A Tale of Magic... (34 page)

By the end of Madame Weatherberry’s second week away from the academy, Brystal was so distraught she couldn’t hide her anguish anymore. She kept to herself and avoided her classmates whenever possible. She barely spoke, but when she did, it was only to bark out orders or make passive-aggressive comments while she supervised the self-defense lessons. The students became so good at the exercises, they could each battle a dozen scarecrows on their own, but Brystal still forced them to practice harder and longer each day.

“Tangerina, that honey needs to be deeper! Xanthous, those flames need to be higher! Skylene, that water won’t be enough to stop a man in armor! Emerelda, that cage needs to be stronger! And, Lucy, self-defense is about more than just dropping heavy instruments on your enemies—think of something else! Everyone do it again!”

Her classmates were getting tired of Brystal’s attitude, but no one was more irritated than Lucy. Brystal’s constant commanding and criticizing flustered Lucy to no end and she eventually lost her patience.

“That’s it!” Lucy shouted. “We’re not practicing anymore!”

Before Brystal could enchant a new batch of scarecrows for the lesson, Lucy snatched Brystal’s wand out of her hand and held it above her head.

“Lucy, give me back my wand!” Brystal ordered.

“No!” Lucy said. “I’m sick of you squawking at us!”

“Stop being so immature!” Brystal said. “Madame Weatherberry told you to respect me!”

“I’ll respect you when
the real you
shows up!” Lucy said. “What’s gotten into you, Brystal? You’ve been acting mean and moody ever since Madame Weatherberry left. I know something is wrong and I’m not giving back your wand until you tell us what’s going on!”

“Nothing is going on!” Brystal lied. “Madame Weatherberry left me in charge! I’m trying to train you!”

“And
what
are you training us for?” Lucy asked. “You’ve been drilling us like we’re going to war!”

“WELL, MAYBE WE ARE!”
Brystal yelled.

As soon as the words escaped her mouth, Brystal knew there was no going back. Her outburst proved Lucy’s suspicions correct, and the rest of her classmates became just as concerned. Brystal desperately wanted to explain herself, but Madame Weatherberry had specifically asked her not to share the truth with her classmates. Brystal didn’t know what to do and was suddenly overwhelmed. She sat on the castle’s front steps, and tears spilled down her face.

“Brystal, what’s the matter?” Emerelda asked. “Why are you crying?”

“I wish I could tell you,” Brystal said.

“Of course you can tell us,” Tangerina said.

“We might be able to help you,” Skylene said.

“No, it’s between me and Madame Weatherberry,” Brystal said. “I don’t want you to worry about it.”

“It’s a little too late for that,” Lucy said. “Come on, whatever’s troubling you can’t be as bad as you think it is. I mean, it’s not like it’s the end of the world.”

Lucy’s comment only made Brystal cry even harder. Xanthous sat on the steps beside her and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“Please tell us what’s wrong,” he said sweetly. “Secrets are like parasites, remember?”

Her friends’ curiosity made the situation even more suffocating, and Brystal buckled under the pressure. She knew admitting the truth wouldn’t solve anything, but if it released just an ounce of the agony inside her, it would be worth breaking her teacher’s trust.

“Madame Weatherberry hasn’t been leaving the academy to visit a sick friend—at least, not in the way you think,” she said. “She’s been traveling to the Northern Kingdom to fight the
Snow Queen
.”

“Whaaat?”
Lucy blurted.

“I know it sounds crazy, but it’s the truth!” Brystal said.

“How do you know this?” Emerelda asked.

“Madame Weatherberry told me herself,” Brystal said. “
That’s
the Northern Conflict that she’s been discussing with the sovereigns and the witches in secret! The Snow Queen has become so powerful Madame Weatherberry is the only person who can stop her. So far, she’s prevented the Snow Queen’s destruction from spreading beyond the Northern Kingdom, but each encounter leaves Madame Weatherberry weaker than before. I begged her to let me go with her, but she was adamant about going alone.”

“Are you saying Madame Weatherberry is in danger?” Tangerina asked.

“As much danger as someone can be in,” Brystal said. “Madame Weatherberry said she’s optimistic, but she’s already made plans in case she doesn’t survive. If she perishes while defeating the Snow Queen, Madame Weatherberry wants me to take over the academy—and if she perishes
before
defeating the Snow Queen, she says
I’m
the one who has to kill her!”

At first it was difficult for her classmates to believe everything Brystal said, but the more they thought about it, the more it explained Madame Weatherberry’s mysterious behavior. Brystal didn’t blame her friends for being skeptical—she had known the truth for weeks and it was
still
hard for her to believe it.

