by Holly Hook
Lawrence checked out his clothes, rubbing his hands over his buttons as if he couldn't believe they were there.
I backed away into the knight.
I had freed the frog prince and not how I thought.
And doomed myself.
Chapter Twelve
Annabella screamed again, this time with joy.
"My darling son!" she said, wrapping her arms around him. "You're not a day older than you were when I saw you last!"
Lawrence split a huge grin and returned the hug. "Dear mother," he said. "I'm glad to be home."
"And just in time!" she said. Her tone grew more serious. "I am aging and you will need to take the throne soon."
Mary appeared next to me. "Let this girl go," she told the knight. "Please."
The knight loosened his grip on my arm. Mary had clout here. I broke away and shot Shorty a look of horror. We could still make it to the door if we ran, but the young knight had moved over to guard it.
Mary faced me and spoke with a low voice. "The way to free the frog prince was to kill his frog form, not with a kiss. I feared this would happen. You need to escape."
Lawrence and his mother broke their hug.
And then Lawrence faced me. And grinned.
It wasn't a nice grin, either. It was more like an, I pulled you over grin.
Mary stepped in front of me. She didn't like this Lawrence very much. Even if she'd come from the regular world, it was clear she'd been here a while. I wondered what she'd heard. What she remembered. Maybe this was why they called her the wise woman.
I had another ally here.
"You're a disgusting man," Mary told Lawrence. "You deserved to be frog and still deserve to be a frog."
Annabella frowned at her. "Do not speak that way about my son. Do you want to wear out your welcome here? We can always keep your book and send you on your way. This is the way the story goes. You know that. A princess frees the frog prince and then they marry. Only a princess can free him. This girl must be one even if she does not look the part."
Mary didn't seem fazed. "Ignorance is bliss. Your son is not what you believe."
The smile dropped off Lawrence's face and he peeled himself from the wall. His mother stood there and her jaw fell open. She hadn't been expecting something like this to come out of Mary's mouth.
"I've heard things," Mary continued, facing him. "Terrible things."
Lawrence spoke. "You're no one. You're just a woman with a book. I am Crown Prince Lawrence of the Fox Kingdom, and Candice is mine. We will wed at dawn."
"No, we won't," I said. My words came out weak and fell to the floor. Knights surrounded us. Lawrence and Annabella had the ultimate say here. Mary was just the woman with the book.
"What about Candice's choice?" Mary asked. "I know the kingdom must stay protected from falling into darkness. I know how dangerous Alric is. But there are always ways around to make it work. Let me consult the book." She gestured to the leather one lying on the table.
"Let her do that," Shorty said. "If Candice marries Lawrence, there won't be a happily ever after. Won't that make the kingdom fall, too?"
"Your point taken," Mary told him. "That is my concern with this."
"You of all people should know it's the story," Lawrence said to Mary. He felt threatened. "The story is that a princess frees me from my curse. That has happened. She moves to my kingdom, and we wed. You said so yourself. Now be quiet or I will have you put to death, too."
"Lawrence!" Annabella said, shocked that her precious son would say such a thing. Next to her, the other queen shook her head.
Was it me, or was she glaring at Lawrence, too? The second queen moved to stand next to Shorty as if trying to shield him from Lawrence's orders.
"The story," Lawrence reminded his mother. "Even Mary shouldn't be messing with it. No one should mess with it." I detected nervousness in his voice, like he wanted more than anything to be out of that room. "Let me be out of here so I can prepare. Have someone take Candice and prepare her. I want the wedding to take place down in the courtyard with the fountain. I want the townspeople to watch so they know I have returned."
"But Candice—who is she?" Annabella asked. "Who are her parents? Her grandparents?" Disapproval came off her in waves.
"I'm no one," I said. "Just a peasant." I waved to my ripped jeans. "All this was a mistake."
Lawrence was happy to refute her. He stepped towards the door and the other queen watched him. "She is the daughter of King Gustav the Second," he explained. "Poorly dressed for the part, I might add. Her parents had her in the other world, but she is still a princess. Candice qualifies to be my wife and she will be. We don't want the kingdom to fall to darkness, do we?"
Annabella studied me and I shrunk back. "Really," I said. "I'm nobody!"
"As you wish," the Queen said. "She freed you. Take her. Must we have the ceremony tomorrow?"
"We must," Lawrence said, getting closer to the door. Mary's glare was withering him. He kept inching away. The other queen was giving him a look of death, too. Lawrence must have made a long career of breaking hearts or something.
"And what about this young man?" Annabella asked, pointing to Shorty. He'd paled even more, and I feared he would pass out.
"He will have his execution," Lawrence repeated, "in view of the wedding ceremony."
Mary balled her fists and advanced on him. "That is disgusting. You do not deserve to rule the Fox Kingdom. This young man helped bring you home, and this is his reward?"
But Lawrence was already walking out of the double doors. A moment later, several knights charged in and raced right for Shorty.
"Shorty!" I screamed as they surrounded him.
But he said nothing as a knight twisted his hands behind his back.
* * * * *
"I am not putting that on."
