Botilda turned around. “Do you really have that much influence?”
“Not me, but Queen Cendrilla’s my fairy godmother. I’m not sure if she can fix things for them, but she can certainly ask a fairy doctor to take a look at your sisters.”
“Thank you!” Tears streamed down Botilda’s cheeks. “And I’m sorry for all that business with getting Evolene imprisoned then trying to abduct you.”
I shrugged. “It’s understandable.”
“Thank you, Princess Alba,” said King Magnar.
I gave him a tight smile and walked back to Evolene with the vial.
She shook her head. “You should keep that with you, just in case.”
“Right.” I slipped it into the pocket of my flying jacket. “Four spriggans down, three to go. With the sarcophagus now safely stashed away, we’ve got time for a meal. Then we can approach the palace from a different angle and try not to get caught in their foul magic.”
Chapter 14
With the Forgotten King safely hidden in a volcano deep within the Wretched Sea, we all took a break to let the Panacea remove all traces of the ant’s poison. Astri, Botilda, and King Magnar sat in front of the dollhouse, giving their four youngest sisters tiny portions from their plates, while Fyrian and a trembling Byrrus lay in the middle of the newly cleaned courtyard. No other spriggans came to disturb our peace, which meant that either Astri had killed all the creatures in the vicinity, or that Oleander had been bluffing about the palace being surrounded by spriggans.
Under the verandah, Evolene, Gladius, and I sat around a table, eating from a large platter of rainbow-colored sailfish surrounded by roasted vegetables. I took a swig of sparkling aqua vitae and let out a long, satisfied breath. “We should return to Mount Fornax to get reinforcements to storm the palace.”
“I disagree,” said Gladius. “Depleting the mountain’s defenses will make the dragons more vulnerable. Just look at what one ogre and an invisibility cloak could achieve.”
Evolene ducked her head, presumably to hide her discomfort at having created Asproceros’ leave-no-trace cloaks. “B-but some of the cadets are very capable. Stafford—”
“Their talents and capabilities need to be available in case the spriggans attack Mount Fornax,” said Gladius.
I bit into a lemony piece of grilled sailfish. “You could be right. All we have to do is blow the foghorn. One person can do that with the others watching his or her back.”
“Then why aren’t we going now?” asked Evolene.
I rolled my stiff shoulders. “We all need to be battle-ready in case there’s an ambush or another set of traps like those ants. Fyrian needs a bit of rest, and I could use a nap.”
“And I have been exhausting my energies transporting everyone,” said Gladius. “Something about that trap drained my magic. I cannot say why.”
“Sorry.” Evolene bit her lip. “I didn’t know the dreams affected you that much.”
I shrugged. “We only woke up less than an hour ago from our combined dream.”
Her eyes widened. “Yours and Fyrian’s?”
“And mine,” said Gladius.
She dropped her fork on her porcelain plate with a clink. “Isn’t that dangerous?”
“There isn’t much I can do about Fyrian. Our bond is well-established.” I turned to the wild dragon. “But why are you still in our heads?”
He grunted and helped himself to a large slab of fish and vegetables. My brows rose. Whatever he was about to say would probably reveal a weakness in our bond. Perhaps something had gone wrong during the meditation exercise we had performed in Fyrian’s stall, and I’d left a gaping hole that could be exploited. I sent Fyrian a furtive glance. Maybe falling through the moon had turned me into the silver dragon in that dreamscape.
After a sigh, Gladius spoke. “I tried to withdraw after awakening from that dream, but my powers are depleted.”
My brows drew together. “Is there anything we can do to help?”
Gladius shook his head. “I doubt that—”
“Oh,” cried Evolene. “What if we get Master Jesper to build you an avatar that he can fill with frozen flames?”
The wild dragon leaned forward. “Avatar?”
