by Holly Hook
The whole corridor fell silent except for the echoes of her voice, mixing in with mine.
"You hired them to watch me?" I asked. The cold energy exploded through my body, begging to be released and used. I held it back and let my arm slap to my side, wand included, just to show that I wasn't. "You told them what I did?"
"Ouch," Ebert groaned. "My back."
"Yes. I hired them to aggravate you, to see what you would do. You might be my mother's son, Shorty, but I have to keep the kingdom and myself safe. I had to see what you would do if you were provoked. You attacked Ebert and Humphrey in the wine cellar with the staff. Granted, you did not harm them, but you lost your temper and attacked them all the same."
I felt as if the ground were going out from under me.
She had told them about my having to kill Lawrence.
Nori had betrayed me on the worst level.
"I thought they were spies from the Fox Kingdom. It wasn't exactly a fair test," I said. "You had them remind me of what I had to do. That's what tipped me off. That would have tipped anyone off!"
"You should have thought before you acted. Shorty, you need more work. I cannot be sure you are fit to stay in the Star Kingdom."
"With the way things are going, maybe I'm not," I said. I wanted to throw the wand down and go back down the tunnel, to whatever was in the dark.
"Leave him alone," Candice said. "You haven't been treating him the best. Anybody would get like that after the way you've brushed him aside. He's not an asset you can use to scare the other kingdoms."
"Would you have put me through this testing if it wasn't for...where I came from?" I asked. I didn't want to say it out loud. I wasn't sure no one had stopped in the stairwell and that this wasn't echoing up to wherever everyone else had gone. I didn't know if Ebert and Humphrey knew the whole truth about me but at this point, I wouldn't be surprised.
Nori hesitated. It might as well have been a yes.
"Well, would you?"
"Shorty, you came from a unique circumstance. You have to understand why I did what I did."
"You've always been afraid of me," I said. "I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry that I exist. Do you know what? I'm going to go and kill Alric myself. Give me that magic ball of yarn, and I'll prove to you once and for all that I'm not what you think I am."
"Shorty!" Candice yelled. "You can't go face Alric by yourself."
"I can," I told her. "I will. It's obvious I'm not going to be accepted until I do. I'm a substitute in these fairy tales. I have no other place and I've already proven that. I'll substitute for the guy who was supposed to kill Alric in the first place. And by the way, I'm keeping this wand."
Nori took a step forward. "You are not keeping that. I may need it to protect these refugees."
I hated having to say what I said next. "I need it to kill Alric and save Fable. That will protect the refugees more than just running all the time, because that's what you're doing. Running. Eventually, he or Annie are going to catch up with you."
"What?" Henry asked.
He had come back down the stairs. He stood on the bottom step, watching. I could barely see him in the fading light. Now that Nori didn't have the wand, the spell was wearing off. "You're going to kill Alric?" he asked.
"Want to join?" I asked, expecting a no.
Henry paused.
And then he said, "Yes. Do you know what it's like, having your family and your entire kingdom encased in glass? I was looking to kill Alric myself until I found Rae in her tower. I wound up encased in glass myself. Rae broke me out. When that happened, my kingdom was saved, but there are others down there waiting to be freed. That includes Rae's adoptive mother."
I felt strange listening to him say that. I couldn't say anything. How could I give this away? But I wasn't the only one with someone down there, at least.
How many others had loved ones in that prison?
"Come up to the surface with us," Henry said as the rest of the light faded. "You might have more help than you thought you did."
Chapter Six
Nori said nothing more as Candice and I found each other and plodded up the stairs, single file.
I was numb at this point. I could sense Candice's worry rolling off her. She didn't want me to go kill Alric. I had failed last time and I would surely fail again unless I could find a way for a stag to enter the story, get Alric in bull form, and fight him to the death. That was if we found a way to take his gold stockpile away from him so he couldn't draw the magic from it. That, and Alric wouldn't go into bull form and battle if he knew there was even the slightest chance of him dying. He knew his story and how to get around it.
But there was no other way of destroying him.
I would have to force him into it, then.
The stairway felt like it went up forever. Light returned, just a faint glimmer at first, and then it grew bright and green and hopeful. Candice emerged into dying daylight first and I followed. Nori came up behind me and Ebert and Humphrey walked behind her. I didn't put it past them to try something again.
It turned out that Ebert was just trying to reach an itch under his chestplate and I was the idiot. Nori had even made him take the plate off to show that he wasn't carrying any weapons. It also turned out they weren't knights at all, but poor farmers who needed some extra money. They'd come right from the Star Kingdom fields, begging Nori for help since a dark spot had claimed a good part of their farms and their crops failed.
Not only was I an idiot, but I had attacked a couple of guys just trying to feed their families.
That was another point in my favor.
Needless to say, I wasn't feeling very good about myself when I stepped into the clear air of the forest this entrance happened to be in. Green trees towered overhead and tall grass surrounded the huge tree stump we had all come out of. I joined Candice by another tree. People had sat down under the forest canopy. Henry waved the elf and the blond girl over to us and Ignacia came over as well. They all seemed to be in a group together, which might be good for us. Ignacia still had the yarn and Nori eyed it like she wanted nothing more than to have it back. Maybe she wanted to go find her daughter herself.
