The Hunting of the Princes Read online

  ‘I just saw this crazy black shape flinging a death spell at you. I knew it was about to happen.’

  ‘You saw perfectly, Jem. And crazy is the right description of her.’

  Jemima smiled delightedly.

  Something horribly wet and warm nuzzled the back of Taggie’s knee. There was an affectionate bleating sound behind her.

  ‘Taggie?’Jemima asked. ‘Why is that sheep licking you?’

  ‘Long story.’

  RUNNING FOR COVER

  ‘Stop squirming!’ Mum instructed, for what must have been the tenth time.

  ‘Oww,’ Taggie replied.

  Mum was smoothing some weird-smelling ointment over the bruise on Taggie’s elbow. Taggie hadn’t even known she had a bruise on her elbow, there were so many other aches and pains to endure. She’d been lying on the leather settee in the lounge for half an hour now, while Mum used gentle enchantments and smelly herb potions to heal all the cuts, scrapes and bruises. Mum was superb at the healing art, but clearly believed that medicine wasn’t any good unless it stung/ponged/tasted awful.

  ‘Do you think Sienna’s mum will hang on to my party bag for me?’ Jemima wondered. She was sitting on the floor, holding Taggie’s ankle in her hands. As well as being the Blossom Princess, Jemima also had a healer’s talent. Taggie could feel the ache of the sprain subsiding beneath her sister’s cool fingers.

  ‘Jemima, you’re twelve,’ Mum said shortly. ‘You don’t get party bags any more, especially not for a trip to the cinema.’

  Jemima screwed her face up into a well-practised pout. ‘But I’m not going to get to the cinema now, am I?’

  Taggie ignored her.

  Felix scampered in through the open patio door and hopped up on to the grand piano that took up a quarter of the lounge’s floor space. The purple-lens glasses were still balanced on his head, but he’d shrunk back down to normal squirrel size again.

  Taggie never could work out what made him constantly change size; she presumed it was part of the curse placed on him and his family. But Felix never gave details, and she wasn’t about to ask. ‘I’ve taken a good look round from the roof,’ he said. ‘I can see no trace of magic from any other Realm close by. But I took the precaution of renewing the alarm charms around the garden.’

  ‘And I can’t see anybody threatening us,’ Jemima said primly.

  ‘Thank you, Jem,’ Mum said. She gave Taggie a last examination. ‘I think that’s all of them, darling.’

  ‘Thanks, Mum.’ Taggie pulled her dressing gown on and stood up cautiously.

  ‘You’re healing up,’ Mum warned. ‘But every injury will be tender for a few days, so just take it easy.’

  ‘Yes, Mum.’ She put some weight tentatively on the ankle Jemima had healed, and gave her sister a thumbs-up.

  Mum started bundling up Taggie’s torn and dirty clothes. ‘These will have to go. Don’t worry, you and I will go on a shopping trip to get you some new clothes.’

  Taggie smiled in delight at the prospect, and went upstairs to her room. Mum’s house was ultra-modern, complete with just about every domestic gadget ever invented. But she had been allowed to decorate her own room as she wanted. So it had a blue ceiling with white clouds painted on, and furniture that was now possibly a little too pink and girly for a thirteen-year-old.

  After a nice long soothing shower, Taggie opened her chest of drawers and took out a pair of clean jeans just as her mobile started playing the national anthem. It made her grin, even though she knew she really ought to change it.

  ‘Hello, Harry,’ she said as she wiggled into the jeans, frowning at how faded they were at the knee.

  ‘Taggie.’ Prince Harry’s voice boomed out of the mobile. ‘Are you all right? My cousin said she sighted a bit of trouble up your way this afternoon.’

  ‘Tell Beatrice she’s got good sight. But don’t worry, nothing I couldn’t handle.’

  ‘Thank heavens for that. Was it the Karrak Lords?’

  ‘No. It was a sorceress girl I’ve never seen before. She wore black biker leathers. Do you know if she came through a Great Gateway recently? She certainly wasn’t Outer Realm.’

  ‘I’ll check with MI1 for you.’

  ‘Thanks, Harry.’ MI1, or to give the department its proper name, Mage Intelligence 1, operated out of Buckingham Palace, keeping a quiet watch on all things magical occurring in the UK. Thankfully, outbreaks were minimal these days. The Royal Family, themselves descended from mages of the First Times, just like Taggie was, were responsible for keeping magical incursions to a minimum across the UK.