We explained how Master Jesper had taken a snowman squash and filled it with ambient magic so it could take Evolene’s place when we broke her out of the Magical Militia prison. Astri ducked her head, likely because the plan had failed so spectacularly, and because the girl she had nearly gotten killed was now King Magnar’s ward. After Evolene finished her explanation, I described how I had powered up the Lightning Rod by sticking it into the frozen flames of a silver dragon, which absorbed ambient magic to be used to power a lot of functions around Mount Fornax.
Gladius nodded. “Can you contact the troll and ask him to prepare an avatar for a dragon?”
Evolene pulled out the pocket mirror and got into contact with Master Jesper, who said the task would take about twelve hours.
I rubbed the back of my neck. “Fyri, did you notice any change in your power levels after that dream?”
“Apart from feeling a bit wretched, not really,” she replied.
“Don’t you think it’s odd that Gladius was affected so badly?”
She raised her head from where she lounged next to Byrrus in the sun-drenched, marble courtyard. “What are you saying? Do you think someone stole his magic?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time.”
Gladius stopped eating and said out loud, “I would have noticed something.”
“But they put you underwater and stuck gold armor on your skin. Maybe they wanted to distract you long enough to extract your power.”
His face twisted. “To what end?”
I gulped and stared down at my plate of fish and roasted vegetables. “The spriggan stole twelve pearls from the fin-men. What if the power of the blessing wasn’t enough to fill them?”
He shook his head. “It no longer matters. They will never find that sarcophagus.”
“True,” I replied. “I’m probably just worrying about nothing.”
Later, Gladius flew around the sea to hunt with Fyrian and Byrrus, and I lounged on a chaise with my eyes closed. All we needed to do next was blow the foghorn over the palace and wherever else the spriggans had hidden themselves. But why did I think we had missed something important?
“You’re worrying again,” said Fyrian. “I can tell.”
“Forgetting something, I think.”
“Princess Alba?” said King Magnar. “May I fetch you more refreshment?”
I gave him a half-smile. “No thanks. But you can answer some questions.”
He rushed to a nearby sofa, picked up a stool, placed it next to my chaise, and sat too close. “I’m at your disposal, Princess Alba.”
My insides cringed. I preferred his overbearing demands and heavy-handed attempts at marriage to this new, gentlemanly approach. It almost made me feel bad about rejecting him. Memories of my last night with Niger filled my thoughts. We had sat at a waterfall, and he’d professed his intentions to court me as soon as I became free of the damsel denial. Said enchantment made my heart twinge, but the feel of flying through the air, wrapped in his strong embrace was all I needed to push away any guilt about refusing King Magnar.
I sat up, pressing my spine into the back of the chaise. “The spriggan said he’d marked you. What did that mean?”
“I’m not sure.” He glanced to the other side of the verandah, where Astri and Botilda played with their miniaturized sisters. “Perhaps they put tracking spells on us to ensure we were carrying out their requests.”
I nodded. “It’s awfully convenient that they found us on the mountain and here in the Midas Islands.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You’re about to suggest something I won’t like.”
“The spriggans have definitely marked you and your sisters and can track you when you cross their territory.”
“Yes…” He drew back, expression
blank.
“If we’re going to make a sneak attack on your palace, we need to leave you behind.”
An angry flush colored his face. “You cannot—”
“No, listen.” I reached out and grabbed his hand. “What’s more important, killing the spriggans or ridging through the capital of Savannah in a blaze of glory and winning back your Kingdom?”
His gaze flickered to our joined hands. “The dead spriggans, I suppose.”
“Good.” I pulled away. “Stay here. Astri and Botilda are strong enough to protect you all, and we’ll make sure you have enough vials of poison in case another spriggan returns.”
“And the dragons?” asked King Magnar.
“They’ll stay here and provide backup in case it’s not spriggans who attack.”
“How long will you be away?”
“It’s hard to tell,” I replied. “But I won’t return until they’re either dead, or all is lost.”
King Magnar gave me a sharp nod.
