Princess Etheria and the Lost Queen Read online

CHAPTER 6

  The Gallery

  From her perch high up in the tree, Etheria watched the tiny bird form of her father disappearing into the mists below. Carefully, she spread her great wings, leaned forward on the branch, bent her legs, and pushed off into emptiness. Immediately, her wings filled with air, and she felt the pull on her shoulders, her arms being stretched wide, and a lifting sensation from below. She moved away from the tree and glided for a while to re-orient herself. Once she spotted her father again, she angled her wings and tail slightly, pitched forward and began to descend in order to follow him.

  The Princess was now looking down directly into the quickly moving Sweetwater River below her, and it was disorienting. She was used to the ground moving from front to back, yet the river was flowing in the opposite direction, and it was flowing faster than she was moving. It made her feel like she was flying backwards, and a part of her brain—the primal part she reckoned—kept telling her that, if she didn’t keep moving forward, she was not going to have enough lift to stay in the air. The young eagle had to keep glancing at the forest on either side of her outstretched wings to remind herself that she still had enough forward momentum to fly.

  The King was directly ahead now, and was just dropping over the wall of the canyon, so Etheria followed. Together they circled Conjuring House Rock, and then flew downstream through the high-walled canyon. She looked at the rough surface of the rock walls on either side of her, and marvelled at how cracked and eroded they were. It was a vertical drop on both sides, and deep angular gouges pitted the surface.

  There wasn’t as much wind in the canyon, and the sound was different too. It was like the deep thunder of the waterfalls was being absorbed by the stone walls. She could still feel the vibration, but it seemed muted and wasn’t nearly as loud as before. She also had the odd feeling that they were no longer alone, and that somebody was watching them.

  “THIS IS THE GALLERY,” her father called out to her as he flitted about above her head. “ALL OF THE KINGS AND QUEENS OF THENKEN ARE REPRESENTED HERE.”

  With a little effort, Etheria began staring at the canyon walls that slipped by her in flight. The sun was fairly low in the sky, and broke across the uneven surface of the rock wall stretching shadows and highlighting depressions that she probably wouldn’t have noticed any other way. What she at first thought to be a random arrangement of nooks, crannies, alcoves, and recesses, was slowly swimming around and arranging itself into definite patterns. Just like earlier, the moment that she began to see a little bit of it, she quickly became aware of more and more and more.

  Her eyes darted from wall to wall, from surface to surface, and her mouth fell open in amazement. Something she couldn’t see before was now so obvious as to be shocking. Details came into focus with such clarity, that she couldn’t see how she could have missed them before.

  There were faces on the rock walls.

  Hundreds, maybe even thousands of them.

  They were there above her, and below her. They were reflected in the water, and were even looking down at her from the clouds. Some were tiny and were nestled into minute cracks in the wall. Others were so large that numerous other faces were incorporated into them. Etheria could see deep shadowy eyes, sharp angular noses and high proud foreheads. There were masculine faces along with those that were more gracile and clearly female. Each one seemed to incorporate natural forest elements into themselves. One had a thick beard made up of scrub brush, another had long hair composed of lichen. Another face, up very high along the canyon wall, and seemingly isolated from all the others, even appeared to have two gnarled white trees growing up out of his head like antlers.

  So these are the former Kings and Queens of Thenken, Etheria thought to herself. These visages that were captured in rock looked at once familiar and foreign to her. She recognized all them instinctively, but didn’t have the foggiest idea of what their names were, or even who they really were. Only that they had started the legacy that she and her father were carrying on.

  I wonder if… she began to think to herself.

  And before she could even finish asking the question, the answer had presented itself. There, on the fractured surface of the rock wall, high above the water and just below the upper edge of the canyon, was a chiselled image that could only be one person: her father, the King. He was looking down at her with that mixture of satisfaction and amusement that was unique to his face. A tight grin, and an unrestrained twinkle in his eye. It was all clear to her even though his face, like all of the others here, was roughly hewn from solid rock, and a shadowy image at best.

  Then, something caught her eye off to the right, and slightly above the image of her father. It was much larger than the King’s, and almost seemed to be… Yes, she was sure it was. It was her! The face was longer, clearly a little older, but that was her nose and eyes and chin. She was sure of it. But even as she decided that she was right, she was still unsure because it was very difficult to make it out. It was like the sun reflecting off the water was casting a rippling effect over the area, and the face kept fading in and out of view. Eventually, as she glided by, and drew past it, the image faded from view entirely, making her doubt that she had seen anything at all.

  After a long while, Etheria realized that she had completely lost track of time, and had no idea how many times she had circled the canyon. She also realized that she didn’t know where her father was anymore, and she searched the sky for his tiny bird form. It took her a long time to find him, mostly because he was no longer a bird, and she had looked right past him a few times. He was human again, standing on the flat top of Conjuring House Rock staring upriver at the three waterfalls, while he stroked his amber pendant.

