“Thank you for your help. I always thought I’d have a boring life too,” I told Morice.
For the first time since we came running down the corridor, he looked just a little bit softer.
My grandmother was about to say something when the door behind us burst open and Lowe came racing down the hall. The white around her eyes showed and she was gasping for breath.
“They’re here. I put a dresser in front of the door, but it won’t slow them down for long. We have to get out of here!” she yelled.
Chapter Seven
I grabbed the necklace and put it over my head. Without a word, Morice pointed to our left, toward a door I hadn’t noticed a moment before. My grandmother gave one curt nod, and the three of us dashed toward it. As we reached the door and flung it open, I heard Morice’s voice. “Don’t forget our deal,” he called after us.
For some reason I was expecting to be in another room when we went through the door, but we weren’t. Instead we found ourselves outside. I gasped and looked around at the thick forest that surrounded us, where the branches and brambles were so close together that I wasn’t sure how we’d be able to move.
But move we did. We pushed our way through the trees and away from the sheriffs chasing us, and whether from magic or because I was in too much of a panic to really understand how it happened, we did manage to penetrate deeper into the woods.
At first I thought we weren’t making any progress. My dress ripped even more as it caught on branches and brambles, to the point where it was getting terribly close to being inappropriate to wear in public. I felt a blush rise in my cheeks and pushed it down; there’s a time and a place for everything, and modesty was hardly of any use at the moment. Out of the corner of my eye I could see my necklace swinging. The small glass slippers were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
“How much time do we have?” my grandmother asked over her shoulder.
Suddenly, I heard a pop behind us. Then there was the sound of yelling voices.
“None,” gasped Lowe.
“They’ll send the falcons to look for us. Try to stay under the cover of the trees,” said Bethel.
My mind was again a jumble as I started to try to figure out exactly what I had done wrong. It seemed serious that so many sheriffs were after me, and Morice had also said something about my sister. Could I possibly have a sister? That didn’t make much sense, but given that Morice seemed to believe it and had heard about it, and my own grandmother hadn’t contradicted him, how could it not be true?
I didn’t know. I did know that more than ever I wanted to find out exactly what was going on. I had been swept away from my evil stepsister’s wedding by a surpassingly odd woman who claimed to be my grandmother, and who had said we were witches, and now we were heading to a secret town where I needed glass shoes to enter.
Who ever heard of such things?
Furthermore, Morice had thought I was a criminal, apparently because my nonexistent sister was a criminal, but none of that made any sense either. I didn’t have a sister, and I was about the furthest thing from a criminal you could imagine.
At least until today.
Given that it couldn’t possibly have been real sheriffs chasing me, I didn’t think I really had much to worry about.
We suddenly tumbled through the trees. I hadn’t realized that a break was coming and nearly fell over.
In front of us was the most stunning vista I had ever seen. A perfect waterfall cascaded from a cliff in the sunshine. I always loved it when the water shimmered with gold, and now I saw molten yellow lava in front of us.
But that wasn’t all.
I gasped at the sight of a giant butterfly sitting at the end of the waterfall, his blue and white wings moving gently up and down in front of the water. It took me a minute to realize that the butterfly was acting as a gate. He would have to stop the movement of his wings in order for anyone to pass.
And it was as clear as day that the glass bridge he was guarding led through the waterfall.
“Whoa,” I said.
“Yes, it is rather beautiful the first time,” said my grandmother. The green grass was cut and there were flowers everywhere. I counted several white bunnies, a couple of cats, and one million small butterflies as well.
“Come on. We’re out of time,” said Lowe.
Just then a screeching sound made me glance up. In order to cross the bridge we’d had to break cover, and there were several birds above us, chattering in our direction.
We had been spotted.
“Run!” yelled my grandmother.
We ran.
Where she came from I didn’t know, but at the base of the glass bridge there suddenly appeared a very tiny lady. She had a gold, nearly shimmering skin and a delicate set of wings on her back.
She raised her eyebrows at the three of us and we pulled up short.
My grandmother and Lowe reached into their shirts and pulled out necklaces. Instead of shoes, their chains each held a single hat. My grandmother’s was gold and much smaller than my cousin’s, which was silver.
They were witches’ hats.
I shook my head in disbelief.
The tiny woman’s eyes scanned my grandmother, then turned to me and took in my necklace. She nodded once, smiled, and stepped aside.
“Who is that?” I whispered to Lowe.
“One of the Ladies of the Water,” she said. “They guard the waterfall as their sworn duty.”
“They didn’t appear to care about keeping me out,” I explained.
Lowe shrugged. This did not concern her. “You had the right paperwork.”
Then I realized that the Lady of the Water had had a necklace as well. The thin chain could just be seen hanging off her delicate neck. But what was on the end of it I was not to find out today.
Just as we set foot on the bridge, a man’s voice rang out behind us.
I stopped and turned around to see what would happen next, and the first thing I took note of was that the Lady of the Water didn’t look the least bit fazed by all the commotion. Next I realized that there was a collection of sheriffs standing in front of the trees, with Smoldering out in front. The little woman I had seen helping him in my dream was also there.
