Chapter Three - Truth

The third chapter of Decalage.

Chapter 3
Truth.


Curiosity flickered in her eyes and Reine let her eyes slide back onto Caleb. “You deserted? Can’t you be exiled for that?”
   
“In Fonce you’re killed actually.”

It took a moment for her to register what he had just said. Fonce, the land of Darkness and growing evil, it was also the place where the largest reward in history of Decalage had been placed on her head.
   
Reine jumped up from her seat, startled. This man… was from Fonce. He was her enemy. He was a mercenary, or an assassin. He had to be, because that is what she feared. If she caught this man off guard, she could escape before he could catch her.
   
Caleb moved as smoothly as she did, but not as quick. Reine only needed a step, and she managed to get that step ahead of the Foncian. He cursed thoroughly as she passed him, and sped to attempt to catch up to her. Into the crowd her legs carried her, and Caleb found himself carried out to sea with the side of people, and lost himself in the over bearing crowd.
   
Reine was out of the tavern, through a back door she had noticed earlier, within seconds. She found herself in the courtyard next to the stables, closed in on all sides by towering stone walls. A twig snapped, and with wild movements that were almost now viewable she turned and unsheathed her sword ready to defend herself against whomever or whatever may come at her.
   
“Meowwwww,” sounded the cat as Kit trotted from a hedge of bushes. Her bushy black and white tail waved through the air like a banner behind her. Her green eyed gaze glowed from the flickering fire but a few feet away.
   
“You idiotic thing,” whispered Reine. Her mouth was a long grim line, and her muscles were tense as she turned from the cat and began to look for a way out. Going through the tavern would be too dangerous; no doubt he was in there. Kit watched Reine with interest as the golden eyes girl paced. “Do you know a way out?” Reine asked the kitten, not expecting an answer.
   
“Meowwwww.”
   
The meow caught Reine’s attention, not only because it was cleverly placed… it was also somehow different from the normal sound Kit made. It was intelligent, and seemed to beckon to Reine. Kit pounced into the bushes and Reine followed, feeling for the brick wall with her hand… but never finding it.
   
She was simple looking for a wall one minute, and falling into a pile of hay the next. A few feet away Sophira nickered eagerly, already saddled. Beside the horse stood the person she wanted to see the least. Caleb grinned, leaning against the white mare. He moved forward and held a hand out to her, and the girl, sprawled in the haystack, refused to take it. The grinning man merely shrugged and leaned against the softly muching Sophira.
   
“You’re a grumpy little thing, aren’t you Reine?”
   
“You’re a murderer, aren’t you Caleb?” She spat back at him.
   
A stricken look filled eyes that seemed to wince in pain, and Reine almost felt sorry for him, almost.
   
“I was once. I admit I wasn’t being truthful with you Reine, but I lived a life of shame and constant fear, I don’t want to live that life anymore. I want to live my own life.”
   
“I could care less what you want you slug. You work for those who are destroying this world. That makes you my enemy, the world’s enemy. How many people have you slaughtered, how many families have you torn apart?” She let her voice carry her anger, and she saw it dive deep into his heart.
   
“You know nothing about me!,” he yelled, the furious voice taking Reine by surprise. “It isn’t my fault my parents are power hungry, greedy, deceivers! It isn’t my fault they are-“
   
They were both stunned into silence.
   
“You are Caleb Seraphim, the crown prince of Fonce?”
   
She couldn’t help it. Reine’s face lit with amusement and she began to laugh. Caleb, prince of the Kingdom of Fonce, was standing in from of her. His parents were causing the world to die, a war to break out across Decalage, and he was just standing in front of her leaning on her horse. As she rolled in the haystack, finding herself not capable of stopping the laughter rolling from her chest, Caleb watched with wide eyes wandering if there was some joke he wasn’t in on.
   
“I don’t see what it is so funny,” he whispered to Sophira, who now watched her rider with a similar look to Caleb’s. “She should be running away,”
   
Finally, breathless and dizzy, Reine sat up from the haystack. Straw covered her loose, wrinkled black shirt. A piece or two could be seen sticking out of her bucket boots, and she resembled a scarecrow with hair of hay. Caleb watched as she brushed off the golden plants, still giggling here and there.
   
“Now will you explain what was so dreadfully funny?” he demanded.
   
“I expected the Prince of Fonce to look and act a bit more… evil,” she said sweetly with a childish grin of innocence.
   
“You aren’t afraid anymore?”
   
“Darling, I could defend myself against you and probably beat you up a bit as well. It you were a mercenary or assassin, now that would be a totally different matter.”
   
“I’m not some spoiled prince who isn’t useful. I am as capable as you are fighting and I can read and write.”
   
“Of course boyo.” Reine’s words came out in a whisper, her amused mood gone. Caleb looked up to where she was staring and could not help but suddenly feel chills climb up and down his back. The wind changed direction, a bringing a wafting scent of iron. Silence fell like a blanket, and the gathering shadows seemed to be muffling the sounds around them. Caleb had to smile as he noticed Reine’s mood changed as quickly as the weather.

