Rapunzel Cuts Loose, page 11
part #4 of Grimmtastic Girls Series
In the G section, Snow, Cinda, and Red got their gowns and Rapunzel’s, too, while she detoured to one of the G bookshelves. There, she signed the tag that allowed her to check out a book of Grimm Fairy Tales. When the girls met up again, Rapunzel handed Red the book to slip into her basket. One last stop by Snow’s trunker so she could drop off her Handbook and grab her magic charm tiara, then the four girls were finally off to Heart Island, their arms full of satin, silk, and slippers.
On the way out of the Academy, they passed Mary Mary in the Bouquet Garden. “Isn’t this day bee-yoo-teeful?” she enthused, beaming at them. She was holding a pair of pruning shears as she snipped off her flowers’ spent blossoms.
The girls stared at her in stunned surprise, nodding. The weather was indeed perfect for the final day of the festival. The sky was a beautiful blue with some small puffy white clouds. But for Mary Mary to act so upbeat was unusual, to say the least.
“Well, farewell for now. I’ll see you on the island once I finish here. And have a happily ever day!” she told them, her smile growing even wider.
“Why is she so happy?” Snow whispered to the other three BFFs as they headed for the swan boats.
“I think it’s because her cockleshells are missing from the library now,” whispered Rapunzel. “Remember the rumor? Not only are they her charm as well as an artifact, they’re also what makes her contrary, like in her nursery rhyme.”
“I didn’t think a charm could also be an artifact,” said Snow.
“Leave it to her to have one that is contrary to the rules!” joked Cinda.
“Well, I just hope we recover those shells,” said Red. “It’s weird seeing her act so cheery. Can you imagine having that go on forever, this year and the next and on and on?” The others giggled. All except Rapunzel. She was thinking that if that happened, she wouldn’t be here to witness it.
She didn’t say a word until they were seated in one of the swan boats. Then she blurted out what was on her mind. “Even if we save the Academy before Monday, I won’t be going to school here next year.”
Her friends all stared at her in surprise. “What do you mean? Why not?” Red demanded.
“It’s because of a deal I made with the witch when I was six,” Rapunzel admitted in a rush. She glanced at Snow, who already knew the story, of course, and Snow nodded encouragement for her to go on.
“She wouldn’t let me start first grade at GA unless I promised in exchange that when I turned thirteen, I’d go back to work for her again,” Rapunzel told Red and Cinda. “And let her teach me the Dark Arts.”
“It’s awful, isn’t it?” Snow said. “Thirteen can be such an unlucky number!” Snow believed in luck, both good and bad.
“Well, we can’t let it happen,” Red fumed.
“You know what?” Cinda told Rapunzel defiantly as they all began paddling. “I bet someone powerful like Principal R or the Grimm brothers or the Enchantress told that witch to send you to GA, but then she pretended it was her idea. Which would mean the deal she made with you wasn’t fair!”
“Besides, you were only six,” added Red. “You can’t be held to a bargain you made when you were that little.”
“You have to stay at GA,” Cinda said softly from beside her. She gave Rapunzel a hug. “We’ll miss you too much if you go.” Red and Snow leaned forward from their seats and joined in, wrapping their arms about Rapunzel and Cinda.
Their support touched Rapunzel’s heart and she felt tears burn in her eyes. “Thanks, you guys. I want to stay. I’d miss you, too,” she said when they finally broke apart.
To her friends’ credit, none of them had acted the least bit appalled when she’d mentioned that she might have to learn the Dark Arts. Maybe they trusted that whatever the witch taught her, she would never use it for evil. She brushed away her tears and began to paddle again as new determination filled her. She would beat the witch at her own evil game. She had to. They all had to. The consequences would be too devastating if they didn’t. For her personally, and for the whole Academy as well!
“Look! It’s back!” said Cinda.
When they pulled up to Heart Island in the swan boat, Rapunzel, Red, Cinda, and Snow spotted the tower right away. Before going to investigate, they took their gowns and slippers over to the big white tent that had been set up on the far shore. It overlooked the river and the Academy and was where the Festival Ball would take place that night. They would return here to don their gowns later that afternoon in the girls’ side of the changing rooms before the ball.
