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  “But I will know where you are. Safe with Davos and the others.”

  Essa clicked her tongue. “Safe? In Myledene? With an old man to protect me? Back where the Emperor knew where to find me?” She shook her head. “Myledene is the last place either of us should go, I promise you.”

  “But—” How could I tell her that I feared I wouldn’t be able to look after her? That if my attention were split between the four kings and my sister I might fail either of them – or both?

  Her fingers spanned my wrist, warm and strong. “We stick together, Kyann. Like Ma told us. I know you have a job to do. I’ll help you. I have magic, I can help you regain yours.”

  The kings’ eyes were on me, watching, waiting for my decision. None of them spoke; they wouldn’t influence matters one way or the other. I looked past Essa to find Axxon watching me calmly. I had a brother, once. Axxon best understood how I felt. If he thought Essa would be in danger with me, he would tell me so, I was sure of it. The calm in his expression washed through me.

  “You’re right, Essa. We’ve defeated the Emperor once, we should stick together. But – if you change your mind, you’ll tell me, won’t you?”

  She clapped her hands with a grin, happy now she’d got her way. “Of course – if I get fed up of keeping you company on an exciting quest with a bunch of handsome kings.”

  “Good, so long as we’ve got that straight.” My gaze slid past Essa to the kings. Strong Axxon, thoughtful Vashri, confident Nashrey and enthusiastic Zephon. A bunch of handsome kings. How could my sister be so dismissive? They were very much more than simply handsome. Which was good, since looks alone wouldn’t defeat the Stalwart Emperor.

  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.

  Chapter Five

  “Which one is which?” Essa asked, her gaze darting from one man to the next.

  “You don’t know?”

  “Well, Rey waded into the water when we arrived at the Silent Castle, so if I had to guess I’d say he must be king of water.”

  Of course. Essa hadn’t heard them talking in her head. She didn’t know who was responsible for which spell that had got us out of the Stalwart Emperor’s citadel. The connection between myself and the kings didn’t extend to my sister.

  “You’re right, Rey is king of water. Vashri is king of air, Axxon king of earth, and Zephon – Fon – is king of fire.”

  Essa nodded. “Rey’s elemental creature is a kelpie, Fon can control the phoenix, Axxon leads a pack of wulvers, and Vashri —”

  I did remember the stories, after all. “A dragon,” I finished.

  “A wyvern,” she corrected. “Two legs, two wings.”

  I watched the kings, trying to imagine it. Just as there was good and evil in our world, so there were good and bad creatures in the underworld. Bad ones, like the boggart or the serpent in the lake, could harm humans. Others, like the creatures the kings commanded, would help us.

  The idea of the kings’ elemental creatures ought to terrify me. Instead, I was excited. I could picture a battlefield, the kings and an army of underworld creatures on one side with the Emperor and his human soldiers on the other. “The Emperor won’t stand a chance,” I breathed.

  “I think that’s the idea.”

  And my surge of optimism fell away like a fleeing wave. “But really – what do they need me for?” I was ready to take on my role, but I still had no idea what that role was meant to encompass. “They command beasts of legend and I … I’m an ordinary girl who can’t even use magic.”

  “The guardian is in the legends. And the kings certainly want you.”

  I thought Essa might be putting too much faith in Ma’s stories. “What if my role is to do something awful and feature as a fearsome warning to others, like Galosh the Prideful?”

  “I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.” She grinned. “You forget – I’m the one writing the story. I’ll make sure you’re covered in glory.” Her gleeful expression fell when she saw my face. “Of course, you won’t do anything awful, Kyann. Why would you even think that?”

  I laced my fingers, understanding why Essa had taken her worries out on that twig. “I’m not prepared for this. I want to make Pa proud. I want to do the right thing, but I’ve got no idea what I’m supposed to do.”

  She hitched to face me more squarely. “One thing at a time. I’m going to earn my keep on this journey by helping you rediscover your magic. Let’s start now.”

  “What should I do?” I kept my voice steady, not betraying the sinking sensation in my stomach.

  “I think … just try to feel the magic inside you.”

  I bit my lip to hold back the protest that there wasn’t any magic inside me. There was magic in everything, even a flower or a stone. I still had it, I just couldn’t access it. That was what had to change. Essa closed her eyes and I followed suit. I tried to feel the magic inside my body.

  Nothing. I took a deep breath. And then another. Still nothing. And then the breeze wafted the scent of stew towards us and my stomach growled. I clenched my fists. How had my magic felt when I’d used it before? I tried to think back in time, to when I’d been out in the forest with Pa as a child, learning from him. I’d pushed the memories away when I believed he’d betrayed us, but if the memories were painful now, it was because I missed him, because I was wrong to have doubted him for all those years.

  A drop of water slid down my face and I brushed it impatiently away, opening my eyes to check that Essa hadn’t seen. Her eyes were still closed, her expression serene.

  I dried the tear and sniffed. Those memories were no use, but I had others. The butterflies I’d conjured for Essa, to keep her walking when we were fleeing from
the Emperor’s guards as children. I closed my eyes, reaching for enough magic to create a redwing. Nothing. There was no magic inside me. Or none that was willing to come out and be used.

  “This isn’t working. I can’t feel anything.”

  Essa’s eyes flashed open. She frowned, then nodded, smoothing her face. “Okay, well, we know I have magic, let’s see how we get on if I lend you some of mine.”

  I’d done that as a child with Pa. How odd to be doing the same thing with my baby sister.

  Essa held her hands out, palms upwards. Magic flitted down her arms in streaks of blue.

  “You can see my magic, can’t you?”

  “Yes, I can definitely see it.”

  “Good.” She settled back. The blue pooled in her hands. “Now, try to manipulate it.”

  My mind was immediately blank. “And do what?”

  “Make a bird, or a butterfly.” Essa’s choice was immediate. She’d been remembering the same thing I was. Magic that had once been as easy as breathing for me – until I’d deliberately turned my back on it. I hadn’t tried to use magic – my own or anyone else’s – for seven years.

  “You can do it,” Essa told me.

  I focused. A butterfly, with her magic. I spread my fingers, trying to pull Essa’s magic towards me. The sheen of blue in her palms didn’t change. Frustrated, I pushed the fingers of one hand into the magic in Essa’s palms.

  And the blue vanished.

  Essa tugged her hands away as though she’d been burned. “What happened?” She rubbed her hands together, frowning.

  “I can’t do this,” I complained. “I’m so bad I just destroyed your magic!”

  “Don’t be daft, that’s not possible.” She flexed her fingers and I was more than a little relieved when blue streaks of magic flitted around them again. “No harm done. Give it another try.”

  I took a breath, looking reluctantly at the magic wreathing Essa’s hands.

  “I’m not going to bite you,” Essa prompted.