Charles couldn't blame Cornelius for
rearing up and trying to turn around. The tree in the center of the
clearing was twisted and gnarled, its bent limbs resembling a man's
arms as he tried to cover himself. Iron chains hung down from the
limbs, reminding Charles entirely too much of the ones that bound
Brett's wrists the day before. If he squinted, he could see the
outlines in the bark of a face, one with high cheekbones and wide
eyes, a face that was twisted in pain and betrayal. Scraps of blue
and orange fabric that closely resembled the cloaks worn by the
wizards of the Nerdocrumbesia court dripped down the limbs like
tattered moss.
“My god.” Richard's eyes were wide
as the group climbed out. “It's like something out of a nightmare.”
Donald made a face. “I haven't had a
dream this bad since the time I ate that week-old pastrami sandwich
that was sitting in the root cellar.”
“He's...he's trapped...” Brett
stammered as she stumbled out, following by the trio of lights. “His
magic...we have to release it...get the...the chains...”
Charles gently placed a hand on her
shoulder. “Are you all right?”
“I'll be...all right...” she puffed
“...once we've freed Gene...”
Nipsey reached for the trees first.
“I'll get them! How hard could it be...hey!” The heavy old oak
threw him into its roots, which wound around him until he nearly
vanished.
“The trees are alive!” Bobby
stabbed one in the trunk and reeled back when it emitted a horrible
screeching sound. “Yeooowww! They're not singers, I can tell you
that!”
Joyce darted over Cornelius, sending a
soothing green light over him as Charles played a little bit of “It
Only Takes a Moment” to calm the horse. “I'll stay with him,”
the little fairy squeaked. “You help the others.” Her light
flashed as a root whomped down in front of them, almost crushing her.
“Nasty old tree!” Lights danced around a little wooden stick in
her tiny fingers. “What did we ever do to you, you beast of an
oak?”
“Beast? Soothing?” Charles strummed
a high note on his lute. “Wait a minute. Music...”
Richard shot an arrow into an oak.
“Charles, what are you doing?” His next arrow landed in one of
the lower branches. The oak flailed, snatching the archer and
wrapping its branches around his chest. “Bloody...bastard!” He
puffed, struggling wildly. “Let...me...go! What...do
I...look...like...a squirrel?”
“No...almost got them...” Brett
tried to climb the tree and reach for the chains, but her movements
were as sluggish as a snail's. “Sorry Gene...I couldn't think of
another way...to break them...” Gene held his branch closer, but
another tree swatted at her, trying to knock her off.
“Brett!” Charles darted into the
clearing, hitting limbs reaching for him with his lute. “Hold on! I
just need to calm them!”
“Well...do it...fast!” Her fingers
stretched as far as they could go. “Can't reach...”
“I can help, Charlie. I'm a good
singer.” Bill howled next to him. “Well, normally. We can do a
duet.”
Charles nodded. “Follow along.” He
took a deep breath and strummed the first notes of “It Only Takes a
Moment.” At first, it seemed to have no effect. The trees continued
to wrap their branches around Richard and the men and fling acorns at
the fairies.
After a few minutes, a few trees began
to sway along with the song. They dropped Richard and Bobby onto the
leaves and unwrapped Nipsey. As soon as he could move, Richard yanked
at the bottom of the branch to steady it. Donald shimmied up the
branch and held Brett. Bobby crawled to the chains on the other side
as three lights froze the branch while it danced.
“I've...got it!” The moment Brett
placed her hand on the chains, her green light surrounded them, and
they crumbled to ashes.
“I don't have magic...but maybe...”
Lithe Bobby pulled a knife out of his pocket and worked them into the
manacles. “Sorry if I splinter you a little bit here, sir, but it
won't be for long.”
The second the chains fell away, the
tree shrank and buckled. Everyone but the fairies were thrown against
the carriage. Cornelius whinnied wildly and Bill let out a terrified
howl as black mists blasted from every fold and bump in the bark.
Twigs formed themselves into fingers; roots attached themselves to
the trunk as toes.
