The Shadow Cadets of Pennyroyal Academy

by M. A. Larson

  “Looks like someone wasn’t too keen on there being a village here, Majesty.”

  “Indeed.” The King’s face darkened. “Come.”

  He rode down the hill, his guardsmen following behind. Demetra and Evie rode after them, leaving the rest of the party to follow. A small castle, crumbled and covered with black plumes of scorch, was being picked over by peasants. Other buildings, apparently made of wood, had not survived. Casks of grain spilled across the ground. Chickens and goats milled about, free from their damaged pens. Two knights, their embroidered doublets clearly distinguishing them from the villagers, helped to haul giant bricks of mortared sandstone out of the rubble. Sweat dripped from their faces despite the bite in the air.

  “What happened here?” bellowed the King.

  “Good day, Your Majesty,” said one of the villagers. The knights noticed the King and fell to their knees.

  “Stand, lads, stand and tell me what’s happened.”

  “Well, Your Majesty, my friend and I were just over those hills at Pardoogan’s Castle when we saw the smoke. We came as quickly as we could, but this is all that was left.” He looked around at the devastation. “The villagers swear it wasn’t a dragon attack, Majesty. Nor witches either.”

  “It’s true, Majesty, it’s true!” said an old man, limping toward the horses. His face was filthy, and a streak of blood ran down the side of his face. “It was a whole group of them come through! Destroyed it all!”

  “A group of what?” said the King.

  The old man’s face wrinkled in thought, as though he couldn’t quite grasp the answer. “Well, Your Majesty . . . they looked a bit like her.” He raised a gnarled old finger and pointed straight at Demetra.

  There were more shouts from the north, and the thundering of hooves coming down the road. The guardsmen unsheathed their weapons, but when they saw that it was only a single rider, and most likely a knight, based on his garb, they stood down.

  He was charging toward them at top speed, shouting something they couldn’t understand.

  “Now what in blazes is he on about?” said the King.

  “Dragons,” said Evie.

  Sure enough, as he drew nearer, his words became clear as ice. “Dragon! Dragon!”

  The knights ran to their horses and mounted up as the third knight slowed to a stop. He was terrified, his eyes wide as the moon. “Help me, sirs! Help! A dragon’s attacking the village!”

  “Go!” shouted one of the knights, and the three of them thundered away over the hill. From somewhere far in the distance, they could hear the echo of roaring and crumbling stone.

  “We’d best double our pace if there are dragons about,” said the King. “Onward!” He led the party down the road to the west. Evie wiped a tear from her eye and tried to block out the distant screams of the dragon as they resounded across the countryside.

  The old man whose home had just been destroyed looked up at her.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “Cost of life.” He turned and began to clean up the rubble. “Cost of life.”

  FINALLY, AFTER NEARLY a fortnight on the road, the flags of Waldeck appeared in the western sky. The rest of the journey had been mercifully uneventful. Now the traveling party needed only to circle around the lake and climb the mountain on the far shore to arrive at the kingdom gates. It sat heavily atop the mountain, thick turret towers peering out from behind granite walls. Compared with the Blackmarsh, Waldeck wasn’t a particular beauty, but the sight of it filled Evie with gratitude.

  “Look, Boy,” she said softly. “It’s your home.”

  He tore off a bouquet of grass and ate, stomping his hoof to chase the flies.

  They made their way around the lake, and as they approached the kingdom, the gates opened wide and a welcoming party rode out to meet them. Six guards in deep violet robes with a coat of arms sewn into them approached. They dismounted ten feet in front of the royal carriage and each took a knee.

  “Your Serene and Exalted Majesties,” one of them said, causing Demetra to roll her eyes. “Welcome to the Kingdom of Waldeck.”

  “Thank you, sir,” said the King.

  “If it pleases you, Majesties, the Queen should like to see you immediately.”

  “Now?” grumbled the King. “Before lunch?”

