‘Sofia?’ he said eagerly. ‘Is it you? You look exactly like I’d always imagined!’
Nononononono!
I was suddenly, paralysingly aware of two excruciating truths at once. I looked like an absolute disaster. And, if I didn’t get hold of myself immediately, I was about to faint for the first time in my life, in front of the one person in the world I most wanted to like me.
I was a princess. The honour of Drachenheim was at stake!
So I called on all my years of royal training, stiffened every muscle to force myself upright, and said in a voice like a frog’s croak of terror, ‘I am so glad to finally meet you in person … Jasper!’
CHAPTER 12
‘I decided to leave the moment I read your letter,’ Jasper told me ten minutes later.
We were sitting together on a faded sofa in my own private parlour upstairs, but, of course, Ulrike had insisted on accompanying us. How else could she spy on everything we said or did and pass every detail on to my sister?
Luckily, Jasper didn’t seem to notice her nosiness. All of his attention was divided between me and the enormous pile of pastries that he was devouring at an unbelievable rate. His body might have changed from dragon to human, but his appetite certainly hadn’t adjusted to the shift.
‘How could I not follow your example?’ He wolfed down a fifth large cinnamon roll and reached for a sixth with his free hand. ‘My aunt told us all about how brave you were, throwing yourself out of your carriage in mid-air to tell those soldiers what you thought of them!’
‘Um …’ I darted a nervous glance at Ulrike, who dropped her own gaze swiftly back to her embroidery. ‘That’s … not exactly the way it happened, but –’
‘Don’t you remember what you wrote in your letter? If only you really could be here to explore with me!’ He beamed. ‘Now I am! And just think: we can go to meet Gert van Heidecker in person.’
‘Well …’ I forced myself not to look at Ulrike. ‘That part might not be as easy as you’d think.’ Needless to say, my senior lady-in-waiting had not been informed of my favourite philosopher’s arrest, so I couldn’t explain the facts of human prisons to Jasper in front of her. ‘There are plenty of other things we can do,’ I said hastily.
‘But first …’ I gestured helplessly from his tousled black hair to his booted feet. ‘How did this happen?’ All too conscious of Ulrike listening in, I dropped my voice to a whisper. ‘Are you a food mage too, like your sister?’
‘Me? Ha!’ He swallowed down a long sip of spiced apple tea. ‘She’d laugh to hear you say that. Aventurine always said, though, that she’d help me change if I ever wanted to. When I read your letter, I knew it was finally time to make her keep her promise. She was visiting the cave, so it was easy to manage the spell while the others slept. I can shift back and forth as much as I want to now, just like her! So I flew all the way until I reached Villenne and then shifted shape just outside the city.’
No wonder he was hungry!
‘That’s a long first flight.’ I pushed the nearly empty plate closer to him.
‘Aventurine told me I’d never make it all the way here on my own. She thought I’d turn tail and fly back to the cave and all of my books the first moment my wings grew tired.’ His grin deepened into a smirk. ‘I told her she was wrong.’
Aha! I smirked back at him, suddenly comfortable after all, despite the shock of his unexpected visit and the awkwardness of Ulrike eavesdropping on every word. I might never have dared to meet him in real life, but now that I had …
‘Just wait,’ I told him. ‘Drachenburg is tiny compared to Villenne. You’ll see things Aventurine has never even heard of! And,’ I finished with deep satisfaction, ‘I can show you everything myself.’
The sound of Ulrike’s anguished sigh was music to my ears.
We set off half an hour later, once my hair was finally combed and pinned and I’d dealt with the last of Ulrike’s squawking protests. I wore my student robes over Anja’s striped gown; Jasper went as he was in his scale-patterned outfit and a pair of far-too-big battered brown boots that he’d found abandoned on a street corner. Luckily, he didn’t seem to notice the curious glances his clothing garnered from everyone we passed on our way to Scholars’ Island. He was too busy swinging his head from side to side, asking question after question without a break.
‘So that’s a house? And that’s one too, even though it looks so different? And – oh, that’s a lamp post? I never imagined them looking like that!’