She turned to him and his smile disappeared from his face. He knew the question in her eyes, and the only thing he could do was nod curtly in agreement. There was something here that he could not feel. It was dangerous, and Reine was asking him if her would follow. He found the only thing he could do was nod.
   
“Saddle up your horse boyo. We have to get out of here. You have everything you need here already?” She paused and waited until he nodded again, this time slower. “Good, we need to get out of here.”
   
Caleb moved to a stall with a speckled gray stallion snorting nervously with the change in the mood. He was a warhorse by the looks of it, and had his rider’s coolness but Reine would see a temper in those brown eyes much like Caleb’s. It took but a few minutes for Caleb to saddle up. Reine had her hands crossed over her chest, looking into the night.
   
“I am ready,” said Caleb holding back his questions.

    “Not quite, but you will be.”

    They mounted up, Reine on Sophira and Caleb on his gray stallion. Both horses were as tense as their riders, and confused with the change in the weather and minds. They felt it, the scream of the earth, and feared it. Kit jumped into the saddle, her eyes alert as the black and white bundle of fur stared into the night, her expression of caution mirroring Reine’s.

    “Let’s go,” Reine whispered, feeling the heaviness that was reaching for her mind. It was as if someone had put drugs into her food when she wasn’t looking, with her vision blurring and nausea touching the back of her mind. What lurked in those shadows, what hid in her heart? She could feel something within herself calling to the darkness, the nothingness.

    Caleb was the one who stopped Reine from answering it. His stallion raced forward as he pulled his sword from its sheath with a scream of metal. Sophira, not wanting to be beaten, followed with a whinny. Reine fought to stay in the saddle. Kit roared… roared? Reine pulled her own sword out, only one though, with speed as she brandished it at the shadows and followed the prince of Fonce into the nothingness.

    Past the threshold of the stable, all went twisted. The call turned into a song so sweet it was like honey. The darkness pulled at her, caressed her. The echo sent Reine screaming as it tore through her mind, ruining the carefully built city of black marble. On the edge of her vision she could see Caleb fighting to reach her, but the shadows grew stronger, pulling them apart.

    “Let her go,” said a voice so familiar that she had half a mind to tell it to go away, but found she couldn’t find the voice to. Whatever it was, whoever it was, the nothingness obeyed. Sophira was free to move, and move she did at a gallop. All Reine could do was grasp the white mane and watch as Caleb’s gray followed them deep into the forest. Kit snarled, and Reine snarled back, unaware of why she did

    “Sleep you fool,” said the voice that had told the shadows to leave.

    “No,” muttered Reine, and she forced herself to sit up in the saddle. With fear in her throat, she slowed Sophira down to a trot so Caleb could catch up with them. It took all her will power not to faint and she felt as if she had just fought in hand-to-hand combat with the strongest being in the world.

    “Well, that was interesting.” Reine said hoarsely.

    “What… was… that?” panted Caleb.

    “A nightmare?” She asked the sky, looking up towards the dimly lit darkness.

    “Well, I guess we’re traveling together now?” asked Caleb, trying to ease the topic towards something else.

    “I suppose,” remarked Reine, no excitement in her eyes.





    They turned East, towards the now rising sun. Reine was taken back at how quickly daylight had seemed to come. It was as if she spent her whole night running, and now she regretted it for there had been no reason to run. That was why the silence stretched on between them, she couldn’t figure out what to say to eclipse the uncomfortable tension.

    The sun was beginning to ascend over the horizon when Reine’s light voice casually wafted through the foggy air. It was muffled by the blanket that was still stretched over them, a blanket of shadows and distrust.

    “I am sorry, for jumping to conclusions.”

    “I can’t believe you laughed at me,” muttered Caleb grimly.

    Reine grinned and gave an innocent look and a sweep of her long, dark lashes as she tilted her head towards him. Her sharp features softened with the coming of dawn, a time of peace and serenity.

    “I can’t believe I’m riding next to you. Caleb, the Prince of Fonce, the man who is son to the people who would kill… have killed… to get their hands on me. You understand what you are getting yourself into, do you not?”

    Caleb looked skyward, rubbing his royal fingers against the reins in his tight grip. Though tan, Reine could see paleness and shallowness in his stone carved face. Now, as she studied his soft features, and the jagged scar on his eyebrows, she saw a story. She had told hers, but she understood Caleb did not want to tell his. As he had said before, he wanted to forget his past, not keep living it.

    “I am aware Reine, Queen of the pirates. I hope you, in turn, are aware that my family will no doubt be looking for me. This only adds more trouble onto our path.”

    “People like us, Caleb, must stick together. If we stick with anyone else, we won’t be around for very long.”

    “I take it you speak from experience?”

    “No, I just read those words somewhere.”