  ‘No problem,’ Harry said. ‘Look, I can assign you a few Knights if you need some help. They’re good, you know. I’ve served with them myself on a few hairy missions.’

  ‘I’ll be fine,’ she assured him. Besides, good though the Knights of the Black Garter were, she knew that the mad shapeshifter girl would have torn them apart like a soggy pizza.

  ‘OK, Taggie, but we’re here if you need us. And by the way, Grandma sends her love.’

  ‘Thank you, Harry, I’ll call if anything changes. And please let me know if you hear anything.’ She ended the call, still grinning.

  As she came downstairs, she heard the unmistakable sound of a certain ancient Land Rover turning into the drive. Sure enough, its gears grated in a noise that set her teeth on edge. She flew down the rest of the stairs and flung the front door open.

  Dad was climbing out of the battered green Land Rover. She ran over and flung her arms round him.

  ‘Hey,’ he said gently. ‘You look OK. You did well against her.’

  ‘How did you know?’

  ‘Felix sent word. I came straight away.’

  Taggie felt her lips tremble as her eyes watered. ‘She tried to kill me, Daddy!’

  For a long moment he stroked the back of Taggie’s head. ‘Yes, well, I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen again.’

  She looked up at him through moist eyes. Dad never changed, that was one of the reasons she loved him so much. His thin hair that was about to turn grey, glasses that always sat at a slight slant, wide mouth that was normally half smiling, crooked nose – that was him, always there and reliable, making the world a better place. Even last year when he’d been kidnapped by Lord Golzoth, getting him back was all she’d thought about.

  She caught sight of the exquisite pearl-white tunic he was wearing as its gold braid caught the bright evening sunlight. The old oilskin coat he’d pulled on to try and cover it up was a half-hearted camouflage. ‘You really did come straight away, didn’t you?’ she said in admiration.

  ‘Of course I did, my darling.’

  They went inside, and Jemima received her share of kisses and hugs. It had been a month since either of the sisters had seen Dad. These days he lived in the First Realm, sitting on the shell throne as regent governor while Taggie and Jemima went to school and lived a normal life in the Outer Realm. The plan was that Taggie would sit on the throne permanently once she was eighteen.

  ‘You need to come to the First Realm,’ Dad told her when they were all settled in the lounge. ‘You’ll be a lot safer in the palace.’

  ‘No!’ Taggie exclaimed. ‘I’m halfway through my exams. Mum?’ It was a cheap trick, but she was desperate. Mum and Dad had been separated for years, and sometimes they could be played off to her advantage.

  ‘The sorceress who attacked Taggie could shapeshift,’ Mum said, mainly to Dad.

  ‘That settles it,’ Dad said. ‘You’re coming back with me, this evening.’

  Taggie glanced from one to the other, and tried not to sigh. She wasn’t going to be able to manoeuvre them, not when they were both in this mood. They didn’t agree often, but when they did . . . ‘What’s going on? I saw that look.’

  Dad shrugged at Mum, who simply shrugged back.

  ‘We need to find out why someone was sent here to kill you,’ Mum said. ‘From the sound of it, the assassin was from the Invisible Lodge.’

  ‘Wha
t’s that?’

  ‘Bad news,’ Felix said solemnly. ‘Very bad. The Invisible Lodge is an ancient guild of assassins based in the Third Realm.’

  ‘She was a professional assassin?’ Taggie blurted.

  ‘Cool,’ Jemima murmured.

  ‘No, it is not cool,’ Mum snapped. ‘The Invisible Lodge should never have accepted a contract for Taggie, and they know it. That’s why I came to this Realm, so such nonsense would be over for good.’

  ‘The Third Realm is always trouble,’ Dad said in a very disapproving voice.

  ‘Those days are over,’ Mum said sharply.

  Dad closed his mouth quickly.

  ‘What days?’ Jemima asked.

  ‘There used to be conflict between the great sorceress houses,’ Mum said. ‘Sometimes silly little wars would break out. It’s all in the past now, the Third Realm is unified under the Queen, and has been for centuries. Simply because we sorceresses are more powerful than mages from the other Realms, our reputation suffered.’ Mum looked sternly from Taggie to Jemima. ‘Nothing for you two to worry about. Now go and pack your bags. You’re going with your father.’

