Grounded: The Adventures of Rapunzel

by Megan Morrison

  Rapunzel was alarmed at the idea of stomachs and hearts being melted, but Jack was quick to explain that it was just a way of putting things. Purl regarded Jack shrewdly for a moment.

  “After they married,” she continued, turning her eyes to Rapunzel once more, “they lived here, with me, while Rem pulled together his business interests. Natty was seven months along with you when Rem got his ‘good news.’ ” Purl’s blue eyes were hard as metal. “They’d granted him a license for Market Park in Cornucopia. He’d gotten one of the best spots, he said — just north of the center, near the riverbank. But if he wanted it, he would have to go at once. Of course he wouldn’t hear of waiting until the next season. And of course, Natty wouldn’t hear of staying behind without him.”

  “Even though we begged her,” Skye burst in from her place on the sofa beside Edam. Her cheeks were feverishly pink. “Begged her for two solid weeks. ‘Rem’s not thinking right,’ I told her. ‘He should put off the business till you’re safe and the child is sturdy — and if he won’t, then you must. Let him go to Yellow if he wants, but you stay here until that baby is born and both of you are well enough to travel.’ That’s what I told her. Oh, if she had listened …”

  Rapunzel turned her eyes back to the book and looked again at her father’s watercolor likeness. He was as handsome as a storybook prince, and his painted smile seemed to say that he knew it.

  “If she had listened,” repeated Purl, gazing at Rapunzel without seeming to see her. “But whatever Rem wanted, Natty wanted. She went away with him, so pregnant that she was lucky not to give birth on the side of the road.” She snorted softly. “But they arrived intact. And they moved into a house Rem had rented on the border of Yellow country.”

  Rapunzel looked up from the book. “And Witch lived in the house just behind them …,” she said slowly, realizing that she knew the next part of the story.

  Her grandmother was looking narrowly at her now. “That’s right.”

  “Their back gardens were separated by a fence.”

  “They were.”

  “And Witch grew the most wonderful salad greens,” said Rapunzel, warming to the tale, “and my mother began to crave them, because I was inside her. My father went over the fence to steal them, but Witch caught him in the garden, and she told him he could take the greens, but that, in exchange, he would have to give me to her when I was born. And he did.”

  Purl’s chest rose and fell rapidly. “How do you know all this?” she asked.

  “A Blue fairy told us in Cornucopia,” said Jack.

  “His name was Serge,” added Rapunzel. “Do you know him?”

  “I do not,” said Purl, still looking rattled. “But the story is famous enough among fairies. Among the Exalted too. And witches.”

  “And the people in Cornucopia,” said Rapunzel, remembering how they had run from her. “They seemed to know all about it.”

  “They know.” It was the first Greve had spoken in quite some time, and his deep voice was hoarse. “No one who lived there during the Bargaining will ever forget it.”

  “Can you tell me why the Bargaining frightened people?” The question had never been answered to Rapunzel’s satisfaction, and she angled her chair away from the fire, toward Greve. “If it was a trade, and my father wanted to give me away, then I don’t understand why it was so terrible.”

  No one answered. All eyes registered shock except Jack’s, and he was quick to speak.

  “You have to understand,” he told them, “Rapunzel didn’t know what parents were until she left the tower. She didn’t know she was from Yellow. She didn’t know much at all.” He looked at her as though to apologize for saying so, but for once, Rapunzel had no desire to fight him.

  “You want to know why it was terrible?” Greve pinned his dark eyes on Rapunzel. “I can tell you. I was there.”

  Rapunzel nodded, but the look in his eyes sent a chill through her in spite of the fire’s warmth. Edam stood up and paced away to the window, where he turned his back on the room.

  Greve set his jaw. “Envearia owned both houses,” he said. “Your parents’ house and her own — but she only lived in one of them. The other was vacant, for rent. It stood empty for years until Rem and Natty came. I lived next door to the rental house with Edam. He’s my son, and he was nineteen at the time. We didn’t notice Envearia much; she didn’t make herself neighborly. She never went into town, never mixed in the neighborhood. Never had a booth in Market Park, when her garden was easily the best in Cornucopia.

