by Shelby Bach
“She knew what she was doing, Rory. Chatty knew she was going to die,” Chase said, but he handed me a water bottle anyway.
“Chatty,” Ben repeated. It was clearly sinking in—how much she’d given up to help him. Knowing how long he’d feel guilty made me feel slightly better. “That’s just what we called her. We don’t even know her real name.”
• • •
Breakfast was a silent activity. Mia broke a muffin into smaller and smaller pieces. Ben gnawed absently at a bagel. Only Chase and Kenneth attacked their egg sandwiches with any enthusiasm. Chase was worried—he kept glancing my way. He didn’t come over while I spooned Chatty into the water bottle, but when Kenneth muttered something I couldn’t hear, Chase told him, “Leave her alone, Kenneth.”
Maybe Chase and I still were friends after all.
By the time the others had finished packing up camp, I’d slid the last spoonful of the Little Mermaid in the bottle—oatmeal and all. Even the tiniest bit of forgotten sea foam could turn out to be a fingernail or an earlobe or one of Chatty’s teeth.
Chase brought me my carryall and approached with caution, ready to run away at the first sign of tears.
I pushed the water bottle inside. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to cry.”
But I definitely felt like crying. I took deep breaths to calm down as we all assembled in front of the huge X-marks-the-spot pines.
It was my responsibility now to turn Chatty back. I didn’t know if I could do it.
Giving Chatty a footbath in Ben’s blood couldn’t be the only way to save her. That was just the sea witch’s way. She wouldn’t blab about other solutions. That would be bad for business—
“Rory, now would be a good time to look up,” Chase said beside me.
Underneath the arch, you could see the path, covered with stones and boulders—a straight rocky staircase to a cliff above. All we had to do was walk through the legs of this humongous pine guy bending over us.
“Oh, my god,” I whispered.
The X-marks-the-spot trees weren’t just a gate. They were the guardian’s limbs, each leg about as big around as a door, each arm as big as my bedroom window, with huge hands furry with pine needles. A head sat where the trunks twisted together. It was human-size, which explained why we hadn’t noticed it in the dark the night before.
“Just FYI, getting lost in thought on a hidden continent is a bad idea,” Chase said.
“Shh! Don’t attract its attention!” I hissed.
Chase snorted. “It’s a little late for that.”
The humongous pine guy bent toward Ben, who stood bravely up front. Now that it was closer, we could see the head better—a man with tiny gray eyes, matted dark blond hair in half-unraveled braids, a mustache with moss growing on it.
“I will never smash any more innocent baby trees again, I promise,” I whispered, covering West’s ring, and Chase valiantly tried not to laugh.
“Well?” asked the humongous pine guy. “What do you seek?”
Ben’s voice was surprisingly steady. “The Water of Life.”
“Not the Talking Bird? Or the Tree of Beauty?” said the pine guy.
“Um, no.” Ben glanced back at us, unsure. “I don’t know what those are.”
The pine guy squinted at us Companions with mild surprise—like he’d just noticed us. Maybe he was nearsighted. “Usually, questers arrive one at a time.”
“Do we have to separate?” Ben said, obviously hoping the answer was no.
“You may pass together, if you wish. I will give you the same advice I give the single travelers,” said the pine guy. “Climb to the top of the slope. The path is so full of stones you will hardly find places to step. It will feel as if every stone in the world mocks you. Do not turn your head to the right. Do not turn your head to the left. If you can continue on, paying the stones no heed, you shall reach the spring. Few have returned.”
“Those other people couldn’t deal when rocks teased them?” Kenneth said. He obviously had no idea what we were getting into.
This was the rock version of the mirror vault. This morning was just getting better and better.
“Beware.” The giant pine guy straightened up. When he stood at his full height, his face was too far above our heads to see. It was easy to pretend that he was just a couple of trees.
“That’s our cue,” said Chase cheerfully.
“I think we should travel in pairs,” I said.
“Really? The buddy system?” Kenneth said. “This isn’t kindergarten.”
