Frogs and Princes Page 9

  No answer.

  "Are you going to kill him?" I asked Shorty. Lawrence might be hiding. He wouldn't come out until I convinced him of safety. And we couldn't leave without him.

  Shorty hesitated and backed for the doorway. Past him, the lantern drew closer. She'd reached the edge of the field. We could outrun the witch, but we had to get away first. She'd do anything to kill me if Lawrence wasn't here.

  And maybe she'd even kill Shorty, too.

  "Well, are you?" I asked.

  "I never wanted to kill him."

  "But you were going to. At first," I said. "Alric's won't release your mother even if you do." I raise my voice loud enough to echo through the old house. "He's that kind of guy."

  Shorty whirled on me. The lantern was closer. She was closing the distance. "What else am I supposed to do? I don't even know where he has her!"

  "We can figure that out later," I tell him.

  "But what if he kills her?"

  The lantern was closer. In the field. We had less than a minute. I scrambled. "Alric said nothing about that," I told him. "If he was planning on killing your mom, he would have threatened you with that." I wasn't sure, but I had to get Lawrence to come out of hiding.

  Shorty screwed up his face. I could see the frustration in his eyes, the utter anger. But there was also a boy in there, a boy who had never felt love. This was the real Shorty. The one in Mr. Godfrey's room had been a mask.

  "I won't kill him," he said.

  I am here.

  Lawrence hopped out from under a cabinet. He'd been right there the whole time, waiting to make sure things were clear.

  I picked him up and put him on my shoulder. There was no time. Shorty and I bolted for the door. The witch was much closer now, so close that the lantern cast a glow on the house. The witch panted for breath. I kept the wand clutched in one hand. Even if it was useless, I needed to keep it away from her.

  "There you are," she managed. "Bring the frog prince."

  Shorty led the way, and we sprinted around the house. I didn't look back. Lawrence clutched at my shirt. Shorty led us around the house and we made a loop around the witch, then headed back down the road she'd come from. I glanced back to see the lantern getting farther and farther behind as we crashed through grass.

  Twin walls of dark trees grew up on either side of us and we slowed. I gasped for air. I'd never been much of a runner.

  "We can stop for a second," Shorty said. "She won't catch up to us. Not now."

  "Are you sure?" I asked. "She is a witch."

  "She's not much use without that," Shorty said, nodding to the wand in my hand. "My grandmother's always relied on tools for her magic."

  Lawrence turned on my shoulder. You will release me from my curse with that. I will still take you to Mary.

  A bubble of dread rose inside of me. I might. This wand must have the ability. And then the real Lawrence would stand before me. I'd be his. The story dictated that.

  Shorty wiped the sweat from his brow. "We need to keep walking. She's slow, but I'm sure she's coming."

  He was right. Relief flooded through me and I mentally thanked him for the distraction. I walked, keeping a quick pace and not looking back. The woods were so dark. So foreboding, but Shorty led the way.

  So he was from Fable.

  "Are we headed the right way?" I asked.

  "Yes," Shorty said. "The Fox Kingdom is several more miles up the road. Kingdoms in Fable aren't that big."

  "And this wand? What do we do with it?" The cold feeling was worse than ever.

  Release me, Lawrence said.

  I ignored him. Shorty faced me. "I've never used magic," he said. "I don't know how to remove curses."

  "But—" I said, not wanting Lawrence to know the truth. "You know more about Fable than I do. You should know something about magic."

  "I want nothing to do with it. Nothing. Look what it got my mother!"

  I jumped at his outburst. Lawrence didn't even have a retort for him.

  "You know how you want nothing to do with being a princess?" Shorty asked. "Well, I want nothing to do with being a wizard. I will not be one. No one will make me."

  "Sorry," I managed.

  Shorty was in so much pain that my heart ached for him. I had a father was absent most of the time. He had it much worse.

  He had Alric.

  And he'd spent his life dealing with it. Maybe this was why he put on that happy mask back in the other world. The real Shorty was miserable. Scared. Desperate.

