Quest Maker (10 page)

As Brynne returned to her stage seat, Tito shuffled to the podium. Caden needed to clear his head. He wanted to keep thoughts of fratricide far away.

Caden relaxed his hands and concentrated on the sounds around him—students whispering, teachers shuffling papers, a soft buzzing of activity. He listened more carefully. Buzzing? He sat up straight.

Something was actually buzzing.

It sounded like a bee—the stinging Ashevillian equivalent of a Greater Realm crater wasp. Caden held back a shudder. When he'd been seven, he'd fallen into a crater wasp nest. The resulting fourteen welts had hurt for weeks.

Rosa had assured him that there were no actual bees in an Ashevillian spelling bee. Though why the odd people of this world would call a spelling contest a “bee,” Caden had no idea. Perhaps the buzzing was part of the show? He turned toward Ward and Tonya.

Ward scowled at Caden. Obviously, Ward wanted him to keep quiet. Caden, however, didn't want to keep quiet. “Do you hear that buzzing?” he said.

Ward ignored him. Tonya huddled down in her chair and set her notepad in her lap. Onstage, Brynne was in her chair still glancing from Jasan to Rath Dunn and chewing
on her bottom lip. If she heard the buzzing, she showed no indication of it. For his part, Jasan had turned his glower upward and was tracking something in the rafters.

Caden followed Jasan's line of sight and felt his eyes go wide. A single bee zigzagged near the ceiling. Truly, Caden hated bees. Matter of point, he hated all creatures that stung. He nudged Tonya with his elbow. “There,” he warned.

Tonya looked worried, but before Caden could comfort her, Mr. McDonald leaned forward from the row behind and thumped Caden with his book. “Quiet,” he said.

Caden did keep quiet. He mustn't show fear of insects while Rath Dunn, his great enemy and math teacher, sat just a few rows in front of him. Rath Dunn was the one to fear, not the bee. One bee Caden could shoo away or, if necessary, squash beneath his boot. Besides, he needed to support his foster brother, Sir Tito, and his ally Brynne by paying attention to the pointless contest.

From the front, Mr. Bellows's cruel voice echoed. “The word,” he said with reverence, “is ‘sedition.'”

Sedition. Pertaining to treachery, subversion, and treason. No doubt a word Rath Dunn enjoyed. The meaning was clear enough, but like most words, Caden had no clue how to spell it. Truly, English was more complicated than the wiggly written language of the gnomes.

Tito didn't spell the word right away. Instead, he said, “Can you use it in a sentence?”

“Among royal heirs, sedition is common,” Mr. Bellows said.

“Um. Okay,” Tito said.

Tonya wrote the word on her paper. At the podium, Tito spelled it with the same letters. She was good with words. If she had more confidence, and was not embarrassed by her stutter, she would be on stage competing. She saw him look at her notebook, and turned the ripe red of an Ashevillian apple.

“Correct,” Mr. Bellows said.

Although Tito had strictly forbidden Caden from cheering, clapping, or “any other weird thing you think about” as support, Caden felt the need to show solidarity. The villains wouldn't win. They would be stopped. Caden nodded his approval and raised his fist in victory. Nodding and fist raising weren't cheering, clapping, or weird. From the stage, Tito gave him a withering look.

From the back of the auditorium, Jane clapped. As Tito returned to his chair, he smiled. It seemed Jane was allowed to clap. In the brief silence that followed, Caden heard more buzzing.

A second, more devious-looking bee flew overhead. He nudged Tonya, and he snapped his fingers to get Ward's attention. “Two bees.” One bee was not such a problem. Two bees was the beginning of one. Once there were three, he'd have too few feet to squash them.

Caden turned, caught Jasan's gaze, and pointed to the
insects. Jasan was allergic to stinging things. Best he be aware of the double danger.

Jasan stared for a moment, then stood and stepped out the back exit. It was the smart thing to do. They should evacuate. Caden told Mr. McDonald.

“It's springtime—bees will get in sometimes. Sit and listen. I don't want any trouble from you today.”

