فصل 28

28

The Witch of Woods Beyond

When terrible things happen, my mother always said ‘Find what’s good in it,’” Hester puffed, sprinting past petrified Castor and Beezle through Mischief Hall.

“When terrible things happen, my daddy always said ‘Eat,’” Dot panted, turning a corner behind her. They slammed into Mona and Arachne— “What’s happening!” Mona cried—

“Go to your room!” Hester bellowed. “Don’t come out!” Mona and Arachne fled inside and locked the door.

Hester and Dot ran down the stairs and saw Hort, Ravan, and Vex coming up.

“Go to your room!” Dot yelled. “Don’t come out!” The boys looked at Dot, then at Hester.

“Now!” Hester barked, and the boys scurried away.

“Suppose I’m a henchman?” pouted Dot. “Then we won’t be in the same classes next year!” “If there’s even a school left!” Hester snapped.

They sprinted through the stair room, barking scared Nevers back to their rooms.

“I can think of one good thing,” said Dot. “No home-work!” Hester stopped suddenly, eyes wide. “Dot, we’re not prepared for a real witch. We’re first years!” “It’s Sophie,” Dot said. “The same girl who likes perfume and pink. We just need to calm her down.” Hester cracked a smile. “You know, sometimes we don’t give you enough credit.” “Come on,” Dot blushed, toddling ahead. “Maybe Anadil found her.” After clearing the rest of Malice, the two girls limped exhausted to Room 66 and found their roommate reclining against bunched-up sheets.

“Everyone’s locked in their rooms,” Dot said, airing out her tunic.

Wiping sweat, Hester frowned at Anadil. “Did you even look for Sophie?” “I didn’t need to,” Anadil yawned. “She’s coming here.” “Here?” Hester snorted. “And how on earth would you know that?” Anadil pulled back the sheets, revealing Grimm, bound and gagged.

“Because he told me.”

In the School for Good, Chaddick and Tedros stood guard outside the Valor Common Room, shirts ripped and bloodied. Inside the packed, musty den, girls snuffled in their Ball dates’ arms, while Beatrix and Reena crept to wounded boys with salve and bandages. By the time the sun came, they too were asleep.

Only Agatha didn’t dare rest. Curled in a zebra-skin chair, she thought of the girl who once brought her cucumber juice and bran-flour cookies, who took her on walks and confided her dreams.

That girl was gone. And in her place, a witch who would hunt her dead.

She looked through the window at the Bridge, dawnlit, with petrified teachers, a magical wave frozen beneath. There was no accident, no great mistake. All of this was part of the School Master’s plan. He wanted his two Readers at war.

But whose side was he on?

As sun flooded the room, Agatha kept her eyes open and waited for Sophie’s next move.

In Room 66, morning came and went. So did afternoon.

“You wouldn’t have any nibbles about?” Dot asked from her bed. Hester and Anadil stared at her, gagged Grimm grumbling between them.

“It’s just I haven’t had anything since yesterday and I can’t eat chocolate anymore since you made me live in a toilet, because chocolate reminds me of—” Hester tore off Grimm’s gag. “Where’s Sophie.” “Come,” Grimm spat.

“When?” Hester said.

“Wait,” said Grimm.

“What?”

“Grimm come. Grimm wait.”

Hester looked at Anadil. “This is why we’re here?” A key turned in the door and all three girls dove under their beds.

“Grimm?”

Sophie slunk in, slipped off her black cape, and hung it on the door hook.

“Where are you?”

She scoured the room, scratching her scalp with sharp, dirty nails.

Under the beds, Hester, Dot, and Anadil gasped as clumps of white hair fell.

Sophie spun and saw the lump moving under covers. “Grimm?” Leerily, she reached for the bed—

Three girls tackled her from behind. “Get her wrists!” Hester cried, tying Sophie’s legs to the bedpost with burnt sheets. Anadil secured Sophie’s wrists over her head next to Grimm’s, while Dot beat the cupid over the head with a pillow to make herself useful.

