Unlocking the Spell (22 page)

“I can't wait for Liam to see this,” Annie said when
Gwendolyn and Snow White walked into the room. “He loves to whittle.” Liam had gone hunting with Dog and had yet to come inside the cottage.

“I'm going to make up the dwarves' beds,” Snow White announced. “I washed the sheets this morning and they should be dry by now.”

“I think I'll sit this one out,” said Gwendolyn as she headed for the chair with the plumpest cushions.

The first thing Annie saw when they stepped through the back door was the garden. Butterflies danced over rows of carrots, onions, peas, beans, and cabbage. Rooster stalked through the rows, gobbling insects, while Cat slept in a patch of sunlight, his head pillowed on his paws.

Snow White led the way to a rope stretched from one tree to another just past the end of the garden. Eighteen short white sheets hung from the rope. “Cragery's sheets haven't been washed since he was here last,” she said. “When I decided to wash his, I thought I might as well wash everyone's. Then I won't have to do them again until next week.”

“Is Cragery the one who just came home?” asked Annie.

Snow White nodded. “He left home about nine years ago, before I arrived. Here, you can help me fold this.” She handed the end of a sheet to Annie.

“Were the dwarves this good at keeping their own
house when you met them?” Annie asked as she set the sheet in the basket.

“Oh, no! The house was a terrible mess. That's why they let me stay. They said that there was no way I could do a worse job, even though I was young. I wasn't very good then, but I muddled through and got better over the years.”

“Do you like living here?” asked Annie.

“Most of the time,” said Snow White. “Although I do get lonely. You know, I've felt safe here for years, but now that my stepmother has found me, I don't know what I'm going to do.”

“Are you sure it's her?”

“It has to be. I can't imagine that two women mean to kill me!”

“Didn't you recognize her when you saw her?”

Snow White shook her head. “But then I wouldn't necessarily. My stepmother is a witch and can make herself look however she wants. I tried to tell my father that, but he wouldn't listen. He wouldn't listen to anything I said once she came to live with us. Here we go—all done. Come on. I'll show you the upstairs.”

Snow White divided the sheets in half so they could each carry some. They passed Gwendolyn, napping in one of the chairs, and started up the steps. Annie was delighted when they reached the top and saw the room where the dwarves slept. It was a bright, cheery
room with a window in each wall. A trunk sat beside each of the eight beds, providing storage for personal possessions.

At first Annie thought that all the beds were identical, but as she helped Snow White make them up, she saw that each one was distinctive. She laughed when she saw the ducklings on the headboard of one bed and snarling lions on the bed beside it.

Snow White turned to see what Annie was looking at, and smiled. “Their father did all the carving. He built this house before Hummfree was born. Hummfree is the oldest. That's his bed over there,” she said pointing across the room to a bed with an owl on the headboard. “The boys got to choose what he carved on their beds, but they were young and weren't always happy with their choices later.”

“Who has the ducky bed?” asked Annie.

“That's Sheckley's. He can't stand it now. And the one with the lions is Shandy's. He's the youngest and was always the noisiest, so I think the roaring lion is still appropriate. I have to confess, I have secret names for each of them and his is Loud.”

“Really? What are the others?”

“Promise you won't tell them, because I've never told anyone before and they'd be so hurt if they knew.” Snow White waited until Annie nodded, then said, “Well, Hummfree thinks he knows everything and always has to be in charge, so I call him Bossy. Bilyum,
who has the bluejays on his bed over there, speaks without thinking, and hurts people's feelings, so he's Rudie. I told you about Sheckley and his duck bed. He has bad allergies, so I call him Itchy. Bobbert has the bed over there. He can't sit still for a minute, so I call him Twitchy. The one with the cats with the creepy smiles? That's Dewane's bed. He reminds me of a tinker who would sell you a used pot with a leaky bottom while acting as if he's doing you a big favor. I call him Dodgy. Rigg sleeps over there in the bed with the fruit tarts pictured on the headboard. He's always hungry, and I guess he was when he was young, too. That's what I call him—Hungry. He loves my cooking more than anyone else, although I think he'd probably love anyone's cooking as long as he got to eat it.”

“And what about that bed?” Annie asked, pointing to the far corner.

“That's Cragery's bed,” said Snow White. “You probably can't see it from here, but he has bags of gold on the headboard. He isn't a close friend of yours, is he?”

“I've never even met him,” said Annie. She was reluctant to say much about the dwarf, or why they were there, because she didn't want to offend Snow White or make her angry enough to send them away.

“Good,” said Snow White. “I don't want to insult a friend of yours, but from what I've heard about him, he isn't very nice. His brothers have told me that he's greedy and selfish, so I named him Greedy. I've been hoping
that Cragery isn't that bad and that his brothers were exaggerating when they told stories about him, but from the little bit I saw of him, I think it was probably all true.”

“I'm afraid I haven't heard anything good about him either,” Annie told her.

“Ah,” said Snow White. “Then you and your friends didn't come for a friendly visit.”

Annie shrugged. “He may not be happy to see a certain friend of mine.”

“I take it you don't mean your sister or your friend Liam,” said Snow White. “So you must mean that bear I saw sneaking off into the woods.”

“You saw him?” Annie asked, surprised. “You didn't mention it.”

“Do you think I'd miss a bear so close to my house? Of course I saw him, but I figured he was enchanted, since I saw him talking to Gwendolyn. He is, isn't he? Enchanted, I mean.”

“We think it was Cragery who enchanted him,” said Annie.

