Daphne shrugged. “He either went over the wall,” which Sabrina could see was over fifteen feet high, “or through that hole.”
Sabrina spotted a small opening at the base of the wall. A portion of the timber had broken. No one could have crawled through it—at least, no one human. It was too small for even a child. Sabrina scowled. Whether the villain had flown out or shrunk himself, it didn’t matter. He was gone.
Charming appeared to supervise the cleanup of the water tower and the mess it had left behind. A small handful of Everafters came out of the tents to investigate, and Charming told them there had been a small accident and there was nothing to worry about. They seemed to believe his story and drifted back to their sleeping bags.
“What did you see, child?” Charming asked.
“He was small and fast,” Daphne said. “I couldn’t see him clearly in the darkness.”
Charming frowned and walked away.
Veronica led the girls back into the Hall of Wonders where the rest of their family was still asleep. No one inside the mirror had heard the explosion. Veronica helped her daughters back into their sleeping bags and after a quick lecture about the dangers of running after bad guys in the dark, she kissed them both on the forehead and wished the girls a good night.
Wrapped in her sleeping bag, Sabrina dreamed of naked babies flying in and out of clouds. Their rosy cheeks beamed like tiny suns and the sky was filled with giggles that transformed into tiny hearts and flowers. Sabrina had never cared much for babies before—they were smelly and always covered in food. But the idea of having another little brother or sister was exciting. It was a wonder she could sleep at all. Unfortunately, her lovely dreams were interrupted by a loud huffing sound and the sudden sensation of something moist and slippery rubbing against her cheek. Without opening her eyes she made an educated guess about who was bothering her.
“Elvis, I’m sleeping. Go get Daphne to feed you,” Sabrina grumbled and pulled her sleeping bag up over her head. For a moment she was sure the big dog was going to let her drift back to sleep but with a sudden jerk her pillow was yanked out from under her head and her skull rattled against the cold marble floor. Pain rocketed from her temples around her head. Angry and aching, Sabrina sat up spewing threats of trips to the dog pound when she realized that the culprit behind her pillow’s theft was not the Great Dane but an enormous white stallion hovering ten feet off the ground. Two powerful wings kept it aloft. Sabrina recognized it as one of the Pegasi the family had lent Charming’s army. Behind it hovered a dozen more that looked like identical copies, aside from the fact that the one chewing on her pillow also had a rider. Sabrina snarled. Puck was sitting on its back looking as if he was about to open his biggest Christmas present.
“What’s the big idea?” Sabrina demanded.
“I declared war on you, remember?” Puck said.
Sabrina rolled her eyes. “Is this another one of your stupid pranks?”
Puck sniffed. “You have contaminated me with your puberty virus and you called my villainy into question.”
“First of all, puberty isn’t a virus,” Sabrina said as she fought a tug of war with the Pegasus for her now rather damp pillow. “Secondly, I’m sorry if I gave the itty-bitty baby the boo-boo face. Do you want me to give you a hug?”
Puck curled his lip in anger.
“Oh, now the baby is cranky. Perhaps we should put him down for a nap?”
“We’ll see who’s laughing soon enough,” Puck said. “You see these flying horses?”
“Duh!”
“These horses have a very special diet,” Puck said. “For the last two days they have eaten nothing but chili dogs and prune juice.”
Sabrina heard a rumble coming from Puck’s horse. It was so loud it drowned out the sound of its beating wings. Sabrina couldn’t tell if the churn or the sound of the churn was worse for the Pegasus but it whined a bit and its eyes bulged nervously.
Puck continued. “Now, chili dogs and prune juice are a hard combination on a person’s belly. It can keep a human being on the toilet for a week. Imagine what would happen if I fed chili dogs and prune juice to an eight-hundred-and-fifty-pound flying horse. Oh, wait a minute! You don’t have to imagine it. I did feed chili dogs and prune juice to an eight-hundred-and-fifty-pound flying horse. In fact, I fed all of them the same thing!”
Puck’s Pegasus let out a tremendous fart and then whined uncomfortably.
The horror of Puck’s plan began to sink in and Sabrina started to panic. As she looked up at the fleet of horses she wondered what she could do to save herself. She decided a threat might be her best approach. “You’ll regret this, fairy boy,” Sabrina said. It sounded hollow and pathetic even to her.