Chapter Three

Orinda had the invisible servants dig a deep pond. It took then two days to accomplish the feat. Orinda fused the walls of the pond together with a great fire. The fire melted the grains of sand creating black glass. The she filled it with water and cast several magical wards to keep the water in the pond. The pond inhabited one of the corners of the courtyard. The water looked black in the sunlight and bottomless after dark. This happened when Arabella was eighteen. Her mother presented her with a book on water magic. Arabella sat by the pond for weeks studying the book and gazing into the coolness of the pond. Occasionally she would feel brave and touch the surface. She would watch the ripples, fascinated with the movement. She was amazed at having so much wet in one place. It was much different than the wash basin she used to stay clean with.

One hot day she took off her shoes and soaked her feet. She shivered at the coldness of the water. She very carefully began to start chanting. She cautiously wove the spell that would keep her afloat. Once the spell was complete she breathed deep and slid into the chilly pond. She sank over her head. A flicker of fear swept through her. She waited for the spell to take effect. She sank further and finally she could hold her breathe no longer. She flailed towards the surface.

Her feet touched the bottom and she pushed off. Her head broke the surface but she promptly sank again. She held her breathe again and clawed at the sides of the pond. Her hands made contact but the glass sides were too slick for her to gain a handhold. Her feet touched the bottom again and she surged to the surface again. She thought of shouting for help, but took another breath instead. No one was there to hear her even if she yelled. She had to save herself. Her feet touched the bottom for a third time. Her lungs ached and her limbs started feeling heavy. Arabella reached out and found a crack in the wall. She clung to it with her hands and followed it up to the surface. The edge where the crack appeared above the surface was rough enough for Arabella to cling to and stay above the surface. She panted and shivered. Finally She had regained enough strength to pull her self out of the pond. She strained and crawled out. She lay near the edge and coughed. Her head hurt and her legs shook when she stood up.

She gathered up her book and her shoes. She slowly walked into the hall dripping tiny puddles behind her. In her room, she stripped off her wet clothes. Wrapped in a large bathing robe, she lay on the bed. She did not cry, but lay deep in thought. Why did this happen? Why could she not do even the simplest of spells, but her mother could do great magic? What was her problem? Was there something wrong with her? When she did not show up for dinner, her mother went looking for her. Orinda found her sitting beside her hearth deep in thought

“What is it, Arabella?”

“Why does my magic not work?” Arabella sat up and looked her mother in the eye. “I have tried all these years; truly tried and worked hard at the magic, but it just refuses to happen.”

“I know little one,” Orinda knelt and wrapped her arms around her daughter. “I have been thinking on this lately as well. I have an idea but I do not know if it is right or not. I think that when you gifted the Princess Rosalina, you over stretched your magic. I have been hoping for years that is would repair its self and all would be right with it. Now I am not sure that it will ever come back.” Arabella’s eyes began to tear. He mother kissed her forehead and left. Arabella began to cry in earnest. She looked around for a kerchief to wipe her eyes with but found none. The invisible servants had done their job too well and everything had been put away.

She stumbled across the room in the direction of the stairs. She hit the small table and caught the crystal ball before it fell to the floor. She sat down in her mother’s chair still cradling the ball. Her heart felt like it was breaking into pieces. Her only dream throughout the past long lonely years was to be like her mother. She wanted – no needed to be a magic wielder. She had to be a fairy. Without her magic, she was nothing. Even her mother would not want her. That thought was too much for her. She hugged the ball to her and sobbed uncontrollably.

Tears splashed on the crystal surface. The mist became agitated with in the ball. It swirled and darkened. A dark form gathered within the ball. It shifted and moved. Wings seemed to flap. Arabella watched through tear-blurred eyes as the darkness swirled around and around. She used her sleeve to wipe her eyes and runny nose. She put both hands on the crystal ball and balanced it on her knees. She leaned forward towards the ball. Her lips nearly touched the surface.

“Hello,” she whispered. The dark form froze as if it were listening then began swirling even faster.

“Hello,” it answered back. She could faintly hear a soft male voice echoing through her head. “I can not see you. Are you a spirit or a phantom come to haunt me?”

“No,” Arabella said and shook her head.

“Are you sure?” The voice asked. “I sense your pain and loneliness. You feel like a ghost,” the voice held a deep kindness that nearly started Arabella weeping again.

“No I am just a girl,” Arabella’s voice broke on a sob.

“Do not cry little one,” the voice said. “Everything will be all right.”

