Authors: E. D. Baker
Once Upon a Curse (18 page)
Dragons big and dragons small,
Fiercest creatures of them all,
Change me into one of these.
Do it quickly, if you please.
When my skin began to burn, I wondered if I'd made a horrible mistake. Maybe people were never meant to turn into dragons. When my stomach felt like it was on fire, I was convinced that my mistake was going to be fatal. Why couldn't I have chosen a nonmagical creature? Instead of the tingling or bubbly feeling that I usually felt when I changed, turning into a dragon was painful. Everything about me hurt: my skin, my stomach, my head, my muscles, even my bones. The pain grew worse until I felt as though I'd been dipped in molten lava. I was lying on the ground, writhing in agony, when the pain ended as abruptly as it had begun. /
must be dead,
I thought, opening my eyes, but I was still on the field between the moat and the tents. The fight had stopped for the moment, and everyone was staring at me.
I looked down and saw why. I was a dragon just as I wanted to be, but I wasn't quite like any dragon I'd ever seen. From the tip of my pointed snout to the end of my ridged tail, my body was an iridescent peridot green. My finger-length claws were a dark emerald color, and my pale green wings were translucent. As I'd learned months before, there were no green dragons, yet that was exactly what I had become. I was nearly twelve feet long and covered with scales, but for the first time in my life, I felt beautiful.
While everyone stared at me, I raised my wings and flexed them to see if they really worked. I didn't move them very much, but I still created a wind strong enough to send some of the smaller cats flying and blow away the last of the insects.
"Emma, is that you?" asked my aunt.
"Yes," I said, my voice sounding like a hiss.
Grandmother scratched her head. "That's not possible," she said. "No witch has ever been able to turn herself into a dragon. It must be an illusion."
"Does this feel like an illusion to you?" I asked, spreading my wings again and beating them one, two, three times. Grandmother's gown streamed out behind her, and she had to brace her feet to keep from being blown over.
"I guess not," she said, blinking at the dust I'd blown into her eyes.
Grassina sneezed, then blew her nose on her sleeve. "How is it possible?" she asked.
"It's magic," I told her. I didn't really know, either, but I suspected that it had something to do with my being a Dragon Friend.
Neither Grassina nor Grandmother protested when I herded them together and said, "No more fighting with magic. If you don't agree about something, you're going to have to learn to talk about it. Do you understand?"
They nodded, their heads wobbling as if pulled by cords. "Now go to the castle and stay there until you can work this out." They stumbled off together, glancing back at me now and then to make sure I was still behind them. I followed them as far as the drawbridge, then sat down and watched them trudge inside. "Go get started," I called after them. "I'll be right there."
My voice must have been loud in the enclosed space, because they flinched when I spoke, then scuttled away like pages caught stealing tarts from the kitchen. I flexed my wings once more, enjoying the supple way they stretched. Unfortunately I didn't have time to try them out, but I promised myself that I would turn back into a dragon as soon as I had the time to experiment.
When my aunt and my grandmother were out of sight, I repeated the spell to turn myself back into my human form. Eadric had stayed behind, but now that I was myself again, he joined me at the drawbridge. "That was easier than I expected," I said. "Did you see how they listened to me?"
Eadric licked his lips and tried to smile. "Anyone would have listened to you when you looked like that. You scared them so badly that they couldn't do otherwise. To be honest, you scared me, too!"
"Sorry about that. I just wanted them to stop fighting. It seems that's the only way those two can relate to each other anymore. I wish I could order Grassina to kiss Haywood, but I doubt it would help now. She wouldn't really mean it, and I think it has to be heartfelt to work. We'd better go see what Grassina and my grandmother are up to," I said, kissing Eadric on the cheek.
I could hear them arguing long before I reached the Great Hall. Their voices were shrill and carried well. When I entered the room, I saw that I wasn't the only one they'd attracted. Oculura and Dyspepsia were seated on a bench at the back of the room, sharing a trencher of roast goose and onions while listening to the argument. My parents were also there along with Queen Frazzela and King Bodamin, both of whom were dressed for travel.
"A forest of stinging nettles," said my grandmother. "That's what I would have tried next if Emma hadn't been there."
Grassina snorted. "You are so old-fashioned. Stinging nettles went out of style years ago! I would have tried quicksand or maybe a fog so dense that—"
"Not around my castle, you wouldn't," said a hollow-sounding voice as my grandfather materialized in the center of the room. "This isn't a testing ground for new spells. It's a home and a seat of government, which you two seem to forget. Grassina, I found out about that dust you've been using on the ghosts in the dungeon. I'm acting on behalf of the Council of Ghosts when I say that you may no longer use it under penalty of personal haunting. I've sent the affected ghosts to be purged of the dust. There will be no more tomfoolery like that around here again. It's time you and your mother grew up and started to help Emma instead of making things harder for her. Curse or no curse, you're still family."
