by Joan Holub
As Red took the mapestry out of her basket and unrolled it, the others joined her on the benches. Together they studied the golden stitches that would lead them to where the mapestry wanted them to go. Just days before, a different trail of golden stitches had led them to the enchantress’s cottage — and her crystal ball — at the center of Neverwood Forest. But afterward, those stitches had disappeared. As these new ones would, too, once the girls had found whatever it was they were supposed to find next.
Red ran a finger over the golden stitches, which now led from the forest back to the Academy to end in a large cross-stitch X at the very center of Pink Castle. Did that mean the treasure the girls hoped to find — one big enough to fix the Academy’s troubled finances — had been right under their noses the whole time?
“So tonight’s the night. The treasure hunt,” said Rapunzel. When the others nodded, she added, “It’s going to be hard searching inside the castle. We’ll have to be extra careful not to let anyone figure out what we’re doing.” Then she shot a glance at the statue of Principal R. “It’s weird talking about all this in front of him, even if he is only a statue!” she whispered.
Cinda giggled. “I know! I was just thinking the same thing.”
Red nodded. Then she hopped up and threw off her red cape, draping it over the statue’s head. “You never know,” she said as she sat down again. “E.V.I.L. could have eyes everywhere.”
It seemed to Snow that Red stared directly at her as she said this. Maybe now was the time to show her friends the fake mapestry. It might help Red trust her more. She lifted her bag into her lap, then hesitated. They wouldn’t be able to see her stitches till it was finished. So they might not believe her. She pulled the fake mapestry out anyway and began stitching where she’d left off. Because the sooner she finished it the better!
“Secret project?” Red asked, noticing she was using invisible thread.
“Just Threads homework. I picked up the wrong kind of thread by accident,” Snow replied, with a casual shrug. Luckily, Red didn’t seem to think a simple stitching project warranted more suspicion.
“Wouldn’t it be grimmsolutely grimmazing if we did find the treasure this time?” said Rapunzel, drawing their attention. Then she sighed. “But it’s just as possible we’ll find another magical object instead.”
“If so, I hope it’s Jack and Jill’s pail,” said Cinda. “I worry that it’s already gone over the wall like Peter Peter’s pumpkin.”
“I worry about that, too,” said Snow as she poked her needle in and out. “If the pipe leads even more artifacts over the wall, Grimmlandia could soon be toast.” They had to get those artifacts back before it was too late! “So what time do we start the hunt?” she asked, looking up from her stitching.
“Midnight? After everyone is asleep?” suggested Red, going over to the statue to get her hooded cape back. “If we divide up, each taking a floor to search, we can cover more ground.”
“Ooh! Too creepy. I think we should stick together,” said Cinda. “At least our first time hunting. We could all meet on the second floor landing to begin.”
Rapunzel and Red nodded. “Works for me,” added Snow, putting her work away. She’d tackle the fake mapestry again before bed.
“Here’s hoping we discover treasure!” said Cinda. She raised her hand in the air, waiting. One by one, the other three girls raised theirs for a joint high five, or actually a high four, if you were counting hands.
As they rowed back toward the Academy, Cinda suddenly said, “We forgot to talk about Saturday’s Prince Prance! We need to meet at the library soon to reserve our ball gowns and slippers, like we did for Prince Awesome’s ball.”
“Let’s do it tomorrow night,” Rapunzel suggested, dipping her paddle on the other side of the boat.
Red shook her head. “Can’t. I’ve got play practice Thursday.”
“Friday, then?” said Rapunzel as their boat touched shore. “After dinner?”
“Sounds good,” said Cinda. She hopped out and tugged them up onto the pebbly beach. Then the other three climbed out, too.
“Um … sure,” Snow said belatedly as the Scrying mirror’s prediction flitted through her mind. But the mirror had been wrong. She would go to that dance!
“Psst! Snow, it’s time to go.”
“Huh?” Snow woke with a start. In the dark she could barely see Cinda, except for her candle-flame yellow hair, which stood out even in the near pitch-black. She was standing on the ladder at the end of Snow’s high canopy bed, tugging on her covers. From across the room in an identical bed came the soft, steady breathing of Snow’s slumbering roommate, Jill.
Oh, no! Snow shoved her blue schoolbag deep under her covers. She’d brought it up here planning to work on the fake mapestry. But instead, she’d fallen asleep! She’d have to work extra hard in Threads class tomorrow and spend tomorrow night working on her secret project, too, if she hoped to finish it soon.
Careful not to wake her roommate, Snow followed Cinda down the ladder. “I’m going to change out of my pj’s. See you in a few,” Cinda whispered when she reached the floor. She disappeared through the curtain that served as a door to Snow and Jill’s small alcove, and headed off to her own room.
Since she hadn’t planned on falling asleep, Snow was still wearing the same gown she’d worn all day long. She smoothed the wrinkles from her skirt — Ms. Wicked hated wrinkles. Then she grabbed a brush from the top of her desk and brushed her hair without using a mirror, as always.
As she brushed, Snow’s gaze fell on the framed, embroidered Luck Comes to Those Who Are Prepared sign that hung on her armoire. In the dim moonlight falling through the window, she could just make out the beautifully stitched border of four-leaf clovers that surrounded the words.
Noticing that the sign was hanging a bit crooked, Snow lifted it from its hook. Before she could re-hang it, it slipped from her fingers and nearly dropped. She caught it just in time. Phew, she thought, as she rehung the sign nice and straight. Good thing she was wearing her lucky clover amulet. Automatically, she reached toward her throat to touch it, but her fingers only met with bare skin. Her necklace — and with it, her amulet and trunker key — were gone!
Her breath caught and her heart began to race. Calm down, she told herself. Probably, it simply fell off in bed. She rushed back up her ladder and carefully felt around in her bedcovers, but the only thing she came up with was her schoolbag.
The curtain slid back and Cinda popped her head around it. “Snow? You ready?” she whispered.
Quickly, Snow shoved her bag back under the covers. “In a minute,” she said. She tried not to let her panic grow out of control. After all, her necklace must be somewhere inside the room. She didn’t have time to look for it now, though. Besides, it was too dark to see without lighting a lamp, which could wake Jill. She’d have to wait till morning.
After climbing back down from her bed, she rummaged around on a shelf at the top of her armoire. She kept some of her favorite lucky items and bad luck protections there, including a shiny agate she’d found by the river one day, a peacock feather, a brass button of her dad’s, and a salt shaker in the shape of a ladybug. Does Prince know that ladybugs are lucky if they land on you? she wondered. She’d have to tell him sometime. Maybe he’d have some luck tips to share with her, too!
Being careful not to drop the shaker as she lifted it from the shelf — accidentally spilling salt was unlucky — Snow sprinkled a few grains into the palm of her hand. Then she tossed the salt over her left shoulder. There! That should help keep bad luck at bay while she and her friends were searching for treasure tonight. But just in case that wasn’t enough, Snow also tucked the shiny agate into the pocket of her gown.
Moments later, she met Cinda, who wore her glass slippers, and Red, who carried her basket, in the dorm common room. “I’m hoping my magic slippers will help lead us to the treasure,” Cinda explained as they crept down the twisty tower stairs. “Just like they led me to where the mapestry was hid
den under that floor tile in the Great Hall.”
As soon as she said this, her slippers did a little tap dance on the very step she was standing on. Cinda stared down at them. “Yes, you can help us,” she said. “But just walk for now. Okay?” The slippers stopped tap dancing, appearing to understand.
The stairs eventually took them lower to the grand staircase, where they met Rapunzel. They were all about to push through the stairwell door on the second floor, when they heard footsteps coming down the steps behind them. They also heard the thump of a walking stick, followed by the sound of two grown-ups talking.
Snow’s heart leaped into her throat and her eyes flew wide. “My stepmom’s coming down the stairs,” she announced in a shocked whisper.
“And Mr. Hump-Dumpty,” added Red.
“What are they doing up this late?” hissed Rapunzel.
“C’mon. Hurry!” whispered Cinda.
The girls opened the stairwell door as quietly as they could and piled out into the second-floor hall. Leaving the door open just a crack, they hid behind it, hoping to hear what the teachers said to each other on their way downstairs. Snow reached in her pocket and grasped her lucky agate, willing it to protect the girls from discovery.
Click. Click.
Step. Thump. Step.
