Evanescent (Chronicles of Nerissette) Read online

  The beads of blood had quickly become a stream, and I forgot all about concocting an excuse as I focused on finding a way to stop the bleeding. I clenched my hand around the cut, and reached down to shove the mirror shard back into my shoe and slip it back into its place.

  “Your Majesty?” I heard someone call out from my bedroom. “Your Majesty, where are you?”

  “Timbago? What is it?” I hurried out, still clutching my hand to my chest and trying not to get blood on my tunic.

  The goblin pursed his lips and stepped forward, peering at my hand. He extended his arm toward me, twitching his gnarled fingers, and I placed my hand in his.

  A faint warmth jolted through my body, and when it faded my hand no longer throbbed. The skin was clean and completely healed, like I’d never even cut it. Sort of cool. Or scary, if you thought about the fact that a goblin could do that sort of magic. But ultimately cool.

  “Thank you.”

  “It was my pleasure, Your Majesty.” He bowed his head. “Although, I regret to inform you that you are needed in the throne room. Immediately.”

  “In the throne room? Now? Why?”

  “The dragon scouts have returned, Your Majesty.” He dipped his head again and then looked up, his red-rimmed eyes meeting mine.

  “What about Winston? He’s with them, isn’t he?” I watched Timbago turn to my dressing table. He ran his finger over my jewelry box and I watched as it began to hum. He whispered something to the box and I watched stunned as the lid slid back, opening for him. He reached inside the now-open box and began to flick aside various bits of jewelry before he picked up the crystal necklace I’d been wearing earlier.

  “He’s with them, Your Majesty.” His voice was low and breathy, and he grabbed the crystal and held it before his eyes, his green tongue coming out to swipe at his chapped lips. “The crown prince is fine.”

  “Timbago?” I stepped closer, surprised to see the goblin rocking on his heels and humming as he looked at the crystal, his eyes fixed on it as he licked his lips again.

  “You should take this with you.” He stuck his hand out straight, keeping his head turned, so that the necklace dangled in front of me from his outstretched hand. “Keep it hidden if you can.”

  “Why?”

  “It will keep you safe.”

  “The necklace?” Confusion clouded my mind, and the room seemed like it was fading away. Like the picture had gone hazy and my mind was disappearing along with it, making it hard to concentrate on anything as my head spun. “This isn’t the tear,” I pushed out. “It’s just a necklace that Winston gave me for my coronation. A gift from the dragons.”

  “Keep it with you. The magic woven into the stone will protect you.”

  “What magic?” I asked. “The necklace doesn’t have magic.”

  “Forget about the necklace and the stone’s magic.” Timbago’s eyes swirled a brilliant green instead of their usual mud-brown color. My brain had trouble focusing on him again, the world going in and out of focus. “Forget that you are wearing it and go on about your duties.”

  “But—”

  “Forget about the necklace. Focus instead on the Fate Maker. Focus on the battle to come.”

  “Of course.” I put the necklace on, dropping the stone inside my shirt where no one would see it. “I’ll forget about the necklace.”

  “Keep it hidden,” Timbago warned me.

  “I will.”

  “Now.” Timbago grabbed my hand and turned it palm up. “Forget all of this. I’ve healed your hand, and now you can go meet the dragon warriors in the throne room. That’s what I’m doing now. I’m healing your hand.”

  “You already—”

  “I’ll heal your hand, and we won’t tell anyone about this,” he said, his bright eyes still boring into mine, muddling my mind. “You don’t want them to know about the shard you kept. It’s not time for them to know. Not yet.”

  “How did you…?” I tried to focus. “The mirror shard, I’ve kept it hidden. Secret.”

  “The shard is secret. Between me and you alone, Your Majesty. Now is not the time for anyone else to know. Not even the dragon.”

  My mind cleared suddenly, like I was waking up from a long night’s sleep, and I shook my head, trying to focus. “Timbago? What are you doing here?

  Timbago smiled at me. “You’re needed in the throne room, Your Majesty. The dragon scouts have returned.”

  “What about Winston? He’s with them, isn’t he?”