  “I had my suspicions she might be a witch,” Greve went on. “People thought I was paranoid. My daughter, Brie, had been killed by the Witch of the Woods several years before, and I guess folks thought I was inclined to see witches everywhere after that. And maybe I was.”

  At the window, Edam clenched his fists. Jack looked sickened.

  “So I had my eye on Envearia,” said Greve. “But others believed she was just an old woman who preferred to be alone.”

  “Old woman?” Rapunzel shook her head. “Witch says she’s ever so old, but I’m sure she’s only teasing. She looks too young.”

  Purl leaned back in her chair and began to rock. “Envearia is over one hundred and seventy years old,” she said.

  Rapunzel’s head snapped toward her. “What?” She looked to Jack for assistance, but he offered none.

  Greve went on speaking. “Fifteen years ago, I found out the vacant house behind Envearia’s had been rented,” he said. “It made me uneasy. Why rent it then, after so many years? What was she up to?” He frowned. “When your parents moved in, and I saw Natty pregnant out to here … I wondered if Envearia was after the child. Wasn’t much I could do about it if she was, except send for help from the governor — which I did. He didn’t reply. Two weeks after your parents arrived, I was at home when Natty started her labor. She howled for hours.”

  Looking red-faced but determined, Jack explained childbirth, more with gestures than words. Rapunzel made a noise of disgust.

  “Well, no wonder she screamed” was all she could think to say.

  Purl Tattersby gave a crackling laugh and looked fondly at Rapunzel. Rapunzel wasn’t sure what was funny, but to be looked at with such obvious approval was very nice.

  “What happened after my mother’s labor?” she asked.

  “By then, it was dark.” Greve’s low voice rumbled through the quiet room. “I went over to check on the new family, see if they needed anything. Barely saw the midwife as she ran past me out of Rem and Natty’s house. She left the front door wide open and every lamp blazing. The place looked as if it was on fire. I was on the front steps when I heard your mother scream.”

  The rocking chair stilled, and Purl stared straight ahead, her features taut. Skye went to Edam at the window. She touched his shoulder, but he stood like stone.

  “I’ve never heard anything like it again.” Greve looked into the fire. “The sound a woman makes when her child is ripped from her.”

  The hairs rose on the back of Rapunzel’s neck, and Jack met her look with one that said he too was disturbed. No one spoke.

  “Then I saw her,” Greve said. “Envearia. She came to the door where I stood, and she was carrying a bundle of sheets and lace. It wriggled and cried. I … I knew she had Natty’s infant. And I knew I’d been right. She was a witch.” Greve shuddered. “I couldn’t stand by and let her take you. I tried to grab you from her — I told her she’d have to leave empty-handed, that I wouldn’t let her pass. She just laughed and took a deep breath like she was taking a drink of you. I could only think of my girl, Brie. How I never knew what had happened to her until it was too late — how I never got a chance to fight for her. So I tried to strike Envearia, but I never made contact. She raised her hand and threw me across the road without touching me, and I haven’t been the same since.” He gestured to the leg that didn’t work. “I couldn’t save you.”

  “Don’t blame yourself,” snapped Purl. “You did more than anyone else e
ver has. You risked your life, didn’t you? And what else is there?”

  The room was silent. Rapunzel hugged herself, not certain why the story made her feel so cold. Perhaps it was that Witch had managed to stay young in spite of her age — but Rapunzel could understand wanting to remain beautiful. No, it was something else that troubled her. She looked intently at Purl and tried to get her mind around it.

  But looking at her grandmother only made her think of how pretty her mother had been in that painting, and how happy, with her arms around her belly, smiling and radiant. Not long after, she had given birth to Rapunzel. And on the same night, she had given the scream that Greve could not forget. It all sounded very dreadful, and yet it made no sense.

