Frogs and Princes Page 8

  "I think she's gone," I said.

  I agree. Lawrence hopped towards the door. We had to cooperate, at least right now. I'd feel stupid about accepting the tea later. While he was gone, I'd pile straw by the window and see if anyone else was out in the village. I could flag someone down for help. How could this woman hold people prisoner right in the middle of civilization?

  The frog prince disappeared under the door, kicking his webbed legs, and I was glad to see him go. The key must be in the kitchen or something. At least he knew where to look. I peeked through the hole again, but saw nothing in the dark. Lawrence made faint plopping noises as he hopped that would have been funny under other circumstances.

  I stacked up a bunch of the straw. It was fresh and dry, so I must have been the first person in here. After getting all of it in a pile by the window, I stood on it without falling and get my face up to the window.

  I couldn't be seeing this right.

  There were no other houses here. Just an open field with trees surrounding it on all sides. I blinked to make sure. Even the pigpen and the sheep had vanished from the field as if scared of this woman and this place. The field itself was overgrown as if human hands hadn't touched it in years.

  "What is this?" I managed.

  The village had been here when we walked into this field, and now it and its indifferent people had vanished. There was just this one house.

  Terror crept up into my heart.

  The village might have been an illusion. It could be the reason the people in it never spoke to us. The warning signs were there. Shorty and I didn't see them. And even though he would never admit it, neither had Lawrence.

  We'd fallen into some trap and now this woman had some horrible plan for us.

  I sat back down and waited for a long time. Lawrence might never find the key. That I'd stay in here until that woman let me out. It was a good thing I never told her where this Mary was. Mary must be on Alric's most wanted list if he had people asking about her. We'd done something right, at least.

  And if this was the lighter part of Fable, what was the dark version like?

  I waited for what felt like an hour. The drawer slid open little by little. Something shuffled and made a clink as it landed on the floor. Then the object slid closer.

  A key slid under the door. I found this in the kitchen, Lawrence thought. I took a long time to get up there and search for it. I need to resume my human form as soon as possible.

  I snatched the key and shoved my arm through the lock. I took forever to find the keyhole without being able to see it but I managed. The lock clicked, and I pushed the door open with a squeak. It was ancient.

  In fact, the whole house smelled like mold and dust now. Moonlight spilled out of the cell and my shadow grew across the floor.

  This wasn't the same home Shorty and I had walked into earlier that day. This was an old, dilapidated, abandoned building. It had the same fireplace, the same table, the same shutters. But it had aged a hundred years. The sitting room had dirt and cracked boards covering the floor and leaves that had blown in through the open front door. A pile of them had gathered around the iron stove which was surrounded by ashes. A burnt wooden block sat next to it.

  "This isn't right," I whispered. There was no sign of the woman.

  She must have enchanted this old house to look new, Lawrence thought. So was the village. None of it was real. This woman must be a powerful witch.

  "That's nice," I said, walking through the kitchen. Every board protested, but no one stormed out at me. The woman had gone. Maybe she'd left me to rot in that cell and had no intention of letting me out of here alive.

  We should leave Shorty here.

  "We can't do that," I said, even though Lawrence had a point. Shorty wanted to kill him back in Mr. Godfrey's class. I could understand that, too. But Lawrence didn't deserve to die, did he?

  I turned in a circle, searching for another door. I kept a tight grip on the key. There was the one that held me, but nothing else.

  "What gives?" I asked. "You said Shorty should be here."

  Lawrence turned to face the door. There is another—wait. There was a door there before right next to yours. Now it's gone.

  "Then where's Shorty?" I asked. "Are we in some kind of funhouse without the fun?" I was getting worried about him. He wasn't quite the weird guy I thought he was. And he'd been right about Lawrence being a jerk. Shorty had been...tolerable today, at least on the walk here.

  I don't know. We should leave him. He deserves whatever is coming to him.

  "I can't believe you're such a jerk," I said. "Did you annoy whatever witch turned you into a frog? I can't blame her for doing it."

