“This line has me worried,” said Eadric. “Let’s see what it does. Emma, do you still have an apple?”
“You can’t possibly mean to eat now!” said Nightshade. “We’ve almost reached the queen!”
“Eadric knows what he’s doing,” I said as I took an apple from the sack.
“You have food?” Adara squeaked, poking her head out of Eadric’s pocket. “Why didn’t you tell me? I’m starving!”
“First things first,” said Eadric. Pulling his arm back, he flung the apple over the line. Light flashed and the apple fell to the ground as a hard, gray rock.
“It turns things into stone!” cried Oleander.
“I bet the line makes a big circle around the tree,” said Acorn.
“We’ll never get to Queen Willow now!” cried Persimmon.
Although Persimmon and Oleander both looked distressed, I thought it was curious that Nightshade didn’t. He was watching me expectantly, almost as if he still thought I was going to do something. When I didn’t, he took me by the arm, saying, “Emma, may I speak with you?”
Eadric was talking to the other fairies, trying to figure out something else they could do, when Nightshade led me away from them. Nightshade stopped and glanced back as if to make sure that no one could hear him before saying, “I had a feeling that you didn’t want the others to know, but I’ve heard a rumor that you can turn into a dragon. If that’s true, you should do it now. It’s the only way we’ll reach Queen Willow.”
“I would, but I don’t think it would do any good,” I told him. “I’d get turned into stone like that apple or tossed back to the sinkhole the way Acorn was when he tried to fly.”
Nightshade shook his head. “If you were a dragon, her magic couldn’t touch you. Dragon magic is stronger than fairy magic. It’s the strongest magic around!”
I was stunned. “Really?” I said. “I didn’t know that! Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure!” Nightshade said with a laugh. “Every fairy knows that.”
“Then I have no choice,” I said. “Step back. I don’t want to knock you down when I take off.”
The first time I’d changed into a dragon in front of people, I hadn’t been sure that I could do it. Now I knew I could, but I could feel their eyes on me, making me self-conscious. Eadric had seen me change a number of times already, so I didn’t mind that he was there, but strangers were a different story, not to mention the pesky Adara. I turned my back on them before I began.
Dragon hearing is very acute. Even while I was only partway turned, I could hear Adara’s mousey gasp and Nightshade mutter under his breath, “Finally!”
Turning toward the willow tree, I spread my wings and beat them once, twice, rising into the air above my companions. I hadn’t gone more than three of my own body lengths past the line when hail the size of Eadric’s fist began to rain from the sky. It pummeled me, bouncing off my scales, sounding like a bucket of pebbles tossed at a window. I closed my inner eyelids and would have kept going if I hadn’t heard Eadric and the others crying out in pain.
“Ow!” someone shouted.
“That really hurts!” cried another.
“My nothe!” wailed a third.
Swinging my head around to look behind me, I saw them crouched on the ground, their arms wrapped around their heads and necks to protect them. I might be all right, but my companions were not and I wasn’t going to leave them behind to suffer. Dipping one wing, I turned around and flew back to land beside Eadric. The hail stopped the moment I crossed over the line. Apparently, my ability to turn into a dragon wasn’t going to help us, either.
Fourteen
Turning back into my human self, I knelt beside Eadric and put my hand on his shoulder. “Are you all right?” I asked.
“Ow!” he cried. “Don’t touch me anywhere. I feel like one big bruise! But I don’t think anything is broken.”
“I think my nothe ith broken,” moaned Oleander.
I thought he might be right; the fairy had a bloody nose.
I sat down beside Eadric while the others complained about their aches and pains. Persimmon whined about his head hurting and showed me the bruises forming on his arms. Acorn didn’t complain at all, although he was rubbing the back of his neck as if it hurt. Adara had been in Eadric’s pocket when he crouched down, and she swore he had squashed her.
Nightshade had a cut on his forehead that was bleeding a lot, but I didn’t have much sympathy for him when I saw the way he was glaring at me. “Why didn’t you keep going?” he asked.
