To the Eternal (Away From Whipplethorn Book Five)

by Hartoin, A. W.

  Hercule tapped the parchment. “Slug cough, necrotizing flea fungus, and infectious wing mange. Patient is malnourished and considerably underweight,” said Allura.

  “Interesting list,” said Hercule. “This is your father’s friend?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  “We’ve seen these types of symptoms before. We specialize in them.”

  I plastered a smile on my face. “That’s great. You can help him then.”

  Iris glanced behind me. “Ruffiano’s back.”

  “Thanks for everything,” I said. “When will Rickard be ready to travel?”

  “I’m sure you know the answer to that question,” said Hercule.

  I didn’t, but okay. “You don’t want to tell me?” I asked. My fire was still weak, but I felt a swirling in my chest.

  “Are you feeling alright?” asked Allura. “You look mildly flushed.”

  “I’m fine.”

  Ruffiano walked up with Gerald in tow, reading a book. “Did you have a good visit?”

  No one said anything. Hercule was looking at me hard, like he was trying to figure something out.

  “Rickard slept most of the time,” I said. “But I think he’s better.”

  Ruffiano looked at Hercule and Allura. Their faces were inscrutable. “Is everything going well?”

  Allura squeezed the parchment back into its roll. “Actually, I believe we need further information on this patient.”

  “What do you require?” asked Ruffiano.

  Hercule touched Allure’s hand before she could speak and she bit her lip.

  “We can think about that another time,” said Hercule. “I believe Matilda needs some attention herself.”

  The last thing I want is attention.

  “I’m good,” I said.

  “Your wing is injured. I must attend to it,” said Hercule.

  “I’m fine. It’s nothing.”

  “It’s far from nothing. I really must insist.”

  Ruffiano frowned. “Is something wrong?”

  Hercule smiled. “Nothing is wrong. Only an injury. Matilda must not try to deal with it on her own. Don’t you agree?”

  “Of course. If she needs a healer, you must attend her.”

  Gerald tucked his book under his arm. “I’m really tired. Can we go back to the room?”

  Ruffiano tousled his hair. “I’ll take you and your sister back to your rooms while Matilda’s wing is seen to.”

  “Thanks, but Matilda always tucks me in. You know, when Mom’s not around. I want to take a nap,” said Gerald, sounding a lot younger than his years. “Can’t the wing wait for a little bit?”

  “Sure, it can,” I said, quickly. “I’ll come back later.”

  I herded Iris and Gerald out of the hospital with Ruffiano. I looked back once and saw the galen watching us with odd expressions of uncertainty on their faces.

  Chapter Fourteen

  GERALD CLOSED THE door to my chamber and pressed his ear to it. “I think he’s gone.”

  Iris crossed her arms and mouthed to me, “His ear is pressed to the door.”

  “Really?” I mouthed back.

  She nodded and Gerald made a grumpy face. He had really good hearing. He just couldn’t beat Iris. My sister got all the hearing between the two of us.

  “So,” I said, “did you have fun looking at those plan thingys?”

  “Yeah. It was so cool. You don’t know how cool it was,” said Gerald.

  I didn’t and I didn’t want to, but I said, “You can still read them?”

  Gerald launched into a monologue about first-century vellum and some kind of ink. We didn’t have to worry about talking at all. I found Rufus and Fidelé curled up on the window seat on separate silk cushions. I petted each of the reptiles until they purred and tried to breathe through my mouth. Horc was on the bed, snoring and gassing away. He hadn’t smelled that bad since Mom had last fed him. She was always sneaking him stinkbugs, even though Dad said the stench was going to kill him. Mom would just roll her eyes and hand Horc a leg behind her back.

  “He left,” said Iris, interrupting a fascinating description of the arena’s water system. Ruffiano had the plans for that too.

  I blew out a breath and opened the window, sticking my head out to breathe. I didn’t see anyone hovering, but better safe than savory, as Grandma Vi used to say when she went on about bird avoidance. I closed the window, locking us in with the stench.

  “So when do you think Rickard can get out of here?” asked Gerald.