  Lawrence said nothing. I sensed his tension.

  "I will look for Shorty," I said. "Without you. Wait here. I'll pick you up when I find him." There was nowhere else to look in the house. The woman had left. She must have him somewhere else.

  And I walked out the front door about as fast as I could. There was no one in the house and no one out in this field.

  Stop, Lawrence ordered. You must take me with you. Remember your promise of companionship?

  Grass slapped at my legs and I knew Lawrence would have a hard time hopping through it and finding me again. I could only hope he stayed put. Stayed hidden, away from that woman. I walked faster, not looking back. The moon was brighter now, and a cloud moved all the way from it, and the stars were super brilliant, way more so than they ever were back home. Fable was so much more pristine than the regular world. Alric must be terrible to make my father and the other characters flee from this place.

  I stopped.

  I did not know where I was going.

  Crickets chirped everywhere, and an owl hooted. I was getting close to the tree line, and it was very dark in there. Shorty must be out here somewhere. Maybe the witch liked to have human sacrifices. Or she'd taken him to Alric. He was the son of Alric's Watchers. His parents might have even asked for him back. Or Alric could recruit him. Shorty had been willing to kill a prince. He was already halfway there.

  Then I checked the house again. It was a dark, desolate shape in the middle of the grass. Lawrence was back there somewhere.

  I turned. Searched the tree line. Where was the road?

  There. It was just as overgrown as ever. Was this the direction we'd come from, or the road that led ahead to the Fox Kingdom?

  I'd take it and walk. The almost blind witch wouldn't head anywhere else. I had to check something. Anything.

  Darkness grew up on either side of me as I reached the road and walked under the dome of night. I walked for a long time and the moon kept poking out between the trees. I felt like I was heading down a hallway made of a dark forest. The crickets quieted as I approached and I worried that I'd give away my presence. The witch might be around here somewhere. Or maybe she was long gone, and I was on my own.

  But then I heard something and stopped.

  Voices.

  I held my breath. The sound echoed through the trees, distorted and weird. A woman spoke from my right. She sounded the way someone would sound at a neighbor's house late at night. It was her, all right. The witch who offered me that sleepy tea and taken Shorty away.

  The voice vanished, then came again. I strained to make out any words, but it was useless.

  Yes. It was coming from my right.

  I turned and squinted.

  There was a faint light far back in the trees, maybe a hundred feet off the road. I leaned and trunk blocked the way, but then my eyes adjusted more and I could see it better.

  Checking it out was the only option.

  I knew this was a stupid idea that Lawrence would chastise me for, but I wasn't leaving Shorty here. He'd helped me. I needed someone between me and Lawrence if his curse got removed, and Shorty was better than nothing. Shorty was on my side for getting Franco out. He deserved the help.

  I took a step into the trees, and then another.

  The ground was more clear
here, free of saplings that couldn't grow in the shadow of the bigger trees. The trunks were farther apart, and the light got more clear. A lantern. It sat on the ground, casting a glow on some green grass and another pond that shimmered in its light.

  I hated ponds.

  The old woman stood hunched over the pond. She wore a black shawl. The ground at her feet seemed darker than the surrounding grass as if her presence was making evil seep into the ground. I imagined another one of those evil spots being born and I shuddered.

  Then I noticed.

  Standing next to her was Shorty.

  He stood there. He wasn't trying to run away, but he kept more distance from the pond than the witch did. What was going on here?

  I crept closer, heart pounding, every sense aware. The two of them remained silent as if waiting for something to manifest in the pond. The water formed a perfect mirror. I wondered if this was another portal that led back to the other world. If I jumped through, I might come back out in the park. But this pond didn't have the magical glow I'd seen in the park.

  I got close enough to make out Shorty's short haircut and the crochet pattern on the witch's shawl. I caught the side of her face and it held deeper wrinkles than ever. Her gnarled hand held a cane now.