When the mists faded, they left a gap
of sunlight in the blackened forest that shined over a lanky figure
barely covered by the shredded remains of an orange and blue star
cape. The fairies brought a long stick of smooth silver-painted wood
with a small sphere on the end to his hand and slid it into his tight
grasp. An orange light glowed on its tip, surrounding the man. When
the light subsided...he still wore a battered orange and blue cape
and appeared half-naked, but at least now, he was awake.
“What in the hell happened?” Gene
groaned on the ground. Nipsey and Richard rushed over and helped him
to his feet. “Where is she?”
“She, sir?” Richard raised an
eyebrow. “There's no one here but us and the fairies.”
“My beautiful Nimue. The woman who
lead me out here. Told me she had something she wanted to show me.”
He rubbed his left wrist, which had a shallow cut that dripped blood.
“Then she clamped those cuffs on my wrists, threw my wand into a
hole, and cursed me into that tree you saw.”
“Damn it to hell! My stepmother.
Figures she'd do this.” She gave Charles a hand, tugging him onto
his heels. “You know her better as Queen Malade of the Shadow
Kingdom.”
“That's not possible.” Charles
frowned as he dusted off his lute and checked it for cracks. “I
heard Malade is young and beautiful. How can she be your mother?”
“She's thousands of years old,”
Brett growled. “A shape-shifting demon and fire sorceress. She
marries wealthy and titled men, then poisons their minds and bodies
until there's nothing left but a shell...and then, she can move in
and take over their lands and the magical energy within. She thrives
on energy from negative emotions.”
“This is entirely too true,”
Richard snarled angrily. “She tried to seduce my father, but he
refused her advances. It did him no good. She had him killed and his
lands taken by force.”
“She's the one who made me this way!”
Bill whined from under the carriage. “Sure, she was cute, but I
wasn't gonna marry her! She wasn't that cute! I already had someone I
wanted to marry!”
“You...” Gene stumbled over to
Bill, squinting at him like he was a rare flower specimen. “You're
not a wolf. Your light...”
“We know,” Brett snorted. “He's a
human soul in a wolf's body. I figured that out earlier.” She
sighed and turned to the fairies. “Do you know a place we can stay
for the night? It's too late to return to Holly Woods, and the town
is probably crawling with trolls and soldiers by now anyway.”
Joyce bobbed over Cornelius' head.
“Follow us. You can stay in the fairy realm. We already have a few
human visitors. A couple more won't hurt.”
Gene let Jo Ann and Debralee help him
into the carriage. “I owe all of you more than I could ever repay.
I thought I was stuck like that until someone chopped me down or I
rotted away. Helen...” He shook his head sadly. “I don't know
what I'm going to tell my wife. She knows I have a bit of a roving
eye, but I guess I lost my head.”
“It's not just you. Malade's done it
to a lot of people.” Brett put an arm around him. “I saw Helen
before I left the castle. She misses you, Gene. She and Lynne miss
you a lot.”
Charles took his other side. “We'll
get you back to her, Gene. I promise.”
“Don't I know you?” The older man
pulled out a pair of half-moon spectacles and squinted. “Charles of
Yorkalia?” He grinned and tucked the glasses in a pocket of his
robe before giving him a hug. “You're back! I've missed your music
and your company, old friend.”
“At least you have. I was thrown out
of Password Palace before I could get in the door.” His
fingers absently strummed across his lute strings. “I hope Sir
Gautier and Sir Walden are all right. They sent me to Richard and his
friends and released Brett. The queen can't be happy with them right
now.”
Richard tugged at the reins as they
trotted past trees that were greener and less twisted than the ones
that attacked them. “Ladies, all I see are trees. Where is this
fairy realm of yours?”
“Oh, I forgot!” Joyce buzzed over
his head. “You're mortal. You can't see it.”
As she flew into the foliage, the trees
unwound and separated. Curtains of earthy green hanging moss were
pulled aside to reveal a path lined with trees of gold and pale
greens. Flowers in every jewel shade of the rainbow lined the dusty
yellow path as silky golden sunlight filtered through the trees. Red
and yellow-spotted mushrooms sprouted in the spongy moss. Everything
around them sparkled with the light of the late afternoon, from the
stream that gurgled alongside the path to the glistening plums and
pears nestles in the pink flowered branches.