    A very rude sound was made by Caleb in exasperation. Reine was given a temper more dangerous than her rapier, and when paired with the ability to switch between moods and personalities with the blink of an eye it left Caleb confused. He wasn’t used to this light heartedness paired with the knowledge of the danger on their heels. He wasn’t used to the ability to ride wherever he wished, with whomever he wished. All Caleb was sure of right now is that he liked this humor, even when the bark was worse than the bite.

    “What is your horses’ name?” questioned Reine.

    “Murdred.”
   
“Isn’t that a little bit morbid?”
   
“My father named him. He was trained to be one of the finest war horses in this world.”
   
“Oh… I still think it isn’t a very happy name.”
   
“That isn’t the point Reine.”
   
“You don’t call him Murdred do you?”
   
Caleb blinked. He never did call the dappled gray beneath him Murdred, though how this woman knew that he did not know. A number of pet names were used, such as Murry, Dred, and sometimes Ed… and it wasn’t until now he realized that the name Murdred was never really the name of his horse. It was on the pedigree, but not in his mind.
   
“I call him Ed,” Caleb muttered blushing, the rosy tinge on his cheeks not so stark against his tan skin.
   
Reine saw the blush and giggled. It was the sound of a young woman on a blissfully ignorant afternoon stroll. The sun had lit up her skin, showing the coating of dusty gold, her tan from spending years beneath the sail. She didn’t look as old as she had before, though her golden eyes were still molten abysses. Caleb found himself staring at the way the lines on her face smoothed away as if filled with clay and how the sadness become only a distant memory.
   
“And your horse?”
   
“Her name is Sophira. Yes, I do actually call her that.”
   
“Does it mean anything?”
   
“It means- it means snow in the old tongue.”
   
Caleb eyed the white flanks of the horse beside him. He wondered if there was a reason that Reine seemed to have paused before the word snow. He doubted that snow was the only thing the name meant, but he knew he would not find out its meaning today. Tomorrow… was a new day. Instead Caleb pressed other matters.
   
“What is the old tongue?” He asked a slightly amused Reine.
   
“The old tongue?” Reine glanced at him, startled. “It is the language of the earth, the mother of all languages. It is the song of fire born, the rhythm of the drums of death, which is nothing but the beginning of life. Fatheria Madriel Antomoi. I am the song of the wind. ”

    And with her words, the wind sang. It was a sound so sweet it seemed to send Caleb’s vision reeling. The scent seemed to be of pure syrup as it twirled around him and Ed. There was no instrument that Caleb knew of that could replicate that same sweet sound, that same caressing sigh. It wasn’t until Ed shifted under him that he had realized that he had closed his eyes. Blinking against the sudden brightness of the now non-eclipsed sun, Caleb rubbed sun spotted eyes.

    “It is beautiful, no?” Reine, though obviously amused with his reaction, was looking at the maple tree before them with dreamy eyes glazed over with thought. Caleb knew that whatever words he spoke would be wasted, Reine was off in her own world. Instead he urged Ed forward, but Sophira moved a step as well keep a distance between them.

    Reine shifted in the saddle, turning her back on Caleb and Ed with dignity. Sophira moved forward without a word from Reine, just a simple tap with her boot caused the mare to move with speed. Instead of concentrating on her surrounding, the pirate queen let her mind wander.

    Caleb rode silently behind, Ed moving with the same grace and speed as Sophira. He hadn’t expected the queen of pirates to act like this. Truthfully, Caleb had believed the rumors. She was supposed to be a mage, one of the strongest in the world. Supposedly she had sold her own soul just for power. Caleb had enough magic to recognize other magic users, and Reine had absolutely nothing. She was ordinary, absolutely ordinary. If anything, she seemed to be the absence of magic. The only thing that was “unusual” about the woman in front of him was simply her personality. The way she moved between faces like a storm, as if she grew bored and was simply a different person every few minutes, was unbelievably confusing. She kept leading him on to believe one thing about her, than something shifted and she was someone else. It wasn’t just a personality shift; it was a physical shift as well. Her eyes grew brighter or dimmer, her face stronger or weaker, she could be a young girl than become a woman. It left Caleb completely… unsure of everything.

    The old language, why had he known nothing of it? Caleb was a prince; he had the best education available in the world… in any world. History, War, practical things and not practical alike, he knew a little bit of everything.

    No, he knew what his teachers had wanted him to know. What his teachers wanted him to know was what his parents had wanted him to know. How much of his education was false? The realization of a dishonest past hit Caleb like an angry bull. How much of what he had been taught was wrong?

    Caleb felt like a child that had been cheated of a treat. It was like the time where his parents had promised him a real war horse for his birthday when he was eight. Instead they had gotten him a fat little pony.

    Anger suddenly caused Caleb to tense, and Ed snorted uneasily beneath him.

