Title: Chronicles of the Moon: Life of the Late Queen Serenity
By: AJ Martinez
Email: goodnight_spoon@hotmail.com
Rated: PG
Length:
Started: 10/9/03 - 11:53:02 AM
Finished:
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. Any characters that you do not
recognize, however, are most likely my creations, and I would prefer that
you not use them without first contacting me and working out the details.
Whoa, long time no write (that sounded better in my head). I've just been so busy lately with school and drivers training.ah, well, enough of my whining. On with the story!
This chapter is dedicated to my cousin, Theresa, who will be turning ONE YEAR OLD on October 18th. ^____________^ Happy birthday, T! And also to my cousin Margie, who just became a mommy (for the 5th time O_o).
That night Serenity sat on her bed and stared at the wall. She knew where the secret door was, could feel its presence burning in her mind's eye. She could go anytime now, she knew. The night shift had been called out a few minutes ago, and she could hear their soft footsteps as they paced past her chambers in groups of two or three. Luna and Artemis slept at the head of the bed, their small bodies twisted and mashed against the headboard.
Serenity thought back to that morning, and telling Mea about her discovery. He had been very quiet for what seemed like a long time, and then he had told her to go back to the palace and investigate the escape route in her chambers. She was to report back to him when she knew where it led, how many people could fit in at a time, how long it took to get from one point to another, and anything else that she thought might be useful. He had also mentioned that it would help if they had the blueprints for the dungeon.
The wind blew in through the balcony, reminding Serenity that it was October, and she shivered deeper underneath her covers, loath to leave them. Dozens of times before, she had questioned the wisdom in joining up with the Cause. It wasn't that she didn't believe in what they stood for.she couldn't remember a time that she had ever believed in anything more.but their desperation sometimes frightened her. She knew that they would do anything to see to it that they succeeded, and that they had nothing-absolutely nothing-to lose.
For the fist time since her involvement with them, she feared for the lives of her family. She had never thought that Mea would deliberately harm them, not when he knew how much they must mean to her, but now she wasn't so sure. She had seen that same desperation in his eyes that night of the raid, that willingness to do anything, so long as it would ensure the success of the Cause.
*But he wouldn't hurt my parents,* she thought. *Even were they not my parents, they're the King and Queen-his King and Queen..*
*If you believe that, you're dumber than I thought.*
Serenity looked over to where the Crystal lay on her bedside table.
"What makes you say that?" she asked.
*Many things,* the Crystal replied sagely. *Most of all, common sense.*
"Why do you always talk in riddles?" Serenity cried. "Why can't you ever give a straight answer? If you're not going to help me, and your only insight is in the form of puzzles, then don't speak to me at all. I prefer my own company and that of my thoughts to yours."
The Crystal sent her a feeling akin to mirth. *Ah, there you go! That's what I like to see: a backbone.*
"Well," Serenity said, "you'll be very happy in the coming days, then."
*Promises, promises.*
Serenity ignored the Crystal. Feeling the need to prove something, she sprang from her bed and padded over to the far wall. She had never actually opened the hidden door, although she knew where it was and how to access it. Falling to her knees, she ran her fingers along the bottom of the wall, although she knew that they would find no careless irregularity. As her fingers skimmed a certain baseboard, she pressed her palm to it, feeling the sharp pinch as a sample of her blood was taken and verified. The last king of the moon had spent seven years learning the intricacies of this blood-testing science, and finally set it up to work with the ancient passage. Although, in any other instance, he could have commissioned someone else to do it, the secret of the passage could not be told to anyone.
Her identity verified, Serenity pressed on the baseboard and was rewarded as it shifted inward slightly. Reaching her fingers inside, Serenity tapped the top of the opening lightly. Without a sound, a large panel of the wall slid backward, and then up, revealing a gaping, four-foot by four-foot opening. A large, wooden box, closed on all sides but the one facing Serenity, hung suspended by a thick rope. The same rope went through the top and out the bottom, doubled over on itself so that one could sit in the crate and use the rope as a pulley to maneuver the box, elevator-like, up or down as the passenger saw fit.
Serenity could feel the Crystal's presence behind her, not too far away, still on the bedside table but too close for her liking. Its awareness grated against her mind, setting her teeth on edge as it tried to pry inside her thoughts. Intent on escaping its prying fingers, Serenity made to get into the crate.
*Wait!* the Crystal cried. *Where are you going?*
The answer seeming obvious to her, Serenity didn't reply.
Changing tactics, the Crystal asked, *Where's your candle?* and then, *I wouldn't bring one in there with me, if I were you. How would you hold it? It would surely fall over, and oh! to be trapped in a large dumbwaiter with flames all around oneself..*
"Is there a point to this?" Serenity asked.
*I could help you.*
Serenity raised an eyebrow. "How?" she asked, and then snickered. "Are you going to hold the candle for me?"
*Hardly,* the Crystal answered, and then was silent for a moment, seemingly thinking. *If you would come over here and pick me up, I'll show you.*
Warily, Serenity crept over to the Crystal and, hand hovering over it, warned, "No tricks."
*No tricks,* the Crystal echoed.
Serenity's hand closed over the Crystal, warm and soft, and as she lifted it from the table a pulsating heat began to seep from it. Light dripping out from around her fingers, pure and white.
At this point, nothing that the Crystal could do surprised Serenity. Quietly, she crossed the floor and climbed into the crate, pausing only to slip the Crystal around her neck. The light flickered as her skin came out of contact with it, but then returned as it fell into place between the swells of her breasts. Although she did not know it then, the Crystal was drawing on Serenity's energy to produce the light.
