Blue put away his dagger. A fine mist hovered above the ground and the trees were outlined in gold. The undergrowth rustled as a tiny vole-fox poked out its head, then pulled it back in. Everything was quiet until Blue’s stomach emitted a loud growl.
Meylyne pushed her bag toward him. “We have seeds or figs. Not much of a breakfast but help yourself.”
Blue popped a fig in his mouth.
“Here’s what I’m thinking,” he said, his cheek bulging. “How about if I come with you almost to the Valley of Half-Light. I’ll wait for you while you find whatever it is you’re looking for and then we’ll all go home—to your home, that is, where your mom can fix me. Whaddya think?”
Meylyne scratched her arm. A rock had dug into it all night and now it itched.
“I suppose it’s not a terrible idea. What do you think Hope?”
Hope was quiet for a minute.
“You remember nothing about what happen to you? Not who attack you or why?”
Blue shook his head. “Not a thing.”
“Must be significant, if Aquamins tell Hyldas to rescue you,” Hope said. “Agree with Meylyne—you come with us, but we need watch out. They probably try attack you again!”
Blue’s eyes widened.
“I hadn’t thought of that. If I come with you, I could put you guys in danger.”
“No—you mighty warrior. You protect us from danger.”
Meylyne arched an eyebrow. She was more inclined to agree with Blue. Things were bad enough without throwing this into the mix.
Blue jammed his hands into his pockets. “I can’t believe this. I’m finally human again . . . but because of that, I’m a target!” His eyes darted between Meylyne and Hope. “And so are you!”
A chill ran through Meylyne.
“Well, look on the bright side. There is no way your assassin would ever expect you to go back to the Valley of Half-Light.”
Blue chuckled mirthlessly.
“No arguing that. Why are you going there?”
“That’s kind of a long story.” With a groan, Meylyne stood up. Between all the riding and climbing, every single one of her muscles felt like it had been teased apart and pounded with a hammer. “I’ll tell you later. Right now, as much as I hate to, we should get going. You ready?”
Blue jumped to his feet but Hope stayed where he was. Meylyne looked at him impatiently.
“Come on then!”
“Not yet. You need practice alchemy.”
“What, now? We’re sort of in a hurry here!”
“Yes, and almost at Valley! Need learn incantation to protect us from sphers!”
Meylyne opened her mouth to protest, and then shut it again. It was clear he wasn’t budging. The fact that he was right didn’t help matters. She yanked her spell book out of her bag, muttering,
“This is just great. I’m in pain. I’m being hunted. And now I have to do the one thing I hate most. Fine! I’ll practice for half an hour. And then we’re off!”
8
An Unwanted Guest
SUNLIGHT STREAMED THROUGH THE BRANCHES OF THE mimosa trees, none of which penetrated Meylyne’s dark mood. Spell practice had not gone well.
As usual, she fumed inwardly.
It had been a few hours since they had set off and the bridge slowly tilted toward the ground. The trees thinned out, revealing an expanse of sand that seemed to stretch for miles on either side. It swirled in mysterious patterns around the green, spiky plants that sprung up, here and there. Every now and then, gusts of wind whipped up the sand. Meylyne shut her eyes but could not do anything about the grains getting into her clothes. Soon everything felt scratchy against her skin.
By the time they stopped for lunch, the sun was a searing blast that made the air wobble and pools shimmer on the ground ahead of them. Meylyne’s skin stung with every step, rubbed raw from her sandpaper-like clothes. She and Blue set about gathering up some of the spiky plants to make a tent with her quilt. Sweat pooled on her brow as she crawled underneath it. Even with the shade, the heat was maddening. She chugged down some luke-warm water, and then rummaged around in her bag for some food.
“This is all we have for lunch,” she grumbled, pulling out a stale loaf of bread and some figs.
Squeezing himself between Hope and Meylyne, Blue broke off a piece of bread and scraped some mold off it.
“If you don’t mind my saying so, you don’t exactly seem prepared for this journey of yours,” he said.
