A Little Fairy Dust Page 2

  Twenty-one years later, Faltiken invaded again, and again Princess Gabby had climbed the tower. From the awesome height of the tower, she had seen every move Faltiken tried to make, and her pigeons had flown with messages for seven straight weeks. This time, Monrath beat Faltiken so badly there was little left of the mindless hoard, but Monrath wasn’t willing to allow Faltiken the opportunity to amass again.

  The history of the tower was researched, and in an old, dusty tome about the lost arts of magic it was discovered that Wizard Rap had owned the tower an unknown number of years before magic was lost to the world, and when magic was lost, Wizard Rap had vanished. Wizard Rap’s tower in the Zel Mountains—Rap on Zel, as it had quickly come to be called—was chosen as the ideal location to keep watch on the Faltiken heartland, and the Rapunzel Posting was created.

  Ishiah finally levered himself to his feet, shaking his arms out as he went. The view out the window was exactly as the stories indicated. He could see right over the last peak of the Zel Mountains, directly down into the wide valley below. All he could see was green grass. There were a few sparse trees, but aside from them there wasn’t anything to impede his view should the mindless hoard suddenly decide to form ranks below.

  The woman finally let go of the rope and turned toward him again. “The door on the other side of the couch leads to a training room. There’s a seven-year training regimen in there for you. Make sure you do the arm exercises every day, or you won’t be able to pull the rope up properly when your supplies come. Your only job while you’re here is to train and to check out the window regularly. You see something out there, you light the fire.” This time she pointed out the window toward the mountain peak on the Monrath side of the tower where a tall bonfire had been laid. Then she nudged a set of bow and arrows hidden in her shadow next to the window. “The patrol that comes with supplies every other week is tasked with checking on the wood. There’s a shelter there to keep rain and snow off. You see something, you light the fire, and the entire Monrath Army will be here in seven days.” The seriousness of that action wasn’t lost on Ishiah. “Any questions?”

  Ishiah shook his head wordlessly, unable to think of anything to ask. He couldn’t help wishing he were on a ship, heading somewhere far away to be an ambassador across the ocean. As much as he would have detested every moment of it, surely it would have been better than this.

  “Do your best not to go stir-crazy. Good luck, soldier.” She nodded to him, then swung out the window and began climbing down the rope with a speed that spoke of a level of desperation Ishiah was just beginning to understand. He leaned out the window to watch her go, and when she reached the ground, she mounted the horse Ishiah had recently left. The patrol waved to him, before turning and heading back down the mountain.

  “What do I do now?” Ishiah asked the empty room. When no one responded, he sighed and went to start putting away his belongings for what was already proving to be the most arduous task his life as a soldier had ever brought him.

  Chapter Two

  Ishiah lay on his back in the middle of the floor, his body resting in the sunlight pouring in from the open window as he panted for breath.

  “Okay, maybe the last ten sit-ups were too many,” he said aloud to himself, glad for the noise as it made him feel less like he had been completely alone for the last seven months. “Or the last twenty,” he added when the idea of moving turned out to be one his body wasn’t the least bit interested in.

  “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!”

  “I am going to slug that idiot the second I get down there,” Ishiah grumbled.

  He took a deep breath to brace himself and then, using his arms more than his stomach, got himself sitting upright. It took another second to get his feet under him, and then he had to bend to gather the long rope and toss it out the window. Ishiah let out a pained groan as his overworked muscles protested the movement. He stuck his head out afterward, desperate to see another face and hear another voice even for the ten minutes the patrol would be nearby.

  “Any news from the crown?” Ishiah called down, loud enough to be heard all the way from the ground.

  “Yes!” the same guard called back, “but His Highness ordered us not to tell you. He wanted to tell you himself in his letter!”

  “Anything you can tell me that doesn’t have to do with Prince Haines’s news?” Ishiah yelled back.

  “No. Everything’s been quiet since you left.” Which was, admittedly, the point of him leaving, so Ishiah was glad at least that had worked. “And everything newsworthy is in His Highness’s letter.”

  The guards on the ground stepped back from the rope, so Ishiah let out a sigh and started heaving it up. The rope began to coil at his feet, and the big basket came into view quickly. It had definitely become easier to haul the basket up after seven months of arm exercises and basket hauling every other week, so it wasn’t long before he was pulling the basket inside. He unloaded it without looking at what he was grabbing and rapidly refilled the basket with the things he was sending out. His bag of accumulated trash from the last two weeks went in first; the laundry he wanted professionally scrubbed rather than washed in the kitchen sink was the next bag, followed by the letters he was sending to his family and friends. After that, he squeezed in three blankets he had unearthed from the blanket chest at the foot of the bed.

  It was starting to get colder at night as winter approached and the only three blankets in the tower smelled, were moth-bitten, and definitely didn’t feel thick enough for a mountain winter. He had pinned a note to the top one requesting they be washed and mended, and asking for a proper quilt. Maybe he was acting like the spoiled son of the king instead of a proper soldier, but if he had to endure seven years of this place he would do so in comfort.

