To the Eternal (Away From Whipplethorn Book Five)

by Hartoin, A. W.

  “You tell me,” she said.

  I didn’t need to tell her. The cardinal had lost lots of weight since the archduke had given him his last, fatal dose of Lily of the Valley and he was yellow, an increasingly sickly shade. I went to his desk and chose ginger and white willow from the stock of ingredients. Aoife wanted me to try different combos and I had, but those two were the only ones that had a real effect.

  I washed up and mixed them in his mother’s old tin pot and thought through the poems I knew. Poetry was the oldest magic. You just had to know your patient well enough to pick the right poem. I knew the cardinal, but his dying complicated matters. Sometimes, a poem for Aoife worked curiously well, so I picked one by Robert Burns.

  Talk not of love, it gives me pain,

  For love has been my foe;

  He bound me in an iron chain,

  And plunged me deep in woe.

  I swirled my finger in the pot and the tea heated to boiling, sending a stream of steam into the air. Aoife appeared in prayer, her face full of pain and love. The image grew to be nearly solid and made me want to touch it, but that would end the spell.

  Aoife ended her prayer and smiled. The image faded and I turned back to the bed to find the cardinal watching me from under heavy lids. He raised his hand, though the effort was too much for him. I rushed over and poured him a cup of my cure that wasn’t a cure no matter what I did. Somehow, it gave some of the plump sidhe fairy’s strength to him. I used my hands to pull most of the heat from the cup and gave it to Aoife, who used a little dropper to put the tea on his tongue.

  After a few droppers, he smiled and whispered, “Better.”

  I sat beside him and fought to control my emotions. St. Stephen’s and the cardinal had saved us. He gave me a job, let me keep thieving dragons inside the cathedral, and never questioned why I had a spriggan for a brother. He loved me when I needed it most and I couldn’t help him. The healers and I had pored through every book and diary we could find to get a cure for Lily of the Valley poisoning, but there just wasn’t one. The vermillion were stronger than me. Maybe they knew of something that could help, but there was only one known survivor of the Paris mobs and I didn’t even know who it was or if they were fully trained. Ibn Vermillion’s book said there was no cure. I believed Ibn, but it was against my nature to give up. Realistically, there was no chance that I could get to Rome, get the pope on our side, and negotiate for the last vermillion in time.

  “Don’t fret,” said the cardinal.

  My lower lip poked out quite against my will. “I don’t fret.”

  The edge of his lips twitched. “Of course not. But I won’t have you rushing off and risking your family’s life for me.”

  I nodded, but I still didn’t agree. I had wanted to rush off to Rome immediately after the Battle of the Cathedral, but he insisted things must be done properly. There was that word again, “properly.” It always got in the way.

  “I have to go now,” I said.

  “I know.” Cardinal took my hand and patted it. “I got the message from His Majesty. You must go before The Reich’s Fae realizes you’re still here.”

  I kissed his hand and thanked him without blubbering. I was proud of that. I think he was, too. Then he turned to Aoife. “Do you have it?”

  “Yes, your grace.” Aoife gave him a slim leather sheath with a silver hilt sticking out of it that I recognized. The cardinal slid it across his legs toward me. “You know what this is?”

  “Yes, your grace. It’s the master secretary’s blade for defending you.”

  “Give it to Rickard.” He spoke so softly that I’m sure I wouldn’t have understood him if I couldn’t read lips.

  My mouth dropped open. “Rickard? What for?”

  “I’ve named him as Iris’s master secretary.” The cardinal closed his eyes. I must’ve misheard. It couldn’t be. Not that social-climbing weasel that had made our lives miserable. No way. I looked at Aoife and she said, “You heard His Grace.”

  “But why? Rickard wanted to betray us to the horen.”

  “But he didn’t,” said the cardinal without opening his eyes.

  “Only because Delphine beat him to it.”

  “Rickard will serve you well. He has been bound to me and served me well. I should’ve seen his desire for recognition for all his service. It made him callous instead of kind.”

  I stood up and paced. “He’s more than callous. He’s nasty. On purpose.”

  “Then Iris will save him. Forgive him. Don’t make her task harder.”

  “Does he know?” I asked.

  “No,” said the cardinal. “You have the honor of telling him that his ambition has been fulfilled.”

