Written by Laura V.C
Things change. People change: That was such a funny word; change. No one expected Lora to change, not even Lora. So many things had stayed the same for too long. Seventeen years too long. She was soon to find out that change meant a lot more than a new fashion sense or a new set of friends. Change was soon to mean a new beginning for a “hidden world”.
“Hi, loser.”
“How are you doing, loser?”
Lora had heard those annoying voices time and time again as if they were a curse the library had permanently set upon her. She liked to read, so what. Was it so awkward for a seventeen year old to read? She glanced up at the faces of Dana and Kendra, leering over her, smirking at her. It always looked as if they knew something she didn’t.
“Hey, loser, what do you think you’re doing here?” Dana demanded to know, placing two large palms on the end of the table.
“Reading,” she whispered back, lifting her romance novel up in front of her face.
“Are you getting smart with me, Lora?”
She shook her head, wishing that she could disappear, if only long enough for the girls to leave her alone. “Want to take this outside?” Kendra threatened, tossing her thin blond strands back.
Her heart slammed hard against her chest and she tried to involve all her energies to reading her book. Eventually, they would have to leave her alone. They could find someone else to bother: someone bigger who could stand up for herself. “We’ll make a deal, loser. You leave this table and we won’t kick your ass,” Dana bargained.
That was fine with her, if it meant that there would be no brawl, where she was only too certain that she would lose. Shakily, she slid out of the small chair and walked quickly to the front of the library where she found an empty table. The table was practically a part of the information desk so she chose it immediately. Even with her eyes on the book she could still hear the girls in the back, bragging about their victory as unfair as it was.
Interrupted again by a hand resting down on her shoulder, she looked up to see the bright blue eyes of Jilly. She was the only friend Lora could remember having throughout her entire life. She was the only one who didn’t consider Lora a loser at the beginning of first grade. It was as if all the losers had been picked in advance and she was one of them. There on the chalkboard she imagined a list and a title above the list that read: AVOID THESE PEOPLE AT ALL COSTS.
“They did it again didn’t they?” Jilly wanted to know, glancing down the far isle. “Oh man, Lora, why didn’t you say something?”
“Like what? Yeah sure, I’ll take this outside. Go ahead and kick my ass.”
“They threatened you?”
Lora tossed her book to the end of the table. “They think they own this library.” Jilly sat across from her, lifting the book. “I always want to open my mouth and say something, you know? But the moment I feel I have the courage I lose it when I look into their faces. It’s like they know something I don’t…” She stopped to catch her breath. “I’ve been a loser since first grade and they know that nothing has changed.”
Jilly wanted to say something to ease the pain. Lora could see it, but there was nothing she could say, being she wasn’t, considered a loser, herself. Her name had not ended up on the AVOID AT ALL COSTS list.
“What’s wrong with me?” she whimpered, dropping her head on her arms.
“Nothing, Lora,” Jilly murmured.
Yes there was. There had to be a reason why she was shunned the very first day.Maybe, it was because she read too often, inside and outside school. Maybe, the students found her fascination with knights in shining armor weird or out of place. While the girls around her drooled over the guys in school she continued to have dreams about a knight with a sword, riding a white stallion. Her latest dream was of a little girl chasing a practicing young knight through a thick forest. She awoke from it, laughing.
She stared at the book she had planned to borrow and laughed slightly. She was strange. “I should just leave that book here and find a normal book.”
That’s when Jilly leapt away from the table. “Speaking of normal, you are the only person I know who loves that fantasy stuff. See, I have a short story due for English in two days and I have no idea how to start. I thought that maybe you could… help me.”
Jilly always procrastinated, awaiting the very last second before she would do what needed to be done. This time it just happened to be a short story. “What do you need to know?”
“Well… I was informed that there was a book here called, The Hidden World. I thought I might get some ideas from that. Of course you’ve read every book in here so you would know where to find it, right?”
Lora shrugged and directed her finger to the information desk. “She’d know.” She approached the lady at the desk waiting patiently while she finished up a phone call. “Excuse me,” she whispered with a smile.
The small lady looked up with two beady brown eyes. “Yes? How can I help you?” Obviously, she had said those words too much, by the look of annoyance on her face.
“Um… my friend and I wanted to know if you had a book called The Hidden World?”
Confusion showed up in the lady’s eyes, next. “Non fiction? Fiction?”
