Midnight Wonders

4.2.1. Infants in Their Cradles

Luc and Kay approached a palace. It was difficult to tell from appearances, and Luc would have not thought it was so if Kay had not told him. There were two very large trees that bowed towards each other and tangled above a wooden door between them that did not seem to have any hinges or handles.

"This is it?" said Luc, heart pounding. He tilted his head back to look up, but the trees seemed to stretch on endlessly, the canopy of leaves obscuring the ceiling of the hill.

"Yes," said Kay. "We're here."

Here. This was where Cora was. Luc was here...and he had no idea what to do next. He couldn't just rush inside, call out for her. It was a labyrinth, he knew, and even from outside he could see how vast it was. He glanced at Kay, who, after all, and at least, knew what he was doing.

Kay had gotten off his horse. After continuing from the stream, they'd stopped a few more times, at Kay's insistence. Luc had not realized how utterly terrifying it must have been to see him fall unconscious until Kay's vehement adamance that they stop, rest, drink water, eat, and walk around a bit to wake up their legs enough times that Luc felt they could not go an hour without stopping. It had, though, given him plenty of opportunities to practice getting on and off a horse, and now he could slip off without help and without too much hesitation.

"There should be someone here to greet us," Kay said, walking up to the door. He hesitated, then knocked. The sound was louder than Luc had expected, and the trees seemed to shiver.

A voice came from the other side: "Step back."

Kay did so, and the door swung outwards to reveal a great hall teeming with people. It looked like the school cafeteria at the peak of lunch hours. Standing at the door was a very tall man with a delicately sculpted mustache the color of chrysanthemums. His outfit was as strange as anyone's in Under-The-Green-Hill, made of several layers and complimenting colors that crisscrossed in complicated patterns across his body, but for some reason Luc recognized it as a uniform, or at least signifying a position of authority.

"Ah, Kay," said the man. "You're back." He glanced at Luc, and his mustache twitched. "With..."

"Yes," said Kay. He seemed to be doing his best to ignore the way Luc was staring at him.

The man looked back at Kay. "Thank you. I'll be sure to let the king know of your service. I'll have someone take your horses, too. You're dismissed."

Kay finally looked at Luc. His expression was blank, but there was something almost somber about it. Without saying anything, he turned to leave.

"Wait!" Luc said, grabbing his hand. "Where are you going? What about Cora?"

Kay glanced back at him. He seemed to be thinking of what to say. "I'm at the end of the hall. The second-to-last room on the left." He carefully extracted his hand from Luc's grip and walked away. Luc stared after him. His hand felt empty.

"This way, please," said the man with the mustache. Luc turned to stare at him, now. The man made this way gestures. Luc didn't know what else to do, so he followed.

The halls were wide and winding, and it certainly looked like a labyrinth, with all the branching pathways. Luc had no idea how to get back to the main hall, so Kay telling him where he was staying wouldn't be any help. And why did Kay have a room here?

The tall man stopped in another hall, this one lined with doors. "Do you have a key?" he asked Luc, gesturing to one of the doors.

"Why would I have a key?" Luc thought he might have been mistaken for someone he was not.

"Ah, right," said the man. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a key. He unlocked the door and opened it for Luc. Luc stared at the open door. The man stared back at him, clearly expectant.

"Um, thank you," said Luc, stepping into the room. He only realized how unwise that was when the man began to swing the door shut.

"We will have another key made," the man said. "The king will see you soon."

"Wait, why?" said Luc.

The man gave him a curious look. "Why not?" He shut the door.

Luc stood there dumbly for a moment until he realized that he might have been locked in the room. Hurriedly, he tried the knob and was pleasantly surprised to see that the door opened. The man turned back in the hall to see him peering out of the room. "Is there anything you need?"

"Oh," Luc said, feeling exponentially more foolish. "No. I'm...thank you." He shut the door before any further embarrassments could occur.

He stared at his room. It looked like his bedroom at home, yet somehow emptier and more lived-in at once. The bed was pressed up by the window, a table beside it. It did not have the same lamp as Luc's bedside table, but of course it didn't. There was no need. There was a wardrobe across the room, and this was unfamiliar, much too ornate than anything he'd ever purchase. There was a vanity beside it. A comb sat on the dresser. He wondered how long it had been there. It looked like it had been forever. But there was no dust on any surface.

And he wondered what in the world he was doing there, staring at his room, when he should have been out looking for Cora.

Luc pushed open the door and stepped out, then hesitated. A labyrinth, he had been told. It seemed unwise to just wander about. But what else was he to do? Kay had said he knew someone familiar with the ways, but now Luc had no idea how to find Cora or Kay. He looked down the hall. Could he remember the way the mustached man had taken him? Could he find his way back to the main hall and (hopefully) find Kay again?

He didn't have anything better to do. Well, he could wait in the room until something happened. Until the man came back. Until he saw the king? Until Kay came to get him. Perhaps that was just wishful thinking.

Luc started off down the hall. It only took him a few turns through the paths before he realized he had no idea where he was going. From the first turn, there had already been the nagging feeling that he might not be going the right way, and it intensified with every new turn until he stopped where he was now, in the middle of the hall, utterly lost.

There was no one around him. He could have been anywhere. He had no chance of finding Kay, let alone Cora.

Then he heard footsteps. They were faint, distant, but they were there. He hurried towards them, not quite knowing what he might find, but anything seemed better than nothing.

He reached the end of the hall and collided with someone coming in from another way.