by Holly Hook
My brothers huddled together, advancing on the first wolf. One of the swans still dripped blood.
All five of the remaining wolves crouched low, ready to strike. The first one snapped at the swans, driving them back towards his companions. Mica tried to open his mouth as he swung down again, but Annie was still using her magic to silence him. He only managed a muffled shout that my brothers didn’t notice. The fake Macon stood, facing Mica, ready to work another curse on him.
The old man shuffled to me.
And lowered his torch towards the timber.
I sucked in a breath.
“Stop!”
I shouted so loud that the old man jumped back, dropping his torch on the dirt. It rolled and went out.
The fake Macon faced me, eyes widening.
“Watch out!” I shouted to my brothers. “Behind you!”
They turned.
And took off into flight just as the wolves jumped.
White feathers flew and the wolves landed on dirt, growling and tearing at each other in confusion. Mica swung his sword down on one and a yelp of agony followed as the wolf thrashed, blood squirting everywhere. He withdrew the sword and swung down on a second wolf, slicing it right between the shoulder blades. It howled in pain and went down to join its friend, writhing and going into death throes. I had never seen so much blood, not even on Mary's blankets. Someone made a gagging sound.
The old man stared at me, astonished that I had finally said something. The rest of the men and even most of the women had come back out of the cabins to watch. I stood there, surrounded by timber. The torch on the ground continued to smoke, dead.
I had doomed my brothers.
I had broken the magic of the woven shirts and done all that work for nothing.
They must not realize it yet. All six of them descended on the confused wolves, bashing them with their wings while Mica backed away. The remaining four wolves yelped and cried out, One of the wolves turned tail and ran, bolting for the forest, and the other four followed as two of the swans flew after them, hissing and trying to punch with their wings.
Father had been right that swans weren’t something to mess with. Under all that elegance was mean.
And now my brothers would be this way forever.
Mean under elegance.
The fake Macon glared at me. The cold swept up my body and threatened to silence me, but I had to beat him to it. What was done was done. “This isn’t the real Macon!” I shouted. “It’s Alric’s sister in disguise! She’s been among us the whole time!”
Annie’s power washed over me and my lips locked together. I tried to shout something else, but the fake Macon glared at me in a silent, desperate plea for me to remain silent.
People gasped and backed away from me and the false Macon. They stared like they weren’t sure what to think. Mica stood there as all six of the swans landed again and advanced on Macon. There was a way to prove this wasn’t the real huntman. I could see the plan in Mica’s eyes. He faced the swans and raised one arm. “Attack him!”
Annie had shifted her focus to me. He was free to speak.
Mica rushed behind all six of my brothers as they all advanced on the false Macon. A king charging behind six swans would have been funny under other circumstances.
Annie couldn’t use obvious magic or her cover was blown.
I could only stand there and watch as my brothers bashed their wings into the fake Macon. He grunted in pain and seized a swan’s neck, but the strength of its wings forced him to let go. Mica couldn't get through the swans to use his sword. The swans beat at their tormentor, hissing and stabbing with their beaks and the fake Macon put his arms up to try to protect himself. It did no good. Blood ran down his arms. He cursed and begged for help, begged for the villagers to light me on fire and kill the swans.
And then the fake Macon's form wavered. A single red flower fell from his pocket and landed on the ground.
The form of Annie appeared in its place. Macon snapped back and then Annie returned, screaming and swatting the birds.
People screamed and backed away. Annie landed on the tinder and I pulled against the stake, trying anything to get away from her. My brothers weren't letting up. They pummeled her and pecked and covered her like a group of feeding wolves. Annie's screams got louder.
And then the swans all flew back in a rush of cold air that blasted against my skin.
"It's her," the old man said, holding up his pitchfork. "She's the one who murdered our Mary!"
Annie was bloody. She groaned with pain and managed to stand, pulling herself out of the tinder. The old man advanced and stopped, pointing his pitchfork at her.
Mica wasted no time as Annie came to her senses, seething with pain. He rushed around the back of me with the cracking of sticks and untied my wrists. His warm breath chased away Annie's cold magic. "Get down," he said. "You're free."
My brothers recovered on the other side of the camp, stretching their wings and regrouping. Annie would be ready for another attack. This time she would kill them. I wrung out my wrists, free of the binds. Annie glared at everyone. The villagers stared back. Mica's mother hung behind everyone, still in her orange dress and shifting with nerves. She backed towards the dining hall.
Annie started to stay something, but there was nothing to say. The truth was out. She wouldn't be making three dozen people forget about what they'd seen. Mica and I jumped over the sticks and I stumbled as one caught my skirt. My brothers had regrouped and were ready to take flight, to do another attack. Welts and bruises rose on Annie's bare arms. Her dress was torn. Swans were vicious. I'd always remember that if we ever saw home again.
"She's not the killer of Mary," Mica said, his voice loud and full of authority. "My mother is."
"Mica!" she shouted. "How could you say such a thing?"
