Chapter VI - Finding Family
The Legend of Leanna Page: Vol. I
You’re reading The Legend of Leanna Page, the page-turning mythopoetic queer literary fantasy. *Click here for the Table of Contents and start of Volume I*
Previously: Byrdon worked to gain the villainous prince’s favor while Esta discovered a mysterious magic weapon in a chamber of their new home cave. Will Byrdon betray his conscience while allied with the prince? Will Esta be able to protect her future child from the Jewel of Nebulous? Read on!
Esta ran from the Jewel, back through the tight winding tunnel, and again into the familiarity of her own cavern apartment. Though her feet bid her rest, she wasted not a moment, and, taking up a satchel, she filled it with necessary provisions and bounded down the passage headed for Masor, keeping both a tender hand and a cautious thought always over her babe. She placed her foot in the well bucket she left dangling from above and pulled the opposite side of the rope to hoist herself up out of the cave. Once on the surface, she took care to avoid the frequent haunts of those she worked with in the castle, and made her way straight to the Infinite Wood, forgetting the long-told dangers of the place in her thirst for more information. She kept her thoughts focused and her eyes ahead, even as the infinite height of the Trees and the awe-inspiring magical power which viscerally swam between them called for her attention. When she thought she had run sufficiently deep into the Forest, she called to her old acquaintance, having no better idea of how to contact one of the Fairy Nation— or, what had he called it? Alquoria?
“Stoman! Good fellow, I beg you for a word,” she cried out, aiming her call in all directions.
“Who art thou?” Boomed a voice from the Trees. Esta looked all round but could not discern its source. It was not the voice of Stoman, of that she was certain. At once, she remembered the many tales of the amoral violence of the fairy breed and prayed Stoman had not led her astray in believing they were fiction.
“I am called Esta,” she said. “I come in hope of knowledge, nothing more.”
“Esta?” It was the same voice now but from a different Tree, and Esta now thought she could see a small green spot, not quite the Tree’s hue, hanging onto a leaf. It spoke, “Thou wouldst not be the handmaiden to the Masorian princess?”
“I would,” Esta said.
In a flash, the spot from whence the voice had emanated transformed into a ferocious fairy, tall as Esta, emerald in tone, and with sharp wings like translucent, shimmering, leaves growing from her spine. With a look of fury, and bolt-spear in hand, she dove towards Esta, attacking from above, pinning the maid to the Forest floor.
“Thou wouldst dare enter these Woods when thy sovereigns have set a price for our wings? And, lo, thou comest seeking knowledge – was not the knowledge of our innocence enough for thee? Stoman told of how thou listened; dost thou still not believe? Perhaps the wound in my side could serve as evidence to thee!”
Esta remembered the fairy’s story and at a sudden knew with whom she spoke.
“Alizren. Are you Alizren?” she asked.
“Alizren, Fairy Warrior, and Defender of the Infinite Woods. We warriors do not take kindly to betrayal,” she answered.
“I have never meant you harm. I know your innocence for fact; I would never encourage pain to be inflicted upon your kind.”
“But it is within thy power to prevent it and thou hast done nothing!”
Esta’s eyes widened as she made to defend herself. “I risked my station, I risked war!, to tell her highness the truth. She would not believe me!”
“And why should I believe thee?” Alizren scowled.
At a loss, Esta simply asked, “What would you have me do?”
“Tell her again! Tell your monstrous princess the truth, again and again, until she must believe you.”
“I would be in a cell before I finished saying it a second time!”
“You can still speak the truth from a cell.”
Esta struggled beneath the warrior's grasp. “You would have me rot beneath the castle when I mean to be a friend to your people?”
The fairy scoffed in condescension. “My people need nothing from you except to make the princess believe.”
“She would believe me no more from a cell than she did when I sat beside her in her own carriage. It would do no good! I would be destroyed, and your people would be none the better for it. What’s more, I am now with child!” – at this news, Alizren started and flew back, releasing Esta from her grasp. The maid slowly rose as she concluded – “I can no longer take such risks. Please understand.”
Alizren stood in silence, a fiery, heartbroken, glare saying more than her words could dream to convey.
