More Bones (9 page)

A horrendous rumble vibrated throughout the cave. The water carrier and the shopkeeper had been peering down the steps, but they jumped back the moment they felt the stones shaking. The floor beneath their feet crashed shut. The men were stunned. The prediction on the scroll had come true.

The greedy official was trapped—enchanted forever.

It took a moment for the two friends to realize their good fortune. They were
free
! They picked up the bags of treasure and hurried up the steps. No one saw them emerge from the cave. Not even the gossipy neighbor. He had gone to bed early, too tired that night to cause any trouble.

But the donkey was there—the beloved donkey that the official had stolen. Peregil hugged its furry neck. “I can take you home!” The men headed down the path, thankful that they had escaped with their lives. Never again could that greedy official mistreat man or beast. And never again would anyone plunder the treasure beneath the Alhambra—for the scroll and candle were buried forever.

The Witch of the Woods

EASTERN EUROPE

 
 
Princess Sybil loved to explore the vast forest that lay at the edge of her parents' kingdom. She didn't worry about creatures lurking there. What harm could befall her?

“If you're not careful,” warned the queen, “the Witch of the Woods will catch you.”

Sybil smiled at her mother. But nothing could stop her from walking in the forest. She didn't even believe in witches. So she continued to slip out of the castle whenever she could. One day she heard an owl hooting deep in the woods. She followed the sound until she saw the bird perched in an old pine tree. She wanted a closer look, but when she began to climb up the tree, the owl disappeared around the other side.

Sybil kept climbing and grabbed a branch that felt squishy on the outside and hard within.

“Gotcha!” said the Witch of the Woods.

The next thing the princess knew, she was nose to nose with the most hideous creature she had ever met. The witch leaned around the tree trunk to get a good look at the princess. The princess leaned away as far as she could. But the witch held tight. Sybil had never seen anyone quite so awful. The witch's hair was a tangle of dead weeds. Her face was as wrinkled as a dried apple. The skin on her arms looked like crumpled tree bark. And her eyes! Those horrible, glowing eyes! The princess was afraid they would burn right through her. Why, oh, why had she doubted her mother's warning?

“I've been hoping to catch a lovely young girl,” rasped the witch. “I won't let you go unless you promise to give me your first love. I want a young husband.”

The princess had no idea who her first love would be. But the thought of giving anyone to the witch was appalling. Sybil forced herself to stare right into the witch's glowing eyes.

“I won't do it,” she said.

“Oh yes, you will,” cackled the witch. “Or I will make you my slave.”

The princess was scared, but she wasn't going to let the witch know. “If you do,” she said, “my father and his warriors will kill you.”

The witch hooted. “How could anyone kill me? No one can find me.”

“I just did,” said the princess.

“Oh no, you didn't,” said the witch. “
I
found
you
. But I'll make you a bargain. If you can find where I live within three days, I'll claim neither you nor your first love.”

“And if I don't?”

The witch clutched the princess's arm so hard that her long fingernails dug in. “If you
don't
. . . I will marry your first love,
and
I'll make you my slave besides.”

The princess knew it was a wretched bargain. Just three days? To find a witch who could supposedly change herself into any animal or bird on earth, or hide under a rock if she pleased?

“I won't agree unless you give me a clue,” said the princess, trying to keep her teeth from chattering.

The witch thought for a moment. “Clues won't help you,” she said, “but here's one:

 
She let go of the girl's arm, turned herself into an owl, and flew away.

The princess lowered herself from limb to limb until she reached the ground. She slowly walked back to the castle. What was she going to do? Did she dare ask the king or queen for help? If she did, they would know she'd
been in the forbidden forest. She was still trying to decide when she entered the castle, but her parents were not there. The king was leading his warriors into battle, and the queen had gone to visit Sybil's grandmother in the next kingdom.

Sybil would have to find the witch herself—in just three days.

The next morning, the princess returned to the forest so early that dew still clung to the grass. She walked for miles, zigzagging and backtracking, peering into caves, behind trees, and under rocks. She tramped through the forest all that day, but she found no trace of the witch's home.

On the second day, the princess searched for anyone who could help. She asked an old woodcutter, a woman who lived in a forest hut, and villagers nearby, but no one knew where to find the Witch of the Woods.

On the third morning, the princess felt desperate. She had only one day left. She wondered if the witch had become an owl again. All day long, Sybil scanned the treetops until her neck ached. She even climbed a huge pine to look out over the forest. But she saw nothing resembling a witch, only squirrels and foxes and every song-bird imaginable.

When she had lowered herself almost down to the ground, she saw something suspicious. She held tight to the tree and didn't make a sound. For there below her, a deer was scooting past—but it didn't look quite like a deer. Its eyes glowed like those of the witch.

