Of Sorcery and Snow (7 page)

“Okay,” I'd said, still reeling.

“I want you to think about what kind of big sister you want to be,” Brie had said. “Because I think it would be fantastic—and your dad thinks this too—if you were really involved. I just know that your little brother or sister is going to
love
you. I want you guys to meet right away. Maybe you could come down for the birth? What do you think?”

I'd thought,
I really need to get off the phone
, but I hadn't
said
that. I don't remember what I'd said. I just remember what happened after I'd hung up.

I had burst into tears, run upstairs into my bedroom, and slammed the door.

That had led to a few late-night phone conferences between my parents on the
how is Rory handling the baby news?
question. They didn't know I'd overheard them, but it was hard to ignore my parents working together without shouting.

What Mom and Dad didn't know was that after I'd locked myself in my room, I'd called Lena on my M3 and told her. She'd understood why I'd freaked. This was yet another way my life paralleled the Snow Queen's. Solange's father and stepmother had had a little girl when she was thirteen too—Solange had stolen the baby away, named her Rapunzel, and put her in a tower until she started her little sister's Tale. Manipulating the conditions like that is forbidden, but Solange wanted to make sure that Rapunzel joined the Canon and became immortal like her big sis.

And as much as I loved Rapunzel, she was pretty messed up, and it was all Solange's fault.

I didn't want to be involved. I didn't want to get anywhere
near
Brie's baby. It was safer—for
them
.

Remembering that made me sad.

Of course my family didn't know me. There was so much I hadn't told them.

“Rory,” Mom said, and I looked up. Worry had pinched her face again. I guess I'd spaced out for too long. She reached for my hand. “I really think it would be good for us.”

This was the perfect time to come clean, to explain what was really going on in my life. I was running out of excuses.

But I wasn't sure that now was the right moment to tell Mom magic was real. She was still shaky from the wolf attack. She didn't need to know that I fought like that on a regular basis.

I couldn't break it to her this way. Not yet, not when the adrenaline was still making her hands shake.

So I did what I usually did. I stalled. I
lied
.

“Can I have a little time to think about it?” I said, ignoring the guilt creeping in. “I've really been looking forward to the dance at EAS.”

I didn't really care that much, but this excuse seemed normal enough to satisfy my mother. She even looked kind of relieved, like she thought this explained all of my hesitation.

Amy didn't. I knew that fierce thin-lipped look. “Maggie, you're going to let her go back to that weird place? After Rory just tossed a giant dog across the
room
?”

Here we go. I steeled myself.

“It's only one evening,” Mom said. “Besides, we don't have any proof what happened today has anything to do with EAS.”

“Well, we can ask her.” Amy turned to me. “Does Ever After School have anything to do with that punch?”

I froze, resisting the urge to touch the ring. “I mean, all the sword lessons have made my arms a lot stronger.” Wow, that sounded weak.

Amy and Mom knew it wasn't the truth. They stiffened, and I could see the indecision on Mom's face: call me on it and punish me for lying, or keep her word and let me go to the dance.

“I'm going to trust you, Rory,” Mom said slowly. “But when you get back, I want you to trust me too. I want you to tell me the truth.”

I nodded. It would be easier to tell her when we were calmer, when I had time to prepare. Maybe Lena would let me borrow one of her inventions—something awesomely magical instead of just dangerous and scary.

“Maggie—” Amy started, but Mom shot her a look that clearly said,
I'm the mother and the maker of all decisions.

“She can go tomorrow night,” Mom said, and I knew what she really meant.

I could go tomorrow night, but never again.

When Amy started dinner and Mom started researching high schools in our neighborhood, I snuck upstairs to my room. I made sure the door was locked before flipping open my M3. “Hello?”

Lena didn't let me down. Her face filled the mirror. “Rory. It took you forever to get home—we have so much to tell you.”

“So do I—” I started, but I don't think she heard me. Noise overflowed through the M3, like a hundred Characters were shouting.

“Is that Rory?” I heard Chase ask, over Lena's shoulder. “Let me talk to her.” His big hand covered the mirror for a second, and then there was Chase, scowling, his face red. “The Director, she cancelled it.”

“Cancelled what?” Oh no—hopefully not the
dance
. Without a ball tomorrow night, Mom would never let me go back to EAS.

“The
quest
,” Chase said. “She cancelled Miriam's quest. She said it's too dangerous.”

For a second, shock made me stupid. “But you can't just cancel a quest. It's Miriam's
Tale
.”

Lena's head popped up over Chase's shoulder. “That's basically what Miriam's saying.”

“She's pitching a fit,” Chase told me.

“Well, to be fair, everyone is,” Lena said loyally. She knew Miriam better than Chase and I did. “A quest has never been cancelled before.”

Obviously,
this
news blew mine completely out of the water.

“What did the Director say
exactly
?” I asked. “I mean, most quests are dangerous, right? Why couldn't she just give Miriam and her Companions rings of return like everybody else?”

Lena's voice sounded tinny, like it always does when she recited something from memory. “‘The quest cannot take place. This Tale would mean certain death for its bearer, and I can't in
good conscience allow her to go.'” Then she added, in her regular voice, “That's all. Miriam said that Rumpel was reading her Tale in the current volume, and he
flipped out
. Then the Director made that announcement.”

“Who is she sending in Miriam's place? The twelfth graders? Your dad?” I asked Chase.

“That's just it,” Lena said, sounding kind of helpless. “She's not sending
anyone
.”

