“We must go, Your Highness!” yelled Gledit.
It pained me to run, but I had to do it. My last image of the skirmish was of Rickard raising a bloody knife to slash at one of the Reich’s Fae. I grabbed Iris’s hand and we fled through the maze of corridors in the pulpit until we got to the main entrance in St. Ambrose’s hat. It was way higher than the servant’s entrance. My wing was burning. There was no way I could fly. I wasn’t even sure I could climb.
Gledit stepped in front of me. “I’ll carry you to the carriage.”
“With those wings? I don’t think so,” I said.
Iris pointed past my face. The dragons that had been cavorting earlier had formed up into a flying V, led by Ovid. Some of the dragons peeled off and shot fireballs at targets around the nave. I screamed for him and he banked hard to come in our direction. He wore the battle armor awarded to him by the emperor. Thankfully, Victory wasn’t on his head directing the assault.
Ovid darted in to snatch me off the ledge. It hurt so bad, I think I might’ve passed out because in a second, we were at the Bishop’s Gate. The cardinal’s carriage was on the floor with four damumoto prancing in harness. With each stamp of their delicate hooves, a jet of sparkly dust erupted. Flames shot from their nostrils as they turned their heads in our direction and then the other way. Five more Reich’s Fae were flying at top speed toward the carriage. They had slim swords and small shields with a couple of lightning bolts on them.
They were closer to the carriage and landed at a dead run to reach it before us, but they passed too close to the wall. My gargoyles leapt onto them from above. They swarmed and sprays of blood hit the wall. The rest of the gargoyles made for the carriage and climbed on it, covering it completely. Ovid set me down just as the door handle disappeared. I grabbed a scaly tail. “Get off, stupid. Get. Go. Shoo.” Gargoyles have never shooed, not in the whole history of shooing. They hissed and lashed their tails.
Gledit, Iris, and Leanna landed beside me. I noticed they didn’t grab a tail.
“Help me.”
“I can’t touch them,” said Leanna. “They bite.”
“Burn them off,” said Gledit. “There might be more Reich’s Fae.”
“My hands are still wet,” I said.
“Use the damumoto.”
The horses snorted huge flames in the air. Of course. I dashed over and put my hands in their fire. Instantly dry. Yes! I made two snapping flames and held them close to some gargoyle eyeballs. “Are you gonna move or what?”
They moved, just enough for Gledit to open the door, but they stayed on the carriage. Unless I was willing to fry them, they were going with us. I couldn’t make myself do it, so I dove onto a rubbery, bumpy cushion. The cushions had eyeballs.
“Oh no. This is so not happening!” I yelled.
Gledit tried to climb in but couldn’t get a toehold. “What is it?”
“Klitzeklein trolls.”
“Why are they in here?”
“They like to bother me.” I grabbed one and tried to throw it out the door. Gledit was rotten at dodging. It hit him on the noggin and came back to give me a bloody nose.
Leanna stuck her head in. “I just saw some French brown wings. We’ve got to go.” Then she looked at the purple balls. “Are you bringing trolls?”
“No! I’m not bringing them, but they’re coming. Get in.”
“How?”
“Just dive in!”
Leanna pushed Gledit out of the way and took a flying leap. She bounced so hard, she hit the carriage ceiling before hitting me. “Sorry.”
“Never mind.” I rolled around and reached for Gledit. But he boosted in Iris and our last anubis before I pulled him in and slammed the door. “Go, Volotora!” I screamed and the carriage started rolling with a jolt. I slid back the window covering and found the window covered with gargoyles. I gave one a good whack, but it only hissed at me. “I can’t see anything.”
Iris pulled me away from the window. “Hold on.”
Too late. The carriage jolted and it was trollapalooza. I couldn’t see anything but purple. They bounced off me and everything else as a ripple went through the carriage. The damumotos’ ability to fly through walls came in handy once again, but the rough ride was aggravating the trolls, not to mention me. I saw a flash of Gledit’s green in the purple barrage, a flash of canine teeth, and somebody kicked me in the chest. We’d escaped the cathedral, but we weren’t exactly traveling in royal style.