I’d spent the last nine months terrified of letting Jasper discover my true flaws in case he decided to end our friendship over any of them. I’d been certain that if we ever met, I’d be awkward and disastrous and he would give up on me immediately.
But this? This was easy. This was fun!
‘I can’t wait to introduce you to the others,’ I told him as I stepped on to the crowded, white, student bridge.
I’d lost all my graceful deportment days ago. Now I strode forward with my elbows stuck out to clear my way through the constant, jostling crowd. I was already peering ahead in search of the ever-shifting table that sold second-hand student robes like mine.
Jurgen tapped me on the shoulder. ‘My lady?’
I turned around – and groaned. We’d left Jasper behind!
I shoved my way back through the crowd to find him still standing, staring, before the bridge. His golden eyes widened more and more as people shoved past him from both directions.
‘There are so many …’
Ohhh. ‘I understand,’ I told him. And I did.
That first time I’d stepped out of our borrowed house had been awful. How much worse would it be for someone who’d spent his entire life in a cavern beneath a mountain, with no one around him but his own family?
Jasper wasn’t just funny and clever and kind – he was so brave to come flying into the unknown. Unlike me, he hadn’t even needed anyone else to force him into it.
I couldn’t let him stumble now.
So I took a deep breath, reached out and tucked my right hand securely under Jasper’s arm, the way I’d seen Anja and Lena do for each other when one of them was sagging with tiredness or nerves.
‘Come on.’ I tugged him gently forward. ‘Don’t let yourself think about any of those strangers around us.’
‘Don’t think … ?’ His dark eyebrows rose sceptically. His pale throat bobbed with a nervous swallow.
‘Think about this instead,’ I said firmly. ‘At Gert van Heidecker’s lecture, he asked us all to consider the definition of true power.’
Jasper let out a snorting laugh and took a slow step forward. Jurgen stepped wordlessly into place on his other side, shielding him, as Jasper said, ‘If you ask anyone in my family, they’ll tell you flame and claws. But from a human point of view, I suppose …’
Konrad let out a soft moan behind me. Had no one bothered to fill him in on Jasper’s background? Never mind. We were all learning new things in Villenne.
I kept my gaze on Jasper’s drawn face, forcing him to hold my gaze as we moved on.
‘Humans are obsessed with blood, aren’t you?’ said Jasper. ‘So –’
‘What? No!’ I wrinkled my nose in disgust. ‘Don’t be ridiculous! You’re the ones who eat raw meat! We don’t –’
‘Bloodlines, I meant. That’s what you call them, isn’t it?’ He waved one long-fingered hand impatiently, his stride lengthening as his brows lowered in concentration. ‘I’m always reading about it in your books – everyone worrying endlessly over who was born to whom, as if that should decide how important they were, instead of anything about their own strengths.’
That struck far too close to home after everything van Heidecker had said about royalty in his lecture. I scowled up at Jasper, forgetting all about reassurance. ‘Don’t tell me dragons don’t care who’s born to whom! Your family would do anything for their hatchlings. They’re only protecting Drachenburg because your sister lives there.’
‘Th
at’s entirely different,’ he said. ‘Dragons always protect their territory – including their own families, of course. But they don’t expect anyone else to think their hatchlings are more important than –’
‘Ahem.’ Jurgen coughed politely. ‘My lady? You were intending to buy a student robe for your visitor?’
Oops! We’d come to the end of the bridge without realising it. I grimaced and spun around to forge my way back through the chaos.
This time, Jasper didn’t need urging to follow. We argued all the way back to the sales table, and his voice was only slightly muffled by the long blue robe that slipped over his head. As its folds slid down to cover his scale-patterned outfit, his face emerged, words still flowing without a break.
‘… If you consider the idea of power as an illusion –’
‘I wouldn’t call a ten-thousand-strong army an illusion,’ I retorted as Jurgen paid the saleswoman. ‘Unless you think you can close your eyes and imagine –’
‘Make way!’
