Once upon another time, p.18
Once Upon Another Time, page 18
Jin didn’t answer, his own eyes locked on Lena, standing before the four men, looking ready to fight. He clenched his own fists, wondering how badly the king would punish him if he just sent her a few miles away.
The punishment wouldn’t be pleasant, but moreover, it’d be useless: he’d just wish for you to bring her back.
I really hate when you’re right, you know.
Oh, I know.
“She hit me!” the giant on the ground said, slowly pushing to his feet, only to fall back to the ground. “Get her!”
Three of the giants moved toward Lena, but stopped as someone shouted out from behind the girl. “Look!” the fast cookie man yelled, and Jin glanced over to find him leading half the city toward the giants, all the residents looking extremely angry. “Lena brought them down to our size. Get them!”
“Wait!” Lena shouted, waving her hands to get the crowd’s attention as she moved between the mob and the giants. “There’s no need to fight anymore. They’re not dangerous now!”
“Not dangerous?” the annoying chicken yelled, holding a pile of eggs under one wing. “Those monsters destroyed my henhouse and could have squished us all!”
“Yeah, they said they were going to eat us!” shouted the man who lived in the pumpkin. “I say we eat them!”
“Yikes,” said a voice from Jin’s side, the Invisible Cloud of Hate. Apparently, he’d magicked her along with the rest of the siege tower… or she’d taken enough of an interest just to follow them. “I take back every horrible thing I ever said about this city, just so I can say it ten times as bad. These people will mob up for any little thing!”
“Okay, no one’s eating anyone,” the wooden puppet said, trying to regain some control. As the crowd began to boo, he changed his tactic quickly. “Because we have to show them what we do to people who’d wreck our town!”
The mob roared in agreement, then swarmed toward Lena.
“This is fun,” the Golden King said as Jin watched anxiously, waiting for his moment to secretly teleport Lena away. “But I want the city destroyed. Genie, I wish for you to restore the giants to their normal size, but without revealing our presence just yet.”
Jin sighed heavily. Couldn’t he at least wish for easy things?
The cauldron Lena had earlier, the Cauldron of Truth, the cosmic knowledge said. That would do it… sort of.
Sort of?
Well, it would turn them into their truest form, so theoretically it would restore their regular height. It just might do more than that.
Close enough, Jin thought, then teleported the cauldron over from where he’d thrown it to a spot right next to the giants.
“That’s Mrs. Hubbard’s cauldron!” someone shouted. “Where did they get that?”
“What?” Lena said, turning in surprise. “Don’t let them near it! They could use it to turn back—”
“That’s… a Cauldron of Truth!” one of the giants shouted. “It must be one of the last remaining in the world!”
Jin took a deep breath to try to calm himself as the Golden King began to giggle creepily. “Perfect,” the king said. “That’s just the thing. I can’t believe this town had a Cauldron of Truth just lying around. They really are their worst enemy.”
Maybe not their worst enemy, Jin thought. Considering you. But definitely a close second.
“Bring it here!” the giant on the ground shouted, and the three giants near the cauldron picked it up and carried it back to him, even as the mob surged forward.
“Creel, don’t let him use it!” Lena shouted at the one giant standing apart, the one who’d identified the cauldron. “You don’t know what it might show!”
“Afraid of seeing what a true giant looks like, girl?” the giant on the ground shouted as the others dropped the cauldron in front of him, then helped him to his feet. “Once I’m back to my normal size, I’ll crush this entire city myself!”
The crowd slowed to a halt at this, looking at each other nervously. “Who brought the cauldron here?” someone shouted.
“Whoever it was, get them!” someone else yelled, and everything descended into chaos.
“No!” Lena shouted, surging forward, but two of the giants grabbed her, holding her in place, as the giant king dipped his hands into the cauldron, then drank greedily from it.
