Page 66 of The Prince and His Stolen Throne

“The forest isn’t afraid of me,” Wilde replied.

Why would it need to be? You’re one of the people controlling it.

“However, I can sense certain magical problems in order to avoid them.” He pointed into the distance with his free hand, his other still clasped in mine. “The ghost wolves are somewhere over there, trackingweaker prey.” He pointed in the opposite direction. “And over there is a void cave.”

“A void cave?” Fitz asked, pausing to look where Wilde pointed. “What does that mean?”

“The dark devours all light within. Only the shadow creatures can survive it.”

Fitz shuddered and pulled out a notebook, speaking aloud as he wrote, “Avoid the void caves.”

“How do you know so much?” Maximus asked, his eyes narrowed on Wilde.

“Part of my studies.”

“Who is your master, again? I don’t think you said.”

I tensed, wondering how Wilde would respond. Had he already crafted a whole backstory for his ‘good mage’ persona? The only ones I could name were the Good Wizard and my dad, and Dad wasn’t of a caliber to take on apprentices.

“My master is—”

“Giant Pumpkins!” Delilah shrieked in delight, cutting off Wilde’s fake backstory. She ran forward into a large field and tackled a pumpkin twice her size. Her claws dug into the orange rind as she pulled herself up to the top. A green, twisted stem still connected the pumpkin to the vine.

More pumpkins stretched before us, big enough to carve into a house—or at least a decent sized shed. Trees were spread through the patch, with other large gourds climbing up their trunks. Beyond the pumpkin patch, corn grew as tall as the trees. From this distance, I couldn’t tell how big the ears were but guessed one could feed an entire village.

“What happened here?” Fitz asked, eyes widening to take in the giant harvest.

“A side-effect of the curse,” Wilde explained.

“Ugh, I hope there aren’t more giant bugs hanging out here,” Angelica said, carefully tiptoeing around a vine the width of her arm.

Delilah carved out a chunk of the pumpkin, pulling off the orange flesh. She sniffed it curiously, her nose twitching. “If I eat it, will I become a giant?”

“You’ll probably turn into a pumpkin,” I said, pulling my hand out of Wilde’s as I gestured for her to get down. The imprint of his fingers between mine lingered even after I let go.

“That’s not true!” she declared, though she slid down the curve, allowing me to catch her and steady her on her way down. She skipped over to Wilde with her prize and demanded, “It’s not true, right, Will?”

“It certainly is,” he said, deadpan. “First your fur will turn orange.” He tweaked the tip of one of her ears and she giggled in response. “Then you’ll grow round and plump, until the others have to roll you into the lord’s lair.”

“Perhaps we could use you to bowl through the guards,” Angelica said. “You’d be more useful as a pumpkin than a cat.”

Delilah’s delight vanished as she hissed at Angelica.

I wasn’t sure if Wilde was teasing or stating a fact, so I carefully pried the lump of pumpkin from Delilah’s hand and tossed it to the side. “If there’s a farm here, there’s probably a house or barn we can spend the night in.”

Delilah’s eyes widened and she gasped. “Do you think there are gianthorses?”

“No, horses are too valuable, the farmers would have taken them.”

“Oh.” Her shoulders drooped, but her spirits quickly rose again as she declared, “I’m going to investigate the other giant plants!” She scampered off, disappearing into the pumpkin patch.

I leaned closer to Wilde and whispered, “These aren’t going to come alive in the middle of the night and eat us, are they?”

He gave me a mysterious smile and followed Delilah.

If the plants were going to eat us, he’d tell me.I couldn’t quite convince myself of that as I followed him.

The barn, when we finally found it, was dwarfed by the plants surrounding it. A thick, towering tree grew straight out of the middle, its canopy becoming the new roof. Although the paint had faded and chipped away during the years of neglect, the bright red color was still visible from a distance.