The Everafter War (6 page)

“Tell us the location of the traitors, Grimm. Prince Charming and the Big Bad Wolf. We know they have fled into the forest together, along with Robin Hood and his Merry Men. We want to bring them before the Master so they can face justice.”

“Like that’s going to happen,” Daphne snarled.

Nottingham armed a crossbow with a silver arrow and hefted it onto his shoulder. He aimed it at the family. “Tell us where their camp is and your family will live through the day. As for tomorrow, well—no promises.”

Uncle Jake stepped in front of his mother. “Sheriff, every time I turn around your stupid little group is making threats and every time we make you look like fools. Why don’t you save yourself the humiliation and take your band of silly, washed-up misfits and get off our lawn before I—”

There was a whizzing sound in the air and then Uncle Jake let out a cry and fell to the porch. When Sabrina looked down at him she saw an arrow stuck in his right shoulder. Blood was leaking out of the wound all over his jacket and onto the porch’s old wooden floorboards.

“Perhaps you didn’t understand us,” Nottingham said as he loaded a fresh arrow into his weapon. “Tell us where the camp is, now!”

“Girls, get into the house!” Henry shouted, snatching Sabrina and Daphne by the arms and dragging them inside to safety.

Veronica and Granny Relda followed and Henry dashed back out to drag Uncle Jake into the house. Once inside he slammed the door behind him just as an arrow crashed into the mailbox.

“House, time to lock up!” Granny shouted and Sabrina heard the tumblers turn on the front door’s dozen padlocks. Open windows slammed shut and shutters closed tight. Sabrina caught a faint flash of shimmering blue light outside a window.

“OK, everyone, we’re safe here. Nothing can get in now,” Granny said as she turned to help her wounded son. “Daphne, I need you to run upstairs and grab a bottle of iodine out of the cabinet. It’s a red bottle. Sabrina and Puck, run into the laundry room and get the white sheets out of the dryer. Rip them into bandages. Goldilocks and Red, I could use a pot of boiling water.”

Everyone rushed to follow Granny’s orders but Sabrina was stunned and frozen.

“Sabrina! Go!” Granny shouted as she knelt down to her wounded son.

Sabrina and Puck raced out of the room and into the pantry where they kept the dryer. She opened the lid and pulled out the fresh, clean sheets while Puck tore them with zeal.

“Nottingham really shot at us,” Puck said. “I didn’t see that coming.”

“You sound like you’re proud of him!” Sabrina exclaimed.

“Well, as a villain he has certainly stepped up his game,” the fairy boy replied. “Still, he loses points for his costume. That’s way over the top.”

“You’re hopeless,” she muttered as she raced back to her family. When she arrived they were all arguing, and once again her father was at the center of the dispute.

“And this is exactly why we’re going back to New York City,” her father said, holding his hand tightly against his brother’s wound.

“Henry, not now,” Veronica begged.

“I’ve got the sheets,” Sabrina said, hoping it would change the subject. Granny reached for them and started wrapping Jake’s wound. While she was working, Daphne returned with the iodine. She gave it to the old woman and stepped back, looking shocked and scared.

“We have to get the arrow out of my arm, Mom,” Uncle Jake said.

Goldilocks immediately herded the children together. “Children, I could really use everyone’s help in the kitchen.”

Puck stomped his foot. “No way! I’ve shot a few people in my day, but I’ve never seen an arrow come out. This is the opportunity of a lifetime.”

“Suit yourself,” Goldilocks said, and she led Sabrina, Daphne, Red, and Baby Bear into the kitchen. Once there, she nervously searched the cabinets and refrigerator.

“What are you looking for?” Sabrina asked.

“Cocoa,” the woman said. “Everything is better with cocoa. Oh, these cabinets. How do you find anything?”

Daphne opened a drawer and took out a box of cocoa, and Goldilocks started making some for the children.

“Why are those people attacking us?” Red Riding Hood asked.

“They want us to tell them where Charming and Mr. Canis have gone,” Sabrina said.

Baby Bear growled.

“Junior wants to know why someone doesn’t just tell them, then,” Goldilocks said.

“Because they’re our friends. Besides, we couldn’t if we wanted to,” Daphne said. “We don’t know where they are.”

There was a loud, horrible cry from the living room. Someone must have pulled the arrow from Jake’s shoulder. Sabrina turned to her sister. Daphne’s face was pale.

