The prince skidded to a stop when he saw her. “You did it again! How do you do that?”
“I haven’t done anything,” said Annie. “You’re the ones who keep running through this room. Haven’t you noticed that it’s the same room every time?”
“She’s right. Here’s the mug you broke,” Liam said, poking the shards with the toe of his boot.
“There’s magic in that hallway,” said Annie. “You’ll never get anywhere if you go that way.”
“Then how do we get out of here?” asked the prince.
“We could try the other door,” Annie said.
The young men seemed confused as their gaze wandered around the room, passing over the hidden seams. “What other door?” asked Liam.
“This one,” said Annie, reaching for the handle. The door opened easily, revealing a staircase going up.
“I told you she could help,” Liam told Cozwald. “Let’s try to be quieter this time. Although I don’t know what good that will do us,” he added under his breath. “We’ve already made more noise than a flock of harpies.”
“Maybe I should go first,” Annie suggested, stepping toward the stairwell.
Both young men rushed to stop her, but it was Liam who planted himself in front of the door. “You can’t go first when we don’t know what you’ll find,” he said.
“I know that there’s magic there, too,” said Annie. She pushed past him and up the stairs. It was plain from Liam’s expression that he wanted to stop her, but wasn’t sure if he should.
Annie could hear the whisper of magic even before she reached the top step. Before setting foot in the hallway, she paused to look both ways. The torches in the hallway at the top of the stairs were already lit. Benches flanked the half-dozen doors that led off to either side. The air was colder here, and smelled stale. Although there were no windows, a light breeze skittered down the hallway, twitching the bottom of a tapestry and dragging clumps of black dog fur that caught at the legs of the benches and puddled in the corners.
“There’s magic, but I don’t know what it is yet,” Annie told Liam in a soft voice.
“We don’t have time for this,” said Prince Cozwald, pushing past Liam and Annie. “My Lizette is here somewhere and she needs me. Look,” he added as he stepped into the hallway and nothing happened. “There’s no magic. You’re both jumping at shadows.”
The prince strode down the corridor, his shadow growing and shrinking as he walked from the light of one torch to the next. Liam gave Annie a quizzical look and shrugged as he passed her, going after Cozwald.
The whisper grew louder as Annie followed the two young men. The fur was thicker the farther down the hallway they went. Clumps of it cluttered the floor as if someone had brushed a big black dog and dropped the fur on the floor to clean up later, except no one seemed to clean much of anything in this castle.
“This stuff is everywhere,” said Cozwald, stopping to shake the fur off his boot. “Keep your eyes open. There must be a big dog here.”
Liam bent down to pick up a small clump. “Or a bear,” he said, rubbing the fur between his fingers.
The shriek was closer this time, the sound so loud that it made Annie jump and everyone turn their heads to listen. She was still looking the other way when she bumped into Liam. “Why did you stop?” she asked, backing away, and noticed for the first time that the black fur seemed drawn to Liam’s and Cozwald’s feet, clustering around them like bees drawn to flowers. There was so much fur around them that they had to struggle to pull their feet free. The same fur seemed to avoid Annie entirely.
“It’s the fur,” she said. “The magic is connected to the fur.”
Cozwald laughed. “We didn’t need you to tell us that.”
Fur flew from the far ends of the hallway, piling up around Liam and the prince. “I can’t... get rid of it!” said Cozwald, his face turning red as he tried to pull his foot free.
“Let me help,” said Annie.
The fur moved aside at her approach, leaving a clear path in front of her. She touched Liam first and the fur fell away. After escorting him to a bench, she went back for Cozwald, who was engulfed up to his thighs in what looked like furry boots. The black covering rippled when Annie touched the prince, then slid off as if he’d been greased. The fur undulated behind her as she walked him to the bench, keeping her hand on his arm until he had stepped onto it.
With Annie in the way, the fur was unable to reach its quarry. Loose strands retreated down the hallway, moving together into a large, seething mass. As clumps of fur piled one on top of another, they took on a roughly man-like shape with long fuzzy fingers and toes. When it was almost as tall as Liam, the figure turned its hollow eyes and gaping mouth toward them.
