As Marabel expected, Ellie set her jaw. “I’m not any more scared than you are,” she said. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily!”
Marabel grinned to herself, and together they plunged into the darkness.
arabel started down the dark tunnel, followed closely by Ellie.
The soft earth they were walking on muffled their footfalls. Ellie breathed shallowly. Marabel reached a hand behind her, and Ellie grasped it with cold fingers. “It’s okay,” Marabel said. Her voice sounded loud in the darkness.
They passed some round white rocks—no, they weren’t rocks. They were skulls. Marabel raised the candle to cast them into shadow, and hurried her steps, trying not to imagine how they had gotten there.
They walked a long way with only the dull thuds of their footsteps accompanying them. Then, from up ahead came a rumbling sound, and shouts, and voices singing. Maybe it was the little men who lived in tunnels underground. Some of them were friendly, she’d always heard, but some…
Marabel stumbled against something, nearly dropping the candle. Ellie bumped into her from behind. “What are you stopping for?” she hissed.
Marabel lowered the candle and saw, to her surprise, that she had stubbed her toe against the bottom step of a flight of stairs.
“This must be the way out,” she whispered. “See?” She raised the candle to reveal that a piece of the ceiling was made of wood. She made out a hinge on one side of the board. “This must be a door.” She snuffed out the candle, and Ellie gave a little squawk.
“We can’t risk anyone seeing a light when we open it. It must still be dark outside,” Marabel explained. “You’re fine. We’ll be out in the open in a minute.” She hoped she sounded calmer than she felt. She was more excited than frightened—this was the real start of their quest to rescue Marco!
Marabel felt her way up the stairs, the stone steps cold beneath her hands. She shivered as something with lots of tiny legs skittered over her fingers. One, two… she counted to thirteen before she bumped her head on something. “Ow!” escaped her lips.
The sound of music continued, and now Marabel could tell that it was coming from above them, not deep in the earth. It was the Magikian anthem.
Ellie crept up next to her. “I have to get out,” she panted. “Right now.”
“Ellie, I don’t know how—” was all Marabel could manage before Ellie shoved hard against the wooden ceiling that Marabel had hit her head on, making it shift a little.
“Let me help,” Marabel said. She planted her feet firmly and set her back against the board. “One, two, three!” she urged, and with all her might she strained and Ellie pushed, and the door flew open so suddenly that they lost their footing and tumbled back down to the bottom of the stairs.
Above them, the trapdoor gaped open, and Marabel shuddered as she imagined a helmeted head appearing, a soldier catching sight of a runaway princess and her maid. But all she saw were clouds streaked with the pink and orange of the rising sun.
Marabel climbed back up the steep steps and cautiously looked around. The trapdoor had been covered in a few inches of dirt and grass, making it invisible when closed.
But there was still one huge problem: They now were in the royal garden and not in the forest, as Ellie had told her they would be. This meant they could easily be seen by sentries patrolling the palace walls.
“What on earth is the point of a tunnel that doesn’t take you all the way to a safe place?” Ellie asked.
“It must have been built a long time ago,” Marabel said. She pressed her fingers to her temples, trying to remember the boring lessons on family history that she and Marco had mostly ignored. “The royal gardens,” she said, “are where there used to be a wild forest. When the tunnel was built, this opening must have been in the middle of that forest.” The woods lay only a few hundred yards away—an easy walk, normally, but tonight the shelter of the trees seemed frighteningly distant.
Then a voice behind them said, “Hey!”
Both girls let out a yelp and leaped into each other’s arms, trembling.
“Where did that come from?” Marabel asked, looking around.
“Down here!” came from inside the tunnel.
“It’s Floriano again!” Ellie said in disbelief.
“What are you doing here?” Marabel cried down the hatchway, relieved and annoyed at the same time.
“It’s boring in the stable,” he said. “It’s just ponies and horses and a stupid donkey, and they don’t care about anything except eating hay and oats and snoozing in the sun. Unicorns aren’t supposed to get fat and take naps. If you’re going on an adventure, I want to go with you.”
