~CHAPTER ELEVEN: THIS MEANS WAR~
DIAVAL'S POV
Diaval woke with a start.
At once he knew that something was amiss. There was an emptiness within him that hadn't been there when he fell asleep. He ached all over; his joints were stiff and his mind was a bit hazy, as if he'd just taken a spill and cracked his head against a jutting piece of rock. Groaning, he rolled to his side and pushed himself, with considerable effort, to a sitting position. He clutched his head in his hands.
"Maleficent," he said huskily, and reached out an absent hand, groping.
His hand landed on grass and dirt and nothing more.
Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he kept patting, searching for her warm body. He turned and blinked, staring at the ground in all its unmaintained glory. For a moment, Diaval was absolutely befuddled. Why was the spot beside him empty? Where was his queen? Where was Maleficent?
"Maleficent?" he said again, questioning.
No answer. This perplexed him, though he was beginning to feel something else too. The first hint of dread welled within him, making him feel inexplicably nauseous. Something is amiss, he thought again.
Scrambling to his feet, Diaval hastily stretched out his limbs and called quietly for his queen. When he received no spoken response, he resorted to using the connection they'd developed while spending so many years together. He reached out with his mind, searching for her. He met empty space. Now Diaval's eyebrows creased, and a shudder ran through him.
Not good, he thought suddenly. Not good at all.
He couldn't quite explain why he felt that Maleficent's absence was a bad thing, but he'd gotten used to listening to his intuitive feelings. They'd started to pop up around the time he met Maleficent, and they usually pertained to her activities and whereabouts. Needless to say, his mind-connection and almost-psychic abilities were attuned to Maleficent's presence.
Feeling panicky, Diaval scrambled down the hillside and loped across the meadowlands. It was a few miles to Aurora's house, and he unfortunately had no way of turning himself into a raven to make the journey quicker, but he didn't mind the distance; he was starting to think that Maleficent's disappearance was a dire circumstance, and that fear overrode everything else. He needed the princess by his side; she usually managed to calm him down.
He flew to the wooden front door, almost tripping over his own two feet in his haste to reach her. He drew back his hand to pound on the door like a crazed man, then remembered that there were other inhabitants who lived alongside the princess. What if the three fairies who were supposed to watch over Aurora weren't awake yet? It was quite early, after all. The sky was light in places, glimpses of muddled yellow sunlight shining down in slanting rays, but mostly there were ominous storm clouds filled with rainwater which eclipsed the sky.
Diaval, thinking quickly, skirted around the side of the large brick house that was covered with snake-like vines and slipped into view of Aurora's bedroom by way of a circular window. He glimpsed her working, somewhat frantically, with some small object over by her writing desk.
He tapped his fingernail lightly on the window, not wanting to startle her.
Yet Aurora whirled around, the white ribbon in her hand fluttering to the ground as she grabbed at her chest. "Oh, Diaval!" she said breathlessly. "You scared me!"
He gave her a forced smile. "My apologies, Aurora. There is…you see…I'm…a matter of urgency," he said unintelligibly.
But Aurora had not heard. She'd picked up her white ribbon and now hastily wound it into her hair, smiling widely all the while. She practically skipped to the window, hands outstretched. "You're just in time! I'm so glad you could make it!" She paused, head cocked, scanning the meadowland behind him. "But where's my godmother? Is she going to surprise me?" Aurora clapped her hands. "I do so love surprises!"
Diaval, blinking confusedly at her excited state, opened his mouth and then closed it again without saying anything.
Aurora, sensing his bafflement, slapped his arm playfully. "Oh, come off it. You've come to celebrate!" But when his perplexed expression persisted, she said slowly, "You've…you've come to celebrate my birthday…haven't you?"
"Birthday?" Diaval repeated, mystified. "Whose?"
A single, slightly nervous laugh burst from Aurora's throat. "Why, mine of course! Didn't I just say so?"
"Your birthday…today?" Understanding was beginning to penetrate the thick haze surrounding his brain, and as he became more aware of her words, he decided that he wasn't at all sure he wanted to understand.
"Yes," the princess said, exasperated. "It's my sixteenth name day!"
Diaval felt faint. All at once, everything began to make sense: the conversation he'd had with Maleficent concerning the approaching war with King Stefan, the unexplainable feelings of urgency and restlessness he'd felt emanating from Maleficent the previous night…it all tied together. Days, he remembered her saying, with such characteristic confidence. Very soon, possibly in a matter of days. When all along, she'd really meant, Now.
