Princess Before Dawn

  Francis and Zoë held hands as they started across the drawbridge. Annie turned to say something to Liam, then remembered that he wasn’t there. She felt odd, as if a vital part of her were missing. Although it had been her choice not to have Liam come along, and she had only just left him, she began to wonder if she’d made the right decision. He had been an important part of her life since the night he found her in the forest while she was searching for a prince to kiss her sister. Leaving him in Treecrest to protect her parents had seemed like a good idea, but actually going somewhere without him was a lot harder than she’d expected.

  Annie tried not to think about Liam as she followed her two new friends up the steps and into the castle. “You act as if this is your home,” she said to Zoë. “Shouldn’t we tell someone that we’re here?”

  “This is our home in a way,” Francis told her as they headed for the great hall. “My mother is Queen Chartreuse’s sister and Princess Emma’s aunt. My grandparents are ghosts in the dungeon. I spent as much time here as in my parents’ house when I was growing up.”

  “And Millie and I have been best friends our whole lives,” said Zoë. “My brothers and I often stayed here when my parents couldn’t take us with them when they traveled. My father has a castle in the mountains, but we like it better here, where it isn’t so cold and isolated. Vampire castles tend to be gloomy, too. I can’t take gloomy for more than a few days.”

  “How long is your father usually gone on his tours?” Annie asked as they entered the great hall.

  Zoë shrugged. “That depends on who he’s going to see and what he runs across. Sometimes it’s only a few weeks, and sometimes it’s a few months. Things always take longer when you can’t work during daylight hours.”

  “Why are you able to go out in daylight?” Annie asked her.

  “Because I’m only half vampire. My father always says that I lucked out. Two of my younger brothers can’t go out in daylight, but they’re both uncivilized and no one wants them out then anyway. Excuse me. There’s the steward. He should be able to tell me where I can find Emma and Millie.”

  Zoë walked up to the man who had just entered the hall. When she came back, she said, “Emma is in the stable with her husband, Eadric, and Millie is upstairs taking a nap, or at least that’s what she does every day before supper. I think we should go see Emma first.”

  They found Emma in a stall with a man who was brushing a white stallion. A plaque on the stall read Bright Country.

  “Emma!” Francis said when he spotted her. “We need your help.”

  Emma looked up and smiled. “You’re back! Did you get rid of the vampires?”

  Annie stepped into the doorway so Emma could see her.

  “Yes and no,” she told Emma.

  “Hi, Annie,” said Emma. “Eadric, this is the girl I told you about who lives on the other side of the world. Princess Annabelle, I’d like you to meet my husband, Prince Eadric.”

  “Hi!” Eadric said, turning away from the horse long enough to smile at Annie. The horse nickered and bumped him with his head, making Eadric laugh and start brushing him again. “Sorry I stopped! Don’t worry, I’m not finished yet.”

  “Zoë and Francis were a big help in getting the vampires out of the castle, but we don’t know how to make them leave the kingdom,” Annie told Emma. “They refuse to leave and are plaguing the people of Treecrest.”

  “I don’t know what to do about it,” said Zoë. “We were hoping my father could help. Do you know if he’s back yet?”

  Emma shook her head. “We haven’t seen him in weeks, but Audun might be able to help you. He should return from visiting the ice dragon king soon. I understand he was going to make a few stops on the way back. It’s possible that he’s heard something.”

  The horse whinnied and stomped his hoof.

  “All right, I’ll tell her,” Eadric said to the horse. Turning toward Annie, he pointed at the stallion. “Brighty says that he heard Audun land in the courtyard a little while ago. He’s probably with Millie now.”

  When Annie gave him a confused look, Zoë explained, “Emma and Eadric can talk to animals. We all can because we’ve been animals at one time or another.”

  “Eadric and I were frogs when we met,” said Emma.

  “Zoë is a bat half the time, and she’s convinced me to turn into one on occasion,” Francis added. “It makes me look at everything in a whole new way.”

