by Chris Colfer
Xanthous pulled out a chair for Mrs. Vee, Emerelda tucked a napkin into her shirt, Skylene filled her glass with water, and Tangerina handed her a spoon. Lucy opened the lid of the pot, letting a scrumptious aroma fill the air, and Brystal poured a generous serving of stew into the housekeeper’s bowl.
“That smells heavenly,” Mrs. Vee said. “What did you make?”
“My mother’s creamy-mushroom-and-potato stew,” Brystal said. “It’s an old Evergreen family recipe. I hope you like it.”
The housekeeper excitedly moved her spoon like it was a swimming fish, and eagerly took her first bite.
“It’s absolutely delicious!” Mrs. Vee said. “A little salty, but delicious nonetheless! Thank you so much for treating me to such a special meal. I can’t tell you how wonderful it feels to be so loved and appreciated by you. I don’t want to get too mushy, but sometimes I think of you as my own children. Boy, that’s salty—I’ll be so bloated I won’t fit into my shoes tomorrow! HA-HA! But all jokes aside, this is honestly the nicest thing anyone’s ever—”
BAM! Mrs. Vee’s head fell into her bowl and splashed the whole room with stew.
“That was quick,” Lucy said. “I thought it would take longer than that.”
Tangerina carefully raised the housekeeper’s head out of the bowl and gently set it down on the table. She held a clean spoon under Mrs. Vee’s nostrils to make sure she was still breathing, but the housekeeper didn’t exhale.
“Skylene, how much Simple Slumber Sleeping Salt did you put in the stew?” she asked.
“I just followed the instructions on the back,” Skylene said, and removed the bottle of Simple Slumber Sleeping Salt from her pocket. “The directions say an inch of salt will put someone to sleep for a week.”
Tangerina snatched the bottle from her friend and took a look for herself. As she inspected it, something didn’t seem right, and she wiped the bottle with a napkin.
“Skylene!” Tangerina exclaimed. “The instructions say a pinch of salt will put someone to sleep for a week—not an inch!”
Skylene went pale and her eyes grew wide.
“Oops,” she said.
“Oh my God, we just killed Mrs. Vee!” Xanthous cried.
“Everyone, calm down!” Brystal said. “We found the Simple Slumber Sleeping Salt in Madame Weatherberry’s potion cabinet. If it was lethal, I doubt she’d keep it in her office.”
To everyone’s extreme relief, the unconscious housekeeper let out a loud snore and started breathing normally.
“The old girl will be out for a while, but she’ll be fine,” Lucy said, and patted Mrs. Vee on the back.
“Did we do the right thing?” Emerelda said. “It feels weird putting her to sleep like this.”
“We talked about this,” Brystal said. “If Mrs. Vee woke up tomorrow morning and discovered we were all missing, it would give her a heart attack! And if she found out we were traveling to the Northern Kingdom, she would have come after us! Letting her rest while we’re gone is better than letting her worry. Now let’s put her in her room and leave before the Snow Queen gets any stronger.”
It took all six children to lift Mrs. Vee’s unconscious body from the chair and transport her out of the dining room. She was much heavier than they expected and it required all their strength. They carried her through the kitchen and into her bedroom as carefully as possible, and did their best to avoid bumping her head and limbs in the doorways. By the time they plopped her down on her bed and tucked her in, the students were all sweaty and out of breath.
“Wait a second,” Lucy said. “Why didn’t we just use magic to transport her?”
Her classmates groaned at their own collective stupidity.
“Aw, man,” Xanthous said. “I keep forgetting that’s an option.”
Before they ventured to the Northern Kingdom, each of the students and apprentices manifested a unique coat to keep themselves warm for the journey. Brystal waved her wand, and a sparkling blue coat with fuzzy white cuffs appeared over her pantsuit. Emerelda created a beaded emerald wrap that matched her beaded emerald robe. Tangerina gave herself a thick jacket made from quilted patches of honeycomb. Skylene covered her body in a layer of warm water that wrapped around her like a transparent jumpsuit. And finally Lucy snapped her fingers and manifested a coat made from dark turkey feathers.
