Cogling

by Jordan Elizabeth

  “How do you fare, Isaac Eliasson?” the guard asked.

  Ike inclined his head. “Well enough.”

  “Your mother?”

  “She passed away,” Ike said. “She’s been missed.”

  Edna clutched the cameo. The guard couldn’t really be asking about Ike’s hag mother. It would mean… Ike told the truth about his father. Her skin crawled. It felt like a ruse.

  The guard bowed his head. “My apologies. It saddens me to hear that. Did you inform the King?”

  Ike stiffened. “I didn’t feel it necessary.”

  A vein leapt in the guard’s throat. Edna had the feeling the older man wanted to reprimand Ike before thinking better of it. The guards couldn’t possibly believe Ike’s claim.

  They ascended the stone steps to the gilded double doors. Two robotic servants waiting outside opened the doors for them to enter.

  Edna gawked as she entered Langston Palace. Goose bumps popped out across her skin and breath lodged in her throat at the majestic wonder. The floor of polished marble tiles reflected the lights from a chandelier in the ceiling. Gold paint framed the windows and doors. Tables and vases lined the walls.

  Her country’s past kings and queens had once treaded the same hallway she walked; Edna bowed her head.

  “Our whole tenement would fit in this foyer,” Harrison exhaled.

  “And all that gilt would feed the city for years,” Edna added.

  The guard led them through the massive foyer into a hallway of the same elegance, and opened a door. He stepped aside so they could enter first. Velvet loveseats and tables of miniature statues covered the room.

  “I will see where your father is and announce your arrival.” The elderly guard bowed at the waist, his white ponytail bobbing against his back, before he shut the door.

  Rachel parted the lace curtains to peer through one of the floor-to-ceiling windows. “I never thought a place could look like this.”

  Harrison picked up one of the statues. “Who is this?”

  “My father.” Ike sat on one of the loveseats, his back stiff. “He has a new statue made every year, to chronicle his age.”

  “So you’re the King’s son, but you never told us?” Rachel toyed with her pearl earring.

  Ike chuckled. “My mother belonged to one of the original hag families. My father is descended from King Ebel. Mother Sambucus shoved them together and they happened to fall in love.” Bitterness crept into his voice. “My mother couldn’t stand the way others looked down on us. We were hags—no better than servants. The nobles thought we’d risen above our status. Only the guards were kind. My tutors were nice.”

  “Servants.” Hilda sat across from them. “All we’re good for. Healing your wonderful kind.”

  Harrison stuck his tongue out at her. “You heal your own kind too, and I’m a servant.”

  Edna wanted to correct him. He wasn’t a servant anymore, but Edna couldn’t wrap her brain around Ike’s revelation. “So you became a thief instead of coming back here.” Edna nibbled her knuckles, lace catching in her teeth. “All this time, the King’s only son has been my companion.”

  Ike shrugged. “Yes.”

  “If the humans treated you so terribly, why don’t you want the hags to use their coglings?” Breath snagged in her throat.

  He picked a piece of dirt from beneath his thumbnail. “The hags killed my mother. Even though the humans have faults, they aren’t trying to steal dreams. Hags want to replace people. Humans just need to realize there are better ways to rule than keeping tomtar slaves. Coglings won’t help with that.”

  “You’re a prince?” Rachel sank to her knees beside him.

  Edna stiffened. “You never so much as gave him a second glance when you thought he was a thief.”

  “Mother was a hag. I could never be a prince. I’m sure you’ve never heard of me.”

  Back home, no one had even whispered that the king had a son.

  “Of course you’re the prince. You’re the king’s only child,” Rachel said.

  “The throne will go to one of my cousins.” Ike stood. “I don’t want to discuss this.”

  The door opened before anyone could respond. A robot maid curtsied in her black gown. “King Elias will see you in his study. Please follow me.”

  As they left the room, Ike slipped his hand through Edna’s. She glanced at him, but he didn’t look at her. His eyebrows knit together, forming a crease between them. After a quick squeeze, he released her and kept walking.

  She’d touched the King’s son, even kissed him, a young man who’d helped rescue her brother. Her lungs constricted, making her pant. Warmth coiled in her belly, and the evil never stirred.