  “He’s with them, Your Majesty.” Timbago patted my hand gently. “The crown prince is fine. Now, come along. You don’t want to keep the crown prince waiting.”

  I nodded. “Let’s go find out what Winston and the others have learned.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “The Fate Maker is on the main road,” Winston announced as he met me at the foot of the main staircase. “His forces will be here soon.”

  “How?” I rushed into the room, and everyone scurried to get out of my way. I ignored the mass of bowing dragons and stalked to my throne. “If the Fate Maker’s army is at Bekal how did he get them here this fast?”

  “They’re using magic,” Ardere said, leaning against the white marble window ledge. “He’ll be here before the sun reaches its highest point at midday. Maybe sooner.”

  “How many? How big is his army?”

  “Big,” Winston said. “Very big. And he’s got wizards.”

  “Including the ambassador from Bathune,” John said. “Ambassador Eriste is gone. He must have fled the palace sometime during the night. Most likely to join the Fate Maker’s army.”

  “That—”

  “Exactly,” he said, his eyes narrowed.

  “And our army? Rhys?” I looked at the young man who was in charge of my troops. “Do you have enough warriors to fight? Have the volunteers all arrived safely?”

  “The soldiers have been inside the walls since last night,” Rhys said. “I inspected them already this morning. When the time comes we’ll be ready.”

  Loud, panicked bells tolled out in the distance, urging my people to find safety, to hide anywhere that the Fate Maker wasn’t. To run as far away as they could get, as fast as they could get there.

  “What about the people who aren’t fighting? The children? The families? Have they evacuated into the forests?” Fear for my people rose in my throat. I didn’t want to take the chance of any innocents dying if I could help it.

  “The ones who wanted to flee have gone,” Rhys explained. “The rest have been flooding into the palace, ready to fight. The back garden is filled with volunteer fighters.”

  “I don’t care about the back garden. I just want everyone safe. We need to make sure that the Fate Maker doesn’t get to the people hiding in the forest. We have to stop him here so they have the chance to escape.”

  “We’ll keep them safe,” Winston assured me with a gentle squeeze of my hand. “I promise.”

  “Good,” I said. “So the question is, what do we do now?”

  “I get our army into position,” Rhys said. “Then, when his men attack we’ll be ready.”

  “Are they ready to fight against the Fate Maker and his monsters?”

  “They could be better.” Rhys swallowed and ran a hand up over his face. “Correction: they have been better, but they’ll hold up under attack. For a while, at least.”

  “Right. Okay. That’s good. If we can just hold him off long enough, maybe he’ll go—”

  A loud whistle shrieked, and all the hair on the back of my arms stood up merely a second before the palace walls shook, a sound like a bomb echoing through the chamber.

  “Too late,” Rhys said, all of us covering our heads.

  “What was that?” Another explosion shook the room as I spoke, and the marble floors buckled and cracked. I reached for one of the large columns that held up the roof and wrapped my arms around it.

  “I’d say we have a group of wizards who have decided to come for a visit,” Rhys said
, kneeling on the ground and bracing himself against the wall. “I don’t think they’re going to believe we’re not home.”

  “Crap,” I yelled as a third blast hit the palace and plaster rained down on me, chunks of marble from the columns hurtling toward us like hailstones. Win grabbed me around the waist with one arm and pulled me closer to the wall, covering my head and shoulders with his own.

  “Your Majesty?” Kitsuna cried out from across the room, huddled near the throne with an empty plate in her hands and food scattered around her on the floor. “What’s going on?”

  “The Fate Maker’s trying to bring the palace down around our ears!” I shouted.

  “I can see that.” Kitsuna scrambled to her feet and hurried over to us. “The walls probably won’t hold much longer,” she said. I felt Winston nod. “We need to get out of here.”

  “Come on.” I waved at Rhys, and he and Ardere managed to get to their feet and follow me, Winston, and Kitsuna out of the throne room. The main doors to the palace had been thrown open, and soldiers ran around the front lawn, grabbing their weapons and hurrying to the walls that surrounded the palace.

