by E. D. Baker
“I’m so glad you’re coming!” said Millie, giving her friend a hug. “I hated the idea of having my party without you.”
Three carriages belonging to her own family rumbled across the stones of the courtyard, which was suddenly bustling with activity as trunks were loaded and the other travelers arrived. Millie was happy that her grandparents King Limelyn and Queen Chartreuse were going, but she was thrilled when Francis and his parents appeared.
“We got your mother’s invitation right after you left,” Francis told her. “I packed all my stuff in an acorn I bought at the Magic Marketplace. You’d never believe what you can fit in one of those things. Say,” he said, squinting into the shadows beneath the wall of the keep, “is that Great-grandfather?”
Millie yelped and ran to greet the ghosts of her great-grandparents, who had come to say good-bye along with some of the other castle ghosts who were her friends. Although they were hard to see in the shadows, they would have been nearly invisible in the bright daylight, which was one of the reasons they rarely ventured out of the dungeon during the day.
“We heard that you were going to Upper Montevista,” said her great-grandmother. “We hope you have a wonderful time.”
“I’m so sorry you won’t be able to come to my party,” said Millie. “I really wanted to have it here.”
“We can’t understand why Frazzela would make you have it at her castle,” said a ghost named Sir Jarvis.
“Just be careful on the road,” said King Aldrid. “There were bandits on the way to Upper Montevista when I was alive.”
“Don’t worry, Great-grandfather,” Millie said. “My parents chased the bandits away years ago. I’m sure we’ll be fine.”
A shadow passed overhead. Terrified, the horses harnessed to the carriages began to rear and scream. Men were rushing to control them when a familiar voice called hello. “It’s Ralf!” Millie said as a twelve-foot-long blue dragon landed on the cobblestones.
Emma was reciting a spell to calm the horses when two more dragons landed in the courtyard behind the first. Although the red dragon was huge at nearly twenty feet, the blue-black dragon was the biggest of all. Over thirty-five feet long, it had deep-set eyes that could make even the bravest knights quake. Millie wasn’t afraid of any of them. Ralf’s parents had often looked after her when she was a baby; they were like a second family to her. “Ralf! Flame Snorter! Grumble Belly!” she cried, flinging her arms around Ralf’s neck before running to hug the others. “Are you coming to Upper Montevista, too?”
“Upper Montevista? Why would we go there?” asked Ralf. “We stopped by to see if you wanted to go swimming in the ocean with us before your party.”
“Oh, Ralf, I’d love to,” Millie exclaimed. “But I can’t today. We’re going to Upper Montevista for my birthday. We’re having my party there this year.”
“Really?” said Ralf. “Can we go, too?” he asked, turning to his parents.
His mother shook her head. “Sorry, Ralf, but you know how Millie’s other grandmother feels about dragons. She told her archers to shoot us the next time we drop in.”
“I’m sorry, Ralf,” said Millie. “I was supposed to have my party here, but there’s been a change in plans.”
“That’s okay,” he said, but his ears drooped and his ridge went limp. “Maybe I should give you your present now. Here.” Reaching under his wing, Ralf pulled out a small leather sack tied shut with a silver cord.
“Thank you, Ralf,” she said. “This is so sweet of you.” Millie pulled open the drawstring and removed a handful of bright-colored crystals, holding them up so everyone could see. “What are they?”
“We found them in a cave. You eat a couple before you flame and they make your fire come out a different color.
They’re really crunchy and kind of sweet,” Ralf said, licking his lips.
“Thanks,” said Millie. “I’ll have to try them next time.”
Her parents gave each other worried looks.
“We should go now, Ralf,” Flame Snorter said. “Millie’s family is going on a trip and we’re keeping them from getting started.”
“Good-bye, everyone,” said Grumble Belly. “Ralf …”
“I’m coming,” said Ralf, spreading his wings wide.
“Happy birthday, Millie!” the dragons shouted as they took to the air.
“Thank you!” Millie replied, waving with one hand while holding on to the side of a carriage with the other.
As the dragon family took off, the wind their wings created blew the green pennants off the lower towers, knocked over a half-filled water barrel, swept a young page off his feet, and destroyed the carefully arranged hairdos of all the ladies present.
“They would have to come now!” said Queen Chartreuse as she straightened her clothes.
“Is everyone ready?” Prince Eadric asked. “Millie, I need to talk to you.” He waited while she walked around the toppled water barrel before saying, “Your mother has come up with a marvelous spell that will take all our carriages to Upper Montevista in just a few hours. You’ll be traveling with your mother and me. We have something we want to discuss with you.”
“But Zoë and Francis—,” Millie began.
“—are traveling with their own parents,” interrupted her father. “Go get in. We’re about to leave.”
She had started for the carriage when her mother cried, “Millie, watch out for the horses!”
A groom was walking a fresh pair of horses to her grandparents’ carriage. They were only a few yards from Millie when they smelled her. With flaring nostrils and frantic eyes, the horses tossed their heads and backed away from Millie. She hurried to her parents’ carriage and climbed in, shutting the door behind her. Horses had never liked Millie. Her mother said it was because she had so much dragon in her. Horses could smell her dragon side even when she hadn’t been one for a long time; they refused to go anywhere near her. Unlike most princesses her age, Millie had never learned how to ride.