  “But why did my mother scream when Witch took me?” she asked.

  “Because she wanted to hold you,” said Purl. “She wanted to raise you, laugh with you, dry your tears, help you to learn, see you become a woman. Such was her right. And it was stolen from her.”

  “But she traded me!”

  “Ah …” Purl pressed her lips shut. “No. Your father traded you. Within a week of living in that house, he traded you. But he never told Natty what he’d done. She had no idea that her unborn infant had been bartered away until you were snatched from her arms.”

  “But — but didn’t she send my father over the fence to get the greens from Witch’s garden?” Rapunzel asked urgently, needing to make it right. “She wanted him to steal, didn’t she?”

  “That was Rem’s story,” said Purl, her voice hard. “And Natty backed him up till the day she died. Loyal even after …” She shook her silver head. “We will never know how the witch’s bargain was really struck. But your mother wanted you, Rapunzel. That you must believe. She wanted you so much that it killed her.”

  Rapunzel sat quietly, trying to absorb what she had just learned. She could not deny that some of what they said was true. Her experiences matched these tales. She believed that she was from Yellow. She believed herself the daughter of Rem and Natty LeRoux. She believed that her father had traded her to Witch. All of it made sense; none of it made Witch a villain.

  But if her mother had wanted to keep her, then it made the bargain cruel.

  And Witch had struck the bargain.

  “How did my mother die?” she asked. Her voice jerked, not quite in her control. “And my father? How did he die?”

  Purl slumped back in her chair with her eyes half-shut.

  “Let me.” Edam turned from the window. “The news spread fast,” he told Rapunzel. “Rem tried to start his business in Market Park, but no one would go near him. Witch Bargainer, they called him. Some had lost children to the Witch of the Woods, but those children had been tricked. No one else had willingly and knowingly traded their children away. The people thought Rem was a monster. He wasn’t in business two weeks before he broke his neck one night, falling from his horse. He was drunk. Some said he’d been drunk since the Bargaining.”

  “He wanted to die,” said Skye quietly.

  “Aye, and then so did Natty. She was half-dead already — the news almost finished her. She had to be carried to his funeral, and afterward, I brought her home. Here.”

  “But she was broken.” Skye’s eyes were full of tears again. “Mind and heart. She didn’t last six months. The first fever she took was the one that killed her.”

  “She had nothing left to fight for,” said Edam.

  “Why didn’t she come and get me?” Rapunzel demanded. She pushed Purl’s book onto the table, stood up, and glared around at them. “She just sat down and died? She didn’t even try? She couldn’t have wanted me so much.”

  “She did try.” Purl’s eyes had now fallen shut. “Her letter from the governor is there in the book. She went to him for help, and received … a most efficient reply.”

  Rapunzel snatched up the book and turned its pages. Stuffed in between the first few sheets was a royal scroll, its wax seal broken, its ink faded with age. At the top of the scroll, in embossed, gilt lettering, were the words Yellow Country ~ Official Correspondence. At the bottom, in the same kind of script, was the stamped signature: Royal Governor Calabaza of Yellow Country.

  Between the head and foot of the note, Rapunzel read, in perfect, black calligraphy:

  Dear Citizen of Yellow Country,

  Thank you for your inquiry. While his Lordship the Governor of Yellow Country cannot attend individually to every subject’s request, rest assured that your thoughts and suggestions are of deepest concern and that your best interests as a citizen of this great country are always under close consideration. Governor Calabaza thanks you for your participation in the community and hopes that you will continue to share your views.

  Rapunzel let the letter curl up with a snap. She clenched her fist around it.

  “He said he was sorry for her,” she said. “He said no good could come from interfering.”

  “Leave the magic to the magical,” Greve muttered.

  “Yes, he said that too.”

  “Who did?” asked Purl.

  “Governor Calabaza,” said Rapunzel. “I met him at the jacks tournament in Cornucopia.”

  Everyone stared at her.

