King Aldrid and his men were tilting, taking turns riding at the quintain—the figure of a knight that spun around each time they hit it with a lance. Grassina knew that the quintain had been rebuilt that spring, but it already looked battered and ancient. Since the king was an avid jouster, he and his knights practiced nearly every day.
Grassina was passing by when her father rode to the front of the line. Staying well out of the way, she found a good vantage point and stopped to watch. King Aldrid’s horse snorted, jerked its head, and danced a few feet to the side. Grassina held her breath as her father shifted his weight in the saddle and leaned forward. Then, moving as if they were one, horse and rider thundered across the hoof-chewed dirt, sending clods flying and stirring up enough dust to create a cloud behind them. The king’s lance slammed into the quintain, spinning it as he galloped past while avoiding the flying weight attached to the other side. Bouncing on her toes, Grassina clapped until the palms of her hands stung, although her father was too far away to hear her over the thud of his horse’s hooves and the shouted congratulations of his knights.
While the knights debated who would go next, Grassina slipped past the quintain, heading for her tree house. In a copse of trees out of sight of the practice field, it had been her favorite place to play when she was young. Her mother had made it for her to share with Chartreuse, and it was special in ways only an accomplished witch could manage. Although the miniature cottage was nestled in the branches of an oak well above the ground, it was roomier inside than its outside dimensions suggested and had a working fireplace that kept the cottage warm and cozy. Made with magic, the tree house still looked as new as the day it had been built with its sharply pitched roof and arched windows.
Even before Grassina set foot on the ladder, she could smell the wildflower and honey scent that always lingered around the tree house. Her copper finches began to chirp as she started up the rungs, growing louder as she climbed and bursting into song when she reached the platform. Grassina had purchased the birds on a trip to the magic marketplace with her mother. She had wanted to keep them in her chamber, but they had kept her awake the first night with their chattering. The next morning she had moved them to the tree house.
“Good morning, pretty ones,” she said. When the birds chirped back, she copied their song, smiling when they fluttered their wings and chirped louder. Because part of her mother’s magic ensured that nothing could enter or leave the tree house without the girls letting it, the birds were uncaged and allowed to fly free.
There were other birds in the room as well. Shortly after Grassina had purchased her two copper birds, Chartreuse had insisted on going to the marketplace. Visiting a different vendor, she’d bought a dozen birds of pale blue glass. She’d also bought a glass branch that she set on the tree-house floor, providing a perch for her precious birds. That had been years ago, and now only five birds remained intact, the rest broken when they flew into the walls or each other.
While the birds fluttered above her, Grassina knelt beside the wooden chest at the foot of one of the tree house’s two benches. “You may come out,” she said, lifting the lid, “but only for a few minutes. I won’t be staying long today.”
A small wooden horse whinnied and tossed its head when Grassina reached for it. A rag doll yawned and sat up, wiping its black-dot eyes. Both toys had come from the magic marketplace, gifts from her mother years before. There had also been a tiny chicken made of straw, but it had gotten too close to the fireplace one winter’s day and burned itself to ashes. Since that day Grassina had kept the toys shut in the chest when she wasn’t there, hoping to keep them out of trouble.
When Grassina had set both toys on the floor, the doll struggled to climb up her leg while the horse trotted around the room, cantering when it reached the long, open space between the two benches, slowing to a walk as it rounded the leg of the table. It was trotting again when its hoof became wedged between two of the floorboards. The horse grew frantic when it stumbled and couldn’t get loose. Thrashing and screaming, it might have damaged itself if Grassina hadn’t intervened. At first the horse was too frightened for her to touch it, but she calmed it with her voice and gentle hands until it stood still, trembling, and she could pull the hoof free.
“Poor Hector,” said the doll, running to throw her arms around the horse’s neck. “Are you all right?” she asked.
“He’s fine, Marniekins,” said Grassina. “Just a little chipped paint.”
Hector whuffled his lips, then left to investigate the floor under the bench. Grassina was watching him when she heard someone on the ladder. The copper finches twittered as a head appeared over the top rung. It was Chartreuse, visiting the tree house for the first time in years.
“Princess Chartreuse, is that really you?” squeaked Marniekins. The little doll ran to the princess as fast as her wobbly cloth legs could carry her, falling in a heap when they bent the wrong way. Hector nickered hello and galloped to where Chartreuse stood by the door. On her feet again, Marniekins clambered across the floor to grab hold of the edge of Chartreuse’s gown. “Pick me up!” said the doll.
Shoving the doll aside with her foot, Chartreuse crossed to the window and peered out, waving at someone below. “I’m surprised to find you here, Grassina. Torrance and I were going for a walk and heard your voice. Aren’t you too old to play with dolls? I’m sure your time would be much better spent learning how to manage a castle or play a musical instrument.”
Marniekins had tumbled head over heels, landing in a dusty heap under the bench. She sobbed, curling up in a ball, and wrapped her arms around herself. Unable to make tears, her faded cheeks remained dry. Hector tossed his head and snorted at Chartreuse before trotting after Marniekins. He poked the doll with a consoling nose until she rubbed her eyes.
