Half Heart

Morning crept up without forewarning. Before I knew it the sun was peeking through my window and shining on my pillow. I raised my head and looked around the room. Almost immediately I shut them back; the room was blinding. The sun reflecting on all the silver was terribly stunning.

  I sat up on the bed and put my feet on the floor, all the time keeping my eyes closed. The floor was warm and damp. It almost felt like melting ice, but without the cold. As I stood up I was careful to steady myself on the bedpost and not slip onto the floor. I turned my head suddenly as I heard the door open and someone enter the room. I saw long blonde hair and a slinky figure. It was Unstacia. I froze and cleared my mind, hoping she would try to talk to me through her mind. It was the queerest sensation hearing her voice in my head. It didn’t sound the same as it did audibly, but higher pitched and hollow, with a metallic echo. Nearly frightening, but intriguing at the same time.

  “Good morning!” Unstacia cheered, holding a basket of silks under her arm. She had talked to me out loud. I released myself from my frozen pose and started walking, wanting to get to the end of my bed to get dressed. But it was difficult. My feet slipped apart, sliding across the floor in the wrong direction. The clutched the bedpost with all my might. Keeping one hand holding on, I turned around and grabbed the windowsill. Carefully I pulled myself to it, still sliding. No doubt I looked a riotous spectacle.

  “Juen fre’long vou!”

  I tried to turn my panting head to look at Unstacia. She was laughing, a tinkling little sound that was smoothing over my nerves. “How am I supposed to walk on this floor, Unstacia? It’s as slippery as a wriggling fish!”

  Another tinkling laugh. “Oh, Tenyjo! Walk on your tiptoes!”

  I raised onto my toes and let go of the windowsill. Amazingly I didn’t slip. I was so thickskulled! I hadn’t a brain in my head. Sometimes I wondered how I made it through The Forest of Despondency and lived to see the sun again. I skulked over to Unstacia trying to figure out what she held in her arms. She let them drop on the silver trunk at the foot of my bed.

  “Jke! More appropriate clothing for your visit here. So you don’t stand out for everyday endeavors.” She stepped back for me to study the garments. They were all beautiful, so many different colors…

  “What are these colors called?” I asked.

  Unstacia got a twinkle of mirth in her eyes. “Well,” she softly put her hand on one. “This one is pink, like the color I’m wearing. This one is blue, this one is a light green, paler than the sea. This one yellow, this one gray…” she trailed off, her mouth round in a smile from teasing me so genially.

  “Oh?” I laughed sarcastically. Then more serious, “I couldn’t be sure! Last time, all the colored fragrances had the queerest names. I didn’t want to look dumb, but I guess that can’t be helped with someone as smart as you around!” Unstacia almost doubled up with laughter after my last sentence. I laughed along with her, enjoying her company greatly. She was my only female companion besides Adda, but I hadn’t seen much of her lately.

  “Unstacia?” I said. She looked at me with helpful eyes. “What are you? I mean, I know that you’re an Elf. But are you a servant? A slave? Or are you kin to the royal family?” I watched Unstacia as she swallowed hard, her eyes sharp and clear. Then in the back of my mind I heard an, I don’t know.

  “I’m most certainly not kin to the royal family. But I’m not sure if I’m a servant, or a slave. I have been something along the lines of a chambermaid and a lady-in-waiting for as long as I can remember. I don’t have to do any really dirty work, but I’m not one that lives in silk and pearls,” Unstacia confessed to me. “I don’t think I have complete freedom. But I’ve never tried to leave Mount Geoterilavus. I’ve never really thought about it.”

  I watched the slender Elf girl with sympathetic eyes. I had always known what I was: a princess. What kind of life did Unstacia live? How could she have been so content for all her life? It made me feel so small and discontent comparing her attitude to mine a year ago.

  I could hear Unstacia breathing. “I never knew either of my parents. The queen found me in her marble garden. Instead of raising me as her own, she raised me as a miniature lady-in-waiting. I have always lived with the servants. My life has always been the same day after day, really.”

  I stared at the ceiling listening to her. It wasn’t really a sad life, but it made me feel pity for her. “Haven’t you ever dreamed of something bigger?”

  Unstacia gave me a blank stare and a slight shake of the head. She probably didn’t know of anything to dream of.

  “Are you book learned?”

  Unstacia shook her head again. “No. I have no education other than sewing, cooking, serving and waiting.”

  I retrieved a book from one of my bags, finding the floor to be fit for walking flat-footed. It was a history book with all of great stories of all the great warriors. LaShebah told me I as destined to be in it someday. That thrilled me to the bone. Me, in a history book? I would have to do something of great importance, like lift the curse on The Forest of Despondency. I placed the book in Unstacia’s arms, who received it like a wide-eyed child in receipt of her first birthday present.

  “Can you read?” I asked of her.

  “Ye– yes, I can. Thank you, your majesty.” She bowed her head and took a step back, bumping into the bed.

  “Please don’t call me ‘your majesty’,” I cried. “Layla. Simply Layla. I’m more accustomed to it.”

  “Layla,” Unstacia repeated quietly. She held the book gently in her arms as she gazed at it. Suddenly her eyes lighted up, and she swung her head up at me. “Are you in this book?

  Those words tickled my stomach. I smiled broadly and shook my head. Even though I had to disappoint her by telling her I wasn’t in it, she made my spirit soar by her even thinking I might have been. My unusual life was probably impressive to her.

  “Tko! Did you remember, Tenyjo? Gown, choose a gown,” Unstacia said abruptly, reminding me. I picked up a light blue gown to make her happy.

  “Now,Tenyjo, let me help you dress.” Unstacia helped my slip out of my nightgown. At the castle at home, I had always dressed myself. The gown Unstacia was lacing up in the back was of the lightest material that had ever touched my skin. I could barely feel it, and I was afraid it would be too sheer to wear. But when I stepped in front of the mirror, I felt like a princess again. There was slits all around the dress, showing my knees as I moved. Where I had felt Unstacia lacing me up, my back showed through from my shoulders to my waist. If felt incredibly free. I stared at myself in the mirror. Then, taking me aback, my hair curled into large, loose ringlets, and my lips changed color. I stared for another second, then turned to confront Unstacia. But before I could ask anything, she answered.

  “The dress knows. Now you look your best.”

  A tall man Elf entered the room. Unstacia turned her gaze toward him and clasped her hands in front of her.

  “Layla, King Brydon is waiting for you on the terrace,” said he, then left.

  He had called me simply ‘Layla’. Was he being disrespectful? Had he forgotten? Or…

  “I told him to hold the title. He said, ‘anything to make the Queen happy’.” Unstacia had told him through her mind. What a miraculous gift all of them had. “Follow me, and I’ll take you to the terrace.”