Everlast (The Chronicles of Nerissette) (Entangled Teen) Read online

  “I meant about the dragon you’re leading on.”

  “I’m not leading him anywhere.”

  “Whatever. There’s something I want to show you.”

  “Rhys, not tonight.” I shook my head. “I wasn’t lying when I told Jesse I had a headache.”

  “Too bad. Winston and Mercedes are waiting for us in the courtyard. So come on.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “You’ll see.” He stepped farther into the hallway and looked around. “We’ll need to hurry, though.”

  He pressed on one of the wall panels. It slid back to reveal a dark hallway beyond.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “Servants’ passage. Now, come on already before someone sees.”

  “Where are we going?” I asked again.

  “To show you your kingdom.” He led me into the dark passage, and I heard the click of the door sliding closed behind us. He ran his hand along the length of the wall, and there was a crackle as torches lit themselves, illuminating our way.

  “But the Fate Maker has forbidden me to leave the palace grounds, remember?”

  “That didn’t stop you this morning. Besides, I didn’t plan on telling him,” Rhys said. “He’s in his tower, and we’re hitching a ride into your capital city with the soldiers going to the fort.”

  “How will we get back?”

  “The grocer’s wagon in the morning. We have to meet him an hour before dawn, and he’ll sneak us back in with the vegetables for tomorrow’s feast.”

  “This is insane.” I shook my head. “If we get caught we’ll all be in big trouble.”

  “You’re the crown princess. The future queen of Nerissette. What are they going to do? Ground you?”

  “That’s—” He had a point. The Fate Maker could yell. And he could threaten me. But what could he really do? Besides torture and kill me himself?

  I sighed. “Fine.” I followed him to the door at the far end of the passage.

  “You’ll need to wear this.” He handed me a rough, brown woolen cloak when we reached the door. “We don’t want people to see your dress and start to talk.”

  “I thought we didn’t care if anyone found out.”

  “We don’t. That doesn’t mean I want to deal with a rioting crowd, desperate to get close to their future queen.”

  I slipped the cloak on and let him pull the hood up over my head.

  “Good.” He twisted the fabric closed over the front of my dress. “Just keep your head down, and no one will even notice you. You’re just another girl out and about in the capital city at night.”

  “Right. Just a girl out for a walk in the city of Neris.”

  “Something like that.”

  “Allie.” Winston hurried forward and then glanced behind me as the door to the servants’ passage closed. “You ready?”

  “Yeah.” I smiled and hoped I didn’t sound too nervous. “Let’s go see my new kingdom.”

  “Come on,” Rhys said, motioning toward a wagon full of men. “Someone will notice if the soldiers are late.”

  “All right, we’re coming.” I hurried over to the large wooden wagon. One of the soldiers held his hand out to Rhys and helped him up, then hoisted Mercedes up, as well. Winston took the man’s hand next and let himself be pulled inside before turning to me.

  “Allie?” He knelt and held both hands out toward me. Instead of taking my hands in his, he wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted as I jumped, helping me hop into the wagon.

  “Your Majesty,” various men mumbled as Winston stood and then helped me inside the wagon.

  “Your Majesty.” A man on the ground caught my eyes with his own dark ones and then leaned closer. “Be careful tonight.”

  “I will,” I said.

  He stepped back and slammed the door of the wagon closed with a dull thunk.

  Winston led me to a seat, and I watched the men in their long tunics, each of them wearing a chest plate of gleaming metal like a bulletproof vest.

  “Hello.” I smiled but none of them met my eyes.

  Okay. This was awkward.

  The carriage lurched and then began to roll down the hill. No one said anything, and I looked over to see that Mercedes and Rhys were holding hands. That was fast. An arm wrapped around my shoulders then, and I had to fight the urge to lean into Winston.

  Five minutes later the silent carriage stopped with a sudden jerk, and I looked up at the men who were all so busy not meeting my eyes. “You’ll want to stay to the shadows,” a gruff-sounding man near the back said.

