Twelve

I held my breath as Eadric put the key in the lock and didn't exhale until he'd pushed the door open. Li'l fluttered beside me, too nervous to hold still. We were both disappointed when the passage beyond didn't look like anything special. Then Garrid stepped over the threshold and raised the torch high. "Oh," we breathed, for the stone walls were studded with gems of every color. Although the light from the torch wasn't very bright, it reflected off the gems, making them sparkle and wink until our eyes ached and we had to look away.

"This is the passage I saw in my farseeing ball," I said. "They took Bradston this way."

"No wonder they keep that door locked," said Shelton. "I wonder how hard it would be to pry off those stones. I bet Coral would like one!"

"We're not thieves," said Eadric. "We're here to get my brother back and nothing more."

"Spoilsport," grumbled Shelton. Before I could stop him, he'd scrambled from my shoulder to the ground and was poking at one of the gems. I was surprised when he snapped it off with his claw. "Did you see that?" asked Shelton. "They were stuck on. Someone put them there to make the walls look pretty."

"And it worked, too," said Li'l. "This is beautiful." I saw the way Garrid was watching her when she said that and wondered how long it would be before he gave her a gem of some kind.

We knew we were getting close to the queen's chamber when we came to the next door. It was more ornate than the first, with crudely printed letters that Garrid told us meant, "Keep out! This means you, Dunderhead!" It was obvious that the sentry had left in a hurry. Not only had he forgotten his club, but he had shut the door without making sure that it had actually closed. When Eadric set his hand on it, the door creaked open.

The room beyond was as unexpected as the gem-decorated passage had been. It was draped in fabrics of garishly bright oranges, pinks, purples, and reds that covered the stone walls so that it seemed more like a tent than a cave. Equally bright carpets had been scattered across the uneven floor, hiding holes and bumps and making walking difficult. Here and there matching pillows were mounded in piles like the leavings of some outrageously colored beast. Even with all the fabric, the room was chilly and damp and smelled strongly of mildew as well as rotten eggs.

I saw cracked urns overflowing with the feathers of exotic birds, and benches made of bone and antlers with the skulls still attached. A dainty table of tarnished silver held drinking vessels of all sorts, from rude clay mugs to finely wrought chalices made of gold. Whereas some held the dregs of a dark liquid, others held only dust.

I was walking toward the table when I nearly kicked over a basket of fruit that had been left on the floor beside one of the mounds of pillows. The grapes were withered, the apples brown and mushy, the rest so rotted that I couldn't tell what they were. When I tried to go around the basket, my foot slipped into a hole under the carpet and I stumbled, landing on my knees. I started to push myself up and found that I was looking into the glazed-over eyes of a troll. I recognized her at once. It was the troll queen, and she didn't look at all well.

I stood up and retreated a pace. The troll queen lay sprawled on her back behind the pile of pillows. All four of her heads were soaked with sweat and had tangled hair and cracked lips. Dark purple spots made random patterns on her faces. Although the head with the long brunette hair appeared to be asleep, the head next to it was delirious, turning from side to side and mumbling, "Too many birds in pie," and "Rampaging better in winter." Even though misery had distorted her face, I recognized her as the red-haired head who had threatened me over my farseeing ball.

I was startled when the head with reddish, light brown hair blinked and stared at me with wary eyes. "You here," she said, her hoarse voice almost too faint to hear. "Army searching river. Move on, we say. She not there anymore. We knew you come. He said so."

"Who said I'd come?" I asked, bending down to hear her better.

A head with strawberry blonde hair stared at me through eyes as big as cartwheels. "What she do, Grunella?" she asked with a catch in her voice. "She want hurt us? Wish Fatlippia awake. Ingabinga all right?"

"Quiet, Tizzy!" barked the head named Grunella. "No start crying. I not know what human do now."

"Emma, what did you find?" asked Eadric from across the room.

Li'l fluttered toward me, making funny little sounds when she saw the troll queen. "She found her! Emma found the queen!"

"For goodness' sake, get away from her!" Eadric exclaimed as he jumped over a pile of pillows and staggered across the uneven floor.

The troll queen's hand shook, and her fist started to clench. Then it went limp and Grunella groaned. "I not move stupid thing. Not since Fatlippia start raving." She nodded toward the delirious head next to her. "Wake up, Fatlippia! Company here!"