“It’s hideous!” exclaimed Cozwald.
“It looks like my great-uncle Elgin!” Liam announced. “My mother always said he was the hairiest man she’d ever met.”
“Then I pity your family,” said Cozwald.
The beast roared and dragged one foot toward them. Cozwald tightened his grip on his sword. “What does it want?” he asked, and reached up with his free hand to tuck a lock of hair behind his ear.
“I doubt it wants your hair,” said Annie. “Look out!”
The fur beast had swiped at Cozwald with its massive hand. When the prince stepped back, he nearly fell off the bench.
“A good offense is the best defense!” shouted Liam. Raising his sword, he jumped to the floor and lunged for the man made of fur.
Cozwald followed Liam and together they hacked at the beast, cutting wedges of fur from its body that crawled back and reattached themselves. The beast seemed to be waiting for something as it stood there, letting the young men stab and cut away pieces without even trying to avoid their blows.
Liam seemed to realize this first, because he stepped aside long enough to study the beast. “That isn’t working,” he told Cozwald, who continued to rain blows on the giant wad of fur.
“What did you say?” asked the prince, pausing to glance at Liam.
The fur beast lunged, wrapping its frizzy hands around Cozwald’s throat.
“Mph!” said the prince, his eyes frantic as he tried to hack at the beast with the side of his blade.
“Oh, for goodness’ sake!” said Annie. “Put that thing down before you hurt someone.” When the prince continued to wave his sword around, Annie whispered something in Liam’s ear. He nodded and jumped forward to knock the sword from Cozwald’s hand. The prince’s eyes were beginning to bulge when Annie walked up behind the beast and wrapped her arms around its middle. It made a high-pitched keening sound and collapsed in a shower of fur.
Annie coughed and wiped her face. “That’s disgusting! I got some in my mouth. Pleh!” She spat, trying to get rid of it.
“You’re covered with fur,” said Liam, patting her back and arms. “Come help us, Cozwald.”
The prince backed away. “And get that fur on me? I’m about to rescue my ladylove. I don’t want her to see me looking like I slept in a kennel.”
“But it’s all right for me to look like this?” asked Annie.
Cozwald shrugged. “That was your choice.”
“Be polite to the princess!” Liam growled at the prince. “We’re helping you because we chose to, but we can always choose to turn and walk away.”
Cozwald’s eyes flashed and he opened his mouth as if to protest, but he must have seen something in Liam’s eyes, because his own gaze dropped and he muttered, “Sorry.”
Annie clenched her teeth so she wouldn’t say what she had in mind. Before she could unclench them, a groan drew Cozwald to the end of the hallway. Another loud shriek and the sound of crazed laughter made Liam run through a dwindling cloud of drifting black fur to join the prince. “Here, take the other side,” Liam told him, indicating one of the benches. Using the bench as a battering ram, they bashed in the door and tore into the room.
Cozwald stumbled over a small trunk that had been left ju
st inside the door. He fell sprawling at the dainty feet of the princess, who looked up from her hand of cards and cried out, her green eyes dark with alarm. The ogre seated on the other side of the table looked equally surprised to see the intruders.
Annie was right behind Liam and Cozwald, certain that she should have gone in first, but when she saw what was inside, she wasn’t sure what to think. The room was large and elegantly furnished with a polished stone fireplace and thick rugs in crimson, yellow, and green. A wide bed piled high with warm furs filled one end of the room; the table and chairs occupied the other. The oddly matched couple had been playing cards, and it was obvious that the princess had been winning; a stack of gold coins rested by her elbow, while only a few copper coins littered the ogre’s side of the table. The princess was a beautiful young woman with hair as black as night, but she didn’t look beautiful with her mouth hanging open as she stared at the intruders, the cards in her hand forgotten. On the other side of the table, a wide grin disappeared from the face of the scraggly bearded ogre, whose eyebrows met in the middle over his bleary red eyes. Seated, he didn’t seem to be much taller than the princess, but Annie could see his long legs stretched out under the table.
