Delilah picked back up the scrap of black cloth. It wasn’t a handkerchief as she had originally assumed. She clutched it in her hand. It was frayed and threadbare and it had been torn off of something. Her dress. She had torn it off and wiped off the mirror. She tucked it into the pocket of her slivery gown. It would remind her and she needed to remember.

Something had happened. The castle had changed and memories were coursing through her, just barely out of reach. She could sense them, but try as she might, she couldn’t grasp at them, couldn’t remember what it was that she was reaching for.

She pulled the square of dusty fabric back out of her pocket and wound it around one of her fingers, focusing on what she was doing, not the memories that would not come to her. She remembered then. She was a child and she had a brother. What was his name? He was older than she was and he bossed her around. He had a reason for that, too. It wasn’t a good one but he thought it was and so he told her what to do and she didn’t do anything that he said.

He called her something and she could remember days of laughing and climbing trees and people were following them, telling not to do that and not to hurt themselves. There was a swing, and someone had pushed her in it and she was laughing. “Bb, it’s my turn. I’ve pushed you for long enough.” He had called her Bb. It was a name that she knew. He had been little when she was born and her parents thought it was a good nickname for her. He was too young to say her full name and so he called her Bb, and then everyone else did the same.

Tears streamed down her face. She had parents. She had forgotten them, forgotten so much. She wondered where her brother was. Maybe he had died and that’s why she was the queen, but that didn’t seem right.

The memory had been overwhelming and that was only one of the ones that had she had been reaching, trying to remember. Bb, she thought. Only a child would name someone that. She hadn’t stayed with her parents. She had…

Another memory surfaced. This one was full of pain and fire. People were stabbing at her and she was fighting them, breathing fire. She blinked, trying to see the memory instead of her bright bedroom. How had she been breathing fire? It didn’t seem possible. There were mages, two of them with the bright blue swords of magic that had cut at her. She had killed one of them, breathing fire on him until he died.

Why had she done that? It all seemed so confusing and then she remembered seeing herself, her own reflection as she had been on her way to tear apart the castle. She was a dragon and someone had taken something from her and she was angry. She knew she couldn’t get it back, but she wanted to punish them. She saw the little mage with the white hair standing alone against her, against a dragon with nothing but her magic to protect her. But the mage had taken something from her. That’s why she had attacked in the first place. She had taken one of her scales.

Delilah gasped. She wondered if she had killed the young girl, but she didn’t think so. It seemed a battle that would have killed one of them, though. Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t been the dragon of her own free will. She had been trapped and had done the bidding of someone. She couldn’t remember who, but someone had come to her and told her what she needed to do, who she needed to attack. Why was she following anyone else’s orders. She was the queen, wasn’t she? There had been so much burning and fire and blood. It made her shiver to think of it and it made her stomach clench. She pushed the memories of being a dragon away. She wouldn’t focus on that now.

She stood and hurried out onto the courtyard near her bedroom. She did not want to talk to Mathias. She was certain that of everything in the castle, he was real and she didn’t have answers to give him about why she had stood and run away from him. She had nothing to say.

The plants outside were all dead, but that was normal. Everything died in the fall, but the plants had not had time to wither completely. They would be covered in snow any day now. Something about the cold brought forth another memory. She held a child close to her chest, nothing more than an infant. She had never seen anything so beautiful and the emotion that flooded through her chest every time she looked at the child was so strong, it almost hurt. She had a daughter and somewhere in the wide world and she knew that her daughter still lived. She could feel it in her bones.

Hailey woke. She was back in her own bed. At least that’s where she thought she was. Memories of what had happened before flooded through her. She had fallen. Someone had hit her and she had crashed to the earth. Her memories faded as she noticed a loud noise next to her head. She turned to see the cat purring loudly. How could such a small thing with such a tiny voice make so much noise?

“Hailey?” Esmerelda looked down at her, concern in her brown eyes.

“Hi,” she said. Everything hurt. She felt like she was waking from death.

“Here, let me help you up so we can get some water into you.” When had Esmerelda become gentle?

Hailey sat up and Esmerelda fixed the pillows behind her. Then she handed Hailey a glass of water. Hailey felt weak and the glasswork felt heavy in her hands. Too heavy, as if she wouldn’t be able to lift it.

“You are a lucky woman. Your friend here has not left your side. The cat is not so loyal.”

Hailey looked to the corner of the room where she saw a woman. She knew her from somewhere and then it came to her. She was one of Frederick’s servants. What was the prince’s servant doing here in her own bedroom? It didn’t matter. Hailey sipped at the water and then glanced back to Esmerelda. Moving her head had become difficult. She felt so weak. “Thank you,” Esmerelda.

