"Calia, who was that?" I asked, even though I knew fully well who and what she was.
"She's just a witch, the guards have been bringing them in all week. Garrett and Damian wanted them in for questioning." Calia responded as I looked back to where the guards had taken the girl.
A sudden thought entered my mind, what would they do to her? How would they question her for answers? What the King had done to me? Torture and beat her until she was a bloodied mess on the cold concrete of the dungeon floor? I couldn't let that happen, she was only a girl.
"We have to help her!" I worried. In my haste to help the girl, I had pulled my arm from Calia's hold and lost my balance. I hit the cold, hard stone floor on my left side. Pain flooded through my arm and I struggled to keep my cry of pain in. Tomorrow I would surely have another bruise that would add to the ones I was struggling to heal.
"Aurora!" Calia shrieked and took hold of right arm, careful not to do anything that could cause me anymore pain.
"We have to help her. We don't know what they might do to her." I said again, ignoring the pain of my arm.
"Aurora, dear. We can't save a witch, they're vile and evil." Calia said and I was shocked by her words. I had thought that Calia would believe the beat in people, even if they were a witch. "Now let me take a look at your arm, it may be broken."
" No, Calia I'm fine." I said, feeling my annoyance rise. "How could you assume that witches are what you say? They have a right to be angry with us for what we did to them. Taking their home and claiming it as our own. It's not right. The best thing we can do is save all the witches down there, including that girl."
"Well... maybe we could-"
"That's all I needed." I interrupted. "Now, I need to talk to that witch. How would we get down to the dungeons without notifying the guards."
I was mostly talking to myself as I scanned the dungeon door and the area around it.
"Is there another entrance to the dungeons?" I asked Calia, knowing she would have information.
"Well..." She paused and looked around us. Seeing if there might be anyone listening to us. "Let's go outside first."
It seemed that she had forgotten about checking my arm when I felt her tug on it as we walked towards the doors that led to the terrace. When Calia opened the door, I was transported back to when King Garrett had been beating me and the queen. The blood on the pavement had been cleaned up and was now a spotless beige. Fear crawled over me as I stared at the table and the area beside it. I gulped and turned my gaze somewhere else, I felt my breathing grow short and I became alert, as if something would jump out from a bush and try to hurt me.
"Come darling, there's a place we can talk in the garden." Calia said, pulling me the opposite way we had gone last week.
I let out a silent breath when we passed a tall hedge and I could no longer see the terrace. Relief washed through me, as if the impending danger I had felt was suddenly gone and replaced with calm. Calia gently let go of my arm and let me follow her into a maze.
"Calia, where are you taking me?" I asked as she led me through the rows of hedges.
"Somewhere no one will hear or bother us." She said, her voice sounded determined and confident.
After about five minutes of navigating through this impossible maze, we came upon a small clearing. I became breathless, it was beautiful. A large fountain was placed in the middle, the sun streaming down on the water making it shine like a thousand tiny diamonds. Roses grew all across the hedges, adding more beauty to the scene. I looked around to see that there were no other entrances except the one we had come through. It seemed as if there were no way anyone could find this place.
"I found this oasis a few years after I was chosen." I wanted to say kidnapped, but I knew that it would be insensitive. "I wanted to get lost in this maze in hopes that no one would ever find me, though that plan would never work. I have the memory of an elephant, I can never forget anything, so I could easily find my way out. Though I continued through the maze and eventually stumbled upon this fountain. It was my haven, I could come here when I needed to." Calia said.
"Why did you go back? Why didn't you just keep going until you found your way out?" I asked, stepping into the haven.
"Garrett... he had threatened my parents and my sister. If I ever tried to leave, he would slaughter them all." I could see tears in Calia's eyes as she confessed what Garrett had done.
"I'm sorry." I comforted, wanting to make her pain go away.
"It was a long time ago, my parents aren't around anymore and my sister wanted to travel the world." Calia said, sitting on the ledge of the fountain, tears were streaming down her cheeks. Her pain reminded me of my father, what had happened when I had defied Damian and Garrett, when my father had defended me.
