Return to the Nine Kingdoms

39

                                                Rose
    I never really noticed how closely I resemble Mom, but when we were standing there, bundled up in hunting coats provided by the King's wardrobe, our hair pulled back into a ponytail for me and a loose bun for her, I caught my profile in the reflection in the glass door that led into the courtyard and smirked. I noticed the curve of my nose and the little point of my chin that matched hers delicate features perfectly and even the stance we'd both independently selected, a sort-of one-hip-raised, one-foot-forward pose, was identical.
    She had her jar, primed with just enough pressure to launch a fine mist of thorn berry juice into the air through the secondary reed, and had carried it out of the hall like it was a machine gun. I held mine by the neck and pulled it up to match how she held hers. The boys, as the Fairies had started to call Dad, Ferd, and King Gerard, chivalrously took the lead, while the three Fairies themselves and Queen Bea took up the rear of our assault with two of the six servants we'd awakened. The other four had remained behind to help prepare the castle for the breaking of the Curse and—hopefully not—to try to find help if we failed. Our enemy, the surge of Magic that the No-Sleeps had, according to Ferd, taken to calling the Cloud, could have been anywhere in the Kingdom, trapped only by the invisible boundary of each of the Kingdom's borders. But we were prepared to fight it.
    "Stick to the plan and stick together," Ferd directed.
    He didn't look back at me or to anyone else as he spoke, but he lifted the rifle he'd retrieved and reloaded with just a handful of berries and aimed at the sky. He'd chosen an egress through the courtyard and via the Guard barracks and training grounds because he'd wanted to stay as far from the caltrops and Stinging Arrows as possible. The Fairies had, of course, stood them down as they'd been told, but Ferd didn't want to risk anyone being felled the moment they stepped out onto the drawbridge.
    The moat below the bridge on this side of the castle wasn't teeming with life yet, but I could see, through the gaps in the wood as we crossed, the snouts of upturned water creatures that had simply gone to sleep seventy years before and were waiting for their own kind of Prince Charming to wake them. Each of us, even the Queen, to my surprise, carried a makeshift spray bottle of berry juice that we'd sealed with wax—each of us also carried a small dagger that we would use to cut into the wax as soon as we needed to.
    "Ferd," I whispered, unnecessarily.
    The Kingdom was still largely asleep but I had some kind of sense that the Cloud would swoop down over us if we were too loud. Ferd stopped and the three men of out group looked back at me.
    I stammered, struggling to remember what I wanted to ask. "The No-Sleeps," I managed, finally. "Are they only in the Nod? Or can they..." I lost my thought as a breeze disturbed some of the old, decayed vegetation that. The air had been still until then but we each noticed with a shiver that the air was stingingly cold.
    "The Ice Queen," Orchid whispered shrilly.
    Behind me, the three Fairies huddled together in the air and held their wands out in front of their faces but had their eyes squeezed shut.
    "I'm sure that they're well aware that something is going on," Ferd said in a level tone. "Those that camp near the castle will be wondering why there aren't any explosions anymore."
    Daffodil's wings buzzed with sudden ferocity and she broke from her sister Fairies to zoom forward. She landed, without much grace, on Ferd's shoulder where the Stinging Arrows had dug into his flesh just a day earlier. About the size of a house-cat, Daffodil's sudden weight made Ferd drop his shoulder and he stumbled, almost losing his grip on the rifle.
    "Fairy!" he growled angrily.
    "Quiet!" Daffodil warned.
    I thought I'd been crazy to think that a cloud of Magic could hear and attack us, but the Fairy seemed to believe just that. The other two Fairies joined her near Ferd, and each of them took up a perch on Dad's and King Gerard's shoulders instead.
    "You're suddenly ready to fight then?" King Gerard whispered harshly to Primrose, who had settled on his left shoulder.
    She shook her head violently in response.
    "Huff puff," Dad whined to Orchid.
    Ferd took aim to the sky again with his rifle, but I wasn't sure how effective a single berry, fired into a cloud of Magic, would be. I'd told him as much when he'd forgone taking a jar of the juice for himself to ensure that everyone else had one for themselves, especially Elias and Colin, the two servants who had volunteered for the task. The end of the bridge was further guarded by brambles of thorn berry bushes and, before the Fairies went to work on them, Ferd dipped down to inspect for any ripe berries. He plucked one from the center of a cluster and dropped it to the ground, then squished it under his boot.
    "Too ripe," he said. "No!"
    Elias had pulled a berry from another cluster but hadn't waited for anyone to tell him not to swallow it. Tendrils of the Curse still lingered in and around the castle and Elias's eyes were already drooping from the effect—as soon as he clenched his teeth through the berry's shell, likely hoping to rejuvenate himself, his legs collapsed under him and he was instantly asleep again instead.
    "I told him..." Ferd rushed over but was obviously too late to stop Elias or even catch him as he fell.
    Colin helped to tuck Elias into a comfortable position on the wood of the drawbridge and even moved to place his cloak over his fellow servant's body but Ferd stopped him.
    "You'll need it more than he will...hopefully," he told him.
    He beckoned Colin to reclaim both his and Elias's jars of berry juice and to pull himself in among the others. I caught the same mournful look in Ferd's eyes that he'd had when we'd had to take care of his friends who had apparently made the same dreadful mistake. Even experienced No-Sleeps had succumbed to the need for berries and waited to long to harvest. Ferd looked as though he'd accepted that mistake as his own. Years of failures to awaken the Kingdom had worn him down and I wasn't sure if he could handle any more.
    "Look," I told him, pointing to the brambles that had previously blocked our escape. The Fairies were weaving a lattice of spellwork together and it fell upon the branches. "They're already untangling. It's like they're pulling themselves away."
    A twitch of a smile landed on Ferd's lips as we watched the Magic at work. Mom and Dad, the King and Queen, and Elias inched forward ahead of us, eager to get off the bridge. I pulled in close to Ferd as he allowed his eyes to drift from the Magic and back down to the sleeping Elias and I slipped my hand into his free one. The other clutched the rifle still but he accepted my touch and even offered a little squeeze in return.
    I hadn't known Ferd very long at all, but I felt, in that moment, that I'd learned even more about him than I ever thought I would. The smile he'd used in wonder of the Fairies' Magic remained as we joined the group and stepped over the last of the bramble branches. I knew Mom caught sight of Ferd and my brief moment, but I'd pulled my hand away when I noticed her looking, feigning a shift of my hold on my jar. The knowing look on her face made me blush and my imagination run wild.