“This is amazing!” Brett climbed
out first after the carriage stopped in a sun-dappled clearing. Tiny
lights flew all around her, kissing her hand and her hair. “I'd
heard about the Fairy Realm, but I'd never actually been there.”
“Few humans have.” Debralee landed
on a water lily that opened to admit her. “Except for the royal
family. Jo Ann, do you know if she's still here?”
Jo Ann fluffed her chestnut locks while
looking into a glistening water drop on a rose petal. “Huh? Oh.
Well, she should be. Betty doesn't really have many other places to
go right now.”
“Betty?” Charles gasped as he
almost literally leaped out of the carriage. “The queen's here?”
Gene climbed out less easily, tripping
over the sides. “I wondered what happened to her. She wasn't at the
castle. Dick and Robert and I couldn't find hide nor hair of the
royal family.”
“I'll take you to her!” Joyce waved
her green-bark wand. “She's been here for weeks. We took her in.
Fairies have no love for Malade and her forces.” The fairy's
hydrangea-blue eyes turned unusually fierce. “There used to be more
of us. Malade captures fairies, strips them of their magic, and turns
them into mindless imps that do all her dirty work, just like she
does to everything else.”
“Tell me about it, Mistress
Joyce...whoa!” Bill's paw slipped on a slimy stone and nearly went
in the stream. “I'm not normally like this, either. Did you see
that?” He howled again, sending the lights around him scattering.
“Oh, I'm stuck like this forever!”
Joyce's green light bobbed soothingly
over Bill's head. “You'll be all right. You haven't quite gotten
your footing yet.” She fluttered to Charles. “Your horse should
be fine here. He can have a nice grass lunch, and we'll take good
care of him.”
They followed her past a gurgling
waterfall that flowed gently into the stream and fields filled with
flowers, each the home to a fairy. As they got further in, the trees
themselves now held tiny homes, with walls made from twigs and leafy
roofs. The longer they walked, the larger the tree houses became,
until they arrived at a clearing with several small huts.
“Your Majesty!” Joyce waved a wand
and turned herself human-sized, then hurried into the largest hut.
“Betty? There's people here to see you! I brought friends from the
court!”
“You what?” Queen Betty of
Nerdocrumbesia was a small woman with yellowing hair, a lively
heart-shaped face, and snappy blue eyes. Her dress might have been
fine blue silk and lace at one point, but it was torn in several
places, and the lace hem was tattered. “Brett! How did you find us
out here?”
Brett went right into her arms. “It's
a long story. I had a little help from these gentlemen.”
Charles, Richard, and his men dropped
to their knees the second the queen emerged. Bill tried to, but
really appeared to be stretching his furry limbs. “Your Majesty.”
Richard kissed her hand. “Our only concern is for your safety and
that of King Allen.”
Gene bowed, but his dark eyes twinkled.
“Hello, Betty. I'm glad you found that sanctuary we'd discussed.”
“I knew all along there was only one
place the children and animals and I could go.” The corners of
Betty's mouth dropped at the mention of her missing husband. “Allen.
Have you found him?” She raised an eyebrow. “And what are you
doing out here, Gene? I thought you were staying at the castle to
keep an eye on Malade and do research on the Legendary Princesses and
their champions.” As she spoke, she tossed a golden ball from hand
to hand, sometimes twirling it around. The light glinted off the
ball, giving it an odd, dim glow.
Gene turned as red as the little lights
around him. “Malade, er, caught on. I might have said one or two
things to her that were, um, slightly suggestive...”
“You hit on her.” Betty rolled her
eyes as she caught the ball. “Are you crazy? With Helen there?
Besides, you know darn well what she's like!”
The older wizard's dark eyes blazed. “She
forced my wife and daughter to work in the kitchen, like common
slaves! I figured the only way to keep us alive was to stay on her
good side. I did the research when I thought she wasn't looking.”
