To the Eternal (Away From Whipplethorn Book Five)

by Hartoin, A. W.

  “How are you going to stop them?” I asked.

  Tiepolo tapped out some kind of code on the chariot and dozens of sea serpents came over the edge of the roof and climbed out of the canal. They each held a weapon in one of their middle claws. It was like a spear but longer with a wicked barbed tip.

  “It will not be allowed,” said Tiepolo.

  Percy and Penelope smoldered. Jets of fire singed the wooden beams of the roof.

  “What do you expect me to do with them?”

  “They can wait here at the station under guard, naturally. Wild creatures like them do not require care.” He said it with disdain and I didn’t care for it. Gledit stepped closer to me. “The Venezia Bissabova are our allies.”

  “They don’t feel like allies,” I said.

  Gledit was trembling slightly and Tiepolo saw. He moved a claw and the serpents on the ground advanced.

  “We must meet with the doge to preserve the peace,” said Gledit. “With The Reich’s Fae gathering their strength, we may need them.”

  “Did you say The Reich’s Fae?” asked Tiepolo.

  “Friends of yours?” I asked.

  Tiepolo’s lacy fringe began to wave around. “The doge has never acknowledged The Reich’s Fae. Now, they are negotiating with the rebels in France. It will not be allowed.”

  “You’re against the revolution?”

  “It goes against the natural order. If The Reich’s Fae and the rebels sign a treaty, we will cut trade.”

  I didn’t know what to do with that. The Reich’s Fae and the rebels seemed to be right up their slithery alley.

  “You are surprised?” asked Tiepolo. “Do you think we are scum and would ally with the likes of them?”

  “Well…”

  Gledit elbowed me. “Of course not. You’re allied with the empress and she’ll have nothing to do with them.”

  That seemed to please Tiepolo. He tapped his claw again and the serpents backed off. “Tell your dragons that you will be back in three days.”

  Percy and Penelope hissed and shot more flames in the air. The beams were smoldering.

  “They heard you,” I said.

  “Their comprehension is in question.”

  Iris turned pink and clenched her fists. “They’re not stupid. They’re the best dragons ever.”

  “But they are still dragons.”

  “What is it about dragons? They’re winged.” The royal family in France discriminated against the unwinged. That always seemed to be the distinction: winged or unwinged.

  “Non-verbal fae have no place in our city,” said Tiepolo.

  I rolled my eyes and decided not to mention the klitzeklein trolls that were still in Gianna’s purse. They couldn’t talk. But I couldn’t get rid of them, so why bring it up? “Why do you care?”

  Gledit pulled my arm. “Just leave them. They’ll be fine.”

  “I don’t like it.”

  “This is how it’s done.”

  “I wish you’d stop saying that.” I turned back to the sea serpents. “Three days. No longer. I have urgent business in Rome.”

  He smiled and it was way creepy. “We know.”

  Flames sizzled on my fingertips. “What do you know?”

  The creepy smile vanished. “You’re a kindler. This is an unexpected pleasure.”

  I frowned. He didn’t know about my fire. The empress must not have included in the Banns of Marriage. What did she include then? I turned, but the boat had loaded and gone. “I guess we’ll have to wait.”

  “The Bissabova don’t wait.” He tapped again and a small boat, just large enough for six humans, pulled up to the dock.

  I looked up at Lorenzo and Gianna. Their eyes were wide. They’d only been seers for a couple weeks and this was more than even I expected.

  “I don’t like this,” said Lorenzo, eyeing the serpents that were only a couple feet from his ankles and had their harpoons pointed at him.

  “Me, either,” I said. “This wasn’t part of the deal. You should go home. We’ll be fine.”

  He shook his head. “I said we’d get you to Rome and we’ll get you there.”

  Gledit fluttered between us, wringing his hands. “The doge won’t like it if your humans don’t come. It would be like you don’t trust the Bissabova.”

  I don’t.

  “Alright, but we are out of here in three days,” I said.

  Lorenzo took a deep breath. “For the empress and Iris.”

  Iris darted over and kissed his cheek. “It’ll be fine. They’re nothing like that nasty sea serpent that attacked us.”

