The Warrior Princess of Pennyroyal Academy Page 9

  “Remington!” she screamed, drawing King Hossenbuhr’s attention. He looked at her atop his horse with his son, and she could see the venom in his blood. He shouted something to his men, and they both leapt onto the final horse. The horse Remington was meant to use. Marline bounded down the hill on foot, a huge smile on her face.

  Evie’s body drained of strength. She felt herself losing her grip on Forbes with every stride of the horse. But then, just as quickly as she’d been flooded with despair, a wave of joy swept over her. Remington leapt up and kicked Hossenbuhr to the ground. He flashed her the rest of his smile and knocked his knuckles against the small patch of stone in the center of his chest, put there by a witch’s curse at the end of their first year.

  “Look!” shrieked Basil. He was pointing to the north end of campus. There, thundering through the forest, were two of the giants, Blunderbull and Galligantusohn. Scabby Potatoes held the bear in his hand, victorious.

  The wall was just ahead. Hossenbuhr’s men were bearing down on Marline. Just as it looked like they were about to run her down, she leapt into the air, twisting her body around. She caught one of them by his cloak, pulling him off the horse as she pulled herself on. The guardsman with the reins tried to grab her, but she was now behind him in the saddle. She took hold of his neck and flipped him off, then spurred the horse on after the others. Her hawk soared down from the sky and landed on her shoulder.

  “Hang on,” called Forbes. “Here we go!”

  The giants had rounded the curve and were running straight at them, and now Scabby Potatoes had decided to join. Suddenly, everything lurched upward as the horse leapt across the waist-high pile of stones. Evie held Forbes tightly, her face pressed into his back. They landed with a thud and disappeared into the enchanted forest.

  Now the giants’ footsteps thundered behind them, trees bending like dandelions. The earth shuddered each time one of their enormous feet slammed down. Evie looked back but didn’t see Demetra, Basil, or Marline anywhere. Massive columns of ancient wood snapped at the base, crashing to the ground at the giants’ feet. Those beasts, meanwhile, began to turn on one another. There was a deafening exchange of shouting, then suddenly Galligantusohn’s body crashed through the trees up ahead, thrown there by one of the others. It felt to Evie as if the world was crumbling down around her.

  “No one takes my meat, you brigand!” bellowed Blunderbull. The voice seemed to be coming from directly overhead. Massive legs like the knotted trunks of thousand-year-old oaks pounded into the earth, leaving huge craters of flattened and broken brush.

  Forbes kept on. Trees continued to fall in long, arcing swoops. Evie looked up and saw a nightmare. Only it wasn’t. It was real. A pocked face leered down from the treetops. Swollen, cracked lips. Enormous, fiery eyes. Fingers as thick as boulders, coming straight for them.

  Evie’s body clenched, ready to be crushed—

  Somewhere high above, there was a deafening crack. “Aaugh!” bellowed Scabby Potatoes. He plunged forward and slammed to the ground. There stood Blunderbull, tossing aside the tree with which he’d just struck the other giant. Forbes kept his horse at a gallop as the black-haired giant bounded after them. The horse dove over the lip of a ravine and hurtled down the hill in a spray of tiny, golden leaves. The strides of the giants shook the forest. It was impossible to tell where they were until a foot broke through the trees and crashed down in front of them. It was as big as an ox, covered with layers of filth and cracked calluses. Forbes jerked the reins to the left, and the horse responded.

  There’s nowhere left to go, thought Evie. The trees are too thick—

  Everything went black as her stomach shot down through her feet. The giant plucked her from the horse and hoisted her in the air, higher and higher, until she crashed through the canopy. She couldn’t breathe as his fingers crushed her chest. Above the treetops, the world stretched away in all directions, a sea of gray. Below, Blunderbull grinned. His one eye leered at her above cracked and infected teeth, as misshapen and discolored as the boulders strewn about one hundred feet below.

  “Not quite a meal, but you’ll do for a starter, I reckon,” he said. Then, suddenly, his face transformed, and he let out a shriek. Evie’s stomach left her as she plummeted back toward the ground. Marline was there, slashing at the giant’s toes with her sword.

