Once upon another time, p.16
Once Upon Another Time, page 16
“And we’ll feast on them all for dinner!” shouted a third.
“These humans will pay for their crimes against giantkind!” the king roared, and the other giants all began yelling in agreement. “Crush them all beneath our boots!”
“Oh great,” said a tiny egg on the shoulder of the city’s centaur doctor. “I just get fixed up, and now this happens? Fantastic.”
“Time to panic!” Lil shouted, and everyone began to scream and run in a thousand different directions.
CHAPTER 30
Not knowing what else to do, Jin decided to panic. As many wishes as the Golden King wanted? He could be serving the human for another thousand years!
Humans typically don’t live for multiple centuries, the cosmic knowledge said, which Jin appreciated, but even that didn’t improve his mood much. He’d only been alive for twelve years so far, so even one century was too many.
There has to be a way out of this wishes loophole! he thought as the Golden King’s Faceless army gathered, preparing for Jin to teleport them, the king, and the chained-up knight all back to the Cursed City to watch it be destroyed. The king hadn’t yet wished for it, but he’d made it clear that wish was coming, which meant there wasn’t much Jin could actually do.
In the meantime, the king had wished for an elaborate siege engine, a tall wooden tower on wheels that normally would have been used to help attacking soldiers pass over an enemy’s castle wall. But instead, the king had Jin modify it so that it was now basically a luxurious, compact throne room, perfect for viewing the giants’ attack from on high.
With no need to hoard his wishes anymore, now he was just showing off, apparently.
As long as the king has your ring, he’s in complete control of you, the cosmic knowledge continued. You cannot harm him by your magic, but he can punish you as much as he likes.
You can see how this whole system might not make a lot of sense! Jin yelled at the cosmic knowledge. It was way too easy to take advantage of it all!
True. But what better way to learn humility than to realize not all your assumptions are true?
Jin groaned loudly, drawing looks from some of the royals. It probably didn’t help that he was floating in midair, either. Now that Jin had his full magic and the king had all the wishes he could ever want, there wasn’t much reason to hide Jin’s presence anymore. If anyone questioned the king keeping a genie around, the Golden King could just wish them away.
If only I could wish him away.
Again, you can’t cause him any harm… not by your magic.
Not by his magic. Was the cosmic knowledge trying to point out a loophole of its own? Could Jin maybe arrange for a physical trap of some kind, maybe even send a dragon after the king, like he’d done when helping the king win the Choosing years before and become chancellor?
You could, but he could always just make you wish it away. You’re probably thinking about this the wrong way.
Well then, tell me the right way to think about it! Jin yelled in his mind.
Oh, I couldn’t do that. The cosmic knowledge sounded like it was enjoying all this way too much.
Meanwhile, that wasn’t the only voice in his head, not anymore. The Spark had filled Jin with magical power, and the longer he carried it inside him, the more he could feel an anger against the world, a desire to rule over it… or destroy it.
YOU ARE A COWARD. TAKE THE MAGIC YOU’VE GAINED AND USE IT. DO NOT LET YOUR ELDERS CONTROL YOU LIKE THIS. YOU HAVE THE POWER TO BREAK FREE FROM THEIR RULES!
While that all sounded good, the part of Jin that didn’t want to destroy the entire world by breaking the ifrits’ rules figured giving in to the Spark wasn’t the best idea. At the very least, he could leave it for a last resort, if things were really dark.
Maybe he could just grab Lena and make a whole new world if this one was destroyed?
Um, I feel like you’re almost getting less humble. And besides, if you defy the ifrits, they will come for you. They will not allow another renegade genie in this world.
LET THEM TRY. TOGETHER WE CAN DESTROY ALL WHO OPPOSE US.
Jin sighed. Okay, both of you be quiet, he told them. And, Spark, you need to tone it down, honestly. You take hating people to an uncomfortable level, even for me. And that’s saying something.
