Kato sent her an icy glare, so she raised her hands and backed off.
I took a few measured breaths before trying to be coherent. “Kato, I can’t help you with Blanc. I can never use whatever”—I pinched the green, curly, crackling ends of my hair—“this is again. The last part of the curse can’t come true, not if I can help it.”
“I understand, I think.” Kato still looked disappointed, despite his words. He whistled sharply, and Bob came trotting without delay—as in he must have been eavesdropping outside the entrance.
“Please take them to my mother’s old room. I’m sure they could use the rest.” Kato’s tone of voice basically added whether you want to or not. “When you’re done, Bobbledandrophous, join me at the White One’s cell.”
Bob bowed and shuffled Rexi and I out in a flurry of his feathered wings.
“And, Dot,” Kato called just before I reached the exit. “While I don’t agree that destroying evil would somehow make you the same as her, I won’t force the issue. For now.”
“Rule #68: When you’re afraid, hold your head high and whistle a happy tune. This remedy is also known to increase dwarf productivity by a multiple of seven.”
—Definitive Fairy-Tale Survival Guide, Volume 1
21
We’re Off to See the Wizard
“Time to greet the suns, Priestess,” a very chipper voice cut through the fog of slumber.
Prying my eyes open took some effort, but when I finally succeeded, Bob’s smiling face took up the whole door frame. Morning people should have to live in their own country or something and not bother the rest of us.
“Unh, need…more…sleep.” To say that I’d had a restless night would be a gross understatement. Between Rexi snoring and grunting in her sleep and me worrying that one of Griff’s cronies would do the volcano thing in my new room, I hadn’t actually had any peaceful rest.
“Apologies, Priestess, but my lord instructed me to wake you. He and the rude human are waiting for you.”
Rude human? He must mean Rexi. She wasn’t kicking me out of bed, so she must have already gotten up.
I stumbled to the door and shooed Bob away. “I’ll just change and be right there.” Luckily, the late queen and I were the same size—coincidence, not a sign. We certainly didn’t share the same taste in fashion. I threw on a blue gingham frock and headed out.
Rexi sauntered down the hallway, her knapsack bulging to capacity. “I’ve found all sorts of useful supplies around this dump, so I’m all ready to go.”
I quirked an eyebrow at her. “Where are you going?”
“We are going to go see your stalker wizard whether he wants the rest of us or not.”
I wasn’t particularly happy our plans had been changed without me. “I thought we were going to the spring somewhere over the rainbow?”
“Kato says without the help of the Emerald Sorceress…” Rexi trailed off.
“We’d never find it.” Kato came toward us from the other direction. Instead of continuing the thought, he stopped. “That dress.”
That’s all he said—then stared, making me self-conscious. “Is it okay if I wear this? It was just lying there, and my other one’s toast so…” I waited for him to say something.
He smiled, then quickly coughed. “It…suits you. If you don’t mind it being simple and used, you’re welcome to keep it.”
I couldn’t tell if that was a compliment or another dig. “Well, vintage is in this season, so it’ll do.”
“Yeesh,” Rexi groaned. “Just get to the whole homicidal rainbow sprite.”
“Excuse me?” I asked.
Kato straightened, turning royal know-it-all again. “The spring Verte wanted you to go to has special powers that might be able to undo the wish. But the spring is invisible. It moves so no one knows where it is, and it’s guarded by a sprite that uses deadly rainbow sorcery.”
If that was true, how did Verte ever expect me to be able to find it? “Are you sure?”
“I spent most of the night doing research,” Kato said. “I also poured through the chimera archives and found lots of references to a Book of Making. Supposedly, you can use it to bind or bend magic to create what the user imagines. We don’t have anything like that here anymore, so the most likely place I could think of was the wizard’s workshop at the Ivory Tower.”
An image flashed into my mind while Kato was explaining. A book I’d seen before. “Is the cover engraved with a quill and sparkly red ink?” I asked.
“How did you know?” Kato countered, his furry forehead all crinkled.
The morning sluggishness gave way to excitement. “When I watched Blanc’s story, the Maker used a book like that. And I saw one at the Maker’s workshop that popped up in the forest. If you want it, we’d better hurry because that bibliobug was chomping it down pretty fast.” I smirked at Rexi. “See? I told you we were supposed to be there.”