by K. M. Shea
She pushed her hair out of her eyes. “You are, Your Highness, what we call a dreamer.”
Alexsei chuckled. “You can try to hide it with words, but I will still see it, Odette. You try to drive us away because you know how dangerous it is, not because you find our company bothersome.” Alexsei hesitated. “At least, I don’t think you find our company bothersome.”
“That brother of yours pushes my limits.” Odette vaulted over the side of the boat and landed on the sandy shore.
Alexsei chuckled. “He finds your refusal to admire him surprising and wishes to know you more as a result.”
“How fine for him. Unfortunately, he would need my cooperation for that.” Odette rested a hand on the prow of the small boat.
“Yakov can be very kind,” Alexsei said.
“So can Odile’s giant pet moth, but that doesn’t mean I would like to spend any time around it.” She pushed away from the boat and started meandering up the shoreline, pausing and glancing over her shoulder when she realized Alexsei hadn’t followed her.
His good-tempered smile grew soft as she tilted her head and waited for him.
“What is it?” she asked as he finally joined her.
“Nothing. Just thoughts. I’m going to be unspeakably rude and ask you, why haven’t you told your family you live?”
Odette faltered, caught off guard. “I don’t want them to know. If they did, my parents would feel responsible.” She rolled back her shoulders and lifted her chin after she regained her proverbial footing.
“Why?” Alexsei asked. “It is Rothbart who transformed you and put you under a spell.”
“Yes, but out of everyone who has been cursed, I am the only one who came to Rothbart on my own volition.”
Odette expected to hear some kind of exclamation from Alexsei. Instead, she almost jumped out of her skin when he clasped one of her hands in his.
“Tell me about it.”
“My parents owed him a debt,” she said. “They’re farmers, and we lost all our seedlings four years ago. He supplied seeds for us, but we couldn’t afford the steep price. He threatened all sorts of things, so I came to Swan Lake and offered servitude in exchange for my parents’ debt. He had no need for servants. He had caught Zina several days prior, and he decided to test out his experimental spell on both of us.”
“So your parents do not know you’ve sacrificed yourself for their sake.” He squeezed her hand.
Odette shrugged. “I have no idea what they know. I haven’t seen them since I was cursed. Good riddance.” Her heart twisted in her chest in spite of her callous words.
“I know you do not mean that.” Alexsei said. “It must have been a difficult decision for you, to choose not to inform them. I’m not certain I agree with your methods, but it is still a brave sacrifice on your part—one you should be proud of.”
Odette looked at Alexsei—really looked. In the four years of her curse, she had led the others and smuggled and planned and flattered Rothbart and set up a guard around the lake to keep other folk away from the great danger the sorcerer posed.
Her greatest dread was failing—failing her crew, failing the unsuspecting who happened to wander by. It had been a long time since she looked upon anything she had done with pride. What kind of person is Alexsei that he can see so deeply into others and praise the good in them?
“Swan Queen!”
Odette bristled when Yakov placed a hand on her shoulder.
The Imperial Prince grinned at her. “Misha has told me it has been a long while since you have tasted meat. Tomorrow I shall hunt and return with game for you!”
Odette wanted to sigh. He means well, and I must admire his persistence. Perhaps he was even a compassionate individual, but she still wanted him away from this lake! “We don’t eat meat besides eggs and fish because it would cause a great mess, and we’re trying to be discreet. A smuggler’s base shouldn’t be obvious.”
“It’s not.” Yakov curled an arm around her, drawing her away from Alexsei. “But you must allow me to spoil you.”
“No, thank you.”
“Please, let me,” Yakov asked. His face was still handsome even when his forehead was creased with worry and his eyes downcast. “It will relieve the guilt that has riddled me, as I know I cannot slay Rothbart until my father returns home with reinforcements.”
Odette frowned at the Imperial Prince. Does he think this is a fairy-tale adventure? “If you wish to rid yourself of guilt, you could take your royal self away from our lake.” She stepped away from his arm and made a show of brushing off her white silk shirt. “You should leave now, in fact.”
