Noble Fae Academy: Year Two, page 18
“For good?” I asked. Taken by surprise with that news, I couldn’t keep the hope from slipping through in my tone.
“I knew you’d be excited,” said Lewis with a shake of his head.
I glared at him. “I am excited,” I said. “She’s awful.” Then I did a quick scan of the crowd to make sure she wasn’t standing behind me. That would have been just my luck. On this occasion my luck held; she was nowhere in sight.
“I think she’s going back to the Crown Court for the holidays,” Lewis went on. “I stopped by the prince’s quarters this morning and she was saying goodbye. I think she and Batham were having some sort of argument for a change, but I couldn’t exactly tell.”
“Does that mean she’s not leaving for good?” I asked.
Lewis shrugged. “I’m not sure. Maybe. She might have changed her mind. She’s female.” He said that last bit with enough delight that though I thought to smack him, I held off.
“Then again, if she doesn’t think Colly is in danger, she’s probably not going to stick around,” he said.
“So one of the prince’s defenders is leaving?” Esmeralda asked.
“That’s about the size of it,” said Lewis.
Just then Prince Orlando appeared in front of us looking freshly scrubbed, with his hair slicked back.
“Esmeralda, I was wondering if you’d be here,” he said.
“Same here,” she said, sounding a bit taken aback. She glanced at Lewis, but he was looking at some distant stall.
“Yes, well, of course,” said Prince Orlando. “Hello. Hello, Eddi.” He sounded so stilted that I was sure Londa wanted to laugh at him, but equally sure she wouldn’t.
“Afternoon,” I said politely.
“I wondered if you would walk with me?” Prince Orlando asked Esmeralda, apparently with great effort.
Esmeralda blushed and looked down. “I suppose I could. I did come here with my friends, though,” she said. She gave one last look at Lewis, but he wasn’t paying any attention. He had moved on to a stall selling baked goods, including croissants, scones, and circular balls covered in sugar.
“Very good,” said Prince Orlando.
His arm came up reflexively, as if he was about to offer it to her. Apparently thinking better of it when he saw the bemused look on her face, he allowed it to drop it to his side.
As the two of them strolled away, Esmeralda gave me a desperate look. But there was nothing I could do. I had wondered last year if Prince Orlando liked Esmeralda, and now there seemed to be proof that he did. He was still Colly’s heir, and as the heir to the heir he still had guards and was still rather important. This would probably remain true until Colly had children of his own.
“That was funny,” said Londa.
Lewis had rejoined us looking oblivious. “What was funny?” he asked.
“What just happened,” said Londa, waving her hand.
Lewis blinked. “Where did Esmeralda go?” he asked.
“Don’t you worry about it,” I muttered.
The rest of us continued to stroll down the row of vendors, browsing through the goods offered on each of the overloaded stalls. Many of the sellers offered free samples of baked goods, elixirs, and potions, so Lewis was mainly eating his way from one stall to the next.
Most of the sellers were dressed warmly, in thick coats and large hats. Others were sitting back in chairs working on more goods. Several were sipping hot drinks.
I stuffed my hands into my pockets to keep them warm. Otherwise they were too cold for comfort despite Londa’s mittens. I really didn’t have the proper gear for the weather that hit us during the winter months.
“Anything in particular you’re looking for?” Londa asked.
“A bit of everything,” I said.
“I know what you mean,” she said.
“I’m done with my Christmas shopping. Does anyone else want a chocolate lava?” Lewis asked.
Londa and I glared at him.
“What?” he asked.
“I would love a chocolate lava,” Londa said, “while I’m sure Eddi would love an opportunity to start buying her Christmas presents.” She linked her arm through Lewis’s, and at the unexpected touch his eyes went wide.
“We’ll leave you to it,” she said to me.
“Okay, see you in a bit, or when I freeze standing around here and still haven’t bought anything,” I said glumly.
By now I wasn’t even in the mood to shop, but I told myself it was now or never. Time had run out, and the market fair was my only chance of getting presents for the friends I cared so much about. We would have to dance and exchange gifts whether I was ready or not, and I wanted to be ready.
My friends were probably right that we would exchange gifts in Colly’s rooms again. The memory of the previous year made me wonder for the first time in a while how Reidar was doing. He hadn’t returned to the academy with the real prince this year. Instead he had chosen to stay in the Crown Court and continue his work as a guard.
That was understandable, but I missed him. To me the Crown Court was like this far off land that I couldn’t even picture. It was strange to think that my friends would all go back there to something so familiar that I had never seen.
Of course, they didn’t know anything about my childhood, either. They were never going to see the clan mountain or know what had happened with my mother and Julia.
I wandered the stalls through paths filled with students and teachers. Clouds of cold air puffed around me. In the end, I did manage to find gifts I was happy with.
I picked up a beautiful box for Lewis, and bracelets in their favorite colors for Esmeralda and Londa. I was feeling slightly more confident at that point, but I still had nothing for Batham or Colly.