“Really? I didn't know Cragery was
that
awful! Or that he could even do magic,” Snow White said, looking thoughtful. “I hope he doesn't enchant one of his brothers. None of them like Cragery and they've been fighting with him ever since he showed up. He and Hummfree fought so much on the way home that they split up and came back separately. I love the dwarves as
if they were my own brothers and I don't want to see anything bad happen to them. Although, if your bear friend doesn't like Cragery… You know, I wasn't looking forward to seeing that nasty dwarf again, but now I can't wait to see what happens when he gets back to find a bear waiting for him!”

The three girls talked long into the night, exchanging stories about what it was like to keep house for seven dwarves and what it was like to live at court. The only thing Snow White didn't want to talk about was her life before she came to stay with the dwarves, other than to say that her father had changed after he remarried. Even so, by the time they stopped talking, Annie felt so comfortable with Snow White that it seemed as if they had known each other for years.

Later, as Snow White and Gwendolyn fell asleep, Annie lay on a pallet on the floor beside her sister, thinking about Snow White. Although she acted like an ordinary girl, Snow White wasn't ordinary at all. She was as beautiful as a princess, and when Annie had touched her to remove the necklace, the girl's beauty had faded. Annie hadn't seen Beldegard since they arrived at the cottage, and hadn't had a chance to talk
to Liam alone after he returned from hunting, so she resolved to talk to both of them as soon as she could and ask if any royal princesses were missing.

The next morning, Annie and Gwendolyn joined Snow White in the garden as she weeded between the vegetable rows. The three girls knelt side by side, tossing the weeds in an old basket. Gwendolyn was less diligent than the other two, missing half the weeds and not pulling out all the roots, but Annie was pleased that her sister was trying.

They worked in silence for a time, enjoying the songs of the birds in the nearby trees and the warmth of the sun on their faces as Quentin foraged and Rooster scratched the dirt at the end of the rows. Cat was already taking a nap, stretched out in the sunlight, while Dog was off exploring the trees near the cottage.

They had worked for nearly an hour, moving along the rows, when Annie sat up and stretched, trying to ease a cramp in her back. She was about to say something to her companions when she heard whimpering and something running through the forest.

“What's that?” she asked, getting to her feet. Suddenly Dog came floundering out of the trees, slobbering and looking wild-eyed.

Annie raced toward Dog who was pawing at her mouth and whining. Something red flashed below her jaw and her whine grew louder. “It's the necklace!” Annie cried even as she dropped to her knees beside
Dog. The ruby necklace was wrapped around the dog's lower jaw, squeezing so hard that it was smaller than a bracelet. Annie's hand shot out and grabbed the necklace, which relaxed and stretched back to its normal size. Pulling the necklace from the dog's mouth, she held it up to examine it. “Apparently this is too dangerous to leave lying around,” said Annie.

Stuffing the necklace into her pocket to deal with later, Annie examined Dog's mouth, then ruffled her fur while the animal panted and tried to lick her. “Calm down!” Annie said, laughing. “You're all right now!” She was too close for Dog to be able to talk, so she patted her one last time and looked around until she found a stick of just the right size. “If you want to play,” said Annie, “you should stay with sticks.” When Annie hurled the stick, Dog ran after it, barking, her tail wagging furiously.

The three girls worked together until the sun was high overhead. Annie let her mind wander, and though she had asked Snow White many questions the night before, she thought of one more. “Why did Cragery leave home when he did?” she asked as she tossed another weed in the basket.

“As I understand it,” said Snow White, “he worked in the family's mine with his brothers for a time before deciding that he hated it, so he left home to get a job at
the castle. He became the court jester, but he wasn't very funny and people were mean to him. Finally he broke down, ranting that he was tired of all the short jokes, and left still wearing his pointy cap and jingly bells. It seems he took a valuable piece of the queen's jewelry with him, but no one knew where he went, so they couldn't track him down. His brothers didn't hear from him for a long time, then a few years ago Hummfree received a letter. Hummfree never said—”

“Yoo-hoo! Anyone home?” called a voice from around the corner of the cottage. A horse nickered and Quentin raised his head, still chewing the leaf that stuck out of his mouth.

“Are the dwarves back?” asked Gwendolyn.

Snow White shook her head. “That was a woman's voice. I'd better go see what she wants.”

“We'll go with you,” said Annie, brushing off her knees as she stood.

Gwendolyn wiped her hair out of her eyes as she got to her feet, leaving a smudge of dirt on her no longer flawless forehead. She had been sitting so close to Annie that her beauty had faded, leaving her pretty rather than gorgeous.

Liam had gone hunting again, so the girls were the only ones there. Dog joined them as they hurried to the front of the cottage, where a young woman sitting on the bench seat of a tinker's wagon waited with the reins in her hands, watching the door.

“May I help you?” Snow White said while Annie studied the stranger with growing concern. She had seen tinkers come to her parents' castle, but none of them had looked like this. It was true that the woman was dressed in the rough gown and cap of a tinker's wife, but her wagon looked fairly new and her horse wasn't tired and worn like most tinkers' horses. In fact, the horse was a lovely bay with bright eyes and a long, well-groomed tail and mane, more like a noble's horse than a tinker's.

The woman turned at the sound of Snow White's voice and seemed surprised to see her. “It's you! I mean… Hello! I've brought prime goods to show you. Pots and pans and some, uh…” The woman glanced at Annie and Gwendolyn, then turned away as if they were beneath her notice. “Say, is there anyone else here? Another young lady, perhaps a particularly beautiful one?”

“It's just us,” Annie was quick to say. She could hear the same high-pitched hum that she'd heard when the old woman had been there the day before. There was magic present and it wasn't the good kind.