The Bravest Princess

by E. D. Baker

  “We thought of that,” Liam said with a grin. “So we had a lot of windows covered. We’re ready to go now. Are you?”

  “Who’s ‘we’?” asked Annie.

  “Quite a group, actually. Captain Sterling is going, and so is King Archibald’s captain of the guard, Captain Everhart. Horace insists on accompanying us, too. He feels very guilty about letting you get trapped in the room that filled with water.”

  “But he didn’t let me do anything!” said Annie. “He told me that going down there was a bad idea.”

  “He’s convinced that he could have stopped you if he’d really tried, although even I know that stopping you when your mind’s made up is impossible! Let me see … oh, yes, Dog is going as well.”

  “That is quite a group,” Annie told him.

  “We don’t have a lot of time to do this, and I’ve already explored most of the castle. The only place I haven’t looked is the south tower, which was locked when I tried to go in.”

  “The room that filled with water was in the south tower,” said Annie. “The door was open then.”

  “Because the witch wanted you to go in. Captain Everhart locked it after that, so I had to go to him for a key. He offered to accompany us so he could show us around. Are you sure you’re up to this? You’ve been through a lot today.”

  “I’m sore—that’s all,” said Annie, trying not to show how much the idea of going outside frightened her. The crows had attacked her twice so far today. She didn’t know how well she’d stand up to another attack. But she had to go with the group if there was even the smallest chance that Liam might run into one of the witches. “I’m not letting you do this without me.”

  “Then we need to head downstairs to that office you were using. Captain Everhart brought you a surprise.”

  “What kind of surprise?” Annie asked.

  “You’ll see” was all Liam would say.

  Annie was still a little unsteady on her feet, and with her hands so sore, she couldn’t hold on to the railing very well. When Liam noticed this, he took hold of her elbow and helped her down the stairs. She gave him a grateful look when they reached the bottom. “Watching the princes during this competition has made me appreciate you all the more. You do things naturally that some princes wouldn’t even think of doing. Can you imagine Digby helping anyone down the stairs?”

  “No, I can’t,” said Liam. “But then I also can’t imagine him finding a princess as wonderful as you and getting her to agree to marry him.”

  “I guess we’re both lucky, then!” said Annie, and leaned in for a kiss. Her lips had scarcely touched Liam’s when Dog butted the two of them with her head. She barked once, wagged her tail, and started to walk away.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Liam asked Dog. “Why aren’t you talking?”

  “Because she can’t talk when she’s too close to me,” said Annie. “Was there something you wanted to tell us, Dog?”

  Dog stopped and turned to look at them, her tongue lolling from her mouth. “I want you to follow me. Everyone’s waiting for you. We have lots to do.”

  “Here,” said Liam. “I know how we can get there faster.” Scooping Annie into his arms, he ran down the corridor, banging the door open with his shoulder. Annie was laughing as they entered the room, but her laughter died away when she saw how serious everyone looked. Horace was there with a sling on his arm and a worried expression on his face. Captain Sterling looked solemn, and standing beside him was a man Annie had seen only from a distance.

  “Princess Annabelle, this is Captain Everhart,” Liam said, setting her down in front of the man.

  “Captain,” Annie said.

  “Your Highness,” the captain replied. He bowed, and when Annie held out her hand, he took it and kissed the back before letting it go.

  Captain Everhart was older than Captain Sterling by about twenty years, and his gray hair was turning white. Annie was conscious of his scrutiny as Liam turned her toward the table in the middle of the room.

  A suit of armor, from armored foot covers to helmet, was laid out on the table’s surface, and it all seemed to be her size. “What’s this for?” Annie asked, glancing up at Liam.

  “It’s for you!” Horace announced. He had been standing in the corner, but he stepped forward now and tapped the helmet with his finger. “This’ll keep the crows off you better than anything!”

  “The crows won’t know it’s you if you go outside wearing that. It’s a boy’s suit of armor that Captain Everhart found,” Liam said. “It’s lighter than a man’s armor. It may not be the best fit, but it’s the closest thing to your size that the captain could find.”

