The 10th Kingdom

by Kathryn Wesley

  “Look for a piece of the forest that doesn’t fit,” the dog said. “I’m sure this is where I came through—there! There it is. Look.”

  Tony looked at the copse of trees the dog was staring at but saw nothing except undergrowth and trees.

  “Over there,” the dog said. He sounded exasperated.

  “Yeah, there’s something weird...” Tony frowned. It was almost as if there was a blank spot in the trees. A pulsating blank spot the size of a full-length mirror. As he got closer, he realized it wasn’t blank. It was black.

  Virginia stopped beside him and looked too. She bit her lower lip.

  Tony squinted. It looked as if there was a room beyond, a room full of tumbledown junk. “What is it?” he asked.

  “Lookee look,” said the female Troll from a short distance behind them. “There they are.”

  Tony glanced over his shoulder. All three Trolls were running in their direction, followed by some police. The chopper had circled back and was heading this way too.

  “Follow me if you value your lives,” the dog said as he jumped into the mirror. The image winked out and then reappeared.

  “Do as he says,” Tony said, shoving Virginia toward the mirror with his shoulder. “Quick.”

  Virginia jumped into the mirror just as Tony did. It felt as if he had jumped into wet rubber. All the sounds of Central Park vanished, even the heavy beat of the chopper overhead, and then suddenly he stepped into the room he had seen through the opening.

  It smelled of dust and mold. There were metal dishes scattered everywhere and mined curtains, and several broken chairs. It was worse than the storage room in the apartment building.

  “Where the hell are we?” Tony whispered.

  “I don’t know,” Virginia said. “But I’m pretty sure it’s not Central Park.”

  “We’re in the southernmost part of my kingdom, where I was attacked and turned into a dog.”

  The dog led them into the corridor and down a narrow hallway. “This is the Snow White Memorial Prison, housing the most dangerous criminals in all the Nine Kingdoms.” “Back up a second,” Tony said. “The nine what?” “Kingdoms.” The dog rose on his hind legs. The movement was oddly formal. “I am Prince Wendell, grandson of the late Snow White and soon to be crowned King of the Fourth Kingdom. And who might you be?”

  Tony glanced at Virginia who, since she couldn’t hear the dog, had no idea what he was saying. Tony stood up a little straighter too as he replied, “I’m Tony Lewis, janitor.” He tried to give that last word as much dignity as possible. “I think you know my daughter Virginia.”

  “Is that dog talking again?” Virginia asked.

  The dog—Prince Wendell—Tony couldn’t believe that he believed him, but he did—went down on all fours and cocked his head. “Shhh,” he said. “I can smell the Trolls.”

  “Shhh,” Tony said to Virginia. “He can smell Trolls.” Virginia rolled her eyes, but then she sniffed too, and her eyes widened. Tony caught the familiar stench as well.

  All three of them hid behind some barrels just in time. The Trolls had apparently come through the mirror. They were walking through the same hallway, the huge ugly female in the lead.

  “What shall we do when we have our own kingdom?” she asked.

  “Servants,” the short male said. “We must have hundreds of servants to polish our shoes.”

  “And we’ll have footwear parties where you have to change shoes six times an hour,” the third Troll said. Apparently he was male too.

  “And anyone found with dirty shoes will have their faces sewn up!” the female said as if she liked that idea.

  They continued talking as they passed. They went up a flight of stairs, still mumbling about shoes. When their voices

  faded, Tony, Virginia, and Prince Wendell emerged from their hiding place.

  “We must find my stepmother’s cell,” Prince Wendell said. “Perhaps there’s a clue as to where she’s gone. Follow me.” “He says to follow him,” Tony said to Virginia.

  Virginia glanced over her shoulder as if she preferred going back through the mirror to going deeper into this place. But she followed along. Prince Wendell led them up the stairs, and suddenly Tony realized they really were in a prison. There were cell doors everywhere and high dark corridors. The guards, though, were asleep on the ground, pink dust on their faces. “What’s happened to everybody?” Tony asked.

  “The same thing that happened to you,” Prince Wendell said. “Troll dust.”