An hour later, Gladius announced himself fit enough to travel. After a long conversation with King Magnar about the capital’s layout, Gladius donned a leave-no-trace invisibility cloak. Evolene and I followed his lead and held onto his arms for the journey to the outskirts of a market square a quarter league away from the palace.
The late afternoon sun shone down on the canvas canopies, making them glow with the thinnest covering of gold. The scent of polished leather, spices, and fresh meat filled the air. It reminded me somewhat of the Capital Market in Steppe, but without the arid air and surrounding drylands. Lush, tree-covered hills filled the landscape, culminating in equally as green forests. I patted the refilled foghorn on my sword belt for reassurance. This time, we would get close to the palace, blow the horn, and disappear before anyone even noticed us.
“King Magnar said it was toward his home.” Gladius gripped our hands and led us down the road leading to the palace.
We walked through the market, passing stalls occupied by all races of people. Well-fed humans mingled with witches, ogres, giants, trolls, and even the occasional imp. I sighed. Something like this was probably the vision Aunt Cendrilla had for Steppe, but it would take years to build up the land and redistribute the wealth. The Savannah capital market contained more variety than anything I’d seen in Steppe, largely because of the easier growing climate, which enabled a wider range of vendors to sell their wares. It was a pity to be here under such tense circumstances, otherwise, I would have loved to have gotten the chance to browse.
“Make way,” shouted a loud voice, “For His Majesty, the King!”
We stopped to let a golden carriage trundle past. Its driver was a short man of about five foot five, wearing a mask around the lower part of his face that exposed huge, baby-blue eyes. I clenched my teeth. Why wasn’t everyone running away at the sight? Had he performed an enchantment to make himself look normal to humans? Although this spriggan wasn’t as old as the one Astri had killed, it was almost the size of an adult and likely impossible to salvage. As the carriage passed, I peered inside. A double of King Magnar, complete with the arrogant, upturned nose, sat in its interior.
“A-an impostor!” whispered Evolene.
Gladius sniffed. “It’s hard to tell if the impostor is a spriggan with the driver stinking so much of foul, fairy magic.”
“Should we blow the horn, now?” asked Evolene.
I shook my head then realized she couldn’t see me. “No. Let’s wait until we’re close to the palace in case there are more of his friends there. That way, we’ll have plenty more poison if we encounter any more.”
We continued down the road until we reached the end of the marketplace and the start of a long, boulevard that led to the palace. Uniformed sentinels stood in intervals of fifty feet at the side of the road in front of trunkless palm trees whose branches spread out like peacock tails. Not all of them were human. Some of the guards had odd, babyish heads on their warrior shoulders, indicating their status as newly made spriggans.
“There are so many,” I whispered. “Do you think they know about us?”
“If the attack in the woods alerted them of our presence, I would say they knew intruders were close by,” replied Gladius.
“Why didn’t they attack us then?” asked Evolene.
“I suppose they relied too heavily on their poisoned ants,” said Gladius. “They probably didn’t expect us to survive.”
I gulped hard. What if they didn’t attack because they already had Gladius and me where they needed us? Vulnerable and easy to drain of magic. It would explain why the wild dragon had felt depleted after his experience in the dreamscape.
“Make way!” shouted another voice from behind. It belonged to the driver of a hearse pulling an intricate, silver sarcophagus encrusted with rubies.
Nausea churned in my stomach, not helped by my thundering heart. I turned to Evolene. “Is that the one you put in the volcano?”
“N-no,” she replied. “That one was painted gold.”
“What if the Queen of the Fairies put all her enemies into sarcophagi and buried them deep in the earth?” I asked.
“Then that could very well be the King Who Must Be Forgotten!” Gladius squeezed our hands. “The time for stealth is over. We must overtake that hearse and reach the palace first!”
