Unlocking the Spell (19 page)

Suddenly a gray-and-white-striped cat jumped onto the table and began to devour the fish. Then a rooster landed in the bowl of corn and began pecking. A moment later a scruffy white dog set her front paws on the table and pulled the ham off the platter while a
donkey trotted to the far end and buried his face in an apple pie.

Still watching through the window with Gwennie, Annie wasn't the only one who was startled when Beldegard bounded into the cottage looking fierce. The rooster flew into the rafters while the dog, the cat, and the donkey shrank back.

Swinging his great head around, the bear prince sniffed the air and growled, “Where is he?”

The cat and the dog glanced at each other, then the dog sat down on her haunches, tilted her head to the side, and said, “Who?”

“The person who scared those men off,” said Beldegard.

The dog stared at the prince. “The person? Oh, you mean…” When she opened her mouth again, her tongue lolled to the side, the curled tip bouncing with each breath. The cat's lips pulled back, almost as if he was smiling, the rooster hopped from one foot to the other, and the donkey brayed loud and long. Annie suspected that the animals were laughing.

“That wasn't a man,” said the cat. “That was us!”

Beldegard shook his head. “I saw him. It was a tall, lumpy man.”

“That
was
us!” said the donkey. “See!” Striding to the middle of the room, the donkey planted his feet and held his head high. In two bounds, the dog jumped onto the donkey's back. As the rooster fluttered down
to land on the donkey's head, the cat jumped from the table to the back of the dog. When they were all settled, the donkey began to bray, the dog to bark, the cat to yowl, and the rooster to crow. It was the same awful sound she had heard when the figure scared the men from the cottage.

“Very impressive,” said Beldegard. “But why did you want to scare them away?”

“They were thieves,” said the cat. “They stole our master's magic tablecloth that brings food when you want it. We deserve the tablecloth more than they do.”

As the cat and dog jumped down from the donkey's back, the rooster flew to the table and began to peck at a loaf of bread. “Would you mind if my friends and I come inside?” asked Beldegard. “We're hungry as well and the night is cold. I promise you, we're not thieves and will not steal your magic tablecloth. We just need a place to spend the night and will leave in the morning.”

“Come on in,” said the dog. “There's lots of food. If we run out, the tablecloth can always bring more.”

Liam, Gwendolyn, and Annie had heard everything the animals had said, so they didn't wait for an invitation. When the cat saw them in the doorway, she gave Beldegard an accusing look. “You didn't say your friends are human! Ah well, we won't hold that against them. Shut the door and help yourselves to the food. I wouldn't
eat the ham, though. Dog has mangled it so no one else will want any.”

The dog hung her head and put her tail between her legs. “Sorry.”

Annie was too hungry to care about a few animals on the table. She made herself a trencher with a hollowed-out slab of bread and filled it with goose and vegetables and everything else that she thought looked tempting.

She took her food to a bed that stood against the wall and sat down to eat. Gwendolyn joined her a minute later and sat close enough that her beauty began to fade. Liam sat down on the other side of Annie and soon the only sound in the room was that of the donkey munching carrots and the dog slurping soup from the tureen.

“Where are you from?” Beldegard asked the cat after finishing off the fish and a berry pie.

“Brementown, originally, but lately we've been making our home in Grelia,” said the cat. “We lived there with our master until he died a few days ago. He was a wizard and used his magic to make us speak so we could be his servants. I was with him for fourteen years, but he was already old when I was just a kitten, and his health had never been good. The thieves came when word got out that he'd died, and they took most of his possessions. We followed them through the
woods to this cottage. It isn't right that they should have the old wizard's things.”

“We couldn't stay in the wizard's house in the city,” said the rooster, his voice hoarse from crowing. “We're all old. No one wants us anymore.”

“That's not quite true,” said the cat. “We heard our master's neighbors talking. One of them was going to take Rooster for the stew pot.”

“And one wanted me for my hide,” the donkey told the bear prince.

The dog looked up from the ham bone she was gnawing. “I know who you are. You're Beldegard.”

“How did you know that?” the bear prince asked.

The dog dropped the bone long enough to say, “People talk. I listen. They say in the capital that Beldegard was turned into a bear. You talk like a prince. You must be him.”

“Was this a widespread rumor?” asked Annie. “Were a lot of people saying it?”

The rooster nodded, making his red crest bob up and down. “Everybody.”

“That settles it then,” said Annie. “If it was common knowledge, your brother Maitland had to know, too, Beldegard. He must want the throne.”

Beldegard growled and swatted at the table, knocking a mincemeat pie onto the floor. The dog sauntered over to sniff it. “My belly is so full I couldn't eat a pea,
but it would be a shame to waste this,” the dog said, and began gobbling up the broken pie.

Gwendolyn set her trencher on the table and hurried to the bear prince's side. “Oh Beldegard,” she said, throwing her arms around his neck. “I'm so sorry! Your brother may no longer love you, but you'll always have me!”

Beldegard nuzzled her shoulder and said something into her ear.

“I guess their argument is over,” Liam told Annie.

Annie nodded. “I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. You know, I've been thinking. When we met Maitland in the forest, I think he suspected who Gwennie was before he pulled down her hood. We had attended the ball the day before and I'm sure a lot of people were talking about her. I bet people saw us leave the city too, and noted which way we went. If Maitland knew about Gwennie, do you think he knew that she was traveling with Beldegard?”

“Not necessarily,” said Liam. “Beldegard has been careful to stay out of sight when we run into other people.”

