The Potion Diaries

by Amy Alward

  Oneiros. Creatures that inhabit dream space, often blamed for creating realistic nightmares. Rarely are they known to pass into the physical world, but when they do, the hallucinations they cause can have devastating consequences. They have few uses in potions as they rarely leave behind physical matter when they die, but strands of their hair can be used in potions to help sleepwalkers.

  When I manage to tear my eyes away from the girl and the oneiros, I realise that I’m in a circular stone room – not dissimilar to the room I’ve just come from in Gergon. It saddens me that even in a dream world, the girl lives in such a cold, hard place.

  ‘Raluca?’ I ask tentatively.

  I blink and suddenly she’s right in front of my face, moving at lightning speed. She reaches up a hand as if to stroke my face, but I recoil.

  ‘You are not one of them,’ she says, in a voice no louder than a whisper.

  ‘One of who?’ I ask, taking another step back. She doesn’t seem to care, and I would like to put as much space between us as possible so I keep retreating.

  ‘A Talented.’

  ‘No.’

  She’s in front of me again, this time lifting my wrist. Her touch is feather-light, her skin papery and dry. ‘Then why are you here? What do you want with me?’ Now she is the one to recoil, snapping her hand back as if she’s been bitten by a snake. ‘You don’t want to give me another foul potion, do you? I won’t take it! It’s a potion that’s keeping me here! Where’s Stefan? He promised he would keep me safe!’

  Her arms flail in the air; I’m worried she’s going to attack me. I hold up my hands. ‘Please, it was Stefan who sent me here. He put me to sleep. He wanted me to explain why I’m here.’

  ‘He thinks so little of me that he sends a child here to talk to me? Why has he not come himself?’

  My hackles rise and my eyes narrow at being called a child. If she’s Stefan’s twin, then she’s only a couple of years older than me.

  ‘What then?’ She floats away from me. That’s the only way I can describe it. It doesn’t seem like her feet touch the ground.

  ‘Do you know what’s happening to the Talented people in the . . . real world?’

  ‘Oh yes, they tell me all the time.’

  ‘They tell you?’ I dart my head around, looking from side to side, all thoughts of talking to the hidden Princess gone from my mind. I spot a window so I run towards it. I see a built-up town far beneath me, protected by a wall. ‘Evie?’ I shout out of the window. ‘Molly? Are you there?’

  ‘Don’t ask for them!’ Raluca’s eyes are wide with fury. ‘Don’t you know that they’re Talented?’ She says the word like it’s poison in her mouth.

  ‘My sister is Talented!’

  ‘So? My parents are Talented. Both my brothers. And they would not accept me. They had to “fix” me. Well, I am fixed now. More than fixed. I am powerful, more powerful than them. I have seen them in this dream world and they are weak, so when I wake up, I will take all of the magic in the whole world.’

  I shake my head, but my entire body is trembling. ‘No, you don’t want that. If you take away all of someone’s Talent, they die. Do you realise that? This dream world is the only thing preventing you from killing everyone here!’

  Raluca’s eyes flash. ‘So? You think a world divided between Talenteds and ordinaries is fair? No. If all people can’t use magic, no one should.’

  Her fierce resolve hits me like a slap, and tears spring up in my eyes at the thought of all the Talented people I know and love . . . gone. I wipe them away furiously. ‘You think ordinary people don’t have magic? It’s not true. We can experience all the same kind of things that Talenteds can – we just use our brains, our intelligence, our ingenuity to make it happen. Talenteds can fly? We build aeroplanes. Talenteds can communicate across vast distances? Heck, they still prefer to use their ordinary-created smartphones!’

  Raluca is frowning at me, and I wonder whether I’m making any sense to her – whether she knows what smartphones and aeroplanes are, given her sheltered existence. I take a different tack. ‘I know you have been treated so, so badly. It’s unfair what they’ve done to you. But it’s not the same everywhere else in the world. You can find a place where you can be happy. Even as an ordinary.’

  She seems to consider it for a moment, but then she reaches out and grabs both my hands, forcing me so close I can count the flashes of magic in her eyes. ‘I know a place where I can be happy. A place where I can access every stream of magic.’ The oneiros descend on me, and I feel the cold touch of their fingers in my hair. They start to spin a web of images in front of my eyes, building a world of fire and brimstone. I recognise it all too well. It’s Yanhuo. ‘Emilia told me about it. From here,’ Raluca whispers in my ear, ‘I can take all the Talent in the world.’

