Andrew’s stomach twisted. All these fawning girls had only served to remind him of why he was so reluctant to meet her. Girls just intimidated him. He hoped they would reach Abraham’s castle soon, though he feared that there might be more girls there.
At the last village where they stopped, it got so bad that Andrew actually stepped outside the inn in an attempt to hide.
“So, you’re the Fire Prince.”
Andrew turned to see the possessor of the thick-accented voice, a young man of about his age. There wasn’t much light outside, however, so he couldn’t tell that much more about his appearance. There was something familiar about him, though, that he couldn’t quite put his finger on.
“Uh, yes, I am,” Andrew admitted. “How’d you know?”
“The sword was a dead giveaway,” said the young man. “That and the commotion going on inside. We’ve been waiting for you a long time, you know.”
Andrew swallowed and nodded. “I’ve gathered. I just wish that I had been given similar time to prepare.”
“No one is ever truly ready for what is thrust upon them. You must take the plunge, and swim or drown as you can.”
Andrew swallowed. “Who are you?”
“I wish I could say a friend, but in these troubling times, the word can be hard to apply,” the man answered. “I wish I could tell you, but for now, I think you would rather not know.”
“Are you one of those elves, like Dular … or more like that Laura?”
“An elf?” the young man repeated. “No, I cannot say that I belong to their favored race. As for Laura, I can say that I know her – well, even – but I am not like her. While she has the freedom to live her life here and there and out of order, leaving when it’s too painful to bear, I must plod through in a steady line, hoping for the day when things might grow better, but fearing that they won’t.”
Andrew’s jaw tightened. He didn’t like the riddles that this man spoke in, but he didn’t seem dangerous. “Well, that’s why I’m here, it seems,” he said at last. “To get rid of Amber and bring in a brighter day.”
The young man was silent for several minutes. “I come with a warning, Fire Prince.”
“From Laura?”
“In part.” Silence again for a few seconds. “And in part from myself. Be careful Fire Prince. Amber is old, with many tricks; she has had time to collect many powers. Don’t trust too strongly in your title, for you will find that it’ll fail you, and the people who look up to you. Look to Alphego. He’s the one who has promised you victory, and He will be the one who delivers it.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“How good are you with that sword?”
Andrew fingered the hilt of his sword and shrugged. “I’m still learning,” he admitted. “But I’m better than I was.”
“Keep learning, keep improving,” the man instructed him. “Amber has had many thousands of years to perfect her skills. You have only a few weeks. However, one thing you might find encouraging – it is not your place to kill her.”
“Oh,” said Andrew, not sure that he found that encouraging at all. “So, that’s for the Water Princess, I guess.” The poor girl.
“No, for the Tela Du. And she will not come to Rizkaland for another thousand years yet. What you are needed to do is to banish Amber back to her island, where she can no longer plague these people of Klarand.”
Now that he mentioned it, Andrew had heard the term Tela Du in one of Abraham’s stories. Again, poor girl.
“But how will that hold her? If she’s a dragon, can’t she just fly off again?”
“Alphego created that island specifically to hold her. There is a guise on that land so that, once you set foot there, you cannot leave again for another five hundred years. Twice she has been banished there, once at Alphego’s Word, and again at Laura’s trickery. You will not be able to do it the same way the Doorkeeper did it, for Amber trusted her, and she doesn’t trust you. You will have to find another way. However, when she sets foot on the island a third time, it will hold her for a thousand years.”
“Right.” Andrew swallowed. “Sounds easy.”
“It will not be easy, but it is what you must do. Trust Alphego, and he will guide you to your victory.”
And with that, the man placed a fist over his heart and bowed deeply, the same as Dular had done a few days before. Then he turned and walked away, sending a spine-chilling glare over his shoulder when Andrew tried to follow.
Shuddering, he realized that it was still cold, so he headed back inside.
Fortunately, a few minutes later, Abraham announced that it was time for them to turn in for the night.
The next day, they arrived at Abraham’s castle, which didn’t resemble a castle so much as a large, sprawling manor house. Only Rhodan, Azhen, and Azhen’s brother, Gad, were still with them. A group of people met them at the gates, including Lady Winona, Lord Abraham’s wife, who seemed quite happy to see him and Karlos again. To be frank, were it not for Karlos’ confession, Andrew would have never guessed that she wasn’t the boy’s true mother.
Much to-do was made over Andrew, as there had been at all of the villages. To his relief, however, the girls in this castle seemed to hold themselves to a higher level of decorum or understand the Water Princess thing better, since he had very few try to flirt with him.
Truth be told, Andrew soon decided that he wouldn’t mind just staying here, had he been given the option. There was a large library, where he spent most of his free time, containing not only much of Rizkaland’s history, in the form of Legends, but also a number of books about the science of Rizkaland itself, explaining how it worked.
According to Abraham, most of these books had been written by Prince Theodore, the original ruler of Lower Klarand, who had chosen intelligence when Alphego gave skills to the Ten of Klarand.
Andrew wished he’d been given these books sooner, since now the world actually made sense, such as why the leaves were all sorts of crazy colors. Apparently, chlorophyll worked backward here, staying colorless as long as it was alive. Not until it died did it release the green pigmentation that colored the leaves of his own world.
