by Ken Brosky
Anywho! The passage itself led south, perhaps opening up somewhere nondescript, the perfect escape should the castle be overrun by medieval warlords. I wasn’t interested in following it for too long, what with the spookiness and all.
Second interesting finding: each of the towers had a strange symbol etched into their top floor. Well, to be more precise, three of the four towers had a strange symbol. My goal for this particular evening was to infiltrate the fourth tower and see if the pattern held. As to what these symbols were, I had no idea. I confess I snuck a peek at one of the girls’ cellular devices while she was at dinner—hey, she left her door open!—and tried the Google, but the prince’s Internet connection was about as reliable as fox guarding a hen house.
Not to be deterred, I slipped into the nearby town during the previous day, hoping to glean something from their local library. I found little, but the town’s adoration—that is to say, their love—for Prince Vontescue bordered on the strange. A statue of one of his ancestors stood in the center of old town. More paintings yet hung in the little decrepit library; in each one, a fellow who looked very much like him rode valiantly into battle on a pitch-black steed. Even more strange: in each picture, it looked as if water had caused damage precisely behind the prince, smearing the colors and casting a strange shadow over the soldiers behind him.
Of course, none of this means anything, unless it does. And that is up to our hero to decide, not yours truly. I merely mention these things because details matter. How many times have I told Alice that? Precisely three hundred and twelve.
Details.
Now, I suppose you’re wondering about the kitchen. I’m proud to report I did a bit of snooping there as well, and found a variety of delicious treats. Cookies and various potato chips were plentiful, although they were nothing like the cookies and chips you would find in the states. They were all fresh-baked, for starters. For another thing, the chips had pepper on them, which I detest. Also, there was a lot of raw meat in the fridges. So much raw meat that there was precious little room for orange juice and milk, which was promptly imbibed by yours truly.
All this weirdness got me thinking about the Brothers Grimm and the hero. It’s true, Alice’s dreams weren’t quite following the usual rules, but that was hardly my fault! If anything, blame the foolish Brothers Grimm for dabbling in magic they didn’t understand. Really, what could have possessed them to do something so foolish? And what is the true purpose of the hero’s dreams?
There had to be answers.
But this wasn’t the time nor the place. I had a more important goal for the evening. No, not the fourth tower—although that was important … no, I needed to ensure my furless friend’s budding romance continued to … er, bud. I needed to water it, so to speak.
Bad analogy. My apologies.
I found them making their way through the south end of the prince’s courtyard. It was cool outside, and the bright stars above provided a positively romantic backdrop for the date. Sanda was pointing out all of the various flowers and plants that normally adorned the otherwise empty flower beds, each one sprinkled with just a bit of freshly fallen snow. They were wearing jackets, an appropriate response for furless individuals in such cold weather. Still, they were holding hands despite not having gloves, which seemed rather foolish to me. But then again, I am no expert in human romance.
I do, however, know when things weren’t going well.
“This is where we put all of the tulips,” she explained. I walked behind them, invisible, staying off the crunchy gravel. “I help the gardeners. It’s one of my favorite things to do here in summer. It gets quite boring, you know, having only three TV stations.”
“Well, the prince seems nice.”
She gave him a curious look. “My father? Are you kidding? He is about as weird as they come. He hardly ever talks to me. I hardly ever see him. He just sits in the top floor of the keep, staring out the windows all day. Oh, and sometimes he greets tourists. He is really proud of the castle. I suppose it is nice of him to open it up to visitors.”
“Uh … yeah.” Seth scratched the fur on his head. “I’m going to be a businessman someday, I think. I mean, I’ve got a knack for it. I’m a pretty slick talker. Uh, and stuff.”
Another curious look. They entered the southeast tower, shutting the door behind them. I waited with as much patience as I could muster, fighting the urge to tap my foot on the hard ground. Lordy, it was cold.
They reappeared on the top of the wall, walking slowly along the battlement and stopping every once in a while to admire the view. I could hear them talking. Rather, I could hear the poor girl talking and Seth replying in a very unSeth-like way. The fool seemed to think the best way to her heart was to brag and boast like a fool! I walked below, fighting the urge to sigh dramatically.
By the time they slipped through the northeastern tower to the north wall, they’d stopped holding hands.
“I’ve always felt that a charging knight would be the most frightening thing to see on the battlefield,” she said.
“Oh. Uh …”
I shook my head. You know this, dear boy! Tell her about the history of stirrups and how they changed the face of battle! Tell her about longbowmen! Tell her anything!
“I mastered horses when I was pretty young,” he said instead. “Yup, moved right into, uh, baseball and then some other sports. I’m pretty well-rounded, you might say.”
I groaned, and I do believe Sanda did as well. What was this poor fool doing? I’ll tell you what he was doing: he was trying too hard. And he was on the verge of being pushed right off that wall.
I made myself visible only to Seth, then proceeded to make quite a few strange bird-like calls. Sanda was the first to look, but no, nothing to see, dear girl! When she looked away, I made the sounds again. And again. And again. Finally, Seth looked down and, upon seeing me, quickly tapped at the pockets of his pants.
