Free More Bones by Arielle North Olson

girl,” rasped the witch. “I won’t let you go unless you promise to give me your first love. I want a young husband.”
    The princess had no idea who her first love would be. But the thought of giving anyone to the witch was appalling. Sybil forced herself to stare right into the witch’s glowing eyes.
    â€œI won’t do it,” she said.
    â€œOh yes, you will,” cackled the witch. “Or I will make you my slave.”
    The princess was scared, but she wasn’t going to let the witch know. “If you do,” she said, “my father and his warriors will kill you.”
    The witch hooted. “How could anyone kill me? No one can find me.”
    â€œI just did,” said the princess.
    â€œOh no, you didn’t,” said the witch. “ I found you . But I’ll make you a bargain. If you can find where I live within three days, I’ll claim neither you nor your first love.”
    â€œAnd if I don’t?”
    The witch clutched the princess’s arm so hard that her long fingernails dug in. “If you don’t . . . I will marry your first love, and I’ll make you my slave besides.”
    The princess knew it was a wretched bargain. Just three days? To find a witch who could supposedly change herself into any animal or bird on earth, or hide under a rock if she pleased?
    â€œI won’t agree unless you give me a clue,” said the princess, trying to keep her teeth from chattering.
    The witch thought for a moment. “Clues won’t help you,” she said, “but here’s one:
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“Where the scorpion’s voice resounds,
Find one who is and is not bound.”
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She let go of the girl’s arm, turned herself into an owl, and flew away.
    The princess lowered herself from limb to limb until she reached the ground. She slowly walked back to the castle. What was she going to do? Did she dare ask the king or queen for help? If she did, they would know she’d
been in the forbidden forest. She was still trying to decide when she entered the castle, but her parents were not there. The king was leading his warriors into battle, and the queen had gone to visit Sybil’s grandmother in the next kingdom.
    Sybil would have to find the witch herself—in just three days.
    The next morning, the princess returned to the forest so early that dew still clung to the grass. She walked for miles, zigzagging and backtracking, peering into caves, behind trees, and under rocks. She tramped through the forest all that day, but she found no trace of the witch’s home.
    On the second day, the princess searched for anyone who could help. She asked an old woodcutter, a woman who lived in a forest hut, and villagers nearby, but no one knew where to find the Witch of the Woods.
    On the third morning, the princess felt desperate. She had only one day left. She wondered if the witch had become an owl again. All day long, Sybil scanned the treetops until her neck ached. She even climbed a huge pine to look out over the forest. But she saw nothing resembling a witch, only squirrels and foxes and every song-bird imaginable.
    When she had lowered herself almost down to the ground, she saw something suspicious. She held tight to the tree and didn’t make a sound. For there below her, a deer was scooting past—but it didn’t look quite like a deer. Its eyes glowed like those of the witch.
    The moment it ran past, Sybil dropped down from the tree and chased it, staying out of sight as best she could. Several times she almost lost track of it, but finally it stopped by an abandoned well. Sybil peeked around a tree and saw, to her amazement, that the deer was shrinking down to the ground and turning into a little green frog. With one gigantic leap, the frog disappeared into the well.
    Sybil heard the splash and rushed over in time to see the frog swim to one side, where there seemed to be an opening. The princess was so eager to