Grounded: The Adventures of Rapunzel

by Megan Morrison

  “I have one more question,” she said instead.

  “Ask.”

  “Witch said there was some kind of power under this castle. What is it?”

  Glyph considered her for a long moment. “You are one of very few who have ever known even that much,” she said. “Most fairies do not know, and I myself understand it little. It would be a great favor to the Redlands if you never spoke of this again to anyone. Not even Jack.”

  “Oh,” said Rapunzel, startled. “Well — all right.”

  “Now, steady yourself for the night ahead. Tomorrow morning, you will leave with Jack and Rune. And one day, I hope that you will return to the Red Glade.” Glyph touched her fingertips to the center of her chest and bowed her head. “Under happier circumstances.”

  Downstairs, in the great dining hall of the Castle of Bole, Rapunzel was welcomed with joy so intense that it unnerved her. She wanted to sit with Jack, but she was beckoned to sit several seats away from him instead, beside Chieftain Fleet himself, who looked barely older than she. He had brown skin and long dark hair, and he wore a robe that draped over his wheelchair all the way to the ground. It was like a quilt, only all the squares were covered with embroidered designs that seemed to tell stories. The chieftain was kind, and solemn, and seemed to understand better than the others that Rapunzel did not want to celebrate. Perhaps that was because he had felt grief too; after all, he had survived the carriage accident that had crushed his legs and killed his parents.

  Witch had done that awful thing. Yet Rapunzel missed her. She wondered if she would ever understand why.

  The feast commenced. Rapunzel ate more than she had expected to be able to, and her appetite made her feel guilty. She should not have been hungry, with Witch gone. She should not have wanted seconds on dessert.

  When she had pushed back her plate, she turned to Chieftain Fleet.

  “Thank you for trying to get me to come down from the tower,” she said under the din of everyone else’s conversations. “I’m so sorry for everything Witch did — to your warriors and your parents and your legs.”

  The chieftain said nothing for a moment. His dark eyes seemed to empty. When he spoke, his voice was careful.

  “There’s nothing for you to be sorry for,” he said. “Now, tell me all about the perils you escaped on your journey. I heard you met with a Stalker — is it true?”

  Rapunzel worried that she had upset him, but if the chieftain was pained, he did not show it. He seemed to delight in listening to her, becoming livelier with each tale she told. Eventually he sat back in his wheelchair, wearing an expression of deep satisfaction, and he raised his goblet high into the air.

  “A toast,” Chieftain Fleet called out, and the great hall went quiet as the goblets went up. “To Rapunzel, who has come through many perils, and to Jack, brave and true. May they live long, and may their adventures guide them often back to us. We will welcome them always.”

  This was met with warm approval, especially from Prince Frog, who croaked avidly from his perch on Jack’s shoulder. When everyone had drunk, the feast dispersed and the diners left their places to mingle in groups all over the dining hall and its adjoining rooms. Many of them kept their eyes on Rapunzel, and she heard her name float up from their circles.

  “Let them speak with you,” said the chieftain. “They want to honor you.”

  She didn’t want any honor, but that didn’t matter. She was pulled from her seat by earnest guests who wanted to thank her, kiss her hands, cry on her neck, touch her hair, and tell her of the grief that Witch had caused them. Many of them had sons and daughters who had been among the warriors slain by Witch, and they were fierce in their gratitude. All of them believed Rapunzel responsible for bravely ending the life of the witch who had so grieved them. None of them saw the pain they caused her.

  After enduring several of these upsetting conversations, Rapunzel attempted to slip out of the crowd, but was stopped by a small, plump woman who called herself a scribe and said she wrote for the Town Criers. She had a kind, persuasive voice, and she rapidly asked a series of questions that Rapunzel barely knew how to answer.

  When she had escaped the scribe, she hurried into another room to look for Jack. Instead, she saw a tall, pale man in a dark leather coat, with silver threads of hair at his temples and a lustrous amulet resting against his chest.

  Nexus Keene. Prince Mick had called him a witch slayer, and he himself had spoken of planning to kill Witch. Rapunzel didn’t want to talk to him, but he had already seen her.

