“What if someone sees us?” Snow asks. She pinches her nose and wades in.
Jonah runs in after her. “How long can you hold your breath?”
I do not like where this conversation is going. “Let’s just get this over with,” I say. I take one step into the water and sink right in. Ugh, mud. And it’s cold. “Let’s go, fast, fast,” I say. “And quietly.”
Jonah is still wearing the satchel on his back. Those are going to be some very soggy sandwiches.
“Oh, no.” Snow stops her breaststroke and freezes. “Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh no oh no oh no. I forgot about Crowly.”
“Who’s Crowly?” I ask. “A guard?” There must be some guards roaming the area.
“No. The crocodile that lives in the moat!”
I gasp, swallowing a mouthful of water. “This moat? Where we’re swimming?” Is she kidding me?
Jonah points up ahead. “Is that him?”
Oh. My. Goodness. Up ahead is a crocodile. A ginormous crocodile. A ginormous, scaly crocodile that’s currently munching on a large bird like it’s a piece of celery.
“No,” Snow says, still frozen. “That’s way too small to be Crowly. She must have had a baby.”
That’s a baby? It’s huge! I turn to Snow in disbelief. “How could you forget about two crocodiles?”
“I’ve had other things to worry about!” she huffs. “And when I left, there was only Crowly!”
On my left, an even bigger crocodile comes into focus. And then snaps her ginormous crocodile jaw.
“Maybe we should turn around,” I say, my voice shaking.
Baby Crocodile blocks our path from behind and snaps her baby teeth. I would probably find the idea of a baby crocodile cute if she weren’t trying to eat us.
Mama Crocodile lunges again.
Then Baby Crocodile lunges.
Then Mama. And this time, Mama practically flies through the air.
“A flying crocodile!” Jonah hollers. “Cool!”
Cool? Not cool! Their teeth look like steak knives!
Mama Crocodile lunges toward us. “Shore, shore!” I yell, grabbing on to Jonah and still-frozen Snow while trying to swim on my back. I kick my legs hard. It’s not easy swimming without using your arms. And Jonah is really heavy. Why is he so heavy? It’s that bag he’s wearing! “What do you have in there, bricks?” I gurgle as water splashes into my mouth.
“The sandwiches!” Snow calls out. “Give them the sandwiches!”
Jonah reaches into the satchel-backpack and pulls out three of the now soggy stew sandwiches. He tosses two at Mama. He tosses a third at Baby. Will it work?
Baby looks startled. Mama nudges one of the sandwiches with her giant mouth. She does it again. Is she sniffing it?
Suddenly, Mama chomps into it. Baby tastes hers next.
“Even crocodiles need to eat,” Jonah says, nodding.
“As long as they’re not eating us,” I say.
When my feet finally touch down, Snow and I collapse on the shore in relief.
Not Jonah. He’s giddily waving good-bye to the crocs.
Dripping wet, I stand up, my legs still shaking. “We have to find an unlocked window on the main floor,” I say. “I’ll check these. You guys check those.”
I try three. All the shutters are sealed shut.
“They’re all locked,” Snow says when we regroup.
Hmm. “Now what?”
Snow points upward. “Evil Evelyn’s window is still open.”
“Yeah,” I say. “But how are we supposed to get there? Fly?”
Jonah looks back at the water. “I wonder if either of those crocs can fly….”
“Jonah, NO. This is not one of your pretend basement games. This is not flying crocodile. Crocs can’t fly. And even if they could you would not be allowed to ride them. Not on my watch, anyway.” Speaking of watches … No. Mustn’t look. It’ll just upset me.
He shrugs and looks back at the castle. “Oh! Some of the stones stick out just like on the rock-climbing wall at the Y.”
“So?” I ask.
Jonah claps his hands. “So, we rock climb!”
What? No! “No way,” I say.
“Yes way,” he cheers. “It’s easy. Easier than tree climbing, even. I’m one of the best rock climbers in my class, you know.”
“In class you have a harness.”
“But I don’t need a harness. I’ve never fallen.”
“You haven’t fallen yet.”
“Abby,” he says, his voice serious and his lips twisty. “I can do it. Trust me.”