  Tiepolo smiled a sickly smile and then snapped his reins on the flying fish, leading the way to the boat.

  Rickard touched my ankle and I looked down.

  “He’s exactly like that nasty one,” he mouthed to me.

  Takes one to know one, I guess.

  My first ball was that night and it was weird. It was in The Room of the Fireplace at the Palazzo Grimini and I was the only one who was allowed to go. Tiepolo insisted that Gianna and the rest of our humans go to a hotel. They couldn’t stay with fairies. It was a Venice thing and we didn’t understand. Gianna kept her purse tight to her side, trapping the Klitzeklein trolls inside. They were going nuts and if Tiepolo had been paying attention, he would’ve noticed how the purse was vibrating. The gargoyles were still hiding in Lorenzo’s hair. Tiepolo looked down on non-verbal fae, but those gargoyles knew to hide. They couldn’t be that stupid.

  Once our humans were inside the hotel, we were whisked away to the palazzo, a human museum and the seat of Venetian fae. The palazzo sat on the Grand Canal and didn’t look much like a palace to me. It was three levels with lots of arched windows and columns. Horc loved the creamy greenish color. It reminded him of mold. As soon as we were inside, I was separated from everyone except Gledit and Leanna. Tiepolo decided that Leanna was to be my maid and I couldn’t do anything without my master secretary to guide me.

  Horc, Iris, and Gerald went to the nursery. Iris and Gerald thought they were way too old for the nursery. The bissabova had to pry Gerald off Leanna, but Horc was fine with it. Tiepolo promised plenty of meat and a bath with Bergamot essential oil. Horc didn’t know what that was, but it sounded fancy and he was always ready for fancy. The anubis was forced away from me at sword-point. I argued, but the bissabova said he had to stay at the armory. I never saw him again.

  When Tiepolo noticed that I only had two suitcases, he wasn’t happy and said something about the empress under his breath in Italian. I couldn’t speak Italian, but I knew it wasn’t flattering. Gledit turned the color of split pea soup and I quickly told Tiepolo about The Reich’s Fae attack. He hated them worse than cankerous scale rot and ordered a new wardrobe for me. Lepanto went into action, taking inventory of my shoes and jewelry before rushing off.

  “What is in these bags?” asked Tiepolo.

  “They’re medical bags.” I wasn’t sure if I should say I was a healer. “My grandmother was a healer.”

  “Why do you have them?”

  “I could be a healer. You don’t know,” I said with a sniff.

  “You’re a kindler,” he said with derision.

  “Yes.” I guess that was all I was allowed to be. Probably protocol. “But maybe I’ll become a healer.”

  “You are what you are. It can’t be changed.”

  Why does everyone say that? Like they know what can and can’t be changed.

  “Whatever,” I said, trying to look crestfallen.

  He totally bought it and said with a sneer. “If you know anything about healing, what does your servant have? The male.”

  “Beats me.”

  Tiepolo was triumphant. Obviously, I’d never be a healer. “He doesn’t eat meat of any kind, does he?”

  “No. Why?”

  “Our healers need to know. I’ll take you to your apartment now.”

  My guest apartment was in the woodwork of the Foliage Room. I felt instantly at home there. The cei
ling was painted with a forest scene of trees, fruit, and birds. It was just paint, but it felt so much better than the cold marble of the other elaborate rooms. Gledit got an antechamber room next to my apartment. Leanna was supposed to sleep on a cot at the foot of my enormous canopy bed. I protested, but Tiepolo wasn’t interested. I got to hear about protocol again. I was starting to hate that word. That word said I had to have lunch alone with a stiff servant standing behind my chair. That word said I couldn’t see Rickard, much less treat his illness. That word said that I couldn’t take my bath alone. Only my threat to set their tails on fire got the four sea serpents out of my bathroom.

  So my expectations were pretty low when Tiepolo arrived that evening with my new wardrobe. I was expecting some clothes like what the empress wore. I really had to stop expecting. It wasn’t working out for me. My ball gown probably cost a bundle, especially if they charged by weight. It was made of heavy, stiff green brocade. The front was so low-cut, I was glad my dad wasn’t there. He would freak. I had two sets of sleeves, a light, white balloony set with another set of bell sleeves that weighed more than Horc. The corset kept breathing to a minimum. I couldn’t really fly yet. That was okay, because I couldn’t have gotten off the ground in that costume.

