The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell (41 page)

“Goldilocks!”
Jack yelled.

“I can’t watch!” Alex said, and buried her face in Conner’s shoulder.

It was hard to see anything through the dust. The sound was thunderous; thousands upon thousands of stones were falling on top of one another. Many rolled over into the moat. The dust eventually cleared out once the stones had settled. The castle was now just a massive pile of stone bricks. Goldilocks was nowhere to be found.

“Goldilocks?” Jack hollered, running along the edge of the moat, trying to find any trace of her.

The odds didn’t seem in her favor. Froggy jumped across the moat and disappeared into the debris. Everything was silent. The twins thought Jack was going to have a heart attack while waiting. Every second that they didn’t hear or see anything felt like an hour.

Slowly but surely, two figures made their way through the wreckage: It was Froggy, and he was helping Goldilocks through the rubble. She was limping, but she was alive.

The twins cheered, and Jack fell to his knees. They had never seen anyone so thankful in their lives. Froggy leaped over the moat with Goldilocks, and she and Jack collided into each other’s arms. They shared a kiss so passionate that a few of the soldiers blushed. It was love personified.

Red Riding Hood could feel her entire body ache with heartbreak while watching the scene. This may have been the only time she hadn’t gotten what she’d wanted, and Jack had always been what she’d wanted more than anything.

Porridge happily pranced over to Goldilocks, who petted her horse’s mane.

“I’m all right, girl,” Goldilocks said. “I’m just banged up a little.”

“Goldilocks,” Sir Grant called out officially. “You’re under arrest.”

“Wait a second! Hold on!” Jack said, standing in the way of the approaching guards. He turned and gave Red a scornful look. “Do something!”

At first, Red didn’t know what to say. She had never really done anything official and queen-like.

“The Red Riding Hood Kingdom would like to pardon Goldilocks for all the crimes she’s committed,” Red said. “And it’s a very long list.”

“That may be,” Sir Grant said. “But you can’t pardon all the crimes she committed in other kingdoms. She’s going to spend the rest of her life in prison.
Seize her!
”

T
he entire party traveled back to the Northern Kingdom in silence. The pattering of the horses’ hooves on the road was the only sound the group made. The whole world seemed to have sighed with relief now that the Evil Queen was gone.

Goldilocks was given permission to ride Porridge back into the kingdom, but her hands and feet were wrapped in chains. An annoyed expression was frozen on her face. Jack faithfully walked by her side the entire trip with his hand on top of the manacles around hers.

Red Riding Hood watched them from afar, looking away only when someone noticed her staring at the couple. She had never experienced so many emotions at once. She remained silent and still, praying that the hurt would go away.

The twins were especially quiet during the journey. After everything that they’d witnessed, it was hard to find words to express what they were thinking and feeling. Their thoughts were filled with the Evil Queen’s story. They were haunted by images of her holding the body of the man whom she had loved her entire life, before being consumed by the mirror. And while they were saddened by her tale, they were even more disappointed that the Wishing Spell was gone.

They feared how long it would take for them to discover another way home. What obstacles and dangers would they have to endure when and if they found an alternative? What would they do in the meantime? Where would they live?

“I’m so sorry, children,” Froggy said as they went. “I feel completely responsible. Had I just let you use the Wishing Spell instead of persuading you to come with me, none of this would have happened.”

“It isn’t your fault, Froggy,” Alex said. “The wolves would have gotten to us sooner or later.”

“Actually, this whole thing
is
your fault,” Conner said. “If you hadn’t told us about the Wishing Spell none of this would have happened in the first place. We would have never been chased by wolves, kidnapped by trolls, or targeted by the Evil Queen.”

Froggy lowered his head. The guilt was heavy and it weighed him down. Alex looked like she was about to punch Conner in the face.

“But,” Conner said with a big cheesy smile, “you did save our lives like three times, so I think that makes up for it.”

Froggy chuckled. “You are more than welcome to live with me,” he said. “I’ll help you find another way home. I promise.”

The twins nodded and smiled at him. It was comforting to know they had a place to live, even if it was just a hole in the ground.

They traveled for a day and a half before they finally reached Swan Lake and arrived at Snow White’s palace. Red Riding Hood seemed intimidated by a palace so regal and large.

“My castle is going to look just like this when it’s finished,” she told everyone around her, but no one seemed interested.

The soldiers immediately took hold of Goldilocks and escorted her to the dungeon.

“Wait a minute! You can’t just throw her into captivity without a trial!” Jack said.

“For her sake, I hope she never gets a trial!” a soldier said.

“Go home, Jack,” Goldilocks said. “With good behavior, they should let me out in a few decades.”

Jack followed them anyway, protesting the entire time, but even he knew there was nothing he could do.

“Come with me,” Sir Grant said to the twins. “We’ll find the queen.”

