‘What?’ Marina twisted around to stare at me in open horror. ‘Are you telling me those royals want to muck about with my recipes?’
‘Marina …’ Horst winced, stepping forward.
Aventurine let out a low, warning growl, her eyes narrowing into golden slits. ‘If they think, just because they supposedly own a few paltry little crowns, they can stomp all over our chocolate –’
Marina shook her head at me, ignoring the others. ‘Didn’t you tell them –?’
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake. They’re not even trying to touch your precious recipes!’ I bellowed over everyone.
Argh. So much for diplomacy!
As the three of them fell silent, gaping at me in shock, I swallowed down a hasty swig of hot chocolate to force my mouth shut before it could get me into more trouble.
‘Silke?’ Horst said tentatively. ‘Is everything all right?’
Was everything all right? What a ridiculous question!
It was too much, that was the problem – it was all too much. Those horrible golden lights that had stolen my parents; the fairies’ poisoned-honey words and glowing skin; that necklace that had landed on my shoulder, full of glittering temptation; and, worst of all, that familiar green darkness I had spotted beyond the doors …
Elfenwald had followed me to Drachenburg after six years of freedom. Now that I was in a safe place – just for a moment – my whole body wanted to curl up in a shivering, teeth-chattering ball and never walk back towards it ever again.
Maybe this was how my parents’ friends had felt six years ago, when they’d fled. Maybe …
No. I jerked upright, setting down my hot chocolate and clenching my teeth together.
I wasn’t going to abandon my parents again, no matter how I felt – and I wasn’t about to let those magic-leaking fairies hurt my best friend either.
‘I’m fine,’ I told Horst firmly, ‘only tired. I’ll go back in just a moment. But …’ I captured Aventurine’s golden gaze and gave her my very firmest look, ‘you aren’t going anywhere.’
She sputtered out a disbelieving laugh. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘My job,’ I told her flatly. ‘I was hired to work out what the fairies really want, remember? Well, I have a bad feeling that the answer is dragons.’
CHAPTER 11
Aventurine’s mouth dropped open. Her golden eyes widened.
‘Ha!’ She let out a shout of delighted laughter. ‘I don’t think so.’ Shaking her head, she looked down at her sugar loaf and went back to grinding as thoroughly as if she had nothing left to worry about.
Dragons! I gritted my teeth. ‘I’m serious!’
‘Did they say they want to attack Aventurine’s family?’ Horst asked, frowning.
‘Oh no.’ I shook my head impatiently. ‘They’re claiming they only want proof we aren’t lying about our alliance, so they can be sure that we’re trustworthy trading partners.’ I winced, thinking about my brilliant little handbill and the trouble it had brought me. ‘They really, really care about the truth, apparently.’
And really, I did mostly tell the truth in almost every single circumstance. But was it so bad to twist it into a slightly better story every now and then?
‘So they say.’ Aventurine snorted. ‘My grandfather says fairies will never tell a flat-out lie, but they’re still the tricksiest, most untrustworthy creatures he’s ever had cause to eat. Even worse than humans, if you can believe it!’
‘Ah … hmm.’ I took that in for a long moment. ‘Well, since you don’t actually eat humans any more –’
‘Oh, we never wanted to eat fairies in the first place.’ Aventurine shrugged, looking perfectly untroubled. ‘We never went after them – why would we want to? – but they kept coming after us for their own nonsense reasons, until they finally made everyone happy by going underground for good. Grandfather says eating them was the only way to stop them whenever they used to attack one of our nests. But he said they tasted absolutely terrible.’
‘Huh.’ Well, that was definitely not a story to be repeated near our visitors! But still … ‘Trust me,’ I told her. ‘Whatever they’re after, it definitely involves your family. The crown princess knows it, too. That’s why she sent me down here to warn you.’
‘About what? A few fairies?’ Aventurine shook her head, chuckling. ‘Trust me. I don’t have anything to worry about from them.’
