Quest Maker (11 page)

Brynne shivered and nodded. “The bees were controlled.”

“There are magic bees now?” Tito said.

That was a silly question. Caden raised a brow. “Of course not, Sir Tito,” he said. “But there are dangerous creatures that can control bees. And not only bees but other things that swarm.” This bee swarm was another not-accident. Another embarrassment for the school. He was failing in his quest for Ms. Primrose.

Caden scanned the crowd. Ms. Primrose stood near the drive talking to a paramedic. Three parents surrounded her, and none looked happy. There was no doubting that the dangerous chill in the air was because of her. She saw Caden and glared. The chill spread. Students huddled together. He understood the meaning of the cold, the meaning of her glare: find out who is sabotaging my school or become my dinner.

Even the sunlight was tinted the cold blue of an angry Elderdragon. He tugged his coat tighter. “This is another act of sabotage. We must search the school and find out who's responsible.”

Of course that was when Rosa drove up. She jumped out of the pickup and spent several minutes frowning at Caden's stings. Once she seemed content that he wasn't seriously injured, she said, “Get in the pickup. I'll take you all to lunch.”

Caden sat in the front seat. Away from the school, the air turned warm again. People strolled on the downtown sidewalks. Two women played string instruments while begging for coins. A man walked by with a small fluffy white dog under his arm.

Caden's thoughts of bees dimmed at the sight of the dog. Truly, he hoped the dog was a pet, and not food for one of the local eateries. Some of the food sellers included hot dog on their menus. Rosa insisted hot dog wasn't made of dog, but as she couldn't explain what exactly it was made from, Caden feared for the fluffy white dogs of Asheville.

He pointed at the man and dog. Before he could speak, Rosa said, “I've told you, Caden. There are strict guidelines about what we eat and how it's prepared. There are sanitation rules. We don't eat dogs.”

Caden wanted to believe her, but the Ashevillians ate all form of strange things: round meats, square fish, round grains and milk. Officer Levine had once offered to bring him pigs in a blanket as a snack. Caden didn't eat pigs. In the Greater Realm, farrow pig flesh had hallucinogenic properties. As for blankets, Caden didn't eat those either.

Rosa parked, and they walked to a sidewalk café just north of the bookstore, the chocolate shop, and an art gallery. The table had a wooden top with an attached red umbrella. Nearby, sidewalk street performers played twangy guitars. The air smelled fresh, but each time a car passed on the nearby street, the fresh smell was mixed with exhaust.

The restaurant served vegan food, which Caden liked, and hamburgers, which he didn't. He stared at the menu and felt his cheeks heat. Despite his hard work in the literacy class, he couldn't understand much of it. Also, something red, either ketchup or blood, was smeared on the side. He showed Tito.

“Lick it,” Tito said. “Then you'll know.”

Eighth-born princes didn't lick strange menus in foreign lands. Caden tossed the menu aside. His plate looked smudged. He polished it with his napkin while the others ordered.

The waiter wore thick-rimmed glasses, a black T-shirt, and an apron. The outfit was far simpler than the ornate silver and gold trimmed costumes the Winter Castle butlers sported. It was also far less interesting. When it was Caden's turn to order, the waiter tried to sell him on the hamburgers. In the Winter Castle, the servers knew better than that. “We're famous for 'em. All our beef is grass fed and locally raised,” the waiter said.

Caden wasn't clear what Ashevillian steers ate if not grass. “Is the beef round?”

“Actually, our chef makes the patties square.”

“How is that better?” Caden said, and peered at him. “It's not made of dog, is it?”

Rosa placed her hand on his. “Give him the vegetarian special,” she said. “Please.”

Proper food would help him prepare for the turmoil of
the next five days. “I suppose that will do,” he said.

While they ate, Jane recounted the bee swarm. “Mrs. Belle led us out right away. No one in our class got stung,” she said.

Caden considered. Mrs. Belle's class hadn't been attacked, and her face hadn't appeared in the swarm with the others. That was definitely interesting.

About the time the food arrived, Officer Levine joined them and ordered a square burger. Tito glanced between him and Rosa. “Why are you here?” he asked. “None of us have done anything illegal.”

Caden thought it was obvious. “Officer Levine is wooing Rosa,” he said.

Officer Levine choked on his water and cleared his throat. “The important thing is that you kids are all right.”

It was a change of subject, but not one Caden minded. “For now,” he said, and forked his greens. “There is danger at school. First gas, now bees. These not-accidents”—Caden would call them what they were—“are the work of a villain.”