  Leanna had to fix my hair into braids and loops all over my head. Pearls were woven in and I wore the leaf and enamel tiara. She had to do my hair standing on a chair because I couldn’t sit down.

  “Someone’s knocking,” said Leanna after stepping down and admiring me.

  “Come in,” I said.

  Tiepolo came in and he made me look underdressed. He wore a golden mesh outfit covered in multi-colored jewels. He had ropes of pearls around his neck and rings on all his many claws. Sometimes more than one. “Excellent. Now you look like a princess.”

  I can’t lift my arms.

  “I guess,” I said.

  His tongue slithered out and then snapped back in. “More perfume.”

  Leanna looked horrified, but she sprayed me with the bottle he pointed at. I sneezed and coughed.

  “One more,” he said.

  I put up my hand. “No. I already reek.”

  “Are you saying that the Venetian perfume made by our finest craftsman smells bad?” Tiepolo went up on his hind legs and his head brushed the ceiling.

  “No, no. It’s good. I just never wore perfume before,” I said and Leanna nodded like she was having a spasm.

  Tiepolo grumbled and ushered me out the door onto a waiting chariot. Leanna whispered, “Have fun.”

  I snorted and just managed to smooth out my face before Tiepolo looked at me.

  The weird fish shook and let off a spray of silver droplets. They only hit me and I was afraid the first counselor would freak, but he only looked me up and down as the silver vanished on the fabric and my skin. “That is good luck.” He didn’t look too happy about it, but I could use all the luck I could get.

  Through a combo of pushing and pulling, Tiepolo got me on the chariot. He pulled out a beautiful wooden box with eyes carved all over it and gave it to me.

  “What’s this?” I asked.

  “Your mask.”

  I opened the box and found the most ornate mask inside. It was made of velvet with red and orange feathers to cover the top half of my face. Rubies and diamonds decorated the space between the eyeholes.

  “Should I put it on?” I asked.

  “Naturally.” Tiepolo put on a plainer mask of black and silver. I put mine on and then he snapped the reins. The fish took off in their odd, arching way and we rode through the house. The first counselor talked constantly and he didn’t seem to notice that I was mostly deaf. I guess that wasn’t the kind of thing you included in the Banns of Marriage, like my fire and healing. Oh, and by the way she’s disabled. No. Probably not. I had to watch Tiepolo every second to cobble together what he was saying. He didn’t make it easy with pointing out all the wonders of the palazzo. It was wondrous, to be sure. I liked the mosaic floors and the painted ceilings, but it wasn’t like a home, even though it was a home, according to Tiepolo. A human doge had built it and bissabova had lived there forever. The palazzo was too grand and cold for me. The Hofburg Palace was cozy in comparison.

  The Room of the Fireplace was the grandest of them all. It had a double-decker row of fireplace-looking things on the walls. They weren’t fireplaces though. They were just arches and colonnades that looked like fireplaces. The ceiling had a squarish dome with rosettes in plaster under a set of windows with another dome above that. A bizarre sculpture of a human with a creepy bird attached to his back hung from the top dome. Tiepolo called it great art. I called it something you should hide or accidentally drop. I imagine the floor had more mosaics, but I couldn’t see it. The floor was completely covered with fairies wearing masks. I’d expected to be surrounded by sea serpents and there were a lot of the slithering tubes running around in amazing amounts of jewelry. But along with them were wood fairies, devil trolls with their red-patterned skin and twisting horns, ashrays, and hobgoblins.

  We stopped just inside the main entrance arch and waited. I was about to ask what we were doing when everyone got stiff and turned to face us before parting. It reminded me of Delphine ripping fabric. A fissure worked its way to the back of the room, where I spotted the sea serpent who had to be the doge. He sat on a glass multi-colored throne and was so large he hung over the sides. He had the frilly orange fins covering almost every inch of him and if he didn’t have a fin, he had a jewel.

