Of Witches and Wind

by Shelby Bach

  Well, that explained a lot. I’d thought Lena had learned Fey kind of fast last summer.

  “It turns out they don’t have any Ogre-English dictionaries,” Lena continued. “That’s how you make it. You basically cook the language dictionaries down like fruits for jam, but you add phoenix feathers or dragon scales instead of sugar. And this”—Lena dropped a lunch box on the seat of the nearest chair, the boxy plastic kind that elementary schoolers used—“is a Lunch Box of Plenty. It’s the same as a Table of Plenty, but more portable. Instructions are inside.”

  I stared at the pink ponies on the front, waiting for her to tell me why she was sharing all her favorite inventions. Maybe her brush with death had affected her more than I thought.

  “Ignore the sticker. I had to run through a bunch of lunch boxes in the experimenting phase, and this just happened to be one that worked. I would make you a prettier one, but we don’t have time before you go on the quest.”

  I stared at her. I could only think of one reason why I would go on a quest. “You mean it’s my Tale?”

  I was waiting for my Tale to start, just like almost everyone else, but I didn’t want it like this—not with everyone’s life at stake.

  “No, it’s Ben Taylor’s,” said Melodie.

  Poor Ben. He was having an exceptionally tough first week.

  Lena spread out a few mini magic mirrors. “I’m volunteering all of these, but I want you to keep one. So we can talk while you’re traveling.”

  She tried to pass me a mirror, but I wouldn’t take it. “If it’s Ben’s Tale, shouldn’t you give this stuff to him?”

  A bell rang out, echoing through the empty courtyard.

  “He’ll ask you to be his Companion.” Lena shoved the lunch box in the green carryall, the sticky translator in my ear, and the M3 in my hand.

  Assuming I would go was kind of like counting your dragon scales before they fell off. Being a Tale’s Companion was a coveted honor. I had only been on Lena’s. “But Ben doesn’t know me at all.”

  “He barely knows anyone, but you and Chase saved his life,” Lena pointed out.

  The door to the ballroom infirmary opened. Only thirty people filed out, but just like with a regular Tale, everyone was making guesses about whose Tale it was and what it might be. Ben looked a little paler than normal—I couldn’t tell if he knew it was his Tale.

  Chase came through the orange-gold door to the apartments, yawning, which meant I wasn’t the only one who’d snuck a few hours’ sleep.

  “Is your dad coming back?” I asked him.

  He rubbed his face. “No. He’s still in northern Muirland, touring dwarf cities. The Director said not to tell him. The dwarves aren’t always friendly and Dad’s not great at keeping secrets.” That was an understatement. A few glasses of Fey mead in the Glass Mountain and Jack started telling the Snow Queen about every mission he’d been sent on. “We’ll be in danger if word gets out.”

  “Why?” I said. Asking for help seemed like a really good idea to me.

  “If you were planning a hostile takeover of EAS, this would be a good time,” Chase said. “Now, important question: Why are so many girls healthy? I feel outnumbered.”

  I glanced into the crowd. Only four people gathered around the Tree were guys: Ben himself, Kenneth, Chase, and a tiny fifth grader who was huddled on the roots, crying but trying not to be obvious about it.

  Darcy snorted. “Guess how many of them are on a diet.”

  Then the library door opened. Out came Rapunzel, carrying something headstone-size and bound in brilliant orange leather. She’d had a hard night: Her silver braid—half-unraveled—trailed along the grass, picking up twigs and leaves. Her lips were parted as if in wonder or fear. My stomach knotted. This was one of Rapunzel’s bad days.

  She dropped the book in my arms. I staggered. This one book was twice as heavy as my backpack.

  “The necessary knowledge is inside,” she said.

  It was like she’d used up all her making sense-quota for the month the night before, and she’d returned to the regular, slightly insane version. It was hard not to feel abandoned.

  “But that’s the current volume,” squeaked Lena. “It’s never supposed to leave the library. None of Rumpel’s books are.”

  “Rumpel is not here.” Rapunzel pulled her braid over her shoulder and picked leaves out of it. “Books are mobile. Children are ungainly. A collection of children is a crowd.”

