After bloods had cooled down enough, Daniel and Sam spent the rest of the day making small talk. He was really curious about this girl, who was born on the other side of the world, and yet seemed to be connected to him in ways neither of them understood yet. He kept asking her many questions, but to his dismay, Sam kept avoiding answering them like a pro. She didn’t like to talk about herself much. Plus, it was Daniel who had the more interesting bits to share, and she wanted to know it all.
Even with everything she heard though, Sam still could not believe how real all this was. Yet, she was now past the point of doubting it. It seemed just about anything was possible and that was a comforting thought for the most part, for it gave her hope that one day she would indeed find what she was looking for.
They talked and talked until they got hungry, so Daniel decided to cook something quick and simple with whatever he found in Freddie’s fridge. Sam was impressed. She hadn’t met many guys who cooked. In fact, none of her ex-boyfriends did, and there had been quite a few of them, seeing that she could never hold on to one longer than a few months.
She scowled at herself for thinking about her exes. Why would her mind go there just now?
Evening came and still no sign of Freddie. Daniel decided not to wait for him and went to bed; he was anxious to talk to his mother again. For some reason he had not been able to dream the previous night. It must have been the drugs they had used to put him to sleep. Sam promised to wake him up if Freddie came back with important news, so he went ahead and slept. In no time, he found himself waking up in his other bed, on the other side of the invisible portal.
Butler braced himself to face the wrath of his master. He knew it was inevitable, just like he knew he would take it like a real man. The White Lord would not catch him being weak and beg for mercy. After all, the responsibility was all his; he should have foreseen that the Visitor would have someone guarding him. That was one mistake he was not going to make a second time. Having served his master all his life, he knew the White Lord would make sure of that. And right he was.
Sitting on his white throne, Winter was looking down at his number one man with a calm expression on his face. The hourglass on the corner table was still, its sand lifeless; the White Lord had clearly not bothered with it today. Butler knew these were the times when he should fear him the most.
‘So, it did not occur to you that he might have been under protection? Do you think I am the only one who knows just how important this boy may be?’
‘I am sorry, my lord; it will not happen again. I will get my hands on him, and this time no one will save him.’
Winter got up from his throne and slowly approached his servant. Butler felt the temperature in the room fall drastically and knew something bad was coming.
‘Tell me, how will you get your hands on him, if you have none?’
Saying this, he grabbed Butler’s left hand with his right, squeezing it hard with anger and holding it like that for what felt to Butler like an eternity. In an instant, the skin where Winter touched him began to crystallize and turn first white, and then gradually transparent.
Butler winced in pain and began stroking his left hand with his right, hoping to keep it warm, but to no avail. Skin, flesh and bone rapidly froze and the ice spread over his whole hand within seconds. Butler tried to move the fingers but they no longer answered to his commands. His hand had just turned into his very own ice sculpture.
The pain was excruciating, and he felt like crushing the hand against a wall just to get rid of the cold it brought to the very core of his body. Yet, defiantly, he lifted his eyes to look at his master. Winter looked right back at him with no sign of pity or remorse; on the contrary, malice shone through every fiber of his being.
‘Lucky for me, these are not the hands you will be using to capture the boy again. And this time, you will not fail me,’ he scowled.
Butler bowed his head low.
‘Yes, my lord.’
‘Good,’ Winter ended with disgust, as he headed to his throne and sat back down.
‘Now, as for our other matter, where are we with our flying little friends?’
‘I have sent word to them, my lord,’ Butler replied, trying very hard not to let his pain show. ‘I expect them to contact me with an answer very soon. However, I believe they will not do anything until after the celebrations. They care too much about that stuff, and would do nothing to spoil their fun.’
Winter seemed annoyed by this, but unwilling to do anything about it.
‘Alright, as long as they get the job done. I guess I can keep the charade going for a while longer. Go on then, get out of my sight. And you better stay away until you have some good news to bring me.’
He signaled with his hand for Butler to leave the room, and so Butler did, hiding his frozen hand under his coat. Lucky for him, the pain was beginning to fade; otherwise he didn’t know how he would manage to do anything at all. He no longer felt his hand, and it was weird having a dead weight at the end of his arm. He would have to wear gloves from now on, so nobody could see what had happened to him, but he still felt lucky. This could have gone a lot worse.
