Of Giants and Ice (Ever Afters, The) (31 page)

Chase found some love letters from Jimmy and Matilda’s courtship, wrapped in yards of faded red ribbon. He read one in Lena’s light and started gagging loudly.

“Don’t want to know,” Lena told him firmly.

“Can’t repeat.” Chase pretended to gasp for air. “Too vile.”

Then I found another letter, the envelope strangely cool to the touch. I manhandled it into the light. It was addressed to Jimmy in old-fashioned handwriting, the kind that I hadn’t seen since studying the Declaration of Independence in fifth grade. I froze when I saw the symbol in the corner—something I had seen only a couple times before, in dreams.

“What’s this symbol stand for?” I asked. “An
S
with a snowflake in the bottom curve.”

Chase dropped the receipt he was reading. “That’s the Snow Queen’s seal.”

It couldn’t be.

“You found it!” Lena grabbed her flashlight lantern and ran toward me.

It didn’t connect right away. For the first time, I was
glad
to be so sleep-deprived. Part of me felt like I was dreaming again. I looked closer at the snowflake, hoping that I had made a mistake, that it wasn’t the same symbol. But it looked exactly like the one that had been in my dream, just clearer. Each point was long, as if wickedly sharp, with barbs on the end.

If I hadn’t been so tired, I might have had a meltdown right there. But a detached part of me pointed out that we would have plenty of time to analyze dreams
after
we weren’t locked in a giant desk anymore.

“I was starting to think that we’d never find it,” Chase said, helping Lena wrestle the letter free from the envelope. They propped the paper up so that we could all read at the same time. It was studded with the same wicked-looking snowflakes and covered with the same old-fashioned handwriting as the envelope.

Lena raised the flashlight-lantern.

Jimmy Searcaster,

I wanted to write you personally to tell you how much the harp would comfort me in my imprisonment. Your mother tells me that she has already applied to you on my behalf, and still, you hesitate. This glass prison won’t hold me forever, and I have always known where to find my friends—and my enemies.

P.S. Do take care of my darlings. They will take care of you.

“Oh, my gumdrops,” Lena breathed.

“The
harp
?” I wondered if my sleepy eyes had misread. “She wants the
harp
?”

“Matilda was
brilliant
,” Lena said. “Last night, General Searcaster was just about to demand to see it. The Snow Queen probably gave her orders to make sure it was intact. But Matilda interrupted and brought the harp up first—to throw us off the scent. She knew we’d think she was just changing the subject.”

“Well, it worked,” I muttered. The harp was the last thing I expected her to want. A giant, glass-mountain-shattering hammer, maybe. A Glacier Amulet, yeah. But a musical instrument?

“I don’t believe for a second that she just wants to hear pretty music,” Chase said. “So this can’t be any old harp. There’s bound to be something special about it.”

“Maybe it doubles as a key,” Lena said. “I’ve read that some of the new elf-made locks use music instead of number or symbol combinations.”

“Well, look at it this way. Now we don’t need to waste time searching for a fourth item. We can hit two birds with one stone,” I said.

“But we were going to let the Canon handle it,” Lena said, hesitantly. “I hope it won’t interfere with the Tale too much.”

“It shouldn’t,” Chase said, “but it might be why this particular Tale came up at this particular time. Magic is weird like that.”

Lena smiled slightly. “You’ve been listening to Sarah Thumb.”

“‘My darlings,’” I read, pointing at the postscript. “Do you think that she sent the guard dogs?”

“‘Take care of you,’” Chase said. “A very polite way of saying ‘eat you’?”

“Jimmy did say that they didn’t belong to him,” I said.

“But the Snow Queen isn’t known for using dogs,” Lena said.

“She uses wolves,” Chase said. “She used to break whole wards out of prison and enchant convicts the way fairies used to enchant princes—turning them into animals.”

“I thought that was a rumor,” Lena said, looking horrified.

Chase shook his head. “They’re true. My dad still has the teeth marks to prove it.”

“What’s the big deal about the Snow Queen anyway?” I didn’t want to be bothered, but if this Destiny thing turned out to be true, I should probably find out more about her. “The way I remember it, all she did was take some kid back to her castle, and he
wanted
to go. Personally, the Big Bad Wolf scared me more.”

Chase and Lena exchanged a look. “She’s not a problem because she kidnaps boys,” Chase said. “That was just how she got started.”

“I guess you haven’t been around long enough to know much about the war,” Lena said. “None of the other sixth graders learned anything. The triplets don’t know much, and Adelaide doesn’t care. I only found out because I read a lot.”

It was clearly going to be a long story, so I sat down on a pink eraser, my back to the letter. I didn’t want to look at it any more than I had to.

“She’s a problem because she can get the villains to work together,” Chase explained. “Doing pretty much exactly what she wants.”

“Before Solange showed up, villains weren’t too bad,” Lena said. “I mean, they were evil, of course. Wanting to eat people and everything, but they weren’t much of a threat. They never teamed up.”

