Everlast (The Chronicles of Nerissette) (Entangled Teen) Page 23

  “I was worried about you, too.” I hugged her tight and tried to keep from crying my relief. “Where is everyone else?”

  “We’re okay. We’re all okay—mostly. All those who can move are in the lower levels of the castle. They saw the dragons, and until we were sure it was you and not an attack, Rhys had everyone take shelter.”

  I tried to contain a sob. “I was so scared that you were all dead. We flew over, and there was no one in Neris, and then we got here and it was empty.”

  “Most of them are here. The people who couldn’t come have taken refuge in the caves at the other side of Neris, in case the Fate Maker comes back.”

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “It all fell apart once you disappeared. For the other side, I mean.” She squeezed my neck harder. “You and Winston went hurtling into the air like you had rocket engines strapped to your back, and when the Fate Maker’s forces realized they couldn’t capture you they sort of fell apart and ran.”

  “What do you mean they ran?” I asked. “The Fate Maker retreated?”

  “They destroyed the Hall of the Pleiades but once they realized they weren’t going to be able to capture you, they just bolted.”

  “They’ll be back,” Rhys said, coming up to wrap his arm around Mercedes’s waist. Even though she was green she could still blush the color of a cherry tomato.

  “It is good to see you again, Your Majesty.” Rhys bowed low in front of me. “I hope your trip was pleasant?”

  “Cut the crap, Rhys. Is everyone safe?”

  “I see you’ve brought me a present.” He nodded toward the mass of dragons staring at us. “Your Majesty, you really shouldn’t have. I’d have been happy with a T-shirt. An army of dragons is far too generous of you.”

  “What happened, Rhys?” I asked, trying to make my tone stern. “Who was hurt?”

  “Jesse and Heidi are missing,” Mercedes whispered. “We think the Fate Maker kidnapped them.”

  “Or they turned traitor and joined forces with him,” Rhys said.

  “He kidnapped them,” I insisted, even though I had my own doubts. “They’re not traitors. And we’ll get them back.”

  “Allie,” Mercedes said. “Think about how Jesse was constantly siding with the Fate Maker, rambling on about how he was going to be king, how he was better than us.”

  “No.” I shook my head. “He wouldn’t have betrayed us. He wouldn’t have. I refuse to believe it. He’s a jerk, but he wouldn’t do that.”

  “Your Majesty, why would they take him hostage, though? It’s much more likely that he went with the Fate Maker willingly.”

  I glared at Rhys. “Until we know differently, he and Heidi were taken prisoner, as hostages.”

  “Jesse could have taken Heidi with him to draw you out,” Rhys said, as if reading my mind. “He had to know that you’d try to rescue them both. He might have seen her and just grabbed her on impulse, hoping to use her to trap you.”

  “They weren’t together, though. She was here, and he was in Neris. They were taken to trap us, but it wasn’t Jesse kidnapping Heidi. It was the Fate Maker taking them both.”

  “Allie,” Mercedes said, her voice tired.

  “I just can’t believe that someone who came through the mirror with us would join forces with a man who wants to kill us. Not willingly. Jesse is a lot of things, but a murderer?”

  “I know you don’t want to believe it, but he might be,” Mercedes said.

  “We’ll find a way to get them back,” I said. “No matter why they’re with him, they’re both in danger, and we’ll get them back.”

  I sighed and ran a hand up my face, trying to concentrate. I’d never believed my own friends could end up the Fate Maker’s victims—or Heidi and Jesse for that matter. Either way, we were at war, and I was supposed to be in charge. That meant it was time to start being in charge. Even if I had no idea what I was supposed to do.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “Winston, you and Tevin please shift back into human form and meet us inside. Bring along the head of each of the dragon clans,” I said, taking control of this situation.

  I started up the steps toward my palace and motioned for Rhys to follow me. “Bring your generals and all the nobles. Also, is Darinda still here, or did she go back to the forest?”

