Chapter Ten

 

 

Tiddle de dee and tiddle de dum

Seems the little ruby has got a prob-lem.

Should he go or should he stay

Might me mirror point ye the way?

The troll danced while he sang and it only weighed on Pari’s already frayed nerves. He couldn’t take another round of it.

“Stop!”

The troll huffed but he obeyed. He gazed at Pari through lowered lashes. “Your Worthiness doesn’t like my song?”

“No. I do not. What have you come to tell me? I will suffer no more delays.” And it was truth. Pari needed to leave the castle before he was discovered. Not that he cared he would live or die at the hands of the enemy. If the Prince were dead, he would seek death as well, taking as many of the queen’s men with him as he could. But if Maxsim were still alive, he needed to live long enough to attempt a rescue.

“I only bear a gift, Your Greatness.”

“Stop with the titles. I am none of those things. What gift are you offering?”

“Only this, my Lord.” He brought from behind his back a small mirror and in it was the prince lying on a floor.”

Pari gasped and took a step toward the troll. “What… what is this?”

“Magic, my Lord.” He gazed into the mirror and pointed to the prince. “Prince Maxsim, if you didn’t know. The back of the head you see here?” He pointed to a head Pari had missed at first. “That is the queen.”

“Where are they?” he breathed, taking another step and holding his hand out toward the mirror. But the troll pulled it out of reach.

“Ah-ah-ah, patience. They are in a carriage on the way south. The very one she rode into battle. Oh, she’s a cruel queen, that one. She figures to keep your prince alive only to torture him.” He held the mirror out for Pari to see again. “I installed a mirror in her carriage, per her request, just so she could gaze upon herself whenever she wanted. She is unaware of its other function.”

“Which is?”

The troll glanced at Pari but didn’t answer him. “She knows nothing of our meeting.”

Pari glared at the troll. “I will ask this only one more time. What—do—you—want?”

“I can give you the queen.”

“I don’t want her.”

“All right. I can give you your lover.”

Pari’s heart stuttered. “What do you mean?”

The troll gazed back at his mirror. “I can give you this mirror and you can go to your lover right now and rescue him.”

“How?”

“Simple. Like the shield you traveled back in time with, you simply walk through.”

Pari sucked in a breath. “You!”

“Me!” the troll repeated, grinning with his sharp teeth.

“You’re the one… who created the shield?”

“Clever boy. That I am.”

“But… why?”

“A commission. For a weak wizard.”

“Udalf!”

“Yes. I recall that is his name.”

Is? As if the wizard were in the here and now? “He wanted to fix our time. Yes. That makes sense, but...”

“Does it now? Well, good then. Now about our deal…”

“Wait. You mean that wasn’t what Udalf wanted?”

“Who’s to say what a man wants?”

“Stop speaking in riddles!”

“What do you want to know, little one? That your Udalf is the pinnacle of truth and righteousness?” The troll spat on the tiles. “He is a man! A man of magic, yes, but still a human with ridiculous desires that twist his very soul. Udalf wants supreme power, pet. And the only way he believes he can get it is to hold the actual heart of a pearl dragon in his hand.” He leaned toward Pari. “Freshly carved from his chest.”

Pari gasped “What?”

“Oh yes. He knows of a certain prophesy and believes he’s interpreted it correctly. He intends to kill the Pearl king or queen in the future so that he can take out their heart. Even you must know that in order to hold a dragon heart in your hand, the dragon would have to be dead, would it not?”

“But there are no Pearl Dragons in my time.”

“Exactly. So, he employed me to render a doorway to the past.”

Pari glanced back at the shield. “The shield.” His attention came back to the troll. “But why a shield?”

The troll giggled. “I shouldn’t tell you, but I am quite proud of my genius. In order to create a doorway through time, something I have never attempted before, one needs a shiny object on the other side to pass through. My magic mirrors show me many things and many times and in this, the time period of the magnificent Pearl Prince, they showed me a shield leaning against a tree. It was perfect. So, I duplicated it in our time and linked them with my magic. And voila. Doorway to the past.” He giggled again, clapping his hands together and dancing. “I am brilliant!”

“Then you used it?”

He stopped and glared at Pari. “The doorway? Of course. But not that one. There is another… shield. Another doorway. Since I sold the first one to a pathetic wizard, I figured to create another for myself.”

