The River Queen

CHAPTER ONE

The river ran backwards on the day the Queen vanished.

It wouldn't have been an easy feat to conjure up on any other normal, unassuming day—but today was different. Anyone who knew anything about magic should have known something was amiss. The town—fearful of this obvious omen—gathered around the castle in frenzied chaos as the heavy metal gates slammed into the tepid dirt and the Queen’s guards stood silent waiting for what would happen next. Skyward plumes of red dust hovered over the moat giving the appearance of glowing crimson flames. It wasn’t the story anyone wanted to tell, and it surely wasn’t the way things were supposed to have gone.

“This has never happened before Miriam and whether you like it or not, the prophecy is upon us."

Quinn Ryder rushed down the back end of the Ruby Castle hoping no one spotted him.

“You can find her, right?” Quinn gasped, pleading with Miriam Blackwood for the umpteenth time that morning.

“Miriam, I’m serious! You don’t know what I had to do in order to get out of the castle. Hector put everything on hold, shut down the entire city. If I go back, I’m dead…or worse.”

“I don’t blame them for wanting to kill you. It was your fault after-all, right?” Miriam hissed, barely slowing her pace as she continued up the tiny dirt trail leading to her cottage— “and what could possibly be worse than death Quinn? Please tell me…I would love to know…”

She didn't give Quinn a chance to reply—"I told you to keep an eye on her Quinn…If you’d just kept your mouth shut none of this would have happened. They are going to come looking for you, don’t bring them here…” Miriam paused, her face growing red-hot at the prospect of the Queen’s army locking her up.

Quinn couldn’t respond—though not for lack of trying. It was hard enough chasing after the town’s outcast. It was even worse knowing he had caused her such pain.

“Not to mention—you ruined everything Quinn, weren’t you the one who told the whole town I was a witch? I lost all my business. But that’s okay, I will show you what a real witch does…” Miriam’s shrieking voice trailed behind, pitting a hole in Quinn’s chest as though she’d put a hex on him.

Miriam continued yards ahead, her fists clenched as she muttered, mumbling spells under her breath. Quinn couldn’t quite understand what she was saying—hoping she wasn’t actually cursing him—as she went on about rabbit feet and tongue of newt, boiling lily-pads and horse-tail flower petals.

“Well yes Miriam, I did say those things, but that’s not what I meant, it’s not what you think. The whole story got bent out of context, lost in translation.” Quinn continued, trying his best to explain—“I was commending your ability to create alternative medicines…besides, I would never betray your secrets. I love you Miriam…I would never do anything…”

Miriam stopped dead in her tracks.

“You love me?” You love me…I don’t see how. You have made everything so much harder for me, for you, for us...and besides, that's not the point.”

“Well…I can’t do anything about that now…but seeing as to how the Queen was your biggest customer... if you won’t do it for me, please do it for her…” he begged.

“It's not that easy Quinn. The Queen would understand but her people don’t. It’s not like we can just go traipsing about the Castle…”

Quinn paused, smiling deviously— “you’re forgetting about the fountain…” Quinn stopped short of the cottage door. Shimmering red dust lined the doorway.

“Rubies, Quinn…” Miriam hissed in the most irritated of fashions—"Crushed rubies…hexed to keep evil spirits away. You won’t melt if you touch them. They’re all around the Queen’s castle…. or are you still afraid of them?”

“I know…I was just always told not to step on them.”

“That’s because you step over them Quinn. Obviously…they won’t kill you unless you want to be killed…then, unfortunately there’s nothing that can be done. It’s odd for someone who lives and works in the Ruby Castle to be so afraid of a little ruby dust. You would think it wouldn’t be that big of a problem.”

Quinn said nothing more as Miriam whisked a dusty silken kerchief over the center of her equally dusty kitchen table.

Thousands of crystals and dried herbs and flowers lined the room from floor to ceiling. It was a wonder where she found space amidst the hundreds of lit candles. Ruby red wax dried all over the tables and dripped down to the wood floors, intermingling with weeds that sprouted up through the boards. Bits of crushed rubies shimmered in the settling sun.

“How d’you get anything done in this place…” he whispered, stunned.