  “She went back to the forest to check on the rest of the Order,” Mercedes said. “Why?”

  “How long would it take for you to get her here?”

  “No time at all. I can send a message through the trees. But why? What do you want all these people for?”

  “We need a council of war. A formal one, not just us deciding to stop the Fate Maker. I want the nobles and the army and everyone else.” I stepped into the main foyer, turning toward the ballroom. The throne was still on the dais there. I strode across the room and tried to channel my inner Heidi. She had been right: I wore the crown, and the people here needed me to start acting like it, even if that meant more than smiling and waving. I climbed the steps and shifted the clunky sword I was wearing forward before plopping down on a seat that didn’t move. The throne didn’t seem like it was going to throw me off.

  “But—” Mercedes started.

  “Go send a message to Darinda that the Golden Rose wants to see her,” Rhys said, gently shushing her.

  “But where are we going to put everyone?” she asked.

  “It doesn’t matter. They can all stand. Now go.” He gave her a nudge toward the door. “I need to speak with the queen.”

  “Fine. I’ll just go run errands while you and my best friend plan a war without me.” She gave him a dirty look and stalked away. She threw her hand forward and the door flew open in response, smacking against the walls and causing the chandelier crystals to shake.

  “She’s been worried about you,” Rhys said.

  Mercedes slammed the doors behind her so hard that the glass shook in the windows. My best friend was ticked off, but she was still alive—and right now that was all that mattered to me.

  “She’s been going nuts worrying, actually. If the dragon scouts hadn’t come this morning to tell us you were safe, she’d have insisted on mounting a search party,” Rhys said.

  “I know.” I ran a shaky hand through my hair. “Can Darinda find a way to get her home? Winston and I have to stay, but once we get Jesse and Heidi back can Darinda find some way to send them home again?”

  “I don’t think that’s possible,” Rhys said.

  “What about Timbago?” I asked. “He went through once. To get me breakfast. He could take them back.”

  “He used the Bleak, the space between worlds,” Rhys said. “He’s a goblin. They’re creatures of shadow, and he can travel there without drawing the wrath of Kuolema and his brothers, the monsters who guard the passages between this world and the next. If he were to take someone else they might not survive.”

  “What about the book? The Chronicles? It brought us here; it can take them back.”

  “The book only works one way,” Esmeralda announced. I looked up to see her perching on the high, pointy back of my throne. “You can bring people to Nerissette through the book, but you can’t send them back.”

  “Then how did my mother escape?”

  “She used the mirror.”

  “Good, then that’s what we’ll do. Once we have Jesse and Heidi back, I’ll send them, and Mercedes, through the mirror where they can be safe.”

  “And what happens when the Fate Maker follows them through?” Rhys asked.

  “He can do that?”

  “If we can go from this world to another using a portal, so can the Fate Maker.”

  “No. I control the portal, and I won’t let him through,” I said. I turned to Esmeralda. “Isn’t that the whole thing you were proving when you testing the mirror the day we came through? That’s how you knew I was queen. I could control the mirror. That means I can use it to send them back and stay here in Nerissette myself and protect the mirror so the Fate Ma
ker can’t use it.”

  “You can’t use the mirror without the other relics, and I don’t know where they are,” Esmeralda said.

  “What do you mean I can’t use the mirror? I used the mirror that first day. Remember? We saw my mother.”

  “You used it to look between worlds. Not to travel between them. To travel you need the other relics to keep you safe.”

  “Now you tell me it’s more complicated.” I sighed. “And these relics that you don’t know where they are…what happened to them?”

  “I misplaced them,” Esmeralda said.

  “You mean you lost them?” I clenched my teeth before speaking again. “How do you lose relics that let you travel between worlds?”

  “I needed to lock the portal between worlds so no one else could ever use it. I trapped your mother there, and then I locked the mirror, so that she could never return.”

  “Why?” I stared at her, stunned. “Why would you do such a thing?”

