was flying by and they would have to get a move on if they wanted to get to the crown before the prophet. But… but…
… There had been draglings before. And Lex knew that where there were draglings there would be a dragon lurking about somewhere, and where there was a dragon there was a dragon’s lair, and where there was a dragon’s lair there would be gold. Could there possibly be time to-‘Control your greed!’ Schmidt snapped.
Lex looked at him in surprise. Had he actually been thinking out loud?
‘I can tell what you’re thinking!’ Schmidt sneered at the expression on his face. ‘You’re not very complex, Lex, I’m afraid.’
‘You’re quite right, Schmidt. The crown should be our first priority. But after that — if there’s time, of course — I think I may go dragon hunting.’
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Lex and Schmidt came across no more kings as they made their way through the forest, confirming Lex’s belief that the hunt was probably over by now. But they did meet a couple of fairy godmothers who were out picking berries now that the forest was safe again. Their faces fell when they saw Lex, thinking that he was going to start pestering them for wishes (as any normal person would have done) so when he asked them where the crown was hidden, they were only too happy to point him in the right direction to get rid of him. Lex had no interest in wishes. What was the fun in simply being given something? The satisfaction came to a large extent from earning the thing… or, as in Lex’s case, from pinching it. He smiled, hoping that Lucius and the prophet might stumble across a fairy godmother themselves and be slowed down, greedily thinking of things to wish for.
When they came across a third fairy godmother, Lex made a show of whining about wishes first in order to convince the godmother to take him straight to the clearing where she knew the crown to be. He smiled as she led them on, keeping his eyes fixed on her neat grey bun. Apart from the slight detour with the witch, he had made good time. The others were certain to have ensnared themselves in traps or run into trouble with the kings and draglings and Lex was sure that they would not have been able to extricate themselves anywhere near as smoothly or quickly as he had done. He was bound to get there first. So with these happy thoughts going through his head, Lex was clearly somewhat less than impressed to walk out into the clearing to find that the crown… had already… gone. The colourful banners were there, hanging from the surrounding trees, the velvet cushion where the crown had sat was there but there was nothing else.
‘Where’s the crown?’ Lex said stupidly.
‘Someone got here first,’ Schmidt said with a smirk. ‘Serves you right for being so cocky.’
‘It’s not cockiness,’ Lex snapped. ‘We’ve made very good time. No one could have beaten us!’
‘The prophet left before we did,’ Schmidt said with a shrug. ‘You underestimated him.’
Lex shook his head impatiently. He knew he had taken the prophet’s head start into account. The prophet was blind and dumb and as such he would not be able to get help from the forest’s inhabitants. His precognitive ability would have helped him to some extent but he would still have had to circle the crown for some time before managing to zero in on it. This round should have been the easiest one for Lex since stumbling across the crown in the vast forest would be largely dependent on luck. And Lex was lucky even without the Lady.
‘It wasn’t the prophet,’ he said.
‘Lucius then,’ Schmidt suggested.
Lex didn’t even deign to respond to that, the notion was so ridiculous… although… it was true that his brother had managed to get to the broken mirror in the sky castle first and it wasn’t like there was a riddle to solve this time. All he needed to do was put the crown on his head and surely even Lucius could manage that? Just as Lex’s horror began to mount at the thought that his brother might actually have somehow beaten him, the fairy godmother bent over something on the ground beside the bare cushion and muttered an irritated exclamation.
‘What is it?’ Lex asked sharply.
‘I’m afraid I know where your missing crown has gone,’ she said glumly, turning around with a necklace in her hand.
Lex peered at the thing, at first thinking it was made of large misshapen white beads but on a closer look realising that it was, in fact, made out of small skulls.
Lucius very quickly became lost inside the forest. Because he was wandering through the outskirts he was never even aware of the hunt that was taking place in the thick of the wood and he was not overly afraid for his own safety because of the duckigs. Lucius was familiar with the creatures, having raised them on the farm and so he knew that they would not stay very long anywhere where there might be predators. Anyone who had ever had anything to do with duckigs knew that wherever the strange animals lived was likely to be one of the safest places on the Globe. They knew when danger was coming and they would always be gone before it got there. So he wasn’t scared for himself. But he was terrified for Lex. With the prophet being held back, Lex was bound to reach the crown first and Lucius knew that he wouldn’t think before putting it on. For all his supposed shrewdness, he would walk right into the trap, driven by that unquenchable greed. Unless Lucius could get there in time to stop him, Lex was going to be in very serious trouble indeed.
Lucius had no idea whatsoever about how to go about finding the crown. He needed help. He didn’t trust the enchanted trees or many other magical creatures for that matter. But there was one magical people he knew he could trust implicitly and that was the fairy godmothers. He knew they were said to take up their retirement in the forest. He therefore had no choice but to find one and implore her to help him. They were kindly old ladies and he was sure they would not let him down. But he had not seen any yet. Lex would probably stumble across them without even trying but Lucius wasn’t lucky like that. He needed to find their village. And the only way he could think to do that was to follow the duckigs. The duckigs liked people, and the fairy godmothers were bound to feed them sometimes. The creatures were therefore likely to stay as close to the fairy godmother village as they could and the more duckigs he came across, the nearer he must be. He had to reach that crown first, he had to! Otherwise, Lex’s lust for power and riches might be the death of him sooner than he’d thought.
Lex stood and regarded the fairy godmother village. It was quaint in a boring kind of way. The godmothers liked their neat, pretty little thatched cottages and every house in the glade seemed to be exactly the same… except for one, huddled miserably on the outskirts. It seemed to be mostly made out of mud and sticks with a feeble patch of what looked like weeds growing outside in sharp contrast to the neat rows of flowerbeds the godmothers favoured.
‘She doesn’t realise she’s a crone,’ sighed the fairy godmother.
‘I beg your pardon?’ Schmidt said, staring at the pathetic hut.
‘She calls herself Matilda. She thinks she’s a retired fairy godmother like us. From what we’ve gathered, we think her enchanter dispossessed her for some reason and she’s been alone ever since.’
‘I thought crones couldn’t survive without an enchanter?’ Lex asked.
The fairy godmother shrugged. ‘Matilda barely survives. She’d have died within a week in most forests but this one is kept safe for the kings to hunt in. She’s quite unbalanced of course. We don’t want her anywhere near us but we haven’t been able to get her to leave. It’s the most dreadful shame because that horrible little house of hers really spoils the neighbourhood and she goes through our rubbish at night, pinching things-’
‘I don’t suppose it occurs to any of you just to give her the things you throw away?’ Schmidt snapped irritably.
The fairy godmother gave him a startled look and went on hurriedly, ‘Crones are attracted to shiny things — I expect that’s why she took the crown. She probably just stumbled across it when she was out looking for berries.’ ‘Well, we won’t need to bother her for long,’ Lex said breezily, reaching his hand out towards the fairy godmother for the skull necklace.
‘For all you know she’s already put it on and made herself Queen,’ Schmidt said. ‘In which case, you’ve already lost.’
