Midnight's Song (42 page)

“
Dead
?” I echoed. Aurelian quickly
came to me and tried to hold my hands, but I pulled away. Despite
my resistance, he spoke up anyway.

“Elissa…” he began. “I
know that it might be hard to understand, but as powerless a prince
I am in your world, I foresaw this very moment. That’s why I called
you here. That’s why I tried to convince you to come with me. I
sensed the danger that you were in…and I knew that now was the
time. I only want to protect you.”

It didn’t matter what was
being said, this was becoming more obscure and confusing than my
journey down here. I had known that Aurelian wanted to keep me
safe, but this seemed to be a different matter from what we had
agreed on when we decided to fight together in our presently
non-existent war. There was something that Aurelian still had
refrained from telling me. I knew it, I felt it! I could see that
he was struggling to say something…but the other women spoke up
before he could say it.

“I don’t know what’s gone
on down here, but there’s something in the world above that puts
you in great danger. Graver danger than you were in at any point in
time before,” Marie-Katherine told me. Her statement was followed
by a long silence.

“Elissa…your grandmother is nearly
breathing her last. Since you left, the entire family has started
saying their final goodbyes,” Emily started. My heart
dropped.

“Then take me back! Don’t let me stay
here another moment!” I rashly exclaimed, tears beginning to crawl
down my cheeks at the thought.

“That’s just it…I
can’t,” Emily sobbed. She quieted, her voice cracking. “Because as
soon as she dies, Beeti is going to
kill
you!”

Emily neared me, trying to put a hand
on my shoulder in emotional despair. Though, in the shock of the
moment I could only back away. I backed away slowly, distancing
myself from them all as much as I could. They must have been crazy,
or maybe I was crazy. In all of my confusion, I continued to back
away from them until I was dangerously close to falling backwards
into one of the mirrors.

Before I could even
comprehend what was going on, I tripped and began what would have
been a backwards descent into another world. Not bearing to lose
me, the love-sick Aurelian rushed to catch me with superhuman
speed. He caught and gently lifted me away from the portal just as
I was about to fall through When it was over, I was in his arms
gasping for breath. The human part of me wanted to become so
frantic that my heart would simply give out, but for some reason I
looked into his eyes and found myself feeling oddly calmed.
Everyone in the room but the prince fell into silence.

“I know it’s hard to understand,” he
whispered to me. “But I can’t lose you. That’s why I called you
here. Sometimes, I see things that are going to happen here in the
near future. Not far into the future…just the near future. The
night before, I had a dream. I saw darkness at work, and I knew I
had to protect you from it.”

When he spoke of the
dream, Marie-Katherine looked at the prince in awe. Now she was
certain that her vision was no miniscule thing. The prince took me
and carried me just a little ways, much like the way a husband
carries his wife over the thresh-hold. It was simply because he had
become so caught up in all of this that he had forgotten to put me
down. Once he realized what he was doing, he put me down gently. It
was then that Sister Marie-Katherine spoke up.

“Your Highness, I
had a vision much like your own. That’s the reason why I knew to
come looking here,” she said in astonishment. All of our jaws
nearly dropped. After a few more moments of wasted silence, the
Sister directed her attention to me again. “We must get you away
from here somehow…the things that Emily heard Beeti saying and saw
her doing are no trivial matter. She is armed with poison and is
out for
your
blood.”

“The servants have already made a plan
to smuggle you to the Desert Country. If you come with us now,
perhaps there is time…” Emily exclaimed, grabbing me by the hand.
Though, I quickly pulled it away.

“No,” I bluntly told her. Everyone in
the room suddenly looked at me as if I was completely
insane.

“Elissa…there are more people than
just your aunt who want your blood on their hands,” Aurelian
insisted. “It would be safest to leave now.”

Wait, wait! Now it felt like they had
all made up their minds about where I was going, whether I agreed
or not. I had been dragged down here, confused, angered, and
practically hypnotized! Somehow, I had gone through all of that and
no one would still fully explain what was going on. I understand
how sweet the notion is of simply blindly trusting someone – but at
the moment I was beginning to boil from the inside out.

All I could think of
now was how angry I was and how terrible it would be to miss saying
goodbye to my grandmother. Of course it made every logical bit of
sense in the world that Beeti
would
have it out for me – I was also understandably
angry that all of this had to be decided now. It might not have
been rational, and in the end it wasn’t a very smart decision. But,
I was compelled by love to make it; compelled by love
and
anger. This time, I
was
compelled by love
to stay until the very last moment. The consequences of
remaining didn’t seem nearly as painful as leaving without saying
goodbye.

“I won’t be a
coward,” I hotly declared. “I’m not leaving. Where would I go to
get away from this?
Another world?”
I quizzically looked at Aurelian through my
tears. “Please, just take me back to see my grandmother one last
time. The moment that she’s gone, you can take me and protect me
however you need to. But this is
MY
decision! I will stay until the very last moment,
and I
will
tell
my grandmother goodbye!”

Once I had affirmed my stubbornness,
the room became quiet. It was clear that I might not have been in a
perfectly balanced mental state. All of this had simply been too
much, it’s true! But, I still wasn’t going to let any of these
people – allies or not – make my decisions for me. Now I wish I had
been more trusting, but there’s nothing that can be changed now.
Wanting only to be a help to me, Aurelian tenderly but reluctantly
looked me in the eyes and spoke to me.

“Elissa…I’m sorry. There’s obviously
nothing that can change your mind now…and I cannot force you to
come with me. But, do you trust me?”

“What do you mean?” I suddenly
posed.

