“So remember, Nigel,” I say as the Pegasus swoops lower over the trees in the forest, looking for the pirate-ship tree house. “When you feel a bout of tummy troubles coming on, chew some mint leaves. It settles the stomach just like that!” I snap my fingers.
Nigel neighs in agreement. Thanks for the tip, Devinaria. And I’m sorry you’re having all this trouble with Fairy Godmother Olivina. All I know is she’s restricted the airspace over the school. We aren’t allowed to fly in or out without her written permission. This is the first time in fifteen years she’s done that! Something strange is brewing. You steer clear.
“I will, Nigel, and take care of Penelope,” I add, referencing his Pegasus partner in crime who helped us escape Princess Rose. “I don’t want you two getting in trouble with the royal court.”
We won’t, Nigel neighs as we descend below the tree line toward the pirate ship. We’re friends with the Pegasi at Fairy Tale Reform School. I’m sure they’ll let us stay there until things calm down. They’ll keep us safe.
I hear a whistle and see Prue waving to us from the crow’s nest. She’s shouting something I can’t hear. I squint harder and realize she’s not alone.
Fairy be, Logan is standing next to her, peering at us with one big brown eye through a telescope! They’re okay!
Nigel comes in for a landing on the deck, and Tara comes running toward us.
“What happened to you guys?” she says angrily.
So much for a warm welcome.
“I told you to stick right behind us!”
Sasha dismounts behind me. “We got lost in the crowd when the warning appeared on the scrolls.”
“You should have walked faster! What if Olivina had grabbed us?” Tara scolds.
“Thankfully, we got away.” Sasha pats Nigel. “Thanks for rescuing us.” Nigel neighs.
“He says it was his honor,” I translate for Sasha, ignoring Tara. “And he says no matter what your sister says, you’re a true princess.”
Tara’s eyes bulge. “You saw Princess Rose?”
Sasha smiles sadly. I don’t blame her. I don’t know how I’d feel if I had a sister who tried to betray me.
Penelope lands with a thud next to Nigel, and Heath jumps off. “Everyone all right?” He pulls at his ear, letting his kobold climb out. Sasha and I do the same.
“Yes, but Logan and I barely got away,” Tara says. “He’s not the quickest on foot.”
“Hey, if it weren’t for my suggestion that we jump in those water barrels and roll down the hill, we might not have made it to Red and Prue without being spotted.” Logan looks at me in awe. “It was amazing! Red was waiting in the forest, and she shot arrows with smoke at the police horses to keep them back. None of the horses were hurt,” he tells me hurriedly. “But the smoke kept us from sight. When we didn’t see you three, I thought something bad had happened.”
“It did,” Heath recounts our run-in with Rose.
“You told Rose about us?” Tara says shrilly.
“We didn’t say anything about you! But even if we had, Olivina already knows you’re out here,” I remind her. “She’s the one that banished you. Who cares if Rose knows too?”
“You don’t get it! The more noise we make, the harder it gets for us to survive. We’ve made a home out here, and if your plan doesn’t work with HEAS, you’re going to ruin it for us!”
I am flabbergasted. “This is a hideout. Not your home. Don’t you miss your family?”
Tara’s finger almost jabs my nose. “You don’t get it. I’m willing to sacrifice having a normal life if it means keeping everyone safe!”
Prue steps in between us. “Let’s all calm down. Everyone is safe. The scroll is in. Now we’ve got a real shot at reversing this banishment and setting things right at the school. Isn’t that what we really want? To get out of this forest?”
Tara doesn’t answer. “I’ll be on lookout. We need to be ready if Rose trailed you guys here.” Tara grabs a rope from the ship deck, flips a switch, and gets pulled up to the crow’s nest.
Corden and Prue look at each other. Prue shakes her head. “Sometimes I still forget all Olivina took from her.”
“What do you mean?” Sasha asks.
“This is the only home Tara has left,” Prue says. “That’s why she’s so comfortable out here. She was an orphan before Olivina invited her to come to RA. While she was there, Tara learned her mother was destroyed under Olivina’s rule. So she ran. She made her own family out here, and she doesn’t want to lose it now.”
“When Prue and I got banished here, Tara was all alone,” Corden explains. “She had been for some time. She’s rough around the edges, but she takes care of all of us like our very own fairy godmother would.”
“I didn’t realize,” I say softly.
“It’s okay,” Prue says. “Let’s just give her some space. We’ve got work to do. With your HEAS post, Olivina will be sending more gargoyles into the forest—or worse. I better put up some defense charms.”
I look at Tara up in the crow’s nest and feel a lump in my throat. At least when I was banished, I had my friends. Tara had to make it on her own until she found Corden and Prue. No wonder she’s not in any rush to give up the family she created.
“Speaking of family, has anyone seen Raina?” Heath asks.
Corden picks up a box of handheld mirrors and grimaces. “She’s still in front of the mirror. I couldn’t pull her away.”
We walk past Prue’s mirrors that show feeds of the village and the Dwarf Police Squad headquarters. Chief Pete is standing on a table shouting. I suspect it’s about us getting away. Raina is sitting in the same position where we left her. She’s cross-legged with her chin in her hands, and she’s glued to the mirror’s feed of Royal Academy. The dark circles under her eyes make me think she still hasn’t slept.
