Cory had always known that her best friend was a morning person, but she didn’t know that Daisy could be this cheerful. When she heard Daisy singing as she got dressed, Cory stuck her head under the pillow, hoping to block it out. There was no ignoring Daisy, however, when she shook Cory a few minutes later and said, “Rise and shine, sleepyhead. It’s time to get up!”
Cory groaned and sat up when Daisy dragged the covers off her. “What time is it?” she asked as Daisy skipped to Goldilocks’s bed and woke her the same way.
“Time to go eat breakfast!” Daisy cried, dancing out of the way when Goldilocks grumbled and swatted at her. “Get up, you two! We’re going to a royal wedding this very morning! Aren’t you excited?”
“Thrilled to pieces,” Cory said as her feet hit the floor. “I’d be a lot more thrilled if Olot hadn’t made us practice until three in the morning.”
“I don’t care about the wedding,” said Goldilocks. “Let me sleep in and you can tell me all about it later.”
“You know you want to be there!” said Daisy. “Just yesterday you told me how excited you were. Get out of bed, lazybones!”
“Yesterday I’d gotten more than four hours of sleep. Leave me alone!” Goldilocks cried, trying to pull her blankets out of Daisy’s hands.
While the two of them argued, Cory washed up and changed back into the green dress. The night before, Chancy had made each of the girls clips to hold back their hair, so Cory fussed with her new clip while Goldilocks grudgingly got out of bed and started washing. When they were all ready, they started down the stairs, heading for the great hall.
When they entered the hall, they saw that only a few tables had been set aside for breakfast at the end of the room closest to the kitchen. The rest of the hall had been decorated with banners and all the tables and benches had been pushed to the outside walls. Although the breakfast tables looked crowded, people seemed eager to make room for the members of Zephyr. Squeezed in between fans, they ate their breakfast while answering questions about their music, how they came up with songs, how long they practiced, and all sorts of questions that had nothing to do with their music. Cory got two proposals of marriage and heard Daisy get at least that many, one of them from Jarid. Goldilocks was seated at another table, and the men there were all vying for her attention.
Even while being bombarded with questions, Cory kept watch for Rupert. As soon as he came into the room, she was going to take Goldilocks to see him and shoot them both with arrows. Unfortunately, people came and left, but Rupert was not one of them.
Cory and her friends sat at the table long after they’d finished eating, talking to the people around them. They were still there when servants came to clean off the tables and move them out of the way.
When they got up to leave, Cory turned to the woman who had been sitting beside her. “I didn’t see Rupert or Lillian come down for breakfast. Won’t they eat before the wedding?”
“They ate in their rooms today,” another woman answered. “I saw three people carrying trays to Rupert’s room. There was so much food, I bet his groomsmen ate with him.”
“That makes sense,” Cory said, wishing she’d thought to ask earlier.
She wasn’t sure what to do now. She had wanted to shoot them long before this, but the opportunity had never presented itself. It wouldn’t be the end of the world if she didn’t make Rupert and Goldilocks fall in love, but it would be her fault if they were never truly happy.
“Come with me,” she told her friends, and maneuvered the three of them through the crowd forming outside the great hall.
They were waiting when a door near the dais opened to let them in. Cory didn’t mind that the important guests were allowed to enter first, because she had no intention of letting herself get blocked in so she couldn’t move. Instead she made her friends stay with her by the door. They wouldn’t be able to see what was going on very well, but they were out of the way and no one else wanted to stand there. Daisy finally left to join Jarid, but Goldilocks stayed where she was, and that was all Cory needed. No one made them move, so they were still there half an hour later, when the ceremony began.
Cory was sorry that she had to do it this way, but she felt as if she didn’t have any choice. Rupert was standing with his groomsmen in the front, and Lillian had just started walking down the aisle when Cory raised her hands and summoned her bow. A silver bow with a golden string immediately appeared in one hand, while a soft, white leather quiver appeared in the other. Although she strode to the front of the room notching a silver arrow, no one tried to stop her. Time itself had stopped for everyone but her at the exact moment she demanded the bow. No one moved or even appeared to breathe as she crossed to stand in front of Rupert. Glancing at the arrow, she noticed that it said “Rupert Xavier Cole” on the shaft.
Cory had done this so many times that she didn’t hesitate now. Taking aim at Rupert, she shot him in the chest with the arrow, and paused to watch the shimmer of gold puff from his embroidered jacket. Leaving him where he stood, she went back to Goldilocks and pulled another arrow from the quiver. This one was labeled “Goldilocks Cynthia Piper.”
Cory watched the puff of gold expand until it covered both Rupert and Goldilocks in a shimmering glow. Cory’s bow and quiver disappeared as a bright light suffused the couple, lingering for a moment until it suddenly melted away and time began to move again.
Although they were standing on opposite sides of the great hall, Rupert and Goldilocks began to walk at the same time.