Spelling was a bit of a deterrent for reading since there were many words spelled differently (the chief culprits being words containing c), but he soon got used to it, especially since he was used to those misspellings cropping up in his dad’s writing. Theodore’s books, since he’d come from earth, like Andrew did, sometimes slipped up and used proper spelling as Andrew recognized it, especially in the early works.
Karlos was eager to show Andrew every room, corridor, and secret passage in the castle. Andrew let the boy lead him around since it made the boy feel useful.
Another perk to the castle was the bed he was given. After several weeks of sleeping on the hard ground, Andrew had found the straw mattresses at the inns amazing, but they didn’t even begin to compare to the feathery comfort and velvety warmth of this bed. It was also enormous, bigger than he thought he deserved. That was royalty, apparently. Big beds.
He told himself to not get used to it, since he’d be back traveling again shortly, on his way to the Kastle.
Clothing was also a change since he was no longer allowed to wear the jeans and t-shirts he had brought with him from his own world, though he kept them for when he resumed travel again. He actually looked like a Klarandish noble now. He wasn’t sure he liked it.
One day, he woke up to find that all of the snow, which was of a purplish tint in this area, had melted overnight. Apparently, today was the first day of spring and Steven’s month, named for the original prince of Wea Klarand, which is what they called the western side of Klarand.
Here in Rizkaland, the shifting between the seasons happened more suddenly and occurred on the first of the month, rather than towards the end. The explanation Prince Theodore had given in his book on that subject was that it was caused by winds coming up from the bottom of the cylinder, since the world of Rizkaland didn’t
move like earth did, but sat in some sort of fiery pool. That was where the Firefall came from. Winter was brought by downward winds.
They waited another week for the land to dry out, since all of that snow melting instantly made for a lot of puddles, and then he and Abraham started out towards the Kastle, just the two of them. Amber, apparently, guarded the forest that formed the borders of Lower Klarand quite fiercely, and they were more likely to slip past with a small party.
This time, however, they had horses to ride since they had a much farther distance to cover. Andrew much preferred this arrangement. His best friend’s mom trained horses, and Andrew and his brothers spent time at her house whenever they weren’t gallivanting across the world with their dad, so he wasn’t half-bad when it came to riding.
Since they were keeping a lower profile this time and they didn’t have anyone with them to spread stories of heroism that Andrew didn’t do, he had far less trouble with girls when they stopped that night.
It was the next morning when they discovered that Karlos had followed them astride his own spotted pony. Abraham was not happy with this. Apparently, it was okay for him to follow them to the hunting grounds, but not on a dangerous mission into the heart of Amber’s territory. However, Abraham couldn’t find anyone to escort the boy home, so they had to continue on with him.
Part 3
The
MOUNTAIN
It was in Jenna’s month they met, at the foot of the mountain, in the woods made nasty by the Dragon’s magic. In dreams and riddles, Alphego led them through the mountain, as they forged the foundation of their love.
Chapter 1
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the most exciting of times, it was the most boring of times. It was the most peaceful of times, it was the scariest of times. When is the Fire Prince going to get here?”
Clara threw a rock at the cliff face of the Mountain to punctuate her speech.
“You should have patience, Water Princess,” said Jill Anna, who was sitting nearby, working at a bit of sewing. “Unlike us, the Fire Prince will have to make his way through the woods that form Lower Klarand’s border, and they are treacherous indeed, even in the best of days.” She glanced over her shoulder towards the line of trees behind them and shuddered slightly.
Clara did a backflip and then sat down sullenly at the base of the cliff. “Oh, I know that,” she said. “I’m just getting tired of waiting. What if he’s been captured or something like that? What if there is no Fire Prince?”
“If the prophecies speak of the Fire Prince, then there is one, just as assuredly as you are the Water Princess.”
Clara sighed. “Right. Okay. But he isn’t here. We can’t get into the Mountain until without him – at least, that’s how I understood Alith’s message. Any which way, he needs to be here.”
“He will come,” said Jill Anna. “But you need to have patience.”
“Patience! Yes, that’s what everyone keeps saying. Are you sure there aren’t any magical potions or something like that we could use to summon him? It’d be much better than just sitting here waiting around.”
“I suppose it would, Water Princess,” Jill Anna agreed. “But there are no potions for summoning the Fire Prince. I’m quite certain we would have used them years ago if there were.”
Clara sighed, hopped back to her feet, and started pacing. “Oh, well, worth a shot you know.”
“Although, there is something else that might work…” Jill Anna admitted, tilting her head to the side.
Clara perked up at that. “Really, what?”
Jill Anna shook her head. “It’s little more than an old story, and no one is certain it actually works, but I suppose that, as you put it, it’s worth a shot.”
“At the moment, I’m willing to try anything.”
“They say that if you sleep with a mistletoe muffin under your pillow,” Jill Anna explained, slowly, “you will meet the man you will marry sometime over the course of the next day.”
Up went Clara’s eyebrows as she searched for a reply to that. She really hated it when she was reminded of the relationship that she and the Fire Prince were going to have. “I suppose that would require us to have some of those mistletoe muffins. I don’t believe any of us here knows that special recipe.”
