Lucid Waking

Rain kisses the sea
From gray to gray it falls.
The wind is flying free
The thunder, across sky, calls.

The sun slices through the cloud
As a maestro stopping a song;
The sky is now a holey shroud
With streams of sun shooting down.

The debris upon the shore
Litters up the tide.
The water pulls up ever more
From the darkness inside.

So suddenly it came and went
A ghost that wreaked its havoc.
Perhaps another reason lies
Behind the silver horizon line
That tells a different story
Beyond the wind and rain.

Somewhere beyond the human eye
Someone started a petty fight.
But no one remembers the reason why,
Or who was to blame for their plight.

One attacked with bullets of rain
The other with cannons of wind.
Despite the number of casualties made
Not enough fell to cause the war’s end.

But finally the losing side
Came up with something bold and daft
And grayed the skies to hide the surprise
Of their plan of attack.

They struck down beams of energy,
A flash with each drum beat
And shot down the opposing team
With bombs of smoke and heat.

When all was done the losing side
Ended up victorious.
The other side could not stand
The strength of the new weapon.
So now the winning side that lost
Are a mess of broken ships.

Their ships were swept out to shore
To clean up all the mess
And now we get to see the war
As flotsam and some jetsum.

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The big blue ball bounced
Heartily down the hill toward the sea.
Warm wind tosses mist from
The foamy white tips
Of the sapphire blue water.
A child’s kick gone astray,
The little ball flies merrily to splash into the sea.
The water plays with the ball,
Carrying it upon its waves
Through night and day,
Moon and sun, rain or shine,
It brings it to the opposite shore
Into the midst of a little boy
Throwing stones into the tide.
The blue ball sits upon the shore
Beckoning the boy to play with it.
Stones were not much of a joy
Splashing into the tide with a thump
Plopping steadily into the sand
With little more than a misty spray.
He runs across the deserted beach
And kicks the ball across the sand.
Instantly he finds the toy
Is not a broken hand-me-down,
But a lost new treasure he’s only dreamed of
from windows of shops farther into town.
He kicks it harder and hits the ground running
After this toy, his ball,
His friend.