Caden sank into his seat and tilted his head back. He closed his eyes. He wouldn't look at the bees or Rath Dunn's round shiny head. He wouldn't think about his brother Chadwin lying warm but unmoving with a dagger in his back. He wouldn't think about Jasan or the two bees flying around, or the fact that he and Jasan might be devoured in five days.

Then something landed on his forehead.

Beside him, he felt Tonya fidget. “C-c-caden?” she said. “There's a b-b—”

A bee. There was a bee on his forehead.

W
ith great care, Caden opened his eyes, raised his hand, and flicked the bee away. He looked up. His heartbeat quickened. The number of bees had multiplied. They darted from backstage, in and out of the beams, and crisscrossed in short, heated paths.

Others in the auditorium were looking up now. Students pointed. Rath Dunn shielded his eyes with a paper and peered at the swarm. On stage, Brynne looked surprised, and Tito looked irritated. Mr. Bellows released an angry screech at the disruption of his spelling contest.

Caden pulled Tonya and Ward down to the gritty auditorium floor. He could hear Rath Dunn shouting orders. “Stay calm,” he was saying. “Move toward the nearest exit. Slowly, people. Calmly.”

Typically, Rath Dunn was drama and threats; he was
machinations and scheming. The tone he used now was different. It was a general's tone. It was a tone to be followed. Those two sides of Rath Dunn were why he was so dangerous and why he'd almost conquered Caden's home of Razzon.

Caden peeked over the row in front of him. Rath Dunn directed students with a slight smirk. Tito, Brynne, and the other spelling bee finalists were out of their chairs and shuffling toward the left front exit. Across the auditorium, Mrs. Belle was leading Jane's class out the auditorium's back door at a quick clip.

The large room was halfway empty when the swarm became unnatural. It became so dense it darkened the room. Faces seemed to form from the cloud of swirling insects—faces Caden knew. First Mr. Bellows. Then Rath Dunn. Mr. McDonald. Finally students: Derek, Tonya, Caden, more.

Suddenly, as if controlled by an unseen master, the swarm dived at Mr. Bellows. He swatted bee after bee dead, then held out his hand. A rotten aura surrounded his bony fingers. The fallen bees reanimated and surrounded him like a protective shield. He was using necromancy—the forbidden art of death and reanimation. Even crouching rows away, Caden smelled the corpse-like scent of it.

By the right front exit, Rath Dunn ushered students out. He crushed the insects foolish enough to come near him. His mouth was twisted in a feral smile. His fists were fast and sure. He seemed to be enjoying himself.

Caden, Ward, and Tonya needed to escape. Caden turned so that Mr. McDonald could tell them what to do, but Mr. McDonald was gone. Caden spotted him running out the rear exit without so much as a glance back. It seemed Caden, Ward, and Tonya were on their own. Mr. McDonald zoomed out the door just as part of the swarm dived at him.

Suddenly, Caden understood. He'd seen the faces of Mr. Bellows, Rath Dunn, and Mr. McDonald in the bee swarm, and they'd been attacked. The swarm faces were targets. That meant Caden was a target. Tonya huddled beside him. So was she. They would be attacked next.

He grabbed Tonya's hand with his left and Ward's hand with his right. Ward tensed. It was obvious he didn't like unannounced contact, but he didn't argue. “We must go.”

It felt as if Ward wanted to pull away, but he didn't. Instead, he nodded. Tonya squeezed Caden's hand. Her eyes were saucers.

The right front exit was closest. Together, they dashed to it. Rath Dunn saw them and motioned them to run faster. Just before they got to him, he stepped out and shut the door. Caden shoved on the door, but it wouldn't open. Someone—no doubt Rath Dunn—held it shut from the outside.

Beside him, Ward grimaced and swatted a bee from his forearm. Caden rammed the exit with his shoulder. Still it didn't budge. He looked around. Everyone else was gone.
Caden and Tonya were the only targets left inside.

The swarm was thick. The buzzing vibrated against the walls. They needed to get to another exit right away. Toward the rear exit, the swarm was so dense Caden couldn't see the back wall of the auditorium. Between them and the left front exit, the bees were still numerous, but there were fewer. It was their best hope of escape.

