فصل 12

12

SOPHIE

First Loyalty

“Sophie, hurry!” Agatha called, far up the steps in front of her.

“It’s these blasted shoes!” Sophie moaned, slipping on stairs like a cow on ice.

“Who told you to wear heels!”

More screams rang out from inside the tower.

“Sounds like Nicola!” cried Agatha, speeding up.

Sophie frowned, slowing down. “Well, in that case—” “Move, you fool!” Agatha berated.

Sophie scurried after her, resorting to crawling on her hands and knees, wondering how she was huffing like a hog while Agatha, who ate every cookie in a 50-mile radius, was sprinting up the stairs with ease. But soon she reached the top and was hustling behind her friend towards the stone door, still open a sliver. Both girls threw their weight against it, barely shoving it ajar, before Sophie’s heels lost traction in the snow and she face-planted with a shriek. By the time she staggered up, Agatha was already inside. Sophie squeezed through behind her— It was pitch dark.

“Aggie?” Sophie wisped.

“My fingerglow won’t light,” Agatha said nearby.

“Magic doesn’t work here, remember? Raccoon rock or whatever he called it. Doesn’t allow magic inside its bounds. Aggie, I can’t see anything. Where are y—” A cold hand seized her wrist.

“Listen,” Agatha’s voice said.

Then Sophie heard it.

A hissing sound somewhere far away. Or was it buzzing? Like a set of pipes leaking air . . .

Another scream echoed. This time a boy’s.

“Come on,” Agatha said, yanking Sophie down the tunnel.

“I hate it when you treat me like your sidekick,” Sophie said, stumbling behind. “I’m a Dean and you’re not even queen yet. If anyone’s a sidekick here, it’s—” They slammed into a wall and careened to the ground.

In her haze of pain, Sophie thought they were back at school, foiled by the invisible barrier on Halfway Bridge that had set their original fairy tale into motion. But as the pain wore off, she could feel Agatha lumber up next to her, hands on the wall.

Sophie heard that strange hissing behind it, along with muffled voices— “They’re inside! I hear them!” she said.

She thrust her ear to the stone, trying to hear more, and felt it creak under her weight.

“It’s another door,” said Sophie, surprised.

“But there’s no handle,” said Agatha. “On the count of three, push as hard as you can. One . . . two . . .” “On three or after three?”

“After three, you dolt.”

“So on four, really.”

“NO! After three!”

“Let me count, then,” said Sophie.

“Hurry, you idiot!”

“One . . . two . . . three!”

They shoved the door as hard as they could and plunged through into a blitz of daylight— “Watch out!” Hort’s voice cried.

Toppling forward, Sophie snagged Agatha by the waist, trapping her in place. The two girls froze like mannequins, muscles clenched, breaths held.

Their bodies were an inch from being impaled on a bloodstained sword, planted handle-first into the dirt of a stone cave that opened into gray skies and a view of Avalon’s coastline below.

The sword had Camelot’s seal on the hilt.

Chaddick’s sword.

Curled around it were two king cobras, hissing with forked tongues, mimicking the warped Camelot seal they’d seen on the map in Chaddick’s dead hands. Behind the sword were dozens of treasure chests, hanging open and empty, with black velvet lining inside and the same snake-and-sword emblem carved on the outside. But that wasn’t the most ominous sight. Because as Sophie peered closer, she saw now that the chests weren’t empty at all. . . .

The black velvet was moving.

Snakes.

Hundreds of them.

Thin black ribbons, slowly slithering out of the chests and slipping into the sand.

“Don’t move,” said Nicola’s voice above her.

Slowly Sophie’s eyes lifted and saw the crew clinging to icicles on the ceiling of the cave.

“They’re asps. They only see motion,” warned Nicola, hanging on the same icicle as Hort. “I read about them in The Brahman and the Jackal—” “No one cares,” Sophie retorted. “All we care about is are they deadly?” “Why do you think we’re up here, you oaf!” Hort lashed. “Beaver trapped us while you two were off kissing somewhere!” Sophie’s eyes bulged—not just because Hort had never been so rude, but because even if the asps hadn’t spotted her and Agatha, the cobras had. The two bigger snakes flicked off the sword, coiled in the dirt, and slithered towards the two girls.