If there is a ball, Rapunzel thought, her confidence wavering. Would Grimm Academy triumph by the end of the day? Or would E.V.I.L. win?
After looking around to be sure no one was watching her, Snow pressed the largest sparkly turquoise jewel on the front of the cute tiara she wore. Instantly, she went invisible. “You guys take care of all the festival stuff, okay? I’m off to spy on my stepmom to see if I can find out when that meeting is,” she told the others. “Wish me luck!”
“We do!” Cinda assured her.
Rapunzel left soon after on a very important errand of her own. There was something she needed to find — fast. The dark tower peeking from the trees seemed to mock her as she searched up and down the paths for what she sought. She stopped now and then to examine the tongue twister plants that Ms. Blue Fairygodmother had put on display, covering as much ground as she could. An hour later, she found what she was looking for, near the amphitheater and stowed it in her black bag. That witch would see who had the last laugh now. Rapunzel only hoped it would be her and her friends!
Since Snow was busy spying on her stepmom, Cinda, Rapunzel, and Red spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon tending to the events they were in charge of as well as Snow’s. Later, when the three girls were sitting together munching Gloomburgers and Doomdogs near Mistress Hagscorch’s gazebo, Snow’s disembodied voice spoke, nearly giving all three of them heart attacks.
“You’ll never guess what!” she whispered. “The E.V.I.L. Society meeting is in half an hour. And it’s in the witch’s tower!” Snow took off her tiara, revealing herself to them.
“If only we could get up there somehow, we could hide and then listen in,” suggested Cinda.
“I think I can get in by using one of the witch’s chants,” Rapunzel said slowly. “But only because the tower knows me. It won’t let you guys up.” She didn’t mention that there was a good chance she wouldn’t be able to get out of the tower once inside, though. The tower’s magic would probably try to keep her there, just as it had when she was little. But that was a chance she’d have to take. There was too much at stake for her not to.
Just before sunset, Rapunzel’s BFFs stood back and watched her touch a certain stone near the base of the tower. As the stone warmed under her hand, she chanted:
Tower wall of granite stone,
Open up this door unshown.
Creak! A small door appeared, opened, and admitted her to the tower. From experience, she knew the stairs beyond the door led upward, but they would disappear behind her as she took them, making it impossible to come back down.
Once inside, she turned to wave good-bye to her friends. “Well —” she started to say. Slam! The door flew shut in their surprised faces, sealing Rapunzel inside and keeping them out. The only way to go now was up.
The stairs were winding and dark. After taking a deep breath, she put her foot on the first one. Then the next. She took each step slowly, one by one. Her white-knuckled hands gripped the handrail as she went up, up, up, ascending to heights that were almost as lofty as the Pearl Tower dorms. She’d never ventured this high by stairs before, except with the help of her friends. She stopped now and then, trembling with fright. Then she forced herself to go on, ever upward, motivated by the thought that the very future of Grimmlandia could depend on her getting up these steps. She had to make it to the top before the Society did so she could hide and listen in on their meeting to discover their evil plans!
Finally, she stepped into the tower room. The place where she’d grown up but had hoped never to see again. Being here and having climbed all those steps kind of made her feel like throwing up. Still, she’d made it! And she was the first to arrive.
The big star painted on the floor in the center of the circular room was still there. And also her little bed, a wardrobe, her shelves of books, and her desk, where she used to practice her letters. She took it all in in a sweeping glance and shivered, feeling like she’d returned to a prison.
Without showing herself at the window, she picked up a small pebble from the stone floor and tossed it out to let her friends know she’d arrived. There were a few pieces of straw on the floor by the window ledge. Mordred must’ve left them when the witch captured him up here after the pet show.
Hearing strange voices, she quickly hid in the wardrobe where some of her girlish gowns still hung. Just in the nick of time. The voices were closer now. E.V.I.L. was inside the tower room! She hadn’t heard any footsteps coming up the stairs, but somehow, the Society had arrived. From her hiding place, she listened to their meeting begin. The closed wardrobe door muffled their words, so she couldn’t tell exactly who was speaking half the time. However, she recognized at least two voices. Those of Ms. Wicked and the witch.
