Princess in Disguise (17 page)

The finch joined them before they had gone very far, trilling a wordless morning song. Annie liked it, but Liam looked annoyed and refused to let the bird sit on his shoulder while she was singing. When the finch finished her song, she hopped from Hunter's forelock back onto Liam's shoulder. “Where are we going today? Are you going to visit another ogre?”

“Actually, we're visiting a fairy,” Annie told her. “She lives in a beautiful garden.”

“I like gardens, especially the kind with seeds,” the finch said, shifting from one foot to the other.

“You've already repaid me for letting you out of the ogre's cage,” said Annie. “You don't need to watch over me any longer.”

“But I haven't saved your life yet! Telling you things isn't enough. I'll be right back. I think I see a tasty worm!”

“So we have a new permanent companion?” Liam asked Annie as the finch flew to the ground.

Annie shrugged. “Or until she believes she's saved my life.”

It was midafternoon when they reached the village closest to the Garden of Happiness. They passed the inn where they had eaten with Prince Andreas and continued on to the path that led to the garden belonging to the fairy Sweetness N Light. Lined with a wild profusion of flowers, the path was easy to find. Even in the shade of the forest, there were flowers growing hip high on both sides. Tempted by so many delicious plants, the horses struggled against their reins as Annie and Liam made them keep going.

It wasn't long before they spotted a brook running alongside the path. “Hello!” said the brook in a watery, wavery kind of voice. “How are you today? Have you ever … Wait, I remember you! Ooh! You are in trouble! Everyone is so mad at you. I can't believe you're here.”

“Why are we in trouble?” asked Annie. “What have we done to make them mad?”

“If you don't know, I'm not going to tell you,” said the brook. “But I will tell everyone that you're here. There, I just did. They're getting worked up now! Ooh, Dandelion's face is so red, I think she's going to pop! And Lupine is clenching her fists. And Snapdragon is—”

“That's enough,” said Liam. “We don't need a complete rundown of how mad everyone is.”

“Is Sweetness N Light here?” asked Annie. “Does she have a guest named Moonbeam?”

The brook gasped. “How did you know? Have you been spying on us? I wouldn't put it past someone as low and sneaky and—”

“What did we do? Why are you saying these things?” Annie asked.

“I don't know,” said the brook. “You should ask Sweetness N Light. She's mad at you, too.”

“Look, there they are!” cried a fairy as a group of them flew into the woods. “You have a lot of nerve coming here, Princess!”

“Why? What did we do?” Annie asked them.

“Don't play stupid with us! We know you know what you did. You did it on purpose, too, so don't fib and say you didn't.”

“But I … Ow! That hurt!” One of the fairies had thrown a berry at her, hitting her right between the eyes.

Suddenly the air was filled with flying berries as the fairies pelted Annie and Liam. Liam shouted and swatted at the fairies, while Annie wrapped her arms around her head and ducked. Fortunately, Otis kept walking, carrying them down the path to the open meadow. Liam chased most of the fairies off, so Annie was able to dismount without getting hit. The gelding started cropping flowers before Annie had dismounted, and didn't seem to care when she tied his reins to a tree branch.

“Where will we find Sweetness N Light?” Annie asked the brook.

“At the waterfall,” said the brook even as a chorus of fairies sang out, “Don't tell them anything!”

Annie and Liam knew the way to the waterfall, but it wasn't as easy to reach as it had been the last time. Although the white-stone path was empty of flowers, it was filled with fairies no bigger than Annie's little finger, getting in their way while insulting them by calling out, “Stinky Breath,” “Werewolf Butt,” “Moldy Pants,” and even more awful names.

Liam acted as if they weren't there, putting his feet down wherever he wanted to, so that they had to dart out of the way or risk getting squashed. Annie was more careful, however, trying to place her feet to avoid stepping on the fairies who were taunting her. The fairies soon saw what she was doing and began to gather in front of her so she had no place to step.

Liam glanced back when he realized that she wasn't with him. “Just keep walking or they'll never let you past.”

