A Prince among Frogs (18 page)

They made a strange procession as they approached the castle: two dragons, two magic carpets each bearing a man and a woman, and four witches on broomsticks. Gliding over the battlements, they were aiming for the courtyard, but they seemed to hit an invisible barrier in turn and bounced a little before sliding off the side like a speck of dust on a soap bubble. They all ended up outside the castle wall, looking confused.

“What’s going on?” Millie asked Audun as they met in the air above the moat.

“I don’t know,” said Audun. “But there’s your cousin, Francis. He’s waving to us.”

Millie spotted Francis standing by the moat dressed in his best suit of armor. It gleamed gold in the sunlight, making him hard to look at. “Good,” Millie said. “He should know what’s happening.” She turned on a wingtip and headed toward her cousin.

“Did you find Felix?” Francis called before they were even close.

“We found him, but we still have a problem,” said Millie. “He’s a tadpole and we can’t change him back. We need Olebald Wizard for that.”

“I’ve been told that he’s in the castle, but I haven’t seen him yet,” said Francis. “Grandmother and Grandfather saw him for a few minutes before I returned.”

When Millie tilted her head to the side in a quizzical way, Francis sighed and said, “Perhaps I should start from the beginning. I was helping the witches look for Felix when a fairy came to tell me that my grandparents needed me here. I hurried back and found everyone outside on the road leading to the drawbridge. Olebald Wizard had used an illusion spell in the middle of the night to make it look as if the castle were on fire. Everyone, including the guards, fled the castle. Once everyone was outside, Olebald closed the drawbridge and ended his illusion. Now no one can get inside. Stand back and I’ll show you something.”

Millie and Audun stood well back as Francis nocked an arrow in his bow, took aim over the castle wall, and let fly. The two dragons watched as the arrow arched over the wall with a whistling sound, hit something with a
twang!
and came flying back. Francis ran to the side, but the arrow headed straight for him. He dodged to the other side and the arrow changed direction. When it looked as if he wasn’t going to be able to avoid it, he turned around and braced himself. The arrow hit him in the center of his back with enough force to knock him off his feet. Millie wasn’t too worried however, because she knew he’d made his armor puncture proof.

“I thought you’d given up shooting arrows over the wall, Francis,” King Limelyn said as he, Queen Chartreuse, and Emma crossed the well-trodden path around the moat to join them. The king acknowledged Audun with a single nod and patted Millie on her scaly cheek. “I’m glad you’re back. Your mother told me about Felix. Did Francis tell you what Olebald Wizard has done here?’

“He did,” said Millie. “Francis also said that you saw Olebald, but no one has seen him since.”

“After he closed the drawbridge, he came out on the wall walk to gloat,” said the king. “When he saw us watching him, he did a little dance and laughed so hard he had to lean against a parapet so he didn’t fall over. Then he shouted down at us, ‘I’ve finally done it. You think you’re so smart, but I’m smarter than all of you. This castle is mine now and there’s nothing you can do about it.’ I can’t believe that the old cuss tricked us into abandoning our home without lifting a finger to stop him. That fire illusion had me convinced. It crackled and flared and looked so real!”

“You could smell it, too,” said Queen Chartreuse. “That wizard is evil, but he’s very good at what he does. I was terrified! Olebald is a horrible old scoundrel to have frightened us all so. Now that you’re back, you must kick him out of our castle. It’s disgraceful. No queen should ever be seen in public in her nightgown, but the fire started so suddenly that I didn’t have time to change. ”

“It wasn’t a real fire, my dear,” said King Limelyn.

“I know,” said the queen, “but I thought it was, and that’s what mattered.”

“Have you tried to get in through the secret passageway yet?” asked Audun.

“It was blocked,” the king told him. “My men have done everything from trying to batter the door down to hacking at it with axes. Olebald Wizard must have used magic to protect it, too. As for the walls … I’ve given up counting how many places where we’ve tried to scale the walls and been repelled each time, even though no one is there.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” said Emma. “Millie, you and Audun can take a look at the secret passage while I see about the walls. There must be some way we can get inside the castle.”