Today was the day of the curse.
Aurora's brow scrunched. "What was that?"
Only then did Diaval realize that he'd spoken aloud. He swallowed back the dryness in his throat and said, "Today is the day of the curse. Your sixteenth name day. That's when the curse will be enacted."
"Curse?" Aurora said, her head jerking back. "I don't understand…is this some new game you've invented?"
"Maleficent never told you," he said slowly. Oh, he thought then. Oh, no. He had assumed from the very beginning that she knew. Thank the heavens I never mentioned it in her presence. "N-never mind, Aurora. We'll get to that later. What's important is that Maleficent has fled."
She gasped, the hand that clutched at her chest now flying over her gaping mouth. "Fled? What do you mean, fled? Where has she gone?"
"To the King's castle," he said grimly, pushing the glass window aside. "I must go after her at once. She's in terrible danger. I don't know what she was thinking, taking this on herself –"
"She's a queen," Aurora interrupted, and when Diaval turned to look at her, she was standing regally, hands by her sides, chin jutted forward. "Queens always look out for their kingdoms. Or should I say queendoms." And here she giggled.
As frantic as Diaval was at this moment, what she said gave him pause. "Wait. How do you know Maleficent is a queen?"
Aurora shrugged. "It's quite clear. She's very sure of herself, and all the creatures within the Moors, the tree warriors especially, seem to obey her every word. So I figured out that…well, I have a queen for a godmother! How extraordinary…don't you agree?" She seemed very pleased by this.
Diaval felt a small smile tug at his lips, but once he remembered where Maleficent was and what she planned on doing, the smile dropped away immediately. "You mustn't leave the house," he told the princess firmly. "To do so would be extremely unwise. You have to wait until I return with the queen –"
Aurora held up a hand. "You're not saying what I think you're saying, are you?" She laughed. "Why, I'm going with you, of course! You can't possibly think to leave me here."
Diaval scoffed, though he was glancing off in the direction of the human kingdom. Time was of the essence, and he was wasting precious seconds arguing. "It is too dangerous," he said distractedly, thinking that if he left now, he could make it into the castle by mid-morning, maybe early-afternoon at the latest.
"I'm coming with you," she said again, lips pressed tightly together.
"You can't come anywhere near the castle!" he said loudly, nearly pleading with her now. He knew this was an imprudent thing to say in light of her being unaware of the curse, but he was desperate to find Maleficent.
"But you can't leave me here! Please, Diaval, I can't stay here alone, especially not if Maleficent's in trouble. I won't stay," she added defiantly, crossing her arms. "You can't make me."
Too frazzled to think clearly, Diaval finally nodded his head and impatiently waved for her to climb out the window. The princess lost her pouty attitude at once and hurried to clamber through the tiny porthole. Diaval helped her down to the ground, rushing her a bit more than was probably necessary, and then took off across the meadowlands, his eyes set on something in the distance.
"Where are we going?" Aurora asked breathlessly, practically running so that she could maintain Diaval's swift pace.
He kept his eyes planted firmly on the distant horizon. "To the Wall of Thorns."
Aurora blinked and started to slow down. "But…but however will we get past it?"
Diaval's lips twisted into a mocking smile as he flicked a glance over his left shoulder. Several giant, monstrous beings that resembled trees, carrying weapons like sharpened tree branches, shifted and rumbled through the Tangible Forest.
"I have an idea."
MALEFICENT'S POV
The castle's southernmost gate was well-guarded, but that proved to be no trouble for Maleficent. She swept through the throng of soldiers as easily as if they were nothing more than troublesome branches that blocked her way. Their screams echoed once, collectively, off the enormous parapets of the castle before her green energy smothered them. She could not afford to be heard approaching before she reached the king. He needed to be taken by surprise, if nothing else. He would surely be well-armed and well-coached in the way of fighting, and he would doubtless be able to react quickly, but to surprise him…that was the ticket.
Maleficent glided through the side entrance with nary a sound; her cloak whispered across the intricately detailed tiles, and the walls, covered with ancient tapestries and gilded armor worn by previous great knights, were built so high that she could barely make out the ceiling beyond the slow-shifting gloom. She walked with practiced steps, not daring to rush herself needlessly; there would be plenty of time for haste in the coming hours.