“Except when we were talking to Rose Red, and those men went after him with pitchforks. A lot of people saw him with Gwennie then. And that was back before she started wearing the hood. Besides, everyone knows that his kiss ended the curse. It makes sense that she'd be helping him now.”

“So Beldegard,” said the cat. “I heard people say you were turned into a bear, but I never heard anyone say how it happened. Did you get a witch angry or was it a fairy?”

“Neither,” grumbled the bear. “It was a dwarf. I was on a quest when I heard that a dragon had carried off a princess. Her father was offering her hand in marriage to the brave man who rescued her. I slayed the dragon, but the princess ran off with one of her father's knights before our wedding day. Her father was furious, and so embarrassed that he gave me a chest full of jewels. I was on my way home with my treasure when the dwarf waylaid me and turned me into a bear.”

“Oh, Beldy, I knew you were brave!” cried Gwendolyn. “But I didn't know you'd slayed a dragon! There are so many things I don't know about you.”

“That's all right, my dearest. After we're wed, we'll have a lifetime to learn everything there is to know about each other.”

“My stomach is churning,” Liam murmured.

Annie frowned at him. “I think what he said was very sweet. It wouldn't hurt you to say something like that once in a while.”

“Really?” Liam said. “You like that kind of thing?”

“Most girls do,” replied Annie. When he looked puzzled, she sighed and said, “I'm going to sleep now. Good night, everyone.”

Annie stretched out on the bed with her back to the room. She didn't go to sleep right away, but lay listening to her companions as they found their own places to rest. The bed moved as Gwendolyn lay down with her back to Annie's. She heard Liam mutter to himself as he made his bed out of a blanket on the floor near the fireplace.

Annie couldn't understand Liam. He could be so sweet sometimes. But he never had finished what he'd started to say in the Gasping Guppy, and whenever Beldegard said something sweet to Gwennie, Liam had made fun of him. After Prince Ainsley's ball, Annie had been sure that Liam really cared for her, but he still always seemed to back off without really telling her so. He hadn't kissed her in days and she missed it; she just didn't know how to tell him. Remembering their last kiss, she touched her lips with a fingertip. If only he would kiss her again!

Annie moved her legs aside when the cat jumped onto the bed, giving him enough room to curl up in a soft, warm ball by her feet. She thought she'd never fall asleep with the donkey snoring loudly in the corner, but her sister warmed her back and the cat snuggled against her feet, so she soon drifted off. It seemed like only moments later that she woke to the cat poking her face with his paw.

“The thieves are back! I can hear them,” growled the dog.

Annie sat up and looked around the room. Although it was still dark, enough starlight came through the window that she could see vague outlines. Gwendolyn was asleep, but the animals were all awake, watching the door. Liam stood by the hearth with his sword in his hand and Beldegard was on his feet, rubbing his back against the edge of the stone fireplace; both had their eyes on the door.

The door was creaking open when Annie turned her head. She held her breath as two… four… six men crept into the cottage, each carrying a weapon that glinted red in the light of the fireplace. The last man had just stepped over the threshold when the rooster launched himself from the rafter, crowing as he landed on the head of one of the thieves.

Gwendolyn woke with a start and looked around, confused.

The rooster began to peck at one man who screamed and tried to fend off the bird. By then the dog had dashed across the room and bitten a second thief and the cat launched himself onto the shoulders of another man, biting and clawing.

“The monster is still here!” cried the first man.

“Run!” shouted the second.

Beldegard rose up on his hind legs. His head brushed the bottom of the rafters as he stomped toward the
door, casting a fearsome, wavering shadow across the room. Throwing back his head, Beldegard ROARED so that the cottage shook, the men screamed, and Annie and Gwendolyn covered their ears.

The men were fighting to get out when the donkey turned so that his tail was toward the door and began to kick with his hind legs. Squeezing through the doorway two and three at a time, the thieves piled out of the cottage and ran as fast as they could.

Beldegard roared one last time, then settled down on all fours.

“That worked well!” he said.

The dog ran to the doorway and peered out into the dark. “They're still running.”

“I don't think they'll ever come back,” the cat said as he hopped onto the bed again.

“Good!” said the donkey. “Now maybe we can get some sleep!”

The rooster crowed at dawn the next morning, startling everyone awake.

“Does he do this every morning?” asked Annie.

The dog sat up and started scratching her ear with her back foot. “Always.”

“Then I'm glad he's not traveling with us,” grumbled Gwendolyn.

After a hearty breakfast provided by the tablecloth, Annie and her companions prepared to leave. Liam and Beldegard had already gone outside when the cat said to Annie, “Last night when the thieves came back I tried to talk to you, but I couldn't speak. I could talk again when I was no longer near you. Why is that?”

“Magic doesn't work around me,” Annie told him.

“I thought it was something like that,” said the cat. “So as long as I keep my distance, I should still be able to talk?”

“That's right.”

“Good to know,” said the cat. “My friends and I want to go with you. We can be very helpful,” he said when Annie and Gwendolyn looked reluctant.

“I can carry you on my back,” offered the donkey.

“I can bark at strangers,” said the dog.

“I can catch the mice before they eat your food,” promised the cat.

“And I'll wake you every morning at dawn,” added the rooster.

Annie winced. “We could have done without that last offer. How about we let you come as long as the rooster
doesn't
wake us every morning at dawn?”

“Sure, if that's what you want,” the cat said, looking at her as if she were crazy.

The donkey was the first animal out the door. He was waiting for them when the sisters emerged from the cottage. “Who wants a ride?” he asked.