    In front of them Reine rode on, her mind on things more trivial that the anger of a man acting like a spoiled child. The bard school was where they were heading, and as the surroundings became more and more familiar Reine became less and less calm. It was as if memories wanted to swallow her up, send her back and away from this place. Those memories were brutal, and the worst thing about them was that they did not exist. They were a bard trick, a trick that showed exactly how large the welcome waiting for her was. Obviously, they were still bitter over the fact that their adopted child had left them, unaware they had sent her away.

    In silence they rode, it was a silence filled with companionship that allowed the two riders to think their own thoughts without interruptions. Kit had left Sophira’s saddle to pounce through the green leaves below them, leaves turned gold, red, purple, and yellow with fall but now falling for winter. With her back hunched in thought, and her shoulders sloped forward with the weight of memories, Reine continued to simply think. It was as if the thoughts simply flied through her mind, and out an ear to be forgotten. She couldn’t concentrate, but she couldn’t stop thinking at the same time.

    They should have found the school by now, the bardic presence was one that she felt on the edge of her mind. She recognized where they were, but for all her memories she could not find the school. Now she knew not which memories were her own, or those created by the bard spell weaved through the forest.

    Irritation shone heavily in her golden eyes. Her muscles were strained beneath her tan skin and her breathing obviously heavy beneath her light black shirt that hung loosely around her small frame. Caleb could not help but notice the far away, feral look in her eyes. He could not help but want to loosen those hands that gripped the reins so tightly they were white. Sophira was as edgy as her rider, and Caleb could not find out why. Everything felt normal to him, and there were no abnormal sounds.

    There was no sound at all.

    “REINE!”

    She looked up from her thoughts, and turned only to fall out of the saddle as an arrow streaked over her head. She landed with a thump on the ground, momentarily dazed before standing up with a curse that Caleb could not make out.

    Caleb moved to pull out his sword, to protect her in some way, only to find a sword at his own neck and a pair of forest green eyes staring into his own lighter ones. A slight whisper of branches filled the now silent forest, and Caleb felt the tip of an arrow press against his back. His eyes flickered expectantly towards Reine, widening slightly at the look sleepy boredom that covered Reine’s face.

    “Long time no see Tyria.” Her voice was smooth, and Caleb felt a sweat break out on his forward at the warning in those words. This was the Reine of the stories, the killer and destroyer.

    The voice came from behind him. It was not the person with the crossbow pointed at his back, it was a few feet further away. He resisted the urge to look at that sing song, childish voice and instead sat as still as a statue on Ed’s back with a sword at his throat and an arrow pressed roughly against his spine.

    “Hello Reine.”

    A young woman came into the corner of his vision. Where Reine was exotic, this girl was beautiful. His eyes widened and he felt his jaw drop but he snapped it shut when the arrow pressed harder against his skin. Her blonde hair framed a pixie like face with bangs sweeping just over her eyes. Perfectly proportional, that face was smiling and there were no lines framing those gray eyes. No, not gray… blind. They were so fogged up, so opaque that he could barely make out a pupil. He could not help but feel sadness, knowing that a woman so angelic would never realize that beauty. As if sensing his pity Tyria turned her gaze on him and walked over to his little get together. Her body was small, like Reine, though her dress displayed her assets more with its lower cut and tighter fit. She walked through the forest without shoes, and he doubted that she ever stepped on something dangerous, not with the gracefulness and lightness in her step.

    “Who is this Reine? The last I heard the queen of pirates has no heart, has no lover.”   

    “He’s a stray, a man who seeks to leave his past behind him, like most people. I picked him up at the last place I stopped, and after a nasty bit of a trap laid by an unknown someone we headed this way. I wasn’t about to ask someone who fought with me to go away, I wasn’t about to ask a friend to leave.”

    Her words seemed to pierce Tyria’s stony facade, and he felt the two men holding him captive wince. Obviously there was more to the story from before, and it was a story that he was going to hear. The more important thing was that Reine had called him “a friend”. In the silence he had began to wonder if she trusted him, if she wanted him to leave. There were no lies in her words, in her eyes, and he felt himself warm under her golden gaze.

    “What are you doing here?” The man with the sword snapped his words like a whip at Reine who merely let them slide over her. A smile appeared on her lips, a smile showing sharp teeth that were only noticeable in what appeared to be a snarl. For a brief moment Caleb wondered why he had never really noticed her predator like teeth before.

    “Don’t be rude boyo.”

    The man moved forward, but was stopped by Reine’s snarl, a sound that sent even Caleb’s bones shaking. He could feel the arrow slide from his back to aim towards Reine. The motions came naturally, motions used to disarm an opponent. His arms slid back, grabbing hold of the arrow so it could not be shot, and then he jabbed upward with the elbow of that same arm, sending the man sprawling onto the ground. Eagerly Caleb pointed the crossbow at the stuttering young man with a blissful grin on his face. It had taken him forever to learn that move.