Millie and Audun weren’t far from the secret passage, so it took them only minutes to get there. Brushing aside the concealing vegetation, they entered the tunnel and followed it back to the door. A broken ax sat propped against the wall, and the dirt floor was churned up from the passage of many feet, but the door itself was intact and looked the same as always. Banded in iron and at least a foot thick, the wooden door was meant to withstand just about anything.

Millie waited while Audun tried the latch. When he looked back at her, she raised an eye ridge and said, “I’m sure someone already did that.”

Audun shrugged. “You never know,” he replied. “Stand back. I’m going to try to knock it down.”

“But the soldiers—”

“Aren’t as strong as I am. I bet they never tried this.”

Millie backed down the tunnel, leaving Audun enough room to turn around. Pulling his tail back, he let go and hit the door with a
whump
. The door shook and dust billowed through the tunnel. When Audun cried out, there was so much dust that Millie couldn’t see what had happened.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“Fine,” Audun said in a grumpy voice. “My tail came back and hit me, that’s all.” He took a step backward and groaned. “I think I sprained it.”

The dust cleared, leaving the door looking just as it had before.

“I don’t understand,” said Audun.

“Move aside, please,” said Millie. “It’s my turn now.”

The two dragons squeezed past each other to change places in the narrow tunnel. Millie eyed the door, then glanced back at Audun. “On second thought, you should probably go outside. It might get awfully hot in here—not at all the place for an ice dragon.”

Audun nodded. “I’ll go, but I don’t like leaving you alone.”

“I know, and I appreciate your thoughtfulness,” said Millie, and she blew him a kiss. She waited until the sound of his footsteps had died away before taking a deep breath. Millie preferred fueling her flames with gunga beans and hot flammi peppers, but she hadn’t eaten any in days and her only supply was in the castle. Now when she needed her biggest flame the most, her ordinary flame would have to do. She thought about her flame even as she filled her lungs with air. It needed to be hot and last long enough to test any magic the old wizard could have used. Anything less would be a waste of her breath.

Millie held the air inside her until she could feel the flame build, then closed her second set of eyelids, stepped back, and aimed for the center of the door. Dragon fire washed over the wood long enough to turn it to ash. Flame caressed the iron bindings and thick hinges until they should have melted into pools of liquid metal. And still she flamed, willing the fire to last. And then the last bit of air left her lungs and she gasped.

Millie blinked her second lids open and examined the door. It looked just as it had before she started. The stone walls around the door glowed red, however, and when she touched one, her talon sizzled.

The fire she had blasted at the door had washed back over her. Fire didn’t bother fire-breathing dragons, but she was glad Audun had left when he did. Ice dragons could get burned just like humans, although they were totally comfortable with ice.

“Princess Emma? Is that you?” called a faint voice from the other side of the door.

“No, it’s her daughter, Millie!” shouted the young dragoness. “Who are you?”

“It’s Sir Jarvis! Someone has done something awful to the dungeon. The ghosts can’t pass through walls or doors anymore. We’re trapped wherever we were at midnight last night. Poor Hubert is stuck between one cell and the next. I was fortunate enough to be in the corridor at the time. Can you come in here and do something about this?”

“I wish I could,” said Millie, “but Olebald Wizard has tricked everyone into leaving the castle and we can’t get back in.”

“Then he’s the one! That dastardly rogue! This must be his revenge for when we foiled his break-in last year.”

“Or he wants to make sure you can’t help us now,” she replied.

“Millie!” Audun called and she could hear him approach from down the tunnel. “Is everything all right?”

“It didn’t work,” said Millie.

“And we ghosts are trapped!” came Sir Jarvis’s muffled voice.

“Then I guess we won’t be asking them for help,” said Audun. “Millie, I think you should come now. I heard a lot of shouting at the front of the castle.”

