Once Upon a Curse (17 page)

"You can't wear that color, either," said the herald. "We've already had a Black Knight. You're going to have to find a color no one else has claimed."

"But I don't have any other armor with me," protested the knight.

The herald shrugged. "The court armorer might have something you can borrow."

The knight leaned forward and tried to speak in a confidential tone, although I could still hear him. "Are you sure I can't wear this?" he asked the herald. "I hate wearing borrowed armor. You never know who's worn it or if it's been properly cleaned."

"Sorry, Sir Knight," said the herald. "Rules are rules. I'm sure one of the young lads would be happy to show you the way."

"If I must," grumbled the knight, yanking the reins so his horse reared up and the herald was forced to jump aside.

When it was time for Eadric to ride again, Bright Country pranced to his place at the end of the tilting barrier, obviously enjoying himself. I was expecting the Gold Knight when the knight on the gray horse returned. His armor was an unusual color, a mix of brown and purple. This time an expectant murmur ran through the crowd as the herald approached him.

"Now, that's a different color," said the herald, smiling broadly. "How do you want me to announce you?"

"As the Purple Knight, of course," said the knight.

"But that's not purple," offered a squire standing nearby.

"This is ridiculous!" said the knight. "I don't care what you call it! Just announce me."

The herald grinned. "Whatever you say, Sir Knight." The herald sounded his trumpet once more, then shouted, "Lords and ladies, gentlemen and gende-women. The Puce Knight!"

Shouts of laughter rocked the stands. Pennants waved in the air as the squires holding them chortled and guffawed. Apparently this angered the Puce Knight. He spurred his horse until the silk covering its flanks tore and blood trickled. Rounding the end of the tilt barrier, he took up his position and waited, his lance aimed and ready.

Once again I held my breath as Eadric rode into position. When the trumpet sounded, the two horses charged, their hooves thundering in unison. The lances hit with resounding thwacks and both knights flew off their horses, landing on their backs in the dust.

I jumped to my feet, but I couldn't see through the press of bodies that had quickly surrounded Eadric. Some men helped the Puce Knight stand, and I began to worry when Eadric didn't stand as well.

"Sit down, Emeralda," said my mother. "The men will see to him."

"But why isn't he standing yet?" I said. "He should be up by now."

With a sigh and a soft thump, Eadric's mother fainted. Everyone rushed to help her, so no one noticed when I slipped under the railing and ran to Eadric. I was nearly there when the Puce Knight reached him.

Eadric lay on his back, the Puce Knight's lance protruding from his armor. Someone had already removed Eadric's helmet and I could see the pallor of his face beneath his sweat-matted hair. The crowd was muttering about pointed lances when the Puce Knight grabbed hold of the lance and pulled it free.

Eadric groaned and lifted his head. "What happened?" he asked.

The Puce Knight raised his lance and slammed it into Eadric's armor. We heard a strange twanging sound, and the lance bounced back. Eadric looked bewildered, but he didn't seem the least bit hurt.

Two of the men standing nearby restrained the Puce Knight while others helped Eadric to his feet. "Let me see that!" Eadric said, grabbing the lance from the Puce Knight's hands. "Emma!" he called, looking for me in the crowd. When people turned and saw me, they moved aside and let me through. "What do you make of this?" he asked, showing me the lance.

It was sharpened, just as I'd thought, but that wasn't all. Holding my hand over the lance, I could feel the magic surrounding it. "Someone has strengthened the point with a spell."

"The point, huh?" said Eadric. "Then let's see what this does." Taking the lance in both hands, he slammed the shaft against his armor-clad knee, breaking it neatly in two. "Now let's see who's hiding behind this helmet."

The Puce Knight struggled to get away, but two burly men held him tightly as Eadric lifted the helmet from the knight's head. I gasped when I saw his face. It was Prince Jorge, the son of the king who had led the invasion of Greater Greensward the previous summer and the man my mother had wanted me to marry before I met Eadric.

"Jorge!" I said. "Why did you do this?"

Jorge looked from Eadric to me, his eyes hard and angry. "You two humiliated the royal house of East Aridia. It was time you learned a lesson."

"So you tried to kill Eadric?" I said. "What kind of lesson was that?"

"A good one," said Jorge, looking smug. "I thought of it myself."

I hadn't noticed that the crowd had parted for my father until I heard him say, "Arrest that man!" The captain of the guard led the way as three of his men hustied Prince Jorge off the field.

While the men-at-arms herded the crowd back to the stands, Eadric turned to me. "What just happened? Why didn't that lance kill me?"

"Remember that token I gave you?" I asked. "I put a health-and-safety charm on it. The air was knocked out of you when you fell, but Jorge couldn't do any real damage to you as long as you carried that scarf."

