The Enchantress Returns (52 page)
Up ahead she saw a light. She continued toward the light
and two large boulders came into view. Two little girls were standing on top of the boulders and two were standing beside them. As she got closer, she was able to make out what they were wearing.
The first little girl wore a sweater, a skirt, and a headband, just like Alex. The second little girl wore a long nightgown and no shoes. The third little girl wore a puffy dress with an apron over it. The fourth little girl had braided pigtails and wore silver shoes.
All four of the girls stared blankly at Alex, as if they were waiting for her to say something.
“Who are you?” Alex asked the girls with a smile.
“You know who we are,” the little girl in the nightgown said.
Alex raised the lantern higher and took a second look at them. “I do?” she asked. “How do we know each other?”
“You know us, but we don’t know you,” said the girl in the silver shoes. She spoke with an adorable twang in her voice.
“I’m afraid I don’t,” Alex said.
“You’ll figure it out if you think about it long enough,” said the girl in the sweater in a charming British accent.
“You all look very familiar,” Alex admitted. “It’s as if I’ve met you before or seen you in a movie or read about you…” Alex gasped. “Wait a second—
are you who I think you are
?”
The girls shared the same amused smile.
“Hello, I’m Lucy Pevensie,” said the girl in the sweater and curtsied.
“I’m Alice,” said the girl in the apron.
“I’m Dorothy Gale,” said the girl with braids.
“And I’m Wendy Darling, darling,” the one in the nightgown said.
Alex couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “But you’re the girls I grew up reading about,” she said. “I used to pretend I was you when I was little. All I ever wanted was to be one of you and escape into my own magical world.…”
“Sounds like you got what you wanted,” Alice said.
Alex lowered her head and looked at the floor. Alice was right, but it was impossible for Alex to be happy about it anymore.
“What’s the matter, dear?” Wendy asked.
Alex sighed. “I used to think of the Land of Stories as a paradise; it was my own personal safe haven,” she told them. “But now an evil enchantress has taken over all the kingdoms.”
“Oh my,” said Lucy. “Sounds like the White Witch!”
“Worse,” Alex said, and put it into terms they could understand. “She’s got the White Witch’s greed, the Wicked Witch of the West’s anger, the Queen of Hearts’ temper, and Captain Hook’s vengeance.”
All the girls shook their heads and showed their sympathy.
“That’s horrible,” Wendy said.
“Greed, and anger, and temper, oh my!” Dorothy said. “Can you melt her?”
“I wish,” Alex said with a laugh.
“Can Aslan prance on her?” Lucy asked.
“No, unfortunately,” Alex said.
“Can you feed her to a crocodile?” Wendy asked.
“I don’t think so,” Alex said.
“But then how are you going to defeat her?” Alice asked.
“My friends and I are building a powerful wand,” Alex said. She excitedly reached for the satchel to show them, but it wasn’t around her shoulder. “Oh no, where’s my wand? I just had it a second ago.”
She moved the lantern around, scanning the ground of the cave looking for a place she may have dropped it. The other girls giggled at her attempts. Alex looked up at them and slowly realized why they found her efforts so amusing.
“Is this a dream or am I dead?” she asked.
“Of course it’s a dream,” Lucy said.
“Why else do you think we’re here?” Alice asked.
“I hope a big cave isn’t what you think heaven looks like,” Dorothy said.
Alex was happy to hear it. “The last thing I remember was being blasted into the sky,” she said. “But how did I survive the fall?”
“Did your wand save you?” Lucy asked.
“Of course!” Alex exclaimed. “The Wand makes whoever is holding it invincible! It was in my hand the entire time! The Enchantress didn’t kill me after all!”
The girls cheered, but then Dorothy went silent.
“Are you going to
kill
the Enchantress with the Wand now?” Dorothy asked.
Alex hadn’t really thought about that. She had been so concerned with getting the Wand finished, she had never thought about what she would do
after
the Wand was made. How
was she going to go about defeating the Enchantress with the Wand? Was she going to have to kill her with it? Was Alex even capable of killing someone? She always figured Jack or Goldilocks would do it if that was what was needed.
“I suppose I don’t have a choice,” Alex said.
“I’d recommend finding another way if there is one,” Dorothy said with a sad look on her face. “Even though melting the witch was an accident, I’ve felt awful about it ever since.”
What Dorothy said resonated with Alex more than she was letting on. She didn’t want to hurt anyone—but how could she stop Ezmia without killing her? Would Ezmia just find another way to cheat death like she had after Evly poisoned her?
“I don’t have to necessarily
kill
Ezmia,” Alex said, thinking out loud. “I just have to take away her
powers
… and her powers come from a place of
hate
and
anger
… so if I took away the reasons that validated her right to be
angry
… she would be
powerless
!”
Alex excitedly jumped up and down, pleased to have come up with an alternative way. The girls clapped for her.
“Violence is never the answer,” Wendy said. “I always try to tell John and Michael that when they play in the nursery, but they never listen to me.”
“When you figure out how to take away her hate and anger, would you let me know?” Alice asked. “I’d like to know in case I run into the Queen of Hearts again.”
Alex went silent as the wheels in her head were turning. “I think I know how to do it,” she said and her eyes darted back and forth from one side to the other. “And I may not even need the Wand to do it after all…”
“So you just finished a huge journey only to find out what you needed was with you all along?” Dorothy asked.