“Because it would have kept hailing and I saw how much it was hurting all of you,” I replied.
He snorted and shook his head. “At least then you would have reached the queen. As it is, we’re stuck here with no way to reach her. Why don’t you try again?”
“Because I don’t want to risk it,” I told him.
“There must be something we can do,” said Eadric.
“Maybe we could dig a tunnel under the line,” Oleander said.
“Or walk backward all the way to the queen’s tree,” suggested Persimmon.
Acorn stopped rubbing his neck and looked up. “We don’t know for sure that the line really does circle all the way around the tree,” he said. “Maybe we should walk along it to see how far it goes or if there’s a gap somewhere.”
“A snake!” Adara squeaked, and ran up my arm. A long, brown-striped snake had stopped in the grass to look at us. We all watched as it started moving again, slithering across the swamp grass we’d flattened. When the snake slithered across the line, I held my breath to see what would happen. Nothing did—no flash of light, no snake turning into stone.
“Maybe that’s our solution,” I said.
“Get a snake to take us across?” asked Persimmon.
I laughed and shook my head. “What I meant was, maybe we can cross the line, too, if we turn into the kinds of creatures that live around here.”
“But we’re not from around here,” said Nightshade. “What if the line doesn’t let us pass? Then we’ll be turned to stone like the apple. I think we should test your theory first. Adara is already a mouse. Let’s send her across and see what happens.”
“Oh, no you don’t!” cried Adara from inside my sleeve. “I’m not anyone’s experiment! I’ll bite the first one who tries to make me cross that line!”
“I’ll go first,” I said, getting to my feet. “It was my idea.”
Eadric reached for my arm. “Emma, you can’t! What would I do without you if you were actually turned to stone?”
“I’ll be fine,” I told him. “Nothing’s going to happen to me. Wait here and I’ll—”
“I guess it works!” said Nightshade.
While I’d been talking to Eadric, Acorn had turned himself into a mouse and scurried across the line. When nothing happened to him, the others started talking about what they would become. Nightshade and his friends had just decided to turn into ravens when I set Adara on the ground. “Go with Acorn,” I told her. “We’ll meet you at the tree.”
Turning to Eadric, I started to say, “I think we should become …”
“Frogs!” we said at the same time, and grinned.
Eadric and I had first met when he had been a frog due to a nasty witch’s spell. He had convinced me to kiss him to turn him back, but I had turned into a frog as well. It had taken us a while to find out how to become human again. Although I’d hated being a frog at first, Eadric had taught me how to swim, hop, and catch insects like a frog. Being a frog had been frustrating at times and terrifying at others, but mostly it had been a lot of fun because of Eadric. Even now I had to smile when I remembered how enthusiastic he had been and how good he was at everything.
“Are you ready?” I asked him.
“Just a minute,” he told me as he took off Ferdy’s scabbard. “I don’t know what would happen to Ferdy if I changed into a frog while I was wearing him. I don’t want to mess up his magic.”
“Good
thinking,” I told him.
Setting Ferdy on the ground, Eadric patted the sword, saying, “I’ll come get you as soon as I can.”
“Now are you ready?” I asked.
Eadric nodded. “This should be fun! I actually liked being a frog.”
“So did I, most of the time,” I said, taking his hand. Looking Eadric in the eyes, I recited an impromptu spell.
Frogs we were
And frogs we’ll be.
Make us frogs
In one, two, three!
The instant I said three, the world seemed to grow huge around us. Eadric was still holding my hand, only now we had long green fingers that were smooth and slippery. I laughed when I saw the look of delight on his face. I’d forgotten how much he really did love this.
After giving his hand one last squeeze, I let go and started hopping toward the lake. Eadric’s legs were longer than mine, so he landed in the water a heartbeat before me. The water felt wonderful, and I followed him to the bottom, reveling in the joy of being a frog once again. We chased each other for a minute, did somersaults, and twirled hand in hand before surfacing to bob on top of the water.
