I thank all who have reviewed. You definitely made my day.
BlendedPeaches - Your wish is my command!
Michi - Thank you for reviewing. Glad that my prologue was intriguing and I hope you like the rest. I won't lie and say that I always finish what I start *looks at her draw filled with her unfinished and mostly neglected work* but this story won't leave me alone until I write it down. So lets keep hoping. : )
Kendal - Hi! Well, I've figured out very loosely how it's tied to the Night World, it's just that I don't have the specifics yet. I keep getting inspired just as I wake from sleep, so I hope that continues. It's just that the inspiration isn't in any particular order. About the issues . . . um . . . I will answer the questions I brought up, but the bit about the government and science, well those are just my twisted opinions on my slightly cynical days. But I'll see if the plot can handle conspiracies. lol ; - )
Askani - Thanks for reviewing! I hope you're still interested when I continue. Year 12 is the pits. I have just started but I don't want to scare you with the horror stories and the homework is *shudders* . . . I won't go there. lol
* * *
The Light World
Part One
~ Watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you,
because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most
unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic won't find it ~
- Roald Dahl
The Light World is the dream world. The place where fantasies are made, a place the real world cannot control, where tragedies are a dream and dreams are reality.
It's not a place where the sky is green and the trees are made of cotton candy. It is a real world with real people who have real feelings and emotions. They're just different. They have the powers that people only dream of; do the things that people can only imagine. But to them this is reality and the `real' world is the dream. Or the nightmare.
Dreams feed their world. Every time a child wishes upon a star or writes a letter to Santa, the Light World becomes stronger, brighter, and is more real to those who believe in enchantment of the spirit and laughter of the soul.
But with the good, the bad always follows. Earth has beautiful places where magic still sizzles in the air, where fairies fly and stars are born; and next to the magic there are places of dead Earth where bulldozers reign and waste settles. Similarly, the Light World has Centre Rose - its name christened by a princess a long time ago in childish innocence - its an area where magic reigns. Dreams are wishes the heart makes, and nightmares are fears the heart wishes never come to life. Both dreams and nightmares have an affect on the Light World.
Every world has its evil and its good. A dream strengthens the life of Centre Rose and it's surrounding regions. A nightmare, however, strengthens the powers of the shadier side of the Light World: Dark Thorn. The places were named after plants to epitomize the almost fragile nature of the Light World. Without nurturing a plant with water and fertilizer it will not grow, so to must people nurture the Light World in order for it to mature into a far better or worse place. The Light World needs both the dreams and the nightmares so that harmony can be achieved between Centre Rose and Dark Thorn.
But harmony is not achieved in the Light World. People in the real world have stoped dreaming, stopped hoping. They focus more on money and less on magic.
Hope is dying in the real world; magic, consigned only to children; love only to romantic fools. The world is only concerned with careers, ambitions, money and power. Gone are the days of trust and harmony. Today's world is full of war and pain, suspicion and hate.
Dark Thorn is getting stronger while Centre Rose weakens. So started the troubles of Centre Rose
* * *
Catherine ran up the stairs, her sandals slapping on the cold stones in a merciless rhythm. Frantic, her thoughts were a jumble of sentences, most unfinished, but all throbbing an insistent question: Where is Maya? A string of yarn tangled in a labyrinth of unforgiving snarls. Her thoughts like the yarn, jumping unsteadily as they tried to unwind.
Out of breath, she threw open the door to Maya's bedroom, a conflict of pictures running through her head, all more horrible to envision than the next. Opening her eyes the imaginings exploded in a million pieces as her eyes took in the scene before her.
Catherine let out a sigh of relief. Maya, oblivious to the chaos that was happening downstairs, was playing with her teddy bear, Niles. "Maya, honey, do you want to play a game with Mummy?" She kept her tone light so that her five-year-old daughter wouldn't get alarmed. She wanted Maya to be as calm as possible.
"Can Niles come too, Mum?" After Tobias had given her the bear, Maya was rarely seen without it. "Sure he can." Catherine added softly, "But we have to be very quiet. Come, we'll use the hidden door." Maya started to hesitate. "When I tell you to use it then it's allowed, okay? You wont get in trouble for using it if I ask you."
