Annie nodded and turned to her friend. “After we left your room, the gentlemen helped me put on a suit of armor, and we went outside.”
“A suit of armor! What was it like?” asked Snow White.
“Hot and uncomfortable, although I was glad I had it on when the crows spotted us. Anyway, we got to the south tower, and we searched the whole thing. We found where Granny Bentbone has been living.”
“Is that the old woman you told me about, Liam?” asked the king. “The one who escaped from the tower?”
“Indeed it is, Your Majesty,” Liam replied.
“Was she there?” Snow White asked.
Annie shook her head. “No, so we kept looking until we got to the top floor.”
“Where Marissa had set up her workshop!” exclaimed Snow White.
“Exactly!” said Annie. “Her old mirror was still there, and Cat came by and suggested that we try asking it a question. Liam asked it who had come to see it in the last few days. The visitors were your stepmother, Marissa; Granny Bentbone; and a woman I didn’t recognize. I think she must be Terobella.”
“The witch who’d sent Liam’s mother the message!” said Snow White.
“That’s right! They looked like themselves when the mirror showed them to us, but when he asked who else they had looked like here, the mirror showed us a few people—a guard, a chambermaid, and two young men.”
“We think the young men came here with one of the princes who arrived before we did,” Liam told Snow White. “One had brown hair and blue eyes; the other had blond hair and hazel eyes. Do you remember any men fitting those descriptions?”
“No, sorry! I was so busy looking at my prospective bridegrooms that I didn’t notice anyone else,” said Snow White.
“Does anyone remember these two young men?” Annie asked the others. When no one said that they had, Annie sighed and glanced at Liam. “Then I’m afraid that we’re going to have a rough morning tomorrow.”
“What Annie’s trying to say is that if we don’t take the witches into custody before Snow White makes her announcement, they are bound to cause problems. We’ll all be together in one room, so we’ll be easy targets.”
“I’ll post extra guards,” said Captain Everhart.
“My men will also stand guard,” Captain Sterling told the king.
“And I’ll try to find the men in the morning,” Annie said. “They may have changed their appearances again, but my touch will still show them as witches.”
“I think we should all try to get some rest now,” said Snow White. “Tomorrow is going to be a busy day!”
Annie, Liam, and Snow White left the room when the king started talking to the captains about where the guards would stand in the great hall. Maitland was waiting outside the room, and his eyes lit up when he saw Snow White.
“So is Maitland her choice?” Liam asked as he and Annie left Snow White and the prince alone in the corridor. “He’s the best of the lot, so I hope she chooses him.”
“I hope so, too,” said Annie. “I think they’re almost as perfect for each other as we are.”
Chapter 18
Annie slept poorly that night. She lay awake until the small hours of the morning, thinking about all the dreadful things the witches could do. When she finally fell asleep, she had terrifying dreams that left her staring into the darkness with her heart racing.
She couldn’t go back to sleep, so she tried to make her mind go blank. Instead she ended up thinking about the contest and what she would have done if she had been taking the tests. Because she knew Snow White better than any of the princes did, the first test would have been easy. She probably would have asked the gardener to help her plant a garden like the one Snow White had at the cottage, or written out some of the funny stories Snow White had told her about living with the dwarves and then given them to her in a book.
The test for compassion would have been easy, too, because Annie liked helping others. She often gave clothes or food to the less fortunate at home. Helping people who wanted to see what some aspect of their lives would be like without magic was being compassionate, too, wasn’t it? Looking at compassion like that made her wonder if, instead of getting annoyed when so many people asked for her help, she should think about their plights a little more and try to be a little more patient with their demands.
As for the honesty test—it never would have occurred to her to keep the coin. But while that had seemed like a good test before, she now thought that the real test for honesty had been when the princes told the stories of what they’d done.
Annie thought that the test for bravery would have been the hardest. When she tried to think of the one thing she feared the most, she remembered what Maitland had told Liam. His worst fear was that Snow White wouldn’t choose him. When Annie really thought about it, she realized that her worst fear wasn’t of crows or water-filled rooms or falling carriages or dangling baskets—it was that something awful would happen to Liam. He had become the one person in her life whom she thought she couldn’t do without. She was happiest when she was with him. When they were apart, she couldn’t wait to see him again. Annie couldn’t bear to think of a future that didn’t include Liam. Anything that could jeopardize that petrified her.
Annie dozed off eventually and woke to sounds in the corridor outside her room. First she couldn’t go to sleep, then she’d overslept on a morning when she had hoped to be early! A sliver of light came under the door, but it wasn’t enough for her to see to get dressed, so she got out of bed and tucked back the tapestry that covered the window just enough to let in some daylight. Washing and dressing didn’t take long, and she was soon hurrying down the stairs.
Even though she fairly flew down the steps and through the corridor, Annie was the last to arrive at the royal table. Liam raised a questioning eyebrow when she took her seat, but she just shook her head and reached for a piece of toast.
“We were talking last night,” Andreas was telling Snow White. “We all decided that whoever is not chosen will leave right after your announcement.”
“I quite understand,” Snow White told him.
