Page 9

CHAPTER 9

T he first knight arrived early the next morning. His shouting roused me from a deep sleep, nestled between the warm, downy quilts. For several moments, in the disoriented state between sleeping and waking, I couldn’t remember where I was.

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, are you there?” the voice called.

Adrenaline surged through my body and I leapt out of bed. I hadn’t expected someone to come so early; he must have traveled the entire night through. I hurried to the balcony and peered down into the meadow below. The height made me dizzy just looking, and I ended up kneeling while wrapping my arms around the balcony supports, too nervous to lean over.

“I’m here, but there’s no way down!” I called. “Thank goodness you found me!”

The knight looked unfamiliar, but from this height, I couldn’t be sure. His squire held the reins for both their horses near the forest, and I squinted, hoping against hope that it was Griffin, but was disappointed. The squire appeared to only be fifteen years old or so, with a shock of flaming red hair that didn’t look at all like the quiet chess champion I hoped to see.

“Is the dragon nearby?”

“It left to hunt,” I invented wildly, hoping I would have time to take the wardrobe passage to warn Pollox. How was I supposed to alert him that a knight had come while still acting like some damsel in distress desperate for escape?

“Then we must act quickly. Can you climb down?”

“No, the only way up here is by dragonback,” I shouted back down, hoping my words weren’t being lost to the wind.

The knight circled the tower several times, searching for some method of entry, and I scanned the skies, desperately searching until?—

“Look out!” I screamed. “It’s coming back!”

Pollox’s flight was too fast for the man to escape, especially as he was laden down by absurdly heavy metal armor. The clanking was loud enough that it was easily audible from my lofty perch.

The shadow passing over made the knight’s horses rear in fright. One broke free of the squire’s grip and galloped away, but the squire clung tight to the second, backing up and looking just as terrified as I’d felt when I first met Pollox.

“What’s this?” Pollox rumbled in a voice so loud that the tower trembled. “A human come to claim my princess for his own hoard?”

The knight drew his sword and held it at the ready. Pollox landed directly in front of him with a heavy thud that shook the ground.

“I’ve come to rescue the Princess Rapunzel,” the knight challenged.

Pollox’s face twisted into an expression that I recognized as a smile. “Very well, do your worst.”

The knight attacked with a war cry, jabbing the sword at Pollox’s hide repeatedly and with all the force he could muster. Pollox watched him, interested, as the man exhausted himself by wielding the massive broadsword while inflicting no damage whatsoever to the dragon.

“Your…your mind tricks won’t work on me,” the knight panted, trying again to drive the blade into the dragon hide and watching in dismay as it bounced harmlessly off once again. Finally, the man stopped his assault, too weary to continue.

“My turn,” Pollox chuckled. With that, he let his tail whip across the man’s helmet so a ringing clang echoed up to me.

I squeaked in alarm, fearing that it had been a killing blow as the knight’s knees buckled. He face planted, helmet and all, into the grass mere inches from Pollox’s talons. Was I responsible for a death?

“Now,” Pollox snarled, turning to the quivering squire. “You will return from whence you came. If your king sends fifty gold pieces by dawn tomorrow, he may have his knight back. Otherwise, I’ll drop him off wherever I see fit.” Pollox cast an eye over the motionless knight, limp in his metal armor. “He looks like a swimmer. Perhaps over an ocean. Do you understand?”

The squire, trembling from head to foot, nodded frantically but remained rooted to the spot, eyes wide in panic.

“Dawn tomorrow,” Pollox repeated. “Fifty gold pieces.”

The squire still didn’t move. He would likely pass out from fright if Pollox scared him anymore.

“Go on then,” Pollox said, and blew a tiny fireball at him.

That did it.

The horse reared back in terror so that the reins tangled around the squire’s hand. As his mount bolted, the squire was dragged along, desperately trying to mount the terrified horse. The galloping hooves soon faded away.

“Is he dead?” I called anxiously, eyes still fixed on the motionless knight as my insides writhed like snakes.

Pollox flapped into the air and landed a moment later, clinging to the side of the tower so he could extend his head and easily talk to me. “No, but he’ll wake soon, and we can’t let him escape.”