  It’s her dream.

  It’s my nightmare.

  ‘Stay away from her!’

  The stone walls around me melt into the blank white space – and all of a sudden I see Princess Evelyn striding towards me. The vision of the volcano disappears – the oneiros flee. Evelyn has an army of teenagers around her too, although she looks the most formidable, an expression of fire on her face.

  The oneiros aren’t the only ones that run. Raluca disappears too.

  Before I know it, Evelyn’s arms are around me, pulling me into a tight hug. I feel other arms grip my waist, pinning my arms to my sides, and I lean into them as much as possible.

  ‘Sam!’ Molly’s voice is muffled by the tight hug, and reluctantly we step away from each other. I can’t help it though; I reach out and give her another hug and a hundred kisses on her forehead.

  ‘Mols, I was so worried about you!’ I say, when I finally break away.

  Her cheeks are flushed, her normally neat hair in disarray. ‘I’m okay. The Princess has been keeping us away from the oneiros and we’ve been building our own walls for protection from that woman.’

  ‘That woman is Prince Stefan’s twin sister,’ I tell them. ‘She was born ordinary and her parents hid her away. Stefan was the only one who cared about her. He commissioned Emilia Thoth to create a potion to give her magic power. But what Emilia and Stefan didn’t realise is that magic doesn’t come from just anywhere. Raluca takes it from any Talented person she can.’

  There’s a choked sob from Evelyn, and my attention snaps over to her. ‘It’s all my fault,’ she says, through gasps.

  Molly touches Evelyn’s back. ‘Princess, no one blames you. You couldn’t have known.’

  ‘Couldn’t I?’ She drags her hands away from her face, her cheeks tracked with tears. ‘I could’ve done a bit more research before I married the guy. I mean, dragons, I could’ve listened to Sam when she came running! There’s so much I could have done. I could have waited and maybe one day married the person I loved. Sam had the solution right there – a way to store my excess power so I didn’t have to marry anyone. If only I’d had a little patience . . .’

  ‘Your city – your country – was in danger. You did what you had to do,’ I remind her. Evelyn stares at me, but I keep my face impassive and my voice firm. I’ve seen the stakes now. I know she made the decision she had to.

  ‘And now look what I’ve done to our country.’ She throws her hands up in despair.

  I can’t help but show the unease on my face. ‘Evie, can I speak to you on your own?’ I stare at Molly’s classmates, and at the crowd of Kingstown citizens who are gathering around. I search the crowd but thankfully I can’t see Mum or Zain there yet. I breathe a sigh of relief.

  ‘And me, right?’ says Molly, her voice with a dangerous edge. I know better than to ever leave her out.

  ‘Of course, and you too.’

  ‘Anything for you, Sam.’ Evelyn turns to the crowd and raises up her hands. ‘I’m afraid I have official Royal business to attend to. Remember how we practised keeping the oneiros at bay? You can do this, I know you can.’

  I’m always amazed at how Evelyn manages to get people t
o do her bidding: her gentle but firm persuasiveness. I know it comes from being born with power, from never assuming that people won’t follow her orders. Whenever I ask someone to do something, I do it couched in apology, wrapped up in ribbons of pre-made excuses so they can choose one to pull out if they want. Evelyn offers none of that. It is either her will or nothing at all.

  Molly and I walk with Evelyn until we are apart from the crowd, then Evelyn throws up some dream walls around us. I’m impressed that she’s learned how to control her power here so smoothly, but again – I shouldn’t be. This is a woman who’s never known what it’s like to not have power. My mind instantly compares her life to Raluca’s – Princess Evelyn’s equivalent who has never known magic until now. ‘So? What are you doing here?’ Evelyn asks me. ‘Have you come to save us? Is there a cure?’

  I smile. ‘I have – Prince Stefan brought me here.’

  ‘You’re talking to the Prince!’ Molly’s jaw drops.

  ‘Are you being held against your will?’ Evelyn asks immediately.

