Sunlight and Shadow (20 page)

They stepped back into the open air just as the sun went down. Tern, with the flute still at his lips. Mina, with the bells that I had given her cradled in the crook of one arm.

At the sight of them, a great shout went up among the Lord Sarastro's followers. Statos fell to his knees, his head bowed down. The lord himself rushed forward. As I saw the look upon his face, I realized that his heart had not truly believed he would see his daughter again until that moment.

As for me, I'd had no doubts. But then I'd known Mina much longer than the Lord Sarastro had, even if he was her father.

“Mina,” he said, and his voice was filled with many things, but chief among them joy and wonder. “My child. My daughter.”

“Sarastro, Mage of the Day,” she answered. “Father.”

Now, finally, Tern lowered the flute, and its song fell silent.

“Prince Tern,” the Lord Sarastro said. “If you will let me, I will embrace you as my son.”

“With all my heart,” Tern said. And so it was done.

“At the first light of day tomorrow, you will wed,” the Lord Sarastro went on.

Still trying to control everything I thought.

“Say by the light of the full moon instead,” Tern suggested quietly. “For I will not marry Mina without the presence of her mother.”

“Well spoken, Prince Tern!” a voice I recognized all too well said.

There followed several moments of confusion while the servants of the Mage of the Day and those of the Queen of the Night got used to the presence of one another, a thing that had not happened in years beyond count. In the midst of this, Statos suddenly rose to his feet and rushed forward. He threw himself at my mistress's feet.

“Hear me, great queen!” he cried.

At this, complete silence fell over all assembled.

“I will hear any who makes a just petition,” my mistress answered quietly. “Stand, that I may see your face, and identify yourself.”

“I am called Statos,” he said as he got to his feet. “Chosen apprentice of the Lord Sarastro until this moment. But, as he broke his oath to you and stole your daughter before the appointed time, so did he break his word to me when he said that she might be my bride. But, if you will give me what I ask, I will render up all my lord's secrets to you, and you will have great power over him.

“So will the world be changed indeed when the
Lady Mina weds, and all in your favor, if you will consent that she shall be my wife.”

“Let me see if I understand you,” my mistress said. “You would wed my daughter though you know she has given her heart to another.”

“Lady, I would,” answered Statos.

The Queen of the Night was silent for many moments. “But why?” she asked at last. “What joy could there be in such a life for you?”

“Perhaps I do not look for joy,” Statos said, “but only for the honoring of a promise. I have been taught that such things have much value.”

“And so they do,” replied die Königin der Nacht. “Yet, for all that, you plead with the wrong person. No one may honor the promise of another, just as no one may give another's heart.

“If you ask me, I will share your grief at the promise broken. But I will not replace it with one that I must break, myself. My daughter is not for you. Let her go, Statos.”

“I cannot,” he said softly.

“May I speak?” Tern suddenly asked.

“To me, most certainly,” my mistress answered. She regarded Statos thoughtfully for a moment. “I suggest you listen to what Prince Tern has to say. He has just proved his worthiness in a rather spectacular fashion, after all.”

So Statos turned, and the two men faced one another.

“Will you gloat, then?” Statos asked.

“Of course not,” Tern said, his voice showing
clearly that such a thought had never occurred to him, and, at the sound of it, Statos blushed.

“I would offer you a gift, if you will take it.”

Statos's eyelids flickered, as if sheer force of will alone kept him from looking in Mina's direction.

“There is only one thing you possess which I want.”

“By which you mean Mina, I suppose.” Tern sighed. “Remarks like that only show how much you're the wrong man for her, Statos. I don't possess her at all. But I'm not trying to argue. I'm trying to offer you this.”

He held out the flute.

“I carved this on the night that Mina was abducted,” he explained. “Though I did not know that at the time. It is carved from the heart of the most ancient and powerful oak tree in all my father's country. The King's Oak, it is called. And as my hands shaped it, this was my desire: to create that which would let me know my own heart.”

He turned then, and smiled at Mina.

“This, I have done. But when I look at you, Statos, I see one who has not yet discovered what his heart holds. So I would give the flute to you, in the hope that you might use it to find your own happiness. My need for it is over.”

“You think I want your charity?” Statos asked, his voice strangled. “Your used possessions?”

“I'm trying to give you a gift,” Tern said. “The greatest I have to bestow. Will you not take it? Will you not be my friend, and Minas, rather than our enemy?”

Statos took a breath. But before he could speak, Gayna broke in.

“Take it,” she said. “Take it, Statos.” And it was she, rather than Mina, who stepped to Tern's side. “All your life you have lived by the rules of another. Worked so that his dreams, his desires, might be given life, even the desire to make the Lady Mina your wife.

“You told me once that you had always been free to choose. Now you stand in the place to which all your choices have brought you. You are betrayed and alone. Why should you reject such a rich gift? Take it, and learn what your own heart holds.”

“You would have me take this gift, then,” Statos said.

“I would,” Gayna answered.

“And if it tells me that I should leave?”