  I plopped down on the window seat and put Fidelé on my shoulder. “Not for a few days, at least.”

  Gerald shrugged. “That’s okay. They’re nice.”

  Iris and I exchanged glances.

  “What?” he asked.

  “The galen know something,” I said.

  “What did you do? Did you heal someone?” The little wood fairy stomped around, making wild gestures. “Can’t you just be regular?”

  “You should talk,” said Iris. “When were you regular?”

  “I’m more normal than you two with your fire and love and smelling like happiness. If they’re suspicious, it’s your fault. They’ve got the best library ever and you’re going to ruin it. We’ll probably get locked up again. What’ll we do then?”

  Iris wrapped her arms around herself. “You don’t really think that’ll happen, do you?”

  “Well…” I trailed off.

  “Of course, it will,” said Gerald, getting all red-faced. “Bad stuff always happens to us. We’re doomed.”

  I snagged his sleeve as he stomped by and hugged him fiercely. “We’re going to get out of here. I said the galen know something. But when Hercule had the chance to say something to Ruffiano, he didn’t.”

  “How come?”

  “I don’t know and I don’t care. We’ll just stay away from the hospital. It’ll be fine.”

  “I’m going back,” said Iris at her most stubborn. “I’ve got to help that fairy, the one we know.” I’d seen that expression before and there was no hope. She had it when she decided Tess’s cat, Coconut, loved us, despite trying to eat me on a daily basis. She had it when the dragons blubbed out of the wall and tried to melt a workman’s feet. They were good dragons. End of story. She was right about the dragons, but Coconut would always see me as a cat snack.

  “Okay. You go and keep an eye on Rickard. I’ll stay here,” I said.

  “You have to get your wing fixed.”

  “I’ll fix it myself. It’s what I do.”

  Gerald wiggled out of my arms and paced for a couple of minutes. It was kinda fun to watch his mind work. When he wasn’t talking, that is. When he was talking, it was boring. “Won’t it be faster if the galen fix it?”

  I felt insulted for a second. I was a healer, after all. But then I remembered that I might have the gift, but I didn’t have the training. “They seem pretty good, so probably.”

  “Then I think you should go and have the galen fix it fast. We’ve got to get out of here.”

  “Weren’t you just fussing about the library? What’s the hurry?” I asked.

  Gerald flushed again. “The library is so cool. It’s four stories high and has parchments beyond the first century. Did you know that Leonardo da Vinci was a seer and apprenticed fairies in his workshop and—”

  Iris tapped him on the shoulder. “Breathe, Gerald.”

  He sucked in a huge breath and said, “I am breathing. And so did Raphael. Most of the great artists were. When we go to Florence, we can see the Duomo. Brunelleschi was a born seer, like Sisi in Vienna.”

  “Gerald,” I said and he stopped. “Huh?”

  “What’s the hurry?”

  “Well, the library—”

  I held up my hand. “No library. What’s the hurry?”

  Gerald had to think about it for a second. “Oh yeah.” He slumped. “We have to leave.”

  “Why, exactly? I mean, other than we’re supposed to be in the Vatican saving Mom and Dad.�
��

  “Because of the Capulets,” said Gerald.

  “The galen said something about the Capulets at the hospital. Who are they?”

  Gerald held his arms out in almost a pleading gesture. “You know. The Capulets.”

  I shrugged.

  “Are you joking?”

  I looked at Iris and she said, “I don’t know what he’s talking about. Is it a family or a species?”

  “Hello,” said Gerald. He was so obnoxious that I remembered a time when a dragon eating him wouldn’t have sounded so bad.

  “Hello yourself, snotty,” I said.

  “The Montagues and the Capulets. Don’t you know your Shakespeare?” he asked, sanctimonious as all get out.

  “I know healing and fire.”

  “Shakespeare was a human writer. He was awesome. My mom, my real mom, used to read me his plays at bedtime. She said he was essential reading for any well-rounded fairy.”

  I rolled my eyes. That sounded like Eunice alright. “I know who he is. I use his poetry in spells all the time, but what’s he got to do with anything?”

