The Enchantress Returns

  They were greeted by a palace footman. Froggy immediately jumped out of the carriage and busied him with unloading the luggage in the second carriage.

  The twins both hopped out of the carriage and crouched on the ground. Red was next to hop out and landed directly in the middle of them. Her gown exploded out of the carriage and securely covered the twins below her. It was perfect!

  “So far so good,” Alex whispered under Red’s dress.

  “Nice bloomers, Red,” Conner said, chuckling about the knee-length undershorts she had strategically put on.

  Red grunted and kneed Alex in the head.

  “Ouch! That was me, Red!” Alex said.

  “Apologies,” Red said and then kneed Conner in the head.

  “Ouch!” Conner yelled.

  Froggy walked back to find Red and the twins perfectly in position. “Are we ready for this?” Froggy asked.

  “I think so,” Alex said.

  “Roger, Roger!” Conner said.

  “That’s reassuring,” Froggy said and used a handkerchief to wipe the beads of sweat on his forehead. “Because I most certainly am not.”

  “Take a chill pill, Frog,” Conner said. “No one is gonna know we’re under here.”

  The footman glanced over suspiciously from the second carriage, positive he had just heard voices come from bodies that weren’t visible.

  “Make sure you two stay as silent as possible under there,” Froggy said and gulped so hard he croaked. “Let’s make our way into the palace, shall we?”

  Red took a step forward the twins weren’t ready for.

  “Red, we can’t see anything; you’re going to have to guide us,” Conner whispered up at her.

  “And how am I supposed to do that?” Red whispered down at them.

  “Narrate what you’re doing,” Alex said.

  Red closed her eyes and took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for the evening she was in for.

  “Fine, I’m walking toward the stairs,” Red informed them, and they moved with her. She was walking too fast for them to keep up.

  “Take baby steps,” Conner whispered. “We’re crouched down here like chimpanzees.”

  Red’s nostrils flared. “Sure,” she said sharply. “Now I’m walking slowly up the stairs.”

  The first few steps were a disaster—Froggy kept gasping every time he saw one of their sneakers peeking out from under the gown. Slowly but surely, they managed to get the hang of it, and smoothly made their way up the enormous flight of steps.

  Back at the carriages, the footman could have sworn he saw three pairs of feet under Red’s dress out of the corner of his eye. But when he double-checked, they were gone. The footman continued unloading the second carriage, deciding he just needed glasses—or to retire.

  Alex’s and Conner’s backs were starting to ache from crawling up the steps like monkeys, but it only got worse when they reached the top of the stairs and the ground became flat, causing them to slouch even more.

  “And now I’m walking toward the palace entrance, no more steps,” Red said out loud.

  A few of the Charming Kingdom guards patrolling the entrance looked at her funny. After all, she was walking at a snail’s pace and talking to herself.

  “You certainly are!” Froggy said to Red and patted her back, trying to reduce the awkwardness.

  “Prince Charlie, welcome back, sir,” the twins heard a familiar voice say.

  “Sir Lampton,” Froggy clarified for them. “Good to see you, although I wish the visit were for a different occasion.”

  Alex and Conner tensed up knowing Sir Lampton was just a few feet away from them. They held their breath, afraid he’d hear even that.

  “Now I’m walking inside the Charming Palace,” Red said to the twins, but was caught by Sir Lampton. “Um… and I can’t believe it! Feels like I was home just a minute ago—such a quick trip.”

  It was a decent cover, but from under the gown the twins could feel the suspicious gaze Lampton was giving Red.

  “Are you feeling all right, Your Majesty?” Lampton asked her. “You’re walking so slowly—are you ill?”

  Alex and Conner exchanged a glance, wondering how Red was going to cover up this one.

  “Perfectly fine, Sir Lampton,” Red said. “I just selected the wrong pair of shoes to travel in. My feet are killing me.”

  Alex and Conner sighed with relief. Conner gave Red a thank-you pat on her knee. She quickly slapped his head through the gown and Conner bit his fist to silence a scream.

