Of Sorcery and Snow (38 page)

veryone stared, like they couldn't believe what he'd said.

Even me. Especially me.

Then the Snow Queen said exactly what I was thinking. “
What
did you say?”

“You heard me.” Chase grinned. I wished he wouldn't. I wished, just once, he wouldn't act so confident. “You didn't ask for the strongest fighter, or the smartest, or the one of us who wanted to fight ugly Fey traitors the most. You asked for the bravest, and from day one, that has always been Rory.”

It would have hurt less if someone had pried open my ribs and punched me in the heart.

What he said wasn't true. If it was, I would have listened in Arica's house. I would have asked Chase to tell me what he'd said I didn't want to know.

“This loyalty is touching.” The Snow Queen gestured to the trolls clutching my arms. They let go.

“It's not loyalty. Rory's going to win.” Chase sounded so sure.

A troll returned my sword to me, hilt first, and I took it, trying to think.

“Only a naive child believes without question that his side will win,” said the Snow Queen. “You probably also believe that
good triumphs over evil, and all those simplistic ideals.”

“I'm not talking about good versus evil,” Chase said. “I'm talking about Rory against you.
You
just put a sword in her hand and said you'll kill us unless she does something. Let's look at the track record for how that worked out the last couple times. Rory: two. Snow Queen: zilch.”

He was picking up where Hadriane had left off. He was going to get himself killed. “Chase,
shut up
.”

“She is just a scared little girl,” snapped the Snow Queen. I stared at her hands, terrified that they would flick ice darts at Chase. “Look at her—paler than me. You've chosen a poor champion.”

“She is your equal,” Chase said, and I hated how brave he was. “And in a few minutes, everybody in the audience will know it. Then maybe they'll think twice about allying themselves with some washed-up villain who's met her match in a thirteen-year-old.”

He'd gone too far. One of his guards backhanded him across the mouth. He started bleeding, and I completely lost it. “No! Don't hurt him!”

Two trolls tried to hold me back, but the runner's high had taken hold. I stabbed the first in the shoulder and punched the second so hard he flew into Torlauth. More trolls rushed me, and I snap-kicked and sliced through their ranks. The guard hit Chase again and raised his hand to hit him a third time. I would cut it off. I would
kill
him for touching Chase, and this time, I wouldn't even be sorry.

But someone else caught the guard's arm. The Snow Queen.

“You aren't to hurt him, do you understand me?” she said. “The moment her friends are threatened with physical danger, her
sword's magic takes over, and then she
does
become a real threat. Magical danger, however . . .” The Snow Queen dropped a hand on Chase's head. Frost crawled from the tips of her fingers, over his hair, down his face to his split lip. He shuddered, so I knew it hurt. “This has no effect on her sword. So Rory will still need to behave.”

She was right. The sword's magic flowed out of me, and I backed off. “Okay.”

The Snow Queen patted Chase's head and let him go.

“Rory's still going to beat you.” Chase's voice was shaking now, but at least his skin was losing that icy sheen.

Torlauth was tired of being ignored. “Don't forget, Turnleaf. It's me she has to fight.”

Chase snickered. “Some fight. Rory, you have an advantage over Torlauth. He hasn't seen you fight, but you've watched him.”

That was true. At the Fairie Market, two years ago, I'd watched his duel with George. George had disarmed Torlauth, and the second his blade flew through the air, Torlauth had planted a kick on George's chest, knocking Lena's brother thirty feet back.

“I didn't even beat Hansel,” I said weakly.

“You almost beat him.” One of the trolls approached with a grimy looking gag, but Chase just talked faster. “And it didn't take much for him to beat me.”

Then I understood what he was telling me to do.

“Go, Rory!” Lena burst out, two octaves squeakier than normal. Since the troll was tying the gag on Chase, she must have figured I needed the encouragement.

“You can do this,” said Miriam, like she actually meant it.

Philip stared at them like they were crazy. The twins were fierce in their grief, Forrel pale and broken. Gag or no, Chase didn't look away from my face.

Torlauth stepped closer, facing me, and I froze. I even forgot to breathe.

“Well, Rory Landon?” said the Snow Queen, eyes narrowed. “Isn't this what you always wanted? A chance to save your friends? Isn't that your greatest wish?”

Here it was. My dream. The one I'd feared since the first night of the quest.

Lena even smiled at me encouragingly, like she'd done then.

“No.” Even though I couldn't see the point, my hand drifted to my pocket. “I wish I had a plan to get all of us out of here,” I said, just as my fingers brushed metal.
The wishing coins
. A plan bloomed in my mind, sudden and
complete
, down to every last wish I needed to make. “And while I'm at it, I wish all of us knew the plan.”

Without giving it away,
I added silently.

Hope flared in Lena's eyes, and Miriam stopped crying. Chase started to grin through his gag. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the kids from Portland pressing closer to the balcony, like they were trying to get a better look. But those were the only signs that the plan had sprouted in their brains too.

“A foolish wish from a foolish girl,” said the Snow Queen. She obviously had no idea. She took a snowflake-shaped throwing star from one of her trolls. “When this hits the ground, the duel begins. Don't fail me, Torlauth.”

The Fey bent his knees slightly and drew his sword. “I'll kill her with pleasure, Your Majesty, as long as I can kill Chase Turnleaf next.”

That wasn't going to happen. We were going to make it out of here.

The Snow Queen tossed the throwing star high. Then she
retreated to safety, behind the trolls guarding the back of the balcony.

I turned to Torlauth.

The silver snowflake clattered to the ground, and the Fey lunged at me, sword held out. He was practically inviting me to hook my hilt guard with his and twist his sword out of his fingers. So I did.

