The Fairy-Tale Detectives

by Michael Buckley

  Puck helped her to her feet. “What is wrong with you?”

  “I know where he is,” Sabrina said. “We have to hurry.”

  • • •

  The road that led to Atticus twisted upward toward Devil’s Peak, running parallel to the choppy river below. To get to the house where he was camped Sabrina’s army had to take a steep path that cut back several times. Charming insisted on leading the group and demanded that everyone walk as quickly as possible. Canis stumbled forward as fast as his old bones would allow. Though his body was failing him, his eyes were confident, and for the first time in many days he was not depressed or beaten. He walked with purpose.

  On the other hand, the Queen of Hearts wasn’t exactly in a hurry. Her wounded leg was still hurting her and she whined incessantly.

  “This is a very steep road,” Heart complained. “Perhaps I should stay here and wait.”

  “We’ve heard enough of your whining and wheezing, Mrs. Heart. If you don’t want to go, then stay here,” Pinocchio snapped. The boy now walked with determination, a simmering desire for justice keeping his feet moving forward.

  Sabrina was sure her uncle would lash out at the mayor as well, but again he treated her with patience. “I would probably recommend you stay behind if Nottingham weren’t still around. I’d hate to be too far away if he were to show up. I know it is physically demanding, but I do think it’s safer if you stay with the group.”

  Heart grumbled but continued the climb, wheezing like a tired pig all the way to the top.

  And that’s when they heard the screaming.

  “Snow!” Charming cried, and raced ahead.

  “Charming, no!” Bunny said. “We need a plan!”

  Sabrina’s brain buzzed with possibilities. There were so many different options, all laid out to her like the strands of a spider-web as big as the world. Each strand led to a possibility—some sort of final outcome—but there were so many. She couldn’t follow all of them to their conclusions. There were thousands of them and each one branched into another thousand paths.

  So many ended in the deaths of people she loved. She followed one particular strand as far as she could—and found it ending in blood. Still, it seemed like the right choice, but there were so many others swirling and spinning her thoughts into mush. How did she know such things?

  “We need to circle around, try to get behind Atticus,” Sabrina said. “It may be the only way to help him and save Snow.”

  “How can you know?” Henry asked.

  “I can’t explain it. I just do,” Sabrina said. “And we have to do it now.”

  Everyone scurried through the bushes, circling around the house. All the while Sabrina watched Charming in her mind. Even though they were many yards away and hidden by foliage, it was as if he were standing right next to her.

  “I am here, Atticus!” Charming shouted. Every word spun the web inside Sabrina’s mind in a new direction.

  “Billy! Don’t come any closer. He’s going to kill you!” Snow shouted from somewhere within the house.

  “Shut up!” Atticus roared, and there was a wicked slap.

  “It’s a cowardly man that beats on a woman, brother,” Charming said.

  “So you remember me now, do you, William?”

  “No! But from what I understand, that’s for the best. I suppose if I did remember you, I would have stolen your wife anyway. You aren’t worthy.”

  Suddenly, an arrow flew out the window and pierced Charming in the leg. He fell over, clenching the wound and cursing. There was blood everywhere and the strand of the future reflected its crimson color.

  “You should not be so insulting, little brother.”

  Sabrina watched Charming pull the tip out with his bare hands and get to his feet. It was clear he could barely move the leg, but he walked the best he could.

  “So once again you prove you have no honor,” Charming shouted. “Sending arrows from the safety of a house. I was told you were a brave man.”

  Atticus stepped outside, dragging Snow behind him. Nottingham followed, with his dagger drawn. Snow’s face was bloody and her clothes torn. “I have no problem being seen, William. Now that you are satisfied I suggest you leave while you still can. I have my wife and I’ll mark up your little indiscretion as the crimes of a drunkard.”

  Charming drew his sword.

  “So you want to fight, baby brother? I promise you this will be more than the roughhousing we used to do on the castle lawn. Father and Mother are not here to attend to your bloody noses and boxed ears.”

  “Have your fun, Atticus,” Nottingham said. “I have my own vengeance to win.”

