Princess between Worlds (11 page)

“I will be leaving soon, so it is time I said farewell. I hope you both have a pleasant evening!” he said. A moment later, he was out of the tent, taking the lantern with him, and the guards were fastening the flap closed behind him.

“I'm surprised,” said Annie. “Nasheen is even more despicable than I thought he was.”

“I'm not surprised,” Liam replied. “I never liked him. I have to say, though, it looks like Rotan really got around.”

“Nasheen didn't give us back our coats, but at least we have the cards,” said Annie.

Liam bumped into her, and immediately moved away. She could hear him shifting around beside her. “If you come toward me and roll onto your side, you should be able to pick up your things. I've almost collected my postcards.”

Annie did as he suggested and had picked up everything, including the doll and the ring, when the stomp of something heavy shook the little tent. “Hurry!” she told Liam. “That must be the monster.”

“Just a moment,” said Liam. “I think there's one more postcard. I can reach it with my fingertips.”

“We don't have a moment!” Annie cried, fear making her voice rise as the heavy footsteps drew closer. “It's almost here!”

“There! I got the last one,” said Liam. “Give me your hand. I don't know which card is on top, but it doesn't matter now. Any of them should be better than this.”

The footsteps stopped just outside the tent. Suddenly Annie heard scraping as claws pierced the tent wall. She screamed as the wall was ripped to shreds.

“Annie, your hand!” Liam shouted. And they were gone.

CHAPTER 9

“Well,” said Annie. “At least it isn't a desert!”

“But there's still sand,” Liam grumbled. “I'm getting really tired of sand!”

They were seated on a beach at the edge of a large body of water. Annie spotted a few small islands a distance away, but there were no boats or people around. When she looked behind her, she saw that the beach was edged with plants like the odd ones they had seen in Viramoot. She could hear birds, but their voices were harsher than the birds at home. “Either we're still in Viramoot, or those trees aren't that uncommon,” she said. “What should we do now? We have to get these shackles off.”

“I don't have anything we can use,” said Liam. “We can search the shoreline and see if we can find something useful, or go inland and hope we meet someone who can help us.”

“After running into Nasheen, I'm not so sure that's a good idea. Rotan might have told lies about us to people at all the rest of the places pictured on the postcards. Maybe avoiding people would be a better idea now.”

“Fine with me,” Liam said as he got to his feet. “The shackles won't let us take normal steps, but we can walk with them on.” He took Annie's hand and helped her up, steadying her as she got her balance.

They walked along the shore, looking for something hard they could use to pound the shackles to break them, or even pry them open. Shuffling with the shackles' heavy weights on her ankles wasn't easy, but Annie got used to it after a while. “We weren't there for the monster to eat,” she finally said, “which meant it had to look for another meal. How far do you think Nasheen and his men got before the monster went after them?”

Liam chuckled. “Not far! From what I know of Nasheen, he probably stopped to hear the monster eat us.”

“Poor Sarina! She'll be so disappointed if she doesn't get to marry a prince,” said Annie.

“I think her father would be even more disappointed,” Liam told her. “I was watching his face when Nasheen made his announcement. That merchant couldn't wait to get his hands on all that gold and take on his new position at court.”

“He sounds like Rotan. Both of them want high positions at court,” said Annie.

“That's true,” said Liam. “The big difference between them is how they go about getting one. Sarina's father is going to marry his daughter off for a position in
Nasheen's court, while Rotan wants to get us killed for a place in Clarence's.”

Annie sighed. “This trip would be much more fun if people weren't trying to kill us.” She paused mid-step to listen. “I hear something. Do you think that's thunder?”

Liam cocked his head to the side. “That rumbling sound? Maybe. I think—”

A tree cracked farther inland. Annie and Liam could see the top of the tree waver and fall, crashing to the ground. The birdsong had stopped with the first crack, and now the only sound was that of the waves rolling to the shore. Other trees near the one that had fallen thrashed back and forth long after the first one fell, but they all remained upright. Annie glanced at Liam as the ground shook as if something big was headed their way, but then it stopped and the birdsong started again.

“I don't think I want to go inland if we can help it,” said Annie. “I'm not sure I want to know what's moving around in there.”

“Too bad this entire beach is covered with fine, white sand. A good solid rock would come in handy right now.”

Annie sighed. “This is beautiful, though. If I'd seen this postcard first, I might even have chosen to come here. This is our grand tour, after all. We're supposed to be having fun. Look over there! I've never seen turquoise
water before. And do you see how shallow it looks even way out there? I wish we could go swimming while we're here.”

“Maybe we can, if we can get these shackles off. And if there aren't any monsters around. And if we don't have to leave suddenly because something awful is about to befall us if we stay here,” said Liam.

Annie glanced at the trees again. “It looks calm now. Let's hope it stays that way.”

They continued walking, rounding the curve in the beach. When they reached the far side of the curve, they discovered an outcropping of rocks that led out into the water. Liam was delighted to find smaller rocks at the base of the boulders and searched until he found just the right one. Perched on one of the larger rocks, he stretched the chain between his ankles across the hard surface, and pounded it with the smaller rock. A few minutes of pounding broke the chains. When he gestured to Annie, she sat down and stuck her fingers in her ears while he tried to break the chain between her ankles.

Liam was still focused on Annie's chains when a shadow fell across the rocks and a sweet voice boomed, “Watcha doing?”