Esmerelda took her hand and squeezed it and then returned the glass of water to the table beside Hailey’s bed.

She felt so dizzy, but her magic thrummed within her. She must have slept… Her thoughts broke off. “How long have I been asleep? Where is Aaron?” Panic flooded through her as she remembered where she had been.

Esmerelda opened her mouth to respond, but the other woman spoke first. “He is fine. You are both lucky we found you when we did, but he didn’t need time to recover. You, on the other hand, have been running yourself ragged. A bump on the head was all it took for you to sleep for two days.”

“I will get you some food,” Esmerelda told her. “Natalia has said that she will keep an eye on you until I get back.”

“Don’t forget to inform the king. He wanted to know the moment that Hailey was awake,” Natalia said.

“I will remember,” Esmerelda said. Then she curtsied to the other woman before leaving the room, which made Hailey suspect that this woman, the servant of the Prince of Yapuris was more than she appeared.

“She has watched over you constantly, forgoing sleep herself. It must be something you Taivalon people do. She even tried to get you to drink, dripping water into your mouth, but you choked. I wasn’t here the whole time, but I was here long enough to know that you have a very good friend.”

“Thank you,” Hailey said. She didn’t know what else to say. She still didn’t know this woman and it made her more than a little uncomfortable to think that she was just popping into her room while she was asleep.

As if reading her thoughts, she smiled at Hailey. “I am Natalia,” she said. “I traveled here with Prince Frederick. As you may have realized by now, I am a mage. That is why there is not a scratch on you. You had cut your head and scraped your arm and leg, but really the main problem was that you were not getting near enough sleep.”

Again, all Hailey could say was, “thank you.”

Natalia began striding around the room, her boots thumping on Hailey’s floor. “I would have introduced myself sooner, but I did not know the situation here. I was supposed to keep my magic a secret, but you vanishing into the shimmer made me reveal who I was. However not everyone knows, and I would appreciate it if you helped keep my secret.”

“Of course. Thank you for healing me and finding me and Aaron.”

Natalia nodded and sat in the chair across from Hailey, crossing one ankle over her knee. “You have been working too hard. I can understand how difficult it must be for one mage to handle an entire kingdom, but your magic is a valuable resource, one that will not be regenerated until you get adequate rest. If you kill yourself trying to fix all of the problems in the kingdom, then Taivalon will not even have one mage. You must consider the consequences to the kingdom if you are no longer here.”

Hailey swallowed. This was a lot to take in for a person who had just woken, but she had known that there was something about this woman from the first time she had looked at her. If only she had listened she might have had some more guidance, something she realized she had been needing terribly.

“Sometimes, you can spend just a few minutes getting someone else to help you.”

Hailey opened her mouth to speak, but Natalia spoke over her.

“I know you are the only mage here and that your predecessor had not finished training you, but there are things that you do that you could have someone else take care of for you.”

Hailey thought about the boy she had healed what seemed the night before. Having his legs already splinted and straightened had helped her healing go much faster than it would have. Maybe she could get the healers to take part of the load. She nodded. That did make more sense than trying to be everywhere at once.

“I can help you, but I’m not willing to help someone who won’t take care of themselves.”

Hailey’s stomach tightened. Another mage was everything that she had been hoping for for months. Hailey obviously couldn’t take care of everything herself, but she worried what the other woman was asking of her. Could she really get a full night’s sleep and still be able to accomplish everything she was trying to do. Finally, knowing that the offer was too good of one to pass up, Hailey agreed.

“You will have to go to bed at midnight and get at least four hours of sleep.”

Again, Hailey cringed, but she would do what this other mage suggested. She desperately needed the help and with the time that had been lost to her, any help would make a huge difference. “I agree.”

“Good. I am going to cast a spell under your bed that will make four hours of sleep feel like eight. I know you are still struggling with many things to do, but I will help as long as you eat and sleep.”

Esmerelda burst back into the door, a tray in her hand. “The king is so relieved that you are awake. He said to make sure you didn’t leave your bed until you ate. Are you comfortable? She seemed completely unaware of the conversation she had interrupted. She fussed over everything, opening the curtains a little but not too much, making Hailey sit up better. “Make sure you eat every bite. The king said that I could tie you to the bed if you don’t listen.”

Natalia winked at Hailey and walked to the doorway. At the last minute, she turned. “Thank you, Esmerelda. I’m sure that with your help, Hailey will be fine.”