My Sort of Fairy Tale Ending (3 page)

“What do you mean, you've been waiting for me?” I said.

Mahlia's lips stretched into a fake smile that reminded me of the sewn-on grins you see on mascots. I couldn't get over her outfit. Aliens weren't supposed to dress up like Disney characters. And they definitely weren't supposed to have white powder in their hair to make it look gray. Had she just come from acting in a school play or something?

“We knew that Ilda's information would lead you here eventually,” Mahlia said, waving around a star-shaped wand, just like a fairy godmother was supposed to have.

So the witch
had
been telling the truth—at least about the fairies being involved in my parents' disappearance. It figured that alienlike creatures would be all about abducting people.

“Unfortunately,” Mahlia went on, her painful smile fading, “she misled you. We had nothing to do with your parents disappearing.” She stepped forward. “We are so thrilled you came to us. We love adventurers.”

I couldn't help taking a step back as I noticed a weird, hungry look on her face. Did she mean they liked to
eat
adventurers?

“Hey there,” Anthony said, stepping forward. He never liked being left out of things. “I'm Anthony, Jenny's guide.”

Mahlia gave him a weak smile and turned back to me. “I am sure you have many questions about our kingdom, but first—”

“Where's Ilda?” I interrupted. “Is she here?”

“She is our honored guest. We have encouraged her to stay with us until it is safe for her to return to her land.”

Yeah, right. They probably had her in a dungeon or something. The fairies couldn't have been happy about the witch spilling the Queen Fairy's secrets to me.

“You sure have a lot of honored guests around here,” I said.

“We thrive on visitors. We have for decades.” Mahlia gestured out the window at the hazy village below, as if it were teeming with life. But the streets were totally empty, like a beach in the winter.

“That's not what I heard,” Anthony muttered. “Ever since the king died, you guys have had a reputation for being pretty darn unfriendly. I mean…a theme park without an ounce of cotton candy?”

“We are
not
a theme park,” Mahlia said through a tight smile. “The Queen Fairy put a stop to that foolishness long ago. She saved us and helped rebuild our land so that we could embrace our true fairy nature.” She waved her wand around again, like she was trying to act the part of a stereotypical fairy. It made her look like she was conducting an orchestra that only she could see.

“If you say so,” said Anthony.

Okay, enough small talk. “We need to see the Queen Fairy,” I said. According to Ilda, the queen was the one who'd arranged to have my parents kidnapped. There was no way I was leaving this place without talking to her.

Mahlia shook her head. “I am afraid that is impossible. But our land has so much to offer! How about I set up a tour for you and your friend?”

“We don't want a tour. We just—”

“Our castle is exquisite! And the queen will be holding a ball tomorrow for—”

“A ball?” I jumped in. “Will she be there?”

The fairy let out a tinkling laugh. “I am afraid not, but there will be plenty of other delightful fairies to mingle with.”

“I don't want to mingle! All I want is to see the queen. I'm not going anywhere until you let me talk to her!”

Mahlia blinked at me. I realized I'd been yelling right in her face. But what did she expect? I wasn't going to just give up on finding my parents when it felt like I was so close.

“Very well,” Mahlia said, her smile dimming. “I will try to arrange an audience with the queen. Be warned, she will likely say no. She is very private.”

Right, private. Or an adventurer-eating monster who'd slurp up my brain while I slept.

“In the meantime,” Mahlia went on, her face brightening, “please make yourselves at home in our wonderful land.” As she waved her wand again, I noticed a red cuff around her wrist, just like the ones the leprechauns wore. Did that mean she was on a magical diet too?

“Pardon me, Lady Mahlia,” said Karfum. He stepped forward and whispered into one of the fairy's long ears. I could make out the words “Pryll” and “threat.”

As the fairy listened intently, she not so subtly scratched her powdered hair with one of the points of her wand. When Karfum was done talking, Mahlia gave us a little bow of her head and said, “My apologies. I have an urgent matter to attend to. The guards will show you to your rooms.” She turned and started to glide away.

