“Sweet Kaltara!” exclaimed Tamar.
“What?” Volox asked, his brows rising questioningly.
“Those are her daughters,” Tamar proclaimed. “By Kaltara’s grace they survived the great storm.”
“Inconceivable,” Volox shook his head. “Perhaps I did not explain the fury of the storm with sufficient description. It was a monster of a storm the likes of which has never been seen before or since. They could not have survived.”
“Then how do you explain their Kieran ancestry?” asked Tamar. “The Kieran line is the most stringently charted line in all of Elvangar. Where else would they fall in such a chart other than the princesses?”
“They are Kieran?” asked Volox. “How could you possibly know this?”
“They said so themselves,” Tamar said excitedly. “Don’t you remember me saying so in the park when you and Vitalora were arguing about the queen?”
“No,” frowned Volox, “I do not recall you saying it, but it was a tense conversation. How could they possibly know their ancestry?”
“I do not know,” admitted Tamar, “but I believed them. No one in the village contradicted their claim. Why would they lie? We must tell the queen immediately.”
“No,” Volox said emphatically. “Let me think about this for a minute.”
“There can be no proof of such a claim,” offered Anija as she brought some hot drinks to the table. “Were Mistake and MistyTrail to proclaim that they were the lost princesses, the queen would see it as an attempt to steal the throne. You must learn to think before you act, Tamar.”
“Who was present when the girls made this claim?” asked the elder.
“Eltor and Caldal were there,” answered Tamar. “I was just escorting them to the village. Mistake and MistyTrail were with the old mage, Garl.”
“Garl himself is a Kieran,” noted Volox. “I wonder if he could have put such thoughts into the girls’ heads?”
“I thought you said that there were generations of elves living on the Island of Darkness,” interjected Anija. “They could be from any of those families.”
“No,” Volox shook his head. “The girls were not from Motanga. They did rescue Eltor and Caldal from the island, but only after they were shipwrecked there themselves. Both girls grew up in the land of humans. There should be no elves living there at all.”
“None?” asked Anija.
“None that the boys’ testimonies pointed to,” shrugged Volox. “I don’t know. This is a sticky situation. How does one prove their ancestry? And if they can prove that they are Kierans, should they? It could put their lives in danger with the way the queen is acting now.”
“I think the girls should be moved to an undisclosed location until we figure this out,” suggested Tamar. “There is too great a risk to them as it stands now. I do not want to see them harmed.”
“You are restricted to the city,” Volox pointed out. “I am not. In the morning I will go to Etta and collect the girls. I will take them somewhere safe and then we can figure out what to do with them.”
“Stay with us tonight, Tamar,” offered Anija. “We can discuss this a while longer before Volox goes to bed. I will make up the girls’ room for you.”
Anija stopped as she realized what she had said. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she went off to make the room up for Tamar.
* * *
“Someone is coming,” whispered Eltor. “Hide.”
Eltor ducked into some shrubs while Caldal hid behind a tree. Eltor peered into the moonlit night to see who would show up on the path. A distant figure appeared. It stopped walking and stood silently for a long time. Suddenly, the sky lit up brilliantly. Eltor shielded their eyes from the brightness. When Eltor looked back at the trail, the figure was gone.
“What are you boys doing out here in the night?” grumbled Garl. “Are you becoming robbers now?”
Eltor and Caldal spun around and saw the old man standing on the trail behind them. Eltor wiggled out of the shrubs and Caldal moved away from the tree.
“Soldiers came and took Mistake and MistyTrail,” reported Eltor. “Caldal and I are going to Morada to rescue them.”
“Rescue them, are you?” smiled Garl. “At least your hearts are in the right place. I passed a wagon hours ago. I wish I had known then whom it carried. You will not succeed in rescuing them. I am sure that the girls will be watched very closely.”
“They rescued me out of the temple of Vand on the Island of Darkness,” retorted Caldal. “The prison in Morada can’t be that hard.”
“They will not be just regular prisoners as you two were,” frowned the old man. “If Caldal was watched closely in the temple, would you have been able to free him?”
“No,” Eltor admitted after a moment of hesitation. “I guess we were very lucky, but we have to try. Why would they be arrested anyways? They have done nothing illegal.”
“It is not what they have done,” scowled Garl, “it is who they are.”
“What do you mean?” asked Eltor. “They are Mistake and MistyTrail. What do you mean who they are?”
Garl silently stared at the two boys for a long time without answering. The boys began to fidget while the old mage tried to measure the worth of telling them the truth. Finally he sighed and wrapped an arm around each of their shoulders in the manner of teammates.
“Mistake and MistyTrail are the lost daughters of Queen Alycia,” Garl said conspiratorially. “This is a secret that must remain among us. Their real names are Alahara and Alastasia. I do not know which is which.”
“Princesses?” gasped Caldal. “How can this be? They are foreigners.”
“They are elves of royal blood,” corrected Garl. “They may have grown up in foreign lands, but they are the heirs to the crown.”
“But why would they be arrested then?” asked Eltor. “None of this makes any sense.”
“Some of it does,” frowned Garl, “but not all of it. I have not figured out yet if the queen truly knows their identities.”
“Of course she doesn’t,” insisted Caldal. ”If she did, they would not have been arrested.”
The old man did not reply and Caldal began to frown deeply.
“She wouldn’t arrest her daughters, would she?” he asked.
“I don’t know what our queen is capable of,” admitted Garl. “One thing I am sure of, we must go to Morada and aid them in whatever way we can. I expect the two of you to do exactly as I instruct you. This is no time for taking chances on foolish bravado. Can I trust the two of you?”
“We will do as you instruct,” promised Eltor.
Caldal nodded exaggeratedly, and Garl accepted their vows. Garl took his arms off the boys and started walking towards Morada. Eltor and Caldal followed along.
* * *
The soldiers pulled the wagon up to the rear of the prison. They grabbed the bodies of the girls and carried them inside. A guard opened a sturdy metal door and the girls were carried into a cell. The soldiers took the girls’ belt knives and slashed the ropes that bound their hands together. Before Mistake could get the sack off of her head, the door had slammed shut.
“I would have liked to have seen what is outside that door,” whispered Mistake. “They were not very efficient at searching us.”
“Perhaps they don’t expect us to live long,” frowned MistyTrail as she untied her feet. I am beginning to get a poor taste in my mouth for Elvangar. Even the humans that didn’t like us treated us with more dignity than I have seen in this land.”
“True,” sighed Mistake. “Even as a slave I was never carried with a dirty sack over my head. What do you suppose happened to cause them to arrest us?”
“Maybe Garl was arrested in the city?” shrugged MistyTrail. “Maybe he said we were going to try to escape and return to the Sakova?”
“Garl would never do that,” sighed Mistake.
“I know,” agreed MistyTrail. “I just can’t think of any possible reason for arresting us. Do you think it is illegal for foreigners to learn elven magic? Maybe that is it. Yes, Garl was arrested and said he had to get back to give us magic lessons, but that is forbidden.”