Princess Before Dawn

by E. D. Baker

  “Good evening,” he said with a strange accent. “I am the Duke of Highcliff. It is good to finally meet the owners of this castle.”

  “I’m not the owner,” said Liam. “This castle belongs to King Halbert and Queen Karolina. What were you doing in the cellar?”

  “Resting until it was time for the festivities to begin,” said the duke. “My friends and I would like to thank the owners for their hospitality. Their cellar is most peaceful and delightfully dark. No sunlight penetrated to disturb our sleep.”

  “You were down there all day?” asked Annie. She was bursting with questions, but just then a large group of people started up the stairs, nodding to Annie and Liam as they pushed past into the corridor, one after the other. Dismayed, Annie watched as they filed into the great hall. Nearly every one of these new, uninvited guests, was well groomed and dressed, although their clothing styles varied and were quite different from those in Treecrest or Dorinocco. High collars and formfitting clothes seemed to be most common, but they were all made of costly fabrics and furs, and their shoes were of the finest leather. They were either nobility or very rich, and they all acted as if they had every right to be there. The only ones who didn’t look wealthy were carrying musical instruments.

  Annie studied the last people to leave the cellar. Unlike the witches who looked like normal people in strange clothing, these people looked a little off, although she couldn’t tell how at first. It wasn’t until she looked at the duke again that she noticed how he and his friends were different from most people. Every one of them had pale skin and piercing eyes. They also seemed to have too many teeth in their mouths, or at least teeth that were bigger and longer than normal. She noticed their scent, as well. Although some had doused themselves heavily with perfume, nothing could cover up the musky, sour scent that still clung to them.

  A man dressed like the duke stopped to talk to him. He looked a lot like the Duke of Highcliff, although not quite so tall or so thin, and his hair was two shades lighter.

  “My nephew, Reynard,” the duke told Annie and Liam.

  Reynard turned to eye the young couple. Instead of talking to them, he turned back to the duke and said, “We won’t start without you.” When he walked away, Annie was struck by the way he moved, appearing to glide more than walk.

  “When did you get here?” Liam asked the duke.

  “We arrived shortly before dawn and postponed our ball until tonight.”

  “But no one invited you into the castle. You don’t have any right to be here!” said Liam.

  “Ah, but someone did invite us in,” the duke replied. “I believe it was a woman dressed all in feathers. She arrived only moments after I did and was crossing the drawbridge when I asked if we might join her. She replied, ‘Help yourself !’ so we all came in.”

  Chords were struck in the great hall, and the musicians began to warm up. “Please excuse me,” said the duke. “It seems our musicians are eager to begin.”

  Annie watched, dumbfounded, as the duke followed the last stragglers into the hall. “Is this really happening?” she asked Liam.

  “I figured out what they smell like,” Squidge said, tugging on the hem of Annie’s gown. “They smell like pickled, dead squirrels. Just looking at them gives me the heebie-jeebies.”

  “I want to know who they are,” said Liam. “I’ve never seen anyone like them before. Who sleeps in a cellar all day?”

  “I don’t like this one bit!” Annie told him.

  “Let’s see what they’re doing,” Liam suggested.

  Gesturing to the guards to accompany them, Annie, Liam, and Squidge returned to the doorway into the great hall and looked inside. The musicians had taken up a position at the far end of the hall, while the other strangers had chosen partners and were swooping and twirling from one end to the other. The servants who had been cleaning up after the evening meal stood against the wall, looking confused. Annie noticed that one of the servers was nearby. Thinking about the way Captain Sterling had been turned into a statue, she hurried to the girl’s side and whispered, “Please tell all our people to leave the hall. I don’t want anything bad to happen to them.”

  While the girl spread the word, Annie returned to Liam. “They’re very energetic dancers,” he said, watching the uninvited guests. “That’s a strenuous dance, but none of them seem to be tiring.”

  “At least they’re not raiding the kitchen,” said Annie. “Or taking things down from the walls.”

  “Yet,” Liam muttered. “Their ball has only just begun.”

  Squidge scrunched his face and shook his head. “I don’t like them. I thought the witches were kind of fun, but there’s something about these people I really don’t like. I just don’t know what it is yet.”

  Although Annie and Liam stayed to watch from the doorway, the dancers never seemed to tire, nor did they leave the room for any reason. “It looks as if they could keep this up all night,” Annie finally said. “I’d like to let my father get a good night’s sleep, but I think we really should tell him about this.”

  Liam nodded. “The guards can take shifts watching the guests. Let’s just hope these people are gone in the morning.”

  “I’ll watch them, too,” said Squidge. “I don’t trust them any more than I would a flea on my own backside.”

  After talking to the guards, Annie and Liam hurried up the stairs. Her father’s attendant protested that the king was asleep when Annie knocked on the door to his bedchamber and walked in.

  “I’m sorry to wake you, but we have another group of uninvited guests,” Annie told the king as he sat up, looking groggy. “Apparently they spent the day in the cellar and came out after dark.”

  The king looked fully awake as he pulled back the covers and stood up. “Tell me everything you can about them.”