Once in the crate, Serenity made the mistake of touching the wall, and the door slid back into place, sealing her in almost complete darkness, save for the glow of the Crystal. Claustrophobia crushed down on her, and Serenity shivered convulsively. Forcing herself to remain calm, Serenity took hold of the ropes and pulled first one, and then, when it moved her upward slightly, the other, slowly bringing herself downward.
The ride seemed to take hours to Serenity, although she supposed that, in actuality, it only lasted ten or fifteen minutes, and then only that long because she pulled the ropes so slowly, for fear that age and strain would cause them to break.
When her crate finally hit the ground, the contact of it, although mild, shocked through Serenity, causing her every nerve to be on end. She threw herself out of her box-prison, almost face-first on the dirt floor. The Crystal flickered, and she reached a hand to her breast to cradle it. The light resumed, and, after a moment, so did she.
Serenity found that she could stand, and when she held the Crystal up above her head, she saw an eight-foot high ceiling carved from the earth, although the occasional patch of concrete or marble disrupted the earthy look. The tunnel stretched out in front of her and behind her for as far as she could see, and suddenly Serenity wished that she had thought to bring stylus or paper-Mea had wanted details, and surely these would count as such.
As she took a step backward, Serenity's foot bumped the crate, and, much to her horror and chagrin, it began to travel upward quickly, out of her reach, on its way back to her chambers without her.
*Well,* the Crystal said, *you sure handle that.*
"Hush up, you," Serenity snapped. She had put up with the Crystal's abuse long enough, and was certainly in no mood for it now.
For once the Crystal obeyed, and Serenity looked around herself in every direction. There was a tunnel behind her going off beyond her line of sight, and one in front of her. She tried to reason where exactly she might be under the palace, but the dark and being underground stole any sense of direction that she might have possessed. It seemed better to walk forward than backward, but Serenity was loathe to leave her spot for fear that she would not remember how to get back.
*What does it matter, though?* she asked herself. *I can't return to my chambers by this course.* she made to take a step forward, but then stopped. *Oh, but Mea.* she sighed. *He'll want all the details. How am I to remember the way back?*
Stymied, Serenity stared at the dirt walls, her mind working feverishly. Roots jutted from the dirt above, below and to the side of her, their finger-like tendrils seeming to grasp at her. It was an unsettling thought in such a dark, forsaken place, and Serenity shivered.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to her, and the princess hurried forward and grasped one of the thicker roots. Tugging, she freed some of it, and then placed a slipper-clad foot on the wall as a brace, attempting to yank the rest out.
The Crystal sent her the concept of a sigh. *Touch me to the root's base.*
Serenity paused, then complied. When the Crystal came into contact with the root there was an acrid, burning smell, and the area where the Crystal was touching began to waver and smoke, then curl and burn away, as if repulsed by the Crystal's touch. Soon it was dangling by a string of its former self, and Serenity was able to yank it free.
"Thank you," Serenity murmured, and then, brandishing her root, set it to the dirt wall and dragged it along as she walked forward, leaving a winding, thread-like trail behind her.
*Very cleaver, Princess,* the Crystal said, and Serenity couldn't help but feel proud, warmed by the compliment.
She walked straight for a while, the Crystal illuminating just enough in front of her that she wouldn't walk into anything. Not that that was much of an option, considering that there wasn't anything to walk into. They had been walking in silence for almost thirty minutes when the Crystal said, *If you say my name, I am no longer there. Who am I?*
Serenity stumbled, unprepared for a question of any sort at this time, when she was so lost in thought. "What?"
*It's a riddle, Princess. Solve it. It'll give you something to do while we walk.*
Irritated, Serenity kept silent and thought about the riddle.
"Silence," she said, after a few minutes.
If the Crystal had been prepared to say anything, it never got the chance, for at that moment they came to a dead end. For a moment Serenity panicked, but then she remembered the badger hole, and looked up. Sure enough, there was a trap door, this one within her reach, although she wondered what she would have done id she had had need for these tunnels as a child. Chilled by the very thought, she reached up and undid the clasp on the door. Bracing her palm on the door close to the clasp, she pushed up slowly, not wanting to call attention to her whereabouts to anyone that might be in the area, watching.
Noticing small foot cubbies carved into the dirt wall, Serenity placed one foot in and stepped up, pushing the door open higher. Dirt came sifting through, covering her head and embedding itself in her hair. Serenity coughed, but closed her eyes and continued to push. She took another step up, then another, until her eyes could peek out from underneath the heavy, wooden door.
All around her she could see grass, and a cold wind blew more dirt her way. Craning her neck to look in the other direction, Serenity took another step up.
The change of height gave her a much better vantage point, and she could now see the city off in the distance.
Back when the palace had been built, the city had already been there, but it had then been nothing more than a small farming village, a hamlet of sorts. Wanting to escape from it all, the king had had the palace built, not to be the main abode for the future high kings and queens of the moon, but as a vacation house for himself and his family. Constructed away from the main cities and even some distance from this nearby village, it had been just that for several years. Then gold was found in the land, and, soon after that, the fur of the challak (a small woodland mammal closely resembling a small deer) was all the rage, and so the king began drilling for gold and trapping for challak. That, of course, meant making his already large keep even larger, and now that he could afford the best that money could buy, he did. Within less than twenty years the gold was all gone and the challak extinct, but the king was richer than any other, hid palace larger than any other, and, seeing as his line was purer than any other to begin with, he named himself High King and was unopposed. But his palace remained away from the city that his people had built, as if in rebuke of their efforts at grandeur.
