Princess Between Worlds

by E. D. Baker

  “His Majesty King Lalidama requests your presence in the dining hall. I am to accompany you.”

  Annie woke up enough to recognize the voice of the bearded man who had shown them to their room. She sat up, the thought of food making her aware of how hungry she was and how little she’d eaten that day. While Liam opened the door just enough to talk to the man, she crawled off the bed and changed into her own clothes. The people who lived in Westerling might wear loose gowns, but Annie didn’t really feel dressed unless she was wearing her own undergarments and a fitted gown with lacing.

  Annie was brushing her hair when Liam asked the man to wait and closed the door. “I thought you were asleep!” he said when he saw her.

  “I was, but the man’s voice woke me. I’ll be ready in just a minute,” Annie told him.

  “Here, let me help with that,” Liam said, taking the brush from her hand. He brushed her hair, gently working out the snarls while she stood with her head tilted back. “I went to see the king to tell him what had happened, but he was still meditating. We’ll talk to him at supper.”

  Annie tried to hold her head still as the brush tugged at her hair. “It seems almost like a dream now.”

  “Don’t move,” said Liam. “I’m almost done.”

  When he was finished, Annie caught up her hair in the band again and turned to smile at him. “I wish you would do that every day,” she said, and gave him a kiss.

  Tossing the brush on the bed, Liam pulled Annie into his arms and returned her kiss with one that was long and slow. They didn’t move apart until there was another knock on the door. When Liam raised his head, Annie’s breath was ragged and her cheeks were flushed.

  “I’d be happy to do this every day,” Liam said with a smile.

  They went to the door together and followed the obviously impatient man down the stairs to the dining hall. It was a bigger room than the one they had eaten in before and was already filled with people standing around the long, low tables. The bearded man positioned them at the head table before leaving the room. Annie could feel the eyes of everyone in the hall on her. Although it made her fidget, it didn’t seem to bother Liam.

  Less than a minute later, everyone stood at a signal from the man with the beard. King Lalidama strode in through another doorway with Queen Shareeza on his arm. Going to the head table, they smiled graciously at the people in the room. As soon as the king and queen took their seats, everyone else sat as well. The room rustled with the sound of fabric on fabric as people made themselves comfortable on the floor pillows, but no one spoke until the king lifted his glass of crystal clear water, took a sip, and nodded. Then everyone began to talk in a low murmur.

  There were only two other people at the head table besides the royal couple, and Annie and Liam. One was a middle-aged man with a military bearing; the other was his wife, who looked down her nose at the servants and barely spared Annie a second glance. Liam smiled and spoke to them as easily as if he had known them for years, and they were both soon talking and laughing with him. Even so, Annie could tell that Liam was waiting for his chance to talk to the king, who was holding a quiet conversation with his wife.

  Annie was nibbling a piece of pickled fruit, listening to Liam’s conversation, when Queen Shareeza turned to her and said, “I’m curious. What did you do all day?”

  “We explored, as you suggested,” said Annie. “Your palace is even lovelier than I realized. I could see how it would be conducive to meditating,” she added, glancing at the king. “And then we went to the meadow you mentioned. It’s extraordinary that so many flowers can bloom in the snow.”

  “You did what?” the queen said, turning a shade paler. The king glanced at Annie, the first time he’d done so since sitting down to eat.

  “I saw a lot of tracks for the rock dodgers you told us about,” Liam said, entering the conversation. “But I didn’t see a single animal.”

  “You went outside the palace walls?” said the king, an odd note to his voice.

  “We did,” said Annie. “And the most extraordinary thing happened. Liam was just out of sight when some creatures came along. One of them picked me up and carried me off. They took me to a cave where we waited out the storm. They were actually quite nice to me. One brought me back to the meadow after the storm was over.”

  Annie had the strangest feeling as soon as she started telling her story. Something wasn’t right, but she couldn’t imagine what. From the horrified looks on their faces, she thought they might be worried about her safety, but they only seemed to get more upset as her story progressed.

  “Annie and I have never heard about creatures like these,” said Liam. “They were big, you said, and covered with white fur, right, Annie?”

  “Yes, and the males were bigger than the females. The children were—”

  “Enough!” roared the king. “You come uninvited to our home on one of our holiest of days and violate the taboo that no one has challenged in a thousand years. No one can be as ignorant as you claim to be. Everyone knows what a yeti looks like! And everyone knows that you do not go outside the palace walls during Shumra, the heart of the yeti migration. To do so means certain death. It also means that you scorn our laws and traditions. Wasn’t it enough that you didn’t join us in meditation? But to make up lies and call the yetis kindly beasts is inconceivable! Yetis are terrible monsters that spring from the snow itself. They are solitary monsters; there are no yeti females or children. There is only one kind of yeti, and they do not protect girls in snowstorms. You mock our beliefs on our holiest of days! Go! Leave my table. You are no longer welcome guests in my home. Guards! Take them back to the room they are using and make sure they do not leave. And take that medallion from Prince Liam. They cannot use magic to escape what they have done. Deeds like this do not go unpunished. I will meditate and decide your fate tonight.”

