The Enchantress Returns

  One by one, Jack, Goldilocks, Froggy, and the twins found the beanstalk and started their descent back to the ground. They didn’t even bother with ropes this time—in fact, they were practically throwing themselves down the beanstalk. Leaf by leaf, they bounced closer and closer to the ground below.

  “The cat’s not going to follow us down the beanstalk, is it?” Conner asked, but just as he did, the cat poked its huge head through the clouds above them.

  “Mew!” the cat said, delighted to finally find them.

  “GOD, I HATE THIS FLIPPING CAT!” Conner yelled.

  The cat was descending the beanstalk behind them now. It looked like an elephant climbing down a tightrope. It was timid from the height, moving at a lazily cautious pace. It clearly hadn’t thought this plan through.

  Goldilocks started slicing down the beanstalk’s leaves as they passed them, making it more difficult for the cat to follow.

  “What in the world—?” a voice shouted up at them. Red was staring up at the beanstalk, watching her five friends being chased by an enormous cat. “Am I actually seeing this or did I bump my head when we landed earlier?”

  “You’re actually seeing it, my dear!” Froggy yelled down at her.

  Clawdius was going nuts, too. He barked up at the colossal cat in the sky and pulled against his restraints. The tiny wolf made the enormous cat very nervous and it stopped, now stuck on the upper part of the beanstalk.

  “Red! You need to cut down the beanstalk!” Jack yelled down at her.

  “Excuse me?” Red asked.

  “You need to cut it down before the cat reaches the bottom!” he yelled. “There should be an axe in my shack—get it and start chopping!”

  Red looked around for someone else to do it instead, but there was no one to be found.

  “Red, we need you!” Alex said.

  Red mustered up all the determination she had. “I’ll do it!” she yelled. She ran straight into the shack—but quickly ran back out a moment later. “Wait—which one is the axe again?”

  Goldilocks slapped an open palm against her head.

  “The one that looks like this!” Jack said, raising his own.

  “Got it!” Red said and ran back into the shack. She ran out, dragging a large axe behind her as if it weighed more than her.

  “Now chop it down!” Jack yelled.

  Red nodded. She lifted the axe, which took all the strength she possessed, and swung it toward the beanstalk. She missed it by several inches and the swing spun her to the ground.

  “Come on, Red! You can do this!” Alex cheered down at her.

  “We believe in you, darling!” Froggy called down.

  Red looked at her reflection in the axe and fixed a strand of her hair that had fallen. She took another swing at it, and this time she hit the beanstalk but only left a tiny dent in it.

  “I hit it! I hit it!” Red said and jumped up and down, so proud of herself.

  “You’re going to need to hit it about a thousand times harder than that!” Goldilocks yelled.

  The cat grew agitated, seeing the five of them getting closer and closer to the ground. It started to climb down again, moving faster than ever, its bright green eyes fixed on them. Red took another swing at the beanstalk, barely leaving a larger mark.

  “I can’t do this!” Red said through sniffles.

  “Yes you can, Red! Do it for your country! Do it for your granny! Do it for me!” Froggy encouraged her.

  “PRETEND THE BEANSTALK IS GOLDILOCKS!” Conner shouted.

  Everyone on the beanstalk froze and just stared at Conner. Red looked down at the axe more determinedly than ever—Conner had done the trick. With one confident swing, Red sliced through the entire base of the beanstalk with practically inhuman strength.

  Everyone was shocked, but not as shocked as Red. Even the cat looked surprised.

  The beanstalk began to teeter. “Everyone get to this side of the beanstalk!” Jack yelled, and they all swung themselves to the side of the beanstalk that wasn’t going to hit the ground.

  The beanstalk slowly began to fall… faster and faster and faster.… The cat, however, wasn’t ready for its quest to conclude. It sank one front paw into the beanstalk and a back paw into the clouds above it, holding it in place.

  “Now what?” Alex yelled.

