Sunlight and Shadow (17 page)

They took Tern's sword, then bound his hands before him, a rope passed between them so that he could be led like an animal. Statos himself tied a thick cloth around Tern's eyes. His hands looked strange, quivering ever so slightly, the veins on the back of them raised, as if there flowed through them some powerful yet suppressed emotion. I realized then how tight was the leash Statos kept upon his self-control. But what he longed to do instead, what it was inside him he was afraid to let burst forth, that thing I could not tell.

When he had finished, he turned back to me. I held out my hands.

“Bind me also. For what you do to Tern, you do to me.”

“I will not,” he said. “This man is a stranger, but you are the Lord Sarastro's daughter.”

“He isn't a stranger,” I said. “Not to me.”

I saw something that looked like pain come and go in the blue of Statos's eyes.

“Is that why you ran away?” he asked, as if he couldn't help himself. “To meet your sweetheart?”

I gave a sudden laugh. For though that had hardly been my intention when I fled, it was nevertheless a reasonable enough explanation of what had actually occurred.

Color flooded Statos's face. In the next moment, it went bone white.

“You think this is a matter for laughter?” he demanded.

“No,” I said. “Of course I don't. But I say again, if you bind him, you must bind me. If not, I'll refuse to budge from this spot and you'll have to carry me like a sack of potatoes. But then you've done that before.”

“Mina,” Tern said in a low voice.

Statos spun toward him, then. And, in that moment, I saw what it was he held so tight and fast inside. Pain, first. But hard upon its heels was the desire to rid himself of it by inflicting it upon some other. And who better than Tern, who had materialized as if from nowhere and claimed all that Statos had so longed for?

“Let word be sent to the Lord Sarastro that his daughter is found,” Statos said after a moment. “Tell him we are on our way to the grove.”

The leader of the soldiers saluted smartly. With a flick of his fingers, he gave a signal which sent one of his men scurrying off. Then he turned to Statos.

“Her eyes, at least, must be bound, even if she is the Lord Sarastro's daughter. For the location of the sacred grove is forbidden to all but the members of the lord's
order and those who most closely serve them.”

“I do not need to be reminded of that,” Statos said sharply. Then he pulled in a breath. “Give me a cloth and I will bind her eyes. But, by my command, let her hands remain free.”

The soldier gave a second salute. “It shall be as you wish.”

And so, for the second time that day, I made a trip in the dark. My eyes wound about with thick, rough cloth. My senses dulled save for the feel of Statos's hands upon mine. How long I walked thus, I cannot tell. But just when I was beginning to feel so weary I couldn't take another step, Statos halted.

“Let the Lady Mina be seated, for she is tired,” he said. “But let her eyes remain bound until her father arrives. The other, leave standing. Guard him well.”

Other hands moved me gently across what felt like a carpet of soft grass beneath my feet.

“Here is a smooth rock, my lady,” a voice said, and I thought I recognized the leader of the soldiers.

“I thank you,” I replied. But when his hands fell away, I made no move to sit.

“Will you not take some rest, lady?” he inquired after a moment.

“I will rest when Tern is permitted to,” I said, and heard Statos give an exclamation of impatience.

“Leave her to her stubbornness,” he called. “We shall see how long it lasts once the Lord Sarastro arrives.”

And with that, the clearing filled with silence.

“So, what's the plan?” I asked, though I was careful to keep my voice low. “Actually, before we get to that, how do you know where we are going? Surely the location of this grove is supposed to be a secret.”

“It is a secret,” Gayna said simply. She paused to hold a branch filled with sharply pointed leaves aside so that I might pass by, unscratched, then fell into step beside me. We had been traveling for several minutes, she leading, me following behind, swiftly and in silence. But, at last, my curiosity had gotten the better of me, a thing it has often done.

“None may know where it exists save the members of the lord's order and those who serve them most closely. That is the Lord Sarastro's law,” she went on.

“Oh, that's just great,” I said. “Now I'm officially breaking the lord's law. But you still haven't answered my question. How do you even know where the grove is?”

She turned her head to regard me for a moment, as if trying to weigh how I might take the information she was about to impart.

“I followed the lord and his party one day,” she said, her tone matter-of-fact. “Dressed as a boy. No one even noticed I was there, let alone that I wasn't what I seemed to be. Men are often quite unobservant, you know. They see only what they wish to see.”

“Particularly those devoted to the sun,” I said,
matching my tone to hers as closely as I could. “Their minds lack subtlety, for they look only for what is brightest.”

She was silent for a moment, “I hadn't thought of it that way,” she finally admitted. “But you could be right. While you, of course, are much less likely to be fooled, as you are accustomed to subtlety, being a servant of the Queen of the Night.”

“You catch on fast,” I said, and she smiled. “You still haven't answered my first question,” I reminded her. “What will we do once we reach the grove?”

“How on earth should I know?”

At this, I stopped and put a hand on her arm to halt her.

“Wait just a minute,” I said. “You're saying we're going to rescue Tern and the Lady Mina but we don't know how?”

“I didn't know I was going to help her escape in the first place until I was actually doing it,” Gayna said. “So I'm hoping it will be enough just to get to the grove and wait for what comes along.”

“That's very brave of you,” I said. “Not to mention foolhardy and terrifying.”

“All right, let's hear your plan,” she said.

“What makes you think I've got one?”

She put her hands on her hips, and a long-forgotten image of my grandmother flashed across my mind.

“In that case, I think you should just shut up about mine,” she said.

