S1 Chapter 8, Remember any Price part 2

Castle Ao'o, day.

“I know what she did now,” Star said as she walked alongside a priest dressed in dark blue robes. Her red robe flattered him. He was tall, tall and had a narrow face. His long hair was once gold but now faded and grayed, stuck in time. “She used voodoo to ignite the eclipse, magic to open the portal. Easy for her caliber. A fucking hassle for myself.”

“Can it be reversed?” He asked.

She nodded as they walked through the halls of her palace home. He towered over her but his presence was not menacing. She rather enjoyed this man's company, his dark, dark wine red eyes were surprisingly kind.

“Dawn must return to Holy Wood and end it herself. She set the curse, the first person born in one thousand years with such an ability. Her predecessor was never this wild.”

“Who could proceed Dawn?” He asked, a laugh playing on his voice.

“Oh I don't know, someone related to her father, its in their Shaman blood. The King used to say- AH!”

Her speaking was interrupted by her screams as she collapsed to the ground like a stone and the man was taken by surprise. He stood aside, ready to assist but unsure how to proceed. The Queen lay still for a moment more, the pain was not in her body, but in her energy, the magic that resided in her was being attacked.

“Your highness,” he said with heavy concern.

“I'm alright,” she said suddenly. She eased back to sit on the floor and took a breath. She looked to the outside world visible through a window portal. “With her gone, I take on her power over the sun and its like a leech. Biting me at the worst of times. Moving that eclipse she cast is not an easy task.”

She took the hand he gave her and she stood up. One quick look in his eyes though showed her a spark of some emotion she felt was odd...was that happiness in view of her torment? With another deep breath she steadied herself and they resumed walking. All the same, the man stared at her intently. She looked up at the eclipsed sun, nothing had changed.

“Her Voodoo is powerful. I should have seen this coming the day I blessed her,” he grinned brightly, the spark she saw was gone.

Had it ever been there? Or was it a trick of the strange eclipse light? These thoughts were kept to herself.

Star laughed. “You yourself said she had a wild child's spirit. She's too smart, figuring out that voodoo is a bypass of my laws and those of the ancient ways.” She had to sit on a stone bench. “Oh Dee, she's just like her father.” She sighed.

Dee sat next to her, wanting to laugh but didn't. “The BOC is doing all they can to placate the people. Nothing to worry about yet, no major panic.”

“Yet,” she mumbled. Her voice came back stronger as she continued. “This eclipse is affecting the moon too, low tides cause low fishing. Without the sun it Will get cold and the crops will sicken. Trying to right her deed is sucking the life out of me as it is the lands.” Her sarcastic tone helped to alleviate the pressure of the situation.

“It's only for three and a half months, the people won't suffer that badly in that amount of time. Even Dawn knew that. ” He tried to reason with her.

“Still this is because of a contract She signed. Rosie is in no danger with the King and she has already been there for two weeks dammit.” She shook her head. “I need to find Dawn”

“But you said you cannot leave.”

“I must.” She stood, only to think better of it and sit again. “Or Not.”

“Your place is here your grace, doing what you can for the people. Yourself included, just look at you.” His accusations were not unkind. He was one of the few who spoke with a sort of liberty. “If I didn't know what ailed you I would say you were on verge of dying.You should be resting is what you Should be doing. Dawn will fix this, I promise that.”

“Such faith.”

“Always in the Lizard family. I blessed your husband, all three of your children, and then Rosie.” He hesitated and slowly added, “Even Deniel.”

“Don't speak his name, please.” She asked with some reserve.

“I've heard you don't enjoy speaking of him.”

“I never knew him. None of us got the chance. . . .”

“Dawn had to carry him, how do you think she feels?” He gently reminded her. “I can understand her anguish and temper, this must feel like that all over again.”

“I lost two daughters as well,” She paused. “But I didn't eclipse the sun and jump into a magic portal because of it. This is why you read contracts before you sign them.”

“What will you do when she returns? How do you punish the last true blooded heir?” He had to smile at her antics.

“Ha! I don't. As long as no long term harm is committed, a simple house arrest will do I suppose. Maybe a temporary exile, which she won't mind any how.” She was quickly occupied with that thought.

“I have never had children, the people are my children, but I live vicariously as a parent through you.” It made him laugh.

“If only you knew what a parent would do for their child.” She stared at him then in a way he found odd. As if she was speaking to him without using words.

“Is the boy, the subject of your trial, one such child of yours?”

She was silent, that lingering smirk silent but full of words.

“I came to see how you managed in this unusual time, I see I can do nothing else but let you do what you do best. Fix it.” He smiled, knowing she would say nothing more on the matter,  and took her hand to kiss the back of it.