Officer Levine picked up his hamburger. “Why do you think that?”

Neither Rosa nor Officer Levine believed Caden's accounts of the villains at school or of the Greater Realm, but Caden wouldn't hide who he was or his royal heritage. He wouldn't keep quiet when there was danger. “Ms. Primrose gave me a quest to find the culprit. She's
going to eat me if I fail.”

Rosa reached out and squeezed his hand. “No one's going to eat you, Caden.”

“Not if I succeed, no,” he said. “But if I disappear in five days, I want you to know why.” He turned to Tito. “And I'll bequeath my confiscated sword to you, Sir Tito.”

“It'll be better than that mop,” Tito said, and bit into his grass-fed square burger.

Then Caden smiled at Jane. “And I'll leave you my compass, enchantress.”

She smiled. “Thanks, but I know you'll succeed.”

Rosa seemed less than amused. She peered first at Tito then at Jane. “I've told you two not to encourage these stories. I meant it.” She turned to Caden. “And that's enough. I've told you, no more stories about dragons or other realms.”

“No more truth, you mean,” Caden said.

“Son,” Officer Levine said, “you need to learn when to be quiet.”

“Actually, I've been practicing that.”

“Then practice it now.”

“I will,” Caden said.

Tito snickered.

Caden opened his mouth to say something to Tito about that, then changed his mind and took a bite of his beans. Officer Levine pulled Rosa away from the table for a moment. They stood near the sidewalk. His face was
flushed, so Caden suspected his words were of love.

Tito watched them with a frown.

Suddenly, Brynne kicked Caden under the table. Hard. She arched a brow. “But what about me?” she whispered. “What do I get?”

Should Caden leave the sorceress something? He wasn't sure she deserved it. She'd thanked Jasan and not him. She had cursed him. And the curse would overlap his quest. Caden set down his fork. Suddenly, he wasn't hungry.

Questionable morals aside, Brynne was his closest ally. “Fine, you can have my coat.” Brynne at least understood its value. His words seemed to make her happy. “But only if I'm devoured,” he added, which seemed to make her less so.

T
hat night, Caden dreamed of giant crater wasps with stingers made of jagged knives. They snatched away his brothers, one by one, and dumped them into their glass hive. Chadwin fell first. Then the wasps stabbed Valon and Maden. Maden's large frame fell to the ground hard enough to crack it. Next fell Lucian, Martin, and Landon. One by one, they all collapsed. Jasan was faceup in the middle, staring with dead eyes. Caden's father pounded on the hive with sword and scepter but couldn't break the shimmering walls.

When Caden awoke, it was warm, and he heard
plink, plink, plink
as rain hit the roof. He put on his red T-shirt with the picture of an eagle. An eagle wasn't an imperial Winterbird, but it was a bird. In the months he'd been stranded it had turned from cold February to warm June.
He, however, still wore his coat.

Tito came out of the bathroom with his hair wet, his jeans and T-shirt on but wrinkled, and a towel around his neck. “Yeah,” he said, and motioned to Caden's coat. “Unless that thing is enchanted with air conditioning, you're going to have to take it off come summer or you'll melt.”

Ice mice and frozen prairie prawns melted in heat. Razzonian princes didn't. “Nonsense. I'll always wear my coat.”

“Say that after you've gone through a North Carolina summer.”

At school, Tonya was absent, but Ward was there. As was Mr. McDonald, who had left them to the bee swarm in an act of
sedition
. The coward sat in the back corner behind a giant book. He didn't attempt to help Caden read or engage Ward.

Caden felt his cheeks redden and his eyes narrow. He put on his earphones and turned to his computer. On his screen a new word flashed: F-A-M-I-L-Y. The magic voice in his earphones said, “Family.” Family was important. Caden needed to unmask the true culprit before he or she succeeded. He would save Jasan, and he'd find out Rath Dunn's scheme. More words flashed—first “father,” then “brother.” Truly, the magic voice seemed to understand Caden's thoughts.

Ward lifted his red earphones off his ears and motioned
Caden to do the same. “Your brother is staying next door to us,” he said in a soft, low voice. Ward was quiet but he missed little. “If you come over this weekend, you might see him. Pa doesn't like you, or him, but Ma does.”

“Why doesn't he like us?” Caden whispered back.

Ward looked at his computer screen. He didn't say anything at first, but Ward was succinct with words, and he seemed to need extra time to choose those he used. Finally, he spoke again. “Pa doesn't trust new people, especially from his world. And he thinks your brother's angry.”

