He gave a low, incredulous laugh. ‘What great gift could you possibly offer us in return, to make such an extreme demand worthwhile?’
‘Me?’ I gave a casual shrug under the burning gaze of every single fairy in the gallery. ‘Oh, I’m only a puny human with no magic, no fire, and no real teeth or claws of my own, so of course I couldn’t offer you anything of value … except …’ I smiled sweetly at him. ‘I could, of course, tell the dragons not to invade Elfenwald with your own sentinels’ help, using the brand new partnership I’ve just offered them. That is something I could do.
‘So …’ I tilted my head and gave him my most innocent look. ‘What do you say, Your Majesty? Tonight, do you accept my bargain?’
CHAPTER 27
The fairy courtiers erupted into confusion. Some ran towards the open doors, peering anxiously into the green darkness. Others rushed to protectively surround the thrones. Even the fairy princes lost their swagger, for once, and lunged across the gallery to take shelter behind their parents.
Golden lights swirled through the air like an agitated cloud of bees as King Casimir glared at me with wordless fury.
Queen Clothilde snapped, ‘Don’t be absurd! Why would the dragons band together with our sentinels? They’re feral beasts, not treaty-builders!’
‘They’d never allied with human kingdoms before either,’ I said. ‘Until now. Isn’t chocolate wonderful?’ Smiling, I lifted my tray higher.
‘Chocolate so sweet, it brokered a brilliant treaty.’ Laughter lurked in Alfric’s voice.
‘What?!’ The fairy queen gasped, putting one hand to her glowing throat. ‘You’re a secret food mage! I should have known it. You enchanted that chocolate you gave the dragons. You slipped the magic through their mouths, just as we’d planned to do. You avoided their scales entirely!’
‘Me? A food mage?’ I widened my eyes. ‘I’ve told you, I don’t have any magic of my own.’
‘Then what is in that chocolate?’ The fairy queen inched back in her seat, her gaze fixed on my tray. ‘And what would have happened to us if we’d drunk it?’
‘Why don’t you drink some now and find out?’ I offered. ‘After all, the dragons liked our hot chocolate when they drank it – less than an hour before they agreed to ally with us for the first time ever.’
Every word that I spoke was the absolute truth … although of course none of the dragons’ chocolate had been enchanted.
Aventurine would never use magic against her own family.
‘They like my sister, too,’ Princess Katrin said smoothly. ‘She’s struck up quite a friendship with one of their hatchlings. So they should be more than happy to take her with them on their journey to Elfenwald … where, I suspect, any sentinels you’ve imprisoned will be only too happy to accept her as our representative, offering them the safe refuge that they deserve.’
‘Isn’t it wonderful,’ I concluded happily, ‘when so many different kinds of people can come together instead of hiding away from one another?’
King Casimir leaped to his feet, his elegant cheekbones standing out in his suddenly gaunt-looking face. ‘Do you have any idea how many of our people those dragons slaughtered in the past? My own father –’
‘Was he attacking one of their nests at the time?’ I held his furious dark gaze steadily. ‘That’s what happens when you attack someone just because you fear them. They fight back. And your sentinels have been waiting for their own chance to do that for a long time now. Whereas when people choose to work together and trust each other –’
‘No more!’ Clothilde was panting as she pointed at me. ‘I will not be lectured by an impudent infant! You will stop talking and call back your horrible allies now!’
‘Will I?’ I raised my eyebrows at her with positively regal hauteur. ‘Tonight I drank enchanted hot chocolate of my own, you know.’ I lowered one eyelid in a wink … and then I grinned my fiercest dragon-grin. ‘What do you think it did to me?’
The fairy queen’s glittering hairnet slipped as she whirled to stare wildly around the gallery … and at the sparkling, golden lights that flew around it. Shuddering, she shrank back into her throne. ‘Betrayal,’ she whispered. ‘Treachery!’
