Chapter 36
I hastened into the hills, grateful for the supplies the Jearim had provided. I found respite from the day’s warmth beneath a clump of trees with reddish-purple leaves, and I waited for twilight. While I waited, I walked, I paced, and then I pulled out my sewing. I stitched and stitched on the beautiful blue gown, and into each flash of the needle, I poured my energy, my hopes, my fears, and my dreams of a future with Kidron. Into those stitches, I poured my restlessness, my eagerness to get on with my quest, and my will to complete it.
Truly, I no longer had a reason to even sew the gown, beyond keeping myself occupied. Still, deep in my soul, a premonition warned me that I might need it. So, I worked, off and on, until evening painted the sky and it was time to meet the Scraggen’s daughter. I wended my way behind the line of hills surrounding the lonely keep, utilizing what cover from rocks and trees and fallen logs I could find. Darkness fell rapidly, and I was soon behind Moonswept.
Once more, an amazingly bright moon rose in the sky, shimmering with the radiance of the sun. While it did little to shield me, it offered a nearly unimpeded view of the landscape, so I could be certain neither the Scraggen nor her guards, if guards she had, were attempting to catch me unawares.
I made it safely to the back side of Moonswept, where there was a copse of trees and a pile of boulders. I slipped between the trees and hunkered behind the rocks, waiting for the Scraggen’s daughter. My nerves were heightened nearly to a fever pitch by the time I heard rustling outside my hiding place and a hesitant voice whispering,
“Peddler! Peddler!”
Hastily, I crawled out of the boulders and emerged from the trees, clutching my pack in both hands.
“Here I am,” I said. Adding dryly, “I have a name. I told you. It is Lorna.”
“I care not for your name,” she replied. “I merely wish to have the fairy’s jewel. If my mother catches us, she will have both our heads.”
Considering the Scraggen’s fearsome reputation, I did not doubt her. What a frightening notion to so fear your own mother! Bidding myself stay quiet, I followed as she darted around the other jumble of stones. Once more, she glanced over both shoulders, then darted in between two rocks. It happened so quickly; I wondered if I’d gone mad.
“Peddler!” she insisted, and a pale hand jutted out from the dark cleft, beckoning fiercely. “Come along!”
“Coming,” I said, and hastened after her. Dropping to my hands and knees, I poked my head into the space where she’d vanished, and found a narrow tunnel. We crawled for a time until we could walk hunched over, then we finally stood. At this point in the passageway, the Scraggen’s daughter stopped. I heard rustling around and braced myself, lest she should retrieve a weapon and attack me. No, the next sound I heard of was a light being struck, then she said, “This will help. Hurry.”
She held a lantern, and it did, indeed, help as we hastened along the tunnel which finally ended at a heavy iron door.
How do we bypass this, I wondered. Has she a key?
As it happened, she did not have a key. Rather, she stopped in front of the door, circled her free hand in an odd fashion, and mumbled strange words in a language I’d never heard. With a quiet creak, the door swung inward. The Scraggen’s daughter glanced back at me, her face half-hidden in shadow and half-illumined by the lantern, giving her a sinister appearance.
“Come, Peddler,” she beckoned.
I followed, even as I gathered the courage to ask, “How did you open the door? Magic?”
“My mother’s spells,” she responded shortly. “She has taught me some. My mother and I alone can bypass this door.”
Ah. As I trailed the young woman down quiet, hidden corridors in her mother’s castle, hoping that she was not leading me into a trap, I considered what it would be like to live your life with a mighty witch-woman as your mother. Was this girl happy? Unhappy? Did she resent her mother’s power or celebrate it? What type of life did she lead? Did she wish to wed my dragon prince, or had she an aversion to it as great as Kidron’s to marrying her?
I dared not inquire, fearing to anger her. Anyway, we were at a wooden door in short order. A door that was bolted and barred…from the outside.
My heart sank.
Oh Kidron, I thought. To be treated so because of your father’s greed…
Even as the Scraggen’s daughter produced a key with which she opened the lock, I considered her once more, thinking ,
What of her? To be forced to marry a man because of your mother’s quest for power. Is she any happier than he?
“Go inside,” she motioned. “Quickly. Here, take this.” She passed me the lantern. “I shall have to lock you in so my mother and the servants suspect nothing. I’ll return at dawn to let you out. I’ll take my gift then.”
“Agreed,” I said and slipped past her into the dark, quiet room. The door closed behind me and I heard the rasp of metal as the bolt slid into place.
At last! I’d journeyed from the underbelly, the very heart of Aerisia, to the mystical location that lay east of the sun and west of the moon. I’d found my dragon prince. Time to figure out how to break his curse and escape Moonswept.