To Catch a Queen (30 page)

“Not a physical one,” Amelia said. The chain went around her middle, and she was doing an excellent job of remaining calm. The much-shorter Athena was in more distress, as the chain pinned her arms to her sides.

“You know, he didn’t specify dealing with the knot itself,” Sophie mused out loud. “The knot isn’t the weak point. What if we all focus on one particular link in the chain?” She reached out and touched a tiny link that, so far, wasn’t in physical contact with the two women.

Sophie focused all her magical energy on that link. She sensed the flow of power coming from Nana and the two enchantresses. Her fae magic did little good, but enchantress magic was designed to fight fae magic.

Athena cried out as the chain tightened. It was slipping upward as it constricted and was very close to her neck. The targeted chain began to glow. Risking a burn, Sophie grabbed and twisted it. It broke apart in her hand, and she flung the ends of the chain apart, freeing the enchantresses.

Sophie’s fingers didn’t start stinging until a moment later. There were blisters on the tips of her thumb and first two fingers. Nana noticed this, as well, and grabbed her wrist before Sophie could follow the instinct to put her fingers in her mouth. “Cold water’s what you need,” she said.

Athena ran to retrieve her bag and came back with a bottle of water, which she poured over Sophie’s hand.

“I believe it’s time for your puzzle for me,” Niall called out. His voice was as smug as ever, but when Sophie glanced his way, she thought he looked a little alarmed. “Or are you going to forfeit?”

Sophie looked at Nana to see if she’d come up with anything, but Nana shook her head. It was probably unfair to expect much of her, since she’d come out of the fog of advanced Alzheimer’s not too long ago, but Sophie was also drawing a blank.

She needed to prey on his weakness, or, if not his personal weakness, then a weakness common to his kind. Looking out at the spectators, where her sister, Michael, and Jen were watching her, gave her an idea. “Jen, Em, can you come over here for a moment?” Turning to her grandmother, she added, “And I’ll need you, too, Nana.”

She ended up with a row of redheads. No one would get them mixed up because they were all of different heights, had different facial features, different eyes, and different shades of hair color. No human, that was. To the fae, they all looked more or less alike, which was why Maeve’s people had grabbed Jen while looking for Emily and why Niall’s attempt to put Jen on the throne might have worked, even with fairies who’d seen Sophie as queen.

The difference was in their auras, and Emily’s aura had been magically altered to protect her. Sophie went to the enchantresses. “Can you do some temporary aura tweaking on all of us?”

“Of course,” Amelia said, sounding almost insulted.

While the enchantresses did their magic, Sophie employed fairy magic to adjust their glamours, putting them all in the images of royal robes. When Amelia and Athena indicated that they were done, Sophie had the group of redheads mingle, mix up, and then line up, their backs to Niall.

Without facing him, Sophie called out, “Can you find my sister in this group?” At her signal, they all turned to face him.

Sophie couldn’t remember if Emily had ever been identified to him as her sister, but he must have been the one trying to draw her back into the Realm before he switched to Jen as a backup plan. For most humans, spotting the sisters in the group would have been easy, in spite of the drastic height difference between Emily and Sophie. Their faces were almost identical. Emily often joked about Sophie being her “Mini Me.”

But Niall frowned at the lineup. Emily started humming the
Jeopardy
theme under her breath, and Sophie had to restrain herself from shooting a glare at her sister, for fear that a scolding big sister would give away the game.

A soft rumble from the crowd suggested that they were getting restless. At the very least, they were bored and were talking among themselves. Sophie wondered if the boredom would count against her—for coming up with a boring puzzle—or against him—for taking so long to solve it.

Tallulah finally stepped forward and said, “Time is running out. Should we give him a hint? Or perhaps pose an easier question? This will not count as solving the puzzle, but can you tell which of these women is the true queen of the Realm—at least, until the challenge is concluded? If you can find the queen, that might help you find her sister.”

Niall pondered for a long time. At last, he pointed to Nana and said, “This is the queen.”

“She is in the royal lineage,” Tallulah admitted, “so you are at least partially correct. But now, can you solve the puzzle that was posed to you?”

