“Stairs,” said the front guard, and he climbed them. He slammed his fist hard against the upstairs door as the other guards followed behind.
The door opened and Ella’s stepsister, Clover, stood in it, looking as though she wanted to appear annoyed. Serge could see, however, that she was afraid. The guards could likely see it too.
“Hand over the prince,” said the front guard.
“I haven’t got him, sir,” said Clover.
“Where’s Elegant Coach?” barked the guard. “According to her stepmother, she should be at this address.” He held up a note. “Where’s Clover Sourwood-Gourd?”
“That’s me, sir.”
“So you wrote this letter. Where’s your stepsister?”
Serge felt Ella’s terror. Felt her hand grasping for him, closing first on the edge of his wing and then on his sleeve. Dust seeped from his palms in reply.
“I think she went out for a walk,” said Clover.
The guard shoved his way past her into the apartment.
Serge grabbed Ella’s searching fingers. He snapped his own, and they were upstairs in a badly furnished but rather artistic-looking apartment full of tarnished candelabras and humans in their twenties. By the looks of it, they had recently been eating; now all of them stood rigidly around the dinner table. Serge steered Ella invisibly among them as the guards filled up the place.
“Tell us where she is,” said the guard with the deep voice, kicking over a chair as though he’d find Dash under it. “We know the prince is with her.”
Serge pushed Ella into a tiny privy chamber at the back of the apartment. When they were inside it, he made her visible once more.
“Get out there,” he whispered. “Now!” He gave her a push.
Ella stumbled from the privy chamber into the sitting room. Clover and Linden jumped at the sight of her, while the rest of their band just stared.
“Uh … hey,” she said.
Serge watched from the privy, still invisible, holding his breath. The front guard approached Ella, his bushy eyebrows furrowed.
“Thought you were out for a walk,” he said.
“No,” said Ella. “Just in the privy.”
The Current glanced at one another as the guard peered over her head into the darkness at the back of the apartment. “Where’s the prince?” he demanded. “Is he back there too?” He pushed past her.
Before the guard could reach the privy, Serge snapped his fingers and vanished.
AN invisible hand grabbed his and pulled him out into the street, and then he was flying five — ten — twenty feet above the ground, dangling by his wrist from the grip of a fairy he couldn’t see. But he had glimpsed him in the room below, and his eyes and wings had glowed terrifyingly crimson. Afraid to fight lest he be dropped, Dash let the Crimson fairy deposit him on the roof of the building without a struggle, though he groaned when his weight came down on his ankle once more.
“Jasper, where are you?” It was the same voice that had spoken to Ella downstairs, close by, though he couldn’t see anyone.
“Right here,” said Jasper, who still had Dash by the wrist. “With the prince.”
“Your Royal Highness.” Dash heard footsteps crunch closer. “My name is Serge. I’m the fairy who found you in the Redwoods after Envearia turned you to stone, and I was there in the palace when you woke. Do you remember me?”
He did now. “Yes.”
“Good. I’m one of Ella’s godfathers. Jasper is the other. We’re going to take you home.”
“You can’t leave Ella.”
“She’s downstairs with the band. It’s in everyone’s best interest that she bear out her siblings’ story that she’s been here all night — and that she has no idea where you are.”
Dash’s wrist was released. He heard more footsteps, followed by Jasper’s whisper from several feet away: “The Coaches are here.”
Dash limped to the edge of the rooftop and looked down. There were Ella’s father and stepmother, bolting from their carriage and into the room where he and Ella had just been. From the open apartment window below, Dash could hear Ella’s voice, then Spaulder’s.
“I don’t know where he is.”
“Don’t lie. We’ve been watching you, Miss Coach. We know what you’re about.”
“She is here!” came a woman’s voice, rich and full of indignation. Ella’s stepmother. “Exactly as my daughter’s note said she would be. Ella, these men think you’re with His Royal Highness — but I don’t see him.”
“Right,” said Ella. “ ’Cause he’s not here.”
“Then that’s all there is to it,” said Lady Gourd-Coach. “Gentlemen, are you satisfied?”
“We’ll need a thorough search,” came Spaulder’s voice. “His Majesty’s orders. You two, comb the back garden. Bevor, let’s check the roof.”
“Lady Gourd-Coach can handle it now,” Serge whispered, pulling Dash away from the roof’s edge. “Jasper will carry you. Let’s go.”
WITH the prince’s direction, they came to the top of the tower nearest his rooms. Jasper passed Dash’s hand into Serge’s, and Serge snapped his fingers, bringing the prince into the palace, right to the center of his firelit bedchamber. He made the boy visible with a flick of his dusty fingertips, and Dash looked down and patted his torso, clearly glad to see it there again. He sank down on his bed, wincing, and bent over to prod at his ankle.
The prince’s valet entered the room, gasped, and pelted away in the other direction. In minutes, King Clement strode through the door. He grabbed Dash by the collar and wrested him to his feet, making him shout in pain as his weight came down on his injured ankle.
Serge retreated to the window, still invisible.
