IV. Pilgrimage

The princess and her champion investigate origins of intense magic together and find the first traces of threats to the realm's peace.

The Queen felt her wretched pains just as the cold set in over the fields. Diana woke Arianna from a deep sleep and pulled her to the royal chambers. The princess had been disoriented at first, but her mother’s cries sobered her. At the queen’s side, both girls threw their hands upon the swollen belly and closed their eyes. The King clasped his hands under his chin and chanted a prayer to Alesia.

Arianna felt a deep coldness in her mother’s stomach that latched onto her heart and dragged it deep into pits she could not imagine. She felt as though she was losing herself, as though she was falling back to sleep and would never wake up. Her body felt numb. Diana’s thoughts crept in between her own and guided the remaining warmth within her, and the princess summoned the strength in her heart to brighten and pull itself back up. She enveloped the darkness with her will, her warmth, and her strength until she could feel the darkness become dim light again. The light brightened until it glowed. Arianna opened her heavy eyes. She was exhausted, but her mother’s cries had become cooing and smiles.

“My girls,” Safia whispered.

“Are you well?” Diana murmured. Her eyes were red. Arianna had never seen her best friend look tired or unwell. Lethargy was left to the princess. Perhaps the healing had exhausted both of them.

“I am fine,” Safia said, “thanks to my sweet girls and Alesia’s blessing.”

“The baby will be here soon, my love,” the King said gently. He kissed her forehead. “It will be over before the spring.”

“Easy for you to say,” Safia teased, but her exhaustion made her words sound bitter. “You sire the children. Perhaps you should carry one, husband.”

He smiled and pressed the sweaty tendril out of her eyes. “Come, girls. Let us sleep as a family. It will be good for the baby.”

Arianna stayed close to her mother’s side after the frightening night. She begged Diana to tell her of the unborn babe’s every movement from her sensitive mind until her best friend was exhausted from the constant magic. In the cooling months, Arianna learned of the tedium of bills, petitions, and society meetings. Her mother taught her how to calculate interest and percentages, and she told the princess the histories of every guild and society. Some were as old as the country, such as the blacksmith and alchemy guilds, while others were strange and new, such as the tailors’ guild for those that dressed horses. Her mother visited many people in their tall mansions or rose gardens to talk over their troubles among guilds or crime sprees. At night, the four slept together and listened for troubles in the queen’s womb. Sometimes the princess felt the return of the darkness and fought it. Most nights, she slept like the dead.

The Queen valued the princess’s innocence and curiosity. In the midst of the harvest court, the princess’s questions pried open the lies of a sheriff who’d arrested an innocent woman and sold her family’s farm to his friends. The princess questioned the sheriff’s ability to see through the woman’s alleged treachery and the evidence. Her bright green eyes sparkled in her marvel, but the court whispered. When the sheriff could not keep a straight story for the princess, the Queen passed her judgment �" an incredible fine, a return of the land, interest. The woman cried in her gratitude.

Then the solstice came, and with it, the princess’s grandest birthday. The entire palace filled with lilies, ribbons, and sweet cakes. Musicians with dozens of string and wood instruments came to play happy songs. Children danced in the snow-dusted streets and made up songs for the princess, unaware that she and her champion stood in hooded robes listening from the heavy elms with smiles. At night, the music began, and the girls returned.

Men in golden armor and thick capes came at night. Arianna stood at the end of the great hall beside the throne with her parents as Diana stared out the tall windows. When the princess saw the men, her heart froze. Was it Dragoth? The name in her thoughts turned Diana around instantly, and the champion silently laughed to the princess.

“They are suitors,” her best friend assured her. “They wear battle armor in hopes to impress you.”

Arianna breathed easily and looked over the six armored men. One was a bearded fellow of perhaps forty summers. She let the intangible wind from inside her flow over the man and felt his thoughts. He was a quiet lord from the north near the shores and wanted only a wife to gut his fish and mother his children. She smiled to him and hoped he would find a calmer, older girl to love. The other five were various sons of great men who were eager to marry the princess and become great. She sighed and looked at their faces, but none made her blush the way she craved.

