Of Sorcery and Snow (35 page)

More wooden doors probably waited on the other side. My Tale was
that
way. I was almost sure.

It wasn't fair, having to choose between it and Miriam's quest.

The lock on the big metal door clicked under Chase's hand, and, gripping my sword hilt, I turned my back on the wooden door. I knew what I needed to do.

I'd gotten everyone out here, and Miriam had given
everything
for
this quest. I had to make sure Philip got home safely. I owed her that.

My Tale would have to come later.

When Hadriane swung the metal door open with the screech of rusty hinges, I sprinted through first.

Two trolls in hockey masks sat across from each other, their spears leaning against the wall. They both had their hands outstretched for a game of knuckle-thumping—I guess trolls are too stupid to play cards—and when they saw me, they jumped to their feet. The closer one was still reaching for his weapon when I ducked inside his guard and smashed my sword hilt into his temple. He dropped like a stone. When the second one tried to jab his spear in my face, I blocked it easily, trapping it against the floor. Before I could deliver a knockout punch, a Bat of Destruction walloped the troll, so hard that his hockey mask broke.
That
troll didn't get up either.

“I wish that they would sleep until we leave this palace,” Lena said, and then she dropped a pewter coin beside them.

The troll glamour over us disappeared.

I turned to Chase, wondering if he would say I should be over this killing thing by now, but he wasn't looking at me. His gaze was locked on the hall ahead.

“The Snow Queen's prison,” Hadriane whispered.

It was so big. The cells stretched down and down, and even though the corridor was wide, I felt locked in. It was too white. Even the metal doors were bleached pale with frost. It didn't remind me of a dungeon at first. It was as bare and stark as a hospital room.

“That witch, Kezelda, was very brave,” said Hadriane, staring too. “By the end of the day, she will be imprisoned here. Or dead.”

Forrel nodded. “She couldn't have made it very far before they took her.”

The fox walked briskly down the corridor.

“Well, if they're taking her
here
,” Lena said, her voice kind of squeaky but her face determined, “then we'd better not hang around and wait to be caught.” She followed the fox.

I peeked inside one of the cells. It was just a hollow block of ice, empty except for the frozen manacles hanging from the wall and the stains below it, a patchwork of sickly browns and ugly yellows and reds so dark, they were almost black. They had frozen solid a long time ago. They were part of the floor now. No one could ever wipe them away.

The dwarves didn't seem to notice—they walked carefully, their weapons raised like they were expecting more guards—but then I glanced at Chase.

He was whiter than the walls around us. He put one foot in front of the other as mechanically as the sorceress's doll. Even though it was so cold that our breath fogged in front of us, sweat dripped from his curls.

Cal and Dyani had died here.

I'd done this too. I'd forced Chase to visit this prison. I was responsible for that look on his face—like he was going to throw up. Or worse, stop and search the cells for something his brother might have left behind.

I wanted to tell him that I was sorry or to give him a hug, but the others would notice. They would wonder what was wrong.

I just took his hand, so he would know that he wasn't alone.

We didn't stop walking, but Chase looked at me.

He lifted his other hand—in his palm was a gold wishing coin. Then, so softly I barely heard him, he whispered, “I wish I knew what happened to my brother here.”

If I'd known this was what he was planning, I would have snatched it away.

His gaze unfocused, and he turned
gray
. That wasn't even the worst part. Chase was years older than the rest of us, and suddenly, he
looked
it. As the coin dulled to pewter he looked older than his parents ever had, more ancient than even Rapunzel. More devastated too.

And I couldn't do anything except walk beside him, my hand squeezing his, and watch Lena, Hadriane, and Forrel's backs, willing them not to turn around. If they did, I would step in front of Chase—I wouldn't let them see his face, not when he looked so vulnerable.

I wondered when this had happened. Not long ago, I'd tried to convince him to share his secrets. Now I was just grateful he had someone watching out for him.

When his grip around my hand grew stronger, I knew his mind had come back from wherever the wish had taken him. His gaze was on that awful floor.

