Midnight's Song (53 page)

It was like a forest I’d never seen
before – the thorns lining the maze’s edges so large that some of
them might have even been larger than the tip of a spear or an
arrow. Besides the maze’s deadly lining, the inside felt so
terrible I don’t know if I can rightly describe it. It was hotter
than the hottest fire, yet it was so bitterly cold that I thought I
might have gotten frostbite. The smell was awful, the entire place
smelling of choking sulfur. It was a horrific place, almost seeming
to be the belly of Hell itself. I fought with my mind and my body
against entering, but my legs would allow me no control. I was
pushed right into its thorny clutches.

As soon as I was in, the oddest and
most dreamlike feeling began to come over me. With each step I
took, it threatened to overcome me completely. Inside, I knew what
it was. I must have been Faolan bringing me closer to Aurelian and
manipulating me to control what I was doing. It was a completely
engulfing feeling, but with every ounce of will that I had left I
fought it. Fighting it was a painful but necessary thing – so
painful that I had tears coming down my face from the torment. But,
even my greatest strength could not fully overpower what Faolan was
manipulating to do.

It wasn’t only in my mind, but also
transforming my outward appearance. Almost as if Faolan’s
intention, I found myself stopped before a pool of water in the
center of the maze. I knelt down by the pool and tilted my head to
see my reflection. By means which I cannot explain – I was no
longer wearing my now-tattered travelling clothes. Instead, I wore
a flowing silk dress. It was strangely reminiscent the dress I had
worn when I was with Aurelian on the night of the masquerade. A
gleaming silver crown sat on my head. I shivered.

There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that
this appearance had been staged in order to make a man find me
beautiful. Though, it was a beauty I wholeheartedly wished I wasn’t
taking part in. It was not true beauty, but a beauty that was
deceitful. In the midst of terror, gnarling and shouting all around
me – the spell that was over me caused my legs to stand and drive
me away from the spot where I was once again.

For a short time I wove silently
through more of the spiraling thorny passages until a great shout
caused me to come to a stop. I heard a voice crying out in despair,
a sound that caused my enchantment to temporarily ware away as my
impassioned instincts took hold of me again. There was a voice that
seemed to be calling my name. The voice was Aurelian’s.

“Elissa! Elissa!” He shouted a short
distance away. I heard the sounds of violent wind and raging fire
come with it as if they were going to engulf him if he came closer.
For a just a moment I became conscious again, conscious enough for
my emotions to surge through me and my mind to temporarily forget
my gloomy purpose in this place.

“Aurelian!” I shouted,
running toward the sound.

We both carried ourselves blindly in
the choking darkness until we could each sense the other near.
Finally, I turned a corner and surfaced to see Aurelian standing
just feet from me. A ceiling of fire shot over our heads at the
very moment we found each other in sight. None of the chaos
mattered. I darted to Aurelian and he darted to me. We had been
driven to the point of madness and now there was nothing that could
keep us from rushing into each other’s arms.

“Oh, Elissa!” Aurelian cried as we
threw ourselves into an embrace. “I thought I had lost
you!”

“Aurelian –” I started, filled with
equally as much emotion. The first thought I had was of the terrors
which I’d just endured. Then Faolan. There was so much to tell him,
so much to warn him of. Though, as soon as I thought of it I was
rendered unable to make another honest sound. The fire shot over
our heads and rained down around us. Unable to speak, I fell into
his arms feeling completely terrified.

Though, apparently even my silence
wasn’t enough to get Faolan what he wanted. The next thing I knew,
the invisible chains over my soul overwhelmed my emotions so
greatly that my demeanor changed completely. Despite fire and ice
raining down around us, I became cool and collected – even somewhat
seductive in my demeanor. Words came out of my mouths that were not
my own, actions from my body that were not dictated by my own
consciousness. My will had been buried in the back of my mind,
replaced by Faolan’s. As soon as it happened, the chaos stopped.
The maze seemed to brighten, the tumult quiet.

