To the Eternal (Away From Whipplethorn Book Five)

by Hartoin, A. W.

  She nodded. “Okay.”

  I wanted to fry every single Montague and every single Capulet in the room. But it wasn’t the right time. So I did what Mom would’ve wanted me to do. “Thank you. I appreciate it.” The words were hard to say and I hoped they came out as sincere. Marius and Ruffiano smiled and nodded.

  “You’re young, Your Highness,” said Marius. “You can’t go to Rome on your own without protection.”

  “What happened to your royal guard? You should have anubis with you,” said Ruffiano.

  I poured Iris a glass of orange juice and helped her to take a sip. “I had anubis. The Reich’s Fae got them.”

  The room went silent. I felt it. Silence has a feel. I looked around and suppressed a smile. “They attacked me in St. Stephen’s.”

  “They attacked you in the cathedral?” asked Ruffiano’s wife. Lorena was usually quiet, watching the action with a calm air. “You’re a child.”

  How come I’m not a child when you’re blackmailing me?

  “I’m fourteen.”

  “That is a child.” Lorena reached across the table and took my hand. She was such a mom.

  “My mom would like you. Too bad she’s in prison, hoping I’ll do something for her.”

  “She can’t expect you to rescue her. That is for the empress.”

  I popped a piece of brioche in my mouth. “Yep. The empress sent me to ask Pope Joyous for help and to have Iris seen so she can become cardinal.”

  Lorena looked at the shaking future cardinal, her face filled with confusion. “The Cardinal of Vienna really chose you? Ruffiano said so, but I couldn’t quite believe it.”

  Iris straightened up. “He loves me.” Her lower lip quivered. “And he’s dying.”

  “Dying?”

  The Montagues and Capulets listened with rapt attention to what Iris said, even Giacomo and Aurelia stopped kissing. At the end of the story, Lorena came around the table and hugged Iris. Horc held up his arms. “You may hug me as well. My mother says I am very huggable.”

  Lorena picked up Horc and snuggled him. “You are very huggable.”

  “I require a bath.”

  “But you’re a spriggan.”

  “And a wood fairy.”

  Lorena glanced at me with confusion and I shrugged. “He decided to be a wood fairy. Who wants to tell me why we have to go back to Venice?”

  There were a lot of blank expressions around the table. I felt nothing but good intentions coming from them.

  “If I knew,” said Ruffiano. “I would tell you.”

  Lorena frowned and plucked a stinkbug leg off a tray for Horc. “We will have baths drawn for you and new clothes made. We cannot send you to Venice this way.”

  We finished breakfast, listening to Marius and Ruffiano negotiate for the freedom of the galen that the Capulets had captured. There were water rights and other stuff. None of it was interesting. Gerald scarfed down his food and went to the library. The rest of us were escorted to our rooms. Ruffiano didn’t exactly trust me. Guards stood at attention in the hall and my window had been covered in metal. I could get through it, but that was no good if I didn’t have everyone with me. It didn’t look like Ruffiano was dumb enough to put us in the same room.

  I did have a copper tub in the center of my room. It had dried lavender blossoms floating in the water, perfuming the air with heavenly steam. Fidelé and Rufus pointed their snouts to the water and began purring. My reptiles loved baths as much as Horc. They floated like tub toys. Rufus kept the water hot, so it wasn’t as weird as you’d think having them in a bath with me. Not that I could keep them out. I’d tried. It wasn’t possible.

  Beside the tub was a basin with Hercule’s spell for my wing. I heated it until it thickened and got in the tub, draping my injured wing in the basin. It didn’t hurt as much as before, but the little amount of flying I did had opened up some healing spots. I fell asleep in the tub and slept in there until lunch, which was served in my room. Lorena came in to check on me and freaked a little when she saw Fidelé and Rufus.

  “But they’re dirty, Your Highness,” she said.

  “Not anymore.” I tossed Rufus on the bed and set Fidelé on the rim of the tub, where he clamped on with his long claws.

