Power of a Princess

by E. D. Baker

  I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO KIM, ELLIE, AND KEVIN FOR BEING THERE WHEN I NEEDED YOU, TO VICTORIA WELLS ARMS AND ALLISON MOORE FOR YOUR QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS, AND TO ALL MY SUPER FANS WHOSE ENTHUSIASM MEANS SO MUCH TO ME.

  Also by E. D. Baker

  THE TALES OF THE FROG PRINCESS:

  The Frog Princess

  Dragon’s Breath

  Once Upon a Curse

  No Place for Magic

  The Salamander Spell

  The Dragon Princess

  Dragon Kiss

  A Prince among Frogs

  The Frog Princess Returns

  Fairy Wings

  Fairy Lies

  TALES OF THE WIDE-AWAKE PRINCESS:

  The Wide-Awake Princess

  Unlocking the Spell

  The Bravest Princess

  Princess in Disguise

  Princess between Worlds

  The Princess and the Pearl

  Princess Before Dawn

  A Question of Magic

  THE FAIRY-TALE MATCHMAKER:

  The Fairy-Tale Matchmaker

  The Perfect Match

  The Truest Heart

  The Magical Match

  More Than a Princess

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter 1

  Aislin ducked into the cave opening and let her eyes adjust to the dim light. Small, furry creatures scurried out of sight, and the snake that had been hunting them glanced at her before slipping into a crevice. A gentle breeze wafted past her out of the cave opening, fluttering the spiders’ webs that blocked her path. “This is a breathing mountain,” Aislin murmured to herself. There must be other openings to the outside that allowed the air to flow in and out.

  Using the stick she’d brought with her, Aislin knocked down the webs, clearing a path. Although she might have walked into the webs that she couldn’t see in the bright sunlight, her eyes were keener when the light was weaker. She could see perfectly well in the near-absolute dark—an attribute of her pedrasi relatives.

  Aislin closed her eyes and used her pedrasi senses to learn what was around her. Just past the rocky outcropping, a passage led farther into the mountain. Although an opening to her left led to a large cave, Aislin could sense that it was a dead end. She opened her eyes and took a few more steps to where the walls were farther apart and the ceiling was higher.

  Aislin reached into her pocket and took out the fairy light that her friend Poppy had crafted for her. It was about the size of an apple and gave off a warm glow. It wasn’t much, but it was all Aislin needed to see clearly in even the biggest, darkest caverns where no light penetrated from the outside. As a pedrasi, she could navigate through a dark cave using her other senses, of course, but Aislin liked to see the cave walls as well, enjoying the beauty she often found.

  It was especially important now that she was exploring Mount Gora for her grandfather.

  As Aislin walked around the outcropping, she thought about what her pedrasi grandfather, King Talus, had said when he asked her to help update the map of Mount Gora, the northernmost mountain in the range. “No pedrasi has lived there since before my father was king. Mountains change and evolve, albeit slowly. Rocks fall, rivers change their courses, the features in the caverns grow.

  “While you’re there, learn what you can do with your newfound abilities. Test yourself. No one lives in the cave now, so you won’t hurt anyone if your magic does something … unexpected.”

  Aislin thought briefly of the escort waiting for her at the base of the mountain. As steady as the rock around her, the guards would wait there whether her mission took three hours, three days, or three years. Aislin hoped it wouldn’t take much time at all. She didn’t have a lot of food with her, for one thing—just some hardtack, a pouch of dried berries, and a hollowed-out gourd filled with water, all tucked into the knapsack she had slung over her shoulder.

  She also had to think about Twinket. The living doll had insisted on coming with her to the mountain, even though King Talus had commanded that no one could enter the cave with Aislin. But Twinket was one of Aislin’s closest friends. A long-ago gift from Aislin’s fairy grandmother, Queen Surinen, she had many wonderful qualities, but patience was not one of them. If Aislin took more than a day, Twinket would never stop complaining about how long she’d had to wait.

  Ducking under the jagged rock that partially barred the entrance to the passageway, Aislin had to walk another ten feet before she could stand upright again. The only illumination now was that of the fairy light that floated in front of her, but it was more than enough. The rock was dry, though she could sense water up ahead. Long and narrow, this was little more than a tunnel that led into a maze of other passageways.

  The maze was convoluted enough to get a non-pedrasi lost and disoriented. For a pedrasi, the way was as plain as if it were marked with road signs. Aislin would have loved to explore the level, but there were so many things in this mountain calling to her that it would be a waste of her time to spend too long on one.

  Closing her eyes again, she used her senses to link her to the mountain. Aislin felt all the passageways spread out before her, well enough that she could walk them with her eyes shut, so well that she would always remember them and be able to draw on them even years from now. Letting her senses reach out, she felt where angles led up and down, some walled off with fallen rock, others leading to open shafts where a misstep would be very, very bad. When she found a few that were safe, she let her senses go up to the next level where her mind sparked with interest. There was something there that she had to see for herself; it was definitely a cavern where she’d want to use her eyes as well as her other senses.

