Northern Lights, Southern Stars

by C. S. Johnson

  “The guards have already left,” Enri says. His tone is suddenly much harsher. He points down the road, where I can see the dust kick up from their heels as they run in formation.

  “Thank you.” I look back at Alfonse, who is watching Enri, almost as if he is waiting for some kind of signal.

  “I think I will continue organizing our collection,” I say slowly, before sinking back into the carriage. I glance around to see if there is any way I can lock the doors, but there is not.

  I swallow hard, suddenly nervous.

  I don’t know why I feel so strange, but there’s something pressing on me, like the reverse of a prayer, and it’s telling me I need to get out of there.

  “Is that you, God?” I whisper quietly, wondering if I am being overly sensitive or if there really is something wrong here.

  “Let’s get this done, Alfonse.”

  Enri’s voice is menacing this time, and I am suddenly sure: something is not right. I decide not to take any chances.

  Hurriedly, I make a plan. I gather up the herbs and stuff them into the small pockets I have underneath my voluminous skirts.

  “Princess?”

  Enri is knocking on the door, and looking at me.

  “What is it?” I ask, trying to keep the trembling out of my voice.

  “Perhaps you would like to walk back to the previous farm? It looks like rain.”

  “We can do that.”

  Before Enri can stop me, I jump out of the carriage from the other side, and I start running back the way we came. My shoes don’t help me, and I nearly trip a few times before I find a good running rhythm.

  “Princess!” Enri’s anger is much more evident, and I don’t bother to reply; I could call back, telling him I need to find a chamber pot, or that I’m feeling sick. There are any number of lies I could say, but to be on the safe side, I hold off. I was planning on saying something about worrying about the rain, which I had been concerned about earlier, but then I hear Alfonse.

  “She knows!” Alfonse says. “Get her, quick! Before we miss our chance to kill her.”

  Kill me?

  “Oh, do shut your mouth, Alfonse,” Enri snaps, and my fears are confirmed.

  Why would they want to kill me?

  I already know the answer as I head back to the Orchard.

  All the little annoyances and threats I’d felt these past weeks since Rion’s departure were not merely passive-aggressive forms of torture. The Queen wanted me dead, and now she’s sent her most trusted men to take care of me.

  She’d agreed to let Rion marry me because she knew it would never come to pass.

  They are now both running behind me. Thankfully, years of gluttony and slothfulness in the Queen’s court have slowed them down, but I know I have to think quickly if I am going to survive. There’s no way I can outrun them forever, and I don’t know if the farmer from the previous stop will hide me or not.

  Behind me, I hear a small cry, and I turn back just in time to see Enri tumble down onto the dirty road, hitting it hard. There’s a large dust cloud that flowers up around him. Alfonse coughs on the dust, while Enri begins to wail in pain.

  I can’t even feel sorry for him as I focus on running away.

  “Get her!” Enri shouts at Alfonse. “The Queen won’t accept failure.”

  Earlier, I’d thought it was nice that Alfonse was younger; he didn’t seem as cynical or bitter, and his life hadn’t been ruined by his relentless pursuit of pleasures as his brother’s had. But I regret thinking anything positive as Alfonse catches up to me.

  “Got you!” He grabs my cloak as it flutters behind me.

  I hurry to unlatch it from me, just as he pulls back on the fabric. I feel the fabric press against my throat, and I start to gasp as tears swell up in my eyes; to my shame, I am not crying over my own view of dust from the road, but from choking fear and desperate sadness. I am already slowing down; my dress is too heavy for me to wear as I run, and as I feel the first drops of a rainstorm, I know things will only get worse.

  Alfonse recovers more quickly than I’d like, and lunges at me again.

  “Come here, you little brat,” he snaps.

  “No!” I duck off to the side of the road, hoping it will be easier to lose my predators in the woods.

  My hope is all folly.

  The second I manage to sneak into the Orchard woods, my hair gets caught on a branch.