“Are many of your warriors dying?” Esta inquired.
“No, but a few. The unlucky ones. We are up against no army, only human peasants with knives and arrows. They are not much match for our soldiers unless they can effectively levy the power of surprise. It is the commoners, and the children, who are most at risk. They have been advised not to travel beyond Anwansi,” at Esta’s confusion, she added, “the hidden pool which is the capital of Alquoria; however, it seems children would so often rather be brave than safe, and, yes, many of them are dying.”
“I am so sorry,” Esta said, her hand unwittingly resting on her abdomen. “And Stoman?”
“Alive,” the fairy answered, the fire in her eyes diminishing as she spoke. “He was discharged from service. At the lack of change, he was forced to confess he had never spoken to the princess, the condition upon which he would be permitted to return to his post.”
Esta, a look of terrible guilt upon her, began to apologize for the circumstance, but Alizren held up her hand to halt the apology.
“He would appreciate your concern. I, however, must admit, I am not wholly unsatisfied with that particular turn of events. He is safer at home, and, while there, he has been able to prepare things. A nursery, especially.”
“You too?” Esta smiled, and the fairy nodded, at last offering a small smile in return. “How far along?” Esta asked, and the two learned they were both four months into their pregnancy. “Must you continue to stand guard during it all?”
“Not by decree, but, Esta, we are at war. Not only that, but we are the victims of purposeless mutilation. If my being here could spare some poor fairy’s wings, nothing for myself could persuade me to forsake them.” At Alizren’s words, Esta bowed her head in shame. “Esta, do not think that I am blind to the issue of rank. We fairies are all too familiar with it, I’m afraid. To expect a serving girl to consistently challenge royalty on nothing but the word of an enemy soldier, especially at such risk to herself, is, perhaps, not entirely reasonable. It was simpler to blame you before I had met you, the issue seemed not so complicated. I do not blame you now, Esta.”
The maid fell to her knees before the kind warrior and kissed her hand, grateful tears rising to her eyes. Alizren took her by the arm and bid her stand.
“My friend, rise, and tell me, you came to the Wood for knowledge. What is it you wish to know?”
Esta told her of how she came to love a man from Pavoline, the magic cave that brought them together, and the evil treasure she found that it enshrined. Upon learning that Alizren had heard faint whispers of such a Jewel in fairy legend but knew none of the particulars, Esta pleaded with her to travel to the cave, look upon the murals, and try at a further explanation. Alizren refused to quit her post until Esta, in such extreme distress, outlined her fear that her babe would one day wield the Jewel and again implored the fairy to aid her in discovering what the future may hold. If her fear indeed came to pass, Alizren considered, the poor mother’s plight would be of import to them all in coming times; thus, with the safety of her own coming child in mind, and a deep curiosity in this artifact of legend undeniably forcing her hand, Alizren consented to the journey. Having sent word with a fairy messenger that urgent business required she quit her post, Alizren saluted the fellow warrior who flew in to assume her place and followed Esta to the caves.
As they traveled, the fairy warrior and human maid found their way to converse on pleasantries. They spoke of their employment, their respective queen and princess; they spoke of family that once was, and of family that was soon to be, and, along the way, each found that they rather enjoyed the other’s company far more than they would have expected. At a hint from Alizren that the nursery Stoman cultivated might fail to be utilized, Esta attempted an assurance, thinking her reason was a fear the child would be born without life, but Alizren corrected her assumption.
“While we have the same risk as you, it is not a dead birth that frightens me. What fears me is such an uncommon occurrence it hardly bothers pondering, but there are occasions on which a parent may be compelled to relinquish their babe on account of its color not being in their image. Indeed, it is known to happen, for a fairy’s visage is but a reflection of their inner person and, though the demeanor of a fairy child so often mirrors their parents, nature does not decree it be so always. And, by order of the Council of Elders, which even our great Queen Okalani hath not the power to contradict, fairies are to be brought up by those in their own rank, ascertained by color of skin. But again, the chances are so slim, I do but only waste my time in worry.”
“Oh, but how terrible the suspense!” cried Esta, “and not to know ‘til you hold the child in your arms.”