“I can’t marry Lillian,” Rupert shouted at his parents as he strode across the hall. “I love another.”
“Don’t try to stop me,” Goldilocks told Cory, brushing past her.
Everyone stood, stunned, as they tried to figure out what was going on. It wasn’t until Rupert and Goldilocks rushed into each other’s arms and kissed that his mother began to scream, Lillian’s mother fainted, and her father turned beet red. King Cole took a flagon from a waiting servant and chugged the contents before sitting down abruptly.
Rupert and Goldilocks didn’t seem to notice anyone but each other. After they’d kissed for a while, they pulled apart long enough to gaze into each other’s eyes before kissing again.
“Stop that right this instant!” Rupert’s mother screamed.
Servants ran to revive Queen Irene as her husband realized that she was lying on the floor.
The commotion finally seemed to get through to Rupert, because he looked up, saw what was taking place on the dais, and turned to face Lillian, who was standing transfixed in the aisle. “I’m sorry, Lillian, but I cannot marry you. I love . . . What is your name again?” he asked the girl in his arms.
“Goldilocks,” she whispered, her eyes never leaving his face.
“I love Goldilocks and she is the one I will marry,” Rupert concluded.
Cory slipped down the wall until she could get a glimpse of Lillian. The princess was staring at Rupert and Goldilocks with her mouth opening and closing like a fish’s. Suddenly, she turned and fled the hall with her bridesmaids running after her.
Cory had done what she felt she needed to do, but that didn’t make her feel any less sorry for Lillian. She had liked the girl well enough, but that hadn’t had anything to do with her job as a Cupid. Without planning to, Cory pictured Lillian in her mind and thought about her match. The image of a young man appeared. It took her a moment to recognize him as Rupert’s friend who had pulled Lillian away when the baby dragons were fighting.
“Oh, great,” Cory muttered. “Now I suppose I have to look for him.”
People were still milling around in the great hall, talking about what they had seen, when Olot summoned the members of Zephyr to the room where they had rehearsed. “Today’s performance has been canceled,” he announced to the gathered band members. “The carriage that brought us here won’t be available to take us back until tomorrow. You can do whatever you want for the rest of the day. I intend to take a nap.” He yawned so broadly that Cory could see his tonsils and long, pointy teeth.
“There’s nothing to do here now,” Skippy complained.
“I’m sure you’ll find something,” said Olot.
The day before, everyone had been excited about the wedding and looking forward to the party afterward. Now the atmosphere was glum and uncertain as no one really knew what was going to happen next.
Left on her own, Cory was free to look for the young man in her vision. She returned to the great hall, hoping to find him there. Because she didn’t know his name, she wasn’t able to ask about him, so she walked around, looking at young men’s faces. She was still looking when she ran into Jarid.
“Do you know where Prince Rupert’s friends are?” asked Cory. “I don’t see any of them here.”
“They left as soon as the wedding was canceled. Rupert disappeared with Goldilocks and wasn’t going to hang out with them, so they had no reason to be here. Why do you ask? Did one of them catch your eye?”
“No!” Cory told him. “At least not in the way you’d think,” she muttered as she walked away.
Cory was leaving the hall when she heard bits and pieces of gossip.
The king and queen were in their private chambers arguing in voices so loud that they could be heard two rooms away.
Prince Rupert and Goldilocks had gone for a long walk on the castle wall and no one had seen them since.
Lillian’s parents had left the island right after the aborted wedding, but Lillian was still there. She had crossed on the ferry, and was unable to leave because the axle on her carriage was broken. It was being repaired, but wouldn’t be ready until the next day, so she was back in the rooms she’d been in before, and refused to come out. No one except her attendants saw her now, and they weren’t talking.
Unable to find Lillian’s match, Cory was just as much at loose ends as everyone else. She spent the rest of the morning in the gardens, but didn’t climb to the top of the wall as she would have liked for fear of running into Goldilocks and Rupert. She didn’t know what to say to Goldilocks, and had even less to say to Rupert, who had become defensive about his newfound love.
Everyone ate an enormous midday meal because the cooks had prepared so much food for the feast after the wedding. Cory borrowed a book from Perky, which she spent the afternoon reading, and ate more of the same wedding food for supper that night. Anticipating an early departure the next morning, all the members of Zephyr went to bed early. It was just Cory and Daisy in the room, however. Goldilocks had yet to show up.
Worried about how she would find Lillian’s match, Cory thought she’d have trouble falling asleep. Instead, she drifted off within minutes of climbing into bed and began to dream almost immediately. In her dream, she was back in the carriage with her bandmates, talking and having a good time, when the highwayman stopped them. Cory stepped outside, and watched the leader of the highwaymen emerge from the woods. His face was covered with a mask, although she could still make out his eyes and chin. There was a cleft in it just like . . . Suddenly, the mask was gone and she could see his entire face. It was the young man she’d seen in the vision of Lillian. The leader of the highwaymen was Lillian’s soul mate.
