Dragon's Breath (3 page)

"I could tell him myself."

"Perhaps it isn't necessary. I've been considering the problem, and it's obvious to me that you haven't thought this through. If we keep your little frog-kissing adventure to ourselves, you can still marry Jorge." Mother's voice dropped to a whisper as she glanced at Eadric, who was eating again on the other side of the room. "No one need know that you've been a frog or disgraced yourself with that young man."

"What are you talking about, Mother?" I asked, trying to keep my voice down as well. "Prince Eadric is a gentleman! We didn't do anything wrong."

"They're all gentlemen, until they have you alone."

"We were frogs!" I said. "We were trying to turn back into humans. What could—"

"It doesn't matter what you actually did. You were alone with a young man who wasn't related to you. That's all people need to hear. You know, of course, that's the worst thing that could have happened. Without beauty or grace, all you really had was your good reputation, and if your story gets out, you will no longer have that. But all may not be lost yet. If I hurry the wedding plans and you don't say a word to Jorge—"

"I'm not going to lie to him, Mother." I was sure that Jorge would hear about it eventually. Everyone in our castle probably already knew what had happened. It was nearly impossible to keep a secret with so many ears around.

My mother pursed her lips. "Then tell your tale as often as you'd like, but you've made a grave mistake. I don't know what your father and I will do with you now. I doubt that even a convent will take you."

"I shouldn't have bothered to come back at all!" I said.

"Perhaps you shouldn't have," Mother answered.

As soon as my mother was gone, Haywood spoke up. "Don't let your mother upset you, Emma, although if you want, I could take care of her for you. I was only a beginning wizard when Olivene transformed me, and not a very good one at that, but I remember some basic spells. It would be easy to turn Chartreuse into a magpie or squirrel. They all like to hear themselves chatter."

I laughed and shook my head. "Your offer is tempting, but I'd better not accept."

"If we're going to talk to
my
mother, we should leave soon," said Grassina. "Emma, why don't you and Eadric get the carpet from the storage room? The day is too beautiful to spend cooped up in a carriage, and Haywood would have difficulty staying on a horse. Ask Li'l where you can find the carpet."

It was dark inside the storage room, the only light coming through a window as narrow as an arrow slit. Eadric followed me through the door, stopping just inside when he saw the clutter. Something rustled in the rafters overhead, and I looked up. Li'l was hanging by her feet amid dangling bunches of herbs.

"Li'l!" I said. "It's me, Emma!"

"It's about time," the little bat squeaked. "Where did you go? One minute you were making breakfast, the next you were gone—poof!"

"I had a problem with my magic. I went to the dungeon by mistake."

"Those things happen," said Li'l, "especially when you're new at it."

"Do you know where my aunt put the carpet?" I peered into the darkened corners, where I could only make out vague shapes.

"Sure do! I know where everything is. Your aunt's put me in charge of inventory. The carpet's over there, behind that old mirror. Move the mirror aside ... watch out, it tilts ... that's it! There's the carpet."

The carpet was rolled up into a long tube, set on end so that it leaned against the wall. Eadric took one end and I took the other. It was heavy and awkward, but we'd soon wrestled it through the door and back into Grassina's sun-filled room.

Although the carpet was grimy on the outside, the colors were brilliant when we finally spread it in front of the window. Threads of scarlet, gold, navy blue, dark green and cream shone in the sunlight in a repeating pattern of flowers and abstract designs. A wide rug, it would hold the four of us easily.

Eadric stepped back to look. "It's very nice, but what does it have to do with going to your grandmother's?"

"This isn't an ordinary rug, Eadric. It's a magic carpet," said Grassina. "It will carry us wherever we want to go. It's a very comfortable way to travel as long as the weather is good."

Eadric turned to me. "Have you ever ridden on a magic carpet?"

"Never," I said, "but it looks like fun!"

"I'm not sure I want to trust anything involving magic yet," he said.

"You just ate a magic breakfast," I said.

"Here, Emma," said my aunt, holding out her hand. "Put these in your pouch. You never know when you might need them."