“Lizette!” shouted Prince Cozwald, scrambling off the floor. “I’ve come to rescue you, my love!” Grabbing the princess by the arm, he yanked her from the chair and shoved her behind him as he turned to face the ogre.
The ogre’s forehead crinkled into a ferocious scowl. “Get your paws off her!” he roared. Shoving the table aside, he sent it crashing to the floor as he heaved himself to his feet. Standing, the ogre was well over seven feet tall and towered over everyone in the room.
“Prepare to die, you foul fiend!” shouted Cozwald, lunging at the ogre with his sword.
The ogre grunted as he tugged a cudgel from the back of his sagging pants. Wielding the nail-studded weapon, he took a step forward and knocked the prince’s sword aside with a clang. The sword flew out of Cozwald’s hand and across the room, leaving the prince defenseless. He looked desperate until he remembered the ax still tucked in the loop on his belt. Flipping his long hair out of his eyes, he stuck out his chin and shouted, “Now you will die, you horrible monster! This is a magic ax made to kill creatures like you!”
Torchlight reflected off the etching on the metal head of the ax, sparkling in a way that might have convinced Annie that it was magical if she hadn’t known better. The ogre saw the ax at the same time and took a step back as if he, too, thought that it was magic. When Lizette sobbed and threw up her hand in appeal, the ogre glanced at her, then back at Cozwald, and he growled. Raising his cudgel high, he swiped it at the prince, who swung his ax at the same time. One of the weapons would have connected if Lizette hadn’t stuck her foot out and tripped Cozwald. The prince went down and the cudgel whistled past his head.
Liam jumped into the fray now, beating the ogre back with powerful blows of his sword. It was obvious that Liam was a much better swordsman than Cozwald, who scooted out of the way as the ogre used his cudgel to ward off Liam’s blows. Annie was so wrapped up in watching them that she almost didn’t notice Lizette take a candlestick from a niche in the wall and sneak up behind Liam.
“No!” Annie shouted as the princess raised the candlestick over Liam’s head.
Annie wasn’t the only one who had seen Lizette, however, because Cozwald threw his arms around her and dragged her away from the fight. “What are you doing, Lizette?” he asked as she struggled to get free. “We’ve come to rescue you!”
“What makes you think I need to be rescued?” she asked, and stomped on his toes. Cozwald yelped and let go of the princess, who turned and brandished the candlestick in his face.
Cozwald backed away, fending her off with his hand. “Your father said an ogre had kidnapped you, yet I find you playing cards with the monster. Do you mean to say that you like it here?”
“He isn’t a monster!” said Lizette. “And I’d rather be with him than with anyone else in the world. I’m happier with Grimsby than I’ve been in my entire life.”
“But he’s an ogre!”
“Yes, and you have a head shaped like a cantaloupe, but I don’t hold that against you.”
“I do?” Cozwald said, reaching up to feel his skull.
“Grimsby is special. He makes me laugh.”
Cozwald blinked. “I know they say that no one has ever heard you laugh, but that was you laughing earlier, wasn’t it?”
“Liam,” Annie called. “I think you should hear this.”
The ogre, who had been busy fighting off Liam’s blade, seemed relieved when the young man stepped back.
“If you’d grown up the way I did, you wouldn’t laugh, either,” said Lizette. “My mother died when I was born. My nursemaid told me that my parents laughed all the time, but after my mother died my father never smiled again. When I was little, he scolded me whenever I laughed. He said that my mother died because of me and I didn’t have any right to be happy. I grew up thinking that laughter was bad. None of my suitors made me laugh, including you, and I thought I was going to be miserable for the rest of my life until I met Grimsby.”
“Where did you meet him?” asked Liam, eyeing the ogre.
“I was out riding with my ladies-in-waiting one day and we ran into Grimsby. He’d gotten pine tar on his hands and picked up a goose, which stuck to him no matter what he did. It was the funniest thing I’d ever seen and I laughed until my sides hurt. My ladies ran away screaming, but Grimsby and I became friends. When I couldn’t stand living at home any longer, the only place I wanted to go was Grimsby’s castle.”
“Does your father know this?”