“There are two shield doorways?”

The troll grinned. “Yes. But I will not tell you where it is. Only I know.”

“I don’t care. Keep your secret doorway. I want to know if my coming back in time was to stop the Pearl Prince from getting killed just so that bastard wizard can kill one in the future?”

“Again, such a witty child.”

“If that’s it, then why didn’t he come back here? Why send me?”

“First of all, a wizard is immortal. That means they are forever. He already exists in this time so he cannot come back into it. Two things cannot exist in the same space at the same time.”

“Why?”

The troll seemed to think about it for a moment and then shrugged. “I have no idea. But it’s a fact. If he steps foot in a time where he already is, it would obliterate him. So whenever and wherever he is—he’s fixed in time. Otherwise, he’d break into a trillion pieces.”

“You told him that.”

“A wizard is already aware of these things.”

It was all so fucking crazy it was making Pari dizzy for just a moment. “And second?”

“Pardon?”

“You said ‘first of all’. Is there a second reason he sent me?”

“Oh yes, the prophesy. Listen closely.

 

Darkness will end with passion’s red fire

and bring from the past true magic’s desire.

A Pearl heart in hand will be the great sign

Upon a once and future time.”

 

Pari glared at the little man for a moment. Then shook his head. “That makes no sense whatsoever. I don’t understand it, so how could he interpret that to mean he gains ultimate power by carving out the heart of a pearl dragon?”

The troll shrugged. “Dangerous things, these prophesies and those who dare to interpret. One man ponders while another pounces.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“I’ll tell you what it means—nothing! Wizards are arrogant and crazy. He heard the prophesy and that’s what he decided—it doesn’t have to make sense to you or me. It’s what he believes. Now. Back to your lover being squashed under the Obsidian Queen’s foot. Will you save him or not?”

“The mirror is too small to walk into.”

The troll set the mirror on the floor, whispered a word, and it grew to six feet tall and four feet wide. “I believe you could fit through this.”

Pari gazed into the mirror again. Maxsim was still out cold, lying at the queen’s feet. He appeared pale. He stepped closer, his nose nearly touching the surface. Was he breathing? Yes. He could see the rise and fall of his chest.

But then the queen turned and gazed into the mirror. Pari gasped and scrambled back and away from her as she seemed to glare right into his soul.

The troll burst out laughing although Pari noticed he had jumped when she turned as well. He could tell now though that she wasn’t really seeing him. She was primping, fussing with her perfection. Admiring herself in the mirror. Finally, she smiled at herself and turned back to the prince. She gave him a kick, hard enough to move him, and Pari moaned even as his heart beat wildly. He just had to rescue him.

“So, I simply walk through?” He stepped close again. “My dragon won’t fit so I would have to shift once I got there…” Pari began to remove his clothes.

“Yes, my Lord, simply step through… for a price.”

Pari jerked his head up and stared at the troll. “A price?”

“Of course. Everything has a price.”

“What—exactly?”

“Your entire hoard.”

Damn. Too bad. He thought briefly of the cave in the hidden tunnels, but chances were great that was the “hoard” the Wyverns stole. “I don’t have one.”

“Hmmm. Pity. Well, there is something else I would consider.”

“And that is…”

“A piece of your Ruby heart.”

“What?”

“It would be nothing to you. I promise. Just a tiny bit of your Ruby goodness. Any troll worth his warts lusts after a bit of the Ruby heart. You wouldn’t even know it’s gone.”

“And what would it buy me?”

“The mirror would be yours. You could step through it, kill the queen, rescue your prince and live happily ever after.”

“A small piece? I won’t notice?”

The troll smiled and Pari shivered. “Yeeeessss.” His tongue came out and he licked his lips, making them shiny and wet. Pari’s stomach turned.

“How? How do you take it?”

There was noise from outside the door. The troll glanced back and then once again at Pari. “Hurry or you will lose this opportunity. I need only your permission. I promise to take only a bit.”

If that were the case, then he had to do it. He would shift, grab up his prince and take him far away from the black snow. When he woke, he would be the prince he knew and loved. Then together they would come up with a plan to save his people. Only when his prince was his normal self would he be able to do that.

He took a breath and the troll bent toward him. “I…”

Sapphires and trolls. They both lie, cheat and steal for fun. Maxsim’s voice resounded in his head.

