Free A Prince among Frogs by E. D. Baker Page B

and smiled at him. He’d been so helpful ever since he arrived. She didn’t know what she would have done if he hadn’t been around when Felix disappeared. Just having him there was—
    The carpet suddenly darted forward, only to slam into the sides of the window frame. Millie cried out as she nearly fell through the window, but Audun had a good grip on her arm. He pulled her back as the magic carpet backed up and prepared to try again.
    “No! Stop!” shouted Francis.
    “Hold on!” Audun cried, grabbing the edge of the carpet with one hand and wrapping the other arm around Millie’s waist.
    Taking hold of one of the heavy cords attached to the carpet, she gripped it so hard that her knuckles turned white. The carpet quivered and took off, ramming the window frame with even greater force than before. Millie and Audun bobbed back and forth like a pair of children’s toys, but they didn’t fall.
    “Jump off!” Francis ordered.
    Frantic, Millie looked around. The carpet was already backing up to the rear wall. Then suddenly it shot forward and was nearly halfway to the window when it tilted onto its side. Millie and Audun grabbed the upper edge and held on, their feet scrabbling to get a purchase on the now-vertical carpet. This time it slipped through the window with room to spare, although both Millie and Audun scraped their legs against the windowsill. Once outside the castle, the carpet righted itself and took off into the cloudless azure sky.
    “Be careful!” Francis called after them.
    Millie glanced back, but the carpet was moving so fast that the castle was already dwindling in the distance. They were passing over the closest village when she let go of the cord and reached for Audun’s hand.
    “Tell me about the island,” he said. “What was that about witches going there through trickery?”
    “It happened before I was born,” said Millie. “Olefat Wizard, Olebald’s brother, tricked some witches into going to a tropical island. Some of the witches liked it there and decided to stay. Cadmilla, the witch who came to get Grassina, is one of the few who still lives on the island.”
    “I visited a tropical island once,” said Audun. “It was too hot for my taste.”
    Millie laughed. “Most tropical islands probably are.”
    Although Millie had flown great distances as a dragon, she’d never grown tired of seeing the countryside change beneath her. She leaned forward now, watching the land below them. They flew past the Purple Mountains, where she’d often attended the Dragon Olympics with her friend Ralf and his parents. When she saw pink clouds rising from the volcanic bowl where dragons practiced flame-breathing events, she smiled and pointed it out to Audun. “I’ll take you there to look around sometime,” she said. “We can go to the Olympics, too, if you can stand the heat.”
    Millie’s muscles became stiff long before they reached the desert, and she leaned back to watch the clouds. After a while her eyes closed and she dozed, waking with her head nestled against Audun’s shoulder in time to see the sky turn red and orange as the sun set. Night came and they watched the twinkling stars. They talked about their plans for the future, and the constellations above, but mostly about Felix and what they hoped Emma would do when she returned to Greater Greensward.
    They drifted off to sleep, and when they woke they were flying over the ocean. Ralf’s parents had brought her to swim in the great rolling waves and she’d always loved the way it smelled. She sat up now, breathing deeply, and felt Audun’s gaze on her. He was still lying down and she turned her head to look at him. The warmth of his gaze made her blush, but she smiled at him, happy to have him along.
    They both turned their heads at the sound of wings. A gull landed on the edge of the carpet. It tilted its head to eye them, then took off, leaving a single feather behind. “There must be land around somewhere,” Millie