Eadric frowned. "I thought it might be something like that. Here, take it back," he said, reaching into his armor. "It isn't a fair fight if I have an advantage."

"But Eadric, Jorge wasn't trying to fight fairly. He wanted to kill you!"

"And now he's under arrest and we don't have to worry about him, do we? Promise me you won't ever do anything like that again. I don't want you to use magic for me unless you ask me first. Do you promise?"

"If I have to," I said. "But I don't think it's right. I was only trying to keep you safe."

"I know," he said, kissing me on the tip of my nose. "And that's why I'm not really mad. Just don't do it again. Understand?"

"Yes," I grumbled.

Eadric's fall had shaken his mother so badly that she insisted he quit the field for the day, nagging him until he agreed. Then, complaining of a headache, she went back to the castle to rest, taking Bradston with her. Since he was no longer participating in the jousting contest, Eadric removed his armor and took his mother's place in the seat beside me.

The jousting contest was far from over, although the rest felt like an anticlimax to me. Before any more knights met on the tilting field, my father had them all come before him with their helmets off. "Just so we know who's here," he said.

The only surprise was the Black Knight. When he took off his helmet, he was a stranger to everyone except Eadric and me. It was Prince Garrid, the vampire we'd met in Hazel's time.

I gasped and sat forward in my seat. "Garrid, what are you doing here?" I asked.

He smiled. "Hello, Emma. You don't know how relieved I am that I finally found you. I've been waiting for you for years."

"For me?" I asked, confused.

"Actually, I've been waiting for Li'l, but I knew I'd find her only if I could find you. She told me about a lot of things, including this tournament. That's how I knew when to look for you."

"But why?" I knew that vampires were immortal, yet trying to find a particular bat after all those years didn't seem to make much sense.

"Because I realized that Li'l was my one true love. I never married Hazel or anyone else. No one could compare with my Li'l."

"Li'l? Who's that?" asked my mother.

"A friend of mine," I replied. "I met her shortly after I met Eadric."

Mother frowned, her expression changing to one of astonishment when she realized what kind of friend Li'l might be. I'd made a number of friends when I was a frog, and they'd all been animals. "Does she live around here?" she asked, looking at me suspiciously.

"Up in my tower," I said. "Garrid, if you'd like to go see her, she's taking a nap in the storage room right now."

"In the storage room?" Mother echoed, her face turning pale.

I pointed at the castle. "It's the tall tower on the right," I told the prince.

Grinning, Garrid saluted me and left, his armor clanking all the way across the field.

My mother tugged on my sleeve. "How will he get into the tower chamber? You always keep that door locked."

"He'll find a way," I said, glancing at the tower windows. It wouldn't be any problem for a bat.

Fifteen

I
'd begun to relax, certain that Jorge's lance had been
J
the magical threat Oculura and my grandmother had warned me about, when Eadric leaned toward me and said, "I saw Grassina when I was coming out of my tent. Why is your aunt strewing pieces of raw chicken on the ground? She was making a lot of dogs happy until she chased them away with her broom."

I jumped to my feet and looked toward Eadric's tent. "Where was she headed?"

"I don't know," he said. "I—"

A woman shrieked. At first I thought it might be a peacock, but when the ground shook and other people started screaming, I knew I'd let my guard down too soon.

While I tried to see what was going on, Eadric hurdled the railing. "You stay here," he said.

I slipped under the railing and started running. "I'm the Green Witch, remember?" I shouted over my shoulder. "I don't stay out of trouble; I take care of it."

Eadric yanked Ferdy from his scabbard and ran to catch up with me. "How could I forget?" he yelled.

I was still in front of the viewing stand when the tent at the end shivered. Looking up, I saw an enormous gray tentacle rise above the green roof, then smack down its peak, squashing the tent flat. A few people—unlucky enough to have been caught inside—squirmed out from under the fabric walls. I hoped that there was no one left behind.

Eadric had always been the faster runner, so he reached the pavilion first. This time when the tentacle swept down out of the sky, he was ready for it and grabbed hold with one arm, twisting his body so he could wrap his legs around it. Hanging on with all his strength, Eadric rode it up into the sky, where it thrashed back and forth, trying to shake him off.

I couldn't make up a spell to fight it until I knew exactly what I was fighting, so I ran around the flattened pavilion, hoping to get a better look at the creature. There was a whoosh of air above me and I heard Eadric shout. Looking up, I saw him riding the tentacle as if it was a wild, bucking horse. I was so close that I could hear Ferdy singing as Eadric hacked at his ghastly, gray steed.

Slash, hack, chop and whack.

Cut down the foe, he'll not come back.

Slash, hack, chop and whack.

No monster shall hurt my master.