  Shorty let out a breath. "I'm not mad at you, Candice," he said. "I'm just—come on. We have to keep walking. I think I see the lantern back there."

  I checked. He was right. The witch was still in pursuit and she showed no signs of quitting. The light was just a tiny pinprick, but unmistakable. She was still too close for me.

  Go, Lawrence demanded. Walk. She will kill us all.

  Maybe the frog prince was growing some compassion.

  I will not die because you are not listening.

  Scratch that.

  Shorty and I walked faster, staying inside the twin walls of trees. Weeds choked our path forward and something big ran across the road ahead. We were back in the middle of nowhere. There had to be a village. A hamlet, even, a real one like the ones we'd passed yesterday. Someone who could help us and let us shelter for the rest of the night. I checked the moon. There was no way to tell what time it was. I knew nothing about moon phases, But this one was either waxing or waning and it was getting closer to the horizon.

  I stumbled in a rut in the ground and Lawrence went flying. He landed with a small crash.

  "Accident!" I said.

  Clumsy, the frog prince thought. The disgust in his voice was overwhelming. He scrambled out of some tall grass. Do you not realize you have an important passenger?

  Shorty scrambled over and seized him before I could say anything. His face contorted in anger again. Shorty held the frog with both hands and turned him so they were face to face. Lawrence struggled and kicked his frog legs. My heart pounded and for a second I was sure Shorty would crush him. He could. No magic required.

  Shorty brought his face close to Lawrence's.

  "Stop talking to Candice like that," he growled.

  I swear Lawrence gulped. He said nothing.

  "We're helping you," Shorty continued. "Did you treat your subjects like this, too?"

  Again, nothing.

  "Now, you'll ride on my shoulder and shut up. I don't want to hear you say another bad word about anybody or I will throw you down and then you will feel the bottom of my shoe."

  Okay.

  Lawrence's voice was so small and scared that I almost felt bad for him. Almost.

  Shorty set him on his shoulder. "I'm only doing this because we need Franco back," he said. "And because I don't want to doom so many people to Alric." He trailed off like he wanted to say something else and I knew what that was.

  He was doing this because of me.

  And maybe to spite Alric. I couldn't blame him there.

  I nodded a thanks to Shorty. There was still a tense truce between us and Lawrence—for now.

  And he nodded back.

  The lantern had vanished behind us. Our walk stretched into silence. Lawrence said nothing, and it was glorious.

  But Shorty trudged on as if he were dragging a cruise ship behind his feet.

  Chapter Eight

  The first light of morning came about an hour later.

  It started as a pink glow on the horizon ahead, almost too faint to make out. But my eyes had adjusted so much to the dark that every little source of light popped out at me. I couldn't believe how sensitive they had gotten.

  Morning, Lawrence said.

  It was the first thing he'd uttered in a long time. Two hours, maybe. Maybe longer.

  Shorty spoke, too. "That's good. My grandmother prefers night, but she might still come after us."

  "Shorty," I blurted. "Why didn't you tell me and Franco th
e truth?" I could say something now he'd given up his secret in front of the frog prince.

  And it wasn't like the frog prince could do anything about it. At least not until he was human again. Then we'd have something to worry about.

  He exhaled. "It would have gone over great, you know, if I'd said my father is an evil wizard who wants to take over Fable. I hate him with all my being."

  "I can see that."

  "He never gave me information about my mother," he said. "I only know my parents met right before I they had me. When my mom figured out she would have me, she wanted nothing to do with Alric anymore because she must have found out how evil he was. They weren't married, and she wanted to wed another guy. Alric got jealous and sealed her in a glass coffin that no one has broken her out of until now. No one has found her tomb. He keeps showing it and saying that if I please him enough, he'll release her."

  Shorty kicked at a pebble and eyed the trees.

  "Only I'll never do that. Alric hates me. He always has."

  "He's an evil person," I told him. "I saw that last night. He must treat everyone like crap." I didn't know what else to say. My father didn't hate me, at least.

