by E. D. Baker
“What is it?” asked Tomas. “What did you see?”
“I think I saw the sorceress,” Aislin told him. “But she isn’t on the top of the mountain. She’s two levels down in the middle of a lake with lots and lots of trolls.”
“We should go tell your grandfather,” said Tomas.
Aislin nodded. “Someone certainly should. Poppy, would you mind going? You can find him faster than anyone.”
Poppy darted up to hover beside the princess. “I’ll do whatever you need, Aislin. But what are you going to do?”
“Talk to Aghamonda and find out what’s going on,” the princess told her. “Now hurry, my grandfather needs to know where the sorceress really is.”
Aislin started walking again the moment Poppy left. The princess headed to the next tunnel, which was safe enough for a short distance.
“Stay to the left,” she told the others as they approached a sheer drop.
“Duck and make sure you don’t touch the rock hanging down in the middle,” she warned as they neared a precariously balanced boulder.
They had reached the entrance to another tunnel where Aislin was about to turn when Kimble sent her light bobbing straight down the tunnel they were in. “I can look ahead if you want me to,” the spriggan said as she edged past Aislin. “This part looks fine to me.”
Kimble ran ahead before Aislin could stop her. Skidding on a particularly smooth spot, the little spriggan turned to look back.
“I’m going, too!” Twinket cried, and tried to inch past Aislin.
“Don’t move!” Aislin told her, holding out her hand. “Twinket, get behind me. Kimble, the floor under your feet is very, very thin. It didn’t break because you don’t weigh much, but if you stomp your feet or anyone else steps on it, it will break and you’ll fall a very long way. Now, slide your feet without lifting them and come back to me.”
Kimble’s eyes went wide and she looked from side to side without moving her head. “I just wanted to help,” she said, sounding shaky.
“I know you did,” Aislin said.
Crack! The tiny sound made Kimble jerk. Suddenly cracks spiderwebbed under her little feet, spreading across the smooth rock. Aislin closed her eyes and set her hand on the wall. She centered herself and felt the cracks opening wider. Reaching into the rock, she filled in the cracks, pulling strength from the rock walls.
It was hard for Aislin to focus on what she was doing and to talk at the same time. When she said, “Now run!” her voice sounded strained.
Kimble ran then, with the cracks reappearing with each step. When she was close enough, she jumped into Aislin’s arms. “Do not go in front of me again,” the princess ordered as she set Kimble down.
“I won’t, I swear!” the spriggan exclaimed.
“Kimble and Twinket can walk with me while you concentrate on what lies ahead,” said Lin.
The mestari followed Aislin into the other tunnel. When they reached a spot where the passage narrowed, Aislin noticed that the floor was covered with thin bits of shattered stone. Feeling the passage with her senses, she discovered that the ceiling was covered with sharp needles of stone that would fall at the smallest vibration. Anyone walking under them wouldn’t stand a chance. Wondering why she hadn’t noticed the needles in her first search, she began to examine the tunnels even more closely.
“This is taking too long,” Kimble whined.
“Sorry,” Aislin replied. “But we just passed three traps and a pit that appears to be bottomless. I’d rather be slow and careful than fast and lose someone.”
“I know my senses aren’t as strong as yours, but the tunnel that goes off to the right about ten feet ahead might be safer than the others,” said Lin.
Aislin nodded. “I think it is. I also think that’s the one the sorceress uses.”
“Finally!” Deela muttered. “My neck is killing me from ducking all the time.”
“Just so you know, Aghamonda is in this tunnel,” Aislin warned them. “We have to get past her before we can continue on.”
“Then Deela and I should go first,” Lin said, trying to push past Tomas.
“Not now,” said Aislin. “I can handle a statue.”
Waving at her fairy light, she sent it into the tunnel. She followed it, already looking for Aghamonda. When she didn’t see the statue, she searched with her mind and found it behind an outcropping only yards away.
“I know where you are,” Aislin called out. “What are you doing here?”
“Waiting for you,” Aghamonda said as she stepped into view. “I knew you’d follow me, especially after I left such obvious footprints.”
