“But a tree sprite?”
“Besides, will it really be such a hardship? Don’t you like to make things grow?” he asked.
“That is entirely beside the point,” Mercedes began.
“That is Fate sculpting you to her design.”
“How did you know about that, though?” Mercedes looked straight at him. “I mean, with the growing things?”
“You were formed by Fate to become the tool she most needed. It only makes sense that she would give you a love for growing things.”
“So, you were guessing?” Mercedes asked.
“I was making an educated assumption.”
“Either way, I’m a dryad now? I can’t trade?”
“No.” He shook his head. “And you wouldn’t want to. Dryads are a powerful race. Some of the greatest magic in this world resides inside them.”
“What sort of magic?” she asked. “Tell me what it is that I can do.”
“Why don’t I show you instead?” The Fate Maker grabbed a pot of dirt off the table. It had one flower in it, and I recognized it from the picture. It had been next to the crystal ball Esmeralda had stared at. “Touch the dirt.”
Mercedes took the pot from him and touched the soil inside it with one finger. The plant shook, and flowers began to rapidly bloom, spilling over the side of the pot.
“That is so cool,” she said.
“Touch one of the timbers,” the Fate Maker urged next.
“The timbers are dead.” Mercedes took her hand away from the plant and stared at her palm. “They’ve been cut down and turned into lumber.”
“Trust me on this. Wizard, remember?”
“Right,” Mercedes said before walking over to one of the timbers and slapping her hand against it.
Green vines curled out of her fingers and began traveling up the length of the wood, white flowers sprouting along the vine as it twisted around the room. I looked up and saw that the entire ceiling was covered in tiny white and pink flowers. One tendril of the vine was creeping along the stone walls toward the mantelpiece, and another crept across the floor, wrapping itself around the wooden table leg. Within seconds the room was covered in flowers and not an inch of stone could be seen anywhere besides the floor.
“Now, you were complaining about being green?” the Fate Maker asked.
Mercedes shook her head, mute as she turned circles, looking around the room. She held her hands up again and wiggled her fingers, staring at them with wide eyes.
“Good.” He flicked his fingers at the door, opening it by magic alone. “I’ve got a kingdom to run, and I’ve wasted enough time on this.”
“What about us?” Heidi asked. “What kind of superpowers do we get?”
“Superpowers?” The Fate Maker narrowed his eyes at her. “Who said I was going to give you superpowers?”
“But to stay here,” Jesse said, “you have to change us, too. Don’t you?”
“Or I could let you die.” The Fate Maker shrugged.
“No.” I hurried over to slide myself between Jesse and the Fate Maker. “No one dies.”
“They’re spares. Debris that got sucked into the vortex. We don’t need them here.”
“Too bad. Do the spells that can make them stay.”
“But—”
“Do the spells,” I said through gritted teeth. “No one is dying.”
“But they’re worthless. They serve no purpose.”
“Then find them one.”
“Fine.” He sighed and then looked over my shoulder at Jesse. “What do you want to be?”
“I’m thinking a giant flying bird. Yeah, I could rock the whole enormous bird with golden wings look. Or a knight. I’d be an awesome knight,” Jesse said.
“I think not,” the Fate Maker said. “You don’t have the makings of a Queen’s Champion. Battle is best left to those who Fate calls to it. Besides, I find that I may have need of you and your particular skills.”
The Fate Maker narrowed his eyes at Heidi and then at Jesse. He brushed past her, coming face-to-face with the boy. He tilted his head to the side and stared. “I’ve always wondered why Fate chose what she did for you. Handsome enough but not very bright. Not what I’d expect a warrior princess to need as she faces the end of the Waiting, but Fate knows her business.”
“I don’t understand,” Jesse said. “Did you just call me dumb?”
The Fate Maker put his hands on Jesse’s forehead and rolled back his eyes so that only the whites could be seen.