Now Serenity could see the city, lit up like fireflies in the darkness. That meant that she was outside the palace walls, and a quick look over her shoulder proved her right. Sure that no one was watching, Serenity crawled up out of the tunnel, slithering on her belly across the damp grass until she was completely out. The door closed behind her, and Serenity spun around and dug her fingers into the earth, rooting around until she found the door. She knew that she had no excuse to be out of the palace and off palace grounds in the middle of the night, and the thought of going back inside by way of the main doors and being undoubtedly noticed and ratted out to her royal parents turned her stomach.
Thinking quickly, Serenity estimated that her time in the tunnels had totaled around fifteen or twenty minutes, and that meant that she had not been gone from her room for nearly so long as she had imagined, and that it was only ten-thirty or eleven at night; too late for any visitors, except the urgent or foreign type.and foreign she was.
Tucking the Crystal into her nightgown, Serenity shivered, wished that she had thought to wear her overcoat, and started for the cathedral.
Mea was planning strategy when a knock sounded at his door.
"Enter."
A guard came in, his stance formal.
Mea stood up straighter. Something was up; he had known this guard for long enough that the man was only formal with him on matters of great importance. "Proceed."
"Lordship," the guard tugged his forelock. "Luna is here to see you."
Serenity was sitting in a large, sparse room. There were table and chairs, but they were crude, and everything was made of stone. Light patches on the floor and walls identified the spots where rugs, tapestries and other niceties had once been displayed, and the lack of grandeur made Serenity slightly nervous. This was not something that she was used to.
*Here he comes,* said the Crystal, and Serenity looked to the door. A few moments later she heard footsteps, and then it opened. Mea waddled into the room, his hair hanging into his face in its usual disarray.
"Princess," he said without preamble. Her position was not something that he was willing to just overlook.
"Mea," Serenity returned, trying to match his serious tone. But, although she gave it her best effort, her eyes sparkled. "I have news."
Mea tried to look at Serenity dispassionately, but his heart was beating faster. *News!* his main goal right now was to free their--*his*, he corrected himself-comrades, and, much as he hated to admit it, it was only with Serenity's help that that was becoming a feasible thing.
Gesturing for her to sit, Mea sat across from her and thought that this was not the sort of room that she was used to. No doubt, she was disgusted by it.
*A lot of good all their lessons on manners and decorum did this one,* Mea thought archly. *I wonder what her royal parents would think if they knew that she was running about the countryside at night, visiting slaves, fraternizing with known enemies.and all in her nightgown.* the thought of it made him smile.
Serenity smiled back. "Is something amusing?"
"You," Mea replied. She looked about to say something, but Mea cut her off before she could. "What did you have to tell me?"
Now Serenity's smile changed into a grin. "I went through that escape route in my chambers."
When she said nothing more, Mea prodded, "And?"
While she had been waiting for him, Serenity had composed her report, mimicking the style that guards had used with her father. "Upon opening the escape route on my wall, I entered a crate, perhaps four feet by four feet. There were two ropes strung through it and these were used to maneuver the crate up or down. It took perhaps fifteen minutes to get down to the bottom, but it should take only about five to seven minutes going at a regular speed.
"Once to the bottom, one finds oneself in a large series of tunnels, all carved into the earth underneath the palace. I took the tunnels directly in front of me, and there were no other forks in the tunnels, although there may have been in the other direction.
"I reached a dead end within ten or fifteen minutes, and above me was a trap door clasped shut. It was not so high up that I could not reach it, unclasp it and then shove it up. There were also steps carved into the earth, and I used these to push the door the rest of the way up and climb out of the tunnel.
"Once having done that, I found myself around five yards outside of the palace gates, by the servants' quarters.
"After that I walked over here."
Mea nodded slowly, his mind working feverishly. It mattered not that she had come tonight, nor that she had not made blueprints of the tunnels; she couldn't be expected to think of everything. However, these tunnels may very well be the most important thing in this new mission, and he had her to thank for it.
Not that he was going to, of course. That might give her the wrong impression.
Looking up to meet her eyes, Mea smiled slowly and lazily. "Good work. I."
"Thank you, Mea," Serenity interrupted brusquely. "I have an outline for our rescue mission planned out, if you would not mind hearing it." Without waiting for him to reply, she continued on. "I say that you bring a small entourage-say, you and three people-and make your way over to the palace in three or four days. You all come in through the tunnels, and I'll be waiting for you in my chambers, ready to lead you to the dungeons. It shouldn't take too long to break them free," she said, youthful naiveté at its best, "and then we can all return to my chambers, where I'll supply cloaks and the like for all those involved. After that you may all leave by way of the escape route."
Mea looked at her blankly. Even after the minor mission that he had taken her on and the raid, she still had no idea how much was riding on this and how dangerous, time consuming and difficult their task was.
*But she wouldn't,* Mea thought to himself, regaining his mental composure. *She's just a royal, after all.*
But as he thought on her "outline," he could not help but see some usefulness to it. Not all of it, of course, but she had most of it planned accordingly. There was the matter of the dungeons-they'd need those blueprints-and when the guards would be patrolling, but aside from that, they could use her plan.
Mea cleared his throat. "Go home now, Serenity, and fetch me the blueprints for the dungeons. You may bring them back here tomorrow at your convenience, although we'd like to have them by midday so that we may begin to plot this mission in earnest." Seeing that she looked about to interrupt, Mea began talking faster to cut her off. "Your suggestions have been taken into mind, and many of them may be used." He got up. "I'll see you tomorrow, then."
