by Amy Alward
‘It will happen again, Samantha. I promise you.’ He grips my hand and stares deep into my eyes. I stare right back.
I lift my hand to his face, stroking his jawline. ‘If I could do what I really wanted to right now . . .’
‘What do you want?’
‘I can’t . . . I can’t tell you – I have a boyfriend,’ I say, lowering my eyes so I look coy.
‘I won’t tell if you won’t.’ I know that Prince Stefan has no real interest in me, but I’m sure the fact that he would be getting one up on another guy plays right into his vanity again. He wants something to brag about. And I need to give it to him. I need this to go exactly right – or else it could end up a total disaster.
‘I just want to kiss you,’ I say. I need him to believe it, so I lean in a bit. I flick my eyes up quickly and see that Emilia has already crossed the cavern and is back in the main part of the castle.
‘Well, I don’t see the harm in a kiss,’ says Prince Stefan. ‘Your dreams are going to come true – getting kissed by the handsome prince.’
That’s almost enough to break me – the thought is so disgusting, I can’t believe he’s said it out loud. But I only need to hold on for a tiny bit longer.
He leans in. As his lips press against mine, I bite down on the leaf. Then I open my mouth to kiss him deeper and press the broken leaf inside his mouth. I pull away.
‘What the—’ is all he has time to say before the leaf’s natural sap takes action. His lips stop moving mid-sentence, and his body stiffens like he’s been turned into a statue. I know that I’m only going to have a minute – if that – of a head start before the effect wears off and he comes after me. I grab his bag and the vial of memory from his hand, then run away from him as fast as I can.
I go against my instinct and run to the gaping hole in the floor. I swallow back the vertigo, find the remnants of the ladder, count to three, and swing my legs over. It’s a long climb down to the river and the sound of running water rushes in my ears. I’m barely a few feet down when the rung I’m on cracks and breaks.
I half-slide, half-fall down the rest of the rungs, my hands raw with rope burn, smashing the rotting rungs with my feet. I hit the cavern floor hard, my knees buckling. I break my fall with my hands on the slimy ground. The ladder is completely destroyed. At least they won’t be able to follow me that way.
I crawl to the edge of the underground river, and it looks far more fast-flowing than it had from up above. Not only that, but where I’d assumed the water flowed into darkness, there’s a thick rock wall. It’s not a river; it’s a whirlpool.
I’m trapped.
There’s a shout above me. Stefan must already be moving. Dammit, I thought I had longer.
Rock explodes above my head as Stefan launches a spell at me.
‘SAMANTHA!’ Emilia shrieks, and I know I only have one choice.
I loop the straps of the bag tightly around my arms, jump in the pool and let the current pull me under.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Samantha
TOSSING, TURNING, TUMBLING. I SPEND several terrifying moments trapped in the swirling current. Luckily for me, it is an underground river after all, and I’m pulled through a tunnel of rock.
Just as I think I won’t be able to hold on any longer, the tunnel opens out and I break the surface of the river, my lungs burning. It’s absolutely pitch black and I take a series of ragged breaths in the darkness. My legs flail but I can’t touch the bottom. Then, the current slows enough for me to feel like I’ve some control. I swim to one side and pull myself out of the water and onto a rocky ledge. I could kiss it, I’m so glad to be on land.
I don’t kiss it, but lie there breathing heavily. One side of my head throbs from where I bashed my head on the entrance to the tunnel. My hands are tender and my knees are wobbly. But I’m alive.
I fumble around my neck for the fairybug light, praying that it didn’t break off in the whirlpool. Thankfully, it’s still there. I balance it in the palm of my hand and it emits a small glow. What it shows me is not comforting. Cave, cave and more cave. I can reach up and touch the damp roof with my hands, and beyond my toes is the rushing river. I’m cold, wet, and shivering.
Still, I’m so grateful to have that tiny bit of light, enough to illuminate the space around me, that I burst into tears. I need to get it out before I bottle it all back in.
