Chapter Twenty Eugene
Twenty
Eugene
“Idon’t understand.” Verette’s voice bounces off the stone walls with a treacherous wobble.
Eugene shifts uncomfortably; the only other sound is Rapunzel’s soft humming to maintain their control of the roots.
They’ve moved farther down the passage to avoid drawing notice from the underground harbor.
The glowing roots in the walls give plenty of light to see by—almost too much, in fact, as he can tell from the stubborn jut of Verette’s chin that the problem is she doesn’t want to understand.
He tries again. “Torch wounded your father during the massacre twenty years ago. He’s bleeding from the same place right now. The apples may be stronger than the water, but I don’t think he’s ever fully healed. It’s not just about staying young, it’s about staying alive.”
Rapunzel raises her hand.
Verette purses her lips, and the roots surge with light. “I think I’ve got the hang of it now. We don’t need to keep humming.”
“Gothel—” Rapunzel’s voice cracks. “When my hair was cut and the magic left, all of the aging she’d delayed came back at once. Maybe the king’s wound comes back like that too, but slowly.”
“So if we destroy the tree, Enver dies with it.” Leona’s dry tone implies an additional everyone wins.
Verette’s fists clench.
Leona cocks her head. “Are you all square with that, Your Majesty?”
“It’s fine.” Verette’s face hardens. “Maybe—maybe we can grow him edible plants in a container watered from the Starlight Spring. Or make preserves with spring water. Or something. I don’t know, I’ll—I’ll figure it out.
” She looks over her shoulder. “But we have to stop the fleet. And I think I know how. We just have to be stealthy.”
“We don’t have long before Enver notices none of us have come back to the party,” Eugene points out. “This could be our only shot at the apple.”
Leona nods, grim. “He can lose the ships and still keep the throne. You need the apple to force him to yield.”
“Then we split up,” Rapunzel says. “I’ll take Leona and get the second group through the roots and into the spring, if you and Verette can stop the fleet.”
Eugene’s chest tightens. He’d rather sacrifice another cheese fountain than send Rapunzel off on her own, but she is still the girl who played chess against herself for years. “I can do that.”
Verette catches Rapunzel’s sleeve. “Can you give me the rest of the seeds?
Rapunzel passes them over. Then she steps closer to Eugene and stands on her tiptoes for a swift, anxious kiss. “Be careful,” she tells him as his hands settle on her shoulders.
“Is that a royal command?”
Her eyes flash. “You know what? Yes.”
“You know how good I am at following orders,” he jokes, “but maybe I’ll make an exception this time.”
Leona clears her throat.
“Fine, fine, we’re going.” Eugene releases Rapunzel, then adds with more sincerity than he usually allows, “You be careful, too.”
He tries to quell the churning of his gut as best he can as Rapunzel slings Leona’s arm over her shoulders and sets off, humming under her breath.
Eugene turns to Verette. “All right. So how are we stopping the ships?”
Verette starts jogging down the tunnel. “We can’t hurt the sailors, and salt water kills the roots, so I can’t sink them from below.
” Her voice drops as they near the entrance back into the underground harbor, which is a lot noisier than Eugene remembers.
“So if we can’t sink them, we stop…” Her voice trails off as she looks down into the cavern.
Eugene peers through the entrance at a chaotic scene; sailors crawl all over the ships, either searching or loading what looks like some serious ordnance, as a red-faced and disheveled Erwan storms onto the docks, bellowing.
“He’s supposed to be tied up,” Verette sputters, “he—he’s going to warn Father—”
Eugene grabs her elbow. “So we skip the sneaking and cut to the chase.”
Verette sucks in a breath, then points to the opening of the cavern, where the ships will leave. “If I can block that with roots, even from the waterline up, it should hold them in.”
Eugene scans the area. One watch station on either side of the cave mouth, most attention on Erwan. “Doable,” he says. “How do we stop Erwan?”
“You take this seed to the closest watch station.” Verette hands him a very bizarre-looking apple seed and points. “I’ll go to the far one and seal the tunnel exits on my way. He can’t tell my father anything if he can’t get out, either.”
“Devious,” Eugene says approvingly. Now, in light of everything, he’s pretty sure Enver’s being his father would have been the worst possible outcome…but he can’t lie, he wouldn’t have hated having Verette for a sister. “Ready?”
“Ready,” Verette says.
They rush through the door. Roots spike through the ground and weave crude bars across the gap behind them.
As they barrel down the path, Eugene sees Verette throw another seed, which bursts into a ball of roots that swells to nearly the size of a horse—then shifts into the form of a horse in time for her to jump onto its back and ride it down the docks.
Belatedly, Eugene realizes Maximus could likely have handled the fleet on his own. Though arguably with less consideration for loss of life. Eugene makes a note to detour to the stables once they get out.
While Verette is distracting everyone with some wild and unorthodox uses of foliage, Eugene hares off for his designated watch station.
There are only two soldiers there, and both of them are fixated on the princess currently closing off the other exit with gnarled roots.
This makes it remarkably easy for Eugene to sneak up behind the first man, take his spear, and knock him out with it.
By the time the second guard has figured out what’s going on, he is unfortunately too late to duck a solid whack to the chin from the spear butt.
Eugene fishes out the seed and drops it on the ground.
A moment later, he sees Verette ride up to the watch station on the opposite side of the cavern’s mouth, at which point the soldiers on duty there have a very unique and immobilizing experience with tree roots that will hopefully never be repeated in their lifetime.
The ground rumbles beneath his feet. He stumbles back as tendrils burst from the seed and sink into the rock, then climb and spread up to the lip of the cavern’s mouth and flourish into a giant net of root and vine, meeting with a second web growing from Verette’s side.
In seconds, the opening has been completely blocked off.
Eugene can see Verette grinning with open relief all the way across the water. He opens his mouth to shout a congratulations—
And thunder blasts through the cavern. Eugene throws his hands over his ringing ears, staggering in place. Another boom follows, then another.
When his watering eyes clear enough, he sees the net now hanging by shreds, rent by great burning holes.
Smoke trails from the flagship’s cannons. From the scurry of movement in the galleys, Eugene is sure they’re already reloading.
Verette sways on her feet, reaching for the roots. They twitch and shudder, but the feeble sprouts aren’t going to hold up to a second round of cannon fire.
Footsteps rumble toward Eugene. His takeover of the watch station hasn’t gone unnoticed, and Erwan’s soldiers have figured out he’s an easier target than the princess who can sic roots on them.
Hot desperation rises in his throat. He told Rapunzel he could handle this—he can’t let her down, but all he has is the spear in his sweating hands—
His eyes land on an unlit camp stove set up for the cold night watches beside a couple of low stools.
And the cast-iron skillet propped against the stone wall a few feet away.
The weight of the frying pan handle feels spectacular in his grip as the spear clatters to the ground.
Eugene hefts the skillet, squares up to the oncoming soldiers, and gets ready to cook.