Bazzlejet started to sag underneath her.
“I’m climbing up,” she whispered. “I’ll give you a hand at the top.”
Before he could protest, she pulled herself up by her fingertips and propped the hatch all the way open. She poked her head out. While the clunky old statue kept her from seeing into the throne room, it also kept the others in the throne room from seeing her. With her pulse quickening, she climbed all the way out and squatted behind the statue.
The throne sat on the other side of the statue. The duke shouted commands from it.
“Prod that Amber Rank harder, he’s holding out on us!” the duke bellowed. “Yes, that’s it. Good boy. You’re serving your kingdom well.”
Somebody let out a scream. The agony in the sound made Chloe’s scalp crinkle.
“Pssst!” Bazzlejet whispered.
Chloe reached down and offered a hand to pull him up. He struggled until he got a good grip on the edge of the opening and then he pulled himself through. The energy in the air made his spiky hair crackle with static.
He took up a hiding spot next to her. She pointed towards the throne and made a face to let him know that’s where the duke was. He peeked around the side of the statue. His face turned waxy white.
The look on his face frightened Chloe more than the strange noises. She tried to gesture with her hands to ask him how many people were in the room, but he was unwilling or unable to communicate what he’d seen.
Chloe took a deep breath and peered around her side of the statue.
The center of the throne room sat beneath a glass steeple with one of the tower crystals perched at the very top. The crystal threw its glittering purple light on the scene below. A metal rod had been run from the floor all the way up to the crystal.
Kiros Rubedo was bound to the crystal rod. A whirlwind of magical energy surrounded her. She appeared to be drawing power from four commoners who were chained to the wall. They writhed in their chains. Even as Chloe watched, their skin grew dry and their hair turned lighter. She understood instantly what was going on. They were being drained of their magic. There was a pillar made of blue stone on the other side of Kiros. As she drained the prisoners, the pillar grew larger and pulsed with energy of its own. Green-clad clergy members huddled around the pillar. They touched it greedily, letting it flood their bodies with stolen magic.
“That’s it! That’s it!” shouted the duke. “More!”
Chloe could not see him since the statue blocked her view of the throne. The sound of his voice filled her with sick terror. She trembled and squeezed her eyes shut.
“In my castle!” she whispered.
She opened her eyes to find Bazzlejet, still waxen, staring at her. He mouthed, “Is that Tobin’s mother?”
Chloe nodded. She thanked her lucky stars that Tobin hadn’t come along. If he could see what they were using his mother for—she shuddered. Best not to think about it. They were here and they were the ones who had to do something about it.
She looked all around. The long, silken banners that hung along the walls provided the only additional cover in the room. To add insult to injury, the usual banners of purple had been switched out with red ones.
The sight of the imposter banners brought Chloe out of her fear and back to a healthy state of rage. She evaluated their options. They had to find some way to rescue Kiros. More importantly, Chloe told herself, they had to keep the duke from reaching Woodman’s Hall.
Bazzlejet whispered, “What do you think?”
Chloe didn’t want to say what she thought because the thought she’d just had chilled her straight to the core. She studied the crystal high above the throne. As far as she could tell, the crystals were part of the spell keeping the castle aloft. Once in the past, an enemy had infiltrated Ivywild and stolen all the crystals from the towers. Chloe wondered how hard it would be to remove them. Then she wondered what would happen to the castle if it suddenly dropped out of the sky.
“Duke!” crackled an unpleasant old voice. “I detect visitors among us. If my latest premonitions are true, then the little queen who never was has returned to Ivywild.”
Chloe froze. There was no mistaking the bitter voice of High Priestess Grimmoix.
The statue they were hiding behind suddenly shattered into a million pieces, blasted apart by magic more powerful than she’d ever seen.
A big, caped figure leered out of the dust cloud from the pulverized statue. He threw back his head and laughed. When he looked down again, Chloe saw that his eyes were glowing white.
High Priestess Grimmoix and the other clergy members gathered behind the duke. They smoldered with their siphoned power. All Chloe could see of their faces beneath their hoods were their glowing white eyes.
