Lis ran her hand over her wrist, and he watched the movement. She knew the discovery of his power had hurt him as much as it had hurt her. She turned towards the black gate, which Lis thought was brighter than it had been before. The silver-painted symbols sparkled in the sunlight. But when they reached the door, the symbols were gone.
She ran her hand over the rough wood. Then she looked at the prince. ‘How could they disappear?’
‘They were gone when I was here before. Somehow, they came to the surface as I looked for them in the light,’ he said, indicating the back of his hand.
‘Can you do it again?’
He shook his head. ‘I was just trying to see. I can see the gate now, and there is nothing there.’
Lis thought he was wrong. She placed her hand over where she thought the symbols had been, longing to see them. She felt the wood move beneath her fingers. A strange sensation, as though something moved through the wood just for her.
When she lifted her hand away, she took a step back.
‘That is not what it said before,’ he breathed.
She shook her head. ‘Could it give different messages depending on the person passing through the gate?’
‘If you think you are the little girl, maybe it is for you. Maybe your prince needs your help.’
Lis sighed, looking over the characters again. ‘Help him to learn.’
‘Perhaps it is an old message, for those who were here before.’
‘And who were they?’ he asked.
‘The hidden princesses,’ she said, turning a frustrated look on him.
‘Who train their whole lives to serve the crown prince.’
‘You think this is intended for one of them to help the prince learn? What does he need help with?’
‘I’m sure I know more than you,’ he said with a laugh.
‘Not about magic,’ she added.
‘But not much more. You might have it, but we don’t know what others have, nor what I can do with mine.’
‘Perhaps this is the place to learn,’ she offered.
He looked up at the expanse of the wall looming over them that surrounded the island.
‘Can they see us?’ Lis asked.
He stepped back into the open courtyard and looked up at the tower, then waved his arms above his head. There was no movement on the wall. He drew his sword, and a cold sick feeling washed over Lis as he held it out, the bright blade catching the sun. Despite the feeling it provoked in her, it didn’t appear to draw any attention on the wall. Either there was no one to watch over the city here, or they couldn’t see him. He slipped the sword back into the sheath and held up his hands again.
Lis followed his gaze up to the wall. Nothing.
‘It must be protected in some way,’ she suggested.
‘I saw only overgrown garden when I was on the wall. How could it appear that way? I couldn’t even see the buildings and the pond.’
‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I thought we were here to look around.’ She strode off ahead of him towards the run-down, faded buildings. She shook her head and focused on the weeds sparsely growing through the gravel. The sight of his sword still made her shiver.
Despite the daylight, the room of the large building was almost as dark as it had been by candlelight, and the beds appeared to be smaller. There were no belongings, nothing to indicate children had lived here at all, let alone children of privilege.
Lis headed back out into the garden and onto the small gazebo that overlooked the pond. The water was dark and oily, as though it had stood still for too long. She wondered how they would have had it flowing when the girls had lived here and whether it had been cut off or blocked when they no longer needed to use the palace.
She looked across at the smaller building with the doors all lined up. Had they had teachers who had stayed here, or were they the women in white? Were they to assist or just ensure the children were safe? Who was the little princess they had been so drawn to?
She moved to the first door, the one she had entered before, and it looked just as it had. She leafed through some papers on the desk, but they were blank, perhaps faded by age. Although she wondered at their age, whether they would have used wooden slips. Maybe someone had used this place not so long ago. But the bed was still covered in dust, and she doubted anyone had entered other than herself in a very long time.
The next room was similar. Just as covered in dust, and the small desk was covered in so many papers and scrolls that it was hard to know where to start. But there was something that caught her eye as she pushed the documents around the desk, something with a royal seal on it.
It appeared somewhat brighter than the papers around it, as though it had been hidden here long after the papers had been left. She held it in her hand, almost too scared to have it. Then she headed back out into the sunshine to find the prince.
‘Your Highness,’ she called softly, too afraid to alert others to their presence. Where would he go? Or had he hidden?
She startled when he called back.
She found him in the room with the ink painting on the wall. He looked over it with his nose only inches from the wall, then turned to look at her and back, as though comparing them.
‘What is that?’ he asked.
She shook her head and held it out.
‘A royal seal,’ he murmured. ‘What does it say?’
‘I haven’t opened it.’
He let his hand drop and looked at her seriously.
‘I can’t,’ she whispered.
He pulled open the seal, opening the paper carefully, and Lis could see it was older than she had thought. He stared at it for too long before he looked back to her.
‘What does it say?’
‘Nothing.’
She stepped forward and took it from him. ‘Why would it say nothing?’
But as she opened it, she realised it had no characters painted on the inside at all. She held it up to the sun and gasped. ‘Look,’ she said, pointing to a faint watermark in the paper.
‘What is that?’
