Moon Flowers (Book 1 of the Flower Trilogy) #Wattys2016 #Featured

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO - PHI (Edited)

PHI'S POV

"Princess, I have a surprise for you," Domovoy said to me with a sly voice as the coffer covering the entrance to the hole was pushed aside. I expected to see the house spirit coming out. He did, but was also soon followed by someone else.

"Halia!" I said, running to hug her.

She clung to me. "Phi!" she said. "It's really you!"

She started sobbing. "That's okay!" I said, patting her on her back. "We're together again." I led her by the hand to the plates of food the Evil King had brought me earlier on his daily visit. "Here, eat something."

I presented her with fresh fruits I had grown with magic, and without the king's knowledge. Never again did I want to be forced to tell the truth.

Halia offered Domovoy some fruits as well. "I don't eat that," he said. "But I love the company."

"He feeds off our emotions," I explained.

The hairy creature sat beside Halia and me. He inhaled and exhaled loudly and his lips wrinkled into a satisfied smirk. "It's been so long since I have tasted this kind of emotion," he said.

"You're still wearing the dress I made you," I noticed, remembering she was wearing a different dress last time I had seen her.

Halia nodded. "I wanted to be reminded of you," she said. "I had to go to the woods to retrieve it and avoid being seen by the Evil King's thralls."

"Talking about the Evil King and dresses," Domovoy said before I could tell Halia how reckless she had been for risking her life, "Wotan cannot suspect you have company." He went to the chest and handed Halia a gray dress. "It's a dress the women servants wear. Put it on."

Halia obeyed and reluctantly took off her green dress.

"She'll pass as my servant?" I asked. "Oh, please. The Evil King won't buy the fact I have a servant living with me all of a sudden."

"It is a risk," confessed Domovoy. "But Halia will make herself small and hide as soon as Wotan comes near." He turned to my friend. "Won't you, child?"

Halia nodded.

"But it's not enough," I said. "The king can always barge in and take us by surprise. What will I say then?"

"Well, first of all," Domovoy said. "Halia will have to look like she is mindless. And second, if the Evil King investigates how she got in, he will see she was let in by the mindless thralls—which is the truth."

"How? Why did they let me in?" Halia asked before I did.

"How do you think Halia got into the fortress?" the creature replied. "You haven't seen all my tricks. I can be very persuasive when I whisper in people's ears. And since I am very sneaky, people usually don't even know what's hit them."

"You convinced the guards to let me in?" Halia said. "Can't you let us out too?"

"No," the creature said. "I told you I was going to be able to let you in, but not out. There is a protective shield that makes it impossible for Halia and me to leave the fortress, and Phi to leave her room. You are both prisoners now."

Great, now we're both prisoners. "I'm sorry," I said to Halia.

"I was just as much of a prisoner outside these walls," she said. "At least, now we have each other."

She was such a good friend. I could never hope for better one. I took her tightly in my arms, unable to find the words to describe what I felt at that moment.

For so long, I had been her anchor. I had saved her from Urach when the latter picked on her at sword practice. I had held her hand when she became sick and believed her when she said our future would change. Now, she was my safe haven.

"Tell me about the others," I said. "How are the people?"

"They live in fear," Halia replied. "They don't know what to expect, what has become of your father. We don't know if he died, if he was captured, if he will ever come back."

"So no one received words from my father . . . ," I repeated.

"Unfortunately, no," she said. "Some Elders tried to induce a vision to know more, but no one was able to. No one has royal blood."

"Why don't you induce a vision?" Domovoy asked me. "I know Wotan is rather confident about his protective spell, and hasn't thought of many other security measures within the castle—that's why I have been able to go around unnoticed for so long—but he hasn't put any protective spell against you using magic."

"That's probably because he knows we've had no training in magic. We only received our powers a day before he captured me."

The hairy creature nodded. "Well, you better learn . . . and fast."

"How can we?" Halia asked.

"The green fairies of a community are usually the ones carrying grimoires with the incantations and spells from which you learn."

"I've seen those books," I said, remembering them from the day Grandmother brought me to the green fairies' lair to give them the dresses Halia and I had made for them. They were consulting them to prepare for our first magic class on the following day.

"I've overheard the non-mindless speak of going through the Tisannieres' lair to find the books of spells. Surely they found them and brought them to the king. I suggest we steal them back."

Domovoy was my kind of guy.

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