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        “So we’ll meet on Saturday,” Monica said.
         “Yeah, we’ll take the Skokie swift down to Howard and then switch to the Red line, which we’ll then take to the library,” I answered.
         “All right, I’ll call Jamie. Hopefully that shouldn’t be a problem.”
         “Ok…see you Saturday.”
         “Yep, see ya.”
         I hung up the phone. This project was ending up being a much larger pain than we had thought. Too bad it was a requirement. I opened up my Internet browser and searched for the train schedule. I knew Monica would call back soon asking about a time, so I thought I’d be prepared. I clicked on the button labeled “train schedule” and looked for the Skokie swift, yellow line. My phone rang again just as I read “weekdays only.”
         “Jamie said it was all right with her, but she’s going to drive, she has a family thing, so she’s going to meet us whenever we get to the library. What time is that, by the way?”
         “Well the swift doesn’t run on Saturdays, so why don’t we just meet at Howard and take the red line down?”
         “Sounds good to me,” she said. “Time?”
         “Oh, yeah. How’s three?”
         Soon it was three o’clock on Saturday and I was in the car next to my mom. She had informed me that we were approaching the station, so I called Monica just to ask where she was.
         “I’m at the corner right before the station.”
         “Oh, I’m almost there.”
         We passed by the corner, but just saw the usual plethora of unknown, tired people.
         “Wait, where are you?”
         “I’m getting close to the corner. Where are you?”
         “In the car passing by Osco.”
         “Oh, I think I see you.”
         “Let me out here,” I told my mom.
         “Here?” she looked out my window before driving past. “There’s no one there. Where is she?”
         “Where are you?” I called into the phone.
         “In the car behind you.”
         I looked out the rearview mirror into her face peering at me from the windshield of the blue car behind us. My mom dropped me off by a parking complex a little ways from the station. Monica appeared behind me. The daylight was waning. I was nervous to be walking in the middle of the city as it was getting dark, but I knew this project had to get done, so I kept close to Monica and continued on.
        The tracks were under construction, so the street was dirtier than usual and had less space to walk. We followed a maze of fences to the opening of the subway, dirty and dark. As much as I liked Chicago, I don’t think I could ever live in the city. It was dirty and dark, despite trying to be clean and pretty. The El stations were the worst example of this in the city.
        We paid for a transit card and somehow managed to deal with the machines that kept spitting out cards and not letting us go through in time for the train to arrive. We checked the map, made note to get off at Jackson and then sat down on a seat. The train surged forward before finding a steady stream of motion. I watched the people leave and arrive trying not to stare too much.
        Monica’s phone rang; her conversation left me time to look out the window and think. I pondered what I was going to do when I got home, how much homework was still left, how long it had been since I had called my friends at college, the last time I had been on the El. I watched the sky get darker and the city below us get lighter. I checked my watch: 3:40. The library closed at 7.
        The surrounding stations seemed less and less familiar as we went along and stops they were calling were not on the map above the door. I was getting nervous, but I had faith in the system. Besides, we could turn around at anytime.
        “Hey, can you take Lake Shore Drive to Harold Washington?” Monica asked me pulling me from my city watching.
        “I guess so. I’m not really sure where we’re going…”
        “Yeah,” she said into the phone. “No, Bri doesn’t know either how to get there, but she said it goes through.”
        The lady behind us turned around. She was dressed surreptitiously in pink and at first, tried to catch our eye. Now that she had it she turned all the way around.
        “Are you trying to get to Harold Washington Library from Lake Shore Drive?”
        “Yes,” I answered. “Or, my friend is.”
        “Tell them to take it straight and then turn on Jackson, which if you go straight will turn onto Congress. That should get them to the library.”
        Monica repeated the directions into the phone and then hung up.
        “Monica,” I said quietly, “this doesn’t seem to be going the route we thought.”
        “This is a red line train being rerouted on the upper route,” the conductor said over the fuzzy speakers. “Washington is next.”
        “Look,” Monica said pointing to the label above the window. It had turned from the red “95th/Dan Ryan” that it had when we got on, to a purple “Loop.”
        “When did that happen?” I asked, laughing nervously.
        “I don’t know,” she said laughing back. “Well we want to go to the loop, so maybe we’ll be Ok.”
        The lady in front of us turned around again. “You can get the library if you stay on the line; it’ll take a while, but you want to get off at Library stop.”
        “Thanks,” I said, relaxing a bit.
        I went back to musing out the window, watching the waning light nervously. I checked my watch: 4:15. The train continued on, changing back the to the red label in the window that said “95th/Dan Ryan.”
        “Cermak-Chinatown is the next stop,” the conductor said.
        Monica and I exchanged looks.
        “Chinatown is way too far,” Monica said. “We’ve completely passed the library.”