Rapunzel opened the wardrobe door a crack, hoping to learn the identities of the members, which could prove helpful in future. The members sat in a circle around the painted star to call up more magical power. However, she saw to her disappointment that they all wore masks to hide their faces. In the center of their circle sat a large old empty trunk she’d never seen before.
“This meeting of the E.V.I.L. Society is now called to order,” Ms. Wicked said in a formal tone, quieting all the small talk. “As you all know, E.V.I.L. began back in the Dark Ages, when —” Oomph!
The witch elbowed her aside and took over the meeting. “Who cares about all that ancient history? Blah, blah, blah,” she said. “What’s really important is that, thanks to me, members of E.V.I.L. will soon achieve their rightful place in fairy tales and all of literature. We’ll rule the Academy and the realm of Grimmlandia! All because I’ve collected the rest of the artifacts we need.”
She opened her bag and poured the artifacts she’d stolen into the trunk. In went the queen chess piece, toy rabbit, cockleshells, tiara, umbrella, violin, pocket watch, yarn, and zebra. Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, Y, Z.
Rapunzel pressed her lips together to keep from gasping. She and her friends had only been guessing before, but now she’d heard it from their own lips. E.V.I.L. hoped to take over the entire realm and everything in it!
Cheers erupted, and clapping. The masked faces all turned toward a big oval, gold-framed mirror that hung on the tower wall. It hadn’t been there when Rapunzel first arrived, so she figured Ms. Wicked must have brought it with her. According to Snow, there were hundreds of such fancy, creepy mirrors on the walls of her stepmom’s apartment at GA.
A hopeful, waiting excitement filled the tower room as the Society members continued to gaze at the mirror for several long minutes. Suddenly, artifacts began to pour into the room via the mirror, tumbling one by one, then two by two. Into the trunk they went until it was overflowing. These must be the artifacts A to P that had been listed on the cards in the Grimm brothers’ room of the library, she realized. Including Peter Peter’s pumpkin and Jack and Jill’s pail. Since she knew they’d gone over the wall, that must mean this mirror was somehow connected to the Dark Nothingterror! And it was bringing the artifacts back over the wall. Eventually, the stream of artifacts slowed and then stopped altogether.
Now a mist appeared in the mirror, clouding it. Rapunzel had to press her lips tightly together so she wouldn’t gasp or scream when a nose poked out of the misty mirror. Then an eyeball and most of a face appeared. Ludwig! His hands grasped the edges of the mirror as if he would pull himself forward and leap out of it into the room at any moment. How she wished her Grimm girl friends were here with her so she wouldn’t be so scared.
But then his image in the mirror began to waver. A surprised look came over his face just seconds before he suddenly vanished!
“What happened? Ludwig? Come back,” the witch wailed. She rubbed the ring she wore with the bony fingers of her opposite hand. Ludwig’s fingers had been bare, Rapunzel recalled. So she and her friends were probably right that this was his ring. The witch’s hat flew off her head as she whirled around and around, flying into a rage as wild as any Principal Rumpelstiltskin might’ve thrown. “It should have worked. Why didn’t it work?” she repeated again and again.
“You’ve failed!” Ms. Wicked crowed happily. “But no matter. Because I have discovered …” She paused, building suspense in her listeners. “… the mapestry!” she finished, whipping out the fake mapestry Snow had stitched to show them. According to Snow, her stepmother had been keeping it a secret from the Society, hoping to steal any treasure she found for herself. If she was willing to reveal it now, she must be desperate to make the others think she was more powerful than the witch.
Gathering up every ounce of courage she possessed, Rapunzel flung open the wardrobe doors as dramatically as Red might have done. “I’ll tell you why the artifacts didn’t work,” she announced. Gasps sounded and all heads whipped her way. “Because you have two P artifacts … but no X,” she went on. “As in the xylophone from the Grimm brothers’ room in the library.”