Tonya seemed to be thinking the same thing. She pulled Caden's hand in that direction. “We have to get out,” she said. But the only way out was through stinging, angry insects.

Quickly, Caden catalogued his possessions. He had his coat. It would offer some protection, but not enough, and not for all three of them. His compass and paper clips were in one pocket, his cell phone and the whisk in the other. The compass wouldn't help. The paper clips were supposed to hold things together, but right now he needed to break through the bees. There wasn't time to call for help with his cell phone. He pulled out the whisk.

If nothing else, the whisk could act as a projectile. He hurled it. It tumbled through the swarm and landed on the floor in front of the stage. “Run, now!” Caden said.

The bee swarm began to swirl in long, dark ripples, like Rosa's eggs in the mixing bowl. Maybe the Enchanted Whisk of Mixing deserved more respect than Caden had realized?

Although the swarm had been broken, stray bees still
attacked. Caden, Tonya, and Ward had made it halfway to the exit when Tonya collapsed. Ward knelt beside her. His face was red with two stings. Tonya only had one bee sting that Caden could see, but it was swollen badly. Her cheeks were flushed. She looked like she couldn't catch her breath.

“She's allergic,” Ward said.

Like Jasan, Caden thought, as he felt a bee land on his cheek.

Ward laced his arm around her to help her up. Caden did the same and reached down to snatch the whisk as well. Something sharp and needlelike plunged into his neck. He slapped at it and felt another sting on the back of his hand. A third landed on Tonya, and Ward reached out and knocked it away with his thumb. She looked at the door, determination etched in her red, swelling face.

Around them, the bees were reforming into a dense swarm. In the rear, the dark wall of bees started to roll toward them. With no time to lose, he pointed the whisk upward, and the bees began to swirl again. Then he pointed it away from them, and the bees moved, as one, in the opposite direction. The air was clear—for now. There was only time to run.

Between them, Tonya wheezed.

The door in front of them slammed open. Jasan ran inside. He seemed to have little trouble dodging stray insects using his gift of speed, though his eyes went large at the rolling swarm that was about to overtake them. He
grabbed for Caden, but Caden pushed Tonya toward him instead. “Take her first!” he yelled in Royal Razzon.

With a nod, Jasan picked her up. Caden saw her slump in his arms, and they ran out and into the Ashevillian sun. Caden pulled the left exit door shut behind him.

The side and front lawns were crowded. Jasan laid Tonya on the ground. Ward, often so quiet, yelled loudly for help. Soon a large woman in a paramedic's uniform jammed a giant needle into Tonya's thigh. Her breathing started to improve.

The Ashevillian paramedics loaded Tonya, Derek—who Caden disliked but mostly didn't want dead—and another young student into an ambulance. The teachers darted furtive glances at one another. Students huddled in small groups, many nursing bee stings, while the school nurse flitted from group to group like a bee herself. Jasan moved to the side of the crowd, then farther away.

Towering above everyone, Ward's father, Manglor, strode toward them. He held his mop like a scepter. His hair fell in dark braids. Caden didn't know who Manglor had been before he was banished from the Greater Realm, but Caden felt more and more certain that Manglor—and by lineage, Ward—was royalty.

Manglor glowered at Caden. “Move, child,” he said. Caden stepped back. Manglor put his large hand on Ward's small shoulder.

Trusting Manglor would keep Ward safe, Caden jogged
after Jasan. Jasan needed to know Caden believed in him. Caden caught up with him by a large rhododendron bush. “Wait!” He reached in his pocket, pulled out the whisk, and held it out.

Jasan spun around and grabbed his wrist. “I told you to be careful,” he said in Royal Razzon. He looked at the whisk and his frown deepened. “What's that?”

At least the whisk was getting Jasan talking. “The Enchanted Whisk of Mixing. A gift. For you.” Caden pointed toward where Jane stood in the crowd. “It would be rude to refuse.”

With a huff, Jasan snatched the whisk. Then his gaze lingered on Caden's cheek. “Go get your injuries treated.”

Caden touched the sting on his cheek. It felt hot. His face was swelling. “They're minor.”

That seemed to annoy Jasan. “Then you're lucky.” He pointed to the auditorium. “That was an attack.”