Lora turned to Jilly, who shrugged. “I would think it was fiction,” she offered.
“Fiction,” Lora said to the lady, who immediately began to type it into her computer.“I’m sorry, there is no book here by that name. You might want to check a bigger library. It says here the Centennial downtown is holding a book called The Mystery World, also placed under fiction.
”Again Lora had to turn to Jilly. She spoke fast. “Someone I know at school, told me. He could’ve been joking.”
Lora nodded, “More than likely he was, then.”
Jilly sat back down and pulled a note from her pocket. “It was strange, though. This guy, Charlie is in my class and he’s a straight A student. He just asked me what kind of short story I was writing, out of the blue. Of course I told him and than he gave me this.” She handed the note to Lora who unfolded it to read the contents.
“Look for The Hidden World.” She looked up with a shake of her head. “That’s it? It’s got to be a joke.” She handed the note back to Jilly.
Jilly shrugged. “Could be, but like I said he’s a straight A student,” she reminded.
“I have an idea,” Lora mentioned and grabbed Jilly’s wrist to bring her downstairs into the Children’s Books section.
“What are we doing?” Jilly wanted to know.
“Most of the good fantasy/fiction books are down here.”
“Don’t tell me you read books from the Children’s section.”Lora shot a glare over her shoulder at Jilly and pulled her through to the yellow double doors. Originally that was where she remembered watching a lot of puppet shows with her mother. Many of them consisted of what she loved the most.
“Okay, tell me why we’re here,” Jilly demanded out of breath.
Lora knocked on the doors. “Just trust me.”
The doors flew open and there stood an elderly man in navy blue overalls, leering at them. “Looking for something?” he drawled with a twisted smile.
Lora’s stomach began to turn as she tried to avoid the eyes of the man. He gave her the strange sense that, in some way, she knew him. “No, we were just leaving,” she whispered.
“The Hidden World, perhaps,” he offered in a kinder tone.
“YES!” squeaked Jilly in excitement. Any kind of help would get her short story done faster. “Do you know where it is?”
“Of course, my dear. You two just follow me.”
His smile was awkward, yet he managed to look a little more sincere. Maybe, he just needed company. She caught a hold of Jilly’s arm and she watched as the man slipped behind the velvet curtain of the puppet show display. If they ran, now they could make it to the elevator only a few feet away.
“We’re not going in there, Jilly,” she hissed and motioned to the elevator.
“Come on, Lora. I really need that book.”
A gruff voice reached them and Lora caught her breath. “Yeah, come on, Lora.”
“Do you work here?” she wanted to know immediately, but it was too late he had grabbed her arm, as well as Jilly’s. She had no idea he would be so strong, especially at his older age. “LET US GO!”
He laughed and sent two swimming brown eyes to gaze into her with a smug smile. “I’m sorry, witch, I don’t think I can do that.”
She squirmed in his grip and glanced to Jilly who looked ready to scream. “Do it,” she urged.
A loud howl echoed throughout the library and than, seemed to vanish as they entered into darkness.
A gasp left Lora’s mouth as she opened her eyes to the sight of a sword sweeping past her face. “Alex, get her out of here,” commanded a voice that was husky and low. Her eyes took in the form in armor leaning forward on a brilliant white stallion. “Are you all right?” he asked.
She tried to produce words, but all that came out were muffles and nods.
“Come on, you have to come with me,” he ordered with concern holding his hand out.
“My…my friend…” and her hand gestured lamely to Jilly, being held securely by another stranger. He was the one whom the man had called Alex.
“Alex is a good man. He will make sure no harm befalls your friend,” the man offered.
She turned to the man and breathed out, “Who are you?”
“Your hero,” he answered. “Now come on, I can’t waste time.” Lora nodded and he gripped her waist in two firm hands, gently lifting her behind him on the stallion. Before she knew it they were racing down a long stone path. Faster and faster that stallion ran and she had no choice but to cling to the man. “My name’s Nickolas, but everyone around here calls me Highness or Majesty,” he told her.
“Lora,” she gasped.
“Leigha,” he corrected turning for a brief glance. She caught her breath, trying to understand how she had gotten there.
“Lora…”
The rest of her words stayed stuck in her throat as the stallion came to a halt in the middle of thick woods. That was when she watched Nick slide down to the path and thrust his sword in the air. “Come on out, coward! I challenge you!”