“Perhaps you’ve forgotten,” Sophie drawled, “but I’m on your side.” “We’re all on the same side now,” Hester hissed. “Against you.” “I admire such sweet intentions, Hester, but Good is not on your side.” In the light, Hester noticed Sophie’s face ruined with wrinkles.

“You’ll rot here until we figure out how to revive the teachers,” Hester said, hiding shaking hands.

“Just know that I forgive all of you,” Sophie sighed. “Before you even have to ask.” “We won’t ask,” Hester said, shunting Anadil and Dot away. Anadil grabbed Sophie’s cape off the hook— “You’ll come back for me.”

They turned to Sophie, who smiled to reveal more missing teeth.

“You’ll see.”

Hester shuddered and shut the door behind them.

The door opened and Dot peeked in. “You wouldn’t happen to have any snacks?” Hester yanked her through and slammed it.

Immediately Grimm chewed through his gag and spit it out.

“Good boy,” Sophie said, stroking him as he munched her binds away. “You did so well keeping them here.” She opened her closet and pulled out her musty sewing kit and boxes of fabric and thread.

“I’ve been very busy, Grimm. And still more work to do.” CRACK!

Sophie turned to the door.

CRACK! CRACK!

Outside it, Anadil hammered boards, locks, and screws into her door while Hester and Dot barred it with statues and benches from the hall. Hester caught Nevers peeking out of their rooms.

“STAY INSIDE!” she boomed, and doors closed.

“I feel awful,” Dot said. “She’s our roommate!” “Whatever that is, it’s not our roommate,” said Hester.

Inside, Sophie hummed along to the hammer, a needle magically sewing under her lit finger. “They’ll just have to undo it,” she sighed, remembering the last time someone locked her in her room.

“All that work for nothing.”

By the early evening, the Evers grew restless and began to venture in groups to bathe. Then they moved in a vigilant mass to the Supper Hall, where the enchanted pots in the kitchen continued to cook, despite petrified nymphs around them. The students filled plates with goose curry, lentil salad, and pistachio sorbet, and ate at round tables in listless silence.

At the head table, Agatha tried to meet Tedros’ eyes, but he just gnawed on a chicken bone miserably. She had never seen him look so tired; he had bruised rims under his eyes, no color in his cheeks, and a small blemish on his jawbone. He was the only one who hadn’t taken a bath.

The silence continued until the children had nearly finished their sorbet.

“Um, I don’t know if you knew, but, um, Good Hall?” Kiko cheeped. “It’s still, uh . . . okay.” A hundred and nineteen heads craned up.

Kiko held the sorbet to her sweating face. “So we could, if we wanted, um, still have our, you know . . .” She swallowed.

“Ball.”

Everyone stared at her.

“Or not,” Kiko mumbled.

Her classmates went back to their sorbet.

After a moment, Millicent put her spoon down.

“We did spend all this time preparing.” “And we still have two hours to get ready,” Giselle said.

Reena blanched. “Is it enough time?”

“I’ll sort the music!” said Tristan.

“I’ll check on the hall!” said Tarquin.

“Everyone get dressed!” Beatrix hailed, and with a cheer, the crowd threw down spoons and leapt to its feet.

“Let me get this straight.” Agatha’s voice ripped through. “The fairies and wolves are dead, the teachers are cursed, half our school is in ruins, there’s a murderer on the loose—and you want to have a Ball?” “We can’t give in to a witch!” Chaddick shot back.

“We can’t give up our gowns!” Reena mourned.

The Evers blew up in angry agreement— “The teachers would be proud!”

“Good never surrenders to Evil!”

“She wants to ruin our Ball!”

“Everyone shut up.”

The room silenced. The Evers turned to Tedros, still seated.

“Agatha’s right. We can’t have the Ball now.” His classmates slumped, nodding. Agatha exhaled.

“First we find the witch and kill her,” Tedros snarled.

Agatha’s fists balled up as Evers exploded in cheers—“Kill the witch! Kill the witch!” “You think she’s just waiting for us?” Agatha shouted, leaping atop her chair. “You think you can stroll into Evil and kill a real witch?” The chants ceased.