Still not wanting to hurt them, Annie began to shuffle forward, trying to push them out of her way. That seemed to make them angrier, however, and they attacked her. While some snagged her feet to trip her, others tried to push her into the brook.

“Oh, no, you don't!” the brook cried when Annie staggered and almost fell into the water. “I don't want her near me.”

“I'll save you, Princess!” the finch chirped, seeming to appear out of nowhere. Fluttering her wings, the finch flew in the faces of the fairies that were shoving at Annie, chirping madly all the while. The fairies backed off, and Annie was able to regain her balance.

The fairies were about to attack her again when Liam turned around. Scowling, he strode to her side and scooped her up, cradling her in his arms as he headed for the waterfall. Although the fairies clustered around Liam and called out names, they kept their distance and didn't try to trip him.

Annie and Liam didn't have to go far before they reached the top of the waterfall. Passing the underbrush, they saw three full-size people sitting beside the pool at the base of the falls. All three were sipping from tulip cups and eating peeled grapes. While the two fairy women laughed and chatted, the third person,
a short, pudgy, balding man, looked bored, as if he'd rather be anywhere but there.

At the approach of the prince and princess, the man looked up. He was smiling when he nudged his wife and said, “Look who's here!”

Moonbeam's mouth spread wide in a huge smile when she saw them. “My two most favorite people!” she cried. “Without you, I never would have met my beloved Selbert!” Scooting to the side, she patted the ground beside her. “Come join us!”

The moment she laid her eyes on them, Sweetness N Light began to scowl. It wasn't an ordinary scowl, but a fearsome scowl that would have looked more fitting on the face of Terobella, the evilest witch in all the kingdoms, if she hadn't already been turned into snail slime.

“What are you doing here?” Sweetness N Light asked as if the words tasted bad. “You're not welcome in my garden, especially after what you've done!”

“What are you talking about?” asked Annie.

Sweetness N Light's scowl deepened. Raising her hand high in the air, she made an intricate gesture while calling out, “Come to me, my fairy friends. I have work for you to do! Take these two and—”

“I mean it,” said Annie. “What are you talking about? Your fairies said I had done something, but they wouldn't tell me what it is.”

“Don't play stupid with me!” Sweetness N Light snarled.

Annie had had enough. After everything she had gone through, she didn't need or deserve the disdain of the fairies as well. Suddenly, she lost her temper, something she so rarely did that even Liam looked at her in surprise. “I am not playing anything,” she shouted. “I invite you to my wedding and you don't even bother to reply, let alone show up. Then someone uses magic to ruin my wedding, and a king I've never even heard of lays siege to the castle and there's a storm and everything is flooded and I have to go look for Moonbeam! Then every fairy in Treecrest treats me like I'm some horrible monster! No, I don't know what I did to deserve this, but I'm tired of worrying about everyone else and thinking about their feelings when it was supposed to be my wedding day. Instead of being the person to help everyone, I'm the one who people should help for a change! Isn't it enough that all these awful things happened, without you tormenting me as well?”

By the time Annie finished, she was quivering with rage, but when she looked around at all their astonished faces, she was suddenly too tired and too overcome to care about anything. Putting her hands over her face, she let her legs fold under her and she sat down for a good hard cry.

“You invited us?” asked Sweetness N Light, turning from Annie to Liam.

Liam nodded. “We sent out the invitations weeks ago. Your helper Squidge delivered them personally,” he said to Moonbeam.

“But we never got them,” said Sweetness N Light.

“No, we didn't,” said all the little fairies.

Moonbeam looked perplexed. “Squidge was helping you? Why would he do that?”

“He said you were away so you didn't need him until you returned. He said he wanted to repay us for bringing you and Selbert together.”

“That's odd,” said Moonbeam. “He was very upset that I married Selbert. When I told him how we met, he could only say unkind things about you. I'll have to ask him about it when I see him next.”

Annie wiped the tears from her eyes. “You're not going to see him again. I'm so sorry.”

