“Wait.” Delridden broke the silence. “The lake is up ahead, we should go around.”
“Is the Lady of the Lake truly as bad as the stories say?” Damselfly wished to know.
“She is worse,” Delridden replied.
They circled the lake at a safe distance, keeping themselves hidden in the long grass as much as possible. When they were about half way round, a thunder of hooves stilled them, thankfully it was only Winter returning. Delridden checked his horse was unharmed, giving it a thorough welcome, and decided they would be better off riding the rest of the way. Buttons seemed to have overcome his fear of riding a horse and he was the first to be placed on Winter’s back.
“I saw something,” he whispered to the others.
“Is it Sprites?” Damselfly urged.
“No, it was movement coming from over there.” The rabbit pointed up ahead.
“Let’s go take a look,” Delridden decided.
They trotted forward with Delridden’s hand upon his sword hilt, Buttons leading the way, until they reached the position where he had seen something. A clear track revealed someone had recently passed this way, so they followed it until the evidence suddenly ended.
“Where did they go?” Buttons posed.
Before Delridden could offer a warning, they found themselves surrounded by men with sharp sticks who seemed to have materialized from thin air.
“We wish to see Laetitia Shade,” Damselfly requested.
One of the men gave them a twisted smile before leading them onwards across a swathe of fields and across a ridge before they saw a small group of people gathered around a circle of mud huts. All the people looked hungry, with dirt covering their face and hands. Damselfly felt pity for them although she did not forget that they were currently these people’s prisoners. They were taken to a young woman only slightly older than Maiden Fayre. She was pale despite the constant sun with dark, lank hair and blue eyes, just like her adversary.
“I am Laetitia Shade,” she welcomed them.
The woman’s voice resonated somewhere deep in Damselfly’s memory.
“I am Princess Damselfly, and I am here to recover what you took from me.”
The woman stared for a long time before finally seeming to accept her claim. Laetitia looked burdened and the weight she carried appeared to be burying her.
“Please come inside so we can have some privacy,” she offered.
“They may be Scorj spies,” the guard argued. “I have seen this one with them.”
The guard pointed at Delridden, who glared back confrontationally. Thankfully, Laetitia waved them away. The young girl did not seem like she had much fight left in her. Inside, the shade of the hut offered some protection against the relentless heat. A small cooking fire smoldered with wisps of smoke rising and exiting through a small hole in the thatched roof.
“I’m sorry we have so little to offer guests.” Laetitia sat down on a wooden bench wearily.
“We are grateful to have an audience.” Damselfly spoke politely.
“What are you doing in Shadowgarden?”
“My uncle, King Abeldine, had a valuable item which he hid in my crib; I believe you took it, and I have come to get it back,” Damselfly explained.
“What kind of item was it?” Laetitia questioned.
“It was a bell.”
Laetitia gasped, her hands going to her neck where a fragment of glass hung around a chain; the rest of her clothing was economical as she wore only a simple white dress and worn clogs.
“Then you really are the princess,” she accepted. “How did you know it was me?”
“It is a long story and I have travelled far to recover the bell. Do you know where it is?”
“That also is a tale all of its own,” Laetitia admitted. “I was afraid for my family. After the tower fell, we were cursed and forced to live in a land that did not suit us. I thought the king would offer support if I petitioned him. The rest of my family were too stubborn to ask for help, so I went alone in the night. When I arrived at Thronegarden, no one would take me seriously, they almost threw me out of the castle, and when I asked to speak with the king they laughed. I took a job as a scullery maid too afraid to return home with nothing. I stayed patient until finally I was given a chance in the royal apartments. I overheard the king talking to you about a powerful weapon he wanted to hide. He seemed to want rid of the artefact, and I was desperate. When he left, I snuck into your room and retrieved the bell from under your covers. I remember looking down at you and wavering in my duty until a noise outside in the corridor forced me to flee. When I returned home, things were worse than I had imagined; my remaining family were seriously considering an alliance with the Scorj and everyone looked so defeated. I showed them the bell, though none of them took me seriously. They asked how such a small inanimate object could rescue us. In my ignorance I rang the bell and…”
“What happened,” Damselfly queried, “when you rang the bell?”
“Everyone disappeared,” Laetitia sobbed. “My father, brothers and cousins were all just gone. Worse still, I found this necklace broken upon the floor.”
Laetitia clung to the shard of glass around her neck like it was the only thing that kept her from unravelling.
“I don’t understand,” Damselfly enquired.
“When my ancestor, King Byron, founded his dynasty, he tricked the water spirit Vaxlesh into watching over our family; as long as a Shade wore this necklace we would be protected. For a drop of water from Vaxlesh himself was trapped within the glass and with it his allegiance.
When I sounded the bell, it not only destroyed all the remaining male members