“Why are you working for Gorinda?”
“I’m not working for anyone,” said Aghamonda. “I’m working with her.”
“And was it your idea for you to stand here in the dark or did she order you to?” asked Aislin.
“She asked me to, very nicely,” Aghamonda replied.
“What does Gorinda want anyway? Why is she doing all this?”
“Ask her yourself, if you can get past me.”
“Of course I can get past you,” Aislin replied. “You’re a statue and you have no magic.” Drawing strength from the mountain itself, the princess pulled power into her voice when she said, “Step aside and let us pass.”
The statue staggered a few steps, then stopped and swayed back and forth as if struggling to keep still. “You … can’t … make—” she choked out.
This time Aislin closed her eyes. The battle was already engaged on the mountainside, so she didn’t have time to waste. If controlling the person who was the statue didn’t work, perhaps she should go straight to the stone. Drawing more power into herself, she sent it into the statue, shifting it here, pushing it there so that it moved back behind the outcropping and froze in place. “Now don’t move until the fairy king sends for you,” Aislin added, making the feet of the statue meld with the rock floor and its hands adhere to its hips.
“You can’t do this!” Aghamonda shouted. “Gorinda won’t be happy.”
“I’m not here to make her happy,” Aislin said, then turned back to her friends. “You can come through now.”
“If it isn’t the prince!” Aghamonda said as Tomas passed by. “I should have known you’d be with her.”
“Still in trouble, huh, Aghamonda?” said Tomas.
“Always!” she replied with a smirk, as if it was a good thing.
When Kimble, Lin, and Deela walked by, she told them, “That princess is leading you to your doom. Run away while you can.”
Kimble stuck her tongue out at Aghamonda. With a wave of her hand, the little spriggan made her fairy light bounce off the statue’s nose. Aghamonda didn’t seem to notice. “That statue is as dumb as a box of rocks,” Kimble told her companions as they hurried on. “I’d never trust a blockhead like her!”
The tunnel opened into a slightly wider passage. While Aislin paused to “see” what lay ahead, Lin led the way. “There’s a stone door blocking the tunnel,” the pedrasi girl said. “I’ll open it.”
Aghamonda laughed while Lin tried to lift the latch. She tried harder, pushing with both hands until her face turned red. The harder Lin tried, the more Aghamonda laughed. When the latch still didn’t budge, the pedrasi finally resorted to tapping it with her war hammer, but even that didn’t work.
“Maybe if I help you …” said Deela.
They both tried then, but nothing happened. Aghamonda roared with laughter.
“Why are you laughing?” Tomas asked the statue.
“Because they’ll never get that door open, no matter how strong they are,” Aghamonda replied. “Gorinda put a spell on it so I’m the only one who can open it. Nothing that lives and breathes can open that door, but I can as long as I’m a statue. And don’t bother asking—you’ll never get me to open it for you.”
“We don’t need to ask you,” said Twinket. “If you can do it, I can, too. I’m not actually alive and I don’t breathe.”
While Lin and Deela backed away, the little doll strode to the door, tilting her head back to see the latch high above her. “Uh, can someone pick me up?” she asked. “I can’t reach that latch.”
“Here you go,” Deela said, picking up Twinket.
When the orc held Twinket up to the latch, the doll put both of her soft, cloth hands on it and pushed. The door groaned open, letting a draft of cool, damp air waft through the tunnel. Twinket grinned and clapped her hands. “Now aren’t you glad I came?” she asked the others.
“Aislin, are you ready?” Tomas asked.
The princess had been aware of everything that was going on around her even as she cast her senses into the depths of the mountain. She had heard what Aghamonda had said about opening the door. Aislin knew that she could have moved the wall itself if necessary, but she was glad that Twinket had figured it out and was so happy about it.
Opening her eyes, Aislin blinked and said, “I am. I was trying to see how many trolls are with Gorinda, but there are too many to count.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Tomas said, shaking his head.
