Chapter Nineteen Rapunzel
Nineteen
Rapunzel
Rapunzel pulls her gray cloak tighter against the chill of the night as Verette fumbles with the door to the Starlight Spring. The heavy iron key has gone on a journey tonight, passing first from Hughes to Teophine, then from Teophine to Verette once they’d both left the hall.
“Got enough light?” Leona whispers, nudging her lantern closer. Its flame wobbles in place, a vivid cornflower blue thanks to some sort of chemical compound in the oil. (Rapunzel asked. And then she made Leona promise to write the particulars down for her later.)
“I just—there.” The door swings open, and all three women hurry into the passageway.
Rapunzel pulls the door shut behind them, and the lock automatically resets as it latches. Enver should be too preoccupied to eavesdrop on them through the roots as long as the party lasts, but that’s not the only deadline they have to meet. “How much time do we have?”
Leona squints at the lantern. “We’re to meet the others at the fork in half an hour. The coloring agent will have fully burned off by then, so once the light’s pink, we need to hustle.”
Rapunzel nods, then looks to Verette. “I can take song duty first.”
“No, you’ve been here before. You focus on leading the way.
” Verette draws a breath, then starts quietly humming the lullaby.
Roots ignite up and down the walls of the path, even brighter and farther than they did for Rapunzel.
So long as Verette’s controlling them, the roots can’t betray them to Enver.
Rapunzel starts down the passageway. Originally she and Verette had planned to split up, with Verette going for the harbor to cause a diversion and Rapunzel going with the group headed for what they’ve been calling the starcloud tree.
Leona herself had raised one very salient logistical issue, though:
“So as long as one of you hums the song, the roots can’t alert Enver. What if you have to stop?”
Which is why both of them are here now. Even Verette storming out of her own party early was part of Plan A-for-Apple; she and Rapunzel just had time to change into plain shirts and breeches and the gray cloaks while Councilor Teophine returned to tell Enver Verette had run off to her party barge again.
In truth, somewhere far above, Councilor Teophine, Minister Cressien, and Hughes are combining their efforts to keep King Enver fully distracted while Verette, Rapunzel, and Leona figure out what he’s planning with an entire secret fleet.
In half an hour, the second group of Sulian, Eugene, Ruvon, and Torch will enter the passages after Eugene picks the lock, and Rapunzel’s team will double back to meet them before they all head for the tree.
Then Verette will take them to have a very firm talk with her father, and if all goes well, the price of the Asteran throne will be a single apple.
Rapunzel heads right at the fork, watching the roots shudder as they pass.
In the past few days of testing, they’ve only done that for Verette, but by now Rapunzel can almost feel them in the walls, not entirely unlike the strands of her golden hair.
There’s no sensation to them, just an awareness, the way she knew whenever a lock had snagged on a chair leg or slipped out of a tie.
(Former) Councilor Ruvon’s best theory has stuck with her—that even though the sundrop’s power is gone, it left its mark on her.
“After all,” he said two days before, “even as we lost the effects of our starlight, no one’s hair reverted all these years.
Magic like that changes us. And what is a star but a more distant sun? ”
It lights their way far better than the lantern now. When they get close to the entrance of the hidden harbor, Rapunzel holds a hand up, and Verette’s humming pauses. There’s no sound echoing back this time besides the faint creak of ship timbers and breaking waves.
“All clear,” she whispers. They sneak through the opening and crouch at the top of the ramp; the glimmering roots are much scarcer here, running only through the cave’s rock ceiling above. “I don’t think they like salt water.”
“Good.” Leona peers down to the moored ships. Her face tightens. “What the devil…?”
“What’s wrong?” Rapunzel asks under her breath, following the light of a single guard as he moves down the docks.
She doesn’t see any lookouts, but then again, considering the number of soldiers patrolling above tonight, Enver may have diverted all his forces to security for the party they’re missing.
Leona’s scowling ferociously. “Those are all warships. And look, they’re being loaded—that’s why all the gangways are down. This is an armada. And it’s going to sail this week. What is my brother doing?”
“What is my father doing?” Verette echoes.
