CHAPTER TWO
The River
I gripped the staircase, pulling my tired body up the stairs. I walked to the glass room Keatin had shown me last night. When I entered a hush fell across the room and everyone stood. I was used to striving to remain unnoticed, a servant. I straightened, and attempted to walk as gracefully as Althina. When I reached my table Keatin bowed and pulled out my chair at the head. I sat, then everyone else sat as well. Klithin, Althina, and Keatin sat around a round table. I picked up my fork and began eating. Chani reached over and squeezed my hand for a moment. Her eyes met mine and she nodded. I let out the breathe I’d been holding.
“When we have finished, I think we should give our Queen a tour. Perhaps we could begin with the stables,” Althina said, and looked at me.
“That sounds wonderful,” I replied. I caught Keatin’s eye across the table, and he smiled at me before continuing to eat his breakfast.
After we finished eating, we made our way towards the stables. When we reached the bottom of the staircase, we turned left onto one of the paths and walked through the forest. When we reached the stables, I was in awe. Moss covered roots curled up creating a dome. They connected to a tree that was in the center of the structure. A big tuft of green sprouted from the top, and shaded it all. It reminded me of garlic.
“Come; you must see the horses,” Keatin said. I could see Chani watching my face from the corner of my eye. I followed him into the stables where I stopped just over the threshold. Keatin turned around and smiled at what I am sure had to have been a very abnormal and silly expression on my face.
“I’m speechless,” I said. There had to have been at least two hundred stalls, half of which were filled with silver horses. They seemed to be made entirely out of pure silver, graceful, and sleek. However, much like skin and fur the silver shifted and twitched, fluid, as the animals moved.
“Would you like to ride one?” Keatin asked. I hesitated, it was all so surreal. I looked to Chani, she smiled her eyes twinkling. This is the world she grew up in, the world I should have grown up in. How normal it must be for her.
“Come,” he said, and lifted me onto the nearest horse. “Do you know what's most magical about these horses?” He asked.
“Besides what they look like?”
“They take you wherever you truly want to go, even if you don't know where that is.” I barely had time to grab onto the reigns, before we shot off through the forest. It was as if my breath had been swept away. I wrapped my hands in the reigns and clasped them around the horses neck. My whole body held on to the horse so tight I doubted anything could pull me off. The trees flew past too fast for me to even register their shape and all of their colors. Everything just blurred into one. At last, the horse slowed, and everything became clear again. Where had he taken me? Where had I wanted to go? I looked around. The trees were made of a shining glass. They all curved and made a long archway over a purple stream. Purple? I rubbed my eyes. Yes a creamy shade of purple, just darker than violet. A mist hovered over the stream, and images floated along it. They were of my childhood wishes. When I was five and had wanted to be a princess, when I was ten and had wanted to be a soldier which was a particularly ambitious dream, women aren’t aloud in the King’s guard. There was only one image that I could see now. It showed me with my imagined mother and father, we were curled together in front of a blazing fire. My head was in my mother’s lap and she was stroking my hair, I had a book in my hand but we were all laughing. My throat tightened. I could hear a sound that seemed to come from the river. I strained my ears so that I might hear it better. A quiet voice that sounded like little bells grew louder, yet I still couldn’t make out the words. A snap of a twig echoed in the air. My focus fell in shreds around me, and I just about jumped out of my skin.
“It's interesting that she took you here.” Klithin said, and emerged out of the bushes.
“Hmm?” I asked.
“That she took you here, it's interesting.” He explained.
“Yes I heard that part. Why?”
“We were expecting her to try to take you home. You must miss it,” Klithin said, his conceded smirk, seemed to be a permanent fixture with him.
“It’s better that I’m here,” I said. I turned to look at him, but he had left. Keatin stood in his place.
“I wish I could tell you what’s here,” he said. I waited for him to go on, but he didn’t. He led me to a beautiful solid glass horse with blue designs on it; over to me. It’s movements were almost as delicate as it looked, and I was worried that with a single step he would shatter into pieces.
“What about mine?” I asked an tilted my head towards the silver horse.
“When no one’s riding them they go back to the stables, or follows the horse nearest to them,” he said. He lifted me on, then got on behind me. I blushed.
One moment we were at the river; the next Keatin was by my side; hand out to help me off the horse. After the horses were all put away, we decided to wander around the land for a bit. Keatin was my everything Elvin, tour guide, a very detail oriented one at that. He showed me plants and flowers, all of which were either huge, colorful, glowed, made of glass, had images on them, formed a picture, or in some cases all of the above.
“What is it like where you're from? Your homeland I mean,” I asked him, on our way back to the tree.
“It's really green, it's not hot, but it isn't cold either, it was beautiful,” he said.
“Is there music there?” I asked him. He looked at me, and smiled.
“Of course,”
“What is it like?” We were now almost up to my room. His smile turned almost mischievous.
“Do you plan on telling me?” He opened his mouth to speak, but was stopped by a loud explosion. I screamed. He covered me with his body, as ash rained down and the tree caught on fire. No, not another one.
“Chani!” I screamed.
“I’m right here, they’ve found us. We must leave, hurry now,” she said. Keatin got in front of me leading me down, using his body to shield me as more explosions sounded in the air. He grabbed my hand and pulled me faster. At the bottom of the stairs he transformed into a large, green and gray scaled dragon.
“Up you go,” Chani said, helping me up before sitting behind me. Keatin rose into the air. Tears filled my eyes both from smoke, and from what I saw once we had risen into they sky. The land was all flame and ash. My heart ached as the screams of the people-my people-quieted into an unnerving silence achieved only by death.
The River In the Stars Page 3
