King Magnar bowed his head. “I allowed desperation to take over my conscience. It will take a lifetime to make things up to the dragons and warriors. It’s a wonder they didn’t kill me.”
I raised my brows. His diplomatic immunity and the debts he owed for his misdeeds had been his only saving grace.
“Did it work?” asked Botilda from below.
“They’re free.” I turned to Evolene. “Could you open the grate, please?”
With a flash of magic, she lifted the grate from its setting and pushed it to one side. I climbed through and pulled myself to my feet. The stench of body odor and human feces filled my nostrils, making me gag. About two-dozen filthy, emaciated humans stood around the room, looking dazed. The room stretched about the a hundred feet in width, with two openings at either end. On the right, boxes sat on a ledge, the type that the humans had transported to the left side of the room. The walls appeared to have been carved out of limestone.
Blinking through watering eyes, I asked, “Excuse me, does anyone know why they’re here?”
The girl from earlier turned and wrapped too-thin arms around her middle. “Men in leather armor came to our village and told us there was well-paying servants’ work up in the mountain. She smoothed down the filthy rags covering her emaciated body. This was my best dress. I thought I was coming for an interview, but I came into this room and my body started moving by itself. How long have we been up here?”
“I’m not sure.” I glanced around at the wide-eyed humans wandering aimlessly around the room. From their skeletal states, it looked like they’d all been gathered around the same time. “But it’s the second week of the month of Nonus.”
She clapped her hand over her mouth. “And the year?”
“Three into the reign of Magnar,” said the King.
Her eyes filled with tears. “I-it’s been nine months!”
I placed my hand over my heart and glanced around the room. Some of the humans rested their backs against the wall, and some sat on the stone floor with their heads in their hands. Despite their lack of movement, the strange crunching continued.
My gaze slid to the ground. It was hard to make eye contact with someone who had suffered for so long, knowing that if I had acted about the time King Magnar had been exiled I might have ended that suffering earlier.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Fyrian. “Neither of us were prepared then, and we hadn’t met Master Jesper or Gladius. We acted at the right time. Put your blame where it belongs: with those wretched spriggans.”
“None-Of-Your-Business is correct,” said Gladius. “You have done enough for these people by asking the witches and me to destroy the artifact that kept them bound. Focus on the real enemy instead of the one within.”
I cleared my throat. Sometimes it was hard not to feel responsible, but they were both right. “What did you have to do every day?”
The girl pointed at the void in the wall on the right. “We crawled into shafts and broke pieces of firestone from the walls of the mountain, then we carried the rocks back to this room and threw them into the pit on the left.”
“Oh, no,” said a voice from the left side of the room.
Gladius, Astri, and Botilda stared down into the ledge. This had to be the pit the girl had been talking about. On legs that trembled like the branches of a skeleton tree, I rushed to the side of the room, heart pounding so hard, it made my ribs reverberate. Was this where the spriggans were keeping King Magnar’s youngest sisters? Then I reached the end and peered down.
Winged lizards the size of dogs with serpentine faces crunched fluorescent orange stones between over-sized teeth. Iridescent, horned scales as sharp as porcupine quills covered their backs. One of the creatures belched, releasing a cloud of black dust.
My stomach churned and bile rose to the back of my throat. These were monstrous. “What is that?”
“The beginnings of a dragon,” whispered Gladius. “The memories are coming back of the days when I was a smaller animal, caught by the spriggans for their master. He infused me with his magic and forced me to eat stones imbued with each element. It took decades for him and his spriggans to finish creating me, and by then, they had made me intelligent enough to understand their commands.”
I glanced at his anguished face, holding back the question on my lips. If master dragons could turn human, did that mean the Forgotten King and his spriggans had imbued them with human organs or life-forces to help them understand language?
“We’d better take a look around,” I said. “I doubt that the Forgotten King is buried here, but we might find some clues to determine his whereabouts.”
