A Kingdom Fantasy
By Jim Doran
Valencia’s teeth chattered as a howling wind whipped around her. “It is f…frigid up here.”
Graddock pounded the tent stake into the ground. “The witch had better not have been lying.”
Valencia huddled to avoid a blast of wind. “She was an oracle n…not a witch.”
“Oracle! Witch! If we pass over this moun…mountain down to the lost city and we find nothing, I will return to her and cut out her tongue.”
“Do not be a savage, Graddock.”
“The tent is ready. Do you have the dust?”
Valencia nodded. From her left pocket, she removed a handful of a maroon, grainy sand. Sparingly, she spread sprinkles of the substance around the tent, encircling it and ensuring it remained on the cloth. Graddock gestured to the entrance. “My lady.”
Valencia ducked her head and entered the tent. The instant she walked through the flap, the biting wind and frigid air transformed into a more temperate condition. Her body relaxed as it basked in the warmth. “Come in, Graddock.”
Graddock peeked into the tent. “’Tis your tent, my lady.”
“Do not be a garboles’ orifice. You shall die of exposure out there. Take it from me, I know.” She slipped into the tent and held open the flap for him to follow her.
“I should not enter,” said Graddock.
“You shall and then remain all night.”
“Queen Valencia, I cannot—”
“Do not make me order you, Graddock! This is a quest, not a living arrangement. On this quest, you are my guard, my protector, and most importantly, my friend. We shall treat each other as friends until we return to more hospitable lands.”
“The other queens will not like this.”
Valencia lifted her chin. “The other queens do not need to know about it. ’Tis my affair.”
Graddock folded his arms and leaned back. “Is this the same shy monarch I remember? Deferential to her sister queens?” The queen squinted at him.
“You may recall an incident of a man accused of treason, and a queen who defended him against her sisters.”
The guard entered the tent. “You do not need to remind me of how you stood up for me. I swore my loyalty to you that day.”
She examined the cramped interior. “To all the queens, I hope.”
He didn’t answer her but rubbed his arms and legs. “Feels like a campfire in here.” He shook his head. “I will remain awake and guard you.”
“Nonsense. Sleep.”
“It would be impertinent for me to go to sleep before you.”
“May I remind you?” She pointed at herself. “Queen.” She pointed at him. “Subject. Go to sleep.”
He went to speak but she held up her index finger. “I will stand guard first. You carried the equipment. I carried but a magic stone. ’Tis only fair.”
“Hardly.”
“A queen is nothing if she is not fair. And I do not mean like Snow White.”
Graddock threw himself to the ground. “All right.”
He fell asleep in less than a minute.
***
Morning. Valencia retrieved rations from her backpack and ate them, keeping aside an equal share for her guard. Graddock had taken the second watch through the middle of the night, and the queen the final watch. When Graddock awoke the second time, she handed him a hunk of bread. “Good morn.”
Graddock rubbed his chin and mussed his hair. “I should not have returned to sleep.”
“You need your strength. My intuition tells me we will find it soon, and if we locate it, we find the temple as well.”
“Is it your special intuition?”
Valencia smirked but didn’t reply.
***
Valencia and Graddock spent the morning and most of the afternoon climbing the remaining portion of the mountain to the summit. With no clear path to the top, the pair had to descend three times to find a safer passage. A portion of the journey consisted of climbing, hand-over-hand, with the two of them roped together. Graddock once slipped and fell ten feet, dragging Valencia down with him, until the two of them at the same time grabbed a handhold on the side of the craggy surface. His hand caught a sturdy piece of vegetation deeply rooted in the bowels of the mountain; she had found a ledge.
The mountain’s plateau allowed them a moment to rest and view the other side. They stood on a circle of sharp, menacing mountains cutting off Kingdom from a patch of land the size of a small town. Graddock removed a telescope from his pack and handed it to Valencia who peered through it. Within the mountain range sat a small village but none like any other. The buildings were made of stone and wood and crumbling under the weight of massive vines which had invaded and overtaken the town. The architecture of the central edifice was ornamented with carved, abstract sculptures at corners. Other buildings near it were similarly flourished with gilded edges and artistic designs. Covered under a shroud of flora, statues stood throughout the hamlet like random sprouts of weeds growing through cracks in a paved surface. Valencia had never seen the species of the trees surrounding the houses. Their bark reminded her of shingles and they sported large, light green leaves.