  Annie was touched that they’d thought of the armor. Although she had tried to be brave and not show them how much the birds frightened her, she must not have been very convincing. Even thinking about the crows made her panic; facing another attack would be more than she could bear.

  Liam laughed. “Think of it as an experience that you can tell our grandchildren about someday.”

  “I don’t know if I can put it on,” Annie said, holding up her bandage-swathed hands.

  “We’ll help you,” said Liam. “All you have to do is stand there.”

  “But … wait! I don’t … that’s too … ow!”

  No one listened to Annie’s protests as they strapped on the leather and metal pieces of the armor. Some pieces squeezed too tight, and others cut into her a bit when she moved, but the suit of armor did fit somewhat when they had it all on her, and she could walk when she tried to, although not very fast.

  “So what do you think?” Liam asked as he closed the visor on the helmet.

  “I’ll be fine as long as I don’t take any deep breaths,” Annie said, jabbing at the visor with both hands. “Would you mind putting this up again? I can’t see a thing with it down.”

  “But do you feel safe from the crows?” asked Horace as Liam lifted the visor.

  “Very safe,” said Annie. “Not even the crows can get past this much protection!” She turned slowly and walked to the door, clanking loudly. “I can see that it has limitations, though. I can’t run in it, I can’t wear it if I want to sneak up on someone, and I don’t ever want to stand outside in a thunderstorm while I’m wearing this. Come on. Dog is right. We do have lots to do.”

  “Captain Everhart,” Liam said as they started out the door, “you think that the south tower is the only place a witch could hide in the castle?”

  “I do,” said the captain. “No one goes there anymore, not after Queen Marissa claimed it for her own. I know what it looked like before she came, but it’s changed a lot since then. I supervised cleaning out the room she used on the top floor. It’s not a room I’d enter unless I had to.”

  Annie froze when she reached the door leading outside and saw the crows perched on the wall. Using both hands, she lowered her visor and adjusted her head inside the helmet until she could see through the narrow slit. Her mouth was dry when she murmured, “I can do this,” and she forced herself to start walking. Finding Captain Sterling in front of her, she followed his back, taking one slow step at a time. Although she doubted that she could have made herself go outside without the helmet, wearing the visor down was unnerving. Not only was her vision limited, but her breath was loud in her ears and her scalp itched as she began to perspire.

  Although Annie could hear the crows caw occasionally, she couldn’t see much of anything. She thought about turning to look around, but she wasn’t sure she’d find the captain again, and she liked being able to follow his back. At one point, the crows’ raucous voices grew louder, and she could see Captain Sterling waving his sword. She was sure the crows were attacking, but then the captain moved on and so did she, and in a few minutes they were waiting by the tower door as Captain Everhart unlocked it.

  Once they were inside the tower and the door was closed, Annie took off the helmet. After scratching her itchy scalp, she brushed the damp hair off her forehead.

  “I
thought we’d start at the bottom and work our way up,” said Liam. “Annie, you might want to stay here.”

  “Then what was the point of my coming along?” she asked. “I know that horrible room is down there, but I still think I should go.”

  Liam shrugged. “I’m all right with it if you are. Dog, why don’t you go first?”

  Annie eyed the long set of stairs and thought about removing the suit of armor, almost immediately dismissing the idea. Although the armor was awkward and uncomfortable, she felt safer with it on and didn’t want to take it off. Annie couldn’t help but feel that here in the tower, where the witch had tried to drown her, something else had to be lying in wait. If it was a flock of crows, what better way to face them than while encased in a metal suit?

  “Better safe than sorry,” she muttered, tucking the helmet under her arm. Once again Liam walked beside her as she made her way down the stairs, following the islands of light from the torches that Captain Sterling and Captain Everhart had brought.