“Not exactly the pheasant I was hoping for, but it’ll do,” Lucy said.
“Xanthous? Don’t you need a coat?” Skylene asked.
“I should be fine,” he said. “I’m never cold.”
“Then we’re almost ready,” Brystal said. “I just need to collect a couple things before we go.”
Brystal packed a sack with food, water, and other supplies and then shrank it to the size of a coin purse so it would be easy to carry during their trip. She borrowed one of Mrs. Vee’s sharp knives from the kitchen and took it to Madame Weatherberry’s office. She stood on a glass chair and cut out the Northern Kingdom from the enlarged Map of Magic on the wall. Brystal was glad to see Madame Weatherberry’s star was still shining on the map, and hoped they would save her before it disappeared. She rolled up the extracted piece of the map and tucked it into her coat.
Before heading downstairs, Brystal made a quick stop in her bedroom. She retrieved a large geography book from her shelves that contained detailed maps of the In-Between and the Northern Kingdom. Brystal waved her wand and shrunk the book to the dimensions of a matchbox so she could carry it in her pocket. Once the map and geography book were collected, Brystal met her classmates downstairs by the front door.
“Well, this is it,” she said. “What we’re about to embark on may get dangerous, it may get scary, and we may get hurt in the process.”
“We call that a Saturday in show business,” Lucy said.
“I’m being serious,” Brystal said. “Once we walk out that door and leave the academy, there’s no turning back. We all know what we’re getting ourselves into, right?”
Brystal looked closely into each of her classmates’ eyes to make sure they understood the stakes. Instead of finding any hesitation, she saw the students and apprentices nodding at her with confidence, knowing exactly what they had signed up for.
“I’m willing to throw a few punches for Madame Weatherberry,” Emerelda said.
“So am I,” Xanthous said.
“Me too,” Tangerina said.
“Me three,” Skylene said.
“Sounds exactly like the thrill I’ve been looking for,” Lucy said.
Brystal was energized by her classmates’ enthusiasm, but she still let out an anxious sigh before opening the front door.
“All right, then,” she said. “Here goes nothing.”
The children left the castle and hurried through the property to the hedge barrier. As the barrier opened for them, Brystal and her classmates all took a deep breath and squeezed one another’s hands for courage. They walked through the barrier’s leafy tunnel and took their first steps into the In-Between, and their journey began.
It was only dusk when Brystal and her friends departed the academy, but it was as dark as midnight in the thick forest. Regardless of their new self-defense skills, the students and apprentices were intimidated by the creepy woods. Every screeching raven and hooting owl seemed like a warning to turn around, but the classmates persisted, and traveled down the winding path. Brystal waved her wand and illuminated the forest with twinkling lights that followed them through the In-Between like a swarm of fireflies.
The classmates made it through their first mile without any trouble, but that quickly changed as they reached the end of their second mile. Suddenly, an enormous horned creature stepped out from the crooked trees and blocked the path. As it approached their twinkling lights, Brystal and Lucy were relieved to see it was Horence and his three-headed horse, but their friends screamed at the knight and prepared themselves to fight him.
“Don’t be afraid,” Lucy told them. “This guy is a friend.”
&n
bsp; “Of course Lucy is friends with a demonic knight!” Tangerina exclaimed.
“Color me not surprised!” Skylene said.
“No, I mean he’s not going to hurt us,” Lucy said. “He’s the one who saved me and Brystal from the witch hunters.”
The classmates relaxed a bit after hearing this, but only slightly. Brystal stepped forward to greet the strange entity.
“Hello, Horence,” she said. “What are you doing here?”
Instead of a verbal response, the knight pointed to the path behind the students. For reasons she couldn’t explain, Brystal didn’t need words to understand what Horence was trying to communicate.
“I know the woods are dangerous, but we can’t go back,” Brystal said. “Madame Weatherberry is in trouble and she needs our help. She’s battling a horrible witch known as the Snow Queen. If we don’t make it to the Northern Kingdom and save her, she might die.”
