The Fae Princess (The Pacific Princesses Book 2)

by Ektaa Bali

  Lotus walked through the marshes, his boots making a soft squelching sound with each step. The others followed him, curiously looking around at the strange black, leathery flowers.

  If they could have smelled the gas in the air, they would’ve immediately known that what they were doing was a very, very bad idea, and they would’ve left immediately. As it was, however, the four kids and Pancake, now balanced on Vidya’s shoulder wandered further into the golden marshes, entranced by the way their feet made small dents in the glowing earth. Lotus paused in his examinations and crouched, placing his hands into the wet, sandy earth.

  “It’s warm,” he said in surprise, grabbing some of the earth and squelching it in between his hands. He squinted at the ground, peering at it, bent down low. “What is that? Willow, what do your Bilberry eyes see?”

  Vidya felt Willow crouch down behind her. Lily had plucked a black flower and was feeling its leaves between her fingers. She raised it to her face to smell it, then realised she didn’t have a nose with which to smell and let out a sort of half giggle, half sob.

  “It smells weird here,” said Pancake watching her, his little black nose twitching in distaste.

  “What does it smell like, Pancake?” asked Willow frowning deeply.

  “Hmmm,” Pancake tapped a finger to his chin. “Not smelled before, but bad.”

  “Like someone farted bad?” asked Lotus. “Or like something else.”

  Pancake shook his head. “Not like fart. Just bad.”

  “Well,” said Willow. “Whatever it is beneath the earth, it’s shifting, do you see that?”

  Vidya squinted at the ground. Beneath the earth, the glow moved unevenly and unpredictably. Vidya was reminded of Mahiya’s sparks, the way one of her sparks would move rapidly and make something catch alight. Lily unfurled the map again to study it in the new light. In the distance, the sky began to lighten with the dawn. But then Willow spoke, and it all clicked together.

  “This… wet stuff. It’s not water,” he said with a dark note in his voice.

  They all turned to look at him.

  He held up the shining liquid he had just rubbed between his fingers. “It’s oil.”

  “Guys…” said Lily quietly, shaking out the map. “There’s writing here on the map we didn't see before. Here it says ‘natural gases’ and the map doesn’t call these the western marshes. They’re called the ‘Western Exploding Marshes’.

  “Uh oh!” shouted Vidya. “Run!”

  They all turned to run back out the way they came but were immediately stopped.

  “Oh, there’ll be no running,” came a raspy, sinister voice.

  15

  The Leaf Master

  When all seems lost, look up to the sky and look down to the ground and know that while the earth sings her song beneath your feet, you are never alone.

  —The Book of the Fae, Queen Mab the First, 3333 B.C.

  * * *

  They had been foolish to think that they had lost the Leaf Master in their rush through the forest.

  He sat on his gigantic horse-sized toad, whose broad leathery belly inflated like a balloon with every breath. The Leaf Master smirked at them from atop the toad. The two small frogs on either side of him banged their drums rapidly.

  Vidya’s eyes went from one to the other, unimpressed. She wondered what type of person had the nerve to bring around their own personal drummers wherever they went. She vaguely wondered if she should make Lotus and Lily play the flute for her wherever she went, and the thought of Lotus dancing with a flute made her choke back a laugh. Looking at the Leaf Master up close, he looked less fearsome than he had been from their position watching him in the tree just a few hours ago. He certainly looked very old, from what Vidya could see of his face within the hood of his robe. His grey fur had started to go a white, almost transparent colour, and his eyes were a watery silver.

  He sat in front of them, blocking their exit, surveying them one by one.

  “You see,” he rasped. “The explosive marshes remain asleep at night when the sun goes down and the air cools. But once the sunlight reaches them—” he gestured a claw toward the east behind him where the sky was increasingly brightening. “— They will be awoken, and a chemical reaction will take place, igniting the oily ground, and BOOM, everything will go.”

  “What do you want with us?” asked Vidya, “We’re here minding our own business.”

