Princess Before Dawn Page 8

  Francis shrugged. “That doesn’t make any difference to them.”

  “Tell me, what exactly was in that pitcher? After Audun didn’t drink his, I wondered if it was blood.”

  “I wouldn’t put it past them,” said Francis, “but it was just grape juice.”

  “I don’t like juice,” Audun told them. “And I don’t like most vampires. Zoë and her family are the only ones I do like, but they aren’t snobs like the rest. I can’t stand people who think they’re better than others, especially blood-sucking night crawlers who can’t treat decent people with respect.”

  “I noticed that you didn’t correct him when he thought you were a fire-breathing dragon,” Annie told Audun.

  “Most people can’t tell the difference and I wasn’t about to tell them otherwise. I don’t care why they’re afraid of me as long as they are.”

  “You do realize that we’re going to be seeing more vampires on this trip,” Annie warned him.

  “Yes, I know,” said Audun. “That doesn’t mean I have to like them.”

  CHAPTER 10

  They flew northeast under the starry sky for another few hours. “That looks like a good place to spend the night,” Audun finally said, circling above a clearing in the forest. He landed then, the movement so smooth that Annie wasn’t sure they had touched the ground until Francis started to get off.

  “I don’t mind sleeping in the forest, but why here instead of an inn?” asked Annie. “When you turned down the invitation to stay in Tottington, I thought you had someplace else in mind.”

  “Nope,” Audun said as she climbed off his back. “Just someplace without vampires, present company excluded.”

  Zoë climbed out of Francis’s pocket and fluttered to the ground. “I know,” she said. “And I don’t blame you. I don’t like most vampires, either.”

  “I’m going to collect firewood,” Francis told them. “Anyone want to go with me?”

  “I will!” Zoë said. A moment later, she was a young woman holding her husband’s hand as they walked off into the dark.

  “Don’t they need a light?” Annie asked.

  “Zoë doesn’t and Francis will make one if he wants it,” said Audun. “I guess I’ll make a fire pit. Humans seem to like having a fire at night and we don’t want to burn down the entire forest.”

  While Audun scraped a circle in the ground with his talons, Annie collected rocks to edge the pit. By the time Zoë and Francis came back with kindling, the fire pit was ready for them. Francis used his magic to light the fire. He was standing in its light when he took an acorn out of the pouch on his belt. Annie was surprised when he twisted off the cap and pulled out three blankets.

  “That’s amazing!” Annie exclaimed. “What else do you have in there?”

  “All sorts of stuff,” Francis told her. “I got it at the Magic Marketplace ages ago.”

  “I need to get Liam a coronation gift. Do you think they still sell those acorns?” asked Annie.

  Francis shrugged. “There’s no telling. Aside from a few things that they always sell, like singing swords and bottomless tankards, the stuff there changes all the time. Here, you can use this tonight,” he said, handing a blanket to Annie.

  When he tried to hand a blanket to Zoë, she shook her head, saying, “No thanks. I’m going to forage for a while, then I’ll keep watch. There’s no telling what lives in an unfamiliar forest, and someone has to watch over you. Audun can’t because he needs to rest so he can fly tomorrow like he did today.”

  “I’ll take a turn when you’re ready to sleep,” said Annie.

  “You don’t need to,” Zoë told her. “I slept when I was in Francis’s pocket and I’ll sleep there tomorrow, too. Lie down and get some rest. You have another busy day ahead of you.”

  Annie was tired enough to welcome the suggestion. Spreading her blanket near the fire, she lay down and pulled the blanket around her. Audun had stayed in dragon form and was stretched out on the other side of the fire, already asleep. When Annie glanced their way, Francis and Zoë were talking quietly together. They kissed, then Francis lay down and Zoë turned into a bat. Annie closed her eyes as Zoë disappeared into the forest.

  Certain that they would find Zoë’s father soon and that he would be able to fix everything, Annie slept better than she had in a while. She woke abruptly a few hours later, however, when Zoë started screeching. “Audun, Francis, wake up! I can’t stop it and it’s almost here!”

