“So, assuming the lead is a good one,” said Juniper, “we have two decisions to make. Do we all agree that Cyril can go about free, so long as he’s got a guard with him to make sure he doesn’t take off or start causing trouble?” She looked around the circle, where shrugs and head bobs showed general agreement. She nodded. “All right. And then, even more important—what should we do about the trail?”
This was met with silence.
Then Leena looked up, eyes sparking. “We need to follow it, don’t we? There’s a clue, you pick it up, you sniff it out, you dash after it, all madcap-like. Whatever else would we do?”
Juniper beamed. “I can’t say I disagree. And that’s pretty much what Erick and Alta and I were discussing this morning. But what about the rest of you? What do you think of the idea of setting out and doing some exploring?”
“I cry yes!” said Tippy, leaping to her feet. “Yes to the tunnel, yes to adventure!”
You could always count on Tippy for resounding enthusiasm, Juniper thought to herself. Between her and Leena, the spark of excitement quickly caught flame.
“Let’s hear it for the caves!” said Paul. “For what is a seed without a harvest? We must follow this through.”
Sussi clapped her hands. “We’ll make a party of it—take a proper picnic basket and all.”
“Those creature-thievers won’t know what hit ’em!” called Roddy.
The circle dissolved into general giddiness and derring-do.
Finally, Juniper raised her hands. “I’m glad we’re all agreed. There’s just one thing . . .” She hesitated, hating to dampen the fervor of the moment. “You know, we can’t all go on this scouting mission.”
The group wilted visibly. Juniper rushed on, “Think it over—there’s more than a dozen of us all together. How could we creep about anywhere in such a great pack? And what about the running of our own kingdom back here—the care of the animals, the gardens, the last of what needs doing to make Queen’s Basin our very own perfect country?”
Leena looked up. “Is that still worth doing, then? With the invaders at the palace and all?”
“Just so,” said Toby. “Our own families might be held captive or worse, and we’re here spiffing up our summer place? Doing nothing to help? I don’t like it.”
“We could find a way to learn what’s happening in Torr, as we talked about yesterday,” said Jessamyn casually. It was the first she’d contributed to this discussion.
“Or we could make two groups,” said Leena. “One to go after the horses and the other into Torr.”
But Juniper shook her head. “You bring up a good and true point. The last thing I want is to give everyone busywork. I already learned a thing or two about that.” Her mouth twisted, remembering her recent lessons on the right and wrong way to be a queen. “We’ve got to find a way to help save Torr. But we can’t just blaze out willy-nilly into the midst of a war without a proper plan or idea of what to expect. Our first step’s got to be our bedrock, after all. If that’s not solid, how can we hope to build it into a road that goes anywhere? We rate high on passion and fierce energy. But Monsia is a genuine army, a conquering kingdom. If we hope to make any difference at all in this fight, we’ll need all the smarts and strategy we can get. And that will take time, thought, and going about things right. Erick, what do you say?”
Erick startled, then gave a firm nod. “So our first move is to send a team to follow these prints into the mountain.”
“Precisely,” said Juniper. “A small scouting team to gather information and see what there is to discover. I’m thinking Alta and myself, with Erick staying back to keep the home base running.” She looked up to see what Erick thought of this. It didn’t feel right to go without him, but she really needed to leave someone trustworthy in charge.
“That’s cracking,” he said. “I’ve been meaning to reread the Ancient Legends compendium, and now I shall have time for that . . . along with all the proper work, of course.”
Juniper nodded, satisfied. “I think Cyril should come with us, too. For safekeeping.” The slippery usurper would be a real nuisance to have along. But Erick would have enough to do running the camp without having to fend off Cyril’s tricks, too. Plus, for all his orneriness, Cyril knew stuff. He wouldn’t be nearly as handy to have around as Erick would have been, but hopefully in a pinch he would do.
“Oh, let me come also, let me!” pleaded Tippy. “For how shall you do without a maid, on such a wild and perilous journey?”
