Tall Tales, page 3
Her heart felt like it was in a vise, and for some reason, she couldn’t take a full breath. Spots began popping in front of her eyes, and for a moment she thought she might faint, but Jin grabbed her arm, helping to support her. She started to pull her arm away but saw a look of actual concern on his face, and reluctantly left it.
“The fairy queens aren’t necessarily right,” Jin said quietly. “They hate my kind too, so maybe they’re just terrible people.”
“I’m so sorry, Lena,” Thomas said, his voice muffled now as he closed his visor once more. “I didn’t mean to tell you like this. To be honest, I never planned on telling you. I hoped it wouldn’t matter.”
“What wouldn’t matter? That you think I’m made of dark magic?” she said quietly. Jin squeezed her arm, and this time she did pull away. “You weren’t going to share that, Thomas? Why? Did you think it would upset me, that you think all of my people were created by evil?”
“You never needed to know,” he said, his voice cracking a bit, as if he was upset too. But he had no idea how this felt, what kind of betrayal this was to her. Even the Last Knight thought she was dangerous, after everything she’d done? “I just couldn’t have you coming along, not on this mission. Shadow magic is insidious, and will exploit any weakness it can find. Your people already have a connection to it, and—”
“And so I can’t be trusted,” Lena said, anger and sadness now mixing in her stomach, making her want to throw up. “I get it now. You’re right. Who knows what I would do if the shadow magic took me over. Maybe put a fist through a building.” She pulled back and launched a punch right at the knight’s house but stopped short just before it hit. “Whoa, look at that: I almost hit it since I’m so out of control!”
“Lena, I know you’re upset, and you have every right to be—”
“Oh, do I? I have your permission?”
He groaned in frustration, then grabbed her by the shoulders. “Please, Lena! I do trust you—you know I do! But this mission is already probably doomed to fail, and I couldn’t… If I lost you to the shadow too, along with my own people…”
His words set Lena back, if just a bit. Was he actually worried about her? He did seem strangely upset….
“Were your people made from shadow magic too, then?” Jin asked Thomas, and Lena’s eyes widened in surprise at the genie’s bluntness. “Stands to reason, doesn’t it? Giants got big; Lilliputians got small.”
“I’ve asked myself the same question,” the knight admitted. “The fairy queens claim it was just the giants, goblins, and ogres, those kind of mons—I mean—”
Lena’s eyes widened. “Those kind of what, Thomas? Monsters? Was that what you were going to say?”
He straightened up, then sighed deeply. “Yes, it was,” he said. “I have no excuse.”
“Liar!” Jin shouted. “Don’t deny it. You were going to say monsters—oh. You admitted it.”
“And it was incredibly wrong of me,” the knight said, shaking his head. “Again, I’m so sorry. I didn’t intend any of this, especially now, just before I go. Lena—”
“You know, Jin said you couldn’t be trusted,” she said, her insides twisting even more with every word the knight said.
“Whoa, hey!” Jin said, waving his hands at her side. “Don’t say it to his face!”
“But I defended you,” Lena continued, “even after he came ranting to me about some secret conversation he heard between you and that Lilliputian I captured.”
“I wouldn’t say I was ranting,” Jin said, sounding indignant. “Gossiping at worst—”
“And now it turns out he was right!” Lena shouted, pushing her finger into the knight’s armor, which knocked him backward several feet. “Maybe not about all of his ridiculous conspiracy theories—”
“Hey, maybe stick to attacking the Last Knight here? He’s the one you’re mad at!”
“But about the true Thomas,” Lena said, almost sneering. “I’m so sorry I brought this monster into your city, Sir Knight. Good luck with the Golden King.”
And with that, she turned and strode away, not able to even look at Thomas anymore, just needing to be away from him, from Jin, from this whole city. Rufus padded along after her, his silence a mercy for her.
Behind her, she could hear Jin yelling her name, but she didn’t listen, even though he might have been right about the Last Knight all along. And what was worse, his shouting was drawing residents out to peek at her from their windows, then ducking behind curtains whenever they saw her looking.
That’s right—hide from the monster, she thought. I’m just as much a giant as my parents, so if you hate them, then you hate me, too. But don’t worry. I won’t stick around to make you all uncomfortable any longer.
Part of her wasn’t surprised by this. She’d hoped that once the giants accepted her, she’d finally be able to stop worrying about what people thought of her. But no, even after helping save the city from the Golden King, the humans still couldn’t bring themselves to trust her people.
And now the Last Knight had added another reason for humans to hate giants. But it couldn’t be true, it couldn’t. Giants hadn’t been created from shadow magic… had they? And if Thomas was right, what did that mean? Did it make Lena and her people… evil in some way?
The humans certainly thought so, whether true or not. And that meant she just couldn’t stay here, not knowing that they only allowed it because of her size, and feared everything else about her and her kind.
Maybe this was the way it had to be, giants and humans living separately, terrified of each other. Maybe she’d been the one who was wrong all along, to try to stop humans from being afraid of giants, and vice versa.
