Eight

“When in doubt, stay up on your digits.”

–Raine Silverwind

“Dear Friday,” Andis smiled as she saw her assistant, “I was wondering when curiosity would tempt you to brave these cavernous halls. We have not been able to treat you very well, I’m afraid.”

Friday shook her head. “No, I understand, truly. Whatever it is that we are in now, it sounds very dire.”

Raine laughed without amusement. “My young friend, we are bordering on the tragic.”

“Come, sit,” Andis said gesturing to a chair beside her. Friday obeyed. “Do you remember the story we told in the Forbidden Forest, concerning one Henry Vale?”

“Yes, the owner of the rundown house where the Black Dog lodged.”

“Precisely so. And I suppose we said that no one knew where Henry Vale was?”

“You did.”

“Well that wasn’t quite true. It is Henry Vale whose rather powerful and persuasive hand is behind this Protectorate.”

“How could such a man, whom no one ever liked, and who could like no one, be able to persuade so many people?”

“How, indeed,” Raine said harshly, “He’s like a damned magician or a hypnotist. He moves like a ghost across the country, here and there, infected people with his hate in numbers larger than we could have imagined. And even now he is here in the capital city raising an army of his members. We will not be safe for long, not even in the palace.”

“I overheard the queen say that she would not close the gates to protect the palace,” Friday replied thoughtfully.

“She has refused,” Andis concurred.

“Well, then, what does that mean for us now?”

“It means, if the blind mob outside is anything to go by, it means soon, very soon we will have to leave Pyrengard and take the queen with us.”

“The queen will come with us?”

“We’ll force, if necessary,” Andis said evenly, looking into Friday’s eyes, “You see, it’s her he wants. It’s her he’ll always be after.”

#

The days became dark with the sound of a growing mob of people now surrounding the palace. They were so strange. Their passions raged and yet it seemed not to be their passions, as though something else used them for a mouthpiece. They were devoid of color and they stole the sweetness from the air. Friday knew that it could not be long at all before the doctors would implement the plan they had spoken of the night before. Friday stood at a second floor window and watched them. She had managed the first two days fairly well, spending her days in the royal library, looking up about this Fantastic or that. She’d begun to read about the great communities, the houses of the Forbidden Forest and elsewhere. But soon the noise had grown so solid that sleep and rest seemed to be an impossibility day or night. She had stood underneath the portraits that stared at her in the parlor of her apartments with the curtains withdrawn and only a candle beside her and she had listened to the drone that had ceased to be human.

“Does it break it your heart as it does mine?” someone asked behind her.

It didn’t and it was strange that it didn’t. Friday turned round and found herself face to face with the Queen of Oriana. “Your majesty,” she said with a curtsey.

“And you are Miss Friday Moore, are you not?”

“I am,” Friday replied with a small smile.

“I’ve heard marvelous things about you.”

The queen approached the window and her sadness was palpable. She pressed her fingers to the glass. “I have been with this people since before I was born. They’re mine. And I know them. So you mustn’t judge them, Miss Moore. They are not themselves.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Friday agreed quietly.

The queen moved her hand from the window. “I don’t suppose you’d contemplated this when you agreed to be an assistant.”

“No, I didn’t, ma’am.”

“Of course not. But we shall all be among the Fantastics soon. They are beyond talks now. Powers shall have to be consulted. We are coming to an end of the beginning.”

Friday nodded but she didn’t understand. The queen sounded strange.

“How old are you, Miss Moore?” the queen asked suddenly.

“Eighteen, your majesty,” Friday replied, “I have on occasion felt much older.”

“Yes. I see it. Are you ancient as the rest of us?”

“I don’t understand, your majesty.”

There was some amusement it the queen’s eyes but the longer she studied Friday’s face, the more it drained away. “Do you really not know?”

“Know what?”

“My word. How extraordinary. But I suppose they haven’t told you. That may prove to be a bit of a shock.”

“Good morning, your majesty, Friday,” Andis said as she approached them.

The queen looked at her friend with a furrowed brow. “You haven’t told her, Hawkwing.”

Andis turned somber immediately. “No we have not.”

“Well, don’t you think it’s time? The hour is changing.”

The queen turned and walked away. Friday managed a quick curtsey and Andis bowed.

Friday tried to make light of the situation. “So I assume that there is some other mystery of which I am not aware. That makes several, now.”

“Oh, Friday, our world is fraught with secrets.” Andis ran her fingers between her fiery bronze braids. “I don’t know if we will ever manage to get you the whole truth.”

“Then I must settle for it in bits and pieces.”

“Yes. We all must.”