“There, that’s the flagship, right?” Rapunzel points to the largest of the fleet, which isn’t just flying the Asteran flag, but also a dark red flag depicting crossed swords and a compass with the needle pointing west.
“My old flagship,” Leona says darkly.
“Eugene saw a map on Enver’s desk earlier tonight marked with a route to our kingdom.
If we can sneak aboard and find the captain’s cabin, we can see if they’ve charted the same course.
” Rapunzel finds Verette and Leona staring at her.
She shrugs. “I asked our ship’s captain a lot of questions on the way here. ”
Leona checks the lantern. The flame’s a vivid royal purple. “We still have time if we move quickly. And unmooring the flagship would be a decent diversion.”
They wait until the lone guard’s loop reaches the near end of the dock, then head down the ramp and hide behind the provision stash as he makes another round. Once his back is turned again, they follow as quietly as they can, then bolt up the flagship’s gangplank.
“This way.” Leona leads them past rows of cannons to the stern, occasionally shaking her head and muttering about her brother Erwan’s shoddy upkeep.
The groaning boards swallow the sound of her walking stick, but Rapunzel glances over the railing and finds the light of the guard’s own lantern has gone still.
She ducks. After a moment, the bobbing glow on the water says he’s resumed his route.
Rapunzel’s stomach nonetheless knots with unease.
She follows the others into the captain’s cabin. “Let’s be fast. I think the guard’s suspicious.”
Leona’s already studying a map on a large mahogany table. “Good news, bad news. Good news: We know where they’re going. Bad news: You’re right, it’s Kourenne.”
This might be the most upset Rapunzel has ever been about being correct. “Do we know why?”
“We’re still looking.” Verette shuts a desk drawer. “At least Councilor Persevault knows better than to leave the orders out in the open.”
Rapunzel kneels by a chest beside the desk and tries the lid. It’s locked. “Do you see a key anywhere?”
“Wait.” Leona thumps over and reaches for a compass set into the head of the desk. It sinks into the wood halfway with an audible click. A panel pops out from the wall behind it as she flashes a wolfish grin. “Didn’t bother changing it at all, the lazy sod. There’s your key.”
Verette reaches into the compartment and passes the key to Rapunzel, then pulls out a tightly rolled parchment as well. She holds it up to the violet lantern light to read, and her face drops. As Rapunzel unlocks the trunk, Verette begins to read aloud.
“ ‘Greetings to Their Honorable Majesties of Kourenne. I, Erwan Persevault, Councilor of the West and Master of Seas, bear this message on behalf of His Majesty, King Enver of Astera. Your daughter, Princess Rapunzel, and her consort, Eugene Fitzherbert, are now in our custody, and your minister of diplomacy will remain a hostage on my flagship. If you wish to see any of them again, you must cede to Astera the territory containing the former location of the sundrop flower, and allow us unrestricted access to it. To ensure your compliance, the princess and her consort will remain in Astera until at least a decade has passed. Furthermore, our fleet will intercept any vessels coming or going from Kourenne until you agree to our demands. We hope Their Majesties will act with the wisdom and prudence they are known for.’ ” The parchment trembles in Verette’s hand. “Why—why would he—?”
“For this,” Rapunzel says numbly, staring into the open chest.
Rows of tiny jars are carefully packed in sawdust, each one containing a single dark glassy seed with pearly light flickering in its heart.
Apple seeds.
“Councilor Teophine said some people think the sundrop magic was in the ground, and the flower just concentrated it,” Rapunzel says.
“Now the Starlight Spring’s been tapped out, he wants to plant even more trees there and hold me hostage until they bear apples.
That’s why he was trying to convince Eugene to stay—he knows I wouldn’t fight as hard to leave if Eugene wouldn’t go with me. ”
Enver knows she’s only just started to see the rest of the world. That she only just found her family again.
That she spent eighteen years in a prison disguised as a home.
And now, he’s trying to make his home into a prison for her.
For a moment, there’s only the rush of seawater below, the soft groan of the swaying ship, and a hiss from the lantern.
Finally Verette breathes, “He was never going to let me take the throne.”
