Chapter 20

Annie, Gwendolyn, and Snow White were watching through the window for the woman when she showed up the next morning. For once, Liam hadn’t gone hunting; he joined them at the door when they heard an old woman’s wavery voice.

“Apples, fresh apples!” she cried from the walk leading up to the door.

“Doesn’t she realize that we usually don’t have visitors more than two or three times a year?” Snow White whispered to Annie. “I’d have to be a numskull not to be suspicious of a third visit in a row, even if she did change the way she looks. And she wants us to believe that she came all this way to sell a couple of apples?”

“I don’t think she thinks about things like that,” Annie whispered back.

“Have you had your breakfast yet?” the old woman called. “I have some nice fresh apples for sale!”

When Liam reached for the door, Annie shook her head. “I’ll handle this. She has magic, remember?” She opened the door and stepped outside, but before she could close it her friends piled out after her.

This time the witch looked like a stooped old woman with a heavily wrinkled face. Her washed-out blue eyes opened wide in surprise when she saw them, but she recovered quickly and said, “Oh, my, there’s so many of you! Well, that’s all right. I have plenty. And an extra nice one for you, beautiful girl.”

Gwendolyn had been standing close enough to Annie that her beauty had faded a little, but not as much as the day before. When the witch offered her the most perfect-looking apple in her basket, she took a step back.

Annie plucked the apple from the witch’s hand. The old woman scowled at her as Annie examined the apple with distaste. “That’s not for you!” the witch shrilled. “Give it to your sister!”

“How do you know she’s my sister?” Annie asked her.

The old woman spluttered as she glanced from one girl to the other. When Gwendolyn was beautiful, she and Annie didn’t look enough alike to make anyone think they were related. “I just… I thought…”

“Don’t worry, old woman,” said Annie. “You don’t need to bother coming up with a plausible lie. We know why you’re here and that this apple is poisoned.” Pulling her arm back, Annie hurled the apple at a tree so that the fruit smashed against the trunk. Turning back to the witch, she added, “Now leave and don’t come back, no matter what you make yourself look like!”

The witch glowered at Annie. “How dare you talk to me that way! Do you know what I could do to you?”

“Nothing!” growled a deep voice. “You leave them alone or I’ll do something you won’t like.”

Suddenly Beldegard was back, looking more ferocious than Annie had ever seen him. He stood at the edge of the forest, his lips curled in a snarl. When the witch glanced his way but didn’t move, he started toward her at a shambling run. He’d gone only a few steps when the witch flung aside her basket of apples and dashed into the woods. The bear prince ran after her, crashing through the underbrush.

“He didn’t need to do that,” said Annie. “I could have handled the woman.”

Beldegard had yet to return when the dwarves arrived. The moment Snow White heard them, she ran out of the cottage and flung her arms around the oldest, then went from dwarf to dwarf, hugging each one in turn. Annie had followed her out of the cottage and was pleased to see that the seven dwarves seemed equally happy to see Snow White. They looked like nice people and even though Snow White was much taller than any of them and not related by blood, they behaved as if they were family.

It was easy to tell that the dwarves were related to one another, however. They all had the same-shape nose—straight with a little bump on the end, and the same strong chin, but some of them were handsome and some were not, some had long hair and some had short. The only dwarf with a beard was Cragery, the eighth dwarf, whom Snow White did not even try to hug.

The dwarf’s long, white beard hung almost to his feet. Both his beard and the mustache that curled around his lips were stained and spotted with food. Unlike his seven brothers, who looked at Annie with twinkling, friendly eyes, Cragery’s gaze was cold and hostile. He didn’t even seem to notice Snow White as he continued arguing with his brothers.

“I can’t believe you dragged me all the way home for that!” groused Cragery in a half-strangled voice.

“Grandfather said he was dying and wanted to see us all together one last time. Aren’t you glad he recovered?” said the dwarf with the stooped back and wrinkled face, who Annie thought must be Hummfree, the oldest of the brothers.

