Startled, the tadpoles darted away, moving together like one much larger entity.
“I found them!” Millie shouted, and her parents hurried over to meet her.
“Felix!” called Emma as she drew alongside the tadpoles.
“Are you there, Felix?” his father called.
Millie glanced from one tadpole to another and shook her head. “It’s impossible to tell them apart.”
“It is, isn’t it? And none of them answers to ‘Felix,’” said Emma.
“Maybe we should try something else,” Millie said. “He’s ticklish when he’s human. Do you think he might be ticklish as a tadpole, too?”
Emma smiled. “What a good idea! When I was a frog, Grassina tickled me and knew who I was by my laugh. I doubt any real tadpole would laugh like Felix. You start at that end of the group and I’ll start at this end. Eadric, can you work your way out from the cattails?”
“How will we know which ones we’ve checked already?” asked Millie. “I know some have little legs and some are bigger than others, but I don’t think I can keep them all straight.”
“Dab some mud on each one after you tickle it,” said Eadric. “Unless you can think of a better way to mark them.”
“Mud sounds good to me,” said Millie, bending down to get a big glob.
Although Millie thought that tickling tadpoles might be fun, she changed her mind after the first few. Some tadpoles squirmed to get away, but most of them just gave the frogs bored looks and swam off. An hour had gone by and her froggy fingers were sore when a dark shape shot out of the deeper water, scattering the tadpoles in every direction.
“Hello!” said Haywood, his otter mouth grinning. “I came to see how you were doing.”
Millie didn’t know a frog could look as angry as her mother looked just then. “We were doing fine until you came and chased all the polliwogs away!” Emma said, her froggy eyes bulging even more than usual.
Haywood looked confused. “What do polliwogs have to do with … Oh, I get it. You think Felix is a polliwog now! That makes sense because—”
“We can talk about it later,” snapped Emma. “Right now I want you to get those polliwogs back. Go on, round them up and send them back here.”
Haywood ducked his head like a little boy who’d just been scolded. “Sorry,” he muttered. “I didn’t know. I’ll see what I can do.” He swam off and in less than two minutes a flood of tadpoles surrounded the three frogs.
“How did he do it that fast?” asked Millie as she reached for a tadpole.
“He probably used magic,” her mother said, trying to tickle two tadpoles at once. “Small magic has always been his specialty.”
Millie gazed out over the sea of tadpoles that didn’t show any sign of leaving. “He must have sent us every tadpole in the pond.”
“Good,” said Eadric. “Then Felix should be here somewhere.”
Millie was getting sick of the sight, smell, and feel of tadpoles when her father finally tickled one that chortled with glee. Eadric called Emma and Millie over to see the tadpole. They recognized Felix’s laugh even before they saw him and were both grinning when they gave the little creature a froggy hug.
“Now we have to get him to shore without losing him again,” said Emma as they all tried to hold on to the squirmy tadpole. “The problem is, we have to keep him in water until I can change us back. I’m afraid I’ll drop him if I try to hold him while I change.”
Eadric looked around until he noticed a depression in the mud at the edge of the pond. “We can trap him in a puddle,” he said. “Millie, come help me. We’ll build up the sides so he can’t get out.”
“Hurry!” said Emma with her arms wrapped around the tadpole. “I won’t be able to hold him for long. He’s too slippery!”
Working as fast as they could, Millie and her father splashed water into the depression, then slapped mud around the edges, building them high enough to keep in even the most determined tadpole. When it was ready, they helped Emma lug the wiggly little creature over the mud wall and dump him into his own private puddle. Millie glanced at her parents and laughed. They were covered in mud, and so was she.
“Step back, everyone!” said Emma. “I’m going to turn us back first, and we don’t want to step on Felix.”
Millie scrambled out of the water, adding another layer of mud to her arms and legs. The three of them moved away from the pond and took hold of one another’s hands again. The spell that Emma used was one Millie had heard before, only this time it applied to her, too.
Turn us into that which we
Long ago were meant to be.
Make us human once again
From head to toe and bone to skin.
Once they were human again, they stood beaming at one another for a moment before turning to look at the tadpole they were sure was Felix.
Emma knelt down beside the puddle to recite another spell.
An evil man has turned my babe
Into a polliwog.
Change him back to the boy I love,
A human, not a frog.
Millie waited, expecting the air to shimmer or lights to sparkle or something that would show the spell was working. Nothing happened, however, and the tadpole continued to swim in his little puddle.
“What’s going on?” asked Oculura as the witches gathered around.
“Felix was turned into a tadpole, not a fully developed frog,” said Emma. “I tried to turn him back, but my spell didn’t work.”
“Maybe you didn’t say it right,” said Dyspepsia.
“Mother always says it right and her spells always work,” Millie told her. “Something else is wrong.”
“Let me try,” said Azuria.
Millie stepped aside as one witch after another tried to change the tadpole back. Standing by the pond, she let her mind wander. The pond had felt right, and now the tadpole felt right. That was Felix, she was sure of it. Whatever wasn’t right wasn’t anything they had done, it was Olebald. It had to be.