“The baked eggs and cheese are really good,” Liam said to Annie. “You should try some.”
“I’m not very hungry,” Annie replied. She was holding the piece of toast in her hand, but she had yet to take a bite. The two witches might be seated somewhere at one of these tables. If she’d been here as early as she’d planned, she might have spotted them when they took their seats, but now …
When Snow White finished talking to Andreas, Annie leaned closer to her and whispered, “Has anyone spotted the witches yet?”
Snow White shook her head. “No, although the guards were watching for them as everyone came into the hall. Do you think they might leave without doing something horrid?”
“I doubt it very much,” said Annie. “So keep your eyes open and tell me if you see anything odd.”
“You should eat something,” Liam said as he heaped food onto her plate. “You want to keep your strength up.”
Annie eyed the toast and took a bite. She was glad when breakfast was finally over and the plates were removed.
When Snow White stood, everyone grew silent and turned her way. “First of all,” she said, “I’d like to thank all the princes who participated in my contest. The trials were not always easy, but you did your best and for that you should be proud. I understand that you want to leave if you have not been chosen. To those of you who did not win, I promise you my friendship and wish you all the best in finding your own true love. Fortunately for me, this contest has allowed me to find the man with whom I wish to spend the rest of my life. My true love and the man I want to marry is Prince Maitland of Montrose.”
Hardly anyone seemed surprised. Emilio shrugged and smiled at Snow White and Maitland. “Congratulations!” he said, extending his hand to the grinning prince. His cousin Cozwald also offered his hand, as did Andreas and Milo.
Prince Nasheen, however
, stood and slammed his tankard onto the table, sending cider sloshing over the rim. “I knew you were going to choose him! I don’t know why I bothered to participate in a contest where the winner had been determined from the start. Good-bye. I doubt I shall ever return to your kingdom.”
Annie watched openmouthed as he stormed from the hall, but she kept her eyes on the men who followed him. None of them looked like the men she’d seen in the mirror.
“I must say that I am very disappointed,” said Digby. “I came a long way and faced much personal danger to try for your hand. I did extremely well in each of the trials and deserve more than this.”
“I’m sorry, Digby, but I’ve already made my decision,” Snow White replied.
“Then I’m leaving, and you don’t have to worry about being my friend. I don’t need another princess for a friend. I have enough of those already. ‘Can’t we just be friends, Digby?’ they say,” he declared in an artificially high voice as he stalked from the table.
“If there was a contest for worst sport, I think Digby would win,” said Liam.
“I don’t know,” said Annie. “I think Nasheen would be a real contender. Liam, where did Tandry go? He had been sitting beside Digby before Nasheen started talking, but now I don’t see him anywhere.”
“What’s that, you say? Is Prince Tandry gone?” asked the king. “Guard!” he called to a man standing nearby. “Find out where Prince Tandry went.”
“Did anyone see him leave?” asked Annie.
“He was there one minute and gone the next,” said Snow White. “I think that’s odd. You told me to tell you if I saw something odd, Annie.”
“You’re right, I did,” Annie said. “I think I should go look for him.”
The guard whom the king had sent to find Tandry came hurrying back to the table. “He’s in the courtyard, Your Majesty. He’s preparing to leave.”
“Excuse me,” Annie said, getting to her feet.
Liam set his hand on her arm to stop her. “You don’t have to go. It isn’t safe for you out there.”
“If the witch is in the courtyard, I don’t have any choice,” said Annie. “This is one of those times when I may be the only one who can help. You have to let me go, Liam. I have to do this.”
Liam studied her face for a moment, then took his hand away. “Fine, but I’m going with you,” he said, and stood up beside her.
Together they made their way between the tables. As soon as they were clear of the crowd, they began to run. When they reached the courtyard, it was filled with people shouting, grooms leading horses, and carriages rattling across the cobblestones. Crows were watching from the surrounding roofs, and a few had perched atop the carriages.
Captain Sterling caught up with Annie before she could go running after Tandry. “We just saw the two men from the mirror. They were with Tandry’s group.”
“Maybe they’re just going to leave,” Liam said, sounding hopeful.
“I doubt that very much,” said Annie. “I want to be ready if they have something planned. Promise me that you’ll stay back if they start tossing magic around.”
“And let you face them by yourself?” said Liam. “I don’t think so!”
“There she is!” Tandry shouted over the voices of the crowded courtyard. “There’s Princess Annie.”
Annie spotted the young man standing on a crate, looking over the heads of the crowd. He was pointing right at her and talking to someone she couldn’t quite see. And then the crowd moved, clearing a space between Annie and Tandry, and Annie saw the people she had been trying to find. Granny Bentbone was standing beside the two men, but as Annie watched, the men changed, turning into Queen Marissa and the unknown woman Annie had seen in the mirror.
“Stay here, Liam!” Annie said, and began walking toward the witches.
Tandry climbed down from the crate as Annie approached. He looked much younger now, closer to twelve than sixteen. He was short and scrawny and had wide-set eyes shadowed by heavy brows. It occurred to Annie that he had kept his distance from her since the very first day and had always sat as far away as he could during meals.