Juniper laughed. “This is barely a jaunt, Tippy. I don’t expect we shall be gone even a full day. Certainly I won’t need my hair and clothing tended to on the way. We’ll be traveling rough, you goose! Anyway”—her voice softened—“you’ve got so many other fine and useful qualities to make you quite indispensable around here.” She looked around the circle. Other faces were equally crestfallen at the lost adventure. Even Jessamyn looked oddly anxious. “Look, I know this seems like quite the glamorous expedition. But we’re a team—remember? This early trek is just one part of it. We’ve got our proper venture back down to Torr soon to come, and that shall bring quite its own plenty of adventure and peril. But there’s much to be done to get us ready to move out then. Not to mention fixing up the camp for our absence. Can I count on you all for that?”
The faces brightened; many actually seemed relieved. Maybe trekking the far mountains wasn’t every kid’s vision of an ideal day.
“What about Oona, then?” asked Alta. “I guess we won’t leave her up in the cave once Cyril’s been let out.”
“Ah, Oona,” said Toby. “My sister’s always been one to follow her fool heart to all the wrong places. But in truth, she’s mild as a mackerel. With Mister Fancy Pants out of the way, she’ll give us no grief. I can vouch for her.”
“I can handle the little rattlescap,” Leena added. “She can work with me, and I’ll keep an eye on her. But Toby’s right—I can’t see her causing any trouble.”
“All right,” said Juniper. “So Alta, Cyril, and I will set off at first light tomorrow, and I expect we’ll be back before sundown.” Then she paused. “But if we’re not, everyone please carry on as normal. I intend to follow this trail wherever it leads. I think it shall be a quick and easy matter to get the information we need, which I’ll then bring back to the group. But I don’t want anyone mounting up a rescue if we come to some delay. Agreed?”
There were mutters of assent, and Juniper then gave everyone the rest of the day off to do as they pleased. With much enthusiasm, the group dissolved into twos and threes as all set about their preferred activities. Juniper stayed where she was, lost in thought. Suddenly, the prospect of following a set of unknown prints into the dark heart of the mountain, in hopes of tracking down a group of mysterious attackers, seemed vaguely overwhelming.
That wasn’t a shiver coursing down her spine, she told herself. Simply a chill breeze gusting across the valley as the sun panned the arc of the overhead sky.
Tomorrow they would head out.
And find their answers, come what may.
• • •
Shaking off her apprehension, Juniper stood and looked out over the bustling bowl of Queen’s Basin. A game of loggits was gearing up on the far field, with Paul ramming fat sticks in the ground at intervals and various others lining up with smaller sticks for throwing at the targets. On this side of the river, Sussi was drawing three big squares in the dirt for a barley-break game, with her fellow players pairing up and arguing over who would form the center group that had to catch those in the outer squares. Several other kids wandered alone or in pairs, reading or munching snacks or finding their own ways to relax on this sunny afternoon.
One figure in particular caught Juniper’s eye: Jessamyn was walking along the river alone. Juniper smiled. The timing and opportunity could not have been better.
When Juniper reached the riv
erbank, Jessamyn had tucked her skirts up to her knees and was wading in the shallows with a series of little gasps and screamlets.
“Is it cold?” Juniper called out to her.
Something flashed across Jessamyn’s face, but the next moment,she was her languid, carefree self. “Not a whit, wouldn’t you know it? The rocks feel double pointy today, and they’re doing a number on my feet. But the waves are splashy as bathwater! I have to hold myself back from toppling in headfirst.”
“That’s strange—I’m sure the whole stream was frigid when we first arrived.”
Jessamyn shrugged and waded further out.
“Hold up a second,” Juniper called. “I want to talk to you.”
The other girl stopped, but didn’t turn back to face her.
“Look, Jessamyn,” said Juniper, “I’ll get right down to it. I know you’re hiding something from all of us. I don’t know what or why—I haven’t the faintest idea, to be honest. I don’t think you’re working with Cyril or the Monsians. But I do know there’s some funny business going on, and I’ve got to know what it is.”
