“But we never got them,” said Sweetness N Light.
“No, we didn’t,” said all the little fairies.
Moonbeam looked perplexed. “Squidge was helping you? Why would he do that?”
“He said you were away so you didn’t need him until you returned. He said he wanted to repay us for bringing you and Selbert together.”
“That’s odd,” said Moonbeam. “He was very upset that I married Selbert. When I told him how we met, he could only say unkind things about you. I’ll have to ask him about it when I see him next.”
Annie wiped the tears from her eyes. “You’re not going to see him again. I’m so sorry.”
Moonbeam frowned. “Something happened to Squidge?”
“He’d been trying so hard to be helpful and he went up on the battlements with us,” Annie told her. “There was a strong wind because of the storm and it carried him off. I’ll never forget the way he screamed.”
“Is that all?” Moonbeam said, looking relieved. “Then he’s fine. He’s a weather sprite; controlling the weather is second nature to him. I made him my assistant because he’s so good at calling up the rain and watering my moonflowers.”
“You mean he can control the wind?” asked Liam.
Moonbeam nodded. “Sometimes he does it for fun.”
“Then he wasn’t in danger? He didn’t die or get hurt or anything awful?” asked Annie.
“Not likely,” Moonbeam said. “He probably called the wind himself.”
“Let me get this straight,” said Liam. “Squidge tricked us when he pretended to be carried off. And if he really didn’t like us, he probably tricked us when he pretended to help. He never did deliver the invitations, but just pretended to do it. Am I right?”
Moonbeam’s frown was back. “It sounds like it. Why, that little scoundrel! I know that sprites like to make mischief, but he’s never given me a bit of trouble.”
“If he could control the weather,” said Liam, “could he have called up the storm?”
“You said it flooded the castle? Then I doubt it. He could make it rain, and he could call up the wind, but a really big storm would have required the touch of a witch or powerful fairy.”
Sweetness N Light rubbed her cheek and looked everywhere but at Annie or Liam. “Uh, about that. The storm was actually my doing. If it flooded things, well, I might have gotten a little carried away, but we were so angry when we thought you hadn’t invited us!”
“But what about everything else? My dress getting ruined and the moving rashes and the animals and, well … everything?” asked Annie.
“None of the fairies or witches in the kingdom received invitations,” said Sweetness N Light. “That’s a lot of beings with magic who were angry at you.”
“Can you please talk to them? Can you make them stop now?” Annie asked.
“We’ll do more than that,” said Sweetness N Light. “We’ll get them to help us set things right. We were all mad at you when we shouldn’t have been and we took it out on you. I don’t often admit to being wrong, but we all were in this case, and it’s up to us to make it up to you. Just tell us what you need us to do and we’ll do it.”
“It’s a long list,” warned Liam.
“And I know a lot of fairies,” Sweetness N Light replied.
Chapter 15
Annie and Liam watched as an iridescent, vibrantly colored cloud formed above the waterfall and headed north. The second round of tiny fairies had been sent to spread the word that all the fairies and witches in the kingdom had been invited to the wedding. Now nearly half of the flower fairies that lived in the Garden of Happiness were seeking friends and relatives who lived in other parts of the kingdom, informing them that they had all made a big mistake and needed to make up for it. A separate group had gone to tell the witches, a job they did with reluctance.
“Don’t worry,” Sweetness N Light told Annie. “I’ll see that everyone reverses their spells and cleans up the mess they made. I’m going to the castle myself to repair any damage that my storm caused.”
“Thank you,” said Annie. “That will help a lot. However, that still leaves King Dormander. I’d never even heard his name before he showed up in Treecrest, but I’ve been thinking and I might have an idea who he is. There’s someone I need to talk to at the castle. I have to get back as soon as I can.”
“I could whisk you there with my magic,” Moonbeam said, holding up her wand.
Annie shook her head. “Magic doesn’t work on me, remember? The rest of you could get there that way, but I need to use a more conventional means of travel. If I ride Otis, I should be there in a few hours.”
“I assume Otis is a horse,” said Sweetness N Light. “And that your prince will go with you.”
“Of course,” Liam replied.
“Then we’ll go on ahead,” said Moonbeam. “We have a lot to do and I want to get started.”
“I don’t suppose you could help us with King Dormander,” said Liam.
“We can’t,” Sweetness N Light told him. “Other than helping individuals, fairies don’t get involved in human matters, and we avoid wars in particular. We’ll clean up the mess we made, but the rest is up to you.”
Knowing that the fairies were on their way to the castle made Annie even more eager to go home. She and Liam left the garden already wondering how they were going to deal with King Dormander.
As they started on the road that led north to the castle, Liam turned to Annie, saying, “You said you had to talk to someone in the castle. Who do you mean?”
“A friend of mine,” said Annie. “We’ve been calling her Lilah, but that isn’t her real name. She has a lot of secrets and I’m hoping one of them can help us.”
“Isn’t that the girl who used to wear those ratty furs?”
Annie laughed. “They were mice and squirrel, actually, but yes, that’s her. I hope everyone at home is all right. We’ve been gone way too long and who knows what King Dormander has done. I’ve been so worried about them and now that we’re going home, I’m afraid of what we’ll find.”
