Princess between Worlds (14 page)

“The first thing we need to do is explore,” Liam announced. “I'm tired of surprises. Let's see what lies inland before we check the shoreline.”

They started toward the center of the island, their feet sinking into sand still cool from the night. When they reached the first of the trees, they disturbed a flock of brightly colored birds that flew away squawking, their long tails hanging down behind them. The day was starting to
get warm when Annie spotted the glint of sunlight on water. She hurried ahead, hoping to find fresh water that they could drink. To her delight she found a medium-size pond filled with cool, clear water.

“Do you think we can drink it?” she asked as Liam caught up with her.

“Don't run ahead like that!” Liam told her. “How am I supposed to protect you if I don't go first? Wait a minute while I check the water. I don't want you drinking anything until I know it's all right.”

Liam knelt beside the pond and scooped up a small amount of water. He sniffed it first, then stuck his tongue in for the tiniest taste. The next sip he took was larger. He held it in his mouth for a moment before swallowing it.

“Well?” said Annie. “How is it?”

“It tastes wonderful, but we really should wait to see if I get sick before . . . Annie, don't!”

Annie was on her knees, scooping up water and taking a long, cool sip before Liam could finish his sentence. When she'd finished, she sat back and turned to Liam. “If you're going to get sick, so am I. Oh my, look at your shirt! What did you do, take a bath in that pudding last night?”

“There weren't any spoons!” he replied, glancing down at himself. He patted his chest where the fabric was stiff and still sticky. “I must admit, this is disgusting, and very uncomfortable.”

“Take that shirt off and let me rinse it out for you,” Annie told him. “I don't have any soap, but rinsing it should make it a little more wearable.”

Liam grumbled as he slipped off his shirt. Taking the postcards from his pocket, he set them on the ground and handed the shirt to Annie. While she scrubbed the shirt under water, Liam rinsed off his arms and upper body. They were leaning over the water, intent on their tasks, when they heard voices coming through the trees. Two elderly women wearing strange loose gowns made of red, yellow, and orange fabric stopped at the edge of the trees to stare at them. While the short, plump woman had a kindly look about her, the stick-thin woman wore a sour expression on her long face, crinkling her narrow nose as if she saw something repulsive.

“Well, I'll be! What have we here?” said the shorter woman.

“They're the two intruders come to steal our treasure, Norelle,” said the other. “I guess that old geezer was right after all.”

Annie stood up and handed Liam's shirt back to him while saying, “Please pardon us. We aren't thieves, nor did we mean to intrude. We can leave now if you don't want us here.”

“Leave? Who said anything about leaving?” snapped the taller woman. “Come with us so you can meet the rest of the ladies.”

Annie bent down to brush a leaf from her foot, moving so the two women couldn't see her pick up the postcards. When she stood, she kept her hand behind her and tucked the cards into one of her pockets, hoping no one had noticed.

“Come along!” ordered the taller woman, and walked away without waiting for Annie and Liam to follow.

Norelle gave Annie an encouraging smile before scurrying off after her friend.

“I guess we found the people who live here,” Liam said as they started to follow. “That woman said we should meet the ladies. Do you suppose they're
all
women?”

“We'll know soon enough,” said Annie. “I see some buildings up ahead.”

Liam grunted as they stepped out of the trees onto the beach. It was on the opposite side of the island from where they'd arrived and looked very different, with a cluster of huts and a large fire pit edged with driftwood. “This island is smaller than I thought,” he muttered.

“The old wizard was right,” the taller woman shouted. “They're here!”

“Thank you, Rugene. We can see that,” said a woman with long white hair, her voice surprisingly husky. “Now we have to decide what we're going to do about it.”

“I think we should do what he said,” declared another woman. Her gray hair looked as if it had never been brushed and her gown was grimy and torn. Annie
noticed that the others gave her wary looks and kept their distance from her.

“I'm not doing anything that nincompoop said!” said Rugene. “He didn't ask us, he ordered us to tie them up and toss them in the ocean, as if he has any right to tell us what to do! I may not be using my magic much lately, but I still have more magic in my little toe than he has in his big, bald head!”

“They're witches!” Annie whispered in Liam's ear.

“And Rotan has been here,” Liam whispered back. “May I say something?” he asked the witches.

“NO!” they all shouted at once.

“This is up to us, not you,” Rugene told him. “So keep your mouth shut if you know what's good for you!”

“I think we should vote like we usually do,” said Norelle. “I vote we give them breakfast and send them on their way.”

“Give them breakfast! Next you'll be inviting them to move in!” cried the witch with the wild hair.

“They look a bit thin, Hennah, that's all,” said Norelle.

“I'm not so sure about breakfast, but I didn't sleep well last night and I don't feel up to drowning anyone today,” the witch with long white hair announced. “And that old wizard was so rude. I agree with Norelle. I think we should send them away.”

A witch with sad-looking eyes wrung her hands, saying, “Cadmilla is right. No breakfast, and send them
away. They may be thieves, but that doesn't mean they deserve to drown. No one has stolen anything from us yet. And we've all stolen something in the past, some more than others, but nobody tried to drown us.”

“Speak for yourself, Septicimia!” said Hennah. “I've been tossed in more lakes and ponds than I can remember. One old coot tried to drown me in a cesspool!”

“Not that we ever had treasure for anyone to steal,” said Cadmilla. “I wonder why the wizard thought we did.”

“Back to the vote,” Norelle declared. “Who hasn't voted yet?”

When the last two witches voted against tossing them into the ocean, Annie gave Liam a look of relief.