Moonbeam frowned. “Something happened to Squidge?”

“He'd been trying so hard to be helpful and he went up on the battlements with us,” Annie told her. “There was a strong wind because of the storm and it carried him off. I'll never forget the way he screamed.”

“Is
that
all?” Moonbeam said, looking relieved. “Then he's fine. He's a weather sprite; controlling the weather is second nature to him. I made him my assistant because he's so good at calling up the rain and watering my moonflowers.”

“You mean he can control the wind?” asked Liam.

Moonbeam nodded. “Sometimes he does it for fun.”

“Then he wasn't in danger? He didn't die or get hurt or anything awful?” asked Annie.

“Not likely,” Moonbeam said. “He probably called the wind himself.”

“Let me get this straight,” said Liam. “Squidge tricked us when he pretended to be carried off. And if he really didn't like us, he probably tricked us when he pretended to help. He never did deliver the invitations, but just pretended to do it. Am I right?”

Moonbeam's frown was back. “It sounds like it. Why, that little scoundrel! I know that sprites like to make mischief, but he's never given me a bit of trouble.”

“If he could control the weather,” said Liam, “could he have called up the storm?”

“You said it flooded the castle? Then I doubt it. He could make it rain, and he could call up the wind, but a really big storm would have required the touch of a witch or powerful fairy.”

Sweetness N Light rubbed her cheek and looked everywhere but at Annie or Liam. “Uh, about that. The storm was actually my doing. If it flooded things, well, I might have gotten a little carried away, but we were so angry when we thought you hadn't invited us!”

“But what about everything else? My dress getting ruined and the moving rashes and the animals and, well … everything?” asked Annie.

“None of the fairies or witches in the kingdom received invitations,” said Sweetness N Light. “That's a lot of beings with magic who were angry at you.”

“Can you please talk to them? Can you make them stop now?” Annie asked.

“We'll do more than that,” said Sweetness N Light. “We'll get them to help us set things right. We were all mad at you when we shouldn't have been and we took it out on you. I don't often admit to being wrong, but we all were in this case, and it's up to us to make it up to you. Just tell us what you need us to do and we'll do it.”

“It's a long list,” warned Liam.

“And I know a lot of fairies,” Sweetness N Light replied.

Annie and Liam watched as an iridescent, vibrantly colored cloud formed above the waterfall and headed north. The second round of tiny fairies had been sent to spread the word that all the fairies and witches in the kingdom had been invited to the wedding. Now nearly half of the flower fairies that lived in the Garden of Happiness were seeking friends and relatives who lived in other parts of the kingdom, informing them that they had all made a big mistake and needed to make up for it. A separate group had gone to tell the witches, a job they did with reluctance.

“Don't worry,” Sweetness N Light told Annie. “I'll see that everyone reverses their spells and cleans up the mess they made. I'm going to the castle myself to repair any damage that my storm caused.”

“Thank you,” said Annie. “That will help a lot. However, that still leaves King Dormander. I'd never
even heard his name before he showed up in Treecrest, but I've been thinking and I might have an idea who he is. There's someone I need to talk to at the castle. I have to get back as soon as I can.”

“I could whisk you there with my magic,” Moonbeam said, holding up her wand.

Annie shook her head. “Magic doesn't work on me, remember? The rest of you could get there that way, but I need to use a more conventional means of travel. If I ride Otis, I should be there in a few hours.”

“I assume Otis is a horse,” said Sweetness N Light. “And that your prince will go with you.”

“Of course,” Liam replied.

“Then we'll go on ahead,” said Moonbeam. “We have a lot to do and I want to get started.”

“I don't suppose you could help us with King Dormander,” said Liam.

“We can't,” Sweetness N Light told him. “Other than helping individuals, fairies don't get involved in human matters, and we avoid wars in particular. We'll clean up the mess we made, but the rest is up to you.”

Knowing that the fairies were on their way to the castle made Annie even more eager to go home. She and Liam left the garden already wondering how they were going to deal with King Dormander.