  ‘Yes and no,’ I say, honestly. ‘I think Stefan has finally had the wake-up call he needed to stop Raluca. And he’s sent me here to cure her. But I wanted to ask you something first. When this is all over – and you’re safe – don’t punish Raluca. Her accumulating power was just a side effect of the potion – she probably couldn’t have stopped it anyway. Even if she wanted to.’

  ‘The Gergonian Princess,’ says Evelyn, her lips pursing together tightly. For a moment, I think she’s not going to relent. Then her shoulders drop. ‘It’s despicable what they’ve done to her. Disgusting. And I don’t mean the attempt to give her power. But to keep her hidden all this time?’

  ‘I know.’

  Evelyn grips my arms. ‘Tell me what’s happening in Nova?’ she asks.

  I hesitate, but I know I can’t keep the truth from her. ‘Because all the Novaen Royal family members are affected . . . it’s hurting the Palace.’

  ‘Well, of course it is. I mean, there’s no one there to run anything . . . I’ve seen both my parents but not my grandmother. I hope the Prime Minister has been quarantined and that actions are being taken—’

  The reminder of the Queen Mother makes my heart lurch, but I know I can’t drop that news on Evelyn now – not with everything else that’s going on. Plus, I can’t let her get distracted from the main issue at hand. ‘No, you don’t understand. The actual Palace itself is in danger. People have been seeing it from the ground.’

  ‘What? Imposs . . .’ The words die in the Princess’s mouth before she can continue, and realisation dawns. ‘The magic keeping the Palace invisible is failing,’ she says.

  Molly gets to the next step even faster than the Princess does. ‘Does that mean that it might fall?’ she asks, her voice squeaking with alarm.

  ‘Oh, god,’ the Princess moans. She stumbles and I catch her with my arm. ‘What can we do, what can we do?’

  Molly looks up at me, her eyes wide and her lips trembling with barely disguised fear. ‘If the Palace falls . . .’

  I shudder, despite myself. ‘I know,’ I say. Then I shout, ‘Stefan! Wake me up!’

  Evelyn’s face distorts as my vision tilts on its axis. My knees buckle and Evelyn grabs my arm to keep me upright. But I barely feel her touch.

  ‘Sam? Sam, what is it?’ she asks, her voice filled with concern.

  ‘I think . . . I think I’m waking up.’

  ‘Good luck!’ Molly shouts.

  ‘We’re counting on you!’ says Evelyn.

  The world shifts again, this time I can see Stefan’s face. I’m thrown back one more time into the dream, enough to see Evelyn wrap her arms around my sister’s shoulders. My consciousness is leaving.

  ‘I’ll be back,’ I say. ‘Just . . . be ready.’

  ‘We will,’ I think I hear Evelyn say, before I finally resurface in the real world.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Princess Evelyn

  ‘BE READY? HOW CAN WE BE READY? THE Palace is falling, our magic is fading,’ Molly said, and she didn’t have any answers.

  Evelyn took a deep breath. You are the Princess. There is nothing you cannot handle – not when your citizens are the ones who are suffering.

  The Palace was her responsibility. Hers – and her parents’. She thought about them in that walled city, their minds trapped by the oneiros, their power slowly draining from them. But their lives weren’t the only ones affected. Now, there were millions of lives at stake.

  She turned to Molly. ‘Come on, we need to stop Raluca. Do you think you and your friends can handle it?’

  Molly straightened, her fingers flexing inside her gloves. ‘We can do it.’

  Evelyn nodded. ‘Who’s your best general?’

  ‘Bethany?’ Molly called out to her friend. The other thirteen-year-old came running over, the beads at the ends of her braided hair clattering together as she sprinted.

  ‘Okay,’ said Evelyn, ‘I need you to spread out again, but this time we’re going to all direct our power to destroying the walls of the town. Understand?’

  ‘We can do this, Princess,’ said Molly.

  Evelyn smiled. ‘I know we can.’

  Evelyn took up her position at the iron gate. Then there were ten students to her left, and ten on her right. Maybe, with enough effort, they could bring the wall down.

  ‘Ready?’ She looked left and right and both her young generals nodded.

  Evelyn set her mouth in a grim line.

  But before she could say ‘fire’, Raluca appeared in front of her.

  ‘Oneiros are nice, aren’t they? Keeping all these Talented people calm while their power drained towards me. I’ve promised them lots of dreams when I am the only Talented Queen in a world of ordinary people.’ She lifted up her hands and all around, oneiros gathered. Then she lowered them, pointing towards the two groups of teenagers.

