She looked over at his handsome face and felt like crying. She had been happy enough for most of her life without him, and yet it seemed impossible to imagine now.
He raised his eyebrows at her, and she shook her head, pushing the thoughts away. They had a battle to stop and people to save. She couldn’t afford to give in to her own emotions now.
“We go in together, then,” she said. “Find out what’s happening and decide how to proceed from there.”
It was the flimsiest plan possible, and she could hardly believe she was suggesting it. But they were out of ideas and out of time, and the only other option was to stay outside and do nothing.
Rafe sighed and agreed, clearly as unhappy as she was about their lack of strategy.
Together they stepped forward into the clearing and proceeded without interruption into the cave system. No one was in sight.
Marie looked in the direction of the dining cavern, but she couldn’t hear any sounds coming from it.
“Listen,” said Rafe, “voices.”
As soon as he said it, Marie heard them. The indistinct chatter of many people talking at once echoed confusingly around the cave. It took her a moment to identify the direction of the sound.
“The meeting cavern,” she said. “R must have called a meeting.”
She and Rafe shared a significant look. “He must have wanted them all together,” said Rafe, “to reinforce the enchantment. After his being away for so long.”
Marie sighed. All her efforts to detach the rebels from R’s influence would be wiped out, just like that.
Before they could move, the sound of feet reverberated through the cave entryway, followed almost immediately by the first of the rebels. The trickle of young people quickly became a stream. They took no notice of Rafe or Marie, and most of the faces were unfamiliar.
“The group from Northgate,” Rafe murmured to Marie, and she nodded her agreement.
The new rebels seemed cheerful enough, but Marie noticed they were mostly going in the same direction. Her eyes widened.
“The armoury.”
Rafe followed the direction of her gaze and let out a quiet curse. “Training session?”
“Maybe…” Marie had a bad feeling. “Come on,” she said, “we need to keep moving.”
The flow of people kept growing, and she started to recognise some of the faces. “I think we should split up. You go find Lisa and Danny and any of the others from Greenwood that you can. If we have any chance of convincing anyone, it’s them. I’m going to find R. See if I can convince him to stand down.”
Rafe looked alarmed. “I’m coming with you, then.”
Marie shook her head. “I’ll have a much better chance on my own.” She didn’t add that she wanted to keep Rafe as far away from R as she could.
Before he could protest any further, she took off into the caves, moving against the tide of rebels. Several of them called out greetings to her. She waved to each one but didn’t stop. By the time she reached the meeting cavern, it was almost empty. She looked around for R but could see no sign of him.
Instead, her eyes fell on Peter. She stiffened.
He lingered up at the front of the cavern. Perhaps he had helped R lead the meeting. She tried to remind herself that he was under R’s enchantment, but she couldn’t help contrasting his behaviour and attitude with Danny or Lisa’s. And R himself had said he didn’t order Peter to lay waste to Greenwood. No, clearly his natural temperament and inclinations aligned with those of R.
Peter caught sight of her, and his eyes narrowed, but he didn’t approach her.
Marie forced herself to cross the large space and address him. “Where’s R?”
“Gone.”
“Gone where?”
Peter smirked, and Marie felt sure he knew where R was.
“He left straight after the meeting.” Peter’s grin got bigger. “He didn’t say where he was going. When he couldn’t find you, he told me to take charge until he returned.”
“Fine, did he say when he would be back?” She didn’t have time to quibble with Peter.
“No.”
Marie turned around and walked away without another word. What was R up to? Why had he disappeared? Did he know the attack was coming? Was he planning to leave the rebels to face the soldiers alone? She was terribly afraid the answer was yes.
Hurrying back through the caves, she looked for Rafe, hoping he might have made some progress with Danny and Lisa. They had seemed so disconnected from R last time she had seen them, but she hardly dared to hope they would be the same way now.
There were faces everywhere, but she could see no sign of him in the ocean of rebels. She noted with foreboding that most of them now seemed to be armed. They milled around the caves, full of energy but little organisation. She pushed through them, still searching.
When she finally caught sight of Rafe, his face had the first trace of hope she’d seen in it since they found the message in Greenwood. Her spirits lifted, he must have had success with Danny and Lisa. She looked around for them, but they were nowhere to be seen.
“Where are Danny and Lisa?” she asked.
Rafe shook his head. “I couldn’t find them. I spoke to some of the others from Greenwood, but the conversation went nowhere. The enchantment is back in full force, and R has ordered them to prepare for an attack. They laughed off any suggestion of danger and got offended at the slightest criticism of R. We’re not going to talk anyone around.”
Marie’s hopes deflated. “I couldn’t even find R,” she said. “Which means we’re no closer to stopping this madness. I can’t imagine why you’re smiling.”
Rafe’s smile grew broader. “Because none of that matters anymore. I know how to defeat R.”
Part 3 - Rebellion
Chapter 26
“A godmother!?!” Marie looked around the small cave Rafe had pulled her into, but there was no sign of wings anywhere.
