Of Witches and Wind (43 page)

Mia appeared at the end of the corridor, her elbow joints glinting metallically in the sunlight. Even her perfect face looked different—hinges shone around her mouth. “You have to reach outside first. This prison only has one exit.”

We fled in the opposite direction. I ran with my pack in front of me, my hand digging around for an M3.

Ben turned to Chase, wounded. “You failed to mention that Mia was a bad guy
and
not a real person.”

“Right. She's a doll. She's been wearing the best glamour I've ever seen. You had a crush on a puppet,” Chase said. “I bet you feel stupid now.”

“Wow. Last time I ever look for sympathy from you,” Ben said. He learned fast.

“We need a way out of here,” Chase said.

“No kidding.” I flipped the magic mirror open. “Lena! I mean Melodie! We need a scrying spell! We're lost in the Glass Mountain. Can you find us a way out like you led me through the mirror vault?”

“Right. Rory, you handle the escape plan,” Chase said. A wolf leaped through a doorway, its teeth nipping at my friend's throat. Chase ducked and drove his sword into the beast's heart. “I'll cover our fronts. Ben, keep an eye on Lady Pinocchio.”

“Lay off, Chase,” Ben snapped.

“Lena, she—she can't come to the mirror right now.” Melodie flipped her M3 over so I could see Lena: On top of an infirmary bed full of rumpled sheets, she frowned in her sleep, a tiny line between her brows. Her lips had turned so black it looked like she was wearing Goth lipstick. The vines snaking over her face had thickened so much they showed up through her brown skin.

Worst of all, I could hear her breath rattling around in her throat, even through the mirror. She sounded like a car engine with a broken muffler.

She wasn't just sick. She was dying.

Chase paused at a fork in the hall, looking at the three paths ahead. “Which way?”

But Mia reappeared behind us, snowflake-shaped throwing stars in each hand. She launched them at our heads.

“No time.” Ben shoved me and Chase down the middle path, out of the way, and the throwing stars buried themselves in the wall's frosted glass, throwing out spiderweb cracks in each direction.

“What happened, Melodie?” I breathed. “We talked to her just this morning. That couldn't have been more than three hours ago.”

“She snuck away from me and Jenny. She ran to the library to see if Chatty's Tale showed up in Rumpelstiltskin's book, and a nurse found her there an hour later.” Melodie flipped the mirror back around. Golden tears beaded along her jaw. “She's woken up a few times since then, but she can't talk. Rapunzel says—” And Melodie's face crumpled.

“What does Rapunzel say?” Iron bands closed around my heart.

Chase tried to lead us left, but four trolls guarded that corridor. We ran right.

The harp pressed fists into her eyes. “She says Lena has an hour, tops. Jenny called Gran in.”

Even though Lena had only eaten one bite, she'd run around a lot—just as much as Jenny and Rapunzel. The poison must have worked its way through her whole body. “But why would Lena do that? Didn't she know she was getting worse?”

“She so wanted to help you, Rory,” Melodie said, and the iron bands grew tighter. “She wanted to be involved even though she couldn't be there. She was afraid that you would stop needing her, and that she wouldn't be invited on the next quest. Now she won't ever get the chance.”

I'd been so stupid, worrying about whether or not Lena wished I was smarter. I hadn't once wondered how she'd felt, left behind, watching us through the M3. “There's still ointment juice
left, right? Give her the rest.” We had the water. The other poisoned people could hold out.

“Her body is too weak to even break down the ointment now. It's too late.”

This was happening. It was real now.

Melodie's tears clinked onto the mirror, leaving a blob of gold on the corner. “She could've been an even better inventor than Madame Benne, and we're going to lose her.”

“Will the Water of Life still save her?” I asked.

“Yes, but what difference does it make?” snapped the golden harp. “The Snow Queen has you trapped.”

If we didn't get out of the Glass Mountain right now, Lena would die.

“No. Not yet.” I was coming out of this Tale with both my best friends. I had to.

We tried to turn left, but trolls in hockey masks marched forward. We tried to turn right, but Mia blocked the way, hurling a few more throwing stars.

“No, Rory. You're surrounded and outnumbered,” said the harp.

