“I don’t think we should stick around to find out,” Sabrina said.
As they helped one another up, an angry bellow filled their ears. It sounded almost human, only it was louder than anything the children had ever heard. The hair on Sabrina’s arms stood at attention and shivers raced along her spine.
“OK, we can relax,” Puck said. A grin spread across his face.
“Relax? What about all that noise?” Daphne asked.
“You didn’t hear what he said?” Puck said.
“He? All I heard was a roar,” Sabrina said.
“Nope, those were words.”
“Well, what did he say?” Sabrina said just as another thud rocked the ground. This time the children managed to keep their balance, but just barely.
“He said, ‘Fe, fi, fo, fum.’”
Fear rose up in Sabrina’s throat like a bad shrimp. She knew what kind of monsters said “fe, fi, fo, fum.” Giants! She’d met about a hundred of them her second day in Ferryport Landing. And she and her family had nearly been killed.
“We’re not standing in fog,” Daphne said. “We’re standing on a cloud.”
“Run!” Sabrina shouted, and they all took off at a sprint just as a shoe the size of a battleship came crashing down. If the children had stayed just one second longer, they would have been squished into paste by the creature’s heel.
Sabrina scanned the horizon and spotted the top of an enormous beanstalk breaking through the clouds. She recalled the famous tale of Jack, who traded the family’s cow for magic beans that grew into a giant beanstalk overnight. “There!” she said, steering the group across the challenging terrain.
“Who’s that?” Daphne said, pointing toward the mutated plant.
Sabrina strained her eyes and saw a lone figure making his way down the beanstalk. He couldn’t have been taller than three feet high and wore bright blue overalls. He also had a pointy nose and a terrible overbite. “Pinocchio!” she cried.
The little boy must have heard her, as he redoubled his efforts to escape. Sabrina took a deep breath and ran faster than she ever had before. The boy had betrayed her and her family. They had taken him into their lives, protected him, given him a home and a community, but the whole time he had been working for Mirror and the Scarlet Hand.
When the children reached the beanstalk, Sabrina could no longer see her target. He had climbed down the enormous plant, which sunk into the misty clouds below. Sabrina grabbed on to a thick leaf and was surprised to find it so sticky. She realized that was a good thing—perhaps it would save them all from slipping or taking a foolish step out into nothingness. She lowered herself to the next leaf, then the next. Daphne followed, then Puck, and soon the three were steadily descending from the giant’s realm and into the open air. Far below there was a tiny cottage on an overgrown farm, but staring at it made Sabrina’s belly turn inside out. She had never been afraid of heights, but then again she had never been up that high.
“Don’t look down!” she cried.
“Then how are we going to see them?” Daphne said as she pointed down the beanstalk. Crawling up toward them at amazing speed were six wooden marionettes, each carved by a brilliant hand to look like members of Sabrina’s family: Granny Relda, Dad, Mom, Uncle Jake, Daphne, and Sabrina. They leaped from leaf to leaf like monkeys. When they reached the children, they attacked viciously with little hands and feet. Despite their size, their punches and pinches were painful and persistent. One lucky shot to Sabrina’s right eye left her momentarily dazed and blinded, but she managed to hold on to the giant leaf. With her free hand, she grabbed at the one that looked like her and flung it off the vine. It fell silently past its comrades, who watched and shrieked. They began to retreat, but not before the one that looked like Uncle Jake stomped down hard on Daphne’s fingers. She lost her grasp on the branch, and like the marionette, fell into the open blue sky and plummeted toward the ground.
4
efore Sabrina could scream, Puck let go of the beanstalk and dropped like a skydiver. Sabrina watched him, her heart pounding. She didn’t breathe until she spotted his pink insect wings expanding and fluttering in the wind. He was too far away for her to see if he’d caught Daphne. She closed her eyes tight and prayed.
“Here’s the piglet,” Puck said. Sabrina opened her eyes to find him hovering in front of her. Daphne was wrapped around the boy fairy like a baby monkey, clearly terrified. Her complexion was slightly green and Puck struggled to free himself before Daphne’s stomach rebooted itself. Sabrina snatched her away from him and held her like she might never let her go.
“You have to be more careful,” Sabrina scolded.