A valid concern. Jasan was often angry. Still. “He controls his temper well enough.”

Caden didn't think Ward would say any more, but he was wrong. Ward's gaze shifted to Tonya's empty seat. “Your brother— he's okay.” That was right. Ward had seen Jasan save Tonya. “I'll tell Pa that.”

Ward didn't believe Jasan was a villain. That made one person. Caden would convince others, and he'd find a way to convince his family they had made a mistake, too. First, though, he had to complete the quest and save his and Jasan's lives. In schoolwork and in quests, Elite Paladins prioritized.

“Then Saturday I will visit you,” Caden said, but Ward had already lost interest and was now playing a computer game.

Caden's computer was flashing “mother,” but he'd had enough of the voice for one day. He needed to investigate.
To do that, however, he needed permission to leave class. If he had permission, it wasn't skipping. It was within the rules of the hungry Elderdragon. And Brynne had advised him on how to get permission.

Caden stood, walked up to Mr. McDonald, and tugged the book down so he could see his face. “I need a pass to visit the bathroom,” he said.

Moments later, Caden clutched his bathroom slip and ducked down the side hall that connected to the gymnasium. He did a quick check for Jasan. Sadly, Jasan wasn't inside. Then he hurried to the boys' bathroom—the rarely used one beside the basketball court—and called Brynne.

She didn't pick up. He texted her a frowny face. Soon after, his phone buzzed with the awful wasp-like noise that meant someone was calling him. He poked the Answer button.

“You need to learn to text more than frowny faces, prince,” she said, and sighed. “If I'd been caught using my cell, I'd have been sentenced to detention.”

Caden was working as best he could at texting, reading, and writing. “But you didn't get caught,” he said.

“Of course I didn't. I said I might throw up. Like you did in Rath Dunn's car.”

“You and Tito need to stop telling people about that.” She should have used a different excuse, but it was good she was free from class. “Meet me in the boys' bathroom. The one by the gym.”

Brynne, ever difficult, refused. “Eww. I don't want to meet there,” she said.

“Just do it, sorceress.”

“No.”

He could feel her irritation. She didn't like it when he ordered her about. It was fortunate he was beyond her physical reach. Now that he considered it, he should have all conversations with Brynne over the phone.

She sounded amused when she next spoke. “You meet me,” she said, “in the girls' bathroom, the one in the west hall.”

Caden felt his annoyance grow. He did not see how her bathroom was better than his, but he feared neither girls nor the girls' bathroom. “Very well,” he said, and pushed the End button.

Caden's third-born brother, Lucian, was gifted in stealth. He'd advised Caden on how to sneak, how to move without being noticed. Caden used those skills now. The halls were cold. When he listened, he heard a rumbling from the direction of the long hall. He went the opposite way.

He passed the science room. Mrs. Belle stood by the door. There was a piece of toilet paper stuck to her shoes. Her morning class had built pointless paper flying contraptions. They tossed them down the hall while she leaned against the door. Like Mr. Creedly the day before, she seemed to be guarding it. In the next hall, Caden avoided
Ms. Jackson. She cackled as she carried a large witchy pot toward the cafeteria.

When he arrived at the girls' bathroom door, he paused. His instinct was to push the door open and stride inside. Proper decorum meant he didn't. He stopped, composed his royal person, and knocked.

Brynne threw the door open and pulled him inside by his coat sleeves. “Quiet.”

Caden shrugged her off and looked around. In his royal opinion, the girls' bathroom was nicer than the boys'. One, the doors on the stalls were a regal pale pink and not a dull bluish-gray. Two, unlike the boys' bathroom, all the stalls had doors. There was a faint fruity scent intermingled with the bathroom smell. It was still small and plain compared to the ornate tiled baths of the Winter Castle.

Brynne watched him with her silvery eyes wide and her hands outstretched. She bit at her bottom lip. “Now what?”

While the girls' bathroom was cleaner than the boys', it needed wiping down. Caden traced his finger across the sink. “Mrs. Belle guards her classroom. I doubt we can get inside. But we should check the auditorium before too much time passes. The incidents seem related.”

“Agreed,” Brynne said.

The halls that led toward the auditorium were empty, but Caden sensed a powerful presence. It was like walking into the blue-tinted belly of a beast. He mentioned the
atmosphere to Brynne. “Ms. Primrose is hungry. You can feel it in the whole school.”

“True, but she won't eat you for four more days.” She grabbed his hand. “And I won't let you get eaten. I'll help you complete your quest.” He was about to thank her when she added, “And I'll help save Prince Jasan.”

