Japeth’s long fingers curled around the box, ashes crumbling off it, the green glow throbbing harder, brighter . . .
The tree searched the Snake’s eyes. “Most unexpected. So who are you?”
Japeth crushed the box, ashes spewing into the air.
The other three boxes magically combusted too, clouding the vault with dust.
Left hanging on the Snake’s branch was a lock of white hair, curled inside a glowing, clear-coated pearl the size of a coin.
The tree seemed to frown. “You’ve chosen correctly. Merlin’s beard is yours,” it spoke. “Swallow the pearl to finish the first test. Only then can you learn the second.”
Japeth grinned, the hard steel of his gaze returned, any doubts about the outcome of the tournament quelled. He reached up to claim the pearl—
CRACK!
The Snake whirled to see the vault door rip off its hinges and crash into the room. He leapt out of its way, almost crushed by the heavy slab. Startled, he lunged towards the hall—
No one there.
The Snake went back to the tree—
Merlin’s beard was gone.
The pearl missing.
The tree wearing a vague smile.
Japeth gaped for a moment, as if he must be seeing wrong.
That’s when he caught it.
In the vault’s copper walls.
The distorted reflection of a girl’s bare skin.
He whirled around.
Sophie was backing out of the vault, Evelyn Sader’s white dress magically re-forming on her body.
Merlin’s pearl was in her hand.
Witch and Snake watched each other across the threshold.
Sophie eyed his undressed body.
“The emperor really has no clothes,” she said.
Scims flew onto the Snake the moment he crossed the door, eels rocketing off his suit for her—
But Sophie was already ahead, running deeper into the vaults, taking any turn she could, hearing the eels whizzing behind her. She knew there had to be an end to this maze as she swerved around corners, losing more and more scims, until the thrum of the pack became a softer buzz, then a lonely squeal, a single eel left, until she was chased only by silence and the choked sounds of her breath. She clutched the pearl with the beard tighter, slippery in her palm. She’d hide here until she could escape and find Agatha. She’d bunker for days, weeks, whatever it took. She had Tedros’ salvation in her hand. She’d won the opening test for him. She’d outwitted the enemy. As long as she was the one with Merlin’s beard, the prince was ahead in the race. All she had to do was wait. Relief hit her hard—
So hard she didn’t see it coming.
The single, sharp blow to the back of her head.
She gasped, more at the irony than the pain.
Ambushed in the dark.
A witch dead instead of a Snake, falling, falling, gone before she ever hit the ground.
12
SOPHIE
Back to the Beginning
When you’re sure you’ve died, it’s strange to wake up.
Especially to the sound of two boys who are very clearly in love.
“Look, Willam, she’s got it. She’s got Merlin’s beard!”
“Shouldn’t have hit her that hard, Bogden. She’s a girl!”
“My sisters beat me up all the time. You’re the one who told me to stop her—”
“I meant call her name, like a civilized person.”
“Snake would have heard us!”
“Do you clods ever shut up?” growled a third voice, deep and gravelly, as Sophie felt rough fingers pry apart her eyelids. “Pupils dilated . . . nostrils flared . . . Just a bit of shock. It’s how I wake up after a good night at the Arrow. Or used to, at least.”
Sophie’s eyes flickered open to a ruddy, handsome face, floppy red-brown curls dangling over his brow.
“R-R-Robin?” she sputtered.
“Nice hair,” Robin Hood cracked, glancing at her bright red bob. “So inconspicuous. A wonder no one noticed you.”
Sophie sat up to a dark vault, the faces of Willam, Bogden, and Robin lit by the weak glow of Merlin’s pearl. She could feel a lump rising off her skull, pain pulsing behind her eyes. More disconcerting, the floor was moving. Sophie looked down at a mass of gold coins shifting beneath them like cold, hard sand.
“Where are we?” Sophie breathed. “H-h-how are you here?”
“Remember when Reaper gave us our missions in Gnomeland?” Willam started. “Bogden and I were supposed to keep our eye on Camelot—”
“Then that shady Mistral Sister leaves the castle, so we tailed her to Putsi,” Bogden finished. “Plus, Willam is obsessed with geese.”
“I fed a duck at Camelot once and now I’m obsessed with geese—”
“You should be happy I care enough to pay attention, Willam. Can’t say you do the same for me.”
“How was I supposed to know you’re a vegetarian?”
Definitely in love, Sophie thought.
“Meanwhile, I was on my way here,” said Robin. “Couldn’t stay in Sherwood. Not after the Sheriff and I joined forces. So I left Marian in a sanctuary on Glass Mountain. Figured she and I could sail across the Savage Sea, start somewhere fresh. Needed money first, so I came to my vault. All those years of raiding the rich to help the poor—skimmed a bit off the top in case Marian and I needed a nest egg.”
“A nest egg?” Sophie said, ogling the swamp of coins. “This looks like the entire nest.”
Robin ignored her. “Left clues at the Arrow about where I was headed, in case you lot tried to find me. Soon as I get to Putsi, I run into William and Boggins, and before I know it, guards seize us and bring us to the woodpecker’s office.”
“Turns out Albemarle needed our help. He’d heard the Snake was coming for Vault 41, where the answer to Arthur’s first test was,” Willam picked up. “Bird said he’d try to stop the Snake from getting it. But if he failed, it’d be up to us.”
“So we hide in Robin’s vault nearby . . . then eavesdrop on the Snake and tree and find out it’s Merlin’s beard he’s after . . . ,” said Bogden. “And we wait to ambush him—”
“Only to see you come out with the beard instead of the Snake,” said Willam.
“And here we are,” said Robin. “A girl, a beard, two idiots, and me.”
“It’s not like you did anything to help!” Bogden heckled.
“Who do you think was distracting the scims from chasing the lass!” said Robin.
“But how are we supposed to get out of here?” Sophie asked, pointing a lit finger at her hair and reverting it long and blond. “The Snake’s hunting us! Not to mention the Empress and her geese and the bank guards. The second we leave the vaults, we’re dead!”
“Bird said his spy would get us out when the time came,” Robin touted. “Same spy that told him the Snake was on the way.”
“Bird is dead,” Sophie scorned, seeing Robin flinch. “And so is his spy, no doubt!”
“Plenty of doubt, I’d say,” spoke a voice.
Behind them, a body surfaced, rising out of gold like a wakened dragon. Coins sloughed off tan, young skin, the whites of two eyes piercing the darkness.