Dragon's Breath, Page 5

  Smiling until she felt as if her face might crack, Millie returned their hugs and greeted each one by name. Francis and Zoë joined Millie in greeting the witches they knew, while Maybelle and Eduardo shrank away from the witches as if afraid of touching one.

  It was some time before the friends had said hello to everyone crowding around them, but once they had, three witches who’d been waiting in the back stepped forward. Dyspepsia and her sister, Oculura, lived in the Enchanted Forest near Zoë’s family. Millie had never seen the third witch before. “My sister and I have someone here we’d like you to meet,” said Dyspepsia. “This is Mudine. Our cottage used to belong to her.”

  Zoë gasped and clutched Francis’s arm, while Millie’s smile vanished. Mudine was the name of the witch who had caught Li’l and kept her tied with string to a rafter in an old, run-down cottage. Li’l had been unable to leave the cottage even after Mudine had gone; it had been Emma who had freed the little bat.

  The old witch stepped forward and looked at them with eyes as piercing as a blue jay’s. “Where can I find the little witch called Emeralda? She took something of mine.”

  “I’m her daughter,” Millie said, squaring her shoulders and raising her chin. “Maybe I can help you.”

  “Not unless you can tell me where I can find my bat. I’ve heard rumors that your mother stole it. Well, I’ve come back and I want my bat,” Mudine said, waving a string in the air. “She was the best bat I’ve ever owned.”

  Zoë’s already pale skin grew whiter. Her voice was shaking as she said, “You can’t have her back. She has a life and a family now.”

  “She had a life with me,” said Mudine.

  “She was your prisoner!” cried Zoë. “You can’t call that a life!”

  Mudine narrowed her eyes and peered at Zoë. “Why do you care so much about a bat?”

  “Because she’s my mother!” Zoë said, holding her head higher when she heard Maybelle’s gasp behind her.

  “Well, I’ll be!” cackled Mudine. “Don’t that just beat all?”

  “I’m sorry,” Dyspepsia whispered to Millie. “We didn’t know she’d act like this.”

  Oculura frowned and reached up to her face, taking out one eye and sticking another in its place. She glanced from Millie to Zoë to Francis, then sighed and said, “Drat! I was hoping I was seeing all these long faces ’cause I’d put in the wrong eye again. You’re supposed to be smiling. We came here for a party, didn’t we? Let’s get this shindig started!”

  Suddenly, the room was a whirl of activity. The air was so rich with magic that it sparkled as witches sent their brooms to sweep the last of the dust from the floor, put up the rest of the garlands with a gesture, and carried the food from the kitchen on a mouthwatering breeze. And then the fairies were there, strewing flowers on the tables and floors, passing out nosegays, and filling the air with laughter. Grassina had followed the fairies into the room and soon the rest of Millie’s relatives appeared in the doorway.

  Watching Maybelle and Eduardo run off to join Bradston, Zoë said, “I need some fresh air. If I don’t go out now I’m going to bite one of those idiots and that would only make matters worse.”

  “I’ll go with her to make sure she’s all right,” said Francis. “You stay with your guests, Millie. It’s your party and you should be here.”

  Millie was still watching Zoë and Francis work their way through the crowd when Grassina approached her. “I’m sorry your party won’t be quite the way you’d planned, but I hope you enjoy it. This is your special day, after all.”

  “Thank you, Aunt Grassina. I just—”

  “Grassina! You haven’t changed at all since the last time I saw you,” said Mudine, jostling Millie aside. “Except you do have a few gray hairs, and some wrinkles next to your eyes, and—”

  “Have we met?” Grassina asked the old witch.

  “It’s me, Mudine! Don’t tell me your memory is going, too.”

  “Mudine! It’s been a long time.”

  “Sure has. So, I heard that you’re no longer the Green Witch. Did you lose your magic, or what?”

  Grassina sighed. “It’s a long story, but no, I still have my magic.” She glanced at Millie, saying, “Mudine and I knew each other years ago. She was one of the smartest witches I’d ever met and knew more about magic than any other ten witches put together. I’m curious though, Mudine. We thought you were dead. What happened to you?”

