The Wrong Side of Magic (19 page)

Hudson raised his hand in protest. “This isn't magic. This is stealing. Your birds steal food all the time.”

She took a deep breath and slowly let it out again. “I have to do this for the princess, and for all the people of Logos who need her.”

Hudson let out a sigh. He supposed he hadn't really expected Charlotte to back out now. “Okay, then. Let's do this.” The faster they got the sword, the sooner they could get away from King Vaygran's city.

Charlotte carefully opened the door and peered outside. “The way is clear,” she whispered.

Hudson followed her into the hallway. The magnet shifted in his hand so its ends pointed to the left, the same direction the map showed they needed to go. “Follow the hallway for two hundred and fifty feet,” the magnet said in a quiet, automated voice.

He and Charlotte tiptoed in that direction. When they came to a staircase, the magnet's ends pointed up. “Follow the—”

“We know,” Hudson said, cutting off the magnet, and started up the stairs.

Charlotte took hold of his arm, stopping him. “If we go that way, we'll run into guards posted in the hallway. I know a passageway through the fireplaces. Come this way.”

Hudson turned and went with her, shoving the magnet into his jacket pocket when it said, “Make a U-turn … or an R-turn. An M-turn would also point you in the right direction.…” The last thing Hudson needed was a bossy magnet alerting people that he was sneaking around the castle.

Charlotte padded down the hallway until they reached an ornately carved door. She carefully pushed it open.

From the glow of the hope jar, Hudson could tell it was a large bedroom. An elaborate chandelier hung from the ceiling over a golden four-poster bed. A pink lace canopy draped across the bed, and flowering vines twined along the posts. The dresser, desk, and an assortment of chairs were each intricately carved, proclaiming their cost.

Charlotte gazed around the room with puzzlement. “They've changed the princess's room. Nothing looks familiar.” She shook her head, as though to clear her mind of such mundane facts, and walked over to a large fireplace. It was made of white stone with leaf carvings around the sides and across the mantel. Two stone falcons sat atop each corner. “The passageway will still be the same,” Charlotte said. “No one knew about this but me and…” She stopped, and her eyebrows drew together as she tried to retrieve the memory. “Someone else knew. I can't remember who.”

“The princess?” Hudson guessed. “Were you friends with the princess?”

Charlotte's eyebrows remained pinched together. “Yes,” she said vaguely, still puzzled. “We must have been.”

She pulled the falcon on the left side of the mantel, tilting it downward. Without making a sound, the blackened back of the fireplace slid open to reveal a hidden stone staircase.

Charlotte had to dip her head to go under the mantel but was able to stand straight when she reached the stairwell. She beckoned to him, holding the hope jar toward him so he could see his way.

Hudson crouched through the fireplace and joined her on the steps. The stairwell was dark with soot and smelled of smoke, and the layer of ashy dust told him no one had come this way for a while.

They climbed slowly up the circular stairs, doing their best to muffle their footsteps in a place that seemed ready to echo. Shadows flickered on the gray wall next to them, dissolving into darkness after they passed by. Hudson didn't like the feeling that the darkness was somehow following them up the stairs, creeping along behind them.

Finally, they came to a small landing where another stone-panel door waited. This one had a crown-shaped knob on one side.

Charlotte placed her hand gingerly on the panel. “It's cool,” she said in a hushed voice. “He doesn't have a fire going.” She leaned forward, listening at the door. After a minute, she whispered, “I don't hear anything. He must be asleep.” She shut her eyes as though saying a prayer. “He must be.”

Charlotte reached over and twisted the crown knob. The stone door noiselessly slid open into a bedroom that was four times the size of the princess's.

Hudson could see it all because several of the room's chandeliers were lit. King Vaygran wasn't sleeping in his large, velvet-draped bed. He sat in an armchair across from the fireplace reading a letter. He glanced up when the fireplace panel opened, and he looked straight at them.