  “Okay.” My voice high and reedy from nerves. “Thank you.”

  “Let us get out first and then slip away. No one will notice you in the crowds,” the man added. “You’ll be fine.”

  “Crowds?” I asked.

  “Aye, the crowds near the fort. It’s a harvest night, so there’s bound to be a crowd. Stay back. Don’t make yourself known and you’ll be safe.”

  The door creaked open, and I pressed myself against the wall of the wagon. The soldiers poured out of the door, and I felt Rhys’s hand on my shoulder, helping me slide toward the back as they blocked the view from the entrance.

  We huddled together in the shadows as the last man descended, and then the door slammed closed behind him.

  “Let me go first.” Rhys stood and made his way to the door, ducking underneath the low ceiling. He opened the door a crack and peeked out before he pushed it open wider.

  “Come on.” He slipped out of the wagon and landed on the ground below. “Hurry. No one’s watching.”

  Winston followed him out, his hand in mine, and then he let go of me as he jumped down.

  “Ready?” Mercedes asked.

  “Why not?” I stepped out of the door and froze. The night was burning. Bonfires climbed into the dark sky around the wooden walls of the fort we were in, and the sheer noise of what must’ve been a thousand people all crowded into one place was astounding.

  “Allie.” Winston held his hands out to me, and I took them, letting him help me out.

  Rhys grabbed Mercedes, and we all scurried away from the wagon, making for the shadows near the fort walls.

  “It’s best if we get out of here,” Rhys said. “Make our way into the city.”

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  A woman stumbled past us, her eyes sunken in her head and breath reeking. “Hey, there.” She smiled and bowed elaborately in front of us. “If it’s not one of the wizard’s pets. His boy general.”

  “We’ve got no money and nothing to offer you,” Rhys said. “We don’t want trouble.”

  “Then you’re in the wrong city,” she laughed. “Trouble made her home here a long time ago.”

  Rhys backed away from her. “Come on. Let’s get into the city. You don’t need to see this.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “A harvesting.”

  “What’s that?”

  “The hordes,” Rhys said. “They all come in from the mountains once a month. They come to take their tribute.”

  “What do they want?”

  “Food. Money. Weapons.” Rhys urged us toward a large, open drawbridge. “They take what they like, and we must give it to them.”

  “What happens if you don’t?”

  “Then we die.”

  “No one told me anything about a harvesting,” I said.

  “Tell you what? That the wizards and their allies are stripping the land dry? Why would the Fate Maker tell you that? Or Esmeralda? You would just try to stop them.”

  “Wait, what?” I shook my head. It couldn’t be.

  “He’s a wizard, and she’s his partner,” Rhys explained. “They are in charge of the harvesting. He’s the one who came up with it in the first place.”

  “But why would they do something like this?” I asked.

  “The giants must be fed, and the trolls must have workers for their mines. If we don’t comply then they will join forces with the Army of Bat
hune to attack us, and the Fate Maker has no stomach for a war that involves more than conjuring tricks. Better for the wizards to take the gold from the monsters and leave the common folk to suffer.”

  “Miss. Miss.” A faint voice called out, and I looked down to see a small boy with dirt-smudged cheeks and ragged clothes tugging at the side of my cloak. “Food, miss? Drink? Grilled griffin on a stick?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Servants then? I’ll take you to find a new maid. Come along, miss.”

  “The lady is fine.” Rhys spoke, and the boy stepped back. “But you should be home.”

  “You must need a servant, miss. A boy to water the flowers? Wash your plates? I’m a hard worker. I’ll carry boxes and follow behind you when you go into the plaza to shop for pretty things.”

  “The lady isn’t interested,” Rhys said firmly.

  “Please, miss.”

  “You there.” A man stood a few feet away from us, pointing. “Are you taking him or not? Seven gold pieces.”