Sensing her mother's urgency but not understanding it, Maya happily collected her bear and lifted a corner of the wall rug that covered the door, and ran down the stairs. Catherine took one last look at her daughters bedroom with its childish decorations of strewn toys on the floor, bed unmade and pink drapes covering the windows, then she started down the stairs after Maya.
Catherine made certain to keep away from the damp walls. They were covered in cobwebs and forgotten slime. She took a couple of deep breaths, smelled the horrid scent of unwashed stonewalls and almost gagged. Her father had always told her that her great uncle Ronald had fallen down these steps and broken his neck. "His ghost still haunts the hidden passages, Cathie, and no one knows why. Don't go down there Cathie, he may take his anger out on you," her father had told her when on her seventh birthday. It was more the thought of a ghost that had made her forbid Maya to come down here, than the dirt that she had used as an excuse.
Reaching the bottom step, she took Maya's outstretched hand and led her through the maze of corridors hidden under the castle. When finally she reached the door that led to the veil that separated the Light World from Earth, she pushed it open, wincing as the metal hinges screeched in protest.
She scanned the trees and bushes for Tobias and when she could not find him, she walked to the veil and placed her hand on its soft surface. A myriad of pictures swam through her mind of different women who all at one time in their life had come to this spot to be comforted by the veil. It always surprised Catherine how delicate the veil seemed; it was frightening to imagine that the outside could force its way in. At times the veil was as strong as rock, and other times it seemed like a filmy cobweb stretched to its limits. Too weak to be much of a barrier.
Catherine ran her unsteady hands down her daughter's straight black hair, cupping the underside of Maya's head and lifting it to her face. She brought down her lips to her daughter's forehead and pressed them there for a miniscule of seconds. Too long for the impatient daughter, much too short for her distraught mother. Crouching in front of her daughter, she took Maya's hand in hers and placed both on the veil, both looking into the rainbow of colours trapped for eternity in the opaque divider.
"Maya, look at this veil. See how it is sometimes strong and sometimes weak? Sometimes you can count on it for protection; other times we pray that it wont break. Well I want you to know that I love you very much. And that I will love you forever. My love won't weaken, never, never." She whispered urgently. Maya looked into her mother's eyes and saw the unshed tears. Maya didn't know the cause for Catherine's unhappiness and thought maybe she was the reason.
She threw herself into her mother's arms and wailed, "I love you too Mummy! Don't cry, I'm sorry!" Catherine rushed to reassure Maya that she wasn't crying because of her. "I'm crying because I don't want to say goodbye."
"Then don't," came the voice from behind her.
Catherine looked up at Tobias and shook her head. "You know I have to." After gaining her attention he committed a formal bow before his queen. Again Catherine shook her head; "We don't have time for formalities now."
After one last hug, she transferred her daughter into her most trusted knight's arms. "Tobias, I trust you to keep her safe. Here, give this note to her when you arrive. May God bless. Goodbye."
With that she ran through the door, the sounds of muffled weeping seeping through the stone.
* * *
In the main hall, the man was bellowing at the serfs in the castle. Grabbing hold of a maid by her shirtfront, the man roared into her frightened face, "Where is your queen and her brat?" The portly woman with greying hair trembled as she looked into the large man's face. "I... I... I... "
"You what woman! Answer me! Do you understand English? Where is your queen and her little brat of a daughter?" He screamed in her face, disgusted by her cowardly quivering. "I don't know milord," the frightened woman managed to whisper.
Sickened by her, the man threw the woman across the room with a flick of his wrist. His unholy superhuman power stunned the woman, who cowered on the floor where she landed, hoping that if she didn't look him in the eye he would forget about her.
* * *
Tobias shook his head in frustration. Maya had taken a lot of reassuring that this was part of the game her mother had promised her. He hated lying to her, but knew this was the only way to keep the princess safe. Now she was sleeping peacefully in his arms, and he rode on to the university.
He rode through the shadowy path flanked by lush flora and giant trees, his heart heavy, his mind unbearably besieged with visions of his queen and the horror she would face alone; his eyes took in glorious images of natures finest. A bird's call tinkled through the forest, its cry a lonely reminder of how far away civilization was.
