The Princess and the Pearl

  While on their grand tour, one of the magic postcards had taken Annie and Liam to a kingdom named Greater Greensward, where they’d met Millie and Audun. Millie was a human princess who could turn into a dragon, while Audun was a dragon who could turn into a human. The couple had helped Annie and Liam take care of the evil wizard who was following them, and ultimately helped them return home. At the end of their journey, Annie had given Millie a postcard so the human/dragon couple could visit Treecrest whenever they wished.

  “They helped us through some difficulties on our grand tour,” Annie explained to her mother. “I was hoping they’d come visit someday. I just didn’t expect them so soon.”

  Annie and Liam waited expectantly while the guard hurried from the hall. A few minutes later, the guard reappeared with Millie and Audun.

  “Huh,” said Clarence as the two newcomers approached the dais. “Your friend Millie is pretty, but she’s not nearly as beautiful as most princesses.”

  “That’s because she comes from a place where royalty isn’t made beautiful through magic,” said Annie. “Millie is naturally beautiful, just as Audun is naturally handsome.”

  Queen Karolina leaned toward her daughter and whispered, “I’ve never seen hair that color on such a young man before. Is it silver or white?”

  “Silvery white, I think,” said Annie. “I believe it’s not uncommon in his family.”

  “I’ve never heard of such a thing!” Clarence declared. “Where is there a kingdom so backward that royalty doesn’t get important magical christening gifts?”

  “Very far away,” Annie told him. “And I don’t think they’re at all backward or that beauty is that important.”

  “Be polite to our friends or I’ll have you escorted back to the tower,” Liam told his brother.

  “You’re always threatening me!” Clarence said, sitting back in his seat and scowling.

  Edda sat up and sniffed the air as the new arrivals approached. She seemed to find their scent interesting, but not at all threatening. Satisfied, she lay down again, grunting as she returned her head to Annie’s lap.

  “Millie, Audun, how wonderful that you’ve come to see us!” Annie said as her friends drew closer. “Mother, I’d like you to meet Princess Millie and her husband, Prince Audun.”

  Audun raised an eyebrow at being called a prince, but Millie just smiled and bowed to the queen. “I’m delighted to meet Annie’s mother,” said Millie. “Audun and I like your daughter very much.”

  The queen almost smiled when she said, “So do I. And I’m delighted to meet some of Annie’s friends. I don’t know how you helped her, but I must thank you for whatever you did. Ah, I see that Ewan has come to get me. I told him to let me know when King Halbert awakes. Excuse me for leaving just as you arrived, Millie, but my husband is quite ill.”

  “I’m so sorry to hear that!” Millie told her.

  “Edda, are you coming with me?” the queen asked the dog. “I know she’d rather stay with you, Annie, but your father finds her presence comforting.”

  “That’s all right,” said Annie. “I’ll get her back when I come up to say good night.”

  Edda stood and turned mournful eyes on Annie. “Be a good girl and help my father,” Annie told her. “I’ll see you very soon.”

  The dog followed the queen from the room, stopping in the doorway once, as if to see if Annie had changed her mind.

  “That dog really loves you,” Millie said to Annie as they both watched the dog leave. “Have you had her a long time?”

  Annie shook her head. “Just a few days, although I’m already fond of her, too.”

  “Dogs and horses don’t usually like me,” said Millie. “I’ve never learned to ride because of it, and my father’s dogs avoid me as if I carried the plague. It’s nice to see a dog that doesn’t act that way.”

  “Edda is a very discerning dog. She doesn’t like trolls or certain people,” Annie said, glancing at Clarence.

  “Tell me, what’s wrong with your father?” asked Millie. “You didn’t mention that he was ill when we saw you last.”

  “He wasn’t then,” said Annie. “He didn’t show signs of it until after we’d returned. We call it the creeping blue, but I’m sure it has some other name. It started when his feet turned blue and he lost his appetite. The blue is creeping up his legs now and walking has become difficult. My uncle has it as well, but his illness is much further along. He’s in pain, too, although my father hasn’t reached that point yet. We’re afraid my uncle doesn’t have much longer to live. We’ve had all the doctors and herbalists in the kingdom out to see him, but none of them were able to help. Have you ever heard of anything like it? Please tell me you know how to cure it!”

