by Lee Bacon
Lunging forward, I tackle Kara. The two of us collapse to the ground. When she looks up at me, her eyes are wide and stunned.
“Hey!” she squeals. “I was watching that!”
Kara scrambles to gain a view of the television again, but I block her.
“Do you not see what’s happening?” I grip her by the shoulders. “The Sorceress. She’s trying to enchant you. She’s trying to enchant everyone.”
“Just a little more!” Kara tries to push me out of the way, but I won’t budge. “Please!”
My grip on her shoulders tightens as I force her to look me in the eyes. “Focus on me. Just me. Nothing else.”
Slowly, the life returns to her expression. Her true self, her essential Kara-ness. It is coming back. At last.
“Wh-what just happened?” she asks.
“The Sorceress. She’s devised a way to mix the magic of her world with the technology of yours. She’s using the television—”
“To brainwash the entire population,” Kara whispers. “All at once.”
The strategy is brilliant. And sinister. Precisely what you would expect from the Sorceress.
Behind the counter, the employee continues to stare deeply into the television. Again and again, he mumbles the same thing.
“My sole authority. My ruler. My queen.”
Careful to avoid glancing anywhere near the television, we load our food and water into my knapsack. Kara places her money on the counter. The employee remains utterly unaware of our presence.
Kara slides the money forward. “Uh…keep the change, I guess.”
On our way out of the gasoline station, Kara and I stagger to a halt. Outside are rows of pumps. Motorists filling their tanks with fuel. I’ve seen this peculiar procedure before. But never like this.
The nozzles have come to life. They squirm free of peoples’ hands. They wriggle like snakes, spewing gasoline at anyone who comes near.
A motorist screams. Another backs against his car, watching the nozzle weave through the air.
But then a strange calm falls over the people. Because in that instant, they notice the small screens built into the gasoline pumps. And flickering on each screen is the same video we saw inside.
The Sorceress.
All of a sudden, the motorists are not nearly as concerned about the chaos that has overtaken the gasoline station. They appear serene, lifeless, dull. Again and again, they chant the same words.
“My sole authority. My ruler. My queen.”
All of Shady Pines is falling under the Sorceress’s spell.
The Sorceress’s enchantment buzzes in my memory. Her dark eyes pulling me deeper. Her steady voice luring me closer. The experience hangs over my brain like a dream. While it was happening, the connection had felt so real. But now I barely remember it at all.
If we want to have any chance of putting an end to the insanity, we’ll need to stop the Sorceress. And that means we can’t let anything stand in our way. We need to reach the Sorceress’s new home. Her headquarters. Her castle.
Legendtopia.
Fleeing the gas station, I glance at the massive swirl of black clouds in the distance. Ordinarily, I’d be running away from weather like that. Instead, the prince and I head straight for it. The fastest route is through the Shady Pines Mall. We bolt across the street and begin making our way across the mall’s parking lot when I hear a buzzing noise.
It sounds like mosquitoes.
Really big mosquitoes.
“Get down!” I duck between a couple of cars.
Fred crouches beside me. “What is it?”
“Shh.”
I listen. And a moment later, I hear it again. Bzzzzzz. I peek out from behind the car’s hood and that’s when I see them.
At first they look like hummingbirds. A dozen little creatures flying across the parking lot on rapidly flapping wings. Except they have human bodies. Arms and legs and heads. Not to mention angry eyes and sharp little teeth.
A flock of fairies is headed our way.
Just the sight of them makes my skin crawl. The last time I saw them was back in Legendtopia. Pulling at my hair with their little hands, kicking me in the face with their little feet.
They’re still unaware of our presence. At least for now. But I can hear them getting nearer. The sound of their buzzing wings grows louder and louder. Prince Fred and I keep close to the ground, shuffling as quietly as possible between cars to avoid detection.
We freeze at the sound of voices. Extremely high-pitched voices.