A butterfly coloured in magnificent hues of blue and red stopped to admire the petals of a pink wildflower. It fluttered close to inhale the glorious scent, the flapping wings of a nearby bird startled it and it flew away only returning when the bird had disappeared. Tobias wished that he could fly away the problems that Centre Rose faced.
But life wasn't that simple.
He stroked his hand absently through Maya's shiny soft hair and rode as fast as he could. He wanted Maya to be as far away as possible from the situation in Centre Rose.
An opening in the trees marked the path leading to the Tulip City University. He slowed his horse to a trot and approached the huge stone building. It looked stark and uninviting demonstrated by the lack of vines crawling up the walls. The curtains were a drab brown, and he unfavourably compared it to Centre Rose.
The Tulip City University was the only place Tobias could think of that would keep Maya safe until the disturbance at Centre Rose abated. The university housed only the brightest children in a boarding school manner, to further educate them amidst the scholars and professors. Learn with the best; taught by the best.
Tobias closed his eyes for a moment and fervently wished that Queen Catherine's lies about Maya's disappearance and death were believed. They had to be believed. Centre Rose would collapse without a queen to govern it. He knew that when it was safe, he would bring Maya home to be throned Queen.
She had to.
A woman walked up the path to greet them, her light blue gown dancing with her feet, propelled by the gentle breeze. She was looking puzzled at the unannounced arrivals until she spotted the saddle bearing Centre Rose's coat of arms. "Sir, I didn't know you were coming so soon! My name is Marian Treloar. Is that Maya?" Without leaving him a chance to answer she rushed on, "Let me have her. Oh isn't she cute! Come on sweetie wake up."
Maya groggily opened her eyes, disoriented; she stiffened in the stranger's arms. She looked around, saw Tobias and reached out her arms towards him, silently pleading with him to take her from the stranger. "Maya you stay with here okay? You'll be safe here."
"No! I want you." Stubbornly determined to have her way, Maya wriggled relentlessly out of the woman's arms.
Tobias crouched down in front of her and looked into her strange violet eyes, now filmy with unshed tears. Child, you've had such a bad day today, he thought to himself, and I will add to your sorrow by leaving you here by yourself. Among strangers. Oh you poor child, losing more than your parents. Losing your childhood. "Maya what did we always say about the queens of Centre Rose?" he whispered.
"Queens always have to protect their followers," the girl solemnly said the oft repeated phrase.
"Well this time we have to protect you. Because without a Queen, Centre Rose will not be the most powerful kingdom in the Light World. The people will suffer. Do you want that?" He felt terrible for putting so much pressure on a five year old but she *has* to understand. She has to stay *here*. She *has* to be protected.
Maya nodded miserably, knowing from his tone that she would not get her way.
After the explanations were made, Maya stood next to Marian and waved goodbye to Tobias. She held her mother's letter tightly to her chest. Her tears dropping silent and unnoticed off her cheeks to rest on the pebbles below.
In her five-year-old mind she was not being protected by the people she loves. She was being abandoned.
* * *
Fear. Pain. Loss. Uncertainty.
Fear for her daughter. Fear for herself. Fear for her people. Just aching fear. A fear that eats away at her courage, like a caterpillar eating a plant. Bite by deliberate bite. Until the plant is no more. Nothing but a decayed mass, a shadow of its former glory.
Pain. Inner pain. Gut wrenching emotion. A pain of a thousand stakes all stabbing. All hurting. Pulsing into her heart, radiating, rippling away until her body is a throbbing mass of hurt.
Loss. The loss of her daughter. Of her freedom. Maybe her life. Gasping for breath as a tidal wave of emotion pounds into her. Relentless. Uncaring. Images flit by her. Images of happiness. Images of sadness. All images of her daughter. It's too short a time, she screams desperately into her mind, the words pulsating in the mess that are her thoughts. But no one hears her cry. No one comforts her. No one wipes away her tears. No one holds her shaking shoulders to their chest. No one mumbles words that make no sense, meant to soothe not to be understood.