  No wonder his place had been so filthy. The very memory of the stuff made Tony want to sneeze. One warder rolled over and snorted in his sleep.

  “And it’s starting to wear off.”

  “Dad, let’s go home,” Virginia said.

  “I can’t go back yet, can I?” Tony snapped. Sometimes Virginia was so inconsiderate. “The police are swarming all over Central Park looking for me.”

  “Well, we can’t stay here.” Virginia tugged her blue sweatshirt jacket tighter around her neck. She clearly wasn’t comfortable. Neither was he. He had run into a prison to escape going to prison and somehow he didn’t like the irony in that.

  Prince Wendell led them around a few more columns into the main prison dining room. It was empty, but it still smelled of grease and unwashed bodies. On one wall was a giant map. Prince Wendell leapt onto a nearby table as Tony and Virginia walked closer to the map.

  It was hand drawn and prettier than the maps he was used to. A big red arrow pointed to an area marked Snow White Memorial Prison, and beneath the arrow, it said, You Are Imprisoned Here. At least they were polite in this place. Prince Wendell said he was the soon-to-be-crowned king of the Fourth

  Kingdom, which was marked in green. It was a long, thin strip in the center of the map, bordered by all the other lands.

  Virginia peered at it, reading aloud, “The Troll Kingdom. Red Riding Hood Forest ...”

  “What is this place?” Tony asked Prince Wendell. “Is this like Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella and fairy stories and stuff?”

  “Well, the Golden Age was almost two hundred years ago, when the ladies you refer to had their great moments in history,’ ’ Prince said. “Things have gone downhill a bit since then. Happy Ever After didn’t last as long as we’d hoped.”

  Tony didn’t like the sound of that. If you couldn’t believe in fairy tales and Happily Ever After, what could you believe in?

  “And who’s this stepmother who’s turned you into a dog?” Tony asked.

  “She is the most dangerous and evil woman alive.”

  Now that, Tony understood. He nodded. “I have several relatives like that.”

  But that didn’t ease his mind either. He was beginning to think jumping through the mirror hadn’t been a very smart move after ail.

  The prison looked no better from above. The Queen crossed her arms and stared at it. She still wasn’t certain how she had allowed herself to be held in that place all this time.

  At least she was out. The air felt good, the sunlight better. Even the Dog Prince seemed to be enjoying it. He was on all fours, scuffing the knees of his trousers and getting his gloves dirty, as he sniffed the ground.

  Maybe he was enjoying it too much.

  The Queen stared at him for a moment. He had been a great dog, but he was making a terrible prince. Relish, the Troll King, came out of the woods and looked at the Dog Prince in disgust. The Queen said nothing. Instead, she looked at the royal carriage. She would have to leave this place. She couldn’t wait any longer. To do so would be to jeopardize her chances of taking over the Nine Kingdoms.

  “Where are they?” the Queen demanded. “I should never have trusted Trolls to do everything.”

  “Be careful what you say,” the Troll King said. “I’m the only reason you got out of prison in the first place.”

  She let out a bit of air, not quite a sigh and not quite loud enough for him to hear. She still needed him for a short time anyway. She would have to keep him mollified.r />
  “Of course, Your Majesty,” the Queen said, “and for that I am eternally grateful But I can’t wait here any longer. No one can see the Prince like this.”

  They both turned toward the Dog Prince. Now he was on his back, rolling in some disgusting smell he’d found and trying to scratch his neck with his hind foot. His booted hind foot.

  This time the Queen did sigh. “Have your children bring the dog to me when they return.”

  The Troll King narrowed his eyes. “I am not your lackey. I am Relish, the Troll King, and you would do well to remember it.”

  Oh, some day he would pay for this. But not yet. Not while she still had plans for him. She made herself speak softly. “Of course, Your Majesty, and I will reward you handsomely for your help, as I promised, with half of Wendell’s kingdom.” He walked up to her, so close that she could smell the oil on his leather jacket. “When, exactly, will I get it?”

  He was a little shrewder than she wanted him to be. She would do well to remember that.