Nemo didn’t wait too long after sunrise to knock on Daniel’s door. As soon as they left his room, he began to tell Daniel about his previous afternoon; how he had spent it helping the girls putting up decorations in the castle for the upcoming festivities. He wouldn’t shut up about how beautiful all the girls were and how he didn’t know which one of them he liked more. Laughing with his friend, Daniel did not fail to realize that despite not having dreamt the previous night, it was still the next morning here.
The queen was away dealing with royal matters, but Íro, the blonde girl they met when they first arrived at the castle, would be looking after them. Daniel noticed with amusement that Nemo acted all giddy around her. She was very young and sweet; smiling all the time at the Sea-Prince, and causing Daniel to feel just a little bit envious of his younger friend. She led them to the dining hall, where the two of them sat down and had breakfast together.
Daniel took the time to fill Nemo in with everything he had learned so far. He trusted his new friend, and something told him that he would have to rely on him in the near future for whatever was coming. Nemo listened to him intently, asking questions every now and again. He now knew everything that Daniel knew and didn’t feel too great about it. It seemed things would be getting a lot more complicated real soon.
The queen returned right after they finished their meal and sat down with them. When Daniel informed her of his kidnapping, it brought a dark shadow over her beautiful face. For the first time since they had been reunited, she seemed gravely concerned.
‘And you didn’t recognize any of their faces?’ she asked, referring to his kidnappers.
‘The two who were coming towards me, I had never seen before. And the one who came behind me, obviously I didn’t see. But why is that important now?’
‘Maybe it isn’t,’ she answered thoughtfully, then she got up and began pacing around the area that served as a dining room for her and her guests. ‘This is not good; I did not expect them to come after you so soon. They must know that you are here already, which means that you might not be safe here either.’
‘But who are they mom? Who is doing all of this?’
The queen looked at both of them waiting for an explanation, but didn’t know if she should. After all, she did not have any proof for what she suspected, only assumptions. And yet, all her instincts told her that she was right.
She sat in between them and for a moment struggled with the decision of telling them what she knew, but eventually she decided to speak.
‘Endërland has always been a wonderful place to live in; a happy place where every living thing is good and where evil has always been absent. But lately things have been changing. It’s still not very obvious and there are only a few events that have happened recently to support this theory. The disappearance of a number of Visitors is one of them. Visitors hav
e always been welcome and loved in Endërland, but we haven’t seen any of them for a very long time now. And the few that we remember seeing for a while, they’ve vanished completely, and no one knows why.
‘But that’s not all. Mysterious occurrences have been reported up north recently. There are numerous villages spread out from the valley of Destiny, all the way up to the Northern Mountains. I’ve received word that people, mostly men, have disappeared all over that part of the kingdom. No one knows where they’ve gone, and their families are left behind worried and afraid, feelings that they never knew until now. To make matters worse, life over there is becoming increasingly difficult and dangerous. Animals are starting to become wild and turn on each other and on the people living in the area. That has never happened before. The harvests are also getting weaker with each season and the earth is not producing as much as before. Everything is changing for the worse and I don’t think it’s going to stop.
‘Concerned about the future of the kingdom, I went to consult the oracle a while back. He confirmed my fears that dark days are ahead of us. But all he could tell me was that responsible for all of this is one person only. Evil has somehow found its way into this person’s heart, and he in turn is corrupting all life as we know it.’
‘Did he say who this person is?’ Daniel asked.
‘The oracle told me that I would know him by reading the signs correctly, and that when I did, I would have to do my own part to stop him. I have tried ever since to understand who the oracle is talking about, and I think I know.’
She left the chair again and beckoned them to follow her. They took the spiral stairway on the east side of the castle down to the ground level, passed a number of royal chambers and into the official great hall where they first met. The queen led them through the long throne room, walking in the middle of the rows of chairs stacked by the walls facing each other.
High on the ceiling hung countless flags carrying the emblem of the kingdom of Endër and the symbols of each of the four Lords in their respective banners. Unsurprisingly, Spring was represented by a single red rose. Summer by the image of the bright yellow sun. A golden brown leaf was the symbol of Autumn, while a single white snow flake represented Winter. Daniel noticed that the symbol of Autumn was more prominent than the rest, and attributed this to the fact that he was the current presiding Lord over Endërland.