  “You have unusual pets.” She handed me a towel and continued to talk as she turned around. I got out and dried off. She peeked over her shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell me you were out?” She still hadn’t discovered that I was deaf. It’s amazing what people don’t notice if you never mention it.

  Lorena watched me gingerly dry off my wing. She looked at the wounds and was silent. Then she gave me a new dress in gorgeous violet silk that matched my eyes. Then she told me there was a celebratory banquet that night to welcome me properly to Verona.

  “That’s what happened in Venice before they started separating me from my family. Forgive me if I’m not excited,” I said.

  Lorena hugged me and left without another word. Great. A banquet. Just what I didn’t want. But maybe they’d get drunk again and I could figure out how to escape. I racked my brain for the next few hours, trying to think of something subtler than burning my way out the window. I didn’t want to hurt anyone, but I would have to if they got between me and my family.

  That evening, my door banged open while I was poring over the fat book Gerald had left in my room. I jumped and dropped it on the floor.

  “What are you doing?” yelled Ruffiano.

  “Reading,” I said, heaving the book back onto the window seat.

  “Why didn’t you answer the knock?”

  Well…

  “I was concentrating.”

  Ruffiano wasn’t buying it, but what could he do? I obviously wasn’t trying to escape. He examined the exits and turned to me, frowning. “You are an exceptional reader.”

  “I guess,” I said. “Is it time for the banquet?”

  “Yes,” he said. “I will escort you.”

  I thought Ruffiano would be easy enough to lose. He smelled like fermented lemons already, but I was unlucky. I had a guard assigned to me. The nervous guy, that must’ve drawn the straw, stayed at my elbow for the entire banquet. Every one of my family had their own guard. Gerald kept giving me looks, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. We couldn’t talk. The guards made that plain by moving in close every time we tried to talk. Ruffiano was smarter than I gave him credit for.

  The Montagues and Capulets partied for hours. The galen came in to sip something called lemoncello and congratulate the families. Everyone hugged as the galen were reunited with the Capulet captives. Hercule was there. His hair wrapped around the former captives and stroked their backs. Nobody seemed to realize I was a captive. I did get a lot of “for your own good” comments. I bit my tongue so many times, it was sore.

  At midnight, I was escorted back to my room by Marius, who said that someday I’d understand why they were doing what they were doing. As if I couldn’t understand it right then. I understood. I just hated it. He looked at me the way my parents looked at me after they imposed another rule and were disappointed that I didn’t think it was awesome. Why would I want another rule?

  Marius closed the door and I put my hands against the wood. I felt a thump on the other side as he bolted it. There were five guards in the hall. Not too many, but Iris’s door was five doors down. Horc and Victory were with her, but I didn’t know where Leanna’s and Gerald’s rooms were.

  I gave myself a dose of white willow and flopped on the bed face-first. This was just great. Maybe when they tried to move us back to Venice. Yes. We’d be outside the fortress and together. Ruffiano said he’d already sent the message to the doge that they had me. It shouldn’t take too long for the order to come back. Then we’d go. Then we’d escape. We had to. Mom was waiting.

  Leanna shook me awake. “Matilda,” she whispered. “We have to hurry.”

  I sat up to see Hercule at the foot of my bed. He had Grandma Vi’s bag and my traveling bag. His hair formed zi
gzags and then straightened before zigzagging again. Gerald waved at me from the door. “Come on. Come on.”

  I jumped off the bed and threw on my cloak. “Why are you helping us?” I asked Hercule.

  “I know who you are,” he said before sweeping out of the room.

  I followed him into the hall and my heart almost stopped. Iris was leaned up against the wall, wrapped up in golden ribbons again. I couldn’t believe it. Ruffiano knew how bad it felt. I could’ve given him a fire facial and not felt any guilt.

  “We can’t leave,” I said, stepping over a guard lying on the floor in front of Iris. “What did you do to the guards?” They were breathing but out cold.

  “Lorena gave them refreshments,” said Leanna.

  “Really?” I asked.

  “Lorena is her own person. She wants you to go to Rome and save your mother,” said Hercule.

  Allura rushed down the hall with a collapsible stretcher. “Hurry. Ruffiano is talking about checking on Matilda. Lorena will distract him as long as she can.”