  ‘Mum!’

  ‘And I’ll be coming with you.’

  Dad’s eyebrows shot up. ‘You will?’

  ‘Until we know more about what’s going on I need to be close by. That Invisible Lodge assassin might manage to get close to Taggie again. But she’ll never get past me.’

  Mum drove Felix and the sisters up to Orchard Cottage, with Dad following in his Land Rover. She parked at the side of the ancient ramshackle building where Dad had lived during his self-imposed exile. A pair of retired palace guards were tending it now, keeping an eye out for questionable travellers coming through the Great Gateway from the First Realm.

  Dad led the group across the unkempt orchard at the back. At the far end was a roundadown, which looked like the top of a stone-lined well. As the five of them stood round it, the hole looked unnaturally dark, with no bottom in sight.

  Until last year Taggie had always been slightly uneasy about the deep shaft into the ground. The roundadown was where her adventures had begun. This was where she’d first seen a Karrak Lord, and that image was still fresh in her mind: of Lord Golzoth pulling Dad down into the darkness at the centre of the roundadown. It had been a momentous day when she not only discovered who she really was, but also that the Realms existed. Such magical things held no fear for her now, and she couldn’t wait to walk down to the Great Gateway at the bottom.

  ‘Let me do it,’Jemima pleaded. ‘Please, please.’

  ‘Go on then,’ Dad said.

  A smiling Jemima picked one of the tiny periwinkle flowers that grew abundantly around the top. She dropped it into the dark hole and chanted: ‘Zarek fol.’

  Just below the rim of the well, a stone slid out with a loud rumbling sound. Another started to come out just below it, then a third, a fourth . . . After a minute, they were looking at a spiral staircase winding down into the impenetrable shade.

  Taggie took out her hand-pumped torch, and started down. As always, it seemed to take an age, but eventually she reached the bottom to stand on a spongy floor of dry leaves. Set into the wall in front of her was a single iron-bound wooden door which had no handle.

  After Mum, Dad and Jemima, Felix was the last down. As he reached the floor, the stones all retracted back into the wall with loud grumblings.

  Taggie shone her torch on the doorway. ‘Arasath, I am Taggie Paganuzzi, Queen of Dreams, and I wish to return to the First Realm.’

  ‘Welcome home, Queen of Dreams,’ Arasath’s solemn voice said from somewhere behind her. The wooden door swung open. ‘And you too, Blossom Princess,’ the Great Gateway added. ‘You have grown since last you came this way.’

  Jemima grinned at the door. ‘Thank you.’

  There was a long curving passageway of brick on the other side. Taggie walked along it, her smile growing broader with every step. She’d spent her first twelve years living in the Outer Realm, knowing nothing of her birthright. Yet after just a year of too-few visits, she knew beyond any doubt this was her true home.

  There was another door at the far end of the passage, which swung open as she approached. Taggie walked out into the First Realm.

  ‘Oh my,’ Mum murmured as she looked round. ‘I never knew it was so beautiful.’

  Ahead of them, an emerald quilt of fields, meadows and forests curved up as if they were facing a gigantic valley wall. Yet no matter how far they tipped their heads back, that green countryside just kept curving up and up. They were standing on the inside of a sphere that contained an entire world with all its fabulous mountain ranges and glittering seas. Clouds like puffy white marshmallows were scattered everywhere, drifting along slowly. Right at the centre of the First Realm, thousands of miles above their heads, a tiny sun burned brightly, wrapped within the tattered webbing of its moonclouds, those dense coloured streamers that cast vast shadows across the ground, bringing night to whole sections of the landscape. Towns and cities within the nightshadows glittered brightly with magical luminescence.

  ‘Your Majesty.’

  The respectful voice made Taggie pull her gaze away from the bizarre and wondrous inside-out world. Two ranks of the palace guard were lined up outside the doorway. The men were all Holvans, a race with two arms sprouting from each shoulder. They wore the glamorous white-and-silver armour of the palace, with an ice-blue shell crest on the helmet. Swords, shields, bows and fireangs (like boomerangs but enchanted) flashed in the sunlight as the Holvans performed a complex salute no one with a mere two arms could manage.

  Taggie bowed formally to them. The palace guard had suffered heavily at the hands of the Karrak Lords, but were now almost back to full strength again, with a lot of new recruits eager to serve their Queen.

