No Place for Magic (6 page)

"You're very brave, Ralf," I said. "Thank you for protecting me."

Ralf may have tried to say something, but the fog still absorbed his voice.

"I need to take the spells off you, but we have to be very quiet. Those men are awfully close. As soon as you're back to normal, you'll have to go home. And don't worry. I'll be fine. No one is going to do anything to me. Understand?" With my arms around him, I could feel the little dragon nod. I said the spell quickly before anyone could interrupt us and was still hugging him when he reappeared.

"Remember, you're going to come see me when you go home again," said Ralf.

"I won't forget," I said.

The little dragon licked my face with his hot, rasping tongue before slipping away into the night. Although I was relieved to see him go, my nerves still jangled. I hated the way doing magic in secret made me feel. When Eadric and I were wed, if he became king of Upper Montevista, I'd be queen of this country. I didn't like the thought of lying to my future subjects, now or ever.

The fog had dissipated into the night, leaving the air cold and clammy. The men soon found me and assumed that I'd wandered off while trying to get away from the dragon. Eadric was with them, having dispatched the sea monster with Ferdy's help, but I could tell that he was not as jubilant about it as he would have been only a few years earlier. Getting to know dragons had made it harder for him to kill monsters, even when he didn't have a choice. Eadric didn't tell me any details other than that he'd be sending some of his men to protect the villagers from passing sea monsters. He did, however, seem concerned about me.

"Are you sure you're all right?" he asked. "The men said you were in real danger."

I patted his arm. "I was fine. Ralf came looking for us, which wouldn't have been a problem if your friends from Chancewold hadn't seen him. He's gone now, but I promised we'd go for a visit as soon as we could." Yawning, I leaned against him and rested my head on his shoulder.

"Let's go find our tents," Eadric said, hugging me to his side. "It's been a very long day."

I was fighting to keep my eyes open when he lifted the flap to my tent. Swaying on my feet, I gazed bleary-eyed through the opening, too tired to take another step. Eadric swung me into his arms and kissed me on the cheek as he carried me inside, setting me on the bed in the corner.

He was straightening up when Hortense stormed into the tent. "Have you no sense of decency?" she hissed at him. "You shouldn't come anywhere near her tent at night. And you!" she said, rounding on me. "You should be ashamed of yourself, letting him in."

"We weren't doing anything," I mumbled sleepily, feeling like a small child.

"That doesn't matter. You two should never be alone in here, especially not at night. Do you know what you're doing to her reputation?" Hortense said, turning back to Eadric.

"But we're getting married as soon as we can arrange it!" said Eadric.

"Hmph!" said Hortense. "As if that mattered! Queen Chartreuse was right to send me. Who knows what you two would be up to if I weren't here!"

Having a lovely kiss good night,
I thought as Hortense ushered Eadric out of my tent. Too tired to change into my nightclothes, I stretched out on the bed and fell asleep.

Five

E
adric woke everyone before the sun was fully up the next morning. He said he wanted to get an early start, but I had the feeling that he was afraid the maidens from the town might embarrass him again if we stayed longer.

I was still tired, so I chose to ride in the carriage with Li'l and Shelton. Maybe I'd be able to sleep a little longer. "Li'l told me about the sea monster," Shelton announced once the carriage was under way.

"I heard the noise and went to investigate," said Li'l. "That thing was big! Eadric was brave to fight it the way he did. When it dragged him into the water, I was sure we'd never see him again, but then he popped up like a cork and climbed out."

I could feel a knot form in my stomach. "Eadric was in the river?"

"For a really long time," she said.

"I wish I'd been there," said Shelton. "I could have shown him how to fight a sea monster. Remember when the three of us climbed into that sea monster's mouth and . . ."

"I remember," I said, not wanting to think about Eadric facing something like that alone.

No longer sleepy, I signaled for my carriage to stop long enough for me to get out and reach Gwynnie. Eadric was happy to see me and just as tired as I was. We rode together, enjoying each other's company without needing to say a word. After a time I dozed in the saddle, and Eadric may have as well. When my head nodded sharply, waking me with a start, we were in the foothills and could see the snowcapped mountains in the distance.

By noon we'd entered a pine forest so dark that it seemed as if night had fallen. I was wondering how much farther we'd have to go when Eadric said, as if reading my thoughts, "My parents' castle isn't far once we get out of this forest."

"So we'll reach it tonight?" I asked, looking forward to a nice soft bed.

"No, but at the rate we're going, we'll be there tomorrow. We're making really good time. If I didn't know better, I'd say that it was almost magical." Eadric smiled when he said it, but I thought he looked a little wistful.

"It would have been a lot faster if some people had more understanding subjects in their kingdoms," I muttered.

"Isn't it almost time to eat?" Eadric asked, patting his stomach.