Rooms? How long did they think we'd be staying here? “Wait!” I said. “We don't want to sleep here! Let us see the queen and then we'll go home.”

Mahlia turned back to me and let out a twittering laugh. “Oh, Jenny. You will enjoy Fairy Land so much that you will never want to leave.”

I shuddered. I could just imagine the fairies saying that exact same thing to my parents all those years ago, before they'd trapped them here forever.

The leprechauns brought us down one endless corridor after another, until I started to get dizzy. I kept expecting to see other fairies, but there was no one around except for the occasional leprechaun who was cleaning, guarding, or doing some other super-boring task.

“This place is the worst,” Anthony huffed, probably still miffed about being ignored because he wasn't an adventurer. Personally, I thought he was pretty lucky not to be on the fairies' radar.

“Where is everybody?” I asked Karfum as he led us down yet another hallway. “How come Mahlia is the only fairy we've seen?”

The leprechaun cleared his throat. “Everyone is currently working in the factories below.”

Elevators and factories in a fairy-tale castle? Nothing about this place added up.

“Doing what?” said Anthony. His eyes lit up. “Making candy, by any chance?”

“I thought you were done with candy,” I said.

Anthony shrugged. “Thanks to this mission, I won't be going to my high-school reunion anymore. Now I don't have to worry about indulging once in a while.”

“Yes, there are food factories,” the female leprechaun said, “and a variety of other industries. Now that the magic is rationed, everyone must work for their necessities.”

“How long has the rationing been going on?” I asked. No one answered my question. Maybe it was yet another thing they weren't supposed to talk about. I couldn't figure it out. The leprechauns were servants, so it made sense not to give them too much power, but why were the fairies forced to limit their magic too? With all the magic the queen had stolen from other lands, surely there was more than enough to go around.

As we went through the palace, I kept an eye out for Dr. Bradley, but there was still no sign of him. Maybe he wasn't even in Fairy Land anymore. I wouldn't put it past him to go beg the Committee members to help us, but since they'd already told us they thought the whole mission was “imprudent,” I doubted he'd have any luck.

We rounded another corner and almost smacked into a troll.

Anthony shrieked like a little girl and sputtered: “What—what…?”

I couldn't blame Anthony for being terrified. The troll wasn't just a troll. He was a troll in a troll costume. His oversized plush troll head was tucked under his arm while his real troll head was poking out of the top of his costume. It was totally disorienting.

“Remember the rules, Froy,” said Karfum. “Heads must be worn at all times in public.”

The troll sighed and plopped his fake head on top of his real one. Did the fairies think he wasn't “troll enough” so they'd put him in a costume? If this was another one of the Queen Fairy's ideas, then I was starting to think she was completely insane.

Finally, after making us wind through a few more hallways—were they leading us in circles?—the guards stopped at an oval-shaped door and turned to Anthony.

“This will be your room,” said Karfum. “Since you have expressed a liking for candy, we'll make sure it is fully stocked with anything you desire.”

Anthony's eyes tripled in size. “Any candy I want?” he said in a whisper.

The leprechaun nodded and ushered Anthony into the room. The gnome glanced over his shoulder at me. “I guess I'll see you later, Jenny-girl.” Then the door closed, and he was gone.

“And these,” Karfum said, leading me to an oval-shaped door across the hall as the other guards trailed behind us, “are your quarters.”

When he opened the door, I actually gasped. The entire place was set up like a mini-golf course. There was even a water trap in the middle of the room that doubled as a fountain.

“How—how did you guys know I love mini-golf?” I said.

The leprechaun shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. I guess he was used to fairies knowing more than they should.