“Well, the chicken thickens,” Lucy said, and placed her hands on her hips.

“Brystal, why didn’t you tell us sooner?” Skylene asked.

Brystal sighed. “Madame Weatherberry didn’t want you to know,” she said. “That’s why I’ve been acting like such a lunatic—it’s been torture keeping all of this to myself! I’m not ready to lose Madame Weatherberry—and I’m certainly not ready to kill the Snow Queen! I’ve never felt so helpless in my entire life! And now I’ve only made it worse by burdening you guys with my problems!”

“
Your
problems?” Emerelda said. “Brystal, I appreciate your loyalty, but you’re crazy if you think these are only
your
problems! If Madame Weatherberry is in danger, then it concerns all of us! You shouldn’t have to go through all this by yourself!”

“Emerelda’s right,” Lucy said. “And I don’t care what she asked of you, if Madame Weatherberry doesn’t survive, we would
never
let you face the Snow Queen on your own!”

“Yeah!” Xanthous said. “We made a pact to help and protect each other! You’ll always have us as backup!”

Brystal was touched by her friends’ support. Their willingness to help her lifted some of the weight Madame Weatherberry had placed on her shoulders.

“Thank you,” she said. “I just wish there was something I could do besides wait! I’ve been hoping and praying Madame Weatherberry defeats the Snow Queen and lives to tell the tale, but that doesn’t—”

Suddenly, Brystal went quiet when she was distracted by something strange in the distance. The academy grounds were cloaked in a dark shadow that gradually consumed the entire property. The students and apprentices looked up and saw that the darkness was being caused by a thick layer of gray clouds that had rolled in from the north and covered the sun. Brystal figured it was just another rainstorm until she noticed something white and fluffy descending from the sky. She reached out her hand and watched in amazement as a single snowflake landed in her palm.

“Is that snow?” Skylene asked.

“It can’t be,” Tangerina said. “It’s never snowed here before.”

“It’s not even cold out,” Emerelda said.

A quiet hush fell over the classmates and they exchanged fearful expressions. The students and apprentices knew they were all thinking the same exact thing—there was only
one
explanation.

“It’s the Snow Queen!” Lucy declared. “Her powers must be growing if her storms are reaching us!”

“And Madame Weatherberry must be in trouble!” Xanthous exclaimed.

The others began to panic, but as Brystal watched the snowflake melt in her hand, she had a significant change of heart: She wasn’t going to waste any more time living in
fear
. She wasn’t going to spend another ounce of energy
worrying
. She was done with
waiting
and
hoping
for Madame Weatherberry’s safe return. And after weeks of feeling helpless, Brystal knew exactly what she needed to do.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I refuse to sit back and let a frosty old witch take Madame Weatherberry away from us,” she said.

“What should we do?” Xanthous asked.

Brystal turned to her classmates and beamed with determination.

“Everyone, get your coats,” she said. “We’re going to save her.”

“What’s all this?” Mrs. Vee asked. “It can’t be my birthday because I stopped having those after fifty.
HA-HA!
”

“We wanted to do something special for you, Mrs. Vee,” Brystal said. “You work so hard cooking and cleaning for us every day, so as a token of our appreciation, we thought it’d be nice to make
you
dinner for once.”

Mrs. Vee placed a hand over her heart.

“Well, that is just so thoughtful of you!” the housekeeper said. “You know, I don’t care what my generation says about young people—you are
not
a bunch of lazy, selfish, and entitled attention-seekers. Some of you are just downright pleasant!
HA-HA!
”

Xanthous pulled out a chair for Mrs. Vee, Emerelda tucked a napkin into her shirt, Skylene filled her glass with water, and Tangerina handed her a spoon. Lucy opened the lid of the pot, letting a scrumptious aroma fill the air, and Brystal poured a generous serving of stew into the housekeeper’s bowl.

“That smells heavenly,” Mrs. Vee said. “What did you make?”

“My mother’s creamy-mushroom-and-potato stew,” Brystal said. “It’s an old Evergreen family recipe. I hope you like it.”

The housekeeper excitedly moved her spoon like it was a swimming fish, and eagerly took her first bite.

“It’s absolutely delicious!” Mrs. Vee said. “
A little salty
, but delicious nonetheless! Thank you so much for treating me to such a special meal. I can’t tell you how wonderful it feels to be so loved and appreciated by you. I don’t want to get too mushy, but sometimes I think of you as my own children.
Boy, that’s salty
—I’ll be so bloated I won’t fit into my shoes tomorrow!
HA-HA!
But all jokes aside, this is honestly the nicest thing anyone’s ever—”

BAM!
Mrs. Vee’s head fell into her bowl and splashed the whole room with stew.

