First Frost (11 page)

It was several hours before either of them realized what time it was. They had missed dinner and were getting more and more frustrated as time crawled by. Bianca took a quick break and stretched her back. It was beginning to cramp from all the time she had spent hunched over the boxes on the floor. She wiped the sweat off her forehead when she noticed a loose brick on the wall. Bianca squinted as she tried to figure out what it was.

Ming noticed her squinting and gently chided her, “Put your glasses on, Bianca.”

“I don’t like them,” Bianca complained. She had been nearsighted her whole life. It wasn’t until she was eight years old that her mother had realized she couldn’t see things very well. The doctor had called it “low congenital myopia;” Bianca, however, liked to call it “a pain in the butt.”

“Then wear contacts,” Ming argued.

“Yeah, not gonna happen. Can’t see the point of poking myself in the eye…on purpose…with glass.” Bianca shuddered as she thought of wearing contact lenses. She made a point to leave her glasses at home whenever she could. She hated wearing them; she thought it made her look nerdy. Of course, Rose always carried a spare pair of glasses with her in case Bianca “forgot” them.

“You’re hopeless.” Ming rolled her eyes.

“Enough about me, come here and take a look at this.” Bianca pointed at the brick on the wall.

The brick was the exact same color as the others. The only difference was that it was slightly loose. She could tell that it was separated from the others because there was no cement around the edges.

She pulled on the brick until it came out and found a letter resting in the empty space.

Dearest Bianca:

I’m afraid if you’ve found this letter, then the worst has happened. I wish we had more time together and more time to prepare you for what’s to come. If you find my journals, they may offer you some advice and further insight to what you may face in the future. They are in the small trunk under my bed.

As for the spell book…you can’t let Lenore have it, no matter what she says or threats she throws at you. She’s a vicious woman and will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

I can’t tell you exactly where it is in case this letter falls into the wrong hands, but I will leave you with a clue so that you know where it is for future generations to come. This is all I can give you right now. Remember that I love you. You are and always will be the greatest joy of my life.

Love,

Mom

The letter shook in her hands. Her vision blurred as tears pooled in her eyes. A single teardrop splashed onto the letter. The black ink swam inside the little tear as Bianca reread the letter a few more times.

She carefully folded the letter and put it in her back pocket. She wasn’t going to show it to Ming. It was something that was too private to share with anyone…even if she was her best friend.

On a separate piece of paper, there was this sentence.

“Black veins are hidden under the First Frost,” Bianca whispered.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ming asked as she stood behind Bianca and looked over her shoulder.

“I don’t know. That’s why we have to figure it out,” she replied.

They went back upstairs to the museum and searched through the Wicked Wing. Bianca looked behind the magic mirror. For a moment, she had thought this was where the spell book would be, mostly because of the frame that decorated the mirror. It was made of ebony with vines, thorns, and withered roses carved into the ancient wood.

“Anything?” Ming’s hands trembled slightly.

“No…nothing.” Bianca’s disappointment was evident in her voice.

“This room is creepy at night.”

“I know.” Bianca gently put the mirror back in its place.

“Stupid spell book. Where else do you want to look?” Ming asked.

Bianca opened her mouth to reply, but instead of her response to the question, all that came out was a deep male voice that said:

“That which you seek,
Hides beneath
Red lips that can
No longer speak.”

Ming shrieked. Bianca let out a string of curse words that her mother would frown upon, probably ground her for a week too, and stepped away from the mirror. Ming pointed to the mirror, but all they could see were their own reflections. Bianca frowned and took a tentative step toward the mirror. She put her hand on the looking glass and waited for something to happen. After a moment of waiting…nothing happened.

“Maybe we should ask it another question,” Bianca said.

“I don’t know, B. This is all
you
…you know what I mean?”

“Yeah,” Bianca whispered.

“Mirror, mirror on the wall
Where in the world
Is my mother?
Can you make sense of it all?”

She didn’t know if the mirror only replied to questions in rhyme…but she figured it was worth a try.

Whatever, it’s worth a shot.

An ivory white face emerged from a fog deep within the darkness. He stretched his jaw as though he hadn’t used it in centuries. He opened his pitch black eyes and stared at Bianca with a bored expression on his pale face. It took every ounce of strength within her to meet his gaze.

“Rose Red is held against her will
In another land
By a witch who wishes you ill.”

“I already know that,” Bianca said.

“Umm, okay. How about…

“Mirror, mirror on the wall
How can we get Rose Red
Back to us
Give us a suggestion…instead?”

Ming shrugged. Bianca knew that Ming wasn’t very good at rhyming; she hoped the mirror would reply.

The face inside the mirror curled his thin lips as though getting ready to growl at them. Bianca wondered if the mirror was going to answer Ming’s question or tell them to leave him alone.

“Queen Mirabel’s book you must find,
Within it is a spell
That will take you
To where the witch dwells.”

“Okay.” Bianca thought about asking the mirror another question, but she already had the clue her mother gave her in the letter. All she had to do was figure it out.

“Thank you, Magic Mirror,” Bianca said and then gave it a quick bow.

The bone white face inside the mirror gave her a single short nod in return and then vanished in a puff of smoke.