“Perhaps not,” said Jill Anna. “But I actually brought a small tin of them with us. There is one left, if you should care to use it.”
Okay, that excuse was gone. “So, are you sure it’ll work?” she asked. “I mean, have you ever tried it?”
“I will admit that I have,” said Jill Anna. “But I am not a good test subject, for I am not yet married, nor am I sure that I ever will be. The results from my attempts are, therefore … inconclusive. However, it is said that Lady Roxanne once did so, and the next afternoon, Lord Erik surprised Lower Klarand with an unexpected visit.”
Clara nodded slowly. “I guess that makes sense.” Then she paused and regarded the seamstress critically. “It’s Jakob, isn’t it?”
“Oh no, Water Princess,” said Jill Anna, with a shake of her head and a forced laugh. “If there is anything we know for certain about the Fire Prince, it is the fact that he is not a native of Klarand. There is no way it could be Lor’Son Jakob.”
Clara rolled her eyes. “No, the noble you like, whose name you refused to tell us. It’s Jakob.”
A blush spread across Jill Anna’s face. “I – it’s not my place, Water Princess.”
“I don’t think that matters,” said Clara. “I’ve been traveling with both of you for the past three weeks. I’ve seen you staring and sighing after him. So, tell me, how many times have you met with him after trying the mistletoe muffin thing?”
“Water Princess,” said Jill Anna, and Clara could hear her struggle to keep her voice even, “a mistletoe muffin does not necessarily lead you to whom you like, but to whom you’ll marry. I am of the lowest class, and he is heir to Upper Klarand. It is silly for me to even dream of the possibility.”
“You’re evading the question; that’s encouraging,” said Clara. “Okay, I’ll try it. What’s the worst that’ll happen? I end up with a smushed muffin under my pillow and no Fire Prince, am I right?”
“I … suppose so,” said Jill Anna. She looked like her mind was a thousand miles away.
“I’m going to go track down Jasmine and make sure she isn’t getting into trouble,” Clara decided, spinning around and marching away. Jill Anna clearly needed some downtime for a short while.
Andrew, Abraham, and Karlos left the horses behind at a stable before plunging into the forest. Andrew wasn’t pleased with that, but according to Abraham, the trees were so close in places that they would be hard-pressed to get through them, let alone the horses. Besides, they were trying to keep quiet so that they didn’t attract the attention of Amber’s minions.
They’d been weaving through the woods for days. Abraham said that it actually wasn’t a very wide forest, but tangled and twisted and hard to navigate even in the best of times. Amber’s presence had made it more treacherous, with traps of mud and worse to block their way, trees and thorns grown so close together there was no chance they could ever get through them, and not to mention the animals that had been made vicious by Amber’s magic.
Andrew wasn’t sure they were headed in the right direction anymore, but Abraham assured him that they were, though Andrew had no idea how he knew this. Andrew wished that this world had a magnetic field, since the lack of one rendered his compass useless. There were few gaps between the leaves above them, so it was hard to tell the direction by the sun.
“How far do you think we have left until we reach the Kastle?” Andrew asked as they sat down that evening to set up camp.
“It’s hard to tell,” Abraham replied. “No one has succeeded in crossing through these woods since Amber arrived. It’s difficult even in the best of days. These woods are Lower Klarand’s protection as well as prison.”
“We’ve got to be almost there.”
Andrew sighed as Karlos arrived with the small armload of sticks he’d been instructed to fetch.
“I didn’t meet with anything today,” Karlos announced, as he dumped the armload onto the ground. The night before, he’d come running back with a cat-like creature called the etrina on his trail. Andrew and Abraham had been able to dispatch it quickly enough, though, so it could have gone a lot worse.
“Good,” said Abraham, pulling out his flint and steel and beginning his attempt to start a fire. “And don’t worry, Fire Prince. I’m quite certain we’ll be meeting your Water Princess soon enough.”
“Yeah,” said Andrew. “And then Amber.”
“You’ll survive,” said Abraham. “Who knows, the Water Princess might be just as nervous about meeting you as you are her.”
“Yeah, there’s that possibility,” Andrew admitted. “Arranged marriages are a bit of a thing of the past in my world. And since she’s probably from there, too…” He opened up the food pack and frowned. There wasn’t much left.
“We could do some hunting tomorrow,” Abraham suggested.
Andrew glanced around. “In these woods?”
“There is wildlife beyond the predators,” Abraham assured him. “I spotted a few rikka just yesterday. Besides, what do you think the kirats and etrinas eat when we’re not here?”
“Right,” said Andrew.
“Sounds like fun,” Karlos piped up.
“You will be staying right here,” Abraham informed his son. “We’ll need someone to watch over the stuff since we’ll need to travel as lightly as we can.”
Andrew shared a glance with Abraham, then added, “And I’ll even leave one of my guns with you so that you don’t have to be afraid of anything in these woods.”
“I’m not afraid,” Karlos protested.
“Good,” said Andrew. “Then you’ll have no problems.”
Water Princess, Fire Prince Page 17