“Welcome back, my little princess,” said the duke. “You’re just in time to witness Ivywild’s true ascension to greatness. I have taken it to heights you never even dreamed of.”
Terrified and exposed, all Chloe could do was scream, “MONSTER!”
The duke laughed again. “No, I am not a monster. I am the only one who has ever seen the real potential in our magic. All the races will know their proper place now. The Fay shall rule over them all.”
“You mean you’ll rule over them all!” Bazzlejet shouted.
“Every great race needs a leader,” the duke said. “If I’ve had to take extreme measures to be the best possible leader, so be it. History will be my judge. After this, all previous generations of the Fay will look primitive. No more power shall be wasted on the pitiful and useless, but be held entirely by those worthy of it. It is better this way, after all. We shall stamp out the weaklings and build a better, stronger race.”
Chloe couldn’t believe what she was hearing. He was insane. He was also dead serious. She tried not to cower, but she couldn’t bear to look up into his glowing white eyes or at the hooded figures that surrounded him. Was this really the future of her race?
She sneered at the duke. “I’ll never let my people become like all of you! You’re a bunch of freaks!”
The duke’s eyes dimmed as they narrowed. His voice took on a deadly edge and the hooded clergy behind him pressed in closer.
“My dear princess, you don’t have a choice. You can either join us or—” he glanced over at the drained Fay commoners who were chained to the wall, “—give yourself up to the cause.”
***
“We’ve spotted something coming in from the south.”
I perked my ears up and listened as Wilhelmina gave her report to Lev. It was the first real news we’d had since we began preparations the night before. The atmosphere around Woodman’s Hall was tense. Everyone knew something was coming, just not when or how.
Lev glanced past Wilhelmina to the forest beyond the drawbridge. “Distance?”
“A thousand wingbeats and closing fast. Whatever it is, it’s large.”
“Wingbeats?” I asked.
Lev and Wilhelmina looked at me in surprise, as though they’d forgotten I was there. Unperturbed, I pressed for more details. “You mean it’s coming in by air?”
Wilhelmina’s black eyes darted from her king to me uncertainly. “Y-yes. Yes, that seems to be the case.”
Katriel and Valory flew into the Hall and landed next to Lev. Both were breathless and sweaty and so eager to talk that they both started at the same time.
“Caught the scent—”
“Coming from the east—”
“Foot travelers—”
Their words toppled over each other as they rushed to give their news. Katriel glared at Valory. “Shut up! I’ll give the report!”
“Just tell me what you’ve found!” Lev barked.
“We’ve caught the scent of a foot party coming this way,” Valory said quickly before Katriel could get another word in edgewise.
Lev raised his eyebrows. “Red capes?”
“Still too far away to tell,” Katriel said with a sideways scowl at Valory. “We wanted to fly out further and get m
ore information, but we didn’t know if you’d want us to risk revealing ourselves.”
Lev waved her off. “Go find out more about the travelers and report back.”
Katriel lowered her head. “Yes, Your Highness.”
“As for you,” Lev said, turning to Wilhelmina, “Take Noemi and get downwind of the flying object. Gather as much scent knowledge as you can.”
There was no mistaking the flicker of worry in Wilhelmina’s eyes at the mention of her daughter.
After Wilhelmina left, I asked Lev, “Why do you want her to take Noemi? That seems dangerous.”
“Children have a stronger sense of smell,” he said.
“Better than yours?” I asked skeptically.
“Far better. It goes downhill as we age. Give me a few more years and my nose will be no better than yours.”
I felt somebody tug my sleeve and looked over to find Wimbleysminch waiting beside me.
“The cannons are ready,” he said. “We’ve got a few cannonballs and loads of grapeshot. Lord Finbarr wants to try magic projectiles, too. Flaming balls and ice chunks and things of that sort.” He grinned. “Sounds like a good time.”
“Stand by for now,” I said. “Take shifts on the watch and rest up while you can. We’ve been up all night. It won’t do to fight if we’re asleep on our feet.”