  Evie spread her arms just as she had at Joringel’s Stem during her first year of training. The ground swooped toward her, branches rushing past, but soon her body began to angle forward. She was falling more slowly, soaring ahead through the trees rather than down to the ground. Still, her angle was too severe. She was going to crash.

  “Fly!” she screamed at herself. The green sludge of a bog waited in the valley trough, but it was too far away. She tried to will her body forward. The earth raced toward her. The bog loomed ahead like a soft blanket of green. She was almost there . . .

  SPLASH! She plunged into the frothy bog with a spray of dark muck. Her nose and lungs filled with fetid water. She thrashed about in a panic, but the thick slime held her like a net. The roars of the giants echoed through the trees.

  She hacked and hacked, coughing up water that looked and tasted like stewed frogs. The stench filled her nose, even after she was finally able to take a deep breath. Somehow, she was still alive.

  She sloshed toward what she thought must be the edge of the bog. The water burned her eyes. Suddenly, she was jerked back by an arm around her waist, throwing her down into the sludge. It was Forbes. The muck coated him like wet, green fur.

  “Stay down!” he hissed. She blinked at him, utterly confused. “They can’t smell us in here. Just stay down and keep quiet.”

  “But . . . Marline!” she said. “And where are Demetra and Basil?”

  “Evie!” whispered Demetra. Two sludge-covered faces looked back at her from the edge of the bog. They were camouflaged beneath a rotting stump.

  Just then, Scabby Potatoes barreled through the forest in pursuit of something. Trees creaked, then broke apart with furious crackles of splintering wood. The other giants bellowed, the crash of their footsteps rippling the bog water.

  “Look!” called Basil.

  There, sprinting straight toward the bog, was Marline. She had her sword held high and a demented smile on her face, as though she had just killed all three giants herself. “WOO-HOO!”

  Behind her, trees exploded as Blunderbull and Galligantusohn raced after. With eyes as wide as the full moon, Marline leapt through the air. She sailed toward the bog, smashing down on top of Forbes. They both disappeared beneath the sludge as the giants thundered past. One of them stepped in the bog, causing a massive wave of stinking green to splash over all their heads. Then the booming strides began to recede, leaving twin paths of broken, twisted trees behind them. The trees tried to right themselves, but with snapped spines, the best they could do was flop around helplessly.

  “I’m eating those children, and I’m going to make you watch!” howled Galligantusohn, shoving Blunderbull to the ground.

  “I haven’t got them, you muttonheaded lout!”

  Scabby Potatoes bellowed in the distance.

  Forbes’s head shot up out of the bog as he threw Marline off. He hacked up more of the disgusting water, wiping the green scum from his eyes. A moment later, Marline popped back up. She whipped her hair back with a smile, energized from multiple brushes with death.

  “That was incredible!” she laughed. “Oi, come on back, boys!”

  “Marline! Enough!” spat Forbes. “Have you forgotten there are a million witches out here as well?”

  “Not here,” said Basil. “The witches are farther out. They wouldn’t be caught dead this close to the giants.”

  Forbes gave him a sarcastic smile. “Thank you for your expertise, Princess.”

  Basil scowled and trudged to the shoreline, inspecting the Bandit’s Chair to make sure it ha
d survived.

  “I think you dropped your sword when I landed on you,” said Marline with a wink. “Check over there.”

  Forbes scowled, violently swiping the sludge from his face, then waded over to where Marline had been and began feeling around in the swamp for his sword. Evie splashed out of the bog and joined the others on the shoreline. With trails of dying trees thrashing all around them, and the spring wind suddenly feeling quite wintry again, Evie and her friends smiled at one another.

  But their moment of relief was short-lived. None of them could say where they’d ended up after the flight from the giants. The mission was a shambles, and the team was a splintered mess of what it was meant to be. Even the horses had gone.

  “I’ll find them,” said Marline. She gave a sharp whistle, and her hawk swooped down from the sky and glided through the trees.