After about fifteen minutes, the klitzeklein trolls ran out of bounce, but the weather was no better. At least, I hoped it was the weather that caused the carriage to drop suddenly or bolt to the right. Iris was terrified and only Leanna’s strong arms around her kept her from wailing. The anubis snarled on the backseat, completely covered in trolls except for his snout. Gledit sat next to me on the floor, counting his broken leaves. I was trying to pry Fidelé off my neck. He’d dug his claws in and every time the carriage jolted, they went a little deeper. Rufus was on the velvet-tufted ceiling, the only place with no trolls. The fire lizard glowed to give us a little light, but it only gave our bloodied faces ghastly shadows.
I tugged at Fidelé’s tail and managed to peel about half of his grey body off me when the carriage dropped a good ten feet and banked to the left. I rolled across the carriage and cracked my head on the door right before Gledit hit me and snapped a few more leaves and crushed my good wing.
“Get off.” I pushed him away and controlled the urge to bonk him with a troll.
“Sorry, Your Highness.” He cocked his head to the side. “I think we’ve stopped.”
We had stopped, but the carriage was still shuddering from the storm.
“Do you hear anything, Iris?” I asked.
My sister leaned forward. “Someone’s talking. I don’t know—”
A blast rocked the carriage sideways. We nearly went over, but at the last second dropped back onto our wheels. Iris clapped her dimpled hands. “Hooray!”
“What was that?” asked Gledit.
“Our dragons,” she said. “Penelope, I think. Her blasts are higher pitched.”
“Not the dragons,” I said. “They’re not coming.”
Iris’s face got all furtive.
“What are you up to?”
“Nothing. They’re dragons. They go where they want.”
I grumbled as the carriage started moving again. We went over a huge bump and then stopped.
“What’s happening now?” asked Leanna.
“We’re inside,” said Iris.
Gledit looked at me. “Where did you tell the damumoto to go?”
“You were there,” I said. “I didn’t tell them anything. We were escaping.”
“Should we get out?”
“You’re welcome to try.”
Gledit got all dignified and proceeded to climb over the trolls, falling on his face lots of times. The gargoyles still covered the open window and he poked one with his long green finger. Nothing happened. Didn’t see that coming. I sighed and tucked my injured wing under my arm before climbing over and kicking the door. “Get off or I’ll set fire to your stinky butts.”
Nothing. I guess they knew I didn’t want flames inside a small, enclosed space or they were just dumb. One or the other. I picked up a troll and looked for the head. Finding klitzeklein troll heads is harder than it sounds. They could conceal their features and move their eyes around anywhere they wanted. I couldn’t find a face on the purple blob and resorted to poking it. “Hey, you.”
One eyeball opened between my hands.
“Got any teeth?”
Oh, it had teeth alright, rows and rows of them, the way Gerald described a shark. I wanted to throw the freaky thing, but that wouldn’t work out, so I decided not to be creeped out. “Okay,” I said loudly. “I want you to bite those gargoyles.”
Like magic, the gargoyles cleared the door. I opened it, not knowing what to expect, but what I saw was kind of industrial. We were inside. There was a ston
e floor and some kind of metal cage across the room with a staircase next to it. But it was fairly warm and that was good. I put down my troll and climbed out. The damumoto were in their velvet harnesses with their heads hanging low and their sides heaving.
“Volotora, are you okay?” I brushed away the snow and ice from his red haunches.
He turned and the smallest flame appeared in his nostril. “Yes. Must rest.”
I hugged him. “You will. Where are we?”
“The Schweizer Pension, of course.”
“Of course?”
A gust of wind ruffled my hair and Iris climbed out of the carriage with Gledit’s help. “Thank goodness. There they are.”
I looked up. Three dragons swooped around the metal cage. It went four stories up. We were surrounded by white-washed walls with balconies overlooking the empty space. There were several doors on the ground floor level. The nearest door had a brass plaque that said, “Dr. Arthur Konigsburg.”
