“So what happens now?” Alex asked. “Do we clear her name? Do we tell the world the truth about her?”
“I’m afraid that’s easier said than done,” Snow White said. “I think the best thing we can do now to honor her memory is to live every day with the compassion and understanding no one ever gave her.”
The twins looked to each other and exchanged sad smiles.
“I think what I’ve learned from all of this is that villains are mostly just people villainized by circumstance,” Alex said.
Snow White nodded, sincerely looking down at the heart. “I agree,” Snow White said. “That’s the tragic lesson we can learn from the Evil Queen.”
The dungeon was a miserable place, as Goldilocks was learning firsthand. Her cell was small and damp. The smell was horrible and the light was scarce. Occasionally a rat would try to run into her cell, and Goldilocks would look down at it meanly and intimidate it into running the other way.
“Don’t even think about it,” she said multiple times to the rodents.
It was just past midnight and all was quiet in the dungeon. Goldilocks couldn’t sleep in her first night of captivity. She knew this day had been bound to come, but as she sat on the hard floor, she couldn’t help but feel cheated that it had come so soon.
Suddenly, a pair of footsteps echoed through the dungeon as someone from the palace above made their way down the spiral staircase and past the rows of cells. A young woman in a long hooded cloak slowly made her way to Goldilocks’s cell.
“Gross! Eww! Yuck!” the woman said after each step.
Goldilocks recognized the prissy voice.
“Hello,” Red Riding Hood whispered awkwardly.
“What are you doing down here?” Goldilocks asked. “Have you come to personally escort me to my execution?”
“Please keep your voice down,” Red said. “The guards don’t know I’m in here.”
“What do you want?” Goldilocks asked her.
“I’ve come to let you out,” Red said.
“What?” Goldilocks said, completely shocked. “Why?”
“Because I’ve decided to make things right,” Red said very haughtily.
“Go ahead, then, let me out,” Goldilocks said, almost daring her. She didn’t get her hopes up. She knew there had to be a catch.
“I will, but first, I wrote you a letter,” Red said, and pulled out a piece of parchment from inside of her cloak.
“You want me to read your letter first?” Goldilocks said, not even attempting to disguise the annoyance in her voice.
“Of course not. I know you probably can’t read,” Red said sincerely.
Goldilocks raised her eyebrows. “You’re so lucky these bars are between us right now—”
“That was just a joke; lighten up, Goldie. I’ve been working on this all night and thought it was best if I came down here and read it to you myself,” Red said.
“I’m listening,” Goldilocks said, and crossed her arms.
Red cleared her throat.
“ ‘Dear Goldilocks,’ ” Red began reading. “ ‘I’m sorry I ruined your life.’ Wow, I feel better already after saying that part! ‘Looking back on it, I know sending you that letter when we were kids wasn’t the right thing to do. I never meant to force you into being a fugitive. I thought the bears would scratch you up or eat one of your arms at most.’ ”
“Is this letter supposed to make me want to kill you less?” Goldilocks asked.
“Let me finish first,” Red said. “ ‘I’ve loved Jack for just as long as you have, but he has chosen to love a less attractive, less intelligent, and less wealthy girl instead. He loves you, not me, and this is the hardest thing I will ever have to realize. I hope that by freeing you from the dungeon tonight you can forgive me. Love, Your friend, Her Majesty the Great Queen Red Riding Hood.’ ”
Goldilocks had never been so annoyed in her entire life. “It took you all night to write that?” she asked.
“Yes, and I meant every word,” Red said. “What do you say? Am I forgiven? Are we even?”
“Open the door first,” Goldilocks said. She would have rather spent the rest of her life in the cell than spend another five minutes with Red Riding Hood.
Red fussed with a pair of golden keys and eventually found the right one to unlock the cell door. Goldilocks stepped out of her cell, looked Red directly in the eye, and slapped her hard across the face.
“Ouch!” Red yelled.
“There. Now we’re even,” Goldilocks said.