  I looked between him and the boy. “I don’t have any money.”

  “Right then. Back to the pen with you, boy.”

  “Please…” The boy grabbed my cloak, but the man had snatched him up by the scruff of his neck and pulled him away before he could get a decent grip on me.

  “Where is that man taking him?” I asked.

  “Back to the pens,” Rhys said quietly, not meeting my eyes. “He’ll be sold to the giants.”

  “But why would giants want a little boy?” Mercedes asked as Winston tightened his grip on my shoulders.

  “Because they eat children,” Rhys said. “They eat them raw.”

  I swallowed, fighting down the bile rising in my throat.

  “Come on,” Rhys said. “Let’s get you out of here.”

  He pushed us through the crowd, past men in cages and blue-skinned creatures with long, wicked swords that guarded them. “Men for the trolls’ diamond mines,” Rhys said as we passed.

  “Hurry up,” Winston said as we walked through the crowd.

  Before I could get a hold of myself, we were on the drawbridge and out of the fort.

  “Welcome to your new home, Princess,” Rhys said, his words dripping with cynicism. He didn’t stop, though, and led us down a dark street, away from the fort and farther into the city.

  In the darkness I could hear the scrape of scampering feet, and everywhere I looked were dirty people standing on the street, their hungry eyes staring at us.

  “In case you were wondering,” he said when we reached the square in front of the Hall of the Pleiades. I watched as people huddled before small fires, hawkers moving around them, and music playing as small groups of people danced or sang.

  “In case I was wondering what?” I asked.

  “These are the people you’re meant to be saving. It’s for them that the Time of Waiting must come to an end.”

  “What am I supposed to do?” I asked.

  “Save them,” Rhys said. “Save us all.”

  “But I don’t know how.”

  “When the time comes, you will.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  I could still hear the screaming. The trolls and the giants had breached the fort at the same time we’d come back from touring the city. The giants had filled the courtyard. Fifteen feet tall, they’d towered over the squat buildings, their knuckles scraping against the ground.

  The children had seen them and screamed. Wails of fear like I’d never heard before. They’d known what was coming. Then the men and the women who’d been caged for the troll hordes had begun to weep and pounded against the bars of their own prisons, fighting to save themselves and the children, but no one had helped them. No one had even moved.

  We’d all just kneeled, our heads bowed and our eyes fixed on the ground as both sets of cages had been loaded into enormous wagons and the creatures took them away.

  It had been three days since Rhys had taken me into Neris, and every night I’d had nightmares about it. Every time I closed my eyes I could see the people, begging, and there I’d knelt, the girl who was supposed to save them all, staring at the dirt as they were taken away. I’d wanted to stop them, but I remembered Rhys’s voice in my ear that night.

  “There are four of us and hundreds of them. If you try to stop them now then you’ll die, and they’ll still be taken. It’s better to wait. Wait until we have an army behind us, and then we can kill them all.”

  “Allie?” I heard Winston’s soft voice and looked up from the book I hadn’t been reading to see him standing in the doorway to the library. We hadn’t seen each other since we’d gotten back to the castle that disturbing morning as he’d been swept away by Ardere for lessons.

  I smiled in spite of myself. “What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be training.”

  “We’re taking a break, and I thought I’d come check on you.” Winston came into the room and sat down across from me. “You look tired.”

  “I haven’t been sleeping well,” I said.

  “Neither have I,” he admitted.

  “I keep hearing them, but in my dream, when I look up, it isn’t them in that cage, it’s us. They’re loading us into cages and putting us in wagons so they can take us away and eat us.”

  “Allie.”

  “I’m supposed to be here to save them. Esmeralda said when she brought us here that I was meant to save this world from Fate, so that must mean that’s what I’m here for. I should have saved them.”

  “What were you supposed to do?” Winston asked. “What were you, with just me and Mercedes and Rhys, supposed to do?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “But I should have done something. I can’t let this continue.”