  Liam did most of the talking and described everything that they had seen. Annie added a few details, but they were both adamant that the king didn’t need to go see them for himself, at least not yet. “We told the guards to watch them and let us know if anything happens. So far they haven’t done anything but dance to the music of their own musicians.”

  “And you say they’re not witches or wizards?” said the king.

  Annie shook her head. “We watched them for a while and I didn’t sense any use of magic.”

  “Then let them dance,” the king told them. “We’ll deal with them in the morning.”

  CHAPTER 4

  Worried about what their newest guests might be doing, Annie and Liam were up early the next morning. They had almost reached the great hall and were talking about how quiet it was when Ewan, the page, stopped them.

  “Their Majesties King Halbert and Queen Karolina request that you join them in the queen’s solarium.”

  “I didn’t think they’d be up this early,” Annie said to Liam.

  “Do you know if Captain Sterling has gone to see them yet today?” Liam asked the page.

  “He’s with them now,” Ewan replied.

  Anxious to hear what the captain had to report, Annie and Liam hurried to the solarium. They found the captain and Squidge there, still talking to Annie’s parents. Everyone looked up when Annie and Liam walked into the room.

  “The captain was just telling us about our newest guests,” said King Halbert. “Captain Sterling, please continue.”

  “I told Their Majesties that the ‘guests’ danced until just before dawn, then returned to the cellar,” said the captain. “We haven’t heard a sound from them since.”

  “I did,” said Squidge. “My hearing is lots better than yours. Right after they went down there, I heard a tapping sound like a bunch of people were walking on stone, then a whooshy sort of sound. Then it got real quiet.”

  There was a knock on the door, which opened to admit the elderly guard Horace. His face was flushed and he was out of breath from running. “Your Majesties, Captain Sterling, two of the guards have been found unconscious.”

  “Which guards?”
asked Captain Sterling. “Were they injured?”

  “Halstead and Wallace,” Horace told him. “A scullery maid found them. They were watching the dancing in the great hall for half the night, but they disappeared after they went off duty. No one saw them again until the girl found them in the storage room next to the buttery a few minutes ago. We didn’t want to move either one until you’d been down to see them.”

  “Take me to them,” ordered the captain.

  “I want to see them, too,” Liam declared.

  “If you’ll excuse us?” Annie said to her parents.

  “Go, then come back and tell us what you saw,” said the king.

  Squidge ran ahead while Annie and Liam followed Captain Sterling downstairs to the storage room. The cooks’ helpers had gathered around the doorway, peering at the two men lying inside. “Everyone, get back to work,” said the captain, and they all hurried off.

  “These men are unusually pale,” Liam said as he knelt beside the guard named Halstead.

  Captain Sterling knelt beside Wallace. “I don’t see a mark on them.”

  “Wait a moment … I see something,” said Annie. “Look at their necks. Are those puncture wounds?”

  Liam turned Halstead’s head, exposing more of his neck. Two holes about an inch apart appeared bright red against the man’s pale skin.

  “Is that a snake bite?” asked Liam.

  “Maybe a spider did it,” said Squidge.

  “Look, Wallace has the same bite on his neck.”

  “I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Liam. “Why would this happen now? Do you think those people brought snakes or spiders into the castle?”

  “This whole thing is so odd,” said Annie. “Why would any creature bite two people in an identical place?”

  “None of this makes sense,” Liam told them.

  “I’ll send for a healer to look at them,” said the captain. “In the meantime, my men can take them to their quarters.”

  “And I’ll go tell my parents what’s going on,” said Annie. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  The king and queen looked worried when Annie told them what she’d seen. “I suppose it could be spiders or snakes,” said the queen. “But do you think you might have missed some of those salamanders that you told us about? Is it possible that some might have gotten away and are spreading through the castle, biting people?”

  “Salamanders are very shy and wouldn’t leave marks like that,” said Annie. “I’m sure it wasn’t a salamander.”

  “Ordinary salamanders might not bite like that, but a salamander that a witch created might be very different,” said the queen.

  “I really think I got them all,” Annie told her.

  “Either way, I’m ordering that all the rushes used to cover the castle floors be thrown out and replaced and that every able-bodied person start hunting for snakes, spiders, and anything else that doesn’t belong here,” said the king. “I want whatever bit those men to be out of here before nightfall!”

  Annie left the room even more worried than she’d been before. She doubted very much that a snake or spider had been responsible, and feared that whatever had attacked them was something much worse. If her parents focused on the easy answer, they might completely overlook the real culprit. Although Annie thought that the answer might lie with the new uninvited visitors, she doubted that it was anything they had brought with them. Something her friend Millie had told her was nagging her. Although she hoped she was wrong, she had a sinking feeling that she knew what had bitten the two men.

  When Annie returned downstairs to learn if there was any more news, Liam was still consulting with Captain Sterling while a group of guards stood by, waiting for orders. “Has anyone talked to the guests?” she asked the captain.

  “No,” said the captain. “It’s a good idea. I’ll go talk to them now. Horace, you’re with me.”

  “Liam and I are going, too,” Annie told him. “Those people are very odd. I’d like to learn more about them, if I can.”