“Then go. Look forward, not back.”

“Would you wait for me?” asked Statos.

This was the moment I discovered I was holding my breath, had been holding it, in fact, from the time that Gayna first stepped forward.

“No, I would not,” Gayna answered softly. “For I, too, am done with living my life according to the desires of one who does not love me. Instead, I will stay, and see if my heart holds what I think it might.”

And with that, she looked straight at me, and I felt my heart roll over once.

“You would have me be alone, then?” Statos asked.

“Well, of course I would,” Gayna answered, as if she thought he was downright silly. “But only for the
time it takes to know yourself. How long a time that ends up being is up to you, I think.”

At this, Statos looked Tern full in the face, and, for the first time, it was with no anger coloring his own.

“I will accept your gift with thanks,” he said, “and wish you and the Lady Mina much joy together”

And so, Tern handed him the flute and Statos accepted it. Then he bowed, and turned as if to go. At that moment, I heard a rush and sweep of wings. That is the nightingale, I thought. But, instead of settling upon my shoulder, she settled upon Statos's. She ruffled her feathers once, twice, as if accustoming herself to this new perch, then opened her beak, and poured forth her song.

Never had I heard her sing a song so beautiful. But the most astonishing thing was yet to come. For, no sooner had she finished, than Statos put the flute to his lips and let the notes fly forth. And the song he played was so lovely, yet so sad, that all eyes were filled with tears when he had done.

Then the nightingale flew from his shoulder, singing as she went, and, as if spellbound, Statos followed, wrapping his own song around the nightingales notes. They may be traveling together still, for all I know. For with his departure, he leaves this story forever, and where he is now or what became of him, I do not know.

Though I hope he's happy, don't you?

Finale

Come close, and I will finish a story, for the end is very near, now. Tern and I were married that very night, by the light of the full moon, while my father's retainers and my mother's danced together on the ground, and the stars turned reels in the overhanging sky.

The revels ended just at dawn. For then, as they had for untold years, my parents prepared to part company. But, before this could happen, I had my own gift to give. One I had discussed beforehand with Lapin, for it required his blessing.

“You are sure?” I asked.

“I am,” he replied, and he had Gayna at his side. “We may not be quite as sudden in our love as you and Tern are, but then we are small folk, not great ones.”

“Speak for yourself,” Gayna said.

At which Lapin laughed. “Have I ever mentioned that my middle name is Robert?”

“Why should you wish to be called anything other than what you are?” Gayna inquired.

“That's it,” Lapin said. “Now I'm sure it's love.”

And so, as the musicians at last fell silent, and the tired dancers sat upon the ground, I went to stand in the center of my father's sacred grove and called my parents to stand by my side.

“Mother, Queen of the Night,” I said, “and Mage of the Day, my father, I have a gift for you, if you will accept it. But only if you both agree, for it must belong to both of you, or to neither.”

“She sounds just like you,” my mother observed.

“She does not,” my father protested. “I'm nowhere near that pompous and stuffy.”

“You think not?” my mother asked, and I could see the way her eyes danced with laughter in the thinning dark.

“Do you suppose I might speak for just a moment?” I inquired. “I' like to get this done before the sun comes up. The timing of this is sort of important.”

“I apologize, Mina,” my mother said. “Please, go on. And of course I accept your gift, even if it means I must share it with your father.”

“Anything your mother can do, I can do,” declared the Lord Sarastro.

I sincerely hope this works, I thought. And I held out Lapin's bells.

“You know the history of these bells,” I said. “But I think they have a future, also. In order for it to be fulfilled, you each must answer the same question: Do you love each other?”

Not a soul stirred in the clearing as we waited for my parents to answer. “Speak from your hearts,” I charged. “Anything less doesn't count, and not only that, it will bring about disaster.”

“Then from my heart, I answer this,” said the Lord Sarastro. “That though I do not always understand her, I do truly love your mother.”

“And I say this,” my mother replied. “That I love your father, though he has wronged me. And because I love truly, I forgive those wrongs.”

“Then these belong to you,” I said. “To both of you, equally, to share and share alike. To the Lord Sarastro in the day, and to Pamina, die Königin der Nacht, in the dark.

“Each day as the sun sets, Father, you must give them to my mother. And each day as the sun rises, Mother, you must give them to my father. Let the rising and setting of the sun be a time of coming together, not of dividing. Play the bells, and let all creation hear the music of your hearts, for you have hidden it away for far too long.”

“Actually, I think you're right. She does sound like me,” my father said.

My mother laughed and took the bells from my arms. She had time to sound just one note, but it was a note of such incredible beauty and joy that it caused the sun to leap straight up over the horizon. Then my mother turned and gave the bells to my father.

“I will be interested to hear the song you play,” she said.

And now my father laughed in his turn. “And so will I.”

Then he began to play, and at this, the full glory of the world burst forth. For, in that moment, the hopes of the powers that watch over the universe were fulfilled, and the world was discovered to be much more than a mountain, albeit a very tall one, but an entire globe, spinning in the sky.