Uncertainty. Uncertain if she can do what is right. Uncertain whether it will work. Uncertain of the future. A bubbling elixir of doubt. Hissing in frothy anger. Steam wafting leisurely, wrapping the mind in misgivings, making it heady with the convictions of the damned.
Catherine stood up on shaky legs and slowly made her way to the main hall. Her head held high, her heart heavy.
Stalling the inevitable, she slowly descended down the stairs that led to her destination. Halfway down she heard a crash and peered around that banister to see poor Lynnette on the floor where the man had just thrown her. Catherine watched in horror as the man was slowly walking towards the terrified woman.
Finally as her shock grew to an undefinable magnitude and she could no longer take in the scene she was viewing, the words the man was shouting penetrated her consciousness and she was no longer frozen in her position.
"I'm here Calum."
The words came from nowhere but were heard everywhere. All of a sudden every person was halted in mid stride, the cook in mid-stir, the maid in mid-dust. The softly spoken words stopped the action as no shout could.
All eyes slowly, not daring to believe what their ears confirmed, turned to the stairs.
There she was.
The Queen of Centre Rose.
About to confront the King.
Her eyes puffy from crying, her hair windblown form her time outside, her cheeks flushed; yet she did not lose an inch of her regal elegance. Her black hair travelling in rivulets of curls stopping mid back, a river of darkness on a plane of light. While all eyes were on her, hers were on one person.
Calum MacKembsy.
The man she loved. The man who didn't trust her. The man who wanted her dead.
As she was thinking this, he strode purposely towards her. Catherine closed her eyes and conjured an image of Maya on her father's lap as he told her a bedtime story; she drew strength from the fact that Maya was safe. She was alive. She was loved.
Catherine's eyes snapped open as Calum jerked her arm forward. "Where the *hell* have you been? And where is that brat of yours?" He shouted the words into her face, his voice a tidal wave of noise, yet despite this, all she noticed was the foam. It was hard, but she resolved to stay silent through this humiliation. She looked over his shoulders and saw that everyone was unusually absorbed in what they were doing; all unnaturally concentrating on sweeping, dusting, chopping. Slowly, she brought her eyes back to his, still silent, partly because she knew it would infuriate him, and partly because she didn't know how to answer him without giving herself away.
*Our* daughter, she wanted to scream, but kept her silence.
As she expected, his face turned an alarming shade of red at this deliberate defiance, and his voice rose, "*Answer* me!" When she continued to be stubbornly silent, he put his hand in his jacket and pulled out a dagger, its blade glinting dangerously as the sky slowly dimmed.
"I won't hesitate to use this. Don't think that our union protects you; that I will be filled with compassion. I wont. Now answer my question" His calm voice was more disconcerting than his roaring. It strengthened the power of his threat, the cold feel of steel on her throat made it more difficult to swallow. Her tears silently fell from her eyes, her brain failed to comprehend that this was Calum and that he was threatening her.
Calum was getting a headache. He didn't want to hurt Catherine. Didn't she know that all she had to do was tell him where her brat was? He felt betrayed by his wife and his closest friend. The girl wasn't even his.
Catherine was never more afraid of another person than she was now. Her heart was thumping so loud that she could not hear the little whimpering sound that were emanating from her throat. "I don't know where Maya is, Calum, believe me," she answered truthfully. She had told Tobias not to tell her, because she was not sure of her resolve when put against Calum's charm, which was obviously absent now.
"Liar." He whispered the word, and strangely she shrunk away from him, as she had failed to when he was raising his voice.
Liar . . .
The gentle pressing of the dagger to smooth skin.
The slide of crimson down blue satin.
The frightening light-headedness that engulfed her where yellow light became a rainbow of etchings playing beneath her closed lids. Her breath quickened. Her gaze lost its sharpness, her body its strength. Suddenly she couldn't stand.
Liar . . .
Then all at once she felt fear. A terrifying fear enveloping her senses, destroying her thoughts. A fear only triumphed by pain. Unbearable pain. Excruciating, slowly shredding her.
A pain that splinters the body yet slays the soul.
* * *
Well? What do you think? Comments or criticism, I can take it.
