Chapter 10

The next day, about a day before my birthday…

I woke up to blinding light. I was in bed, looking up at the ceiling – the next moment, I was falling out of bed then trying to stand on my feet. I walked on over the balcony to look out the window to see a girl in a bathrobe standing there. She was looking down at her fingernails, which were painted purple; she looked at me in an awkward manner.

“Hey, who the heck are you? You new here?” She asked. I said nothing. “You’re not the talky type, now are you?”

I shook my head.

“Hmm, I see, heard there’s a wedding tonight, gonna be a big one, y’know?”

“It will be,” I murmured, “Everyone is coming…”

“I can’t hear you!”

I walked away from the window and into the bathroom.

“Ok, if you want to play it like that…”

That was Naivel; she walked back into the room to see Wolfgang and Dr Krankcase waiting on the bed.

“You forgot about Venima didn’t you Cadence?” Krank said

“I know her already, I was just pretending that I didn’t recognise her face; and stop calling me by my ‘real’ name.”

“If you say so...”

“There’s a wedding tonight, our mission now is to fetch the girl once everyone is asleep. If we just walk into the wedding uninvited then we’re toast. Wolfgang, you look for her room on the left side of the palace, also you can be the distraction. Krankcase, you can look on the other side. And if y’all mess up, we’ll get fired!”

“Yeah, and we don’t want that now do we?” Said Wolfgang.

I came back out the bathroom and into the sunshine, wearing a minty green dress and a couple roses in my hair. I thought I saw a sugarbat in the flowers – there were a pair of ears sticking out of it. Was that who I thought it was? No, couldn’t be… I turned around. Then rustling and flapping came.

“Well, if it isn’t my good ol’ bud Venny. Long time since I saw you as a human.” It was Swift.

“Swift! I’m so glad to see you – wait a minute, are you meant to be here?” I was excited but worried about seeing him at the same time.

“Well, yeah, us Sugarbats don’t just roam in Cloudbreak, we like to see the outside world, you know?” He said flying onto my arm.

“That’s interesting. I have bad news, however; I have to marry this prince tonight, he’s a snobby guy and I don’t trust him.”

“Just roll with it,” Swift advised me, “he’s probably a nice guy.”

“I guess; I just realised this is a pretty public place and people are looking at us, thinking I’m a weirdo because I’m talking to a sugarbat.” I took Swift into the bedroom and closed the curtains, then sat on the armchair.

“Tell you what, Venima, I’ll watch through the windows tonight to keep an eye out for any evil.”