    The woman, Tyria, merely let her blind gaze rest on where Reine stood, ignoring the clamor of sounds around her. Her concentration was centered on the pirate queen alone. The other man who had stepped towards Reine was trapped in her eyes, with a similar look on his face to that which Caleb had was beginning to find to be a constant companion when around Reine. Instead of making some witty remark he let Reine do the talking. It wasn’t easy, keeping his mouth shut.
   
“How long as it been Tyria? A year, two?”
   
“10 years actually.”
   
“Wow, how time flies.”
   
“What are you doing here Reine?”
   
Reine looked slightly taken back, though he could see it was merely an act. The feral beast in her eyes was in no way taken back, and the beast actually seemed to be growing.
   
“I came back to visit old friends of course!”
   
Tyria snorted, and she looked a little less like a rose and a little more like a sun flower. There were fewer thorns to her than what appeared to be, and Caleb took the arrow from the crossbow and handed the crossbow itself back to the poor man on the ground next to him and Ed. Reine released the other man from her eyes, turning her gaze instead onto Tyria where it really had no effect. Tyria seemed to know Reine had her eyes on her, and she simply returned the look with her sightless eyes.
   
“I know you well. I would hardly say that we Bards are your ‘old friends’.”
   
“Are you still so bitter over me leaving you guys? I wasn’t aware that you would miss me that much. I fondly remember no one showing up to send me off.”
   
“WE DIDN’T KNOW YOU WERE GOING!”
   
Silence flooded the space between the upset bard and the calm pirate queen. Reine’s hands had grabbed onto Sophira’s mane. Although no one noticed it, she had paled beneath her tan.
   
“You did not know? He told me it was what the school wanted.”
   
“Who told you that Reine, for none of us wanted you to leave, who told that? You were our sister, you were family. We loved you; we didn’t want you to leave.”
   
“Matthew.”
   
Tyria suddenly looked sick. Her face took on a green tint against her pale skin. Her hands shook as they moved to hold onto her upper forearms. A confused look flashed through her perfectly proportioned face. Caleb looked on, with a look that showed exactly how badly he was the odd man out.
   
“Matthew left right after you… he changed. None of us realized it till it was too late. He doesn’t go by the name Matthew anymore, he calls himself The Raven.”
   
It was Reine’s turn to stare openly.
   
Caleb spoke first. “Who is Matthew?”
   
It wasn’t Reine who spoke first. It was Tyria. Caleb watched as Tyria took on the same appearance Reine had when she had told her story. He supposed it must be a bard thing, something that they did when they looked into the past and spun a story from their memories.
   
“In the bard school there were many children. Some were orphans, and others were the actual children of the bards themselves. There were three children who caused more chaos than any others. One was a young orphan, one was the child of the master of the school, and one was a boy born from an unknown mother and one of the bards at the school. Since the beginning the three children had stuck together, had caused chaos together, had set the school of bards on their toes. Their names have never been forgotten. Our names have never been forgotten. Reine, Matthew, and I were one of a kind. We knew how to send even the calmest teacher running. Then things changed. We grew older, and we became different. Matthew became ambitious, Reine more bored and irritated. We were aware of the change, but we didn’t know how to stop it.
   
Reine left. It hit the school of bards hard. You were like a daughter to the bards Reine, and a sister to me. Matthew left soon after. You know what I think Reine? I think he was in love with you. Why did he send you away though Reine? Why did you listen to him?”
   
“He wasn’t the only one Tyria,” answered Reine with a simple whisper. “Yes, he wanted me to leave with him but I said no. It was your father.”
   
“That is ridiculous, why would my father want you to leave.”
   
“He said I had things to do and places to see. If I had stayed, then it wouldn’t have been safe for any of us. I have a temper, and that temper would hurt. He also said something about balance, and that I had to save the scales. I still don’t know to this day what he meant, but I am happy being free. I couldn’t have lived my life behind the walls of the school, I would have wasted away. Tyria, I felt caged in that school. I can choose my own path now, I can go places that I doubt you have ever heard of.”
   
Tyria was silent, tears at the corners of her eyes. Reine simply stood in stony silence, no emotion in her cold face. Caleb sat on Ed, he was more confused than ever and when he was about to open his mouth to let ask them a question Tyria spoke again.
   
“Welcome home Reine.”
   
“It is nice to be back.”
   
Reine came forward and Tyria held out her forearm. Reine simply grasped it, her hand slightly shaking. Her golden eyes were not matched with her words, and Caleb wondered if she was truly glad to be home.
   
“Father is waiting for you.”
   
Reine turned back to Sophira. The white mare easily trotted forward with her faintly hooves pulsing against the ground. Tyria turned towards the thick evergreens. Caleb turned to follow Reine, who followed Tyria into the darkness without another word. Ed shivered beneath him, and Caleb felt the same chill that his stallion fought to not fear. He could not help but shake with goose bumps as they ran up and down his spine.
   