  “Okay,” Annie said, marveling that anyone could take such magical things so lightly.

  “Let me see if Millie is awake,” Emma told them. “She hasn’t been feeling well and usually takes a nap right about now.” Tugging on the chain around her neck, she showed them the crystal ball hanging on the end. “I can see a lot in my far-seeing ball and … yes, Millie’s awake and talking to Audun. You can go see her.”

  Annie gasped when she saw the image of Millie and Audun sitting on the window seat. She’d never seen magic like this before.

  “Then we’ll head up to the tower,” Zoë said. “Thanks for your help.”

  “You’re welcome,” said Emma. “Although we really didn’t do anything.”

  When the horse nickered, Eadric laughed and said, “You’re right, Brighty. You were a help when you told them that Audun was back.”

  They were walking through the castle when Annie told Zoë, “I’m not used to all this magic working around me. First Felix stayed a puppy when I touched him, and now your mother made her magic far-seeing ball work, even though I was standing beside her. Back home, no one’s magic does what they want when I’m around.”

  “Years ago, when Emma became a ‘Dragon Friend,’ her magic became extra powerful. It grew even stronger when she was finally able to turn herself into a dragon. She passed that strength on to her children, and nothing is stronger than dragon magic,” said Zoë. “Not even a vampire’s.”

  “What can vampires do besides turn into bats?” Annie asked her.

  “Put people into trances, fly without wings, move without making a sound, light candles … nothing good, really.”

  “Would their magic trances work on me?” asked Annie.

  “I don’t know and I hope we never find out,” Zoë replied.

  Millie and Audun were still sitting side by side, holding hands, when Annie and her friends walked in. Millie looked tiny next to her handsome husband, whose white hair drew everyone’s eyes. The young couple looked delighted to see Annie. “You’re back!” Millie cried.

  “Hi, Annie,” said Audun. “It’s good to see you again. Isn’t Liam with you?”

  Annie shook her head. “He stayed in Treecrest to help my parents. They’re terrified of vampires and don’t really know what to do.”

  “What vampires?” Audun asked. “I don’t remember seeing any when I was in Treecrest.”

  “People have been using magic postcards to go to Treecrest,” said Annie. “I was able to get rid of the witches who came, but I needed Zoë’s help to get the vampires out of the castle. They won’t leave the kingdom, though.”

  “And they’ve been turning people into vampires without permission,” Zoë added. “Father will be so mad! I’m afraid I’ve made a mess of things, though. I told Annie’s father how to make the vampires leave the castle, and now they’re furious with me. You know how much some of the nobles don’t like me.”

  “Only a few!” said Francis. “And most of them still respect you.”

  Zoë shrugged. “All I know is that they wouldn’t have acted the way they did if my father had been there. We really need his help now, so we came here hoping that he was back. Emma told us that he isn’t and suggested that we talk to you. Did you hear anything about him during your travels?” she asked Audun.

  “Not a thing,” he said. “But then, I didn’t stop anywhere that vampires usually visit. Do you know where he was headed?”

  “I’ve gone with my parents enough to know the route they usually take. The problem is, he could be anywhere along the route by n
ow.”

  “We’ll have to go look for him,” said Annie. “We can start where he usually goes first, then move on from there. Is his first stop very far from here?”

  “It is,” Zoë told her. It’s in Upper Montevista in a village called Tottington.”

  “I wish I could take you, but I’m not turning into a dragon again until after the baby is born,” Millie told them. “Audun, I know you just got back …”

  “I’d be happy to help!” he said, getting to his feet. “As long as you’re sure that you don’t need me, my love.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Millie said with a laugh. “My parents will see to that. Good luck, Annie. I hope you find Garrid soon.”

  Remembering how cold it was to ride an ice dragon, Annie borrowed warm clothes from Millie while Francis and Zoë hurried home to get ready. They met in the castle courtyard a short time later. When Audun turned into a pale-blue-and-white dragon, Annie gave him a dubious look. “Are you sure you can carry all three of us?” she asked.