There was a sharp crack and Jesse’s eyes widened as his body jolted forward. “What are you—”
“There.” The Fate Maker pulled his hands away and nodded. “Prince Jesse Harper. Royal consort to Her Majesty, the Princess Alicia. Now, do us all a favor and don’t screw anything up. I’ll have need of you later. You, out of everyone here, will be most essential to me.”
“Wait,” Winston said. “What? He’s what?”
“Royal consort to Her Majesty,” the Fate Maker repeated, his voice quiet.
“Wait a second.” Heidi grabbed the Fate Maker by the shoulder and turned him to face her. “He’s my boyfriend.”
“Yeah.” I nodded quickly. “What she said. He can’t be my prince consort.”
“Why not?” the Fate Maker asked.
“Well, he’s nice enough, I guess, but Heidi’s right. He’s her boyfriend.”
“Not anymore.” The Fate Maker narrowed his eyes at Heidi, ignoring me entirely. “Though I must say, you’ve shown me exactly why Fate has given you the future she has.”
He pressed his hands onto her forehead, and I stood behind Winston, his arm blocking me from the rest of them as she began to shake.
Her hair began to dull, no longer its normally brilliant, bouncy blond. Now it hung limp, a dishwater blond. Her skin flaked as angry red spots began to speckle her face.
The Fate Maker pulled his hands away and stepped back. “Heidi Spencer, I give you the fate you so richly deserve.”
“What?”
I gasped, stunned at the change in the girl staring back at us. Her normally fabulous figure had thickened, and her skin looked like she’d been sick for weeks. He’d turned her…not ugly. No uglier than anyone else had been at least once in their life. She wasn’t scarred or anything. It was worse—he’d made her plain. Average. Normal.
“Your face now matches your soul. And now, I name you as maid to Her Majesty. To clean up after someone whom you’ve treated like nothing more than dirt.”
“What?” she shrieked.
“Welcome to your new life.” He turned his back to her and focused his bright eyes on me before bowing his head in a sharp nod.
“You…” I gasped, trying to work out exactly what he’d just done to the girl who’d tormented me from my very first day in Bethel Park. He’d changed her into my what?
“Yes?” he asked.
“I don’t want a maid. The idea of someone following me around and doing stuff for me is weird.”
“I did as Fate required. Now, I think it’s best if all of you take the remainder of the day to rest, before there is no longer a chance. Semanchia will take each of you to your quarters. If that meets with your approval, Your Highness?” He raised an eyebrow, and I realized he was talking to me.
“Oh, yeah.” I nodded. “I think we can all take the rest of the day to get, um, settled? Yeah, settled is a good word for it.”
The Fate Maker nodded again and stalked toward the open door, not once looking back at us, huddled in the middle of room with absolutely no idea what sort of weird nightmares waited for us outside the tower.
Chapter Six
“Oh my God!” Heidi pointed one of her now-unmanicured fingers at the pink fairies that flew through the door the Fate Maker had walked out of. “What are those?”
“Fairies.” I bowed my head in greeting to the tiny creatures with their petal-pink skin and golden wings that were now hovering in front of me.
“If you’ll follow me, please,
Your Majesty. You may bring the maid as well,” the fairy on the left said, her voice high and tinkly, like the sound of jingle bells.
“The rest of you come with me,” the fairy on the right said, her voice the same high, musical sound.
“Allie?” Mercedes asked, her voice shaky.
“They’re peaceful. At least I think they’re peaceful. The book always said they were peaceful.”
“And we’re going with what the book says?” Mercedes asked.
“You have any other ideas?” I asked.
“No.”
“The Chronicles always said that fairies were helper sprites. They won’t hurt you. So I’m going to trust that they aren’t going to kill us and eat us.”
“Never hurt,” the first fairy said. “We live to serve Your Majesty in all things. Never would we bring harm.”
“Now, follow, please,” the second said. “Food and warm beds are waiting. A chance to get clean. Come now.”
“It’ll be okay,” I said.
“We’ll find you afterward,” Winston said.