  There was a stunned silence, and EASers all across the courtyard exchanged freaked-out glances. “Oh, my gumdrops,” breathed Lena.

  “Is this normal?” Ben asked.

  “Yeah. Well, kind of,” muttered Chase.

  “She meant,” I said, feeling as impatient as Rapunzel looked, “it’s easier to bring Rumpel’s book out here than crowd us all in the library.”

  “Oh, good,” Jenny said, relieved. “Rory, act as translator.”

  I rolled my eyes. Rapunzel wasn’t that hard to understand.

  Rapunzel gestured to the book with both hands. “Rory, the necessary knowledge.”

  “You mean, the Tale? The one that’ll save everyone, right?” I asked hesitantly.

  “Yes,” Rapunzel said.

  Kenneth stared hard at the book, like he was trying to develop X-ray vision. Jenny’s hands were clasped in front of her, so tightly all her knuckles paled. Even Mia’s eyes gleamed.

  I struggled to open the book, but it was three feet tall. “Chase, help!” I said, and he grabbed one side. “Lena, you’ll need to read. We can’t see it from this angle.”

  “But . . .” Lena’s voice was tiny. She glanced toward the library. “Rumpelstiltskin—”

  “He ate two and a half slices of pie,” said Jenny, “and then he stayed up all night watching the book. He won’t be much help to anyone right now.”

  So Lena reached for the corner of the page and flipped carefully to the current Tale. Her voice trembled. “ ‘Poison snuck into Ever After School and lurked in the most innocuous of food—the dessert. Many fingers were pointed, many enemies named, but in truth the poison was delivered by one hand and one hand only: that of the Snow Queen.’ ”

  Thirty-some voices in the courtyard started asking questions, and Jenny’s was loudest. “But how? How did the Snow Queen poison us? When did it happen?”

  All eyes shifted to Rapunzel, who shrugged. “These questions lie in the past.”

  “It’s still important. She had to send someone to do it,” Jenny said, hands on her hips. “That someone could still be here, waiting to finish the job.”

  This was a very good point.

  “The Snow Queen? Still here?” squeaked a weepy ninth grader.

  “The witches,” Chase said suddenly.

  “But they’re just as sick as everybody else,” Jenny said.

  “Ever heard of a little thing called a suicide mission?” Chase replied.

  “Those questions don’t interest me now. We must concern ourselves with the future. One week is all we have.” Rapunzel tapped the volume Chase and I held, so violently that we nearly dropped it.

  “Keep going,” I whispered to Lena.

  “ ‘Among the poisoned invalids was one Betsy Taylor, and her son, Ben—’ ”

  “Me?” said Ben. So he hadn’t known when he’d come out.

  “ ‘—vowed at her bedside to do everything he could to save her. And only one thing could be done: He would have to draw the Water of Life from its spring.’ ”

  “Wow. Three days, and it’s already your Tale.” Kenneth obviously was torn between being jealous and sucking up. “Congratulations, man.”

  “I’m glad it is you,” Rapunzel told Ben. “Steadiness is strength too.”

  Ben swallowed hard, trying to keep his cool. “I don’t remember the procedure from orientation. I’m afraid you’ll need to walk me through the whole Tale process.”

  But Rapunzel had clearly decided the normal routine wasn’t for her. She dropped a hand on my head. “
You still know nothing of your future. Listen for what people do not say.” A flush crept over my face, the way it always did when I was the center of attention. Geez, Ben hadn’t even asked me to be his Companion yet. “Where others see a wall, or a mountain range, you see an escape. She will attack you with words,” she added, and I knew she was talking about the Snow Queen.

  I wondered if I could ever go on a quest and just have to worry about the quest, not some stupid vague Destiny.

  Ben poked Rapunzel’s shoulder. “How do I save Mother?”

  “Secrecy can be a shield, but it can also slow the arrival of help—and healing,” Rapunzel said, looking at Chase.

  “Wait. Are you just talking about Chase?” I asked Rapunzel. “Or are you talking about EAS’s defenses being down?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  I sighed. These had to be the kind of statements that made sense later.

  “But someone should know of Cal,” she told Chase, and he paled.