  She opened the stretcher and we lowered Iris onto it amid painful sparks sizzling our skin. I tried to take the front, but Leanna wouldn’t let me. She and Allura carried Iris through the empty halls. All I was allowed to carry was the royal jewels and my reptiles. Gerald lugged Horc, who yawned and scratched his perfumed bottom.

  I had so many questions, but Hercule walked beside me in silence. Locks of his hair patted my shoulder occasionally. He didn’t look at me and I couldn’t guess why he was helping. He’d been suspicious of me the whole time and not in a good way.

  Allura led us through the fortress to a dusty chamber filled with trunks and boxes. Hercule closed the door and waved at it. The door glowed silver for a moment. Then he and Allura set about clearing a space on one wall. We helped under the critical eye of Horc, who wanted to know what was in the boxes so he could estimate the value.

  I moved his boulder-like body out of the way and said, “We’re in the middle of an escape here. Stop thinking about stealing.”

  “Wood fairies don’t steal. We borrow,” said Horc. “I want to borrow something in this box.” He pointed at a box bigger than he was.

  Just to keep him quiet, I said, “Okay. Take a look.”

  The spriggan attacked the box like a roasted stink bug. Mom and Dad would’ve been appalled, but he was still a spriggan.

  When we cleared the wall, Hercule sat on a trunk and wiped his brow with a handkerchief embroidered with tarragon and hibiscus. “Open it, Allura,” he said after catching his breath.

  Allura tapped a code on the wall and it melted away. I looked out into the night. It was still and I didn’t see any guards. “Which way should we go?” I asked.

  Allura pulled a rolled parchment from one of the pouches at her waist. “Here’s a map we drew for you. You’ll fly to the Arena. There, you will find an Alfa Romeo.”

  Gerald ran over. “Which one? A good one?”

  “It’s red. Is that good?” asked Allura.

  “I mean, what model?”

  “I cannot tell you. The car will be running with the interior lights on. Inside will be a woman with blonde hair and green eyes. She’s our seer, Claudia. She will take you to Florence, where you will be safe.”

  “How do you know that?” I asked. “Italy hasn’t been great so far.”

  Hercule got up from the chest slowly and craned his back. “Florence is its own state. They are not allied with Venice and the doge. They will not be obligated to send you back.”

  “Thank goodness,” said Leanna. “Should we go now?”

  “No,” I said. “What about Iris?”

  Gerald beamed at me. “That’s why I went to the library.”

  “I thought Giacomo’s spell was unique.”

  “It is, but spells like that, like your fire, have to be close to the fairy that cast it. Once we get far enough away from Giacomo, the ribbons should go away.”

  Should.

  “You’re sure?” I asked.

  “I read it in a book,” he said with ultimate pride.

  I looked down at Iris and she rolled her eyes. They were the only things she could move. “Okay. Let’s do it. Where’s Victory?”

  Victory climbed out from under Iris’s hair, careful not to touch the ribbons. “Yes, Aunt.”

  “Can you get the dragons with Leanna?”

  “Leanna can do very well without me,” he said, shrinking down under his shell.

  “Wait a minute. You and Iris are the dragon masters around here. She can’t go. I shouldn’t fly. And they think Gerald’s annoying. That leaves you.”

  “I might…”

  “Might what? Go berserk and try to take over the world? I’m expecting it. Just go. Ruffiano could be searching for us already.”

  “I might make a mistake.”

  I stared at him. The tiny phalanx seemed even tinier. A mistake. That was one word that I didn’t think he knew in any of his twenty languages. “You can’t make a mistake. You are Victory. Go get the dragons.”

  Leanna held out her hand. Victory leapt on, but he didn’t seem thrilled about it. It’s hard to read a phalanx, so maybe I was wrong.

  Leanna dove out of the opening and disappeared into the chilly night.

  “Hercule?” I asked.

  “Yes, Your Highness,” he said, handing me the bags.

  “Just call me Matilda.”

  He nodded.

  “Why are you doing this? You didn’t seem to like me much.”