Once again Aislin led the way. Although she kept feeling what lay ahead, she didn’t discover any more traps. They descended two more levels. As they neared the cavern, they began to hear the grumbling of trolls and smelled something unpleasant.
“I smell trolls and sulfur,” said Deela.
Kimble took one sniff and shuddered. Pinching her nose shut, she said, “I smell rotten eggs and stinky feet.”
The noise and the stench grew stronger as the party headed down the sloping tunnel. They weren’t far from the tunnel’s end when wisps of fog began to curl around them. The fog grew thicker until they entered the cavern itself. Although Aislin could sense the cavern floor, the air was so filled with moisture that their fairy lights were just small patches of not-quite-so-dark mist. When she took a few steps, the air seemed a bit clearer. “Come on,” she said, and her friends crowded behind her, bumping into her as she moved forward ever so slowly.
“What’s down here?” Deela asked as a breath of air moved past them, making the fog thin and thicken.
“There’s a lake straight ahead about twenty feet,” replied Aislin. “Watch out for trolls and the sorceress. And tell me if you see anything else that’s unusual.”
“Like that?” Lin asked, pointing at something glowing in the fog only yards away.
A few steps took them close enough to see a stone vent in the ground releasing steam into the air. Lin was closer to the vent than the others when she said, “Ow! I kicked something,” and bent down to look at the bumpy, foot-long objects.
“Are those dragon eggs?” asked Tomas as he reached out to touch one.
“They are,” Aislin said. “The trolls must have been stealing them from other mountains and not just Mount Gora. This must be where they’re bringing them. I’ll have to tell my grandfather.”
There was a louder roar from the trolls and everyone in Aislin’s party turned toward the lake. The air was clearer there with a light breeze blowing the fog away. Aislin could see the platform easily now. Flaming torches ringed it on all sides. In the center of the platform, the floor was raised and someone had erected four ornate columns to hold up a simple peaked roof. More trolls than Aislin had ever seen before milled around on the platform, although they avoided the center. The only one on the raised part of the platform was a figure wearing a black cape. The hood of the cape was thrown back, exposing the long scarlet hair and delicate features of a woman. She stood with her head bowed, gazing down into the lake.
“That must be the sorceress!” Aislin told her friends.
“Look at the lake,” Tomas said, and they all stepped closer. The water was perfectly smooth without a ripple on its surface.
“Wow!” Aislin exclaimed. Inches below the surface of the water the image of the mountaintop was clearly visible. Clouds scudded past it, obscuring then revealing the mounted fairies battling a horde of trolls carrying clubs and axes. Her grandfather was there in the thick of the fighting, along with Sycamore and Kivi. Wielding magic as skillfully as he wielded his sword, the fairy king hurled bolts of power at his enemies while his warriors used magic blades to cut down the trolls and the manticore and griffin attacked with teeth and claws.
At first Aislin thought that the fairies were winning, but she soon realized that whenever a troll fell three more ran to take its place even if they hadn’t seen their companion struck down. Aislin wondered how they knew to do this when she glanced up and saw the hooded figure waving her arms as if she was a general directing her troops. “She’s telling the trolls what to do from down here where she’s safe,” said Aislin.
She was turning her head when she glimpsed something moving near the tunnel entrance. It was a tiny fairy, appearing and disappearing as she flew through the patchy fog. When Aislin could see her well enough, she recognized Hydrangea.
The fairy was obviously agitated when she reached Gorinda. The sorceress watched her dart back and forth in front of her for a few moments before screaming, “Quiet! I can’t hear a thing she says!” over the racket that the trolls were making.
The sudden silence was almost shocking.
Everyone watched Hydrangea turn big in front of Gorinda. The sorceress shook her head as the fairy gestured with her hands. “Who did what to Aghamonda?” Gorinda shouted loud enough for everyone to hear. “Of course, she’s still a statue. That’s because of your incompetence! Who did she say is here?”
The sorceress paused for a few seconds as she listened to the fairy, then shouted, “Oh, really?”
“Is she talking about us?” Kimble whispered.
“Shhh!” Lin told her, even as the sorceress turned to the trolls.