  “Well, we shouldn’t be telling a bunch of people that we’re unprotected,” said Jenny. “Ben, pay attention who you tell.”

  “You don’t need to mention the poisoning. The ‘Water of Life’ Tale always has an illness in it, but usually it’s only localized to one person,” Lena said thoughtfully. “The mother or father of the Tale bearer. No one should suspect everyone is sick.”

  “Maybe if you explained this step-by-step,” Ben said to Rapunzel.

  Jenny answered. “You leave EAS and search for the Water of Life. Before you go, you need to know about the past ‘Water of Life’ Tales. Do you have them, Rapunzel?”

  “History will not help you,” said Rapunzel. “The tapestry of the Tales has been ripped apart and restitched.”

  Jenny put her hands on her hips, so I said quickly, “This Tale will be very different from the others.” The Tales were changing. The grown-ups had been saying that ever since I first came to EAS.

  Lena’s sister had apparently taken it upon herself to be a substitute grown-up. “Rapunzel, did you even look up the five most recent ones?”

  “They will not help.” Rapunzel sounded just as exasperated. It was hard to be in charge when a fifteen-year-old was bossier than you. “Those Tales Failed.”

  Everyone stiffened, so much that Ben noticed. “What? What does that mean?”

  “EAS is so doomed,” Chase whispered to me, and I elbowed him.

  “It means the quest will be hard,” Jenny said gently.

  “Those who quested for the Water never returned,” said Rapunzel.

  Ben gulped. Chatty patted his shoulder.

  “Okay. Lena, what’s the textbook definition of the Water of Life?” Jenny asked.

  “Substance or Tale?” Lena said.

  “Substance first.”

  “ ‘The Water of Life is pure magic in liquid form,’ ” Lena said in the tinny voice she used only when she was reciting something from her photographic memory. “ ‘It can be used to power many level-seven spells and enchantments, but its most common function is healing. One teaspoon of the undiluted substance will heal any and all injuries and/or illnesses. It originates only from an enchanted spring, whose location changes every thirteenth moon.’ ”

  “No one knows where it is?” Ben whispered, horrified.

  “The lost and fabled continent waits for you, full of Fey and prisons,” said Rapunzel.

  For a beat, no one said anything. I didn’t get that one either.

  Lena flipped the page of Rapunzel’s book. “ ‘The spring waited for him on the shores of Atlantis. Its path led inland, marked by two crossed pines.’ ”

  “That doesn’t sound too terrible,” Ben said slowly.

  “Uh. Don’t you remember how big Atlantis is? As in the biggest hidden continent in the world? One and a half times the size of Australia?” Chase said.

  “No,” said Ben, disbelieving. “Someone would have noticed. Satellites.”

  “It’s glamoured. If it were glamoured any more, it would be invisible,” Chase said. “And it moves all around the Pacific Ocean.”

  “Isn’t there anything else in the book he can go on?” Jenny asked Lena, who shook her head. The rest of the page was blank. The Tale was still writing itself.

  “The winds may know more.” I thought for a minute Rapunzel was telling Ben to follow the breeze wherever it blew, but then she added, “The West Wind is the friendliest.”

  “The West Wind is kind of a person. Characters sometimes go ask him stuff,” I explained to Ben.

  “Lena, what happens in the ‘Water of Life’ Tale?” Jenny asked.

  “Well, there are two major variations. In the first, a king’s daughter is dying, and a celebrated physician—” Lena stopped.

  Rapunzel was shaking her head so hard that her long braid lashed behind her like a cat’s tail.

  “Wow, the briefing for this Tale feels exactly like twenty questions,” said Darcy.

  Only Jenny seemed undaunted. “And the other?”

  “A father falls ill,” Lena said uncertainly, “and four brothers go on a quest one after the other. They don’t come back. The sister takes up the quest.”

  Now Rapunzel nodded.

  “I’m an only child,” Ben said.

  “Siblings will not fall,” said Rapunzel. “Your Companions will.”

  I didn’t need to translate that. Every Character in the courtyard had second thoughts about volunteering.

  “What’s a Companion again?” Ben asked.

