by K. E. Drake
Shivering from both anticipation and the cold, she pulled her gray cloak tighter around herself and called to Samuel.
The prince appeared around the other side of the tower only seconds later. “Ruby? Are you all right?”
She excitedly gestured to the tower. “I found something!”
Samuel stopped beside her in front of the closed tower door. “You found it!” He stepped up to the tower and ran a hand over the black rock, searching.
“How are we going to get in?” Ruby asked the prince as he stooped over and examined a stone with a long, jagged crack that aligned with the hollow of the entrance.
“Where there’s a door, there’s a way to open it,” he absentmindedly muttered as he placed his palm against the fractured stone. It gave way slightly under the pressure, and he pushed the stone into the tower. A low rumble started within the tower, and he straightened, stepping back to Ruby’s side.
The fracture began to glow red as blood, and Ruby gasped and moved closer to the prince. The stream of red light moved from the fissure and the magical light quickly filled the hollow arch in the tower. The door itself began to glow with the eerie light and it pulled back, the stones scraping together as it slid off to the side and opened to an interior obscured by darkness.
“Oh, my goodness.” A chill crept down Ruby’s spine, and not from the cold. She fiddled with the tie of her cloak with gloved fingers, drawing in a stilling breath.
Samuel stepped up to the tower and studied the edge of the wide doorway. He leaned into the room, searching before he retrieved an unlit torch from the blackness. He cupped his hand over the top of the wood and gently blew on the top of it. A flickering of orange sparked under his hand as his skin tinged with a red glow. The spark caught and he withdrew his hand as the light slowly grew into a bright flame and then a crackling fire.
He held the torch high and turned back to Ruby. Her soft brown eyes were round as she looked from the now lit torch back up to him. “So that’s how you lit the torch up on the mountain,” she marveled.
Samuel chuckled to himself and indicated to the tower. “You don’t have to come in with me. You can wait for me out here, if it would make you feel better.”
“No,” Ruby rushed out, looking from the shadowy room of the tower to the barren land of white. I don’t want to be alone.
As if sensing her thoughts, Samuel offered her a smile and held his free hand out to her.
Ruby’s heart fluttered and she placed her fingers in his open palm. The tingling warmth enveloped her hand and quickly spread over her once more.
“Come on.” He gave her hand a gentle squeeze and together they stepped into the black room. The chill in the air grew more biting as they moved further into the inky blackness. The only light illuminating the cavernous space besides the white glow of the clearing was the flickering light of the torch.
The door rumbled back to life and slid against the inside of the tower with a sharp scrape. Ruby startled and spun to face the doorway as the portion of the wall began to slide shut. Gasping, she broke free of the prince’s grasp and rushed to the door, but it landed firmly back into place with a dull thud.
Samuel was at her side in a second. “Hey. Hey, it’s all right,” he soothed and placed a gentle hand on the side of her neck. The tenderness of his touch made her almost as jumpy as the cavernous space did.
“I’m fine,” her soft voice broke. She swallowed and inwardly scolded herself. Don’t be silly. You’re safe with him.
Samuel’s lips pursed together, but he reclaimed her hand, and they began to search the room by the light of the torch.
They moved around the vast space and soon discovered the base of a stone staircase. The torch cast light on the broad steps. They were pressed against the tower’s rounded inner walls and wound ever upward into the inky darkness above them.
The pair exchanged a look and then stepped onto the bottom of the staircase and began their ascension further and further up into the blackness.
Time passed them by, although hours or minutes, they didn’t know. Time became indiscernible as every second blurred together with every step they took. Eventually, they arrived at the top of the stairwell and came to a large, wooden platform. The torchlight glinted off the iron bolts and hinges on the wooden door a few steps ahead from the top of the staircase.
