No Place for Magic (8 page)

I was finally free to find my friends. Slipping into my carriage, I fetched a sleepy little bat and a skittery crab, tucking them into my sleeves. Because there was still no sign of anyone coming to get me, I sat down on a step to wait. "Why did the queen leave you out here?" Shelton asked, his voice muffled by fabric. "Coral would never be so rude. Why don't we just go in and have a look around?"

"Because that wouldn't be polite either. As my old nurse used to say, 'Two wrongs don't make a right.'"

Shelton giggled, tickling my arm with his eyestalks. "And two rights don't make a left. That would take three, wouldn't it?"

I laughed for the first time in days, and said into my sleeve, "That's true. I hadn't thought of that."

"Pardon me, Your Highness, are you all right?" someone asked from the steps behind me.

I turned, holding my sleeve to keep Shelton inside. A scullery maid stood at the top of the steps smelling of fresh baked bread.

"I'm fine," I said. "Why do you ask?"

Giving my sleeve a funny look, she curtseyed and said, "No reason. The queen says I'm to take you to your room. Come this way, if you please." I hurried to keep up with the little maid as she took me through a door and up a winding set of stairs. "I can't take long because Cook doesn't know I'm gone and won't be happy if I'm not there to turn the spit." We turned down a corridor lit only by a few narrow arrow slits. "Ah, here we are. It isn't much, but it's better than some. Now, I'd best be off or Cook'll box my ears again."

The maid shut the door behind her, leaving me in a small room with a tiny unglazed window and a pallet on the floor. When I saw that the trunk that stood in one corner was filled with someone else's clothes, I wondered who had been made to give up her room for me.

"Is she gone?" Shelton asked.

"She's gone," I said, pulling him out of my sleeve and setting him on the trunk.

The crab scuttled across the wooden surface, waving his claws in the air. "So this is where they put us? This is disgraceful! It looks like a closet. Even the butler has a better room in Coral's palace. I would, too, if I had a room."

"We'll be fine here," I said, setting Li'l on the trunk beside Shelton. The little bat fell over, murmuring something about drafty caves, and went back to sleep.

The room was dark, depressing, and as drafty as the rest of the castle, but at least it was clean. I didn't think anyone, including the room's usual occupant, would mind if I made it a bit more pleasant. Using some simple spells, I added a bright-colored tapestry to the wall to keep out the draft and turned the pallet into a regular bed, adding feather pillows and a warm blanket. The rest would have to do.

Shelton was trying to peek inside the trunk when I lifted the chain from around my neck and held my farseeing ball to the light coming through the window, saying,

Find the prince who lives here, too.

Find Eadric's younger brother.

Show me where he is right now

Despite his nasty mother.

'You're going to help that awful woman?" asked Shelton, waving his eyestalks at me. "I know I wouldn't if I were you."

"If you were me, we wouldn't be here," I said. "And just because his mother was rude to me doesn't mean that I won't help find the boy. I'm doing this for Eadric, not for her."

I had to wait a while for the spell to work, which surprised me because my magic is usually much faster than that. When an image finally began to appear in the farseeing ball, it was dim, with lights flickering at the edges, and I had to concentrate before I could understand what I was seeing. It was a narrow, stone-walled passage embedded with some kind of shiny pebbles and . . . The passage seemed to move as I watched, but it wasn't the walls that were moving, it was the prince. Striding along as if he owned the place, Bradston was following some sort of creature carrying a torch that. . .I squinted at the farseeing ball. It was a four-headed troll, which meant that, in the troll world, it was a being to be reckoned with. Other trolls followed behind the prince, one with two heads, the rest with only one.

I was peering at the ball, trying to make out where they might be, when the troll in the lead stopped abruptly. One of the heads glanced down; suddenly my perspective changed and all four heads were looking directly at me. Startled, I nearly let go of the farseeing ball.

"I know what you doing," croaked a head with a bad overbite and fiery red hair that had been chopped into short spikes.

"You not do that here," a brunette head spat at me.

