CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE THE BROKEN MIRROR

It’s a lot for a girl to take in all at once. First, Filomena was just about to have her first kiss, she’s sure of it. Her first kiss! With Jack! Except it didn’t happen because, second, Robin Hood is here, in Westphalia, on the hill before them. And to top it all off, Little Jeanne is standing with him. Which means … Filomena was right. There was something off about Little Jeanne!

“I’d love to catch up, but we’re a bit pinched for time,” Robin Hood says, smirking and shrugging. “I’m actually here for something other than seeing if you two finally get together. Finally got some guts there, Stalker!”

Jack glowers in Robin’s direction.

Filomena instantly feels fired up. How dare he mock them! That was—that was such a special, sacred moment that’s now ruined! She and Jack both pull their Dragon’s Tooth swords from their belts and hold them out, readying for an attack.

“What do you want, Robin?” Filomena says, her eyes squinting with suspicion.

“Now this will be so much easier if you just let me do my job. Look, I don’t care about the ogres, I have no real moral allegiance to anything. I’m a hand for hire. Can you really fault me for that?”

“Yes,” Fil and Jack say in unison.

Robin raises his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay, fair enough. But look”—he places a hand over his heart—“underneath it all, I’m a good guy. I’m a guy in love! You see, let me tell you my story.”

Filomena’s getting pinpricks of alarm. What does he want? Why is he being so agreeable, trying to be sympathetic?

“Princess Jeanne and I were very close as children. I’m working with the ogres just so I can get her back, all right? And to get paid. It’s as simple as that. I have nothing against you folks, really! I like you, even! In my own way.”

“You like us?” Jack spits, walking toward Robin with his sword poised. “If you like us so much, then how about you stop being so selfish and join the right side? There’s a lot more at stake than your childhood friendship, all right? The entire kingdom is at stake here. Do you know how evil the ogres are? Do you know the monstrosities they’ve caused?”

The two boys are so close now, face-to-face. Jack is seething; every wrongdoing he’s seen the ogres commit is flashing before his eyes, Filomena knows. She’s watching Robin closely, terrified that Robin Hood will take a swing at Jack when Jack least suspects. She can’t bear for Jack to get hurt. But something’s tugging on her hip … What’s that?

Suddenly Robin’s hand shoots up into the air and catches something. Ira Glassman! Little Jeanne grabbed him from Filomena’s belt while Robin was distracting them!

“No hard feelings?” Robin taunts. “Just another job that gets me paid, you know. Especially since the last one didn’t work out. Ogres say I have to destroy this.” And with that he punches Filomena’s talking mirror, smashing the surface to bits.

“No!” Filomena screams. All reassurance of her power—that she can do this, can take over a kingdom, can create a talking mirror from thin air—her ability to check in on her friends, her ability to communicate with all of Never After and to tell her side of the story … All that was wrapped up in her talking mirror.

Having adequately shattered the mirror, Robin drops it onto the ground.

Filomena turns around to see Little Jeanne, who has a scared look on her face. Filomena is filled with rage and lunges with her sword, pinning the young princess to a tree. Little Jeanne screams as if she didn’t know Filomena to be capable of this.

“Well, I’ll be off! Nice seeing you, then!” Robin shouts, and sprints away.

“You’re leaving me?!” Little Jeanne screams after him, but he doesn’t turn.

Jack gives chase, but Robin is an expert at sneaky exits and after a few minutes in the hills, Jack loses him. Meanwhile, Filomena keeps Little Jeanne pinned to the tree with her sword.

“He left me!” the princess wails.

“You traitor!” Filomena shouts. “You betrayed your own sister. How could you do this? How could you?!”

“I didn’t!” Little Jeanne is sobbing.

But Filomena is sobbing, too. Lowering her sword, she crawls over to pick up Ira Glassman, who’s smashed beyond recognition. She loved her talking mirror, she realizes. Ira helped her to feel safe. And now he’s broken, completely broken. Robin took away her power, her fairy power. Every fairy can animate only one mirror, and this was hers. She cradles the talking mirror in her arms. There’s no smoky face to be found in its smashed surface. Only shards.

Just then, Jack, breathing heavily and cursing, returns from his futile chase after Robin Hood. Little Jeanne is still slumped against the tree, quietly crying. Jack keeps his sword pointed at her so she doesn’t move. The three are silent for a few beats as they take in what just happened.

Then Filomena speaks. This time she’s not yelling; her voice is measured. “Little Jeanne, how could you?” she whispers.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” she says. “It wasn’t supposed to go this far. I thought if I gave Richard the crown, he would leave my sister alone.” She slides down the tree trunk so that she’s sitting on the ground, too. She puts her head in her hands.

“Little Jeanne, I think you owe us an explanation,” Jack says sternly but not unkindly. His sword is still pointed in her direction.

She looks up, her face covered in tears. “You know Princess Jeanne and Robin Hood were friends when they were kids?” she starts. They nod.

“Well, I was always jealous of them. Jeanne always ditched me for Robin, so I was jealous of him, but I also loved Robin, so I was jealous of her. And how do you think it feels to live in the shadow of a princess for your whole life? And being referred to only as ‘Little Jeanne’? I don’t even have my own name! I’ve never been my own person. I’ve always just been a shadow of her.

“When Robin approached me for help, I didn’t really know what we were doing. I just knew that, finally, it felt like he was choosing me over her, like I’d get to be the main Jeanne. I could do something different from her. Then it started to get out of hand. I didn’t realize how serious it all was, and then it was too late.”

“What was your uncle and Robin Hood’s plan?”

“They wanted me to steal the crown. So I did. It was easy. My sister trusts me,” Little Jeanne tells them. “But it wouldn’t fit Uncle Richard’s head. The magic in it rejected him. I know about the legend of the crown so I wasn’t surprised but I guess Uncle Richard thought he could fool the crown. But he didn’t. So he thought he’d just take the kingdom by force, but the Northphalian people still need to see a ruler wear the ancient crown of the North.

“So they came up with a new plan: They would put the crown on my head, and Uncle Richard would rule as regent. I mean, they already call him king as it is. He figured one Jeanne is as good as another. But the crown didn’t fit me, either. It wouldn’t accept me. So I was useless. Then I hoped Robin would run away with me, but instead he left me here. I’m so, so stupid.”

Jack and Filomena look at each other, unsure of what to do. She feels awful for Little Jeanne and for the crimes she was willing to commit. Filomena looks at the shattered mirror in her lap. The damage is done.

But there are still kingdoms to save.

“Where is your sister’s crown now?” she asks.

Little Jeanne slowly reaches into her skirt pocket. “Here.” What she reveals is a crown of twigs and leaves—a simple thing, not at all golden or bejeweled. It’s a crown from the fairies and the spirits that protect Never After.

“Little Jeanne,” Filomena says in a burst of realization. “I remember now—I remember from the books. You have to get that crown on your sister’s head. The minute she’s crowned, King Richard’s army will turn to dust.”