“Are you determined to get us all killed?” Rip Van Winkle cried.
The prince’s jaw stiffened, but Snow White stepped forward before he could respond. There was an angry fire burning in her eyes.
“You have two choices. Die under the heel of the Master or fight. That’s it. There are no other alternatives,” she shouted. “Make your choice right now. This is the plan. If you think you have a better chance on your own, then pack up and get out of this camp!”
The crowd grew quiet, but no one left.
“The camp is not safe tonight,” Snow continued. “Pack your things. We’re all moving here, into the Hall of Wonders. Do it quickly. You need your sleep. We march at dawn.”
8
Henry shook his head in disbelief. He stormed away from the family and out through the portal. When he hadn’t returned an hour later, Sabrina went looking for him. He wasn’t at the camp or in the Hotel of Wonders, either. Soon, she found herself back in the Room of Reflections. There, she found Mirror removing a broken shard from the frame of one of the ruined mirrors.
“Why aren’t you with your family, Sabrina?”
“I’m looking for my dad,” Sabrina said. “He’s pretty upset, and I’m worried about him.”
“Yes, he’s not a happy camper. I took him back to your grandmother’s house some time ago. Come along, and I’ll take you, too.”
Mirror led her back into the hall and away from the crowds until they found the trolley. In no time, they were zipping down the hall.
“I’m sorry Uncle Jake snapped at you earlier,” she said. “He’s very . . .”
“He’s upset, Sabrina, and he has every right to be. Just like you do. I haven’t had a chance to say how sorry I am about Briar Rose. It’s a terrible tragedy,” Mirror said.
Sabrina nodded and tried not to cry.
“But he’s not the only one suffering, is he?” Mirror continued. “I know you were hoping for a brighter reunion with your parents.”
“You’re reading my mind,” Sabrina said.
“If I said your sister’s cold shoulder was bothering you, too, would I qualify as a full-fledged psychic?”
Sabrina nodded. “You’ve been paying attention.”
“I see everything that goes on around here,” Mirror said. “Sabrina, do you believe in happy endings?”
“You mean like in fairy tales?”
Mirror nodded. “Quite a number of them have happy endings. Even the story they wrote about me has a happy ending for Snow and the prince.”
“I don’t think it worked out as well as in the story. The two of them are barely speaking.”
“They’ll work it out. Those two are meant for each other. I’m talking about you, Sabrina. Do you believe happiness is in your future?”
“I used to,” Sabrina said. “I thought that when my parents woke up, things would go back to normal. We’d all move back to the city, and Granny and Uncle Jake would come for visits. That was my happy ending.”
“And you’ve given up on it?” Mirror asked.
Sabrina shrugged.
Mirror sighed. “I believe everyone deserves a happily ever after. But I also believe that happy endings don’t just happen by accident—you have to make them happen.”
“I’m not sure what you mean,” she said.
“Your happiness is your responsibility,” Mirror explained as he brought the trolley to a stop. “If you want to be happy, you have to work to make it happen. You can’t just wish for it, and you can’t put it in the hands of other people. It took me a long time to realize that myself.”
“You?”
“Sure, even a magic mirror has dreams,” he said. “I’d hate to see you grow bitter waiting for yours to come true. If you want a happy ending, you have to work for it. Luckily, if Sabrina Grimm sets her mind to something, there’s nothing that’s going to get in her way.”
Sabrina smiled. Mirror always made her feel better. She felt like she could tell him anything and he’d understand. In many ways, he was the closest thing she had to a best friend.
“So, I suppose you’d like me to wait while you talk to your dad?” Mirror asked.
“You’re the best.” Sabrina hugged the little man and climbed down from the trolley.
“Hurry up, the meter is running,” he joked.
Sabrina hopped through the portal and into Granny Relda’s spare bedroom. The power was still out, so everything was dark. The air was stuffy, too. From the shouting and explosions outside, it was clear that the Scarlet Hand was still trying to find a way inside, but the protective spells were working to keep them out.
Sabrina called for her father and listened for his reply. She followed his voice to her bedroom—rather, his bedroom. He was lying on the bed staring up at his model airplanes. A photo album rested on his chest. He turned his head when she entered and smiled.
“Need a friend?” Sabrina asked.
“I didn’t think I had any friends left.”
“I know that feeling,” Sabrina said. She noticed the collection of marionettes Pinocchio had made of her family resting on the nightstand.
“I didn’t want anything to happen to them,” her father explained. “Pinocchio worked so hard.”
Sabrina climbed onto the bed next to her father.
“I know you’re worried about our family. I know you don’t want me and Daphne to get involved with this war,” she said. “But, Dad, you have to understand how confusing it is. You and Mom encouraged us to be brave and kind and help other people. You taught us right from wrong. Granny and Mr. Canis have been teaching us the same things. Now, you’re asking us to stop. I want to listen to you. I would love to go back home and forget about this place, but the thing is . . . I can’t. Daphne’s right. We’re supposed to be here.”
Her father rubbed his face in his hands, something he did when he was trying to wrap his head around a problem.
“You think I’m a coward,” he said.
Sabrina was going to argue, but she wasn’t sure he was wrong.
“It’s not the fight that worries me, Sabrina,” he said. “It’s the magic.”
He sat up and flipped through the photo album. Inside were yellowing photographs of the Grimm family from long before Sabrina was born. Her father stopped at a picture of himself and Jacob as kids, dressed in long wizard robes and pointy hats decorated with tinfoil stars and moons. Each boy held a magic wand in his hand and was pointing it playfully at the camera.
“I was around Daphne’s age when my father opened the Hall of Wonders to your uncle and me. Back then, we only locked the doors that had dangerous weapons or creatures, so Jake and I ran wild in there. It was a giant playground, and we didn’t have to share the slide with other kids. I learned to conjure fireballs and handle dragon eggs before I hit the third grade. Mom and Dad thought it was good for us to know how to use magic.”
There was a picture of the two boys sitting atop a griffin. Despite its dangerous claws and vicious beak, Jake and Henry looked like they were riding a pony on a carousel. Their father, Basil, stood by proudly.
“What they didn’t teach us was that we needed to take magic seriously. It was all a game to us,” he continued. “There didn’t seem to be any consequences. But there are consequences, Sabrina, deadly ones.”
“Dad, I know what happened with Grandpa and Uncle Jake,” she said. “It was an accident.”
“But people are supposed to learn from accidents, Sabrina. We’re not supposed to repeat our mistakes over and over again. Even after freeing the Jabberwocky and losing my father, this family got right back to fooling around with magic. And now, my own daughters are using it. That’s why I want to get us out of this town. I want to leave before you have to pay the consequences, too.”
“Would Grandpa Basil want us to leave?”
Henry was quiet. He flipped through the photo album and stopped on a picture of his father. Basil was standing in the front yard with an ax in his hand.
“Daphne and I t
ake magic very seriously,” Sabrina continued. “I learned the hard way. I can’t go near most of the stuff, but Daphne . . . sure, she gets excited when she gets to use it, but it’s not a game to her. She respects it, Dad. And she’s really good with it. Even better than Uncle Jake.”
“But what if things go wrong?”
“That’s life. Things go wrong all the time. Sometimes you think something is going to be a certain way, and it turns out completely different. You have to just pick yourself up and keep trying. No one knows that better than me. That’s why I voted to be part of this. If we don’t teach the Everafters how to fight, they will lose. And we need them to win, Dad. The whole world needs them to win.”
Henry stared at his daughter for a long moment. “When did you get so smart?”
Sabrina shrugged. “My dad’s pretty bright. Plus, Mirror gives amazing advice.”
Henry hugged her tight. It felt good. Maybe she’d get the reunion she’d wanted all along.
“OK, new rules,” he said. “I’ll get used to the fact that my daughters are tougher and smarter than I remember—”
“And older, too,” Sabrina interrupted. “I know it’s tough getting used to the fact that two years have passed, but you’re driving Daphne nuts when you call her a baby. She’s very sensitive about it.”
“OK, I’ll try, if you promise to still love me, no matter how obnoxious I am. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” Sabrina said. “Oh, and stop arguing with Mom. It’s getting boring.”
Henry laughed. “Don’t sugarcoat it, Sabrina. Tell me how you really feel.”
“I’m just calling it as I see it. I’m sure I inherited that from Mom,” she said.
“Do you have keys to any of the rooms with you?” Henry asked.
Sabrina took her huge key ring from her pocket. “Yeah, why?”
“There are a few other items this army could use,” Henry said.
She followed her father back into the Hall of Wonders. He led her from room to room, collecting a variety of magical objects, some she had used before, but others she had never even seen.
One of them was a gizmo Henry claimed came from Oz. “It used to belong to H. M. Wogglebug, who used it to make himself bigger. He’s a giant bug,” he explained.
Then he led her to another room where he retrieved a small vial labeled THE POWDER OF LIFE. Henry claimed it could bring inanimate objects to life, like the Sawhorse and Jack Pumpkin-head. He hoped it might be used to create a few more soldiers for the army. The more rooms they visited, the more excited Henry grew, and Sabrina started to wonder if she really knew her father at all. Gone was the lovable-but-boring guy who always played by the rules. In his place was a determined fighter eager to do the right thing. Whoever this new dad was, she hoped he was here to stay.
“Wow, you really like your sleep,” Uncle Jake said, holding his right cheek. He was standing over Sabrina in the dark.
“What time is it?” she asked, sitting up.
“Wake your sister. We have a mystery to solve.”
After much vigorous shaking, Daphne was on her feet, and the sisters followed Uncle Jake into the camp. Sabrina expected to find it deserted this late in the night, but it was a flurry of activity. Everyone was rushing about with buckets of water, doing their best to put out a fire raging through the vegetable garden.
“The saboteur has struck again,” Uncle Jake said.
“Fudge,” Daphne complained. “This guy is really starting to get on my nerves.”
“He freed the chickens from the henhouse, too. But that’s not even the worst of it. Look!” Uncle Jake pointed to the ground just outside the armory—a shed that stored the soldiers’ weapons. Piles of arrows lay broken on the ground. Sabrina knew at once that these had belonged to the Merry Men. They were a major part of the next day’s attack, and now they were useless.
“Did you see anything?” Sabrina asked her uncle. She suspected he’d spent another night beside Briar’s grave.
He shook his head. “I dozed off. The fire was already raging when I woke up. Whoever is sabotaging us has gotten away with it three times. We need to put the Grimm detective skills to work.”
Daphne clapped her hands. “Yay!”
“I’ll comb through the garden,” Uncle Jake said. “Daphne, you take the henhouse, and, Sabrina, you search the armory. If you find any clues, whistle.”
The trio sprang into action, and Sabrina rushed to the armory. She was surprised to find the large metal lock on the door completely intact. How did the saboteur get to the arrows without opening the door? Perhaps, she thought, they had a key. Charming, Seven, Robin Hood, Ms. White, and maybe a few others had keys, but none of them seemed the type to betray the refugees. Charming hadn’t always been entirely trustworthy, but he had built this camp. He was too proud to sabotage it.
She circled the building, looking for another way in. She found a slightly ajar window on the far side and forced it all the way open. She clambered into the dark, dry room. There wasn’t much light, and the moon, hidden behind clouds, was not helping. She tried to feel around, but without light her investigation was pointless. She decided to come back when the sun was up.
As she made her way back to the window, she stepped on something. It gave way, and she lost her footing, tumbling onto her backside. She quietly cursed in pain as she groped in the dark for whatever had tripped her. She found something small, sleek, and smooth—like wood. She shoved it into her pocket and crawled back to her feet. Soon, she was out the window and rushing to find her sister and uncle.
“I couldn’t see a thing in the chicken house,” Daphne said.
“And there was nothing near the garden,” Uncle Jake said. “I’ll have to wait until they put the fire out to search the rest of it.”
“Well, that was a bust. You want to come into the hall and sleep with the rest of us?” she asked her uncle.
“Yeah, you’re going to get the flu sleeping out here,” Daphne scolded.
Uncle Jake shook his head. “No, I . . . I need to be near her.”
He turned and walked back to Briar’s grave.
Morning came faster than Sabrina expected. Henry and Daphne went to work training as many of the refugees as they could in the use of the new weapons Henry had supplied, but his newfound enthusiasm was not enough to raise morale. Charming’s failed mission had them in a funk, and the cold rain and fog drifting into camp didn’t help. It was a miserable day, and it was reflected on the faces of the already-reluctant army. The first battle was a disaster, and now, as they went off into a new fight, lingering feelings of humiliation and hopelessness weighed on their shoulders.
“I couldn’t get them into a fighting mood,” Ms. White said as she and the girls watched the army file out through the gates. “They need to feel they can win this fight, or they won’t.” She spotted Uncle Jake marching with the crowd and rushed to join him.
Soon, the heavy gates of the camp were closing. Aside from a handful of elderly guards deemed too feeble to fight and a small group of Everafter children—which included Red and Pinocchio—the Grimms were left alone once more to wait for news.
Granny spent most of the day studying a three-dimensional map of the town that Mr. Seven had constructed. She fretted over Charming’s plan, imagining all the possibilities. When a new strategic idea came to her, she told one of the Everafter birds, who flew off to deliver her message to the prince.
Daphne, Puck, and Elvis played a game in which they tossed an old pie tin through the air to see who could catch it in their teeth first—the big dog or the fairy. Pinocchio was invited to join, but he refused, claiming he was not interested in baby games. Instead, he wandered from one adult to the next, eager for an intellectual conversation about art or science or chess. He found no takers. Sabrina felt a pang of sympathy for him. She knew what it was like to be treated like a child.
Henry and Veronica took a long walk around the camp. Sabrina feared they would bicker again, but when they returned, they
were hand in hand. They looked the way Sabrina always remembered them—happily in love.
By evening, everyone ran out of ways to keep themselves busy, and they were dying for news from the army. The family sat together in the mess tent, quietly picking through beef stew and corn bread, when Red Riding Hood and Mr. Canis entered. It was clear the little girl had been crying—perhaps it was due to another startling memory.
“I remembered the Master’s face,” she said.
“You did?!” Sabrina cried, hopefully.
Mr. Canis shook his head. “Not entirely.”
“I remember that the face was unusual. It changed a lot. Sometimes it was scary, and sometimes it was kind.”
“Like he has two heads?” Sabrina asked, her curiosity piqued.
“That’s all she’s remembered so far,” Mr. Canis said. “We’re going to stop for the evening. The toll on the child is too much.”
Granny took Red into her arms. “You are very brave, liebling.”
“I’m trying.” Red sighed.
Sabrina, however, was irritated. Didn’t Red understand how important it was to uncover the identity of the Master? Why was it so hard to remember his face?
A frantic guard rushed into the tent. “The soldiers! They’re back!”
Everyone rushed into the courtyard just as the massive fort gates swung open. Sabrina was expecting another defeated crowd, but instead, a triumphant fleet of soldiers marched into the camp, cheering, singing, and carrying Prince Charming on their shoulders.
“We destroyed the marina!” Snow White announced to the Grimms. “We took them completely by surprise.” She, too, was suddenly lifted onto a troll’s shoulders and paraded through the camp.
“The marina?” Henry exclaimed. “I thought the plan called for an attack on the sheriff ’s office.”
“That’s what we all thought, but once we marched out of camp this morning, Charming changed his mind,” Rip Van Winkle reported. “The man is a genius.”
“William, we’re confused,” Granny Relda called to the prince.
The Everafter War Page 14
