“Or courage,” the smaller bunny added with a hop.
“Or the know-how,” the bigger bunny said, hopping even higher.
Which set them both off bouncing again. “She was stuck in the Land of Backwords without the backbone for payback.”
Hudson held his hands up to settle the dust bunnies down. Honestly, for creatures who hadn’t wanted to talk, they certainly did a lot of it. “So what happened after that?”
“The wizard brought in more things to entertain her,” the bigger bunny said. “Once, he turned the whole bottom of the tower into a pool so she could swim with mermaids. Another time, he made it snow in the dining room.”
The smaller bunny nudged the bigger bunny. “Don’t forget Talent Show Fridays. We always did tap dancing.” At this mention, the bunny did a hopping tap move.
“And?” Hudson prodded.
“For a few months, she was almost happy, but…” The bigger bunny twitched his whiskers. “The sadness always came back. She was sick with it. She knew King Vaygran would never let her out of the tower.”
“She didn’t appreciate the beauty of a lovely, dark corner,” the smaller bunny said with evident dismay. “She wanted to walk around, be with people, and have friends. The sadder she became, the more angry the wizard got at King Vaygran for ordering her to be locked up in the first place.” The bunny dropped his voice to a secretive whisper. “A few months back, the wizard took her away. Just up and left with her.”
The bigger bunny nudged the smaller. “We promised not to tell anyone that.”
The smaller bunny twitched her tail. “Well, this doesn’t count. They’re threatening us with a squirrel.”
Impatient, Charlotte said, “Where did they go?”
The smaller dust bunny made a shrugging motion. “The wizard told her he would take her someplace safe from King Vaygran so she could live a normal life.”
Charlotte blinked in confusion. “What do you mean live a normal life? Why isn’t she fighting for her kingdom?”
The bunnies both shrugged. “We don’t know. We’ve been living under the bed.”
“Maybe she can’t fight,” Hudson said.
Charlotte didn’t seem to hear him. Her breathing got faster as her indignation grew. “King Vaygran is punishing anyone who speaks out against him, and Princess Nomira is off somewhere living a safe, normal life? She’s supposed to stand up to him!” Charlotte said the last words so loud the dust bunnies scurried back under the bed to avoid being hit by irate, falling words.
Hudson wiped the dust from his hands. “Well, wherever the princess went, she must not be too happy about it. Her tree is wilted.”
Charlotte’s mouth pressed into a hard, angry line. “She probably just feels guilty because she’s safe while everyone else has to deal with King Vaygran.” She pointed the compactulator first at Pokey, then at Meko, shrinking them.
Hudson put Pokey back into his bag. “I’m definitely not going back to the Cliff of Faces and giving a year of my life for this. Okay, they got the location right—well, sort of right—but they were wrong about us being able to rescue her. At most, we should only have to give them two months—and no weekends.”
Charlotte picked up the squirrel and put him in her bag, her anger evident in every motion. She stomped off down the stairs. “Everyone is waiting for the princess’s return, and she’s off hiding like a coward.”
Hudson followed after her. “Sometimes people let you down, even when they’re royalty.”
Charlotte stopped going down the stairs. For several moments, she stared at the steps in front of her. “We don’t have to be that sort of people.”
“Royalty?”
She didn’t smile. She didn’t even seem to be listening. “Maybe we went about this the wrong way. We wanted to rescue the princess so she could get rid of King Vaygran. That isn’t going to happen. Apparently, we’ve got to get rid of King Vaygran so the princess will come back.”
14
AS THEY HIKED back through the white forest toward the Land of Desolation, Charlotte told Hudson her plan. It was risky, could go wrong in a lot of ways, and would most likely get them both killed. He knew he ought to shake Charlotte’s hand, wish her the best of luck, and find the nearest exit back to his world. He could be crawling through his cupboards by the end of the day. After all, the whole reason he came to Logos was to get rid of the troll curse—so he could be with his family and friends again. What was the point of throwing his life away in a fruitless attempt to depose a tyrant king? Logos wasn’t his home, and this wasn’t his battle.
