In the Gnome hall, the great feasting had begun. Midor and John were served the finest foods, and glasses of gnome wine. (They were small glasses--or at least they would have been, had Midor and John not themselves been miniaturized.) As for King Carlyle, he found as a frog he was no longer able to drink wine, and he would have had trouble grasping the goblet anyway. So he was forced to have just a bowl of plain water which he was able to gulp down by putting his mouth directly in the bowl. There were also some dried roots and mushrooms that were suitable for frogs to eat, but King Carlyle only picked at these sparingly.
“Tell me, Gnome King,” King Carlyle said at last.
“Please, call me David,” the Gnome interrupted him. “You and I are both kings, are we not? Let’s call each other by our proper names.”
“Very well. My good sir David. Can you tell me how you plan to assist me in getting my rightful body back again.”
“Well, good Carlyle,” said the Gnome King, “As you know, we gnomes cannot work magic of our own. But we have connections all over the forest, and we will ask the fairies if there is any way to reverse the spell. We are also connected with several other magical creatures, such as woodland sprites, water sprites, pixies... ”
While theGnome King was still listing other magical creatures, John turned to Midor. “I must confess,” he said. “I’ve been finding this whole business with Catherine confusing. She’s not in any of the history books in the library.”
“No, she wouldn’t be,” said Midor. “It’s all too recent. Nobody’s written about it yet? And who would write it? It would have to be one of us, I suppose.”
“So who is this Catherine?” John asked.
“She is technically what she says she is,” said Midor. “She is the rightful queen of the castle, at least as far as bloodlines go. She was the firstborn, and King Carlyle was the second born. And when her parents died, she did become queen, and she ruled the castle for many years. But she became obsessed with magic. And not the good kind of magic either--she was obsessed with black magic and witchcraft.”
“Magic is magic, isn’t it?” asked John. “What’s the difference between good magic and black magic? Is there even such a thing as good magic?”
“You’re right, there isn’t really a thing called ‘good magic’. But there is definitely a bad magic. Spells that kill people are black magic. Spells that summon ghosts are black magic. And black magic can be a terrible thing. They say every time you use it, it takes a little bit of your own soul away. And if you use enough black magic, then there’s nothing left inside of you. You still live, and breathe air, but you’ve completely lost any positive emotions. You can no longer feel joy, or love or empathy. Only anger and cruelty will remain.”
“Is that what happened to Catherine?”
“It hasn’t happened yet. Catherine still has some humanity left. But it will happen eventually. Every black spell she uses takes a bit out of her.”
“I don’t understand,” said John. “Why does she keep doing it then?”
“This is difficult to understand, I know,” said Midor. “But once someone starts doing black magic, it’s very difficult for them to stop. It has an almost addictive quality. Once you use it once, then something--some piece of that magic--gets inside you, and it stays with you. It is always there inside you urging you to use more spells. Eventually a person gets to the point where they feel like they have to keep using the magic just to feel anything anymore. And the more of your soul black magic takes, the more you feel like you need it to feel whole.”
“What do you mean?”
“Black magic isn’t just about the spells themselves, it’s about the feeling you get when you cast the spells.”
“So how did Catherine get started with black magic in the first place?”
“Yes, that is the more difficult question to answer. The truth is that in her family--in their family--there had always been a magical history. It’s particularly strong among the women of the family--it seems to get passed down from mother to daughter, but not to the sons. Nobody quite knows why. The very first queen of the castle was gifted with magic. That’s how the castle got formed in the first place, by her transforming the rocks and trees with her magic. Some people say that the very first queen of the castle was a fairy, who transformed herself into human size, and married a human man. And that this magical blood has run through the family ever since. Of course, it gets a little bit more diluted with each generation, because the Royal Family has never practiced incest--they marry from outside the family, and with each generation, the magical blood is halved. But it’s in their blood somewhere.
“In fact, originally, there was no sorcerer of the Castle. The job that Talon has now didn’t exist. The Queen of the Castle did all the magic. But over the generations, the magical abilities of the queens became less and less. And the magic of the kings was not at all. But the castle had always been built on magic, and it needed someone magic to keep it in repair. So eventually an outside sorcerer was brought in, and the position of sorcerer of the castle was created.
“But Catherine, ever since she was a little girl, was fascinated by the magical heritage of her family. She spent hours in the library reading the ancient books, and trying to learn some of the spells. Nobody thought anything would come of it. Too many generations had gone by, the magic blood was too diluted. But then, she started doing magic--real magic--and everyone was surprised.”
“Was Talon helping her?”
“Talon? No, the last thing Talon wanted was to have another sorcerer in the Castle. He was perfectly happy being the only one who could do magic. He didn’t want any competition. I think he was even worried for his job. If the Queen could do magic, then what need had they for an official castle sorcerer? But he never opposed her directly. How could he? If he became insolent or oppositional, she could just have removed him from office--even without her magic powers the queen had that authority. So he just got more and more sulky. He stayed in his room most of the time. He seldom came out except to eat. And then he seldom came out even to eat.”
