?” I moaned.

  “Taste bud! Do you have?”

  “Yes, I think so.”

  “Goot,” he said. “Where are dey?”

  “I... I think they’re still in my b-b-back pocket.”

  Using all my strength I struggled to prop up my head. Goose bumps broke out over my body and the painful tingling sensation continued to swell.

  “My legs!” I screamed.

  “Shhh! Aye-yi-yi! Dis is goot you feel, but we must keep quiet!”

  “G-G-G-GOOD?” I stammered. “It doesn’t F-F-F-FEEL good!”

  It was hard to focus on anything other than the excruciating pain that reeled through my body, but I felt him scramble down the back of my shirt and reach into my frozen pocket.

  “Here we go,” he said coming back onto the table. “Stick out tongue.”

  I pushed my tongue out and felt him place the bud gently on the tip. Immediately, a puddle of warmth tingled over my tongue and the filling taste of french fries thawed my mouth. It seized hold of my hunger as I began to chew and a flood of flavours trickled down my throat and into my frigid core. Each time I chewed my jaw moved more easily until finally, when the root beer rinsed over my mouth, the searing pain in my legs had subsided to a dull tingle and my stomach felt comfortably full. My blood had begun to warm and pulse through my veins again, flushing through my body and thawing the frost on my skin. What seemed like hours passed and I was finally able to stand and stagger over to where Justin and Emily lay hunched in their thrones.

  “They look dead,” I whispered, touching Emily’s cold hand that was frozen to the table.

  “Dey might as well be, if here much longer,” said Yeri. He walked around the platters of food and stood near Emily’s face. “Wake dem quietly and share bud.”

  “Justin, Emily, wake up!” I began to nudge them.

  —

  It took some time, but I did my best to explain what Yeri had told me and finally convinced them to open their eyes. I gave them each a taste bud and a pale pink colour eased back into their skin as the frost thawed and the life that had been frozen inside them began to pulse again.

  “I don’t know, I find it hard to believe we could have slept that long,” said Emily.

  “I know,” I said. “And how did I survive that long without my meds?”

  “Look at the sun!” she pointed out. “It hasn’t moved, and the food is still fresh.”

  “No, no, have you forgotten all I say. Sun not set here in Demoror Ari,” explained Yeri. “It very, very deceivink. No see time pass and dis food is not real.”

  “So you’re saying this custard isn’t really here?” asked Justin sneaking a finger into the creme caramel.

  “No, it bad spell dat keep you eating,” said Yeri, smacking the custard off of Justin’s hand. “But hunger not go. Only sleep stop you once you start.”

  “I don’t know,” Emily sighed reluctantly, “The owner of this place seems pretty nice to me.”

  “Have you heard of someone named Lustro?” I asked, remembering the letter in the table. “Lustro Basilicus?”

  “Ay-yi-yi,” snapped Yeri. “I not hear dat name in long time,” he said. “Queen of Light, humph,” snorted Yeri, and then cupping his tiny paws around his mouth, he whispered, “She better known as Ludo Basilicus - Queen of Deception. Surprise you live in Lockhart and not know of her.”

  “She’s a Queen?” I asked.

  “Ha! I told you so!” Emily said proudly. “The Queen wrote us a letter!” she giggled.

  “Letter?” Yeri’s eyes widened.

  “Look! On the table,” she said.

  He hopped up on one of the candelabras to get a better look at the etched words. “It written in language only few can read, and I know not much of it.”

  “It’s called English and it’s very common among us humans,” I said. “It’s addressed to us. See here,” I pointed to our names and read him Lustro’s letter.

  “Dis is no goot. I begin to tink I not fear enough,” he said.

  “It’s weird because we don’t even know her, although, do you suppose we could’ve forgotten meeting her?” I asked.

  “Once you meet Ludo, you no forget, but her magic is up to no goot and I only understand little of what she do,” said Yeri. “One ting I do know, she very, very much want to delay you. We must leave now, before she find I have come for you.”

  “If she’s so bad, why’d they make her Queen?” asked Justin.

  “Shushhh!” Yeri stammered and glanced around the room. Then in a careful whisper he continued. “Once Maker disappear, she become Queen by force, but it not goot to say too much here. It is said she have wall dat hear.”

  I looked at Justin and we both surveyed the reflective walls of ice that surrounded us. The bright sun sparkled against them, making the room appear more like a heavenly cathedral than any witch’s den and I couldn’t imagine why Yeri was so paranoid.

  “Well, real or not, it sure tastes good!” I said, sneaking a tiny morsel of butter tart into my mouth.

  “NO!” cried Yeri as he ran over to stop me. “Is trap. Is very, very bad spell dat you must resist or you be here for many, many moon, until one day notink wake you. Is dis what you want?” he said clearly frustrated. Then hopping up on my shoulder he directed me towards the wall. “Dis way,” he said.

