Baibre and her parents hurriedly packed the few things they were taking with them. Their possessions were too heavy for them to carry when they were tiny, so they’d have to be full-sized to return to Fairengar.
“It’s just as well,” Aislin told them as they descended the stairs single file. “Someone is shooting darts at the fairies who fly anywhere near the palace.”
“That’s horrible!” cried Dewdrop as she stepped out of the tree trunk. “Why would anyone do that?”
“We don’t know,” said Sycamore. “But I’m sure Captain Larch is doing his best to find out.”
Aislin waited until they were all outside before saying, “Everyone, this is Baibre and her parents, Dewdrop and Branch.” Glancing at her friends, she added, “These are my mestari, Deela, Lin, and Kimble. Sycamore and Kivi are both in the palace guard.”
Baibre blushed when she said hello to Sycamore.
“We’ll have to double up on the horses,” Sycamore announced. “Your parents may ride the black gelding. Baibre, you may ride behind me.”
From the look he and Baibre shared, Aislin guessed that they had met before.
Neither Dewdrop nor Branch had ever ridden a horse, so Kivi gave them a few quick instructions. As the party set off through the forest, the pedrasi guard kept his horse beside theirs to answer their questions. Aislin guided her horse to run next to the mare that Deela and Kimble were riding. “Have you seen any sign of the manticore or the griffin? I’m surprised they didn’t come with us.”
“When the griffin came out of the treehouse, it took off into the forest with the manticore,” Deela replied.
“We haven’t seen either one since,” Kimble told her.
“That’s odd,” said Aislin. “They’ve sworn to protect Baibre and usually follow her everywhere.”
The princess kept expecting the two creatures to return, but neither had shown up before the party reached the sleeping cat rocks. While Poppy pointed at the thistles, which turned brown and wilted to the ground, Kivi slipped off his horse. The pedrasi guard handed everyone’s weapons to them, then they all returned to the road. When Tomas urged his horse to run next to Aislin’s, Twinket grinned at him. They went faster, and were making good time when they approached the river they had crossed before. In the short time that they were gone, someone or something had destroyed the bridge, leaving piles of rubble on both sides of the churning water.
“Who do you think did that?” Poppy asked Aislin.
“Oh, dear!” Twinket cried, wringing her little cloth hands. “I have a bad feeling about this!”
There was a roar and the rubble exploded outward, showering rock onto the road and creating geysers in the river. One smaller rock hit Kivi, knocking him off his horse, which reared up and struck out with its hooves. The horse that Dewdrop and Branch were riding was too close and received a glancing blow from a hoof. Dumping its riders, their horse joined the black gelding and took off along the riverbank. Kivi staggered when he got to his feet, favoring one of his legs as he went to help the two older fairies.
Aislin was so concerned about Baibre’s parents and Kivi that she didn’t notice the real problem until Twinket started screaming, “Don’t let them rip off my arm again!” The doll clutched her repaired cloth arm to her chest, shivering.
Aislin’s head whipped around. Trolls that had been hiding under the rubble lumbered up from the edge of the river, their eyes gleaming as they gnashed their teeth. It was hard to count them when they rushed toward her party roaring, but she thought there were at least a dozen. Deela, Lin, and Sycamore were the first to dismount and they stood with their legs braced, weapons ready. Then Kimble appeared, clutching her crossbow.
“We eat you!” screamed one of the trolls, and the others roared in agreement.
Tomas helped Poppy and Aislin dismount. While Aislin tried to decide what she could do to hold off the trolls, Poppy thrust her hand out, flinging her own kind of magic at the trolls. Weedy vines grew up around the trolls’ ankles, snagging them and making them trip. Stinging wasps converged on the trolls, but their stingers were unable to pierce the thick, gray-green skin that was exposed through ragged clothes.
The trolls ignored the insects and didn’t even bother swatting at them. Those who had been in the back stepped on the trolls that had fallen and were still struggling to get up. No troll was down for long, though, and within moments Lin was pounding them with her war hammer while Deela, Sycamore, and Tomas slashed at the trolls with their swords. Kimble had her little crossbow out and was carefully choosing her shots, aiming for the trolls’ faces whenever possible. When she hit one between the eyes, he went cross-eyed and ran off, howling.
