Twinchantment

by Elise Allen

  The lioness waved a massive paw. A small cage slid out of the shadows, blue sparks dancing around it. Nitpick was crammed inside. He had a collar around his neck, and a short leash that tied him to the top of his thick-barred prison, so he couldn’t lie down even if he wanted to. His tiny mouth was muzzled so he couldn’t meow.

  “Those blue sparks…” Flissa said, gaping at the lioness. “You just cast magic! Animals can’t do that!”

  For a second Sara thought Flissa had lost her mind. Weren’t they traveling with two magical animals? But then she realized neither Primka nor Nitpick had ever cast any magic, and they certainly didn’t have a magical signature. Sara had never thought about it before, but Flissa must have known it from her books.

  The lioness turned slowly to Flissa. She smiled. “Then I suppose I’m no ordinary animal. All the more reason for you to fear me.”

  “We’re afraid, okay?” Galric said, scurrying farther away from the spear pointed at his heart. “Just let Nitpick out of there. He’s only a kitten.”

  In a single motion, the lioness pounced to Galric. She pushed his guard out of the way and swatted Galric down, placing her paws on his chest as she leered into his face. “I was a kitten once too, and I did not answer to humans or jump around and meow trying to wake them up and protect them from great cats like myself, Raya the Lioness.”

  Raya sat back, but her eyes still bored into Galric’s.

  “The kitten is where he deserves to be,” she said. “Be glad he’s alive at all. As for the rest of you…” Raya padded away from Galric now, and Eye Patch stepped immediately back into place with his spear. “I’d like answers. There are five of you. Am I to assume you’ve been very lucky, or have you found a way to avoid the Rule of Three?”

  Sara shivered, thinking about the carnivorous plant, the mouths in the ground, and the moving wall of ice.

  “We haven’t been very lucky,” she said, looking down at her lap rather than face Raya’s fiery eyes.

  “What’s the Rule of Three?” Flissa asked.

  Raya smiled slowly, revealing her deadly incisors. “If you don’t know, you are lucky. Lucky to be alive. Conspiring isn’t allowed in the Twists. The Rule of Three says only three creatures can be together at a time. If more congregate, the Twists sense it and attack.”

  Sara felt her jaw drop open. Everything they’d experienced in the Twists so far had nothing to do with the coin or even their choices. The actual land had been trying to kill them.

  “What you’re saying doesn’t make sense,” Flissa said, her voice logical and uncowed. “There are five of you too. Shouldn’t the Rule of Three make the Twists attack you all the time?”

  “Yeah,” Galric agreed, “and there’s way more than three of us in here now. Shouldn’t the whole room collapse or something?”

  Sara saw his eyes dart around nervously, as if by saying it, he might make it actually happen.

  “In theory, yes,” Raya said. “But we work for a supremely powerful mage. His magic counteracts the Rule of Three. It removes it from us, removes it from anyone with us as long as they’re in our presence, and removes it from anyplace we wish to claim. Like this, our lair. So tell me…”

  Sara tensed as the lion strode toward her and Flissa.

  “You’re clearly twins. You’re reasonably well-groomed and didn’t know the Rule of Three, which means you were only recently exiled…and yet you’re nearly grown. How did that happen? How did you get to be so old before the Keepers found you? Were you born into the Underground? Maybe friends in high places?”

  The lioness locked eyes with Sara, as if knowing she was the one who might break. Sara shivered inside, but she could feel Flissa’s intense gaze begging her to stay strong, and Sara understood. She could only imagine what Raya might do if she knew her prisoners were actually Kaloon’s undercover twin princesses.

  They needed a good story.

  Luckily, Sara loved good stories.

  She gulped down her fear. She even let out a confident laugh.

  “If we had friends in high places, we’d still be in Kaloon,” Sara said. “We just had regular friends. At least, we thought we did. Right up until they turned us in. Then the Keepers came. Grabbed us and our brother. We didn’t even have time to run and hide.”

  “I see,” Raya said. “And they grabbed your pets too? Not so wise on your part, getting a black kitten when you’re already twins. You were asking for trouble.”

  “I got the kitten,” Galric offered. “And yeah, probably not the best idea.”