‘But if they find out what you really are –’
‘I’m a dragon,’ she said patiently. ‘We eat fairies when they bother us. So –’
‘You don’t know them!’ I was panting as I glared at her, green darkness creeping back into the corners of my vision. ‘Oh, I know you’ve heard stories, but you have no idea how dangerous they can truly be. If you think for one moment that I’ll let them take you, too, after everything –’
‘“Too?”’ A different voice cut me off. ‘I thought you’d never met them before.’ Marina’s thick black eyebrows drew down over her frowning, dark gaze. ‘Who else did they take from you, Silke?’ she asked quietly.
I moistened my lips, my gaze caught in hers. For a moment, the whole story balanced on the tip of my tongue, just waiting to finally tumble out into the open for the first time in six long years of silence …
But if I stopped holding it locked inside me, all of my old tears would come tumbling out along with it. I had been holding those tears back for so long now, ever since I’d first reached Drachenburg. I’d buried that story as deep as I could so that I could start again as a heroine, not a victim of anyone.
I was supposed to be blending in today. I had to smile and curtsey to the fairies and act as if I were utterly thrilled by their visit. If I let myself collapse now just because I felt safe, I would be a tear-stained mess for the rest of the day. I couldn’t let that happen.
And more importantly, I wouldn’t – because I knew exactly what my friends were like. They would insist on trying to help me if they couldn’t manage to stop me. And then they would walk themselves straight into danger, arguing loudly all the way about how to do it.
I couldn’t risk losing them, too.
‘Nobody,’ I said firmly, and gulped the rest of my hot chocolate down in a rush as I stood, my rich silk skirts and thick petticoats billowing about me. ‘But you were right about what you said last time, Marina: they’re dangerous. So keep Aventurine down here!’
‘I will not –!’ Aventurine began in an outraged growl.
I swept magnificently to the door. ‘Roar all you like,’ I carolled back. ‘I don’t mind! But the royals want chocolate served in the crown princess’s private parlour after the banquet, so I’ll send a maid down to tell you when it’s time. Then she can do all the extra waitressing while you stay here and work on that sugar loaf.’
‘I won’t –!’
But I had no time to find out what Aventurine thought she wouldn’t do. I slammed the door shut behind me and headed for the narrow servants’ stairway with renewed purpose.
I was filled with hot chocolate. I was a heroine. I could do anything.
It was time to start seriously spying on the fairies.
Luckily, spy work turned out to be delicious.
The food that had been delivered to Sofia’s apartments over the last few days had been better than anything I’d ever tasted that wasn’t chocolate. But it was nothing compared to the feast spread out now to impress the fairy visitors.
Long, winding cabbage noodles had been mixed with eggs and cheese and sculpted into artistic mountains and palaces that lined the six long tables until our greedy knives hacked into them. Moist, delectable chicken breasts exhaled luscious scents of baked cinnamon and raisins. Apple and pork dumplings, each one bigger than my fist, luxuriated in a savoury stew I could have dived into head first. Two roasted boars lay in proprietary splendour across every single table, with fresh, glistening red apples propped temptingly in their mouths.
I could have gorged myself for days. For weeks. For months,
even! I still wouldn’t have finished it all.
The entire riverbank community could have been fed all winter long and never gone hungry again.
I piled my plate as high as any of the real mountains outside Drachenburg and dug in with enthusiasm while I interrogated the fairy on my left … who was only too ready to talk.
‘Oh no,’ she said with deep distaste as she eyed the mound of rich, cheesy cabbage noodles I’d just heaped beside my cinnamon-scented chicken. ‘No, we certainly don’t eat that in our home.’ Her thin, glowing nostrils curled. ‘We wouldn’t dream of it.’
Countess von Silberstein was one of the oldest of the fairy queen’s ladies-in-waiting, with ice-white strands glimmering amidst her upswept dark hair. But for all that she looked as elegant and terrifyingly magical as her rulers, five minutes of conversation were enough for me to realise who she really reminded me of: grumpy Frieda from the riverbank, for whom nothing was ever good enough.
I knew exactly how to talk to her.
