A Crystal of Time (The School for Good and Evil The Camelot Years #2) - Soman Chainani Page 0,99

to his knees in the grass, the king’s face a mess of blood.

Like a second wave, Hester, Anadil, and Dot hurtle at him, fingerglows ready, but the Ice Giant spins towards them, hoisting Hester’s demon up by a leg, poised to tear it apart. Hester blanches and stops short, Anadil and Dot too. The Ice Giant thrusts out a finger, magically freezing the witches into blocks of ice. He freezes the demon too, tossing it to the girls’ side.

Rhian’s recovering now . . . limping towards Excalibur. . . .

Onstage, the Fairy Queen of Gillikin slings off her crown, revealing a hive of whip-tailed fairies, who sting Robin and the Sheriff into submission before lifting them up and dropping them down the Sheriff’s own sack. Pirates tie up Beatrix, Reena, and Kiko’s skunk, while Hort lights up his fingerglow, about to morph into a man-wolf, only to be pummeled by the Elf King of Ladelflop, who shoves him to the ground next to Nicola, who he’s already bound.

At the same time, I glimpse a pirate sword abandoned on the stage and duck to my knees, trying to cut myself loose—

A flurry of goose feathers and sweaty weight crushes me. “Your thugs attack my castle and you think you’ll get away with it?” the Empress of Putsi bleats, squeezing my throat.

“Rhian’s thugs . . . ,” I wheeze, but she isn’t listening, her face engorged red, her breath smelling of sausages.

As she strangles me, I see the sword close and inch my fingers onto its hilt, but I can’t breathe with the Empress’s buttocks on my chest, her nails jamming my windpipe. I scrape the swordblade against the rope cuffing my hands. My lungs, already weakened, are collapsing now. My mind fogs black, my field of vision shrinks. . . .

“You didn’t take Peeta into your school,” she boils. “Peeta, a real prince who would have challenged Tedros and warned us he was a fake! But you didn’t take him. Because you wanted to protect Tedros. Just like you’re protecting him now—”

The rope breaks over my wrists.

My eyes meet hers. “I didn’t take your son . . . because he’s . . . a . . . fool.”

I stab a finger and shoot her off me with a blast of light, her shrieks resounding down the hill.

I try to stand, but I’m still choking for air. Around me, our team is beaten back as dozens more pirates surge into battle.

Where are they all coming from?

The enchanted sack, I realize.

Gillikin fairies are pulling them out from inside, biting their binds loose.

The Sheriff must have caught these pirates into his sack, only to now have them used against us.

One of these pirates—the captain, Kei—drags Robin and the Sheriff out of the Sheriff’s sack too, where they’d just been held by the fairies. Both are tied at their hands and feet, and the captain shoves them down onto the stage with the rest of our defeated team, where guards and leaders assail them and my students with weapons and fists. Attacked from all sides, they shrink into the middle of the stage, collapsing on top of each other like lambs mauled by wolves. Agatha and Tedros are the only ones still standing, swinging desperately at Rhian’s men—Agatha using the bag on her arm, Tedros brandishing his knuckles—but they’re both felled in seconds, crashing backwards onto the heap of bodies. Robin, the Sheriff, Guinevere, Hort, the witches, our entire fleet: they’re flailing on the ground, surrounded by the enemy, a pile of flesh being pounded into the stage.

No one bothers with me, the frail shrew who can’t even get up.

Then I see Rhian, stalking towards the stage, blood caking his face like a mask, the Ice Giant at his side. Rhian’s heading for my students, Agatha and Tedros in his crosshairs, Excalibur in his hands.

I will myself to my knees, still dizzy. I have to save them. I have to save the king . . . the real king. . . .

But as I plant my hands on the stage’s planks, something glows through the gaps in the wood.

Green eyes flashing like a stowaway cat’s.

“Sophie,” I gasp.

“Shhh! Is it over yet? Is Rhian dead?”

“No, you spineless twit! We’re all about to die! You have to help us!”

“I can’t! Robin left me a message! He said to make Rhian think I’m on his si—”

She freezes. I do too.

The Queen of Jaunt Jolie is gaping at us from behind the stage, watching me and Sophie conspire like