  Raya strode closer to Primka. “And this is your songbird?”

  She took a deep sniff of Primka’s head.

  “Rude!” Primka snapped. “I don’t care who or what you are, I won’t have some cat sticking her nose in my feathers!”

  Raya’s chuckle was low and terrifying. “A magical bird,” she cooed. “You might prove useful, then. Perhaps I won’t eat you.”

  “Eat me?!” Primka hollered. She tried to fly at Raya’s face, but a close swipe from Ponytail’s dagger made her settle back down.

  The guard’s move was so swift and sudden, it jarred Sara as much as it did Primka. All four of Raya’s guards had remained remarkably still during the conversation, their weapons aimed at their captives as they waited for any movement or command. It was the kind of trained obedience Sara was used to seeing among her father’s guards, and for a moment, she wondered how Raya had won their loyalty.

  Raya flicked her ears at Primka, annoyed. “I said I won’t eat you,” she snapped. “What I will do is take you to Kravein. He rewards us nicely for newcomers like you.”

  “Who’s Kravein?” Flissa asked.

  Raya smiled and stretched, baring all four sets of claws. “An old friend. And our employer. And the strongest and most powerful mage in the Twists. It was his direct ancestor Maldevon who was framed for the Dark Magic Uprising.”

  Flissa frowned and shook her head. “Framed? No. That’s not true. Maldevon did start the Dark Magic Uprising. He gained King Lamar’s trust; then he and his followers turned against King Lamar and slaughtered most of the royal family, as well as innocent people in the palace. He would have done worse, but Grosselor and his band of friends—all strong, ethical mages—risked their lives for what was right. They rose up and fought off Maldevon and his people, then started the Keepers of the Light for Kaloon’s continued protection. It’s the only reason Kaloon still exists and wasn’t completely overrun by dark magic. Every Kaloonian knows that.”

  Sara had heard Flissa’s lecture before. It was the basic history of Kaloon that every student was supposed to be able to recite by memory, exactly like she just had. But even though Flissa was looking right at Raya as she spoke, it was as if she didn’t notice the effect her words were having. With each sentence, Raya’s shoulders tensed, until her entire body was poised to pounce. She lunged, stopping just short of Flissa.

  “Fool!” Raya snarled.

  Flissa paled. She shrank back as Raya leaned even closer, fangs bared.

  “You’re a parrot,” the lioness said, enunciating the word and making spittle fly in Flissa’s face. “Everyone in Kaloon says the exact same thing, but they’re all wrong. Grosselor’s lying. And the only reason he gets away with it is that everyone else who was there mysteriously died. All of Grosselor’s own mages and all those innocents of which you speak.”

  Astoundingly, Flissa met Raya’s eyes and looked at her stubbornly. “He’s the only one alive because his magic’s the strongest.”

  Sara wanted to grab her sister, but the glint of Nose Ring’s dagger stopped her. Instead she said softly, “Please stop talking, Flissa. Just let it go.”

  Both Flissa and Raya ignored her. “Grosselor says his magic is the strongest,” Raya said. “I say maybe so…but only because he makes sure no one stronger stays alive.”

  “No one except the Shadows,” murmured Ponytail, the girl watching Primka.

  Raya wheeled on her and snapped her tail. “The Shadows are a
lie!” she roared.

  It was a big reaction, and as much as Sara wanted Flissa to stop talking for her own good, she also kind of hoped her sister would ask what the Shadows were and why they got Raya so upset.

  But the lioness didn’t give her the chance. She whipped her head back to Flissa and growled into her face. “Grosselor is a liar. Didn’t you ever wonder how he showed up at just the right time the night of the Dark Magic Uprising? Soon enough to spare the king and one heir, late enough for the king to lose the rest of his family and be a broken man?”

  “It wasn’t coincidence,” Flissa said. “Grosselor woke in the night with a magical warning in his head. He rallied his family and followers who lived peacefully with him on a compound and…”

  Flissa’s voice trailed off, and Sara thought she knew why. Grosselor’s story was one they’d been told since birth. They’d recited it out loud for Primka in history lessons for years. The whole kingdom recounted the story on Turn to the Light Day, the anniversary of his heroism. Kaloonian kids came to the palace to reenact the event in plays. It was basic historical fact.

