Cinderella: Ninja Warrior (18 page)

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Authors: Maureen McGowan

Tags: #Fairy Tales & Folklore, #Juvenile Fiction, #Adaptations, #Interactive Adventures

BOOK: Cinderella: Ninja Warrior
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They embraced for a few moments, but then Max pulled back to hold her by the shoulders. “I’d love to have a nice long reunion, but we don’t have much time.”
The magic competition—she had almost forgotten! She glanced out the window to judge the angle of the sun. “I think I’m already too late.” She reached up to touch the pretty gold heart.
“I see you found the locket,” he said. “Your father gave it to your mother as a symbol of his love.” Max smiled softly. “I cared for her, too, and hoped . . .” His voice trailed off and he paused for a moment. “ Two wizards joined by the power of love are much stronger than the sum of their parts—but she didn’t love me, and it was so clear your parents were very much in love.”
An image of Ty’s face flashed through her mind and tightened her chest, filling her with happy apprehension that stirred the nerves in her belly and made her swoon. Could what she felt for Ty be love? It didn’t seem possible, but, she suddenly realized, the locket had opened when she’d thought about him.
But what did it matter if she were falling in love? Even if he felt the same way, they could never be together. Not with her stepmother’s spell hanging over her.
She shook her head. Where had that thought come from, anyhow? Her only concern if she got free was forging a life for herself. And winning the magic competition was the first crucial step in that plan. “I wanted to win magic lessons today,” she told Max. “But now I’m too late to compete.” Not to mention still trapped.
“Nonsense,” Max said. “You might miss part of the opening ceremonies, but you can still make it.”
“Do you mean it?” She pressed her hand against her galloping heart. “Can you break my stepmother’s entrapment spells?” Hope and joy buzzed around inside her. She was finally free.
Max licked the back of his hand, and wiped his hair back.
Her heart dropped. “I guess you can’t.”
“I can’t
break
them.” He held her arm.“The best I can do is temporarily suspend them.” He paced around the room. “This has a better chance of working if I define a set time limit and link that to the cost.”
“The cost?”
“There’s always a cost when you alter black magic, but let me worry about that.” He looked away, as if thinking, then turned back to her. “I can release you long enough to go to the magic competition and ball, but if you’re not back home by midnight . . .” He twisted his lips. “Let’s just say it’ll be bad.”
“Bad? How bad? What will happen? You have to tell me. Will I turn into a pumpkin or something?”
He shook his head and chuckled. “There are no orange gourds involved, my dear.” His tone turned serious, “But the consequences will be bad—for both of us.”
“What are the consequences?”
He paused for a moment to think, running the back of his hand over his cheek and then, as if suddenly realizing the feline nature of this gesture, he turned his hand over to rub his chin the way humans did, using his fingers.
“If you’re not back by midnight, your stepmother’s entrapment spells will become stronger, nearly impossible to break, and I”—he lowered his voice and looked down to the ground, hesitating before continuing with the truth—“I’ll turn back into a mouse.” He spoke so quietly she could barely hear him. “Forever.”
Her chest nearly imploded.“Forever? Is that the cost?” She considered the weight of this cost.
He nodded and looked away, and she got the impression there was more he wasn’t telling her. She grabbed his hand. “Then I can’t go. The risk is too high. I can’t have you turn into a mouse forever. What if I can’t get back here in time?”
He brushed a stray hair off her cheek.“It’s worth the risk, Cinderella. And you’ll be back in time, I’m sure of it. I have faith in you.”
“Do you have time to teach me how to use this?” She held up the magic wand.
“Oh, you won’t be needing that.” He reached for it.
“Yes, I will. I barely know any magic.” She smiled sheepishly. “Well, you know that, don’t you?” She shook her head, realizing how Max had been guiding her training, even in his cat form. “You’ve seen my limitations. I won’t have a chance without a wand.”
“Cinderella,” he said, “you’re bound to make mistakes if you use a powerful instrument like this wand.”
“But I changed you from a cat to a person!”
“On purpose?” He put his hands on his hips.
She looked down. “Well, not exactly.”
“That’s because I did most of it, Cinderella. I put the magic into the wand. All you did was wave it over me.”
Her heart dropped. “Oh.”
He squeezed her arm. “You helped. You do have real magic inside you. Not everyone would have been able to complete my spell.” A fleck of dust floated in front of him in the sunbeam and he batted at it like a cat. Then, looking embarrassed, he turned to her.“ Trust yourself, Cinderella. The most powerful magic isn’t inside a wand, it’s inside
you
.”
Is Max serious?
 
