Flying Fancies Episode Four

By Odette C. Bell

Beatrix and Darian might be back together. It won’t last. For the war is here.
They are thrust into the heart of bloody battle. But the real fight isn’t over land – but the truth. Both Darian and Beatrix carry secrets that must be discovered. But what is a good thief like Darian to do when the walls close in, an army is at his door, and the end is near?
Why, it’s time to steal the future, of course. With one particular princess’s heart thrown in for good measure.
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Flying Fancies follows a charming thief and a runaway princess as they take to the skies to save the lands. If you love your historical fantasy with magic, heart, wit, and a smattering of romance, grab Flying Fancies Episode Four today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.
Flying Fancies is the fourth Trapped by Your Side series. In this world, witches can be indentured by strong wizards - if the wizards are stupid enough to try. Witty, fun, and fast, they'll appeal to fans of light historical fantasy and cozy mysteries.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Odette C. Bell
• Release date: Apr 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215599228

Book preview

Chapter 1

Beatrix Fontaine

I… I should black out. I ought to collapse and never rise, in fact. I’d gone beyond. Far beyond where I usually did when practicing healing magic.

At the sight of Arnold trying to break Darian’s neck, I’d found this reserve in me. One that was meant to be there to keep me alive through thick and thin. I’d used it. But somehow I was still alive anyway. For now. As Darian embraced me, we saw the wall crumbling further and more digging objects pushing through.

Eileen stood before them, hands in her pockets, eyes directed at me.

I didn’t think I had ever seen a darker gaze. It could sweep you up, remove every light moment of your life, and leave you as nothing more than a husk. A husk with a very important purpose.

A mechanical one.

Eileen pointed forward. Darian collapsed around me harder and brought up a hand to practice ice magic, but there was no way he could. He was simply not fast enough against Eileen’s incredible devices. I thought she’d only brought diggers with her, but right before my eyes, one of them transformed.

Wings spurted out of its back with a metallic crack. It shot high into the air then ejected something from its nose, the tip opening with a pneumatic hiss. A net fell over Darian and me. It was no ordinary net, however. If it were, he would’ve been able to break through the strands of rope with ice. These were made out of the same filamentous substance as those honey spider sacs. They had been spelled to steal any magic they came in contact with, however. And as Darian was wrapped around me, they mostly touched him.

The effect was instantaneous. His eyes widened with this horrible spasm. His lips opened, and what sounded like a final gasp escaped them.

Darian, I lifted my hand as fast as I could, even though that was at a snail’s pace, to touch his face.

But his eyes closed.

We had only just found one another. We would be taken from one another’s side soon enough, however.

I didn’t know why Eileen was so confident of the structural stability of this room. More of the back wall crumbled. An enormous digger appeared. Its nose was replete not just with a terrifyingly large spinning drill bit – but with magic. It was strange. It crackled in spurts of blue-black lightning.

I thought I’d seen it somewhere before, but I couldn’t be certain. And I had far more to distract myself with, anyway.

As Darian collapsed against me, my body stupidly went to heal him once more. But the more I healed him, the more the rope net would take from him.

I was quite certain he was unconscious. As I wrapped my hand around his wrist, I soon found out he wasn’t. For Darian, it seemed, would always remain awake whenever I tried to heal him. Or at least, whenever I uselessly tried to waste my life.

He couldn’t speak. He could barely breathe in a coordinated fashion. He still grasped hold of my wrist and shook his head once.

It gave Eileen’s droning footfall time to reach us. She stopped several meters away, not close enough to those discharging slices of lightning to be struck by them. Perhaps, if she were, she’d finally succumb to one of her pieces of barbaric technology.

It was a hope that was soon dashed. For she walked straight over. She reached through the net, her slim hand easily pushing through the holes in the rope. She grasped Darian’s shoulder just before he could black out entirely.

One of his eyes opened. The other remained closed as if someone had stapled it to his skull.

I told you, Darian, she said in a deep voice that felt like it was crafted from the earth. The gifts of the earth, that was. Every metal, every ore, and every destructive natural force. I always come good on my promises.

And what promise was that? Darian hissed.

You don’t remember?

It seems I forgot a lot about who you truly were, Eileen. It was a miracle he could say that, a miracle he could keep speaking despite his condition.

But miracles can depend on how much energy we’re willing to invest in something. And I could see from the muted but still blazing look in his eyes that Darian would get this said.

I still didn’t understand precisely what had happened between the two of them in childhood, but it was clear it was a formative experience for Darian. It had been his whole past. Somewhat like my father had been the most important part of my past.

And one cannot outrun history.

Crown Princess, she corrected in that same deep and powerful tone. And the promise, Darian, her hand shot up to his chin, and she gripped it hard until his skin started to turn white, is I’d take you to the stars.

Darian’s eyes closed. Then they twitched open. I was now so very good at reading him that I could tell he remembered this.

Take me… to the stars? That was a throwaway comment between children, he gasped.

I do not make throwaway promises. What I say, I do. And before this is through, we will reach the stars. Or the next best thing. She dropped his chin dramatically and took a step back.