  I looked from side to side, trying to figure out where the attacks were coming from, where the wizards were hiding to throw their evil, destructive spells at my army. I couldn’t see anything.

  “People of Nerissette,” Rhys roared, drawing his sword. All the soldiers outside stopped running and turned to look at the tall, dark-haired boy now standing behind me. “To war!”

  “To war!” they yelled back.

  “Dragons to the roof,” Winston commanded. Kitsuna’s hand tightened around my wrist as she led me toward a side passage that would lead us directly to the nearest transport rune.

  “There.” I pointed at a brick near the floor inside the kitchen. “The rune’s there.”

  “Come on then,” Kitsuna said, hustling me toward it. “You’ll want to get to the roof before the dragons take off. Otherwise Winston might leave you on the ground for your own good.”

  “He wouldn’t—” I froze. Because the thing is, he would. My sweet, stubborn, noble boyfriend would absolutely leave me behind if he thought it would keep me safe.

  “Wait.” Mercedes’s voice came behind us.

  I turned to see her running in our direction, huffing for breath.

  “Wait for me. I’m not letting you go up there alone.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked. “I thought you’d been assigned to defend the walls.”

  “You want me to take the chance of you going head-to-head with some monster holding nothing but a sword? Again?” Mercedes snorted. “Please. You need me up there to help watch your back.”

  “You know I have no intention of ending up on the ground again. Right?”

  “Yeah, well, let’s not risk it,” Mercedes said as she grabbed my hand and reached for the rune, mere seconds before I got a grip on Kitsuna. “Take us to the roof.”

  My body jerked hard, crackling like one of those static electricity balls as my hair stood on end, and as the rune’s magic took hold of us, transporting us from the inside of the palace to the roof, it felt like the world was splitting apart. My skin felt like the magic itself was tearing me apart at the seams, and the minute the pain became too much it was gone, instantly, and the world righted itself again there at the highest point of the palace’s roof, in a small, flat space next to the glass dome. For once, sparkles or colored smoke didn’t decorate the transport, and I realized that even the magic that controlled the palace had a pretty good idea that we were in trouble right now.

  “By the Pleiades,” Kitsuna muttered.

  I turned to see what she was looking at.

  The army outside the gates was enormous. Hundreds of soldiers. Maybe thousands. The field was now filled with monsters that I couldn’t have imagined in my worst nightmare. Green-faced goblins, giants, ogres with spiked clubs. Towering creatures that looked like men wearing insect suits of armor holding long knives over the top of their hands as they rode on the backs of animals that looked like elephants, but instead of being cute they had these razor-sharp tusks and paws that reminded me of enormous tigers. Burly soldiers in helmets with hooked faceplates and cruel spikes across the top were ranged behind them, and I watched, stunned as a row of archers lifted their bows and launched a volley of arrows straight at us.

  Kitsuna yanked me down onto the roof beside her and Mercedes, covering both of our heads with her arms.

  “Where did all these soldiers come from?” Mercedes asked. “The Fate Maker’s army wasn’t this big last time.”

  “They’re Bavasama’s.” Kitsuna pointed at a group of soldiers near the front. “That’s why Eriste isn’t hiding his betrayal. He’s out there on the battlefield, leading the army of Bathune.”

  My eyes widened and my mouth hung open as I tried to take it all in. My aunt had officially betrayed me. I hadn’t trusted her before, but I hadn’t really expected her to outright betray me, either. I’d thought she’d have been more secretive about it. More stealthy. “How many of them are there?”

  “I don’t know,” Kitsuna admitted. “But I do know that if those walls don’t hold we’re in serious trouble. We’ll be overrun.”

  “And who’s that?” I pointed to a woman on the ground, a woman with crimson hair who was identical to the one who had ridden behind the Fate Maker on Kuolema’s back in my dreams.

  “That’s your aunt,” Kitsuna said. “The Empress Bavasama herself. It looks like she’s come to steal herself a kingdom.”

  I heard Mercedes gasp.

  “Not today.” I gritted my teeth. “Not if I have anything to say about it.”

