‘Well …’
In the past two weeks, I had followed her and the others down ancient, dripping goblin tunnels that no humans had ever seen before. We’d attended secret concerts of goblin music so eerie that listening to it had felt like discovering a whole new language. We’d attended lectures on new scientific and philosophical theories that had nearly made my head explode. Then we’d shouted over each other afterwards in the underground coffee house, debating every one of our adventures, and I had loved every moment.
Still …
I peered over the wooden jetty that we shared – and shuddered as the thin planks creaked beneath me. Five more long, wooden jetties stretched out across the water parallel to us, each of them spaced several feet apart. As I watched, the other goblin girls and Fedolia all walked happily down their own jetties, as if it were an ordinary, everyday activity to jump into deep, cold water without a qualm. Only my guards still stood on the forested beach of Villenne’s least populated island, watching over our discarded student caps and looking intensely sceptical. Jurgen had already taken off his boots in obvious preparation for a rescue.
‘The sea is really deep,’ I muttered to Talvikki. ‘And …’ I hated admitting inadequacies. ‘I don’t know how to swim!’ I mumbled.
‘You don’t need to!’ She winked. ‘Just trust me, silly.’
Incredibly, I did. That would have seemed unimaginable only three weeks ago, but the truth was, Talvikki had adopted me as her friend just as casually and inescapably as my new cat had acquired me as his person. I’d trained all my life to resist orders and fight against manipulation, but I was utterly helpless against easy, warm affection. I had never felt anything like it before.
‘Why are you so nice to me?’ The words tumbled out as I looked at Talvikki. I’d been holding them back for days, but something about this moment – wavering on the edge of the unfathomably deep Valmarene sea – tore them out of me against my will.
‘Why shouldn’t I be nice?’ She frowned. ‘Was someone mean to you before we met? Do you want us to go and beat them up for you? We can do that, you know. All of us together –’
‘No!’ The idea of them charging on the Villennese palace was petrifying. ‘I only meant …’
Water sparkled all around us and the sun shone down as I sought for words and the other goblin girls chatted and laughed on their own wooden jetties. ‘You didn’t have any humans in your group before me.’
‘Of course not.’ She shrugged. ‘But you’re different, aren’t you?’
‘Oh.’ My stomach sank.
Of course I was different. I never really fitted in anywhere, did I?
‘That’s not a bad thing, silly Sofi.’ Talvikki shook her head at me. ‘Haven’t you noticed? There might be goblins and trolls and all manner of creatures sharing this city, but none of the humans ever looks at any of us. They just stare straight past us like we don’t even exist … except for you.’ She smiled. ‘You’ve been arguing with us ever since you first got here. Why wouldn’t we want you for a friend?’
I let out a half-laugh of disbelief. ‘You like me because I argue with you?’
Everyone I’d ever known had groaned and lectured me over my horrible temper. The curse of my whole life had been that I could never let any argument go. But Talvikki’s grin stretched even wider at my words.
‘Of course! It’s how we know you’re being honest with us. You’re treating us like we matter to you.’
‘Oh!’ My eyes widened. ‘You do matter.’
But I hadn’t been honest with her about everything. All these days of shared adventures, all those arguments and jokes and dazzling new experiences … and still, as far as they all knew, I was a mere noblewoman, sent very young to the University of Villenne.
I took a deep breath, opened my mouth – and panic overwhelmed me. No!
Talvikki liked Sofi, the girl without any special expectations. That didn’t mean she’d like Her Royal Highness Sofia of Drachenheim. No one else ever had after meeting me! I might just about manage as a girl, but as a princess I was an abject failure every time.
But I had to … I couldn’t –
‘Well?’ said Talvikki. ‘Are you done worrying? You’re going to love this, I promise. Just jump, and then you’ll understand!’
My throat was too tight to let out the truth about myself. But there was one thing I could do for her at least.
‘I trust you,’ I said, and jumped into the deep, cold Valmarene sea with my eyes wide open, as all the goblin girls whooped with joy and jumped in too …
And then I landed on something hidden in the waves that sent me bouncing high into the air.
