Chapter 55
A NEWFOUND FRIEND, SCAVENGER HUNTS, AND LIMP NOODLES
Millie was unaccustomed to the apprentice emoting something other than disdain or superiority—those few compassionate moments aside—and here he was on his knees with his eyes leaking. She shoved Dirk. “Do something.”
“Me? What can I do? Human bodies don’t like it when I try to put tears back into their ducts. Don’t ask me how I know.” He snapped his claws. “I’ll get Duchess. She’s the best emotional support cuddler ever.”
The Mini Red flashed into the stairwell, hollering for the white cat.
Millie considered returning to the kitchen for Fink for a similar purpose, who’d been happily snacking on his pat of butter by the windowsill, but she didn’t want Bradley to be alone.
She set the plate and mug down on the edge of the desk and wiped the sweat from her palms on her apron.
Wringing her hands, she stepped forward and risked setting a hand on his trembling shoulder. “Mr. Donmarin.”
The apprentice shot to his feet, and suddenly Millie squeaked, caught in his tight embrace. He shuddered, face pressed into her hair, trying to stifle the onslaught of emotion. To hide. As startled as she was, Millie relaxed and held him.
She knew what it was like to hide your true feelings about something you cared deeply about.
Neither her parents nor her sister, and certainly not her governesses or etiquette tutors, had ever taken her dreams seriously.
So she’d stopped talking about them, storing them up inside her until that fateful day in the greenhouse patio when she’d finally come unhinged. Spectacularly so.
Soon the apprentice calmed, choking on one or two persistent sobs. He pulled away, lifting his spectacles and smearing the heel of his hand against his cheeks. “I’m sorry. I-I—”
“Never mind that.” She pulled her handkerchief from her apron pocket and handed it to him. He smudged the mist from his lenses. “You fed it the nautilus necklace. What does that mean?”
“Come on.” He led her over to the desk. Lifting Small Magicks, he read, “‘Each enchanted gift to a Tianzi Toad brings life to its eyes. When its belly is full, it will come alive and speak. Then, ask it your desire, and see your wish granted.’ It can break my curse!”
Millie didn’t want to dampen Bradley’s hopes much like a thunderstorm ruined an outdoor picnic, nor did she pull the book from his hands in order to translate the text herself, lest he assume she thought him incapable, so she ventured carefully, “Is ‘wish’ in Sino coupled with a xiao character or a da character?” A small wish might not be strong enough to break a curse as tricky as Bradley’s.
The apprentice grinned. “With a rehne character. That’s Sino for any wish.”
The princess hadn’t needed the explanation, but she wouldn’t rob him of his victory. “Jubilations,” Millie cheered, for surely that would’ve been Dirk’s response had he not vanished looking for the cat. Then: “Let’s be doubly sure. What else can we feed it?”
Bradley dashed to the clutter, tossing this and that aside. “There’s a shoe. A shoe made of glass. I found it when I was cleaning out your closet.”
“Glad I could be of assistance.”
The apprentice shot her a look only to be met with a mischievous grin. He couldn’t help smiling in return.
“Well don’t leave me in suspense.” She thwacked him in the shoulder. “Tell me what to look for!”
“Right! It’s in a red leather hatbox. I thought I put it over here.”
“Master Excelsior hid a shoe in a hatbox? You sorcerers make about as much sense as a tits on a bull.”
But she got rooting through the mountains of stuff just the same, gritting her teeth as her sore hands got battered and bruised.
Oracle tiles carved from sea monster bones the size of her forearms, a brass spittoon, a globe of the world as big around as her arms made of onyx and gold inlay.
Who kept a knight’s helmet up here when there was a whole room full of armor downstairs?
Her fingertips brushed against something that felt like pebbled lizard skin, and she shoved sailcloth out of the way to excavate the rest of a leather box. “Is this it?”
“Yes!”
Millie held the box as Bradley opened it and removed the glass slipper.
Its magic would only transform his appearance if he placed the slipper on his foot, so he didn’t need to show it the same care as he had the necklace.
The slipper shimmered like the finest crystal, scattering tiny rainbows across the princess’s cheeks.
With a flash of a nervous smile, he placed the slipper into the Tianzi Toad’s mouth, which had opened again. No sooner had he removed his hand than the lips smacked shut and the spark kindling in its garnet eyes intensified.
“How do we know when it’s had enough to grant you a wish?” she asked. “It’d be nice to have a gauge.”