“This isn’t just an adventure,” Marabel said. “It’s a rescue mission. And how did you get out of your stall?” She knew she had latched it tight.
“We have our ways,” Floriano said vaguely.
“We who?” Marabel asked.
“What does it matter?” Ellie broke in. “The guards could see us at any second. We have to go—now!”
“Where are you going anyway?” the unicorn asked. “It might not be worth my time to go with you.”
“My brother was kidnapped,” Marabel said. “We’re going to rescue him.”
“Oh, that does sound adventurous!” Floriano said. “Count me in.”
“No way,” Ellie said. “You’d make us too visible.”
Floriano cocked his head toward the soldiers marching along the walls. “How were you planning to get past them?”
“We’re still working on that,” Marabel said, although she hadn’t come up with any ideas yet.
“I’ll take care of it.” Floriano sounded smug. “I’m going to distract them. As soon as you hear me whinny like a horse, run as fast as you can toward the forest.”
Before they could answer, Floriano clambered up the stairs and positioned himself in front of the palace walls. His white mane and tail fluttered in the breeze, and his horn and hooves glinted in the growing light. He looked magnificent as he arched his neck and pawed the ground. He raised his head proudly, clearly expecting to hear gasps and murmurs from the awestruck soldiers.
But none came. Floriano lifted a golden hoof and coughed. Not a single head turned in his direction. Despite the danger of their situation, Marabel had to press a hand over her mouth to stifle a giggle.
Floriano stamped furiously. He reared, his golden hooves pawing the air. He was truly a splendid sight, and finally someone saw him. A soldier called out, “The king’s unicorn!” and someone else yelled, “Seize him before he escapes! The king will pay a great reward!” and then lots of soldiers shouted and ran in his direction.
Floriano gave a leap and galloped away, drawing the soldiers after him. After a moment, his whinny rose over the commotion.
“Now!” Marabel grabbed Ellie’s hand and they fled toward the trees.
It felt like forever before they reached the sheltering darkness of the forest. At last they plunged into it, their breath ragged and their sides aching.
The girls ran until their breath and strength gave out. They collapsed and sprawled, gasping, on the dead leaves and pine needles. After a moment, they pushed themselves up to sitting, letting their packs slip off their backs.
Ellie wiped a strand of hair off her face. “Phew,” she said. “Now what?”
“We need to go deeper into the trees,” Marabel said.
The problem with that was that it would make it harder for Floriano to find them. But what choice did they have? They had to hurry to rescue Marco in time. The Barrens were vast, and there were mountains and rivers and who knew what else between them and Mab’s castle. It would take every minute of the thrennight to get there in time—if that was even enough.
They shouldered their packs and picked their way over roots and fallen branches. They couldn’t find a path, so their progress was agonizingly slow as they pushed through bushes and brambles. Gradually, the sight and sounds of the palace faded.
Behind
them, the ground shook with the pounding of hooves. Before they could hide, Floriano burst through the branches and cantered up to them. “So which way are we going?” he asked brightly.
Marabel sighed, resigned. She couldn’t force the unicorn to return to his stall, and he obviously wasn’t going there voluntarily. She looked at Ellie, who shrugged.
“All right,” Marabel said reluctantly. “You can come.”
“Hooray!” Floriano pranced in place. “We’re going on an adventure!”
Marabel hoped he was right. At the moment, rescuing her brother felt more like a big mistake than a grand adventure.
At first, their adventure was remarkably unadventurous. Marabel looked for the rising sun so she could lead the way toward the east, but the trees were so thick that she couldn’t see the sky very well. When she finally got her bearings, they used a trick Lucius had taught her: to go straight, find two landmarks in a line, and when you get to the first, line up the second one with a new one. The three travelers took turns being in front, since it was tiring to push through branches and find footing among the fallen leaves and rotten sticks.