“Aggie . . . ,” Sophie hissed, watching their hoods spread with fiery red-and-orange patterns. She and Agatha stepped back, but the cobras accelerated, fangs gleaming.

“Agatha . . .”

The two snakes split paths, each heading for a different girl, faster, faster, like eels gliding through sea.

“Agatha!”

The cobras launched for their throats, jaws wide— Agatha threw Sophie out the door and heaved it closed, hearing the cobras’ bodies smack against stone.

Sweating hard, Agatha shouted through a slit in the door, “Where’s the beaver?” “Escaped, the sleazy trash-ball,” Hester spat back. “Managed to get him by the neck with my legs for a second. Long enough to squeeze him into confessing that he got paid to kill us. Someone in a green mask. Didn’t have the faintest clue who the guy was. Said they all get paid for the attacks.” “Who’s ‘they’?” Sophie asked.

“Everyone who’s been attacking our friends’ quests and terrorizing the kingdoms! Snake’s behind all of it!” said Hester, still in disbelief. “Snake recruited this army of goons to throw the Woods into chaos. Forget that we spent three years trying to keep the balance between Good and Evil. Apparently there’s a whole lot of creeps out there who don’t have any loyalty to either side if you pay them enough. You thought Aric was bad? At least he had a cause. This lot can be bought—” The echo of hoofbeats cut her off. Inside the cave, the crew turned, looking out the opening. From outside the door, Sophie could see through the cave opening too, down to the faint outline of a beaver astride a gray horse galloping along the coast and out of view.

“Guess that answers the question of who’s been feeding the horse,” said Dot.

“I’m losing grip!” Anadil yelped.

Hester swiveled to her best friend slipping off a melting icicle, her three rats hanging by each other’s tails. Hester spun to Dot. “Turn it to chocolate—something she can hold—” “First, it’ll melt, and second, magic doesn’t work here!” Dot railed.

“I’m gonna fall!” Anadil gasped.

Without thinking, Agatha pulled at the door, about to rush in, but Sophie yanked her back. “You’ll get killed!” Agatha kicked the wall in frustration. “In storybooks, what kills snakes?” “Handsome princes with swords?” said Sophie.

“WHAT KILLS SNAKES,” Agatha shouted into the cave.

“Lions!” Dot replied. “That’s what The Lion and the Snake said!” “No lions here,” clipped Bogden, wrapped around Willam’s icicle.

“What about cats!” said Agatha. “Reaper hates snakes!” “No cats,” said Bogden.

“Demons!” said Hort. “In Bloodbrook, that’s how we get rid of—” “Magic doesn’t work,” said Bogden, nodding at Hester’s dormant tattoo.

“Instead of telling us what doesn’t work, why don’t you tell us what does!” Sophie yelled through the door.

“Look, any moron knows only one thing kills snakes in fairy tales!” Nicola exploded, as if she couldn’t take it anymore.

All eyes shifted to her.

“Well?” Sophie bellowed.

“MONGOOSES, for God’s sake,” Nicola blared. “It’s always the mongoose that kills a snake at the end of the tale! Haven’t you heard of ‘Rikki-Tikki–Tavi’ or Indira and the Mongoose or The Tales of Panchatantra? Don’t any of you know anything besides Snow White and Rapunzel and stories about creamy fair princesses?” “No mongoose,” Bogden quipped.

“Wait! Yes, mongoose!” Agatha said, spinning to Sophie. “Where is he!” “On the boat, obviously. He’s steam-cleaning my boudoir. After the storm, it smelt of fish,” Sophie said.

The whole crew groaned.

“So we have no weapons, no mongoose, and no plan. What do we have?” said Agatha.

“Hello, little chickadees!” a singsong voice called.