“They’ll be all right,” said Liam. “I’m sure of it. Your father is a wise man, and your uncle is there, and Beldegard and Maitland and—”
“I know, they’re all strong men who will make sure everyone is well, but I won’t stop worrying until I see them all again.”
“What do you think your family will do when the fairies and witches show up?”
“They’ll be fine as long as Moonbeam gets there first to explain it all,” Annie said. “My parents are hoping to see her, but they might not know what to do if the others arrive before her.”
“I’ve been thinking,” Liam began. “If the fairies are able to set things straight, and we get King Dormander to leave, I think we should get married as soon as possible.”
Annie smiled at him. “I’ve been thinking the same thing! I know I got upset this morning when we were with the fairies, but honestly, this time I don’t care what my gown looks like or if my attendants have purple spots and green stripes. I want to marry you no matter what as soon as possible.”
“There’s something else,” Liam told her. “I know we had been planning to go on a grand tour, but we’ve been traveling a lot lately. Are you tired of traveling? Because if you are, we can stay home now and go in a few years.”
“I want to go now! I would like to visit somewhere new, though. Do you have any place in mind?”
“No, but I’m sure we can come up with something. Why don’t we both think about it and talk again later.”
“All right, but I want it to be somewhere exotic and very different from Treecrest or Dorinocco.”
“Sounds ideal,” Liam said, giving her a warm smile.
They talked of the wedding then and how they would make do with what they had, but as they drew closer to the castle, their conversation waned as Annie became lost in thought and Liam became ever more wary. Soon after that, Liam made them leave the road and wend their way throu
gh the trees. Even without the road to guide them, he knew which way to go. Once they reached the part of the forest that Annie recognized, she knew how close they had come.
They were beside a small stream, in the deep shade of the forest, when Liam reined his horse in. “We’ll leave the horses here. We can’t take them any closer without the risk that they’ll give us away. Don’t worry,” he said when he saw Annie’s face. “We’ll come back for them when it’s over.”
Instead of tying the horses to a branch, he hobbled them so they couldn’t wander far. “We have to be very quiet now,” he told Annie. “King Dormander could have men anywhere in these woods.”
“There’s a tunnel into the castle. It’s right over there,” Annie whispered, pointing deeper into the woods. “Wait! I hear magic. It’s just up ahead. Slow down. I don’t want to walk into it blindly. We should—”
Liam pulled Annie to a halt and put his finger to his lips. “Listen!” he breathed.
Someone was coming through the woods, not making any effort to be quiet. The sounds were faint, but definitely headed their way.
“In here,” Liam said, moving toward a clump of ancient rhododendrons whose leaves promised some cover.
Annie and Liam worked their way between the bushes, crouching low to the ground. It wasn’t long before a group of soldiers rode past close enough that Annie could hear the creaking of leather. She held her breath and willed them not to look her way. The cover that the shrubs provided was spotty at best, and she was afraid that one of the men might be able to see the two figures hiding behind the leaves.
The men had scarcely gone by when a doe walked past, heading in the direction of the castle. Annie squeezed Liam’s hand and pointed. Liam nodded, and they watched in silence as the doe approached a gap between the trees. The animal had just set her foot on a pile of dead leaves when fire flared up under her hooves. Startled, the animal reared, nearly falling over. Scrambling backward, she turned and ran, crashing through the forest.
Annie had heard the magic grow louder just before the fire flared. The moment the deer moved away, the sound became faint again. When nothing else happened, Annie slipped out of the cover of the bushes and hurried to the place where she’d seen the fire. Liam was at her side when she bent down to inspect the ground. There were reddish patches that seemed to move, and they …
“They’re fire ants. There’s a line of them going off in both directions. Look, they’re already moving away from me. I bet the line forms a loop around the castle, starting at the river’s edge on both sides. Anyone who steps on the ants will make them burst into flame.”
“Anyone but you, that is,” said Liam.
“And you, if you hold my hand. Keep your eyes open. I doubt this is the only barrier the wizard set.”
Annie took Liam’s hand and together they walked across the line of ants. It was more than two yards wide and extended as far as she could see. Each time Annie or Liam took a step, the ants skittered away, maintaining a clear space around them. It took only a few steps to get to the other side, and when they stopped to look back, they could see the ants filling in the spots they had vacated.
“That wasn’t so bad,” Liam said as they started to walk again.
But Annie wasn’t really listening. She had heard something, but it was too faint to tell if it was magic or someone humming a tune. Another step and it was louder. Two more and she knew for sure. “There’s more magic right in front of us,” she told Liam. “I think it’s that patch of grass. See, there’s another one, and another. They’re spaced so if you miss one, you’ll step on the next.”
Although Annie was anxious to get back into the castle to see her family, she knew better than to rush into unknown magic. The sound she heard was faint, but frantic.
“What does it do?” Liam asked, bending down for a closer look.
“I don’t know. I … What are you doing? Don’t go that close!”
