Twinchantment

by Elise Allen

  The cart was moving slowly. Strangely slowly. Almost as if it was hoping someone would catch up with it.

  Flissa leaned forward to hiss in Klarney’s ear. “Hurry! Get us to the front of that wagon!”

  Klarney didn’t question her. He pushed himself faster and didn’t slow until he was side by side with the carriage driver—a woman who held her reins in two hands, each with an extra finger beyond her pinkie. When the driver turned to shoot them a mind-your-own-business glare, Flissa first noticed her left eye—a glass orb with a silhouette of a bird where her pupil should be. Then Flissa realized the woman’s close-knit cap of jet-black hair had sleek black bird feathers woven into the strands.

  “Raven hair,” Flissa said, amazed.

  “Dorinda,” Sara said excitedly. “You’re Dorinda, aren’t you?”

  All pretense melted away. Dorinda smiled and exhaled with relief. “Yes!”

  She looked around at the few scattered people on the street and the square. “No one who will care, but that could change any second. Where are the rest of you? I was told there’d be more.”

  As if on cue, Gus barreled up behind them. Galric and Gilward were both on his back, Gilward in front so Galric could hold on to him for the ride.

  “You made it!” Sara cried.

  Galric nodded. “Where’s—”

  He didn’t even finish before they all heard a meow, and looked up to see Primka swoop down. She released Nitpick into Galric’s hands, and he cuddled the kitten close.

  “That flight felt absolutely wonderful!” Primka exclaimed as she landed on Flissa’s shoulder and fluffed her feathers. “After all that time unable to move my wings—”

  “Can’t talk,” Dorinda said. “Must hurry. I need you in the back.”

  Everyone dismounted and quickly said their goodbyes to the horses. Flissa was a little teary when she realized this might be the last time she saw Klarney. She scratched just above the softest part of his nose, where Balustrade loved it best.

  “Ride well and ride free,” she said.

  “You too,” he said. “It was a pleasure and a privilege. Onward, Gus!”

  Flissa watched them as they cantered out of sight; then Dorinda grabbed her by the arm. “Focus,” she said. “Not much time.” She took them all to the back of her wagon, which was full of wooden boxes. “My glassware,” Dorinda explained. “I have a special arrangement with the Keepers of the Light. People like my glassware, so I get to bring it to Kaloon and hand it off to a seller for money. Nothing like what it’s worth—the Keepers make a fortune when it’s sold—but it’s something, and it means I get a corridor through the Brambled Gates. But it’s only open at certain times, so we need to move fast.”

  Dorinda opened two of the boxes to reveal that they were empty. “One for you two and the bird,” she told Flissa and Sara; then she turned to Galric and Gilward. “And one for you two and the cat. It’s a tight squeeze, but it’ll have to do.”

  “I look forward to it,” Gilward said, looking at Galric. “Give us some time to catch up.”

  Then a lion roared. “You!”

  Flissa bit back a scream. It was among the last voices she wanted to hear. She wheeled around.

  Raya stood right in front of them, Eye Patch and Black Boot on one side of her, Nose Ring and Loriah on the other. Flissa desperately scanned Loriah’s face for any sign of their earlier understanding but saw none. Like the others, Loriah only scowled and brandished her weapon.

  “You belong with me,” Raya growled. She waved a paw, and Flissa braced herself for blue sparks and the full body stiffening she knew was about to come.

  Instead, Raya and all four of her gang members collapsed to the ground.

  “What happened?” Dorinda asked, alarmed. “Are they dead?”

  But Primka was already fluttering over their bodies. “Asleep. It must have been a sleeping spell.”

  “Did one of you do that?” Gilward asked.

  Everyone shook their heads, but Flissa was suddenly overpowered by the smell of lavender, and in her mind she ran over and hugged Loriah. She’d come through for them again. Flissa could only hope that Raya hadn’t smelled the lavender before she passed out, and that Loriah using the spell on herself as well would convince Raya it came from someone else.

  “Doesn’t matter who did it,” Dorinda snapped. “Corridor closing. In.”

