The Black Fortress

by E. G. Foley

  Alas, despite his heroics, the rescue team had not managed to get to the angel before the Dark Druids had maimed him.

  She couldn’t believe they had chopped off his wings.

  No one had seen Celestus since the night he had been freed three months ago. Dani hoped he’d be all right. She had heard he had vanished in a beam of light right there off the desert sands, returning to the heavenly realms to heal.

  She didn’t know whether an angel’s wings could ever grow back. She doubted even a Gryphon feather could help one of the Light Beings, the way it had regenerated Gladwin’s fairy wings when Jake’s evil Uncle Waldrick had snipped them off with a pair of scissors.

  Hmm…

  Twirling the white feather between her fingers, Dani looked around, still puzzled.

  Since it couldn’t belong to either Red or Dr. Celestus, she could only conclude that it must’ve fallen off one of those fancy hats that Isabelle’s mother liked to wear.

  Sometimes the younger Lady Bradford even wore a dashing feather in her hair. It was very fashionable.

  Aye, that must be it. Satisfied that she had solved the mystery, Dani ventured into the master chamber and respectfully left the pretty feather on Her Ladyship’s dressing table, next to her silver-handled hairbrush and little pots of face powder and rouge.

  With that, all her chores were done at last. She made sure Teddy had a fresh bowl of water, then finally turned her attention to her own studies.

  She could not deny that her education had been neglected as a poor rookery lass. But Archie, one of the smartest people on Earth, had been kind enough to design a whole curriculum of independent study for her that would last her through Christmas. He had even lent her his old textbooks, outlining suggested lessons in history, mathematics, geography, English composition, and art.

  Each day, she was allotted three hours during which to pursue her own education. Sometimes the others checked her papers for her. But Dani did not mind learning on her own.

  As she collected her bookbag from her little cubbyhole of a bedroom in the corner of the suite, she paused to gaze out the window at all the activity on the sprawling green lawn below.

  Kids from magical families were hurrying back and forth to attend the orientation for whichever supernatural studies class they belonged. Around their waists, each wore a color-coded sash designating which talent they possessed.

  The healers-in-training sported green sashes, for example, the young Guardians brown. The clairvoyants wore blue, the telekinetics red—Jake had one of each of those, but “doublers” like him were rare.

  The wizards and witches like Nixie proudly showed off their orange sashes; the shapeshifters, purple.

  Dani wrinkled her nose, thinking of the skunkies and Jake’s regrettable mishap last night. She had nearly burst out laughing when pompous Lord Badgerton had ended up wearing his supper…

  Then she spotted a lone girl with elvish ears hurrying by, and she was wearing the rarest sash of all: a snowy-white one, shot through with silver thread.

  Ooh, that was the one Jake really wanted. The coveted silver sash was worn only by the lucky few kids chosen for the Lightrider program.

  That wasn’t something you were born with, but something for which only a few kids were chosen.

  Lightriders were special. The elite agents of the Order, only they had the ability to open portals anywhere along the ley lines that crisscrossed the Earth, allowing them nigh-instantaneous travel to any other point upon the globe.

  Jake and Maddox had twice had the chance to travel down the ley lines with a Lightrider, but Dani had only done it once—when Finnderool had been sent to bring them back to England from Sicily. They had got there by boat and coach and train, but they came home through the Grid, as it was called.

  It had been one of the most remarkable experiences of Dani’s whole life. She still marveled to think of how all her molecules had tingled as she’d watched her entire body dissolve into fizzy particles, as though she were made out of ginger ale bubbles.

  Teddy bounced insistently beside Dani at that moment, breaking into her reverie. The little dog jumped nearly as high as her waist in his determination to try to see the view out the window.

  With a laugh, Dani caught him in midair on his next jump and held him up to look, though the lawn was clearing out now.

  “Come on, silly. We’d better hit the books.” She carried him back to the sitting room, put him on the couch, then plopped her bookbag on the table.