“He’ll be fine,” Goldilocks assured the children as she started rearranging the silverware drawer.

Puck rushed into the kitchen. He looked as if he had just gotten off a roller coaster. “That was awesome!” he cried. “The arrow coming out is totally more fun to watch than the arrow going in.”

Henry and Granny Relda joined them in the kitchen.

“We need to get him to a hospital,” Henry said. “That’s an open wound. He’s going to need stitches and antibiotics. It could get infected if it’s not cleaned properly.”

Granny Relda shook her head. “The hospital is deserted. All the doctors were human and Mayor Heart ran them out of town.”

“We have to find someone with some medical training,” Henry said as he took a glass from the cupboard. He turned the faucet on to fill it but nothing came out but a couple of brown drops. “They’ve turned off the pipes.”

Suddenly, the lights in the house went out. “And the lights,” Sabrina added.

“Nothing to worry about, folks,” Puck said. “I’ll run up and get my sword. Once they see that I’m armed I’m sure those losers will run for the hills.”

“I don’t think fighting our way out is the answer, Puck,” Granny said.

“It always has been before,” Puck grumbled.

“What do you have in mind?” Sabrina asked.

“Let’s go ask the man with the answers,” Granny said. She led everyone back into the living room, where Jake lay unconscious on the sofa. His arm was wrapped in the bandages Sabrina and Puck had made, but a small circular dot of red had appeared through the fabric and was growing rapidly. Sabrina’s father lifted his brother and eased him onto Poppa Bear’s back. Then everyone marched up the steps and into Mirror’s room. Once inside, his foreboding face appeared in the glass.

“This place is starting to resemble Grand Central Station, Relda,” Mirror said.

“You haven’t seen half of the guests,” Granny Relda said. “The Scarlet Hand has surrounded the house.”

“Well, that’s not going to help the property values,” Mirror said. “Jake! He’s injured!”

“We need to get him to a doctor,” Henry said. “And then we need to get out of this town. Mirror, we need the slippers.”

“Which slippers are you referring to, Hank?”

“Dorothy’s slippers,” Henry said. “Three clicks and we can teleport ourselves to safety.”

“Sorry, Hankster,” Mirror said. “The girls lost one of the slippers a while back.”

“You lost the slippers?” Hank cried, glaring at the girls.

“A giant was chasing us,” Sabrina said defensively.

“A big giant,” Daphne added.

“Fine. How about the Gnome King’s belt?” Henry said, turning his attention back to Mirror. “It’ll do the same thing.”

“Well, the girls tried that out about a month ago and they ran down the batteries. If you have forty-six size Ds then we’re back in business,” Mirror replied.

Henry frowned at the girls.

Sabrina shrugged. “Yeah, we’ve been meaning to take care of that.”

Henry sighed. “For once I’m turning to magic and there’s nothing available! What have we got that will zap us out of this house?”

“Well, as for zapping, we’ve got nothing,” Granny Relda said. “But there is a way out of the house.”

“There is?” Sabrina and Daphne asked.

Granny reached into her handbag and took out her set of keys. “Yes. We need to go to the Room of Reflections.”

Granny stepped through the mirror and vanished. Henry and Veronica followed, then Red, Daphne, Sabrina, and Puck. Elvis was next. The three bears growled nervously but Goldilocks growled back something that seemed to calm their nerves. A moment later Poppa Bear was carrying Uncle Jake through.

Sabrina never got used to the vastness of the room hidden on the other side of the mirror’s reflection. The ceiling was held aloft by marble columns taller and thicker than redwood trees. The hallway itself was as wide as Grand Central Station in Manhattan and was framed by hundreds of doors on either side. The doors were made from a countless variety of materials: Some were wood, others steel and stone, and Sabrina had seen some constructed of crystal, fire, ice, a waterfall, and even something Granny called protoplasm. All of the doors were adorned with brass plaques that explained the contents of the room on the other side.

“How come we’ve never heard of this Room of Reflections?” Daphne asked her grandmother.

“Because we don’t use it very often and it’s not exactly within walking distance,” the old woman replied. “It’s at the other end of the hall.”

This piqued Sabrina’s curiosity. She had often wondered what was at the end of the Hall of Wonders. She had tried to walk there once but after several hours she still couldn’t see the end. She’d started to imagine that the hall went on forever.

