Broken Earth

by C M Blackwood

  What ensued was a nasty battle between Army and city, and the deaths of several members of both sides. Eventually, the soldiers managed to tie up the murderers, and drag them back to Eredor. Sadly, though, there were also the bodies of three soldiers to be returned.

  Upon hearing of this nasty business, Thomas Henry lowered his face into his hands, and wept for the needless deaths of those good men: Zed Witt, Gerald Seese, and John Zoden. Henry was especially grieved by this last name that he heard; for Zoden had been very dear to him, a most excellent soldier who had reminded him very much of the son he once had. Dead now, Oécio was; taken from his adoring father when he was only fifteen years old, his once-strong body so riddled with disease, that it could do nothing but abandon its earthly plane.

  After hearing of Zoden’s death, Henry escaped immediately to his office, and left the sorting of the situation to Harn Fala. For a while, he could picture nothing but Zoden’s face inside his mind; and such tragedy set him grieving for his son all over again, and he was useless to everyone till the following day.

  When the Princess returned, from wherever it was she had been, he was naturally impatient to speak with her. He decided that he would let her rest, before he approached her with such terrible things; but she became invisible as soon as she entered the castle, and was unapproachable for some time afterwards.

  Had Henry known that she was up and about, on that third night of her return, he would have sought her out immediately. But he slept on fitfully in his own quarters, as she wandered about the castle with the girl whose name he did not quite remember. Introduced to him once by the Princess, both she and her companion had little place in his mind those next weeks. He knew nothing of the arrival of their friend, either – quite as no one else did.

  Or rather, as nearly no else did. Alone in her chamber, with only the brief company of Rilga and the medicine man, Abella was aware of Jade’s presence, almost from the very moment she shifted into the castle. She knew of it, oh yes; and she felt that darkness which had been felt first by Aponé of the Wónakee, from many miles away. She knew of her presence, and sensed the unquiet that had entered her home; but she said nothing at all, to anyone at all.

  But she heard the screaming that night, and knew whence it came. She was struck with fear for Lila, who walked so near the danger, with only pieces of the story that was being weaved each moment. And so she lay back, and tried to look through the darkness, to what lay beyond.

  She saw many terrible things, but knew that it was not her own place to share them with the world. Lila Bier had become their possessor; and Abella Aséa ó Désarn (the last part of that title being something to which she nowadays referred only in thought, as she had not required the use of it since that great country fell) could do nothing but watch, and measure their progress quite helplessly, from her own solitary corner of the universe.

  ~

  As neither she nor the Princess seemed to have any question concerning the origin of the screams, Heidi raced straightaway back up the stairs, making as quickly as she could for her own chamber. As she drew nearer to it, the noise grew louder; and she knew without a doubt (if she already had not) that the distress was Jade’s.

  She charged down the corridor, and through the open doorway of the chamber. She waited a moment for the Princess to enter, before pulling the heavy door behind her, so as to muffle as well as she could the terrible screaming which filled the room. Then she hurried to the bed, and knelt down to lay her hands upon Jade; who did, as she had hoped, cease screaming at her touch.

  Heidi could feel her own eyes grow large with fear as she looked down upon Jade, whose clothes were soaked through with perspiration, and whose hair was nearly dripping with it. She looked up at Heidi, who saw that the blacks of her eyes had expanded to take the place of the green. They were like two round holes; holes that been excavated exactly where her eyes used to be, so that she resembled a kind of frightening doll, whose soul had been torn out through the holes.

  She said nothing, and she did not move. She only kept her eyes fixed on Heidi. Heidi tilted her face upwards by the chin, and was puzzled by something that she saw at the corner of her mouth. It was dark, and looked wet. Heidi put a finger to it, as it began to trickle, and then brought her finger up before her eyes.

  It appeared to be blood.

  “Are you all right, Jade? Did you bite your tongue?”

  “Is that blood?” asked the Princess.

  “I think so.”

  Fear stole steadily across the Princess’ face. She looked from Jade to Heidi, and said softly to the latter:

  “Move away from her.”

  “What are you talking about?” asked Heidi. She looked back down into Jade’s face; but was slightly alarmed with the fact, that the horrible black eyes had not so much as flickered.

  “Get up slowly, and move away from the bed.”

  Heidi would have questioned her further; but she found that the fear in her own heart seemed to coincide almost perfectly with the alarm in the Princess’ voice. So she did as she was bid.

  But Jade’s eyes did not waver, and only continued to stare unblinkingly in her direction.

  “What is happening?” she asked, moving instinctively nearer to the Princess.

  “She is hungry.”

  “Then give her something to eat, for goodness’ sake!”

  “I can give her nothing that will sate her hunger.”

  “What are you –”

  She began to back away from the bed, feeling suddenly a mortal fear of the gaze that was fixed upon her.

  “Don’t move so quickly,” said the Princess, reaching out to catch hold of her arm. “Run, and she will give chase. And you will lose.”

  “Then what should I do?”

  “Only be still, and turn your eyes from her.”

  So Heidi shifted her eyes to the face of the Princess.

