Sabledrake Magazine
November, 2003
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The Ways of Magic, Pt. IV - VIII
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A Tale of a Frozen Place
Copyright © 2003 by Myth Spinner
There is beauty in all things, one must have the patience however to find it. Some things are most obvious, others not so. It is the beauty that is not so readily apparent that is indeed the most precious. The beauty that takes time to see or understand. All beauty should be celebrated, one way or another. But at times we take our beauties for granted and shun them as if they were somehow unworthy our efforts or attention. Should you feel this way, about the beauty in your world, think again and remember this tale.
~ ~ ~
Ember sits, as she has come to do for the past four years, on the little knoll that overlooks a babbling brook. She comes here, for the past two of those years, for the reason of grumbling. She grumbles that the days are too short and the nights to long. She grumbles that the brook runs faster now then it did four years ago. She grumbles about all things, whether they concern her or not. One wonders where such a young, pretty thing has adopted such an old and indigent attitude.
One may consider her mother. She is a hard working pixie, one that works in the Queen's court. She is always fluttering about. Hither and thither fixing for the Queen, so that she may provide for her family. She, although busier than a blacksmith fitting a legion of horses for the King's battle, forging with one hand tied behind his back and the other holding the horses foot! Nay, she never utters a single worry, or has a bad thing to say about it or anybody. She is hard working and dedicated indeed, but more so to her beloved family, whom she does all things for.
Well then, the father. But he is a fine fairy too, working the lines that maintain the country town's supply of fresh fruits and vegetables. A fine specimen of fairly male is he. Sturdy wings, fine muscular arms, a fit body and a smile that could charm a gnat off an ass. Oh, yes but he is in love and meant for only one pixie, be that Ember's mother, whom he loves as dearly as he loves his strawberry nectar. He works the line ten hours a day, he does. So that he may provide for his girls and his aging mother. Does he utter a single grumble, nay, except for his belly at the end of a hard day.
If not those two then surely the nanny must be the guilty party. Though, I argue that the sweet old pixie has nothing but the best intentions in mind. She cares for Ember and her sister as she would her own flesh. A lovely lady indeed, filled with warmth and loving attention. She comforts, and cares for them, all the while mother and father are away. Cares for them as their own loving mother could. Now, seeing this, how could one consider the nanny?
Then there is no one other than her baby sister to blame. Poor Ember must listen to the babe cry when she is hungry, the monster. I say, isn't that what is expected of a baby? Well then, the little tike coos at her sister, and yearns to play by her side, but Ember will have nothing to do with her. Now listen here, I do declare we cannot run off and blame this baby for Ember's rotting ways. I will have none of that.
Then who? Ember, could it be she is just a spoiled and cynical little pixie?
* * *
"Pardon me?"
Ember looked over her shoulder, there, fluttering behind her was a nix. Not just any nix, but the very nix that belongs to the Castle Drixnear.
Now everyone knew the Castle Drixnear was a dark and dreary place. A place of nightmares and ugly deeds by an ugly hag who had not a care in the world for a single being. Be it griffin, gargoyle, troll, Minotaur or the lot. Be it ogre, chimera, anima or not. She didn't care, and most of all, she hated the roc, gremlin, pixie and elf.
"What is it?" Ember declared. Her voice in a tone less then inviting.
"I-"
"Out with it then." Ember took flight, fluttering her tiny wings to carry her to the bank of the brook. She looked down at the water and complained. "I remember when this water was clear, and one could see the fish as they swam and the rocks as the glistened like emeralds. Now it is tainted and murky, ugly I say it is. Such a disappointment it is."
The nix pulled up beside her and said, in a small timid voice. "I can see the fish and the rocks like emeralds. Why can't you?"
"What do you know?" Ember spat, fluttering back to the knoll, not paying the nix a second glance.
"Please, won't you help me?" The nix asked as she followed Ember.
"What do you want from me?" Ember sat back down on the knoll and grumbled that the green grass wasn't as green as it used to be.
The nix looked at her queerly before she answered the question. "Can you help me get back to the Castle Drixnear?"
"Sure," Ember replied, pointing north. "Go that way you cannot miss the big dreary place.
Ember turned to look at the nix that had made herself comfortable on Ember's knoll beside her. She stared at her, with a rather disturbing glare that suggested the nix was not welcome there. Truth be known she wasn't in the least bit welcomed.
"I know the direction. I need help to sneak back into the castle. If Mildred discovers me missing, she will surely bind me." The nix pleaded in a small whiny voice.
Ember chuckled. "The mean old hag of the castle, her name is Mildred?"
"Shhh!" The nix placed a gentle hand over Ember's mouth. "It is not funny, she is so very wicked."
Ember pushed the nix's hand away, and huffed at her rather rudely. "I am not afraid of any hag! Especially a hag by the name of Mildred, how utterly stupid is a name like Mildred for a hag. Ha-ha, how silly you are little nix."
The nix looked around worriedly. "You will help me then." She asked, choking down a breath as she continued to look about, worried that Mildred that hag might be near.
Ember thought a moment, an adventure or back to the crying baby and fussy nanny. "Yes, I will! I will take you to your castle and aid you in returning to your dreary dwelling."
With that, the two set off north.
* * *
Night had fallen and the nanny paced before the foyer to Ember's house. She waited for either Ember's mother or father to return. She had taken the baby to the knoll where Ember spends most of her days complaining aloud about everything and everyone who would wander by.
In the parlor where the nanny happens to be on several evenings, she hears of the stories about the rude and mean little girl. The one they call the nag, who will one day most assuredly become a hag and live in the dark castle of Drixnear. It is a joke of course, since they all laugh about it, all except the nanny.
She has worried the afternoon away and now into the twilight. The little pixie has gotten off somewhere. She checked the nearby woods, and heaven forbid the bottom of the brook. As she could clearly see to the bottom of the calm and gentle flowing brook.
The clear waters revealed everything to the naked eye, the fish that swam the mild currents, the shiny; slippery rocks covered in beautiful shades of emerald moss. One, if they looked close enough (without falling in of course), could even see the small creatures that live at the bottom of the brook, carrying on with their lives as if the were hidden in the dark murky depths.
Ember, of course was not there either, she was nowhere to be found and the nanny was sick with guilt and worry.
As she paced and prayed, the father had arrived. She rushed to him, tears flowing from her eyes. "Master! Ember is missing and I am so ashamed."
"Missing? How can that be, she is at the knoll of course." Ember's father replied, confident of his little pixie's whereabouts.
"No, I have searched that knoll high and low. She is gone master, please forgive me." The nanny sank to her knees and wept audibly.
"Come," Ember's father offered a hand. "This is no time for tears. Let us go to the knoll and together we will find her, as expected sitting atop the knoll."
They set out for the knoll, father, and nanny with baby in her arms. They would arrive and find what she had found before, no Ember, no sign. Ember's father looked at the nanny, with worry in his eyes. He had doubted her, now he had seen for himself that Ember was not atop the knoll.
"Ember!" Her father called as he rushed to the wood and then to the brook. "Ember, I am not amused by your games!" Still, she did not reply. He turned to the nanny in realization that Ember was gone. Surely, she would not hide from her own father when she knew him worried.
"EMBER!" He called one last time.
* * *
Beyond the moat at the Castle Drixnear. Where darkness had fallen before the rest of Edinberry. Ember heard a hint of her father's voice, before it stopped as if consumed by the darkness. She worried he would be mad but decided that her adventure was worth more than his temporary wrath.
"Come," the nix whispered, pulling her away from her momentary concern.
Ember fluttered up to the nix that hovered by a small crack in the castles make-up. It was a horrendous looking castle as well, and the crack looked more like an open wound on flesh than stone. When they approached the castle, not to long ago Ember remembered likening the crimson glow of the castle to skinless flesh. Now, she was certain of it.
She looked back, at the wood that had vanished in a haze of pure, uncanny blackness. It was, at the moment, like staring into the black orb of a dragon's eye. Not that she had ever, but she had heard the stories.
She looked again, it was like the wood and sky was one. That if she was to flutter to the wood she would fall off the edge of the world, and float forever in loneliness of space. She shuddered, but not so much that the nix would have noticed. Had she still been by her side?
"Come," the nix called, her head sticking out of the fissure in the wall.
Ember followed, from desire or a sense of madness, she could not say, but she did. As she passed through the fissure, she noted something unusual as she entered the castle. The inside was an entirely different world. She imagined it to be ugly. Old tattered tapestries on the walls. Cobwebs dominating the dusty corners. The stale air, impossible to breathe from decades of confinement. She imagined a dark and dreary place but found quite the opposite.