Cragery shrugged. “I don’t care one way or the other. He’s not leaving me anything in his will. He told me so yesterday! That old dwarf has hated me since the first day he saw me.”

The dwarf scratching a rash on his neck scowled when he said, “You punched him in the nose and broke it!”

“I was a baby!” said Cragery. “That’s what babies do!”

A dwarf with slicked-down hair snorted, while another brother said, “Not usually!”

Cragery sneered at his brothers. “I’ve always been special, and you know it!”

“Is that what you call it?” asked Hummfree. “Were you being special when you ran off to work at the castle when we needed your help in the mines? Were you being special when you stole that trinket from the queen and disappeared for years? And what about when I went to fetch you home and you were rude and nasty to everyone we met? Were you being special then, too?”

“It wasn’t just a trinket that he stole from the queen,” said Beldegard from the edge of the forest. Everyone turned; more than one dwarf reached for the ax on his belt as the bear prince emerged from the trees. “The witch had given it magical properties that he learned about when he worked in the castle.”

“Stand back!” shouted an imperious voice as Prince Maitland and his men trotted down the road toward the cottage. “That’s the dangerous beast I’ve been hunting. Go into your home now so that I might kill it and no one else will get hurt.”

“No!” Gwendolyn cried as she ran from the cottage door to throw her arms around Beldegard. “He is not dangerous and he’s not a beast. He’s my beloved Beldegard and your own brother, who was enchanted by that evil dwarf.”

Snow White nudged Annie and leaned toward her to whisper, “I knew it would be interesting when the dwarves came home, but I never imagined it would be like this! Who is that incredibly handsome man?” she asked, gazing at Prince Maitland, her eyes filled with longing.

“That’s Beldegard’s brother. Beldegard is the bear prince.”

“The bear is a prince? Then that means his brother is one, too! Tell me, is anyone else coming?”

“I don’t think so,” Annie whispered back. “Unless… Yes, there he is. Yardley is here as well. It looks as if Maitland captured him.”

Snow White peered past the mounted prince to where a wolf was cowering at the end of a long, knotted rope. “Is the wolf enchanted?”

Annie nodded. “Just like Beldegard.”

“This is so exciting!” Snow White breathed.

While they were talking, Maitland dismounted and approached Gwendolyn and Beldegard on foot with his sword drawn. “Stand aside, beautiful lady,” Maitland said. “That beast has lied to you. My brother is dead.”

“No, he’s not!” Annie called as she hurried to her sister’s side, but Liam was already there with his sword unsheathed, facing Maitland.

“He is our friend and a true prince,” Liam announced in a loud voice so everyone could hear. “Anyone who harms him will answer to me.”

“Please, kind sir,” Snow White cried, hurrying to Maitland’s side. “These people are my friends and would not lie!”

When Maitland glanced down at her, his gaze softened and he lowered his arm.

Annie turned toward where she had last seen Cragery, but he was no longer there. “Stop him!” she cried when she spotted him sneaking into the forest. “Gwendolyn told the truth! That dwarf changed Beldegard into a bear. We’ve traveled a long way to make him turn the bear prince back into a man!”

The dwarves turned toward Cragery, but not one of them made a move to go after him when he began to run. It was Liam who followed the dwarf and grabbed him by the back of his tunic. Hefting Cragery onto his shoulder, Liam carried the kicking, swearing dwarf back to the clearing.

Bright splotches of pink stained Snow White’s cheeks when she turned to the seven dwarves saying, “He’s been a horrible person and you’re just going to let him get away with it? Don’t you understand how much he’s hurt people?”

“Are these accusations true, Brother?” Hummfree asked. “Have you harmed others with a magic object?”

“No, of course not!” said Cragery. “I don’t have to stand here and listen to such blatant lies! Let me go. I knew I shouldn’t come back here!”

“It is true!” shouted Yardley. The wolf had come as close as he could on the end of the rope and was straining to get closer. “He turned me into a wolf for no reason at all!”

“You were cheating at cards,” said Cragery, his face turning red when he realized what he’d said.

