First Frost

by Liz Delesus

  “Wow. Who lives there?” Ming asked.

  “I haven’t the slightest clue. I didn’t know this part of our world was even populated,” Terrance replied.

  “Really?” she asked, taken aback.

  “I thought you knew everything there was to know about Everafter,” Bianca said.

  “Believe me, I know plenty about our world, but what this castle is or who lives here escapes me. Your Highness, what say you?”

  “Terrance, if you do not know, then I most certainly do not. I say we go and knock on the door and sate our curiosity.” Ferdinand had a wicked grin that let everyone know that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Before anyone could convince him to stay with the group, he ran off toward the mysterious castle.

  Bianca, who was still wearing Red Riding Hood’s cape, watched as Ferdinand’s footsteps burned bright red as he deviated from the path chosen by the blood red cape. She wondered about the price Ferdinand’s distraction would cost her mother.

  “Come on. Let’s go get him. For all we know a freakin’ giant lives there,” Bianca muttered as she removed the red cape and hid it inside her backpack. The fewer people who knew the valuable magical items she carried with her, the better.

  There was a collective sigh all around. Even David sighed, which Bianca found amusing.

  Eventually they caught up to Prince Ferdinand who had already knocked on the massive wooden door several times.

  “Your Highness, I think we should leave before we get into more trouble. We really don’t know who lives in this castle,” Terrance tried to reason with the prince.

  “Nonsense, Terrance. I’m a prince. Why would anyone want to hurt me?”

  Bianca put a hand on Prince Ferdinand’s shoulder, ready to convince him to turn around when the massive oak door swung open. Bianca readied a fire spell and took on a defensive stance.

  “Now, now. No need to set my perfectly good door on fire,” said an old woman.

  Bianca was surprised by how tall she was. The old woman towered over everyone except for Terrance and Prince Ferdinand. Her face was thin and dark tan, as though she had spent every waking moment out in the sun. Her eyes were periwinkle, but clear and shimmering with youth and curiosity. Bianca wondered if it was only the outside that was made to appear old and withered while her spirit remained eternally youthful.

  “You’re late,” said the old woman.

  “Late? What are you talking about?” Bianca asked.

  The old woman clapped her hands. A loud, thunderous sound rippled all around them, causing the ground beneath their feet to tremble and quake. Then everything stood completely still. The trees ceased to sway side to side. The birds remained suspended in the air midflight. The clouds stopped moving. Everything was frozen.

  Time stood still.

  “What is going on?” Ming asked, her voice quivered in fear.

  “Come inside. Your father as well.” The old woman pointed a long, wrinkled finger at David.

  “Wait, how did you know?” Bianca asked as she followed the woman inside the castle. She craned her neck as she tried to get a closer look at this strange new person who had unexpectedly been placed before her.

  “It’s not every day you see a man’s aura swimming inside the body of a bear. Anyway, come inside all of you. The spell will wear off eventually. Either way, I’ve bought you all a few days’ time at least.”

  “How?” Bianca walked briskly beside the old woman, following her through the impressive halls of the castle.

  “I need to teach you a few tricks before you can face Lenore. You still have so much to learn,” she said.

  “Stop,” Bianca said.

  The old woman ignored her and continued to walk.

  Bianca stopped walking. She clenched her fists so tightly she dug her nails into the palms of her hands. There were little red half-moons imprinted on her skin. She was tired of having no control over her life. She was tired of not knowing the truth or having things revealed to her late in life when she was supposed to know so much sooner. She was tired of the nightmares that had plagued her every night since her arrival to Everafter.

  “Stop!” Bianca shouted. Her nostrils flared as she panted for air. She felt as though she had just finished running a marathon.

  Finally, the old woman stopped walking and turned around to face the young witch.

  “I’m sorry,” the old woman said.

  Bianca tried to calm herself down now that she had everyone’s attention.

  “Now, before we go a step further, you are going to tell us who you are and what you want with us,” Bianca demanded.

