Page 4

PREENING AND REDUNDANCY

O ne year rolled past, and then another. Kazik turned fourteen with no party and no visit from Helena. Again. Was her father deliberately keeping her away from him?

Using his magic, he could draw on his memories, but Helena was now two years older than those memories of her.

Kazik had grown some since then, but only a few inches.

He was still way shorter than Czwarty and Twardo, but he might be as tall as Helena by now.

After all, he was eight months older. But she might have grown too.

He knew Helena hadn’t forgotten him because she talked nearly every day to the little wooden horse he’d carved, charmed, and given to her. He’d been a complete novice at animation charms back then, so how or why the connection still worked, he had no idea. Beginner’s luck?

He longed to talk with his mother about Helena, but he just couldn’t. He was no child anymore, to run to his mama for advice about girls. That would never happen.

Absolutely not .

Early the next morning he knocked on the door to Madame Euzebia’s royal suite. Her maid opened it and looked him up and down. “Wait here.”

Using his magic, Kazik listened in as the servant entered his mother’s bedchamber. “His Royal Highness is here, Your Grace. Shall I admit him at this hour?”

“Certainly, you shall admit him at any hour,” he heard his mother chide the woman in her gentle yet firm way. Then she called, “I’ll be dressed in a moment, dear boy.”

Kazik sensed her magic just before she appeared in the doorway fully clothed but with her braid hanging down her back. “That was two whole moments, Mama, and your hair isn’t up yet. You’re slipping.”

Beaming, she hugged him, and he hugged her back. She always smelled nice, like a fresh morning in a meadow. “I just couldn’t wait another moment to hug you,” she said, then stepped back, holding his shoulders and studying his face. “You’re missing Helena.”

He wasn’t surprised; she could always read him.

“It’s been two years too long,” he said, turning his gaze to a window with a view of the mountains.

Once started, he poured out his loneliness and frustration, finishing with “Helena Tarnowska is the only girl I want to marry. I’m pretty sure she has magic too, and I just feel .

. . well, I feel right when I’m with her. Like, we belong .”

Euzebia arched one brow and assumed a deep voice: “You needn’t choose from any of our vassal states’ daughters, Kazimierz. A ruler must marry wisely for the good of his people.”

Kazik had to smile at her spot-on imitation of his father.

“I shall choose wisely,” Kazik assured her.

“Um, since King Ryszard is now tutoring me as well as advising Father, is there some way Helena might come with him for visits? The king always seems stressed and . . .” As his mother’s expression changed, his voice trailed off. “What, Mama?”

“Neither your father nor hers would accept the idea, though for different reasons. However . . .” She studied the ceiling while tapping her chin.

“Since Helena’s father is journeying here today while your father is visiting your grandfather up north and Helena is currently at Castle Valga, I believe we could arrange a quick visit. ”

Kazik’s eyes rounded. “You mean, I could visit Helena today? How?

“You must dress for a ride and report to Geoffroi.”

“But he lives in a pocket world.”

“It is true that your father’s treasures are tethered to their respective pocket worlds, but they can escape for several hours before their prisons drag them back.”

“Prisons?” Kazik repeated, eyes wide.

“Yes, prisons. Your father inherited several pocket worlds from his mother’s side of the family, and he has labored and schemed over the years to fill them with priceless prizes.”

“Geoffroi is a prisoner?” The idea made his heart hurt. He had always believed Geoffroi enjoyed his virtually unlimited personal pasture. “What about Solara?”

“Yes, your golden friends are both captives. You see, long ago, fay creatures from an alternate reality somehow slipped into our world, intending to take over. Thanks to heroic human mages and—to be fair—several friendly fay beings who embraced the freedom available in our reality, that gateway was closed long ago. However, unscrupulous humans throughout our world now seek to imprison the remaining fay creatures for profit.”

Kazik began to pace. “How did I never know this?”

Euzebia smiled sadly. “There is much evil in this world—too much for a child to grasp. I would gladly keep protecting you from the knowledge of evil, but my interference would cause more harm than good. Like everyone else, you must choose your path.”

“Solara and Geoffroi are good!” Kazik declared. “I’m sure of it.”