Maybe he didn’t see the stranger slink up behind him; all in black, but she did and she screamed. “Nickolas, watch out!”
He turned in time to catch a long sword before it plunged into his chest, but the stranger had other ideas and thrust a punch into Nickolas’s face. He went down with a groan and Lora jumped off the stallion to go after the sword.
In seconds she was caught up in the stranger’s grip. No matter how much she struggled she couldn’t release herself from him. His words sank into her heart as he spoke, “The king will be shocked that the rumor has been proven true and, than, my dear… you will die.”
She screamed and a strange sensation of power overwhelmed her, in one rush she had tossed the stranger off her. He smacked into a tree then struggled up to escape. There was no time to wonder what she had done, with Nickolas hurt. “Come on, I’m getting you out of here,” she muttered and called for Alex.
“He’s always getting into this kind of trouble ever since he found out rumors of Leigha being alive,” Alex spoke and leapt off his black stallion to approach Nickolas.
“Who’s Leigha?”
“Leigha was the daughter of the only sorceress to live so long in Trendia. Nickolas was apparently very attached to the sorceress and was best friends with Leigha. About twelve years ago both were killed.” She watched as Alex propped Nickolas up to a sitting position, than sent her eyes to Jilly who held tight around the black stallion’s neck. Her eyes revealed her shock and fright of the whole situation.
“How did they die?” she wanted to know, approaching Jilly to help her down. With a thud Jilly was on the ground and shaking.
Alex spoke as if he had seen it a million times. “They were run through with a sword.”
She shut her eyes to scream. “NO!” Somehow she had felt the pain of that sword driving through her flesh and she clasped her arms around her stomach. Tears began to build in her eyes. What was wrong with her? She spun on Alex. “You say it as if it’s just a bad turn of events. A mother and her daughter both killed in one day and you act as if it’s normal.”
Alex’s eyes grew dark. “They possessed powers prohibited by law in this world, Lora. The king forbids anything that can take too much control.”
“So they are supposed to die?”
“We did not nor ever want witches in Trendia,” he snapped and went to say more when Nickolas interrupted, firmly.
“Ease off her, Alex.”
“What’s going on?” Lora demanded. “Why are my friend and I here when we should be in the library working on her short story for school?”
Jilly raced up beside Lora with a look of agreement on her face. “Anytime you want to send us home we’re…”
“I can’t send you home yet,” Nickolas stated, taking a hold of Lora’s wrist. “Your mother requested I tell you everything. Unfortunately, someone found out my plan and made the move first. You could be in danger, Leigha.”
“But she’s not…”
“I have been sworn to protect you,” murmured Nickolas, pressing a kiss to her hand. “And maybe you could speak on behalf of your mother, to the king. You could tell him…”
She centered a soft gaze on his face. “You have the wrong girl, Prince Nickolas. I’m Lora Carter, born and raised in Winnipeg. I’m seventeen and my parents are Dacon and Natasha Carter.”
“She goes to Winnipeg High and I have been friends with her, since the beginning of Junior High,” Jilly added.
“Your mother, Maylin Swordheart sent you to her sister in, what you call, Winnipeg, right before she was killed. She would’ve gone with you, but was too late.” Nickolas continued, as if he heard none of what they had said.
“I’m not Leigha, OKAY?”
Nickolas gripped her shoulders tightly. “You are. You can’t ignore who you are, Lora. You belong here…”
“I don’t belong anywhere, Nickolas least of all here,” she snapped. “I’ve learned to accept that.”
He let go of a breath and dropped onto his knees. “Lora… come with me to the king. I lost my best friends because of my father’s stupid law. Help me get at least one of them back, please…”
What else could she do, but agree?
Lora held tight around Nickolas’s waist as the stallion trotted down the pathway. She knew that he was a handsome prince like the one she dreamt about: strong and determined. She admired the golden blond waves that fell against his cheeks and found it comfortable, resting her cheek on his shoulder blade. “How does your face feel?” she whispered, once they had come to a fork in the road.
“Like I’ve been hit,” he responded blandly. “We better stop here and let the horses have a drink. We will be to the castle soon enough.” His voice trumpeted over to the travelers behind them and together they rested by a small stream.