"Still, no one should have to go through what you went through." I said, pushing the memory of my father away. I didn't want to burden her with my pain, she had too much of her own. Adding my problems to hers would only break her more.
"Well, it's behind me. Now let's talk about how we're going to get you to the witch." Calia said, changing the subject.
"Calia, we don't have to do this now." I insisted. Her determination sparked in her eyes, blocking away the pain that had been there a moment ago.
"No, we came here for a reason, not to talk about my tragedies." She said, whipping away her tears with the back of her hand.
"Are you sure?" I questioned.
"Yes, of course I'm sure. Now, about that witch. There are secret passage ways around the castle, it used to be how servants got around the castle until they were closed due to thieves getting in and stealing. The passages go all around the palace, even the dungeons." Calia stated.
"If they were closed up, how can we use them?" I asked.
"Well, the servants hadn't told the king about all of the passageways and their entrances. The servants wanted them to be kept secret incase of an emergency, like a fire in the castle." Calia responded, I felt grateful to have her on my side. Though a sudden question popped into my mind.
"If they're secret then how do you know about them?" I questioned.
"It was much like this sanctuary. I was about your age when I was chosen, maybe a few years younger and I was quite curious, though due to that curiosity I was confined to the castle. I couldn't leave the grounds, so I looked around and decided to memorize the castle. While I was in the library, I found a passageway behind a bookshelf, it was quite fascinating. I explored those tunnels for most of the day." She explained. "One of them led to the dungeons, though I was too nervous to go down there."
"Do you remember how to get there?" I asked.
"Yes, of course I do. I have the memory of an elephant, remember." She smiled. I couldn't help but return the smile
"Right." I felt a little stupid for asking the question.
We sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes, until I heard my name being called in the distance.
"Aurora!" Damian's voice yelled. For a moment I thought of my mother, how her voice could be carried from the village all the way to my secret meadow
"Damn it." I mumbled and stood up. "We should probably be getting back to the castle."
I heard dread fill my voice and I knew Calia could hear it too.
"Don't worry dear, we'll get the witches out. I'll help you." She smiled and walked with me out of the haven.
Disappointment flooded through me when we left the beautiful fountain. I wanted to be left there and never have to return to the real world. For some odd reason, it reminded me of home. The meadow I had found when I was a child felt like that sanctuary, like it was a distant world that I could stay in forever and never leave.
The memory of my life back home plagued me as we exited the maze. It felt as if half of myself had been left in the maze and the only way to get it back, was to get lost in those hedges. Like what Calia had done all those years ago.
"There you are." Damian said when he saw Calia and I walked up the stairs to the terrace. "I have been looking everywhere for you."
I saw a bit of annoyance in the Prince's eyes when he grabbed hold of my arm. A large pain shot from where his hand gripped, it was the arm I had fallen on earlier that day. Damian's hold on my arm made the injury ten times worse, his strength causing it to be excruciating, I felt tears begin to slide down my cheeks as he pulled me into the castle.
Looking back at Calia, I saw apologies written in her eyes, as if she felt responsible for Damian. I wanted to go to her and tell her that it wasn't her fault. That Damian had chosen to be this monster.
"Stop, you're hurting me." I whined as he pulled me into a room I had never seen before. And I doubted Calia had seen either.
"Do you think I care." He responded and threw me onto the floor.
The room was dark, not the kind that I couldn't see in. No, this room felt plagued with evil and darkness. The walls were painted black and no windows could be seen anywhere. It felt like my bedroom, but looked like a torture room.
"What have you been doing with my mother?" He asked walking towards me, pulling my hair to force my eyes to stare into his
"I don't know what you mean." I responded as he shoved me back against the floor and walked to a wall. I watched as he grabbed something off of the wall. A whip. And walk back towards me.
"You know exactly what I mean, love. My mother isn't one to spend time with people. What have you been doing with her?" He stormed.
"Nothing!" I yelled, he would never get any confession from me.
"Well then, I hope you're ready for what I'm going to do to you." He said, crouching beside me. "Because, trust me, it isn't going to be pretty."
I watched him walk away from me and out the door, leaving the whip behind.