  Once he was sure everything he wanted to send down was in the basket, he heaved it back out the window and started lowering it to the waiting soldiers on the ground. The soldiers grabbed the basket when it reached them, and Ishiah watched as they tied it to the waiting packhorse and headed off.

  He was alone again for the next two weeks.

  Well, at least he had his packages to check out for the next few minutes. Ishiah found his laundry first and put the folded clothes away in the chest of drawers next to the bed, and then he started to explore everything else he had been sent. There was food—all of it items that could last the weeklong journey to the tower—and that was easy to put away in the kitchen. He also found two new books, which meant he had to find somewhere to put them in the library.

  Ishiah ran a hand through his hair and let out a sigh. He gripped the end of the long strands from the top of his head and yanked, then dragged his fingers through the shorter strands on the side of his head. There was no point in keeping his particular hairstyle for the next seven years if there was no one to impress with it. After seven months the shaved parts were a good two inches long.

  The library was the biggest room in the tower, which Ishiah had been surprised to learn when he first opened that door to explore. There were easily a thousand books in a room that was double the size of all the rest of the rooms in the tower combined.

  Ishiah liked to read and had welcomed the sight of all the books, until he realized that every single one of them had to do with his training. Much like the exercise room only had the equipment needed for the outlined seven-year regimen, the books were exclusively geared toward turning him into the perfect soldier. Military treatise, strategy guides, and even biographies of influential military figures filled the many, many shelves. There wasn’t a single fiction book to be found.

  Even the two books he had been sent were solely for his training. The larger book was a strategy guide on best methods for gaining the higher ground and the smaller a biography of Queen Gabby the Second, the original Gabby’s great-great-granddaughter, who had led the armies from the front against the barbarians, eventually conquering them and bringing them into the kingdom.

  Ishiah took both books and his bundle of letters with him into the library. The books were alphabetized by author, which he had no doubt one of his predecessors had done to stave off boredom. Sometimes Ishiah had an urge to knock all the books down off the shelves just so he could spend the hours putting them back up correctly. It would fill some of the endless time he had at his fingertips.

  It only took a few minutes to figure out which shelves the two books belonged on and to squeeze them both into their places. Afterward, Ishiah settled into the lone cushioned armchair tucked into a corner next to one of the lamps. He cracked open the letter with Haines’s seal on it first.

  Ish, amazing news. It’s a girl!

  Ishiah let out a happy hoot at the news, cheering for Haines’s good fortune. He was an uncle! Ishiah would have to write a letter to his niece for the next patrol to take to her.

  We have named her Gabby, so eventually she’ll be Queen Gabby the Fourth. It’s been so long since someone has used such a prestigious name. Victoria and I thought it was time.

  Ishiah frowned at that bit of news. The last two girls to be named Gabby in the family had been born during extremely difficult times for the kingdom. Gabby the Second had fought against the barbarians, and Gabby the Third had dealt with severe pirate attacks crippling the coastal trade cities. Haines naming his child Gabby wasn’t an omen Ishiah wanted to hear, especially since the issues with the malcontents were supposed to have been solved thanks to his being locked in this damned tower. Ishiah couldn’t help wondering what he was missing.

  She’s the perfect little girl, but she screams like you did whenever I beat you at weapon’s practice when we were kids. She has the family’s eyes, of course, and your lungs, but I can’t help loving her even when she’s ruining my hearing. I wish you were here to ho
ld her. I’ll make certain she learns to love her Uncle Ishy even if she won’t get the chance to meet you until she’s seven.

  We miss you here. I hope you’re learning a lot. Let me know if there’s some comforts from home I can send to make the posting more comfortable for you.

  Wishing you the best,

  Haines, Victoria, and Gabby

  Ishiah was smiling as he folded the letter. He smoothed the paper flat on his knee, then put it on the small table next to where he was sitting. It was a reading table, so was only meant to hold a few books at a time. Ishiah had found writing supplies there instead. He pulled a fresh sheet of paper from the stack and dipped a pen in ink before writing his reply.

  Haines,

  I am so unbelievably excited for you! Gabby sounds amazing, and her having my lungs just means she’s going to grow up to be awesome like her uncle. Give her my love and use some of my salary to buy her the softest blanket on the market. I don’t care the cost; she deserves it.

  I can feel winter approaching up here in the mountains, so anything you can send that will stave off frostbite in a tower with a wide-open window would be appreciated. I was also thinking that when spring comes the gardeners could send potted plants of things that I can grow and eat throughout the summer. Fresh food instead of the travel rations would be nice.

  What news and gossip is going around the court these days? Certainly people must be talking about your choosing to name your daughter Gabby. Haines, that’s not a name to choose lightly, given the women in our family with that name usually have to fight for much of their lives to ensure peace and the survival of our kingdom. I might not be able to do anything from inside this tower, but I would like to stay informed. Please fill me in on everything.

  All my love to you, Victoria, and baby Gabby,

  Ishiah

  Ishiah folded the letter into thirds and slid it onto an envelope. He wrote Haines’s name on the front, then stood to walk back to the main room where he had left his sealing wax. Except, as he walked past the bookshelves that lined the wall, the floor squeaked.