  But hearing Flissa say it now…

  Sara didn’t know if it was the story itself, or the look on the scornful lion’s face, but it all sounded suddenly hollow and fake.

  Raya eased back on her haunches.

  “There was no magical warning,” she said. “Grosselor wanted to take over Kaloon, but he couldn’t because the kingdom was filled with mages who would fight him off. When King Lamar became close with Maldevon and brought him to live in the castle, Grosselor saw his chance. Maldevon didn’t do anything that night. He didn’t have followers. He was asleep in bed. Grosselor was the one with the followers. They used magic to get into the castle, and the first thing they did was take out Maldevon.”

  “But—” Flissa objected.

  “You’re going to say Maldevon got captured and sent to the Twists. Don’t. It’s a lie. They took him out.” Raya bared her teeth. “Then Grosselor and the rest of his friends showed up at just the right time because they’d set the whole thing up. They ‘saved’ King Lamar and Prince Regland, and King Lamar was so grateful and such a wreck from losing his family, he didn’t think twice about signing over Kaloon to the Keepers of the Light.”

  “With the Magic Eradication Act,” Flissa murmured.

  Raya nodded her large feline head. “Yes. The act that lets Grosselor banish or destroy anyone who threatens him—anyone who even might threaten him, including regular Kaloonians who happen to be born with a possible sign of magic—so he can rule the kingdom with impunity.”

  Flissa looked pale. Sara knew her sister had always trusted the Keepers, but if what Raya said was true, then everything Flissa had ever believed had been a lie. Even their lives as Princess Flissara—if Raya was right, the charade wasn’t for Kaloon’s security at all; it was just bending to Grosselor and helping him keep control.

  Sara believed the lion. She wished she could ask Flissa if she felt the same way.

  Flissa swallowed hard. “Why are you telling us all this?” she asked Raya.

  “To give you some perspective.” Raya calmly licked her front paw. “When I take you to Kravein, he will test you in truly terrible ways to see if you have magical abilities. No matter how bad it gets, remember: It’s better than being in Kaloon.”

  Raya rose back onto all fours. “Now let’s go.”

  She waved a paw, and Sara looked down at herself, alarmed. She was covered in blue sparks. Before she could react, she was tugged to her feet, pulled by some kind of invisible magical rope attached to her chest. Her arms were welded to her sides.

  “My wings!” Primka wailed as blue sparks danced over her tiny body. “I can’t move my wings! You won’t get away with this, you…you…”

  Raya growled and more sparks bounced over Primka’s beak. When they disappeared, Primka could only moan in wordless frustration. Her beak had been magically sealed shut.

  The Ponytail guard—the youngest one—scooped up Primka and grabbed Nitpick’s cage with her other hand.

  “Did Kravein give you this power?” Flissa asked, and Sara was amazed that her sister was somehow more fascinated than frightened by what was happening. “From everything I’ve read, animals—even magical ones—can’t cast spells. You said Kravein was powerful. Did he—”

  “Enough!” snapped Raya. “Story time’s over. The next one of you who talks will be my evening snack.”

  The blue sparkles crackled over Sara again, and she felt her body grow even more rigid. Now her neck wouldn’t move, so she couldn’t look at anyone else. She could only stand, straight up, shoulders back, arms plastered down, all the while feeling like a giant suction cup was attached to her chest, pulling her and keeping her on her feet.

  Thankfully, her eyes could still move. She shifted them all the way to one side and could just make out Flissa and Galric. They both looked like dolls brought to life, hauled to their feet against their will, stiff and unnatural. Their guards still stood over them, their blades tauntingly close to Galric’s and Flissa’s throats.

  Sara ached to call out, but she wouldn’t dare. She’d only use her voice if she needed it. She didn’t want it magically taken away.

  “Move!” Raya cried, then bounded down one of the tunnels branching out of the room.

  More sparks. Then Sara’s body spun around jerkily and followed the lion, though Raya was already so far ahead she couldn’t see her. Sara’s legs spasmed down the damp, dark cave tunnel, as if maneuvered by a clumsy puppeteer. Now no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t see Flissa, couldn’t see Galric, couldn’t see Nitpick or Primka. She could only imagine they were part of the sounds behind her, an echoing cacophony of shuffling, dripping, stomping, breathing, and crunching.

