The Witch's Tower, Tamara Grantham [best ereader for academics TXT] 📗

I said quietly. “What are you doing?”

The gnawing continued. I approached her on quiet feet, afraid of what I might find. Behind me, Raj scrambled inside the room.

Please don’t let it be the prince.

When I reached her side, her pale, skeleton-white skin glowed in the moonlight. She held a rat.

I exhaled, grateful it was only a rodent and not something—someone—else. A crust of bread and a handful of wild beets sat on the bedside table, but they were untouched.

Raj’s footsteps echoed, and I turned to face him. His tall, lean frame looked so out of place. Only the high sorcerer ever visited, and to have an Outlander squire inside my home unnerved me.

“Is she eating something?” he asked. “What is that?”

“Sorry. It’s the cat’s fault. He catches them and leaves them on her lap. He thinks he’s giving her a prize or something. Rapunzel does that with them sometimes—with the rats—eats them, I mean.” I stumbled over my words, feeling immeasurably mortified that Raj had to see it. But it could’ve been worse.

I approached her. She looked up, as if only seeing me now, and she hissed. With her red-rimmed eyes, it looked as if she hadn’t been sleeping, and her collarbones seemed to be protruding more than I remembered. Her white gown hung off her meatless frame, but at least it was the clean one I’d left for her. She’d managed to change clothes—at least there was that.

“Where is the prince?” Raj asked.

“I don’t know.” I scanned the room. With the large piles of hair covering the floor, he could’ve been hidden, but we should’ve seen some clue he was here—his feet or a hand poking out. Something. “You’re certain he came up here?”

“Yes, positive.”

I studied the tower more thoroughly but didn’t see anything that resembled the prince. Odd. Where was he?

“Rapunzel,” I said, turning to her, “we’re looking for a prince. Have you seen him?”

She shook her head, clutching the rat, her fingers digging into the carcass.

“Please,” Raj said. “I need to find him. His father is the king. He’ll be very sad if he loses his only son. Can’t you tell us where he is?”

Rapunzel focused on the man, but she remained silent. Outside, the sky lightened. Pink streaked through the gray as dawn approached. As the sun rose, sunlight streamed into the room, giving light to the dark places. Something thudded inside the well, and Raj followed me as I maneuvered around the coiled hair toward the raised ring of stones surrounding the deep drop that went straight through the bottom of the tower.

“Is there something in the well?” Raj asked.

“Someone probably.”

I pried open the lid. Sitting atop the wide-mouthed bucket was the prince, who stared up at us with a vacant expression. Hair coiled around him as blue bands of magic wrapped his wrists and ankles. I grabbed his tunic with both hands and attempted to lug him out. He was heavier than he looked.

“How’d he get in there?” Raj asked.

“Rapunzel. She tried to throw him down, I assume.”

“She can do that?”

“With her hair, yes. She’s clever when she’s motivated.”

“He was looking at me!” Rapunzel yelled. Well, at least she was finally speaking.

“She can talk?” Raj asked.

“Yes, when she feels like it. Can you help me?”

Raj grabbed the prince’s feet and helped me lift him out of the well. We placed the prince atop a coil of hair. He lay motionless, his wide eyes frozen with fear. The prince’s sallow skin and sunken, gaunt cheeks made him almost unrecognizable.

The spell washed over me, brushing my skin with its intensity. Reaching out, I searched my mother’s magic, trying to determine the damage her spell was doing to him. I’d been under the impression the spell would put him to sleep and nothing more. He would wake in a few weeks and all would be as it was. But seeing him now made me wonder if there was darker magic at work.

I took his wrist in my hand, feeling for his life’s blood. Only a weak thrumming pulsed beneath his skin. The enchantment’s poisonous taint made me shudder.

With sickening horror, I realized the magic was poisoning him. He was dying.

Swallowing my fear, I stood away from the prince to distance myself from the overwhelming magic.

“What’s the matter?” Raj asked.

I wasn’t sure how to tell him, but he had to know. “I’m sorry, but the curse is worse than I thought. Your friend will be dead in two weeks. Three, maybe.”