“Do you trust me?” He asked
again.

I thought about it long and hard, and
in doing so my anger began to wash away. I still didn’t feel
pleasant, but I couldn’t deny what I was feeling at this moment. I
had to tell him what I knew was true. At the same time, I didn’t
know if I could do this with the other two in the room. There was a
fiery notion that jumped across my heart, one that caused me to
begin to make sense of this all for the very first time since I’d
been here.

It was a question that
required an answer, an answer that required privacy. The prince and
I must have been sharing the same thoughts, because at the exact
same moment we spoke up together and asked something along the
lines of: “Could we have a moment alone?” Though the moment was
intense, the woman agreed to leave the room momentarily. Once they
did, Aurelian and I found ourselves standing close once again. I
didn’t speak, deep in thought. All the while, it looked like the
prince was waiting for something. Simply waiting.

“Yes, I trust you,” I soon told him in
return.

“Then trust that I will protect
you.”

I could sense that there was something
that Aurelian had been holding back all this time, but I had not
been able to say exactly what it was. Now I knew that he was ready
to say it – and suddenly, there was clarity! My heart could sense
that Aurelian needed to tell me something that he had been holding
back for a long while. I braced myself for the moment that the
truth would come, but I still couldn’t let it be said without
asking him the question that I thought would make sense of this
all.

“Why do you want to protect me? This
goes beyond obligation or even something fueled by remorse. You’ve
been hiding something from me all along, and I need to know what it
is!”

First he hesitated…but
when he looked at me he was filled with so much pain that he
couldn’t hold back . We might very possibly die in these next few
days, so he might as well have told me now. His head neared toward
mine as if he were about to give me a kiss. He began talking to me
in a low voice, in a soft, gentle whisper.

“Elissa….you’re
right. There’s something I’ve been hiding from you for a very long
time. I haven’t been honest with you, and I’m sorry. But, I can’t
keep on playing this game anymore. I’ve been alone for far too
long, selfish and cowardly as I’ve run away from my old life. Now,
I have something else to live for,” he beckoned. “I’ve known who
you were from the first moment I saw you in the garden – I’d seen
you before then…but only in my dreams. I’ve tried to deny it over
and over again…but Elissa, I can’t deny it anymore.
I love you
.”

I felt my body tremble in pure emotion
when I heard the words. I’d known it all of this time within the
depths of my heart, but the constant denial of the truth had caused
me to go mad on the inside. Now I finally knew it, I had heard it
with my ears. The tears that had been pouring down my cheeks were
no longer those of confusion or sadness; but joy. I let the moment
fall into one more blanket of silence before I spoke up as
well.

“
And I’ve always loved you
.”

At that moment, we
both fell into each other’s embrace and exchanged a tender kiss. We
went in a second time, slowly and passionately. Things suddenly
made sense, the world seemed hostile, but our hearts felt right. Of
course the skeptical part of me would normally question whether or
not this was sane or rational – but it was beyond numbed. My
skepticism was overpowered, because nothing in my brain could argue
with the rarity and purity that was this
true love.
A few seconds later, I
was level-headed and the prince was dazed.

“I understand now,” I said. “We’re in
this together. I have to remember that apart we have nothing to
gain…but together we have nothing to lose. I will go with you
wherever it is that we need to go. But you have to let tell my
grandmother goodbye.”

“Of course,” he told
me, apparently concerned for me in a deeper way than I could sense
before. He knew that this might not be a wise decision, but he
respected and cared for me enough to let this be my choice. “Go to
her, and then we will plan from there. I promise that as long as
I’m alive, I will always love you. And as long as I love
you,
I’ll never be far
away.
”

Emily and I carefully
tiptoed back into the house that night. Going home was the most
dreamlike experience at all. Even after all I’d seen, after
returning to the house we all had to act as if nothing happened.
When I found my own bed, mortal exhaustion quickly caught up with
me and caused me to sleep the entire day afterward. Emily told the
ladies of the house that it was because I had fallen violently
ill.

“Wake up, wake up!” I heard a voice
calling me several hours later, shaking me awake like a rag doll in
an insane asylum. When I opened my eyes I saw Aunt Wren hovering
over me with a look of distress on her expression.

“What time is it?” I groggily
asked.

“It’s time to get up!” She hastily
told me, pulling me out of bed without regard for how tired I must
have been. At first I didn’t understand it and was even a little
put off.

“Please, just let me sleep!” I
pleaded, not understanding what was truly going on.

“You don’t
understand, Elissa,” Wren rushed. “I know you may be sick, but you
must come and see Grandmamma
now.”

As soon as she said it, I knew. As
tired as I was, I rushed out of bed and ran out the door and into
the hallway before Wren could even make her way into the maze
outside of my room. Halfway to Grandmamma’s room, a crowd of
servants and clergy were gathered, pacing up and down the hallway.
This time I used my small frame to my advantage, weaving my way
through the immovable gathering and shoving through the door. My
lungs expelled a breath of bittersweet relief when I saw what sat
on the other side.

“You’re just in time,” Emily told me
softly, sitting at Grandmamma’s bedside. “She’s been waiting for
you.”

Grandmamma was wide awake, though she
was dismally frozen in her bed. When she saw me, her weak facial
muscles moved into a smile. At that moment, Wren came back in
through the door and knelt at her mother’s bedside, giving her a
tender kiss on the forehead. All the while, Beeti was nowhere in
sight. Amidst the bombardment of people of all kinds coming in and
out of the room, Grandmamma did something amazing. Even though she
hadn’t said anything in days, she opened her mouth and spoke up in
the clearest, most pristine speech.