Freude im Ausland

Thamo and Ada rode back as quickly as possible. Ada wanted to be sure to spread the news about what happened to everybody who had interest, and since they were the only ones who actually knew what happened, Ada made sure to sing her song in every town that they passed through. The first town that they sung it in was the town on the Plains of Sheep where Thamo had grown up. They dropped in to see Thom while they were there.

Thom looked shocked to see Thamo and Ada at the door. He had woken up that morning quite as good looking as his son, even though he still looked quite a bit older. He had the same dark curly hair and the same blue eyes, and when he opened the door to find his son and a slightly recognizable girl standing there he was quite shocked.

Thom had always blamed his son for his wife’s death, and he wasn’t at first thrilled.

Thamo looked at him, smiling cautiously. “Dad,” he said simply.

Thom, hearing his son speak for the first time jumped back in shock. “You can speak,” he said.

“Ada…teach me,” said Thamo.

“So is this the princess that you married?” asked Thom.

“No sir,” replied Ada, “Thamo is still engaged to my sister Analia. But we managed to break the curse together.”

The look in Thamo’s eyes looked so hopeful that Thom, when he heard this piece of information completely forgave his son for everything. He had always resented Thamo being born, but if Thamo was really the reason that the sun shined again and the reason that Thom no longer looked like a hairy beast, then perhaps he had a reason for living after all. Thom held out a hand to Thamo and smiled at him just as cautiously.

“My son,” he said. “But where is my daughter?”

“She is at the Palace. The Palace has disappeared from the sight of the Acacian people but I should be able to get to her with this necklace,” Ada held up the necklace that she had found in the cave for Thom to examine.

“Very good,” said Thom, “How is it going with Araya?”

“I believe she is quite happy sir,” said Ada, “I have reason to believe that she might have found a husband as well. It could be that there will be a double wedding with Thamo and Araya getting married at the same time.”

This was too much for Thom. He couldn’t believe that both of his children were going to get married. He had always loved Araya so much. “Please tell her to come back and introduce me to the man she marries,” he said (It was Acacian tradition that the wedding time was very personal, and with the exception of royal marriages, even the parents didn’t bother to go to the ceremony).

“Absolutely sir,” Ada said, “I am also an artist of sorts, so I could even paint a picture of the ceremony for you and bring it back to show you.”

“Thank you,” said Thom, “But are you absolutely certain that you aren’t the princess that my son is going to marry?” Ada shook her head. Thamo had heard the whole conversation and hadn’t understood much of it, but he seemed to understand that they were talking about something concerning him.

“Very well then,” said Thom, “I wish you both the best on the rest of your journey.”

Thamo shook his father’s hand in farewell and the look of peace in his eyes since his father had shown him affection for the first time was quite the sight to see. Ada looked at him and smiled. She loved to see him looking so happy.

Thamo looked back at her and smiled too. “What ‘marry’?” he asked.

Ada blushed. “It is when a man and a woman live together for the rest of their life.” She spoke these words and made signals with her hands. Thamo understood.

“I marry?” he asked.

Ada nodded. She was sure that Analia was just as gorgeous as ever and equally certain that she had not put off the plans for the wedding.

“Good,” said Thamo, and Ada’s heart sunk. They didn’t speak any more about that topic.

As they crossed the country, Ada taught Thamo how to sing, and just as the case is with so many Acacian youngsters, he immediately fell in love with it. He began humming a happy little tune as he sat behind Ada on their horse.

When they got to the villages that normally circled the Palace. The path that normally led up to the Palace was still there, but now it seemed to lead directly through where the Palace normally stood. The Palace had simply…disappeared.

Ada stopped Thamo as he made the motion to ride onto the path. “Stop,” she said, and he stopped. She had to get her bearings about her before she was going to be face to face with her sister again.

After a while she gestured to Thamo to let him know that he could go ahead again, and he they led the horse up the path with Ada clutching the necklace from the cave in her hand. But the Palace didn’t appear as they went forward. They rode on the Path for a long time until it hit the next Village that was normally on the other side of the Palace. Then they turned around and rode back. Still nothing.

“Hmmm,” thought Ada, “Maybe I have to actually put the necklace on.” She raised the necklace up and then let it fall onto her chest. Immediately it seemed as if a huge veil had been lifted up. She could see the Palace as clear as day. It was raised up on a mountain now, but it was definitely the same Palace. It was just that now there was an extremely steep path that led up to the Palace. “Look,” she said excitedly to Thamo. He looked.

“I no see Palace,” he said.

Ada grabbed his hand. Maybe they had to be in physical contact with each other for it to work. Thamo still shook his head.

“Fine,” said Ada, and she put the necklace around Thamo’s neck. Immediately, he saw what she was talking about. He pulled her hand and then dragged Ada with him as he started the climb up the mountain.

Unfortunately, they had not gone a hundred paces when Ada’s resolve broke. She couldn’t see a thing. It was obvious to her that Thamo knew exactly where to go, but to her it seemed that she was floating on thin air and she could see the ground below her. She was terrified of heights, and after she had stumbled on an unseen stone for the tenth time, she fell onto the unseen ground with a bloody shin and a cry of pain. Thamo realized for the first time what he had been doing, and he let go of her hand for just a moment to kneel by her side. Ada screamed as she felt herself beginning to fall through the unseen ground and out of desperation she reached toward Thamo. She managed to catch onto his foot and again she was on invisible solid ground and Thamo was right there beside her.

He took one look at her, shivering there with fear and looked down the path back to the village. He picked her up at once and carried her back down the path and placed her on the real solid ground.

He tended to her bloody shin and then sat down next to her and held her tight in his arms as she shook from shock and fear. He held her until she was calm again and then he turned to her.

Taking the necklace from around his neck, he placed it again around her neck. “It yours,” he said, and gestured to her to tell her that she should lead the way up the mountain. She just looked at him.

“It is alright,” she said, “You can go without me.”

“I go with you. Slow,” he said insistently and then dragged her with him to the place where he knew the path started. Resigned, Ada did take the lead, but made sure to tell him where there were any rocks or sharp turns in the path. It got dark before they reached the Palace, and Ada didn’t know quite what to do. They couldn’t go any further tonight, but it would be extremely dangerous to go back as well.

Ada found a rock ledge and she gently guided Thamo down and showed him with his hands that there was solid rock. She put her arms around him and hugged him just in case. “I won’t let you fall,” she said. Despite the fact that the ground was extremely uncomfortable and that Thamo couldn’t even see the uncomfortable ground, they eventually drifted to sleep.

At daybreak the first beams of sunlight woke Ada. She was shocked when she realized that her arms were around Thamo’s neck. She had hugged him around his waste with her nose pointing into his shoulder, but she had somehow shifted so that her nose was now two inches away from his mouth. Sensing her shift, Thamo woke as well and smiled down at her. His arms had somehow found their way around her waste during the night. Ada moved away as far as she could while still staying in contact with Thamo.

She was blushing red with embarrassment, so she roughly pulled Thamo up to a standing position and pulled him onto the trail. It was only after Thamo tripped the second time that Ada, recalling her own experiences on this invisible mountain slowed down and looked shamefacedly at Thamo, “I am sorry,” she said.

“No problem,” he said. She had taught him that this was the proper way to reply to an apology.

She still set the pace to be quicker than they had gone yesterday. Without Ada to guide his every footfall and with the path getting steeper and the drop that getting bigger with every step, Thamo was terrified. He tried to pull Ada closer to him in an attempt to feel safer, but out of embarrassment she shied away every time.

Eventually Thamo couldn’t stand it any more, “Please Ada,” he said, and she turned to look at him. The look of terror in his eyes was enough to make her move closer to him, and he gratefully hugged her to him and tried to catch his breath and get his nerve up again. Her scent did indeed have quite a calming effect on him, so after about ten minutes he took a step back but still kept his arm firmly around her waste. “Please,” he said, and at the look of pleading in his eyes, Ada reluctantly agreed.

The Palace was very close now, and it only took a half hour more to reach the gate. The Stable-Master looked at them in shock. He recognized Thamo right away, but he completely misplaced Ada, since she hardly looked like a princess with her hair wind blown and her clothing stained and ripped from her journey.

Ada didn’t recognize the handsome Stable-Master either. He spoke to her, “Who are you?”

Ada replied, “Princess Ada and Thamo, of the Plains of Sheep who is engaged to the Crown Princess Analia of Acacia.”

“Princess Ada?” said the Stable-Master incredulously.

“And who might you be good sir?” she asked.

