“Not secure enough,” said Hort. “What we need is a squirrelly nut.”
“For all we know, squirrels are on Rhian’s side too,” Kiko pipped.
“What’s a squirrelly nut?” Nicola butted in.
More first years vanished into the waterfall with them—Aja, Valentina, Bossam, Bert, Beckett—with Ravan, Vex, Mona, Dot, Anadil, and others surging through the exit too, until there was no one left in the throne room except the cat king and the three who knew him best: Tedros, his princess, and his nemesis.
The last of the three yawned. “Lovely, everything’s settled,” Sophie sighed against the velvet wall, forcing fireflies to march around her. “I’m going to have a cucumber salad, draw myself a foam bath, and take a long, warm nap.”
“That won’t be happening,” said Reaper, slipping Sophie’s necklace around his own neck. “You three have the most difficult assignment of all. That’s why I saved it for when we could be alone. Because it is the ultimate mission. The mission that supersedes all the others. The mission that must be accomplished if Tedros is to reclaim his crown.”
Sophie pursed her lips, eyeing Agatha.
But the cat was only looking at the prince.
“You must find out why Excalibur wouldn’t pull out of the stone for you,” he said.
Reaper turned to Agatha and Sophie. “And both of you must help him.”
“That isn’t a mission. That’s a dead end,” said Tedros, shaking his head. “I tried to pull the sword. I tried everything. And then a stranger pulls it in one go. I asked Merlin and he didn’t have answers either, except for some crackpot riddle telling me to ‘unbury’ my father. I’ve racked my brain to understand it, any of it, but there’s nothing to understand. Because none of it makes sense! How am I supposed to know what Excalibur was thinking? How am I supposed to learn a sword’s state of mind?”
“The same way Merlin and Professor Dovey did before their work was interrupted,” said Reaper.
His eyes glowed—instantly, the bag on Agatha’s shoulder yanked open and the crystal ball flew out, landing snugly in the cat’s paws.
“Because while you were on your fourth-year quests, Merlin and Clarissa Dovey were on a quest of their own,” the cat explained, holding up the glass orb. “Namely, using Dovey’s crystal ball to find out why Tedros failed his coronation test. Turns out breaking a crystal ball allows you to do things that a normal crystal ball does not. A working crystal ball is a window to time. But Merlin and Dovey discovered quite accidentally that a broken crystal ball is more than a window . . .” Reaper leaned forward. “It’s a portal.”
“A portal?” Sophie and Agatha said.
“A portal you three will now enter together,” Reaper clarified. “The risks are steep. We’ve seen its effects on Good’s Dean.” He looked at Tedros. “But entering the crystal world is the only way you’ll ever learn the truth about your father, your sword, and your fate.”
“What do you mean, ‘crystal world’?” Agatha said, flummoxed. “There’s a world . . . inside the crystal ball?”
“A world bigger than you could possibly know,” Reaper said.
Tedros frowned. “This doesn’t make sense. How do you know what’s inside Dovey’s crystal?”
“How do you know what Merlin and Dovey saw?” Sophie asked.
“How could you know what they saw?” Agatha pressed.
Reaper grinned. “Isn’t it obvious?” he said, his voice a teasing drawl.
The cat’s pupils deepened like black holes.
“I went with them.”
19
AGATHA
Into the Crystal World
Agatha watched the crystal ball sink into the water.
“Nothing’s happening,” said Tedros, next to her.
“Good, because if you expect me to get wet again . . . ,” Sophie huffed, still soggy in her white dress.
Agatha turned to her cat. “You said the portal opens when the crystal is underwater—”
“And turned on,” said Reaper.
Their voices echoed through the Crown Royal Regis’ bathroom, appointed with a grooming station of jeweled brushes, fragrant oils, and milky creams, along with a sparkle-dusted sand litterbox and a heated blue-stone bathing tub, big enough for an army of cats, the steamy water sprinkled with orange blossoms. When Reaper had shown them into the room, lit by panels made of blue and orange fireflies, Agatha had been mystified. The Reaper she knew itched with fleas, peed exclusively on gravestones, and nearly killed her the one time she’d tried to clean him.