"But you must. It's your wedding in only two hours." The head seamstress was an older woman who had a lot of sad lines around her eyes. She tied a string around my neck while I sat on the stool. She had been measuring me all night and barking orders at the other women. Hem this. Trim that. We need more room here.
The whole dressing room bustled with activity. Girls rushed around with fabric and scissors in hand. They hadn't let me out of their sight since Annabella had commanded them to take me away and make me prepare for the wedding. They'd brought me to this dressing room and hemmed this white dress with a long train right in front of me.
It hung in the middle of the room. I couldn't bear to look at it.
And once again, I searched for a way out. The door remained shut and two girls sat on stools in front of it. I was outnumbered by about a dozen and I'd spotted more knights outside the door earlier that night. I sensed they had gone nowhere.
And all the while, Shorty sat in a cell, waiting for death.
We would both die at sunrise. Shorty's would die the regular death. My happiness would go with it. I struggled to hold the tears and the screams back. This room had no windows. I couldn't see how close to dawn this was. Lawrence wanted us to suffer as much as possible.
Mary was right. Lawrence deserved to be a frog. I wondered what she'd heard about him. I'd have to ask her if I could stomach it since I'd be living with Lawrence for the rest of my life. Since I'd stay trapped here, thinking of how things could have been with Shorty. How things might have turned out in the other world if we hadn't gone through that stupid pond. What my dad was thinking right now. He'd figure out I was in Fable by the end of the week. The police would have found my bike by the pond and he'd figure it out. If someone hadn't stolen it first.
"I'm still not putting that on," I said to the head seamstress. "I'll go in these ripped up jeans and T-shirt if I have to. What difference is it going to make?"
She gave me a look of sympathy. Was it me, or were the older staff members of this castle sad that Lawrence had come back? The younger ladies chattered. Ignorance was bliss. Mary was right.
"You must. It is orders," she s
aid.
Fear glistened in her eyes. Lawrence would no doubt have punishment for these ladies if this wasn't done in time. But my skin crawled at the thought of putting on that dress. It was too low in the front. I was sure Lawrence had something to do with that, too.
The door to the dressing room came open and the two girls guarding it jumped down from their stools and turned around.
My heart dropped, and I faced who was coming in.
"Schlafen!" a woman shouted.
A cold, sharp energy washed through the room and the head seamstress turned, then slumped to the floor right in front of me. The other girls in the room all slumped in place, too, and the chatter died with thuds and thunks. One let her head fall over some fabric shaped like flowers and another leaned against the full-length mirror. Only the dress stood, keeping guard over everyone.
I took a breath.
The person in the doorway was the second queen, the one with the gray-blond hair and the green and silver dress. For the first time, I could see her closer. She had a silver star clasp on her dress and another star on the front of her crown. And her look was all serious.
"Come with me," she ordered. "We need to move if we will free the young man who came with you."
She moved, and I saw. She held Shorty's wand in one hand.
This queen was a magic user.
I didn't care. I didn't care if this turned out to be the old witch herself. Mary wasn't behind her.
"Now," she said.
"Thanks," I breathed, heading for the door.
The air freshened as we stepped into the hall. We were on a top floor of the castle. Early morning light filtered through the stained glass and we looked down on the courtyard below. Peasant men worked, setting up chairs and an altar at the center, right next to another fountain with a fox statue. Beyond it, town looked gray and sleepy. More men were roping off a large area near the fountain where people would stand.
"This way," the queen said, waving me down the hall. We ran side by side. "I am Queen Nori of the Star Kingdom. Annabella and I have been allies for many years though I fear that won't last much longer."
"Nice to meet you," I said. Relief exploded through me, along with tension. There was a knight standing at the mouth of the stairway ahead, slumped over and snoring. Nori had gone through the castle, putting people under. "I am so, so glad you can use magic."
She didn't face me. We ran down the stairs and she struggled to keep her breath. "The young man who came with you. I believe he is my grandson."
"What?" I exploded, stepping over another snoring knight.
"Alric only ever had one child. And that was with my daughter. I have never met the child as Alric took him away right after he imprisoned her. It must be him. This Shorty."
I remembered the young woman trapped in the glass box. This woman did resemble her. The Queen was a bit shorter and grayer.
"Shorty will be an asset to us in this fight if we get him on our side," she continued. "But I have to ensure he survives this. Shorty will have inherited the power from my family and his father's. If he's turned against his father, he will be precious."
I bristled. Shorty was a means to an end to this queen. Where was the compassion here?
Nori continued. We passed another fox window on the spiral stairway. "If Annabella finds out that I can use magic--"
"I take it she doesn't like magic users," I said, thinking of her son. She had her reasons.
The frog prince was in here somewhere. Lawrence would be getting all dressed up for the wedding right now. I wanted to hurl thinking about it.
There was yet another snoring knight on the bottom of the stairs. "How long does this spell last on them?" I asked.
"It depends on the subject," Nori said. "I haven't used magic in decades. We keep it under wraps in my family."
I had to tell Shorty about this if we got him out. When we got him out. Maybe his magic wasn't from the evil side of his family. Or the less evil side.