The dances were as awkward as ever, and Arianna only danced with a son of a western lord who sold lumber for profit. He was a lean lad with scars from his tree-climbing days, but he lied and said he got them fighting bullies. She smiled at his lies and felt less awful when she trampled his toes and fell over his feet in a twirl. When the dancing was over, she left the ballroom to fill her stomach with cakes and hide in the gardens. She and Diana laughed at the suitors together and watched the winter stars instead.

In the night at their beds, Arianna sighed, “I would like to ride horses over huge hills for my next birthday.” She hugged her pillows and looked to her best friend’s dark eyes for a promise. “They have to be covered in snow, and the sky has to be without a cloud.”

“Then for your next birthday, you will ride horses over snowy fields under a clear sky, Princess,” Diana said with a loving smile. “And I will be there beside you, freezing and happy to please.”

Arianna smiled and rolled back into bed. “I am so happy, Diana. I wish everyone could be this happy.” She closed her eyes and embraced the intense warmth from insider her. She wondered if her mother would sleep well in the night, but Diana warned that the King and Queen would want the night alone together, and so she slept in her own frilly bed. The sun returned without any cries from the royal bedchamber.

The Queen’s water broke on a snowy morning, just as the lilies began to bloom and lacey white flowers took the edges of the fields. She had been tired from a long night of reading petitions despite the king’s pleas for her rest. The midwife did not arrive for hours, but Arianna and Diana surrounded the Queen and held her hands. The King found Orik and Joy and asked that the temples pray.

Queen Safia let out great screams as she pushed. Arianna held her shoulders and tried to be strong, but her mother’s cries made her eyes run. The darkness was stronger than ever inside. It smelled like wilted roses and autumn leaves. The coldness inside the queen’s womb sucked life from the air around them, but the girls cast their healing spells as fast and as hard as they could. Nothing could ease the pain.

Just as the midwife called for final pushes, the darkness became a chasm. Arianna felt her body convulse with pain. The well of her power was nearly dry. Diana let out a cry and held the Queen’s cheek, and with a sob, Arianna saw that it had gone white and cold.

“Mom,” Arianna sobbed. “Momma?”

The candle of light inside the Queen’s body grew dim, a light at the end of its wick and drowning in hot wax. The princess shook harder. “Arianna,” Safia whispered, “it’s okay. You will make a wonderful queen. You are loving and wise, and the people love you.”

“Momma, no,” Arianna whimpered. “You’re going to be okay. It’s almost over!”

Her mother’s weak smile trembled. “Yes, it is,” she breathed. “Diana, watch over Arianna.”

“I will,” Diana sobbed. Her sapphire eyes let loose long streams. “But you will be here too, my queen. Hold on!”

Safia fell into her pillows as her eyes lowered. Her back grew rigid. “It hurts,” she breathed. Then she was still and quiet. Arianna clasped her mother’s hands, but they were limp and cold. The old midwife cried the queen’s name and reached for herbs, but she was ill-prepared after six successive births the night before. 

Arianna let out a shrieking cry and pushed the midwife aside. Her brother’s red skin had appeared, but with horror she saw that they were his feet, moving slightly. She pulled him hard and without hesitation, determined to let both her baby brother and her mother live. His face was blue and his head squeezed from the rude welcoming to the earth, and her mother bled hard on the bed.

She held her baby brother and shook him gently. Her tears obscured the sight of him, but she felt the weak darkness of death that crawled over him. She flicked his feet and rubbed his back, and he let loose a weak cry. The midwife came to take him, yelling at the princess and Diana to leave. By then, the King had come.

“Safia!” he cried.

Diana looked over her shoulder at the mourning king and bit her lips to resist a sob. “Arianna, hold my hands!” she cried.

The princess returned to her mother’s side and knelt. Diana mirrored her, and they formed an arch with their bodies. As their hands touched, Arianna felt the weak candles inside her best friend grow stronger, as did the weak light within her. She let out a cry into the bedchamber as the pain grew stronger. With every scratch of deathly glass inside her mind and body, she felt the fires grow stronger around her. The warmth enveloped her. She cried harder and searched for more strength inside her, and at the bottom of her very soul, she found it. Arianna cast it to her mother and brother in one final swoop of power, so hot that it stuck to her mother’s flesh and the infant’s face.

Her brother cried out in a frustrated cry. Safia opened her eyes and pulled him to her chest with a coo. At the sight, Arianna smiled, sighed, and felt her father’s arms around her. She collapsed.

