“Mrow Mgrow,” Kato replied and started digging a hole, messing up Rexi’s map while kicking up mud onto her breeches.
“If it gets cold, I can always make a fur coat.” Rexi sneered down at him.
He flipped his spiked tail straight into the air in what could only be interpreted as an obscene gesture.
Rexi duplicated it in human form. “Right back atcha.”
I sighed and thought back to what Verte had said on my way out of the ballroom. Find a safe place somewhere over the rainbow. Stay away from fire. Use your head. Don’t lose your shoes.
Well, I still had my silver and ruby slippers, and I had no intention of risking the curse by getting anywhere near fire—so I was two for four. My head wasn’t getting me anything but a migraine. And from the looks of this drought, I’d be waiting awhile before a rainbow showed up. So, by default: keep walking until I find a rainbow or until the Emerald Sorceress finds me, whichever comes first.
I was putting my jewels on the latter.
When I was little, I would force Verte into games of hide and seek by stealing her staff. She had an uncanny knack for finding me, so the games never lasted long. Usually her ability drove me batty and got me into endless trouble. Now I was counting on it to save the day. She would use that freaky emerald eye of hers to come get me. Though she was ancient now, back in her heyday, she was supposedly one of the most powerful sorceresses the Storymakers had ever created. She would know how to put everything to rights again.
Hopefully before I found out if there was any truth to the whole Emerald-curse thing.
Think happy thoughts. Uh, yeah right. Because there is so much to be happy about right now. Maybe I needed to try and make up happy thoughts. Daydreaming—my favorite pastime, next to buying stuff on the Castle Shopping Network.
I would stumble upon a Bibbity-Bobbity Boutique and Spa while I waited for Verte to deal with Griz. By the time I was done with a mani-pedi, it’d be time to go home. My parents would have found their way back from wherever by then. Oooooh. Maybe I accidently sent them to a deserted island paradise. Or even better, to the spring Verte was going on about—like a hot spring resort. Good for them; they deserved a vacation.
A hand waved in front of my nose. “Hellooo? Anybody in there, or did you zone out for a mental shopping trip?”
Kind of, but I wasn’t about to tell her that. “No,” I said and sniffed indignantly. “I was just thinking about finding a safe place so Verte can find us.” It wasn’t a total lie.
“Well, we better get going, then, though I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one.”
Rexi didn’t know what she was talking about. The Emerald Sorceress would come. She had to.
Even before I was taller than a garden gnome, my mother was always busy running the kingdom, so Verte had been there to look after me. She was much better and more reliable than any prince.
I looked over at the proof of that last thought; Kato growled and pounced on a fallen tree.
Rexi rolled her eyes and walked away from us. “Hey, genius, it’s a log.”
I hurried after her, expecting Kato to follow, since I hadn’t been able to get rid of him yet. But he didn’t, and after about twenty yards, I stopped and looked back. He was still obsessing over the dumb log.
I tugged on Rexi’s arm, pulling her to stop. “We can’t leave him. He’ll be troll chow by nightfall.”
“And?” Rexi made no move to turn around. But she didn’t keep going either. “He’s your problem. You deal with him. Plus, I hear using pets as accessories is all the rage.” She snorted and tossed a shiny chrome fob up into the air, then shoved it in her pocket.
She’d probably swiped that metal piece from the vacuum’s corpse—and that fashion tidbit from the stack of Fairy Vogue in my room that managed to magically get smaller every time I added the latest issue. I suppose if my being tricked into that wish made him into a creature, I should make sure he didn’t get turned into a meal. I could be the bigger person and take responsibility, even if the situation wasn’t entirely my doing. Plus, after the things Kato said to me, a very wicked part of my heart would take an ironic joy in commanding him to sit.
As I walked back to get Kato, it dawned on me that, for the first time in my life, I had someone to protect. For the record, Sammy the salamander didn’t count, may he rest in peace.
I stopped near Kato and patted my leg. “Come on, Kato. You may not look like it right now, but you’re a prince. So stop this useless nonsense and act like it.”
I’d chosen my words to goad him, but he didn’t rise to the bait. He sat by the log with his head down, like he was hiding something. I looked closer.
Were those legs sticking out of his mouth?
“The Rule of Favor: Save a life and it’s yours for the taking.”
—Thomason’s Tips to Ruthless Ruling
8
Lollipop Guild