Maplepunzel, Part 18

They left the very next morning. This time, Mackie drove the cart, pulled by Ferdinand and Hamlet. Maple sat next to him, with Walter protecting Hilary and Jeff in the back. Maple loved listening to Mackie’s stories of his days as a traveling actor, performing great plays and dancing waltzes with his Penelope. Hilary spent most of the ride snoring in the back of the cart, her wrinkled head pillowed on a sack of supplies. Walter stayed alert and kept his round black eyes on the road, climbing between Grandpapa Mackie and Mama.

The longer they rode, the more the landscape changed. The green fields turned gray and dry. The enormous black forest that surrounded most of Berlania obscured the sky. Even the birds seem to have fled. The only sounds were the dry leaves and grass crunching on the road under their cart. Walter whimpered and leaned into his mama, who stroked his head.

Mackie gulped. “Oh boy. Ok, do we all know what we’re going to do? The animals are gonna meet us at the castle. We’ll get to Scott in the dungeon first, then go upstairs and stop that wedding.” 

He turned to Maple, who rubbed Walter’s back as he cuddled her. “You sure about this, kiddo? Maybe she took him somewhere else, somewhere a lot nicer and sunnier, like the Polynesian Kingdoms.” She rolled her eyes and nodded. Yes, this is where they were. This is where Victor was. She could feel it. 

Hilary was jolted awake just as they rode up to Prague Castle. Maple and Walter had to hold Mackie up to keep him from fainting at the sight of the jagged edifice, with its sharp black towers that stabbed the gritty gray clouds and leering stone gargoyles on every parapet. “Not terribly attractive, is it?” Hilary grumbled. “I always thought Pavla had the absolute worst taste in homes. Furnished in early mausoleum, I suppose.”

“Um, do we really have to find out?” Mackie shivered as a strong wind shook the thick dark green growth above them. “After all, I left a cake in the oven and…”

Maple finally grabbed the reigns and shook them, making Ferdinand and Hamlet speed up, trotting at a much faster pace. She slowed them down as they reached the castle, then made them turn left, towards the back of the castle. They stopped at the stables to tie up the horses and carriage, then picked up the sack. 

“You sure this is gonna work?” Mackie asked as he shrugged into his butler’s jacket and knotted the tie. Maple shrugged as she tied an apron around her waist. Walter made a face as Hilary slowly tied a small saddle bag on him. He was a bear, not a horsie! 

“So far, Maple’s been right about most things.” Hilary tucked the mirror into a basket filled with apples. “Sorry, Jeff, but we can’t explain your presence to the servants. I’ll take you out once we get inside.” Maple helped drape a knitted wrap around her shoulders.

Maple led them to a door in the very back of the castle. Women and men with bowed shoulders carrying heavy loads of laundry trudged in and out. Maple grabbed a basket of laundry when no one was looking and led everyone to the door. She was grateful that the laundress who greeted her was a hook-nosed old biddy with sharp tiny eyes and a tight brown bun she didn’t recognize. Pavla must have hired her after she was moved to the tower.

Mackie put on his most officious and haughty glare. “Madam,” he said with his nose in the air, “we’re here with the queen’s best gowns washed and pressed for her wedding. The cook’s assistant has a load of apples for the apple tart and baked apples. We require entry, unless you’d like to face the wrath of the queen and have her turn you into a toad.”

“You don’t need to threaten me, little man.” The woman made a face as she opened the door. “I was going to let you in anyway. Grandmother, take the apples to the kitchen right away. They’re just finishing the wedding feast. Girl,” she shook Maple’s arm, “leave the basket here. And for heaven’s sake, keep that oversized stuffed animal away from the queen’s wedding gown! He might snag the lace with those sharp little nails of his.”

“Of course, ma’am.” Mackie bowed stiffly for her as he led the two women and Walter inside. Maple dropped the basket on the stone floor as they all beat a hasty retreat out the door.

Mackie peered around a corner. “Ok, so far, so good. We’re in. Maple, do you know where the dungeon is?” She nodded, pointing down the hall. “Lead us on then, my dear daughter!”

“I still can’t believe she’s your child,” Hilary croaked as they came out of the kitchen, where she’d left the apples. “Maple, do you have any idea of why Pavla wanted you?”

Maple nodded, her eyes narrowed as they tip-toed down the hall. “I think I know, too.” Mackie frowned, touching Maple’s now chin-length red hair. “Your powers. Penny was a powerful healing sorceress. Healing is the one thing a dark witch like Pavla can’t stand. She thought you might grow up and take her on.” Maple frowned, then nodded in agreement.

They ducked around three of the hairless, lanky monsters making their way to the throne room. Maple waved at the others as they passed. “We’re going to separate here. I think I can get to the throne room on my own.” Hilary gave Maple a small hug and a smile that lit up her sunken face. “You be careful, both of you.”

“Don’t worry, Hilary!” Mackie said with a forced grin and a bravado he didn’t feel. “She has me!” Walter made little fists with his paws and swung them around. Mama had him, too! He wouldn’t let any old ugly monster hurt her! 

Hilary turned and crept down to the throne room, while Maple took the other two to the end of the hall. They ducked into an alcove as three squawking bird creatures came out a heavy door with a barred window and iron handle. Mackie shoved it open, waving at it. “After you, my dear.” Maple led the way, with Walter staying close on her heels.

The darkness enveloped her the moment they started down the crumbling stone steps to the dungeon. It stifled everything, even the flickering torch she grabbed from the wall. Mackie whimpered behind her, wailing that oh, he left a cake in the oven, and can we go home now? Walter stayed close to his mama and grandpa, growling at every creak and groan.