“It’s my father’s old bathroom,” Reaper explained, seeing her face. He climbed onto the edge of the tub. “This is the first time I’ve been in here.”
Now Agatha watched as her cat finished sinking Dovey’s crystal into the hot bath, mist rising off the surface. The orb drifted down and settled on the blue-stone floor, the crack in its glass refracting through water, seeming bigger than its actual size.
Agatha, meanwhile, felt like she had a crack in her head. Dovey dead . . . Reaper, a king . . . the crystal ball a portal into a secret world . . . Tension pounded through her skull, her lungs sucked of air as if she was already underwater—
Tedros touched her arm. “You okay?”
She gazed up at him, then at Sophie and Reaper, both assessing her.
Agatha wanted to say no . . . that it was all moving too fast . . . that she wanted to turn the story back to a time when life had no magic, no secrets . . . to a time when she had a home . . . a mother . . .
But then, as she took in her best friend, her prince, and her cat, Agatha realized she had another family now. A family she’d chosen. And after all they’d been through, to be with that family again, no matter how daunting the challenges ahead . . . it was all Agatha needed to wrench out of the past and find the present.
“You said the crystal is a portal,” said Agatha, composing herself. “A portal into what?”
“Merlin called it a ‘crystal of time,’” said Reaper vaguely, skirting the edge of the tub. “We must get started—”
“How did Merlin and Dovey discover the portal?” Tedros cut in.
“I told you. By accident,” said Reaper impatiently. “After you failed to pull Excalibur, Merlin and Dovey tried to use her crystal ball to understand why. Given how poorly you were treating Agatha after your botched coronation, I wanted you to pull the sword soon, for her sake, so I joined Merlin and Clarissa in their efforts. At first we had little luck. But during the summer, Professor Dovey’s office grows insufferably hot. Studying the ball one night before Dovey activated it, Merlin left a sweaty handprint on the crack in the glass. The crack grew softer, the glass spongy. The change made Merlin curious. So he and Dovey put the ball in the Groom Room pool to see what would happen when the Dean turned it on. Now, if there are no more questions, it’s time to get into the bath.”
Agatha studied the dull orb, motionless underwater. What happened when Dovey turned it on? Her heart drummed. What happens when I turn it on?
“That’s what they were up to this whole time. Merlin and Dovey,” Tedros realized, peering into the water. “They were going inside her crystal ball. It’s what was making Dovey sick.”
“Deathly sick. And now you want us to do the same thing?” Sophie challenged Reaper.
“It’s too dangerous,” Tedros agreed.
“The secret of why Tedros couldn’t pull Excalibur is inside that crystal. Then again, maybe there is no secret. Maybe Rhian is the real king,” said Reaper, holding up his paw when Tedros started to protest. “But the only way we’ll know for sure is to cross the portal. Too much is at stake to leave the question of why the sword recognized Rhian instead of Tedros unanswered. The fate of Camelot, the Storian, and our world depend on that answer. Merlin and Dovey were close to finding it, but they ran out of time. Since Agatha is Dovey’s Second, it is our duty to finish their work. No matter the risks.”
Agatha looked at Tedros.
He was quiet now.
Agatha was already climbing into the steam bath, the sweet-scented water flooding under her dress, warming the sore spots on her skin. Sweat beaded her temples, the bath feeling hotter by the second. She immersed her head and soaked her face and hair, her foot sliding along the stone floor until it touched the crystal.
A bomb of water detonated near her, tan muscles peeking through liquid clouds. Agatha resurfaced and through the mist, she saw Tedros, eyes closed and gritting his teeth as the heat burned at wounds on his bare chest. His breeches ballooned with water, his legs stretching out and grazing Agatha’s thigh. He opened his eyes and caught her watching. He flicked foamy water at her. Agatha splashed him back hard. Tedros grabbed her puckishly and pulled her to his chest, her body smushed against his bubbling breeches. He whipped his hair back and held her tighter, dripping sweat onto his princess as steam walled them in.
Slowly the steam broke apart and they saw Sophie gaping at them.
“I have to get in with them?” she said.
