Journey to Psitharis

Chapter 34

Thirty-four

If I forget every single good thing that ever happened to me in my entire life, I knew I would never forget that moment. It was the moment I had waited for all my life, and I never knew I was waiting. Of course it was a dream, but it was the most authentic thing that had ever happened to me. It also happened to be the most passionate thing that had ever happened to me. His lips were warm and strong, and they kissed me with an urgency that I had never known before. He needed to convince me of the truth. He needed to kiss me. And, for some unforeseen reason, I needed to kiss him. As the battle raged on around us, we fell away from all of it. His arms went around me and pulled me close. And, even though the wounded child in me still wanted to hate him, a new side of me forced that child into stubborn silence. My arms snaked around his neck and refused to let go. I could feel him lifting me off my feet, and I could feel a strange sensation, an electric thrill I had never felt before, traveling throughout my body. This was certainly nothing I had planned when I was coming up with strategy for this attack. And when I pulled away from him, it was as if all the anger in my body had been washed away in the flood of emotion that was threatening to remove me from the task at hand.

But return to the battle we both did. In the end, it proved to be a short affair. Most of the soldiers remaining surrendered rather willingly, finding themselves freed from the same bonds that held the slaves of Dream Land, as if snapped out of a hypnotic trance. As the soldiers found their true selves and ceased fighting, the crowd in turn threw down their weapons as well. The grand mission was accomplished. I hugged Ghias within an inch of her life, now that it had been spared. Dresden tossed his wayward strands of blonde hair out of his eyes and, even though his eye was swollen shut, he still managed to give me that same devilish smile he first gave me when I met him just weeks ago. Together we turned to face the growing crowd.

"People of Psitharis!" I began. "We have accomplished something important here! The question is where do we go from here? It is time we changed the order of things! Are you content being servants to an uncaring queen? Do you want your children ripped away from you? This land used to be a land of peace, of contentment, and it will be again! It is time to take our land back, reclaim what she took! It's time to fight!"

One by one the soldiers picked up their dropped weapons, only to hold them up as a sign of their redirected allegiance. A general cheer went out through the entire park. Tessa, Zade and Lyra were safe and sound, and were making their way out of the music box. Remembering where Masaru flung my former employer, I rushed over to the royal booth; Roland, Ghias and Dresden close behind me. There we found Calperal, sprawled on the ground, a broken leg impeding any progress he could make on his escape. He was battered and had several large lumps and bruises all over his body, but he had survived. The sight of the bone protruding from his shin didn't sicken me, but gave me a sick sense of satisfaction. "Well, well, well, Calperal." I smirked. "Today just doesn't seem to be your day!"

He tried to crawl away from me, to no avail. "Just do it already. You know you want to kill me. Just get it over with!"

Leaning down to get as close as I could to his face, I smiled a most devious smile. "Now really. What would be the fun in doing that?"

After the park physician set his leg, we used the music box as his prison. It seemed only appropriate. He would be quite safe in the little room, and since the glass was unbreakable, no one could get in to try to kill him and he could not get out. Plus, the servants could take some time getting to pass him by for their amusement. I requested food for the masses, including a large helping of raw meat for Masaru. Anything rotting, usually distributed as food for the unfortunate souls who served as unwilling patrons of the park, they could throw at Calperal. The soldiers, who were all Calperal's men, expressed their happiness over being freed from the dictatorship of the little troll. All of the queen's men had either dispersed at the beginning of the attack, along with their beloved ruler and her equally beloved offspring, or had taken their chances by defecting to our side. Calperal's clone goons were easily imprisoned in the costume rooms down the same hall as Calperal's prison. The retreating forces mysteriously vanished into thin air, but we would solve that mystery later. There were families to reunite and freed slaves to recruit. I gathered the former spirits together to put into place the plans for the future.