  “Oh, I won’t go like this,” Zoë said, and a moment later had turned into a bat. She fluttered to Francis, who opened his coat, revealing a pouch sewn into the inside just above his heart. Zoë the bat slipped into the pouch so that only her head was showing.

  “She’ll stay nice and warm with me,” Francis declared, closing his coat and gently patting his chest.

  “That solves that,” Annie said as she climbed onto Audun’s back. As soon as Francis climbed on behind her, Audun took off, circling the tower once. They all waved at Millie and Emma, who were watching from the window.

  “Upper Montevista, here we come!” Audun announced, and turned to head north.

  They flew for the rest of the day, stopping occasionally to stretch their legs and eat. Annie and Francis ate some of the food that Zoë had packed while the little bat flew off to catch bugs, returning each time just as Annie and Francis finished eating. “I’ll eat when we stop for the night,” Audun told them. “I don’t like to fly on a full stomach.”

  With the powerful wings of a dragon carrying them, they reached Tottington soon after the moon came out. Looking down from above, Annie noticed that the village wasn’t like any she had ever seen before. A single ring of houses surrounded an empty field, forming an oval. The houses were spaced so closely together that they looked like one continuous building from a distance, but as they drew closer, she could see that narrow spaces separated them.

  Annie looked around as they landed, wondering at the houses’ steeply pitched roofs and curious lack of windows on the lower floors. Candles lit the windows of the upper floors, making the houses look oddly unbalanced. Although she saw shadows moving inside the houses, no one came out to greet them or ask why they were there.

  “They’re afraid of me,” Audun said as Francis helped Annie to the ground. “Give them a few minutes.”

  After folding his wings against his body, Audun turned back into a young man. He was standing beside Annie as a human when the first man came out of a house.

  “Who are you, stranger? What do you want?” the man asked as he approached.

  It was dark in the clearing with only the light of the half-moon to see by, but even so Annie could tell he was a vampire. Part of it was that his scent reminded her of the way the vampires had smelled when they came out of the cellar at home. Part of it was the way he moved, seeming to glide rather than walk.

  Annie stepped closer to Audun when other doors opened and more vampires emerged. She glanced at Francis when he opened his coat and Zoë fluttered to the ground. The vampires walked without making a sound; not one of them spoke again, or coughed or made any of the little noises that a large group of people always make. It was unnatural and it made Annie shiver and pull the collar of her coat more tightly closed.

  “Corbin!” Zoë called, stepping away from her friends. “It’s me, Princess Zoë.”

  “Princess!” the vampire who seemed to be the leader said, his excitement obvious in his voice. “We weren’t expecting you. What a pleasant surprise!”

  As word spread that their princess was there, the mood suddenly changed. The tenseness that had seemed to pervade the clearing was gone, and Annie felt her body relax. She told herself that she shouldn’t have been afraid, considering who was with her. After all, Zoë was a vampire and knew these people, Francis was a warrior magician, and Audun was an actual dragon. Even so, there was some primal thing about vampires that made good sense go out the window and let terror in.

  Annie, Francis, and Audun stepped out of the way as the vampires gathered around Zoë, pushing her friends aside, although none of them dared get close to Audun. The vampires were grinning now, and Zoë was talking and laughing with them. After a few minutes, Annie exchanged glances with Francis. He shrugged and raised one eyebrow, then turned to his wife and called, “Zoë, we came to ask a question.”

  “Oh, right!” Zoë exclaimed. She pushed through the crowd, smiling and nodding until she reached her husband’s side. Taking his hand in hers, she turned back to the vampires. “This is my husband, Prince Francis, as I’m sure you recall. And these are my friends Princess Annabelle and Audun. We came here hoping that you could help us. Has my father been here to see you lately?”

  Anne noticed the looks the vampires gave each of them. They seemed disdainful when they studied her and Francis, but she thought she saw fear in their eyes when they glanced at Audun.

