THE ROYAL RUNAWAY
A short story by
Rory B Mackay
Prelude to the novel “Eladria”
Copyright 2012 Rory B Mackay
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CONTENTS
1. "The Royal Runaway"
2. Afterword
3. Excerpt from "Eladria"
4. About the author
THE ROYAL RUNAWAY
Her mother had been gone for months. Eladria should have been prepared for the conversation that followed, but she wasn't.
She knew that something was wrong when her personal maid Zinn appeared in the schoolroom in the middle of art class. After conferring with the teacher for a moment, the kindly, grey-haired maid approached the young princess, who was in the midst of making a clay sculpture: a somewhat misshapen bird. The young girl looked up in confusion. “Zinn, what are you doing here?”
The maid looked down at her and smiled, although it wasn’t a smile that touched her eyes. Her voice was somewhat sad and remorseful as she answered. “Your father wishes to see you in his study.”
“Can’t it wait till I’m finished?”
“No, my dear, it can’t wait. It’s important. He’s waiting for you now.”
At the teacher’s prompting, Eladria tidied away her project and washed her hands as Zinn waited by the door. Although the other children continued to work on their sculptures, they were clearly curious as to what was going on.
Eladria reached the door and Zinn took her hand, her skin warm and smooth. As they left the schoolroom, the girl asked why her father wanted to see her so urgently. Zinn’s response was vague: something about a matter of utmost importance. Eladria enquired further, but Zinn was uncharacteristically sullen and evasive. The seven-year-old girl felt a growing sense of apprehension as they made their way down the palace’s white marble corridors and into the central elevator. With a rattle and hum, the metal-plated elevator took them up six levels, depositing them on level sixteen. From there it was only a few steps before they came to the king’s study. Zinn pressed the door buzzer, and they were promptly called inside.
The king was sitting behind his desk on the mezzanine level. As they entered, he got up from the sturdy oak table and climbed down the gleaming stone steps to the lower level. He came to a stop before the princess and her maid.
“What’s going on, father?” the girl asked.
The king’s face was somber and pale, his eyes red and swollen. He looked like he’d been crying—but surely grown men didn’t cry, much less her father, the king? Eladria felt herself tense as he gestured for them to take a seat by the window. Zinn led the girl to two adjacent sofas at the far end of the chamber, both bathed in sunlight streaming through the elegant semi-circular window. Eladria sat down, sinking into the red velvet cushions as Zinn joined her. Her father sat opposite, leaning toward them, the light glistening upon his navy robes and silver crown.
Eladria looked up at him questioningly. “Is this about mother?”
The king nodded slowly. “It is, Eladria…”
“She is coming back...isn’t she?” the girl asked pleadingly. There was a difficult silence. “You said she would. You said she’d be back.”
“I know, and I believed that, I truly did,” the king began, his voice hoarse and hesitant. “Your mother is officially listed as missing.”
“Missing?”
Her father nodded. “As you know, she went to the planet to visit Nukarean province two months ago. But the truth is she never arrived – her transport disappeared without explanation. The past several weeks the Royal Military has scoured the length and breadth of Tahnadra, searching everywhere they could. But…they haven’t found a trace of her...”
Eladria looked up at Zinn, then back at her father. She suddenly felt numb. She was only peripherally aware of Zinn taking hold of her hand, a gesture of comfort and reassurance, but her attention was elsewhere as her father’s words slowly sunk in. “She must be somewhere though,” she ventured.
“We can but pray, Eladria.”
“She has to come back,” the girl exclaimed. “And she will! She’d never leave me...”
“Eladria, I know how hard this is,” he said. “I wish I could make it easier. I’ve done everything I could to keep this from you these past weeks because I didn’t want to alarm you.”
Indeed, this whole time he’d maintained that her mother had been ‘detained’ and would be back with them soon. Even so, Eladria had sensed that something was terribly wrong. Almost overnight, her father became a changed man: distant, remote and solemn. She’d pined for her mother and yearned for her swift return. Every morning she’d wake up and pray with all her might that her mother would step through the door and run to embrace her, with the promise that she’d never again leave her. But day after day her fervent prayer was met with heart-crushing disappointment.
Her father continued. “At first we assumed she’d been captured by the Ha’shon or the True Way. Yet both have vigorously maintained their innocence. And if they had been responsible, they’d have been quick to take credit for it and issue their demands. The military has been painstakingly thorough in their investigation, combing virtually every town, city and province on the planet and interviewing thousands of people. But they haven’t uncovered anything.”
“We have to keep looking though,” she pleaded. “We can’t give up.”
“We’re not going to give up, Eladria,” the king assured her. “We’ll continue to do what we can and hope for the best. But as hard as this is, we have to prepare ourselves for the possibility that...she might not be coming back.”
His words cut through her like a knife. How could he say such a thing? How could he even contemplate that?
“The search operation has stretched our resources. The Ha’shon and True Way have taken advantage of this by launching strikes along the borders of the neutral territories. We’ve had to call off the main search operation, but I still have a large number of officers spearheading investigations across the planet. We’ve had to reduce our effort, but we’ve in no way ceased it.”
She stared at him blankly. He reached out to take her hand, but she folded her arms defiantly.
“Eladria, no matter what happens, I’ll be here for you,” the king whispered earnestly. “And Zinn here too. We’re not going anywhere.”
“But I want my mother,” Eladria exclaimed, her eyes welling with tears, blurring her vision. Gripped by an unbearable anguish, she bolted up and strode to the window, her limbs trembling as she came to a stop. Through tear-filled eyes she gazed down at the royal city: an expansive metropolis enclosed by a glistening biodome that sustained life on this, Tahnadra’s third moon. Beyond the glass enclosure, the ever-present stars punctuated the black void of the heavens, twinkling peacefully.
The king went to his daughter, reaching out and embracing her. Eladria gave in and sank into his arms, feeling the full force of her shock and grief spilling to the surface, the tears flowing down her face like a river. She still couldn’t believe it. Her mother couldn’t be gone. She just couldn’t.
The king had to prepare for an urgent appointment with the Ha’shon ambassador, so he instructed Zinn to look after the princess. Zinn led Eladria out of the study and back into
the elevator. Without a word, they descended all the way to ground level. Stepping out of the elevator, they made their way through the halls and corridors, exiting into the gardens encircling the towering golden palace.
The princess and maid walked in silence for some time, strolling across the immaculately-trimmed lawns, past blossom-heavy trees, sculpted bushes and beds of rainbow flowers in full bloom. They stopped for a while by the blue-green lake at the center of the garden complex. Eladria gazed into the water, her attention resting upon the reflection staring back up at her: that of a small girl with long dark hair and a flowing blue dress, the sun reflected above her head like a halo.
Zinn repeatedly tried to reassure the girl and engage her in conversation, but it was to no avail. The rest of the day passed in a delirious blur, the princess only peripherally aware of what was going on around her. Her mind was locked in a restless torment as she tried to make sense of what had happened. By the time they returned to the royal quarters, it was late afternoon. Eladria sat in her playroom staring into space, despite Zinn’s best efforts to get her to play.
She later joined her father in the royal dining hall for evening meal. She had to force herself to eat and even then managed only a few bites. The king expressed concern at Eladria’s lack of appetite and encouraged her to eat, but she was simply unable; her belly was knotted and she felt nauseous. Although nothing