Pull yourself together, Sam. I need to take stock. I swing Stefan’s bag off my back. In it, I find his cellphone and a wallet with money in it. To my relief, the phone powers on. Of course, as a Royal, he has the very latest model – fully waterproof and capable of holding a decent charge. Unfortunately, there’s no signal down here. Thank the dragons for waterproof money too. I take half a second to feel bad for having robbed someone – until I remember that he is responsible for kidnapping me, holding me hostage, injuring my grandad and generally being a jackass. A bit of robbery is the least that he deserves.
I need to get somewhere I can use that cellphone.
I’m pretty reluctant to get back in the water, so I crawl as far as possible along the bank. I keep bashing my head and knees on jagged rocks, but I keep moving. Sometimes, I see remnants of human presence – like initials carved into the rock (what is it with students wanting to leave their initials everywhere?). I linger over where someone has carved ‘Z’ into the rock, my fingers tracing the indent.
I crawl further until the bank ends. Now I have no choice but to get in the water. I brace myself, then jump in again. The cold water wraps itself around me like a blanket. The current moves swiftly enough that I don’t have to swim to keep moving – I drift onto my back and float feet-first, so that my head isn’t the first thing to collide with whatever obstacles are ahead. I’m able to lift the fairybug light above the water and in fact, it becomes rather peaceful.
I tilt my head back and look up into the roof of the cave. To my surprise, it’s not completely pitch black. In fact, there are little pinpoints of light dangling from the ceiling – only one or two at first, and then hundreds of them. It’s mesmerising. I enclose the fairybug light in my fist to get an even better view. The lights dangling from the ceiling are a pale blue and soon the strands grow so thick, it’s like I’m travelling underneath a canopy of stars.
Glow-worm thread – for shock and for daydreaming; to root the potion-taker to Earth. Especially helpful if they are away in the clouds. Can also be used to make objects such as gloves.
Thinking about the ingredient calms me down.
The sound of rushing water interrupts my feeling of tranquillity, and I notice that I’m speeding up. I open my palm, urging the fairybug light to even greater brightness. I wish I hadn’t. All I see is the river in front of me tumbling off into somewhere unknown.
It’s too late for me to stop or scarper to the side; the current is too strong to swim against. Before I know it, I’ve reached the waterfall’s edge and all I can do is angle my body to make sure I go over feet first, squeeze my eyes shut, and take a really, really deep breath.
When I dare to open my eyes, I’ve washed up ashore not far from the base of the waterfall. Water pounds at an outcrop of rocks at its base and I can’t believe I’m still alive and no worse for wear. I stagger to my feet. There are more positives to being down at the base of the waterfall, like finally being able to stand up straight and see natural light. That can only mean one thing: an exit. There are two other openings as well, but they’re each as dark as the place I’ve come from. I choose the light.
‘Samantha!’ I hear my name from high up above my head. It’s Emilia. Already? I thought I had more time. I sprint to the exit.
‘Wait!’ she says. She jumps from the top of the waterfall, using her magic to break her fall.
I’ve only taken two paces when a spell hits me and I fall to the ground. When I look up, she’s next to me. She grabs my upper arm and yanks me to my feet. ‘We don’t have long,’ she says. She opens my palm and presses something inside. It’s
a large envelope, with bulky contents. She closes my fingers around it. ‘Inside is an emergency transport panel and something else you can use to find the diary before Prince Stefan can find you. I know you have no reason to trust me, but you must. I can’t get away from them. I’m in too deep. They want the cure, then the Novaen throne, and if you don’t get to your great-grandmother’s diary first, they’re going to take it. Now, there might be light but this is not the exit. Take the left-hand tunnel and follow it until you think it’s a dead-end. Just above your head will be a postbox-size opening: you can get through it. Then do what you need to do. I will delay them as long as I can but you won’t have much time. He knows about the Lake of Stars now. I know you don’t trust me, but think about your experience here. I’ve been trying to help you at every point along the way, including giving you all the tools you needed to make your escape. I brought you to the greenhouse so you could pocket that leaf. Think about that.’