The queen observed the vegetative canopy. “I read of the trees below. They are called palm trees.” She handed the telescope back to Graddock. “The legends are true.”
The man put the glass to his right eye. “The lost city of Hayline.”
Valencia hugged her arms due to a sudden cold wind while she considered the abandoned city below. “It appears so.”
They enjoyed the view while eating a light repast and then made their way down the mountain. Their descent proved easier, and when the moon rose over the spear points of the mountain range, they were within fifty yards of the bottom. Valencia found a small cavern with a narrow entrance—an ideal place to spend the night. Graddock collected a few scraps of wood and made a fire. The light danced, illuminating their faces.
Graddock asked, “Do you believe the mystical gem hides within?”
“You know each queen of Kingdom has abilities. What specialty do they say I possess?”
“Fortune shines upon you.”
Valencia rubbed her arms. “I am not strictly fortunate. At times, I have preferential feelings on certain subjects. They come to me as inspiration to an artist. Whenever I have followed these intuitions, fortune follows.”
Graddock stirred the fire.
“When I first heard of the gems, I knew they were real,” said Valencia. “We traveled to the disaster outside of Nor and witnessed the destruction one of the stones made. I felt compelled to find them. When we interviewed the leprechaun Ryse, she told us their history, and my intuition informed me she spoke the truth. Ever since we learned one might exist within Hayline, I knew we must travel here.”
The fire flickered and popped. Valencia cleared her throat. “When you were accused of treason, I drew upon my abilities to decide your fate. My intuition led me to defend you against my sisters’ judgment, and why I was able to convince them not to throw you into the dungeon.”
Graddock stared at the ground. “You have my undying gratitude.”
“But not your confidence. Graddock, there is more to your tale than previously revealed. Together, you and I have fought against Farduuk, have penetrated the darkest part of the Forest of Blood, witnessed the horror of a wish gone awry. Why do you keep this from me?”
“We have discussed this. My silence protects Kingdom. Some stories are best left untold.”
Valencia grimaced. “So you say, but it has ruined your reputation and sullied mine.”
“Not true,” replied Graddock. You are now known as the merciful queen, and I try my best to be upright and honorable. I have made it clear that I am at fault not you.”
“You speak the truth.”
Graddock shifted a burning branch and sparks rose in the air. “Ryse said the item we seek will not be unguarded.”
Valencia eyed him. “Undoubtedly. The gem is, after all, a magical wishing stone disguised as a sapphire which confers wealth to its owner. We shall meet the challenge. Tonight, we rest and tomorrow, we explore.”
The next day, they viewed the ruins up close. Buildings rose from the rubble heaps like trees, vines covered houses and stores, and odd little avian creatures hovered about. Valencia rubbed her hands down the rough outer layer of the palm trees. “I wished I had artistic abilities and could sketch this spiraling bark.”
Graddock entered a house near the center of town and kicked the rubble aside. When touched, wooden furniture collapsed, spreading a cloud of dust. The branches of the trees pushed through cracks in the outer walls, spilling sunlight through the middle of the room.
Valencia appeared at the door. “Careful, there may be poisonous creatures about.”
“I have not seen any.”
Graddock reached into the pile and retrieved a wooden toy ship. He showed it to the queen. She bit the inside of her mouth. “Why would they leave the toys behind?”
Graddock brushed off his hands. “A puzzle, it is.”
“’Tis a mystery for another time. Ryse said the natives hid the sapphire in the temple.”
***
After an hour of stumbling over collapsed structures, they came across a mammoth, one-story domed construction. The roof had mostly collapsed, and Graddock had to wrench the door open. Inside, they spied a room bereft of furniture except a chair. In the past, it may have been adorned with pews, rugs, and light sources, but the temple was empty now. At the far end of the enclosure, they spied a dais with a large, wooden chair on top of it. Graddock rubbed his beard. “Yonder chair is tall enough to hold a man eight-foot-tall and fifty stone weight.”
They marched to the dais and stopped before the chair. Valencia ran her hand along the mahogany arm. “Are you ready?”
Graddock leaned down and put his shoulder to the only furniture in the chamber. With a mighty effort, he pushed against it, and, at first, it resisted. He braced himself against the floor and his leg muscles strained against his trousers as he expended more effort. The chair shifted and squealed, giving an inch. Graddock stepped back then rushed the chair, hitting it with his shoulder. A sliver of an opening under the seat revealed itself with a puff of dust like the floor gasped stale air.