I did as she directed, tucking away an odd assortment of objects: a length of string, a small square of cloth and a candle stub. When everyone was ready, Eadric and I took our places on the magic carpet behind Grassina and Haywood. With a few softly spoken words, Grassina made the rug rise into the air. It moved in fits and starts, as if it wasn't quite sure what to do.

"I haven't used it for a while," my aunt said over her shoulder. "The ride should improve once the rug gets a good airing. Just stay seated and hold on."

"What about the window?" asked Eadric, his eyes enormous as the rug jerked toward the narrow opening. We were only inches away when the sides of the window stretched like a smiling mouth, allowing us to slip through easily. Once we were through, the window snapped back into place with a loud twang.

Grassina chuckled. "Don't worry, Eadric. This isn't the first time I've done this."

Four

The carpet dipped and swayed as it flew above the moat, until I was sure we were about to fall in. I grabbed hold of Eadric's arm, wishing I could hold something more stable, since he was shaking even more than the carpet. Rounding the last of the towers, the carpet leveled out and shot over the training fields where my father and his knights often practiced with swords and lances. In only a few minutes we had passed over the swamp that Eadric and I had spent days crossing. Beyond the river, we flew over the tops of trees, some so tall that I could nearly reach out and touch them.

The Old Witches' Retirement Community was located deep in the woods, accessible only by enchanted paths or by air. The paths led directly to the individual cottages and were the surest although slowest way of getting there. From the air, the community was so well hidden it would be easy to miss.

I tried to observe everything at once, turning my head back and forth like a confused weather vane. Eadric was just as excited as I was, and together we made the rug jiggle and bounce as we looked around.

A pink fog drifted over the forest, its wispy tendrils reaching into the trees. The faint odor of boiled cabbage reached us, and I wondered who was cooking it. We were over the fog when I noticed the Purple Mountains in the distance. When I looked again, they seemed to be much closer. A hawk flew by, drawing my attention with it. The next time I looked toward the mountains, they appeared to have moved farther away again.

"Are the mountains moving?" I asked my aunt as the rug dropped closer to the woods.

"Not at all, although it looks that way, doesn't it? It's just the effect of the magic miasma, that pink fog that passes over the woods now and then. It's pretty, but it makes the community harder to find. Wait, I think I see it!"

The cottages of the Old Witches' Retirement Community were scattered around a small clearing. A fire pit occupied the center, an added bonus for those witches who liked to cook outside. Wooden tables and benches surrounded the fire pit, seating for the witches and their guests. The clearing was the first thing we spotted from the air. As we drew closer, I began to see the cottages hidden among the trees.

There were four basic styles of cottages, but each witch had decorated hers in her own way, so no two were exactly alike. Some of them were gingerbread houses like my grandmother's, some walked about on chicken legs and some had thatched roofs and were surrounded by bushes bearing red and white roses; others were made of stone and covered with ivy.

The community itself grew and shrank as witches came and went, the cottages lasting only as long as they were needed. Some, like the gingerbread houses, disintegrated over time if not maintained. The cottages with chicken legs walked away when their owners died.

The rug was skimming just above the tops of the trees when I spotted Grandmother's cottage. Made of gingerbread, it had been repaired so many times that it didn't look at all the way it had when it was new. Visitors had eaten most of the icing trim, and my grandmother had replaced it with spun sugar. The gumdrops decorating the shutters had gotten hard, so she'd set clear fruit-flavored lozenges in their place. She'd also had to replace the gingerbread doors and many of the more accessible sections of the walls. The newer pieces of gingerbread were darker in color than the older ones, giving it a patchwork kind of look.

Grassina landed the rug in the cottage's front yard, and I expected Grandmother to tear out of the house, waving her broom at us and screeching her usual greeting. When she didn't even peep out from behind her cotton-candy curtains, I became concerned. Scrambling to my feet, I hurried to her front door. The latch, made of licorice and bearing the teeth marks of some long-ago visitor, was so sticky that I didn't want to touch it, but I didn't have much choice.