  Just as Forbes started to complain about trusting a bird to find their horses, hoof beats began thundering toward them. It was Hossenbuhr’s three horses with Marline’s hawk in pursuit. Now that the bird had finished wrangling, it arced into the air and landed on a high branch. Forbes, meanwhile, grabbed the horses’ tack and tried to calm them after the terrifying run from the giants.

  “You’re lucky,” said Marline, giving Forbes an exultant smile. “I could’ve had him bring back only two.”

  Once they’d all mounted up again, Forbes, the most experienced of the group in affairs of the forest—except, of course, for Evie—took the lead. He insisted that the quickest way out of the Dortchen Wild was to head due north. Evie let him give the orders . . . for now. She knew that, according to Rumpledshirtsleeves’s map, north was where they needed to go anyway. “Besides,” she said to Demetra, “it’s only his pig instincts taking over. Believe me, if he steers us wrong, I’ll let him know.”

  They rode for quite some time in relative silence. Marline’s hawk kept a constant vigil from the skies. The trees occasionally rustled with hostility, but the cadets still managed to make good progress over the swooping hills and valleys of the enchanted forest. Finally, after several hours, Basil asked for a rest.

  The five of them sat in silence, exhausted from what had happened that morning. After a while, Basil spoke.

  “The giants aren’t all bad, are they?” He took a drink from his waterskin. “They’re brilliant at keeping the witches away.”

  “The witches may be afraid of the giants,” came a sprightly voice from the trees, “but I’m not.”

  The horses whinnied, snorting against their reins, which had been tied to a tree. Evie quickly scanned the forest for confirmation of what her heart already knew. And there, atop a small hill, stood a figure wrapped in a dark cloak.

  “Malora.”

  “LOVELY DAY for a walk in the woods, is it not?” said the witch, her skin as waxen and lumpy as a melted candle.

  Marline looked at Malora, then back to Evie and the others, dumbfounded that no one was doing anything. “Well? Have none of you seen a witch before? Because that is one.” When no one spoke, she squared her body to Malora’s, and a spark of white began to appear. “All right, then, allow me.”

  “Wait,” said Evie. “That’s my sister.”

  The magical light vanished. Marline looked at Evie with astonishment. “That?” She pointed at Malora. “That’s your sister?”

  “Stepsisters, actually. Aren’t we, darling?” said Malora, stepping down from the trees. As she joined them near the bog, her features came into view. She had deteriorated even further in the weeks since Evie, Demetra, and Basil had seen her at the Drudenhaus. The skin around her eyes hung loose, and streaks of white ran through the stringy remains of her once-lustrous hair. Still, the thing that sent a chill through Evie was that her sister seemed strangely upbeat. She’s happy, thought Evie. I think I might have preferred her angry. “Where’s your ginger friend?” she said with glee. “Did the witches get her?”

  “Maggie’s at the Academy, and she’s perfectly fine,” said Demetra defensively.

  Malora’s eyes snapped over. Her smile turned to a glare. “You survived as well? What a shame.” She gave Demetra one last look of distaste, then turned back to Evie with a smile. “Come, dear sister, haven’t you any fun gossip? Nothing to keep me entertained as I wait for the wall to fall—”

  “They got Sage,” said Evie. In the silence that followed, she realized how cruel it had sounded. “It was right after the attack. She was running toward me, and the witches turned her to stone.”

  Malora swallowed thickly. Her cheery demeanor faltered. “What are you all doing out here, anyway?”

  “What are you doing out here?” said Forbes.

  “I’m looking for the best possible view to watch the wall come down. Now answer my question.”

  “We’re on a mission,” said Evie, and her heart began to race.

  “Evie!” Marline jumped forward with her hands out. “What are you doing? I don’t care if that is your sister; it’s still a witch!”

  “It?” said Malora with amusement.

  “We’re family,” said Evie. “She might be able to help us.”

  Malora let out a shrill cackle. “Again? I just saved Cinderella for you. What is it now? Shall I trim Rapunzel’s hair?”

  “Take us past the siege lines. We need to go north, out of the Dortchen Wild.”

  “Evie,” said Demetra, taking Evie’s elbow. “She only just got finished betraying us. She tried to hand us over to the Vertreiben, remember?”