Andis sighed and opened her mouth to speak. The light sound of running footsteps interrupted her. Friday would not have believed that the running person could have been so close had Raine not appeared bodily before them in mere seconds with a sack in her hands. Friday wondered how she could possibly be so quick and so silent.

“We’ve had intelligence,” Rained informed them, not the least bit out of breath, “He’s had them marching towards us, at least a thousand strong. He means to take the palace by morning, I’m certain of it. The queen must leave. I am for the Dirigible and then to my father. Will you alert her majesty and the general?”

Andis nodded quickly.

“And Friday,” Raine said more gently, “You’d better put on some travelling clothes.”

She prepared to run off again but Andis caught hold of her hand and embraced her tenderly. “Be careful, Raine,” she said softly.

Raine smiled warmly at her, a genuine smile. “We’ll meet each other soon.”

She turned on her heels and suddenly was transformed into an enormous, beautiful she-wolf with a coat as silvery-moon-white as Raine’s hair had been. She turned her head for a moment and her eyes flashed and then she was gone silently and quickly as a snuffed-out flame. Friday stared after her, only partly amazed. The rest of her was quiet as though she’d seen this every day of her life. Andis put her hand on her shoulder.

“Come, Friday,” she said in her calm way, “We have much to do.”

#

Friday waited beside the queen in her almost completely dark bedroom. The moon was the only thing that streamed in through the window, a cloudy sort of light. Well, the moon and the now unbearably loud shouts of the crowd that filled the front courtyard of the palace and beyond. Both Friday and the queen had changed into trousers so they could move more easily when it was time. The queen had spent minutes touching everything in her room, whispering to it, like prayers. She had spent the longest in front of the portraits of a previous king and queen that hung beside each other, peaceful and silent. And they seemed to give her peace because she was still now, sitting in a gilded, plush chair.

“You saw the Silverwind change, did you?”

Her question rung out in the dark air. “Yes, ma’am,” Friday answered.

“Marvelous. The Silverwinds are particularly beautiful, I hear. Even I’ve only ever seen her do it once. Granted, she’s never seen me transform.”

“You, too?” Friday asked, surprised.

If she could have mustered up the energy, the queen should have smiled. “Yes, I, too. And every monarch of Oriana since the blessing was given by the Lord Phoenix.”

“And Andis?”

“Yes. Does it bother you?

“No. No, it doesn’t bother me at all. It is very strange, but I feel as though I’ve known all the time. I am having the oddest feelings here. Nothing seems to surprise me, or not very much.”

“And you were an orphan?”

“Yes, your majesty.”

The outer door opened. Andis and General Luhan entered the dark.

“The Dirigible has arrived,” Andis announced.

The queen nodded and rose.

“Even now, they have not moved,” General Luhan continued in his soldierly voice, “Someone down there is addressing them. It may even be Vale, himself. They are quieting, like the sky before lightning strikes. I will be glad to have you safe.”

The queen touched her general’s hand. He bowed with deep respect and kissed her ring.

“Luhan, no one need die here. The palace need not be the last stand. I do not want my people killed. They will not destroy Pyrengard. I know this.”

He nodded. She turned and took another look at the portraits. “But if you must leave,” she continued, “Take these portraits of my mother and father. Keep them safe for me.”

“Of course, your majesty. The Lord Phoenix watch you all.”

He turned and exited.

“Alright, Hawkwing,” the queen said, “Let us go.”

The halls were surprisingly easy even though all light had been put out, the electricity cut to startle the invaders. Andis held a candle in front of them and they climbed the staircase two more flights to a musty, old chapel-like stone room with a double door made of two pieces of stained glass that formed the picture of a large red bird, its wingspan stretching from one edge to the other. Andis opened the door to a terrace and a plank of wood that stretched from the edge of the stone to a wonder. A wooded ship floated in the air, white sails billowing from several masts in the night air. Movable wings were on either side of the hull, the rudder was oversized and two huge balloons blocked out the moon.

“Ladies,” Andis said, “The Dirigible. You first, your majesty.”

Othniel swam in the air. In his measured movements, he sheathed his sword in the sheath he wore on his back and offered his hand to the queen. She took it and walked across to the ship.

“Friday,” Andis said, indicating that she was the next to go.

Friday looked down to the ground which she couldn’t see.

“Don’t be afraid,” Andis assured her, “Othniel won’t let anything happen to you.”

She should have been afraid, but like all of her other emotions, Friday just wasn’t feeling what she knew she ought. She took Othniel’s ghostly hand. It was warm and steady and sure. She walked the plank of wood carefully to the lighted deck and hopped down. Andis was over in a trice and she and Othniel brought over the plank. Andis walked to the steering wheel and the wood lurched as they turned and headed for the closeness of the Forbidden Forest. Their view of the palace closed as they moved away from it, as if forever.