Queen Karolina had made it very clear that Annie was to come straight to see her the moment she got out of bed. As Annie hurried along the corridor, she glanced to the far end, where a window revealed a beautiful cloudless day, just as Squidge had said. It was the perfect kind of day for a wedding.
The little sprite wasn’t the only one who had offered to help. Annie’s aunt and uncle, Queen Theodora and King Daneel, were there, as well as their son, Prince Ainsley, and his new wife. Ella had been an enormous help with the more practical matters like seating arrangements at the formal dinner and choosing the food to be served after the ceremony. Snow White and her betrothed, Prince Maitland, had arrived a day later, even though they were in the midst of their own wedding preparations. Snow White had hit it off with Ella right away and together they had taken over decorating the castle. With Squidge and Annie’s friends to help, Annie had little left to do, other than get dressed and calm her mother’s nerves.
Her mother had been agitated since the day Annie and Liam returned from helping Snow White and announced that they planned to marry right away. Queen Karolina had just finished putting on a wedding for her older daughter, Gwendolyn, and hadn’t expected Annie’s announcement quite so soon. When Liam said that he wanted to marry Annie that week, the queen announced that no daughter of hers was going to get married in anything but the most beautiful ceremony, and that would take at least two months. They were able to talk her down to one, but that had only been after much wheedling, begging, and threats of elopement. Everyone in the castle had worked overtime to get things ready, but Annie’s gown hadn’t been finished when she went to bed the night before.
Annie and Liam had thought long and hard about their invitation list, and had finally decided that they had to invite all the witches and fairies in the kingdom if they wanted to stay on cordial terms with them. Although there weren’t very many witches in Treecrest, there were lots of fairies. None had arrived yet, but Annie was sure that they planned to make a big entrance, arriving together just before the wedding. More worrisome, however, was that Liam’s father had yet to arrive. They had invited him as soon as they set the date and had welcomed a messenger bearing a reply soon after. He had promised to come, but there was still no sign of the elderly king. Annie wondered if she should once again offer to postpone the wedding, an offer she had already made to Liam the day before. He had turned her down then, saying that he expected his father to show up any minute.
“There you are!” Lady Clare exclaimed as she rushed down the corridor to take Annie by the arm. “Your mother has been waiting for you!”
Annie let the woman lead her into the queen’s chamber. Although it was a large room, it seemed small with all the ladies-in-waiting there along with the two seamstresses who were still fussing over the gowns they had made for Annie and her mother.
Queen Karolina turned away from her mirror to glare at Annie. “It’s about time! Where have you been?”
“I came straight here,” Annie replied. “Did Liam’s father arrive yet?”
“No, but I’m sure he’s on his way. The ceremony isn’t due to start for another three hours,” said the queen.
“What if he doesn’t get here in time? Maybe we should postpone it until—”
“You will do no such thing!” her mother cried. “You bullied me into having the wedding today and you’re not going to change it now. I’ve worked my fingers to the bone trying to make this perfect. Nothing is going to make us postpone this wedding!”
Annie could tell that her mother was annoyed with her, but she was too worried to give up. “He should be here by now. What if something has gone wrong?”
The queen sighed as if it was all too much. “If something had gone wrong and he wasn’t able to come, he would have sent word. Now please, go look at your dress. Mabel and Inga just finished it.”
The two seamstresses bobbed their heads, beaming at Annie, but she could see the shadows under their eyes and knew they had been up all night. Her mother wasn’t the only one who had put a lot of work into the wedding. Maybe it wouldn’t be fair to any of them if she postponed it now.
Lady Clare had already crossed the room to where the seamstresses hovered over the gown. “It’s gorgeous!” she exclaimed. “Oh, dear, there’s a loose thread.”
The moment Lady Clare touched the thread, Annie heard twanging as if someone had struck a harsh chord on a lute. “No, don’t!” Annie cried out, but the magic she’d heard had already done its work. At the touch of the woman’s hand, every thread in the gown came undone and the fabric fluttered to the floor in scraps, while all the hand-sewn pearls and gems fell with a loud clatter.
Queen Karolina gasped and turned pale. Lady Clare’s hand flew to her mouth and she shook her head. “I barely touched it!” she cried, turning to the queen.
“It wasn’t your fault,” said Annie, although her heart was sinking. The gown had been the one she had always envisioned herself wearing at her wedding. It had been perfect, and now it was destroyed. Even though all the pieces were there, it would be weeks before the dress could be remade. “Someone used magic to ruin my wedding gown. I could hear it!”
No one seemed to think this was odd, as they all knew that Annie actually could hear magic. Because of the first and only christening gift she had received from a fairy, Annie was impervious to magic, but she always knew when it was present.
“Why would anyone do such an awful thing?” the queen asked.
“I don’t know,” said Annie with a catch in her voice. “I mean, I know I’ve made enemies, but I’ve already dealt with Terobella and Granny Bentbone. I didn’t know anyone else hated me enough to do something like this.”
Granny Bentbone and her daughter, Terobella, were evil witches whom Annie had defeated while visiting Snow White. Terobella had destroyed herself when she tried to use magic on Annie, and Granny Bentbone was currently locked away in a tower under armed guard. After dealing with the witches, Annie had accepted Liam’s proposal on the way home, certain that no one else wished her ill the way they had. She’d thought that her only worry now was that she didn’t become the same demanding, imperious, self-centered harridan that her sister, Gwendolyn, had been when she had been about to get married. Remembering her resolve to be considerate of others’ feelings even if things didn’t go quite the way she wanted them to, she tried not to let her disappointment over her ruined gown show.
