by Joan Holub
“Mine? Nuh-uh.” But even as she denied it, she wondered anxiously if she could be the cause of it and just didn’t know it. Did evil work that way? Out of the blue, some sleet zinged toward her. Snowflake cried out and recoiled. But for some reason, the sliver of sleet stopped short. And just for a sleeting, er, fleeting moment she saw her reflection in it as if she were looking in a mirror.
Instead of striking her, the sleet backed away and went over to strike Goldilocks instead. Weird! Was she immune to sleet because of her snowy, icy powers, in the same way Jack Frost wasn’t affected by her “chill” magic because of his frosty powers?
“That sleet isn’t sleet at all,” Jack Frost declared now, confirming Snowflake’s own dawning suspicion. “It’s pieces of reflective glass.”
All at once, things became crystal clear to Snowflake. “I think I know what’s happening!” she exclaimed. “While you were inside that snow globe in Principal R’s office last Thursday, I broke Ms. Wicked’s favorite mirror. Then some kind of magic — maybe hers or the E.V.I.L. Society’s — whooshed the mirror’s broken pieces out the window. I think the sleet is actually those glass shards. The evil in them is glazing everyone’s eyes and causing them to fight!”
“Frostacular!” Jack Frost said, rubbing his little hands together in sprite delight.
Ignoring him, Snowflake attempted to wave all the students into the castle for protection. But by now, many on the ice had been sharded, and they were all too busy arguing and yelling at one another to pay attention to her.
It seemed that only she, Rapunzel, and Snow White still had their wits about them. She had to get those two Grimm girls to safety. “Into the castle! Let’s try to figure out a plan before the shards get you, too!” As she herded them into the castle, she explained about the “sleet” having come from Ms. Wicked’s broken mirror.
Once inside, the three girls were surprised to see some trolls in Troll Moving Company uniforms. “All finished,” the head troll informed someone. He was talking to Jack Frost! Apparently the sprite had slipped into the castle before the girls.
“Hope you don’t mind. I had them do a little redecorating to add more shine to your lair,” Jack informed Snowflake after the trolls tromped outside.
“Stop calling it that!” she hissed at him. Rapunzel and Snow White were looking at her with confused expressions, obviously wondering why she might need a lair. Snowflake pretended not to notice their confusion since she didn’t want to explain. These girls hadn’t been in the library earlier and didn’t yet know her fairy-tale identity.
“Oh, no! Look!” Snow White exclaimed, drawing her attention. She was turning in a circle and pointing at what was hanging on the icy walls around them. “I’ve seen these before. They’re …”
As she paused, Snowflake and Rapunzel followed her gaze. Their eyes went wide when they saw what she was pointing to.
“Ms. Wicked’s mirrors!” all three girls chorused together. Everywhere they looked, mirrors were either leaning against or hanging upon the castle walls. Jack Frost must’ve had the trolls bring the mirrors from the library and install them here for what he’d called “shine.”
Snowflake stared at the mirrors, aghast. “Nooo!”
Other unwanted changes had been made to her castle, too, Snowflake noticed. She anxiously went to check them out with Snow White and Rapunzel at her side, and Jack Frost not far behind. There were lots more walls than she remembered. They divided the castle into dozens of little rooms, each hung with mirrors. And there were doors and stairs that led to nowhere, spiky tangled railings made of thorns, and statues of scary, fantastical creatures all made of ice that leered at them.
“It didn’t look like this yesterday,” Snowflake assured Snow White and Rapunzel. “I would never design something so wicked.”
“Think the evil from my stepmom’s mirrors transformed things?” Snow White whispered as they ventured deeper into the castle.
“Or some other kind of evil,” Snowflake said, eyeing Jack Frost suspiciously.
“It wasn’t me!” he protested. “I only had the trolls bring over the mirrors.” Then he added slyly, “But if these mirrors brought their evil with them, maybe you could harness it. You might be able to use it to keep building on this castle forever. I’m talking new wings and new halls that would never melt. Permafrost! The sky’s the limit, seeing as how you’re the Snow Queen.”