“Mother,” said Millie. “Didn’t you tell me that normally only the witch who cast a spell can undo it?”
Emma glanced at her and sighed. “Usually, yes, although I’ve been able to undo most witches’ spells ever since I became a dragon friend. I was hoping that I could do it now as well, but it isn’t working. The only one who can undo this spell is Olebald Wizard. We’re going to have to find him.”
Thirteen
They were flying over the enchanted forest when Millie slowed the beat of her wings so she could talk to her mother. Emma was riding on her magic carpet with Eadric, cradling the glass bowl that Grassina had created out of an old spell, a leaf, and a blob of mud. Pond water sloshed in the bowl, and the little tadpole swimming in the water sloshed with it.
Her mother was murmuring something to Felix when Millie appeared beside her. Emma glanced at Millie, then at Eadric, who was snoring softly, his head lolling at an angle. “My poor darling,” said Emma. “He’s exhausted. But then we all are today.”
“Mother, I have to ask you, isn’t your spell supposed to take us to Olebald?”
Emma was only half paying attention to Millie when she answered, “What’s that, dear? Oh yes, that’s right.”
“But it looks as if we’re going home,” Millie told her. “I can already see the castle beyond the trees.”
Emma frowned and looked up. “That’s not possible,” she said, her cheeks paling when she saw the castle. “This isn’t good. It can mean one of two things; either my spell didn’t work, or Olebald is here in Greater Greensward. I don’t know which would be worse.”
“If he’s here, at least we won’t have to go looking for him,” said Millie.
They made a strange procession as they approached the castle: two dragons, two magic carpets each bearing a man and a woman, and four witches on broomsticks. Gliding over the battlements, they were aiming for the courtyard, but they seemed to hit an invisible barrier in turn and bounced a little before sliding
off the side like a speck of dust on a soap bubble. They all ended up outside the castle wall, looking confused.
“What’s going on?” Millie asked Audun as they met in the air above the moat.
“I don’t know,” said Audun. “But there’s your cousin, Francis. He’s waving to us.”
Millie spotted Francis standing by the moat dressed in his best suit of armor. It gleamed gold in the sunlight, making him hard to look at. “Good,” Millie said. “He should know what’s happening.” She turned on a wingtip and headed toward her cousin.
“Did you find Felix?” Francis called before they were even close.
“We found him, but we still have a problem,” said Millie. “He’s a tadpole and we can’t change him back. We need Olebald Wizard for that.”
“I’ve been told that he’s in the castle, but I haven’t seen him yet,” said Francis. “Grandmother and Grandfather saw him for a few minutes before I returned.”
When Millie tilted her head to the side in a quizzical way, Francis sighed and said, “Perhaps I should start from the beginning. I was helping the witches look for Felix when a fairy came to tell me that my grandparents needed me here. I hurried back and found everyone outside on the road leading to the drawbridge. Olebald Wizard had used an illusion spell in the middle of the night to make it look as if the castle were on fire. Everyone, including the guards, fled the castle. Once everyone was outside, Olebald closed the drawbridge and ended his illusion. Now no one can get inside. Stand back and I’ll show you something.”
Millie and Audun stood well back as Francis nocked an arrow in his bow, took aim over the castle wall, and let fly. The two dragons watched as the arrow arched over the wall with a whistling sound, hit something with a twang! and came flying back. Francis ran to the side, but the arrow headed straight for him. He dodged to the other side and the arrow changed direction. When it looked as if he wasn’t going to be able to avoid it, he turned around and braced himself. The arrow hit him in the center of his back with enough force to knock him off his feet. Millie wasn’t too worried however, because she knew he’d made his armor puncture proof.
“I thought you’d given up shooting arrows over the wall, Francis,” King Limelyn said as he, Queen Chartreuse, and Emma crossed the well-trodden path around the moat to join them. The king acknowledged Audun with a single nod and patted Millie on her scaly cheek. “I’m glad you’re back. Your mother told me about Felix. Did Francis tell you what Olebald Wizard has done here?’
“He did,” said Millie. “Francis also said that you saw Olebald, but no one has seen him since.”
“After he closed the drawbridge, he came out on the wall walk to gloat,” said the king. “When he saw us watching him, he did a little dance and laughed so hard he had to lean against a parapet so he didn’t fall over. Then he shouted down at us, ‘I’ve finally done it. You think you’re so smart, but I’m smarter than all of you. This castle is mine now and there’s nothing you can do about it.’ I can’t believe that the old cuss tricked us into abandoning our home without lifting a finger to stop him. That fire illusion had me convinced. It crackled and flared and looked so real!”
“You could smell it, too,” said Queen Chartreuse. “That wizard is evil, but he’s very good at what he does. I was terrified! Olebald is a horrible old scoundrel to have frightened us all so. Now that you’re back, you must kick him out of our castle. It’s disgraceful. No queen should ever be seen in public in her nightgown, but the fire started so suddenly that I didn’t have time to change. ”
“It wasn’t a real fire, my dear,” said King Limelyn.
“I know,” said the queen, “but I thought it was, and that’s what mattered.”
“Have you tried to get in through the secret passageway yet?” asked Audun.