When his sword flew up, well above our heads, I swear he smirked at me.

Then he leaped into the air and aimed a kick at my chest, but my left hand—the one with the strength of the West Wind's ring—was ready. I caught his foot. His face barely had time to register his surprise before I hammered the pommel of my sword straight into his knee. Something cracked, nauseatingly loud, and Torlauth screamed.

Then I snap-kicked his face, and his wings stopping flapping. He dropped onto the balcony.

I'd won.

The trolls just stared, stunned, at Torlauth's crumpled figure, his bronze hair fanned out around him.

Before anyone could speak, I pulled a comb from my back pocket and tossed it between us and the Snow Queen. It struck the balcony floor with a clang. Bars as thick as beanstalks sprouted up, but not fast enough, the ceilings were too high. The Snow Queen raised her hand, readying her ice darts . . .

I scooped the wishing coins out of my pocket. “I wish the first spell that the Snow Queen cast backfired on her!”

That made her pause. I sprinted along the edge of the balcony and tossed another comb over the side between us and the four pillars. Fresh metal columns raced up to the ceiling, just as Ori'an and Ripper moved closer.

Chase threw his head back into the nose of the closest guard,
freeing his left arm, and he elbowed the other two in the face. He didn't bother to find his sword or even take off the gag. He just held out a hand, and I tossed him a comb.

I ran to the front of the balcony, past Hadriane's body. There was a gap between the Portland kids and the rest of the audience, at least forty feet away. “I wish, just once, that I could throw that far with perfect accuracy,” I said.

The comb sailed beyond the kids and dropped right beside the baffled Pied Piper. When metal columns sprang out of the ice floor, he got squeezed between two of them. He hollered and dropped his wooden flute. One of the Portland kids happily crushed it under her bunny slippers.

“They've gotten to the treasury,” the Snow Queen told General Searcaster, furious.

The bars from the first comb clanged against the ceiling. Then the second.

The sorceress-giant raised her cane. “I wish the first spell that Searcaster tried backfired on her!” I said quickly. Then Chase reached the edge.

“Don't let him throw—” the Snow Queen started, and he dropped the comb between us and the sorceress-giant. Those bars grew so fast that they snagged Searcaster's fingers as she snatched her hand back. Her
blood
was green too.

“Kill them!” the Snow Queen ordered. “Execute them immediately!”

The bars from the third comb crunched into the ceiling too, and the fourth set raced up, out of sight.

“Rory!” Lena cried.

I turned. Her troll guard had recovered. He'd forced her to her knees and raised his spear to stab her.

My plan was great, except for the fact I'd locked us in a huge metal cage with a dozen and a half enemies.

It took me three steps to reach Lena and one punch to send him to the floor.

Chase had found his sword, and he went after the nine guards in charge of the dwarves. Once the dwarves were free, they helped him—except for Ima, who charged the trolls holding Miriam and Philip, a stolen spear held high.

“Thanks.” Lena pried my left hand open. I only had three golden coins left—the rest had faded to pewter—but she took one. “I wish that the ingredients I brought made a portal right below this balcony, one that would send every single one of us back home, but would collapse on itself the moment the last of us went through.”

There was a pause, and then Evan yelled. “It worked! I'll start evacuating!”

“Good wish,” I said, flicking the used-up coins out of my palm. “We should have thought of that one when we were still in the prisons.”

“I
know
,” Lena said, obviously upset. “I've been kicking myself since I thought of it.”

General Searcaster grabbed the comb's bars and shook them. “No!” she boomed when they held, but something snapped, way above us. A great white chunk of the ceiling, as big as an iceberg, came loose.

“Haddy!” screamed Ima. The chunk was headed straight for the front of the balcony, where the dwarf princess had fallen. Lena and I grabbed Hadriane's feet, dragging her out of the way.

The falling iceberg smashed down a couple inches from the dwarf princess's head. Ima ran our way, sobbing, “Thank you, thank you.” Like we'd really saved
Hadriane
, not just her body.

“The bats! Bring me the bats!” boomed Searcaster. On the other side of the cage, a dozen wolves streamed into a slot in the wall.

“Feel free to help any time!” said Philip. He had two trolls trying to spear him in the stomach.

“We were a little busy not getting squished!” Lena shouted back, but the sword's magic sent me running.

One troll had backed Miriam into the bars. That sucked, especially since she didn't have a weapon, but from the other side of the comb cage, Jimmy Searcaster was trying to work his hand in and grab Miriam, which would definitely complicate our escape plans. I gave myself a running start and then slid on my knees, holding my blade level. My sword rammed straight into Jimmy's green fingers.

He yowled and stumbled away. Trying not to get grossed out by the weird-colored blood on my blade, I spun around to deal with the troll. I stepped in front of Miriam, caught the spear handle just below the point and shoved back hard. The troll tripped, fell, and smacked his head on the ice floor. He didn't get up, so I passed the weapon to Miriam.

“I could have done that,” said Philip, coming over to join his sister. He'd picked up a spear too. “But
I
don't have a magic sword and magic ring.”

Miriam smacked the back of her brother's head. “Don't ask for help unless you can handle it if she saves you. These eighth graders are in a different class.”

Chase, Forrel, and Iggy had taken on the rest of the trolls. I ducked in, cut three spears in half, and snap-kicked four others.

Then I spun around one last time, weapon raised to smash my hilt on the next troll's head, but Chase was standing there, his
sword arm cocked back too. He grinned so wide the gag cut into his cheeks, and I noticed the trolls' unmoving bodies lay in a circle around us. We'd taken them all out.

He's safe,
I thought. Relief made my knees all wobbly.