I looked at my luxurious bedroom. “If this were less comfortable, I’d be able to convince him that I’m being held prisoner, but I think he would have a hard time believing that with all this here.”

Pollox’s eyes narrowed so he looked almost snake-like. “Excellent idea. Stay on the balcony for a moment.”

I did so, backing up so I was close to the railing, and squatted down. The wind still made me feel as though I would likely get blown off at any moment.

“Watch.” Pollox directed his gaze into the room, and it began to shift and change. The four-poster bed became a jail cell with iron bars, the sofa vanished and was replaced by hard slats with thin, hole-riddled blankets. The plush rugs transformed into straw littering the stone floor, and the paintings shifted to become manacles dangling in intervals with a large key hung on the opposite wall.

My jaw hung slack. It was the perfect prison cell.

“Hurry, get him up here and I’ll chain him to the wall,” I said eagerly. While Pollox flapped off to collect the knight, I ran to the wardrobe, which now looked thoroughly shabby and rotten. “I need something a prisoner would wear,” I told it. “Quick.”

At first, the wardrobe didn’t seem to understand and presented me with more luxurious dresses, but after articulating my desire again, it acquiesced and offered up a selection of threadbare, dirty frocks that might have once been beautiful gowns. Instead of the cosmetics and hair combs, a pot of dirt stood on a shelf. I rushed to transform my own appearance, scrubbing dirt onto my hands and face and tugging on a dress that could have passed for the one I wore the day before when Pollox took me away from the villagers.

As I mussed my hair, Pollox came back to deposit the knight on the balcony. He was still out cold. Could I trust that he was truly unconscious, or was he acting? Deciding to play it safe, I motioned for Pollox to shove the knight farther into the room. While Pollox used his tail to scoot the knight across the floor, I took the key from the far wall and tested it on the manacles. The cuffs sprang apart, and I secured it around the knight’s wrist. Then, with a sly wink at Pollox, I snapped the other cuff on my own arm.

The ridges over Pollox’s eyes contracted as he watched me. With a coy smile, I held a finger to my lips, then slipped the key into my pocket and sat propped against the wall next to the knight.

“What a well-behaved prisoner you are,” Pollox chuckled. “I’m a very lucky dragon indeed.”

The knight stirred, and Pollox snaked his head inside so he could stare at the captive. The man blearily opened his eyes, then yelped as he found himself nose-to-nose with the dragon.

“Please, have mercy,” I cried, trying to throw myself between the knight and Pollox, pressing one hand against the knight’s breastplate and the other held out defensively toward Pollox. “Spare him, I beg of you!”

“Only until dawn tomorrow,” Pollox hissed, menace in every syllable. He withdrew his head, and the ceiling shuddered as we heard Pollox curl up around the turret’s spire.

“How are you feeling?” I asked the knight anxiously, pressing my hand against his forehead.

“I’ve been better,” he groaned. As he slowly sat up, he stared around at the barren walls. “Princess, is this where the dragon’s been keeping you?”

“It hasn’t been long; it doesn’t matter,” I told him with a long-suffering smile. “Were you injured?”

“Not much.” He seemed to come to himself. “My squire, where is he? What happened?”

“The dragon’s holding you ransom for fifty gold pieces. Your squire went to get the funds.”

“He wasn’t hurt, was he? By George, I shouldn’t have endangered him. I should have taken that other squire up on his offer.”

“What other squire?”

“His name’s Griffin. He heard I was heading out to rescue you and tried to convince me to take him instead of my regular squire.”

My heart beat faster. “Oh. I didn’t realize squires trade places.”

“They don’t normally. My squire knows me and the horses, but Griffin was quite insistent. But that doesn’t matter right now. We need to find a way to escape.” He threw a fearful glance toward the open balcony doors. “Can the dragon hear us?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t had anyone to talk to until now, and as you can see”—I pulled against the manacle so that the chain driven deep into the stone wall clanged—“my last escape attempt got me in a worse mess than before. He said I’ll be chained for two days as punishment for my escape.”

“We’ll figure it out, don’t worry,” he answered automatically, pulling at his own restraint and patting down his armor, searching for any hidden weapons. I copied him, also pulling at the heavy chains while knowing it was futile. “My name is Winston, by the way.”