“Oh, you!” said Jessamyn lightly, turning to splash an arc of water Juniper’s way.
The wave washed across Juniper’s face. It was unusually warm, she thought. But she didn’t react, didn’t shift her gaze from Jessamyn’s, just went on. “I’ve talked with Cyril about your father. I know he’s not an ambassador. Though why that should be a big secret—or if it even is, to be honest—I haven’t the faintest idea.”
Jessamyn tilted her chin, her face bright and glib, but Juniper held up a hand. “Wait,” she said. “Let me tell you first what I think. I think you’re a lot smarter than you look. I think you’ve got some information you could share with me—if you’re willing—which could be a great help to us all.”
“Why, Juniper, you simply—”
“Look around you for a moment,” Juniper said desperately. “Won’t you think about where we are, what’s going on? We’re on our own up here in Queen’s Basin, with untold bedlam afoot back in Torr. All your talk of getting word back to the palace, and I saw that look when we talked about going for the horses.”
Jessamyn scowled and skimmed her fingertips across the surface of the water.
“What is it, Jessamyn? What are you hiding? If you know something important, something that could be really useful to us right now—”
“I’ve nothing to say, and that’s that,” said Jessamyn stubbornly.
“Then you’re going to have to tell me why you won’t talk. Don’t even think I’ll believe that you truly have nothing to say, because I can see that nothing painted all across your face, bright as your precious rosebud lip salve.” Jessamyn flushed. “I’m not going to take no for an answer, so you might as well ’fess up.”
A moment passed. Then another.
Juniper held very still, not moving a muscle. She could be stubborn, too. She felt the water from Jessamyn’s earlier splash pooling in the collar of her dress, seeping into the gathered lace, dripping down her bodice.
Finally, Jessamyn’s shoulders drooped, her defiant stance crumpled. She sloshed over to the bank and sank down, not seeming to notice she’d sat right in a patch of gooey red mud. “Fine. What do you want to know?” The words were little more than an exhale, but her tone seemed different—deeper, as though a sharp mind had suddenly clicked into place behind this popinjay’s body.
“The truth,” said Juniper, plopping down next to her in the mud. “All of it. Who are you? What are you doing here? What on earth is going on?”
• • •
The story, when it finally came, was both simple and staggering. Jessamyn’s father, Rogett Ceward, was indeed a traveling salesman. He’d invented a small multiuse item called a gnut—Jessamyn was vague about what it actually did, but apparently it was indispensable to nearly every facet of farm and village life. This fandangle had made the Cewards’ fortune.
But that was not the deepest truth about who he was.
Rogett Ceward’s visible profession was peddling gnuts. But his hidden trade—the one he did not reveal to anyone around him—was peddling information. He traveled the Lower Continent and beyond, accompanied by Jessamyn’s older sister, Eglantine. Their mother hated travel, and ran a quilting shop near their home in central Torr.
But Rogett Ceward was a spy. A spy-for-hire, to be precise.
“Your father is a spy?” Juniper echoed. She’d expected something, but this? “Jessamyn, I can’t even—”
Jessamyn raised a hand. “Please. Call me Jess.”
“What?”
Jessamyn tucked her knees up to her chest. She squelched her bare toes into the mud, in such an un-Jessamyn-like manner that Juniper couldn’t stop staring. “That’s what I mean,” the other girl said. “That look you just gave me. Who is Jessamyn? She’s frills and swoons and lolling around morning till night. Jessamyn has never lifted a pinkie finger to help herself.” She rolled her eyes. “Jessamyn is the coat I wear to keep out the prying eyes. Jess is who I really am. You’ve no idea how hard it’s been to keep up that front—I nearly caved six times while you were cajoling me just now.”
“I’d never have guessed,” said Juniper dryly.
“Thank you, I try,” Jessamyn returned. “I had actually decided it was time to come out with the whole story, given all that’s going on back home. But when it came down to the moment, you looked so desperate and drippy. I couldn’t resist making you wait for it a little longer.”