  Ike wasn’t a half-hag or a king’s child. He was her friend. Now that he was back with the King, Ike and Edna could try to convince King Elias to release the tomtars, to outlaw foxkin hunts, to help the poor….

  She grinned. Everything would work out. Fate had led her here to better the kingdom.

  They wandered down hallway after hallway, where the scent of lilacs lingered in the air. At the bottom of a flight of stairs, the servant opened a door. Edna’s fingers twitched from nerves.

  “King Elias, I present your visitors,” the servant said.

  Edna followed the others inside the dark room. “Where’s the light?”

  “Father?” Ike called.

  Gas lamps ignited, showing blue walls with gold edging. Cages the size of closets hung from the ceiling. Men lay against the bars, five to a cage. Hands dangled out, the fingernails white from poor circulation. Their clothes and hair had grayed, their eyes shut with circles underneath.

  In the center of the room stood Mother Sambucus, garbed in a black robe with foxkin fur along the edges.

  Edna slapped her hand over her mouth as bile rose in her throat. The evil—energy, magic—flared from her heart. “On the seven Saints,” Ike hissed.

  Smirking, Mother Sambucus spread her hands. “I would like you to meet King Elias and his nobles.”

  When you look in my eyes, what do you see?

  ke held out his arms, blocking his companions from the hag’s view. Edna grabbed Harrison, but she yearned to hold Ike close and enter battle. The men in the cages didn’t move or cry out; their heads limp with parted lips.

  “Nobles wouldn’t stand for this.” Rachel pointed at the cages. “Those are just coglings.”

  Mother Sambucus clapped, beaded bangles jingling on her wrists. “You’re half correct, Lady Rachel. These are the real nobles—enchanted so they cannot make a fuss, of course. The nobles the rest of the kingdom sees are my coglings.” She nodded at Ike. “The King included.”

  Edna gasped. The hags had reached higher than Ike had feared.

  “Someone will realize it’s not him.” Ike’s voice squeaked. “The people will revolt. The police will stop—”

  “You want everyone to rebel against me, don’t you? Us poor hags.” Mother Sambucus clicked her tongue. “You’re one of us even if you don’t want to admit it.”

  Ike stepped forward. “Where is my father?”

  Mother Sambucus lifted her hand. “Do not interrupt your elders, boy. I see growing up with the wisest tutors didn’t teach you manners.” She sniffed. “I’m so glad my scouts caught your messenger.”

  “Where is he?” Ike growled.

  Edna assumed he meant his father until Mother Sambucus laughed. A door in the back of the room swung open; the foul stench of bog water made Edna gag. Rachel pressed her hand over her mouth and Harrison wrinkled his nose.

  An ogre in an indigo suit dragged a man across the room to throw him down beside Mother Sambucus. Matted hair hung over the man’s face, his torso clad in a torn black jacket. A ragged shirt peeked out from the jacket’s collar. His pants were stained, boots scuffed, and his hands were bound behind his back with purple rope. The splintery strands sparkled with enchantment.

  Mother Sambucus caught the man’s hair in her fist and jerked his head back. Through
dirt and grime, Edna recognized Charles. She stumbled backwards. “Charles is dead. Ike saw him mangled after the airship crashed.” Had Ike lied, as he’d done about his heritage? Edna pressed her hands over her trembling lips. Her inner debate over trusting Ike rose to the surface with a roar.

  Hilda hissed breath through her teeth. “Release my brother.”

  “You knew he was alive?” Edna squeaked.

  Hilda narrowed her eyes. “Ike told me.”

  “This whelp was sent to warn the King. I couldn’t stand for that.” Mother Sambucus shoved Charles toward the floor; his head rolled to the side, eyelids fluttering.

  Edna whirled on Ike. “When the blimp crashed—”

  Mother Sambucus twirled her hand overhead. “That dear dragon tore it down. Where is your little pet now?”

  “Safe.” Harrison straightened despite his trembling. “We left him with the Nix.”

  Edna grabbed Ike’s arm. “We were supposed to be partners, but you lied.” Trust wavered as her anger rose. “You let me believe he was dead.”