I gulped.
The next instant I was being yanked forward. I might have halted, but my grandmother and my cousin had kept going until Bethel realized I wasn’t with them. Now she turned around and grabbed my arm, propelling me toward the giant butterfly. When we were nearly there I noticed that the butterfly’s wings had stopped. Stumbling along, I knew that we could get through the gate.
The voice yelled again and again for us to stop. To my utter shock, amazement, and horror, we didn’t listen.
Lowe was the first to go through the butterfly-wing barrier. Next, my grandmother shoved me forward so hard that I again nearly fell. All I could see ahead of us was darkness, but as we fell under the butterfly’s wing I heard the gentle patter of water cascading around me. My grandmother stayed behind me, pushing us forward into the darkness. Then I felt a whoosh at my back, and when I looked again the butterfly’s wing was gone. All I saw was the waterfall.
I was now totally dazed. It was almost more than I could handle to simply follow Lowe, tripping over my own feet as I went.
I registered small details, like the fact that we were walking on very smooth stones. This was a well-worn path.
My grandmother had slowed down, but she was still hustling.
“What’s going on?” I asked her.
“We have to get home. We’re late as it is. I didn’t expect it to take that long. The trolley should be coming any moment. It comes every ten minutes,” she explained.
“Trolley?” I asked. I felt like my head was filled with fluff. It was hard for me to understand simple concepts, let alone anything that was going on here. My grandmother kept speaking as if I knew everything already.
But I knew nothing.
Lowe had relaxed considerably an
d was now just strolling along. She glanced over her shoulder at me and said, “The trolley is how everybody gets between the five parts of town. We call them the five boroughs. One time we experimented with buses, but nobody liked them. The weather is usually nice here, especially in the summer, and the trolley is open to the elements. Besides, we have excellent car colors.”
At that I managed to calm down enough to look around a bit. I saw several cute little buildings, including a small station right in front of us. It was painted brown, with a bright red sign for trolleys. On the platform waiting for the trolley were several individuals. I tried not to stare, but it was hard. It had already been a very long day.
I was quite clear that at least half of the individuals on the platform were definitely not human. They looked quite strange. One of them I was pretty sure I could call an ogre. He wore suspenders and no shirt. There were so many muscles on his upper body, there didn’t seem to be any room for a stomach or a heart. His head was flat and more square-shaped than a typical human head, as if something smooth and very heavy had landed on it once. He didn’t look at us as we crowded onto the platform.
We had been waiting for just a couple of minutes when the trolley arrived. This one was yellow on top and pink on the bottom.
I could see what they meant about liking to ride the trolley when the weather was nice. The windows were open, and several individuals were hanging out from them. I wasn’t quick enough to see the conductor, because as soon as the trolley pulled into the station, everybody crowded around the door.
My grandmother elbowed a couple of people out of the way. They gave her dirty looks. No one had wanted to stand next to us on the platform, either.
Getting onto the trolley was a blur.
I was about to sit down at last when Lowe grabbed my arm. The seat itself yelled back at me.
I squeaked and backed away.
Then the wooden seat moved. It turned out that each wooden slat was actually a single person. “If you don’t mind,” said one of them.
I gulped and backed away, muttering apologies as I went. The slat who had spoken glanced at my necklace and looked less angry; apparently my necklace told him I was a visitor. I hoped he understood.
“What on earth was that? “ I whispered urgently.
“He’s a chameleon,” my cousin explained. “There aren’t very many of them here. Just look for the eyes. That’s how I do it. Before you ask, yeah, most of the townsfolk here are witches.”
As we sat down I noticed another interesting thing. As far as I could tell, everybody on the trolley was dressed more nicely than either my cousin or my grandmother. That was to say nothing of me. My outfit was an utter and total mess. I picked up my dress and tried to pull the hem closer to my knees. I only kind of succeeded.
When the trolley stopped at the next borough, we were the only ones to get off. Everyone else looked away as we got out. I said thank you to the driver, but even he didn’t look at me. I was pretty sure he was a black pig, whatever that was.
Whatever I was expecting when we stepped off the trolley, it wasn’t what I got. I was imagining some quaint and beautiful little witchy town; the place we had gone through to the waterfall had been exactly that. What I faced now was anything but.
We stood in what could only be described as a trailer park. Rusting cars and discarded tires were everywhere, not to mention hubcaps and every other form of junk you could possibly imagine. Strewn all over the reddish-brown earth were broken items of furniture and discarded odds and ends of various sizes. I stared around in shock.
“You live here?” I whispered.
“Of course we do. We are Rhinestone witches. This is where we’re from,” said my grandmother.
Chapter Eight
I followed my grandmother and my cousin as they made their way down the dirt road, which was a far cry from the smooth pavement and perfect stonework of the first road. I kept looking to my left and right and seeing various magical individuals, most of whom seemed to be witches.