        Just like Huckleberry Finn, this was turning into an adventure on train like an unpredictable river. But unlike Huck, I did not like adventure. It clouded my judgment and made me nervous which didn’t help since we were miles away from our intended destination. “What do we do?” I asked, my stomach tightening. I could feel the tears burn in my eyes, but I focused hard on keeping them in check.
        “We’ll get off on the next stop, see where we are, and then get on a train back to Howard.”
        “Ok,” I said. I felt a little calmer having a goal in mind. The train stopped and we got off calmly into the freezing         Windy City. The light was barely visible above the buildings and the station was dim as the train sped off towards the end of the line. Monica pulled out her map.
        “See, we’re too far South,” she said. “We just need to find a train and go back the other way.”
        “God,” I said, letting loose a deep breath. “This is turning out to be a disaster.”
        “We’ll get there,” Monica smiled. “When does the library close again?”
        “Seven,” I said as a train came in with a roar. We quickly crowded into the car. This time only a couple seats were open. Three girls in front of us made a move to the back of the car, then changed their minds and went the other way. Not seeing any other seats, we sat in the ones they rejected.
        A man behind us sat against his seat, but a little too close for me. He smelled like old urine and seemed to have a shadow over his face. He was obviously someone who didn’t spend much money on clothes and my best guess was that he lived on the train. I refuse to turn around and kept on the edge of my seat, a little ashamed of being scared of him, but being scared nonetheless.
        “We’ll get off at the next stop,” Monica said. She seemed just as uncomfortable as me, though it was hard to tell. I nodded.
        The train stopped again and we got up as casually as we could going down the steps of the Washington station like it was our plan all along.
        “Now what?” Monica asked me.
        “Let’s see if we can get out of here.”
        “I’ll call Jamie, maybe she can give us a ride.”
        “I can call my mom and get us a ride, just incase.”
        We both dialed our cell phones, keeping close to one another and recounting our options. I looked around for a map, feeling hopelessly lost in space. This station was completely unfamiliar to me, but I was so lost by now, solid ground felt good, even if I ultimately went back on a train.
        I looked up and spotted a blue piece of paper frame on the wall that caught my eye by the words: “To all train passengers.”
        I read on:
        “Due to construction, the red line and blue line trains will be rerouted above ground from November 31 until February 5. We’re sorry for any inconvenience.”
         “Monica,” I pointed to the sign.
         She looked at it and smiled. “So that’s what’s going on,” she said.
         “Why can’t they make these signs larger?”
         She laughed.
        “Oh, Jamie?” she said, turning back to her phone, “Yeah, we’re stuck at Washington station…Well, funny story…”
         I followed her, waiting for her conversation to finish. The guards were looking at us strangely, but they didn’t bother us. Quite honestly, I don’t think we needed them anymore. People stared at us as we stood on inside the station and waited for an answer from Jamie.
         “She’s going to pick us up,” Monica said closing her phone.
         “All right, let’s go.” We left the station.
         It was completely dark now, but the lights and traffic lit our way. We crossed the street to the Starbucks. At least it would be warm, and we could avoid being bothered if we were out of the street. I felt safer being in a store with people than outside with no one around.
         We brought a little money for making copies, but my clock read 5:50 and both of our stomachs were growling, so we bought salads from the refrigerated case and ate heartily. Monica’s phone rang, and after hanging up she said,
         “She’s here.”
         I threw out my garbage and followed Monica out of the Starbucks where Jamie was waiting in her car.
         “Geez, Monica. You told me to park! I wasted money on parking!”
         “Thanks for picking us up,” I said.
         “No problem,” she said, “but somebody told me to park. If you needed help, don’t tell me to park! It was four dollars! Parking around here is not cheap.”
         Monica laughed.
         “I’ll pay you back,” I said.
         “No don’t worry about it, I’m just teasing her. I had just found a spot when Monica called for me to pick you up.”
         “Stupid El,” I said.
         We all laughed. We yelled at the other drivers and made jokes, switching the radio stations and singing along until we reached the library.
         “Get out,” Jamie said to Monica, “and help me park close to the curb.”
         Monica got out of the car and moved her arms like an air traffic cop squeezing herself as close to the bars of the blue line station as she could. We fed the meter and walked toward the gold and frosted glass door of the Harold Washington Library and pulled on the handle.
         The door didn’t move.
         “Look,” Monica said pointing to the window.
         “NO! We came all this way, too and the library closed at five!” Jamie said hitting her head with the base of her hand.
         “What?!” I said leaning forward to the schedule on the glass.
         “It closes at five on the weekends,” Monica said. “We missed it by and hour.”
         “But we went all this way…”
         “Yeah, and Mrs. Peterson said it was open until seven. She better give us extra credit for this!”
        “Lots of it,” I laughed.
        “We’ll make a Powerpoint about it,” Monica chimed in.
        “Anyway, you guys hungry?” Jamie asked. “I am. Let’s go to Chinatown and get some dinner.”