Graddock gave three more pushes and the chair relinquished its location to reveal a hole in the floor and a ladder descending into the darkness of a hypogeal cavern. The queen’s guard stretched his shoulders. “I will go first.”
He descended the ladder, and Valencia dropped him her musette. As the queen made her way down, Graddock lit a torch and held it up, swinging it around. The passageway was hewn out of the stone of the bedrock of the temple, and it led further down into the ground. Thick spider webs stretched across the tunnel at various intervals, and the fighter eyed the ceiling and walls, ensuring no giant spiders nested in them. When Valencia reached the bottom, she examined her surroundings. “I thought it would be worse.”
“You jest.”
She didn’t reply but started forward. Graddock walked along with her, drawing his sword and used it to brush away the cobwebs. Insects scurried away from them as they proceeded down the passage, but other than those tiny creatures, nothing moved. Graddock had the queer sensation they were entombed.
They rounded a corner into a hallway and halted. To the left and right side of the corridor were six upright pikes driven into the ground, three on each side. Dangling from the pointed end were six skulls, welcoming them with gruesome grins.
“A warning, perhaps?”
“We should remain ever cautious,” said Valencia.
The hall could accommodate them proceeding side by side between the pikes. Valencia focused on the path ahead but Graddock’s attention remained on the skulls. As they reached the middle two, he halted. “My queen!”
The heads on the pikes moved, turning to view them as they advanced. They rotated slowly as if an invisible hand positioned them. They moved in unison and stopped when they stared at the couple. With alacrity, they sprung off their pikes and floated through the air toward them.
Graddock managed to strike a skull down as Valencia attempted to duck out of the way of another. The teeth of an elven skull clenched onto Graddock’s arm and another flew over Valencia who ducked under it. The swordsman smashed one against a wall, but he howled in pain as another bit into his flesh. His sword flashed and he cleaved apart the cranium of a skull missing its jawbone. Valencia managed to catch a skull with her hands and hold it away from her face, but a different head bit the back of her calf. Graddock swung twice, disposing of another opponent. The queen smashed the skull in her hands against the one latched onto her leg, crushing them both. When the last creature attacked, Graddock swung the flat end of his blade to strike it away like a baseball bat on a ball. It smashed to pieces against the floor.
Graddock turned to the queen. “Are you hurt?”
Valencia examined her wound, a nasty chunk out of her leg. Graddock dug into the supplies and retrieved a small vial of a clear liquid. He applied the balm to her wound and her blood stopped flowing while skin covered the laceration.
“You are hurt too, Graddock.”
He dripped a portion of the potion on his wound, careful not to apply too much. He wanted to save it for future encounters.
Valencia commented, “Hardly a trap.”
“Agreed. More like a warning.”
“If you had not been such a good swordsman, it might have given us trouble.” Valencia took the torch and held it close to the ground. “The battle accomplished one objective, though. I have dropped my wishing stone. We have lost its power to save us from further encounters.”
“It did not help us here,” remarked Graddock.
“Let us proceed.”
They moved down the hall and around a corner into a room with a series of murals painted onto its eastern wall. Graddock lifted his torch and discovered the pictographs were meant to be read in sequence from the entrance of the room to its exit. The first outlined a floor plan from an overhead view, showing a corridor splitting into two passages that curved to the east and west of a room. The chamber was only accessible from these two entrances. The second displayed a crude but effective picture of two people in the doorway of a tiny room entirely occupied by a single table. On the table, facing away from both doors, lay a skull with a blue gem embedded in one eye socket. The sapphire was the sole item colored in the picture.
Graddock and Valencia glanced at each other after examining the illustration. They sidled to the next picture and Graddock had to wipe away cobwebs and dust to view it. The third duplicated the second mural except the floor had disappeared under one of the figures. The gem hovered above his fingertips. Both treasure-seekers scowled at the depiction of the trap. They moved along to the final image carved into the wall. It portrayed the fallen person impaled on a large spike in a pit.
Valencia smirked. “Subtle.”
Graddock waved the torch between the third and fourth pictures. “Another warning. Whoever takes the pretty must levitate or perish.”
