Pennyroyal Academy

by M. A. Larson

  “The winners of this year’s Grand Ball competition, and the very first members of next year’s second class . . . Princess Cadet Magdalena and Knight Cadet Stanischild! Congratulations!”

  For a moment, true joy broke through the melancholy. Cadets applauded and hooted as Maggie and Stanischild stepped forward from the crowd. Tears of disbelief streamed from Maggie’s eyes. Evie smiled and applauded, knowing how happy her friend must have felt at that moment. The musicians started up once again, and everyone formed a circle to watch as Maggie got her fairy tale moment. On this night, at least, she really was a princess.

  Evie glanced across the ballroom and found Remington. In his eyes she saw a stark reminder that this magical evening couldn’t last forever, and that there were dark things waiting in the night that would still need to be faced.

  The next few weeks sped past in a blur of inkwells, parchments, endurance tests, and intensive evaluations as the term wound to a close. More and more girls heard the dreaded news that they had been discharged. Evie felt profound sympathy for them. To have made it this far only to be sent away without even getting to attempt the final challenge . . . It must have been gutting. The Fairy Drillsergeant had made vague hints that the Helpless Maiden would take place beyond the wall, but other than that chilling piece of information, the cadets knew nothing more about what to expect.

  At meals, Evie found the knotted bench even more uncomfortable than usual. Remington was always watching, but rather than provide solace, it only made her feel the danger of the unknown that much more acutely. Malora, on the other hand, seemed to have recovered nicely from whatever had ailed her. She laughed with Kelbra and scowled with Sage, her eyes periodically falling on Evie with empty coldness.

  Finally, when written exams had been completed and final designs submitted for Rumpledshirtsleeves’s evaluation, Princess Hazelbranch gathered the cadets together. Night had fallen early, it seemed, and the torches had already been lit. The remaining cadets of Ironbone Company were but a fraction of the number that had once filled the barracks. And after tomorrow, they would be even fewer.

  “You must all try to get some sleep,” she said. “I spent the night before my Helpless Maiden awake in the dark, running through every eventuality. By the time my fairy drillsergeant called us together, I was bone-weary and my mind was slush. It’s a miracle I even finished.”

  Demetra glanced over at Evie. She looked as nervous as Evie felt.

  “We’ve said farewell to many friends over the course of this year. The bunks next to you now go empty each night. But there’s a reason yours does not. You have been tested and monitored this year, probably more closely than you might realize. And there is a reason each of you is still here.” Her lips tightened as she looked over her cadets. “I’ve stood where you now stand. I know the unbearable torment of not knowing what to expect. But I also know, because I’ve done it, what it takes to survive. Courage. Compassion. Kindness. Discipline. So when you’re lying in your bunks tonight, remember to let tomorrow happen tomorrow.”

  Evie climbed beneath her quilt and coverlet, worried that she wouldn’t be able to heed Princess Hazelbranch’s advice. Instead, she fell almost immediately into a deep sleep. And her dreams were filled with clouds and smoke.

  “THE HOUR IS UPON US, LADIES!”

  Evie leapt from her bunk at the sound of the Fairy Drillsergeant’s voice. She was wobbly, her mind not yet awake. An intense rumble thundered outside on Hansel’s Green. What in the world is that?

  Inside, girls scrambled into their uniforms, ran for the latrine, or snapped the blankets back over their bunks. The cold reality of the morning quickly set in, and it filled Evie with dread.

  “TWO MINUTES! TWO MINUTES TO THE FIELD!”

  Evie slipped her uniform over her head. This could quite easily be the last time I wear it. She tied the trimmed white belt loosely around her waist and straightened her sleeves, but it somehow felt unfinished. Running her hands down the deep blue linen, she couldn’t think of anything she had forgotten. Malora, Kelbra, and Sage had already finished their preparations and were heading for the door. She had to move quickly. Inside her footlocker, she found the dragon scale necklace, and, pressed into that, the portrait of her stepfather. She put her lips to the canvas. You’ll come with me, she thought, slipping it around her neck. In the corner of her footlocker, she noticed the Pennyroyal Academy compact she had gotten from Rumpledshirtsleeves on the first day of term. She picked up the cool silver clamshell and slid it inside her dress. It’s better than an empty pocket.