  “Just an itch,” Red said with a tight smile.

  “How are things here?” Froggy asked, trying to distract Lampton.

  “Terrible,” he said. “Have you not heard?”

  “I’m guessing not,” Froggy said. “What happened?”

  Lampton let out the most troubled sigh the twins had ever heard. “Princess Hope was kidnapped last night.”

  The twins gasped, unable to contain their shock, but it was covered by the gasps coming from Red and Froggy.

  “What?” Froggy said, devastated by the news about his only niece. “What do you mean, kidnapped? By whom?”

  “Rumpelstiltskin,” Sir Lampton said. “It looks like he’s working for the Enchantress again, only this time he succeeded.”

  It grew quiet. The whole world seemed to be falling apart for everyone.

  A few moments later, after traveling across the red-carpeted interior of the Charming Palace’s entrance hall, the twins knew they had arrived inside the ballroom, recognizing the golden dance floor beneath them. The room was filled with troubled voices and impatient footsteps milling about.

  “Here, Your Majesty, please have a seat,” the twins heard Sir Lampton say.

  “Thank you,” Red said. “I’m now going to slowly sit on the stool I’ve so graciously been provided with.…”

  The twins cringed from the inelegance of Red’s statement, but thankfully everyone else in the room was too occupied to have even noticed Red and Froggy enter the room. She slowly sat on the stool placed behind her, giving the twins enough time to adjust themselves to her seated position, sitting on the floor beside her. It was a relief to all their joints.

  The twins could hear small conversations from all corners of the room. They wished they could put faces to the voices they heard.

  Conner nudged Alex and quietly gestured to a loose seam he’d found in Red’s dress. He carefully pulled the seam apart even more and created a small hole to peek out of. Alex did the same on her side and they were finally able to see outside the gown.

  Although they knew everyone in the room, there was so much heartache and hopelessness worn on all the faces, the kings and queens were almost unrecognizable. It was hard for the twins to see them all like this; their lives had always been perfect examples of happiness, but here they were now, the most distraught group of people they’d ever seen.

  Queen Cinderella was seated on her throne, devastated beyond belief. Her hands covered her swollen eyes as tears rolled down her face. She was comforted by Queen Snow White and Queen Rapunzel, who used the tip of her remarkably long braid to dry Cinderella’s tears.

  The men paced around in the corner of the ballroom. King Chance never stopped moving, furious that his daughter had been taken from him. King Chandler and Rapunzel’s husband stood near him, unable to do anything but watch. Froggy joined them, lending his support with his presence.

  “Last night I heard her crying,” Cinderella told the women at her throne. “I got out of bed and went to her room. A few of the maids were on their way inside, but I insisted on checking on her myself. When I opened the door the first thing I saw were the curtains blowing inside. I thought it was strange—I didn’t remember leaving her window open—and that’s when I saw him… that horrid little man holding my daughter!”

  Heavy streams of tears flowed down the queen’s face. Rapunzel rubbed her back and Snow White held her hand tightly.

  “Breathe, Cinderella, breathe,” Snow W
hite told her.

  Cinderella caught her breath and continued. “Then he looked me right in the eye and hopped out of the window. I screamed and ran to the windowsill, trying to see if I could see them below, but they were gone,” she said. “That disgusting man disappeared with my baby!” Snow White held her and she cried into her shoulder.

  “This is all my fault,” said a soft voice across the room. Queen Sleeping Beauty stood at the window in the back of the ballroom, listlessly staring at the land outside.

  “I’m the one she wants, I’m the one she’s after,” Sleeping Beauty said in a daze. “Why doesn’t she just take me? Why does she have to make everyone else suffer?”

  “This isn’t your fault,” Rapunzel said.

  “You can’t blame yourself for this,” Snow White agreed.

  King Chance grew tired of pacing and groaned angrily. He needed someone to blame. “Where are those useless fairies?” he demanded. “And why haven’t they done something about this yet?!”

