Once Upon a Curse Read online

  "Emma, I want you to be the first to hear the news," Millie said. "Jasper told me that I'm the one he loves. He wants to ask my father for my hand in marriage."

  "And what did you say?" I asked her, although I was sure I already knew the answer.

  "I told him yes," she said, blushing, "as long as he can get Father's permission. We won't actually get married for a few more years, though. Hazel was waiting until she turned sixteen to choose a suitor, and I'm sure Father will expect me to wait as well."

  "Did you tell him about ... you know?" I asked.

  "If you mean my magic, yes, I told him that I'm a witch," said Millie.

  "She told me," said Jasper. "It doesn't make a difference one way or the other. I'd want to marry her no matter what. I'm just glad she's willing to marry someone as ordinary as me."

  "I know what you mean. That's how I feel about Emma," said Eadric, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek.

  "I see you already have the ring," I said to Millie, pointing at her hand.

  Millie looked down and saw the green ring on her finger. "How did that get there?"

  "That ring belongs to the Green Witch," I said. Millie opened her mouth to protest, until I held up my hand. "No, I don't think you took it from Hazel. She's no longer the Green Witch. You are."

  "How is that possible?" Millie asked. "She received the tide yesterday."

  "Think about what the fairy who gave it to her said. The nicest and most powerful witch in Greater Greensward will be the Green Witch. I never thought Hazel was very nice, but that fairy must have thought so and the ring must have been waiting to see for sure. Anyway, Hazel didn't believe in the fairy's curse, so she touched a flower to prove she was right. The curse took effect, turning Hazel nasty—certainly nastier than she used to be. That means that you're the nicest, so...."

  "I'm the Green Witch? But you're much more powerful than I am, so why didn't you get the tide? And what about those other witches at the party? Surely they were more qualified, too."

  "The Green Witch has to be from Greater Greensward, so that eliminates a lot of witches. I already am the Green Witch, back where I came from. There can be only one at a time, and this is not my time."

  Millie's hand flew to her mouth. "I think I understand now. You aren't really my cousin, are you?"

  "No," I said, "but we are related." If Millie was the first real Green Witch, she and Jasper were probably my ancestors. Somehow, I found that thought very comforting.

  "I'm never going to see you again, am I?" Millie asked, her eyes welling up with tears.

  "No, I'm afraid not. But in a way, you'll always be with me."

  "I guess so," she said, glancing at Jasper. He raised one eyebrow, but she just patted his arm reassuringly and turned to Eadric. "It was nice meeting you, Eadric. Take good care of Emma."

  "I always do," he said. I don't think he understood why Millie and I grinned at each other.

  Since I hate long good-byes, we left as quickly as we could. I knew how to end the curse, although it wasn't going to be easy, and I was anxious to get home and try it.

  The oubliette was empty when we got there, which meant that we didn't have to disguise ourselves. Since we knew what to expect, Eadric held on to Li'l with one hand and put his arms around me while I released a little of the dragon's breath from the bottle.

  I needed to come up with an event to mark the time of our return, but all I could think of was the tournament that my father had planned to start the day before my birthday.

  I need to go to the future now,

  To the time from which I came,

  Before the day of the tournament

  And the start of the very first game.

  We were in the dark tunnel almost instantly. The wind tumbled us around like drunken jesters. This won't last forever, I promised myself, as the air began to grow thicker. When the roar died down enough so that I could hear Li'l moan, I noticed that the air smelled sour again. Then the high-pitched whine started, and something shoved us through the cloying layer.

  This time we hit the floor rolling and didn't stop until we bumped into something solid. Hard objects rained on my head as I tried to get my bearings.

  "Help!"

  "Watch out!"

  "Oh, nooooooo!"

  When something landed on my back and bit me, I knew right away what had happened. I'd bumped into the pile of skulls, dislodging the top layer. I rolled over, trying to get away from the skulls, and ended up on my side.

  "Mmph," said Li'l in a muffled voice. "Get off me!"