“The Stable-Master.”

“Well you are every bit as different in appearance as I am, so I would not be hasty to judge by appearances. Please open the gates. My story should be of some interest to the inhabitants of the Palace.” She turned to Thamo now, “Can you see the ground again?”

“Two steps,” he said, with the purple color of his face showing her right away that as far as he was concerned, they were not yet on solid ground. She quickly took two steps and he threw himself down on the ground and looked very happy to be grasping solid dirt under his fingers.

The Stable-Master opened the gates for them and sent a messenger to go tell the Palace that Princess Ada and Thamo of the Plains of Sheep had arrived at the Palace.

When Mok, Sarya and Araya heard that Ada and Thamo had arrived, they immediately dropped everything that they were doing. They had finished the Theater a couple of days before, and since then they had just been amusing themselves in their rooms since that time. Sarya had painted a picture of Ada and Thamo on their horse as they left the Palace. Mok joked and said that it was a masterpiece and that they should put it in the place of honor in their Theater/Gallery.

“Sure,” snorted Sarya, “I am sure that Her Royal Stuffiness, Princess Analia would love to get married under a picture of her Fiance with her sister.”

Mok grinned, “All the better.” Analia had not actually seen the Theater yet. Pictures of Ada smiled out from all of the boxes, which would definitely be an unpleasant surprise for Analia.

But now, the three friends literally dropped everything and ran for the gate. Sarya had been painting at the time and she literally dropped her paintbrush on the ground and moved toward the door with Mok and Araya in tow.

Even with all their haste the Queen and Analia made it to the gate before them. Ada drew in a breath of disappointment. Analia was indeed still gorgeous even without help from the curse.

“Hmmmph,” Analia sneered at her, “And what exactly were you two doing? I thought you had been holed up in your rooms for the past three weeks.”

Ada just shook her head, “We went to see if we could break the curse….” She didn’t get any farther. Her mother, the Queen came towards her completely livid, “WHAT!?!?! You ungrateful girl! You didn’t even think about what would happen if every single woman in Acacia lost her beauty. And you are even more hideous than anyone that I have ever seen in my life. From here on, I refuse to recognize you as my daughter.” Analia looked triumphant, but then the King arrived on the scene.

“I will recognize you as my daughter,” he said, looking proudly at Ada, “Thank you, my girl, you have done our country a great service.” Ada didn’t know what to do. She wanted to disappear. She really looked a sorry miserable sight with her hair ratted up into knots and her clothing so ripped and filthy.

Now Araya, Mok, and Sarya arrived on the scene. Sarya immediately moved to comfort her friend. She hadn’t seen Ada looking that helpless since she had first gotten to the Palace. Araya ran to Thamo and threw her arms around him.

“Hi Araya,” he said.

She jumped back surprised. “You can hear!” And then she threw her arms around him again.

Analia seemed very interested in the fact that Thamo could hear. She whispered to the King and Queen, “At least my Fiance is better looking and he can even hear now. I want to marry him as soon as possible.”

The King nodded and said, “Of course, I’ll take him to my chambers to help him get ready for the wedding.” He then went over to Thamo and shook his hand.

“Welcome,” he said, “I hear you want to marry my daughter?”

“Yes,” said Thamo happily and followed the King away.

“WHAT?!?” said Araya, “Is he crazy? Who in their right mind would want to marry Analia?” And Ada just looked as if she had gotten a sword stabbed in her heart.

Analia didn’t miss this, and looking triumphant she strode toward them with a wicked smile on her face, “I am to be married as soon as possible, so please make the Theater ready for me.”

Mok didn’t know what to do, so he just nodded. Then he put his arm around Araya’s shoulders. “Don’t worry,” he said to her, “We don’t know where he has gone, but we’ll just wait until the ceremony is to take place and I promise you that I will personally remove Thamo from the ceremony and bring him back to the rooms and explain just exactly why he should under no circumstances marry that thing this land likes to call a princess.” Araya was only a little bit consoled, but her misery was nothing compared to Ada. Even Sarya didn’t know what to say to her.

Eventually, the maids took it into their own hands. They had transformed into quite plump, cheerful looking girls and when they saw Ada they were shocked at the amount of dirt that covered her. They immediately forced her into the bath, and she was to tired and depressed to resist. While the maids were getting her all cleaned up, Sarya looked extremely worried.

“Ada hasn’t said one word to us since she got here,” she told Mok, “I am worried.”

“Me too,” said Mok, “but I don’t know what do do about it either.”

Despite being worried, they had to go to the Theater to prepare it for the wedding. Mok gave specific instructions to the maids to bring Ada to the Theater as soon as she was ready, but ten minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start the maids appeared without Ada.
“Where is she?” asked Mok, extremely angry.

“She darted into the Library,” said Brigita.

“And she knows how to hide herself so well that there was no hope for us to find her,” added Marya sadly.

Mok just shook his head, but was distracted because the doors to the Theater and the King and Thamo walked down the center row. He smiled up at all of the pictures of Ada on the walls.

As soon as they had reached the front and climbed up the side stairs onto the stage, Mok went into action. “Excuse me Your Highness,” he addressed the King, “Could I please have some words with the bridegroom before the ceremony.”

The King smiled and backed away so that Mok could have some private words with Thamo. “Come on Thamo!” he said, “Trust me, you don’t want to marry the princess!”

“I want marry Princess,” retorted Thamo smartly.

“You don’t understand,” said Mok desperately, “I promised your sister that I wouldn’t let you marry the princess. And I can’t give up on my promise to her.” He had thought that Thamo would respect Araya’s wishes more than he would expect his own. But he was surprised when Thamo turned to him and looked him straight in the eye.

“When you see my sister, is your heart … “ here Thamo didn’t have any more words to describe it, but he made the motion of a beating heart, and Mok understood perfectly.

“Yes,” he said, “I love Araya.”

“Yes,” said Thamo, “I love Princess. I marry Princess.” Mok just looked at him shocked. How could Thamo love Analia? How could any one love Analia?

“But you don’t know what it means to be married,” tried Mok one last time, “And you don’t know the Princess well enough to love her yet.”

“I know I want marry Princess,” replied Thamo stubbornly, “I want to live my whole life with Princess.” Mok just shook his head in surrender. He returned to Araya.

“He says he loves the Princess. I don’t know how that is possible, but it is what he says,” he told her.

“Wait,” said Araya, “I will go and talk to him.”

But at that exact moment, the doors to the Theater flew open and Analia waltzed down the aisle. Seeing Thamo dressed up in his finest, she smiled hugely. But Thamo wasn’t smiling. Especially when the King put Analia’s hand in Thamo’s and said, “Here is your new wife. You are a very nice young man and I am excited to have you as a son in law.”

Thamo jerked his hand away. “No,” he said flatly. Araya let out her breath.

“Where Ada?” he asked the King. The King looked surprised, but smiled anyway.

“I am not sure where she is,” he said honestly.

Mok, after realizing the mistake that Thamo had made, had burst out in hysterical laughter. “I guess he just wanted the other princess,” he said, and then collapsed into another fit of laughter.

Araya decided to be a little more useful. “Ada’s in the library,” she said to Thamo, “Shall we go find her?”

“Yes” was the dedided answer and the two siblings left the Theater together

Mok had somewhat gained control of himself when he saw Analia still up on the stage glaring at him. That caused him to burst out in another fit of laughter. Analia realized that she had just gotten ditched for her little sister and she also now realized that she was standing on a stage with paintings of that same little sister looking down at her. She was furious. And the object of her fury was Mok.

“You idiot,” she raged at him, “You knew all along didn’t you! You were the one who sent them away to go break the spell that kept me so beautiful, and then you decorated the Theater for my wedding with pictures of the one person I hate above all others.” But before she could continue, Sarya piped up.

“I painted the pictures of your sister,” she said, “But she painted the other ones.”

“What?” Analia was incredulous.

“She has a very natural talent for painting,” said Sarya, now addressing the King on the stage more than she was addressing Analia, “Mok and I were quite shocked when she began painting pictures that are really masterpieces.”

“Well,” stormed Analia, “I order you to take all of these paintings down and burn them. I don’t want them anywhere in my Palace.” But the King had heard enough.

“That will never happen,” he said, “Just think! Pictures in the Acacian Palace that were painted by a real Acacian! From now on it is my favorite part of the Palace. And the pictures of my daughter are amazing as well. They show her growth which corresponds to how she has developed as a painter…” now the King was lost in thought gazing at the pictures that were in front of his eyes.