‘Aaaah!’
It was a trampoline – an invisible trampoline!
‘It’s silver mesh!’ Talvikki shouted gleefully as she bounced beside me. ‘Woven so fine you can’t even see it! Didn’t I tell you you would love it?’
Love it? I was flying! I didn’t even need a dragon! I landed back on the transparent mesh and took off even higher, flinging my arms out in the air and whooping with joy for the first time in my life.
‘It’s like magic!’
‘Even better!’ Berrit called from her own net. ‘It’s cleverness!’ With a determined look in her eyes, she executed a perfect flip, her blue student robe flying around her green head.
Talvikki grabbed my hands. ‘Let’s try that together!’ she said. ‘One, two … three!’
We landed on the mesh a moment later in a hopeless tangle of student robes and arms, laughing uncontrollably. As Talvikki leaped up to her feet, I lay back on the net, letting salty, cold seawater soak through the fine mesh into the back of my hair and robe as the net swung and bounced irrepressibly beneath me.
The sky spread wide and blue and full of possibility. Laughter and friendship surrounded me.
I would have done anything to keep this feeling. Anything.
But when I rolled back to my feet on the wildly bouncing net, I found Fedolia watching me from her own net with narrowed, ice-chip eyes … and with unmistakeable suspicion written all over her face.
It wasn’t hard to walk apart from Fedolia on our way back to the main islands. Once I thought about it, I realised she had never voluntarily come close to me in the last two weeks. The goblin girls were all so loud and friendly, I’d barely noticed her coolness before – but now that I was paying attention, I could see it all too clearly.
With the others, she was sharp and glittery and fun, full of smirking comments and bright laughter, but her eyes flicked past me every time, and her face tightened whenever I stepped too close. No matter how many times I tried to catch her gaze as we left the trampolines behind, she never, ever looked at me.
It made my stomach crawl with discomfort. Did she just not like me – or humans in general? Or did she suspect I wasn’t being honest?
I dropped behind the rest of the dripping, cheerful group and tugged Talvikki back with me.
‘Is there a reason Fedolia doesn’t like me?’ I whispered.
‘Fedolia?’ Talvikki’s thick eyebrows shot up as her steps slowed. ‘I’m sure she likes you.’
‘No, she doesn’t,’ I said firmly. ‘Trust me.’ I had plenty of practice dealing with people who didn’t like me but were forced to deal with me simply because of my family. I knew exactly how forced acceptance felt.
‘Well, it can’t be anything too bad, can it?’ She shrugged. ‘I wouldn’t take it personally. She’s just … a kobold. There’s no one else like her in this whole city, you know?’
I frowned. ‘I’ve seen other kobolds in the coffee house.’
‘But have you ever seen any of them talk to our Fedolia?’ Talvikki shook her head. ‘I know she can be moody – and she’s fond of tricks and pranks, like most kobolds are – but she has good reasons for not trusting easily, after the way her people cast her out.’
‘What?’ I came to a halt as we reached the trail that led through the woods towards civilisation, holding her back with
me. ‘What do you mean they cast her out?’
Talvikki shot a quick look up ahead, then dropped her voice as she leaned closer to murmur in my ear. ‘You know how we all come from up north? Well, none of us wanted to leave our home in the first place. A few years ago, though, a goblin family accidentally tunnelled too close to the ice giants’ hidden treasures. It turned into a total disaster for all of us. That whole family was taken prisoner – even the babies! Can you believe it? Then the giants kicked out all the rest of us. Only the kobolds were allowed to stay in their territory, and they had to agree to be the giants’ spies, to make sure everybody else keeps out from now on.’
She sighed. ‘That’s why those famous Diamond Exhibition machines and expansion plans are so ridiculous! Any goblin could tell King Henrik: the ice giants won’t allow anyone else to share their realm any more.’
Talking about realms made me remember being a princess, which was the last thing I wanted right now. ‘What happened to Fedolia?’
