A Prince among Frogs by E. D. Baker Read Free Book Online Page A

medallion, go watch over it and stop bothering the princess,” he said, making shooing motions with his hands.
    Grumbling to himself, Hubert disappeared through a wall.
    “Thank you, Sir Jarvis,” said Millie. “I didn’t know that Hubert was so worried about his medallion.”
    The noble ghost sighed. “It was his most prized possession. The first princess Millie, the one you were named after, gave it to him for bravery. Just a few years before you were born, your family had the bones in the oubliette buried, but Hubert insisted the medallion stay here in the castle. Your mother hid the medallion in a special place. Though Hubert forgets everything else, he never forgets where that special place is located.”
    “So you’ve heard about Felix,” said Millie. “Does anyone down here know who might have taken him?”
    Sir Jarvis shook his head. “No one has been aboveground in days. Your great-grandparents are away at a meeting of the council of ghosts. We know only what we’ve heard people talking about when they visit the dungeon. Your grandfather passed through just a short time ago on his way to the secret passage. He was talking to his guards about your brother. They said—”
    A roar so high pitched that it reached the very limit of what a human can hear echoed throughout the dungeon. Audun whipped his head around, and even Millie, who had heard it before, felt her heart leap in her chest. “That’s the shadow beast,” she said, taking a step toward Audun.
    The air that had been cold before turned frigid as unseen figures rustled by them. Audun pulled Millie to his side when it sounded as if a crowd were passing them in the corridor.
    “Everyone is headed toward the shadow beast. I’d better go help them,” said Sir Jarvis. “We’ve been trying to capture the beast for the last few days. All of us other ghosts stand watch over the secret passage and warn the guards when the wall between the dungeon and the moat springs a leak. We think it’s about time the shadow beast contributed, too, instead of just scaring our visitors.”
    As Sir Jarvis floated away, Millie and Audun began walking toward the end of the dungeon where the secret passage was located. “You haven’t seen the shadow beast yet,” said Millie. “No one knows what it was originally, because all you can see of the beast are its eyes and a shadow. It’s a ghost, too, but the odd thing about it is that you can touch it, although only Grassina and my mother actually have. And if we can touch the beast, it can touch us, so everyone is afraid of it. The beast has never bothered me, but I’ve heard that it almost got my grandmother when she was young.”
    The roar rang out again, louder this time, as if the beast were coming closer. Millie glanced down the corridor and saw a shadow pass beneath the flickering light of the torches on the walls. “It’s here!” she whispered, reaching for Audun’s hand.
    Audun took a single step forward. “Where?” he murmured. And then reddened eyes appeared in the shadow as the beast loped down the corridor.
    “Watch out!” shouted Millie, but the beast was already on them.
    It knocked Audun to the side with one powerful blow. He staggered and fell against the wall. It wasn’t until the beast’s eyes turned to Millie, however, that Audun’s expression hardened and he began to change into a dragon. The change wasn’t complete when the beast launched itself at Millie, but Audun didn’t wait—he threw himself between them even as his skin hardened into scales and his nails into talons.
    Aside from its eyes, the beast looked like little more than a deepening of the shadows. It was hard to fight something he couldn’t really see, but Audun managed somehow. Whipping his tail, he hit something with a good, hard thwack . A powerful swipe of his talons elicited another high-pitched roar. The beast leaped onto Audun’s back, forcing him to the ground, but Audun shook off the weight and turned to face