  “Soon,” she said. “Now I must go. I have stayed too long already.”

  She bent down and cuffed the Dog Prince on his right ear, the way she used to do when he was a dog. He rolled over and looked at her, his expression sad and puppyish.

  “In the coach,” she snapped. She had no time for whimpering dog games.

  “Where are you going?” the Troll King asked. “There’s nowhere you can hide. When they find out you’ve escaped, there will be roadblocks everywhere. They’ll search every house and carriage in the Kingdom.”

  The Dog Prince got into the coach and she followed him. Then she leaned out, touching the royal emblem as she did so.

  “They won’t search every carriage,” she said, and smiled. Then she tapped the side of the carriage, and the team started forward. The Troll King stepped out of their way. The Queen pulled the window curtain enough so that she could still see out, but no one could see her.

  The Troll King stood on the hillside for a moment, then slipped on his magic shoes and vanished.

  The Dog Prince stuck his head out the window beside her, tongue lolling, and barked in excitement. She cuffed him on the side of his head and he whimpered.

  “Humans don’t do that,” she said.

  He nodded, but she knew he didn’t understand. She leaned back inside the carriage and closed the curtain all the way. This would be a very long trip. A very long trip indeed.

  Prince Wendell led them past rows and rows of cells. The deeper they got into the prison, the more uneasy Tony became. Virginia had her hands wrapped around her torso as if her arms could shield her.

  Tony’d never been in a prison before, but he didn’t think they looked like this. All the cells had barred windows and barred doors, and they seemed larger than the average cell. But they did stink of urine and body odor so old that he wondered if the place had ever been cleaned. Below each cell door was a sign with the prisoners’ numbers, their names, and details of their crimes. Fortunately, Tony walked past them too quickly to read anything.

  As they passed one cell, though, a hand jutted out.

  “Give us something to eat.” The man who spoke was bald and looked meaner than Jesse Ventura in his fighting days. “I haven’t had anything to eat since yesterday.”

  Prince Wendell didn’t even look up. Virginia gave the cell a wide berth, and so did Tony.

  The next cell was smaller. Tony peered inside. A dwarf— not a short person, but a dwarf straight out of the Brothers Grimm—looked at him. And then Tony realized the dwarf had a hideous scar running along one side of his face.

  “Let us out,” the dwarf said. “Come on, just get his key and let us out.”

  “Terrible people,” Prince Wendell said. “They deserve all they get.”

  Virginia stopped as she reached the next cell. It was barely a foot off the ground. That seemed strange, even to Tony.

  Virginia crouched and read, “Deadly mice?”

  Tony knelt beside her to read the inscription. Sure enough. It said Deadly Mice.

  “They’re only serving eighteen months,” Tony said.

  “It’s a life sentence.” Prince Wendell sounded unmoved. “Come on.”

  They passed another cell with just a skeleton hanging from manacles. Tony almost asked—and then decided against it.

  They turned into a corridor with a sign at the end that said, Maximum Security. Tony hadn’t liked what had been, apparently, minimum security. He had a hunch he’d hate this.

  But Prince Wendell soldiered on, and Tony felt he had no other choice but to follow. They went past a few cells, then a door with another sign on it, something about no talking to the prisoner and two warders at all times. He wasn’t able to catch everything, but what he did see made him wonder if he should go on.

  Prince Wendell was already halfway down the corridor, so Tony kept going too. Virginia was looking more and more disgruntled the deeper they went.

  Finally, they reached an open cell, the only one in this wing. Prince Wendell went inside. Tony did too, but the air grew darker, and he could almost feel a presence, one that was gone but not forgotten.

  It was not a pleasant feeling.

  “Look,” Prince Wendell said, “there’s a dog bowl down here. That’s the dog that’s got my body. It’s outrageous.”

  Tony looked at Virginia. She was still clutching her arms, her knuckles white.

  “What did she do, this woman?” Virginia asked.

  “She poisoned my mother and father and tried to kill me as well,” Prince Wendell said.

  Virginia didn’t respond to that. Apparently she still couldn’t hear the Prince when he spoke.