This forest didn't seem to end. It stretched out everywhere, but at least there weren't any dark spots. The knights, about a dozen of them, stood around the perimeter guarding everyone. That made me feel a lot better.
Nori leaned against the tree and surveyed the scene. “We haven’t gone too far from the city,” she said. “I recognize this tree from when I was a little girl.” She faced the opening, which was big enough to fit one person at a time. It looked like a tree hole that elves would use to go back and forth from the underworld. “The other children would peek down the hole but no one was brave enough to go down there. Now I know where it leads.”
She was softer now, going to a time before Alric started to rise to power.
“At least you know where we are,” I said.
Nori smiled. “If the ravens are gone and Annie is gone, we can all go back to the city in the morning. The walk is not that far. Perhaps she will continue to search for us in the underground. I will need to secure the castle."
I was glad something was working out. Nori wouldn’t die on the trek back. I peeked through the trees and the dying light, which made orange beams that poked through the trees.
“I’m not going back to the city,” I said. “I’m not going back until Alric is dead.”
Candice squeezed my hand. “He might kill you.”
“He might. But if I don’t do something, he’s going to kill everybody.”
Candice couldn’t argue with that. She sighed and looked down at the grass.
“Shorty, you shouldn’t have to do this.”
“I need to. I can’t live my life until I do.”
We stepped away from everyone else and towards Henry. He waited with Rae. Her hair sparkled in the evening sun. It was magical. She gave off a warm, energetic feeling that reminded me of all the other light
magic in this world. I wondered what she was able to do.
“I talked to Ignacia and Mica,” Rae said. “Ignacia wants to come with us and she’s going to bring the yarn.”
“Wait,” I said. “This is past dangerous. I think only me and Henry and maybe a few knights should go.”
“So, boys only?” Candice asked.
“You don’t know how to fight,” I told her.
“I’m not letting you do this by yourself. I’ve faced Alric before, just like you have. I survived.”
I could tell she was scared. I did not want Candice to have to do this. It was bad enough she couldn’t get back to her father and the world she had grown up in.
I opened my mouth to say something, but she stopped me by holding up a hand. “I am going with you, Shorty. We all have a stake in this. Every single one of us. The more people we have, the more likely we are to succeed. Alric has to go or we’re all going to fall into darkness.”
There was no convincing her. A big part of me wanted her to come along, but a bigger part wanted her to be safe. “Fine,” I said. “Just don’t get killed. Please.” She didn’t know what she was to me. Candice was the only thing I had in this world.
I faced that split in the tree again. It was even darker now that we were up here in some light. Even the coming night was full of light compared to what was down there.
Ignacia and Mica separated from the crowd and joined us. The yarn ball was glowing again, ready for use.
It was the key to wherever I wanted to go.
And maybe, just maybe, we could go to the other world after all this was over and leave this behind.
“Do you know what, Candice?” I asked.
“What?”
“This yarn can show you how to get to anywhere. Including the other world. It works over there, right?”
Ignacia nodded. She was just as tired as Mica. “Right. I've been there. My brothers and I had to hide from Annie over there."
Candice’s face lit up. “You should go there, Shorty. Go there with me.”
My heart leapt at the thought. I had nothing in Fable. I was an extra here, someone to fill in missing roles. In the other world there was every possibility in the world. Sure, it wasn’t great and there were problems there, too, but at least there was no dark wizard trying to take over the place.
"Then after all this is over, can you show me a portal back?" I asked. "I know they exist, but they're so hard to find."
"We can," Ignacia said. "I'll be happy to show you. Unless we find a way to get rid of Annie, then my brothers and I might need to go there again, too."
"I hate to keep running," Mica said. "We're not like you. She knows where both of our kingdoms are and where to find us. We're not exactly low profile people. You know that, right?"
"Right," I said. They had no idea how not low profile I was.
Nori approached us from the side. "Everyone," she said. "We are going to camp here for the night while my guards keep watch for us. That woman, Annie, will likely not know where this exit is, but in case she does find it, I'll post two more guards there to watch and listen for her." She waved over two knights, who didn't look pleased to have this assignment. "You will get extra wine for this."
They perked up after that. They posted themselves on either side of the tree trunk while the rest of us walked away from the exit and towards where the elf was gathering sticks for a fire. The blond girl rubbed two of them together like she had done this before but she was having a hard time. The foliage in this forest was damp and moist. It wasn't fire-starting material.
"You can start the fire for them," Candice said.
I glanced down at the gnarled wood of the wand that I still held. Nori had forgotten to ask for it back. She was tired after all or maybe she was hoping I would go off and try to kill Alric.
"Just what I need is more people to see I'm full of dark magic," I said. Fire was generally a dark magic type of thing.
"You have light magic, too. Just tell them that."