“It was blocked,” the king told him. “My men have done everything from trying to batter the door down to hacking at it with axes. Olebald Wizard must have used magic to protect it, too. As for the walls … I’ve given up counting how many places where we’ve tried to scale the walls and been repelled each time, even though no one is there.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” said Emma. “Millie, you and Audun can take a look at the secret passage while I see about the walls. There must be some way we can get inside the castle.”
Millie and Audun weren’t far from the secret passage, so it took them only minutes to get there. Brushing aside the concealing vegetation, they entered the tunnel and followed it back to the door. A broken ax sat propped against the wall, and the dirt floor was churned up from the passage of many feet, but the door itself was intact and looked the same as always. Banded in iron and at least a foot thick, the wooden door was meant to withstand just about anything.
Millie waited while Audun tried the latch. When he looked back at her, she raised an eye ridge and said, “I’m sure someone already did that.”
Audun shrugged. “You never know,” he replied. “Stand back. I’m going to try to knock it down.”
“But the soldiers—”
“Aren’t as strong as I am. I bet they never tried this.”
Millie backed down the tunnel, leaving Audun enough room to turn around. Pulling his tail back, he let go and hit the door with a whump. The door shook and dust billowed through the tunnel. When Audun cried out, there was so much dust that Millie couldn’t see what had happened.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
“Fine,” Audun said in a grumpy voice. “My tail came back and hit me, that’s all.” He took a step backward and groaned. “I think I sprained it.”
The dust cleared, leaving the door looking just as it had before.
“I don’t understand,” said Audun.
“Move aside, please,” said Millie. “It’s my turn now.”
The two dragons squeezed past each other to change places in the narrow tunnel. Millie eyed the door, then glanced back at Audun. “On second thought, you should probably go outside. It might get awfully hot in here—not at all the place for an ice dragon.”
Audun nodded. “I’ll go, but I don’t like leaving you alone.”
“I know, and I appreciate your thoughtfulness,” said Millie, and she blew him a kiss. She waited until the sound of his footsteps had died away before taking a deep breath. Millie preferred fueling her flames with gunga beans and hot flammi peppers, but she hadn’t eaten any in days and her only supply was in the castle. Now when she needed her biggest flame the most, her ordinary flame would have to do. She thought about her flame even as she filled her lungs with air. It needed to be hot and last long enough to test any magic the old wizard could have used. Anything less would be a waste of her breath.
Millie held the air inside her until she could feel the flame build, then closed her second set of eyelids, stepped back, and aimed for the center of the door. Dragon fire washed over the wood long enough to turn it to ash. Flame caressed the iron bindings and thick hinges until they should have melted into pools of liquid metal. And still she flamed, willing the fire to last. And then the last bit of air left her lungs and she gasped.
Millie blinked her second lids open and examined the door. It looked just as it had before she started. The stone walls around the door glowed red, however, and when she touched one, her talon sizzled.
The fire she had blasted at the door had washed back over her. Fire didn’t bother fire-breathing dragons, but she was glad Audun had left when he did. Ice dragons could get burned just like humans, although they were totally comfortable with ice.
“Princess Emma? Is that you?” called a faint voice from the other side of the door.
“No, it’s her daughter, Millie!” shouted the young dragoness. “Who are you?”
“It’s Sir Jarvis! Someone has done something awful to the dungeon. The ghosts can’t pass through walls or doors anymore. We’re trapped wherever we were at midnight last night. Poor Hubert is stuck between one cell and the next. I was fortunate enough to be in the corridor at the time. Can you come
in here and do something about this?”
“I wish I could,” said Millie, “but Olebald Wizard has tricked everyone into leaving the castle and we can’t get back in.”
“Then he’s the one! That dastardly rogue! This must be his revenge for when we foiled his break-in last year.”
“Or he wants to make sure you can’t help us now,” she replied.
“Millie!” Audun called and she could hear him approach from down the tunnel. “Is everything all right?”
“It didn’t work,” said Millie.
“And we ghosts are trapped!” came Sir Jarvis’s muffled voice.
“Then I guess we won’t be asking them for help,” said Audun. “Millie, I think you should come now. I heard a lot of shouting at the front of the castle.”
“I’m coming,” Millie told him. She turned and yelled at the door, “Tell the other ghosts that we’re trying to get in. We’ll help you as soon as we can.”
“Please hurry,” said Sir Jarvis. “Hubert hasn’t stopped moaning since he was trapped. We’d end his suffering if he weren’t already dead, so now we’re trying to think of a way to drown out the sound of his moans.”
“I’ll do what I can,” Millie called over her shoulder as she started back down the tunnel.
She heard the shouting as soon as she stuck her head outside the tunnel entrance. Although she couldn’t make out what they were saying, it sounded as if a large group of men were arguing. She and Audun ran down the moat path and arrived by the drawbridge just as a makeshift siege ladder, propped against the wall, began to fall backward. Soldiers clung to the ladder as their legs dangled over empty air. Millie flew up to grab hold of the ladder, but Emma was there first, and she held it still while Millie and Audun helped the men down.
“We have an idea!” Oculura shouted to the dragons. “Come talk to us.”