  Millie’s eyes looked sad when she shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I’ve never heard of a disease like that.”

  “We’re actually on our way to find a doctor ourselves,” said Audun. “I’m worried about Millie’s health. Our baby will be the first one born to an ice dragon and a—”

  “Did he say ‘ice dragon’?” asked Clarence, leaning forward in his seat.

  “Don’t be ridiculous!” said Annie. “You said yourself that dragons aren’t real. He said ‘a nice maiden.’ Didn’t you, Audun?”

  “Uh, yes, exactly!” Audun declared. “I was going to say, our baby will be the first one born to a nice maiden and a member of my family. We’re all scoundrels, you see.”

  “Even the women?” asked Clarence.

  “Especially the women!” replied Audun. “You should see my grandmother argue with the king!”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t introduce you,” Liam told Audun. “This is my brother, Prince Clarence.”

  “It’s nice to meet you,” said Audun.

  “You’re not well?” Annie asked Millie in a quiet voice.

  “I wouldn’t say that exactly,” her friend replied. “It’s just that my stomach has been bothering me a lot.”

  “An old witch named Mudine told us about an excellent witch doctor named Ting-Tang,” added Audun. “She said that he lives in a place called Skull Cove, on the other side of the world from Greater Greensward. You’re on the other side of the world, so Millie and I thought that Skull Cove might be near you and Liam. We were hoping that someone here could tell us how to get there.”

  “Do you think he might be able to help my father?” Annie asked.

  “I should think that he could if anyone could,” Millie told her. “Mudine said he can do amazing things and is the best doctor she’s ever met.”

  “I’ve never heard of Skull Cove,” said Annie.

  “Neither have I,” Liam told them.

  “Of course no one thinks to ask me,” Clarence declared. “And I’m the only one here who actually went to sea.”

  “Do you know where Skull Cove is, Clarence?” asked Audun.

  “I do, indeed,” Clarence replied, looking smug. “I could take you there if you’d like.”

  “That would be wonderful!” Millie exclaimed.

  “Or you could give us directions and we could take our friends there,” Liam told Clarence.

  “That’s not happening,” Clarence replied. “I don’t know the names of the landmarks, but I would recognize them when I saw them. I have to go with you if you want my help.”

  “Why am I not surprised?” Annie murmured to herself.

  “What did you say?” asked Clarence.

  “I said that it looks as if we’re all going,” said Annie. “I’ll tell Mother that we’ll be leaving in the morning.”

  CHAPTER 5

  After Clarence returned to the tower, the two couples pored over maps, trying to find Skull Cove. As far as they could tell, it wasn’t on any of King Halbert’s maps, nor could they find any mention of it in his books. Because Clarence had refused to tell them even as much as the direction they’d be heading, all they knew was that they would have to travel by sea.

  “Kenless is the closest large port where we can hire a ship,” s
aid Liam. “If we leave before dawn tomorrow, we should be able to get there before nightfall. I’ll send some men ahead to see if they can book a ship for us.”

  “Why do we need a ship?” asked Audun. “Can’t we just fly there? Millie and I carried you to the ice-dragon stronghold on our backs without any problem.”

  “Oh, no!” said Annie. “You can’t let anyone see that you’re dragons. You can’t even talk about dragons when someone might hear you. There are no fire-breathing or ice dragons in our part of the world, so people are convinced that they don’t exist. The closest creatures we have to dragons are the wyverns in eastern Treecrest. Everyone is terrified of them and with good reason. The wyverns are nasty creatures that kill anyone passing through their territory. People call them dragons because they don’t know any better.”

  “I get it now! That’s why you pretended I wasn’t talking about dragons at supper,” said Audun.

  Annie nodded. “I don’t want anyone trying to shoot you down with arrows or run you through with a pike. People who are afraid of something they don’t understand can do truly horrible things.”