“Food and beds. Hot baths,” the second fairy insisted. She flitted closer to Winston and poked at his nose with one of her tiny fingers. “Sleep for dragons and sleep for queens. Fairies keep watch. No harm to come. Follow now.”
“Promise me,” he said quietly.
“No harm to come, dragon. No harm to come to the queen.”
He nodded and then let her lead him out of the room, the rest of them trailing behind them as Heidi and I stood with our own fairy, watching them go.
Once they’d disappeared from the doorway I turned to the fairy. “And us?”
“To Rose’s Tower. Warm bath and a nice rest.” She flew closer and began to run tiny fingers through my hair. “Warm and happy Rose. Beautiful Rose. Take you home now.”
“What about me?” Heidi asked. “If anyone needs a bath, it’s me. Did you see what that wizard did to me? I’m disgusting.”
“Will find bucket for the maid,” the fairy said.
“What?” Heidi yelped.
The fairy ignored her and let go of my hair before flitting back to where she’d been a moment before, hovering in front of my nose. “Come, Rose. Sleep now. Fate will seem kind after resting.”
“I am not a domestic,” Heidi said loudly. “And I’m not your maid. I refuse to be your maid.”
“Fine,” I said. The fairy flew out of the room and I hurried after her. If I was going to figure out what the heck was going on here and then find my friends, I needed to get out of this room and learn the layout of the castle. Then we could all meet up and figure out how to get out of this mess.
“I don’t care what that wizard freak says, I’m not your maid. I’m not going to be a servant.”
“That’s great, Heidi, you do that.” I quickly turned to gawk at the mile of paintings that seemed to litter the walls and then hurriedly turned my attention back to the tiny wings of our flying tour guide.
“Are you even listening to me?” Heidi asked.
I waved my hand at her impatiently, trying to keep up with the fairy, who kept veering off down corridors without warning. Now was not the time to hash out Heidi’s problems. “You’re not my maid. I don’t care. Whatever makes you happy.”
“What do you mean you don’t care?” she shrieked. “I bet you love the idea. You think you’re going to be able to order me around, and we’ll all have to pretend to like you because some guy sticks a crown on your head.”
“I couldn’t care less,” I said over my shoulder as I picked up my pace. I turned the corner the fairy had disappeared around and noticed that the next hallway looked exactly like the last. Great.
“Oh right,” Heidi said. “You couldn’t care less. As if.”
“Like I told the Fate Maker—the idea of someone rooting around in my stuff is just weird. So don’t worry about being my maid. I hate the idea just as much as you do, so we can just forget about it, and no one ever has to know.”
“Who said I wanted to root around in your stuff anyway? It’s not like you have anything I want. I mean, really, where do you get your clothes? A charity store or something?”
“Hey.” I spun around and jabbed my finger in front of her face, heat flaring in my stomach. I couldn’t believe that she would take now of all times to say something about the fact that most of my clothes were secondhand. “There is nothing wrong with my clothes. They fit, and they’re fine. Just because I didn’t max out my foster mother’s credit card on a new pair of jeans doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with what I’m wearing.”
Heidi flipped her hair over her shoulder and sneered. “It sounds like you’re just looking for an excuse to explain away the fact that you have no sense when it comes to clothes.”
“Screw you, Heidi.” I tightened my hand into a fist. Punching her in the nose would feel so great right now, but I knew it would disappoint Gran Mosely and my mom. They really believed that violence didn’t solve anything. Personally, I thought it might not cause any more problems in Heidi’s case.
“Your Majesty,” a tiny voice said close to my ear.
I ignored the fairy. “You know what you might want to think about, Heidi? I’m the only one who knows anything about this place.”
“So?”
“So you might want to try being a little bit nicer to me and my friends because, from how I understand it, I’m your only way home. And if you make one more crack about me—or my clothes—I might forget to take you back.”
Esmeralda appeared around the corner and sat primly at my feet. “Or we could throw her in the stocks. Wait, I know! We could execute her. That always gets the population’s attention. A good execution to show them there’s a new queen in town.”
