Snow nodded. “It’s complicated.”
“I’ve got time,” Sabrina said. “I’m sure I have to train Ichabod Crane next and he sweats a lot when he’s nervous. He’s so funky it makes my eyes water.”
“Well, it all started about six hundred years ago,” Ms. White said with a laugh. “You see, there was a time when I was—well, pretty naive.”
“Huh?”
“In a nutshell, I was dumb. In my defense, they didn’t exactly educate women back in my time. There used to be a joke back then—the reason they were called the ‘Dark Ages’ is because the women couldn’t figure out how to light the candles. Jokes weren’t really that funny back then, either.” Snow laughed at her bad joke. “Anyway, I lived on my family’s lands. I coasted on my looks, didn’t worry about my brain, and assumed that eventually I’d find some handsome prince to come and take care of me. And then there was the whole situation with the apple and my mother. I don’t know if I had an epiphany while I was sleeping, but when I woke up I was mad. Not only had I let myself get into a bad situation, my own mother had had a hand in it! And then there’s this guy who the mystical world decides is the man I’m supposed to marry. Who’s to tell me whom I’m supposed to love? But even that’s not what really, truly bothered me. It was the realization that I couldn’t take care of myself. While I was riding off into the sunset on the back of Billy’s horse I made a decision. I would never allow myself to be a victim again.”
“So you learned kung fu and started the Bad Apples self-defense school to teach other women how to fight back. And now you’re training an army. What does that have to do with Billy’s proposal?”
“Nothing, really,” Ms. White said. “The problem is I broke my own promise. I let myself be victimized again.”
“How?”
“Bluebeard.”
Sabrina shuddered. It had only been a few days since her run-in with Bluebeard. The infamous murderer had a twisted attraction to Ms. White. He had abducted her during a chaotic riot. Luckily, Prince Charming appeared in the nick of time to save her.
“When he grabbed me and pulled me into that alley I literally forgot all my training. I was helpless,” Ms. White said, ashamed.
“You shouldn’t give yourself a hard time about it,” Sabrina said. “He gave everyone the heebie-jeebies.”
“I’m not everyone, Sabrina. I’m Snow White, this town’s resident fighter. I pride myself on my smarts and my right hook, but they both failed me. So I am right back where I was six hundred years ago with a handsome prince saving my butt. At Briar’s funeral all I could think about was whether I was fooling myself. I mean, this soft-spoken, demure woman stood up to a dragon. She died with her fists in the air, like a hero. Could I do the same?”
“You’re one of the bravest people I know,” Sabrina said as she showed Snow how to make the carpet do a loop-the-loop without falling off of it.
“I’m not so sure, Sabrina, and until I know, I can’t get married, even though I love Billy. I won’t marry someone who has to take care of me. I’m going to take care of myself. I have to prove to myself that I can, again.”
All in all, the three heads of the army—Mr. Canis, Prince Charming, and Robin Hood—seemed happy with the day’s progress. At the end of the very long day the troops marched back through the portal to their well-earned cots. Mr. Canis told the family that the mysterious saboteur had struck several times that day and had yet to be identified. Luckily, he said, the destruction had been repaired before anyone could be hurt. Canis thanked the family for what they had done that day and excused himself, saying that he and Red had work of their own to do.
Unfortunately, preparations for the war started another war entirely—this one about the family’s sleeping arrangements. With fears that the fort might be attacked at any moment, Henry was insistent that the family spend the night elsewhere. His first suggestion was to sleep in Granny’s house, until the old woman reminded him that it didn’t have water or power and was probably still surrounded by noisy lunatics. Daphne suggested they check into a room in the Hotel of Wonders, but everyone suspected that Prince Charming would never allow it. Instead, after much shouting and throwing up hands, it was decided that everyone would camp out inside the Hall of Wonders. Mirror seemed put out by his sudden overnight guests, but plodded down the hall to a room that held camping supplies. Uncle Jake drifted back to the fort without a word. Sabrina guessed he was going to visit Briar’s grave. She wondered if she shouldn’t go with him but Granny told her that Jake probably wanted to be alone.
Sabrina nestled into her sleeping bag and watched her sister do the same. Elvis lay between them, his big head resting on Daphne’s belly.
“Daphne?”
The little girl opened a single eye.
“Are you OK?” she said. “I mean, about Briar and—”