Of Giants and Ice (Ever Afters, The)

by Bach, Shelby

  Lena and I winced, but Chase said, “That was nothing. She was holding herself back.”

  Once we stepped outside, every head in the courtyard turned our way, and it grew so still that you could hear the waves lapping the lakeshore and the leaves rustling in the Tree of Hope. Suddenly, it felt very formal and very serious. I looked at the grass, feeling my face heat up, and placed my steps carefully. I promised myself that I wouldn’t trip and embarrass Lena before we even left EAS.

  Someone had moved the podium across the courtyard to a spot just beside the beanstalk. The Director stood behind it, Mr. Swallow and Sarah Thumb still perched on her shoulder. Rapunzel and the Frog Prince had joined them. I wondered if Rapunzel had forgotten to tell us something.

  When we stopped in front of the podium, the Director looked at us for a long moment. I’m pretty sure she did this for dramatic effect.

  “Lena, Rory, and Chase,” she said finally, “the time has come for you to venture out into the Fey realm to complete Lena’s Tale. We wish you luck, courage, and cunning on your journey.” She gestured at the beanstalk. “Lena, you may proceed.”

  Lena stepped hesitantly up to the base of the beanstalk. She took a second to turn the hourglass attached to her backpack, and then she started to climb.

  Climb, I realized with a sick jolt. How could I have forgotten that part of the Tale?

  “Go, Lena! We love you!” Jenny called, and when Lena looked down to wave, George whistled.

  She climbed ten feet, twenty feet, fifty. Nausea made me sway woozily, and my palms started to sweat. I was going to have to climb soon too.

  “I was wondering when you were going to realize how high up we were going,” Chase told me. “Don’t think about the height. Think about the next branch, and don’t look down,” he added with a cocky little smile.

  I glared at him as he ran to the beanstalk and started to climb, faster than Lena was going, like it was a race. “Show-off,” I muttered.

  “So little.” The Frog Prince patted my head, and knowing that my turn was next, I just looked up, numb with dread. “So determined.”

  I didn’t feel determined. I felt like backing out. All my plans for being the best Companion ever wouldn’t mean anything if I was too scared to even climb the beanstalk.

  “Henry, please,” said the Director, exasperated like she’d expected something like this. “I’ll make you go stand with the students.”

  There were too many reasons for me not to go: Lena wouldn’t have invited me if she knew I was moving. Mom would worry like crazy. I was afraid of heights.

  “But don’t you think they get younger every year?” The Frog Prince leaned on his cane until he blocked me from the Director’s sight, and Rapunzel stepped closer to me. With one eye on the beanstalk, I distantly suspected that I was watching a diversion. “I do. She’s such a wee one, that Rory—has so much responsibility already.”

  In fact, I only had one reason for going: I wanted to get to do something before I had to leave all this behind. That wasn’t good enough.

  I glanced toward Lena’s brother, a second away from slinging off my backpack and sending him in my place.

  “You must go,” whispered Rapunzel, emphasizing the first word so much that she must’ve known what I was planning.

  I stopped looking for George. To be completely honest, I was really relieved she said something. I wanted to go too much to be that noble.

  “That’s it,” the Director said impatiently. “Henry, I must ask you to leave the podium.”

  Scowling and muttering to himself about how Mildred Grubb had no respect for the elderly, the Frog Prince hobbled pathetically away, making a big show of it. He also moved very slowly, his patched and frayed purple bunny slippers shuffling along the ground.

  “Be kinder to Chase,” Rapunzel said so quietly that only I could hear. “His heart is good, but his upbringing was not the best. In truth, he needs your friendship even more than Lena.”

  I didn’t want to be friends with Chase. If that was the future Rapunzel saw, she was losing her touch.

  “You’ll need to follow him through the letter,” Rapunzel added.

  “You mean, to the letter?” I was definitely not going to do that.

  Rapunzel shook her head. “Through the letter.”

  That didn’t make any more sense than what she had said before.

  Sighing, I started toward the beanstalk. If I was going, I needed to hurry. I didn’t want to find out what Chase would say if he got too much of a head start and I arrived hours behind the others.

  As I walked past, Rapunzel grabbed my pack and stuffed something inside. “You’ll need this. The young will lie in the dark. Hold this to your mouth and whistle softly, and it will give you light.”

  The Director had noticed. From the suspicious look on her face, I guessed that Rapunzel was definitely acting out of character for this Tale. “Okay,” I said uncertainly as Rapunzel zipped my pack closed and let me go. “Thanks.”

  The leaves on the beanstalk were as long as I was tall, and the stems at the bottom were rubbery but sturdy. I took a deep breath and grabbed one right above my head.

  “Rory!”

  I looked back.

  “Falling is the fastest way down,” Rapunzel said earnestly, like this was helpful information.

  I gulped. I didn’t need to hear that.

  Apparently, the Director thought so too. Alarmed, she added quickly, “However, we would much prefer you to return with all your bones intact. Good luck, Rory.”

  I was only one foot off the ground. I stared up at the spot where the beanstalk disappeared into the clouds, guessing I had at least a mile to go.

  I tried not to think about it and began to climb.

  thought I did pretty well—for the first part of the climb anyway.

  After a few minutes, I found a rhythm: I reached up for a leaf above me, stepped on the next stem, and stood up straight before I reached up again.

  It was manageable, as long as I only let my mind focus on certain things—like where the next leaf was, for example, or how helpful all the tiny spikes on the stems were. They made getting a good grip much easier despite my sweaty palms.

  Then, just over halfway up, my foot slipped. Both hands grabbed the next leaf, and I caught myself easily. So, that part wasn’t so bad.

  But then I automatically looked down to reposition my foot and saw how far we had come.

  The Tree of Hope was just a small green circle, barely bigger than my thumbnail. The square EAS building looked a lot like a grass-colored napkin with a gray border. Speckles of color moved across the lawn. People, I realized with a start.

  I had seen this view before. I had dreamed this. Three times. I really would slip. My stomach turned over inside me, weightless suddenly, as if I were already falling.

  I didn’t exactly freeze.

  I leaped at the beanstalk’s stem and wrapped both arms and both legs around it.

  Fear is inevitable. I hadn’t known Rapunzel meant my thing with heights.

  It wasn’t like that time in the weapons closet. I couldn’t make myself move, but instead of going blank, my mind buzzed.

  I tried to tell myself that there were plenty of things that scared me more than falling. Looking like an idiot in front of everybody in EAS, for instance. Or giving Chase the opportunity to make fun of me later. Or letting Lena down, because I was too afraid to climb a measly Beanstalk.

  Unfortunately, none of this made me start climbing again.

  I shouldn’t have listened to Rapunzel. I should have sent George up the beanstalk in my place.

  For a while, the only thing I heard was the blood pounding in my ears. I refused to fall. I wasn’t going to die here, not on Lena’s first Tale, not before we had even gotten to the giant’s house.

  I clutched the stem so tightly that my fingernails dug through the surface, and I tried not to remember what it felt like, falling in my dream, with the wind ripping my breath away and my scream tra
pped in my throat and my hands groping at empty—

  “You’re not going to fall, Rory.”

  It was Chase. His voice was only a few feet away. I breathed again. I hadn’t noticed until right that second that I had been holding my breath.

  “Look at me,” Chase said. Slowly, I raised my head. He squatted on the leaf a little above and beside me, his limbs sprawled out carelessly. He leaned closer, just one hand holding the stem above him. “You’re not going to fall, but we have to keep moving. Lena’s got someplace to be.”

  I nodded stubbornly. I knew that.

  “Come on, then.” Chase started to climb again, and in two seconds, he was out of sight.

  I tried to follow. I stared at my arm, telling it to move. It didn’t want to let go. The most it did was twitch a little.

  “Rory.” Chase was back. He stepped on the same leaf I was sitting on. It dipped wildly. I clawed at the stem, scraping some of the bristles away. A little whimper escaped, and I hated myself for it. I waited for Chase to tease me.

  “Rory, you’re not going to fall. I promise. You know how I know? ’Cause I’m going to climb right under you. If you slip again, I’ll catch you.”

  I wasn’t so sure that would help. Chase wasn’t much bigger than I was. I would probably just drag him down with me.

  “But you know what? It wouldn’t matter if we both fell. I overheard the Director and Ellie talking. They sent the magic carpet out. It’s scouting around the stalk, just out of sight. The Director wouldn’t let us be in any real danger.”

  Chase leaned forward so that his face was right beside mine. The leaf wobbled under us again, but I forced myself to turn, to look at him.

  “Do you believe me?”

  I did. He sounded so confident. He always did. Most of the time, it annoyed me, but at that moment, when I was twenty times higher off the ground than I had ever been in my life, his cockiness reassured me.

  “Yeah.” My voice came out like a croak.

  “Good. Now we’re going to start climbing.” My breath came in noisy gasps, but Chase ignored it. “I know you can do it. I’m going to do it with you. Ready? See the leaf a foot above your left hand? On the count of three, you’re going to reach up and grab the stem. One . . . two . . . three!”

  I was still numb with terror, but my hand moved. It held the stem so tightly that I watched my knuckles turn white.

  “Perfect.” Chase patted my shoulder. “Now you’re going to stand up. That’s it.”

  My legs had straightened of their own accord. Standing, I could feel how much I was shaking. The leaf shivered under my feet.

  “Right hand now. To the stem at two o’clock. See it? Good . . .”

  That was how we got up the beanstalk. Chase never stopped talking. We climbed slowly, but we went up.

  When we were almost to the clouds, so high that dew collected on the leaves, making the stems wet, I slipped one more time.

  The weightless feeling entered my stomach again, but Chase’s hands were on my back, shoving me upward.

  “It’s fine. Don’t worry. I got you.” He grunted a little. Realizing how heavy I must be, I yanked myself upright before he could drop us both. “All right. We’re almost there. Three more minutes. You can handle three more minutes. Look, you can already see Lena. She’s waiting at the top.”

  I could see Lena. Her dark face peered down at us through a hole in the clouds. Her lips were pressed flat, like they only do when she’s really worried.

  I hated making her worry. I grabbed the next stem, stepped, and stood slowly, trying not to meet her eyes.

  It felt like a lot longer than three minutes, but we made it. As soon as I was close enough, Lena grabbed both my arms and hauled me up.

  We tumbled together on a lawn even greener than the courtyard we had just left. I collapsed, so relieved, I could cry.

  “Why didn’t you tell me that you were afraid of heights?” she asked.

  I couldn’t answer. I was still breathing too hard. The blades of grass around me were as tall as I was and as wide as my hand.

  “Oh, Rory—you’re shaking,” Lena said, still worried, which made me feel even worse. It hadn’t taken long for my plan to be the best Companion ever to completely fall apart. Maybe it was a good thing that I wouldn’t be around long enough to have my own Tale.

  Chase jumped through the hole in the clouds. His hair was a little windblown, but otherwise, he looked just like he always did. Cocky. But he had been so cool on the beanstalk.

  “I’m okay.” I stood up, my legs feeling rubbery after the strain. My clothes were sticky with sweat, which was so far from being ladylike that it was gross.

  Chase brushed a few of the stalk’s bristles off his jeans. “Let’s go. We’ve lost a lot of time.”

  “Maybe we should take a break,” Lena said doubtfully, glancing at me.

  “We’re on a time crunch, Lena,” Chase said impatiently. “We can’t afford to let her slow us down anymore.”

  I scowled, hot with shame. I still couldn’t really feel my legs, but I walked forward anyway, pushing stalks out of my way, determined not to hold the other two back any more than I already had. I was also determined not to let them see how close I was to crying. Or that my hands were still trembling.

  I knew what Chase was like, or at least, I thought I did. But on the beanstalk, he had been like a different person, the kind of person I might want to be friends with. Seeing him revert to his old self—well, I was the teeniest, tiniest bit hurt. And there was no way I would ever admit that to him.

  “Rory buried the ashes,” Lena reminded him icily. “Without her, we might not even have a beanstalk.”

  That did make me feel a little better. After all, climbing the beanstalk was only part of the Tale. I could help out plenty of other ways.

  “Just don’t freeze up again on the way down,” Chase replied. “I won’t wait around for the giant to catch us both.”

  He was right. We had to go down. My dream could still come true after all.

  I pushed the thought away. That was days from now. We had to concentrate on the other stuff first.

  “You know, I was thinking about thanking you, Chase.” I shoved my hands in my pockets and tramped off farther ahead. My voice was still a little shaky, so I cleared my throat. “But you just ruined it.”

  “Well, if you’re already mad at me . . .” Chase snatched my sword from its sheath at my waist.

  “Hey!” I tried to grab it back, but he scampered just out of reach. “What are you doing?”

  “Making sure it’s battle-ready.” He turned the sword over, hilt over blade, three times, and murmured a few words I couldn’t quite catch.

  “What?” Lena said.

  “Nothing.” Chase handed the sword back to me.

  For the first time since Yellowstone, I didn’t struggle to raise the sword. “What did you do? Why is it so much lighter?”

  Chase shrugged, but he wouldn’t meet my eyes. “I just took the training wheels off.”

  “Oh, my gumdrops. It’s one of those swords?” Lena said.

  Chase just wove his way through the grass stalks ahead of us.

  “What swords?” I asked, sheathing mine.

  “Some of the oldest Fey blades have spells built into them,” Lena explained. “Even most humans can activate them as easily as flipping a switch on a flashlight. One of the more popular spells triples the weight of the blade. It’s supposed to build up the wielder’s strength.”

  “Couldn’t you have taken the spell off before the climb?” I asked Chase. “It was hard enough.”

  “Not without the Director finding out what he’d done,” Lena pointed out.

  “You should be thanking me,” Chase said. “I bet your right arm’s a lot stronger than it was a few weeks ago.”

  I glared at him, jaw clenched, but honestly, I was secretly grateful to have something to be mad about. I didn’t really owe him anything. Apparently, I’d needed a reminder why Chase and I could ne
ver be friends.

  “Found something.” Chase held back a blade of grass so that Lena and I could pass.

  Beyond him, the lawn ended, and the ground ahead was paved with slabs of slate the size of Ping-Pong tables. And beyond that, water glittered in the afternoon light.

  “A lake?” I said.

  “Doubtful,” Chase said. “See the tiles on the opposite side?”

  Lena nodded. “And it smells like chlorine.”

  Once she pointed it out, the chemicals in the air smelled so strong that I started to feel a little woozy. “A swimming pool? Just how big are these guys anyway?”

  “It varies from Tale to Tale.” Lena shrugged, but she sounded a little nervous.

  “I’m guessing they’re about four stories tall. There’s their house,” Chase said.

  It looked surprisingly normal—brick with light blue shutters in every window. There was only one weird thing about it, actually.

  “I’ve seen smaller mountains,” I muttered. I also spotted a green house-shaped blur very far away, and a smaller yellow blob beyond that, sitting like lone peaks in the distance. “Are you sure this is the right place?” I really hoped that the answer was yes. It would take us hours to walk to the next house.

  “It’s always the building closest to the beanstalk.” Lena squared her shoulders and strode forward, so determined to be the fearless leader that I had to hide a smile. “We’re going to need to find a place to stash our packs.”

  “Those geraniums should work.” I pointed to the bushes on either side of the front door, hoping I could be helpful.

  “Yeah.” Chase rolled his eyes like this was completely obvious. “They’re big enough to hide my dad’s truck.”

  We hid the backpacks and started for the door. There was only one step, but it was taller than me.

  Chase leaped up and offered a hand to Lena.

  Lena let him pull her up. “We need to get inside, keep the giant’s wife from getting suspicious, and find a way in and out of the house.”

  “Got it.” Chase extended a hand to me.

  I ignored it coldly and scrambled up by myself. I scraped my knee on the brick, but at least I didn’t accept any more help from Chase.