  Aislin strode along the path she’d chosen, ducking where she sensed she might hit her head as she picked her way across the uneven floor. She found the passage that angled upward and walked faster, eager with anticipation. Her grandparents had told her about places like the cavern ahead, but she’d never seen one before.

  A salamander skittered past. A bat narrowly missed bumping into her. A pale cricket hopped out of her way. She was always amazed at how many creatures lived in the absolute dark of the caves. It was chilly here, too, though nothing that a pedrasi couldn’t handle; their extra layer of fat kept them comfortable underground, where it stayed close to fifty-four degrees.

  When she reached a part of the tunnel that was riddled with crevices and small openings, Aislin had the strongest feeling that someone was watching her. She looked around, but didn’t see anyone, so she assumed it was merely a bat or salamander. The passage grew steeper, with the angle becoming so abrupt that Aislin had to find hand- and footholds. When the floor suddenly leveled out, she stood and looked around. The cavern was one of the most beautiful things she’d ever seen. White stalactites hung from the ceiling, reaching toward the stalagmites down below. Ribbon rock rippled along sections of the wall. Crystals grew everywhere, glittering in the glow of the fairy light.

  I wish Tomas could see this, she thought, recalling the human boy she had met in Morain. When King Tyburr held both of them in his castle, Tomas had become more than just another captive. He had become her friend.

  Aislin was careful not to touch a
ny of the crystals that grew on the floor as she picked her way to a flat spot that looked as if it had been made into a seat. Setting her knapsack on the ground, she sat down beside it to gaze at the cave around her. The crystals were even more extraordinary than she’d first thought. Although they were all gorgeous, she particularly liked the ones that grew in the shapes of delicate flowers. Feeling the urge to play, Aislin reached out with her mind to shape some of the rougher crystals into her own flowers and spell out her name, then those of her grandparents, King Talus and Queen Amethyst.

  After a while, Aislin recalled why she was there. She closed her eyes so the beautiful crystals wouldn’t distract her, and tapped back into her pedrasi senses. Without leaving her seat, she explored the cavern and the rest of that level in the mountain, noting features that she’d have to include on her map. She knew she might be faster and more adept at exploring if she was stronger, so she reached into the rock and drew power until her hair crackled with energy and she could feel the blood coursing through her veins.

  She searched the mountain above her, noting the warren of caves that had housed the pedrasi who had once lived there. Along with great halls for meetings, there were smaller caves for families, caves with vents for cooking, and deep shafts for disposing of trash. A larger cave just below the mountain peak boasted a throne made of stone. Aislin decided that the rooms around it must have been where her ancestors had lived and held court.

  Aislin was still in tune with the mountain when she heard knocking. When she opened her eyes, she was surprised to find that her fairy light was gone, as was the knapsack she’d brought with her. The knocking came again, and she tilted her head to listen. Although she couldn’t see them, she sensed that four beings were crowded behind the column just ahead.

  When she heard rustling, as if they were about to run, she got to her feet. Walking toward the other side of the column, she called out in her commanding voice, “Stay where you are!” The rustling stopped. Although there wasn’t even a tiny ray of light in the cavern, she sensed where they were and looked directly at them, asking, “What are you doing here?”

  They all responded at once. “We want to know why you’re here.”

  “How did you find us in the dark?”

  “Why am I stuck here?”

  “Who are you?”

  Aislin sighed and said, “Give me back my possessions and I’ll tell you.”

  “What makes you think we took them?”

  “No one else is here,” said Aislin. “Please hand them over.”

  The one holding her knapsack grumbled as he handed it to her, while another reached into a large leather sack and took out the fairy light. As the light floated back to the princess, stopping to hover above her head, she took a good look at the little thieves and realized that they were spriggans. They varied in height by a few inches, though none of them were over a foot and a half tall. Three were male and one was female, and they all had coarse hair that stood up around their heads. Their skin, hair, and miners’ clothes were completely gray. Familiar with the spriggans who lived with the pedrasi in Deephold, Aislin knew this was because of the stone dust that covered them.

  “I didn’t know that any spriggins lived here,” she told them. “My grandfather thinks Mount Gora is uninhabited.”

  “We’ve lived here forever,” one replied. “I’ve heard that we were supposed to leave when the pedrasi did, but we fooled them and stayed behind.”

  Curious, Aislin said, “I know that spriggans like to play tricks, but I didn’t think your people stole from pedrasi. Why did you take my things?”

  The spriggan who had taken her knapsack looked surprised. “You’re pedrasi? You don’t look like it.” He was shorter than the others and had very large ears. “Plus, you were sitting there with your eyes closed and didn’t seem to notice when we knocked on the stone.”

  A female spriggan in a softer voice chimed in. “We were going to take your shoes next, but then your hair sparked and you began to glow. We hid so we could watch you, then you found us anyway. What are you? You don’t look like a fairy, but that light must be magic. Are you a magic user? Did you make that light yourself?”

  Aislin pulled her knapsack onto her shoulder and glanced at the fairy light floating above her head. “A fairy friend made that light and yes, it is magic. I’m half fairy and half pedrasi. My name is Aislin and I’m the granddaughter of King Talus.”