A genuine smile graced her lips but she did not rise to see him off, she could hardly move she felt so tired.

“I enjoy your visits and our talks, though they always seem short and direct.”

“I know no other way,” he said. “Good day my Queen.”

He was leaving and she sighed, but before he left he turned to face her and stopped. The look in his face had gone from sweet to sour, a hint of sour. She could see a question linger in his face, questions about her trial, her life, her family. Questions she would not answer. But the one thing he Did say she did not expect.

“Many things come in the night Queen. Children, spirits, rumors.”

She listened.

“You are the Queen, I among the BOC respect that, your legal urges and encounters are no business of mine, but your safety is. Beware the hidden shadows in the night, shadows that look like men.”

The image of the three men in the alley popped into her head. A second image jumped into her mind's eye alongside them, a man who moved in the shadows better than most people moved in the day.

“Do you move in the night Dee?”

He shook his head and grinned. “No not I Queen. I work in the day, for you.”

She laughed. “No you work with the BOC.”

“Yet I enjoy your company more than they do. Good day your grace.” He bowed his head in respect and departed.

His words made her uneasy. Their alliance was decades old, since she found him in the throngs of spectators during the Seize of the BOC city. He was the leader of the Priests who claim they didn't take part in the Rebellion. The two became the equivalent of friends, and while she liked him, she could not fully trust any member of the BOC. He was one of power among them and she could not trust him no matter how pleasant she found him, he obviously knew more than she wanted him to, she should have known he had his own spies. How could he not? His words made her think that soomehow, he knew of her recent encounters, not only with the Spyders, but with Bon. . .

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

The other side of the portal....

Dawn and her Wizard lay in bed together. They were spending all sorts of time together in many ways, carnal and otherwise, Since she summoned him to her hidden island in a dead volcano just north of the Dragoon Mountains, they had become inseparable. She and her lover were content, the Eclipse didn't bother them there, but she knew the outside world would be in near panic. The thought of causing her mother stress made her happy in her current predicament. It all took the burden off of herself.

“You're thinking about her,” he said.

“How could I not? She's a loon in charge of the entire kingdom. She let them take my child away.”

“While in retaliation you hide the sun and disappear causing mass chaos throughout the lands,” he gleefully kissed her. “I agree.”

“I couldn't stand staying there with her after that. How dare she chose duty over me? You Can choose both, she just didn't try.”

“Don't you worry what your curse will entail?” He didn't worry, the magic wouldn't have a strong impact on him. But he was curious, Dawn made him curious.

“It won't ruin the land, just cause Mother discomfort. She's probably ill right now, sick from the magic leeching off of her without her consent. Like how it feels to be her daughter.”

“I can only imagine,” he said while planning a carnal surprise. He ripped away the down cover over them. “Enough of her, I'll make you know how it feels to be my lover.”

She smiled, “Yes, please do.”

They smiled and she enveloped him with her kiss and sultry smile.

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

Kingdom by the Sea, day.

Rosie had to admit, it wasn't as much of an imprisonment as she once believed it would be. She returned to the castle to the ladies who she had befriended before, and they were all very kind to her. She was given free roam of the castle, but preferred her rooms. She was given all the food she could crave, all the play things other noble children played with, she was given friends and company and even the castle dogs to befriend. She couldn't say she was down right miserable, she missed her nana and mother more than she was afraid or sad.

Her mother didn't look at her. . . .She understood now that it must have hurt to have them take her away. Which is why the eclipse was happening now. It worried the Sea People, low tides and strange ocean currents concerned them. Rosie also had to admit that she had befriended the Old King.

Once again, upon her return he had greeted her kindly and warmly. Taking her into their home and over the days he had made her less worried than she usually was, and with little effort he did this. As if reading her thoughts about him, he appeared at her open door and knocked, Rosie turned her attention from the flock of sea gulls outside her window to the King.

As her nana would say, he was pleasant to look at. Tall, once an exceptionally handsome youth, he was a kind faced old man now, true to his title. Long graying gold hair in tight curls that dipped passed his shoulders framed a kind face distracted by a mustache and goatee. His blue eyes were the life of him, as sea green as the clearest of waters, as endless as the sea itself. The warmth radiated from him like the spray of sea form off the shore rocks. The two had formed a a semi silent friendship.

“Not so bad as you first thought I imagine.” He came in with his hand clasped behind his back. He came to join her stance before the window looking out over the red hued land. “Would be nicer if our sea side village was in its proper element. Sadly with this eclipse, the sea is in torment.”

