Midnight's Song (45 page)

Emily and I were almost at the
corridor now, dreading the moment that I would have to leave. Even
though I trusted Aurelian, I was still apprehensive about running
away like this. Could this really be the answer? Running away
instead of facing my problems? I knew that it was a dead end –
because it was evident that once I started running, I’d never stop.
Aurelian hadn’t. And this was his idea, not mine. Before I could
think of anything else, a pair of warm arms encircled
me.

“Are you ready?” Aurelian whispered.
The look I replied with screamed everything but certainty. Of
course, I’m sure he expected it. “I have the door open for us just
long enough to step through, but first I want to explain something
to you.”

Right then, Emily turned around and
began to walk away. She hung her head low and choked on a flood of
tears as she started back into the manor. It seemed like this was
the last – but I didn’t want it to be. Emily was my sister now, and
I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving without a real
goodbye.

“Wait!” I called out, running in
Emily’s direction and throwing my arms around her in a warm,
bittersweet hug. The tears freely flowing, I whispered to her one
last time. “Goodbye.”

“Goodbye,
sister,”
she sobbed in
return.

We let go, having to pry our limbs
away from each other. For a few moments we stayed there,
contemplating if there was anything else to do or say that would
make this easier. There wasn’t. We’d said our goodbyes and it was
over now. With that, Emily quietly turned away from me and
disappeared to the surface world.

Aurelian and I
didn’t waste a moment after that. We emerged into the room of
mirrors; my eyes met with the most astonishing sight. One of the
mirrors in the room was glowing – yes, glowing. Its glass was
iridescent and pristine, displaying an image of the blackest night
sky. It’s picture was perfect, I knew at first glance that I was
looking out a window to the
Universe.

“This is it,” I muttered. Though,
something in me still felt like this wasn’t it. Internally, I was
still fighting. My instincts told me that something was missing
from this all, something that I needed but couldn’t identify. Even
Aurelian’s explanations wouldn’t give me much comfort.

“Before we part from
this world, I need to explain something to you that I’ve needed to
give you clarity over for a long while,” Aurelian started. He took
my hand once again and directed me to the glassy night sky that had
been painted as a reflection in the mirror. “This is not a mirror –
it is a door; a portal
that I’ve opened to
another world. This is not the first time I’ve opened a portal
here…this is the door which I first came through when I came to
your world from mine.”

“But you said that they were already
open doors. You even showed me how they worked!”

“I did, but it’s a different kind of
door now. Remember when I first showed these to you? When you
touched the glass and were able to reach through?” I nodded. “Then,
you were reaching through into nothingness. Should you have fallen,
you would have fallen into abyss. Now, I’ve connected it to another
world. A safer one. A place where you and I can leave at peace for
just a little while.” Aurelian explained to me softly. Though, I
still was not yet satisfied.

“Where does it lead to?” I asked,
suddenly intrigued. “And how long has it been open for us? How long
will it last?”

“I reopened it a few
days ago, and it will not last much longer. That is why we cannot
linger here very long. If it is open for a long while it could…” he
stopped for a moment, “destroy
everything.
”

“Destroy everything?!” I suddenly
snapped. “If it is so capable of destruction how do you know it is
safe for us to go through? And, how could you have been given the
power to handle something so dangerous?”

“Well, it’s not as
if we use them very often,” Aurelian told me, somewhat annoyed. “In
fact, we can’t use them very often. For that reason, the only ones
who have the authority to open and close portals themselves are
those like me…people from my family…
princes and kings
.”

The prince’s last
words came with a sense of clear shame. To anyone else, it would
seem strange that a wealthy prince would be so ashamed of his
upbringing. But, I understood his plight. We both understood the
ugliness beneath the façades of the rich and powerful. It was
almost as if I could sense him now,
inside
and out.

“What do you mean
when you say that you
can’t
use them?” I backed up. “Is it too strenuous to
keep our worlds connected, or is it too
dangerous?”

“Neither,” Aurelian
replied. “The reason we can’t open them very often is because there
aren’t very many left. The portals are
dying
, Elissa. Every time one opens
and closes, we come closer to the moment that the magic will run
out.”

“Dying? Why?” I questioned, feeling my
senses suddenly grow numb. My heart began to race now, my soul
sensing a key to solving this puzzle that was beginning to emerge
from the shadows. “How many are left?”

“From the time of my birth, there were
eight left. I’ve used the magic once, twice considering that I’ve
opened one again today. As far as I know, my brother has used them
twice. That leaves four.”

“You still didn’t give me an
explanation as to why they’re dying,” I told him in response, now
feeling as if I needed to delay this departure as long as humanly
possible.

“It’s a very long and dark
story, Elissa. I doubt you’d want to know the truth about it.”
Aurelian looked into my eyes with depth and intensity. “We mustn’t
linger here any longer. It’s all been carefully planned, we cannot
afford a mistake!”

“The magic can wait! I
don’t even know where we’re going to be going, Aurelian.” I firmly
exclaimed. “You have to give me an explanation. There’s something I
know I’m missing in all of this – and I won’t leave until I
understand it!”

“Fine,” Aurelian hesitantly told me.
“I’ll tell you about the portals. You’re bound to misunderstand me,
but I will. After that we must leave.”

“You’d better start
now.”