“This place is mostly stone pits,” said King Magnar. “But there is a dormitory, a kitchen, and an office for the staff.”
I nodded. “Lead the way.”
The doors flew open, and a four-and-a-half-foot-tall creature dressed in black leather stormed inside. A giant baby head wobbled atop his wiry body. Unlike the spriggans we had seen before, this one had retained its youthful appearance, except for its oversized, adult teeth. I drew in a sharp breath. If the spriggans were trying to develop dragons without the help of the Forgotten King, it made sense that they would also try to replicate themselves. A boulder of dread rolled through my belly. How many of the creatures would we have to fight?
“What is the meaning of this?” squeaked the small spriggan. “The proto-dragons have stopped—”
With a snarl, Gladius lurched toward the spriggan and seized him by the neck. “Where is the King?”
The spriggan’s eyes widened, and his hands clawed at Gladius’ fist. “W-what are you talking about?”
I stepped forward. “I think this spriggan’s only been half-developed. What if we can undo the enchantments and save him?”
Gladius shook the creature, making its head loll from side to side. “Don’t lie to me, spriggan!”
“H-help,” the young spriggan cried. “Intruders!”
Moments later, a dozen more little spriggans burst in through the door, each holding hand-cannons. I groaned. We should have performed silencing spells around the room, so as not to alert anyone of our presence.
“Don’t let them shoot at you,” shouted Fyrian into the bond. “The cannons contain stringy fireworks that stick to your scales and won’t let you move!”
Gladius grunted his thanks and blew out a stream of cold flames that formed frost over the cannons. A curly-haired spriggan with bright orange eyes dropped hers, but the others clenched their teeth and held on tight. When one tried to pull the trigger, nothing happened.
“What manner of creature are you?” croaked the spriggan dangling from Gladius’ fist.
“How long have you been a spriggan?” I asked.
“As long as I’ve been alive.” His face twisted with anguish. “Please, let me go.”
King Magnar stepped forward, flanked by Evolene and his sisters. Each witch pointed glowing staffs at the crowd of cowering spriggans. “Not until you tell us the location of the Forgotten King.”
The one who had dropped her hand-cannon fell to her knees and clasped her hands. “No one knows who you’re talking about. We’ve lived here all our lives and don’t know anyone except for Father and the humans.”
“Who’s your father?” I asked.
“O-Oleander Dogbane.”
Gladius roared, making the humans cowering at the other end of the room scream. “That filthy spriggan!”
My brows drew together. “You know him?”
“I see that wretched face every time I close my eyes,” he snarled.
There was no point in asking for an explanation. The odd-looking lizards in the pit eating stones the color of fire was evidence that the spriggans had helped mold dragons into the creatures they had become. Right now, I didn’t want or need details on what they had done to the dragons up in the realm of the fairies.
Fyrian shuddered through our bond. “Gladius needs to flame them, so they can’t cause any more damage.�
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My heart twisted with guilt. Either the spriggans had produced offspring and made them work in the mountain, or they’d stolen babies and turned them into spriggans. Either way, these small beings might be redeemable. “I’m not sure. They’re clearly not full-grown.”
“All the better reason to destroy them,” she said.
“None-Of-Your-Business is right,” said Gladius. “I must kill them.”
“Wait.” I turned to the spriggan. “What’s under this mountain?”
The spriggan’s eyes widened. “What are you talking about? There’s just firestone under this mountain!”
“Then tell us about other places your kind are digging up,” snarled Gladius.
A pink tongue darted out to lick his lips. “There’s a fairy iron mine in Savannah.”
“What else?”
“And an uninhabited island in the middle of Merman’s Triangle. It’s called the Isle of Iron.”
“Where else?”
The spriggan’s face twisted. “I don’t know anything else… I swear!”
Smoke curled out from between Gladius’ lips. “Then it’s time to die.”