  “Ready, Demetra?” she said.

  “Nearly.”

  Maggie stepped toward Evie. She looked like she wanted to say something, but didn’t know how.

  “All right, Maggie?”

  She ran her hand absently across Evie’s bunk. “I just . . . I have to say that what a princess does, it’s important to me.” She looked up and met her friend’s eyes. “And it means a lot that it’s important to you, too.”

  “Of course,” said Evie, trying to understand what Maggie was really saying. “Are you all right?”

  Her eyes went to the floor and her cheeks flushed red. “I just don’t want you to leave me because you’re a princess of the blood now.”

  “Are you mad?”

  “I’ve got no one back home. Sevigny is so far removed from the rest of the world that nobody cares about anything but Sevigny. They all laugh at me because I read princess stories. They laughed when I came here as well. My dad, my own dad, asked why I would want to leave paradise to go fight someone else’s poxy war.”

  “ONE MINUTE, CADETS!”

  “Maggie . . .”

  “I’m completely alone there, Evie. I can’t be alone here, as well.”

  Evie took her hands. “As long as my blood flows, royal or not, you’ll never be alone. I promise.” She embraced Maggie, who smiled sheepishly. “See you at supper, all right? Save us some pudding.”

  “No,” said Maggie. “No . . . I’m going with you.”

  “Why would you do that?”

  “Because I came to the Academy to be a princess, not to sit round here all day like I’m better than everyone else.” The resolve in her eyes told Evie there would be no talking her out of it.

  “Are you sure?”

  Maggie gave her a grim nod.

  “All right, then. Let’s go.” Maggie quickly got herself together and they hustled for the exit with Demetra, the final three cadets to leave the barracks.

  Outside, the sky was a symphony of swooping curves of black. The clouds seemed closer to the earth, fast-moving billows that looked like open mouths trying to howl a warning.

  The girls followed another cadet around the final barracks and discovered the source of the incredible noise. There, in the middle of Hansel’s Green, sat two enormous dragonflies, each as big as the Dining Hall. Their massive, transparent wings battered the air so fast it sounded like a thousand horses running at once. Each had a woven basket hanging from its middle.

  Evie, Maggie, and Demetra joined the ranks of blue. All across the field, the rest of the third-class cadets stood in neat rows by company color. Evie felt a twinge of pride when she saw them all in formation. So many she had never met and likely never would, yet these were her sisters. Sisters of the Shield, just as the Fairy Drillsergeant had said when they left Marburg for the Academy all those months ago.

  Now, as the Fairy Drillsergeant floated before them once more, her shimmering dust was blown nearly horizontal by the twin winds of the dragonflies’ wings and the violent sky. She had to shout to be heard above the roar.

  “One of the most common features of fairy tales is a girl lost in the woods. Today, you’re that girl.”

  Evie flinched. The previous two times she had been lost in the woods, she was nearly killed by witches.

  “These are giantsclub dragonflies. They will
take us where we need to go.”

  Other companies began to fall out, running doubled over against the force of the wind as they boarded the baskets. The Fairy Drillsergeant floated down the line, casting a hard glare over her girls. “All the great princesses have had to survive crossing through enchanted forests. Every single one. This is your chance to join them.”

  Evie’s stomach churned like the clouds above. She glanced at Demetra and saw her wipe sweat from her forehead. It was bitter cold, windy as a year of Marches, but the elements were powerless against fear.

  “To complete the Helpless Maiden, you must do only one thing: make it back to the Academy by nightfall! Use your training, use your intuition, use your mother’s third husband . . . I don’t care, as long as you’re here for supper. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, Fairy Drillsergeant!” Evie could barely hear her own voice above the rumble.