“I know I deserved that,” Red said, holding her hand against the side of her face. “Now put this on before we get caught and both end up behind these bars.”
Red threw her cloak over Goldilocks, and the two women hurried out of the dungeon.
They crept through the halls of the palace and made their way past the front lawns. They walked through a forest for a little ways and came to Ugly Duckling Pond. Porridge was waiting for Goldilocks by the edge of the pond. At first, Goldilocks could not see, but behind the horse, impatiently waiting, was Jack.
Goldilocks stopped dead in her tracks. “What are you doing here?” she asked him, although she already knew the answer.
“I did it, Jack! I told you I could!” Red said with a big smile.
“I’m coming with you,” Jack said.
“Jack, we’ve been through this. You can’t come with me. Especially now—I’ll be wanted more than ever before once they discover I’m missing,” Goldilocks said.
“Every day without you is ruined,” Jack said. “I won’t spend any more of my life wondering if the woman I love is dead or alive or rotting in some prison. I thought I lost you back at the castle, and I refuse to ever feel that way again. I’m coming with you, even if it means that I have to chase you on foot.”
Tears filled the eyes of both women for different reasons. Both of their hearts belonged to the same man. Red would have given everything she owned to have heard him say that to her.
“Are you really willing to spend every minute of every day running from the law for the rest of your life just to be with me?” Goldilocks asked.
“I would give up anything to spend every minute of every day with you,” Jack said. He hopped onto Porridge’s back and reached his hand down to help her up.
Goldilocks’s head was filled with reasons and excuses not to let him do this. She wanted to convince him to stay and live his life, but this time her heart wouldn’t let her. She took Jack’s hand and jumped onto Porridge with him.
Together they took the reins and charged into the night. By sunrise they would be the most wanted fugitives in the world, but, at last, they were in each other’s arms.
“You’re welcome! No need to thank me! I’ll be fine!” Red called out after them as they disappeared into the forest. “I’ll be fine.”
Red fell to her knees and sobbed. Tears poured down her face, and her makeup ran with them. She had never cried this hard in her entire life.
“That was a very noble thing you did,” said a voice behind her.
She turned and saw Froggy leaning down by the pond, collecting flies into a large glass jar.
“How much longer until this feeling goes away?” Red asked.
“I’m afraid traces of that feeling may be with you the rest of your life,” Froggy said. “But it’ll get better over time.”
“I thought helping her escape would help the pain, but it only made it worse,” Red said.
Froggy leaned down beside her. “It doesn’t matter how greatly you’ve been hurt or how much you’re hurting, it’s what you do with the pain that counts,” he said. “You could cry for years, and rightfully so, or you could choose to learn and grow from it. Take it from me: I spent years hiding in a hole, afraid to come out because of what people would think of me. But one day I decided to leave, and I ended up saving lives!”
Red dried her tears on his coat. He hadn’t offered it, but he didn’t mind.
“You’re very smart for a fr
og,” Red said with a big smile. “Perhaps now, with all of my dreams crushed, I can devote all that empty head space and energy to my kingdom. I am queen, after all.”
“That sounds like a wonderful idea,” Froggy said. He offered his arm to her and helped the saddened queen to her feet. They escorted each other back to the palace.
“What is your name, by the way?” Red asked him. “I never learned it.”
He hesitated. “Froggy,” he said. “Just call me Froggy.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
A ROYAL INVITATION
Alex and Conner were both given their own chambers in the palace. It had been the first time since their stay at the Shoe Inn that they had slept in a bed, and it was the first night since they had arrived in the Land of Stories that they had gotten a full night’s rest. They were so exhausted that they slept until mid-afternoon the next day.
It was strange for them to sleep apart from each other. Alex and Conner both woke up every hour or so, each looking for the other, and had to remind themselves where they were and that they were finally safe.