My hand shook. I'd never heard voices or any kind of sound from my farseeing ball before. Every time I'd used it, the ball had shown me an image and nothing more. Even worse was the fact that the troll could see me, too. Some new magic was being worked here, and not through anything that I had done. I looked more closely, hoping to get a clue about what was going on. The troll was wearing an ornate golden chain around all four of her necks and was looking into something connected to the chain. From the way she was holding it I wondered if she might have a kind of farseeing ball of her own. But that didn't make sense. Only magic users could see into farseeing balls, yet I'd never heard of a troll having magic.

' "You try use magic here, I kill boy in worst way," said the red-haired head. "Go now, unless want me show what can do."

A wavering light approached the troll from behind, resolving into a one-headed troll carrying another torch. "Your Majesties," he said, bowing. "Cave behind treasure room ready."

The four-headed troll whipped around to face him. All of the heads shouted at once, but one head seemed the loudest. "Quiet, numbskull!" she shrilled. "Not now! Can not see I . . . " The image in my farseeing ball went fuzzy, then disappeared altogether, something that had never happened before. I frowned and shook the ball, but no other picture appeared. Sighing, I slipped the farseeing ball back under my neckline. At least I knew what had happened to him and where he had gone. The queen of the trolls had kidnapped Prince Bradston and taken him to her underground home.

"I'll be right back," I told Shelton on my way out the door.

The little crab darted to the edge of the trunk. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"To find Eadric," I said. "I have to tell him what I learned."

Armed with my newfound knowledge, I went in search of Eadric. It didn't take long to find him with a discreet tracer spell, but I had to wait outside the door until he'd finished talking to the assembled knights.

"I know who took Bradston," I said as the last knight left the room. "The troll queen has him."

Eadric rubbed his chin, frowning. "The troll queen, huh? I was sure you were going to say that Jorge and Ole-bald took him."

"How do you know where Bradston is?" asked Queen Frazzela. She'd been standing in the corner, and I hadn't seen her when I'd come in.

"I'm sorry you don't like magic, but it was the only way I knew of to find Bradston."

The woman's face turned crimson, and her voice shook as she said, "I knew you would do magic here. You witches are all alike—coming where you aren't wanted to ply your wicked trade. Well, I won't have you casting spells in my castle! I forbid it, do you understand?"

"You forbid it at the cost of your younger son's safety?" I asked, my own voice as steady as I could make it. "Do you really hate magic that much?"

" I . . . " I could tell that the woman had a scathing retort on her lips, but then she seemed to deflate as her maternal side won out. In half-strangled tones she asked, "Where is he? Is he all right?"

"He looked fine, for now. He's in an underground tunnel, wherever the queen makes her home." Turning to Eadric, I asked, "Are there any mines around here? Somewhere you might find precious gems?"

Eadric frowned as he thought. "I remember hearing rumors about Roc Mountain. . . . But that's all they are—rumors. No one who has gone there has ever come back."

"They wouldn't if the trolls lived there, would they? See what you can find out about that mountain. I think that's where we'll find him."

"What do you mean
we?"
demanded Queen Frazzela. "Who do you think you are to invite yourself along? Eadric will lead the search party, and they won't need you or your horrid magic!"

"I'll have to go with them if either of your sons is to come back. Eadric is the bravest man I've ever known, but even he is no match for a mountain full of trolls. Just who do you think would have the advantage in the queen's own mountain? He won't have a chance without me, so I'm going whether you want me to or not!"

Eadric put his arm around me and pulled me closer to kiss my cheek. "I'd rather you stayed here," he whispered in my ear. "Trolls are horrible creatures, and I may not be able to protect you the way I'd like."

"I'm going with you, Eadric. Don't you know me well enough to know that I can protect myself?"

"With my help," he said. "But I'll be busy helping Bradston."

"And so will I," I said, looking into his eyes so he'd know that I meant it.

Eadric sighed and turned back to his mother. "Emma is the Green Witch—the most powerful witch in her kingdom and probably in ours as well. I'd rather not take her into danger, but if she's willing to go, we stand a much better chance of getting Bradston out safe and sound."

