Princess Before Dawn

  “You’re supposed to stay here,” the vampire said, getting to his feet.

  “Why, so you can try to bite me again? I don’t think so!”

  Suddenly the door burst into flames. Within seconds it had turned to ash and a blue-and-white dragon began to force his way through the opening that was much too small. As the door frame cracked and split apart, the wall around it crumbled.

  “Are you all right?” Audun said as he came into the room.

  “We heard you screaming,” said Francis as he walked in behind Audun.

  “Maganen tried to bite my neck!” Annie said, pointing.

  “Is that a real dragon?” the vampire asked in a hoarse whisper.

  “Yes, and he’s a friend of mine, so you’ll stay out of our way if you know what’s good for you,” Annie told him.

  The bell tolled somewhere in the castle again and Maganen gasped. “It’s dawn!” he cried. In an instant, he had changed into a bat and fled to the darkest corner of the room.

  Annie got out of the way as Audun started turning around. “Did you rescue Francis, too?” she asked him.

  “He most certainly did not!” Francis said, avoiding Audun’s tail. “I’d been locked in a room down the hall from his. I used my magic to get out, then let him out, too. We were on our way here to unlock your door when we heard you scream. You have excellent lungs, by the way. You were really quite loud. We thought you were being attacked, so I got a spell ready and Audun turned into his dragon self.”

  “A vampire trying to bite one’s neck inspires volume,” Annie replied. “What about Zoë?”

  “We were going to rescue her last,” said Francis. “Tell Annie what you told me, Audun.”

  Audun’s foot had gotten wedged under the bed. He grunted as he pulled it out, cracking the leg of the bed so it sagged on one side. “When I dropped a coin outside Reynard’s door, I did it so I could hear what he was saying to his friend,” said Audun. “Maganen was telling Reynard that Zoë had shown up at the perfect time. They could kill you, me, and Francis, then Reynard could marry Zoë, even if she wasn’t a full-blood and he didn’t love her. Being married to the princess would make his claim to the dukedom stronger.”

  “They won’t bother Zoë until they get rid of us,” Francis told her.

  “Do you know where she is?” Annie asked.

  “Just down the hall,” said Audun. “I can smell her.”

  Audun made an even larger hole on his way out of the room. As Annie stepped over the rubble behind him, she asked, “Why don’t you change back? You’d fit so much better then.”

  “No one is likely to bother us while I’m in my dragon form,” Audun said as he started down the corridor. “I find that people tend to get out of my way when I’m like this.”

  “I don’t blame them,” said Francis. “They’d get squashed if they didn’t.”

  Audun followed his nose to a door set off by itself at the very end. He stepped aside as Francis muttered something and pressed the palms of his hands against the door. It opened easily and Francis hurried in. Annie followed, but Audun stayed in the corridor and peered inside.

  The room they had given Zoë was much larger and more elegant than Annie’s. The bed was hung with brocade, while cushioned chairs faced each other across a thick rug. They found Zoë standing by a table holding a blood-filled chalice.

  “Don’t drink that!” Francis said, snatching it away. “It’s probably drugged.”

  “I’m sure you’re right,” said Zoë. “I never drink blood if I have a choice, but I’m so thirsty and this smells delicious.”

  Francis took the acorn from his pocket. He poked his finger inside and pulled out the glistening tip of a unicorn’s horn dangling from a golden chain. Holding the chain above the chalice, he dipped the piece of horn into the blood. The blood fizzled and bubbles popped. When he pulled the unicorn horn out, the blood looked the same as it had before. “You can drink it now if you want to,” he said, holding it out to her. “It was drugged, but it isn’t anymore.”

  Zoë shook her head and pushed it away. “No thanks,” she said. “I’ll turn into a bat and forage for insects again as soon as we’re well away from this place, which may not be for a while yet.”

  “Why can’t we leave right now?” asked Annie.

  “Not until we find out why Maganen was lying,” Zoë replied. “Did you see the way he looked above me and couldn’t meet my eyes when he said that my parents left as soon as they learned that the duke wasn’t here? My father told me that vampires do that when they’re lying. I don’t trust either Reynard or his friend to tell the truth about anything.”