Nori and I emerged onto the ground floor. Two more knights slept up against the wall, visors down. We were getting closer to the dungeons. This castle was huge. The smell of food and cooking meat wafted down the hall. The kitchens weren't too far, and neither were the dungeons.
But at least Lawrence hadn't counted on this.
We headed down another flight of stairs and back onto the kitchen level. Nori and I took the servant's hallway, and I heard someone shuffling around in the kitchen. People were getting ready for the wedding feast. No one came out of the kitchen to confront us. Either they were too scared of Lawrence executing them or they feared Nori herself.
Then a sickening thought hit me.
"If I don't marry Lawrence, will this whole kingdom turn dark?"
Nori slowed and faced me. Her face was hard.
"Will it?" I had to make a horrible decision here. Marry Lawrence and live in misery or flee and let the Fox Kingdom right along with my father's kingdom turn dark and fall to Alric.
"Will it make much difference?" Nori asked me. "Lawrence is not fit to lead. He will be just as bad as the dark wizard."
A sickening feeling bloomed in my stomach. I wasn't sure. Or maybe I was. We walked faster towards the dungeon steps. "But we can't let Alric win here. You should at least get Shorty out. Maybe I can find a way out of here later."
"It shouldn't have to be that way. You might not survive for long with Lawrence. He is a cruel man."
"You seem to know a lot about him."
"More than you want to know."
I stared at the queen as we walked. Nori was too old to have taken Lawrence's interest even twenty years ago. Or was she? Maybe he threw himself at all the women.
We reached the dungeons where a single knight stood guard. Nori dispatched him and made him fall unconscious with a flick of the wand. She had a knack for magic. But Shorty never practiced. This queen of the Star Kingdom had been doing this for a while.
"Shorty!" I yelled. Twin rows of dungeon doors lined the hallway and the same torches blazed.
"I'm down here," he said.
I rushed down the hall towards the last door. This one was metal, unlike the other wooden doors. This cell must be death row where the condemned had to wait for their executions.
"Stand back," Nori said. She waved the wand and uttered a word I could never pronounce again and the door's lock broke. The door swung open.
"Shorty!" I said.
He stood there in the doorway, staring at the queen as if he couldn't process what had happened. He looked sick. Like he might have been throwing up. He had sunken eyes full of despair.
And I hugged him.
He returned it.
"Candice," he said. "I thought you were being marched to Lawrence right now."
"Let's get out of here," I said. Shorty smelled like a summer day in a hayloft. I'd never smelled him before, but I liked it. It didn't belong to an evil person. Just one who got caught up with the wrong people. Who met the wrong frog prince and was right to eliminate him.
I wanted Lawrence to die.
But I knew his death would spell disaster.
"Who's she?" Shorty asked, staring at Nori. The queen stood there, expressionless and impatient.
"Later," I said. "We need to go. Now's our chance before Lawrence finishes his tea time and kills you."
"There is an exit on the west side of the castle we can slip out of," Nori said. "To keep our alliance, I will need to stay behind and convince Annabella that someone else—someone who is not me—made the knights fall asleep. I will lead you to the exit but after that, the two of you are on your own."
We followed her back up the stairs and back through the servants' corridor. More clanging noises came out from the kitchen. The servants were all up now, getting ready for the big day. Some would still feel happy. Others would fill with dread. If any of them caught us, I hoped it was someone from the latter group.
But we passed the kitchen without incident. Nori paused for a second and Shorty and I
didn't dare say a thing. Then she must have decided, because she ducked through a small, narrow doorway on the right side of the hall.
"Where does that go?" I asked.
"Outside," she said. "The gardens are this way. You'll slip out through them."
Shorty and I followed her. The corridor was narrow, a service passage. Nori sure knew this place. She must have toured this castle many times. Relief flooded through me. We were almost out of this prison but we still had to make it across the grounds. If Lawrence caught us running for it, we both might end up on the gallows.
Or tortured first. That would be worse.
The passage sloped upward. Already I could smell flowers, sweet and filling the air. Pale light—the first light of dawn—filtered down through the bars of a narrow gate up ahead. Nori pointed the wand at it and muttered something. With a loud squeal, the doors swung open. I spotted huge trees with apples hanging from them on the other side, along with beds of flowers of every possible color. This was where the servants came out to pick the produce.
We emerged into the fresh air. I breathed in the first air of freedom. Well, almost. The air was chilled, cold from the night.
And dread filled me.
"Shorty," I said. "This place is about to turn dark."
"It shouldn't have to be that way," he said. "There might be another way around it. You don't have to marry Lawrence."
His eyes were huge. Begging. Please, he was thinking. Don't go back.
Nori waved us into the garden. "You need to hurry," she said. "Lawrence will send for you. You need to make yourselves scarce."
"I can't let all these people die," I said. "This place turning dark will kill them, won't it?"
Nori shook her head. "Lawrence will kill them more slowly."
I thought of all the people and families and little kids who would suffer if I ran away and Lawrence found me gone. Would a huge dark spot spread over the entire Fox Kingdom? These people couldn't live in crap like that. And Mary, Alric's enemy, was here. He might get to her if I fled and made the story end the wrong way. He'd steal her book so no one else could figure out the tales.