Aislin didn’t notice when the manticore and the griffin returned, but then they were there, lunging and snapping while trying to keep the trolls away from the spot where Baibre and her parents were huddled together behind the remaining horses. “Fly away!” Aislin shouted to the three fairies. “Leave while you can.”
“What about you?” asked Branch. “We can’t just leave you.”
“Go! I don’t have time to argue,” Aislin cried as she turned back to the battle.
Despite the valiant efforts of her friends, Aislin knew that there was little they could do that would have much effect against the trolls. The last time trolls had come after them, Aislin and her party had had to run away. But that was before I knew what I could do, she thought.
Tapping into the strength of the diamond in her tunic and the gravel under her feet, Aislin threw up her arm, pulling the stones from the river’s shores to pummel the trolls. The larger rocks brought the trolls to their knees, but they shook them off and kept coming. She drew sand from the riverbed, forming the sand leopards that had worked so well against human troops, but the trolls walked through them as if they weren’t there.
Spotting the princess, the trolls grinned and fought to reach her. “We eat you first!” one bellowed.
Bracing herself, Aislin drew more power from the ground. The trolls were rushing toward her when she shifted the gravel beneath them, making it roil and churn so it was impossible for them to keep their footing. Farther down the riverbank, Lin closed in, swinging her war hammer with such force that it knocked a troll off his feet. Kivi followed her example to take down another troll, while Deela darted into the fray, dispatching the downed trolls with her barbed sword. Tomas and Sycamore used their swords to attack the trolls who got away from the mestari.
The roar of the trolls and the battle cries of her companions were deafening. Aislin was so caught up in what was going on around her that she didn’t look away until the ground began to shake under the combatants’ feet. All eyes turned to the far side of the river where trees swayed and fell, snapped in two or smashed into splinters as something big, angry, and determined came their way.
The trolls seemed confused as whatever was coming drew nearer, leaving a trail of broken trees in its wake. Aislin’s companions looked fearful, however, especially when Sycamore shouted, “They’ve got reinforcements!”
“No,” said Aislin, “I don’t think so.”
The devastation was heading directly toward them in a way that Aislin had seen before. Once, when she was a little girl and playing with her friends, another little girl had cut her foot on a sharp rock. She wailed, and her mother, who was never far off, came running. It’s what giants did when a friend or loved one needed them.
“That’s our reinforcement,” Aislin said as fourteen-foot-tall Salianne came into view.
Tomas’s eyes were wide when he said, “You’re kidding, right?”
The girl giant had been one of Aislin and Poppy’s closest friends when they were growing up. Although Aislin had been disappointed when she learned that Salianne wasn’t going to be one of her mestari, she hadn’t been surprised; the girl’s parents were overprotective even when everything was normal. Aislin also knew that her giant friend was very strong-willed and usually got what she wanted. Salianne must have convinced her parents to let her come.
The princess was delighted to see her, especially now. The manticore, the griffin, and the fairy horses weren’t happy about it, though. Terrified, most of the remaining horses raced off into the forest. The only one that stayed behind, pawing the ground and shaking her head, was the mare that Aislin had ridden. Twinket was standing on the horse’s back, pulling on the reins and shouting, “Whoa!”
When Aislin noticed that the griffin and the manticore had turned toward Salianne, bristling, she knew they saw the giant girl as a threat. “No!” Aislin shouted at the two beasts before they could launch an attack. Remembering to put power into her voice, she added, “She’s a friend.”
Both the manticore and the griffin looked at her as if she was crazy, but they stayed back as Salianne approached the river. The trolls had gathered at the edge of the water. Waving their arms in the air and screaming, “You not get us!” and “We eat you, too!” they paced back and forth on the riverbank as if afraid to get their feet wet.