“I know where you were,” the king shouted, shaking his son with every word. “I don’t care that no proof has been found of it. If you so much as glance at the Coach witch again, you’ll be in contempt of your king — not your father — your king. I’ll throw you in prison — no, I’ll throw her in prison. And I’ll make sure she suffers.”
He flung the boy away from him; Dash stumbled back and fell onto the bed once more.
“If Lariat finds out that you went missing tonight — and she might, given how many places my men had to search and how many people know you were out playing around — we’re finished. Not that you have any idea what that means! I was a fool to think you understood the stakes.” The king paced about the room. “You’ve never had the pressure of managing that wretched Assembly — you’ve never known responsibility. By the time I was your age, my parents were dead and I was on the throne. If I had my fun, I deserved it — I earned it. I was a man, in charge of a country. What are you? A boy obsessed with a dingy little wharf rat!”
“Call her one more name …” said Prince Dash quietly.
“And what? You’ll strike me?” The king advanced on him. “Since you can’t be trusted to manage yourself, it’s time to make things official. You and Lavaliere will be betrothed.”
The prince jerked. His face turned white. “What?”
“You’ll be promised to her,” said his father. “The scribes will be made aware, and the business will be known across Tyme.”
“I —” Dash shook his head. “I won’t propose.”
“You won’t have to. I’ve already made arrangements with Lariat.”
The prince pushed himself to his feet, wincing. “Father,” he pleaded. “Don’t.”
“You made your choice,” said the king. “Now pay the price.”
“Please.”
“Your time with the Coach girl is finished,” said the king. “Done. Until after the wedding, at least — once things are settled, pursue whomever you like.”
Prince Dash’s face went from white to red. “You think I’d ever be like you?”
“You already are. Look at you, with Lavaliere on one arm and a peasant on the other —”
Dash lurched toward him. The two of them stood nearly nose to nose.
“Th
ere’s no way out, son,” said Clement. “Resign yourself.”
“There’s a way out.” Dash’s fists were clenched. “I could tell you where my mother is. Then you’d call off this betrothal — wouldn’t you?”
The king’s expression sagged. For a moment, the room was so utterly silent that Serge froze, afraid to so much as flick his invisible wings.
“Yes,” Clement said faintly.
“You would.” His son eyed him. “Even if Lariat calls the vote against you?”
“Just tell me. Please.”
“No.” The prince smiled. “I won’t give up my mother and the monarchy just so you can have what you want. One day, I’m going to be the king this country needs, unlike you —”
Clement struck him across the face, and Dash staggered back, holding his cheek. The king strode out of the chamber and slammed the door behind him.
Dash sank onto his bed. He put his face in his hands.
“Your Highness,” Serge ventured. Dash gasped and looked up. Serge made himself visible, and the prince’s eyes lighted on him.
“You — you heard all that?” he said. “You were here?”
“I was here.”
“So you can just,” said Dash, licking his lips, “come into the palace? Invisible?”
“We’re not in the business of assassinating monarchs,” said Serge. “You needn’t fear.”
Dash peered at him. “You’re Ella’s godfather. You were my mother’s too.”
“Yes.”
“Then help me — please help me. Get me out of this.”
The boy’s handsome face was so full of desperate hope that it gave Serge pain to answer him. “There’s little I can do,” he said. “The arrangements have been made. Lady Jacquard’s party this weekend is a betrothal dinner for you and Lavaliere.”
The prince gave a hoarse, unhappy laugh. “I’ll be married in two weeks, won’t I?”
“No. Not for a long while, I imagine.”
“Then you don’t know Lady Jacquard,” the prince replied. “Or my father.” He gave Serge a pleading look. “There’s really nothing you can do? No magic that can —”
“Change Lady Jacquard’s mind?”
Dash nodded.
“Even if I could use such magic, I wouldn’t,” said Serge. “Your choices are before you, dreadful as they are. You must do what you believe is right.”
He heard his own words as he said them, and he knew they were not only for the prince.
Dash stared down at the floor in defeat. “I didn’t even get to say good-bye to her,” he mumbled. “Will you tell her — tell Ella —” He halted. A blush came to his cheeks.
“Write to her,” said Serge gently. “I promise not to read it.”
“You’d deliver a letter for me?” Dash asked, looking up at him.
“I only wish I could do more,” said Serge, and he waited by the window while the prince took up his pen.
WHEN the guards finished ransacking the apartment on Sharp Street, they finally had to admit that His Royal Highness was not present. They slammed their way out, leaving disarray behind. Clover and Linden coolly answered all their mother’s questions, sticking close to the truth and never hesitating, and eventually Sharlyn gave up and told Ella to get in the carriage.
“Those guards really expected to find the prince with you,” said Ella’s dad as the horses drew them toward Cardinal Park. “They said the two of you have a habit of sneaking around together, and they’ve found you all alone in classrooms, hiding from the others. They even said you were alone in a garden at the royal ball. What’s happening, Ell?”
She was silent.
“From now on,” said her dad, “when you’re up at school, you’ll have to avoid him.”
“Earnest, really, this is the prince. She can’t just drop him —”
“I’m suspended from school,” said Ella dully. At least the trouble she was about to get into would stop them from talking about Dash.