"I see you're siding with her!" the queen said, looking as if she'd been slapped.

"It's not a matter of taking sides. I love Emma, Mother. I'm marrying her, with or without your permission, and I believe she's right about this."

Queen Frazzela drew herself up to her full height, which was still shorter than either of us. "Just bring Bradston back," she said, her eyes blazing. "And keep your nasty little witch and her horrid magic away from me!"

And this woman is going to be my mother-in-law?
I thought, then bit my lip as I wondered how I'd ever be able to spend part of each year living in a castle with her.

Seven

T
he rest of the day was spent preparing for our expedition. Gathering food and weapons takes time, as does readying horses and men. Later I was told it was amazing that everything was ready to go so quickly. I didn't use any magic where anyone could notice, but if swords were sharpened more easily and food was more plentiful than expected just because I happened to be around, no one seemed to mind. If we had to take an army with us, I wanted to make sure that it didn't hold us back.

Hortense was upset that I was going, but not enough to want to join us. Once Queen Frazzela understood that I was going no matter what, she ignored me until we were about to leave. After a tearful good-bye to Eadric, she turned to me and said, "Take good care of my boys." It wasn't much, but at least it was something.

We were riding through the ranks of soldiers that were waiting to follow us when I noticed the way that some of them were looking at me. As far as I knew I had done nothing to warrant it, but their eyes showed how little they liked me. It made me wonder if they had seen me at the tournament or had simply heard rumors about me. Either way, it left me feeling unsettled and edgy.

The sun was rising over the mountaintop when we crossed the narrow causeway. Because we had to move as quickly and silently as possible, I'd left my carriage behind and rode Gwynnie, who was under strict instructions to be quiet. Both Li'l and Shelton were in my sleeve again, partly because they wanted to go and partly because I didn't want to leave them with Eadric's mother. Although King Bodamin had wanted to accompany us, his leg had swollen with gout and he wasn't in any condition to ride. I felt sorry for him because he was obviously in pain, but pleased that it meant Eadric and I could ride together.

We had scarcely left the causeway when Eadric's second-in-command rode his horse up to ours. "I suggest we take the northern route off the mountain," he said, opening a map drawn on a square of hide. "The trail is steeper, but it would take us to the valley only a few miles from Griffin Pass. There shouldn't be any griffins there this time of year, and it leads east to the foot of Roc Mountain."

Eadric traced the pass with his finger. "That route would add nearly a day to the ride. Wouldn't it be better to approach the mountain from the south?"

"I'd advise against it, Your Highness. A basilisk has moved into these caves," the soldier said, tapping the map. "And there are rumors of other beasts killing travelers here and here. No one has passed that way successfully in two or three years. Whatever is there isn't letting anyone through. And as for the woods beyond . . ."

"We'll take the northern route then," said Eadric. "If we ride harder and faster, we should be able to cut back on any extra time it would take."

"Very good, Your Highness," said his officer, letting his mount drop back as we rode on.

He had been right about the trail being steeper. Eadric and I spoke in muted voices until we reached an area where the slope was angled too sharply for all but the most sure-footed of horses. The trail changed at that point, snaking across the slope, then switching back on itself in a slightly less perilous descent. A small group of soldiers preceded us down the trail while the rest followed behind. We grew quiet, talking only to our horses to reassure them when they balked at the more difficult spots. As we zigzagged across the mountain's face, we could hear the men behind us, out of sight behind the rocks and the spindly trees that grew on that part of the mountain. Gwynnie was nervous, so I still had to give her most of my attention, but I did catch a few words here and there.

". ,. a witch, I tell you."

"Where I come from, we drive witches out."

". . . might not be true . . .

". . . hear the queen?"

". . . after that tournament. . ."