Lora gazed out over the water, wondering what would be next after they arrived at the castle. Why was her life starting to look like the rushing stream with its never ending sharp turns and rapids? Where would she go? Where was she being led? A tear made its way over her cheek and she dropped her head onto Nickolas’s shoulder. “I was never ready for something like this,” she admitted without looking at him.
“We’re never ready for anything in life, Lora. Things change; things come and go… nothing can stay the same for too long.” His eyes were now on her. They were a shade darker than the sky above them and deeper than the stream looked.
“I can’t change…”
“You haven’t changed. You’ve discovered something new, but you haven’t changed.”
She pulled away and stood up to walk to the bank where both stallions drank thirstily. Slowly she looked down into her reflection and spoke softly to herself. “I don’t know who I am.”
A hand rested on her shoulder and she turned to catch the concerned gaze of Nickolas’s on her. “I know who you are, Lora. I don’t need proof or a picture to tell me that you are my best friend. Please… save Leigha.”
“How?”
“Discover who you are.” With that he leaned forward to brush his lips over hers than slowly pulled back. Lora glanced to where Jilly and Alex were, once sitting, to notice they were no longer there.
Nickolas turned as well. “They could’ve gone for a walk. It’s nicer out than usual.”
“I have a bad feeling,” Lora told him with fear, creeping into her chest.
“Come on, you can take Alex’s horse. I’m sure he won’t mind, once he finds out why you did it.” It didn’t matter if he approved or not. This was for his safety and Jilly’s. She climbed up easily and patted the stallion’s dark mane.
“Take me to Alex and Jilly,” she ordered softly.
Soon her and Nickolas were bumping along the path as the stallions veered to the left than to the right. “LORA!” she heard Jilly scream.
Lora pointed to a hidden path through a clump of dark pines. “Over here!” she called to Nickolas, motioning him into the direction of her friend’s voice. Again, Jilly screamed, but before she could keep going, the stallion reared back. She was yanked to the ground.
Pine needles stabbed her hands as she gasped and began dragging herself along the ground. “LORA!” Nickolas cried, but he must’ve passed her. His voice sounded so distant. She went to speak, when a hand closed over her mouth and cruelly wrenched her up to her feet.
“Witch,” the voice sneered in her ear. He sounded familiar and the area began to take shape as if she had seen it all before. She saw the clearing in shadows; surrounded by pine trees. She saw a boulder in the center of the clearing and a blindfold that lay across it. “Everyone kept saying you were still alive,” the voice spoke again as he dragged her to the boulder and thrust her onto it.
“Somebody hel…”
Again his hand clamped over her mouth and before she could struggle free he had tied the blindfold securely around her eyes. “Nobody can help you now, Leigha, just as nobody would help your mother.” That’s when an image replaced the darkness and she saw Maylin, her mother, tied up on the boulder. Beside her was a little girl also bound and blindfolded.
A scream escaped her throat as she tried her hardest to pull herself away from him. She remembered, now. He was the man whom had captured her at the library, attacked her in the forest and had killed her mother. “Daddy… how could you?” she gasped.
“Awe, baby girl, I’m not doing this because of who you are, rather what you are. You are a threat to this land and no one will tolerate it, including the king.”
Tears burned against the blindfold that felt like sandpaper against her skin. “How do you do it with a conscience?”
“How does your mother lie to me with a conscience? She was a sorceress and she didn’t have the guts to tell me, until I was in love with her, until she had you. Even than, she never told me. Instead, I caught her casting a spell on you in the basement. I don’t deserve to be betrayed by a witch.”
“Maybe she was afraid you would reject her…”
He laughed sardonically, and she could smell the revenge permeating off him. He would kill Lora to get back at his wife for ruining his plans at the beginning and sending her to Winnipeg. “All ready, Alex!” he called.
Alex? Her entire body froze with terror. She had taken him to be trustworthy. She should’ve seen it coming, when he acted so cold about the death of her mother. She decided to call for help one last time. “NICKOLAS!”
“NOW,” demanded her father, gripping tight to her shoulders so she couldn’t escape.
She screamed, as she heard Alex running at her, holding a sword straight out to finish what should’ve been ended long ago. Her hand came up and swung, as if it had a mind all its own. She heard a howl than a crash before a thick arm snaked around her neck and she was yanked from the boulder. “It’s not going to hurt too much, baby girl.”