“I’m Rapunzel,” I told him. “Sorry about all this.”

“It’s not your fault,” he told me kindly. “You didn’t ask to be kidnapped.”

“Have you heard any news from my father?” I asked. “What’s happening?”

Winston gave a final jerk to his chain, then seemed to decide his energy was being wasted. “Your father sent couriers to all the nearby kingdoms to alert them of the issue, and many are planning to come to your aid.”

“What if the dragon kills them?” I whispered, allowing tears to fill my eyes. “I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

He clutched at my hands. “You mustn’t sacrifice yourself in the process,” he said. “Now, let’s see if there is a way out of here.”

For hours, Winston tried everything he could think of to escape, to no avail. At first, he broke one of the clasps off his armor and tried to use it to pick the lock, then wriggled off one of his metal leg plates to use it as leverage to break the chain from the wall.

I pretended to make myself useful by searching the wall for any cracks in the mortar or chinks in the stone, then ripped a swath of fabric off my hem to wrap around my hand, trying to create a thin barrier that would allow me to slip my hand out of the manacle.

We continued to attempt escape all that day and into the night, only stopping when Pollox appeared and shoved a slightly charred loaf of bread to us, skewed on the end of one of his tail spikes.

Winston instantly broke the loaf in half and offered me the slightly smaller portion. I took it but barely nibbled at the stale bread, trying to appear hungry but still disliking the chalky texture. If Griffin had been here instead of Winston, he would have offered me the larger portion, if not the entire loaf, I was sure. Then of course, if Winston wasn’t here at all, I could have had another grand feast from the magic table in Pollox’s cave.

After his initial talkativeness, Winston lapsed into silence, still studying the chain and manacle to figure out how to break free. I dozed off around midnight, the key secure in my pocket, as Winston continued to tug at the chain.

I awoke around daybreak to the sound of trumpets echoing around the tower. Winston looked terrible. He had disassembled the majority of his suit of armor trying to break the manacle apart, and there were small areas of hair missing from his beard and scalp where he’d pulled on it in frustration.

Voices came from the meadow below, and Pollox answered, still coiled up on the tower’s roof. “Show me the gold.”

More voices floated up in a low rumble, and dust showered down as Pollox took off. A shadow passed over the window and a gust of wind swirled in to stir up the dirt as Pollox soared past, his mighty wings beating.

“They must’ve come for you,” I told him, a sad smile on his face. “Tell my father I’m thinking of him.”

“This isn’t over. You’ll get rescued.”

“Tell everyone where I am,” I begged. “Please.”

“I shall.”

Pollox stuck his head in. “You’re free to go, human,” he said to Winston, then snapped down on the chain, fangs instantly breaking the metal that the knight had worked all night to break free of. Winston tried to grab my hand, but Pollox snarled, “The girl stays. A princess is worth far more than a paltry fifty coins.”

Pollox’s tail snuck over to grab Winston by the ankle and pull him into the air. Once Winston had been removed, I calmly withdrew the key, unlocked the manacle, and waited for Pollox to finish the ransom exchange. It was more than half an hour before Pollox finally returned.

“They’re gone,” he informed me. “Are you ready to go? I’m sure you’d like a meal that isn’t a crust of bread. Sorry it was so bad.”

“Don’t be sorry. It was a good image. Are they able to see us through the trees if I go back with you? We can’t have anyone suspect if I’m supposed to be chained here.”

“The tree cover is thick, and you are small enough that you won’t be spotted on my back from the ground.”

Pollox scooped me up and took off, depositing me onto his back once we were flying back to his cave. My skirts whipped up to my thighs as I straddled the base of Pollox’s neck, and my hair blew out behind me like a banner. “Today seemed to be a success,” I called over the roar of the wind. “What do you think?”

“Fifty gold pieces is a good start,” Pollox agreed. “What will you do with your half?”

“Keep it until I know how to disperse it best, I suppose. It’s not like I can waltz into town and buy supplies when I’m supposed to be locked in a tower.”

Pollox landed, and I slid off more gracefully than the first time I had tried. “We will need to set up some kind of alarm or something to let us know if someone is coming to rescue me,” I told Pollox, entering the cave and sitting at the table, which instantly loaded itself with food. “We don’t want to risk someone being there and you don’t come to capture them.”