He instantly began to grow, a wild look in his eyes as his size returned to normal. The giants holding Lena had to step back to avoid being crushed, dragging her along with them, as the one she’d called Creel watched nervously. The mob now realized there was a new danger and began pointing and screaming in terror, several of them fleeing back into the city.
“Whoa, now that’s a big boy,” the Invisible Cloud said, whistling softly. “Reminds me weirdly of a giant my father and I faced after it swallowed this guy I hated. Kinda bittersweet, taking the giant down, is what I’m saying.”
The growing giant began laughing, matching the Golden King’s own giggling. “Do you see, girl?” he shouted, looking into the sky as he grew. “This is a true giant! The power to crush you all is mine, and no one will ever take it from me again!”
And then he looked down at the assembled mob below, and his expression changed.
“What… no! They’re everywhere!” he shouted, his face contorting with terror as he took a step back, shaking the ground beneath his feet.
“Your Majesty?” one of the giants holding Lena shouted up. “Are you okay?”
“No, you fool!” he shrieked, looking around at the Cursed City’s residents in horror. “The humans, they’re all around us. Run, before they kill you, too, like they did my brother!”
And with that, he turned away from the city and fled screaming, his long strides taking him right over the Faceless army.
The Golden King turned to watch him go, then shrugged. “Well, that was dramatic. Still, not entirely helpful. I suppose it’s time for the Faceless to wrap things up.” He nodded at Jin. “I wish for them to be visible once again. It’s time for them to wipe this city out.”
CHAPTER 35
Your Majesty!” the giant guards shouted, and turned to follow their king.
“No, wait!” Creel yelled, holding up a hand to stop them. “Don’t you smell that? There’s something out there!”
Lena, barely able to believe what the cauldron had just done to King Denir, looked at Creel in confusion. She sniffed the air, and her eyes widened.
Giants’ sense of smell had always been a bit better than humans, and Creel was right, because right now she could smell the armor of the Faceless men.
But the giant guards either ignored him or didn’t care as they ran after their king… only to come up short as an entire army faded into view in their way.
“The Faceless!” someone shouted from the mob, and they began screaming again, running in multiple directions. But it was too late: the Faceless must have encircled them all while invisible, as the empty-helmeted knights were behind them as well.
“Form up in a circle!” Lena shouted, pulling out her compass arrow and waving it in the air to get people’s attention. “Protect the most vulnerable, put them in the center!”
Lil immediately went clucking into the middle of the forming circle, joining the egg Humphrey and a few others, while Creel, Lena, and the toughest of the townspeople protected them, facing out in every direction as the Faceless advanced.
And then the Faceless attacked, and everything turned into chaos.
People cried out as they were struck by the Faceless’s magic-absorbing swords, and many fell to the ground, writhing around as whatever curse they’d been struck by disappeared. Mr. Ralph’s arm turned human again where he was struck, and he stared down at it in shock. One of the Frog Prince’s entourage frogs was struck and exploded into an old man who looked at his now-human body and began to wail in sadness.
A few of the villagers were able to fight back, using an assortment of rusted pitchforks or rakes, but their makeshift weapons wouldn’t last for long against the Faceless’s swords. There were just too many of them and not enough Cursed City residents who could fight.
The giant guards made themselves useful at least, since their strength hadn’t shrunk with their bodies. But without swords themselves, they’d soon be hit by the Faceless’s weapons, and who knew what would happen next. Would the giants regain their size? Or would the swords take away whatever magic had made them giants in the first place? Lena wasn’t looking forward to finding out, as having to face three airsick giant guards and the Faceless was not something she wanted to think about.
“Stay in the circle!” she shouted, swinging her compass arrow to hold the Faceless off the centaur doctor. One of their swords had cut him deep in his horse hindquarters, and the back of his horse half disappeared into his human torso, turning him fully human again. Another Faceless swung at her, and she managed to knock its sword into the air, but just barely, as her compass arrow kept trying to swing her in the direction of a large wooden tower that had appeared with the Faceless.