Meylyne wriggled back, the sensation of someone touching her skin unbearable.
“It’s not as if I had time to prepare. I didn’t get myself into this mess on purpose you know!”
“What mess?”
Meylyne bit savagely into a fig. “I’ll tell you later.”
Blue took a glug of water. “Lemme guess—this is a punishment for some spell you really messed up. Kinda like setting those bushes on fire this morning.”
Meylyne turned her back on him.
“Oh come on!” Blue chortled. “Can’t you take a joke?”
“No! And I’m not in the mood to rehash why I’m here. It’s embarrassing!”
“Er, maybe you hadn’t noticed but I’m a foot tall. Don’t talk to me about embarrassing!”
The edges of Meylyne’s dark mood lifted a little and she giggled, despite her aggravation. She turned back to face Blue.
“Please tell me why you’re here,” he begged.
Meylyne hesitated a moment longer before relenting. “Fine. I’ll tell you the short version and do not interrupt me!”
Blue pretended to zip his mouth shut, and then listened attentively as Meylyne explained everything from her mother losing her opal, to her falling on the prince, to Queen Emery ordering her mother to cure him.
“. . . it was either do as the Well said, or end up in the Shadow Cellars and possibly the Beneath-World,” she finished. “So here I am. Make sense?”
“Yeah, not really.” Blue stared at her. “I mean, was it worth it? Breaking a . . . watchamacallit—Golden Rule and all that—for some stone?”
“First Rule. And no, it wasn’t worth it. It was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”
Meylyne’s throat tightened. All she had wanted was to make her mother happy, but she had messed it up—just like all those incantations she could never get right.
“Actually, this trip is the stupidest thing you’ve ever done. I’m telling you Meylyne—that queen of yours has gotta be nuts. You won’t find a cure for the prince in the Valley of Half-Light. There is nothing good in the Valley of Half-Light.”
“It wasn’t Queen Emery—the Wise Well said I would find it there. And the Wise Well is never wrong,” Meylyne insisted.
Blue looked skeptical but he let the topic drop.
“So, these First Rules that Glendoch has—what are the others?”
Ticking off her fingers, Meylyne answered, “No defiling nature, no eating Talking Animals, no unauthorized use of magic, and no trespassing between the worlds.”
Blue thought for a minute. Then he grinned.
“So apart from not eating talking animals, breaking the other rules is pretty much all you’re doing right now!”
Meylyne sunk her head in her hands.
“You no worry Meylyne,” Hope said firmly. “Your intentions good. It all okay.”
A family of beetles scuttled past their tent. Meylyne walked her fingers after them.
“I’m not so sure Queen Emery would agree with you,” she muttered.
“Queen Emery afraid. We stallyinxes no trust her. Fear fuel bad decisions,” Hope said.
“I don’t trust her either,” Meylyne replied vehemently. “She’s always had it out for my mother and me. And it’s not just because of Meph. All the royals hate alchemists.”
Hope swished a fly off his rump with his tail.
“Not hate. Fear. Once royals were alchemists, remember?” He wriggled out of the makeshift tent. “Come on. Lunch over. Need get going again.”
“What are those?” Blue asked.
“Allergy pills,” she replied.
Blue stared at her as she continued gathering up her stuff. Then he shrugged and climbed up onto Hope’s back. Meylyne climbed up behind him.
“People must think you’re pretty cool back home,” Blue shouted to her as Hope broke into a run. “You know, with your magic powers and Hearing skills and all that.”
Meylyne laughed at him, and was rewarded with a mouthful of sand. She ducked her head under her sleeve.
“Please—no one thinks I’m cool. They just think I’m weird. If they notice me at all,” she replied.
Blue was quiet for a minute. “Well, I don’t think you’re weird. I’d love to talk to nature and do magic and stuff!”