  “She won,” Jack said. “She’ll be competing in the All-Tyme Championship next summer. She’s got amazing skill.”

  “You won?” Edam’s face, which had been stony throughout the tale of Rapunzel’s parents, now brightened. “You’re a Capital Champion? Truly? She’s a champion, Skye! Did you hear? Competing in the ATC and all!”

  “I heard,” Skye muttered. “Really, Edam, does this seem like a good time?”

  “There’s no bad time to be a sportsman! We’ll all attend, of course. For once, I’ve got a reason to pay for the good seats —”

  But Edam’s exclamations were cut short. “Well, well.” Purl folded her hands. She examined Rapunzel for a long moment. “You may look like a copy of your mother,” she said, “but you are your own woman, aren’t you?”

  Rapunzel looked down at herself. “I’m not sure what you mean. I belong to myself, yes.”

  “Precisely. To yourself, and not to any man — or any witch.” Purl gave a queer little smile. “You have courage. Strength …” Her voice trailed off, and she leaned back in her chair. Her papery eyelids fluttered shut.

  “Don’t try to do it all at once,” said Greve in a low voice. “You’ll exhaust yourself.”

  “She’ll be getting tired anyway, Purl,” said Skye. “We should let her have a bath and get to bed, poor thing — and her friend, as well.”

  “She’ll be hungry too,” said Edam, rubbing his hands together. “I’ll cook her up something hearty, all right? Something fit for a Capital Champion.”

  “But she’s barely said a word about her own life yet,” said Purl, opening her eyes again and fixing them on Rapunzel. “You must tell me everything. How Envearia treated you all those years, how you came to leave the tower, how you managed to travel so far north —”

  “Time for all of that tomorrow,” said Greve. “Just now, you rest.”

  “One more hour —”

  “Do you want to get sicker now that she’s come home? Or do you want to get well and spend time with her?”

  Purl sighed in defeat. “Skye,” she said, “make up the bed in Natty’s old room. Jack may stay here, by the fire — get the pallet from the shed. Tomorrow we’ll go into town and get you everything you need, Charlo —” She stopped. “Rapunzel. What matters tonight is that you’ve finally come home to stay.”

  “Stay?” Rapunzel got to her feet, confused. “Here?”

  “Here.” In Purl’s blue eyes was a terrible longing, an ache that seemed to wrap itself around Rapunzel’s heart and make her ache too.

  “But …”

  “But? Don’t you want to stay?”

  Rapunzel was alarmed to discover that she did want to stay — she wanted to be here in this cozy house, listening to Purl and looking at her silver hair, hearing about her mother a
nd father, and learning more about Witch.

  But Witch was still in danger. And Rune would never allow Rapunzel to stay here in any case. She was sure he would do something terrible if she stopped for too long. She had been sent to the First Wood, and there she must go.

  “I can’t stay,” she said. “I have to save Witch. If I don’t get to the First Wood, then the Red fairies will —”

  “You want to save Envearia?” Greve interrupted. “After all you’ve just heard? Weren’t you listening, girl?”

  “Yes, but Rune is following us, and if I don’t do what Glyph said —”

  “You can’t leave!” Skye exclaimed. “You just arrived!”

  “If I don’t go, the fairies will kill Witch!”

  “So let them kill her.” Edam’s face was cold again. “You’re not going back to that tower.” He took a step toward her. Rapunzel backed away.

  “You can’t tell me what to do,” she said shrilly, panic rising in her chest. “I have to go to the First Wood — Jack, help me!”

  “I can’t stay here either,” said Jack, getting to his feet. “Wish I could, but I’ve sworn to help Rapunzel get where she’s going.”

  “Have you?” said Purl, fixing sharp eyes on him. “And just what is your stake in the business? What precisely is your interest in my granddaughter?”

  “The Red fairies will help him if he helps me,” said Rapunzel.

  “Help him with what?”

  Rapunzel opened her mouth to reply and realized that she did not know the answer. She had asked Jack about it, but he had never told her.