‘She didn’t obey.’ Talvikki’s face creased with sadness. ‘She used her invisibility trick to help that family of prisoners escape. She has a kind heart under all of that glitter – but the giants somehow found out that she was the one who’d done it.’
‘Oh no.’ My eyes widened. ‘What happened then?’
‘I have no idea how she got away without being frozen herself – or executed.’ Talvikki shrugged. ‘She won’t talk about it ever. But I do know she’s never allowed to go home again … and not one of the other kobolds in town will even look at her. They’re all loyal to the ice giants even now, for the sake of keeping their families safe back home – and Fedolia’s own family cut her off completely to save themselves.’
Ohhh. I shook my head as we fell into step behind the others.
There was so much about the world outside my palace that I still didn’t understand. Apparently, though, I wasn’t the only one who’d been scooped up just when I needed it most by this extraordinary group of friends here in Villenne. Fedolia had been too.
Could that explain why she was so suspicious of me? Maybe she thought I was trying to take her place in the group.
If only she knew – she had nothing to worry about. A few weeks from now, I’d have to drag myself home to face my own punishment, leaving all of this joyous freedom behind forever.
But I wouldn’t let anyone – not even a mysterious, magical kobold – stop me from savouring every moment until then.
CHAPTER 11
‘So then we’ll go to Knights’ Island for lemon ices this afternoon, and do some shopping before we come home,’ Anja finished happily. She sat perched on a chair beside me while my maid smoothed cream and a comb through my thick, long hair – which was only now starting to recover from yesterday’s seawater immersion – and Lena fussed around me, checking every finicky detail of my striped blue-and-lavender gown.
Really it was one of Anja’s gowns, of course; I’d borrowed them every day for the past two weeks, and the two cousins had accompanied each new gown every morning to chat on and on at me about the day ahead, just as they and Ulrike had done every day back in Drachenburg.
Ulrike didn’t come with them any more, thank goodness. I’d ordered her not to write to my sister about anything that I was doing, and she’d grumpily agreed – but now she spent her mornings sulking in her parlour downstairs, making certain I knew how much she disapproved of every choice I’d made ever since we’d arrived. Anja and Lena, on the other hand, were giddy with freedom – from the proper royal court, from their duties and, for most of each day, from me – and it had made me realise that I wasn’t the only one who had felt trapped back at home.
Perhaps that was why, for the first time since they’d been foisted on me two years ago, I didn’t find it annoying at all to let their birdlike chatter wash over me as I was dressed every morning.
‘I saw some lovely new fans on Knights’ Island!’ Lena said as she tucked a final pleat into place on my borrowed gown. ‘I want a light pink one to match my best gown and a bright yellow one for the summer months. And, of course, we could pick up an extra fan for you too, Your Highness, if you wanted … er?’ She darted a wary look around my shoulder, as if I might erupt at her in a temper for her suggestion.
‘No, thank you,’ I said politely. I couldn’t think of anything in the world that sounded less interesting to acquire, but I forced a semi-gracious nod to reassure her.
Lena gave me a tiny half-smile in return.
Anja bounced off her chair. ‘Are you finally ready, Lena? I want to watch the parade of the horse guards! It’s almost time for them to start.’
‘Just a moment.’ Lena hesitated a few feet away from me, her expression softer and more open than I’d ever seen before. ‘What are your plans for today, Your Highness? If you don’t mind me asking, I mean.’
‘Oh, I don’t know everything I’ll do!’ I couldn’t even help the smile that spread across my face as I considered it. ‘There are two different lectures I might attend, but I’m meeting Talvikki and the others at a coffee house first, so … we’ll see! They always have ideas of their own.’
Of course I’d never told my ladies-in-waiting any of the details of those adventures. I didn’t dare even hint that Talvikki and the others weren’t human. Apart from our sinister Elfenwald invaders six months ago, no non-humans had ever openly walked the streets of Drachenburg. Our dragon allies only flew overhead once a week, and our people had still flown into a panic over the danger before they’d finally adjusted to our groundbreaking new alliance.