  “Your brother included?” Audun asked Liam.

  “Especially Clarence!” said Liam. “I think he denies the existence of dragons so strongly because he’s afraid of them. When we were young, we had a nursemaid who told us stories about fierce dragons and brave knights. I enjoyed the stories, but they gave Clarence nightmares.”

  “Then we won’t let him know that we can turn into dragons,” said Millie. “I’ve been wondering why your brother is under guard. Are you protecting him from something?”

  “We’re just trying to keep him from running off or doing something he shouldn’t,” said Liam. “Clarence isn’t known for making the best decisions. He and my mother tried to take over Treecrest. Then he sided with a nasty wizard and tried to take over Dorinocco. Annie and I are looking for a place where we can leave him and he can’t cause any trouble.”

  “You mean you want to banish him,” said Audun.

  “Exactly!” Liam replied.

  When the couples finally said good night and went their separate ways, Annie and Liam headed to her father’s chamber. They found her mother still there, fussing over the king as she tried to get him to drink some broth.

  “We’ve come to say good-bye,” Annie told them. “Millie and Audun say there’s a doctor at a place called Skull Cove who might be able to help you, Father. We’re leaving at the first change of the guard.”

  “Do you have to go so early?” asked her mother.

  “I’d leave now if I could, but we need to get some rest and pack our things. The sooner we get started, the sooner we’ll be back with medicine for Father and Uncle Rupert.”

  “I don’t know what we’d do without you, Annie,” her father said, looking more tired and vulnerable than she’d ever seen him. “Take good care of her, Liam. I was a fool not to recognize how precious she was all those years.”

  Annie left before the tears welling up in her eyes showed just how upset she felt. Her parents had only recently started treating her like family, and now this! The trip to the witch doctor had to work! It just had to!

  They left the next day in the small hours of the morning. Although it had been hard to leave her parents the night before, it was almost as hard to leave Edda, whose sad eyes made Annie feel guilty as she descended the steps into the courtyard. She knew that the dog would dedicate herself to the king in Annie’s absence, but Annie couldn’t help but feel that she was abandoning a dear friend.

  They were taking a carriage because neither Millie nor Audun was able to ride a horse. Even the horses pulling the carriage were afraid of them. Annie had to distract the horses with sweet-smelling hay while her friends took their seats. The horses still acted uneasy, stomping their feet and pinning their ears back.

  When Clarence climbed into the carriage, he was already grumbling. “I don’t know why one of you couldn’t have bothered to tell me that we were leaving so early! It’s a good thing I never unpacked my bag. Isn’t keeping a man from getting his sleep some kind of torture? That old guard, Horace I think his name was, pulled me out of bed by my foot! I’m a prince! No one does that to a prince! I was sound asleep having a very nice dream, too. The way you’re treating me is inhuman!”

  “You can sleep in the carriage,” Annie said as she sat down beside him. “The ship, too, unless, of course, Skull Cove is close by.”

  “I know what you’re up to,” said Clarence. “I’m not telling you anything about the cove’s location. You’ll just have to wait and see.”

  “Is everything all right in here?” Liam said, sticking his head in the door. “Ah, good, you’re all settled in.”

  “You’re not getting in here, too, are you?” asked Clarence.

  Liam shook his head. “Not today. I’ll be riding Hunter, but I’ll be right outside if anyone needs me.”

  “Why do you get to ride a horse while I have to sit in this dark, smelly carriage where I can’t even stretch my legs?” Clarence asked his brother.

  “Because there isn’t room for me in there, and if you rode a horse, you’d take off and we’d never see you again when we actually need your help,” Liam told him. “Be nice to everyone or you’ll answer to me.”

  Clarence started to grumble again, but no one paid him any attention.

  “I’ll see you soon, my love,” Liam said, leaning in to give Annie a kiss.

  He was closing the door when Clarence turned to Audun. “What about you? Why are you sitting in a stuffy carriage instead of riding a horse and enjoying the fresh air?”