Percy flattened his wings to his sides and dove down, dropping like a red rock. He pulled up sharply and landed next to the carriage, preening and squawking.
“What’s that all about?” I asked.
“I think he found the pension,” said Iris.
I put my hands on my hips. “How did he know about the pension?”
She got furtive again. “He’s a smart dragon and he loves us.”
“I take it that you think he’s coming with us.”
“We lost the anubis.”
“We’ve got one.” We did have an anubis. He’d climbed out of the carriage, but was still covered in trolls. I imagined he was growling, but klitzeklein trolls didn’t let a little thing like hostility put them off. The gargoyles either. They were climbing off the carriage and ignored Gledit kicking at them. They shook off the ice and advanced on me. I rolled my eyes. This could not happen. We were supposed to travel fast and light. Now I had my stupid entourage, dragons, trolls, and gargoyles. Actually, maybe the dragons could be of some help.
“Okay, we’ll take the dragons, but we’re losing the rest of these things.”
Rufus climbed onto the roof of the carriage. He hissed at me and glowed red.
“I didn’t mean you. You have a use. Sort of,” I said.
“Well, Your Highness,” said Gledit. “I know you don’t mean me. You have to have a master secretary.”
Well…
“And Iris needs my gift,” said Leanna. She had three trolls stuck to her head, so she wasn’t looking all that gifted at the moment.
“I meant the other things.”
Mostly.
“So, Iris, where’s the pension? Please say the ground floor.”
Percy bobbed his head and flapped up a great gust of wind.
“Fourth floor, I think,” said Iris.
Of course it is. Why wouldn’t it be?
I looked at the metal cage. “The damumoto can’t fly up there. We’ll take the humans’ elevator. Who can fly up and push the button?”
Before Gledit could volunteer, Penelope and Ovid flew down. He landed light as a feather. She landed like a sack of trolls. I’d thrown enough of them to know. Penelope waddled over and Percy began cleaning her with his forked tongue. That was new.
Ovid, as usual, was all fussed up and proud of himself, showing off his armor like I hadn’t seen it a hundred times before.
“So about that button,” I said. “Somebody’s got to push it.”
Ovid sat up on his haunches and his armor cracked.
“Ovid, what did you do?”
Then a hatch on his chest popped open and a black speck hopped out. “I am Victory!”
“No,” I said. “No. No. No.”
“Yes, Aunt. It is I, Victory. Here to ensure our domination of Italy. It will be my first conquering.”
“Iris!”
My sister shrank back. “He wanted to come.”
“Of course he did. He’s Victory. Okay,” I said mostly to myself. “This isn’t so bad. He’s tiny. Pocket-sized. It could be worse.”
Then it got worse. Gerald climbed out of the hatch, carrying Horc. Why me? I was good…at some point.
“Got any more stowaways in there?” I yelled. “Miss Penrose? The kitchen staff? A couple of tourists. Why not? Let’s bring everyone on our stealth mission. That’ll help.”
Horc sniffed and said, “Do not be ridiculous. We only brought those useful to your mission.” He accepted a bacon-wrapped biting stick from Gerald and took a big chomp.
Another foot emerged in the hatch. Instead of climbing down, they fell out in a heap. Rickard.
I pointed at the former valet. “That’s useful? He’s a criminal and he’s half-dead.” I looked again. “Make that three-fourths.”
“We had to bring him,” said Gerald.
“Whatever for?”
“He’s Iris’s master secretary.”
Iris jumped up and down. “I have a master secretary, too. I love it. I’ll take good care of him.”
“He’s not a pet, Iris. He’s Rickard,” I said. “And he’s not coming.”
Gledit stepped forward. “Excuse me, Your Highness, but you agreed.”
I pointed at the wheezing heap that was the former valet. “I agreed to that? When? When did I agree?”
“At the Kaisergruft.”
“Huh?”