When everyone else was ready, Emma and Eadric climbed into the carriage with their daughter. Millie loved hearing her mother’s spells, so she listened eagerly while Emma recited the one she had made up just for the trip.
Horse and carriage, you’ll now speed
Through the countryside.
Take us to Frazzela’s home
With the smoothest ride.
Slow to a more normal pace
When people are around.
Then hurry up until we fly
Over rock and ground.
Get us there before the sun
Sets on this lovely day.
Take the shortest route you can—
Neither stop nor stray.
The carriage lurched as the horses started out, then settled into a pace so fluid that Millie had to look out of the window to see if they were really moving. They were already outside the castle walls by then and when she looked down the ground was hurtling past. Sliding off her seat, Millie leaned out of the window to see the horses. They were running just as they normally would, but the ground itself seemed to be rushing under their hooves.
“I wish we could fly there,” Millie told her parents as she returned to her seat. “It would be so much simpler.”
Her mother was idly gazing into the farseeing ball that she always wore on a chain around her neck. Glancing at Millie, she let go of the chain and said, “Maybe we’ll be able to in a few years, but the people of Upper Montevista still expect to see us travel like royalty. They accept my magic much more than they used to; it’s just that they still aren’t ready to see us arriving on a flying carpet. Besides, your father and I wanted to talk to you and the wind can be so loud when we fly.”
Eadric cleared his throat and said, “You know we love you very much and we think you’re wonderful just the way you are …”
“What have I done wrong now?” Millie asked.
“Nothing. It’s just that we want you to be careful while we’re visiting your grandparents. Please try very hard not
to lose your temper. We’ve done our best to keep your grandmother from hearing about … you know.”
“You mean that I turn into a dragon? I know that’s why we’ve visited them only a few times. I figured that out years ago. But how have you kept them from hearing about it from other people?”
Emma couldn’t quite meet her daughter’s eyes as she said, “I cast a spell when you were just a baby. If anyone who wasn’t a friend or part of the family came near you, he was struck dumb if he tried to tell someone new about the way you change. Unfortunately, there isn’t a thing we can do about it if your grandmother actually sees you, which you must try very hard not to let happen. There are certain things we still can’t do around Frazzela.”
“She likes fairy magic,” Eadric reminded Millie. “For some reason, my mother finds fairies fascinating. It’s gotten so she can’t seem to get enough of them.”
“That’s true,” said Emma, “but she doesn’t like it when I turn into anything. I had to become a dragon the day of our wedding—”
“Because the trolls attacked the castle,” said Millie. “I know. I’ve heard the story.”
Emma nodded. “And ever since then, I don’t dare turn into anything when your grandmother is around. She became hysterical during one of our visits a few months later, when she saw me turn into a hawk. She threatened to outlaw witches in Upper Montevista.”
“Which she could never do,” said Eadric. “Not with all the witches my father has helping his soldiers now.”
“But she could make it uncomfortable for them again,” said Emma.
“And that’s why you don’t want her to know that I become a dragon, too? It’s not like I do it on purpose!” said Millie.
“Which might frighten her even more. Uncontrolled magic would probably terrify her. All we’re asking you to do is try hard not to lose your temper, which I know is very difficult at times.”
“I’ll do the best I can,” said Millie.
Five
They made good time going north, having slowed only twice—once when they went through a small village, and again when they passed a group of hunters who would surely have noticed the speeding carriages. Millie was watching the trees in the forest flash past when water splattered the carriage and they stopped with a lurch so sudden that she slid off the seat and landed on the floor at her parents’ feet. A loud moan shook the carriage and another deluge struck with a terrific splat.
“What happened?” Millie asked as she untangled herself from their legs.
Her father reached for the door, saying, “I’m going to go see.”
There was a series of loud booms and the forest floor shook. If Eadric hadn’t been holding on to the door, he would have fallen out headfirst.
“I’m going, too,” said her mother, pausing to give Millie a stern look. “You stay here until we get back.”
“But I want to—,” Millie began.
“Not this time, Millie,” her mother said as she peered out the window. “I don’t need to worry about you and whatever is going on out there, too.”
While her mother shut the carriage door behind her, Millie scooted toward the window. “I’m not a little girl anymore,” she muttered. “I don’t know why I have to stay inside.” Millie reached for the latch when she saw Li’l, the bat, fly out of her carriage, and her daughter Zoë climb down as a human. When she saw her grandparents get out of their carriage, and Francis and his parents get out of theirs, Millie couldn’t wait any longer. A deep rumbling sound was making the trees vibrate when she opened the door and slipped out. The sound rose and fell as Millie crept around the back, hoping to see what was happening without being seen herself. The ground was wet and muddy, so she had to pick her way carefully and didn’t see Francis until she bumped into him.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Sh!” hissed Millie. “My mother told me to stay in the carriage.”
“It’s giants,” whispered Zoë as she joined them. “There’s a whole crowd. They’re standing around talking to your parents, Millie. Come here and I’ll show you.” Zoë led the way to the edge of a ditch tall enough for a man to stand in without his head showing over the top. It was nearly twenty feet wide, and on the other side rested a stack of logs well over sixty feet long.
