The chimera strained at the end of its chain as they passed. The audience screamed for blood. Still, as Annalise soared atop her unicorn, blackberry hair snapping out behind her, she experienced a moment of peace. Annalise wished Mister Edwards was here and that he could feel it, too.
“My name is Esh-Baal,” her unicorn said. “It means Fire of the Ruler.” Esh-Baal took a slow curve, galloping faster. She climbed the air toward the bars covering the arena while the white crows circled overhead. “You brought me to life, Annalise—and my fire is yours!”
Esh-Baal flew closer to the chimera. It shrieked and flapped, pulling at its constraints. The rectangular gold box the size of a traveling chest lay on the dirt before its hooved feet. Esh-Baal drew nearer. The hidden crowd stomped and hollered.
“What do you think it’s guarding?” Annalise asked Esh-Baal.
Maybe it was the final item she needed to beat the Fate Spinner.
“I can’t tell,” her unicorn replied, soaring around the beast. “But that’s not all it’s protecting.”
To the right of the chimera, a giant ornately carved mirror rose from the dirt. Inside the glass, upon a dais, the Fate Spinner sat on her red throne. Black crows shrieked above her. Her whole sky churned with wings as she watched Annalise and Esh-Baal curiously. Her staff of mirrored eyes gleamed at her side. Her red quartz palace towered a distance behind her.
“What do you think she wants?” Annalise asked Esh-Baal as she dug her dagger from her scabbard.
“To watch us die,” Esh-Baal replied, eyeing Annalise’s blade with a hint of a smile.
The Fate Spinner narrowed her gaze onto them and watched them come. But no more would Annalise let Fate intimidate her. She collected her breath in groups of four and forced her head high—for the child she once was who never would have dreamed she’d have the courage to stand where she stood now: ready to stare down the Fate Spinner, grab hold of her destiny, and change her life.
Annalise’s nerves jangled like change. But she wouldn’t stop fighting toward her dream. For myself, and every child who’s ever been cursed, told they are worthless, broken by another. For those who don’t know they are more than what the world claims them to be, I will fight.
The spectators stilled when the Fate Spinner spoke. “Greetings, Miss Meriwether. How good to see you again.” Her gaze lingered on Esh-Baal before returning to Annalise.
At the sight of the dagger, the Fate Spinner looked ready to hiss but held back and growled out instead, “I had my doubts you’d make it this far, what with your . . . various insufficiencies.” Annalise clenched her fists. Esh-Baal’s fires flared. “But now that you’re here, bravo.” The Fate Spinner gave a slow clap. “You’ve made it to the last part of the labyrinth. And the worst is yet to come.”
The hidden spectators shouted, “She’ll never beat you, Fate Spinner!” Followed by, “Look at her, weak bit of a thing, all spindle and worry—the devil and her demon horse won’t last a second, they won’t!” The mob sounded like the townsfolk who’d villainized Annalise so often she’d grown up believing their words.
The Fate Spinner raised her staff, quieting the crowd at once. Her black eyes glittered at Annalise like midnight seas. “I’ve decided to give you another chance to offer yourself to me before anyone else gets hurt.”
Annalise’s heart froze to her ribs. “What do you mean, anyone else?”
Esh-Baal skidded to a stop on the ground as close to the Fate Spinner’s mirror, and as far from the thrashing chimera, as she dared. Annalise did not dismount.
The Fate Spinner folded her long white fingers over the head of her staff with a coy grin. “I may have no authority inside my labyrinth, but I can offer choices. And thanks to my newly acquired prisoner, I’m able to offer you one now.” She leaned forward on her throne. “If you step through my mirror and give yourself and your horned beast to me as sacrifice, I’ll let this prisoner go. You will save them from being devoured by my hungry chimera here, who hasn’t eaten in some time. You also won’t have to keep fighting my monsters, of which I have an endless supply. Of course, you’ll never leave my labyrinth, but that’s a small price to pay for such a compassionate and kindhearted dreamer like yourself, wouldn’t you agree?” The Fate Spinner, overcome with delight, laughed. “Oh, did I forget to mention, the prisoner in question is someone you care for and couldn’t bear to see hurt?”
Esh-Baal pawed the dirt with one hoof and snorted angrily in a shower of sparks.