Arianna woke to a soft smack on her nose. Then she saw her baby brother, swaddled in softest white cloth that made his ruby color all the more strange. He had freed his hand and touched her nose. When she looked past his glassy green eyes, she saw her father’s proudest smile. Beside her, the queen rested her head and smiled. Diana was asleep beside her.

“You were very brave,” Safia said gently. “Braver than me, my sun goddess.”

“I was really scared,” Arianna said weakly. She looked to her happy brother to forget the violence with which she brought him into the world.

“I am sorry.” Safia kissed her hair and grasped the tiny wandering hand. “Being brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared, Arianna. If you find the strength to overcome your fear, then you can be brave. For that, your little brother and I are thankful.”

“The entire kingdom is thankful,” the King added. “What do you think of the name Dylan? He was your great-great uncle who conquered the northern shores in a single ship against a dragon.”

Arianna looked to her mother and then her father. “He doesn’t look like a monster-slayer. He looks like a baby,” she said.

“Sometimes boys grow into their names,” Safia said.

“What about Cyril?” Arianna said. The baby’s mouth formed an “o” as it tracked the king’s moving finger. “He was a smart king in Deeagor. He thought the greatest offense was a powerful defense and reinforced all the borders.” Safia smiled, and she felt surer.

“Let’s let him decide when he’s older, then,” the King said. “Some babies were not born with their names on their tongue.”

Arianna blinked. “Was I born with my name on my tongue?”

Her parents nodded. “Diana knew you before you were born, and you loved your name,” Safia said. “You two have always been inseparable.”

The princess looked to her sleeping best friend. Had their power exhausted her so dearly? She lifted the covers to her dark hair, and in her touch, she saw Diana’s dream of a waterfall inside a dark, cool valley.

“Arianna,” Safia said lowly, “do you sometimes feel strange?”

The princess’s mouth opened slightly. She was asking if she could perform magic. Perhaps she wasn’t completely unaware when the two performed the resurrection spell, or maybe the king or midwife had seen through the invisible spell that had wrapped Arianna’s body. Nonetheless, Diana had said time and time again to keep her power a silent secret. She smiled and shook her head. “No, Momma,” she said, “but I wish I did.”

As she watched her baby brother stare at the world with wide green eyes, she felt her own droop slowly down. In the middle of the day, the princess fell back into a deep sleep and didn’t wake until the next morning. The ones she loved were safe for another day. The kingdom rejoiced.

The speed of the prince’s growth amazed Arianna. After a trip to the meadows in the east with her father and Captain James, she returned to see that the boy had grown three inches and could mimic faces. He had begun babbling and pointing, and by the next spring, he was walking and talking.

All of the King’s men had returned by the next spring with full reports of the temples. What had begun as a month-long investigation had taken a year, for with the changing seasons, strange things happened within the temples. On the lake, the waters froze in the middle of the summer, and in the midst of winter, the water shot out the windows and wrapped the temple, trapping and nearly killing a soldier inside. In the mountains, the men reported horrible monsters with rock-like bodies and thick fur that blended with the cliffs and snow. They could not kill the monsters; their reports were the only evidence of such attacks. Traders had stopped traveling the paths. The temples had grown more and more dangerous with every season.

As the King read the reports, he grew restless. He said nothing at the Council to the happy priests and priestesses, but Orik saw the darkness and scowled. Arianna could hear the thoughts through Diana. “The world is changing,” was her champion’s only consolation. Still she could not see past the temples.

Suitors came from the shores, hills, and sparser woods to appeal for the princess’s betrothal. The King’s restlessness made him bitter to linger around. Sometimes he cast the men out without so much as a word. Other times he paced through the men and boys’ petitions with a scowl. Rarely did he ever consider the appeals. Only once did he ever yell at his daughter. She was fourteen and beautiful like her mother, and she listened to every detail of the Cattle Lord’s petition. She shook her head and sweetly told her father “no”, and suddenly Diana grasped her arm.

“You ungrateful girl!” he bellowed. “You spoiled, fat girl! I could marry you off to whomever I please, and you deny every man that comes through the gate! No other girl chooses her husband �" not even your mother �" and yet you stand here and tell me no over and over!”