“What do you mean ‘real’ witch?” Beatrix glared up at her.

Kiko paled with understanding. “The Storian really is writing your fairy tale, isn’t it?” Agatha nodded and the room burst into nervous titters.

“We don’t know who controls these fairy tales,” she said over them. “We don’t know if the School Master is Good or Evil. We don’t even know if the Woods are still balanced. All we know is Sophie wants me dead and will kill anyone in her way. So I say we go back to Valor and wait.” Everyone’s eyes shifted to Tedros, frowning up at her.

“Well, I’m Captain of this school,” he retorted, “and I say we attack.” Eyes shifted between him and his princess.

“Tedros, do you trust me?” Agatha said softly, looking down at him.

The silence thickened as her question hung in the air, Tedros hot beneath her gaze.

The prince broke eye contact and looked away. “Back to Valor,” he mumbled.

As Evers obeyed his orders and sullenly cleared their plates, Agatha touched his shoulder. “You did the right thi—” “I’m going to take a bath,” he lashed. “Want to look nice for our night hiding like girls!” Agatha let him storm ahead. As Tedros stomped out of the hall, Beatrix met him at the door. “Let’s sneak into Evil, Teddy! We’ll kill the witch together!” “Do as you’re told,” Tedros seethed, and shoved past her.

Beatrix watched him go, cheeks coloring with blood.

A few minutes later, as the Evers moped back into their Valor prison, she slipped through the breezeways to her room, where a starving white bunny waited for her, hopping up and down.

“You’ll get your supper, Teddy,” she said, scooping him up. “But first you have to earn it.” Hester woke to the castle in darkness and the Belfry tolling eight. Flat on her face in drool, she pried away a Curse Reversal book stuck to her cheek and glanced at Dot and Anadil, slouched on each other behind furniture barring their room. With a start, Hester bolted up and looked over them.

The door to Room 66 hadn’t been disturbed.

Hester exhaled with relief—then choked.

Something was moving at the end of the hall.

She climbed through the mess of furniture and tiptoed towards the stairwell. As she got closer, she saw three hunched figures sneaking down the steps. A minute later, two more slipped down quietly.

Hester waited behind the banister until she saw more shadows. She sparked the stairway torch— Mona, Arachne, Vex, and Brone goggled back at her.

“Why aren’t you in your rooms!” Hester yelled.

“We’re coming to help you!” Mona said.

“We want to fight back!” said Vex.

“What? What are you—”

Then Hester saw what was in their hands.

Anadil was dreaming of sewers and Dot of beans when both felt jabs in the stomach.

“Look!” Hester held up a black card, glittered green and inked with ghostly white script.

“It’s a cute poem. Though hardly worth waking us for,” grogged Dot. “What’s this revenge?” “There is no revenge!” Hester shouted.

“Then why did you write it?” Anadil said.

“I didn’t, you idiots!”

Both girls looked at her. Instantly they scrambled for the stairs.

“How did she get out?” Anadil hollered, jumping two steps at a time.

“She did it before she came!” Hester yelled back as the clock tolled half past eight.

“She’s so good at pranks.” Dot tripped down the stairs. “What do you think her revenge will be?” “More ravens?” Anadil said.

“Poison clouds?” Hester said.

“Firebombs placed under both schools to go off at exactly the same time?” said Dot.

Hester whitened. “Suppose they’re all dead!” They sprinted through the stair room, past the Supper Hall, past the Exhibition of Evil, to the cobwebbed, skull-carved doors at the far end of the school. Flinging the black invitation away, Hester hurled them open and three girls charged into Evil Hall, prepared for carnage— Dot took one look and fainted. The other two couldn’t breathe.

“This is the revenge?” Hester said, tears welling.

Outside the hall, Teddy the bunny scampered from behind the stairs to the card that Hester dropped. He picked it up between his buckteeth, careful not to smudge the glitter. Then thinking of pears and plums and other delights, he hopped back to find his mistress.

Slumped against the wall in the Valor Common Room, Agatha tried to keep her eyes open, but they drooped heavier and heavier until she toppled back and arms caught her. She squinted at Tedros as he kneeled in his undershirt, ruddy and wet from his bath.

