The Flute Keeper's Promise (The Flute Keeper Saga) (4 page)

“Well, think of others who were
alive in his time. Surely somebody exists who knew him,” Linaeve said.

I knew of a few people, but they
weren’t exactly fans of mine. “Judge Kesper acts like he knew my grandfather
pretty well. I could never talk to him, though. He’s awful! Then there’s High
Priestess Grimmoix. She would have known about grandpa’s training at least.
There’s no way I’m bringing it up with her. She’d just call me names and insult
him to boot.”

“
Nechtu riskint nechtu gwifirun
,”
Linaeve said.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

 Linaeve smiled. Her nearly
transparent body shimmered. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

True to Linaeve’s advice, the
question of my grandparents did occupy my mind. I thought about it the whole
time I was in the garden with Anouk. Though I pleaded, Anouk wouldn’t let me go
into the library. I wanted to see if I could find out my grandmother’s maiden
name so I could eat fruit from her family tree.

“Not today,” Anouk said for the
third time as she cracked nuts into a grinding bowl. “What’s eating you,
anyways?”

I waited until Anouk wasn’t looking
and snuck a nut out of the bowl. “Nothing in particular.”

Anouk gave me a knowing look from
beneath her droopy head scarf. “There’s another mark for the Door to heckle you
about.”

“What?” I asked innocently.

“You just lied,” Anouk said. “And
stole.” She glanced at my palm.

I tossed the nut back into the
bowl. “I can’t get anything past you. You’d make a really good mother.”

Anouk’s eyes widened in surprise.
She blushed. “Now that’s one I’ve never heard before! Course, it doesn’t really
matter, does it? Being a priestess an all…” she sighed and stared wistfully
into the branches waving overhead.

I was reminded again of my grandfather.
“Why?” I asked.

Anouk shook off her daze and went
back to cracking nuts. “Why what?”

“Why can’t priests and priestesses
have children?

Anouk looked at me like I was
crazy. “We have to remain whole in spirit. A whole spirit means—”

“Yeah, yeah, that old line,” I
said. “Why is it
really
?”

Anouk pursed her lips in thought.
For once, her wise, rosy face looked dark with worry. “The reason given is good
enough. We must keep ourselves whole in service of the cathedral. I suppose children
are a distraction, and you can’t be distracted from your studies. We clergy are
the ones responsible for preserving all Fay history.”

I still wasn’t satisfied. Cathedral
doctrine was nothing if not vague. Though they called themselves priests and
priestesses, they didn’t actually
worship
anything. Fay considered
themselves to be gods. They’d even appeared to humans in the past, claiming to
be Neptune or Zeus or Thor or other deities, just for fun. Conjuring lightning
and other divine acts were mere parlor tricks to them. I thought it was
mean-spirited, but one could not argue against their power. Their history and
vast stores of knowledge were a testament to their rise, so they were fiercely
protective of it.

If I thought about it long enough,
I got this uncomfortable little twitch at the base of my skull. What good was
hoarding a legacy if it came at the expense of neglecting the future? The Fay
were so comfortable in their place that they were borderline arrogant…okay, full-blown
arrogant. Even with crowds seeking refuge behind the castle walls, the
sentiment was still that the Fay were infallible. I wondered if it wouldn’t be
better for the clergy to start training people in combat and defense rather
than steeping themselves in history. It was one of the things I planned to
bring up to Chloe when she reached the position to do something about it.

I heard a rustle in the trees
above. Anouk and I glanced up to see a couple of blackbirds flying away. They
left behind a sprinkle of falling leaves. A big one drifted down over my head.
I thought I saw something written on it.

Anouk shrugged and went back to her
bowl of nuts. “I guess we’re done for today unless you want to recite the
Battle of Billabell Bay again.”

I waited until she was distracted
and snatched the leaf out of the air.  “I’ll pass.” I stood up and brushed off
my robe.

“See you tomorrow!” Anouk called as
I walked away. “Remember to save room for my crispy bread!”

When I was outside the garden, I
unwrinkled the leaf. It contained a message. I recognized the handwriting and
my stomach did a flip. It was only two words:
Valkyrie Peak.

“What are you smiling about?” Chloe
asked.

I shrugged and watched as the
princess moved tiny figures around a map. The tip of her tongue was pressed against
the corner of her mouth and her purple ringlets hung down on the paper,
occasionally knocking over a tent or a miniature person.

