Everlast (The Chronicles of Nerissette) (Entangled Teen) Page 13

  “Rhys is from our world. England, actually.”

  He nodded. “Brighton.”

  “Brighton?” she parroted.

  “Like the princess just explained, it’s in England. Anyway, I fell through the book about five years ago,” Rhys said, “and ended up here, running an army of my very own.”

  “Crap, you’ve been here five years?” Mercedes asked. “Why?”

  He led us out of the underbrush and started across the grass. I picked up my heavy skirts and trudged along after him. My best friend’s shorter skirt didn’t give her nearly as many problems—leaves were apparently more versatile than velvet.

  “The same reason you’re here,” Rhys said. “My father bought the book at some shop in London when he went there for a business meeting, and then one day I opened it and boom, here I am.”

  “If your dad bought it, why didn’t it pull him through?” I asked. “It would have made more sense to take a grown-up to lead the army.”

  “The book did take him,” Rhys said, his jaw tightening and his eyes focused off into the distance. “When I was three.”

  “Wait, so one day he was just gone?” Mercedes asked.

  “I never even knew he existed. One day he was there, and the next it was like I’d have a vague thought about Dad but everything except the word itself was sort of hazy. Mom never mentioned him, and I just sort of forgot he existed. Then I came here, and they explained it. He wasn’t some hazy memory anymore; I could remember everything, like he’d never left.”

  “So, your father is here?” I asked. “He’s been in Nerissette this entire time?”

  “He was,” Rhys said. “But he died fighting a troll. Then the Fate Maker’s cat claimed that it was to clear the way for my own disappearance. She took me the next day.”

  “You never got to see him again?” Mercedes asked, uncharacteristic tears welling in her eyes.

  “It wasn’t like I would have had much to say to him,” Rhys said stiffly. “We didn’t even know each other. All I had were the memories of a three-year-old.”

  “That’s horrible.” She reached for his shoulder, but he jerked away from her.

  “Anyway, we’re here.” He stopped and motioned to Winston. “They said at the aerie that you can manage your change now?”

  “I can.”

  “Good. There’s a small clearing.” He pointed toward the trees. “You can change there, and when you’re ready take off, Balmeer will join you in the air.”

  Winston nodded and then gave my hand a quick squeeze before he hurried off into the trees. Before he’d gone more than ten feet he had disappeared, swallowed by the dark shade around him.

  “Will he be all right?” I kept staring at where Winston had gone.

  “He’ll be fine,” Rhys said. “Now, come help me find a stick. You said you can fence. Let’s see how good you are.”

  “What?”

  “Well, what else do you want to do while they’re hunting? We might as well see if you can actually use a sword. When the Time of Waiting ends you may need it.”

  “But I thought that was the army’s job? I can fence a little bit, but you’re the one with the soldiers.”

  “And my soldiers and I will do everything in our power to keep you safe,” Rhys said. “There may be a chance, though, no matter how hard I, or my soldiers, or your friend the dragon tries, that you’ll need to protect yourself.”

  “Do you think it will really come to that?” Mercedes asked.

  “We have no idea what’s coming for us,” Rhys said. “It’s better that we be safe rather than sorry. And if I were you, tomorrow on your nature walk with Darinda, I’d ask to learn a weapon. You never know when you might need it to guard yourself and your tree.”

  “I will,” she said quietly. “She’s already offered to have me trained on the bow, so I’ll start taking lessons.”

  “Good.” He nodded. “Now, you find two somewhat-straight sticks while I send Balmeer up to hunt, and we’ll work on your fencing, Princess. Just in case.”

  “Okay.” I started searching the ground around the clearing for branches that we could use as practice swords. “Rhys?”

  “Yes?” He didn’t meet my eyes, just held his arm up and let Balmeer begin to inch down toward his hand.

  “I’m really sorry about your dad. Once this is all over, I want you to know, I’m going to find each and every one of us a way home. Anyone the book stole will have a way home.”