His face was red as he gritted his teeth. Arianna was snow white in terror. Her shoulders trembled despite Diana’s touch, and when she turned to her best friend, her sapphire eyes were filled with shock. The King blew out a hot breath and stormed out, but he closed the door gently as though not to wake her. As he left, Arianna covered her eyes and bit back tears.

“Why didn’t you stop him?” Arianna sobbed. “You can hear his mind.”

“It came suddenly,” Diana said. “I am so sorry, Arianna. He’s scared. He isn’t mad at you, and he feels awful for yelling at you.”

“I don’t know what to do,” she said. “I don’t want to marry these boys and strange men. I want to fall in love.”

Diana nodded and pulled the princess to her sleeve. Arianna wept. She felt her dreams weigh heavily on her shoulders. Would she have to marry one of the elderly kings from the south to form an alliance? Orik had thought of some sort of betrothal at the last Council and said nothing. He feared the growing power of Dragoth in the east, but her father didn’t think of such a frightening deal then.

“Arianna,” Diana whispered, “I must go visit the temples and destroy the focus points. If I destroy them, I will be able to see what is happening beyond the mountains.”

“I’m going with you,” Arianna said. “You can’t leave my side, so I’m going with you.”

Diana nodded and lifted the princess’s chin. Even at sixteen years old, the champion looked sagely and old. Her long fingers felt bony, and her eyes looked so deep. Arianna turned from them and squeezed her eyes shut. It seemed only the little prince was as stupid and naïve as the princess. At her sharp thought, Diana took the princess into her arms again and didn’t let her go for a very long time.

They told only the King and Queen of their journey. The Council would not meet for another month, and Diana was anxious to leave before spring was in full blossom. The King protested loudly at first, but the Queen knew that Diana would protect Arianna with her incredible power. They sent Captain Steele, the Queen’s loyal and grim captain, to join the girls. With three lily-white horses and bags of gold and supplies, they left.

At first, Arianna felt that the journey was like any other diplomatic mission. They rode through the empty fields and past newborn livestock. Villagers waved to their beloved princess, and she recognized some of their plump faces. They stayed at inns where bards sang of ancient tales and the food was always too greasy.

After the first three days, Arianna felt homesick. She missed riding with her father, and Captain Steele was far too nervous. He watched the shadows of the trees with his hand on his sword’s hilt. Diana looked serious, too, but inside, the girls laughed. “Beware the squirrel-monster!” they howled between their minds. “The most feared of beasts, the wolf-eater and tree-breaker!” The captain turned to the princess every few hours and assured her that she was safe, and she smiled and nodded to him.

At night, when they slept under the stars and the campfire spent itself, Arianna could feel the unease that Diana tried to keep hidden. She was scared of Dragoth, too, though she would never admit it. Even later at night, when the captain’s paranoid gasps and investigations of woodland rattling woke them, Arianna sensed an even darker cloud hanging over her friend’s heart �" profound loneliness that left her near the brink of tears. The princess ached to ask her why she felt so lonely if their friendship was so complete, but the nights were too short, and she fell asleep too quickly and forgot in the morning to say anything. One night, when everyone was asleep, Arianna pulled a piece of herself, the warm healing energy that rested in her bones, and pushed it into Diana’s chest. The cloud between them became thinner, and their words traveled louder between each other than ever.

Beyond the fat Inn of Giants, the forest grew dark and dense. The ground was covered by moss and ferns so that anything could hide in its shadows. The cries of birds distorted in the trees to become monstrous howls. All was still. Captain Steele became especially neurotic as he led the way through the shadows, watching the endless seas of greens and blackness, waiting for the monsters to emerge. When a crow dashed out of a bramble to the oaks, the three jumped and cried and frightened the horses. Then they caught their breath and rode on.

“Are you sure this was a good idea?” Captain Steele asked. “These woods are not safe. Whatever magic comes from them is an old magic. We shouldn’t be here.”

“Until the focus points are destroyed, Lohren is in danger,” Diana said calmly. “The magic is old, but the monsters are not. Whatever evil that has found its way to the temples is just a sample of what’s to come.”

“You sound like Orik,” Arianna teased. Diana stuck out a tongue from her sober, alabaster face. It made the princess laugh to see a regal lady make faces.