They tip-toed past three doors before they saw the one from the mirror. It was still guarded by two bird monsters. Walter smacked the first one with his paw and made it chase him, until it ran by his mama. Maple gulped, hoping she still had some magic. She concentrated, letting the warm gold light flow from her fingertips like soft golden rain. The moment it touched the bird creature, it became a far smaller, more normal black bird that simply flew up the stairs.

Mackie wrestled with the other bird, taking it down from behind. He finally wound his jacket around it before Maple sent her gold light over it, too. “And don’t you come back!” Mackie shook his now-empty jacket at the crow flying away. Maple helped him to his feet. “And I almost had that jerk, too! Another two minutes, and I would have pinned him. Did I ever tell you about the time I pinned two guys who wanted to take out my hide because they thought I was flirting with the wife of one of them in Kenosha Village?”

Walter, meanwhile, sniffed around something one of the bird-creatures dropped. He trotted over to Grandpa Mackie with the jingling things on the ring between his teeth. They were iron, heavy, and didn’t taste very good, but he thought they might be important. 

“The keys!” Mackie grinned and gave Walter a scratch between the ears. Maple rubbed his tummy, making him growl happily. “Thanks, kiddo. You’ve done good, Walt.” It took him a few minutes while Maple and Walter stood guard, but he did finally find the right key that turned instantly when he pushed it in.

Maple gasped as one of the bird creatures they saw in the mirror pecked at Scott’s arm. He tried to pull it away, but those enchanted glowing black chains kept him in place. The other slowly ran its wing over Scott’s lower body, cawing with amusement as he shuddered and jerked. She gritted her teeth and focused again, the gold light from her hand matching the waning sunlight streaming from the lone window.

When the two crows were flying out the window, Mackie and Maple quickly unlocked the chains binding his body. Maple winced as the magic burned her hands, leaving them red and sore. Walter got on his hind legs and tugged at the tight black cloth covering his papa’s face. He nuzzled his rough, unshaven cheek when he finally managed to pull it off.

“Hi, Walt,” Scott whispered with a wan grin. “Boy, are you a sight for sore eyes. I missed you, buddy.” He smiled and looked up at Maple. “Hi, Mapes. Thanks for getting me out of there. You too, Mackie.”

Mackie put his arm under one side of Scott as he sagged, nearly collapsing to the stone floor. “No thanks necessary, Scotty, but I think we’d better get back to the cart. You don’t look so good.”

“No, Mackie.” Scott shook his head as Maple draped his arm around her side. “I’m fine. I want to help. Betty…”

Maple sighed, patting her stubborn friend’s arm. “She’s worried about you, son.” Mackie shifted Scott as they headed to the stairs. “You can’t help anyone in the state you’re in.”

“You’d be surprised.” Scott nodded at the door. “Maple’s not the only one who knows how to stop that wedding. Mackie, you get Maple to Victor. I’ll distract Pavla.”

They’d just gotten back up to the main hall when Maple heard a shout. Three plump women in frilly black gowns chased after a tiny deer racing down the hall at breakneck speed. “Betty!” Scott grinned as she dashed straight to him. “Are you all right?” She nodded, leaning into his hand as he slowly stroked her. “Where did you get this?” His fingers trembled as he removed the heavy chain leash from the gold collar studded with red and black gems.

“Pavla did it. Wanted to keep her as a stuffed animal by her side.” Mackie frowned as the three women raced at them, squealing at the top of their lungs. He put up a hand, moving back nervously as they gathered around him, giggling and shrieking about how cute he was. “Now, ladies, let’s all listen to reason…hey!” He grabbed his glasses from one of them when they plucked them off his nose to try them on. “I need those! I can’t see without them!”

Maple sighed and raised her hand, focusing on the ladies and making them a lot less troublesome. Pavla kept the ladies of the court around as unpaid servants, not because she was fond of them. Most of them were silly Berlania noblewomen who cared only about fine clothes, eating, and impressing the queen. 

Her newly-found father leaped back as the gold light enveloped them. Their squeals became louder, even as they shrunk. When the light subsided, three plump pink pigs in black dresses poked their snouts at him. “Hey!” He grabbed his sleeve as one tried to chew on it. “Ladies, please, that’s a good butler’s jacket! It’s not lunch!”

“Maple, you did it!” Scott grinned widely, even as he leaned heavily on Betty and Walter. “You got your magic back, and your hair is only down to your chin. I knew Pavla was lying.”

“I could have told her it wasn’t really connected to hair length.” Mackie shoved the pigs down the hall. “Yeah, Penny had super-long hair all her life, but it had more to do with the strength of her heart and her convictions, not her hair.” Mackie patted Maple’s arm. “We’ll see if we can work on that. I’ll talk to the queen, get you to some of the finest healing magicians in Wennaria. They could teach you what your mother wasn’t able to.”

“Mother?” Scott’s eyes widened. “Maple, you found your mom? Your real mom?”

“Yeah, she’s my little girl.” Mackie put an arm around her. “Which is why we need to stop that wedding. I’d like to see my daughter and son-in-law married, before that witch in queen’s clothing ruins anyone else’s lives.”

Maple looked up as the heavy notes of a slow, depressing dirge came down the hall like lead. “And I think that’s our cue!” Mackie took Maple’s arm. “May I give away the bride?” She smiled as they made their way down the hall to the throne room, Scott following slowly as he leaned on Betty and Walter.