I glanced up, but the trees blocked my view of the sky. When I started to look away, something dark darted past at the edge of sight. "What was that?" I asked.

"I didn't see anything," said Eadric.

Another dark shape shot through the trees, squawking. "Did you see that?"

Eadric shrugged. "It was probably just a crow."

"It was too big to be a crow," I said, shaking my head.

And then they were all around us, landing beside the horses like a small noisy flock. If Bright Country hadn't stayed so calm, I'm sure Gwynnie wouldn't have either, but she only snorted and pranced a few paces, letting me calm her with my hand and a few soft words. The knights behind us had a more difficult time with their mounts, who bucked and fought the reins while the carriage horses screamed and tried to rear up.

Although it seemed like more at first, only four witches hopped off their broomsticks, cackling and talking all at once. "Hello there, lovebirds!" called a familiar voice. It was Oculura, the witch who had moved into the old cottage in the enchanted forest near my castle. Her sister, Dyspepsia, was there as well, looking as sour-faced as ever. I'd never seen the other witches before.

"Why don't you introduce us?" said the shorter of the two, a woman with curiously pale skin.

"Princess Emeralda, Prince Eadric," said Oculura, "I'd like you to meet my friends Klorine and Ratinki. Klorine is the pushy one." The witch who had asked for an introduction had come forward with her hand extended. It took me a moment to realize that she wanted to shake mine.

"Pleased to meet you," she shouted, pumping my hand up and down until my shoulder ached. "I've heard so much about you two. When we learned that you were going to pass through our woods, I made sure we came out to greet you." I nodded, slighdy dumbfounded. Klorine had a very odd way of talking. Not only did she speak loudly, enunciating each word distinctly, but she paused after each sentence as if waiting for someone else to speak, although it was obvious that she hadn't finished what she was going to say.

I waited for her to say something else until she looked at me expectantly and smiled. "Urn, yes, well, it's nice to meet you," I said, turning to Eadric for help when the woman wouldn't let go of my hand. He didn't notice, however, because he was squirming under the unyielding gaze of the other witch, Ratinki. Skinny and wrinkled like an old apple, she had to be one of the oldest women I had ever met. With the dirt on her clothes and skin and the odor wafting toward us, she also had to be the smelliest.

"Let go of her hand," said Oculura to Klorine, prying the little witch's fingers from mine. My hand had gone numb, so I shook it while they both looked at me apologetically.

"Sorry," Klorine nearly shouted. "I'm not used to talking to real people. I live in a cave with an echo for company."

"You remember me, of course," said Dyspepsia, looking grumpy. As I'd invited them to visit us at the castie only the week before, I thought it was a very odd question.

"Hello, Dyspepsia," I said. "It's nice to see you again."

Apparently mollified, she grunted and rubbed the small of her back. "Back's paining me again. Broom riding does it every time."

"Got anything to eat around here?" interrupted Klorine.

Eadric perked right up, turning away from Ratinki for the first time since her arrival. He grinned when I said, "I'll see what I can do."

While the servants tended to the horses and the knights stood guard, Eadric and I joined the witches at the base of a tree. I'd invited the ladies-in-waiting to sit with us, but after seeing our guests, Lucy claimed that she'd rather eat our normal travel fare in the shelter of the carriage. Hortense made a point of sitting between me and Ratinki, who spit onto her palm and used the moisture to wash her hands. Although Hortense looked horrified, she didn't say anything to the witch.

We were making ourselves comfortable on the blanket when Ratinki spoke for the first time. In a rough and gravelly voice, she turned to Hortense and said, "I saw the way you looked at me. I'm going to turn you into a slug for that."

Pointing a wavering finger, the old woman said,

That young woman sitting there

Didn't have to stop and stare.

Make her be a slimy slug,

A slippery, gooey, squishy bug.

"No, wait," I said, throwing up my hand as I recited a quick blocking spell. There was a soft fizzling sound and . . . nothing happened. Hortense continued to sit there looking as prim and proper as always. When it was obvious that she wasn't going to change, I turned to Ratinki and said, "Please don't cast spells on anyone in my party. I need to get them back to my kingdom just as they left it."

"You are good!" the old witch growled. "Oculura said that you were powerful, but I didn't believe her until now. I've never seen anyone block one of my spells before. And that was fast, too!" She scowled and rubbed her mottled scalp under her wispy white hair.

"You'll have to excuse them," said Oculura. "Ratinki and Klorine live deep in the woods and don't talk to people very often."

"Do you live in a cave, too?" I asked Ratinki.

"Wouldn't dream of it!" she exclaimed. "Damp, nasty things! I have a nice little one-room hovel with a good rebuilding spell. Every time the villagers burn it down, it's back three days later, good as new."

Even Eadric looked horrified. "The villagers burn your home?"