  “Dead? Ha!” said the old witch. “Though I was at death’s door for years. I spent my money on one healer after another, but they were all a bunch of fakes. Then I heard about the witch doctor Ting-Tang. I went to see him and he cured me. See, good as new,” she said, thumping her chest with her fist. “He was a smart one, all right. Not like the addlepated fools I saw before him. I’d recommend old Ting-Tang to anyone. He can cure just about any affliction. Say, is that girl really Li’l Stinker’s daughter?”

  “She met Zoë,” Millie told her aunt.

  Grassina nodded. “Li’l married a prince. They have three boys and two girls. Zoë is the eldest.”

  “What a shame,” said Mudine. “Li’l was the best bat I ever knew. I was counting on her to live with me again. That husband of hers must be something special. What is he, a shape-shifter or a vampire?”

  “Actually—,” Grassina began.

  “Time for presents!” shouted the Swamp Fairy. “Come over here, Millie, and see what we brought you!”

  Millie smiled apologetically at Mudine and Grassina before crossing the Hall to the raised platform where the musicians were to perform. The fairies had taken it over, covering the floor with rose petals and decorating a chair with rosebuds. As she passed her family, Millie heard her grandmother Queen Frazzela muttering under her breath, “Nothing is ready yet. The party wasn’t supposed to start for hours.”

  “You have to expect this kind of thing when you invite witches and fairies, Mother,” said Eadric.

  Millie caught the angry look her father was giving his mother, which made her wonder just what was going on. And then Millie was at the platform and the fairies were showing her their gifts. They gave her gowns—a few made of fabric, but most made of materials like spiders’ silk or moth wings. She received a cape made of violet petals and one made of mouse fur. Three flower fairies gave her two pairs of glass slippers for summer and one pair of heavy glass boots for winter. The Pumpkin Fairy gave her a bag of seeds, each one guaranteed to grow into a full-sized carriage good for one evening’s ride. It was the Swamp Fairy who gave her the mice in the wicker cage and the directions for how to turn them into coachmen.

  Then it was the witches’ turn. Oculura and Dyspepsia gave her a crow that could speak seventeen languages and say the alphabet backward in each. Klorine gave her a magic mirror that would reveal whether a young man she liked was actually her true love. Ratinki gave her a covered basket filled with miniature witches’ lights in all the colors of the rainbow. Other witches gave her ingredients to use in potions: fly feet, chicken ears, the eyes of blind cave fish, and the sweat of a left-handed man collected on the second Tuesday of a month starting with the letter J.

  When her family approached carrying their gifts, Millie already had so many presents that she didn’t know what to do with them all. Queen Chartreuse and King Limelyn gave her a new crown decorated with emeralds. Grassina and Haywood brought her books on plants and magic. Millie sighed when her parents gave her a collection of potions, lotions, and perfumes meant to soothe, calm, and relieve tension or bad moods. Of course they would give her a practical gift. Then Zoë handed her a necklace of bloodred stones from her family, and Francis gave her a pouch filled with coins from the Magic Marketplace that could be spent only at the Magic Marketplace.

  “They’re worth twice their face value on certain days,” whispered Francis.

  “What days are those?” asked Millie.

  Francis shrugged. “They don’t tell you that.”

  And then Queen Frazzela and King Bodamin
were there, saying, “Our special gift for you is in the courtyard. Come along and see what it is.”

  Millie tried to find her parents in the crowd, thinking they would like to see the present, too, since it was part of the reason they had traveled so far. They were busy listening to a new arrival, however, a witch who was waving her arms as she talked. At Frazzela’s urging, Millie left her parents where they were and accompanied her grandmother to the door leading to the courtyard. Until now, she’d forgotten all about her grandparents’ promise and wondered what they could possibly give her that would be special, especially since she usually got magical presents and … Millie stopped dead at the top of the stairs. The special present was right there in the courtyard with a big pink bow on its neck. It was a small white pony, the very last thing Millie wanted.