  A soft breeze blew through the ballroom, and twinkling lights of all the colors of the rainbow floated through the room. The Fairy Council slowly appeared out of thin air.

  Emerelda was first to appear. “We’re doing everything in our power,” she said. She was tall, black, and beautiful. She wore a long emerald gown that matched her eyes and jewelry. Emerelda always had a soft but authoritative presence; she was someone you could trust but never wanted to cross.

  Xanthous was next to arrive and was followed by Skylene, the blue fairy. She had pale skin, hair the color of the sky, and robes the color of the ocean. Tangerina appeared shortly after her. She was the orange fairy and actual bees flew around her beehive. Violetta, the purple fairy and oldest of the council, popped up close to where Red and the twins were sitting.

  Rosette, the short, plump, and rosy-cheeked red fairy, appeared next. Coral, the youngest and the pink fairy, showed up shortly after that, hovering in the air thanks to her tiny wings. The fairies’ colorful arrivals were a beautiful sight, but not beautiful enough to raise the spirits in the room.

  “Well, it’s not enough,” Chance yelled at them. “The Enchantress is one of you, isn’t she? You outnumber her—why can’t you handle this?”

  “We are greater than her in size, but not in strength,” said Skylene in her dreamlike voice.

  “She’s managed to grow more powerful than we ever imagined,” Xanthous said. “I’m afraid even the Fairy Godmother is no match for her.”

  “Speaking of the Fairy Godmother, has she or Mother Goose arrived yet?” Emerelda asked, looking around the ballroom. “We need to begin.”

  Another soft breeze blew through the room, this time carrying white sparkling lights that circled into a vortex in the center of the room. A moment later, the twins’ grandmother appeared with her crystal wand raised.

  The twins looked nervously at each other. Now that their grandmother was here they were officially in the same room as everyone they wanted to avoid.

  “Forgive me for being late,” the Fairy Godmother said and politely acknowledged everyone in the room with a comforting nod. “There was a bit of an issue in the Otherworld.”

  The twins had never heard their world referred to as anything else but home before; it was odd to hear it have a name of its own, although not entirely surprising. What else had the fairies been calling it this entire time?

  “Red Riding Hood, my word, that is quite a dress you’re wearing,” the Fairy Godmother said when she saw Red sitting in the oversize gown.

  Alex and Conner could hear each other’s heartbeats and were terrified they were about to be discovered.

  “Well,” Red said nervously, thinking as quickly as possible. “It’s important to dress your best when the world is at its worst… to raise morale.”

  “Yes, I suppose that is true,” the Fairy Godmother said, though she didn’t sound fully convinced.

  “With all due respect, I don’t believe this is the proper time to be talking about dresses and the Otherworld,” King Chance said, his frustration building every second spent without his daughter.

  “Will Mother Goose be joining us?” Emerelda asked, getting the meeting back on track.

  The twins’ grandmother dropped the subject of Red’s dress. “No, she stayed behind in the Otherworld,” she said. “My grandchildren are missing, so she agreed to continue searching for them while we have our discussion.”

  “That’s horrible,” Red said, shaking her head a tad too much. “I hope they’re all right, I just loved those two so much.”

  Alex and Conner shared a mutual eye roll.

  “Is everyone else here?” the Fairy Godmother asked, still eyeing Red strangely.

  “Everyone but the elves, ma’am,” Sir Lampton informed her from the side of the room. “We sent word of our meeting to the Elf Empire, but they have chosen to miss it, feeling the current situation has nothing to do with them.”

  King Chandler sighed. “Typical,” he said. “The elves never get involved unless they have to.”

  “Thank you, Sir Lampton,” the Fairy Godmother said. “Then let’s begin.”

  King Chance stormed up to her. “Tell us why the Enchantress can’t be stopped! Why are all of you so incompetent?” he shouted.

  The Fairy Godmother looked at him with her trademark compassion. “Chance, I’m afraid I don’t have your answers. Ezmia is just as big a mystery to me as she is to all of you.”

  “Then tell us what you know,” Chance ordered. “Where did this monster come from? What is she after now?”