  Taking out her textbooks, she couldn’t help but sigh over all of those colorful sashes. In truth, it was hard not to feel a little inferior in this place when she was poor and lowborn and couldn’t do anything more impressive than whistle loudly through her fingers.

  But she bucked herself up with a short pep talk. Oh, come, you might not have any magical powers, but you’ve always had a good head on your shoulders. Even Lady Bradford says so. You’re loyal to your friends, and you never run away from a fight.

  All of that was true, and it was just going to have to be enough.

  Cracking open her history tome, Dani resumed reading the story of Hannibal. When she’d last left off, the ancient general had been trying to cross the Alps with an army of elephants to go and fight the Romans.

  He had a famous quote that had been his reply when people told him that his quest was impossible: “I will either find a way or make one.”

  It sounded like something Jake would say. Dani quirked a smile at that thought and read on.

  She had barely reached the bottom of the page when, suddenly, she heard a faint knock at the door to the Bradford suite.

  She looked over and would’ve written it off as her imagination, except her dog heard it, too. Teddy’s ears pricked up and his fuzzy head swiveled toward the sound.

  There it was again, ever so faintly: a tiny tap, tap, tap.

  At once, Teddy leaped off the couch where he had curled up and raced toward the door, barking.

  “Teddy, be quiet! Coming!” Dani called. She scooped her dog up with one hand to quiet him and opened the door with the other.

  To her surprise, who should be fluttering there but her favorite fairy courier. “Gladwin! Oh my goodness, how nice to see you. Come in!”

  She opened the door wider, and the wee fairy flew right in, leaving a trail of sparkles behind her.

  Dani closed the door with a smile as Gladwin landed on the end table next to the curve-backed velvet couch.

  Teddy jumped up on it again and scampered toward the fairy. Placing his front paws on the arm of the couch, he sniffed Gladwin, stump tail wagging.

  Dani went over to the fairy with a smile. “What are you doing here?”

  “Actually,” Gladwin said, “I am here on official business.”

  “You are?” Dani’s eyebrows lifted.

  Gladwin nodded and reached over her shoulder for the cylindrical leather case strapped across her back, like an archer’s quiver of arrows.

  She popped the lid off the case, then pulled out a small parchment scroll and presented it to Dani. “Message for Miss Daniela Catherine O’Dell.”

  “For me?” Dani stared at her in disbelief.

  Gladwin nodded, but Dani read a trace of worry on the fairy’s tiny oval face.

  “Who’s it from?” she asked with a prickle of suspicion.

  “The Elders,” Gladwin said.

  “What? Why?” Dani felt the blood drain instantly from her face. “This can’t be good! What do the Elders want with me? Am I in trouble? Have I done something wrong? What is this about?”

  “I don’t know! You have to read it.” Gladwin held the tiny scroll out, but Dani was afraid to take it.

  The Elders never paid the slightest attention to her. She wasn’t even aware they knew she existed.

  She ran a quick mental review of all her recent behavior and couldn’t think of any infractions she might’ve committed.

  But then, suddenly, she remembered Lord Badgerton and the mashed potatoe
s. And her stomach flip-flopped.

  Jake was the one always getting into trouble, and he was already on thin ice with the Elders.

  What if they had decided to punish him for last night’s mishap by sending her away?

  Then it dawned on her that the messy incident at the buffet wasn’t the only mischief Jake had got up to last night.

  He’d been asking questions all night long about the Dark Druids, nosing into business that he shouldn’t. Especially after being warned to let the adults handle it for once!

  Dani had a sinking feeling in her stomach that she was right. They couldn’t do much against the famed Griffon heir, the golden boy of the Order, but they could teach him a lesson by sending her away.

  Oh God. Her heart started pounding. Dani’s greatest fear was being sent back to the dismal rookery. What if—?

  “Just see what it says,” Gladwin said, but even she sounded nervous.

  “You haven’t read it, then?”

  “No! I don’t read the messages. I just deliver them.” Gladwin flew up off the table and kept holding the scroll out to Dani. “Here. You have to take it.”

