Chapter 14

                                    

                                          
The next day was overcast, with a heavy blanket of clouds blocking the sun. The tournament to celebrate my birthday was to be held in the field where Father and his knights usually practiced with their swords and lances. Carpenters had taken over the field weeks before, building stands for the crowd that would come to watch and setting up tents for the competing knights. The wooden barrier that ran the length of the tilting field and divided the field in two was also ready, its frame draped with colorful fabric.
                          
Since I hadn't seen Eadric in the castle, I assumed he was getting ready for his first run against someone called the Black Knight. It had become fashionable for a knight to choose a color for his armor, then claim that color for his name during the tournament. Eadric's color was silver, which looked wonderful when he was on his white horse. Although I had met most of the competing knights, I didn't know which colors they had chosen. With their helmets closed and their faces covered, I had no way of telling until after they'd competed and removed their helmets.
                          
I was on my way to the field, hoping to see Eadric before the games began, when I saw my grandmother chatting with Oculura and her sister, Dyspepsia. Olefat the dog was also there, sniffing the hems of their gowns. As I approached the tents closest to the castle, I spotted Grassina scurrying toward the moat. She was carrying something in her arms, but I couldn't tell what it was from a distance.
                          
The herald's trumpet blared just as I started toward my aunt. "King Limelyn has declared that all lances must be blunted for this tournament," announced the herald. "Any knight using a pointed lance will be disqualified."
                          
My father always ordered the blunting of lances, though even blunted lances could deliver powerful blows. I'd been so preoccupied with the curse that I hadn't thought about Eadric's safety, and suddenly I was worried. The competition was dangerous, and so was the threat of the unknown magic that my grandmother and Oculura had mentioned. I decided to do something about it—nothing that would help Eadric win, because I knew he wouldn't stand for that, just something that would keep him from getting hurt.
                          
I found a quiet spot behind two of the tents where no one could see what I was doing and reached into my purse. There wasn't much inside that was suitable, but I found a small coin that would do.
                          
Holding the coin in one hand, I recited a health-and-safety charm.


                          
Keep the wearer of this charm
                          
Safe from any kind of harm.
                          
Keep the wearer heal thy, too.
                          
Bring him back as good as new.


                          
The coin glowed bright orange for a second, then faded to its original copper. When it was dull again, I took a scarf I'd intended to give to Eadric as a token of my favor and tied the coin in one of the corners. I'd give it to him as soon as I saw him.
                          
The festive atmosphere surrounding tournaments always attracted people from all over. Some came to compete, some to watch and others to make money. Wandering minstrels, jugglers and merchants selling food and trinkets all vied for the attention of anyone passing by. This tournament seemed to be especially popular, with commoners and nobles traveling all the way from Eadric's kingdom of Upper Montevista.
                          
I wandered through the growing crowd looking for Eadric. Instead I ran into Haywood, who was listening to a minstrel's song about an enchanted prince.
                          
"It's not like that at all," Haywood said when he saw me. "But you would know what I mean, having been a frog. Everyone thinks that when you're turned into an animal, you pine away for your human life. You don't, though. You get used to being an animal pretty quickly. It takes a lot longer to remember how to be a human when you turn back. I still don't have it mastered, and it's been more than a year."