BlendedPeaches - Your wish is my command!
Michi - Thank you for reviewing. Glad that my prologue was intriguing and I hope you like the rest. I won't lie and say that I always finish what I start *looks at her draw filled with her unfinished and mostly neglected work* but this story won't leave me alone until I write it down. So lets keep hoping. : )
Kendal - Hi! Well, I've figured out very loosely how it's tied to the Night World, it's just that I don't have the specifics yet. I keep getting inspired just as I wake from sleep, so I hope that continues. It's just that the inspiration isn't in any particular order. About the issues . . . um . . . I will answer the questions I brought up, but the bit about the government and science, well those are just my twisted opinions on my slightly cynical days. But I'll see if the plot can handle conspiracies. lol ; - )
Askani - Thanks for reviewing! I hope you're still interested when I continue. Year 12 is the pits. I have just started but I don't want to scare you with the horror stories and the homework is *shudders* . . . I won't go there. lol
* * *
The Light World
Part One
~ Watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you,
because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most
unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic won't find it ~
- Roald Dahl
The Light World is the dream world. The place where fantasies are made, a place the real world cannot control, where tragedies are a dream and dreams are reality.
It's not a place where the sky is green and the trees are made of cotton candy. It is a real world with real people who have real feelings and emotions. They're just different. They have the powers that people only dream of; do the things that people can only imagine. But to them this is reality and the `real' world is the dream. Or the nightmare.
Dreams feed their world. Every time a child wishes upon a star or writes a letter to Santa, the Light World becomes stronger, brighter, and is more real to those who believe in enchantment of the spirit and laughter of the soul.
But with the good, the bad always follows. Earth has beautiful places where magic still sizzles in the air, where fairies fly and stars are born; and next to the magic there are places of dead Earth where bulldozers reign and waste settles. Similarly, the Light World has Centre Rose - its name christened by a princess a long time ago in childish innocence - its an area where magic reigns. Dreams are wishes the heart makes, and nightmares are fears the heart wishes never come to life. Both dreams and nightmares have an affect on the Light World.
Every world has its evil and its good. A dream strengthens the life of Centre Rose and it's surrounding regions. A nightmare, however, strengthens the powers of the shadier side of the Light World: Dark Thorn. The places were named after plants to epitomize the almost fragile nature of the Light World. Without nurturing a plant with water and fertilizer it will not grow, so to must people nurture the Light World in order for it to mature into a far better or worse place. The Light World needs both the dreams and the nightmares so that harmony can be achieved between Centre Rose and Dark Thorn.
But harmony is not achieved in the Light World. People in the real world have stoped dreaming, stopped hoping. They focus more on money and less on magic.
Hope is dying in the real world; magic, consigned only to children; love only to romantic fools. The world is only concerned with careers, ambitions, money and power. Gone are the days of trust and harmony. Today's world is full of war and pain, suspicion and hate.
Dark Thorn is getting stronger while Centre Rose weakens. So started the troubles of Centre Rose
* * *
Catherine ran up the stairs, her sandals slapping on the cold stones in a merciless rhythm. Frantic, her thoughts were a jumble of sentences, most unfinished, but all throbbing an insistent question: Where is Maya? A string of yarn tangled in a labyrinth of unforgiving snarls. Her thoughts like the yarn, jumping unsteadily as they tried to unwind.
Out of breath, she threw open the door to Maya's bedroom, a conflict of pictures running through her head, all more horrible to envision than the next. Opening her eyes the imaginings exploded in a million pieces as her eyes took in the scene before her.
Catherine let out a sigh of relief. Maya, oblivious to the chaos that was happening downstairs, was playing with her teddy bear, Niles. "Maya, honey, do you want to play a game with Mummy?" She kept her tone light so that her five-year-old daughter wouldn't get alarmed. She wanted Maya to be as calm as possible.
"Can Niles come too, Mum?" After Tobias had given her the bear, Maya was rarely seen without it. "Sure he can." Catherine added softly, "But we have to be very quiet. Come, we'll use the hidden door." Maya started to hesitate. "When I tell you to use it then it's allowed, okay? You wont get in trouble for using it if I ask you."
