Thrice Upon a Marigold Read online

  19

  THE TERRIBLE TWOS HAD escaped! They were loose again, ready to do more harm—if not in Zandelphia-Beaurivage, then in some other innocent kingdom. He should have known they’d find a way to get out, Sebastian thought. They never gave up.

  But they had done enough damage. Sebastian braced his shoulders and vowed he would not allow that to continue.

  He didn’t want to wake the king. And if he went for Rollo and the guards, by the time he made the necessary explanations, the Terrible Twos would be well on their way. The only solution was to go after them now, on his own. He wasn’t sure what he would do when he caught up with them, but he would think of something before it happened. He wasn’t going to let those two ruin any more lives than they already had.

  Sebastian tore down the winding staircase from the terrace, erupted into the passageway, and blasted out into the village square just in time to collide with Phoebe, on her way to her chambers after closing up the library. He grabbed her hand and pulled her along with him as he ran.

  “Your father and mine have escaped! We have to stop them! They can’t be allowed to wreak any more havoc!”

  “Wreak!” she said, running along with him. “Havoc! What wonderful words! Wait—what? The Terrible Twos have escaped? What can we do about it? Shouldn’t we get the guards?”

  “It would take too much time. Vlad and Boris are probably already on the bridge. We can’t let them get away!”

  It was crazy, she knew it was, to think that the two of them could do anything about the Terrible Twos, but Sebastian seemed so determined, and so certain, that he was irresistible. She kept running.

  They sped out of the village and tore to the Zandelphia-Beaurivage Bridge, just in time to see the Terrible Twos reach the other end.

  “Watch which way they go,” Sebastian panted. “We can still catch them. And we’ll have the element of surprise. They don’t know we’re after them.”

  It helped that Phoebe and Sebastian were young and fit, and that Boris was fat and slow. Though Vlad had kept himself in good shape, he had already had a strenuous few days and he wasn’t as young as he used to be, in spite of the concoctions he formulated to make himself feel younger. You can’t really fool Mother Nature, no matter how hard you try.

  The moonless night helped hide Phoebe and Sebastian, though it made keeping the escapees in sight more difficult. Fortunately, Boris made a lot of noise, crashing through the brush.

  Soon Phoebe and Sebastian were close enough to hear Boris say, “We gotta stop. I’m all out of breath.”

  “Soon,” Vlad said. “We’re going to need some help, and I know where we’re going to get it.”

  “What does he mean?” Phoebe whispered to Sebastian. “Who would help them?”

  “I can’t imagine,” Sebastian replied. “The king and queen have rooted out all the troublemakers. And I haven’t heard about any of them, except the Terrible Twos, staying in the vicinity.”

  Vicinity, Phoebe thought. He could have said neighborhood or area, but he said vicinity. “Did you know that nothing rhymes with orange?” she said. “Or with purple, silver, or window?”

  “I didn’t know that,” he said. “I guess I haven’t given much thought to poetry.”

  “I have a lot of poetry books in the library. I could show you,” she offered.

  “I’d like that.”

  They stood looking at each other for a moment before Sebastian said, “We should keep going. We don’t want to lose them.”

  “Right. You’re right, of course. Let’s go.” Phoebe refused to think about how preposterous it was to believe they could stop the nastiest, scariest, most dangerous brutes the kingdom had ever known. All she wanted was to be with Sebastian for as long as she could, before their adventure—and her excuse for being near him—was over for good.

  They followed on through the forest until Phoebe said, “This looks familiar. Isn’t this near the dragon’s lair?”

  “Yes, I recognize it, too. They can’t seem to escape their fascination with that dragon.”

  “But she’s never seemed to like them. It’s a little late for them to try to make friends, don’t you think?”

  “Maybe they intend to threaten her into helping them. Or maybe they have some sort of leverage they can use on her.”

  “I wouldn’t want to be threatening a dragon. Would you?”

  “Doesn’t seem very smart to me. But one thing I know for sure about my father is that he’s very smart. So that means he has a plan.” I wish I had one, Sebastian thought.

