Chapter 2
Two
We arrived at the docks of Sorelois on a hot, sticky morning. The journey did not take long. With Viviana at the helm, our sails fluttered and puffed, the winds seeming to conform to her whims.
We disembarked at a bustling harbor. Never had I seen so many people, a mix of men and women, and, for the first time, other boys my age. Viviana grabbed my hand, palm like ice.
“Sorelois can be overwhelming,” she said. “Stay close to me.”
I thought back to the night in the hazel grove, how Viviana had resisted the idea of me accompanying her.
I knew I shouldn’t have eavesdropped and was smart enough to keep my mouth shut, but in the intervening days I’d begun to wonder what she was afraid of.
Why was she so determined to keep me from the rest of the world?
Despite any misgivings, I took in the sights of Sorelois with confused delight.
This was a real town, practically a city, with roads, buildings, shops, a square.
I had only read of such wonders, and they felt both awe-inducing and alienating.
No one else batted an eye at the wagons and carts, the nets heavy with silver fish, the cacophony of chirping from vendors’ birdcages.
As I walked among men and women, some dressed in fine clothing, I felt woefully inadequate.
But at the same time I was captivated. How was it, I wondered, that all these people had converged on this one island? On this one dock? On the same day that we too should get to visit? Suddenly the great expanse of the world unfurled before me. Its promise glimmered like magic.
I ran from stall to stall while Viviana watched me nervously. I knew she had business to attend to, potions and poultices to trade. But as she pulled me away from a cart of elderberries, I learned there were more surprises in store for me.
“Come, my prince. It’s time for the tournament.”
On our way to the arena, the crowds seemed to part for us. Women shot Viviana strange looks. Small children hid in the folds of their mothers’ gowns.
Viviana commanded attention. She drifted down the road in her cascading blue dress, flowers adorning her shimmering hair, eyes heavy with an ancient knowledge most could never access.
Soon I would learn the rumors. Viviana was a witch, apprentice of Merlin.
Viviana possessed dark magic, and Merlin was her lover.
The Isle of Women was enchanted. If you walked upon it, you’d live forever.
The island was cursed. Step foot on its shores and your limbs would melt off.
The island was a fairy realm, home to a hidden lake at its center.
Of these rumors only the last one was true.
“Pay those children no mind,” she said, squeezing my hand. “You’re a son of the Distant Isles, too.”
I tried to lift my chin the way she did.
We watched as knights squared off on opposite sides of a tilt.
The crowd was rowdy and ale-soaked. Viviana cringed at their foul language, but I was too focused on the field to care.
The sight of the warriors—glinting chain mail, blunted lances, royal insignia—left me awestruck.
Even the violent clashes seemed laced with a camaraderie I yearned for.
This was the future I had always craved.
One knight in particular prevailed again and again.
“Who is he?” A little boy grabbed at his father’s arm.
“She,” Viviana corrected the boy. “And her name is Bagotta.”
The winning knight removed her helmet to reveal a strong pale face and slick, white-blonde hair.
“She’s the greatest knight of the Distant Isles.”
Then I saw him. He stood on the side of the arena, Bagotta’s son and squire.
He had red hair and freckled skin and was dressed in fine samite.
I watched as he wrapped Bagotta’s shield in a protective cloth.
With a delicate touch, he removed her horse’s leather barding.
He was swift, attentive, methodical. When he was done with his tasks, he picked up her lance, appreciating its heft.
I knew what he was doing because I was doing it, too. He was imagining himself onto that trampled field, astride that horse. A secret part of him felt that he too could be great.
I remember the next few hours in wisps. A narrow, dank apothecary. Rolls of blue silk like water through my hands. A spice merchant offered me a lick of cinnamon, the taste tickling my nose. With each new sight, my world expanded. It left me craving more.
On the walk back to our boat, Viviana purchased me a slice of plum cake. It was soft and chewy, not too sweet. Bits of fruit clung to my molars.
“Look,” Viviana exclaimed. “There’s Bagotta now.”
Out of her armor, she was strikingly beautiful, the tallest woman I had ever seen, taller than nearly all the men on the docks. Her face was cold, inscrutable, but the slight curve of her mouth hinted at something softer, a wry humor perhaps, a sense that we were all jesters in her court.
My eyes moved to the redheaded boy beside her. He carried Bagotta’s heavy armor over his shoulder. Beads of sweat dappled his brow.
“Bagotta!” Viviana called to her. The giantess—and that is what she was—approached.
“I’m a sweaty mess,” she apologized as they hugged. “My first tournament in a long while.”
“You were spectacular,” Viviana said.
She grabbed Viviana’s hand as if to thank her, then she said, “I know.”
They broke into laughter, and Bagotta introduced the redheaded boy. As he bowed to Viviana, his eyes caught mine. I guessed us to be around the same age, though what exact age we both were, I didn’t know for certain.
I was introduced quickly, and Bagotta and Viviana launched into a high-spirited conversation. By then the redheaded boy had my full attention. He was living the life I wanted. He had everything.
“What are you eating?” he asked me, sliding the armor off his shoulder.
I was so captivated by his eyes that I’d forgotten about my treat.
“Plum cake,” I told him, my mouth gone dry. I had never spoken to a boy my own age before.
He noticed the hunk in my fingers. “Can I try?”
I didn’t want to part with my last bite. But I wanted to please him.
“Have the rest,” I said.
The gesture surprised him. Gingerly, he plucked the treat from my fingers, consuming it in one voracious chomp.
“She’s your mother?” He nodded to Viviana.
“Yes.”
He absorbed this detail, piercing me with his brown eyes again. Surely he was noting my strangeness, my difference.
“Funny,” he said, craning his neck up at Bagotta. “I don’t resemble my mother much either.”
His big smile took me aback. So did the fact that we had something in common.
I wanted to know where he was from, what his life was like and how boys like him moved through the world.
But I was, of course, too embarrassed to ask.
I felt both an aching need to be next to him and an overwhelming desire to retreat from his gaze.
Without realizing, we had drifted away from the docks. We stood now at the foot of the road, amid an influx of passing merchants.
“My name is Galehaut,” he said. “What is yours?”
I froze. How to tell him I didn’t have one?
But before I could fumble through an answer, I felt a coarse hand wrap around my neck. An arm encircled my chest and lifted me off the ground. My body was being dragged away, my heels kicking up dirt along the road.
I didn’t even have time to register that I was in danger. I was too shocked to call out or react in any way.
I was being abducted.
Viviana looked back, eyes wide as coins, her gaze darting first to Galehaut, then to me, then back to Galehaut, as if to blame him. I was choking, growing lightheaded. Someone was dragging me towards the woods. My vision was fading. I could still taste the plum cake.
Viviana raised her arms in the direction of my captor and me.
A cold blue blast knocked us over, along with everyone else in its radius.
Stunned, face in the dirt, I looked up and got a glimpse of the man who wished me harm.
As he scrambled away, his long, unkempt hair obscured his features, but there was no missing his belt of daggers.
One of those blades had been meant for my neck.
I ran back to the docks. Viviana pulled me close and clutched her temple. Her powers, seldom used, were overextended.
“Stay away from him!” she screamed in the general direction the man had run. I could feel her heart pounding as she hugged me.
In my memory it was always this. The redheaded boy, the grip on my throat, the plum cake. It would be years before I learned about the prophecy that led men to wish me death. Years before I saw Galehaut again.
After that day in Sorelois, Viviana would not let me leave the Isle of Women for a very long time.