And if the Last Knight was correct, the humans might have been right to fear giants. After all, giants fight to show their might. What if the shadow magic meant that giants fought… because they were inherently bad in some way, and liked it? Were they just destructive by their very nature?
Lena herself loved fighting, showing off her giant strength. But did she enjoy it because part of her came from that darkness and reveled in hurting other people? She dry heaved, hating even the idea of it, but if the Last Knight was right, then everything she thought she knew could be wrong.
She wiped her arm over her face, not wanting anyone to see her eyes watering. But there were too many windows, too many people in the streets to escape their gaze. She had to get away from the crowds, get some space of her own.
Lena quickly turned onto a side street, one that led generally in the direction of the back gate, and therefore her home. But now that she was alone, the horrible emptiness inside quickly overwhelmed her, and she slid down one of the street’s walls, her hands covering her face.
“Lena is okay?” Rufus asked, headbutting her face. She’d been so lost in her own thoughts that she hadn’t even realized he had followed her.
“Nope,” Lena said back, though she scratched him behind his ears, just so he knew she wasn’t upset with him. “Lena is definitely not okay.”
Rufus purred slightly, and she sighed, closing her eyes. “Why did Thomas have to tell me that? I could have lived my whole life never knowing how giants were made. I just wish humans and giants could get along, and none of this mattered.”
Rufus’s purring continued for another moment, then paused out of nowhere. He began making an odd noise, the one he made whenever hunting bugs, almost a chattering.
“No eating anyone… or anything,” Lena said automatically, having had to keep Rufus from eating Humpty one too many times. She opened her eyes to make sure her cat hadn’t begun hunting the poor little egg, then gasped in surprise.
Three fairies the size of Lilliputians were hovering over her, each a different color, with shining wings and serious expressions on their tiny faces.
She blinked, not sure what to say. She’d seen these three fairies around before, almost every time she’d been in the city. But they’d never gotten this close, having been content to just watch from the rooftops. “Um, hello?”
The fairies began making some sort of melodic sounds to one another, as if they were singing. Lena almost smiled at this, as their strangeness was a nice distraction from all the horribleness of her life currently. Were they trying to communicate? Was this how they talked, with music?
Finally, the fairies seemed to reach a decision, as they all smiled at one another, then turned back to Lena. Before she could say something, they raised their voices in song, and just like that, the entire horrible Cursed City disappeared around her.
CHAPTER 6
Lena!” Jin shouted as she walked away. “Wait! This is all the knight’s fault! Come back, and I’ll hold him down so you can hit him or something!”
But she either didn’t hear him or just chose to ignore him, disappearing around the corner.
The Last Knight sighed. “Ugh. That could have gone better.”
He’s not incorrect, the cosmic knowledge said.
“Well, yeah,” Jin said, feeling his own anger rising now. “Here’s an easy way not to upset the one person who idolizes you: don’t tell her she was made by evil magic.”
The knight growled low, then grabbed Jin by his shirt. Ordinarily Jin would have been able to turn insubstantial, but the power of the ring on the knight’s finger meant he couldn’t evade the man, no matter how much he might want to. “You think I liked having to say that?” the knight hissed. “This is too important, genie. I can’t take any chances. If the Golden King succeeds in covering the world with his shadow magic, it won’t matter what Lena knows or doesn’t. All of us will be under its power. I can’t let that happen, and if Lena came along, who knows if she’d be able to resist it?”
Jin glared back at him, knowing he should try to calm the situation down, but not caring. “I know. Because she’s Lena! She stood up to the king of giants! The shadow magic would probably take one look at her and run. But this isn’t about that, is it? Like Lena said, I heard you talking to that Lilliputian. You want to use the shadow to take over! Maybe you’re the one who’s been infected by the evil magic—ever think of that?”
The knight just stared at him for a moment, then released his shirt abruptly, dropping Jin back to the ground. He caught himself just before he hit, hovering in midair, still giving Thomas his dirtiest look.
“You know nothing of what you speak,” Thomas said, shaking his head. “I freed myself of the shadow after the Wicked Queen was defeated. But those years were the most horrible of my life. The shadow creeps into every corner of your heart, making you hate anyone different from you, anyone who might not share your view of the world. It made me think the Wicked Queen was right to rule over this world, if just so she could keep us all separated, and let me stop being afraid all of the time!”
“So what, you think that if you take over, then the shadow won’t pull the same trick?” Jin raised both his eyebrows. “Did you ever stop to think that maybe you’d become just like the Golden King?”
This isn’t such a great idea, you know, the cosmic knowledge said. He can punish you however he likes with that ring.
“Of course I’ve thought about that!” the knight shouted, sounding more angry than Jin had ever heard him. “But there’s more to the shadow than you know, little genie. And I hope you never have to find out what it actually is, for your own sake.”
“Now what does that mean?” Jin shouted back. “Stop being vague and just tell me the truth!”
But the knight straightened up, almost in shock, like he’d realized he’d said more than he’d intended. “No, you were right before,” he said quietly. “The less you children have to know, the better. I should have found some other way to keep Lena here, and I won’t make the same mistake twice.”