“Then it is true!” said Hummfree. “It’s one thing when you are unkind to your family. We put up with it for years because you are our brother. But we cannot condone mistreating others! We will see that he is punished for what he has done,” he said, turning to Liam and Beldegard.

“There’s more to it than that,” said Annie. “He has to turn Beldegard and Yardley back into humans. There are others as well—three brothers he turned into pigs and a family that now lives as bears. And those are only the ones we’ve happened to meet.”

Hummfree nodded. “Show me this magical object, Cragery,” he ordered his brother.

Cragery shrugged the other dwarves’ hands off his arms and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a large brooch made of intricately wrought gold surrounding a dragon’s head made of sapphires. When Hummfree reached for it, Cragery held it close to his chest, saying, “It’s mine! No one can touch it but me.”

“No one wants the stupid thing,” Annie told him. “Just use it to turn everyone back!”

“What will I get if I do?” Cragery asked, rubbing his thumb over the dragon’s face.

Liam took a step closer, his hand on the hilt of his sword. “You’ll get to stay alive.”

“You can’t do anything to me!” shouted Cragery, raising the brooch to eye level. “Not if I turn you into a woodchuck!”

A flash of blue light shot from the brooch, slamming Liam in the chest. The light knocked him back so that he staggered as the blue light spread up his neck and across his face, down his torso to his legs and feet. He stood there for a moment, looking stunned. Suddenly there was a loud pop! and Liam disappeared, leaving behind a plump, bright-eyed woodchuck.

Annie jerked as if she had been hit as well. “No!” she screamed. “You can’t do that! Not to Liam!”

“Annie?” said the woodchuck. “What just happened?” He looked confused, as did everyone else in the clearing. The seven dwarves stared at Cragery as if he had two heads.

Annie rushed toward the dwarf, ready to throttle him if necessary, shouting, “You turn him back, right this instant!”

“Get away from me!” he yelled, holding up the brooch again.

The light hit Annie with a crackling sound, bounced off and slammed into Cragery, knocking him to the ground. He lay there, whimpering as the light spread, covering him until he was completely blue. There was a loud pop and the dwarf was gone. A gray squirrel lay on its back, its legs scrabbling in the air. Three more pops followed a moment later. The wolf, the bear, and the woodchuck were gone. Instead, a handsome young man crouched beside Gwendolyn and another, more ordinary man, squatted on all fours with a rope around his neck. Liam stood, still holding his sword, looking bemused.

While Hummfree grabbed the squirrel, Annie threw herself into Liam’s arms. Liam dropped the sword in time to catch her and swing her off her feet. Her first kiss landed on his nose, but the rest landed on his lips. If he wouldn’t kiss her, there wasn’t any reason that she couldn’t kiss him. Except… She pulled back for a moment, wondering if he might not want her to kiss him. After all… And then he was dragging her closer to kiss her again. Annie lost track of time as Liam kissed her most thoroughly.

“I don’t know what I would have done if I’d lost you,” she murmured when she could speak again. She reached up to brush aside a lock of hair that had fallen over his eyes, and smiled when he turned his head to kiss her hand. “I wouldn’t have jumped on you like that, but when you turned back into a human, I just had to kiss you. To be honest, I’ve been waiting for you to kiss me.”

“I’ve never thought people should show their affection in public, but I’ve changed my mind. I don’t care who sees me kiss you now. I’ve missed out on too many kissing opportunities with you already.”

“Annie, Liam, I’d like you to meet my intended, Prince Beldegard,” Gwendolyn interrupted. When they turned around, she was holding the prince’s hand and gazing at him with such love that tears prickled the backs of Annie’s eyelids.

Annie’d had a fairly good idea of what Beldegard looked like when he wasn’t a bear, but he’d never looked completely human the way he did now. He was a big man, standing well over six feet tall. His hair was the same rich brown shade that his fur had been when he was a bear. Annie found his brown eyes flecked with gold appealing and liked the way his mouth quirked to one side when he smiled.

“I must admit, you made a great bear, but an even better prince,” Annie told him.

