Chapter Two

A Night of Spells

Dawn light slapped my face, jolting me awake. Somehow, I'd managed to fall asleep in the wee hours of the morning, despite the whirlwind of thoughts howling through my brain. But the moment my eyes snapped open and consciousness returned, my memories of last night returned with it. The revelation, the talk of magic, my near-discovery... had I imagined it all? No, no I hadn't had time to fall back asleep after the first scream of "Wolf!" There was no way that the night before had been a dream.

Lily had kidnapped my brothers. I had to tell my father.

As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I discarded it. My father doted on Lily, adored her. And what proof did I have? All that I had was an overheard conversation that I shouldn't have been able to hear in the first place because I should have been in bed. If I knew my father, he would focus strictly on the fact that his only daughter had been trying to sneak out in the middle of the night while wolves roamed nearby. And if his temper exploded - which I knew it would - then Lily would hear, and know that it had been me she'd somehow sensed on the stairs last night.

Then what was I to do?

Sighing, I flung myself out of bed and dressed in normal clothes - a white shift, blue skirt, blue vest, and my leather boots. My father made me wear blue often, for protection against evil spirits. My vests were made inside-out, and even my boots could be worn on either foot, because to wear boots on the opposite foot scared certain faeries worse than cold iron. Father did everything he could think of to keep me safe. The jacket I had discarded last night was made of white rabbit's fur, and all my jewelry was made of polished iron instead of silver.

Slipping a necklace around my neck, I went downstairs to breakfast. Wulf and the other boys, except Hans and Peter - Hans being on sheep-watch and Peter being asleep to recover from his own watch - shoveled food into their mouths. My father was already out. Lily sipped daintily at her tea. I grabbed a few rolls and sat beside the fire, pretending I was cold so that I had an excuse to sit far away from the witch who had kidnapped my brothers.

I could barely eat. With every bite, my belly hardened into a knot that ached and pressed against my throat, threatening to choke me. But I knew I had to act as if nothing was wrong, or Lily would suspect me. I had a plan, though. I would wait until dark, until everyone was asleep, and see if she had anything else to say that would perhaps tell me where to find my brothers, the shadow cakes that housed their spirits, or how to break the spell on them. I had a feeling that the shadow cakes, whatever those were, had nothing to do with the curse that had snatched my brothers from our home. It was a separate, added burden.

Managing to consume the rolls and a cup of water, I received permission from my Father to go out and check on the sheep, since Hans, the oldest of the town boys, was outside with the dogs and it was broad daylight.

Out of doors, the sun shone brightly over the treetops. Around our little stone cottage lay a large meadow. We had no crops for selling, but we planted enough to feed ourselves and store food for winter. The stream that ran near our house provided us with fish as well as watercress and mushrooms. I could shoot a bow decently, and could bring down the deer that sometimes came to the edge of the meadow to drink from the stream. Now the sunlight turned the stream to a river of diamond, and the grass all around was a brilliant green like emeralds. And a little ways away, on the little hills near the edge of the woods, were our flocks, and Hans keeping careful watch over them from the vantage point of one of the large rocks that made the hills impossible to adequately farm.

Hans looked my way as I walked toward him, and I waved. While the other three boys - Peter, Jack, and Simon - had almost no sense, Hans was all right. His father had been a woodcutter, and he'd lived in the woods until he was about eight before moving to the city. Now he was nineteen, very serious, and very handsome, with broad shoulders, curly blond hair, and green eyes like peppermint candy. He also hated sweets and so called me Margaret, even though I'd insisted he call me by my nickname - Marzipan. My mother, who loved subtleties and the sweet almond paste they were made from, had named me Margaret after her mother, but when I was a baby had accidentally called me Marzipan once. According to the story, I had laughed like a loon, and the name stuck.

After her death, my father refused to call me Marzipan again.

"Aren't you scared of the wolves?" Hans asked me as I patted the lead ram on the head. "They might come back. Daylight hasn't deterred them yet."

"I wanted to check on the flock," I said as a lamb bleated at me and ran to hide behind its mother.

"What, you don't trust me?"

"City boy," I reminded him. Four years in the city had made him soft, I knew that. Still, I smiled at him until he said, "The Regent is talking about making it illegal to kill wolves."

