by Temre Beltz
Swoosh!
Pippa’s heart soared.
Swish!
The Winds of Wanderly had come just as she’d believed they would.
And as they dipped into the paddock, as they fanned out and pushed hard against the boundaries of the black wreath of smoke until it stretched around every single last one of the horses, the smoke transformed. It began to sparkle and shine. It paled to a lovely shade of soft blue, and Pippa couldn’t keep from shouting, “We’ve done it, Oliver! Together, we’ve done it!”
But when she reached for Oliver’s hand, all she felt was stone.
Cold, hard stone.
And when she looked up into his face, his pasty complexion had deepened to solid gray.
“No!” she choked out. “No, no, no!” she insisted as she realized all at once what Oliver had really meant when he’d said rock garden.
As the ring of sparkling blue light closed around them for good, as the Swinging Swamp faded away and they tumbled back toward Triumph Mountain, Pippa threw her arms around Oliver’s lifeless form and wept.
Twenty
Take a Bow
When Pippa crashed onto the peak of Triumph Mountain, her arms were still wrapped around Oliver. She lifted her tearstained face away and collapsed on the ground beside him. Pippa had never been so near to tragedy. She had read about it in storybooks, certainly, but in the warmth of the North family home, wrapped up in her mother’s arms with the constant chatter and squealing of her siblings filling the empty spaces, it had seemed like the sort of thing that didn’t—couldn’t—really happen.
But Oliver really had turned into stone.37
Pippa was sure she’d never seen a more frightening sight in all her life.
His heart was supposed to be beating. His lungs were supposed to be breathing. Wanderly had a place for Oliver, so how could he just be gone? And if Pippa was really a Triumphant, how could she have let this happen?
“I never would have let you do it, Oliver. Why didn’t you tell me what that hat might do to you?” Pippa cried. And then, remembering some of the last words that Oliver had said to her, “How did you think this could ever turn out to be a good story?”
But Oliver, of course, didn’t answer. And as Pippa sat beneath the sky, as the late afternoon turned into the early evening, she realized for the first time that she and Oliver were all alone. Ferdinand and his herd weren’t with them. And Pippa didn’t have a clue if they had made it to Triumph Mountain at all.
A strange chorus of whooping, hooting, screaming, and crying rolled suddenly toward her. Bright fireworks soared up to the sky and exploded in glittering bursts. Master Von Hollow’s showcase, it seemed, was about to get started. And whatever it was he and the magicians had been planning to upend Wanderly and change their destiny was under way.
Pippa glanced back at Oliver. “You made a way for me, Oliver, but I haven’t a clue what to do with it now. You shouldn’t have believed in me like this. I’m not cut out for this! And all I’ve ever wanted was to go back to my old, ordinary life. But now you’re gone and so is Ferdinand. What am I supposed to do?”
And as Pippa’s heart reeled, two small words escaped.
Show up.
Hadn’t she told Anastasia that they would be heroes just for showing up? Hadn’t she told Ernest that one of the bravest things a hero could do was be willing to lose? Even if Oliver’s confidence was unfounded, he’d given up everything to bring Pippa back to Triumph Mountain; couldn’t Pippa at least try to do what he’d thought she could? Did anyone ever gain anything without trying? And, in this instance, if no one tried to defend Triumph Mountain against the magicians, the Triumphants could lose everything.
Pippa set her jaw. She forced herself up and onto her feet. She gently pushed Oliver’s cold, stone form back toward the trees where he would be sheltered, and she let her hand linger on his shoulder.
“It won’t be for nothing, Oliver,” she said, her voice trembling. “And when we’ve won, I’ll find help. Surely with so much magic in Wanderly, there must be some way we can bring you back.”
But Pippa knew it was a stretch. She knew that in Wanderly, people were born and people died in much the way they did in an ordinary kingdom, and as far as she knew no one had ever once been brought back to life.
With her heart aching, Pippa spun around and ran for the manicured front lawn of Castle Cressida. She leaped over perfectly round boulders and fallen logs adorned with colorful mushrooms. It was hard to imagine that on a mountain so pristine, in a place that hadn’t known any real hardship for decades, an entire swamp full of magicians was about to change that forever.