  Annie was aghast. She and Liam hadn’t been lying, nor had they meant to be disrespectful. No one had told them that they shouldn’t go outside the palace walls. Nor had they ever heard about yetis before. She got to her feet even as a man in a loose gray robe jerked the medallion off Liam’s neck and turned him toward the door. When another gray-robed man reached for Annie, she hurried after Liam, not wanting the guards to touch her.

  Liam took Annie’s hand as the guards hustled them up the stairs. They were moving so fast that she would have tripped if he hadn’t held her upright. When they reached the room, the guards shoved them inside and closed the door. The scrape of the lock seemed loud in the silence that followed.

  “So there were guards after all,” Liam said as he reached into his pocket.

  “And they must use the weapons we found in that room on the yetis,” said Annie. “Poor creatures. They aren’t nearly what the king claimed them to be. No females or children? How can these people live in their midst and know so little about them?”

  “Fear, most likely,” said Liam. “But we’re not going to stick around to talk to them. It’s time we moved on. Ready?”

  “Let me get our coats,” said Annie. She ran to the bench where they’d left them and was back a few seconds later. “Now we can go.”

  Liam held out the next postcard. Together, they touched the center and vanished.

  CHAPTER 6

  It might have been hard to tell where they were when they arrived at their next destination if the sky hadn’t been clear. Although it was night, the multitude of stars twinkling overhead allowed Annie and Liam to see for miles.

  “Look at that!” said Annie. “It’s amazing!”

  “We’re in the desert,” said Liam. “There’s nothing to block our view except the city over there. It must be the one in the postcard, but it looks very different at night.”

  Annie looked where he was pointing and nodded. “You can’t see much of it now, can you? The castle is well lit, but the city isn’t.” She shivered and handed Liam his coat. “We should put these on. It’s cold here. I would have thought a desert would be hotter than
this.”

  “Not at night,” Liam said as he pulled on his coat. “I wish I knew what kingdom this is. It must be far from Treecrest and Dorinocco. The stars aren’t in the same places as they are at home.”

  “Let’s go find out,” said Annie. “There’s a road over this way.”

  “I hope they’ll open the gate for us this late at night,” Liam told her.

  They had to be careful where they placed their feet on the uneven ground at first, but once they reached the road, they were able to look around while they walked. There was a wall around the city, which didn’t look very big but grew larger and larger as they drew closer. A castle prickly with spires loomed over the tallest buildings like a monster hovering over its prey. Some of the spires were ablaze with lights, while others were so dark, they were visible only because they blocked the stars behind them. Annie thought the castle was the ugliest building she’d ever seen, and wondered why the woods witch had included it in the postcards.

  They had almost reached the wall when a whoomp! whoomp! overhead made Annie look up. Something long and narrow was flying toward the castle on enormous wings; Annie had never seen anything like it. “What is that?” she asked Liam.

  “I can’t tell from here,” said Liam. “There’s no one at the gate, but there’s a door in the wall. Let’s try that. Maybe someone will come if we knock.”

  Raising his fist, he banged on the door, shouting, “Let us in!” When no one came right away, Annie raised her voice with his and started pounding. After a few minutes, a small slot squeaked open in the door, revealing a tiny peephole. A moment later, an eye filled the hole.

  “What do you want?” demanded a man’s deep voice.

  “We want to come in,” said Liam.

  “Go away. We’re not letting anyone in tonight.”

  The peephole closed partway, then seemed to get stuck. Fingers fumbled with the cover as someone tried to close it the rest of the way. Annie could hear the man who had been rude talking to someone else, although she could hear only his side of the conversation.

  “No, I didn’t ask anything about them. What difference would it make? I’m not letting them in no matter what pitiful story they tell me. Yes, I heard the captain’s orders. I know he said to keep an eye open. What? You think it might be them? Let me take another look.”

  The cover to the peephole squeaked again and the eye reappeared. “Why are you here?” the man barked when he saw Annie.

  She glanced at Liam, then back at the eye. “We just got married and we’re on our grand tour and—”

  The eye disappeared. There was a muffled conversation on the other side of the door before the voice said, “All right! You may enter.” The man forced the peephole cover closed, and there was a loud scraping sound. He grunted and cursed under his breath as he dragged the heavy door open. Annie could see why the task was so difficult when they stepped through the opening. The man was no more than four feet tall and looked as if he’d have to hold on to something heavy whenever a strong wind blew. His companion was the same size and had the same swarthy skin and bumpy nose. Annie suspected that they were twins.

  Liam helped them close the door, which revealed a large box that the guard had used to stand on. When the door was closed and barricaded, the guard who had been talking to them said, “You have to stay here until the captain comes. He wants to see you.”

  “Why?” Liam asked.

  The guard shrugged. “How should I know? He doesn’t confide in me! Timmon, you go tell him that they’re here while I keep an eye on them.”

  His twin nodded and ran off, leaving the first guard staring at Annie and Liam. “Now, don’t you get any ideas about overpowering me. I may be short, but I’m fast!” he said, emphasizing his words with a few quick jabs at the air.

  “We wouldn’t dream of it,” Liam said without a trace of a smile.