  Clawdius broke his restraints on the deck of the Granny and ran down to the base of the beanstalk. He barked up at the gigantic cat dangling in the sky.

  “Raaaaaar!” the giant cat yipped fearfully. In one giant leap, it let go of the beanstalk and soared back into the cloudy world above.

  “Timber!” Jack yelled.

  The beanstalk fell toward the ground like a giant whip. It crashed into the manor, splitting it in half like a knife slicing a birthday cake.

  Jack, Goldilocks, Froggy, and the twins looked up at one another—they were all surprised they had survived the ordeal. There was a moment of silence before they heard an earth-shattering scream. They all looked toward the manor—the beanstalk had missed the golden harp by inches.

  “That’s the second time I almost died today and it isn’t even dusk!” the harp shouted.

  The team climbed down from the beanstalk and brushed themselves off. Froggy gave Red an enormous hug.

  “You saved our lives!” Froggy said and twirled her around.

  Goldilocks avoided making eye contact with Red. “Nice one,” she said begrudgingly, and then quickly walked away.

  The twins lay on the grass and caught their breath. The clouds began to part now that the beanstalk was gone and revealed a beautiful bright blue sky.

  “I never want to do that again,” Conner said.

  “Never,” Alex agreed.

  Jack walked over to the newly destroyed manor.

  “Hey, Harper,” he said, with an apologetic hesitance in his voice. “I’ve got good news and bad news. Good news—you’re still moving! Bad news—you’re coming with us.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  THE REFLECTION

  Let me get this straight,” the magic harp said. “You’re on a quest, collecting the most prized possessions of the most hated people in the world to build a powerful wand that you hope will overthrow the Enchantress? And I happen to be one of those possessions?”

  Conner shrugged. “That’s right,” he said. “Although it sounds lame when you say it like that.”

  It took Jack, Froggy, and Conner to move the harp of solid gold into the lower deck of the Granny. Once they got her there, the men and the women of the ship surrounded her and told her all about their mission and her newly discovered relevance to it.

  “I don’t understand. How am I supposed to be a part of that wand?” the harp asked and gestured to the ice scepter Goldilocks had been showing her moments before.

  Froggy had to agree. “I don’t see how you fit into this, either,” he said. “You’re awfully big to be a part of a wand.”

  “I beg your pardon?” the harp snapped at him.

  “My apologies,” Froggy said. “I just meant, everything else has been small material items. We’ve yet to have—well—whatever it is that you are.”

  “Whatever it is I am?” the harp said. “That’s rich, coming from a giant frog man!”

  Froggy took a step back and bowed out of the conversation completely.

  “What if we cut off one of her fingers or something?” Conner suggested.

  “What?” the harp yelled.

  “Conner, that’s so barbaric!” Alex said and hit him in the shoulder. “Why would you even mention such a thing?”

  “It was only an idea,” he said.

  “But what would happen if she came in contact with the Wand?” Goldilocks asked. “Will she shrink? Will the Wand blend into her somehow? Would she die?”

  The harp went berserk and desperately tried to jump out of the ship, but she was too heavy to lift herself.

  “Harper, calm down,” Jack said to the overly excited instrument. “No one is going to harm yo
u.”

  “But I’m still your prisoner, aren’t I?” the harp said. The strings on her back played the opening chords to a dramatic ballad.

  “Right when it teased me,

  The cruel world deceived me,

  No hope now for freedom,

  No stars now to wish upon,

  Born for imprisonment am I,

  Can’t be free until I die—”

  “Enough, Harper,” Goldilocks said. “You’re not our prisoner. We’re just going to keep you around for a while until we can figure out what to do—then you’ll be free to live your exciting life of watching grass grow and entertaining people against their will.”

  The harp squinted at Goldilocks and raised a golden eyebrow. “So you’re the girl Jack ran off with, eh?” she said. “No wonder he can’t be seen with you in public—I wouldn’t want to be, either.”