  Vlad and Boris crossed the charred clearing and paused at the lair’s opening, where a campfire was burning low. Phoebe and Sebastian hid nearby, tense and silent, holding each other’s hands as they waited to see what would happen.

  After a while, the dragon appeared at the mouth of her lair. In the faint light of the campfire, her glittering scales gave off a pearly light. She stood, looking at the Terrible Twos as a stream of gray smoke came from her nostrils.

  “We’re here to make you an offer you can’t refuse,” Vlad said. “We’re leaving the kingdom for good, and you’re coming with us. We’ll be so much more in demand in a new location if we bring not only our own well-honed talents, but also our very own dragon.” For Boris’s benefit, he was saying we, but he didn’t mean it. He intended to have this dragon all to himself.

  The smoke from the dragon’s nostrils darkened.

  “Oh, I know you’ve rejected our offers many times in the past,” Vlad went on. “But this time we have quite an inducement. His name is Hannibal.”

  The dragon took a step forward, her gold eyes glowing.

  “Yes, indeed. I heard the guards talking about you and the elephant. It’s all over the kingdom, thanks to that old blabbermouth, Wendell the wizard. So here’s the offer: you come with us and nothing happens to the big guy. You say no again, and we send a p-mail back to our cohort in the stables to put a little something extra in Hannibal’s dinner. A little something extra I concocted especially for him in my laboratory. And you know the kind of things that come out of my laboratory.”

  A look of distress and uncertainty came across the dragon’s face.

  “Do you think it’s true?” Phoebe whispered to Sebastian.

  “I don’t see how it can be,” he whispered back. “He must have made something from all that stuff he always carries in his pockets to allow them to break out of the dungeon, but there’s no way he could have left something in the stables. He was taken straight to the dungeon when he arrived, and escaped straight out of the tunnel. He never went to the stables. And he doesn’t have a cohort there—at least not anymore. And with all the bad guys banished, he couldn’t have planned this while he still had access to a laboratory, since he didn’t know he’d be in this situation. He’s bluffing all over the place, trying to scare her into coming with them.”

  “We can’t let that happen,” Phoebe said. “We can’t let them keep doing their terrible deeds.” And with that, she stepped forward into the clearing. She was behind the Terrible Twos, but the dragon could see her and issued a stream of white smoke in the shape of a question mark.

  “You have questions?” Vlad said. “Well, I have the answers. Don’t make a stupid mistake.”

  The dragon puffed out another question mark.

  “Huh?” Boris said. “I don’t get it.”

  “What you don’t get”—Phoebe raised her voice— “is that Vlad’s bluffing. And Sebastian and I know it.”

  Vlad and Boris spun around.

  Phoebe twiddled her fingers at them. “Hi.” She looked up at the dragon. “They’re bluffing,” she said. “They can’t do anything to Hannibal. You don’t have to do what they want.”

  “She’s right.” Sebastian had appeared at her side.

  “What are you doing here?” Boris asked. “And who asked you, anyway?”

  Vlad didn’t bother with questions. He just pulled a handful of his sleeping powder from his pocket and blew it at Phoebe a
nd Sebastian.

  Sebastian, who had grown up observing all of Vlad’s tricks and had recently been the victim of that very powder, knew what was coming. He yanked Phoebe onto the ground with him before the powder reached them, allowing it to sail harmlessly over their heads—though the spiffle trees it hit keeled right over.

  Vlad and Boris ran toward them, fists clenched, ready to do something unspeakable to their very own children. Sebastian rolled over Phoebe, thinking that if he could do nothing else, at least he could protect her.

  The dragon’s roar filled the forest, and the jet of flame she sent into the night air caused the Terrible Twos to pause in their vicious rush, watching the fire ignite the treetops. Sebastian scrambled to his feet, pulling Phoebe up with him, as the dragon leaped from the mouth of her lair into the clearing. Vlad and Boris turned back to the dragon, who took a few purposeful steps toward them as Phoebe and Sebastian backed away.

  With one powerful breath, the dragon aimed a blast of flame at the Terrible Twos.

