The Enchantress Returns (40 page)

“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.

“I’m Alex and this is my brother, Conner,” Alex said and took a step closer to her. The reflection shot across to the other side and appeared in the glass behind the twins.

“Such funny names,” the reflection said. “Have you seen
Mira
?”

Conner grabbed Alex’s arm.
“Oh my God! Alex, it’s—”

“He’s always hiding from me!” the reflection said and twirled around inside the pieces of mirror. “Mira? Oh,
Miiiiiiira
?! Where are you?”

It settled in a large shard of glass, and Alex stepped closer to it.
“Evly? Is that you?”
she asked the reflection. It instantly looked up at her at the sound of the name.

“How do you know my name?” Evly asked with a big curious smile. “Have we met before?” As soon as she asked, her curious expression faded and she began to recognize them as well.

“Yes, we have,” Conner said. “Last year in this castle.”

Alex looked around at the castle remains and a horrible thought came to her. “You’ve been trapped in the mirror this entire time, haven’t you?” Alex asked her.

“Have you seen Mira?” Evly asked as if she hadn’t heard Alex. “I can’t find him anywhere.”

Alex felt her heart drop into the pit of her stomach. “She’s been trapped and it’s starting to affect her just like it affected Mira,” she whispered back to her brother.

“
Miiiiiira?
Where are you?” Evly said musically, floating through the glass around the room.

“Mira’s dead, Evly,” Alex said. “Don’t you remember? You tried freeing him with the Wishing Spell but it was too late.”

Evly looked to Alex and just stared at her, as if she was deciding whether or not to believe it. She began circling them more frantically.

“Mira? It’s not funny anymore—please come out now,”
Evly asked, her voice growing more desperate by the second. “Where are you?”

It was hard for the twins to watch. Evly wasn’t just in denial; she was
cursed
.

“Evly, do you remember anything that happened to you?” Alex asked her. “Do you remember the Magic Mirror? Do you remember Snow White? Do you remember being
the Evil Queen
?”

Evly’s eyes grew and she gasped at the sound of her old sobriquet.
“I—I—”
Evly stuttered. Her reflection gradually aged and transformed into that of the Evil Queen the twins had known, as the memories of who she was and what she had done resurfaced in her mind.

“I remember…” the Evil Queen said, and her eyes filled with tears. “I remember everything… oh no, what have I done? How did I get here?”

“We tried to warn you but you wouldn’t listen to us,” Conner said. “The mirror fell on top of you and you vanished. There was nothing we could do.”

Tears rolled down the Evil Queen’s face as her mind filled with more memories of her heartless life.

“I was such a monster,” she sobbed. The Evil Queen collapsed with grief and her reflection appeared in pieces of glass near the ground. “I poisoned my own daughter.… I harmed innocent people.… I kidnapped children.”

Alex kneeled down to her. She wished she could reach through the glass to console her. “But it wasn’t your fault,” she said. “You had your heart cut out and turned into stone, remember? You didn’t know what you were doing.”

The Evil Queen nodded. “I was in so much pain—I didn’t know what else to do,” she said. “Pain will drive you mad if it’s strong enough; it’ll change you into something you’re not. It’ll turn you
evil
.”

“We know,” Alex said. “But that’s all in the past now.”

“You must forgive me, children,” the Evil Queen begged. “Forgiveness is what we all need to forget the past, even if we don’t deserve to.”

Alex and Conner nodded to her, willing to do anything they could that would give her consolation.

“Of course,” Alex said. “We forgive you.”

The Evil Queen smiled at them through her tears of shame. “Thank you,” she said. “I’m afraid I’ll never forgive myself, though. I spent my entire life trying to free him from this prison, and now I’m doomed to spend eternity in here without him. I couldn’t think of a worse punishment.”

“We could try to free you if you’d like,” Conner said. “We’re building a wand—a powerful wand. Maybe we could use it to get you out of there.”

The Evil Queen dried her tears and shook her head. “No, let me be,” she said. “I deserve this fate.… I deserve to be inside here.…”

Her head tilted and she stared at the twins, as if someone was whispering something about them into her ear. “You’re on a quest, aren’t you?” she asked them.

“Yes, how did you know?” Alex asked.

“I can see many things from inside here,” she explained. “I can reflect on the world in ways I never could before. I see a
large ship waiting outside these castle ruins.… I see a kingdom imprisoned by plants.… I see a whole world in fear.… I see—
I see Ezmia!
”

The Evil Queen shuddered at the thought of her former mistress.

“But how can this be? I thought she was dead.”

“You didn’t kill her like you thought,” Alex said, sorry to break the news to her.