‘I happen to know,’ I told her softly, ‘that Aventurine and Princess Sofia have already left. They’re waiting on my signal now, but very soon, it’ll be too late.’
Magic prickled in my mouth.
‘She’s telling the truth.’ Rage vibrated in the fairy king’s voice.
‘Of course I am,’ I said serenely.
After all, Aventurine and Sofia had left the kitchen at exactly the same time that I had, although they’d taken a different direction. And although they were listening out for me to signal them, the spell in the hot chocolate that I’d drunk would only last for another fifteen minutes at the most. After that, I wouldn’t be able to reach them.
So everything I’d said was exactly true … but fairies weren’t the only ones who could bend the truth for their own purposes.
‘Don’t you think it’s time to give up now?’ I asked gently. ‘Why not let go of your old feud against the dragons? They’ve never attacked you except in self-defence.’
When the fairy queen looked back at me, I saw real anguish on her face. ‘You don’t understand,’ she said, her voice raw. ‘They could threaten my own children if they ever chose to come against us. My family’s safety is at stake!’
I thought of my own parents, torn away from me and Dieter on her orders … and of Marina and Horst lying helpless in the kitchen now. ‘In that case, Your Majesty,’ I said without a shred of sympathy, ‘I would strongly suggest that you accept my bargain right now.’
Queen Clothilde took one look at the blackness beyond the tall glass windows. She took another look at the green darkness of the open door that led to her home. Finally, she met her husband’s gaze.
‘Oh, very well!’ she snapped.
The fairy queen and king threw out their arms.
Lights flashed and flared all across the gallery, blinding me. I stumbled back. A cloud of thick green smoke billowed through the air. Coughing, I bent over my heavy tray. At the other end of the room, the great doors slammed shut with a bang that shook the walls of the palace.
The cloud of smoke cleared as suddenly as it had first appeared. Catching my breath, I slowly straightened, gripping the tray in my hands.
The fairies had gone. Alfric was gone. Even the massive thrones were gone, leaving broken floor tiles and tree roots behind them. The fairy web had gone, too, leaving the crown princess free, smoothing down her crumpled dressing gown and helping her father to his royal feet.
All around the gallery, guards, black-cloaked battle mages and dozens of new humans of all heights, skin colours and sizes were picking themselves up from the floor, coughing and staring around wildly in confusion.
And two more people were pushing themselves up from the floor on either side of me, where two golden lights had floated before.
My hands began to shake. Cups rattled in their saucers. The tray slipped and slid in my hands as I looked down at those two dark, familiar heads.
I couldn’t even let myself breathe as they rose to their feet. If I did, the dream might break. Then I’d be back alone in my tent, with the wind whistling through its patchwork walls, and they’d be gone again.
I didn’t dare let myself believe.
And then two tall, thin, weary-looking people were standing before me, tears streaming down their cheeks as they gazed at me with hungry eyes that I hadn’t seen for far too long.
‘Silke,’ said my father for the first time in six years. His voice shook on the word. ‘My little Silke!’
‘Oh!’ My mother threw her arms around me, sobbing openly.
I dropped my silver tray to the ground to hug her back. For once, I didn’t even mind spilling hot chocolate or breaking a bit of crockery. As it all crashed to the ground, it made enough noise to wake a dragon, but it didn’t break my beautiful drea
m …
Because this was reality, and I’d won it. Every ounce of spilled chocolate was a worthy sacrifice.
Unlike the hot chocolate that I’d drunk earlier, this particular batch hadn’t been enchanted anyway. It had only been for show, to aid my story – because every good storyteller knows just how useful visual props can be.
Dragons weren’t the only ones who liked winning battles … and fairies weren’t the only ones who could be tricksy.
I’d forgotten what it felt like to be hugged as if you were the cherished centre of your mother’s heart.
When my father wrapped his arms around the two of us in his own bear hug a moment later, I was surrounded by so much warmth that for the first time in a long time I felt utterly safe, from my head to my toes.