  “Oh, no,” I whisper, grabbing at my hair and tugging it, trying to get it free. Several strands snap, but others twist more deeply into the wooden crevices. My headscarf, which I’d worn as a mark of pride, is also caught.

  “I’ll get you yet!”

  Alfonse’s snarl makes me yelp with fear, and I have to breathe deeply as I force my hands to unwind the scarf and my captured hair from the branch.

  Just as I break free, Alfonse appears. I let the branch snap back into place.

  “Ouch!”

  I try not to make any noise as the branch hits Alfonse in the face, allowing me another moment to make a run for it.

  I trip and fall forward, and I’m unlucky enough at this point to end up rolling down a hill.

  As I roll down the hill, surprised by the steepness; I try not to scream, even after finding myself unable to stop. I hope that Enri and Alfonse aren’t able to find me.

  I splash into a small pond at the foot of the hill. Wildly, I flap my arms around.

  “Help—” I start to scream before I remember that the only people who are likely going to hear me are the least interested in helping me.

  I shut my mouth. Seconds later, I realize I am able to stand up in the water, and I slowly creep onto the shore.

  Now that my skirts are wet, and there’s a telltale pain in my leg, I know I am in more danger than ever.

  What am I going to do?

  “This way! I heard something over here!” Enri’s voice is loud and stark.

  “Come on, help me,” I whisper. Surely God wouldn’t have gone through all that trouble to make me move out of the carriage just to let me die while I’m trying to finish getting away.

  My knee stings wildly, and I sigh, pulling up my petticoats to see the damage.

  There’s a blistering mark from where my knee has, most likely, hit something on my way down to the pond. Seeing no other choice, I hurry to tear off strips from my outer petticoat.

  That is when inspiration strikes, and I have an idea.

  The petticoats.

  It’s hard for me to do it without a maid to help me, but I pull at my outer petticoat. Once the snaps are free, I throw it back down into the pond, and begin to walk as quickly but as quietly as possible, listening for signs of Alfonse and Enri along the way.

  With my headscarf already gone, and now the top skirt of my dress, I can only hope that the men will think I drowned in the pond.

  My skirt is already sinking nicely; not too fast, not too slow, and Alfonse and Enri are getting held up as they argue with each other.

  I slip through the rows of trees, further distancing myself from them.

  Quickly, I glance back as I hear a splash of water.

  I should’ve been watching where I was going instead. My leg trips on another fallen branch, and then I find myself falling once more.

  This time, rather than down a hill, I fall into a dirt pit.

  “Oof!”

  I hurriedly cover my mouth, hoping that Alfonse and Enri haven’t heard me. I glance around, confused.

  What is a hole like this doing out here?

  Is it possible I’ve fallen into an empty grave? Or a hole that had been dug for a new tree?

  It might have even been a trap for servants or larger prey. I am able to recall plenty of information about that from both the Maruli and Pommierian history instruction I’d had.

  Before I can speculate too much, I hear Enri’s voice again.

  “Well, that’s good she’s gone,” Enri says. “I’ll take the Queen her headscarf as a token.”

  �
�The Queen won’t see it as proof,” Alfonse argues.

  “Do you want to jump into the water and try to drag out the corpse?”

  Enri and Alfonse continue to dispute their ideas as I remain still, keeping as silent as possible. My head drops onto my chest; I am grateful they think I am dead, but I don’t like that they have my headscarf. It was the green and gold one I’d worn when Rion and I met in the High Tower, and it is marked with the colors of my country. It deserves a better fate.

  Of course, I remind myself, so do I.

  “The Queen won’t need to worry about her anymore.”

  “And neither will we,” Alfonse agrees. “Unless, of course, the Prince decides—”

  “Prince Rion won’t do anything. Didn’t you see how he looked at her?” Enri scoffs. “He’d go hang the moon for Ebony. And he’s pretty much hanged himself, given that he’s stepped into the Queen’s arrangement with the Mopana.”

  I have to thrust my fist into my mouth not to make any noise, but tears run down my face at last, now that I am unable to move or run away.

