Authors: E. D. Baker
Wings (33 page)
“Don’t be silly, Ratinki. He said he loves her. I think true love is so romantic!”
“Between humans! But he’s a dragon. For all we know he might want to eat Millie!”
Klorine pursed her mouth in disgust. “Now who’s being a ninny-head? This is a nice young dragon, not some ravening beast. Don’t pay her any mind,” she said, turning back to Audun. “Just head south over the forest and the river. Millie’s mother is the Green Witch and a Dragon Friend. Any dragon can tell you how to find the castle. There are lots of dragons in Greater Greensward. You’ll feel right at home there.”
“I doubt it, but thanks, anyway,” said Audun.
When it began to rain, Audun searched until he found a cave where he could spend the night. He finally found one that was big enough, but was disappointed to see that a family of wolves already occupied it. Fortunately, after he went in to look around, the wolves decided to go somewhere else to sleep, and he spent the night undisturbed. Even so, he had trouble falling asleep. All he could think about was Millie. He’d never met anyone like her before.
Every time he was ready to drift off, Audun saw Millie’s face. He remembered how her eyes had lit up when she smiled at him, and how frightened she had looked when she’d found him frozen in the ice with his own noxious gas swirling around him. He remembered how she’d melted the ice with her dragon fire and had taken the flames into herself when his ice-dragon gas exploded. After she had saved his life, fire had nearly consumed her and she’d had to dive into a valley filled with snow to put it
out. The snow had melted and she was sinking in the water when he dove in after her. Audun rubbed his forelimbs, remembering what it had been like to carry her. He wished he could touch her again, if only for a moment, and he went to sleep only after he’d promised himself that he’d be with her very soon.
The sky was clear the next morning except for a scattering of clouds in the distance. He had no trouble finding Millie’s scent again, but he hadn’t flown far before he lost it. This didn’t worry him at first. Turning on a wing tip, he retraced his flight path, returning to the spot where he’d last smelled her. He continued on, more carefully this time, and lost the odor at exactly the same place. Audun tried again and again, each time becoming more agitated as well as more determined not to give up.
Eventually, he caught the faintest whiff of another familiar scent, one he had smelled for the first time in the castle near his home. It had been the Blue Witch’s castle, and although his family had been trapped in the walls, it hadn’t been the witch’s doing; she had been a prisoner as well. He couldn’t remember the old woman’s name, but he did know that she and Millie had become friends of sorts. It was possible that she might even know Millie’s whereabouts.
Following the new scent, Audun flew toward a part of the forest where the trees were older and taller. As he passed over a clearing, he glanced down and saw a nymph with long, green hair paddling in a small pond, while
a unicorn drank from the shallower water. At Audun’s approach, the nymph slipped into the depths of the pond. The unicorn snorted, shook its mane, and turned to run.
The dragon flew on and soon the old witch’s scent drew Audun to a clearing where nodding bluebells surrounded a small, well-kept cottage with a newly thatched roof and a gently puffing chimney. Three white-haired women sat in the shade of the only tree in the clearing, sipping from cups shaped like half-opened tulips. Not wanting to startle them, Audun landed at the edge of the forest. He was about to call out a greeting when the woman in the muddy-colored gown glanced over her shoulder and said to her friends, “Don’t look now, but there’s a dragon sneaking up on us.”
The woman in gray lowered her cup. “If you won’t let us look, Mudine, you’ll have to do the looking for us. Is it anyone we know?”
Mudine shook her head. “I’ve never seen a dragon like this before. He’s white.”
“‘Never trust a dragon you don’t know,’ my old mother used to say,” said the woman in gray.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Oculura,” snapped the smallest woman. “I had the same mother as you and I never heard her say such a thing! She wouldn’t have trusted any dragon, living or dead!”
“You’re older than I am, Dyspepsia. You left home years before I did. I had to listen to a lot of mother’s adages before she choked to death on that fried radish.”
