“Who are you?” demanded the woman who was standing closest to us. She was wearing a floaty dress like the other women, but that didn’t make her look any less menacing. She smelled just like a claus, so I guessed that she was a krampus, and from the way she was standing, I had no doubt she’d been trained to fight.
“We need to speak with the queen,” Jack said. He was looking past the woman who had spoken and eyeing the girl in the middle of the protective circle.
The woman closest to us stepped forward to stand at the front of the group. She glanced nervously around the cavern as if she was worried we’d be overheard. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she replied.
Jack’s eyes darted to look at the woman, a flicker of doubt crossing his gaze. “I’m talking about the queen standing right behind you,” he said, pointing toward the girl.
The krampus’s hand whipped out, and she took hold of Jack’s wrist. “Watch where you point that thing,” she growled. “And the girl is hardly a queen.”
“Look, I don’t know why you’re trying to hide it,” Jack said. “I can see this is the queen, and we need to talk with her about something extremely urgent. Queen Ciana of the Northern Realm has sent us. She said to tell you that dire times are upon us and we need to talk.”
The krampus stared Jack down like her look alone could harm him. Jack barely flinched under her hard gaze though, and his focus had returned to the girl they protected.
“It’s fine, Lima,” a soft voice said from behind the krampus, who still gripped Jack’s wrist. “I’ll talk with them.”
The krampus let go of Jack and glanced over her shoulder. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Hera.”
“I can decide that for myself, Lima, and I know we can trust them,” came her reply. A small hand appeared on Lima’s shoulder, pushing her aside, and the young queen stood before us. There was concern and confusion in her eyes as she looked at us. “What is so urgent that the queen of the Northern Realm would send you here?”
Dash stepped forward and the krampus guards around Hera tensed. “We should probably speak about it in private,” he said. “But I can promise you it’s important.”
The girl looked at each of us closely, like she was judging our trustworthiness in one glance. We must have passed the test, because she finally nodded. “Come this way and we can talk,” she said.
We followed Hera across the cavern. She wove between groups of people with ease while the women who appeared to be guarding her followed closely. We brought up the rear, and I was trying to figure out why the women had pretended the girl wasn’t the queen and why they had seemed so nervous about it being suggested in a crowd. It seemed like the commoners didn’t realize who the girl truly was, but I couldn’t understand why that would be.
Hera led us down a tunnel, guarded by two dark elves dressed in black, that led away from the main cavern. From there, we followed her up a long series of stone stairs that wound continually upward. I was already exhausted, and it wasn’t long before I started to lag behind on the staircase.
We eventually reached the top of the stairs and entered a dimly lit chamber. It was furnished with elaborate chairs, beautiful wooden tables, and a plush rug that covered most of the cold stone floor. Large paintings of battle scenes were dotted around the room, and there was a huge tapestry that took up the better part of one of the rock walls. Across the far side of the room was a large opening that looked out into the storm. We must have been high up because I couldn’t make out the town below from where we stood.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve seen light beings in our city,” Hera said, drawing my attention back to her. She didn’t seem nearly as bothered by the fact as I thought she would be. We were meant to be her enemy, and yet I didn’t feel like Hera hated us.
“Why aren’t you more concerned?” I asked.
“Because I knew the day was coming when our people would have to work together,” she said.
The furrow in my brow deepened. Hera seemed almost aware of the circumstances we were in, and I wondered just how much she knew.
“So, why did you deny that you are the queen?” Dash asked.
“Because I’m not,” Hera replied. “That title belongs to my mother, though it has been a long time since it has been used to refer to anyone in my family.”
Dash took a step forward, his eyes filled with curiosity. “What are you talking about?”
“Generations ago, the women in our family were the queens of the Southern Realm. But one of my ancestors became the target of a group of dark beings who spent years trying to capture her. The attempts never stopped and only grew more dangerous as time went by. Our lineage was far too important, so it was decided in secret that the reigning queen would fake her death and go into hiding so that we would be safe.”
“If that’s the case, why are you here now?” Dash asked. “Who rules the Southern Realm instead?”
“They crowned one of our cousins and his descendants have ruled in our stead for hundreds of years. Since then, the queens have lived in the forest as normal krampuses. It worked for a long time, and the women in my family were safe for hundreds of years. We began to believe the dark beings that were after us had died out. But we were wrong. A few years back, my mother was nearly kidnapped by them. She barely escaped with her life, and it was clear we were no longer safe in hiding. We had to return to the castle for protection.”
“Surely that makes you a target?” Dash said. “You look just like the Northern Realm queen, and you have guards.”
Hera shook her head though. “Few creatures know of the similarities,” she replied. “I am known as the king’s niece to everyone in the South Pole, so I always have my ladies with me. No one knows that they are fierce warriors sworn to protect me. I have been safely hiding in plain sight for many years now.”
Dash folded his arms over his chest, still appearing uncertain about Hera’s story. “Why are these dark beings after you and your ancestors?”