"It's in the story," he yelled while Annie watched. "You didn't like the girl I loved, so you decide to frame her for murder and have her burned. You're working with Annie, aren't you? You've always wanted the kingdom. I bet Annie promised to help you get it as soon as Ignacia was out of the way."
The old Queen backed into the dining hall, hitting the wall as all eyes turned to face her. The guilt was there on her face, complete with paling skin and wide eyes. Mica's mother trembled, but Mica hadn't finished.
"I bet you killed Father, too, hoping you would be able to take the throne for yourself. And I bet you planned to kill me if you couldn't bring me under your control."
"I..." she managed. She looked to Annie as if for help, but Annie quickly looked away.
"You're working together," I said. "I know it. That makes sense."
"Listen, girl," his mother said. "Do you know what it's like to grow up without having dinner on most nights? Without having a clean dress to wear? I seduced my husband to escape. To survive. And what did he do? He refused to send for the rest of my family and they starved during the first winter of my absence! Can you blame me for poisoning the man? Annie provided me with a very powerful potion to slip into his food. It wasn't difficult. He had grown so trusting of me that no one ever suspected the truth." She didn't move from the wall. "The truth's out. I suppose it's my turn to die now. Me, and Annie."
My brothers took off into flight.
They dive-bombed Annie, sharp black beaks gleaming in the sun.
Annie raised her hands and faced them. Cold magic filled the air and chilled me to the bone.
I jumped and wrapped my hands around her throat, knocking her over from behind. The two of us went down to the ground. Annie hit me in the arm. I punched her in the stomach. My lips loosened and I screamed obscenities. Annie was the reason my brothers were doomed, not me. I wasn't going to blame myself anymore.
She needed to die.
White feathers fluttered around me and a wing struck my arm. Pain erupted. Swans were strong. Annie screamed again and I let go, rolling away as swan feet and wings pushed past me. I grabbed my arm, wondering if it was broken. Mica stepped i
n. He helped me up and the world turned around me. Swans swarmed around Annie and she screamed again. She was dying a slow, brutal death.
Cold swept through the air again and a pop noise cut over everything.
A black raven flew out between two of my brothers and beat its wings, soaring for the forest.
At the same time, my brothers stopped attacking. They separated and stared at each other, dumbfounded, if it was possible for swans to be dumbfounded.
Annie had changed her shape once again.
I watched the raven go. It vanished into the thick trees and at last, one of the swans took off and flew after it.
The red flower had vanished, too. She had seized it and used it to change.
"No!" I shouted, but he hadn't heard me.
"Let her go," Mica said, pulling me close to him. "We need to deal with my mother."
The pain in his voice matched his hatred.
That was what he had read.
It was no wonder Annie had kept him quiet.
We turned.
The crowd was already gathering around the vile woman in the orange dress. Even my brothers turned to watch. The one who had taken flight returned and landed.
Mica's mother was defiant, standing against the dining hall as the crowd advanced on her. The old man waved his pitchfork. He had someone to hate now, someone who wasn't me. The old Queen had nowhere to run.
"We should go," I said, tugging on Mica's arm. "You don't want to watch this. You don't have to watch this. This is her fault, not yours."
Mica stared, expressionless. "She never loved me. I was never close to my mother."
"I can see why."
The crowd shouted, drawing so close to the old Queen that they blocked her from view. The stake waited with its ring of tinder.
I pulled Mica towards the car. He didn't need to see this. I didn't want to see this. His mother was taking my place in the flames of death and Mica would never sleep again if he watched, if he heard her begging for him to spare her. It wasn't that he could. The villagers chanted for her death now, for the death of Mary's killer.
"For Mary!" they shouted, over and over.
We ran towards the car.
And my brothers stood there, looking up at me with those black, soulful eyes.
They were still swans.
My knees trembled and I lost it, going down to my knees and letting go of Mica. "I'm sorry," I said, lifting my hand to touch the top of the first swan's head. I couldn't even tell them apart anymore. "I'm so sorry."
The car door opened.
Brie stepped out. She held something white and green in one hand. Stilt got out of the back and smiled at me. I didn't understand. They must have seen what happened.
I couldn't tell what the object was that she held for a second. But then it dawned on me. A shirt. A shimmering, white shirt with the faint shapes of stars inside. The cloth was a beautiful green intertwined with the stars. It was almost as if--
The shirt.
It looked just as amazing as the ones Annie had created from feathers.
"It turns out I still have the touch," Brie said. "I used to be able to spin gold out of anything. It looks like I still have a bit of my talent yet. Not all of it got transferred to King Henrik when he fell into the underworld."
I stared in amazement at the shirt.
I hadn't been alone after all. Brie must have finished weaving before I'd shouted.
"Brie!" I shouted, rushing over to give her a hug.
She dropped the shirt and let out a breath.
“It was no problem,” she said, struggling to breathe. “Put them on your brothers. Now. Then we need to go.”
“How?” Mica asked. The crowd chanted louder behind him. They were getting fired up, which I suppose was a bad choice of words.