“What?” he asked, shocked. “Can’t we do anything for him?”

“There’s only one thing that can be done. We would have to take away the spell that made him this way. We’d have to cut Rapunzel’s hair.”

From her bed, Rapunzel barked a shrill laugh. “Ha! Can’t be done!”

“It could be done,” I corrected, “if one had the golden shears.”

“What are the golden shears?” Raj asked.

“A magical talisman. They’re guarded by infinitely powerful beings.”

“Who guards them?”

“My aunts Gwynna and Neleia. They live in the Ice Mountains.”

“Then we’ll travel to the Ice Mountains and get the shears.”

“It won’t be easy—if it’s even possible. We’d have to pass through Spirit Woods and the Outerlands—and that’s assuming my aunts would willingly give up the shears in the first place. I’m certain they won’t, not without some sort of trade.”

“Then we’ll trade.”

“For what?”

“Whatever they want.”

“Impossible,” I said. “You need to know who my aunts are. They’re witches, and they’re not friendly. In fact, if we were to approach them without a trade that interests them, they’d have no problem killing us.”

“But you’re their niece.”

“They don’t care.”

He crossed his arms, his brows knitted, as if deep in thought. “We’ll have to figure out something. Prince Merek came here to rescue the princess. He was trying to end the war. Don’t you see? If he marries Rapunzel, the high sorcerer’s throne passes to him. No one will recognize Varlocke as high sorcerer once his daughter weds. There are men dying on the battlefield as we speak. This war has been going on for years, and more people die the longer the high sorcerer fights. King Duc’Line sent me and his son here to claim the high sorcerer’s daughter, so that the prince could marry her and end the war. We have to undo the spell. If we don’t, more people die, and not only soldiers, but anyone who crosses the high sorcerer. Women and children, entire families. Surely you must know how evil the high sorcerer is.”

“Yes,” I said quietly. “I know.” All too well.

“Then you must help me.”

Inhaling deeply, I knew what Raj said was true. The high sorcerer needed to be stopped. He’d already wiped out the entire Outlander nation, and he’d been battling for years to do the same to King Duc’Line’s kingdom.

“There is one way,” I said.

“Yes, what is it?”

“The radish,” I said.

His eyebrows rose. “Radish?”

“Yes. Remember, I grew up in Varlocke’s castle before he declared himself high sorcerer. That castle still exists, but before my mother died, she not only cursed Varlocke’s daughter, but his castle also. It was taken over by a magical radish that she cursed to grow thorn-covered vines. They took over the entire castle, forcing him to move away. The radish has unusual qualities. It’s what gave the high sorcerer invincibility, and my aunts knew it. They always begged my mom for a piece of the radish, but she knew how dangerous it was, and refused to give it to them.”

“If we were to find the radish, it might be possible to take a piece of it and trade it for the shears?”

“If we survive making it to the castle, and then through the Outerlands and Ice Mountains, then I would say yes.” I could hardly believe I was contemplating this. Who would take care of Rapunzel while I was gone? And I couldn’t very well leave the prince with her for such a long time, or he’d end up like the rats.

“We’ll leave today,” Raj said, as if it was settled. “You may use the prince’s mare, as he won’t be able to travel. The horses are stabled in the village. If we leave today, we can make it to the village, gather the horses, and ride hard. I’ve traveled the road to the village near Spirit Woods many times, and I know the best inns. We should have no problem getting there—”

“Raj,” I interrupted. “I can’t.”

“What? Why not?”

“Because I can’t leave Rapunzel.”

He glanced at the girl on the bed, who stared at him with a distant gaze.

“She can’t be left alone for long periods of time. Plus, if High Sorcerer Varlocke found out, he’d hunt me down. It’s not possible for me to come.”

“Can’t someone else keep watch over her? You don’t understand—this quest doesn’t happen without you.”

“I wish I could, but I can’t leave the tower. Not only would Rapunzel suffer, but I would be executed.”

“But if you don’t, then you both remain here forever, the prince dies, and the high sorcerer destroys what’s left of our lands.”

I stepped away from him. I wasn’t expecting the rush of emotions. Could I just leave?