by Holly Hook
"Then all we have to do is break her out," I said, hope rising inside of me. I stepped further into the room. We might not have to face Alric after all.
My heart raced. This was the moment I had dreamed about all my life. I knew nothing about what my mother was like. She had magic. It was the reason she'd gone to Alric, thinking he'd understand her struggle.
She might even be horrible.
Everyone else in my family was.
"Shorty," Rae said. "Don't venture too far in there yet. We don't know if Alric has any magical wards."
I hadn't thought of that, but I already stood in the middle of the jars. This whole place was cold and I felt like all the clouds of vapor were watching me.
"Well, it's too late now," I said. "If we tripped any wards, we tripped the wards. We're here. There's no turning back." I tried to sound tough but I really didn't at all. Alric could be hiding in the shadows anywhere. I checked the corners again but no movement came. He could be waiting for us to get farther into the room where he wanted us.
"The pink lady," Henry said. "She's got to be in here somewhere."
I agreed. It was darker towards the back of the room. I jumped when a figure in white joined me until I realized it was Candice. She was the only beautiful thing in this place.
If Alric found her, he might encase her in glass.
And then no one would save her. Her story was done. There would be no prince.
Unless it was Wesley.
"Candice," I said. "Go back. Please. Let me do this on my own."
"Are you crazy?" she asked. "You're not doing this alone. You shouldn't have to."
I faced her. Henry and Rae hung back like they were afraid to knock over any of the jars. One of them already had a crack going down it like someone had knocked it over. The vapor still swirled inside, trapped forever. I wondered what would happen if we broke the jars and the glass boxes. The vapor could turn back into people...or it could just disperse forever. I wasn't going to take the chance of extinguishing someone's entire existence.
So I stepped further into the room and Candice followed. We were in this together and a part of me was glad she was here, a part of me that was taking up too much room. She should never have come on this trip. If I lost her...I couldn't stand the thought.
"There's a box," Candice said.
I squinted. Straight ahead, on the other side of another jar army, was a glass box on a raised platform.
Rae and Henry rushed into the room and the sound of a jar sliding against brick echoed through the room. They kept their footsteps quiet and I hesitated, waiting for them to catch up. I didn't want to do this alone. I was finally going to see...
"That's not her," Candice said.
I drew closer, stepping around a small glass box full of green vapor.
Inside this glass box was a girl about my age with black hair and really pale skin. She wore the type of clothes people would call gothic in the other world, complete with black cut-off gloves and shiny boots. Something about her seemed majestic, almost royal, and I had the strangest, most distant feeling that I had seen her before. There were a lot of people in the dark region and some of them had visited Henrik's castle while I was there. I wondered if this girl was one.
"I don't know who she is," Candice said. "Maybe we should try to break her out."
"Obviously she doesn't like Alric," I said, raising my fist.
"Wait!"
Stilt's voice rang out, faint like it was coming from a neighbor's house. His face appeared in the glass, barely visible in the dim light. I stopped mid-swing and stared at him like an idiot.
"You found a piece of the magic mirror," I said.
"He did," Rae breathed, drawing closer. "Who's this girl lying here?"
I looked closer. Stilt was standing in front of two huge piles of gold. Short, dark figures milled around behind him, mere blurs in the vision. He had made it to the gold stash. I wanted to reach through the glass and give him a man hug.
"Alric threw his broken mirror down here," Stilt said. "I'm holding a piece. I'm surprised he couldn't put it back together again with the magic he has. That queen must have broken it and cursed it at the same time. I'm impressed. Have you found her yet? Where are you? Are you staring at me through water or glass?"
"Glass," I said. Relief coursed through me. "I think I might be standing over this queen you're talking about."
Stilt's eyes got huge. "You're already in the prison room? Break her out. She might help you. You need all the power on your side you can get. I sent two dwarves to scout this castle and they both report that Alric left in a hurry. I think he knows what you're up to. Get her out and we'll worry about the treasure."
The image tilted like Stilt was lowering the piece of glass.
And disappeared.
I looked at Candice, Henry and Rae in turn.
"This is a dark queen if those dwarves were right," Rae said. "Maybe we should leave her."
"Not everyone in the dark region is evil," I said, sounding more defensive than I meant to.
I slammed my fists down on the gold box.
It cracked and everyone backed away. I did it again and again until at last, the box exploded into pieces, leaving the girl covered in shards.
"Wake up!" I shouted. "Alric is coming and we need your help."
The girl's eyelids fluttered and then opened. My heart was racing. We didn't have time for explanations.
"Huh?" she asked.
"Alric is coming. We need help fighting him," Candice said. "Get up. Whatever you can do can help. Do you have magic?"
The girl opened her eyes all the way, sucked in a breath, and sat up so fast that glass went tinkering to the floor. She scowled and searched the room as if she expected Alric to be here already.
"He's not here yet," I told her. I gave her a hand which might have been really dangerous.
"I need to kill him," the girl said, swinging her legs around the platform and brushing away my hand. "He took what was mine."
