A Grimm Legacy (Grimm Tales) (20 page)

“
The back up plan is a dress I picked up for you in town,” Quinn explained.

"What do I do?
”

"In the story, she said: shake, shake hazel-tree, gold and silver over me,
” Quinn told her.

Andi raised a single eyebrow in opinion of the line.

Quinn raised her hands defensively. “I didn’t make it up.”

Dylan let out a single snort of laughter before Andi
’s glare silenced him. Reluctantly, Andi repeated, "Shake, shake hazel-tree, gold and silver over me,” and stared up at the leaves.

Quinn searched the branches with her, and she felt rather than saw the wakefulness of the tree quicken. "Listen.
”

The sounds started with a brief rustle of wings, the whisper of a bending branch; then
, the birds sang. Single chirps scattered throughout the branches and grew until a full chorus swelled and rolled in complicated harmonies.

“
What are they saying?” Quinn asked, raising her voice to be heard over the cacophony.

“
They’re repeating my words back to me,” Andi said.

The birds appeared in droves, flying from the dark shadows of the tree. Willow-wrens, blackbirds, thrush, turtledoves, linnets, finches, oriels
, and birds Quinn had never seen before. They fluttered down by the hundreds, drifting toward Andi.  Quinn backed away, awed, completely loosing Andi amid the birds.

"Every bird under heaven," Quinn whispered to herself, remembering the fairy tale she
’d read earlier.

The beating of the birds
’ wings increased, flying in patterns like swarming insects. A whirlwind of feathers spiraled faster and faster until they were a solid blur and it was impossible to tell where one bird ended and the other began. The tornado of birds funneled up, back into the tree, and Andi emerged from behind the wall of feathers, starting with her toes, inch by inch. Quinn gasped quietly. Dylan and Fredrick grew very still as the last bird disappeared and Andi stood before them.

The birds transformed the tired, grubby Andi into a radiant creature. They clothed her in a dress that moved like liquid silver, short in the front with a full
, gathered train in the back. She wore embroidered lace stockings that matched the intricate embroidery fingering along the bodice of the dress. Short, gold gloves left her creamy arms mostly exposed and her curls—appearing freshly washed and arranged in ringlets—brushed her shoulders while gold beads twisted the rest up in a pile on her head. Her jewelry was a small ransom in gold and silver, but the real change, the most noticeable, was the Andi underneath all the new finery.

Her face was strong, confident, effulgent. She looked like the embodiment of assuredness
.

"I feel..." Andi shook her head with a smile
, unable to come up with the right words.

"You look it," Dylan said, uncharacteristically serious. "You don't have any shoes.
” He held out the ones still hooked on his fingers in a slight daze. "She must have meant for you to wear these."

Andi slipped in
to the shoes and shrugged on the cloak. Beaming, she faced them. "Well?"

The sound of a whipping wind traveled like a strike of lightening down the trunk of the hazel-tree. The ground under Quinn
’s feet shook and she swayed as it trembled. Over as soon as it began, a crack like the report of a gun sounded through the courtyard.

In a squeal of protesting wood, the trunk of the tree split and slivers of bark rained down. Light poured through the opening, so bright Quinn was briefly blinded
to what was on the other side.

The gap widened, shoving dirt and grass to the side as the tree continued to gape open. The
opening slowed and stopped. Gapping several feet wide, the tree had a shaft of light spilling out from the roots until it disappeared like a beacon in the black sky.

"Where
does it lead?" Fredrick asked.

"Think it's the way home?" Quinn wondered aloud.

"Only one way to find out." Andi reached out a hand until it disappeared in to the light of the doorway. She smiled encouragingly back at the others as she stepped forward and let the light enfold her.

They waited a moment, then two
. The tree continued to shine like a beacon, but Andi didn't return.

"Kind of nervy now, isn't she?
” Dylan asked. “I wonder what those birds did to her?"

"Wherever she is, she can
’t be left alone." Without hesitating, Fredrick strode straight into the tree, not sparing a backward glance.

"Of course he'd go next. Shall we?" Dylan said, winking at Quinn and giving her a small prod in the small of her back. Quinn stumbled into the light, Dylan close behind her. The tree creaked and groaned, sliding closed behind them.

"The best part is, she waved us merrily off on our way to marry
her
prince."

Coriander tried to glance over her mother's shoulder at the invitation that arrived that morning.

"Did it say why they
’re holding the feast here this year?"

The oil lamps on the corners of the carriage provided a warm glow to the pearly light of the gibbous moon as they glided over the paved roads.

Lady Wellington sighed and snapped the invitation closed before Coriander could get a look. "Don't be tacky. Of course they didn't say, but it wasn't hard to figure out. You just have to think like royalty does."

"So, what were they thinking when they sent us to this Glass Palace?" Portia tugged at the waist of her dress, making a face.

"They haven't held a feast in fifty years and have obviously made new allies in that time. They want everyone to know their influence has widened in Elorium." Lady Wellington tapped the closed invitation sharply on Portia's head. "Holding their feast at a foreign castle is the ultimate show of power."

Coriander glared at her mother. Wait until she married a prince. Then
her mother would find out how dispensable she was to her.

The carriage turned off the paved road and bumped along a dirt lane with tall pines
crowding in on both sides.

"This proves that anything is possible, and you two better put your best foot forward," Lady Wellington said.

