To reach the monkey queen’s palace, Hex had to climb yet another flight of stairs. This one, however, wasn’t half as bad as the first; there was even a handrail. His fear of heights had settled into a kind of numb dread in his belly. Soon enough he’d be swinging around on vines like the monkeys themselves, he thought drily. Iris’s attitude had improved considerably since their formal introduction. She was whistling cheerfully behind him, and, though he had no doubt she’d be delighted to stick him again if he made any attempt to flee, she had laid off poking him with the spear.
The queen’s palace was a hut, a little larger and grander than the others Hex had seen but otherwise unremarkable. It sat in the center of a broad platform of planks that had been built above the treetops. From the platform, Hex could see for miles in every direction. There was the wall of trees, and just beyond it the heaving sea of flowers where the wolves had attacked; there was the blue plain he had crossed with Pete, and in the distance he could see the crimson splatter of the poppy field. He thought wistfully of how wonderful it would be to be back there again, nodding off under a huge red flower without a care in the world, but there wasn’t much point in longing for something that clearly wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. He wondered again what had happened to Pete. Had he been captured by the monkeys, too? But Iris’s disbelief had seemed genuine when she’d found him just after the wolf attack, and surely he would have seen if someone else had abducted Pete after they’d escaped from the wolves. No, Pete had abandoned him. Did this have something to do with the mysterious test he was supposed to take? Either way, he was on his own, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Iris cleared her throat loudly, and Hex realized he’d been staring off into space like an idiot. “Sorry,” he mumbled, slouching toward the door at Iris’s prompting. The hut was windowless, its smooth round walls interrupted only by a single door—monkey height, like everything else in the village.
“Go on,” Iris said impatiently, and he stooped and entered.
The inside of the hut belied its humble exterior. Its smooth, round walls were painted an eye-searing yellow; here and there, the yellow was augmented by even brighter murals depicting the queen floating regally over her subjects, outfitted for battle, and surrounded by bunches of bananas that looked—well, as though they had been finger painted by a monkey. An elaborate chandelier hung from the low ceiling, looking rather out of place. It had no doubt once been very fine, but was now bedecked with dried banana peels in various stages of decay.
Queen Lulu herself was lounging against a raft of brightly colored pillows with a surprising amount of dignity for a ridiculously dressed monkey. She wore a vibrant, ruffled pink dress, leopard-print stockings, and rhinestone-studded sandals, and her eyes were hidden behind enormous sunglasses. In one hand she held a jeweled scepter; in the other, a half-eaten banana, which she was busily gnawing. She swallowed the last bites as Hex approached the throne and chucked the peel up at the chandelier, where it added to the collection.
He had never met a royal monkey before, but it seemed prudent to err on the side of caution. He executed a sweeping bow, so low his forehead nearly brushed his shins, and the queen grunted with approval through a mouthful of banana. “This one has manners, at least,” she said. Her voice was rough and heavily accented—and strangely familiar. Staring at her, he thought he’d surely seen her before—and then a flash of memory leapt to the surface of his mind. A stooped, haggard old woman in a black hat—he was giving her a shapeless old felt hat that he knew was terribly important despite its appearance. “This seals our bargain,” the old woman hissed. “Giving me control of the monkeys? You’re even crueler than I am, human, and that’s saying something. They must raise you differently in the Other Place.” And then the memory was gone as quickly as it had come, but looking at the queen, he was flooded with a sudden sense of sick, terrible shame. The hat had had some kind of power over the monkeys, and it had been his. Why had he given it away? What had his past self done?
The queen was looking at him quizzically, and it was evident that whatever he had done, she had no memory of it—or, more likely, she didn’t recognize him thanks to Pete’s transformation spell. He patted his cheeks cautiously. The soreness was gone, but their shape was still unfamiliar. The queen was still staring at him, and he realized he was behaving like a lunatic.
“Er, Your Royal, um, Highness,” he stammered. “May your, uh, bananas be plentiful and the branches that hold your houses aloft remain strong.”
The queen raised an eyebrow. “Well, you’re an odd duck, but you’re charming enough,” she said. “Where’d you find this one, Iris?”
“I caught him trying to invade!” Iris piped up excitedly. “At the Wolf Gate! I think he might be a barbarian! He tried to tell me some nonsense story about a guide, but he’s clearly a spy.”
“A barbarian or a spy?” Queen Lulu asked drily, bemused by Iris’s enthusiasm. “How perfectly terrifying.”
“He could be both!”
“I’m neither!” Hex protested. “I’m only trying to—” What was he even trying to do? Without Pete, he was at a loss.
“I think we should execute him!” Iris was bouncing up and down on her heels in excitement. “For treachery! I mean treason!”
The queen reclined even further and waved a paw. Another monkey—this one dressed in a black velvet suit with a dapper red ascot—sauntered out of the shadows, bringing her a fresh banana, which she peeled languidly. He shot Iris an unmistakably evil look, which Iris returned haughtily. “Iris, calm yourself,” the queen said. “We haven’t executed a human in—well, we haven’t executed anyone ever.”
“Think how fun it would be!” Iris squealed in glee. “May I be the executioner, Your Majesty?”
“Be silent, you little fool,” snapped the monkey in black. Iris drew back, an expression of genuine hurt flashing across her face.
“Quentin, there’s no need to be cruel to the young and enthusiastic,” the queen said. “But I am rather curious as to how a lone traveler managed to cross the Sea of Blossoms and penetrate the Wolf Gate with no weapons.” She pushed up her sunglasses, revealing intelligent brown eyes, and studied him carefully. “And no supplies.”
Hex was somewhat curious himself as to how he’d managed all those things, but he wasn’t about to tell her that. For all her monkey sass, the queen was obviously no dummy, and he had a feeling she’d know right away if he lied. Plus, he had no idea what he should even lie about. “I lost my memory in the poppy fields,” he said. “I’d been there for a long time—a really long time. I was rescued by a boy who told me he could help me find out who I was. He guided me here, but disappeared just after the wolves attacked. Then Iris found me and—well, here I am.”
The queen was staring at him incredulously. “Do you actually expect me to believe that?”
“A spy!” Iris shouted in excitement. “A traitor! Death to enemies of the queendom!”
“I know how it sounds,” Hex admitted. “But you have to believe me. I swear—”
He was interrupted by a tremendous clamor from the forest floor below. He wondered in terror if the wolves had broken through the wall. But these sounds were unquestionably monkeyish—shrieks, cackles, and almost-human-but-not-quite howls. There was a tremendous explosion and a cloud of foul-smelling smoke drifted past the queen’s hut. She leapt to her feet. “Those cursed rebels and their wretched demands! Iris,” she snapped, “take our prisoner to one of the guest huts at the edge of the forest. He’ll be safe enough there until we’ve quashed this little squabble and I can decide what to do with him.”
“But—” Iris protested.
“Now, Iris,” the queen said. “I have work to do!”
Grumbling, Iris grabbed Hex by the shoulder—none too gently—and shoved him out the door and down the stairs. The queen bounded after them, seized a vine hanging from a nearby tree, and swung off toward the sounds of battle. Her departure was punctuated by another explosion, this one even more impressive than the first.