by M. A. Larson
The flight should have been thrilling, a race above the world through the bracing night sky, but Evie’s stomach was a twist of dread and fear. What lay ahead? The days and nights had blended together along the way, and she’d lost track of how long they’d been gone. Would they make it back in time to fight the witches and giants off in the enchanted forest? Or would the enemy already be inside laying waste to the campus? A shiver ran through her as she remembered a vision she’d seen in the dragon’s blood. It was a vision of the Academy, a charred ruin, smoking piles of rubble. She tried to chase it away and focus on the black horizon, but she couldn’t escape that dark image.
We’ll make it, she thought. We have to.
She lowered her cheek to her father’s scales. It reminded her of all the times she’d studied the scale she’d found lodged in the mountainside after his crash. It had been her only link to him and then it had crumbled into dust. But she didn’t need that scale anymore. She had millions more just like it beneath her now, and all were alive and undulating across her father’s body as he flapped his mighty wings. He was alive. And that was where her courage would come from.
Up ahead, her sister dipped and bobbed through the air like a ship in harsh seas. She could only imagine how terrified Forbes must be, dangling below in the harness. And how giddy her sister must be to torment him.
The ground raced past. It wouldn’t be long now. She looked for some sort of marker as to where they were. The twisting paths of rivers and great flat black of lakes appeared only as shadows in the forest. Mountains and valleys swept past in rippling waves. She saw castles and kingdoms perched across the mountaintops. Some were dark, nothing more than empty shells of stone, long-abandoned or occupied even now by witches. Others appeared as tiny dots of firelight. So there was life out there still, small lights of hope dotting the darkness. The world seemed so vast from the sky. Her friends were down there somewhere, scattered and alone but not forgotten.
Evie glanced over at her mother, an elegant streak of black against the starry sky. The leading edge of her wings sliced the air, while the membranes propelled her through the sky. My mother is the most beautiful thing in the world. They rose higher, soaring over the snow-topped peak of an enormous range, and she knew with sudden clarity just where they were. Up ahead on the distant horizon, tiny red flickers shone through the black. The Queen’s Tower, a grain of rice in the distance, radiated its ghostly glow, calling any who could see it. As they soared across the Dortchen Wild, the glowing spear grew bigger and bigger . . .
Then, suddenly, it snapped in half.
Evie’s eyes went wide. “HURRY!” Somehow, her muscles tightened even more. As they sailed over the treetops, more details came into view. The Academy was spattered with flame. Fire raged across the grassland behind the wall. Her heart pounded in her throat as they neared the clearing. A giant, one-eyed Blunderbull, tore a piece off a castle wall, leaving absolutely no doubt that the fairies’ magic had failed. “Fly on!” she called. “The wall has fallen! Fly on!” Her father swooped down toward the Academy, leaving her stomach somewhere in the clouds. Something bubbled beneath her, and a moment later, her father let out a tremendous roar. Blunderbull wheeled. He shook his fists, a look of fury on his face.
“GET LOST, DRAGON SCUM!” He hurled the hunk of castle into the sky. Evie’s stomach lurched again as her father veered to the left. The enormous piece of mortared stone sailed past into the night. “HOW DARE YOU INTERRUPT OUR MEALTIME!” There was a cracking of stone so loud it didn’t seem real as the giant broke off another piece, huge boulders slamming to the ground at his feet. He threw this chunk at Evie’s sister, who swooped out of its path.
As Evie’s father circled for a clean path toward the giant, she saw dozens of other battles happening in the campus below. Arcs of white light flashed inside the windows of classrooms, princesses’ courage on full display. Plumes of black magic surged through the roads between training walls. Princesses battled witches in every corner of Pennyroyal Academy.
The dragon bore down on the giant. Pain shot through Evie’s body as her father’s neck became scorching hot and red flame poured forth into the blackness. When the jet stopped, his body instantly cooled again. He climbed straight into the air, giving Evie a dizzying view of campus. The Queen’s Tower lay broken on the ground like a felled tree.
