The Bridge Between Worlds
Chapter Thirteen

Lord Eadward was observing Pritha and Galisa’s proper princess etiquette. Regina learned everything; from how to walk, talk, sit and stand. She thought of all those films involving girls balancing books on their heads, which were mostly for entertainment. Yes, Regina balanced a heavy book on her head, but only for the first lesson. She caught onto the “head up” quick.

“Perfect posture,” said Eadward, nodding with approval. “You have acquired the perfect stance of a princess. Congratulations, your highness.”

“Thank you, Eadward,” Regina replied, returning the nod. “I do believe I have the best teachers available to me.”

Acknowledging Pritha and Galisa was not easy, but once they had received their recognition, they left the room. Per Regina’s request.

“Lord Eadward,” she said, placing a book on her head and walking several feet. “I had been meaning to ask you a question. I do hope you have an answer.”

“I shall do my best,” he replied, folding his hands behind his back. “What do you wish to ask?”

“I was merely wondering why I have not seen any portraits of my grandparents. As you know, I was not raised to know them.”

“I see.”

The way the man paused reminded Regina of the voices she’d heard during her exploration in the tunnel. It awoke her suspicious feeling of the man. Of the Council as a whole.

“I shall remain honest with you, princess,” he went on after another pause. “I do not yet know who would do such a thing. But we had an incident not long before your arrival. Many of the royal portraits once hung in the main foyer. We have not yet found the guilty party, but the portraits have been missing for some time now.”

“Oh,” Regina tried to sound puzzled and disappointed. “Are there no copies or perhaps smaller versions? Some I might keep in my chambers?”

He appeared thoughtful. “I have left the investigation to one of the Dawnglade brothers, but they have come up empty. I can personally continue the investigation for you. We will replace the offender and return all the missing portraits to their rightful place.”

“Thank you, Eadward. However, I must ask that you do not punish any of the staff too harshly. If it was the staff. I am aware of the customs to which portraits are covered in respect of deceased royals and courtiers.”

“Yes, this is true. Covering them is one action, but stealing is another.”

“Yes, you are right.”

Freydra appeared with a quick curtsy.

“Was there anything else, your highness?” Eadward asked; was he clenching his teeth?

“Yes, there is,” Regina smiled innocently. “If you should replace the portrait thief, or thieves, I should like to know who it was.”

“And why would it interest you?”

“I wish to know everything that happens in my kingdom. Such matters should interest me.”

Her smile never faded as she left the room, the book still on her head. Freydra followed closely behind. Regina held her smile as she passed the servants. They all smiled in return. Adis and Arthos were walking in the opposite direction. They bowed their heads as they crossed paths.

Regina hurried along, still balancing the book, until she was within the safety of her room. Freydra closed the door and Regina exhaled slowly. It was starting to become very difficult for her to pretend she was clueless. There was something going on, but she couldn’t look into anything without proper resources. Proper backup in the event something went wrong.

Regina didn’t know if the Council had any ill bidding. She sort of understood why the servants feared them. The sisters hated her. Adis and Arthos, whom she had pieced together were brothers. They despised her. Eadward was the most civil. He had warmed up to her, but he had his reservations. It didn’t take a detective to know it.

“Your highness.”

Regina gasped, jumping with slight surprise. The book fell from her head. She bent over to pick it up, but then remembered she didn’t need to do it herself. She smiled apologetically to Freydra.

“Force of habit,” she said, laughing uneasily.

“I understand, your highness,” the girl replied, smiling as she retrieved the book and placed it on one of six tables. I take it your lessons went well?”

Regina watched the girl hurry to answer the door. She returned with a covered basket from one of the other servants.

“As well as they should, I suppose,” Regina replied, following the girl to the bathing room. “I did as you suggested. About the portraits.”

“I am please to hear, my lady.”

She noticed how the maid spoke with extreme formality. Her brown eyes kept glancing around as she went on drawing the bath water.

“I know is it your duty,” Regina went on, choosing her words carefully. “But I truly appreciate all you do for me.”

“Thank you, your highness,” the girl replied, her voice softer still. “I am pleased to be in your service.”