I glared at him. “This will probably suck. We don’t know for sure what’s out there.” Not to mention I didn’t think I could survive this alone twice.
“I’ll go second,” volunteered Kenneth. “Without a buddy.”
“Yay. Rear-guard duty,” Chase said unenthusiastically.
The climb wasn’t easy. If you guessed wrong and placed your foot on an unstable rock, you had to scramble to a steadier one before you slid backward. I tried to tell myself that with the heights and all, it was a good thing I couldn’t look behind me. But the steepness was the real problem. After a few minutes, the only person who wasn’t out of breath was Chase, and I strongly suspected that he was cheating and using his wings. I heard a flutter every now and then.
“I take it back,” said Kenneth, panting. “I definitely feel mocked by these rocks. They’re saying, ‘You’re gonna fall, sucker.’ ”
“What?” called Ben, from way up front. Of course he didn’t turn around. “I can’t hear you guys.”
A few minutes later we didn’t even think about talking. I didn’t know about everybody else, but my thighs were mocking me too. They were saying something like, This is the magical StairMaster of doom. You will never reach the top.
Chatty should have been there. It wouldn’t have mattered if she’d been out of breath. She would have started a cheerleader clap—something to distract us from the climb.
“Did anybody else hear that?” said Kenneth, half freaked out and half ticked off.
Right. Quest, I reminded myself firmly. Concentrate.
“No,” said Chase. So, the rocks really would start talking in a second. I didn’t look around to check if the stones had faces in them.
“I heard my brother. You seriously can’t hear him?” Kenneth said. “Older guy? Not a Character. Plays football for Notre Dame.”
“What’s he saying?” Chase asked.
Kenneth hesitated. Obviously nothing he wanted to share “He said—”
“Don’t look—” I said, too late.
Kenneth whirled around to his right, both hands fisted at his sides. “Come here and say that to my face, Denton! I’ll—”
We were behind him, so even looking straight ahead, Chase and I could see it happen.
“Crap,” Chase breathed, and my chest squeezed. Kenneth was gone. In his place stood a boxy stone—dark gray and flecked with mica.
Then I heard something. Not Kenneth’s brother, Denton.
Madison.
What an ugly loser. No wonder your dad didn’t stick up for you. He knows how uncool you are. He’s too good for you.
Chase stiffened. He’d heard something too.
“We’ll figure something out for Kenneth later,” I told Chase. “Just keep climbing.”
And now Dad’s whisper. You’re so embarrassing. I wish you had never been born. Brie and I will have more better children. Much prettier and more talented. We don’t need you.
My breath hitched, but honestly, the mirrors had sucked much more.
It had been so much more detailed. The goblin priestesses had really known what would hurt the most—what would stop me. They—
The goblin priestesses had been trying to stop me when they’d had me in the mirror vault.
Those scenes didn’t have to be real. They just needed to be believable.
To make sure, I asked, “Chase, did you ever tell Kenneth or Ben that there aren’t a lot of kids to be friends with in our grade?
”
“What? No,” Chase said, distracted by whatever he was hearing. “Way to be random.”
“It’s not real,” I reminded myself softly. The stones must have been enchanted to tell us our worst doubts, just like the mirror vault. It was all in my mind.
This was why Rapunzel had enlisted the goblins. She wanted me to know that what the stones said wasn’t true. But I was the only one here who knew that.
“You guys, it’s fake, okay?” I called up the path to Ben and Mia. “We’re all hearing something different, but it’s not real! The stones are making it up!”
“What did you say, Rory?” Ben shouted back.
Chase wasn’t listening. He had stopped. He couldn’t resist anymore. He needed to see who was talking to him like this.
Without looking, I reached out and grabbed his face to keep his head from turning. One of my fingertips found something wet.
“Oww.” He sounded like he had a cold with my hand squeezing his nose. “Thanks, Rory. I didn’t need that eye or anything.”
“Whoops! Sorry!” I lifted the poking finger. “But don’t look. It’s not real.”