  “The only thing you may not do is work together. This is an individual challenge, and you must complete it as such. Now, we have staff positioned all throughout the forest for your protection, but make no mistake: these are live woods! There are witches and wolves and perhaps even the odd giant roaming about. You’ve got to trust your training!”

  A blast of wind pounded the Green, scattering the Fairy Drillsergeant’s dust into the black sky. She continued her slow patrol, looking each cadet in the eye.

  “Today we find out who you really are. What you’re really made of.” Her voice had nearly gone, but somehow she rasped on. “You girls make me very proud to do what I do . . .”

  She trailed off and turned her back to them. Evie and Maggie exchanged a confused look. When she finally faced them again, she wiped a tear from her eye.

  “What are you made of, ladies?”

  “Courage. Compassion. Kindness. Discipline,” they shouted as one.

  “Then get out there and BE PRINCESSES!”

  The girls broke ranks and sprinted for the dragonfly baskets. As Evie glanced up at a translucent wing, she thought that the majestic creatures really did look like giants’ clubs, with their long, ridged tails and bulbous black bodies. She piled into one of the baskets, already laden with princesses, and realized she had lost track of her friends. The girl next to her, a doe-eyed cadet in red, gave her a meaningful nod. She had never seen the girl before, but knew what it meant and gave her one in return. Someone tugged at her other arm; Basil, crouching next to her, held his ears against the thunder. She motioned for him to grab the edge of the basket next to her. As they waited to lift off, she scanned the faces onboard. One stared back. With an eyebrow slightly raised, Malora smiled. Her velvety confidence had returned.

  Shrieks of panic from the other basket pierced the steady drum of wings as the giantsclub lifted off the Green. Evie watched, squinting from the dirt and grass flying through the air. The bottom of the basket sagged dangerously under the weight of its passengers. She clenched her jaw, certain it was about to break open and spill everyone to the ground. Higher and higher it rose until she could no longer see it behind the slick, black body of her own dragonfly.

  Suddenly, the ground fell away beneath her as they began to lift off. She clutched the edge, her heart lodged in her throat. Cadets screamed and tumbled to the middle of the basket. The soaring spires of the Academy, the magnificent towers and imposing walls, all fell away as they lifted higher and higher into the sky. Wisps of frozen clouds began to lick at the giantsclub as it swooped over the plain, then across the wall and into the sea of trees. From above, the endless hills and valleys of the forest looked insurmountable. Evie turned away from the biting wind just in time to see the faint outline of the Queen’s Tower disappear behind a wall of cold green pines.

  No one spoke during the journey across the forest. Evie kept one eye on the clouds above and one on the relentless waves of green below. She snuck the occasional glance at the others in her basket. Some were familiar, either Ironbone girls or cadets she had noticed in the Dining Hall or around campus. Others she had never seen before. But in each of them, she recognized the depth of intensity behind the eyes. The grim pursing of the lips. The fear of the task ahead.

  Finally, after an eternity in the air, the giantsclubs began to descend, skimming the canopy of pine spikes. They dipped into a clearing of dead stumps and marshland. The baskets smashed to the ground with a violent thud.

  The girls filed off one after the other, running in a crouch from the deafening blast of the wings. Evie followed Basil, who had spotted Maggie and Demetra. They both looked terrified.

  “PRINCESSES OF THE SHIELD!” called the Fairy Drillsergeant. Her voice had nearly gone, but everyone still heard her. “MOVE OUT!”

  The two great insects began to rise, ferrying the commanding officers back to the Academy. As they disappeared across the treetops, an overwhelming silence settled in. The cadets were well and truly alone, lost in the woods, and had only until nightfall to find their way back. They began to disperse into the trees. Evie and her friends looked at one another, lingering as long as they could before they had to go their separate ways.

  “You’re all princesses,” Evie said, “each of you. And I know we can do this.” She grimaced and glanced at Basil. He raised a hand to cut her off.

  “It’s fine. I’m a princess.”

  She smiled. “Just remember, bravely ventured is half won. I’ll see you back at the Academy.”