“You couldn't wait?” I could think of a thousand better times to make that wish, but I wasn't mad. Not when the color was coming back into his cheeks.

“It was worse not knowing.” His voice was ragged but quiet.

The others were way ahead of us, too far away to hear, but pretty soon, they would reach the door at the end of the corridor. They would wonder where we were. They would look back.

“He died first,” Chase said. “They made her watch. She almost broke free, the second the last blade fell, but when he was gone, she was gone too.”

I couldn't see what he'd seen. I couldn't even imagine it, but I could see
Chase
. I could see the new shadows haunting his eyes. I could hear his deep shaky breaths and the way his voice had been stripped raw.

I hated the Snow Queen. I hated how I could never make this
better, no matter how many wolves I killed and how many coins I wished on.

“It's all right,” Chase said. “I thought it was the other way around. I thought he lost Dyani, and he decided not to even try to come home. I didn't want to think that, but I did.”

I stared at him. There was no way watching your own brother die could actually be comforting, but I didn't have time to say so.

“You guys?” Lena whispered. She'd reached the door at the end. It must have been two stories tall. “Did you see something?”

“Sword out,” Chase told me. Then he let go and unsheathed his own weapon. He strode down the hall, head held high. “Just a pile of rags in one of the cells. Nothing to worry about,” he said, so confidently that the lie rang true.

Someday I wanted to learn that trick. I wanted to be able to feel that much and then just push it aside. I didn't always want to be the one trailing behind, my feelings written all over my face.

“You okay?” Lena asked me.

I nodded, not looking at Chase, because I couldn't trust myself to speak.

Hadriane patted my shoulder. “I feel it too. This place has seen much death.”

“All the more reason for us not to linger here,” Forrel said, lifting Chase up to the lock.

It took him less than ten seconds to open it. Then the door squealed open, and Chase leaped through, sword raised high, his gaze sweeping back and forth. “No guards?” he said, lowering his weapon.

I'd kind of expected another long white hall, but it was just one enormous holding cell, about twice the size of a basketball court, probably built to hold a giant.

But not that day. Right then, the only prisoners were kids in
their pajamas, lying on the stained floor, so very still.

The fox darted over them, and I had no idea if she was just leaving after a job well done or if we had a little farther to go. None of us made any move to follow her, and none of the Portland kids flinched as she ran past, not even when she stepped on them.

It was too dark in here to tell if they were breathing.

The ledger in the treasury hadn't said anything about the children being
alive
when they were given away.

Hadriane gave a panicked almost-sob. That freaked me out even more. I couldn't imagine her crying.

Forrel knelt next to the nearest body—a lanky middle-schooler in green flannel pants with yellow O's all over them—and pressed fingers to the boy's neck. “Just asleep, Haddy.”

“Whoa. Are those Tables of Plenty?” Chase said.

Tables had been pushed against the wall. They looked like silver patio furniture for the Unseelie Court, all twisting vines and elaborate metal flowers. But I sincerely doubted the Fey would eat any of the food: mac and cheese with bits of bacon; fancy thin-crust pizza; grilled cheese with sundried tomato; falafel; fajitas; and a
bunch
of yummy-looking sandwiches. There was a table of steaming soups and another with fancy breads, biscuits, and pastries. There was even a table of chocolaty-smelling coffee drinks.

Chase walked closer, obviously hungry. “Wow. This spread blows the Table of Never Ending Instant Refills out of the water.”

“No, it doesn't,” said a clear,
distinctly
nonsleepy voice behind us. “All that food is laced with some drug. Eat anything on there, and you'll be knocked out in five minutes.”

“Oh. I'll pass then,” said Chase, abandoning free food for maybe the first time ever.

“Evan!” Lena cried, and there he was. He picked his way carefully
over all the sleeping bodies, carrying the fox guide in his arms and grinning. Lena darted through the drugged kids. “Are you guys okay?”

“Fine. Hungry, but fine,” said Evan. “I haven't eaten in a couple days.”

We'd actually
found
them. We'd made it in time.