  The twins both made oohing sounds. Jack and Froggy had to hold Goldilocks back. A high-pitched laugh erupted from Red’s mouth and she slapped the side of her leg.

  “You know, I think having Harper around my castle won’t be such a bad thing after all,” she said.

  That evening at sundown they fired up the Granny’s flame and steered the ship northeast. Their next stop would be the ruins of the old abandoned castle for the Evil Queen’s Magic Mirror. Alex and Conner slept most of the way—the journey up and down the beanstalk had taken a toll on them and they were so tired they slept through most of Red’s sleep-talking and the harp’s self-pitying songs.

  The twins woke just before sunrise the next day and made their way to the upper deck. Red was already there when they arrived. She was cradling Clawdius again and the young wolf slept soundly in her arms.

  “Reunited?” Conner asked her and she nodded happily.

  “I had a nice long think to myself,” Red explained. “If it weren’t for Clawdius, a giant man-eating cat would be wreaking havoc on my kingdom right now. He’s not a killer after all! On the contrary—he’s a savior!”

  “So the fact that he’s a wolf doesn’t bother you anymore?” Alex asked. She didn’t speak “Red” fluently yet.

  “Not at all,” Red said. “What kind of mother would I be if I let something as simple as species get in the way of love? I’m courting a giant frog, after all! I’ll just raise Clawdius to be a loving and compassionate animal. If a wolf has never been capable of possessing such qualities before, then Clawdius will be the first. But if he tries eating me, Mama’s getting a new coat.”

  They appeased her with fake agreeing smiles and left her with her pet.

  The twins went to the front of the ship and looked at the ground below—what they saw horrified them. The entire Eastern Kingdom had been devoured by thornbushes and vines. The plants wrapped around every building below. Even though they had been told about it countless times, Alex and Conner could have never imagined what they were seeing.

  “It’s just like the fox said in the Dwarf Forests,” Alex said. “The entire kingdom is covered!”

  “I don’t think I realized just how powerful the Enchantress was until now,” Conner said with a gulp. “Seeing this really raises the stakes, doesn’t it?”

  The thornbushes and vines began to thin out the farther northeast the Granny traveled. The overgrown terrain was replaced with the dry, deserted land the region was known for, and soon the ruins of the old abandoned castle could be seen in the distance.

  What had once been an imposing structure was just a massive pile of stone bricks and pieces of wood now.

  Jack, Goldilocks, Froggy, and Red joined the twins at the front of the ship and shivered. It was like seeing the remains of a large monster they had killed, but instead of a carcass, they felt as if they were nearing its sleeping body. Something about the castle still seemed very much alive.

  The Granny landed gently beside the moat.

  “How much of the mirror do we need to gather?” Conner asked the others. “Do we just need a piece of it or the whole thing?”

  “It’s going to take a while to retrieve every piece of it if that’s the case,” Alex said.

  Goldilocks removed the Wand from under her cot, where she stashed it for safekeeping. “We’ll take the Wand with us,” she said.

  The six travelers headed out of the Granny and toward the destroyed castle.

  “The Enchantress lived here once,” Alex said. “You don’t think there’s any part of her lingering, do you?”

  Conner took a look around at the dead land surrounding them. “I don’t think there’s any life lingering around here whatsoever,” Conner said. “We’re all just spooked because of what happened here a year ago. There isn’t anything in that dump except a bunch of broken castle junk.”

  One by one, Froggy helped the others across the moat. Once they were on the other side they came to a halt and stared at the rubble in dismay.

  “How do we get in?” Conner asked.

  No one had an answer. There didn’t appear to be a practical way of getting inside the ruins. They circled the rubble for a few minutes, looking.

  “Over here!” Red called out. “I found a way in.” The others ran to her and she pointed to a small opening between two stone blocks that led deeper into the debris.

  Froggy attempted to crawl through it. “We won’t fit,” he said. “It’s too narrow.”

  “The twins will,” Goldilocks said.

