Tower into Eternity

Prologue

The sky exploded with violent red light and purple noise that deafened all within a twenty mile radius. The light could be seen for hundreds of miles and people wondered, "What has that boy done now?"

Dame Agniran, the housemother at the School for Beginning Wizards, fumed angrily. He'd been warned to be careful, to not explode his spells anymore; yet he'd done it again, on Tower grounds no less. Jared had to be stopped and she was going to stop him. Dame Agniran stormed out of her rooms and headed for the Tower.

Jared whimpered, his hands over his ears, his face blackened and his body in agony.

"Why?" he asked soundlessly. "Why can't I ever finish? Why do they interrupt me? Why?!"

What was left of the door was ripped off its hinges. Dame Agniran stormed in screaming silently. Jared curled up into a tiny ball as she kicked him. He glanced up and caught a glimpse of her lips.

"The Tower..." he closed his eyes. He was in the armory on Tower grounds and Jared knew they were going to send him farther in. He shuddered knowing that the wraiths would drive him mad. He could not go in. He couldn't. Jared's body spasmed as a kick landed in the middle of his back and as consciousness left him he saw them. Two blond haired boys and a tiny girl with flaming red hair watched him with sympathetic understanding.

"Why is he so scared, Alanna?" Richard asked me.

"For the same reason you and Edward were so terrified of me when you came to the Tower. He's only just stepping into his gift of the Sight and it terrifies him. He knows he has magic..."

"But not that he can see things that others can't," Edward interjected.

"That's right," I said pleased. "He has got to get a grip on his powers. He might blow up the world when one of his spells explode. I do hope Anne leaves him alone. She could drive him insane if she's in a bad mood."

"You could stop her, Alanna. You have seniority," Richard was enthusiastic.

"A fourteen year old against a thirty-six year old? Richard..."

"He's right, Alanna. You do have seniority. You're a princess of the blood, you're the first ghost of the Tower, and you were born thousands of years before Anne." Edward backed up his brother.

"Well, Edward, Richard, if you want to use that logic you have seniority over Anne. Edward you're King of England, both of you are princes of the blood, and you are both over thirty years older than her. How does it feel to be over a hundred years old?"

"We're only nine and twelve, 'Lanna," Richard protested.

"No, you were nine and twelve in 1483, it's 1783 now. Richard, you are 309 years old and Edward is 312 years old."

"Oh," Richard said.

"My how time flies when you're dead," Edward remarked and sat down. I laughed at them.

"I think I'll go check on my bones," I said and left them to contemplate their highly advanced ages.

Jared lay curled up on the stone floor of the Bell Tower. He was battered and bruised and wanted to die. His moan ended in a choked off whimper. Dame Agniran had a heavy hand and he didn't need any more attention. It was better to be silent. It was better to be still.

"Edward," a faint voice said in his ear. "Edward, he doesn't look very good."

"Stay here with him, Richard. I'm going to get Alanna."

Jared whimpered again. "You'll be all right," the voice whispered. "Alanna will know how to make you well." Jared gratefully gave in to the darkness that had been threatening him.

"Alanna! Alanna," Edward called to me. I rose up from the Earth, to the inner wall of the Tower curtain. "Alanna, come quick. Jared's hurt."

Jared moaned and opened his eyes. He tried to jerk away from me and upset the poltices I'd placed on him.

"Oh stop that. I haven't gone to all the effort of starting the healing process just to have to do it over again because you can't take seeing a ghost." I sniffed.

"Go away, devil's spirit. Holy God protects me," Jared intoned.

"Hey," protested Richard and Edward.

"I'm sure he does," I told him. "I would like to make a point right now. I am not Satan's anything, none of us here are. We are simply dead."

"Then who are you and why are you here?"

"I am Alanna," I began when Edward interrupted me.

"Princess Alanna," he said. Richard nodded. I glared at them.

"That is King Edward V and his brother Prince Richard, the Duke of York." They glared back at me.

"I've heard of them, but never of you," he said bluntly.

"I'd be surprised if you had. I died long before the Tower was built, long before the Normans, Vikings, Saxons, or Romans ever came to this land. I died long before your Jesus Christ was born. I knew Owain son of Urien, King Arthur, and everyone who has ever lived in the Tower- whether they knew me or not."

"Well then, you can't be a princess," Jared sounded pleased at his logic, feeble as it was. Richard looked like he was about to start a fight for my honor. I waved him off. Chivalry was outdated and I didn't need his help.

"I can be a princess," I said calmly, "a princess of a people who died long ago. A princess of a people who left here before any invaders ever came. I am a Druid Princess and the blood that flowed through my veins flowed in Edward's and Richard's veins, and quite possibly flows in even yours."

"I don't understand," Jared said. "Please tell me how this could ever possibly be."

"It's a very long story," I hedged. I did not want to tell it again. Some of the memories were excruciatingly painful for me.

"But a very good one," Edward and Richard chorused. I glared at them. The Princes did not get my hints.

"Please."

"Oh very well. I suppose it will give you something to think about while you heal." I gave in with ill grace and sighed. I thought about the story I had last told three hundred years before. I thought about my short life and long death.

Chapter One

My story started long before Jesus Christ was born. It started a thousand years before he came into the world and became the "Messiah." I was born in a small house where the Bowyers Tower stands today. My father was the King of our tribe and my mother the eldest princess in one that lived near us.

The land was lush and green and mists always seemed to dance around us. They looked like a cloth of diamonds when the sun shone. The village was in a clearing, as were all our fields, and a giant forest of oak, ash, and rowan trees surrounded us. It was the most wonderful place to grow up. I ran wild and free through the forests and I was friends with everybody (except the priests) and every animal near my home.

Things started to go wrong when I was eight years of age. A deep purple-black shadow fell over my life. I could dimly see it even then but I did not understand it. It was a golden summer marred by tragedy. I was an only child doted on by my parents. I admit that I was spoiled but my mother tried to keep it, and my rank, from going to my head, and for the most part she succeeded. But that summer my mother died in childbirth and my baby brother died with her.

My childhood ended at that moment, but I was lucky that it lasted as long as it did. My father fell apart in his grief, and I had to take care of him. My Aunt offered to take me in but my father refused, as did the priests. My father would not spare me and the priests told him he could not, with no reason as to why. They were plotting even then. I stayed in the village and that shadow darkened to a deep blue-black.

At the tender age of eight I was far too young for marriage and even though my parents had been vaguely talking about who would be a suitable match for me that stopped at my mother's death. Father would not talk about my leaving him. He was the King and even I obeyed him. The priests watched me closely. I realize now that I could have become a druidess myself but that life would never have been for me. I did not wish it. Six months after mother died father could function well enough to deal with affairs of state but other than that- he was a mess. It took him two years to become normal again.

On my tenth birthday I wandered off into the woods.



Comments may be sent here. Constructive criticism only please.