“Um—the what is what?” Sabrina said.
“We’ve been building a castle near Mount Taurus,” Beauty said. “Boarman and Swineheart designed it and the rest of us work night and day getting it ready.”
“Ready for what?” Mr. Canis asked.
“War,” Beauty said. “Charming’s army is going to confront the Scarlet Hand.”
“Didn’t you already try that?” Pinocchio chuckled dismissively. “You built a fort, trained everyone, and the Hand overran the place and burned it to the ground. Do you want to make the same mistake twice?”
“This is a little different,” Goldi said. “Oh, here we are.”
Sabrina saw nothing but forest before her.
“Just a sec.” Beauty reached into her purse and pulled out a vial of what looked like purple glitter. She unscrewed the cap and poured some of the substance into her hand, then blew it into the air. As the powder drifted through the trees it collided with the rain, and each drop exploded like a tiny firework, illuminating a structure so tall and wide Sabrina’s brain struggled to believe her eyes. Eventually, she realized she was standing in front of a wall dozens of stories tall, higher than some of the skyscrapers back home in New York City. Around the impossibly steep walls ran a trench ten feet deep. It was an impressive structure; even more so to Sabrina was the fact that it had been built in only two days.
“How?” Sabrina cried.
Goldi winked at her, then stuck two fingers into her mouth. She blasted a rather unladylike whistle, and a moment later Sabrina could hear the turning of a heavy wheel and the rattling of chains. A giant wooden door in the wall tilted forward to span the trench. The drawbridge hit the earth on the other side with a clang and a thud. Behind the drawbridge was an iron gate.
“We haven’t had time to fill the moat yet,” Goldi explained as she led the group across the drawbridge. “We’re still trying to find alligators to live in it.”
“I can help with that,” Puck said, floating down from the air. “I know a guy.”
Goldi led the group through the stone arch and the gate rose to admit them. Once past it, they saw a castle standing nearly four stories tall, built from thick white stones and framed by two towers that spiraled several stories higher. On each tower were battlements festooned with fluttering purple flags and ominous black cannons.
On either side of the castle were several crude log cabins. The nutty smell of fresh bread wafted from one of them, and horses neighed from another. Throughout the yard Sabrina saw old friends, all pounding hammers and sawing timber. She spotted Puss in Boots, Morgan le Fay, the Scarecrow, even the Pied Piper and his son, Wendell.
“So how many people do you have in this army?” Pinocchio asked.
“Twenty-two,” Goldi said.
“Twenty-two! That’s preposterous,” Pinocchio said, chuckling.
“What does preposterous mean?” Daphne said.
“He’s calling it silly,” Sabrina said.
Goldi shrugged. “Well, as Gepetto always says, ‘We’re small, but we’re spunky.’”
Suddenly, Pinocchio’s sneer slipped off his face. “My papa is here? Is he well? Is he injured?”
“Your father is fine. As you know, he’s a very talented carpenter, and along with the pigs and Mordred’s magic they’ve made the place into something livable that we can also defend. I can take you to him.”
“Look!” Daphne cried.
Across the courtyard stood Morgan le Fay’s son, Mordred. The last time Sabrina had seen the warlock he was engrossed in a very violent video game from the comfort of his mother’s couch. It didn’t look like he had changed his black T-shirt and pants, but at least he was now doing something productive. A stream of white light emanated from his fingers and enveloped a newly constructed water tower lying on its side in the courtyard. Slowly the tower struggled to right itself, hobbling back and forth. Boarman and Swineheart looked on, wearing hard hats and studying architectural plans.
“Now we see how you got this castle built so quickly,” Henry said to Goldi.
“Mordred is really indispensable. Unfortunately, there are some complicated side effects to his magic.”
Sabrina watched as the water tower suddenly lunged away from Mordred, stomping up and down and attempting to squash the pigs and the warlock. Mordred shot a couple of fireballs at the ground beneath it and it backed down from its attack.
Goldi shrugged. “Everything he brings to life turns evil and murderous for the last few minutes of the spell. It calms down eventually, but it’s a bit unpredictable for a while.”