When the three towers of Castle Cressida came more fully into view, Pippa prepared to step away from the cover of the trees, but something hard hit her on the side of the head.
“Ouch!” she cried. But she kept going. When something hit her on the other side of the head, she twitched in annoyance, but nevertheless kept moving. It wasn’t until she heard a loud whisper of “Pippa! Pippa!” that she drew to a skidding halt and looked around.
The bushes around her began to move. And jumping out from behind them were her friends!
Three-year-old Viola, with leaves tangled in her hair, flew so hard at Pippa that they both nearly tumbled to the ground. Anastasia, Simon, Connor, and Willa rushed in close, all talking at the same time. Maisy threw her arms around Pippa, her face fraught with worry, while Ernest slipped his finger beneath the lens of his glasses because, it appeared, something was causing his eyes to water. Their loyal companions stepped out of the shadows and clustered around them.
“Pippa! Oh, Pippa!” Viola cried out, holding fiercely to Pippa’s leg while her beaver, Choo-Choo, scurried about piling up sticks in his arms. “The gagicians are here, and they so, so bad!”
Pippa swallowed hard and looked to Maisy. “But you are all safe? How did you end up out here?”
“Maisy saved us, Pippa,” Anastasia piped up as her marmoset, Whisper, peered over her shoulder. “Those magicians came banging on the castle door, and Maisy tried to get us all to follow her down to the staff’s quarters. The six of us got up and followed her, of course, but none of the other kids did. Mistress Peabody stuck her fingers in her ears while Ms. Bravo tried to talk some sense into her. . . .” Anastasia paused, wringing her hands together. “Oh, Pippa, I don’t think it worked one bit because the magicians have got all the Triumphants, our families, and even Ms. Bravo seated on the front lawn as an audience. Every single one of them’s tied up with magician’s thread!”
Pippa’s heart sank. She knew the perils of magician’s thread all too well. Tied with the unbreakable material, the Triumphants and their families were the very definition of a captive audience. Pippa tried not to think about Master Von Hollow’s Black Wreath potion. She tried not to think about whether he had enough stashed away that he might be able to make an entire audience . . . disappear. But to where? Where would he send them? What did he think it would take for the Chancellor to surrender and give the magicians the role they wanted?
“Does everyone have their magic umbrellas?” Pippa asked.
The Triumphants pulled them out from behind their backs. Pippa bit her lip, remembering what Oliver had shared with her about the illusions and how they fed off fear. Not wanting the Triumphants to lose their confidence, she simply said, “Now, remember, the umbrella’s magic works best if you actually manage to touch the magician’s illusion. So let’s make that the goal. Touching the illusions, so that they’ll disappear.”
The Triumphants nodded and Ernest’s goat, Leonardo, bleated enthusiastically. Maisy stepped forward with a basket in her arms.
“I’ve got the tomatoes, Pippa. I’ve been treating this batch to be extra juicy and extra explosive, with a sprinkle of humiliating.”
“Well done, Maisy,” Pippa said. “Everybody take as many as you can possibly carry.”
As the Triumphants busied themselves making room in pockets and makeshift pockets, Maisy bent ne
ar and whispered to Pippa, “Where’s Ferdinand, and what happened to Oliver? Did he have something valuable to share?”
At the mention of Oliver, Pippa felt her eyes fill with tears. “It was a trap, Maisy. Master Von Hollow sent us to the Swinging Swamp, where he’s been keeping all the fire horses prisoner.”
Maisy gasped. “Ferdinand’s family?”
“Yes, and I—we—tried to bring them all back, but something went wrong. So many, many things went wrong.” Pippa hung her head miserably. “I haven’t a clue where Ferdinand and his herd have gone.”
Maisy sucked in a breath. “And . . . Oliver?”
Pippa was silent. She choked back a sob, and Maisy clutched the hem of her apron so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
Ernest drew up alongside them, and Pippa quickly turned her head so he couldn’t see her distress.
“We’re all ready, Pippa,” Ernest said. “We managed to load up on all the tomatoes. But other than pelting the magicians with them, do we, um, have any more specific sort of plan?”