  “I had to do what was best for Nerissette,” Esmeralda said. “But I’m just a sorceress. If I get access to the relics again, I can’t promise that I won’t use them. Their power is so beautiful that I don’t know if I could resist.”

  “And if she opens it then the Fate Maker could go through,” Rhys said. “He would wreak havoc in the World That Is, Allie.”

  “That’s why the Dragon’s Tear and the First Leaf must remain lost,” Esmeralda said. “Without them, it’s just a mirror. A way to look between worlds but not a gateway.”

  “This gateway…how does it work?”

  “When the mirror is used along with the other relics, it will open a portal between worlds.”

  “And then?” I asked.

  “You must use the Tear to guide you through the Bleak. Without it, you’ll become lost in the space between worlds. Trapped in a place where neither the living nor the dead can truly see. And you have to use the Leaf to keep your heart beating in each realm. It’s what keeps you alive as you move between worlds. It’s the Key to Perpetual Life.”

  “So, my mom had these relics with her and used them to get to the World That Is, and once you shut the portal behind her, what happened? Did she take them the rest of the way or did she leave them in between?”

  “She left them,” Esmeralda said, “and I cast a spell that made the relics hide themselves away, in a place that even I don’t know.”

  “So what can we do?” I asked. “If we can’t send people to safety, what do we do?”

  Winston stepped into the ballroom then, with the nobles and the leaders of each of the dragon clans following behind him. “We stay here. And we fight.”

  “But Mercedes…and Heidi, and even Jesse. They’re all at risk.”

  “You’ve brought the kingdom into war already, Allie,” Winston said. “We have to protect the people first. They need us now. All of us.”

  I took a deep breath. He was right. We had to stick to the plan.

  I heard the doors fly open and looked up to see Mercedes running full speed toward us. She skidded to a stop next to Rhys and stood panting in front of me, her eyes wide.

  “I used the trees to send a message to Darinda, and she sent one back.”

  “And?”

  “She’s coming back to the palace. Right now.”

  “Good.” I nodded. “When she gets here we’ll convene a council of war and figure out the best way to end this. We’ll capture the Fate Maker and put him in jail somewhere, where he can’t hurt anyone else.”

  “Imprison him?” an angry voice said from the back of the ballroom.

  I looked up to see a knot of dragons, all in human form, standing in the doorway watching us. The others stayed silent, as the man—a member of the red dragon clan if his hair color was anything to go by—stepped forward.

  “You’re going to imprison him? He would destroy us all, but we’ll simply lock him away somewhere?” the man asked.

  “I won’t deliberately cause someone’s death.” I could hear mutters coming from the rest of the dragons. “I won’t kill him unless there is no other choice. He may be willing to kill anyone who gets in his way, but we are better than that.”

  I looked at Winston, who nodded, and then at Rhys, who just shook his head. Obviously he wasn’t on board with the whole “not killing people unless we had to” idea.

  “Can we get back to my news?” Mercedes asked. “Darinda is coming for a council of war with you, but she’s not coming alone.”

  “She’s not?” I asked.

  “When she went back to the forest to check on the Order, and she sent word to the rest of the Nymphiad. They’ve met.” Mercedes licked her lips. “The Nymphiad have sided with the Golden Rose of Nerissette. They’re bringing their warriors to march with us against the Fate Maker.”

  “The Nymphiad?” I asked, confused.

  “The council of leaders for the nymphs, my queen,” Kitsuna supplied from the back of the room.

  I nodded, still confused. “That’s good, right?”

  “Very good,” Kitsuna said.

  “Excuse me,” Mercedes said. “But who are you?”

  “That’s Kitsuna.” I gave my best friend a weak shrug. “She’s a wryen.”

  “Oh, okay…what’s that?”

  “A dragon that can’t change between forms,” Winston said.

  “So, she’s a dragon who isn’t really a dragon?” Mercedes asked.

  “It’s—” Winston stopped and I could see him struggling with how to explain it. “Complicated.”