One of the swans poked me in the leg with his beak.
I turned, and the swan stood there, expanding his wings and making a flying motion.
“We wait,” I said, so relieved I could speak again. “They can fly above the car. I take the yarn with us and we stop once we’re far away. We still have it, don't we?”
Stilt held it up. “Annie forgot about it. We had better leave while she’s forgotten about us.”
I agreed. I grabbed Mica’s hand and we piled into the backseat together. Brie started the car and I could see the crowd beyond the glass. They all moved together, an angry swarm, and they were headed right for the stake. The ropes still lay hanging off the pole, waiting for a prisoner.
“Go,” Mica said.
I pulled him to me as Stilt got in and blocked the view. In front of the car, six swans took flight.
I barely even noticed the beautiful shirts strewn across the backseat or the fact that I was sitting on one, or that Brie was tossing the one she had dropped onto my lap. All that mattered was Mica and protecting him from the pain that he would never forget. I pulled him to my chest and let him rest there, not caring that he was precariously close to certain areas. Mica didn’t resist. The king was a boy right now and he needed me more than ever.
I could handle myself. Now I could truly take care of others now that I was able to take care of myself. It was all I had needed to do.
Brie sped away and Mica muttered something into my chest, something that wasn’t meant for anyone but him.
“We’re leaving,” I said, looking out the window to make sure the raven hadn’t returned. Instead, six elegant white forms swept overhead, keeping pace with us as Brie sped past the Boy Scouts sign and back into the wilds.
I held Mica for a long time. At last, he sat up and managed a smile at me. It was if the pressure on his shoulders had lifted. Well, some of it.
“Ignacia,” he said. “Will you come back to the Sun Kingdom with me? We’ll have to get ready for Annie.”
The Sun Kingdom. It was a fitting name. A very fitting name for a place that Mica ruled.
“Yes,” I said after a long, stupid pause.
Brie braked and pulled into a small gravel drive. The forest opened up and a large lake spread in front of us, sparkling in the morning light. She stopped by a fence and a plaque with words on it, something about a historic settlement, and turned off the car. “Out,” she said. “Your brothers need a place to land.”
Mica and I scrambled outside of the car. Six large shadows zoomed over us and the swans landed on the water with more grace than the ones at home had. I wondered if my brothers would miss flight.
I had missed them. Every annoying last bit of them, in fact.
We stood there and watched them swim to shore, then plod onto land. Brie handed me the first shirt. “You did most of the work,” she said. “It’s your honor.”
"Irving," I said, realizing it was the biggest shirt.
The first of the swans walked forward and stood still, watching me.
I did the best I could. I slid the shirt down over the bird’s neck and spread it over his body.
And feathers exploded.
“Ignacia!” Irving practically knocked me over with his hug. “You’re alive. I thought you were going to be burned to death. That would suck even more than having feathers in places. I’m glad you yelled.”
He understood.
Irving didn’t hate me for saving my own life.
“I’ll be a better brother and help you take care of the midgets more,” he said, releasing me.
Irving got a hard peck from another one of the swans.
“Um, brothers,” he said. “Manly, manly brothers.”
The swan nodded and I laughed.
Irving and I went to work putting the rest of the shirts on, and one by one, my brothers returned in a storm of feathers. What little remained of Annie’s curse fluttered to the ground and hitched a ride on the wind. White feathers landed on the water and drifted across a lake where real swans might roost for all I knew.
“If I ever forget, remind me that swans are the one living creature I will not mess with,” Mica said once all six of my brothers stood ther
e, fully in their human forms and wearing the flower shirts.
“We’ve lived with them all our lives,” Immanuel said. “You do not mess in the affairs of swans.”
We all laughed. The lake was beautiful and the breeze was cool but felt good. I wanted to sit here with Mica and Brie and my brothers and enjoy the scenery, but one thing pressed at my mind.
“Annie,” I said. “She’s still out there.”
“And injured,” Irving said.
Stilt held up the purple ball of yarn. “We should get to a portal. One that she doesn’t know about, anyway.” He held up the yarn ball. “Show us a portal that Annie will never think to use.”
The ball rose and unraveled, casting a line right down the drive and onto the road. Thankfully, it headed away from the village.
Hopefully far away.
“What about Rae and Henry?” Mica asked. “I can’t leave my cousin here. We might need Rae. She’s the only one I know who can cure darkness. Even the villagers can’t stay here. They won’t survive the winter.”
Stilt motioned for us to return to the car. “We’ll come back for them. They’ll be okay for a little bit. I think we should first get ourselves to the Star Kingdom. The Queen there is sympathetic to our situation.”
Stilt and Brie were still refugees. They didn’t have anywhere to go, unlike Mica and I. My brothers and I still had to get home if at all possible and at least let Father know we were alive.
I slipped my hand into Mica’s. “Come on,” I said. “I want to see if the Sun Kingdom is as bright as they say.”
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--Holly Hook