“Wait here.” Letting go of Ruby’s hand, Samuel approached the entrance and slowly eased it open. Late afternoon sunlight peeked from behind the gray clouds, spilling through the doorway and illuminating the darkened space. He looked back to Ruby and nodded for her to come forward, which she quickly did, returning to his side. They stepped into a bright room onto a gray floor and walked underneath a raised platform above the doorway.
They came out from under the platform and entered a large, comfortable sitting room, complete with a vaulted, dark-wood ceiling and a tall, shutterless window that stood directly across the area from the doorway. Flowers and wild animals were expertly carved on the window’s dark-brown, wooden sill. An open archway stood to the left of the sitting room and led to a homey looking kitchen.
Ruby looked around and saw a brick hearth which stood to the right of the sitting room. Within the fireplace was a pile of fresh firewood stacked atop a handful of scattered ashes. “It looks like someone lives here,” she whispered.
“But it’s empty,” Samuel reasoned, securing the torch in a mount on the wall. “For now.”
I don’t like this. I have a bad feeling. “Do you know where the Teryl Gem is?”
“It was said to be hidden somewhere in the top of the tower. I’ll go search these rooms.” Samuel walked up a short set of wooden stairs that started near the archway to the kitchen and ended at the platform above the doorway.
Not wanting to be left alone, Ruby scurried up the steps after the prince and stopped by the first of three open doorways, which he had gone into. It opened to a cozy library, and she watched as Samuel searched one of the four, ceiling high bookcases lining each side of the room. Their shelves were filled with worn books, glass trinkets, and marble bookends of replicas of lion heads and rearing horses. Three ivory-colored, high-backed chairs and a small side table were positioned under a smaller window at the end of the library.
Ruby glanced about the room once more before she curiously went to the second doorway. It opened to a small, empty nook with nothing in it but a spiral staircase that led to a square door in the ceiling. Hanging from the door was a steel lock that held the door securely closed.
She briefly entertained the idea of going up and searching the unknown room, but she shook her head as she thought better of it. It’s locked anyway. She moved and came to the third and last doorway at the platform. The entrance opened to a bedroom that was decorated with rich colors of rose-red, glittering gold, and sparkling black. A wide canopy bed covered with a red and gold swirl comforter sat across from a stone fireplace.
Ruby stepped into the spacious room, brushing her fingers over a golden swirl on the red comforter of the bed as she passed. A floor-length mirror stood in the corner next to the fireplace, and a mahogany wardrobe was near the mirror.
Going to the delicately carved wardrobe, Ruby lightly grasped the flourished, golden handles and pulled the doors open, causing the silk skirts of over a dozen fine gowns to sway in the sudden breeze. Her mouth fell open and tentatively she reached out to brush her gloved fingers over the delicate lace on the skirt of a costly looking green-silk gown.
Ruby glanced up and gasped. A golden crown encrusted with jewels rested on a single shelf at the top of the wardrobe. She slowly reached her hand to the delicate crown.
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” Samuel sounded perplexed as he entered the room.
Ruby startled and snatched her hand back before her fingers touched the shining circlet. She spun around to face the prince as he leaned against one of the bed’s bottom posts. He crossed his arms and frowned, troubled. “What about you? Find anything?”
&nb
sp; “Nothing,” Ruby shook her head and shut the wardrobe doors with a soft click. Dismissing the questions that flittered through her mind, she looked back to Samuel to see him tilting his head at her. She frowned curiously at him and her heart began to beat unevenly as one side of his mouth turned up in a half grin. “Is something wrong?”
“No. I was just... thinking,” he explained, though still smiling.
Ruby wrapped her arms around her stomach as it fluttered, and she looked to the fireplace to distract herself. Something amiss there caught her attention and she paused. She scurried to the hearth and plopped down beside it, tugging on a brick that jutted just slightly further out than the rest of the stones.
“What did you find?” Samuel asked, coming to stand with Ruby just as she freed the stone and set it aside.