  “It’s for the best,” Alfonse says. “No one really wants a world where the Maruli and Pommierians mix blood. Pomarulians are ugly creatures.”

  Pomarulians?

  “I certainly wouldn’t accept their children as my future rulers,” Enri says. “I am still hoping that the Queen will agree to marry me. She still has her monthly courses, despite her advanced age.”

  “I’d accept a mixed-blood ruler before your children.” Alfonse huffs, and then the two of them begin to walk further away. The last echoes of their voices fade to nothingness.

  Before I can praise God for his providence and deliverance, it begins to rain.

  The sky crackles with thunder and zings with lightning, and the rain seems to spit at me, as I stand there, in a hole in the ground, one step above being dead.

  I can’t help it anymore; I start to wail and cry out with the storm, as everything hits me.

  The Queen has been setting me up for weeks. She never meant for me to actually get married to Rion. She’d been planning this since Rion managed to arrange our engagement. Queen Varyes had even worked hard to create the illusion that she had reformed herself, and that things were different now.

  But she still hates me.

  Of course, some things are different now.

  Now, I don’t have Rion. I don’t have a way home. I don’t even have a home!

  There’s no place for me to go, and even if there was, there’s no way I can get out of this pit.

  All of this was for nothing, nothing ...

  I sink to my knees, sinking my remaining petticoat into the worm-infested mud while the rain puddles into the small divots of the pit I am in. I curl my arms around myself, trying to keep from freezing. My pockets are still full of the medicine and herbs I’d been given earlier, but it looks like, between the rain and the exposure to the elements, it will all be ruined.

  Just like everything else. A new flood of tears overcomes me as I realize I have no idea what to do. I’m lost and alone, and everything is more terrifying and uncertain than ever.

  So much for being strong.

  My promise to Rion is nothing now. I am nothing now. All the light around me has been extinguished, and even the lightning from the storm is more menace than comfort.

  As the storm rages on through the night, I can only follow after it with my own sadness.

  *17*

  Varyes

  THE RAIN USUALLY MAKES me happy, but not tonight.

  Tonight, there’s only one thing that will make me happy, and I won’t rest until I get it.

  I glare back at my mirror, frowning even further when Horatio fails to appear before I call him. In that moment, waiting for him, I get a good look at my reflection.

  There are lines that crinkle at my eyes, giving me a hawkish glare. This close to the dark, my hair is brightening from its golden blonde into the silver-white of an old hag.

  Hortensia has long since retired for the evening, and, in some ways, I envy her. It must be so easy to live the life of a glorified peasant in my kingdom. If she didn’t have any magical skills, she wouldn’t have to worry about serving me at all.

  But she doesn’t have the people’s hearts to lose as I do, and, while my son might’ve said she’d lost her soul, life didn’t cause her to lose her heart, either.

  Horatio comes into his mirror, just as I consider putting on more of Hortensia’s beauty elixir.

  “Good evening, Majesty,” he says, bowing his head down to me. Since our last talk, I’ve noticed he is a little more distant than usual.

  Serves him right, really. He had the chance to have a good life, but he wasted it. He choose not to love me as I’d wanted him to, and now he’s sealed his fate. He is a speciavo, and that is that.

  The sooner he gets over it, the sooner he will feel better about all of it.

  “Well?” I put my hands on my hips. “What news do you have?”

  “Your men are on their way up to see you,” Horatio says. “I saw them enter into the palace just a few moments ago.”

  “Is that all?”

  Horatio shrugs. “I do not know what they will tell you, Queen Varyes. I only know they are coming.”

  “You didn’t hear them say anything about whether or not Ebony was dead, then?”

  “If I knew, I would tell you,” Horatio says. “Indeed, it’s part of the curse that Hortensia and her ilk have added to my existence. We are not allowed to lie to our masters.”

  Before I can tell Horatio to stop treating me like a fool, there’s a knock at the door.

  “Come in,” I call.

  One of the guards posted before my room opens the door, and Enri and Alfonse approach me.