Something wasn’t right.

* * *

“I wish for my father to visit,” Regina announced when she entered the Council chambers for her afternoon lessons. “I have upheld my end of the agreement. It is the second full moon. It is time you upheld your end.”

Eadward sighed, “Indeed,” he replied, glancing at Adis and Arthos. “We shall send word of your request tomorrow.”

“Today,” she correct him as she opened the large volume on the desk. “You will send a messenger today.”

“We send word today.”

Oh, he did not like being corrected.

“What am I learning today, dear advisers?” she asked, skimming the pages.

“We begin lessons of control,” Arthos explained as Eadward wordlessly left the study. “We do not yet know what your abilities are. We must prepare for anything and everything.”

Regina sighed, nodding. She and her father had agreed to keep the incident at the beach within Anerathian minds. She needed to let the Xiphisians discover her abilities themselves.

“Close the book,” said Adis with a smirk. “But do not touch it with your hands.”

“Close it with your mind,” Arthos added; though he shared a similar arrogance to his brother, he certainly had a different way of explaining things first.

Regina sat in her chair, watching the brothers for a moment. They wore clever expressions. They are hoping to trick me, she thought.

“Not touching it with my hands,” she nodded, turning her gaze to the humongous volume. She focused on the book’s front cover. Thinking back to a conversation she’d had with her father’s wife. One of many conversations to which she explained how her kinetic abilities worked. Regina tried to replicate her words into actions.

She imagined the book was a piece of cloth. Open and laying flat on the table’s surface. She imagined the cloth folding on itself. As she exhaled, the pages slowly moved into the book as the cover closed, She was pleased, but she refrained from showing it. This was not an ability she knew she had.

“Like this?” Regina asked, looking up at the stunned brothers.

“You should have failed on your first try,” Adis said, shaking his head. “We were told you knew nothing.”

“And you were not misinformed,” she replied. “I do not know what my abilities are. But is should not be a surprise I might succeed. The magic in my blood is strong. Strong like my father. Strong like my grandmother.”

Regina silently thanks the many hours she had spent reading the chronicles. The very history she was required to know as part of her lessons. She was grateful for all the answers Freydra gave her for all her questions. Regina retained information like a sponge when submerged in water.

“We shall need to make each test harder, then.”

Adis and Arthos exchanged a glance.

“Challenge accepted,” Regina nodded. “However, I wish you would explain how I should do what you ask, next time. This particular occurrence was . . . Pure luck.”

The brothers didn’t need to know how she had such “pure luck”.

* * *

Eadward was good to his word. Regina was surprised at how quickly he sent for her father. He was brought to the study as she was finishing a test. However, she did not lose concentration as she flipped through the pages of ten books. Her hand extended as she did this with her mind. The gesture felt natural. Perhaps it was a subconscious method of extending her power to the books.

“Well done,” said Adis before nodding to Regina’s father. “We shall leave you.”

Regina waited until they had closed to door before turning away from the books.

“They don’t seem pleased with your accomplishments,” said her father as they share an embrace. “Which I can see are many.”

“Indeed, they are a strange people,” Regina replied, nodding as they parted. “But they are very thorough in their teachings. I am grateful they take the time to show me how things are done. What news from Anerathia?”

“My sister sends her best wishes and wants you to remember you are of Bortælus blood. We are a strong breed. Don’t let anyone cause you to believe otherwise.”

She smiled, “Oh, I know. And according to the history books I have had to read in the last month, Bethany was of strong blood as well. Needless to say, the Heartsword bloodline, in general, is also a very strong breed.”

“I have no doubt. What little memories I still have of your mother, they all show me that you have her spirit. Strong and determined.”

Hearing him say this warmed Regina’s heart. But it also brought her sadness.

“I wish there were some way I could have met her before she died,” she whispered with a soft smile. “The people I lived with, the Andrews, they were good people. They loved me more than any family had before them. But the moment I could handle being on my own, I left them. I felt too different when they had guests.”

