Princess between Worlds Read Free

behind Liam. The wind blew over the wall, whipping her long skirt behind her and pushing her toward the edge of the walkway. By the time they reached the tower, her lungs hurt from breathing in the frigid air.
    â€œI think the door is frozen shut!” shouted Liam, yanking on the handle.
    Annie moved closer to him, her teeth chattering so violently that she could hear them over the wind.
    â€œStay right there!” Liam shouted as he let go of her hand. Turning his shoulder to the door, he threw himself against it. On his fourth try, the door flew open and he tumbled into the tower. It was dark inside. Annie couldn’t see him until his hand shot out and grabbed hers, pulling her into the small room beside him.
    It was almost as difficult to close the door as it had been to open it. This time Annie lent her strength to Liam’s. With both of them shoving it with their shoulders,they were finally able to close it, cutting off the wind and snow. Even with the door closed, Annie didn’t think it was much warmer inside the tower. It was darker, however, and now Annie couldn’t see a thing.
    â€œI saw stairs over this way,” said Liam as he took her hand again. Feeling their way along the wall, they found the stairwell and started down, one tentative step at a time. The stairs wound around the tower in a spiral; the small amount of light that came under the door was blocked out when they rounded the first curve. The howling of the wind was still loud enough to make a conversation nearly impossible, so they didn’t speak except to say “Ouch!” and “Careful on this step.”
    Annie had no idea how far they’d gone until Liam announced, “That’s the last step. I wish I had a flint with me. Even a spark of light would tell us something.” They both started patting the wall with their free hands, hoping to find a door or some sort of opening.
    â€œListen!” Annie said suddenly. “I think I hear something over the wind.”
    â€œVoices!” Liam said after listening for a moment.
    They turned toward the sound and spotted light coming from under a door at the same time. The door opened easily, and they found themselves in a torch-lit corridor. Although the light wasn’t very bright, it was enough to make Annie blink and squint after the absolute darkness that they had just left. When their eyeshad grown accustomed to the light, they saw that the corridor was lined with doors. One of them stood open, letting firelight spill into the corridor. A roar of laughter erupted from the room, drawing Annie and Liam toward it.
    When they reached the doorway, they stopped to peer inside. A group of men were seated at a long table, talking and laughing as they helped themselves from platters. Annie thought it smelled like roast mutton, and her mouth began to water. However, it wasn’t the food that she found the most appealing, but the heat from the dancing flames in the fireplace. A large, brown bear rug was stretched across the floor in front of the fireplace, and the whole picture was so inviting that she stepped into the room without thinking. The snow on her hair and clothes began to melt away. Water trickled into her eyes, blurring her vision, but it looked to her as if the bear rug stood up and was coming straight at her.
    Annie was rubbing the water from her eyes when the beast let out a deep, resounding bark and tackled her, knocking her to the ground. Liam began to shout even as a wet tongue slapped her face, coating her in slobber. A moment later, the men who had been sitting at the table were on their feet with their swords drawn.
    â€œWho are you? How did you get here?” demanded the oldest of the men. Although none of them were wearing any insignia, he had the bearing of an officer and looked as if he was in charge.
    â€œCall off your beast and I’ll tell you!” Liam shouted as he tried to drag the animal off Annie.
    â€œEdda, to