  Standing in front of them was Mr Anatole, equerry to the Queen of Dreams. The tall old Shadarain had skin the ruddy-red colour of baked clay. He wore the grandiose robes of his office, a tunic of scarlet, indigo and emerald, complemented by a broad cloak woven with gold thread. He looked impressive and solemn, every inch the royal adviser – right up until he broke into a huge smile. Jemima ran over and hugged him tight.

  ‘It is so good to see you again, Majesties,’ he said.

  ‘It’s good to be back,’ Taggie said earnestly.

  She, of course, couldn’t be as free and exuberant as Jemima, not here. In the First Realm she was the Queen of Dreams, and as she’d learned last year, she had to behave appropriately. She set about it as if she was playing the part in a school play, acting out the regal royal role. It was hard to stay in character at times.

  She offered the dear old equerry her hand, and he bowed down to kiss her knuckles.

  ‘Majesty,’ he murmured, but she saw the happiness in his eyes. ‘I’m so glad you’re all right.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  While she greeted him, the wildflowers in the grass behind the palace guard were welcoming Jemima’s arrival. Flutterseed buds opened up, flapping their colourful petals and breaking free of their stems to swarm up into the clear sky. Roses and honeysuckle flowers bloomed wide, thickening the air with their scent. Even the serious palace guards smiled at that. Jemima, the Blossom Princess, always had that effect on plants wherever she went in the First Realm.

  Taggie and her party walked down the path to the Gateway station, escorted by the palace guards. The station sat all by itself in the middle of the countryside. There was only one platform, which had an overhanging canopy roof that ran alongside a broad canal. Five turtles were already waiting for Taggie. They were huge, the size of an Outer Realm lorry, with shells that shone a dull brass colour under the sun. Traditional wooden benches were fixed on top of the shell, painted in jolly colours. Taggie climbed the wooden steps that curved up the side of the shell. Three palace guards sat behind her, looking round alertly. Dad and Mr Anatole sat with her, while Jemima, Mum and Felix took the second turtle with their guards. The rest of
the palace guards climbed aboard the remaining turtles.

  ‘All aboard,’ the turtle hummed soothingly, and started paddling along the canal.

  ‘I’m afraid seers have been gossiping, Majesty,’ Mr Anatole said. ‘The city of Lorothain is expecting you.’

  ‘Oh.’ Taggie couldn’t really sound disappointed. Having huge crowds cheering you wherever you went wasn’t exactly bad for her self-esteem and confidence. It had certainly helped cure any lingering shyness. Much to the dismay of the palace guards, she always tried to say hello to as many people in the crowds as she could; they all seemed to have such fascinating lives.

  ‘People will want to see you are all right,’ Mr Anatole continued. There are already rumours about the assassination attempt.’

  The canal took them through several towns, where the banks were lined with cheering folk who waved eagerly at her. Once again, Taggie was amazed and pleased by how many different kinds of people could all live together.

  ‘How do your studies go, Majesty?’ Mr Anatole asked.

  ‘I’ve read up on all the Realms now,’ she assured him. ‘I want to visit them all, especially the Fifth.’ Which was disgraceful flattery: the Fifth Realm was the original home of the tall and graceful Shadarain.

  ‘I would be delighted to arrange a royal procession for you there, Majesty,’ Mr Anatole said, looking content.

  Taggie was pleased she stayed in character, never dropping the small smile. In truth, while she’d been reading up on the Realms, the Fifth had sounded a bit mundane compared to some – just an ordinary land with different folk living in it. The Sixth, now, with its huge seas and multitude of archipelagos where monsoon rains fell almost every day, that would be a wonderful trip, especially with all the elves living there. There was also the Seventh Realm, the original home of the Holvans, although after the Great Gateways opened they became renowned travellers, settling in every Realm – again a bit average. Then there was the Eighth Realm, with its rugged mountains and yawning valleys enjoyed by the trolls who mined and dug through the rock to find precious metals and jewels which they traded enthusiastically; visiting that would definitely qualify as a duty. Giants strode across the Ninth Realm, perfectly suited to a land whose mountains were twice the size of those in any other Realm, and the oceans deeper and wider. That might be interesting. But most of all she wanted to visit the Realm of Air where the skyfolk dwelled.