Then my mother let out a choked laugh, her tears sliding into my hair. Pulling back to look down at me, she said, ‘Young lady, you put yourself into so much danger, I couldn’t believe it. As soon as we finish here, you’re going to be in so much trouble!’ Her wide, generous mouth wobbled between a smile and another sob. ‘I want to hear about everything that’s happened to you – the whole story. Promise to tell me all of it as soon as you can?’
An irrepressible grin spread across my face, breaking through my own tears. I’d been waiting to share my stories with my mother for so long!
But I couldn’t keep my parents to myself any longer. Someone else needed them, too.
So I finally used the spell that I had drunk with my own hot chocolate, so that I could – and would – call for their help if I really needed it. My friends had finally taught me that I didn’t have to stand on my own after all.
‘Aventurine,’ I whispered. ‘It’s time.’
A hidden door in the long gallery’s wall swung open fifteen feet away.
Princess Sofia stepped through first, flanked by the two guards. As her gaze landed on her father and sister, her mouth dropped open. She grabbed the skirts of her dressing gown and started forward as if to run across the tiled floor to her family – but the crown princess gave her a look that stopped her in her tracks.
So Sofia walked the rest of the way with careful, princessy deportment, head held high and skirts rustling demurely. But the smile on her face lit the grumpy princess up like magic … and the smile of unhidden pride that her older sister gave her then was one that I’d never seen from the crown princess before.
I didn’t have time to watch the rest of their greetings. Aventurine stepped out next, her predatory golden gaze sweeping the room, probably hunting for any leftover fairy enemies. When her gaze landed on me, she gave me a fierce, approving grin and I grinned back at her.
See? I do have my own claws and fire after all!
Even the battle mages aimed looks of reluctant respect at the two of us as they brushed off their crumpled black robes. Once the people of Drachenburg found out that it was the threat of our dragon allies that had saved our kingdom from tonight’s sinister fairy invasion … well, attitudes towards my best friend and her family were going to be very different very soon.
I could have bounced with delight as I planned exactly how to write about it in my next brilliant, kingdom-crossing handbill …
But the next person who stepped out of the hidden corridor was my older brother.
Ignoring all of my sensible arguments, Dieter had stubbornly insisted on waiting for me along with Aventurine and Sofia, just in case my plan failed and I needed help. I’d told him it was ridiculous to put himself in so much danger. There was no need to risk himself when he couldn’t save me anyway …
But the fact that he’d been so determined to try had sent a hairline crack shooting through the defences that I’d been building against him for years. The expression on his face now, as he looked from me to our parents, made my whole chest feel like it was splitting wide open.
Standing in the palace gallery surrounded by strangers, my stiff and proud and angry older brother burst into helpless, wracking sobs. His shoulders shook as all the rigidity finally flooded out of him.
Our father reached him first. But I was the next to reach Dieter’s side … and for once, when I tentatively put my arms around him, he didn’t even try to push me away.
It took a shockingly long time for me to realise that the crown princess was standing nearby waiting for me, with Princess Sofia at her side.
Royals were never meant to wait for anybody; it was the duty of their courtiers to wait on them. But it still took me a minute to untangle myself from the warm, solid huddle of my family, reunited at long last.
When I finally pulled free and dropped a curtsey, I could feel my mother’s watchful, protective eyes on me. I did my best to curtsey gracefully, the way I’d learned over the past week, but my feet were swollen and burning in my borrowed boots, and the sleepless nights were catching up with me. I swayed on my feet as I straightened, and I gave Princess Katrin a giddy smile.
‘Your Highness,’ I said, ‘I trust I haven’t disappointed you too much after all?’
The crown princess raised one elegant eyebrow. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘I can’t imagine that we’ll be signing any generous new trading agreements with Elfenwald …’ Her lips twitched. ‘But you certainly did find out what they were after, as well as saving our kingdom. So, are you ready to take on your next assignment? I believe I could use your continued service in this palace after all.’
