Princess Before Dawn Read online

  “That’s Zoë’s father. He’s come to help us,” said Annie.

  “Did they tell you about the vampire parties?” Squidge asked her. “They hold them in the courtyard and they’re really loud.”

  “Who is this?” Emma said, crouching down to get a better look at Squidge. “I’ve never seen anyone like you before.”

  Squidge stepped away from Annie and stood as straight and tall as he could manage. “I’m a sprite,” he said. “And proud of it. Who are you?”

  “I’m Princess Emeralda of Greater Greensward, a kingdom very far from here. I’m also the Green Witch and I hope to help with your vampire problem.”

  “It’s not my vampire problem,” Squidge declared. “I discovered something new and I’m having a great time. I was spying on their party the night after Annie left and this dopey-looking guy with greasy hair and terrible teeth grabbed me and tried to bite my neck. He’d barely touched me with his chompers when he dropped me and started to howl. He got all slobbery and a minute later his big pointy teeth fell out! It looks like sprite blood is too sweet for those guys to handle.”

  “Are you all right?” Annie asked him.

  “Me? Oh, yeah! Right as rain,” Squidge said, and pulled back his collar to show her his neck. “He didn’t even leave a mark. Anyway, every night I try to get more vampires to bite me. They can’t resist me ’cause I’m so very tasty. I heard one say that I smell like vampire candy. Making them lose their teeth is more fun than sticking cherries on porcupines. I’m up to sixteen vampires now.”

  Garrid hadn’t really seemed interested in Squidge at first, but hearing this he looked horrified. He studied the sprite without moving any closer. After one sniff, he nodded and said, “I must admit, you do smell delicious. I can understand why a vampire might find you irresistible.”

  “See! Just like I told you,” Squidge crowed. “And if I get sweaty, they like me even better. I must smell really good then!”

  “What happens if a vampire’s fangs fall out?” Emma asked the vampire prince.

  “They cannot feed from the source and must drink stored blood or they will die,” Garrid said, looking grim.

  “Are there many sprites in this part of the world?” asked Emma.

  “Lots and lots!” Squidge said with glee. “I have seventeen brothers and eighteen sisters and more cousins than Scarface has fleas.”

  Loud music started in the courtyard and everyone turned toward the door. “That sounds like the kind of music that vampires play at their parties,” Garrid told the others.

  “They’ve had a party in the courtyard every night since you left, Annie, and there isn’t anything we can do about it,” said the queen. “When I heard it the first night they were here, I thought it was lovely, but I hate it now.”

  “Even the raised drawbridge doesn’t stop them,” the king declared. “Once the sun goes down, those monsters fly over the wall and do whatever they please. I think they have parties just outside our door so they can rub our helplessness in our faces.”

  “I believe it’s time that I see for myself what’s going on,” Garrid said. “Zoë, why don’t you go with me and point out the vampires who attacked you? After I deal with the duke, they deserve my particular attention.”

  “I’d be happy to,” said Zoë. When Francis started walking with them, she shook her head. “You need to stay here for now. We’re not going to fight with them unless they force us to.”

  Francis pulled her into his arms. “I just want to keep you safe.”

  “She’ll be safe,” Garrid assured him. “I won’t let them touch her. Lock the door behind us and don’t let anyone in unless you’re certain it’s Zoë or me. If all goes well, this shouldn’t take very long.”

  Annie had no intention of letting her friends handle her kingdom’s problems without her. As soon as Zoë and the vampire prince walked out the door, she ran upstairs and found a maid to help her into her suit of armor. When she returned to the corridor outside the great hall, her parents were gone, but Liam and Captain Sterling were there with the guards and they were all wearing their armor. Francis wore his golden armor as he paced by the door near where Emma was talking quietly to Squidge. The vampires’ music was playing just as loudly as before.

  “I’m going out there,” Annie announced. “And no one is going to stop me.”

  “We don’t want to stop you,” said Francis. “We’ve been waiting for you. We’re going out, too.”