“She already left. I was searching through the caves looking for Danny and Lisa, and I found her instead.”
“My godmother?” Marie asked, still trying to wrap her head around it.
Rafe shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never met your godmother. I suppose it could be the same one.”
“You mean you have a godmother?”
He smiled his usual, charming grin. “I am a third son off seeking adventure, remember,” he said. “Is it so surprising?”
“No, I guess not, when you put it like that.” Marie spoke slowly.
“She said she was sent because things had reached a crisis point.” The words seemed to echo those of Marie’s godmother. “She said that in order to break R’s enchantment, we need to discover his name. Apparently, it’s part of the bargain he made to extend his life. All of his power is bound up in his name. All we have to do is speak it aloud in the vicinity of the enchantment, and all of the power will be gone.”
“In the vicinity of the enchantment? So you mean if we walk up to Lisa and Danny and say R’s true name, they’ll simply wake up from his bewitchment?”
“Exactly.”
“All right, then. How do we find his name?”
“That, she didn’t say.”
Marie stared at him incredulously. “She didn’t say? My mother has spent years and years searching for his name without success! And she has all the resources of a queen available to her. The attack could come at any moment! How in the world are we supposed to find his name in the next few minutes?”
Rafe bit his lip and looked worried. “I asked her if she could tell me the name, or at least how to find it, but she said we have to work that out for ourselves. Apparently that’s part of the enchantment too. It won’t work if she just gives us the answer.” He thought for a minute. “We do have an advantage over your mother, though.”
“Oh, really? What’s that?”
“We’re here, where R lives. There must be a clue here somewhere.”
Marie wished she could share his optimism. After a mom
ent of consideration, however, she couldn’t come up with any better idea.
“All right, then,” she said. “Let’s go to R’s cave.”
She led them back out into the main caves. A few rebels still milled about, but most of them must have trickled outside while Rafe and Marie talked. Ignoring them, Marie headed for R’s personal cave.
“Don’t expect much,” she warned Rafe as they hurried through the stone corridors, “it’s very impersonal.”
She slid to a stop as they reached the right cave. Rafe caught her before she could lose her balance, and they both rushed straight in.
Marie’s eyes raced around the space, not sure if she dreaded or hoped that she would see R. Only silence and stillness greeted them.
It looked just like she remembered from her previous visit – the same stools, the same pallet, and the same chest.
“The chest!” She pointed at it. “It’s the only place anything could be concealed.”
Rafe nodded and knelt in front of it. He reached out towards the clasp.
“Wait!” Marie’s voice rang through the space between them.
Rafe paused, his hand suspended in the air.
“If there is anything in there, you need to be careful. We know R uses enchanted objects. He may have left something to guard his possessions.” Marie moved forward, intending to join him, but Rafe waved for her to stay back.
“I’ll be careful,” he said. “But it’s better if you stay back, just in case.”
Marie opened her mouth to protest, but he gave her a stern look. She sighed and silently acknowledged that he was right. If there was an enchantment, it would do no good for them both to be caught in it.
She held her breath as Rafe reached out again, more tentatively this time, and opened the chest. He looked inside and then carefully stretched his arm down to feel the contents.
After the briefest examination, he sat back with a snort of disgust. “No need to guard this chest.”
Marie sighed. It would have been too good to be true anyway. Too easy. “Are you sure?” She didn’t want to leave any stone unturned. “There aren’t any hidden compartments or anything?”
Rafe reached back into the chest and pulled out two blankets, several sets of clothes and a pair of boots that he threw onto the floor of the cave. Once the chest was empty, he examined the inside and then rocked back to examine the outside.
He shook his head. “Not that I can see. The inside dimensions seem to match the outside.”
Marie chewed on her tongue as she looked wildly around the cave. R had told her that she was always welcome there, but she had avoided the place. And she had been highly distracted during her single visit. Perhaps she had missed something.
Nothing leapt out at her.
While Rafe dismantled the pallet, she moved around the room, idly examining the stone walls.
“Rafe!”
He looked up, surrounded by the destruction of R’s sleeping space.
“Come over here!”
He leapt to his feet and was beside her in seconds. Together, they stared at the opening in the far corner of the room. A natural passageway extended out from the opposite side of the cave to the main entrance.
“I don’t understand how I didn’t see it before…” Marie shook her head at her poor observation.
“No, it’s understandable enough,” said Rafe. “The shape of the walls, and the way the light falls, masks it almost completely. Take a couple of steps backwards and it’s almost invisible.”
Marie did as he suggested and shook her head in amazement at how well camouflaged the opening was.
“It’s dark in there,” she said, and then wished she hadn’t. She sounded afraid.
Rafe took several steps into the passageway and then turned back to her with a shrug. “There’s enough light to see. Just.”
She took a deep breath and followed him.
The rock walls of this hidden path seemed much rougher than the stone that lined the rest of the cave system. As if whoever had constructed the whole thing had added this extra space as a hasty after thought.