 “Who are you,” Arabella was a hairbreadth from the crystal surface? She stared into the crystal ball intently hoping to make the form show its self more clearly.

“I am Denrisi Isriru,” the misty form said. The voice sent shivers down her spine. It was deep and reverberated with in her. “Who are you? Where are you,” Denrisi asked. A patch of red burned over the dark form.

“I am Koaner Rhakan,” said another louder male voice. The tone of the new voice was harsh as if it had not spoken for a very long time. “And I am here.” Arabella’s head filled with roaring. It was the roar of a fire whipped by a whirlwind. Arabella watched as the mist turned red and seemed to swallow the smaller darker mist.

“Denrisi,” Arabella shouted at the ball. “Denrisi!” The mist within the crystal ball turned blood red. There was a long silence as the mist faded within the ball. Arabella found she was holding what now looked like a glass orb. She could see through the ball to the other side. It seemed that it was now broken. She quickly set the crystal ball back on the table.

Arabella raced upstairs to her room. She threw herself on her bed. She felt that Denrisi was the friendlier of the two entities. His voice had been curious and welcoming, but the other. She shivered in fear. She had never heard anything so violent or warlike. The voice conjured up images of destruction and fire. She wonder who the voices really were. What sort of beings were they? Wizards? Demons? She said the two names over and over. She needed to remember them. She felt that it would become very important in the near future to remember them. Perhaps she should ask her mother about them? She thought some more and was soon asleep.

The next three year past slowly as Arabella change her subject of study. If she could not live with magic, then she would have to live without magic. She studied survival skills, housekeeping, cooking, and all the rather mundane tasks normal peasant girls studied. Orinda thought it strange, but did not stop her. Arabella showed her mother a happy young woman with an interest in life. If Arabella was happy then Orinda was content to let her do as she wished. Arabella was not really happy. She felt herself growing more and more despondent as the months passed and rolled into years. Arabella felt stressed and cried over the smallest upsetting incident. If Arabella spilled the milk, she would cry. If she misplaced the book she was studying, she would cry. Finally, Arabella seemed to have no more tears and did not even try to fool her mother into thinking she was happy any more. She never smiled and she only used studying as a way to be even more alone than before. She would disappear for hours and not even remember where she had been. She would eat her meals, but could not tell what she had eaten afterwards. She just did not care.

Orinda caught her daughter moping by the black pool one morning. Secretly she spied on her daughter. It would be Arabella’s twenty-first birthday soon. Arabella was just staring off into the water. Her eyes looked golden as it caught the reflection of the water. Her head was tilted forward so her soft brown hair framed her heart-shaped face. Her ringlets were streaked with gold from all the time that she spent out in the desert sun. Her white lace dress hugged her curves. Her book had slid part way off her lap. She had laid a pink ribbon in the crack of the pages in order to mark her spot before she drifted off into thought. Her skirt was hiked up to above her knees. Her legs were slim and she had shapely calves. Her shoes were lined up neatly beside the edge of the pond. Suddenly, it dawned on Orinda that her daughter had finally grown into a lovely young woman. She counted out the years. It had been sixteen years to the day. The time was right for the next step.

When Arabella went looking for her mother at dinner time she could not find her. Orinda was no where to be found in the castle. Arabella gave up trying to study after the second day. She started sitting in the tallest tower during the daylight hours. The tower had two windows at the top. One looked south and the other north. She would spend the first half of the day looking toward Kuhlbert and the last half gazing at the snow-covered mountains in the south. Her mind raced in circles wondering just where her mother went and what was she up to. After dark she would come down from the tower and sit beside the fire holding the crystal ball. She even tried to call to Denrisi. She called his name several times each night. No mist appeared in its depths; no voices echoed in her mind. The inhabitants of the crystal ball were just gone.

On the seventh day, she spotted a whirlwind coming toward Cardew from the north. Two figures rode on the whirlwind. One figure looked like a giant flapping black bird and the other figure seemed to be a large gray mushroom. It took Arabella half-a-minute to realize that her mother was coming home. She raced down the tower stairs and ran to the front gate. She stood, waiting patiently, directly underneath the stag skull. The blank eyes of the skull watched Orinda swoop down to land in front of Cardew. A blonde man dressed in dirty white clothes crumpled at her feet as the whirlwind dissipated. Arabella’s hand flew to her mouth as she gasped.

“Oh Mother! What have you done,” she shouted in surprise?

“I have brought you your husband,” Orinda waved at the man and then marched into the castle.