"Nori doesn't like people to know she has magic, either," I said, leaning close to Candice. "That's why she keeps all that secret. A lot of people in Fable are suspicious of any magic, even if it's good. Remember the Fox Kingdom?"
"But Henry and Rae know you have it now. And Nori was holding the wand when she joined the rest of the people in the tunnel."
"For all they know, the wand is some artifact that gives off light when needed," I said. "Most people don't know much about magic in this world. It's feared and not understood."
"But it doesn't have to be bad. Maybe if people knew that, they wouldn't be so scared all the time."
"Candice, this is a world where you can still be burned for witchcraft. Literally. That is a punishment here."
She eyed me with horror. "Sorry," she said. "I didn't know."
I thought about my own stupidity with Ebert and Humphrey, but they already knew what I could do. We shuddered together and settled under a tree as the blond girl, who Henry said was named Brie, continued to struggle with the fire. I hated watching her but I kept the wand on my lap. Maybe, when no one was looking, I'd give her a hand. It was too light out still to risk it.
After fifteen minutes of the blond girl struggling, most of the villagers had turned away to find logs to sit on. I lifted the wand at the pile and muttered, "flammen."
A spark came to life and the blond girl backed up, amazed. She knew something was amiss, so I shifted and sat on the wand to hide it.
"Finally," she said. "It's about time. I've never had such a hard time starting a fire. Does anyone have any dry grass?" She turned to the villagers, who mostly had their backs turned. One of the men was taking an axe to a tree with a bunch of hard whacking sounds. They'd come with supplies, at least.
But the fire was going on its own. It overtook the rest of the pile and cast flickering light on the surrounding trees. I cringed, waiting for Annie or those ravens to approach, but the dusk stayed quiet and people gathered around. Orange light reflected off the armor of the knights. It felt safe here.
I leaned on Candice while three of the village women and one of the servants rummaged through a straw basket they must have brought. They got out jerky and bags of chips that didn't exist in Fable, but the other world. The servant--I think her name was Elsie--eyed it and faced me. "Do you know what this is?" she asked, holding up a pack of Lays.
"You've been to the other world?" Candice asked. Hope rose inside of her.
"I haven't," Elsie said, "but all the villagers said they have."
One of the village women stepped forward. "It's a very long story. Would you like to hear it?"
* * * * *
The village woman sat with us as we ate the chips and told us how they had gotten here.
The villagers had all come from Mary's little town. I remembered Mary. She had been there at the Fox Kingdom castle, meeting with the Queen and Nori when Candice and I had gotten there with the frog prince. Mary came from the other world, too, and had a copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales she had brought with her when a portal opened in her library by mistake. Since she knew the tales, she was the advisor for a lot of royals who were trying to hold back Alric's takeover of Fable.
It turned out that a dark spot had grown over the village and everyone had to flee. It had happened right after Ignacia had gotten there. Mica and his mother, the former Queen of the Sun Kingdom, were there also, meeting with Mary. At first, the people of the village thought Ignacia was the one bringing the darkness, but it turned out Mica's mother and Annie were working together to frame Ignacia and make her story fall. Annie's presence had made the dark spot grow. Ignacia used her yarn, which her father used to own, to take everyone to the other world, where they stayed at a camp for a while. Ignacia's brothers were there, cursed to be swans by Annie. She managed to free them, but not before she almost got burned at the stake for the death of Mary, which happened in the other world.
Mica's mother had actually killed her. Annie had promised her the Sun
Kingdom back if she did it.
"I'm glad I didn't see the Ignacia girl get burned," the village woman told us. "I thought there was something strange going on there, but the rest of the town was so riled up I was too scared to say anything."
"So Mica's mother got burned instead," I said.
A shudder stole over the woman. She had to be in her twenties, young and still yet to have kids of her own. "She screamed. She said we would all burn when Alric took over. I don't think we have long. Alric is making story after story fall. With each one, more darkness spreads. There are so many of them, according to Mary. Two hundred, and many of them we don't know about."
I shuddered, thinking about how many Alric could have messed with. The people sitting here had only come from a handful of stories. There were so many more out there that might have fallen. Judging from the way darkness was spreading, this woman must be right.
"You guys have a copy of the book, too," I said.
"Yes. Ignacia and Brie and Stilt went with Mica to find a new one when we were in the other world."
I wanted to look at the book again, but I'd already read the Glass Coffin. We needed a stag and a dude to go in there after Alric was dead to free all the prisoners. I racked my memories for any time my other grandmother had turned someone into a stag, but it had just...never happened. She favored turning people into snakes, shutting them into iron stoves and or actually trying to cook them alive. She loved Alric and spoke highly of him so much I wanted to throw up. She'd never turn someone into a stag if he could be a threat to her precious son.
Because of that, I had never heard the Old Language word for it.
I could ask Nori, but she usually did her spells in silence. Some advanced magic users could do magic just by thinking the word. I got up and walked over to where she was sitting. She sat next to her advisor, Peter.
"What's the Old Language word for stag?" I asked her.
She stared at me for a long time as if I'd forgotten something important. Of course.