"Fish follow Fatlippia home, so I …"

"Fatlippia, wake up! Need control hand!"

"Name him Scales. That good name, you not think?"

"Fatlippia! Need hand to … Oh, you no help." The head twisted aside and spat at the wall, then turned back to look at me. "You be happy Fatlippia sick. If she awake instead of Grunella, Fatlippia find way stop you. You kill us now and steal treasures?"

"No," I said. "We never intended to hurt you. We just want Bradston back along with your promise that you'll leave him alone."

One side of her mouth quirked in a half smile. "Give you word, but not do any good. Smart troll never keep promises. Promises for weak soft-skins. But I not want him. He more trouble than worth. You tell him Grunella say so."

"Say," said Garrid. "Look at this. What do you suppose it's for?"

I had to stand to see what he was holding. When I realized what it was, I nearly broke my neck tripping over the basket of fruit as I ran to take it from him. I hadn't wanted to let Eadric know how worried I was about the magic-seeing ball, but if this was actually it … "Let me see that," I said, snatching the gray-green ball from his hands. I carried it back to where the troll queen lay and held it up for her to see. "This is what you used to see me when I did magic, isn't it?"

Grunella glanced at the ball, then looked away, but the flicker of recognition I saw in her eyes was almost enough. Almost, but not quite. "We'll just see then, won't we?" I said. Raising the ball so everyone could see it, I made up a small spell on the spot. It felt wonderful to use my magic again!

Make this chamber smell like flowers.

Make the smell stay here for hours.

And just like that, the odor of mildew and rotten eggs was gone and the room smelled like a heady bouquet of roses and lilacs and the lilies my mother had had planted all around the moat. I was watching the ball the whole time, so I saw when it clouded over and a tiny version of me appeared standing in the troll queen's room.

"Pew!" said Grunella. "What that stench?"

"It's how your world smells right before this thing is destroyed," I said, heading toward the door. "Excuse me, everyone. I'll be back in a minute."

I hated that someone had made a magic-seeing ball that was focused on me and would know whenever I used my magic. Rather than have it fall into someone else's hands, I was going to do whatever it took to destroy it. The ball was heavy and hard to break, but I threw it against the wall until it split. I bent down to pick up the pieces and found an auburn hair the same color as mine stuck to the inside of a larger fragment. "That's odd," I muttered, then remembered that whoever had made it had to have something of mine to focus it. The hair didn't just look like mine; it was mine. Whoever had made the magic-seeing ball must have been close to me at some point, or at least knew someone who had been. Jorge had been in our castle, although he was in our dungeon the entire time. I had never gone to see him, but it was possible that someone had given the hair to him. Thinking about his room and the furniture he'd been using, it was even possible that he'd gotten it off my old bed.

After stuffing the hair into the pouch I wear at my side, I smashed the pieces until they were small enough that I could grind them under my heel. Once I was finished, I felt much better.

When I returned to the troll queen's chamber, Tizzy was pouting. "Why you do that? Tizzy thought ball pretty."

Grunella sighed. "You happy now?" she asked me.

"Not yet," I said. "Tell me—how many of those were there?"

"Grunella not tell you!" said the head.

"Why you ask?" said Tizzy. "You want break other one, too?"

"Tizzy!" wailed Grunella. "Now she know is other one!"

"Thank you," I said. "I don't suppose you'd care to tell us where we can find Bradston?"

"Not in million years," Grunella said, chortling.

"She not staying that long, right, Grunella?" asked Tizzy.

"Prince Eadric, over here!" said Garrid. "Li'l found a door behind the cloth. If someone can hold the cloth aside …"

"Uh-oh," said Tizzy. "They find it!"

Grunella glared at the other head. "Tizzy! You not talk anymore!"

"Let me help," said Eadric. Grabbing a fistful of the fabric, he tore it from the wall, exposing a door that was as short and wide as a troll. It groaned like one, too, when Eadric forced it open. The room beyond was dark, the torches lighting it having fizzled out. I peered around Garrid and Eadric as they bent down to enter the room, taking our torch with them. It was the same room that Eadric and I had seen in the banshee's mirror.

