The Stepsister Scheme (16 page)

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Authors: Jim C. Hines

BOOK: The Stepsister Scheme
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“The last fairy destroyed me,” Talia said. Her dark eyes were numb and empty. “She perverted the curse. Instead of death, the spell brought unending sleep. Not just to me, but to everyone in the palace. She raised a hedge of thorns around our home to shelter us from the world. For a century we slept.”
“Until your prince came,” Danielle said.
Talia slammed the whip’s handle against the basket hard enough to elicit a squawk of protest from Karina.
“With our palace gone, my uncle claimed the throne. For years they hacked their way through the hedge until they broke through. My ‘prince’ was the great-great-grandson of the man who ordered the murder of my parents, my brothers and sisters, everyone who might one day awaken and challenge their rule. The only reason they allowed me to live is that they didn’t know what my death would do to the fairy’s spell.”
Danielle wanted to reach over and offer some kind of support, feeble and worthless though the gesture might be. But she doubted Talia would appreciate it. “What happened next?”
“The prince awakened me,” Talia said. “The tales got that much right, at least.” She rubbed her hands together, like she was trying to clean them. “A hundred years I slept, and not once did those fairies return to see how my family fared. The one who cursed me did it out of spite. But it was her companions, through their blindness and apathy, who destroyed us.”
Danielle turned toward Snow, who had set the pomegranate seed aside and was staring out the side of the basket.
“Is that how it was with you?” Danielle asked. “Your life sounds so awful in the stories, but they say you found happiness in the end.”
“For close to a year, I lived with the hunter my mother had hired to kill me,” Snow said. “But then she learned of his betrayal and tortured him to death. I destroyed her for that.” Snow shrugged and reached for another bag. “Did we bring anything else to drink?”
“Are all of the tales like this?” Danielle asked. “Did Jack Giantslayer fall into despair and poverty? Was Red Riding Hood murdered by wolves seeking revenge for the death of their kin?”
Talia snorted. “No, Red survived. But that kind of thing changes a woman.”
“Changes her how?”
“The Lady of the Red Hood is one of the most feared assassins this side of Adenkar,” Snow said.
Danielle stared, trying to read their faces. “You’re joking.”
“It’s true.” Talia rolled up her sleeves and touched one of the scars on her forearm. “Bitch nearly killed the queen a few years back.”
Danielle lay back, trying to absorb everything they had said. Look at how much her own story had grown and changed in the past months. The only common thread was how perfect life was supposed to be, once she had married Armand. Her hands went to her stomach.
Talia wiped her face. “I don’t mean to argue with old King Phillipe, but in my experience, the best weapon is a good weapon.” She grabbed Danielle’s wrist and slapped a knife into her hand. “Normally I’d start with footwork, but this isn’t exactly an ideal training circle. Your sword’s almost as light as this knife, but you hold it like a drunken woodsman with an ax. You’re too tense, and it slows you down.”
Danielle tried to relax her grip.
“Not that loose,” Talia said. She rapped the blade with her knuckles, and the knife spun out of Danielle’s hand. The blade jabbed a hole in one of the blankets. “Use the thumb and forefinger to guide the tip. That’s where your control comes from.”
She demonstrated with the knife, then handed it back to Danielle, who tried to imitate Talia’s movements. She flicked the tip of the blade back and forth.
“Small movements. You’re not strong enough for a brute force, hack-and-slash approach. Fortunately, you don’t need one with that sword. A light kiss with the tip in the right spot will kill a man as dead as a broad-sword through the heart.” Talia touched her throat. “Here’s your best target, if you can hit it. A feint at the groin is good, too, if you’re fighting a man. The sight of a blade coming for their jewels will make most men leap back and lower their guard.”
“I don’t want to kill anyone,” Danielle said, staring at the knife.
“I’m sure your stepsisters will be delighted to hear that.” Talia caught Danielle’s wrist and twisted the knife from her hand. “It means they’ll have a much easier time killing you.” She gestured for Danielle to draw her own knife. “This time when I lunge, bring the blade across your body to knock mine aside. Take it slowly. First learn the movements, then worry about speed.”