  "Alric always left me with mean nannies. Never spoke to me much. I grew up in the dark region, Candice. I hated the place. The castle that Alric lived in and the king he used to work for. The skies that are always dark and gray and all the wolves that howl at night. You remember that weird spot of death we walked through? That's what the entire dark region is like. It's home to all the darker aspects of the fairy tales."

  "Yikes," I said. Shorty had spent a lot of time there. I could barely stand it for a few minutes.

  "I was a prisoner in the castle and not allowed to leave. When I lived there, it belonged to an evil king called Henrik. But he's gone now and Alric is the master of the dark region. He wants all of Fable. And now I'm supposed to help him."

  "But you don't want to help him."

  "I wanted to win my mother's freedom," Shorty said. "I wanted to meet her. And I wanted out of the dark region. So when Alric told me there was a way I could get those things, I jumped at the chance. He'd tell me my mission when I got to the other world. So he sent me through his magic mirror and to your town. That's when he told me to find the frog prince."

  I nodded. Lawrence shifted on his shoulder. He was uncomfortable, but Shorty's threat still stood and he said nothing.

  "I didn't know what else to do, so I tracked down King Gustav who Alric said had a daughter. It wasn't hard and Alric told me the frog price would be close to you guys. Alric could speak to me through anything reflective and he helped me find my way around in the regular world, which was alien and weird. I found you and slipped into your school with the help of Alric's magic. I tried to hang around you, to see where you went a lot, because the frog prince would be close. My father said he just wanted me to find him. How could I know any different? So I found Lawrence living in the park by your house and I caught him. He begged for mercy. He told me he needed to get to his princess." Shorty paused. "That I was keeping him from what he owned."

  I did not, Lawrence said.

  A sick feeling spread through me. I didn't have words.

  "You did," Shorty told him. "That's what you said about Candice. Then I showed Alric that I'd found him. That's when he told me to kill him."

  "You didn't," I said.

  "I couldn't do it. This was a person and that would have been murder. I refused and let Lawrence get away. Alric said he would never let my mother out of her prison. So I argued with him and Alric gave me one more chance to prove myself."

  "That's when you stole the fetal pigs," I said, "so Mr. Godfrey would want to dissect the frogs."

  "And I caught Lawrence again and put him in with the other frogs," Shorty said. "That way, I could take the responsibility of his death off myself. I wanted to meet my mom. That makes me an idiot and I'm sorry."

  I hadn't realized there was so much to Shorty.

  Behind that annoying grin was a pain he was trying to cover. A dark lineage he wanted to mask.

  "Look," I said. "Alric wants to manipulate you and put you under his control. That's it. He wants someone who never asks him questions. You're just a means to an end for him. You don't have to associate with the guy."

  "But my mother," he said.

  "We'll find a way to get her out," I told him. "If she's part of another fairy tale—and I have the feeling she might be—there's a way. Just like there's supposed to be for Franco."

  Shorty trudged on. "I hope so. But she's been trapped my entire life." Then he faced me. "You know, I'm glad you knocked the tank over. I didn't want to cut open live frogs. Any live frog."

  "I didn't want to, either."

  "You were the only person brave enough to do that."

  He was complimenting me. Heat rushed to my cheeks, and I was glad that the early morning light wasn't enough to show that. I urged it to go back down and at last, it did.

  The daylight grew stronger. The trees thinned. "I think we're getting close to the Fox Kingdom," Shorty said.

  We are, Lawrence said.

  "Great," I said. I still carried the wand. It looked like nothing more than a gnarled piece of wood and my hand had gone cold. Numb. I switched to the other one.

  Lawrence watched. I would like my curse removed.

  "I don't know how," I told him. "Neither one of us knows how to use this." I wished Shorty would carry the wand, but I didn't want to make him hold a reminder of where he came from, of what he wanted to escape.

  Try, Lawrence said. Try something. Magic is common in Fable. You may have it.

  My heart pounded, and I lifted the wand at a nearby tree. I imagined the tree cracking in half, but nothing. I didn't know what would happen.