Sensing her mother's urgency but not understanding it, Maya happily collected her bear and lifted a corner of the wall rug that covered the door, and ran down the stairs. Catherine took one last look at her daughters bedroom with its childish decorations of strewn toys on the floor, bed unmade and pink drapes covering the windows, then she started down the stairs after Maya.
Catherine made certain to keep away from the damp walls. They were covered in cobwebs and forgotten slime. She took a couple of deep breaths, smelled the horrid scent of unwashed stonewalls and almost gagged. Her father had always told her that her great uncle Ronald had fallen down these steps and broken his neck. "His ghost still haunts the hidden passages, Cathie, and no one knows why. Don't go down there Cathie, he may take his anger out on you," her father had told her when on her seventh birthday. It was more the thought of a ghost that had made her forbid Maya to come down here, than the dirt that she had used as an excuse.
Reaching the bottom step, she took Maya's outstretched hand and led her through the maze of corridors hidden under the castle. When finally she reached the door that led to the veil that separated the Light World from Earth, she pushed it open, wincing as the metal hinges screeched in protest.
She scanned the trees and bushes for Tobias and when she could not find him, she walked to the veil and placed her hand on its soft surface. A myriad of pictures swam through her mind of different women who all at one time in their life had come to this spot to be comforted by the veil. It always surprised Catherine how delicate the veil seemed; it was frightening to imagine that the outside could force its way in. At times the veil was as strong as rock, and other times it seemed like a filmy cobweb stretched to its limits. Too weak to be much of a barrier.
Catherine ran her unsteady hands down her daughter's straight black hair, cupping the underside of Maya's head and lifting it to her face. She brought down her lips to her daughter's forehead and pressed them there for a miniscule of seconds. Too long for the impatient daughter, much too short for her distraught mother. Crouching in front of her daughter, she took Maya's hand in hers and placed both on the veil, both looking into the rainbow of colours trapped for eternity in the opaque divider.
"Maya, look at this veil. See how it is sometimes strong and sometimes weak? Sometimes you can count on it for protection; other times we pray that it wont break. Well I want you to know that I love you very much. And that I will love you forever. My love won't weaken, never, never." She whispered urgently. Maya looked into her mother's eyes and saw the unshed tears. Maya didn't know the cause for Catherine's unhappiness and thought maybe she was the reason.
She threw herself into her mother's arms and wailed, "I love you too Mummy! Don't cry, I'm sorry!" Catherine rushed to reassure Maya that she wasn't crying because of her. "I'm crying because I don't want to say goodbye."
"Then don't," came the voice from behind her.
Catherine looked up at Tobias and shook her head. "You know I have to." After gaining her attention he committed a formal bow before his queen. Again Catherine shook her head; "We don't have time for formalities now."
After one last hug, she transferred her daughter into her most trusted knight's arms. "Tobias, I trust you to keep her safe. Here, give this note to her when you arrive. May God bless. Goodbye."
With that she ran through the door, the sounds of muffled weeping seeping through the stone.
* * *
In the main hall, the man was bellowing at the serfs in the castle. Grabbing hold of a maid by her shirtfront, the man roared into her frightened face, "Where is your queen and her brat?" The portly woman with greying hair trembled as she looked into the large man's face. "I... I... I... "
"You what woman! Answer me! Do you understand English? Where is your queen and her little brat of a daughter?" He screamed in her face, disgusted by her cowardly quivering. "I don't know milord," the frightened woman managed to whisper.
Sickened by her, the man threw the woman across the room with a flick of his wrist. His unholy superhuman power stunned the woman, who cowered on the floor where she landed, hoping that if she didn't look him in the eye he would forget about her.
* * *
Tobias shook his head in frustration. Maya had taken a lot of reassuring that this was part of the game her mother had promised her. He hated lying to her, but knew this was the only way to keep the princess safe. Now she was sleeping peacefully in his arms, and he rode on to the university.
He rode through the shadowy path flanked by lush flora and giant trees, his heart heavy, his mind unbearably besieged with visions of his queen and the horror she would face alone; his eyes took in glorious images of natures finest. A bird's call tinkled through the forest, its cry a lonely reminder of how far away civilization was.