Only a few paces inside the door Bradston lay on the floor, his head pillowed on his arms. The two trolls we'd seen in the mirror lay side by side in the corner, their faces spotted, their breathing loud and nasal. "Bradston!" Eadric said, his brother's name catching in his throat. "Poor littie guy! What have they done to you?" The boy's face was dotted with scabs, but otherwise he looked fine to me.

"Uh, Eadric," I began.

"They must have infected him with their horrible disease," said Eadric, shaking his head. "Look at his face! Who knows what this is going to do to him."

"Not much, once the scabs heal," I said. "Eadric, your brother was sick first. Your mother didn't tell us what he had, but it looks like it was chicken pox. I had it when I was five. Aside from a scar on my arm where I picked off a scab, I was fine. He will be, too, but I'm not so sure about those trolls. I don't think they gave it to him. I think he gave it to them."

"That can't be. Look at how still he is. Bradston, wake up. It's me, Eadric. We're here to rescue you. Did you see that?" he said, turning to me. "He doesn't respond. I'm sure there's something seriously wrong with him." I sighed and shook my head, but Eadric was adamant. 'You wouldn't understand. You've never had a little brother."

Kneeling on the floor beside his brother's inert body, Eadric bent down to scoop the boy into his arms, and got clonked soundly on his nose when Bradston sat up with a start.

"Ow!" howled Eadric, holding his hand to his nose. Blood was already seeping between his fingers when Bradston looked up and laughed. "That was a good one! I got three trolls that way, and now you!"

"You little monster!" said Eadric.

"Why'd you bring her with you?" Bradston asked, looking at me. "Mother calls her the nasty little witch who cast a love spell on you. Is it true?"

"Of course not," I said indignantly. "I never cast a love spell on Eadric."

"I meant the nasty littie witch part," said Bradston. "She said a lot of other things, too. Want to hear what they were?"

"No!" Eadric and I said in unison.

Bradston stood up and stretched. "So, you came to get me out or what? You sure took your time. Do you know how awful it's been? There's nothing to do here. Trolls have to be the stupidest people in the world. Say, you didn't bring something to eat, did you? I'm starved."

"He talk too much," called Grunella from the other room.

I saw a satisfied smile flicker on Bradston's lips and shuddered, feeling a rush of sympathy for the trolls.

We were back in the troll queen's chamber when Bradston noticed Li'l. "Am I the only one who saw that there's a bat in here? Give me a rock and I'll kill it."

"You'll do no such thing!" I said. "You stay away from her! That bat happens to be one of my best friends."

"That figures," said Bradston. "A witch and her bat. I bet you're really an old woman who drinks bat juice or something to stay young. I bet you're a whole lot older than you look."

"Bradston, that's enough," growled Eadric. "And to think that my mother dotes on him."

"Does she know he acts like this?" I asked.

Eadric shook his head. "She hasn't the least idea. He acts like an angel when she's watching."

"I can silence him for you if you'd like me to, Emma," offered Garrid.

Bradston stuck out his tongue at Garrid, then turned to me and smirked.

Eadric sighed. "Please forgive him. He's ill and doesn't know what he's saying."

"He's not that ill," I said. "And he knows exactly what he's saying."

"My parents are never going to let you marry him," the boy said. "I heard them talking. They're going to send Eadric far away and see that he gets engaged to some other princess. They said that anyone would make him a better wife than you would."

"I should turn him over my knee," said Eadric.

"Don't bother," I said, having had enough of Eadric's younger brother. "I have a better idea. Why don't we just turn him over to your mother? I think they deserve each other."

Choosing one of the cleaner rugs on the troll queen's floor, I said a quick spell to enable it to fly. Bradston was eager to take his seat beside Eadric, and even let his big brother put his arm around his shoulders to keep him safe. With Garrid seated beside me and Li'l cradled in his hands, I made the carpet rise before saying,

Take us to the young lad's mother.

She awaits his quick return.

Keep him there until he grows up.

He still has so much to learn.

Never more than five or six feet

Should this wayward youngster stray.

By his mother's side he'll linger

Till his twenty-first birthday.

"Does that mean what I think it does?" Eadric asked as a breeze sprang up around us.

"Yes," I said. "Bradston is going to be a real mama's boy