“I can’t do it,” Snow says, her face white. “No more heights for me.”
“I can do it by myself,” Jonah says. “I’ll climb up. You guys spot me. I’ll go in through the window. I’ll take the key —”
“I am NOT letting you rock climb the outside of a castle,” I say. “Case closed. Anyway, even if I did let you, what happens next?”
“Evil Evelyn’s sleeping, right? So I carefully take off her necklace, then sneak back downstairs and open the shutters on the ground floor. You climb in and then we rescue Xavier and the prince. Then we go home.” He wipes his hands together like he’s cleaning them. “All done.”
I do not like the idea of:
My little brother scaling two stories of a castle wall without wearing a harness.
My little brother in Evil Evelyn’s room by himself.
My little brother coming up with ideas when my mind is a blank. Okay, fine. I’m proud of him. But still.
“Snow, you’re on spot duty,” I order. “I’m climbing, too.” How hard can it be?
my toes are sore. My fingers are sore. My whole body is sore. And we are only a foot off the ground.
Jonah gives me a thumbs-up. “You’re doing great!”
“Both hands on the wall!” I order. I can’t believe he does this for fun.
“Don’t look down!” he shouts.
So of course I do. Ahh!
We climb, and climb, and climb some more. “Almost there,” he says. At the top he pulls himself over the windowsill and disappears inside, behind the swishy purple curtains.
“Jonah,” I whisper loudly. “I want you to stay in view at all times!”
He pops up a second later and raises his arms in a V for victory. “I did it!”
“Shhh!”
He leans over and helps me up and over the windowsill.
Right in front of us is Evil Evelyn. Luckily she’s fast asleep.
“Snooooooooooortshhhhhhhh!”
Evil Evelyn snores. Hahahahaha. Jonah and I giggle. We can’t help it.
“What’s so funny?” says a voice on the wall.
My heart stops. I spin to face the mirror. How could I have forgotten about the talking mirror?
“Shhh! Please don’t wake her up,” I whisper.
“Didn’t hear you,” the mirror says.
“Mirror, Mirror,” I say, correcting myself. “Shhh. Please don’t wake her up.”
“That’s better,” it says. Then the mirror lowers its voice. “I won’t. She’s a really sound sleeper. And I don’t want to get you in trouble. I like you two, and I like Snow.”
“But, Mirror, Mirror,” I say. “If you like us so much, why did you send Evil Evelyn to kill Snow in the first place?”
“I didn’t have a choice. I have to tell the queen the truth. It’s part of the —”
“Snooooooooooortshhhhhhhh!”
Jonah presses his hands against the glass. “The what? Is it a curse? Wait — are you a real person stuck in a mirror?”
“Well, I’m not in a mirror because it’s a fun place to hang out.”
“That stinks,” Jonah says.
“Tell me about it. All I do is reflect, all day long. It’s a constant headache.”
“What’s your real name?” Jonah asks. “Mirror, Mirror.”
“Ga-Gabrielle,” the mirror says, choking up.
Oh! She’s a girl. “Hi, Gabrielle,” I say.
&nbs
p; “Mirror, Mirror, can I call you Gabby?” Jonah asks. “It rhymes with Abby!”
“You may not,” the girl in the mirror says.
I’ll try not to take that personally.
I tiptoe over to the queen’s bed. She’s sleeping on her back. Her covers are pulled up to her chin. I carefully lower them enough to see the necklace.
“Snooooooooooortshhhhhhhh!”
I jump. But then I lean in again. I see it! I see the key. But where’s the clasp to the necklace? Oh, no! It must be at the back of her neck. How can I reach behind her head without waking her up? But wait! Someone with so many costumes would have scissors around for last-minute alterations, right? “Gabrielle, Gabrielle,” I whisper. “Where can I find scissors?”
“In the drawer of the desk,” she says.
I tiptoe to the other side of the room and open the drawer. It’s a mess. There are papers, quills, bottles of ink, and — ta-da! — scissors! “Found ’em!”
I pick up one of the papers. It says: the fairest of all over and over and over again.
