“There is something you can do to help,” Damselfly offered. “Death’s timepiece is in the Evergarden, so that is where I have to go. Uriel believed there was a way of reaching it and that you could help me find it.”
“I am afraid she was mistaken. The Evergarden is cut off; it is impossible to reach,” the Matriarch declared.
Chapter 9
Magical Times
Damselfly awoke to the sound of thunder, although she quickly realised it was only Buttontail’s stomach complaining.
“Why did you have to wake me,” she cursed.
A sense of despair had threatened to overwhelm Damselfly since the Matriarch had called her plan impossible. Everything they had gone through to reach this point had been for nothing and her mother might never get well.
“I’m hungry,” Buttons stated.
While Damselfly got dressed, carefully putting on her fairy wings, Buttons danced impatiently about the room.
“You really are a silly rabbit,” the princess laughed.
The two companions trampled down the narrow staircase of the Magician’s Guild, only to find the Matriarch already up and waiting for them. The sorceress wore a flowing pink dress that fell gracefully, like water, around her slender frame.
“Good morning,” she said.
“What’s for breakfast?” Buttons asked, sniffing the air for any scent of food.
“Over there.” The Matriarch pointed to an empty table which before their eyes began to fill with all kinds of wonderful things to eat.
Buttons almost exploded with happiness before racing over to the table and started to devour everything in front of him.
“How are you feeling?” the Matriarch enquired kindly.
“A little empty,” Damselfly replied.
The Matriarch’s attractive mouth wavered slightly as she absorbed Damselfly’s disappointment before returning to normal.
“Perhaps you would like a tour, I cannot remember the last time we had a royal visitor,” the Matriarch offered.
“OK,” the princess agreed.
“Let’s go see if that greedy rabbit has left us anything to eat.”
The Matriarch took Damselfly’s hand in her own, and they walked over to the table where Buttons was enjoying breaking his fast.
“Top nosh,” he mumbled through cheeks full of food.
“I cannot imagine why Luyna would create something so unusual,” the Matriarch commented. “Certainly not her normal style.”
“Do you know her twin brother, Orion?” Damselfly posed, helping herself to a scone.
“Of course, they are both members of the Guild.”
“He’s the one that put Uriel in a dungeon,” Damselfly accused.
The Matriarch took her time before responding. Her expression rarely changed although under the surface it felt like a river of emotion ran very deep.
“Well, that is difficult to hear, although if Uriel was guilty of a crime, he was only doing his duty.”
“He is chasing us,” Damselfly revealed. “Orion wants to take us back home.”
“I am sure your father is very worried about you,” the Matriarch sympathised.
“There is no home without my mother,” Damselfly shouted.
The room was silent for several moments, except for Buttons’ noisy chewing. Damselfly had lost her appetite, and the Matriarch seemed keen to change the subject.
“We will visit the library first,” she decided.
“Will Eloise be joining us?” Damselfly asked.
“I don’t think she will,” the Matriarch replied.
Shortly after, they exited the Guild and headed to the North West corner with the Matriarch leading the way.
“I am still getting accustomed to the bright colours,” Damselfly commented.
“They were much brighter once,” the Matriarch informed.
“What do you mean?”
“The Magicgarden is dying,” the Matriarch revealed. “It may seem unaffected by the loss of time to a new comer; those of us who have lived here our whole lives know differently. Without time the reserves of magic cannot replenish themselves; there is a finite amount left and when it is gone there will be no more.”
“No magic?” Damselfly was shocked.
“This quarter was once filled with dozens of the most powerful sorcerers, all sharing the source of magic. Now, to preserve what little remains, I am the only full-time resident along with Eloise who assists me.”
“There is no way to create magic?”
“Not without time,” the Matriarch answered.
Damselfly had never considered the full implications of losing time. Back home it meant crops failed and cracks appeared in the castle. In Wintergarden the landscape had been changed into a dark and cold tundra. Here in the Magicgarden, the most unique ingredient to life in Fable was running out and would soon be lost forever. Damselfly thought about Uriel who had walked away from true love because the Fairy King had stolen her chance of a family, and she remembered her mother lying in bed trapped between life and death.
“Here is the library,” the Matriarch announced.
The library’s architecture was almost an exact match to the Guildhall; it also had a large oak door although this one was decorated with bells.
“Palen, my tutor, says bells were once the key to powerful magic,” Damselfly remembered.
“Much of that knowledge has been lost to the past,” the Matriarch replied.
Unlike the Magician’s Guild, the library was all based on one level. Very high ceilings allowed for giant rows of books that seemed to go on and on. Damselfly thought it would take many lifetimes to read every novel in the main hall. There were even large ladders to enable access to the books stored in the eaves. The library was permanently cool and had a familiar musty smell. One wall was dominated by a large porthole that allowed sunlight to halo a sweet window seat. At the centre of the room, a group of clerks were performing multiple roles, from binding books to copying old worn tomes and adding decorative calligraphy.
“The whole history of Fable is in this room,” the Matriarch stated profoundly.
“What about the history of the bells?” Damselfly asked.
“Perhaps the information is here somewhere.”
Damselfly remembered that Pariah, the Master of Bells, back at Thronegarden believed something similar. That one day the