  “Ah ha,” chuckled the Leaf Master. “This is my domain, Fae child. Meaning, whatever goes on here is my business. And when I see four Fae children in my territory, I have a problem with that.”

  “What problem?” asked Lotus angrily, stepping forward. “Just let us go. Our business is not with you.”

  The Leaf Master’s mouth stretched into a slow, thin smile.

  “But give us back our noses first,” added Willow as an afterthought.

  “Ah, so you do want something from me,” sneered the robed koala.

  “Well,” he spread his arms out in a grand gesture. “I am nothing if not honest. Solve my riddle, and you may be allowed out of my territory with your noses.”

  “And you will no longer terrorize the Yara-ma- yha-who,” said Vidya angrily.

  The Leaf Master’s eyebrows flew up under his hood. He blinked, then grinned widely.

  “Oh, then it will be an extra difficult one. If you cannot solve the riddle, your noses and your lives are mine. You will live here with me as my servants.”

  Vidya’s heart sank. Perhaps she had made a mistake adding in that last part to save the Yarama. The image of the Yarama Chief mumbling into the dirt had stuck with her like a stain on her shirt, and she couldn’t take it back now.

  “What’s the riddle then?” asked Willow nervously.

  The Leaf Master, in his element, closed his eyes and spread his hands out once again and droned in a deep rumbling voice that gave Vidya the shivers.

  * * *

  “I’m foolish and I’m selfish.

  I till the soil and dig the land

  And will fulfil your every wish

  All the earth I do command

  Come at me with your best

  And I’ll chop you up

  Good and fresh.”

  The four kids and Pancake stared at him, then stared back at the lightening sky. How long do they have? Vidya thought. Her mind raced. This was not going to be easy. She had no idea what the answer to the riddle was. And by the looks on their stunned faces, the others didn’t know either.

  “By my estimate,” said the Leaf Master, clasping his claws in front of him. “You have fifteen minutes.”

  Lotus and the others gaped at each other. Vidya turned her back on the Riddle Master and led them a few steps away, huddling the four of them and Pancake together in a circle.

  “How do we get out of this?” hissed Willow. “Does anyone know the answer?”

  “I say we just run,” hissed Lotus. “Just bolt up into the air and shoot away above the treetops. He can clearly follow us on the ground, but’ll be much faster in the sky.”

  Vidya nodded, considering that plan might very well work.

  “But our noses,” said Lily. “We need them back.”

  That was also a good point. If they just escaped, they would have to leave their noses behind. But if they got the riddle wrong, or didn’t answer on time, everything was lost and the whole plan fell apart. Vidya imagined Lobey, the triplets, and Daisy waiting anxiously for them back home, all sitting in the library, peering out the window for any sign of their return. She imagined baby Mahiya asleep safe and sound in her cot, blissfully unaware of what her big sister was doing. Everyone was relying on them to come back and get this right. They couldn’t fail, they just couldn’t.

  “I say we take him down,” hissed Vidya. “There are five of us and four of them. We could do it.”

  She was met with silence.

  “You mean attack him?” asked Lily incredulously. “But, Vidya—”

  “I agree,” said
Lotus. “I think that’s our way out.”

  “But how?” asked Willow. “He’s some sort of powerful creature, that’s for sure.”

  “Powerful or not, he looks like he can take an arrow just like any other animal,” said Lotus. “Will, how many of the frogs do you think you can take out quickly?”

  Willow’s jaw clenched.

  “There’s no other way out of this, Will,” she reminded him gently.

  “I don’t like it,” he said. “But I’m quick. I can probably do them all within five seconds.”

  “No,” Vidya shook her head, changing her mind. “I want Will to focus on the Leaf Master, since he is our best bowman. There are three of us left. Each one of us will take a frog each. I’ll take the biggest.”

  The others nodded. Next to Willow, Vidya was the best archer.

  “When I give the signal,” Vidya whispered. “Take out your target. Lotus, you’re the fastest on your feet, you and Will get back our noses, and we’ll fly off into the sky.”