I think back to Snow’s comments earlier. I ask, “Hey, Gabrielle, Gabrielle, do you happen to know if Snow’s dad had a will?”
“Of course I know if he did,” she says. “I know everything.”
“So did he?” I ask impatiently. “Gabrielle, Gabrielle?”
“He did.”
No way! “Can you tell me where it is?”
“Of course I can.”
“Look, can you please stop playing games? Just tell me! Um, Gabrielle, Gabrielle.”
“No need to get snippy, missy. It’s hidden behind me. Just lift me up — carefully — and you’ll see it.”
Jonah and I lift the mirror up — carefully — and gently put it down on the floor. The wall is covered with loose stones.
“You move the stones,” I tell Jonah. “I’ll get the key.”
I tiptoe back over to the queen’s bed. I lean over her body …
“Snooooooooooortshhhhhhhh!”
I jump again. Her snores are terrifying. Must focus! Must cut the necklace!
Snap!
Done! I grab the key tightly in my fist. “Got it. Did you find the will?”
Jonah is staring at a round hole in the wall. “I found a bunch of papers,” he says. “They look important.”
“Okay, put them in your bag.” I quickly help him put the stones back. “Let’s go. Gabrielle, Gabrielle, thank you for all your help. We’ll be back after we’re done saving the prince and huntsman so we can go home.” Now I can’t help glancing at the watch. It’s after six. We’re running out of time!
“Good luck!” she calls after us as we hurry out of the room.
We run down the two flights of winding stairs to the main floor. We open the shutters. Snow crawls through the small window, and we follow her to a door at the end of the hallway.
I unlock the door and peer straight ahead.
Total darkness.
“We have to go down the stairs,” Snow says.
“I can’t see a foot in front of me, never mind stairs,” I say. “Hey, Jonah, do you happen to have a flashlight in that bag of yours?”
He scrunches his nose. “No. But doesn’t your watch have a light on it?”
“Oh! Right! Good thinking!” I press the LIGHT button on my watch and a super-scary, super-twisty creaky winding staircase pops up. “Yikes.” This basement is SO much creepier than our basement.
“Let’s go, let’s go,” Jonah calls out.
“Hold the banister,” I tell him. “And your shoes had better be tied.”
We wind down and down and down some more. I hold on to both the banister and the key for dear life.
When we finally reach the bottom, I take a deep breath and turn to Snow. “Now where?”
Something runs over my foot. A rat. I clamp my hand over my mouth to avoid screaming.
In the distance, we hear rattling and then: “Hello? Is someone there?”
“Prince Trevor?” I call out. “Is that you?”
Jonah jumps ahead. “We’re coming, Mr. Trevor. We’re coming to rescue you!”
We run toward a large oval door. We all crowd our heads at the small glassless window and see the prince. He is cute. Tall. Light hair. He looks very princely, even in this dungeon lighting. “Hey, Snow,” I whisper, “fix your hair, fast!” I wish it hadn’t gotten frizzled by the poisoned pillow. I unlock the door and it swings open.
“Hi,” says the prince.
“Hi,” Jonah and I say back.
Snow squeaks.
“I’m Abby,” I say, and stick out my right hand to shake. But then I wonder if I should be curtsying or something, so I take my hand back. But his hand is already out, so I stick mine out again.
We shake.
“Nice to meet you,” I say.
“You too,” he says. “Thank you for rescuing me. I’m Prince Trevor.”
“You’re welcome. This is my brother, Jonah, and my very good friend Snow.”
Snow squeaks again.
I think she likes him. Oh! Maybe now that he sees her, he’ll fall in love with her and Snow can get her happy ending after all!
And still another squeak.
“Sorry, did you say something?” the prince asks her.
She shakes her head.
Hmm. He’s not going to fall in love with her if she won’t even talk. Although he fell in love with her in the original story, and she definitely wasn’t talking then. Though her being dead probably had something to do with it. And looking pretty. Right now she’s kind of a mess. She has seaweed on her forehead, and I wish she wasn’t wearing my pj’s. Hopefully after we finish rescuing him, they’ll relax together and joke around, and they’ll have a chance to talk and fall in love.
“Where’s the second dungeon?” I ask Snow.