Grassina glared at Chartreuse. “Now see what you’ve done!” Peering under the bench, Grassina reached for Marniekins. She cradled the doll in her lap, soothing her as best she could. Marniekins whimpered, hiding her face behind Grassina’s hand.
Upset by the turmoil, the copper finches twittered in agitation while Chartreuse’s birds fluttered madly overhead. When one of the glass birds collided with a copper finch, a glass wing broke off and the bird fell, shattering on the floor. At the sound, Marniekins howled and buried her face in the cloth of Grassina’s gown.
Chartreuse gave the doll a disgusted look. “Don’t you dare make me out to be a villain,” she said, turning back to Grassina. “They’re just dolls. I climbed that ladder to ask you to stay away from my magic lessons. You ruined my lesson today. I was getting close to making the spell work. The magic was building up inside me; I could feel it! If it hadn’t been for you, today would have been the day we’ve all been waiting for.”
Grassina glanced up from Marniekins and snorted at the anger on her sister’s face. “I’ve never heard Mother say anything about feeling the magic inside of her. If you felt something, it was probably your breakfast disagreeing with you. And if you’re so sure that your magic is about to show itself, I’m sure one day won’t make any difference. You’ll be able to do the spell tomorrow.”
“Not if you’re there to distract me! My magic lessons are very important and . . .”
Grassina laughed. “Magic lessons! They aren’t lessons unless you can do magic, too. Otherwise they’re just demonstrations.”
Chartreuse’s eyes darkened and her nostrils flared. “It’s all a game to you, isn’t it? Well, it isn’t to me. I take those lessons seriously. Greater Greensward needs a Green Witch; I have to learn how to work those spells! You don’t need to know about magic, so go play somewhere else, little girl, and leave the important work to the adults!” Turning on her heel, Chartreuse flounced out of the tree house and stomped down the ladder so hard that Grassina could feel the floor of the little house shake.
Long after Chartreuse was gone, Grassina sat on the floor, calming the doll and the horse. Some of what her sister had said stung, perhaps because she was close to being right. Grassina had heard all her life that as long as anyone could remember, there had been only one witch in the family for each generation and that witch had always been the firstborn girl. Since she and everyone else in the family were convinced that she wouldn’t have the magic, it seemed only natural for her to make a joke out of it.
Grassina was still stroking Marniekin’s flax hair when she realized that the doll was asleep. Hector, too, stood with his eyes closed. Moving carefully so she wouldn’t wake them, Grassina carried the toys to the wooden chest and laid them inside. “Sleep tight,” she whispered, closing the lid.
Half the afternoon was gone, and she had yet to visit the swamp.
Chartreuse was only two years older than Grassina, and they had once been the best of friends. But after Chartreuse decided that she had to prepare herself to be the Green Witch, she no longer had the time to waste on a younger sister. Grassina began to spend increasing amounts of time on her own, exploring the castle and the area around it. Although she had always known about the swamp, which lay just beyond the practice fields and the woods where the tree house stood, it wasn’t until she was on her own that Grassina actually visited it. On the very first visit, Grassina fell in love. After that, no one could keep her away.
Despite her parents’ fear that she would become lost or injured, Grassina always managed to slip away when no one was watching. Her parents fought to keep her out of the swamp until the day her father had one of his men follow her to see what she did there. When he reported that she seemed to have an instinct about where to place her feet and that she was more careful than most adults, her father gave her permission to visit the swamp provided she had an escort. Her appointed escorts tried to stay by her side, yet she invariably lost them in the swamp and returned home on her own. More than one adult had to be rescued, although Grassina never did. It wasn’t long before no one would go with her. Grassina was ten years old when her parents gave up.
The shy wildlife that Grassina loved to watch, the mysterious pools that could conceal just about anything in their muddy depths, and the graceful willows that hid her in their sheltering boughs called to her in a way that no one else in her family could understand. What Grassina considered mysterious, Chartreuse found frightening. What Grassina found fascinating made her sister turn up her nose in disgust. Unlike her sister, who reveled in the company of others, Grassina appreciated having somewhere she could go alone, away from the eyes, ears, and wagging tongues of the crowded castle, somewhere she could be free to do whatever she pleased. When she wanted to be alone with her thoughts, there was no better place to go than the swamp.
Grassina’s first stop was a pond with cattails at one end and a pebbled bank at the other. She watched a turtle sunning itself on a log and an otter chasing fish in the shallower water. When the otter disappeared upstream, Grassina started down a path that wound across the marshy ground and was so faint that only the most experienced tracker could have found it. The path led to the northern side, where the swamp bordered the enchanted forest. She had seen creatures of all kinds drinking from a tree-shaded lake there. Although it wasn’t the safest place in the swamp, it was the only spot where the more unusual plant life grew.
