Page 62 of Knight's End
I took a step back. “What?”
“Donaloo went to another wizard—one who specialized in fortune telling—when Posey first got wrapped up in that mess years ago. And she told him only the queen who refused her crown could give the undead army peace.” Dini’s petals swirled unnaturally, spinning on her stem. “And look at your very power!”
Did someone just toss a boulder on my chest? I thought.
Because, suddenly, it felt like a huge weight was pressing down on me. Pressure. I had to save their daughter? An entire undead army? I couldn’t even save my own godsdamned sister! What they said made me want to hurl. So, I word-vomited on them. “Oh, well, that’s not intimidatingat all—in addition to the war that I’m stumbling around in, and the three lunatics I’m already trying to kill. Tossing an army on there is—”
“They aren’t that bad. They’ll be a cinch compared to everything else.” Dini waved a leaf. “Oh, I know! Scry them, Donny. Let Bloss see our Posey.”
That sounded like a horrible idea. I swallowed hard and tried to think of a good excuse so I could leave. I did not want to try to pretend their undead daughter was adorable. But, Donaloo was keeping up the mirror spell over Marscha. He’d frozen my castle to stop the bombs. I knew that Ryan’s knights had been able to remove at least one explosive and catapult it so that it exploded midair over a field rather than hurt anyone inside my castle.
How could I refuse him? I wondered.
I couldn’t. Now when what he wanted was simply to help his family.
And Dini, if she hadn’t helped us yet, at least she hadn’t harmed us … and sprites were powerful. Mayi’s attacks were only those of a half-sea sprite. It made me think that Dini, as a full sprite, held even more power in her tiny petals.
I needed them. And they needed me. The least I could do was try to help them after all they’d done for my country.
I nodded at Donaloo. “I’d love to see Posey.” I tried to discreetly take a deep breath and brace myself. Everything my tutor had told me about the undead army of Gitmore was that it was a horrific nightmare. The country had lost the last Fire War and been stripped of weapons—they’d created the army as a result. The army roamed the desert, a breathing barrier that Gitmore used to protect itself—because the undead didn’t quit. They’d follow soldiers and hunt them down after a battle. There was no escaping them, because they had all the time in the world.
Donaloo pulled a pebble off the ground and spit on it. Unlike Cerena, it didn’t seem like he needed a scrying stone. I watched as he went through essentially the same motions that Cerena had, but then he added a strange little circling wrist flick at the end, which expanded his pebble to the size of a small plate. We stared at it as the image rippled and undead faces came into view.
The pupils of their eyes were blown out, the iris void of all color. Undead eyes were a black circle floating in whiteness. Their skin was a dusky green white, scarred and whipped by the sandstorms in the desert. Some of them, those who had been undead the longest, were missing skin in places: the edges of their mouth, their eyelids, their fingertips. The places that were used most. The undead army marched, patrolling the beaches of Gitmore, keeping intruders from invading the shore. Their stiff bodies moved north as the waves crashed to shore behind them. Row after row after row, it seemed like all of Gitmore had joined the army of the undead.
Donaloo and Dini both gave a little squeal when they spotted Posey, emerging from underneath the water, walking calmly toward the shore and joining the undead in their march, unaffected by the seaweed that clung to her shoulder and the water that dripped down her soaked clothes.
“She’s made captain!” Dini’s leaves went to her stamens. “Our little girl made captain.”
Donaloo’s voice got husky. “Always bright as the sun, our sweet little shining one.”
Their daughter was taller than most of the other soldiers. As she shook her head to remove some of the seawater, I realized she had petals instead of hair, a collection of wide purple petals that framed the top half of her face as they dried. The back of her head was green as a stem. Instead of fingers on her hands, she seemed to have curling green shoots. Her face was human, and more horrific than most of the other undead soldiers, her lips were half-gone and her teeth were exposed. Her eyes were the same inhuman white and black as all the undead. But she marched proudly at the front of a column. Her back was straight, and she called out an order as her eyes scanned the churning sea for ships. On her chest, pinned to a ragged yellow band embroidered with Gitmore’s griffon, a captain’s star gleamed.
“I’m happy for her. Congratulations to the two of you,” I commended, uncertain what else to say. Dammit all. I needed Connor in situations like this.
I forced my polite court smile to stay in place as Donaloo moved the picture closer to her.
Posey turned to a fellow captain and her skeletal mouth opened. “The sea is awake. We need to let the queen know.”
Dini sighed. “She always was so aware of her surroundings. It really did make her an excellent soldier. Well, now you’ll know her when you see her.”
The image on the scrying stone started to go black but I held up a hand.
My stomach fluttered as I asked, "May I see Avia?" I held my breath, hoping.
Dini and Donaloo both turned their faces toward me.
"I want to know what she looks like now. I don't want to accidentally attack her. When she was here, she always looked human,” I rushed to explain.
The memory we’d seen from the maid who’d be present at Avia’s “birth” had explicitly said that Avia would appear human. If Avia was truly part sprite, she wouldn’t appear fully human. Not if she was anything like Posey. I needed to know what she looked like. All the practical reasons I gave Donaloo were true. But I also just missed her. We’d hardly reconnected when she’d been taken from me. I needed to know she was safe. I wanted to know that Avia was okay. And if I figured out her location and could send some troops to bust her out and save her, all the better.
Dini nodded furiously. "That's a very good idea."
Donaloo chanted and swirled his hand over the scrying stone again; slowly Posey’s image faded. An underwater cave appeared. A shaft of blue sunlight filtered down from an opening in the rock above. And a beautiful, ethereal creature —who looked more like a fairy than anything else—fluttered in the water. She had a human body, but her sides were lined in multicolored fish scales. Her hair was no longer brown but golden. Avia’s smiling brown eyes had turned lavender. And they were sad and mournful as she floated in the water. Her wings stretched behind her; they were translucent with streaks of orange and purple, and they reflected the weak sunlight. They looked almost like beta fish fins as she floated in the sea. Avia wore a short dress that was purple on top and faded to burnt orange. She shuddered as an ashray swam past, its glowing eyes lighting up the cave.
“They’re guarding her with sea ghosts,” Dini clucked her tongue. “Idiots. They need to keep them back or that water will get too cold.”
My eyes glanced up at her flower face, concerned. “What do you mean?”