“Well,” said Mok, “at least we know from where Ada gets her artistic eye.”

After Mok had left her, Araya had had a hard time trying to figure out just exactly what she should be feeling. Mok was in love with her! She could hardly believe it. But that kiss…it must be true. And Mok had accomplished what he had really come there to do, which was to make Araya forget all about how rude Analia had been to her. Now that little incident on the stairs felt like it was ancient history. But Mok hadn’t succeeded in making her any more secure emotionally. Araya had never liked men. And even though she really did love Mok too, deep down inside, she was extremely scared of falling in love. That was the mistake that all of the men of Acacia made all the time and the reason they were so miserable. They all ended up falling in love with the beautiful women of Acacia and although the women reluctantly agreed to the marriage out of necessity, there was never any love. Not once since that dreadful curse had been cast had there been a marriage out of love and not necessity. Even the Queens got married, not because of financial necessity, but because of the necessity of producing an heir.

But the thing that Araya didn’t understand was why Mok loved her. And that was the reason that she felt so uncertain. There were so many women in Acacia who were so much better looking than her. She was often extremely impolite just because she didn’t know how to be anything else. And she didn’t know how to flirt like the other girls. Like those two little maid girls, Marya and Brigita. They danced around, looking gorgeous in their little maid outfits, fluttering their eyelashes, and giggling whenever Mok looked in their direction. And they were good at what they did. Being a servant in the Palace was a much higher position than that of some wild shepherd girl from the field.

She just didn’t understand it. But the other side of her, her heart, was not on cloud nine. “He loves me!” her heart screamed. And that seemed to be all that it needed to know. The beautiful, funny Mok loved her. A warm feeling crept up into her heart for a minute, and then her mind peeped up again, “He was probably trying to be nice and felt sorry for me, and then out of his pity just decided to kiss me.” But then again, there was that kiss. After sitting on the floor with the raging battle of heart and mind going on inside, eventually it all came down to the kiss. That kiss had not felt like a kiss of pity. And there were those feelings in her heart. She was simply full of hope. Even if she wasn’t sure that everything would work out in her life, after sitting there for a long while, she could only come to one conclusion, “I don’t know what exactly he has in mind, but I have to give this a try.”

With this decision made, Araya was finished thinking about it for the time being. She decided to try and not think about Mok until she next had to. But she also didn’t want to have to go back out there and have to face Mok just yet either. She really looked around her for the first time.

The library at Acacia was gorgeous. One of the Bythians of past times had given his whole life to designing it. The books were organized according to history, and the whole library was designed to mimic a forest, with the book shelves cleverly stretched between trees gilded with small lanterns in the branches. The Bythian who had designed the library had carefully arranged it, and the chief librarian and any of the Acacians who came regularly to the library (Ada for instance) could have explained the system very well in much the same way that Araya could have guided any person through the forests and hills of her home town. But here, Araya was completely disoriented, and she felt very much like she once had when she managed to get lost in the forests when she was only 6 years old. Thamo had wandered into the forest, and although her Father had always told her never to go into the woods alone, she had followed him right away. Since Thamo couldn’t hear, his sense of direction, especially as a child, left much to be desired. Eventually she had found Thamo, but then she couldn’t find herself. They had spent that night curled up under a very large tree, and only the next morning, when the sun was shining again, was Araya able to lead them back out of the forest again.

Now she had that same feeling again. When she had run away from Analia and Mok she had run into the library, but she had run haphazardly through the library as well, not paying attention to just exactly where in the library she was going. The Bythian who had designed the library had personally enjoyed reading very much, especially in a nice little corner where nobody could disturb him, so he had designed small reading nooks here and there in the library and it was into one of these that Araya had run right before Mok had found her. Now she exited this little room, but was bewildered as there seemed to be rows of books stretching out in all directions.

The trees looked so beautiful with their flickering lights that Araya moved without really realizing it toward them. Each tree was completely unique, so Araya moved from tree to tree in a direction that she thought was the exit. In actuality, she was moving slowly in the opposite direction. Eventually she stopped paying as much attention and started paying more attention to the books that were on the shelves between the trees. She slowly ran her hand down the spine of the book.

“You can read them, you know,” said somebody right behind her.

Araya jumped a foot into the air. The somebody was a short woman with blonde hair and a smile on her face. She was still unmistakeably Acacian because she was still beautiful, but she also looked rather absentminded, and acted as if she never actually looked in the mirror.

“Sorry to startle you,” the woman said, “I just don’t usually get many visitors in my library, and I most definitely don’t often get visitors that appreciate my library as much as you obviously do. Have you ever seen a book before my dear?”

Araya shook her head. She had heard about books before, and about reading, but she had never actually seen one. The people of the village sometimes sung songs about the crazy royals who had a whole libraries of these book things and actually seemed to enjoy them.

The woman smiled, “I didn’t think so. Most people who can read are more excited about what lies between the covers as opposed to the covers themselves and the shelves that the books sit on.” Now, remembering her manners, the woman introduced herself, “I am the Chief-Librarian. My job is to make sure that everybody finds everything alright. And I know that the library should be a place of solitary and rest, but I get visitors so seldom that I can’t help but coming over and being a little more persistent. Is there anything that I can do for you dear?”

Araya, now a little bit shy, said, “I should like to see a…book.” The librarian just laughed.

“They are all around you, my dear,” she said, “But I have the perfect book for you. She led Araya to the other side of the library to the childrens’ section. Here the shelves were lower, the colors brighter, and the books thinner. “Here you go,” the librarian said, “This book was Princess Ada’s favorite when she was a small girl. I miss Princess Ada. She used to spend almost all of her time here until she met those Bythian friends of hers, and now I haven’t seen her in over a year. Oh well. I believe she is happier than she ever was before, so I suppose that is alright.”

Araya turned the book over in her hands. It was quite thin, but the binding was very strong and the cover looked like it was well-worn. She opened up the pages and then gasped. The pictures drawn in the pages looked so lifelike that they almost seemed to jump out at her. There were pictures of Horses and Birds in the pages and other animals that she had never seen before in her life. She sank down into a chair and spent a good ten minutes just staring at the pictures when she realized that there were some other symbols on the page as well. They were exactly like the ones that Araya had seen every day when taking her sheep up to the good grazing areas near the Springs of Sparkling Water.

She looked up. The Chief-Librarian was still standing there, looking fondly at the sight of a girl enjoying a good book. “What do these symbols mean?” asked Araya.

“Those are words,” said the Chief-Librarian, “She sat next to Araya and read aloud from the page, “The animals at the Zoo were all very well behaved.” Araya looked shocked.

“You mean these symbols actually have a meaning that you can understand?” she asked incredulously.

“Yes,” the Chief-Librarian said, “have you actually seen words before? There aren’t other books in the whole of Acacia. King Aearda III made a statue in the south-east corner of Acacia and I believe he inscribed his name on it, but other than that, I don’t know of any other statues where there would be any writing. Are you from the south-east?”

“No,” said Araya, “I am come from the Plains of Sheep, but I have seen these symbols before. I take my sheep up the mountain everyday to the Springs of Sparkling Water to let them graze on the grass, and there is a smooth stone wall there with a whole bunch of symbols on it. We never knew what they were so we always thought they were from a dragon fight or something.”

“Hmm,” said the Chief-Librarian, “Do you think that you could redraw the symbols if I gave you a piece of paper.”

“Maybe,” said Araya, “I liked one part of the symbols the best, so used to trace it with my fingers all the time. I don’t think I could draw all of them because a lot of moss has grown up into the cracks. But I cleared out one section. She took the paper and writing utensil from the Chief-Librarian and sat down at the table. After about ten minutes she held up the paper for the Chief-Librarian to read. The Chief-Librarian read it, and then collapsed into her chair with shock. “Curse,” she said softly.

“Curse?” asked Araya. She looked questioningly at the Chief-Librarian.

“That is what the paper says,” the Chief-Librarian said. And sure enough, on the piece of paper in Araya’s hand there was one word written as plain as day. “CURSE” it said.

“The writing on the wall is about the curse?” asked Araya shocked.

“Well, it wouldn’t be completely without explanation. After all, King John left the Palace to go to the Springs of Sparkling Water to talk to that witch, and after that he was never heard from again.” the Chief-Librarian shook her head again, “Maybe the witch left a message after-all, but since the Shepherds of the Plains of Sheep were all illiterate they never understood the message.”

“Then maybe you could come with me to the Sparkling Springs and tell me what the message means,” Araya suggested.