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        I went back along the passageway, being careful to listen at the door before I went through. There was no talking or commotion that I could tell, but I kept close to the ground pushing the door open and keeping my back to the wall as I went. The ringing silence hit my ears and I was almost at the third tapestry when the door opened in the opposite corner of the throne room with a bang.
        “She just disappeared,” the familiar voice of the guard said to someone.
        “We’ll find her,” another gruff voice said.
        I took the opportunity to push open the servant door, which thankfully was right where Princess Oriana had said it would be and slipped behind the tapestry letting the door close behind me silently. Also thankfully, the hinges were well used and silent. I had faith they didn’t hear anything as they were talking.
        I slipped through the passages as straight as I could. They were well lit, but strangely I didn’t run into any servants through the tunnels. I stopped at the sound of voices on one end of a passage. The room seemed quiet except for people talking, but what really piqued my interest was the sound of a name.
        “Sir Rhydderch, please, let’s not be irrational. The girl is absolutely frightened.”
        Rhydderch. Samuel Rhydderch. It wasn’t such a common last name in any of the empires and though there was a slight chance it could be another Sam Rhydderch, I highly doubted it.
        The last place I had heard that name was on a wanted poster back in Edelsburg, in a town a couple hours’ ride from where I was currently. I had chased him for avoiding the police and charges of arson, theft, and scrounging public funds. It made sense I would find him in the gold capital of the world.
        “Of course she’s frightened. She should be afraid of the king! Fear establishes power and maintains it.”
        “But is there no other way of getting the money?”
        I crept closer to the end of the passage being extra careful to stay in the shadows. I could see Samuel Rhydderch, looking just as I remembered him. The king sat at the head of the table, keeping silent this whole time and looking grave and focused. The third person in the room I could only see the back of his head, but he was finely dressed and seemed quite flustered in the way he talked. I sat down a ways from the opening so I could keep an eye on the meeting.
        “Of course not!” Sam said hitting the table “The king is now among the poorest of his subjects and this cannot continue! Besides, you need money for a larger army. Edelsburg keeps getting larger.”
        “Nonsense, Edelsburg continues to be friendly to us,” the other man said. “And the treasury is full of taxes.”
        “A daughter is no good, anyway,” Sam continued. “They cost much more than sons between dowry and always shopping for more goods, and jewelry. Women are much more costly than men.”
        It took all I had to stop myself from laughing. Disregarding the sexism of the statement, it was incredibly ironic that this man had cost the kingdom of Edelsburg hundreds of thousands of dollars almost annually before he was traced and caught. In this case, a man was much more costly than any woman I know.
        “Her gilding date is set,” the king said finally, standing up, “and I believe that’s final on the matter. You have far too many personal reasons involved in this, Lord Argyris for me to believe you have the interest of the country at heart.”
        Personal matters?
        “Please, sir, a final word with your daughter?”
        The king looked at Argyris with contempt but then waved him away with his hand. “I will allow it, but do not be there when I arrive to take her.”
        Both Samuel and Argyris bowed deeply as the king passed before glaring at each other behind his back. Samuel followed the king out while Argyris stayed behind. The door was shut thoroughly behind them before Argyris moved towards the passage. I stood up and made towards the nearest branch away.
        I managed to duck out of the way and slide into darkness before he got to the passage. He was so much into this thoughts that he walked past me without a glance and continued down the passage the way I had just come. I moved forward into the room. There was no other way to go besides the throne room and, for obvious reasons, that was not my best option. I exited the door out the hall and following the path of mirrors and statues, found the spot behind a vase of flowers where I could hide. The king’s chambers looked like they were down the hall, so I cast my luck on the fact that they would come down this path again and lead me down to the fountain.
        My gut instinct proved correct as the door opened again later in the evening and the king came through the door leading a procession of guards. His daughter was in the middle and Samuel held up the rear. I followed them at a distance, but close enough to see the path they were taking.
        Finally they came to a door with a silver doorknob and red ribbon tied around it. The king tapped it twice with his finger before stepping back and letting it swing open revealing a blue-lit stairwell before them. He continued down the stairs, everyone else following as well. I knew I had a clear shot to capture Sam and get away from here, but tying him up might make noise and if it didn’t, his absence would alert the guards.
        I followed closely behind him and down the steps into a large shimmering room designed in black with gold accents and flowers along the wall. In the center of the room was a large fountain, still spewing water that fell into gold basin after gold basin until it reached the pool below, which was large enough to be used as a public bath if it didn’t have water made of gold.
        Because the walls were so dark, I could easily hide in the shadows so long as I was quiet and I sat on the penultimate stair and watched the procedure. I was neither sure what to expect nor what to do, but watching was the first step to anything. Timing is crucial.
        Oriana was in the middle of the line and her father was at the front. As soon as he had sat down, the line of guards split to make an isle for her. Samuel was in the back of the line. She turned around, but finding the way blocked, turned back and made her way to the edge of the fountain.
        Someone started reciting something I could guess was probably a holy book. My stomach dropped as I listened like everyone else to their justification for drowning her in gold. The speaker went on and on about sin and redemption and how she must pay for what she stole, though they glossed over exactly what it was.