“Aye aye!” he said.
“Speaking of sleep...” I glanced over at Lev. There were deep circles under his eyes. As far as I knew, he hadn’t so much as napped in two days.
“I’m fine,” he said. “I don’t want to sleep.”
“But you need to. Go rest. I can handle things here for a while.”
“No.”
It was no use arguing with him. I sighed and rubbed my own tired eyes. All the waiting was getting to me. We didn’t know where or when the duke would strike, otherwise I might have suggested meeting him halfway. I caught myself wishing that I had a Pyxis Charm so I could lead a surprise attack on him. Then something hit me.
“Hey, Lev.”
He stirred listlessly. “Yeah?”
“That red cape escaped using a Pyxis Charm. Of the two left in existence, Othella has one and Robyn has the other.”
He stood up straight, looking more alert. “Yes. Yes, I had thought of that, but…”
“Who did he get it from? Do you think they’ve captured Othella and the girls?”
Just then, Valory came flying back into the hall. She was a flustered ball of excitement.
“They’ve returned!” she shouted. “The foot travelers are Mr. Larue and the Master Casters! They’re on the way! And they’ve brought others!”
Her announcement brought all the activity in the hall to a halt. Mrs. Larue came running down the stairs. Anouk was close on her heels.
“Is it true?” Mrs. Larue asked. “Have you seen them?”
Valory nodded animatedly. “Sure enough. Katriel is on her way to help them.”
Anouk gripped the banister with white knuckles. “Did you see Garland? Is he with them?”
“Well…” Valory’s face fell, “I didn’t spot him exactly, but they were far off so it was hard to tell.”
“What about my Bazzlejet?” Mrs. Larue asked.
“I didn’t see him.”
Mrs. Larue and Anouk looked at each other in horror.
“You said they have others with them,” Lev said, frowning. “Who?”
“I don’t recognize them,” Valory said. “It’s a Fay girl, a tall, dark-skinned guy and a lady in a rolling chair contraption.”
As soon as she mentioned the rolling chair, I gasped.
“Othella?” Lev said.
“But where is Chloe?” I asked.
I brushed past Valory and walked out to the drawbridge. The inside of Woodman’s Hall was too heavy with everyone’s fears and questions. I needed room for my own.
It was early afternoon. A train of fat clouds blotted out the sun. From the looks of it, an evening rain shower was in the works. Maybe it would storm. That would be appropriate, I thought—something to unsettle things even more than they already were.
“Do you want me to fly you to them?” Valory asked. She was watching me from across the bridge.
I shook my head. “No. I need to stay close to this place.”
Valory spread her wings. “Well I’m off again. Don’t worry about your friends. I’m sure they’re fine.”
I watched as Valory’s diminishing figure passed two more winged shapes in the distance. This time it was Wilhelmina and Noemi returning. I met them on the bridge.
“What did you find out?” I asked.
Wilhelmina knelt down and stroked her daughter’s soft black hair. “Tell her what you smelled, little one.”
Noemi twitched her wings as she pointed to the southern sky. “Wots of Fay, I think. Wots of Fay and wots of magic.”
I looked to Wilhelmina for a translation. She shrugged. “All I can detect is a large mass moving this way. It’s not like anything I’ve ever seen.”
One thing we certainly weren’t prepared for was a massive aerial assault. All my worries grew larger and I shivered despite the warm day. What is coming for us? I wondered. And where is Chloe?
***
The crystal high above the throne room threw its wild purple light across the face of the duke. Chloe turned away in disgust as he leered over her. They’d chained Bazzlejet to the wall. He didn’t fight back. What was the use? They were far outnumbered and grossly outpowered. Of all the magic flying about in the throne room, Chloe realized how precious little of it was hers.
“So what will it be?” the duke asked with a pompous curl of his lip. “Will you join us? You are, after all, royalty. I cannot in good conscience strip you of all your power. It’s yours to keep if you but pledge it to the proper cause.”