“What?” Heidi stepped back from us, her hands in front of her throat and her eyes wide.
“We’re not executing anyone.” I shook my head at the cat. “Not even Heidi.”
“Oh, come on,” Esmeralda said and then sighed. “A beheading would really get the people in the spirit for a new coronation. It’s the perfect event to start the festivities.”
“We’re not beheading any—” My words cut off as a portrait on the wall caught my attention, and I started toward it, suspicion clawing at my chest. I was the lost princess of Nerissette. The ruler, now that their queen was no longer able to rule. And the person inside it looked exactly like—
“The people love a good beheading,” Esmeralda continued and hurried to plant herself in front of me. “For only from death can the lands truly be reborn.”
“No beheadings,” I repeated and moved to step around her.
“It always draws a large crowd when we have an execution. Besides, I’m close with the executioner. As a favor to me he could arrange to do it before dinner.”
“What?” Heidi had wrapped both hands around her throat and had dropped her chin, trying to hide her neck from the cat’s piercing gaze.
“A few last words, a drumroll, then ker-chunk. Head in a basket, and your first day is off with a resounding success.” Esmeralda twined herself between my ankles so that I couldn’t move.
“Allie?” Heidi’s eyes were wide and filled with fear.
I tried to hide my smile before dropping my head to stare at the cat now curled in a figure eight around my ankles, licking the tip of her own tail. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
“Are you sure? He’s very good. Excellent really.”
“I’m sure,” I said sternly. “Now, if you could tell me where my room is, I would really like to go take a nap and try to wake up from this craziness. That fairy was supposed to take us there but she seems to have disappeared.”
“Fairies…” Esmeralda gave me a one-sided grin and tilted her head. “What can you do? They never can be trusted with any sort of important task. Now, what do you want me to do about the maid since you won’t let me behead her for public entertainment?”
“I don’t know.” I looked at the cat, ignoring Heidi, and s
hrugged. “Can you put her in a room somewhere else and just let her be? Give her a magazine to read or something so she stays out of my hair until we can work this out.”
“This is her role.” Esmeralda uncurled herself from around my ankles. “This is what Fate thinks she deserves.”
“But my maid? Really?” I bit my lip at the look of horror in Heidi’s now-squinty eyes.
“You cannot go against Fate,” Esmeralda said. “Not without even graver consequences.”
“Grave?” Heidi asked. “As in bad?”
“Very bad. Deadly even,” Esmeralda said darkly.
Heidi crossed her arms over her chest and turned to me. “Consider me your own personal tutor in how to be cool then.”
“Whatever you want to call yourself,” Esmeralda said. I shoved my hands in my jeans pockets and tried to keep from smiling. It was like they were each arguing with a brick wall. “Either way, come, and I’ll show you to Her Majesty’s suite.”
“What about my suite?” Heidi asked. “She’s not the only one who’s tired.”
“Your cot is in Her Majesty’s smaller closet,” Esmeralda said. “Now, follow me. I have other places to be, believe it or not, and I don’t want to waste any more time than necessary explaining all of this to you.”
“I have a cot?”
“Not listening to you anymore.” Esmeralda turned and started back in the direction we’d just come from. “I know a better way to get to where we’re going.”
We followed the cat down the hallway and into an identical one before climbing a grand staircase and turning left. We went down another hallway and climbed another staircase—a stone one this time that spiraled up the inside of a tower. At the top, Esmeralda nodded toward the door. “Andefangen.”
The door creaked open and I stared at the cat. The door was on a voice command? Yeah, that wasn’t going to be difficult to remember. Especially since it sounded like a foreign language.
“Did you just speak German to the door?” I asked.
“Spritling,” she said.
“Spritling? It sounded like German,” I said.
“If they sound similar, and you know this German that you speak of, I would give it a try,” Esmeralda said. “The door refuses to speak the common tongue and won’t take any of our commands unless they’re in the sprite language. Rather than argue, I just humor it.”
Everlast (The Chronicles of Nerissette) (Entangled Teen) Page 5