“Not quite so,” Alizren said. “Every fairy mother, the night before she is to give birth, has a vision in her dream of how the babe is to appear. I will know then.” Alizren showed a smile to Esta but, on turning towards the path ahead, the fairy’s countenance faded to one of such gravity that struck Esta so dearly she could not but imagine herself in the unfortunate situation and, in sympathy, she replied, “If such a commandment were made upon me, I do not know that my heart would allow it.”
At length, the warrior whispered her response. “Nor mine, dear Esta. Nor mine.”
When, at last, they stepped into Masor, Alizren condensed her size and sat hidden within Esta’s hair until they reached the secluded well. Thither, Alizren flew above Esta’s shoulders as the maid lowered herself in the water bucket. They then walked, side by side, through the passage, Esta always a pace ahead in growing eagerness to discover more about the Jewel. Reaching the hollow, Esta made haste for the hidden tunnel but was forced to pause as Alizren lagged her pace, smiling at the sweet apartment the couple had created out of the cave. At a hint from Esta, Alizren remembered their purpose and followed her new friend through the small opening, along the winding walkway, and into the tomb of the Nebulous Jewel.
Immediately upon entering the tunnels, Alizren had felt an impressive magical strength, but as yet nothing had affected her so fully as the power emanating from within the smaller chamber in which they now stood. She remained speechless in awe, and Esta, halting in the entryway, watched her intently as she drew near the walls, placing her hand upon them, feeling the Gwahanu’s waves course from her fingers through her wings. Esta gasped as the fairy’s wings shined with such exuberance, returning to their typical state only once Alizren had drawn her hand from the wall.
“There is power here like I have known in no other place,” Alizren proclaimed. “The Nation of Alquoria, and each of us within, source our magic from the Anwansi Pool, and even it draws magic power from the elemental Gwahanu River which spreads its veins all throughout the Forest. But it seems to me that this place must draw upon no external source. It is a heart of magic itself, sibling to the River and Sky, not child of either. And this Jewel... it is as though all the power of the vast Gwahanu and Anwansi combined is concentrated into its deceivingly modest size.”
“It is a danger, then?” Esta asked.
Alizren looked at the murals. “Quite so,” she replied, and turned her gaze back to the gem. “I hardly dare approach it. Its power near overwhelms me already from this few feet’s distance.”
“Is it wicked?”
“Of that, I cannot unequivocally say. Magic is; it is neither wicked nor benevolent. And yet, I know not of a soul who would seek out such power as lies here with the intent to use its means toward benevolent ends.”
Esta let out a groan and leaned against the cavern’s opening archway for support, her free hand grasping her pregnant stomach.
“I cannot be birthing a villain,” she told herself.
Alizren flew to her side and reassured her that, even from their short acquaintance, it was evident that within her beat a strong and tender heart, more than capable of raising a kind and compassionate child.
“Think not on what may be in years to come, but on the beauty that will arrive shortly. Raise the child well, and it will not wish the world ill,” Alizren advised. She took Esta’s hand and the expecting mothers looked to each other for a time, a thousand words of kinship passing silently between them. At length, Alizren explained she had to return to the Forest, and the new friends parted with a compassionate smile, the fairy flying out as swiftly as she had first appeared. Esta, now alone in the cavern, took a final glance at the Jewel of Nebulous, then turned and quit the place, leaving it all behind her.
That night, when Byrdon returned, Esta told him what had passed. He marveled at her telling of the Jewel’s powers and the pictures that foretold its evil purpose, and he immediately wished that she lead him thither so he could look upon them. A tremor ran deep through Esta’s soul at his request and she refused to approach the Jewel’s vault. Byrdon did not understand her apprehension entirely, for she had kept secret the connection she felt between the Jewel and their babe in hopes that, if ignored, it would not come to pass. He let the issue alone at her request.
They did not speak of the Jewel again. Months passed, and the little cavern home returned to its state of happiness, with ever-increasing excitement at the growth of the baby. Often Byrdon would return with a bag of grains or legumes or dried fruits from the castle and, over time, they built up a comfortable supply. During the day, Esta made sure to store the food from Pavoline, together with baskets of Masorian spices and vegetables she had gathered, in front of the opening of the small tunnel to the Jewel of Nebulous, the full supply hiding it entirely from view. By the time the lovers fell asleep under their ninth moon, even Esta had all but forgotten the nefarious magic weapon that adjoined their sweet apartment.