“Sleep,” he said. “I’m here now.”

“I know you’re upset with me—”

“Shhh,” he said, clasping her tighter. “No more arguing.” With a guilty smile, Agatha surrendered to his strong arms and closed her eyes.

The common room doors slammed open.“Teddy!” Beatrix burst in, waking the Evers. Tedros looked up, irritated.

“They’re coming!” Beatrix cried and thrust him the black card as Agatha sat up in his arms. “They’re coming to kill us!” Tedros read the ghostly white script, veins tensing in his neck. “I knew it!” Agatha tried to see over his shoulder, but he lunged to his feet— “ATTENTION!”

Evers sat up at once.

“At this very moment, the villains are planning revenge on our school,” Tedros proclaimed to cries. “All the Nevers are now in league with Sophie. Our only hope is to attack the School for Evil before they come for us. We charge at nine o’clock!” Agatha stood in shock.

“Prepare for war!” Tedros roared, throwing open the doors.

“War!” Chaddick bellowed, herding Evers after him. “Prepare for war!” Dazed, Agatha picked up the fallen card. As she read it, her eyes flashed— “No! Don’t attack!”

She ran out of the common room—a foot thrust into her path. Agatha smashed into the wall and blacked out.

“Oops,” Beatrix said, and sashayed after the others.

Agatha’s eyes fluttered open to a searing headache and a deserted hall.

Grunting with pain, she followed the shoeprints through a breezeway into Honor Tower, then down to Hansel’s Haven before she heard ominous sounds of sword on stone.

She peeked into the room of sparkly rock sugar to see Everboys sharpening real blades, arrows, axes, maces, and chains they’d thieved back from the Armory.

“How much boiling oil?” called one.

“Enough to blind them all!” shouted another, striking his sword against whetstone.

In the lollipop room, Reena sheared girls’ dresses to make them more practical for combat, while Beatrix armed each girl with a bag of jagged stones and thorn darts.

“But the boys train for war in class,” a girl moaned.

“We haven’t even learned to fight!” said another.

“Would you like to be a slave to villains?” Beatrix fired back. “Made to cook children and eat princess hearts and drink horse blood—” “And wear black?” Reena cried.

Evergirls gulped.

“Then learn quickly,” Beatrix said.

In the marshmallow room, Kiko and Giselle lit dozens of torches, while in the gumdrop room, Nicholas and a fleet of boys hewed a battering ram.

Agatha found Tedros in the last room with Chaddick and two other boys, hunched over a hand-drawn map on Professor Dovey’s sugarplum desk.

“How do you know that’s where Evil Hall is?” Chaddick said.

“It’s just a guess,” said the prince. “Agatha’s the only one who’s been in that cursed school but I can’t find her. Tell Beatrix to look for her again.” “I’ll save you the trouble.”

The boys turned to Agatha.

“We need your help,” Tedros said, smiling.

“I won’t help a Captain leading his army to their graves,” said Agatha.

Tedros flushed with surprise. “Agatha, they’re going to kill us!” “Now Good comes to kill us all,” she retorted, holding up the black card. “Evil’s not attacking us! Sophie wants you to attack!” “For once that witch and I agree on something,” Tedros said. “Now are you with me or not?” “I won’t let you go.”

“I’m the man here, not you!”

“Then act like one!”

The clock struck nine o’clock.

As the tower bells rang, the boys looked nervously between Tedros and Agatha.

The last toll ceased.

In the silence, Agatha saw the doubt in Tedros’ eyes and knew she’d won. She smiled gently and reached for his hand, but Tedros pulled it away. Glowering at her, his face swelled redder, redder— “WE CHARGE NOW!” he cried, and roars exploded through the hall.

As his three lieutenants ran to steer the troops, Tedros seized his map and followed out the door.

Agatha threw herself in his way. Before she could speak, he seized her by the waist.

“Agatha, do you trust me?” he breathed.

She sighed with irritation. “Of course, but—” “Good.” He slammed the door and barred it with an arrow.

