by Kalverin Dukant
I lay on my bed dreaming, again. I can’t
stand it that I can’t actually be in Tortall. I can fence better than anyone,
children and grown-ups, in the state. I am really good at karate and swimming
and staff-fighting. I’ve doubled up on eight grades (K-7) and finished up tenth
grade at the top of my class. What am I missing? I answer myself, a magic portal
into Tortall. I even have a backpack with all the necessities. Oh well...
I
guess, diary dear, you won’t mind my complaining to you. Of course you don’t,
you’re an inanimate object after all! Oh well, I just write down my thoughts so
I don’t start talking to myself. That would make mom and dad even more worried
about me than they are now!
Maybe if I just give it time, a pathway will show
up. Or it won’t, and people reading my diary in the future, if I don’t burn it
first, will think I was mentally unstable, to say the
least.
--------------
Christina Alison Grulling put down her pencil and
sighed. Her obsession with Tortall was getting worse, not better. It was
because, her mother said on the very infrequent times she and daddy were home,
she didn’t fit in. No duh, Christina thought. I have been dragged to at least
two dozen boarding schools and fifty dozen new tutors. I change schools/teachers
basically every semesters, which is why I go through all my grades so fast-I
want to learn everything I can before I leave. Teachers really don’t mind if
you’re way ahead of the class if you ace all the tests. They really don’t even
mind if you take the quarter and yearly finals two months into the class if you
ace’em.
Christina pushed her short auburn hair back from her face and looked
down at her diary to begin writing again. Then she noticed something stuck
between the last two pages of her diary. In small loopy writing, the note said:
Christina, you are invited to enter the land of Tortall through your bedroom
mirror. You will become the daughter of Lord Grallen and Lady Malling of the
fief Hawkingwood. Your name will be Krissalia. When you enter Tortall it will be
midnight. Clothing will be there for you, as will a servant who knows what is
going on and will answer your questions and hide anything that is obviously
foreign. The password is Entering Tortall. Bear in mind that you may never get
back to the human world. The gate will be open for three more years as long as
the mirror stays in this spot. Good-luck, may the Gods be with you.
Well, thought Christina, here’s a bit of luck!
Never come back to earth though... Everything provided means to only take essentials, decided Christina. She went
through her things and settled on her staff, bladed rapier(otherwise known as a sword),
diary, a case of pencils, a swiss-army-knife, and her “Tortallen” clothing. She
looked one more time around her room and almost forgot to leave her parents a note,
which she wrote on the wall in permanent marker: Dear Mom and Dad,
I have found a portal to Tortall. I will probably not be able
to come back. Don’t miss me, I will probably be having fun. I
do love you. Christina Grulling. With the password, she stepped through the mirror.
Chapter One
Krissalia sank on to a garden bench and leaned
on her staff. The first three months had been exhausting with all the new things
she had been learning and trying to keep track of. Yangu, the servant who was
the one appointed by whichever God to make sure she didn’t stand out like a sore
thumb, was wonderful. He had a deadly sense of humor, too. Deadly, as in deadly
to those he was poking fun at, and deadly to him if they overhear.
Krissalia
was now plotting how to become a knight. Her new parents weren’t all that
thrilled with the idea, but they were “thinking.” She would learn how to use her
magic better there, too. She learned fast, and had practically memorized every
book in the library and was almost out of the local hedgewitch’s ability to
teach. She had already embroidered almost every cloth her mother owned and made
outfits for her mother and father and self for the up-coming ball. She could act
like the most proper woman in Tortall and was able to help her father with
diplomacy. She could also catch and throw knives and beat her arms-master at
sword and staff fighting. She was learning to joust and make
weapons.
--------------
Well, I am now learning how to brew different
medicines and have been able to recognize and cure a few sicknesses I recognized
from the medical notes I brought in you, dear diary. You know, I’m beginning to
realize how toast I’d be if anyone read you. This is why I have been learning
carpentry: so I could make furnitcher with small spaces to hide you in.
They
never tell you how much you use practical geometry in real life. I have been
using it all the time in making things. We also use a plumbob to help get all
the edges straight. I ‘ve been using new techniques to get curved wood and such,
and have found a real niche in the market for it.
I have been practicing my
hand-to-hand combat, and almost threw two shang warriors. They were meaning to
pass on by, but I got them to stop for a while and give me a few pointers. I
look forward to the next Shang that passes through, but hope to be in court
learning to be a knight before then. If m’lord and lady get their acts together,
I could be one of the youngest knights ever to become a knight, and one of the
first girls (I think Sir Keladry was the last one to finish). I haven’t found
the extent of my powers yet, but I think I’m getting close. Good-night diary
dear, sweet dreams!
Story text © Kalverine Dukant
© Lady Star