Dragon Quest - I - Chapter 5, Part 3

3 - Princess Laura (pp. 193-200)

大魔王 (dai-ma-ou) - Dark Lord. There are a hundred possible stylistic choices to translate this, but I elected to go with straightforward.


    “Cecille!”
    For a moment, Aleph thought he was dreaming. And yet he wasn’t - there Cecille stood, right in front of him.
    “Cecille, you’re all right!” Aleph exclaimed as ran over to her.
    “Oh, Aleph…” Cecille looked deeply at Aleph, tears welling in her eyes. “How I’ve waited!”
    “I’ve been so worried,” he said, blinking away hot wetness from the corners of his own eyes. She looked thinner, but even so, the time that had passed had made her more womanly; and Aleph thought her even more beautiful.
194
    “Wait, the princess - Princess Laura!” Aleph reminded himself, snapping out of his daze. He scanned the room, but Cecille was the only person here. Suddenly Aleph blanched. It couldn’t be, he thought.
    “Cecille?” Aleph turned questioningly to her. Cecille simply nodded slightly.
    “You… You’re princess Laura?”
    “I am.” She looked up and met Aleph’s eyes. “I didn’t believe it myself, at first.”
    “But how did you find out?”
    “Garai appeared to me. On the fortieth day of the Month of the Dragon.”
195
    “He did? What’s so special about that day?”
    “It was the night of my sixteenth birthday.”
    “Your birthday?” Aleph suddenly understood. Today was the day that changed the Month of the Dragon to the Month of Kings. Today, the first day of the Month of Kings - in other words, today was Aleph’s true birthday. Sixteen years ago to the day, Aleph was born, and Domdora was attacked that night by the Dragon Battalion. The fortieth day of the Dragon was exactly one week ago.
    “He appeared right over there,” Cecille - no, Princess Laura said as she pointed to the opposite corner of the room.

    In the darkness, there is no signal of the passing of the days nor the seasons. Nor is there days nor nights. Since Cecille had been thrust into that darkness, nearly two hundred and forty days had passed. The darkness brought her only despair and a slowly disappearing mind. She had no idea why the Dragonlord’s minions had imprisoned her here. Tears stained her cheeks as she could only think of her murdered parents.
    Eventually those tears dried up. Day after day, she would stare at nothing as her body became more and more of a shell. Perhaps I should just die, she would eventually think. But before long she would think of Aleph, and courage would well up within her again.
196
    If Aleph truly was a descendant of the hero Loto, then Cecille had the faint hope that one day he would defeat the Dragonlord, and then she’d get out of this cage. Aleph was out there doing his best - so I should, too.
    Cecille was thinking of him that night, when a faint blue-white flame appeared out of the darkness. She gasped, thinking it was another minion of the Dragonlord.
    “There is no need to fear,” came a kind voice. From within the flame floated the image of an incorporeal old man with white hair -- Garai.
    The old man looked down at Cecille with a certain divine grace. “My name is Garai. And today would be your sixteenth birthday, would it not?”
197
    “My birthday,” Cecille repeated. Had it been so long since she was captured? This was the first occasion she had any notion of how much time had passed.
    “Happy birthday, Princess Laura.”
    “Laura!? No, I’m not the princess, I’m just a girl from the village of Garai. My name is Cecille,” she explained after a gasp.
    “My, no,” Garai said with a faint smile, and pointed to Cecille’s chest. “That amulet is the undeniable proof.”
    Cecille pulled it from her shirt. It had a light green stone in a silver setting. The jewel was only the size of a fingernail, but she had never taken it off her entire life, even once.
    “The jewel in that necklace is the same jewel that was set in the ring that Loto wore when he returned victorious to Radatome Castle after defeating the Dark Lord. During his long journey, it is said he met with a group of fairies deep within some mountains. Those fairies entrusted to him that ring. This stone may save your life, he was told.
198
    “Then, princess, when you were born, Ralus the Sixteenth had that jewel sent to your parents as congratulations.”
    Cecille stared down at the jewel’s small imperfections and thought of her thirteenth birthday. Her parents had given her a larger chain as a gift, since by that time the chain she had been wearing all her life had grown too small, but that was also the day she found out she was not their true daughter. Earlier that evening Cecille had accidentally overheard her parents discussing whether or not to tell her.
    “Sixteen years ago, Radatome was preparing a banquet at the castle in honor of your one-week anniversary. It was then that the Black Shadow Battalion, led by the Shadow Knight attacked, aiming to take your life. Your wetnurse took you and luckily escaped, but she was eventually caught at Radatome’s east cape by the Shadow Battalion and she was cut down.  Still holding onto you, she fell into the ravaging sea below. Just before striking the rocks, princess, that jewel around your neck began to glow and you disappeared, engulfed in light.
    “That night, a couple that owned a small inn in the town of Garai both had the same strange dream. They dreamt an elderly fairy appeared to them, carrying a small babe, and told them:
    “‘This little girl is only seven days old. She must survive, for the sake of all of Alefgaard. You must raise this little girl as if she were your own.”
    "Surprised, the two awoke, but didn’t see the old woman - just a gently sleeping babe by the foot of their bed, with a softly-glinting light green amulet draped around her neck. Having not been blessed with child, the two gratefully raised the girl. That girl was you, princess.”
199
    “It can’t be,” Cecille protested, shaking her head. It was too much for her to believe.
    “Hold hope, dear princess,” encouraged Garai. “Soon, one with the blood of Loto will appear by your side.”
    Cecille immediately thought of Aleph and felt slightly more at ease.
    “Then you two must travel to the Holy Shrine, where that amulet will prove truly whether you really are Princess Laura,” Garai’s voice echoed, as he faded away in that blue-white flame.

    “So that’s what happened,” mused Aleph while considering the beautiful gem hanging on Cecille’s chest. She looked at Aleph with sad eyes and nodded.
    Aleph finally noticed the ragged and torn clothes Cecille was wearing. Tracing his eyes, she embarrassingly moved to cover part of her torso that was showing through the fabric.
    “Well,” Aleph started as he quickly removed his cape and draped it around her, “it’s time to get you out of here. Come on,” he said, as he grabbed her hand and led her from the room.
    Outside, he cried in surprise at what they saw as he drew his sword and moved in front of the princess. A massive dragon, seven or eight times the size of Aleph, emerged from the darkness to block their path.
    An eerie laugh echoed.
    “It’s you!” Aleph yelled in shock. On the back of the dragon was the old man that taught them the location of the hidden cave several nights before.
    “Hah! I heard everything! Cecille is actually the true Princess Laura, was it?” he laughed loudly, shoulders quaking. Bit by bit the old man’s frame grew larger and larger, eventually ripping through his robes and revealing dark armor. The staff he held out slowly became a huge axe. It was the Devil Knight.
    “What are you,” Aleph dared.
    “I am Devil Knight, one of the Six Generals!”

Comments

  1. Thanks! Really great reading! Hope you'll manage to translate to the end!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog