by Perdita Finn
Daring went first. If it would hold his ice beast weight, it would hold them all. One after another, they clambered to the top—and to the sleigh.
The sky had cleared, and they could see in all directions. The view was exhilarating. Cinderella’s castle sparkled in the valley just below them.
“It worked!”
“Oh, Crystal, I knew you could do it!”
“I’ll give you points for that.”
Crystal was pleased—and proud. She had solved the problem all on her own. Still, it was no time to spellebrate. “We have to hurry and stop Jackie and Northwind,” she reminded everyone.
Briar gulped. “But how do we get down?”
“Ooh, ooh, ooh! I know!” Daring raised his paw. “This is the fun part.”
Daring picked up the reins of the sleigh. But he wasn’t going to pull—he got on board, and everyone climbed in behind him. All they had to do was tip their weight forward just a little bit—and they were off! It was the sled ride of all sled rides!
They careened faster and faster and faster down the steep slope right toward the castle. Everyone was screaming! This was a blast! This was better than a roller coaster.
At the last minute, Daring reached out his paw and dragged it along the ground, until the sleigh skidded to a stop right at the castle entrance.
“Owie!” he moaned. He’d gotten a splinter in his paw.
“We made it!” Blondie sighed, relieved.
Briar looked at the steep stairs in front of them. “My poor feet cannot take another climb right now.”
Ashlynn grinned and pressed a button on the side of the castle. It wasn’t a staircase after all; it was an escalator. “My mom never wanted to lose a shoe on the run again,” she explained to her friends.
As they floated up the moving stairs, the girls were awed at the beauty of the palace.
“Fableous,” whispered Crystal.
Daring, however, was poking at his paw. He couldn’t get the thorn loose—and it hurt. He tried not to whimper, but Rosabella noticed he was in pain.
“You hurt your paw,” she said. “Let me see.”
“No!” Daring pulled it away. “You can’t touch it.”
“Oh, don’t be a big cub,” Rosabella scolded him. “We’ll find some bandages and fix you up, good as new.”
CHAPTER 25
A Hint of Summer
Ashlynn led her friends through the grand entry of her home. Hallways led off in every direction. But much of the beauty of the palace was hidden beneath a thick layer of frost and ice and snow. Snowdrifts hugged the walls. Frost gleamed on the windows. The air was icy cold.
Everyone seemed to be gone. Cinderella and her subjects must have fled as the wicked winter settled in.
“We must find the Rose of Summer,” said Crystal. “Ashlynn, does your mother have a place she keeps precious things?”
“Of course,” answered Ashlynn assuredly. “She keeps the glass slipper in her bedroom shoe closet. We should check there first.”
Rosabella told everyone to go on without her. She was looking for a first aid kit. “Daring, come with me,” she said as she headed down a hall that seemed to lead to the kitchen. “Let’s get that splinter out of your paw.”
In the kitchen, everything was made of glass. There were glass tables, glass chairs, gleaming glass countertops, and glassware. Rosabella threw open cupboard doors until she found what she was looking for. “Aha! A fairy first aid kit. Heals like magic,” she read.
Daring winced as Rosabella poked his sore spot with tweezers. “Ow! Ow! Be careful, Rosabella!”
“Don’t be a scaredy-beast,” she told him.
“Ow! Ow! Just do it! Oooh!”
She was holding his paws in her hands. Their eyes met—and it was suddenly awkward. The thorn was out. His paw didn’t hurt anymore.
“Oh… um… thanks,” Daring stammered uncomfortably. “I don’t know why you’re so good to me. I mean, I’m not handsome anymore.”
Rosabella looked into his eyes. “Daring, don’t you know my legacy story? I see past what someone looks like on the outside. It doesn’t matter if you’re a handsome prince or a beast. It’s what’s inside that counts.”
Daring breathed a sigh of relief. “I like your story.”
Rosabella blushed, but she didn’t look away. She was still holding his paw in her hand.
Up in Cinderella’s magnificent bedroom, Ashlynn led the girls into her mother’s enormous walk-in closet just for shoes. There were shelves from ceiling to floor, lined with hundreds of pairs of high heels, flip-flops, slip-ons, boots, and party shoes of all kinds. The girls were amazed.
“Welcome to Cinderella’s shoe closet!” Ashlynn laughed. She gestured to a small vault at the back. “This is where my mom keeps her most valuable possessions. Only, it’s locked.”
Blondie examined the vault. “Locked, huh? I got skills!”
In a matter of moments Blondie had the vault open—but there was nothing inside except for the famous glass slipper.
“No Summer Rose,” noted Blondie sadly.
“Is there a garden in the castle, perhaps?” Briar suggested.
Ashlynn shook her head. “No.”
Faybelle’s MirrorPhone rang. “This is not a good time,” she hissed. It was the mob fairies.
“Your time is running out, toots,” a gruff voice said.
Faybelle raised her voice to try and cover for the call. “I am interested in changing my service. Unlimited hext messaging, you say?” Faybelle excused herself and stepped into the hallway.
The phone call gave Ashlynn an idea. “I’ll call Farrah Goodfairy. She knows our story as well as anyone. Maybe she’ll know where the rose is.”
Farrah was delighted to hear from the girls. “How’s the quest for a cure going?” she asked. She was in the Castleteria with Madeline and Apple.
“Fairy badly,” Ashlynn admitted. “The Summer Rose is not in the slipper safe!”
“Hmmmm,” mused Farrah. “It may be glamourized to look like something else.”
“Then it could be anywhere!” Crystal cried. “And look like anything!”
Out in the hallway, Faybelle was listening to the mobsters’ threats on her MirrorPhone. “You owe us for cleaning up your mess at Ever After. Now, you got an easy choice. Deliver the curse-curing goods you promised—and they better be good goods—or two hundred years of service.”
“I’m working on it,” Faybelle whispered sharply. “I can’t steal what they haven’t found yet.”
While she was on her phone, Faybelle wandered down the hall. Without realizing it, she burst into the kitchen—where Daring the Beast and Rosabella were still holding hands… and paws.
“What’s up?” Rosabella asked, breaking the romantic moment.
“Nothing,” Faybelle lied. Her eyes narrowed as she took in the private scene. “What’s up with you?”
“Nothing!” exclaimed Daring the Beast and Rosabella together.
Blondie poked her head in. “Breaking news, guys,” she said. “The Summer Rose may be fairy glamourized. See anything weird or unusual in here?”
“Nope!” they all said together.
“Well, keep looking,” Blondie ordered. Her reporter’s instincts told her that something was up, however. All three of them were acting very suspicious.
But no one could find anything that might be the glamoured rose. They met up in the main hall a little while later. They were discouraged.
Ashlynn sighed. “We’ve looked everywhere!”
“Hmmm, what’s that?” asked Blondie, pointing at a giant, round, orange object.
“It’s the enchanted pumpkin from my story,” explained Ashlynn, “the one that turned into a coach. But what’s it doing here?”
Crystal’s face lit up! “Maybe the pumpkin is the disguise in the riddle!”
Faybelle began doing jumping jacks and cheers. She was using her magic on the pumpkin. “One, two, three, four—fairy glamour hide no more!”
The pumpkin transformed—into a greenhouse!
“Yes!” Crystal pumped her fist in the air.
“Whoa!” exclaimed Ashlynn.
This was unexpected!
The greenhouse was lush with plants. There were beanstalks and all kinds of fairytale vegetables. Pumpkin vines crawled up the walls. In the very center of the greenhouse bloomed a single pink rose, grand and glorious.
Very carefully, Rosabella cut it from the stem and handed it to Ashlynn.
“I will keep the Summer Rose safe,” Ashlynn promised solemnly.
Now they had two roses, but they still needed two more.
They all went back to the sleigh. It was time to head to Briar’s family castle—the home of Sleeping Beauty.
CHAPTER 26
Hibernating!
Jackie and Northwind were tired. Flying was hard work! “We’ve flown halfway across the fairytale world,” complained Northwind. “I need to switch from wings to legs for a while.”
They landed and changed back into elves. As they began trudging through the deep snow, Jackie glared at her brother. This was better? At least they could cover more ground when they were owls.
Northwind’s snow globe lit up. A call!
It was the cursed Snow King. He was in the wildest rage yet. “My daughter is out past her curfew,” he screamed at Northwind. “Yet I see her running from castle to castle with her little friends while you two flit around like a couple of winter pixies!”
The Snow King had been watching everything through his telescope. He slammed down the snow globe, and the line went dead.
“But this is impossible!” Jackie moaned. She thought they had stopped Crystal. “I’ve underestimated the princess for the last time. No more playing nice.”
“You were playing nice?” Northwind was totally confused.
“She can’t get another step closer to this so-called cure,” Jackie ranted. “We have to beat her to Sleeping Beauty’s castle. Then…”
“Then what?” Northwind chuckled. “We tuck her in for a nice, long nap?”
“Northwind, you idiot!” But Jackie paused. Maybe that wasn’t such a stupid idea after all. “You’re brilliant. Sleeping Beauty’s spindle! Don’t you know your fairytale history? I totally have a plan. Let’s go!”
She turned back into an owl. With a tired sigh, Northwind joined her in the sky.
Daring the Beast was pulling the sleigh again. Bells jingled as they raced across the frozen landscape.
“I can’t wait to see your castle, Briar,” Crystal said to her friend. “I’m a big fan of your story.”
“I dunno,” Ashlynn admitted. “Enchanted sleep for one hundred years sounds exhausting!”
“Sleeping Beauty’s story is about more than sleep,” explained Briar. “There’s magic and romance and—”
“And a wicked awesome villain, if I do say so myself,” Faybelle butted in. Her mother was the Evil Fairy in that story. “Look! There’s the castle! Let’s get that rose!”
The sleigh glided up to the castle. It was completely covered in thousands of beautiful roses—and each and every rose was covered in ice.
“I guess the gardeners took off at the first frost.” Briar gulped.
Crystal recited from memory the words on the scroll: “The Rose of Fall hides in the crowd.”
Ashlynn voiced everyone’s concern. “But which rose is the Fall Rose? There are a million flowers!”
Crystal was trying to put together the clues. There was some detail from the fairytale that would help them figure this out. “Every season’s rose has been tied in some way to the origin story from that castle. In Sleeping Beauty’s, maybe it’s in your mom’s bedroom, where she slept for a hundred years?”
“No!” said Faybelle. She knew the story better than anyone besides Briar. “There’s another room far more important to our story. Isn’t there, Briar?”
Briar looked frightened. “But it’s forbidden. The magic spinning wheel is locked away in the tower.” She pointed to the very highest turret of the castle.
“Sounds like that’s where we’ll find the rose,” Crystal decided. “Let’s go.”
But they couldn’t open the doors to the castle. Daring used all his brute strength, but they wouldn’t budge.
“Uh, Daring,” interrupted Briar, “I’ve got this.” She lifted a garden pot and picked up a spare key.
“Oh, sorry!” Daring apologized. “My bad.”
The doors swung open and they entered the main hall—a circular room with a staircase that wound round and round up to the turret. Briar Beauty was trembling.
“Briar, you don’t have to come if you’re too afraid,” said Faybelle. But Briar was confident and she headed for the stairs.
Vines grew up the walls and the banisters. It was a jungle of twisting branches, tangled roots, and roses—roses everywhere. The staircase was blocked by dense overgrowth. Daring used his claws like a machete to slash an opening, but it was no use. The foliage was too thick.
“Holy roses!” Daring said. “Where’s an enchanted Weedwacker when you need one?”
“We’ll never get up to the tower through this!” cried Briar, looking at the prickly vines.
But Crystal was studying the vines. She thought there might be another way. “Maybe we don’t have to get through. We can use these vines as a shortcut right to the top. Watch.”
Crystal blasted the ice and snow off a central vine dangling high above them. Without the weight of the snow, the vine sprang up and down like a bungee cord. Crystal grinned.