All the little spriggans fell to their knees and clasped their hands. “We beg of you,” cried a male kneeling in the front. “We will do whatever you want if you spare our lives!”
I sighed. “They don’t have any powers, otherwise they would have fought us by now. Why don’t we—”
A rock slammed into my temple. Pain exploded across my skull, making me stagger back and clutch the side of my head. A spriggan at the back of the crowd held a hand-canon dripping with melted ice.
Evolene, Astri, and Botilda raised their staffs. Evolene formed a barrier between us and the spriggans, and King Magnar’s sisters produced a film that wrapped around the spriggans and pulled them together. Their eyes widened, their mouths opened, but the film grew tighter.
The spriggan dangling from Gladius’ fist burst into tears. “Please don’t kill my brethren. They didn’t mean to hurt your friend!”
I shook my head. “It’s hard to tell if they’re spriggans-in-training or innocent victims.” Raising my head to the ceiling, I shouted, “Captain Comma, I’ve found something!”
The two fairies from the Ogre Senate arrived, swords blazing.
Captain Comma, the shorter one with the cruel face, raised her head and sniffed. “I sense no overwhelming dark magic here.”
“Is this where you hid the Forgotten King?” I asked.
Her serrated wings flapped with indignation, and she fixed me with a hard stare. “That information is known only by Her Majesty and a selected few.”
“What did you find?” The taller fairy crossed to the left side room and stared down at the proto-dragons. The crunching noises had stopped, replaced by the clicking of teeth. Without any kind of reaction, she moved to the other side and peered up into the hole on the right wall, which I assumed led to the chute that contained all the firestone.
“The spriggans are trying to make dragons.” I gestured at the small spriggans who were now a huddled mass. “Can anything be done about these? They might be children who’ve been snatched and converted.”
“We will take them to the realm and unpick the foul magic.”
In the blink of an eye, the fairies, along with the small spriggans, vanished.
Gladius growled, and white fire burned within his quicksilver eyes. “You would deny me my revenge?”
“Those weren’t the spriggans who hurt you.” I placed a hand on his wiry arm. “If the fairies can restore them to human children, they’ll be able to return to their families.”
He jerked his head away. “You put too much faith in those winged fiends. They don’t care about anything but themselves.”
“It was either that or kill them,” I replied. “Once we’ve stopped the resurrection of the Forgotten King, I’ll ask the fairies if they could help those little spriggans.”
King Magnar gazed into the pit. “They took the proto-dragons, too.”
Gladius hissed. “They’ve probably been destroyed already.”
I grimaced. Even though I didn’t hold much trust in high fairies, I hoped they would at least keep their word and help turn the little spriggans back to children.
King Magnar swept his arm toward the chute his sisters had made earlier into a staircase. “Since the fairies didn’t sense any trace of spriggans or the Forgotten King, let’s move onto the next location.”
A sigh slid from my lips and I cast the emaciated humans one last glance. I’d already used up several hours getting the spriggan artifact that had enslaved them destroyed. Transporting them home would take up time we couldn’t afford, considering the spriggans had the magic needed to raise the Forgotten King.
“There are fanged cows at the base of the mountain,” I murmured. “Be careful.”
Chapter 8
By the time we climbed down the chute, the first signs of sunlight streamed over the mountain. Although we didn’t find any signs of the Forgotten King, the trip to the dragon facility hadn’t been a waste of time. One of the spriggans had given us a location outside of King Magnar’s sphere of influence: the uninhabited island. I cast the chute another wistful glance. If only we’d had the time to take those humans home. How could they survive those fanged cows in their weakened state?
Gladius stood under a lunar tree, which provided a canopy that blocked the sun instead of magnifying the moonlight. “We must go to the island the spriggan mentioned. Somewhere in the middle of the sea where nobody can reach is exactly the kind of place the fairies would banish an enemy.”
I edged out of the tree’s canopy and nodded. “Why else would a spriggan who had lived on the mountain all their lives bring it up? It has to contain something important.”