“There was once a
time that a portal connected our worlds. It was a bridge, if you
will. It couldn’t be opened or closed, it simply
was
,” Aurelian started.
“It was a time long before either of us was ever thought of. My
world was new, a place known as the
Kingdom of Light
. Your world was
filled with darkness, so the people of mine came to your aid. But,
the First King was naïve. He gave in to the Curse’s temptations and
was inhabited by the darkness; separating our kind from yours for
the rest of eternity. These portals are the only connection that
our worlds have left.”

Something in my mind
clicked at that moment. A flood of images and sounds raced before
my senses, and I realized exactly what I had been missing. I saw
visions of my mother and father, singing and telling their stories
to me as a child. I thought of the old folk tales about the
monsters in human skin – the ones that intrigued me while they
terrified everyone else. Then I thought back to something more
recent…something that had been almost forgotten. I couldn’t help
but to remember the words I had read in a dusty old book of
stories; words that didn’t seem to be simple words anymore. They
were words that told a story I had thought I’d always known – the
story of
The
Secret Prince.

“
A Kingdom of Light…
became
The Kingdom of Darkness
,” I muttered aloud, remembering the words in the book I had
read. “Aurelian, you’re from the Night Kingdom.”

“Yes, I am…” The
prince trailed off. Before I could say another word, Aurelian
grabbed my hand.
This can’t be the
answer,
I pulled back from him. Aurelian’s
eyes pleaded with my soul. But, they did no good in convincing
me.

“No, you don’t
understand,” I started. “I can see it now! All along I’ve been
missing it, but, now I can see it! You’re the prince! The one from
my book of stories! It’s all happening as the book said it would,
or did…and that means that it could hold the key to helping us
defeat the Darkness!”

My words came with
intensity resembling lunacy, because whatever story I was talking
about was something of which he was completely unaware. Suddenly,
the once-docile portal shook violently. The calm, glassy surface of
the door began to ripple and convulse. The ground was now shaking
beneath us. The portal became louder and louder, its winds acting
as a hurricane ready to engulf us.

“Please, Elissa.
Just come with me. We don’t have much time until this portal
closes! If we don’t leave now I’ll have to close it myself,
otherwise it will kill us! Then there may be no way for us to
leave!” Aurelian cried, “I promise I will tell you everything about
myself, the history of my kingdom, anything else you may want to
know. But, there is no time left in the present! You must come with
me
now
!”

Aurelian grabbed me by the
wrists again, desperately attempting to take me through. He simply
didn’t understand! I struggled, fighting him until he let me go. He
released them voluntarily, never having desired to use
force.

“Is this really the
answer?” I yelled in reply, the room becoming as noisy as the
harshest wind. “Do you really think we should both simply
run
like this? We don’t
have to run away from our problems!”

“We have no choice right now, Elissa!”
He yelled back even louder in return. “Don’t speak nonsense!
There’s no way we can face what desires our death!”

“But maybe there’s a way
to defeat it!” I screamed above the growing noise. “I think I might
have found the answer! But you have to close this portal! I have to
go back into the house – it’s our only chance!”

“You’re mad!” Aurelian
exclaimed. “The only chance we have to save ourselves is to go
right now! Once I close this, there will be no easy way
back!”

Aurelian’s eyes pleaded me with the
uttermost sincerity, but I knew that doing as he wanted right now
would cause me to miss the key to solving our puzzle once and for
all. Aurelian wanted to keep on running, but my bravery compelled
me to go the other way. He saw only one way to do things – but I
saw another destiny that could only come if I fought to find
another way.

“You don’t understand,
Aurelian! There’s a story like this in a book I’ve read! If I can
find the book, maybe we won’t have to run!” I backed away from him
and ran toward the door. “You must close this portal. I don’t care
anymore – I’m not going to run. I’m going back into the house,
because this story has an ending! The book can tell us how our
story ends!”

“Elissa, come back!”
Aurelian begged as I darted. It was too late. I was going back now
whether he wanted it or not. I refused to be a coward.

I turned from Aurelian and
ran. The prince wanted to take off after me, but he couldn’t. Now
the full weight of the portal was beginning to close in on him. He
had to close it soon; otherwise untold destruction would ensue. It
was like a two-ton weight on his shoulders, but he mustered the
strength to begin closing it. He began to push the magic back
little-by-little until it was all back in place and the door was
closed.

It would take quite a while and would
preoccupy almost every last bit of energy he had. All the while, I
was running. I ran through the murky, black darkness of the cellars
until I found the stairway back into the servants’ corridor. The
path was long and dangerous, but I ran at top speed. I didn’t care
about the danger anymore. I couldn’t go one more moment without
this book! Though, I had no idea what great danger I would face
when I surfaced.

When I came back up in the
Servants’ quarters, there was still no sign of Aurelian trailing
behind me. There was also something else that I noticed – something
strange. Despite the fact that this time of day the quarter was
usually bustling, the entire area was silent and empty. The tables
and chairs were scattered and toppled over, napkins sitting on the
counters and the floor as if something had rushed the out just a
moment ago. I carefully made my way up another set of stairs and
decided to go back into my room and look for the book.

I hadn’t seen the thing in quite some
time, but I knew I hadn’t given it back. I hadn’t remembered moving
it, either. So, I ran back into my room and began to sift through
my belongings. Oddly enough, the entire upstairs was silent as
well. The entire way there I didn’t see a single person in sight.
When I went through my things, I also had a very strange feeling.
My room was clean and seemingly untouched – yet I felt almost as if
someone had been in here with bad intentions. As I uncovered almost
every part of my room, the feeling remained.