Illustration by James Christensen

The Wishing Map is a full-length fantasy that is being posted episodically at this site. To read the previous episode, click here. To read the entire novel, begin here.

Gina had awakened in a cave with a furious pixie princess and two immense spiders on her face – just as her brother Zack and his friend Aviar were seeking help in finding her!

The last of the bat riders landed at the entrance to the Palace of Light. The pixie king, Prince Jenblevó’s father, greeted “the mighty Aviar,” and then praised Zack’s sister “the great girl knight J’nah.” The pixie queen remained peculiarly silent.

It was as if everyone in Ismara had come into contact with an alternate reality version of Zack’s sister. For some reason they seemed to think Gina was a hero or a dragon-slayer or something.

One of the bat pilots reported that a family of stoats had seen a human girl enter the northwestern edge of the Forest, and a couple of hours later she’d been spotted by a young owl on his first solo hunting expedition: “He insisted there was a pixie female on the human’s shoulder! But we all know how owls exaggerate.”

The little queen let out a gasp, and then whispered something to Jenblevó’s nurse, who instantly hurried away. Prince Jenblevó watched this pantomime from the corner of his eye, and then said, “Mother, what do you know of this?”

With everyone, including the immense bird Aviar, staring at her, the little queen turned and drenched the king’s spidersilk nightcoat in tears. “Shhhhh, my jewel,” said the king. “You must tell us what you know.”

The queen lifted her trembling chins. “Well…the way our little Blevy looked at the great warrior J’nah, and the way he spoke of her…”

“Little Blevy? I am not a child!” the princeling scolded.

“…and when J’nah said she was destined to become a queen like her aunt and royal namesake…”

“Aunt Gina from Toronto?” said Zack. “But she’s an accountant.”

“And when she saw that her betrothal would be challenged, our dear ward Princess Feyrdú swore she would kill before she would relinquish her hold on the Prince’s heart.”

“Pah!” Jenblevó exploded, “What ‘hold’? Feyrdú is but a child. Whereas J’nah, the Dragonmeer of Frenga, is…” He gave a knowing wink at the other pixie boys.

“Is my fourteen-year-old sister!” Zack snorted.

“And so,” the queen continued, “Feyrdú saddled a crow and flew to find her!”

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There was something unsettling about the ravishing little princess’s use of third person: “I regret what I must do to the great girl knight. It is not that I do not respect the glorious and beautiful J’nah—”

Always compliment people, and always use their name, Gina reminded herself. “Oh, hey, listen, you’re way prettier than me, Feyrdú! Um, could you…” Gina’s eyes darted back and forth between the two immense black widows that were poised with their knitting needle-sized stingers pointed at her eyes.

“Prince Jenblevó does not care for beauty! It is because you are proud and cruel, you who have carelessly toyed with death.”

“Um, well, that’s not actually true…”

“…and because you are destined to be a queen!”

“You know, people keep saying my name means that, but it’s only a name.”

“All names are prophecies. A child learns this when she is still in her leaf pouch. You will become queen of the South Frengan pixies, and Prince Jenblevó will marry you!”

“No, no, no! Hey! Now that’s just a crazy misunder—”

“Which is why I cannot let you live.”

“What? This is insane!”

φ

Thoughts: Wounded pride. Without it there would be no killing, no wars. At first, we may only respond with angry words, but angry words are the seeds of destruction.

To read the next episode, click here.