Turning a corner, Maleficent found herself quite suddenly in the middle of the main hall. She could hear the ripple of voices fast approaching, and before she could locate the direction in which they were coming, she saw three or four shadows flicker up onto the brick walls, less than fifty feet away.
Raising her staff in one hand and extending the palm of her other hand, Maleficent closed her eyes, muttered some unintelligible words, and then opened them again as wide as they could go. Her green energy burst from her hands and swiftly floated down the length of her body, covering her staff as well. She was just lowering her arms when the soldiers came into view.
"Aye, and he says they's trouble on the western front as well, from sum undisclosed l'cation –" The tallest of the three broke off and stopped, blinking. He sucked in a big breath and glanced about suspiciously.
"Something wrong, Darren?" This was from a dark-skinned man with a white scar running down the left side of his face.
Darren shook his head, as if casting off a thought or two. "Noffin, noffin, just thought I seen something. Or…" But here he trailed off, and the three men resumed walking, parting unconsciously around Maleficent. They vanished around a corner, and Maleficent moved on.
Soon she came across many more soldiers who were discussing the coming war and the "trouble on the western front." She walked among them, invisible and silent, like an all-seeing ghost. Some of the soldiers glanced about them as if they sensed an odd disturbance in the air but couldn't find its origin.
In no time at all the great, yawning doors of the king's Honorable Audience Chamber beckoned. The door frame was rimmed with ancient-looking hieroglyphs, and a gleaming mahogany floor stretched right up to the unadorned yet intimidating dais where the king and queen's thrones were positioned. They were magnificent in their height; the king's had to be eight feet tall and wrought of gold, silver, and some other new metal: iron.
Ah, Maleficent thought. Of course.
The queen's chair, by comparison, was significantly dwarfed by her husband's. The back was patterned with pink and yellow dyes that had somehow been melded into the wood. There was something else about the thrones, an important detail that could not be overlooked: they were occupied.
King Stefan and his queen, the willowy, dark-eyed Leah, perched upon their thrones as if waiting for the roof to cave in on their heads.
Leah, understandably, was tense and obviously filled with misgivings; she glanced every so often at her husband, who was graying and unkempt and just plain twitchy with madness. He jerked in his chair again and again, in a sporadic pattern, the heels of his boots tapping against the elegantly curved legs. There were six guards in the Honorable Audience Chamber alone; four on the king's side, two on the queen's.
"The hour is upon us," he growled, restless. "We must not wait any longer, else she'll gather her strength and strike us all down where we stand."
Queen Leah shuddered and kept her gaze lowered.
"Men," he barked, and at least four of them jumped before standing dutifully at attention. "It is time for this long-awaited war to commence." King Stefan then nodded to a small, cowering messenger who stood, quivering, in the far corner of the room. There was sweat beaded on his forehead. "Messenger," he called. "You will run to the far corners of the castle and let all who live here know that it is time. We will kill her. We will kill them all."
Queen Leah cleared her throat timidly. "My king, there is an issue concerning –"
"Silence, woman," he snapped without glancing away from the doorway. He sensed something…an ominous sort of presence. "I'll hear none of your foolish fears now."
The queen swallowed, cheeks burning at the reprimand, and tried not to grit her teeth. There was the matter of their daughter, the princess, for heaven's sake, but he would not listen, and she dare not take things into her own hands. She did not believe herself capable of devising such a complex plan. And, she thought morosely, let's face it; I'm too afraid.
Maleficent, meanwhile, was assessing the scene with intense, calculating interest. This was a fascinating exchange she had encroached upon, to be sure, but it was not what she'd come here for. But then, when the queen stiffly asked permission to leave the room, she thought, Maybe this is what I've come for.
Queen Leah rose gracefully, though her arms were brittle and the sickly blue veins in her neck shone prominently through her pale skin. Without pondering what might happen as a consequence of her actions, Maleficent darted forward, simultaneously casting aside her magical veneer.
The breath caught in the queen's throat so that she managed to gasp and shriek at the same time. Maleficent startled the queen so terribly that her body went instantly limp, and she had no trouble yanking Leah from the dais completely.
"Stefan!" she screamed, but Stefan had stopped moving completely.
A horrible grimace stole over the king's face. "Maleficent," he spat, the skin under his eyes rippling with miniscule nerve twitches. His fingers drummed out an unsteady beat on the arms of his throne.
"Indeed," she said in a low voice, watching his face for an alarmed reaction. She did have a dagger, conjured by her green magic, pressed to his queen's delicate throat, after all. "It seems the war has come to you, Stefan."