  “I did do that, didn’t I?” said Malora. “Must have been my inner witch coming through.”

  Evie ignored her. “She helped us in the end. Cinderella wouldn’t be alive if not for her.”

  “Ah, and that would be my inner princess,” said Malora. “What a quandary!”

  “And your inner jabbermouth takes up the whole thing, doesn’t it?” said Marline.

  Malora only grinned at her and flashed her eyebrows.

  Evie, flustered, waved her group closer. “Pretend you aren’t hearing any of this,” she said to Malora.

  “All right,” said the witch.

  “This wasn’t part of the plan, Evie,” said Demetra quietly.

  “None of this was. Forbes wasn’t part of the plan. Marline wasn’t part of the plan. Remington and Maggie were part of the plan, and they aren’t here. But we’ve just got to adapt, don’t we? Courage, compassion, kindness, and discipline. We can’t let the unexpected throw us off our mission. We’ve got to stay disciplined. We’re princesses. That’s what we do.”

  “I’m not,” said Forbes, raising his hand.

  “We’ve got a witch right here in front of us who can help lead us past the others. Without her, what else are we going to do? This is the part we didn’t plan for.” Each of them considered her words. “Come on, let’s adapt again. Let’s stay disciplined and stay on course.”

  Forbes and Marline exchanged a dubious look. Both were wary of Malora, but both nodded in approval. Demetra did the same. Basil stroked his chin and pondered.

  “Well? Bas?”

  “So our choices are these. We either have a guide with inside knowledge of our enemy who could help us sneak past but who could just as easily turn around and kill us, or we take the safer route of trying to sneak past a thousand witches on our own? Hardly an inspiring selection. But I suppose we should go with Malora. She is your family, and that’s got to count for something, right?”

  Evie looked over at her sister, who was watching them closely. “Well? Will you help us?”

  “Tell me where you’re going and why and I’ll help you.”

  “Hang on,” said Marline. “I don’t even know that.”

  Evie stared into her sister’s wide yellow eyes. She was trying to read her intentions, but it was impossible. “We’re taking that chair to Rumpledshirtsleeves’s brother,” she said, pointing at the Bandit’s Chai
r strapped to Basil’s back. “Then he’ll lead us to an enchanted harp that will turn the giants against the witches.”

  Marline faced Evie, incredulous. “We’re out here risking our lives to deliver furniture?”

  “So? Will you do it?” said Evie. She had to force herself to look past the decaying face of the witch standing before her to envision the black-haired girl she’d first met on the coach. Her sister.

  “What an entertaining choice! I came down here to watch the giants eat all of you, but seeing them turn on Calivigne and the rest might be even better.” She strolled along the edge of the bog. “All right. I’ll take you as far as Marburg, but then you’ve got to promise you’ll come back with that harp so I can have my show.”

  “Marburg?” said Demetra. “But isn’t it—”

  “Controlled by the witches? Yes,” said Malora. “But on the other side of that . . . open forest.”

  Evie locked eyes with Demetra, who was completely on edge, then turned to Basil, Forbes, and Marline. None of them spoke. “Lead on,” she finally said.

  “Excellent!” said Malora. “Our giant friends are bellowing just over there, so let’s set off this way instead.” She motioned up the stony hill she’d just come down.

  “Placing our lives in a witch’s hands because she’s ‘family,’” said Forbes. “Brilliant.”

  “Uh . . . Evie?” said Basil in a soft voice. “I realize this is a bit petty, but . . . we’ve only got three horses. One of us will have to ride with . . .” He flicked his eyes toward the witch, then scratched his head self-consciously.

  “My sister and I will ride together,” said Evie.

  “Oh no,” said Malora with a laugh. “Those horses wouldn’t let me near them. I always bring my own.”

  She lifted her hands, and the dead leaves carpeting the forest floor began to rattle. They slowly swirled, rising higher and higher until they were far above Malora’s head. Then, in an instant, they all fell. As the leaves fluttered to the ground, the form of a horse appeared in their midst. It looked as though it were made from the dead leaves.