“The Director's just going to leave those kids up there,” Chase said.

Then the feeling came back, even stronger. I saw it so clearly: the portal to the Arctic Circle, the trail of footprints in the ice . . .

But that was insane. You couldn't just hijack someone else's Tale—that was worse than cancelling it.

On the other hand, this was the Snow Queen. And if we were right about my destiny, then I was
meant
to stop her. “We should go. We should find her and go on the quest anyway.”

Chase nodded. “It would be a big mission. Who knows what kind of security Searcaster set up around the Snow Queen's old fortress? If the Canon sent all the high-schoolers, that should be enough—”

“No.” I lowered my voice. “I meant
we
should go. The three of us.”

And for some reason, my two best friends looked at me like I'd said I should stop by the Glass Mountain and invite the Snow Queen to the ball.

“That's an interesting thought,” Melodie said. I couldn't see her, but I could hear her. She must have been in the bag on Lena's shoulder.

“I don't think that's a good idea,” Lena said.

“Can you think of anyone better for the job?” I hoped Chase
would side with me, but his face was blank—not a good sign.

“No,” Lena said, “but Rory, rescue missions don't usually go out without the Canon's support. Missions like that, they need supplies, maps, Rumpel's research. They need
help
, and if Characters don't have it . . .”

I could see where this was going. “They die?”

Lena nodded, biting her lip.

“The grown-ups have told us that maybe a million times,” I reminded her. “I'm beginning to think that they say that just to stop us from what we want to do.”

“Their names were Greg, Simon, Cassie, and Shira,” Chase said. “They were in the year above George. Shira's sister was stolen by Vasilica the Deathless, and they went after her before the Canon could meet and decide what to do. All five of them died. Their names are engraved on the Wall of Failed Tales. I can show you, if you don't believe me.”

“Technically, it was just Shira's sister's Tale, but the Director made an exception. They're all on there,” Lena whispered. “It happened two months before you came.”

Now I felt like a huge jerk for wanting to roll my eyes.

But Philip Chen-Moore's name could end up there, and Evan and Mary Garrison's, and Jamal Kidd's, and maybe the names of all the Portland children who followed the Pied Piper. A thousand and one
more
names. We would need a bigger room.

“You think we don't have a chance,” I said to Chase. “You think we won't be prepared.”

“No, supplies and stuff aren't the problem. I know how to get into all of EAS's storerooms, and Lena can make everything we don't have,” Chase said, and for a second, I relaxed, sure that he would vote for rescue. “But I don't think we should go either. I
don't want to go to the Snow Queen's palace. People go in, and they don't come out.”

I stared at him.

Chase didn't scare easy. He never backed down from a challenge just because it was too dangerous.

“Even powerful Fey, like Dyani, crown princess of the Unseelie Court, and her betrothed,” Chase added, and I understood what he was trying to say. Dyani's betrothed had been Chase's half brother Cal. The Snow Queen had killed them both when Chase was only five. She'd probably killed them in her palace dungeon.

I couldn't say anything. I was right, I knew it, but I didn't want to force Chase to visit the place his brother had died.

“Well, that is true, but they say the same thing about the Glass Mountain, and Chase and Rory have gotten in and out of there,” said Melodie, and all my hopes rushed back. “Twice, I might add. And you're all forgetting that most times, a person's Tale will bring them the help they need. You three are the newest Triumvirate. You're known for making things happen. You might
be
the help that Miriam needs.”

I didn't know what I did to get on the harp's good side, but I really appreciated it.

Chase still looked unimpressed, but Lena was wavering. I could tell by the way she frowned and stared off into space, the same look she got when one of her inventions wasn't behaving and she was trying to figure out how to fix it.

Melodie sensed it too. “Madame Benne would do it. Madame Benne and Maerwynne and Rikard would never leave anyone to die alone in the cold.”

That was the right thing to say. We all enjoyed getting compared to those three—they were the first triumvirate and they'd
founded the Canon—but Lena could never resist being like her ancestress, Madame Benne.

“Okay, let's ask Miriam. We'll give her the choice: We'll either go with her, or we'll help her and the
Companions she picked
”—Lena glanced down at the M3 to send me a reproachful look—“get to the right place without the Canon's help. Deal?”

Oops. Somehow Shakayla and Natalie had totally fallen off my radar. “That sounds fair,” I said, glancing hopefully at Chase.

He shrugged, which was as close to yes as we were going to get.

“Where is Miriam?” I asked.

Chase and Lena turned away from the mirror, searching the crowd.

“There.” The harp's golden hand crossed the screen, pointing somewhere I couldn't see. “Beating against the door to the Director's office.”

“Oh! Poor Miriam.” Lena's image started bobbing around as she ran across the courtyard.

“Don't tell her the plan so close to the Director!” I cried. “If the Canon finds out, the kidnapped kids have
no
chance.”

“Give us a little credit,” Chase muttered off-screen. “We're not complete idiots.”

“Here. Take Rory and go to my place,” Lena said, passing the mirror over. “Gran's gone with George to a prefreshman college orientation, and Jenny's still out. I'll grab Miriam and meet you there. The Director will be more suspicious if she sees all of us together.”

“But we're always together,” I pointed out.

“And the Director is always suspicious,” Lena replied. “Didn't you see her looking at us right before she announced Miriam's Tale?”

Chase held the M3 up as he walked. “For someone who hates breaking the rules, Lena shows a lot of talent for it.”