  “The captain and I are going first in case the vampires are waiting to ambush us as soon as we walk out,” Liam said as he pulled his sword from its scabbard. “Ready?”

  When everyone acknowledged that they were, Liam opened the door. The steps were clear, so he and his men proceeded down into the courtyard while Annie, Francis, and Emma followed them, taking cover behind a wagon. One of the guards who had stayed in the corridor closed the door and locked it.

  “There’s Garrid,” said Francis. “Zoë’s there, too.”

  Zoë saw them at the same moment and came running to talk to them. “I told you to stay inside!” she said, frowning.

  “Did you really think I would when I knew that you were in danger?” Francis asked her.

  Zoë sighed. “I suppose it was too much to ask. There hasn’t been much danger, though. They’re more interested in the stale blood they’re drinking than they are in us. Father and I have been listening in on their conversations while I pointed out the troublemakers. He’s been marking them and, well, you’ll see.”

  They all turned to watch as Garrid approached another vampire who didn’t notice when the vampire prince touched his hand. The spot he’d touched glowed red for a moment, then faded as the prince walked away.

  “I see the duke is still alive,” said Annie.

  “Indeed,” Zoë replied. “I was pretty sure Reynard was lying.”

  The Duke of Highcliff was talking to some other vampires when Garrid approached him. Curious to hear what they said, Zoë and her friends crept closer.

  “Your Highness!” the duke said, sounding pleased when he saw the prince. “When did you arrive?”

  “A short while ago,” said Garrid. “What I want to know is why you’re here.”

  The duke shrugged. “My nephew suggested it. He purchased some magic postcards at the Magic Marketplace and brought me and some of my friends here to see a different part of the world.”

  “And yet you’re still here,” said Garrid.

  “We were going to stay only a few days,” the duke admitted, “but the humans turned on us and threw us out. It became a matter of honor. We couldn’t just leave after that.”

  “Was it Reynard’s suggestion that you stay even after you were asked to leave?” Garrid said. “And that you fight the humans who own this castle? I’ve known you for many years and you’ve always been an honorable man. I would never have expected this of you. You’ve put far too much trust in the word of your brother’s son. Did you know that your nephew returned to Highcliff without you? He’s telling everyone that you’re dead. Reynard and his friend have taken over your castle.”

  “He did what?” the duke said, no longer sounding affable. “I haven’t seen him for a few days. He told me that he and his friend were going off to explore the countryside and would be back soon. That scoundrel! Please excuse me, Your Highness, but it’s time I return home to deal with Reynard!”

  “Make sure that he’s punished appropriately,” said Garrid. “Because if you don’t, I will. Reynard poisoned me with harpy dust, locked up my wife, and tried to keep my daughter prisoner. When we got away, harpies were overrunning your castle. I doubt very much that your nephew can handle it.”

  The duke was furious when he took a postcard from his pocket. “By your leave, Your Highness,” he said. Three other vampires crowded close to him and they all disappeared at once.

  “As for the rest of you,” Prince Garrid said in a ringing voice loud enough to hear throughout the courtyard, “I marked those of you who atta
cked my daughter, a royal princess. My symbol will stay with you for three years, showing everyone that you are traitors to the royal family. Should you do only good within those three years, the mark will fade until it disappears. Should you continue in your disrespect to my family or your fellow vampires, the mark will remain and you will be ostracized from the company of all vampires.”

  The partiers turned to look at one another. When any of them spotted a vampire wearing the prince’s mark, they backed away as if he were contagious. One by one, the unmarked vampires took out their postcards and left Treecrest until only the vampires who bore Garrid’s mark remained.

  “You can’t do this just because of your daughter,” shouted one of the marked vampires. “She’s not even a full-blood.”

  “I don’t care how powerful they are, half-bloods don’t have the right to tell us what to do!” shouted another vampire.

  “Yet she is my daughter and I am your prince,” Garrid declared. “You owe fealty to me and respect to everyone in my family.”