As they reached the royal throne, the queen stepped into the space between it and the wall, where a beautiful sword was hanging high up, placed horizontally above its sheath. They were both finished in gold. Below them hung, a magnificent round shield and two small knives placed vertically on each side of it, also finished in gold. A long spear was similarly placed on their right, whereas a bow and arrow hung to their left, thus completing the set. The emblem of the kingdom of Endër, the one with the horse and the tree that Daniel had seen on all the flags in the castle and around the city, was engraved in every piece.
‘Wow,’ Daniel exclaimed. ‘They are beautiful.’
‘Are those weapons?’ Nemo asked. Daniel turned to him, surprised that his friend would even ask such a question, but he didn’t have to think hard to understand. Endërland was a peaceful place that had never seen war; and that meant they hadn’t seen many weapons either.
The queen answered Nemo’s question.
‘Yes, Nemo, they’re weapons, just like the ones your mother has, just like the one she gave to Daniel. Only, these are a different kind. The Sky-Queen also has another set. They are all different, but they are used for the same purpose, to fight and kill, and they were all given to us as a gift by the same person.’
‘The White Lord,’ Nemo finished that sentence.
‘Yes, the White Lord,’ The queen confirmed.
‘But what does this prove?’ Daniel asked.
‘I did not think of it at first,’ the queen replied. ‘It all seemed pretty innocent and generous. It is, after all, a very marvelous piece of work. But then I heard that both my sisters were replicating these weapons and many of their people are carrying them. Isn’t that true Nemo?’
Nemo lowered his eyes, embarrassed.
‘Both queens have produced a large quantity of these weapons and are training their people to use them. But one does beg the question, why would you need weapons in a peaceful kingdom? That’s when it dawned on me; this is a way to bring war among us. Sooner or later, someone is going to use those weapons, which means that somebody is also going to get hurt. Then there will be reprisals and retaliations, and before we know it, all three peoples will be at war with each other.’
‘But why would Winter want that? What would he have to gain from putting the three peoples at war?’
‘I don’t know what he’s after, Danny, but whatever it is, he’s got a better chance of achieving it if we’re not standing together against him, if we are divided.’
She paused for a moment, thoughtful, as she pondered her next words.
‘I know only a little about him. He’s one of the earlier Visitors that settled here. He was a great man once, honorable, strong and brave; the Great Lord chose him as one of the residing Lords over the kingdom, after all. But he was always alone, without a family. I think his wife remained behind in the real world and he never loved another woman. It’s the saddest thing for someone to happen, living forever without someone you love.’
The queen stopped there for a moment, sadness veiling her eyes. Daniel realized she was probably thinking of his father, but did not know if he should speak. There’s not much you could say in times like this that would really make it any better.
After pausing for a moment, the queen picked up where she left off.
‘I guess that’s where it must have all started. Now I hear that he travels in secret up to the Northern Mountains, and that all these strange things are happening over there. The mountains are now always covered with snow and clouds, and no one who goes near the area, ever comes back. The animals that used to dwell in that region have either disappeared or moved away from there, and so have the people. Yet despite how empty and desolate it may look, it feels like there is something brewing over there. There is a constant storm going on at the base of the mountains, which is completely unnatural and strange for our kingdom. We have always enjoyed the best of the weather from all four seasons, but this suggests the presence of constant harsh winter in the area. I’m afraid, underneath that thick dark cloud something is being done in secrecy.’
‘Alright,’ Daniel said. ‘Let’s suppose you’re right and that Winter is up to something. What are we supposed to do?’
‘There is nothing we can do at the moment, son. I may well be wrong about all this, but even if I’m not, I have no way of proving anything to the other Lords and the whole kingdom. I’m afraid we’re just gonna have to let things unfold for now. In the meantime, we need to keep you safe back home. Here, I can protect you, but back there you need to go somewhere where nobody will think to look for you.’
‘But where?’
She looked at him, anticipating the reaction that her suggestion would trigger.
‘I was thinking about the village where your grandparents used to live, my birth home.’
‘You want me to go to Albania?’ Daniel asked, totally surprised. ‘But why? I mean, can’t I just hide somewhere in the UK? Dad’s a police officer, after all; he can look after me. I wouldn’t even know how to get to Albania.’