  Shorty shifted as if he wanted away from her. I wanted to call out to him but my gut told me it was a bad idea.

  But then a figure formed inside the water as if it was a screen showing another place.

  The figure. The one Shorty and I had seen in that dark area. His image formed right inside the light as if it was a door that had opened.

  It was a man in a long black robe with red trim and a hood pulled over his face. Darkness took up the space under the hood. Shorty recoiled, then got his composure. He didn't want to be here.

  "Alric," the old woman said, nodding a greeting.

  I swore under my breath and clutched the bark of the tree trunk. This was him. The big guy Lawrence had spoken about.

  "Shorty," the man said. "I have been trying to contact you for hours."

  The guy's voice made a sense of darkness spread through me. It was the creepiest thing I'd ever heard.

  Shorty sucked in a breath.

  "Have you disposed of the frog prince yet?"

  Shorty hesitated. The witch stared at him.

  I held my breath. Shorty was working with this Alric guy. He'd lied about some things. Maybe everything.

  "No," he said at last.

  "Why haven't you?" The man's tone was condescending. "I told you to go into the regular world and complete this one simple task. And now you are back here."

  "I did what you said," he said. Shorty sounded so desperate and so scared. "The biology classroom. I took a while to make sure the frog prince would be there. But Candice freed him. I wasn't expecting that. I'm working on it. Candice might even kill him herself."

  "This is not good enough," Alric said. "Candice is bound by a promise to him. If the frog prince gets freed, our plan will falter. You know what will happen if you don't complete this mission. If you don't kill him."

  Shorty stood there, silent. Then he let out a long breath.

  Alric stood aside in the vision. He was in a dark room filled with glass boxes. Some had swirling vapor inside and others seemed to hold models of castles and villages. But there was one glass box at the back of the room, the biggest one of all.

  And inside slept a young, blond woman in a pink dress. Her chest went up and down. I could see no way in or out of the glass box. It reminded me of the box they put Snow White in during that movie. Only there was no prince here to kiss her and wake her up. As far as I could tell, this woman was stuck in some dark chamber on permanent exhibit.

  "Or what won't happen, I should say," Alric told Shorty. "You wouldn't want your mother to remain in this coffin forever, would you?"

  Shorty let out a breath. "No."

  A chill swept over me.

  Shorty had lied about everything. His parents weren't Watchers. His mother, at least, was from here and Alric had her prisoner. Alric had Shorty enslaved, and she was the bargaining chip.

  "Then you must kill the frog prince," Alric ordered him. He stepped in front of the glass coffin again, blocking in from view. "Or you must kill Candice. One of them must die. If that happens, their story will fall. King Gustav's old kingdom will turn dark. And so will the entire Fox Kingdom."

  "I'm not hurting Candice," he said.

  "Then kill the frog prince," the witch told him. "Are you a bumbling idiot? All you have to do is step on him."

  Shorty stood there, shaking. I knew what he was thinking. If he killed Lawrence, he'd doom Franco to the nix. And so many more people to a horrible fate.

  "I can't find him," Shorty said. "The frog, I mean. He hopped off as soon as Candice passed out from the tea. Then I passed out, too."

  The witch drew closer to the Shorty. "He is right," she said to Alric. "The frog prince escaped. I have Candice shut inside the hut right now. We will do away with her."

  "No," Shorty breathed, grabbing her arm. "We can't!"

  I drew back, careful not to make any twigs snap.

  "Then find the frog prince," Alric ordered him. "I swear on the stars, I have a moron for a son."

  Chapter Seven

  Shorty turned away.

  Stormed towards me.

  I backed away and then a twig snapped.

  The witch seized the lantern and turned. Light fell on me. I squinted. Behind it, the dark form of Alric waited.

  Shorty stopped, too. He was pale. "Candice," he breathed. "Run."

  I did.

  I ran almost blind while the light of the lantern bobbed behind me. The witch was giving chase. Shorty caught up and slapped me on the back. "Go," he begged. "Don't let her get you."

