Journey to Psitharis

Chapter 38

Thirty-eight

I woke up early that morning after a dreamless sleep. It worried me because we had such limited time to plan our strategy. The queen and hundreds, if not thousands, of troops were bound to be heading down the mountain to slaughter us. Hopefully they had tried the tunnel system first. Since it was thoroughly blocked by a mile of junk bonded by cement it would take them forever to break through, so they'd have to backtrack and make the long trip down the mountain. My head was splitting, which was probably why I couldn't travel back to Dream Land in the first place. I stumbled around in the dark to the bathroom to find some headache medicine. After getting two small pills down my throat, I made my way back to my room to check the time: 5:45 AM. Oh well, I was up. I looked at my phone out of habit to find a message waiting for me. It was from Jordan. I turned on my lamp to get some light to combat the dark circles that kept exploding in my field of vision and pulled up the message as quickly as I could.

Medora,

I am okay. We start school after Spring break. They're mailing our transcripts to the new school, so we have to wait for those to arrive. The family has been great to us. Grandma missed us a lot so she's glad to have us nearby. I'll call you later. Bye!

I smiled as I put the phone down. At least she was okay. It was good news, because maybe now she and her family could know what it was like to live a normal existence and not a fearful one. And I had found my own strength without her, even though I still missed her very much. Losing my only friend should have devastated me. Instead it freed me from the last emotional tie I had to this world. Jordan would always be my friend, but now I was back at square one, the little girl who needed to be in the world of make-believe for a while. I put down the phone, and for the first time in a long time, I slept a sleep so sound, not even Psitharis could breach its borders. And there I stayed until noon, because if anyone had bothered to try to wake me, I had been oblivious to the attempts. The headache was gone, as was the nagging ball of anxiety that had sat in my stomach like a brick of cement for almost a week now.

When I got back to Psitharis I was ready to start my trip up the mountainside. Calperal's former soldiers had already gone into the underground stores to retrieve every last weapon they could find. The villagers and former spirits were busily preparing to arm themselves against the army we were destined to face. Brother against brother, friend against friend. The very thought disturbed me. It was the one scenario I desperately wanted to avoid, and I was determined to sidestep that possible outcome. "Emyll, Grandpa, I need you." I motioned as I headed to the main stage to look over the military plans The Counsel and Roland had been carefully crafting for the past month. Curiosity getting the better of him, Roland followed us.

"Did I call your name Roland?" I asked, more jokingly than angry. The truth was I had gotten used to having him by my side constantly. It didn't bother me that he never failed to be right in the thick of things. Besides, right in the thick of things was exactly where he was going to wind up.

"My apologies, your highness." He turned to leave, but I grabbed his arm and stopped him.

"You stay. As it turns out, you're a part of what I've got planned." I pointed to the map to the place where the Cerulean Palace was marked off. We need to get here, correct?"

"Of course, your majesty." Emyll remarked. "That is why we're amassing our army. So we can traverse the mountain and attack the palace guard."

I shook my head. "The plans are changing, and you two are the only ones who will know about it for a while. Roland, I'm sending you on an urgent mission to retrieve some of my personal belongings from the cabin." I stopped him before he could protest. "That's going to be the official story of your departure. I believe I can trust Emyll to keep the particulars of what comes next to himself until the time comes to inform the others." Intrigued, Emyll nodded his head. Since he had planned most of the attack on the palace, I felt it necessary to explain to him just why we would not be going through with his set plan. I turned once again to Roland. "You will not be going through with this particular mission. You will return to the place where I was captured by those soldiers, only before you get there make sure it's free of palace interference; no guards, no bounty hunters. I will join you upon my return. You and I are going up that mountain on our own. We're going to take on the queen by ourselves."