The two men followed close behind. They kept their weapons out, but instead of pointing them at Reine and Caleb they were pointed towards the heavy shadows. They traveled through the heavily unlit forest in a single file line, everyone more focused on their surroundings that each other.
   
Reine was troubled by the story Tyria had just told and this facts that had just been set in front of her. Matt and she had been friends, at the end they had been more than friends. He wouldn’t lie to her, but how could the mystical Raven be the same Matt she had known as a child? The Raven was a man much life her, only his intentions were different. He was the King of Thieves while she was the Queen of Pirates. The rumors of him almost eclipsed the rumors of her, and they mirrored the soullessness and demonic qualities both of them shared. A thirst for blood, a taste for revenge, a soul without guilt even though blood ran through their hands, all things they both knew.
   
She had not known what had come of Matthew, a boy she once thought she loved but she no longer felt the constant pounding of her heart. When Tyria had said his name, Reine had felt love that existed between family members, nothing more and nothing less. She had thought she had known him better. He was not soulless, though he was ambitious. Matt had loved life, he wouldn’t destroy it. Perhaps like the rumors of the pirate queen the rumors of the thief king were not true. She knew that Matt had changed, knew what he had asked of her, but did not believe Matt could be a blood thirsty killer.
   
“Reine we’re here.”
   
Reine turned too look at Caleb to make sure he was still with their group. She knew she should probably say something to him, he could see the questions in his eyes, but she simply turned back around and let out a sigh. It wasn’t a sigh of longing as she looked over the famous school of bards, a place that had been hidden from Decalage for centuries; it was a sigh of sadness. She had been happy when she had left this place, now she was returning and a past that she had left behind was coming back to haunt her.
   
The bard school was beautiful, there was no doubting that. The high walls were well guarded by sharp thorns from flowering rose bushes of all different colors. The walls were of gray marble, aged so that the stone was similar to the multiple greens and grays of the forest. The entry way was rod iron, set in twisting curves that mirrored the thorny rose briars surrounding the walls. With a screech the iron gates opened outwards, and once the iron was done moving Tyria led the way into the ancient school. The school was built around a main courtyard which contained gardens. There was a stable, but no domestic animals or butchers. The bards could not meat; they shared a common language with the Earth. They ate what they believed they were meant to eat, things they grew themselves with the help of the earth.
   
The Garden was beautifully cultivated, and it was one place that she had found serenity when Reine had lived here. The soft sound of singing voices filtered through the air, coming from the rooms that went off from the Garden. The stone was lighter gray here, cleaned and did not blend in with the heavy foliage inside and outside the walls. A pond with a small fountain in the middle was covered by a weeping willow just coming into bloom. The branches were strong, perfect for young children to climb from. Based on the laughter coming forth from the branches the generations to come had found the knobs on the branches comforting, as had Reine.

    Though it seemed small, Reine knew it was simply an illusion. The school was huge, with rooms connected to rooms. There were other, smaller gardens hidden within and without this large one. Some were the private gardens of masters and others were simply smaller public gardens. Reine wandered what had come of her garden, and her rooms.

When she had left… well it was easy to say she had not left on the best terms.

    “Child…” The voice was soft and rickety with age. It was the voice of the Head Master of the School, and Tyria’s father. He had been a father to her as well, and sometimes she still heard his voice in her head scolding her… or encouraging her. It had been many years since she had heard that voice and now as it reached her ears she felt guilt. She had left these people, and she saw the hurt in their eyes as they looked at her recognizing the young woman the child had grown into.

    “Didacus.” It was a name that meant teacher, a name that in the old language spoke of a protector of history. Didacus of the Bards was all of that, and Reine both loved him and hated him for it. She had once thought he was all knowing, and she did not yet know if he wasn’t, but when he had sent her away it had hurt her as much as it hurt the other bards and children who had been her family. Deep down Reine knew he was right, she wouldn’t have been happy, but at the same time this place had once been her home.

    “Welcome home. Come, Reine, Queen of Pirates, and tell us of your adventures,” sang the old man with a powerful voice that somehow cradled her sorrowing mind, but she knew the man behind the voice too well. Reine stirred herself from the magic of his voice, emotionlessly looking at he who had once been her father.

    “Let me introduce someone first,” she replied, her voice as emotionless as her face, “This is Caleb, a man who fought with me. He is a friend.” That last part was a warning, and from the open flinch of the people surrounding them Caleb guessed Reine was digging into deep, old wounds.

    “Any friend of yours is a friend of ours. Welcome Caleb,” replied the man with that same sing-song voice, unfazed by Reine’s verbal jab.

     Caleb bowed his head slight and slid from his saddle, coming forward to stand next to Reine who had removed herself from Sophira’s saddle more gracefully. He wasn’t sure if this man could be trusted. From the cold expression on Reine’s face she wasn’t sure either.

    “I have seen you come,” said Didacus to Caleb, causing the tall man to look shocked.

