Blinding Beauty (27 page)

To her right side, two doors that
were taller than the Fortress’s highest tower stood gleaming in the
rainbow sunlight let in by the windows. They were simple rectangles
without design or color, but their sheer size held Isa awestruck.
On the left side of the glass bridge was a dais as wide as her
parents’ cottage, with two glass thrones whose backs nearly matched
the height of the doors. Rather than blue glass, however, these
thrones had also been given color, and looked as though someone had
shredded a rainbow and thrown the pieces wherever they chose. The
chaos was surprising in what otherwise appeared to be such a
meticulous design, but the longer Isa looked at them, the more she
realized they were possibly the loveliest objects she’d ever
seen.

She was so caught up in wandering
back and forth to gaze down upon each side of the bridge that she
jumped when Brokk spoke again, breaking the brittle stillness that
surrounded them.

“
My mother built this palace when
she was just a young woman, even before she married my father. Her
power was so great that the size of this place helped her bear the
weight of her strength. And yet, to heal the people, she was
willing to leave and carry the burden on her own.” It took Isa a
moment to remember what they had been discussing before entering
the throne room.

“
The regents said no?” Isa turned
to him incredulously.

“
Some said yes, but others were
too afraid. For one person to bring so much power to their lands,
they said, was too much a risk. She might try to overthrow the
peoples she visited. If she couldn’t promise them a cure from her
own home, she had no right being in theirs.” The older man paused
and looked away from Isa, but she didn’t miss the sudden glistening
in the corners of his eyes. When he spoke again, his voice was
husky.

“
The regent of my wife’s land was
such a man. When I heard it, I planned to go in and get her out
myself, ill or not. The regent’s order was sent to his fighting men
though, and they watched the border day and night for me. By the
time I was able to bribe someone into letting me in, it was too
late,” he said. “I arrived to find that both my wife and unborn
child had taken ill and died the day before.”

Isa closed her eyes. She tried to
imagine what it might be like to lose Ever in such a way, but
couldn’t. And a child? Her mind shivered away from that train of
thought before it could even get close to imagining such
devastation. She’d lost him once. Unlike her, however, Brokk had
never gotten his beloved back. He had never even met his
child.

“
You don’t know what it’s like.” A
quiet sob escaped him. “To be one of the most powerful creatures in
the world, but still stand there helplessly as you hold the
lifeless bodies of those you should have saved first.” Another sob,
louder this time, racked his own body, and his hands shook as they
covered his eyes. “I didn’t even know she was with child when I
left! I never would have allowed her to stay!”

Isa stood a few feet away from
him, unsure of what to do. Her first instinct was to reach out and
touch his shoulder, to try and comfort him in some way. And yet,
she stayed still. Something, possibly a stray breeze from the
Fortress, the kind it often loosed inside its own walls, whispered
in her ear to be wary. Such sorrow could only produce powerful
reactions. And these reactions, she sensed, had been building for a
long, long time.

“
I’m sorry,” she finally
whispered. “But I still don’t see what all of this has to do with
me, or why you’ve been searching for so long.”

“
I’m apologize,” he sniffed, and
gave her a sad smile. “I haven’t spoken of this to anyone since it
happened. I still miss her...” He gazed longingly out one of the
colossal windows before shaking his head and heading towards one of
the spiraling staircases. “A man came to the palace when my mother
had finished visiting the lands who had allowed her to come. His
wife had also died in the plague, and when he realized that she
could have been saved, he went mad. He burst in, roaring about how
things could have been different.

“
My mother had lived over a
thousand years before I was even born. She had seen much death in
her time, but this was more than she could live with. In her
sorrow, she placed a sleeping curse upon herself. She must not have
realized, however, that it would take the entire palace with her.
As soon as the servants realized what was happening, they packed as
quickly as they could and left. I couldn’t leave her
though.”

They came to the bottom of the
staircase and turned left out of the throne room and down another
hall. This one wasn’t quite as tall as the first.

“
So you fell under the curse,
too?” Isa asked. As they walked past countless more glass doors,
she was suddenly glad for the coat. It was growing colder as the
sun began to fade.

“
I did.”

“
Why did you wake up then, if she
is still asleep?”

He turned and looked at her,
surprise in his wide, leathery face.

“
My dear, my good mother is dead.
Even sleep gives way to death eventually.”

“
I’m sorry,” she murmured again,
but he shook his head.

“
It could only have been expected.
As to why I awakened, I’m really not sure, to be quite honest. I
can only believe the Maker has greater plans for me.”

They reached a door near the end
of that particular hall, and Brokk pushed it open. This room was
more decently sized, and was filled to the brim with glass objects
of every shape and size imaginable. Isa had to remind herself not
to touch anything as she walked past little dolls, plates, baskets,
even a pair of dancing slippers that were all made of delicate,
colored glass.

“
Which brings me to the reason I
need you,” he said, walking over to a small fireplace in the corner
where a pot of stew was bubbling. As the smell of its contents
wafted over to Isa, she realized she was famished.

To her relief, he ladled out two
bowls of the stew and handed one to her, along with a pink frosted
glass spoon.

“
Use this spoon, and no meal which
you use it to eat will run dry until each member of the household
has eaten. Then clean it, put it away, and use it again for the
next meal.” Isa took the spoon and examined it, a bit afraid to put
his honor to the test. Would there be a reason for him to use it
against her?