  “What?” Francis said, scrambling out from under his blanket.

  Audun was already on his feet, his great head swiveling from side to side as he gazed into the depths of the forest.

  “I heard a sound and went to look,” Zoë cried, fluttering around Francis. “It’s a hydra and it’s coming this way.”

  Francis was reaching for his sword when he said, “The fire probably attracted it. Stay back, Zoë. I’ll handle this.”

  Darting toward Annie, Zoë turned into a girl again and hurried to stand beside her. Annie put her arm around the vampire girl’s waist, and Zoë put an arm around hers so that they faced the hydra together.

  “I hear it coming,” said Audun. “It’s a big one.”

  When Audun took a step toward the forest, Annie tried to peer past him, but it was too dark to see much of anything. And then she could hear it, too—a slithery, scraping sound that grew louder as it came their way. Branches snapped and trees shivered as the hydra drew closer. Although she had never seen a real hydra, she had seen their pictures in her father’s book of mythological creatures. All she could remember now was that it was a snake and had more than one head. Even so, she wasn’t expecting the monster that emerged into the firelight. Its body was as big around as Audun’s and each of the five heads was the size of a water barrel. Aside from the size, the heads were all very different. One had a rippled crest, another had drooping eyelids, a third had blubbery lips. The head in the middle had crossed eyes, while the one beside it looked vicious with a scar that angled across its face and horrible eyes that glared red.

  “Who dares enter my forest without my permission?” the vicious-looking head said in a voice that even Annie could understand.

  “Why do you always say that, Ssshomander?” asked the head with the crest. “No one ever asks your permission and you wouldn’t give it if they did.”

  “Quiet, Sssilus,” said Ssshomander. “You talk too much.”

  As the hydra advanced, Audun stepped in front of it, barring it from the clearing. Seeing a dragon blocking their way, the heads reared back and hissed. Coming from five separate throats, the sound was especially frightful.

  “What is that?” said the head with blubbery lips. “Is that a dragon? You got me up in the middle of the night to challenge a dragon? Are you out of your mind?”

  “Let’s turn around and go back to bed now,” said Sssilus. “I’m sleepy anyway.”

  “Yeah, back to bed,” said the one with the crossed eyes.

  The head with the droopy eyelids flared its nostrils and sniffed the air. “Something smells really good. It’s been ages since we had a tasty bedtime snack. Why don’t we start with that girl? I’d like to sink my fangs into her!”

  It was hard to tell if the head was looking at Annie or Zoë, but they both stepped back at the same time.

  “You can eat her,” said Ssshomander. “After we take care of that dragon.”

  “Yeah, get the dragon,” said the head with the crossed eyes.

  “Why don’t we just leave them alone?” Sssilus cried. “They aren’t hurting anyone.”

  Ssshomander studied Audun for a moment. “This dragon must not have fire, or he would have flamed at us already. We’ll take him down, then eat the humans.”

  “They look young to me; they should be easy to digest,” the head with the droopy eyelids declared.

  The hydra started toward them again with the head named Ssshomander weaving back and forth, hissing. When the head with the crossed eyes saw that, it started hissing an
d weaving, too. Francis stepped up beside Audun. Making a rolling motion with his hands, he created a ball of sparks, which he threw at the nasty head. The sparks exploded in the hydra’s face, showering the heads on either side of it.

  The hydra bellowed and began to move faster. When it was close enough, Ssshomander struck out at Francis. The young wizard danced aside even as he unsheathed his sword. Before Francis could wield Torrin, Audun stepped between his friend and the hydra. Spreading his wings, Audun stretched out his neck and roared in Ssshomander’s face. The head reared back, then struck too fast for Annie to see. She did hear the sound of its fangs hitting Audun’s scales, though, and the loud crack as the fangs shattered. When the hydra head pulled back, the tips of its fangs were broken off, leaving jagged stubs. In a flash, Audun lunged, sinking his own fangs into the creature’s neck. The dragon shook the hydra’s head until it screeched in a high, thin voice. The other heads joined in, begging for mercy.