  “Because he’s being a gentleman and keeping me company,” said Millie.

  “That’s a lousy reason,” Clarence said, but he closed his eyes and didn’t say anything more.

  It was still dark out as they rattled across the drawbridge; the guards who had lowered it yawned as they waved to their friends in the mounted escort. Leaving the field that fronted the castle, the carriage rumbled south through the forest, where even the birds were asleep. Lanterns swung from the front of the carriage, lighting their way. Millie was soon dozing, holding Audun’s hand, but Annie was wide-awake, despite having had only a few hours’ sleep. She was worried about her father and uncle and how they might fare in her absence.

  And then there was the voyage itself. Although she and Liam had originally planned to take a sea voyage for their grand tour, now that she was actually going on one, she began to get uneasy. She had never set foot on a ship before, but she had flown over the ocean on dragon back. Some of the strange creatures she had spotted below them had looked awfully frightening. Mostly, however, she was worried about the success of the trip, knowing that this might be the last chance to save her father’s and uncle’s lives.

  An extra-large bump in the road startled Annie from her reverie. She peered out the carriage window, wishing she knew where they were. When Liam rode up, she talked to him for a few minutes. Otherwise, there was nothing to look at but the trees.

  They stopped at noon to water the horses and let the passengers out to walk around. Liam dug a packet of food from his saddlebag and the others joined him in the shade of a tree. He had brought dried fish for the dragons, although Clarence took a piece as well. Fruit, bread, and sausage made up the rest of their meal.

  Annie was nibbling grapes when a small cloud of fairies appeared, clustering around her. “Princess! You came to see us!” said a fairy wearing a bluebell cap.

  “We had so much fun at your wedding!” declared the fairy with a fluffy dandelion puff on her head.

  A fairy dressed in a rose-petal gown came to hover right in front of Annie. “It was the most beautiful wedding ever! We brought some of the flowers.”

  The fairy wearing violets pushed her friend aside. “Every one of us helped, some more than others,” she said, glancing at the fairy covered in moss.

  “I helped, too!” the mossy fairy said, almost bumping into Clarence in her hurry to correc
t her friend.

  Clarence was digging through the remains of the food and not really paying attention to the fairies. When the moss-covered fairy came too close, Clarence waved his hand in the air as if brushing away a fly. He hit the fairy, sending her spinning into her friends.

  “Help!” the fairy shrieked.

  “You big bully!” cried the rose-petal fairy. “How dare you hit Moss!”

  “Wait!” Annie cried as the fairy raised her wand. “Please don’t use your magic on him. He’s just a clumsy oaf who hit Moss by mistake. I’m sure he’s sorry. Aren’t you, Clarence?”

  Clarence’s eyes crossed when he looked at the angry fairy who had flown close enough to tap him with her wand. “Uh, yeah. Sorry!” he said, leaning back.

  The fairy still looked as if she was going to tap Clarence, but when she glanced at Annie, her expression softened. “I’ll let it go this time because you asked, Princess. But if this fool ever assaults one of my friends again, I’ll turn him into a … worm!”

  “No! A gnat!” cried Moss.

  “A snail!” shouted another fairy.

  “A stinkbug!” “A spider mite!” “A weevil!” suggested some others.

  “Clarence, I think you should get back in the carriage before someone gets a little carried away,” said Annie.

  Clarence got to his feet and backed off. “I’ll finish my lunch in there.” Leaning down, he snatched up the last pieces of food, then hurried back to the carriage.

  Annie spent the next few minutes calming the fairies. They were especially happy when she invited them to come to the coronation in Dorinocco, although she told them she wasn’t sure of the date yet.

  “Are the fairies here always that prickly?” Millie asked when Annie finally climbed into the carriage.

  “They are,” Annie told her. “You have to be careful what you say and do around them. When they thought we hadn’t invited them to our wedding, they used their magic to ruin it. Clarence, you need to keep in mind that fairies may be small, but they can destroy your life with their magic.”

  “Huh,” he grunted, acting as if he didn’t care, but she thought his face was a little paler than usual.