We were grinning at each other and treading water when I realized that this was the first time we’d been alone since we started to look for Willow. “I have to tell you something,” I said. “I overheard Adara talking to herself at the rally. She mentioned your mother and how difficult something was, so I used a scrying bowl to see what she was talking about. Apparently, your mother sent Adara to Greater Greensward. Adara was supposed to win over your affections and take you back to Upper Montevista to get married!”
Eadric stopped moving his feet and sank beneath the surface. He came up spluttering, but I couldn’t tell if it was from anger or from the water that had washed into his mouth. “My mother can never leave anything alone!” he declared when he could talk again. “She always has to stick her nose in my business! I’m not surprised that she sent Adara, just disappointed and mad that Mother would go so far! I suspected that something was up when Adara arrived in my parents’ carriage.”
“I didn’t mean to upset you. I just thought you should know,” I told him.
“And I’m glad you did. It’s a lot easier to figure out what to do when you know the truth about something. Race you to the bottom and back before we start for the shore!”
“You’re on!” I cried, and dove straight down.
Eadric won, of course, passing me on his way up while I was still swimming down. He was waiting for me when I reached the surface, and he pulled me into his arms before I could take my first breath. “You know I love you, Emma. There could never be anyone else for me,” he said, and kissed me.
Although froggy lips are cold, their kisses are very nice. I enjoyed the kiss while it lasted, but all too soon we had to move apart.
“We need to go to the willow tree,” Eadric said, his eyes still on mine.
“I know,” I told him. “And we need to act more like real frogs and watch out for predators. We’re just as vulnerable as any other frog.”
“I’ll keep us safe,” he said. “But I have to say that being a frog with you was the most fun I’ve had in ages! I’ll race you to the side by the tree.”
“Ready, set, go!” I shouted, and started frog-kicking through the water.
We hadn’t gone far when three shadows swooped toward us. “Watch out!” shouted Eadric, and we dove deep to wait until the shadows had moved on.
We swam underwater for a time, hiding in some water weeds when a big fish came close. Some tadpoles came to investigate us, giggling when Eadric made a funny face at them. As soon as we were able, we surfaced just long enough to look around and make sure we were still heading toward the willow. We were starting to go underwater again when a shadow appeared and Eadric yelped in surprise. I looked back and saw that a hawk had caught Eadric’s foot with its beak and was about to carry him off.
“Oh, no you don’t!” I shouted. With a thrust of my legs, I leaped out of the water and landed on the hawk’s head. Grabbing a feather with both hands, I yanked as hard as I could. Startled, the hawk opened its bill, and Eadric plopped back into the water. I jumped off the bird’s head and dove deep, searching for Eadric near the silt at the bottom of the lake. He finally found me and I hugged him so hard that he grunted.
“Thank you!” he told me, and gave me a big, froggy kiss. “You weren’t acting very frog-like and I am so glad!”
“I wasn’t about to let some old hawk steal my Eadric!” I said, and kissed him back.
We continued underwater after that. When we finally surfaced again, we had almost reached the shore and could see the tree just ahead. Three birds were circling the willow, cawing to one another. They looked oddly ruffled, as if they had been in a storm. It took me a moment to remember that Nightshade and his friends had chosen to be ravens.
Eadric and I were swimming to the water’s edge when the ravens tried to land at the base of the willow. A sudden gust of wind blew them back, buffeting them so that they flipped head over tail, squawking. The wind didn’t let up until the birds were back behind the line. When they had righted themselves, they drew together once again and started back to the tree.
The ravens were still circling the willow when Eadric and I climbed out of the water. “Nightshade doesn’t seem to be having much luck,” I said to Eadric. “I wonder how close we’ll be able to get.”
“There’s only one way to tell,” Eadric replied. “Hop to it!”