Yakov frowned, but the expression cleared as Alexsei threw an arm over his shoulders.
“Riling her up again, are you?” Alexsei asked. “But she’s right.”
The brothers exchanged an almost imperceptible look. But even though Odette saw it, she could make little sense of it. Do they have indigestion?
“Lexsei is right,” Yakov said. His dazzling smile was back. “We do not wish to be a nuisance, so we shall take our leave from you.”
Alexsei nodded. “Yes.”
Odette cast her eyes back and forth between them. “Good,” she said with caution. “I will be glad to see you go. Have a safe journey home.”
“Yes, indeed,” Alexsei said. “We will say our farewells to the rest of your crew and be gone.”
Odette squinted—the last blush of sunlight was gone, but even with her practiced night vision, she had a hard time judging their expressions. “Have a safe journey home,” she repeated lamely.
“Odette.” Zina finished tying her hair back in a braid as she strode up to her. “Forgive me, Your Imperial Highness and Your Highness, for my intrusion.”
“Not at all.” Yakov smiled handsomely. “It is we who must apologize for intruding upon your activities. We were just going. Have a good evening, Odette, fair maiden.” He winked as Alexsei dragged him away.
Zina fidgeted as she watched him go, a small smile growing on her lips.
He is attractive—if not unbearably highhanded and as false as I am. But Alexsei’s earnestness is much more endearing. Odette brushed off the pesky thought. “Yes, Zina, what did you need?”
“Oh, sorry. Rapid Flight has returned.”
“Already? I have them scheduled to fly in tomorrow morning.”
“Tasha said they made good time because they traveled a few hours at night as humans in addition to flying as swans.”
“And they came in by foot?” Odette turned back to her camp, heading for the small crowd gathered around the fire Pyotr had lit.
“Yes. They couldn’t make it all the way to the lake by sunset tonight so they had to hike the last mile home as humans.”
“I see. Thank you, Zina,” Odette said. She then raised her voice and called out to those around the fire, “Ladies and gentleman—welcome home!”
The sky was deep purple, its eastern horizon painted with dabs of dusty pink—the promise of sunrise.
Odette stifled a yawn and checked her ledger one last time.
Around her, the smugglers were enjoying their last hour or so as humans—chatting and laughing. Gala and Iosif danced like a pair of desperate lovers about to be torn apart. Nearby, Tasha and Dima dramatically mimicked the couple, drawing chuckles. The act reminded Odette of her little brothers—Daniil and Genya—who were always acting silly in hopes of getting a laugh out of someone.
I wonder how much they’ve grown since I last saw them.
She pushed aside the painful thought and smiled at Tasha and Dima, glad the smugglers were able to laugh in spite of the pain in their lives.
Odette snapped her logbook shut, wrapped it up, and secured it under the plate-like rock that topped the crumbling wall. She intended to find Misha and Nadia—the pair worked just as hard as she did, and they needed to remember to take a break—when she noticed Gleb’s worried expression.
He stood so close to the lake, its waters brushed the toe of h
is boot. He stared across the lake at Rothbart’s dark fortress.
Odette joined him and clasped her hands behind her back. “Is something wrong?” she asked. “Have you seen Rothbart moving tonight?”
“No.” Gleb shook his head and folded his arms across the puffy girth of his stomach. “It’s those fool princes and their lady friend.”
Odette scuffed a boot in the coarse sand. “You don’t like them?” Gleb’s opinion meant a lot to her. If he didn’t like Alexsei…
“I beg your pardon? No, I think quite well of them; they’re charming. The problem is what they’ve done. They spent the night badly attempting to sneak around the lake.”
“What?” Odette clenched her hands into fists and growled at the sky. Those cads! “They said they were leaving us for the night!”
“And they did,” Gleb said dryly. “They left us for Rothbart’s castle.”
Odette opened and closed her mouth several times, but she was too enraged to make so much as a squeak.