She looked in that direction and saw the Golden King and Jin watching from above. But even worse, she could just barely make out the Last Knight behind the king, chained up and captured.
At first, seeing him tied up made her feel even worse about their chances. But what if she could free him? The knight might be able to turn the tide of the battle all on his own. She’d trained with him enough times to know his speed was completely unnatural, too fast to even see.
But if she left the fight to rescue the Last Knight, she’d be abandoning the remaining residents. They could be overrun, even with Creel’s and the other giants’ help!
She growled in frustration, hating that she had to choose, while still knowing she had no choice.
“Rufus!” she shouted, and he came running over to her from the center of the circle where he’d hid, the bravest boy in the whole world, considering how scared she knew he was. She picked up the now completely human former-centaur doctor and tossed him over Rufus’s back. “Get him to Treats Lady, he’s hurt!”
“I do it, Lena!” Rufus shouted, then blurred out as he used his Seven League Boots to leap right through the battlefield. Now that she didn’t have to worry about the centaur anymore, she leapt straight into the Faceless, knocking into the three nearest her with both her shoulder and her compass arrow, hoping to draw them away from the residents as she pushed toward the Golden King and the Last Knight.
Except something scratched her right arm, and then her left, and she felt them both go limp, a numbness traveling through them. One of the Faceless grabbed her arms, and she tried to pull herself free, only to find her giant strength completely gone.
Lena growled in anger, then switched tactics and dove forward, pulling the Faceless holding her arms with her by using her still-powerful leg muscles. She somersaulted, just like the knight had taught her, and sent the creature flying into another Faceless, then jumped back to her feet, readying her compass arrow.
But the sight she found before her made her pull up short, even in the middle of the battle. Because somehow, the two Faceless she’d just crashed together had lost parts of their armor, one its leg and the other its arm.
And hanging from both empty sockets were tiny people, attached to what looked like an elaborate set of pulleys and levers.
“There’s been a breach!” said multiple miniature men in both sets of armor at almost the same time. The minute warriors unhooked themselves and began to disappear in miniscule bursts of magical light even as she tried to make sense of what was happening.
The Faceless were just a bunch of six-inch men in armor, working together? But… but… what?
Something slammed into her from behind, knocking her into the now-empty Faceless armor on the ground in front of her. She kicked back automatically and took down another Faceless, but this time she grabbed his helmet before he could stand back up and yanked it off, then peered down inside as best she could.
Several tiny faces looked up at her in alarm.
“What are you?” she said, reaching in to grab one. “And why are you attacking us?”
“Retreat!” the tiny man in her hand shouted, along with the others. The inside of the armor lit up in that same magical light, but Lena refused to let her captive go: she leaned down and grabbed a Faceless’s sword from the ground, then touched the point to the creature’s tiny hand.
He immediately yelped in pain… and stayed put, robbed of whatever magic had been about to teleport him away.
“Aha!” Lena shouted in triumph. “Now we’re getting somewhere!”
Except the rest of the battle had gone badly while she’d been distracted. Most of the Cursed City residents were now either captives of the Faceless or had been injured by their swords, causing a variety of wild effects. A nutcracker guard had turned entirely to wood, while the former donkey with a great love for cabbages was now a human with donkey ears… still carrying cabbages.
This couldn’t go on. They needed the Last Knight, if they were going to have a chance of saving anyone!
One of the giants roared out in pain as a Faceless sliced into his arm with its sword. That arm instantly grew back to giant size, crashing into several Faceless as it did, then reduced back down to human-sized again, which must have been the multiple magics in effect on the giant. That had been lucky, but the next hit might not be. They needed the knight!
She tied the tiny man from the Faceless armor up in some thread from her pouch, then tossed him into her infinite pouch for safekeeping as she turned back to the siege tower where the king waited… and Jin, as well.
For a genie who seemed to be on everyone’s side at least once, he certainly got around. But he and the king could wait. The knight was the important thing.