Millie leaned over the ditch, trying to see past the closer trees to where two giants had crouched down to talk to her parents. There were four giants all told, not the crowd that Zoë had mentioned, but even four giants was a lot. Millie thought it must be a family, with a mother, a father, and two boys who were almost as big as their parents. The adults were talking to Emma while the boys stood behind them, each with a hand on his mother’s shoulder. Huge tears trickled down her cheeks, which, Millie decided, explained the water that had hit the carriage.
Although the rumble of a giant’s voice could make the ground shake, the giants who were talking to her parents were courteous enough to whisper, yet even from a distance, Millie could hear most of what they were saying.
“We were felling trees so we could make a boat,” whispered the father. “We want to explore the Eastern Sea. Our friends have already gone to start a new life on one of the islands.”
“My Penelope …,” the mother cried, wiping her eyes.
The father shook his head. “She’s just a little girl. She could be anywhere.”
“She’s only three,” the mother whispered. “I was watching her and I turned away for a minute to catch a tree that was about to hit my boys. And then when I looked for my little Penelope, she was gone.” The giantess sobbed and dabbed at her eyes with a cloth that could have covered Millie’s bed.
Millie couldn’t hear what Emma said, but she saw her pick up her farseeing ball and move her lips. An image must have appeared in the ball, because the giants bent closer to peer into it and were smiling and laughing when they stood up.
“I know where that meadow is!” boomed the father, forgetting to whisper. The trees around them whipped back and forth as if caught in a terrible storm. Twigs and leaves rained down on Emma and Eadric, who clutched each other so they wouldn’t blow away. Millie could feel the wind from where she stood, and she had to step away from the ditch so she wouldn’t fall in. It was even worse when the giants turned and started to run through the forest. “At least they’re going the other way,” Millie shouted to Francis as the ground bucked and lurched beneath them.
Trees crashed as the giants pushed them aside, and then there was silence, but it lasted for just a moment before the entire forest shook from the giants’ laughter.
“Your parents are coming back,” Francis said, and Millie hurried to the carriage.
She glanced toward the trench in time to see her mother move the logs with her magic while Li’l watched from a nearby tree stump. Then Li’l was on her way back, stopping long enough to talk to Zoë. They were already in their carriage when Millie’s parents returned.
“What happened?” Millie asked as her parents took their seats across from her.
“A family of giants was felling trees,” said Emma. “Their little girl wandered off while they were working and they didn’t know where she’d gone. I used my far-seeing ball to find the child.”
“She was asleep in a meadow,” said Eadric. “You should have seen their faces when your mother told them where she was.”
“I’m glad you stayed inside where I told you to,” said Emma, leaning across the space between the seats to give Millie a hug. “I don’t ever want to lose you the way that mother lost her baby.”
“Mama, I’m not a baby anymore.”
Emma kissed her on the forehead and said, “You’ll always be my baby, Millie, even when you’re a hundred years old.”
The sun had almost set when the carriages slowed for the last time. Millie stuck her head out of the window as they approached the narrow causeway that led to the royal castle of Upper Montevista. She had been there only a few times in her life and then only for very short visits; all she rememb
ered about the castle was that it was cold, dark, and uninviting. When she finally spied it through the carriage window, she remembered another reason she hadn’t liked the castle—it was ugly. Unlike the light and airy castle in Greater Greensward, with its slender towers and many windows, this castle’s thick, nearly windowless outer walls and four massive towers made it look squat and heavy, like a fat toad sleeping on a rock.
Zoë’s brothers were the first ones out of their carriage. Unlike their father, who couldn’t come out of the curtained carriage in the daylight, sunlight didn’t bother the children. Millie wondered if the three boys had traveled as bats or as vampires, but either way they shot out of the carriage as humans and with so much pent-up energy that it carried them whooping and yelling around the courtyard. Zoë chased them, calling to her brothers to come back, but they ignored her and didn’t stop running until a young man with curly brown hair like Eadric’s stepped forward and scooped up the two smaller boys in his arms.
“Who is that?” Millie asked her father as he helped her down their carriage steps.
“That’s your uncle Bradston,” Eadric said, reaching for Emma’s hand. “It looks as if everyone has come to welcome us.”
Millie knew who Bradston was, of course, although she had been a small child the last time she visited Upper Montevista and he had been a teenager who hadn’t paid her much attention. What she remembered most about him came from her favorite bedtime story: the retelling of how her parents had rescued him from his troll kidnappers. Her mother always finished the story with the spell she’d cast to make Bradston stay close to his mother until he nearly drove Queen Frazzela crazy.
Servants were lighting torches in the darkening courtyard when Millie and her parents joined the people waiting by the door. As the sun went down behind a distant mountain, Garrid emerged from his carriage, although there was no sign of either Li’l or baby Suzette. Eadric had already begun the introductions when Francis ran up to join Millie, leaving his parents to follow.
“That was great!” Francis whispered into Millie’s ear. “I wish every carriage ride was like that. I’m going to have to learn that spell so I can use it, too.”