  Giving the head one final shake, Audun let go. The heads whimpered and drew back. With a last aggrieved hiss, the hydra turned and fled into the forest.

  As soon as the hydra was gone, Audun turned to Francis, saying, “Why did you get involved? I was going to take care of this.”

  “I waited for you to breathe on it, but you didn’t, so I thought I should step in,” said Francis.

  “You were too close,” Audun told him. “I didn’t want to risk hurting you with my poison gas.”

  “I suppose we should work out a system in case something like this ever happens again,” Francis replied. “You’ll just have to tell me how far away to stand.”

  “Uh, excuse me, but you two can discuss this later,” Zoë interrupted. “I think we should find someplace else to sleep. I know that hydra heads grow back if they’re cut off, so I wouldn’t be surprised if their fangs do, too.”

  “I’m with Zoë,” said Annie. “If there’s any chance that the hydra might return, I’d like to be far away before it can come looking for us again.”

  “Fine by me,” Audun told them. “I’ve already had all the sleep I need for tonight, and there are still plenty of hours before daylight. We can make real headway to our next stop if we leave now.”

  “Good,” Francis said, scratching his side. “I’d rather not try to sleep here again anyway. I think I was lying on an ant hill.”

  They flew for two more hours, landing only when Francis announced that he needed to use a shrub. When Audun set down, Annie was so tired that she fell asleep with her back against a tree while she waited for Francis. She woke long enough to hear that they would spend the rest of the night there and was asleep again in moments.

  Annie woke, groggy, when Francis declared in a loud voice, “What do you mean Zoë’s not here?”

  The sun was peeping over the horizon, bathing the landscape in otherworldly light. They had slept on the boundary between forest and farmland with hay growing in a field only yards away. Swallows dipped and soared over the hay while butterflies fluttered from flower to flower.

  “She went foraging a few hours ago and hasn’t come back yet,” explained Audun. “I told her I’d keep watch, but I didn’t expect her to be gone this long.”

  “Do you know which way she went?” Francis asked.

  “That way,” Audun said, pointing toward the field.

  Francis frowned as he gazed across the field. “We have to go look for her. Something must have happened to keep her from coming back before now.” Taking the acorn out of the pouch, he twisted off the cap and took out the black dragon scale. He muttered under his breath, turning the scale until it flashed red.

  When Francis started walking, Annie scrambled to her feet to follow him. Before stepping into the hayfield, she glanced back at Audun. In the few seconds she’d been looking the other way, he had changed back into a human. She found the sudden change a little disconcerting. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to that,” she murmured to herself.

  The hay was waist high and the ground beneath it uneven, so Annie had to give each footstep her fullest attention. Birds shot out of the hay at their approach, and a rabbit suddenly bounded away in front of her, making her heart pound and her thoughts turn to whatever else the tall grasses might hide. She was relieved when they finally reached a country lane and Francis started down it.

  They hadn’t gone far before they spotted a barn and a small cottage. A little farther and they could hear someone shouting over the barking of dogs. “That’s it, boys! Tell the wee beastie who’s boss around here.”

  Annie hurried to walk beside Francis. She glanced at the dragon scale. It was glowing red and was aimed directly at the spot between the cottage and the barn.

  Francis looked grim as they came in sight of the farmer and his dogs. The man was holding a big stick, watching while two dogs barked and lunged at something small and dark caught in a net strung between two poles. When the dogs backed off for a moment, the man swung his stick at the net, hitting it so that it swayed and bobbed. The little creature inside it cried out.

  Suddenly Francis was grabbing the stick from the man’s hand and tossing it aside. When the man turned around, Francis punched him in the nose, knocking him to the ground. The dogs went wild, snapping at Francis until Audun stepped up. With one deep-throated growl from the dragon-turned-man, the dogs took off running.

  “What did you do that for?” the farmer said, looking up at Francis accusingly. Blood streamed from the man’s nose, and he wiped at it with the back of his hand, smearing it across his face.

