The kid scampered over to the table and sat down. Maids swarmed around to fill him a plate.
“Excited about the hunt? Three days away, huh?” Julianna asked her brother, casting apologetic look toward Warren, who was still looking pretty shaken by Conroy’s words.
“Oh, yes, sure,” said Conroy Jr. with a glance at his dad. Julianna was pretty sure CJ was not really into hunting, but just played along for their dad. She was also pretty sure he didn’t want to be King, either, but there was no getting out of that one. A firstborn son was, after all, a firstborn son.
“I hear it’s been very good for the economy of the city, anyway. All the businesses making extra stuff for the big event,” Julianna said.
“Oh. That’s good,” her brother said politely.
Silence for a bit.
“Who’s that?” Conroy Jr. asked at length, pointing an asparagus spear at Warren.
“Oh, this is Warren,” Julianna explained. “He’s a friend of mine.”
“You met him when you ran away?”
“I didn’t run away, CJ. I just wanted to get out and see the city a bit, and things got messy. But yes, I met Warren when I was out in the city.”
“And,” Lillian interjected, “he is going to marry your sister! You just wait, you two men will be great pals!”
Warren gave Conroy Jr. a weak smile. “Hi!” His upbringing was such that he had never talked to a child before.
“You’re a commoner?” asked Conroy Jr.
“Yes, I am,” Warren said, then thought to add, “Your Majesty,” after a moment.
“Then we must talk,” Conroy Jr. said in a tone very official for a child of his age. “I’ve never spoken to a commoner before. I’d like to hear what you think about the state of the kingdom.”
Julianna smiled fondly at him. Yes, he did indeed have a decent shot of being an all right king, even if he didn’t want to be one.
Conroy cut in and said, “Now, now, son. No need for things like that! Just shut your mouth and eat your dinner.”
Conroy Jr. frowned.
“Er,” Warren said, “I’ve lived at sea my whole life up until a few days ago. With pirates. So I don’t think I could give you any practical information.” He was happy he had a good reason for not being able to give Conroy Jr. any useful intelligence, since the King obviously didn’t like the idea.
Conroy Jr. nodded with a look of disappointment.
Julianna said helpfully, “But we’ve met a few commoners we can introduce you to.”
Conroy Jr. smiled.
“Quiet!” Conroy barked. “This country has been run for generations without asking commoners—of all people!—for input, and it will run for generations more on the same policy!”
“So sure of that, are you?” Julianna snapped. “After just two nights out there in the city I have learned a lot that you might be—”
Warren sharply coughed and caught Julianna’s eye. She looked at him with annoyance; she didn’t like to be interrupted mid-rant. He glanced at a clock that was hanging from the wall.
It was time to go.
“Hey, Julianna, where’s the bathroom?” Warren asked.
“Oh! Yes, of course. Let me show you,” she said, taking her napkin off her lap and putting it by her plate.
“Sit down, dear. One of the maids can show him,” Lillian said.
“No, no, I insist,” Julianna said awkwardly. “I want to show him the bathroom.”
They scampered off to Julianna’s room to get Corrine’s bag, leaving Lillian and Conroy exchanging flummoxed looks.
While Warren got the vials ready, Julianna got her own bag from where she had stowed it under her bed. She dumped all the jewelry from her jewelry box into it, figuring the necklaces and whatnot would be good to have on hand. “Do you still have my money?” she asked Warren over her shoulder.
“Yep, it’s here in Corrine’s bag.”
“Good. Okay. All set?”
“Yes. But hey, will I get in trouble for this? I mean the King and Queen are out there and we’re about to knock them out. Not to mention your brother.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll just tell them I did it. Better yet, I will do it. You just take care of the guards, and I’ll take care of my family.”
“Good enough for me,” he said recklessly, though inside he was petrified. But no way was he getting married and becoming a prince, so that meant he had to get out while the getting was good. He handed her one vial of asparagus powder and one of tangerine and said, “Now watch closely.”
She watched as he emptied the asparagus powder from one of his vials into the tangerine juice and then quickly capped the vial with his thumb. “You see?” he asked. “When you’re ready, give it a shake and take your thumb off. And of course, hold your breath.” He watched as she combined her powder and juice, then he said, “Great. I’ll meet you at the entrance to the tunnel.”
“Good luck,” she said, and they walked out of her room, hearts hammering.
As soon as Julianna rendered her family and her wedding planner unconscious, she ran to her room to throw on the maid dress from the Dawdling Donkey. Then, she put a hastily scrawled note (We don’t want to get married, so we’re leaving. Don’t worry, we’ll only travel at night, and we’ll stop in plenty of time to find good sun-proof shelter. I’ll send word in a few days. XOXO Julianna) in front of her mom at the dining table, then ran to her tunnel and began to pull the loose stone out of the way.
There was a heart-stopping moment when she heard one of the guards yell something that sounded like the beginning of an alert, but it was followed a second later by silence and the thud of a body hitting the floor.
“Do you think that was Warren? Or a guard?” Julianna asked Dexter, ready to spring to her feet and run toward the sound of the commotion.
“If it was the guard, he’d be yelling,” Dexter pointed out.