“The chillldren must be arounnnd here sommmewhere,” squeaks one of the fairies. Every syllable stretches like taffy.
“Yesssss, but wherrre?” replies another.
“The froooogs say they esssscaped the forrrest on fooooot. They cannnn’t have gonnne farrr.”
“Mayyyybe they wennnt to the mall. Humannnns loooove malls.”
“Iffff that’s true, thennnn it’s already toooo late for themmm. The mall is parrrt of the Sorceress’s domaaaain now. Annnd she has mmmade some wwwwonderful renovations.”
This comment causes the entire group of fairies to burst into high-pitched laughter. Even though I can’t see them, I can just imagine them rubbing their little hands together in devilish glee.
“Come allllong,” says the leader of the fairies. “Let’s connnntinue scouting. They’lll nnnnever make it ouuut of the paaaarking lot.”
The fairies fly away. Once the sound of their buzzing wings fades into silence, I turn to Prince Fred.
“It’s too dangerous to stay here,” I whisper. “We should find someplace to take cover.”
“Yes, but…” Fred casts an uneasy glance at our surroundings. “Where are we supposed to go?”
Uncertainty swells inside me. My nervous habit kicks in. I grab the necklace out of my pocket, gripping it tightly in my fist. For a moment, I’m sure I feel the owl’s little metal wings fluttering against my skin. But when I open my hand, it’s just lying there on my palm. Motionless. An ordinary charm.
Big, blank eyes. Pointy silver beak.
I shove the owl necklace back into my pocket. “Our best option is to cut through the mall.”
“Did you not hear the fairies? They say this mall has been taken over by the Sorceress.”
“In case you didn’t notice, the entire town’s been taken over by the Sorceress. Besides, that’s the shortest way.”
Fred sighs. “Very well. Let’s go to the mall.”
As we approach the entrance, the glass doors suddenly slide apart with a quiet whoosh. I grab Kara by the elbow and pull her to the side. A moment later, the doors close again.
“Perhaps we should find another entrance. This doorway has obviously been enchanted by the Sorceress.” I wave my hand in front of the door and it slides open again. “See? It opens on its own!”
Despite the tense situation, Kara laughs. “That’s not magic. It’s an automatic door.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course. Now come on. Before one of those fairies spots us.”
We slip through the entrance. Once inside, I turn around and test out the “automatic door” again. Each time I step forward, the glass doors swish open. Stepping back, they close once again. Forward—open. Backward—close. Forw—
“Quit messing around!” Kara pulls me away from the door and inside the mall.
I inspect my new surroundings with astonishment. The signs are so colorful! The shops so big and bright!
And then I notice clear proof of magical enchantment.
“Look there!” I whisper. “That staircase—it appears to be…moving!”
I point straight ahead. A stairway in which the steps glide up and up and up.
For the second time in the past minute, Kara laughs at me. “That’s just an escalator.”
I scratch my head. Doorways that open automatically? Moving staircases? Kara might insist that these things are not magical, but I disagree.
“It’s weird.” Kara glances arou
nd. “There are usually more people here.”
She makes an excellent point. The markets of my world are always swarming with people. But here, everything is utterly and completely…
Vacant.
Ahead of us, the broad corridor is unpopulated. There are no people in the shops. No employees. Nobody.
“Where is everyone?” I ask.
Kara shrugs. “Maybe nobody’s in the mood for shopping. Too much freaky stuff going on around town.”
“Perhaps.”
But even as the word leaves my lips, I have a grim feeling there’s something more to it than that.
“We’ve already made it this far,” Kara says. “Might as well keep going.”
She leads the way. Past vacant shops and unoccupied benches. We’ve only gone a few steps when we hear the noise.
Clank-clank-CLANK!…Clank-clank-CLANK!
It sounds like silverware rattling in the distance. Except there’s nothing random about the noise. More like a carefully timed pattern. And with each second, it grows louder.
Clank-clank-CLANK!…Clank-clank-CLANK!
