“My daughter is a vision of loveliness, isn’t she?” King Waltham said proudly. “Even despite the harrowing journey she and her young dragon went through to reach us.”

  “In fact, your highness” Archer said, “before coming to Palisor, Briony and her friends fought with al their strength and might against the dark ones.

  The…vampires.”

  Archer hesitated over the word, as though knowing what effect it would have. And it certainly had an effect. Gasps came from the surrounding courtiers, while one of the women there actual y fainted. Though that struck Briony as completely over the top, and frankly not very convincing, given that she managed to do it in such a way that she fel straight into the arms of a handsome male courtier, who then had to help her from the room.

  “Vampires?” one of the remaining courtiers said. “Are you sure?”

  Another, a woman who had vials and pouches on the belt of her gown, and whom Briony took to be some kind of physician, echoed the thought.

  “Vampires have not been seen here in a long time, Archer. The only ones here are the ones King Waltham fought and banished to…”

  “Malwinn.” The King’s voice was firm. “Enough.

  There are some things better left unsaid.”

  The woman curtsied low. “Forgive me, your majesty. I meant no harm.”

  “Briony didn’t fight the vampires here, anyway,”

  Archer said. “She fought them around her home.

  Some of you know that. You have heard the news of her. Princess Briony was a vampire hunter in her world…a very brave one, despite her lovely appearance.”

  That sent another ripple of sound around King Waltham’s chambers. Surprise, from those who obviously had not heard the news before, and who looked at Briony with renewed interest, as though trying to work out how she had done it. That much, Briony had half expected. What was slightly more unexpected, given how easily the courtiers had laughed at Vigor’s innuendo, was the touch of admiration that also showed up there.

  Only Vigor himself seemed unconvinced. “I don’t believe it.”

  “Believe it or don’t,” Archer said, “but the truth is that Briony kept one particularly evil master vampire out of Palisor through her efforts. I was there. I saw it.”

  Prince Vigor gave Archer a contemptuous look. “And did most of the work, no doubt. We al know what lengths dragons wil go to in order to find-”

  “Enough,” King Waltham said. “I have told you once already, my son. Do not make me order you back to your tower.”

  Vigor stood there, very stil , and then gave a single, terse nod.

  “Good.”

  Was it Briony’s imagination, or did King Waltham look a little less wan and exhausted as he said that? Certainly, when he looked over to Briony again and smiled, there seemed to be more strength in it than there had been before.

  “Of course you must rest, my dear. It sounds like you have had a busy time. But I trust you wil not be too tired to attend the banquet that wil be held in your honor later.”

  “A banquet?” Briony couldn’t help the note of surprise there. “You’re holding a banquet, for me?”

  She wasn’t the only one surprised, by the looks of it. Half of the courtiers excused themselves in a hurry. Apparently, they needed to make preparations if they were going to be able to look their best as they attended.

  “Of course we are having a banquet,” King Waltham said. “It is not every day I get my daughter back, after al , and you, Briony, I think you wil be just what Palisor needs.” Waltham looked around at his loyal subjects. “My il ness has been hard on many of them.”

  At that point, he did something that made the announcements of banquets and the rest look tame by comparison. King Waltham stood up.

  The physician hurried across to him. “Your majesty, please. You must not stand. You are not wel enough.”

  “Must not, Malwinn? Remind me which of us is the King and which the physician again, would you?

  Only I could have sworn that I was the one who got to decide these things.”

  The physician was brave, Briony had to give her that. She stood there for almost a second, blocking the King’s path.

  “I just don’t want to see al my hard work undone,” the Hugtandalfer woman said.

  “I know, Malwinn, and I am sure that no one wil blame you for an old man’s stupidity. Step aside now though. I am feeling stronger, and I wish to hug my daughter.”

  As the physician moved to one side with a worried look, Waltham did exactly that, moving close to Briony and wrapping his arms around her.

  “You are exactly what we need in an heir, daughter, a champion to help us against the dark ones.”