For close to an hour they practiced. Danielle suspected it was as much for Talia’s sake as for hers, something to distract Talia from her discomfort. By the time Karina began to circle, Danielle’s hand was cramped and sweaty, and her shoulder ached from trying the different lunges and parries Talia had made her do again and again.
Danielle put the knife away and turned over, studying the ground below. Awe swept all other feelings aside as she gazed down at the chasm that split the island in two. Malindar’s Triumph, some called it. The canyon ran the width of the island, an ugly gash that seemed to stretch on forever. Even so high in the air, she could see no sign of the ocean.
Grass and trees grew right up to the edges of the chasm, and in some places, the trees actually clung to the vertical stone, maintaining an impossibly precarious hold. As they flew over the crevasse, Danielle could see water at the bottom, a ribbon of sky-blue glass.
“There it is,” Snow said, pointing.
Karina veered west, and Danielle saw it: Fairytown. A huge wall drew a rough circle on either side of the chasm. At the center, a silver bridge joined the two halves of the fairy city. From here, the bridge appeared to be made of silk and spiderweb. Two castles stood on either side of the bridge. The one to the north was a wonder of white spires and majestic curves. To the south was an equally magnificent structure of ebony roofs and golden buttresses.
In some places, the land seemed almost mundane: the crowded greenery of the woods, an open field where a herd of cattle grazed. Other parts of Fairytown were like images from a dream. A small lake of ice shone like a jewel in the sun. Pink trees crowded around a sparkling path leading to the ebony palace.
Karina flew lower, toward the northern wall.
“Can’t we land inside?” Danielle asked.
“Look up,” said Snow.
Danielle moved to the side, squeezing next to Snow and pressing her eye to the wall of the basket. Long wisps of cloud drifted past overhead, but she saw nothing more except—
Wait. Several of those wisps had turned, mirroring Karina’s flight.
“Cloud striders,” Snow explained. “They can conjure lightning powerful enough to turn away a dragon.”
“Don’t worry,” Talia added. “They probably wouldn’t bother to use lightning on a nuisance like us. They’d just eat us instead.”
No doubt similar guardians protected Fairytown against those who tried to enter through the river below.
Danielle braced herself as Karina dove toward the wall. It wasn’t
quite
like falling, but Danielle’s stomach still made a valiant attempt to climb out of her chest. Beside her, Talia clasped her eyes shut and muttered in another tongue.
Wind whistled through the basket. The trees grew larger. A brown strip of beaten earth flashed past, then returned as Karina shifted direction. They followed the road, swooping lower and lower, so fast Danielle thought they would crash. The basket shook as Karina pumped her wings. Danielle held her breath. Beside her, Talia’s fingers gripped the basket, her body tense as steel.
They touched down so gently that Danielle only knew they had landed because Karina’s wings stopped flapping.
Snow was already standing to unbuckle the straps at the top of the basket. Danielle climbed to her feet to help, grimacing at the cramps in her thighs. Soon, cool air rushed in.
Snow tossed the bags out, then scrambled after, tumbling to the ground in an undignified heap. Danielle’s landing was no more graceful. She hit the earth hard, then stumbled toward a cluster of dandelions at the side of the road.
“What’s wrong?” Talia called out. Moving slowly, but still with more grace than Danielle could achieve on her best day, Talia slipped out of the basket and somersaulted to her feet on the road.
“That hawk needs a chamber pot.”
By the time Danielle returned, Snow and Talia had finished unpacking. “Where do we go now that we’re here? Do we need to inform the fairy king and queen?”
“Not if we can avoid it,” Talia said. “They’d make great proclamations of their innocence and accuse us of trying to smear their names. Knowing fairies, they’d probably suggest we had arranged the whole thing ourselves in order to ruin them.”