‘It is like the symbols on the faces,’ she said, moving into the room on the end and then stopping. The night before, it had been filled with stone faces—now it contained blank white walls. ‘How is that possible?’ she stammered. She ran her hand over a wall. It was as smooth as the temple walls, and she wondered again if the priestesses were involved in this in some way. The square blocks seemed to close in on her, in the same way the faces had the previous evening. There were no marks, nothing.
‘Maybe this is a message to leave,’ the prince offered, following her into the room.
‘The faces disappearing?’
‘No, the sealed letter. Although I don’t understand where they might have gone. Unless they were not here in the first place.’ Lis turned to him angrily and he held up his hands. ‘What if they weren’t really here? What if they were magicked here?’
‘Just for me, and now they are gone? You are suggesting someone knows we are here,’ she said.
‘Or they know we have been. I saw a light last night; that is why I came to you.’
‘You saw my candle. Do you think someone else might have seen it?’
He nodded. ‘Although that would mean they too were up high.’
‘You just thought we were safe from view.’
‘I’m not sure of anything. I need to get up there.’
Lis nodded once and looked around the room one last time. She came out to where the prince had been standing, to look at herself painted on the wall.
‘I need your help to get out unseen,’ he said.
She nodded, and they walked back to the gate. As they walked, she thought about the other gate, how it was locked and she hadn’t yet seen the other side of it.
‘I want you to stay here,’ he said.
‘Then how can I help you?’
‘You could look out to ensure no one is coming.’
Lis nodded once and hid immediately. S
he watched the uncertainty cross his face before she stepped out of the gate and into the street beyond. There was no one, and no sound of anyone coming. ‘Wait a moment,’ she said before heading down the street a little further. By the time she reached the other gate to the hidden princess compound, there was still no sign of anyone.
She rushed back to find the prince watching the gate intently. Was he worried she would run away again? He took a step forward, and she unhid. He took a step back again.
‘It is safe,’ she said. ‘There is no one around.’
He nodded and headed towards the gate.
‘Do you want me to wait outside the gate for you?’
‘No, I’ll be as quick as I can. I have been harassing those on the wall enough that they would let me do what I like as long as it leaves them alone. I need you to be visible here. So I can be sure to see you.’
Lis nodded once and turned on the spot, making her dress bright yellow. ‘Will this help?’
He smiled, and she smiled with him. ‘We need to be sure,’ he said.
He disappeared through the gate, and then she wandered to the middle of the space. Holding her hand out, she drew the grasses forward, taller and taller. They blew gently in the wind. Marking out the square stones they grew between, she drew them up to waist height. Then she walked through them, running her hands over the soft tips. It felt like forever since she had been outside in the air, with the world growing around her. The air smelt different when the grasses grew, as though they brought the sweetness with them.
She suddenly wanted to fill the world with green, and she pulled on everything she had. The stones cracked, and the grass pushed them out of the way rather than just through the gaps between them. She stretched out her hands, and the world started to shake. She dropped her hands, letting the pull of the new growth stop, and stared at the sudden change around her. She had stopped before too much had grown, but the stones had been pushed not only out of the way but beneath the ground; short grass covered the entire space around her. She wondered if she could have transformed the entire courtyard.
She gulped down the strange feeling filling her chest. Just how much power did she have? And how useful would it be to turn the Palace Isle to countryside?
She looked up at the wall, wondering if the prince would be able to see the circle of green around her. There was no sign of him, and she didn’t know how far he would have to travel to find a door into the wall and then make it to the part that overlooked them. She looked back over the shimmering grass. Could she turn it into something else?
She took a deep breath and held her hands over the longer blades of grass beside her. She wanted flowers. As she wished them forward, the grass transformed into thicker stems before thick leaves pushed outwards and bright flowers bloomed at the tips of each stem. Lis chewed her lip to prevent the smile. She wasn’t sure if she should be as pleased with herself as she was. She remembered the thick vines the child in her dream had created, and the branches around her transformed again, twisting together to create a mass of knots around her. As she turned, large sharp thorns poked from the vines, creating a fence between her and the rest of the world. Perhaps she could have done this before. She wasn’t sure if it was simply that she had never tried or if it was this place. Yet she looked up to the wall again, wondering if a soldier might see what she had done and fire an arrow through her heart.
Movement caught her eye then, and she saw the prince on the wall. She waved her hands, but he didn’t appear to see her. He looked over the area near her and then along further. If only she had something bright, other than the dress, to get his attention. She closed her eyes and thought of bright yellow flowers. And when she opened her eyes, they grew large and bright around her.
The prince walked further along the wall as though he searched for something, but there was no indication that he had seen her. Yet he might not want to give that away to anyone who may be there with him. And then there was another man walking towards him. Lis wasn’t sure who he was from this distance, but he was clearly a soldier.
They talked for some time, and Lis wondered if she should try to work out how to remove herself from the cage she had built, or whether she should wait for him in case he hadn’t seen it. But then she wasn’t sure of his reaction either. Despite their recent understanding, she still didn’t know what he might do.
