A Stolen Heart

Lupita held the heart shaped chest in her hand. In the oak and brass, a key pierced the keyhole. Her fingers were a darker brown than the wood of the odd gift that she’d found on the kitchen table. The warmth of her skin was an undertone of red highlighted by the fire in the granite hearth. Hair usually bound in braids or dreadlocks hung in tight curls.

            She sniffed.

            Sniffing or coughing during the long winter was nothing noteworthy. Danielle Longbow’s attention was caught by trembling shoulders. Sparkling tears were cruel diamonds rolling down Lupita Smith’s face.

            “What is it?” Danielle asked, scratching her own short brown hair.

            Instead of answering, her lover handed her the wooden heart. It was a perfect rendition of a human heart, with all the arteries and aorta. Pale hands veined with blue took the box and swung the lid open. Brass hinges creaked. In the tiny cavity within, a tiny note waited. She could have curled it around one of her calloused fingers.

            Setting the old box on the table, she read the letter.

To Dan and Lu,

Days ago, we negotiated for the lives of thousands of soldiers from the empire. At first Queen Malin refused. When you left to let her think I returned without you to offer something you would never let me give.

            I offered myself as sacrifice to save the life of the dying princess.

            By the time you read this, the ritual of transference will be complete. I will have given some or perhaps all my life in return for strangers, enemies. How could I not? One life for the princess alone would be worth it. My life for that of Princess Elspeth and ten thousand more is a trade I cannot refuse.

            Please know that I think of you both as my second and third mothers. If I die, know that I love you.

            I have no intention of dying. If possible, I will return. You may come to wish I had nobly died in service of Crann. Time will tell.

            All my love,

Your devilishly handsome son, Carl

Danielle wrapped her arm around Lupita’s head and let the woman on the stool bury her face in Danielle’s chest.

            “Could you read it all?”

            “I managed. He’s not dead.”

            “How do you know?”

            “Because no reaper of souls would put up with his banter long enough to take him to another life. Love him or hate him, we’re stuck with him.”

            “I thought Queen Malin changed her mind. He didn’t tell me.” Lupita sniffed.

            “He didn’t tell me either.”

            “Should we go to the castle? Should we ask-” She sighed.

            “The queen will bring us the news, or he’ll come swaggering back. We should eat.”

Fighting back tears, Danielle boiled porridge. It was their mainstay in the mornings. Porridge for breakfast. Vegetable soup with bread for lunch. More soup and bread for dinner, hopefully with meat.

            Danielle’s stomach growled as she stirred. Food had been rationed. She was losing weight. Everyone was. Much as some grumbled, most knew it made sense.

            The northerners beyond the wall were helping, they caught food in the forests. Because they had been the enemy most didn’t trust them. Guards inspected the deer and the rabbits carefully before passing them on to be carved up and handed out. So far there had been no treachery from the imperial soldiers who had defied their orders.

            One by one, men who might have fought to the death against Crann were marked with its crest on both hands. They could never return home with those tattoos. The people praised Queen Malin’s cunning in winning a battle without losing a drop of blood. They didn’t know the whole thing had been Carl’s idea.

            Lupita ate her lumpy porridge with veiny eyes. She stared blankly into the flames. Tears had dried up. There was only hollow grief.

            “He’ll be fine. Carl’s a lucky fucker. One in half a million.”

            “Perhaps.” Lupita’s eyes were dark mirrors for the bright flames.

The door thundered with two heavy blows.

            “Open the door. I’ve got Carl.” Danielle jumped to her feet at the sound of Sir Fabian Castel’s voice.

            Throwing open the door she saw the knight in his armour, carrying a stretcher. The boy they’d worried about lay twitching and groaning between Sir Castel and Badru the loup garou. They carried the boy in through the door and lay him down on the table, knocking the heart shaped box to the floor.

            Miss Longbow was about to slam the door when she saw Princess Elspeth right as rain, standing in the snow. Four guards flanked her.

            “May we come in as well?” Only strands of her brown hair hung from the fine woolen hat she wore. In those strands were hints of amber that showed in the eyebrows as well. 

            “Of course, your majesty. Come in.” Danielle stepped back from the door to let the princess and her escorts inside. “Sir Ironwill, who guards the queen if you’re here?”

            “The trees,” said the newly knighted Jura.

            “I suppose that’s more than enough.” The magical humanoid avatars of deadly magical trees were more than a match for anyone who might try to harm the queen.

            “We are,” said a soldier, who pulled off its helmet to reveal that it was a curaduile, one of the magical trees. It was her doppelganger, the first of the creatures to emerge from the trees and mimic human form.

Carl was grey, muscles straining. Trails of tears glittered down to his ears. His hair had lost the golden sheen that had set him apart before. At the roots it was grey or white.

            Wide eyes were blood red with the veiny look of someone who hadn’t slept a wink since birth decades before.

            “Why is he gagged?” Lupita asked.

            “Because he’s already bitten his tongue. We didn’t want him doing it again.” The princess replied. Miss Smith pulled the bloody rag from the boy’s mouth. Red drool spilled out over his lips.

            “Gods protect him,” said the princess.

            “Gods protect him,” agreed Jura.

            “He needs to be on his side.” Lupita, daughter of a healer, turned Carl over. “He’s cold. Move the table closer to the fire.”

            Everyone lifted the table towards the warmth of the flames.

            “I have his tabard. I didn’t think he’d want blood on it.” Princess Elspeth handed Danielle the new green jerkin with the sticked oak on the front. Bowing as she took it, Miss Longbow placed it on Carl’s bed.

            “My thanks, your grace.”

            “What can we do for him?” The princess asked.

            “You can tell me what spell did this?” Lupita said, without any of the formality that she should have when addressing a royal heir.

            “Willing sacrifice to save life. He gave time.” The curaduile answered with a voice that was a trees best emulation of Danielle’s voice.

            “How much time?” Asked Lupita.

            “Enough to heal the princess,” said the tree.

            “Will he live?” Princess Elspeth asked.

            “That depends on how much of his time it took to heal you.” The voice of the curaduile verged on sarcastic as it answered. “He will fare better than whichever one of my forebears you butchered to carve this trinket.” It picked the heart shaped box from the floor. With the same disgust Danielle would have shown a human heart sitting on the table, it glowered at them all and put the box down on top of the green tabard on the bed.

            “That was mine,” said the princess, “never mind, I’ll not call it theft. I’m indebted to him more than I could ever repay. May he smile his rogue’s smile again soon.” Her pink lips twitched a smile. Her brown eyes with flecks of green narrowed in concern.

            “What can we do?” Sir Fabian asked.

            “All anyone can do for Carl now is feed and water him when he wakes and keep him warm. This is a battle he will fight alone. He will age in a way he was not meant to. Trees are more resilient to time. Humans are fragile.

            Tell him you are here. I’m certain he can hear you.” The curaduile avatar aimed an open, wooden palm at the boy who was shaking all over.

            Danielle took Carl’s left hand. Lupita took his right hand.

            “We’re here Carl. Don’t leave us.”