Chapter 26 Trains and Mountains.
Chapter twenty-six
Trains and Mountains.
Percy Flores
Once on the train, we managed to sleep most of the journey. The train wasn’t like the train to House Ardens; it was quiet, with few others travelling. A woman passed by us and dropped a couple of ham sandwiches in front of us.
“We don’t have any money,” I said.
“I gathered,” she answered — and it was a little rude — “but no one else wants them, and they need to be eaten today,” she explained.
“Oh, thanks,” I said happily, and began unwrapping one.
Ana looked out the window, her eyebrows scrunched up in what looked like a complex thought.
“Is everyone like that around here?” she asked.
“I don’t think she meant to judge us or come across like that. I think she’d just rather it didn’t go to waste,” I said.
“No, that’s not it, I meant, did you grow up with everyone being so generous?” she asked.
I laughed and paused as I went to take a bite of the sandwich.
“The Maria tax man certainly isn’t generous,” I said.
She smiled.
“You know what I’m asking?” she said, her voice rising in a question at the end.
I shrugged.
“I didn’t realise that everywhere wasn’t like home.
In the village, we take care of each other and pool our resources.
Father explained to me that it works because there aren’t too many people, so everyone gets a say, and we agree to get along.
I don’t think that type of sharing is possible when you get too big a community, then someone has to start deciding on behalf of everyone.
People are selfish, especially if no one is looking.
Some people, or a lot of people, get left behind and forgotten about.
I think it takes work to make sure that happens as little as possible.
I never really thought of people from House Maria as generous or friendly, but I hadn’t ever known anyone from the other Houses before.
I think House Maria has less people left behind and forgotten.
Maybe that’s what makes them seem generous. ”
Ana nodded and continued looking out the window.
“Maybe I could come back one day. Not forever. I think I’d miss my coven but for a while, to see what it’s like living somewhere different,” she said.
I smiled and pushed her sandwich across the table between us towards her.
It was very early the next morning when we reached Thyella to swap trains.
Ana pulled me aside before we reached the platform for the train to Borealis.
“I’m going to change my ticket to House Syngeneia or as close as I can get,” she said.
“You’re leaving?” I asked.
I had only just begun to feel like we were real friends again, and honestly, I was nervous being on a train and travelling by myself. I’d never done it before.
“I have to. I need to get home to see my family and warn my coven. You can make your way to Borealis, it’s not difficult,” she reassured.
“Just… wait —” she reached out and took the wool hat from my head.
“Let me fix this,” she said as she then gathered my hair, wrapping it into a bun and pulling the hat back on over my hair.
“There, that hides your hair,” she smiled.
“You don’t want to be recognised the closer you get to Borealis. ”
“No, you’re right,” I agreed.
“Good. Keep your head down. Your eyes are too distinct, and if anyone is into Royal gossip and tabloids, they’ll know about your eyes,” she said.
“Great, now I’m scared to look at anyone,” I said.
“Just close your eyes and sleep until you stop in Borealis. It’s so big, no one will pay you much attention once you’re there. The Castle is well signposted, you can guide us by the setting and rising sun; you can read a street sign,” she told me.
“I’m nervous,” I admitted.
“I know. I’m sorry I’m leaving you now, but if I go back with you, then I’ll get dragged into all of this.
For however long it lasts, and I might not get another chance to see my family, the people I love,” she said, and I remembered what she had said to me just the night before last, that if she had the opportunity to see her family again, she would take it.
“You should go home, you’re right, if not now, then when?” I said.
She rushed forward and hugged me tight, and it felt like a hug from my best friend again, her carefree self, her true self.
“Get back to your grumpy vampire safely and don’t get killed and die on me, okay? I want my best friend when this is all done. And I’m sorry… for everything. I got lost in my anger and forgot what was important to me,” she said.
“I won’t die on you, but you have to promise to stay safe too,” I said.
“It’s a promise,” she agreed.
I felt anxious and paranoid the whole train journey to Borealis. The train was far busier, with many stops, and at least a dozen strangers sat down next to me. None tried to start a conversation, thankfully, and I was too nervous to attempt to do so out of politeness.
The train journey to Borealis was long, and there was no free food offered this time.
When we stopped at the King’s City station, my head ached from lack of sleep, my stomach twisted with hunger, and I had to stop myself from nervously checking that none of my hair was showing, about every half minute.
When I had stayed at the Borealis Castle with Selene, we had never travelled to King’s City. I had never been somewhere with so many people, cars, and smoke. The air felt heavy, like it was mixed with too many fumes and recycled air from all the people.
Ana had been right: there were signs everywhere, and a stand with free maps of the city for people visiting. I grabbed one as I passed and opened it. A cartoon image of a castle sat on the Dark Mountains marked Borealis Castle, and a little set of footprints next to a train showed where I was.
I used the map to make my way through the city, the images of landmarks guiding me. I noticed that there was a bus to the Borealis Castle, but I had no money for bus fare, so I resolved to walk.
The streets began to thin out as I neared the edges of the Dark Mountains.
I walked along a path next to a wide road, and as I climbed uphill, I saw in the distance the official entrance to the Borealis Castle.
It was not the same entrance that Selene used; there was no tunnel through the mountain, just tall walls and guards and a gate that looked impenetrable.
I saw people lined up; I assumed they were either returning servants who lived or worked within the castle grounds or maybe even nobles from the other Houses for the Royal Conference that began soon.
I stopped, realising that I could not enter the castle grounds without identifying myself, and Arvid’s warning echoed in my head.
I couldn’t remember his exact words, but it was a warning not to trust everyone within Borealis and given everything that I knew, that House Halvorsen and Viridis had been secretly working together for years, supporting The New Foundation, planning a rebellion, attempting to manipulate the crown, who else was untrustworthy, waiting for their moment to attack?
I decided that I couldn’t just walk in through the main entrance; it was too dangerous.
The only other way to reach the castle grounds would be the way that Selene had snuck us in and out when we went to the waterfall that was hidden in the Dark Mountains.
I looked up at the mountain; the castle was so high up, and the mountain was covered in dense forest, with enough evergreens that it still looked dark and menacing.
It was my only option.
The light of the day would be dimming soon, and even if I made good time, it would be night by the time I reached the castle.
I began my hike up and through the forest of the Dark Mountain.
For hours, I struggled uphill, navigating streams, slippery slopes, and roots that took me to the ground so many times that I was embarrassingly covered in wet mud at various stages of drying.
I imagined that I might look like a pig after it’s had a good roll in a mud puddle on a hot day.
Only it was the beginning of winter, the temperature was falling below freezing, and I was wet and covered in mud, in the dark on the side of a mountain.
What was I even doing? I should have just gone through the front entrance.
I spent the next hour or more regretting my decision until I heard it — our waterfall.
I was close. I followed the sound, falling again and catching myself and grunting in pain, as my already sprained wrist sang at yet another hard impact.
I dragged myself up and kept pushing forward towards the sound of heavy running water.
When I stepped out of the tree edge and saw the waterfall lit silver in the moonlight, I was so happy I cried.
I was close to the Castle. So close. Selene had brought me to the waterfall several times, and I was, in that moment, so tired and cold and trembling that I felt like I could remember every step out of the forest.
I moved forward with renewed energy until I reached the edge of the wall that surrounded the castle.
In the black of the night, I made my way along the edge of the wall, back and forth multiple times, trying to feel out with my fingertips the door that I knew to be there.
I had to stop myself from cheering when I finally found it.
It wouldn’t do me any good to have made it all the way to the edge of the Castle, just to be found in that moment.