  Both of them move to bow.

  “Your Majesty,” Alfonse greets, but I snap my fingers.

  “That’s enough,” I say. “We will forget the formalities today. Just tell me about the casualties—if there are any to report at all.”

  Enri and Alfonse hurriedly stand to attention. Alfonse reaches into his pocket and pulls out a disgusting, familiar-looking scarf, while Enri only smiles at me.

  “We are proud to say we have taken care of your princess concerns,” Enri says.

  “Tell me what happened. Everything.”

  I don’t touch the scarf, but I nod to Alfonse, who puts it down on a small table. I will need to make sure that Rion sees it. When his grief is complete, I will be better able to manipulate him.

  Enri entertains me with the story of what happened. I can see it all happen as he describes it.

  Ebony, after a long day on the road, is left alone by her guards. She is unconcerned at first, but then as Alfonse and Enri confront her, she is terrified. She runs away and falls off a small cliff, right into a pond, where her gown drags her down to the bottom. Slowly, she suffocates, each breath stretched out as her dark-skinned features are tinged with blue. Her heart starts to slow, her blood grows thick, and her mind is lost to this life as the water pulls her down—down, down, deeper and ever more slowly.

  “Ooh, I love it,” I say. “You two are to be commended.”

  “Thank you,” Enri says. “We weren’t able to recover the body—”

  “There’s no worry about that,” I say. “She’s gone.”

  I feel more alive than ever knowing she is dead. I feel like laughing; King Maru’s rejection of me was his error, and now I am alive to see the ugliness he’d caused in my soul to be repaid with his daughter’s flesh and blood.

  I want to look in the mirror at my reflection, to see if I look as young and carefree as I feel.

  But that will have to wait.

  Instead, I turn back to my audience. “Horatio, send out word to all the local aristocrats and the papers, too. Tell them there are suspects, there are people who hate her and the rest of the Maruli. Say anything that will stir up hate and force the Maruli to realize that no matter how much my little prince loves them, they will never be a
ccepted by Pommierian society.”

  “As you wish, Majesty.” Horatio blinks out of the mirror, and then I turn to Enri and Alfonse.

  “Now, you two must go and help spread the word,” I say. “I’ve already sent the word to Rion to let him know of Ebony’s demise, so it’ll be best to give him a more detailed letter. Go and tell everyone in Pommier the news that the Princess of Marula is dead.”

  They bow and leave me to myself, even if I know Enri wants to talk more specifically about how he will be rewarded. The fool forgets that he lives and dies by my command, and even if he fulfills my wishes, my wishes will never truly be granted.

  I will have to break the news to him that he’ll be allowed to keep his miserable existence later. I am too happy, too overwhelmingly joyful, to do anything but laugh and cheer at the demise of my greatest adversary.

  *18*

  Ebony

  AT SOME POINT THROUGHOUT the night, despite the cold, the wet, and the hopelessness of everything, I somehow manage to curl up and go to sleep.

  I don’t even realize this has happened until the morning comes, and I can see a small light peeking out from the top of the pit.

  The rain has stopped, and the light is very bright; in the last several years of my life especially, I don’t remember ever sleeping outside.

  I can hear some of the birds chirping, and some bugs have even come to crawl on my skin and buzz in my face. I reluctantly smile at this, knowing that if Enri and Alfonse had followed through on the Queen’s orders properly, I would be dead.

  I look down at myself and sigh. While I am more rested, it is a tired sort of rest, where my cares and concerns have continuously crushed me throughout the night.

  I look up at the sky. “Well, Lord,” I pray aloud. “What do we do now?”

  There’s no clear, immediate answer, and I shake my head.

  My prayers didn’t seem to be answered of late, and, when I ask for help, things only seem to get worse.

  I fiddle with my remaining petticoats. My slip and other undergarments are still mostly intact, despite the muddy water of the pit I’m in. Even my pockets, with the pouches of medicine, are largely all right, although they will need some time to dry out.