“Genie!” the Golden King roared, and yanked Jin over to his side using the ring’s power. The king had taken his throne into the siege tower, with the chained-up Last Knight lying on the golden floor next to him. “The Faceless are ready, and we’re missing all the fun. I hereby wish for you to transport my siege engine and the rest of my army of Faceless to the Cursed City, so that we might watch it be destroyed!”
Speaking of hating people, Jin thought, but bowed low to the king. “Your wish shall be granted,” he said, rolling his eyes just to himself before using his power to send them all to the Cursed City.
The last time the genie had been to the city—somehow just a few hours earlier in the same day, even if it felt like months had passed—it had been busy yet peaceful, with its residents going about their lives without a worry, other than that annoying chicken and the fun Invisible Cloud of Hate lady.
Now it was like night and day.
“Run for your lives!” the man made of cookie was shouting, zipping around almost too fast for even Jin to see as he tried to carry people out the city’s front gate. The nutcracker guards rushed through the streets toward the back gate, where a group of giants were taking their time, playfully kicking the walls down, laughing like children.
Air sickness, the cosmic knowledge said. It’s affecting them already. They’re going to slowly lose their reason, the longer they’re down here.
But even as the townspeople fled the giants out the front gate, they now found their escape route blocked by the army of Faceless and the Golden King’s siege engine.
“Back into the city!” Pinocchio shouted, waving everyone toward the center of the city. “Run, everyone!”
“Genie!” the Golden King shouted from his siege tower throne. “I wish you to set that puppet on fire for me!”
Jin cringed, then turned and floated to the fleeing puppet, who had now caught sight of Jin. “You!” the puppet shouted. “I know you! You’re the one who told everyone that I was a puppet of the fairy queens during the Choosing!”
Jin shrugged helplessly. “Yeah, I’m sorry about that. I mean, it’s not like it wasn’t true, though, right?”
“Merriweather the fairy queen gave me life!” the puppet shouted. “That doesn’t mean she, or any of them, controlled me!”
Jin winced. “That sounds questionable, but still not my business if you want to keep it hidden. Unfortunately, I had to fulfill a wish, then and now.”
The puppet stared up at him, putting on a brave face. “You don’t scare me,” he said, his nose growing by an inch or two.
“If it helps, I don’t want to do this,” Jin said, though inside him, he could feel the Spark burning with desire to watch the puppet go up in flames. Whatever the Spark was, it wasn’t the nicest magical fire. “And I’m sorry!”
Jin winced, then snapped his fingers. The poor puppet began to burn immediately.
Before Pinocchio could even yell out, though, Jin extended his arms toward the nearest rain barrel, grabbed it, and overturned it on the poor wooden puppet, instantly extinguishing the fire.
The puppet stared up at him in confusion, water dripping off his wooden limbs and clothes. “But… why did you save me?”
“He only wished for you to be set on fire,” Jin said, smiling slightly. “Not for me to let you burn up, too.”
“Cruel, and unusual,” said a familiar voice, and Jin turned to find… no one. Oh, right, the Invisible Cloud of Hate. Using his magical senses, he could make out the transparent outline of what looked like a human woman. “I like that. The puppet always bugged me, but he didn’t deserve to be burned.”
“I didn’t do it by choice—” Jin said, only to be yanked back to the side of the Golden King again.
“Clearly, I need to be more careful in my wishes, don’t I, genie?” the king said, sneering at him. “I’ll make sure to be very specific from here on out. Now, who shall be next?”
“Stop this!” the knight shouted at his side. “These are your subjects! You should be protecting them from the giants!”
“Oh, I’ll slay the giants,” the king said, nodding. “But only after they’ve destroyed the city. This town has hidden you rebels for too long, and there’s only one punishment for traitors: death!”
“Wow, he’s almost as bad as the knight is,” said the Invisible Cloud of Hate, now apparently on the siege tower with them. “And I’ve hated the knight for half my life, so that says something!”
Jin blinked at that, while the king turned back to the city, looking for his next victim, only to stop as his eyes fixed on someone. “What is that horrible girl doing up there?”