 

11

KING VAYGRAN WAS
a tall man with thick shoulders and black hair that shone like it had been rubbed with oil. His black beard came to such a sharp point, it might have been cut by a pencil sharpener. The beard would have looked odd on most people, but it made him seem tough, like a pro wrestler. Except a wrestler wouldn't wear a gold-trimmed purple tunic or jeweled rings on every single finger. King Vaygran looked so downright royal Hudson could only gawk at him and wonder if he should kneel.

The king's sword scabbard was leaning up against his chair. He'd probably taken it off to sit down.

King Vaygran stood up, a cloud of indignation gathering across his features. “Who are you?”

Hudson didn't know whether to run into the room and grab the sword or to retreat backward and close the door in the fireplace. Retreating would be smarter. He took a step backward.

Charlotte dashed toward the scabbard.

King Vaygran stepped forward to intercept her, his height making her look wispy by comparison. “Guards!”

Charlotte darted around him. She wasn't fast enough. King Vaygran grabbed hold of her arm, twisting it as he pulled her closer. “What have we here?” he asked.

Hudson rushed into the room to help Charlotte. She writhed and wriggled, unable to free herself. “The window!” she called to him.

Hudson understood what she meant. All the shutters in the room were closed. He needed to open one so once they changed into birds, they could escape. He ran to the closest window.

“Guards!” King Vaygran shouted again.

The king's bedroom door rattled. “Your Highness,” a man on the other side called back. “The door is locked.”

The latch on the shutters was shaped like a small silver cat. Hudson fiddled with it, unsure how to open it. He pushed and pulled. Nothing worked. The silver cat just peered back at him condescendingly.

King Vaygran was dragging Charlotte toward the door so he could unlock it and let his guards in. She flailed, hitting him and struggling with every step. She only managed to slow his progress. Once the guards came inside, he and Charlotte would be captured.

“How do I open the shutters?” Hudson yelled. He wasn't sure Charlotte heard him.

At the same time he spoke, King Vaygran boomed out, “Who are you, bratling? Who sent you to sneak in here to slay me?”

Charlotte planted her feet and tugged at his grip. “Let me go! You're a tyrant and a bully!”

Hudson tried sliding, yanking, turning, and prying the cat off the shutters altogether. It only hissed at him with disdain.

King Vaygran peered at Charlotte more closely. “Your voice is familiar. I know you, don't I?” He stopped pulling her toward the door and began pulling her toward some shelves in the wall. “Revealing powder will tell me who you are. Then we'll find out what sort of treachery you're up to.”

There had to be a way to open the cat latch on the window. How come nothing in this place made sense? It was then that Hudson realized he was going about things the wrong way, expecting the rules of his world to apply here. He scratched the cat under its chin, and it lifted its paws, letting the shutters swing open.

King Vaygran had managed to drag Charlotte over to his shelves. He was holding on to her arm so tightly she winced in pain. To the guards outside, he shouted, “Break down the door!”

He took a drawstring bag off one of his shelves. Probably the revealing powder. He would sprinkle it on Charlotte and find out she was Fantasmo's daughter.

Hudson ran to Charlotte. Normally, he wouldn't be able to take anything from a man as big as King Vaygran. This time, however, the king was busy struggling with Charlotte. Hudson wrenched the bag from his hand and threw it across the room. It sailed directly out the window. Baseball, it turned out, was not such a useless skill.

King Vaygran cursed, and his face contorted with rage. He let go of Charlotte and lunged at Hudson, grabbing him so his arms were pinned to his sides. Hudson felt as though he were being squeezed by a boa constrictor.

He kicked at the king's legs as hard as he could. “Get the sword!” he yelled to Charlotte.

His kicks didn't do any good. The king wore thick boots, and Hudson had on the stupid banana shoes.

“Where are my guards?” King Vaygran shouted.

Something heavy thunked against the door. It shook, but held. The door had obviously been built to keep the king safe from intruders.

Charlotte reached the chair and the scabbard lying there. She picked it up and turned back to Hudson with an expression of horror. The scabbard was empty. The sword hadn't been in it at all.

Where was it? The sword had to be somewhere in the room. The magnet had told them it was here. If Hudson could get the magnet out of his jacket pocket, it would be able to point them to the sword.