  “You mean Pietre?” Briony asked. “I didn’t think he could get here.”

  The King looked over at Archer. “Pietre?”

  “The master vampire I spoke of, your majesty.”

  Archer shifted his gaze to Briony. “Pietre is just one master vampire who wants a way into Palisor. There are many, many more master vampires from your world, from al over your world, who want the same thing.”

  King Waltham moved back from Briony, his hands on her shoulders. Briony wasn’t sure if he just wanted to look at her, or if she was holding him up.

  “We spend so much of our time defending the gates, trying to keep the dark ones out.” King Waltham said. “It says a lot that you took on that task even in your former world.”

  He took Briony’s elbow then, leading her towards the exit to the room. That seemed to surprise the courtiers as much as anything else that had happened so far, and Malwinn the physician hovered with a worried expression.

  “Malwinn, I am fine,” the King assured her. “The return of my daughter has done more to reinvigorate me than any potion you could give me. Now stop shadowing me like you expect me to keel over and go get ready for the banquet. I’m sure you have dresses to try on, or something.” He winked at Briony and whispered, “We need to enliven this place. Look at al the gloomy faces, especial y Malwinn’s. You would’ve thought someone had died.” The King caught Malwinn stil lingering in the room. “Malwinn?”

  The woman curtseyed again. “If your majesty is certain?”

  “Completely.” King Waltham looked around the rest of the room. “That goes for al of you as wel .

  Tonight’s banquet is supposed to be a celebration, so go and prepare for it.”

  One by one, the courtiers hurried out. Some looked excited by the prospect of the party to come.

  Others looked at Briony with quizzical expressions, as though stil trying to work out exactly what she meant for them and the Kingdom around them. For al that Briony felt strange and out of place right then, it couldn’t have been any easier for them. They had acquired a princess almost from nowhere, and it would no doubt shake up the politics of their land in ways that might mean a lot for their positions in the court. The look Briony got from Malwinn was a little more direct though. It said, as clearly as if the Hugtandalfer had spoken, that Briony was to do nothing to wear her father out.

  King Waltham seemed oblivious to it. Instead, his attention was fixed on Briony. “Seeing you is the medicine, the cure I needed.” He smiled. “You are blood of my blood, the last of my line. I never regretted knowing and loving your mother, for al that she was human, but knowing that my blood lives on in you, that has given me renewed hope.”

  Briony couldn’t help glancing over to the portion of the room where Prince Vigor stil stood as the King said that. His scowl made his feelings very clear, and, for al that he was obviously self-important and ful of pride, Briony wasn’t sure that she could blame him.

  The last thing she wanted to do was to enter a new world just to rock everything.

  Archer moved up to Briony’s other side. He looked very satisfied about something. “Ignore the Prince. His majesty is right. Just you arriving here has already started to make things so much better.”

  Chapter 6

  Briony and King Waltham were almost at the doors to his chambers when trumpets sounded outside it.

  “The heralds?” King Waltham said. “More visitors?”

  “Just some catching us up, your majesty,”

  Archer said.

  When the doors opened once more, Briony wasn’t surprised to see Aunt Sophie and her father, Leytham. The King seemed a lot more surprised, though.

  “El isa? Is that you? You have not changed at al .”

  Leytham shook his head. “This is not El isa, brother. This is Sophie. My daughter and your niece.

  Though when she entered El isa and Briony’s world, she aged quickly as a human. Unlike Palisor, where we take years to age, in Briony’s world, every creature with a drop of human blood in them age as humans do. Which means…”

  “Sophie is much older than El isa and Briony…”

  King Waltham said. “Yes, yes, I know.” The King held out his arms to Aunt Sophie, and she went to him, taking both his hands in hers.

  “I’m sorry, your Majesty,” she said. “About El isa. Pietre got to her and turned her.”

  King Waltham’s face lit up. “So she is stil out there in the Woods of your home?”

  Aunt Sophie looked down, “No, she died as a vampire, trying to lead a rebel ion against Pietre.”

