“Aye, aye,” the king agreed. “It is the wee hours. So wake them up.”
“Sire?”
His patience exhausted, Stefan slammed the man against the wall. “So wake them up and get them back to work now! We’re running out of time. Go now!”
For the next few days, Maleficent walked around in a conflicted daze. She barely spoke, didn’t eat, and didn’t even bother tricking the pixies or turning Diaval into various animals. Even being in her grove or running her hands over the velvety cattails gave her little comfort. More and more often she found herself making her way to the shores of the Dark Pond. On the edge of the Moors farthest from the Wall, the pond was home to the darker creatures of the faerie world. It was there the ram trolls resided alongside hog trolls with their furry hog-wart mounts. The pond itself was dark, too. No wallerbogs cleaned its waters, and the stone faeries dared not go close. It was a lonely place. A place for the dark-hearted. It is where I deserve to be, Maleficent told herself every time she arrived. For only someone with a heart as dark as mine could do something so evil to a girl with a heart as light as Aurora’s.
Aware of his mistress’s dark thoughts, Diaval often accompanied her to the Dark Pond, where he would sit silently with her until she was ready to leave. But one afternoon, several days after Aurora had taken Maleficent’s hand in hers, Diaval was not there when Maleficent left the grove. Discovering her gone, he quickly flew to the Dark Pond and, upon arriving, landed on her shoulder. He began to rub his feathered head against her as though comforting her. But Maleficent was not in the mood. “Stop!” she ordered.
He began to rub harder. With an angry wave of her hand, she transformed him into a man. When he was up on two feet, he looked at Maleficent, his expression worried. “Mistress,” he said, “you’re miserable.”
“I’m perfectly fine,” she replied.
“No, you’re miserable,” Diaval repeated.
“I’m going to make you miserable if you don’t stop saying that.”
Diaval shook his head. There was no getting through to her with words. But maybe…? He slowly reached out a hand and touched her shoulder, hoping to comfort the upset faerie. It didn’t work. She turned her icy glare on him and shook his hand off. As Maleficent turned and began to walk away, she silently fumed. What right did Diaval have to try to comfort her? Who did he think he was? He was why she was in this mess in the first place. If he hadn’t been so bent on making sure Aurora was all right in that little cottage with those obnoxious faeries, she never would have seen the child. Never would have watched her grow up. Never would have grown fond of her. Never would have had to tell her something that was going to break the girl’s heart. But that was what she had to do. Maleficent knew that now. It was what had been eating away at her since she’d last seen Aurora. She had to tell her the truth about the world. And it wasn’t going to be easy. Letting out a groan, she stalked to the Wall to wait for night, when the stars and the truth would all come out.
A light snow had fallen during the day so that now, as Maleficent and Aurora walked across the Moors and made their way to one of their favorite spots, the Snow Faerie Meadow, their footsteps were muffled by the soft powder. In the cold they could see their breath coming out in little clouds. The landscape was beautiful, the hills covered in white and the stars twinkling in the sky above.
If only I didn’t have to ruin the beauty with darkness, Maleficent thought. Straightening her shoulders, she shook off the thought. It was now or never.
“Aurora,” she began, “there is something I need to tell you.”
“Yes?” Aurora said, looking up at her, innocent and pure as ever.
Maleficent stopped walking and shuffled on her feet for a moment, unsure how to proceed. “There is evil in the world,” she finally said. “I cannot keep you safe from it.”