It was a bit overwhelming to finally come inside the kettle shaped hut. He had only ever sat on the front patio—a whimsical, peaceful place where they sipped earl-grey tea and dipped lemon cookies into a homemade jasmine berry compote—sharing stories about their day. Maybe that was why Quinn felt he knew Miriam well enough to fall in love.

“This place, my house, my shop—it is much more than what it seems Quinn. I live here. I practice here. I am safe here. But that is no more…”

She paused, pulling a stool to the table.

“So… these fountains…tell me more. Tell me all you know…”

Quinn gulped loudly as he nervously traced the outline of the silken kerchief with his fingers.

Miriam lit a few bundled herbs and wafted them around the room before placing them in a stone bowl with an assortment of other roughly cut crystals as she began crushing them into a pile of molting ember.

Quinn’s rambling voice regurgitated the things he swore to keep secret, the most secret about his Queen— “There is a fountain in the back of the Queen’s favorite garden. It’s lined with the finest rubies. Rubies the size of small tea-plates. Some even the size of cookies. At the center of the fountain is a mosaic with more rubies in the shape of a blooming rose. The Queen was supposed to go for a walk in her Garden, but I’m not sure she got the chance… maybe she was taken?”

“Well… we must work backwards Quinn. Can’t rule anything out just yet…but…”

Miriam snapped her fingers—

"Focus. Focus on my voice Quinn. The Ruby Castle is full of hidden chambers and tunnels, passageways and doors. Everything is an illusion, made to look like magic. Explicitly made for sneaking people in and out. The entire castle has normal, everyday things Quinn. Think. There are hallways with painted pictures, candle-lit-sconces, books and chairs that lead to entire other worlds…or so they say. Something in that castle never changes. What is it?”

Miriam pursed her lips impatiently, her black eyes holding back as she bit her tongue, holding her hands firmly on the table awaiting Quinn’s response. Quinn’s eyes remained tightly closed as he continued telling Miriam all he knew of the Queen’s Ruby Castle.

“It really isn’t impressive and the castle isn’t overly decorated. It’s comfortable and well-maintained—as the Queen requests. I don’t know what to tell you, the only other part of the castle that never changes under any circumstances are the Queen’s personal Chambers.”

“Okay, tell me more…what about her chamber’s.”

“I shouldn’t. No one ever goes in there but the Queen.”

“Quinn—this is no time for discretion.”

Quinn sighed, his shoulders heaving— “what I am about to tell you is of utmost privacy. The Queen’s chambers are quite stunning and very secret. Simple motifs line the walls—murals depicting some sort of faded garden forest with jewels encrusted in the center of the flowers. The ceiling has swirling sea-foam green clouds and diamond stars. It’s breathtaking. I would never leave if I lived there—but alas, the Queen’s heart isn’t with all the jewels. The King crafted the finest jewelers and painters to create this work of art…but since he’s been missing and she was banished to the Ruby Castle…things have been different, wrong…”

“What do you mean? Wait…I thought the King died in battle?”

Miriam was practically on the edge of her seat. Having been told the King died when she was a child—“Why would they lie to us?”

“I don’t know. We were never told. Just woke up one day, the King was gone, and Hector had us swear to an oath. The story went out to the public the very next morning. Ever since then the Queen has been on the hunt—in secret. Only I knew… Maybe someone else found out, or maybe she finally found him...”

Miriam sat quietly as she pondered what next to say.

“Quinn—this isn’t good. The river changing its course is a bad sign. It means all is not right in our world and the axis, the poles have misaligned with the stars somehow. Maybe the Queen left it as a sign for us to find her. We must work fast to find her, to bring her back.”

“There’s something else…” Quinn scrunched his face. Deep wrinkles settled in the place where his loyalty used to lie.

“I can’t believe I am about to tell you this, but…there’s a secret tunnel. It’s how I got to you. She showed it to me a few weeks ago and swore me only to use it in dire emergency. I figured this was as good as any. The only problem is, getting back there. There isn’t an easy way in. The tunnel forks—like a tree so intruders get lost and end up back in the woods where they started. She mentioned using the tunnels to explore the ruby waters and how the fountains connect one to where they want to go…that’s all I remember.”

Miriam almost fell out of her seat. “This is great Quinn. We will leave once night falls.”

Miriam handed Quinn something dark and heavy.

“It’s a shrinking cloak… Put it on and follow my instruction. Guards won’t recognize you…and they won’t question me with this…”

Miriam pulled out a tattered fabric the size of a potholder, unwrapping a chain with a thick ruby lens.

“To the beholder it shows the way. To any passerby, it shows what I want them to see…and today I will be an old woman.”

Within seconds, right before his very eyes—Quinn watched as Miriam’s once flawless features disappeared—popping and erupting with boils and a long, gangly nose. Her body violently shook as her spine curved downwards towards the ground and rigid bones hung under sagging, wrinkled skin. Her skirted gown grew to fit loosely and was just as tattered as the fabric the chain came in.

“We are ready.” Miriam smiled, a devious look on her face as the two set out for the Ruby-forest.

Quinn hesitated. “So, what did you mean by if the guards see us…”

“Trust me, they won’t see us, but just in case we run into any trouble..."

Miriam held out the edge of her tattered cape—

"Hold onto this, I tend to walk fast and seeing as to how you are much shorter than normal—your legs might not be able to keep up.”

“Or you could just carry me,” Quinn joked, before being thrust violently around the forest—trying his best to tell Miriam where to go.

“The castle edge has an entrance…”

“…that should lead to the Queen’s hidden chambers…”

“…from there, I believe it forks to the garden…”

It took everything in him to get the words out as he swung around behind Miriam as they ran up the steep embankment between thousands of huddled trees and thick underbrush.

Miriam and Quinn finally reached the garden from the secret tunnel.

“We might have been better off trying to find the Queen another way,” he whispered out of breath. “Can’t that crystal ball necklace tell you where to go…”

“It doesn’t work that way my dear.”

Quinn sighed— “when can we take these hideous garbs off? You look absolutely frightful.”

“We will keep them with us until we get to the water so we can disguise ourselves if need be.”

Miriam lovingly patted her over-sized satchel as they hid in some nearby shrubs.

“We have everything we should need to get us back,” Miriam whispered before scoring and setting a hex on another unnamed crystal, breaking it into four pieces—

“One of these has a toe, one of these has nowhere to go. Two-halves, two-whole. Wherever we travel, wherever we roam, all roads lead us home.”

Blood rushed into Quinn’s ears as Miriam tossed two of the crystals into the center of the fountain. It was indeed the most beautiful thing either of them had ever seen— almost a travesty that it remained hidden behind thirty-foot walls.

“Really shouldn’t be this easy to get into the Queen’s castle.” Quinn whispered, a hint of regret in his voice as he stared into the depths below.

“We can’t worry about that now.” Miriam replied— “and honestly Quinn, I don’t think the guards will be looking inside the castle gardens for trespassers…”

Miriam eyed the pool’s calm water with equal uncertainty. It looked at least ten feet deep.

“Please tell me you can swim…There is a grate that should lead to the Ruby River…all we have to do is get through the tunnel…”

Miriam handed him a crystal— “hold this, it will help you keep your breath for longer. I have one too. I am sure the current will be quickest at the end of the tunnel where the water is siphoned. Once we get in, take a deep breath, deeper than any other and follow me. The crystal will help illuminate the water, but we must be quiet. No flailing or kicking. We can’t risk anyone seeing us.”

Miriam and Quinn climbed over the ruby encrusted fountain-edge, quietly slipping beneath the blanket of water. For a second both struggled to find their footing, sinking slowly to the bottom as they kicked off towards the grate.

The crystal felt alive in Quinn’s hand—pulsing as the oxygen went from his body to the water and back again.

Within minutes they were funneled into the dark river and out to the shallows.

“We made it!” Miriam squealed.. Leafy branches hung low over the Ruby River, illuminated by the moon. They were finally free.

Miriam laid a map on a nearby rock. Black lines traced far beyond the Ruby Castle and its Kingdom as she held her special lens over it— “the Emerald Palace is to the North, but I doubt that is where she went. The Amethyst Caves is where I was thinking to start. It’s a mile or so ahead through a set of caves. It’s quite dangerous, the stories are absolutely dreadful, the stuff of nightmares.

Miriam’s lips pursed in a more somber manner than Quinn had ever seen— “we will need to go into more water, deeper water…and that is just the start.”