“I’m sorry,” he said through the door crack. “But I’m your prince and I’m going to protect you.” “Tedros!” Agatha pounded on the candy door. “Tedros, she’ll kill you all!” But through the crack, she saw him leading his Good army to war, armed with torches, weapons, battering ram, and bloodthirsty chant: “Kill the witch! Kill the witch!” In the flame-lit hall, their shadows distorted on walls, dark and crooked, then trailed away like magic.

Panic chilled Agatha’s blood. She had to get to the School for Evil before Tedros and his army. But what could she do to save them?

Only when your Nemesis is dead will you feel quenched, Lady Lesso had said.

Tears seared Agatha’s eyes, the grief of a decision already made.

Give herself to Sophie and no one else would die.

Let the witch win.

It was the only happy ending left.

With a primal scream, she punched and kicked the door, then rammed the sugarplum desk against it, but the candy didn’t break. She hurled chairs into the brûléed walls, stomped on the treacle floors . . . but there was only one way out of this room. Dripping sweat, Agatha looked through the window.

Her black clump found the ledge as she straddled the sill in her billowing blue gown. As the frigid night wind lashed her face, she pulled her other leg through and grabbed onto a vine of gold lights the fairies had draped across the tower for the Ball. With a desperate pull, she swung herself onto the narrow ridge and spun around.

She was so high above Halfway Bridge that the frozen teachers on it looked like beetles. The brutal wind flayed her ears and made her shiver so hard she almost slipped. Through the glass breezeway, she could see torches flooding down Honor Tower towards the Tunnel of Trees. She only had a few minutes before Good would storm right into Evil’s hands.

With chapped fists, Agatha tugged on the lights above her and saw they were strung tight. She squinted at the crisscross of fairy-lit vines spilling down the tower, a glowing road to take her to the Bridge.

Please be strong enough, Agatha prayed.

She grabbed the vine, jumped off the ledge, and heard it snap. Her body plunged, slammed into a glass ledge, and just before she careened off, something whizzed by and landed an inch from her cheek. Agatha grabbed onto it as the vine collapsed, then saw what it was— An arrow.

Dangling from it, she looked back in shock, just in time to see an arrow miss her other cheek. More arrows came flying out of darkness, aimed right for her. As their steel tips grazed her again and again, Agatha closed her eyes and waited for the lethal shot of pain.

The whizzing stopped.

Agatha opened her eyes. Arrows rested in a haphazard foot ladder all the way down the tower wall.

She didn’t question who was trying to kill her or her spell of luck. She just climbed down the arrows as fast as she could to Halfway Bridge, and wove through petrified teachers, hands thrust out for a barrier that never came. As Tedros’ army arrived at the Clearing to find Good’s and Evil’s tunnels magically entwined and impassable, far away Agatha crossed safely into the villains’ lair.

High over her, in Malice’s window, Grimm sheathed his bow.

“And didn’t harm a hair on her head,” Sophie said, caressing him. “Much as you would have liked.” Grimm grumbled obediently as Sophie peered out at Tedros’ army marching around the moat, then down at Agatha, vanishing into Evil all alone.

“Won’t be long now,” she said.

She swept aside the clumps of white hair on her desk and continued to sew, a puppet master gleefully pulling strings.

Agatha had expected to be captured the moment she entered Evil. But as she crept through the leaky foyer, she saw there were no guards, no booby traps, no symptoms of war. The School for Evil was unsettlingly quiet, except for iron doors creaking open and shut at the rear of the stair room. She peeked inside them and found the Theater of Tales, pristine and restored, with one difference. Where the front of the stone stage once depicted a phoenix rising from ashes, now it had a new scene . . .

A screaming witch, surrounded by ravens.

Shuddering, Agatha crept up the steps towards Evil Hall.

But, dear Nevers, we’ll have our revenge . . .

What would Sophie make the Nevers do to her? She thought of all the worst villains she’d found in fairy tales. Turn her into stone? Parade her severed head? Cook her in mince pie?

Though it was freezing cold, Agatha felt her cheeks perspire as she turned the corner.

