“Hurry!” cried Annie. “Old Warty must be leaving.”
A few yards farther and they were in a tunnel of flattened seaweed. Annie could just make out a tail disappearing into the still-standing plants ahead of them. The prongs on the tail were so big that the monster had to be enormous; the path that the monster left in the seaweed was wide enough for Annie and Liam to swim side by side again.
They followed the monster all the way to the edge of the forest. As soon as they were free of the seaweed, they were able to see the entire monster. Annie hadn’t expected him to be pretty, but no one had said how ugly he looked. Most of his leatherlike skin was covered with barnacles, giving him a prickly appearance. The fin on his back had jagged edges, and his pronged tail was thick and stumpy. Although Annie and Liam tried to swim around the creature, they couldn’t seem to pass him no matter how hard they tried.
“I think I see the drop-off, ” Liam said after a while. “See there, where the ocean floor seems to end.”
“We can’t let him reach the drop-off!” Annie cried. “There must be something we can do to stop him!”
“Yoo-hoo!” cried a voice from overhead. A giant bubble was falling through the water. When Annie and Liam realized that it was headed straight for them, they had to dive to the side to get out of its way. The five witches inside waved at them. “We came to see how you’re doing!” shouted Hennah.
The bubble hit the ocean floor and bounced, sending the witches inside flying back and forth from one side to the other like kernels of corn in hot oil. As the bubble rose again, they rolled around in a jumble of arms and legs, trying to get themselves sorted out. When it came down the next time, it hit Old Warty squarely on his back.
The sea monster had been about to slip over the edge of the drop-off. Startled, he roared and turned around. For the first time, Annie was able to see his blunt nose and little squidgy eyes. Because the bubble was already on its way up again, he didn’t see the witches. Instead, his eyes landed on Annie and Liam, the only others who were there.
Liam jerked on Annie’s arm, tugging her backward as the sea monster lunged at them. Suddenly the bubble was back, slamming into the monster’s head. Enraged, Old Warty shook himself and roared again, opening his mouth so wide that Annie and Liam could see halfway down his throat.
“Annie, give me the pearl!” shouted Liam.
Annie hurriedly took it from the bag and handed it to him. “You don’t mean to go in his mouth, do you?” she asked as Liam started to drag them closer.
The monster blinked. Spotting Annie and Liam, he started toward them again.
“Not at all,” Liam said. “But it would help if he roared now.”
This time Old Warty was only yards from Annie and Liam when the bubble started down. Hennah was lying on the floor of the bubble, her face plastered to the inside, when she saw what Liam was holding. The bubble bounced off Old Warty’s nose and she flew up, already screaming, “They’ve got the giant pearl!”
The monster roared again, opening his mouth even wider.
“Stay here,” Liam told Annie, and let go of her hand. Holding his breath, he launched himself at the sea monster. As Old Warty started to close his mouth, Liam tossed the pearl in, flipped over, and pushed off from the monster’s lower lip. The pearl hit the top of the monster’s throat. Old Warty’s mouth snapped shut and his eyes widened in surprise. Suddenly his face developed a dreamy look. With his eyes half-closed, he turned and headed back to the drop-off, ignoring the bubble when it hit his tail and bounced toward Annie. She watched as he slipped over the edge. With a flick of his pronged tail, he was gone.
Liam had almost reached Annie again when she saw that the bubble was about to hit them. There wasn’t time to do more than grab Liam’s hand. When the bubble slammed into them, it sent them sprawling into the soft silt of the ocean bottom. Even that moment of contact with Annie was enough to weaken the strength of the spell holding the bubble intact. It popped, and the witches tumbled in five different directions.
Annie sat up, dazed. When she started to regain her senses, she was happy to see that she was still holding Liam’s hand. A moment later she noticed the witches floundering in the water. “Liam, they’re going to drown!” she cried.
“I don’t think so,” said Liam. “Watch.”
A yellow light was already glowing around Hennah. Suddenly something yellow and shiny enveloped her, and began to rise to the surface like a drop of oil in a pan of water. A sea turtle arrived to carry one of the witches to the surface, while the others made their own bubbles so they could float up.
“It’s time to go home,” said Liam. He turned his head as Coral swam to them, looking worried.
“Are you all right?” asked the mermaid.
“We’re fine,” said Annie. “We did what we came to do and no one got hurt.”
“I didn’t see everything, but I did see the look on Old Warty’s face after you tossed the pearl into his mouth,” said Coral. “He already looked sleepy. I’ve always suspected that it was the pearl that helped him sleep so long.”
“Talk about sleeping!” Annie said, stifling a yawn. “I don’t know if I have enough energy to swim all the way back to the island.”
“I can help with that!” Coral told her. Once again the mermaid cupped her hands around her mouth and made high squealing sounds. This time a porpoise came out of the seaweed forest and swam up to Coral.
“Sala will take you to the island faster than you could swim there,” said Coral. “I’m glad I got to meet you both. Say hi to Millie and Audun for me when you see them. And if you ever see Pearl again, please tell her that I miss her!”
“We will,” said Annie. “Thank you for all your help.”
“It was my pleasure!” Coral replied. “Any friend of Millie’s is a friend of mine!”