  “Rapunzel,” Nexus Keene said warmly, and the people he had been speaking with bowed low at his departure as he came forward to meet her. “How is your frog?”

  The question gratified Rapunzel, but not quite enough.

  “Prince Frog is fine,” she said. “How did you get to the Redlands so fast? You were near Independence just a few days ago.”

  “Being among the Exalted has its benefits,” said Nexus Keene, smiling. His eyes were kind, but there was something active in them. He watched her for a moment.

  “What is it?” asked Rapunzel. “Do you want your book back? The one about witches?”

  “No. I have a question,” the Nexus admitted. “But I hesitate to ask it. You’ve been through an ordeal, and your grief must be overwhelming. Perhaps most people cannot imagine Envearia as a loving mother with a human heart. But I can.”

  His words took Rapunzel by such surprise that tears sprang into her eyes. She looked away from him, not wishing to cry. She was not ready.

  The Nexus’s voice was gentle. “I have slain many witches, and I know how they begin. Desperate. Panicked into evil. When I met you at the camp in Commonwealth Green, I saw that you were thriving — intelligent, healthy, and full of feeling. Envearia could not be wholly wicked and raise such a daughter.”

  Rapunzel looked at him, grateful.

  “What did you want to ask me?” she said.

  “How did Envearia escape her bargain with Geguul?”

  “Why do you want to know that?”

  “Because perhaps I can help other witches do the same.” Nexus Keene pushed a gloved hand through his hair, and Rapunzel saw that his forehead was deeply lined. “Duty compels me to kill witches; they cannot be allowed to prey on children. But I don’t want to give them to the White. I hope to find another way.”

  “I don’t know how she escaped,” said Rapunzel honestly. “Glyph said I saved Witch’s life.”

  “How?”

  “By teaching her to see the past and present clearly. I don’t really know what that means.”

  Nexus Keene nodded. He appeared to be deep in thought. “I thank you,” he said after a moment. “Should you ever think of anything else, I would be happy to hear from you, Rapunzel.”

  He bowed to her, and Rapunzel returned the gesture, hoping she was doing it right. Nexus Keene withdrew, and in half a second, Jack was at her elbow. He looked rugged and elegant at once in a kilt and tunic similar to what the chieftain’s warriors wore. And there was something else different about him too, she thought — something beyond the fact that his hair and nails were clean. Something that made her stomach jump funnily.

  “What were you and the Nexus talking about?” he asked.

  “Where have you been?” Rapunzel replied, moving Prince Frog from Jack’s shoulder to her own. “I was looking for you, and then I couldn’t get away from all the people.”

  “I was with the warriors,” he said, looking delighted with himself. “Smoking a cigar.”

  “You smell horrible.”

  “Yeah, well. Look, you’ve got correspondence — these came for you by Relay.”

  Rapunzel accepted the slips of paper he handed to her. “Relay?”

  “I’ll explain later. Read the messages. There’s one from Prince Mick and Princess Daigh.”

  “And one from Prince Dash,” said Rapunzel, delighted. She had forgotten all about him.

  To Rapunzel of the Tower in the Redlands:


  You have broken the witch’s curse upon me and my family. Thank you.

  Should you ever visit Quintessential, you are welcome to Charming Palace.

  Most sincerely,

  His Royal Highness Prince Dash of the Blue Kingdom

  “Look, Jack, I’m invited to Charming Palace!”

  “Great.” Jack did not sound quite like he meant it.

  “And there’s one from Purl!” Rapunzel read the message quickly, devouring the words with her eyes.

  Rapunzel ~ I knew you were your own woman. Visit me again soon and tell me how it happened. I’m proud of you, my granddaughter. ~ Purl Tattersby

  When she looked up from Purl’s note, Rapunzel found many stares fixed on her as guests spoke to one another in low voices. A few of them began to approach her, looking anxious to tell their tales, and she took a step back toward the door. She did not want to hear any more about how much they hated Witch.