Serenity could see the palace in the distance as she walked toward it, and with every step her dread grew. She was proud of the way that she had handled herself with Mea, reporting to him in a way that she thought was very professional and military. But she was not pleased with his reaction to her. He still seemed so cool and calm, completely collected and at ease, sitting there like some feral animal, just waiting for her to hang herself.
Serenity shook the thought out of her head. Whatever he may think of her or her efforts, he had not been unpleasant or unreasonable, and she would do as he bid and bring the dungeon blueprints to the cathedral tomorrow.
Lost in thought, it was only the Crystal's mental nudge that brought Serenity back to reality quickly enough for her to veer off into the shadows before a palace guard could spot her. She had come upon the palace by now, and still had no idea how she would gain entrance. Serenity knew that she could not simply pretend to be someone else and hope that the guards would let her in; first of all, they would not, and secondly, even if they did, her name would be added to a ledger, and then there would be the trouble of making a plausible alias (someone with a right and a reason to enter the palace) and the trouble that would then befall the innocent guard when her newly created character vanished. All in all, it was time to think of a new plan; one that did not involve false persons or actually revealing herself.
"Any ideas?" Serenity asked the Crystal.
The Crystal sent back the mental equivalent of a shrug. *What happened to the great strategist of thirty minutes ago?*
This irritated Serenity. She was tired and cold and her feat hurt, and now she was becoming cranky. Revealing herself was not an option; the consequences were more than she was willing to suffer, even for the Cause. She might be able to get back into the tunnel and up into the dumbwaiter, but even supposing that she could lift herself up, what then? The door was closed, and chances were not good for getting it open. But..
Serenity started heading toward the trap door. *There were other tunnels,* she thought. *Any one of them might lead to an unlocked door in the palace.*
*Very smart,* the Crystal commended.
As she reached the spot that the door was, Serenity dropped to her knees and ran her hands over the ground, rooting around until she felt the harsh wood from the trap door. Because it had been used so recently, it was more inclined to open from the outside, but even then it was heavy and clung to the earth. Dirt spilled into the tunnel at what sounded like a deafening volume to Serenity's wary ears, but was actually no more than a whisper.
When she had it open just enough to slip in, Serenity sat down and dangled her legs into the hole. She started to slide in more, but the thought of slowly lowering herself on her back into a black abyss was not a pleasant one, and so Serenity cautiously rolled onto her stomach and slid in a little more. Kicking with her legs, she swung them about until her toes touched the cubbies in the side of the tunnel's wall. Slowly, she began to let herself more and more into the hole, going down one cubby after another until she was only visible outside the hole from the breasts up. Upon trying to slide down more, Serenity found that her breasts were holding her outside the hole like an anchor. Pushing herself up on her elbows, she began to inch backward. Her grip was not as sure now, but the princess was becoming impatient. Instead of going slower, she backed up quickly.
The wooden trap door scraped painfully against her back, pulling her night gown up with it. Her feat fumbled on the small cubbies and slipped, dragging her down into the hole in a free fall. Down she flew, and the door crashed down painfully on both her head and her hands. Letting go reflexively, she plummeted into the darkness, landing on the spot between her bottom and her lower back. The fall shocked pain through her, and then there was her hair. It was stuck in the door, halfway in the tunnel and halfway out, and it had been yanked in the fall hard enough to make her head ache. On top of all that, it had come undone.
Angrily, Serenity began to slowly tug it out from the door's grasps. When it was free she was too upset to say anything, her pleasant mood completely evaporated, and the tired, grumpy princess stomped off down the tunnels.
This time she walked faster, no longer afraid to bump her head or trip over anything. The faint glow from the Crystal allowed her to see when she passed up the elevator that would take her back to her chambers, and she sneered at it as she passed.
Serenity felt abused and tired and longed for the comfort of her bed. She continues walking until she reached another dumbwaiter, and then she came to a slow stop. It was well kept-up, that wasn't the problem. But suddenly an overwhelming feeling of apprehension came over her. She realized that she had no idea where this elevator lead; it would very well take her into a part of the palace that she had never been, and then she would have to spend the entire night casting about from one room to another, searching for a familiar tapestry.
*And I'll need to get those blueprints tonight if I'm ever to have them to Mea tomorrow on time,* her mind added.
Serenity sighed. She really had no choice.
Getting into the crate, Serenity began pulling the ropes, one after another until she figured out which one would take her up. The trip upward was much slower than the trip down, and much harder. Although the crate had spokes of some sort to keep her from plummeting, should she release the rope, it left her to rely entirely on her upper-body strength to pull it up.
When she finally reached a small door, not unlike the one in her room, Serenity pushed at it gently. It did not move.
*Touch me to it,* the Crystal said.
Serenity began to comply, then stopped. She glared at the Crystal. "You might have reminded me of this talent of yours thirty minutes ago: we could have simple returned to my chambers." Blinking back angry tears, Serenity swallowed hard. This had not been any easy night for her.
Despite her angry words, the Crystal worked its magic without comment, and the door flew open. Desperate to get out of her coffin-like prison, Serenity abandoned caution and threw herself out of the crate and into the vast chamber before her. She blinked, her eyes adjusting to the darkness. Then she gasped.
She had stumbled into her parents' room.
Ugh, yes, I knoooowww.we all hate cliff-hangers. But Christmas vacation is over in three or four days, and I haven't the time to write any more right at this minute. You know what sucks, though? I have to go back to school on the 5th, which is my 16th birthday. ;_; I'm sad.
Anyway, email/AIM/critique/review. And please check out my new website, ! It has pictures of me, family, friends, my art, my writing, and pictures of people that I don't like. I've slaved on it so far, but some of the sections are not up yet, so please be patient. :P
Happy New Year! As Mrs. Gorsky says, "Stay safe and stay holy"!