“Yes, I believe those two would sacrifice their immortal lives to protect you, my son. But some of the fay beings that still exist in our world would gladly destroy it and remake reality in their image. I don’t know exactly how your father acquired the golden horse and the golden bird, but I suspect he hopes to use their fay power somehow to promote himself in this world. ”

Kazik launched to his feet, pacing the floor and grasping his wild hair with both fists. “I had no idea! My father only ever talks with me about military training. . . except when he sings the praises of my dozens of girl cousins.”

Euzebia had to smile. “Not quite dozens, but plenty and to spare.”

“He wants me to marry one of them.” The very idea curdled his blood.

“Yes, but I shall never allow any marriage against your will.”

Her tone was so adamant that Kazik stopped pacing to stare at her. “Mama, were you forced to marry my father?”

“No, my dear. I married him by my own free will. I was young and romantic and believed I could change him—without using magic, I mean. He is very handsome, like you, and he was charming and kind to me. Kazik, people can change—sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse. The battle between good and evil still exists.”

But then her sober demeanor melted into a smile. “Today is quickly passing. If you wish to visit Helena, who is a true young lady, you had better get started.”

Kazik kissed his mother’s cheek, stepped into the hall, then took the shortest route along the gallery, down the spiral staircase, into the back hall, and out a back door into the formal gardens.

As soon as he entered Geoffroi’s pocket world, the horse bugled, “Finally!”

With a musical flutter of feathers, Solara landed on Kazik’s shoulder.

“Madame Euzebia says we’re taking you out for a jaunt.

” How a bird of solid gold could feel as light as a dove, Kazik couldn’t begin to guess.

“Ugh! You must preen before you meet the princess,” Solara declared before shoving his hat aside to begin on his hair.

“Enough of that now!” Geoffroi pawed the ground with one enormous hoof. “He has no time for you to waste!”

“Oh, very well. I’ll arrange his head feathers after we arrive.” With an annoyed flutter, Solara took off again and seemed to vanish into the blue sky.

“Mount up, human colt.”

Kazik still had to scramble a bit, but he mounted the stallion with no help.

This time, instead of galloping over the endless hills of his pocket world, Geoffroi escaped through its invisible doorway, then circumvented the castle and trotted down its curving drive.

“No one will see us,” he assured Kazik, flicking his ears back and forth.

Only now, after years of riding the golden horse bareback, did Kazik understand why he felt almost one with the creature when they went adventuring: fay magic. In Geoffroi’s company, he was never too cold or too hot or too tired.

“How long before we get there?” Kazik asked.

“Soon.”

Faster than any ordinary horse could possibly run, so fast that the scenery blurred, they sped over hill and dale and even leaped a small river.

Soon afterward, Kazik glimpsed a gray stone castle ahead, perched on a forested mountainside and picturesque with turrets and towers and parapets. “Is that Castle Valga?”

With a ringing whinny, Geoffroi slowed to a trot, then a walk.

Instead of approaching the gatehouse, the horse followed the curtain wall to an outer gate, which he nudged open with his nose.

They entered a lovely flower garden to find the golden bird perched on a rose trellis.

“Solara, will you find Helena for us?” Kazik asked.

“I already did,” she responded, her eyes instantly focusing on his wild hair.

In a matter of moments, she was perched on Kazik’s shoulder, her sharp beak tugging and smoothing his red curls into order.

He didn’t really mind; the effect was soothing.

“There now, you’re handsome again. The princess is preening too,” the bird informed him. “She will arrive shortly.”

When Solara fluttered down to perch on Geoffroi’s rump and shook her elegant golden tail, sweet music chimed.

Despite his friends’ encouragement, a sudden wave of doubt struck Kazik. What if this no-notice visit offended Helena?

But before he could invent even one more what-if, the princess burst through an archway and stopped short, staring directly at him. Her sudden smile was nearly blinding, and when she breathed his name, “Kazik!” his heart went wild.

She was so pretty.

And even taller than he remembered.

And she looked more like a woman and less like a child, which was scary.

As if in a perfect daydream, Kazik swung one leg over the golden horse’s neck and dropped lightly to the ground. “Helena! Sorry to suddenly drop in like this, but . . .” His voice trailed off. He couldn’t look away. And he wasn’t at all sorry for staring, because she stared right back.

Then she ran up to Kazik, who thought—hoped—she might hug him, but she stopped short and looked him up and down, her face quite pink. “I’ve missed you,” she said, turning even pinker.

“I’ve missed you terribly,” he confessed, though the words sounded like a growl.