“I’m just glad that you didn’t use your Left Hook of Destruction.” But he grabbed my hand off his face and held on to it, too tight, crushing my knuckles together. Then he took a deep breath and shouted, “Ben, Mia! Hold hands! The enchantment can’t work right if you’re holding on to someone else!!”
Up ahead, Ben and Mia didn’t hear us. They just kept going. I had figured it out too late. We’d already lost Kenneth. If we lost Ben, we couldn’t get the Water. The quest would Fail.
The rocks picked up on my guilt immediately, weaving it into the spell.
Now I heard Iron Hans. You are useless, child. You can’t protect anyone. You’re doomed to lose everyone who ever cared for you.
My nose started to prickle, just under the bridge. No, I refused to cry. Not again.
It doesn’t matter how long you train, how much you improve yourself. You’ll lose them anyway, just like you lost your brother to the Snow Queen.
But I didn’t have a brother.
Chase was supposed to hear this. We had managed to screw up the spell!
As a Fey, you were vastly inferior. That was Fael. But do you think you are anyone special even among the humans? Your father doesn’t think so.
I didn’t want to hear any more.
We clambered past Kenneth, the boxy rock. I didn’t step on him, but there wasn’t much else I could do for him right then. Far above us, Ben and Mia climbed together, and two steps later they disappeared. Either they had turned into stones, or they had reached the top.
If he believed otherwise, he would not leave you so often, needled Fael’s voice. Will your human friends enjoy your company so much if they find out you have been tricking them? Or will they react like Rory? She has grown more and more distant since she met your mother. She has barely spoken to you since she returned from the Hidden Troll Court.
But I hadn’t talked to him much because I thought he liked Kenneth and Ben better.
Lena and I talk about you all the time. If it wouldn’t have turned me to stone, I would have glared at Chase right then. The Rory in his brain sounded insultingly close to Madison.
Oh, my God. If I was hearing the Rory in his head, did that mean he was listening to the Chase in mine? My face had been sweating already, but now it felt like I’d landed headfirst in a pile of flaming phoenix feathers.
“We’re almost there,” I said quickly, hoping to distract him. I climbed faster.
Without your dad, you’re just a kid waiting for your Tale to start, just like everybody else. But I had actually said this a year ago, back when Chase and I were enemies. He’d gotten so angry, and now I knew why.
Only a few more steps to go. Past them the sky yawned—blue and cloudless.
Except yours won’t ever ever come. You’re just some useless halfling. It’s only a matter of time before we drop you.
I would never have said that. I would never have even thought it. He was one of my best friends.
I couldn’t stop myself. I squeezed his hand, too stunned to feel very embarrassed anymore. Did Chase really worry about something completely untrue?
We heaved ourselves on top of the last ledge. Staring straight ahead, I spotted a tree—a really big tree, bigger even than the pine guardian at the bottom, and two figures lying on the ground, gasping for air.
“There. At the grass. That’s where the voices stop,” Ben wheezed, pointing.
Chase and I hurried onto the plush, ankle-high grass, dropping hands the second we were safe. He wasn’t looking at me, either. He had definitely heard stuff too. Great.
“That sucked so much more than I expected,” Chase said. I was too out of breath to do more than nod.
The tree—which I guess had to be the Tree of Beauty—looked more like seven trees together, the branches ducking in and out of each other, swirling cyclonelike into the sky. Each leaf was a fresh-looking green, and the bark was a silvery sort of white. Up at the top I caught a glimpse of fuchsia tailfeathers. Apparently, the Talking Bird didn’t want to talk to us.
But there among the Tree’s roots, bubbling up with a cheerful gurgle, was the spring. The Water of Life looked pretty ordinary, actually, trickling down a granite trough into a small pool.
It would all be over soon. We would fill up the water bottles, slip on the rings of return, heal everyone, and be safe. Within an hour, within half an hour.
“What happened to Kenneth?” asked Ben wearily, like he already knew the answer.