AJ AJluvs2Bannoying Goodnight_spoon@hotmail.com
Whoa, long time no write (that sounded better in my head). I've just been so busy lately with school and drivers training.ah, well, enough of my whining. On with the story!
This chapter is dedicated to my cousin, Theresa, who will be turning ONE YEAR OLD on October 18th. ^____________^ Happy birthday, T! And also to my cousin Margie, who just became a mommy (for the 5th time O_o).
That night Serenity sat on her bed and stared at the wall. She knew where the secret door was, could feel its presence burning in her mind's eye. She could go anytime now, she knew. The night shift had been called out a few minutes ago, and she could hear their soft footsteps as they paced past her chambers in groups of two or three. Luna and Artemis slept at the head of the bed, their small bodies twisted and mashed against the headboard.
Serenity thought back to that morning, and telling Mea about her discovery. He had been very quiet for what seemed like a long time, and then he had told her to go back to the palace and investigate the escape route in her chambers. She was to report back to him when she knew where it led, how many people could fit in at a time, how long it took to get from one point to another, and anything else that she thought might be useful. He had also mentioned that it would help if they had the blueprints for the dungeon.
The wind blew in through the balcony, reminding Serenity that it was October, and she shivered deeper underneath her covers, loath to leave them. Dozens of times before, she had questioned the wisdom in joining up with the Cause. It wasn't that she didn't believe in what they stood for.she couldn't remember a time that she had ever believed in anything more.but their desperation sometimes frightened her. She knew that they would do anything to see to it that they succeeded, and that they had nothing-absolutely nothing-to lose.
For the fist time since her involvement with them, she feared for the lives of her family. She had never thought that Mea would deliberately harm them, not when he knew how much they must mean to her, but now she wasn't so sure. She had seen that same desperation in his eyes that night of the raid, that willingness to do anything, so long as it would ensure the success of the Cause.
*But he wouldn't hurt my parents,* she thought. *Even were they not my parents, they're the King and Queen-his King and Queen..*
*If you believe that, you're dumber than I thought.*
Serenity looked over to where the Crystal lay on her bedside table.
"What makes you say that?" she asked.
*Many things,* the Crystal replied sagely. *Most of all, common sense.*
"Why do you always talk in riddles?" Serenity cried. "Why can't you ever give a straight answer? If you're not going to help me, and your only insight is in the form of puzzles, then don't speak to me at all. I prefer my own company and that of my thoughts to yours."
The Crystal sent her a feeling akin to mirth. *Ah, there you go! That's what I like to see: a backbone.*
"Well," Serenity said, "you'll be very happy in the coming days, then."
*Promises, promises.*
Serenity ignored the Crystal. Feeling the need to prove something, she sprang from her bed and padded over to the far wall. She had never actually opened the hidden door, although she knew where it was and how to access it. Falling to her knees, she ran her fingers along the bottom of the wall, although she knew that they would find no careless irregularity. As her fingers skimmed a certain baseboard, she pressed her palm to it, feeling the sharp pinch as a sample of her blood was taken and verified. The last king of the moon had spent seven years learning the intricacies of this blood-testing science, and finally set it up to work with the ancient passage. Although, in any other instance, he could have commissioned someone else to do it, the secret of the passage could not be told to anyone.
Her identity verified, Serenity pressed on the baseboard and was rewarded as it shifted inward slightly. Reaching her fingers inside, Serenity tapped the top of the opening lightly. Without a sound, a large panel of the wall slid backward, and then up, revealing a gaping, four-foot by four-foot opening. A large, wooden box, closed on all sides but the one facing Serenity, hung suspended by a thick rope. The same rope went through the top and out the bottom, doubled over on itself so that one could sit in the crate and use the rope as a pulley to maneuver the box, elevator-like, up or down as the passenger saw fit.
Serenity could feel the Crystal's presence behind her, not too far away, still on the bedside table but too close for her liking. Its awareness grated against her mind, setting her teeth on edge as it tried to pry inside her thoughts. Intent on escaping its prying fingers, Serenity made to get into the crate.
*Wait!* the Crystal cried. *Where are you going?*
The answer seeming obvious to her, Serenity didn't reply.
Changing tactics, the Crystal asked, *Where's your candle?* and then, *I wouldn't bring one in there with me, if I were you. How would you hold it? It would surely fall over, and oh! to be trapped in a large dumbwaiter with flames all around oneself..*
"Is there a point to this?" Serenity asked.
*I could help you.*
Serenity raised an eyebrow. "How?" she asked, and then snickered. "Are you going to hold the candle for me?"
*Hardly,* the Crystal answered, and then was silent for a moment, seemingly thinking. *If you would come over here and pick me up, I'll show you.*
Warily, Serenity crept over to the Crystal and, hand hovering over it, warned, "No tricks."
*No tricks,* the Crystal echoed.
Serenity's hand closed over the Crystal, warm and soft, and as she lifted it from the table a pulsating heat began to seep from it. Light dripping out from around her fingers, pure and white.
At this point, nothing that the Crystal could do surprised Serenity. Quietly, she crossed the floor and climbed into the crate, pausing only to slip the Crystal around her neck. The light flickered as her skin came out of contact with it, but then returned as it fell into place between the swells of her breasts. Although she did not know it then, the Crystal was drawing on Serenity's energy to produce the light.
