by Beth Bracken
Lucy
I know Soli is here. I don’t know where, but I can feel her in this castle somewhere.
I leave the closet, the necklace I found around my neck, the pendant clasped in my hand.
There’s noise in a room down the hall. I think I hear Soli’s voice, and Caro’s, and her father’s.
“Soli?” I whisper.
I head toward the room. The voices get louder. I think Soli is crying.
And just as I reach for the doorknob, I look up.
I’m no longer standing inside the Crows’ palace. My vision is clear and my fever is gone.
I’m in Mearston, at my own house, and the door has opened and my mother stands there.
Soli
I had to choose.
“Both was never an option,” Georg told me, and as soon as he did I knew he was wrong.
I could save both of them. So I chose.
“I have made my choice,” I told him.
Kheelan grabbed my hand. “You must choose to save Lucy,” he said. “I have promised to die to protect you.”
I held on to his strong fingers, and then I let his hand go.
I could not look at him.
I knew Lucy was nearby. I felt more connected to her than ever. Something was pulling us together, like magnets.
My head felt clear.
I felt strong.
“We are waiting, your majesty,” Georg said with a sneer.
“I need a moment with the queen,” said Jonn.
He pulled me aside.
“You don’t have to choose,” Jonn whispered. “We can fight Georg, and we might beat him.”
“He’s strong,” I whispered back. “We can’t beat him.”
“We can send for help,” he said.
“What did my mother do?” I asked. “Didn’t he make her choose?”
Jonn sighed.
“I don’t know how much of the story I’m allowed to tell,” he said. “She told me all of it in confidence. Not because I was her guard, but because. Well. Because we were—”
“You must tell me,” I said. “Remember? You work for the queen. And now I am the queen.”
He nodded. “I know that I must. You are the queen. But my loyalty to your mother did go beyond my post as guard.”
“I get that,” I said. “I know. I can tell that you loved her. I can tell that you don’t want to betray her. You still have to tell me. I need to know what this man has done before.”
He nodded again, slowly, and then he told me.
“He made her choose which sister would be sent home,” he told me. “Andria, who was becoming a Crow, or Calandra, who wanted to save her.”
“And she chose to save Andria,” I said.
Jonn nodded. “She chose to stay.”
“Why isn’t he asking me to make the same choice?” I asked, but as soon as I asked it, I knew.
Georg expected me to choose to save Lucy.
He thought I would choose Lucy, and Kheelan would die.
Then he would make me choose again. Lucy’s sickness would still need to be cured. As payment, he would ask me to leave the faerieground.
And then my kingdom would be left for the Crows to take.
“We are waiting,” Georg said again.
I could still feel Lucy’s presence in the castle. She was alive. She would be safe.
I straightened my back.
I looked at Georg.
“Have I changed your mind?” Jonn whispered.
“No,” I said. “I’ve still made my choice.”
“I cannot protect you if you’ve chosen against our kingdom,” Jonn said.
“I choose myself,” I told Georg.
He frowned. “What do you mean?” he asked.
I could tell that I’d surprised him. Things weren’t going according to his plan.
“I choose myself,” I said again. “Like my mother did.”
Then I reached up and touched the stone in my crown, and in one wish, I wished Kheelan home to the kingdom, and I wished Jonn home to the kingdom, and I wished Lucy home to her mother.
And now I am here with the Crows, all alone.
Lucy
My mother is glad to see me, of course. She hasn’t slept since I left.
I tell her everything that’s happened since we left. It’s only been a few days, but so much has happened.
My sickness. The trip to the Ladybirds. How Caro took me. And then how I was in the Crows’ palace, and how suddenly, I was home.
“I’m so glad you’re safe,” she says. “I don’t understand, though. How did you get home?”
I shrug. “I don’t know,” I admit. The pendant still hangs around my neck. I pull it out. “I think it might have something to do with this.”
She gasps when she sees it.
“Where did you find that?” she asks.
“In the Crows’ palace,” I say.
She is quiet, looking at the necklace. “Mom, I know about you,” I say. “How you went to the faerieground and everything.”
“You don’t know everything,” she says. “Some things only I know.”
And she stares out the window and into the forest.
Soli
Because I am a queen, they don’t put me in the prison cells.
They won’t sink so low.
They have manners.
“Unlike your people, who tossed me—a princess—into a prison cell,” Caro says, bringing me my supper. “We treat royalty with kindness here.”
“In a locked room?” I mutter.
She tosses her hair. “Kindness. Not freedom,” she says.
That’s a fair point.
I understand.
“But it wasn’t me who locked you in that cell,” I say.
She rolls her eyes. “I know that,” she says. “But it was your people. That’s how things are here. You have so much to learn.”
It seems like I’ll have lots of time to learn, too.
Soli
I sent Kheelan and Jonn away, knowing they will take care of my kingdom.
I sent Lucy home, knowing that she’ll be safe at home with her mother.
And she won’t be able to come back, not without me.
So I am all alone with the Crows.
Caro slams out of the room.
The wooden door shakes, and I hear a key turn in the lock.
They think I’ll try to escape. There’s a guard outside my door.
But I won’t.
I have the feeling there’s something here I need to learn.
Something I have to do. A missing piece of an important puzzle.
The food Caro brought isn’t prison food.
A thick slice of meat. A bowl of salad and a cup of soup. A hunk of bread and a plate of cheese. A little cake topped with berries.
It occurs to me that the food might be poisoned, but I think they know they can’t kill me.
If they kill me, someone else in my kingdom will become the leader.
