Chapter 4: Supplanted! (Zoa)

     Seriously, hanging in midair against my will again!  I mean, I like adventure and all, but seriously...
     It had been three days since the bombing in the coconut grove.  My parents had been catatonic with shock and worry.  They were unable to even make the trip to Centresia along with the rest of Magosia, to see answers and help.  And I was grumpy about it.  Sometimes my parents were just so weak!  These thoughts on my mind might explain my reaction to that silly, magic-obsessed girl who seemed to keep showing up to take over my good deeds.  People like that drive me crazy.  They think they're doing you a real solid by whipping out their magic trinkets and making someone's life suddenly better.  But, I gotta tell you, I just don't think the value of a good deed lies in having the right magic tools.  I think the value of a good deed lies in the struggle of doing it.  And struggling together side by side draws people closer together. That guy with the, the... thingys... the magical light-up things (whatever they're called)... he and I could have had a nice friendly get-to-know-ya chat as we scooped up all his magical trinkets together.  But no, that silly girl had to go and ruin the moment by sweeping them all up with her other little magical doo-dad.  And it was over.  No more human interaction.  The moment was gone.  Poof.  Like... magic.
     And that girl had also messed with my second good deed of the day, trying to rescue the man hanging from the vine by his suspenders.  Of course, magicy girl brought him down on a blue cloud of magic, and then did the same to me.  Moment of connection number 2, gone.  Poof.  So too was my chance to get a good look that Suada woman while I was up on her vine.  Back on the ground, I gave magic-girl a piece of my mind, then ran off to see if I could find Suada again... get a good look at this mysterious lady who suddenly shows up in Magosia's moment of crisis.
    It made sense to me that someone who had accepted our invitation to stay and help us would go straight away to the Great Castle on the hill, where the royal family had always resided, and where Old Man Ghur now sat in near silence on the throne.  So, that was where I started running.  Deranger, who had watched in horror as I started climbing something for the 2nd time that day and tried his best to convince me to come down, now ran happily at my side.  He didn't need to know where we were going.  He was just happy to go.
    The Great Castle rose on a hill over the town square of Centresia.  The rest of the kingdom of Magosia sprawled out across the lowlands all around the hill; towns and villages forming knots of buildings, separated by vast stretches of farmland.  The kingdom ended on the Great Sea to the North, the Swaying Grasses to the East, the Cliffs of Doom to the west, and the Desolate Desert to the South.  I was well acquainted with the Shores in the North, for that's where I had lived my whole life, harvesting coconuts, mangos, tritris fruits and beachnuts.  But I had always longed to explore the other parts of the kingdom.  I yearned to search for dragons in the Swaying Grasses as the legends tell; or to throw things off the Cliffs of Doom and watch them fall out of sight.
     Now, as I steadily climbed the hill to the Great Castle, I scanned the kingdom, imagining a day when I would run freely across it all, Deranger in tow.
     I reached the bustling courtyard outside the gates to the Great Castle at dusk. Lots of people were here as well, waiting to see old man Ghur... or maybe waiting to see Suada.  I strolled through the crowd and observed the castle gate.  Rather than even try to be let in by the two gatekeepers, I just strolled on by like I was just another girl on an errand.  Then, I squatted on the ground, pressed up against the wall, out of the gatekeepers' sight.  I told Deranger what to do, and sent him off.  In a frenzy of barking and yelping and foaming at the mouth, my dog hightailed it to the gate and barrelled into one gatekeeper, and then into the other.  The poor keepers were shocked by the mad dog who kept ramming its head into them every time they tried to get up.
     "Okay Deranger," I said to my dog in my head, "Go now!"
      Deranger snarled at the two gatekeepers one last time and bolted toward the doors to the castle itself.  The two keepers gathered themselves and their courage and chased after him.  I took the opportunity to slip through the gate unnoticed.  And just in time too.  One of the gatekeepers, remembering his primary duty, scurried back out to plant himself in the opening to the courtyard.  He was adjusting his skewed uniform.  I could tell he got a good deal of Deranger slobber on his hands in the process.
     I snuck around the castle, until I came to a wooden door that was propped open.  Inside was the food storage room.  It was full of rotten fruits and vegetables which were being boxed up and taken away.  The only foods on the shelves that still looked edible were the piles of piles of cheese rounds of all colors and shapes.  I grabbed a giant purple round of cheese and walked into the kitchen like I was supposed to be there.  Workers were bustling around in a frenzy in the kitchen.  Excited voice cut across each other.