  “I have no name. My creator didn’t think I required one, but if you must call me something I will answer to Old Woman. And as for what I am? It’s hard to say. I usually appear when someone is in an impossible situation that he or she cannot overcome on his or her own.”

  “Did the Brothers Grimm write about you?”

  “Oh, yes, they certainly did. Very inquisitive, those two. I believe the title of the story was The True Bride. Poor girl, her mother beat her until there wasn’t a bit of skin that wasn’t bruised or bleeding. I helped that girl in every way I could.”

  “I thought it was her stepmother who beat her,” Bianca said.

  “No, it was her mother. The brothers changed that bit because it seemed too terrible a thing to have a girl be abused by her own mother. Either way, I played my part in her story and now I’m going to play a part in yours…if you’ll let me,” Old Woman said.

  “How do you know I won’t overcome this on my own?” Bianca asked.

  Old Woman took a deep breath and lowered herself to meet Bianca’s gaze.

  “Trust me…you are way over your head. Now…you can either accept my help and live to see another day or you can walk out that door and face certain death. Your choice.”

  Bianca turned around and looked at her friends and father. She knew that she would do just about anything to make sure they all survived.

  Bianca turned her attention to Old Woman and said, “All right. What do you want me to do?”

  “Simple. Let me teach you what I know so you can survive this ordeal,” she said.

  Bianca thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Fine.”

  “Very well. Follow me.”

  She led them through the long corridors of the castle and showed them to their respective rooms.

  “If you need anything, let me know. Dinner will be ready at six o’clock.” And with that she walked away and left them all alone.

  Prince Ferdinand and Terrance shared a bedroom. David, Bianca, and Ming were placed in an enormous room together. There was a certain warmth to the space that surprised Bianca. She had half expected it to be dank and drafty, and was given the exact opposite.

  It had an incredibly high ceiling that seemed to go on forever. There were numerous tapestries hanging on the walls. Some were of famous fairy tale princes and princesses, like Snow White, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Jorinde and Joringel, and Hansel and Gretel. The one that Bianca was particularly drawn to was the Snow White tapestry. It was Snow White lying inside the glass coffin while the seven dwarves were on their knees praying—or weeping, she couldn’t decide which. She walked toward the tapestry and gently ran her fingers against the fabric. It was amazingly soft. She could see the tiny glints of silver and gold fabric that the weaver had sewn into the pattern.

  Snow White’s face looked completely at peace. Serene even. Bianca wondered what she dreamt of during that time she was inside that glass coffin, waiting for someone to wake her up. Was she dreaming? Or was she trapped in shadows, pressing her face against the darkness, hoping to find an iota of light in the midst of it all? Bianca wondered all of these things and felt herself becoming sad for her ancestor. Sad for everything she had to endure on her own. She caressed Snow White’s hair as though she could somehow comfort her from afar.

  Bianca turned to Ming, ready to ask her what she thought about Old Woman
and their new situation, but the words died in her throat. They melted away like snowflakes on a warm spring day. Ming was staring out the window, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. One thing Bianca could say about her best friend was that Ming cried prettily. Her face never contorted, nor became red. She didn’t sob either. Her face remained perfectly still, and the only way anyone knew she had been crying at all was the fact that her eyes were ever so slightly pink.

  “You okay?” Bianca whispered.

  Ming nodded and quickly wiped the tears away with the back of her hand. “I’m just scared. I miss my mom, and I wanna go home.”

  “Yeah, me too,” Bianca admitted. She shoved her hands in her pockets and rested her back against the cool stone wall.

  “Really? You could’ve fooled me.”

  “Trust me, most of the time I just want to scream my head off and run in the opposite direction.”

  Ming sniffed and let out a gentle chuckle. “You would never do that. It’s in your nature to help people.”

  “Only the people I like. Everyone else can suck it,” Bianca replied.

  “You’re crazy, B.”

  “I know.”

  Ming took a deep breath. “What now?”