    “My father has the gift of foresight,” said Tyria who now stood next to the powerful bald man with a wire like beard of gray hair. Deep blind eyes stared forth from a face lined with crevasses both laugh lines and worry lines alike. He was tall with a powerful body that must have been strong in his youth. He had the same beauty of Tyria, the same graceful movements but there was so much intelligence in his blind eyes that Caleb had to look away.

    “You knew we were coming?” There was a sharp edge to Reine’s voice, and anger flared in her deep eyes.

    “I knew he was coming, I did not know you rode with him.”

    Reine shrugged, her hair moving over her shoulders in rippling waves. “Things change. One can change the future, even if one does not know it.”

    Caleb resisted the urge to ask her why she had let an undercurrent of accusation into her words. He doubted his questions would be welcome here in this strained conversation. Didacus obviously felt the tension as well as everyone else; he waved towards the buildings behind them.

    “Tyria will show you to your rooms. You will find much has changed, but not everything.”

    Didacus’s words were directed towards Reine. She let her eyes fall to the ground as his blind gaze fell on her and Caleb wished that he could have that similar effect on the strong minded pirate queen. It was often he who turned his face to the ground, not able to stand her own gaze.

    Tyria waved them to the side, and Reine gave a small bow of her head to Didacus before following after the woman. Caleb bowed fully to the man, afraid that the Master of Bards was more than what he seemed. Deep down he had a feeling that the Head Master of the School of Bards was anything but human. With a nervous glance at the man he followed after Reine and Tyria.

    Briefly Caleb questioned Tyria’s ability to lead them to their rooms. Then he found that there was no possible way the woman before him could bump into anything or anyone. Her movements were too confident, and he realized she must know everything of this place, every pillar and wall and person. Reine moved with that sane confidence, only she was not limited to places she knew.

    Reine was uncomfortable. She knew that people were staring, many knew the young girl from before and others had just heard the stories of the demonic pirate queen. Some came forward and simply nodded to her, but all she could do was blink and stare. As more and more approached, Reine found it harder and harder to keep her temper in check. The bards hadn’t changed at all.

    “Here is Reine’s room” muttered Tyria. She could sense the irritation that was coming from Reine.

    Reine nodded and slipped through the closed door, not realizing until afterwards that this was her old room. Everything was where she had left it, even her toys and other various items that could not have come with her. With only four pieces of furniture, and a mirror, the room seemed small and humble. A bed was tucked into a corner closest to the window facing the inner garden. Her worn dresser wallowed lonely in the shadows furthest from any windows. The chair on the front porch-like area creaked with the sudden wind. There was her small flute of sea-cured wood, it created the sounds similar to the song of the mermaid (or so she thought). It rested on nothing but a simple dresser, with a heavy coat of dust on it. Reine’s bed was made, and the sheets had a scent of the newly washed. As if a guardian, the oak chest at the foot of her bed stood waiting for her to come forward and open it.

    She ignored the contents of the room after insuring that there was nothing missing, and headed out a door opposite the one she had entered from. The only sound that existed now was the soft trickling of water. While the inner garden was beautiful, this small private garden was one of the only places Reine truly relaxed. It resembled the thick jungles of the unclaimed lands, with tropical trees overlapping a small stream that flowed to form a clear pond. Fish came forward, when Reine put her fingers lightly on the surface, to nibble at the fingers thinking they were food. Sweet scents of flowers pricked Reine’s nose as she smiled. It was a smile of pure joy in being in a place so beautiful. She could still hear the distant thrum of singing, but now it blended with the voice of the earth.

    “I watched over your garden while you were away,” whispered Tyria from the doorway. “I waited for you to come back.”

    “Well I did darling.”

    “Not for the reason we have all wanted you to though.”

    Reine stood up, her eyes blazing. Tyria simply stood there, her body blocking the only way to leave. “It was obvious they were all afraid of me, it was obvious they didn’t want me,” snapped Reine.

    “That is not true! Yes, many believed the rumors, but since when have these rumors been true?”

    Their voices rose, cutting off the serenity of the small area. The pirate queen took a step forward, slashing through the air with her hand to silence Tyria, not that it mattered because the girl was blind. None the less Tyria stopped her babbling.

    “Since then… I have killed without mercy. I have sent more to their deaths than I could imagine. The ghosts haunt me, they are constantly whispering in my ear and in my mind. I am no longer innocent, and I know it. I am no longer able to love for every person I love is affected by me. Sometimes they leave me, sometimes they die.”

    For someone with so much rage, the pirate queen’s voice was deadly even and controlled. Nothing that she spoke of was exaggerated though, and the knowledge of the truth caused Tyria’s stomach to knot and her throat to tighten.

    “Reine, I am sorry. Please, stay here. We lost you once, we can’t lose you again.” The poor girl was close to tears now.

    “I can’t stay here.” Reine snarled. “I don’t want to stay in this rotting cage. I have to be free Tyria, or else I become something I am not.”