Once in the crate, Serenity made the mistake of touching the wall, and the door slid back into place, sealing her in almost complete darkness, save for the glow of the Crystal. Claustrophobia crushed down on her, and Serenity shivered convulsively. Forcing herself to remain calm, Serenity took hold of the ropes and pulled first one, and then, when it moved her upward slightly, the other, slowly bringing herself downward.
The ride seemed to take hours to Serenity, although she supposed that, in actuality, it only lasted ten or fifteen minutes, and then only that long because she pulled the ropes so slowly, for fear that age and strain would cause them to break.
When her crate finally hit the ground, the contact of it, although mild, shocked through Serenity, causing her every nerve to be on end. She threw herself out of her box-prison, almost face-first on the dirt floor. The Crystal flickered, and she reached a hand to her breast to cradle it. The light resumed, and, after a moment, so did she.
Serenity found that she could stand, and when she held the Crystal up above her head, she saw an eight-foot high ceiling carved from the earth, although the occasional patch of concrete or marble disrupted the earthy look. The tunnel stretched out in front of her and behind her for as far as she could see, and suddenly Serenity wished that she had thought to bring stylus or paper-Mea had wanted details, and surely these would count as such.
As she took a step backward, Serenity's foot bumped the crate, and, much to her horror and chagrin, it began to travel upward quickly, out of her reach, on its way back to her chambers without her.
*Well,* the Crystal said, *you sure handle that.*
"Hush up, you," Serenity snapped. She had put up with the Crystal's abuse long enough, and was certainly in no mood for it now.
For once the Crystal obeyed, and Serenity looked around herself in every direction. There was a tunnel behind her going off beyond her line of sight, and one in front of her. She tried to reason where exactly she might be under the palace, but the dark and being underground stole any sense of direction that she might have possessed. It seemed better to walk forward than backward, but Serenity was loathe to leave her spot for fear that she would not remember how to get back.
*What does it matter, though?* she asked herself. *I can't return to my chambers by this course.* she made to take a step forward, but then stopped. *Oh, but Mea.* she sighed. *He'll want all the details. How am I to remember the way back?*
Stymied, Serenity stared at the dirt walls, her mind working feverishly. Roots jutted from the dirt above, below and to the side of her, their finger-like tendrils seeming to grasp at her. It was an unsettling thought in such a dark, forsaken place, and Serenity shivered.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to her, and the princess hurried forward and grasped one of the thicker roots. Tugging, she freed some of it, and then placed a slipper-clad foot on the wall as a brace, attempting to yank the rest out.
The Crystal sent her the concept of a sigh. *Touch me to the root's base.*
Serenity paused, then complied. When the Crystal came into contact with the root there was an acrid, burning smell, and the area where the Crystal was touching began to waver and smoke, then curl and burn away, as if repulsed by the Crystal's touch. Soon it was dangling by a string of its former self, and Serenity was able to yank it free.
"Thank you," Serenity murmured, and then, brandishing her root, set it to the dirt wall and dragged it along as she walked forward, leaving a winding, thread-like trail behind her.
*Very cleaver, Princess,* the Crystal said, and Serenity couldn't help but feel proud, warmed by the compliment.
She walked straight for a while, the Crystal illuminating just enough in front of her that she wouldn't walk into anything. Not that that was much of an option, considering that there wasn't anything to walk into. They had been walking in silence for almost thirty minutes when the Crystal said, *If you say my name, I am no longer there. Who am I?*
Serenity stumbled, unprepared for a question of any sort at this time, when she was so lost in thought. "What?"
*It's a riddle, Princess. Solve it. It'll give you something to do while we walk.*
Irritated, Serenity kept silent and thought about the riddle.
"Silence," she said, after a few minutes.
If the Crystal had been prepared to say anything, it never got the chance, for at that moment they came to a dead end. For a moment Serenity panicked, but then she remembered the badger hole, and looked up. Sure enough, there was a trap door, this one within her reach, although she wondered what she would have done id she had had need for these tunnels as a child. Chilled by the very thought, she reached up and undid the clasp on the door. Bracing her palm on the door close to the clasp, she pushed up slowly, not wanting to call attention to her whereabouts to anyone that might be in the area, watching.
Noticing small foot cubbies carved into the dirt wall, Serenity placed one foot in and stepped up, pushing the door open higher. Dirt came sifting through, covering her head and embedding itself in her hair. Serenity coughed, but closed her eyes and continued to push. She took another step up, then another, until her eyes could peek out from underneath the heavy, wooden door.
All around her she could see grass, and a cold wind blew more dirt her way. Craning her neck to look in the other direction, Serenity took another step up.
The change of height gave her a much better vantage point, and she could now see the city off in the distance.
Back when the palace had been built, the city had already been there, but it had then been nothing more than a small farming village, a hamlet of sorts. Wanting to escape from it all, the king had had the palace built, not to be the main abode for the future high kings and queens of the moon, but as a vacation house for himself and his family. Constructed away from the main cities and even some distance from this nearby village, it had been just that for several years. Then gold was found in the land, and, soon after that, the fur of the challak (a small woodland mammal closely resembling a small deer) was all the rage, and so the king began drilling for gold and trapping for challak. That, of course, meant making his already large keep even larger, and now that he could afford the best that money could buy, he did. Within less than twenty years the gold was all gone and the challak extinct, but the king was richer than any other, hid palace larger than any other, and, seeing as his line was purer than any other to begin with, he named himself High King and was unopposed. But his palace remained away from the city that his people had built, as if in rebuke of their efforts at grandeur.