  20

  PHOEBE AND SEBASTIAN WERE knocked back onto the ground by the gust of fire, their clothes singed by the flames. They helped each other up, rubbing their stinging eyes, coughing, and dusting each other off. As the smoke cleared, they looked around for Vlad and Boris, but all they saw was a big pile of ash in the middle of the clearing.

  A gratified-looking dragon was dusting off her front paws.

  “Did you . . .?” Sebastian pointed to the ashes.

  The dragon nodded with satisfaction.

  “Both of them?” Phoebe asked.

  Again the dragon nodded.

  Phoebe and Sebastian looked at each other. “How do you feel about that?” Sebastian asked.

  Phoebe thought for a moment. “I should probably feel worse than I do—after all, Boris was my father—but I’m glad they’re gone. Nothing good was ever going to come from them.” She looked at Sebastian. “How do you feel about it?”

  “More complicated than you. Of course I’m glad they can’t do any more harm. But I guess I always hoped that in time they would change their ways. That they would become better people.” He paused. “And better fathers. Now that possibility is gone forever.”

  She put her hand on Sebastian’s arm. “Did you really think it was a possibility?”

  He took a deep breath. “I guess not. I just wanted it.”

  The dragon had been pacing tentatively back and forth across the clearing, eyeing them uneasily. Phoebe went over and stroked her iridescent neck, telling her, “Okay, so maybe that’s not the way we would have planned this. But, to tell you the truth, we didn’t have a plan. All we knew is that we had to stop them, but you’re the one who did. You also saved people we don’t even know from suffering at the hands of the Terrible Twos. They’re all very grateful. And so are we.”

  A tear formed in each of the dragon’s eyes, then instantly evaporated into a puff of steam.

  As she was comforting the dragon, Phoebe had the odd feeling that she was being watched. Standing on her tiptoes and peering past the dragon’s folded shoulder wing, she saw the two women who had been roasting weenies with Marigold standing in the lair’s opening. It was hard to tell in the shadows, but they seemed to have tears in their eyes, too.

  “Hi,” Phoebe said over the dragon. “Sorry you had to see that.”

  “We’re not,” the taller one said. “We’ve waited a long time for it.”

  “Oh,” Phoebe said. “Well, I suppose there are a lot of other people who’d agree with you.”

  “Our reasons are more personal,” the shorter one said.

  The other said, “My name is Twyla.” She turned to Sebastian. “Did I understand you to say one of those men was your father?”

  Not again, Sebastian thought. When would Vlad’s reputation quit following him around? “I’m afraid so,” he said.

  “Was it Vlad?”

  “Yes. And Boris is her father,” he said, indicating Phoebe. Maybe he should have let her be the one to reveal her connection to the Terrible Twos if she decided to, but he wanted some company in his predicament.

  The shorter woman gasped. “I was afraid to believe my suspicions,” she said. “And your name is Phoebe, isn’t it?”

  Phoebe frowned, puzzled. “How did you know? Did Queen Marigold tell you about me?”

  “I know because I’m the one who gave you that name. I’m . . . I’m Anabel. Your mother.” Her chin trembled.

  “You must be mistaken,” Phoebe said. “My mother disappeared long ago. I’m positive she’s no longer living or I’m sure she would have been in touch with me.” Her own chin trembled. “My mother would never have left me alone with Boris unless something had happened to her. At least I hope she wouldn’t.”

  “Oh, no,” Anabel said, twisting her hands together. “That’s not how it happened at all. We’d been so young and unformed when we first married that Boris hadn’t yet turned into the monster he would later become. When he did, I was getting ready to run and to take you with me. But he caught me. He said if I wanted to leave so badly, I had to go, but I couldn’t take you with me. He’d been a disinterested, neglectful father, so I knew he wanted to keep you only to punish me. And he probably had hopes of influencing you to be like him. And he said if I remained in the kingdom, or ever tried to contact you, he would . . .” She pressed her hand to her mouth. “He would . . . practice his . . . his devices on you. Then I told him I would stay, but he said it was too late, that I’d made my wishes clear and I had to go.”