Meylyne wasn’t sure what to make of this. It had never occurred to her that anyone would actually want what she had. For the next hour, they rode in silence. The bridge floated up toward two enormous sand dunes towering on either side. As they plodded through them, they were enveloped in a shimmery haze and a fine layer of dune-dust caused them to sparkle like gold. Then the bridge dipped down toward a forest of mandarin moss-birches and the air cooled to everyone’s immense relief. A purple thicket rose up in between their trunks. Before long, thorns and brambles reached across the bridge, leaving only a few feet through which the three could pass.
As Hope slowed to a walk, Meylyne felt the hairs on her neck and arms prickle, and not just because the temperature had dropped. Her head swiveled from side to side.
Are we being watched?
She jumped as a twig cracked to the right. Blue took out his dagger, his knuckles white around its grip.
“Hate to say this, but I think we have company,” he said quietly.
The silence pressed upon them as though it was alive. Then the air exploded with a deafening roar that Meylyne felt more than heard as a mass of fur, fangs and horns burst out of the shadows. She shrieked—
“It’s a tusked lion!”
The beast paced before them, growling. His drool pooled on the ground. As big as Hope, his mane was full of brambles and his fur was streaked with gray. Two razor-sharp tusks jutted out of his head, streaked with what looked like dried blood.
“What you want, Talking Lion?” Hope demanded. “You can’t attack us. We from Glendoch Proper—have treaty with you!”
The lion fixed his gaze on Meylyne. For a second she was aware of an awful emptiness in his eyes. Everything that happened next was a blur. The lion leapt out, hitting her like a boulder. Next she was on her back, pinned to the ground. There was a suffocating weight. Fangs at her throat. And then—
“Hey lion!”
Blue’s voice sounded like he was miles away. There was a sudden movement. A flash of steel. The lion roared.
“Nggggg,” Meylyne grunted as the colossal weight rolled off her.
“I wouldn’t try that again,” she heard Blue snarl.
There was a low growl, a crackling of twigs, and then silence.
Meylyne propped herself up on her elbows and peered around. There was no sign of the lion. Something nudged her shoulder and she looked up to find Hope staring at her.
“You okay?” he asked.
Hooking her arm around his neck, she pulled herself up and nodded, not quite able to speak.
Blue stood a few feet away, peering into the thicket. He held a sword in his hands.
“Lion’s gone.” He turned around, his mouth set in a grim line. “He won’t get far with that wound though.”
He trailed off, his brow furrowed.
“What is it, Blue?” Meylyne wheezed.
“I just remembered something that happened when my rival attacked me—a woman’s voice. Something to do with ‘wounding an enemy’ . . .” His eyes widened. “A woman’s voice. My rival was a she!”
“You remember what she look like?” Hope asked.
Blue shook his head and then peered back into the bushes. “No. And I can’t believe I let that lion get away.”
“Are you kidding?” Meylyne managed a smile. “You fought off a tusked lion Blue! You really are a warrior. Where did you get that sword from? And how on Glendoch could you even lift it? It’s, like, twice your size!”
Blue grinned. “Yeah, how awesome is that? Watch—” With one, deft, movement, Blue turned his sword back to a dagger. “Ta-da—retractable blades! And I’ll tell you something else—it’s really sharp.”
Just then, something rustled from within the thicket. Whirling around, Blue flicked his wrist and the dagger turned back into a sword. A raven flew out of the bushes. Hope and Meylyne breathed sighs of relief, but Blue remained tense.
“We need to keep moving. Too many places here for enemies to hide,” he said. Staring at the bridge ahead, he pursed his lips, adding, “Where is that coming from?”
Tendrils of fog seeped out from the thicket.
“Must be ocean nearby,” Hope replied, crouching down. “Blue right. We need keep moving. Get on.”
Blue scrambled up onto his back. After a moment’s hesitation, Meylyne climbed up after him. Her mind spun with questions.
“Why do you suppose that lion attacked us?”
“It was a lion. Why wouldn’t it attack us?” Blue asked.
“Because Hope said he was a Talking Lion. Glendoch has a treaty with all Talking Animals—we don’t eat them and they don’t attack us!”