“Aurelian,” someone else’s words came
from my lips. Artificial tears came down my cheeks, though at some
point they became mixed with real ones that had been spurred from
the pain of knowing I couldn’t control myself. “It’s been three
days! I thought you’d never come. Where were you?”

“It only seems that way because of the
way that time is distorted here. I’m sorry I didn’t wake sooner. I
came as soon as I realized that you were gone,” Aurelian explained
to me, tenderly caressing my face with his hand. “Time passes
differently here than it does in your world. A moment in your world
can be a day in mine, sometimes two or three. But that doesn’t
matter anymore. I’m here now.”

We sat in silence for an eternity, my
heart screaming from within but unable to make a single word of
truth come from my mouth. In the silence, Aurelian looked into my
eyes. He became disoriented and dazed, as if he was being affected
by the same enchantment that I was.

“You look…so beautiful,” he admitted
as he stared at me with an awestricken gaze.

My heart dropped when I realized that
this must have meant that my enchantment was about to ensnare him
and lead him to his death. It had already begun to happen, so it
seemed that this would inevitably be the case. Yet, perhaps
Faolan’s power still wasn’t all it seemed. Maybe there was still a
way to change this. Unsure of what I could do, I used every ounce
of strength in my spirit to fight the control of the spell that was
over me. Though, it seemed that every time I fought against this
spell; its control consumed me even more rapidly.

“Oh, love, let us leave this horrible
place. When can we go home?” The girl inside of me softly
beckoned.

“Yes, yes, we must leave,” Aurelian
stammered. “We must leave at once.”

“Come then, let us leave the maze. I
have escaped from your brother long enough to see that there is
another open door in the castle. It is the one that Faolan used to
take me here – and we can use it to get back.”

“Are you certain?” He suddenly asked
me, apparently climbing out of his trance. “If you’ve been here for
three days, it seems that he surely would have closed
it.”

“Aurelian, I am certain!” The other
voice spoke from my lips. “I saw it with my own eyes, I even
crossed through it! Besides, it’s our only chance to get out of
this place alive!”

“Elissa, I don’t think you understand
how dangerous it would be to go back into the castle,” Aurelian
explained to me in utter seriousness.

Now his trance had been nearly
shattered as he realized the dangers he faced in reality. As his
awareness gradually came back, so did a sense he had that something
was strange about all of this. Exactly what it was he didn’t know,
but now Aurelian could see that something about me seemed a bit
off.

“Elissa, you don’t seem well,” he
remarked. “Are you alright? Has anything been done to you that I
should know about?”

“Nothing has been done to me!” The
voice shot back defensively. “Nothing but the pain of your failure
to rescue me in a timely manner! Faolan has been kinder to me than
even you have.” Although I still wasn’t in control of my words, the
next ones came with extreme cringing on my part. They were released
with so much pain on my part that I was actually able to hesitate.
“He’s been so kind to me that I’m contemplating an offer of
marriage.”

As soon as the words seemed to come
from my mouth, Aurelian’s demeanor changed from one of hope to
despair. His heart sunk, his features also sinking low in hurt and
betrayal. This wasn’t right. It couldn’t be! I had to have been
fooled, he reasoned, fooled! Pain overwhelmed me at the sight of
this sadness. Oh, how I wished I could say or do something! My true
self watched this all unfold helplessly as the enchantment
continued to use my body for its purposes.

“No – no, Elissa. You
can’t marry him,” The prince pleaded. “I don’t know what he’s said
or done to you in your time here, but whatever he has done is a
lie. Faolan is consumed by his curse…deceived by it –”

“Well, if you think he’s no good – why
don’t you fight for me?” The enchantment barked in a way that I
probably never would. I prayed that somehow something would leech
out in its words that would cause Aurelian to realize their
falsity. Though, nothing did. “Allow me to make a decision for
once! Come with me into the castle and let me bring you to the
portal myself.”