I walked around for a while longer, until I was starting to get discouraged again. Then I saw a hot chocolate mix that I knew Batham would love. I didn’t want anything extravagant for him, and he loved chocolate. In this weather, I figured I might as well make it hot.
Now only Colly was left. I felt as if last year I’d had the perfect gift for Colly, but this year I was at a loss. If this fair didn’t save me, I didn’t know what I was going to do.
I continued to wander aimlessly, hoping to see something just perfect. As I walked, I got further and further away from the center of the market to where the stalls were busy enough, but there were fewer students in the aisles.
Nowhere did I see anything that seemed right for a crown prince who was also a friend.
Finally I came to the end of the last row. Now in despair, I barely looked at the last stall. What could it possibly have that none of the other sellers had offered?
Then I paused and saw that this stall did indeed have something unique, and I wondered why I hadn’t thought of it before: maps. Not only maps, but maps made of jade.
I stared, mesmerized.
“Do you like what you see?” an old man asked.
He had stepped out of the gloom in the back of the small space, moving so quietly that it was like smoke drifting in darkness. His face was crisscrossed with lines, deep and riveted. His eyes were fixed on me, but there was something wrong with them. They were milky, as if they had been covered with a film.
“I can see. Not as good as I used to, though,” he commented.
I looked away, embarrassed that he had seen me staring.
“The maps are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” I told him.
“Thank you. I learned from the very best. Although this is not exactly what they were teaching,” he said.
“How much?” I asked.
The maps detailed the continent, with Anemone and Greenleaf in their places on either side of Whessellond, with all of its fiefdoms on display. I could even see the mountain ranges etched in fine lines. The work was so detailed, even in small scale, that it was easy for me to pick out both the sea and the academy on each piece of jade. I thought Colly would like these a great deal.
Having been in his quarters, I knew he didn’t have a map as detailed as this one anywhere. That didn’t surprise me. I had never seen a map so beautiful before.
“If you let me examine your chains, you can have it for free,” said the man after a long silence.
Thrown off guard, I peered at the sunken little man from under my lashes.
I was entirely bundled up. My wrists and neck were not on display. How did he know I had chains around them?
“What do you mean examine them?” I asked.
He stared at me intently, his eyes searching my face. “It’s a type of magical work I’m familiar with. I would like to see who did yours,” he said.
He blinked his eyes slowly until they were half closed, then opened them again. Then he did it again as if he were going into a trance.
“How did you know I had them in the first place?” I asked uneasily.
“I can sense craftsmanship even when it’s supposed to be hidden, although your chains were there for display, left as a mark to let anyone who wondered know that you were contained. But not anymore, are you? The chains are broken and now you are free,” he said.
“They don’t look broken,” I said.
“But they’re fading, aren’t they?” he asked, sounding eager.
“They might be,” I said, shifting nervously again.
“They will fail and then break. Once your power is truly unleashed, there will be no stopping you. A glorious day that shall be, although there will probably be rain,” he said. The man wasn’t making any sense, I thought darkly.
Still, I had almost no money left, and I desperately wanted a map for Colly. All the man wanted to do was look at my cuffs, right? That should be okay. I should consider myself lucky that he didn’t want real money as payment, because then the perfect gift for Colly would have been out of the realm of possibility.
“Okay, I guess you can examine them,” I said.
The man came forward eagerly, reaching toward me with frail-looking hands. I stepped up to meet him at the front of the booth.
“You examine them, and then I get the map?” I clarified.
He turned around and picked up the biggest map in his display and laid it on the counter between us. “This will be yours if you let me examine your cuffs,” he said. “You can take it home right now.”
Reluctantly, I pulled my hands out of my pockets and reached them toward him. My fingers still felt numb from the bitter cold. “It’s a deal,” I murmured.
When he caught sight of my chains, the old man gasped. He took my palm and forearm in his hands, careful not to touch the cuffs themselves, and bent forward till his nose was inches from the imprints on my skin.
“This is masterful craftsmanship,” he said, his voice shaking with reverence. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Nor do I expect to again,” he said.
“So does that mean you know who did it?” I asked.
“Surely I know. There is only one who could have. But of course I cannot tell you who it was,” he said.
“What do you mean you can’t tell me? You just said you knew,” I said.
“I recognize the work, but I’ve never met the one who did it. Besides, you should find out for yourself. And I am sure you will.” His eyes shone as he met my gaze.
“This is how I find out for myself: you tell me,” I said.
Then my wrists started to shake. When I looked down at the chains, the color was deepening and brightening and turning more gold. I looked hard at the craftsman and asked softly, “What’s happening?”
“Nothing you wouldn’t expect,” he said.
“My magic isn’t chained in there anymore,” I told him.
“Some of it isn’t,” he said. “A normal amount isn’t, but you are not a normal fae, you are far superior. That’s why you’ve succeeded here where others have failed. This academy harbors the best of the best, and yet you are better than any of their dreams. That is no accident. A prisoner who can go against nobles? The only one who could do that is a noble herself.” By the time he had finished, he was talking in whispers.