  Maggie nodded, set her jaw, and ran for the trees. Then Basil went, and then Demetra. Evie stood alone in the clearing as the final flashes of color disappeared into the endless murky green. She closed her emerald eyes and stilled her breathing, letting the icy breeze wash over her. And when she opened them again, she knew exactly which way to go.

  She tromped through the marsh sludge until she reached solid ground, and by then the muscles in her thighs were already burning. With one deep breath, she stepped beneath the dark canopy of the Dortchen Wild.

  The air felt colder under the trees, thinner and more claustrophobic. The winds were reduced to the shivering whisper of leaves and needles overhead. Everything else seemed unnaturally silent. She read the horizon, searched the shadows of every cracked red trunk for . . . anything. An hour passed this way, with unbearable tension each time a gust rattled the canopy. The terrain was unyielding, rising and falling over cliffs and streams and ancient rock slides. Trees groaned lethargically in the wind, but none attacked. Another hour passed, and the silences became nearly as frightening. She tried to remain vigilant, to take each step with as much caution as the last, but the endless pillars of wood gradually became hypnotic. She paused at a deadfall and realized she had been going for some time without thinking.

  I am never safe until I’m back behind that wall, she tried to remind herself. And if I’m still in this forest by nightfall—

  Something snapped in the distance. A broken branch. She wheeled, boring her eyes into the mist hanging just off the forest floor. There was nothing there, yet she stood still as a statue for half a minute. Then half a minute more. Nothing moved, not even a falling leaf. Still, she had the chilling sensation that there was something there.

  Tap tap tap . . . Darts of rain began to pierce the canopy. She hadn’t realized how distinctly her sapphire dress announced itself until she was in the drab gray of a forest shower.

  Another snap. Then a run of them, like twenty big boughs breaking at once. Something moved in the corner of her eye, a fleeting glimpse, black and airy. She ran, vaulting a bulbous tree root, and sprinted through the forest. Even now, with something undoubtedly out there, Evie noticed that her flight was urgent, but not panicked.

  I am not the same person I once was.

  A cackle tore through the forest, sharp and cold, a laugh to chill the blood. It bounced off the hillside and the trees and the rocks until she couldn’t tell where it had come from. She tore through a patch of bramble and raced up a hill of tightly packed larch
es. The higher she went, the slower it got. Push, Evie, push! As she finally struggled over the top, she noticed a faint patch of blue in one of the trees. She jumped behind a pine and peered out into the murk.

  It was Maggie.

  Maggie held up two fingers and pointed into the trees, there and there. Basil and Demetra each had vantage points of other parts of the hill. Basil pointed to his eyes, then a specific stand of larches. She’s in there, thought Evie with a shudder.

  She took a few quick breaths and broke for a mossy stump that would provide better cover. The ferns slashed at her, but she managed to leap the stump and duck down behind it. Within moments, Demetra and Basil joined her.

  “She’s about two hundred yards that way,” whispered Basil.

  “I saw her, too,” said Demetra. “What do we do?”

  “Right, let me think,” said Evie. A ferocious crackling sound zippered through the trees.

  “LOOK OUT!” Demetra threw Evie to the ground as a stream of spiraling liquid splattered against the stump. Some of it splashed onto Demetra, who yelped and fell back. Her entire body began to shudder.

  “Demetra!” shouted Basil.

  Maggie raced over, and her eyes went wide. “Come on, let’s get out of here!” She grabbed Demetra’s arms and Basil took her legs. They hauled her through the trees to a massive black stone jutting high into the sky. Evie trailed behind, keeping watch. They laid her down at the base of the stone. Her eyes were open, staring off at some unseen horror.

  “Oh, Demetra . . .” said Evie.

  “Where’s the bloody staff?” shouted Basil. “This isn’t supposed to happen!”

  Maggie tore open the seam near the point of contact. Bright blue spots marred Demetra’s skin, fading to gray around the edges.

  “It’s an iceflesh spell,” said Maggie. Evie and Basil looked at her in confusion. “I read ahead for next year.”