Free A Well-Timed Enchantment by Vivian Vande Velde Page A

pitcher, dripping a purple trail.
    She cleaned her foot, and the slipper, as best she could, then set the slipper on the windowsill to dry.
    It was beginning to get dark out there, the day almost gone, and she'd accomplished nothing. She stared across the way at the wall that surrounded the castle, protecting its inhabitants. Protecting her, for this one more night. Tomorrow ... tomorrow was a different matter.
    Deanna was angry. Angry with herself for being unable to think what to do, angry with Oliver—who'd been sent to help her and was too busy flirting with Lady Marguerite and learning swordsmanship and getting sick to even be here with her, angry with Leonard and his gifts, angry with the elves, angry with the castle wall, angry with the words the ivy formed on the wall, angry with—
    Deanna stopped in the middle of turning from the window.
    Angry with the words the ivy formed on the wall?
    She took a step away from the window, but only one. Behind her, the setting sun cast an orange glow across the treetops. Slowly she turned back to the window. The vines
had
formed a pattern on the wall, and they were words.
    What the ivy said was:
Talk to the pigman, dumb twit of a human girl
    Oh no,
she thought. If the fair folk had known all along, why hadn't they told her to begin with? With a groan of exasperation she put the cold, wet slipper back on and tore out of the room. And almost collided with the wizard.
    "Good evening, Lady Deanna," he said, fingering her watch, which hung by a chain around his neck. "Looking for this?"
    Deanna took a quick step back. "No," she said, remembering to avoid Algernon's eyes. He seemed to have no power over her if she just remembered to avoid his eyes. And, anyway, her gaze was stuck on her watch, dangling by its buckle on the wizard's chest. "Not at all. What is it?"
    He leaned close. Close enough that she could see Mickey Mouse's red shorts. Close enough that Algernon's breath lifted a stray wisp of hair from her cheek. "Something very exciting," he purred. "Something more exciting than anything in my tower room."
    Startled to find her intrusion had been discov ered so quickly, Deanna looked up. She backed away, and saw the gleam of triumph on Algernon's face.
    "Are you and your inhuman companion willing to bargain, Lady Deanna? Are you willing to talk about it?"
    Bargain? She turned and ran. Her heart beat so loudly she couldn't hear if footsteps followed. "Oliver!" she cried, bursting into his room. She slammed the door shut behind her and leaned against it.
    Oliver had jumped up from the bed, instantly awake and alert "What's wrong?"
    "He's got it," she said, grabbing his arm and shaking him. "Algernon's got the watch."
    "Well," Oliver said, relaxing visibly, "you said all along that he would, so it shouldn't come as a surprise."
    She came close to strangling him. If she'd thought there was time for it, she might have. "Are you well enough—"
    He interrupted: "Why is one of your shoes purple?"
    Of all the ridiculous things ... Still she knew if she didn't explain, she'd never have his full attention. "I accidentally stepped into a bowl of blueberries and couldn't get the stain out But that—"
    "But it's purple, not blue."
    "That's the color of blueberry juice. Listen—"
    "Then why aren't they called purpleberries?"
    "Oliver!" she screamed at him.
    He waited patiently.
    "The fair folk left us a message to talk to the pigman."
    "All right," he said in a calm, infuriating, let's-not-get-hysterical tone. "Then let's talk to the pigman."
    Gingerly she opened the door and peeked up and down the hall. No sign of Algernon. That was little relief. If he wasn't here, where was he? And wherever he was, what was he up to? She motioned for Oliver to follow quietly. Silly. Oliver was always quiet. Her slipper, however, squished noisily with every step.
    No one seemed to hear, or at least no one stopped them as they passed through the castle halls and left the main building. They found the pigman,