The Wall by Sarah Jane Singer

Author:Sarah Jane Singer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: adult fantasy fiction; high fantasy; young adult fantasy fiction; SFF
Published: 2022-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Oro was old—little more than ruins, nestled in mist and a light snowfall on the side of a cliff, and it seemed as though the entire city had been painted over in silvers and grays. Still, it was beautiful, in a sad sort of way, and I was immediately drawn to it.

It reminded me of a story my mother had told me once, about a woman who was trapped in a castle for hundreds of years. As the seasons passed, the castle became decrepit, and nothing grew there, save the white rose bushes that barred the gates and drawbridge. Men would come for her, having heard tell of her beauty, and would seek her hand in marriage, but she would have nothing of chivalry or love. She wanted only her castle and her roses. She was not trapped after all; she was content. She did not age or change in the least, and she did not leave the dying castle.

One day, a merchant man was passing by the castle, and his horse was startled by a wolf’s howl. The horse bucked the merchant off and galloped away into the forest. The man was injured, and the woman watched from her tower as wolves congregated, drawn by the scent of his blood. She left the castle for the first time in three hundred years in order to save the man, and as she exited, the rose bushes coiled in on themselves to make way for her. She fought off the wolves long enough to help the man inside. She tended to his wounds, and, eventually, they fell in love. After a time, they left the castle together. The moment the woman was outside of its walls, it collapsed in on itself, leaving only the ghosts of so many years of solitude and blocks of crumbled stone.

As a child, I had dreamed that one day the Wall would crumble like that so I could have my freedom. Looking at Oro, at the city of ruins, I wondered if my absence could have destroyed the Wall, like the woman in the story had destroyed her castle.

Eytan led me into Oro, over a path of flagstones that shook under Zav’s heavy steps. Past the columns of what might once have been a temple, there was a smithy, erected from ancient stones and bits of wood and straw. There was no one visible within, but its fires burned.

“Hello?” Eytan called. “Hello? Is anyone here?”

A head of shaggy, jet black hair appeared from behind a vat of water, and a similar head popped out from around the side of the smithy. “Hullo,” said the first man. As he stood, I could see his face properly. He was young, smiling, and soot-covered.

“Greetings,” said the second, walking out to the front of the structure. It took me a moment to realize that the speaker was not a man at all. She was a tall, lean woman with hair that stopped at her jaw and features so like the man’s that they must have been twins.

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