“It’s simple,” Ms. Wicked was saying as she came down the steps. “You give me back the diary, and I’ll tell R that I saw one of the students put the Pied Piper of Hamelin’s pipe in your office.”
“She calls the principal R,” Snow whispered when she saw Cinda looked confused. It sounded like her stepmom was offering to lie in order to make some kind of deal with Mr. Hump-Dumpty in exchange for a diary. But whose diary? Ms. Wicked’s? Did she even keep a diary? Snow had never seen her stepmom write in one, but if she did it would be like her to be secretive about it. And how would Mr. Hump-Dumpty have gotten hold of it, anyway?
“Just pipe down about that pipe, can’t you? If we do nothing, the whole incident will blow over eventually,” Mr. Hump-Dumpty replied in a worried tone.
“Look,” Ms. Wicked interrupted, in an exasperated voice Snow knew only too well. “I’ll even say that Snow stole the pipe if you’d like me to. Whatever it takes to get that diary from you. So how about it?”
Snow had to cover her mouth to stop herself from gasping aloud. Her stepmom’s lowest low had just gone even lower. She felt Cinda’s arm wrap around her shoulders. Someone touched her arm — Red. And Rapunzel rested her hand on Snow’s back, as all three friends offered comfort.
Click. Click. Step. Thump. Step.
“You’d throw your own daughter to the wolves?” Mr. Hump-Dumpty said disdainfully. His voice was louder now as the teachers reached the second floor landing.
“Stepdaughter,” Ms. Wicked corrected him. “And from what you’ve told me about her finding the pipe in your classroom this morning, I suspect she was the one who reported you to R. You do know that, don’t you?”
“Even if she did that still doesn’t make it right to — hold on,” he said, interrupting himself. “I need to rest a minute and catch my breath.”
Snow could hear him huffing and puffing as the two grown-ups stopped on the stairs right by the door the girls crouched behind. Holding her breath, Snow squeezed her lucky agate even harder. Please don’t let them find us, she wished silently.
“Speaking of wolves,” Ms. Wicked said slyly. “I could pin the theft on Wolfgang if you’d rather. He’s the one who stole the pipe in the first place.”
“What?” Mr. Hump-Dumpty said in surprise.
“I’m sure Ell would be willing to sacrifice one measly wolf-boy for the sake of E.V.I.L.’s higher purpose.”
Snow turned her head to stare at Red. Red had assured them that Wolfgang wasn’t a member of E.V.I.L. Had he been lying to her? To all of them, in effect?
Suddenly, Snow remembered seeing Wolfgang race out of Mr. Hump-Dumpty’s room just before she entered it that morning. Had he stolen the pipe, dropped it off in History class, and then gone into Scrying to report his actions to her stepmom? It would’ve been hard to sneak the pipe into Mr. Hump-Dumpty’s jacket while he was wearing it and with lots of students in the room. However, Wolfgang was a sneaky one.
But what was this about a higher purpose? And who was Ell? And what did that diary have to do with anything?
“This whole matter stinks like a rotten deviled egg,” muttered Mr. Hump-Dumpty. “All right, I’m keeping the diary for further examination, but I’ll give you what you want from it.”
“Deal,” said Ms. Wicked. The two teachers continued down the stairs. Click. Click. Step. Thump. Step.
Though deeply confused, Snow breathed a sigh of relief and silently thanked her lucky agate for sending them away.
“If Wolfgang did steal that pipe, I’m positive he did it for a very good reason,” Red whispered to the other girls as they continued to huddle together.
Snow couldn’t believe Red was defending him! “I’m pretty sure he did plant that pipe on Mr. Hump-Dumpty,” she argued. “I even saw him leaving History class just before third period started.”
“Does he have History second period?” Cinda asked Red.
“Well, no, but —”
“So Wolfgang had no reason to be there!” said Snow. She and Red jumped up and faced off.
“Shh, you guys!” Rapunzel hissed.
“There’s stuff you don’t know,” Red said in a quieter voice. Something shifted in her eyes, and once again, Snow got the feeling that Red mistrusted her. Disheartened, she started to reach for the door to the second-floor hall, but Rapunzel stopped her.
Nodding downstairs to where the two teachers had gone, she said, “Don’t open the door yet. It squeaks, and they might hear it.”
