Sea gulls flew overhead, squalling with each other. The dragon girl stood alone on the beach, gazing out across vast stretches of dark water.
Then, from far below, deep under the sea, a voice, or perhaps a chorus of voices, weird and wild, rose and murmured among the waves.
“May my heart beat with courage
Before this torrent of shame,
May I find the warm sweetness of forgiveness
Between the ice and the flame.
“Beyond the final water falling,
The Songs of Spheres recalling,
When the senseless silence fills your weary mind,
Won’t you return to me?”
Strange and inhuman as those voices were, they brought the Prince of Farthestshore’s face vividly to mind. She bowed her head and wished again for tears, but they had long since burned away. When the moon rose high, the dark shape of a dragon lifted into the air, casting a hideous shadow on the sand far below.
–––––––
“Whatever you do,” Dame Imraldera had said just before Felix left the safety of the Wood Haven and returned across the Borders into his own world, “do not cross the Old Bridge. If you forget everything else I have told you, Prince Felix, do not cross the Old Bridge, neither coming nor going. Ford the stream instead. Do you hear me?”
He had heard her, so when at last he crossed from the Halflight Realm into the familiar Wood he had known all his life, he remembered what she had said. It was strange to feel the difference, crossing the Borders, for though the landscape about him did not alter, the air itself did, and he knew he was back in his own world once more.
A thrill rushed through him at being back where he belonged, and he hurried through the darkness of the Wood, hastening uphill as fast as he could go. He came upon the bridge and the stream, and realized that this was the first time he had ever been on the far side in all his years playing under these trees. But he remembered Imraldera’s words and did not cross the Old Bridge itself; instead he splashed through the icy water and tried not to flinch as water soaked down his boots and froze his feet.
He made his way up well-worn trails that he knew like the back of his hand; then the trees thinned around him and he neared the edge of the Wood where Oriana Palace’s gardens began. He slowed his pace, creeping more cautiously from shadow to shadow. His eyes searched each low-growing shrub and bramble, darted to inspect each tree trunk in case some Shippening sentry should be stationed near. But he saw and was seen by no one as he crept to the Wood’s edge and gazed from the safety of the trees up the garden path to his home on the crest of the hill.
Smoke hung in the air, rising from somewhere in the courtyard. The whole garden reeked of dragon smoke, and Felix gagged at the smell.
Quick as thought, he darted up the seven tiers of the garden, slipping from statue to shrub, still watching for those who might alert the Dragon or the duke to his presence. But no warning shout rattled his ears, no arresting cry. He came at last to the topmost tier, where once flowers had bloomed, up near the palace itself.
From this position he could hear the sounds of men in the courtyard, which was just out of his view. He could see lights in some of the upper rooms of the palace and knew that the duke and his men must have taken up residence inside. His father, he guessed, would be down in the basements – perhaps even locked away in the ancient, long-unused dungeons. Felix shuddered at the thought, and his hand slipped down to feel the hilt of the sword at his side, his own weapon returned to him when he had left the Haven and stepped out of Faerie.
Crouching in the shadows under an enormous burned shrub, Felix considered his options. He daren’t stay in the garden overnight, not with the Dragon walking the grounds. But the Shippening men had taken over the palace. How likely was it that they would be using the servants’ quarters in the south wing? He could slip in there and hide until he discovered where they kept his father. But how could he get in when all the doors were undoubtedly locked?
“Meaaa?”
Felix startled and bit his tongue hard. “Ow!” he growled and glared at the little form crouched beside him. “Monster, you dragon-eaten beast, bother you and all your next of kin!”
The cat raised its sightless face and rubbed a cheek against Felix’s ear, purring madly. Felix pulled his head away from the tickle of whiskers. “How did you get all the way back up here, animal? Did you come looking for Una?”
The cat continued to purr.