Hearing this, the other two girls sent her startled looks. Snowflake groaned inwardly. She wished Jack hadn’t gone and blabbed about her identity. She’d wanted to explain to them about it later on when things calmed down.
“I’m pretty sure what he says is true,” she told the girls quickly. “But don’t worry, I’m not going to suddenly act all evil.” She glared at the sprite.
Jack Frost sighed. Then his eyes rounded as the sounds of scraping and crunching reached them. More weird statues, thorn railings, and strange stairs were forming in the ice on all sides of them. Gruesome gremlins, ghastly ghouls, and creepy monsters all grinned or scowled at them from the walls around the mirrors. The girls huddled up, studying their surroundings with frightened faces.
“Where’s your wand?” Rapunzel whispered to Snowflake. “Can’t you use it to change things back to however they were yesterday?”
“Yeah, because this is creepy,” muttered Snow White.
“Last time I saw that wand, it was pretending to be a chrysanthemum in the Bouquet Garden,” Snowflake replied. “I left it there.”
“Why?” asked Rapunzel, sounding surprised.
Before Snowflake could explain that the wand was likely as evil as Ms. Wicked’s mirrors, she spotted something in the distance up ahead. A bright light was casting a strange shadow across the castle floor. It looked like two giant fingers held up in a V-shaped peace sign.
“What’s that?” Jack Frost shrieked. He ducked behind the girls.
The shadow crept closer and closer. The girls scooted back in fear, ready to run if they had to. Who knew what kind of horrible creature might have fingers that huge? Finally, the fingers came into view. Only they weren’t fingers at all. They were ears. Tall bunny ears casting an unusually long shadow!
“Kai!” Snowflake cried out in delight. She ran toward her missing pet, her arms open wide. She scooped him up and snuggled him. The bunny seemed thrilled to see her, but soon he started wriggling to get down. When she set him on the floor, he immediately did one of his crazy boings and took off back in the direction he’d come from, moving toward the bright light.
“Wait! Where are you going?” Snowflake raced after him.
“I think he might be trying to show us something,” said Rapunzel as she and Snow White caught up.
The girls, with Jack Frost tagging along, had to hurry to keep up with the speedy bunny. Along the way, random shards drifted around them in the air like some kind of floaty indoor sleet. They managed to dodge the shards at first.
However, eventually Snow White stopped short. She jerked and grabbed her elbow. “Ow!” she wailed. “Oh, this is grimmorrible! I think I’ve been sharded. I —”
Catching her reflection in one of her stepmother’s mirrors, she moved closer to gaze at herself. “Whoa! I’m sooo beautiful,” she murmured, turning this way and that to view her reflection. Then she spoke to the mirror:
“Mirror, Mirror, don’t you think
That I’d look cute all dressed in pink?
Although of course you know it’s true
That I do shine when wearing blue.”
She went on and on, admiring herself and inviting the mirror to do the same. The shards had affected her differently than some of the other students, but still in a negative way.
“Ha-ha! She’s as vain as Ms. Wicked now,” guffawed Jack Frost, doing gleeful flips in the air.
“It’s not funny, Mr. Frostypants,” Snowflake snapped. “She can’t help it. It’s the shard’s fault. We have to help her!”
“The best way to do that is to end whatever is
causing this evil,” Rapunzel reasoned. “I say we catch up to your bunny and see what he wants to show us.”
“I guess you’re right,” Snowflake agreed after a moment. “Maybe that’s our best hope for now. We’ll come back for Snow White after we break the mirrors’ spells.”
Though they were reluctant to leave their friend, the two girls continued on with Jack Frost at their side. When they finally entered a room at the heart of the castle, they didn’t see Kai at first. Because it was bright enough in there to need sunglasses!
Mirrors hung all around them on every wall, reflecting rays of sunlight beaming in from the heart-shaped windows Snowflake had made in the central tower above. And these mirrors were way scarier than those in the other rooms. Wavery images of otherworldly, menacing-looking creatures with sinister faces, pointy noses, clawed fingers, and wiggling hair were reflected in all of them. Remembering their History class studies, the girls could guess what the creatures were.