Valencia tapped the blue drawing. “This verifies what we seek is here or was here. Do you see the words at the bottom of this last illustration?”
Graddock wiped the excess dirt under the picture. His fingers traced the symbols, cursing his lack of ability to read. Valencia read it aloud. “Only the right shall not perish.”
Graddock turned to the exit of the room. “Without the stone, we do not have magic to allow us to fly. Perhaps we should search for magic before proceeding. We should heed the warning. My soul is more laden with sin. You must take the magic item for you are righteous.”
“And what sin, Graddock, will you not confess?”
Graddock remained stolid without answering her. Valencia stared deep into his eyes. “One day, I hope my question will not go unanswered. Magic or not, I would like to regard the gem with my own eyes before turning around.”
They proceeded into the tunnel which curved twice and sloped downward. They moved cautiously—Graddock surveyed the walls for holes, worried about darts or similar traps designed to capture or kill fortune hunters. When the passage lengthened, Graddock held out a hand and stopped her. “Beware the floor!”
The guard’s eagle eye had noticed lighter-colored stones on the ground in front of them. Valencia was one footfall away from stepping on the first of the new stones. Graddock squatted down and touched the rock foundation. His hand passed through it.
He stood. “The floor is an illusion. It returns to its shade of gray further along the passage before it turns. ’Tis impossible to jump.”
Valencia examined the walls. “There are handholds and footholds in the walls. Let us use them.”
Graddock crossed his arms. “The holes frighten me. Perhaps they were made to allow egress for an arrow or house some foul beast.”
Valencia said, “I wonder…”
Whenever Valencia uttered these words, Graddock knew he should remain silent and still. Her verbal prompt let others know she was deep in thought. Often, she paused before speaking but not this time. “A cleverly designed trap requires the architects to pass through it unharmed if they want to access their treasure. Our sources told us the people of Hayline used the gem to their benefit. The floor is the trap and the handholds are the way around it.”
Graddock stepped forward. “I shall go first.”
“Do you trust my conclusion?”
Valencia’s guard inclined his head. “Of course.”
“Then we shall go at the same time.”
The guard put his hands on his hips. “You will not be persuaded?”
Valencia didn’t answer, but her lower lip stuck out.
Graddock’s shoulders slumped. “Of course not. We will have to move through it in the dark.”
Graddock extinguished the torch and they moved to separate walls of the corridor, placing their hands and feet in the first set of holes to allow them to cross. Graddock scaled the north wall, encumbered by the pack on his back. Valencia, for her part, moved deliberately along the south wall. They proceeded together until they were halfway across when Graddock shouted. “I am stuck!”
“What?”
“I reached into a handhold, and my entire hand passed through it. The rock then closed on my wrist and my hand is stuck within.”
“Oh!”
“What, my queen?”
“The same has happened to me.”
Graddock pulled on his hand, but it remained stuck. He tried to twist his wrist sideways in different positions, but he failed to retract it from the hole. “This is my fault, my queen! I should have gone first and ensured your safety. You would have been able to retreat, find a wishing stone, and restored me. Now all is lost! We are stuck here, and perhaps may stay here for all—”
“My hand is free. I have found a solution.”
“Say again?” Shocked at her rapid escape, Graddock forgot to add, “my queen.”
“Reach further inside and you shall find a set of pebbles. Pick one up, hold it, and pull your hand back.”
Graddock reached into the hole up to his elbow and found a pile of stones. He clasped one in his palm and retrieved his arm and hand from the illusionary wall. When his hand had passed the barrier, he felt the smooth surface of the stone disappear.
Astonished, Graddock chanced another look at Valencia. She had proceeded to the next set of handholds and footholds and moved along the corridor, hugging the wall. He followed her example, and less than seven minutes later, they stood next to each other on the other side.
Valencia grinned at him. “As I said, the original trap-makers had to be able to get to the sapphire. They had to have a way to pass through, so I wondered if anything in the hole could help us. I grabbed the stone and reflexively pulled it out. Violà.”
“You are indeed the cleverest queen in Kingdom.”
Her eyes flashed at the compliment but then narrowed. “Do not insult my sisters. Onward.”
They turned a corner and advanced down a couple of cobwebbed, declining hallways. When they reached a long passage, a wall bisected the corridor, dividing it. This hallway matched the mural room’s first diagram.
Valencia inhaled a short breath, a reverse gasp. “We have arrived. The Sapphire of Fortune awaits us.”