Trolls lied. They cheated. And stole. It was their nature and their greatest asset. They offered up what a person most desired and then made promises they couldn’t keep. The Prince had said so. The troll could very well take his whole heart, all his goodness, and there would nothing left to save Maxsim.

Pari stepped back.

He would find another way.

“Thanks, but no thanks. I will not give permission.”

Another noise, this one louder, closer. The troll’s ugly wet lips frowned as a low growl erupted from them. “Then you will die—alone—just as your prince will!”

He approached Pari so fast he didn’t have time to react. The troll picked him up with seemingly no effort at all and flung him across the room. Pari only had time enough to know two things. Landing was going to hurt like hell, and he was going to hit the shield.

He smashed into the surface and it collapsed, breaking in several pieces, but not before Pari was sucked through to the other side.

 

****

Pari sat on the ground, dazed, outside the ruins of Saint Claire castle in front of the tree that the shield had been lying against that long ago yesterday when he had first seen it. At least it was a long ago yesterday… over there.

Great gods. The shield! It was in pieces. He scrambled to his feet and fell to his knees in front of the fragments. “No!” he breathed. None of them were big enough for him to get through. Maybe this one? No. This one? It would never work. How would he get back? “No! You fucking troll!” he cried. Grabbing up several more, he tried to fit them together. Nothing was working. Suddenly the troll’s face was front and center in one of the pieces. Pari dropped them all and screamed.

“Fucking troll, eh?” The troll taunted in his sing-song fashion, one enormous eye peering out at him, taking up the whole piece. “Fucking troll?” He laughed and begun to sing.

 

“Fiddle de dee and fiddle de dum

Now our little Ruby has a bigger prob-lem

stuck in the future on the wrong side.

Out of luck and out of time.”

 

“Enough! Let me come back! Put this shield back together.”

“Gladly.” The big eye blinked. “The price is still the same.”

“You mean my heart?”

“Just a piece. A tiny, minute little amount.”

“Never!”

“So be it.”

The pieces went dark.

“No! No, come back! Wait!”

The same piece lit up, the troll’s face skewed in it, as if he were trying to make the whole of it fit, this time his nose was massive. “My name’s Grimach, just so you know. When you change your mind, because you will, all you need do is call it.” The piece went dark.

No. That couldn’t be the only way. What did he do now? He started piecing the shield together. Broken. It was not only shattered, but now it wasn’t even shiny. No reflection at all. Pari rubbed a piece with the edge of his shirt but the dull surface remained.

He should call the name. What was a piece of his heart compared to the Pearl Prince’s life? Nothing! Even two pieces of it, because guaranteed the troll would ask for another in order for Pari to be able to go to Maxsim directly. Even if the fucker took more just because that’s what trolls did according to the prince, so what? He would just need a little to get to his lover and free him from the evil hands of the queen. Even if the bargain killed him in the end, the prince would live and his people would rejoice and…

“What are you doing here?”

Pari scrambled to his feet and jerked around. “Udalf!”

“Nothing has changed yet here you are? Clearly you’ve done nothing!”

“How did you know I was here?”

“Never mind that. What are you doing back? You were there a few days! What did you hope to accomplish in only a few days?”

“Days? But that’s not true. I was there…” Great gods. He had been there months. Time was different from here to there, just as he feared. He had to get back. Now! He had no choice. He needed to call the troll.

“Look what you did to the shield!” The wizard wobbled up to the mess on the ground. “It’s shattered! How do you get back to the Pearl Prince without it?”

Screeching and wings flapping filled the air above them. Pari snapped his head up to the sky.

“Wyverns?” he shouted above the noise.

“Yes! I told you! Things have not changed!”

But they had. Wyverns just didn’t attack anymore. Not in the original time Pari had left, anyway. Pari grabbed up the sword he had dropped when he tumbled out of the shield and the two of them raced for the hole that led to the back of the throne room. They fell inside just as two of the Wyverns dived at them, barely missing Pari’s feet still dangling at the opening.

“Fuck! That was close,” Pari breathed. He put his head in his hands. “Now what?” He said it more to himself than to the wizard. He couldn’t trust him any more than he could the troll. But the troll was simply resourceful while the wizard was the enemy.”

“I have a suggestion.”

Pari turned to Udalf. “What?”