“Those things in Ms. Wicked’s mirrors,” Snowflake whispered to Rapunzel in horror. “They’ve got to be Dastardlies from the Nothingterror. I bet they’re trying to enter Grimmlandia through these mirrors!”
Rapunzel nodded grimly. “Maybe I can use my magical comb charm to cage them if they actually get out.” But as she reached into her pocket for her charm, she cried out sharply. “Ow!” She pulled her hand out to touch her shoulder. “Oh, no, I think I’ve been struck by a shar —!”
Her words dwindled away before she could finish. As her eyes glazed over, she flipped her long, dark hair over one shoulder. Frowning at Snowflake, she said crossly, “This castle should be mine, not yours. You have no need for such a big space, but I could live here with my cats!” She wandered off then, muttering to herself about the unfairness of things.
Jack Frost giggled. “I think your goth friend has gone a bit green around the edges.”
“Jealousy,” Snowflake whispered. Another negative emotion. She frowned at Jack and added, “Not her fault. Those shards have a bad effect. Now help me find my bunny.”
“Grrr!” growled a low, strong voice. The sound was coming from a thick cloud of mist at the far side of the room.
The sprite stared at the mist. “What was that?”
“I don’t know,” Snowflake whispered.
“Let’s go see,” Jack said, sounding excited. Snowflake wanted to run away, but that wasn’t an option. She had to be brave and discover what the bunny had led them to see. Maybe it would somehow save her friends, er, acquaintances, from the evil that had befallen them. Or were they friends now? Things were getting confusing.
“Who’s there!” she called out in a firm voice. No reply. Though scared, she stumbled into the fog cloud, trailed by Jack Frost. Around them, wispy strands of mist swirled, turning into clawed hands or evil faces with fanged smiles now and then before changing back into fog. When the mist suddenly disappeared, Snowflake stopped still, a chill sweeping over her.
Because there on the ice, only ten feet ahead of her, sat a huge green monster — perhaps a Dastardly! Her snowflake wand lay on the ice beside the creature. But what horrified her most was the sight of Kai perched calmly on its shoulder.
Had the wand flown here to wait for her? If so, had the Dastardly captured it? And Kai? Or maybe the wand really was evil and was here to take part in whatever rotten plan was unfolding.
“What’s that green guy doing?” Jack whispered to her. “Playing a game?”
Snowflake shrugged uncertainly and moved sideways to get a better look. There was an oval game board about four feet long and three feet wide lying on the ice in front of the monster. Covering its surface were hundreds of sharp, flat glass shards. She watched as clawed green fingers dragged and placed the shards within the game board’s metal frame, as if they were puzzle pieces. There didn’t seem to be enough shards to complete this puzzle, however. She had a feeling she knew where the rest were, though. Off striking other students and changing their personalities!
“That’s no game board,” she hissed. “It’s the frame from the mirror Ms. Wicked escaped through to … wherever she went. I took it to the library after the glass inside it broke.”
Jack nodded carelessly. “Those trolls must have brought it here.”
“I also think that green guy might be a Dastardly. And he’s trying to fix that mirror. Please, can you fly over and bring me my wand before he sees us?” she asked Jack. Even if her charm was evil, she desperately needed its magic to rescue her bunny before he became Dastardly dinner!
“Why should I?” Jack replied, folding his arms as he lazily flitted around her.
Thanks a lot! she thought. Any warnings to this flighty sprite about the dangers of repairing an evil mirror would probably do no good. He’d be happy if more evil entered Grimmlandia!
“I thought you wanted to be my sidekick,” Snowflake countered, knowing that might be the only way to get him to act.
“Now you’re talking!” he crowed. He zoomed off toward the wand. However, another mirror flew off the wall and blocked him like a shield, or a sprite-swatter. Smack! He slammed into it and fell to the ice, looking dazed. More mirrors began to fly off the walls, positioning themselves around the room like an army hovering in midair. Were they awaiting orders from that Dastardly?
Without warning, it looked up and spotted her. Her breath caught. Was she about to be destroyed?
But right away the creature’s red eyes turned to sparkly green and its scaly green-skinned body twisted and shrunk till it had shape-shifted into a boy wearing a tunic, breeches, and boots.