He transported us to the palace gates, where I raised the horn to my lips and blew. Mist streamed out of its bell and swirled through the gates as though looking for a victim. Some of the tendrils spread down the road back toward the market, where it wrapped around the necks of some of the guards and made them fall to the ground. I grimaced. If they were only half-transformed, I hoped they would survive the poison and get changed back to human after the reign of spriggans had ended.
The doors to the royal carriage opened. The King Magnar impostor stepped out and glanced around the courtyard of fallen guards. “What is the meaning of this?”
A short man ushered him toward the double doors. “Please step inside, King Calder, we believe there is an assass—”
The spriggan fell onto his back and clutched his neck.
My mouth dropped open. King Calder was alive and well and living in a copy of the youthful body of his son. What kind of bargain had he performed with the spriggans? Behind us, the horses pulling the hearse bolted, making the sarcophagus bump up and down on its open platform.
I turned to Gladius. “If the Forgotten King’s in there, this might be your only chance to destroy his body before he wakes.”
He pulled off his hood, revealing a face covered in sweat. “I am not sure I can produce enough black flames. What if my weakened attempt is exactly what he needs to awaken?”
Evolene also pulled off her hood and pointed her staff at the road, causing it to become bumpy. “That will slow them down.”
“Don’t let your magic touch that sarcophagus,” said Gladius.
The horses slowed and stopped at the palace gates. All the spriggan guards were now puddles on the road, with the human guards standing over them, staring at the peculiar sludge.
I breathed a sigh of relief. We had saved the day just in time. I turned to Gladius. “Let’s take this one to the volcano, where no one will be able to take it out.”
In a flash of light, the fake King Magnar landed on top of the sarcophagus and wrapped his arms around its silver exterior. I lurched forward and reached out to grab the impostor. Then the light flashed again, and he disappeared with what was likely the body of the Forgotten King.
Panic exploded across my chest, and I threw off my hood and yelled, “Captain Comma!”
The two fairies appeared in front of the palace gates, swords drawn. They glanced around, taking in sight of the human guards poking at the sludge with the tips of their swords. “What is it?”
“T-the Forgotten King… Was he in a silver sarcophagus?”
Captain Comma’s lips thinned. “How do you know that?”
“I just saw it.”
“Where?” Sh
e whirled to the empty hearse.
“King Calder threw himself on it, and they both disappeared.”
The fairy swung her sword, stopping it inches from my throat. Gasping, I reared back, only to find the tip of another sword at the back of my throat. Captain Comma bared her perfect teeth. “You mean to tell me you had the Forgotten King and you allowed someone to spirit him away?”
I clenched my teeth, about to spit out a retort about how the entire situation was the fault of lazy fairies when Evolene threw back the hood of her cloak and rushed forward. “S-stop it!”
“Silence, witch!”
She pointed her staff at Captain Comma’s face. “No, you be silent! So far, you’ve done nothing to help us, and now you’re coming at the last minute to punish Alba for something that wasn’t even her fault. Y-you’re disgusting!”
Captain Comma swung her sword at Evolene. “You should learn to respect your betters, girl.”
Evolene’s entire body shook with rage, and angry, red blotches appeared on her face. “She is your better! While you’ve been lounging on clouds, judging everyone, she’s been battling against spriggans. You’ve known about them for ages, but what have you done?”
The fairy’s face twisted into a rictus of disgust. “Watch your tongue, little—”
“Nothing!” Evolene stamped her foot. “People like you make me sick. Relying on the talents and hard work of others while you bully them into doing your bidding.”
Captain Comma stepped back. “What are you talking about?”
Evolene ripped off the rest of her invisibility cloak. The small witch seemed to grow a few inches as she brandished her staff. “We’re not going to stand for it. I’m not going to stand for it! If you can’t help us, stop criticizing, stop ordering us about, and go back to your life of luxury!”
The sword at the back of my head disappeared, only for the taller fairy to point it between Evolene’s eyes. “You’ve said too much, little witch, and now you’re going to regret it.”
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