  I found a branch near the tree line and grabbed it. A few feet away was another one, a bit twisted in the center, but it would work.

  “Why?” Rhys asked. “I already told you—there’s nothing for me there. For any of us. I’ve been gone for five years, Princess. Five years. My mother has forgotten me, and no matter what the Fate Maker says, there’s no way I can go back and just slot into that life again. Not after everything I’ve seen.

  “I wouldn’t even know where to find my mum anyway. It’s been five years. Where would I go, Princess? Where would any of us go?” Rhys asked, his voice bitter. “And how would we explain what we’ve seen? Done?”

  “I don’t know,” I said, feeling defeated. “I’m sorry that you feel you can’t go home.”

  “My place is here.”

  Rhys clicked his tongue against his teeth, and Balmeer launched himself upward with a shriek, soaring into the air.

  “Will he come back?” Mercedes asked, distracted by the large bird’s takeoff.

  “He always has before,” Rhys said. “He’s not easy to lose, much like your erstwhile prince.”

  “Oh, no.” Not Jesse, I really didn’t want to deal with him along with everything else today.

  “Perhaps we’ll leave fencing practice for another day? I don’t feel like teaching him not to stab himself if I can avoid it. Besides, I think the less your crown prince knows, the better off we’ll all be. Especially when it comes to your fighting abilities.”

  “What? You mean Jesse?” Mercedes dropped onto the grass and stretched her legs out in front of her, crossing her ankles.

  I remembered how he’d supported the Fate Maker last night, how willing he’d been to justify the wizard’s behavior. I definitely didn’t want to take the chance of him telling the Fate Maker that Rhys had been training me for war.

  I sat beside Mercedes and tried to look innocent. “Oh yes, Prince Jesse the Valiant and Brave.”

  Rhys sat beside us and then laid back, his arms crossed behind his head, like we were all just hanging out instead of skirting around the edges of an outright rebellion.

  “How did he know we’d be here?” I asked.

  “He’s been following us,” Rhys said. “I thought we’d managed to lose him when we came into the forest, but he should be coming into the clearing in three, two, one…”

  “Allie,” Jesse said, breaking through the underbrush, his face flushed and his voice faint as he gasped for air.

  “Jesse.” I tried to smile. “Hi.”

  “I’ve been looking for you since breakfast,” Jesse said. “The Fate Maker said you were taking a day off. Why didn’t you wait for me? We could have hung out in the palace. Instead of out here in the…wilderness.”

  “I thought you might want to hang out with Heidi, since she is your girlfriend and all.”

  “That, and we don’t like you,” Mercedes added under her breath.

  “I told you last night.” Jesse sat beside me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, rubbing his hand along the length of my arm like he was trying to warm me up, or something equally strange. “Heidi and I aren’t really a thing.”

  “Since when?” Mercedes asked, her eyes wide at the sight of Jesse caressing my upper arm.

  Rhys coughed, his eyes twinkling with suppressed laughter.

  “Since…” Jesse froze. “Well, we’ve never really been a thing. She thinks we are, though, and I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.”

  “Right.” Rhys didn’t bother to hide the scorn in his voice. “How very gal
lant of you. Princess Allie is lucky to have such a man willing to be her knight devoted. I don’t know why she’d have chosen to spend time with a dragon changeling instead.”

  “You mean Winston?” Jesse asked.

  There was a loud crack and then the harsh crackle of leaves, like we were trapped in a windstorm. Then a large black dragon appeared above the trees, its wings beating steadily until it reached the roc flying above.

  I gasped. “Is that… There’s no way that’s…”

  “The guy who’s going to shish-kebab Prince Charming over here?” Mercedes asked.

  “He’s amazing,” I said, my eyes fixed on him. “I can’t believe it.”

  “He’s all right, I guess,” Jesse said from beside me. “If you like flying lizards.”

  “I think we can definitely say that some people are into that,” Mercedes said. I would’ve smacked her if I hadn’t been so awed.

  Rhys chuckled. “He will be a magnificent warrior.”