Salianne didn’t hesitate when she reached the river. With a roar that made the trolls sound like twittering birds, she leaped halfway across the river and landed in the water with a tremendous splash, creating a wave big enough to wash away the trolls closest to the river’s edge. The giant girl disappeared for a moment, only to reappear much closer. Aislin and Salianne had taken lessons from the local water nymphs together, so the princess knew that the giantess could swim. She wasn’t surprised when, with one sure stroke, her friend cut through the water and stood up, towering over the four-foot-tall trolls.
The trolls craned their necks back to look up as Salianne bent down and screamed in their faces, “You leave my friends alone!” The force of the air from her lungs knocked four trolls flat on their backs. The others cowered when Salianne picked up a troll with each hand. Twirling them over her head, she let go so that they flew off over the tops of trees, shrieking. Aislin didn’t see where they landed, but she knew it was a long way away.
The remaining trolls watched, seemingly paralyzed, until Salianne turned back to them. She grabbed another when he started to run. When she threw him and he disappeared like the first two, the rest of the trolls tore into the forest, still wailing.
Salianne looked as if she was about to follow them until Aislin called out, “You needn’t bother! I don’t think we’ll ever see those trolls again.”
“I hate trolls,” Salianne said, shading her eyes with one hand as she gazed after them. “They’re nasty and rude and smell really, really bad. Papa says they can’t help it, but being kind is a choice that anyone can make and if they don’t want to stink, they should try bathing sometime. How are you, Aislin? They didn’t hurt you, did they?” The giant girl strode back to Aislin and bent down so that her eyes were level with the princess’s.
“Oh, Salianne, I’ve missed you!” Aislin cried, throwing her arms around her friend’s neck.
Up close, the giantess’s freckles were as big as platters. Now that she had bent down, her braided brown hair shot with green fell over her shoulders to drag on the ground. Salianne’s green eyes sparkled as she patted Aislin on the back as gently as she could.
It felt to Aislin as if someone was pummeling her with a sack of flour. She wondered if she’d have bruises. But she knew Salianne meant well. “I’m fine,” she told her friend. “Thank you for coming when you did. I’m glad your parents let you join me. They do know you’re here, don’t they?”
“They gave me their permission to go to the palace,” Salianne replied. “They don’t know that I went there and found out you were gone. As far as I’m concerned, they’ll never know that I followed you here.”
“You threw trolls!” Twinket cried. “That was so cool!”
“Hi, Twinket!” Salianne said, grinning. “I haven’t seen either of you in ages. Is that Poppy over there? What fun!”
“I hate to interrupt, but we should probably go. Those trolls may well come back,” said Tomas.
Aislin glanced at the forest where the trolls had disappeared, then at the girl giant. “I don’t think so,” she said. “Not as long as Salianne is with us. Everyone, this is Salianne, one of my best friends and my newest mestari.”
When Aislin introduced her to the other ladies, Salianne listened attentively to their names. She was most interested in Deela and Kimble, however. “I’ve never met an orc girl before. And what are you?” she asked Kimble.
“I’m a spriggan,” Kimble replied. “I come from Mount Gora.”
“What’s he?” Salianne asked, looking at Tomas. “Is he part pedrasi and part fairy like you?”
“I’m human,” he told her. “My name is Tomas. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Is it?” said Salianne. “Is that because I’m a giant?”
Tomas shook his head. “No, it’s because you’re one of Aislin’s friends.”
Aislin was introducing the two guards to Salianne when Baibre and her parents darted back. They landed beside Sycamore and well away from the giantess before turning big again. When Baibre started talking to the griffin and the manticore, Aislin couldn’t help but listen.
“Where were you?” Baibre asked them. “I expected you to come with us, but I didn’t see you anywhere.”
“Birdbrain heard the princess talking about a sorceress named Gorinda,” said the manticore. “When Princess Aislin said that she didn’t know much about the sorceress, we went to ask around. We found out some stuff, but none of it is good.”
The griffin squawked and shook his feathered head while twitching his lion’s tail.
“What did you learn?” Aislin asked the manticore.
“An eagle told us that someone named Gorinda has moved into the top of a mountain to the east. He said that weird stuff has been happening there, so he and his mate moved their nest. He said that you shouldn’t go anywhere near it.”