She sighed and sat on the ground where she was, hidden amongst the thorns and vines. The ground was quite soft and comfortable, and she ran her hand over the soft grass on which she sat.
She lay back and looked up at the sky above her. Other than the greenery surrounding her, she could see nothing else but sky. She could pretend she wasn’t trapped on the Palace Isle. But then, in a way, she had chosen to stay. She could have run away again, despite her promises to the prince. And although she had no connection left with her family, she couldn’t bring such dishonour to her father.
She also could have let herself die. She seemed to have the strength within her to prevent Yang’s healing magic. But now that the prince had discovered something of his own, there was something else between them.
The gate squealed just enough for her to know someone was coming in. She waited just a moment longer before climbing to her feet, in case, by chance, someone else had discovered them. The prince stood open mouthed, pushing the gate closed behind him and leaning against it.
‘I wanted to be sure you could see me,’ she whispered, taking in the shock on his face.
‘I couldn’t.’
‘What?’ she asked, pushing her hands apart as though walking through a curtain. The plants coiled back away from her to allow her out of her little cage. It was only as she reached the prince, still looking worried, that she knew what she had done. She looked down at her hands, then back at him. ‘You couldn’t see me at all?’
He shook his head. ‘What have you done?’
‘I was trying to make the grass grow through the stones, like I saw the girl do in my dream. And then I wanted flowers. And when I thought of what she did, they turned into the vines, and I wanted to be sure you saw me.’
He stepped past her to look over the plants. He walked in a circle around what she had created and then back to her. ‘Did this just happen around you?’
She nodded and opened her mouth to tell him more, then stopped.
He was watching her too closely. She sighed.
‘I think I could have made the whole courtyard change, but it was…’
He cocked his head.
‘Violent. Noisy.’ She struggled to find the right word. ‘It worried me that it might get away from me, or that others might hear.’
He looked back over the plants. ‘You can’t control it?’
‘I think I can,’ she said softly, ‘only I’m not sure how.’
‘Can you put it back?’
Lis put out her hands, and the flowers closed and disappeared. The vines withered, and the grass disappeared. It felt sad, like she had lost something, and she clutched her hands before her as she looked to the prince.
‘Where are the stones?’
She pointed towards where the grass had been and felt the ground move. As she sucked in a breath, the stones popped back out of the earth. She covered her mouth with her hands. She had no idea how she had done that.
‘Do you influence plants or the ground?’
‘I don’t know,’ she whispered.
‘Try moving the stones,’ he directed.
She put her hand out, and a wave travelled along the courtyard, the stones moving up and down as it went.
‘I have never heard of such a thing,’ he murmured.
‘Do you want to try?’
He looked at her as though she had slapped him.
‘We can’t be seen, can we?’
‘It looked dark, misty, as though it wasn’t really here. I couldn’t see you or your circle of green and yellow.’
‘Then why don’t you try? I know how you feel about magic, yet you have
me working at it, exposing myself in a way. We could learn this together.’
‘What if I use it by mistake?’
‘Maybe if you know what you can do, you will make sure that you don’t.’
He pushed his hand forward, but the ground didn’t move.
‘Maybe you can only use fire.’
‘If only I could make it rain,’ he said, holding out his hand. ‘Then if I set something alight by accident, I could put it out.’ A small cloud formed beside him, and large drops of water intermittently dripped onto the newly emerged pavers at his feet. Lis raised her eyebrows, and he looked from her to his hand. ‘I didn’t try,’ he stammered. ‘How is it that this hasn’t happened before?’
Lis shook her head. She had no idea of any of this. ‘Is it this place?’
‘The fire burned in my palace.’
‘I don’t know,’ she said.
‘Could it be because of you?’ he asked, staring at her too intently.
‘That I gave you magic? Do you think you can catch it? Is that why they all had to die?’ She hadn’t meant to snap, but her voice echoed painfully around the yard.
‘I did have your blood on my hands.’
‘I’m sure you have had lots of blood on your hands.’ She stepped around him, headed for the gate. ‘We have only found more questions here.’
‘Wait,’ he said, reaching out for her. She flinched as his hand closed around her arm, and he released her immediately. ‘I’m sorry,’ he whispered. ‘I would never hurt you. I think we should hide on the way back.’
She nodded, but a fear lingered that he just might hurt her without meaning to, as he had when he had burnt her.
‘I know someone who may be able to help us.’
He looked concerned again.
‘I need you to give me the opportunity to ask without you. I can’t risk them.’
His face hardened. ‘Who is he?’ he asked.
She sighed before she could stop it. ‘Really, you are jealous. That is not the reason I haven’t told you of this person, and there may be other people who are impacted by your knowing.’
‘Either way,’ he started gruffly, ‘we must hide to return to your palace, or the soldiers will be wondering what has happened to us both.’
The Magics of Rei-Een Box Set Page 41