  “Your father was here just last week,” said Corbin. “Why don’t we go in my house, where we can talk?” Bowing low, he waved his hand, gesturing at one of the houses.

  When Zoë, Corbin, and Francis led the way, Annie hurried to keep up. She tried not to glance back at the vampires walking behind them, just as silent as they had been before. Audun didn’t seem at all nervous, but she noticed that the vampires continued to keep their distance from him. She was relieved when Corbin opened his front door and they could step inside, shutting the rest of the vampires out.

  Annie crinkled her nose when she took her next breath. Looking around, she saw that they were in a large room with a table and chairs for six people. Although the house looked clean, the air smelled dank and earthy, like freshly overturned soil. She stood by the door, not sure what to do until Zoë gestured to her.

  “Please, sit!” Corbin said, pulling a chair from the table for Zoë. “Suli! Drinks for our guests!”

  A moment later, a vampire woman hurried through an inner door carrying a pitcher. Another woman who looked just like her followed with a tray of mugs and a plate of small cakes. After setting the pitcher and the tray on the table, they stood back, smiling at Zoë. Annie noticed that all three of their hosts had piercing eyes like the vampires who had invaded Treecrest.

  “Please pardon my wife and her sister,” said Corbin. “It isn’t often that we have our princess at our table. Suli, Sharla, you may leave us now.”

  The two vampire women seemed reluctant to walk away. When they closed the door behind them, Annie had a feeling that they were still on the other side, listening.

  After all his guests were seated with drinks and cakes in front of them, Corbin looked at Zoë expectantly. “You were asking about your father,” he prompted.

  Zoë nodded. “Yes. We’re trying to find him, so we’re retracing his itinerary. Was he here long?”

  Corbin shook his head. “Just a few hours, as he normally is. We always appreciate his visits, but we do wish that he and your mother could stay longer. We were the first vampire community to learn that they were getting married, you know. We’ve felt a special connection to your family ever since.”

  “I know,” said Zoë. “We feel it, too. Do you know if he was headed to Heartsblood Manor after this?”

  “He did mention that,” Corbin told her. “He stays the night there, doesn’t he? I know it isn’t fancy, but we do have rooms upstairs that could accommodate him, should he ever care to stay here. You and your … friends … are welcome to stay as well. Provided your dragon won’t burn the h
ouse down.” He laughed nervously, glancing at Audun.

  Audun didn’t seem to notice. He had picked up the mug in front of him and sniffed the contents. Annie noticed that he set it down again without drinking. She wondered what was in it. They couldn’t be serving blood, could they?

  Picking up her mug, Zoë took a sip, smiled appreciatively, then drained every drop. Francis picked his up, and without hesitating, drank it as well.

  Annie thought about picking up hers, but the thought that it might be blood and that Francis was being uncommonly brave made her change her mind.

  Audun stood up and stretched. “I doubt you have a bed big enough for me. I sleep in dragon form.” He held up his hand to study his fingertips. Annie gasped when three of his nails turned into talons.

  “We should leave now,” Francis said, looking pointedly at Audun.

  “Yes, we should,” Zoë said, getting to her feet. She glanced at Corbin, who couldn’t seem to take his horrified gaze off Audun. “I thank you for your hospitality and your offer of lodging, but we really can’t stay. Our mission is urgent and we don’t have much time.”

  “I understand,” Corbin said, and hurried to the door. “Perhaps you’ll be able to accompany your father on his next visit. We would be delighted to see you again.”

  “Perhaps Francis and I both will,” Zoë said, and started out the door.

  They were in the air again when Annie turned her head and said to Francis, “What happened back there? Do the vampires have a problem with you? I can understand why they would be afraid of Audun, with him being a dragon, but they didn’t seem to like you, either.”

  “They don’t like me and have made it very clear whenever we visit. I’ve been there a number of times with Zoë and her family, but they always pretend that they don’t know who I am. I don’t think they like that she married a human.”

  “But you’re a prince and you use magic! You’re also a very nice person,” said Annie.