A Prince among Frogs (16 page)

Millie laughed. “Yes, and your grandmother Song of the Glacier would probably blame me when I’m a human. I don’t know what we’re going to do if they both show up for the wedding.”

“You mean there is going to be a wedding even after I stuck my talons in my mouth?” Audun said.

“Yes, there will be a wedding,” Millie said, smiling. “Everybody says things they don’t mean when they’re upset.”

Audun looked relieved. “I know, and you were upset even before—”

“I wasn’t talking about me!” said Millie. “You’re the one who said what he shouldn’t have. Just don’t do it again,” she added with a warning look.

When Audun closed his mouth with a snap, Millie couldn’t help but smile.

They made good time flying over the ocean, but as they approached the shore, they saw dark, ominous-looking clouds looming over the land. “We could go around,” Audun said as lightning split the sky only a few miles in front of them.

Millie shook her head. The clouds stretched as far as she could see in both directions. “It looks like an awfully big storm. Going around would take too long.”

“We can try to go above the storm, although those clouds look enormous.”

“Then we’ll just have to go higher,” said Millie.

Flying wingtip to wingtip, she and Audun spiraled upward, trying to gain altitude without entering the clouds. As the storm drew nearer, the air became rougher, buffeting them back and forth until Millie felt sick to her stomach.

“Just a little higher,” said Audun, yet the clouds appeared to go on forever.

Millie looked around as lightning crashed so close that the air seemed to sizzle. The clouds surrounded them on all sides; when she looked up again, what had been clear sky above them was dark and ominous.

“I don’t like this,” Millie said, watching the clouds above them grow thicker.

“I don’t, either,” said Audun. “Let’s get out of here. How fast can you fly?”

“At least as fast as you!” Millie told him.

They raced—first the lightning, then the torrential rain, and then, after they passed through the storm and out the other side, they raced each other. Neither one was faster, and they didn’t stop until they had passed the border into Soggy Molvinia and the marsh lay just ahead.

“We’re almost there,” Millie said, glancing down at the first of the ponds that riddled the marshy land. Puddles, ponds, lakes of all sizes, and the thin ribbon of land that wound between them made patterns of light and dark in the pale haze of morning. If it hadn’t been for their dragon senses, they might have become lost in minutes, but they flew on, landing on the same hillock where they’d spoken with Olebald Wizard.

When they’d left, three witches had been searching for Felix. Oculura, Dyspepsia, and Azuria were still there, along with Emma, Eadric, Grassina, Haywood, and another witch named Mudine. Oculura and Dyspepsia were stomping around the edge of puddles and ponds, poking through the mud as they looked for frogs, while everyone else was gathered around Emma and Eadric. The two dragons changed back into their human form before approaching the group, and Millie was about to call to her mother when the air sparkled in front of them and the Swamp Fairy appeared.

“I found some more,” she said, jerking her thumb at two bewildered men who had appeared behind her. They were well dressed, although their clothes were out of date and didn’t seem to fit very well. One crouched down into a squatting position and the other shivered and looked around, apparently too stunned to move.

“Let me question them before they join the others,” said Eadric, breaking free from the group surrounding Emma. He noticed Millie and Audun then, and his lips shaped themselves into a weary smile. “There you are. We were beginning to worry about you. Before you ask—no, no luck so far. Talk to your mother, Millie, so she can fill you in.”

Millie nodded. “I will, but first tell me, where’s Francis? He said he was going to come here to help search for Felix.”

“He was here,” said Azuria, “but a fairy came to get him. She said he was needed at home. They went back to Greater Greensward together, and we haven’t seen him since.”

“That’s odd,” Millie muttered as she went to join her mother.

Emma looked even more tired than Eadric, with dark circles under her eyes and her brow etched with worry lines. She glanced up as the witches made room for Millie and Audun to pass. “I’m glad you’re here,” she said, running her fingers through her hair, making it messier than before. “I’ve tried everything I can think of, including the spell that I used to find Haywood when he was an otter, but none of my locator spells have done what they should and my summoning spells have been worthless. There were some other princes here, as you can see.” She waved her hand at a group of men huddled together on another hillock. They looked as bewildered and just as out of place as the two the Swamp Fairy had found. “Unfortunately, Felix wasn’t among them. Your father has been questioning the princes, but none of them know anything about my baby boy. There’s only one thing left to try,” said Emma. “I’ll have to go look for him as a frog.”

“Not without me, you’re not,” said Eadric from behind the witches. He worked his way through the group and took Emma’s hand. “I’ve spent more time as a frog than you have. I know how to get other frogs to talk to me.”

“And I’m going, too,” Millie told them both. “He’s my baby brother and I was in charge while you were gone.”

“Actually,” said Eadric, “you and Francis were in charge of magical problems. It was your grandparents who—”

“Yes, you can go,” Emma said. “But stay near us. I don’t want to lose both my children in this marsh.”

“I can go, too,” said Haywood. “Just turn me back into an otter and I can find any frog!”

“If you were an otter, you’d scare away every frog for miles around and we’d never find my baby,” said Emma. “Thank you for the offer, but I’d rather you stayed here and helped Grassina coordinate the witches’ search. You could keep all the predators out of the marsh, too. The last thing we need is for a real otter to eat one of us while we’re looking for Felix.”