“It’s all her fault, isn’t it, Mother?” Tandry said, talking to the woman Annie thought was Terobella. “If it wasn’t for her, I’d be marrying Snow White and I’d get to live in this big castle.”
“Yes, son,” the woman said, her eyes narrowing as Annie walked closer. “We tried to get rid of her so she wouldn’t interfere, but she was too ignorant to die.”
“Terobella, is it?” said Annie. “This whole thing is about your son wanting to live in a castle?”
“No, you foolish girl,” Terobella said with a sneer. “There’s a lot more to it than that. It started because you had my sister Marissa’s husband lock her away in a dungeon. When I learned about it, I came here to set her free. Archibald began quaking in his boots and declared that his daughter had to marry right away, so I decided that he’d given us the perfect way to make the castle our own. All I had to do was make Snow White believe that my son was her best choice. She’d marry him, and our entire family would move in. There was only one thing I had to take care of first—you, the annoying busybody who was bound to interfere. I went to Treecrest and found that your father had captured our mother and planned to execute her! Mother’s cousin, Mother Hubbard, talked him out of executing her, but I couldn’t leave our mother in your dungeon. I told her to call to the children, knowing that it would make your father want to move her somewhere far away. What better place than the old tower?”
“You knew about the tower?” said Annie.
Terobella laughed. “Who do you think built it? I kept Rapunzel there for years, but she escaped before my son could marry her. And then you took my mother there! I had the best laugh I’d had in ages! If only you had died when I wanted you to, everything would have been perfect.”
“So Tandry is your son, Marissa is your sister, and Granny Bentbone is your mother,” said Annie.
Terobella shrugged. “You help your relatives, and I help mine.”
“I told you that you should be afraid of her,” said Granny Bentbone. “Terobella is the most powerful witch around.”
“What happened to the real prince of Westerling?” asked Annie. “Did you kill him or make him up?”
“The real prince of Westerling is named Marco and is two years old!” exclaimed Marissa. “Like you, most people know nothing about the kingdom of Westerling. The opportunity was too perfect to pass up.”
“Annie, what’s going on?” Snow White called. She started toward Annie, but Maitland put his arms around her and held her back.
Terobella laughed. “Oh, look! Your little friend came to join you just in time to watch me turn her lovely castle into mud. If you had but married my son,” she called to Snow White, “you could have lived here forever.”
“But if I can’t have the castle, nobody can, right, Mother?” asked Tandry.
“That’s right, son,” Terobella replied.
When Terobella raised her hand, Annie began to run, but the witch just laughed and said, “Too late, girl!” as power shimmered green around her arm. With a quick downward slash, the witch threw the spell at the ground. There was a nerve-jangling rumble and the sound of something tearing as the cobblestones split, and the ground in front of Annie cracked, forming an apparently bottomless rift that ran from the castle to the wall surrounding it. Annie stopped just before the rift, certain that it was too wide to jump across.
Terobella laughed as she raised her arm again. Another flash of green and the entire castle went from gray stone to brown mud in an instant.
“What have you done?” screamed Snow White.
“Exactly what I said I was going to do,” said Terobella. “I turned your lovely castle into a mud hovel. And now for the rain.”
“Please don’t!” cried Snow White. “This is our home! Marissa, you used to live here. How can you let her do this?”
“Let her? I want her to do this!” Mariss
a yelled. “Terobella, make it pour!”
The rain had just begun when Terobella turned to the people who had joined Annie at the edge of the rift. Liam was there with the king as well as many of the guards. Horace looked courageous even though his face was gray with fatigue and his arm was still in a sling.
“Now for the part we’ve all been waiting for—at least I have!” cried Terobella. Raising both of her arms above her head, she turned to face Annie and the crowd gathered behind her. Annie felt awful that she hadn’t been able to stop the witch, but if Terobella made a mistake now …
Although others had already run from the castle grounds, Annie stood with her head high, watching Terobella’s every move.
“You think I’m going to try a spell on you, don’t you?” shouted the witch. “But I’ve had too many people warn me about you, girl.” Bringing one of her arms down abruptly, she pointed her finger at Horace. A burst of green light shot at the old man, hitting his chest. Four people behind him were hit as well, and as the light began to grow, they began to shrink. In moments, they had all turned into earthworms writhing on the ground.
“That’s enough!” cried Annie. “Your problem is with me, not them. What is wrong with you? You’re acting like a petulant child!”
“Ah, a new approach. First your friend pleads; now you think that insulting me will make me stop.”
“I don’t think anything will make you stop!” Annie shouted. “I think you’re an evil-spirited woman who likes the reaction she gets when she does something truly horrible. I think you like seeing the expressions on people’s faces when you perform your nasty magic!”
“Perform?” Terobella said, her eyes gleaming.
“Yes, perform, like a traveling juggler out to make a few coins by amazing the crowds, or, in your case, horrifying them. I bet you do magic only when you have an audience to watch you! And I bet that your magic is the only excitement in your life! If you’re not doing magic, you’re sitting at home in your swamp, feeding maggots to your pet crows and watching the swamp fleas bite your son!”
“How did you—” began Tandry.