Cory awoke, wondering if a new ability had just shown itself. It would be helpful if every time she fell asleep wondering who a match might be, she’d have a dream telling her who it was. Of course, that might work only if she’d met the person, and he was in disguise, but even that was a big step. Regardless, she was convinced that her dream had shown her the truth.
And that brought up another problem. The man had stolen from her and her friends. He was a thief! Did she really have to help him? Then again, Goldilocks was a thief and Cory had helped her, despite her initial reservations. If Cory was going to be the best Cupid she could be, could she really pick and choose whom she was going to help? Besides, nobody was ever just one thing. Maybe, aside from stealing jewelry, he was a really good person. But he took her bracelet! How good could he be? Then again, if he was Lillian’s true love, the only way she could help the princess was to help him. She was so confused!
And then there was the question of how to find him, if she was going to help them. She supposed that she could start describing the highwayman to people and hope that she gave a good enough description for someone to recognize him. He was one of Rupert’s friends and a lot of people should know his real identity. But that brought up another problem; she couldn’t come up with a plausible reason for doing it. She certainly wasn’t going to report that he was the highwayman right before she matched him to the princess!
The questions just kept coming, but none of them had easy answers. Cory wrestled with the idea of matching Lillian with this man and how to go about it until she was fully awake and her mind was roiling. The one thing she did know was that she wasn’t going to be able to go back to sleep anytime soon.
Tired of lying there, staring at the moonlight coming through the window while she wondered what to do, she slipped out of bed and reached for the clothes on the trunk. Before going to bed, she had laid out the clothes she was going to wear for the ride home, and they were easy to find in the near dark. Moving as quietly as she could, she tiptoed out of the room and eased the door shut so she wouldn’t wake Daisy.
Although it was still relatively early, the corridors seemed to be deserted. She’d thought that she might go to the great hall and see if there was someone to talk to until she grew sleepy, but the only people there were a few men trying to sleep on benches against the wall and a group of men and women who looked at her as if she were an intruder. Cory turned and went the other way. On a whim, she tried an exterior door and was surprised to find it unlocked. As she opened the door and felt the cool night air on her face, it occurred to her that they probably didn’t need to have locked doors and lots of guards on an island that was so hard to reach.
Although it was cold, Cory didn’t intend to stay outside for long, so she started for the garden, not really thinking about where she was going. She couldn’t help but feel that she should be doing something about finding the highwayman. Short of scouring the countryside looking for him, she couldn’t think of anything to do. It was a ridiculous idea—looking for him in the dead of night when she didn’t know the area or the people. Absolutely ridiculous and she wasn’t going to do it—right?
Once the idea entered Cory’s head, she couldn’t think of anything else. Why couldn’t she go look for him? She was even more awake than she’d been when she got out of bed, and she’d just lie there and worry if she went back to bed now. If she didn’t look for him, she’d probably regret it later when she was unable to make a match for Lillian, the woman whose future she’d changed so drastically. If Cory wasn’t able to find the princess’s love match, she just knew it would make her feel guilty for the rest of her life. She’d go look for him, but she wouldn’t do it for long, she told herself. If she didn’t find him in a few hours, she’d give up and consider it an impossible job. She was sure there would be a lot of people she couldn’t match up over the years.
Cory was in the garden, out of sight should anyone be looking out of the castle, when she thought wings! Her wings appeared behind her, creamy in the pale moonlight. As she spread them wide, she didn’t think about the cold breeze that had covered her with goose bumps, or that Chancy had told them that the wind was reputed to be wild and rough coming off the waterfalls. When she took off, all she thought about was finding the highwayman.
The wind hit her as soon as she passed beyond the limits of the island. She was so distracted and it hit her with such force that she flipped over. Righting herself, she fought to keep her flight steady. Although she had learned to slip in and out of air currents, letting them help her when she could, these were conflicting currents, taking her one way, then another. All she could do was let them carry her toward the shore, going this way and that, working her way there in small increments until she was above land and could set her feet on the ground.
After resting her wings for a minute or two, she took to the air again, heading back to the ferry landing so she could find the road they had used before. Spotting the jetties, she turned inland and flew over the road, looking for riders lurking among the trees.
Cory knew very little about highwaymen other than what she’d read in The Fey Express. They worked in groups, stayed to well-frequented roads, and often found their prey in taverns where unsuspecting travelers talked about where they were going. One article she’d read had told the reader how to avoid becoming the victim of highwaymen by not talking about plans or destinations when stopping for a meal, and not to flaunt one’s wealth to anyone on the road. What it didn’t say was where to look for a highwayman when you needed one.