  "Sorry!" I said, struggling to sit up. I opened my eyes and closed them again right away. The room was bright, or seemed that way to eyes grown used to the tunnel. I saw the reason when I opened them to little slits, glanced toward the ceiling and saw the witches' light I'd left behind.

  While Li'l shook the dust from her wings, I looked around the oubliette. Grandfather was gone and the pile of skulls was in disarray, but otherwise it looked much the same as it had when we left.

  "Wouldn't you know it," said one of the skulls that I'd knocked to the floor. "It's that clumsy girl and her suitor again."

  "Don't be rude," said a skull still on the pile. A hand raised up from the mound of bones and waggled its fingers at me. "Hello," said the skull. "Nice to see you again. Did you have a nice trip?"

  "Very funny," said the first skull. "And you said /was rude."

  "It was fine, thank you," I said, picking up a skull and setting it back on the pile.

  "Here, Emma," said Eadric. "I'll do that." Ignoring the grumbling from the skulls, Eadric restacked the pile, making it neater than it had been before.

  As Eadric set the last skull on the pile, I reached into my purse and said, "I have Hubert's medallion. Thanks for letting me use it."

  "Hubert, come get your medallion," shouted one of the skulls.

  The pile of bones shuddered while a hand rose up and twiddled its fingers. I handed it the medallion. The fingers fumbled until they had a good grip, then the hand sank back into the heap.

  "Can we go yet?" asked Li'l.

  "Before you go," said one of the skulls, "we wondered if you could leave that ball of light here. It's nice having light in the old place, even if there isn't much to see."

  "All right," I said. "If you really want it."

  "What about us?" said Eadric. "How are we supposed to see in the dark?"

  "Don't worry," I said. "I know what I'm doing."

  I said the spell that changed Eadric and me into bats.

  "Very nice!" said a skull, and a scattering of hands in the bone pile turned to each other and applauded.

  "Bats again?" said Eadric. "Couldn't we try something else?"

  "Not if we're flying in the dark," I said, testing my wings.

  When we flew out of the oubliette, we found that the dungeon had changed again. The magic loose in the dungeon was always rearranging the walls. A new wall blocked the passage we'd used before, so we had to take a different way that twisted and turned in all sorts of strange angles. We ran into magic fog only once, and that was such a small patch that I had scarcely noticed it before we were out of it again.

  We were passing through the guardroom when we came upon a trio of ghosts. "How do you plan to scare people tonight?" asked a hollow-voiced specter. "I'll wait until they sit down to supper, then scream' whenever someone sticks his knife in his meat."

  "I'll haunt the bedchambers," said another. "A bloody ax at midnight always gets a good reaction."

  A ghost with a purplish tinge to his aura spoke next. "I can top both of you. I'm going to dress like a guard and haunt the privy. I'll hide in the hole and when anyone sits down I'll wail, 'Who goes there? State your business!'"

  The other ghosts snickered, but I was too angry to think anything was funny. Most of the castle ghosts were friendly; the few who weren't stayed in the dungeon and never bothered anyone upstairs. Yet these ghosts were plotting to terrorize the castle's inhabitants, and I didn't think this would b
e their first night to do so. I was sure that they couldn't have changed so much unless someone had influenced them, and I had a good idea who that someone might be.

  When we finally reached Grassina's room, I turned us back into humans before I knocked on the door. I had a lot to say to Grassina, and it would have a bigger impact if I didn't say it as a bat. No one answered when I knocked, so I opened the door and peeked inside, hoping to find her anyway. Grassina wasn't there, but Blister the rat was sitting on her moldy blanket, gnawing an old melon rind.

  "You're back," he said, twitching his pointy, little nose at me. "Too bad you made it. If you're looking for Grassina, she isn't here."

  "Where is she?" I asked.

  The rat smirked. "How would I know? I'm stuck down here all day, although I have been thinking about taking a trip upstairs."

  "Go right ahead," I said. "And I'll have the biggest, meanest cat that you've ever seen waiting for you."