  “Basically,” Tony said, “she poisoned his mother, his father, and tried to kill him as well.”

  Prince Wendell sniffed the floor, his tail down. “I think the Trolls were in here. Very strange ...”

  Virginia swayed to one side. Tony reached for her, but she caught herself by putting one hand against the wall.

  “Are you all right?” Tony asked.

  “I feel weird being in here.” She looked queasy. He knew that look well from her childhood. There was a roller coaster on Coney Island that always brought that look to her face.

  “Virginia, honey,” Tony asked, worried, “are you okay?”

  “No, no.” She stood up straight and attempted a smile. “I’ll be all right. I just need to get out for a minute.”

  Then she walked out of the cell. Something had really freaked her out. She was usually tougher than that. Tony looked after her, torn between remaining with Wendell and taking care of his daughter.

  Then he heard a whack! followed by a thud. A loud thud, like someone falling.

  “Virginia?” Tony called out into the corridor. “Are you all right?”

  She didn’t answer. He hurried to the cell door, but as he did, the door slammed shut. He heard a low chuckle. He rattled the door and looked through the bars, but saw nothing except the feet of a sleeping warder.

  “Virginia? Virginia?”

  She wasn’t answering, and she was the only one outside the cell. Tony shook the door harder.

  “I don’t believe this,” he said. “Prince?”

  He looked around. Prince Wendell had vanished. He was alone here, in maximum security, without any way of getting out!

  Just as panic started to set in, Prince Wendell slipped out from under the bunk. “I wasn’t scared. It’s just ... people mustn’t see me as a dog, Anthony. It’s deeply, deeply embarrassing.”

  Oh, great. Embarrassment before sense. “I couldn’t care less about you being a dog,” Tony said. He turned back to the door and rattled it so hard that the sound hurt his own ears. “Virginia? Virginia?”

  Then the feet he saw moved. The warders were waking up. They would find him in here, with the dog, just like the Queen. He was beginning to wish he was still in that cop car. Prison here was worse than prison in New York. Here they had magic and all sorts of things he couldn’t imagine. Ther
e they had only—He winced, and backed away from the door.

  He had no idea what he would do.

  Wolf stepped through the mirror, carrying his books in a bag he had slung over his shoulder. He’d stolen the bag from a man sleeping on a bench. The man obviously hadn’t needed it; it was filled with dirty clothes and some inedible food called protein bars which Wolf tried and immediately spat out. He’d followed the scent of Virginia and the dog, overlaid with the smell of Trolls, back here.

  Now she was in his world. Life had gotten better.

  He turned to the mirror and saw the greenery he had just left. The men in blue were getting closer and closer. Soon they would find this thing and come through, and everything would get very messy.

  There had to be a shut-off mechanism. All magic items had them in one way or another. Wolf used his free hand to search the side of the mirror’s frame. And then he saw it, a protruding piece of frame that had to be the secret catch. The dog must have activated the thing when he jumped through it, or something like that.

  Wolf reached forward and pushed the catch back into the frame. There was a loud whoosh as everything vanished, and the mirror shut off.

  Wolf jumped backwards at the sound, but then he noticed he was staring at himself. And what a good-looking fellow he was too. He couldn’t understand why Virginia had screamed at him. True, he needed a shave, but still. He rubbed his chin and then grinned.

  He was the only one who knew the secret of the mirror— and he would keep it that way.

  Chapter Eleven

  It felt good to be home, if one wanted to call the Snow White Memorial Prison home, which Blabberwort surely did not. But back in the Nine Kingdoms, the real world, whatever someone wanted to call it.

  She was walking behind Burly, who was carrying the witch over his shoulder, her head and arms bobbing up and down like a rag doll’s. She looked very uncomfortable, but she couldn’t look uncomfortable enough for Blabberwort.

  They were walking outside the prison toward the main gate. They’d already searched the inside. Behind them alarm bells were ringing, and once Blabberwort had turned around to see the warders from the main gatehouse falling all over each other, as humans waking from Troll dust were wont to do.