  Dragons launched themselves into the air, off the ledges below us, and I turned to stare at them instead of the army that had come to claim my kingdom.

  “Winston!” I yelled and scrambled forward, trying to climb down to where the rest of the dragons were massed, at the far end of my palace’s roof, so that I could reach Winston before he and they took off too. I needed to get on his back and go face down the traitorous witch who had brought her army along to settle a family fight.

  “You need to stay back, Your Majesty.” Kitsuna grabbed me, pulling me toward the dome. I pulled Mercedes with me. “If the walls give, you need to be prepared to run.”

  I watched, frozen, as the creatures kept coming, pushing against the gate, pressing into the hastily reinforced walls we were using as barricades. My archers rained down arrows, and knights and other soldiers jabbed at the enemy with their pikes and blades. But for every man who fell, two more moved forward to take his place.

  “Oh, God.” I grabbed my friends’ hands as a large fireball shot toward our walls and exploded into blue-black flames.

  The dragons swooped forward and blew flames at the enemy. There was a roar, and I turned to see a blue dragon fall, struggling as if caught inside some invisible net. The roars continued before turning into high-pitched, pain-filled shrieks.

  “We need to…” Kitsuna’s shaky voice trailed off as the screeching suddenly stopped.

  A horrible, ominous creak sounded, and then the snap of the gates buckling under the pressure. The enemy troops poured into the palace grounds, bloodthirsty screams filling the air.

  Winston wheeled away from the rest of the dragons, another red dragon and a gold following close behind. The three of them landed heavily on the top of the roof, and he lowered his head in front of me, stretching his neck out so that I could climb on.

  “Come on.” Kitsuna grabbed my hand and urged me forward, toward the dragons. “We need to go.”

  “What? I thought you said I wasn’t riding into battle today?” I yelled as she shoved me toward Winston’s neck and began scrambling onto her mother’s crimson back.

  “We’re not riding into battle, Your Majesty,” Kitsuna said as I hoisted myself onto Winston’s back. “We’re retreating.”

  “How are we going to retreat? My army is trapped inside the walls, and I refuse to leave this p
alace for my aunt. She’s not getting anywhere near my throne.”

  Mercedes dragged herself onto Ardere’s back, keeping a stranglehold on his neck once she made it up.

  Kitsuna pointed down at my army, and I watched in horror as they all started to flee as the Fate Maker’s troops rolled into the front gardens. “Forget about your aunt and your stupid throne! The army is running away! We’re retreating.”

  “There’s a wall back there!” I threw my hand out, motioning to the back of the palace. “There’s no escape.”

  “I’m sure they’ll make one.” Kitsuna gestured to Winston and then met my eyes. “Come on. We can’t take the risk of you being captured.”

  “I don’t have the tear.”

  “Forget about the tear!” Mercedes yelled. “He can’t use the tear without you. So come on. We need to go before they kill us.”

  “I can’t. Not with the Fate Maker and Bavasama here.” I jumped off Winston’s back and sprinted for the rune at the top of the roof. “I’ve got to get the tear. I can’t leave it for him.”

  “Oh, for the love of the Pleiades,” Kitsuna yelled, her footsteps beating behind me.

  I reached the rune and slapped my palm against it. “Take me to the Rose’s Tower.”

  Fingers brushed across my back and the entire world spun as the rune ripped me away from the roof and transported me to my tower.

  I hit the stone floor on my knees, my head spinning, and I put my hand in front of my mouth to keep from vomiting. I pushed myself to my feet and hurried forward, hoping that the Tree Folk doors to my room wouldn’t stand in my way.

  The doors must have realized that I was in a hurry and threw themselves open hard enough to smack against the walls. I raced into the bedroom and grabbed my crown box, tucking it under my arm like my gym teacher used to yell at us to do with the ball when we were playing flag football in gym class.

  A roar from outside made me glance out the windows, where I saw dragons swarming over the back garden, pouring down flames on what I hoped was the Fate Maker’s army. Kitsuna was right—we had to go. We were being overtaken, and I had to keep the tear safe and out of the Fate Maker’s hands.