     "Well, I for one think it will be nice to have someone new, and younger, on the throne.  Old Man Ghur hasn't spoken in years.  I heard he hasn't even opened his eyes since last winter."
     "Who says she is going to supplant Old Man Ghur?  Maybe they'll rule the kingdom together."
     "She doesn't seem like the type to share authority," an elderly woman stirring something voer the stovetop said in a tone decidedly less enthusiastic then her younger coworkers.  "I was there when she rose in the sky on her vine.  That's a woman we should not be so eager to hand our kingdom over to."
     "Oh Bertha," one of the young workers said, "You're such a killjoy.  You always assume the worst about anyone younger than yourself."
     I held the cheese round up on my shoulder, partially covering my face, and started to make my way toward the double doors across the vast kitchen, when a loud bang stopped all noise and movement.
     A gust of cool, lilac-scented air, swept across the kitchen, and Suada waltzed into the room trialing a swirl of black fabric.  Taking in the room's occupants in one glance, she pointed at the young worker who had just defended her.  "You can stay.  The rest of you leave at once.  You are no longer needed here."
     Throwing her black robes around her body, and turning abruptly, she left.
     The kitchen was silent and still.  The one Suada had singled out looked afraid.  Everyone else looked in shock.  Bertha was the only one who moved.  She pursed her lips, shook her head, and stirred the pot some more.
     I set down the cheese round and bolted after Suada.  There was no one to stop me because she seemed to be parading through the whole castle and sacking everyone she came across, leaving a wake of stunned, immobile former-workers behind her.
     I quietly followed in her steps, staying just out of sight of those billowing black robes, but following the smell of lilac up a flight of stairs and directly into the throne room of Magosia.  Crouched in the doorway I watched Suada float to the throne, where a small figure sat hunched over, barely a live person.
     "You may go!" Suada said softly but firmly to the soldiers stationed on either side of the throne.  They hesitated a moment, and Suada spoke again.  This time, her voice had taken on a notable more firm tone, though it was still quiet.  "I said, 'You may go!'"  The two soldiers dropped their spears and hustled from the room.
     "I know that voice."  These words came from the figure huddled on the throne, and sounded like dusty stones tumbling down a rocky slope.
     I had never seen Old Man Ghur before, but it could be no one else who sat looking up at Suada.  He seemed to be struggling to open his eyes as he squinted up at the lady in black who hovered over him like a bird of prey.
     "Suada!" Old Man Ghur said, with some force in his voice.
     Suada laughed.  "And here I thought there was no one left in the kingdom who knew me."
     "There are still a few of us," Ghur said.  He was sitting up a little straighter.  "And we know never to let you have this throne."  Sill squinting, he stared fiercely at Suada, placed his hands on the armrests of the throne and squeezed tightly.
     Suada stood still a moment.  Then, with a chilly laugh, she beckoned with her right hand.  "Fine with me old man.  You can keep the throne.  I'll just have Magosia."
     I saw a movement in a doorway at the side of the room.  A shadowy figure appeared, cloaked in green from head to toe.  A hood framed the face in shadow.  The figure's hands were raised in a strange way, pointing at the throne.
    "In fact," Suada said, "you may stay there forever for all I care."  Then, she swept her hands over Ghur and the throne.  Instantly, a red vine started to grow out from underneath the throne.  Within seconds, it had wrapped itself around Ghur's legs, arms, torso, neck.  The man groaned as he was pulled tightly against the throne.
     "There," Suada said, lowering her hands.  "Now I know where to find you if ever I need your assistance."  She laughed.
     The figure in the corner was still the silent and unmoving figure.  I found myself staring at it.
     At the moment, Suada spun around.  She seemed to know I was there, because her eyes landed on me in a challenge.
     I backed away, nearly tumbling down a stairway behind me.  I turned and bolted down the steps, followed by a chilly laugh.  I ran all the way out the castle, calling to Deranger in my head.  He found me in the castle grounds and we ran together out thge gate.
     We ran all the way down the hill.  It was dark...too dark to traipse home, so Deranger and I asked a merchant if we could sleep in his shed, among all the stools he was building.
     Spread across the hay, Deranger's head next to mine, I thought about what I had seen.  I didn't understand it, but I knew something had landed on our kingdom... something bad.  Tomorrow, I wouldn't head back home straight away.  I would go first to Oh Man Geezer!  He would have some answers.
     After a long while, I fell asleep to the echoes of a cold laugh, and the smell of lilacs.