Now Serenity could see the city, lit up like fireflies in the darkness. That meant that she was outside the palace walls, and a quick look over her shoulder proved her right. Sure that no one was watching, Serenity crawled up out of the tunnel, slithering on her belly across the damp grass until she was completely out. The door closed behind her, and Serenity spun around and dug her fingers into the earth, rooting around until she found the door. She knew that she had no excuse to be out of the palace and off palace grounds in the middle of the night, and the thought of going back inside by way of the main doors and being undoubtedly noticed and ratted out to her royal parents turned her stomach.
Thinking quickly, Serenity estimated that her time in the tunnels had totaled around fifteen or twenty minutes, and that meant that she had not been gone from her room for nearly so long as she had imagined, and that it was only ten-thirty or eleven at night; too late for any visitors, except the urgent or foreign type.and foreign she was.
Tucking the Crystal into her nightgown, Serenity shivered, wished that she had thought to wear her overcoat, and started for the cathedral.
Mea was planning strategy when a knock sounded at his door.
"Enter."
A guard came in, his stance formal.
Mea stood up straighter. Something was up; he had known this guard for long enough that the man was only formal with him on matters of great importance. "Proceed."
"Lordship," the guard tugged his forelock. "Luna is here to see you."
Serenity was sitting in a large, sparse room. There were table and chairs, but they were crude, and everything was made of stone. Light patches on the floor and walls identified the spots where rugs, tapestries and other niceties had once been displayed, and the lack of grandeur made Serenity slightly nervous. This was not something that she was used to.
*Here he comes,* said the Crystal, and Serenity looked to the door. A few moments later she heard footsteps, and then it opened. Mea waddled into the room, his hair hanging into his face in its usual disarray.
"Princess," he said without preamble. Her position was not something that he was willing to just overlook.
"Mea," Serenity returned, trying to match his serious tone. But, although she gave it her best effort, her eyes sparkled. "I have news."
Mea tried to look at Serenity dispassionately, but his heart was beating faster. *News!* his main goal right now was to free their--*his*, he corrected himself-comrades, and, much as he hated to admit it, it was only with Serenity's help that that was becoming a feasible thing.
Gesturing for her to sit, Mea sat across from her and thought that this was not the sort of room that she was used to. No doubt, she was disgusted by it.
*A lot of good all their lessons on manners and decorum did this one,* Mea thought archly. *I wonder what her royal parents would think if they knew that she was running about the countryside at night, visiting slaves, fraternizing with known enemies.and all in her nightgown.* the thought of it made him smile.
Serenity smiled back. "Is something amusing?"
"You," Mea replied. She looked about to say something, but Mea cut her off before she could. "What did you have to tell me?"
Now Serenity's smile changed into a grin. "I went through that escape route in my chambers."
When she said nothing more, Mea prodded, "And?"
While she had been waiting for him, Serenity had composed her report, mimicking the style that guards had used with her father. "Upon opening the escape route on my wall, I entered a crate, perhaps four feet by four feet. There were two ropes strung through it and these were used to maneuver the crate up or down. It took perhaps fifteen minutes to get down to the bottom, but it should take only about five to seven minutes going at a regular speed.
"Once to the bottom, one finds oneself in a large series of tunnels, all carved into the earth underneath the palace. I took the tunnels directly in front of me, and there were no other forks in the tunnels, although there may have been in the other direction.
"I reached a dead end within ten or fifteen minutes, and above me was a trap door clasped shut. It was not so high up that I could not reach it, unclasp it and then shove it up. There were also steps carved into the earth, and I used these to push the door the rest of the way up and climb out of the tunnel.
"Once having done that, I found myself around five yards outside of the palace gates, by the servants' quarters.
"After that I walked over here."
Mea nodded slowly, his mind working feverishly. It mattered not that she had come tonight, nor that she had not made blueprints of the tunnels; she couldn't be expected to think of everything. However, these tunnels may very well be the most important thing in this new mission, and he had her to thank for it.
Not that he was going to, of course. That might give her the wrong impression.
Looking up to meet her eyes, Mea smiled slowly and lazily. "Good work. I."
"Thank you, Mea," Serenity interrupted brusquely. "I have an outline for our rescue mission planned out, if you would not mind hearing it." Without waiting for him to reply, she continued on. "I say that you bring a small entourage-say, you and three people-and make your way over to the palace in three or four days. You all come in through the tunnels, and I'll be waiting for you in my chambers, ready to lead you to the dungeons. It shouldn't take too long to break them free," she said, youthful naiveté at its best, "and then we can all return to my chambers, where I'll supply cloaks and the like for all those involved. After that you may all leave by way of the escape route."
Mea looked at her blankly. Even after the minor mission that he had taken her on and the raid, she still had no idea how much was riding on this and how dangerous, time consuming and difficult their task was.
*But she wouldn't,* Mea thought to himself, regaining his mental composure. *She's just a royal, after all.*
But as he thought on her "outline," he could not help but see some usefulness to it. Not all of it, of course, but she had most of it planned accordingly. There was the matter of the dungeons-they'd need those blueprints-and when the guards would be patrolling, but aside from that, they could use her plan.
Mea cleared his throat. "Go home now, Serenity, and fetch me the blueprints for the dungeons. You may bring them back here tomorrow at your convenience, although we'd like to have them by midday so that we may begin to plot this mission in earnest." Seeing that she looked about to interrupt, Mea began talking faster to cut her off. "Your suggestions have been taken into mind, and many of them may be used." He got up. "I'll see you tomorrow, then."
Serenity could see the palace in the distance as she walked toward it, and with every step her dread grew. She was proud of the way that she had handled herself with Mea, reporting to him in a way that she thought was very professional and military. But she was not pleased with his reaction to her. He still seemed so cool and calm, completely collected and at ease, sitting there like some feral animal, just waiting for her to hang herself.