“Are you sure?” asked Haywood. “I could keep the other predators away better if I were an otter. Turn me back and I’ll stay away from the frogs. I’d turn myself back, but I never did perfect the spell.”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’ll turn you into an otter, Haywood,” said Grassina. “Just be careful and stay out of the way.”

Millie had never been a frog before. She was a human most of the time and she loved being a dragon, but it had never occurred to her to try anything else. Turning into a dragon had never made her nervous or anxious. Now, however, the thought of turning into a frog made her stomach churn, and she began to wonder if she was doing the right thing.

“Where should we look first?” Eadric asked Emma.

“I’m not sure,” she replied. “That big pond over there looks promising, or we could try this one.”

“We should try the one on the other side of that little hill where Audun and I met Olebald,” said Millie. “I have a feeling about that pond.”

Audun glanced at her, then turned to her parents and said, “You should trust her feelings. She’s developing good dragoness intuition that has proven to be right more often than not.”

“But she’s not a dragoness now,” said Eadric.

“Millie is a mixture of dragon and human,” Audun said. “It seems the line between what she can do when she’s one or the other is getting a little blurred.”

“That pond is as good as the next,” said Emma. “I think we should go with Millie’s choice. Audun, I’d appreciate it if you could help Haywood keep the predators away.”

Audun smiled, but he didn’t look happy. “As the biggest predator around here, I’d say I’m very qualified for the job, but I can probably do it better from the air.”

After trudging across the narrow strip of land connecting one hillock to another, Millie and her parents took up positions facing one another. “We should hold hands so the spell includes the three of us,” said Emma. “Now, be friendly when you meet other frogs, so they’ll talk to you. We’re more likely to find Felix quickly if the frogs who live here are helping us.”

Millie was already reaching for her parents’ hands when the air shimmered around Audun and he changed into a dragon. She turned back to face her parents when her mother began the spell.

Green of skin,

And long of tongue,

With strong bespeckled feet.

Turn us into

Three fine frogs

That others want to meet.

Perhaps turning back and forth between human and dragon so often had made it easy for Millie, but for whatever reason, there was no pain or discomfort, and it happened so fast that she didn’t think it had happened at all until she glanced down and saw that she was green and smooth and much smaller than either of her other usual forms. She blinked in surprise as her mother patted her hand with long green fingers.

“Follow us while you practice swimming,” Emma told Millie. “I don’t want to have to look for you, too.” Then taking one hop backward and twisting her body halfway around, Emma jumped into the water with a tiny splash.

Millie shook her head in disbelief. Her mother knew that she could swim perfectly well as a human and even better as a dragon. Millie had been doing it for years and— She fell flat on her face, her long, thin feet tangled together. “Ow!” she exclaimed, rubbing the spot where she normally had a nose. Millie tried again, tugging until she’d freed her feet, then moved them carefully, one slow step at a time.

“It’s not as easy as it looks, is it?” said her father. “Don’t worry, you’ll get it soon enough. Your mother didn’t catch on right away, and neither did I, for that matter.” He turned to look out over the water and frowned. “Where did she go? I’d better go find her. We’ll meet you in the middle of the pond.” Her father’s splash was even smaller than her mother’s.

Millie thought about hopping the way her parents had, but she couldn’t manage more than a stumbling lurch. She ended up walking flat-footed to the water, then inching her way in until she was waist deep. Stretching her arms in front of her, she belly flopped into the water and kicked her feet. Her long legs felt awkward and uncomfortable, and she didn’t go far.

Someone nearby began to laugh, a deep-throated sound that managed to seem good natured, even though Millie was sure the person was laughing at her. “I’ve never seen anyone do it that way,” said a big bullfrog popping up beside her. “It helps if you bend your legs. No,” he said when Millie tried, “not like that. Like this!”

Millie watched as the frog bent his legs to the side and straightened them with a thrusting motion. He sped past, waving at her with one hand. “I can do that!” Millie murmured, bringing her feet closer to her body. She kicked the way she’d seen the bullfrog do and was delighted when she actually moved forward.

“You’re funny!” said a little frog as it swam circles around her.

“She’s new,” another, slightly larger frog said.

“What pond did you come from?” asked the little frog. “Are you going to live here now?”

“Actually, I’m just visiting,” Millie began. “I’m looking for my brother. Have any of you met a frog named Felix? He’s been here just a few days.”

A crowd of frogs had gathered around her, bobbing in the water so that all she could see were their heads, which looked very odd when they all shook them saying “No.”

“Two other frogs just got here, but nobody came before them,” said the bullfrog. “Maybe your brother is in another pond.”

“Maybe,” said Millie. “But I have a feeling he’s here somewhere.”

One of the frogs giggled and splashed Millie. “Did you hear that? She has a feeling!”

“I have a lot of feelings,” said another. “But that doesn’t mean anything is going to happen.”

“I just meant that something is telling me he’s here. I’d appreciate it if you could all keep your eyes open for a little frog named Felix.”

“She wants us to keep our eyes open. As if we don’t already! Who says things like that?”

“She’s with those humans clomping around in the shallows,” said a female frog as she joined the group. “They took my boyfriend! We were sitting down to a nice mosquito snack when
zap
—he turned into a great galumphing human! He always said he was a prince, but I thought he was crazy like Peto. That fool claims he’s really a snapping turtle, although I can almost believe
him
.”