The Chief-Librarian just laughed. “I have never been away from the Palace, nor do I want to ever leave,” she said, “But it is not magic to be able to read. All of the Royals can read.”

“You mean that Ada can understand these symbols?” Araya asked.

“Her Royalness, Princess Ada of Acacia can most definitely read. This was her main sanctuary before the Bythians got here and provided her a better one. She is almost better at reading than I am.”

Now Araya was ready to leave the library. She had to find Ada. “And where would Princess Ada be now?” she asked.

“Most likely in the apartments that she shares with Mok and Sarya,” the Chief-Librarian said.

At the mention of Mok’s name, Araya blushed, but she was now determined to go find Ada. “How can I get there from here?” she asked.

“It is not difficult. The Bythians are all avid readers so their quarters were placed in very close vicinity to the library. I can show you the way without a problem.” The Chief-Librarian led Araya through the library to a small exit door. It opened into a passageway. “There,” the Chief-Librarian said, “Right there on the left side is the main entrance door to the Bythian quarters.”

Araya gave a hurried thanks to the Chief-Librarian as she rushed down the hallway and burst into the chamber without knocking. The Chief-Librarian smiled sadly, but just hoped that this girl would come visit her again soon. It was at this time that Araya gave her announcement to the surprised Sarya, Mok and Ada, “There are things called books in the library with symbols written in them just like the ones inscribed on the stone wall by the Sparkling Springs!” Araya was quite the picture with her hair wild and a lone piece of paper clutched in her hands.

“What?” Ada asked.

“Look,” said Araya, and she showed them the piece of paper on which she had written the word “CURSE.” She then collapsed into a chair and told them all the whole story about how she had met the Chief-Librarian and what she had told her. “That word is on the wall and that was the last place that King John the foolish was seen too!” she finished triumphantly.

Ada, who was already elated about her success with her mother, really looked like she would burst now. She ran to Thamo and grabbed his hand and dragged him into a dance. “There might be a counter-curse!” she yelled at him although he couldn’t understand. Thamo couldn’t dance with her because of his food, but he hobbled around as best he could, and when Ada realized that she was probably hurting him, she stopped immediately. She looked apologetically at him. “Maybe some day you will be able to dance,” she said softly. Then she left him standing there. There was a faint look of disappointment in Thamo’s eyes as she dropped his hands that only Mok and Sarya noticed. They exchanged knowing glances, but didn’t say a word as Ada came back over to them.

“We need to leave as soon as possible,” Ada said, “We need to find out if there is any important information about the curse on this wall.”

Mok was about to agree, when there was a knock on the door. The maids opened it, and everyone froze. It was Princess Analia. She looked extremely smug again. “I have spoken with my mother, The Queen,” she said addressing Mok and Sarya, “And I have told her that I would love to get married in the Theater that you have spent so much time designing.”

“But it isn’t finished yet,” protested Mok.

“I am aware of that,” said Analia, “but there are two months before my wedding, so you have time.” With that she turned and walked directly away, ignoring Mok’s protests.

“Two months!” said Mok incredulously. “There is no way. I wanted to ask you, my dearest sister to help me with the artwork, because the walls need something else, and there is painting to do, and just work that needs to get done. Two months…impossible.”

The look on Mok’s face made Araya want to help him more than she had ever wanted anything in her whole entire life. “Well,” she said, “We don’t need to go read the wall right away.”

“Of course we do!” protested Ada, “If we can break this curse in the next two months, Thamo will have both feet and both ears and he will be able to decide himself that he doesn’t want to marry Analia and then she won’t be able to do anything about it. It is ridiculous to rush Mok’s masterpiece like that in preparation for a wedding that I am determined is never going to take place.”

Mok grinned. “You know,” he said, “We don’t all have to go read the walls at the same time. Tell me Araya, does Thamo know where this wall is?”

Araya nodded, “He didn’t go there everyday like I did, but I have taken him up there with me. Although I don’t know exactly how to tell him that he is supposed to go and find it.”

Sarya smiled now. “Probably a better idea if we show him,” she said smiling.

“What do you mean?” asked Araya, “How do we show him a place that is so far from here.”

Sarya just smiled and beckoned for everyone to follow her into the room. “It’s a game that we always played at home in Bythia. Describe the wall for me, and I will draw a picture of it.”

Araya looked skeptical, and she tried to make a basic description of it, but with her unartistic eyes she couldn’t describe it very well, and Sarya was having difficulty asking Araya the questions that she needed to be able to draw the picture and actually drawing the picture at the same time. The attempt eventually wound up with both Sarya and Araya being extremely frustrated. Then Mok took things into his own hands.

“How about I ask the questions and then Sarya draws?” he suggested. Sarya thankfully nodded in agreement, and then Mok turned to Araya. “Ok now,” he said, “Is there a path that leads up to this wall?” Araya nodded. “Close your eyes and imagine that you are standing on this path just before you come to the wall.” She nodded again. Mok then asked, “Is the wall on your right side or on your left side?”

“The left,” Araya answered. Mok moved over to her left hand side. “Now open your eyes,” he said, “Is this about where the wall starts?” Araya shook her head and gestured for him to move to a little bit to the left. Sarya sat on the sidelines and painted while Mok used every means in his power to get Araya to describe what it looked like. He even took some of the different colors of paint and got Araya to choose out which colors were most similar to the rocks, ground, grass, and stream. After about three hours of this game, Mok looked at Sarya, “Is that enough?”

She smiled, “I hope so.” She turned the canvas around and Araya gasped. “That’s it!” she exclaimed. “How did you…”

“It’s in our blood,” Sarya explained, “We live and think in paint.”

Thamo came in now. Araya motioned to him, asking him if he remembered this place. He just glanced at it once and then nodded. She motioned again, asking if he thought he could find it again. He nodded again, and then clapping her hands Araya said, “Everything is perfect! Thamo and Ada can go together to the rock and figure out whatever they can about the curse, and we can work on the Theater to make sure that everything gets done on time!”

Mok still shook his head, “But there is so much to do. I don’t think we can finish it even if we try our best.”

But Sarya grinned mischeviously. “I have an idea,” she said mischeviously, “What if we combine the pictures that Ada and I have been working on for the past two years with the design of the Theater. Sort of make it a Gallery-Theater. Then you don’t have to worry so much about not having enough artwork for the theater. Come on. Let’s look at these Theater plans and see if there isn’t anything we could do.”

She led the way to the architectural-design room. “Look,” she said, “Mok has designed a basic theater, with a large section for the audience to sit. The stage and curtains are already made, but the main lack is the decoration in these boxes where the honored guests sit, and the visiting area for intermission. Ada and my pictures are always in pairs, with one of my pictures and one of her pictures. We can put two paintings in each box which will complete the decoration and then we can make a gallery here which the guests can view during intermission. A few well placed comfortable chairs would also be in order, and we will still have to work extremely hard for two months to get everything ready, but with the problem of artwork solved, it is actually possible.”

Mok grinned. “Genius,” he said, “And since most of your pictures are of Ada, I will be even more happy when Analia walks down the aisle for her wedding and finds that she is being looked down upon from all the boxes by beautiful pictures of the sister that she hates. And then when she finds that she has been ditched at the altar…or whatever Acacian weddings are like. That is definitely a performance that I am super excited to see. But we will have to bar Analia from seeing the Theater until the day of the wedding, and we will have to tell her that Ada and Thamo are locked up in the chambers teaching him good manners so that she doesn’t believe that he has left the Palace.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Sarya, “And now, for Ada and Thamo. We will have to get them ready for the journey and send them out without any suspicion.”

“But how will we get horses for them?” asked Mok, “We can’t just take horses if we want to keep up the act that they are still holed up in their quarters.”

Araya smiled, “I think I have an idea about that. But lets just prepare the food and supplies that they will need for their journey tonight and let them get a good night’s sleep on a mattress, and then we can sneak them out tomorrow.”

With the help of the maids they prepared the basic supplies that they needed and enough food and water to last for two weeks. There was a general feeling of excitement as they all went to bed that night, and they slept restlessly. Early the next morning, Araya expanded a little more on her plan.

“You and Thamo have to sneak out of the Palace without being seen and meet us on the other side of the wall on the west side. Can you do that?”

Ada nodded, “I have snuck around the Palace so many times without being seen. If anybody can do it, it is me. We’ll start now.” She gestured to Thamo and they picked up their bags of supplies and moved silently to the door. Ada took him through all of the least known passageways in the Palace and they did indeed manage to make it to the west side of the wall without being seen.