Jolted, Agatha and Sophie put their eyes to the door crack and saw a vision of Princess Uma’s olive-skinned face floating in the cave.

“Professor Dovey asked me to let you know she’s running late,” said Uma, framed by the Dean’s alarmingly messy office. “She’s dealing with a few Neverboys who tried to feed Professor Manley to a stymph. I only just got back to school myself. Had to miss the first weeks of class because . . . well, it’s personal. But I’m here now and . . . Why do you all look so grim? And why are you hanging from lanterns? And is that licorice under your feet? Sorry, it’s quite blurry from my side. . . . This crystal ball is ancient. . . .” Her face distorted, turning upside down. “Sometimes if you give it a good joggle—” She was flung out of the way by Professor Dovey, more disheveled than ever. “Those are snakes!” she squawked, peering through the rip in the air. “And the children are hanging from—dear God! Uma, you speak reptile! Put them to sleep or something!” “Princesses don’t speak snake, Clarissa,” Uma huffed, tugging at her smooth black hair. “But I do speak a great many other animal languages, including—” “I don’t need your résumé, Uma! And please get out of my way!” Professor Dovey scolded, clawing spellbooks off her shelf. “Surely there’s a sleeping hex in here that will work on snakes!” Uma started to wail loudly. Sophie could see Agatha gnashing her teeth. If there’s one thing they both hated, it was thin-skinned princesses.

“I can’t hold on!” Dot howled, backside sagging two inches above the snakes.

“Hurry, Professor!” Agatha shouted into the cave.

“What’s that, Agatha?” Dovey said, hand to ear.

But Uma was mewling more than ever.

“It has my pants!” Dot shrieked, an asp’s fangs digging into her breeches.

“HURRY, PROFESSOR!” Sophie hollered.

“Uma, I can’t hear a word!” Dovey yelled. “If you don’t stop your crying—” “Crying?” Uma scoffed. “I’m not crying. I’m calling a friend.” “Friend!” Dovey wheeled to her. “Our students are about to die, you ninny, and you’re calling a friend—” Suddenly, behind Dovey’s bubble, a fleet of tiny furry heads poked over the cave hole in a perfect circle like synchronized swimmers, echoing Uma’s wailful call. A white one with beady eyes took in the scene.

“Hardeep,” he squeaked. “Uma friend.”

“Moti-Lal,” said the next. “Uma friend.”

“Ganeshanathan. Uma friend.”

“Pushpa. Uma friend.”

“Ramanujan. Uma friend.”

“Gutloo. Uma friend.”

“Santanam. Uma friend.”

And finally, one black as night, smiling pearly sharp teeth . . .

“Boobeshwar. Uma friend.”

Princess Uma smiled into the crystal ball. “Close your eyes, children. This could get messy.” The snakes unleashed a panicked hiss—

Like cyclones, eight mongooses swung into the cave, screeching so loudly that Sophie and the crew not only closed their eyes, but also plugged their ears.

Five minutes later, Hort and Willam swept bloody asp and cobra carcasses out of the cave while Bogden sliced fresh apples with the tip of an icicle and fed them to the exhausted mongooses. Princess Uma thanked her friends with a few short wails (and promised to officiate Boobeshwar’s wedding to Pushpa later that month).

Then Professor Dovey’s face, already beginning to fade, looked down at Sophie and Agatha, who had finished explaining everything they’d faced in Avalon.

“Girls, our connection will end soon,” said the Dean quickly. “From what you’ve told me, this Snake has trespassed into Avalon, killed one of our own, and wants Tedros’ crown. And he’s throwing the entire Woods into upheaval along the way. He’s attacking kingdoms. He’s attacking our students. Just this morning, Kiko’s team didn’t appear for its check-in with me, nor did Ravan’s team in Akgul, and I’m quite sure the Snake has something to do with it. Luckily, both teams are still alive on my map in their respective kingdoms, so they could just be hiding. I’m looking into it. But whoever this Snake is, he’s the worst kind of villain: he’s a terrorist.” She took a deep breath. “And all you know is we’re searching for a man in a green mask?” “Or a woman,” Sophie ventured.