They lifted her by her bonds and held her up above the water. She was crying silently and no matter how sick I felt about it, I couldn’t figure out what to do. The guard was standing precariously on the edge of the water, holding one end of a rope that went through a pulley in the ceiling. I considered hitting him with something, but that would cause him to drop her in the water. Even if I came out of my hiding spot, they would drop her anyway.
        “Your majesty, there’s someone here,” Sam said.
        I looked into his eyes looking in my direction. I slunk farther back into the shadows.
        “What? Lieutenant, tie the prisoner up and go look.”
        Samuel didn’t wait for help and took a step closer to the stairs. He looked up, but whether he saw me or not, but he kept walking up them. I took out my rope and held it behind my back until he was right next to me. I swung it over his neck and pushed gently, putting pressure on his windpipe but not enough to smash it.
        He struggled against me a bit, but only managed to almost choke himself by falling down the stairs. Being merciful, I went with him as he fell. The guard who had come to help Samuel had backed up, but he was closest to where we landed in the middle of guards at the bottom of the stairs.
        There was a great commotion as people tried grabbing me, but I kept my hand on the rope and Sam as he stumbled with me to the corner of the room.
        I had no weapons save speed, agility, and brute strength. I also had my rope, but it was being used. However, if I left it, someone would come along and let him free. I dodged flying weapons and limbs, somehow holding onto the end of the rope. I probably survived it only because I was using Samuel as a shield and he was practically royalty. One of the newer guards made a step and a swing for me leaving his right side open for me to barge into him knocking him down and another soldier next to him. There was a splash and a pause as I realized where I was and what had happened.
        The water churned for a bit before returning to normal and bubbling happily with a new gold treasure in its depths. I had no time at all before I was almost hit in the head by a sword hilt, but I managed to spot it out of the corner of my eye. The guard’s sword had fallen into the water right next to him, out of my reach. I swore under my breath. The king had left his throne, not surprisingly, so I started to make my way to that hoping to tie Sam to it and then be able to use both hands to somehow win a fight against half a dozen soldiers. Well, only four, one was by the king and another I had pushed in the water. I had been in fistfights before, but what persuaded me that I could do it to four people at once with weapons was beyond me, probably the adrenaline.
Luckily Oriana was not gagged, but she had found out the hard way trying to swing to the side would only pull the rope so she was closer to the water.
        “Get him to the fountain,” she yelled over the noise. There was a loud smack and a groan from her but I didn’t lose a moment waiting.
        I pulled on the end of the rope the opposite direction and went towards the fountain. I was kicking bodies as hard as I could, trying to disarm them with whatever skills I did or did not have. I somehow managed to push someone else into the water on my way before managing to get Samuel by the edge of the fountain kicking him in the small of the back. He fell and ended up lying on the edge of the fountain only being supported by my rope. I hated to see anyone like that, even a criminal. He managed to get to his feet well enough pulling me closer to the fountain, but leaving both of us in a position that even if I got pushed in, he would go first.
        “Enough,” the king yelled. I wondered what had taken him so long.
        The guards stepped aside sheathing their weapons and making a path for the king to glare at me. I stared back. He took a step forward.
        “Who are you?”
        “Carmen Teasdale.”
        The king gave me a shocked look. “Why are you here? I didn’t think a bounty hunter would come to save a princess?”
        “I’m just here for Samuel Rhydderch, what you do with your daughter is your own choice.”
        “I see. You do know he’s under protection of law? He’s a king’s advisor.”
        “You do know what he’s done to the government of Edelsburg?”
        The king harrumphed. “What he’s done to the king of Edelsburg does not concern me.”
        “Maybe not, but if I don’t take him away alive, someone else will take him away, dead. If he’s alive, you can have a talk with the king of Edelsburg about getting him freed.”
        The king laughed. “What position are you in to make deals with me? I wave my hand and my guards will turn you into gold.”
        “At the expense of your right hand advisor. If I go, so does he.”
        The king stood a while in thought. Oriana groaned behind me, but I didn’t turn around.
        “I suppose you’ll ask then for my daughter to be set free. You’re getting too involved in ethics.”
        “I’m merely doing my job. And I never said anything about your daughter. But… there’s more than gold in the world.”
        “This coming from a bounty hunter.”
        “I do more than just get money. My job is getting tricky criminals off the streets. People get paid for their jobs. But my job does not involve helping out with family problems. I’ll leave with just Samuel and won’t bother you again.”
        “Provided I let you,” the king raised his hand and his guards started to move towards me again.
        “Well, a fight would be easier if I didn’t have a rope to hold onto,” I said nonchalantly.
        The king looked from me to his guards and put his hand down. “Fine, you may go. But tell your king I am not happy to see my advisor off.”
        I made my way towards the stairs after tying up Samuel’s hands so he could follow me all the way to Theirn in front of the castle. I gathered up my things from the guards at the front gate, who were utterly oblivious to the goings on inside. I suppose that made my escape easier. Finally armed again, I mounted my horse and tied the end of the rope to the horn of my saddle.
        “You’re walking,” I said to him. He glared at me, but I started moving.
        “You know he wasn’t really going to gild her,” Sam said. “He was getting second thoughts.”
        “That’s not our business,” I said. “Especially not yours.”
        Indentations of sand where our feet had been led out from the city and into the large expanse of desert in front of us. Though I knew we’d be there by nightfall, I felt like I still had a long way to go.