“You accepted Rickard Popel into your retinue,” said Gledit.
I crossed my arms. “That doesn’t count. The Keeper of the Keys said I had to.”
“You still agreed.”
A sickly feeling came over me. “And he turned blue.”
Gledit nodded and wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“Why did Rickard turn blue? Was it a spell?”
He bit his green lip. “I don’t want to say.”
“Say.”
“Well, you see…”
“You’re my master secretary,” I said. “You have to tell me.”
The truth I asked for was worse than I thought. Max had sent Rickard a message. It told him he could get out of prison by apologizing to me. If I accepted him into my retinue, it would bind his personal loyalty to me for life. Rickard would make up for whatever he’d done by serving me. That’s why he was so reluctant and why he turned blue.
“So he’s kind of a slave?” I couldn’t stand Rickard and I didn’t mind him being in prison, but slavery was another thing altogether.
“No, ma’am,” said Leanna. “The emperor doesn’t support slavery. Rickard has free will.”
“So he can leave my service if he wants?”
“He won’t want to.”
“Because of the spell?” I asked.
Leanna and Gledit nodded. They could spin it all they wanted, but I had a slave.
“How do we break the spell?”
“You don’t,” said Gledit. “It’s for life.”
I looked over at the pile of pathetic. Rickard wheezed and couldn’t get up. A slave. As far as I was concerned, that was a fate worse than death. Gledit and Leanna acted like he had some kind of choice. He didn’t. It was me or death. He wouldn’t have survived another week in prison. He was practically dead right now.
“So he’s Iris’s master secretary, but he’s bound to me?”
“Yes.”
This had to be Rickard’s worst nightmare and it was beginning to be mine. My wing hurt. My entourage was bigger than I ever feared and I had a slave. I couldn’t wait to hear what Mom would have to say about that. “Okay. Fine. Gerald, push the elevator button. Rickard’s gonna die if we don’t do something right away.”
Gerald looked as though Rickard dying wasn’t the worst idea I ever had, but he zipped up to the button and pushed. It didn’t light up. What was I thinking? Gerald had the strength of an arthritic gnat.
“It won’t push!” Gerald yelled down at me.
“Percy, can you push it with your snout?” I asked the dragon, who stopped licking Penelope and darted up to the button, creating a great gust of wind that knocked us all ov
er. Rickard rolled under the carriage and Gledit had to drag him out so he wouldn’t get run over.
The elevator cage started vibrating. Slowly, the elevator descended and came to a shuddering halt in front of us.
“Gerald, somehow get the dragon to open the cage,” I called up. “The rest of us will get the carriage in.”
Victory hopped onto Horc’s head and strutted to the tallest lump. “I will command the dragons. I am Victory.”
“Whatever. Just get it done.”
Victory easily avoided Horc’s hands that tried to bat him off his head. “To my trusty Ovid, you oaf!”
“I am not your taxi,” said Horc, giving up and snapping off a chunk of biting stick.
“Do it, oaf!”
“Matilda, explain to this minuscule megalomaniac that I am not at his beck and call. Also, that I am your favorite.” Horc sprayed splinters as he spoke. Not exactly my favorite.
“Mother!” yelled Victory. “Horc called me minuscule again.”
Iris rushed over and plucked Victory off Horc’s head, cradling him in her arms like a tiny teddy. “I know, precious. He doesn’t mean it.”
“I do mean it,” said Horc.
I rolled my eyes. “And I don’t care. Somebody handle the dragons.”
Victory hopped to Iris’s shoulder and began shouting in a language I didn’t understand.
Iris beamed. “He’s fluent in dragon.”
“Swell. Just open that elevator before it goes back up.” I returned to the carriage. The trolls were where we’d left them, but now the purple balls had eyes. They blinked at me. “Listen to me, you bulbous-butted weirdos. You’re going to get out of this carriage and you’re not—do you hear me—not going to bounce around, hitting people in the head. Got it?”
To the Eternal (Away From Whipplethorn Book Five) Page 8