It took a lot to break through the cheerful chaos of students and salespeople mingling together, but at that sudden, deep-throated bellow, I jumped aside along with everybody else around me. A torrent of small figures thundered past us down the centre of the bridge, their green heads tucked against their chests for speed. Their feet pounded hard against the ancient white stone as they fled Scholars’ Island in a panicked stream.
‘Those aren’t humans!’ said Jasper. ‘Are they –?’
‘Goblins,’ I confirmed unhappily.
As the final goblin disappeared into the crowded street beyond, every human left behind stared after them in a moment of stunned silence. Then life settled back to normal all around me as everyone turned away with nervous laughs and shakes of their heads, shrugging it off like any other odd city incident.
I couldn’t shake it off so easily. I’d recognised nearly all of those goblins from my trips to their secret coffee house beneath the library … which was exactly where I was heading right now.
Had the university finally discovered it? If they’d sent guards to shut it down …
I couldn’t walk into another raid! I’d barely escaped the last one.
But I hadn’t seen any of my friends in that group. What if they hadn’t got out in time? What if they needed me?
A moan of indecision worked its way up my throat – and then a strong hand grabbed my arm.
‘There you are, Sofi!’ Talvikki popped into view beside me, making Jasper give a violent startle.
Fedolia must have been casting invisibility over all of them beforehand. All three goblin girls stood close around me now, while Fedolia stood behind them, carefully brushing off her blue robe with her long, white fingers while her silver necklace glinted in the bright sunlight.
My shoulders slumped with relief, but a low, dangerous growl rumbled up from Jasper’s throat.
His teeth bared, lips pulling back in an inhuman snarl, as he shouldered forward as if to shield me. Suddenly my sweet, funny, intellectual friend looked as wild as any of his relatives – and far less safe than I’d imagined.
‘It’s all right!’ I said hastily. I didn’t touch him this time, but I shifted between him and Talvikki. ‘They’re my friends. I couldn’t tell you all the details in front of Ulrike, but –’
‘He’s a friend of yours too, eh?’ Talvikki leaned around me, eyes bright, and took a fearless sniff of Jasper’s robe. ‘He doesn’t smell human.’ She shrugged. ‘Smells like cinnamon rolls, though. Apple tea too.’
Fedolia smacked her blue lips as she held up her fingers, carefully inspecting her glittering blue nails without sparing me a single glance. ‘Mmm, apple tea.’
‘Ooh.’ Berrit gave a wistful sigh. ‘I’d like some apple tea right now. Not a cinnamon roll, though. Not today. Maybe a slice of fresh apple cake, or –’
‘We have to go.’ There was no sign of Hannalena’s usual cynical amusement as she cast a quick, sharp glance over the horizon. ‘We were just looking for you, Sofi, to warn you before we left. You need to leave Villenne too, as quickly as possible. Go anywhere you want – but make sure it’s far away from here. And don’t stop to pack!’
‘What are you talking about?’ I shook my head in disbelief. ‘Why would you all leave the city? And today? We had plans!’
‘Plans change.’ She nodded to the others. ‘Come on.’
‘Wait!’ I grabbed Talvikki’s robed arm, holding her back. ‘Tell me what’s happening!’
Grimacing, she glanced between me and the other girls as they started down the bridge without her. ‘You remember that troll who was sleeping in the coffee house?’
I blinked. ‘The one who’s been asleep for thirty years?’
‘He’s wide awake now,’ she said grimly, ‘because he felt it through the earth: bad visitors coming. He told all of us to get out fast.’
‘But –’
‘Trust me, after everything we went through up north? We don’t stand around and wait when we get those warnings.’ Talvikki sighed. ‘I’ll miss you, though, Sofi. Keep on having adventures, won’t you? Maybe I’ll see you again one day.’
She pulled free with one quick twitch. Less than a minute later, she had vanished with the others into the swirling crowd of blue robes, leaving me staring helplessly after them.
The sun still shone overhead. Sparkling blue water rippled beyond the bridge. Students and salespeople argued and laughed around me as if nothing had changed.
‘Do you think I did this?’ Jasper asked hesitantly. ‘If that troll sensed me flying towards the city and got spooked –’
A scream sounded just in front of us.