“I know I’m a noble. They’ve made that quite clear to me. But most likely I’m also a bastard,” I said.
“Likely true,” said the old man.
Then, all of a sudden, my head felt thick and I started to feel dizzy. My stomach rolled so hard I wanted to reach out and grab something. I tried to focus on the craftsman, but he was fast going blurry.
“You have done well, my dear, and yet the real test is still ahead of you. This will be waiting for you when you awake,” he smiled.
I tried to ask him what he was talking about, wondering just what he thought he was referring to. But I didn’t have the energy. I swayed on my booted feet as the craftsman turned around and started to take the map away.
When I tried to stop him, he said something soothing about wrapping it up for me, that I wouldn’t want the fae it was for to see it before it was time.
Just then I saw, out of the corner my eye, all of my friends coming down the lane. Esmeralda, Lewis, Londa, Batham, and even Colly were there. One of them was saying something to me. Another was starting to run forward. That was the last thing I knew before I collapsed.
Chapter Twenty-Six
When I woke up I was in my own bed, covered with a warm blanket. It was the first time I had been warm all day. On the bed next to mine was Londa, reading, as usual. The dorm was quiet. The sun was setting. Had the craftspeople from the fair left?
The first thing I thought of was to wonder whether the man at the stall with the maps had broken our deal. He must have, because I didn’t have the map!
I shot into a sitting position, my violent motion startling Londa. Apparently she wasn’t expecting me to be awake.
“Relax. You didn’t miss dinner.” As if that was all that ever mattered.
“What happened? Where’s the parcel?” I asked.
“What happened is that you collapsed,” said Londa. “You were out cold when we reached you. The craftsman didn’t say much. Colly was angry, but the man didn’t appear to care. He handed Lewis a parcel and said it was for you. He wouldn’t let any of us open it. It’s sitting at the foot of your bed.” She shot me a smug look.
I leaned over until I could see the chest at the foot of my bed. Sure enough, the parcel that the craftsman had wrapped up was there. An enormous feeling of relief filled my chest. The parcel was about the same size as the map I had admired. He had given it to me after all.
“Did the caravan leave?” I asked.
“Sure did,” said Londa, stretching her arms over her head. “After you fainted there was kind of a ruckus. It quieted down after a bit, but most everyone had already done their shopping, and we were all freezing. The vendors wanted to head out to their campground, about a mile away from the academy. They intend to leave tomorrow.”
I sighed and laid my head back on my pillows. The evidence was mounting that whoever had put the chains on me was a master craftsman, but I still had little more than hints, with nothing solid to go on to help me figure out who had done it, much less why. My family and my immense power had been noted more than once, but there was still nothing concrete to guide my quest for information.
And I didn’t feel immensely powerful, I felt the opposite. I had no defined place in this kingdom, no place to call home. I was helping Colly because Colly was my friend, but I was nothing like one of the simpering courtiers who always surrounded him.
I also wasn’t one of his bodyguards. Instead, I was merely waiting for him to tell me it was time to go back to Garden Leaflet. Once we did that, we’d be well on our way to fighting off the rebels. The only question was whether, by then, there’d be anything left of Greenleaf to save.
Londa interrupted my brooding by asking, “Did you see Lord Cory?”
“No. I don’t think I did,” I said.
“I saw him talking to Nerys. She was asking him for advice about diving off the waterfall, since he’s done it,” said Londa.
“She doesn’t have to do it until senior year,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“I think she wants to get a head start on finding a husband. I mean, waterfall diving,” said Londa with a grin.
I chuckled. “That’s what she says, but I don’t know if it makes any sense. I don’t really see her diving off the waterfall.”
My interactions with Nerys had been blissfully brief this year. What was more, she had left a few days ago for a trip, so there had been no chance to run into her at all lately.
“Do you know where she went?” I asked.
“I do,” Esmeralda cut in, her expression grim. “And it isn’t good.”
“Where?” I asked.
“Nerys had an older brother who was supposed to rule after his father. He died in a hunting accident recently. Now she’s next in line. She went home ahead of his funeral, as well as to be sworn in as the heir to throne of the province,” she said.
Londa and I exchanged looks. The school year was long and grinding, and students often got sent home for a few days to deal with matters in their home provinces. It wasn’t that unusual. What was unusual was for Nerys to have been gone so long. If she didn’t come back tonight she’d miss the ball.
I had been surprised at that, but now that I knew her reasons, I also knew that her family’s pain and the need for the line of succession to be intact was more important than some ball.
But it meant something else to me as well. I was fairly sure I was from Nerys’s province. Other provinces had small mountains, but Nerys’s Dry Mountain Province was the one that was most noted for that kind of terrain. I was almost sure I’d have to go back there sooner or later to discover the truth of my sojourn with Julia’s mountain clan.
If Nerys became the ruler of the province, that meant only one thing. She would know if her family’s soldiers had been sent out that night to kill the clan I had called family. She would know why. And she might also have to answer for it one day.
“Maybe she’ll still make it back in time for the ball,” said Londa.