“Because the queens have passed down some very important information from generation to generation, and this group are desperate to obtain the secret we keep.”
I took a deep breath in before I addressed the girl. “It’s the location of the Christmas star, isn’t it?”
She nodded. “Yes. At least, it’s part of the location. The dark queens have passed the knowledge down through many generations, and now the time has come when that knowledge is vital. Two of the stars have already been destroyed, and I know that Belsnickel is free of his prison. We do not have long until he tries to use his control over us dark beings once more.”
“That’s why we’re here,” Dash said. “We want to stop him from getting the final star.”
“So, do you have the information that will help us find it?” Jack asked.
“No.” Hera shook her head. “My mother does.”
As she spoke the words, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. The corner of the huge floor-to-ceiling tapestry pulled back to reveal the opening to another room. An older woman stepped into view, allowing the tapestry to fall back into place behind her. She looked just like Hera and Queen Ciana, but there was gray in her hair and a few wrinkles touching her beautiful face. She had to be the dark queen.
“The question is, why should I share it with you?” the queen asked.
I glanced at Dash and Jack who both seemed to be trying to come up with the right words to explain. I stepped forward though when neither of them answered.
“You should share it because we are going to find the final star and make certain Belsnickel never gets a hold of it,” I said. “We don’t want the war that’s coming, so we intend to preserve the Christmas curse. But, we need to find the star before Belsnickel does.”
The queen’s jaw twitched at my words, and her eyes were calculating, as she looked me up and down. She seemed hesitant, but I didn’t know what else I could say to convince her to give us the information we needed.
“
They told me the secret phrase from the light queen, mother,” Hera said. “They’re here on her behalf, we can trust them.”
The queen looked at her daughter for a brief moment before she finally nodded and faced us once again. “Fine. I will tell you what I know about the star’s location, but I will only do so if one of you three will grant me a favor.”
“None of us are going to agree to that,” Dash growled. I certainly wasn’t going to after all the trouble my favor with Belsnickel had caused.
The queen held up one hand though. “I will tell you now what the favor will be, and it is only to ensure you are going to follow through on what you have told me once I have given you the information you need. I will ask that you do everything in your power to stop Belsnickel from destroying the final Christmas star. Nothing more and nothing less.”
We needed the queen’s cooperation, and she seemed set on getting a favor in return for her help. I wasn’t sure there was room for negotiation. Her request seemed reasonable enough, but there was no way of knowing if we could trust her. She could easily be lying and might ask something else of whoever granted her a favor.
“Fine, I’ll do it,” Dash said.
“Dash…” I murmured, causing his eyes to flick in my direction. “Don’t…”
He shook his head though. “One of us has to, and I won’t have you owing any more favors.”
“Jack could do it,” I replied.
But Dash shook his head again. “Jack’s powers are far stronger than mine, and I don’t think it’s a good idea that anyone hold sway over his magic given the destruction he can cause with it.”
“Plus, Jack isn’t volunteering,” Jack added, crossing his arms over his chest.
Dash took a step closer to the queen. “Like I said, I’ll do it.”
The queen nodded and walked over to a table in the corner of the room. She opened the top drawer and pulled out a favor coin. The golden coin glinted dully in the dim light of the room. There was no mistaking it for what it was though, and I could smell the hint of pine on the coin as she walked back over to us.
The queen summoned a needle once she was standing in front of Dash, and it appeared in a swirl of deep red magic. Dash calmly lifted a hand, and the queen pricked the end of his finger before allowing the blood to drip onto the coin. Dark magic crackled around the coin, and as the power disappeared, the queen began to speak.
“The favor I require is that you do all in your power to stop the final Christmas star from being destroyed,” the queen said. She lifted her hand up into the air as the favor coin began to dissolve into golden magic. It drifted through the air before binding itself around Dash’s wrist in a glittering golden tattoo.
Dash scowled down at the tattoo and rubbed the mark before lifting his eyes to the queen once more. “Now, the star’s location.”
The queen’s eyes grew even more serious as she began to peel back the sleeve on her arm. “In our family, when the eldest queen dies a tattoo appears on the next in line. The tattoo shows one part of the star’s location.”
As she revealed the pale skin of her arm, I saw a black tattoo etched across the inside of her forearm: 68°25'38.6"N. I immediately summoned a pen and wrote the number down on the back of my hand.
“That looks like coordinates,” Dash said.
The dark queen nodded. “Yes, and I suspect the queen of the Northern Realm has the other half of them.”
I was shaking my head though. “Surely, the light queen would have told us if she had a tattoo with coordinates on it?”
“Maybe she didn’t realize what it was?” Jack suggested.
“Perhaps,” I agreed though I had my doubts.
“Well, we now know what we’re looking for, and there’s only one way to find out if the light queen has the coordinates for sure,” Dash said. “Thank you for your help. We had better return to our realm.”
