“I would love to see someone get turned into a frog,” the maid gushed. “But… only someone who deserved it. Karina, maybe. Michelangelo.” She narrowed her gaze. “Promise me, Princess, if she ever teaches you how to do it, you’ll let me watch?”
Briar laughed. “Humans can’t turn people into frogs,” she said. “I could teach you how to fence, if you like? Then you could stab Karina and Michelangelo if they bother you again.”
“You… you would teach me how to fence?”
“Of course,” she said. “But you must promise me you’ll put up a good fight!”
∞∞∞
By the time she was thirteen, Margaret declared that there was nothing more she could teach her. Not because she was necessarily a master, but because “There is a limit to what humans can learn when it comes to fairy magic.”
Briar was not hurt by these words. She knew Margaret meant them as a compliment.
She was better than most humans.
The only thing that hurt was the fact that Margaret would now be leaving. She hugged her fiercely before she went, which caught the old fairy slightly off-guard. She patted her head.
“I’ll be back for your next birthday.”
“A year is too long!”
Margaret laughed. “Barely a blink of an eye for me, little princess. What will you have accomplished in that time, I wonder? What is your next challenge?”
Briar had an idea, something other than teaching the maid how to fight, something she’d been thinking of for a while. It was about learning to fight. Not just with a sword, not in a neat and knightly way.
“Something my parents won’t like,” she said.
Margaret’s gold eyes glinted. “I look forward to it.”
Chapter Four:
Shadows and Spiders
After the good fairy’s proclamation about Germaine sending one of its princes into the forest, King Albert called Wilheim into his study. Leo paced outside the door the entire time. Eventually, Wil stormed out, saying nothing to Leo at all, but striding towards Ingrid. He pulled her into his arms, and for a moment Leo thought he was going to cry. He hadn’t seen his brother tear up since his favourite horse had died as a boy. Ingrid looked stronger, but only just.
“I’ll do it,” said Leo in an instant.
Wilheim wheeled round, as if surprised to notice him. “No,” he said.
“You can’t,” Ingrid whispered. “You’ll–”
“Die?” Leo responded, folding his arms to disguise any trembling. “Oh ye of little faith, Ingrid.”
“I don’t want you to do this,” Wilheim continued.
“Yes, you do. Unless you’d rather send Jakob?”
Jakob appeared from behind a nearby statue. “I’d prefer not to go, if it’s all the same to you,” he said, pushing his glasses up his nose. He held out the book in his hand. “I’ve been doing some research. Did you know there’s supposed to be a basilisk in there? It’s a giant serpent that can–”
“I’ll speak with Father,” Leo said, “before Jakob puts me off altogether.”
“Leo–” Wilheim put out his arm.
“What?”
“Thank you.”
Leo swallowed, and summoned a smile. “Thank me later. I get to be the favourite uncle.”
It did not take long to convince his father to let him go in Wilheim’s stead. In fact, he looked almost relieved. The looming threat of the wicked fairy had sucked the colour from his skin, making him look older than his fifty years. Leo’s decision was the first time he’d seen Father’s eyes – bright green like his – light up in months. He called to him as he turned to leave.
“Leo.”
His father’s voice stopped him in his tracks. He rarely called him that.
“Yes, Father?”
“Thank you, for… for doing this for your brother. And your kingdom.”
“It’s the right thing to do.”
“Right isn’t always easy.”
“The kingdom needs Wilheim more than it needs me. I need him more than he needs me. It would not be easy to watch him suffer, or...”
“Son–”
“I’m less valuable.”
“You still have great value,” his father insisted. “To the kingdom, to your family… and to me.”
Leo’s throat tightened. Father never spoke like this. Not ever. “I should… I should go and prepare,” he said. “There’s plenty to do.”
“Leo?”
“Yes?”
“Take care.”
Leo stepped out into the corridor, but the floor vanished beneath his feet, and he fell into utter darkness.
∞∞∞
Leo woke hot, feeling like a weight was crushing against his chest. He'd been dreaming, although the conscious memory of it slithered away the second the sunlight hit him, vanishing into shapelessness and shadow. Only the hot weight of it remained, pounding against his ribcage.
He looked about him. “Talia?”
She was nowhere to be seen, not hair nor hide of her remained. Not a dent in the ground. She'd vanished as surely as the dream–
“Talia!”
“What is it?”
He snapped his head round. Talia was standing behind him, awake and still covered in mud.
“I... er... I thought–”
“That I had abandoned you in the night? I'm not sick of you yet, prince.”
“Er... I was more thinking maybe you'd been eaten by a troll or something.”
Talia snorted. “I've survived this long! And trolls don't generally eat humans.”
“Er... generally?”
“I mean, if they get hungry enough…”
Leo suppressed a shudder. “Where did you go?”
“I fetched breakfast,” Talia said, gesturing to a cloth filled with eggs sat beside the fire. He hadn't noticed them there a minute ago. “I take it you can cook them yourself? I've been up for hours. Already eaten.”
Leo glimpsed upwards, trying to gauge the hour. It could not have been long past dawn. She kept strange hours. He supposed she was used to it, and there was hardly any point in lingering in bed when you didn't have one.
“Thank you,” he said, leaning forward to inspect the eggs.
“Don't dawdle too long,” she said. “We should get an early start. We've a lot to cover before nightfall.”
∞∞∞
They walked for several hours, through thick undergrowth and smooth slopes, uphill and down, past streams and rocky ground. Some parts of the forest were oddly beautiful. Leo hadn’t been expecting this. He assumed all of it was as dark and gloomy as the entrance had been, but stopping beside a river for lunch, he felt a sense of peace. Talia had disappeared somewhere again – she had the stamina of a plough horse – and he amused himself by chatting to a squirrel who was gathering nuts nearby.
“I’ve heard that talking to yourself is one of the first signs of madness,” said Talia, appearing behind him.
Leo suppressed a startle. “I was not talking to myself,” he said calmly, “I was talking to my friend, Sir Squirrel, here.”