We follow her down a twisty, dark hall. She peers into another window. “It’s him! At least, I think it’s him. It’s so dark.”
I unlock the door and swing it open.
Inside is a guy around my dad’s age. His hair is long. Really long. His beard is really long, too. He looks like Bob, but taller.
“Snow White?” he says to her. “You’re still alive?”
“Lucky for you,” I tell him. “Let’s go.”
We run back up the rickety stairs.
When we reach the main floor, I take Jonah’s arm. “We saved them. Now we go home.”
And then we hear:
Goooong! Goooong!
“What is that?” I ask, covering my ears with my hands.
Panic flashes across Snow’s face. “The alarm gong! They know we’re here!”
goooong! Goooong! Goooong!
“Someone must have heard us!” Snow shrieks. “We have to get out of here!”
I don’t care how sound a sleeper Evil Evelyn is. There’s no way she’s sleeping through this racket.
“We have to get out of here. Now!” Prince Trevor declares.
Plan, plan, what’s the plan? “To the moat!” I call. “We’ll swim!”
Jonah pulls my arm. “That might not be a good idea. We’re out of sandwiches.”
Crumbs. New plan, new plan! Oh! I know! “Snow, can we lower the drawbridge?”
“Yes!” Snow says, and runs to the entranceway. “I need help!”
Prince Trevor hurries to her side. “What should I do?”
“Pull!” She points to the lever.
He pulls; she pulls. The twenty-five-foot bridge comes crashing down with a loud KABLAM.
If Evil Evelyn wasn’t awake before, she is now.
“Go!” I yell, grabbing Jonah’s hand. The five of us all make a run for it. Jonah and I are in the lead, Xavier is behind us, and Prince Trevor and Snow are in the back.
“Stop!” I hear.
Arnaldo and two of his fellow guards are blocking the drawbridge. They are all large. Very large. I think they even have tattoos. Snake tattoos. Or maybe they’re wearing snakes. Not sure. Either way, they’re scary. An
d their arrows are aimed at us.
We stop short. I guess there were guards roaming the grounds after all. Oops.
“Let’s go back the other way,” Xavier says.
New plan! We turn around. Except Evil Evelyn has taken over the entranceway. Plus, she has a beefy guard on either side. With more snake tattoos. More arrows are pointed at us.
Now what? I look down to my right. Mama Croc has her jaw wide open and a hungry glint in her eyes. Baby Croc is on our left, looking equally hungry.
We are officially surrounded.
I am officially out of plans.
“Well, well, well,” Evil Evelyn snarls. “Look who we have here. Guards! Put the prince and the huntsman in dungeon number one. Put the brother and sister in dungeon number two.”
Oh, no! We can’t go to the dungeon! How are we going to get home if we’re in the dungeon?
We’re not. If we’re in the dungeon, we’re not going home. Never ever.
“Dungeon number two is the better dungeon,” Jonah whispers. “I think I saw a ball.”
“That was a rat,” I tell him. “And I don’t want to be in either dungeon.”
Evil Evelyn cackles. “As for Snow …”
“That’s Snow? I thought Snow was in hiding!” one of the guards exclaims.
“I thought she was dead,” Arnaldo murmurs.
“You’re both right,” Evil Evelyn says. “She was in hiding. And soon she will be dead.”
And with that, something inside Snow appears to crack. “NO!” she yells at the top of her lungs. “NO, NO, NO! You are done trying to kill me. Do you hear me? DONE, DONE, DONE!!!” She points to the guards. “I command you to put down your weapons!”
The queen laughs. “You command them? You can’t command them. I command them. You are nothing. You clean the house of dwarfs.”
The dwarfs! Maybe they’ll show up and save us! Isn’t that how it always happens in the movies? The heroine thinks she’s about to become cat food, and then her friends swing in from the branches and save her. The dwarfs have saved Snow in the past. They’re going to do it again, right?
But how will they know to save us? Hmm. Yopopa’s supposedly a genius. That’s probably why he rode off earlier — to get the dwarfs! And now they’re going to show up in the nick of time.
Any second now.
Now.
Fairest of All (Whatever After #1) Page 8