Chloe stewed. The duke had no such thing as a conscience. Much as she wanted to spit in his face and blast him to smithereens, she knew the most important thing was to keep him talking. The only thing she could bank on was the duke’s arrogance.
“I don’t understand,” she said. “Why go to all this trouble? Why waste all this magic making Ivywild fly? It was fine where it was.”
“To the contrary,” said the duke. He turned on his heel, allowing for a dramatic sweep of his cape. “Why be sedentary when there’s a whole world out there to command? True power is mobile power. Now the castle relies on us and we rely on it. Quite a nice arrangement, wouldn’t you say? Besides, such majestic beings as we are cannot be confined to the ground. We are superior even to the legendary Seraphim, stuck in their cloud island!”
Chloe bristled even more. “Has it occurred to you that you will soon run out of subjects to rule over if you keep draining them all?”
“For every weakling we eliminate, we reinforce the strength of the superior specimens,” the duke said. “In a few generations, all Fay will be perfect creatures.”
“I have seen it,” crowed High Priestess Grimmoix. “Someday we’ll even be able to conquer the realm of the humans! There is no place in existence that will not know our divine presence! It will be a paradise!”
Chloe couldn’t hide a grimace at the thought. “That may be your idea of paradise, but it isn’t mine! Why must everything be conquered? Isn’t peace good enough? Progress through peace!”
The duke sneered. “Rubbish. That’s a slogan for those with no ambition! Nothing was ever achieved by peace!” As he spoke, his voice grew louder and his breathing came faster. “Divide! Conquer! Bring all the pieces back to create a better whole! That is the new motto!”
Chloe realized that he was more than an egomaniac. He was a raving lunatic. She’d heard such blind fervor before. He was not unlike Marafae, who had sworn to annihilate the Fay for no better reason other than her own vengeance. It was a chilling pattern. After all, Marafae had been but a simple Slaugh girl. The duke, though always unpleasant, had long been just like any other nobleman. What had triggered them to pursue such violent paths?
>
Divide. Conquer. The words swirled down into Chloe’s memories until they snagged on a singular painful experience. For a short time, the words had been the fire of her existence. She’d known only that creed. Divide them all. Have them wreck themselves so that chaos can thrive.
Of course, she hadn’t been herself when she’d had those feelings. She had been a prisoner in her own body while a wicked force beyond her control sought to ruin all that was good in her life. She had been a puppet, acting on the dark wishes of a creature so evil that it could not exist inside flesh that knew love.
Chloe suddenly felt sorry for the duke. “Listen to yourself,” she pleaded. “Is this really what you want?”
The duke turned on her with such swiftness that his boots squeaked on the marble floor. His cape billowed around his ankles and he drew his shoulders up like a mounting thunderhead. “Do not question my desires! I’m no fool, like my son. I have waited for this day, planning my moves year by year. True genius takes time. You’d do well to remember that! Sneaking in here without a plan in your feeble skull—ha!”
Kiros Rubedo made a whimpering sound. By the looks of her, Chloe could tell that the draining process was just as excruciating to Kiros as it was to the people she drained.
“What’s that?” the duke asked. “Do I hear a complaint, Ms. Rubedo?”
Kiros’s eyes rolled back in her head. “Must…rest.”
The duke clicked his tongue in mock disappointment. “You just need fresh supplies.” He nodded to the red cape nearest to Bazzlejet. “Link him.”
“No!” Chloe screamed.
Bazzlejet gulped as the red cape looped a silver tether around his neck. He then ran the line to one of the shackles that held Kiros Rubedo to the pillar in the middle of the room.
“Please,” Kiros begged breathlessly. “I can’t.”
“Yes, you can,” the duke said. “Proceed.”
The red cape stepped away from Bazzlejet and a crackling hum of energy rose in pitch. Bazzlejet drew in a breath and then his whole body tensed up. He writhed as his magic was stripped away from him and transferred to the blue stone pillar growing on the other side of Kiros.
The Flute Keeper's Promise (The Flute Keeper Saga) Page 41