  Waltham’s face showed his grief at hearing about Briony’s mother. “I had wanted to go through the gates myself to visit, but she had already moved on, began a new life, had married her own…a human, and started a family.” Waltham looked over at Briony. “She was a little older than you when we met. Just as pretty and ful of life. She took my breath away…this human creature who was able to slip into Palisor. It was rare, unheard of even, but there she was, and we fel in love.

  Many did, too, here. To us, she was the mythical one…being able to find her way into Palisor. She was a special human for sure, but the pul of her own world was too great for her to remain in Palisor. And I did not know she gave birth to a child…mine…until much later,” Waltham patted Aunt Sophie’s hand. “I am grateful Elissa and Briony had you to watch over them.

  And I hear you are an excel ent guardian of Palisor and thwarted vampires from finding the gates.”

  Briony saw Aunt Sophie’s head dip just barely in a half-bow. “It is true, your majesty.”

  Waltham nodded. “Wel , your arrival gives us another reason to celebrate.”

  Aunt Sophie unabashedly laughed, much to Briony’s relief. Despite her younger appearance, she was the same old tough Aunt Sophie that she had grown to love. Then Sophie moved over to Prince Vigor, who was stil busy scowling over at them in silence. It seemed that her newfound youth had done something to bring out Aunt Sophie’s mischievous side, because she walked around him the way she might a statue, but then suddenly reached out to pinch the Prince’s rear. Prince Vigor yelped and spun towards her, reddening.

  “Ah, so you are real,” Aunt Sophie said. “And there I was thinking that you were just some sort of artwork with al that chisel broodiness. ‘Prince, scowling’ perhaps. So, are you going to give your step-cousin a hug?”

  Vigor looked briefly confused by the whole thing. “A what?”

  He seemed slightly embarrassed by the whole episode, and even more embarrassed when King Waltham stepped forward to put an arm around Aunt Sophie’s shoulders, drawing her away from him.

  Being rescued, Briony suspected, wasn’t the Prince’s style.

  “Sophie, Vigor has spent no time in the human lands. Their customs are something he is not used to.”

  Hugging was a human custom? Briony thought back to the way the King had hugged her. Apparently, not al hugtandalfs had a problem with it.

  “Wel , we’l just have to get him used to it, won’t we?” Sophie said. She stepped forward as if to enfold Vigor in a crushing hug, but the Prince stepped back.

  “Stay away from me,” he snapped, and then stalked past them, exiting the rooms.

  King Waltham looked after him with regret.

  “Forgive Vigor. My adopted son has little time for things beyond our lands.”

  “Wel , we’l just have to change that too,” Aunt Sophie said. “Briony may be a Hugtandalfer, but she is stil human. I don’t want Vigor or anyone in Palisor holding that against her.”

  Waltham reached out to pat Briony’s hand.

  “You have to forgive Vigor, Briony. When I did not know of you, I raised him to assume the throne. He has always believed that to be his destiny, and now, finding out that he must share it with you, he is angry.”

  Briony hesitated for a long moment. She didn’t like Vigor’s attitude. Of course she didn’t. But she didn’t like this talk of sharing thrones any more than that.

  “Why should Vigor have to share?” she demanded. “If he was raised to become king here, why shouldn’t he do that? I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but I don’t want to be anyone’s ruler. I have a life back in Wicked. I’m needed there. I have friends there, a brother, and Kevin and Fal on…” She looked at Aunt Sophie, “and a diner and Preservation Society to run…”

  King Waltham looked shocked, and even Leytham seemed a little surprised. “But you are my blood heir,” the King said. “Palisor wil be strengthened by it. If there is a legitimate blood heir to the throne, it cannot be ignored.” It looked as though he might say more, but he seemed to think better of it.

  “We wil speak again after the feast. For now though, servants wil have gone to your tower. You should prepare for the banquet.”

  Briony took the hint, and she walked back over the bridge to her tower with Aunt Sophie. Leytham stayed with his brother, apparently having further things to discuss, while Archer trailed a little way behind them until they got to the tower, but then led the way.

