Unlocking the Spell (9 page)

“I thought this room smelled bad because she had so many cats,” said Liam. “I never would have guessed it was a wolf.”

“And a talking one at that,” said Annie. “I've seen more talking animals in the last few days than I've seen in my entire lifetime before this.”

“Gloria, are you all right?” a man asked, ducking to enter the cottage. He was a big man with the clothes of a huntsman and a face that was an older, male version of Little Red Riding Hood's.

With a strangled sob, Little Red Riding Hood flew into his arms and buried her face in his tunic. “Oh, Uncle Olaf, the wolf that pestered me yesterday was
here, and I thought it was Granny, and Granny's gone and I think the wolf ate her.”

“That wolf didn't eat your granny!” said the man. “It chased her out of her house yesterday and she came to mine. I was hunting and didn't get to talk to her until this morning, but then I came right over to see what was going on. The wolf didn't hurt you, did it?”

Little Red Riding Hood shook her head. “But it stole Mama's basket.”

The big man laughed. “If that's all we have to worry about, we're fine. And who are these people, if I may ask?”

“Just travelers on our way, now that we know the little girl is all right,” said Liam.

“More travelers!” said the huntsman. “I've never seen so many strangers passing through this part of the forest before. First I saw those two dwarves, and now you.”

“Did you see them recently?” Liam asked, pausing at the threshold. “Was one older than the other?”

“Did you talk to them?” asked Annie. “What direction were they going?”

“It was one day last week,” the huntsman replied. “I was checking my snares up by the ridge when I saw them from a distance. They seemed to be arguing, so I left them alone. They were headed north. And yes,” he said, glancing at Liam. “They both had white hair, but one was stooped, so I assume he was older.”

“At least we know they came this way,” Liam told Annie as they stepped outside.

“Finally!” Gwennie declared. She was standing at the edge of the forest with her arms crossed, tapping her foot. “You were in there so long! I found Beldegard. He's waiting for us just up the trail. Did you remember to ask about the hood?”

“What hood?” asked Liam.

The door to the cottage opened and Little Red Riding Hood came running out. “Good,” she cried when she saw them. “You haven't gone yet. I told Uncle Olaf that you were the ones who showed me that it was a wolf and not my grandmother in Granny's clothes. He said I should say thank you.”

Annie gave her a warm smile. “You're very welcome.”

“Go ahead, ask her,” Gwendolyn urged her sister.

“Ask me what?” said Little Red Riding Hood.

Annie sighed. “My sister wants a hood like yours. We'd be willing to pay for it.”

The girl's eyes lit up. “Granny could use the money. I'm sure she has a spare hood somewhere. Wait here and I'll go look.”

“I don't know if I want someone's used hood,” said Gwendolyn as they watched Little Red Riding Hood run back into the cottage. “I thought we were going to ask the girl's grandmother to make me one.”

“We would have if she'd been here and able to whip
one up, but we're not waiting around for her to come back,” Annie replied.

“I'm going to go talk to Beldegard,” said Liam. “Don't take too long. I think I heard thunder in the distance.”

Little Red Riding Hood came tearing out of the cottage, waving a dark green cape. “I found it!” she called and handed the cape to Gwendolyn.

The princess gave her a weak smile, then glanced at her sister. Annie dug a coin out of her knapsack and handed it to Little Red Riding Hood, who clutched it in her fist as if it were the most precious thing she'd ever seen. “Thanks!” she cried, and skipped back to the cottage.

Annie took the cape from Gwendolyn's hands and shook it loose of its folds. It was a well-worn garment with a few threadbare spots, but still, it was well-made and clean.

Gwendolyn rubbed the corner of the cape with her fingers and began to pout. “I don't like it. It's old and it's not pink.”

“I know!” Annie said. “I think it's perfect!”

Beldegard and liam searched the forest for the rest of the afternoon while Annie tried to help and Gwendolyn complained that her feet hurt. The Dark Forest was only a hundred acres, so by the time it began to get dark they had already tromped across most of it without seeing a sign of any dwarves.

“This is interesting,” said Beldegard, snuffling the ground. They had just reached the northwest corner of the forest where the trees were taller and older than the rest.

“Did you find a dwarf footprint, my love?” asked Gwendolyn.

Beldegard shook his head. “No, just bear prints—some big, some little. It looks like a mother bear and her cub live around here.”

The thunder that had been rumbling to either side of them for most of the afternoon sounded closer now
and the sky was quickly growing darker. “We need to find shelter,” said Liam.

“Huh,” grunted Beldegard. “Just stay away from caves. Even I don't want to face a mother bear with a cub. They get riled easily.”

“The trees are thinner in this direction,” said Liam. “It looks like someone cut some down. Maybe we'll find a woodcutter's cottage where we can pay to spend the night.”

“I'd rather sleep outside,” murmured Gwendolyn.

“Not in the rain,” Annie told her. “When this storm hits, you won't care what the cottage is like as long as you have a roof over your head.”

“I don't think that's true,” Gwendolyn said, but Annie noticed that her sister was quick to pull the hood of her new cape over her head when the first raindrops began to fall.

They continued to walk as the rain fell harder and were drenched when Liam finally shouted, “Over there! I see a house.”

“I hope it's clean,” Gwendolyn muttered under her breath.

“I hope they'll let us in,” said Annie.

The house had two stories, arched windows, and an arched door. The fireplaces at either end of the house looked as if they were holding the sharply peaked roof in place. Outbuildings in the back included stalls for horses, but the only occupants seemed to be the barn
swallows that Beldegard disturbed when he peeked inside.

“There are no lit candles or fires in the fireplaces,” Liam told Annie as he peered through the windows. “Either no one is home or they've gone to bed already. Wait here while I look and see.”

