Frogs and Princes Read online

  Bows creaked as the knights above drew them back. They were ready to fire. I didn't dare move.

  Nori spoke. "Lawrence was once in love with my daughter, Princess Kathryn."

  Shorty jumped. "Kathryn? But that's--"

  "Your mother's name," Nori finished for him.

  Shorty's mouth fell open, and we stared at each other. The truth was out.

  Lawrence had been in love with his mother. The one trapped in the glass coffin.

  "I know nothing of this princess," Lawrence said. "Guards, take her--"

  Nori raised her voice. "Kathryn made a terrible mistake, falling in love with Alric. Perhaps it was his magic. Perhaps not. But she soon realized he was evil and spurned him. Lawrence was there to sweep her off her feet, and she went to him, leaving the dark wizard behind. I approved of their love, not knowing she had traded one evil man for another. They decided to marry."

  "This is not true," Lawrence said. "She is fabricating this story!" He turned to the knight behind him.

  It was the older one. The one who hadn't sounded too happy about him returning.

  He held up one hand and gestured for Lawrence to turn back around.

  He did.

  "But Kathryn bore a son, and he was Alric's. That was clear. Lawrence became jealous and demanded that she kill the child, but she refused and spurned him. Kathryn fled to the Tree Kingdom and settled there with her child. I thought she would have safety there. But Lawrence went to Alric, seeking revenge. The two of them went to the Tree Kingdom and Alric seized the child, then trapped Kathryn in a glass coffin somewhere and shrunk the entire kingdom so he would leave no witnesses. It was Lawrence who led Alric to Kathryn, knowing her fate. After this happened, I hunted Lawrence down and cursed him to be a frog, so he could think forever about his deed."

  Shorty stood there for a long time.

  Then he flushed red and trembled with rage.

  "I should have killed you on that dissection table!" he shouted at Lawrence. "I should have crushed you the first chance I got. You're no better than Alric."

  My heart raced for Shorty. For Kathryn.

  "He's allied with Alric?" a guard asked. Mutters flowed through the knights behind him. I checked the ones above us. Bows lowered. Nori had shaken things up. Someone's reputation was crumbling, and it wasn't Nori's.

  "No!" Lawrence shouted, turning in a circle. "I'm not. Not anymore. Alric wants to kill me now. This woman is a witch and is trying to take over the Fox Kingdom. We cannot listen to her. She is the one in league with Alric. If I do not marry Candice and take the throne, our entire kingdom will turn dark!" Then he turned on us, face red with rage. "How dare you question my character in this manner?"

  And then he got quiet. The rage drained from the Crown Prince's face and a scary calm took its place.

  I knew what his next order was.

  Kill Nori and Shorty and drag me to the altar.

  I glanced at the flower bed from the corner of my eye.

  One marigold had turned blackish purple and its leaves, dark green.

  I ran for it.

  "Candice!" Lawrence shouted.

  Dug my hand into the flower bed and fumbled around for the wand.

  I found it right under the blackening flower and the cold energy seeped into my hands, ready for use. I stood. Bows creaked back. Lawrence hesitated. He didn't want them to shoot me.

  But Shorty stood there, hand out, waiting for the wand.

  I threw the wand to him. He was closest.

  Shorty caught it. And faced Lawrence.

  Lawrence opened his mouth to shout an order, but it was too late.

  Shorty pointed the wand at him and with a trembling hand, shouted, "Sterben!"

  I didn't know what it meant at first, but all fell silent while Lawrence clutched at his chest. His eyes grew big.

  And then he fell to his knees.

  Onto his face.

  And remained still.

  The older knight in the doorway froze, unsure what to do, but then he rushed out and grabbed Lawrence's wrist. He curled his fingers into his vein and held them there. My heart raced. None of the knights spoke. They remained still, waiting for orders.

  The head knight looked up. Swallowed.

  "He's dead."

  Chapter Fourteen

  No one spoke for the longest time. The knights above lowered their bows. Why weren't they firing on Shorty? Executing him on the spot?