Annalise scrambled, trying to figure out who the Fate Spinner had taken prisoner—Mom? Dad? Mister Edwards? She might even mean Nightingale or Bowie, as Annalise had begun to care for them, too. “Who is your prisoner?” She squeezed her dagger four times. “Which someone I care for have you taken now?”
The box before the chimera moved. Esh-Baal tensed at her side like she wanted to eat the Fate Spinner’s face. Annalise rested her great hand upon Esh-Baal, and her unicorn calmed.
The Fate Spinner’s smirk grew. “Surrender yourselves and I’ll tell you.”
The box rattled harder. Something inside it cried.
“No,” Annalise replied, stepping closer. The chimera tugged harder at its chain. “This is just another one of your tricks. We will not sacrifice ourselves to you.”
The Fate Spinner inhaled deeply, then spoke through gritted teeth. “This is your last chance. If you do not take my offer, Miss Meriwether, you’ll have to live your life knowing you sacrificed another to me so you could have your own dreams. Could you live with yourself knowing this?” Annalise’s knees noodled terribly. Her whole body buzzed with the instinct to run. But there was nowhere to run to, and running wouldn’t get Annalise her dream. “Tell me what you choose.”
“I am with you,” Esh-Baal whispered. “Whatever you decide, I believe in you.” The spiral of her unicorn’s horn lit with a twist of golden starlight; the thread between them blazed. Annalise’s face crinkled with thankfulness and love.
The chimera roared. Liquid fire dripped from its mouth and sizzled upon the golden box. Whether this was a trick of fate or not, Annalise couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t see what—or who—was inside the box. But she would do it on her own terms. She wouldn’t ever take the Fate Spinner’s deal.
She would trick her instead.
Esh-Baal nickered softly. A nicker that sounded like, Yes.
“You know what I think?” Annalise told the Fate Spinner in a shaky but persistent voice. “I think you’d do or say anything to try and control me.” The chimera lunged and snapped at the end of its chain. Esh-Baal spread her wings and flew, and Annalise shouted over the crowd. “But dreamers are more powerful than you’ll ever be, Fate Spinner. And even those broken by fate can pick themselves up and rise!”
The faceless crowd hissed and jeered.
The Fate Spinner stood. “How powerful you think you are—how brave and clever. Well, I’ve seen it all before. And I know more than anyone how weak dreams are in the face of fate.” She moved closer to the mirror, her face an inch from the glass, watching Annalise and Esh-Baal soar past. “But I see you, Annalise Meriwether. And I know exactly how your sad story ends: with the death of your dreams.”
Annalise held on tighter to Esh-Baal and her dagger.
Let her come. I’ve beaten her monsters before, and I can do it again.
Annalise leaned close to Esh-Baal’s ear. “Together,” she whispered, wearing a shy grin of her own, “we go for the box and fight for our dreams.”
“And together,” Esh-Baal cried, galloping higher, blazing a path through the air, “we rise!”
Annalise cheered as the unicorn flapped her great wings and charged at the chimera, horn first.
“So be it,” the Fate Spinner growled.
The chimera bellowed and lunged and finally broke free of its chains.
The box at its hooves shook.
“And now,” the Fate Spinner shouted, “the real fun begins.”
Chapter 29
Friend or
Foe?
Annalise did not enjoy being unprepared. She liked to know what she’d be doing in advance to prevent any surprises. She liked right better than left. She liked the number four better than three. She liked order and structure and knowing which way to go. But right now, as she soared above a gladiator’s arena on a dark fire unicorn tethered to her great hand as the winged, lion-headed Minotaur chased after them, Annalise realized that there were some things in life for which one could never be prepared. That sometimes it was the surprises that showed someone who they really were.
The Fate Spinner watched from her mirror, knuckles clenched on her staff and throne. And when her chimera roared an inferno and attacked, Annalise and Esh-Baal were ready.
They dived straight toward the chimera, into the wall of flames. Esh-Baal faked right and slipped under its hooves. The chimera swung midair and swooped after them. Annalise’s eyes stung, and her hair was singed, but her heart soared. She and her unicorn were a well-oiled machine—one power in two parts. Every move Annalise wanted to make, Esh-Baal made without being told. Annalise clung to Esh-Baal’s mane with her great hand and her dagger with her right, planning the perfect time to strike.