  The stairs felt longer than Annie remembered, and the walk down seemed to take forever. When she reached the bottom, she stopped to look around. The floor was still damp with small puddles, and the air was cold and smelled musty. Annie didn’t go in the room where she’d been locked, but Liam and the captains did. A few minutes later, Liam was gesturing to her from what she had thought was a niche in the wall but turned out to be the beginning of a short corridor.

  “This is where the witch went when she locked you in that room,” said Liam. “And look here—it’s the lever she must have pulled to let the water in.”

  Annie shuddered and made a point of not looking. As interesting as Liam seemed to find it, she couldn’t wait to get out of there. She followed him past the other two doors in the corridor, peeking inside. One was filled with broken furniture warped from all the moisture. The other held suits of armor so rusty that pieces crumbled off when Horace touched them.

  “Why would you store anything in such a wet place?” Annie asked Liam.

  “Who knows?” the prince replied. “It sure didn’t do this stuff any good. There’s no sign of any witches down here, so let’s start on the higher floors.”

  Annie groaned as she climbed the stairs back to the first floor. There had to be at least ten floors in the tower, and she dreaded the thought of climbing to each one.

  It didn’t take them long to search the first floor. Aside from the staircase leading down and another leading up, there were two empty rooms with piles of moldering litter in the corners. Dust lay thick on the floor; it was obvious that no one had been in either room in a very long time. When Dog searched a room, she left paw prints in the dust. She sneezed when she snuffled the floor and came back to Annie with her muzzle gray.

  “What did you smell?” Annie asked.

  “Old stuff that used to be here but isn’t anymore,” said Dog. “Nothing good.”

  The next few floors held more empty rooms, but as they climbed higher, they found evidence that birds had been making their homes there. A few black feathers made Annie think that they might be the crows, and she held the helmet closer, glad that she had it with her.

  They were halfway between the seventh and eighth floors when Dog raised her head and sniffed the air. “Something smells good up here!” she said, and scurried up the steps to the eighth-floor landing.

  While Horace and the captains inspected the first room, Annie and Liam followed Dog to the room beyond it. Someone had been using the fireplace to cook, and a large kettle still hung over the ashes. The acrid smell of burned wood mingled with another, sweeter scent. A pile of small, dark bricks rested in the corner past the fireplace. Curious, Annie poked one of the bricks with her toe and gasped. They weren’t bricks, but pieces of fudge cut into large blocks.

  “There are candy canes over here,” Liam said from the other side of the room. “And this looks like taffy.”

  “Granny Bentbone must be here!” said Annie.

  Liam nodded. “That explains why they haven’t been able to locate her in Dorinocco.”

  “We found bedding and some clothes in the other room,” Captain Sterling said from the doorway. “I recognize some of the clothes. Granny Bentbone was wearing them when we took her to the tower. The rest look like some of the clothes we left for her.”

  “So when we took her to the tower, all we did was take her sightseeing and give her a new wardrobe,” said Annie.

  “I’ll have my men clean all this out of here,” Captain Everhart announced. “I’ll post a guard so no one can enter the tower again.”

  “Let’s go inspect the upper floors,” said Liam. “I want to see what else we can find. Dog, leave that alone. An evil witch made that candy. You don’t know what she might have put in it.”

  “You’re right,” Dog said, and swallowed a bite of fudge. “It could be disgusting and icky. Just one more piece.”

  “Dog!” Annie cried. “You shouldn’t eat chocolate anyway!”

  “I’m coming,” Dog muttered, giving the candy one last look.

  Annie was tired and wished she could sit down, but she didn’t know how she’d get back up with the armor on if she did. Instead, she made herself start up the next flight of stairs. Even before she stepped onto the landing, Annie knew she didn’t like the ninth floor. It was empty, like the others, but she got the feeling that someone had just been there and was waiting for them to leave so she could come back. The other floors had been quiet simply because there was nothing there. This floor seemed ominously quiet. Annie didn’t mention this to anyone, but the others must have felt something as well. Dog whined and stayed on the stairs while the others gave the floor only a cursory glance and hurried on to the next one.