“I'm sure Mum didn't mean to hurt your ocean. She's mad at nana and that's what this is all about.”

“Do they often fight? From your tone it would seem so.”

She sighed. “Oh yes. They do. Mum wants to be queen, nana won't let her.”

“Oh now that's curious. Any idea why?”

“No, maybe something a gypsy once told her. Nana is weird like that.”

“Your grandmother is quiet the woman. Quiet the Queen.” He smiled at the girl.

She returned it halfheartedly.

“They do love you know. I am sorry it came to this, making your mother upset like that. It was not my intention.”

“I know, she signed a deal, that's how nana explained it.”

“But you do realize what it means don't you? Your mother did make the deal and if she had read what she signed, she had the opportunity to question it and have it reworded to her benefit. We did not take you from her to be cruel.”

“I know that now,” she admitted. “Mother does too, doesn't mean she liked it.”

He looked at her, such a solemn girl. He too knew of the curse that plagued her, she seemed oblivious to it. Still a young child despite the fact that by his count she was in her twenties, at least twenty five. But the girl before him was only fifteen. It made him sad, knowing what Star did about her, about the curse, how one day she would become part of the earth in the most physical sense. He could see it now, the cracks and patches on her skin, bark.

“You are a Leo born you know that? Leos always know other Leos,” he said smiling.

She looked at him with her mothers eyes. “Nana and mum are always talking about their moon signs, and mine. They call me the little leo.”

“Even quiet lions are still lions. Tell me, are you scared here?”

She shook her head. “At first yes, but not now.”

“Because you are smart. You see and hear very well. Which is why I feel foolish for asking you.”

“Asking me what?” She looked at him.

“If you could help us.”

“How?”

“I feel that often times you don't have a say in where you go. As the last child, as a young girl, as the Princess. You are strong and brave but I can see they keep you hidden, to keep you safe from harm. You do not travel much, and here, away from them for months I know you must feel . . .uncertain. But I want you to know that there is no harm here for you, I do not wish to hurt you or your family in any way. Your mother must pay her debt, and the currency is only time. That's all I ask of you, to spend the time your mother owes here. You do like it here don't you?”

She nodded slightly. “Well yes, it is nice to be by the sea. I do like the sea.”

“The sea is normally a lot more beautiful than it is now. Low tides expose all the beach pebbles, and dry up all the crabs the children dig for, I don't know how long this will last, it has been here for a week longer now and I'm asking for your help little Leo lady.”

“I don't know where she went, I don't know how to reverse the eclipse. I can't. . . .”

“You can communicate to the earth. Use your power, your namesake power and connect to the earth. All plants, all trees and mountains are connected. They will show you to her.”

“How?”

“Come, lets go to the shore,” he said.

They went and Rosie wondered. She had never tried to connect her powers and awaken them. To look into the earth's mind and see what It saw as a collective mind. She mother had obviously exercised her connection with the sun, her grandmother loved the night, Rosie was named for the earth. But she had never used her magic abilities, as slight as they were. Not like her relatives.

She was not prepared for what she found when the King told her all she had to do was place her palm to the sand on his beaches and close her eyes. Instantly she saw through new eyes, eyes underground, where the earth was not as she knew it. The plants of the land Were connected.

“Its all one,” she said. “It's all . . . .Alive!” She smiled brightly and in her mind asked them to take her to her mother's presence.

The Earth obliged her. It took her into the underground where she could SEE the animals who burrowed, she could SEE the roots communicate and she could FEEL the lack of sunshine depressing the flora. It was not painful, but it was noticeable. Rosie understood now more than ever before that she had to find her mother, not just for the humans but for the Earth itself. She flew through the tree roots of old and young, passed fields of flowers and trenches of swamps. The frogs in the marshes, to the birds in the trees, the worms in the grass and apples. Rosie saw it all in a way she never dreamed she could see.

The Mountains were singing! They grew and sang to her! The trees were loving parents, the fields of gold to the South were strong waves that crashed over the soil. The Sea was silent though and it made her uneasy, too much of that would eventually make the earth die of thirst it seemed. She ran, she flew hopped and bounded over leagues and leagues in any direction at any given moment. She saw more than a hawk saw from above, all from the dry shore line.

The flora took her far beyond the Dragoons, where her uncle dwelled. They took her deep underground to empty volcano tubes. Great stone chambers underground were hot magma once oozed from the pit of the earth itself. Cooled thousands of years ago, leaving behind a valley where the fire once came from. A lake formed, and on this lake a small, small island where only two beings were detected to be.

Rosie suddenly stood up and swayed on her feet, breaking the connection. It was too sudden. Like drowning in reverse.