  Ike caught her wrist. “After Charles dropped us off, he was going to take the blimp to the King anyway and give a warning. I wrote up a statement for my father so Charles would be admitted. After we crashed, Charles thought he should go on and I figured it was easier to say he was dead, in case anything happened with the hags. If they questioned you, you wouldn’t have to lie. You could tell them we were alone.”

  “How is that easier?” she sputtered. “I suffered thinking Charles had died because of me.”

  “Lies are how I survived on the streets,” Ike snapped.

  “Did you lie about what the evil in me is, too?” The evil pushed the words out before she could snacth them.

  Mother Sambucus slapped her cane into the floor. “Is that what you think it is? Oh, little girl, magic isn’t wholly evil. It’s engery. You make it what it is. You want it evil, then your heart must be as dark as mine.”

  Edna pressed her fist against her mouth to keep from vomiting. “I’m not evil.”

  “If you think hags are, then you must be too.” Mother Sambucus sliced her cane through the air. “Wretch. Your grandmother was a hag who ran off to wed a human male. You’re like dear Ike here, a mixture of blood.”

  Edna gripped Ike’s arm to keep upright as an image coiled through her mind, the hag and the man aboard the blackened ship. Could that be her grandparents? “You’re lying.”

  “She has to be saying something right,” Ike rasped. “Having hag blood is the only way you’d have that magic in you.”

  “All this time I hated hags… when I was one?”

  The back door opened again to four ogres. They staggered across the room waving thick, wooden clubs and wearing tangerine smocks. Ike pushed Edna behind him.

  “If you resist, they have orders to kill you.” Mother Sambucus snapped her fingers.

  The ogre with Charles heaved the man over his shoulder, chuckling. The hoarse, deep sounds crawled across Edna’s skin, forcing the hairs on her arms to rise. Another ogre tucked his club into his belt, grabbed Rachel with one hand and Harrison with his other, pulling them toward the door.

  Harrison shrieked, writhing against the ogre’s grip. “I won’t go back!”

  “Wait!” Edna reached for her brother before another ogre seized her around the waist and tossed her over his shoulder. Edna grunted as a broad shoulder shoved into her abdomen. Breath lurched from her lungs. The ogre’s leathery skin stank of swamp, making her gag. She punched his back and kicked at his stomach, but he tightened his grip against her thighs until she squeaked. Bile rose in her throat. The other two ogres seized Ike and Hilda by the arms. They stood straight, glaring at Mother Sambucus.

  “Fight for us,” Edna called to Ike.

  “My hags.” Mother Sambucus pinched Hilda’s tense cheek. “I look forward to instilling my cause in your delicious mind.” She shrugged toward the door. “Dispose of the humans.”

  “No coglings?” Harrison asked.

  Edna twisted to see him. Mother Sambucus snorted. “You aren’t needed, and the authorities won’t care if you disappear forever.”

  “Our parents will,” Edna called before the ogre carried her through the doorway into a hallway of stone walls. Ike turned to look at her and she thought his eyes glistened with tears. The unused cogling he’d stolen wouldn’t help them now.

  The ogre turned a corner and she lost sight of her friend.

  Sweat coated Edna’s skin, and the magic within her surged to the surface, but she had no idea how to release it without hurting Harrison. The ogre carried her down steps and rounded corners into new hallways. Torches burned in iron sconces on the walls. The ogre with Harrison and Rachel followed them. Rachel wept, but Harrison looked on with hollow eyes, the same look he’d had when Edna rescued him from the factory. Her heart broke to see her brother lose himself again. Her parents would want her to keep him strong.

  “Harry-boy, it’ll be fine,” Edna called. The ogre pinched her thigh with his thick fingers. She jerked at the sharp pain.

  “No talking,” the ogre grunted.

  There had to be a way to escape amongst the endless stones and torches. A sob choked her. Mother Sambucus could be hurting Ike. They needed to stay together, to fight the hags.

  The hallway ended in a row of doors. One of them had to lead to freedom. Her heartbeat sped up. She grinned at Harrison and Rachel, but Rachel wept and Harrison stared without emotion. When the ogre opened the first door and lumbered inside, the only light came from the torches in the hallway. The room was the size of Edna’s bedroom, but contained a large hole in the middle. An acidic stench rose in the air.

