"But what about that building Puck and I discovered?" Sabrina cried. "There could be something that survived the fire that could tell us where Mom and Dad are."
"You and your sister don't need to be snooping with that thing running around," Granny said. "Promise me you will not go back there, Sabrina."
The girl scowled.
"Promise me, Sabrina," the old woman demanded.
"She promises," Daphne said. "We won't go up there."
Satisfied, Granny led Daphne and Elvis into the hallway. When she reached the doorway, she turned, flipped off the light, and stood in the darkness watching Sabrina.
"I can't lose you, liebling"
the old woman said quietly. "I've already lost too many."
"Mom and Dad need us," Sabrina said, feeling her anger rise in her throat.
Granny nodded but said nothing and then vanished down the hallway.
Sabrina lay in bed for hours brooding over what had happened. Was her grandmother really going to ignore everything that Sabrina had discovered? She had seen her mother and father. She knew what their kidnapper looked like. She'd been at the location the bad guys had been using for a hideout. How could her grandmother say it was best to wait for another opportunity when they were so close?
She scowled again in the direction of the doorway, where her grandmother had stood so silently, and caught sight of something that she realized might explain her grandmother's behavior. Mr. Canis's bedroom door was directly across from her own. Most nights, she heard the restless old man as he fought the demon that lived inside him. His alter ego, the Big Bad Wolf, was a killing machine, but Granny had believed in him. He had been her companion and best friend, and, despite his horrible past, the one person in Ferryport Landing who she trusted completely. Now he was gone.
Sabrina realized how selfish she was being. Granny Relda was heartbroken and certainly not ready to plunge the family into another dangerous adventure, even if it meant saving Henry and Veronica. Her grandmother needed time to mourn.
Sabrina would have to rescue her parents on her own.
*
When she was sure everyone was deeply asleep, Sabrina struggled from her blanket cocoon. It took her nearly half an hour to maneuver herself to freedom but eventually she escaped and headed downstairs.
She crept through the house, doing her best to avoid creaky floorboards. Being in the foster care system for so long had taught her a lot about how to be sneaky. She could creep out of someone's house right under the person's nose.
Once in the living room, she reached over and flipped on a table lamp. Elvis was lying on the couch, a place he knew very well he was not supposed to be. He cocked his head with a guilty look.
"You don't say anything and I won't say anything," Sabrina whispered. The big dog seemed OK with the deal. He plopped his huge noggin back down on a cushion and fell asleep.
On the far wall were the bookshelves that held the family journals, as well as the largest collection of fairy-tale stories and studies Sabrina had ever seen, including such volumes as
The Seven People You Meet in Oz, Cheap Eats in Wonderland, and a weighty one called
The Paul Bunyan Diet.
The library spilled onto the floor and into the other rooms. Some books held up wobbly tables, others were literally swept under the rug. Sabrina had once found a book inside the toilet tank. Tonight she didn't need to search for what she wanted. She reached over and scooped up as many family journals as her good arm would hold. Crossing into the dining room, she placed them on the table and then went back for the rest. Once she had gathered them all, she flipped on a tiny lamp by the table and sat down to read.
Someone in this family has to know something about the girl in the red cloak and her pet Jabberwocky, she thought.
She found her first reference to the Jabberwocky in her great-great-great-great-great-grandfather Wilhelm's account of his Atlantic crossing with his magical passengers. Wilhelm had brought the Everafters to America to help them escape persecution, and from his earliest entries, Sabrina could see it hadn't been an easy voyage.
*
July 17th,
I'm contemplating turning back. The voyage is already fraught with disasters. Crossing the Atlantic with a shipful of fairy-tale creatures is a difficult enough task, but situations became unruly today when the Jabberwockies ran amok. I curse myself for putting so much stock in the Queen of Hearts's demands. She insisted the beasts might someday be domesticated. The woman is a fool but she has tremendous support amongst the passengers and crew. Fifteen leagues out the trouble began. The Jabberwockies broke loose from their cages. There were ten and together they killed a dozen human seamen before Lancelot and Robin Hood drove them into the hull of the ship. The Black Knight went down with the Vorpal blade and finished the monsters off. Then the rest of us tossed their bodies overboard. Let the sharks have their foul remains.