“The corridor allows one abroad,” remarked Graddock. “I will lead and grab the jewel, readying myself for the fall and the spike. Before I fall, I shall toss it to you.”
“Nonsense. We will part and meet again. Like in the mural.”
“Valencia, remember what the illustration portrayed? The two on either side of the gem?”
“I feel strongly that we should separate and stand across from each other.”
Graddock grunted his acquiescence, and he chose the rightmost passage but Valencia detained him. She held out her hand for his. Curious, he grasped it, and Valencia closed her eyes and bowed her head. “All-Powerful Lord, Magnificent Creator, Dieu Remarquable. Examine our hearts now and what lies therein. We seek this, an extraordinary artifact of Your benevolence, not to increase our treasury but to honor Your wisdom of temperance. We shall not fail to secure it away from those who seek to misuse it. May not our hearts be tempted with its allure, but always be led by Your magnanimous kindness.”
She lifted her head and regarded Graddock. He cleared his throat. “Amen.”
They released hands and Graddock nodded. “A worthy prayer for a noble queen.”
“We shall see.”
Graddock lit another torch for Valencia and he turned to his narrow passage. Twice, his broad shoulders became wedged against the rough, cavernous walls, and he had to move sideways to pass. On his way, a large stone blocked his path. He could not move around it or push it away, and he considered retreating. He noticed the roof of the passage was slightly higher under the stone, and it allowed him to raise the boulder and slide underneath. Straining, Graddock lifted the rock upwards and wriggled his body under the stone, allowing it to drop behind him. He retrieved his torch and followed a curve in the passage. Ahead, he spied a small room, and beyond it, Valencia holding her torch aloft.
Graddock moved forward to the chamber separating him from the queen. Hardly a room, a stone table occupied all the available space. He would have to climb over or under the stone furniture to get to Valencia’s passage. A leering skull, tilted to the right side, sat perched on the tabletop. Both Valencia and Graddock viewed the head’s profile. The torchlight revealed a blue sparkle from an eye socket. Graddock stared at the sapphire wedged in the face of the skull.
Valencia’s wide-eyes regarded him. “I heard you groan.”
“I had to remove debris. I am surprised you waited.”
“Do we have a rope? We could tie it around our waists and attached the other end to a sturdy outcrop.”
Graddock examined the passage’s roof and walls. “Nothing to affix it to here.”
“We can reach the jewel only if we stand next to the table. The sapphire is beyond my reach back on the path.”
Suddenly the skull spoke. “Advance and remove my eye, but beware to those who come to plunder. Your reward shall be a cold grave.”
After the skull spoke, the floor moved under them. Valencia placed her hands against the walls to steady herself; Graddock swayed with the motion but remained upright. Dust fell from the ceiling on them as they attempted to stay on their feet.
Graddock said, “You are the righteous one. You must take the gem or we should retreat.”
Valencia reached out but her hand stopped inches from the sapphire. “I wonder…”
The guard bushed dust from his eyes. “Hardly a time to pause and reflect.”
Valencia put her index finger on her chin. “How would it know I was righteous?”
“Perhaps its magic discerns the temperament of one’s soul?”
“I have never heard of such profane magic. Only God can judge the heart.”
Graddock stepped back as the floor buckled under his boots. “Valencia, we should not tarry!” Valencia ignored him and pinched her lip.
“How do I know the trap will not misjudge me and send me to my death?”
“Then let us retreat!”
Valencia eyed the jewel. “We are so close.”
Graddock reached for the rope in his pack. “I have an idea. Take this rope, and tie it around your waist. I will brace myself, and if the floor falls under you, I shall hold you up then pull you to safety.”
He threw the rope, and she began to tie it. Graddock stomped his boot on the floor. “Of course, this works only if the floor does not vanish under both of us.”
After he spoke, Valencia’s eyes widened. She slipped out of the loop of the rope as the floor rolled. “It will not. The picture shows the one with the sapphire falling. The other remains unharmed.”
“Then why did you not fasten the rope?”
Valencia ignored him and turned sideways to face the same way as the skull. “Le Seigneur est mon berger. Graddock, quickly. Take it.”
Graddock stepped backward. “No, I am unworthy.”
Valencia put her hands on either wall as the entire tunnel shook like a hive full of angry bees. “Do you trust me?”