  “Five minutes left!” droned the Leaf Master behind them, making them all jump.

  “I’ve put a few flowers in my bag,” whispered Lily. “And some of the oily liquid. So we don’t have to worry about that.”

  Vidya nodded and turned, walking toward the koala. He smiled in an unkind way down at her. Vidya felt Pancake clutching at the inside of her pocket very tightly.

  She cleared her throat.

  “Why noses?” asked Vidya, trying to buy time.

  The Leaf Master gave her a smile that said he knew exactly what she was doing. Then he tilted his chin and answered.

  “I collect the noses as taxes from the Yarama. Eating Fae noses is how I’ve lived for so long,” he pulled out a nose from his pocket and gave it an appreciative squeeze. “You can also learn a lot about a person just from their nose.”

  Vidya tried to make out whose nose it was, but she couldn’t tell from this far. It could have been any one of theirs.

  “See now, this nose, tells me this person is rather fickle minded. Always going this way or that, never in one direction.” He moved the nose to his other claw and fished back into the same pocket, bringing out a slightly smaller one. His eyes met Vidya’s, and he smiled at her meaningfully. “Now this one is a queenly nose, but there is something—” he shrugged, and it put the two noses back into the pocket.

  “What?” blurted Vidya, thoroughly embarrassed she’d asked.

  The Leaf Master’s smile faded, and he regarded her seriously. “A decision must be made, Fae Queen.” He abruptly turned in his saddle and pointed at the sky. “Decide on your answer, children, or into pieces you’ll become.”

  Vidya felt everything suddenly come into sharp focus as she looked into the pink sky the same colour as her mothers’ hair. The Bunyip King would launch his attack in just two nights, the night of the new moon. There was no time. She needed bring the fire flower back to the palace and bring the magic back to the Flower of Awakening. The answer came to her as quick as lightning.

  “The answer to your Riddle, is the Bunyip King,” sneered Vidya. “GO!” she screamed.

  Vidya darted out of the way and drew an arrow, quickly loosening it at the huge toad. She got him right in the shoulder, and he let out a roar of pain.

  The Leaf Master groaned from on top of the toad and slid off it with a thump, Willow’s arrow lodged right smack bang in his shoulder. Two arrows quickly followed, Lily missed her frog, but Willow launched a second arrow, shooting through the frog’s hand so he was pinned to the ground. The other smaller frog had fallen over and was now still.

  Lotus’ yellow form darted forward, with Willow close behind. They crouched over the Leaf Master and fished in his pocket.

  “You won’t get away with this…” he rasped from the ground, clutching his tummy.

  Lotus held the bundle of noses in his hand and waved them at the robed koala. “Looks like we are!”

  The four Fae kids leapt up into the air, wings fluttering so fast that they darted high in the sky and over the Leaf Master, directly into the sunlight over the forest.

  “We’ll fly as long as we can!” called Vidya once they had lost sight of the marshes. “And then—”

  BOOOOOOMMM

  The marshes behind them exploded in a gigantic cloud of smoke and fire, and the kids clapped their hands over their ears.

  “Do you think he—” wondered Lotus.

  Vidya shook her head. The Leaf Master was far too cunning and far too old to have gotten caught up in the explosion. He was safe to rule another day; she knew that much to be true.

  “I can’t believe we got away with that!” cried Lily.

  “Me neither,” admitted Vidya, shaking her head. “Here, Lotus, I want my nose back.”

  Lotus cackled, and they gathered in the air, looking at the noses in his hand. They were all quite similar.

  “I don’t want anyone else’s nose,” complained Lily. “Oh, that’s definitely mine, it’s the smoothest.” She snatched it up and held it close to her chest.

  “This is the biggest,” pointed Pancake from Vidya’s pocket. Lotus shrugged and took his.

  “There’s a tiny pimple on this one, it’s mine,” said Willow sheepishly.

  Vidya took the remaining nose. They hovered in the air, staring at their noses, wondering what to do next.

  “On three?” suggested Lily.

  The others nodded.

  “One — two — three!”

