12

14

The king's brave, bedraggled, loyal messenger and Francis came around to the front of the fortress and crossed its moat bridge. Staring up at the enormous stone wall, Danny scratched his head causing the loose chain that had once linked his iron cuffs to clonk him on his brow bone.

"Frederic should really invest in a doorbell," he said.

Francis called for Sir Fred, once, twice then a third time before the man appeared to look down from his high place atop the wall.

"Who goes there?" he shouted.

"Sir Frederic it's us! We've got something urgent to tell you about the princesses!"

"I'm sorry, but your three days are up."

"You said we had till noon."

"I did? Well, go on then, but unless you can tell me how those shoes are worn through, there's no point in my letting you in just to throw you out again."

"We can! You see we waited outside the girls' room at night until we saw a light..."

"Get a move on!" Danny interrupted. "You want it to be noon before you finish this story and lose our 10 sovereigns?"

"Minus room and board," Fred called down.

"Listen, Fred," Danny shouted. "Those girls have a secret passageway they sneak out of so they can go to these barn dances, see? Only they're not just dancing. That string-bean sorcerer Ivan's got them hypnotized. Got them trained to attack anyone Robert the Rotten wants, and that includes the King, you dig?"

"Oh dear," Fred said. "Wait right there."

Sir Fred's small head disappeared for a moment. Danny said to Francis, "I'll catch the money when he throws it down. You've got an embarrassing catch-face."

The next thing they knew, all of their belongings were being dumped on them from above. Danny yanked a tunic off his head. "I'm getting pretty tired of this."

"Frederic, don't be a fool!" Francis begged. "It's true! The princesses are in real danger and so is King Victor."

"Would you be willing to repeat this ridiculous story with your arm in the wall?"

"I would," said Francis without hesitation. It was only when he tried to place his arm in the hole which exacted a bloody price from liars, that he realized the opening in the stone would not accommodate the iron still cuffed to his wrist, no matter how he positioned it.

"I'm wait-ing!" Fred called.

"Step aside, let me try," said Danny. He struggled but his arm wouldn't fit either.

"A-HA! Just as I suspected," Frederic scoffed. "If we're in danger from anyone, perhaps it is from charlatans like you. Nice meeting you, boys. Entrance denied."

The sudden sound of a horn blowing somewhere off in the distance announced the arrival of the Royal Caravan might take place any moment. Fred gave a startled jump.

"Goodness gracious! The King! Winifred! WINIFRED!"

With that, Frederic disappeared leaving Francis and Danny gaping at each other.

"We've got to get in there," said Francis, giving the air a tight uppercut. "We've got to warn the princesses."

"Oh, oh, so now you want to warn them," Danny said, picking his belongings up from the ground, accidently kicking his spare socks-ball into the moat. "Yes, let's wait until we have no possible chance of doing the thing I said we should've done yesterday."

"Yesterday we didn't know how to break Ivan's spell."

"I still don't know."

"Didn't you hear Ivan? The princesses just have to sleep it off."