Unlocking the Spell (2 page)

“Yes, I know,” Annie said.

“And you know I can't marry him until the spell is broken.”

“Uh-huh,” said Annie.

“Then you must know that you have to help us! Beldegard and I love each other, but we can't go on this way! Every time I want to kiss him, or hold his hand, or gaze into his
human
eyes, I have to run all over the castle looking for you so you can sit with us, holding
my
prince's other hand so he can be his human self.”

“Believe me, I know that, too,” said Annie.

“You brought Beldegard to me, so you're responsible
for this. I know you did it to wake me and save the kingdom, but I never would have known that he was my one true love if you hadn't introduced us. Surely you must feel some sort of obligation to help us?”

“What you don't seem to remember is that I came home less than a week ago from traipsing all over the countryside looking for princes to kiss you, hoping you would wake up and our lives could get back to normal. The last thing I want to do is go looking for someone else! I want to enjoy just being here with everyone awake and talking, instead of lying there looking like they're dead!”

“I know how dreadful it must have been for you,” Gwendolyn said, looking so concerned that Annie felt a twinge of guilt, “but won't you please reconsider?”

“I'll think about it,” Annie grumbled, and walked off, trying not to picture the tears that she had seen pooling in her sister's eyes. She thought about suggesting that Beldegard and Gwennie go without her, but she knew that the bear prince had been fruitlessly searching for the dwarf for years and Gwennie was too used to being pampered to be of much help. The best person to go would be someone who wouldn't mind stomping though the woods and whom the dwarf couldn't change with his magic. Even Annie had to admit that only one person fit that description: Annie herself.

Annie waited at the edge of the drawbridge as the last heavily loaded wagon crossed into the castle courtyard. She enjoyed the rumbling of the wheels as they rolled over the wooden boards, and the way the sound changed as they reached the stones of the courtyard itself. Annie had never been as conscious of sound as she was now. Being awake in a castle where everyone else was sleeping had made her appreciate the little things, like a child's laughter, a dog's bark, and voices rising and falling with the ebb and flow of conversation. Although silence had never bothered her before, too prolonged a silence now made her uneasy.

Once the drawbridge was empty of everyone but a messenger on horseback and a few people on foot, Annie hurried across, anxious to talk to Liam. A hostler in the stable had told her that he'd seen Liam asleep
under the tree on the other side of the road, but when she finally spotted him, he was sitting up, smiling as she crossed the dusty road to sit beside him.

“There were too many people in the courtyard, so I came out here for some peace and quiet,” said Liam, taking her hand in his. “How was your morning?”

“Long,” she replied with a grimace. “I've become popular with merchants who want to see if their gold is real. I feel sorry for some of them; they came with sacks of gold and left knowing that many of the coins were base metals that looked like gold because of magic.”

“I wouldn't feel too sorry for them if I were you,” said Liam. “The first thing those merchants will do is foist those coins off on someone else. Are you tired of seeing petitioners yet?”

“Yes, but I'm more tired of sitting beside Gwennie and Beldegard every time they want to gaze into each other's eyes and talk about how much they love each other. This morning they invited me to join them for breakfast just so they could make moon eyes while I gobbled my porridge. Do you still want to go for a horseback ride? There's time before supper if we go now. We could ride down to the river and—”

“I tell you, it's her!” said a flower fairy as four of the little creatures flew down to hover just above Annie's head.

“Not again!” Annie groaned as the fairies flew so
close that she almost went cross-eyed looking at them. Glancing from one to another, she wondered what they were waiting for.

“Did you see that?” crowed a fairy wearing the feathery leaves of a fern. “She's shifty eyed, just like they said.”

“Who's shifty eyed?” Annie said, leaning back so she could see them better.

“You!” they all said at once.

“We've come to challenge you to a contest of magic,” said a male fairy in a bluebell cap. “Our magic is stronger than anything you can do, and we are going to prove it.”

“You might want to get out of the way,” Annie told Liam as all four fairies raised their magic wands. Keeping her eyes on the fairies, she waited until she heard Liam jump to his feet and step aside. “Go ahead, do your worst,” Annie said without even bothering to stand.

In an instant, the fairies aimed their wands at her and fired. Sparkling lights shot from the wands, hit Annie with a shivery, bright sound, and rebounded back into the fairies' faces. The fairy on the right began to spin in place until she was just a blur. The nose of the fairy beside her grew long and her feet turned into those of a duck. The skin of the fairy in the bluebell cap was suddenly covered with multicolored spots, but the fairy wearing fern leaves just got prettier with her shaggy hair curling softly around her face, her eyes
getting larger, and her pudgy body becoming slender and curvy.

When the fairy who was spinning stopped, she brushed the tangled hair out of her face and glanced from Annie to her friends. Spotting the fairy wearing ferns, she glared at her saying, “What spell did you use, Fern? We were all supposed to do something awful to her! What kind of challenge is it if your magic would have made her prettier?”

Fern shrugged and looked away.

“She was hedging her bets, that's what she was doing!” said the fairy in the bluebell cap. “She used a beauty spell in case it really did bounce back like everyone said it would.”

“Well, why not?” said Fern. “Look at me, then look at you!” The fairy snorted and burst out laughing at the expressions on her friends' faces.

“You little traitor!” cried the fairy with the duck feet, and they all three took off after Fern, who sped away still laughing.

“Has this been happening a lot?” Liam asked as he and Annie watched the tiny fairies skitter around flowers and trees until they disappeared from sight.

