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

“Well, I can’t be wearing that around all the time, can I? It’s not practical.”

Luna giggled and went to sit back down.

“Spill the beans,” said Lobey, “You’ve kept us waiting long enough.”

Vidya nodded and recounted the story from when Lobey had flown away and Jimmy had taken Pancake and Vidya and pelted deep into the forest, eventually flinging them away and how they found themselves in the Old Country. She revealed what they had told her. Pancake filled in with sound effects, like hissing when the great Python hissed or miming how the great Kangaroo placed the crown on Vidya’s head.

“So we have to go back into the Fae forest!” groaned Willow.

Lotus whooped with joy, shaking his fist in the air. “Let’s do it!” he cried.

“Yes,” said Vidya. “Unfortunately, the King of Trees is deep in the forest, and he is the only one who knows how to fix the Flower of Awakening.”

“And we need to do all this before the Bunyips figure out how to fly over the gap to the palace,” said Lobey. “The one that came after me tumbled right back into the trees. He almost got me, but not quite.”

“There are maps in here,” said Lotus. “Master Sunny showed us at the start of the year.”

“Well, we mustn’t be up to that in our class,” said Lobey irritably, walking over to the Book Tree.

They all watched as Lobey stomped up to the little Bonsai on his table of cards.

“Book Tree, I need a good map of the Fae forest. Where the Wollemi King lives.”

The Bonsai shook his leaves vigorously, then went still.

Lobey turned to gape at them. “Is he saying no to me?” she asked, affronted.

“Book Tree, we are in mortal danger! Tell me where the maps to the Wollemi Pine are!”

The Book Tree shook his leaves angrily again.

“He won’t give them to us,” said Lotus. “Kids aren’t allowed to go into the forest, remember?”

“Why didn’t you tell me before?” grumbled Lobey, stomping back to her seat.

Lotus shrugged and smirked. “I just wanted to see you try.”

“Very funny.”

“But Vidya is Queen now,” came Luna’s soft voice. “And the Queen’s word is law.”

Silence seeped into the room like heavy smoke, and it weighed on Vidya’s shoulders. But she took a deep breath and remembered the great Kangaroo putting the tiara on her head. She strode over to the Book Tree.

“Book Tree, I have a quest that needs to get me to the King of Trees. The Wollemi Pine. Give me a map to him, please.”

The Book Tree bent a little as if bowing and plucked out a single card from his box. Vidya held it up triumphantly, and Lotus whooped with joy, running up to her and plucking the card out of her hand and sprinting into the stacks where the maps were kept.

“Got it!” he said, running back and waving a large square of green leaf paper in the air. He spread it out on the table in the middle, and they all craned their heads to look at it.

“So where does the King of all Trees live?” asked Toad.

“There,” pointed Willow with his sharp eyes.

“Oh no,” said Lobey darkly.

12

The King of Trees

Of all the sacred trees in the Fae forest, the Wollemi Pine reigns as King. He was there at the turn of the world, watching us as we emerged from the earth. Watching as beings came and left the earth. The quiet observer, the quiet knower of things. If there is one who has seen, it is He.

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

The King of Trees, the Wollemi Pine, had put himself in the most protected of locations. Right in the middle of a Cassowary commune. Cassowaries were usually solitary birds, but they had made an exception in the case of the King of Trees. Known as the most dangerous birds alive, they were ferocious and protective, capable of reaching fast speeds and causing real damage in a fight.

Whoever had drawn the map had written, “DO NOT CROSS” in capital letters and red ink. The cassowaries were clearly bad news. It was too bad they’d have to go there and find that out for themselves.

“Oh, for Earth’s sake!” exclaimed Willow, throwing his hands up in the air. “It just had to be in the middle of the most dangerous thing in the world, didn’t it?”

“Well, it looks like the cassowaries have been serving the Wollemi King for millions of years,” said Lobey, running a finger across the page of a thick black book she had found. “The birds are living dinosaurs, they were around before most of the creatures of the Forbidden Zone.”

“Great. Just great,” grumbled Willow.

“You’ll be fine,” stressed Lobey. “Vidya is Fae Queen now, they’ll have to listen to her.”

The next morning, they set off across the bottomless sky, back into the forest. This time, Vidya, Lotus, and Lily also had bows and arrows, just like Willow, and Lotus had given Pancake a sharp rock to keep ‘just in case’. The Bunyips were too strong and clever to risk anymore incidents. If they were to be attacked again, they would get away, even if it meant shooting the things. They branched-hopped with Willow in the lead, as his eyes were the sharpest, and Lotus at the back, as he would be best in a fight if anyone came at them from behind.

They followed the map deep into the forest, and the four children watched their surroundings as it gradually changed. Within the hour, they came to the boundary. Thousands of years ago, an old Fae Queen had, with the permission of each tree, carved out an ‘X’ in their trunks and painted it red. It was a silent, serious reminder of the danger that awaited them. Willow, having reached the boundary first, paused to stare, his wings standing to attention. Vidya fluttered to join him on his branch.

“This is the furthest any of us have ever been into the