Lifting the latch, I pushed the door open and peeked inside. "Grandmother! Are you there? It's me, Emma! Grassina's here, too!"

Aside from the normal creaking of a candy house, the cottage was silent.
That's strange,
I thought, stepping into the tiny entranceway. The cottage was small, so it didn't take me long to search it, but there was no sign of Grandmother in the kitchen, the parlor or either of the two guest bedrooms. I didn't really expect to find her in her bedroom at that time of day, but I glanced inside anyway. I was closing the door when I noticed a lump under her bedcovers. Tiptoeing into the room, I reached for the covers and yanked them back, but it was only her cat, Herald, taking a nap. An old orange tabby turning white around the mouth and eyes, Herald was the only animal I'd ever known my grandmother to like, and was one of the most disagreeable cats I'd ever met.

Blinking sleepy eyes at the sunlight flooding the room, Herald put his ears back and growled when he saw me. I was used to his temper, however, and knew enough to keep well away from his claws.

"I don't suppose you know where my grandmother is," I said, not really expecting an answer.

The cat sneered, then sat up to lick the base of his tail. I turned to leave and was halfway out the door when Herald spoke up. "Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you. You've never treated me the way I deserve to be treated. No self-respecting witch's cat wants to be cuddled and called baby names!"

"I'm sorry I offended you, but I know a lot of cats who like to be petted," I said.

Herald stretched out a leg and bent down to lick his thigh. "Well, I'm not one of them!" He glanced up at me and crinkled his nose in a half snarl. "At least you're working on your magic, although you're long overdue."

"How do you know what I'm doing?"

"You're talking to me, aren't you? Your grandmother will be pleased. She's been very disappointed in you lately. As for where you can find her, she disappeared a few nights ago. It's a good thing she put in that cat door or I might have gotten hungry by now."

I left the cat bathing himself and went outside to find Grassina. Hearing sounds in the backyard, I headed around the side of the cottage, passing Grandmother's rock candy sundial on the way. It was almost noon, Grandmother's normal lunchtime. She should have been there, setting the table for her midday meal.

When I found my aunt, she was kneeling beside the oversized oven that Grandmother used for baking large sheets of gingerbread. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"Checking to make sure she isn't in here," said Grassina. "She once had a neighbor who had some children visit for a few days. One of them shoved her in her own oven and slammed the door shut. All that was left of her were some charred bones."

"That's terrible! What happened to the children?"

"Not a thing. They said that she was going to eat them, and claimed it was self-defense."

I shuddered. "Was there anything in Grandmother's oven that shouldn't be there?"

Grassina shook her head.

Munching a piece of gingerbread he'd taken from someone's wall, Eadric came out of the forest with Haywood loping by his side.

"I think Grandmother's been gone for a few days," I said.

When Grassina raised a questioning eyebrow, I told her of my encounter with Herald the cat.

"I'm not surprised that you can't find her," said Eadric. "Haywood and I took a quick look around, but we didn't see a single witch."

"That's right," said Haywood. "I think this whole place is abandoned."

"Maybe we should check the other cottages," I said.

Grassina nodded. "We probably should. Just don't open any doors. These old witches don't take kindly to nosy people. Now be careful."

I joined Eadric outside the gate while Haywood accompanied Grassina. None of the cottages we found appeared to be occupied.

Once we had finished, Eadric and I headed for the clearing in the center of the community. We had reached the first of the tables encircling the fire pit when Eadric stopped and bent down to pick up something. "What's this for?" he asked, showing me a simple cloth bag.

I turned it over in my hands. "I don't know. Maybe we should show it to Grassina." I jumped when Haywood leaped onto the table beside me, landing with a thud.

"What do you want to show her? Here, let me see." The otter sniffed it, then weighed it with his paws before setting it on the table. "Seems harmless enough. Queen of my heart, come see this!"