  Atticus pushed Snow to the ground and rushed at Charming, his sword held high. Their blades met with a savage crash, and Atticus kicked Charming in his wounded leg. The prince fell to one knee with a cry but quickly hobbled back to two legs. Atticus attacked again. When he went for another kick, Charming stepped out of the way, only to get a punch to the side of the head. Charming stumbled but kept standing. He swung wildly but missed his brother completely, and Atticus took another ferocious swipe with his sword. This one sliced Charming’s shirt open and blood seeped into the cloth. He fell down and clutched his wound.

  Atticus looked down at him in disgust. “You were a fool to come here. This is hardly worth my time,” he said. Then he returned to where Snow had fallen and dragged her to Charming’s body. “Look at him! This is what you chose over me? He’s a runt. My father should have taken him out back and drowned him in the river. Don’t you fools understand? No man can kill me while I wear this armor.”

  Mr. Canis stepped out of the woods with his pack in hand. “I have a friend who might be able to help with that.” He opened his pack and reached inside, then turned back to the group with surprise. “It’s not here. The jar is missing.”

  And that’s when Sabrina saw Red with the jar in hand, unfastening the cork that kept the monster inside. She had seen this but she had seen so many versions—so many ending in terror. Before Sabrina could stop her, the black spirit that resided inside zipped out and flew into the little girl’s open mouth.

  “Oh boy,” Puck said, and quickly stepped out of the little girl’s path.

  “Red, what did you do?” Daphne cried.

  But the girl did not answer. She was going through a horrifyingly familiar and unsettling change. Hair sprouted from every pore, claws grew where fingers once were, and a long bushy tail sprouted. When the terrifying transformation was complete, the creature towered over everyone at a staggering nine feet with a coat of red.

  “Look who’s back,” the Wolf howled. “What’s for dinner? Oh, I know. Him!”

  It leaped at Atticus, knocking him to the ground.

  “I think we have to get this crab out of his shell,” the Wolf taunted the evil prince. The monster reached over and snatched Atticus’s breastplate, ripping it from his body and throwing it into the woods.

  Atticus shrieked in fear and backed away from the creature.

  “Is that all that’s inside?” the Wolf complained. “Why, there’s hardly any meat on him.”

  Atticus swung his sword in desperation, managing to slash the Wolf’s arm. The wound only made the beast laugh. Without a pause he leaped onto Atticus, knocking him to the ground. He climbed on top of him, yanking the rest of the armor off and tossing it aside. Soon, the magical defense was completely gone, and Atticus was just a man.

  “Atticus is mine!” Charming said, struggling to his feet.

  “No, he’s mine!” the Frog Prince shouted.

  “Get in line!” Pinocchio shouted.

  “NO!!!!” the Wicked Queen boomed, and with a clap of her hands the entire army fell to the ground. Bunny floated into the air and hovered over Atticus, her eyes white like stars and her hands red as magma. “I told you not to touch my daughter, son-in-law,” she said, her voice like thunder. “I told you what I would do.”

  “She’s my wife! My property!” Atticus cried, climbing to his
feet.

  “You should have stayed inside the book, Atticus Charming,” she said as the energy built up in her hands. Sabrina could see she was going to unleash something wicked on the villain.

  But before she could attack, the end of a sword pierced through Atticus’s chest. He looked down and squirmed like a worm trying to free itself from the fisherman’s hook. Behind him stood Snow White. Her face was bloodied and bruised, but she had the hilt of the sword in her hand.

  “No,” she said. “He’s mine.”

  And then Atticus fell forward and never stood again.

  Snow rushed to Charming and helped him to his feet.

  “William, you and I are getting married. No arguments,” Snow said.

  Charming grinned.

  “That was a lovely appetizer,” the Wolf said as he licked his lips. He turned toward the crowd and stomped forward only to have spindly Mr. Canis block its path.

  “Well, look who it is,” the Wolf growled. “Step aside, old man.”

  “No,” he said defiantly.

  “You old fool. I’ll tear you apart.”

  “Red! Red, can you hear me?”

  The Wolf laughed. “She’s not listening.”