“And you’re sure they’ve left Avalon?” Dovey pressed.

Agatha and Sophie exchanged looks. “Can’t be sure of anything anymore,” said Agatha. “But the beaver made it sound like he was long gone.” “The Lady of the Lake would have never let him or the Snake in,” said Dovey, dismayed. “Have you gone to her—” “Wait a second,” said Hester.

She was crouching near one of the chests. Inside it was a single, ragged gold coin. Hester held it up to the daylight.

A skull with crossbones glimmered on its face.

“Pirate gold,” said Anadil. Her rats sniffed at the chests and tittered at her. “They say all of these were filled with pirate gold. Those asps must have been protecting it.” “Pirate numbers are growing in Jaunt Jolie,” Hester said, remembering the newspaper she’d seen in Eternal Springs. “Snake has to be paying them.” Anadil swiveled to Hester. “Jaunt Jolie is one of the kingdoms bordering the Four Point. Didn’t the Vizier in Kyrgios mention pirates lurking about sacred land?” “If the Snake is planning something at the Four Point, you need to head him off at once,” said Professor Dovey urgently. “The Four Point is where Arthur intervened to end a war between four kingdoms over a small piece of land. He gave his life to bring peace. Since then, the land belongs to Camelot as a symbol of its leadership of the Woods, beyond Good and Evil. Any breach would be a declaration of war on Camelot, not to mention a shattering of the truce. The Lady of the Lake vigilantly protects the Four Point, but it sounds like the Snake has his eyes on it. You must find out what these pirates are up to.” “Then we’re off to Jaunt Jolie,” Agatha said, eyeing the vial on Sophie’s necklace. “Whose quest is stationed there?” “Oh no,” Sophie croaked. “Beatrix.”

“And judging from the fact that some of our quest teams aren’t communicating with me, Beatrix’s team may be in danger too,” said Professor Dovey. “Make haste to your next kingdom and find her. I won’t be able to check in with you for a few days. My crystal ball only lets me use it a certain amount of time each day and tomorrow I have to use it for . . .” She didn’t finish.

“Professor, is there no way to get a new ball?” Dot prodded respectfully.

“Along with a new cooking pot, new wand, and new maid for your office,” Sophie murmured.

Professor Dovey was fading faster. “Listen, my children. Every second you spend in that cave is one more second a steadfast Ever of Good lies unburied in the cold. All I ask is that before you leave Avalon, you give him a worthy goodbye. Go to the Lady of the Lake. Find out how a boy of our own came to lie on her shores. At the very least, she must help you bury him.” Professor Dovey choked up, her face translucent. “He is worthy of a home in the same grove as King Arthur, for he was a devoted friend to his son. Chaddick was an honorable boy. He didn’t deserve to die alone. I should be there with you to pay my respects. . . . I wish I could, but I’m doing the best I can. . . .” Tears filled the Dean’s eyes, as if she could say no more.

Then she was gone.

“Lady of the Lake? Are you there?” Sophie asked a third time, her foot dipped in the glacial gray waters.

But again the Lady didn’t answer.

A few minutes earlier, the crew had each taken a private moment with Chaddick to honor him. When it was her turn, Sophie had kneeled down and taken his rigid, chilled hands in hers.

“Thank you for being such a faithful, valiant friend to Teddy. A better friend than I’ve ever been, that’s for sure. We’ll protect him for you now, okay? And in the end, you’ll be the reason we were able to save him.” She kissed his cheek. “Wherever you are, you’ll have no pain or bad memories anymore. Only love. And one day, me, Teddy, and all the rest of your friends will be with you again. Not too soon, of course . . . but one day. So wait for us and watch over us if you can.” When she was finished, Agatha kneeled in front of Chaddick, then Hort kneeled, then Hester, then the others, one by one, even those who hadn’t known him. They washed Chaddick’s body clean with lake water and fitted him into Hort’s clothes, leaving the weasel pink-skinned and shivering in his underpants. (“Always lose my clothes anyway, so might as well be for a good cause,” he’d said.) The boys lifted Chaddick’s body and lay him gently on the lakeshore, the water lapping up to his side. Without the use of magic, they could do little else to adorn him, but Nicola combed his hair and Bogden smoothed his shirt as the rest watched Agatha step into the water and call out for the Lady of the Lake to help bury their friend.