  “This is where Queen Marissa had her workshop,” Captain Everhart said as they neared the top floor. “My men and I cleaned out all the jars and boxes while she was in the dungeon. We burned it in a bonfire outside.”

  “It smelled real bad,” said Dog.

  “I saw things in this room that … never mind,” Captain Everhart said, glancing at Annie. Taking a heavy key from his pocket, the captain opened the door and stepped inside. “There isn’t much left except for that table, those shelves, and the old mirror between those two windows.”

  Annie shuddered as she stepped into the room. She’d thought the room below it was bad, but this was much worse. A feeling of malevolence filled the room, as if the walls and floors could absorb the emotions of the occupants. It was dark inside, despite the six small windows, and even the captains’ torches couldn’t dispel the gloom. The stone floor was shattered in places and stained with something dark in others. The table was badly gouged and wobbled on its legs when Horace touched it. Dog sniffed at the stains and growled, walking away stiff-legged with her ears laid flat.

  “What is it, Dog?” asked Annie.

  “Bad things,” whined Dog.

  “Can you bring more light over here?” Liam asked from where he stood by the mirror.

  The two captains came forward with their torches. Shadows seemed to waver and flow across the upper walls and ceiling, shying away from the light. Annie could feel the tiny hairs on her arms rise as she walked toward the mirror. She jumped when she heard a soft sound behind her, where no one had been a moment before. Spinning around, Annie was surprised to see Cat strolling into the room.

  “How did you get in?” asked Captain Everhart. “I locked the door to the tower behind us.”

  “I came in when you did,” said Cat. “You people are so unobservant!”

  “Hello, Cat!” said Annie. “I wondered if I’d get to see you.”

  “I’ve been busy,” Cat replied. “The dungeons were full of mice when I moved in. It’s my duty to eat as many as I can.”

  “Someone has been here,” said Liam. “Look, there are footprints in the dust on the floor. Especially here, in front of this mirror.”

  “The queen talked to that mirror every day,” Cat declared. “Why don’t you try it? Ask
it a question. It will answer with pictures.”

  “I love pictures!” said Dog.

  “How does it work?” asked Liam.

  Cat yawned and stretched one back leg, then the other. “Do what the old witch did. Say ‘Mirror, mirror, on the wall,’ then ask your question.”

  Liam studied the mirror. “Do you think we could use it to find out about Marissa and Terobella?”

  “You won’t know until you try,” said Annie. “Wait just a minute. It might work better if I’m not near it.” She walked to the opposite side of the room and turned to face Liam again. “Okay, go ahead.”

  “Mirror, mirror, on the wall,” Liam began.

  A face appeared, faint at first, but it was soon clear even from where Annie stood. It glared at Liam and said, “Why should I answer you?”

  “You’re supposed to know everything, right?” Annie called. “Do you know who I am, Mirror?”

  The mirror’s expression changed from belligerence to fear when it saw Annie. “Yes, yes, I do. You’re that horrid princess who destroys magic. Nothing with magic will work when you’re near.”

  “Then you’ll understand what I mean when I say that if you don’t answer every question he asks, I’m going to take you home with me and put you in my bedchamber. Next to my bed. Only a few feet away from where I sleep. You’ll be close to me all night long.”

  “No!” cried the face.

  “And my bedchamber isn’t anything like this. It hasn’t changed since I was a little girl. I have a tapestry with dancing unicorns on my wall and pillows embroidered with butterflies and flowers. My favorite color is pink, and I—”

  “Stop!” cried the face.

  “If you don’t help us now, you’ll spend the rest of your existence there. Oh, and I sing a lot in my room—happy, cheerful songs!”

  “Enough!” said the mirror. “I’ll do it! Ask your question!”

  “Very good,” said Liam. “Tell me, Mirror, who has come to see you lately?”

  Three images appeared in the mirror. Annie recognized Queen Marissa right away. The second was Granny Bentbone, looking older and more stooped than ever. The third was a stranger to Annie; a younger woman with piercing eyes and a cruel sneer.