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        I watched them go for a moment before turning my back on the alleyway. I had no ideas where to go to find the thief I was following, but I knew the place to start was to tell the king his kingdom was harboring a criminal. Having him on my side was much easier than doing it alone. For one, I didn’t have to escape the law because it would be on my side. I had learned my lesson well after the incident where I had to track down a criminal in foreign streets thinking I would be protected by Edelsburg law system. The only reason I avoided jail was because they had no evidence I had done anything wrong other than trespassing. But even though it was a waste in bail, I learned my lesson: it was easier going along with the law.
        The castle was the easiest to find. It was the center of the labyrinth: the starting and ending point that all paths led to. The two guards gave me minimum hassle, but by the time I went in, I had no armor, weapons, or horse. The king’s hall rose up into a dome in the middle of the room while the outer circle remained at even height. It was where his servants stood and gold statues supported it up. Some had terrified looks on their faces and all were facing outward at the passage around the side of the room. The throne was the only thing not gold: birch wood with black velvet seat underneath a giant dragon skeleton overlooking the person on the seat.
        “We’ll get him for you, Miss,” one of the guards said behind me. He walked around to the left of the room and vanished behind the gigantic skeleton. A door opened and shut leaving the room ringing with silence.
        I walked over to the wall and leaned against it feeling the cold stone and trying not to stare into the eyes of a terrified pillar. Her hands were bound as well as her feet, and looked much more real than any other statue I had seen before. I reached out to touch it and that’s when I noticed the sound of sobs. I followed the wall to the right of the room, my ear as close to the stone as possible, backtracking when the sound got faint. The door opened on the other side of the room and shut loudly, the sound echoing throughout the domed space.
        “He’s not seeing anyone today, Miss…Miss?”
        My hand brushed behind a tapestry, past a seam, and onto wood. I lowered my hand and pushed the door. There was a tiny bit of give. I continued pushing and fell behind the tapestry, putting all of my weight into the door. In a creak, the door gave way and I slipped behind it listening as hard as I could to the guard’s reaction.
        He called out a little while before running off and I knew that gave me a couple minutes to find out where I was and to get out. I sighed. In the first five minutes of my meeting and I’ve gotten myself into trouble. The corridor behind me was dark but not dusty, there were torch brackets on the wall every three feet or so, and a light at the end of the hall. Luckily the passage didn’t open up straight into the other room, and there was a thin paper-like material covering the hole that allowed enough light to see by into the dark passage.
        Somehow in my panic, I had managed to find the source of the sobbing. A girl was lying on the bed her back up to the ceiling and completely engrossed in whatever she was crying about. Her feet were tied with rope, but her hands were free and clutching the pillow. There were no servants in the room but a quick check against the paper made it clear I wouldn’t get in without making a lot of noise.
        The girl pushed herself out of bed with both her feet on the floor and took a shaky breath. She looked at me, but I knew she didn’t see anything and then hopped over to her vanity. I watched her utterly stumped on what to do as she brushed her hair until it shined. She had blonde hair.
        I remember thinking: My God, why is everything here gold? before the door and a servant came in with a tray of water and food. The serving girl left it on the table and walked out, locking the door behind her. That’s when I decided to risk a confrontation. If she was being locked in, why should she rat me out? I kicked the paper with a loud rip and proceeded to pull it up so I could climb through.
        The girl exclaimed and tried to jump back, but she ended up tripping herself on her bonds and fell backwards. There was a loud bang as she fell, and for a moment both of us stayed still staring at each other and straining for another noise.
        “That happens a lot,” she said after minutes went by. Her voice reminded me of an hourglass and the smooth falling of sand. I reached to help her up.
        “Thanks.” She hopped over to her bed and sat down. “Take a seat.”
        “Sorry to intrude,” I said, blushing a bit. It hit me how absurd the situation was, but I had a goal in mind and this was the only way I could see of getting there. I took a seat on the vanity chair she had just left and turned to face her.
        “Mind if I ask your name?” I asked.
        “Princess Oriana d’Arani. Except I’m not really a princess anymore.”
        “Oh, why do you say that?”
        Oriana started crying again. “My father wants to have me gilded.”
        I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. I didn’t know what gilding was, except with gold onto a wooden object, but she was obviously upset and any response I could come up with was pretty heartless. Thankfully she relieved me of having to answer.
        “What’s your name?”
        “Carmen.”
        She nodded. “How’d you get here? The passage used to be for servants so they could send messages into my room, but, well, this is sort of a prison now.”
        “Well,” I paused gathering up my options: lie or truth. “I’m a bounty hunter and I’m looking for someone who wandered into your city. But I’ve gotten myself into a bit of a scrape…”
        “Oh,” she said, “well, I can’t go very far from my room because of this rope, but I can tell you how to get to my father’s chambers. You could talk to him or Sir Argyris, he was my father’s right hand advisor and he’s very kind.”
        “That’s probably not best,” I said, glancing towards the passage. “Tell me a little bit about this gilding.”
        She took a deep breath. “About a hundred years ago, my ancestor, who was a baron at the time, was wandering through the desert and found a fountain in the sand. It just seemed to have appeared out of nowhere and at first, he was sure it was a mirage. However, the fountain stayed for three days without disappearing. He thanked God for this source of water and then started to refill his water skin before leading his camels to drink. But as he lowered the skin down to take the water, it turned to solid gold. He realized that touching the water made things into gold and struck by a sudden idea, he went back to get supplies. He carried with him gallons of water and shovels and with his family, built himself a house around the fountain. This house grew and became the Castle d’Arani and the family grew and attracted other people from nearby towns or those who were banished into the desert where they lived. There was no need for crime because people had all the money in the world. If there was a dispute, a guard was there to break it up. So the city has flourished for a century, digging farther into the ground and setting up wells for water. We grow our own food and generally, everyone is happy.”
        “Interesting story, but you didn’t tell me about gilding.”
        “I told you! Gilding is when the king takes anything he wants down into the Well Room and dips it into the waters turning it into gold. All the kings have done that, especially with criminals.” Oriana burst into tears. “And I don’t know why I’m being treated like a criminal.”
        “Calm down,” I said, “it’ll work out.”
        “You’ll help me?”
        “I’m not promising anything,” I said mentally kicking myself, “but I’ll try.”
        “Oh thank you,” she tried to get up and move towards me, but she succeeded in tripping and catching herself on her knees. “At least get me out of these bonds.”
        “What sort of rope is that?” I asked.
        “It was a gift from the King of Edelsburg,” she said. “Hydra rope, I think. The more you cut off, the more is in the box when you open it again and it ties like no other. You could have a bow, and no matter how hard you pull, it just won’t come undone.”
        Hydra rope. I needed some of that.
        “Anyway, the passages are all interconnected,” she continued. “If you go out the throne room and go past two tapestries, there’s another door behind the third one. It’s used more often, so if you push and run through it shouldn’t take too much effort. That one leads to all the other servant passages to anywhere in the castle. It used to lead to mine, but that was sealed off. Well, good luck.”
        “Thank you.”