  The guardsmen, still on their knees, exchanged uncertain looks. “Uh . . . that was her request, Your Majesty.” The King scowled darkly. “Er, though I’m certain we could find something for you to eat somewhere. Some local fruits, perhaps? Or some bread?”

  “I’ve got bread in my house,” said one of the other guards, not noticing the King’s ever-darkening scowl. “It’s only a week old. Me wife scraped the mold this morning.”

  “Brilliant. We’ll just pop round his and fetch the bread, then—”

  “Oh, sod the food, let’s go. If she wants us straightaway, then who are we to argue.”

  “Very good, Your Majesty.”

  The Waldeckian guard led the traveling party through the gates, where it was met by roads lined with villagers.

  “Now, that’s a proper welcome,” said the King with his first smile in days.

  The villagers, cheering and screaming, weren’t holding the flag of Waldeck, however, or even the flag of the Blackmarsh. Everywhere waved the four-field flag of Pennyroyal Academy. As they rode through the crowd, it quickly became apparent that Evie and Demetra were the ones they’d come to see.

  “Insolence,” muttered the King. “Not a single Blackmarsh red.”

  “As y-you can see, Your Majesty,” stammered one of the guards, “the kingdom is quite excited to host the new recruits. We’ve all had a bit of princess fever after what happened last year.”

  “Mmm.”

  Demetra smiled and waved to the crowd. Boys and girls waved back, some dressed in handmade costumes designed to look like Pennyroyal uniforms. “Come on,” she said to Evie. “Let’s get down to enlistment and see if we made it before the first years.”

  “But what about . . . ?”

  “Father!” she called, reining her horse to a stop. “We’re going now!”

  “Eh?”

  “Evie and I are going to enlistment. I’ll see you at the end of term.”

  “Off the horse, then,” he said. She scowled at him. “Well? Are you planning to just leave him by the side of the road? That’s a quality horse.”

  Demetra dismounted and began untying her small pack. She handed the reins over to one of the guards, who led it away with the rest of the traveling party.

  “Goodbye, Mother!”

  A hand came out of the carriage window and waved a silk kerchief.

  Demetra turned to Evie with a smile. “Shall we?” She began walking down the road, away from Castle Waldeck. Evie glanced back at the royal family, but they seemed far more interested in making themselves presentable to the Queen than in seeing the girls off.

  Evie dismounted and led Boy after Demetra.

  “What about all those trunks your mother packed?”

  “I told her not to bother. All I need is in here.” She patted the small knapsack she’d been given as a third-class princess cadet.

  The kingdom had a gentle slope that led away from the castle, which they followed at a leisurely pace. It felt good to be walking, escaping the crowds who waited near the gates for more future knights and princesses, and it felt good to be alone with Demetra.

  “Let’s make one stop before we go down there.”

  “Of course,” said Demetra. “Where to?”

  They wandered through the kingdom in search of the marketplace. Everything looked vaguely familiar to Evie, though she’d only been there less than an hour last time. Still, after a short walk, they found it. The stalls weren’t nearly as busy as they’d been before. Half of them were closed up, and the other half were minded
by bored or, in one case, sleeping, shopkeepers. Evie scanned the high road until she saw a woman in a brown frock with a bonnet on her head.

  “Come on!” They approached the woman, who was just starting to shutter her horse tack shop. “Pardon me, ma’am.”

  “Yes?” said the woman. When she turned around, she looked as though she’d seen a ghost. “It’s you!”

  “I’ve brought back your horse. It was terribly kind of you to lend him to me.”

  “I never lent any horse to you, young lady. That was a gift.”

  “And I very much appreciate it. I don’t know if I would have made it home without him. But I’m headed back to the Academy, and I’m afraid he can’t come with me.”

  “I’ll not take back a gift. It’s bad luck.”

  “I see. Well, perhaps you’ll look after him for me, then, while I’m away. I could come back for him again at the end of term?” She held out the reins.

  The old woman’s face broke into a smile as she patted the horse’s back. “Very well, my dear, I’ll look after your horse. He always was one of my son’s favorites.”

