The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell (43 page)

“How wonderful!” Alex said. “But why are
we
invited?”

“Beats me,” Conner said. “Maybe she needs babysitters.”

“I wasn’t expecting to be invited, either!” Red said. “Elected queens are usually left out.”

“So
you’re
usually left out?” Conner asked.

Red turned the same shade as her coat and didn’t answer.

“Are we going to go?” Conner asked.

“Do you honestly think I’m going to miss this?” Alex asked. “Besides, we should return the glass slipper and the pieces of the other one to Cinderella. It’s the right thing to do.”

“What about Froggy?” Conner asked.

Froggy made a gesture like he was calming a fire. “Oh, don’t worry about me,” Froggy said. “I wasn’t personally invited, so I don’t want to intrude. I’ve never cared too much for the Charming Kingdom anyway.”

“Nonsense!” Red said. “You’ll come as my guest, and I won’t hear any more of it.”

She held her head high. Froggy knew he wasn’t getting out of this one.

“We’ll go see the baby princess, and then we’ll find the
Fairy Godmother with Froggy afterward,” Alex decided. “Hopefully she’ll still turn you back into a human.”

“You mean, you’re going to become human?” Red asked with a hand over her chest.

“Yes,” Froggy said. “Long story.”

“Why didn’t you just say so!” Red said. “You have no idea how this changes how I feel about you! Although, I must say I am very proud of myself for being friendly to a… um, well, whatever it is that you are now.”

If Froggy had eyebrows, they would both have been raised.

“Come with me right now!” Red said, and linked his arm in hers. “Let’s go plan our outfits for tomorrow!”

She led Froggy out of the room. He looked back at the twins, his eyes saying,
Help!
But they were too busy holding in laughs to rescue him.

By that afternoon, the carriages were loaded and the journey into the Charming Kingdom began. Snow White and King Chandler rode in one carriage, and the twins rode in the other with Froggy and Red. They were surrounded by a fleet of soldiers the entire way.

“Now
this
is the way to travel!” Conner said.

The twins kept pointing out familiar land that they had traveled across during their journey. It inspired them to tell Froggy and Red all about the adventures they had had. The frog man and the queen were all ears. Froggy croaked a couple of times during the twins’ animated retellings, especially during the part about the trolls and goblins.

Given their audience, they left out the part about
sneaking into Red’s castle and being partially responsible for the fire. The twins kept stopping each other to say, “We can never tell Mom about that part,” when they got to the more dangerous moments of their trip.

The carriages traveled through the night and arrived at Cinderella’s palace the following afternoon. Rose petals filled the air and bells rang from afar as the entire kingdom celebrated the birth of their future ruler.

Froggy started acting very strange as soon as they arrived. He was shaky with nerves; the palace made him anxious for some reason. The group climbed the never-ending steps to the front entrance and was escorted down the red-carpeted hall and into the ballroom.

The ballroom was virtually empty and seemed much bigger when not filled with people dancing. Cinderella was sitting on her throne, cradling her newborn daughter. Sitting around her in a big circle, some in chairs and some on the floor, were Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, and members of the Fairy Council. Sleeping Beauty’s and Rapunzel’s husbands congratulated King Chance in the corner of the room.

“What are you going to name her?” Rapunzel asked. She was beautiful, with hair that matched the lock Alex and Conner had collected for the Wishing Spell. She wore it up in the biggest bun the twins had ever seen, and it still ran down her back and trailed behind her.

“I can’t decide,” Cinderella said.

“You should name her after her aunt Rapunzel,” Rapunzel suggested, and everyone laughed.

“I love you, Rapunzel, but I love my daughter too much to ever do that to her,” Cinderella said, and everyone laughed even harder.

“Look who’s here!” Cinderella said as soon as she looked up to see the group walking toward them.

Everyone was happy to see Snow White and Chandler, but the room grew very tense when they saw Alex and Conner walking in behind them with a giant frog man. Everyone looked at them uncomfortably, as if they were naked.

“Aren’t those the twins who stole the glass slipper?” King Chance said, stepping forward from the clump of kings.

“No! We tried telling you, it wasn’t us!” said Alex, panicked, afraid history was about to repeat itself and she and her brother would be chased by guards.

“Everyone relax!” Cinderella laughed. “No one stole anything! I invited them here. My Fairy Godmother wanted to have a word with them.”

“What does she want with them, dear?” King Chance asked his wife.

“I’m not sure,” Cinderella said.

Alex and Conner exchanged looks of dread. This must be even more serious than the broken slipper.

“We may have accidentally broken one of your shoes,” Alex said. Conner had never seen her look so ashamed.

“It wasn’t really our fault,” Conner said. “I mean, it
was
, but it was a really complicated situation and would never have happened unless it absolutely had to—”

“Oh, that’s no trouble at all,” Cinderella said. “I can’t
tell you how many times I’ve broken them myself. The Fairy Godmother always fixes them when she visits. That’s probably all she wants. She’ll be here soon.”

The twins sighed with such relief that they shrank a few inches. Conner patted his sister on the shoulder, as he knew she had been stressing about it. If there was ever a group of people she wanted to leave a good impression with, it was this one.

Snow White, Red, Alex, and Conner joined the women huddled around the baby. King Chandler dragged Froggy over to where the men were in the corner and introduced them to him. Froggy awkwardly shook their hands; he was the first frog man ever to be inside the palace.

“Look at her!” Snow White said, looking down at the baby princess. “She’s beautiful.”