“Raina?” I wave my hand in front of her face. “Aren’t you tired? How about a nap?”
Raina barely looks up from a mirror showing a group of princesses walking with books on their heads. In another mirror, princes are perfecting their sword-fighting techniques. A third mirror shows Olivina’s empty office and her hot-pink velvet chair.
“I don’t feel like a turkey leg, right now, thank you,” Raina mumbles.
I look at the others strangely. “Um, we weren’t talking about food.”
“Let me try. Maybe you just need to say what she wants to hear.” Logan steps in front of Raina, blocking her view of the mirror. “Raina! You won the most Royal Academy superlatives ever!”
“Thank you, pink is my signature color,” she says in a monotone voice.
“I’m so sorry,” Corden says to us. “It’s easy to get hooked on the mirrors. I did for a spell myself because Marta Marigold is a genius at makeovers. You can’t look away from her in the Royal Underground! But then I realized, why watch someone else do what I want to do myself?”
Prue rolls her eyes. “Here you go again, knocking progress. Think of how much these mirrors show us. They’ve been the best protection we have.”
“Look at what they’ve done to Raina,” Corden argues.
“Can you set a time limit for watching?” Sasha asks.
Prue scratches her chin. “I never thought of doing that. I could probably program one of the wands to set a timer for too much viewing, but I don’t have that set up right now.”
“Can you disconnect them?” Heath tries.
“I could, but there’s always the risk they will change the security protocol and I won’t be able to get a live feed of RA again.”
“Can you fake shutting them off?” Heath suggests.
Prue nods, smiling slightly. “That I can do.” She taps a few things on a mini mirror in her hands and the screens all go dark.
“Hey!” Raina jumps up immediately. “I was watching that! Prue! The mirrors went dark! Prue!” She spins around and sees us all standing there. “Oh, there you are. Prue, the mirrors have… Hey, why are you guys so dirty? Did you go somewhere?”
I look at the clothes I had on under my ogre costume. They’re sweaty, stained, and I have leather polish on my arm sleeve from something I brushed up against in Cobbler Shoes. My hair may have a few leaves in it too.
“What is going on here?”
“We went to the Happily Ever After Scrolls offices so Sasha could secretly post a blog about Olivina’s motives and try to get our banishment lifted,” Heath explains. “You were too busy watching your mirrors to join us.”
“What? If you go after Olivina, she’ll never lift our banishment!” Raina sounds aghast.
“She will if we expose her true intentions,” Sasha argues. “I signed all of our names to my blog post to give it more weight. I’m sure that’s why Rose is so angry with me.”
Raina’s eyes nearly bulge out of her head. “Rose knows?” “If the royal court questions Olivina, she’ll fight back hard and wand us into oblivion. Where will this end? We’ll never stop fighting with Olivina, and we’ll never get home!”
“Is that what you want?” Heath asks. “To go home and live our lives the way the fairy godmother sees fit? Watch Snow be manipulated by her along with the rest of the royal court?”
Raina purses her lips. “Of course not! But not everything Olivina proposes is bad. I like parties and superlatives and learning how to handle my duties as a royal.”
“And what duties are those?” Sasha fires back. “To wear a pretty crown while sitting on a throne of Olivina’s choosing? We should have a say in who we want to be. Olivina shouldn’t decide for us.”
“I think we should all cool off,” Corden says, and I nod in agreement. The others aren’t listening.
“There’s nothing wrong with wanting some things to stay the same!” Raina disagrees.
Heath looks angry. “You mean like following the Royal Academy rules and going to balls? All of that stuff is useless, Raina!”
Raina pokes him in the chest. “Take that back!”
“Make me!” Heath folds his arms across his chest.
“That’s enough!” I squeeze between them. “We can’t turn on one another.”
“You’re right,” Heath says with a sigh. “I don’t want to fight.”
“Me either.” Raina plops down on a box, her beautiful blue silk skirt billowing around her. “But Heath is right,” she says, looking up at me with tear-filled eyes. “I was so busy watching the mirrors that I missed the quest. Not that I would have been much help anyway. I don’t know how to do this revolutionary stuff. I can’t help it if I was good at being a royal but I’m totally out of my element here in the woods. There aren’t any balls to attend or rankings to win. I don’t fit in anywhere.”
Heath puts a hand on her shoulder. “You belong here with us.”
“Not really,” she says sadly. “I’m here by default because I blabbed to Olivina, thinking it would get us out of a jam. I’m not brave like Sasha or quick on my feet like Devin or resourceful like Logan.” She looks up at her brother. “Even you are good with a map and a leading an expedition. But me? I don’t have anything to offer outside Royal Academy.” Her lower lip quivers.
“That’s not true,” I say gently. “You’re one of the kindest, most graceful people I’ve ever met. You can navigate any social situation with ease, and you command any room you walk into. I don’t know about you, but I think those are pretty useful skills.”
Raina looks up at me with a watery smile.
I hear a thump, and we all jump. Tara has landed back on the deck. “Shh!” she hisses. “We’ve got company!”