  Blister snarled, baring his teeth. "Maybe I'll wait."

  Eadric and Li'l had been poking around on Grassina's workbench, examining water-filled jars containing a baby octopus, a baby shark and a tiny crab. A small cage held a tiny hamster covered with long, flowing fur.

  "What's this?" Eadric asked, lifting the lid off my aunt's cauldron. "It smells like rotting cabbage."

  Snatching the lid from his hand, I said, "Don't touch anything! You never know what she's cooking up." I sneaked a peek into the cauldron, where a lavender substance bubbled and seethed.

  "Put that down," squealed Blister. The mangy rat scurried across the floor and up the leg of Grassina's workbench. "Ooh, Grassina's going to be so mad! No one's supposed to touch that except her!" He chattered his teeth and tried to knock the lid from my hand.

  "Watch out!" I said, stepping back a pace.

  Blister rose up on his hind legs and reached for the lid. A large bubble popped, splattering glowing droplets, and a few landed on the agitated rat. Blister squealed and fell onto the table, rolling back and forth as if his fur was on fire. When he started to shrink, I thought my eyes were tricking me; but when his fur began to grow, I was sure it was because of Grassina's concoction. His once-patchy fur became long and luxurious. No longer a muddy brown, it was a deep, velvety color. Even as I watched, his fur grew until it was so long that his face and limbs were hidden in a thick, brown mat. "I told you not to touch it!" he whined, his voice muffled by fur. "You stupid nitwits are always prying into other people's business. A gnat has more brains than you three put together!"

  Another bubble rose to the top, and I clapped the lid on before it could pop. Some lavender dust had been left on the rim of the cauldron, but the lid dislodged it and it drifted down, settling on the ranting rat, coating him with a thin layer. "You're morons," the rat continued. "You must be the stupidest, clumsiest creatures I've ever seen. If I was half as clumsy as you, I'd—"

  "That's enough out of you," I said. "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all!" It was something I'd heard the cook tell gossiping scullery maids and it had always made them stop. Even so, I was surprised when Blister's mouth closed with a snap.

  Li'l blinked and glanced up at me. "Do you suppose the dust did that, too?"

  "Maybe," I said. "Too bad we didn't find it sooner."

  I thought about leaving a note for my aunt saying that I wanted to talk to her, then decided that she probably wouldn't read it. When we went upstairs, Li'l flew to the tower to take a nap while Eadric left to check on Bright Country and I went to talk to Grassina about the ghosts.

  I stopped to ask a maid if she'd seen my aunt. The girl had a strange, panicky look in her eyes, although I didn't think much of it until she spoke. Her mouth opened and her lips moved, yet nothing came out except a shiny bubble that grew bigger the longer she talked. When she closed her mouth, the bubble floated free and drifted up to the ceiling.

  I tried to say, What's wrong with you? but I couldn't make any sort of sound no matter how hard I tried. Instead I felt a bubble form between my own lips. The more I tried to talk, the bigger the bubble grew. I gestured, trying to tell the maid that I didn't understand what was happening, but I couldn't make her understand me. The maid shrugged and pointed at the ceiling. I looked up, and my jaw dropped. The ceiling was covered with hundreds of shiny bubbles.

  Grassina, I thought, grinding my teeth.

  I went to the Great Hall, determined to find my aunt, but I found my mother instead. When she saw me, she handed me a long pin and held up one of her own. I was confused. "Mother," I said, "what's going on?" or at least that's what I tried to say. A large bubble floated from my lips, but before it had gone far, my mother stabbed it with her pin. The bubble popped and my words came out as clearly as I had intended.

  Then it was my mother's turn. She pointed at my pin and opened her mouth, letting loose one bubble after another. Although I tried to pop them and listen to what they said, Mother was talking so fast that it came out in a crazy jumble.

  "Eadric's parents will arrive this afternoon," said one bubble.

  "You'll wear them whether you like them or not," said another.

  "This is all Grassina's fault."