"Your mirror," I said, eager to search the rest of the room. I didn't know how Alric would travel. I hoped that without his mirror it would take him a long time. Please, let him take a long time.
"How did you know about that?" she asked, turning a glare on me. "Are you connected to him?"
"No," I lied, backing into the shadows. I didn't know how much this girl suspected about me. "Some dwarves told us you were trapped here. They wanted us to free you. We came here from the Star Kingdom to free everyone and kill Alric. Want to help?”
The girl faced me.
And smiled.
“I’m Queen Mara of the Vine Kingdom,” she said, reaching out to shake my hand. “I guess you wouldn’t have freed me if you were with Alric. You have no idea how he’s messed with my life.”
I shook her hand and looked around the room again. Time was running out and Candice was searching around the room, walking around the jars and boxes. Rae and Henry were doing the same. Rae looked desperate. She was supposed to have someone down here, too. We were all in the same boat.
My side was sinking faster than the others. Mara stood up and the last of the glass fell off her and landed on the floor. There were five of us now. The two of us stepped further into the room and I didn’t even care that we had a dark queen with us that may or may not betray us. Anyone was better than Alric.
“I found her!” Rae shouted. “She’s here!”
Her golden hair hung from the shadows and I rushed over to the glass box she was standing over. Stilt had left us and his reflection was absent, but I knew the dwarves were taking off with that treasure that supplied Alric's magic. There was so much it might take them a while…unless there were a lot of dwarves. At least Alric wasn’t over there and they hadn’t been caught.
I could see clearly inside this box even though we were fairly far away from the torches. An older woman was lying inside this one, one in a dark dress that I couldn’t tell the shade of. Her black hair hung over her chest and her
face was strange, like it was caught somewhere between good and evil. I’d never seen anything like it.
“Is this your adoptive mother?” Candice asked Rae.
Rae’s eyes were full. “Yes.”
“The one who shut you in a tower,” Candice said.
“It’s complicated,” Rae said. “If I healed her with my hair she was all right. She…she fought Alric to save my life down here. I fed her some rampion before Henry and I escaped. She might be okay, but if we don’t break her out, we’ll never know.”
“But she still wanted you shut in that tower,” Henry said. “You owe her nothing, but if you want to break her out, this is your chance.”
“Free her,” Mara said. “No one deserves to be shut in glass.”
Rae lifted her skinny arms and brought them down on the box as hard as she could.
Again. And again.
And at last, it gave way.
The woman on the pedestal sucked in breath like she had been underwater for minutes. She reached up with one clawed hand like she meant to strangle someone and sat up, blinking. Glass fell everywhere.
“Mother!” Rae shouted, wrapping her arms around the woman.
She hugged back. The woman appeared softer by the minute as if the rampion were finishing its job on her. The evil melted away. Her eyes brightened. The two of them hugged tighter and tighter. I hoped that this woman wouldn't be in need of Rae's hair anymore. She didn't deserve to be trapped all over again.
“Your mother, Shorty,” Candice said, grabbing my arm. “I think she’s back here.”
My heart swelled and I turned.
In the very back of the chamber, between a set of red curtains, was a final glass coffin.
“Your mother?” Mara asked.
I turned away from her, praying she didn’t know the story. If she found out, I might become Mara's hostage when Alric got here, not that he would care about my life. I scrambled through the jars and sent one of them rolling away into the others. These were the residents of the Tree Kingdom I was stepping through plus who knew how many others.
There she was.
Still in pink, with a pearl necklace and a tiara on her head, Princess Kathryn looked like a younger version of Nori and she lay perfectly still, lifelike in stasis. She had my eyebrows. My nose. Even a bit of my chin. I had taken more after her than I thought. Emotion threatened to overcome me as I stared, chest swelling. I had only seen her through visions before, but this was the real thing and it was more real than I could ever imagine.
“Break her out,” Candice said. “I’ll help you. We have to hurry. Henry says if we break her out, this entire kingdom should be set free.”
“Do it!” Henry said from behind us.
Princess Kathryn would have to know who I was.
What if she didn’t want me, just like Nori? Maybe she hadn’t wanted to get pregnant with me. I couldn’t blame her.
I trembled.
Once I broke her out, there would be no more secrets.
I raised my arms and slammed them down on the glass as everyone watched.
Again. And again.
No cracks formed and the glass remained solid as if enchanted. I swore and beat my fists on the glass over and over, sounding like a little kid throwing a tantrum. This glass should open for me. Maybe Alric had secured this more than he had the others. This was his most valuable prisoner.
I straightened up and caught a breath. “Sorry,” I said.
Candice held up her hand and shoved my apology aside. “Get angry,” she said. “You came all this way and this won’t open. It must be that Alric has to die first. That was in the story. Brie even told me so.”
I remembered. Alric had died before the princess got her freedom. Either the story was interfering or Alric had some kind of curse on this glass that wouldn’t go away until his death.
This meant we had to face him before we knew the truth.
“Candice,” I said. “You need to go. He’s going to be here soon and I don’t want you in the—“
“That glass won’t break. Not while I’m alive, that is,” Alric said from the other side of the room. “Unfortunately for you, that will be a very long time.”