While they were on their way, Araya brought Mok and Sarya down to the stables. “Please saddle my horse for a man,” she said to the Stable-Master. “I have promised Mok to let him have a ride on my horse.” The Stables were on the outskirt of the Palace walls, and therefore men were allowed to be there. The Stable-Master was a large burly man who loved horses more than women and therefore lived quite a peaceful life. The horses loved him back.

The Stable-Master nodded, and after a bit they had one horse ready to ride. Mok looked appreciative of Araya’s idea, but he commented anyway, “It is only one horse.”

“He’s a good boy, and was more trained for a wagon puller as opposed to a riding horse. He’ll carry both of them just fine. Although Ada will have to ride like a man. I hope that is ok with her. Otherwise we’ll have to figure something else out.” Mok nodded.

They brought the horse to Ada and Thamo. Thamo looked delighted to see his old friend again, but Ada, when she heard that she would have to ride like a man, she was at first extremely skeptical of the idea. But after realizing that it was the only way, she reluctantly agreed. Araya had also brought a pair of trousers that Ada could wear, and Ada reluctantly put them on under her dress. Thamo had already climbed up on the horse’s back, and now Mok gently helped Ada up. She had only worn a very worn out dress because they had agreed that if they were to make the best time she had better disguise herself as a peasant. Under this she had put on the trousers that Araya had brought for her. She had to hike up her skirt up to her mid-thigh so that she could sit properly. Thamo put his left arm around her waste and held her there firmly so that she no longer felt scared that she would fall of this huge horse. Mok handed the reigns to Thamo who took them up skillfully with his right hand.

“Have fun kids!” he said with a hint of teasing in his eye. Thamo led the horse skillfully back toward his home in the hills. “Don’t worry,” said Araya, “He’ll take care of you.”

“I’ll bet,” said Mok teasingly, “He looks like he is very pleased to deliver that package to the mountains.” Thamo did indeed look very pleased, but Sarya hit Mok.

“Just because your romantic life right now is going well doesn’t mean you have to start matchmaking,” she hissed in his ear so quietly that only Mok could hear.

“Do you seriously believe I am just matchmaking?” asked Mok.

Sarya just shrugged, “Maybe not,” she said, “but keep it on the cool ok?”

“Yes ma’am,” said Mok and then turned to Araya, “So, what is next on the plan.”

“Now the horse was accidentally scared by a dog, and he reared up and scared me, at which time I fainted and then he ran far away and we don’t know where he went.”

“But will they believe the story?” asked Mok, a little bit skeptically.

“They will when you carry me back to the stables and I awake from my faint and start raving hiserically,” Araya said matter-of-factly.

Mok smiled. He liked this plan. “Very good,” he said, “Shall we start?” Then he strode toward Araya and swept her up into his arms.

“You don’t have to do it now,” she said flustered.

“Shh…You’ve fainted, remember?” Mok said grinning, and Araya had no choice to relax and close her eyes acting as if she was in a faint. Mok carried her all the way back to the stables with Sarya tailing behind him.

The Stable-Master started when they returned. “What happened he asked?”

Sarya, who had been such a good actress in Bythia put on such a good performance of just exactly had happened in the meadow that the Stable-Master believed her immediately.

He believed it even more when Araya “awoke” from her faint. Mok set her down on a bale of hay and she started muttering incoherently, “horse…dog…I was scared…What happened?” She looked inquisitively up at Mok.

He just pulled her up to meet his eye. “Everything is fine,” he said, “I would never let anything happen to you.” And then he kissed her, right in front of the Stable-Master and all of the stable boys. Araya just looked shocked, so Mok picked her up again.

“I am sorry sir,” he said to the Stable-Master, “I fear we have lost the horse for good. But we are thankful to have our lives.”

“Obviously,” said the Stable-Master, “And don’t worry about the horse either. It was her horse anyway. And the only saddle that I had to fit that horse was extremely large and old, so nobody here will miss it.” Mok thanked him again, and gratefully strode off toward the Palace with Araya still in his arms.

“Nice improvisation,” said Sarya laughing.

“It was completely unnecessary,” said Araya, a little bit indignant.

“It couldn’t hurt,” said Mok glancing at her teasingly, “With the gossip going around about us, nobody will even really pay attention to the story of the horse.”

“But is it really a good idea to spread gossip about us?” Araya asked.

“Honestly? I hope that it isn’t gossip. I hope it is the truth,” said Mok, looking at her.

“And he is a stubborn brute,” said Sarya, “So I’d give up now if I were you. But you are pretty stubborn yourself, which I think is why he likes you so much.”

—–

Thamo and Ada rode as quickly as they could through Acacia. They only stopped for two nights on the way there, and Ada experienced discomfort for the first time in her life. She had never slept on the ground before, but there hadn’t been any place in the saddlebags for a mattress or anything, so the ground it was. Luckily she was always so exhausted from riding all day that she fell asleep almost immediately despite the tree roots that stuck in her back.

At noon on the third day Ada recognized the village where they had found Thamo and Araya. She knew they must be close. Soon enough, Thamo dismounted and helped Ada to dismount too. He gestured to tell her that now had to go by foot leading the horse carefully behind them. The climb took about an hour, but eventually they reached the place, and Ada drew in her breath. It looked exactly like it had looked in Sarya’s painting. She wondered again at her friend’s skill with a paintbrush.

Ada now stood at the wall looking at the smooth stone wall. Moss had indeed grown in a lot of the cracks, but the symbols carved into the wall still were obviously letters. She began to clear away a lot of the moss covering the writing. When Thamo saw what she was doing, he began to do exactly as she did. Eventually, they had cleared off the wall enough so that Ada could read what stood there:

 

TO THE WOMEN, THE CURSE OF BEAUTY

BUT TO THE MEN, UNSEEMLINESS

THE STREAMS TO FLOW, WITH BRACKISH WATER

CLOUDS TO COVER, THE SUNNINESS

UNTIL THE BEAST THE BEAUTY FIND

AND BEAUTY LOVE, IN BEAST’S EYE

 

Ada caught her breath. “Until the Beast the Beauty find, and Beauty love, in Beast’s eye.” There was hope! She looked at Thamo and grinned. There was a counter-curse! He could have his hearing and leg restored. But then she stopped in mid-thought. If the curse was so easy, why hadn’t it been cracked before? Because no woman had ever truly fallen in love with any man since it had been cast so many years before. Now she just needed to find some girl who would fall in love with an Acacian man. It would have to be Acacian to Acacian.

Then Ada thought of all of the ugly Acacian men and she shuddered. There was no way that any Acacian woman would ever fall in love with one of them. And she couldn’t explain about the counter-curse because as soon as the curse was broken all of the women would lose their beauty. And there wasn’t one single woman who would give up her beauty just to save an ugly man. Ada sighed. She glanced at Thamo again. He was worth it. And he was gorgeous too. Her spirits rose again. Surely if she introduced Thamo to all of the Acacian girls there would be plenty of them who would fall in love with him automatically. But at this thought, her heart clenched. She wanted Thamo to be whole more than almost anything in the whole world, but the thought of letting him be at the mercy of all of the heartless Acacian women made her feel sick to her stomach. And another feeling. One that she had given up feeling a long time ago when she realized that it just didn’t make sense to grudge other people for the things that they had. She had learned to be satisfied with her position in life. But now, there it was again. Jealousy. The thought of other girls flirting with Thamo, the thought of Thamo kissing other girls! The jealous feeling rose in her again.

“I want him,” she thought to herself. And then she repeated the thought to herself because she couldn’t believe it. It had been so long since she had really wanted something. “I want him more than anything else that I have ever wanted in my life.”

She remembered that little sparkle of humor in Mok’s eye as he had handed the reigns to Ada and sent them off. “Have fun kids!” he had said, and had seemed to know something that Ada didn’t know. Mok, with his all seeing-artist eyes, had always been able to understand Ada better than she understood herself.

“He knew,” thought Ada. “He knew that I loved Thamo.” Even thinking that word “love” was a shock to Ada. Love? She didn’t know she was able to love. But she did love him. She loved how goodhearted he was, calmly bearing his physical afflictions with an ease that did him credit. She loved how he cared for his sister more than almost anything else in the whole world. She loved how he was somehow able to communicate his feelings even though he couldn’t speak. She loved how his hair fell across his blue eyes…

Ada stood there just staring at Thamo with these thoughts running through her head. It took a while to get her mind around the idea, but once she did, it seemed to fall into place right with all the other things in Ada that made her who she was. She was a Princess of Acacia, a Painter, an 18-year old girl. And she was in love with Thamo.