  Nori took the wand from him and Shorty backed away. His expression was blank. He wandered over to the edge of the flower bed and sat, staring at the apple tree above him. He had gone to another world.

  He had just done the thing Alric wanted him to do.

  And meanwhile, Lawrence continued to lie there. The knights in the passageway poured out, surrounding their fallen Crown Prince. Shorty had taken the heir from the kingdom.

  And so much more.

  I rushed over and shook him. "Shorty," I said. "We have to go."

  The knights would all come to their senses soon enough. Even if many of them were glad that Lawrence wouldn't take the throne, some of them would want our blood. They'd want to put arrows through Shorty. I needed him to get out of here.

  "I killed him," he muttered.

  "You did the right thing," I told him, even though I wasn't sure. "I don't have to marry him now." And I'd handed him the wand. I had just as much of a part of this as he did. We'd killed the Crown Prince of a kingdom. And even if Shorty was in the right, someone would still have to pay. Queen Annabella was still alive, and she'd be down here to mourn her son in minutes.

  "Darkness is coming," Shorty said. "I'm sure it is. And then Alric's coming with it."

  A low rumble of thunder met my ears.

  I looked up at the sky.

  He was right. Terror squeezed my heart. The blue in the sky was fading to a drab, ominous gray. The Fox Kingdom was joining the ranks of the dark region.

  And so was mine.

  The story hadn't ended the way it should.

  Nori appeared next to us, green dress dulling in the fading light. "You need to go," she said. "Everyone's distracted, but in minutes, you will be the worst people in this kingdom." She studied the sky. "Or maybe not. Go. I will slow them down."

  Another roll of thunder, louder this time, crashed through the sky. The wind picked up, blowing the leaves off the apple trees.

  "It's done," Shorty said.

  “Come on!” I shouted. The knights still huddled around Lawrence. Even the ones above us had run from their posts.

  We had doomed these people.

  I took Shorty's hand and squeezed it. He woke, and we ran.

  We bolted past flowers and apple trees. The flowers turned black and red and dark purple as if we inhabited an image that someone was adjusting the color on. Leaves fell in droves from the apple trees. Branches curled. Apples turned poison green and angry red.

  Shorty and I ran off the grounds, hugging the tall stone wall, and onto long grass. The town was right ahead, and we moved along a tall brick building. Everything trembled, and the sky darkened to the point where I swore it would open, but no rain fell. Knights shouted and swords drew behind us with sharp, metallic sounds.

  They wouldn’t be able to fight Alric. None of them would.

  “He’s coming,” Shorty says. “He knows Lawrence is dead."

  I was too out of breath to answer him. We made it to the front of the building—a church—and ran around the stone steps. The brick road to downtown Fox Kingdom spread out before us. The ground shook. Vases of blackening flowers tumbled off windows and shattered on the street below. Glass blew out.

  And people ran everywhere, screaming.

  Men. Women. Even little kids. Merchants abandoned their carts. Glass rained down and showered a young man in blades of death. He brought his hands to his face and blood seeped out between his fingers. He groaned, slumping against a bakery. A lantern fell from the entrance, barely missing him.

  “We can’t go through he
re,” Shorty said.

  We stared at each other. The wind grew stronger and snapped my hair back. He was right.

  But we couldn’t go back.

  “The middle,” I said. “The middle of the road. We might make it.”

  A woman herding three children ducked inside a building right before another deadly rain of glass hit bricks. She closed the door behind her and the man next to us curled in a ball, groaning. We couldn’t stop for him.

  I glanced back at the castle. The blue towers had turned almost black in the gloom and the white had faded to a dull, ominous gray. It wasn’t the same place anymore.

  The street cleared and Shorty and I bolted down the middle, clutching hands.

  The shaking reached one horrible peak, and we struggled to keep our footing. I leaned against Shorty as he got his senses and wrapped his arm around me to keep me up. We staggered across uneven ground. Over a large crack in the bricks. Past a shop with no glass left and an unconscious man lying in the doorway in a pool of blood.

  We had done this.