For a while they walked along a stream. Its water tinkled hypnotically, making Marabel’s eyelids droop. After a few miles, Floriano asked, “So which way are we going?”
“East, to the Wall,” Marabel answered shortly. She was so tired from staying up all night that she could hardly talk.
“What wall?” the unicorn asked.
Ellie and Marabel stopped and stared at Floriano. Unconcerned, he stopped, too, and ripped up a mouthful of grass.
“Are you serious?” Ellie asked. “You don’t know about the Wall?”
Floriano shook his elegant head and swallowed. “I told you, those horses and that stupid donkey aren’t interested in anything but food and sleep. If they ever talked about a wall, I didn’t hear them. Why are we going to a wall?”
Right now, food and sleep sounded too appealing to Marabel. They’d been traveling for hours, but they didn’t have time for a nap or a snack. “Let’s sit down and rest a minute while I tell you,” she suggested. They wouldn’t be any good to Marco if they exhausted themselves in the first few hours of their journey.
They drank their fill from the stream and then settled into the shade of a tall tree, Floriano folding his long legs under him like a big blue dog. Ellie took some bread and cheese out of her pack and, between swallows, Marabel told Floriano the history of the Wall.
“One thousand years ago, Magikos was a wild land where Evils ran free, until—”
“‘Evils’?” the unicorn interrupted. “What are ‘Evils’?”
“Magical beings,” Ellie said. “You know, elves and giants and ogres and uni—” She stopped abruptly.
“Uni-what?” Floriano asked suspiciously. “Universities? Uniforms?” Ellie’s face showed deep embarrassment. “Unicycles?”
“Oh, be quiet, Floriano,” Marabel said. “You know what she meant. Wild magical beings. Not tame ones like you.”
Floriano rose to his hooves, his nostrils flaring. “So I’m a tame unicorn, am I? Domesticated? Is that what you think of me?”
Marabel sighed. “Do you want to hear about the Wall or don’t you?”
Floriano didn’t answer, so Marabel went on. “Anyway, my ancestor, King Manfred, defeated the Ev—um, defeated the enemy—and sent them to the Desolate Barrens in the eastern part of the country. A few humans went with them, but most stayed in Magikos. Manfred’s wizard, Callum, built a great Wall dividing the two parts of the kingdom, weaving magic and stones together so that none of the—so that no one could go through it. When my aunt Mab was banished to the Barrens, she proclaimed it a separate land, and said she was its queen.”
“She isn’t, though,” Ellie put in. “The Desolate Barrens are still part of Magikos.”
“So do you mean to tell me,” Floriano said, still sounding huffy, “that there are more unicorns on the other side of this wall we’re going to?”
“I expect so,” Marabel replied. “Along with lots of other… things.”
“Well, let’s go, then.” Floriano stamped a slender hoof.
Marabel turned slowly, trying to catch a glimpse of the afternoon sun, and saw a small spot of light through the branches. But the light was purplish, not like sunlight, and it glimmered and even seemed to move from branch to branch. Some kind of firefly, Marabel thought, although she had never heard of a purple firefly before.
The light settled on a branch right in front of her. She leaned in cautiously so as not to frighten it away.
Marabel caught her breath. What she was looking at was undeniably a fairy, one of the tiny, winged sort, not the kind that lured people into their realm. It wore a long purple robe, and its face, hands, and bare feet glowed so much that it was hard to see its features. Light spilled out from under its flowing robe and through the ends of the sleeves and the collar.
“Oh!” Ellie breathed in Marabel’s ear.
Floriano stretched his neck forward like a cat, his nostrils twitching.
The little being said something, but its voice was so tiny that Marabel had to lean in, holding her hood back, in order to hear it. “What did you say?” she asked.
She couldn’t be sure, but it sounded like the fairy kept repeating, “Pay attention! Use your eyes!”
Marabel looked around, but didn’t see what the fairy was talking about—not that she could see much of anything in the dark woods. She was about to question the fairy again, but it flew away, zigging and zagging through the trees, rapidly disappearing from sight.
