Tiredness forced Cassandra to lie down. It was a big boat. Besides her, Vasilisa had fallen into slumber again. Cassandra looked up at the moon, which was as thin as a fingernail. Then, painfully, feeling the boat rock beneath her, she propped herself on one elbow and sat up. The mist was still there, hanging low and ragged over the surface of the water. But the marsh itself had changed.
"We are almost there, my lady," said Nayris.
"Oh, how I miss coming to the sun-drench island of Spain." Florence took a lungful of fresh air. She stepped out of the private jet that had landed at the Canary Island's international airport. The second person to follow was Clare. It was her first time on a private jet. She was still getting used to the special treatments that came with her status, but she was trying to be mindful and kept close to Florence.The whole flight was a smooth and easy journey, and Violet spent the entirety of it quietly working away on her laptop. If she wasn't typing, she was speaking on the phone. The Duchess dove straight to her wo
In a remote town far away from Krasnoyarsk City, a white horned owl perched on the branch of an ancient oak tree, waiting. The bird was too large for its kind. Almost the size of a two-year-old toddler.Speckled sunbeam framed its body after the large bird had swooped down to the ice-covered earth beneath, gilding its white feathered wings and striking an occasional gleam from its sharp yellow eyes.
"Oh my god," Cassandra gasped. "You talked!"She thought she was dreaming about a talking owl, but as she saw the bird looking down at her with the same intelligent eyes, she knew it was real, or that she had probably slipped into a twilight zone without knowing it."Yes, that I did," the owl re
Cassandra's aunt and uncle ate something called Health Foods, which they brought with them in big cardboard boxes from a special Health Food store in Moscow. They had boxes calledBetter Buds, orCereal Zealand all kinds of crazy seeds and several brands of honey and strange juices that tasted like celery syrup and smelled even worse.Cassandra would put their supper on the table and then spread out all those seeds and juice for t
"What do you think is inside the box, Cassandra?" Ruslan asked while Cassandra was washing the dishes after they both had a lunch break."The Hope Diamond, I suppose," she said. The long hours of trails and errors had dulled her sense of wonder and made Cassandra a bit disheartened by the fruitless result so far.
"Okay," Ruslan said. "What does the poem mean?""I have no idea," Cassandra said. "But the owl told me to come back to her after I open the box. Maybe I'll find out what it means.""Are you sure you're going to see this talking owl tonight?"
The owl raised her wings and made a high pitch squeak, which echoed off into the sky. The sound was sharp and strong and as soon as it faded the ground beneath Cassandra's feet began to tremble, but before she could scream earthquake, something else far more astonishing caught her eyes.She saw the glowing light emitting from the ancient mirror. The light seemed to form a ring of symbols much like the runes she saw on the chest and letter. Cassandra gasped as she stared at the strange phenomenon for the first time.
Cassandra didn't know what to make of the frog princess, but Owlyn kept looking at her as if waiting for her to do something. After a long awkward silence, she cleared her throat nervously."Well, um...nice to meet you...er...your highness," she said. "But now that Owlyn has found you, I guess there's nothing more I can do here, so I better go back."Then she turned to leave, but the owl immediately flew over to block her way.