The twins, Red, and Froggy followed the soldier into the palace. They went up the staircase to the third floor and down the hall to the door of what must have been the real entrance into the storage chamber.

Grant knocked on the door. “Your Majesty, it’s Sir Grant. Are you in there?” he said.

“Yes, please come in,” Snow White said from inside.

They all followed Sir Grant inside. The room looked completely different. All the furniture had been uncovered, and the paintings had been placed on the walls. It looked like an actual room again.

“What are you two doing here?” Snow White asked. She was putting the portrait of the Huntsman back on the wall. For the past couple of days, she had been restoring the room by herself.

“Your Majesty,” Sir Grant said, lowering his helmet. “We found your stepmother hiding in a castle in the northeast Sleeping Kingdom.”

“And?” Snow White asked, bracing herself for the news.

“She’s dead,” Grant informed her.

Snow White’s face became paler, which the twins hadn’t thought was possible. She sat down on the platform in the back of the room. She didn’t cry, but anyone could tell it was difficult news to process.

“How did it happen?” Snow White asked.

Grant looked down at the twins. “I wasn’t there, but they saw it happen,” he said.

“She didn’t
die,
per se,” Alex said, trying to put it delicately. “The castle was falling apart, and her mirror, well, it—”

“It fell on top of her and swallowed her like a bug!
Boom!
And then she disappeared!” Conner said excitedly. “It was crazy! There was nothing left!”

Alex gave her brother a dirty look. “Well, not necessarily,” she said.

Alex reached into her bag and pulled out the heart of stone. Snow White gasped upon seeing it. Alex walked across the room and handed Snow White her stepmother’s heart.

“This was left behind,” Alex said. “I think you should have it.”

Snow White looked down at the stone and tears spilled out of her eyes.

“Sir Grant, I’d like to be alone with the children,” Snow White said. “Please arrange rooms for the others if they would like to stay,” she said, nodding to Red and Froggy.

“Why, thank you, Your Majesty,” Froggy said, and bowed.

“That’s very nice, thank you,” Red said. “Maybe just until my palace is done being rebuilt. I’m putting in a room just like this one—”

Sir Grant ushered them out of the chamber before Red could finish. The twins were left alone with Snow White.
She was very quiet for the first few moments. All she could do was stare down at the stone.

“I guess you didn’t listen to my advice, then,” Snow White said.

“We listened,” Conner said. “We just ignored it.”

“Do you know what this is?” Snow White asked them, holding up the heart of stone.

“Yes,” Alex told her. “It’s her heart. She told us all about it and about her life before she was, well, the Evil Queen.”

“It was one heck of a story, too,” Conner said. “Did you know that guy in her Magic Mirror was actually her long-lost boyfriend?”

“Yes, I did,” Snow White said. “That’s why I helped her escape.”

Both of the twins gasped and shook their heads in disbelief. They couldn’t have heard her correctly.

“What?” Alex asked. “
You
helped her escape?”

“No way!”
Conner said.

“Yes,” Snow White said. She showed no remorse with her confession. “I sat in her cell for hours and listened to her story. It broke my heart. So, in a final attempt to please her, I arranged for her and her mirror to be taken up the river and into the next kingdom so she could continue her work.”

The twins couldn’t believe it. They wanted to ask so many questions, but only grunts and light stutters came out of their mouths.

“All these years, I wondered why she didn’t love me,
and then I finally understood it—it was because she couldn’t,” Snow White said. “I thought a heart as broken as hers was punishment enough for her crimes against me. Did she free him, then?”

“She did,” Alex said. “But unfortunately it was too late. He died in her arms.”

Snow White let out a distressed sigh. “I see,” she said.

“But they were together,” Conner said, “one last time.”

“So what happens now?” Alex asked. “Do we clear her name? Do we tell the world the truth about her?”

“I’m afraid that’s easier said than done,” Snow White said. “I think the best thing we can do now to honor her memory is to live every day with the compassion and understanding no one ever gave her.”

The twins looked to each other and exchanged sad smiles.

“I think what I’ve learned from all of this is that
villains
are mostly just people villainized by circumstance,” Alex said.

Snow White nodded, sincerely looking down at the heart. “I agree,” Snow White said. “That’s the tragic lesson we can learn from the Evil Queen.”

The dungeon was a miserable place, as Goldilocks was learning firsthand. Her cell was small and damp. The smell was horrible and the light was scarce. Occasionally a rat
would try to run into her cell, and Goldilocks would look down at it meanly and intimidate it into running the other way.

“Don’t even think about it,” she said multiple times to the rodents.

It was just past midnight and all was quiet in the dungeon. Goldilocks couldn’t sleep in her first night of captivity. She knew this day had been bound to come, but as she sat on the hard floor, she couldn’t help but feel cheated that it had come so soon.