Ratinki nodded. "Every few years. I don't mind too much—gets rid of the vermin."

"Why don't you move away?" I asked.

"Why should I? They aren't bad folk. Aside from pelting me with rotten vegetables and setting their dogs on me and stealing my food and . . ."

"Burning your hovel?" Klorine said helpfully.

"Yeah, that, too," said Ratinki. "Aside from those things, they leave me alone and I leave them alone and that's the way it should be. Besides, if I moved away, who would I spy on when I got bored?"

Eadric's stomach rumbled, reminding me of why we were sitting there. The food we'd brought with us was bland and none too plentiful, so after casting a quick searching spell to make sure that no one else from Upper Montevista was around, I pointed at the center of the blanket and said,

Pies and cakes and hot eel stew,

Tarts and breads and berries new.

Bring us lots of tasty food.

We're in a hungry kind of mood.

"Wow!" said Klorine when the food appeared on the blanket. "You can do that? I wish I could! Then I'd never go hungry again!"

"I don't do it very often," I hurried to say when I saw Eadric's expression. He looked as if he'd just won the biggest prize in the biggest tournament. Actually, I'd never made food purely through magic before, so I was a littie apprehensive about how it would taste. I needn't have worried.

"This is good!" said Ratinki through a mouthful of fresh bread.

Sampling the eel stew, Klorine exclaimed, "This is better than good! This is the best food I've ever eaten."

"I'm glad you like it," I said, watching Eadric take an entire rhubarb pie.

I sat back, eating very little while enjoying the blissful looks on our guests' faces. I was curious, though—was Ratinki's treatment at the hands of the townspeople typical? When Klorine began to slow down, I asked her, "And how well do you get along with your neighbors?"

"Who, me?" she replied. "Just fine. My closest neighbor is a nymph who lives in the bottom of a lake in my cave. I don't see her very often, but when I do, she's always friendly."

"I meant your nonmagical neighbors."

Klorine shrugged. "None of them lives very close. The ones who come by don't know I'm there."

"You did have that one run-in, though," said Oculura.

"That was years ago. I was young and foolish then. I helped a girl find her soul mate, but he didn't like her when she found him. She was disappointed and told her whole village that I'd ruined her life. They came after me and I had to hide in the woods. That's when I found my cave, so it was a good thing after all. Any more of those tarts? I really like the ones with blueberries."

Even Eadric finished before Klorine and Ratinki, who ate until the very last crumb was gone. When it was time for them to leave, they had eaten so much that they had to struggle to get their brooms off the ground while Oculura and Dyspepsia circled impatiently above them.

I was climbing back into my carriage when Hortense came running over. "I didn't want to say anything in front of those women, but their manners are atrocious. And the stories they tell . . . I shudder to think about it. I hope you aren't going to let yourself be unduly influenced by them. Your mother would never approve if she knew you were keeping company with women like that."

I sighed and paused with my foot on the step. "I'm sure you're right. She doesn't approve of most of the things I do."

I'd started to pull myself into the carriage when Hortense placed her hand on my arm. "That's not all," she said. "I wanted to thank you for what you did back there. Thank you for stopping that horrid woman from . . . from . . ."

"Turning you into a slug?"

"Yes," she said, cringing. "Precisely."

"You're welcome," I said. "Although may I suggest that the next time you encounter someone you find disagreeable you not let it show on your face. I may not always be around to stop them."

Hortense nodded. "Yes," she said, her expression serious. "I'll have to work on that."

It wasn't until we stopped for the night that Eadric and I discussed what the witches had told us. Li'l had already left for her nightly excursion and wouldn't be back until morning. Everyone else except the guards and Hortense had gone to their tents. The senior lady-in-waiting was not about to shirk her duty, and I knew she wouldn't go to bed until I did. With our backs to the fire, Eadric and I shared a large rock while we watched the dancing shapes that the flames cast on the trees around us.

"I didn't know life was so awful for witches here," I said. "Poor Ratinki seems to think that living the way she does is normal."

"I had no idea," said Eadric.

I reached for his hand and squeezed it. "You have to do something. Make some sort of decree or law or something."

Eadric picked up a pebble and chucked it into the woods. "I can when I'm king, but there's not much I can do about it now. Even then I don't know if it would do much good. I can't make people like someone."

"Witches in Greater Greensward are treated with respect, but it's different here. I don't understand why these witches stay in Upper Montevista if they're so obviously hated."

Eadric shrugged. "It's where they've always lived. They don't know that it doesn't have to be this way. Besides, having a Green Witch is why witches are respected in Greater Greensward. You help keep it safe to live there. The witches here don't help at all."

"Why should they? People get angry with them when they try. You heard Klorine. When the girl she helped wasn't happy with the results, she turned on the witch who had helped her."