There’s noise above us. ‘Go, go!’ she says.
I don’t want to trust her. I don’t know how I can, but then something in me snaps. I don’t have to have all the answers now – I just need to get through each moment alive, one at a time. Even if trusting my worst enemy is my only option.
I dive into the dark left-hand tunnel but I don’t completely follow her directions. I find a large rock on the floor with a jagged, pointed edge, and I put it into Stefan’s backpack. I then crawl into a crevice near the entrance. If Emilia betrays her word and sends the Prince after me, I’m going to come out swinging.
There are four more blasts of wind. Stefan, Ivan and two more heavyset men I don’t recognise come flying down the waterfall. ‘Quick, she went this way,’ Emilia says, pointing towards the light.
‘What are you standing around for then? Let’s move,’ says Stefan.
They run down the tunnel, leaving me alone on the left-hand side. I still can’t shift the feeling that this is some kind of trick, but the longer they run in the opposite direction, the more chance I have of getting away. I dump the rock from the bag and sprint down to the end of my chosen path. As Emilia said, it looks like a dead end. But above my head is a tiny gap that looks far too narrow for my body.
I hoist myself up. Okay, legs first. I clutch the bag tight to my stomach, then inch my way through the opening. It’s working! The rock closes in around my face, so I can feel the heat of my breath reflecting back at me. I focus on the tiny movements of my body, every millimetre a success. Claustrophobia claws at my skin, panic licking at the rational corner of my brain. Then, just as it threatens to be too much, my hips are through, and then the rest is easy.
Now, there’s light here. Sunlight streams through a hole in the ceiling, dark green creeping into the cave. I pull on a tree root to help me up and clamber out into the day.
I lie there, delirious with cold shivers from my still-wet clothes, and let the sun warm my face. I count down from fifteen, then I sit up, grab the phone, and dial the only ordinary person in the world I know who can get me through this.
Kirsty answers. ‘Stefan?’
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Samantha
I IMMEDIATELY HANG UP THE phone.
I sit there in shock for a few seconds.
That can only mean that Kirsty has Prince Stefan’s number. But why would that be? I don’t have time to think about it. But if she’s somehow connected to Prince Stefan . . . I can’t trust her either. Now I need to pick someone else to call. I desperately want to call Evelyn or Zain but Grandad’s words ring in my head. Only Talenteds can be impersonated by changeling potion. What if Emilia tricks me again? I need people I can trust implicitly, who will help me no matter what, who won’t question me when I ask them to join me on this crazy ride. And they need to be ordinary.
Nervously, I dial another number. After a few rings, the person I’ve been waiting for picks up.
‘Hello?’
‘Anita? Don’t freak out. This is a Molly-and-the-Unicorn level emergency. Do you hear me?’
There’s a mad scramble and I hear a door lock shut. ‘Sam?’ Her voice chokes as she speaks to me. ‘But I thought . . . the news says . . .’
‘I know. But I’m okay. I promise I can explain everything. But first, I need you to listen. I need your help.’
‘Anything,’ she says, without a moment’s pause, and my heart explodes with love and gratitude.
‘I was kidnapped by Emilia, but under the order of Prince Stefan.’
‘What?!’ Anita screeches down the phone. ‘Where are you?’
‘Right now, I don’t exactly know. Somewhere in Gergon. I’m outside the Visir School – tell Arjun, he’ll have heard of it.’
‘Does this mean I can bring Arjun in on this too?’
‘Yes,’ I say. I trust Anita’s brother Arjun as much as I do Anita, and if I won’t have Kirsty’s Finding skills to draw on then his are the next best thing. ‘But no one else. We can’t trust anyone who is Talented. Emilia is a master at changeling potions and that makes anyone who is Talented a risk.’
‘Okay,’ says Anita. ‘So what can I do? How can I get you home?’
