The Wide-Awake Princess (26 page)

“I should have known he wouldn’t give up,” said Liam. “Let me go talk to him and... There, in that trench! They have archers. Duck!” he shouted as arrows shot from a trench alongside the road leading from the woods. The arrows rose high into the sky, then plummeted down,
hitting the stone courtyard with the clatter of breaking wood.

“They must have dug that trench while everyone was asleep,” said the captain, crouching down beside the princess. “Stay down, Your Highness,” he said, and took a quick peek over the edge of the parapet. “They’re heading for the gate. Return fire!” he ordered.

Annie looked up as arrows arched overhead, landing in the trench and the ground around it. Some of the arrows hit the statues, but all they did was knock a few of the marching figures off their stride or chip a piece from a wooden shoulder.

“You stay here, Your Highness,” said the captain as he started down the stairs.

“I’m coming with you,” Liam announced, taking two steps at a time.

Annie tried to do what Captain Sterling had said, but when she heard fighting below her in the courtyard, she couldn’t wait any longer. Creeping to the edge of the walkway, she saw Clarence standing to the side, watching as soldiers fought soldiers while others grappled with the wooden statues. Although her father’s soldiers hacked at the statues with axes, their blades did little damage. The statues moved slowly and were easily avoided, but the strength of their wooden arms was twice that of ordinary men.

There was a roar and the fighting shifted as Clarence’s
men forced her father’s soldiers back to the door of the castle keep. Liam and Captain Sterling fought valiantly side by side, but even they were no match for the statues who blocked their way at every turn.

Annie gasped when she saw Liam barely escape being run through with a statue’s sword. “That’s enough of that!” she muttered as she slipped down the stairs. “Maybe they can’t do anything about those statues, but I can.”

While the fighting raged at one end of the courtyard, Annie drew as close to the fray as she could manage and waited for her chance. As soon as one of the statues at the edge of the fighting stood with its back to her, Annie darted forward and touched it. The magic went out of the statue in an instant, and it fell to the ground with a
thunk
. The statue was heavy and it took all of Annie’s strength to drag it across the courtyard to the fire still burning in the middle. She was dragging her second statue when Clarence saw what she was doing.

“Get the girl!” he shouted, but Liam was there before him, protecting Annie with a sword in one hand and an ax in the other. With Captain Sterling leading them, her father’s soldiers flocked to her, adding their weapons to Liam’s.

Annie ran to touch another statue, but this time the witch saw her. The old woman was taller than the
witch Annie had met in the tower, and looked just as mean.

“I’ve heard about you,” said the witch. “You’re the one who takes away magic. Well, you won’t get mine!”

“Then you should leave now or I’ll take your magic just like I took theirs!” Annie said, pointing to the smoldering sticks that were the last remains of the two statues.

“You won’t have to,” the witch snarled. “Because I’m going to give it to you!” Raising her hands above her head, the witch did a little dance, hopping from one foot to the other while shouting words Annie had never heard before. The magic grated on Annie’s ears, sounding harsh and tinny. A cloud of muddy green light formed between the witch’s hands, getting bigger the longer she danced. Suddenly the witch stopped and thrust her hands at Annie. The cloud drifted toward her, settling around her like a fog around the castle. Annie could still hear the magic, but she didn’t feel anything at all, even when the cloud began to seethe and pop. She watched as it sloughed off her, dripping like thick molasses onto the ground.

“What did you do?” demanded the witch.

The sound of the magic changed, becoming faster, more insistent. The green glow rose from a near puddle on the ground, re-forming as a cloud in the air between Annie and the witch. And then, in less time than it takes
to blink, the cloud hurtled at the witch, covering her from head to toe. The old woman screeched as her body began to jerk, and she fell over, a wooden statue identical to the others. Annie looked around as the other statues fell, lifeless.

Clarence had come closer to watch what happened to Annie. Seeing the witch fall instead was more than he could take. “Retreat!” he shouted, running for the drawbridge. The sound of running feet hitting stone filled the courtyard as his men tore after him.

“Captain!” shouted one of the Treecrest soldiers. “I think we can close this drawbridge now.”

“Then do it!” yelled Captain Sterling.

Liam came to stand beside Annie as the drawbridge began to rise. They watched as the last of Clarence’s men scrabbled over the top only moments before it closed.

“When I told you that most of the fairies stayed away from my christening, I didn’t mention the few who did come bringing simple gifts,” said Liam. “I can whistle any tune, whittle just about anything, and I have very attractive feet.”

Annie smiled. “You don’t say? And do any of these things change when I’m around?”

“Of course. When you’re nearby I can’t whistle a tune, my whittling is pathetic, and my shoes get tight.”

“Oh dear!”

“It’s sad, but true. However, I can do without any of
these things as long as I don’t have to do without one thing.”

“Oh really?” said Annie. “And what might that be?”

“You,” he said, pulling her into his arms.

I would like to thank Ellie, who has a wonderful sense of humor; Kim, my horse expert and mapmaker; and Victoria, who has taught me so much about writing that I often know the answer when I wonder, What would Victoria say?

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

Wings

Copyright © 2010 by E. D. Baker

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher,
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

First published in the United States of America in May 2010
by Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers
E-book edition published in March 2011
www.bloomsburykids.com

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to
Permissions, Bloomsbury BFYR, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Baker, E. D.
The wide-awake princess / by E. D. Baker. —1st U.S. ed.
p. cm.
Summary: Annie, younger sister of the princess who would be known as Sleeping
Beauty, is immune to magic and stays awake when the rest of the castle falls into an
enchanted sleep, then sets out to find a way to break the spell.

ISBN 978-1-59990-487-0 (hardcover)
[1. Fairy tales. 2. Princesses—Fiction. 3. Beauty, Personal—Fiction. 4. Magic—Fiction.
5. Characters in literature—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ8.B173Wid 2010        Fic]—dc22        2009032632

ISBN 978-1-59990-757-4 (e-book)