“Oh crap, I must have dropped my wallet. Let me just double-back quick. Pleeeease don’t go anywhere.”
“I shall wait,” Sanda said, although the tone of her voice seemed to suggest she would not wait long.
I met Seth inside the northeastern tower, on the staircase. Along the wall was a single light, illuminating the old stone steps. When he saw me, he looked positively frightened.
“Dude.”
I nodded. “Indeed! I hope you don’t find this too strange. I was on my way to investigate this particular tower and noticed you with your ladyfriend.”
He gulped. “You didn’t … hear anything, did you?”
“Er, well …” My whiskers twitched involuntarily. “Seth, would you say that I am a smart rabbit?”
“You’re the smartest rabbit I know.”
“Thank you, thank you. Now, what I am about to say might come as a surprise to you …”
“Lay it on me. I’ve got nothing to lose at this point. I’m choking out there, dude!”
“Yes. And you are choking, so to speak, because you’re acting too much like those other buffoonish boys on the fencing team.”
“But …” He sighed, shoulders slumping. “They’re so much cooler than me.”
“My boy.” I grabbed his shoulders, lifting them up. “The other boys are what we in the literary world call cardboard characters. They’re secondary. You are the hero of this story. Sanda did not fancy them. She fancied you. You. Seth. You must go out there and be yourself.”
“But what do I say?”
“Whatever is on your mind.”
“Oh great. So I’m supposed to say, Duh, I really like staring at you?”
“It’s better than what you’ve said so far, I’m afraid.”
He took a deep breath. “I just don’t think—”
I gave him a swift paw to the face. Nothing to harsh, mind you—just enough to remind him that a very intelligent rabbit was giving him advice. “I’ll hear none of it. You are Seth. That is what makes you great.”
He smiled, nodding. “Thanks, pal.”
I released his shoulders. “Go. Before she thinks twice and leaves you on the wall.”
He hurried back up the stairs. I went down, turning invisible once again. He met her at the wall’s midpoint.
Seth took a deep, noisy breath, then exhaled: “I think the coolest superhero is Nightcrawler because not only can he teleport, he can also use a sword and he’s got a pretty good moral compass which is totally important if you’re going to be a hero because you can’t just set your own rules.”
I waited with more than a fair amount of nervousness.
Sanda reached out, grabbing his hand. “I admit he is good, but I prefer Storm. I have always wanted to control the weather. When I was young, I used to sit at the window in my room and try to push the dark clouds away. I did not like when dark clouds gathered around our castle.”
“I hate clouds,” Seth said. “I mean, I get it, we need rain sometimes, but seriously just cut it out, you know?”
She giggled. I breathed a sigh of relief.
“And also? I bet, like, twenty archers right here could totally take out a couple hundred soldiers before they could scale the wall.”
“Indeed!” Sanda exclaimed. “If I was living in ancient times, I would train with a bow. Would you?”
“Totally,” he said. “But I don’t like those tights they wore. A pair of jeans would have been more reasonable …”
“Now!” I whispered, hurrying back to the northeast tower. “On to less important things.”
I hurried up the stairs, stopping once at the landing that led to the battlement. I opened the door a crack, peering through. Seth and Sanda were disappearing into the northwest tower. Their laughter carried across the wall. It was a positively wonderful sound and yet more validation of my usefulness!
“But …” I hummed, staring at the empty space inside the tower. It was quite strange, for you see at the other three towers, there was not only a staircase that led down to the ground level, but also up to the top. This tower was missing the up part.
“But surely there is a way,” I murmured. “There are windows far above. How might someone get up there? Will I be forced to ask Rapunzel to lower her hair?”
The answer, unfortunately, was as plain as day: I would have to climb. And so climb I did, scaling the tower with about as much grace as a dog walking on ice. Thankfully, some of the big bricks making up the tower had begun to break apart, providing yours truly with many places to grab onto. Still, it was no easy task, and by the time I reached the top and crawled through the window, I was quite out of breath.
Just as I suspected, this fourth tower was like the others: a little hay in one corner, but otherwise devoid of any furnishings one might expect in a dormitory of any sort. There was an open semicircular window facing each direction, and in the center of the wooden floor was another strange symbol, burned into the floorboards:
%
That’s as close as I can draw it. A rather ominous sort of thing, no doubt!
And there was something else, too …
“Hello,” I said, bending down to get a better look. In the darkness, my 150-year-old eyesight was not quite as keen as a cat’s, but the marks on the floorboards were clear enough: scratches.
Someone … or something had been living here.
Chapter 8: Alice
When the woman gave birth, the sorceress appeared, named the little girl Rapunzel, and took her away. Rapunzel became the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was twelve years old, the fairy locked her in a tower that stood in a forest and that had neither a door nor a stairway, but only a tiny little window at the very top.[vi]
I woke in a forest. It was night, or …
Not night. Underground.
The forest was vast, the ground sloping downward. No glowing blue fruits hung from these trees. The branches had leaves. I moved closer to the nearest tree and willed my body to lift up from the ground so I could get a better look. The leaves were three-pronged like a maple, each one the size of my hand.