  “I have something for you too,” Jack was saying.

  “Do you know how to get outside?” she asked him in a low voice.

  “Sure, come on.”

  She followed him quickly through massive wooden doors, all carved to look like beasts of the woods. When they came out onto the wide, torchlit steps, Rapunzel took a deep breath of the night air and sat down.

  Jack walked down a few steps and turned to look at Rapunzel. “You okay?” he asked.

  “I wish we could leave for Violet right now.”

  “I know,” said Jack. “I just want to see the giantess and get it done.”

  “Wait until your mother sees you come back,” she said, turning her mind away from Witch and toward something happier. “Wait until she hears all you’ve done! She was so scared you’d disappear like your father — and Tess will be so happy to see you too.”

  “Yeah, she will,” said Jack. He gave Rapunzel an appreciative glance and cleared his throat. And then the two of them spoke at the same time.

  “You know, you look really —”

  “You said you had some —”

  Rapunzel stopped. She leaned forward over her knees. “I look really?” she prompted. “Yes, go on.”

  Jack shoved his hair back from his forehead, and it fell down again at once. “Pretty,” he finished, and Rapunzel went hot from head to toe. It was nice, the way he was looking at her.

  Really nice.

  “Well, you look handsome,” she returned, feeling for the first time a sense of shyness as she looked at Jack, with whom she had never before been shy. “I like the clothes they gave you.”

  “Thanks,” he said. “So, uh — what were you saying?”

  “Oh!” Rapunzel forgot her shyness. “You said you had something for me.”

  Jack dug into the pocket of his jacket. “Here,” he said, and he held out Rapunzel’s jacks to her. “Rune gave me these when … you know. When the fairies were sorting through what was left of the tower.”

  Rapunzel took the jacks and held them tightly.

  “They found a lot of money in the rubble too,” said Jack. “A great chest of coins, Rune said. I guess Envearia must have hidden her fortune there, so now it’s yours.”

  But there he stopped. He peered at Rapunzel. “I never told you about what my mother said when I left Dearth,” he said, “that she thought I’d disappear like my father. Did I?”

  Rapunzel shook her head, smiling a little.

  “Then how do you know?”

  “The Woodmother.”

  “How? What happened in that tree, anyway?”

  “It’s a good story,” Rapunzel said. “Let’s save it for the journey.”

  THE beanstalk had all but withered. Jack climbed it, but it was terrifying to watch him go. Rapunzel wanted to follow, but Rune had strictly forbidden it, and so she watched almost without breathing as Jack made his way from one sagging leaf to the next. He climbed ever higher and became smaller and smaller until he was out of sight beyond the clouds.

  Whether an hour or two or ten passed, she did not know. The light changed over the gray landscape, and Rapunzel held Tess tightly by the hand. On Tess’s other side stood Jack’s mother, who had barely spoken a word since he had returned to Dearth and told her the whole truth about his reason for departing. She waited in rigid silence.

  It was difficult to tell at first, but it seemed that something at the very top of the beanstalk was moving. Rapunzel and Tess gripped each other more tightly. Jack’s mother began to rock.

  Jack came unmistakably into view. He climbed down much too slowly and carefully for Rapunzel and Tess, who were both bouncing on their toes by the time he came to the bottom of the stalk and leapt the rest of the way to the gray ground.

  “Which one of you belongs to Geguul now?” his mother demanded. “Which one?”

  “Neither of us,” said Jack. A grin split his face. “The giantess released me from the bargain — she accepted Glyph’s gift. She said she understood.”

  Jack’s mother made a strangled sound and threw her thin arms around his neck. She held him, crying bitterly.

  “It’s all right,” he said, looking rather bashfully toward Rapunzel as his mother wept all over him. “Shh. We’re safe. It’s over.”

  Tess flung herself at them and was enveloped in their embrace, and Rapunzel watched their joy with a glad heart.