  “I guess we wait.”

  Several minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Bianca opened it; standing in the hall was Old Woman.

  “You, come with me,” she said.

  “Where?” Bianca asked.

  “Outside, to the gardens.”

  “Okay. Hang on a second.” Bianca turned around and asked Ming to find Prince Ferdinand and Terrance. She didn’t want her to be all alone.

  “Okeydokey,” Ming replied.

  She walked out of her room and followed Old Woman to the garden. Bianca was amazed at the amount of greenery and flowers that surrounded her. There were roses in every color imaginable: ruby, amethyst, pale lemon, ivory, and peach. Some were in colors Bianca couldn’t name. In another part of the garden, there was nothing but sunflowers. They all shot out of the ground with large green stalks as though it were their goal in life to touch the sky. Some of the sunflowers were six feet tall. Each petal seemed to mimic the color of the sun: yellow, orange, and fire-engine red.

  “I’ve never seen a red sunflower before,” Bianca whispered as she reached out and touched the soft petals of said flower.

  “The red ones have always been my favorite color,” Old Woman said.

  “My mom would love these.”

  Old Woman smiled warmly at Bianca. She stood on the tips of her toes, plucked a handful of seeds from the sunflower and handed them to Bianca. She held the white seeds in her hands and thought of her mother and how happy she would be to have these.

  “Shall we?” Old Woman asked, gently coaxing Bianca out of her moment of sorrow.

  Bianca nodded. She put the seeds in her pocket and followed Old Woman to the fountain in the middle of the garden. There was a statue of a winged woman holding a large stone basin on her shoulder. At first Bianca thought that it was an angel, but there was nothing angelic about the statue. Her face looked as though she had caused far too much mischief in the world. Trickles of water bubbled and dribbled over and over again. The statue’s beautiful ivory face seemed perfectly at peace with this task.

  “What have you learned so far?” Old Woman asked.

  Bianca explained everything her mother had taught her before she’d been kidnapped, and they picked things up from there.

  “Attack me,” instructed Old Woman.

  “Huh?”

  “You heard me.” Old Woman grinned.

  Bianca shook her head. She had a hard time wrapping that idea around her head, but instead of arguing, she shrugged her shoulders and said, “Okay, if you say so.”

  “Don’t hold anything back,” Old Woman instructed.

  Bianca shook her head once more.

  Is this really happening? she asked herself. She readied her magic and launched a fireball at Old Woman.

  Seconds before the fireball would’ve struck her on the shoulder, Old Woman lifted her hand, and the fireball vanished in a puff of smoke.

  Bianca scrambled to put her glasses on and was able to see the faint blue outline of an oval-shaped shield that surrounded Old Woman. It was as though a tiny blue spider spun a web all around her at lightning speed, protecting her before anything could hit her.

  “How did you do that?” Bianca asked, the awe evident in her voice.

  “I will show you,” Old Woman replied with a mischievous smile.

  Old Woman then led Bianca to another part of the garden. A section of the earth was filled with fragrant herbs and tiny flowers. Old Woman whispered and mumbled as she hunched over and one by one, she plucked some herbs off the soil.

  Bianca leaned over and listened. A deep frown appeared on her face; she couldn’t understand what Old Woman was saying.

  “What are you telling them?”

  “Ah…so you figured out that I’m talking to the plants,” she replied.

  “Yeah.”

  “I’m thanking Mother Earth for allowing me to use Her bounty for your journey. I’m also asking for forgiveness because in essence I’m killing Mother Earth’s children. But She knows that what we’re doing is for a just cause. Mother will forgive us.”

  “How do you know? How do you know She will forgive us? Forgive me?”

  “She’s Mother Earth. She knows your heart.” Old Woman reached up and tapped Bianca on the chest, right above her heart. “She knows every step you take above ground. Knows every tear you’ve shed. Every fear in your heart. Everything you love. Every worry that causes a frown to appear on your face. Trust me…She knows.”

  Bianca nodded, understanding what she meant.