Esh-Baal was pumping her wings north when the chimera whipped its snake tail at her flank and bit. Esh-Baal tore away with a cry. Annalise could feel her unicorn’s pain through their connective thread as if it was her own. Esh-Baal was hurt but fine.
And her leg bled drips of gold.
A few drops landed on the parched earth below. Each drop bore a shadowshine tree, just as Annalise’s blood did in the Spinner King’s court. Except these, rather than berries, bore tiny black thorns.
Annalise marveled as Esh-Baal went in to strike.
Esh-Baal soared behind the chimera, concealed in a thick cloud of smoke. Before the beast could turn, Esh-Baal burst from the haze and speared it in the side with her horn. The chimera arched its spine and screamed. The Fate Spinner slid to the edge of her throne, teeth clenched, snarling as her monster struggled to fly.
Right before the chimera fell, its eyes, humanlike in their recognition, focused on Annalise’s dagger. Maybe it sensed the magic of the blade—the magic that, with one slice of the Spinner King’s dagger, could take it down.
The chimera’s eyes closed, and it crashed to the ground.
The arena shook with its fall. The hidden crowds booed and stomped their feet.
Esh-Baal skidded to a stop in front of it, and Annalise recalled the Spinner King’s words spoken to her from The Book of Remembering: “This dagger, forged from a cockatrice’s heart, yields the power to shatter illusions on the path to one’s dreams. Use it to free the demon queen, and win the final reward.”
If this was the demon queen he spoke of, Annalise would have her reward.
The beast landed behind the golden box it had been guarding before their fight began and struggled to stand. “Fight!” the Fate Spinner shrieked beyond the mirrored glass. “Take. Them. Down!” The beast flailed its wings and whimpered like a hurt child.
Esh-Baal approached the chimera’s side slowly. This was their chance.
Pulse roaring in her ears, Annalise readied her dagger, vowing not to hurt the chimera too much. Almost level with its shoulder, the chimera raised its tail to strike. Annalise sliced into its tawny hide without hesitation—just enough for the dagger’s magic to work. “I’m sorry,” Annalise told it, but the damage was done.
The beast’s eyes flooded with darkness. The dagger hummed in her hand as the chimera sighed a soft breath of swirling ash and did not breathe again.
A nervous energy rippled through the audience. The Fate Spinner rose from her blood throne, face simmering with rage. “No!” she cried, voice echoing past the stars. “Get up, you useless creature—get up and bring them to me!”
But whatever illusion had been cast over the chimera had already begun to break. Annalise and Esh-Baal watched in amazement as a spirit rose from its chest—a woman dressed in regal red, white, and black robes, wearing a crown matching the Spinner King’s. She curtsied to Annalise and Esh-Baal, gratitude bright in her eyes.
Annalise exhaled her next words with wonder. “You’re the Spinner Queen, aren’t you?” she asked. “You are Saba, mother of the Fate and Dream Spinners.”
Inside the dark mirror a few feet away, the Fate Spinner’s muscles went slack. Her chest heaved, old sorrows made new in her face.
“It can’t be,” the Fate Spinner said.
“But it is,” the Spinner Queen replied softly before turning back to Annalise. “Thank you for freeing me,” the beautiful woman-spirit said. A large heart-shaped silver locket gleamed at the Spinner Queen’s neck. If it was black, it would resemble Annalise’s new dark mark exactly. The Spinner Queen’s motherly expression made Annalise ache for her own parents. “In return, I may reveal something you’ve lost. Someone my daughter took prisoner when that prisoner risked themselves for a friend.”
The Spinner Queen motioned to the shuddering box. “I leave the Fate Spinner’s prisoner for you, dreamer, to do with as you will.” She kissed Annalise’s cheek, then removed her locket and strung it around Annalise’s neck. “My locket, in our family for centuries, sealed shut the moment Kismet cast Noll and me into the maze and hasn’t been opened since. This is the last reward to help guide you to Dreamland—the final lost item of the labyrinth. Deliver it to the gates of Dreamland, and they shall open for you.”
“Mercy,” Annalise breathed, touching the silver heart, which warmed at her touch. “Thank you. Thank you so much.” Esh-Baal and Annalise bowed.
“Farewell, Annalise,” the Spinner Queen said with a snap of her fingers. “May the magic of dreams be yours.” The locked box clicked open. And when Annalise and Esh-Baal raised their heads, the chimera’s body withered to ash, and the spirit of the Spinner Queen vanished in a puff of red smoke.