“Right. Good point.”
A few moments later, Dexter was proven right when Warren came jogging her way, shoving a few oranges into Corrine’s bag as he ran. He joined her and helped her with the stone; neither of them said anything because both were preoccupied with what they’d just done. Even though they hadn’t harmed their victims, having that sort of control over people who had no idea what kind of magical power you were wielding was still not cool. And they both knew it. But forcing people to get married when they didn’t want to was also not cool, so that about evened things out on the morality scoreboard. Except for the collateral damage in the form of the guards, Conroy Jr., and Serena.
But whatever.
What was done was done.
Corrine needed to be rescued, and they needed to not be married, so what alternative did they have?
Off they went. Warren, Julianna, and Dexter all scooted into the tunnel, then the two corporeal members of the party pulled the stone back in place through means of a rope that Julianna had attached to it before sneaking out the first time.
Julianna then explained to Warren how to use the wheeled board to bring him to the top. “Don’t climb out of the top of the tunnel until I get there,” she said. “It’s tricky.”
“Right-o.” And off he went.
She waited with Dexter and said, “They’re going to be really mad when they wake up.”
“An understatement,” he said. “I’m very impressed. A few days ago, I’d never have thought you capable of what you did back there.”
“I’m not proud of it, Dexter. I know you think that sort of thing is justified, but I’m feeling very, very bad right now.” She sighed gloomily and was glad Dexter didn’t respond.
The board came rolling back down the tunnel, and Julianna hopped on, then pulled herself to the top, where she joined Warren. “Okay, we have to get to the wall as fast as we can,” she said. “We can’t be sure how long that stuff is going to keep ev
eryone unconscious. That dungeon has some high ceilings, so the fumes will disperse pretty quickly.”
He nodded. “Lead the way.”
Chapter Twenty-nine
A mere fifteen minutes later, Julianna was kicking leaves and dirt off the trap door to the smugglers’ tunnel. Once Warren realized what she was doing, he joined in, and soon they were opening the trap door and slipping down into the passageway under the castle wall.
“You have more of that stuff, right?” Julianna asked. It had only just occurred to her that, if things went badly with the smugglers, the asparagus and tangerine concoction would be an easy solution.
“Yes,” Warren said. “One more vial of each. You think we could stop by Farland’s and steal some more on the way out of town?”
“No way. As soon as they wake up, they’re going to have soldiers looking for us. We have to get as far away as we can as fast as we can.” She paused a few moments to second-guess herself. No, they couldn’t get any more of that oh-so-helpful concoction. It would be too dangerous to waste time. “Be ready to use those vials. I don’t trust the people at the end of this tunnel.”
“Then why are we going this way?” he asked, eyeing the darkness before them distrustfully.
“There’s no other way. We can’t very well go through the front gate.” As they talked, they walked carefully down the tunnel.
He sighed and got ready to grab the vials. Mixing the potions wasn’t exactly something you could do sneakily or at the drop of a hat. You had to uncork and mix them, then re-cork, theoretically giving the people you were trying to use the potion on quite a bit of notice that something was up. “Ready.” Then an idea occurred to him. “Hey, hold on a second. How about I wait down here for a bit and see how things go for you? If you need help, I’ll pop up with the potion all mixed and ready to go, and if things go fine you can just tell them you had a friend coming close behind you or something.”
“Hmm. Yeah. I like that.”
“Okay, good.” He felt a lot better.
“Here I go then,” she breathed and pushed open the trapdoor. She peered around at as much of the room as she could see. No feet. No sounds. Julianna looked questioningly up at Dexter, who had floated on ahead of her.
“All clear,” Dexter said.
She climbed out but had no sooner given Warren the thumbs up and shut the trap door than someone walked through the doorway behind her. She spun around to see one of the two goons who had been playing cards when she had come before. The goon halted in his tracks. “I wouldn’t have thought we would be seeing you again!” he said, then swooped forward and grabbed her by the wrist. “Luann!” he called over his shoulder. “You’ll never guess who’s here!”
There was some muttering from the other room, then Luann bustled in with a surly look on her face. The surliness turned to a creepy sort of glee when she saw Julianna. “Well, well, well. My, my, my. Lookie who we have here. Jennifer, the maid from the castle.” Something about the italicizey way she’d said ‘Jennifer’ made Julianna certain that they knew who she really was.
It must have been that moron Galt from the Dawdling Donkey. He must have told them.
“Jennifer,” Luann said unpleasantly, “You’ll never guess the rumors that are flying around about you!”
“Do tell,” Julianna said nervously, trying to plot out her next move. The last time she’d been there, there had been four people. The two goons, Luann, and Hector. If they were all on the job tonight as well (which was likely since there was no such thing as a day off in Fritillary) then Warren using the potion now would only take care of half of their problem. The other half might well be out in the other room.
Luann continued, “Well, Galt told us that he saw you running up to the castle gates and yelling to the guards that you were the Princess!”
“Why, fancy that!” she said tensely. “Of all the darndest things! I do declare!”
“My thoughts exactly,” Luann sneered. “Hector!”
“What?”
“Come on in here!”