“I can relate,” her father said with a similar smile. “I can, very much, relate to what that must have felt like. But we have both been quite blessed to have people who genuinely love and care for us. In your case, you found Victoria. For a time, I rejected my brother. My sister . . . There was a time that I had lost her. We found each other again. Granted, it was during a time of war, but we stood together and we chose the right side.”

Regina nodded, glancing at the closed doors.

“Would you bring a message back to the Anerathian king and queen?” she asked, lowering her voice.

“Of course,” her father replied, also lowering his voice. “What kind of message?”

She sighed, “I just want them to know that I wish for Xiphis to remain in their good graces. I do not know what they relationship is like with the Council. But I have reason to feel these people do not like how I succeed in learning. I ask all the right questions. I absorb any and all information they have to offer . . . But they are never pleased, nor to they appreciate the fact the royal bloodline is not dead.”

Her father raised an eyebrow. He tilted his head to the side, glancing at the door through which he had entered.

“I shall relay your message,” he said with a nod. “The future of Xiphis is in good hands. I know it.”

Seeing her father rejuvenated Regina’s motivation to do well. She decided to ignore the off feelings she had toward the Council of Five. She would place her focus to learning about everything available to her. And she would continue her own studies when no more was offered. She wanted them to mold her into a queen the Xiphisians would remember. She wanted to be remembered as the queen who made her country great again. Regina wanted to rule her kingdom until her final breath, and even beyond if it were possible. This was her goal.

* * *

Regina hadn’t expected to learn the ways of combat. Didn’t think she would need such knowledge yet. Perhaps she was wrong to believe this, but she soon found she excelled in this area as well. Adis and Arthos, as usual, thought it was best to throw her into the training area with as little context as possible.

A room with moving floors and inanimate objects of horror was her new classroom. Dummies with spike poking out in every direction. Ropes hung from the rafters and support beams. Torches lit the entire space with a red glow.

“This is insane,” Regina said, shaking her head as she glanced at the platform where her instructors had taken residence. “Should there not be, at the very least, a minor test first?”

“It defeats the purpose,” replied Adis, arms crossed as he watched her with his usual arrogant smirk. “A warrior cannot prepare for every battle. For every battle is different and often your weapons will not be necessary to succeed. You must replace a balance between physical weapons and weapons of the mind.”

“And at times,” Arthos added in his booming voice. “You will be forced to use both. Perhaps such is more common. Begin!”

She sighed and took her starting stand. However, before she could “begin”, her sight went blurry. A sense of familiarity came over her. She knew what was happening.

“My lords,” she said, standing very still as the vision consumed her. “A great danger rises in the East. The people have need of protection. You must evacuate the eastern cities. Gather every family to the palace. Bring me to the foot of the great mountains. If you do not, the kingdom shall suffer great loss.”

Regina cried our as she watched the ground rumbled. Great winds caused even the strongest of trees to be uprooted. Rocks and mud slid down the mountain, carrying red magma to the nearby city. The vision flashed away as she continued to cry in fear and pain for what could be lost. Hands came to rest on Regina’s shoulder. She was led away, but could not make sense of where. Nor did she understand who was leading her. Voices. Conversations transpired around her, though she did not comprehend the words.

Regina was eventually left alone. Freydra was summoned to her aide. The servant girl hummed softly as she touched a damp cloth to Regina’s forehead. Her fogginess dissipated. She sat up with a sharp gasp.

“You’re alright, my lady,” hushed Freydra, helping her back on the pillows. “Rest now.”

“We cannot wait,” she said, trying to sit up again. “If we do not act now, the people will suffer.”

“The Council are a superstitious sort, your highness. They will heed your warning and do what they can.”

“No, Freydra. If I do not go there myself, all will be lost. Only I can stop the coming disaster.”

“Princess, I beg of you.”

“Only I can stop it. A great wave came to Anerathia while I was there. Had I not gone to the coast, the entire village and the people in the dungeons would have been destroyed.”

Freydra glanced away from her. Possibly wondering what she should do. Or maybe she was wondering whether Regina had gone crazy.

“We’ve not had a Seer since the queen,” the girl whispered before darkness overtook Regina.