The Thirteenth Princess by Diane Zahler

Author:Diane Zahler
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2010-03-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

IN WHICH I DANCE

I could not believe what I saw. There was no water, not even a hint of the fact that we must be below the lake. Instead a path stretched forward before us, lit with a silvery light that might have been the moon, if we had not been beneath a lake. Trees lined the path, trees of silver. They cast shadows on the ground, clear enough to see each branch and leaf etched in light. A gentle breeze played among them, making the leaves knock together with a sound like the wind chimes that Cook liked to hang in her kitchen garden. I caught my breath in wonder, and Breckin took my hand and squeezed it. I reached up with my free hand to feel a leaf, and it was cold and metallic. Quickly I pulled out the knife from my bundle and sliced off the leaf. It came away in my hand, and I held it up to see it better.

“It is silver,” Breckin said, awed. “Silver trees. Where are we?”

A movement caught my eye, and I saw one of my sisters in the distance, hurrying along the path. “Come!” I cried. “We can’t lose them!” We began to run, but my sisters moved quickly too, and we could not catch up to them.

Before long the forest changed. Now the trees seemed to be golden, and the sound their leaves made rustling together was that of bells. We were running now, too fast to stop and pick a leaf, but I felt strange and frightened for a reason that I could not name, and I slowed enough to look behind me. What I saw made me cry out in terror. There was no path there at all, no gold or silver trees. The path seemed to be rolling up behind us, rolling as fast as we were running. Or was it faster? And what was behind it? I could smell water, and I imagined a great wall of water rushing toward us. Breckin pulled me forward, panting, “Faster! Faster!”

On we rushed, just ahead of the water and the disappearing path, and the trees changed to diamonds, so bright and many-faceted that I could hardly look at them straight on. The sound their leaves made was of harps, and it was so beautiful that I wanted to stop and listen. I slowed again for a moment, but Breckin pulled me on. At last we came to the edge of the diamond forest, and there before us was a castle, with turrets flying flags that I could not make out. From the castle we could hear the sounds of music, and we raced to the drawbridge, which was down. Across it we flew, and it snapped up just behind us. We stopped, panting, waiting for the sound of the wall of water that had followed us crashing against the door, but heard nothing except the strains of lovely music wafting from within.

Wild-eyed, we looked at each other. “What…?” Breckin whispered, and I shook my head.

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