And with that, she pulled an object from her bag.
Seeing the xylophone, the witch took a step toward her. “Give me that!” she screamed.
Rapunzel set the xylophone on the floor and poised her foot to stomp it. “If anyone comes nearer — Crrrunch! I’ll crush this thing under the heel of my boot till it’s so out of tune, it won’t be of any use to you.”
“Wait!” said Ms. Wicked, looking worried. “Surely we can make some deal. What do you want?” She stared into Rapunzel’s eyes. Then, as if she’d somehow seen the answer there, she said softly, “What if we could change your fairy tale so your parents never died?”
“What do you mean?” Rapunzel demanded, her attention caught in spite of herself.
“When we — that is, Ludwig — rewrites the great books of Grimm, we could get him to say your parents didn’t die. They could come alive in the new version of the story and join E.V.I.L. You could join us, too,” said Snow’s stepmom.
“Listen to her,” coaxed the witch, her competition with Ms. Wicked momentarily shoved aside. When Rapunzel stared at her uncertainly, the witch asked, “Shall I tell you the real reason your mother and father made their bargain with me? It was because I told them what rampion could do.”
“Give them their hearts’ desire,” the other Society members chanted softly.
The witch nodded. “And do you know what your parents desired above all else?”
Rapunzel shook her head, almost afraid to hear.
“A child to love. You!” the witch crooned. She whipped Rapunzel’s comb from her bag — the comb she’d stolen back. “See the bellflower design along the comb’s edge? That’s rampion — another word for Rapunzel. That’s why they made the bargain. They hoped to go back on it when I came for you, but naturally I prevailed.”
“Just imagine if you could hug them right now,” Ms. Wicked chimed in. “Talk to them, too.”
Sweet tears of happiness filled Rapunzel eyes as she gazed at the comb, imagining just that.
“All you have to do is give us that last artifact,” promised the witch. “And it will come to pass. We’ll make sure of it.”
All these years Rapunzel had tried to steel herself against her parents for their poor bargain, but now it turned out they’d loved her. They’d yearned for a child — her — which meant they’d really loved her. What wouldn’t she give to see and talk to them! And that would also mean that she would never have to go live with the witch again!
But then her heart twisted inside her chest. According to the deal she was being offered, her parents would be expected to join the Society. As would she. They’d all become evil, and she’d have only herself to blame for it.
Still, she carefully considered the matter, not wanting to make another bad bargain. “No,” she said at last, shaking her head slowly. She couldn’t switch sides and work against her friends and all the good people of Grimmlandia! “I won’t agree.”
The witch and Ms. Wicked both looked taken aback by her answer.
Sensing that it would go better for her if she flattered the witch and made her feel more important than Ms. Wicked, Rapunzel turned and spoke directly to her. “But I will make a different deal, only with you.”
At this, the witch smiled triumphantly, while Ms. Wicked glowered.
“I’ll give you this xylophone in exchange for the onyx comb,” Rapunzel continued. “But you must first swear — on Ludwig’s ring — that neither you nor any of the members of E.V.I.L. will ever try to steal another artifact again.”
Though Ms. Wicked pouted, she, the witch, and the other Society members consulted one another, murmuring together in a huddle.
“Agreed,” the witch said finally, holding the comb out to Rapunzel. She was grinning from ear to ear, obviously thinking she’d pulled off another grand bargain.
“One more thing,” Rapunzel added, not yet reaching for the comb. “Before you give it to me, I want you to remove any spells you’ve put on my charm to make it obey you, so I’m certain you can’t steal it again. And I make A’s in Bespellings class, so don’t try to trick me. I won’t fall for it like I did the last time.”
The witch nodded. Eager to get on with their deal, she quickly recited a spell:
Rapunzel’s charm you are.
Rapunzel’s charm you’ll be.
Work your magic only for her,
And never return to me.
Even though she was overjoyed, Rapunzel tried not to show it as she took the comb. She handed over the xylophone to the witch, who tossed it into the trunk with the other artifacts. Then the Society members turned to look at the mirror again.