A butterfly coloured in magnificent hues of blue and red stopped to admire the petals of a pink wildflower. It fluttered close to inhale the glorious scent, the flapping wings of a nearby bird startled it and it flew away only returning when the bird had disappeared. Tobias wished that he could fly away the problems that Centre Rose faced.
But life wasn't that simple.
He stroked his hand absently through Maya's shiny soft hair and rode as fast as he could. He wanted Maya to be as far away as possible from the situation in Centre Rose.
An opening in the trees marked the path leading to the Tulip City University. He slowed his horse to a trot and approached the huge stone building. It looked stark and uninviting demonstrated by the lack of vines crawling up the walls. The curtains were a drab brown, and he unfavourably compared it to Centre Rose.
The Tulip City University was the only place Tobias could think of that would keep Maya safe until the disturbance at Centre Rose abated. The university housed only the brightest children in a boarding school manner, to further educate them amidst the scholars and professors. Learn with the best; taught by the best.
Tobias closed his eyes for a moment and fervently wished that Queen Catherine's lies about Maya's disappearance and death were believed. They had to be believed. Centre Rose would collapse without a queen to govern it. He knew that when it was safe, he would bring Maya home to be throned Queen.
She had to.
A woman walked up the path to greet them, her light blue gown dancing with her feet, propelled by the gentle breeze. She was looking puzzled at the unannounced arrivals until she spotted the saddle bearing Centre Rose's coat of arms. "Sir, I didn't know you were coming so soon! My name is Marian Treloar. Is that Maya?" Without leaving him a chance to answer she rushed on, "Let me have her. Oh isn't she cute! Come on sweetie wake up."
Maya groggily opened her eyes, disoriented; she stiffened in the stranger's arms. She looked around, saw Tobias and reached out her arms towards him, silently pleading with him to take her from the stranger. "Maya you stay with here okay? You'll be safe here."
"No! I want you." Stubbornly determined to have her way, Maya wriggled relentlessly out of the woman's arms.
Tobias crouched down in front of her and looked into her strange violet eyes, now filmy with unshed tears. Child, you've had such a bad day today, he thought to himself, and I will add to your sorrow by leaving you here by yourself. Among strangers. Oh you poor child, losing more than your parents. Losing your childhood. "Maya what did we always say about the queens of Centre Rose?" he whispered.
"Queens always have to protect their followers," the girl solemnly said the oft repeated phrase.
"Well this time we have to protect you. Because without a Queen, Centre Rose will not be the most powerful kingdom in the Light World. The people will suffer. Do you want that?" He felt terrible for putting so much pressure on a five year old but she *has* to understand. She has to stay *here*. She *has* to be protected.
Maya nodded miserably, knowing from his tone that she would not get her way.
After the explanations were made, Maya stood next to Marian and waved goodbye to Tobias. She held her mother's letter tightly to her chest. Her tears dropping silent and unnoticed off her cheeks to rest on the pebbles below.
In her five-year-old mind she was not being protected by the people she loves. She was being abandoned.
* * *
Fear. Pain. Loss. Uncertainty.
Fear for her daughter. Fear for herself. Fear for her people. Just aching fear. A fear that eats away at her courage, like a caterpillar eating a plant. Bite by deliberate bite. Until the plant is no more. Nothing but a decayed mass, a shadow of its former glory.
Pain. Inner pain. Gut wrenching emotion. A pain of a thousand stakes all stabbing. All hurting. Pulsing into her heart, radiating, rippling away until her body is a throbbing mass of hurt.
Loss. The loss of her daughter. Of her freedom. Maybe her life. Gasping for breath as a tidal wave of emotion pounds into her. Relentless. Uncaring. Images flit by her. Images of happiness. Images of sadness. All images of her daughter. It's too short a time, she screams desperately into her mind, the words pulsating in the mess that are her thoughts. But no one hears her cry. No one comforts her. No one wipes away her tears. No one holds her shaking shoulders to their chest. No one mumbles words that make no sense, meant to soothe not to be understood.