  “Have fun,” The ogre snickered as he tossed her inside.

  Air rushed by as she plummeted, brown curls tossed over her face. She screamed before she hit a soft floor, and the impact jolted her shoulder. Harrison and Rachel fell in beside her.

  “Ouch,” Harrison grunted.

  The ogres laughed as they left, slamming the door.

  “It’s so dark,” Rachel whimpered. “Where are we?”

  “Harrison?” Edna’s voice squeaked.

  Rachel sniffled. “The ground’s moving.”

  Edna crawled in the darkness, pawing for her brother. The floor did shift, as though it were made of thousands of constantly moving sticks. Scaly sticks.

  One of the sticks crawled over her ankle and hissed.

  “The floor is made of snakes,” Edna shrieked.

  Rachel burst into wailing tears. “They’ll bite us!”

  Edna’s hand brushed against her brother’s jacket and she yanked him against her. “No matter what ensues, I’ll keep you at my side. Are you hurt?”

  “I’m fine,” he rasped.

  Her mind conjured the dark scene around them: two girls and a boy trapped in a snake pit. “The reptiles have to be poisonous. What a perfect way to dispose of victims. Unless this is more of a torture chamber. Maybe the snakes aren’t poisonous.” She rubbed the cameo. “If I could see the snakes, perhaps I’d be able to avoid them.”

  The profile on the cameo glowed, illuminating the pit as if it were daylight. The snakes, a mixture of sizes and colors, shrank away from the sun brooch to reveal a dirt floor. Stone walls circled the round pit.

  “The magic works for this too?” Edna breathed. “We won’t die without struggling first.”

  Rachel crawled toward Edna until she could hug her, her tears smearing into Edna’s hair. Edna clutched Harrison tighter.

  The snakes crawled further away, hissing with skinny, forked tongues.

  Edna shuddered at the sight of their sleek, colorful bodies. Orange triangles lay over crimson stripes. Some were as long as her arm, others twice as long as her body. “Is anyone bitten?”

  “I’m fine,” Rachel snuffled.

  “Ike will get us?” Harrison suggested in a soft voice.

  Edna continued to rub the cameo and the light brightened. “We have to get out ourselves. We can do it
. We just have to think.”

  “The walls are smooth.” Rachel pointed at the stones of the pit. “We can’t climb out.”

  “But they aren’t that tall!” Edna hurried toward the side, leading them with her. The snakes scurried away to open a small space. “Rachel, climb on my shoulders. I’ll boost you up.” Edna crouched, cupping her hands. Harrison clung to her skirt.

  Rachel dried her eyes on her sleeve before stepping onto Edna’s hands. She leaned against the wall and crawled upwards as Edna stood. The muscles in Edna’s shoulders and back burned, but she straightened, gritting her teeth against the pain in her arms.

  “Can you reach?” Edna’s vision spun. She willed herself not to surrender to the pain or fear.

  “Almost,” Rachel called down. “A few more inches.”

  “Climb on my shoulders.” Edna gritted her teeth as Rachel obeyed. The heels of Rachel’s boots dug into Edna’s skin.

  “Got it!” Rachel jumped, causing more pain to lash through Edna’s body. The weight lifted off and Rachel grunted. “I’m up.”

  “Harrison, you’re next.” Edna cupped her hands. Her brother hesitated before stepping onto them, then onto Edna’s shoulders. She clutched his ankles to brace him. “Can you reach Rachel?”

  “Got him,” Rachel called. Harrison’s weight lifted off Edna.

  “How do we get you now, Eddie?”

  She took a deep breath. As the older sister, she had to protect him, make him think the world was wonderful. Yet she couldn’t hide the truth from him. After fighting for his safety, she couldn’t tarnish their bond with a lie.

  Edna stroked her prayer beads. “You don’t, Harry-boy.”

  “What?” Harrison’s shout echoed in the room. The snakes hissed and thrashed.

  “Go save Ike and Hilda,” Edna urged. “They’ll come get me. Have them bring rope.”

  “We can’t leave you.” Harrison sobbed.

  Edna nibbled her lower lip. “You can’t reach me.”

  “I’ll come back down.” Harrison started to climb over the edge, but Rachel grabbed his arm.