“How does she know what he’s saying?” Emerelda whispered to Lucy.
“They’ve got a weird thing,” Lucy whispered back. “Just go with it.”
After a few moments of silence, Horence bowed to Brystal, and gestured to the path ahead of them. Once again, the knight didn’t utter a single word, but Brystal knew exactly what he was saying.
“Thank you,” Brystal said. “That would be wonderful!”
“Um, Brystal?” Lucy asked. “What’s happening here?”
“Horence is going to escort us through the forest,” Brystal said. “He wants to protect us from the other creatures in the In-Between.”
The knight steered his three-headed horse down the path and the children followed him. Brystal walked beside Horence as they traveled, but the rest of the group kept their distance. She couldn’t blame her friends for being timid—she was scared the first time she saw Horence, too—but the farther they traveled, the more trusting of him they became.
“So what is Horence?” Emerelda asked. “Is he a man? A soldier? A deer?”
“I suppose he’s more a spirit than anything else,” Brystal explained. “Madame Weatherberry told me Horence was in love with a witch who used to own a bunch of land around here, including the academy’s property. After Horence was murdered, the witch used witchcraft to bring him back to life. The spell was so dark and vile, the witch died in the process, and Horence returned to earth as an unnatural version of himself. Madame Weatherberry says he now roams the witch’s former land and acts as a guardian angel for people in danger.”
“If that’s Brystal’s version of a guardian angel, I never want to see her version of a demon,” Tangerina whispered to Skylene.
“Hey, Horence!” Lucy called to him. “Can we call you Horns for short?”
The knight slowly shook his head, and everyone understood his message that time.
Brystal and her friends followed Horence through the night and into the following morning. They could have sworn they saw wolves and bears watching them through the trees, but the animals didn’t dare approach the children while they were with the knight. Eventually, the path came to a stream and the students and apprentices crossed a small stone bridge. Brystal and her classmates made it across the bridge without any trouble, but when they turned back, Horence had stayed on the other side.
“What are you doing, Horence?” Brystal asked. “Aren’t you coming with us?”
The knight slowly shook his head and pointed to a tree on his side of the stream. Brystal looked closer and saw a heart with two sets of initials carved into the tree trunk:
At first, Brystal had no idea why Horence was showing her the carving or who HM and SW were. However, it didn’t take her long to remember the knight’s life story, and she quickly realized why he had stopped at the stream.
“Those are your and the witch’s initials, aren’t they?” Brystal said. “You must have carved them into that tree when you were both alive. And you can’t travel beyond it, because it marks the end of her former property.”
Horence slowly nodded. The knight then performed a series of gestures that Brystal found confusing. First he pointed in the direction she and the others were traveling, and then with the same hand, he showed Brystal two of his fingers, and then reduced them to one. He repeated the motion several times: pointing, two fingers, one finger; pointing, two fingers, one finger; pointing, two fingers, one finger; but no matter how many times he performed the gesture, Brystal couldn’t figure out what Horence was trying to say.
“The distance? Two fingers? One finger?” she asked as he reenacted the movement. “The distance? Two fingers? One finger?”
For whatever reason, the connection between them had broken, and they couldn’t communicate as easily as before. Brystal wondered if it was because she was standing on the other side of the stream. Before she could cross the bridge and get a clearer answer, Horence pulled on his horse’s reins and disappeared into the trees.
“What was he telling you?” Lucy asked.
“Actually, I have no idea,” Brystal said. “But I think it was a warning.”
As the morning became the afternoon, Brystal and her friends’ bodies were aching from exhaustion, and their feet were swollen and pounding in their shoes. They had been traveling for almost an entire day and had rarely stopped to take a break. Without Horence’s protection, Brystal was afraid if they lingered anywhere for too long, their scents and sounds would be noticed by a predator. So she made her classmates push through their fatigue, and forced their procession forward.