But would he love her back? She realized all at once that she was staring at him. He was just looking back at her with a smile on his lips and a questioning look in his blue eyes. She glanced away, but then her eye caught that last line of the counter-curse. “And Beauty love, in Beast’s eye.” It didn’t matter if he didn’t love her back. Her love was sufficient to break the curse and give him a normal life with his hearing and a leg that worked correctly.

But now. How should she tell him? She moved toward Thamo and smiled at him. She closed her eyes and then opened them and pointed to him. He looked confused. She repeated the motion, trying to get him to close his eyes. He still wasn’t getting it. Eventually, she just moved to him and closed his eyelids for him. He teasingly opened them right back at up, but she then glared at him. He grinned, but then closed his eyes for good this time.

Ada took a deep breath and then kissed him. It was the bravest thing she had ever done in her whole life. She kissed him and was shocked when she realized that he was kissing her back. She moved a little closer and he put his arms around her waste and drew her close to him. She put her hands up on the sides of his face. But at that moment, something started to change. She could feel his ears under her hands. They had felt like rosebuds, but now they started to grow and blossom as if they were actually roses. It had worked!

“Thamo!” she whispered. But Thamo startled in surprise. He had never heard a sound before in his life. He jumped back and then found his newly formed right foot that was pointing in the right direction. He stared at Ada. His eyes were full of fear. Ada didn’t know quite what to do. She should have known that he would be scared for his very life. She swallowed and then started to sing a traditional Acacian lullaby. The sounds were soothing and he looked a little relieved, although still completely confused. She continued, and used all of the hand signals she knew to try and tell him that everything was alright. Now she could feel the effects of the curse on her changing. She grew shorter, a little bit stouter and she could feel her hair begin to uncurl and her nose grow a little more pointed.

She stopped for a minute, but then kept advancing toward him. “Thamo needs me right now, even if I am ugly. I just hope that he still recognize me.” Now she was standing right before him.

“I am Ada,” she said, and at the same time as she had made the hand-signals that he was so familiar with. “You are Thamo,” she said with the same method. He still looked a little bit confused, but now, for the first time in his life, seemed to realize just exactly why everybody seemed to move their mouth around all of the time.

Thamo settled down a little bit, but at this time the curse seemed to be ready to let up its hold on the land of Acacia. The clouds rolled away. Ada yelled in exultation as the sunbeams beat down on her. Thamo jumped again, but he seemed to understand this joyful expression better than he had understood the weird words that had come out of Ada’s mouth. He also glanced up at the sun and laughed. At the sound of his own laugh, he jumped again, but then cautiously tried it out again. He glanced at Ada. “Did you do this?” he asked through his gestured.

“Yes,” she gestured back, “We did this.” She gestured toward the stone, wondering at that moment exactly how to explain what had happened. But with this gesture she realized that the stone had changed too. Instead of the words that had been written there, now there was a cleft in the rock. She moved closer and realized that a small cave had opened up behind the rock wall. She walked through the opening and into a small room. A small ray of light shone down from the roof ceiling and illuminated a stone in the middle. On the top of the stone was a very delicate silver necklace with a silver and pearl charm in the shape of the white flowers of the mountains.

Ada reached out and took up the necklace and just stared at it. It was the most beautiful piece of jewelry she had ever seen. Then she looked down at the stone. Words were inscribed on the surface. These were formed not in the rhyme of a curse, but seemed to be more of an afterthought written by the same witch who had cast the curse over the whole land:

If it ever comes to pass that someone manages to break the curse of the Land of Acacia, I take the head of the land away. From this time forth, the wonderful Palace of Acacia can only be accessed by the person who wears this necklace. No one who isn’t in company of this person can enter or exit the Palace.

 

Ada gasped. “The Palace!” she said, shocked. All of her friends and relatives were in the Palace and now they couldn’t get out any more. She had to get to them!

“Thamo!” she cried. Thamo turned around immediately, although it was probably due more to the urgency in her voice than his actually recognition of his name. “We need to go back! All of the others!” she cried and signalled with all her might trying to make him understand. He made a motion to show that he understood, but since he made no motion to go back to the horses and leave right away she became frantic, gesturing with her hands and began to move toward the horses at the same time.

Thamo moved toward her, moving steadily on his newly remade feet. He grabbed her hands to keep her from gesturing, and when she continued to bellow with all her might, transferred his grip so that he was holding both her hands in one of his own and then placed the other hand gently but firmly over her mouth. When she calmed down, he let her go, and then gestured to the horses and made it known that they were still too tired from their frantic journey from the Palace to go back tonight. Ada still didn’t seem to be any less calm, but Thamo firmly put his hand on her shoulder and guided her toward the horses. He led her and the horses down the path toward the base of the mountain. Here there was a small flat area with signs that a fire had been made there in the not so distant past. There were still a few logs that stood next to a self-made fire pit.

Thamo crouched next to the fire and, with the skill of someone who had been making fires his whole life, soon there was very cosy fire burning in the pit. Thamo gestured to Ada. He grabbed a blanket from their pack, and after setting her there next to the pit and wrapping her snuggly in the blanket, looked at her questioningly. She smiled and signalled her surrender. She decided to say it aloud as well, since it was high time for him to learn to talk. “You win,” she said.

Now Thamo sat down as well. Ada started to make all of the basic hand movements that he understood and repeating the words that corresponded to them. “I” she signalled, “you”, “us”, “fire”, “stone”, and so on. The two of them sat there, teacher and student, until Ada eventually forgot just how worried she was and just realized how tired she was. Her eyelids drooped even though she fought with all her might to keep them open. Once they were finally closed, Thamo just smiled at her and then fell into a light sleep as well.

 

At the same time Mok was promising this to Araya, Sarya and Ada were silently promising themselves the same exact thing. They had gotten to know Thamo, and they both realized that if he was to marry Analia, he would be completely miserable. He spent most of his time gesturing as quickly as he could to the girls. The excitement seemed to radiate from him as he was, for the first time in his life, able to communicate with other members of the human race that weren’t his sister.

Mok and Araya at this point returned to the camp. There was something in the manner of both of them that seemed a little bit off. Ada completely missed this little bit of tension between Mok and Araya, but Sarya, who was quite quick and could read her brother very easily raised an eyebrow in his direction. He just grinned a little sheepishly at her and she shook her head.

Araya seemed much more drawn back for the rest of the journey. She still smiled at everybody, but she stopped insisting that everybody listen to her ideas. In fact, she stopped giving her opinion about anything at all. She also developed the curious habit of turning bright red if Mok even looked in her direction. Even naive Ada wasn’t blind enough to miss those signs. Thamo noticed as well, and seemed to find it quite amusing.

Mok had ridden up to Araya and commented innocently, “Well, the weather looks nice today doesn’t it?”

Araya had turned bright red, and stuttering a little bit, eventually seemed fed up with trying to find a flirtatious answer and just blurted out sharply, “Of course not! It is every bit as dreadful as weather normally is in Acacia. You have been here long enough. You should realize that by now.” And then, realizing just exactly how rude she had been, she blushed again, kicked her horse, and rode off ahead.

Thamo thought this hilarious, and although he had himself never been in love, he seemed to understand instinctively just exactly what was going on. He was riding next to Ada at the time, and he turned to her, gestured toward his sister, grinned, and laughed with his whole heart. That was the first time that Ada had ever heard his voice. It was quite deep, and although it cracked a little bit from disuse, it was obviously the voice of an Acacian because of the hint of a song under the tones. Ada looked at him in surprise, and he looked back at her in confusion, since he didn’t know what he had done to make her laugh. She realized this rather quickly, and then just shrugged her shoulders and gestured at Araya riding way up front and grinned as well.

Sarya laughed as well. “Mok always fell for the girls that made him work for it,” she said, “I am very curious to see how this works out.”

When the Palace came into view both Araya and Thamo looked shocked at how beautiful it was. “It is even prettier than your painting!” Araya cried.

Ada replied without thinking, “I hope so. When I look at that building all I see is the emotional pain that I experienced there, so my drawings of it seem to reflect that pain as well.”

“Pain?” Araya asked, and at the same time looked questioningly at Mok who nodded at her unasked question. “Yes,” his eyes said, “it was because of Analia.” Araya looked a little downcast.

Ada started as well. “I mean…,” she stuttered, struggling to find words.

