Watching Ella

Chapter Fourteen

Down various alleyways, Prince Henry led Ella on a dizzying maze. He seemed to know exactly where he was going which surprised Ella. She assumed him to be nearly as clueless of the actual city layout since he was a wealthy royal who'd never had to maneuver the city like the working class, but he cut corners like he'd done this trek a thousand times.

Ella hurried to keep up. Henry turned around a bend when Ella lost him. The road had five possible paths in the next few yards and that was not counting the alleys. Other people pushed past her as they grunted at her idiotic behavior clogging up traffic. She dodged to the edge of the road. Was this a joke? Did Henry abandon her?

"Ella! Over here," he called from an alleyway partially cover by discarded wares.

When she made her way over to him, he opened a trap near the drainage pipe. He smiled at her surprised look then scuttled down into the dark shoot below leaving Ella to follow. Without hesitating she entered into the darkness.

The street above emitted a soft light in which Ella could make out the stone walls of the claustrophobic tunnel as they glistened with water droplets. It was hauntingly beautiful. Ella picked her her skirts to keep them from the building condensation. She wondered where the tunnel led.

Carefully, she shut the trap door. She strained to make out the rest of the tunnel. Henry waited silently for her a few yards away. He took her hand and they followed it.

Amidst the silence and the cavernous ground, she and the Prince walked spiraling downwards. Neither made a sound. Ella out of nervousness and Henry out of anticipation.

Henry watched Ella as she noticed that slowly the path began to change. Like the sprinkling of rain darkening the sidewalks the stone beneath their feet became speckled with phosphorescent light. Soon their way was lit by glowing false stars.

Between the warmth of the ground and the growing humidity, Ella felt as if she had been transplanted into a tropical oasis. The fears of the city above seemed distant.

"Do you like it?" Henry asked finally speaking up.

"Very much," she admitted, "It's ethereal. Do you know why the stones glow so brightly?"

"No. I never thought to wonder. And I had no one to ask. My mother brought me down here a few times before she died, but I was so little. I hardly remember it," Henry released his hand to rub his neck. He didn't want to talk about his mother. "If you like this, you'll love my favorite part."

Ella understood what he was talking about when they reached a giant lake in the middle of the caverns. The phosphorescence illuminated the massive cave structure with stalactites jutting and bats fluttering. But the water was clear and even the glowing rocks were imbedded on the bottom of the lake.

After Henry stripped down to his underclothes he dived into the water. Ella took his lead and removed her dress to follow him into the lake. Some of her white slip clung to her body while her skirts were like dove's wings gliding wide with each stroke of her arms. The erie stillness of the surface became distorted as they swam. Above and below them the phosphorescent stones shone like stars and the two of them floated among the heavens.

"Henry?" Ella asked.

"Yes."

She asked a question that wouldn't leave her mind since he'd first appeared that evening, "Why me? Why did you bring me here?"

"You really have no idea how beautiful you are." Henry swam over to Ella and gathered her in his arms.

"Stop teasing. I'm being serious. You hardly know me."