“They crossed the bridge to Rothbart’s island in the early morning hours. Based on the way they circled the fortress for an hour or two, I didn’t think they would find a way in, but they must have. I didn’t see their torch after it disappeared around the corner for a second time. I watched and listened to see if they had given up and were walking up the shoreline, but I haven’t seen or heard them.”
“Could you have missed them?”
“Perhaps, but I think not. Imperial Prince Yakov is not a quiet walker, as he yakked for the entirety of their stroll. The lake carries sound quite well.”
Odette knew that—it was how they kept such excellent track of Rothbart’s actions without having to frequent his castle—but her worry made her hope otherwise.
“Unless Imperial Prince Yakov chose to silence himself,” Gleb said, trying to offer her some hope.
Odette snorted. “Don’t be ridiculous. A unicorn is more likely to visit Swan Lake and swoon over Misha than Yakov voluntarily choosing to remain silent.”
She held her hands over her eyes. What could possibly inspire them to do something so stupid—and why did Benno agree to go with them? She has more sense than that! All of them have more sense than this! Those—
She couldn’t think of a word horrible enough to illustrate their willful stupidity. “Gaah!” She stamped a foot and then took several deep breaths to try and calm herself. She cleared her throat. “Gleb.”
“Yes?”
“Would you agree that we have approximately an hour until the sun rises and activates our spell?”
Gleb furrowed his caterpillar eyebrows at her. “Yes.”
Odette nodded.
“What are you planning?”
She set her shoulders. “To go get them.”
“Can you find ’em and get out before you transform?” Gleb asked.
What he didn’t say spoke much louder than his actual words. Rothbart had several spelled creatures that roamed his castle. If she turned into a swan within the walls, they would tear her to shreds.
“I’ll have to,” Odette said grimly. She turned on her heels. “Pyotr, I need your help, and I need a boat.”
In a short time, Pyotr had rowed her across the lake in one of the white boats they usually used to travel up and down river inlets. They reached Rothbart’s grim island and floated by the only sandy—and ascendable—strip of the otherwise rocky island.
“Be careful,” Pyotr said.
Odette nodded and clambered over the side of the boat. “Thank you for getting me here.”
Pyotr lowered his shaggy head. “Of course. Good luck.”
She offered him a tense smile then scrambled up the beach. The sand quickly turned into rock and chipped cliffs. By the time she cleared the shore and pushed her way through tangled shrubbery and weeds, she was panting with exertion.
A wall encircled Rothbart’s castle. It was short compared to usual architecture. If not for the iron spikes that lined the top of the wall, she could’ve brought Misha and Nadia to throw her over the top. Thankfully, the grille for water drainage at the back of the castle had long ago rusted over. Looking at it, however, one wouldn’t know, for Odette kept the grille in its position so Rothbart wouldn’t know how she gained entrance to his home.
She pulled the grille out with practiced ease and wriggled through, cursing when she tumbled out of the hole and hit her chin on the stone-paved castle floor.
Rubbing her smarting chin, she forced herself to her feet and listened carefully. She couldn’t hear Rothbart laughing—a good sign. It meant he probably hadn’t found the noble trio.
She wet her lips, then mimicked the piercing bird whistle Odile had taught her as their signal. She crept towards the main castle building—staying in the shadows and away from the windows in case Rothbart had woken early (unlikely) or stayed up all night working on a project (possible).
The castle was made of one square building—the main keep, which was several stories tall—a few smaller outbuildings, and three towers. Odile lived in one of the towers, while Rothbart rarely prowled beyond the main keep.
So, as she kept her head tilted and listened for shouts or animal snarls, Odette crept towards the base of Odile’s tower and whistled again. How did they get in? she wondered. They obviously didn’t use my grate.
“Odette?” Odile poked her head out of a window. Her black hair looked purple in the sky that was turning bright much more quickly than Odette wanted.
After Odette waved to her with a finger to her lips, Odile disappeared back inside. A minute or two later, she opened the tower door—which creaked loudly enough to be heard across the lake.
