by Holly Hook
My secret might be safe but this had been too easy. Something was off. The heap on the floor remained still.
I took a step closer as strength flowed back into my limbs. My body was getting used to doing magic. I held the wand up as I crept closer. Alric’s hood was down over his face. He might be peering through the fabric.
“My brother,” a woman said from the other side of the room. “You’ve killed him.”
I turned.
Annie stood there in the archway along with Wesley and Percival. Their shirts shone in the pale light. Annie was paler than ever and her hair was scraggly like she had spent a lot of time crawling through thick forests and caves. She looked down at Alric and then back up at me and Mara, who stood in front of everyone else. The air in the room got colder as if her presence were sucking the life out of it. Annie took a bold step into the room and held her hand up to me as if to say wait. She made no motion to attack.
“What are you doing?” I asked. The look on her face wasn’t hatred. It was something different. Amusement, almost. She strode towards Alric, red boots flashing. How the heck had she followed us and known where we were going?
Annie lifted one boot and pushed at Alric. He rolled a bit but flopped back into place. He wasn’t reacting. Either he really was dead or he was just acting.
“He’s gone,” Annie said, looking up and me and Mara. She smiled. It was victorious. “My brother is gone. I never imagined that by following you I would ever see this. Or where he keeps his stash. I'm glad there's a great reward at the end of this journey.”
“You wanted Alric to die?” Candice asked. “But you’re his sister!”
“You do not understand,” Annie said, circling around us, “what it is like to be born to a mother who adores your sibling and marries you off like a burden that needs to be dropped. Alric has been the bane of my existence for my entire life. I have always lived in his shadow. Always."
"So you're jealous," Candice said. "Is that why you've been competing with him?"
I stepped in front of her.
Annie continued. "Don’t get me wrong. I resent you for not letting me have the kill. He took everything from me. He took my glory. He took the love from my mother that I deserved. He even took away my best friend as soon as he knew that I had found someone who treated me like a sister."
Annie circled around us. She was staring at the back of the room.
Princess Kathryn still lay there, encased in glass. Annie put her hand on the box and glared back at where Alric lay. It was like the rest of us had ceased to exist. That was better. If Annie knew who I was, I was going to die a horrible death.
“You were friends?” I asked. The shock in my voice echoed through the chamber. My fears about my mother were being confirmed. She wasn’t unlike the rest of my family after all. I felt like I had come here for nothing, even though I had expected this in the back of my mind. But I had held onto a crazy hope that nothing like this would be true.
“It doesn’t seem like we would be,” Annie said. “Magic users have to stick together. Kathryn and I met at a secret gathering of magicians. We both knew the struggles of growing up in a family where we’re dwarfed. Alric dedicated his existence to making sure I could never be happy, that I would become as dark as him. Kathryn’s brother, Prince Peter, did the same to her. It was clear that their mother, Queen Nori, loved him more. Our brothers were the stars of their families and Kathryn and I were left with the scraps. We had magic that society didn’t want. I suppose it was inevitable that we got along, even though we had two very different forms of magic. But then Alric found out about our friendship. He came into the Star Kingdom. He seduced Kathryn and killed her brother. Being good hearted, it devastated her.”
Good hearted. Annie spoke it like that was some kind of weakness.
“I didn’t know where he had imprisoned her until now,” Annie said. “My life has turned me dark and bitter. It’s become about revenge against Alric and becoming more than he could ever be. I’ll admit that. You’ve taken my revenge from me and I will not forgive you for that, but I thank you for bringing me back to my friend. I imagine you have my flower, don’t you? I know where it is at all times.”
Candice balked.
The red flower. She still had it in her pocket. She couldn’t have thrown it away, not if Annie was able to follow us to this point.
“They must,” Wesley said. “The princess must. I saw her tucking it into her pocket after you fell in the water.”
Annie whirled on Candice. “I’ll take that back, please. You don’t know what it’s capable of.”
Candice backed away and I moved to stand in front of her. “Leave her alone,” I demanded.
Annie looked between me and Mara. “Which one of you killed Alric? That would require a lot of power only someone like me would have.”
The air got thick and Annie studied me and Mara very closely. Mara glanced at me, confused.
And Annie’s gaze shifted to me.
“You look familiar,” she said at last. “And not in a good way. Tell me. Who are you, exactly?”
My throat locked up.
This was the ultimate time my secret could not get out.
“Who are you?” Annie stepped away from the glass box. She was apparently in no hurry to free her friend. I had to be dealt with first. “Why are you here? Is this woman someone special to you?”
I muttered a curse under my breath. Candice shot me a knowing glance.
Annie knew the truth. It was that obvious. The magic. My looks. Maybe even my voice, though I had never heard it from outside of my body.
Annie held up her hand.
Candice shot off her feet and flew towards her. She screamed as Annie seized her arm and wrenched it behind her back. Candice stood in front of Annie like a human shield and sucked in a breath, her hair hanging in her face. Ice filled the air. My girlfriend didn’t struggle. Annie was freezing her, making her stay in place.