  Gerald took a deep breath and started one of his lectures, but this one was actually interesting. Shakespeare had written a play called Romeo and Juliet forever ago. He was a seer and he based his story on the real story. It was a fairy story and he heard it from an Italian fairy traveling in England. The Montagues and the Capulets were having a feud and had been for centuries. Shakespeare’s play was a famous love story and humans thought he made it up. The real families were right there in Verona, still fighting and killing each other.

  “We’re going to get stuck in the middle,” he said.

  “No, we’re not. They can feud all they want. I don’t care,” I said, getting Grandma’s bag and dosing myself with white willow.

  “Don’t you see? We took sides. We’re in the Montague fortress,” said Gerald.

  “Still don’t care.”

  “The Capulets might attack. They do that.”

  I put away the white willow tincture and said, “Let them. They can’t be worse than the horen.” I instantly regretted it. Gerald went pale and Iris put her arm around his shoulder.

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that,” I said.

  “You don’t think the horen know where we are, do you?” he asked.

  “We barely know where we are.”

  “But you killed that female. Another horen will have been born by now.”

  I nodded. I knew that, of course. There were only five horen in the world at any one time. I’d killed the female and a new one would replace her. It would be born to some unsuspecting family, who thought they were going to have a regular baby and that horror would come out. And it could happen to anyone: phalanx, wood fairy, troll. It didn’t matter the species. It would just happen. It probably already had.

  “But it will be a baby,” I said. “It can’t know about us yet.

  “They grow fast,” Gerald said. “I read it in the Speciesapedia.”

  “Not that fast. We’re okay.”

  “Yeah, we are,” said Iris. Her eyes were worried. I guessed she and Gerald had been thinking about the new horen since I killed the old one. I hadn’t thought about it at all. The new one could be in China or Australia, for all we knew. I couldn’t worry about it. I had a pope to see and parents to save.

  “I’ll go to the galen and have my wing fixed,” I said. “You can hang out in the library until Rickard can travel and we get out of here.”

  “How long?” asked Iris.

  “At least a couple more days.”

  Their faces fell.

  “Or we can leave Rickard.”

  “We can’t leave my master secretary. Who will handle my affairs?” asked Iris.

  “You don’t have any affairs,” said Gerald. “I say we leave him. Mom and Dad are in prison. We saw what prison did to Rickard. It’s bad.”

  I didn’t want to think about that, but I had to agree. “Maybe we should.”

  “We can’t give up. What will Rickard think if we just abandon him?” asked Iris.

  “He tried to sell us out to the horen. He’s lucky I didn’t fry him.”

  “Rickard was cleared and released.” She had that stubborn look again. She’d decided her master secretary was innocent. Never mind all the other stuff he’d done.

  “I’ll think about it. If Rickard—”

  Iris put her finger to her lips and then pointed at the door. It swung open and Leanna skipped in. “You’re back!” The scogliera she’d been talking to earlier came in after her. “This is Giacomo. He’s Ruffiano’s son.”

  Giacomo bowed, flourishing his blue and silver wings. “Leanna and I were about to take a walk across the bridge. Would you like to join us?”

  I was going to say no, but Iris cut me off, “We’d love to.”

  Horc grimaced and a hideous stench filled the room. Suddenly, Giacomo’s offer seemed like a good idea. I put Fidelé and Rufus on the bed and ordered them to protect the snoring spriggan. They never seemed to mind his smell, curling up next to his rotund body and going to sleep.

  “Shall we?” Giacomo offered his arm to Leanna, which she took with a fierce blush creeping up her neck.

  They went out the door and Iris hurried after them, grinning and chattering. He was handsome but have some self-control. Giacomo led us through another maze of corridors and a set of wide stairs. We came out on the bridge atop one of the brick teeth. We admired the view and walked down the V that formed the top of the tooth and then up the other side. There were big spaces between the teeth and I couldn’t fly, so it was the world’s shortest walk.

  “I’ll just go back,” I said. “My wing isn’t ready to fly.”

  “No need. I’ll take care of it,” said Giacomo.