Even with Annie's fingers in her ears, the voice was painfully loud. Annie looked up and saw a young girl, no more than six years old, towering above her. She was very pretty, with dark brown curls and sky-blue eyes, but
she was at least three times taller than Liam when he was standing.
The girl must be a giant!
Annie thought. She had never seen a giant before, and had never believed they were real, but confronted with such a big little girl, she couldn't imagine what else the child might be.

A drop of water landed on Annie's head and ran down her cheek. The girl was clutching a bouquet of odd-looking flowers that dripped water from their petals.

Annie scooted backward, trying to get away from the dripping flowers. When she glanced at Liam, his eyes were as big as saucers and his mouth was hanging open. Apparently, it was going to be up to her to talk to the girl. “We're trying to break these chains,” said Annie, answering her question.

“Why?” asked the girl.

“Because we don't want them on anymore,” said Annie.

“Why?”

“Because they make it hard to walk.”

“Why?”

Annie decided that it was time to take charge of the conversation. “You have some interesting flowers,” she told the girl.

“They aren't mine,” the girl replied. “They're Blooger's. He lets me play with them.”

“I probably shouldn't ask this, but who is Blooger?”

“He's my friend,” the girl said, holding the bouquet toward Annie and turning around. “See? That's him right there.”

A large, sand-colored mass drooped down the girl's back and spread out just below the surface of the water behind her. Annie thought it wasn't alive until she saw it undulating against the wash of waves as it worked to stay where it was and not get swept away. It blended into the sand below it, with only the garden of waving “flowers” attached to its back standing out. Suddenly Annie realized that the flowers clutched in the girl's hands weren't flowers at all, but growths that were part of a sea monster.

Startled, Annie cried out. The sound seemed to bring Liam out of his stupor. Shouting, “I'll save you!” he jumped off the rock and lunged toward the monster, holding the rock in one hand. He tried to hit the monster, but the creature was so squishy that the rock didn't do any damage. It did seem to frighten the monster, however, because it made a soft mewling sound, pulled all its “flowers” out of the girl's grasp, and fled into deeper water.

The girl wailed and started to cry in great heaving sobs that made Annie clap her hands over her ears again. There was a loud roar and another monster swimming in the deeper water roared and came racing toward them even as the first one turned and started back. Water
frothed behind the new monster and Annie could just make out its long, whiplike tail that propelled it through the waves at great speed.

“Annie, quick! Get out of the water!” Liam shouted. Wading toward her, he put his hands on her waist and lifted her onto the rocks before turning to face the advancing monsters.

“What's going on here?” shouted a voice so loud that Annie's ears rang with the sound of it. Turning toward the forest, she saw more giants emerge from among the trees. The tallest, who would have looked like an ordinary man if he hadn't been more than forty feet tall, was so similar to the little girl that he had to be her father. Annie assumed that the giant woman running beside him was the child's mother. They had just reached the edge of the water when two boys came racing down the beach. With every step that the giants took, the earth shook beneath their feet, making it lurch and bounce beneath Annie and Liam.

“It's a family of giants!” Annie said out loud, but her ears were still ringing and she couldn't hear her own voice.

She turned to Liam to see if he knew, but he was facing the two sea monsters with nothing more than a rock in his hand. Without a sword, he was virtually defenseless.

“Penelope!” the giant woman cried, lumbering into the water and scooping up the girl. “What's wrong?”

“Blooger went away and took my flowers!” the giant girl sobbed.

“We've talked about this before,” her mother told Penelope while drying the child's tears. “Those are Blooger's flowers. It's very nice of him to let you play with them, but you have to give them back when he leaves.”

“Mona, I believe that Penelope has made some new friends,” the girl's father said, lowering his voice. Annie turned away from the crying child and found the giant looking from her to Liam. “It seems some wee ones have arrived on our little paradise. Young man, you don't need to defend Penelope from the sea monsters anymore. They are actually her babysitters and are here to protect her. Blooger, Squidge, thank you for watching over Penelope today. Her mother and I can take over now.”

Liam didn't back away until both monsters turned and swam off. Annie sighed with relief. Liam was the bravest man she knew, but that didn't mean he couldn't get hurt.

“More wee ones?” said Mona. “So many visitors in such a short time.”

“Papa, what's going on?” one of the boys asked, eyeing Liam, who was still holding the rock.

“Just a misunderstanding,” said his father. “We seem to have some new arrivals. What's this? Why are you wearing chains? Are you escaped criminals?”

“Nothing like that!” Liam replied. “A false friend shackled us and left us for a monster to eat. We escaped through magic and came here. I was trying to remove the shackles when your daughter found us.”

“Ah!” said the father. “Perhaps one of my sons can help you. Their hands are smaller than mine and can handle delicate things like your shackles. Clifton, why don't you see what you can do?”

“I'm not sure that's a good idea,” Liam said as the two boys approached. They were both over thirty feet tall, although they looked like they were in their early teens.

“I've got this,” said the bigger boy.

When he squatted down and reached for the shackles, Annie could tell that Liam was fighting the urge to pull away. The boy was surprisingly gentle, however. Jamming his fingernail into the gap in the shackles, he pried them apart one at a time. When he had removed Liam's shackles, he turned to Annie's. His hands were enormous, but he was so careful that she barely felt any extra pressure as the shackles came off.

Liam turned to Mona, the mother giant. “You said ‘more wee ones.' Have others been here recently?”

“Only one,” said Mona. “It was an old man in long robes with a shiny head. He saw us and ran away laughing. He must have left the island then, because we never saw him again.”