Chapter Four

Once we reached the mainland, Axxon used his powers to command a small herd of deer to help us travel north. My mount this time was a soft-eyed hind. The ride wasn’t as crazy as my flight through the forest towards the citadel when Essa was missing, but we covered a considerable distance before dusk interrupted our travels.

Fon created a campfire while Axxon and Vashri used their magical powers to build a shelter. Axxon persuaded a tree to bend her branches down to form a dome, while Vashri waved his hand to blow a roof of leaves across the branches to form protection from the night. Rey provided water, and I was glad to be able to make a small contribution by constructing a new slingshot and killing a brace of rabbits for the evening’s meal.

But Axxon pried the meat out of my hands when I made to skin and gut them, too. “I can do this,” he told me. “You relax.”

“I don’t need to relax. I’m not an invalid. I’m part of this quest.”

“Of course you are.” Axxon’s eyes sparkled. “You’re the guardian. Allow us to look after you.”

“I don’t need—”

His smile increased. “You don’t need looking after. But it would be our pleasure.”

“Actually,” Rey interrupted. “You could see if you can find some wild garlic to flavour the stew.”

Axxon frowned. “I intended to skewer and roast the small beasts.”

Rey made a noise of disgust. “Unseasoned meat? No wonder they call the southerners barbarians.”

“I’m no barbarian,” Axxon replied, straightening his shoulders so he loomed over slender Rey. “We aren’t at court now, you know. We don’t have time to cook a three-course meal.”

“More’s the pity.” Rey sniffed and turned to me. “Please, Kyann – Axxon will have us eating the creatures raw if we give him rein.”

“Hey!”

“I’ll go, I’ll go,” I promised before the two could come to blows. Hiding my smile, I turned away from the fire to the edge of the camp.

As well as garlic, I found thyme and dorrow leaves to bulk out the stew. Rey flung his arms around me in a hug when I returned with my bounty. “You are the very best of women, Kyann! Please, will you marry me?”

I wriggled out of his grip. “And spend the rest of my life cooking for you? Not likely.”

“We wouldn’t spend all our time cooking, I promise.” He waggled his eyebrows in a way so ludicrously suggestive I couldn’t help but laugh, although a flash of awareness of the man coursed through me.

“I’ll think about it,” I assured him, then looked around. “What else can I do?”

“Absolutely nothing this time,” Axxon said, his expression daring Rey to disagree. He nodded towards the shelter. “Keep your sister company. She looks lonely.”

Essa looked nothing of the sort, but I was always happy to spend time with my sister.

I sank down beside her in the entrance to the shelter and watched the kings work. Fon was keeping the fire going while Vashri fetched enough wood to see us through the night. Rey and Axxon bickered good-naturedly over the stew. At least, I hoped it was good-natured.

“How would Ma describe this, do you think?”

I turned to Essa in surprise. “Why would Ma need to describe it?”

She plucked a thin twig from the shelter wall, worrying the flexible wood between her fingers. “Don’t you feel it? It’s like we are in one of the stories of old.”

I laughed, because that was exactly how I’d felt earlier. “I know what you mean. How did this happen to two ordinary girls?”

“Because we aren’t ordinary at all, we just seemed to be.”

“Quite right.” I looked at my sister, who was now bending the twig around her finger to make a ring. “You should write the story, Essa. I think Ma would like that.”

“I’ll write us a happy ending,” she said. “…And the Empire of Charnrosa will enjoy a thousand years of peace,” she declared.

I sucked in a breath. A thousand years was an impossibly long time. “Just so long as the kings defeat the Emperor,” I said.

“They will,” Essa insisted. I raised my eyebrows. She smiled. “The good guys always win in the legends.”

“That’s all right, then.”

Silence fell, broken only by the crackle of the fire and the occasional shout as the kings organised matters between them.

“This feels decadent,” I said, scanning the scene for something useful to do.

“Only you could make that a complaint,” Essa said.

“It just feels wrong not to have any duties.”

“You mean it feels wrong to have someone looking after you for a change.”

“No, I—” I fell silent at the expression on her face. My tone turned sheepish. “Well, I guess maybe that’s part of it.” I’d spent so long looking after my sister, making the decisions, ensuring we were both safe. It was alien to let anyone else take charge, although the kings had been pretty determined.

“Enjoy it, Kyann,” Essa recommended. “We are descended from royalty, after all.” She leaned back against the ferns that covered the floor of the shelter. “We should be treated like this every day.”