Sarya started in at this point, “She means that she suffered much emotionally in the years that she lived here. But we hope that you all will have a much better experience here.” Araya looked extremely unsure, and Thamo looked confused at the sad look on Ada’s face. The weight of the years of her neglect had come to rest again on Ada now that her home was again in sight. Sarya glanced at Ada and seeing this sighed and promised herself that she would personally take Ada permanently away from the Palace as soon as she could.

They reached the Palace by midday and the messenger of the Queen greeted them at the guest. “The Queen thanks her Ambassadors to the Thone for their good work on the task assigned to them. The Beau to the Princess Analia is requested to come to the Throne Room this afternoon to discuss his betrothal to the Princess Analia.”

“Thank you,” Ada said, dismissing the servant.

Sarya, Mok, and Ada sat their on their horses for one moment more pondering what they could do to get out of this messy situation. Then Ada had an idea. She dismounted and said, “Come! Let’s get me as dressed up as possible. I am going to make a request of my mother.”

The Servant Girls looked up at this announcement and looked like they quite enjoyed the prospect of dressing Ada up for a royal hearing. They whisked her off to her room as quick as they could.

Mok, Sarya, Araya, and Thamo followed a little slower. Analia considered this a good time to make her entrance. She swooped down dressed in her very finest. Apparently Ada’s performance with their mother had caused her to decide to try the exact same thing. Araya was shocked at this beautiful figure before her.

“Wow!” she said, “Are you the Princess Analia? You are gorgeous!” Mok caught his breath a little bit, and tensed.

Analia was flattered, but still extremely arrogant and rude. The little shepherdess was quite a picture with her tanned skin, homespun clothes, and wild wind blown hair. Although the wild picture appealed to Mok, it certainly was not Analia’s taste. She sniffed and said arrogantly, “Who are you? Some scum that my sister decided to bring home to clean the kitchens? Well, you have a lot to learn about manners.”

Araya’s face turned from ecstatic to hurt in mere seconds. She struggled to keep her form, but she couldn’t help the few tears that managed to slip out of the corners of her eyes. Mok clenched his fist trying to control his temper.

Thamo had stared at this figure of beauty at first with amazement, but when he saw her cause so much pain to his beloved sister, he moved forward as quickly as he could. Mok noticed that his fists were clenched as well. Mok reached out a hand and restrained him.

Analia didn’t even notice this aggression. She just noticed that Thamo’s eyes were indeed a very nice shade of blue and that his profile was handsome, and that his figure was athletic and muscular. She gave him the once over, smiled, and then turned away. “Ada at least did alright here. You will do quite well indeed.” Then she left.

Mok grunted to Sarya under his breath, “Can you take Thamo up to the chamber? I want to talk to Araya.” He was having difficulty controlling his feelings, and Sarya noticed this right away. She agreed, and led a still fuming Thamo away.

Mok started to move towards Araya, but when she saw him coming she ran in the oposite direction. Unfortunately, she didn’t know her way around the Palace. Mok followed her as she ran haphazardly around. At last she took the door that led into the library. Mok smiled grimly. There was no exit from that room.

Araya turned on him as he came in, her face wet with tears. “Don’t you dare tell me that it is all right!” she said, “It is not alright!”

“I agree,” Mok said, his voice full of restrained emotion. “I never knew that it would be possible for me to dislike Analia any more than I did before. But now I know that it is.”

Araya looked at him in surprise, “She hates me!”

Mok scoffed, “She doesn’t think enough to hate you.”

Araya just looked at him. Mok moved closer to her, his words becoming more and more gruff as he tried to express the emotion he was feeling, “She may think you are scum of the earth, but I can’t wait to see the look of shock on her face when she realizes that I am in love with you.”

The look of shock on Araya’s face at this blunt announcement was almost as good. She stammered, “…What?…”

Mok looked her in the eye and repeated with assurance, “I am in love with you,” and then stooped down and placed a soft kiss on her lips. The look of surprise was not gone when he looked her in the eye again, but they didn’t seem to dislike the kiss either, so Mok bent his head to kiss her again. After a minute Araya pulled away.

“…What…?” she started to ask again but Mok just hushed her.

“Sorry,” he said, “It is just one of those facts of life. And it’s not going to change any time soon. I apologized sincerely.” And then, with one last kiss he left Araya in that room with all those books to give her time to get a grip on her feelings and he strode away with a look of accomplishment on his face.

The Company of Travelers started on the return trip back to the Palace the next morning. This time, although they had more people, the journey went quicker. Sarya and Ada no longer had as much of a desire to stop at every opportunity and paint pictures, nor did they want to offend their guests, who obviously really wanted to get to the Palace as quickly as they could. Araya especially was extremely excited to go there, especially as an special royal guest! And Thamo, for the first time in his life, found himself in the company of people who respected him and tried to make themselves understood.

Ada had always thought that her life had been hard, but seeing Thamo, her life in perspective seemed like an easy breeze. Even when she was oppressed by her sister and nobody seemed to be on her side, she at least was a princess and she was never forced to carry heavy buckets of water with a foot that literally did not function properly. She could always run to one of her many hiding places and spend some time, if not happily, at least somewhat contentedly. And what amazed Ada even more, was that although Thamo had had a much harder life than she did, he actually appeared to be much less emotionally scared by it than she had been. She just couldn’t understand him.

Sarya and Mok, who had known more people in their lifetime than Ada had, understood more what he had been through, but they also understood that although Thom had been able to force Thamo to do unreasonable chores and ignored his son completely, he hadn’t ever broken his son. There was an emotional strength to Thamo that had hardly been scratched and certainly never broken. The person that Thamo cared about the most, Araya, had always been there for him, and that had been enough for Thamo.

But regardless of their different levels of understanding, all three of them enjoyed the trip back as they tried to understand and copy the signs that Araya made, and tried their best to communicate with Thamo despite his hearing problems. Araya spent some time with them, but a lot of time she spent bickering with the two maids.

Marya and Brigita had been away from home far too long. The life at the Palace was quite nice even for servants, and Marya and Brigita, although completely loyal to their reigning monarchs, were quite fed up with having to sit on horseback all day and then prepare the food and the camp for everybody when they stopped. They did it without complaining, but as soon as Araya joined the party, their patience was tried to the max.

Araya was quite opinionated, and considered herself much more hardcore than all of the Royal Company combined. She decided to give all the maids tips on how to prepare everything, which was quite odd considering that the maids, having travelled already for the past two weeks, already had more hardcore travelling experience than Araya. But Araya did have some good points, because she was very used to climbing up into the mountains everyday to shepherd the sheep. Still, when she was actually right about something, that seemed to annoy the maids even more.

Eventually, during an extremely intense argument about the best way to roll out the bedding, Mok had to intervene.

“Come on girls,” he said to them, “Lets stop arguing now.”

Marya and Brigita had had a crush on Mok ever since he had come to stay with them, so they both stopped immediately, but Araya retorted, “We don’t need your help Mok.”

Mok just glanced at her, “I know you personally are alright doing everything by yourself, and maybe you even have good ideas about how to do it best, but Marya and Brigita here are the best trained servants at the Palace, and they can’t do their job correctly if you keep annoying them with your brilliant ideas. If you aren’t satisfied with their service, feel free to change your mat after they have rolled it out, but the rest of us are extremely appreciative of their service, so please don’t cause any more uproar.”

Araya looked a little abashed, but she nodded curtly and moved away into the woods. Mok shook his head, but stared after her. She walked a little way into the woods and sat on a stone. Mok just stood there watching her, but eventually realized that her shoulders were shaking. She was crying. Mok moved into the woods, sat down next to her and touched her arm softly.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “I am sorry that I was so harsh.”

Araya, through her tears, answered, “You aren’t a problem at all. But I don’t fit anywhere. Ada is a princess, you and Sarya are esteemed guests, and even Marya and Brigita are highly esteemed servants. I have never fit anywhere, but I have always had Thamo, and now he has a place too. He is going to be king. I am just trying to be useful, because my ideas are all that I have.”

The Queen hadn’t been exaggerating. Mok and Ada were fitted out in the best Acacian style. It was decided, that since they were used to only having Brigita and Marya serve them, that it would not be necessary to send any other servants along and might slow everything down in the process too. Marya and Brigita looked quite uncomfortable themselves, since it would be the first time in their life to have ever left their home. Ada had never quite felt at home in the Palace, and she did have that rebellious streak of Bythian blood in her, so she was quite at ease, as were Mok and Sarya since they were both well travelled.

They left the Palace at Midday after a farewell feast that was thrown in their especial honor. The Queen herself said goodbye to them and asked them to return as soon as possible. Mok just nodded and replied, “Of course! I still have a theater to finish after all!”