‘Staying in the UK is not safe sweetheart. It is very easy to find you there and these people are obviously professionals. Getting you out of the country for a while, might give your dad a chance to focus on finding these people, without worrying about your safety. Besides, you need to think of his safety as well. What if they decide to use him to get to you? They will stop at nothing, Danny; if he doesn’t know where you are, they might leave him alone.’
Daniel sat down in one of the chairs behind him, with his head in his hands. He had not thought of this; his dad was also in danger. If they could
not find him, they would probably keep a close eye on his dad, hoping that David would lead them to him. Or even worse, they might decide to kidnap David to force him to give himself up. He could not let that happen, he had to do something. He had to make them believe that he had cut all ties with his dad. It was the only way they might leave him out of this.
Nemo sat quiet on the chair next to Daniel, listening to the conversation and feeling unable to contribute in any way so far. He looked at his troubled friend sitting beside him and took the chance to ask a question.
‘I still don’t understand; why do they kidnap the Visitors? What is it they want with them?’
Daniel raised his eyes towards his mother as if seconding his friend’s question. The queen wished she had an answer to this one.
‘I do not know, Nemo. As I understand it, Visitors always add to the life and magic of Endërland with their presence here. Maybe Winter is killing them, trying to starve the kingdom of their energy and positive influence.’
‘I don’t think that’s it,’ Daniel interrupted. ‘If he had wanted me dead, I would have been by now. No, I think he wants to use me somehow. Maybe he wants to use my portal to cross over to the real world, though I don’t know why would anyone want to leave this place.’
He got up and shook his head as if to clear his thoughts.
‘Anyway, I can’t think about that right now. I need to decide what to do about dad. How can I protect him, mom? How can I keep him safe without telling him everything? And even if I did tell him everything, would he believe me and let me go to Albania, or go with me into hiding?’
He was standing before her, pleading with his eyes for a helpful advice or solution. The queen saw the desperation in her son’s face and her heart melted. She took his hands in hers and drew him closer.
‘Sweetheart, I know you love your father, but whatever it is they want you for, I have a feeling it’s a lot bigger than you and me and him altogether.’
‘What are you saying?’ Daniel asked, not sure he wanted to hear the answer. The queen continued with sorrowful eyes.
‘I fear our whole world is in danger, Danny, and that somehow you are right in the middle of everything. You might be more important than either of us imagine. Right now, you’re gonna have to make a very difficult decision and just trust that your dad is capable of taking care of himself.’
Daniel broke free of her and stepped back.
‘You want me to just abandon him to their mercy and run and hide? I thought you still loved him.’
‘I do, Danny, I do. But we both love you more, and your safety is more important than our own. Daddy knows that too, and he would agree with me.’
‘I don’t care,’ Daniel shouted angrily. ‘It might be your priority to protect me, but it’s mine to protect both of you. Don’t you see? If I lost either of you again, I would end up no better than Winter.’
He turned towards the exit and stormed out frustrated.
Watching him go, the queen sat distressed on her throne, feeling no longer as the ruler of a great kingdom, but as a mother who had failed her child.
‘I’ll go after him,’ Nemo said, and bowing down respectfully turned and ran after Daniel.
The queen was left alone in an immense royal hall that now felt empty and cold. She thought about what her son had just said; she saw the wisdom in his words and the love in his anger. She felt such pride, yet so much more fear and worry. Who knew how far Winter’s cruelty could reach; who knew if it had any limits? How was she going to protect Daniel from him in this world or the other? She could not hide him forever.
Back in London, Daniel asked Sam and Freddie to sit down with him and told them what his mother had suggested. They both agreed that this was the best idea and that they should go ahead with it as soon as possible.
Understanding Daniel’s fear, Freddie promised that he would ask the Order of the Guardians to keep an eye on David and make sure he was safe. Daniel felt much relieved to hear this; it made him feel a lot less guilty about leaving his dad behind.
While Freddie proceeded to arrange everything with the order, including travel money and fake passports for all three of them, Daniel called his dad to tell him that he was going somewhere safe for a while. David began to protest, but Daniel did not change his mind.
‘Come on dad, think about it; neither of us would be safe if I stayed here. I know what I’m doing and I’m with people that I trust. Unfortunately, I will not be able to contact you from where I’m going, but I want you to know that I’ll be alright and I’m coming home as soon as this is over. Please, just take care of yourself, okay? I love you!’
Daniel did not wait for his dad to reply, but hung up. This had been the most difficult thing he’d ever had to do.
Behold