Serenity shook the thought out of her head. Whatever he may think of her or her efforts, he had not been unpleasant or unreasonable, and she would do as he bid and bring the dungeon blueprints to the cathedral tomorrow.
Lost in thought, it was only the Crystal's mental nudge that brought Serenity back to reality quickly enough for her to veer off into the shadows before a palace guard could spot her. She had come upon the palace by now, and still had no idea how she would gain entrance. Serenity knew that she could not simply pretend to be someone else and hope that the guards would let her in; first of all, they would not, and secondly, even if they did, her name would be added to a ledger, and then there would be the trouble of making a plausible alias (someone with a right and a reason to enter the palace) and the trouble that would then befall the innocent guard when her newly created character vanished. All in all, it was time to think of a new plan; one that did not involve false persons or actually revealing herself.
"Any ideas?" Serenity asked the Crystal.
The Crystal sent back the mental equivalent of a shrug. *What happened to the great strategist of thirty minutes ago?*
This irritated Serenity. She was tired and cold and her feat hurt, and now she was becoming cranky. Revealing herself was not an option; the consequences were more than she was willing to suffer, even for the Cause. She might be able to get back into the tunnel and up into the dumbwaiter, but even supposing that she could lift herself up, what then? The door was closed, and chances were not good for getting it open. But..
Serenity started heading toward the trap door. *There were other tunnels,* she thought. *Any one of them might lead to an unlocked door in the palace.*
*Very smart,* the Crystal commended.
As she reached the spot that the door was, Serenity dropped to her knees and ran her hands over the ground, rooting around until she felt the harsh wood from the trap door. Because it had been used so recently, it was more inclined to open from the outside, but even then it was heavy and clung to the earth. Dirt spilled into the tunnel at what sounded like a deafening volume to Serenity's wary ears, but was actually no more than a whisper.
When she had it open just enough to slip in, Serenity sat down and dangled her legs into the hole. She started to slide in more, but the thought of slowly lowering herself on her back into a black abyss was not a pleasant one, and so Serenity cautiously rolled onto her stomach and slid in a little more. Kicking with her legs, she swung them about until her toes touched the cubbies in the side of the tunnel's wall. Slowly, she began to let herself more and more into the hole, going down one cubby after another until she was only visible outside the hole from the breasts up. Upon trying to slide down more, Serenity found that her breasts were holding her outside the hole like an anchor. Pushing herself up on her elbows, she began to inch backward. Her grip was not as sure now, but the princess was becoming impatient. Instead of going slower, she backed up quickly.
The wooden trap door scraped painfully against her back, pulling her night gown up with it. Her feat fumbled on the small cubbies and slipped, dragging her down into the hole in a free fall. Down she flew, and the door crashed down painfully on both her head and her hands. Letting go reflexively, she plummeted into the darkness, landing on the spot between her bottom and her lower back. The fall shocked pain through her, and then there was her hair. It was stuck in the door, halfway in the tunnel and halfway out, and it had been yanked in the fall hard enough to make her head ache. On top of all that, it had come undone.
Angrily, Serenity began to slowly tug it out from the door's grasps. When it was free she was too upset to say anything, her pleasant mood completely evaporated, and the tired, grumpy princess stomped off down the tunnels.
This time she walked faster, no longer afraid to bump her head or trip over anything. The faint glow from the Crystal allowed her to see when she passed up the elevator that would take her back to her chambers, and she sneered at it as she passed.
Serenity felt abused and tired and longed for the comfort of her bed. She continues walking until she reached another dumbwaiter, and then she came to a slow stop. It was well kept-up, that wasn't the problem. But suddenly an overwhelming feeling of apprehension came over her. She realized that she had no idea where this elevator lead; it would very well take her into a part of the palace that she had never been, and then she would have to spend the entire night casting about from one room to another, searching for a familiar tapestry.
*And I'll need to get those blueprints tonight if I'm ever to have them to Mea tomorrow on time,* her mind added.
Serenity sighed. She really had no choice.
Getting into the crate, Serenity began pulling the ropes, one after another until she figured out which one would take her up. The trip upward was much slower than the trip down, and much harder. Although the crate had spokes of some sort to keep her from plummeting, should she release the rope, it left her to rely entirely on her upper-body strength to pull it up.
When she finally reached a small door, not unlike the one in her room, Serenity pushed at it gently. It did not move.
*Touch me to it,* the Crystal said.
Serenity began to comply, then stopped. She glared at the Crystal. "You might have reminded me of this talent of yours thirty minutes ago: we could have simple returned to my chambers." Blinking back angry tears, Serenity swallowed hard. This had not been any easy night for her.
Despite her angry words, the Crystal worked its magic without comment, and the door flew open. Desperate to get out of her coffin-like prison, Serenity abandoned caution and threw herself out of the crate and into the vast chamber before her. She blinked, her eyes adjusting to the darkness. Then she gasped.
She had stumbled into her parents' room.
Ugh, yes, I knoooowww.we all hate cliff-hangers. But Christmas vacation is over in three or four days, and I haven't the time to write any more right at this minute. You know what sucks, though? I have to go back to school on the 5th, which is my 16th birthday. ;_; I'm sad.
Anyway, email/AIM/critique/review. And please check out my new website, ! It has pictures of me, family, friends, my art, my writing, and pictures of people that I don't like. I've slaved on it so far, but some of the sections are not up yet, so please be patient. :P
Happy New Year! As Mrs. Gorsky says, "Stay safe and stay holy"!
AJ AJluvs2Bannoying Goodnight_spoon@hotmail.com