  The oneiros swarmed. Molly screamed.

  And then Raluca laughed. It was the most chilling sound. She laughed and laughed and as she did, her face turned shimmery, her body losing its solidity. It was an exact repeat of what Evelyn had seen happen to Samantha.

  That could only mean one thing.

  Raluca was waking up.

  Evelyn didn’t think it was because she’d been given a potion. She’d forced herself awake.

  And if Raluca could do it, Evelyn was sure she could, too. She wasn’t going to let some power-mad Princess drain her people and take over her country.

  Maybe Samantha would succeed; maybe she wouldn’t.

  She wasn’t going to take that risk. Nova was hers.

  ‘Wake up!’ she screamed at herself. And suddenly the world began to shift.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  Samantha

  ‘QUICK!’ STEFAN SCREAMS AT ME. ‘SHE’S gone!’

  I struggle to orient myself after waking up from the dream, my head filled with a dense fog. ‘I’m sorry, what?’

  ‘Look!’ The bed in front of us is empty, and Stefan is nursing an ugly-looking bruise on his forehead. ‘She broke out of the potion-sleep spell by herself. I thought that wasn’t supposed to be possible?’

  The fog, I realise, isn’t just in my head. It’s filling the room. It’s smoke. That’s when I gasp. ‘The cure!’ My precious vial of cure is smashed on the stone floor, bright red liquid pooling everywhere. The phoenix flame was still burning inside it, and it’s caught on the fringe of threadbare carpet, spreading to the wooden toys and up the sides of the curtains.

  The whole cursed bedroom is on fire.

  But at least I know where Raluca has gone.

  ‘Stefan, we have to go back.’

  ‘Go back where?’

  ‘To the Yanhuo volcano. That’s where your sister is going to be.’

  ‘But why?’ he asks, in disbelief. ‘Why would she not just go to Nova and continue to drain Talenteds?’

  ‘The Yanhuo volcano is where all the streams of magic in the world come to meet. If sh
e goes there, then that means she can drain Talenteds all over the world. She wants all of it. So she can rule a world made up only of ordinary people, as the only Talented Queen.’

  Stefan shakes his head in slow disbelief. ‘No, she wouldn’t do that.’

  ‘I’ve seen it in her dreams, Stefan. She will do it. She truly believes it’s the only way.’

  Something seems to snap together in his brain and he nods. ‘Let’s go, then.’

  He removes his cloak again, swinging it off his shoulders. ‘It’s a Transport panel. Old-fashioned style.’

  I think of the rumours of Gergons being able to fling their cloaks and disappear. I guess this is how they integrate new technology into old fashions. I almost let myself be impressed. Until I remember that Gergons also got the nickname vampires.

  It is convenient, though. If I could get my hands on one of those . . .

  ‘Don’t get any ideas,’ he says. ‘You have to be a high-level Talent in order to use it.’

  Great, I think. There goes one potential escape plan.

  I’m also a bit disturbed that I’m that easy for Stefan to read.

  He throws his cloak over us and, this time, I hear him mumble the name of the volcano under his breath.

  We arrive to fire and brimstone and lava, just like the nightmare. But this time there’s added heat. Extreme, choking heat – compounded by the gases – that makes me want to faint. I throw my arm over my mouth, but it’s not good enough. The smoke stings my throat and every inch of exposed skin. We’re perched right on the side of the crater, and looking down on the chaos below. The caldera has opened to fill almost the entire crater floor. Only islands of solid rock remain, surrounded by rivers of molten red lava.

  ‘Are we in the Wilds here?’ Stefan asks, his wand out and ready.

  I nod – there’s no way Stefan can use his magic predictably here. Thankfully, he understands that – and instead he pulls my cloak off my shoulders. He rips it in half and throws one section to me. I wrap it around my mouth and nose, and immediately I can breathe a bit easier.

  Raluca is standing on one of the larger islands of rock down on the crater floor. It’s as if she’s living and breathing the fumes; they are energising her, conducting her magic. Unfortunately, she spots us almost immediately and her black eyes narrow. ‘Don’t try and stop me, brother,’ she says, her voice amplified to reach us. ‘I need to do this. It’s for the good of everyone.’