  “I don’t deserve your mark,” a vampire cried. “None of us do. Yet now we have nothing to lose!”

  As if at a silent signal, the vampires unsheathed their swords and rushed Garrid and Zoë. Garrid waved his arm and the vampires flew back as if a giant had swatted them. They were on their feet a moment later, hurling themselves at the prince and Zoë again.

  When Francis, Liam, and Captain Sterling ran to defend the vampire prince, Emma put her hand on Annie’s arm, keeping her there. “I was afraid this might happen,” said Emma. “I think we need reinforcements who are more effective against vampires than a mere sword. This spell should do it.”

  Friends of Squidge and family, too,

  Little sprites, I call on you.

  Vampires came and will not leave.

  They taste our blood and they believe

  That they have every right to stay,

  And plague us in their loathsome way.

  We need your help, we need it now.

  Please help us make them go somehow.

  Annie flinched when lightning flashed and thunder boomed even though the sky was clear. She remembered that Emma wasn’t just the Green Witch, the most powerful witch in Greater Greensward; she was also a dragon when she wanted to be, and so had dragon magic. When the wind started to blow, Annie had a good idea what might be coming next.

  The vampires were trying to overwhelm Garrid and his defenders when the first sprites arrived, carried on winds that they controlled. Then Squidge was there, telling them what to do, and they ran toward the vampires, laughing with glee. Emma held on to Annie, anchoring them both as wind blew from every direction, buffeting them and almost knocking them down. More and more sprites came until the courtyard seemed to be overrun.

  At first the vampires didn’t appear to notice what was happening, but as the urge to bite the sprites became overwhelming, and one vampire after another lost their fangs, those attacking the prince came to understand their peril. The fangless vampires were the first to use their postcards to leave, crying out in anguish and despair. With their numbers diminished, the rest followed soon after.

  “That was amazing!” Annie said, and hugged Emma.

  Emma laughed and said, “I’m just glad it worked. I’m beginning to think that there aren’t any vampires in your part of the world because of the sprites. They may be adorable, but they’re deadly to vampires, a creature that everyone else fears.”

  “Where did all those sprites come from?” Liam asked as he joined Annie.

  “Emma used her magic to bring them here,” Annie told him.

  “It was a great way to end the fighting, except for one thing,” he said as a trio of giggling sprites rode by on Scarface’s back. “What are your parents going to do with all these sprites?”

  “I hadn’t thought of that,” said Annie. “I was more worried about all the witches and vampires who still have postcards. What’s to stop them from coming back someday?”

  “I don’t think they will,” Emma told her. “Especially not after word gets around that you can take away magic and that the sprites can make vampires lose their fangs.”

  “Emma, that was an inspired idea!” Zoë cried as she joined her friends.

  Her father was watching the sprites playing on the wagon when he said. “It was indeed, although I must admit, I’m a tiny bit afraid of those sprites myself.” When Squidge strolled up with Bumpo the hedgehog, the vampire prince stepped out of their way.

  “Who would have guessed that we had our own solution with us all along?” said Annie.

  “Uh, now that all these sprites are here, how long do you think they plan to stay?” asked Liam.

  “Feed them now and they’ll be gone before morning,” said Squidge. “They all have homes and jobs that need them.”

  “I’m curious,” said Emma. “What do sprites like to eat?”

  “Breakfast pastries!” Squidge said, clapping his hands in delight. “And lots of them!”

  CHAPTER 16

  “I can’t believe that you can eat more pastries!” Annie declared. “Not after you gorged on them last night.”

  Squidge and one of his younger sisters, an adorable, tiny girl named Posy, were seated cross-legged on the table just past Annie’s trencher. All the other sprites had departed during the night after eating the vast number of breakfast pastries that Cook and her helpers had stayed up to make.

  Squidge patted his rounded belly and sighed. “You can never have too much of a good thing, and Cook’s pastries aren’t just good, they’re great! We have to get the recipe to take to your cook in Dorinocco. I could eat these every day.”

