The Sleeping Beauty's Prince

Chapter Thirteen

Honeyflower shuffled through the dark halls, whimpering nervously every time a shadow flitted across the walls. She stopped in front of a pair of enormous doors encrusted with shining gems.

"Go on," a wispy voice hissed, and she jumped a little. The normally healthy glow that surrounded her faded to almost nothing as she reached a trembling hand forward and pushed open one of the doors.

The cavernous room was dark, all except the blue light that radiated from the fairy that sat on a tall throne at the far end. Honeyflower swallowed a lump of fear that was rising in her throat and tried to smile. "Lumbia," she said, her voice weak. "It's so lovely to see that you are well. Have you been feeding on dreams, or something? Because you look like you're in a fantastic mood--"

"Cut the blabbering," Lumbia said sharply, her deep voice filling the entire room and creating a sour feeling in Honeyflower's stomach. The fairy rested her chin on one slender hand and fixed her piercing gaze on Honeyflower. "You know I wouldn't have made my shadows bring you here for idle chatter," she said slowly.

Honeyflower attempted a laugh, but it sounded more like a suppressed scream. "Well that's funny," she said. "That's j-just what I thought it was for. I do like talking to you, you know, because I look up to you so much. I mean, you're powerful and...uh...level-headed and--"

"A little bird told me there was a human in Etherea," Lumbia said, talking over the other fairy's words rather than bothering to tell her to be silent. Honeyflower trailed off and shrunk under her intense stare.

"A little bird?" Honeyflower squeaked. "You mean one of those shadow crows of yours?"

"It's an expression," Lumbia said disdainfully. "It doesn't matter how I know. What does matter is that I am aware of this human's presence here. And I know that you have seen him."

Honeyflower felt as if she were going to be sick. Her eyes flickered around nervously, but no matter where she looked she just couldn't seem to escape that icy gaze.

"What's wrong?" Lumbia said quietly. "A little tongue-tied?" Her brow darkened. "Start talking, Ira, or I'll send you to the Shadow Lands faster than you can blink."

"My name's not..." she started, but was hushed by a furious gleam that flashed in Lumbia's eyes. "I mean, I...I haven't seen any h-h-h-human..."

Lumbia raised her eyebrows incredulously. "Oh you haven't?" she said airily. "I could have sworn that little aforementioned bird saw you talking to the h-h-h-human."

"Well, okay," Honeyflower said quickly. "Of course I've talked to humans. They visit here in dreams all the time! I've had one or two pop into my grove for a moment..."

"Not in dreams, Ira," she drawled. "He was there, in the mind and in the flesh. Surely you couldn't have failed to notice?"

"I guess I didn't notice. I have no idea who you're talking about. I'm just a stupid fairy, you know, very unobservant."

Lumbia's lips curled into a smile, and she tapped them lightly with one finger. "Too bad," she cooed. "There's plenty of room in the Shadow Lands, and if I can't fill it with an intrusive human, a stupid, unobservant fairy will have to do."

Honeyflower's eyes widened at the second mention of the place. "Please don't!" she cried, finally breaking.

Lumbia lowered her finger, still smiling. "That's better. Now dear, tell me all about your little conversation. Why is he here? Where does he plan to go next?"

Honeyflower's eyes welled up with tears. She was betraying her new friend. "He's here on a quest for his sweetie...I mean, a girl he's in love with. He didn't say much. He asked me how to get out of here, so I think that means he's just passing through. You know, here temporarily. No harm done, right?" Honeyflower looked up at Lumbia hopefully.

"Keep talking," the fairy commanded coldly.

"I told him that he needs to go off the edge. And he can do it, since he has a Gossamer Sphere and all. But I didn't know the way to the edge, so I told him how to find Eye. You know Eye. He can see almost everything, just like you, but of course I wouldn't send the human to you because...well..." she trailed off.

Lumbia only smiled.

"Anyway, now he's going there. I gave him directions; he's probably in the desert by now. That's all I know." She looked up at Lumbia timidly, waiting to see if she would do anything else.

"That's very good," Lumbia said quietly. "Thanks to you, my dear Ira, Etherea will soon be rid of this pest."

Honeyflower felt horrible. What had she done? "Is there maybe a chance that you, maybe...possibly...don't need to...harm him? He's just passing through, like I said, and so obviously Etherea's going to be rid of him soon anyway--"

"No, fool!" Lumbia growled. "No one who comes to my land uninvited escapes without punishment. The human is entirely unwelcome, and he will pay for it either with death or worse--the eternal torment of my shadows."

Honeyflower tried to swallow, but her throat was too dry.

"I have a thousand ideas of how to end him," Lumbia continued. "I just can't choose." She cast a sideways glance at Honeyflower and shook her hand in the air as if brushing her away. "You may go now. Go back and sing with your flowers, or whatever it is you do with your pathetic life."

Honeyflower nodded and retreated quickly, trying to ignore the gaze that she could sense boring into her even with her back turned. She would not feel safe until she was far from Lumbia's castle and the dark lands that held it.

Lumbia remained in her throne, taking the opportunity with the annoying fairy gone to think deeply. "The human is on a quest for a maiden?" she mused. Her glow grew brighter as she processed the thought carefully. "Perhaps to free her from a sleeping curse." Lumbia recalled the other strange occurrence that had recently arisen--a human girl, traveling Etherea in her dreams, though much more consistently than most humans did. And her frequent appearance allowed her to have more power over the land than what was usual.

"That girl was with the other human, helping him attack my poor pet, abusing her power," Lumbia thought. It had taken Black Wolf only moments to heal, but the offense that Lumbia took cut deeper than any wound.

She was the same girl, Lumbia concluded, that the human man was on a quest for. She was under a sleeping spell, since that was the only way she could be so often present in the dream world.

There was only one fairy that Lumbia knew who held magic in the realm of sleep: herself.

"A human here without permission and a pesky girl wandering around because of a spell cast by my disgusting reflection?" Lumbia thought. She could have been annoyed, but instead she was thrilled.

How delicious it would be to destroy them both.