Although I tried not to let their conversation bother me, I couldn't help but remember the way some of them had looked at me in the courtyard. Back home in Greater Greensward I was respected more for being the Green Witch than I'd been for being a princess. Here I had the feeling that being a princess was the only thing that kept them from throwing stones at me. When I turned to say something to Eadric, his jaw was set and he looked angry. It seemed he had heard them, too.

When our horses were on more normal footing again, I tried to distract Eadric by telling him what had happened when I saw the troll queen. We talked about trolls, sharing what we knew. I'd heard that they liked to brag. He'd heard that they were vicious fighters who ate their defeated enemies. We'd both heard that they weren't very smart and that they avoided sunlight, preferring to live in caves and deep forests. It was rumored that the touch of sunlight on their skin could turn them to stone, but neither of us knew anyone who had actually seen that happen. Neither of us knew much about the troll queen either, other than what I'd seen. As we entered another section of the pine forest, we grew silent, not sure who or what might be listening.

We stopped that night in a valley, setting up camp on both sides of a brush-lined brook that was fed from snow-chilled mountain streams. We were traveling light, so the men were going to sleep out in the open on one side of the brook near the tethered horses. Eadric insisted that I have a tent set up on the far side. I think he was remembering what he'd overheard as well as the way his men had looked at me the few times we'd stopped, because he wouldn't let any of them come near me.

I went to bed as soon as the tent was ready, but the thin fabric didn't prevent me from hearing the cries of unfamiliar birds and night-hunting animals, as well as other creatures that I didn't normally notice. My hearing was still sensitive from the spell I'd used to talk to the butterfly. I hadn't undone it yet because I wasn't sure that I wanted to; I could hear so many interesting things now. But as I lay awake, listening to the mice in the ground under my tent and the aphids on the leaves nearby, and a lot of other creatures that I couldn't identify, I wondered if I might not be better off without it. At least then I might be able to get some sleep.

Suddenly I heard the
whump
of huge wings cutting through the night sky. When the horses started screaming, and I heard the distinctive screech of a griffin, I couldn't just lie there and do nothing. Knowing that griffins were very territorial and wouldn't be able to resist the cry of another of their kind, I sat up in the dark and said a simple spell to have a griffin distress call lead the approaching griffin far into the forest. It was something that
could have
happened on its own, so it shouldn't raise anyone's suspicions.

When I heard the call of the false griffin, its strident notes sounded all too close. As the real griffin responded, the call moved away, leading the griffin farther and farther from our camp. It took a while for the horses to settle down, but when they did, I finally drifted off to sleep . .. and woke up soon after as Li'l popped back into the tent, making the smallest of sounds. After spending most of the day cramped and stiff inside my sleeve, she had gone off to explore when it grew dark. I was surprised that she was back so soon.

"Psst,
Emma!" she said. "Wake up!"

"Li'l," I said. "It's the middle of the night! What are you . . .

"Shh! Don't talk, just listen!"

I did then, waiting for her to explain, but it wasn't her voice that she wanted me to hear. Someone or something was coming through the woods and trying to be quiet about it. I listened harder. Whatever they were, there was more than one out there. I tried to shut out the other sounds and focus on the new arrivals. There were a lot of them, and they were coming our way.

"Who are they?" I whispered.

"I don't know," said Li'l. "They're big and ugly and smell bad, and you wouldn't believe it, but some have more than one head and . . ."

"Trolls!" I said, throwing off my blanket. Grabbing Shelton, my shoes, and my cloak, I slipped under the tent flap and would have stumbled over Eadric if there hadn't been a full moon that night to light up the clearing. He was sleeping on the ground in front of my tent, his hand on Ferdy's scabbard. Knowing him, he was probably there to guard me. I clapped my hand over his mouth and shook him by the shoulder. "Eadric, be very quiet and listen to me," I said when his breathing changed and I could tell that he was awake. "Trolls are coming through the woods. We have to warn the others."