  "Shorty!" the witch huffed. "What are you doing?"

  I wanted to slap him for lying. For not telling me who he was. But I wanted to get away from the witch even more. She'd kill me. And now maybe she'd kill Shorty, too.

  We burst out onto the road. "Where's Lawrence?" Shorty asked.

  "Back at the house." I hoped. We didn't have time to go out there and search for him in the field. And Shorty had to kill Lawrence. He had a reason to. He had a trapped mother and his father was the worst guy in this world.

  "You need to go," Shorty said, full of pain. He pushed me away. "I'm sorry you saw this. Just go!"

  The light increased and the witch burst out of the forest, lantern in hand.

  The light blinded me, but not before I could make out her black, hateful eyes. Her deep wrinkles. Her scowl. The air filled with a sharp, cold feeling. She fished around in her pocket for something and drew out a gnarled stick. A wand.

  I sucked in a breath.

  Shorty jumped in front of me. "Don't hurt Candice! I'll find Lawrence. I'll step on him right now and you can watch. Just let her walk away."

  I thought of the story and the people who would fall into darkness.

  "You'll just step on him," the witch said. "You refuse to learn any magic." She held the wand higher.

  I knew I should run, but Shorty was blocking her view of me. If I moved, she'd have a clear shot.

  "I want nothing to do with magic!" he shouted and went to slap the wand out of her hand.

  The witch backed away and pointed the stick at him. She muttered something. Shorty stopped. He struggled to pull his feet from the ground, but he remained stuck. She'd cursed him.

  "It's no wonder Alric is ashamed of you," she snarled at him, dropping her lantern. "I'm ashamed of you. You're too much like that soft mother of yours. You need to earn your place in this family."

  Shorty struggled to speak, but his lips stayed shut. The witch pointed the wand at him again.

  Then I did something stupid. I lunged at her out and grabbed the wand, taking her by surprise and kicking the lantern away. She whirled around, raising a hand to slap me, but I dodged out of the way. Her fingernails raked my cheek. I pointed the wand at her, praying
for something to happen, but she stopped and laughed.

  "You stupid girl," she said. "That wand is of no use to you. Now hand it over."

  Shorty lifted his feet and ran for me. "Come on!" he yelled.

  Wand in hand, I seized his arm, and we ran.

  "Shorty!" The witch panted, running after us, and light bobbed again. Shorty and I bolted down the road. Past twin walls of black trees. Which way were we going?

  The world opened ahead.

  Back towards the hut.

  Towards where Lawrence was still hopping through the weeds.

  "We've got to find the frog prince," Shorty breathed.

  I looked back. The witch was falling behind. The lantern swung in the night, casting a glow on the surrounding tree trunks. She was a dark, hunched figure behind it, featureless. Maybe she was powerless without the wand. Maybe her magic was too weak without it. The wand gave off a cold, sharp energy that felt beyond evil. It stabbed into my hand, making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

  The whole revelation about who Shorty was exploded through my mind. But I couldn't confront him about it now. It was clear Shorty wanted none of this crap. So I kept running.

  Grass slapped at my jeans and dew made the ankles of them wet. I let go of Shorty's arm and we reached the old house, bursting in at the same time. Darkness overtook us. We didn't have much time before the witch got here and I did not understand how to use this one weapon. I searched around for another one.

  "We've got to find Lawrence and leave," Shorty said. "My grandmother will not forgive me for this."

  "Your grandmother?" I shouted.

  "Trust me, I hate it. I didn't expect to see her here. I didn't think she'd set up this trap. Alric must have seen us back in that dark area and told her to meet us here."

  "Lawrence!" I shouted. "The witch is coming to kill you." She would have already if he hadn't escaped and hidden when I passed out from the tea. It was the only reason he was still alive.

  Shorty stood in the front door. "She's coming. I see the lantern light. She's still on the road, but she can walk faster than you think." There was real terror in his voice. I wondered what he'd seen her do. "Lawrence!"