  That was impossible. Ishiah froze in place and stared down at the floor, then rocked backwards on his heel and felt the sudden give under his foot. It felt like rotten wood, but the floor under his feet was built of the same thick stones as the rest of the tower. There were rugs scattered everywhere throughout the tower, covering all the floors including the library, but the ten-by-ten-foot rug he was standing on wasn’t thick enough to bend under his feet.

  Besides, Ishiah had walked over this section of floor dozens of times during his stay—he had walked over it just five minutes ago when he went to read Haines’s letter—and it had never squeaked before.

  Ishiah walked back to the sitting area and dropped his letter onto the table to deal with later, then knelt at the edge of the rug to begin rolling it up. The rug was old and filthy, sending up clouds of dust as he pushed it out of the way. Ishiah coughed, then held his breath for the last few feet. Once the rug was completely rolled up, he returned to the patch of floor that didn’t feel right.

  At first glance, all he could see was stone, but as he stepped onto the section that had squeaked, he could see that it was, instead, wood so old and dirty it had turned the same gray as the stone. It must be a trapdoor.

  Excited because this was the first interesting thing to happen in all the months he had been locked in the tower, Ishiah looked for a latch or anything to help him pry the door up. He couldn’t see anything, not even a divot in the wood where a latch might have once been.

  Maybe he was wrong, and this wasn’t a trapdoor. Maybe some of the stone had cracked and become dangerous, so it had been replaced by the wood. Still, Ishiah dug his fingernails into the edge around the wood and tried to yank it up.

  “Open!” he growled at the wood, and with a loud groan the door popped up. A whoosh of stale-smelling air hit Ishiah in the face, making him cough again. Once his coughing stopped, he gripped the door and heaved it all the way open, and then stuck his head into the hole.

  It was dark, but he could make out the start of a staircase just below his nose. Ishiah switched his body around so his feet went through the hole first, and he stepped down onto the top step. He found the next three steps by touch and was about to go back upstairs to find a candle when lights shimmered into existence below him, completely illuminating the stairs.

  “What the…” Ishiah breathed to himself, gaping down at the stairs and the little bit of the room he could see below him. “Magic. Has to be magic.”

  This had been Wizard Rap’s tower before Monrath took it over as a guard post, Ishiah reminded himself. It shouldn’t be any surprise that there was some sort of magic inside. He ought to go back upstairs, close the trapdoor, return the rug to its spot, and forget this existed. Whatever was down there could be dangerous, and it would be at least two weeks before the next patrol, and therefore help, arrived.

  Ishiah looked down at the sharply spiraling staircase his feet were resting on and the little square of stone-flagged floor he could see below and couldn’t make himself leave. Going back upstairs to the same boring routine he had been following for the last seven months when there was a mystery right at his fingertips just wasn’t possible. Ishiah started walking down the stairs before that thought even finished.

  Once his head was below the upstairs floor, Ishiah could see the entire room, and it was huge. Unlike the upstairs, this floor didn’t have separate rooms partitioning it. Instead it was one big room with different sections delineated by the different furniture. Ishiah was descending into what appeared to be another library equally as large as the one he had just left. There were two fluffy chairs in two different corners near shelves that from this distance Ishiah thought might actually be labeled. To the left of the library were two long wooden tables easily the size of banquet tables. They were empty, but Ishiah could see what appeared to be burn marks and gouges out of them both, so he felt safe in assuming they were work tables. Past that, Ishiah saw trunks and boxes of what looked like a storage area.

  He headed to the books first since they were most likely to tell him what he was looking at. The shelf nearest the stairs was labeled “grimoires,” and Ishiah couldn’t help grinning at that.

  Magic might be a lost art and the wizards of old gone, but this was a treasure trove he had every intention of exploiting.

  Ishiah pulled down the grimoire labeled “beginner” and went to one of the chairs to start reading.

  Chapter Three

  “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!”

  Ishiah rolled his eyes, but after two and a half years of hearing that imbecile say that same damned line every other week, in some ways Ishiah had grown to appreciate the familiarity of it.

  Instead of getting up right away, Ishiah put the scrap of cloth he was using as a bookmark into the book he was reading—a treatise of warfare during the flooding of the spring rains—and closed his eyes.

  “Bring the energy from the head, down to the feet, and back to the head,” Ishiah murmured to himself, breathing deeply and evenly in meditation. “Then out through the hands with intent to focus the spell.”

  He held out one hand toward the waiting pile of rope and opened his eyes as his spell took shape. The rope drifted up into the air and tossed itself out the window. Ishiah grinned because he had gotten it to work.

  Magic was as difficult to learn as all the books on warfare he was reading. Despite wanting to learn everything he could about magic as quickly as he could, Ishiah found himself needing to take a break all too often. The best way was to return to the books Monrath had supplied, and he read those until they started driving him crazy before returning to the magic ones. He was keeping up with all of the exercises he had been assigned, but adding the magic kept the tedium at bay.