  Tiepolo snapped the reins and the chariot lurched forward. We drove between the crowds and every eye was on us. Tiepolo liked it. He craned up to his full height and towered over me. I stood on a special platform since I was smaller than him. I wanted to step off and slink out of sight. That probably wasn’t the right protocol, so I didn’t. I stood up straight and found myself mimicking the empress with her distant expression. I always thought she was cold. Maybe that was the only way to handle all those eyes and whispers.

  The chariot pulled up in front of the doge. Two sea serpents wearing white enamel masks trimmed in gold pried the doge out of his seat. Tiepolo brought me out of the chariot and arranged me before the doge. Gledit appeared at my side. At first, I didn’t realize it was him. He was orange and had a purple mask on his narrow face. The doge waddled up in front of me and waited while Gledit unrolled a parchment. Gledit began saying something, but since he wasn’t facing me, I couldn’t really tell what he was going on about. It might’ve been in Italian. Halfway through, my feet started hurting. I wasn’t the only one. The crowd was restless, looking around and whispering to each other.

  Finally, after what seemed like forever and six days, Gledit turned to me and said, “Her Royal Highness, Matilda, Princess Royal of Imperial Austria.”

  Everyone refocused on me. I had a feeling that I was supposed to do something, but I hadn’t a clue what.

  Gledit nudged me. “Go ahead. Don’t be afraid.”

  “I don’t do afraid.”

  “Then go ahead.”

  “What?”

  His eyes went wide. “You read the manual I gave you, right?”

  “Yes, of course.” No, I didn’t read the manual. Manual sounded like a pamphlet, a few dos and don’ts. What Gledit wanted me to read was like a set of encyclopedias, only more boring. It was bigger than Gerald’s dossier. “Why are you orange?”

  “Your Highness, please, I beg you,” hissed Gledit.

  “Okay…there might be a small part of the manual that I didn’t read,” I said with a smile at the doge. Gledit and Tiepolo were freaking out, but he wasn’t. The doge looked like he could stand there all day. To be fair, he wasn’t really standing. A lot of his ginormous body was on the floor.

  “Which part?” asked Gledit.

  “What do you think? This part.”

  “I prepared you a speech. Do you know the speech?”

  I can wing it.

  “Sure. Why not?”

  Gledit grabbed my elbow. �
��If you don’t—”

  “Hello,” I said. “I’m Matilda Whipplethorn. I’m supposed to marry the emperor. Max. Thanks for having me.”

  Gledit slapped his forehead. The entire fae sucked in a breath and held it. Tiepolo turned a weird salmon color under his mask and the sea serpents that helped the doge backed away slowly. Cowards.

  The doge didn’t look happy, but when does a sea serpent look happy? He sort of blubbed forward, eyeing me and flexing his claws. He was impressive. Horc would be salivating at all the jewels. But I don’t think I was supposed to be impressed. I think I was supposed to be scared. Everybody else was.

  I tried to get scared or at least fake it, but I couldn’t.

  Bring it, blubber butt. I’m pretty sure I can take you.

  “I didn’t memorize my speech,” I said to break the tension that everyone else was feeling.

  The doge put his top two sets of claws together and tapped the nails. “I will speak to the principessa.”

  “Go ahead,” I said.

  Gledit wavered and I thought he would pass out. Obviously, he hadn’t been in any battles. This was nothing. “Call him Your Serenity.”

  “Uh…go ahead, Your Serenity,” I said.

  “Matilda,” said Gledit.

  “What? I said it.”

  “I will speak to the principessa,” said the doge again.

  I turned to Tiepolo. “Tell me what to do and I might do it.”

  “You might behave properly? Might?”

  I thought about it. “Probably not, but you can give it a shot, First Councilor. I didn’t read the manual. What choice do you have?”

  Tiepolo clenched and unclenched his jaw. “Curtsy and kiss his rings.”

  “Which ones?”

  “All of them.”

  To keep Gledit from passing out on the spot, I did it. I kissed the rings of a sea serpent and it was as bad as you might think. He smelled like dead fish close up, but there was something else, I couldn’t quite put my finger on. It wasn’t any more pleasant than the fish smell.

  When I finished kissing his twenty-three rings, the doge waved his middle right claw. “Danza!”