She heard the giant bellowing below but didn’t know if her father had gotten him or not. She could barely feel her hands from the heat.
He swooped around, then dove. Evie pressed flat against him, plunging headfirst toward campus as the wind forced tears from her eyes. White flashes exploded in the darkness like lightning bolts inside a storm cloud. Finally, the dragon leveled off and released another stream of fire from his lungs, strafing the enemy inside the Academy that his daughter loved so much. She clenched her eyes against the pain until the heat crested. They flew just above campus now, and she could see individual people atop some of the buildings. The dark figures of the witches were so thick in some places, they looked like a single, heaving mass. Evie’s father veered east, sailing above the knights’ barracks. Down below, an army of knight cadets did battle with Galligantusohn. He towered above them, trying to smash them with his great fists while they fired volleys of arrows and hurled iron-tipped spears.
And there, at the edge of the fighting, she saw something that nearly knocked her right off the dragon’s back. It was Remington. His sword was drawn, and he was trading blows with King Hossenbuhr, just as he had been when she left. She nearly lost her grip again as her father banked through the smoke rising from campus. They flew past Evie’s sister, who swung Forbes like a morningstar, bashing him into Blunderbull’s shoulder.
“We might work together, you know!” she heard Forbes shouting as her sister flapped her wings and took up position on the opposite side of the giant. He fumbled in his harness and drew his sword. “Get me close! Just not that close!”
She rose into the sky, then dove. Forbes sailed past the giant and swung his sword, landing a blow right at the creature’s arm. As Evie’s father circled above, diving down for an attack with his talons, she looked over and saw her mother clinging to the side of Windermere’s Tower, firing a stream of glowing red into a crowd of witches below. Then she saw something else, and it nearly stopped her heart. The third giant, Scabby Potatoes, was headed toward the tower where Evie’s mother was perched. And she was so preoccupied with the witches on the ground that she hadn’t yet seen him.
“Father! Over there!”
The dragon thrust out of Blunderbull’s reach with three mighty flaps of his wings. When he saw what Evie had seen, he swooped across the sky toward his mate. As he arced toward Windermere’s Tower, Evie jumped from his back without a moment’s hesitation. Now there was nothing beneath her but the battle-ravaged campus, midnight black, lit up by pockets of orange flame. She spread her arms and sailed above the swarms of witches moving through the grounds and the white flashes of the princesses’ magic. Giants and dragons bellowed. Witches and princesses shouted. Fires roared and hunks of stone smashed to the ground. But the only thing on Evie’s mind was her mother. She glided above campus without even realizing she was doing it, using her arms to steer through the cold spring winds. In seconds, she landed roughly atop the giant’s shoulder.
As he reached up one of the largest towers on campus, she scrambled across his pockmarked back. She finally got to the tangled wisps of hair growing out of his inflamed scalp. She grabbed a fistful and yanked as hard as she could, as though she were pulling stalks of flax straight out of the ground.
“Yeow!” he shrieked. She rose into the air as his shoulder muscles flexed and his hand swooped round to swat her. She used a stray hair to swing across his collarbone, landing right on his eyeball. He grunted in pain. As his hand swooshed toward her again, she kicked his eye as hard as she could. Still clutching the hair, she pushed off and swooped across his face just as h
is palm clapped against his eye. She stuck out her feet and landed right in his other eye. This proved to be enough.
Scabby Potatoes staggered backward, crashing through the roof of a storehouse. Evie was thrown along the ground, boulders slamming down all around her. She finally tumbled to a stop at the base of another tower. Scabby Potatoes writhed on the ground, clutching his injured eyes. She looked up and saw her mother lift off from the tower, swirling through the sky for another attack on the witch forces below.
As Evie tried to get to her feet, she noticed dozens of huddled black shapes moving about in the shadows. They were ducking into every building not in flames, searching for princesses to kill.
She steadied herself against the wall. She looked left, then right. Witches everywhere. I’ve got to get to Remington before the knights start attacking the dragons.