The auditorium doors were locked and sealed with yellow tape. With Brynne's magic and thieving skills, they made it past both quickly. Although the door she magicked cracked in half.

He looked at her.

“It didn't blow up,” she said, and sounded pleased. “And it didn't crumble to dust.”

Indeed, it was an improvement from her typical lock picking. Inside, the large room was quiet, the rows of seats empty. Caden dragged his boot across the aisle. It was tidier than it had been before the incident, and the fallen bee bodies had already been removed.

Above him, several of the beams seemed to have small cracks. He didn't remember seeing them the day before. Of course, the day before he'd been dealing with his brother, a spelling contest, and a bee swarm. He'd been thinking about quests and Elderdragons. Truth be told, he was still dealing with all those things.

He pointed to the stage. Someone had put up a new banner, this one likely for Tuesday's awards ceremony. “The first bee flew from that direction,” he said. They
looked there first. Except for a creaking floor, there was nothing interesting. “We should go backstage.”

Brynne pushed him toward the dark curtain separating the front of the stage from the back. “You first, prince.”

He'd no problem with that. “It is the leader's duty to enter first.”

“Fine,” she said, and stepped up beside him. “We'll go in together.”

Backstage was cluttered and dimly lit. Three rickety chairs sat in the middle of the space, one turned on its side. On the floor, set backdrops painted with mountains and thunderclouds were stacked. There was a pile of puddled green curtains near the back. A cracked mirror leaned against the side wall.

Brynne walked to the mirror. She was reflected twice, once on each side of the split. Caden stood beside her and saw his reflection also doubled. She smoothed her long hair over her shoulder. She had been very protective of her hair lately.

Caden had an idea. “Maybe you should shave your head and destroy your hair,” he said. “Then no one would be able to steal your locks.”

Both of her reflections narrowed their eyes. “I don't think so.”

“You're overly concerned with it.”

“You trim yours every two weeks.”

Caden did trim his hair every two weeks. But that
wasn't for vanity. That was to keep it Elite Paladin regulation length. “Then we must make sure no one else cuts your hair.”

“If someone does, he or she will regret it.”

He didn't doubt that.

Beside the mirror, there was dust and trash. Something red and glistening peeked from under the mess. Caden bent down and picked up a broken bloodred fingernail. He held it up.

“Mrs. Belle paints her nails this very bloodred color.”

Brynne scrunched up her nose. “Do you think it's hers?”

He took his blue bathroom pass and folded the broken nail within it. “It might mean something,” he said, but he hoped it didn't. Mrs. Belle actually seemed to like Caden. He'd prefer that she wasn't involved.

Something squeaked and skittered by the far wall. Caden pointed in that direction. “Check that out,” he told Brynne.

“Afraid there might be rodents?”

“No.”

“Well, I'm not either.” She walked over and placed her ear against the wall. “And what will you do?”

“I'll investigate the curtains,” he said.

Something about the way the fabrics fell reminded him of a bird's nest. They looked messy but not random. He used his foot to push the mound over.

Like dirty water breaking over green rocks, a flood of cockroaches gushed out. Each was as long as Caden's finger. He jumped on one of the rickety chairs—not because he was scared, of course, but because in battle it was advantageous to be above your foes.

Brynne gasped. She fell into a defensive stance and put her arms up to protect her face. Caden could tell Brynne was trying hard not to scream. She might not fear rodents, but she definitely feared roaches.

Through her arms, she said, “I'd hoped those foul creatures didn't exist in this realm.”

“As did I.” Caden grimaced, though truly it was because he was losing his balance on the chair, and not because of the bugs.

As quickly as they had swarmed, the roaches scampered behind the backdrops and into the dark corners of the room. It was quiet once again. Brynne lowered her arms. She looked at the green velvet curtains with disgust and slight confusion. “Strange,” she said. “None of those roaches spit at us.”

In the Greater Realm, roaches were bright red and known to spit stinging excrement upward of ten strides. These local roaches hadn't done so, but they were also three times bigger. Caden regained his balance on the chair and scanned the room. It was better to be safe.

Like bees, roaches were creatures that swarmed. They were creatures that could be summoned and controlled by
monsters. But the roaches weren't attacking like the bees. He looked up at Brynne. “What do you think?”

She bit her lip. “If someone summoned bees, the roaches might be attracted to the residual magic where the spell was cast. Or another attack could be planned.” Brynne glanced at him atop his strategic chair. “Frightened?”