At night, Captain Steele cut open a clearing and lifted branches to make a barrier. He lit a great fire for the girls and brought berries, hare, and roots. They ate and spoke of the blond prince, who loved his sister especially and who ran down the halls in circles. Then they laid out their bedrolls and said their goodnights. Captain Steele slept against a rock with his sword in hand, hoping to convince any bandits that he was awake and ready to kill. When he fell asleep before the princess, she knew she was in trouble. She looked at the lace-leafed ferns and watched spiders spin great webs between the trees, but nothing could tire her. Restlessness did not suit the princess.

They rode for two more days, and the princess slept only when the sky began to turn pink with coming morning. She could feel the darkness in the air as they neared the temple in the woods. The reports indicated that the ancient stones depicted Lyros, god of the woods and father of man. They said that the wolves in the area were the size of cows and hunted in the day and the night. Shadows moved in the fire without a source, and sharp howls echoed from deep inside the temple.

On the third day, Arianna saw for herself the monsters. They rode between two oaks up an incline where gnarled roots threatened the horses’ legs. At the crest of the hill, Captain Steele unsheathed his sword and pulled his horse to a halt. He let out a yell as he lifted his sword. Then Arianna saw the wolf. It walked on two lean legs as its forelimbs raised long, sharp claws. It raked its claws against a tree and stripped the bark off in one blow.

“Out, monster!” Captain Steele yelled.

Before he could land a single blow, the wolf shrieked and raised its head. Its body convulsed and was rigid before it landed �" a powerful lightning strike without a storm. The captain turned to Diana and sighed, and she smiled to him.

“Are you well, Captain?” Diana asked.

“I am,” he said. “It was protecting the temple entrance.”

He lifted a finger to indicate the moss-laden stones of the temple façade. Its massive structure left a hole in the thick canopy, and for the first time in three days, Arianna could see the sun. The captain rode around the front wall before waving his hand to invite them forward. The mouth of the temple let free a wretched aura of darkness inside, but Arianna dismounted the snowy horse and walked toward it anyway. Captain Steele led the way inside, and Diana stayed in the back to watch for more wolves.

The temple smelled of water on stone and life. Lichens grew in the cracked slabs of stone and crawled away at the captain’s torch light. The first corridor was short and led to an antechamber furnished with slabs for sitting and a wood altar for leading worship. A faded statue stood inside an alcove in the wall, but its head had fallen off, and its features were long worn and moldy. Light broke through wide cracks in the ceiling where ivy crawled in. Beyond the altar was a door to the sacred chamber within.

“Be careful,” Diana warned.

Captain Steele nodded and stepped into the dark corridor. His fire lit the web-laden heart of the temple and the shadows. Arianna joined him, and Diana followed. The torch could not light all the shadows. Some looked painted into the stone in their unwavering darkness. The only feature of the room was a stone, winged altar against the far wall. Arianna stepped closer, but Captain Steel held his arm to keep them at bay until he could investigate it. He touched its surface and dusted it of cobwebs and silt, but it held nothing. The wings were ornate, but nothing was written on the altar.

“The power comes from here,” Diana said. “I can feel it.”

“Shall we destroy it, then?” Steele asked.

She nodded. “I will do it. Stand back.”

They stepped toward the corridor as Diana opened her palms toward the altar. She cringed and clasped her hands shut, but the altar didn’t move. She whispered an incantation, and the room hummed with tangible power that swirled in the cold conjured wind. Still the altar stood, untouched. Diana set her hands across its surface mid-sentence, and it let out a great white light. She cried out and fell backwards onto the floor.

“Diana!” Arianna cried. She hugged her friend. “Are you all right?”

“It cannot be broken,” Diana whispered. Her breath was knocked from her lungs. “It is impenetrable!”

Captain Steele set his hands on his waist and looked over the altar. He pushed its top with a grunt and stretched his body as he pushed, but the stone would not knock over. The strength of all three combined would not topple the stone. 

“What do we do?” Arianna asked.

They stood near the altar for a time longer, but they could not destroy it. The sun had set, and the temple was completely consumed in darkness. Diana lit the spent torches with a flick of her wrist. The persistent shadows remained in the corners of the room. Captain Steel sat against the wall and closed his eyes to think, but his breaths grew longer with his fatigue.