They hadn’t gone far before the path curved abruptly, and they lost all sight of the entrance back into R’s cave. A minute later, it turned again and then widened to become a small cave. Unlike the passageway, this cavern had the same ventilation holes as the rest of the cave system. Marie felt secretly glad for the increase in light and the fresher air. The stale darkness of the passageway had unnerved her.
Once again, the first thing Marie did was scan for any sign of R. This time, she felt nothing but relief at his absence. She couldn’t imagine he would welcome finding them in his secret retreat.
At first glance, the contents of the space seemed unexciting. A table and a single chair stood in the centre of the room. Marie crossed over to look at the papers resting on top of it. A large map that showed the capital and a large region of the forest, including their current location, took up most of the space.
Villages had been marked with notations next to them. Recruit numbers, she assumed. Troop movements were also noted, and she called out to Rafe, pointing at how close the royal guard had come to the cave system. R must have been here updating the map recently.
Rafe joined her and leaned over the table, examining the map. He quickly picked up and leafed through the rest of the papers on the table before letting them drop to the floor. He shook his head, muttering to himself too quietly for Marie to hear.
Moving away from the table, he strode to the far edge of the room and knelt before another chest, identical to the one in R’s sleeping cavern. Marie turned to watch him.
He moved more quickly this time, throwing back the lid of the chest without pausing. He reached inside and then froze.
“Marie.” His voice sounded strangled.
“What is it?” She rushed towards him.
“Stop, don’t come any closer.”
She also froze, and they stared at each other across the short distance.
“What is it?” she asked again.
“I don’t know, but I can’t move.” Rafe’s flat expression and emotionless tone were so different from his normal liveliness that they conveyed his terror more effectively than fear would have done.
For a long moment they remained in their respective positions.
Finally, Marie snorted and continued towards Rafe. “Whatever it is, I can’t do any good all the way over there.”
“Well, don’t touch me – or the chest!”
She shook her head. “I’m not stupid.”
“Sorry.” The strain sounded in his voice. “I know you’re not.”
She knelt beside him, careful not to let even her clothes brush against anything and peered into the chest. It contained a large stack of empty parchment, several stacks of books and a couple of pouches that looked like they might contain gold.
It all looked harmless.
Marie stared helplessly up at Rafe, who watched her with concern in his eyes, and then glanced down his arm to where his hand rested inside the chest.
She gave a small shriek.
Chapter 27
“What?” Rafe followed the direction of her gaze. “Oh.”
“Does… does it hurt?” Marie was almost afraid to ask.
“No, I can’t feel it at all.” The curious interest in Rafe’s voice gave Marie a small measure of reassurance.
She could only just see that his hand rested against a small bottle of ink. She glanced over at the bottle on the table. It looked similar but not identical.
The ink from the chest had begun to creep out of the bottle and onto Rafe. It had already nearly covered his hand and had started up his arm. It looked thick and black and unlike any ink she had ever seen.
It looked like darkness in physical form. It looked like magic.
“Well, I guess we found his guarding enchantment,” said Rafe. “Which means we must have found something of value.”
“What will happen when it reaches your
head?” Marie kept her voice steady, forcing herself to consider the issue dispassionately.
“I don’t know about you,” said Rafe, with something of his normal charm, “but personally, I’d rather not find out.”
“You can’t pull your hand out?” The answer seemed obvious, but Marie couldn’t help asking the question.
“I can’t move anything but my head. The rest of me is completely frozen.”
“Hmmm. Then I guess we’d better find out R’s name so we can break the enchantment.”
Marie reached into the chest.
“Don’t!”
She shook her head at Rafe without stopping. “I’m not going to touch you or that bottle, but I’m also not going to sit back and let you be swallowed up by that… ink.” She shuddered as she said the word. “There’s nothing else in the room. If there are any clues, they have to be in here.”
She ignored the stack of parchment, but pulled everything else out of the chest. Stacking it on the floor a safe distance away from Rafe, she quickly looked through the pouches. She had been right. They contained gold and several jewels. They looked ordinary enough, but she carefully avoided touching any of the gems, just in case.
The books presented a more difficult challenge. It would take her hours and hours to read through them all.
She glanced back at Rafe and saw that the ink now covered most of his arm. Apparently, the bottle held a limitless supply. He was still frozen in a kneeling position before the chest, but his head was strained as far away from his ink-covered arm as possible.
“Don’t look at it,” he said, his voice quiet.
She tore her eyes away from the slowly creeping ink and looked at his face.
“Just focus on your task.”
His words steadied her. She swallowed and nodded, turning back to the books. She would never be able to read them all. If one of them contained R’s true name, then she needed a clue to direct her where to look.
“Hello? Hello? Is there someone out there?” The voice sounded rough and faint.
Marie’s head jerked up. She looked first at Rafe and then toward the source of the sound. The words had definitely come from the passageway, which didn’t end in the cave but continued on from the opposite wall. It must curve again, though, because she could only make out a short stretch of stone.
The Princess Pact: A Twist on Rumpelstiltskin (The Four Kingdoms Book 3) Page 18