Roll her in a barrel of nails? Cut out her heart? Fill her stomach with rocks?

Sweat mixed with tears as she looked down at hundreds of footprints— Burn her? Stone her? Stab her?

She broke into a run and charged towards torture and death, wishing that someday she and Sophie would find each other in a different world, a world without princes, a world without pain, and with a terrified cry threw herself through skull-carved doors— She lost her breath.

Evil Hall had been transformed into a magnificent ballroom, glittering with green tinsel, black balloons, thousands of green-flamed candles, and a spinning chandelier streaking wall murals with emerald bursts of light. Around a towering ice sculpture of two entwined snakes, Hort and Dot stumbled through a waltz, Anadil wrapped her arms around Vex, Brone tried not to step on Mona’s green feet, and Hester and Ravan swayed and whispered as more villainous couples waltzed around them. Ravan’s bunk mates picked up the music on reed violins and more pairs flooded onto the floor, clumsy, bashful, but aglow with happiness, dancing beneath a spangled banner: THE 1st ANNUAL VILLAINS “NO BALL”

Agatha began to cry.

The music stopped.

She wiped her eyes to see Nevers staring at her. Couples broke apart. Faces reddened with shame.

“What is she doing here?” Vex spat.

“She’ll tell the Evers!” Mona said—

“Get her!” Arachne cried—

“I’ll handle this,” said a voice.

Hester stepped through the crowd. Agatha reeled back. “Hester, listen—” “This is a villains’ party, Agatha,” Hester said, skulking towards her. “And you’re not a villain.” Agatha cowered against the wall. “Wait—don’t—” “I’m afraid there’s only one thing to do,” said Hester, shadow swelling over her.

Agatha shielded her face. “Die?”

“Stay,” Hester said.

Agatha stared at her. So did the Nevers.

Vex pointed. “B—but—she’s—”

“Welcome as my guest,” Hester said. “Unlike Snow Balls, No Balls have no rules.” Agatha shook her head, finding tears instead of words. Hester touched her shoulder.

“This is how we found the Hall,” she said, voice breaking. “I think she wanted us to have what she couldn’t. Maybe it’s her way of saying sorry.” Agatha burst into sobs. “I’m sorry too—” “I threw you in a sewer,” Hester sniffled. “We’ve all made mistakes. But we’ll fix them, won’t we? Both schools together.” Agatha was crying so hard her body shook.

Hester tensed. “What is it?”

“I tried,” Agatha wept. “I tried to stop them.” “Stop who—”

“KILL THE VILLS! NEVERS DIE!”

Slowly Hester turned.

“KILL THE VILLS! NEVERS DIE!”

Nevers massed to the giant windows and looked out into the night. Down the steep hill, the Good army marched around the moat, weapons glinting in torchlight.

The glow in the villains’ faces died and they shrank back into their shells. Wind swept through the windows and snuffed the candles, leaving the hall dark and cold.

“So you come to warn us. And your prince comes to kill us,” said Hester, gazing at the ferocious mob. “So much for love.” “You don’t have to fight them,” Agatha pressed. “Let them see what I have.” Hester turned, eyes on fire. “And let them laugh at us? Let them remind us what we are? Ugly. Unworthy. Losers.” “That’s not what you are!”

But Hester had returned to the dangerous girl she once knew. “You know nothing about us,” she snarled.

“We’re all the same, Hester!” Agatha begged. “Let them see the truth. It’s the only way!” “Yes,” Hester said quietly. “There is only one way.” She bared her teeth. “Free the witch!” “No!” Agatha cried. “It’s what she wants!” Hester sneered. “And remind our princess what happens when fair maidens go where they don’t belong.” Agatha screamed as the shadows of villains overwhelmed her.

High above, in a rotted tower, a mob of fifty Nevers shoved aside the last furniture and ripped out the final nail of Room 66. With a savage roar, they kicked down its door and recoiled in shock.

A shriveled, hideous hag looked back at them in a luscious pink ball gown. She rubbed her gleaming bald head and flashed her blackened gums.

“Let me guess,” Sophie smiled. “Our party has unexpected guests.”