  “If the King wants you to ready yourselves, then you wil need to go to the preparing room,” Archer said, leading the way along flights of stairs to a room with elegant lattice-work doors. “I’l leave you to get ready.”

  As the dragon-shifter left, the doors opened, swinging out towards Briony and Aunt Sophie to reveal a large room with a balcony, where a trio of Hugtandalfer women were laying out dresses. The one who had opened the doors appeared no older than Briony or Aunt Sophie did, and smiled at them as she saw them before dropping into a curtsey.

  “Welcome, your highness, my lady. Everything is ready for you.”

  Briony didn’t know what to say to that, so she settled for heading into the room. There were dresses prepared on al sides, al exquisitely beautiful, but al also more formal than anything Briony had seen before, let alone worn. She walked right through the room and out onto the balcony.

  The view there helped to take away a little of the sudden tightness in her chest. It wasn’t home, but it was more than breathtaking enough to make up for it, being on the side of the tower that faced the outside world, rather than the rest of the castle. From where she was, Briony could see the hil s that she had flown over, and she thought back to the creatures she had seen staring up.

  “It’s strange, isn’t it?” Aunt Sophie said.

  Briony nodded. “But beautiful. I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere as beautiful.”

  Aunt Sophie walked to her side and looked out from the balcony. “Wel , it’s not quite like Wicked, but Palisor certainly lives up to its reputation. There’s a reason so many non-humans want to come here, after al . I suspect even Pietre might be able to appreciate this beauty.”

  Briony shuddered at the mention of the master vampire’s name. She found herself wondering why her great-aunt would bring him up, but now that she had, there were things Aunt Sophie needed to hear.

  “Pietre was stil causing so much pain in Wicked when I left, Aunt Sophie.”

  “Yes,” the other girl said with a sad note in her voice, “he would.”

  “It’s bad,” Briony went on. “The war between the werewolves and vampires isn’t over, and now more people are caught in the middle. After Pietre set fire to his own coven, he relocated somewhere we couldn’t find him. He’s been gathering more and more vampires into Wicked, hoping to break into Palisor.”

  “Not to mention the fact that Kevin, Fal on and Jake are stil stuck there,” Aunt Sophie said. “Look Briony, I know how much al of this is for you, being here when everything else is going so wrong back there. I know, darling.”

  “You do?”

  Aunt Sophie nodded. “I do. This must be the craziest thing you’ve ever heard or seen. But you have to remember that Palisor is the reason why you were brought to Wicked in the first place. You were meant to come here, Briony. I know it is hard leaving everything else behind, but you have to try to remember that.”

  Briony felt her eyes widen. Aunt Sophie was talking as if she should just forget Wicked. Briony wasn’t sure she could do that. “I just keep thinking about al the people there. The ones I won’t get to see again while I’m here. Fal on and Kevin, obviously, but also Jake and George, Maisy and Steve, even just the kids from school. I mean, it’s not like they can just come here, is it?”

  Aunt Sophie placed a gentle hand on Briony’s shoulders. “I’m afraid not.”

  Briony lent against the balcony rail, pursing her lips. “I have to go back to Wicked, Aunt Sophie.”

  Her great-aunt stretched in the sunlight like a cat. “Are you real y in such a hurry, Briony? Do you real y want to give up al this so soon?”

  Briony stared at the new, younger Aunt Sophie.

  Just for a moment, she wondered what happened to the one she knew. The one who was a vampire slayer, a devoted citizen of Wicked, someone who wouldn’t give up on her friends. “There are people back there who could be hurt,” Briony pointed out. “I can’t just abandon them.”

  Aunt Sophie shrugged. “You might not have a choice, Briony. You know that getting back is at least partly down to chance. Besides, you’re needed here right now. The timing couldn’t be more perfect, with Waltham so il . Do you want that stony Prince Vigor to rule here?”

  “You seemed to like him,” Briony shot back.