“I can kill her,” Annie said. “Now, tell me who you are and why you came here. I’m sure your friends here would be entertained by your answer.” She sounded so much like Alric that I wanted to throw up. She had Candice. Annie could destroy her at any second. I had the feeling she had done this to someone before.
I trembled. Magic was useless here. Only one thing could give her the chance of surviving. It was me or her.
It was going to be me, then. Candice was the only person I had ever met who cared about me, who could see beyond my past.
In one big gulp, I swallowed my pride.
“I’m Shorty,” I said. “Son of Alric and Princess Kathryn.”
Chapter Sixteen
It was out. The whole thing was out and blown. A shocked silence filled the chamber as Henry and Rae snapped their gazes to me. Rae dropped her hair. Even Mara studied me in flabbergasted silence.
I had nothing to hide anymore.
“I knew it,” Annie said. “I knew you had that wand for a reason. Alric kept you hidden from me, didn’t he? He was afraid I would take you away the way he took away my best friend. I bet that’s it.”
“Alric doesn’t care about me,” I said. “What gave you that idea? He doesn’t care about anyone. I doubt he even cares about his own mother.”
“We traveled here with you,” Henry said to me. I couldn’t tell what he was feeling. “We traveled with you this whole time and you never told us who you were!"
Candice tried to open her mouth but I could tell she was having a hard time of it.
And to my shock, Annie let her go. Candice toppled forward and landed on a jar, sending it rolling away. At the same time, the cold sharpness spread through the room from behind me, building like the world’s fastest storm. Annie went flying back and off her feet, flying over Princess Kathryn’s prison and hitting the wall with a thud and a crack. She fell to the floor and remained there in the dark.
I turned.
Alric was standing. Alive. Well. He had been faking the entire time. He kept his hood
lowered over his face so that only his clean beard was visible. I vowed I would shave every day for the rest of my life.
“I wasn’t expecting to see my sister here,” Alric said. “Quite a pleasant surprise, actually. I haven’t seen her in years. I thought I had killed her spirit enough to keep her away forever.”
Rage pumped through me. My right arm thrummed with a mixture of warmth and cold. Magic was waking and now it had no barrier. “You’re disgusting,” I said. “I can’t believe I came from you. How did that even work?”
Prince Wesley took a sheepish step into the room as Candice got to her feet. She was unhurt and freed from Annie’s spell. “Excuse me, sir.”
Alric faced him. “Yes?”
“May I have my princess?” Wesley asked. “I came all the way here for her. I’m sure you won’t mind.” Behind him, Percival shifted. “I have plans for her. I’m going to sweep her off her feet and she will be my bride. I would like to get her back to the Dark Lake Kingdom. We have a busy night ahead.”
“You mean Shorty’s special friend?” Alric asked. “Sure. You can have her. It’ll teach my son a lesson.”
Wesley strode into the room while Alric watched. I knew he was smiling. Breaking people was what he did best. His cold energy wrapped around me, threatening to freeze my limbs and hold me there so I could watch, but I was too far gone. Candice screamed and backed away. I wasn’t going to let him do this. Wesley reached out for her and I fought Alric’s magic with all my might. I lifted the wand at Wesley and shouted the first thing that came to mind.
“Hirsch!”
Wesley froze, that stupid grin still on his face.
My arm was on fire as power spread through it. Wesley’s shape changed so fast that I barely caught the transition. His nose lengthened and antlers burst from his head and on the other side of a blink, a stag stood there, tall and menacing. Its black eyes glared at me, then Alric.
Alric backpedaled as his cold power broke.
He was freaked. My body shook from the lack of energy but I still had just enough strength to utter one more spell. I lifted the wand and shouted the word to make him fall back. He rose off his feet and struck the wall like Annie had, falling to the brick and knocking over two more jars. Another cracked.
“No,” he uttered. “I destroyed the story. You can’t kill me.”
My knees threatened to go out but I kept my footing. There was no time to eat now. The stag stood next to me, totally confused. Wesley hadn’t come to grips with the situation yet. “You destroyed one copy of it in this world,” I said, drawing closer to him. This next spell might kill me, but so be it. The story had to end the way it needed to. I lifted the wand and willed every last bit of my energy into my right arm. It tingled and cramped with the amount flowing through it.
I shouted what might be the last spell of my life.
"Steir!"
The energy flowed out of me and my legs collapsed as the magic rushed out to hit the stunned Alric. He couldn't resist it. His shape expanded and grew to take up what seemed to be half the wall. He was getting larger than the stag. I went down on my hands as a horrible grunt sounded through the air. Candice yelled at me. Wesley the stag backed away. My eyelids drooped.
If I didn't move, I would die.
With all my strength, I looked up.
Alric the bull stared straight at me. He'd forgotten about the stag and he was at home in the form he loved to use. Now it was all me.
He took one front foot and scraped it against the brick.
"Shorty!" Candice yelled. "Get up!" She beat on my back but I was numb.
My arm quivered and I fell all the way to the floor.
I was dead. My heart raced like it was struggling to pump blood. There was nothing left in me.
"Run," I managed. "Just run."
And I closed my eyes.
Hooves pounded brick. Glass shattered.
He was charging me.
This was it.
But then a collision made the floor shake.