  I picked up the sheath and pulled out the hilt. The blade was invisible, since the cardinal wasn’t threatened and I shoved it back in.

  “Control your warrior nature and do as I ask. Remember, my gift is seeing what is hidden.”

  My face was flushed and my breathing wouldn’t slow down. Why Rickard? Why? “Okay. What’s hidden? If it’s something good in Rickard, it’s buried pretty deep.”

  “I see what’s hidden. I don’t reveal it.”

  So not helpful.

  “You told me that you have another gift. What’s that?” I asked, much to Aoife’s dismay. She considered it impolite to ask what a fairy’s gifts were, like asking how much money they had in their pocket. But I had to ask then. I wasn’t going to get a chance to find out any other way.

  “Lemon puff pudding,” he answered with a gentle smile. “See why it wasn’t useful just then?”

  “Er…you turn people into lemon puff pudding?” I guess that could be useful but unfortunately messy.

  “I make it. The poofiest you’ve ever seen. Isn’t that so, my dearest friend?” The cardinal squeezed Aoife’s hand. She nodded and burst into tears. Green glittery dust erupted off her skin, filling the room and making me sneeze.

  The cardinal pulled me close and took my face between his weak hands. He kissed my forehead and said, “Go with my blessing and all my hopes for the future.” He fell into a deep sleep, exhausted by the effort. I kissed his forehead and watched as my tears rolled down his face before standing and remembering I had a job to do. A job that was very important to the cardinal. So I wiped away my tears and did as Grandma Vi ordered. I saved the crying for later, when there was nothing to do.

  I hugged the sobbing Aoife and got covered in her green dust. I’d already made several vats of tea that she had down in the kitchen to use when I was gone, so there wasn’t anything left to say except goodbye.

  I said it and she wished me God’s speed before I turned around to find my little sister, Iris, standing in the doorway with her newly plump arms crossed. “I’m not going,” she announced.

  I guess there’s always something more to be said.

  Chapter Five

  I PULLED IRIS through the door and closed it behind us. “What are you going on about?”

  “I’m not going,” she said.

  “We have to go.”

  “You can go. I’m not.”

  I rubbed my forehead. It was still damp from the snow and had a good coating of glitter. “I can’t go without you. You’re the point.”

  “No. You go get Mom and Dad. I’ll stay here.”

  “I can’t do it without you,” I said.

  “You can do anything.” Iris believed in me. She always had, but this time she was wrong. It would take a cardinal to persuade the Pope. I was just royal backup.

  “We’re going. You and me. Right now.” I dragged her down the hall to Gerald’s apartment, but she yanked her hand out of mine and stomped her little foot.

  “If we go, he might die before we get back,” she said, her blue eyes wide with fear and that stopped me. I never told her that the cardinal would die, not in so many words. Everyone else knew. I assumed she did, too.

  “Iris…”

  “What?”

  Someone tugged on my sleeve. Gerald scowled at
me with a towel wrapped around his waist. “You’re taking forever. What about my bath?”

  Bath?

  He stomped his foot, but it wasn’t adorable like Iris. His toenails were crazy long. “I almost froze to death. Remember?”

  “Sorry.” I rushed into his room and stuck my hand in his tub, heating it to boiling.

  “Now it’s too hot,” he complained.

  “For crying out loud. Give it a minute.”

  “Suck the heat out.”

  “I’ve got to go,” I said, expecting him to protest about being left behind, but he only scowled at the steaming tub.

  I gave him a quick hug and told him that he’d have to say goodbye to Horc and Victory for me.

  “Say goodbye yourself.”

  “I can’t. Horc’s studying with Master Yik in the treasury and we have to get out of here before my entourage makes it through the storm.”

  “They aren’t coming. They’re not tough like me.” Gerald stuck out his bony chest. Even though he’d gained weight with more plentiful food, I could still count every rib.

  “That’s true, but don’t underestimate how much Gledit wants this promotion.” I gave him a swift kiss on the forehead before he could tell me how he should have a master secretary because he was a genius. I dashed out, pulling a protesting Iris behind me. I took her right into Bentha’s apartment. Everything in there was just as I expected. Bentha had been upgraded from mostly dead to only partially dead. He lay on the narrow bed that the Home Depot fairies had designed so it would be easy to get him from the bed to the soaking tub. Fidelé, the gargoyle I inherited from Ibn Vermillion, was coiled around Bentha’s head and Rufus, the fire lizard, was glowing red over Bentha’s three hearts. When I came in, they got excited and started vibrating.

