The Fae Princess (The Pacific Princesses Book 2) Ektaa Bali (free ebook reader txt) 📖

When her eyes adjusted, her grandmother reached forward and hugged her tightly.

“I remember thinking the exact same thing—” she leaned back and tugged Vidya’s chin lightly, “—with the exact same sad face. I found my guardian when I was twelve. It’s late, to be sure, but it was only because my old friends are rare and dangerous trees. So it stands to reason, that when you find yours, it will be a plant you never expected. Something rare and wonderful. Little known to most people. There are some wonderful plants out here, Vidya. I just know when you find out what it is, it will be well worth the wait.”

4

The King's Warning

The Fae poets will write sonnets of the way the wind moves through the trees. The way sunlight kisses the petals of a flower. But the thing they will write most about is the way the Fae tend to their guardian plant. A love like that does not exist anywhere else.

—The Book of the Fae, Queen Mab the First, 3333 B.C.

Vidya woke up with a start and realised she had been drooling on top of an old book called ‘The Legend of the Flower of Awakening’.

“Yuck,” she said, wiping the pages of the book with the sleeve of her dress.

She had been researching about Fae magic late last night, and this book told the story that all Fae parents told their children at bed-time. That, at the dawn of time, the Flower of Awakening sung her song and woke the Fae up from the earth. The Fae then sprung onto the land and learned the song of the flower and came to know themselves. The flower gave them knowledge and wisdom, instructing them they were to be guardians of the earth forevermore. But it was just a bedtime story. A fairytale. A myth.

A noise like the whistle of a bird drew Vidya’s attention to the corner of the room. She was surprised to see Master Sunny snoring, sitting slumped in his teacher’s chair, his chin resting on his chest, rising and falling with each snore.

Vidya looked out the window. The sun was high in the sky. She sat up straight in alarm. She had come into the library after dinner to do some research like Nani had told her to do. Had she actually slept here all night? Why had nobody woken her up and told her to go to bed?

She stretched and looked around the library, and her eyes fell upon a librarian stretched out on her tummy on the floor, purple wings folded around her, sleeping with her head resting on an arm. She recognised her as Librarian Rose, a cranky old Fae who didn’t like her books touched. That was unusual. Why would Rose be sleeping on the floor? Vidya quickly stood and rushed over to the old Fae to see if she was okay, casting her eye about to see if anyone else in the library had noticed. But there was no one else in the library at all. When she reached Rose, she touched her arm.

“Hello, Rose? Are you alright?” she asked.

The librarian made no move, just continued to snore. Vidya stood up.

Had someone tricked the librarians into taking a sleeping potion? That would make a funny joke to be sure, but she just couldn’t imagine anyone doing that. A joke isn’t very funny when the people you’re playing the joke on are too fast asleep to laugh about it.

Looking around and seeing nobody else, Vidya walked toward Master Sunny.

“Master Sunny, are you alright?” she asked in a loud voice. She poked him, but he made no response. She jumped back in surprise. What was going on?

The door behind her flew open with a BANG, and a blur of electric blue wings rushed toward her.

“Help!” Toad cried as the triplets screeched to a halt in front of her.

“Oh my Earth, Vidya!” cried Luna.

“We have a seriously big problem,” said Lobey in a disgusted voice.

“What’s going on?” Vidya asked, looking at each of them in turn. Outside, she could hear a couple of kids calling out to each other.

“It’s the adults,” said Lobey, walking over to Master Sunny, poking him hard on the forehead. “See? They’re all dead asleep. Won’t wake up.”

“We tried throwing water on them,” wailed Toad. “And then we tried pinching them, but nothing is working!”

Vidya’s mind raced. Her parents. She pushed through Lobey and Luna and ran as fast as she could out of the library, using her wings to move her faster along. She got to the stairs that led to higher levels and shot upward straight into the air, propelling herself into the King and Queen’s rooms.

“Mother!” she cried, racing into her parent’s room. Vidya pushed open the door and found her mother and baby Mahiya snuggled up on her parents’ bed. She walked up to them, feeling the triplets enter the room behind her. Her mother slept peacefully, as did baby Mahiya, who grumbled, turned, and opened her mouth, suckling at her mother’s breast.

“Mahiya is awake, it looks like,” she breathed.

A groan made all four of them look to the far side of the room. Vidya frowned and rushed to the other side of the bed where she found her father lying on the floor. He looked like he had fallen out of the bed.

“Father!” she cried, rushing over to crouch next to him.

“Vidya….” her father mumbled with his eyes still closed. “Vidya…”

“What’s going on, father?” she asked quickly. “What do I do?”

“Fae magic is fading,” he tried to lift his head, but failed and weakly lay back down. “Stronger… in children… prepare, Vidya… keep… safe.”

“Prepare for what?”

The king coughed, fighting the sleep. He choked out a single word.

“War.”

Vidya’s heart turned to ice as her father’s head fell back and he began snoring just like Master Sunny. She looked up to meet Lobey’s eyes, shining with fear.

“He said—”

“I heard what he said, Lobey,” said Vidya roughly, getting to her feet.

“War?” whispered Luna,