While Esta slept on the eve before the twenty-first of March, she was visited by such a dream as yet she had never known. Every vibrant color appeared to flash and spiral before her eyes, leaving her in utter awe. The colors balanced themselves as though resting on a horizon and shifted hues until, for a moment, soft lines of light and dark magenta held their place against a field of yellow and red, instantly returning Esta’s imagination to thoughts of the Jewel of Nebulous, until a wave of rippling turquoise cooled the fiery image and put Esta at peace. As the pulse of an underwater current beat steadily in her ear, it seemed to repeat a sound; a word... a name:
Leanna.
Esta awoke with a start, placing her palm on Byrdon’s chest, shaking him ‘til he woke. He quickly readied to be of assistance, holding still for Esta’s word, an inquisitive eye controlling his expression.
“I think our child has just told me her name,” Esta uttered.
“Her?” Byrdon repeated, his inquisitive countenance cautiously turning to glee.
Nodding, Esta’s expression mirrored the happiness of Byrdon’s as she explained, “Her name is Leanna.” The parents kissed in delight. Esta detailed her dream, leaving unspoken any guesses at its magical cause, but offering no doubt as to the vision’s legitimacy. The two agreed, with an occupational surname to honor her heritage, the child would henceforth be known as Leanna Page.
In the morning, when Esta again awoke, she unclosed her eyes to see Byrdon huddled over a small fire, stirring a pot, the delectable aroma of perfectly spiced porridge filling the cave. She watched him a moment, imagining her head resting on his kind shoulders. She watched his soft hand wipe the tip of his perspiring nose and felt her heart gleam in adoration. All would be well, she could feel it.
The porridge being ready, Byrdon looked up to Esta and saw that she lay awake. Carefully, he filled a bowl with the breakfast and, sitting half of himself on the bed beside her, he placed his pillow on her lap and rested the bowl atop it. Kissing her forehead, he held her as she thanked him and devoured the delicious meal. When she finished, Byrdon restored the plateware and sat again beside her. He told her that he sent early word to Guiomar this morning of his feeling ill, followed by an assurance that he would return to service as soon as he was able. The baby being so near, he dared not be away another moment.
Suddenly, the couple heard a distant patter at the end of the tunnel to Masor. Byrdon rose to investigate.
“Is someone there?” he cried. “Announce yourself!”
It was then that they came into view; Stoman and Alizren, full height, floated into the light. Stoman held a basket in one hand and Alizren’s arm in the other. Both their countenances portrayed a slight fear, and they appeared disheveled. The patter of their wings ceased as they halted at the beginning of the hollow. Esta rose to greet them.
“Alizren! My friend, what a joy. And Stoman, I hope you are well. What brings you here?” she asked.
“I beg you will forgive the intrusion, Esta. I knew not to whom I could turn; I thought only of you,” Alizren said.
“Forgiveness is unneeded, you are always welcome. Are you well?”
“We have a favor to ask.” Alizren looked grave. “I had the dream last night; our little fairy girl will be born today.” Esta smiled wide and Alizren’s countenance thanked her briefly, but she continued grave as before. “She will be of the royal orchid color, not of ours.” Esta understood immediately. “I imagined tomorrow when she would no longer be mine, and I could bear it not. We are warriors to the depths of our souls, and we serve our people, but we serve our own hearts as well. So, with great deliberation, we packed up our belongings and flew. I thought of your home here, the beauty and comfort combined elegantly with seclusion and safety. I know what it is to ask, but still, I must: Might we join you here, and raise our secret children side by side?”
Esta smiled, overjoyed to add her friend to their family and she looked eagerly to Byrdon for an agreeing glance. He had sought her gaze in the same moment, likewise expecting agreement, but expecting to agree to precisely the opposite. Both their expressions faltered as they came to understand they yet had no agreement at all.
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Wonderful chapter. I am enjoying this story so much.