Chapter 7 – The Tower
Haru paced her cell fretfully as she contemplated her situation. It was fifteen steps from one edge of the room to the other, seven steps from the center of the room to the window. With every sweep of the room she pressed a firm hand against the locked wooden door. Yes the door was solid oak, but she likened her efforts to the tale of the bird who wore down a mountain with only its beak. Hopefully it wouldn't take her millennia to get out of her situation.
The princess had not yet come to see her, and Haru wasn't sure if she should be worried or glad. The guards had come once to check on her so at least they had not abandoned her completely. The night was racing past, and she was sure as the sun rose the next morning that the royal's most inventive of punishments would be inflicted upon her.
Please Baron, come find me, she prayed, but if he did then he and the others would be in danger of being discovered by the vindictive royal! He couldn't come see her. Haru was on her own.
She had tried searching for any tool or weapon she could use in the room, but there was only a threadbare blanket on the floor. Even if she could rip it into strips, she could not traverse down the side of the tall, smooth tower. She did manage to pry the glass window open a tiny bit and hung the cloth like a flag through the slit. Someone was bound to notice that. Maybe when they brought her a meal, she could steal the metal spoon that came with it to work the hinges off the door.
If she lived to see her next meal.
Haru shivered again. She couldn't sleep. Walking helped to stave the cold from her body and take her mind off her troubles. The princess had not found her friends yet. The snow was falling and it was still wintertime.
It was no wonder the kingdom was in such dire straits if its rulers spent the resources looking for sprites and fairies! Think of how many people could have benefited from real solutions instead of magical ones. What foolishness!
Hours passed, or was it minutes? The girl couldn't tell except for the gradual lightening of the skies. The winter snow was setting the background for a beautiful sunrise, however she was certainly in no mood to appreciate its splendor.
A loud click of the door's latch being unlocked roused her attention, and as the great door groaned open, Haru darted towards the opening hoping to attack or evade her captor. The guards were ready though, and three of them shoved her away with ease.
"Please," she begged them. "Let me go. I don't know anything. I want to go home!"
She didn't mean her small cottage with her terrible cousin and aunt. Home was where the great bonfire was, where Baron waited for her with loving arms.
The princess appeared looking as cruel and impassive as a block of ice. Haru could feel the room's temperature drop just by being in her lofty presence.
"Look at you, cowering like a mouse. It's no wonder that the cats didn't gobble you up at first look," the princess sneered.
Haru's eyes widened. She could be brave. She had to be. She trusted in herself, and she didn't doubt Baron and her friends. She had nothing to fear from the vindictive woman in front of her. The brunette drew herself to her full height looking at her tormentor with determined eyes.
"I wasn't wrong to do what I did. No matter what happens, I believe in my decision. I believe!"
"Ah, there's that spark of defiance," the princess purred. "I look forward to stamping it out."
With a cruel smirk, the blonde clapped her pale hands together twice.
The tall soldier holding onto Haru's right arm dug into the pouch at his side.
"Wha-" Haru could only get out before a meaty hand shoved a green powder into her mouth. She coughed and spluttered, but to her horror she had swallowed a majority of the bitter substance before spitting the rest out.
"What… what was that?" the girl shouted choking on her words.
"Limbus grass, dried and ground to a fine powder," the princess replied snidely.
Haru's eyes widened. That plant was a potent truth serum if ingested! Limbus grass was so hard to find only a select few owned even one blade of it. No matter how hard she resisted she'd have to answer with the truth.
The haughty sovereign buffed her nails on her silken sleeve, raising her hand in the rising sunlight to inspect her perfectly manicured hands. Did anyone know how cruel her touch could be?
"Oh? Losing hope so soon? I thought you were stronger than that, girl." She strode up to Haru glaring mockingly at the fearful brunette. "I thought long about how I should break you, but you'd probably keep silent until the very end."
She huffed under her breath, "Rather than making you a martyr, I decided to find the answer another way. This is my final supply of Limbus grass, but once I have the seasons under my power, I'll no longer need its potency."
"Now," the princess seized Haru's face in a painful grip. "Where are the months located?"
No one had ever successfully evaded the grass' compelling nature completely, and the brunette could feel the words of the months' location start to form on her lips.
No! She shouldn't say a word! They were counting on her!
She bit her cheek roughly and by some miracle managed to hold her tongue.
The blonde ruler looked on in shock. Typically all mortals who ate of the grass succumbed within a second of the question being asked. Why was her prisoner resisting its influence? She tightened her hold even harder, "Where are they?!"
The niggling feeling possessed Haru again.
Tell her… the location… the location is in the meadow in the center of the forest…
Haru closed her eyes to stop the onslaught of words. She thought of the funny Cat King, his advisor Natori and the naive Natoru. She wondered if Muta and Toto were bickering over the fat cat eating everything in sight. She thought of Yuki and Lune, so in love with each other.
Baron, she loved Baron. His face and touch she thought of most of all, and that gladdened her heart.
Believe in yourself, Haru. Do this and no matter where you are, you will have nothing to fear.
His tendor voice had only ever spoken heartfelt words to her, and they bolstered her resolve now. She was afraid, deathly afraid. The princess had always gotten her way, and the captive within her grasp was of no exception, but Haru was willing to try until her last breath. Her lips stayed silent.
A flutter of wings brushed against the window, and a small object tapped against the glass.
"Why are you still resisting?!" the princess shrieked. She shook Haru with all the force she could.
The prisoner groaned silently. Her body was still recovering from the abuse she had suffered earlier, and the violence she was enduring now was excruciating. Maybe if she fainted she could wait out the truth serum's effects.
Haru could feel the words beating against her skull the more she withstood the plant's powers.
A shadow of a bird passed through the window glass cawing loudly.
"Where are the months?!" the grand woman shouted, no longer looking at all royal in appearance. She gripped Haru with both hands around her throat, throttling her to reveal her secret. "Tell me!"
A burst of pain through the girl's head along with the force on her throat caused Haru to gasp a breath. She knew uttering the location of the months would be the start of the end, a pebble that ended in a landslide that buried an entire village.
But she couldn't stop it.
"They're…"
A sharp crash into the window caused everyone to turn into that direction. A black crow flapping its great wings cawed in indignation. Another then another joined it, smashing their bodies and beaks into the glass.
The guards gaped at each other in confusion. This was an unusual move for the animals, and the men couldn't comprehend why the creatures were acting that way. There must have been hundreds of them!
There was a chip in the glass' perfect surface.
"Get back Haru!" she heard Toto's familiar voice shout through the noise. Above the din of the birdcalls the sharp splintering of glass signaled the inevitable.
The girl managed to wrench herself away from the princess' death grip, and threw herself to the floor just as the window exploded inwards showering all those standing with broken glass.
The captors shrieked and yelled as black demons rushed into the room pecking, clawing, and scratching at any surface they could. The princess recovered first as she beat the feathered beasts off of her.
"Grab the girl! She still hasn't told us where the months are yet!"
Blindly the guards reached their burly arms out for their prisoner, but Haru ducked away from their grasp. The murder of crows was doing their best to cause havoc, but the men pushed on.
Haru could only see one option available – to keep her silence, to save the others.
She took a deep breath, took off running-
-and threw herself out of the open window.
A bird who wears down the mountain with its beak is from an old saying about eternity and I had to reference it after watching the awesome Doctor Who episode illustrating it. Limbus grass and its effects is taken from Neil Gaiman's novel Stardust. I hope everyone likes this chapter. It's a little more excitement to pick up towards the conclusion.
Grignard