“Better set up that portal,” I told Lena. “It'll take a while to evacuate if most of the kids are unconscious.”

“They're not all unconscious,” said Evan. “We could either starve and keep watch, or eat and pass out. Some of us have been taking turns. Philip and Mary have just woken up. They'll be glad to see you.”

Philip.

He was almost safe. When this was all over, I would repeat what Miriam had told me our first night of the quest. I'd tell him how much she'd regretted what she'd said.

I concentrated on not stepping on anybody, which was harder than it sounded on a slippery floor crowded with sleeping kids. They didn't need to wake up with bruised fingers on top of everything else.

Evan led us to a few dozen kids stumbling around like sleepwalkers, their steps kind of jerky, their eyes red and half-lidded. “These guys are kind of on patrol. They've been eating just a few bites, which might explain the zombie impressions.”

“You don't even have guards,” Chase said, clearly delighted about it.

“We
do
.” They must have caused some problems if Evan sounded so bitter. “It took us a couple days to spot them. We think they're dolls, like that Mia kid last year, but they look like people we know. At first they mixed in with the sleepwalkers. But then Jamal, Philip, Mary, and I tried the door, and they rushed us, blowing
these silver whistles. The wolves were here in five minutes. They said they would let us off with a warning, but they had permission to eat the next kid who tried to escape.”

“So you sent the foxes out instead,” said Lena.

Evan nodded. “On the march here, I saved a den of kits from getting trampled. The mom fox convinced some of her friends to help us out.”

“But where are the dolls
now
?” I asked.

Forrel stared at the cell's shadows. “You've chased them to the walls.”

“Mostly to the back. They haven't blown their whistles, so they haven't seen you yet,” Evan said. “We threw food at them, to mark which of us were spy dolls. Since then, they've just been pacing.”

I was impressed. They hadn't just waited around to get rescued. They'd gotten ready—they'd
helped
.

These weren't just a bunch of scared little kids. They were
Characters
.

We got past the circle of sleepwalking patrollers, where a few people sat on the floor. I recognized some of them. Mary's jaw actually fell open, and a split second later, she burst into tears. Beside her, Philip blinked at us blearily, unhurt, even
smiling
. Jamal had obviously eaten recently—he'd passed out behind them.

Hadriane pushed her way to Evan's side. “Have you seen two children? They were dressed in white and brown. Sleeping clothes made out of rabbit skin.”

“Oh, yeah,” Evan told Hadriane. “And they're the bossiest little kids I've ever—”

“Haddy?” said one young voice. It came from a stocky little girl. Her messy pigtails were the exact same shade as Hadriane's chestnut hair.

Then Hadriane was running, and Ima too. Out sprinted another figure in ripped brown furs—Iggy. They collided halfway, and the twins' hug knocked Hadriane down. The princess was laughing and trying to get her arms around them both and kissing their faces all at once.

I felt a tiny bit sad, which was stupid. The happy reunion should have proved the long quest had all been worth it.

Maybe because it wasn't over yet. We still needed to get them out of here. “Lena,” I said.

“On it.” Lena knelt down, and out of her carryall, she pulled dragon scales, the snow servant tile, and a Tupperware labeled
INGREDIENTS FOR A PORTAL
.

From the floor Mary grinned weakly at us. “How long?”

Lena was already counting out dragon scales. “Fifteen minutes.”

Philip's eyes weren't blinking so much. He focused on me. “So you finally got your Tale?”

“No, it was Miriam's Tale.” My heart sank, especially when he glanced around, hopeful.

Then he asked the question I'd been dreading. “Where is she?”

I couldn't tell him. Lena's hands paused on her Tupperware. It was Chase who put a hand on Philip's shoulder. “I'm really sorry, but she's gone.”

He just nodded, completely gutted, like Chase had been in the prison a few moments ago, and I felt even guiltier than I did when we first lost her. “I knew it. A new guard showed up the day after we tried to unlock the door, and the doll looked exactly like Miriam. I hoped the Snow Queen was just punishing me for trying to escape, but . . .”