Pippa swallowed back the knot in her throat. “Yes,” she answered. “Everyone needs to help me get to Master Von Hollow. It’s his showcase. He’s the one in charge, and he’s the one who needs to be stopped.”
Right away, Willa stepped forward. In her quiet, calm voice she said, “Let me be the one to do it, Pippa.”
“You?” Simon cried from where he was sitting on his tortoise. “But you’re not really the fighting type—your favorite thing to do is tell stories!”
“Simon,” Pippa began, “sometimes telling a story is the bravest thing that can be done.”
Simon peeked in Willa’s direction before lowering his eyes. “I’m sorry, Willa,” he said. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
Willa placed a hand on Simon’s shoulder. “It’s all right,” she said. “And anyhow, I only volunteered because I’m the oldest.”
“Which is why you have to stay behind,” Pippa said with a firm nod. “Master Von Hollow has a potion that he can’t be allowed to use. If I get it away from him, then we might be able to save the other students and our families. If I don’t . . .” Pippa gulped and looked at Willa. “Then you might be leading whoever is able off Triumph Mountain in search of help.”
Anastasia cleared her throat. “Speaking of families, Pippa. I—I think I saw yours. I mean, I know I did. I don’t think anyone else here has a family that big. Or three brothers who all look the same.”
Pippa’s heart caught in her throat. “Were they hurt? Did they look okay?”
“More than okay. In fact, they were all taking such good care of one another they didn’t seem to have much time to panic. It was a real calming influence on everyone else too, even Bernard Benedict Bumble the Fourth, who your dad was unlucky enough to be sitting next to. Anyways, as I was watching them, I couldn’t help thinking that maybe you’ve been training for this longer than you think.”
Pippa lifted her head the smallest bit. She tried to keep her voice steady. “Thank you, Anastasia.”
And then she turned to face the group. “It doesn’t matter how many scheduled duels a kingdom’s heroes attend if they aren’t available for a true emergency. This is what the magicians of the Swinging Swamp are counting on, and this will be our greatest advantage. They’re not expecting any opposition, so we need to make a big entrance. We need to rattle them. We need them to think that we’re just the start and that bigger and more powerful backup is on its way. Do you think you can do that?”
Anastasia was the first to hold her umbrella out in front of her. Viola followed her lead, and then soon Simon, Connor, and Willa joined in. Maisy proudly held out her wooden cooking spoon, and then Ernest and Pippa laid their umbrellas on top.
“For Wanderly,” Ernest said.
“For Wanderly!” the group repeated together.38
And with their loyal companions at their sides, they sprinted forward at top speed. When they burst through the trees, Pippa spotted Master Von Hollow immediately. He was perched on a makeshift stage elevated two feet off the ground and surrounded by nearly two dozen magicians. He waved his hands and arms through the air in a grandiose gesture before bringing his fingers to the brim of his hat and conjuring an illusion of rats. Enough rats to cover the entire stage, rats piled one on top of the other and spilling into the screaming audience while Master Von Hollow laughed.
The others must have seen it too, because they all slowed down, but only for a moment. Anastasia drew her magic umbrella out and opened it up as a preventative measure. Willa and Connor followed suit while Maisy proudly twirled her wooden spoon through the air. The Triumphants and their loyal companions forged ahead.
“Are you all scared?” Master Von Hollow boomed to the squirming audience. “Are you hoping that someone will come and save you? Imagine that, Triumphants cowering atop Triumph Mountain! But just wait, as you shall soon see, you can always count on a magician to have a dazzling trick up his sleeve!”
Master Von Hollow tapped quickly on his hat and every single one of the squeaking rats vanished. With only a short distance left to go, Leonardo fixed his eyes on Master Von Hollow and bared his buck teeth. He let out the loudest bleat Pippa had ever heard from him. Master Von Hollow wheeled around at the intrusion and stomped his foot on the stage.
“What is this?” he hissed. His head snapped toward one of the magicians positioned below him. “Razzle! Did you forget to tie up some of the students? Did these manage to slip away from you?”