“A lake in a volcano beyond the Dragoons,” she said.

The King knew it. “A long journey from here. But one we may make if you were so willing.”

She suddenly looked ill. “Oh no...I couldn't go that far. I've never been farther North than the Canyon Lands, and never farther South than the Golden Hills. To go beyond the Mountains. . . .”

“Rosie, your mother is the Keeper of the Dawn, only she can end this eclipse. Do you like this Eclipse? Did the Earth relay its joy with this eclipse?”

She shook her head. “Well no, no I don't like it.” She looked at the dry shore, the weak tides lapping against her side. She didn't want to spend three and half months like this.

“Then come with me, we'll go find your mother together and convince her to stop this.”

“But they said I couldn't see her.”

“I am the King, I can break my own rules if I want to.”

His attitude made her want to laugh, but she grinned instead.

The King sent word to the Star Queen and the two departed quickly. He took his best human warrior, leaving Jones and the Knight to guard the Kingdom, and they made way along the North Road. Not even the King could recall a time when Seaside flags were flown this far north. Even in this, their travels were pleasant. Not a single highwayman showed his face, all the better. Seaside warriors were known to be ruthless in battle, and gentle in bed. Men and women of balance and hidden death.

“You see, everything has a balance Rosie,” he explained one night while reciting Sea Kingdom tales to her. “ Our Warriors seek this balance their whole lives. Your mother and Grandmother work in balance, sun and stars, night and day. You too hold the balance of life and death, in ways we couldn't understand. You are connected to the earth, and in the earth Everything lives and dies.”

“You mean like when a tree falls? My teacher says it falls and rots and animals live in it and the rotting bark makes the soil rich and other plants grow,” she recited.

He nodded. “Exactly! That is the how the Knight is powerful, he has achieved the balance. He is the one who needs the laws to be followed,” he told her, “for the balance to remain he needs it to be. It is why your mother and I made a deal, and why we need this unnatural eclipse to end. I can give you two a day together, but I need you to return with me.”

She smiled, he was a nice man. Like her mother before her, she didn't know her father. Her grandfather had died after Dawn's birth, Rosie's father was from a far away land and was called to war when she was two years old. He hadn't returned yet, but Rosie secretly thought he some day would. This King was a pleasant would be father, his children were grown and off on adventures. He had an heir but he hardly saw them. She realized then that what he had forced upon her mother, his children had done to him.

Though she wanted to go home, she knew that this deal must be cleared. Only three months and then she would go home. Life by the sea wasn't as bad as she thought and when she made the ocean blue again, maybe it would be even better. Like before.

Another week and four days passed before Rosie finally made them stop. They had reached the volcano. The Eclipse now made the earth hot, instead of cold like forcasted, and Rosie was feeling it. It made them worried. How could Mother not know? Well Rosie didn't, maybe no one knew for sure, until now that was.

The King looked up, “Right. Now how do we climb this mountain?”

“No one needs to climb anything,” a voice came from the woods before them.

When they looked they saw Dawn, standing gloriously on a fallen, moss covered log on a hill above them. She smiled which turned turned into a laugh and then bounded down to meet them. In one hand she carried a spear, three dead rabbits on a string slung across her shoulder. She threw it all down when she went to embrace Rosie.

Rosie couldn't say they weren't happy about seeing their mother again. She Was happy, joyed, but the eclipse remained and she looked up at it over her mother's shoulder. No matter how right she felt now it had to be fixed, and only Rosie could fix it.

“How did you find me?” Dawn asked them two of them. She stood up and held Rosie's hand, facing the King.

“She did,” he said. “She realized her power over the Earth.”

The Princess looked down at the younger princess. “You did? What was it like honey?” She asked excitedly, her baby was blossoming. 

“Everything is connected mum! All of it! Its like one living thing, everything that dies just gives life to more. Its like this everywhere, all the way down the shore. But it hurts, the eclipse is hurting it. I feel this hurt they do.”

“I had no idea,” she began to say, the surprise in her face told the truth.

The King nodded. “That is her strength. She made a connection with lands as far as here, and she feels what they do.”

“We need the sun, we need it to grow mum. The earth suffers without it. ” Rosie explained very properly.

Her words surprised Dawn. The mother nodded. Her child was slowly growing like the earthen sprite she was, her mind faster than her body thankfully.

“Then so it shall end. While I would pay any price for a damn knight, I will not pay for my revenge at the price of your pain.” She turned and took a deep breath in through her nose. On the exhale she began to weave symbols in the air with her fingers, they appeared as wisps and chanted a low mantra along the lines of “Bid me sky bend to my will. Turn dark back to light like a wheel. Only when I kneel, with knife at the wield, shall your spell yield.”