  Galric, Gilward, and Nitpick folded themselves into one of the boxes while Flissa and Sara curled into the other with Primka. They lay like puzzle pieces, each folding into a comma and fitting perfectly into one another, with tiny Primka nestled in a spot by Sara’s feet. The lid came down; then Sara heard Dorinda rearranging boxes of glassware on top of them.

  They were packed tight. They couldn’t get out even if they wanted to.

  Flissa tried to stay calm, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t bear being stuck, with no room to move. Her breath came in sharp, quick gasps.

  “Flissa,” Sara said soothingly. “Look out the slats. Don’t think about the box, okay? Focus on outside.”

  Flissa had been too panicky to even notice the slats, but Sara was right. Their box had long, thin panels of light between each board. If Flissa kept her eyes focused out there, it was easier to try to forget how cramped she was inside. She kept hyperventilating a moment longer, but then her breath slowed. “Thanks, Sara.”

  “Anytime.”

  Flissa saw thick foliage through the slats. “I think we’re back in the Brambled Gates.”

  “But this time we’re not being attacked,” Sara said. “I like it better.”

  “Me too.”

  “Remember?” Primka said. “You weren’t going to tell me about what happened to you in the Gates. I’ll have nightmares. Even if you did make it through okay.”

  Flissa smiled and Sara laughed.

  “We made it through the hard part,” Sara said. “Now we just go home and cure Mom.”

  “Yes,” Flissa said. “And then what?”

  “Figure out who really cursed her, I guess,” Sara said. “And find out if someone’s actually planning a second Dark Magic Uprising on our Ascension Day.”

  “Yes,” Flissa said, “but we can’t do it alone. We’ll need to tell Mother and Father everything we know. And find out everything they know too. Especially about the Keepers of the Light.”

  “And if it turns out they’re really bad?” Sara asked.

  Flissa took a deep breath and let it out. “Then we get a lot of good people on our side and try to change things. Good non-magic people and good mages.”

  “And maybe one day we close the Twists for good?”

  “Maybe…and maybe we bring the best of it over to Kaloon.”

  “Where we take our place in the royal line side by side,” Sara declared. “Princess Flissa and Princess Sara. Twins and proud of it.”

  Flissa heard a loud sniffle and an even louder sob.

  “I’m so proud of you both!” Primka wailed.

  Flissa and Sara both laughed out loud.

  Suddenly the carriage jolted to a stop. Sara gasped. “Are we here?”

  Flissa looked through the slats, but it didn’t seem like they were anywhere near the palace. Everything looked desolate and dry, like the flatlands. Then she saw a flash of canary yellow.

  They heard Dorinda climb out of the carriage. “Praised be the Keepers of the Light,” she said. “Is there a problem?”

  Flissa’s breath caught, and she felt Sara urgently tap her leg. Dorinda had used the formal greeting for a reason. It was a warning.

  Flissa heard a woman’s voice, pleasant and polite. “Just a checkpoint. Three people escaped into the Twists yesterday. Most likely they’re already dead, but we’re inspecting every vehicle that comes through the checkpoint, just in case.”

  Sara tapped Flissa’s leg harder, which really wasn’t helping. Flissa wondered if Gilward and Galric heard what was happening too, and if they were panicking or keeping calm. Flissa herself was closer to the panic side o
f things. Judging from the fevered tapping, so was Sara. Primka remained quiet, but Flissa was quite sure that if she could do it silently, she’d be pulling out her feathers.

  They heard only silence, but Flissa smelled peanuts—the magical signature of the Keeper who had chased them on their way into the Twists. Flissa held her breath. What was happening?

  “Please be careful with those boxes you’re levitating,” Dorinda implored the Keepers. “And please watch where you set them down. My merchandise is all very fragile.”

  Flissa mentally thanked Dorinda for once again letting them know what was going on. The Keepers were using their magic to unload her carriage, one box at a time, and no doubt to open each box as well.

  “Of course,” said the female Keeper briskly.

  Dorinda’s warning was nice, but it didn’t help Flissa figure out what to do at all. It was only a matter of time before the Keepers worked their way down to the bottom two boxes, and then there was no way out. They’d be discovered.

  Flissa’s head throbbed. It wasn’t fair. They’d come too far for it to end here. They’d braved the Twists, they’d escaped Raya and Kravein, and found Gilward and brought him back…there was no way it could all end now.