The old queen nodded, her eyes serious as she looked over us. “Don’t forget your favor to me,” she said, as her eyes settled on Dash.
He looked down at the glowing favor tattoo now banded around his wrist. “I won’t,” he replied.
He wasn’t the only one who wouldn’t forget, and I felt as though Dash’s favor was also my own. I’d help him fulfill it no matter what, but first, we had another queen to deal with.
Chapter Eight
Hera led us from the chamber and back down the winding staircase to the large cavern below. She was still surrounded by her companions, but she didn’t pay them any notice as we walked.
“I want to come with you,” she said. Her eyes were hopeful, and she seemed so young and impressionable. I couldn’t have been much older than she was, but she seemed far more innocent and naive than I was.
Dash shook his head at the future queen. “You’re too important and may be needed here,” he told her. “You don’t need to worry about us; I have granted a favor ensuring I will do my best.” He nodded at the golden tattoo that circled his wrist.
She sighed sadly and nodded. “I know you all will,” she said. “I just want to be of help.”
“We need to get to the light queen as quickly as possible,” I told her. “You could help us by showing us the closest sleigh point.”
Hera’s face brightened at the prospect. “I can do that,” she said. “It’s not far.”
“But it’s beyond the castle,” one of Hera’s guards cautioned.
“You’ve never had a problem with me leaving the castle with you before, Lima.”
“Things are clearly changing though,” Lima said, her eyes darting in our direction.
“Well, until you receive orders from my mother that are different, I’ll be showing our guests to the sleigh point.” The girl’s expression had hardened, and her voice was filled with authority. Lima nodded, stepping back in line with the other women who stood guard.
Hera squared her shoulders as she turned to face the rest of us once more. “The sleigh point is in the city,” she said. “It won’t take us long to reach it.”
“We appreciate you taking us there,” Dash replied before we set off.
Jack had been awfully quiet since we left the queen’s chambers, and his eyes were distant, as though he were deep in thought. I much preferred it when the frost was joking around. Seeing him looking so concerned made me feel like we were really in trouble.
“What’s up?” I asked, falling into step beside Jack.
“I’m just trying to figure out why Ciana didn’t mention the tattoo,” he replied. “I don’t like it.”
“Do you think the queen purposefully kept it from us?”
“Perhaps,” Jack said with a shrug. “I guess we’ll find out for sure when we get back.”
I frowned as I thought his comment over. If Ciana had lied to us, then she had sent us to the Southern Realm without vital information we needed. It made me wary of returning to the Northern Realm. If Ciana was keeping her tattoo a secret, that meant she didn’t want the Christmas star to be found. At least not by us.
Hera cut easily through the crowds of the busy cavern, and we followed her as she led us through the entrance tunnel and out onto the city streets. It was still snowing outside, and I had no idea how Hera managed to walk around in bare feet with such a flimsy dress on. She didn’t seem at all bothered by the fact she was walking on ice. I seemed to be the only one affected by the cold though, as everyone around me appeared at ease despite the frigid temperatures. I wondered if it was because I’d spent too much time in the human world these last years.
Instead of taking us down the main street, Hera led us to a narrow alley that curved its way around the edge of the castle’s rocky walls. We followed the alley until it eventually reached a dead end, and Hera stopped just before the solid wall that barred her way.
“The sleigh point is here,” she said, waving at the wall before turning back to face us. Her expression was lit up in a serene smile as she looked at us. “I hope you are able to get the other part of the star’s coordinat
es.”
“Thank you for your help,” I said. “We would have really struggled without it.”
She smiled at me and nodded. “Well, good luck,” she said before she started back down the alley with her krampus companions at her side.
I watched Hera leave before I focused on the sleigh point once more, and the soft scent of peppermint magic filled my senses. The sleigh point we were looking at had nothing of the grandeur of the sleigh point in the central square in the North Pole, but at least it was nice and close to the castle.
Thoughts of the sleigh point in the North Pole made me shudder, and I turned to the others as I considered the current state of our next destination. “Are we really going to battle our way out of the sleigh point in the North Pole again?”
“We don’t have much choice,” Dash replied. “The next closest sleigh point to the North Pole is in the wilderness, about a five-hour drive from the city. That’s if you’ve got a car.”
“Well, I can summon us a car,” I said, but Dash still didn’t seem sold on the idea.
“There might be another way,” Jack said, his gaze flickering toward me. He was looking at me like I already knew the answer, but I had no idea what he was talking about.
“What other way?”
Jack sighed as though the answer was obvious and he couldn’t believe I was struggling to work it out. “You could create a sleigh point within the castle walls.”
I spluttered out a laugh. “I hate to break it to you, Jack, but I can’t do that.”
He nodded, his eyes brightening at the idea. “You definitely can. You have the power to create, so it should be easy.”
“What’s he talking about?” Dash asked.
Christmas Curse (Christmas Magic Book 3) Page 7