  Dani gulped, backing away. “M-maybe you could pretend you couldn’t find me?”

  “I’d get fired! I-I’m sure everything will be fine, Dani,” Gladwin said, but she didn’t sound convinced. “I think you’d better just look at it, a-and see what it says.”

  Dani stared at her, her heart thumping, but she knew perfectly well that there was no escaping the Elders. Gathering her courage, she bravely stepped forward and took the tiny scroll from the fairy’s outstretched hand.

  The message was no bigger than a matchstick, but she was still scared to read it, afraid that once she cracked that little wax seal, things would never be the same.

  Oh, quit being a coward, she ordered herself. It’s just a tiny message. You’ve faced up to shark men and yetis, gargoyles and ghosts, and even Jake’s nasty Uncle Waldrick and his sea-witch sidekick, Fionnula. Whatever it is, Dani O’Dell, you can face this, too.

  Fine, she thought. If they want me to leave, then I’ll go. With that, she took a deep breath and unrolled the tiny scroll, then held it up and forced herself to read:

  Miss O’Dell,

  Kindly come at once to the Yew Court. A gnome will be waiting to conduct you through the maze.

  Regards,

  Ramona, Lady Bradford

  “Mother Mary.” Dani clutched her chest. This was even worse than she had imagined!

  “What is it?” the fairy tinkled.

  Dani looked at Gladwin, wide-eyed. “I’ve been summoned to the Yew Court. I-I’m ordered to come r-right away.”

  Gladwin drew in her breath then buzzed closer, landing on Dani’s shoulder. “Don’t be afraid, Dani. I’ll go with you as far as the maze.”

  Dani swallowed hard. “Thank you, Gladwin. I…I wish I knew what this was about.”

  Being summoned to the Yew Court was never good news.

  The empty space in the middle of the great green maze was where all the magical youth were forced to undergo their Assessments, testing their gifts. It was a place of legal consequence, as well, and had served as the courtroom where Jake’s wicked Uncle Waldrick had been sentenced to life in an Order dungeon somewhere far away in dragon country.

  The Yew Court was also where Janos had been sentenced to execution after turning vampire, but then had received clemency from the Elders when they couldn’t quite figure out how to kill him—or, more likely, just didn’t have the heart.

  Well, if they spared Janos, maybe there was hope for her, too, but Dani wasn’t holding her breath. The truth was, she wasn’t really needed here anyway. She had no true place here. She was nothing but Jake’s sidekick, and now she was being sloughed off like a snake’s old skin.

  But, by goodness, if they were going to give her the boot, she would face her fate with dignity. She paused for a quick glance in the mirror that hung next to the door of the suite, making sure her hair was combed and that she didn’t have anything in her teeth.

  Then she bent down and, with a hand that trembled slightly, gave her dog a pat. “Wait here, Teddy. Don’t worry, boy. If they send us away, at least we’ll still have each other.”

  Teddy let out a small whine and sat down, sensing the seriousness of the situation.

  Dani turned to Gladwin in a daze. “Do I look all right?”

  “Beautiful,” the fairy assured her.

  Dani gave her a skeptical look. She knew she might be able to pass for cute on a good day, but beautiful she was not. That was Isabelle’s territory.

  “Let’s just get this over with,” she muttered, opening the door.

  Gladwin clutched a length of her hair like a ship’s rope to hold herself secure as Dani began marching down the corridor, heading for the lobby.

  She knew the way by heart, but the walk through the white marble hallways of the guest block passed in a blur as she struggled to think of some other explanation for why the Elders might’ve summoned her.

  She couldn’t think of anything.

  In moments, she reached the wide main staircase. The lobby below bustled with wizards in robes, and parents of all species congregating here and there, chitchatting about their children’s accomplishments, now that they’d seen them off to their sessions.

  Dani’s mother was dead and her father was probably waking up in a pub somewhere in the East End. There was never somebody there to be proud of her.

  But she paid the happy parents no mind, crossing the lobby underneath the dome. Then she went out through the massive front doors of the palace and down the wide, shallow steps out in front.