The palace servants had taken their T-shirts and jeans to wash, and the twins were given clothes to wear in the meantime. Alex was given a beautiful scarlet dress with fur around the cuffs and neck. Conner, against his will, wore a buttoned-up shirt with a collar far too ruffled for his taste and a pair of bloomers. For the first time in two weeks, they were dressed like they belonged there.
The entire palace had been buzzing with the news of Goldilocks’s escape and Jack’s disappearance. The twins couldn’t help but smile behind the backs of the frantic soldiers they passed in the halls; they knew that, wherever Jack and Goldilocks were, they were together.
The twins offered to go meet the Fairy Godmother with Froggy, but he wouldn’t allow it just yet.
“After the journey you’ve had, I insist you stay a day or two and catch your breath!” Froggy said.
And so they stayed for the next couple of days. They ate every meal with Queen Snow White and King Chandler in the massive dining hall. Snow White told the twins amazing stories as they ate, about growing up in the palace, living with the dwarfs, and the different reactions she’d encountered when people had thought she had come back from the dead.
Snow White invited the seven dwarfs over for dinner one night. The twins had wondered why one half of the table in the dining hall was significantly lower than the other, until the dwarfs marched in and took their places around it. Alex and Conner laughed and laughed until their stomachs hurt at the stories they told. Conner beat all seven of the dwarfs and Froggy in a game of cards and took all their gold coins.
It was the most fun the twins had had since they’d arrived in the fairy-tale world, but things became awkward once Conner asked King Chandler, “Why were you so interested in a dead girl, anyway?”
The twins spent their days in the enormous palace library. Alex scanned through every book on every shelf, looking for anything that could put them on a path to finding a new way home. It took her three days to go through all the books, but she found nothing. Conner watched her from a sofa every day while enjoying dessert after dessert from the kitchen.
“I think it’s time we left this place,” Alex told Conner.
“You want to leave?” Conner asked. “Why? This place is great!”
“I don’t want to overstay our welcome,” Alex said. “We’re not going to find a way home sitting around a palace. Froggy said he would help us look; the sooner we start, the sooner we’ll be home. Besides, despite what she may do to us, we promised Froggy we would let him take us to the Fairy Godmother. Maybe if she isn’t too mad at us for breaking the glass slipper, she could give us a tip on how to get home.”
“I guess,” Conner said, sorrowfully looking down at the cake he was enjoying. His eyes suddenly lit up. “You know, there’s something we haven’t tried.”
“What’s that?” Alex asked.
He stood up, closed his eyes, and began knocking his heels together.
“There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home,” Conner shouted. He opened one eye and was disappointed to see that he was still in the same place. “Just thought I would try it.”
The next day, the twins packed up all their things and dressed in their own clothes. They tossed the saber from the deepest sea into the fireplace of Alex’s room, destroying it, just as they promised the Sea Foam Spirit. They had just arranged to leave with Froggy after noon that day, when Sir Grant found them with some news.
“We’ve received a message for you,” Sir Grant said.
Curious, the twins quickly followed him to the dining hall, where Snow White, Red Riding Hood, and Froggy stood around excitedly. The queens were each holding bright envelopes. A messenger from another kingdom blew his horn upon seeing the twins and presented them with an identical envelope.
“Cinderella had her baby!” Snow White told the twins. “It’s a girl!”
The twins eagerly opened the envelope. It was white and addressed to “Alex and Conner Wishington.” A golden wax seal on the back was in the shape of a glass slipper. The invitation said:
HIS HIGHNESS KING CHANCE CHARMING AND HER ROYAL MAJESTY QUEEN CINDERELLA CORDIALLY INVITE YOU TO AN EXCLUSIVE CELEBRATION OF THE BIRTH OF THEIR CHILD, THE UNNAMED PRINCESS, AT THEIR PALACE TOMORROW AFTERNOON.
“How wonderful!” Alex said. “But why are we invited?”
“Beats me,” Conner said. “Maybe she needs babysitters.”
“I wasn’t expecting to be invited, either!” Red said. “Elected queens are usually left out.”