“Yeah, and don’t talk so loud,” said Cinda, looking between Red and Snow.
“If Wolfgang did plant that pipe, it was on your stepmom’s orders,” Red told Snow in a calmer voice. Then, as if she couldn’t help herself, she added, “He’s on our side. He’s been trying to get into E.V.I.L. so that he can spy on them.”
All three girls gasped, but Red didn’t wait for questions. “To join the Society, he had to steal something magically important for his initiation. So I let him give Ms. Wicked my basket. But then I called it back to me right away, so I guess she made Wolfgang get something else.”
“The pipe!” exclaimed Cinda, slowly getting to her feet.
Red nodded. “But Wolfgang wouldn’t have planted the pipe on Mr. Hump-Dumpty. He just wouldn’t. Even on Ms. Wicked’s orders.”
“You should’ve told us,” said Rapunzel.
Snow gulped at that, knowing that she was keeping secrets, too, about that crystal ball order form and her fake mapestry. But she couldn’t still her doubts about Wolfgang. “He might be tricking you,” she told Red. “Tricking all of us.”
“He isn’t,” Red insisted. Her eyes flashed at Rapunzel and Snow, and Snow looked away, wishing she’d kept quiet.
“Stop that!” scolded Cinda, causing everyone to glance at her in surprise. But she was gazing down, speaking to her glass slippers. Because they’d begun to tap dance again, as if anxious to be moving on. As she stood in place they whirled her in a circle.
Creak! A door slammed shut one floor below. “That must be the first-floor door,” Snow murmured.
“Sounded like it,” Rapunzel agreed. “It also sounds like Ms. Wicked is trying to blackmail Mr. Hump-Dumpty over a diary!”
Red nodded in agreement. “Only, why? I mean, they must both be members of the Society or else Ms. Wicked wouldn’t have mentioned E.V.I.L. to him just now.”
“Maybe he’s having some second thoughts about being in E.V.I.L.,” Rapunzel suggested. “Maybe he wants out.”
Bang! Bang! Unable to contain themselves any longer, Cinda’s slippers had begun to kick at the stairwell door. “Sorry,” she told the others. “I can’t control them when they want to get moving. Maybe they’re trying to tell us something.”
Rapunzel pushed open the door to the stairwell and peered downward. “Let’s see where they lead us.”
“Wait. We don’t want to go down to the first floor,” said Red. “That’s where Ms. Wicked and Mr. Hump-Dumpty went. Besides, we were going to search this one first.”
Too late. Because the minute the door opened, Cinda’s slippers were off and dancing!
“Whoa!” she hissed at them. “Hold your horses!” But the slippers didn’t pause. They tap-danced their way down the stairs, taking Cinda along for the ride. The other three girls followed on her heels. At the first floor landing, the slippers kicked at the door which led down the hall to the first-floor classrooms. Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Stop!” Cinda scolded them in alarm. But the slippers wouldn’t obey.
“Shh! I hear something!” hissed Rapunzel. Meanwhile, Cinda stooped and pulled the slippers off her feet.
“Someone’s coming!” Red warned.
Click. Click. Step. Thump. Step.
Alerted by the kicks on the first-floor door, it sounded like Ms. Wicked and Mr. Hump-Dumpty were heading back toward it. It was against school rules to be running around in the halls this late. They’d probably get double triple demerits! thought Snow. Which would mean they couldn’t go to the ball on Saturday. Was that crazy, probably defective, Scrying mirror’s prediction about to come true after all?
“Quick!” Rapunzel told the three girls. “Follow me!”
She continued down the stairs, and the others scurried after her. When they reached the basement landing, Rapunzel fished out a key, thrust it into a lock, and then threw open a narrow black door with big iron hinges. After they went through, she locked it behind them. The door led them into a long, sloping tunnel paved with cobblestones. Antique brass lamps stuck out from the tunnel walls every few feet to light their way.
Together they ventured deep below the castle, heading for Rapunzel’s room. She’d gotten special permission from Principal R to bunk down here in the dungeon. In Snow’s opinion that proved she’d do anything to avoid having to climb to the highest turrets of the Pink Castle dorms. Because this dungeon was really creepy! The girls hadn’t gone more than two dozen steps down the tunnel when Cinda gasped.