“Been there.”
Alex thought about it. The Wand might not have been the
solution
, but it was still useful; it still had saved her life. It had also given them
hope
, and without that they would have been lost for sure.
She looked up at the girls and around the cave. “Now I understand the meaning of this dream,” she said. “Deep down I knew I could never kill the Enchantress, so I was searching for another way. The cave represents my questioning and you represent the answer—because ever since I was a little girl I’ve always thought about you when I had a problem.”
“Why is that?” Alice asked her.
“I suppose I’ve learned so much from you,” Alex said. “I always wanted to be as loving as Wendy, or as curious as Alice, or as brave as Lucy, or as adventurous as Dorothy—I always saw a little bit of myself when I read about each of you.”
All the girls smiled at her. “We’re happy we could help,” Lucy said.
“And we’ll always be here if you need us,” Wendy said.
Alex nodded thankfully to them.
“Is there anything else on your mind we could help you with?” Dorothy asked. “Since we happen to be lingering in your subconscious?”
“Actually, now that you mention it, there is something I’ve always wanted to ask you if I ever got the chance,” Alex said. She didn’t know what had caused her to believe she would ever
have the chance to ask literary characters a question, but she asked them nonetheless. “After seeing amazing magical places like Neverland, Oz, Narnia, and Wonderland, why did you ever want to leave?”
The girls looked to one another; they had never been asked the question before, at least in Alex’s mind.
“Because no matter where you go or what you see, you’ll always want to be where you belong,” Lucy said.
“Your home is where you feel most comfortable and loved,” Wendy said.
“It’s a part of you,” Alice added. “It’s where your family is.”
“There’s no place like home,” Dorothy said, as if it was the first time she’d ever said those words.
Alex appreciated what they had to say, but wasn’t sure if she entirely agreed. “I wonder, though, if
home
sometimes isn’t where you’re
from
,” she said.
The girls looked at her as if she had already answered her own question. Alex wondered if
that
had been the real question lingering in her mind all along.
“Alex? Alex?”
said a familiar voice. Alex looked all around the cave but couldn’t tell where it was coming from.
“What’s happening?” Alex asked the girls, but they had disappeared.
“Alex! Are you hurt? Please wake up!”
the voice pleaded, and the more it did, the more the cave around her disappeared.
Alex awoke on the ground; this time she was outside. She saw the sky and the tops of trees above her, as well as the face of a concerned and balding man looking down at her.
“Bob?” Alex asked and sat up.
“You’re alive!”
Bob said with teary eyes and hugged her. “
It’s a miracle! I just saw you fall from the sky!
You might be in shock—let me check your heart!”
Bob grabbed hold of Alex’s wrist and checked her pulse. “I wonder if there’s an intensive care unit somewhere in this kingdom,” he said.
“Bob, I’m fine—
look
,” Alex said. Her hand was still clutching the Wand. “It’s the Wand of Wonderment! I was holding on to it and it saved me!”
Bob looked at her like she was speaking a different language. “Is it wrong that I’m still surprised by all of this?”
Alex jumped to her feet. She could see the Enchantress’s pillar in the distance. The sky above it was filling more and more with the black smoke from the fire.
“I’ve got to get back there,” Alex said.
“
Back
there?” Bob asked in amazement. “Wait—are you telling me that’s where you fell from?”
“Yes, and now I have to get back,” Alex said. “I just don’t have time to go by foot.”
“Then how are you supposed to get there?” Bob said.
Alex looked down at the Wand and then back to him. “I think I have an idea,” she said, and a sly smile appeared on her face.
Bob backed away from her. “I don’t like the turn this conversation has suddenly taken,” he said.
The Enchantress frantically paced back and forth in front of her throne. Her hair anxiously swayed above her.
“Say it again!”
she demanded.
“But I’ve already said it ten times,” Red said, still kneeling before the fire.
“You will say it
one hundred times
if that’s what I ask of you!” Ezmia yelled.
Red did what she was told. “I, Queen Red of the Red Riding Hood Kingdom, give my kingdom to you,” she said.
Ezmia looked at the fire and waited for a change, but it
remained the same—just as high and just as strong. The Enchantress slammed her hands on the arms of her chair.
“What’s wrong, Ezmia?” Rumpelstiltskin asked.
“It’s not working!” she screamed. “I don’t understand. I’ve been working on this for centuries! I had
everything
I needed.”
Charlotte was sobbing hysterically in the birdcage.
“You horrible… horrible… horrible creature,”
she cried.
“How could you do that to a girl?”
“I told you to shut up, woman!” Ezmia yelled at her. She could barely think.
Charlotte continued her sobs, mourning louder in spite of Ezmia’s screaming. As far as Charlotte knew, her daughter was dead and she was never coming back. Conner had been in shock since it had happened. But as he watched the Enchantress struggle, his spirits started to rise.
Ezmia needed all seven of the deadly sins and the heir of magic to activate the portal. Maybe his sister had successfully taken her pride—maybe she had finished the Wand and was alive!
“That dreadful witch Hagatha must have lied to me!” Ezmia yelled. “The fire should have grown into a portal into the Otherworld as soon as I conquered the past, present, and future, and mastered the seven deadly sins—lust, envy, sloth, greed, gluttony, wrath… and
pride
.”
