Sunlight and Shadow by Cameron Dokey Page B

first sight of the Lord Sarastro’s daughter, standing fearful yet uncowed at her mother’s side. Nor my second one, for that matter, standing motionless and alone in her father’s great entry hall. Did not die Königin der Nacht say three times that the Lord Sarastro would regret his actions in stealing their daughter away? And did she not say that the third time pays for all?
    Well, I say this. That lady knows what she is talking about.
    I cannot say for certain whether the Lord Sarastro came to regret the actions he performed. It is a thing of which we never spoke. But I do know my third sight of the Lady Mina was the one that sealed my fate, assuming it hadn’t been sealed already, long before. Standing in the room her father had prepared for her, the hood of her cloak at long last pushed back, I could see her face clearly for the very first time.
    This is the picture of her that has never left me, the one that beats with my heart, runs with my blood, holds up my body right along with my bones.It will stay in my mind until my brain itself becomes as blank as a sheet of new-made parchment, a thing that will mean my heart has stopped.
    The simplest way of saying it is this: Even in her pain and defiance, the Lady Mina was beautiful. So beautiful she outshone the moon and the stars alike. Had it been in the sky at the time, I have no doubt she would have outshone the very sun.
    The fourth time I saw her, she wasn’t the Lady Mina at all.
    It was shortly before dawn when the Lord Sarastro summoned me to his study. I was ready, had been for hours. The truth is, I hadn’t gone to bed at all. How could I sleep when I knew that everything I’d worked so long and hard for could, should, would be mine with the rising of this single sun?
    â€œAh, Statos, good. Come in,” the Lord Sarastro said when I had been ushered in. The servant who had summoned me bowed and departed, leaving me alone with my lord. My lord and master, I probably should say. For, as his apprentice, my master is precisely what the Lord Sarastro was.
    I know several of the others have told you their life histories, or something of them. Have no fear that I will follow their example, for I have no intention of boring you to tears with the many details of my life until this moment. For one thing, my life isn’t all that unusual or uncommon.
    Like many a younger son of parents rich and pooralike, I was sent to join the Lord Sarastro’s household as a boy, in the hope that I might prove worthy enough to join his order. This I did, and in time achieved an unlooked-for honor. I became his chosen apprentice, the one above all others to whom he revealed his thoughts.
    None of which may make much difference to you, of course. For I have not forgotten that your first glimpse of me was through the Lady Mina’s eyes. Don’t think I don’t know what that makes me: the villain of this story. I will say this much, though, and suggest that you remember it as you read along.
    My desires were, are, no different from the others’. All I wanted was precisely what they did: a place to call my own, a home, and a heart to share it with, to beat in time to mine. And if I did not always do quite what you would have done to accomplish these ends, let me ask you this: How far would you go to achieve your heart’s desire? If it was almost within your grasp and about to be snatched away, how much farther would you go?
    â€œYou conducted yourself very well last night,” the Lord Sarastro said, and he gestured me to take a seat while he stayed beside the window. “You made me very proud. I am sure that, with the coming of the sun, my daughter will see reason.”
    I bowed my head, acknowledging his compliment which pleased me greatly, and showing that I agreed with him when, in fact, I did not. I was far frombelieving that the Lady Mina would change her opinion of what had happened to her simply because the sun was about