The inside of the castle was bright and airy. Everything glistened as if wet. The walls were crystal, the floor as well. From the ceiling great crystal fingers stretched out in uneven shapes and sizes. All the fixtures in the castle were crystal as well; though locked within the crystal she could see the banister to the staircase. Other things too, such as furniture, pictures, stone carved replicates of human males (which she had learned about in school), and other interesting decorations.
She paused to take in the amazing beauty of the old hag’s estate. The great ugly castle let no notice of the inner beauty of its sanctum. She stared amazed at the beautiful things, locked in time and space within the lovely crystals. Ember smiled, despite being where she was.
"Come," the nix motioned with a hurried hand.
Ember made a face and complained. "You should learn to relax, and take your time to enjoy the things around you."
She followed the nix as she fluttered through the castle, rising higher up the staircase. She did note too, and it was becoming bothersome, the strange sensation of tiny bumps on her skin. And of further concern was the sight of her breath pushing out in front of her, before she fluttered through it, causing her eyes to burn. She continued forward, her arms wrapped around herself, and her teeth chattering.
She now followed the nix up a dark tower. "What is this sensation that is so troubling?" Ember asked as the two left the darkness beneath them.
"It is the cold." The nix replied.
"Cold?"
"Yes, it is the opposite of your world of warm. Cold is this place, frozen is a better term however." The nix settled in the tower room.
"Is this yours?" Ember asked.
"Yes," the nix replied in a rather distressed tone.
"It is quite lovely. The crystals are beautiful." Ember fluttered close to one; she peered at it, amazed and bewildered by its beauty.
"It is not, touch it and you will see."
Ember looked at the nix as if she were insane. Turning back to the crystal she slowly extended her hand and touched the crystal. It was a greater sensation of what the nix called cold. In fact, her small hand began to burn from the touch of the crystal. She went to pull her hand back, but as if magic had occurred, her hand stuck to the crystal. "You tricked me! What kind of magical crystal is this?"
"It is not magic as you think, and it is not a crystal. It is ice from the cold heart of Mildred. Everything here is cold and frozen, because her heart is so."
"You-"
"I only touch the ice with my clothed flesh. Otherwise I would stick to it as well." The nix smiled at Ember as she struggled to free her hand.
"Why did you do this?" Ember asked as the worry began to overcome her.
"I have watched you for years, and you do not appreciate what you have. The knoll and its wild flowers and emerald grasses. The endless blue skies and burning sun that caresses in gentle warmth. The babbling brook with its clear, cool waters with the creatures that are on display for your attention. You have a wonderful family, you have so much Ember, yet you appreciate none of it."
Ember struggled harder against the ice. She could feel her flesh pull, but it would not give. "I brought you here as you asked, now let me go."
"I cannot," the nix replied. "Only Mildred can."
"No!" Ember cried.
"I have brought her." The nix said.
From the dark corner of the tower an ugly hag appeared. Her features held much of the darkness she came from. The shadows followed her as she flew clumsily about the room. She came to rest beside the nix. "This is she?"
"Yes m'lady." The nix shuddered in the presence of the hag.
Plumes of crystal fog rolled from the hag’s mouth. The crystal ice turned black wherever her breath touched, and froze the tears on Ember's cheeks as she wept for her father.
"It is too late I am afraid." The nix replied, as she now looked like Ember and Ember her.
"Be gone." Mildred the hag of Castle Drixnear proclaimed and the nix was off.
Ember could hear her to say as she plunged down the dark tower. "Perhaps one day, an ungrateful girl will come along and free you. But it will not be my sister that I assure you."
* * *
Ember was confined to her room for a week after she returned later that evening. She confessed to have been playing a joke on her father and gladly took his wrath.
After her punishment, one could find her again sitting on the knoll. There was a difference in Ember though, as she sang the praises of beauty and warmth that surrounded her. She found all things intriguing and lovely and she shared those warm feelings with everyone around her. She played with her younger sister, sharing much love and attention with her. She brought her to the knoll with nanny in tow, spending countless days on the knoll and exploring the world within the babbling brook.
And down at the parlor where nanny happens, they spoke of the angel pixie, so lovely and pleasant.
* * *