The Lady didn’t answer.

And now, she wasn’t responding to Sophie either.

“Maybe if we go farther in?” Anadil offered.

“Come on,” Hester said, grabbing her and Dot and hauling them into the lake. Dot squealed, arctic water up to her thighs, but she gritted her teeth and plowed forward.

Sophie remained with Agatha, watching the witches wade deeper.

“What do you think Dovey meant when she said she’s doing the best she can?” Agatha asked.

“Before you arrived at school, she told me she couldn’t come on this quest because it was our fairy tale, not hers. But I’m starting to suspect there was another reason she had to stay behind,” said Sophie.

“Is she sick?”

“Can fairy godmothers get sick? Besides, she doesn’t look ill. She looks . . . chaotic. As if her mind is elsewhere,” Sophie said. “But what could be more important for a Dean than protecting her students? Lady Lesso lied to a deadly School Master to keep her Nevers safe. She betrayed Evil itself, a cause she’d worked for her whole life. She betrayed her own son. And though I hate saying this, Dovey is just as good a Dean as Lady Lesso. Which means there’s something else wrong with her. Something she isn’t telling us. Do you think it might have to do with that crystal ball?” “Even if it’s broken, a crystal ball should help her, not leave her frazzled and overwhelmed.” Agatha shook her head. “I’m scared, Sophie. You heard Dovey—she’s never seen a villain like this before. And if she’s not at full strength to guide us . . .” She paused. “The Woods is under siege. Our friend is dead. Quest teams are missing. And Tedros is alone at Camelot, with this Snake plotting to destroy him. We don’t know who the Snake is. We don’t know what his plan is. All we know is we’re in a fairy tale again and this time the villain is playing games with us.” She gazed at her friend. “It’s as if there’s no such thing as a happy ending anymore.” “Or perhaps we’ve traded in Good and Evil, black and white, happy and unhappy for a thousand shades of gray,” said Sophie.

“Hey, guys?” Hester’s voice called.

The two girls turned and saw the three witches looking back at them, chest-deep.

“There’s someone out there,” said Hester.

Sophie stepped forward, squinting past the witches across the lake. Then she saw it: a hundred yards away, a silhouette hunched on top of the water. She couldn’t see whose it was. She couldn’t even tell if it was man . . . animal . . . monster.

But whatever it was gave her a dark feeling.

“I’ll go—” Agatha started.

“I’ll go too,” Sophie said without thinking, clasping Agatha’s wrist and dragging her past the witches and Hort, who’d rushed to follow. The icy water knifed through Sophie’s dress as she swam, but she didn’t make a sound nor stop swimming, her breaths achy and shallow.

But then something curious happened.

As the two girls swam farther, Agatha sank like the others, down to her neck. But Sophie didn’t sink at all. Her body started floating, higher, higher, magically sloughing off water, until suddenly she was walking on top of the lake as if it were solid ground.

She looked down at Agatha, dumbfounded.

Agatha seemed equally stunned, as did the rest of the crew, but there was no time to ask questions.

“Go,” said Agatha quickly. “But be careful.”

Sophie swallowed hard. Then she kept walking.

The lake felt rubbery under her heels and baffled fish ogled her from beneath the surface. Under dreary skies, the figure ahead remained cloaked in shadow as Sophie grew closer, closer. She could see its stooped back, wrapped in soaked gray robes.

The ominous churning in her stomach deepened.

“Hello?” she called out, inching nearer.