  And nothing did.

  "Do I say weird words?" I asked.

  "My grandmother mutters them a lot," Shorty said. "I think only witches and wizards can use wands. I've never tried. That might not even be the way the curse gets removed. It might have to go by whatever it is in the story."

  I turned the wand over. "That can't be right," I said. "I can feel the magic in this. And I don't like it. You sure you can't do spells?"

  Shorty shrugged and Lawrence held on for dear life. "As I said. I have no interest in being a wizard. Never wanted to learn magic. And never will."

  You should be able to use magic. It runs in families.

  Shorty gave Lawrence a look of death.

  "Hey," I said, trying to dispel the situation. "Where I'm from sucks, too. I want nothing to do with this whole royalty thing. I don't even like being the rich girl that everyone talks about behind my back."

  Shorty took his attention off Lawrence. "They don't—"

  "You're lying," I told him. "I know what they say. Remember what you told me in the hall?"

  "I feel sorry for them, too," Shorty said.

  I am saving them from Alric's rule. If my story falls, my kingdom will fall right along with yours.

  A door to a house opened and an old man hobbled out. He wore overalls and a leather hat and he didn't look like the friendliest guy, but we had no other choice. I nodded at Shorty and we walked towards him. I didn't want to free Lawrence, but I didn't want to, either. It was sacrifice my happiness or watch these people fall to Alric. They might even die or worse—he would use them as slaves for the rest of their lives and work them to death. He couldn't even treat Shorty with any respect. He sure wouldn't care about peasants.

  My knees felt weak. I had to make a horrible decision here. Shorty shot me a look. Please don't, he seemed to beg.

  But we had to. For Franco.

  We both had someone hostage and a horrible person who wanted our lives.

  "Excuse me," I said to the old man.

  I realized too late he was holding a pitchfork which he lifted the second he saw me. "Who are you?" he grumbled.

  "We're looking for someone named Mary," I said. "She has a book we need to see."

&nbs
p; The old man backed away into his house. It smelled like dried mud and straw. He had gotten up early to start work. "There is no Mary here."

  "Look," Shorty said. "We're not Watchers or anything. We have the frog prince and we need to know how to turn him back." His tone of voice sank into the ground.

  "I don't know a thing about any frog prince. Now go!"

  Shorty didn't give up. He lifted his shirt sleeve, and then the other, to reveal his skin. "I have no Watcher tattoo. We're not them. We're not here to take Mary away."

  The old man lowered his pitchfork. It was a start even though a large part of me wanted to leave the village.

  But Franco...

  "I don't like people from the other world," the old man said. "They always bring trouble."

  I glanced down at my jeans. This old man had seen this before. Maybe on Watchers. Maybe on other characters from fairy tales forced to return to Fable.

  "Look, we need to talk to Mary and look at her book of fairy tales. We're trying to stop Alric from taking over any more of Fable and bring your crown prince back. If we don't succeed, the ground you're standing on will turn dark. And you might not survive it." I felt terrible saying it, but it was the truth.

  He dropped his pitchfork. "This is not the right kingdom," he said. "You must speak of another one. We have no crown prince here. The Queen is growing old. Even the Water Kingdom's monarch has fled to the other world. Alric won't want any part of a dying kingdom. This place needs no help to fall."

  I am the crown prince.

  Lawrence had spoken and his thoughts boomed through my mind. I could tell from the way the old man flinched that he'd heard the same thing.

  Help me take my throne and I will stop Alric's darkness from ever invading your borders. The Fox Kingdom will never turn dark.

  The old man stared at the frog on Shorty's shoulder with amazement. He was taking over this show and he puffed up as if enjoying every second.

  "Are you..." the old man managed.

  Lawrence propped up higher. Crown Prince Lawrence of the Fox Kingdom. Yes.

  I fake vomited off to the side, but Shorty didn't notice.

  "There was word you died a long time ago," the old man continued. All his gruff attitude vanished. "The Queen sent her men out searching for you. What in Fable happened to you?"