  “You’re right,” said Audun. “You shouldn’t. I can smell your father in this room. He’s been here very recently. I can’t smell your mother, though. At least not in this room. I did smell her out in the corridor when we first entered the castle.”

  “I didn’t know that dragons had such a great sense of smell,” said Annie.

  “I once tracked Millie from the Icy North all the way to Greater Greensward by scent alone,” Audun said.

  “I don’t understand why my parents would be separated like that,” said Zoë. “They always stay together when they go visiting. I don’t like this at all!”

  “Do you think your parents are still here?” asked Annie.

  “I don’t know,” Zoë replied. “But I’m going to find out! Audun, please see if you can find my father’s scent anywhere else.”

  Audun stepped away from the doorway and sniffed. The others followed him to the stairwell. They were going down the stairs when Annie said to Francis, “You said that harpies guard the area around the castle during the day. What about inside the castle?”

  “They don’t need guards inside,” Francis replied. “Once the castle is locked down, there’s no way anyone can get in or out except by air, and the harpies have that handled.”

  “Why would Zoë’s parents want to stay here at all, and especially when the duke isn’t around?”

  “They wouldn’t,” Francis said. When Annie glanced at him again, his mouth was set in a grim line.

  Audun stopped to sniff again, and the silence reminded Annie of the day she’d spent in her parents’ castle, awake while everyone else was sleeping. It was a memory she didn’t want to relive, so she was relieved when he started walking again. He led the way down the next flight of stairs as well, taking them to the door where he had stopped to sniff before.

  “Huh,” he said. “Now I smell both of your parents, Zoë. They must have brought your father down the stairs while we were talking to Reynard.”

  Zoë tried the door and it wasn’t locked. When Audun saw that it opened onto a stairwell, he groaned. “This is going to be a tight fit.”

  “It’s dark down there,” Francis said as he peered into the stairwell. “I can take care of that!” Shaping a ball with his hands, he created a witches’ light, which dimmed and went out as soon as Annie moved closer.

  “Why don’t I go first and send the lights ahead of me. Annie, you follow Zoë, and Audun can go last,” he told her. “We won’t have any light if you walk near me, Annie.”

  They waited while Francis made more balls of light, then concentrated on their footing as they headed down. Audun grunted as he descended the stairs, scraping the walls with his scales so that stone dust filled the air, making the others cough.

  When they reached another level, Annie and Zoë waited in the dark while Francis and Audun went to investigate. They were gone only a few minutes before they were back with the lights bobbing above Francis’s head. “Is he here?” Zoë asked when they drew closer.

  “No, and that’s a good thing,” said Francis.

  “The duke’s dungeon is on this level and it’s not a good place to be,” Audun explained as they started down another flight of stairs.

  The second flight was far longer than the first. They weren’t even halfway down when Annie smelled something acrid. The smell grew stronger the lower they went,
until the stench was overwhelming. By the time they reached the bottom of the stairs, Annie’s head was pounding.

  “What is this place?” she asked as Francis created more witches’ lights and set them loose above them.

  “A cavern, from the looks of it,” said Zoë. “And if I’m not mistaken, the ceiling is covered with bats. Do you still smell my parents, Audun?”

  “I can’t smell anything besides the bat mess on the floor,” Audun told her. “We’ll have to try something else to locate them now.”

  “My dragon scale will work,” Francis said as he took it out of the acorn. “It couldn’t tell me where Garrid and Li’l had been, like Audun’s sniffer could, but it can tell us where they are now. Be quiet, everyone. We don’t want to wake those bats.”

  “This is their home and they feel safe here. Aside from a natural disaster, the only thing that will wake them is the sunset,” said Zoë.

  The others crowded around Francis to see the dragon scale. “Lead us to Zoë’s mother,” he said. The scale flashed red as they walked to the middle of the cave, then turned blue no matter which way he faced.