  “He’s not that great,” Jesse said. “I mean, it’s not like I wouldn’t be just as great if the Fate Maker had turned me into a dragon.”

  “I wonder why he didn’t, then?” Rhys asked dryly.

  “Because…” Jesse lifted his chin and straightened his shoulders, almost like he were trying to appear kingly or something. “Because I’m better suited to ruling.”

  “Ruling?” Mercedes asked. “What makes you think you’re going to rule anything?”

  “Well, I’m Allie’s crown prince. Once she’s crowned queen they’ll name me king.”

  “No, you’ll still be a prince,” Rhys said.

  “What?” Jesse asked.

  “The Golden Rose of Nerissette is a female monarchy. Only the women rule. Allie will become Golden Rose, and you’ll still be Crown Prince Jesse.”

  “But I’ll be her consort. That makes me king.” Jesse looked between me and Rhys. “Doesn’t it?”

  “Wrong,” Rhys said. “You’re nothing but an accessory. Like a pair of earrings.”

  “Or a snack she keeps in her purse to feed her dragon,” Mercedes said.

  “No way.” Jesse moved his mouth, but no sound came out. “But when I spoke with the Fate Maker this morning he said I was essential to the ruling of the kingdom. I’m not just some…”

  “I’m still going with snack,” Mercedes said. “A snack for a dragon who I bet is getting really hungry.”

  He glared at her, his eyes blazing, and his grip on my shoulder tightened. “When I’m king I’ll show you who’s the dragon snack.”

  “Like Rhys just told you,” Mercedes snapped, “you’re never going to be king of anything.”

  “You don’t realize how wrong you are,” he argued. “Once we’ve rededicated Nerissette to the will of Fate—”

  “So.” I pushed Jesse’s arm off my shoulder and desperately tried to come up with some way to change the subject before the two of them started hitting each other. “Why didn’t you hang out with Heidi today? Even if you aren’t a thing, you two are still friends.”

  “Hardly,” he spat. Jesse wrapped his arm back around my shoulders, and I scooted away from him again, this time putting more space between us. “She’s a maid.”

  “But last night you said—”

  A high-pitched wail interrupted as a flock of dark birds flew overhead. Balmeer stopped circling and dropped straight down, the wailing growing louder until he exploded into the middle of the pack of birds, scattering them around him.

  Winston dodged after a few of the birds that had managed to escape Balmeer and began to chase after them like they were a ball that had gone out of play during a basketball game.

  “What’s he doing?” Mercedes asked, as Winston headed farther away to play his little game of cat-and-mouse.

  “Following his instincts,” Rhys said. “He’s a dragon now. He sees a bird and thinks food.”

  Balmeer shrieked once more, and I could see something clutched in each of his claws. The roc swooped low and dropped two carcasses onto the ground at Rhys’s feet.

  “Good boy,” Rhys said when the bird landed. Balmeer chattered at him once and then took one dead bird across the clearing and began to eat.

  I curled up my nose.

  “Don’t get fussy, Princess,” Rhys said. “There’s no difference between the meat Balmeer eats and what they serve you from the kitchens.”

  The roc perked his head up at the sound of his own name and flew over to look at me. When he reached Rhys’s hip he landed and stalked toward me, his red eyes never breaking contact with mine.

  I bowed my head before him, and the bird bowed low in return. He launched himself up in a short hop to grab the second bird he’d killed and brought it back to me. He laid it next to my hand and dropped his head down to rest next to my fingers.

  Rhys looked as stunned as I felt—which wasn’t any help. I lifted my hand and began to gently run my hand down the roc’s silky, red feathers. Balmeer began to make a cooing sound and nested down beside me.

  “It seems, Princess, that Balmeer is quite taken with you. He’s even shared his kill.”

  “Is that a big deal?” I asked.

  “A very big deal,” he said. “It took three years for Balmeer to share a kill with me, and I raised him from the time he was very young, still a nestling in fact.”