Danielle adjusted her sword and fixed her belt. “That’s madness.”
“That’s fairy politics,” Snow said. “Don’t worry, I have a friend who should be able to help us.”
Danielle barely heard. Now that more urgent needs had been taken care of, she had finally turned her attention to the wall of Fairytown.
Even at her full height, Danielle would have found the wall an imposing sight. It was easily twice as high as the palace wall back home. Only instead of stone and mortar, this was made of vines and thorns.
The largest of the vines were thick as trees, with rough bark giving them the brownish color Danielle had seen from the air. The thorns varied in color from dark purple to almost pure black. The smaller thorns shone like liquid. The largest were the length of full spears. These were duller in color, and had a tendency to flake near the base.
Danielle turned to Talia, whose jaw was tight. “Are you all right?”
“Fairies like to manipulate living things,” Talia said. “People, animals, plants . . . they’re easier to shape and control than cold rock. I’m told the hedge of thorns became quite popular after my imprisonment.”
The skeleton of a dog or wolf hung a short distance in, suspended on two medium-sized thorns. A family of sparrows had built a nest in the rib cage.
“I’ve seen it before,” Talia continued. “Snow and I were here a year or so back, chasing a spy from Silvershell Port. He had a magical belt that let him transform into a donkey. He’d been hiding out in the stables for close to a year before Snow caught on. We spent a day tracking him around Fairytown, less than a stone’s throw from this wall.” Under her breath, so low Danielle barely heard, she added, “Hated it then, too.”
“Did you catch him?” Danielle asked.
“It was six months at the most before I discovered him,” Snow said, walking over to join them. “He lured us to the chasm south of Fairytown, then changed into his donkey form and tried to kick us over the edge.” She grinned. “Let’s just say the ass-kicking didn’t go quite the way he had hoped.”
“If I’d known how many times you were going to make that joke, I’d have pushed you after him.” Talia finished strapping her short sword to her belt, swiveling it around so the hilt rode in the center of her lower back. Her whip went into a small sheath on her hip.
“You’re no fun.” Snow pressed one of Trittibar’s magical spores into Danielle’s hand. “Eat up.”
The spore felt like a thin-shelled seed. Snow was already chewing hers. Talia tossed hers into the air, catching it in her mouth.
Danielle followed suit. The shell crunched open as soon as it touched her tongue, spilling dry, rounded nodules that tasted bitter and sour, like mushrooms gone bad. She forced herself to swallow.
“You might want to sit down,” Snow said. She ignored her own advice, spreading her arms as she began to grow. Her feet pressed into each other, and her arms whirled madly as she fought for balance. She staggered sideways. With a happy shriek, she tumbled into the grass, giggling madly.
Talia simply balanced on the toes of one foot. Her other foot rested lightly on her thigh. That would be the fairy gift of grace. She held their bags in her arms, and kept her eyes shut as Trittibar’s magic restored her and their belongings to normal size.
Following Snow’s advice, Danielle sat with her legs extended as the magic took effect. Even so, she had to wiggle and squirm as her body spread across the earth. She had the strangest sensation of falling
up
, and her fingers dug into the dirt for security. She held her breath and shifted her weight, trying to keep the dirt from staining her clothes as her limbs stretched.
By the time she stopped moving, Talia had already grabbed one of the waterskins. She rinsed and spat. “Fairy magic tastes
foul
.”
Snow brushed dirt and grass from her clothes. Streaks of green stained her sleeve and back, but a little vinegar would take that right out.
Karina flew to the wall, landing lightly on one of the outer thorns. She spread her wings and cocked her head.
“Thank you,” said Danielle. “You must be hungry after flying for so long.” The little falcon had crossed half the island in less than a day. “I’m sure you’ll be able to find food on the way home. Please thank Trittibar for his help.”
With a soft screech, Karina launched into the air. Danielle watched her disappear into the fading sunlight, then turned back to the wall of thorns. “How do we get in?” she asked. “There’s no gate, no guards or doors.”

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