“Research.” Charles looked up from
the rather uncomfortable rock his knee ended up on. “You're not the
only one interested in legends. A lady named Arlene talked about the
Legendary Princesses in Holly Woods. I thought they were myths.”
“Myths? Of course not, Charles.”
Betty took his hand and pulled him to his feet. “And you're going
to hurt your knees if you stay down for much longer. I'm just plain
Betty here.”
“You do remember me!” He strummed a
short, happy tune on his lute. “Cornelius and I went to the castle yesterday. They told us singers and performers were no longer
wanted in Nerdocrumbesia.”
Betty nodded. “That's why I want to
find the other Legendary Princesses. We'll need all the magic we can
get rid of that damn Malade.”
“How do you know Brett?” Bobby
nimbly hopped to his feet. “We thought she was a lady of the
court.”
An eyebrow on the Queen's expressive
face almost went into her fluffy gold-brown hairline. “Snowy, you
didn't tell them?”
“Snowy?” Charles looked over his
shoulder at Brett. “Arlene called you that, too.”
She scrunched up her face in annoyance,
then dropped into a curtsy. “Princess Brett of the Maine Woodlands,
but most people call me Snow White.”
“You're one of them!” Donald
scrambled to his heels. “You're one of the Legendary Princesses!
Snow White is supposed to be the Princess of the Earth.”
“You're Snow White?” Charles
snickered with a smirk. “You look younger in the pictures of you
I've seen in books.”
“Oh, that was years ago.” She
quickly continued before he could make jokes about her age. “But
that's part of the reason I had to find Gene and the other women.
Jack and I tried to fight her alone, but Malade turned him to stone
and slapped the cuffs on me before I could touch a piece of wood. If
we could find everyone, we'll have more of a chance to end her
reign.”
Richard settled on a mossy log near the
hut. “Tell us more about these Princesses. Who are they? Where are
they now?”
“I know where one is.” Brett
wrinkled her nose. “Malade kidnapped Princess Elaine from Tropicana
Palace in Vegasia months ago. She's in some tower on the edge of
Sherwood Forest, near Andersen Bay.”
Gene crossed his arms, his mouth
turning up in a smug smile. “I know where the Princess of Water
lives. Found a couple of books on mermaids at the palace library.
She's in the Bay, in the Kingdom of the Merfolk.” He tapped his
head. “It's all up here. We can take a boat to look for the kingdom
after we rescue poor Elaine.”
“Sounds like fun to me.” Bobby
grinned. “We've rescued treasure before, but never royalty.”
“We could be like knights!” Donald
waved a long branch around. “Hiyo Silver, and all that stuff.”
“Some of you are already knights.”
Betty turned to Richard on the rock. “I knew your father well, Sir
Dawson. I'm sincerely sorry about what happened to him.”
“So am I.” The nobleman admitted
with a hint of sadness in his voice. “I've devoted myself to
stopping Malade's forces and aiding the poor in his honor. Finding
those princesses could do more for the people than all the money in
the world. If nothing else, it would be good for their morale.”
The queen petted Bill's furry head.
“And what about you? There's something...familiar...about you.”
“Oooh...” Bill leaned into her hand
as she scratched his ears. “Oh yeah...right there...that feels
good...” He gave a little howl. “That's
because I'm not a wolf...not really...” His wet nose nudged her
hand. “A little lower...yeah, that's right...”
She got on her knees next to him.
“You're human, aren't you?”
Big blue eyes gazed up at her in
despair. “Yeah. I...I have to find my...my true love. Someone who
knows me for who I am.”
“I'm sure you'll find her.” Betty
gave him a hug, then looked up at the others. “What about the rest
of you? Are you willing to help your queen and your kingdom?”
Nipsey bowed low. “Where our leader
goes, I go, too. I'd move the world for him and you!”
“Count me in.” Brett raised her
hand. “I have my magic, as long as I stay away from iron. It's the
only way I'll get my children back and free Jack.”
Charles shrugged. “There's no job
waiting for me at the moment. Besides, the fairies said something
about me being a champion, or a knight, or something. I want to learn
more about that.”
“It's settled.” Gene dusted off his
tattered robes. “We'll start out tomorrow morning.”