“You took a steam bath with Hort,” said Tedros.
“That was espionage,” Sophie defended.
“And this is to save the world,” Agatha retorted. “Get in.”
Muttering to herself, Sophie hiked up her ruffly dress and dipped her toe into the edge of the tub. . . .
She pulled back. “You know, I can’t swim and I’m feeling a bit feverish. Might be jaundice or diphtheria. All that oversalted food at the castle. And now that I think about it, this is Aggie and Teddy’s mission. They should be the ones to find out why Rhian pulled the sword instead of Teddy. I hardly know Rhian at all—”
“You’re still wearing his ring,” said Agatha dryly.
Sophie glanced down at the diamond on her finger. “I’m perfectly capable of divorcing fine jewelry from its symbolism.”
“Rhian picked you to be his wife,” Reaper pointed out. “He chose you to stand by his side, even though he has a brother far more loyal to him than you’ll ever be. So why would Rhian take a queen at all? A queen he certainly doesn’t love? He chose you for a reason. You are as much a part of this story as Tedros and Agatha and we need to find out why. Though if you insist you serve no purpose, I’m happy to leave you to the gnomes and see what they do with a friend of King Arthur’s son.”
“I liked it better when you didn’t talk,” Sophie growled, shoving into the tub, her white dress pooling with orange blossoms. She drew into a corner, away from Agatha and her prince, still cozied together on the opposite side. “What now?”
From the edge of the tub, Reaper clawed down Agatha’s shoulder and clasped onto her dress. “On the count of three, we’ll all go under. Agatha will trigger the crystal. The portal will open for a split second. Touch the crystal in that moment and you’ll be transported inside. This is important. You must touch the crystal. If you don’t, you’ll be shut out from the portal and so disoriented you will likely drown.”
“Meanwhile, Beatrix gets to patrol a tree,” Sophie murmured.
Reaper’s shriveled body clung tighter to Agatha’s collar, the cat trying not to let his tail touch the water until it had to. “On your count, Agatha.”
Agatha pulled away from Tedros and slid across the stone rim of the tub until the crystal was under her toes again. Gone was her sense of being overwhelmed, replaced by trust in where her story had led her. If this was Dovey’s and Merlin’s unfinished quest, then she would do everything to finish it.
She looked at her prince, then her best friend. “Ready?”
“Anything that gets me to the truth,” Tedros steeled.
“Anything that gets me to a new dress,” said Sophie.
Agatha took a deep breath. “3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .”
She plunged into the tub with Reaper, the twin splashes of Sophie and Tedros blooming underneath. Agatha thrust her head downwards, tangling in her friends’ limbs as she flattened her body against the stone floor so she was level with the orb. She gazed through the cracked glass into the center of the ball, the silence of the water stilling her mind.
The crack split open like a doorway and blinding blue light burst through like a tsunami, slamming Agatha against the wall of the tub and blasting Reaper away from her. The assault of light paralyzed her brain and weighed on her chest, her lungs pinned under the force of a boulder. She couldn’t think anymore, as if she’d lost the top of her head and any thoughts were flying away before she could catch them. Her hands and feet seemed to move where her eyes and mouth were, her eyes and mouth now down by her knees. She didn’t know where she was or how she’d gotten there. She didn’t know her own name or if this was happening in past or present, in forward or reverse. Two other bodies flailed near her, but she didn’t know whose they were or if they were human or monster.
Touch the crystal, a voice echoed.
Crystal?
What crystal?
Touch the crystal.
Pummeled by the light, she stabbed out her hand, two other hands thrashing into hers at the same time, all of them finding nothing but water. Agatha tore herself off the wall, reaching further, further, running out of breath—
Her hand scraped glass.
Instantly her body shattered, like she was made of glass too, any last shreds of awareness shattering with it.
For a moment, there was nothing: just light inhaling her, then crumpling to darkness like a sheet of paper charring in at the edges.
Slowly, she reassembled, body, soul, self.
When she opened her eyes, Agatha was no longer in Gnomeland.