The theater that Mok had been built was quite luxurious already. He had already organized all of the builders who had added the building onto the south-east corner of the castle. The architectural structure was quite amazing and quite unique to Mok and his style. But the inner furnishings were not finished, so Mok would have to return to oversee them.

The Acacian royals did all learn to ride from a very young age, so Ada looked very regal and comfortable on her steed, whereas Mok and Sarya, who had never riden before in their life, looked quite out of place. The maids didn’t look like they were faring much better, but as Ada led them out the gate, they looked very much like a team of royal ambassadors indeed. The Statue of the Bythiana seemed to look a little wistful as they disappeared into the distance.

When leaving the Palace, Ada seemed to leave the whole burden of her princess-hood and her sad childhood behind her. She began to sing at the top of her lungs simply a ditty about the goodness of humanity and how life was looking up for her. Marya and Brigita joined right in as well. Whenever Ada saw any peasants she sung out the news that there was a royal procession going to see one Thamo of the Plains of the Sheep. The Peasants seemed to enjoy this news greatly and began to sing very loudly about the crazy royals who would uproot from their Palace in order to go to the Plains of the Sheep and talk with the son of a shepherd.

The company of five travelled in relative comfort. Marya and Brigita had insisted on bringing an especially comfortable bed roll for the princess to sleep on, but it was still much harder than she had ever had to sleep on before. Still, she thoroughly enjoyed her time. Travelling at that time was extremely difficult. One couldn’t just cut through the mountains and forests unless one was really up for some hard trails. Rather, one had to work one’s way through the different villages in the country, twisting and turning.

The Plains of Sheep were really quite close to the Palace, but since there was a good deal of woods between them and the company were in no hurry at all, the journey took close to two weeks. King John the foolish had once made the journey in a day, but that was riding his horse at breakneck pace and took him a little bit to the north and through the forests on some paths that were better kept at that time. This company started out riding to the south and then made their way carefully around the whole forest.

Sarya and Ada had brought along their sketch pads so that they could remember sights and paint them later. They happily took a break about every hour to stop and draw some super spectacular sight or other. Mok had absolutely nothing against this plan either, since he had been feeling somewhat cooped up in the Palace for the past two years. Only Marya and Brigita had something against the plan, since they were born and bred Acacians, and although they felt it was their duty to come along on this crazy journey, they were resigned to their fate. But they both had also decided that they would by no means enjoy this crazy journey. Rather, they would sit very quietly and sullenly on their horses, and try to look as if they weren’t extremely worried every time Ada or one of the Bythians suggested a break to view some amazing sight or other.

Ada had used the library as a means for escaping from her mean older sister, and she had always been extremely enthralled with Acacian history and read up on every little thing that she could possibly find. Some of her ancestors had made some trips around Acacia and mentioned the things that they considered worth mentioning, so now Ada paid careful attention to the sights and when she saw something that one of the previous rulers had mentioned, stopping was not only a suggestion but also a command.

Despite their continual breaks, the company arrived at the Plain of Sheep in a little less than two weeks. They were, by that time, extremely sore, and not exactly as enthralled with travelling as they had been in the beginning. Mok and Sarya had lived near the mountains in their home country, and both of them would have felt quite at home if it hadn’t been for the fact that there were so many sheep everywhere. It seemed as if there were shepherds with flocks of sheep frolicking around everywhere. And Ada sensed a lightness in the air that simply wasn’t there in the Palace and the villages surrounding the Palace. She fell silent and just listened for a moment and promptly told the others to be quite as well. There was a sound in the air that she had never heard before she had met Mok.

Laughter. More exactly, male laughter.

Ada stared in amazement as a group of shepherds burst our of their pack of sheep. She was shocked. She had also not seen many men in her life, but she, unlike Analia, had made it a point to go into the village and visit the subjects that could one day be hers. She had seen the men there, and although they were just as ugly as these shepherds, they looked so miserable and hateful that Ada didn’t like them at all. But these shepherds were lighthearted. Apparently someone had told a joke? In Acacia? Wow. Ada was already impressed. And in their home spun garments, amidst loads of other sheep they didn’t look nearly as bad as the people in the village where Ada had visited.

Then they saw the royal procession. The first look that crossed their faces was one of complete disbelief. The next was that, after seeing the women in the party, the common look of depression that Ada had seen on the faces of so many men in her life somehow crept back. She sadly shook her head and adressed the shepherds, “Excuse me sirs. Could you please tell me the whereabouts of one Thamo of the Plains of Sheep?”

The men, at first startled by her use of the polite word ‘sirs’ eventually managed to mutter out that there was a crippled boy, Thamo, who lived in the village at the base of the Sparkling Springs.

Ada thanked the men and the party went on. They asked some more shepherds for directions, and recieved the same shocked look each time, but they found it quite easy to find there way to the hut of Thom the Shepherd where he lived with his son Thamo and his daughter Araya.

Thom came to the door of the cottage and Ada addressed him, “Excuse me sir. I have come from Queen Aralya of Acacia, who would like to discuss your son. Her daughter, Princess Analia of Acacia, is interested in having his hand in marriage.”

Thom perked up at the thought of being able to marry Thamo off. And to a princess no less! He replied quickly, “Very good. I will make sure to make arrangements to bring him to the Palace.”

Ada shook her head. “I am afraid that won’t be necessary. We have also come to escort Thamo. He is to come with us. We have brought an extra horse as well.” Thom nodded his approval, but at that moment a small blond shadow stepped out from behind the door.

“Thamo won’t go anywhere without me,” Araya said in a matter of fact manner. Thom’s face changed right away.

“Maybe there will be complications then,” he said, “My son is no good for shepherding, but my daughter is indispensable to me.”

“We understood that there would be complications, but I was sent to make sure that the complications would be overcome. We have brought gold and jewels as monetary compensation for your agreement to send your son and anything that your son might need. If your son won’t come without your daughter, unfortunately we will be needing to take her away from you as well.”

At the mention of money and the realization that he couldn’t very well just ignore the command of the Queen of Acacia, Thom reluctantly agreed and went back into the house. Araya came out of the house to introduce herself.

“I am Araya,” she said, smiling brightly.

Ada introduced herself as well, and when Araya realized that she was actually in the presence of one of the princesses of Acacia, she at once apologized for not being politer and tried to curtsey. This attempt was so awkward and ungainly that Mok, who had a very good sense of style and everything art related, burst out laughing.

At this Araya turned indignantly to Mok. “And who might you be?” she demanded. “Are you a prince of Acacia or something?”

Mok chuckled and replied, “No, I am definitely not ugly enough to be Acacian. I am from Bythia.” This slur against her country, especially in front of one of the royal class, seemed to spark a fire of fury in Araya. She glared at Mok with a defiance that he had never felt before in his life and replied indignantly, “I thought you looked much too stuck up to be an Acacian male.”

At this, Ada started to laugh, and she apologized to Araya for Mok and rebuked him gently, “Be careful Mok! You always offend the important ones!”

At this Mok rolled his eyes. “How can she be important?” he asked, “She looks like she has been running wild in the mountains for her whole life?”

Araya threw back her shoulders defiantly, “That is a pretty good description,” she said, “But I am important, because I guarantee that my brother is going nowhere without me.”

“Crazy guy,” muttered Mok under his breath, “I would prefer to go nowhere with you.” But Araya luckily didn’t hear, and Sarya punched Mok as hard as she could in the arm to make him shut up. Which he reluctantly did.

“Now,” said Ada, “I’d like to meet your brother.”

“Of course,” said Araya, “Right this way please.”

They traveled down the road of the village, and Araya began to chatter her head off. This was technically extremely improper, but Araya didn’t technically know that, and Ada didn’t seem to mind. Ada was now becoming extremely curious what this new comer, Thamo, would look like, since there was so much hype about him.

“So,” she asked Araya, “What exactly is your brother like?”

“There aren’t words to describe Thamo,” Araya replied, “But his heart is as pure as a diamond.”

“Oh great,” thought Ada, “To give that heart to Analia…what a shame.” But she kept her mouth shut. If she told Araya not to come, then her mother would be extremely angry. And it was only to ‘discuss’ the wedding afterall. Thamo didn’t actually have to go through with it if he didn’t want to. At least, Ada didn’t think so. There hadn’t been a forced marriage in the history of Acacia, but with Analia and the Queen, there could always be a first time.

“Look!” Araya exclaimed, “There is Thamo coming down the street right now!”