    “What are you Reine?” whispered Tyria, tears streaking down her face like dying birds. She was younger than Reine by only a year, but it was as if Reine was an old woman to Tyria’s child. “Who are you?”

    “I am what I am. I can not change that.”

    “You did not answer me.”

    “I can’t. I do not know the answer.”

    There was a deep coldness in her voice, but it wasn’t a tone of accusation. Tyria took a step back, wariness in her blind eyes.

    “So the rumors are true?” Tyria asked.

    “Some…”

    “Are you soulless?”

    “At times.”

    “Are you heartless?”

    “Yes.”

    Reine’s voice was coated with sorrow, and her golden eyes seemed to be endless abysses of sadness, though they did not cry drops of salt water. Instead they regarded Tyria without emotion, the child inside Reine gone. This was the beast, for there was no way she could be a simple woman. As children, this face had hidden itself, had lain dormant. Now Reine had seen more than Tyria could ever think of, and the child had been eaten by a monster.

    Tyria wanted to cry for her friend, for her sister, but she could not. She found, as the tears leaked from the corners of her eyes, that she cried for herself and what she had lost. She had lost the child she had come to see as her closest friend and sister. Of course, Didacus had warned her that Reine was different but Tyria was never one who believed rumors and stories. She hadn’t wanted to believe her father either, but now she knew he was right as he always was.

    Reine opened her arms, she opened herself up, and Tyria came forward to give the woman a hug. There was a stoniness to her now to protect herself from more hurt. Reine could feel the resistance to her hug, and will for Reine to leave. She moved away from Tyria, tears that could never fall in her eyes.

    “I too am sorry that things could not be different.”

    “Father wishes that you dine with him,” mutely replied Tyria.

    She turned and left, as if running away from Reine Raconias, Queen of Pirates. Reine resisted the urge to remind Tyria that she could not hide from destiny, but instead she turned back to the garden, sitting softly in the moss and bowing her head in thought. They would stay here for a while, but on business, her and Caleb. She needed time to heal and to think.

    The soft sighing of wind rubbing with a purr against the bark of the palm trees mirrored the expression of mixed coldness and sadness in Reine’s face with her chin stubbornly lifted and her eyes closed, though the lines in her face were still existing. Stories from the cold mountains with their rivers that were once made of ice reached Reine’s slowly numbing body, connected to the river by her hand which drifted upon the surface of the pond. There was heaviness in the air, and guilt lay on Reine’s chest refusing to get up.

    “Yet, at the same time, I am glad that things are this way.”

    Ripples fluttered across the clear water. The fishes moved beneath her hand, their brilliantly colors scales unable to blend in the soft mud of the pond. The scent of coconut milk mixing with the blooming flowers led Reine to turn her head and look towards the sky. High above the clouds ran together like oil paint. The soft blue of high noon touched her high boned cheeks. A mixture of the coolness of the forest, and the blaze of the sun sent a breeze fluttering around Reine’s black shirt. The gap above her in the trees was large enough so that she could look to the sky and dream. That is one reason she loved this place so much, along with the quietness and solitude.

    Would she call it her home though? No, this place in this forest was not her home. It was a place she had lived yes, but it had never been a place she wanted to spend her whole life at. What Reine really wished she could do was fly, fly into the sky and be free. Adventure, life threatening experiences, Reine now knew that they were anything but fun. There was so much death, darkness, and dying, so much sadness, followed by those adventures and during those adventures. She was tired of constantly looking over her shoulder in fear that someone knew who she was, or what she was doing. The Earth called to her, and there was no one she could tell the stories of the world to.

    “What if things had been different?”

    Kit crawled forward, pouncing on the dancing grass beneath them and landing in a patch of clovers. Here, in this garden, all aspects of the world came together. In a way it reflected Reine, what Reine could not do.

    Gently her fingers scratched the black white kittens head. A soft purr rumbled in the feline’s throat as that small head rubbed against Reine’s long fingers. The fur was soft to her touch, reminding her of the ground she now sat on. Her other hand brushed through the greenery, the feeling and comfort that she got from simply relaxing apparent on her face.

    No one knew this face of the pirate queen, a face that showed exactly how old the woman was. Yes, she had been in this body for 21 years… but her memories were of a place that existed far before her. It was Decalage, only so much cleaner and more beautiful. It was a place of peace, where one could live their life as they wanted not based on the decisions of others. Once upon a time, such a Decalage had existed but no longer did it weave a story. Its story was one forgotten by all except the bards.

    Even the bards, however, were forgetting it and twisting it. The poison went so deep into the world, into the cultures and the hearts of the people who lived here, that it was killing them and there seemed to be no way to save them. They would disappear into the nothingness of which they came, that which was the father of everything… or so Reine believed. The darkness on the horizon grew stronger, the dread in her heart hardened.

Once upon a time, things may have been different, but not now, not here.

    “I am here, come and get me.”