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.”
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