Juniper knew this revelation should make her hopping mad. But all she could think about was how different this saucy, mischievous girl was from the flibbertigibbet she’d gotten to know over the last weeks. Then again, Juniper knew what it was like to feel your inner self being tugged in two separate directions. Somehow, she didn’t think it was going to be hard to think of this girl as Jess. Not at all.
“All right,” she said. “You got me good, I can’t deny it. But let’s go back to talking about your father: He doesn’t . . . He’s not working for Monsia, is he?”
“Fie, no!” Jess looked aghast. “My father has precious little loyalty, aside from his devotion to the Almighty Pocketbook. But there is one thing he will never stoop to, and that is dialogue with the Monsians.” She frowned. “There is some history there, I believe, though he’s not made me privy to it. I mean, who in the Lower Continent doesn’t have a personal vendetta against the Monsians? In any case, that’s what brought us to the palace—my father heard word of a looming incursion. He was planning to meet with the king and see if they might work out a deal.”
“Get paid for delivering his information, you mean.”
Jess nodded glumly. “As I said, my father’s loyalty is to himself and his coffers first and above all. I don’t doubt he knew a great deal about this attack well in advance of its happening. I only wish his timing had been better—or that he’d acted first and waited to secure his payment later.”
This sent Juniper into a momentary tailspin. What if her father had been told of the coming attack? Might he have been able to guard against it, to nip the threat in the bud, to root out the traitors before they could make their way to the palace doors and let the enemy in? Such a small decision to bear upon such a vast end result!
Juniper shook those thoughts aside. What was done was done; they couldn’t go back and change the past, not one bit of it. But the future, that was still within their power—if they acted smart. “So where is your father now? Do you have a way to contact him?”
“That’s just it,” Jess said. “My father was supposed to send me regular communications, but I’ve heard not a word. I always thought his greed would get the better of him one day. He’s hopeless, you know! I can see how it must have gone: He waited too long to give King Regis the details and to pass on the full warning—maybe holding out for more coin—and then the Monsians moved quicker than he’d antic
ipated, so he himself got caught in the attack. I’m certain he’s now imprisoned there himself, along with the king and all the others. I’m on my own.”
Juniper frowned. “Why did your father send you along with our group?”
“That was my doing,” said Jess. “My sister, Egg, is the smart one—indispensable to his work, she is. Father lets her join him on his journeys and help in all his escapades. Meanwhile, I’ve got to stay in school and learn to be a lady.” She turned up her nose. “I’m out for the summer, and I got him to bring me along on his trip to the palace. He thought it would be good for me to be seen at court, but all the while, I was seeking my chance. If he could only see me in action . . . Well. Then I heard of your trip, and I told Father I should go along with you and . . .” She trailed off.
“You were spying on us!”
Unexpectedly, Jess grinned. “Yeah. That’s why I had to act so persnickety—to throw you off the scent and all. How did I do?”
“You took me in for sure,” said Juniper. “All of us, I think. But what information could you hope to gain from an all-kids settlement?”
“Why, anything. You’re the crown princess of Torr, after all.”
Juniper digested this. “So you were coming along to spy on us—on me—and . . . then what? How would you communicate any of your findings?”
Jess’s eyes misted up suddenly. “That’s the very worst of this whole thing. My own pet—he came with me on my horse. Why do you think I was so upset when they were all stolen? My own dearest Fleeter was in the saddlebag.”
“Your what? You had a creature in your saddlebag?”
Jess nodded miserably. “Oh, Fleeter! I knew I should have brought him in with me that first night—but I was so worried someone would come to my cave and see him and there would be questions.”
“Fleeter . . . is, um, a . . . ?”
“A cat. A very special cat, spy-trained and swift as anything. I planned to sneak down and remove him that first night, find him somewhere safe to sleep. That’s why I went to the horses’ enclosure to begin with. Instead I surprised those attackers but couldn’t keep them from absconding with my darling.” She dabbed at her eyes. “Now he’s doubtless perished, my own love, and with him any hope of getting back in touch with Egg or my father.”
Princess Juniper of the Anju Page 4