Granny handed Mirror her set of keys. “I think we’re going to need the trolley car.”

Mirror nodded and stepped through a set of double doors to his immediate right. A moment later Sabrina heard an engine roar and a brass bell ring, then an old-fashioned trolley car pulled out and stopped in front of the group. Sabrina had seen similar-looking trolleys on television. They were all the rage in San Francisco. Mirror was sitting in the driver’s seat, wearing a short, green jacket, a black cap, and a money-changer attached to his belt. He rang a polished brass bell and shouted, “All aboard!”

The girls climbed up while Henry helped Uncle Jake and the others get settled. Henry had the unfortunate task of helping Momma Bear onto the trolley. He shoved and pushed and inch by inch she climbed aboard. Puck found the whole spectacle hilarious. Every time Henry pushed on Momma Bear’s oversize rump, Puck made a farting sound. Puck laughed until tears rolled down his cheeks, leaving tracks on his grimy face.

Mirror rang the bell one final time and shouted, “Here we go!” The trolley zipped down the hall, gaining speed rapidly.

“I’ve always wanted to know what was at the end of the hall,” Daphne said.

“I remember when your father and Jacob walked it,” Granny Relda said. “We didn’t have the trolley back then so they brought a tent and sleeping bags.”

Henry grunted.

“What’s wrong?” Sabrina asked.

“Jacob forgot to pack food. We walked almost the whole day before we noticed and had to turn around. We never did go back.”

Mirror turned in his seat and addressed the passengers. “Folks, at this rate we won’t get there until Thursday, so I’m going to put the pedal to the metal, as they say. So keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times. Hold on to your seats, sit back, and enjoy the ride.”

The trolley lurched forward. Sabrina felt the skin on her face pull back as the hallway flew by. They were going so fast everything around them turned into a blur of color and light. It was terrifying; however, Puck seemed to be having the time of his life.

“Faster!” he shouted. “It’s not fun until someone wets their pants!”

When the trolley slowed and the world came back into focus Sabrina realized she had held her breath the whole way. She peered out at the unfamiliar length of hallway. The doors at this end were even more bizarre than the ones she had already seen. One looked as if it was made of a whirling blue gas with several ancient skeletons suspended in it. Another appeared to be the mouth of a huge monster, with gnashing teeth and a horrible forked tongue. Another door was constructed from the gigantic bones of a prehistoric animal.

When Mirror brought the trolley to a complete stop, Sabrina stepped off feeling light-headed. She held on to the side of the trolley until she felt better. It seemed that everyone else in the group felt the same way, except for Puck, who begged Mirror for another ride.

Once her head stopped spinning Sabrina studied her surroundings. A massive wall, much like the one at their end of the hall, stood before them. She didn’t see a magical portal that led into the real world, though, just a single door made from a rough stone slab. Hieroglyphics and intricate symbols were chiseled into its surface. Sabrina had no idea what any of it meant, but the biggest of the symbols gave her a creepy feeling: It was a large sculpted eye gazing down on everyone. It moved like a real eye and studied each person intently.

“Uh, creepy?” Daphne said as she watched the eye move up and down the length of her body.

Unlike the other doors in the Hall of Wonders, the big stone door did not have a lock on it. Mirror pushed it open and led everyone inside to a circular room draped in black curtains. The floor was made of a spotless varnished pine. Twenty-five full-length mirrors were placed an equal distance from one another against the room’s walls. Sabrina understood why it was called the Room of Reflections.

“Are these magic mirrors?” Veronica asked, running her hand along one’s surface. The tips of her fingers disappeared in the glass and the image rippled like the surface of a pond. “Oh, they are. Aren’t they?”

“Not exactly,” Mirror said. “The best way to describe them is to think of them as back doors into the twenty-five magic mirrors created by Bunny Lancaster, also known as the Wicked Queen.”

“Are you saying that we can go into all twenty-five magic mirrors from this room?” Goldilocks asked. “We can step right into their Halls of Wonders?”

Mirror shook his head and looked slightly offended. “There is only one Hall of Wonders. Each mirror is unique, designed specifically by the Wicked Queen for the people who purchased them. Each mirror also comes equipped with its unique guardian. I am the guardian of the Hall of Wonders.”

“So, if we step through one of these portals we can go into someone else’s magic mirror?” Veronica asked.