Excerpt: Waltz of Gears

“Up! Up! Up! Get up!” Marie broke into her room nosily, throwing the shutters on her window open so hard they clamored against the stone walls. She was already across the room and into the closet by the time Atlanta jerked awake startled beyond compare. The princess watched confused as her clothes began piling up on her bed next to her, one by one. Marie was like a woman possessed!

“What’s going on?” Atlanta struggled out of bed, nearly becoming tangled in her bedspread as she tried to reach the other woman, “What’re you doing?”

Marie popped her head out from the closet, hair frazzled and clothes still dirty with last night’s work. She seemed heavily upset as well. “There’s no time for that! Just put on these and get down to the Great Hall. Don’t dawdle now!”

Atlanta numbly did as she was told, pulling the pants Marie tossed at her with cold fingers. It was the look in her eyes that made the Princess not ask anything else, a kind of frenzied panic Marie had never shown her before. Atlanta slipped out of her room and left the door open. She padded down the hallway as quickly as she could in bare feet, hearing Marie still moving around in her room. She thought she heard crying as well and almost went back, only to nearly veer into a palace guard.

The man saluted her when he realized who she was. “Milady! You shouldn’t be here right now! Come, and I’ll take you to your father.”

“Wait just a moment,” Atlanta dug in her heels and refused to move, “What exactly is going on here?!”

The guard gave up trying to get her to move and ushered her into a room off the hallway to her bedroom. He shut the door soundly, but quietly, and pressed an ear against the door. Three pairs of running footsteps echoed off the stone outside the door. Seemingly satisfied, the guard turned to face the princess, taking off his hat and bowing low. She waved him off.

“Sorry Princess, but I’m afraid the situation is rather grim.”

“Grim? Guard, I demand you to tell me what that means!” Atlanta glanced around the room seeing only crates and stacks of bags of grain. A storage closet.

“Pardon me. It’s another sandstorm, your Highness, only this time…Only this time it’s not a natural one. Balsan mages were seen just outside the city perimeters, stirring up the winds. It appears they sent four miniature sandstorms into the four quadrants of the city, but when they met up in the Central district they combined into one giant funnel cloud. It’s wrecking havoc down there as we speak.”

Atlanta felt like her stomach had just been punched. Hard. She fell back against a storage crate, gripping it’s sides loosely. The guard reached out to steady her and this time she let him, still dazed by the news.

“Are you okay your Highness?”

“I-I’m fine. How did no one see this coming?”

The guard hung his head slightly, “The guards at the first perimeter…they were murdered before they could send out the alarm.”

Another strike that had Atlanta reeling. “What..? Is this a declaration of war by King Odryr?”

But the guard was shaking his head, moving to grasp the door knob. “The King can explain it to you better than I can. But we’ll need to be careful out there.” And Atlanta saw that the guard’s other hand purposely went to his sword belt and remained there.

“Are they…in the castle?” her voice was hardly above a whisper, traumatized at what was occurring to her city in the span of less than a day.

The guard swung the door open but paused at seeing her lost look. He came back and knelt by her side, attempting a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Don’t fret Princess. I’ll lay down my life to make sure you make it to the King safe and sound. But we better hurry.”

His words hadn’t really soothed her fears, but Atlanta went with him nonetheless. They quietly ran through the castle, taking short cuts into the less traveled paths toward the Great Hall. Atlanta was fairly sure even she didn’t know of some of them, and she had climbed up and down the halls daily searching for new places to explore. Then - just when the two were only a stone’s throw away from the corridor leading to the Great Hall, the guard yanked her to a stop and gently pushed her down the last remaining hallway, double doors creaking open at the end. He gave her another smile as she half turned to question him.

“It’s alright, Princess. Just go a little further in and you’ll be safe. But don’t walk. Run. Run as fast as you can.” He drew the sword from his sword belt, blade freshly polished and shining brightly in the dim morning light coming in through the open windows. Despite his words and actions, Atlanta remained turned in his direction. It was then that she heard the sounds that must have alerted the guard. Footsteps.

“Go on Princess,” the guard made to send her away again, “You don’t need to see what’s going to happen here. But please…” he rummaged around inside one of his pockets hurriedly, drawing out a sealed letter he slid across the floor to her. “Make sure the people that’s addressed to get that letter for me, will you?”