Five more trolls appeared behind us. This had to be an organized effort. They were herding us down this hall in particular, toward the door at the end. It was the only one made out of silver, not glass.

“You three will die soon,” Melodie said. “And Lena will die too. And before the week ends, this whole chapter will be wiped out. The Snow Queen has won.”

“I'll be there in less than thirty minutes,” I promised.

I had to think.

What was at the end of this hall? Where would the Snow Queen's servants want us to go? The dungeons?

A troll jabbed a spear at us from the next opening we passed, and Chase intercepted it too quickly for me to see. His sword came back orange with troll blood.

No, not the dungeons. Even villains don't install fancy doors on the way to their dungeons.

The scrying-spell idea wouldn't work, but last year the Snow Queen had wanted Melodie to escape. The harp had to know
something
we could use. “Melodie, is there anything else helpful you can tell me about the Glass Mountain?”

“There's only one entrance,” she said acidly. “One singular way in and out.”

“We know that, Melodie. Rory asked for something helpful,” Chase said, as we ran. The silver door at the end of the corridor drew closer and closer.

That ticked the harp off even more. “The Glass Moutain is a variant of the same spell that imprisoned the West Wind, the one embedded in those water bottles. It contains a person's essence. The heat interferes with the Snow Queen's magic. She has a tenth of her usual power.”

Ben shoved me and Chase again, and I collided with an end table so hard that I felt a bruise forming on my hip, red hot with pain. A few silvery throwing stars whizzed by, inches from our shoulders. Mia had gained on us again.

“The Snow Queen shouldn't be able to touch the actual structure. She probably can't get closer than a yard or so,” said Melodie.

Mia was twenty feet behind us, and the silver door only forty feet away. There were no openings left ahead of us—there was nowhere else to turn.
Now
we were trapped.

Whatever was behind the silver door, we were about to find out.

“Her magic will disintegrate as soon as she casts a spell upon it,” Melodie added. “If a servant breaks the outer wall for her, it will re-form in one-point-one seconds, too quickly for her to reach the barrier and get out. The only way to break it is to pull every single silver Fey symbol out of the glass at the exact same instant—”

“Dude, Melodie,” Chase said. “Minions listening.”

“—and there are thousands upon thousands enclosed in the glass,” Melodie continued, like he hadn't spoken. “If it were possible, then the Snow Queen would have done it by now. It was made by Madame Benne. It is the best prison ever invented. Is this what you wanted to know?”

My hand was on the silver doorknob. I was actually kind of surprised when it didn't electrocute me or anything. It wasn't even locked.

“Yes,” said Mia, seven feet behind us. “There is no way out but for the way you came in, and we will never let you reach it.”

I threw the door open, and the boys dashed in behind me. White silk covered the walls from floor to ceiling, making the room almost cold. And in the back stood a high-backed silver throne—seated upon it was a tall figure with skin the color of slushy snow, strawlike blond hair, and glacier-pale eyes.

Of course. No need for dungeons. Her servants had chased us straight to her.

“Rory, all this effort to get away,” said the Snow Queen in her musical voice. Goose bumps formed on my sweaty skin. “I am hurt. It is as if my guests don't wish to talk to me.”

Mia stood in the doorway, three silver snowflakes in each hand. She didn't attack. She was just blocking our escape route. Clearly, the Snow Queen was in the mood to chat.

Seeing that nobody was hurling any throwing stars at us, Ben bent over, wheezing.

Solange smiled. Her teeth seemed almost transparent, like they were made out of ice. “It is nice to have guests. You cannot imagine what my life has been like, Rory Landon. I have been locked in here for decades. Every thought has been of my escape. Every message has been of my return. Every action has worked for my triumph. I have been working toward this end since before you were born, Rory Landon, and you know the day will come soon.”

I did know. Remembering it usually filled me with the same mindless terror as heights, but now, with her seated just a few feet away, I had two thoughts:

She hadn't used any magic yet. She probably needed all her power to keep Mia up and moving.

And she was enjoying this. We could use that.

“Melodie, why would the Snow Queen hang her throne room with white silk?” Chase asked.

“It reflects all the sunlight back through the glass,” Melodie said automatically. “Lessens the greenhouse effect. Keeps the room colder and her magic stronger.”