The moment it ran past, Sybil dropped down from the tree and chased it, staying out of sight as best she could. Several times she almost lost track of it, but finally it stopped by an abandoned well. Sybil peeked around a tree and saw, to her amazement, that the deer was shrinking down to the ground and turning into a little green frog. With one gigantic leap, the frog disappeared into the well.

Sybil heard the splash and rushed over in time to see the frog swim to one side, where there seemed to be an opening. The princess was so eager to follow that she didn't even test the rope that held the bucket. She just climbed in and lowered herself down to the spot where the frog had disappeared. Luckily the old rope held. There on the side of the well she saw a small door—firmly closed—with an iron knocker in the shape of a
scorpion.

Instantly Sybil knew this must be the place “where the scorpion's voice resounds.” She had found the door to the witch's home. She was so excited she almost fell out of the bucket, but she made herself wait until she heard the witch snoring. Then she quickly twisted the iron scorpion off the door and put it into her leather pouch. It was harder to pull herself out of the well than it had been to lower herself in, but she tugged on the rope, hand over hand, until she reached the top. Then she raced back to the castle and hid the iron scorpion under her bed.

At midnight an owl flew out of the moonlit forest. It swooped through the princess's window and landed beside her. Sybil sat up and saw that its eyes were glowing. Much as she wanted to dive under the covers, she watched its head turn hideous and its feathers disappear. The owl became the Witch of the Woods. Sybil had expected her, but she still shrank back.

“You didn't find my home,” the witch chortled. “So you and your first love will be mine.”

“You're wrong,” said Sybil. Her hands were shaking, but she reached under the bed for the iron scorpion. “You live at the bottom of a well.”

The witch stamped her foot. “I'll get you yet,” she screeched, lunging for the princess with her sinewy arms outstretched. But Sybil was too quick. She threw the iron scorpion at the witch, just as the warmth from her hands brought it to life. It stung one of the witch's gnarled fingers with its poisonous tail. The witch turned into stone and crashed to the floor. The scorpion turned back into iron.

The princess wondered what had brought the scorpion to life. But she finally understood the rest of the witch's clue. Not only did the scorpion's voice resound in the well, the scorpion was bound by the witch's spell—sometimes alive, and sometimes made of iron.

Sybil climbed back into bed. Tomorrow she would get the servants to throw the stone witch into the well. But she decided to keep the scorpion. She tucked it under her pillow, not realizing that the warmth of her body was what brought it to life. As she slept there in her cozy bed, the scorpion began to stir.

Wishes Gone Awry

SCOTLAND

 
 
John thought Helen was the prettiest girl in the village, but she had no use for him. “Why would I marry a fisherman like you,” she asked, “when I could marry the lord of the manor?”

John strode out of her house and down the steep path to the beach. He was too angry to see the spring flowers bursting into bloom or notice the soft breeze blowing in from the sea. But suddenly he stopped. What was that eerie sound—unlike anything he had ever heard before? It was almost as if the wind and the waves were singing a haunting melody.

He crept along the path. A pebble, loosened by his foot, rattled down to the beach. Did the singer hear him coming? He stood listening—and the unearthly song continued.

When he reached the bottom of the path, he slipped behind a boulder and peeked around one side. The hair at the back of his neck stood on end. There was a stranger there, singing that eerie song. She was half under the waves, tucking seashells and starfish into her long golden curls.

How odd!
John thought. But he was even more surprised by what she did next. She swam to the shore and flung herself up on a flat-topped rock—
with a flip of her tail
!

So, mermaids
were
real, just as his grandmother had said so long ago. Her old stories flooded into his mind. “They're a fickle lot,” she'd told him. “If they like you, they'll give you calm seas. If they don't like you, expect trouble. But listen. If you find a fishy scale from a mermaid's tail, she must grant you three wishes.”

Three wishes? That's just what John needed. He tiptoed over to the mermaid's rock and leaped up behind her, plucking one of her golden scales. She screeched and slapped him with her tail. He waved the scale in front of her nose. “Now you owe me three wishes.”

“You didn't find it. You took it,” she cried. She tried to grab it back. It was obvious to John that she was furious. Then a crafty look came into her eyes.

“Maybe I could grant your wishes after all,” she said in falsely honeyed tones.

“My first wish is for Helen to marry me,” he said. “I don't understand why she said no.

“My second wish is to catch the biggest fish in the sea,
so I'll make lots of money and won't have to go fishing every day.

“My third wish is not to die by drowning.” He had known too many fishermen whose lives had been lost at sea.

“Granted!” said the mermaid, but this time her voice was harsh. She dove into the waves and swam away, but when she turned to look back at him, he felt a twinge of fear. Her eyes were flashing with anger.

John remembered what his grandmother had said about the amazing powers of mermaids. He began to wonder if he should have plucked that golden scale. Would the angry mermaid unleash a ferocious storm—or send a devastating wave upon the land? And what if she was so mad she didn't grant his wishes after all? He decided to test her word.