And then one cry that nearly brought Pippa to her knees.
“Pippa!” her triplet brother Artie shouted. And then, with the other triplets joining him, “Pippa! Pippa! Pippa!”
Master Von Hollow heard it too. “Pippa?” he roared.
Pippa felt as if a spotlight had been thrust upon her. The magicians glared, the audience gaped, and her friends tensed. Fortunately, Ernest lifted his chin and boomed, “The tomatoes!”
The Triumphants didn’t hesitate. They plunged their hands into their pockets. They began hurling tomatoes through the air, and Pippa gasped as Viola’s first launch landed splat on a magician’s face! The magician yelped. He brought his hands to his face and frantically began swiping at the tomato goo, but it just made a bigger mess. The magician next to him pointed and snickered until Simon landed a juicy one on his shoulder, and he began to run around in circles shouting, “I’m bleeding! I’m bleeding!”
The audience of Triumphants and their families did something entirely unexpected, something a bit miraculous: they began to laugh. And as tomato after tomato soared through the air, a chant began to gain momentum, until it reached an unmistakable crescendo and rained down on the stunned ears of the magicians.
“Boo! Boo! BOO!” the audience shouted.39
From atop the stage, Master Von Hollow seethed. He shook his head from side to side, and Pippa could see his lips form the word “No.” Surely this wasn’t what Master Von Hollow had been practicing for all those many late nights; surely this wasn’t the new role that he’d had in mind for himself. Master Von Hollow was watching it all slip through his fingers, which made him, unfortunately, very, very desperate.
Master Von Hollow lifted a trembling finger in the direction of Pippa and her friends. “Seize them!” Master Von Hollow shouted to the magicians covered in tomato juice. “Seize them! SEIZE THEM!”
Pippa’s heart pounded. It was happening. This was it. A handful of Triumphant students were about to engage in direct magic-to-hand combat with full-grown magicians! Pippa watched as Viola and Choo-Choo darted ahead of the group. They were both so small, no one noticed them, and when Choo-Choo began laying the sticks he’d been gathering in front of the magicians’ feet, several of them tripped and tumbled to the ground! Simon stood on top of his stalwart tortoise while his tortoise snapped stealthily at the magicians’ ankles and capes, sending several of them away howling. Perhaps most successful of all, however, were Anastasia and Whisper, who had reluctantly untangled his arms from aroun
d her neck and leaped into the fray of magicians. He hopped effortlessly from one shoulder to the next, dutifully snatching the magicians’ hats off their heads and tossing them into the air.
“Argh!” a magician screamed. “My hat’s gone! Who took my hat?”
“It was the monkey!” another shouted back.
“The only monkey I see here is you!” the magician hollered.
The missing hats caused a ruckus as the magicians poked around, plucked a hat up, examined it, and were forced to toss it back over their shoulders if it was not their own. All the while, Pippa stole closer to the stage. Pippa slipped undetected from one pocket of magicians to the next until she had very nearly reached Master Von Hollow. She heard the magician called Razzle shout out, “Nicholas! Duncan! Do it now! Show us what you’ve been working on! Show us what the next generation of magicians can do!”
Pippa winced, thinking of Oliver. He should have been the next generation of magicians. The one time he’d donned a true magician’s hat, he’d worked a magic far greater than any of them would ever manage. These were the very magicians who had cast so much doubt into Oliver’s heart; these were the very magicians that had rejected him; and these were not going to be the magicians that conquered Triumph Mountain.
Pippa climbed quietly onto the stage just as Nicholas and Duncan’s illusion burst out from the trees. Suddenly, the entire front lawn of Castle Cressida burned with light. Firelight. Nicholas and Duncan had conjured a dragon! The audience erupted into screams. Pippa’s friends froze in their tracks. And a slow, sickening smile spread across Master Von Hollow’s face.
“Excellent!” the magician named Razzle shouted, though there was even a tremor to his voice.
“Fear not, ladies and gentlemen!” Master Von Hollow shouted. “I can take you away from this ferocious, fire-breathing dragon in the blink of an eye! It will be the greatest disappearing act of my entire career.”