I could feel Eadric nod under my hand. "Stay behind me," he whispered when I'd uncovered his mouth. After he'd belted Ferdy's scabbard on his hip, Eadric and I crept toward the brook. We had nearly reached the water's edge when the first troll appeared, bringing with him the smell of rotten eggs. Crouching behind a shrub, we watched as he swung his club in an arc and smashed my tent flat. The ground beneath us vibrated as the troll raised his club over and over again, beating the tent into the soil.

Eadric set his hand on Ferdy and was about to draw him from the scabbard when other trolls appeared, no longer making any effort to be quiet. The smell grew stronger the closer they came, until it was almost overwhelming. I placed my hand on Eadric's to prevent him from waking his sword, then pushed him farther into the brush while the trolls milled around, bellowing so loudly that it hurt my ears.

As other trolls converged on my campsite, I wondered why they had attacked my tent first and seemed to be ignoring Eadric's men. It was only after they began crashing around that the knights and soldiers had noticed them, taking up their weapons before the trolls had even looked their way. The first trolls to see the men now jumped from stone to stone to cross the water, and the fighting began. Men shouted, trolls bellowed, horses screamed while swords flashed in the light of the campfires, and clubs thudded against fragile bones. Roaring so loudly that my heart jumped in my chest, the trolls ripped up saplings and used them to knock men flying into the night air, only to land in silent, broken heaps. It was obvious that the men were outmatched. One man fell for every swing of a troll's club, yet the men's swords seemed to have little effect on the trolls.

As more trolls entered the clearing, trampling the remains of my tent into the dirt, we could hear others coming through the woods behind us. Eadric and I were still crouched behind the shrubs when Li'l came back. 'You wouldn't believe how many are out there!" she said, fluttering her wings in agitation. "The woods are full of them!"

"Your men don't stand a chance!" I whispered to Eadric.

"I have to go help them," he said, trying to pull Ferdy out as he rose from a crouch.

I pulled him back down, saying, "No, you don't. Even Ferdy would be useless in a fight like that. If you go now, you'll be killed. Then where would I be without my Eadric? And what would your brother do without you there to rescue him? Look, your men are retreating."

Eadric looked over in time to see his men leaping onto their horses' backs and tearing up the slope, away from the trolls and us. Instead of following, the trolls lumbered back to the water's edge. "What we do now, Headbonker?" hollered one.

"Follow them, idiots!" shouted a troll with two heads sprouting from his stocky body. He was dressed in a tunic edged with silver and seemed to have an air of authority about him. Gesturing to the rest of his army, he shouted, "All you trolls, hunt humans down!"

"That's not good," I said. "We can't have all these trolls marching on the castle. If I can just keep the other trolls from crossing the . . . I know what I'll do. Keep your head down and Ferdy in his scabbard so I can concentrate."

"What do you have in mind?" Eadric asked.

"You'll see," I said, and began my spell.

This brook sleeps in its graveled bed

As it has since ages past.

Please wake it now and make it grow

To a river deep and vast.

Even in the moonlight I could see the brook changing. Once a yards-wide flow of water only a foot deep, the brook swelled, overflowing its banks as if floodwaters from upstream were just now reaching it. The water that had been so clean when we'd stopped for the night became murky with silt and the plant life it carried away. It reached the brush where Eadric and I were hiding, forcing us out into the open, but the trolls had gathered by the water and were too intent on what it was doing to notice us.

The trolls who had been midstream when the water swelled were swept off their stepping-stones and carried away, splashing and choking. Those who had been about to cross turned around and began shoving the trolls behind them. A brawl broke out as the river rose around their ankles, then up to their knees.

I was wondering what I should do next when I saw the troll leader coming our way. For the first time I noticed a chain with a ball around his neck that reminded me of the one I'd seen on the troll queen. "Quiet!" he bellowed, and the fighting trolls froze in place. While one head stared at the ball, telling the other head what it saw, the second head looked around as if trying to find whatever the first head was describing. The troll took another step, then another, until the second head glanced our way and saw Eadric and me crouched behind a too-small rock. "She there!" the troll roared, raising his arm to point. The gathered trolls turned to gape. Brandishing their clubs and shouting, the closest ones started lumbering toward me.