Coriander gave a deep chuckle. "She didn't have a clue where we were going, that daft blonde."

"The best part is
, she waved us merrily off on our way to marry
her
prince." Portia grinned widely.

The road became gloomier as the moonlight struggled to push past the thick branches. Splashing through a trickle of a stream, the carriage lanterns illuminated the occasional pair of glowing eyes watching silently from the wood. Lady Wellington frowned and demanded of the driver, "Are you sure this is the way?"

"There it is!" Portia hung out the opposite side of the carriage and pointed ahead. Coriander took in the drawbridge, turrets, and towers of the castle buried in these dark woods. It was illuminated from within, the brilliant light pouring through the panes of glass, turning the entire structure into a glowing ember. Coriander had eyes only for the castle in front of them.

"It looks go grand," she said, leaning at an alarming angle out of the carriage.

"What if this family has a prince as well?" Portia asked.

What if indeed? Visions of jeweled crowns and endless banquets distracted Coriander, so it wasn
’t until the carriage clattered over the drawbridge and halted in the courtyard that she noticed anything amiss.

"Where is everyone?" Lady Wellington asked, tapping a finger on her chin.

"I told you we were going to be late," Coriander accused her.

"I thought we
wanted
to be fashionably late," Portia said, craning her neck to peer around the courtyard. “There’s somebody.”

Coriander caught a movement from one of the dark recesses the bright lights of the castle created. A short, hooded figure made its way to the carriage. She watched the person silently, confused. It didn
’t look like a footman.

Lady Wellington sighed as the person hobbled to them. "Such sloppiness
. I shall be sure to complain to head of the house. Really, they shouldn't keep such riffraff on staff here."

At the edge of the carriage, the figure threw back its hood and greeted them with a grating cackle.
“It’s not often new pretties come knocking on Eulie’s front door.”

Portia let out a small shriek at the
hag’s long nose, grotesque lips, and wild hair.

“
Driver! Leave at once!” Lady Wellington screeched, smacking the man on the shoulder. When he didn’t respond, she grabbed his arm and tried to turn him bodily. “I said—” she gasped.

His body was motionless, a petrified expression etched on to his face. Coriander watched the old woman advance, holding out her hand. Portia shrank from her, trying to fit her bulk i
nto the corner of the carriage.

Coriande
r blinked. Her sister was gone.

In the old woman
’s hand sat a fat quail, its comma-shaped plume quivering with fright.

Eulie swung her gaze to Coriander, who cowered at the pupils bright as coals, burning in the
crone’s face. Feeling as frozen as their carriage driver, those flaming eyes were the last thing she saw as her mother screamed, and her vision distorted.

“I may have a future as a forger.”

Andi stepped out of another hazel-tree with an identical spilt down the trunk into a small, unfamiliar garden
. Her heart caught in her throat. Could they have come home?

A few hesitant steps revealed a majestic building towering in a glow of golden light against the black sky. So not home, though they must have arrived at the feast.

"Now
that’s
a castle.”

Andi whirled around at the sound of Fredrick
’s voice. "Where are the others?" she asked.

"Right behind me," he said with a glance backward
. He turned back to her. "Thanks."

"For what?" Andi asked.

"Putting up with those, those—" Fredrick’s jaw worked up and down, like he couldn’t quite get the words out.

"Sadistic psychopaths?" Andi supplied.

"Sure, we'll go with that,” Fredrick said. “Quinn and Dylan wouldn't let me out of their sight. We could hear them screaming at you from out in the barn and I just wanted to—"

"Rearrange their ugly faces? That makes two of us." Andi turned to face him
, her hands on her hips. "I didn't think you could stand being around me."

Fredrick looked genuinely bewildered. "Why
’d you think that?"

"Because this is our longest conversation since you came crashing out of that tree.
”

"This is my longest conversation with a girl.
”

"Oh." That wasn
’t the response Andi was expecting. "I'm just a talker, you know? And I don't really understand people who aren't."

"I'll tell you a secret about quiet people. We like being around talkers." Fredrick smiled at her.
The boy actually has dimples. “Not so much silence to fill.”

The boy actually has dimples.

"You've been amazing," Fredrick said.

"Not Quinn amazing,
” Andi said, strangely a little shy around such a sincere compliment.

"No, but Andi amazing,
” he told her.

Andi grinned back at Fredrick just as Quinn exited the tree. Her eyes darted between the two of them and she frowned slightly.

Dylan strolled up behind her, hands thrust in his pockets, the tree closing behind him.

"What
’s the joke?” Dylan asked, as Andi realized she and Fredrick both had lingering grins on their faces.

Quinn stalk
ed away from them, her feather quivering with annoyance.

"Knew you
’d be the last one through,” Fredrick said to Dylan.

Andi watched Quinn distance herself several paces from the, her back to the group. How could Fredrick b
e so oblivious to Quinn's mood?

"Let's get you to the party," Fredrick said, holding out his arm.

Andi slipped her hand onto his offered arm. Dylan obstinately stuck his hands in his pockets, passing by Quinn and giving her a languid grin as she fell into step with him. Andi had a good idea what was bothering her, and the way they were paired off wasn’t helping Quinn’s resentment toward her. They wound their way in silence through the small garden, the castle growing as the distance closed between them.

"Do we have a plan?" Dylan asked in front of them.