  I was still tired and weak, but I managed to shuffle over to the smooth beveled wall of ice. “Look at you in mirror wall!” he said. “Tell me, what you see?”

  My reflection in the ice was hardly recognizable. I was pale and thin and hunched over, looking worn, aged and even worse than I felt. Reaching up with a frail hand, I touched my limp, dull hair in the reflection. My eyes were dark and sunken and my lips were dry and cracked. I looked utterly dreadful. The twenty-two days had not been good to me and my appearance shocked me.

  I turned my gaze to the carved angel standing next to me. My fingers glided down the angel’s icy face and stopped at its smile. But it’s so beautiful, I thought. I knew Yeri only meant well, but what did he really know of Lustro? He didn’t even call her by her real name.

  The angel’s peaceful expression made me want to relax back into the comfort of my fur-lined throne and forget about all the bad things that Yeri was so concerned about. He didn’t understand. How could he? He was just a gerbil. He belonged in a cage
!

  But while these thoughts swirled perversely in my head something unexpected happened. A dark shadow spilled over me, and I looked up past the icicle chandelier to the sky. A single white cloud wafted slowly across the sun, eclipsing it and darkness washed over the angel in front of me. The reflective ice became transparent, causing my focus to shift past the carved angel and rested on the face of a hideous beast frozen within it.

  A scream escaped from my mouth. The beast’s yellow eyes flicked open and glared at me, causing a shiver of goose bumps to explode across my skin. Jumping back, I shrieked to find that all around me the dark shadow had transformed the heavenly castle into a place of horror. The dazzling bright angels had become dark, monstrous gargoyles with bat-like wings. Adrenaline flooded my veins, shocking my heart into overdrive.

  “Oh dear,” sighed Yeri, as Emily began to scream.

  Then suddenly, hundreds of smaller bat-like creatures frozen within the walls of the castle opened their yellow eyes and glared at us in anger.

  “What are they?” hollered Justin above Emily’s shrieking.

  “Fire demon,” exclaimed Yeri. “We must go. Now!”

  It was as though a nest of demons had been disturbed from their rest, and we were the ones who had woken them. Their veins ignited with rage and their scaly skin smoldered like coals beneath the ice. I could hear their searing skin sizzling within the walls that had quickly begun to melt.

  “THE DOOR!” yelled Justin as he tore off down the hall.

  I ran after him with Yeri clinging to my hair and Emily running close behind.

  “There’s no doorknob,” said Justin. “We have to push it open!”

  We all threw our bodies against the now dripping door, but it didn’t budge.

  “Try pulling!” yelled Emily.

  “I have nothing to pull,” I screamed, unable to find the edge of the door that was still frozen solid with the wall.

  “There has got to be another way,” said Justin frantically looking around.

  “How did YOU get in?” I asked Yeri.

  “I dig, but hole much too small for you.”

  “How about over the top?” shouted Justin. “We can try to climb up and over.”

  “Climb what? The slippery smooth wall of ice?” I asked.

  “It’s fifteen feet high!” said Emily.

  ‘If we just had something to climb,’ I thought surveying the room for options.

  “What about the chandelier?” I hollered, running back to the banquet room where the floor was already covered with an inch of water.

  With Justin helping me, I grabbed hold of one of the ice thrones and shoved it up on the table. Justin steadied the chair as I hopped up and hoisted my leg into the dripping mass of icicles that had been the chandelier. They clanked and chimed as I pulled myself from the chair to the swinging grasp of the fixture with Yeri still clinging to my hair. Scaling upwards towards the supporting trusses I climbed the melting mass, trying to remember how I’d climbed the monkey bars back home when I was eight.

  “CRASH!” a large icicle fell and smashed against the table, but I clung tightly to the slippery remains, my heart thundering in my chest.

  “I think I’ve got it.” I threw my right arm over the cold truss and reached out to grab the crossing beams with my left hand.

  “You’re almost there!” hollered Justin.

  The beams were smooth, and extremely slippery, but I somehow found enough grip to pull myself up until I was straddling the truss with both legs. Looking back down at Justin and Emily, I stretched out along the truss and reached my arm down towards them. My muscles ached from the intense cold that had again saturated my weak body.

  “Okay Em, you’re next,” said Justin, taking her hand and pulling her up onto the ice throne.

  “SMASH!” the chair buckled out from under them and they fell backwards onto the table.

  “Ouch!” she whimpered, picking herself back up again.

  Justin quickly hopped off the table and grabbed another chair, but the legs were frozen to the floor and it didn’t budge. “SNAP!” the back of the chair snapped off in his hands.

  Going for the third and final chair, he lifted the seat only to have it fall apart in his hands. “They’re melting too fast!” he hollered.

  “How are we gonna get out of here?” cried Emily.

  “Quickly” said Justin, hopping back up on the table. “Climb up on my shoulder,” he said as he kneeled down. “I will boost you up to Tali.”

