Princess in Disguise (3 page)

“Creeping rashes?” Annie murmured out loud.

“Is that what they're called?” asked Snow White. “Then you've seen them before?”

Annie shook her head. “No. Never. But they have to have been magically induced. Nothing that looks like
that could be natural. Just a moment and we'll know for sure.” Annie approached her friends with her hand outstretched. At her touch, the rash disappeared from Snow White's fair skin, reappearing when Annie took her hand away. “It's magic all right. Aside from holding your hands, there's nothing I can do about it.”

“Has anyone seen Annie?” Liam asked as he stuck his head in the still-open door. “I just … Oh, there you are. You're needed in the great hall. Something about the rushes and the flowers. Say, what happened to you two?”

Liam was staring at the two princesses when they both burst into tears. Annie sighed and hustled her groom out the door, closing it firmly behind her. “What is this about the rushes and the flowers? Are the rushes moldy? Are the flowers wilting already?”

“Nothing like that,” Liam said, following her down the corridor. “They look fine, and you don't notice that they aren't at first. It's just that they seem to be infested.”

“With what? Aphids?” asked Annie.

“Nothing so ordinary,” Liam said.

Annie began to hurry. This day was going from bad to worse and she dreaded finding out what was next. She was hurrying down the spiral staircase closest to Eleanor's room when she passed an arrow slit and glanced outside. Lightning flashed near the north tower, a jagged streak of brilliant blue that left a
matching streak behind her eyelids when she blinked. She stumbled and nearly fell, but Liam reached out and caught her. After that, she ran down the stairs without looking outside again.

The voices near the great hall were so loud that Annie heard them long before she and Liam reached it. They had to push past the people standing in the doorway to see what everyone was talking about. Even then, Annie didn't see anything wrong at first. The rushes on the floor were fresh and fragrant. The flowers filling the bowls and vases looked just-picked and smelled wonderful. It wasn't until she bent down to examine the rushes that she saw that they were crawling with ladybugs. The peach-colored roses on the closest table were exquisite, until the petals shivered, revealing one big, fat bumblebee after another.

“Those bugs weren't there when we put down the rushes, Your Highness,” a young maid said, her lip quivering. “I swear it!”

“I'm sure you're right,” said Annie. “No one blames you at all.”

When she heard the sound of laughing, Annie stepped into the great hall to see who was there. It was Squidge running across the floor, kicking at the rushes. The moment he spotted Annie, he dashed down the hall with clouds of ladybugs flying up around him.

“This is great!” said the sprite when he reached Annie. “Your wedding guests will have fun with this.”
He kicked at the rushes again. Ladybugs flew everywhere, landing on the hem of Annie's skirt, Liam's boots, and the table pushed up against the wall. The people in the doorway behind them moved back as if ladybugs were dangerous.

“Don't be foolish,” Annie scolded them. “Ladybugs can't hurt you.”

“Maybe they're afraid of the bees,” said Liam, eyeing a bumblebee hovering a foot from his face. A few seconds later, the bee flew off, repeating a zigzag pattern.

“We need to talk,” Annie said, leading Liam out of the hall and down the corridor, where they couldn't be overheard. “Someone is using magic in ways that makes it obvious that it
is
magic. Whoever is doing this wants me to know that a magic user is behind it.”

“You know I don't want to postpone the wedding, but I think we're going to have to,” said Liam.

“I know,” said Annie. “I'm afraid that if we don't, something even worse is going to happen.”

Boom! as thunder continuously shook the castle, the dim light coming through the windows flashed blue. A young woman shrieked while a hound hid under a table, its tail between its legs. Annie started toward the door, wanting to see how bad it was outside. Liam went with her and a small crowd gathered behind them as they peered into the darkened courtyard. Rain pounded the ground, sluiced off the roofs of the outbuildings, and gushed from the mouths of stone gargoyles crouching on the tops of the castle walls.

“It looks as if giants are dumping buckets of water on the castle,” Liam said, gazing at the deluge. “It shouldn't last long, though. Rain like this never does.”

They stood there for a while, willing the rain to let up, but it continued to come down just as hard. “Is this normal?” Squidge said, pushing between Annie
and Liam. “It doesn't rain like this in the Moonflower Glade. It would wash away the moonflowers if it did.”

“No,” Annie said glumly. “It isn't normal here, either.”

Voices shouted in the corridor and they turned to look behind them. “I'll find out what's going on!” Squidge declared, and slipped into the crowd. Although Annie could no longer see him, she could tell where he was by the wave of annoyed looks on faces as the sprite bumped into legs and shoved past them.

People made way for Annie and Liam as the commotion in the corridor grew louder. Guards began running up the stairs. Annie and Liam followed on their heels, going all the way to the floor just below the attic. The guards spread out from there, but Annie slipped and slid when she tried to follow Liam down the corridor. She glanced down and found that the floor was wet and water was puddling in the dips and grooves.

“The roof in the south tower collapsed. Most of the other roofs are leaking,” a guard told Liam.

“We need buckets and tubs,” said Annie. “Something to catch all this water.”

She peeked into an open doorway where maids were moving things out from under the dripping ceiling. In the corridor, voices shouted and others swore. Annie turned to see Squidge come running past, chortling as he chased something small and gray. He
lunged, then turned suddenly and began to chase it back the other way.

“Is he chasing a squirrel?” Liam asked, frowning after the running sprite.

A woman carrying a bundle of clothes tripped when the sprite ran under her feet. She squealed when she landed in dirty water, drenching herself and the clothes she was carrying. Horace, the old guard, helped her up, then came to Annie when she called to him.