‘It must be awfully difficult for you,’ I said sympathetically. ‘Having to come all this way and eat such different food from what you’re used to …’ Giving her my biggest, most soulful eyes, I popped a spoonful of apple dumpling into my mouth.
Oh, heaven! I stifled a moan with effort.
How could anyone complain about this meal?
‘It is difficult!’ She nodded vigorously, leaning forward. ‘If you could only imagine the delights we are accustomed to enjoying underground – the exquisite refinement of the flavours – the delicacy of the ingredients the goblins gather for our pleasure –’
‘Goblins?’ I had to clap one hand over my mouth to keep from spraying my whole mouthful of dumpling on to the table. ‘I mean –’ I swallowed hastily – ‘you have goblins down there, too?’
‘Oh yes.’ She waved one hand dismissively, her gaze sliding away from mine as she glanced at something past my shoulder. ‘They are perfectly safe, you know, once you’ve set them the right bargain.’
‘Oh, really?’ This was my moment. I forced my voice to sound innocently curious. ‘Who else is down there with you? Do you keep any humans there as household servants?’
‘Humans?’ Blinking, she glanced back at me, then let out a high, ringing peal of laughter. ‘You think we would trust non-magical humans to look after us?’
The fairy queen cut off her own conversation, further down the table, to call across, ‘Good lord, Silberstein, I haven’t heard you giggle so inanely for a quarter of a century, at least! What in the world is going on over there?’
‘I do beg your pardon, Your Majesty.’ The countess put one pale, glowing hand to her mouth. ‘This young lady asked me if we kept humans as our household servants.’
‘Ah.’ Queen Clothilde gave the table at large a glittering smile. ‘As yet, we have never found such a use for them. But perhaps, if these negotiations go as well as we all hope …’ She shrugged gently.
The way that her voice intentionally drifted off, and then she turned away, was an unmistakeable royal signal. The subject must now politely be dropped. I’d learned the rules of court life over the last week, and I recognised my cue even as it grated against my skin.
I couldn’t ask any more questions now. If I did, I’d be hinting that I didn’t trust the fairy queen’s own statement – a direct insult to a royal from a mere underling.
So I closed my mouth obediently as she turned back to her own companions …
But the questions in my head wouldn’t stop itching at me, no matter how hard I tried to focus on the food that had seemed so tantalising only a few minutes earlier. Lowering my hands under the table, I twisted my fingers together, fighting for self-control.
A lady-in-waiting doesn’t question her superiors.
A lady-in-waiting …
How could I simply let the subject drop? I’d spent the last six years trying to answer that question! The truth was so close now, I could almost feel it hovering in the air above the lavish banqueting table.
If I could only keep the queen herself from hearing me …
I leaned closer to Countess von Silberstein, dropping my voice to a whisper. ‘Aren’t there any humans down there, though? All those travellers who’ve crossed the border over the last hundred years or so …’
‘My goodness!’ The fairy queen’s voice snapped out, silencing every other conversation at the table as she glared at me. ‘You are a curious creature, aren’t you? Is it customary, in above-ground courts, for ladies-in-waiting to insult their visitors with such offensive questions?’
Oh, mud. She must have ears like a bat!
I lowered my gaze as my hands clenched under the table. Everyone was staring at me now. ‘I beg your pardon, Your Majesty.’
‘I should certainly think so! If –’
‘My cousin is new to our court life, I’m afraid.’ Princess Katrin flicked me a warning glance, but her tone was perfectly calm as she speared a cabbage noodle and twined it elegantly around her fork. ‘She may be overly exuberant in her curiosity, but then, one does hear so many wild stories …’
‘If one wants to banter about ridiculous stories –!’ the fairy queen began.
Her husband coughed once, meaningfully, from his seat across the table. King Casimir did not speak or shake his head, but Queen Clothilde took a long breath as she watched him.
Then she smiled once again, letting out a high, artificial laugh. ‘We can hardly remember every witless human traveller who’s ever lost their way in our territory, can we?’ She waved one hand in amused dismissal. ‘We aren’t executing the poor, ignorant creatures, if that’s what those stories made you fear! So …’ She turned to our King Leopold on her other side. ‘Tell me,’ she said brightly, ‘what is your favourite dish to eat out of all of these … interesting offerings I see before me?’
