Cursed With You

But You Are My Age

Raffin waited until twelve chimes after the morning service to put his plan into action. He could not leave through his door because Ames had placed a guard there. Raffin's status had risen from the youngest prince with no special role in the kingdom to a person of equal importance to the king and crown prince, to where even his bedroom had to be guarded. Raffin had predicted this, so he would come out from the balcony.

Dressed in a black tunic over a jerkin, dark pants and shiny boots, and armed with a sword at his waist, he stepped out onto the balcony. Raffin made sure no palace patrols were passing by before he jumped over the railing and descended. He held on to the fire vines that grew on the outside wall of his room, their roots hanging down. He was relieved that the vines could support his weight until he landed on the ground. Raffin bent down and crept along the wall. He stopped when he heard footsteps and hid behind a clump of bushes. After the footsteps had faded, he crossed the courtyard, trying to stay away from the lantern poles lit up a part of the courtyard.

It was not long before Raffin arrived at the Worship House. They never locked and guarded the place, so Raffin could enter with ease. There was no one inside, but the lanterns along the walls remained lit. They did this on purpose, so that anyone could visit the place, even in the middle of the night. The door of the House of the King of Gods was always open to those seeking inner peace.

Raffin picked up a lantern from the wall. Then he walked toward the statue of the King of Gods. He slipped behind the statue, where there was a small wooden door. He had to bend down to enter it.

After closing the door behind him, Raffin found himself in a long, dark tunnel. In his entire life, Raffin had only been down there once. When he was a child, Ames and his other brothers took him there. The tunnel was a secret passageway that led outside the city walls to the north. There were no intersections along the tunnel, but its length to the end was about two miles.

Raffin emerged into a narrow cave, its entrance covered by a natural curtain of green brambles and hanging roots. He remembered that the cave's mouth faced west, while the cliffs where Magus Arozal imprisoned Queen Jacina were northwest of Stratham. Raffin turned around, hoping he was on the right track.

He had no trouble finding the main road. But Raffin felt uneasy after he crossed it and got back into the tree line. He had never been to this part of the forest before. The trees felt unfamiliar, and exploring them in the dark gave Raffin goosebumps. It seemed as if Raffin had been walking for hours, but he saw nothing but trees, and they grew denser and denser. He was almost desperate and convinced that he had lost when he found the cliff. He tried to remember Ames' story of a magic door that King Rufus' descendant could only open.

"They say it's part of the cliff wall," Ames used to say.

"Have you ever been there?" asked the curious little Raffin.

"No, I haven't. No one may go there. It's too dangerous. We passed the story down so none of us would go near it."

But how to open it? Raffin wondered. He walked sideways, tracing the cliff wall with his left hand. Until the wall disappeared in front of him, revealing an arched entrance and a wide tunnel that would fit five people in a row. Raffin extended his right hand, holding the lantern in front of him, while his left hand rested on the hilt of his sword, and stepped into the tunnel. The smell of earth and dampness hit him as soon as he entered. At the end of the tunnel, he found a barred entrance with a pitch-black cave room behind it.

"Hello?" he said. "Is anyone there?"

He heard something move, followed by faint footsteps. Raffin's heart raced. He swallowed. All the stories of Queen Jacina flashed through his mind. One that made him shudder, the dark wizard sacrificing her own parents to gain power. Those stories, and how long the queen had been imprisoned, made Raffin think he would deal with a scary-looking old woman.