She got to one knee and sliced her palm open with a blade she drew from her belt. It was quick and the knife was true. With a handful of blood drops from her clenched fist falling to the ground, the eclipse began to fade, her false moon cover melted away quicker than the King expected. When the Princess stood again she was wrapping her hand in a cloth, Rosie was gathering herbs from the meadows that she knew would help heal her mother's cut faster and cleaner. The King smiled at their small family, he had a large family but always seemed alone. The most powerful family in all the lands was also the smallest, three women bound by blood and magic.

“I promised the child a day with you, Princess Dawn,” he said to her.

She looked at him and even smiled. “I will take that day Old King by the Sea. Thank you. But do remember,” she looked at Rosie. “Cover your ears Rosie.”

She did. Dawn's smile faded somewhat, her shoulders straightened.

“Law or no law, let this be a test of my power Old King,” this time the title was sarcastic.

The woman the King watched now was so vastly different from the one mere seconds before.

“Don't get me wrong my dear, you do not and cannot frighten me. When I was a younger man I would have challenged you to a sword duel. Alas, I cannot and it is your mother I fear above you. Besides, you know very well this whole ordeal would be over soon.” He gave her a witty smirk. “Someone told me that you and your mother argue quiet often. I gather that's what this is truly about.”

While she was fierce, she was not so blind with rage as to not see and hear reason. She respected him for his bravery, and his care for her child. While it was with frustration that she wondered why she could never best her mother in terms of loyalty, she took advantage of his kindness to break his own laws in letting them have a day together. She decided it wouldn't be so bad, Rosie would be cared for, and maybe. . . maybe she herself was ready for the child to be stronger, to grow a little. She began to want to see her child flourish and come into her own, and perhaps, having some sort of father like figure, even for a small while, would expose her to a caring touch.

Dawn knew she was rough, she tried to be gentle and patient with Rosie. The only other family Rosie saw often was Richi, but Dawn saw he was always so distant. She and her second cousin, her uncle for all intensive purposes, had a deep understanding that came from the use of few words. Not much needed to be said, they were related, they interacted, they usually shared the same annoying goals. They got along.

Star on the other hand adored her grandchild, going so far as to release the Dark One from her Island Prison, and beg him to help her save the curse girl. They did what they could, and Dawn did all she

could to give her a life. Maybe a temporary glimpse into a life where a father seemed possible was also what she could have.

^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

Holy Wood, Castle Ao'o, day.

Star was reclining dramatically on a divan couch. Its gold velvet exterior was soft and contrasted with her scarlet robe gown. The moment the darkness of the eclipse lifted she knew Dawn had relented and she gasped. Rosie had done it, she and the King had found Dawn. Antony, the Old King, had sent one single letter curtly explaining that Rosie had realized her birth power, to connect with the earth, and had used it to locate Dawn. They were going to undertake the journey, two weeks when you traveled light, which would take them through a small pass between the Dragoon Mountains.

With the experienced King and his strongest man, she felt that Rosie would be safe....and she secretly wanted the child to make the journey. To experience the lands, to be brave, to travel farther than she had gone yet, as Star knew that one day Rosie would travel places Earthlings hadn't been in hundreds of years.. The unknown scared Rosie, she right to be, she could feel what was happening to her-the curse- but no one told her anything more about it, it was the unknown.

Star could breath again as the weight of her daughter's voodoo magick physically lifted. How she wished Richi was by her side, as he was in her times of need, her entire immediate family were all in the same part of the land and it exhausted her to imagine. She rolled off the divan and got on her hands and knees, looking out towards the open balcony doors, where the sun went from black to bright. She had to shield her honey eyes and sat back against the couch. Soon the small band of travelers would come back this way south and hopefully send word about what happened.

Admist her exhaustion she smiled, and even laughed. How proud she was of Rosie in the success of the child's first quest. First Real quest anyways, to release the land from darkness. She liked the sound of it, among those her age Rosie would be considered a hero once the tales got out. A fitting detail in the legacy of the Lizard family.

The queen's only agnst came in the form of waiting for Dawn to return, which she knew she wouldn't. Not until Rosie was returned did she expect her to be seen again. She grabbed the diamond stubbed cigarette case laying on the divan, and popped it open. A fat joint was plucked out from the bed of joints within and pressed t her lips, lit with a spark of fire between her fingers. Summoned with the surge of returning strength. She took a drag and then held it, and slowly released it. A month had lapsed, and she hoped peace remained for the one more month and a half.....hopefully.