“I’m coming,” Millie told him. She turned and yelled at the door, “Tell the other ghosts that we’re trying to get in. We’ll help you as soon as we can.”

“Please hurry,” said Sir Jarvis. “Hubert hasn’t stopped moaning since he was trapped. We’d end his suffering if he weren’t already dead, so now we’re trying to think of a way to drown out the sound of his moans.”

“I’ll do what I can,” Millie called over her shoulder as she started back down the tunnel.

She heard the shouting as soon as she stuck her head outside the tunnel entrance. Although she couldn’t make out what they were saying, it sounded as if a large group of men were arguing. She and Audun ran down the moat path and arrived by the drawbridge just as a makeshift siege ladder, propped against the wall, began to fall backward. Soldiers clung to the ladder as their legs dangled over empty air. Millie flew up to grab hold of the ladder, but Emma was there first, and she held it still while Millie and Audun helped the men down.

“We have an idea!” Oculura shouted to the dragons. “Come talk to us.”

Emma sighed. “You go, Millie. I have to see what your grandfather wants to do next. I’ve been trying to talk him out of digging a tunnel that would come up in the dungeon. You should thank me. He already asked me to dig it with magic, and if that doesn’t work he wants you and me to use our talons, with Audun’s help, of course,” she said, giving the ice dragon a halfhearted smile.

“You can tell Grandfather that it wouldn’t do any good,” said Millie. “The ghosts are trapped in the dungeon and I’m betting any human who ends up down there would be trapped as well.”

Emma’s smile widened. “I’ll be sure to tell him. Maybe that will get him to stop asking. Oh dear, he’s talking to Azuria now. He’s probably trying to get her to do it. I’d better go. Be careful, darling. People are coming up with all sorts of ways to get into the castle, and some of them are very dangerous.”

Oculura, Dyspepsia, and Mudine rushed over to Millie when she landed. All three witches were quivering with excitement. “We’ve had the best idea!” cried Mudine.

“It was my idea, actually,” Dyspepsia hurried to say.

“No, I think it was Mudine’s,” said Oculura. “I think she should be the one to explain it to Millie.”

Dyspepsia scowled. “Does it really matter?”

“What is this idea?” Millie asked.

“It’s quite simple,” said Mudine. “We think Olebald must be directing invisible servants to repel attacks from the air. They are probably looking for the more traditional siege weapons, like ladders and catapults. However, we think we could sneak in when Olebald is distracted by the catapult.”

“What catapult?” Millie asked, looking around.

“The one your grandfather is building with Azuria,” said Dyspepsia. “Haven’t you been paying attention?”

“I’ve been busy,” said Millie. “So how do you plan to sneak over the castle wall?”

“Millie, can you come here for a moment?” her father called.

“I’ll be right there,” she replied, then turned back to the three witches. “Don’t go anywhere until I get back. I want to talk to you.”

“Millie, it’s important!” her father called again.

She hurried to where King Limelyn was standing with her parents and the witch Azuria. No one acknowledged her, however, because her mother and grandfather were in the midst of an argument and everyone standing nearby was listening. “I told you that the tunnel isn’t a good idea,” said Emma. “I can’t believe you had Azuria dig it. The way was blocked just like every other way has been, and now we’re going to have to fill it in.”

“It would have worked if Olebald hadn’t put a spell on the dungeon,” said Azuria.

Emma frowned. “I told you about the spell.”

“After we dug the tunnel!” said the king.

“I didn’t know you had even started!” Emma sighed and looked toward the field where a catapult was being loaded. “And when did you find the time to build a catapult?” she asked Azuria.

“I did that before I dug the tunnel,” said the old witch. “I do so want to be helpful.”

“And have you thought about what is going to happen when you use that thing?” asked Eadric. “Think about the arrows the men shot over the wall.”

“The range is much greater,” said Azuria. “The men will be fine.”