“I appreciate your eagle friend’s warning, but that is precisely where we need to go,” said Aislin.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Your Highness,” Sycamore told her. “We should all return to the palace and tell King Darinar and Queen Surinen what we’ve learned.”
Aislin shook her head. “I don’t see any reason why I should return to the palace now. We’re already partway to the mountain. Kimble, Deela, Lin, and I know mountains better than anyone at the palace. No, we’re heading there now.”
The spriggan girl nodded enthusiastically and seemed proud that the princess had included her. “If someone is in a mountain, we’ll find them like that!” she said, snapping her fingers.
“I do think you need to return to the palace,” Aislin told Sycamore. “You may escort Baibre and her parents, then inform the king and queen of what we’ve learned. If you fly most of the way, you’ll get there much faster than I would. The horses have run off with Baibre’s family’s possessions, so you have no reason to stay this size now.”
“Your grandparents won’t like that I left you to face Gorinda unprotected,” Sycamore said.
“I won’t be unprotected,” Aislin replied. “I’ll have my mestari with me.”
“They fight just as well as, if not better than, most warriors,” said Kivi. “I plan to tell everyone I know about the strength and fierceness of the princess’s mestari.”
“Good,” Aislin told him. “I want people to know just how good they are.”
“Even so …” Sycamore began.
“Kivi can go with us, too,” Aislin added, glancing at the pedrasi guard. “He can’t fly, so he would hold you back.”
“Uh, I might hold you back, too,” Kivi told her. He pointed at his now obviously swollen ankle that he’d hurt when his horse threw him.
“I can take care of that,” Aislin said. “Sit down and let me examine it.”
Kivi gave her a funny look, but he sat on the closest boulder and stuck out his foot. When Aislin sat down beside him, he moved over a few inches and shifted his foot closer to her. Setting her hand on his ankle, Aislin closed her eyes and reached into the stone with her mind, drawing up power and sending it into the injured ankle. She could feel the swelling diminish under her hand as well as sense it in her mind. When all the swelling was gone and the damage that had caused it repaired, she sat back and opened her eyes.
“It feels great now!” Kivi said, turning his foot from side to side.
Salianne gasped. “I knew your mama was teaching you how to heal people, but that was amazing!”
“I’ve been working on a lot of things since the last time I saw you,” Aislin told her.
“I really think you should go back with me,” Sycamore began.
Aislin didn’t have the time or the patience to argue with him, so she did something she didn’t like doing to friends—she drew power into her voice and commanded him. “Go to the palace without me.”
Sycamore looked annoyed, but he bowed and said, “I’ll rejoin you once I’ve delivered Baibre’s family to the palace and made my report to King Darinar and Queen Surinen. Torren’s Peak is the only mountain of any size to the east. I’ll look for you there.”
“Wonderful,” Aislin replied, already feeling sorry for using power on him. “Thank you.”
She noticed that Baibre was talking to the manticore and the griffin again, but this time she didn’t hear what the fairy told them. She did notice, however, that the two beasts remained behind when the fairies became small and flew off.
“We have one horse left,” Tomas said. “How are we going to work this?”
“Baibre told us to stay and help you,” said the manticore. “Birdbrain and I can each carry someone.”
“So can I,” said Salianne. “But I’d prefer to carry someone I know. I’ll carry you and Twinket, Aislin.”
“Perfect!” said Aislin.
“I can fly,” said Poppy. “I’ll scout ahead for danger.”
Aislin looked at her for a moment before nodding. “All right, but promise me that if you see anything unusual, you’ll come straight back.”
“I promise,” said Poppy.
When they finally started back up the road, Salianne was carrying Tomas as well as Aislin and Twinket, Kivi and Lin were on horseback, Deela rode astride the manticore, and Kimble was hiding her face behind the griffin’s feathered head, too afraid to look down. Poppy spent the first few minutes flying circles around them before she left.
“I hope I didn’t make a big mistake by letting her fly ahead,” Aislin said as she watched her fairy friend go.
“Poppy will be fine,” Tomas told her. “She’s the one with fairy magic, remember?”