12.5
Princess Kraehe has kidnapped Mytho, told Fakir and Duck all about it, delivered a string of threats and insults and vanished in a cloud of raven feathers.
The meadow by the gazebo seems unnaturally quiet now that the crow-princess is gone. Duck and Fakir stare at each other. What now?Then the silence is broken by a hand-organ playing "Music of ( Read more... )
The meadow by the gazebo seems unnaturally quiet now that the crow-princess is gone. Duck and Fakir stare at each other. What now?Then the silence is broken by a hand-organ playing "Music of ( Read more... )
Rue . . . how can Rue be my enemy? We're friends!
- Miss Edel is her friend too, she reminds herself. A helpful friend.
"Miss Edel!" she calls, more vigorously, and starts heading in her direction.
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It's sinking in now . . . but she still doesn't get it. Miss Edel can't be saying that really, can she?
"You've taught me all sorts of things," Duck reminds her, staring up at Edel's eyes - kind eyes, she tells herself, stubbornly - "and you've always been so friendly! That's why I think of you like a -"
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"You think of me like that," murmurs Edel, inexorably gentle, "because that was the role I was appointed."
"My orders end here."
She turns away from Duck's distressed face, and back to the stone wall.
Now there are two of us, grins the fool in age-worn stone.
Edel lifts a hand from her barrel organ in a delicate and precise gesture, her fingers uncurling towards the stairs and the climactic stage beyond. "Now go on, Duck."
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It's always been a trap.
(Happiness to those who accept their fates--)
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A light laugh is his only answer.
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She doesn't believe that. She doesn't believe it! Duck's been given a role too, and she -
"Miss Edel -"
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it's not surprise. Puppets have no feelings.
But she glances down, at the small duck-girl suddenly hugging her waist like a sniffly limpet.
"Duck?"
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Duck looks up, face half-buried in Edel's skirt, and smiles.
Because no matter what she's said, she's chosen to believe that Edel is her friend.
(Because she can't lose two of her best friends in one day.)
(Because Rue is Rue-chan, and Edel is Miss Edel, and Duck loves them with all her heart.)
(Which is supposed to be dedicated to Mytho.)
"Thank you," she says. "I guess we're going now."
Somewhere, Drosselmeyer is not thrilled by this turn of events.
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The little duck is supposed to be stricken and demoralized, weeping at the emotional blow. She's supposed to go into battle tragically alone, to make Princess Tutu's coming tragedy even more beautifully painful. That's Drosselmeyer's story; that's the script. Those are her orders.
Edel doesn't have lines for this. And for a moment, she doesn't know what to say.
Then her gesturing hand drops, and turns, and cups Duck's chin for a moment. She strokes the duck-girl's cheek, looking at that young earnest face turned up to hers with love shining out for even a puppet to see.
"Such a warm face," she says softly. "Such soft skin."
Duck's not made of wood at all. And maybe -- maybe that can mean --
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For some reason all these people - her friends - they can't say what they're feeling. But they can show it, can't they? Doesn't this show it? That has to mean they're really feeling it, doesn't it?
Duck doesn't remember having parents as a duck, and she knows she doesn't have them as a girl. Lilie pinches Duck's cheeks, sometimes, but no one's ever -
"Miss Edel, I -"
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Edel's hand stills. Her blue eyelids lower briefly; a human motion, on a painted wooden face. She has no need to blink. And yet --
Her hand drops, and opens again towards the hole in the wall, in the same precise gesture as before. "Now," she says gently, "you must hurry."
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