Caden knew magically controlled attack bees when he saw them. He didn't have to be told. “I know.”

“Then you know you should have taken refuge sooner. You're not that slow that you'd be last out.”

Jasan was not gifted in speech like Caden, but he knew how to goad him. Caden wasn't slow at all. Jasan just was faster than everyone. There was a difference. Caden bristled. “You'd have me leave my allies in a bee swarm?”

“I'd have you save yourself.”

Jasan had run into the auditorium to help. He'd carried
Tonya out. “You didn't do that. You ran back into the attack, and you're in the most danger. You're allergic. Rath Dunn wants your blood, and Ms. Primrose is hungry.”

Jasan didn't look like he cared. His nostrils flared. He looked at the crowd, from one teacher to the next, his expression growing colder with each shift. Finally, he looked at Caden. “I'm different. My life doesn't matter now.”

Caden felt like he'd been punched. His brother wasn't even trying to survive happy, villain-filled Asheville. “It matters to me,” Caden said. He had to sound certain when he next spoke. He held his brother's gaze. “And I know you were wrongly accused.”

“Do you?” Jasan snorted and ran his hand through his hair. “You'd say that about any of us, any of your brothers.”

Was that a bad thing? Caden wasn't sure how it could be. And doubting his brothers was what Rath Dunn wanted. Still. He wasn't saying it to all of them. “I'm saying it to you.”

Jasan was stubborn, surly, and difficult, but if he understood how much Caden needed him, he'd be less reckless. He'd agree to work with him. Caden just needed to be persistent, charming, and equally stubborn.

“We're brothers,” Caden said. “We must work together. We have enemies here.”

The pink-flowered branches swayed, and Jasan swatted one away with the whisk. Pink petals fluttered into the spring air. They swirled in a small whirlwind above the
bush. “You're my half brother,” Jasan said. He walked away but seemed to hesitate. He turned back. “And sometimes brothers are enemies. Remember that.”

The words felt like another burning sting. “You're not my enemy,” Caden said, but Jasan had disappeared into the crowd. Only the rhododendron blossoms heard him.

These days, Caden felt that he spent as much time standing on the lawn as sitting in the classroom. Tito and Jane stood beside him. The spring day had turned cold. Parents started to arrive to pick up students.

Tito scrunched up his nose and pointed at Caden's cheek. “Ouch,” he said.

Stinging things seemed to especially dislike Caden. It was fortunate he'd no allergy or he'd be dead many times over. “It's sore. Nothing more.” He smiled at his friend. The spelling contest was important to Tito, and the bees had ruined the bee. “I'm sorry you weren't able to win your award.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Tito said. He kicked at the ground. “I can still sweep the grade awards. And beat Derek. He didn't win either.”

“He was taken away in the ambulance. That's the opposite of winning.”

Tito frowned, and his mouth turned lopsided. “Yeah. I almost felt bad for him.” Then a slow smile spread across his face. “Maybe he'll miss a few days and fall behind.”

“Doubtful,” Caden said.

“No one misses many days here,” Jane added. “Rosa sent me back the week after I was rescued. But I know you can still win.”

And Derek wasn't Tito's only competition. Brynne also got excellent grades. “You also must beat Brynne,” Caden said.

Tito grinned. “She's not eligible. She's been here only four months.”

“That's fortunate for you.”

“I'd still beat her.”

Caden wasn't as sure. “She's a sorceress. Studying is one of her greatest skills. Besides, she magics herself before each quiz.” Caden felt his brow crinkle. “Where is Brynne?”

“I'm here,” Brynne said from behind him. “I thanked Prince Jasan for saving Tonya.”

Caden turned and frowned at her. He should demand that she make her presence known
before
she snuck up behind him. She could text him a smiley face or the like. “I helped save Tonya, too.” He turned his head so that she could better see his swelling cheek. “And I was injured.”

“You always get stung by things. You look puffy but fine.”

Tito snickered.

There was nothing funny about a puffy prince. With a huff, Caden motioned to the auditorium. Now that Brynne was here, they needed to discuss the bee incident. “That
swarm was no accident.” When he spoke, he could see his breath. The temperature was dropping.