It was getting colder now, and though the cape kept Gwendolyn warm, Annie had begun to shiver. She drew closer to Liam as he pounded on the door. When no one answered, he shoved it open and stepped inside. “No one's here as far as I can tell,” he said when he returned to the door a minute later, a lit candle in his hand. “Come in out of the rain, but stay by the door while I go look upstairs.”

Liam took the candle with him, leaving the room dark once again. When Annie hesitated at the door waiting for her eyes to adjust, Gwendolyn pushed past her. Unfastening the ties on the soggy cape, Gwendolyn dropped it on the floor and walked off.

“Here,” Annie said, handing the cape to her sister. “I'm not your servant. Hang it up somewhere so it can dry.”

“Where?” Gwendolyn asked as she looked around.

Annie turned in place, examining the room. Only a little light came through the windows, so she really couldn't see much aside from a table with three chairs at one end and a grouping of three rocking chairs at the other. When she spotted candles and a flint on the
mantel, she lit two and handed one to Gwendolyn. “Why don't you put your cape on the back of one of those chairs?” Annie said, pointing at the table.

Gwendolyn sighed as if Annie had asked for too much, but she walked to where she had pointed and draped the cape across the back of a chair. A small puddle began to form on the floor below the dripping cape. Annie started to look around for something to wipe it up, and noticed three bowls on the table, filled with some sort of food.

“There's no one upstairs either,” Liam said as he came down the steps. “But I found three beds, so if you ladies would like to get some sleep, Beldegard and I can take turns keeping watch.”

Normally Annie would have argued that she should share the burden of standing guard, but she was so tired that she didn't have the energy to protest. She turned to invite Gwendolyn to go upstairs with her, and found her sister examining the contents of one of the bowls.

“I think it's porridge,” said Gwendolyn. “It's cold, but it's not bad. I mean, it's not moldy or anything.” Picking up a spoon from the table, she poked the porridge with it. “Ugh, it's got dog hair in it.”

“The whole place smells like wet dog,” said Annie.

Gwendolyn stifled a yawn. “I don't see any dogs, though.”

The door opened with a creak. Annie turned,
startled. Beldegard strolled in, took a long look around, and shook, splattering droplets on everyone. “There's no one here, but I found a saddlebag on the floor of the barn. It looks as if someone left in a hurry.”

“Gwennie and I are going upstairs to sleep. Liam found some beds up there. Good night, you two,” Annie said as she steered her yawning sister to the steps.

Even as she climbed, Annie could hear Liam and Beldegard talking. “It looks as if someone broke this rocking chair,” said Liam. “Did you notice that everything is in sets of threes? I think a couple lives here with their child.”

Although Beldegard lowered his voice, Annie could still hear him when he said, “I didn't want to say anything in front of the girls, but we should leave at first light. There's something about this place that you should know.”

“It smells better up here,” said Gwendolyn, and held her candle high. “At least the beds look nice. I'll take the big one at the far end.”

“You go to bed,” said Annie. “I want to go see what Liam and Beldegard were talking about.”

“Don't you dare leave me alone up here!” said Gwendolyn. “I came up only because I thought you were going to bed, too!”

“All right,” Annie said with a sigh. Whatever Beldegard was talking about, he didn't seem to think that it
was so urgent that they couldn't stay in the house for the night.

Turning away from the stairs, Annie raised her candle. There were three beds in a row ranging from an extra-big one on the right to a smaller-than-normal bed on the left. Large trunks rested on the floor at the foot of each bed. Gwendolyn had already opened the lid of the trunk by the biggest bed and had started to root around inside.

“What are you doing?” Annie asked. “Those things belong to the owner of the house. You shouldn't go through them!”

“I'm cold, I'm wet, and I'm not going to spend another minute in these clothes,” Gwendolyn said, plucking at her own sleeve. “You don't have to change if you don't want to. These are all men's clothes,” she added, dropping the lid.

“It isn't right!” said Annie.

“I don't intend to take the clothes when we leave,” Gwendolyn said, opening the trunk by the middle-size bed. “We'll just use them while we're here. If it would make you feel better, we can leave a coin to pay for their use. Oh, good. These will do just fine.” She held up a sleeping robe of palest blue and tossed a white one to Annie. It was too big for her, but it was dry and as soft as kittens' fur when Annie rubbed it against her cheek. As princesses, of course, they had much finer
clothes at home, but hadn't brought anything like this with them.

The rest of Annie's protests dried up unspoken. Following her sister's lead, she shed her wet clothes and slipped into the sleeping robe. “It's just for one night,” she murmured as it warmed her chilled skin.

While Gwendolyn climbed onto the biggest bed, Annie set her candle on a small table and hopped onto the average-size bed, which poofed up around her like a lavender-scented cloud.

“I can't sleep on this bed!” exclaimed Gwendolyn. “The mattress is as hard as a rock.”

“This mattress is much too soft,” Annie told her.

Gwendolyn slipped off the biggest bed and ran to the smallest. “If this bed is any good, I claim it!” she cried out. She sat on the edge of the mattress for just a moment before lying down. Closing her eyes, she curled up on her side, murmured, “This bed is just right,” and was fast asleep.

Her sister's breathing was already loud and steady when Annie blew out the candle and lay back on the too-soft mattress. Something crunched when she rested her head on the pillow. Reaching under it, she pulled out a sprig of rosemary. “At least it doesn't smell like wet dog,” she murmured, and then she too was asleep.

The sound of heavy footsteps on the stairs woke Annie. She lay quietly for a moment and let her gaze wander. The rain had stopped and the clouds had moved on, letting moonlight through the windowpanes. When she heard heavy breathing coming from both sides of her, she turned her head and saw that Liam was asleep on the big bed. Assuming that it was Beldegard coming to check on them, Annie turned over and closed her eyes again.