He must have sensed her suspicion,
however, for he gently took the spoon back from her, poured most of
his soup back into the black pot over the fire, and began to eat
from the tiny puddle that remained in the bottom of his bowl. Isa
nearly gaped when she realized his soup refused to run dry. Without
a word, he held his right hand over her bowl. Snapping his fingers
over her soup, he caught something invisible in his palm. He
brought it back to his face and whispered into his closed fist.
When he held out his hand to her again, a new glass spoon lay
there. Hesitantly, Isa took it and, unable to resist the
mouthwatering aroma of spices and beef for any longer, began to
eat.

“
Unlike your gift, my power, which
I inherited from my mother, lies mostly within the gifting of
objects. The objects are given the ability to help the recipient in
a way specific to them. People from all over the lands used to line
up in the throne room to see my mother. For hours, she would sit,
or sometimes stand, and listen to their worries. If their hearts
seemed sincere and their needs true, she would give them something
to help.” Brokk gave her a distant half-grin. “She loved people
like that.”

He moved over to the work desk and
picked up an item Isa hadn’t noticed before. It was a small mirror,
barely larger than the palm of her hand. It was made up of two
layers of glass. The outer layer, which served as a frame, was
opaque, and had miniature trees and stars carved into it. The
reflective part of the mirror was flawless, like an undisturbed
lake that had just frozen over.

“
I am now older than my mother
ever was,” he said as he studied the little mirror. “I have seen
more heartache and sorrow in the world than I will ever be able to
describe. After waking up and recalling what had happened, I
traveled as a poor journeyman. I went in search of a way to heal
the world that has become so far gone since my mother and I fell
asleep.” He took the mirror back and stared at it. “I was young
when my mother placed the sleep on us, barely two hundred. We slept
for two millennia and seven centuries. Since then, I have been
searching for more than two hundred years. And yet, for all my
searching, I was in despair, until I heard about you.”

Isa paused, her heart suddenly
hammering within her as she locked eyes with him. Without warning,
gone was the meek, gentle face she had thought she’d known, and
instead, she sensed that she sat in the presence of a powerful,
passionate enchanter.

“
What about me?” she
stammered.

“
You were given a magnificent
gift, Isabelle. The Maker gave you a purpose. You can do what no
one has been able to accomplish in nearly three thousand years.
With your power of the heart, you can help me bring peace to the
northern kingdoms.”

“
How?”

He glanced up, and when he did,
she noticed that the angelic light that had seemed to light the
entire castle earlier was fading. The sun must be
setting

“
It is getting late. Tomorrow, I
will tell you. For now,” he paused, his hand on the door and a
strange smile on his face, “simply know that no plague or
pestilence or war or famine or disaster of any other manner will
hurt the northern kingdoms again as long as you and I and your
husband, should he choose to join us, learn from my mother’s
mistake.”

Isa was still terribly confused as
he led her back to her room, but something within her, that small
breeze from before, silently screamed that the choice he offered
her seemed to be really no choice at all.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-EIGHT

Before You Go

Launce
watched in a stupor as Everard knelt before the broken rose-colored
mirror in Isa’s chambers. Despite their long run, water still
dripped from his clothing, and his head felt as though it were
stuffed with goose down. He still couldn’t quite remember how he
had fallen into the sea to begin with, only that Everard had
dragged him out of the water and tossed him up on the pier like a
fish. Their sprint had something to do with Isa, that much he knew.
But for the life of him, that was all he could recall.

Even now he wasn’t wholly
conscious. A strange sensation still clung to him as the water
rolled off his body, as though another skin had been laid over his
own. This invisible second layer, however, squeezed his mind and
dulled his senses, and even though he knew Everard was shouting,
nothing his brother-in-law said made sense.

“
Rafael!”

Everard’s bellow made Launce’s
already aching head throb even harder. By the time Launce had
caught up to him, Everard was still kneeling on the floor, his
hands, bleeding, pressed against the remnants of the mirror. The
thought of glass made something inside of Launce squirm, but for
the life of him, he couldn’t get his head clear enough to know what
was wrong, and why glass had anything to do with his
brother-in-law’s distress. A familiar voice behind him broke
through the cacophony in his head, sounding quite put
out.

“
Will you stop terrifying my
guests and tell me what you’re going on about?” In two giant steps,
Everard was off the floor, and had the portly man by the shoulders,
azure fire encircling his fists. At first shock, then anger and
fear mingled upon the big man’s face as Everard shook him so hard
his head snapped back.

“
He took her! Your blasted
enchanter took her!”

“
Who? Who did he take?” It seemed
the man, whoever he was, was wise enough not to try and fight
Everard, considering the state he was in. Something inside Launce
niggled him again, suggesting he should try to save the man’s life,
but a distant memory of the familiar blue flame kept him firmly in
place.

“
Isa! He took my wife! Now where
is he?”

The mention of his sister’s name
burned a hole through the thick fog between his ears, and with
sudden clarity, Launce began to recall everything. Being on the
pier with Everard, the warm, sweet drink Brokk had given him. And
falling. Falling into the depths of the green, murky sea as a
foreign drowsiness consumed him. But none of that mattered as
Everard’s words finally sank in.

Isa was gone.

Launce suddenly had the urge to
join Everard in beating the answer from Rafael, but he held back,
more from his fear of Everard’s uninhibited power than from a
desire to see the older king safe and well.

“
I do not know!” Rafael’s face was
the color of tomatoes, and his breathing was raspy as he struggled
against the strength in Ever’s hands. “But if you let me call my
servants, I will have them search!” For a moment, the feral light
that had filled Everard’s eyes only burned stronger, and Launce
fleetingly wondered if Everard just might kill the king then and
there. Slowly, however, his hands began to loosen, and as soon as
they were gone, Rafael stumbled out of the room, only looking back
once he was on the other side of the door frame. Yanking his
clothes straight, he stood as tall as possible, and raised his chin
defiantly.