The Fae Princess (The Pacific Princesses Book 2) by Ektaa Bali (books to improve english .txt) 📗

The Great Kangaroo turned and assumed his position in the circle, and Vidya saw her own reflection in Pancake’s eyes as he looked up at her.

“Queen of the Fae,” he whispered.

Vidya took a shuddering breath as she tried not to think about it. In her eyes, her father was still the King.

She cleared her throat.

“I need to know what to do,” she said. “How do I fix the Fae magic?”

“You have one goal here as I see it, Queen Vidya,” hissed the Python. “You must re-charge the Flower of Awakening. Give her back the power that has been drained from her.”

“You must recreate the conditions that woke it up thousands of years ago, when she brought the Fae to life,” said the Great Wombat.

“How do I do that? What woke it up the first time? When it woke up the Fae?”

“None are living now who were there to see it,” whispered the Great Echidna.

“There is one.” They all turned toward the Great Lion. “The King of Trees. The Wollemi Pine King. He was there. He will know.”

11

Plans

The Fae King and Queen are the Keeper of Keepers. For a task so grand as this, they are given two gifts. The first is that they are given the obedience of all the plants on the earth. And second, is the creation of a plant of their own choosing.

—The Book of the Fae, Queen Mab the First, 3333 B.C.

When Vidya woke up, she knew that she was no longer in the Old Country. That feeling of majesty in the air, the sweet, heavy smell of something grand and important was not there anymore.

Pancake grunted beside her. She lifted herself out of the base of the large tree she had been snuggled up in and stretched out her arms, looking around. Something heavy shifted on her head, and she lifted her hand up to touch it. She felt the hard edges of the tiara against her fingers, and the memory of what had happened flooded in her mind. She would have to marvel at it later because she had to get them home to safety first.

“Where are we?” Pancake said in a hushed voice.

Vidya was asking herself the same question. She peered through the trees. The air was bright and light here, nothing like deep in the dark parts of the Fae forest.

She turned around and studied the tree they had been sleeping under. It was a Eucalyptus tree she knew very well.

“Oh, this is the portal tree to the Blue Mountains, Pancake!” she said with a broad smile. “I am so happy we’re here, I honestly thought we’d be deep in the Forbidden Zone where Jimmy threw us.”

“So lucky!” cried Pancake happily before Vidya shushed him with a finger.

“We still have to be careful, Pancake, there is a still a Bunyip army roaming about here, remember?”

“Bunyips with wings,” said Pancake darkly.

Vidya sighed. How could she have forgotten? She really hoped Lobey got away from the one that followed her up into the trees. The Bunyips were fast learners. How long before they got good enough to fly over the bottomless sky? Vidya swallowed the hard lump in her throat. She was thirsty and hungry and incredibly tired. But at least they didn’t have to walk too far.

Pancake climbed back onto her shoulder, and they trudged slowly through the long grass around the portal tree, listening for any signs of Bunyips.

But this time, they reached the edge of the forest without any incidents. The sun was high in the sky, and Vidya squinted across the gap to the palace, trying to see if there were any signs of anything bad happening. She saw two bright specs roving about the front gardens.

“Let’s go home, Pancake,” smiled Vidya, and she fluttered her tired wings and, feeling the cool wind on her face, zoomed straight over the Bottomless Sky toward the palace.

She heard the shout before she saw where it came from.

Two Fae kids armed with bows and quivers of arrows slung over their shoulders were waving at her from the end of the path. One of them lifted what looked like a horn to his lips and blew into it with two blasts, one short and one long. Honk Hooooonk.

As Vidya touched down, her magenta wings drooped and felt numb. Her legs felt like weak twigs, ready to snap at any moment. She urged them to walk forward. The two Fae kids gaped at her as she passed, but she didn’t have the energy to say anything to them.

“Oh my god, Vidya!” Vidya heard Lobey’s voice and lifted her tired eyes up toward the palace. Lobey was running toward her, electric blue hair streaming in a mess behind her. There were tears streaming down her face and dark circles under her eyes. Luna and Willow emerged from the palace doors behind her and pelted down the path. Lobey flew into Vidya, wrapping her arms so tightly around her that the tired girl squealed.

“Too tight, too tight!” squeaked Pancake.

Lobey laughed and let them go, wiping tears from her eyes. “Oh, Mother Earth, I thought you were gone for sure.” And then her eyes went up to Vidya’s head where the silver tiara sat, and her mouth fell open. She pointed a finger at it, eyes wide. “That! That!”

“They made me Queen,” explained Vidya tiredly. “I don’t deserve it, but they said because my father is asleep, I have to—” Vidya only shrugged to finish her sentence. “I just really need some rest, guys, I’ve been through the roughest time.”

They parted in silence to let her through.

“Tell us everything!” said Lobey, her face contorted with concern—a new expression for her. “What happened in there? I’ve set a guard—”

“That’s good, Lobey, that’s great,” said Vidya tiredly. Sleep was the only thing on her mind right now.

Bleary-eyed, she trundled through the palace and flew up the stairs straight into her bedroom.

Lily and Daisy were in there, gasping when they saw her, but she didn’t