  Jack’s mother let go of her children and wiped her eyes. “Thank the skies,” she managed. “If anything had happened to you while you were away looking for those fairies … If you hadn’t come back —”

  “Jack always comes back,” said Rapunzel with feeling, and Jack’s mother looked at her in some surprise. She didn’t seem to know what to make of Rapunzel. “He came to my tower three times, and he’s the only one who ever climbed it with a rope, so he’s the bravest. He stayed with me all the way from the Redlands to Commonwealth Green. And even though Witch hit him in the head, he still came back to my tower to find me. You can trust him.”

  Jack gazed at Rapunzel, light glinting in his black eyes.

  “I knew you’d come back, Jackie,” said Tess, leaning against him. “I carved notches in the wall for every day you were gone, and I knew you’d be home soon.”

  “Good old Tessie,” said Jack, rumpling her dark hair.

  “Want to see the notches?”

  “Course I do.”

  They had a simple supper of eggs and bread that night. The money from the golden goose had not been much, but it had been enough.

  “You know the great chest of coins, from my tower?” said Rapunzel as she and Jack left the little gray cottage together and walked out into the purple evening light.

  “Yeah?”

  “Well, Chieftain Fleet told me that his treasurer sorted through it, and it’s an enormous fortune.”

  Jack lifted an eyebrow. “Just bragging, or do you have something in mind?”

  “I still want to travel together,” Rapunzel replied. “Like we talked about before. With the money Witch left, we can go anywhere, and I want to visit every single country. You’ll come with me, won’t you?”

  “Obviously.”

  “Good. Then I have one more idea,” she said, unable to contain it any longer. It was something that had occurred to her on the journey from the Redlands to the Violet Peaks. “I was thinking, what if we use the money to move your family out of Dearth? What if we find them a house in Maple Valley, near Purl? Then our families would be near each other, and Tess could grow up with all those pretty leaves around, and it would be perfect. Wouldn’t it?”

  Jack said nothing for a moment. He looked away from Rapunzel, up into the barren, jagged mountains that loomed over the village.

  “You’d do that?” he asked. His voice sounded different. Lower.

  “Of course I would.”

  He dragged the knuckles of one hand under his left eye, and then his right. It was several moments before he looked at her.

  “It’s a great idea,” he said. “If my mother goes for it.”

  “Let’s go
and ask her.”

  They went inside, and Jack did ask. And though his mother protested that she would not take such a gift, Rapunzel was undeterred. She begged to be allowed to spend a portion of her inheritance in this way, which, she pointed out, would make her as happy as it would make anybody else. Jack chimed in, arguing that it would make their lives far easier, as they traveled, to have both families close together, and Tess coaxed and cajoled and pleaded with her wide blue eyes. Jack’s mother’s pride could not withstand this combined attack, and so she accepted, looking dazed, and the next hour was spent in merry planning.

  It was a happy ending, Rapunzel thought. If she’d been in her tower reading one of her books, it would have said and Rapunzel lived happily ever after, with Witch to love and protect her always. Every one of her stories had ended that way.

  But Witch was gone.

  “Rapunzel, show Tess,” said Jack, and Rapunzel realized she had not been listening.

  “Show her what?”

  “Fifteensies. Seriously, she’s amazing. Watch this.”

  Rapunzel pulled her jacks out of her belt. As she poured them into her hand, she felt a sudden certainty that Witch was with her.

  “The trick is to do it outside,” she said. “Come on.”

  They went out into the darkening night, where Rapunzel demonstrated fifteensies and taught Tess how to catch jacks backhanded. When it was time to go to sleep, she pitched a tent beside Jack’s cottage and lay down with Witch’s jacks closed in her fist. Happy endings were no good anyway, she thought, yawning. Happy endings were still endings. Instead, tomorrow was coming, and there would be more adventures when it came.

  THIS book exists because I had help. Everyone who ever encouraged me is responsible for putting a little fuel in the tank. Many thanks to all the Morrisons and Flynns, as well as to my friends, my colleagues, my in-laws, my teachers, and my students.

  My deep gratitude belongs to the following people:

  Ruth Virkus, kindred spirit and cocreator of Tyme, whose heart and imagination are equally extraordinary;