Chloe looked tired, but she was far
healthier than she had been only months ago. Her angular face was starting to
fill out. Her arms and legs were no longer like sticks. She’d taken to wearing
dresses made of heavy material in rich colors like maroon and amber rather than
the wispy pink things she used to wear. Much to my surprise (and relief) she
was starting to look like a mature, sophisticated young woman.

“Damn it all!” she exclaimed,
pounding her fist on the map. A miniature tent near her fingers exploded into
flame. She huffed and put out the little fire.

“Take a rest,” I suggested. “You’ll
get it. Rome wasn’t built in a day. You can’t solve all of Ivywild’s problems
in one night.”

Chloe wrinkled her brow. “What’s
Rome?”

“Never mind,” I said, rising from
the table. I paced around her room, pausing to look out of the window. The
day’s last light illuminated the tent tops in the residential quarter, turning
them into golden cones.

“Where are we going to put them
all?” Chloe asked. She, too, was staring at the tents. “Loosestrife is already
too crowded. There’ve been reports of strange activity in North Embyre and
you’d better believe I’m not sending anyone over to Larlaith to ask for the
Dookie of Briar’s help.”

I sighed. Chloe could poke fun and
the duke all she wanted, but he was a real a real threat. He commanded a
personal army as big as Ivywild’s own forces.

“Why not try to fix the real
problem?” I asked. “If people aren’t scared, they won’t feel the need to
relocate.”

Chloe pressed both hands to the
sides of her head. “Emma, I love you but sometimes I just want to…to…”

I raised an eyebrow. “To what?”

Chloe threw up her hands. “I know
you’re right, okay? But it’s not like I haven’t been trying!  It’s just that
with all the rumors flying around it’s hard to get people to see what’s real
and what’s just hearsay. I mean, there have been
some
disappearances,
but it’s not like they’re happening every day, you know? Those people could
very well have fallen prey to trolls or kelpies or something! Nobody said it
was
her
monsters.”

There were Fay scouts all over the
forests and plains beyond Ivywild looking for evidence of Robyn’s mechamen, or
Robyn herself. So far, they’d turned up nothing.

“You know what just really puts a
cherry on the whole thing?” Chloe said. She grabbed a pillow, tossed it into
the air and incinerated it.

“Don’t do that,” I said, coughing
as bits of burnt feathers went up my nose.

“The blasted Seelie Court!” Chloe
fumed. “Every time I issue a proclamation with our scouts’ findings, they go
and issue their own proclamation about ‘personal protection’ and ‘compromised
areas.’ Here, look at this!” She picked a wadded piece of yellow paper off her
dresser and threw it at me.

I unwadded it and read a warning
that was written in bold, eye-catching script:

CITIZENS BEWARE! ROAMING MECHA-BEASTS AND MURDERERS
SPOTTED IN FAYLINN COUNTRYSIDE! THE SEELIE COURT VOWS EXPEDIENT JUSTICE AGAINST
THESE ABOMINATIONS. IN THE INTERIM, ALL EMERALD RANKS AND LOWER ARE ENCOURAGED
TO SEEK PROTECTION NEAR IVYWILD.

—THE
SEELIE COURT—

“SERVANTS
OF THE PEOPLE”

“They’re making me look like an
idiot!” Chloe fumed. “‘All Emerald Ranks and lower’ means well over half the population!”

I was trying to think of something
to say to calm her down when the door flew open. A long cart of sumptuous
treats rolled into the room. A tall, rather unattractive maid pushed the cart.
Her dress was too short, revealing unusually fuzzy legs, and her hair was a
garish color of tangerine.

“Dinner!” the maid said in a
crackling singsong voice.

Chloe eyed the food wistfully, but
she gave the girl a frown. “Who’re you? Where’s Vespa?”

The maid busied herself with
setting up the serving dishes. “Vespa took ill. She’s got the Barbegazi Flu,
I’m afraid. Highly contagious. I heard you get it from kissing too many frogs.”

Chloe and I exchanged a dubious
look.

“What about Midge?” Chloe asked.

“Hmm?” the maid said. She dipped
her finger into a bowl of cream and licked it. “Oh, Midge?  Is that the maid
with green hair and a nice, round bu—I mean—hat?”