  “Red, it’s time to come out of the darkness. You’re in charge. You can do it. Just follow my voice,” Mr. Canis said.

  The Wolf let out an angry protest and doubled over as if in pain. Then he transformed back into Red Riding Hood. She stood before Canis, trembling and crying.

  “I didn’t know it was like that,” Red sobbed. “The demon that controlled me wasn’t so angry. It was just crazy. This thing . . . it’s so vicious.”

  Canis pulled her into his arms. “I’ll help you.”

  Suddenly, Sabrina’s head was filled with an insistent buzz. It felt like there was a little man pounding on a door in her mind, and when she opened it she saw images flashing before her eyes: Uncle Jake’s face; serpentine blades glinting in the sun, slashing at arms and legs; cliffs over a rocky beach. She looked around at the gathered crowd. Jake was not there. Where was he? And worse, there was someone else missing too.

  “Nottingham!” she cried.

  Henry rushed to her before she could fall to the ground. “Sabrina, what is wrong with you?”

  But she couldn’t answer. The images had taken over and all she could see was her uncle watching Mayor Heart and Sheriff Nottingham stabbing at each other with daggers. He wasn’t in any danger at all, but the two villains were trying to murder each other.

  “You betrayed me, Heart, and that is something I will never forgive,” Nottingham said as he poked at his former ally.

  The queen shrieked and slashed at him. “Stay back, you lunatic. Can’t you see the writing is on the wall with the Master? He can’t open the barrier. Isn’t that why we were doing all this? The Grimms offered us an alternative. Since when do you turn down an opportunity?”

  “An opportunity! One you no doubt planned to keep to yourself. You’d happily leave me here.”

  “Please, don’t fight!” Jake said, reaching into his pocket. He took out a folded piece of paper and held it out to the villainous duo. “Here, just take the spell.”

  Nottingham snatched the paper from Jake’s hand and tried to unfold it, but Heart seized it from his grip.

  “Give it to me!”

  “It’s mine, you fool!”

  Nottingham grabbed it, but Heart tackled him. They rolled on the ground, fighting and cursing and slowly rolling down the hill to the edge of the cliff. They were too busy struggling over the paper to notice.

  “I should never have cast my lot with you,” Nottingham said. “The Master told me you couldn’t be trusted.”

  “You and your precious Master. He cares nothing for you or anyone else.”

  The two stopped their fighting as they neared the edge of the cliff. The queen held the spell.

  “What is this?” she cried, when Nottingham snatched it from her with his free hand. He searched one side of it and then the other, and then crumpled it into a ball. “It’s a blank piece of paper. This is a trick!”

  Uncle Jake took two daggers from his pocket and approached the edge of the cliff. “Yes, it is. I knew the two of you would turn on each other if you had the chance. I should have thought of it earlier. Maybe Briar would still be alive.”

  “You manipulated us?” Nottingham said. He reached back to toss his blade at Jake.

  The world slowed to a crawl as the strands of time forced their way back into Sabrina’s mind. She saw her uncle’s death a thousand times. “Stop it,” she cried. “What can I do about it?”

  And then the webs were gone and she was seeing her uncle once more. Just before Nottingham could release his deadly missile, the ground beneath him and Heart crumbled and the duo cried out in fear as they fell off the edge of the cliff.

  Uncle Jake rushed to the edge. Below him, Nottingham and Heart clung to roots in order to keep from plummeting one hundred feet to the rocky and jagged beach below.

  “Killing us won’t bring her back, Jacob!”

  “No, it won’t,” Uncle Jake said as he knelt on one knee. Sabrina hoped he was about to hoist them onto safe ground, but instead he reached into the pocket of his shirt and removed the white rose he had taken from Briar’s grave. Despite many days in his pocket, it looked as fresh and alive as if it had just bloomed. With his fingers he dug a tiny hole in the soil and set the severed stem inside. Then he gingerly packed it with more earth.

  “What are you doing, you fool?” Nottingham shouted. “This is no time for gardening. We’re going to fall. Help us!”