Chapter Fifteen
All of us froze and faced the hooded, robed figure who now stood in the tunnel entrance.
I had seen this man many, many times, but this time was the most frightening. This was even worse than the time Alric had almost caught Candice and I in that dark spot. We were deep underground now. Trapped.
Alric took a step closer, black robe flowing around him. His face was in shadow. He was panting like he had used some major magic to get here. He was drained. I knew how that felt. I’d heard of some magic users teleporting but it was very intensive and difficult. It was the only way he could have made it across kingdoms in a few minutes. But with each step he took, he grew more confident, even kicking one of the jars out of the way and sending it sliding into another. His breathing got less labored. Alric's energy was returning. His gold stash must be providing him with more power from afar. He still had a good amount behind him and probably wouldn’t feel the effects until most of it was gone.
“Shorty,” he said. “I’m impressed. You’ve embraced magic after all.” He nodded to the wand that I was holding. “You must have in order to find this place.”
Next to me, Rae held the magic yarn behind her back. Her adoptive mother stood in front of her, fierce and unyielding.
“I haven’t even uncovered a location spell,” Alric said, circling a bit to the right. The guy was right in my sights and he wasn’t even flinching. He knew he was invincible. I couldn’t strike yet. If he had recovered so quickly from what must have been a teleport, he would still be very, very hard to kill. “Would you mind telling me the Old Language words for that?”
And I wasn’t sure I was ready to fight as a stag.
He studied us again. “Mara here broke my magic mirror, and since then, locating things has been much more difficult. And not to mention, I plucked thorns from my robe for days. The fight was quite an inconvenience.”
“That’s it?” Mara asked, insulted. “I almost killed you, Alric. I’m sure it was a very memorable experience, with those thorns poking into you everywhere.”
I had to smirk a bit. This girl was someone I’d get along with if we got out of here alive.
Alric shifted. His pride must be hurt. “There are no brambles here for you to command,” he said. “What are you doing to do? Get the dust to do your bidding? That will inflict plenty of damage.”
Mara muttered some words and a choking cloud of dust rose from the floor. It condensed into a whirling column and plowed right into him head on. Alric grunted but the sound of the wind roared and filled the room, knocking two more of the jars over. We had another magic user here. We might not be sunk.
I joined in. The wind drowned out everything. I had to take the opportunity. I raised the wand at wherever Alric was behind the whirlwind and shouted the killing spell.
“Sterben!”
My voice vanished into the roar, unheard, but the cold, sharp energy cut through me like a million sharp blades and drained out of me. My knees wobbled as I put all my concentration into the spell. Candice steadied me but I found my strength. Wind snapped against me and threatened to knock me over. Mara was powerful. The column of dust raged and Alric remained out of sight. Maybe, with the two of us, we had done it.
The column died.
Alric fell, a living shadow collapsing to the floor.
And he remained still.
The whole room went silent. Mara was open mouthed next to me. She hadn’t heard me yell the killing spell. No one had. I stood there with the wand at my side as Alric lay there, draped in black and red. I couldn’t tell if he was breathing.
I held my own breath.
“I think he’s dead,” Candice said. “The gold. They must have taken it.” She gave me a knowing glance. Behind her, Rae and Henry whispered to each other. Candic
e had seen what I did. No one else had.
He might really be gone.
My secret might be safe but this had been too easy. Something was off. The heap on the floor remained still.
I took a step closer as strength flowed back into my limbs. My body was getting used to doing magic. I held the wand up as I crept closer. Alric’s hood was down over his face. He might be peering through the fabric.
“My brother,” a woman said from the other side of the room. “You’ve killed him.”
I turned.
Annie stood there in the archway along with Wesley and Percival. Their shirts shone in the pale light. Annie was paler than ever and her hair was scraggly like she had spent a lot of time crawling through thick forests and caves. She looked down at Alric and then back up at me and Mara, who stood in front of everyone else. The air in the room got colder as if her presence were sucking the life out of it. Annie took a bold step into the room and held her hand up to me as if to say wait. She made no motion to attack.
“What are you doing?” I asked. The look on her face wasn’t hatred. It was something different. Amusement, almost. She strode towards Alric, red boots flashing. How the heck had she followed us and known where we were going?
Annie lifted one boot and pushed at Alric. He rolled a bit but flopped back into place. He wasn’t reacting. Either he really was dead or he was just acting.
“He’s gone,” Annie said, looking up and me and Mara. She smiled. It was victorious. “My brother is gone. I never imagined that by following you I would ever see this. Or where he keeps his stash. I'm glad there's a great reward at the end of this journey.”
“You wanted Alric to die?” Candice asked. “But you’re his sister!”
“You do not understand,” Annie said, circling around us, “what it is like to be born to a mother who adores your sibling and marries you off like a burden that needs to be dropped. Alric has been the bane of my existence for my entire life. I have always lived in his shadow. Always."
"So you're jealous," Candice said. "Is that why you've been competing with him?"