Granted, if Hudson returned home, he would have to live the life of a recluse, but at least it would be a long, safe life.
He didn’t veto Charlotte’s plan, though. If Princess Nomira couldn’t live happily as a recluse, what chance did he have? After all, she’d had a wizard and mermaids to entertain her.
Besides, he wanted to help Charlotte. This was her battle, and she was his friend. He couldn’t leave and let her down.
“The king addresses people at the end of each week,” Charlotte said as they walked. “That’s tomorrow. We’ll sneak into Grammaria, wait in the crowd, and when the king comes out on his balcony, you’ll throw the bag of revealing powder at him. Any spells and charms he has that make people think he’s a good leader will disappear, and everyone will see him for what he really is: a tyrant and a bully—someone who has tricked them. He’s broken the law in so many ways his entire face will be covered in accusations. The people will be outraged. They’ll overthrow him.”
“Won’t they still be afraid of him?”
“Individually, yes, but crowds have power. Trust me, you don’t want to cross a group of angry Grammarians.”
A few book-birds flew overhead, flapping their pages in a hurried rustle. Charlotte had put her own birds back in her pack so she wouldn’t lose them when they went across the Land of Desolation.
“The king is looking for us,” Hudson reminded Charlotte. He still held the king’s sword, although Charlotte had shrunk it to dagger size to make it easier to carry. “Do you really think it’s a good idea to go to his city and get close enough to him that we can throw a bag of revealing powder? Won’t he have guards around the city with bloodhounds who know our scent?”
“Probably not,” she said, though she didn’t sound convinced herself. “He knows that we know he’s after us. He won’t expect us to show up in Grammaria again.”
“Yeah, because only crazy people would do that. But see, the thing is, we’ve already gone to the castle while he was looking for us, so we’ve established a certain pattern of craziness.”
“We’ll work out the details while we travel.”
The biggest detail Hudson wanted to work out involved coming up with another plan. “What if we found the ruling scepter,” he suggested. “You said it was the most powerful object in Logos. Could we use it?”
Charlotte didn’t answer for a moment. He could tell she was trying to think of a way that, yes, they could use it. “I would love to be able to raise an army from the stones and bat away his wizards’ spells like they were annoying mosquitoes, but…” She sighed and let out a breath. “But it’s only supposed to work for the royal family, and I bet Princess Nomira used its magic to ensure that wherever she put it, only she could retrieve it.”
Hudson liked the idea of a stone army fighting in their defense and didn’t want to let it go that easily. “You don’t know for sure that Princess Nomira made it impossible for anyone else to use it.” He kicked at some words that had fallen in his way. “It doesn’t sound like she cares all that much about it, or she would have retrieved it after she left the tower.”
“It’s not the scepter she doesn’t care about,” Charlotte said bitterly. “It’s Logos.”
A sign popped up on the side of the path. It read FALLBACK!
He pointed it out to Charlotte. “Should we worry about that?”
He stopped and scanned the forest around them. Was the s
ign telling them to retreat? In a place like this, the word fallback could mean autumn was coming around again. Charlotte slipped her bag from her shoulders and pulled out her compass.
Another sign popped up near Hudson’s feet. It read THE SIGNS ARE ALWAYS WRITE.
Warnings had appeared on the compass face. The needle pointed to BEWARE OF WIZARD!
“Oh no.” Charlotte’s gaze darted around the trees on either side of them, searching for danger. Hudson didn’t see anything. Was the wizard ahead of them or behind them? They’d nearly reached the Land of Desolation. Hudson could see it through the trees, spreading out before them, just a few minutes away.
Another sign popped up. RUN FOR COVER!
“Nothing is ahead of us,” he said. “The wizard must be behind us.” Without another word, they both ran forward. They had only gone a few steps when another sign popped up on the side of the path. It read CAUTION, BACKSTABBERS AHEAD.
Not a good sign.