  “Then what are you going to do?” Winston asked.

  “I want to use the mirror.”

  “Why?”

  I held a book up. “I’ve been reading about it. The Mirror of Nerissette is meant to allow me to touch the dreams of the waking world. I can use it.”

  “For what? To see what someone else is dreaming?”

  “I don’t know!” I pushed my chair back and stood. “All I know is that I’ve got to do something, and that’s the only idea there is. Maybe I could get inside the head of a general or something, and they could tell me how to defeat an army of trolls and giants.”

  “Or they could give you a banana nut muffin and tell you to sing ‘Ten Little Indians.’ Even if you can get into someone else’s head, then all you’ll be is a whacked-out dream they probably won’t remember the next day. Besides, I can guarantee you that the army doesn’t have a plan for giants and trolls.”

  “Then what do you think I should do?”

  “Once the crown is on your head, you are the law in Nerissette. Whatever you say goes. So ban the harvest.”

  “If I ban the harvest then the trolls and the giants will march to war against the people. We’ll be in the same place they were when they set the harvest up in the first place. We need some other solution that doesn’t involve violence.”

  “But you have an army,” Winston said. “Ban the harvest and then, if the trolls and giants come against you, we fight them.”

  “And what if we lose? What if you’re killed? Or Mercedes? Or Rhys?”

  “It’s better than the alternative,” he said. “It’s better than going to bed every night hearing those screams. I’d rather die than watch that happen again, Allie.”

  “So you’re willing to die for people you don’t even know?”

  “Aren’t you? Allie, if we don’t stop it when you become queen, then we’re no better than the Fate Maker and the wizards who started this.”

  “I know. I don’t want to die, okay? When we were kneeling in that dirt, do you know what I was thinking? I was thinking, ‘Please don’t see me. Don’t realize I’m here because if you see me you might take me, and I don’t want to die.’”

  “I don’t want to die, either,” Winston said. “But this is bigger t
han we are. Look, I have to go. I told Ardere I’d only be a few minutes, and if I don’t get out there they’ll send someone to check on me.”

  “Okay.” I knotted my hands in the fabric of my skirt and tried not to let him see that I was trembling.

  He stood and wrapped his arms around me, and I could feel his hands shaking against my spine. “We’ll figure something out, together. Me and you. We’ll find some way to stop this.”

  “Win?” I dropped my head against his shoulder. “I want to go home.”

  “I know.” He let go of me then and pressed a kiss against my forehead. “One day, when this is all over, we’ll find a way home. I promise.”

  Before I could say anything, he turned and fled the room. I watched as he disappeared from sight, then bit my lower lip as I thought about the feel of his lips against my skin.

  Maybe I wasn’t the only one who thought about being more than friends. A small hope flared in my chest.

  “Quit being stupid, Munroe,” I said to the empty room. “There are more important things to worry about right now than boys. You’re about to become queen, and there are giants eating your future subjects.”

  I turned to the tall pedestal in the middle of the library and peered down at the map trapped underneath its glass. I ran my finger along the labels, trying to find one that might be related to trolls or warfare or something useful.

  “Where would I find a book that will tell me how to defeat giants and trolls and other scary monsters?” I asked.

  The map hummed, its edges glowing gold, and a bright white dot appeared on one of the sections. Royal Biographies, the label read.

  “Anything else you can tell me?” I tried not to let it see that I was impressed by the fact that it was magic. After all, I was sort of getting used to the fact that everything here had some trick to it.

  The map flickered again, and the light glowed brighter.

  “How about a title? Or a call number?”

  The spot just continued to glow. You are here appeared on the map in black cursive script.

  A bright golden trail burned between the two spots, like the line on a GPS.

  “Fine. Whatever. I’ll go to Royal Biographies. But if there’s nothing about trolls there I’m coming back here, and I’m going to rearrange all the books so that you don’t know how to find a single thing. You hear me? I will completely disorganize you.”