With the air of a man making a wild guess, he pointed to Sophie. “This is the sister.” It actually wasn’t a bad guess, since Sophie looked more like Nana than any of the others did, but it was still wrong.

Sophie dropped the glamours and stepped out of the lineup. “Sorry. You got the second queen, not the sister.”

He turned to Tallulah in dismay. “Is this a trick? They’re lying!”

She shook her head. “No, you were wrong. I can verify which is the sister. The queen has won this contest. Your majesty, the next challenge is yours.”

It was the final contest, and if the score really mattered at all, Sophie and Nana were ahead. Still, the final challenge needed to be something so definitive that it would make the final vote an obvious choice.

“The next challenge will be a contest of mastery over the Realm,” Sophie said as the solution came to her. “After all, the true ruler should be able to sense the power of the Realm and use the fabric of the Realm.”

“And how do you propose to test this?” Tallulah asked.

“A race to the real palace and back. Each contestant must bring back a rose from the palace garden.” Sophie wasn’t even sure why that popped into her head, but the more she thought about it, the more
right
it was.

Of course, she’d need to get there before Niall did, but she thought she could manage that. While Tallulah laid out the task and the rules, Sophie reached out to the sense of the Realm that constantly verged on her awareness. A tweak
here
and an adjustment
there
created a detour or two and a few good obstacles. For good measure, she added a loop, like a metaphysical roundabout with a hidden exit.

When Tallulah gave the starting signal, Sophie grabbed Nana’s hand and stepped out for the palace. They arrived across the river from the drawbridge, where Sophie had first seen the palace when it was covered in thorny vines like something out of a fairy tale. “Okay, let’s get that rose,” she said, heading for the drawbridge.

Nana grabbed her wrist, pulling her back. “Wait. I presume you bought us some time?”

“Of course.”

“Good girl. Then I think I should go through the trials for the throne.”

“I already did that. That’s how the palace woke and the Realm was restored.”

“Just in case, I think it’s a good idea that both of us meet the requirements. Both of us competed in this contest, and if I didn’t really qualify, he might try to use that loophole against us.”

“Okay, I guess. It shouldn’t take long since I know how it works now.” Sophie raised her voice and said, “I call out for your aid again.” She hoped the little fairy creatures would be there this time. Turning to Nana, she added, “We’d also better make sure Niall
doesn’t
meet the requirements.”

“Then maybe we shouldn’t have sung the song in front of him.”

“That’s if he recognizes it for what it is or can figure it out. I gave each verse to Maeve as we went, and she still failed all the tests.”

Much to her relief, the ground was soon alight with the little creatures. “Why, they are like in the storybooks!” Nana exclaimed.

“You might not want to look too closely at them,” Sophie said with a wince. “But they’re very helpful.” She sang the relevant verse of the song: “If she can cross not wetting her feet, then she will know the way to my heart.” The lights flowed into the river, and a giant lily pad appeared near the shore. “After you,” Sophie said.

Nana stepped gingerly onto the lily pad, and a second pad appeared. She grew steadier and more confident as she crossed. Sophie came behind her, and when they were both on the far shore, the lily pads and the lights in the water vanished.

The gate opened easily for them, and as soon as they were inside, Sophie reached out in her mind to cast the spell that would hide the palace. She didn’t know how long it would be before Niall got there, and she thought it was only fair that he get the full experience.

They crossed the garden path of mixed stones and shells, the little creatures clearing the way so Nana could follow the instruction not to step on a shell. That brought them to the rose garden. Nana sang that verse softly to herself before picking up an older bloom that was fully opened and darkened to a red so deep it was nearly black. Sophie couldn’t help but smile at the sense that Nana was doing all the right things. She supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised, considering that Nana was the one who’d taught her.

The hedge opened to reveal the maze ahead. “I suppose I need to complete the maze instead of us just running back with the rose,” Nana said.

“I haven’t noticed any sign of Niall,” Sophie said, looking behind them while also sending out her magical senses. Where was he? Even with the obstacles she’d set in his path, he should have been here by now. He might not deserve the throne, but he was still a powerful fairy ruler centuries older than she was and with far more experience in the Realm.