“What do you mean yours?” I asked. “You haven't got one either!”

“For heavens sake” she hissed. “Keep your voice down. What, precisely, would you like to do? Something, or nothing?”

“Something, of course,” I said. “I'd just like to know what it is ahead of time.”

“We do know what it is,” she said. “We're going to help the Lady Mina and what's-his-name.”

“Tern.”

“Tern. The fact that we don't have all the details worked out yet doesn't mean we won't be successful. Now can we please stop talking and keep on going? Preferably in silence, which I understand is golden. I never in my entire life met anyone so devoted to making noise as you.”

“And I never met anyone so argumentative,” I said. But by then I was talking to her back. So I did the only thing I could.

I followed.

I saw the Lord Sarastro for the very first time standing with the sun behind him. A thing I'm absolutely certain he did on purpose, for he was absolutely blinding. And, for a moment, I must admit, my heart quailed. For it seemed to me there was no difference between the lord and the sun itself.

How can I set my will against such a one and survive, I wondered, let alone, triumph? Then, in the next
moment, I answered my own fear with hope. Because I will do more than stake my will. I will stake my heart, also.

But it would not be alone. Mina's would be with it. My eyes did not have far to look for her. Her father had placed her at his side, her eyes now unbound, and in them an expression that reminded me to hope.

And when I saw this, the brilliance of the Lord Sarastro seemed to dim, and I noticed that, though the light was bright, it was also low in the sky. The hours of the day were growing short. Soon, the night would come.

But if the Lord Sarastro were in a hurry because of this, he did not show it.

“I am told you are called Tern,” he said. “And that you are a prince in your own country. Are these things true?”

I bowed my head. “They are, my lord.”

At this, the lord motioned to the soldier who stood beside me. “Let his hands be unbound,” he commanded. “For if I take his word about these things, then I must trust that he is a man of honor.”

And so, at last, I stood unbound before Minas father and all whom he had gathered to him in this place that was most sacred to the magicians of his order.

“Why have you come here?” he inquired.

“Surely the Lord Sarastro must know that
already,” I answered. “For I was brought here by his followers.”

At this, the lord's lips twitched, whether in irritation or amusement, I could not tell.

“A clever answer,” he commented. “Let us hope, for your sake, you are clever with more than just your tongue. Why have you come into my country, Prince Tern? That is the thing that I would know. Speak true, for I will know if you are lying.”

“I followed where my heart led, my lord.”

“And it led you to my daughter, is that what you're trying to tell me?”

“It did,” I replied.

“And what would your heart ask of me?”

“That you give your blessing to Mina becoming my wife. For, this, we both desire.”

“Do you, indeed?” said the Lord Sarastro. “What do you have to say to this, Mina?” he asked, turning to her abruptly. “You have kept silent long enough.”

“The Lord Sarastro has not addressed me until this moment,” Mina said. “But since he has now, I will say this: Prince Tern speaks the truth, as you commanded. Therefore, I have nothing to add.”

“You desire to be his wife.”

“I do, my lord.”

“And what of the prophecy spoken at the hour of your birth? What of the pains I have taken to choose a husband for you? Do these things mean nothing?”

“What should they mean to me?” Mina inquired.
“You have dedicated yourself to the prophecy, not to me. You do not know me, Father. Why should your mind choose for me, while my own heart goes ignored?”

“Father,” the Lord Sarastro said, and, to my surprise, I heard bitterness in his tone. “You call me that now, only when you want something from me.”

“Which only goes to prove I am your true daughter,” Mina responded. “For you have not claimed me until now, to help you fulfill your own desire.”

“And you think you know what that is,” the Lord Sarastro said. A statement, a challenge.

“But surely it is obvious,” Mina replied. “To marry me to the one of your choice, and so control the outcome of the prophecy. On the day I wed, the world will change. That cannot be altered. But you would try to have the world change according to your will. That is why you broke your own oath, and stole me away before the proper time.

“You do not think of me, but only of protecting your own power. If your efforts to this end mean nothing to me, we are even, I think. For my happiness means nothing to you.”

“Of course it does,” the Lord Sarastro protested, shocked.

“Then prove it. Let me marry Tern.”

“My lord!” the one called Statos suddenly burst out, as if he could hold himself in check no longer. “You cannot give your consent to such a thing. He is a stranger, unproven and unknown.”

“Then let me make a trial and prove myself,” I said at once, and I stepped forward, a thing which made the Lord Sarastro's soldiers lay hands upon their swords. “For then I will be a stranger no longer. My worth shall be known.”

“You would undergo any trial I set?” the Lord Sarastro asked, and I could not read the expression in his eyes.

“I would, my lord,” I answered steadily. And I held those eyes I could not understand with my own.

“Without fear?” the lord asked softly.

“Of course not,” I replied. “But fear is no fit means to measure anyone, for fools have no fear, or so I've heard it said.”

“And so have I,” the Lord Sarastro said, and he released my eyes. “That is well spoken. Very well. Let you and Statos face the same trials together. By the outcome Minas husband will be chosen.”

I heard Mina draw in a quick breath, but before she could object, Statos spoke once more.

“How can you propose to test me like some stranger?” he demanded, and all there assembled must have heard the pain in his voice. “I have been your apprentice, and your choice to wed the Lady Mina, for many years. I have no need to prove myself.”

“Perhaps not,” the Lord Sarastro said. “But my mind speaks that this is the only way to be fair to all. Therefore, it is my will that you undergo these trials.”