I glanced at the other guards still in the hallway, then lowered my voice. “So now what?” I asked Karfum. “You're just going to leave me here?” I had a feeling the door would lock from the outside the minute the guard left. “I need to see the queen. Please, it's really important.” I couldn't believe it when tears started stinging at my eyes. Since when was I a crier? I guess getting so close to finding my parents only to feel like I was still a million miles away from them was getting to me.

Karfum sighed and handed me a green handkerchief which, weirdly, was made out of woven shamrocks. I dabbed at my eyes with it to be polite and then handed it back to him, hoping I didn't have some sort of allergic reaction to shamrock pollen.

“You are just like my daughter,” he said, his voice soft and soothing. “She was always so impatient. Just wait a while. You never know what's waiting around the corner.” His eyes got a far-off look that made me wonder what had happened to his daughter.

“Karfum,” I said softly. “Please, tell me what's going on here. Do the fairies trap adventurers? Do they have my parents? Are they going to eat me?”

The softness in the leprechaun's face disappeared and was quickly replaced by the same emotionless mask he'd been wearing when I first met him. “I'm afraid those are things I'm not allowed to speak of.”

Then he turned and left me alone in my amazing mini-golf room. I should have been in heaven, but all I wanted to do was scream.

After hitting a mini-golf ball under the bed and through the bathroom, I tried to hack at the front door of my room with the club. With the first thwack, an electriclike zap went down my arm. The door wasn't just locked; it was sealed with magic. The fairies could dress it up all they wanted, but I was a prisoner, plain and simple.

I hurried over to the window, hoping I could escape that way if I needed to, only to discover that it was made out of super-thick glass and also sealed shut with magic. Great.

Suddenly, I jumped as a knocking sound came from a nearby closet.

“Um, who's there?” I said.

“Me,” a hushed voice answered.

“Me who?” Apparently, I was part of some weird knock-knock joke.

“Just open the door!”

I flung open the closet to find a fairy boy around my age crouched inside. When he climbed out, I saw he was taller than I was, and much ganglier thanks to his alienlike arms and legs. He was also wearing clothes that I would expect to see on a fairy-tale prince, not on a fairy—including red tights. Tights! At least his pale hair wasn't powdered white. And even with the weird getup, I had to admit that he was still kind of cute.

“Who are you?” he said, an accusing tone in his voice.

“I'm Jenny. Who are you?”

“I am Luken,” the boy barked. “I live next door. What have you done with Belthum?”

“Who's Belthum?” I tried not to giggle as I kept staring at the boy's tights. Was this really how fairies dressed? Or was it all part of the Cinderella vibe in this place?

“The leprechaun who lives here. This is very important. I need to know where he is!” The fairy boy looked like he might start trying to shake the truth out of me. His intensity was a far cry from Mahlia's fake happiness.

“Hey, calm down. I have no clue where your leprechaun friend is. Or who he is. The guards just brought me here.”

The boy shook his head and started pacing around the room, rubbing one of his pointy ears with his fingers. I noticed he had a red cuff around his wrist, just like the one Mahlia and the leprechauns wore. “This is not good,” he muttered. “The Queen's Guard must have found out what we were planning.”

“Planning what?” I said, but Luken didn't answer.

Finally, he let out a long sigh and glanced around at my personal mini-golf course. “They have customized the room for you. I suppose that means Belthum is really gone,” he said. Then his eyes lit up. “Wait. You are the adventurer.”

As he studied me curiously, there was none of the hunger I'd seen in Mahlia's face. Maybe that meant fairies didn't eat adventurers, after all. Not that I'd actually been worried. And even if they did try to wolf me down, I'd probably just taste like anger and impatience.

“Yup, that's me. Jenny the Adventurer,” I said. “Now will you tell me why you're so upset? What do you think happened to your friend?”

Luken closed his catlike eyes for a second. Then he stepped forward and said in a low voice, like he thought someone else might be listening: “I am afraid he has been moused.”