But we didn’t stop in the trailer park, we walked all the way through it and just kept going. When we reached the scraggly field beyond it, I was so shocked by my surroundings that I kept my mouth shut. My feet had started to hurt, since I had never had a chance to change out of my high heels. I wasn’t used to wearing them even in normal circumstances, never mind a mad rush through one witchy situation after another. I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to pull myself together after this.
As we walked, Lowe explained how the boroughs worked. Five of them made up the town of Twinkleford: Crown, Mountain Misdirect (ours), Merigold, Cobalt Midnight, and Greely. Different sorts of paranormals lived in each borough. Without her having to say it, I got the distinct impression that our borough was the least favorable of the five to inhabit.
In all of my twenty-five years, I never thought I’d see something like this.
“How much further?” I asked.
“Not that far. There are only a couple of houses down this way. If you ever get lost, just follow the fence,” Lowe instructed.
When I had a free moment, one of my first questions was going to be if witches could levitate.
The fence in question was barely that. It nearly disappeared among the weeds, and at various points it was actually broken. I certainly hoped it wasn’t intended to keep any large animals in. If it was, I was pretty sure they had escaped long since.
We rounded a final bend and came upon two houses, one on either side of the road. One was a little maroon house with peeling paint. The color was ugly, and the lawn hadn’t been mowed in a long time.
“Lisa and her mom Lucky live there,” said Lowe. “They’re good friends of ours. Sometimes they do shocking things, just so you know.”
I wondered what kind of name Lucky was, but I didn’t have much time to think about it, because I was curious to see what the other house was like.
This one was just a normal-looking house, painted white, with blue shutters and several additions. A large black and white cat sitting next to the mailbox turned to look at us as we approached the house.
“Hello, Tiger,” said my grandmother to the cat.
The house looked surprisingly nice for this neighborhood, but my family clearly lived in the poorest borough in the area. This house appeared well-kept and had definitely been painted in the last five years, unlike the house across the street. That was one encouraging thing on this confusing day.
My grandmother opened the gate and we stepped inside. It wasn’t until we had crossed the threshold of the property that I saw the garden, which was extensive, and which at the moment featured at least six more cats. They all turned curious eyes on us.
“Do you like cats?” I asked my grandmother.
“Yes, all witches like cats. On top of that, they guard the unicorns,” she said.
“Where are the unicorns?” I asked, trying not to let my mouth gape at the thought.
“Out behind the house. Where they always are. We have a stables,” said Bethel, as if all of that should have been obvious.
Wearily, I followed Bethel and Lowe up the porch steps. Just as I reached the porch, I turned around and found the black and white cat right at my heels. Up close I could see more clearly that he was huge, and also fluffy. I found myself just wanting to pick him up and cuddle.
“I wouldn’t do that without his permission,” Lowe cautioned me.
I glanced at her. Now even she sounded tired, but she was smiling. I shrugged and nodded. I supposed I had enough going on without getting scratched by a cat. Maybe he’d warm to me later. Right now he was following me as if he was expecting me to steal something. Where on earth he thought I would manage to go with stolen goods, only he could have told you.
“You must be exhausted. You can get cleaned up and relax for a little while. We have to talk, but maybe you need to rest first.” Bethel nipped down on her lip as though thinking something through even as she talked.
This whole time, Lucy had been ha
ppily hanging out in my grandmother’s hat. When we had made the mad dash across the bridge to get away from the sheriffs, my grandmother had held onto her hat for dear life; it was a witching hat, after all. Now she hung it in the cute little entryway, and somehow that made me feel like we were home for real.
I sighed with relief as I took off my high heels and examined my feet, which looked plenty the worse for wear. I couldn’t wait to take a very long shower.
“Let me show you to your room,” said Lowe.
I nodded gratefully as my grandmother disappeared into the depths of her domain. I might have been imagining it, but I thought Lowe and my grandmother exchanged a significant look as my grandmother walked away. I should probably have protested what they were orchestrating, since part of me was screaming out for an explanation as to what on earth was going on.
But another, more sensible part of me told me to go to sleep. There was at least a fifty-fifty chance that when I woke up everything would be as it had always been.
Maybe I was just having an extra realistic dream.
Chapter Nine
Lowe showed me to my room at the end of the hall, but she didn’t stay with me for long. She said she had a lot to do and excused herself. But before she left, I turned to face her and asked, “That sheriff, what was he?”
“Oh, him? He's actually the rarest of them all. He’s half merman,” she said. Then she frowned. “If that’s how you say it.”
“He looked human enough,” I told her.
She gave me a crooked smile. “Let’s just say it’s a good thing we didn’t try to escape by swimming.”
“How will I find you?” I asked as she started to leave. The realization that I would suddenly be alone in a very strange place was starting to set in. I wasn’t thrilled.
Lowe laughed heartily, with her head thrown back and her eyes squeezed shut. Then she opened her eyes and looked at me with delight. “It’s really not that big a place. If you’re worried, just follow your nose. Granny makes the best food.”
With that, she disappeared.
The Rhinestone Witches Omnibus: Books 1-3 Page 5