The maze wasn’t particularly complicated, since the song gave the directions: all left turns, aside from one final turn to the right. That brought them to a door. “It will take blood to open it, won’t it?” Nana said.

“That’s how it worked for me,” Sophie confirmed.

Nana ran her thumb across a thorn, then pressed it on the door frame. The door opened, and Nana glanced back at Sophie. “That should do it, then.”

“Wait, one more thing. The crown.” Sophie had almost forgotten that she still wore it. It was surprising how quickly she’d become accustomed to its weight on her head. She reached up and removed it.

Nana took off her hat so that Sophie could place the crown on her head. When the crown touched her, Nana’s eyes glazed over slightly, and Sophie hurried to steady her. She remembered what it had been like when she’d first been crowned. It was like plugging her brain directly into some kind of fae database. She’d been sitting on the throne at the time, so she didn’t know if Nana was getting the full experience, including the flashback to the story of their ancestor, the last queen of the Realm, but she could tell that something big was happening to her grandmother. It also looked like the crown wasn’t rejecting her. That was a good sign.

Eventually, Nana’s eyes came back into focus. It might have been Sophie’s imagination, but she was pretty sure she looked even younger. Her hair was darker and redder, almost Emily’s color, her eyes were brighter, her skin smoother, and her posture straighter. Sophie had never realized that her grandmother was actually taller than she was. “Your majesty,” she said with a smile, dipping a slight curtsy.

“Oh, none of that,” Nana said, reddening slightly. “We should get back and win this contest once and for all.”

“Not so quickly.”

They both whipped back around at the sound of Niall’s voice. He stood insolently inside the doorway, a red rose tucked into the buttonhole of his lapel.

If Sophie had spoken, she would have stammered incoherently, so she kept her mouth shut and hoped her glare spoke volumes for her. Her self-control was tested when Maeve joined Niall. “Hello, your majesty,” she said, her voice laden with sarcasm.

Sophie was so surprised that by the time she sensed the darkness closing in around her, it was too late to stop it.

The Throne Stone

Meanwhile

The fairies might not have had much sense of time, but Emily sure did, and she was getting impatient. Sophie and Nana had been gone far too long, and Emily didn’t trust what Niall might do out of sight of the rest of the Realm. Why had Sophie come up with such a silly test? It was like she’d deliberately created her own trap and walked into it.

Emily tugged at Michael’s sleeve. “How long have they been gone now?”

He checked his watch. “It’s only been about twenty minutes.”

“That’s way too long, isn’t it? Sophie can get entirely across the Realm with a single step, so this thing should have taken five minutes, tops. A step or two to get there, grab a rose, a step or two back, and boom, done!”

“Remember that time is weird here. That twenty minutes on my watch may not mean anything.”

“Don’t tell me you’re not worried.”

“I suspect Sophie’s up to something, and you know her, she has it all under control.”

“I imagine your grandmother is is being qualified to take the throne,” Amelia said. Athena punctuated that with a reassuring pat on Emily’s back.

“Oh, right!” Emily said, suddenly feeling a lot better. “
That’s
what they’re doing. They’ll want to run through all the tests in that song. And, bonus, if Niall doesn’t do that, then he’s not up to par. Okay, doing all that stuff might take a little time, even if they already know what to do.”

But although Emily now knew what might be taking so long, the rest of the crowd was getting restless. They may not have measured time in the human way, but they did get bored easily. A party had broken out, with music and dancing. In another part of the gathering, there were a few fights going on, with spectators wagering on the outcome. On the other side of the field, a big group was playing a game that looked like a psycho cross between baseball and rugby. If the royal contestants didn’t return soon, their kingdom would have forgotten why they were there. Emily wondered if that would help or hurt Sophie’s claim.

Michael was the next one to grow anxious. He checked his watch again and said, “Now it’s been half an hour. That’s more than long enough. I don’t think it took this long the first time around when there was a battle going on and Maeve was using you as a hostage.”