Cinderella’s barely a beginner at magic. How in the world can she compete against others who’ve trained with less, um, feline wizards, and had wands their whole lives? Then again, Max seems to know a lot about magic, and even as a cat, he helped her a lot.
If you were Cinderella, what would you do?
 
OPTION A: Insist that Max give Cinderella the wand and then dash off to the competition. If he were that great at magic, he’d have turned himself back into a human years ago. He needed Cinderella’s help for that, even if all she did was some timely wand-waving. She needs to win those lessons, and her mother’s wand is her best chance to stand out from the crowd. Cinderella will be back by midnight to free him from the spell. If you think this is her best choice, go to section 5: Firestorm (page 143).
 
OPTION B: Cinderella should follow Max’s advice and leave the wand behind. Even if he’s still acting a bit feline, he’s right. She has talent as a wizard, and can even move things with her mind. Cinderella can win without the wand. If not, she will have done her best. If you think she should give it a try, without the wand, go to section 6: Balancing Act (page 177).
Section 5
 
FIRESTORM
 
5
 
“
D
on’t be such a worrywart, Max. If my stepsisters can lift melons off a railing the same day they buy wands, then certainly after all you made me do in the garden I can do a lot better than that.”
She hoped.
Max beamed at her acknowledgment of his help, but then his expression turned serious. “Decide for yourself, Cinderella. Magic is in your blood, but I trained with a wizard for three years, working on concentration and body control, before I was allowed to even touch a magic wand.”
“But I’ve trained with you for longer than that.” She wondered if training with a cat counted. “Besides, one way or another, I need to get out of this place. The competition is starting soon, and even if I run, it will take me at least thirty minutes to get down the forest path to the village. Unless . . .” She looked at Max and a sheepish smile spread across her face as she considered using her new wand to conjure a carriage and horses to take her.
She realized she was getting way too ahead of herself. She wasn’t even out of the house yet. “Are you sure you can get me out off the grounds?”
“Yes, I can,” he said. “But remember, be back by midnight, and not a moment later.”
She nodded and tucked the locket inside her dress. It felt warm and heavy next to her skin.
“Now, give me the wand,” Max said.
“No.” She put it behind her back. “I’m using it to compete.” She’d decided. Using the wand had its risks, but it was her best chance.
He put his hands on his hips. “If I don’t alter your stepmother’s spell to break you out of here, you won’t get to the competition.”
“Oh.” She reluctantly pulled the wand out and handed it over.“You’ll give it back, right?”
Max nodded, but he didn’t look pleased at her insinuation. He backed up a few feet, cleared his throat, and adjusted the shiny black belt over his round belly. The look on his face told her he was more perplexed than confident.
She was suddenly apprehensive. “Are you sure you can do this?”
He licked the back of his hand and wiped it over his forehead, pushing his hair back. “Shh. Give me a moment. It’s been a few years since I’ve tried anything this big.”
“You could do magic as a cat?”
“Some. How do you think I got that book off the shelf?” His bushy eyebrows pulled together in concentration.
To give him space, she backed over to the side of the room in front of the cupboard. She didn’t want to get her hopes up too high, but the past hour had been the most incredible of her life. She’d finally found her mother’s wand, helped turn her cat into her godfather, and now he was breaking her stepmother’s entrapment spells! Even if the break was only temporary, it was the freedom was exhilirating!
Max lifted the wand, then sniffed around the room, occasionally bending to put his ear up against a piece of furniture.
A look of defeat on his face, he lowered the wand. Then, eyes widening, he raised it in triumph, only to lower it once more. He repeated this curious motion several times.
Cinderella’s hopes dove up and down with his wand, and she fidgeted, pulling at a loose thread on her apron, resisting the temptation to stamp her foot and insist that he hurry. Before she even reached the competition, she had a long run into the village ahead of her. And thieves in the forest might slow her down.
“Ah,” he said after resting his hand softly on the handle of the door to the garden. He backed up and then turned in a slow circle, raising and lowering the wand.
As he turned, pink sparks came off the wand and transformed into an undulating trail of sparkling waves. Max muttered as he turned, but Cinderella couldn’t make out his words. It sounded like nonsense. If this was how one used a wand, how in the world was she going to win the competition? She didn’t know the words for the spells.
She studied Max carefully, paying attention to every detail, hoping to pick up some clues and remember, but whatever he was doing was far too advanced. Even with her little fire-starting incident, she hadn’t made the wand spark. Not like that. She hoped the competition judges wouldn’t expect her to do these kinds of things, but if Max didn’t pull this off, she’d never have the chance to find out.

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