Everyone turned their heads when Queen Frazzela groaned on the other side of the room. Her face was pale and she had her hand pressed to her throat, but that didn't stop her from speaking her mind. "This is a horrid family!" she said, her voice turning as shrill as my aunt's and grandmother's. "When I came inside to lie down, I heard the commotion, so I climbed up to the battlements. I saw everything that's gone on here today. Witches for relatives, monsters in the moat and ghosts in the castle! Even that girl is a witch," she said, pointing an accusing finger at me. "After meeting all of you, I will never give my son permission to marry into such a horrid family, regardless of how much he says he loves your princess."
My grandfather's color deepened to a rich blue as he floated toward Eadric's mother. "You have no idea what you're talking about," he said with more feeling in his voice than I'd heard in a long time. "This family may be unique, but it's not horrid." Raising his transparent arm, Grandfather pointed at my grandmother. "This woman was the best wife any man could ever have, king or not. She loved me with all her heart, but I was too busy to notice. We argued over something inconsequential, and I thought I'd make up for it with a silly bouquet of flowers. It was my fault that she fell prey to the awful curse that changed her life. If I'd known her better, it would never have happened. I loved that woman then, and I love her still. If there is such a thing as a soul mate, then this woman is mine. Any man could count himself fortunate if he could marry into this family, and he'd be a fool to think otherwise."
"Aldrid?" said my grandmother.
Grandfather turned to face her, floating back across the room until his aura nearly touched her. "I should have told you how I felt years ago, but other things always seemed to get in the way. However nasty you might have been, I've always known it was the curse talking and not you. I love you, Olivene. I always have, and I always will."
Grandfather moved toward her again, the blue of his aura engulfing her as his arms seemed to wrap around her body. Although we could see through him, we could also see when he kissed her full on the lips, and she responded, trying to kiss him back.
Tears pricked my eyes, and I was wiping them away when Eadric nudged me and said, "Will you look at that!"
A hole seemed to have opened in the ceiling, and through it streamed a shower of flower petals of every description. They fell around us, drifting onto our faces, our clothing and down to the floor. My mother shrieked and hid her face in my father's shoulder, but for the first time in centuries flower petals had no power to change the women of the royal family of Greater Greensward.
Someone laughed, a light tinkling sound that brought a smile to everyone's lips. It was my grandmother, her face restored to her former beauty—older, sadder, but still the face that my grandfather had loved. I looked at my aunt and she had changed as well, her face the one that I had missed so much. Hearing the laughter, my mother looked up, and I saw her face transform. Years seemed to drop away from her as she realized the truth. The family curse was over.
Everyone started to laugh, a joyous sound that hadn't been heard in the castle for far too long. Still laughing, I turned to Eadric, the words I'd wanted to say already on my tongue.
Something thudded by the door, and I heard a voice cry out, "Stop it! Let go of me!" A moment later Olefat the dog backed into the room, his teeth clenching someone's sleeve. Instead of letting go, Olefat snarled and shook his head, then braced his feet and pulled even harder. With one last yank, Haywood popped through the door. When he saw everyone, he looked around sheepishly and said, "I didn't mean to intrude. The dog—" And then his eyes fell on Grassina. The astonishment on his face lasted but an instant, chased away by a look of such longing that I felt as if we were the ones who were intruding. "Grassina?" he asked. "Is that really you?"
"Oh, Haywood," she said, and suddenly they were holding each other. Olefat yipped and hopped up onto an empty bench. "And that," he said, "makes three!"
"What does he mean by.... Oh!" said Haywood as a tiny whirlwind danced around Olefat the dog, leaving Olefat the wizard in his place.
"Awk!" said Metoo the parrot, perched on the old man's shoulder. "It's about time!"
"Why are you complaining?" demanded Olefat. "I was the one who did all the work. You were just my flea!"
Taking Eadric's hand in mine, I led him to an empty corner of the room where we could have a little privacy. "The curse is over," I said before wrapping my arms around him.
"Mmm," he said. "Does that mean that we can get married now?"
I nodded. "Nothing would make me happier."
"Nothing?" he asked.
"Well," I said, "I would like to hold the ceremony in the swamp. We'll have to invite all our friends. You know who I mean. There's Li'l, of course, and Garrid if they're still together and some of the ghosts in the dungeon. Then there's Fang and—"
"What about my parents?" he asked.
"We'll have to invite them, too," I said. "They may not like me now, but you know they'll love me after they get to know me a little better."
"Of course they will," he said, kissing me on the forehead. "People always do."
made her international debut with
The Frog
Princess,
which was a Book Sense Children's Pick and has been optioned for an animated movie. Since then she has written four other books in the series:
Dragons Breath, Once Upon a Curse,
No Place for Magic, and The Salamander Spell.
A mother of three and grandmother of
one,
Ms. Baker has had many interesting jobs—teacher, parrot
caretaker,
member of the Red Cross Disaster Team—but her true love is writing. She lives in Maryland, where she provides a home for three horses, two dogs, three cats, and three goats named Malcolm, Seth, and Ruben.