“More than I care to remember,” said Annie. She sighed and rubbed her temples with her fingertips, trying to ease the headache that was forming. “The fairies can't seem to believe that magic doesn't work on me. I'm getting so tired of this. Ever since we came back,
people have been hounding me for one thing or another. I'm almost tempted to do what Gwennie wants and take Beldegard to look for his dwarf just so I can get away from the favors and the challenges and the vile looks from people like Lord Abernathy.”

“Who?” said Liam.

Annie gave him a half smile and shook her head. “No one important.”

“Let's go for that ride now,” Liam said, taking Annie's hand and pulling her to her feet. “A gallop along the river is just what you need.”

Annie laughed as he pulled her close. He was just about to kiss her when someone gave a polite cough behind them. Startled, Annie turned around.

An older woman with a red face and blade-thin nose was watching her from only a few feet away with a younger version of herself by her side. Before Annie could say anything, the woman swept her an abrupt curtsy, then pointed at one of the guards standing by the foot of the drawbridge. “That guard told me who you were. I know you weren't going to see any more petitioners today, but I was sure you'd make an exception for us, seeing that we came from so far away. I'm Maeve, and this is my daughter, Becca.”

Annie sighed. Sometimes it was easier to help people than to put them off until another day. “How can I help you?” she asked.

“When my daughter was born she was colicky and
cried all the time. A passing fairy took pity on me and cast a spell making Becca's voice as sweet as a lullaby. It was all right when she was a baby, but well, you'll have to hear for yourself. Becca?”

The girl opened her mouth, and out came a lovely voice, sweet and melodious, singing the words, “I cannot talk, I only sing, and everything I sing is sweet. My voice puts everyone to sleep.”

Annie glanced at Liam when he took a loud, prolonged breath and yawned. His eyes were already half closed when Becca finished singing.

“We thought that since you had experience with this kind of thing, you might be able to help us,” said Maeve.

“I'm afraid you're mistaken. I've never dealt with anything like this before. It wasn't singing that put the people in the castle to sleep and it took a very particular kind of magic to wake them. My touch will stop a spell from working, but only temporarily.”

Maeve glanced at Becca, then back at Annie. “That should be enough.”

Becca nodded. “Even a minute with a normal voice would be enough for me,” she sang. “I just want to know what it would be like to talk instead of sing.”

Annie noticed that one of Liam's eyes fluttered shut. The other eye looked as if it was about to close as well. Annie reached for Becca's hand.

“How long does this take?” the girl sang, but even as
the last word crossed her lips, her voice lost its lilt. “Is this my real voice?” she said, her voice becoming flatter and taking on a whiny edge. With a gleam in her eye, Becca turned toward her mother. “I blame you for all of this, Mother. If you hadn't complained about me to every Tom, Dick, and fairy who passed by, this would never have happened. Lots of mothers have to deal with colicky babies without a fairy's magic! I can't believe my own mother—”

Maeve took Annie's hand from Becca's, saying over her daughter's voice, “That was enough. At least now we know what we were missing. Thank you, Your Highness. Let's go home, Becca.”

Her daughter's voice sounded more melodious just moments after Annie stopped touching her. “I can't sing anything that isn't nice, no matter how hard I try,” Becca half sang. “It's so frustrating!” she trilled. When she heard herself sing, Becca closed her mouth and began to pout.

“I don't know which of them I feel sorrier for,” Annie told Liam as the mother and daughter walked away.

Liam glanced at the drawbridge and nudged Annie. “Look at all the people coming our way. I bet they want to talk to you, too.”

Annie groaned when she saw the approaching crowd. “If I stay here, I may never have another minute to myself. Taking that trip with Beldegard is becoming more tempting by the minute, but only if you come, too.”

A guard pushed through the crowd and reached Annie first. “Your Highness,” he said, “His Majesty, the king, requests your presence.”

“So much for going riding,” Annie told Liam.

“Do you want me to go with you?” he asked.

“You might as well. My father likes you and I doubt he has anything to say that he won't want you to hear.”

When they reached the king's private audience chamber, Annie's father wasn't the only one there. Queen Karolina was seated beside the king, while Princess Gwendolyn stood next to her with her hand resting on the head of a huge black bear.

“You know we all appreciate everything you have done, Annabelle,” said the king once she and Liam stood before him.

Annie nodded, wondering why her father wanted to thank her once again. “However,” he said, and her heart sank. Now she was sure this couldn't be anything good. “It has come to my attention that you have refused to help your sister's betrothed. Both your mother and I have promised Prince Beldegard that our family will help him break the spell that turned him into a bear so that he can marry your sister. As our daughter, you are obligated to help us fulfill our promises.”

Annie frowned and glanced at her sister, who she
thought looked insufferably smug. “I'll go,” Annie told him, “but I get to choose who goes with me.”

“Agreed,” said the king, sounding relieved.

Gwendolyn opened her mouth, and closed it without speaking. Annie thought her sister no longer looked quite so smug.

The next day, Annie rose early and dressed in the clothes of a stable boy, just as she had when she went in search of a prince for Gwendolyn. Annie had learned long ago how much easier it was to walk through the deep woods when she wasn't wearing a long, trailing gown, and she liked the sense of freedom of the less-constricting boys' clothes. She thought it made more sense to travel as a boy, too. People were less likely to figure out who she was and ask her to do things for them. After gathering a boy's cap to cover her hair, a change of clothes, a thin blanket, a knife, and some coins, she hurried down to the kitchen for food.