Kara casts a nervous glance my way. “What do you think it is?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea.” I pause, listening, as the metallic clanking approaches. “But I would prefer not to be here when it arrives.”
“Same here.”
We hurry into a nearby clothing shop, where we hide behind a rack of dresses. My heart races. The rhythmic sounds get closer and closer, until each echo pounds in my skull like thunder.
Three soldiers are marching toward us. They’re covered from head to toe in silver armor. The visors of their helmets have been pulled down, obscuring any view of the soldiers’ faces. At their sides, each carries a sword inside a sheath.
There’s no question who ordered them to patrol the mall. The Sorceress.
I have often watched the knights of Heldstone from the windows of my palace, but never have I seen anyone move with such accuracy and precision. The soldiers’ steps are perfectly synchronized so that their armored boots come down at the exact same moment.
Left-right-LEFT!…Left-right-LEFT!
The marching continues. And when I peer out from behind the rack again, the soldiers are gone. The clockwork-clacking of their march steadily dwindles.
Beside me, Kara wipes the sweat from her forehead. “That was close.”
“We should keep moving,” I whisper.
But Kara has turned her attention to the rack of elegant ball gowns. She runs a finger over the purple velvet trim, knitting her brow.
“Doesn’t make any sense,” she mutters.
“What do you mean?”
Once again, Kara ignores me. Instead, she wanders through the store, inspecting the merchandise. Men’s tunics and feathered caps, silken headdresses and linen bonnets. She pauses next to a sign that reads:
RIDING CLOAKS
50% OFF!!!
“What in the seven moons are you doing?” I ask in a harsh whisper. “This is no time to browse the fashion choices!”
Kara turns to me, bewilderment swimming in her eyes. “Don’t you see?”
“See what?”
“Everything in this store has changed.”
“I don’t understand. It’s a clothing store. They sell clothing. What’s so strange about that?”
“Yeah, but…” Kara whirls to gaze at the racks. “This place has always sold, like, T-shirts and jeans. Now it’s all stuff that went out of style a few centuries ago. Stuff from your world.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure!” Kara points to a rack of corsets. “News flash, Fred—people don’t wear corsets anymore!”
Perhaps she’s right. At one corner of the store is the men’s section. In another is the women’s. A third part of the store is reserved for elves.
My memory hurls back to the conversation among the fairies we overheard in the parking lot. The mall is parrrt of the Sorceress’s domaaaain now, one said. Annnd she has mmmade some wwwwonderful renovations.
Clearly, they weren’t joking around.
Fred and I leave the store, keeping close to the wall. I listen carefully for the armored soldiers. Their steady clanking march sounds far in the distance.
Before too long, we reach one of my favorite spots in the mall—Smoothie Sensations. I almost suggest we make a quick stop for a strawberry-banana swirl. Then I notice the store’s been replaced with a rickety wooden shack. Cauldrons burble behind the counter. The sign above now reads PUTRID PORRIDGE.
Looks like smoothies aren’t on the menu anymore.
We keep moving. Up ahead is an electronics store, where every television, every computer monitor, every laptop and cell phone screen is displaying the same thing.
The Sorceress’s face. The hypnotic message is being broadcast everywhere. Her dark eyes peer out from a hundred different screens. Her spellbinding voice blares from a hundred different speakers.
The evil witch has gone viral.
I can feel my feet trying to carry me closer. All I want is a quick look. Just enough to find out what she’s saying. I’m drifting toward the electronics store, mindless, like a leaf caught in a lazy current when—
Fred grabs my hand. He pulls me away.
“You must resist!” His grip is firm. So is his voice. “Don’t let her pull you in.”
I take a breath. Instead of looking toward the electronics store, my eyes connect with Fred. “Thanks.”
He squeezes my hand. “Better now?”
I nod. “Better.”
We hurry away. Past a cell phone kiosk that now sells parchment and quills. A bookstore where the shelves are stocked with scrolls. It isn’t until the electronics store is far behind us that I notice.