“That was quick,” Lucy said. “I thought it would take longer than that.”

Tangerina carefully raised the housekeeper’s head out of the bowl and gently set it down on the table. She held a clean spoon under Mrs. Vee’s nostrils to make sure she was still breathing, but the housekeeper didn’t exhale.

“Skylene, how much Simple Slumber Sleeping Salt did you put in the stew?” she asked.

“I just followed the instructions on the back,” Skylene said, and removed the bottle of Simple Slumber Sleeping Salt from her pocket. “The directions say an
inch of salt
will put someone to sleep for a week.”

Tangerina snatched the bottle from her friend and took a look for herself. As she inspected it, something didn’t seem right, and she wiped the bottle with a napkin.

“Skylene!” Tangerina exclaimed. “The instructions say a
pinch of salt
will put someone to sleep for a week—not an inch!”

Skylene went pale and her eyes grew wide.

“Oops,” she said.

“Oh my God, we just killed Mrs. Vee!”
Xanthous cried.

“Everyone, calm down!” Brystal said. “We found the Simple Slumber Sleeping Salt in Madame Weatherberry’s potion cabinet. If it was lethal, I doubt she’d keep it in her office.”

To everyone’s extreme relief, the unconscious housekeeper let out a loud snore and started breathing normally.

“The old girl will be out for a while, but she’ll be fine,” Lucy said, and patted Mrs. Vee on the back.

“Did we do the right thing?” Emerelda said. “It feels weird putting her to sleep like this.”

“We talked about this,” Brystal said. “If Mrs. Vee woke up tomorrow morning and discovered we were all missing, it would give her a heart attack! And if she found out we were traveling to the Northern Kingdom, she would have come after us! Letting her rest while we’re gone is better than letting her worry. Now let’s put her in her room and leave before the Snow Queen gets any stronger.”

It took all six children to lift Mrs. Vee’s unconscious body from the chair and transport her out of the dining room. She was much heavier than they expected and it required all their strength. They carried her through the kitchen and into her bedroom as carefully as possible, and did their best to avoid bumping her head and limbs in the doorways. By the time they plopped her down on her bed and tucked her in, the students were all sweaty and out of breath.

“Wait a second,” Lucy said. “Why didn’t we just use
magic
to transport her?”

Her classmates groaned at their own collective stupidity.

“Aw, man,” Xanthous said. “I keep forgetting that’s an option.”

Before they ventured to the Northern Kingdom, each of the students and apprentices manifested a unique coat to keep themselves warm for the journey. Brystal waved her wand, and a sparkling blue coat with fuzzy white cuffs appeared over her pantsuit. Emerelda created a beaded emerald wrap that matched her beaded emerald robe. Tangerina gave herself a thick jacket made from quilted patches of honeycomb. Skylene covered her body in a layer of warm water that wrapped around her like a transparent jumpsuit. And finally Lucy snapped her fingers and manifested a coat made from dark turkey feathers.

“Not exactly the pheasant I was hoping for, but it’ll do,” Lucy said.

“Xanthous? Don’t you need a coat?” Skylene asked.

“I should be fine,” he said. “I’m never cold.”

“Then we’re almost ready,” Brystal said. “I just need to collect a couple things before we go.”

Brystal packed a sack with food, water, and other supplies and then shrank it to the size of a coin purse so it would be easy to carry during their trip. She borrowed one of Mrs. Vee’s sharp knives from the kitchen and took it to Madame Weatherberry’s office. She stood on a glass chair and cut out the Northern Kingdom from the enlarged Map of Magic on the wall. Brystal was glad to see Madame Weatherberry’s star was still shining on the map, and hoped they would save her before it disappeared. She rolled up the extracted piece of the map and tucked it into her coat.

Before heading downstairs, Brystal made a quick stop in her bedroom. She retrieved a large geography book from her shelves that contained detailed maps of the In-Between and the Northern Kingdom. Brystal waved her wand and shrunk the book to the dimensions of a matchbox so she could carry it in her pocket. Once the map and geography book were collected, Brystal met her classmates downstairs by the front door.

“Well, this is it,” she said. “What we’re about to embark on may get dangerous, it may get scary, and we may get hurt in the process.”

“We call that a
Saturday
in show business,” Lucy said.

“I’m being serious,” Brystal said. “Once we walk out that door and leave the academy, there’s no turning back. We all know what we’re getting ourselves into, right?”

Brystal looked closely into each of her classmates’ eyes to make sure they understood the stakes. Instead of finding any hesitation, she saw the students and apprentices nodding at her with confidence, knowing exactly what they had signed up for.