If proper Ulrike ever discovered that I was consorting with goblins, she would fall over in a swoon of horror – and then bundle me into a carriage heading straight to Drachenburg for my own safety.
That was why I’d forced my guards to promise never to tell her, on threat of slipping outside without them and putting myself in even more danger next time. I’d told my ladies-in-waiting only that I’d made friends on Scholars’ Island – and, after all, that was completely true. If you looked at it from just the right angle, I wasn’t lying to them any more than I was ‘lying’ to my friends. I was simply … keeping back some irrelevant truths from each of them, to make sure that both parts of my Villennese life stayed totally and completely separate.
So the knock on the front door of our house, five minutes later, came as a stomach-churning surprise.
No one was supposed to know I lived here! I’d never told Talvikki and the others my address.
Oh no. What if the awful king and queen of Villenne had decided to forgive me? That could be their messenger right now, coming to bring me back to join the other royals at the palace.
I had to get rid of him before Ulrike found out!
At least a quarter of my long cloud of thick black curls was still hanging down my back, uncombed, unpinned and hopelessly out of place. I lunged out of my maid’s hands anyway and flung the door open without waiting for her to do it. Thank goodness Anja’s skirts weren’t quite as long or as heavy as mine! Gathering them up in both hands, I hurtled down the creaking staircase so quickly that I sounded like a herd of wild horses stampeding through the house.
Ulrike’s voice floated up the stairs. ‘Show him into my parlour, if you please.’
Him? None of my goblin friends was a boy, so it really had to be the royal messenger. Disaster! Ulrike would accept that invitation on my behalf while weeping tears of joy. We’d be packed before I could say a word in protest!
There had to be something I could do to stop myself being bundled away against my will again. I couldn’t lose my friends already!
Aha. A perfect plan roared through me.
Last time, I hadn’t even meant to get myself uninvited from the palace. This time, I was ready.
I yanked out all of the pins from my hair. They scattered and showered down the narrow staircase. Much better! I rolled up my sleeves like a yokel as my hair burst out around me in a gorgeously untamed cloud. Then I set my face into an intimidating scowl
and stomped the rest of the way down to Ulrike’s parlour, prepared to be a diplomat’s worst nightmare.
Ulrike jumped as I slammed the door open with a thunk that sent it crashing against the flowered wallpaper.
The dark-haired boy who stood facing her didn’t shift so much as an inch, though. Did he have nerves of steel, to ignore a sound like that?
He wasn’t wearing noble dress or a typical messenger’s uniform either. Instead of a jacket and trousers, he wore a bizarre, one-piece cloth outfit patterned with what looked almost like … scales?
Yes! Those curving purple-and-blue repeated shapes were meant to look like dragon scales, all across his arms and legs and back. What in the world?
The Valmarene royals didn’t even like dragons! If that snooty king and queen thought they could get away with using our allies’ scales in their messengers’ uniforms … !
Scowling ferociously, I stalked forward to let him know exactly what I thought of him and his rulers too.
‘Your Highness!’ Ulrike stared at my bare forearms and unpinned hair in horror.
‘Highness?’ The boy spun around with a dazzling white smile.
I stopped, rocking backwards as that smile hit me.
He should have looked awkward in his outlandish outfit. Instead he looked right, in a way that had me tugging my own sleeves back into place as I stared at him, speechlessly taking in his wide, infectious grin, his thick black hair, his pale skin, his long legs and his strangely familiar golden eyes …
Wait.
Humans didn’t have golden eyes.
Every dragon I’d ever met had had them, though … including Jasper’s aunt Émeraude, who’d carried us to Villenne … and Jasper’s dark-haired sister Aventurine, a magical dragon-girl chocolatier and food mage who could shift back and forth between shapes on command.
‘Uhhh … uhhhh … !’
I slammed my lips shut too late. My feet backed hastily towards the door.
But he was already hurrying towards me, his face alight with excitement.
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