SHE WAS STANDING in a glass room, the transparent walls and floor glowing wintry blue, the inside of the room swirling with thin, silvery smoke. A faint ache throbbed at her temples, but her chest had gotten worse; every breath felt like it was packing her lungs with rocks.
“Where are we?” someone wheezed.
Agatha turned to Tedros and Sophie, their wet bodies framed by a rounded, luminous glass wall. Both looked shaky. Tedros rubbed at his bare chest.
“We’re inside the crystal ball,” said Agatha. “Look.”
She pointed at the wall behind them. Outside the glass, water rippled and foamed, contained by a blue-stone bathtub.
“I feel like I got clubbed by a troll,” Sophie choked, clutching at her flank. “No wonder Dovey was such a mess.”
“For once, I agree with Sophie,” Tedros said, still breathing hard. “Whatever we just went through beat the living hell out of me. How could Merlin survive it?”
“Merlin is a skilled enough wizard to defuse the power of the ball,” said a voice from the corner. “Most of it, at least.”
They turned to see Reaper stagger up, a gnarled, drippy mess, looking less like a cat and more a mashed banana. “And while cats don’t actually have nine lives, we are much hardier than humans. Now stay alert. Our time inside the crystal is limited. Twenty or thirty minutes at most. The sooner we find answers, the fewer trips we have to make. The fewer trips we make, the less chance we suffer the same fate as your Dean.”
Agatha’s neck smoldered red, her body’s sign that she was out of her depth. She gulped for air. “So what do we do now?”
The silvery smoke whooshed past her head from all sides, crystallizing into the same phantom mask she’d seen at school. The mask glitched again between the features of Professor Dovey and the face of someone familiar, someone Agatha was so sure that she knew. . . . But there was no time to study it further because the phantom was diving towards her, primed to ask her who she wanted to see—
Except this time, it blew right past her and pressed against the back of the glass, facing the empty bathwater as if Agatha was still outside the ball. Agatha watched from behind the mask as it spoke to no one, its voice echoing.
“Clear as crystal, hard as bone,
My wisdom is
Clarissa’s and Clarissa’s alone.
But she named you her Second, so I’ll speak to you too.
So tell me dear Second, whose life shall I cue?
A friend or an enemy, any name I’ll allow,
Say it loud and I’ll show you them now.”
“Hurry! Start examining crystals!” Reaper exhorted, standing on tiptoes and inspecting the back edges of the mask.
“What crystals?” Tedros said, confused.
Agatha approached her cat, watching him paw the beads of smoke that formed the phantom—
Her eyes widened.
It wasn’t smoke.
Each bead of mist was a crystal. Thousands of these little glass orbs, the size of teardrops, floated in the mask’s shape like pearls held together without a string. And within every one, a scene played out, like its own miniature crystal ball.
Agatha pulled a handful of these crystals towards her, their surfaces cool and bubbly to the touch. She peered into the small glass droplets, replaying key moments from her own life: as a toddler, chasing her mother across Graves Hill . . . walking with Sophie for the first time through Gavaldon’s square . . . falling from the stymph into the School for Good. . . .
But now she was finding crystals that played moments from Sophie’s life: Sophie as a baby with her mother . . . Sophie singing to animals in Gavaldon . . . Sophie battling Hester in an Evil classroom. . . .
Then, suddenly, Agatha was seeing scenes from Tedros’ life—
And Reaper’s too, she realized, peering into a crystal that showed her cat bullied by his handsome brothers.
“It’s showing all of our pasts,” Agatha said, thrown.
“Because all four of us are inside the ball. The crystal absorbs our collective souls,” said Reaper quickly, studying various crystals before discarding them to the floor. “That’s where Merlin and Dovey were limited in finding answers to why Excalibur rejected Tedros. Inside the ball, they only had access to their own lives. I told them to bring you three in—Tedros at the very least—but Merlin had vast experience at Camelot and Dovey a deep knowledge of the Woods, and they thought they could find what they needed in themselves without putting the prince at risk. They were wrong.” The cat batted more crystals away. “Enough talking. Look for anything that might shed light on why Excalibur favored Rhian over Tedros. Anything that has the slightest connection.”
The School for Good and Evil #5: A Crystal of Time Page 30