“That’s a simple enough charm,” Pollox told me. “I’ll set it up tomorrow morning.”

“Shall we toast to our success?” I asked Pollox, pouring a glass of wine and holding it aloft. “To the most unexpected yet unstoppable duo ever to grace this realm?—”

“A shrewd princess with wits sharp as any blade,” Pollox cut in.

“And a dragon with a fiery sense of enterprise,” I finished, downing my glass and throwing the bottle into Pollox’s mouth. The crunching of glass made me grit my teeth.

“Would you like to see my hoard?” Pollox asked without warning.

“Yes, I would.” Burning curiosity pulled me to my feet. What other human had ever had the honor of seeing a dragon’s hoard?

“It’s separated into different rooms,” he said, lumbering down the wide passageway. “And they will only open for me.” Large wooden doors barred each chamber, and it was only when Pollox pressed his snout against the wood that they creaked open.

If I had ever thought that the treasury back home was special, I was wrong on all accounts. This cavern was lined with shelving, and gemstones of every color winked down at me from where they lay on their velvet-lined cushions. They were organized by size, ranging from tiny diamonds barely larger than a grain of sand to enormous geodes larger than I was, studded with violet amethysts.

“This is my gemstones room,” Pollox said unnecessarily. “Dragons can smell gemstones within mountains, you know.”

“I didn’t know that,” I breathed. Fifty gold pieces was nothing to Pollox. It was a mere drop amid the ocean of his treasure.

“And this room,” he went on, leading me to the next chamber, “is for the man-made objects.” It was filled with exquisite jewelry, ancient weapons, and ceremonial artifacts. The entire room was illuminated by a crystal chandelier overhead, where everlasting candles were lit and cast a dancing, sparkling light over the entire hoard.

We came to a third door. “Here’s where I keep the gold,” Pollox said, pressing his snout against the wood panel. Treasure chest after treasure chest, all neatly organized, were lined up in rows, each one heaped with coins. Gently, Pollox emptied the new bag of coins into a chest on the far right that was only partially full. This dragon didn’t need me or my schemes at all. There was enough here to keep my entire kingdom running for generations.

“Where did all this come from?” I asked in wonder, gazing around at everything.

“Hoards pass down from dragon to dragon. This used to be my mother’s, and her father’s before her, and so on.”

Centuries worth of dragon wealth, all before my eyes. It was overwhelming. Father only had a fraction of this and I knew how much good he would be able to do if he used it to help people rather than hoard it for himself. There were more riches here than any kingdom could ever spend in ten lifetimes. Resolve hardened in the pit of my stomach. One way or another, I would help my people get the aid they so desperately needed. Seeing Pollox’s hoard reinforced to me that I had teamed up with the perfect partner in crime.

“That’s the tour,” Pollox said, prodding me along the corridor with his tail.

“What about that door?” I pointed to the last door at the far end of the passageway.

“That one has my most treasured possessions,” Pollox answered shortly.

“May I see it?”

“No.”

My interest grew. What could be more fabulous than the treasure he already showed me? Did it contain powerful magic? Enchanted objects like the wardrobe and table? Or was it some dark secret he didn’t want me to know about?

“Would you like to take the wardrobe back to your room, or shall I take you?” Pollox asked.

“I’d prefer that you take me,” I told him. “I don’t like the way the wardrobe feels, and no one will see me in the dark.”

“Very well,” Pollox said, lowering his neck so I could climb on. “Tomorrow, our swindles can begin in earnest.”

As I climbed into bed that night, I struggled to fall asleep. Our first swindle had succeeded, but what if the knight had been killed? I would be just like my father—responsible for the deaths of brave men who thought they were being chivalrous and saving an endangered woman. They were putting their lives at risk for me; would it be worth it? How would I find a way to redistribute the wealth that Pollox and I accrued?

Unanswered questions swirled around the back of my head as I did all I could to suppress my qualms. All the lying and deceit was necessary, I told myself. There was no other way to help those in need. My last comforting thought as I finally drifted off to sleep was that as long as Pollox didn’t kill anyone, there was no harm to what we were doing.