“We should stay here tonight. There are likely more wolves in the woods,” Diana said. Her eyes drooped with like tiredness, but Arianna could not feel her thoughts past the shock from the altar.

“I’ll keep you safe from the wolves, ladies,” Captain Steel said.

“That will not be necessary,” Diana said. She lifted her hands, and a pillar of stone rose to seal the chamber and the cracks. Arianna smiled to her friend and leaned against her in their coming sleep. The captain sighed, removed his gloves, and eased into the ancient tiles. They were safe.

The journey through the woods was plagued by darkness. Two more wolves appeared from the shadows to challenge them, but they fell easily with Diana’s magic. At night they slept beneath a dome of earth and roots where nothing could see or hurt them. They left the domes with just a small door for others travelers to take refuge within. 

As the woods became sparser with greater shadows, the earth became harder. The clearings of woods swelled with hills and old rocks. The road finally pointed skyward from its base, and the mountains appeared above the woods. Clouds crowned the summit of the nearest mountain, the sacred Mount Tuli, where the Temple of Elysia rested. Pine trees rooted deep into the crags, but there were neither birds nor wildlife in sight.

Arianna rode close to Diana and eased into the buzzing air around them. Her friend’s mind was alight with images of villages beyond the mountains. Some were peaceful little towns like those of her own kingdom, with light-haired children carrying crates and men mining the mountains. Others were of great fires and screaming townsfolk. She saw landslides that swallowed entire cities and storms that threw homes into the sky before swallowing them in floods and earth. The princess was horrified and shielded her mind against the images.

“Princess,” Diana quipped, “it is best not to eavesdrop.”

“What was that?” Arianna asked. “What is happening?”

“It has not come to pass yet.” Diana looked quickly from the edgy captain and back to the princess. “I can see beyond the barrier in these mountains from here. I can see the tragedies that will come to pass in the lands of the east.”

“Can we change the future?” Arianna asked.

Diana smiled and hummed a light note. “I think we can.”

They stopped near the icy waters of a mountain stream behind a moss curtain. From their camp, they could see the crystal water of the stream join the river between Mount Tuli and its sister, Mount Kall. Arches of willows, tied together by old tribes, covered the junctions and knots of waterways. Beyond in the swamped plains of the east were fields of wildflowers glittering with fireflies. The cool breeze carried their aroma through the pines and sweetened their dreams.

In the morning they climbed higher up Mount Tuli. Twice their path was blocked by boulders and dried landslides. Captain Steel insisted on clearing the way for the ladies or turning back, but Diana summoned waters that carried the earth down the crags and safely to the pits of the cliffs. She summoned winds that carried the treacherous stones and dust away from the road for their horses, and she beckoned the woods to grow vines through the soil for their horses. The princess smiled, and Captain Steel offered confused admiration in banters. The girls giggled and continued their climb. When the road was too narrow for their horses, Diana summoned clay and cooked it in fire and water to widen it. She formed arches to shield them from the sun and beckoned the olive trees to flourish nearby.

As the sun reached its zenith at the point of the distant Mount Kall, the three reached the heart of the mountain and the temple embedded in its peak. Marble columns bore the writing of the old sages and deep cracks. Two great torches blew ruby fire high above the columns, lighting the ancient statue of Elysia in their eternal glow. Diana formed a trough of crystal water for their mounts beside a patch of lush grass.

“I think it would be best if you ladies left this to me,” Captain Steele said lowly. “Something evil is in this temple. I feel it in my belly.”

“You will simply have to protect us from this evil,” Arianna chirped.

“Magic or no magic, my lady, this evil is strong. Please just stay here.”

“He is right,” Diana said gently. “Whatever is creating the barrier between our home and the east is strong inside. Whatever is in here is much more frightening than wolves.”

Arianna grasped the sleeve of Diana’s dress and pulled her through the archway. The heat from inside the temple blasted her face and flesh instantly. Diana raised her hand to blow a cooling gust through the hall of stone, but as the gust died, the heat returned. Torches of red fire flickered, but they would not snuff out. Captain Steele dashed ahead of the pair with his own torch and led them through the corridor of smooth brown stone. Crevices in the walls featured statues of Elysia and armored knights, all wielding stone swords and granite replicas of their beautiful jewelry. Withered floral sacrifices still lay around some of the statues, but thieves had likely taken any of the gold or silver. The corridor twisted through the mountain and grew hotter with every step until, at last, Arianna could take no more. Only then did they reach the antechamber.