She narrowed her eyes, then used the strength still in her legs to leap over to the siege tower. She landed just beside it, then balanced herself and kicked out, taking out the entire bottom of the wooden tower.
As it began to collapse, Lena quickly moved aside, hoping the knight wouldn’t get hurt in the fall. Above, she heard the king yell, “I wish you to save us!”
She heard Jin mutter something angrily, but he and the king appeared next to Lena on the ground as the siege tower collapsed.
Except he hadn’t brought the knight, who had tumbled into the rubble along with the rest of the tower. If the Last Knight ended up hurt, that could end the battle right there.…
“You!” the king shouted, pulling Lena’s attention back to him and the genie. “This is the second piece of my property you’ve dared lay your hands on today. I am getting rather annoyed!”
“Well, good!” Lena shouted back, not knowing what else to do. “You’re a terrible person, and annoyed is the least of what you deserve to feel!”
The Golden King sneered, then turned to Jin. “Listen carefully, genie, as there will be no loopholes in this one. I wish for you to destroy this girl, once and for all!”
CHAPTER 36
Jin felt his entire body go cold, and he turned to stare at the king in shock. “Your… Your Majesty, there’s no need to—”
“I said destroy her!” the Golden King shouted. The king held up his clenched fist. “Do it now or I’ll crush the very life from your worthless self!”
Before he could even respond, Jin’s body folded in on itself, and agony spread like lightning through every inch. The pain was too intense to resist, and he knew he couldn’t keep from fulfilling the king’s wish.
But he also couldn’t harm the one person he’d met who wasn’t completely terrible! What kind of genie would he be if he went around destroying innocents?
THERE ARE NO INNOCENTS!
Weren’t you the one who ruined a bunch of lives on your first wish? Just admit that you’re selfish and like this girl.
The voices were not helping, either with his decision or the pain.
Jin looked up at Lena through the pain and watched as she quickly picked up one of the shadow-magic swords from an unconscious Faceless. She aimed it in his direction, probably hoping to stop whatever magic he used on her, but Jin knew she’d be far too late.
I’m sorry, he mouthed silently to her, not knowing what else to say. And weirdly, he found he really was sorry. For tricking her, for using her to find the Last Knight, and for causing all this horribleness in the first place.
“Do it!” the king roared, sending another wave of pain through Jin.
A scream emerged without Jin even consciously knowing he was doing it. He couldn’t hold on. The king’s control over him would never lessen, never allow him any sort of freedom. The ring gave control over Jin to a human, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Well, almost nothing. He did still have the Spark.
YES! the magic screamed in his head. BREAK FREE FROM YOUR ELDERS’ RULES AND CHOOSE YOUR OWN PATH. WE WILL SHOW THESE EARTHBOUND CREATURES WHO IS IN CONTROL, AND WHO IS DESTINED TO SERVE!
In spite of the pain, Jin slowly smiled. That’s not what I meant.
… WHAT?
I’m sorry, but you’re a little too much like the king, Jin thought at the magic. And I don’t need another one of those in my life.
There was a pause, and then a wave of anger came from the Spark. WHAT ARE YOU DOING? DON’T ALLOW THEM TO CONTROL YOU! RELEASE MY POWER, AND LET IT WASH OVER THE WORLD SO THAT WE MIGHT RULE TOGETHER!
Release your power? Jin almost laughed. That’s the plan!
And with that, in spite of the magic’s previous insistence that he couldn’t, Jin expelled the Spark from his body.
The pain was almost worse than what the king was inflicting. Every inch of Jin felt like it was burning in an eternal flame, and he screamed with all his spirit, just hoping for it to end, but not believing it ever would.
And then the Spark was free, emerging like a ball of fire without its bowl to hold it. As the pain of its expulsion disappeared, Jin could feel the Spark’s fury at him over his rejection of it, and he quickly froze it in midair before it latched onto anyone else.