Pieces of its flesh dropped from the sky, but the tentacle kept flailing, smashing tents and flinging tent poles and cart wheels through the air. People screamed and scattered as the creature moved toward the tilting field.

"Emma," called Eadric from somewhere above my head, "let me have that token."

"Are you sure?" I hollered. "You made me promise."

"Forget the promise," he yelled. "Just send it to me!"

"Fine," I said to myself. "And they say women can't make up their minds."

Taking the coin and scarf in one hand, I sent it to Eadric with a flick of my fingers and a few whispered words. The scarf shivered, then spread out like the wings of a bird and began to flap, carrying the coin up to Eadric. It took a while for it to reach him because the tentacle kept moving, but he finally saw the scarf coming and grabbed it as he whipped past.

Hearing a loud hiss, I dashed around one of the few tents that was still standing, past a fleeing troop of jugglers headed the other way and found what I was looking for. The enormous creature carrying Eadric lurched across the ground, dragged by tentacles that had never been intended for dry land. Half again as wide as the biggest tent, the monster had the hard-shelled body of a crab, the sharp-faced head of a shark and the tentacles of an enormous octopus. It was a composite of three different creatures. Now I knew what I had to do; I just had to find a way to do it.

Two knights were trying to drive the monster back with their lances, but the shell-covered body was too hard to penetrate and the shark's head too fierce to approach. When it snapped at them, its shark's teeth clanged against their already dented armor. Shattered lances littered the ground, and the hafts of their broken swords jutted uselessly from the monster's mouth.

Eadric must have seen this as he tore through the sky, for the next time the tentacle carried him over the monster's body he let go and leapt onto its back. The shark's jaws gaped as the body shook, trying to dislodge Eadric.

A horse screamed, and I turned to see another knight spur his destrier straight at the lurching monster. When the shark's head turned and lunged, the poor warhorse reared up, nearly dumping the knight onto the ground. The horse whirled, and the last thing we saw of the knight was the back of his armor, bouncing wildly as his steed galloped between the remaining tents and out of sight.

Unlike the monsters Grassina had created before, this was a composite monster created out of three innocent creatures. Leaving them in this form would not only make them miserable for the rest of their lives, but would introduce a new, more horrible beast into the world of monsters. I needed a spell that would separate the monster into its individual forms.

While Eadric tried to drag himself onto the back of the monster's head, I pointed at it and said,

Take this monster. Make it three

Separate creatures. You will see

They'll be happy once again

When they live in their own skins.

The monster lurched again and the spell missed its mark. I was trying to think of a way to get the spell where I wanted it to go when Eadric threw himself forward and landed on the shark's head. The monster snapped at him, but Eadric ducked, jamming Ferdy into the spot where the shark's head joined the shell. He was trying to drive Ferdy in farther when one of the monster's tentacles wrapped itself around his waist, plucked him off and tossed him aside like a broken doll. I cried out as he flew through the air, his arms and legs flailing.

Eadric was yelling when he hit the ground, but instead of a solid thump, he hit with a squishy kind of sound and immediately bounced back onto his feet.

"Wow!" he said, when I ran to make sure he was all right. "That was incredible!"

"Eadric, I know what we need to do—" I began.

"Yeah, but did you see that? I was flying, and then I hit the ground, and I bounced and then—"

"Eadric, are you listening to me? That's a composite monster. I can render it harmless if I can break it up into its individual parts again, but I need you to help me deliver the spell."

"I can handle that," said Eadric.

"I'll put the spell in a ball like the ones we used when we fought King Beltran and turned his soldiers into frogs and mice. You'll need to aim for a spot where you'll hit parts of all three creatures. Do you think you can do that?"

"With the charm you gave me, I think I can do anything."

"Then here goes," I said. Shaping a ball with my hands, I repeated the spell that would break the monster apart. The whole time I was working, I could hear two knights fighting the beast. I was almost finished when the monster flung them into the sides of a tent. The tent broke their fall as they flattened it to the ground. They were wallowing in the fabric when I handed Eadric the spell-filled ball.

"How sturdy is this thing?" he asked, taking it from my hands.

"Strong enough," I said. "Just don't drop it."

A high-pitched cackle grated on my nerves. Glancing toward the tents, I spotted Grassina peeking out from behind a shattered cart, watching her creation with a mother's pride. When the monster noticed Eadric's approach, it turned its head to snap at him. Grassina chortled and rubbed her hands together. When Eadric dodged aside and tried again, she fairly danced with joy. But when he ran straight at the monster's head and tossed the ball with all the strength he could muster, she stopped laughing, her eyes clouded over and she began to mutter a spell of her own.

"Oh, no you don't!" I said and recited a binding spell.