A grand granite statue of Elysia served as the pillar of the antechamber. Behind it was a narrow corridor with an archway. Like the forest shrine, a strange altar stood in the center of the chamber, its only mark a narrow slit in its middle. Captain Steel searched the many smaller statues and burned tomes for enemies, but he could find none. Arianna stepped closer to the pillar and touched its surface, but it was a plain decoration. It was just a temple.

“Maybe we will have better luck with this one,” Steel said.  He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt to the edge of his chainmail. “Excuse me, ladies!”

The captain shoved his weight into the altar and grunted. He kicked at the ground as he threw his shoulders into the stone, but it was to no avail. When his face turned grey-blue, he paused, huffed, and turned about. With his back against the lateral of the altar, he kicked and moaned until he lost his breath. Arianna raised a hand against his efforts and shook her head.

“It won’t move,” she said plainly. “I think we’re missing something.”

Diana lifted her hand. Dust stirred around the altar, and the earth rumbled until the stones turned on the earth, but the altar did not move. “It is resistant to magic,” she murmured. “I do not like this.”

“Someone had to create these,” Arianna said. She ran her hand over the top of the altar and hummed. “Who could have such power? Why would someone make these?”

“Likely the gods,” Diana said softly.

Captain Steele sighed and leaned against the altar as he caught his breath. Arianna leaned into the altar as she searched for any markings indicating its purpose or its maker, but there was nothing. Then Diana touched its surface, and her eyes became wide and black. Her mind became silent. Arianna cried out for her and hugged her, but Diana was stiff and cold. Captain Steele tugged the girl’s hand from the altar and cupped her cold face. With a blink of her eyes, Diana awoke. She shook her head and leaned into the princess for a moment before nodding.

“What happened?” Arianna asked.

“I don’t know,” Diana said. “I don’t remember.”

“We should go,” Captain Steele said. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

Silently, Arianna whispered, “He has a bad feeling about everything,” but Diana only smiled and nodded.

The trio walked quickly around the goddess pillar to the archway over the path they had not taken yet. They had yet to see the monsters that plagued the mountains, but the heat never lost its intensity, and the eerie vibe never weakened. The narrow path was dark and treacherous with steep slopes, but it was short. Most importantly, no beasts hid inside the curves.

At the end of the winding path, they stepped out onto a tiny cliff decorated with two moldy wooden posts. The remnants of a rope bridge hung from the posts down the side of Mount Tuli. A bird had nested in one of the remaining boards, but the rest were claimed by vines. On the other side of the river and valley was the other half of the bridge resting against Mount Kall, their next stop.

“I suppose we’ll have to climb down, cross the river, and climb back up,” Captain Steel said.

“Nonsense,” Arianna said.

“This will be difficult,” Diana said. “Step back, Princess.”

Diana stood between the wooden posts and closed her eyes. She moved her hands in circles and lines, and as they moved, Arianna could feel the air move. The mountains quaked as their rocks were torn from their cliff sides. The river rumbled below as water was torn from its center. The torrents splashed the rocks as the wind gusted hard into the air, positioning the rocks in the middle of the air, all in a line between the two mountains. Then the air was clear and still, and Arianna gasped. She knew what would come next. She grabbed Captain Steel and pulled him into the corridor as the first great finger of lightning crashed into the stone. The boulders melted together as a black spike. Another finger smashed against the stone, followed by a third and then a fourth. The storm smote the stones until every speck and stone had been liquefied and blackened. When the air became wet and warm again, the lightning stopped, and Diana lowered her hands. Before her was a wide stone bridge without pillars or ropes between the two mountains.

“That was amazing,” Captain Steele murmured. “Is it safe to cross?”

“It should be safe for the three of us to cross for now. I would not challenge its limits, though. I have never studied the art of bridge-building before,” Diana said quietly.

Arianna wrapped her arm into Diana’s. She knew that summoning such magic exhausted her, and the bridge had been an impressive feat. Together they stepped onto the soft stone of the surface, still acrid with the stench of molded stone. Below the river returned to its peace, and they could see far beyond the valley and its woods. Captain Steele crossed quickly with bowed legs, but the girls walked leisurely to the other side. Beyond the opposite moldy posts was another archway with a stony statue of the Goddess Freya standing over it.