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        Golden dust circled around the horse’s feet as it strained to go faster, the body stretched out completely in the air before it landed again and crunched upon itself to push off again. The man and his black horse were just out of reach, but if I shot at him, his horse would spook and change course. My mistake was in thinking that there was only desert and nowhere for him to go. With that in mind, I chased him straight into the growing blob of sand adobes and white cotton tents.
        Arani. If there was anywhere a stranger should go visit, it was there. The gargoyles were almost solid gold and people traded fruit instead of coins for value. Thieves ran rampant and the general police force cared nothing about it. The king was so corrupt that everyone except the townspeople seemed to know it but the only people depressed and ill were the princess and the poor. But no one else cared as long as it stayed that gold was stuffing their pockets. The rich were gold and the poor were mud and there was an abundance of all four.
         Ironically, the city lay in the middle of the desert, one of the more golden places on the planet. Also ironically, I found it by accident following a criminal for his bounty. The price on his head was too much to pass up; high prices guarantee harder work. The hard ones had the worst crimes anyway.
        There was no gate or walls; the city just sort of petered out once it was out of the shade and into the sun. Overshadowing most of the market place and residential district was the castle, a large stone building with gold doors, shutters, curtains, and gargoyles. The guards had gold armor and gold tipped spears and stood as perfect bookends next to the door. It was like the closer people were to the castle, the better off they would be and leaving the shade of the castle meant leaving the security of the king.
The market place started as soon as I hit the border of shade and continued in a semi-circle around the western edge of the edifice. My little victim had escaped in the mass of people and somehow had through without attracting too much notice as he ran through the throng of people.
        I got off my horse and followed the curve of the building as close as I could watching the bustle of people as I went along. It was fascinating, really; the yelling and shoving and bickering between prices as bags of gold and silver changed hands. The castle soon turned into a residential district with mud buildings making their own shade. The market place stopped at the steps of cheap crumbling apartment buildings on the edge of the district.
Between two of these buildings, a little ways from the castle a group of people had gathered around a street performer. The girl looked no more than fifteen but was more flexible than children half her age. She flipped upside down over the scarf she had tied to a plank bridging the roofs of two buildings, kicking her feet in the air in a single movement, and squeezed her muscles as hard as she could to stay perfectly upright. She watched as people threw coins into her hat and clapped. She climbed higher, tied herself up, and then let herself spin down the length of the scarf to the dust below. She bowed deeply, counted to three, and then stood up and held the already full hat for people to put their coins in. Money flew at her and she caught every coin nodding her head to the patrons she saw every single day.
        With a flick of her cap, the coins were gone and bowing again, she placed the hat upon her head. A simple tug and the scarf fell down from the rafter into her hand. The alleyway was empty, now, as all the people had left to tend to other things.
        “Good show.”
        She turned around to face a boy she seemed to know leaning against a building on her left. His brown hair looked black in the shadows, but his eyes were still a vibrant green of an unripe lime. He was tall, but slightly muscular and compact and in his hand was a bag of coins.
        “You got quite a bit of money,” he said.
        “People were just feeling really generous today,” the girl answered. “Something going on?”
        “The king is happy again. Probably some new source of gold.”
        “As if that’s what we need. You can’t really trade money for anything anymore.”
        “Except for food and that’s all we need.”
        “True, let’s go get—”
        “Hey what do you want?” The boy turned to address me, his eyes flashing angrily.
        “Information,” I said walking forward into the alleyway between the buildings. “Just information. Why so jumpy?”
        He relaxed a bit. “The king likes to arrest people who take money from the rich. No one but guards carry guns.”
        “We’ll I can assure you, I’m not a guard.”
        “I assumed that. What sort of information do you want?”
        “How about starting with your names.”
        “We don’t have to tell you anything,” the girl said. “We’re not giving you anything to put us away.”
        “Mi, shut up,” the boy whispered as he pushed her gently aside. He looked me up and down as he debated whether to trust me or not. I let him ponder; if he chose to ultimately leave me alone that was his choice and I’d respect that.
        “Miana and Tam,” he said pointing to the girl and himself, respectively.
        “I still don’t trust her, Tam,” Miana said whispering loudly in his ear, trying to pull him away. “She could be lying and we’d never know until it was too late.”
        “Trust me,” he whispered back to her. Then back to me: “What’s your name?”
        “Carmen Teasdale.”
        “Wait, the Carmen Teas—”
        “Yes. Now, tell me what’s the latest news with your king.”
        “Oh, well, I didn’t know I was addressing the lovely Miss Teasdale,” he pulled away from Miana’s grip on his shoulders and faced me again. “Sure, I can tell you what you want to know. King Edward is a greedy little brat and loves gold more than life itself. And so, he looks for new ways to acquire it.”
        “Doesn’t every king?”
        “Eh, sure. But he’s obsessed with it; the only time he’s happy is when he gets more of it. He buys things to be built and then the money goes in circulation or he keeps whatever statue he makes out of it and then has more than every body else. You’d think with all this money rolling around there wouldn’t be people like us having to perform for it, but prices keep getting higher these days…”
        “Naturally.”
        “Tam, we’d better go. You know what you’d get if they caught you talking that way,” Miana whispered tugging on his shirtsleeve.
        “Yeah, in a minute,” he said pushing her away. “How’d you come here to us, Miss Teasdale?”
        “There’s a bounty on someone’s head and his trail led here.”
        “Whoa, cool!”
        Miana was looking more and more nervous and trying as best she could to sink into the shadows and disappear. Tam however was the complete opposite of her, excited as a cat about to get a chunk of fish. I glanced around, but there was no one around us save Theirn, my horse. I trust his instinct more than my own and he was lying in the sand calmly swishing the flies away with his tail.
        “How old are you, kids?”
        “I’m fifteen and Mi’s twelve—”
        “And a half!”
        “—and a half. We’re not kids.”
        “You’re not over twenty; you’re kids.”
        “Is that how old you are?” Miana asked me curiously, coming out of the shadows.
        “What’s going on over there?” A guard came running over to where we were as soon as he saw me. Theirn stood up and moved to my side. I put my hand on his flank to tell him that it was all right. Tam and Miana were trying to slink out the other side of the alley, without success. The guard grabbed their arms and pulled them out into the light.
        “What are you rascals doing, now? Stealing again?” he asked.
        “There were just talking to me.”
        The guard glared at me. “I’d check your pockets if I were you; these kids are swindlers.”
        “I’ve seen much worse swindlers than a twelve year old acrobat,” I said.
        “I’m afraid we’re going to have to take them away. Whose word do we have but yours and you’re a foreigner.”
        “A silver tongued foreigner.”
        “What could you possibly say?”
        “I might suggest I’m related to these children and since they’re under aged, well…”
        He looked at me for a second before shoving them at me. “Fine. Have it your way.”
        Miana was trembling at my feet but Tam just stuck his tongue out at the guard’s back before picking Miana up in his arms and making towards the alley way.
        “Thank for covering our back!” he called over his shoulder to me.
        “You’re welcome.”