  Vidya squished her nose back into the centre of her face as Pancake turned his head, watching each of them in turn. With a loud wet sound, she felt her nose suction back onto her face and suddenly; she felt cold morning air flood through her nose.

  “Oh!” she said. “That feels good!”

  Lily danced in the air with glee. “Does it look right?” she asked Vidya, pointing her face out in front of herself.

  “Looks perfect, Lily!”

  “Oh, thank the earth,” sighed Willow. “This all turned out well. Imagine if—”

  “Lotus!” cried Pancake. “Your’s is on sideways!”

  “Oh no!” yelled Lotus, panicking, pulling at his nose, trying to take it back off.

  But unfortunately for him, it wouldn’t budge.

  16

  Saving the Flower

  “Sometimes the night seems so dark that it feels like the sun will never rise again. But all saplings know—it is in the darkness that roots grow deep. And it is only after this that the green shoots can be born, ready to meet to sun when he rises. Because he always will.”

  —The Book of the Fae, Queen Mab the First, 3333 B.C.

  * * *

  Vidya, Lotus, Willow, Lily, and Pancake flew as far as they could, northeast, in the direction of the palace, for as long as they could. The Wollemi Pine King had told them what to do to recharge the Flower of Awakening. They had the wood to make the bow and arrow, and now they had the fire flower. All they had to do was get back home and prepare the spell and then head back out to the Bunyip Nest to do it. Once their wings grew tired, they flew down into the trees and walked cautiously through the bush. Within a few hours, they were out of the forbidden zone and back into familiar territory. It felt like a weight had lifted off their shoulders, to see the familiar canopy of sprightly gum trees. But Vidya had to remind herself not to be fooled into a false sense of security. Anywhere in the Fae forest, Bunyips could be lurking, ready to attack the Fae. They had to keep their guard up at all times. But it was difficult, as they were tired, sore, and hungry. They hadn’t packed near enough food and had hardly slept the last two days.

  They all gave exhausted groans of relief when they saw the glint of the tall spires of the Fae palace. They had made it. Feebly, they crossed the gap over the Bottomless Sky, and the Fae children guarding the front of the palace blew their horns to announce their arrival.

  Much like how Vidya had arrived back from her trip to the Old Ones just a few days ago, the four of them touched down wearily, shuffling back up to the pal
ace, Pancake fast asleep in Vidya’s pocket. A whole group of Fae kids spilled out of the large front doors and ran toward them.

  “We’ll have a meeting,” said Vidya, waving off a worried Toad and Luna.

  “What’s wrong with Lotus’ nose!” exclaimed Lobey.

  Lotus gave a weak laugh. “It’s a long story, but let us rest a moment please. We’ve been travelling non-stop and didn’t sleep at all last night!”

  The group walked together up the palace stairs and into the library, where the other kids brought out chilled glasses of orange juice and fruits and vegetables to eat. Daisy even brought out a non-burnt cake that wasn’t crooked. The four kids and Pancake ate greedily as they filled everyone in on how they had travelled to the Wollemi Pine King, were captured by the Yarama, and how they battled the Leaf Master in the explosive marshes.

  “The Bunyips plan to attack us on the night of the new moon, the darkest night,” said Vidya. “It was lucky we overheard that conversation.”

  “But that’s tomorrow night!” cried Luna.

  “Exactly,” said Vidya firmly, her hands on the table. “Now, I know we’re all tired, but we have no choice. We need to execute the spell tonight.” She looked around the table. “We’ll sleep and wake up at dusk and head to the Bunyip nest. The rest of you prepare your weapons.”

  “Weapons?” asked Toad.

  “Yes.”

  The room went silent.

  “We’re at war, everyone. They’re coming to take away our home. There’s no way around it. When we shoot. It’s to kill.”

  “There’s always been a way around it, Vidya,” said Will. “Every other time in our history—”

  “But this is like no other time, Will,” Vidya replied, her voice rising. “When have the Fae ever had an angry army fly over across the bottomless sky to come and get us?”