She reached into a small opening hidden behind the stones and pulled a small, ornate, dark-wood box. “I’m not quite sure, but…” She trailed off as she lifted the lid and then exclaimed. Resting in the center of a dark-purple pillow tucked inside the box was a small, glimmering gem of pale-purple.
“Ruby, you found it!” Samuel knelt down beside her and studied the glimmering gem.
Grinning, he looked back to Ruby and then paused, his eyes searching her face. His smile softened and he carefully brought his hand up to brush the back of his fingers over her cheek. Their eyes locked, and he leaned forward just slightly. Her eyes drifted shut, and their lips almost touched before a door slammed in the distance, causing them to jump apart and whirl towards the open doorway.
A pair of footsteps echoed nearby and drew nearer as they moved up the stairs onto the platform.
“Put everything back the way it looked before,” Samuel instructed in a rushed whisper. He went silently to the front of the room and listened at the doorway.
Meanwhile, Ruby quickly plucked the Teryl Gem from its resting place and replaced the box and brick the way they were. She placed the gem securely in the satchel with the other jewel and quietly hurried to Samuel’s side, her heart pounding so loudly she was sure he could hear it.
Samuel peered around the doorframe and saw a figure disappear into the library. “Come on.” He took Ruby’s hand and they soundlessly slipped out of the bedroom. Staying close to the wall, the pair went past the room with the staircase and stopped just outside the first doorway, peeking inside.
A tall woman with long, golden hair muttered something under her breath while she moved from one bookshelf to another, searching. While the woman had her back turned to them, they slipped past the doorway and rushed down the stairs into the sitting room. Samuel pulled Ruby under the platform near the door they had first come through.
Footsteps sounded above them as the woman had exited the library and entered the second room. The clicks of her heeled shoes grew more distant as she made her way up the spiral staircase. The sound of the latch unlocking could be heard, followed by the ceiling door being opened and then shut again. Then there was silence.
Ruby glanced at the entrance behind them. “Are we going back out that door?”
Samuel shook his head. “It’s too risky. Even if we don’t get caught leaving, I don’t know how to open the door from the inside.”
Ruby’s heart lurched. “Then how will we get out?”
Samuel looked across the room and then leaned in closer to her, his emerald eyes glinting with a hint of mischievous excitement. “Do you trust me?”
She looked into his eyes and answered honestly. “Yes.”
“Then do as I say.”
When Ruby nodded, Samuel pulled her out from under the platform and across the room to the window. He looked outside to the ground far, far below and then back to her. “Grab onto me.”
“What?” Ruby squeaked. The door in the nearby room closed again and footsteps sounded on the staircase.
“Grab onto me,” Samuel repeated, turning his back to her and waiting.
Ruby hesitated for a moment, but the footfalls grew louder. She stepped up to the prince, lifting herself onto her toes and wrapping her arms around his neck.
“Whatever you do, don’t let go,” Samuel warned. He placed his hands flat on the windowsill and then jumped out of the tower.
Ruby tightened her arms around him and buried her face against his shoulder as her stomach dropped and the roaring wind rushed past her ears.
Samuel spread his arms straight out and a resounding crack echoed over the rushing wind. She squeezed her eyes shut, and they swept upward, suddenly in flight.
When she willed her eyes to open, Ruby was met with the sight of shining, emerald-like dragon scales. She glanced up in time to see Samuel’s wings flap with a single, strong beat, drawing them higher towards the snowing, gray clouds.
She looked to the snowy ground and the forest of bare trees spread out before them and couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up in her throat. She turned to see the dark tower behind them, watching it shrink from view as they flew further and further away.
Princes and dragons and soaring above the trees without fear... I feel as though I’m dreaming. If I am, I’m going to enjoy every minute of it!
Chapter Ten
The Glendower Falls
Ruby rested comfortably upon the dragon’s back as they flew, the light of the sun shining on the blanket of gray clouds far beneath them, causing them to glimmer with hues of gold and blue.