  We had doomed these people.

  Lawrence was the only way to protect them. Whatever Lawrence had done, we had done worse.

  The shaking subsided, but it took everything I had to keep going. Shorty stared at the ground next to me as all stilled and a horrible, ominous silence fell over everything.

  Somewhere, a crow cawed.

  Shorty and I stopped in the middle of the road, among glass and overturned carts. We stood near a fountain. Water gurgled inside.

  "Is it over?" I asked.

  "I think so," Shorty said.

  Produce lay everywhere. Pumpkins lay broken open on the road, and most of them had turned green and soft with rot on the inside. Apples rolled down the hill towards the open fields, brown and inedible. One stand had survived the quake, and the lettuce sitting on it was riddled with bugs and worms. I wanted to gag. All the food here had decayed in seconds.

  The sky remained a deep, dangerous gray and the buildings, broken and sad.

  The Fox Kingdom had turned dark.

  I’d failed. We’d failed. Shorty and I held equal responsibility in this.

  “What do we do?” I managed. The street was empty and my words fell on silence.

  Shorty let go of me. He turned in a circle as if trying to find a place where he could hide forever. There was no hope left.

  A door swung open, and then another. A woman emerged, followed by a teen boy in overalls. The lucky ones were coming out to inspect the damage. To see their shattered lives.

  And then the fountain in the center of the road gurgled louder.

  Louder. And louder. The water boiled as if it had turned into a giant cauldron. The fox statue in the center seemed to have its eyes closed in pain. Frigid air washed off the fountain and blew against us, making a new breeze kick up.

  Shorty faced me with sadness and resignation.

  “He’s coming,” he said, and took my hand.

  The water in the fountain grew dark, turning to oil. And then it split and a dark shape grew from the opening. A man. In a black and red robe. His hood hung down over his face, hiding it from view.

  The woman screamed and ducked back into the building behind us.

  It was Alric, here to claim his victory.

  The water calmed and settled back around him, but the wizard didn’t seem to mind. He gave off a cold energy that made the hair rise on the back of my neck. Alric took a step onto the rim of the fountain, and then another, and hopped down to the road with a clicking sound. The bottom of his robe wasn’t even wet. He took two more steps towards us and stopped.

  We should run. This man wanted us dead. But Shorty held my hand tighter than ever.

  Alric reached up.

  And lowered his hood.

  The man looked so much like an older version of Shorty that my heart ached. He had the same brown hair. The same round face. Alric had a neat, trimmed beard and mustache, but everything else was the same.

  Shorty sucked in a breath and stared at the ground as if to avoid the sight. How could he live knowing his father was this?

  "Shorty," he said, expressionless. "You have completed your mission. I must admit that I underestimated you."

  "You tried to kill him," I said. "You tried to kill both of us back in the forest."

  But Alric only smiled. The man had no remorse. I was facing down the most powerful dark wizard in Fable. I should feel terror. My senses sharpened. I made out every hair of his beard. Even a mole right at the edge of his mustache. His eyes were dark. Merciless. How could any woman fall in love with this man? Have a kid with him?

  Shorty got the bravery to look up. "My mother," he said. "You told me you would let her out if I did this."

  A crow cawed again. An entire flock of them landed on the building right above us and I tensed. I remembered that hungry raven who had gone after Lawrence. A flock could do damage to us.

  Alric paced in front of the fountain which spouted clear water again. "It's a more complicated situation than that," he said as if we were in a business meeting. "You defied me, Shorty. For a while, you helped the frog prince avoid his ultimate fate. I think there is more you need to do to make that happen."

  My heart sank. Alric had no intention of letting Shorty's mother out.

  "No," Shorty breathed. "I did what you wanted. That was the deal. Now let her out!"

  "You killed Lawrence only to save yourself," Alric said, rounding on him. He glared right in Shorty's face, but Shorty didn't back down. "You didn't do it for me. I know, because I was watching."

  Shorty choked. He tightened his grip on my hand. Why wasn't he trying to run?

  "Or perhaps you did it for this girl."