The crowd rose up in a rage—booing and shouting, “TRAITOR TO THE FATE SPINNER!” and “DEATH TO ALL WHO BETRAY HER!”
Annalise gasped and covered her mouth, but not because of the audience—because of what she found inside the golden box when the red smoke cleared.
“Mister Edwards!” The shackles on his wrist and ankles broke with a clatter. The cloth binding his muzzle disappeared. And there, lying limp, curled at the bottom of the broken box, was the friend she’d lost in the maze—one small black fox.
The Fate Spinner twirled her staff of mirrored eyes, shook every nostalgic emotion from her face, and set her sights on Mister Edwards, her expression as hard as stone.
Annalise knelt at Mister Edwards’s side, beside herself with joy, and hugged the scared fox tight. “Oh, my friend, it’s so very good to see you!”
Mister Edwards gaped in shock and confusion, his copper eyes bouncing frantically back and forth between Annalise and Esh-Baal. “Miss . . . Miss Meriwether. You shouldn’t be here. You shouldn’t have gone into the mirror of snow. I warned you!” The fox rubbed his bleeding wrist where the shackle used to be. “I’m so sorry. Please. You should leave me and go.”
“Mister Edwards,” Annalise said excitedly, taking his paw, “we’ll figure a way out.” She smiled kindly at her friend. “We won’t leave you behind.”
“No!” Mister Edwards struggled against her. “You don’t understand. You must leave me and save yourself.” The fox shrank under Esh-Baal’s hard gaze. “I didn’t want to abandon you, I swear it. I . . . oh, merciful gods,” he sobbed harder. Annalise brushed the tears from his cheeks, furrowing her brow. “I didn’t want to lose you.” He squeezed his eyes tight and mumbled softly, “I never wanted to lead you here.”
The crowd of spectators booed. The moon brightened onto the Fate Spinner’s mirror. The arena filled with the night wolves’ cries.
“Now, now, Mister Edwards,” the Fate Spinner interrupted. “You know as well as I do that is a lie.”
Mister Edwards winced. Annalise regarded him curiously.
Thunder cracked above the arena’s domed bars.
The shadowshine trees dotting the arena shook.
“After all,” the Fate Spinner continued with a proud grin. “You did agree to lead Annalise to me, did you not?”
Nobody moved.
The breath hissed from Annalise’s lungs. Her face burned as she stared at the fox. “M-mister Edwards?” she stuttered. The thread between her and Esh-Baal reddened into a strand of spun fire. Feelings old and new, of hurt, betrayal, and loneliness, gathered inside her like a dam ready to burst. “You made a deal with the . . . with the Fate Spinner? To lead me—to her?”
The veiled spectators applauded and cheered—and laughed. Esh-Baal cantered nervously around Annalise and the fox. Smelling the winds, the unicorn’s attention moved to the forty-foot-tall iron door to the right, and the dull thuds echoing behind it.
Esh-Baal stood before Annalise and said, “You should get on my back—now.”
But Annalise was barely listening. All she could do was stroke the length of her hair—four, four, four, four—and hug herself tight. “This whole time?” she asked the crying fox. “Since the train?” Her mind crawled in too many directions, and her frantic heart would not calm. She’d trusted him. She’d truly thought that he was a friend. “Was this your plan all along?”
The fox’s cheeks sagged, his ears hanging like silken black socks. Finally, he nodded. “I’m ashamed to say it’s true. When I beat the labyrinth last time, the Fate Spinner was waiting. I lied about Mister Amoureux finishing with me. How could he have? Her cockatrice had already turned him to stone.” Annalise gasped. Mister Edwards lowered his eyes. “I was devastated and scared. I couldn’t take him with me. My only option was to leave him in the courtyard and reach the end of the maze. To find the Spinner of Dreams so she could make him whole. But Fate captured me before I had a chance.” He dropped to his knees, shaking his head. “I only wanted to get back the love the Fate Spinner stole from me. She told me she’d give him back if I guided you—a stranger then—through the labyrinth, and then to her. But I couldn’t go through with it. You’d become my friend—and I didn’t want to lose you, too. I tried to help you, but by then, it was too late.”
The Spinner of Dreams Page 19