  Lonica, a willow dryad with long, sweeping branches, sat beside Bentha, reading from Tales of Terrific Dryads in History. Bentha showed no sign of listening or doing anything else. He was basically an animated stick. Lonica had repainted his ponderosa bark and exercised his stiff limbs. It hadn’t helped him much, but she still claimed he was handsome.

  I pulled a couple bags of rejuvenation spell from my pockets and plopped them in her lap. “Keep up the treatment.”

  “Do you think he’ll be up soon?” asked Lonica hopefully.

  “It could happen now that all his hearts are beating faster.” I touched his brittle skin. I’d gotten used to seeing him this way, but the greatest sword of the mall shouldn’t have ever gotten in this condition. At least, he was alive, although to the novice, he really seemed dead.

  “He says you should wait for him to get better before you go,” said Lonica.

  “He says?” I asked with doubt.

  She grinned at me, her mouth stretching her willow bark-painted skin. “He started speaking this morning.”

  Bentha couldn’t have looked less like he spoke, but I hugged her and kissed his hard, unyielding forehead. “Sorry, Bentha. Can’t wait. You’ll have to catch up.”

  I pushed a protesting Iris to the door. “We have to stay. What about Bentha? He needs you.”

  A jolt of flame went through me, covering my skin with a red haze for a second before I could get it under control. “What about Mom and Dad? What about Lrag and Lucrece and Daiki?”

  Iris’s lower lip trembled. “I don’t want him to die.”

  I couldn’t deal with it. I just couldn’t. We had to go out in the worst storm of the winter to save people who could be saved. Feelings were so not useful. Instead of answering Iris, I pulled her to our apartment, a luxe room we shared. I flung open the door, charged through, and ran into a pile of luggage so high that it reached the ceiling.

  “What the heck is this?” I asked, trying to find a way around.

  “Your luggage,” said Iris.

  “I don’t have this much stuff.”

  “You do now.”

  I grabbed a reasonably-sized suitcase off the pile. “I’ll take this one. Where’s your luggage?”

  Iris looked everywhere but at me.

  “Iris!”

  “I didn’t pack.”

  “We have to go,” I said. “This is taking too long.”

  She took a small suitcase off the pile. “I’ll take this one.”

  “It doesn’t have your clothes in it.”

  “I wore the same dress for a month after Paris. It’s okay. The master secretary said something about my staff. Do I have a staff?”

  I reflexively touched my pocket and the knife concealed inside. “No. We’re traveling light.”

  Iris frowned and said something, but I turned away so I wouldn’t have to hear it. My traveling cloak hung with Iris’s on the coat rack. I had to climb over the luggage to snag them.

  “Here, put this on,” I said as I flipped the heavy fur-lined fabric over my shoulder.

  Iris obeyed and tied the sapphire ribbons under her still-trembling chin. “Can I say goodbye?”

  I suppressed a groan. “Go ahead. I guess I’d better write a quick letter to the boys or I’ll never hear the end of it.”

  Iris ran out the door with her suitcase and I climbed over the luggage to my desk. I wrote a short note, saying I was sorry I had to leave them behind and that they’d understand when they were older. It was the kind of thing Mom always said when she didn’t have a good reason. Stupid and lame, but I wrote it anyway because I couldn’t think of anything better.

  I folded the parchment and climbed back to the door, taking a second to say goodbye to the comfort I’d grown used to in the last few days. Fidelé and Rufus scampered through the door and leapt onto my dress to climb me like a tree.

  “No, no, no,” I said, trying to peel them off my shoulders. “You’re not coming.”

  The reptiles hissed and clamped on tighter. Great. I ran through the door to find Rickard standing there.

  Come on!

  “I’m ready,” he said, leaning on the wall and looking like he’d been dead for days. If I couldn’t lose that guy, I might as well give up.

  I dashed past him to the cardinal’s apartment. Iris came out, wiping her eyes. “Are you sure? It’s a terrible storm.”