His face grew purple with rage. "You will not speak my name!"
"Stefan," she said, and again, "Stefan. I have known your name far longer than any other person alive in this world. Because of all that you've done to me, I should own that name. It is the least you can do." She knew her condescending tone would infuriate Stefan.
And it did.
"I will kill you," he hissed hoarsely, rocketing up from his throne. "You will die by my hands, and my face will be the last thing you shall ever see."
The muscles in Maleficent's hands tensed, and this small motion brought the tip of her dagger right up against the queen's neck. A trickle of dark red blood welled up and slid slowly down her throat, which moved up then down as she moaned with terror.
King Stefan glanced at his queen disinterestedly, and a spasm of alarm swept through the fairy queen's body. Maleficent could see at once that grabbing Queen Leah and using her as leverage had been a major error in judgment. The king had obviously grown so out-of-touch with reality over the years, plagued by madness and a deep paranoia, that his co-ruler had come to mean next to nothing to him; he looked as if he barely recognized her, and, seeing this, his queen whimpered despairingly.
Maleficent's lips pressed into a tight line. "You do not care if I kill her," she stated; this was not a question.
The king stared blankly at her, and that was all the answer Maleficent needed. She flung the queen aside, tossing her to the ground like she would a rotten bouquet of wilting flowers. Queen Leah humphed as she hit the ground, and she seemed to shrivel into herself, throwing a teary-eyed glance over her shoulder.
For a brief moment, Maleficent allowed herself to pity the woman. She had not asked to be married to a crazed abomination like Stefan, and she definitely had not wanted her precious daughter, the heir to the throne, to be cast off into the woods like an abandoned orphan, kept away for nearly two decades.
Shaking off her sympathy, Maleficent flicked back her robe, chin raised. "I see. She shall not be part of this then."
Stefan stared malevolently down at her. "You despicable creature. You should have stayed hidden behind your monstrous wall and waited for the war to come to your front doorstep. How dare you bring it to mine."
Maleficent casted wary eyes around her; she was dimly aware that there were ranks of iron-clad soldiers entering from all sides of the Honorable Audience Chamber. They held spears and crossbows and all sorts of metal accessories meant to burn through her skin. She would not back down though; it was too late for that. Besides, this was what she'd come here for. To fight, to end it all.
"You dared to cast a curse on my own daughter, knowing that she would succumb to a death-like sleep if we kept her close to our hearts, here in the castle. You forced us to part with her for most of her childhood, and now you bring the war to me! HOW DARE YOU!" he screamed, frothing at the mouth.
"You've been intent on killing my daughter all these years, biding your time until the day she comes of age! You've been waiting for your chance to rid me of my life too, I have no doubt!" King Stefan unsheathed a mighty sword which glittered black and silver in the gloomy light of the Chamber. "Well, Maleficent, without your precious wings, I say you shall perish, and all whom you have loved will die terrible, agonizing deaths by your side."
Upon hearing her daughter's demise spoken of again (possibly for the second time, possibly for the hundredth), Queen Leah suddenly flew to her feet and rushed at Maleficent. Her eyes were crazed with fear for her child, and her hands were outstretched, the ends of her fingers hooked into claws. Taken aback, Maleficent reacted quickly, knocking aside her reaching hands and grasping the queen's upper forearms. They struggled for a moment, Maleficent trying to keep the queen at bay so as not to cause her undue harm, Queen Leah attempting to scratch her opponent's eyes out.
"Enough!" Stefan bellowed, raising his sword high above his head. "Soldiers! Strike down this godless creature!"
At least three dozen men leaped forward to accept their liege lord's challenge.
Thinking quickly, for time was rushing forward in leaps and bounds, Maleficent flicked her fingers at the queen's exposed face. The woman blinked rapidly, seemed to watch an invisible object fly from one side of the room to the other, and then staggered backward, collapsing to the floor in a heap of heavily-jeweled garments. The sleeping spell would last for an hour, two at most – that was more than enough time for Maleficent.
She looked down on the queen again, experiencing another intense flash of sympathy for the woman, when she spied a flicker of motion over by the entranceway. Her head snapped up and her hands immediately burst into green flames, awaiting another foe, but instead she found herself face-to-face with a nightmare of a different sort.
Standing before her was Princess Aurora, and she looked as if her world had just shattered into pieces.
Oh, Maleficent thought then. Oh, no.