“That princess you were supposed to bring to me is here now,” Gorinda yelled. “Find her!” With one wave of her arms, the fog disappeared, leaving Aislin and her friends in clear sight.
The princess looked at the vents and the rock walls. There was nowhere to hide, the trolls had already spotted them, and the tunnel entrance was too far away to reach now. “Don’t fight,” Aislin told her friends as the trolls came thundering across the bridge and around the lake. “Put your weapons away until I tell you to take them out again.”
“But Your Highness,” Deela began.
“There are too many trolls,” said Aislin. “Let them take us to her. Don’t resist or they’re more likely to hurt you.”
Deela and Lin looked grim, but it was Tomas who said, “I don’t like this.”
“I know,” Aislin told him, and reached out to squeeze his arm.
“Just throw up a wall like you did in Mount Gora,” said Kimble. “If you block them in I can jump on them from behind and snick-snack,” she said, making thrusting movements with her knife. “Then I’m on to the next one.”
“We’re not fighting them, Kimble,” said Aislin. “At least not yet. I need to deal with Gorinda now and end the fighting on the mountaintop. Just trust that I know what I’m doing.”
The little spriggan’s mouth snapped shut. Although she looked angry, she didn’t say another word as she put her knife away. The trolls were on them in seconds.
Armed with clubs and axes, the snarling, growling trolls surrounded them. Up close, the reek of so many trolls made Aislin’s eyes water.
“Fight!” one shouted.
“We want fight you!” shouted another.
“We’re not going to fight you, so just take us to Gorinda,” Aislin told them.
One of the trolls shoved Tomas with a club. Another took a swipe at Deela, barely missing her. The trolls looked disgusted when neither one responded. “You no fun!” a troll grumbled.
Aislin really didn’t want her mestari to fight the trolls yet, and she was proud of them for holding back, but she promised herself that it wouldn’t be for long.
The trolls hustled them across the narrow stone bridge, but didn’t follow the princess and her friends onto the raised part of th
e platform. Aislin saw Gorinda waiting for them just ahead with Hydrangea hovering above her. Up close, the sorceress was pretty, with bright red hair that hung loose in waves down the sides of her face. Her lips were the same shade of red and her eyes were so dark that they nearly looked black. Aislin thought she looked familiar, though she knew she had never seen her before.
“I know who you are, so don’t pretend that you aren’t you,” Gorinda yelled as Aislin stepped onto the raised platform. “My spies have told me everything about Princess Aislin! I’ve been trying to get my incompetent helpers to bring you to me, but they’re all nitwits who don’t know their elbows from their eyeballs. And then you showed up all on your own. Thank you for that—you saved me a whole lot of trouble.”
From what she could see of Hydrangea, Aislin thought the tiny fairy looked smug.
“Why do you want me?” asked Aislin.
“Speak up!” The sorceress shouted. “I hate mumblers. I’ve been lightning-struck too many times, and I can’t hear a ding-dong thing unless you talk louder.”
“I said, ‘Why do you want me?’ ” Aislin yelled.
“Because I hate your grandparents! They stole the throne from me and locked me away in an ice cave. I only just got out.” The sorceress shivered and pulled her cape closer around herself. “I’ve been cold for so long and now I can’t get warm no matter what I do.”
“You still didn’t answer my question,” Aislin shouted. “Why are you after me?”
“I’ve spent years trying to think of ways to get back at King Darinar and Queen Surinen. When I heard that they had a granddaughter they were crazy about, I said to myself, what better way to get back at them than to hurt the one they adore? I just wish I could see the looks on their faces when they hear what I’ve done to you. Hey, maybe I could use a spell to spy on them so I can see it. That’s a great idea! And then I can—”
“What about the dragon eggs? Why are you collecting them?” shouted Aislin.
“Who needs fairy horses when you have dragons? With them in my army, I’ll be invincible. Besides, dragons are the best fire starters I know. I need something to warm my fingers and toes.” Thrusting her arms out from under her cape, she held up her mittened hands.