  Uncle Jake gazed upon the rose lovingly. As before, the flower quickly sprouted a twin. It pushed its way toward the sunlight and bloomed like a tiny exploding firework. Then came another rose and another and another until the entire cliff side was churning like a sea with new blooms. The roses sprouted around Jake’s feet and down the cliff and through the desperate fingers of Nottingham and Heart. The blooms wove through their arms and torsos, ran down their legs and around their feet. Soon, there were hundreds of flowers, then thousands—and each flower blossom moved a tiny portion of earth. Combined, the tiny portion became a ripple, then a wave, then a churning, bubbling sea of soil, making it impossible for the villains to hold on any longer.

  Nottingham and Heart fell with little white petals fluttering alongside them. The rocky beach where they landed rapidly transformed into a garden of flowers that reached right to the shore. Soon their bodies were swallowed up, as if the earth demanded that something ugly be replaced with beauty.

  Uncle Jake looked out over the edge for a long time, saying nothing, and then he leaned down and took a single rose from the abundant garden at his feet. He gingerly placed it into his pocket for safekeeping.

  And then a fever swept over Sabrina that felt as if her very blood was on fire. The last thing she saw before she collapsed was the worried look on her father’s face.

  abrina Grimm was no stranger to nightmares. Long before she came to Ferryport Landing, she had spent many nights tossing and turning as her imagination fought off Ms. Smirt and her endless supply of crazy foster families. When she found herself surrounded by real monsters, they invaded her dreams as well. But her mind had never concocted a terror quite as horrible as Baba Yaga. What was worse, the old crone wasn’t a dream. She was real, and now she was peering into Sabrina’s mouth and tugging on her tongue.

  “The child is infected,” Baba Yaga said to her family and friends.

  “With what?” her father said. He looked panicked.

  “Magic, of course,” the old crone said dismissively. “Did you think I was giving her a checkup for chicken pox? This thing you love so dearly has the sickness.”

  “You mean there is magic inside her?” Daphne asked. She placed her hand on her sister’s and nodded. “Yes, I can feel it.”

  Sabrina shook her head, which made her dizzy. “When the mirrors exploded, a piece cut me. I guess some of it got under my skin. I
haven’t felt like myself ever since, but I’m OK. No one needs to worry.”

  “This is not good, Henry,” Mr. Canis said. “Your daughter is magic intolerant.”

  “Yeah, I sort of get power hungry around it, but I’m fine, really,” Sabrina said as she tried to stand unsuccessfully. They were still at Atticus’s hideout. They needed to get to Mirror and were wasting time. “I have that under control. I just feel like I’ve got the flu or something.”

  “You should lie down, honey,” her mother said.

  “Let her stand,” Baba Yaga said. “She’ll be dead soon.”

  “She could die?” Veronica said.

  “Didn’t say could,” the old crone croaked. “Said will.”

  “Then we have to get it out of her,” Puck demanded.

  “Leave her be, I said. It’s inside her—in the tissue. It isn’t coming out.”

  “Then what?” Bunny said. “We just let her die slowly? That’s our only choice?”

  “It’s no choice at all, poison maker,” Baba Yaga said. “Best thing to do is put her to work. She’s got the stuff mirrors are made of floating around inside her. Can’t you feel the power coming off of her? It rivals that of your monster, the First. If you’re wise, you’ll send her out to kill it. We have nothing that can stop that thing, and she might be our only chance.”

  “You’re saying my sister has power like Mirror?” Daphne said.

  “Not like him!” Baba Yaga snapped. “He’s out there somewhere enjoying himself. Her magic is killing her. But yes, they can do the same things. Bah! Enough talk, we’re wasting time.”

  “Sorry if you’re on the clock, Old Mother,” Charming said, “but we’re going to sit here until we find a way to help her.”

  “There’s a chance she could burn herself out,” Bunny said.

  “A slim chance,” Baba Yaga argued. “You do these people an injustice giving them false hope. I’ve seen your handiwork. Even the tiniest splinter is enough to destroy a hundred worlds.”

  “What are you talking about?” Puck demanded. “What do you mean burn herself up?”