  He smiled and his eyes crinkled. “I like you very well, but I knew you weren’t who you claimed to be.”

  “How did you know?”

  “You smell like flowers and happiness. It is unusual,” he said.

  “That’s it?” I was kind of disappointed. My scent wasn’t interesting. It was more trouble than it was worth.

  “Then there was Rickard. He isn’t a family friend. He’s been in prison. Recently.”

  There was no point in denying it. “The Kaisergruft.”

  He nodded. “And you hide your healing gift. This is not something to hide unless you’re hiding something bigger, which you were, Your Highness.”

  “Matilda,” I said. “That still doesn’t explain why you’re helping. So what if I’m a healer? Who cares?”

  “I wasn’t sure about you until Ruffiano told me about your fire. That’s when I knew.”

  Gerald sat down on the floor, expecting a story. “Knew what?”

  “Of course, if I’d seen this”—Hercule tapped Grandma Vi’s case—“I wouldn’t have needed the fire to convince me. This is Viola Whipplethorn’s medical bag. I’d know it anywhere.”

  I nearly fell over. “You knew her.”

  Hercule did know her. They met in France during the crazy days of the revolution. He knew Lucien Galen, too. They were great friends back then. “I couldn’t let Vi’s granddaughter be kept a prisoner when she was meant to be saving sweet Adele.”

  “You know my mom?”

  “Only as a baby. She was a beautiful baby. Very fussy though.”

  “Can I hug you?” I asked.

  Hercule laughed and held out his arms. I snuggled in and breathed deep the faint scent of vanilla. “I feel closer to her now.”

  He held me back before speaking. “I heard she was gone. How did it happen?”

  “A blue jay got her.” Tears stung my eyes. I hadn’t thought about that terrible day in a long time. Too many other terrible things were happening for me to remember. I felt guilty, like I’d stopped loving her.

  Hercule smoothed my hair. “How like her you are.”

  A rush of wind come up and my hair smacked him in the face. He laughed. “Your dragons have arrived.”

  “Will you be okay? What about Lorena? What will Ruffiano do?”

  “Nothing. He’ll be glad to be rid of you. He’ll tell the doge you escaped. You escaped from him. Why not us?”

  “I hope you’re right,” I said.

  He kissed my forehead and
gave me several packets. “For your wing. And when you see Lucian, tell him he still owes me a hundred favors.”

  “I’ll tell him.”

  I turned as a claw came through the opening and snatched Iris up. Gerald flew out, leaving me with Horc. He sat glumly next the open box.

  “What’s wrong with you?” I asked as I tucked away the packets and picked him up.

  “Underwear.”

  “Huh?”

  “The box was filled with old underwear,” said Horc.

  “No profit in underwear, I guess.”

  “I believe some of it was dirty. I need another bath immediately.”

  “I’ll get right on that.” I kissed Hercule’s cheek and called out the opening, “I’m ready.”

  Horc tapped my cheek. “What about the fire?”

  “What fire?” I asked.

  “Your fire. Hercule said he knew because of your fire. What about the fire?”

  Hercule patted Horc’s knobbly head. “You spriggans don’t miss anything.”

  “Well?” I asked as a claw appeared at the opening.

  “Kindlers run in families. I’ve only known one other. Paul-Phillipe Baudin of the Castle Baudin.”

  The claw grabbed me. In a second, I was flying away over Verona without a chance to ask another question.

  Paul-Phillipe Baudin. That sounds so familiar.

  Chapter Nineteen

  GERALD SAW THE car first, a red luxury car driving on a narrow side street toward the Arena. The dragons had flown at their top speed to the ancient building. I was breathless by the time we circled the oval structure. The stonework arches were beautifully symmetrical with an interior that had rows and rows of seats. There were some new things, railings and lighting, so I think the humans were still using the Arena for sports or something. Humans could be amazing. I wished the humans that tore down Whipplethorn Manor had seen how beautiful it was and had saved it.

  We sailed around, looking for Claudia and not finding her at first. Hercule wouldn’t have lied. There couldn’t be two Arenas. He would’ve mentioned that.