“So you’re usually left out?” Conner asked.
Red turned the same shade as her coat and didn’t answer.
“Are we going to go?” Conner asked.
“Do you honestly think I’m going to miss this?” Alex asked. “Besides, we should return the glass slipper and the pieces of the other one to Cinderella. It’s the right thing to do.”
“What about Froggy?” Conner asked.
Froggy made a gesture like he was calming a fire. “Oh, don’t worry about me,” Froggy said. “I wasn’t personally invited, so I don’t want to intrude. I’ve never cared too much for the Charming Kingdom anyway.”
“Nonsense!” Red said. “You’ll come as my guest, and I won’t hear any more of it.”
She held her head high. Froggy knew he wasn’t getting out of this one.
“We’ll go see the baby princess, and then we’ll find the Fairy Godmother with Froggy afterward,” Alex decided. “Hopefully she’ll still turn you back into a human.”
“You mean, you’re going to become human?” Red asked with a hand over her chest.
“Yes,” Froggy said. “Long story.”
“Why didn’t you just say so!” Red said. “You have no idea how this changes how I feel about you! Although, I must say I am very proud of myself for being friendly to a… um, well, whatever it is that you are now.”
If Froggy had eyebrows, they would both have been raised.
“Come with me right now!” Red said, and linked his arm in hers. “Let’s go plan our outfits for tomorrow!”
She led Froggy out of the room. He looked back at the twins, his eyes saying, Help! But they were too busy holding in laughs to rescue him.
By that afternoon, the carriages were loaded and the journey into the Charming Kingdom began. Snow White and King Chandler rode in one carriage, and the twins rode in the other with Froggy and Red. They were surrounded by a fleet of soldiers the entire way.
“Now this is the way to travel!” Conner said.
The twins kept pointing out familiar land that they had traveled across during their journey. It inspired them to tell Froggy and Red all about the adventures they had had. The frog man and the queen were all ears. Froggy croaked a couple of times during the twins’ animated retellings, especially during the part about the trolls and goblins.
Given their audience, they left out the part about sneaking into Red’s castle a
nd being partially responsible for the fire. The twins kept stopping each other to say, “We can never tell Mom about that part,” when they got to the more dangerous moments of their trip.
The carriages traveled through the night and arrived at Cinderella’s palace the following afternoon. Rose petals filled the air and bells rang from afar as the entire kingdom celebrated the birth of their future ruler.
Froggy started acting very strange as soon as they arrived. He was shaky with nerves; the palace made him anxious for some reason. The group climbed the never-ending steps to the front entrance and was escorted down the red-carpeted hall and into the ballroom.
The ballroom was virtually empty and seemed much bigger when not filled with people dancing. Cinderella was sitting on her throne, cradling her newborn daughter. Sitting around her in a big circle, some in chairs and some on the floor, were Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, and members of the Fairy Council. Sleeping Beauty’s and Rapunzel’s husbands congratulated King Chance in the corner of the room.
“What are you going to name her?” Rapunzel asked. She was beautiful, with hair that matched the lock Alex and Conner had collected for the Wishing Spell. She wore it up in the biggest bun the twins had ever seen, and it still ran down her back and trailed behind her.
“I can’t decide,” Cinderella said.
“You should name her after her aunt Rapunzel,” Rapunzel suggested, and everyone laughed.
“I love you, Rapunzel, but I love my daughter too much to ever do that to her,” Cinderella said, and everyone laughed even harder.
“Look who’s here!” Cinderella said as soon as she looked up to see the group walking toward them.
Everyone was happy to see Snow White and Chandler, but the room grew very tense when they saw Alex and Conner walking in behind them with a giant frog man. Everyone looked at them uncomfortably, as if they were naked.
“Aren’t those the twins who stole the glass slipper?” King Chance said, stepping forward from the clump of kings.
“No! We tried telling you, it wasn’t us!” said Alex, panicked, afraid history was about to repeat itself and she and her brother would be chased by guards.