We hopped then, through the swamp grass, past a small turtle sunning itself, and around some prickly weeds. I froze when a shadow passed overhead, but it was just a wren, looking for something smaller than two good-sized frogs. We were approaching the willow tree when we heard something rustling in the grass. Eadric and I looked at each other, ready to flee, when two mice scurried out.
“Adara, Acorn, you made it!” Eadric cried.
“Now we just have to see how close we can get to the tree,” I told them. “Nightshade and the others can’t seem to get near it without being blown back to the line.”
“We saw that,” said Acorn. “But I noticed something else as well. Nightshade and his friends chose to be ravens, but the only birds I’ve seen who live around here are wrens, hawks, ducks, herons, and a pair of grebes. I asked a mole that we ran into if any ravens live around here. He said he’d never seen any until just now. I think Nightshade chose the wrong kind of bird. We might have better luck because we’re animals that are more common.”
“I am not common!” said Adara. “I’m a princess!”
“Right now you’re a mouse,” I told her. “And being common is often a good thing. If we’re lucky, it will get us all the way to Queen Willow. Let’s see if we can.”
Acorn rose up on his hind legs and sniffed the air. “I don’t smell anything that might eat us,” he said. “Keep your eyes open, though. You never know what might be lurking in the grass.”
While Acorn and Adara scurried from one clump of grass to another, Eadric and I took a more direct approach. We started hopping and didn’t stop until we had reached the outer branches of the willow. Despite what Acorn had said, I half expected a strong wind to snatch us off the ground and blow us back to the line. It was both a relief and a surprise when we passed under the branches and could stop to look around.
“Where do you suppose we’ll find the queen?” I asked Eadric as Acorn and Adara joined us.
“Right there,” whispered Acorn.
I turned to where he was looking and gasped. A transparent chrysalis glowing pale green was attached to the tip of a branch dangling only a few feet away. Hopping closer, I almost tripped over a twisted stick from a curly willow branch that lay on the ground below it.
“Is that the queen?” Adara whispered.
I peered into the chrysalis and saw her. She was tiny, of course, and had long white hair that grew down past her feet. Other than that, I couldn’t see her very well. She seemed sort of blurry and her
features looked indistinct. When I looked really hard, I thought I could almost see through her. I assumed it was what happened when someone was fading away.
“That’s her,” Acorn said with such longing in his voice that I felt my heart flutter in response.
Fifteen
“Do you think the queen can hear us?” I asked Acorn.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve never seen anyone who’s actually in the process of fading away before.”
“Let me see if I can get through to her,” I told him, and leaned closer to the chrysalis. “Your Majesty, I’m Princess Emeralda, the Green Witch. I’ve been looking for you because the fairies need you. There’s a lot of confusion because of your absence. The fairies plan to hold an election to replace you. There are three candidates, but none of them would make a good ruler; certainly not nearly as good as you. The things they have planned would destroy their relationships with humans. They’ve already caused fighting between the fairies.”
When I didn’t see any sort of response, I turned to Acorn and Eadric, saying, “I can’t tell if she heard me or just doesn’t care.”
“Let me try,” said Acorn. I stepped back and the fairy took my place. “Willow, if you can hear us, it’s me, Acorn. You probably remember me better as Oak. That was my name when you knew me. One day we were arguing and you said I should be named Acorn because I was so immature. A few years ago I decided that you were right, so I started calling myself Acorn until I felt that I was grown up enough to deserve you.”
Acorn scratched his head and looked away as if trying to figure out what to say next. After clearing his throat, he started again. “I’ve always loved you. I guess I didn’t say it enough, but it’s true. Just recently I got my life in order and came looking for you, but you were gone and no one knew where you were. When I heard that you might have gone off to fade away, I thought my heart would break. I came looking for you to ask you to stay with us. I’m so sorry I never asked you to marry me. If you had, we would have had a child who would be your heir when you were ready to give up being queen. We could have gone off together and let your heir take over. Then none of this stuff with these bad candidates would have happened. I guess this whole mess is my fault and I’m really, really sorry.”