“Whoa! Going up!” Ashlynn grabbed hold of a vine and whizzed to the top of the turret. It was like the scariest, most fun thrill ride at an amusement park.
“What a rush!” hollered Daring the Beast. “Everyone’s got to try that!”
They all swung to the very tip-top of the turret. Her hands shaking with fear, Briar opened the door to the attic room. This is where her mother’s great sleep had begun when she pricked her finger on the spinning wheel.
Snow covered the old, broken furniture, but there were no roses in this room. It was quiet, dead, and cold. A shaft of light from the window fell on the dreaded spinning wheel.
“Ah, porridge!” Blondie cursed. “This is the one place roses aren’t.”
Briar was mesmerized by a basket of golden, fluffy wool next to the spinning wheel. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. As if in a trance, she approached the spindle.
“It’s her fairytale,” Faybelle explained. “Touch the spindle, go to sleep. She can’t help herself.”
Faybelle couldn’t help herself, either. After all, this was her story, too. “Double-dare you to touch the spindle,” she taunted Briar.
Slowly, Briar reached out her hand.
“Stop!” shouted Crystal as loudly as she could. She grabbed Briar’s hand before it touched the deadly spindle.
Faybelle blushed and laughed. “I was only kidding,” she said, pretending.
“Magic wool,” noted Crystal, picking up a strand. “The rose at Cinderella’s castle was protected by magic. Maybe the Rose of Fall is, too.”
Crystal, who was in no danger of pricking her finger, sat down at the spinning wheel with the golden wool. She began turning the spindle. Round and round it went—but it wasn’t spinning thread; it was creating a glowing yellow rose!
Blondie gasped. “News flash! This just in! We’ve found the Rose of Fall!”
Very carefully, Briar picked the rose from the spinning wheel. “The Rose of Fall is safe with me.”
Now three of the girls had their magical roses.
“That was close, Briar,” said Faybelle, trying to sound friendly. “If you had touched that spindle, it would have been a hundred-year snooze.”
“Think again, Faybelle,” announced a voice.
Two snowy owls were perched on the window ledge. The larger one, Jackie, flew over and settled on the spinning wheel. Northwind flapped his wings in the girls’ faces. Then both birds transfo
rmed back into frost elves.
“I think it’s time all you meddling fools took a long winter’s nap!” Jackie threatened.
“Sweet dreams!” cackled Northwind.
Jackie and Northwind wrapped their scarves over their faces while Jackie reached out and broke the cursed spindle. She snapped it in half! An explosion of magic dust filled the room. The girls gasped and struggled to breathe. Jackie scooped a little of the magic spindle dust into an envelope and closed it.
The girls staggered wearily. They were just so tired. They were falling asleep on their feet. Daring the Beast was already starting to snore.
“I do believe I have the vapors,” he muttered as he dozed off with the others.
“Princess,” Jackie whispered to Crystal, “your little plan has backfired.”
“You… are… wicked.” Those were Crystal’s last words before drifting into a deep slumber.
She and her friends were all sound asleep.
“But, Jackie, won’t they freeze, sleeping in the snow?” worried Northwind.
“That’s the best part!” Jackie giggled. “Come, Northwind—we have a king to crush.”
But something didn’t feel right to Northwind. Before turning back into an owl, he glanced one more time at the kids sleeping in the snow. But what could he do? This was part of the plan, wasn’t it?
The two owls spread their wings. It was time to return to the Snow King.
CHAPTER 27
Sweet Dreams
All the servants and courtiers at the palace had been turned into arctic animals. Penguins huddled in frozen clusters as far away from the Snow King as they could get. The castle was very quiet. No one was laughing or talking. The seals were careful not to bark. There was no one for the king to talk to. There wasn’t even anyone to get angry at anymore.
The Snow King turned to his frozen wife. “I don’t know, my dear. I’m beginning to question if I’ve been seeing things clearly.”
An owl hooted. “Hey, Mister Cool!”
The king whirled around, enraged at the insult. “Mister? It’s sire or Your Highness,” he bellowed.