“She looks just like you, Cinderella!” Red said. “I was a beautiful baby myself.”

The princess was indeed beautiful. She was only a few days old but looked just like her mother, with auburn hair and bright eyes.

“I’m so glad to see you two are all right!” Sleeping Beauty said to the twins. “Did everything work out for you?” She winked at them.

The twins looked down at their feet. “Not so great, unfortunately,” Alex said. She reached into her bag and pulled out the spindle. “Thank you for letting us borrow this, though.”

“My pleasure,” Sleeping Beauty said, and took the spindle from her. “And Conner, I have to thank you for
your—what did you call it again? Oh yes, the
rubber band trick.
We’ve been trying it on a few citizens, and it appears to be helping quite a bit!”

Conner was beaming. “I told you so!” he said, a rare thing for him to say.

“Snow White, I heard they finally found your stepmother,” Cinderella said. “Congratulations! That must be such a relief.”

The other queens and fairies added their congratulations on the subject. However, Snow White didn’t seem happy about it.

“Is everything all right, Snow?” Sleeping Beauty asked.

“Yes, of course,” Snow White said. “It’s all very bittersweet.”

“Bittersweet?” Emerelda asked.

“It’s a long story,” Snow White said.

“Wonderful! I love stories,” Rapunzel said, and made herself more comfortable sitting on the floor.

Snow White looked at the twins. They smiled very supportively at her, encouraging her to tell the others everything they already knew.

Snow White told the queens and fairies all about her stepmother’s past. She explained to them about the Enchantress taking her away from her family, how her fiancé was cursed into the mirror, and about the heart of stone. She left out the part about helping her escape, however, because just as the twins had kept details from Red Riding Hood, Snow White knew her audience.

Many of the women looked as if they were on the verge of tears. Some held their hands over their mouths. Others just shook their heads in disbelief.

“I can’t believe it!” Rosette said.

“That’s the saddest story I’ve ever heard,” said Coral, petting the Walking Fish, who rested peacefully in her lap.

“And even when the whole world hated her, she still never quit trying to free the man she loved,” Sleeping Beauty said.

“She never gave up hope,” Skylene said.

Cinderella sat straight up in her throne. “
Hope.
That’s it,” she said, looking down at her daughter. “That’s what I’m going to name her. Princess Hope Charming, the future queen.”

“It’s beautiful!” King Chance said, and kissed his newborn daughter on the forehead.

Everyone
aww
ed and clapped their approval.

“Then I believe it’s time we christened Princess Hope with a few gifts,” Emerelda said, and gestured to the fairies to get on their feet.

One by one, the fairies each blessed the princess with a christening spell. They gave her gifts of wisdom and health, of compassion and wealth, of pride and discipline, and lastly of beauty, although she already had plenty to spare.

“Would you like to hold her?” Cinderella asked Alex.

“Me?” Alex asked, pointing to herself. “Yes. I would be honored.”

Cinderella gently placed her daughter into Alex’s arms.

Alex wondered if the baby had any idea where or who it was. Did she know how special she already was just by
having been born? Did she know she was a future queen of a kingdom in the Land of Stories? The baby yawned; perhaps she did know and was exhausted just thinking about it.

The doors of the ballroom opened and the twins saw a familiar face coming toward them; it was Sir Lampton, and he had an enormous grin on his face.

“Your Majesty, the Fairy Godmother has arrived,” Sir Lampton said.

“Oh, splendid, Lampton,” Cinderella said. “Would you let her know where we are?”

“Certainly, Your Highness,” Lampton said. “But before she joins you, she would like to have a word with the children.
Alone.
”

All the heads in the room turned to Alex and Conner, who gulped in unison.

“She’s waiting in the clock tower,” Lampton said.

The twins slowly walked out of the ballroom with Lampton. He guided them through the palace, staircase after staircase, up to the clock tower.

“It’s great to see you two again,” Lampton told the twins. “The Fairy Godmother has been looking for you two for quite some time now.”

“That can’t be good,” Conner said. “Are we in trouble?”

Lampton didn’t answer. The twins grew very worried by his silence. Alex pulled out the map and the journal from her bag along with a piece of the glass slipper.

“If she’s upset about something, we’ll just explain
ourselves from the very beginning,” Alex said. “We haven’t done anything wrong.
Have we?
”

“Of course not,” Conner said. “Our intentions were always very good with everything we did.
Right?
”

The twins and Lampton ran out of stairs to climb and found a round door that led inside the clock tower. Lampton knocked lightly on the door.

“Come in,” said a voice from inside.

“Here we go,” Alex said to Conner. “Fingers crossed.”

Lampton led the twins inside. The clock tower was gigantic. The twins felt like they were in the inside of an enormous antique clock as there were giant, turning gears and mechanisms everywhere you looked. They could see the entire kingdom through the clock face.

A short woman was standing with her back to the door, looking out over the kingdom. She wore a long, hooded, light blue overcoat that sparkled like the night sky.

“I’ll leave you alone now,” Lampton said. He promptly shut the door behind him and left the twins alone with the Fairy Godmother.

The twins cautiously tiptoed closer to the woman.

“Excuse me?” Conner asked. “Miss Fairy Godmother? You wanted to see us?”

The Fairy Godmother turned to face the children. She was a beautiful older woman with kind eyes and a radiant smile. Her hair was a light brown and was worn up in a gorgeous hairdo.

The twins froze.

“Grandma?”
Alex gasped.