Destronizar
The light has all but left us, and I can barely see a thing.
“I can’t see, William!” Pem cries. “Where are you?”
I cannot feel her close to me.
“Pem!”
“Taste your own wrath, villain.” The Maiden’s voice is calm like steel.
My eyes are without sight, but I can feel that I am seeing. A scene is forming in my eyes, like it might when I am dreaming, but I know I am awake.
I see her there in a chair, long hair over one shoulder. She’s reading it. I’m excited and can’t wait to hear what she thinks about it.
Then there’s yelling and screaming. I can’t see her face, or the room, or anything in front of me. My own voice rattles my skull, and my heart’s pumping so hard my left arm hurts, and my wrist feels tight. I feel the ring come off and fly across the room.
“Bear the weight of your misdeed, enemy of the just and true kingdom …” the Maiden says.
I hear her but cannot see her.
I feel something dreadful coming …
So I fumble around behind me, my fingers reaching in the ashen sandy floor of the cave, and I find something.
I pull it around as the great, light-sucking blade falls close to my face, and I knock away the blade, flat against flat.
The light returns, and I see I’m holding a knife in its sheath across my eyes. Wait. Not just a knife, but a facón. How do I know that?
My fear returns as I see the size and shape of it relative to the enormous claymore that she wields.
“I shall withdraw,” she says.
I feel surprise.
The Maiden brings the sword back to her center with both hands, then holds it in front of her. She looks solemn, then slides it in its scabbard.
My voice sounds tiny. “Look, it isn’t that I’m ungrateful …”
“Shut up, William!” Pem calls from somewhere.
“… but … why?”
The Maiden speaks: “The Great Sword of Truth has found you congruent. The Shadow is in balance. Therefore, you shall live.”
I don’t know what that means, but I’m scared to say that.
“Okay. Thanks?”
“There is no thanks,” the Maiden says. “Truth is truth.”
“Well said. And what of my friends?”
“That one is in balance,” the Maiden says, pointing past me, “but my blade still hungers for the other. Tell me where she is, so I might bring justice and truth back to balance.”
“I don’t know,” I say, which is technically true.
“Very well. My quest continues.”
Her mighty armor makes little sound as she turns and walks at a snail’s pace from the cave.
“Wait!” I call out.
“William!” Pem shouts at a whisper. “Double you tee eff?”
The Maiden stops and turns only her head. “Yes?”
“Who are you?” I ask.
She’s quiet.
Pem runs up next to me, still low to the ground, her tail puffy. She swallows hard and keeps her eyes ahead.
“I am no one,” the Maiden says. She takes two steps, then stops. “Not anymore,” she adds.
“That’s sad,” Pem whispers.
“Yes,” I say. “It is.”
“It is only as it is,” the Maiden says. Then she walks out of the cave.