The queen must have noticed the unshed tears glistening in Annie’s eyes, because her own expression softened. “Oh, my poor darling. Don’t worry. I’m sure we’ll think of some way around this. Perhaps I have a gown we could alter. Lady Clare, see what you can find that might work. Lady Suzette, empty out that jeweled box and help the seamstresses collect all the pearls and gems. We have a lot to do and only a few hours to do it.”
Boom! Thunder shook the room as lightning flashed close by. Everyone turned to the window when rain began to pour from the sky. What had been a beautiful day just minutes before was suddenly dark and stormy.
In the silence between rumbles of thunder, they all heard a knock on the door. One of the ladies-in-waiting opened it to admit a maid. “Your Highness,” she said, looking around the room until she spotted Annie. “You need to come quick. It’s the two princesses Snow White and Eleanor. Something terrible has happened to them!”
“Was there an accident?” asked Queen Karolina.
“Are they ill?” asked Annie.
“No, no! It’s worse than that,” cried the maid. “They have rashes!”
Everyone looked confused, but it was Annie who spoke up first. “Excuse me, Mother. I should go see about this,” she said, curtsying to the queen.
“Of course, my dear. You take care of your friends and we’ll see to a gown for you.” The queen looked relieved that she wouldn’t have to deal with this newest emergency.
The maid was so upset that she nearly tripped over her own feet as they ran down the corridor. “Where are they?” Annie asked.
“In Princess Eleanor’s room,” said the maid. “I was brushing her hair when Princess Snow White came by. They were both fine, then suddenly they claimed to be hot and I looked at their faces and … Well, you’ll see for yourself. They’re in here.”
Annie led the way into the room, stopping so suddenly that the maid bumped into her from behind. The two princesses were seated in chairs in front of the window, gazing at each other in bewilderment. They had rashes, but they weren’t like any that Annie had ever seen before. Bright green splotches moved across their faces, drifting from chin to cheek to forehead and back again, making one pattern after another.
“Creeping rashes?” Annie murmured out loud.
“Is that what they’re called?” asked Snow White. “Then you’ve seen them before?”
Annie shook her head. “No. Never. But they have to have been magically induced. Nothing that looks like that could be natural. Just a moment and we’ll know for sure.” Annie approached her friends with her hand outstretched. At her touch, the rash disappeared from Snow White’s fair skin, reappearing when Annie took her hand away. “It’s magic all right. Aside from holding your hands, there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“Has anyone seen Annie?” Liam asked as he stuck his head in the still-open door. “I just … Oh, there you are. You’re needed in the great hall. Something about the rushes and the flowers. Say, what happened to you two?”
Liam was staring at the two princesses when they both burst into tears. Annie sighed and hustled her groom out the door, closing it firmly behind her. “What is this about the rushes and the flowers? Are the rushes moldy? Are the flowers wilting already?”
“Nothing like that,” Liam said, following her down the corridor. “They look fine, and you don’t notice that they aren’t at first. It’s just that they seem to be infested.”
“With what? Aphids?” asked Annie.
“Nothing so ordinary,” Liam said.
Annie began to hurry. This day was going from bad to worse and she dreaded finding out what was next. She was hurrying down the spiral staircase closest to Eleanor’s room when she passed an arrow slit and glanced outside. Lightning flashed near the north tower, a jagged streak of brilliant blue that left a matching streak behind her eyelids when she blinked. She stumbled and nearly fell, but Liam reached out and caught her. After that, she ran down the stairs without looking outside again.
The voices near the great hall were so loud that Annie heard them long before she and Liam reached it. They had to push past the people standing in the doorway to see what everyone was talking about. Even then, Annie didn’t see anything wrong at first. The rushes on the floor were fresh and fragrant. The flowers filling the bowls and vases looked just-picked and smelled wonderful. It wasn’t until she bent down to examine the rushes that she saw that they were crawling with ladybugs. The peach-colored roses on the closest table were exquisite, until the petals shivered, revealing one big, fat bumblebee after another.
“Those bugs weren’t there when we put down the rushes, Your Highness,” a young maid said, her lip quivering. “I swear it!”
“I’m sure you’re right,” said Annie. “No one blames you at all.”
When she heard the sound of laughing, Annie stepped into the great hall to see who was there. It was Squidge running across the floor, kicking at the rushes. The moment he spotted Annie, he dashed down the hall with clouds of ladybugs flying up around him.
“This is great!” said the sprite when he reached Annie. “Your wedding guests will have fun with this.” He kicked at the rushes again. Ladybugs flew everywhere, landing on the hem of Annie’s skirt, Liam’s boots, and the table pushed up against the wall. The people in the doorway behind them moved back as if ladybugs were dangerous.
“Don’t be foolish,” Annie scolded them. “Ladybugs can’t hurt you.”
“Maybe they’re afraid of the bees,” said Liam, eyeing a bumblebee hovering a foot from his face. A few seconds later, the bee flew off, repeating a zigzag pattern.
“We need to talk,” Annie said, leading Liam out of the hall and down the corridor, where they couldn’t be overheard. “Someone is using magic in ways that makes it obvious that it is magic. Whoever is doing this wants me to know that a magic user is behind it.”
“You know I don’t want to postpone the wedding, but I think we’re going to have to,” said Liam.
“I know,” said Annie. “I’m afraid that if we don’t, something even worse is going to happen.”