Flight of the Five Swans
Flight Chapter 14

Cliodne

Cliodneleaned back in her chair, the words of the rhyme reverberating through herhead. Her mind was racing as she triedto work out its meaning.

“’All atonce’,” she repeated slowly, “’or none at all’.”

Eurielle threwher hands up in the air. “Whatever inthe world that could mean!” she cried, frustration clear in her voice. “Youknow, I’m really sick of riddles! Whycan’t they just say what they mean, and mean what they say? Go here, do this, eat a piece of pie! See?!? Easy!”

Petracoughed, and Cliodne could have sworn she was hiding a smile. Callia, on the other hand, was looking atEurielle as though she had grown two heads.

“Butriddles—and rhymes—are classic.” She insisted. “They’re great strategies for writers to add an element of drama to anystory.”

Thaleia’svoice was dry. “I think our story hadquite enough drama before, to be perfectly honest. Adding a riddle we have to solve is justplain mean.” And for all her love ofpuzzles, Cliodne could not help agreeing with her sister. They certainly had enough to be getting onwith in planning their escape without adding a vague rhyme to the mix.

“So whatcould it mean?” Raia asked, and theprincesses all turned their attention back to the piece of paper. Cliodne saw Petra’s lips moving as she readthe rhyme silently to herself. Shereached out and tapped a finger on the second line.

“Well, itcertainly seems as though this is what we’d need.” Petra said, nodding approvingly atCallia. “After all, ‘to change a form toman’—or woman—‘from bird’ is exactlywhat we want to do.”

“And,” Cliodne added, “in order toaccomplish that, it seems we’d need to knit…something…fromnettles.”

Raia wasalready shaking her head, her voice a mixture of confusion and exasperation.

“But you can’t knit with nettles. You need yarn to knit. And no one would choose to use nettles,anyway, even if you could knit withthem. Nettles hurt. That’s why they’re called stinging nettle.”

Cliodnerubbed the palm of her right hand with her left. She knew from firsthand experience how muchnettles stung, having stuck her hand into a patch once when gathering flowersas a young girl. Yet somehow she felt nosurprise at the idea of this unpleasant plant being a requirement to breaktheir curse. It seemed almost expectedthat they would be asked to undergo a little pain to complete the ritual, andshe told her sisters as much.

“But thatstill doesn’t answer the question of howwe’re going to knit with them.” Petra argued. Callia tapped her chin with one finger.

“Actually,”she began slowly, her eyes out of focus as though she were rememberingsomething from long ago. “I’ve read about a process used to spin yarn fromdifferent kinds of plants. I don’tremember nettles being among them, but I think we could adapt the processeasily enough to include it all the same.”

Euriellejumped in eagerly, and Cliodne marveled at her enthusiasm for the riddle,following so close on the heels of a complaint. “And the riddle doesn’t specify whatwe need to knit! It just mentions somekind of garment that’ll cover us when we’re swans! That shouldn’t be too hard, right?”

Raia seemedthoughtful.

“You’re alittle bigger than normal swans,” she mused, and Cliodne felt a stab ofsurprise. She hadn’t realized before howher size when transformed compared to the size of the actual birds. Raia continued. “But…I think a large shawl of some sort mightbe able to cover each of you. And eachone would really only take maybe a couple weeks to make.”

Thaleiaseemed to catch the excitement now as well. “And with all six of us working, it shouldn’t take very long at all!”

“No.”

Cliodne’svoice was firm and almost regretful when she spoke. Her sisters turned to look at her. She pointed again at the page, this timeindicating the third and fourth lines. “It says that only one of us can touch the nettle yarn. That means only one of us will be able toknit the garments to complete the ritual.”

The otherfive princesses seemed to deflate at this new and most unwelcome revelation.

Eurielle’svoice was small when she spoke. “Butthat could take ages.” Her sisters echoed her disappointment.

Cliodnehated to add even more bad news to their load, but felt that it needed to besaid. She dragged her finger back up tothe first line of the poem. “And the onewho knits the garment isn’t allowed to speak.”

Euriellestared at her. “We couldn’t speak whileknitting?” she asked, seeminglyhorrified at the very thought. Cliodnecleared her throat.

“Actually,”she said reluctantly, “I think it means that that person can’t speak at all. Not until the whole task is done, and the spell is broken.” She looked around at her sisters. Callia nodded in confirmation of her words,while Thaleia and Raia merely stared at her. Petra seemed to be considering the possibilities of such a restriction,her eyes fixed on the youngest sister. Eurielle looked as though she might faint at the idea, and her voicerasped when she spoke.

“But that’smore than a sacrifice! That’d betorture! Getting your hands stung bynettles and all the while you can’t say a word? Who would do that?”

“I will.”

Silencefilled the room as all the princesses turned their heads to look at Raia. Her expression was determined, and her gray eyeslooked remarkably like steel as she stared stubbornly back at them all.

“Whynot?” she asked them. “I haven’t been able to do much up tonow. I want to.”

Thaleiagaped at her twin, seemingly at a loss for words. Then she burst out, “Ray, we’re not talkingabout watching the guards for a couple hours, or looking for holes in thewalls. This…task…will probably take weeks! Maybe months! And you wouldn’t beable to speak that entire time!”

Raia’sresponse was as fierce as her twin’s. “And until this task is done, you won’t be able to escape thecastle! None of you can! Not without becoming swans forever andever!”

Cliodne’s heart clenched at herwords, but her mind was already processing Raia’s suggestion. Her voice when she spoke was much morelogical than either Thaleia’s or Raia’s had been.

“On the one hand,” she said slowly,choosing her words carefully. “Raiawould have more time to knit than the rest of us, since she’s human all of thetime instead of just at night.”

“And I’m the fastest at it!” Raia added, and Cliodne conceded herpoint.

“On the other hand, though, you’realso the only one of us who ever sees Soran.” Cliodne warned her youngersister. “And he might become suspiciousif you become a mute all of a sudden.”

“Yeah, something tells me he’sprobably familiar with this type of counter curse already.” Callia chimed in. But Raia shook her head.

“I’ve already been giving him thesilent treatment, anyway!” Sheargued. “So it’s not like I would haveto explain that I’ve taken a vow of silence or something. If anything, I think he’d be more suspiciousif I suddenly started talking, ratherthan if I stopped.”

Cliodne pursed her lips andnodded. Her other sisters followedsuit—all except Thaleia, who still seemed reluctant to agree with her twinsister’s sacrifice.

“And Raiais the only one who would actually be able to do it.” Petra said practically. Cliodne saw Thaleia bristle at her words.

“How so?”she asked, her voice almost aggressive. Petra looked at her, her expression calm.

“Thinkabout it.” She said. “If we all have to transform at the exact same time, thensomeone else will have to throw the shawls over us to cover us. Raia’s the only one who can do that.” Thaleia’s shoulders slumped, and Raia placeda reassuring hand on her arm.

“But it’snot like we won’t be able to help.” Petra continued, her voice surprisingly reassuring. Cliodne furrowed her brow and opened hermouth to argue, but Petra continued before she could even speak a word. “Yes, only one of us can knit thegarment. But the rest of us can collectthe nettles, and even help spin the yarn as well, as long as we don’t actually touch it after it’s been spun.”

Cliodne sawThaleia perk up at that, but only slightly. Her younger sister was still clearly far from thrilled about Raia’sinvolvement in such a difficult task. But Cliodne knew that she also saw the necessity of it. They all did.

She sighedand looked again at Raia’s determined expression. Raia’s shoulders were back, and her jawjutted forward.

“Any otherobjections?” she asked, clearly more than ready to defend her case in any waypossible.

There were none.