Hudson and Charlotte both skidded to a stop. Before they could turn, a deep, crackling voice in front of them said, “Ah, my dear, you should have seen the signs long before now.” The black wizard they’d seen at the sea—Nepharo—stepped onto the path directly in front of them. He seemed to materialize out of nothingness. His black beard twisted off his chin as though it was trying to go down a drain, and his cloak brushed against the ground as he walked. He held his wand loosely, almost casually.
Hudson held the king’s sword up, wishing now that it was bigger than a dagger. “Don’t come near us!”
Nepharo shook his head, unworried. “Or what? You’ll spread some butter on my bread?”
A rumble of laughter came from behind Nepharo—from the air. It sounded like dozens of men, but no one was there.
The wizard flicked his wand to his side, and what had been a perfect landscape, complete with wind rustling through the leaves and birds flying overhead, folded together like a piece of paper growing smaller.
Hudson stared, not understanding how it was possible, and then realized they had walked toward a giant picture of the landscape. A giant picture that—he now could see—hid a dozen soldiers, their horses, and several leashed bloodhounds.
“Run!” Hudson shouted to Charlotte, and he turned to flee from Nepharo. Around them, the tree trunks turned red. No, it wasn’t the trees—another set of soldiers had come out from their hiding places behind the trees. They created a circle that quickly closed in on Charlotte and Hudson. He sprinted forward anyway, dagger raised, hoping to break their circle.
He didn’t hear the bloodhound come after him. One moment he was running, the next he slammed into the ground with a stinging impact. The dagger dropped from his grip, and he felt the dog crouching on his back. It growled, sending its hot breath down Hudson’s neck.
“I wouldn’t advise moving,” Nepharo called, and then chuckled.
Hudson didn’t move. He listened to the dog’s low growl until a soldier pulled the beast off. Then another soldier grabbed Hudson by his shirt and pulled him to his feet. Someone yanked his arms behind his back and tied them tight with rope.
Hudson hoped Charlotte had managed to get away. But a look over his shoulder told him she hadn’t. A soldier had her in his grip, arms around her waist, holding her off the ground while she kicked at his legs. Another soldier stood nearby with a snarling bloodhound that looked like he’d happily eat her.
Nepharo strolled up to her, smiling. He dipped his wand into the neck of her shirt, fishing out her four-leaf-clover necklace. It dangled from his wand for a moment, then he yanked so hard that the chain broke and the clover tumbled to the ground.
Charlotte’s protection against wizard spells—it was gone now. Hudson felt a cold pit of dread form in his stomach.
Charlotte grew pale.
Nepharo flicked his wand, and a piece of cloth appeared in the air and tied itself over Charlotte’s mouth, preventing her from speaking. “I don’t know what you’re playing at,” he said in a low voice, “but your game is over.”
Nepharo signaled to a nearby soldier to retrieve the clover from the ground and give it to him. Apparently, wizards were too good to bend down themselves. The soldier did as he was told. With one last wink of silver, the clover disappeared into Nepharo’s billowing black cloak.
“Take her things,” Nepharo told the soldier. “Tie her with the silver rope and carry her on your horse. I’ll deal with her once we get past the Land of Desolation.”
The wizard then strode over to Hudson, dark eyes glittering with triumph. He jabbed his wand down Hudson’s neckline and, with one quick motion, broke his chain and sent the clover flying to the ground.
While a nearby soldier retrieved it, the wizard leaned so close to Hudson his twisted black beard rubbed against Hudson’s face. “And who are you?” With a sneer, the wizard reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny drawstring bag. “You couldn’t be Aziz Fantasmo. Not unless you’ve lost all your magic. Wouldn’t that be a delicious irony?”
Nepharo flicked a pinch of white glittery powder into Hudson’s face. He felt the tingling of a disguise change. The colors in Hudson’s clothes ran down his arms and legs, washing away to reveal his old clothes, the ones he’d come to Logos in. He looked like himself again.
Nepharo wrinkled his nose in distaste, taking in Hudson’s dirty jeans and tennis shoes. “Just a boy. Someone from the Land of Banishment, no doubt. Is that where she ran?”
Hudson didn’t answer.