“They knew better than to trust each other,” Chase added. “The witch from Hansel and Gretel allied herself with some giants once, but they ended up eating her house. And her, actually.”

“Characters only had to deal with them one at a time, which was manageable.” Lena’s voice started to sound distant and tinny, like she was reading aloud from a page in her photographic memory. “Then, by the end of World War II, the Snow Queen became more prominent. She attempted to rally others for decades, but on March fourteenth, Nineteen forty-five, she developed a new tactic.”

“Nineteen forty-five!” I scowled, remembering the Director’s Napoleon comment. She’d
wanted
me to believe that the Snow Queen hadn’t caused any trouble in hundreds of years, but
why?
If Solange was so bad, what was the point in pretending she wasn’t?

“Lena, no offense, but you’re starting to sound like the History Channel,” Chase complained.

I raised my eyebrows, but since it was true, I couldn’t say anything.

Lena
did
look offended. “Well,
you
tell her, if you can do better.”

“Look—can we just eat first?” Chase said, and I grinned. We were never going to miss a meal with Chase around. “
Please?
I haven’t been this hungry since the Table of Never Ending Refills broke, and we had to eat Rumpy’s cooking for a week.”

Lena shrugged and slung her backpack off her shoulders. She handed a wrapped parcel to me, but when she tried to pass one to Chase, he took a step back.

“No, thanks,” he said. “Those sandwiches suck.”

“We would offer you some trail mix, but you ate most of it.” Lena unwrapped her sandwich so roughly she ripped the paper.

“I left some chocolate,” Chase said defensively.

Lena tugged the bag of trail mix from her pack and showed it to me. It was a third the size it had been when I had last seen it.

“Two M&M’s!” I shouted, staring at the bag in Lena’s hand. “That doesn’t count as not eating them all!”

Chase disappeared into one of the cubbyholes and called back
to us, “I thought I saw Matilda’s secret stash in here earlier. If you’re nice, I’ll share.”

I snorted. “If the table at EAS was broken, why wouldn’t he just bring snacks from home?” I said, lowering my voice so he wouldn’t hear.

“Chase lives at EAS,” Lena whispered back, obviously still not happy with him. “He didn’t have that option.”

I wondered if EAS had a boarding school I didn’t know about—bunk beds with blankets covered in silver beads like the sleeping bags. But no, Jack was the Canon’s champion. His whole family probably lived in an apartment near the instructors’ quarters. “Is Chase’s mom a terrible cook too?”

Lena shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t think she lives with them.”

I unwrapped my sandwich slowly, quiet for a moment. From what Chase had said, it sounded like Jack was always on a mission. Mom traveled for work too, but at least she took me with her. If his mom wasn’t around, that meant most of the time Chase was by himself.

“But,” I asked slowly, “wouldn’t it be lonely?”

Lena didn’t answer. She took one look behind me and screamed.

hat
woke me up.

I jumped to my feet and unsheathed my sword, ready to battle whatever oversize mouse, cockroach, or centipede had wandered into the desk.

“What?” Chase shouted from deep within a cubbyhole on the other side of the desk, where Matilda’s stash must have been hidden. He sounded more amused than worried. “Did you find cat food in your sandwich? That happened to me once.”

It was a man. He was short and wiry, his red hair braided down his back. His goatee made his face seem very pointed, like a fox. My first thought was that the Director had sent reinforcements, but I couldn’t figure out which Character he was.

“He—he came out of the
letter
,” Lena whispered.

“Kids? Not EASers.” The man sighed. “And here I thought this was going to be so easy.” He drew two swords strapped to his back. They were slender and glinted silver in the light of Lena’s flashlight. Seeing their sharp points, I froze. He was
not
on our side. “I guess I’ll have to kill you. She
did
say leave no witnesses.”

I felt it. The fear was familiar at this point. All my muscles clenched, and I stopped breathing, my sneakers stuck to the wood desk like they were superglued there.

But then he went for Lena—Lena who was still sitting, who didn’t have time to draw her weapon, who was my friend, my
best
friend. My dream about the Wall flashed through my mind again—her name carved in bubble letters. I couldn’t let that happen.

I ran across the desk and knocked both of his blades to the side before he reached her.

From the way his eyes widened, I could tell that he hadn’t realized I was there.

I stepped in front of Lena, trying to look as fierce as possible. And also like I knew what I was doing.

“Fine. You first, then.” The man smiled and twirled both blades into a defensive position I vaguely remembered seeing in Hansel’s class. “I’m not picky.”

“Chase!” Lena shouted. “A little help!”

The man attacked. I dodged one slash and turned the other one aside, careful to keep Lena behind me. He sliced at me again, both blades at the same time, and my sword caught them, just a few inches from my face. He leaned on the three crossed blades, pressing them down farther, closer to my nose. I kicked him in the shin.

He hopped away, cursing and rubbing his leg. “That hurt!”

“Run, Lena,” I hissed.

Lena sprinted out of the way so fast that I heard her knock into the safe door and slam it shut.