No answer.

From behind, the figure had scanty knots of white hair, a shiny skull gleaming through.

“Can you hear me?” Sophie asked.

Still nothing.

“I’m here on behalf of King Tedros of Camelot,” Sophie rasped, mouth dry. “We’re looking for the Lady of the Lake. We need her help burying our friend in King Arthur’s grov—” An old hag spun to face her, milk-white flesh hanging over bones and ruined with warts. Her teeth were rotted away and her coal-black eyes and thick peeling lips hung open in a foul, empty gape.

Sophie ate her own scream and stumbled back, bracing to run— “Wait,” the hag said.

Sophie froze.

The voice was low and husky . . . and beautiful.

It was a voice she knew.

Sophie inched back around. “It’s . . . you. You’re the Lady of the Lake—” “I’m sorry for not letting the others see me like this, but they wouldn’t understand,” the Lady of the Lake said softly. “You are the only one who knows what it’s like to lose who you are. Except you found your way back to your true self. I never will.” “This is permanent?” Sophie said, staggered. “But—but I saw you! Merlin brought us here to hide us in your waters. You were beautiful and magical and powerful! You didn’t look like . . . like this. . . .” The Lady sagged deeper, glancing away. “He said he loved me . . . that if I protected him, he would save me from my eternal loneliness . . . and I believed him.” “Chaddick?” Sophie said. “But he—”

“No,” said the Lady, her voice catching. “Not him.” “Who, then? And what does love have to do with—” But then Sophie remembered what the beaver had said when they started their tour . . . a tale of how the Lady of the Lake came to be. . . .

“You kissed someone,” Sophie breathed. “You lost your powers. . . . It’s why the gates to Avalon are open. . . .” The Lady’s eyes were bloodshot and wet. “I thought he’d take me away from here. That’s why I gave him shelter.” Sophie’s heart started hammering. “You kissed the Snake? You gave up your immortality . . . your magic . . . to kiss a monster? Do you know what he’s doing in the Woods? Do you know what he did to our friend—” She caught herself. “Wait a second. If you kissed him, that means you saw him. Without a mask. You know who he is—you saw his face—” “And it was beautiful,” the Lady said, beginning to cry. “I know you won’t forgive me. For letting your friend die. But I had no choice.” Sophie stared in horror. “You watched Chaddick get killed . . . and you didn’t help him?” The Lady sobbed harder.

Blood scorched through Sophie’s veins. Once upon a time, she too had been willing to commit any Evil for love. But this was Excalibur’s maker! This was Good’s great defender!

“You watched him die! For a stupid kiss?” Sophie seethed. “You vowed to protect Camelot forever! You vowed to protect its king!” “It’s not that simple,” the Lady stammered into her hands. “I—I—I had to protect him. Even Merlin would understand. I had no choice.” “You keep saying that! I had a choice. You had a choice. We all have choices! And you let a boy be murdered inside Avalon! Why? Because the Snake was pretty?” Sophie snarled. “Chaddick was the liege of King Arthur’s son. Chaddick was Tedros’ knight. That is your first loyalty—” “No,” said the Lady. “My first loyalty is to the king.” “And Chaddick was the king’s best friend,” Sophie spat. “A king you promised to defend until the end of time. Chaddick had Tedros’ trust! Chaddick had Tedros’ faith! What does a Snake have?” The Lady of the Lake slowly lifted her head. The light had gone out of her eyes, replaced by a cold, dead glare.

“He has Arthur’s blood,” she said.

Sophie bleached white, the voice ripped out of her. “Wh-wh-what?” “I’ll take care of your friend as you ask,” the Lady said stonily, turning back around. “It’s the only power I still have.” Sophie couldn’t breathe. “But—but—”

The Lady of the Lake vanished.

Shaking, Sophie whirled to the shore and saw Chaddick’s body vanish too. And all that was left in her blurred, darkening vision was Agatha in the water, flailing towards her as if her friend knew something had gone terribly, terribly wrong.