King Magnar leaned his back against the trunk of a nearby alder tree and shook his head. “We should go to the mine of fairy iron in Savannah. If we don’t find signs of the Forgotten King there, we can venture out to sea and then fly down to the Midas Island.”
“He’s right,” said Astri, who stood on his right.
Botilda, who leaned on his left side, folded her arms and gave a sharp nod.
Evolene stood between King Magnar and me at the edge of the alder tree’s canopy. She glanced away, seeming to not want to make eye contact with anyone. Did she not want to contradict her new guardian? I bit down on my lip. Everything King Magnar held dear was in Savannah. He’d probably want us to go there as soon as possible so we could have a confrontation with the spriggan who took his throne. The uninhabited island would take us further away from the palace and further away from his goals.
Keeping my voice soft and even, I asked, “Is the iron mine close to the palace?”
He nodded.
“That’s where they’re holding your sisters, isn’t it?” I asked.
“What’s that got to do with anything?” Astri snapped.
I met her blazing, blue eyes. “We already know they’re using the palace as a base. If we go there now, the spriggans will know our plans.”
“So what?”
“Then they’ll be prepared for us. I want us to find the Forgotten King and destroy all the spriggans trying to resurrect him, so there are fewer left by the time we reach the palace. Besides, they guaranteed your sisters’ safety with unbreakable boons.”
Astri’s nostrils flared, and her lips thinned. She flashed her eyes at King Magnar as though prompting him to order us to head straight to the palace. My heart sank. She was probably worried about her sisters, but she needed to understand that we’d only brought the mission forward to stop the resurrection of the Forgotten King.
King Magnar sighed. “I suppose the fate of the Known World takes precedence over our sisters.”
She was about to protest when King Magnar placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “We’ve waited this long. A few more days won’t hurt.”
Astri’s shoulders sagged, and I tore away my gaze. I’d only known the q
uadruplets for a few hours, and the thought of someone locking them away made my heart hurt. I couldn’t imagine the pain of living in such close quarters with four sisters all of my life and losing them to spriggans.
Gladius stretched out his arms. “Each of you grab onto me, and I will return us to Byrrus and None-Of-Your-Business.”
I held onto his wrist, and Evolene wrapped both hands around his forearm. Once King Magnar and his sisters got into contact with Gladius’ arm, he moved us back to the ledge. Fyrian lay on her front with her forearms resting along the rim of the mountain’s ledge. Both back legs were stretched out to the side, making for a comfortable resting position. She raised her chin and gave me a regal nod. Byrrus lay at her side, casting her furtive glances. It looked like he might have been trying to make up with her for all those horrible things he said about her bravery while under the influence of the loyalty elixir.
I helped Evolene onto Fyrian’s back, settled her at my front, and stared at the surrounding forest. Dawn sunlight skimmed over the treetops, bathing them in yellow shades of green. I shook my head. Without the moonlight, the forest didn’t look so disconcerting.
Gladius turned to King Magnar, who settled his sisters at his front. “How do we get to the island?”
King Magnar looked up into the sky. “The nearest port that goes to Finmanland and Merfolkstone is five-hundred leagues south-east from here. I can’t tell you the exact location of the island, but if we fly across the Wretched Sea toward the United Kingdom of Seven, we’ll pass over it on the way.”
“Fine.” Gladius strode to the dragons’ tails. “Get on. We don’t have much time to lose.”
“Wait!” I cried.
Gladius growled. “What?”
“Those fanged cows guarding the mountain. If we leave them there, they’ll kill the humans as they’re trying to escape.”
“Probably,” replied Gladius.
“It would take us less than ten minutes to do something about them.”
Astri turned from where she sat atop Byrrus. “There’s no ‘us’ about it. Either the dragons will flame them, or the witches will enchant them. You’re just the person telling everyone what to do!”
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