My eyes widened in my head. Was she insane? The Regent, who had taken control of the kingdom of Kuetas when the Crown Prince and his uncle had disappeared, was a Faerie, but surely even a Faerie would know that wolves were a threat to the humans who lived near or in the forests. Why would she pass such a law? I did a swift headcount of the flocks and realized that since the middle of autumn, when the wolf attacks had begun to come almost every other day, we'd lost almost half of our flock. We had yet to kill any of the wolves, but that was only because my father hadn't been able to catch any. And if killing the predators became a crime....

"How do you know this?"

"My sister sent me a letter. She told me."

Hans' sister, Gretchen, lived in the castle at the capital and worked in the kitchens. Apparently, she made gingerbread that practically sang in your mouth, as if by magic. Hans said she learned it from their step-mother.

"What would be the punishment?"

"The Regent hasn't decided yet," he replied. "But this is bad news for your father."

My heart sank into my toes. I knew he was right. Ever since the Prince's uncle, the last Regent, had disappeared, things had begun to go wrong. Magic had begun to break lose throughout the kingdom, causing strange things to happen, especially near forests or lakes, where magic ran deep in the land anyway. When the Regent had taken over, the magic began to settle - a little. But everyone in Kuetas knew that we needed the Prince back.

"Don't go too close to edges of the field," the town youth commanded me then.

"What?" The only thing bordering our fields was the forest.

"Some of the country girls have disappeared lately. Gretchen told me a couple of the local farmers went to complain to the Provost and the Huntsman to do something. Carried off by wolves, they said."

"Well," I replied, fighting not to visibly shiver in front of Hans. "I can handle wolves. I know how to use a sling better than any of you town lot."

"All the same," Hans replied, still not looking at me.

For a time, there was a tense silence. The hair on my arms stood on end. I thought about what to say but could think of nothing pertinent.

"You should go back inside," Hans said suddenly. I glanced over at him, saw he was staring off into the distance, towards the eastern edge of the woods. The look in his eyes made a shiver creep along my spine. "The woods have grown dark. Send Jack out to me, as well. Tell him to be quick about it."

I ran to the house to do as he said. The expression on his face sent chills through my blood, and I ran faster.

* * *

That night, I waited for everyone who would sleep in the house to settle. My father's snores sounded like music to me. Nervousness sang in my veins. He might be asleep, but was Lily the Witch? And what of Wulf? In fact, that was a good question. What of Wulf? Was he responsible for my brothers' vanishing as well? No, that was impossible - he was only a year older than I. But his mother had cast a spell on my brothers. His mother... but she wasn't his mother. Where did that leave him?

I got up slowly, carefully, and went to the window. A slim crescent hung just above the dark line of the trees. It was just past midnight. Everyone slept... except, perhaps, Lily and Wulf. The witch and the boy I had thought to be her son. Wulf, who I had thought to be my friend....

Opening the door just a crack, I heard frantic whispers, too low for me to make out the words. Swallowing hard, shoving my fear aside, one toe inched into the corridor, slowly, oh so slowly. I could not be caught. Would she kill me? I wasn't sure. She hadn't killed my brothers, but perhaps she hadn't because she had other, more vile things in store for them.

With darkness pressing in around me, I slid to the floor in the doorway before laying myself flat to the ground, desperate to hear and even more desperate not to be seen.

"She doesn't know anything, Moth-"

"Hst!"

"I mean, Lily." That was Wulf. Was he talking about me? "Marzipan has no idea that you turned her brothers into swans," my heart slid into my mouth and I nearly choked on my pulse, "or that you stole their shadows and baked them into cakes. She doesn't know where our old cottage is. She doesn't even know that her brothers are still alive. She's not allowed past the edge of the meadow, and the swans don't come out of the woods."

"This is true," I heard Lily murmur. "The girl doesn't know any of this, as you say. And I don't want to hurt the child. She's my daughter. I know her witch mother stole her from me as an infant, a changeling child. That's what that monster husband of mine found in the well... just a changeling...."

I could feel my heart hammering in my chest. A haze was trying to cover my eyes, and a roaring filled my ears. Lily thought I was her child? A changeling... except that I looked like my mother - brown hair like lamb's wool, eyes the color of candied violets, tall, with all my baby fat still intact. Lily was mad. All I could think for a moment was, She's mad. Then I sucked in a breath and tried to pay attention to what Wulf was saying.

"How could Marzipan possibly break the spell, anyway, Moth... Lily?"

"Alone, she couldn't."

I heard her stirring something over the hearth and wondered what it was.