  “Don’t you love it?” asked her grandmother, breathing into her ear.

  Millie didn’t know what to say. She thought horses were beautiful, but they hated her. If she went near the pony, it would behave like every other horse did when she got too close. It would rear and kick and try to run off and she’d have to pretend not to know why it acted that way.

  “It’s very nice,” Millie said. Crossing her fingers inside the long sleeve of her gown, she added, “but I already have dozens of horses at home.” It was a lie. Her parents had horses, but Millie couldn’t even go into the stable.

  “Really?” her grandmother said, a smile frozen on her face.

  Millie couldn’t approach the pony without attracting the kind of attention she wanted to avoid. Even so, she felt awful as she turned and walked back into the Great Hall. She just hoped she hadn’t hurt her grandmother’s feelings.

  Francis and Zoë had followed her to the courtyard and they hurried to catch up now. “That was some special gift,” said Francis. “I heard your grandparents talking while you were opening your presents from the fairies. They hadn’t even decided what to give you. I was there when a page suggested a pony and they sent him to the stable to pick one out.”

  Millie could feel the heat creeping up her neck. Her grandmother had insisted that Millie come to get a special gift, yet she hadn’t even had a gift in mind. Worse, the pony was the most unsuitable gift anyone could have given her. Calm down, Millie thought. Grandmother had no way of knowing. Remembering her conversation with her parents, Millie took deep breaths until her heart rate returned to normal and her face was no longer hot. “I’m not going to get upset,” she told her friends. “I’m sure my grandmother meant well.”

  The three friends had just walked into the Great Hall when they heard a commotion in the far corner. The witch who had been talking to her parents now had a wider audience as other witches crowded around her. “There were a dozen of them,” said the old witch Millie knew was named Burtha. “They were crawling over the river walls and attacking the people in the town. I never heard such screaming in all my born days.”

  Emma and Eadric looked worried when they found Millie in the crowd. Taking her aside, her mother kissed her on the cheek and said, “I’m sorry, darling, but this is an emergency. Your father and I have to go. The sea monsters are swarming at Chancewold. We’ve been dealing with them for years, but there have never been this many at one time before.”

  “But it’s my birthday party!” said Millie.

  “It can’t be helped,” said her father. “We have to go. Those people are counting on us.”

  Millie could feel the pressure building behind her eyes and in her chest, but she was determined not to lose her temper. It’s all right, she told herself. They were here for most of the party. At least the rest of my family will be with me.

  “Haywood and I are going, too,” said Grassina. “Some of those monsters sound familiar. I feel responsible for this.”

  “If they are the monsters you created, Aunt Grassina,” said Emma, “then it’s my fault they’re there. I banished them from the moat without thinking about where they would go.” She gave her daughter a hug. “Happy birthday, darling. Remember what we talked about in the carriage.”

  “I’ll remember,” Millie said through gritted teeth.

  No one else seemed to notice when her parents and great-aunt and great-uncle left, because by then everyone was eating. Millie was wandering among her guests, thanking them for their gifts, when she came across Frazzela and Maybelle. She would have continued on if she hadn’t heard Maybelle say, “When you told me last week that you could get the fairies to come to a party, I must admit that I didn’t think it was possible. Nobody can get more than three fairies at a social event anymore. Here are the coins I owe you. I was sure this was a bet I couldn’t lose.”

  “I told you that the fairies and I are great friends,” said Frazzela, taking the coins.

  Millie frowned. If this was all about a bet … She stepped in front of the two women and turned to face her grandmother. “When did you invite the fairies?”

  “Last week,” said Frazzela.

  “Before you invited us?” said Millie. “How did you know we would be here? I was supposed to have my party at home.”

  Queen Frazzela shrugged. “I knew your parents would come once I told them that the fairies were expecting you to be here for a birthday party. If you didn’t come, the fairies would have been angry and everyone knows you don’t want to make fairies mad.”

  “But you would have made them mad if we hadn’t come,” said Millie.

  Frazzela sniffed. “I knew your parents would never let that happen.”