  “We will leave the room slowly,” she whispered, pulling Heidi along with her, as she began to move backwards towards the door. They crept along, step by step; and when Heidi had made it into the corridor, the Princess began, slowly but surely, to pull the door closed.

  Jade’s eyes followed their every move. Heidi could hear the sound of her breathing; and it sounded quite like the panting of an animal. Little by little, the door was filling the jamb.

  In an instant, Heidi found her eyes connected again with those holes in Jade’s face. Jade’s upper lip curled into a sort of snarl, and there came a deep growl from her throat.

  In less than a moment, she had sprung from the bed, and leapt towards the door. The feral anger which filled the face, and came so very near before the Princess managed to close the door, gave Heidi perhaps the worst fright that she had ever had. She could hear a hand pulling desperately at the handle from the other side; but the moment that the door fit the frame, the Princess turned her fingers through the air, and there came the sound of the lock snapping into place.

  Feeling certain that she had only just narrowly avoided death (and filled with a pain of heart at the thought of the hands which had nearly dealt it), Heidi began to tremble so violently, that she could not stand for even a single moment more. She fell to her knees upon the stone floor.

  The Princess knelt down beside her, and placed a hand on her back. “Are you all right?” she asked.

  “No.”

  “That’s all right,” said the Princess, offering her hand to Heidi. “I suppose it would be strange if you were.”

  “And what do we do now?”

  The Princess frowned, looking immensely troubled and perplexed. But then she asked, “How did she get into the castle?”

  “I don’t know. I only heard the door open, while I was trying to fall asleep one night; and then I heard her voice, and looked up to see her standing there beside the bed.”

  “She must have shifted here. None of the guards would have allowed her to pass the gates – not without my permission.” Her frown grew deeper. “But my mother ensured long ago
that no Lumarian could shift through the walls of this castle – or this city, for that matter. I do not understand how she did it.”

  She fell quiet for a moment, thinking deeply. Finally she said, “It might have something to do with the Power that she already had. You have said that she was very strong. To add Lumarian blood to that . . . Well, it may have resulted in something that neither I nor my mother have ever seen before.”

  “But what do we do?”

  “First of all – only be glad that no one else heard the screaming. Second, however, we must make it so that she cannot shift from the room. The lock is held for now, but no doubt she will manage to open it, should she return to her senses. Now she is like an animal, and can think of nothing while she is hungry. She is not fully changed; but if she can manage to concentrate she may be able to shift to you. It is obvious you are what she wanted.”

  Heidi felt her stomach heave.

  “We must go to my mother,” said the Princess. “Quickly.”

  And so Heidi followed along on her heels, down the corridors to the wide, carven door of Queen Abella’s chamber. The wood of the door was almost black, and its ornate pattern was laid with an intricate design of what appeared a man and a woman, hovering about in a cluster of clouds. Wings sprouted from their very backs, and suspended them there in the sky, as they looked down upon the world below.

  “What are those?” asked Heidi, her fear forgotten for a moment while she studied the strange and beautiful carving.

  “I don’t know,” said the Princess. “I have asked her many times, but she has never told me what they are.”

  Abandoning, for the time being, the winged creatures in the clouds, Heidi looked to Lila, who knocked upon the door. A strong and firm, yet pleasantly feminine voice, called for her to enter.

  A lamp was burning beside the bed, almost as if the Queen had expected company that night. (Though we have been made aware already, that at least one other person bore witness to Jade Misaria’s screaming; and that person was Abella.)

  Lila stepped into the room, and then invited Heidi to do the same. She did so almost reluctantly, feeling somewhat anxious in entering the personal bedchamber of a mighty Queen, who had once ruled great lands.

  And so, when she took in the appearance of the woman lying in the great bed before her – which was undeniably frail and weak, even while it remained somehow proud and strong – she felt that her knees were nearly shaking. It was a feeling that she had felt to some extent when she first met Princess Lila, but this time to a much greater degree. There was something about the woman, bed-bound though she was, that screamed of great Power; and there was, despite the lines of sickness that had crept into a face no longer young, a fierce and unspeakable beauty that burnt all about her.

  “Mother,” said the Princess, stepping forth into the ring of light, so as to gesture to Heidi, “I would like to introduce you to Miss Heidi Bastian of Delvare. She has been staying in the castle for some days now –”

  “I know,” said the Queen.

  “Of course you do,” said the Princess, looking unsurprised. “But a formal introduction seemed only polite. So, Heidi,” she continued, “I would like to introduce you to my mother, Queen Abella Aséa.”

  “Pleased to meet you,” said Heidi, embarrassed to find that she was stammering slightly.

  But the Queen only smiled kindly, and invited Heidi to come closer. “I can hardly see your face in all those shadows,” she said. “And I dislike speaking to people whose faces I cannot see. So come, and sit by me!”

  Heidi moved slowly to a chair beside the bed, in which the Princess gestured for her to sit. The Princess herself sat down on her mother’s bed, and said:

  “I have come with grim tidings, Mother. I hoped to keep them from you, so as not to cause you any unnecessary worry. But I fear that I am, once again, in need of your help.”