“Maybe now we can go home?” Gwendolyn said, sounding hopeful. “We want to get married as soon as possible.”

Annie glanced at Snow White, who had followed the dwarves to the door of the cottage. None of the dwarves seemed upset that their brother had just been turned into a squirrel. “We’ll go soon, but not quite yet,” Annie told her sister. “There’s something we have to take care of before we leave.”

“Ahem,” said Maitland at Beldegard’s shoulder. “I’m glad to see you’re back. Mother and Father will be overjoyed.”

“Are you sorry you’re not going to be King of Montrose someday?” asked Beldegard.

“Not at all!” said Maitland, then gave a little laugh. “Well, maybe a bit. When everyone thought you were dead, I got used to the idea that I might actually be king. Then when we heard a rumor that you had been turned into a bear, my friends convinced me to make sure you didn’t come back and take away my inheritance. Although it wasn’t really my inheritance, was it?”

“No, it wasn’t. And if it really was your friends’ idea, you might want to get new friends,” Beldegard told Maitland, eyeing the men who had stayed by the horses.

Maitland laughed again. “I think you’re right.”

“But you might not have to give up your aspirations for being a king,” said Beldegard. “That lovely young lady who seems so enamored of you is Snow White, the daughter of the king of Helmswood.”

“Really?” said Maitland, turning toward the doorway where Snow White was still talking to the dwarves.

Annie glanced at Beldegard, who shrugged and said, “We’re in Helmswood, so that’s the closest castle. The witch was the queen of Helmswood and Snow White’s stepmother.”

Annie nodded. “You’re right. And she told us that she’s an only child.”

“Really?” said Maitland.

“So whoever marries her—”

“Yes, yes, I got that part. I do think she’s lovely. All that long, black hair…”

“Just be forewarned,” said Annie. “Snow White has lots of people who care about her and would be angry if you broke her heart.”

“And an angry witch stepmother!” added Liam.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Maitland said as he started toward Snow White.

“As for you,” Beldegard said, turning to Gwendolyn, “we have a lot to talk about.”

“Really?” she said, smiling up at him.

“Really!” said Beldegard, and he led her around the corner to the back of the cottage.

“We have a lot to talk about, too,” Liam told Annie. “But first I’d like to get cleaned up. Beldegard may be used to smelling like a bear, but I don’t like smelling like a woodchuck.”

Annie laughed and tilted her head to gaze into his eyes. “I don’t mind.”

“But I do,” Liam told her. “When we have the conversation that I want to have, I want everything to be perfect.”

Annie was watching him go toward the well when she heard the sound of horses’ hooves on packed dirt. She glanced back to see that Maitland’s men were leading the horses to a shed on the other side of the cottage. Only Yardley was left, gingerly touching his neck where the rope had scraped him. When he looked up and saw Annie, he smiled, waved good-bye, and sauntered toward the road, whistling a merry tune.

She was about to go inside when she noticed something sparkling in the grass. Taking a step closer, she realized that it was the dragon-head brooch. Although Annie wasn’t sure what she should do with it, she picked it up and stuck it in her pocket with the necklace. At least when she had the brooch, it wasn’t likely to hurt anyone.

“Annie!” called Dog from the woods on the other side of the road. “I have to tell you what happened!”

“Don’t come any closer,” Annie reminded Dog when he was a few yards away. “You won’t be able to talk if you do.”

Dog sat down, her tongue lolling to the side. “I was with the other dogs in the castle this morning when I saw the queen put something in the king’s drink. The other dogs told me that she did it every morning. He talked like a person before he drank his drink, but afterward he didn’t talk much at all. She did all the talking then.”

“She must be drugging him,” said Annie. “Good job, Dog! Now we know what we have to do. I don’t know where Cat is, but Rooster is still in the garden. I want the two of you to go to the castle. Be in the hall where the king and queen eat before breakfast tomorrow morning. Do whatever you have to do to make sure that the queen doesn’t put anything in the king’s drink. I’ll be there as early as I can to deal with her.”