  “You were trying to hit my wife!” Francis declared. Giving the farmer a disgusted look, he took hold of the net, gently untangling it from the shivering, whimpering bat. Annie could see now that it was Zoë, who looked more frightened than hurt. When she noticed that Francis was so mad that his hands shook, she hurried to help.

  The farmer was getting to his feet when Francis and Annie finally freed Zoë. Francis gently set her on the ground, where she immediately turned back into a human-looking girl and collapsed into her husband’s arms.

  “I knew she was a vampire and not just an ordinary bat!” the farmer exclaimed. “Why didn’t she turn to ash when the sun came out like all the others?”

  “She’s only half vampire, you fool,” said Francis. “She doesn’t even look like a vampire bat. What’s wrong with you?”

  “I … I didn’t know,” the farmer stammered. “I put out that net every night to catch the vampire bats. They come to suck the blood from my milk cow. Putting her in the barn for the night isn’t good enough. They get in even when the door’s shut; there are so many gaps between the boards that there’s no keeping them out. The old girl is really suffering. When I get up in the morning, I leave the bats in the net and they turn to ash when sunlight touches ’em. I’ve never had one stay alive like this before. I’m sorry it was your wife, but if she was here to suck the blood from my cow, she deserved what she got.”

  “I was catching insects!” said Zoë. “I don’t drink anyone’s blood!”

  “Maybe you don’t, but the vampires from over the hills do. They come here two or three times a week, or at least they did before I put out my net. Those monsters don’t have any respect for other people’s animals. They think they’re so high and mighty living in their fancy house with their evil ways. No one dares go in their valley, but I figure the vampires are fair game if they come to my farm.”

  “They’re just over those hills, huh?” said Francis. “Is their home called Heartsblood Manor?”

  “You’ve heard of it? I knew word of a place as bad as that would get around!” the farmer said.

  “Actually, we’re on our way there now,” Francis told him. “I didn’t realize we were so close.”

  The farmer looked around nervously before leaning toward Francis and whispering, “You won’t tell them about the nets, will you? I’m just trying to defend my livelihood the best way I know how. If you tell the vampires what I’ve done, they’ll come here to suck me dry, and then
where will my family be?”

  “We won’t tell them,” said Francis. “But I think you should put your nets away. The vampires are bound to catch on if you keep trapping them.”

  Annie was glad to get away from the worried farmer, but she wasn’t so sure she wanted to visit such frightening vampires. As Audun skimmed the tops of the trees, she wondered if the vampires would be more like the ones who refused to leave Treecrest, or the marginally nicer ones in Tottington. Either way, she couldn’t wait to find Zoë’s father so their trip could be over.

  Leaving the hills behind, they came upon a valley filled with dense forest and alive with birdsong. When Audun spotted a house as big as a castle but without turrets or a moat, he circled it and began his descent.

  Annie looked around warily, even though she knew that the vampires would be asleep. The manor house seemed bigger as they neared it, and the gardens around it more extensive. Although everything was trimmed and in good repair, the place looked empty and abandoned without a single person in sight.

  After circling the house and grounds one more time, Audun landed in a particularly lovely garden. “We might as well spend the day here,” he said as Francis helped Annie climb off. “We won’t be able to talk to anyone until nightfall.”

  “Do you think your parents might be here?” Annie asked Zoë.

  “I doubt it,” Zoë replied. “They never stay long in any one place and this would have been their second stop. I didn’t want to skip it, though, just in case they’d decided to stay for a few days.”

  “I don’t suppose we could go in the house and look for them?” Annie said, sounding hopeful.

  Zoë looked shocked. “I wouldn’t dream of it! You wouldn’t want strangers wandering through your house uninvited. Besides, you’d be putting yourself in great danger. Just because vampires sleep during the day doesn’t mean they aren’t protected. I don’t know what Count Bracken does, but my father pays some very nasty creatures to guard his castle while we sleep. I wouldn’t dare go in the count’s home without a personal invitation at the door. We’re safe now provided we stay in the garden and don’t go anywhere near the house.”