“He should. Grimsby and I are engaged and I’ve already sent Father an invitation to the wedding. I doubt he’ll come, though. He’s probably embarrassed that I ran away from home to come here. I’ve been living in this castle for three weeks now and I’ve never been happier.”
Cozwald looked disappointed when he asked, “So you don’t need rescuing?”
“No, but thank you anyway,” Lizette said.
“Then I guess our work here is done,” said Cozwald. Bending his knee in a courtly bow, he added, “I wish you both well,” then turned to Liam and Annie. “Come, my friends, it’s time we go. We’ve disrupted their lives enough already.”
Annie glanced back as they were leaving the room and saw that Lizette and the ogre were holding hands. She also saw the way they were looking at each other. It was a warm, tender look and one she’d never seen before, not even on the faces of her parents, who everyone said were madly in love. It’s the look of true love, she thought. If a princess and an ogre can find it, why can’t I?
Once he’d left Lizette, all Cozwald seemed to want was to get out of the ogre’s castle as quickly as possible. “That’s the last time I help a damsel in distress,” he muttered as they hurried down the stairs to the room with the dirty table.
“At least she’s happy now,” said Annie.
“Huh!” said Cozwald. “She’s marrying an ogre! I bet their marriage doesn’t last a month.”
Annie glanced at the prince, noting the sour look on his face. “I’m sure you’re right,” she said. “She was too happy. When she gets tired of being happy, she’ll run back to her father for a good dose of miserableness.”
CHAPTER 12
AFTER SPENDING AN uncomfortable night in the forest, Annie and Liam went with Cozwald to see his cousin. Because the cousin was a prince, Annie had expected to go to a castle, or at least a large, imposing manor house, and was surprised when they rode through the forest to the edge of a mist-shrouded swamp.
“He should be somewhere around here,” said Cozwald as he dismounted from his horse. “Emilio!” he called. “It’s me, Cozwald!”
“Is his castle in this swamp?” asked Annie as they waited for the prince to appear.
Cozwald laughed. “He hasn’t lived in a castle in years. Emilio comes here to reminisce about some things and forget
about others. Ah, there he is now. Emilio, I’d like you to meet some friends of mine.”
At first Annie couldn’t see anything, but then a shape moving in the swirling mist resolved into a handsome yet bedraggled young man. His hair was darker than his cousin’s—almost the color of walnuts, and his features were more refined than Cozwald’s, but she could see a family resemblance. The biggest difference between them, however, was their eyes. While Cozwald’s eyes smiled when he did, Emilio’s eyes looked as if he had known nothing but sadness.
“Princess Annabelle, I’d like you to meet my cousin Prince Emilio,” said Cozwald. “His mother is my father’s sister. He’s also my second cousin on my mother’s side. Emilio, the princess and her escort are looking for someone to kiss her sister, and you’ll never guess who that is! If you go with her, you stand a chance of marrying Princess Gwendolyn, the most beautiful princess in all the kingdoms!”
Prince Emilio gave Annie a halfhearted smile, then turned back to his cousin. “What’s wrong with Gwendolyn?” he asked. “If she wants to marry me, there must be something wrong with her. No one in her right mind would want to marry me.” His Adam’s apple bobbed when he swallowed and he blinked at the same time.
“Gwendolyn is asleep,” said Liam. “And will stay that way until her true love kisses her.”
Emilio looked puzzled. “Why would you think I’m her true love? Once you get to know me, I’m sure you’d see that I’m not at all suitable.”
“We don’t know who her true love is, so we’re inviting all the unattached princes we meet to kiss her. We’re hoping that one of you will be the right one,” said Liam.
“That doesn’t sound very good,” Annie said.
“Maybe,” Liam said, shrugging, “but it’s the truth, isn’t it?”
“What about you?” Emilio asked his cousin Cozwald. “Are you going to kiss her, too?”
Cozwald looked surprised. “I hadn’t thought about it. I mean, I was planning to marry Lizette, but that didn’t work out. I suppose I could kiss Gwendolyn. It would certainly make my parents happy. They’ve been after me to get married for years.”