  Evie stroked Boy’s head and leaned her face against his. “I’ll see you soon, Boy. Thank you for everything.”

  She transferred her things from the saddlebags to her Pennyroyal Academy knapsack, then untied her sword and held it awkwardly in her hands as the old woman led Boy to a trough. She was speaking to him in a gentle voice as they walked off.

  “That was very kind, Evie.”

  “What they did was kind. I’m just trying to repay it,” she said, awkwardly tying the scabbard to the belt of her dress. It pulled a bit, but held. “Shall we?”

  “I’m not sure they’ll take too kindly to a girl walking through a kingdom armed. Where did you get that, anyway?”

  “Here,” said Evie. “It was given to me.” She pulled it halfway free.

  “Blimey, that’s a beautiful sword!”

  “I know. It’s fun as well. While you were writing letters, I was slashing enemies.”

  “Just keep it sheathed and we should be all right. It’d be a shame to have it confiscated.”

  And with that, the girls made their way through the deserted roads of Waldeck in search of the enlistment area. Aside from the large crowds at the entrance, the kingdom felt rather empty. Still, the closer they got to the courtyard where they had been deposited the previous year, the more their excitement grew.

  “This is going to be so much better than last year!” said Demetra.

  “Well, this bit will be, anyway,” said Evie, remembering. “Enlistment was horrendous.”

  “It wasn’t all that bad. I remember there was so much excitement in the air.”

  “That’s because you didn’t turn up in spiderwebs.”

  Demetra laughed. “I’ll never forget the look on your face when Beatrice came down and gave you that horrible name. Eleven. At least it wasn’t something unruly like Seventy-Eight.” She took a deep breath, smiling up at the wan sunshine. “Ahh, it feels so good to be myself again.”

  Evie didn’t say anything, though she did register the comment. And it was true. She had noticed during her time with the family that they tended to push Demetra to the side a bit.

  They turned right at the statue of a woman on horseback, a sword in her hand. Evie wondered if that was what she had looked like riding across the land, sword at her side. Not when I was climbing out that window at the inn, scared for my life, that’s for sure.

  They crossed another wide road of packed dirt. The buildings looming over them had white walls lined with dark wooden beams. There was a tavern and a butcher and a smith, but all were empty.

  “Where is everyone?” said Evie.

  Her question was soon answered. As they neared the end of the road, they were met with a rumble of voices. They angled left into the courtyard, and both stopped dead in their tracks.

  “I reckon we’ve found them,” said Demetra.

  It was chaos. There were people everywhere, most of them girls roughly Evie and Demetra’s age, but also a large number of parents, staff, and other villagers. Guards in Waldeck violet held back massive crowds at the edge of the courtyard, all cheering for the new recruits. The crowds were so big, Evie couldn’t even see to the far side where the enlistment tables were set up.

  “What in the world . . .”

  “There must be twice as many as last year.”

  Even as they stood marveling at the massive crowd, more girls raced up from behind to enlist.

  “I don’t understand,” said Demetra. “Surely they can’t all be coming. How would they fit? I’ll put up with a lot, Evie, but I’m not sharing a bunk.”

  “Come on. There’s Princess Hazelbranch.”

  They stepped into the crowd, which was positively crackling with excitement. There were smiles as far as the eye could see, girls from all across the land hoping for their chance to become princesses.

  “This is madness,” said Demetra. “D’you suppose the knights’ enlistment is like this?”

  As they worked their way toward Princess Hazelbranch, the kindhearted woman who had been their House Princess the previous year, something unusual started to happen. All around them, girls stopped what they were doing and turned to look. And to a person they were looking at Evie.

  “It’s her!”

  “She’s here! She’s here!”

  “Mum, look! It’s Eleven! She’s the one they were talking about!”

  The previous year, when Evie had turned up at enlistment, all eyes had fallen on her because she was so grubby and filthy, and had arrived with Remington, the most famous knight cadet in all the land. This year, she was once again the center of attention, but it was for a very different reason.