  Sleeping Beauty took a few steps toward the Fairy Godmother. “I’m willing to give myself up to her if that’s what she’s after,” she said.

  “My dear, you are not responsible for any of this,” the Fairy Godmother said. “I’m afraid I’m the one who is entirely to blame. Ezmia wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me.”

  All the fairies lowered their heads, knowing the Fairy Godmother was telling the truth.

  “What do you mean, Fairy Godmother?” Cinderella asked. “Surely someone like you couldn’t be accountable for a creature like that?”

  The Fairy Godmother closed her eyes and took a deep breath, deciding where to begin. There was so much to tell and not enough time to tell it.

  “It all started centuries ago, on one of my first visits to the Otherworld,” the Fairy Godmother explained. “It was a horrible time for that world; there was plague and war everywhere you looked. Today they refer to that period as the Dark Ages, and there couldn’t be a better description. Sometimes the air would be filled with so much smoke from all the destruction the sun would be hidden for days at a time.

  “I discovered a little girl all alone in the middle of the forest, no more than five years old. She was crying and was covered in ash and dirt. She told me that her name was Ezmia and that she had lived in a village nearby. Like many of the villages at the time, hers had been invaded by a group of barbaric soldiers. They swept through the village and killed everyone in their path, including her family.

  “The soldiers discovered Ezmia hiding in a barn. However, when they tried harming her, the girl was able to defend herself using magic. She told me she had started a giant fire with just her hands and that it consumed her entire village and all the soldiers with it. The girl took me to her village so I could see the damage for myself, and it was devastating. Not only had the villagers perished, but all the land around the town for acres was destroyed. I knew then that this girl was no ordinary child.

  “Magic has always been a mysterious thing, but I’m absolutely astonished that a child in the middle of another dimension could have such capabilities. But for whatever reason, magic had found this girl and had saved her life, and I believe my discovering her was no accident.

  “I didn’t think she would survive the Otherworld on her own so I brought her back to our world. I knew she was special because when we arrived in the Fairy Kingdom, the unicorns bowed,” the Fairy Godmother said.

  Co
nner looked at his sister. The unicorns had bowed to them when they first traveled to the Fairy Kingdom—what did it mean?

  “Ezmia was raised there,” the Fairy Godmother continued. “We taught her how to use her magic and she became a fairy. Her powers grew with time and she proved herself to be one of the most gifted fairies the Fairy Kingdom had ever seen.

  “Ezmia was also the kindest, most honest, loving young woman I had ever known. She was so thankful I had brought her to live in our world and received so much joy from helping others. I loved her like a daughter and she became my apprentice. I was certain when my time came to an end I could leave this world safely in her hands. I was positive she would be the next Fairy Godmother. We created the Happily Ever After Assembly in hopes that Ezmia would lead it someday.

  “But as Ezmia grew into adulthood, she changed. Things were going on beyond our knowledge—things we couldn’t see—and she became another person altogether. She became aggressive and mean-spirited; her interest in fairy life faded completely. Helping people became a chore for her and she started abusing her magic.

  “It was during our first official meeting as the Happily Ever After Assembly that I knew Ezmia was no longer the little girl I saved in the Otherworld. We hadn’t officially appointed a leader of the assembly yet, so I was presiding. The trolls and goblins had just been sanctioned to their own territory but they were still enslaving innocent people from other kingdoms—I asked the rest of the assembly what the best solution was.

  “Ezmia blurted out, ‘Why don’t we just drown them all? Thumbelina Stream practically runs through their territory; just break a dam and be done with them. We can make it look like an accident.’ She almost seemed amused by the idea.

  “Naturally, after an outburst like that we couldn’t appoint her head of the assembly as planned. We appointed Emerelda and the Fairy Council instead. When Ezmia found out she had been replaced she was enraged. She went on a tirade, dissociating herself from the assembly and the Fairy Kingdom altogether. She changed her entire appearance and refused to be known as a fairy, deeming herself an enchantress instead.