“He’s a rock,” Chase said. I don’t think he would have sounded so upset over it if Kenneth could hear him.
“I don’t know what you’re concerned about,” Mia said quietly. “To change him back, we just sprinkle a little of the Water of Life on him. It’s in the original Tale.”
“Oh,” said Ben. He and Chase grinned at each other, relieved.
“Wait, how do you know?” I asked, pretty sure she had made it up to comfort us.
“Well, let’s not waste any time then,” Ben said. “Rory, did I hear you mention earlier that you have some water bottles?”
Lena had given us at least a dozen—way more than we needed to give a few hundred poisoned people one sip each. I think she was hoping to have some Water left over for experimenting. I handed over my pack, feeling extremely uneasy for someone at the end of a successful quest. “Seriously, Mia—how did you know? Rapunzel didn’t tell us that.”
She shrugged delicately. “I read the Tale.”
From this spot on the plateau, right next to the pool, you could see what was on the other side of the tree—a clear, rounded structure, tall as a lone peak, glinting in the sun. The Glass Mountain. I had never seen it from the outside. It was colossal. The trees only reached a quarter of the way up. Plenty big for the Snow Queen to hide something. Even though it was leagues and leagues away, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
Chase noticed where I was looking. “Been there, done that.”
I hadn’t told him what I had learned in my last dream. He didn’t know we were going back to the Snow Queen’s prison—us and Mia. But if we went now, what would happen to Ben?
“No, not from there,” Mia said, bossy like she had never been bossy before, as Ben unscrewed the first water bottle and dipped it into the pool. “The Water of Life is more potent near the spring.”
“Oh, okay.” Ben got up and knelt at the top of the trough.
“And how do you know that?” I asked.
“Same team, Rory.” Ben finished one bottle and started the next. “We can all play nice for a few more minutes.”
“I will personally help you chew her out when we get back to EAS,” Chase added.
But I’d figured out Chatty was a mermaid too late to save her, and I’d figured out the rocks too late to help Kenneth. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again.
“No. I need you to explain,” I told Mia. �
��You shouldn’t know that. You’re the newest Character here.”
Ben dipped another water bottle in the trough. “You sound kind of jealous, Rory.”
“I don’t care what I sound like.” I did care, though—just not enough to stop.
I stared hard at Mia, who blinked back calmly. Was she a halfling pretending to be a human Character, like Chase? Was she a spy?
Ben’s next bottle glugged as it filled.
Finally, Mia said, “Lena told me. When you were in L.A.”
“No, she didn’t. She doesn’t like you,” I said, even more suspicious.
“Are you sure?” asked Mia. “Maybe she wants new friends.”
That might have worked. Before I’d gone to the Temple of Mirrors, and walked up this staircase of talking stones, I might have wondered if Mia was smarter than I was, if Lena liked her better than me. “Yes, I’m sure. Lena told me so, and she’s a terrible liar.”
The corners of Mia’s lips turned up slowly, the same creepy smile I remembered from the dream.
“Mia, you didn’t have the magic mirror when Rory was gone,” Chase said carefully. “I didn’t let it go all day. Lena couldn’t have told you anything.”
Stowing the second-to-last water bottle in the pack, Ben stood up. He narrowed his eyes, thinking.
She rushed him. I thought we had been safe—Chase and I had been closer to Ben than she was—but I hadn’t realized how fast she could move.
Ben stumbled back a few steps, arm raised to block off a tackle. But Mia didn’t tackle him. Her dress ripped, and white silk unfurled from her shoulders with the shink-shink-shink sounds of a knife being sharpened. Chase and I were still a few steps away when something clicked inside the silk, and a giant hang glider snapped into place, rising straight from her back.
Then she snatched up the strap of the pack that wasn’t attached to Ben’s shoulder, dragging him, the carryall, and all the bottled Water of Life off the plateau. Chase and I stared dumbly after them, as Mia’s hang glider sailed straight to the Glass Mountain.
f course we’re going after them,” Chase told the West Wind. “I can’t believe you’re even asking.”