  A bell pealed somewhere in the city. At the first note, the guard’s expression changed from belligerent to frightened.

  “What is it?” asked Annie.

  “Dragons!” people screamed as a building a few blocks away erupted in flames. A series of explosions made the ground shake. Annie held her breath when an enormous lizard-like beast flew overhead, blocking the stars for a moment. Its scales glowed red in the reflected firelight. Another, paler dragon flew beside it. Opening its mouth, it exhaled a cloud that ignited when the first dragon blew fire at it. Together they blew up buildings on the next street over.

  “It looks as if there are two kinds of dragons,” Liam told Annie. “The one that puffs some kind of gas and the one that breathes fire that ignites the gas. They make a nasty combination.”

  The guard who was supposed to be watching Annie and Liam was growing more and more agitated. People carrying water-filled buckets ran by, hurrying to put out the fires. “Jimmie, come help!” shouted one.

  “I can’t,” the guard yelled back. “I have to stay here.”

  “We need you!”

  “I can’t . . . I just . . . ,” Jimmie said, the two choices warring inside him. When a woman screamed, Jimmie turned to Annie and Liam, saying, “Listen, I have to go. You two stay here until I get back.”

  The guard ran off, disappearing down the street, where a new fire was raging. A moment later, a slender white dragon swooped low over Annie and Liam, blowing mist at a building close to where they stood. Another, bigger dragon followed the first, breathing a long tongue of flame into the mist. The air above the building exploded, knocking off the roof and setting the rest on fire.

  “We’re not staying here!” Liam shouted, sheltering Annie as debris hailed down around them. “We have to get to the castle and see if we can help the king.”

  Annie and Liam ran toward the center of the city, dodging flaming pieces of roofing, volunteers hauling buckets, and terrified families running in the opposite direction. When they ran into soldiers shooting arrows at the dragons, they turned down another street. Soon they were seeing soldiers everywhere, running through the streets or trying to shoot down dragons.

  Annie and Liam were running past a small shop on a road leading to the castle gate when three men ran out of the building. Annie tried to go around a man in the middle of the road, but he ran straight at her, grabbed her around her waist, and dragged her into the building.

  “Liam!” she screamed as the other two men jumped him.

  Annie didn’t see what happened to Liam after that, because the man holding her forced her into the shop. There were other men inside, but none of them came to help her.

  “Quiet!” the stranger told her when she continued to cry out. “Your young man will be here soon enough. You don’t want to attract the people looking for you, do you? Like the soldiers who plan to march you off to a dungeon cell?”

  It took a moment for the man’s words to sink in. When they did, Annie stopped trying to get away and said, “Someone is looking for us? How is that possible? We didn’t even know we were coming here until we arrived.”

  “Let me explain,” a man said from the shadows in the back of the shop. He walked into the light from one of the two lanterns as he talked. Even before she could see him, Annie guessed he was the leader from the way the others looked at him and moved aside to let him pass. “I work in the castle and I overheard King Beltran with a visitor who claimed to be a wizard. The man said he wanted to warn the king that two spies pretending to be on their grand tour were about to arrive.”

  Everyone turned as Liam burst into the room, armed with a sword he’d taken from one of his attackers. When he saw the men surrounding Annie, he pointed the sword at the man closest to her and said, “Stay still, Annie, my love. This will take just a minute.”

  “No, Liam! Wait! They have something to tell us. Please go on,” she told the leader.

  “You and your young man fit the description that the wizard gave perfectly. The king has had his guards looking for you ever since the wizard was here. Apparently the only thing the wizard didn’t tell him was when
you would arrive. Beltran plans to throw you in his dungeon and torture you until you tell him who sent you, then have you both executed. He believes that you have been sent to assassinate him.”

  “That’s ridiculous!” said Annie. “We really are on our grand tour!”

  Liam had made his way to Annie’s side. Turning to the leader, he said, “Did you hear this wizard’s name? Can you tell us what he looks like?”

  “I didn’t hear his name, but I can tell you that he’s balder than a baby’s bottom. He’s got bushy eyebrows and long nose hairs. Oh, and his eyes are small and close together.”

  “Rotan!” Annie and Liam said at the same time.

  Annie glanced at Liam. “How does he know where we’re going?”

  Liam shrugged. “He must have talked to the woods witch. So much for Moonbeam taking care of him for us.”

  “So you really aren’t assassins or spies?” asked the leader.

  Annie shook her head. “We just got married. We’re taking a trip before we settle down.”

  “That’s too bad,” said a man with a straggly beard. “We would have been happy to help you assassinate Beltran. Are you sure you wouldn’t like to give it a try?”

  “You hate your king that much?” asked Liam.

  “King? Pah! He took over when his brother died of mysterious causes. Beltran has involved East Aridia in one war after another ever since.”

  “My brother was turned into a mouse when Beltran made the army fight in Greater Greensward,” declared the man who had grabbed Annie. “He’s back now, but he still has an unquenchable desire to eat cheese.”

  “And now Beltran has gotten us into a war with dragons!” said the bearded man. “Not just one kind, either. The fire-breathing dragons and the ice dragons used to hate each other, but now they’re allied against us because Beltran is so greedy.”