“I know… a troll. He… I think he can help. His name is Grimach.”

Pari’s thoughts tumbled over one another. He was going to tell him about Grimach now?

Interesting.

He would play along.

“How?”

“He is the one who created the shield, the doorway in the first place. I paid dearly for it. Perhaps… perhaps he will accommodate us with another.”

Pari stared at the wizard.

But then a Wyvern stuck its ugly muzzle in the hole in the wall, screeching and belching out green putrid fire. Pari leaped up and sliced at it with the prince’s sword. It bellowed its agony but retreated while both Udalf and Pari withdrew down that small hallway to the pillars behind the throne. Pari gazed out at the mess, remembering it in its glory. When he had first seen this room he had marveled that it must have been amazing and he was so very right. It truly had been.

“What is that sword?” But then Udalf gasped. “Could it be… the Prince’s sword?” He gapped at Pari as if he were a seeing a ghost.

But Pari ignored him. And even though he already knew how, he asked a confused Wizard anyway. “How do we get to the troll?”

The wizard shook his head as if to clear it. “Get to the troll? No. You don’t have to… you… you just call his name and…”

“His name?”

“Yes. Grimach. Call it. He’ll come.”

Another screech and one of the Wyverns had entered through the partially intact ceiling. Again, Pari sprang into action. He leaped forward even while the wizard crouched behind him and swung the pearl sword. He glanced one of the beast’s legs and it was enough. Wyverns had never been brave on their own and this was proof. The smelly creature took back to the skies.

But there were more on the roof.

“Fine. I’ll call his name. You and your magic keep the Wyverns busy.”

“Me?”

Pari turned on him. “You want a future without this?” He indicated the ceiling. “Then help me!”

“Yes. Yes, all right.” He hurried to the other opening on the other side of the room, the one Pari had first used, and gazed out. “I’ll freeze them,” he shouted. “Like I did with the knights.”

“Good idea,” Pari yelled back. Then Pari thought of something. Maybe he could save himself a piece of his heart if the wizard knew where the prince was. “Udalf!” he called. “Have the old stories changed?”

Udalf grimaced and huffed loudly. “No, you idiot. The stories are exactly the same! The last Pearl Dragon dies in the secret dungeons of the Obsidian Queen. If you don’t change it, we are all doomed!”

Secret dungeons? Pari once again just stared at the wizard knowing his mouth was wide open. The story obviously had changed. Drastically. Yet the wizard was unaware? “Um… could you… tell me the story again?”

“Are you daft, boy? We don’t have time for such things. They’re the same as when you sat on your mother’s lap. The queen hid the last Pearl Dragon in her secret dungeon under her throne where she kept her lovers. He died there. His bones were crushed and made into a…” The wizards face turned a bright red. “Well—you know! An… an item the queen kept by her bedside to pleasure herself with!”

Pleasure herself?

Great gods.

Grimach. He had to call the troll now!

The wizard stepped outside and out of sight.

Pari ran out into the room, to the throne of the Pearl Prince and ran a hand along it, remembering how majestic Maxsim was sitting in it. “I’m coming, my prince. Hang on.” He turned and was about to shout Grimach’s name when a glint caught his eye.

Oh. Of course. The mural. He remembered seeing it that first time. Marveling at it. Wondering if it was the Pearl Prince. He could now say for certain that it was. Nowhere near as magnificent as it was in the past with all that time had done to it. Still, it made his heart ache. His beautiful Maxsim in full armor, riding his fierce horse, carrying his amazing pearl sword and brandishing his shield.

Wait.

Oh, fuck.

His shield.

The troll said he made two of them.

Could it be?

Pari glanced back to where the wizard had disappeared. He was still gone but the woods had once again become deathly still. His magic had to have worked. He didn’t have much time. Pari ran to the mural and hopped up on the ledge underneath it and directly in front of the shield. Using the sword, he hacked away the vines covering most of it. Then he used the edge of his tunic to rub away the dirt. The more he rubbed the more the shield shined. Yes! That had to be enough. He peered in and it was reflecting the throne room entirely intact!

He stepped through and onto the ledge on the other side. He glanced back and sure enough, it mirrored the throne room he just left, Udalf stumbling into the opening again, calling out Pari’s name. Pari breathed relief as he hopped down. Udalf would have no idea at all what had happened. And he didn’t need to.