  “Fine,” said Liam. “But you stay behind us. We might be walking into a whole nest of snakes.”

  “Or spiders,” Horace said, shuddering.

  While Captain Sterling, Liam, and Squidge led the way, Annie followed with Horace. She had a feeling that the old man was determined to protect her, just as he’d tried so many times before. The men who were guarding the cellar door handed them torches, then watched from the top of the stairs as the small party warily took one step at a time.

  After the fairies’ rainstorm had flooded the cellar, they’d used their magic to dry it, but marks on the walls still showed just how high the water had risen. Aside from the empty barrels waiting to hold the fall harvest, the dirt floor was bare. Annie wondered why anyone would choose to sleep in a cellar, let alone one with no furniture.

  “Be really quiet,” whispered Squidge. “I have a bad feeling about this place.”

  “It’s just a cellar,” Annie whispered back.

  “Then what’s that?” Squidge asked, kicking the dirt to reveal a dry, shriveled object.

  “An old turnip from last year,” Annie told him.

  “Oh, good!” replied the sprite, who picked it up and ate it.

  Going from one small room to the next, the search party didn’t see a single person.

  “Where did they go?” asked Liam. “Do you think they used their postcards to return home?”

  “It looks that way,” said Annie.

  “Then how come I can still smell them?” asked Squidge. “Unless they were so stinky that their smell stays around even after they’re gone.”

  When a tiny movement above her caught Annie’s eye, she held her torch high to get a better look. She gasped when she saw that the ceiling was covered with bats hanging upside down from the uneven surface. Some seemed to be watching the search party, but the rest were asleep.

  “Where did they come from?” said Annie. “Liam, do you think these could be the bats that the fairies brought here when they were trying to ruin our wedding?” She doubted it, but it would be a simpler answer, and one that wasn’t nearly as awful as the possibility that seemed more and more likely.

  “Maybe,” said Liam. “Although I thought the fairies sent all the bats and squirrels back to the forest. And these bats look different. See, their faces aren’t the same and their color is different.”

  Annie nodded when she took another look. These weren’t the cute bats they’d seen before. Instead, these bats had split noses and sharp, protruding fangs. She thought they looked nasty and not at all friendly.

  “Could these bats have bitten the men?” asked Horace.

  “I wouldn’t be surprised,” said Liam. “Come on, let’s get out of here until we decide how we’ll deal with them.”

  “Princess, why don’t you—” Horace began as he turned around. He wasn’t looking where he was going when he bumped into an empty barrel, knocking it over with a crash and sending it careening across the floor.

  “I told you to be quiet!” shouted Squidge.

  Startled, the bats descended on the humans in a cloud of beating wings. Squidge darted up the stairs, shrieking the entire way. Annie covered her head with one arm while holding her torch high with the other. The men waved their torches in the air, trying to fend off the bats. Annie’s head was down when Liam grabbed her arm and shuffled her across the cellar floor and up the stairs. Horace and the captain followed, holding the bats at bay with their fire.

  When everyone was upstairs, Captain Sterling slammed the door shut. “I wish I’d had my sword with me,” he said, looking grim. “I could have dispatched a good number of those filthy creatures.”

  “I wish I owned a sword,” Squidge said. “Can you imagine how dashing I’d look?”

  “That was horrible!” Annie exclaimed as she handed her torch to one of the guards. “How will we get rid of them?”

  “I don’t know,” said the captain. “I suppose we could smoke them out.”r />
  Annie shook her head. “And fill the whole castle with suffocating fumes? My parents will never agree to that.”

  “I’ll go talk to Their Majesties now,” Captain Sterling declared.

  “And I’ll talk to some people who have dealt with bats,” Liam told him. “I’m sure we’ll come up with something.”

  “I’ll ask the cat if he wants to go get something to drink with me,” said Squidge. “That turnip made me thirsty.”

  Annie gave the sprite an annoyed glance before turning to Liam. “I’m going to do some research of my own. I’ll be in my father’s private meeting room if you need me.”

  While Liam and Captain Sterling were going to focus on getting rid of the bats, Annie had already decided to find out what she could about the people who had gone into the cellar. Millie had told her about her friend who claimed to be a vampire, something that didn’t exist in Treecrest or the neighboring kingdoms. But will-o’-the-wisps and dragons existed on the other side of the world when there was nothing like them here. Couldn’t vampires be just as real? After talking to Millie, Annie had found her father’s mythology book, the only place she had ever seen the word “vampire” mentioned. She remembered most of what she’d read, but not everything. It was time to refresh her memory.

  Once she reached her father’s meeting room, it didn’t take her long to find the right book and carry it over to the big table in front of her father’s chair. Annie flipped through the pages looking for the right section. Her dread mounted as she read the entry. According to the book, vampires slept during the day because of sunlight’s deadly effect on them. They were generally very pale and had two long canine teeth, or fangs, with which they bit their victims’ necks. They were also very strong and could easily overpower a grown man. The part that Annie found most interesting was the very last paragraph, which claimed that vampires could turn into bats.

  “And we have a cellar full of them!” Annie said out loud.