  “Now, enough chitchat. I believe we have everything we need. Protection spells are supposed to repel danger. All I’ve done is enhance my aura with certain herbs. I like the kind of magic that requires a helping hand from Mother Earth. Now, don’t go thinking that this will stop you from suffering physical harm. If you’re going to get stabbed by a knife or a sword, trust me, you’ll get stabbed through and through.”

  “Good to know.”

  “But…I have a little concoction that will enhance any natural abilities you have.”

  Old Woman held up the herbs, and as she recited their names, she pointed to each one individually. “The herbs I’ve chosen for you are eyebright, mallow, mugwort, Saint-John’s-wort, self-heal, speedwell, vervain, wormwood, and yarrow. All of these, put together, repel certain spells, but with a little of your magic and mine combined, you could keep some of Lenore’s nastier spells at bay.”

  “Cool.”

  After a couple of hours, Bianca had a red pouch filled with crushed herbs that she tied around her waist.

  “Now, let’s put it to the test, shall we?”

  “Um…okay…I guess.” Bianca knew she had little choice in the matter.

  Old Woman pushed the sleeves of her blouse up to her elbows and, with a smile on her face, launched a fireball the size of a basketball at Bianca.

  “Oh, God,” she shrieked as she closed her eyes and chanted the spell that Old Woman had taught her. Slowly, she opened one eye and then the other. She was safe. Nothing had happened.

  “Good. Now this time try to keep both eyes open.”

  “Oh, boy.”

  After several hours of training, Bianca finally got a much deserved break. She looked at the bruise on the palm of her hand and decided to tell Old Woman about it.

  “I need to show you something,” she said.

  Old Woman pulled her half-moon glasses out of her apron and put them on. She extended her hand and silently waited for Bianca.

  Bianca clenched her fist and pressed it against her chest. Even now she was still unsure whether or not she should tell or keep it to herself and deal with it her own way.

  Old Woman smiled and waited patiently. Bianca took a deep breath and showed her the palm of her hand.

  Old Woman
drew in a breath and made tsk sounds. Her periwinkle eyes were hard and serious. “This isn’t good.”

  Bianca looked at her hand and noticed that the bruise had grown in size since the last time she’d checked. It was now the size of a grape. Bianca explained when it happened and told her about the nightmares she’d been having since the bruise appeared in her hand.

  “The one from a few nights ago almost got me killed. She made me try to kill myself. If Terrance hadn’t woken me up when he did, I probably would’ve died.” The thought still sent shivers down her spine.

  “If you had come here sooner, I could’ve done something about it, but now all we can do is wait for her to show up and try to catch her then.”

  “Wait for who?”

  Old Woman removed her spectacles and said, “You know who.”

  “Mirabel? But she’s dead. She can’t do anything anymore.”

  Old Woman chuckled. “It’s a good thing I was never young and naïve. Stopped me from wasting so much time. Child, listen to me and listen well. Just because you’re dead doesn’t mean life ends. There is another world where the spirit goes on to live a different life. Just because Mirabel is dead here doesn’t mean she isn’t alive and thriving on the other side of that very, very thin veil that divides us. That bruise is proof of that. But fear not. You’ll rest easy as long as you are here. I’ll try to bind it so that it doesn’t get any bigger than that.”

  “Okay.” Bianca nodded but still remained confused by what Old Woman had told her.

  “Come now, no need to dwell on things you have no control over. Let’s get the others and have dinner. You’ll need your strength and some rest. We have another day of training ahead of us tomorrow.”

  It had been a long three days. Old Woman had taken her out to the garden every day and taught her about herbs and their natural healing and magical properties. Bianca also became adept at blocking all the sorts of magic. Old Woman even taught her how to protect herself from certain elements like wood, rock, fire, and water. Bianca wasn’t sure she could cram one more bit of information in her brain without her head spontaneously exploding. She could imagine the mess it would make: pink-gray chunks of brain matter everywhere.