  “Since it’s a quest, you’ve allowed to pick other Characters who travel with you,” Jenny explained. “They help. You can pick two of them. Anyone not poisoned.”

  “Four,” corrected Rapunzel.

  “The Director only lets us pick two—” Jenny said.

  “Of the last fifteen quests into Atlantis, none returned uninjured,” said Rapunzel. “Ben shall choose four.”

  “But EAS is only allowed three Characters per quest,” Chase said. “The Fey will get cranky if Ben takes more. And by cranky I mean they’ll call it an invasion, capture Ben and company, and throw them in prison for seven years.”

  Ben paled a little more. Yeah, this Tale was sounding better and better.

  “No, there’s some fine print in the contract the Director and the Unseelie King signed.” Lena’s voice changed to her tinny reciting one. “ ‘Characters of four or more traveling in Atlantis will have three sunrises to reach the Unseelie Court and request permission to stay longer on the Continent.’ ”

  “Okay, so four Companions,” Jenny prompted.

  Ben glanced over the crowd.

  Lena had a point. Ben didn’t really know anyone. It would suck to know that your mom’s life—hundreds of lives—depended on your Tale, and only strangers could help you.

  “Kenneth,” said Ben suddenly.

  Kenneth smirked a little, walking forward. He had expected this.

  “Chase and Rory,” Ben said next.

  Lena smiled in a way that clearly said, I told you so. Chase propelled me forward, straight to Ben’s side.

  Kenneth watched us, clearly thinking he thought a rock troll would be a better Companion than a seventh grader. “We don’t have to bring Rory. Just her sword.”

  Chase and I both scowled at him.

  “One more, Ben,” Jenny said.

  “Ummmm . . .” Ben’s face went crimson. “Mia.”

  The crowd parted. Her face was as pretty and still as a sculpture.

  Rapunzel drew a ribbon out of her pocket. The rings tied to it glowed neon blue.

  “Rings of return,” Chase said, for Ben’s benefit. “They will bring us back to the courtyard if we put them on.”

  “One for each.” Rapunzel passed the ribbon to me. Which meant that I got the fun task of painstakingly unknotting the ribbon to free each ring. “You shall use it if you are injured. Any injury and you return here so I may send someone else in your place,” said Rapunzel.

  Kenneth looked like he might protest. Usu
ally, EASers only returned if they were in life-threatening situations.

  “Four hundred seventy-three lives depend on this quest,” Rapunzel added. “My precautions are necessary.”

  So she had thought this through, despite how weird she sounded.

  Lena gasped. “I almost forgot! The spring Water only works if you’ve gone on the whole quest and if you seek a cure for a sick blood relative. If someone else does it, the magic might reverse, and it might kill you.”

  I grimaced. “Got it. Don’t touch the water before Ben brings it out.”

  “So even if he gets hurt, he still gets to keep going?” Kenneth said, like this was unfair.

  Personally I thought three trained Companions would be enough to keep him safe. I was more concerned about Mia. This would probably not be a good time to bring up my beheading dream.

  Rapunzel regarded Kenneth coolly. “The violence of your temper will be outmatched. Be prepared. For some battles, swords will be no use. Only fire can fight fire. Only wind can fight wind.”

  That shut Kenneth up.

  Closing her eyes, Rapunzel drew in a long breath and then released it just as slowly. When she opened her eyes, her gaze was dark and piercing once again. She had literally pulled herself together. Whatever she said next would make all the other insanity fall into place.

  “Now we need something, behind the purple and lilac door on the western side,” she told Jenny, who rushed away.

  Or maybe not.

  “Wait, I have a question,” Ben said. “What happens if we take longer than three days and the Fey don’t give us permission to stay? Do we just send two people back?”

  Jenny returned, carrying an armful of packs and weapons. I recognized my sword belt and took it off her hands. Chase and Kenneth reached for the other two, as Jenny passed a spear to Ben and a staff to Mia.

  “It is nearly impossible for a human to get what they want in Fey deals. Allow Chase to negotiate,” Rapunzel said. “He has some experience with the Unseelie Court.”

  My head whipped around. Chase looked grim, but unsurprised. “Not to mention I’m the only one here fluent in their language. And the king kind of likes me.”