  Emily sat down on the back of his neck, her legs hanging down over his shoulders. Justin stood up and steadily balancing on the slippery ice table, he shuffled Emily over to a position directly below me.

  “Grab her Tali!” he grunted.

  I reached down towards her outstretched hand and felt the tips of her fingers brush against mine, but we were too far away to grab hold of each other.

  “I can’t reach!” she cried.

  “Try stretch more,” said Yeri. “Fire demons are very very nasty creatures, with...”

  “JUST HURRY!” screamed Justin who was standing in two inches of water.

  The smoldering creatures had melted small pockets of ice around their bodies and had begun to scratch and claw at the wall to quicken their escape. Their ember eyes glared out at us, calculating their impending attack. I knew it wouldn’t be long before they broke free.

  Emily managed to grab hold of the icicle chandelier and pull herself off Justin’s shoulders and into the dripping mess of icicle remnants, which immediately started to swing with her at its mercy.

  “Grab me!” she cried, reaching up higher towards me.

  I stretched down and grabbed hold of her wrist. Pulling her up, while struggling to keep my own balance, I suddenly heard a loud “RIP!”

  “I’m caught on the chandelier!” she screamed.

  Looking down I saw that the bonnet had snagged on an icicle and torn. It was left hanging by its ribbon ties around Emily’s neck and held her back from climbing up any further.

  “You and your stupid bonnet!” I yelled. My hand was cramping and I struggled to hold onto her.

  “I’ve got it!” said Justin, reaching up to break her free, but as he did the base of the dripping chandelier snapped with a loud, “CRACK!” Justin jumped out of its way, as the one beautiful fixture smashed in to a thousand shards of ice on the table. Emily’s hands tightened desperately around my wrists, her legs now swinging wildly beneath her.

  “Hold her up!” I hollered down to Justin, tightening my legs around the truss. I knew I wouldn’t be able to support her for long.

  Justin’s head disappeared beneath Emily’s thrashing legs as she blindly searched for some part of him to use as a landing pad. She finally settled on his head.

  “Hurry up!” he grumbled through her sopping wet shoes.

  “Grab the truss!” I begged, desperately wanting relief from her weight. She let go of me with one hand and quickly wrapped her arm around the truss. With my one free hand, I grabbed her belt loop and using my own weight for leverage, I pulled her up beside me. Her entire body now hugged the ice beam tightly.

  “Okay,” I panted. “Shimmy over to the wall and jump down into the sand.”

  “I c-c-can’t!” she stuttered. The cold was painfully taking its toll on us.

  “Yes yoooou caaaan,” I pressed my foot against her butt and pushed her along the truss towards the wall.

  Then looking down, I saw the desperate look on Justin’s face. Up to his ankles in water, he frantically searched for something to climb up on, but the chandelier and chairs were nothing more than oversized ice cubes floating in the glass that used to be the castle’s dining room.

  The demons had become more anxious than ever. We could now hear them scratching frantically at the thinning walls; screeching and hissing like an army mounting the fr
ont lines, they readied themselves for battle.

  Time no longer stood still within the walls of this ice fortress and we were quickly running out of options, but then I had an idea.

  “I need your bonnet!” I called to Emily who was trying to maneuver herself onto the wall.

  “Huh?” she mumbled, looking back towards me.

  “I NEED YOUR BONNET!” I repeated. “Quick! You hang on to one of those long ribbon tie things, and throw me the other one. I have an idea.”

  The walls began to crack and rumble as the demons rammed their bodies into the ice, quickening their freedom. Wrapping the sand-stained silk ribbon around my wrist, I told Emily to do the same with the other and we dropped the bonnet down towards Justin. He grabbed onto it and within seconds he had scaled the wall and swung his legs up and over the truss.

  “You’re a freaking monkey!” I grinned, grateful he had made it out of the room.

  But before we had a chance to celebrate our victorious escape, a long screech of cracking ice shot down the length of the truss we were sitting on.

  “JUMP!” hollered Justin.

  All three of us jumped down to the sand outside the crumbling castle, as a loud ‘SMASH’ from the collapsing beams shook what remained of the melting walls.

  “To the storm!” said Yeri, “It our only chance.”

  Not stopping to catch my breath, I ran across the open circle towards the wall of pelting sand. I was covered in blotches of dirty wet sand, but was already feeling more like myself the further I got from the castle that had so entranced me.

  The pounding of my heart had climbed up into my head and the only other sound I heard came from Justin’s spongy wet sneakers that mucked in the sand with every stride.

  “They’re coming!” I heard Emily yell from behind.

  I glanced back to see a dark cloud of black-winged creatures flying for us.

  “We’ve got to make it to the storm,” I said, shifting the goggles from around my neck to up over my eyes again.

  “This is gonna hurt!” shouted Justin, as he covered his nose and mouth with the piece of cloth he still had tied around his neck.