“It’s a little late for that!” Jin said.
“I told you he was hiding things,” Jill said. “He blames the shadow magic, but I think he was far more like the Wicked Queen than he’d admit!”
“You think I can’t hear you, Jillian?” the knight said softly. “I still have your sword, after all. You, your brother, and that princess might have taken down the Wicked Queen, but you three failed rather dramatically against the Golden King, didn’t you? I’m the one chance we have to stop him, and bring back your niece and nephew safely, so perhaps you should just stay out of this. Your role in this story has ended.”
“Ended? I’m just starting, Thomas,” Jill growled, getting right up in his face, in spite of having no physical substance whatsoever. “Just you wait—I’m going to save the world, and if I have to do it through this sadly not very bright genie, then that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make!”
Jin rolled his eyes, not even willing to get into that.
“I don’t have time for this,” the knight said, rudely stepping right through Jill to face Jin once more. “All I would ask from you, Jin, is for your help.”
“Oh, with what?” Jin asked. “Devastating Lena again? Should I tell her she’s actually a goblin or something?”
“I believe I still have two wishes remaining, correct?” the knight hissed, his anger rising once again.
Jin started to say something snarky but stopped himself before making things worse. The cosmic knowledge wasn’t wrong: the Last Knight did have the power to make Jin’s life very uncomfortable if he wanted, just like the Golden King had. “Yes, that’s right.”
“First, I wish for you to evacuate the citizens of the Cursed City to my mountain cave,” the knight said. “As I mentioned, they won’t be safe there forever, if we can’t stop the Golden King, but it could buy me a bit more time. Please make sure they’re protected as best you can.”
Jin blinked, surprised that the knight had gone for his suggestion with everything that had come after. Teleporting the city’s residents to the mountain was easy, and something Jin could do with his present magic, no problem.
“I’ll get it done immediately, before you even have time to wonder if you should have wished for something harder,” Jin said quickly. “That means you’ve got one more wish, and while you don’t have to rush into it, I’d say sometimes rushing actually makes your wish more meaningful, as it’s—”
“For my third, I formally wish for you to keep Lena safe until the threat of the Golden King is finished,” the knight said.
Even after all the arguing and sniping, Jin almost laughed out loud in joy. The knight had made his third and final wish. And not only did that mean Jin would be free of his control once the wishes were completed, but the third wish meant Jin had every excuse in the world to stay by Lena’s side, from now until… well, forever, if the knight failed to beat the Golden King. And considering the knight’s odds, that was looking more likely every moment!
“I will fulfill your final wish with all the power I hold,” Jin said, bowing low before him. “And I thank you for trusting me with your request. I—”
And then he stopped as something caught his attention.
Magic. Someone had just cast a spell of some kind. But not like his own, or even any magic he’d seen from Mrs. Hubbard or the other residents.
This was different, something new, something that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. And that did not bode well.
“See that you do,” the knight said with a nod, having not noticed apparently. “And now I need to leave, while we still have time. The fairy queens said the king is but three days away from covering the world with his shadow magic, and I’ll need every minute of that to coordinate with my people who are free. Please get the evacuation started as soon as possible.”
“I’m on it,” Jin said, nodding absently, still distracted by the magic he’d just sensed. Who could have cast it? And for what purpose?
As the knight left to go back into his house, Jill moved over to Jin’s side. “What’s got you so distracted? I mean, beyond the knight being horrible, and all that stuff about giants being evil? Wait, is it the fact the world is going to end? Because that seems like it might be bad too.” She shrugged.
“Something just happened, something magical,” Jin said to her, glancing around to try to pinpoint it. “It was like a song of some kind. I think it’s more—”
Jill cringed. “Fairy magic,” she said, sending another cold wave of fear down Jin’s spine. “But I’m not sensing a fairy queen. It could be the fairies that have been hanging around the city for whatever reason. Probably to watch over Sir Thomas the Sketchy, since it sounds like he’s not listening to the fairy queens.”
“You’re sure it’s not a queen?” Jin asked, feeling a cold chill run down his spine. “Thomas said one was just here. Do you think she’d have stuck around? Could she still be here?”
“What are you so afraid of?” Jill said. “Sure, they hate you, but it’s not like they’re bad people. Snotty, yes, and completely elitist, but they’re on our side. Or maybe we’re on their side—it’s hard to know. Besides, if they were coming for you, you’d be gone already. Disappeared, just like that.” She snapped, making him jump.
“Thanks, you’re a huge help,” Jin said to her.
“I wonder what the fairies are doing, if not messing with the knight?” Jill said absently. “Eh, the city’s got a lot of residents. They’re probably after someone we don’t care about.”
CHAPTER 7
Lena gaped as the Cursed City vanished from all around her, replaced by a multicolored tile path leading toward what looked like the biggest tree she’d ever seen, so large it was bigger than the Golden King’s castle, and far more beautiful. Enormous crystals shone throughout the branches, almost like they’d grown there.
Um, what had just happened? Where was Rufus? And just as important, where was she?