Another scream ripped through the air. Then another and another, until almost everyone on the bridge was pointing in our direction and screaming with one panicked voice.
‘DRAGON!’
‘What?’ I sucked in my breath as my guards leaped to flank me.
It’s not possible! Those strangers couldn’t have worked out Jasper’s secret. He hadn’t changed shape, or –
‘Oh no,’ Jasper breathed. He was staring behind me too.
I turned to follow his horrified gaze … and my heart sank. ‘Oh no.’
The unmistakeable silhouette of an enormous dragon flapped inexorably towards us. From its claws dangled a carriage with a flag hanging from it.
A perfectly, horribly familiar flag.
‘That’s my mother!’ Jasper’s voice sounded half strangled.
‘Worse yet,’ I whispered, ‘I’m almost certain that’s my sister.’
We were both in so much trouble.
CHAPTER 13
The journey back to my borrowed house went far too quickly. Jasper didn’t ask any questions about our surroundings, and I didn’t distract him with philosophy. We just hurried in horrible, grim silence as the wide streets of Villenne emptied around us, everyone scrambling for cover.
The Villennese royal guards were waiting outside my front step when we arrived.
‘Your Highness.’ The captain of the guard jerked a bow, his sword gleaming by his side. ‘If you’ll allow us to escort you to the palace …’
‘Of course.’ I sighed. ‘Just let me change my clothes, and then –’
‘I’m afraid that won’t be possible.’ His gaze flicked across my blue student robes and then snapped back to my face. ‘Their Majesties instructed me to escort you to them without delay.’
‘But –’
‘Without any delay,’ he said firmly.
My guards stiffened behind me, but I sagged in defeat. ‘Oh, fine,’ I mumbled.
Of course I would be dressed like a commoner when I greeted my sister in front of the sneering local royals. How else could this day get even worse?
‘Your Highness!’ Ulrike rushed out of the house, her pale hands twisting together before her chest. ‘Oh, thank goodness they’ve found you. I’ve been so worried –’
‘Have you, Ulrike? Have you, really?’ I swung around, letting panic transform
into righteous fury. ‘Didn’t I specifically order you not to write to my sister? How dare you –?’
‘I didn’t!’ Her voice came out as a gasp. ‘I would never disobey a direct order, Your Highness, no matter how deeply I disapprove. You must know that!’
‘Then how do you explain my sister flying all the way out here to –’
‘Ahem.’ Jurgen cleared his throat beside me.
My head whipped around. ‘You?’
‘Forgive me, Your Highness,’ he rumbled quietly. ‘But your safety was my first concern. I made a commitment to the crown princess, you see, before we left.’
My sister was right. I was a fool!
I’d ordered him not to tell Ulrike what I was doing – but I should have known that my ladies-in-waiting weren’t the only ones spying on me for my sister. When I thought of everywhere my guards had accompanied me over the past two and a half weeks – everywhere that Katrin would soon know I’d gone, if she didn’t already … !
Nausea boiled through me in a sickening rush. I staggered and doubled over, struggling to catch my breath.
‘Sofia?’ Jasper grabbed my arm, his voice rising. ‘Are you ill? Do you have some sort of strange human disease?’
‘Not yet.’ I gritted my teeth into the rictus of a smile and forced myself upright into perfect princess posture. ‘I’m just … preparing myself for the boat trip ahead.’
‘We’ll go faster by carriage,’ the captain told me.
‘Of course we will.’ A bitter laugh tore itself from my throat. That whole dreadful, endless boat ride when we’d first arrived! I should have known the queen of Valmarna was having fun at my expense.
She would get plenty more entertainment from me and my family soon enough.
I marched into the Valmarene royal carriage with my back as stiff as any of the wooden boards I’d been strapped to as a toddler to train for days like today, when I would need to stand tall while the whole world watched, no matter how shattered I felt inside.
As my guards and Ulrike settled into place nearby, I stared sightlessly out of the closest window, refusing to meet any of their gazes. Even when I heard Jasper settle himself into the seat across from me, I didn’t let myself turn to face him.
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