Grassina stepped up to the table and passed her hand over the bag as if she was feeling for something. "There's nothing magical about it. Let's see what it holds." When her nimble fingers had untied the knot, she poured some of its contents onto her palm. Pure white sand the color of fresh snow formed a sparkling mound.

"It's sand!" said Eadric, sounding disappointed. "Why would anyone put sand in a little bag like that?"

"That's a good question, Eadric," said my aunt. "Something is very wrong here. All of the witches seem to have left at once, although there were no fires, no threat of any kind and no obvious reason why they should leave. These witches wouldn't just abandon their homes or their animals, not with all the magic they have tied up in them. Keep looking and see what else you can find."

Once again, Eadric and I went in one direction, while Grassina and Haywood went in the other, inspecting the tables and the area around them. The fire in the fire pit had gone out, another sign that something was wrong, since the witches always kept it lit. Ashes from the pit had blown across the clearing, drifting all the way to the inner circle of tables. I was holding my skirts out of the ashes, nudging a lump with the toe of my shoe, when I noticed a mouse under the table.

Seeing that the mouse was running toward a small hole in the ground, I darted ahead and covered the hole with my foot. "Excuse me," I said, crouching down so that I was closer to its level. The mouse skidded to a stop, sitting back on its haunches in surprise. "I see that you're in a hurry, so I won't keep you long. I was wondering if you could tell me where the witches have gone."

The mouse looked over its shoulder as if expecting to see someone else standing behind it. When it realized that there was no one there, it turned back to stare up at me. 'You're talking to me? No big people ever talk to me!"

"It's true, I am talking to you, but then I happen to know that mice can be very nice. My name is Emeralda. My grandmother lives in the retirement community, and her name is Olivene. I can't seem to find her or any of the other witches who live here. I was wondering if you might know where they went."

"I have no idea where the witches went, but the other evening they had a big meeting with lots of people talking. Then they all got excited and flew off with parchments in their hands that looked like that one." The mouse pointed at the ground.

Reaching under the table, I felt something beneath the ash. It was a parchment, so coated with ash that the writing was barely discernable. When I picked it up and shook it, I realized my mistake instantly. My nose began to tickle. I tried to hold the sneeze in, but it was too strong. My eyes began to water, feeling as if they might pop out of my head if I didn't sneeze. I looked around, wanting to warn Eadric ... and then ...
"ah-choo!"

I've never been able to keep my eyes open when I sneeze, so I didn't see Eadric change. When I opened them, I was chest deep in the powdery ash, holding the edge of the parchment in my long green fingers. The mouse took one look at me and disappeared into its hole.

"Emma!" Eadric wailed.

"I'm over here," I said, waving my other hand in the air.

"Don't just sit there!" he said, his voice growing louder as he hopped toward me. "Turn us back!"

"I'll try," I said. If the ash made me sneeze once, it ought to do it again. Leaning toward the dust, I took a deep breath, but instead of sneezing, I started to cough, a loud hacking cough that reached deep into my lungs.

Eadric emerged from the ash like a small, lumpy ghost. He looked so funny that I would have laughed if I hadn't still been coughing. "How about a spell?" he asked. "Grassina said you'd have to learn to control the frog transformations through your magic."

"My magic! But I don't know any spells to turn us back."

"Then make one up. It can't be too hard. Witches make up spells all the time."

"I suppose I could try," I said, but my mind was already whirling.
Should I make it rhyme? What if I turn us into something horrible? What if the witches return and throw me in a cauldron before I can explain who I am? What if
—

"Are you going to make up a spell or not?" asked Eadric. "This ash is drying me out. We're going to have to find some water if you don't change us back soon."

"All right, all right. Just give me a minute!"
Frog, clog, dog, bog...
I tried to think of rhyming words that I could use.
Change, strange, range ...
Although I had a good idea of what a spell could do, I had no idea how it worked.

"If you're not going to try a spell, I'm heading for those trees," said Eadric. "It's too hot here, and my skin is starting to shrivel."

"Fine, fine," I said. "I'll try this one."

I'm now a frog.
I was a girl,
Please turn me back
And make-