  The peanut smell became overpowering, and it grew lighter inside her box as the lid started to levitate away.

  Flissa did the only thing she knew how to do. Sara’s knees were right by Flissa’s arms. She grabbed her sister, squeezed her eyes shut, and hugged her as tightly as she could. Sara did the same.

  Then the lid drifted away, but everything sounded echoey and distant. Like Flissa was underwater and voices had to carry from far away. She kept clinging to Sara, but she opened her eyes and looked up.

  The two Keepers stared down into the box, stared right at them, but showed no sign of recognition. None at all. And though Flissa recognized them from their altercation by the Gates, they appeared different now. There was a pink tinge to their faces that hadn’t been there before. Pink tinged their yellow tunics too. It was strange. But what was stranger was that the Keepers frowned at one another.

  “This one’s empty,” the man said. “Let’s keep looking.”

  How was that possible?

  Flissa didn’t let go of Sara. She didn’t release her breath. She lay there, waiting, staring up the pink tinge that now colored the very sky, as she listened to the Keepers levitate the rest of the box lids, all the ones that had been stacked on the bottom, including Gilward and Galric’s. But the Keepers said nothing. In fact, when they finished, they put all the box lids back on, restacked them carefully, and thanked Dorinda for her cooperation before sending her on her way.

  Still, Flissa didn’t move. She stayed stone still, squeezing Sara tight, until Dorinda’s carriage was back on the move and she had made it through a slow count to one hundred. Only then did she release Sara, and the strange pink tinge disappeared from view.

  “Did you do that?” they asked each other at the same time. Then they answered together. “I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

  “Someone did something,” Primka noted. “Because the Keepers were looking right at us and said they saw an empty box.”

  “Same with Gilward’s box,” Flissa said. “It must have been, or we wouldn’t be here now. Do you think he did a spell?”

  “He must have,” Sara said.

  Flissa agreed, and she didn’t say more after that. She was too busy hoping with all her might that they didn’t get stopped at another Keeper checkpoint. She wasn’t sure if Gilward would have the strength to protect them a second time.

  After a while, the carriage slowed to a stop again. What Flissa saw through the slats still didn’t look anything like the palace grounds, but she supposed they couldn’t stop anywhere too close to the castle, or someone would notice.

  Flissa heard scrapes and grunts as Dorinda moved around boxes. She heard her open Galric, Nitpick, and Gilward’s first, then sunlight—regular yellow sunlight—shone into their box as Galric and Dorinda lifted the lid to their box.

  “Nice work with the hiding-us-all spell,” Galric said as he extended a hand to help out Sara, then Flissa. “You saved us.”

  “What do you mean?” Flissa asked as she hopped off the back of the carriage. “Wasn’t that Gilward?”

  The carriage had stopped in a barren, dusty expanse, dotted with tangled knots of brush, one of which gave them some cover as they unloaded. It wasn’t the most attractive part of Kaloon, but Gilward smiled like he was in paradise.

  “A pink force field big enough to make us all invisible?” he asked. “I wouldn’t know where to begin.” Then he spread his arms wide and threw back his head to feel the sun on his face. “Kaloon is so, so beautiful.” When he looked back at Flissa and Sara, tears brimmed his eyes. “Thank you, Flissa. Thank you, Sara. You are most royal highnesses indeed, and I will be honored to save your mother.”

  “I filled him in on everything on the ride here,” Galric said as he helped Dorinda reload her boxes. “Hope you don’t mind.”

  “I’m glad you did,” Sara said. “And I promise you,” she continued to Gilward, “we’ll make sure your name is cleared throughout Kaloon.”

  “That’s beautiful,” Dorinda said, “but you’ll have time for beautiful later. Katya’s house isn’t far from here. She said Primka and Nitpick will know the way.”

  “I do,” Primka said, and Nitpick meowed in agreement.

  “Good,” Dorinda said. “From there you can get to the palace. If anything goes wrong, I’ll swear I’ve never seen you before in my life, but…” She quickly hugged both Flissa and Sara. “Good luck, Your Highnesses.”

  She quickly got back in her carriage and drove away, leaving Flissa, Sara, Galric, Gilward, Primka, and Nitpick in the tangled brush.