I opened my eye. Candice's shoe stood in my vision. She was standing in front of me.
And on the other side of her, the bull and the stag fought. Hooves hit jars. Vapor spiraled free.
The stag pushed forward, antlers locked with horns. Cold filled the air. Annie stood behind the stag, pointing at it as if she were controlling it. Her dress swished in the breeze given off by the fight. Annie grimaced and held an old, tattered leather book in her other hand. The original stories of Fable. The Old Language. The book glowed a faint white like it was giving her the strength to force Wesley to fight. There was something in her eyes, something fierce and angry.
"Stop doing this, Alric," Annie said. "You made me dark. You will not make others dark as well."
She faced me with a mixture of admiration and hatred and tossed me the book.
It slid across the floor between two jars and touched my arm.
It tingled with a mixture of warmth and cold, of nervousness and peace, as it touched my skin. All magic was within these pages. It flowed into me, putting strength back into my arm, my torso, my legs, my other arm. I pushed myself off the floor, a world away from exhaustion, and seized the wand I had dropped. The stag and the bull continued to fight and the bull pushed the stag against the wall. Blood droplets flew. Alric was winning and beating Wesley to a pulp.
The killing spell hadn't worked on Alric before.
But with his gold diminishing this second and with this stag here...
I raised the wand one final time. Alric shoved the stag further into the wall and a grunt of agony followed. Blood squirted and the smell of iron filled the room as Alric gored the stag in the shoulder with one horn.
I shouted the killing word.
And this time, more power than ever flowed through me, exploding in light and dark and everything else behind my eyelids.
Silence fell as the spell struck the bull. He staggered back, panting and making a horrible sound that would haunt me forever.
The stag pulled away from the wall.
Wesley rammed right into the bull-Alric with an even more horrible sound. A noise like squishing mud and cracking ribs echoed off the walls as the stag’s antlers impaled the bull’s chest.
Annie dropped her hand.
I dropped the wand.
Alric continued to pant and staggered back as the stag backed away, dripping blood from its antlers.
He fell.
And bled.
And bled.
And didn’t move any more.
Silence settled over the room and the bull lay there, taking labored breath after labored breath. He tried to get up, only to fall down again. A wheezing sound replaced the panting and a cold energy swept through the room, then died again. Alric was trying to use magic. It was dying right along with him.
I felt numb.
Out of control, like I was watching a movie that I had no connection to.
There was no way to tell if I or Wesley had dealt the real killing blow.
The bull took one more breath.
And went still.
All the cold vanished from the air, dropping away as if into the center of the world. Warmth returned and a heaviness filled the air instead, one that I hadn’t felt before.
I dropped the book, too. It thudded to the brick, barely missing another jar.
“Shorty,” Candice said. “Turn around and don’t look at this.”
My mind scrambled for anything but the obvious. “We need to turn Wesley back.”
“Him?” Annie asked. “Let him be a stag for a while. He was quite useful.” She smiled at me. It was devious. Annie had been the true one fighting Alric, not Wesley. Behind her, the stag looked down at its hooves and back up again in panic. “He sure wasn’t useful as a prince.”
I tensed, but Annie made no move to attack me.
Alric was--
I picked up the wand and stuffed it into my pocket but Annie didn’t seem to care about that. “Free Kathryn,” she said,
“And leave me here. I’ll deal with the mess. Oh, and I would like my flower back. Changing forms is much easier when I have it.”
She wasn’t going to kill us.
At least, it didn’t look like she was.
“You don’t want to free her?” I asked. relieved and nervous at the same time.
My mother was liberated now. We just had to break the glass.
“Kathryn won’t like what I’ve become,” Annie said. “It’s best if she does not see me for a while. When you free her, you will be back in the Tree Kingdom. So will all these peasants.” She eyed the jars. “That mess is not mine to clean.”
“Our princesses!” Percival yelled. “My brother. You promised us our princesses.”
Annie grinned at him. “You did not capture the party I wanted you to. You didn’t fulfill your promise, either. I’ll turn your brother back when I feel like it. He was annoying.” Then she glared at me. “Go and free Kathryn before I change my mind about letting you live.”
“I’m your best friend’s son,” I pointed out. “She wouldn’t like that.”
“Now,” Annie ordered. “My flower. I will be headed into the wilds to live in peace for a while. Oh, and keep the wand. I got more than I bargained for when I decided to follow you.”
Candice hesitated and faced me.
I nodded to her. It was better than staring at the large, dark lump on the other side of the chamber.
Candice got out the red flower and handed it to Annie. She snatched it back. It was better that we didn’t have it in case she ever wanted to track us down again.
I hoped this meant safety for Ignacia and Mica, too.
Annie turned away and walked towards the bull’s body, twirling the flower between her fingers. I didn’t know how she planned on cleaning up this mess but I didn’t want to stick around for it. She vanished into the shadows and waited. I knew she was staring at us and I turned away.
She had saved my life.
To serve her purpose, but she had saved my life.
It was easy to turn my back on her. Annie was the last thing I had of my father and even that was too much. I might have killed him. Wesley might have, too.
We'd gotten a prince stag like we needed after all.