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The cold wind sings in her ear
And dances in her hair
Waves that are rigid and high
Touch the sky with freezing hands.
Above the waves, across the blue
A purple balloon soars into view.
Drifting as far and as high as it can
Stretching against the piece of string.

If only it had no rope
To bind it to a child’s hand
It could travel on the wind
To places only dreamed about
These places that remain so far
Are where she wishes she could drift
And find him where he stays
Far away from there.

A letter drifting on the tide of air
Above the blue-gray sea
Could tell people along its route
The wonderful things that it would see
And things it saw from places before
And give the message to the one it should.
And if it should fall from the sky,
The sea would carry it to shore.
The letter would pass from hand to hand
Until it reached its destination.
Everyone would know she loved him
And how long she waited to see him again.
But she knew that although seeing him might not be
A letter could answer her solidarity.
Though he could never write her back
At least she’d get things off her chest
Instead of pretending she didn’t love
The man across the sea.

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        He looked over the edge of the harbor into the blue black sea. The water warped into the shapes of animals and faces that he refused to recognize. The wind whipped his red hair from his face sending icy shrapnel into his bare skin. His hands were raw from the cold and he had long since lost feeling in his nose and ears. But the crinkle of the waves continued, so he must stand a little longer.
         “Hey, John,” his friends called back on shore. “John!”
         He pretended not to hear them. It was only a little bit longer before the moon would shine on that spot on the sea so close to the pier. And then…
         “John, let’s go,” Helen was at his shoulder, her mittened hand reaching for his.
         “It’s just a little longer, ” he said. “Almost.”
         Ice gently hit his neck and spread from the left to the right. He didn’t move.
         “See, my fingers are freezing.”
         “It’ll be worth it, I promise.”
         His watched beeped and he instinctually shut it off just as the water rose in a column from the moonlight on the water. Helen gasped beside him as a Pegasus of crystal water shot out from the darkness beneath it and made towards the shore. John held out his frozen hand and it came up to him, snorting softly.
         There was no other sound besides the crinkle of the waves and gentle slush of water as the Pegasus pawed at the water beneath its hooves. John shook the water off his hand and jumped on top of its back almost expertly.
         “Come on, Helen. Want to ride?”
         Helen stammered for a bit looking back and forth between their other friends shocked at the beginning of the pier and John.
         “Well,” she said throwing her hands down to her sides. “What the heck.”
         He held his hand out for her as she scrambled up behind him, practically pulling him off the horse in an effort to get balanced.
        “Ready?”
        She squeezed him around the middle practically as tight as she could and nodded.
        He squeezed the sides of the animal as gently as he could and instantly, they were up in the air above the sea and flying towards the moon.

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        Miara flipped over the scarf she had tied to the plank bridging the roofs and flipped upside down, kicking her feet in the air in a single movement, squeezing her muscles as hard as she could to stay perfectly upright. She watched as people threw coins into her hat and clapped. She climbed higher, tied herself up, and then let herself spin down the length of the scarf to the dust below. She bowed deeply, counted to three, and then stood up and held the already full hat for people to put their coins in. Money flew at her and she caught every coin nodding her head to the patrons she saw every single day.
         With a flick of her cap, the coins were gone and bowing again, she placed the hat upon her head. A simple tug and the scarf fell down from the rafter into her hand. The alleyway was empty, now, as all the people had left to tend to other things.
         “Good show.”
         She turned around to face her partner leaning against a building on her left. His brown hair looked black in the shadows, but his eyes were still a vibrant green of an unripe lime. He was tall, but slightly muscular and compact and in his hand was a bag of coins.
         “You got quite a bit of money,” he said.
         “People were just feeling really generous today,” Miara answered. “Something going on?”
         “The king found a new source happiness. Probably some new source of gold.”
         “As if that’s what we need. You can’t really trade money anymore for anything.”
         “Except for food and that’s all we need.”
         “Very true. Let’s go get some breakfast.”

(Listen to the song. You will have to click "preview all" in the gray button. You will find it without scrolling.)

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