Jin followed his gaze to where the giants had been wrecking the back gate of the city just a moment ago. There, on a flat rooftop, were Lena and her cat, preparing to face down the giants… alone.
See? the cosmic knowledge said in his head as Jin’s mouth dropped open in surprise. Now that is a selfless act!
CHAPTER 31
Get her!” someone shouted, and the crowd turned back on Lena. “She’s with the giants. Maybe we can hold her hostage!”
“I’m not with them—I’m trying to help you!” Lena shouted, but was soon overwhelmed by the villagers all grabbing for her, holding her to keep her from escaping. She tried not to hurt anyone as she pushed her way clear, but the sheer number of them made it almost impossible.
“You lied to us!” Peter shouted as he grabbed one of her arms. “And to think I’ve been living in a giant’s pumpkin this whole time!”
“What did you think it was?” Lena asked him, pulling herself free. “It’s literally a giant pumpkin! And the Boot-ique is a giant’s boot!”
Someone else gasped. “We’ve been shopping in a giant’s boot? The horror!”
“Out of the way!” shouted a familiar voice, followed by the slightly nervous growl of a six-foot-tall cat. Mrs. Hubbard came crashing through the mob on an anxious Rufus’s back, trailed by a small group of tough-looking fairies, each one glaring at the mob. The shopkeeper held one of the giant toothpicks Lena had traded to her a few years ago. For Mrs. Hubbard, it was a perfectly-sized staff and usually helped her reach high things in the Boot-ique. Now she used it to prod, push, and poke various villagers in the behind whenever they didn’t move out of her way fast enough.
“Lena!” Rufus shouted as they neared, and Mrs. Hubbard helped pull Lena onto his back. Her brave little boy swatted at a few members of the mob too, just to show his courage, but most were as intimidated by him as he was by them, so they gave him plenty of space.
“We need to get you out of here,” Mrs. Hubbard said as Rufus hissed at the crowd, opening an exit for them back toward the Boot-ique, but also sending her little fairy defenders scurrying away. “Are you okay?”
“I’m… I’m fine,” Lena said, still barely able to comprehend everything that was happening. She almost couldn’t believe how quickly the city had turned on her, just because she’d told them the truth about her identity. Even her friends!
Part of her hoped that they were just terrified of the invading giants, so weren’t thinking straight. That even sounded logical. But mostly she worried that Mrs. Hubbard had been right all along, and the humans just wouldn’t ever accept a giant, even one their size.
And if that was true, then Lena truly had nowhere to go, no one who’d welcome her as she was. The thought scared her almost as much as the giants’ attack.
They made it to the Boot-ique without too much trouble, as people seemed to be fleeing toward the front gate of the city, away from the giants. At the door to her shop, Mrs. Hubbard climbed off Rufus’s back. “I have to gather the children and get them out of the city,” she said. “Stay here, and we’ll all go together.”
Lena smiled down at her, wondering if this was the last time she’d see the woman who’d been almost a second mother to her. “I can’t,” she said, her voice cracking. “I have to… I have to fix this. It’s all my fault.”
“Lena, no!” Mrs. Hubbard shouted, but it was too late: Lena had already turned Rufus toward the back gate, where the giants had started kicking in the walls, reveling in the destruction. Lena hoped that was due to the air sickness, but if it wasn’t… she didn’t want to think what that said about her people.
As Rufus carried her through the crowded streets, leaping over residents and bouncing off the sides of buildings wherever there wasn’t room to maneuver, Lena considered the only two options she could think of to help. Option number one, she could try surrendering, admitting that it was she who’d lost the Spark and promising to get it back. That had about a zero percent chance of working, especially after the king had tried to crush her in the forest.
That just left the second option: Mrs. Hubbard’s cauldron, which she’d retrieved from the Last Knight’s cave.
Back in the forest, she’d decided the Growth Ring wouldn’t work, mostly because even with her giant strength, she’d be no match for the fully grown guards. But the cauldron would turn her into her true self, the self she believed she really was. If that was the case, and she could become a true giant in their eyes, maybe they’d finally be open to listening to her.
