Fantasy & Magic: Stories & Contest Entries

The Magic at Last

Darcy opened her eyes, dimmed with age, to see blurred shapes. Why did she hear the waves on the sea? A gong rang, the deep sound fading slowly, slowly, then rang again. What had happened to English IV. That wasn't the bell to announce the end of class.

Queen Loris, said, "Mom. You're awake."

Her daughter's voice. She was in her bedchamber in the royal palace in Palmis.

"My children, I love you and bless you. I'll be with Ronan soon. My life here has been wonderful, beyond anything I dreamt of back on my home world." Her voice faded, a mere whisper. She squinted, trying to see through the increasing grayness. Her eyes closed, for the last time? The great gong rang, announcing the dying of the Queen.

"I love you," Darcy mumbled, her head drooping.

"Who are you talking to, Dar?" Janelle's voice interrupted. A finger poked her hard. "Who do you love? That cute basketball player, Harry?"

Darcy jerked, looking around the classroom, familiar and yet unfamiliar. The great bedroom, four-poster bed, heraldic wall hangings, and a flying carpet tethered in the corner, had vanished.

Darcy shook herself. What had happened to the last 65 years? The whiteboard showed the same Shakespeare sonnet as the day she dozed off in class and woke up in Berengar.

Gone. Her family, her kingdom, her world. "Harry? No, Ronan—I, I must must have been dreaming."

"Yeah, you fell asleep in English class again."

The bell rang for the end of class. The girls gathered their books and left for homeroom.

As soon as she got home, she went to her small bedroom. She pulled a blank journal from her stash and began writing down the dream, or was it the history of her other life in Berengar?

She scribbled frantically until her mother called her name repeatedly. "Darcy! Dar-CEE! Dinner." Darcy put the journal aside and went downstairs. Bready meatloaf, canned peas, instant mashed potatoes. She  sat down and ate quickly, aching to return to her writing.

Her brothers and sisters talked about school, cars, friends, as though they'd never dreamt of living in a palace by a blue sea, mages, or monsters. Her father drank a couple of beers. Her mother put lots of butter on her mashed potatoes before eating. Darcy ate the salty, bland meal quickly. She recalled her wedding day, a royal wedding, wearing a pearl-trimmed white gown. She and Ronan married in the cathedral in Palmis. She could see the wide gold ring she slipped on Ronan's finger, engraved with a unicorn, and hers, engraved with a dragon and on the inside, 'Always.'

"Darcy, why aren't you eating?" her mother's voice broke her reverie.

She hurried to finish her dinner. She was still hungry, but the meat had been grabbed. She took more peas and potatoes.

After dinner, she dried the dishes her older sister washed. She put the last plate away before rinsing her hands in the sink.

And saw the dragon ring on her finger. Her wedding ring. From Berengar. But she was at the kitchen sink of her home in New Jersey, not in the Cathedral. She slipped the ring off and read the message inside: 'Always.' Did I have this ring before, and dream about it? She wondered, Or, did Ronan really put it on my finger in some other life?

She continued writing her journal, recounting the day she dozed off in English IV. She woke up to find herself lying on grass in mountains very like those in southern California, where a large city on the coast, very like Los Angeles, shimmered in the distance. She began the long walk there. A farmer taking goods to market gave her a ride, and soon they reached the city, called Palmis, royal capital of Berengar.