Small talk took over the table again, and I let out my held breath in a whoosh. My heartbeat thrummed against my wrists and waves of warmth raced up and down my skin. I fought with all my might to stay still and keep my expression blank.
They’re alive!
I could have leaped out of my chair and danced in front of everyone, humans and fairies alike.
Even Aventurine said the fairies never told a flat-out lie, for all that they twisted the truth into tricksy angles.
My parents really were alive!
I hadn’t even realised, until that moment, just how much I’d dreaded the opposite possibility. The secret truth, although I’d never admitted it even to myself before, was that I’d been halfway certain of it. But now that I finally knew the real truth – well! If the fairies didn’t keep them as household servants and didn’t execute them either, all I had to do was find out what the fairies really did do with their human prisoners.
Oh, and one more thing: I had to work out how in the world I was going to talk the crown princess into bargaining with the fairies for my parents’ release …
But all of that could be arranged, I was sure of it. My parents were alive. Now that I knew that, I could manage anything!
I dug into my meal, savouring every single, fresh, delicious bite … until my neck suddenly prickled in warning, sending goosebumps skating down my spine.
Uh-oh. Someone was watching me from behind.
Still chewing, I twisted around in my seat as casually as I could. Red flashed past in the lower right-hand corner of my vision and disappeared before I could pick out what it had been …
When I turned back to the table, I found the fairy king himself watching me with a thoughtful, considering expression.
Oops. I froze in mid-chew. Perhaps I hadn’t done such a good job of blending in at this royal banquet after all.
Of course, it had been well worth breaking those ponderous rules of courtly manners – even if it had meant offending the visiting royals a bit – to find out that my parents hadn’t been executed for trespassing, and yet …
Swallowing down my last bite with an effort, I gave the fairy king my sunn
iest, most winning, trust me! smile.
He didn’t smile back. He didn’t look away either.
Oh, mud.
As his enigmatic gaze rested upon me again and again throughout the next two courses, my glorious food lost more and more of its flavour and a sick taste built up in the back of my mouth like a warning.
‘Talk the fairies into trusting you,’ the crown princess had instructed me.
My own secret quest might have made great strides at this banquet, but my official mission hadn’t started well at all.
CHAPTER 12
I had never been so glad to finish a meal in my whole life. Thank goodness the royals were going off by themselves for their chocolate! I leaped to my feet the moment that the crown princess rose from the table, my chair legs scraping the floor behind me with a loud squeeeeeak.
The rest of the court followed suit in a noisy mass that almost drowned out Princess Katrin’s next words.
‘Thank you all for helping us to welcome our guests. We will be glad to see you again at tonight’s scheduled entertainment. But in the meantime …’ Katrin nodded graciously at the fairy queen, ‘I believe it’s time to introduce the rulers of Elfenwald to a truly unique Drachenburg delight. Your Majesties …’ She held out one graceful brown hand. ‘If you would care to withdraw with my family for a taste of our favourite local chocolate?’
‘Hmmph,’ muttered Countess von Silberstein beside me. ‘We’ve certainly never eaten anything called chocolate back home! Isn’t there any traditional food in this place?’
‘It’s wonderful,’ I whispered back. ‘And –’ I couldn’t help myself from adding it, even now – ‘it’s made by the best chocolatier in Drachenburg! She’s probably the best in the whole world!’
‘Hmmph,’ the countess repeated sourly. But I thought I heard a trace of wistfulness in her tone as she watched her shining royals sweep towards the door in the crown princess’s wake, leaving her and their other courtiers behind.
Sofia slid me a deeply satisfied look as she stalked after her sister, head held high, leaving me behind, too, on her way to that private royal conference. As usual, I knew exactly what the grumpy princess was thinking, because her face was like a public handbill, splashing out all of her thoughts for the world to see. She meant to catch me out with her sister by learning the fairies’ secrets first herself.
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