“What now?” Ellie asked.
Marabel looked in the direction that the fairy had flown and spotted a patch of trees off to one side. They looked a little different from the rest. Strangely, the tree trunks seemed flat, not round.
“Let’s try over there,” Marabel suggested. She fought her way through a particularly prickly shrub, and when she finally looked up, she realized that what she had thought were flat trees were actually wooden boards. She was staring at a huge door.
Big metal hinges ran up one side of it, but there was no doorknob or handle of any kind. It was much bigger than any door she had ever seen, even counting the enormous one leading out of the royal palace to the drawbridge. And it stood all by itself, surrounded by trees and bushes. On either side of it, sunlight was filtering through leaves, and an occasional squirrel scrambled up a trunk. It looked like a perfectly ordinary part of the forest, except for the gigantic door standing in the midst of everything.
Ellie stopped short just behind Marabel. “What in Book’s name is a door doing in the middle of the woods?”
“Someone’s idea of a joke,” Marabel said. “Why would anyone go to the trouble of going through a door when you could just go around it?” She started to walk past the door, but immediately slammed into something invisible and staggered back, rubbing her nose where she had banged it.
At that instant, a green light flashed, and where before there had been nothing, now they faced a gigantic stone wall that stretched out of sight in both directions. It was taller than three men standing on one another’s shoulders.
“The Wall!” Marabel exclaimed. “It must have an invisibility spell on it that gets broken when someone touches it.” She ran a tentative finger along the rough stone, covered in moss and lichen, marveling at the massive blocks and their ancient majesty.
“Do you think we can open it?” Ellie asked.
The enormous wooden door was remarkably sound for something exposed to wind and rain and sun, and its hinges—each one bigger than both of Marabel’s hands together—were made of a black metal that didn’t show a single spot of rust. That was a sure sign of magic. But even after the green flash, she still couldn’t see a handle, a keyhole, or even a door knocker.
“There must be a way,” Marabel said. “What’s the point of a door you can’t open?”
“Let’s push it,” Ellie suggested. The girls put all their strength into shoving, b
ut the door didn’t budge. They tried working their fingers into the cracks between the boards to give it a pull, but they couldn’t get a grip. Briefly, Marabel considered trying to climb over the Wall, but it was much too high.
They sprawled, exhausted, on the ground. “What do we do now?” Ellie asked.
“We have to look for another way to get past the Wall,” Marabel said. “There must be another opening. Mab had to get through somehow.” She sat up. “Oh!”
“What?” Ellie asked.
“Don’t you see?” Marabel pointed around them. “See those footprints? Someone must have been here recently. And look—scorch marks! I bet that dragon made them. This door must be the way Mab came through with her wizard.”
“So what?” Ellie asked. “We still can’t open it. We’ve tried everything.”
Floriano cleared his throat. “Not quite everything.”
“What do you mean?” Despite being tired and hungry and worried and discouraged, Marabel tried not to snap at Floriano. It wasn’t his fault that the rescue mission was failing. She was the leader, so it was her fault.
“Oh, I don’t know,” he said airily. “I thought I might be able to do something, but maybe you don’t want an Evil to help you.”
“Oh, stop it,” Ellie said. “You know I didn’t mean you.”
Floriano went on as though he hadn’t heard her. “I don’t blame you, though. If you had a real unicorn with you, one who still had magic in his horn…” At the last word, his horn glimmered faintly. “Magic specifically for opening locks and undoing locking spells…” The glimmer brightened to a glow.
Marabel wasn’t sure she understood. “So unicorns have a way to open doors and gates and things?”
Floriano didn’t answer and he made no move toward the door, but his horn now shone like the reflection of the sun on a pond.
Marabel sighed, pretending she didn’t really care. “I guess you’ve forgotten how to do it,” she said. “Oh well. All those years of living in a stable with that donkey must have tamed all the magic right out of you.”
Marabel and the Book of Fate Page 5