  The hay bales and jack-o’-lanterns she’d helped Jillian Quince set up were soggy with dew, but Dani walked right past them. Though the temperature outside was comfortable, fear had given her a chill.

  Wisps of morning fog still floated over the emerald lawn.

  When she stepped down onto the courtyard at the bottom of the steps, the gravel crunched beneath her feet.

  Overhead, the cobalt sky arced like a bright crystal dome. All around the tree line, a gold tint gilded most of the still-green leaves, but a few trees had already broken out in burnished oranges and reds, like the colors of her hair.

  The distant sound of a splash revealed the water nymphs taking a morning swim in the little river; she could hear their haunting laughter echo across the sprawling lawn as she crossed the courtyard with jerky strides.

  Gladwin lifted off Dani’s shoulder and fluttered alongside her as she marched with a deepening dread toward the entrance of the towering boxwood maze.

  Already she could see one of the little gnome servants of Merlin Hall waiting to escort her through the labyrinth.

  They didn’t speak, the little servant gnomes of Merlin Hall. Instead, they used gestures to communicate.

  Some people thought the knee-high fellows were cute, with their pointy red hats, curly shoes, and big white beards.

  Dani thought they were creepy.

  They were so similar-looking that it was hard to tell them apart. They had no expressions on their faces other than a vague irritation with everyone around them.

  Unfortunately, the gnomes were the only ones who knew the way through the ever-changing maze to the Yew Court in the center, home to the Old Father Tree.

  The massive boxwood labyrinth was booby-trapped to defend itself from intruders. Moreover, the pattern of the maze rearranged itself each night by some inscrutable magic, ensuring that anyone trying to find their way to the Yew Court unauthorized would become hopelessly lost.

  As Dani approached, the gnome beckoned impatiently to her. He also stepped back, as though he feared she might step on him.

  Apparently, people kicked the gnomes by accident all the time, or tripped over them. The centaur lords and ladies had to be especially careful not to trample them under their hooves.

  Outside the neatly clipped hedges of the labyrinth’s thirty-foot walls, Dani turned to Gladwin.
Her hands felt cold and clammy as she bunched them into fists. “Are you sure you can’t just tell the Elders you weren’t able to find me?”

  “I’m sorry, Dani. You know I can’t lie to my superiors. Try to be brave. You always are,” Gladwin offered in distress.

  “Just promise me one thing,” Dani said. “If they banish me and oubliette me so I don’t remember any of this, or you, or any of my friends, please just promise you’ll look after Jake. He’s a mess without Red, and if they send me packing, he’s going to feel even worse.”

  Gladwin nodded sadly. “Don’t worry, my dear. I’ll look after him. But chin up. Let’s not jump to the worst possible conclusions straightaway.”

  Dani hoped the fairy was right. She managed a nod in answer, then turned to the gnome. “I’m ready,” she told him.

  His red-capped head bobbed, then the gnome pivoted and began waddling ahead of her into the maze.

  With one last glance over her shoulder at the fairy, who hovered in midair, anxiously watching after her, Dani looked past Gladwin at the magical palace with the morning sun shining behind it, fanning out in great golden rays.

  Oh please, don’t send me back to the rookery, she thought. My spirit will die there.

  But when the gnome hissed at her to hurry up, she had no choice but to follow. Fists balled by her sides, Dani stepped through the tall green opening into the labyrinth. Forcing one foot after another, she began trailing her grumpy little escort.

  To go and learn her fate.

  CHAPTER 17

  The Unlikely Scholar

  Jake, meanwhile, was already deep in a different sort of maze.

  He was prowling through the unfamiliar alleys of what was, to him, a dangerous and foreign land: the great medieval library of Merlin Hall.

  Constanzio floated along beside him, keeping him company.

  “Good Lord,” Jake muttered, glancing around at the towering shelves on all sides. “What do they need so many books for, anyway?”

  “You should try reading one once in a while,” the ghost said pleasantly.