Sofia was smiling at me with rueful approval from her sister’s side, all traces of hostility finally gone.
Aventurine watched us all with an expressionless face, but I knew she would support me, too. That was what dragons did when it came to family – and not only the family that you’d been born into.
I felt both of my parents’ proud gazes resting on me as I looked back at the crown princess and felt all of my wildest dreams come true. After all, even now that we were back together, every member of my family would need to work hard to make a living. This shining offer was the most perfect ending to my mission that I could ever have imagined.
So I took a moment to savour the sheer wonder of being offered it in real life, with Dieter wide-eyed and watching beside me.
Then I curtseyed again, more deeply than ever. ‘Your Highness,’ I said sincerely, ‘I am deeply honoured by your offer. But I already have a home, and I value it far too much to give it up.’
The crown princess’s second eyebrow shot up to match the first.
‘A home?’ Sofia repeated. ‘But …’
With a nod of my head, I turned away from the two princesses and all the luxury they were offering me.
‘Come on,’ I said to Aventurine, my brother and my parents. ‘Let’s find Horst and Marina.’
Home.
CHAPTER 28
Warm, rich, chocolate sweetness trailed up through the air as we led my parents down the servants’ staircase. It tasted like home and it tasted like heaven … and like everything I’d left behind so carelessly five days earlier.
My shoulders tightened at the memory. Why hadn’t that part occurred to me before?
‘I can’t wait to introduce you to them,’ I said to my parents. Sudden nerves crept into my voice, though, making it wobble.
What if Horst and Marina had already thought of another waitress to hire? One who didn’t drag them into palaces and danger against their will?
They were fine now, I told myself. They had to be. Everyone else had woken up unharmed from their enchanted sleep.
But if they blamed me for what they’d been through tonight, as they had every right to do …
When we neared the closed doorway, my parents both stopped.
‘We’ll wait here, actually, if you don’t mind,’ my mother told me. She drew Dieter down on to the step beside her, one arm cradled protectively around his lean shoulders. ‘We need a few minutes alone with your brother.’
‘Oh?’ I stiffened, all of my instincts screaming alarm. I couldn’t let a closed door stand between us. I never wanted to let them out of my
sight again!
But as my father gave me a reassuring nod from Dieter’s other side, I realised what they meant: they didn’t want to make Dieter face anyone else right now. They were right.
My older brother’s face was still ravaged with tears, and his eyes looked puffy behind his spectacles. He’d spent the last six years being strong for the sake of our family, no matter how much I resented the way that he had done it.
He was in no shape now to make small talk with near-strangers.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said in a tear-clogged voice. ‘It’s not that I don’t respect your friends, Silke. Not really. It’s just …’
‘I understand.’ I gave him a small, pained smile.
It was true. I really did, even though it might take years to heal all of the wounds that we’d dealt each other since our arrival in this city.
But nerves were boiling frantically underneath my skin now, worse with every passing moment, and the forced smile slipped away from my face as Aventurine pushed the door open.
Inside the small chocolate kitchen, a pot was boiling on the stove. Marina stood by the side counter, stirring something rich and brown in a mixing bowl. Her night-plaited black hair still hung down her back.
It all looked so homey. So perfect. So comfortable.
How could I have thrown it all away when the crown princess made me her first offer? And how could I convince them to take me back again now, after everything that had happened?
‘There you are,’ said Horst. He smiled at us both from the small wooden table near the stove. As he rose to his feet, I saw that he’d found a coat and a cravat since we’d last seen him. ‘We’ve been waiting for you two.’
Aventurine, being Aventurine, didn’t cry or hug either of them. She didn’t even speak. But her fierce gaze devoured Horst and Marina as she stared them up and down, one at a time, visibly checking them both for injuries. Then she gave Horst a firm nod and joined Marina at the stove, shifting into place as seamlessly as silk.
Her place, as she’d realised from the first moment that she’d found them and stalked in to announce herself as their new apprentice.
The Girl with the Dragon Heart Page 19