  Zoë shook her head. “I don’t understand. Mother should be right here.”

  “Look up,” Audun said. “I think we found her.”

  Everyone tilted their heads back. It was hard to see in the shadowed upper reaches of the cave, but when Francis waved his hand, the witches’ lights began to rise ever so slowly. They could see the bats better now. Even more importantly, they could see the cage suspended from the ceiling. When Francis pointed the scale straight up, it flashed bright red.

  “They stuck my mother in a cage?” Zoë cried. “How dare they!”

  “I wouldn’t put anything past Reynard,” said Annie. “How are we going to get her down?”

  “I could fly up there,” Audun suggested.

  “Now that would probably wake the bats,” said Zoë. “I’ll go up and let her out. Stay here, I’ll be right back.”

  Having seen a vampire float outside her window in Treecrest, Annie knew that they could fly in human form, but she was still surprised when Zoë drifted up to the cage. Because it was still too dark to see much so high up, she expected to see Li’l when Zoë came back down. When the vampire princess landed beside them, however, she was alone and looked upset.

  “She’s in there all right, but I can’t open the cage door or get the cage down from the ceiling,” Zoë told them. “Someone must have used some very complicated magic to secure it. I feel just awful! Mother was huddled on the floor crying when I got there and looked so hopeful when she saw me. When I couldn’t do anything, she started crying all over again.”

  “I can help from down here,” Francis told her. “Emma taught me the spell that she used to untie a string from your mother’s leg when they were both locked in a witch’s cottage. It’s a simple spell, but it’s very useful. Audun, if I can touch you while you’re a dragon, it should amplify my spell enough to overcome any vampire magic.”

  They all looked up at the cage as Francis cleared his throat and said:

  Unlatch, unlock, undo, untie,

  In the twinkling of an eye.

  Open ye lock,

  Lift ye latch,

  Remove ye block,

  Release ye catch.

  A deep rumble made the cage sway. The door opened as it fell and Li’l fluttered out even before Audun snatched the cage out of the air and set it on the ground. At the same time a door set into the cave wall opened, Annie’s braid came undone, and the sash around her waist came untied. Francis looked surprised when the belt holding up his scabbard fell to the ground, but Zoë was too focused on her mother to notice that her necklace had come undone and fallen into the neckline of her tunic.

  “Wow!” said Francis. “That really worked! Thanks, Audun.”

  Li’l fluttered to her daughter’s shoulder. “Thank you so much, Francis!” she told her son-in-law. “I was afraid I was going to spend the rest of my life in that cage. Have you found Garrid yet? Is he all right?”

  “We’re still looking for him,” said Zoë. “We think he’s down here somewhere.”

  “He is,” Li’l told her. “I saw some guards carry him into that room just a little while ago. Follow me.” Fluttering her wings, she rose off Zoë’s shoulder and headed for the door that the spell had opened.

  “Why can I understand your mother?” Annie asked Zoë as they ran to the door.

  “Emma cast a spell on her years ago so Li’l can talk like a human,” said Zoë. “Everyone can understand her now.”

  Zoë followed her mother into the room and stopped, forcing Annie to peer around her. Hewn from rock, the room was no more than a small cell with chains attached to the wall. The chains dangled unused and unneeded; the handsome man lying on the floor looked as if he would never rise again. Blond with chiseled features and broad shoulders, he was better looking than any of the other vampires Annie had met, despite his terrible pallor. She could see a striking resemblance to Zoë.

  With a cry, Zoë sank onto her knees beside her father. “Is he still breathing?” Francis asked, hurrying to her side.

  Zoë pressed her cheek to his chest and held up her hand for everyone to be silent. “I can hear his heartbeat,” she said after a while. “But it’s very faint. His breathing is shallow, too.”

  “He was poisoned,” Audun said from the doorway. “I can smell it on him.”

  Li’l landed on her husband’s chest and stamped her tiny feet. “Wake up, Garrid!” she cried. “You know how much I love you. Don’t leave me. You’re supposed to outlive me by centuries!”