As she grew older, Grassina had developed an interest in the flora of the swamp. She had studied with an old woman from a nearby village, an herbalist who was delighted to have a princess as a pupil since it meant that she ate well on lesson days and was paid in real coin. During her years of study with the old woman, Grassina’s interest in plants had become a passion, but the old woman had died the year before, leaving Grassina to study on her own. In her mind, that meant spending even more time in the swamp looking for specimens.
Although Grassina loved the swamp, she wasn’t blind to its dangers and was particularly careful when visiting the lake that bordered the enchanted forest. Once, while picking leaves from a variety of marsh mallow that grew at the edge of the lake, she had heard a shrill cry coming from the tall reeds between her and the forest. Looking up, she had seen a flock of crows descending on the reeds and whatever creature they hid. Armed only with a few stones she’d found on the ground, Grassina had gone to investigate. A doe, mauled by something in the forest, had wandered into the swamp to die. Although she was hidden from most eyes, the crows had found her and were impatient to begin feeding. The doe was close to death when Grassina saw her, but alive enough to turn her head. Their eyes met; one look was enough. As the doe lay her head on the ground again, Grassina threw her first stone into the flock of crows, being careful not to hit the deer. The birds squawked and flew off as one stone after another hurtled into their midst, missing most, but hitting enough to frighten them. Grassina had stayed to chase away birds even after the doe was no longer moving. She would have stayed all day if a bear attracted by the scent of blood hadn’t shuffled out of the forest.
Knowing that her poorly aimed stones would do little more than irritate a bear, Grassina retreated farther into the swamp. The very next day she collected stones again. Instead of skipping them across a pond, she threw them at the gnarled knot in a tree trunk, hitting the tree but only rarely the knot. The next day she was back again, staying until her arm was sore and her aim was better. Within a month she could hit whatever target she chose. Within two months she could do it while running. Although she rarely needed to use the stones, it made her feel better to know that she could.
Fortunately, on this particular day she saw no sign of anything larger than a deer in the vicinity, so she continued on, searching for certain plants. Finding a specimen with blue-flowered spikes that had opened its blooms since her last visit, she picked one stem, leaving the rest to grow and spread. She was tucking her new find into the leather sack she’d brought when she caught the faintest whiff of smoke.
“There must be a dragon nearby,” Grassina murmured. It was time to head for home.
Tilting practice was ending when she passed the field, so she sought out her father and joined him as he passed his horse’s reins to his squire.
“Hello, sweetling,” he said when Grassina appeared at his side. “I thought I saw you coming. What have you been up to today?”
As they started toward the castle, Grassina told him about her morning, including her conversation with Chartreuse. “It isn’t fair,” she said, kicking a pebble with the toe of her shoe. “Chartreuse is going to be the queen and the Green Witch just because she’s older than me. All I’m going to do is marry some old, boring suitor that Chartreuse doesn’t want.”
King Aldrid tugged on his daughter’s braid. “Chartreuse may think that fortune favors her now, but give her a few years and she’ll think that you’re the lucky one. With either of those titles comes a great deal of responsibility. Bearing both titles can be overwhelming. Just ask your mother. She never wanted to be the Green Witch. Given a choice, she would have preferred to do only small magic the way many of the village witches do.”
“Really? If I were a witch, I’d specialize in big spells that would make a big difference and really help people. I wouldn’t waste my time with the little ones like spelling my name with bubbles. But I don’t understand why Mother never told us how she felt about magic.”
Her father shrugged. “She knew that your sister would be the next Green Witch someday, so she wanted to let Chartreuse form her own opinion about magic. Seeing how the responsibility of being the Green Witch had affected her mother was what turned your mother against the job.”
“What did it do to Grandmother?”
“We all thought your grandmother was crazy; your mother thought it was because of the things she had to do to protect the kingdom as the Green Witch. The monsters she had to face . . . The horrible things they did if she wasn’t there in time . . . It was enough to give anyone nightmares.”
“But the Green Witch is the most powerful witch in the kingdom. She can handle anything!” said Grassina.
“Yes, but at a tremendous cost. The horrors she has to deal with . . . Not to mention that her responsibilities as the Green Witch take precedence over her private life. Your mother never got to spend time with you the way she would have liked. Even now, she has no time for all the little things that she used to enjoy so much.”
“I didn’t realize . . .”
“As for whom you’ll marry . . . You’ll have a say in choosing your future husband. I’ll see to that. Chartreuse, however, will marry whomever your mother and I decide would make the most suitable husband for someone in her position. The man who marries the queen of Greater Greensward must meet the kingdom’s needs before his wife’s. Whoever marries the Green Witch must not be someone who would try to misuse her magic. Chartreuse’s choices are far more limited than yours will be.”
“You’re not saying that just to make me feel better?” asked Grassina, studying her father’s face.
Her father laughed and shook his head. “I wouldn’t dare try to convince you of anything. I know you too well.
Just don’t let Chartreuse upset you when she talks about her brilliant future. Nothing is ever exactly what we expect it to be.”