The wizard closed his drawstring pouch and tucked it back into his robe. He gestured to the soldier who held on to Hudson’s jacket. “Take him on your horse.”
The soldier marched Hudson down the path, holding on to the rope that tied his hands like it was a leash. He had a long, thin mustache and fierce eyes, and if Hudson walked too slowly, the man poked his sword into Hudson’s back.
“How did you get across the desolation?” Hudson asked. It wasn’t an idle question, although he tried to make it sound like it was. If the soldiers had a way to avoid the mental draining that happened while crossing the isthmus, he wanted to know it.
“You’ll see soon enough. We’ve got magic that can outwit the likes of you.”
A minute later, the forest cleared, and Hudson saw what he meant. A couple of dozen horses were tethered to a long metal pole that ran perpendicular to the edge of the forest. One end of the pole rested on a metal T with huge wheels on the bottom. The other side of the pole was impossible to see. It stretched out over the Land of Desolation, disappearing to some point near the Forest of Possibilities.
The soldiers had obviously used the pole to keep themselves from getting lost on the way here, but how had they gotten hold of a pole that long in the first place? How did the men know beforehand that they would need it? Did they have some way of figuring out Charlotte and Hudson’s plans?
He kept his voice unconcerned. “It looks like you used a pole to outwit us, not magic.”
The soldier prodded Hudson in the back again. “Sir Nepharo tethered us to the pole and enchanted it to grow steadily for two miles. That was the magic part. The clever part was that the pole is only enchanted in the Forest of Possibilities, so the Land of Desolation couldn’t suck the magic away.”
Hudson had to admit that a magically growing pole was a good idea. Why hadn’t he and Charlotte realized the king’s wizard would know a way to cross the Land of Desolation? They should have been on their guard. They should have cut through the Land of Backwords and crossed the Land of Desolation in a different place.
“For the trip back,” the soldier went on, marching Hudson toward a horse, “the pole will shrink and lead us back. Nepharo has thought of everything.”
When they reached the horse, the soldier picked Hudson up, tossed him over the front of the saddle, then mounted behind him. “Don’t try to escape, or I’ll be forced to kill you.”
Try? Hudson couldn’t even think of a way to attempt it. He was tied up, facedown on a horse next to a man who was a little
too eager to use his sword. At this point, his options were severely limited.
He noticed Charlotte draped over a horse three ahead of him in the line. She’d been tied up in silver rope, and an armed soldier sat behind her, guarding her.
Hudson wanted to catch her eye, but she was looking forward. All he could see were the packhorses in between them. They were weighed down by sacks—provisions for the soldiers while they pursued Hudson and Charlotte. The men had apparently planned on the chase lasting a few days longer.
Hudson felt the insult of those sacks. He and Charlotte had been too easy to catch.
A horn sounded from the front of the line, and the pole began to move, pulling the line of soldiers toward the Land of Desolation. With every step the horse took, the saddle bit into Hudson’s stomach.
The first horses in the caravan reached the Land of Desolation, and their hooves sent back clouds of dust. The sand fairy was out there somewhere. Could she cut through their ropes? She’d already been paid three muselings to take them back across the land. She owed them some help.
He didn’t see her anywhere, but the horses in front of him were throwing up enough dust to hide a mob of magical creatures. She might be within earshot. “Hey, fairy,” he whispered, trying not catch the soldier’s attention. “Psst, over here. I need your…”
The word was gone. He searched for it, but his mind felt like an empty bowl. Part of him knew he was in danger. Something bad was happening. He sifted through flashes of memory, not understanding any of it. Red dogs. A dark wizard. He had the vague thought that he was supposed to follow a light. He couldn’t see one anywhere.
He tried to sit up but couldn’t move his hands or legs.
This was bad.
Bad.
Bad.
Fortunately, the stupor didn’t last long. The horses moved at a fast pace, and before long they’d reached the Forest of Possibilities.
Hudson’s thoughts rushed back, and he happily remembered who he was and not so happily remembered what was happening. Nepharo had found them.