Cory had flown a third of the way through the forest when she saw a tavern nestled in a curve in the road. Remembering what she had read, she landed behind the building and wished her wings away. Dressed in slacks and a shirt that were normal at home but would stand out here, she decided to do what she could to avoid being noticed while she looked around the tavern. The back door to the building was close to where she landed, so she opened it and peeked inside. A hallway ran from the front of the tavern to the back. Loud voices and music came through the doors on the right side of the hallway, while the clang of pots and pans came from a room to her left.
Cory pulled the outside door closed most of the way when the kitchen door slammed open and a barmaid backed out, loaded down with a heavy tray. The barmaid turned and kicked the door on the other side of the hall, opening it to reveal a large room filled with people eating and drinking. Candles on the tables and the light from a crackling fire in the fireplace were the only illumination in the room.
While the barmaid unloaded plates from her tray, Cory slipped in after her, staying in the shadows. The heads of deer and boar had been mounted on the wall. Farther down, a full-grown bear reared over the customers, his fur ratty from age and poor taxidermy. When she didn’t think anyone was looking, Cory edged along the wall to the shadows behind the bear and turned to study the people.
She saw a few families, but most of the customers were rough-looking men. One table was made up of hunters who talked about the boar they had almost killed, although it sounded as if the boar had almost killed them. Knights-for-hire were seated at a second table, weighing the merits of working for one king or another. It was the men at the table in the back corner that finally caught her eye, however. She saw nothing but their backs and bent heads for the first few minutes she was there. It wasn’t until one of them turned and called for more ale that Cory saw their faces and recognized the man with the hawk nose. Two of his companions seated at the table had also been among the highwaymen.
Cory edged a little closer to hear what they were saying.
“He wants us there early,” the hawk-nosed man said, turning back to his friends. “The carriage should be ready to go by the first ferry crossing.”
“Just as long as we get the right one this time. I almost wet myself when I saw that ogre!”
The men all laughed, but Cory felt her heart skip a beat. They were going to stop another carriage the next day. The only people who had yet to leave the castle and were going to travel by carriage were Princess Lillian and the members of Zephyr, and these men didn’t seem to want to stop Zephyr again.
Suddenly, the men grew quiet. They were all looking at one man whom Cory was horrified to see was staring directly at her. He said something so softly that she couldn’t hear it, and they all turned to look her way.
Cory backed away from the bear, their eyes still on her. When the men all stood at once, she turned and ran along the side of the room. Dashing through the door, she almost ran into the barmaid carrying another tray of food out of the kitchen. Apologizing under her breath, Cory shoved the girl at the men who were following her. Cory was thankful that they still hadn’t locked the back door as she darted out of the tavern and into the forest. She thought wings! as she ran, and opened them as soon as she reached a big enough gap in the trees.
The men were stumbling through the forest, looking for Cory, when she took flight. Afraid that they’d see her cream-colored wings in the moonlight, she flew up at a steep angle, rising above the trees in moments. The men were still looking for her as she started back to the castle.
It didn’t take long to reach the river when she wasn’t looking for people hidden among the trees. This time she was prepared for the winds, and started flying over the water from a point slightly upriver of the castle. She endured the buffeting until she was over the island. The wind stopped abruptly at the edge of the water, almost as if there were an invisible wall keeping out all but the lightest breeze.
Cory was sore and tired and could easily see how a fairy’s fragile wings would never have withstood the wind. She was looking for a place to land when the blue baby dragon appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Opening his mouth, the dragon exhaled a narrow blast of flame, forcing her to change direction. The dragon swerved after her, close enough for his flame to warm her feet, but not enough to burn her. They crisscrossed the island this way, racing over and around buildings while Cory tried to think of a way to lose him. Maybe, she thought, the wind could actually help.
When she flew to the north end of the island, she wasn’t sure if her idea would work, but thought it was worth trying. Instead of swerving to follow the contour of the island, she plunged directly into the wind, letting it whip her aside and toss her around until she was able to get her bearings. At one point she saw the dragon flipping over and over, struggling against the wind. Although she felt sorry for the little beast, the whole point was to get away from him, so she fought her way back to the island, landing just outside the castle door. She was about to go inside, but couldn’t knowing that the dragon might get hurt because of something she had done. Sighing, she turned around and rose into the air again.
It didn’t take her long to find the little dragon. He was so dazed and disoriented that he didn’t struggle when Cory grabbed him. Fighting her way back to the island, she set him in the garden and backed away before closing her wings. The dragon groaned and fell over. When she poked him with her foot to see if he was still alive, he opened one eye and looked at her. Satisfied that she had done what she could, Cory headed back into the castle.
Although she would have loved a long hot bath to ease her aching muscles, Cory changed back into her nightgown and climbed into bed. She was pulling the covers up when she noticed that there was a third person in the room. Goldilocks had returned and was asleep on her back, snoring softly.