“Suspended!” cried Sharlyn. “What happened?”
“Nothing. Lavaliere lied and said I attacked her during sports.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing,” said Ella again. “But I’m kicked out for a month.”
“A month? Oh no they don’t. We are not paying that kind of tuition so that they can deprive you of an education. No matter what you did —”
“Which was nothing. Dad, you believe me, hey?”
Her dad glanced at her and pushed back his dark curls. “You’ve been so secretive lately.”
“I’ve been secretive? Who knocked down our cott?”
“Stop it,” said Sharlyn. She sat with her hands clasped in her lap, one thumb meditatively stroking the other. “You’re lying,” she said.
“I never touched Lavaliere Jacquard —”
“I believe you on that,” said Sharlyn. “But you’re lying. So were Clover and Linden. The situation is simply too extreme. The Jacquards abandoning Practical Elegance — royal guards showing up at our home — and a suspension too? Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
Ella did not reply.
“Ella.” Sharlyn’s voice was almost gentle. “You’re in deep water now. If you have a relationship with the prince, then you’re in a very serious, very political situation, and you’ll need help to navigate it. You have to tell the truth.”
For the rest of the ride home, Sharlyn pressed her, but Ella didn’t speak a word. An hour later, she was in bed and had already put out her lamp when she heard the fairies’ chime. She sat up and lit the wick again, and Serge and Jasper appeared in her room, looking tired and grieved. Jasper perched on her bed and took her hand.
Serge knelt at her bedside. Ella heard his words as though they were coming to her from a great distance. Betrothal. Lavaliere. He handed her a letter Dash had written. She held it tight, pressing the wax seal with her thumb.
Betrothed.
“But he can’t be,” she heard herself murmur.
Jasper’s face was a mess, his tears becoming minuscule frogs that leapt from his face only to vanish in bursts of smoke. “Oh, Ella,” he choked.
“This is intolerable,” said Serge angrily. He got to his feet. “That boy has potential, but he’s being traded off like a gambling chip —”
Ella put a hand to her stomach, feeling suddenly like she might retch. The thought of Dash trapped with Lavaliere, unhappy and alone, cut straight through her numbness. She had to watch him live that life, and that was bad enough. But he had to do it.
“It will change him,” said Serge, shoving back his disheveled hair. “He’ll be forced into a role, and he’ll play it, and eventually he won’t have to play anymore. He’ll be it.”
“Serge.” Jasper gave him a hard look, and Serge paced furiously away to the window.
“Don’t open the curtain.” Ella got to her feet. “Guards are watching the house. We saw them when we drove up.”
Serge pivoted, his little wings sticking tautly out from his back like two slivers of ice-blue glass.
“We so much want to help,” said Jasper. “What can we do?”
“Help Dash,” Ella said at once. “He’ll be so unhappy if he has to marry her — can’t you — can’t you somehow —”
Serge looked sick. He shook his head.
Ella looked down at Dash’s letter. “Then I’d like to read this in private,” she said.
Jasper nodded, sniffling. “Of course.”
“We’ll see you very soon,” said Serge gently, and with a faint snap! the fairies were gone.
She opened the seal.
Ella ~
It’s true what Serge told you. I’m betrothed. I could get out of it, but it would mean giving up the country. We both know that can’t happen.
I want, as you said, to know you better all the time. There’s nothing I want more. But I can’t see you again, no matter what I want. I would try, but my father made it clear that if I’m caught, he will take it out on you. He mentioned prison, and I’
m sure he means it. I won’t put you in that kind of danger.
Since this must be the end for us, I want you to know what you’ve meant to me. You have changed me, Ella Coach. You have altered the way I see my position, my country. Our country. The person I was a few weeks ago did not deserve to call you a friend; today, I hope that I do. Just as I hope that, when I am king, my actions will make you proud.
I will miss you. I will never forget you. Farewell.
Dash
She sank down on the bed and read it again, and then once more, until she felt convinced that it was true. He was getting married. They could never see each other. It was over.
But one day he would be king. A good and benevolent king. And according to him, she’d had a hand in that.
Ella scrubbed the tears from her eyes. She kissed the letter and put it away in her desk, then sat down and took up her pen. Dash was brave enough, and strong enough, to do what he was doing. She would be strong enough to finish their project on her own. She’d see it through — and she’d get her dad and Sharlyn to listen. Just because she wasn’t royal didn’t mean she couldn’t act: Practical Elegance employed hundreds of people, and she was in a position to better their lives.
She reached into her schoolbag, pulled out the speech that she and Dash had drafted, and began to make revisions.
HE brought them to the park across the street. They materialized, invisible, not three feet away from a royal guard. Silently, keeping hold of Jasper’s arm, Serge fluttered deeper into the trees until the guard was far behind them, and when they came to the fairywood at the center of Cardinal Park, he plunged into it.
Immediately, the world around them changed. It was no longer night. The park vanished, replaced by a misty whiteness full of slender, silvery trees. Here he made himself and Jasper visible.
“You’ll have to help Ella without me,” he said. “Just for a few days.”
Disenchanted: The Trials of Cinderella Page 25