“I don't agree,” said Hennah. Raising her arm, she pointed at Annie and Liam. Annie grabbed Liam's hand and held on tight. The old witch muttered something under her breath, and a sickly green light shot from her fingertip, hit Annie and Liam, and bounced back. The light slammed into the witch with such force that it knocked her off her feet. She struggled to stand even as a long rope appeared out of nowhere and tied her up from head to toe. Shrieking, Hennah flew into the air and landed far out in the ocean with a splash.

“You see something new every day!” exclaimed Norelle.

“You might, but I see the same old stuff,” Rugene griped. “Except today. I liked that! Which one of us did it?”

The witches all looked at one another, but no one claimed responsibility.

Annie cleared her throat and they all turned to her. “Um, that was me, actually. Magic doesn't work on me. My mother's fairy godmother cast a spell on me for my christening gift. Magic can't touch me and it fades when I'm around.”

“Really?” said Cadmilla.

Norelle stayed where she was, but the rest of the witches backed away.

“That's very interesting,” Cadmilla continued when she was standing behind Norelle. “It's so interesting, in fact, that we should have heard of it before. Why do you suppose we haven't?”

“Probably because we're not from around here,” said Annie. “I'm Princess Annabelle and this is my husband, Prince Liam. We just got married and we're on our grand tour. I'm from Treecrest and Liam is from Dorinocco.”

“I've never heard of either place,” said Cadmilla.

Rugene shook her head. “Or either of them.”

“How did you get here?” asked Septicimia.

Annie glanced at Liam, not sure how to answer.

“I know how they did it,” said Rugene. “They have postcards. I saw the girl put them in her pocket.”

“Aagh!” shrieked a voice as something shot through the air and landed on the beach with a loud
splat!
Hennah had returned, no longer tied up with ropes. She sat up and got to her feet, spitting salt water. Reaching down the neck of her gown, she pulled out a jellyfish and tossed it back into the ocean. “That was fun!” she declared. “But I think I'll lie down for a little while.” Staggering, she made her way to one of the huts and went inside.

“Let me see the postcards,” said Cadmilla.

Annie was reluctant to hand them over, but she didn't see any way around it. She glanced at Liam, who shrugged and nodded. When she carried them over to Cadmilla, the witch snatched them from her hand, obviously leery of touching Annie. The witch moved away then and began to look through the cards as the other witches gathered around her.

“The top three are the only ones we haven't visited yet,” Liam told them from where he stood beside Annie. “We'd like to go home now, but none of the cards would take us there.”

“This one is a picture of Nastia Nautica's ship. It's right over there,” Rugene said, pointing at the water. “I once made a bubble and went down there to look around. Big mistake! That sea witch is even nastier than Hennah. Nastia Nautica isn't there anymore, but I still wouldn't
use a postcard to go down there unless you were a fish or could breathe underwater.”

“Her ship is at the bottom of the ocean,” explained Norelle. “She isn't there now because a friend of ours sent her to an ocean on the other side of the world.”

“I recognize that ice castle,” Septicimia said, pointing at another card. “The Blue Witch used to live there. She's moved to the enchanted forest, so she isn't there anymore. Last I heard, the abominable snowmen who used to be her servants took it over. Nasty creatures that got even nastier after she left with her magic.”

“We all know this place,” Cadmilla said as she turned to the last card. “That's the castle in Greater Greensward. We used to live in a retirement community there before we were tricked into coming to this island.”

“If you want help getting home, that's where you should go,” said Norelle. “The royal family is very nice. They helped us out when we needed it.”

“Are you sure?” asked Annie. “We've heard some not-nice things about Greater Greensward.”

“Don't believe a word of it,” said Rugene. “They're all do-gooders, dragons included.”

“Dragons?” Annie said to Liam.

“Hey,” said Liam. “It sounds like the best of the three.”

CHAPTER 12

Annie had to admit, the castle in Greater Greensward was lovely. Tall towers rose above the weathered gray stones, while green banners fluttered from the spires. The drawbridge was open across the moat, where water lilies bloomed and small fish darted just below the clear water's surface. It was so much like the castle at home that a lump formed in Annie's throat and she felt truly homesick for the first time since leaving Treecrest.

“No dragons yet,” Liam said, studying the sky and the land behind them.

Annie cleared her throat and said, “They probably live in caves. I'm sure I would if I were a dragon.”

The postcard had brought Annie and Liam to the road at the end of the drawbridge. Although they had appeared in full view of the guards standing on either side of the portcullis, neither one reacted to their sudden arrival. When a witch flew by on a broomstick, landing inside the castle wall, neither the guards nor the people crossing the drawbridge looked up. Annie wondered if magic was so commonplace in Greater Greensward that people barely acknowledged it.

Liam took Annie's hand as they joined the people entering the castle grounds. They were partway across the drawbridge when they heard a sudden loud whooshing overhead. People cleared the courtyard, but no one panicked when two large dragons landed in front of the castle steps. One of the dragons was white tinged with blue, the other was green and more delicate looking than the first. Even from the other side of the courtyard, Annie could hear their magic. Unlike most of the other magic she had heard, this sounded like music with its own complex melody.

“Get back!” Liam shouted, shoving Annie behind him.

She stumbled on the uneven surface of the drawbridge and landed on her knees. “Ow!” she cried.

Liam had already reached for the sword on his hip when he remembered that it wasn't there. Even so, he stood between Annie and the dragons, prepared to fight. He was as startled as Annie when the light around the dragons shimmered and they both turned into humans. The green dragon was now a beautiful young woman with blond hair and vivid blue eyes, while the blue-and-white dragon had become a handsome young man with silvery white hair.