  And then Alric faced me. He drew close. Very close. My heart hammered, and I struggled not to back away. I wouldn't show weakness to this man. But his cold magic washed over me stronger than ever. I might turn to ice. Alric might arrange that.

  "This girl who never even liked you."

  Alric drew away and leaned back against the bowl of the fountain. Shorty trembled. Alric was doing everything he could to hurt him.

  "Don't listen to him," I whispered, even though I knew the dark wizard could hear. Alric wanted a puppet out of Shorty. He would keep leading him along with a chain of hope.

  "Maybe you can still prove your loyalty. As long as Candice lives, the story could still end and we need to address that. Get this girl out of the way and I will be free to keep the Fox Kingdom. Do it now. Use the wand."

  Shorty faced me. We still held hands.

  We locked stares for a long time while Alric stood there, waiting.

  My heart about stopped. All Shorty had to do was say the word, and I'd drop like Lawrence had in his own garden. He wanted his mother back. Shorty had Lawrence killed to do that, at least at first. He could murder again.

  I held my breath. Shorty could be that creep.

  "You're not like him," I said. "You're not like Alric and you don't have to be. I know you're not. You're better than him." I swallowed. "I don't care where you came from."

  Then Shorty faced Alric. "No," he said. "I'm not hurting Candice. I'd never hurt Candice."

  Alric's face darkened, and he frowned, training his dark eyes on Shorty. "You are my son," he reminded him. "No one will want you. Everyone will fear you. Your only safety is with me. This entire kingdom wants you dead, Shorty. Was that not a hard lesson for you to learn?"

  "Don't listen to him," I told Shorty. "Shorty—Queen Nori wants you. I want you."

  Alric advanced on me. "Hold your tongue," he ordered. "Or I will kill you myself." He grabbed the front of Shorty's shirt and we lost grip. "Kill this girl, or I will destroy the two of you. I will kill Candice first, and then you in the next couple of days, after you've had time to think about what's happened."

  Alric released his shirt. Shorty caught his breath and turned towards me. He raised the wand, so it pointed at my chest, panting. His eyes were huge. Trained on me. I backe
d away and almost stumbled over some rotten apples.

  "Sorry," he said.

  "Shorty!" I shouted.

  I hit the ground. Shorty opened his mouth to cast the spell.

  And at the last second, turned to face Alric.

  The dark wizard had no time to react.

  "Schlafen!" Shorty yelled.

  Alric's eyes got big, and he reached out towards Shorty, but then he slumped forward and hit the bricks face-first. His robe billowed around him for a second and settled, and then a loud snore emanated from Alric.

  Shorty ran over and helped me up. "Come on," he said. "I don't think he'll be out for long."

  "We should kill him," I said, standing. Apples rolled away from me and down the hill.

  "Kill him!" a man shouted from up the hill. I glanced. People stood in doorways, leaning out and watching us. "Kill him now. You can do it!"

  Shorty held the wand up and studied it. It seemed more gnarled than ever.

  "My mother," he said. "He's the only one who knows where she is."

  "Your mother would want him dead," I said. "He will enslave all these people if we don't do something about him now."

  Shorty turned towards Alric. The people all went quiet. A child said something, and a mother shushed him. We could end this now. Free these people from Alric. We might not reverse the darkness, but we could do that.

  But Alric was already standing. Pushing himself from the bricks. The spell hadn't lasted on him at all.

  Shorty raised the wand.

  "Sterben!" he shouted.

  Alric jumped back and clutched at his chest, then raised one hand and pointed his palm at Shorty. Shorty flew back and into the stall of rotten lettuce. It crashed back, and the produce fell all over him. Bugs flew. Swarmed.

  "Shorty!" I yelled, rushing for him.

  He leaned against the cart, dazed, the wand in his lap. I picked it up and turned towards Alric, but the man was still clutching his chest and staggering around the fountain. He was straining against the spell, trying to resist it. Why wouldn't he drop? His robe flapped around him as he walked laps, taking heavy breaths. Alric had forgotten we were here.