Through the Mirror

Prologue

 PROLOGUE:        

            Ashlyklnn was on a hunting trip when his mother’s messenger stumbled upon the spot where Ash had set up his bow and arrow and was picking a flower for his mother. He studied the flower carefully because he knew how picky his mom could be about things. The color was vibrant and icy and he was sure his mother would love it. He slipped it into his pocket before looking up at the man that found him.

            “your highness,” Dimsly bowed formally, knowing full well not to show weakness of any kind in front of his prince. Ashlyklnn stood up straight to make himself appear taller than he really was, he was only four feet and six inches. Of course his mother assured him that one day soon he would be big and tall and all grown up. For Ash soon just wasn’t soon enough. He was only nine and already he wanted to be older.

            “yes, Dimsly?” he smiles a boyish smile, pleasantly surprised to have someone to talk to. There weren’t many children around the place that were willing to play with him, because of who his mother was. They were all secretly afraid, and rightly so. Still, he sometimes wished for a friend to make him laugh, and to get into trouble with.

            “your mother wishes to see you, prince Ashlyklnn. Immediately.” Dimsly stared at the boy emontionlessly, his eyes blank. Slowly and sadly Ashlyklnn wiped the smile off his face and nodded his head solemnly. He should have known why Dimsly was really here. To dilever a message his mother couldn’t. without a word Ashlyklnn gathered his things and followed the messenger back to the entrance to the palace, and into the throne room where his mother awaited.

            His mother sat on silver medal that was crudely twisted and carved with ice, forming an otherworldly chair that reached up to the ceiling with a deadly sharp point; the throne. The ice queen was having a discussion with a man and woman who both had the same air of power around them that the queen did. The ice queen, better known as queen Aeron was not happy. She stood up abruptly. “You dare? You dare come into my court and accuse me of letting a traitor go?  Sir Leucetius you insult me. Truly.” She whispers softly.

            “Lady Aeron, if you did not let him go, then perhaps your son did. Everyone knows how hopeful he is.” The other lady says the word hopeful disdainfully, queen Faron, always stirring up trouble for her own amusement. Queen Aeron’s eyes hardened just a bit, and purses her lips, thinking of her next move.

Aeron didn’t look a day over twenty, but that was the way with all fey. Her eyes were out lined in fierce silver kohl that swiped up to her temples and circled there, her eyes were a vivid unnatural scary blue, that sparkled with horrors, daring anyone to look at her. Her lips were blood red and her skin translucent. Of course she was not to be mistaken for snow white. snow white was just a weakling that was too easily frieghtened. Aeron is different. She’s seen things, no, she could not be like the innocent snow white her mother had named her for.

            “Then, perhaps my son shall show his loyalty to me? To the laws of the court?” Aeron says sickly sweet, casting a glance over king Leucetius’ shoulder, at her son.

“That would be wonderful.” Queen Faron purrs, enjoying her horrid, twisted game. Aeron calls out to a guard, telling him to bring the prisoner forth. The guard leaves, his face a mask of nothingness, and returns with a screaming woman about thirty years old. Her hair was graying around the edges and her ribs could be seen, even from where Ashlyklnn stood, twelve feet away. She looked like her energy had been drained slowly every day for the past ten years.

“Ashlyklnn, come here.” Aeron says staring at the beaten woman before them.

“so you kept the traitor all this time?” king Leucetius wonders softly to himself. “why?”

“lets’ just say I have my reasons. Ashlyklnn, child, take this.” Ash’s mother handed him a sword. The hilt was mostly silver with swirls of blue ice dancing on it. The actual sword though, was mostly ice with two gleaming lines of silver running from the hilt to the sword tip. It radiated white from the coldness that it carried, almost as cold as dry ice. Almost. Ash looked up at his mother with his big, grey eyes, confused.

“kill her. Slice off her head, my son.”Aeron tries to look lovingly at her son, not quite capturing the expression. not that it would have mattered, because when Aeron saw that her son was about to question her, she mustered up all the hate inside her easily and directed it into a frosty glare right at him. It was harsh, and not something she had wanted to show him quite yet,  but she knew he needed to learn the cruelness of the world anyway, so he would never question her again. “Now, son.”

Ash swallowed, grasped the sword in his left hand and turned toward the lady marked forever as a traitor and nothing more. The guard let the woman go, and she scrambled up and back, but she had nowhere to go. Ash advanced on her, still unsure. He’d killed many things before, this past year. Rabbits, deer, birds… but never a human. Never something that looked so much like him, in so many ways, like all of them. He raised the sword and darted toward her, the flower he’d picked earlier falling out of his pocket. She screamed and rushed to her left, ducking as she did so. He spun on his heel and was behind her in less than a second. The girl looked side to side trying to find him, before realizing… Ash had the sword up and ready and in the split second before the woman looked behind her, he looked at his mother for one last chance of not doing this, almost as if saying ‘are you sure?’.

Imperceptibly, Aeron nodded her head. Aeron's consultant would be proud. Just that morning Isabel was telling her how Ashlyklnn would have to learn the hard things in life quickly if he was to survive in this winter, though the queen did think there was a little too much glee in Isabels' eyes when she had said so...

 The sword came swinging down toward that sad grey looking neck, just as the woman caught a glimpse of her murderer from the corner of her eyes. But by then it was too late, with a sucking sound and a splattering of blood, her head fell to the icy ground below and rolled a little,  to the pure flower on the floor, staining it in blood.

*****