“Moused?” I repeated. I thought of the troll in a troll costume I'd seen walking around. Had Luken's leprechaun friend been forced to wear a Mickey Mouse costume or the Fairy Land equivalent? Judging by the pained look on Luken's face, I had a feeling it was something even worse.

Then he blinked a couple of times and jumped up with what looked like excitement. “An adventurer ride!” he said before pulling a sketch pad out of his back pocket.

“Um, what?” I asked as he started drawing furiously.

He ignored me and kept scribbling. When I glanced over his shoulder, I almost laughed when I saw a sketch of a roller coaster that was roughly shaped like my face.

“What on earth is that?” I said.

Luken's eyes snapped up, like he'd totally forgotten I was in the room. “Nothing,” he said, his cheeks flushing pink. “Just an idea for a design. But it…it is not any good.” He shoved the sketch pad back in his pocket.

Before I could ask him more about it, footsteps echoed out in the hallway.

Luken sprinted across the room and stopped at the closet opposite to the one he'd come through. Then he ducked inside and started looking for something.

“What are you doing?” I said.

“I must go search for Belthum before anyone notices I am missing. There is another trapdoor here. If I can just find the latch—ah! There it is.” He turned back to me. “Good luck, Jenny the Adventurer.”

“Wait!” I cried. “Where do the trapdoors go?” I could have kicked myself for not checking the closets when I first got here.

“Through all of the rooms along this side of the corridor,” he said over his shoulder.

“Any chance one of them leads to the queen?”

Luken didn't answer. He'd already ducked into the closet and was climbing through the panel in back.

Without thinking, I dove in after him. The minute my head went through the panel, the orange cuff around my wrist let out a horrible buzzing sound and zapped me with electricity like a wonky toaster.

I fell backward onto the carpet of my room, just as the front door burst open. Karfum stood in the doorway with several other guards behind him.

“Did you miss me already?” I said with a forced laugh, checking to see if smoke was coming out of my mouth. Luckily, the cuff had only shocked me instead of frying my insides.

“You were trying to leave your room,” said the female guard.

As I scrambled to my feet, I glanced over to make sure the trapdoor in the closet was totally hidden. There was no sign of Luken.

“What?” I said. “No, I wasn't! That's crazy! I would never do that.” Okay, maybe I was denying it a little too much. I'd never been a great liar.

“Your tracker,” said Karfum. “We know it—” He fell silent and stared off into space, as if he were listening to a far-off sound. Then he nodded slightly and said: “I have just received word that the queen has requested to see you immediately.”

I stared at him. “So soon? But everyone's been saying the Queen Fairy never sees anyone.”

“She has changed her mind. In fact, she was particularly interested to meet you once she discovered you were an adventurer.”

I shuddered. What was it with fairies and adventurers?

“Now, we must hurry and get you ready,” said Karfum. “If you do not look presentable, the queen will be displeased.”

I stared in horror as the leprechauns conjured up piles of clothes and toiletries. Karfum and a few of the other guards went to wait out in the hallway, while two female leprechauns practically tied me down to a chair, promising that I'd love my makeover.

They tugged and painted and spritzed until I felt like my head had been turned into papier-mâché. Then the female guards dressed me up in a huge, sparkly gown that looked like something my aunt might have worn to her prom.

“Are you kidding?” I said. “I can't wear this!” I felt like a wedding cake on legs. At least I'd persuaded the leprechauns to let me keep my sneakers on, since they'd be hidden under the long dress, instead of having to wear the high-heeled torture devices they'd laid out for me.

When the guards finally let me see myself in the mirror, all I could do was stare. My hair was in curls—I didn't know my hair
could
curl—my eyes were about twice their usual size, and my lips looked (and tasted) like candy. As tacky as the dress was, its layers of sparkly netting were actually flattering on me. I had to admit that I looked kind of…pretty.

“Perfect,” said one of the leprechauns in her deep voice. “The queen will approve.” Then she pushed me out into the hall.