  “Right,” Mercedes said with a quick shake of her head. “Not the strangest thing I’ll see today, I’m sure.”

  “Anyway,” Rhys said. “If we’re done playing guess the species, perhaps we should see to quartering your army before the ten thousand soldiers of the Nymphiad forces arrive?”

  “Right.” I looked out the window onto the front lawn and saw the army stretching out into the distance. “Esmeralda, you and Timbago find everyone a place to sleep.”

  “Me?” she asked.

  “If anyone knows where all the hidey-holes in this place are it’s the two of you. Now, go. You’ve got a lot of beds to find. And I do mean a lot.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  I paced the length of my suite two hours later, trying to figure out what we were going to do. What was I supposed to say to a council of war? They were adults, trained fighters, and I was… I stopped at the window, watching the men wandering around the back lawn. I was an eleventh-grader who didn’t even stand up to the mean girls who bullied her in the hall.

  Blue dragons circled over the top of the palace, making larger loops with each pass. In the distance, other dragons flew near the aerie. The dragon ambassador, Ardere, had told me that they would continue training their younger warriors for the battle they expected to come soon while they kept watch. Nearly half of their force had never seen battle, including Winston.

  “Your Majesty?” I heard Esmeralda and turned to see her sitting in the doorway.

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m sorry this has happened,” Esmeralda said. “I’m sorry I didn’t protect you better.”

  “It’s not your fault.” I looked back out the window toward the dragons. “This was meant to happen, I guess. It’s the end of the Time of Waiting. It’s all been foretold.”

  “You don’t understand.” The cat came into the room and hopped up on my bed.

  I sat beside her and began scratching the top of her head. “Then explain it to me.”

  “I made the choice to bring you to Nerissette. It wasn’t Fate, Your Majesty. It was me. I needed you, not them. Me.”

  “But—”

  She looked up at me and interrupted. “Can you keep a secret, Your Majesty?”

  “Yes…”

  “There’s no such thing as Fate,” Esmeralda whispered.

  “Excuse me?”

  “There is nothing to decide the future for us. We make our own choices, and we live with them. I chose to bring you here to
fight our war, just like I chose your mother’s family out of all the nobles to lead us all those centuries ago. That’s not Fate, that’s me.”

  “I don’t understand. Are you saying that you’re the goddess Fate?”

  “Of course not. Back when I was still in a human body, I was the sorceress Devim, and I claimed to know the will of Fate. I lied.”

  I sat, blank faced, completely gobsmacked. “You’re saying that all of this, the Chronicles, Fate, it’s all what? Some prank you decided to play on everyone?”

  “I’d thought…” Esmeralda fell silent.

  “You thought what?”

  “We were in chaos. The last line of kings had fought themselves into extinction. The world was burning. Villages fought with one another. Giants had come in from the mountains. The harvestings that we have now? They were nothing compared to what was happening then. It was anarchy.”

  “And you made up a story to gain control of Nerissette? As a power grab?”

  “No. My father had been court wizard, and I had the sight, so one day I announced that I’d been visited by Fate. I claimed to have been given a vision of a world at peace under your family’s rule. And people believed me.”

  “But the Chronicles?”

  “Your great-great-many-times-great-grandmother had me make things up and put them into a book of fables. We called them prophecies, and because she was queen no one opposed her. They became prophecies, though, and eventually everyone forgot that they hadn’t always existed.”

  “So it’s all a lie?”

  “Yes…and once it was done, your ancestors had me imprisoned in this form by another sorceress. She trapped me like this, immortal, to watch over the line of the Golden Rose.”

  “For how long?” I asked.

  “Until I’ve been forgiven, and the curse is broken.”

  “And how’s that supposed to happen?”

  “I don’t know, but when the curse is broken I’ll be able to escape this form and leave the mortal realm behind to take my place among the Pleiades.”

  “So why did you help my mother leave Nerissette?”

  “Because she was pregnant with you, and I knew how special you were.”