We’re still holding hands.
Fred seems to realize this at the same moment that I do. We both let go. My palm feels sweaty. All of a sudden, I don’t know where to look. For a moment, all the craziness around us fades away. The enchanted stores. The armored soldiers lurking around. The fairies outside.
For a moment, we’re just two awkward kids hanging out in the mall.
The illusion falls away when I notice the nearby pet store. The fish tanks are filled with vicious-looking water sprites. Cages that once held puppies and kittens are now home to all kinds of weird creatures, bizarre hybrids straight from the Sorceress’s dark imagination. The labels attached to their cages show their names.
Chimpanzeebra. Squirrelephant. Giraffeopotamus.
I shiver. “If the Sorceress keeps working her magic, the whole world’s gonna eventually look like this.”
“Then we must stop her,” Fred mutters through gritted teeth. “Today. Before her evil can spread any more than it already has.”
We keep walking. And just when I’m beginning to think we might actually make it out of the mall without any other dangerous encounters, I hear the sound again.
Clank-clank-CLANK!…Clank-clank-CLANK!
The soldiers are getting closer.
We need a place to hide. I start for the Perfume Emporium. But as we approach, I notice the sign above the door. It’s changed slightly.
It’s not the Perfume Emporium.
It’s the Potion Emporium.
I nearly turn back, but we don’t have any other options. The soldiers will be here any second. And so Fred and I bolt into the shop.
We duck behind a shelf. As I listen to the armored soldiers clanging around outside, my eyes land on the row of glass bottles in front of me. They look like your typical perfumes. Except that the Sorceress has done a little rebranding. And now the labels advertise a whole bunch of different potions—
Horrendous Hog’s Snout Serum.
Terrible Toothache Tonic.
Burning Booger Belch.
Then I catch sight of a slender glass bottle. The liquid inside glows pink. The name of the potion is written in a flowery cursive script:
Essence of Infatuary.
Inside the bot
tle, pink liquid bubbles and fizzes. Light shimmers against the elegant glass. It’s perched on the very edge of the shelf. And with every thunderous CLANK! of the soldiers’ footsteps, the bottle rattles closer and closer to the edge.
That thing’s about to fall, I think.
I reach for it, but I’m a split second too late. The bottle tips over the edge and drops to the floor.
I manage to dive clear of the crash. Fred’s not so lucky. The glass breaks and the magical potion spills out around him. As I look at him, standing in a puddle of sparkling pink liquid, all I can think to say is—
“Uh-oh.”
It all happens so suddenly.
In front of me is a pretty glass bottle. Essence of Infatuary. In my world, the Infatuary is a species of fairy. A winged creature, no taller than your thumb. Glowing pink skin. Silky yellow hair. Legend claims that the Infatuary casts a spell that makes you fall madly in love with the first person you see.
I can only assume that the Essence of Infatuary has a similar effect.
Love in a bottle.
The next thing I know, the bottle tips over and crashes to the ground. My first thought is, I hope the soldiers didn’t hear! My second, third, and fourth thoughts are—
Move, you fool! You’re standing in a pool of magic potion!!!
But it’s too late. A pink mist rises from the broken bottle. A sickeningly sweet aroma fills my throat and lungs.
“Oh my gosh!” Kara whispers. She’s far enough away to avoid the Essence of Infatuary. Her eyes latch on to me with shock and confusion. “Fred, what is this stuff?”
My throat is clogged with the potion. Like cake frosting in liquid form. A dreamy, light-headed fogginess comes over me. My head feels like a balloon that might float away any second. My vision turns a dazzling shade of pink….
I blink. And when my gaze falls upon Kara again, a sudden realization sweeps over me.
Kara Estrada is the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.
Our lives are in danger. We’re trapped in a twisted fantasy mall, surrounded by evil fairies and armored soldiers, but Prince Fred doesn’t seem worried at all. In fact, the only thing he seems interested in is…