Copyright © 2008 Doreen Perrine
All rights reserved, Freya's Bower.
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As starlight rose, a dim twinkling in the smog-filled sky, they made camp. A distant but eerie howl pierced the thick silence.
Phen built a fire. "Let us head for Luxe where we may find sanctuary." Perhaps, she hoped, she might find safe ground to sow her mother's seeds.
Gledise rubbed Phen's back in a gentle, circular motion. "I understand, you cannot speak of the nature of your quest. But we must find a way...."
They snuggled under their cloaks beside the fire. A chorus of plaintive wails filled Phen's dreams. A strange, disembodied voice wove through the ghostly sound. "If creatures of mortal descent die, what of those whose ancestry is magic?" the voice said.
In a feverish sweat, Phen woke with a start.
"What is it, love?" Gledise searched her fluttering eyes.
"Something, someone...," Phen panted in the viscous air, "bespoke a riddle."
"'Twas only the creaking boughs of dead trees." Gledise patted her hunched back.
Phen didn't try to explain. How could a Crystal Princess, whose people rarely slept, understand the dream visions of Phen's race?
"Come, dearest." Gledise gathered the shroud around her and rose. "It is said the beasties sleep by daylight. To traverse their realm, we must press forward now."
Phen took her outstretched hand and stood, blinking in the light streaking across the eastern skyline. There, the pointed spires of the Crystal Kingdom rose above the winding, red-black path behind them.
"Look," Gledise gazed at the horizon, "this toxic scourge wends its way to my homeland."
Phen placed her hand on Gledise's shoulder in mournful silence. The same onslaught had laid hold of her own land. Had Avila even survived the poisonous scourge? Who knew? There had been no news, not even rumors, since she'd left home.
Phen creased her brows at the sight of the rotting forest. How could she ask Gledise to follow her on such a perilous mission? "If you return to warn your people, they might hear you." Phen, on the other hand, would be arrested on sight.
Gledise coughed as they made their way into the thickening smog. "My parents have vowed to lock me in the Crystal Tower should I attempt to see you again. Either way, I cannot, will not, leave your side." She lifted her head toward the black smog of the northwestern landscape. "We must pursue the quest to which you have been summoned, Phen. Many kingdoms, my own, yours," her eyes filled with tears, "indeed, all of Ethrum awaits deliverance."
Phen hid her worried face beneath her dark shroud. The burden of her quest had begun to weigh, a heavy chain on her spirit. What if she failed? She shook her head as if to banish the grim thought then quickened her pace to match Gledise's steps.
Before them stretched the wasted forest leading to the realm of Luxe. No other course remained but to plod into the congealing ooze. Its source, Phen surmised, must be the malevolent power of the beasties' outrage. Outrage, she pondered, over what?
"We must fly above this sludge." Climbing onto a swollen tree root, Gledise directed Phen to grasp her waist.
With Gledise's crystal light penetrating the smog like a beacon, they rose. As the poison vapors thickened, the crystal dimmed, and Gledise struggled to keep them both in the air.
Soon, they came to a chasm of red and yellow flames where they gagged on the noxious fumes that struck them in a sudden wave.
"Phen, I cannot see." Gledise flailed her arms. Her breath growing heavy, she dipped and rose in flight. "This sickening filth has clouded my crystal!"
"Keep on ahead, my heart." Phen struggled to speak against her paralyzing fear. Hadn't Gledise forsaken her royal destiny for Phen? Phen would muster her bravery as well. With her green eyes aglow in the swirling mist, she pointed past the chasm. They had come this far together, she would not let them fail.