“How much longer until we get to the Northern Kingdom?” Xanthous asked.
“According to my geography book, we’re about a quarter of the way there,” Brystal said.
“Only a quarter?” Skylene said in shock. “I thought we were nearly there! The air has been getting so much colder.”
“It’s about to get a lot colder than this,” Brystal said. “Trust me, you’ll know when we arrive. The Northern Kingdom is covered in the Snow Queen’s blizzards.”
“What part of the Northern Kingdom are we headed to?” Lucy asked.
Brystal removed the Map of Magic from her coat and unrolled it for her classmates.
“The map shows Madame Weatherberry is somewhere between Appleton Village and the kingdom’s capital, Tinzel Heights,” Brystal said. “The Snow Queen recently attacked Tinzel Heights, so I imagine Madame Weatherberry is trying to keep her destruction from spreading. If the Snow Queen reaches Appleton Village, the Northern Kingdom is doomed.”
Their mutual fear fueled their efforts, and the classmates continued on without complaining. A few more miles down the path, Brystal and her friends passed through a pleasant clearing with sunlight, a stone bench to sit on, colorful berries to eat, and a fresh spring to drink from. It was unlike anything they had seen in the In-Between since leaving the academy, and the apprentices were tempted to stop.
“I’m sorry, but I’ve got to take a break!” Tangerina whined.
“Me too!” Skylene said. “Even I feel dehydrated.”
Brystal had been pushing her classmates so hard, she figured they had earned a quick rest. She didn’t object when Tangerina and Skylene left the path and headed for the stone bench. Lucy eyed the clearing suspiciously, though, and stopped the apprentices before they sat.
“Wait! Don’t sit there!” she said.
“Why not?” Tangerina asked.
“Because we’re not safe here,” Lucy said. “It’s obviously a trap.”
“Lucy, you’re just being paranoid,” Tangerina said. “This is the most decent part of the woods we’ve seen!”
“Exactly!” Lucy said. “It’s charming—too charming! We’ll be much safer if we keep walking and find someplace gloomy and uninviting.”
“Great, we’ll meet you there!” Tangerina said. “But if I don’t sit for five minutes, my feet are going to fall off my—”
SWOOSH! Like a giant mousetrap, as soon as Tangerina and Skylene touched the stone bench, an enormous net fell on top of them. The girls screamed and struggled
to free themselves, but the more they squirmed, the more entangled they became. Brystal, Lucy, Xanthous, and Emerelda ran to help their friends, but the net was so thick they couldn’t get it off the girls.
The classmates heard the sound of a horn coming from nearby. Suddenly, a tribe of strange creatures jumped out from behind the trees, and soon the children found themselves surrounded by over a hundred trolls.
The trolls were short creatures with dirty orange skin and hairy bodies. They had big eyes, big noses, big feet, big teeth, and tiny horns. They wore clothing made from the fur of foxes, raccoons, and squirrels, and jewelry made from the bones of their prey. Each troll carried a heavy club and they swung their weapons through the air to incite fear. A particularly large troll wearing a headdress of exotic feathers stepped forward to observe the children, and Brystal assumed he was the chief of the tribe.
“Everyone remain calm,” Lucy whispered to her frightened classmates. “Trolls are incredibly stupid creatures—they’ve got sight like eyeless skunks, and hearing like earless rabbits. If we stay still and silent, they won’t even know we’re here.”
The students and apprentices followed Lucy’s advice and stood as still as possible.
“Actually, our vision is perfect and our hearing is flawless,” the chief growled.
“Dang it,” Lucy muttered. “I was thinking of gophers.”
“You won’t need to think where you’re going,” the chief said, and then turned to his tribe. “What shall we do with our prisoners? Have we captured slaves or snacks?”
The trolls clanked their clubs in celebration of catching the children, and then roared their opinions on whether to eat or enslave them.
“Gosh, why isn’t there a third option?” Xanthous cried.
“Brystal, what do we do?” Emerelda asked.
“I’m thinking, I’m thinking!” Brystal said.