  “Katya’s house?” Flissa echoed. “But that’s nowhere near the palace.”

  Sara grinned. “It is, though,” she said. “Katya’s chair! Primka, Nitpick, lead the way!”

  Flissa thought it made more sense for them to split up so they weren’t as obvious, running in a giant group across the barren landscape. She wasn’t wrong, and Sara started out running with her and following Primka, but when she looked over her shoulder and saw how slowly Galric was moving with Gilward leaning heavily on him, she had second thoughts. Galric was working so hard to help and encourage his father, it hurt her heart to leave him on his own.

  “Keep going,” she told Flissa. “I’ll catch up with you there.”

  “Sara!”

  “It’s fine—I’ll be fine. We’ll all get there faster this way.”

  Flissa hesitated, then turned and kept running, following Primka’s path in the sky, while Sara doubled back to Galric, Gilward, and Nitpick, who led the way.

  “Here,” she said, ducking under Gilward’s other arm. “You can lean on me too.”

  “Thank you, Princess,” Gilward said. “You’re very kind. She’s very kind, Galric.”

  Galric blushed. “I know she’s very kind, Dad.”

  Sara stifled a giggle. “Thank you, Gilward. Galric’s very kind too. And you don’t have to call me Princess. Sara’s fine.”

  “Sara, then. I’ll always be grateful to you, Sara, for bringing my son to me.”

  “You brought your son to you, actually,” Sara said. “With the amulet.”

  “Yeah,” Galric said. Then he frowned. “I don’t really understand, though. If you didn’t plan to get thrown in the Twists…if you thought your curse would make you some kind of hero…why’d you make the amulet? I mean, why did you think I’d need to come find you?”

  “I’d planned to give it to you when you were grown,” Gilward said between panting breaths. “So wherever you went in life, wherever you might go to follow your dreams, you’d know you could always find me.”

  “That’s beautiful,” Sara said.

  “I made it the week I found him on my bed,” Gilward told her. “I worked so hard to try to find his mother…I never wanted him to have to
work that hard to find me.” Gilward hugged his arm tighter around Galric’s shoulder, and Galric smiled, blinking away tears, and hugged him back.

  “I was wearing it the day…you know,” Gilward said. “But the Keepers took it from me. How did you get it back?”

  “A Keeper gave it to me,” Sara said. “Rouen. He was there in the Twists.”

  “Rouen? Ugh.” Gilward scrunched up his face distastefully, and Sara laughed. She kept forgetting that he knew almost all the same people she did.

  “I know.” Sara laughed. “It was weird. He helped us. Flissa and I still don’t really get it.”

  Galric shrugged. “He helped you ’cause he’s married to Katya.”

  Gilward and Sara both wheeled on him. “What?!”

  Galric paled. “Oops. You, um, probably weren’t supposed to know that. Shoot…”

  “Married?!” Sara repeated. “But Keepers aren’t allowed to get married. They can’t have families.”

  “Well, yeah,” Galric agreed. “That’s why you’re not supposed to know. It’s a secret. It only happened like a year ago.”

  “A year ago?!” Sara cried.

  Galric looked over both shoulders. “Wanna keep it down a little? We’re kind of on the run, remember?”

  “No, no, that makes no sense,” Sara said. “If he’s married to Katya, why didn’t he just come out and talk to us from the start? Why didn’t he give us the amulet right away?”

  Galric recoiled like he was being attacked by projectiles. “I dunno, you’d have to ask Katya. Maybe there’s things he didn’t know at first. I know they don’t see each other all the time—that’s part of the whole ‘secret’ thing—and if she was dealing with your mom, and he was dealing with some big Keeper uprising…maybe he didn’t know. And maybe he didn’t give you the amulet right away ’cause he didn’t have it. Grosselor had it for twelve years, right? It might not have been easy to find.”

  Sara supposed he was right, but still…

  “Katya and Rouen?!” Gilward blurted in disbelief.

  “I know, right?!” Sara wailed. Then she turned to Galric. “Have you ever seen them kiss?”

  Galric scrunched up his face like he’d just eaten an onion. “Ew. Stop. Just stop. We’re here.”