“How do you know he was a Talking Lion? He didn’t say anything,” Blue pointed out.
“We know our own,” Hope replied.
Blue digested this before adding,
“I bet he was sent by my assassin.”
Meylyne did not reply. Thinking about that chilled her to the bone, as did the fog that hung about them like wet cobwebs. Her teeth began to chatter as they moved deeper into the thicket. She strained to see through the mist but it was like trying to see through milk.
It’s hiding something, she thought. Is the lion here again?
All her senses went on high alert.
No. Not the lion. Nothing that wants to hurt us, but definitely something.
Her knuckles whitened around Hope’s mane as she tried to figure out what was lurking out there. The answer hovered at the edge of her mind but she could not latch onto it. By the time the fog cleared her nerves were as frayed as an old piece of string.
“Wow, we are really high up now,” Blue said, making her jump. “Look!”
Peering over the edge of the bridge, Meylyne felt her stomach lurch. They were dizzyingly high up. She couldn’t even see the ground below them.
“Yes, and the bridge is really narrow now. What are those things growing on it?”
“Toadstools,” Hope replied tersely.
Meylyne wrinkled her nose. The toadstools were big and yellow, and every now and then they emitted puffs of smoke that smelled like cheese. Meylyne cried out as Hope stepped on one and a thick cloud burst in his face, causing him to stumble.
“Sorry,” he said. “You two get off. Safer that way. This terrain unfamiliar to me.”
You have got to be joking, Meylyne thought as she and Blue slid off him. This is safer? We don’t stand a chance!
At first, they trudged on in single file. Then, as the bridge got even narrower, Meylyne and Blue dropped to their hands and knees and crawled. There was a brief period of dusk before night fell—the deepest, blackest night they had ever known. The toadstools petered out and the air became fresh and salty. Fumbling in her rucksack, Meylyne pulled out a small, glowing bulb.
“What’s that?” Blue asked.
“A Fiary,” Meylyne replied, showing it to him.
Blue peered at the tiny creature flying frantically inside the bulb. “It looks like a fairy with its butt lit up.”
“That’s exactly what a Fiary is. They light up when they’re captured like that.”
“You’re using a fairy as a flashlight?”
Meylyne ignored the indignation in his voice. To her relief, the ground had begun to spread out beneath them. It became soft and fuzzy as patches of moss sprung up. Soon the entire bridge was covered with moss so thick and soft she felt like she was crawling through a giant pillow. After a while she sat back on her heels.
“Can we stop now?” she asked, yawning. “I don’t think I can go an inch further.” She held up the Fiary and looked around. “It feels safe here. We can’t roll off the edge of the bridge and there’s no one around.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” Blue said. “We can’t see a thing beyond the piddly-little radius of your flashlight-fairy. I think we should take turns staying awake.”
“Good idea. I stand guard first,” Hope said.
Meylyne and Blue were more than happy to accept his offer and the three of them huddled together. The air closed around Meylyne like a giant sleeping bag.
This place is enchanted, she thought as her eyelids drooped shut. I can feel it in the air.
Within seconds, she was asleep.
When she awoke, the sky was brightening into a pinkish gold. Stretching, she breathed in the air that smelled like roses and lavender. Hope snored next to her. Despite his intentions, he had obviously fallen asleep. Propping herself up on her elbows, she gasped as her surroundings swam into view.
“Blue! Hope! Wake up!”
In a flash, Blue and Hope were on their feet, staring around in disbelief. They had woken up in a courtyard of moss-covered pavestones, surrounded by lemon trees. Marble fountains sprayed violet mist into the air.
And there, not more than fifteen feet away, was the biggest castle imaginable.
Its iridescent stone shimmered rose-gold in the dawn and its turrets rose up so high that their tops disappeared into the sky. If they’d kept going just a few minutes more last night, they would have run right into it. Its front door was inlaid with gems in the shape of a serpent that stared down at them from a great height.
The Thorn Queen Page 6
