A Crystal of Time (The School for Good and Evil The Camelot Years #2) - Soman Chainani Page 0,115

the stampede—

“I’m with Priyanka!” Bodhi claimed.

“Can’t leave your best mate for a girl!” Laithan carped.

“It’s like Sophie and Agatha but with boys,” Bossam sniggered.

Castor grabbed all three—“I’LL ASSIGN TEAMS ’CAUSE I KNOW WHO’S GOT BRAINS AND WHO’S A DONKEY”—before the dog herded more first years into the water and leapt through behind them.

More faculty followed: “Suppose Rhian sends his men to the school again?” Professor Sheeks asked.

“Without the students present, we’ll have full license from the Storian to defend ourselves,” Professor Manley growled. “Uma, any word from the fairies? You sent them to find help days ago.”

“Been scouring the Woods for the League of Thirteen,” Princess Uma replied. “Won’t rest until they find one of the old League members who can help. . . .”

Hort nudged Beatrix on the way out. “How do we share information while we’re in different places?”

“Professor Anemone has Agatha’s old courier crow from Camelot. We can use it to send messages,” said Beatrix.

“Not secure enough,” said Hort. “What we need is a squirrelly nut.”

“For all we know, squirrels are on Rhian’s side too,” Kiko pipped.

“What’s a squirrelly nut?” Nicola butted in.

More first years vanished into the waterfall with them—Aja, Valentina, Bossam, Bert, Beckett—with Ravan, Vex, Mona, Dot, Anadil, and others surging through the exit too, until there was no one left in the throne room except the cat king and the three who knew him best: Tedros, his princess, and his nemesis.

The last of the three yawned. “Lovely, everything’s settled,” Sophie sighed against the velvet wall, forcing fireflies to march around her. “I’m going to have a cucumber salad, draw myself a foam bath, and take a long, warm nap.”

“That won’t be happening,” said Reaper, slipping Sophie’s necklace around his own neck. “You three have the most difficult assignment of all. That’s why I saved it for when we could be alone. Because it is the ultimate mission. The mission that supersedes all the others. The mission that must be accomplished if Tedros is to reclaim his crown.”

Sophie pursed her lips, eyeing Agatha.

But the cat was only looking at the prince.

“You must find out why Excalibur wouldn’t pull out of the stone for you,” he said.

Reaper turned to Agatha and Sophie. “And both of you must help him.”

“That isn’t a mission. That’s a dead end,” said Tedros, shaking his head. “I tried to pull the sword. I tried everything. And then a stranger pulls it in one go. I asked Merlin and he didn’t have answers either, except for some crackpot riddle telling me to ‘unbury’ my father. I’ve racked my brain to understand it, any of it, but there’s nothing to understand. Because none of it makes sense! How am I supposed to know what Excalibur was thinking? How am I supposed to learn a sword’s state of mind?”

“The same way Merlin and Professor Dovey did before their work was interrupted,” said Reaper.

His eyes glowed—instantly, the bag on Agatha’s shoulder yanked open and the crystal ball flew out, landing snugly in the cat’s paws.

“Because while you were on your fourth-year quests, Merlin and Clarissa Dovey were on a quest of their own,” the cat explained, holding up the glass orb. “Namely, using Dovey’s crystal ball to find out why Tedros failed his coronation test. Turns out breaking a crystal ball allows you to do things that a normal crystal ball does not. A working crystal ball is a window to time. But Merlin and Dovey discovered quite accidentally that a broken crystal ball is more than a window . . .” Reaper leaned forward. “It’s a portal.”

“A portal?” Sophie and Agatha said.

“A portal you three will now enter together,” Reaper clarified. “The risks are steep. We’ve seen its effects on Good’s Dean.” He looked at Tedros. “But entering the crystal world is the only way you’ll ever learn the truth about your father, your sword, and your fate.”

“What do you mean, ‘crystal world’?” Agatha said, flummoxed. “There’s a world . . . inside the crystal ball?”

“A world bigger than you could possibly know,” Reaper said.

Tedros frowned. “This doesn’t make sense. How do you know what’s inside Dovey’s crystal?”

“How do you know what Merlin and Dovey saw?” Sophie asked.

“How could you know what they saw?” Agatha pressed.

Reaper grinned. “Isn’t it obvious?” he said, his voice a teasing drawl.

The cat’s pupils deepened like black holes.

“I went with them.”

19

AGATHA

Into the Crystal World

Agatha watched the crystal ball sink into the water.

“Nothing’s happening,” said Tedros, next to her.

“Good, because if you expect me to get wet again . .