Liam had picked up a twig and was about to poke the grass with it. Hearing Annie, he shrugged and tossed the stick so that it landed on the grass. The blades of grass twitched, and suddenly they were whacking at the twig like a chef slicing a carrot, chopping it ever smaller and finer. Within moments the twig was reduced to a sawdust outline of itself. Annie watched as the grass shivered and the sawdust fell to the ground between the blades. When the grass moved back in place, the sawdust was hidden from view.
“Wow! Did you see that?” said Liam. “I pity the poor creature that steps on that grass.”
“Hold on tight,” Annie said, taking his hand again. “We don’t have far to go.”
Gripping Liam’s hand so hard her knuckles were white, Annie stepped to the edge of the grass and looked down. The blades closest to the edge curled away from her feet and lay flat to the ground as if a stream of water were passing over them.
“Now!” she said, and they ran across the patch together, laughing in relief when they reached the other side.
“There may be more barriers,” said Annie, “but the opening to the tunnel is in those rocks right there. Let me go first to make sure that there’s no new magic around them or that the magic inside hasn’t changed since I was here last.”
Letting go of Liam’s hand, she walked slowly toward the rocks, straining her ears for any little sound. When she didn’t hear anything unexpected, she turned and gestured to Liam.
“At least this tunnel is dry, unlike the last one,” Liam said as he peered inside.
“Thank goodness,” Annie replied.
Holding the petals in front of her, she began to walk as fast as she could. Roots dangled from the ceiling, brushing their hair and making her jump the first time she felt one. She ducked then, trying to avoid the roots and remember if they had hung so low the last time she had gone this way. When she finally reached the bottom of the stairs, she didn’t pause, but started up them at a near run. She was about to see her family and find out if they were all right.
Reaching the top of the stairs, Annie searched for the latch that held the secret door closed. It took her a moment to open it and push aside the tapestry that hid the door from curious eyes. There was a rustling sound in the chamber on the other side of the tapestry, and when she peeked out from behind it, she gasped. The room seemed to be full of soldiers and all of them were pointing their swords at her. At first she thought that King Dormander had taken over the castle, but then she recognized the men and her father stepped forward.
“Annie, my dear! You’re back!” he said as the soldiers lowered their swords. “We heard you on the stairs and thought one of Dormander’s men had found the tunnel. We didn’t block this one or the one you used to get out so you could have a way back in. You can’t know how relieved I am that you’re here. Ah, Liam, it’s good to see you, my boy. How was your trip? No need to tell me that it was a success. Moonbeam arrived a few hours ago and told us that you had sent her. Come and sit down. I want to hear about everything.”
“I’m sorry, Father, but I have to go talk to someone first. It’s urgent. I may know of a way to end the siege. Liam can stay and answer all of your questions. Do you mind, Liam?”
“Not at all,” he said, and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
Annie wasn’t sure where she would find Lilah, but she had a few ideas. She would check the kitchen first, and then the garden, and perhaps the … The moment she stepped out of her father’s meeting chamber, she was surrounded. Everyone wanted to talk to her and they all had questions to ask. She put them off, one after another, saying that she would answer their questions soon. A crowd trailed behind her as she walked, but she refused to stop and talk to anyone. Time and again she explained that she had something important to do and that there would be plenty of time to talk later.
She was on her way through the great hall when Gwendolyn waylaid her, standing directly in her path and moving in front of her every time she tried to go past. The crowd that had been following Annie gathered around them, their numbers swelling as people learned that
she was there.
“You’re going to talk to me and you’re not getting out of it,” her sister told her. “Is anyone coming to help us—aside from the fairies, I mean?”
“No one else is coming,” said Annie. “The fairies have already done a lot, from what I can see.”
As she’d walked through the corridors, people had told her that her bridesmaids no longer had rashes, and that the fairies had fixed the roofs and floors, replaced the stones in the damaged walls, and rid the castle of all the animals that weren’t supposed to be there. She had seen evidence of some of this and was pleased that they had been able to accomplish so much in so little time.
“But Father says they refuse to do anything about the wizard!” said Gwendolyn. “Couldn’t you have found someone who would actually help us?”
Annie glanced at the avid faces surrounding her. Instead of thinking of them as a hindrance, perhaps she could enlist their help. “There is someone who might be able to help, but she’s already here. I was on my way to find her. Does anyone know where Lilah is now?”
“Who is Lilah?” people asked one another.
“Doesn’t she work in the kitchen?” a voice piped up.
“I think I saw her by the dovecote,” said another.
“You stay here. We’ll go find her!” called a third, and half the people in the crowd ran off in different directions.
“Good,” said Gwendolyn. “Now you can talk to me. Where have you been exactly, and what have you been doing?”
“I’ve been all over, looking for Moonbeam. I’m sure Father told you that,” Annie said.
“Yes, but you were gone for days! Did it really take that long to find one fairy?”
Annie didn’t think she should tell her sister everything before she talked to the king, but once Gwendolyn got an idea in her head, it was hard to distract her. However, if there was one thing that her sister liked more than getting people to tell her things, it was being the center of attention.
“She wasn’t easy to find,” Annie replied. “Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing while I was away? Has King Dormander’s wizard tried any more magic?”