Bradley thought a moment, reviewing the translation in his head. “Its eyes. They’ll glow brighter and brighter.”
It would be best to confirm this theory, just to be triply sure, but with what? He bit his lip, remembering Master Excelsior’s words: Do what you must with anything else you find to shed this curse, and good luck, dear boy. He hoped his master had meant that literally.
Bradley waded into the clutter and extended his senses to detect any magical artifacts buried beneath the mundane.
After a moment, he retrieved a bird’s nest that had unicorn hair threaded through it and a crystal orb whose color changed according to the mood of whoever held it.
He sensed something else, but it felt faint and faraway—he’d get Dirk to sniff it out.
In the meantime, he offered his new finds to the toad, who greedily gulped them down.
Its garnet eyes were definitely sparkling brighter now.
Thank you, Master.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” The princess pulled her skirts up and high-stepped out of the clutter like a crane amongst the marsh reeds.
“I’m not swinging a cutlass or swimming or climbing ropes anytime soon.
And searching for enchanted objects will be far more enjoyable than cleaning flour off the floor. ”
“Y-you’re going to help me?”
“Yes, Mr. Donmarin. Do try and keep up. This place is massive and we only have limited time to find whatever you need to get your wish. Or did you want to do this alone?”
The princess had absolutely nothing to gain from helping him.
In fact, the sooner he broke his curse, the sooner he and Dirk would depart not just the tower, but the princess, too.
She might be forced to return to her castle and give up on her dream of becoming a pirate.
And yet she was willing to help him . . . just because.
His voice was quiet. Awed. “Thank you.”
A shy quirk of her lips, a little nod. “Of course.”
Bradley freed himself of the clutter and hurried to beat Millie to the trapdoor so he could open it for her.
It was the least he could do, especially with her bandaged hands.
He was halfway there when the scent of chai reminded him that the princess had brought up a plate of teacakes for Dirk, which he had forgotten in his quest to find the cat.
Tisane was one thing, but food left by the priceless books was something he could not abide.
“We’ll need Anti-Fainting Noshables, won’t we?” he asked her, retrieving the plate and the mug balanced on top. Coffee, tamed by a splash of cream, rippled inside. Bradley stopped short, staring.
“Is everything alright?” Millie asked. “There’s not a fly in there, is there?”
Bradley didn’t reply, just lifted the mug, his mug, to his lips for a cautious sip. The full force of dark roast with a touch of unctuous cream swirled across his tastebuds. It was exactly how he made it himself, except it was somehow richer because she had made it.
And made it well. There was no hint of tea or tisane on the back end, no scent of it rising with the steam either. She’d cleaned out the coffee pot. Really cleaned it, with vinegar and as many water rinses as it took to get rid of any residue.
The attention to detail had his OCD singing with joy.
He couldn’t help himself. He quickly lifted a teacake from those remaining after Dirk’s culinary massacre, dipped it into the coffee, and quickly set it into his mouth before it could dissolve midair.
Sweet mother of pearl, it was glorious. It was such a simple thing, spice and sugar and butter and the punch of coffee, but coupled with Millie’s thoughtfulness and his discovery of the Tianzi Toad, the peace it brought was magnified.
Bradley hadn’t known his eyes had fluttered shut until the princess’s voice sounded startlingly close. “Are they as good with the coffee as they are with the tea?”
The apprentice would’ve dropped the plate and mug right then and there and pulled her into a deep kiss where she could taste the cake and coffee lingering on his tongue had such an act not disrespected Master Excelsior’s workroom or the princess herself, who had gone through all the trouble of baking and brewing.
So he dunked a teacake into the coffee and offered it to her. She ate from his hand, before the teacake could dissolve into coffee-soaked pudding. Her lips brushing against his fingertips caused something to burst in his chest, releasing a hive of honeybees that set his whole body to buzzing.
Covering her mouth with her hand, Millie mumbled, “Oh, that’s not half bad. Definitely bring those, Mr. Donmarin.”
“Call me Bradley.”
Her cheeks pinked. To be on such familiar terms with a member of the opposite sex who wasn’t her family or her fiancé would have had Miss Cordelia setting aside her fan for the guard’s spear with which to reprimand them. Millie loved it.
She loved the warmth in the apprentice’s bright blue eyes even more.
Sneaking another teacake off the plate, Millie turned back to the trapdoor. “Alright.”
Bradley, balancing the plate, was able to open it ahead of her, which earned him an appreciative smile that sent sparks all the way down to his toes. By Caelus, when had she become so beautiful?