I was about to ask again before I remembered that a Trial by Aether hadn’t taken place for centuries. They were as shocked over this as I was.
I threw a dismissive wave. “I guess it doesn’t matter if it’s happened before. Let’s be honest, the godsflame can do whatever the hell it wants! The only thing that matters is it’s happening now.”
“This is certainly problematic,” Alran spoke up. He’d situated himself by the pile of books documenting magical creatures, and had already started flipping through them. “Instead of having hours to prepare, you have significantly less time.”
No shit, Sherlock.
“Maybe that’s why the godsflame is rushing the end,” Henri muttered as he laid the pixies down on the red chaise lounge.
Partially from excitement, and partially because their bodies were trying to fight the enchantment binding their wings together, the girls had been exhausted all day. They’d passed out on the walk back to the room. Judging from the sounds of their snores, they wouldn’t wake up soon.
“What do you mean by that?” I asked, once Henri had placed a blanket over the girls.
“The amount of time. The Red Queen controls a bandersnatch herd, but she won’t call them now, as they’re all recovering from injury. She also controls the jabberwocky and the kraken. The sea monster is never very far from the island, but the jabberwocky flies all around Faerie. I wonder if the aether was trying to level the playing field, force her to call a new creature.”
“But that still leaves the kraken,” I noted. “Can they move on land?”
Everyone exchanged glances. Once again, we were all clueless.
“It has many arms,” Sansu offered with a shrug. “But it’s hard to say what it’s capable of. The only fae who have seen it up close besides the Red Queen have vanished. I suppose it could crawl on land, if it needed to, but I don’t see that happening.”
“Technically, that’s not true,” Arlan said, pointing to a page in his book detailing the sea monster. “One person has survived a kraken. They claimed it was smaller, about the size of an eight-person carriage. So likely, it wasn’t a queen kraken, which are supposedly much larger. Still, the fae killed it by stabbing it through the heart.” He pointed to the picture.
I took in the detailed anatomical drawing documenting the kraken. The creature resembled a squid, and its heart was located on the underside, where the two frontmost tentacles met. If the kraken was crawling, the spot would be difficult to get to. The beast would have to tilt on its side to make the area accessible.
“Fine. One person has killed one.” Sansu rolled his eyes, breaking my musings. “I still don’t think it’s likely that the queen will call a sea monster to fight when the island boasts so many other deadly creatures. Unless it’s a sea fight, most of them would be more efficient than the kraken.”
“I have to agree,” Hatter spoke softly, probably trying to ease the rising anxiety in the room. “Wonderland is full of many other dangerous creatures—all wild, but near enough to Heartstown that the queen might call them.”
Sansu nodded. “There’s a roc’s nest nearby, and a manticore lair, too.”
Roc? Manticore?
I knew that a manticore had the body of a lion, a scorpion’s tail, and the face of a human. And that a roc was a giant bird. But neither existed in the human world, so I didn’t know much else about them.
“Basically,” I said, picking up a book, “I need to get to studying.”
I buried my face in the pages of books, and the others did the same—occasionally stopping to tell me another interesting tidbit about a creature we’d already covered. Thankful for their help, I stored it all in my mind.
The theory was, the more you knew about a specific animal, the more likely you would be to call it to you. Being knowledgeable of a creature’s physical description was the bare minimum I would need.
“Exactly how far away does the manticore live?” I asked after two hours of studying.
“No one has sought her out,” Sansu offered, “but she’s within a few miles of the city.”
“Rumor has it there’s a male too,” Alran added. “He lives along the coastline, but fae rarely see him. Heartstown lies within the female’s territory, and seeing as they’re the more vicious sex of the species, he doesn’t dare encroach.”
“But if she’s out flying, she could be much farther away,” Sansu said. “Even on the mainland.”
I took a big breath and let it all out in one go. Facts and images swam in my head, but I was starting to wonder if that wasn’t as useful as others’ opinions.
The fae who lived here had been around these creatures their whole lives. Social beliefs held power, and the Red Queen probably preyed upon them to keep others in line. If I could guess what she’d choose, I could attempt to call a worthy counterpart.
I closed my book. “Which creature wouldyoucall if you had to choose?”
Arlan leaned forward and placed his elbows on his knees. “Probably the jabberwocky or the kraken. I know that they’d be effective. Actually, almost everyone in Heartstown is terrified of them. They’ve seen firsthand the serious damage that both can do.”
I bit my lip. I was going in circles. Those creatures were already firmly under the queen’s control. My best hope was that the jabberwocky was elsewhere in Faerie, not close enough to be called in. And that the kraken wouldn’t be able to fight out of water.