“I’m willing to throw a few punches for Madame Weatherberry,” Emerelda said.

“So am I,” Xanthous said.

“Me too,” Tangerina said.

“Me three,” Skylene said.

“Sounds
exactly
like the thrill I’ve been looking for,” Lucy said.

Brystal was energized by her classmates’ enthusiasm, but she still let out an anxious sigh before opening the front door.

“All right, then,” she said. “Here goes nothing.”

The children left the castle and hurried through the property to the hedge barrier. As the barrier opened for them, Brystal and her classmates all took a deep breath and squeezed one another’s hands for courage. They walked through the barrier’s leafy tunnel and took their first steps into the In-Between, and their journey began.

It was only dusk when Brystal and her friends departed the academy, but it was as dark as midnight in the thick forest. Regardless of their new self-defense skills, the students and apprentices were intimidated by the creepy woods. Every screeching raven and hooting owl seemed like a warning to turn around, but the classmates persisted, and traveled down the winding path. Brystal waved her wand and illuminated the forest with twinkling lights that followed them through the In-Between like a swarm of fireflies.

The classmates made it through their first mile without any trouble, but that quickly changed as they reached the end of their second mile. Suddenly, an enormous horned creature stepped out from the crooked trees and blocked the path. As it approached their twinkling lights, Brystal and Lucy were relieved to see it was Horence and his three-headed horse, but their friends screamed at the knight and prepared themselves to fight him.

“Don’t be afraid,” Lucy told them. “This guy is a friend.”

“Of course Lucy is friends with a demonic knight!” Tangerina exclaimed.

“Color me not surprised!” Skylene said.

“No, I mean he’s not going to hurt us,” Lucy said. “He’s the one who saved me and Brystal from the witch hunters.”

The classmates relaxed a bit after hearing this, but only slightly. Brystal stepped forward to greet the strange entity.

“Hello, Horence,” she said. “What are you doing here?”

Instead of a verbal response, the knight pointed to the path behind the students. For reasons she couldn’t explain, Brystal didn’t need words to understand what Horence was trying to communicate.

“I know the woods are dangerous, but we can’t go back,” Brystal said. “Madame Weatherberry is in trouble and she needs our help. She’s battling a horrible witch known as the Snow Queen. If we don’t make it to the Northern Kingdom and save her, she might die.”

“How does she know what he’s saying?”
Emerelda whispered to Lucy.

“They’ve got a weird thing,”
Lucy whispered back.
“Just go with it.”

After a few moments of silence, Horence bowed to Brystal, and gestured to the path ahead of them. Once again, the knight didn’t utter a single word, but Brystal knew exactly what he was saying.

“Thank you,” Brystal said. “That would be wonderful!”

“Um, Brystal?” Lucy asked. “What’s happening here?”

“Horence is going to escort us through the forest,” Brystal said. “He wants to protect us from the other creatures in the In-Between.”

The knight steered his three-headed horse down the path and the children followed him. Brystal walked beside Horence as they traveled, but the rest of the group kept their distance. She couldn’t blame her friends for being timid—she was scared the first time she saw Horence, too—but the farther they traveled, the more trusting of him they became.

“So what is Horence?” Emerelda asked. “Is he a man? A soldier?
A deer?
”

“I suppose he’s more a
spirit
than anything else,” Brystal explained. “Madame Weatherberry told me Horence was in love with a witch who used to own a bunch of land around here, including the academy’s property. After Horence was murdered, the witch used witchcraft to bring him back to life. The spell was so dark and vile, the witch died in the process, and Horence returned to earth as an unnatural version of himself. Madame Weatherberry says he now roams the witch’s former land and acts as a guardian angel for people in danger.”

“If
that’s
Brystal’s version of a guardian angel, I never want to see her version of a demon,”
Tangerina whispered to Skylene.

“Hey, Horence!” Lucy called to him. “Can we call you
Horns
for short?”

The knight slowly shook his head, and everyone understood his message that time.

Brystal and her friends followed Horence through the night and into the following morning. They could have sworn they saw wolves and bears watching them through the trees, but the animals didn’t dare approach the children while they were with the knight. Eventually, the path came to a stream and the students and apprentices crossed a small stone bridge. Brystal and her classmates made it across the bridge without any trouble, but when they turned back, Horence had stayed on the other side.

“What are you doing, Horence?” Brystal asked. “Aren’t you coming with us?”

The knight slowly shook his head and pointed to a tree on his side of the stream. Brystal looked closer and saw a heart with two sets of initials carved into the tree trunk: