The sun is up, and today is my first—and hopefully last—time committing a crime.
It’s break-in day at Happily Ever After Scrolls!
After enjoying a round of bouncing and a filling stew Logan made for dinner, we all tucked in for much-needed sleep.
This morning, I was woken by Demetris, my trusty dove friend, with a note from Brynn detailing the goings-on at Royal Academy. Hearing about Olivina’s new rules and how she reassigned Brynn to Clarissa made me want to spit fire!
“Good morning, sleepyheads!” Prue teases. “Eat up! We have a big day ahead of us. We’re finally leaving the forest!”
The ship is alive with activity. Corden is putting finishing touches on some costumes. Alongside him, a large teakettle whistles from a conveyor belt that is churning out French toast and eggs. Prue is going over plans on her magic mirror and Heath, Logan, and Sasha are already helping themselves to breakfast while Sasha tells them all she knows about HEAS headquarters.
“Show me the girls’ dormitory!” I hear Raina say. She’s standing in front of the hacked magic mirror watching a live feed of Royal Academy.
The mirror does as it’s told. A grainy view of the long hallway in the girls’ dorm comes into view. Brynn runs by the mirror with a neatly pressed sequin gown in her arms. “Coming through! Rush delivery for Clarissa Hartwith!” She’s sweating and looks petrified.
Clarissa opens her bedroom door. “It’s about time you got here! Hand me that dress.”
That’s no way to talk to my lady-in-waiting. Just the thought of her having to cater to that girl’s every whim upsets me all over again.
I hear sobbing and look over. “That’s supposed to be my dress!” Raina sputters.
Now that I really look at her, I notice the dark circles under her eyes. Has she been up watching this mirror all night?
“Marta and I worked on the design last week. I had to call in three favors to get enough crystals to bead the train of the gown. Now it’s Clarissa’s, and she’s going to be named Miss Future Reign at the masquerade ball for sure.” She slumps down. “It’s the biggest event of the social calendar for first-years, other than the anniversary ball, the winter ball, and the first ball,” she tells anyone within earshot.
I’m the only one paying attention.
She may be upset, but Raina has never looked more luminous. Before she started watching the mirror yesterday, Corden gave her a full beauty workup with a Genie of the Lamp skin treatment, Under the Sea kelp hair masque, new makeup, and a half-up hairstyle. Raina was so excited about the results that she stared in the mirror for over an hour. That was before Prue let it slip that Raina could watch the mirror feed of Royal Academy whenever she wanted. It’s been all downhill since then.
“Ramona Mills and Charles Pullman are now in the lead for the Most Likely to Be Crowned superlative too,” Raina tells me. “The new list came out last night, and I thought we might have had a shot at being on it, considering the anniversary ball was just this week, but Olivina had our names pulled. I would have won best updo, for sure.”
“Raina?” Heath tries to get her attention as Corden buttons up his costume’s squishy, gray arm sleeves, then magically seals them so they look natural. “You have to get dressed. Tara said Red wants us ready at 8:00 a.m. sharp.”
“Ready for what?” She is still staring at the screen. “Classes don’t start for another hour, unless you signed up to do the Power of Posture and Yoga seminar, which I didn’t, but I can see now it would have been amazing. I was just watching Professor Hipwith unroll yoga mats in the library and—”
Heath waves a gray hand in front of her face. “Raina, we’re leaving the ship. Remember? Clearing our names? Getting back our lives? Getting Olivina ousted?”
Raina cocks her head to one side. “Ousted? Olivina is the most popular headmistress Royal Academy has ever known! Hazel just announced it on the magical speaker system, and then Milo the Magic Mirror came on and told all the students how lucky they were to be taught by such a beloved fairy godmother. I don’t think she’s going to retire anytime soon. She’s only one hundred and eighty-four and most fairy godmothers live to be at least three hundred and sixty, according to what Clarissa just looked up on her mini magical scroll so—”
Heath throws up his hands. “Prue? Can you turn that mirror off? Raina’s obsessed.”
“No time,” Prue shouts from her crow’s nest perch. She’s typing away on one of five scrolls while watching another set of mirrors that show a feed of things happening in the countryside, the forest, and the village we’re soon headed toward. “I need to keep all lines of magic open while I work on these access passes for Happily Ever After Scrolls.”
Prue found out the Happily Ever After Scrolls headquarters has a new intern class starting, so she added our group to today’s list of visitors so we can get inside the ogre-only headquarters.
“Hey! Devin! Check out my teeth.” Logan opens his mouth and displays a row of spiky pearly yellows. “Corden made me a set of false chompers. I wonder if I can eat with them. If we’re going to the village, I have to stop at the Three Little Pigs. They have the most inventive fall specials.”
“No eating!” Sasha slides a few bangle bracelets up her ogre arms. (Ogres love shiny things.) “We’ve only got till lunchtime to get this blog uploaded and added to the mini magical scroll system, or we’re never going to get it printed. Prue did some digging, and according to the hate blog IHateHappilyEverAfterScrolls, ogres love taking long lunches so that will be our best shot at getting the blog done.” She flashes us a creepy ogre grin. “I’ll even sit at Misty Scorchfire’s desk. I’ve always wanted to tell her what I really thought about her opinion piece ‘Is Cerulean the New Pink?’ Maybe I’ll leave her a note.”
“No notes!” Tara shouts from the crow’s nest. She grabs hold of a pulley attached to a sandbag and lowers herself to the deck. Her oversize ogre-costume feet hit the wooden planks with a loud thud. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think she was the real deal. “We leave no trace of ourselves behind.” She checks her pocket watch. “Our escort should be here any moment.” I hear a loud whistle. Tara smiles. “Right on time.”
Someone swings onto the deck from a nearby tree. It’s an older boy in peasant’s clothes and muddy boots, with an quiver of arrows on his back. “Who’s ready for an adventure? Hey there, Cordy!” He slaps the boy on the back, then spots me. He holds out his hand and I shake it, feeling the calluses on his palm through my costume. “Robin Hood, dear Lady Devin. It’s lovely to meet you.”
Sasha gasps. “The Robin Hood?”
He bows. “In the flesh, my lady.”
Heath steps forward. “Heathcliff White.” He shakes Robin’s hand. “It’s an honor to meet you, sir.”
“Likewise, young royal rebel!” Robin says with a laugh. “Now, can we please proceed? Red said we need to move quickly, and being nimble is what I’m best at.”
Robin pulls the rope toward him, and it snaps back firmly, making a tight hold. “Red was tied up today, which is why I’m here. Got a call from that Gilly girl she’s been working with again. They’re trying to track Rumpelstiltskin. Something about a vendetta against Fairy Tale Reform School.” Robin takes in our ogre costumes. “Surprised you lot didn’t wind up there after tangoing with Olivina. I, myself, was sentenced there for thieving, but I was pardoned by Professor Wolfington.”
“No banishment?” Logan asks. “How come we didn’t get that choice?”
He shrugs. “I was already a king so…”
“King of thieves,” Prue reminds him. “I read all about it! It’s a self-made title. It didn’t really count, and Olivina eventually realized you fudged your royal papers for admission to RA.”
Robin runs a hand through his thick brown hair. “Yeah, well, it was fun while it lasted. The trouble Red and I got into for messing with Hazel Crooksen’s scrolls though!” He holds his stomach and belly laughs.
“She always called you a simple trickster,” Tara says wryly.
“Some might dismiss me as that.” He winks at me, and I blush. Heath coughs. “Others would call me charming and roguish. Hospitable, even.”
“I’m already all those things. Why aren’t I leading us into blog headquarters?” Heath grumbles.
A beeping sound emanates from both a medal on Robin’s chest plate and Prue’s crow’s nest.
“Time’s a-wasting. Let’s fly.” Robin pulls a small red arrow out of his quiver, places it in his bow, and aims at the tree he came from only moments before. He fires and a rope shoots out behind the arrow. I listen carefully to hear it hit its target, but there is no sound. The arrow and rope seem to keep going, bobbing and weaving through the trees. A second later, I feel something brush against my head and look up. Robin is clutching the rope and flying through the forest behind the arrow.
Sasha puts her hands on her hips. “Hey! You forgot us!”
“No, he didn’t.” Tara grabs a quiver from a rack on the wall, shoots an arrow, and grabs onto the rope that trails behind it, looking smug as her rope pulls her out of our line of sight and into the trees.
“Well, if they can do it, so can I,” says Sasha, not waiting for a lesson. She quickly aims and disappears into the forest.
“Wait, I’m not dressed yet! And neither is Raina!” I remind them.
“Dressed?” Raina turns around, confused. “Hey! Where did everyone go?” She glances back at the mirror anxiously. “We’re leaving now? Clarissa is about to go to Professor Carrington’s and learn how to write a love note. I don’t want to miss it. Just give me a few more minutes.”
Prue drops down from the crow’s nest, adjusting the leather satchel of scrolls she’s wearing over her ogre costume as she lands. “She’s not ready. Maybe she should stay behind.”
“We’re not leaving anyone behind,” I insist as Corden comes up to me and starts helping me into my ogre costume.
“Actually, someone has to stay back,” Cordon tells me. “We never leave the ship unguarded. Someone has to stay with the mirror in case Olivina makes any sudden moves. I’m staying back. She can stay with me.”
“Keep an eye on her,” I say as Corden seals up my ogre mask. He nods. “She’ll be fine,” Prue promises.
“I wish these compacts I’ve been working on were ready to use so you could talk to Raina back on the ship while you’re in the village.” Prue’s eyes light up. “They look like makeup, but really they’re two-way mirrors that let you talk to whoever has the other compact.”
“Can we test one out?” I ask.
Prue frowns. “I don’t know. Olivina doesn’t like it when...” She sighs. “Sorry. Sometimes it’s hard to get the fairy godmother’s rules out of my head, you know?”
“I do,” I agree.
“Olivina said my inventions were too daring. She said ‘Princesses don’t take risks, Prue!’ She’s wrong, but—”
“Of course she’s wrong!” Corden jumps in. “You’re a great witch, and your spells work. Let Devin try the compact.”
She hesitates. “I can’t. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” I don’t want to push Prue when she’s done so much already. “I’m sure Raina will be fine here with Corden.” I pause. “I should really get going, or they’ll leave without me!”
“Right! Time to go!” Prue takes off, leaving me, Heath, and Logan behind. Logan stares at the quiver in his hand worriedly.
“Woo-hoo!” I hear Heath shout as he flies off behind her. “You guys have got to try this!”
“Did I ever tell you I get motion sickness?” Logan is rambling, his ogre mask drooping as he frowns. “It’s true. We could never vacation far from home because long carriage rides make me ill. I had to chew on mint leaves to make it through the ride to Royal Academy without incident. I’m not sure I…”
Corden looks at me pointedly before taking an arrow from Logan’s pack. I nod ever so slightly as he ties the end of the rope to Logan’s pack and fires the arrow that will send Logan on his way.
Logan looks at me in horror. “Wait! I’m not ready! I’m— DEVIN!” Logan is pulled into the air and disappears.
It’s my turn. I grab a quiver and do exactly what the others did before me. I pull an arrow from my pack and fire, shooting into the tree line. The rope yanks me forward without warning, whooshing me along with it. I expect to hit a tree and drop to the ground, but instead I keep going, picking up speed. Trees whiz by me, the arrow and the rope leading the way into the unknown. Lily sticks her head out of my ogre dress pocket and flicks her tongue in a way as if to ask Is this what’s supposed to happen? I’m not sure.
“Lily, we have to get off this thing!” I shout. “This can’t be…” Cough! Cough! “I think I just swallowed a fly!”
I continue to pick up speed. The arrow leads me up, down, over and around trees, mountains, even through a waterfall, though somehow I don’t get wet. Suddenly we’re descending, and I’m sure I’m going to crash. I close my eyes, hoping Lily is buried deep enough in my pocket that I’ll be able to cushion her in the fall and—boom! I land hard on my feet.
I slowly unclench my eyes to see I’m standing in… Hey. Is this Enchantasia Village?
“Lady Devin, you made it!” Robin applauds. A pack of ogres surrounds him. “It’s about time. We don’t have all day, you know.”
I try to catch my breath and look at Tara. “You…could…have…warned…me.”
She shrugs. “The surprise is part of the fun.”
“Too…fast…” Logan chokes out. He’s hunched over a rock where it looks like he just gave up his breakfast.
Heath pats him on his back with a large ogre hand and looks at Robin. “How do you make those arrows move like that? Do you think I could get a set? I want to hike Ice Falls this winter, and they would make the trip up a breeze.”
A beeping sound comes from Robin’s chest plate again. He looks down and taps it. “That’s my cue. I’ve gotten you as far as I can without being seen. Tara knows how to get you the rest of the way.” Robin pulls another arrow from his quiver. “I’ve got a date with a king’s carriage full of tax collections.” He winks at us, nocks an arrow, and aims. “See you on the Wanted posters.” The arrow takes flight and whoosh! He’s gone.