“Hey! A dragon boy!” shouted Jack, still sounding a little dizzy as he sat up from the ice where he’d fallen.
“Dragonbreath?” Snowflake whispered, recognizing him at last. “What are you doing?” Had he been sharded, too? Like that boy in her tale, was he now trapped in this castle, doomed to move puzzle pieces around forever? She shivered.
“Snowflake! Sorry about shifting. I took dragon form to ward off possible trouble. I guess you’ve noticed the weird creatures trying to get out of the other mirrors?” He looked up at her briefly, then concentrated on his task again.
“Yeah. Dastardlies trying to enter this realm from the Nothingterror?” she guessed, watching his hands work on the shard puzzle. When he nodded, she didn’t add that she had thought he was a Dastardly at first, too. She was glad he was back to his normal self now.
Just then, Kai hopped off the boy’s shoulder and boinged over to her. She picked him up and hugged him in relief.
“I found your bunny on the island, and when I saw some trolls bringing mirrors into the castle, I followed to see if you were in here,” Dragonbreath informed her all in a rush. “After that, everything started getting weird and changing around here, and when I noticed some mirrors flying into this room, I came to check things out and found this broken one.”
“It belonged to Ms. Wicked,” Snowflake put in, moving closer to stare at it.
He nodded. “I think it somehow controls the other mirrors and they’re waiting for its orders.”
Snowflake’s eyes went wide. “Then why are you fixing it? Stop!”
Before he could reply, disembodied voices began crooning to them. “Yes, stop. Give up, give up.” The voices were coming from the Dastardlies in the rest of the mirrors, which still floated around the room looking ready … for battle?
Cocking his head toward them, Dragonbreath replied to her earlier question, saying, “That’s why. Those other mirrors don’t want good-hearted characters like us to put this thing back together. And I’m thinking that maybe that’s because, in our hands, it could become a tool for good.”
So this boy still thought she was good, even after she’d told him who she really was back in the library?
As Dragonbreath set another shard in place within the frame, the voices crooned, “Nooo.”
Maybe his theory was right. She’d heard enough about Ms. Wicked and the E.V.I.L. Society’s connection to the Nothingterr
or to know they longed to take over all of Grimmlandia.
Snowflake threw off her cloak and made a makeshift bed for her bunny to lie on nearby. Then she kneeled beside the broken mirror, picked up some shards, and reached out to add them to the puzzle.
“Good idea! These mirrors were probably hoping for someone evil to come along and repair this thing,” Jack Frost noted, hovering just over her head. Instantly, Snowflake snatched her hand back. Was she the evil they were awaiting?
“He’s wrong. You can help. You’re not evil,” Dragonbreath assured her.
She shook her head, uncertain. “There aren’t enough shards here to finish this thing. But I think I know where the missing ones are.”
“You do?” Dragonbreath asked eagerly. “Can you use your wand to summon them here?”
“Maybe.” Could she trust her wand, though? It seemed she had no choice if they wanted to complete this mirror puzzle.
She raised her hand, and called out, “Wand, please come, and —” But the enthusiastic wand didn’t wait for her to finish speaking her rhyming command. It jumped up and whooshed toward her. Halfway across the room, it changed direction. As if drawn by some unseen magnetic force it spiraled backward until … smack! It stuck like glue to a mirror hung so high on the wall that there was no way Snowflake could reach it. The wand spun in circles against the glass as if trying to wrench itself free, but to no avail.
“I think that evil mirror is trying to take my wand into the Nothingterror!” she cried in horror. She was staring up at her wand and trying to figure out how to get it back, when she heard Dragonbreath let out a yelp. Fearing the worst, she turned.
He was lying flat on his back on the floor. “I slipped on the ice,” he explained.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “Here. Let me help …” But before she could reach down and try to pull him to his feet, a dozen long shards rose from the mirror he’d been trying to put together. She gasped as they hurled themselves at him. However instead of striking him, they attacked his clothing, driving themselves through the outer edges of his tunic and breeches like stakes, effectively pinning him to the icy floor.