  Millie could feel her face growing warm, but this time she couldn’t have stopped it if she’d wanted to. “You mean you tricked us into coming? You insisted that we have my party here because you wanted the fairies to come and you knew they always came to my parties?”

  Maybelle laughed and said, “Whatever works!”

  “Don’t act so indignant,” Queen Frazzela snapped at Millie. “It’s about time you came to see me.”

  Millie didn’t want to lose her temper, but learning that her grandmother had manipulated her family to win a bet made her angrier than she’d been in a long time. Even then, she might have been able to stop the change if she hadn’t seen the smug expression on Maybelle’s face and the unrepentant look on her grandmother’s. This time Millie’s whole body grew hot as her heart rate went up and her skin began to prickle. Her eyesight grew sharper, too, until she could see a hair quivering on Queen Frazzela’s chin and flakes of powder on Maybelle’s nose.

  Even in the throes of the change, Millie had enough sense to turn on her heel and start for the door. “Don’t you walk away from me again, young lady!” shrilled her grandmother.

  And then the change happened between one heartbeat and the next, and a dragon stood where the human girl had been. The last thing Millie heard before she flew through a window was the sound of her grandmother screaming.

  Seven

  Millie had been flying for hours, unable to decide where to go. She’d considered going to Chance-wold to help her parents, but she couldn’t bear to face them after having done exactly what they’d asked her not to do. It was almost dark when she started toward home, but she knew she couldn’t leave her friends to face the mess she’d left behind, so she turned around again. Finally, when she was calm enough that she knew she could turn back into a human if she wanted to, Millie returned to the castle in Upper Montevista.

  The moon lit her way as she circled the castle, trying to find the window to her chamber. Because she couldn’t tell which window was hers, she landed in the courtyard when the guards weren’t looking. She had scarcely turned into a human when a bat settled on the ground beside her. There was a puff of dank air and Zoë was a human as well.

  “I knew you’d come back!” said Zoë.

  “I hate to ask, but what happened after I left?”

  Zoë sighed. “It was awful. Your grandmother didn’t stop screaming for the longest time. She said awful things about you and your mother and your mother’s whole family. Oh, one good thing di
d come out of all this. Maybelle and Eduardo left. I know you don’t want to hear what they had to say.”

  “Where’s Francis?”

  “In bed, I guess. Queen Chartreuse and King Limelyn are planning to leave as soon as you come back. They stuck up for you when Frazzela couldn’t say anything nice.”

  They had been walking toward the door to the castle keep, but Millie stopped now and sat on the lowest step. “I don’t know what to do,” she said, resting her chin on her knees. “I knew I shouldn’t get so angry, but I couldn’t help myself. I wish I could learn how to control my temper.”

  Zoë sat down beside her and put her arm around Millie’s shoulders. “And I wish I had some wise advice to give you, but I don’t. I’ve seen what happens when you try to fix this with a potion or a spell.”

  “I think I can help,” said Mudine as she walked out of the shadows.

  “We don’t want your help,” said Zoë. “Millie doesn’t need you to put a spell on her.”

  “I wasn’t talking about a spell. I know someone who might be able to teach you how to control your temper. She’s an old friend of mine. Have you ever heard of the Blue Witch?”

  Zoë groaned and said, “What is it with witches and colors?”

  Millie shrugged. “They’re hereditary titles that the fairies give out. At least, my mother says a fairy gave the title to the first Green Witch.”

  “Are you interested or not?” asked Mudine. “Because if you aren’t, I have better things to do than—”

  “I’m interested!” Millie told the old witch before turning to Zoë. “Aunt Grassina told me that Mudine knows more about magic than most witches and that she’s really smart. If she has any suggestion that can help me, I’d be a fool not to listen. I don’t know what else to do, Zoë. I’ve tried everything I can think of and nothing has worked!”

  “I’m not so sure about this …,” said Zoë.

  Millie looked to Mudine. “Tell me where I can find this Blue Witch. I can’t live this way any longer—having to pretend that I’m normal, and frightening people when I don’t mean to.”