  Phoebe gaped at her.

  “I see you don’t believe me,” Anabel said. “What if I told you that I know you have a scar on your elbow from one time when you were playing with one of Boris’s forbidden . . . devices . . . and you cut yourself on it? You were just a baby. That was the final straw that convinced me we had to leave.”

  Phoebe touched her elbow. “Really?”

  Anabel nodded. “And Twyla and little Sebastian were going to come with us. Vlad caught them, too. And made the same threat.”

  “What?” Sebastian said, startled. “You’re my mother?”

  “Yes,” Twyla said, nodding at him. “I had to go in a hurry, but I left a book about King Arthur so you would have something from me. And to show you an example of a man unlike your father. Did you find it? Or did Vlad get rid of it? He probably did. There wouldn’t be a single thing about King Arthur that he could identify with.”

  “I found it,” Sebastian said faintly. “I always wondered where it came from since, you’re right, it certainly wasn’t something Vlad would have given me. I must have read it a million times.”

  “Anabel and I knew we were supposed to leave the kingdom after that, but we just couldn’t go that far away from our children. For a while we camped in the forest, picking up scraps of information about you and your fathers from various travelers and hunters passing through. And then we found Winnie.” Twyla pointed to the dragon, who lowered her lashes modestly. “She took us in. She was lonely. And she understood about being misunderstood. What seems to the kingdom to be wanton incineration of acres of the forest happens only in the spring, when all the blooming flowers and grasses cause her allergies to act up. She’s actually in very good control of her fire-breathing—I think you just witnessed some of that precision—except when she sneezes. Then flames just come shooting out of her nostrils. She can’t help it. And she’s always been ashamed and embarrassed about it.”

  “She’s protected and cared for us for years,” Anabel said. “That allowed us to stay near you, even if we couldn’t be close enough to see you. We worried all the time that your fathers were either hurting you or turning you into dangerous people, like themselves. From what we’ve seen just now, though, we think you’ve both turned out remarkably well. We’re very proud of you.”

  Phoebe and Sebastian were speechless with astonishment.

  “I know this is a lot to digest,” Twyla said. “Maybe you should sleep on it. Think about what you want to do.”
r />   Phoebe and Sebastian nodded in unison. Their heads were too full to fit even one more thought. In the past three days, they had been involved in a kidnapping plot, gone without sleep, walked for miles, learned even more terrible things about their fathers, lost their fathers, found their mothers, and probably begun to fall into hopeless love. They needed a breather.

  “You could come back to the castle with us,” Phoebe said. “It’s safe to do that now.”

  Anabel and Twyla looked at each other, then at Winnie, and then back to each other.

  “Oh,” Phoebe said. “Of course. Well, what the heck. Bring her, too. I think Hannibal would like that. And maybe the court physician can do something about the allergies. Or Wendell can.”

  “Excuse us for a minute,” Twyla said. The women drew away and spent a few minutes in furious whispering before they returned and Anabel said, “I think we’ll wait here. You two need time to absorb all this. And so do we. Let’s not make any hasty decisions. Come back once you’ve had a chance to weigh everything.”

  After saying their goodbyes, an exhausted Phoebe and Sebastian headed back through the dark forest to the castle.

  “I’m relieved we have time to think,” Phoebe said. “Aren’t you?”

  “I’m too tired to even think about thinking,” he said. “And too . . . For once I don’t know what the right word is. Surprised isn’t enough. Overwhelmed is too mild. Gobsmacked may be the right one.”

  Gobsmacked, Phoebe thought. Perfect.

  As they approached the Zandelphia-Beaurivage Bridge and saw the castle on the other side, they noticed a lot of torchlight and clamorous noise.

  “I guess they’ve noticed the Terrible Twos are gone,” Phoebe said.

  “Goner than they know,” Sebastian said.

  The closer they came to the castle, the louder the noise grew and the more people they saw running back and forth on the terrace and among the battlements.

  “We’re going to have a lot of explaining to do,” Sebastian said. “Are you up for it?”