Atlanta nodded, still quite frightened and received another fond smile from the guard. “That’s our princess. I just want you to know…it was an honor serving you and your father. Tell him that if you would also.”

Atlanta fought the sudden lump of unease in her stomach, swallowing heavily. The feeling had approached so suddenly, and would not be quelled. “No! Come with me! You can tell him that yourself!”

The guard only gave her another salute, and a hearty push down the hallway, so strong she almost smacked right into the wall. Getting her bearings, Atlanta half turned and just caught a glimpse of something that would haunt her for a very long time. A fireball, aimed directly at the guard’s head, exploded directly in front of his face. The young man jerked back out of the way to no avail and as the smoke cleared, the left side of his face remained horridly charred, mouth clenched in agony. Atlanta spun around and dashed for the opened door, ignoring the maids who called for her and beckoned with waving arms as she ran pass them. As they locked an bolted the door and the castle mage spoke a protection incantation on it, Atlanta continued running until she impacted something soft. It was her father.

Atlanta grasped the folds of his robes and sobbed uncontrollably, but all the King did was slowly pat her back until they faded. His hardened gaze was locked on the door where the clear sounds of battle raged on. Luckily Atlanta was still crying, for the noise drowned out any other sounds she might have heard outside. All she noticed was a tightening around her shoulders before silence reigned once more. It was awhile longer before Adras pulled back from her and knelt to her level.

He smoothed back her hair and dried up her tears as gently as he could, expression softening at seeing her face. “Listen to me Atlanta, I need you to listen as well as you can, can you do that for me?”

She could only nod.

“Good, good. We’ve gained express permission from Lord Renor to open a portal directly to his manor, and you’re to go directly there okay? You do remember him right?”

Again, Atlanta nodded. Lord Renor was one of Sandry’s relatives and the relative she was staying with currently in Fende.

“I can’t go with you,” and Adras had anticipated her protests, quieting her with a look, “But you’ll be safe there, I promise. And as soon as I can, I’ll send for you, alright?”

Atlanta didn’t want to go but Adras was already pushing her towards the back of the hall. She noticed for the first time the gaping black hole that stood in almost flush against the windows. All of the tables and chairs were either missing or shoved against the walls to provide room for it, and as Atlanta drew closer, she could feel a cold seeping out from the darkness as though it were alive.

“Wait!” she fumbled for the letter the guard had left her and was nearly brought to tears again as she gave it to her father with trembling fingers. “The man that helped me here asked me to make sure it was delivered. He said…he said it was an honor to have served us all these years. Father! Will you make sure you give it back to him? And, and tell him to tell you personally next time, okay?”

Adras accepted the letter with an unreadable expression, but he put on a strained smile for her benefit. “I’ll make sure of it.”

And with that, Atlanta seemed contented to step through the portal, though she did so with a last glance to her father. After Adras was sure she had made it through, he had the castle mage take down the portal. At the small popping noise that signified a departure, the King turned his gaze upon the letter and then to the door.

“Open it.”

The castle mage startled. “But your Majesty! I don’t think that’s a -.”

“That was an order.” there was an edge to the King’s voice that instantly made the man obey, and as the mage scurried to release the seal, Adras strode to meet him. The King stepped foot just in front of he door as it opened and continued walking up the corridor, turning the corner to a complete stop. Screams rose behind him at the sight of the bodies on the floor, but Adras refused to turn around until Leo came hurrying from the other way. The Minister of Foreign Affairs turned positively green upon seeing the chaos but gingerly made his way over to his King.

“Sir! I’m glad to see you’re okay!”

“Leo. Is this all of the interlopers?” Adras clearly meant the red clothed bodies at his feet, but his gaze remained pinned on the wall ahead of him.

“No milord, there were four. I count three Balsan mages here. The fourth one is still at large, though there have been rumors of a man wearing red robes fleeing from the castle. I set a division after him, he should be caught within moments.” Leo trailed off as Adras all but shoved a letter into his hands, stalking off in the direction the minister had come from.

“Sir! Where are you going?”

“To find my sword,” was the echoing call.

Leo stared after quizzically, door still hanging wide open in the King’s wake. He then remembered the letter, and after smoothing out the wrinkles in the envelope he read the front. Scrawled out in an awkward, spidery soldier’s hand read the words:

To Mr. and Mrs. Halenfield…