At a nod from Coral, Sala, the porpoise, swam between Annie and Liam. “Hold on tight,” the mermaid told them as they took hold of the fin on Sala’s back. “She’s awfully fast!”
“We will … ,” Liam began, but then the porpoise took off and all Annie and Liam could do was hold on.
They reached the island only minutes later. Annie was enjoying it so much that she wished the trip could have lasted longer. Sala took them to the unoccupied side of the island, letting them off only feet from the shore. When they were standing beside her, she squealed, sounding just like Coral, waved her flipper at them, and headed back into deeper water.
“I suppose we should go say good-bye to the witches and your mother,” Annie said as they waded out of the water.
“If we must,” Liam said with a sigh. “The less I see of my mother, the happier I’ll be.”
“Then you should be overjoyed very soon,” Annie told him. “Although we will have to bring more bacon in a month.”
“Mustn’t forget the bacon!” Liam said with a laugh. “Who knows what Hennah would do if we didn’t bring it!”
They took the shortcut through the middle of the island and were approaching the witches’ huts when they heard the women talking.
“It’s a real shame that they gave that pearl back to the sea monster,” said a witch.
“It’s not a shame! It’s a disaster!” cried Hennah. “Do you know what I could have done with that thing?”
“No, what?” asked another witch.
“I don’t know,” said Hennah. “I was asking you! Say, Lenny, why don’t you build your hut over here. I think you and I are going to be good friends.”
“My name is Queen Lenore!” announced Liam’s mother.
“Yeah, like I said—Lenny! Come on, I’ll show you where you can get some good palm fronds for your hut.”
“What are palm fronds?” asked the queen.
“Boy, do I have a lot to teach you!” Hennah told her.
“I think we should leave,” Liam whispered to Annie as he led her back among the trees. “I don’t want to run into either of them right now. Here’s the postcard for Treecrest.”
&
nbsp; “It will be nice to go to one place and stay there for a while,” said Annie. “I’m awfully tired of traveling. If only we had a card for Dorinocco. It would be so much simpler if we could go directly there instead of always having to go to Treecrest first. I love seeing my parents, but we’ll have to travel another day to get to Dorinocco.”
“I’m not sure how I feel about the postcards,” said Liam. “Sure, they make it easier to get around, but I hate to think what could happen if they fell into the wrong hands. Some of the people we saw at the Magic Marketplace are not the kind we want showing up at the castle. Would you really want someone like Hennah dropping in for a visit?”
“I suppose you’re right,” said Annie. “But just think how much easier it would be if our friends had postcards for Dorinocco.”
“So they could visit us more often?” asked Liam.
“So they could come to your coronation!” Annie exclaimed. “Now that my relatives are healthy and yours can’t make any more trouble for us, it’s time to plan the biggest celebration ever! If our guests use the postcards, we won’t have to worry that they might get lost or bandits might waylay them. Our only concerns will be getting the ceremony exactly right, what food to serve, and where the guests will sleep when they get there.”
Liam shook his head. “There is one other thing that worries me. With all those people at our castle, how am I going to find time to do this?” he said, and bent down for a kiss.
It was a long and very enjoyable kiss. When it was over, Annie gazed into Liam’s eyes long enough to say, “I’m sure we’ll find a way!” before returning for another.
Also by E. D. Baker
THE TALES OF THE FROG PRINCESS:
The Frog Princess
Dragon’s Breath
Once Upon a Curse
No Place for Magic
The Salamander Spell
The Dragon Princess
Dragon Kiss
A Prince among Frogs
Fairy Wings
Fairy Lies
TALES OF THE WIDE-AWAKE PRINCESS:
The Wide-Awake Princess
Unlocking the Spell
The Bravest Princess
Princess in Disguise
Princess between Worlds
A Question of Magic
THE FAIRY-TALE MATCHMAKER:
The Fairy-Tale Matchmaker
The Perfect Match
The Truest Heart
Text copyright © 2017 by E. D. Baker
Map copyright © 2014 by Kimberly Bender
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
First published in the United States of America in March 2017
by Bloomsbury Children’s Books
This electronic edition first published in March 2017
www.bloomsbury.com
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[email protected] Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Baker, E. D., author.
Title: The princess and the pearl / by E. D. Baker.
Description: New York : Bloomsbury, 2017. | Series: Wide-awake princess
Summary: When Princess Annie’s father and uncle fall ill, Annie and Liam must set sail on dangerous seas full of sea monsters and magical creatures to find the only cure, a giant pearl.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016022362 (print) • LCCN 2016046304 (e-book)
ISBN 978-1-68119-135-5 (hardcover) • ISBN 978-1-68119-136-2 (e-book)
Subjects: | CYAC: Fairy tales. | Princesses—Fiction. | Magic—Fiction. | Characters in literature—Fiction. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION/Fantasy & Magic. | JUVENILE FICTION/Fairy Tales & Folklore/General. | JUVENILE FICTION/Love & Romance.
Classification: LCC PZ8.B173 Pro 2017 (print) | LCC PZ8.B173 (e-book) | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016022362
E. D. Baker, The Princess and the Pearl
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