  Etheria aimed for the top of the rock, and landed lightly behind her father. The surface was about the same size as the wooden raft that she and the squire-els played on back at the RestEddy. There was enough room to walk around a little bit, but it was made to feel much smaller than it actually was by its height. Etheria willed her wand to appear in her winged hand, tapped the top of her head with it, and instantly returned to her regular form. The surface of the rock suddenly felt considerably smaller still.

  The Princess stood absolutely still for a moment, to let the nausea from the transfiguration pass, and then did a few simple stretching exercises. It was nice to have her arms back, and she felt fully normal once she was able to feel her full weight on her legs again instead of her arms.

  She took a deep breath, tucked her wand into its pocket inside her cloak, and cleared her throat quietly to let her father know that she was behind him.

  “How was your flight?” he asked without looking back at her.

  “Great! This place is simply amazing,” she answered. “I had no idea Thenken had such an ancient history. All those Kings and Queens.” She paused for a moment. “I saw your face too,” she finished proudly.

  “You’re very observant. Mine is very small.”

  She was about to open her mouth, but then stopped and held herself back, unsure of how much to reveal. Was it really her own face she saw back there, or was it just her imagination?

  Finally, she made up her mind. “I think I saw myself too,” she began slowly. Her father turned to face her, a look of pride and wonder sharing his features and competing for face time. Etheria continued, more quickly this time, “but I’m not entirely sure. It was kind of out of focus y’know, and really big too. I mean, how could I be there in the first place? Isn’t this only a place for Kings and Queens? I’m just a Princess.”

  Rowan smiled, stepped over and hugged his daughter. “The history of Thenken is ancient to be sure,” he said, his chin resting on the top of her head, “but there is another reason that there are so many faces on this wall.”

  He stepped back so that they could both look out over the canyon walls of the Gallery. They stood side by side, his arm draped over her shoulders. “These are faces of every King or Queen that Thenken has ever had, and ever will
have. That’s why some of the faces, including yours, are still kind of vague. They are a shadowy reflection of something that, at least from our current perception, hasn’t happened yet, or may never happen at all. ”

  “Wow.” It was all that Etheria could think of saying.

  “Wow indeed,” said her father as he squeezed her shoulder. “So, you say that your portrait was big?”

  “Yes.”

  “How big?”

  Etheria smiled toothily, and looked up at her father. “Bigger than yours,” she said good-naturedly.

  The King returned his daughter’s smile and whistled. “You’re going to be great kiddo. Even the Gallery knows it.”

  Etheria blushed in response, and looked back down into the canyon. She watched as the foam on the surface of the water had gathered in an eddy against the rock wall, making it look like one of the faces had a great white beard.

  Rowan pulled away from Etheria, and turned towards the center of the plateau.

  ”It’s time I showed you what I was talking about earlier,” he said as Etheria turned towards him. “About the integration of the head and the heart.”

  He made a sweeping gesture with both hands in the air directly in front of him, and a large shape rose up out of the surface of the plateau on which they stood. At first, it looked to Etheria like a large gray box that was as tall as she was, but as it continued to take shape, she was finally able to recognize it: it was a large throne made of stone. The form was very simple, and very much in keeping with the environment that surrounded it. It was made of the same kind of stone as Conjuring House Rock, and looked like it had been chiselled by the same mysterious mind.

  When he was done, her father lowered his arms, and turned to look at Etheria.

  “Do you know why this place is special?” he asked her.

  “You mean Thunderhouse?”

  “No, this plateau we’re standing on; the top of Conjuring House Rock,” Rowan specified.

  The Princess looked around. As far as she could tell, the view from here, although unique, wasn’t any more special than it would have been from any other point along the top of the canyon walls. And it certainly wasn’t any more spectacular than the one she had experienced earlier from the top of the tree. She stood right on the edge of the plateau, and peered down into the chasm below. Many feet beneath her, the water broke in half on the base of the tower, and moved quickly by on either side. It made her feel like she was moving forward even though she was standing perfectly still. It was a precarious perch, and the potential for a long drop into the tumbling, churning waters would have frightened her if she didn’t know how to fly.

  “No,” she finally answered. “I don’t know why this place is special.”

  “Jump up into this chair, and I’ll show you.”

  The seat of the chair was elevated—it was about as high as her father’s chest—so Etheria took one large step to build up speed, put her hands on the stone formation, and hoisted herself up. She spun in mid air, and landed squarely in the throne in a seated position.

  Her father was standing directly in front of her smiling. Their heads were now at the exact same level, and they were looking each other square in the eye.

  “In the waking world, Conjuring House Rock has always been thought of as a place of supernatural power. Over the years, countless people have gone there looking for a way to tap into this power. If anyone ever succeeded, we don’t know, because the secret has been lost to the ages.” The King stepped to the side, giving Etheria a clear view upstream. “Until now.”

  As soon as Etheria’s eyes refocused, and the waterfalls came into view, everything suddenly made sense.

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