  “You want us to go in there alone?” Alex asked.

  “It may be the only way,” Jack said, looking around the rubble. “I don’t see another option.”

  The twins shared an anxious glance. Goldilocks placed her hands on their shoulders.

  “We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you two,” she said. “You said it yourself: There’s nothing in there to be worried about. Go inside and try to collect as much of the Magic Mirror as possible. We’ll be right outside. Take this with you.”

  Goldilocks handed Conner the Wand. He let it hang from the belt loop of his jeans.

  “We’re all counting on you,” Red said, and then received dirty looks from the others. “I mean—you can do it!”

  “Be careful, children,” Froggy said. “Try not to move anything while you’re in there. The stones have settled, but you don’t want them caving in anymore.”

  Froggy seemed so concerned the twins didn’t even mind being referred to as children. Alex and Conner stepped up to the opening and gently squeezed through the stones, scraping their sides as they went. Inside, it was like an obstacle course made of debris. The twins carefully climbed over and under and through broken pieces of wood and stone. Everywhere they looked was a broken piece of the castle that triggered a not-so-happy memory of their last visit: a wooden beam, a cell door, a stair railing, an occasional smashed chair or table.

  They climbed farther into the endless wreckage and soon entered a large clearing. They assumed they had reached what used to be the castle’s great hall—the place they had seen the Magic Mirror shatter.

  “Alex, this whole place is covered in glass,” Conner said. “How do we know which pieces of glass came from what?”

  Everywhere they looked they saw shards of glass. It was scattered across the ground and all over the mounds of rubble around them. Some fragments were bigger than others, and the twins could see their reflections in them, but it was impossible to determine which parts were the Magic Mirror and which were the windows or something else.

  “Look!” Alex said and picked up a small piece. “It’s a piece of the Mirror of Truth.” She happily stared into the small piece, and the little reflection she could see of herself changed—the Alex in the reflection wore a long golden gown and had a pair of enormous sparkly wings behind her back.

  “Let me see,” Conner said and looked into the piece of glass in his sister’s hand. His reflection also changed—the Conner in the reflection was wearing a golden suit and had a giant pair of shimmering wings behind him.

  Conner stuck his tongue out. “Gross, put that thing away!” he said
.

  Alex tucked it into her pocket safely. She figured she might need a reminder of who she was in the days to come.

  “How are we going to sort through all of this?” Alex asked.

  Conner pulled the wand out of his belt loop. He held it into the air and a series of small scraping sounds came from all around the wreckage. Little by little, pieces of glass inched closer to the wand, pulled magnetically by a magical force.

  “I think I have an idea,” Conner said. He placed the wand in the center of the ground and quickly pulled Alex behind a large piece of wood. They watched as tiny bits of glass flew from all over the debris and attached themselves to the wand until it looked as if it were covered in silver sequins.

  “Amazing!” Conner said and went to pick up the wand. “It almost looks futuristic, doesn’t it?”

  Suddenly, the twins were both hit with an unsettling feeling. They both felt it at the same time, and each turned to the other, knowing it was mutual.

  “Conner, do you feel that?” Alex asked.

  “Yeah, what’s going on?” he said.

  “I feel like someone’s watching us,” Alex said.

  Conner looked around at the rubble. “How could anything be in here but us?” he asked.

  Something began moving around them through the piles of rubble. They kept catching it in their peripheral vision, but it would disappear before they could get a proper look.

  “Conner! Look into the glass!” Alex panted.

  Gracefully gliding around them in the larger pieces of glass among the debris was the reflection of a young woman. She was pretty and wore a long white gown and had long raven hair. The reflection playfully circled them, giggling to herself as it did. Alex and Conner felt like they were in a reverse aquarium where they were the ones on display.

  “Hello,” the reflection said and smiled. The woman’s voice was smooth and inviting, and it echoed from each piece of glass she moved through. “Who are you?”

  There was something incredibly familiar about her. The twins were positive they had seen her before.