The stone corridor was dark and cold inside. While Mount Tuli had raged with its infernal heat, Mount Kall was older and calm. The path was soft with lichens. Droplets of water remained still in their nearly-frozen state. As they neared the antechamber, the air became even dryer and colder. Diana warmed the air with a burst of magic and braced Arianna, but the princess’s determination kept her warm. The same eeriness of the temples resounded from the core, but they saw no beasts within.

They reached the antechamber just as the air became crisper than they could manage. Like its sister, the Temple of Freya featured a lone statue of the goddess with an altar in its middle. Sacrifices of dusty gems and gold still remained at the foot of the statue with broken pottery and heavy stone pots. The goddess wore a silk robe, the remnant of an old practice. The torches burned blue with old magic.

Captain Steel tried to destroy the altar, but it was no use. The girls carefully touched the altar before they joined forces. Nothing worked. They chose to remain in the icy chamber just long enough to search for any writings on the temples that could tell them why the altars seemed so corrupted or why they could not be destroyed. The books were old, though, and the wetness of the cavern had destroyed most of their bindings and pages. They packed as many as they could hold and walked quickly out of the chamber to the new bridge.

Once they reached their horses, they began packing the books in their saddlebags. Diana’s look was grim, and Captain Steele’s face was even more wrinkled than before with suspicions. Arianna sighed and leaned into her mount.

“That’s three temples with nothing but wolves and dust,” Captain Steele said. “Princess, I fear you only risk your life if you continue this journey. We should return you to your home and send men who can better figure this nonsense out.”

Arianna clenched her fist, but Diana shook her head. “I must agree. Whatever evil is contained in those altars is beyond our control, Princess.”

“Then we turn back in the morning,” Arianna said with some thought. “And we shall send soldiers and alchemists to these sites to investigate the altars.”

As they rode down the shadowed mountain, Arianna felt a knot in her belly. The air grew colder as the night drew on, and the silence disturbed her more than it ever had. Never in her life had she felt so entirely defeated. When she reached across to her dearest friend, she felt the same ache and regret, shadowing the tragedies that would soon befall the people of the east.

As Captain Steele prepared a late dinner of bread and roots, the girls quietly contemplated the altars. They twirled the images of the temples until they exhausted themselves entirely, and they slept hard until the cold morning yanked them from the warmth of their shared dreams. Diana was quiet in her swirling thoughts and would not let Arianna inside. Captain Steele rubbed at his beard and looked over the woods. Once he was sure that he’d seen a brown bear, he insisted they trot until they could not trot any longer. 

They rode hard until they reached a quiet inn nestled against a small farm. Rain trickled from the sky and doused the earth in cold tears. The young woman who owned the inn started a meal for the travelers and immediately began praising the Crown Princess and her beauty. She spoke of the miracles she’d heard of in the city and the prosperity of the land, even as the north and east became plagued with violence. She left to prepare the rooms beyond her wide fireplace while the three ate warm honeyed bread and potatoes from her fields. The low rumbling of thunder and the innkeeper’s humming lulled Arianna’s thoughts as she ate. She reached for her friend’s mind, but Diana shook her head and simply smiled.

“Shall I tell you a story tonight as I tuck you in, Princess?” Captain Steele offered. He paused between bites to smile gently, and Arianna felt her own mouth turn. “When your mother was your age, I would tell her the same stories my grandfather told me. It’s tradition, you know.”

“That sounds lovely,” Arianna said. “I would like that.”

Once their rooms were ready, the girls slipped inside and changed into their chemises, and the young keeper took their riding gowns for a wash. A pitcher of water and a narrow vase of sunflowers were the only decorations for the plain room, but it was cozy, and they could hear the fire crack on the other side of the cool bricks. Arianna fell into the bed and sighed relief. Diana joined her and pulled her close in her protective embrace. Their bones fell into place as one tired entity. Then, just as he’d promised, Captain Steele joined them at their bedside and told the princess a tale of a thief who could steal dreams and sold them to witches, and of the boy who had trouble sleeping at night. The girls fell asleep long before the captain finished his tale, and they were at rest and reunited in their thoughts again.