“Somebody help me!” She cried gasping on tears that wet her blindfold.
“You’re going to be a good little witch aren’t you, Leigha? You understand why this has to be done, don’t you?”
She struggled against him. “Because my kind doesn’t belong here…”
“Very good.”
“What are you, Daddy? If I’m part of you, than what does that make you?”
“I’m a good person!” he yelled angrily. “I’m getting rid of the evil and unwanted power.”
She choked as she felt the tip of a sword scrape her neck. “I’m a person…” A voice boomed through the trees and she heard a sword slice through the air. She didn’t need sight to know it was, Nickolas come to rescue her. “I DEMAND you release her this instant!”
Her father only laughed. “Just because the little prince is all grown up he thinks he can stop me.” He laughed harder pressing the tip of the sword, further. She swallowed hard forcing the scream to stay buried in her throat. “Your father will punish you if he ever finds out you tried to save a witch.”
“LET HER GO, EVIK!”
The king was there. The knife slowly fell from her throat and a hand came to her face, caressing it gently before pulling down the blindfold. “Lora,” murmured Nickolas.
“Leigha,” she corrected with a tearful laugh. In those deep blue eyes she could see the little boy she used to chase through the thick forests of Trendia, her home. She looked over to see Jilly being rescued by the King’s men while others dragged Evic and Alex away.
Nickolas took her hand and brought her to the King who glanced from his son to her. “Father, the rumor is true. This is Maylin’s daughter, Leigha Swordheart,” Nickolas introduced. He led her forward with his hand till she was only inches away from the King.
She noticed the likeness between father and son from the wavy blond strands to the intense blue eyes. She smiled and bowed to show her respect.
“Your highness…”
“Daughter of Sorceress, Maylin Swordheart?”
“Yes,” she replied and motioned to Jilly standing with the king’s men. “And that’s Jilly, my best friend from Winnipeg.”
The king glanced to Jilly, than scrutinized Lora. “Do you possess such magic as your mother?”
She heated, but refused to lie, “Yes…”
“Then we…”
She stood up and cut into his words. “Your highness, I know about what happened to my mother, and what would’ve happened to me, had she not sent me to somewhere safe. How could you, in such a high position, allow someone to be killed?”
“She was a witch,” he concluded as if that’s all that needed to be said.
“You punish those with more power than you?”
“I don’t…”
“I just want to belong, your highness, just as my mother, I’m sure, wanted to. I don’t think people like me should be shunned because of what they are. We can’t control the gifts we receive so why be punished for them?”
Lora could hear Nickolas and Jilly holding their breaths for the verdict. “I don’t know,” the king started.
“Life is many different things, your highness and if we try to destroy those things, like magic and miracles, we will destroy the whole reason for going on another day.”
All was silent and she held her breath, awaiting the king’s decision. “Nickolas!”
Nickolas’s eyes bolted up in fear of Lora’s sentence. “Yes… father?”
“I demand you marry this lady at once. I have a feeling she will change this world some day.”
As if a gavel had slammed the block, Lora turned to Nickolas, raining his face with kisses. “I’m staying with you, Nickolas. I’m home where I belong. Do you know good it feels to say that?
”His laughter brushed her ears and she pulled back to gaze into her best friend’s eyes. They were brimming with tears as she spoke. “Your mom always said you were something special, Lora… I mean, Leigha,” she laughed and hugged her.
“I’ll miss you, Jilly,” she admitted.
A horse trotted into the clearing. The man, riding, nodded to the men who were leaving. “What’s my duty, your highness?” he asked to the king.
“Nothing for now, Charlie. You may return home.”
Jilly’s eyes flew wide open and Lora glanced up at the dark, handsome man about ready to turn his horse the other way. “Charlie?”
“Jilly, how nice to see you. Might you need a ride home?” he asked lowering a hand down to her.
She glanced to Lora and nodded before taking a seat up behind Charlie. “Thank you…”
Lora could see a crush developing and she leaned against Nickolas with a satisfied smile. “Goodbye,” she whispered. Charlie sent a wink to Nickolas and than he was off.
“Is everything going to change now, princess?” Nickolas asked, framing her face in his hands.
“Of course. According to you, everything has to change. Nothing can stay the same for long,” she recited with a grin.
He pulled her face close to his and pressed his lips to hers, romantically. “Except for us.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “Except for us.”