  “We only have to make it to the Schweizer Pension.” I tugged her toward the servants’ entrance. “Come on.”

  Instead of being a good little sister, Iris turned the other way. I froze. Filling the hall behind a shivering Rickard was my stupid entourage. Gledit and Leanna were covered in ice and snow and the anubis were grey. That couldn’t be good.

  “Er…hi there, guys. How’d you get here?” I asked.

  Gledit shook, spraying the walls with ice crystals and spiking up his leaves. “The Keeper of the Keys arranged a ride, Your Highness.”

  “Swell.”

  My entourage didn’t look good, despite their attempts at being bright-eyed. We could outrun them easy.

  “What’s at the Schweizer Pension?” asked Leanna.

  You’re a soggy pain in my wings.

  “Some humans that can give us a ride to Italy,” I said. “But I think you should meet us there. You still have to pack.”

  Leanna smiled happily. “I sent my things over yesterday. Lonica packed them in your luggage.”

  That explained some of the suitcases. “Okay, but Gledit, you have nothing.”

  “I’m packed,” he said, smoothing his leaves.

  “You’re not packed,” I said. “You don’t have anything.”

  He plucked a leaf off his side. “I grow my clothes.”

  “What about a toothbrush?”

  “No teeth.” He showed me a weird set of bristly things in his mouth.

  “I see.” I didn’t see, but it gave me a second to think. “We should wait until the storm lets up. Let’s find you a place to stay.”

  Gledit eyed me with suspicion, but said, “Yes, ma’am.” He turned to the side and I very nearly bolted right then, but Iris grabbed my arm. “Uh oh.”

  The anubis unsheathed their swords and advanced, looking past me. I whirle
d around. A group of fairies walked toward us. They smiled, but it wasn’t friendly.

  “Your Highness,” said the leader. He looked like a wood fairy, wearing a black cape and a dagger on a belt, “How good to see that rumors of your having left Vienna were exaggerated.”

  “Who are you?” I pushed Iris behind me.

  “Your escort.”

  “No, thanks.” My senses were going crazy. Aggression, anger, and a strange kind of territorialism radiated off them. “My anubis will do just fine.”

  “Your anubis won’t be coming.”

  “Says who?”

  The anubis lined up beside me, poised to attack. The fairies weren’t impressed.

  “Allow me to introduce myself. Otto Goebbels, Obersturmführer.” He clicked his heels and seemed to think I cared.

  “Impressive,” I said. “Get out.”

  “The honor of your presence has been requested in Berlin. We will escort you.”

  I held up my hand and my most gorgeous blue flames burst to life in my palm. “Unless you’d like a fire facial, I suggest you leave.”

  He shrugged. “I thought you’d say that.” Two of the other fairies stepped forward and raised their right hands. “Secure the sister.” Water gushed from their palms and hit me. It happened so fast, I didn’t even move. Somebody was grabbing me. Swords flashed and I slipped around on the floor, being dragged away, my injured wing ripping afresh. My eyes stung and I could barely see. The master secretary’s knife bounced against my hip. I clawed the arm dragging me and yanked the sheath out. Two hands grabbed for it. Rickard.

  “Give it!” he screamed in my face.

  And I did. I can’t say why. I just handed the master secretary’s weapon over. Iris pushed him out of the way and dragged me to my feet. Anubis slashed and parried against The Reich’s Fae. I wiped my hands on my wet dress and tried to make a flame, but all I got was a wisp of smoke. I concentrated to make a spark in the Obersturmführer’s shorts, but nothing happened. I was too wet.

  I looked around for a weapon. Nothing.

  “What’ll we do? What’ll we do?” screamed Iris.

  I grabbed a portrait of Claude the Magnificent off the wall. His heavy gilt frame ought to do some damage. Before I could bash somebody in the head, I got bowled over by a cadre of cathedral guard, led by Herman, rushing to engage the enemy. There were steel-toed boots everywhere and they all wanted to step on my hands. I clambered out from the throng, only to find that Iris and Gledit were still in it. I dove back in, grabbing Iris by her cloak and Gledit by the only thing he had: leaves. I pulled them out and another cadre arrived from the servants’ entrance. The Keeper of the Keys was about to have some new guests, if The Reich’s Fae survived, that is.