Then, just in front of her, Scabby Potatoes pushed himself up and leered down. One of his eyes was closed, the other leaking tears.
“YOU!” he bellowed. “I’LL EAT YOU TWICE!”
She scrambled into the castle behind her. Everything was muffled, making the raging battle outside seem strangely distant. There was no time to think, so she raced down the first corridor she found. The giant rained blows on the castle walls, trying to get at her. The whole grand structure felt like it was about to crumble.
She emerged into a spectacular hall with fifty-foot windows and a vaulted ceiling. A wall of open archways led outside to the courtyard. And there she found no fewer than thirty witches. They all turned to look at her, each of them beaming with wicked pleasure.
She raced back through the corridor from which she’d entered. Thundering blows continued to rock the castle. She flung herself through a twisting network of hallways and dark chambers, not daring to look back to see what might be behind her. She raced up a spiral staircase, round and round until she reached the top, where she emerged onto the wall walk. The castle’s main spire stretched high above her, still flying the Pennyroyal standard. She raced around the parapet and found a wide expanse of brick lined with sawtooth battlements. Witches poured through the door, a blur of grinning hags all coming after her. She was trapped. With nowhere else to go, she ran to the edge of the castle wall and climbed through the crenellation, then scaled down the facade using the climbing skills her father had taught her.
Fire rose in sheets to her right. Her eyes burned from the smoke. She glanced up and saw dozens of yellow eyes peering down. Then, one by one, fluttering black shapes began spilling over the side, descending toward her. She ran. There was a gateway ahead, and behind it an alley. She knew she was supposed to hide inside to neutralize the witches’ ability to fly, but she didn’t want to risk being trapped. Perhaps the alley might be narrow enough to keep them on the ground.
She needn’t have worried about it after all. A shadow swooped by overhead, unleashing a crackling stream of flame that swallowed up her pursuers.
She raced through an open-air corridor that led past the Tannery, headed for the knights’ side of campus, but as she emerged from the archway, a swirl of golden white screeched past in front of her. She collapsed to the dirt, then rolled to her side and saw a witch standing less than five feet away, her skin sizzling into mist as a princess’s magic finished her off. She looked behind her to see who had done it.
“Basil! What are you doing here?”
“Saving your life, it seems.”
“I thought you were in Witch Head Bay with your sister!”
“I couldn’t do it,” he said, shaking his head. The torment in his heart was plain on his face. “It’ll take years to find the cure, if it ever happens at all. So I went with the Gray Man, got the Water of Life, then rode here without stopping. If we live through this, I’ll go back to her.” He pulled Evie to her feet. “He’s quite a nice chap, that Gray Man.”
A harsh cackle sounded from high up on the wall overlooking them.
“What are we going to do?” he said. “They’re everywhere!”
“We need to draw them toward us. Centralize them. That way the knights can properly focus on the giants.” Basil nodded. “Go to Crown Castle. Gather as many princesses as you can. We’ll pull the witches toward the center of campus.”
“Right,” he said.
“And, Basil, remember that we can’t trust Beatrice. She’s with the witches now.”
Basil gave her a grave nod. “What about you?”
“I’ve got to keep the knights from killing my family.” He turned to go. “Oh, and Bas . . . I’m sorry I was so mean to you out there.”
“Mean to me?” he said, incredulous. “Evie, we’re in a bloody war here!”
“Right. Sorry.” Basil raced off into battle. Evie looked down at the cloak in the road. It was still smoking from his blast of princess magic. What might have happened had he not been there to save her?
With a shiver, she darted down the road, ducking into one of Pennyroyal’s gardens that served as a shortcut to the knights’ side of campus.
“Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh . . .” came a cackle from the shadows.
Evie froze. Not again, she thought. She scanned the darkness for the witch but found only the shapes of the dead stalks that remained in the otherwise empty garden. Her impulse was to keep running, but something stopped her. I’ll have to fight sometime. Perhaps now is that time.
“Come out, witch!” she called. “I’m not afraid of you!”
“Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh . . .”
