Dennis McKiernan - Once upon a dreadful time

Some three days and a night past, as near as they could reckon, Valeray and Saissa and their get, as well as Camille and Duran, had awakened in this place, borne here by Orbane’s black wind. When Camille had come to, she had looked straight into the sapphire gaze of the tilted eyes of Rondalo as he chafed her wrists in concern. His narrow face was framed in a halo of fair hair, and, upon her rousing, his features flooded with gentle affection. Blood rushed to her face, for the Elf had for a while travelled across Faery with her in her long search for Alain, and she at one time, overcome with loneliness, had kissed him with passion, and then had fled away in confusion, wondering if she could love two men at the same time. But that was nigh four summers ago and not now. Yet flustered, she had heard a soft sigh nearby, and had turned to see Alain lying unconscious, with Duran seeming asleep at his side. And she had scrambled up and tended them, while Rondalo took care of others. And even as Camille alternated between Alain and Duran, she heard a soft peep as Scruff came awake in her shoulder pocket. Soon all were roused, and for the next three days, they had sought a means of escape, all to no avail.

Valeray shook his head. “This time I started by stepping through the twilight archway in the topmost tower, and it brought me to the one down the lower hallway yon. Then I crossed this chamber and went out through that one, and back to the topmost tower I came. Ah, fie! I keep thinking that there should be some combination of exits and entries that might set us free, for oft there are complex sequences a thief must master ere a treasure can be won. . in this case, our freedom.” Sitting on the dais next to Rondalo, Borel said, “Once when Flic and I were in the Endless Sands, I explained to him how such a place might be so named, and this prison in which we find ourselves seems to be but a variation on that theme.” Rondalo swung his leg from the arm of the chair and turned toward Borel. “How so?”

Borel looked at the Elf. “I told him to think of that vast desert as simply a room with two doorways, and when one exits out through one, he simply comes in the other, and, of course, the reverse as well. In the Endless Sands the twilight bounds could be thought of as the ‘doorways.’ I also mentioned that the Castle of Shadows might be constructed the same way.”

“And that’s why you believe we are now entrapped in the Castle of Shadows and not somewhere else?” asked Raseri.

“Oui,” replied Borel.

As Raseri lowered his head and Alain fetched Duran down, Valeray sighed and said, “I believe you are right, Borel, for what 246 / DENNIS L. MCKIERNAN

better vengeance could Orbane inflict than to hurl us all into the place where he himself was cast and held captive these many seasons.”

Alain nodded in agreement. “Oui, Papa, Orbane would do such, for you and Lord Rulon-Chelle’s sire-were the chief architects in bringing him to ruin. Yet I imagine that Hradian would rather have seen us slain in repayment for the deaths of her sisters than simply to be trapped herein.”

“I agree,” called down Saissa, as she and Liaze and Celeste and Camille traversed a balcony above to descend the long set of stairs. Scruff, riding on Camille’s shoulder, took to wing and flew about the chamber, the tiny sparrow chirping all the while.

Rondalo and Borel stood as the women reached the floor of the vast hall and passed around Raseri, the Drake inclining his head in acknowledgement.

“My lady Saissa, your seat of state,” said Rondalo, sweeping a hand toward the chair on the dais.

“Pishposh, Rondalo, I will sit on a step.” As the women took seat along the treads of the dais, and Scruff glided down to alight upon the back of the throne, Valeray looked ’round and said, “Inmates all and-” Valeray’s words chopped to a halt. But then he put a hand to his forehead.

“Oh, my, I just realized this is why the Fates spoke to Sieur Emile’s sons and not us.”

Celeste frowned. “Your meaning, Papa?”

“We are trapped herein and can do nought, while Laurent, Blaise, and Roel are free, as well as Luc. The Three Sisters knew it all along.”

“And yet they did not warn you?” said Rondalo.

Valeray slowly shook his head. “Perhaps there was nought anyone could do to prevent it.”

Rondalo blew out a sharp puff of air and glanced at Camille.

“Even so. .”

“What’s done is done,” said Valeray, sighing.

“Then,” said Celeste, “if we are truly trapped in the Castle of Shadows, we can only hope Roel and Laurent and Blaise and Luc recover the key and set us loose.”

Raseri growled and glared toward the entrance and asked,

“And just who will bring the key to yon portal?” Celeste turned to the Drake. “I do not understand, Raseri.”

“I am one of the few to know the way through the Great Darkness to come to the Castle of Shadows.”

“There is no one else?”

“I did not say that, Princess. But if someone is to come, they must be able to fly.”

“Fly?” said Liaze.

“Oui, for the Castle of Shadows floats free in the Great Darkness. There is no road to the gates-only dark emptiness-a place where any rescuer, flyer or not, can become lost forever.”

“Raseri,” said Camille, “if you have seen the Castle of Shadows by flying through the dark, does it have this shape? If so, then we will truly know where we are.”

Raseri shook his head. “Even though I have seen the Castle of Shadows, still I cannot say this is it.”

“Why so?”

“When last I saw the Castle, it was but a single square-based tower, fit to hold one person-Orbane.” Raseri looked at Borel and said, “In the manner of your explanation of the Endless Sands, two doorways it had, one on each side, and a shorn-off bridge leading away from each.”

“But this is not a single tower,” said Celeste.

“Non, it is not,” said Raseri.

“Then mayhap we are not in the Castle of Shadows,” said Liaze.

“Perhaps not, but then again perhaps so,” said Raseri, “for there are legends.” The Drake looked at Rondalo.

The Elf nodded and said, “My mother, Chemine, spoke of the lore and told some of it to me. She said the gods made the castle such that it would change to accommodate whoever was to be kept within.” Rondalo gestured wide. “Look about you. Behold this vast throne room-a hall to hold Raseri, n’est-ce pas ?” Liaze shrugged, but said nought.

“Is there ought else of the legends of the Castle of Shadows?” asked Camille.

“Oui, and they seem to confirm that we are indeed imprisoned in it, for we need neither food nor drink, and we cannot escape.”

Valeray looked about the chamber. “We need a way to break out.”

“Think you we have not tried?” growled Raseri. He flexed his great black saberlike claws. “These walls resist my efforts to rend them asunder, and flame mars them not.” At these words, Camille fell into pondering, chasing an elusive thought skittering just beyond reach on the edge of her mind.

“I wonder if something the Fates said in one of their redes spoken to the three brothers tells ought of our fate,” said Alain, watching Duran clip-clopping his toy horse across the floor.

“Perhaps,” said Borel, also watching the wee prince down on his hands and knees with the toy. “For in the very moment that Orbane and Hradian appeared, I had solved at least a part of the rede Skuld gave to Laurent.”

“Which part?” asked Liaze.

Borel frowned and then intoned:

“Swift are the get of his namesake,

That which a child does bear.”

Liaze shook her head. “And its meaning is. .?” Borel pointed at Duran. “The colts of Asphodel-the Fairy ONCE UPON A DREADFUL TIME / 249