Chloe glanced at the bowl of cream
and made a disgusted face. “Midge never wears a hat.”

“Oh,” the maid said. She tried to
slice a hard-boiled egg and made a terrible mess of it.

Chloe placed her hands on her hips
and trounced out of the room. “I’m going to check your credentials. Keep an eye
on her, Emma.”

As soon as Chloe left, the girl
grinned and winked at me. “How do you like the new outfit?”

I rolled my eyes. “What are you
doing here, Bazzlejet?”

He puffed out his stuffed bosom.
“Security, of course. W.R.A.I.T.H. wants somebody close to Princess Chloe at
all times.”

 “Why don’t you just tell her? She
has to find out about W.R.A.I.T.H. eventually. Her mother runs the place!”

Chloe came back into the room.
Bazzlejet and I fell silent and tried to look innocent.

“Did you find the taskmaster?”
Bazzlejet asked in his girl voice.

Chloe glared at him. “He went to
his quarters earlier this evening with a headache…something about an accidental
shock. I
suppose
you’ll do for now. Just don’t touch any more of the
food.” She raised her eyebrows at me. “Will you stay and eat?”

I glanced out the window. The sky
was growing dark. I swiped a roll from the food cart. “I’ll catch up with you
later. I’ve gotta run.”

“Off to practice, I presume?” Chloe
said.

I nodded. “Where can I find you
when I get back?”

Sadness flitted over Chloe’s face,
causing her jewel green eyes to grow misty. “I think…I think I will go sit with
father. It doesn’t do much good anymore. He doesn’t even know me.”

The king was but a shadow. Nobody
denied it, but I could tell it hurt Chloe badly. Though it made me feel
awkward, I tried to be there for support. I’d watched my mother fade away
because of illness. Thankfully, Dad and I had each other to get through it.
Chloe had a kingdom full of servants but few friends.

“I’ll come too, if you’d like,” I
said.

Chloe managed a little smile. “That
would be nice.”

Bazzlejet lumbered awkwardly over
the serving dishes. His tangerine wig was starting to go crooked. I gave it a
quick tug as I walked by him.

“
Behave
,” I whispered.

He gave a barely discernible nod and
then grinned at Chloe. “Let me get your plate, Your Highness.”

I heard a crash of china as I went
out to the hall, followed by Chloe shouting and swearing. I doubted that
Bazzlejet had any idea what he was in for.

A cool, slow rain drizzled from the
evening sky above Valkyrie Peak. Its quiet beauty was inscribed on pages
238-241 of
Gulliver’s Guide to Ancient Shrines: a Hobgoblin’s Perspective
.

Shale crunched beneath my boots. I
cringed. I’d have to be quieter. Lev was much faster than I could ever be. My
only advantage lay in anticipating his attacks and not making myself an easy
target. After taking a look around, I removed my boots.

The rocks were cold and sharp
beneath my bare feet. I’d have cuts but that was okay; I’d get Violet to heal
them. The younger princess had become my personal physician. Thanks to her, my
cuts and bruises went away quickly and I had a cupboard of crystal-derived
supplements—the Fay equivalent to a multi-vitamin.

The summit loomed above me, its
jagged form like a black anvil against the sky. Lev could use any one of its
crevasses or overhangs to conceal himself.

The drizzle muffled every sound
except my rapid breathing. I took a moment to focus. This was no different from
any other practice. I’d just have to stay one step ahead.

A dark figure plummeted from out of
nowhere and knocked me backwards.

The game was on. Lev vanished once
more into the night. I regained my balance and palmed the hilt of my
shortsword. It was a light weapon with a nice reach. I had become confident with
it over the past few months.

The wind carried the sound of wings
to me. It sounded as if Lev was somewhere high and to my left. I crouched low
and waited in a neutral stance. He’d warned me never to assume which direction
an ambush could come from. It was better to be prepared for an attack from any
side.

He dove in from my right. I pivoted
and met him head-on with my sword drawn. He did a back flip and landed a few
paces away.

“Good,” he said. “I see that last
lesson sank in.”

“I have a scar to remember it by,”
I said, watching him carefully.

He started to circle. I kept him in
my sights, careful not to put my back to him. I made no move to attack. That
never worked with Lev.

I saw the flash of his white wings
and he vanished only to reappear behind me. I was too slow to react and he
pushed me to my knees. The jagged rocks dug into my kneecaps.