But while I’m here, I’m the queen, and the kingdom is leaderless.
Except for Jonn, who will do the right thing.
I want to stay strong while I’m here, so I eat. Every bite.
Then I lie back on my bed and stare at the wall. The walls in this room are made of polished gray stones, so dark they’re almost black.
There’s not much else in the room, besides the bed—a chair, a little chest of drawers.
I get up and open the drawers. Inside are some clothes. A nightgown, a soft pair of pants, a few cotton dresses, even some underwear.
Everything seems to be for a girl who’s older and taller than me.
Underneath the underwear there’s a gray T-shirt. Printed on the front of the shirt are th
e words “Mearston Meteors.”
That’s the team name at the high school in the town where Lucy and I live.
And then I realize these must have been my mother’s things.
She must have stayed in this room.
Shocked by this new knowledge, I go back to the bed and sit down.
Then I stare at the stones that make up the wall.
I remember the last thing she said to me.
“Remember to always turn the stones.”
I thought it was gibberish. The last words of a dying woman. I didn’t think it meant anything. I didn’t even bother asking Jonn if he knew.
But maybe it wasn’t gibberish. Maybe it did mean something.
Maybe it was a message.
A clue.
I stand again, walk to the wall.
I move my hands over the stones. One sticks out farther than the others, and I try to turn it, but it doesn’t move.
I keep trying, touching all of the stones.
Finally, one shifts when I touch it, and I am able to wrench my fingers around it and turn it until it comes loose.
Behind the stone, there’s a little hole.
And in the hole is a folded piece of a paper.
I pick up the paper. Underneath it is a key, which I slip into my pocket.
When I unfold the paper, dried four-leaf clovers fall to the floor. I scoop them up and put them in my pocket, too.
Calandra
I write this to the next girl who sleeps in this bed, who waits within these walls.
I know I won’t be the last person to come to this room. Whether I do what they ask or not, they’ll take another prisoner. They’ll pretend to treat her kindly. They’ll feed her delicious food and fatten her up and let her lose her fear. Then they’ll tell her what she has to do.
Oh, I have so many questions and no time for answers.
How can I kill someone? How can I pretend to love someone and then kill him? How could Andria want to be here, want to be with these people? How could she be in love with that awful man? He doesn’t love her.
Do not trust the Crows. Do not believe them when they tell you they’ll keep you safe. Do not care about them. Don’t even try. Not even if someone you love begs you to try. The key unlocks your door. Someone I trust gave it to me. But before you turn it, you must be ready to go. I didn’t have time to make a plan. I have to come up with something, something that will work. Or I have to kill the man they want me to kill.
Good luck to you. That’s what the clovers are for. Maybe you’ll have magic on your side. I’m just a girl. I don’t have much hope.
Calandra
“Hope is the thing with feathers—”
— Emily Dickinson
Beth & Kay
Kay Fraser and Beth Bracken are a designer-editor team in Minnesota.
Kay is from Buenos Aires. She left home at eighteen and moved to North Dakota—basically the exact opposite of Argentina. These days, she designs books, writes, makes tea for her husband, and drives her daughters to their dance lessons.
Beth lives in a light-filled house with her husband and their son, Sam. She spends her time editing books, reading, daydreaming, and rearranging her furniture.
Kay and Beth both love dark chocolate, Buffy, and tea.
Odessa
Odessa Sawyer is an illustrator from Santa Fe, New Mexico. She works mainly in digital mixed media, utilizing digital painting, photography, and traditional pen and ink.
Odessa’s work has graced the book covers of many top publishing houses, and she has also done work for various film and television projects, posters, and album covers.
Highly influenced by fantasy, fairy tales, fashion, and classic horror, Odessa’s work celebrates a whimsical, dreamy, and vibrant quality.
FAERIEGROUND IS PUBLISHED BY CAPSTONE YOUNG READERS
A CAPSTONE IMPRINT
1710 ROE CREST DRIVE
NORTH MANKATO, MINNESOTA 56003
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COPYRIGHT © 2013 BY CAPSTONE YOUNG READERS
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED IN WHOLE OR IN PART, OR STORED IN A RETRIEVAL SYSTEM, OR TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY MEANS, ELECTRONIC, MECHANICAL, PHOTOCOPYING, RECORDING, OR OTHERWISE, WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE PUBLISHER.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA IS AVAILABLE ON THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WEBSITE.
ISBN: 978-1-62370-010-2 (HARDCOVER)
ISBN: 978-1-62370-091-1 (EBOOK)
SUMMARY: BACK IN FAERIEGROUND, SOLI MUST LEAD HER KINGDOM TO SAFETY. BUT LACY BECOMES ILL, AND HER WELLBEING IS HER BEST FRIEND'S FIRST PRIORITY, EVEN IF IT MEANS SACRIFICING THE CROWN.
THIS BOOK IS ALSO AVAILABLE AS FOUR LIBRARY-BOUND EDITIONS:
AT THE EDGE OF THE WOOODS 978-1-4342-4489-5
A MURDER OF CROWS 978-1-4342-4491-8
THE TWO MOTHERS 978-1-4342-4490-1
THE FATE OF THE WILLOW QUEEN 978-1-4342-4492-5
BOOK DESIGN BY K. FRASER
ALL PHOTOS © SHUTTERSTOCK WITH THESE EXCEPTIONS:
AUTHOR PORTRAIT © K FRASER
ILLUSTRATOR PORTRAIT © ODESSA SAWYER