Grassina's hand froze in mid-gesture. Her face turned nearly purple as she realized what I'd done. The only things she could move were her eyes, but she glared at me with a fierceness that said everything. The binding spell was an old one that I was sure Grassina knew, but it would take her a minute or two to break it, giving my own spell enough time to work.

The ball hit the monster, bursting with a shower of green droplets. Eadric tried to jump out of the way, but he'd underestimated the monster's reach, and the daggerlike teeth closed over his back and shoulder. Then, between one breath and the next, the monster shivered and dissolved in a lavender puddle.

Eadric stumbled and nearly fell while Ferdy clattered to the ground. Grassina howled wordlessly, the binding spell not fully broken.

The monster was gone, leaving a tiny crab, a baby octopus and a miniature shark floundering on the hard-packed dirt. They would die if we left them on the ground, so I sent them home with a quick spell. They disappeared in a green haze smelling strongly of salt water.

"How dare you?" screamed Grassina, finally getting her voice back. "That was the best monster I'd ever made! You ruined it! Now I'm going to have to start again and—"

"No, you're not," I said, glaring back at her. "Your monster-making days are over."

Grassina sneered at me. "Oh, really? And I suppose you're the one who's going to stop me?"

"If she doesn't, I will," said my grandmother, who suddenly appeared beside me. "Why did you have to ruin this tournament, you good-for-nothing, spoiled brat? You know how much I love tournaments! I used to watch your father joust before you were even a twinkle in his eye. You did this just to spite me."

"Maybe I don't like tournaments and all the noise and partying. Did you ever think of that? Or maybe I wanted to see your expression when my monster ate those precious knights."

"Or maybe you're just so cantankerous you can't stand to see anyone enjoying herself," I muttered under my breath.

"Mind your own business," Grassina said, scowling at me. Once again I'd forgotten how good Grassina's hearing could be. "Did you invite the old hag so she could help you spoil my fun? It won't do either of you any good. The feeble, old bag of bones hasn't helped anyone in years. Her magic is so pitiful that—"

"Who are you calling a feeble bag of bones, you lowlife fleck of pond scum," growled my grandmother. "I'll teach you to mess with me. My magic is stronger than yours any day!" Pointing at the ground beneath Grassina's feet, my grandmother muttered a few obscure words. The ground began to rumble, and a small crack opened up.

Eadric had come up beside me when I wasn't looking. "I don't think Grassina was really thinking of your grandmother when she—"

I clapped my hand over his mouth before he could say another word. "Shh, Eadric! Not now." The last thing I wanted was for two fighting witches to turn their attention to him.

Looking back at my aunt, I saw that the crack had widened, forcing her to stumble out of the way. "Is that all you can do?" she taunted, waggling her finger almost playfully. Grassina raised her arms to the sky and began to spin in place, slowly at first, then faster and faster until she was a whirling blur. A wind began to blow, bringing dancing snowflakes with it. The snow grew thicker, swirling out in a horizontal blizzard.

I turned my head to keep the snow from blinding me and saw my grandmother stomp her feet and gesture. Suddenly there was another kind of blizzard that made us back away. A swarm of insects had formed between Grandmother's hands, pouring forth in a stinging, biting, hopping, crawling, flying cloud that roiled and swirled toward my aunt.

The snowstorm grew fiercer, freezing insects in the air and on the ground, but when a few made it past her snowy barrier, Grassina slapped at them and called up another weapon, letting her snowstorm die down to a few drifting flakes. Birds of every shape and size flocked to her, dropping out of the sky from miles around to devour the insects before turning their beady eyes on my grandmother.

"So that's how you want to play," said my grandmother, and within moments an army of cats descended on us. Snarling, screeching, stalking cats—from stable cats to lions with shaggy manes—seemed to appear out of nowhere, batting at the birds as they flew and pouncing on them when they landed.

Nearly everyone had been scared off the field by Grassina's monster. When the big cats ran out of birds to chase, they began to stalk the few humans who were still around. A tawny-coated cat with irregular spots stared at me and licked its lips. I had to do something, and I had to do it fast before things got even more out of hand. I thought of turning myself into a huge dog to chase the cats away, but Grassina beat me to it by calling up a pack of enormous wolves, exactly the kind I'd chased out of the kingdom only a few weeks before. The wolves ignored Grassina, my grandmother and me, but I knew it wouldn't be long before they turned on us as well, and if we weren't there to stop them, they'd go after anyone who stepped outside the castle walls.

"Stop it!" I shouted at my aunt and my grandmother, trying to make myself heard over the fighting. Neither paid me any attention.

I had to do something to get them to stop fighting, something they couldn't ignore. There was only one creature that I knew they both respected. I'd never turned into one before, but then I'd never tried.