Julianna took a calming breath. If Hector was coming into the room, then that was 75% of their adversaries, leaving just one goon to go. Also, as she recalled, Hector had seemed a lot nicer than Luann. Maybe he would talk her into letting Julianna go, and then they wouldn’t have to use their last bit of potion.
Hector walked in and halted in his tracks upon seeing what all the hubbub was about. “No way!” he breathed, then smiled at Luann. “We are going to make a fortune!”
Julianna frowned. So much for Hector talking some sense into Luann.
“Let’s take her to Headquarters. Fast,” he said. “If castle guards aren’t searching for her yet, they will be soon.”
The goon started pulling her toward the door. Okay, so there was no chance of waiting until all four smugglers were in the same room. It was now or never. Julianna turned, and was about to yell for Warren, but then she saw that he was already leaping out of the tunnel with the potion at the ready.
They locked eyes and took deep breaths.
Warren took his thumb off the vial, and smoke began to pour out the top of it. He rolled the vial across the floor toward Julianna. She felt the hand holding her arm loosen, and turned in time to see the goon, Luann, and Hector all collapse simultaneously to the floor like so many sacks of potatoes.
Warren and Julianna scampered out of the room and shut the door behind them.
“What are you two doing?” said a deep, goonish voice.
They spun around, still holding their breaths. But if the goon who stood before them had not passed out, then that must mean the fumes were not in this room, or at least not in great enough levels. They began to breathe again.
They had no idea what to say, though.
Julianna saw in the goon’s eyes that he was beginning to recognize her. Puzzle pieces were falling into place in his head.
“Just run!” Dexter said.
Julianna darted to the left, Warren followed her lead and darted to the right.
But of course, that didn’t work.
The goon just reached out and grabbed each of them by an arm. “Hold it. What’s going on?” he asked.
“You’d better go in there!” Warren gasped, jerking his head toward the door they’d just slammed shut. “I think they might need some help.”
“Yeah right, like I’m going to go into a room that you two just scurried out of like the Hounds of Hell27 were nipping at your heels. I have brains as well as brawn, for your information. Now what in tarnation are you two doing here?”
Julianna sighed. They were wasting valuable time. “OK. Look, will you let us go if we give you some money?” Julianna asked, thinking back to when she’d first seen him and the other thug playing cards; they’d shown no interest in the pendant she’d brought for Luann and Hector, leading her to believe that they must be by-the-hour employees who were probably not paid too well.
The guy paused and pondered. “You know, I know who you are. How about I just kidnap you and ask your parents for some ransom instead?”
Julianna tried not to panic. “No, my way is better. You won’t get as much from me as you would from my parents, that’s for sure, but even what I could give you is more than you could otherwise make in your lifetime.”
The thug looked at her squintily, far from convinced.
“And most importantly, you wouldn’t have to steal it from me or bribe me in order to get it; it would be yours fair and square, and thus no one from my family would send soldiers searching for you. You could just take it. Then you go your way, we go our way, and you won’t have to live your life looking over your shoulder. Whatcha think?”
The goon thought hard. You could tell because his eyebrows were all scrunched up and he was scratching his chin. “And if I just take this money from you, and then kidnap you and thus still get all that money from
your parents?”
“Then you would anger my parents, and they would use all their resources and their bottomless pit of money to track you down. It might not be today or tomorrow, but eventually they’d find you. Take what I’m offering you, and you can live a peaceful life; steal from me and kidnap me, and you’ll always be looking over your shoulder, and you will be caught, eventually.”
The guy pondered for a bit more. “How much you got?”
Warren rummaged about in Corrine’s bag, and found the coin purse. He handed it over to Julianna. She opened it up, took a handful of coins out, and plopped them into the guy’s hand.
His eyes widened in shock at the weight of it alone; when he took a moment to calculate, he stumbled as though his legs had nearly lost their ability to hold him up. “Whoa!” he breathed. “And you’ll really just let me take this if I let you go?”
Julianna nodded energetically.
“A life of peace does appeal, you know. I’ve been in the thug business for so long I hardly know anything else, but there was a time I dreamed of being a writer…” he said dreamily.
“Ooh!” Julianna said. “What kind of stuff would you write?”
“True crime. The experts say to write what you know, after all, and I come from a long line of criminals. I’ve always dreamed of something more, but it’s the cycle of poverty, you know. Parents poor and uneducated, kids don’t know anything different, it takes an awful lot of luck and resourcefulness to—”
“I hate to interrupt,” Warren said. “But we are in a big hurry. We need to get out of the city before the King and Queen realize we’re gone.”
“Which direction you headed?” the thug asked.
“North,” Julianna said.
The guy was silent for a moment, thinking something through. “Need a lift?” he finally asked.
“What?” Warren asked in disbelief.
“My mom lives northwest of the city,” the goon explained. “If I take this money and run, Luann and Hector and all their friends will be on the lookout for me in the city. So I really should head to the country. And it’s been ages since I’ve visited my mom, so that’s where I’d go. Since we’re both heading the same general direction, and since I owe you one for changing my life, how about you hitch a ride on my wagon?”
How to Break an Evil Curse Page 26