“Can you two stop arguing long enough for us to deal with this dragon?” asked Mudine.
“That’s easy enough,” said Oculura. “A wall of flame should chase him off. It worked on my last husband when he wouldn’t stop coming around.”
“That’s even more ridiculous!” said Dyspepsia. “This is a dragon we’re talking about. They love flames! Why don’t we try something like this …”
Rising to her feet, the little old witch swept her arm in a grand gesture while muttering under her breath. With a rumble and a
whoosh!
a torrent of stones rose out of the ground and flung themselves at Audun’s head.
Befuddled, Audun half-turned, lifted his tail, and swatted the stones aside. He hadn’t done anything to provoke these humans, yet they were attacking him. All he wanted to do was talk to the Blue Witch about Millie. Maybe they didn’t understand …
“Excuse me!” he called, taking two steps closer to the old women. “I just wanted to…”
“Well, that didn’t do a bit of good,” said Oculura. “The beast is still coming to get us. Maybe if I do this …” Speaking under her breath, the witch held her hands in front of her, then thrust them apart as if she was trying to move something heavy.
Audun yelped as the ground opened beneath his feet. He spread his wings and was about to fly away when Mudine said, “And I’ll do this!” Smiling with glee, the old
woman fluttered her fingers at his feet and said something Audun couldn’t quite hear. Vines erupted from the hole in the ground and wrapped themselves around Audun. “Go ahead and use your fire on those, dragon!” she shouted. “Those asbesta vines will never burn!”
The white dragon roared in surprise, jerking at his trapped feet and flapping his wings. Suddenly the door to the cottage burst open and a fourth white-haired lady stepped out, blinking at the sunshine. “What’s this racket about?” she demanded. “I thought you were going to let me take a nap.”
Taking a deep breath, Audun exhaled onto the vines, which immediately turned a sickly shade of yellow and shriveled. Free again, he rose into the air and cupped his wings so he could stay in place. He would have flown away if he hadn’t recognized the woman who had just stepped outside as the witch he had come to see. It was plain that she recognized him at the same time, because her eyes grew wide in surprise.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. “I never thought I’d see you again.”
“I’m looking for Millie,” said Audun. “Do you know where I might find her?”
“Why?” the witch asked, sounding suspicious.
“Because I love her,” he replied. “I don’t want to live without her.”
The Tales of the Frog Princess:
The Frog Princess
Dragon’s Breath
Once Upon a Curse
No Place for Magic
The Salamander Spell
The Dragon Princess
Dragon Kiss
Wings
Copyright © 2008 by E. D. Baker
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in the United States of America in May 2008e
by Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers
E-book edition published in April 2011
www.bloomsburykids.com
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to
Permissions, Bloomsbury BFYR, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Baker, E. D.
Wings / by E. D. Baker. — 1st US. ed.
p. cm.
Summary: When Tamisin finds out that she is half fairy, she decides to find out more
answers directly from the fairies themselves, including her mother, the fairy queen.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59990-193-0 • ISBN-10: 1-59990-193-5 (hardcover)
[1. Fairies—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.B17005Wi 2008 [Fic]—dc22 2007023553
ISBN 978-1-59990-806-9 (e-book)
Read all seven books in the
Tales of the Frog Princess series!
“[A] brilliantly created world of magic and mayhem.”—
VOYA
www.edbakerbooks.com
www.talesofedbaker.com
made her international debut with
The Frog Princess
, which was a Book Sense Children’s Pick and in part inspired the hit Disney movie
The Princess and the Frog
. Since then she has written six other books in the series—
Dragon’s Breath, Once Upon a Curse, No Place for Magic, The Salamander Spell, The Dragon Princess
, and
Dragon Kiss
—as well as
Wings: A Fairy Tale
. A mother of three and grandmother of one, Ms. Baker lives in Maryland, where she and her family breed horses and provide a home for five cats; three dogs; three goats named Malcolm, Seth, and Ruben; and two ducks named Quackers and George.