Ruby could feel the powerful beat of Samuel’s wings slow, and they steadily descended until they sank through the clouds that were now breaking up. She inched up on the dragon’s neck to peek over the edge and could see they now flew over a thick forest. The trees were in full bloom and there wasn’t a trace of snow on the ground. The dragon prince descended to the forest and lightly landed in a long clearing between two rows of trees where the woodland began. A towering waterfall poured crystal clear water into a deep river that stretched and rushed downstream for miles.
Samuel laid his long neck onto the blue-green grass and waited as Ruby pushed herself up from his back. She crawled over the textured scales to his shoulder and slid off, barely landing on her feet when she hit the ground. She straightened up and then turned to the massive dragon, taking a few steps back as he began to change back to his human form.
Samuel lifted his head from the ground and his entire body convulsed as he began to shrink down. He drew his long wings in against himself even as they and the emerald scales covering him began to fade away. His dragon form shrank into itself and the young prince stood a few paces in front of Ruby, once again in his fine clothes and emerald, dragonscale coat.
“That was close.” She smiled brightly in spite of her words.
“Too close.” Though Samuel’s tone was serious, a sparkle gleamed in his eyes.
“Who was she? That woman?”
The prince unbuttoned the top of his coat, tugging the fabric away from his throat. “I’m not sure, but she reeked of dark magic.” He paused then and watched Ruby with a furrowed brow. He came up to her and moved her cloak aside to run his warm hand down her arm. “Are you all right? I didn’t scare you, did I?”
“No. No, it was amazing,” Ruby confessed, beaming, though a bit off balance by his closeness. She averted her gaze and distracted herself by tugging her leather gloves from her hands.
Nodding, Samuel released the breath he had been holding and pulled his hand away.
Tucking her gloves in the pocket of her skirt, she turned her attention to the roaring river. The crystal clear surface of the water glittered with hints of silver as it rushed downstream where the long waterway disappeared into the forest. This land is beautiful. “Where are we?”
“Glendower.”
Ruby’s eyes went wide, and she took a second look over the lush, full forest. “Glendower? The kingdom King Cassius ruled over?”
Samuel chuckled warmly at her sweet look of surprise. “Yes. What did you expect? Something more desolate?”
She looked down at the blue-green grass and nodded sheepish
ly.
“Being under a sorcerer’s rule, it does seem logical. While Cassius depleted the funds and ruled over the people with an iron fist, the land was left relatively untouched.” Samuel gestured to the forest surrounding them. “This is the place where the map showed the Lewana Crystal to be.”
Ruby practically hopped in place. “Where is the crystal hidden?”
Samuel leaned into her and once again clasped her hand in his. “Just beyond the falls.”
Her brow scrunched at him. “What?”
He didn’t answer as he turned and pulled her toward the pure, shimmering waterfall. As they passed, a rustling in the nearby forest caught Ruby’s attention and her head snapped to inspect the foliage, but saw nothing. Probably just a small animal, she thought, dismissing the noise as she and Samuel stopped at the foot of a smooth, soaked stone at the side of the pouring waterfall.
He stepped up onto the first rock and led her carefully up a path of stones winding their way around and behind the roaring waterfall. He stopped when they came onto a larger stone more like a boulder completely behind the falls. Their clothing was now damp with the icy cold mist that sprayed over them.
The boulder dropped off suddenly to a cave of sorts several feet below them with no way to get down there.
Ruby peered at the space below. “What do we do now?” she asked over the roar of the waterfall, then gasped when Samuel effortlessly swept her up into his arms. She clasped her arms around his neck and her face burned against his shoulder as his chest rumbled with a low chuckle.
“Just hold on to me.” Samuel jumped off the rock, and Ruby yelped and tightened her hold around his neck as they fell almost as if they were floating. He landed smoothly on his feet on the uneven, slick base of the wide, domed cavern. “Here we are,” he said, gently setting Ruby back on her feet.