She waved her hand at the largest digger, and a hatch opened in the side. Long lines of white steam issued around it as a platform built itself from metal, the knitting and twisting sound of it the strangest thing I’d ever heard.

She took one step up the ramp. She looked quite dramatic indeed with the atmosphere continuing to vent around her. Her lustrous hair slid over her shoulder, her flight goggles framing her flat eyebrows as she turned to Darian once more. Strap in. Before the week’s over, this world will be ours.

Darian’s hand twitched toward Eileen.

I knew the direction of where it wanted to go even though it didn’t have the strength to stretch that far. Because he’d done a similar thing to me multiple times.

I hesitated, then with the last of my strength, scooped up his hand and helped him force it forward.

Did he still have feelings for Eileen? I wanted to believe he couldn’t. But—

Darian looked at me once. He shook his head as if he knew what I was thinking, then turned to Eileen once more. You don’t need this world. You don’t need the stars. Stop, Eileen.

How? I’ve already come too far. Bring them. Separate her, Eileen said as she disappeared through the hatch into a well-lit room beyond.

The last thing I saw was the dismissive wave of her hand. And the last thing I felt was Darian fruitlessly wasting the rest of his remaining energy on trying to clutch hold of me. His fingers, weak as they were, squeezed in around my arm.

But soon powerfully built men wearing steam contraptions around their arms and feet wrenched him away. They broke through the net easily. They looked as if they were wizards underneath all of that muscle, but they were quite immune to the magic-sapping properties of this net. They got tremendous amounts of that yellow sticky substance on them, but it didn’t affect them in the least.

Me, I was struggling to stay awake. I had used far too much energy. I ought to be nothing more than a dribbling mess on the floor – forever. But I still remained conscious sufficiently long enough to be yanked back from Darian.

His eyes opened, his mouth spasmed wide, and he screamed my name. But soon enough, one of those large, burly wizards carried him away over one shoulder. He was loaded into the digger. I, on the other hand, was taken away.

As I was, I saw many more of those bedecked steam wizards rushing through the room, gathering up the remaining soldiers. They even took the original Arnold. I was most certain that we had killed him – not of course that kill was the correct word for someone who’d never been alive. But they could not turn him back on, could they?

Who knew? In the place of facts, all I had were questions. And they circled me like birds of prey.

They tore at my weak body and even weaker spirit. For there is only so much you can fight. When war looms from every corner, eventually, you must give up.

For what is the alternative? To fight on until the end? Losing every single scrap of your faith along the way?

I supposed I would have to find out.

Chapter 2

Darian Gram

This digger was so much larger on the inside than it was on the outside. And, as it had been touched by the perfect hand of Eileen, it was far more opulent than it ought to be.

I could feel the base of this massive machine shuddering. It soon turned around, and I felt it tunneling through the wall again. But Beatrix was never loaded onto the machine.

It had three major rooms. I was in the central one. The one toward the aft appeared to house the technical aspects of this device that made it work. I saw a glimpse of some giant throbbing engine running on blue crystals. The front of the device was no doubt where the pilot directed the vehicle from. In the middle… why, the middle looked like a sitting room you might find in a fine house in the capital city of any well-to-do country.

There was even a leather recliner and an attractive red and blue patterned carpet. I noted that both the carpet and the recliner were bolted down, no doubt to withstand the rhythmic disruptions of the drill.

Eileen then walked over, sat down, crossed her long legs, placed her elbow on the plush armrest, and looked at me. Why do you always have to do things the hard way, Darian?

There was a single light fitting in this room. For aesthetic purposes I imagined, Eileen had chosen a small chandelier. It shook about wildly as the drill dug through the earth. It never fell. And Eileen seemed to like the dramatic lighting it brought as it jerked back and forth, pushing her into illumination then shadow then back again.

I have to say, it matched her perfectly.

And it only made me more nervous.

Where’s Beatrix? What have you done to her?

Beatrix will be used as she was originally intended to be used. Eileen uncrossed her legs and crossed them from the other side. She sat back further in the recliner and considered me. I wondered exactly what was going on behind her eyes.

Then again, while Eileen was a powerful mind, she was also a direct one. She did not require subterfuge like me. If she wanted something, she didn’t slip her hand into your pocket to take it. She slapped you and took it from you in public.

Do you have feelings for that poor little creature, Darian?

Poor little creature? She’s the Crown Princess—

Eileen looked down at herself then up at me. Even her father considered her nothing more than an object. And wouldn’t you? Sorry, didn’t you? I learned that you indentured her, dear. Useful, that. If she ever slips my custody, I can find her again. Now, before you get het up, Darian, you’re the one who treats everyone in your life like objects. I am well versed with that.

I stood there, mouth slipping open as I considered her words. Then I laughed once. You were the one who threw me away.

I got to an age where I could no longer associate with you, as per the palace rules. You were removed from the palace. You chose every step you took next.

I continued to just stare at her. You threw me out—

We fundamentally came from two different walks of life, as they say these days. You chose to become a thief. You chose to disappear amongst the riff raff. She waved her hand dismissively.

And what exactly did you expect me to do, Crown Princess?