“So what happened then?” John asked. “How did King Carlyle become king?”
“Well, it’s a long story,” said Midor.
“I’ve got time,” said John.
“Okay, well, do you know all those ghosts outside the castle?”
“Thomas explained them to us,” said John. “They’re the ghosts of all the dead monsters.”
“Did Thomas tell you how they got there?”
“He said that when monsters die, their ghosts haunt the area.”
“Not always,” said Midor. “Not unless someone summons them. Catherine summoned them. There hadn’t been any monsters in the forest for centuries at that point, so she called forth spirits from monsters that had been dead for hundreds of years.”
“Why would she do that?”
“It’s hard to say. I think she was already losing her mind a little bit to the power of the black magic. But I also think she thought she could control them. She wanted to create a ghost army that could frighten away all her enemies.”
“Her enemies?”
“The enemies of the castle. You’ve seen what it’s like. It’s constantly getting attacked by goblins, or giants, or dragons, or ogres, or gremlins. I think that Catherine thought she could use the ghosts to protect the castle. And I think that she thought that because she had raised the ghosts, the ghosts would be obedient to her. But as soon as they were let loose in the forest, no one could control them.”
“Thomas said that Talon usually controls them.”
“Well, Talon controls them now. Or at least he keeps them away from the castle. But remember back when Catherine was Queen, Talon was sulking. Catherine didn’t ask for Talon’s help controlling the ghosts, and Talon didn’t offer it. And so the ghosts were everywhere. They terrorized the forest. And they terrorized the castle. At night, on a full moon, the ghosts were running up and down the castle hallways frightening everyone. It got so bad that eventually the animals of the forest pleaded with Carlyle to overthrow Catherine and assume the throne.”
“But,” said John, “How could Carlyle fight against Catherine’s magic?”
“Well, magic is very powerful,” said Midor. “But remember what you learned when we fought against Talon? The sorcerer needs to be able to point their wand, and to speak their spell, in order for the magic to work. If you can somehow gag their mouth, or restrain their hands, then they can’t do magic.”
“So that’s what King Carlyle did?”
“Yes, when Catherine was sleeping. She never thought her little brother would betray her like that, so she didn’t take any precautions. Although she should probably have seen it coming. The whole forest was practically rising up in revolt. But she didn’t. So Carlyle tied her up and gagged her mouth while she slept, and once she was bound and gagged and powerless, then he arranged for some horses to take her far away. She was taken to a coven of witches far who lived far up in the mountains many days' journey from here. And that coven agreed to watch over Catherine and keep her from ever returning to the castle. ”
“The witches agreed to help?”
“King Carlyle made some sort of a deal with them. I’m not sure what he promised them--money or gold or something, but whatever it was, the witches agreed. They agreed to keep Catherine. Technically she was considered one of their coven, and was treated like an equal. But practically, they were also her jailers, as they prevented her from ever leaving the coven and returning to the castle.”
“So why is Catherine back now?”
“Yes, that’s the great mystery, isn’t it? I don’t know. She must have figured out a way somehow, but no one knows how.”
“If all that is true, then why aren’t the forest animals helping us? Aren’t they worried about what Catherine will do again now that she’s back?”
“They are. But at the moment, no one wants to cause any trouble. And everyone does have to admit that King Carlyle was never the legitimate King. No one likes Catherine, but she’s the legitimate Queen. So everyone is thinking about that.”
“And where do you come into all of this,” John asked. “Catherine knows you, doesn’t she?”
Midor glanced over at King Carlyle, who had now moved over to talk to the Gnome King, and was safely out of earshot.
“Yes,” Midor said, “Vivian and I fell in love when Catherine was still Queen of the castle. Catherine saw me around the castle often enough when I was still courting Vivian. And then I’m sure she heard her brother Prince Carlyle curse my name often enough once Vivian had run away with me. That was before Carlyle assumed the throne. But once he did assume the throne, Vivian realized that she was next in line for the throne, and that she needed to return to the Castle to fulfill her filial duties. At least, that’s the way she saw it at the time. King Carlyle never forgave me for taking her away in the first place, of course, even though he got her back in the end. And I’m not sure he ever fully trusted Vivian again. Especially because she was a female, I think he’s worried that she might have inherited some of the same magic blood that Catherine has. That would explain why he has been training his sons, George and Rufus, in the matters of how to rule, but he’s been ignoring Vivian.”
“Do you think he’s planning on passing over her and making one of her brothers King instead?”
“It’s difficult to know what he’s planning. Maybe,” said King Carlyle. “I don’t really know.”
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