  “You’re still going back with us?” asked Liam.

  Squidge nodded. “Sure am. You need me! That reminds me, Your Majesty, do you think you might be able to hire my sister?” he asked, turning to Queen Karolina. Despite their late night, both the king and queen had gotten up to say good-bye to Annie and Liam, who planned to return to Dorinocco that day. “Posy needs a job and it seems to me that you can use a sprite here. She’s good with animals and can keep all yours in line.”

  “We don’t have very many animals in the castle,” said the queen. “Just a few hounds and a cat or two. And the horses, of course.”

  “Actually, you have seven cats and ten dogs, including the ones that live in the stable. And then there are the chickens and doves and mice and rats and roaches and flies and—” Posy began.

  The queen shuddered. “I see your point.”

  “And if any vampires come back, I can offer to let them bite me and chase them away,” Posy told her. “I was really good at it last night.”

  “It might not be a bad idea to have you here,” said the king. “Just in case.”

  “My biggest fear is that more people might buy the postcards and the same thing might happen all over again,” Annie said.

  “I thought about that as well,” Garrid said from his seat beside King Halbert. “I propose that we visit the Magic Marketplace and talk to the vendor selling the postcards. I’m sure we can come to some sort of arrangement.”

  “You mean ask them to stop selling the cards for Treecrest?” asked Annie.

  “Precisely!” the vampire prince replied.

  When he smiled, Annie couldn’t help but wonder what he really had in mind.

  “Millie lent me all the postcards she bought when she went there with you,” said Zoë. “Including one of the Magic Marketplace. I could take you if you’d like to go.”

  “That would be wonderful!” Annie told her. “The sooner we can get them to stop selling the Treecrest postcards, the sooner we can stop worrying.”

  Annie, Zoë, and Garrid weren’t the only ones to go to the Magic Marketplace. Francis went because Zoë was going, Emma went because she needed to buy someone a present, and Liam wanted to see what else was for sale. “You still want a singing sword, don’t you?” said Annie.

  “Well, yeah! Have you seen the sword Francis bought? I w
ant a sword just like Torrin,” Liam said, his eyes shining. “Plus, I didn’t really look around at the other stalls. Who knows what else I might find?”

  The moment they arrived, they all headed straight for the postcard stand. It was easy to spot because it had the biggest crowd around it. All sorts of people were there, from witches and wizards to sylphs, full-sized fairies, nymphs, a well-mannered ogre, and at least two vampires covered in capes and hoods. Annie and Liam stayed close to Emma, who pushed through the crowd toward the green-haired witch manning the money box. Somehow, Garrid managed to be there ahead of them. Even dressed in an enveloping cape and hood, the vampire prince looked both mysterious and intimidating, whereas the other vampires just looked creepy.

  “You have no right to sell postcards for a kingdom that doesn’t want visitors,” Garrid was telling the witch when Annie arrived.

  “No one from that kingdom has complained to me about it,” said the witch.

  “We are now,” said Annie. “I’m Princess Annabelle from Treecrest and we want the postcards for our kingdom removed from your stall immediately.”

  The witch sneered at Annie. “We don’t always get what we want, dearie. If I stop selling yours, I’d have to stop selling cards for all the others who complained. That’s not going to happen.”

  “What if we buy all the Treecrest cards you have in stock and you guarantee that you won’t make or sell any more?” asked Emma.

  “I don’t know,” the witch said. “Treecrest cards have become awfully popular. You’d have to pay three times the standard rate for each card.”

  “I got all the Treecrest cards on the stand,” Francis said, waving them in the air as he joined his friends. “There were four.”

  “There’s four there, and twenty-two that I haven’t set out yet,” the witch said with a gleam in her eye.

  A wizard waiting to buy postcards was studying one for Treecrest. When Emma noticed this, she said, “We’ll also want all the cards that people are holding in their hands.”