“I know …”
The voice echoed in the giant cavern. I searched the dark outlines of the trees. Nothing. Was it one of the invisible women? Could she see me? I held up my arms, or tried to—they were invisible. Good. Not interested in getting spooked by a ghost princess tonight.
“I know …”
I soared over the forest, toward the dim blue glow far ahead. I reached the familiar lake, passing over it to the other side where poor Jack’s boat was still sitting at the shore. I lowered myself, walking between the trees with glowing blue plums, to where the man had been taken. His satchel was still resting beside one of the trees, its contents spilled open. In the blue glow, I could see a map. I willed my invisible hand to touch it, pull it out. I could feel the paper between my invisible fingers.
“They cursed us …”
My hand drew away. I turned, scanning the blue forest. Each of the trees’ skeletal limbs cast creepy-looking shadows stretching across the hard surface of the cave floor. I turned back to the satchel, examining the map. The Carpathian mountain range took up most of the top half of the paper. At the base of the mountain range was a crude drawing of a castle—was it the castle Sam Grayle believed was the entrance to this place? It had to be. But the X was about two inches to the right, at the base of the mountains.
“The brothers changed our story …”
The voice was just a whisper, but it echoed off the slick cavern walls, repeating again and again. I double-checked the map to be sure, then stuffed it back in the satchel. Another piece of paper slipped out. I couldn’t see more than a corner of the page, but what I saw convinced me it was important: sharp teeth. Sharp, shadowy teeth. I willed my invisible fingers to grab the paper, pulling it out and examining it under the blue glow. It looked like a charcoal drawing of … something. A creature’s shadow, distorted as if it were projected on an angular wall.
Or a cave wall.
And it was no drawing. It was a charcoal rubbing, which meant somewhere, there was a carving of this thing. I ran an invisible finger across the paper, smudging the charcoal. My entire body tingled, as if I’d just jumped into a tub of ice water.
“This is important,” I whispered. The feeling wouldn’t leave. It was as if ice crystals had formed under my skin, poking through. I lifted up, slipping between the blue trees, back to the edge of the lake. I willed my hands to grab the front of the boat, turning it in the water. I willed myself forward, pushing the boat through the water, checking the reflection in the surface for those creepy princesses.
The other side of the lake was dark, with just a hint of the blue glow from the trees kissing the water. Even so, I could see one of the princesses as I pushed the boat against the shore. She was crouched over the water, gently stirring it with her finger, sending ripples in every direction, distorting her reflection. She had dark hair and milky white skin and a narrow jaw. Her pink tongue ran across her lush lips.
“They changed the story …”
“Who?” I asked.
In the reflection, her white eyes found mine. “The Brothers Grimm. Our story … it did not have so wonderful an ending. They changed it. They gave us life. And then they cursed us with Corruption.”
“How?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I see things. I hear things. A strange dark force … it seduced the Brothers Grimm … and then it destroyed them. I can see it as if I was there, like a nightmare locked inside my head.”
“Why can you see this?” I asked.
“Because the Brothers Grimm wanted me to warn you.” Her reflection looked at me with sorrow. “Who are you?”
“A dark force …” I repeated. The icy feeling still hadn’t left my skin.
“The Malevolence.” Her milky-white finger flinched at the word, sending fresh ripples across the surface.
I woke, vaguely aware of my phone alarm beeping. Chase’s arm was still over me, his eyes crusty with sleep. He blinked, staring at me.
“Uh …
I’m going to go pretend I’m sick now.”
He smiled, nodding. His warm fingers clutched mine. “You’re ice-cold.”
“Hero dream. All that fun stuff.”
He leaned over kissing me on the lips. “I’ll worry. Every single second.”
“I’ll be careful,” I said. “I promise.”
I grabbed my phone, slipped into my room, shut the door, and waited for the inevitable knock.
“Er …”
I pull aside the bed covers. Briar gave a little wave. “I hope you don’t mind. I don’t feel particularly safe anywhere else in this place.”
“Of course it’s OK. Did you find anything? And how did Seth’s date go?”
“His date went splendid.” Briar’s whiskers twitched. “Thanks to yours truly, of course. And as for the rest of the night … well, I found some strange symbols, but I’m not quite sure what they’re for. Luckily, we might have an answer. It appears there is a Corrupted creature in the castle who may be familiar with it. Given the layout of the tower, I do believe it’s the famous Rapunzel.”
“Uh-oh.” I whistled between my teeth. “I think I killed her already.”
“Drats! Did she happen to mention anything about symbols or magic or spells?”
“No. She just kind of whinnied. Like a horse. It wasn’t a good time to ask questions.”
He rubbed his chin, staring up at the ceiling. “Well, I suppose that will happen with Corrupted from time to time. Back to square one.”
“Maybe you can do a little more snooping—”
There was a knock on the door. I was surprised to hear Mrs. Satrapi’s voice on the other side of the door.
“Dear, Chase tells me you’re sick. Do you want anything?” she asked in a sweet, motherly voice that rose about two octaves too high. Oh yeah, I could definitely see how Jasmine might get tired of hearing that voice on a daily basis.