“What are you doing here?”
Odette could see a few of Odile’s rescued pets lounging in the darkened tower. The unsettlingly large and hairy moth they had captured with the princes and Lady Benno fluttered just above her friend’s shoulder—almost like a pet bird.
Odette ignored the shiver that threatened to rattle her. I have better things to do than let a small thing like fear trouble me. “Prince Alexsei, Prince Yakov, and Lady Benno snuck into this castle without my knowledge. One of my smugglers told me they haven’t come out yet. I’m here to retrieve them before your father wakes up—what is it?”
Odile dark eyes crinkled with worry. “Father is awake and working in his lab.”
Curses! Although if he was in his lab, he was unlikely to come out. Unless he hears us. With that cheerful thought to warm her, Odette rolled her shoulders back. “We’ll have to make certain we are extra quiet, then. Do you have any ideas where they might be?”
“No. The hellhounds haven’t growled all night. Unless…” Odile tilted her head and looked at the sky. She flattened her lips. “Come.” She heaved the door of her tower shut—after she let her giant moth through first—then led the way towards the main castle.
Odette chased after her, skirting the giant moth. “Where are we going?”
“One of the inner halls. About now, the hellhounds return to their dens. Father locks them out at night, but I open the doors and place food inside so they’ll return to their kennels in the morning.”
Odette pried open a smaller door that used to be a servants’ entrance to the gloomy keep. “I remember. You’ve previously lured them in early so we could run around without fear of being attacked. But why an inner hall?” They scurried through the poorly used kitchen, filled with rusted dishes and tables and chairs in various states of disrepair. Only one small section of the kitchen was neat and tidy with clean surfaces and utensils—Odile’s work.
“Because when the hellhounds come in, they have access to the bottom floor of the keep.” Odile pushed the kitchen door open and winced. Ferocious barks resonated from deeper inside. “It’s as I fear. The hellhounds must have cornered them.”
Odette slid past Odile and her pet moth and sprinted down the hallway. She wove around several dusty suits of decorative armor and followed the sound of the snarls and eerie howls. She almost wiped out whe
n she passed an intersection and glanced down the hall to see two hellhounds stalking closer to Alexsei, Yakov, and Benno—who were banked in a corner.
Rothbart’s hellhounds were as big as tigers—Odette didn’t know if it was because of an experiment or due to Odile’s tendency to overfeed them—and had eyes as red as a rising sun. Their pointed ears stood tall on their heads like bat ears. Their muzzles were long and narrow, teeth bared in a perpetual snarl, and red foam and drool dripped from their mouths.
Alexsei and Yakov had unsheathed swords, but even if they were expert swordsmen, it would be impossible for them to face down two hellhounds without someone getting ravaged.
“Can you use your music and calm the hellhounds?” Odette asked.
Odile shook her head. “No. Sometimes I can when they’re in their dens, and I get a glimpse of something else beneath their darkness, but nothing could tear them away after they’ve found prey.”
Odette’s mind whirled as she tried to orientate herself. She knew Rothbart’s castle quite well and had four years of sneaking around it under her belt. If the hellhounds chase me, I should be able to get away. Probably. “Odile, I need you to go up this hallway, then circle back to where Alexsei, Yakov, and Benno are. I’ll lure the hellhounds away. You lead the noble trio upstairs and bar the door behind you.”
A hellhound jumped at Yakov, but it skittered back at the last second to avoid being skewered by the prince.
“What are you going to do?” Worry crusted Odile’s words.
“If I leave this corridor, there’s a room that has windows that overlook what once was a garden of some sort. I can climb the wall there and join you on the second floor.”
“Can you make it there in time?”
“I’ll have to.”
“But how will you get the hellhound’s attention?”
Odette smiled at her. “Don’t worry, I’ll manage. Now go!”
Odile scurried off, her moth bobbing behind her. Odette cast a glance at the cornered trio. Yakov and Alexsei fended off a hellhound, but while one hound attacked, the other moved itself to a different position.