"I don't understand," Wulf said softly. I could imagine the confused look on his face, his brow furrowed so that his bushy black eyebrows joined together.

"She has more power than she knows, that girl of mine, but the spell can't be broken by power alone. The Regent, however... the Faerie of the Silver Orchards and the Lady Claire... now, they know how to bend Margaret's power in just the right way to break the spell. Luckily, the Regent isn't at the castle at this moment, and isn't likely to return any time soon. She searches for the Prince, and the heavens only know when he'll come back."

"Searches... where?" There was real curiosity in Wulf's voice that mirrored my own. I had never heard anything of the Regent leaving the castle. Hans had mentioned nothing of that this afternoon. Only the law against killing wolves and the missing girls.... And if the Regent could break the curse on my brothers, then all I had to do was find her and ask for her help.

"Mount Scaelos."

As soon as the words were uttered, my heart sank. Mount Scaelos, the Mountain of Dreams. No human could climb that mountain. Only a Faerie or another immortal being - and I didn't know any - could ascend the mountain. The summit lay hidden with the clouds, a long journey up, and the journey to the mountain itself in the heart of the Vryst Mountain Range took more than three years on foot, and the way was full of dangerous things like rat demons, yeti, snow sprites, and white ladies, the vengeful and jealous ghosts of dead girls. There was no way I could get there at all, much less in enough time to save my brothers. Deep in my heart, a still, small voice told me they were running out of time.

"So, the Regent and this Lady Claire knows how to break the spell?"

"Yes, boy," Lily snapped. "Now give me that clump of wolf fur."

Wolf fur.... A dark suspicion slithered into my head. Fury began rising in my cheeks, a hot blush. If Lily was a witch... what if she was using the fur to enchant the wolf packs in the forest? What if the attacks were her fault?

"Who is this... this Lady Claire?"

"You've heard of her," Lily grumbled. "Children know her as Madame Éclair, the baker-woman who married the Prince's uncle. People said she cast a love spell on him."

"Did she?"

All that Lily the Witch gave in reply was a snarl. It seemed that my father's mistress had a special hatred for the Lady Claire.

"How did the Regent get to Mount Scaelos? It takes more than three years, even for an immortal like her," Wulf asked. "Mortal or not, travel time is travel time. Was it magic?"

Lily's cackle came out rasping and harsh at the idea of the Regent using magic. I couldn't understand what was so amusing. The Regent was a Faery. Didn't Faeries use magic? Weren't they themselves beings made of magic?

"No, it wasn't magic," Wulf's pretend-mother snapped. "It was petty bribery. She used mortal delicacies to entice the four Winds to carry her to the top of the Mountain of Dreams. Supposedly, a seer lives at the peak, a sorceress of great power and far reaching eye."

"Mortal delicacies? You mean, food?"

"Yes, food. Tea, coffee, chocolate, and peppermint candy."

At these words, my heart leapt. I had a bag of peppermint candy, a gift from my father, and my aunt kept tea in a tin in her room. And my father and the town boys drank coffee! If I could get my hands on chocolate, then perhaps I, too, could bribe the four Winds to carry me to the top of Mount Scaelos. But where would I find the four Winds to speak to them? Only at their sources, and a simple country girl like me, one who'd never even looked at a map, could not possibly find her way there alone.

Again, my hopes plummeted into my toes along with my heart. But still, I listened.

"Lady Claire wants to interfere here, so I must be careful, but I don't think she will come yet. She has no proof that it was I who turned her precious, little Polichinelles into cursed gingerbread cookies."

I had to force myself not to bolt upright. I did not know what Polichinelles were, but the sinister amusement in the witch's voice made me shudder. If Lady Claire, a woman wed to the Prince's uncle, was bothered enough by it to come and investigate, then it could not possibly be anything less than despicable.

"Now, the spell is finished. Go to bed, Wulf. In the morning, I want you to keep an eye on Margaret. Keep her away from that Hans. He's no town boy, or I'm a shepherd's wife."

When the heavy tread of Wulf's big feet sounded on the steps, I hastily scrambled into bed while making as little noise as possible. With my face turned towards the wall opposite the door, the faint crack of light peeking through the doorway was my only indicator of when the older boy stopped in front of my partially open door. Breathing evenly and deeply, there was nothing for me to do but wait for him to go away. At last, his silhouette disappeared, and I breathed a sigh of relief.