Graddock turned pale. “I trust no other more than you!”
“Then take it!”
Without hesitation, he stepped forward and snatched the jewel. He placed the gem against his chest, close to his heart, waiting to fall. Five seconds passed, then ten, after which the hallway stopped its motion.
Across the way, Valencia beamed at him. Suddenly, she threw her hands up in the air and dropped to the floor. Graddock yelled and approached the table, placing his hands on top and peering over to the other side. Valencia sat on the ground, grinning up at him for believing her prank. Graddock grabbed his chest and leaned against the wall as she stood and laughed. “Meet me back in the main hallway.”
Graddock took longer to make it back because he had to slip under the rock a second time. Eyes alight, Valencia stood in the hallway. He presented the magical item to her but she ignored it and embraced him instead. “I admit I was frightened but confident nonetheless.”
“I do not understand.”
“The trap did not concern itself with the state of your soul. It said, ‘Only the right shall not perish.’ We both understood the word ‘right’ to mean ‘righteous,’ but we were wrong. Its meaning was literal. Whoever stood to the right of the skull was safe. The mural depicts the person to the left falling into the pit.”
Graddock took a deep breath. “You are wiser than all of the sages in Kingdom.”
“Pride before the fall, Graddock. I would like to see it.”
Graddock poured the sapphire into Valencia’s cupped hands. The gem’s blue hue shone on the queen’s dimples. She said, “Bonjour, my precious.”
“I do not think you should address it in that manner.”
Valencia held it up as an anthropologist might examine a buried bone. “You are right. It is a thing after all. A powerful thing, but still a bauble. Graddock, I want to go home. Please escort me with all undue haste.”
Graddock bowed. “At your service, my queen.”
***
Three days later, as they crossed at the foot of the mountain range known as Grok’s Teeth, Valencia retrieved the jewel and held it before her eyes. The sapphire caught the light and threw a blue reflection on her face, small cerulean flashes of light on her cheeks. She eyed the gem, not with avarice or pride, but with accomplishment.
She touched Graddock’s arm. “Why did you trust me?”
“My queen?”
“I knew you would give your life for me, but you trusted me when it made no sense to do so. You may have died for nothing, but instead, you believed what I told you against all reason. Why?”
Graddock licked his lips. “I trust you in all matters.”
“But not with stories best left untold about Kingdom’s past? Your past?”
Graddock didn’t answer her.
“Graddock, why do you keep this to yourself? Trust me with this story. Your silence has labeled you as a traitor falsely.”
“If told, it exposes a failure of a hero of Kingdom, a hero whose life gives hope and faith to the citizens of our land. Do you want me to take that away from them?”
Valencia strode forward. “No. Not from them. I want you to trust me to make my mind up.”
“You could command me to tell you.”
“I will not command you. Trust is not built on blind obedience but on honor, achievement, but most of all, friendship. I call some in my life ‘sister’ and others ‘acquaintance,’ but very few I call ‘friend.’ You are my true friend, Graddock.”
She sighed and they journeyed on silently for a few minutes and then Graddock stopped. Valencia took two steps until she noticed. Graddock wrung his hands. “I dare not tell you all of it.”
Valencia stepped back and stood before him. The sun reflected off his black hair. His eyes were solemn and his countenance pale. “King Shade sent Kingdom’s hero, Maydayla, to fight the magician Ozark on a doomed expedition into the Forest of Death. The king tried to invade the magician’s territory for no reason other than he felt threatened by the wizard. The story everyone knows is Maydayla the Enforcer, Maydayla the Virgin led her handpicked companions into the forest to defeat Ozark and his army.” Graddock paused and frowned.
Valencia filled the silence. “I know the story. The king sent her to battle and hoped she would die. He feared her popularity with the people. Maydayla failed but fought valiantly.”
“Truly the story told and retold throughout Kingdom,” said Graddock. “But a false tale.”
Valencia returned the object of their quest to her pouch. “What is the truth then?”
Graddock opened his mouth and then shook his head. “I cannot say. Please, Valencia. Do not ask this of me.”
Valencia put her hand on Graddock’s shoulder, noticing he had dropped the title “queen.” “I understand. Let us return to the castle before nightfall.”
Graddock presented his arm. Valencia stepped beside him and placed her hand on the crook of his elbow, gripping the Sapphire of Fortune.