  “You’re kidding…”

  “No. That may be why Fate turned your friend into a dragon. If you’re good with animals, that ability could sway some of the other races to fight for the Golden Rose and not against it.”

  “What do you mean?” Jesse asked. “Are you saying that Winston might fight with the enemy if we go to war? He might be our competition?”

  “Winston would never fight against us,” Mercedes said. “I don’t care if he is a gigantic black fire-breather, he’s our friend first.”

  “The dragons have never sided with any faction,” Rhys said. “They have always remained outside the wars of man. But now? With you all here? Maybe they’ll change their mind and fight beside us when the time comes.”

  “There’s no maybe about it,” Mercedes said. “Winston would never do anything to hurt Allie.”

  “When the time comes he might not have a choice. The dragons will choose their side or choose to stay away. Either way he’ll be forced to live with their choice.”

  “You don’t know Winston then,” Mercedes said, “because I’m telling you right now, there’s no force in this world or any other that will keep him away from Allie if she’s in danger.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  I stepped out of the dining room that night, alone, and tried to ignore the sound of the bickering nobles behind me. Throughout the whole meal they’d fought over who had owned what and how I should settle land disputes for places I’d never even heard of. Now I had a migraine, and the half of my mind that wasn’t throbbing was contemplating just giving their lands to other people. People who wouldn’t spend all of dinner arguing.

  “You know that I have a legitimate claim to the Leavenwald.” Lady Arianne’s voice echoed through the hall.

  “The lands of the Leavenwald belong to the woodsmen. They are our forests,” Sir John shot back.

  “Allie!” Jesse was hurrying after me. “Wait up.”

  I tried to smile but couldn’t manage it with the pounding in my head.

  “I was thinking that maybe we could hang out.”

  How to get away from him without being mean was the only thing on my mind. I didn’t want to be that girl—the one who stomped on guys like it was nothing. Then again, I was seriously starting to not care, because really, how much more obvious did it have to be? “I really can’t, Jesse. I’ve got this awful headache. Maybe you and Heidi could go explore instead?”

  “That’s okay.” He stepped back. “Maybe we could ask the Fate Maker if he could help you. I’m sure he’s got a magical equivalent of Tylenol or something.”

  “Thanks, but I think I’m just going to go to bed. Maybe I’ll stop by the libra
ry and get something to try to read.”

  He stopped. “A book. Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, I’m sure. But I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “I guess.” He shrugged. “I hope your head feels better.”

  “Great. Thanks. So I’m going to go.” I jerked my thumb over my shoulder toward where I’d been told the library was. “Get a book.”

  “Okay.” He started toward the stairs.

  I stepped back away from him and waited for him to start up the stairs.

  “Your Majesty?”

  I looked up to see Rhys standing in the doorway to the dining room, his arms crossed over his chest and an amused grin on his face.

  “What?”

  “You should tell him.”

  “Tell him what?”

  “That you’re not into him.”

  “I’ve been trying. I haven’t come out and said it but, well, you’d think he’d get the hint. It’s not like I’m being vague about it or anything.”

  “Guys like him”—Rhys jerked his head backward, toward the stairs Jesse had gone up—“they don’t take hints. You’re going to have to tell him, otherwise a certain dragon might set him on fire for messing with his girl.”

  “I’m not Winston’s girl.”

  “Aren’t you?”

  “We’re just friends.”

  “Does he know that?”

  “Of course he knows that,” I huffed. “He doesn’t think of me even as a girl. I’m just his friend Allie, who happens to use a different locker room in gym class.”

  “Right.” Rhys nodded. “You want to double-check that particular assumption?”

  “You want me to go ask Winston if he likes me? What are we? Ten-year-olds playing kiss and chase on the playground?”

  “Possibly. Do you think the dryad would let me chase her?”

  “Mercedes?” I raised my eyebrow.

  His smile grew. “Come on. Let’s go find out.”

  “What?” I asked as he held a hand out to me. “If Mercedes will let you kiss her? I don’t want to see that. If you want to kiss my best friend, you need to do that in private.”