“Ah, you have the golden harp on the line,” said the Snow Queen. “Let me have the magic mirror. If she tells me all I wish to know about the Glass Mountain, perhaps I'll give her enough Water to spare her mistress.”

The Snow Queen was lying. Solange would never let any of the Water out of her sight.

Melodie's eyes widened. “Yes, I'll—”

Frustrated, I slapped the mirror face down on my palm. “Mirror, mirror, go to sleep; they'll leave a message after the beep.”

There. At least Melodie couldn't tell the Snow Queen any more.

Chase jumped up, an inhuman seven feet, and slashed a wide gash in the white silk. Then he yanked on it, ripping it down. More light flooded in, through the thick wavy glass of the prison's outer wall.

Bright green grass started just a few feet away, right on the other side of the glass. I could see the plateau with the Water of Life on the right, and on the left, mountains rose up in jagged peaks, wearing snowy white caps.

We had to get out there.

“A futile effort.” The Snow Queen leaned her head on her fist with a lazy smile. “It will take at least ten minutes for the room to warm. More than enough time for me to kill you.”

“Every little bit helps,” Chase said, with a tiny grin, ripping the last of the silk away from the wall, but he was scared. His shoulders had gone stiff.

“Wait,” said Ben. “I don't know what's happening.”

“Ben, meet the Snow Queen.” Chase pried the M3 out of my hands. I'd forgotten I was holding it. “Geez, Rory, don't break it.”

Ben's face, his whole body, was frozen. I knew that feeling, where terror had locked every joint rigid.

Solange nodded deeply. “A pleasure.”

Chase flapped the M3 open and closed nervously, muttering something to himself in Fey. Probably cursing.

“Now, how would you prefer to die?” said the Snow Queen. “I will take requests.”

“Peacefully. In my sleep. At a ripe old age,” Chase said, and Solange actually laughed. Her face changed. She looked so much younger.

We had to keep her talking. I jerked a thumb toward Mia. “How long were you inside her?”

The Snow Queen's lips curled up very slowly, and I realized how many times I had seen that same smile on Mia's face. “Rory, are you trying to distract me with all your little questions? I have used that trick myself.”

Okay, so this was an obvious plan. I willed my face not to move.

She sighed. “But I will play along. I have been bored for decades, and I'll probably be bored again after I kill you. The spell that animates my lovely doll can respond to most situations without my direct involvement. I only saw with her eyes and spoke with her lips when something interested me. Clever, Rory, but not clever enough. How heartbreaking. To realize what Mia was, an instant too late. Lena would have caught it by the second day.”

She was trying to make me feel stupid, but it was a mistake to mention Lena. It only made me more determined to get out of here. “But how long exactly were you in her?”

Solange narrowed her eyes, like I was doing a bad job entertaining her. “That is the wrong question, Rory.” I flinched. I guess I knew where Rapunzel learned that saying. “I'm disappointed. If I were in your position, I would want to know about much more than Mia.”

“Fine,” I said. “Tell me about your sister.”

“Oh, dearest Rapunzel,” said the Snow Queen. Her good mood was back. “My most loyal servant. I left her behind in the Canon to be my eyes and ears. You see, Rory, I always knew you were coming. I always knew that someone would come to take my place. Rapunzel offered to stay as long as it took for you to arrive, the girl they think will destroy me. She offered to befriend you. It was her idea to poison you as soon as you trusted her. I'm delighted that she managed to poison everyone else, too.”

“You're lying.” I knew it as soon as it was out of her mouth.
She might have convinced me if she'd mentioned Mia in that plan.

The Snow Queen smiled like this idea was too delicious not to share. “Yes, I am. But this is still what Mildred will believe.”

An echo whispered around the room, and I couldn't place it until Ben shuddered and said, “Please stop.”

She didn't stop. I watched Mia, her puppet, say all the Snow Queen's words with her. But Mia spoke so softly—we could have never guessed that they had the same voice. “Mia poisoned you all, right under Rory's and Rapunzel's noses. The blades on Mia's fingers hold the poison. It was a simple matter of changing the glamour slightly as Mia and I chopped up the chocolate for the Fey fudge pies. Now, since you will die here, Rapunzel will take the blame for it.”