“That was twenty different kinds of creepy, B.”

“You say that a lot. Are you sure there are twenty different kinds, Ming?”

“Yep.”

“You’re going to have to list them for me one of these days,” Bianca said.

“I can do that right now.”

“You really don’t have to.”

“I’m going to prove my point once and for all.”

Bianca groaned.

“There’s creepy, obviously, quickly followed by kooky, spooky, mysterious, ookey,” Ming said.

Bianca raised her hand and interrupted her by saying, “That’s the beginning of
The Addams Family
song.”

“Those words still make my list,” Ming argued. “Sinister, eerie, weird, strange, abnormal, uncanny, frightening, odd, scary, unnerving, chilling, unsettling, disturbing, bizarre, and abominable.”

Bianca blinked several times and waited for Ming to say something else.

“Are you officially finished?” she asked.

“I am,” Ming replied, looking really pleased with herself. “You know it took me weeks to memorize all of those words in case I needed to list them someday.”

“So that’s what you do with your spare time?”

“Oh, shut up.” Ming stuck her tongue out and gave Bianca a raspberry.

Bianca thought about the clue and tried to piece everything together.

Black veins…that’s definitely the spell book. No doubt about it. But what did Mom mean by
“
the First Frost”?

Then she gasped.

“What?” Ming shrieked.

“Snow White! The
First Frost
is Snow White! God, I can’t believe it took me this long to figure it out. I’m so stupid,” Bianca shouted as she threw her hands up in the air.

“Okay…the riddle says hiding under the First Frost, does she mean Snow White’s apple? Where she’s buried? What?” Ming asked.

“I don’t think it’s in a cemetery, Mom wouldn’t do that to me…at least I don’t think she would. But I’m pretty sure it’ll be in the Snow White Room. So we’ll try there first. If we don’t find anything there, we’ll ask the magic mirror for more clues.”

They each took a side of the Snow White Room and explored every nook and cranny they could think of. Ming examined the glass case that held the ribbons while Bianca took on the case with the poisoned apple.

Then Bianca wandered over to the portrait of Snow White. She gazed into her blue eyes and whispered, “You know where the book is, don’t you?”

The portrait only looked back at her. It said nothing. No matter how many times Bianca asked, it would never reveal its secrets. Snow White was after all—a painting.

“Humph. Fine. I’ll take that as a yes,” Bianca replied. “Ming?”

“Yeah?”

“I need you to help me bring this painting down, please,” she said.

Together they struggled to pull the heavy portrait off the wall. After a few minutes of swearing and struggling with the bulky frame, they managed to rest the painting against the massive table in the corner of the room. Bianca wiped the cobwebs off the wall with her hands and looked for something out of the ordinary. But all she could see was a smooth wall.

Bianca ran her hands over the wall, hoping to find something…anything. It took several tries, but eventually she felt a loose miniscule corner, almost as though someone had painted over wallpaper with pale pink paint. She picked at the corner until she had a large piece to pull on. Little by little, the wallpaper came off and revealed a wooden box neatly tucked between two bricks.

“Whoa,” Ming said.

“Why didn’t we think of this in the first place?” Bianca asked.

“Because we have no idea what’s really going on?” Ming replied.

“Very true.” Bianca pried the box out of its hiding place.

“If my face melts off like that guy from the Indiana Jones movie, I’m gonna be one very pissed off Asian ghost,” Ming warned.

“Duly noted.”

Bianca took several deep breaths and opened the little wooden box. And there it was: a thick, brown leather book. It looked so harmless. No title on the cover. Nothing to let anyone know its true contents, which probably didn’t matter because not everyone could read in the seventeenth century.

“Ye Olde Spell Book?” Ming whispered.

“Yeah.”

“Not what I expected it to look like.”

“Me neither,” Bianca said.

Don’t worry, Mom. I’m gonna save you. After this is over, I’m going to burn this book. This ends with me.
Bianca made that silent oath to herself. She was going to make everything right again, even if she died trying.

Chapter Eight

Bianca put the wooden box in her bag and said, “Come on. Let’s go home.”

“Okay, let me grab my purse,” Ming replied.

“Where did you leave it?” Bianca asked.

“Under the counter at the gift shop.”

“You shouldn’t leave it there. I’ll show you where I keep mine tomorrow.”

“Cool. Be right back.”

Bianca waited for her best friend at the front door. Moments later, Ming returned. “I’m ready.”

Bianca punched in the code to activate the alarm system for the museum. She pulled her keys out of her bag and locked the doors.

“I’m hungry,” Ming said.

“Me too,” Bianca said as she stood by Ming’s car and waited for her to unlock the door.

Ming pointed her keychain and pushed a button at her brand-new light blue hybrid. A loud clunk sound let them know that the car doors were unlocked. Bianca sat on the passenger seat and waited for Ming to start the car.

“You got anything in your house that’s edible?” Ming pulled out of the museum’s parking lot.

“Not really. You know I can’t cook, maybe we should pick something up on our way to my house,” Bianca suggested.

“Good idea. I’ve never met anyone who can burn water. Seriously, B. It wouldn’t kill you to watch the Food Network instead of Nickelodeon.”

Bianca rolled her eyes and made a face at Ming.