  He waved at the space and a shimmering, golden road appeared to connect the teeth. Iris clapped her hands. “It’s beautiful.”

  “It’s amazing,” said Leanna.

  They looked at me. “It’s pretty great.” But now I had to keep walking. I was getting tired and my wing needed a good soak.

  Iris, trusting as ever, stepped out onto the road. It wobbled a bit but held her just fine. “How do you do it?”

  Giacomo shrugged and tried to look humble. He failed. “It’s my gift. I can go anywhere, anytime.”

  It was pretty cool, but I wasn’t sure how useful it was. He did have wings. I kept my thoughts to myself and started across. The bridge held and we admired the view from the next tooth and the next. We reached a giant tower-type section and Giacomo made stairs up to the top. It was a huge climb. Everyone else flew. I nearly passed out when I got to the top. The view was even better, but it so wasn’t worth it.

  Iris was bored and ready to move on before I caught my breath. Giacomo made a long bridge to the next tower. He and Iris headed off. Leanna stayed back with me. “Are you okay, Your Highness?”

  “Don’t call me that,” I said between ragged breaths. “I’m Matilda here.”

  “Oh, right. Yes. Of course.” She moved in close. “Isn’t Giacomo the most?”

  “Er…the most what?”

  “Everything.”

  I nodded, but I didn’t get a great feeling off Giacomo. He was kind of nothing. No intentions. Not like the archduke, who could conceal his true intentions. It was like there were no intentions to hide. “He’s pretty good-looking.”

  “Good-looking? He’s hot and he wants me to go out with him tonight.”

  Uh-oh!

  “Go out where?” I asked.

  “To a play. His play. He’s the lead. Can you believe it?”

  Maybe that explains it. He’s an actor.

  “He’s got the look.”

  “He does, doesn’t he?” she asked. “Can I go?”

  I wiped off a bead of sweat rolling down my temple. “Why are you asking me?”

  Leanna just looked at me.

  “Oh, right. Um…yeah go, but don’t let anything slip about us, especially me.”


  She hugged me so hard she made my back crack. I looked past her shoulder as she was hugging away and saw a fairy wearing a uniform fly up to Giacomo. He didn’t seem happy. He kept pointing at the fortress. “I wonder what that’s about?”

  Leanna turned around. “Oh, that’s one of the Montagues’ guards. Is he upset?”

  I couldn’t make out his lips very well. They were pretty far away, but I thought I caught, “Your father, go back, and dangerous.”

  Leanna touched my arm. “Matilda?”

  “Fly over and get Iris right now.”

  “Why?”

  “Just do it. I can’t. Go. Now,” I said.

  “Yes, Your Highness,” said Leanna.

  “Leanna!”

  “Sorry!”

  She darted toward Iris, but it was too late. An arrow shot through Giacomo’s golden bridge and it evaporated. Iris and Giacomo plummeted down five feet before they caught themselves and came out of their spins. A hail of arrows cut through the air, barely missing Iris and Giacomo. Several struck the guard. He tumbled backward, clutching his chest and going into a death spiral.

  “Iris!” I screamed.

  She darted back to me with Leanna, her face filled with terror. She hit me full force, knocking me over. We hit the brick and I screamed as something in my wing snapped.

  “Your Highness! Your Highness!” cried Leanna.

  “Stop it!” I yelled.

  “Sorry!”

  I pushed her away and saw Giacomo surrounded by fairies with glorious, huge red and gold wings. They had swords and the biggest was poking Giacomo with the tip of his.

  “They must be the Capulets,” said Leanna. “I have to help him.”

  I snagged her sleeve just as she tried to leap off the brick. “No, you don’t.”

  “I have to help.”

  “What are you going to do? Soothe them away?” I asked.

  There was an unexpected flash of anger in her normally kind eyes. “I might.”

  “Do they look like they’re interested in soothing? They haven’t killed him yet. That’s good. Maybe they won’t.”

  “Can you read their lips? What are they saying?”

  I squinted, but they were still pretty far. “Maybe something about a duel.”