“Do you think that’s really true? That we’re descended from the first Emperor’s daughter?”

Essa shrugged. “It’s possible. It would make a great story, I’ll be sure to add it in.”

“Along with our great wit and beauty,” I added.

“Oh, that goes without saying,” she promised me. “I couldn’t possibly leave that out.”

We fell silent. I watched the kings, my lips lifting. There was just something … right about all of us being together.

“Kyann?” Essa’s voice changed.

“Mmm?” I turned.

She was frowning. “What’s that?”

I followed her pointing finger. “It’s a bomble,” I replied on instinct, before realising that it couldn’t be. This compact furball moved in dashing zig-zags, a run then a pause. It was completely different to a bomble’s ambling gait. “I don’t know.” I sat forward. “But it’s probably not good news.”

The creature dashed over the fire as though its feet were made of stone. It knocked the stewpot spinning on the chain suspended over the flames.

“No!” Rey yelled.

I fitted a stone into my slingshot, but before I could aim it at the creature, it staggered and fell forward. The metal of a cooking knife glinted from its back.

We joined the kings at the fireside to inspect the creature.

Fon had retrieved his knife and was wiping the blade, an expression of disgust on his face.

“What is it?” I asked, because the furry thing was no more recognisable when I was close to it.

“A boggart,” Vashri stated. He turned away and strode towards the edge of our camp. “And there may be more of them.”

“A boggart? But they belong in stories,” Essa protested. She could probably recite a dozen of them.

“They belong in the underworld,” Axxon said.

“An underworld creature? What is it doing here?” I glanced around, my eyes finding Vashri. He didn’t look as though he’d come across more of the creatures on his check of our perimeter.

“You remember the serpent in the lake surrounding the citadel?” Axxon asked.

I shivered. I wasn’t going to forget that quickly.

Axxon nodded at my expression. “The Emperor is dabbling with powerful magic. If he brought a serpent through, I suspect some of its friends also made the trip.”

“This might be the first of many,” Vashri said.

At least this boggart looked harmless by comparison with the serpent it had ridden into our world on the back of. Boggarts were irritating rather than outright dangerous, I remembered from the tales I’d heard. I nudged the boggart’s body with my toe. “I’ll skin it. Looks like we’ll get two courses for dinner after all.”

I’d thought that would please Rey, but he stared as though I were mad to suggest such a thing. “You can’t eat them.”

“Don’t they taste good?” It seemed a shame for the animal to have no use whatsoever in our world.

“The flesh gives you hallucinations,” Rey said.

“And the runs,” Fon added with a grin.

“I won’t ask how you know that,” I said.

Fon gave me a shoulder hug. “We were forced to try all sorts of unpleasant things when we visited the underworld. I’ll tell you about it someday.”

“I can wait,” I assured him.

Vashri rejoined us. “No sign of any others. But we should keep watch. There may be more.”

“It didn’t spill much,” Rey said, glancing back from the pot he was stirring. “There’s still enough for a decent meal.”

The kings got on with their self-appointed jobs. Essa and I sat by the fire.

“I hope it doesn’t take long to find the gems,” Essa said, staring into the flames. Her fists clenched. “The Emperor must be stopped.”

“He will be,” I promised. The four kings would triumph. They had to.

“I’m sorry you had to rescue me,” Essa said. “If I hadn’t been there, maybe you would have destroyed him already.”

I nudged her shoulder, trying to push her out of her dark, angry mood. “You forget – if you hadn’t been inside the citadel I wouldn’t have gone anywhere near the Emperor. You did us a favour.”

“Huh. I put you in danger.”

“Well, it wasn’t through choice, was it? And I wasn’t really in danger. I was with the kings.” My gaze flicked around camp, finding each of them. “The kings are impressive now.” I swallowed, my gaze catching on the strength they all displayed, the sheer solidity of the men who’d insisted they should look after us. Essa didn’t seem to notice anything. “Can you imagine how amazing they’ll be once they find the gems and they can control creatures from both worlds?”

“That will be something to see.” Essa twisted to watch me. “Do you remember Ma’s stories?”

“About the kings? Barely.” I shook my head. The bare bones of the myth were all I’d ever had, and even they had been forgotten until the kings had stepped into my life, clothing those bones with magnificent flesh.

“Do you know the creatures they command?”

I watched the four men in front of me. “Tell me,” I prompted.