  "Where have you been?"

  "I've had three gowns made for you."

  "The tournament starts tomorrow."

  "We had to order additional tents."

  "You never sat for your fittings."

  "I can't get anything done."

  "She's driving us mad."

  Although I probably missed more bubbles than I popped, I did learn that Eadric's parents would be arriving that afternoon and that the spell had brought me back the day prior to the beginning of the tournament, which meant that I didn't have much time. Before I did anything else, I had to locate Grassina and make her do something about the bubble spell.

  I searched the castle, questioning everyone I met, but no one had seen my aunt. It took longer than it should have since everyone spoke in bubbles. When no one inside the castle seemed to be able to tell me where she might be, I decided to look outside the castle walls and finally found my aunt kneeling at the edge of the moat trying to coax a slime monster out of the water. The monster, a large transparent sac filled with dozens of eyes floating in pale green goo, left a slimy sheen on anything it touched. It moved by pulling its boneless body on dripping, shapeless feelers.

  "What's this all about, Grassina?" I said, surprised that words came out of my mouth and that I was no longer making bubbles. "You confined the voice-bubble spell to the upper floors of the castle, didn't you? It doesn't work outside the walls or in the dungeon."

  Grassina patted the slime monster, then wiped her hand on her gown. "Good for you, lady genius. How long did it take you to figure out that one?"

  Gurgling softly, the slime monster slipped back into the moat.

  "We're having company soon," I said, "and we can't have your voice-bubble spell working when they get here."

  Grassina made a face at me that would have been frightening if I hadn't known her. "Why not?" she asked. "I like bubbles. Don't you?"

  "Of course I like bubbles, but I think you like them too much. And if that's the case " The spell was simple and I'd said half of it before she even figured out that it was a spell.

  Since you Like the bubbles so,

  In a bubble you must go.

  In that bubble you will stay

  Till your bubbles go away.

  Sound can't pass from inside out

  Even if you scream or shout.

  If you want to be set free,

  End your own spell, that's the key.

  Grassina threw up her hand to ward off the spell, but it was too late. A giant, shimmering bubble formed around my aunt, who let out an anguished wail that was cut off when the bubble was complete. Although I couldn't hear her, I could see her quite clearly and I could tell that she was furious. Her face contorted with anger, she pounded on the bubble with her fists. Nothing happened until, very slowly, the bubble began to roll in the
direction she was pounding. I could tell she was shouting at me, but I still couldn't hear anything she said.

  The bubble fell into the water with a splash that drenched my gown and swept the slime monster halfway across the moat. Grassina thrust her hands against the side when the bubble wobbled and bounced. She tried to keep her balance as it floated across the water, but something big must have rammed the bubble from below, because it suddenly shot into the air, then slammed back farther down the moat. Grassina fell to her knees, and I could see her staring into the water. Her lips were moving when the monster surfaced. A cross between a fish and some sort of lizard, it had long, sharp teeth, jagged fins and a serrated tail. Whatever spell she'd said didn't seem to have any effect, but neither did the monster's teeth when it tried to bite the bubble. While I couldn't hear Grassina, the screech of the monster's teeth scraping the bubble made me cringe.

  The bubble continued to float, nudged by the monster's butting snout. Grassina's face turned red, and little veins stood out in her forehead. She glared at me until the monster hit the bubble again, knocking it across the water. Apparentiy the monster had made her angry enough that revenge had become more important than her bubbles. After glancing at me one last time, she nodded and recited a spell. When she'd finished, the bubble shimmered more brightly than before, then burst with a loud POP.

  Grassina screamed as she fell into the water, but the sound from the castle was even louder. All the words that had been trapped in bubbles since the moment she had cast the spell were suddenly let loose. I was delighted until I noticed that my aunt had disappeared beneath the surface and had yet to come up. Although I knew she could swim, only Grassina knew what kinds of monsters she'd let loose in the moat. I was trying to decide what I could do to help her when her head broke the surface and she gasped for breath.