  “I can’t believe it’s you!” squealed one girl as she leapt forward and touched Evie’s arm.

  “You’re the one who inspired me to come here!”

  “Can I sit with you on the coach?” said another, walking backward in front of Evie and Demetra. “Or perhaps you’ll have lunch with me?”

  “Sure,” said Evie with an uncomfortable smile. Then she stepped behind Demetra and let her cut a path through the crowd. “What is going on?”

  “You’re famous, Evie.”

  The roar grew louder as word of the-girl-who-saved-the-Academy’s arrival spread to the townspeople at the edge of the courtyard. More and more delirious girls called her name. More and more smiling parents looked down at her. She couldn’t make herself small enough behind Demetra’s back to stem the flood of attention.

  “You’re the one who stopped Malora!”

  “I love your work!”

  “You saved us from the witches!” said one of the fathers, who was as awestruck as all the young girls around him. “You’ve driven them away!”

  The crowd was pushing in on them, making it harder to get to Princess Hazelbranch. One girl was so overwhelmed to be in Evie’s presence, she had tears streaming down her cheeks. “I want to be just like you!”

  “Let’s get out of here!” cried Evie.

  “I can’t move!”

  “Girls! Girls, over here!” called a voice above the din.

  “There she is!” yelled Evie, pointing to the smiling face of Princess Hazelbranch. She was slightly taller than the girls enlisting, and was able to force her way through to meet Evie and Demetra. “Step back, please! Everyone make way!” she called, though her voice never lost its soft sweetness. Finally, she took hold of Demetra’s hand, pulling them free of the crowd and off to the side of the enlistment tables. Now that Evie was with a member of staff, the crowds gave her some space, though they all kept staring and repeating her name.

  “It’s so lovely to see you, girls!” said Hazelbranch. “This is quite an event, isn’t it?”

  “These can’t possibly be the new recruits,�
� said Evie.

  “Most of them, yes. It seems you’ve become as famous as Cinderella, young lady,” said Hazelbranch with a wink.

  “Where are they all going to sleep?” said Demetra. “I can’t share a bunk, Princess, please don’t make me share a bunk!”

  “That’s what the poor Headmistress General is trying to work out. I’m afraid we weren’t at all prepared for these sorts of numbers.” Evie glanced down the line of enlistment tables, where one recruit after another was processed and sent to the coaches, to where Beatrice, the Headmistress General of Pennyroyal Academy, was being run ragged with questions. She looked completely overwhelmed as staff and parents alike inundated her and her snarling assistant, Corporal Liverwort. “We’ve sent for more coaches, but I heard one of the other princesses saying there aren’t any available. It could take days with all the back-and-forth just to get everyone there, let alone processed. We’ve sent an entire forest of hawks asking for help. Poor Rumpledshirtsleeves is already hard at work sewing hundreds of new uniforms.” She smiled with such joy that the sight of it calmed Evie’s nerves after the crush of the crowd. “It’s been quite some time since we’ve seen the Academy as full as it will be this year. And I, for one, am thrilled.”

  “Where do you want this?” said a surly-looking man in peasant’s rags. He was pulling a cart filled with foul-smelling shrubs.

  “Ah, good! That coach there, please.” As the man hauled the cart away, Evie had to turn her head away to keep from retching.

  “What is that?”

  “Those are fairyweed bushes. We’ll have extra staff this year to accommodate all these cadets, which means we’ll need extra provisions for the fairies.”

  “That’s what fairies eat?” said Demetra. “No wonder they’re so angry.”

  “Now, ladies,” said Hazelbranch, her eyes wide. “You mustn’t breathe a word of this to the Headmistress, but I’ve done a bit of poking around on your behalf. I’ve been known to be a bit of a sneaker-abouter from time to time,” she said with a cheeky grin. “I can’t help myself, I’m always so desperate to see where my girls will end up. You and the rest of the Ironbone cadets have been placed in Leatherwolf Company this year!” She did a happy little clap.