Chapter 31
31
Lucas stood up. “Does anyone know where we can find Fortunada?”
“All I know is she lives in the Court of Lambana,” I said, thinking of her school uniform.
“Her family was exiled from the palace, so somewhere in the village is my guess,” Lucas said.
That was news. “They were exiled?”
“Supposedly. I don’t know for sure, since it’s not my court, but that’s what I heard.”
“Explains the ratty clothes and the fancy jewels,” said Nix. “Lost grandeur and all that. Wonder what her family did to piss off the Lambana Court.”
“Could be anything, could be nothing,” said Lucas. “You know how it is. Politics.”
“Have you ever seen her around?” I asked Nix. “After school or anything?”
She shifted uncomfortably. “Um, no, don’t think so.” She picked at the grass beside her.
I stood up, too, and brushed the dirt off my dress. “Well, why don’t we go to your place and figure it out from there? Maybe we’ll get lucky and find her.” I was curious to see where Nix lived, anyway.
She didn’t get up to join us.
“What’s wrong?” I asked her.
“Nothing,” she said slowly. “It’s just... I don’t feel like going home right now.”
“This is about finding the witch, not a social call,” Lucas said. I could tell he was getting irritated. Frankly, I was, too. We were on the verge of catching the mambabarang, and suddenly Nix was getting cagey?
“We don’t even have to go to your place,” I told her. “Let’s just go to the Lambana Village.”
Nix rubbed her face with her hands. “Argh! Fine. You want to know why I don’t want to go there?”
Lucas and I looked at each other. “Yes, we do,” he said.
Nix took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, raising her eyebrows. “Okay, but it’s a lot.” Neither of us took the out, so she said quickly, “All right. Here’s the thing. I ran away, and I came here. So I don’t really have a home. At least not one I want you to see. The end. Anyway—moving on!”
“Wait, what?” I shouted, genuinely shocked. So many questions. Lucas and I stared at her, waiting for answers. “Where have you been staying?”
She looked down. “An abandoned cottage on what used to be the emperor’s estate, between the Lambana Village and the Sirena Palace. Near the Old Bumara Wall.”
“With who?” I demanded, shocked, sad, and feeling awful that Nix had been basically living in a dirt hut while I lived in literally palatial apartments.
“Just me.” Nix shrugged.
“Oh my god, Nix. All this time I assumed you were staying at the Lambana Palace.” My heart went out to her. Here I was, constantly feeling sorry for myself, and Nix was a runaway, living alone on the edge of the village. “Wait, hold on. I heard about you! On the radio.” I’d mentioned it around the time we first met, but didn’t want to push. The headline from that fateful morning came back to me. Phoenix Xing was last seen ... “You went missing!”
“Yeah. I’d had enough. I had nothing there. Here, I actually have something. Friends. An identity. A future, maybe.”
“But how did you even know how to get here?” I stared at Nix, and remembered how nervous she was about running into encantos from Jade Mountain. “Nix, where are you from— really ?”
She sighed. “You got me. I ran away from Jade Mountain. My father’s the Jade Emperor. But I’m only one of, like, thirty, forty kids, who knows. My mother isn’t a favorite concubine, even. I was sick of living there. I hated all their rules, so I ran away. First I went to the human world, where I was a foster kid. But then my father’s guard found me, so I had to run away again. Avalon was too far, but I made it here. You won’t tell, will you?”
“Why would I do that?”
“Well, you are going to be queen, and you’ll need to keep good relations with all the other realms. But I swear, no one even cares I’m gone. I’m not like the heir or anything. Like I said, my mom wasn’t even a favorite concubine.”
Hmmm. I doubted no one cared, since they had sent encantos to find her in the human world. But I would deal with Nix’s situation later.
“Well, I’m glad you’re here,” I said. “I’m not sure what I would’ve done without you, actually. I never really had a real friend, you know.”
“No need to get all sappy on me,” Nix said, but bumped her fist against mine nonetheless.
This was the time to tell them about my problem. Since we were sharing. I opened my mouth to say it. I have a secret, too. I don’t have any magical gift.
But before I could confess, Lucas was hurrying us along. “We still need to find the witch.”
Maybe next time, I’ll tell them, I promised myself.
***
By the time we arrived in the Lambana Village, it was nearly dusk. It was chilly, and though it wasn’t actively raining, drops from the last storm still fell from wet leaves onto our heads or into puddles. Most of the villagers were already indoors for the evening. Smoke drifted out of their chimneys, and their windows shone with yellow light from within.
“Wish I was wearing boots.” I pulled my skirt up to keep it from being dragged in the mud. Though the narrow streets were all stone, they were still damp and tracked with dirt from people’s boots, horses, and carts.
“I should’ve warned you,” Nix said. “Constant rain here. Biggest drawback.”
“We didn’t have time for a wardrobe change, anyway,” Lucas said. He was looking around for someone to talk to.
“What’s the advantage?” I asked Nix about living there.
“Also the rain,” she answered. “It keeps people away.”
“Unless they’re looking for somewhere to hide,” Lucas said.
We wandered aimlessly for a while as the sun lowered at the horizon. We were nearing the end of the village and hadn’t found anyone to talk to.
I looked up at the darkening sky. “I need to get back.”
“Soon, we’ll head back soon. But first—Nix, see that house down there?” Lucas pointed beyond the village proper, where the official road became gravel and then dirt. Though not quite a forest, the area was full of trees. And within a group of them, there was a little nipa bungalow, just barely visible. “Who lives there?”
She shook her head. “Beats me.”
“Let’s go find out,” Lucas said, marching right for the tiny house. We followed behind him.
“I don’t like this,” Nix said.
When we got there, Lucas pounded on the door. The little house was dark, and all the curtains were drawn. It looked like it was just one story—no upstairs and not even an attic window. There was a cracked clay pot next to the door, filled with weeds and some struggling flowers.
After a few minutes of knocking and waiting, we decided to look around the back.
It was even darker and more desolate behind the house. The trees made shadows against the siding, and the wind began to pick up, making spooky whistling noises. Nix peeked in a back window. “No one’s home,” she said. “But Fortunada has to live here, right? Take a look!”
I stood next to her and cupped my hands on the window to see inside. “You’re right! That’s a Court of Lambana uniform—and those are her jeweled hair clips!”
I wrapped my arms around myself and scanned the property. It did seem like no one had lived there for a long time. Except. I saw a small patch about twenty feet from the house that didn’t look wild. “Check it out,” I said.
We left the house and walked over to the garden.
There were tomatoes, carrots, various herbs. “Good crop,” Lucas said.
Then I spotted it. Acalypha bitela.
Poison.
The same one my father had sketched.