“Tell everyone to take what they can carry downstairs and move what they can out from under the leaks,” Annie told him. She turned to Liam, saying, “We should go see how bad it is in the attics.”

“That's where we really should put the buckets and tubs,” Liam told her as they headed back to the stairs.

They had just started up the last steps, leading a group of guards, when nearly a dozen bats swooped down, some missing them by a hairsbreadth. A squirrel ran past Annie, its tail brushing her foot.

“Blast!” said Liam when he reached the top.

Annie stopped looking out for squirrels and bats and glanced up. She was appalled by what she saw. Although there were no gaping holes as she'd feared, the roof seemed to be leaking everywhere. Water streamed from the ceiling, soaking the odds and ends stored in the attic. The rain beat a continuous rhythm on the roof, still as strong as ever.

A squirrel chattered at her when Annie approached a bench that was leaning precariously on broken legs. Another squirrel popped out from under the bench, and they ran off together, disappearing down the stairs. Bats fluttered overhead, avoiding the leaking water, until they too headed for the staircase.

“I've been in this attic countless times when we were looking for spinning wheels, and I never saw any squirrels or bats,” Annie told Liam. “Where do you suppose they came from? Never mind. I think I know the answer. Magic probably brought them here, just like it ruined my dress.”

“I think the rain is a bigger problem than anything else right now,” said Liam. “We're going to need a lot of tubs. No one can fix the roofs until after the rain stops.”

“I'm sure there are tubs in the buttery that we can use,” said Annie. “And there may be more in the cellars. I seem to recall seeing some there when I searched the castle. Horace, if you come with me, I can show you where I saw them.”

“If you're going to the cellars, I think I should go with you,” Liam said, glancing toward the stairs. “I want to see how they're faring. This much water has to go someplace.”

As they approached the main level again, Annie heard her father giving orders to his men. She heard her uncle King Daneel's voice as well. They were
gone when she got there, so she continued on to the cellars located under the kitchen and the buttery. When she opened the door, she remembered how narrow and dark the stairwell was, and paused at the top of the stairs.

“I'll fetch a torch, Your Highness,” said Horace, bustling off down the corridor.

“Do you hear something?” Annie asked Liam as they peered down the stairs.

“It sounds like a squeaky hinge,” he replied. “What do you suppose it is?”

A shape moved in the shadows and a large rat appeared on the top step, squinting at the light and twitching its pointy nose. Annie hopped back as two more rats joined it. All three rats darted out of the doorway and down the corridor. A moment later, a small flood of rats poured from the cellar, heading toward the kitchen.

“Cook isn't going to like that,” said Annie.

Liam laughed. “I've seen her cat. That thing is mean enough to handle twice as many rats! But if there are rats down there, are you sure you want to go into the cellars?” he asked Annie. “Horace and I can go without you.”

“I'm going, too,” Annie told him, although she crinkled her nose and held the hem of her gown above her ankles when Horace arrived with a torch and they finally started down the stairs.

Annie was as pleased that they didn't see any more rats in the cellar as she was to find tubs stored beside the baskets of root vegetables. She was still hoping to find a few more tubs when they came across a partly flooded area in the back. The water was already spilling over into the adjoining rooms, and Annie gasped when she saw something in the water move.

“Water snakes,” said Liam, herding Annie toward the door. “The river lies just beyond that wall. It must have risen enough to breach its containment. If this rain continues much longer, we'll be in real trouble. I'll send men down here to get these tubs and salvage what food they can before the water gets much higher. Horace, are there any prisoners in the dungeon?”

The old man nodded. “Two. A chicken thief named Billium and Ned Brady, a man that married three women in three different towns.”

“The jailer is going to have to find someplace else to put them,” Liam said. “If this cellar is flooded, the dungeons are at risk as well. Here, Horace, we can each take a tub now. Annie, could you carry the torch?”

They had started up the steps with Annie leading the way when the stairwell shook. “The floor doesn't shake like that unless both drawbridges are raised at once,” said Annie. “I wonder what's happening now.”

“You mean what
else
is happening,” Liam muttered.

Annie had to stop at the top of the stairs to let a group of soldiers run past. “What's going on?” she asked the last soldier.

The man slowed enough to say, “There's an army advancing on the castle. It was raining so hard we didn't see them until they were halfway to the drawbridge.”

“Do you think it's a real army?” Annie asked Liam as he set the tub on the floor. “Someone has been using a lot of magic here today. The army might be an illusion. If the rain lets up, I might be able to hear the magic if it's there.”

“Then I think we should have a look,” said Liam. “Horace, get some men to help you take care of these tubs and see that the food and the rest of the tubs are brought up. The princess and I are going up on the battlements to see this army.”

The rain was pouring as hard as ever when they reached the courtyard. Despite the oiled cloth capes they wore, they were soon drenched from the waist down. As the gusts grew stronger, the capes flapped wildly so that Annie and Liam had to fight to hold on to them. Soon the water was trickling through the seams, making them both shiver.

Annie stepped gingerly across the courtyard, trying not to slip on the slick stones as she made her way
around the growing puddles. The first frog surprised her, but by the time she and Liam reached the far wall and the steps leading up to the battlements, the frogs seemed to be everywhere.

Fortunately, there weren't any frogs on the steps. Because the stairs were too narrow for people to walk side by side, Liam climbed behind Annie to catch her if she slipped. The well-worn stones were so slick that climbing demanded all her attention. It seemed to take forever to get to the top, but when she did she saw that Squidge was already there, his little arms clinging to the wall as he craned his neck to see over the edge. Finding a place to stand behind one of the crenellations, she glanced at the sprite. “Careful,” she said. “This wind is strong enough to blow you away.”