Uncertainty. Uncertain if she can do what is right. Uncertain whether it will work. Uncertain of the future. A bubbling elixir of doubt. Hissing in frothy anger. Steam wafting leisurely, wrapping the mind in misgivings, making it heady with the convictions of the damned.
Catherine stood up on shaky legs and slowly made her way to the main hall. Her head held high, her heart heavy.
Stalling the inevitable, she slowly descended down the stairs that led to her destination. Halfway down she heard a crash and peered around that banister to see poor Lynnette on the floor where the man had just thrown her. Catherine watched in horror as the man was slowly walking towards the terrified woman.
Finally as her shock grew to an undefinable magnitude and she could no longer take in the scene she was viewing, the words the man was shouting penetrated her consciousness and she was no longer frozen in her position.
"I'm here Calum."
The words came from nowhere but were heard everywhere. All of a sudden every person was halted in mid stride, the cook in mid-stir, the maid in mid-dust. The softly spoken words stopped the action as no shout could.
All eyes slowly, not daring to believe what their ears confirmed, turned to the stairs.
There she was.
The Queen of Centre Rose.
About to confront the King.
Her eyes puffy from crying, her hair windblown form her time outside, her cheeks flushed; yet she did not lose an inch of her regal elegance. Her black hair travelling in rivulets of curls stopping mid back, a river of darkness on a plane of light. While all eyes were on her, hers were on one person.
Calum MacKembsy.
The man she loved. The man who didn't trust her. The man who wanted her dead.
As she was thinking this, he strode purposely towards her. Catherine closed her eyes and conjured an image of Maya on her father's lap as he told her a bedtime story; she drew strength from the fact that Maya was safe. She was alive. She was loved.
Catherine's eyes snapped open as Calum jerked her arm forward. "Where the *hell* have you been? And where is that brat of yours?" He shouted the words into her face, his voice a tidal wave of noise, yet despite this, all she noticed was the foam. It was hard, but she resolved to stay silent through this humiliation. She looked over his shoulders and saw that everyone was unusually absorbed in what they were doing; all unnaturally concentrating on sweeping, dusting, chopping. Slowly, she brought her eyes back to his, still silent, partly because she knew it would infuriate him, and partly because she didn't know how to answer him without giving herself away.
*Our* daughter, she wanted to scream, but kept her silence.
As she expected, his face turned an alarming shade of red at this deliberate defiance, and his voice rose, "*Answer* me!" When she continued to be stubbornly silent, he put his hand in his jacket and pulled out a dagger, its blade glinting dangerously as the sky slowly dimmed.
"I won't hesitate to use this. Don't think that our union protects you; that I will be filled with compassion. I wont. Now answer my question" His calm voice was more disconcerting than his roaring. It strengthened the power of his threat, the cold feel of steel on her throat made it more difficult to swallow. Her tears silently fell from her eyes, her brain failed to comprehend that this was Calum and that he was threatening her.
Calum was getting a headache. He didn't want to hurt Catherine. Didn't she know that all she had to do was tell him where her brat was? He felt betrayed by his wife and his closest friend. The girl wasn't even his.
Catherine was never more afraid of another person than she was now. Her heart was thumping so loud that she could not hear the little whimpering sound that were emanating from her throat. "I don't know where Maya is, Calum, believe me," she answered truthfully. She had told Tobias not to tell her, because she was not sure of her resolve when put against Calum's charm, which was obviously absent now.
"Liar." He whispered the word, and strangely she shrunk away from him, as she had failed to when he was raising his voice.
Liar . . .
The gentle pressing of the dagger to smooth skin.
The slide of crimson down blue satin.
The frightening light-headedness that engulfed her where yellow light became a rainbow of etchings playing beneath her closed lids. Her breath quickened. Her gaze lost its sharpness, her body its strength. Suddenly she couldn't stand.
Liar . . .
Then all at once she felt fear. A terrifying fear enveloping her senses, destroying her thoughts. A fear only triumphed by pain. Unbearable pain. Excruciating, slowly shredding her.
A pain that splinters the body yet slays the soul.
* * *
Well? What do you think? Comments or criticism, I can take it.