‘I can’t go home yet. I’ve been hunting for my great-grandmother’s potion diary. I believe that she hid the recipe for an aqua vitae in it.’ I hear Anita gasp, but I keep going. ‘I need you to get to Runustan as quickly as you can – to the village of Lake Karst. There’s a woman there called Nadya Ivanov. She has special dispensation for a transport screen – the only one inside Runustan at the moment. She can help you get there quickly. Tell her I sent you. Can you do that? I’ll meet you there.’
Anita’s teeth are chattering down the line, a sure sign of her stress. ‘Sam, I don’t know . . . your parents are devastated; Zain’s transporting all around the world looking for you; the Royal family are in a state of panic. They haven’t stopped searching for you – and they’re properly freaking out. If you’re safe, why don’t you just come home and then we can figure all of this out from here?’
‘I’m safe, but my family isn’t. Heck, Nova isn’t. If I go home now, I’ll be putting everyone at risk.’ My voice rises into a high-pitched squeak. I keep looking over my shoulder, fearing that at any moment Emilia or Prince Stefan is going to come bursting out of the woods behind me. ‘If you don’t help me, I’ll do it alone.’
‘Okay, okay!’ She takes two deep breaths, then continues. ‘Sam, how are you going to get to Runustan?’
‘Let me worry about that.’ Do I trust what Emilia has given me? Once again, I don’t think I have a choice.
‘Sam, I love you. Be safe. We’ll make up an excuse and meet you there.’
‘I love you too.’ The words choke me. Then I hang up and throw the phone down into the water before I can change my mind, in case it has a tracking device. I pull out the emergency transport panel and fold it out on the ground. Its mirrored surface reflects back the top of the trees that surround us. It looks harmless, but I know it’s not. I swallow hard. Will I be able to transport over this huge distance without it killing me?
I stand up and step away from it, not able to build up the courage straight away.
I take the other strange object out of the envelope and examine it in my hand. I’m not quite sure what this is. It feels like it’s made of glass, or maybe some kind of crystal. Inside, there’s another object, but I can’t quite make out what it is in the darkness. I bring it out into the light of my fairybug.
Then I almost throw it away.
Encased in the crystal is a swirling galaxy. It’s filled with stars, with streaks of crimson and violet and indigo running through it. It’s unmistakable. It’s a centaur’s eye.
An eye encased in the glass.
Take this and use it to find the diary, Emilia had said. Use the centaur eye?
Centaur eye – the first synth ingredient ever made. Key ingredients in potions to aid seizures (especially those with accompanying visions) or to help find things that are lost.
My head swims with p
otions. But even though it could possibly give me all the answers I need, I can’t use the eye now that I’ve met the centaurs. They might have tried to kill me – but it didn’t make me less in awe of them. This eye needs to be returned – so they can bury it with the centaur who died to provide it. It wouldn’t feel right to use it.
I wonder why Emilia hasn’t used the eye to find the diary already. But then I remember: centaurs can sense intention. Maybe that goes for the eye too? If it can sense Emilia’s evil plans for the diary, it might attempt to thwart her – rather than help her.
I place the eye inside Prince Stefan’s backpack. Then I take a cautious step back towards the transport screen. I try to think how I’ve seen others do it. I put my hand on it and say, ‘Nadya Ivanov, Lake Karst.’
Within a moment, Nadya’s face appears on the screen. Her eyes widen as she recognises me. ‘Your friends weren’t joking when they said you didn’t want to waste any time.’
I feel a rush of gratitude at Anita for moving so quickly. ‘Nadya, can you help me?’
‘Of course,’ she says. ‘I’ll grab one of the techs.’ For a moment, I hesitate. Nadya’s transport technicians are also Talented. But can I really be suspicious of every Talented person in the world? Emilia couldn’t have got to all of them. If you escape, you cannot trust anyone Talented. My brain flip-flops on the decision. ‘If you come through now, your friends will follow shortly,’ says Nadya.
The tech pushes his hands through the screen. I decide to take the leap, give him my hands, and am pulled through the glass.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Samantha
‘I AM ONLY HELPING YOU because your friend made it clear that this is an emergency.’ Nadya’s arms are folded across her chest, her dark brown eyes narrowed.