  “Who is King Talus?” the tallest spriggan asked.

  “The king of the pedrasi. His father was King Anthracite and his grandfather was King Obsidian.”

  “My father’s father’s father’s father was a personal friend of King Obsidian’s!” piped up the female spriggan. “If you’re the king’s granddaughter, that means you’re a pedrasi princess! My name is Kimble, by the way, and these goofuses are Jinxie, Borry, and Smax.”

  “I am a princess,” Aislin said. “My mother is Queen Maylin and—”

  Suddenly she felt a disturbance somewhere below her. She stopped talking abruptly to focus on what she was sensing.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Kimble. “You just got a funny look on your face.”

  “Something is going on in a lower level. I think someone—or something—is down there.”

  The spriggans glanced at each other and nodded knowingly. “The trolls must be back,” Kimble told her. “They carry torches and snoop around breaking stuff. Lately they’ve been going to the lower levels. We don’t know what they’re doing because we stopped going down there a couple of years ago.”

  “Why?” asked Aislin.

  “Because of Old Grumpy,” said Jinxie. “There’s a nice big lake a few levels down where we used to go swimming all the time, but then my cousin Blunkett dropped some cave slugs in it to see what they would do. They stopped glowing once they were in the water. Maybe that’s what made them so nasty, because the biggest slug ate the others and got even bigger. It kept eating until it was huge. Blunkett went down to check on him a few weeks later and the thing ate him. We haven’t gone down there since.”

  “And yet trolls are going to the deeper levels,” said Aislin. “I need to find out what they’re doing.”

  “We can take you close to the trolls,” offered Smax. “You’ll get there faster if we show you the way. But I’ll tell you now, we won’t have anything to do with them. We don’t even play tricks on them anymore. Trolls are nasty to begin with, but even nastier when they get riled.”

  “I understand,” Aislin said. She’d had her own bad experiences with trolls. “And I thank you for your offer.” Even though she was sure she’d have no problem finding her way anywhere in the mountain, she’d learned from her visits to Deephold that politeness went a long way with spriggans. “That would be very helpful.”

  One after the other, the spriggans picked up the lanterns they’d set on the ground. None of the lanterns were lit, but as soon as the spriggans shook them, they glowed with a warm yellow light.

  “Follow us,” said Jinxie, and they set off at a brisk trot. Aislin had to hurry to keep up.

  Chapter 2

  Aislin was worried. She had sensed fire in the belly of the mountain, but not smoke that could damage the mountain itself. Yet there it was, just a few levels down—smoke where there shouldn’t be any, staining rock and damaging it enough to impede its growth. The trolls must have been there with their torches.

  As the spriggans led the way down the steep tunnel to the level just below, Aislin sharpened her focus on the chamber where smoke was spreading across the rock face. She could sense other, more violent, things happening, too. A calcite ribbon breaking, the tip of a stalactite snapping off, and fragile rock shattering. Vandals were in the cave, destroying formations that had taken eons to grow.

  “Hurry!” Aislin yelled to the spriggans when they reached more level flooring. They all began to run.

  Long before they reached the next level, Aislin could smell the smoke and hear harsh, gutteral voices. The intruders were inde
ed trolls, and it sounded as if there were three of them. As she descended, the smell of the trolls themselves began to reach her, too; the cloying stench was more potent than the smoke. Even from a distance, it was enough to make her stomach roil.

  “Stay here, please,” Aislin told the spriggans. She pushed past them to follow the smell, tracing the trolls’ passage through the tunnels and caves with her mind. The trolls were walking through the maze as if they knew where they were going, through new openings that led them on the safest path while ignoring the more obvious, yet more dangerous, routes. Aislin couldn’t understand how they knew where to turn—until she almost tripped over a knotted rope leading from one cave to the next. There were marks on the walls, too, made of chalk or mud and sometimes what looked like old blood. More than one non-pedrasi had explored these caves and left signs for others to follow. Aislin wondered if it had been other trolls. When she examined the walls more closely, she saw fresh smoke stains, as well as some that had been there for years.

  Aislin frowned. The pedrasi had claimed these mountains generations ago. Even if they were no longer living in this mountain, it still belonged to them. Spriggans were always welcome, but trolls had no right to be here. Aislin cut the rope with her knife, grimacing at the smell still clinging to the sticky strands. She picked up the end, coiling it as she walked. She would take care of the rest of the rope—as well as the marks on the walls—later. Right now, she had to see where the trolls were going and find out what they had planned.

  Soon after reaching a point where the passage slanted downward, Aislin began to hear the trolls well enough to understand what they were saying.

  “Don’t know why Gringle had to come,” one of the trolls grumbled. “Gringle here last time.”

  “That why!” exclaimed another troll. “Gringle know way. Squint and Ploot never here before.”

  “Why Gringle not bring dregs back?” asked the third troll.

  “Gringle explorer,” said Gringle.

  “Gringle not bring bags, Ploot,” explained Squint. “Need bags for dregs.”