  When Garrid didn’t stir, Zoë shook his shoulder, saying, “Father! Can you hear me?”

  “I could nip him if you’d like,” Audun said. “That always works on Millie.”

  “You will not bite my father!” Zoë told him.

  “I’d offer to try a spell, but I don’t think my magic would work on him,” said Francis.

  Zoë shook her head. “Don’t bother. Your spells never work on me, so I doubt they could help him.”

  Annie jumped when a horrific screech broke the silence of the cavern. Zoë’s head whipped around so she was facing the door. A moment later, she and Francis exclaimed, “Harpies!” at the same time.

  “My spell must have opened everything in the castle,” Francis said as Zoë got to her feet. “I bet the harpies saw the open doors and came inside. We have to go and we have to do it now.”

  “I can carry your father,” said Audun, “but we’ll have to fight our way past the harpies.”

  “No, we won’t,” Annie told him. “Not while I have this.” Reaching into the pouch she wore on her hip, she took out the postcard for Greater Greensward. The others drew closer to touch Annie while the harpies flooded the cavern behind them. Then Annie placed one hand on Garrid’s chest and the other on the center of the postcard. A moment later, they were gone.

  CHAPTER 14

  “Quick, we have to get him in the castle,” Zoë told the guards standing by the drawbridge.

  The men hurried over and worked together to pick up Garrid’s limp body and carry him into the castle.

  “Get Princess Emma and my wife,” Audun told other guards as the four friends hurried through the courtyard. He paused long enough to turn human again before dashing up the stairs.

  The men carried Garrid into a bedroom and laid him on the bed. His face was pure white and even his lips were pale. Zoë stood beside the bed with silent tears trickling down her cheeks while Li’l nuzzled his neck, begging him to wake up. Minutes later, Emma and Eadric came running into the room with Millie and Audun close behind.

  “What’s wrong?” Emma cried. “What happened to Garrid?”

  “The vampires at Highcliff poisoned him, but we don’t know why,” said Francis.

  Li’l propped herself up on a wing to look at him. “I know why,” she said. “I was there when they did it. Reynard and his friend had just come back from a trip when Garrid and I
showed up. Reynard said that his uncle was dead and that he was in charge. When Garrid asked what happened, Reynard told him a ridiculous story about traveling to the other side of the world and getting into a fight with humans. They told him that the duke had been the first to die and they had fled, leaving him behind. Reynard said they’d come back when they did because Highcliff needed someone to rule over it. When Garrid ordered them to return to this faraway land and retrieve the duke’s body, Reynard got all agitated. Garrid was still talking when Reynard took out a little box and blew some stinky powder in my honey’s face. When he turned all white and funny looking and fell out of his chair, I started shouting and flying around. One of those terrible vampires grabbed me and stuck me in that awful cage and hung me in the cave where their relatives sleep.”

  “When you say ‘stinky powder,’ do you mean it actually smelled bad?” asked Emma.

  “It does!” said Li’l. “I can still smell it on his face.”

  Audun nodded. “I can smell it, too. It’s very faint, but it reminds me of the way the harpies smelled when they entered the cavern.”

  “You saw harpies?” Emma said, shuddering.

  “That’s who protects the sky around Highcliff Castle during the day,” Annie explained. “We think they came into the castle when your spell opened all the doors.”

  “My spell?” said Emma. “You’re going to have to tell me everything that happened very soon, but first we have to help Garrid. If the duke was dealing with harpies, that powder might well be something that they made. I wish I could help, but I don’t know any way to cure something like that. We’ll need a healer who knows about such things. Audun, could you go fetch Millie’s doctor and explain that it’s an emergency? We need his help right away.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Millie told her husband. “I know where to find him.”

  As Audun and Millie ran from the room, Annie turned to Emma and said, “Do you have a healer who actually knows about this kind of thing? When my father was sick with the creeping blue, we had to travel a long way to find someone who could help.”

  “Oh, yes,” said Emma. “We have a wonderful witch doctor who only just moved to the area. A friend of ours convinced him to move here.”