“Found them sneaking across the border, smelling like skunks,” said a guard.
“We weren’t sneaking. The queen invited us,” Hester snapped. “We’ve traveled for days to get here. We’re her guests!”
The attendant snorted. “Throw them out.”
“We have an urgent message! About Princess Bettina!” Dot insisted, flapping her arms. “She’s been ki—”
“Kin to us. Like family,” Hester cut in, glowering at Dot, before puffing up at the attendant: “Is this how you treat friends of the princess? Tell the queen we’re here.”
“The queen is in a meeting with her knights,” the attendant sniffed. “And Nevers aren’t permitted inside Castle Jolie. Especially after pirates laid waste to our kingdom, with whom you no doubt sympathize.”
“We’re Nevers, not thugs,” Anadil scorned.
“Would you deny your queen’s guests because you object to their appearance?” Hester piled on. “No wonder pirates target your realm to punish such arrogance. No wonder the Snake chose your land to occupy, with people like you serving it.”
The attendant hesitated, with a rankled scowl. Then he rolled his eyes and flung open the door. “Last time someone disturbed the queen, she made him kneel as a dinner table for her children’s supper. Let’s hope you suffer something far worse.” He clacked away, glaring back at the guards. “Don’t let them touch anything.”
The witches followed the guards inside. “Why didn’t we tell the truth?” Dot whispered to Hester. “About Bettina being killed?”
“Who would he think killed her? Especially with a creepy adult looming around Ani and me like you’ve kidnapped us,” Hester retorted. “We need to see the queen. That’s why Tedros sent us. To get her help fighting the Snake. And for that, we’ll tell as many lies as we need to.”
“Such a wise leader,” said Dot.
Hester looked touched.
Dot smiled back. “But am I lying or telling the truth?”
“Point taken,” Hester growled.
Ten minutes later, the witches were still waiting, the two guards keeping watch from across the foyer. Hester’s eyes were red, her nose runny, as she sat on a bench beneath a wall of hydrangeas, the pastel, pom-pom-shaped petals blanketing every inch of Castle Jolie.
“Rats can’t pick up the scent of Nicola or Guinevere,” Anadil fretted, her pets returning to her pocket. “Couldn’t pick up Marian’s scent in Glass Mountain, either.”
“Glass Mountain reeked of fungus and blight. And rats won’t pick up the scent of anything here but these damn flowers,” Hester muttered, wiping her nose.
“Cleaned up the place nice, at least. Last time we were here, the Snake’s pirates pee-peed everywhere,” said Dot, plucking a flower and turning it to chocolate. Instantly, the wall began an endless loop of music: “Tipple Top, Joy and Jaunt, Come and Be Jolie! Tipple Top, Joy and Jaunt, Come and Be Jolie! Tipple Top . . .” (The guards groaned.) But the music gave the witches cover to talk—
“Let me handle negotiating with the queen,” Hester whispered. “To kill the Snake, we’ll need her Knights of the Eleven.”
“But what if her message was a trap?” Dot asked. “Nic and Guinevere were supposed to come here and there’s no trace of them. What if the queen killed them? What if she’s on the Snake’s side?”
“Don’t be daft,” Hester barbed, but now her chest felt tight.
“Think Robin could have left Maid Marian somewhere else in Glass Mountain?” Anadil said, still inspecting her rats. “Somewhere we didn’t search?”
“Robin told Sophie he hid Marian in a sanctuary,” said Hester. “Only place like that is the sacred orchard and she wasn’t there.”
“Plus, Robin wouldn’t have planned on leaving her long,” Dot added. “Been four days since the wizard tree battle. She’d have gone searching for him.”
“Stink of the blight would have been enough to drive her off,” said Hester, sniffing Dot’s clothes. “No wonder the guards found us.”
“That camel at school smelled worse,” said Dot. “Let’s hope Agatha’s safe.”
“Sooner we kill the Snake, sooner we’re all safe,” said Hester.
By now, the music was rattling Hester’s skull: “Tipple Top, Joy and Jaunt, Come and Be Jolie! Tipple Top, Joy and Jaunt, Come and—”
A black fist went through the flowers. The song sputtered out.
Slowly, the witches raised their eyes to a huge man in gold chainmail tinted with pearlescent colors. A mask of mesh covered his nose and mouth like a veil, his dark eyes slashing through them.
“The queen will see you now,” he snarled.
The witches hurried after him.
“You’re a Knight of the Eleven,” Hester said eagerly. “Fiercest warriors in the Woods—”
“Saddle the horses,” the knight barked at a passing page boy. “Queen says the Eleven ride tonight.”
The boy looked alarmed. “But I’ve just seen the Knights. They’re in no condition to—”
“Now!” the knight roared.
The boy scuttled away. With every step, the knight grew angrier, his jaw grinding, his fists cracking, and only when they turned the corner did Hester see why.
Eight mountainous men stood in their underpants, helping a ninth and tenth disrobe their armor, before they handed this armor to the attendant the witches had encountered outside, now posed at the entrance to a double-doored room.
The black knight sneered at the witches. “Queen is waiting,” he said, stabbing a finger at the doors. Then he turned his ire on the attendant. “This is madness, Jorin. An insult to the Knights.”
“Turn over your armor, Sephyr,” the attendant said. “Queen’s orders.”
Sephyr growled and stripped off his chainmail. He shoved it at Jorin, who folded it with the two other suits of armor, before opening the doors to the witches. Hester led Anadil and Dot inside, the coven utterly confused, especially since Jorin, who once treated them like fleas, was now bowing his head as they entered, then following them in. Ani and Dot clung to Hester as the witches made their way into a small room, muggy and windowless, the floor creaking underfoot.
Torches illuminated eight knights around a table, wearing the same pearlescent armor and mesh veils the knights outside had been forced to shed.
Three seats at the table were empty.
“The Knights ride with Eleven,” the leader spoke at the head of the table, addressing the coven. “And we are eight. Which is why I’ve brought you here.”
The leader’s pale hands lifted the armored mask, like a funeral veil. Queen Jacinda gazed intensely at them.
“Welcome, new Knights,” she said.
Jorin put a suit of armor in each of the witches’ hands.
“New what?” Hester said.
“W-w-we don’t understand—” Anadil stammered.
The other knights at the table removed their veils.
Dot was so stunned she turned her armor to chocolate.
NICOLA.
Guinevere.
Beatrix.