She tried to build her courage and compassion by picturing her friends in her mind and in her heart. Demetra came first, golden hair tucked behind her delicate ears . . . her smile . . . the way she . . . she . . .
But then the panic crept in. She couldn’t bring her friend’s face into focus. Her mind was a jumbled stew—
A furious crackle rent the air, and the witch’s spell struck Evie. She fell to her back, seized by the most extreme terror she had ever experienced. Her mouth hung open, but she couldn’t scream. It was complete, blinding fear.
The witch crept out from the shadows and stood at the end of the garden row. Her black spell undulated like a snake below the cracked teeth of her smile. She stepped toward Evie, grinning down at her. Is this the last face I’ll see?
Evie’s eyes fluttered back into her head. She would soon be dead, killed by fear. She could feel her muscles giving up as the witch’s spell bored into her heart. She fought to keep her eyes open.
There’s no excuse for letting fear win . . .
A flash of Demetra’s melancholy eyes. It was a memory. A moment, really.
I am going to rain fire on those witches . . .
“Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh . . .” The witch hobbled closer.
And then another thing Demetra had said: We’re going to win this war.
“We’re . . . we’re going to win this war,” said Evie out loud. Her eyes flew open. “We’re going to win this war!” She could see Demetra’s face, as clear as snowmelt. The kindness in her eyes. The courage in her heart.
A surge of energy jolted through Evie’s body. She leapt to her feet, knocking the witch backward with an invisible shield that had manifested before her. Her heart was flooded with compassion for Demetra, for all her friends, and for the rest of humanity that she had grown to love so much.
A bright light sparked to life in the darkness. It lit up Evie’s face from below. A small golden beam pulsed near her heart, and from its light she could see the witch lying on the ground. She looked like an elderly grandmother might if she had been poached in vinegar and laid in the sun to dry. Her sneering smile disappeared behind a plume of black smoke . . .
Evie remembered Marline. The courage she had displayed when she’d first rescued Evie. The compassion she’d had for her brother when their wicked stepmother had tormented him. Her golden strands of courage began to turn white. With her eyes wide, she looked down at
the witch.
For Marline, thought Evie, and a tear fell from her eye. For all my friends!
She launched a blast of magic at the witch—
Something hit her like a runaway carriage, throwing her to the ground. She was choking on the horrific fear of the witch’s spell, and her courage had been snuffed into darkness. She had lost.
But when she managed to look across the garden, she saw the witch huddled in a ball, slapping at a small flame on her sleeve. Evie lurched to her feet, the fear slowly draining out of her. Her magic had worked. She hadn’t lost. It had been more of a draw.
With weakened muscles, she trudged as quickly as she could out of the garden. Before the witch could regroup and finish her off, she turned the corner and joined one of the main roads leading up past the crippled remains of the Queen’s Tower. All around her, witches were turning Pennyroyal Academy into a ruin.
She hurried through an alleyway, her strength slowly returning. But a new concern lingered. She had done all in her power to defeat that witch and had nearly died in the process. What would happen next time? Her fear grew even greater.
With the crackling of dark magic all around her, she wended her way through campus, headed east. Finally, she made it to the edge of the moat that served as the last obstacle before the field that stretched out to the knights’ barracks. As her mother screamed past overhead, Evie scrambled across a rickety bridge and tumbled through the cool wet grass. Ahead, in a depression beneath a scorched wall, Galligantusohn shielded his eyes from a flurry of arrows. With his free arm, he swatted at the knights.
“All you lot in here is going to die, so you may as well get started!” he shouted.
“AGAIN!” bellowed Sir Schönbecker. The knight forces moved as one, their armor flashing in the firelight of the burning campus. A fresh wave of arrows filled the sky, followed by the furious roar of the giant. “AGAIN! HE CAN’T SEE! POUR IT ON!”
There was a deafening shriek to her right as her sister filled a castle full of witches with flame. Lieutenant Volf is in there somewhere. And Princess Ziegenbart. And the Fairy Drillsergeant . . .