King Vaygran pulled Hudson toward his bed, threatening him with various painful deaths along the way. Hudson couldn't reach his pocket, let alone get to the magnet.

Charlotte headed back across the room toward them, the scabbard still in her hand. Hudson didn't know what she planned to do with it and didn't get to find out. In one fast move, King Vaygran reached beside his bed and pulled out his sword. Before Hudson could break the man's grasp on him, King Vaygran brought the sword to Hudson's neck, pressing the edge into his throat. Hudson stopped struggling. One wrong move, and the sword would cut him.

“Halt!” King Vaygran yelled at Charlotte.

She did. Her eyes went wide, staring at the sword.

Hudson's heart beat like a basketball team full of panicked dribblers. It was hard to breathe.

He had wanted to find the sword, but this was not how he had envisioned locating it.

“You will tell me everything,” the king said through gritted teeth. “Or your friend will be dead before you can cross the room.”

King Vaygran held on to Hudson's left arm, but his other hand was on his sword. This meant Hudson's right arm was free. Carefully, slowly, he reached into his pocket.

Charlotte saw what he was doing but kept her gaze on King Vaygran's eyes so as not to draw attention to Hudson. “Don't hurt him,” she pleaded. “I'll tell you the truth. I promise.”

The door banged. The castle guards were still fighting against the lock. Splinters flew across the floor. The men would break in soon.

“Who are you?” the king demanded.

“A student,” Charlotte stalled. “A daughter. A friend—”

Hudson carefully fingered through his pocket, feeling for the magnet.

King Vaygran pressed his sword farther into Hudson's neck, sending a sharp pain into his throat. “Don't play games with me,” the king spat out. “What's your name?”

“Charlotte,” she said. This was true, although it wasn't the name King Vaygran would recognize.

“Where did you come from?”

“The fireplace.”

King Vaygran let out an impatient grunt. “Before that.”

“Before that, I was downstairs, and then in the forest.”

Hudson tugged the magnet free from his pocket. The time for moving slowly was over. He slid the magnet onto the sword blade. The move startled the king, and he pushed his sword into Hudson's neck. Fortunately, the sword shrank as quickly as the king pushed. Soon he held nothing at all.

The disappearance of the sword so surprised King Vaygran that, for a moment, he just stared at his hand. Hudson broke away from the king's grasp and headed toward the window, putting both the magnet and the sword into his pocket.

Charlotte pulled out the bell and rang it fiercely.

The king gasped. Perhaps he recognized the bell, or perhaps he'd finally placed Charlotte's voice. He pointed at her. “I know who you are!”

Immediately, Hudson felt himself shrinking. His arms stretched into wings, already flapping before the transformation was complete.

King Vaygran grabbed at him, managing to pull out a couple of tail feathers before Hudson sped across the room. Charlotte, already in her bird form, chirped angrily at the king, then dove out the window. She zoomed downward, going so fast she seemed hardly more than a blur. At first, Hudson had no idea what she was doing, and he hovered in the air, uncertain whether to follow. Then he saw the bag of revealing powder lying on the ground. She snatched it in her talons, pushed upward, and headed toward the city wall.

From the window, the king yelled, “Shoot those birds! Bring them down from the sky!” King Vaygran's guards must have finally managed to come into his room.

Hudson heard the twang of bows, and arrows whizzed by, piercing the air around them. None hit them. It was hard to hit a small moving target in the dark.

He and Charlotte flew over the city, skimming through the air as they raced against time. He felt a growing relief with each flap of his wings. They were free and cloaked by the night. The king's men couldn't catch them now.

As they flew over the city walls, a feeling of wild elation filled him. They'd done it. They'd stolen King Vaygran's sword—not while he slept, but while he was awake and fighting them. Now they had the key to the princess's tower. After they freed her, everything would be set right in Logos, and Hudson could return to Texas. He could go back to his normal life.

He and Charlotte soared over the river, then flew low to the ground as they made their way over the farmland. They were nearly to their campsite when the transformation overtook them. They tumbled to the ground, human again.