  “That’s quite all right, dear. I supposed that you would be.”

  The Princess looked a bit suspicious; and asked, “Do you mean to say that you already know what is happening?”

  “To some extent.”

  “Please explain.”

  The Queen patted her hand. “It is so strange, my darling! You set off to capture a Lumarian – and you return to find one already in your castle!”

  After she had said this, she looked to Heidi rather apologetically. “I am sorry, Miss Bastian. I did not mean to speak ill of your friend.”

  Heidi only nodded shortly, her throat much too tight to allow for speech.

  “Then I suppose that you already know what I will ask you?” said the Princess.

  “I think so, dear. You mean to find out how best to keep the young lady contained to her room – and to ask me, I believe, whether or not you should make Captain Henry aware of her presence?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Well, as to the first bit, I do think that I can be of some help. Yet I do not think you should wake the Captain; or even tell him tomorrow, for that matter. For now, at least, keep all of this to yourself.”

  “I was hoping you would say that.”

  The Queen smiled knowingly. “And if I had not, would you have done otherwise?”

  “I don’t know,” said the Princess.

  “Well, that’s no matter, really. But back to the subject at hand.” She took a deep, slow breath; and it was clear to both women who sat near to her, that the conversation was beginning to tire her. A worried expression stole across her daughter’s face.

  But the Queen only laughed. “Look not so serious, my love! I will be just fine, just as soon as you pour me a little water from that pitcher there.”

  The Princess rose, and went to the stand beside the bed, on which the little lamp was burning brightly. She took up the pitcher, and a tall glass beside it, and filled it quite to the rim.

  And indeed, when she passed the glass over, the Queen all but drained it in a single swallow. Then she closed her eyes, and breathed still deeper, her grip tightening for a moment upon the glass to turn her knuckles white. Then she said:

  “All right, then. Much better. Now – what was I saying?”

  “You were about to give me a bit of advice, concerning Miss Bastian’s friend.”

  “Oh, yes. Quite right.” She turned to Heidi. “What is your friend’s name, dear?”

  “Jade.”

  “Jade what?”

  “Jade Misaria.”

  The Queen smiled. “What a lovely name!” she exclaimed. “I really do think, with such a beautiful name as that, nothing so very ugly can last for so very long.”

  Heidi was not altogether sure whether she was serious or not; so she only smiled faintly.

  “There’s a good dear,” said the Queen, reaching over to pat Heidi’s hand. “And now, back to the root of the matter. The objective, of course, is to keep Miss Misaria from shifting out of her chamber. If she is to stay any amount of time in this castle, she must be effectively quarantined.”

  “And how to go about it?” asked the Princess.

  “It is very simple, actually. All you must do is take something of hers, anything that she may have touched for more than a few moments, and affix it to the chamber door. Then you must draw a line on the floor before the door; and a shape upon the door itself. In blood they must be made.”

  “In blood? Whatever are you talking about?”

  “You must draw the line, and the shape, in blood. The blood of an Auren.” She looked from her daughter to Heidi. “Either one of you, really – though I suspect that Miss Bastian would make the more sense, as Miss Misaria is her own friend to begin with.”

  The Princess was staring at her. “How did you know that she is an Auren?”

  “Oh, dear daughter! When will you cease to be surprised at the things of which I am aware? It is no real matter – for I see things only more quickly than others do.”

  The Princess only shook her head. “I am more concerned with all this talk of blood. Why ever would that be necessary?”
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br />   The Queen reached for a small leather-bound book atop the nightstand, and opened it to an empty page. Then she took up her pen in her right hand, and drew a shape upon the paper.

  The Princess looked down at it curiously, and asked, “Why do you draw that?”

  “It is all a part of the prophecy.”

  The Princess frowned. “When are you going to share this prophecy with me, Mother?”

  “When you are ready.”

  “Then I will forget it for now. But I think it only reasonable of me to refuse your advice, and to say that I will not ask my guest to go drawing upon doors with her own blood.”

  “And the floor,” said the Queen. “You must not forget the line across the floor.”

  “You are talking nonsense, Mother. Surely you cannot expect her to do this?”

  “I will if I must,” spoke up Heidi. Both the Princess and the Queen turned their faces towards her; the former with an expression of shock, and the latter with a look upon her face that deemed the entire procedure quite normal.

  “You see?” said the Queen. “She will if she must.”

  “You will not,” said the Princess. “I cannot believe you are actually taking this seriously! It is quite obvious that my mother is not well tonight.”

  “I am perfectly well,” answered the Queen, her voice strengthening considerably. It was apparent that she disliked any remarks which compromised her credibility, even when they were spoken by the Princess.

  “Perhaps you are,” said the Princess. “And perhaps you are right about this strange ritual. But, be that as it may, I won’t have it performed in this castle.”

  “May I see that picture again?” Heidi asked the Queen, pointing to her book.

  “Of course.”

  She turned the book around, so that Heidi might see it more clearly.

  Heidi stood up suddenly, and said to the Queen, “Thank you very much for your help.”

  “You’re quite welcome, my dear.”