Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The next morning, the three teenagers stood at the foot of Mount Stagnum. Their horses would have to be left there. They would proceed on foot up the face of the mountain.

It wasn’t a particularly tall mountain. Bellicia wasn’t a mountainous country. It was several hundred feet up, full of rocks, ledges that jutted precariously off the face of the mountain, and places where one could easily plummet to the ground.

The three King’s children stood in silence for a few minutes, staring up at the mountain. Maya broke the silence first. “Listen,” she said. “The only one of us who actually wants to rule Bellicia is Soren.”

Soren nodded. “You want to make it up the mountain to prove that girls can do it.”

“And I want to make it up the mountain to prove that I’m not a complete loser,” said Nathaniel.

“Right,” said Maya. “We all want to get to the top of Mount Stagnum. But only one of us wants to get the Cup of Life.”

“So...” said Soren.

“So,” said Maya, “there’s no reason for us to compete. Father thinks we have to triumph over each other to prove ourselves? We’ll prove a lot more if we work together.”

Soren immediately understood. “So we’ll each use our strength to help each other up the mountain! I’m good at planning. I’ll figure out our strategy.”

Soren looked up at Mount Stagnum and tried to figure out how they would get up it. Now that they were ready to climb it, it looked much taller. For about two hundred feet, it was covered in a forest of dark, strangely shaped trees that swayed and bent in the wind. At one point, the forest simply ended, and the rest of the mountain was bare, without even a bush to decorate its desolate peak. It became much steeper at that point, and looked much harder to climb.

After a few minutes of thinking, Soren said, “We’ll start there.” He pointed to a spot at the foot of the mountain. Then he knelt down and drew a line in the dirt with his finger. “We’ll go up this way. If you look closer you’ll see that there aren’t as many obstacles through there.” He drew more lines, describing each one. “We’ll go up there…around there…and then once we get out of the forest, I’ll figure it out. Maya, your job is to clear a path for us. You’ll be the one who gets rid of branches and rocks and makes it easier for us.”

“I’m the one who’ll prevent us from falling off the mountain,” said Maya. “That’s always good.”

For a moment the three of them stood in silence. Planning was all well and good, but actually climbing it…Soren and Nathaniel looked at each other nervously. Then Nathaniel said, “Hey-where’s Maya?”

“Hello!” they heard someone say. Looking up, they saw their sister waving at them. She’d already started up the mountain. The two boys grinned and followed her.

It was dark in the forest, and cold. The trees were strangely shaped, and swayed and bent in the cold wind that blew through their branches, ruffling the boys’ hair and causing them to pull their cloaks tighter around their shoulders. An owl hooted in the distance, but other than that, there was no sound. Leaves crackled under the princes’ feet as they hurried to catch up with their sister.

When they found Maya, she was leaning against an old oak tree, waiting for them.

“This place is strange,” she whispered. She wasn’t sure why she was whispering-there was no one there to hear her, save for Soren and Nathaniel. “Let’s hurry through, okay?”

Her brothers nodded. The three teenagers set off through the woods.

For the first two hundred feet, their plan worked well. Maya went first, clearing away bushes and cobwebs and kicking away rocks, trying to clear a path for her brothers, who followed after her. She was too far away for them to see, but every once in a while they would hear her call to them: “Huge rock up ahead!” or “Be careful, there’s a hole to your right!”

After about an hour of this, the forest abruptly ended. Now, there was not even a bush to decorate the mountain’s rocky terrain. There were no signs of life at all, not a bird or even a spider. It was as if the mountain itself had died.

The three siblings sat down together at the edge of the forest and tried to make themselves comfortable on a large rock.

“What’s so special about this Cup, anyway?” grumbled Nathaniel, taking off his boot and shaking it. A torrent of rocks poured out.

Soren’s eyes took on a reverent gleam as he said, “It’s the Cup of Life. Legend has it that whoever drinks from it will be blessed with uncommonly long life. I could be King for a hundred years with that cup!”

“So why is everything around here so dead?” wondered Maya.

“It probably doesn’t work on anything other than humans,” said Soren, who sounded annoyed that she doubted the power of his Cup.

“Oh, no,” said Nathaniel. “I don’t think this Cup thing is a good idea.”

“Why not?” said Maya.

“Soren with an uncommonly long life? We’ll never be rid of him!” Nathaniel and Maya both laughed.

Soren scowled and stood up. “We’d better get going,” he said.

“Yes, if we want to find your precious Cup,” said Maya, still chuckling.

Soren turned and stalked away, muttering to himself.

“I think we’ve offended him,” said Nathaniel.

A few minutes later they were back in their original formation: Maya leading, trying to make the way up easier for her brothers, who followed behind. This time, the going was much harder. Several times Soren or Maya would slip on a rock, and Nathaniel, whose feet were nimbler, would struggle to catch them. Once, Maya’s foot got stuck in a hole, and her brothers had to catch up with her and pull her out. And still there was no sound other than their breathing.

After what seemed like hours, they were almost at the top. They could see the very top of the mountain now, and-was it possible?-a glint of gold.

“Nathaniel,” Soren said. “This is when you prove that you’re not a complete loser. You’re going to run up, grab the Cup, and bring it down to us. Are you ready?”

Nathaniel straightened. “Yes,” he said. “I am ready.”

Then he was off. He ran straight up the mountain, avoiding rocks and pebbles that would send him crashing down. His feet were fast and his legs were strong after years of dancing when his father wasn’t looking. Wind blew in his hair as he ran higher and higher. He was going to get it! He would get the Cup of Life!

Down below him, Maya and Soren cheered. They were standing on a steep ledge that jutted out of the mountain at a strange angle.

“Go, Nathaniel!” Soren yelled. “You can do it!” He watched his brother run. Their plan had worked perfectly. All three of them had worked together to complete their fathers’ quest. Everything was going great.

And then, in that moment, Soren’s foot slipped. Terror jolted through him as he scrambled to find something to hold onto. He was slipping off the ledge fast. “Maya!” he yelled. But by the time she turned around, Soren was hanging onto the ledge by the tips of his fingers.

Maya tried to grab him, but he had already fallen.