“But it’s so dangerous –” Aurelian
protested again. Though, the enchantment gave him a look that
caused him to fall silent.

“Trust me.”

Deceived by magic, the protesting
prince became like malleable clay in Faolan’s hands. Not wanting to
lose me again – either because of his actions or to the evil of his
brother – he reluctantly agreed to follow. He took me by the hand,
and the magic led him on a path to the innermost parts of the
castle. The entire way, I was internally screaming. I continued my
fight against this monstrosity until my protests were so vehement
that they nearly overwhelmed the curse.

She’s stronger than
I thought…
I could nearly hear Faolan
lamenting in the back of my mind.

It was as if my will had been buried
beneath the ground, just inching its way out of its prison until
this moment. Midway through our journey through the castle, my
strength nearly broke free. I suddenly stopped my madly driven legs
and stood still by my own will, then I let go of Aurelian’s hand.
My will had broken free again, but there was no release. Instead of
vanquishing the effects of the enchantment, it began battling with
it as if the two were evenly matched. I was met with an untold
amount of pain before falling to the ground. An extremely petrified
Aurelian caught me just before I hit the cold stones on the
floor.

“Aurelian!” I screamed through my
pain, able to speak for myself over the artificial voice for the
first time. “Go back now! This isn’t me! This isn’t me!”

I could only utter the words for a few
moments before I was met with a completely silencing, choking
sensation. It was as if I was dying, but Aurelian knew I wasn’t.
Now he realized what was happening to me in full. This was
undeniably the work of Faolan! He’d seen this kind of torment many
times before – seen this magic affect many suffering people. Yet,
he’d never seen anyone defy it for even a moment like I just did.
Surely if someone tried to fight this kind of magic it would
overpower them until they died.

“Go!” I said again, fighting as my
body began to seize.

“No! I know what this is,” Aurelian
snapped. “I will not leave your side. But you must stop fighting
this; otherwise you’re going to die! I have to get you out of
here”

I heard his tone
become suddenly intense, firm in a way I’d never seen in Aurelian
before. Seeing my physical suffering pained him in a way that
nothing else could. It also did something else, something that very
few things could – it made him
furious.
Up until that point I’d
seen Aurelian saddened and even irritated – but I’d never seen him
as angry as he was now.

Despite my protesting, he
took my seizing body into his arms and began darting toward a
castle door. It was to no avail. Even if I had found the
unimaginable strength to fight him, Faolan didn’t need me anymore.
He already had us right where he wanted us. The moment that
Aurelian darted for a door was the moment that every door and
window in that castle thundered shut. Every means to get to the
outside world was blocked off now – and like the nightmare that
this was for us both – Aurelian and I found ourselves completely
trapped. I continued to near death in his arms as I fought with
this curse, so Aurelian gently placed me back down on the ground
despite all that was happening and began speaking to me.

“Elissa, you have to listen to me,” he
coaxed. “Stop fighting it. I know the truth now; you don’t need to
worry anymore. I won’t let it hurt me. But if you don’t give up
now, it will kill you.”

“But…I can’t let it win,” I told him,
shaking and pale.

Even if it took my
life it wouldn’t matter. I was going to die anyway. I internally
wept, seeing that Aurelian still didn’t seem to grasp the
seriousness of what his brother had planned for him. If he realized
what Faolan wanted to do, he was letting his affections for me take
precedence over his life. He was going to die, too, so why
shouldn’t I? I wanted to defy him, but through all of the pain I
was in I looked into Aurelian’s pleading eyes and stopped my
protesting. Whatever was in store for the future, Aurelian wanted
me to live
now.
I
had to do as he said – not for myself – but for
him.

“I know, I know. But this isn’t
something that can win or lose. You have to let it take over for
now,” He spoke to me softly as he continued to persuade me. “It
won’t last forever. These things never do. Soon it will fade and
you will be yourself again. But if you don’t let it take its
course; you will die.”