Rapunzel looks up to find Verette’s eyes fixed on the jars. Leona sets a hand on her shoulder. “Your Highness—”
“He never even considered it. He just wanted a pretext to lure Rapunzel here—he used us—”
A faint, strange tinkling begins to emanate from the chest. The seeds are shaking, almost dancing in their jars.
Then something tickles at the back of Rapunzel’s skull. She picks up a jar, brow furrowing, and watches the starlight pulse in its depths. She’d almost swear she can sense—roots?
A clamor rises from the docks outside. Rapunzel pushes herself up and moves to the window. “Look—!”
Sailors march down the planks, rolling carts of cannonballs and barrels of blasting powder.
“Explosives are loaded last,” Leona hisses over her shoulder. “They’re launching tonight.”
“You’ve some nerve showing your face here, Leona.” A bulky silhouette blocks the door, then steps inside. Lavender light washes in the details of Erwan Persevault. “Should have known I’d find you when the watchman told me three rats snuck on board.”
“Erwan,” Leona says coldly. “You’ve done a lousy job with my ship. Suppose you’ll have to steal someone else’s and try again.”
Erwan lunges for her, swinging a meaty fist. She pivots out of the way and does a quick little thrust with her walking stick that sends him crashing to the floor. Then she uses it to crack him in the jaw.
“You’re lucky I don’t have time to deal you worse,” Leona snarls, and blows a strand of her short hair away from her face. “You’re doubly lucky I’ll ask the queen to spare you the gallows.”
Erwan sneers, “Spare this.” His boot smashes into her bad knee. As Leona staggers back with a cry, he rolls to his feet—
And the jars in the chest burst. Rapunzel throws herself backward, shaking off the shattered glass, and finds shining roots swarming over Erwan.
Verette’s hand is outstretched, her braid burning for the first time with starlight.
The roots slam Erwan into the floorboards again and again until he’s stunned, then coil around him until he’s bound and gagged.
“Good work,” Leona grits out. “Now let’s go before someone comes looking.”
“Give me a second—I think I’m getting it—” Verette twists her hand. Tendrils sprout from another seed and grow into a brace for Leona’s knee.
Rapunzel grabs the parchment with Enver’s orders and folds it into a pocket, along with a handful of seeds. “Come on!”
They help Leona down the gangplank as fast as they can, then hide behind a pile of crates, out of sight of the sailors still loading the ships. The path back up to the tunnel stretches long and is much, much too exposed. “We need a distraction,” Leona whispers.
“I need a seed,” Verette says. Rapunzel fishes one out. Verette takes it, tosses it over her shoulder, and crumples her face with concentration.
Rapunzel peeks around the edge of the crates toward where the seed landed, and sees a tangled ball of roots burst into life. It discreetly rolls up behind a stack of barrels and yanks a bottom one free, sending the whole pyramid tumbling down. Shouts of dismay ring through the cavern.
“Now,” Verette forces out. Starlight kindles in her braid again as the root brace on Leona’s knee sprouts more and more strands. They split off and weave into a stool of sorts with clusters of spiderlike legs. Sweat beads her brow. “Let’s go.”
The walking roots bear Leona up the ramp as Rapunzel and Verette hurry after. The three of them have just crested the final incline when the tendrils finally give out, and Rapunzel and Verette each sling one of Leona’s arms over a shoulder and half carry her the rest of the way.
They finally reach the tunnel, then sag against a wall to catch their breath. “We can’t,” Rapunzel wheezes, “let the ships leave.”
“How can we do that without hurting the sailors?” Verette wipes her damp face. “It’s not their fault they’re caught up in this.”
“Sink ’em with the roots,” Leona grunts.
Verette shakes her head. “They can’t go through salt water.”
Rapunzel is just straightening up when a shape emerges from the dark. She gasps—
“It’s me!” Eugene hisses, hurrying into their lantern’s magenta light.
“But we’re supposed to meet at the fork,” Rapunzel says, confused. “Is everything all right?”
“We might need a change of plan.” Eugene looks at the ground, then back up at them, uncertain. “Verette…you should know the real reason why your father needs the apple.”