One of the outer walls came crashing through a building next to Rufus, and he leapt to avoid it. Fortunately, none of the debris struck any of the fleeing residents, but it was close and just going to get worse the farther the giants made their way into the city.
“We go with the people too?” Rufus asked, trying to reverse and follow the crowds, but Lena turned his head back toward the giants.
“No, buddy, we have to save everyone,” she said, hoping her nose didn’t lengthen like Pinocchio’s. She just wasn’t sure what possible chance they might have, even if she did grow to their size permanently. But what else could she do? The only reason the city was in danger was because of her!
“Lena is scared?” Rufus said as he was forced to climb up to one of the roofs to avoid a surge of residents. The rooftops were clear all the way to the back of the city and gave Lena a good view of the giants’ attack, which they seemed to be enjoying even more now, to Lena’s disgust.
“I’m terrified, little man,” she told him, patting his neck. “But I think I can take it from here.” She got down off his back on the roof and pulled the oversized cauldron out of her infinite pouch, stretching the pouch’s opening far past its usual size just to get it free, then placed the black pot down on the roof beside her.
The cauldron’s magic kept it filled with liquid, bubbling away but never spilling, even if you turned it upside down. Rufus seemed to recognize it from when he himself had grown, as he sniffed at the brew until Lena pulled him away. “You should go find Treats Lady and help her evacuate, okay? I want you to be safe.”
Rufus turned to go, his whiskers twitching wildly… then stopped and came back to her. He nuzzled against her, looking down at the ground. “I help,” he said quietly. “Even against the big ones. I stay with Lena.”
Lena’s heart rose into her throat, and she found she had no idea what to say. Instead, she just hugged him close, her tears getting lost in his fur. “I’ll be okay, buddy,” she said quietly. “But you’ll be too small for this. Right now, I need to be big.”
“Lena is always big,” Rufus said defiantly, and she swallowed hard, almost losing it again. She hugged him a second time, tightly, hoping this wouldn’t be the last time she saw him. “I help! I wear my collar again?”
He’d never argued with her this much. And if she did shrink him back down to normal cat size, he could stay with her, tucked in her pocket for safety. At least then she’d know he was okay. “Maybe you’re right,” she said, pulling his miniaturizing collar out of her pouch. “But you have to promise to stay in my pocket, okay?”
He nodded, and she wrapped the collar around his neck and started to fasten it, only to look back at the cauldron nervously. Yes, her plan might work if it did grow her to a normal giant size… but what if it didn’t? What if King Denir was right, and she really wasn’t a giant, not even on the inside?
Rufus was the only one she’d ever heard of growing from the cauldron. Everyone else had turned into something else completely, or had some inner aspect of themselves heightened, like the three goat brothers whose hatred of trolls grew so much, they had to leave the city to hunt them down under bridges.
But what choice did she have? If she used the Growth Ring again, they could easily just grab it off her finger, between the five of them. The only way she could make sure they listened to her was if she changed, permanently.
Lena took a deep breath, then closed Rufus’s collar. He instantly shrank down to his past size, and she picked him up, setting him on her shoulder as she stepped over to the cauldron and looked down into its bubbling depths.
“You’re a real giant,” she told herself, clenching her fists. “You’re a real giant, no matter what anyone else thinks. You know this is true.”
She bent over and cupped some of the cauldron’s liquid in her hands, and it came out warm to the touch. She bit her lip, then brought the liquid to her mouth—
CHAPTER 32
What is she doing?” the Golden King asked, glaring at Lena in the distance.
Jin squinted, changing his eyes to those of an eagle to better see. “It looks like she’s messing around with an old cauldron of some kind.”
“That’s the Cauldron of Truth,” the Invisible Cloud of Hate said. “Old magic. I wouldn’t play with it if I were you. But then again, I’m not you, and I’m already stuck as basically a ghost, so what do I know?”
“Get over there,” the king demanded. “Whatever she’s doing, stop her.”
Jin winced but floated away obediently. This wasn’t going to be an easy task, not with the spell that the girl had cast on him earlier—