  Even her heart was beyond her control. It thudded in her chest, so hard she couldn’t breathe without gasping, and tears pooled in her eyes.

  For the first time since they started their adventure, Sara was afraid they’d never make it home.

  It was the strangest feeling, Flissa thought as she moved down the tunnel. She was under magical control, that was certain. She stood uncomfortably upright, like a parody of good posture. She couldn’t move her arms or neck, and her legs were walking without her telling them where to go. Yet at the same time, she wasn’t totally helpless. It was as if the magic told her body where to go, but she was still helping it obey. She was fairly certain that if she refused to move, the magic wouldn’t be enough to keep her going and she’d collapse on the floor.

  Doubtless that’s why Raya kept her squad of armed guards and why Black Boot walked directly behind her and to one side. If Flissa tried to fight the magic, he’d be right there to take over.

  The smart thing to do, Flissa decided, was to use this time when her body was not entirely her own to come up with some kind of plan. Yes, things looked dire, but now they’d spent enough time with Raya and her gang that she could evaluate their weaknesses and come up with some ways to get free. Then, when she and Sara could talk again, Sara would help her figure out which idea was best, and they could get back to finding the marketplace and Dorinda, who would lead them to Gilward.

  She wanted to do that, but her head was too full of everything Raya had said about Maldevon, and Grosselor, and the Keepers. Was it even possible that the lion was right? Was Grosselor behind the Dark Magic Uprising? Was he behind this second uprising and what happened to her mother?

  No. Impossible. Yes, it’s true that only Grosselor was still around from that time, but plenty of Keepers were almost that old. Like Rouen, and Quendrick, and Bartlos, and Tzaz. Flissa had heard their stories. They were just little children when the Dark Magic Uprising happened, but they were alive. If the Keepers were based on a lie, they would know about it…wouldn’t they?

  Of course they would. And it was insanity to think the most important law in Kaloon, the Magic Eradication Act—the entire reason why she and Sara had become one person, and those like Primka and Katya
had to live in secret—was based on anything except the best interests of Kaloon and all who lived there.

  And who was Flissa going to believe? Her tutor and a lifetime of history lessons, or a big magical cat whose best friend was a dark mage in the Twists? An impossible cat with the powers of a mage, something Flissa had never heard of before…

  She changed her mind about using this time to think. Better not to think. Better to focus on Sara and make sure she was okay.

  Sara and her guard, Nose Ring, walked a few feet ahead of Flissa. She wasn’t limping anymore; Katya’s cream had done its job. But the ground was unsteady, and even though her motions weren’t entirely her own—or especially because of that—Flissa could see that Sara had a hard time keeping her balance. She kept tripping and catching herself, and struggled to stay on her feet. Each time it happened, Nose Ring grabbed Sara’s arm roughly and shoved her ahead, which only knocked her further off-kilter.

  Then Sara tripped over a root, thumped onto her knees, and cried out in pain. Flissa gasped, but Nose Ring had no sympathy. She grabbed one of Sara’s braided buns and yanked her to her feet. Sara whimpered.

  “I said enough of that!” Nose Ring growled. She yanked Sara’s head back further and held her dagger to Sara’s throat. “You keep fighting like that and you won’t make it out of here alive. You hear me?”

  Sara whimpered again, and Nose Ring moved the blade even closer to her throat.

  Flissa couldn’t take it. No one could hurt Sara like that. No one. Flissa burned with fury, and in her mind she sent all the flames toward Nose Ring. She imagined herself moving her arms, grabbing her scimisword, and slicing the guard off at the knees as easily as she’d sliced the carnivorous plant.

  Then Nose Ring yelped in terror. “Hey—no, stop it! Stop it!”

  “I’m not doing anything!” Sara insisted.

  But someone was, because Nose Ring was still brandishing her dagger, but it was pointed at her own forehead. Nose Ring’s own hands were thrusting it toward her. She fought against herself to keep it away and sank to her knees to avoid it, but the blade kept coming closer. “Stop it!” Nose Ring shrieked. “Stop your magic!”