“Hey,” a voice said from above. Sabrina and Puck looked up and saw Daphne clinging to a tree limb high above their heads. “The card soldiers are everywhere. I can see hundreds of them. We should keep moving.”
The children left as quickly as they could, but it soon became clear that something was following them. Something was jumping from one branch to the next, causing a shower of strange nuts to fall down on their heads. Puck, who had better eyesight than a non-Everafter, could not spot their stalker no matter how much he studied the trees. Even when he took to the air to search the branches, he couldn’t see anything.
“Just keep moving,” Sabrina said, doing her best to reassure Daphne. “It’s probably a curious animal. When it gets bored, it will go find something else to do.”
Unfortunately, all her attention on the strange stalker had distracted Sabrina from where they were going and who they were running from. They made a turn in the path only to stumble upon a crowd of card soldiers as menacing and vicious as any she had seen. Their leader, a very angry Nine of Diamonds, picked up the ball of yarn and then stepped forward with a sword aimed at Sabrina’s heart.
“The Queen would like to make your acquaintance,” the Nine of Diamonds said. Sabrina thought his invitation sounded a lot like a threat.
“Tell the Queen we’re a little busy,” Sabrina said.
The Nine of Diamonds scowled and stepped closer. “The Mad Hatter claims you told him you were from the real world. Her Majesty demands your presence.”
“We don’t know what you’re talking about,” Daphne lied.
“So, you aren’t responsible for changing the story?”
The children looked at one another sheepishly. “Maybe a little.”
“You are creating mayhem, and it is going to stop!” he shouted. The rest of his soldiers circled the trio and leveled their swords at their heads.
“I guess we can spare a few minutes for the Queen,” Puck said.
The children were marched through the forest until they came to a dirt road. There they saw several horse-drawn coaches racing along it—all of which were driven by frantic horsemen who looked as if their lives depended upon getting to their destinations as quickly as possible. “Out of the way!” They shouted at one another. “Royal business!”
The guards marched the girls into the heavy traffic, where they had to jump to avoid the speeding coaches and stay alive. The group pressed on until they came to a castle.
At the gate stood a guard with the head of a frog. He wore white leggings, a red coat with tails, and a white powdered wig like something out of an old romance novel, but his face was a muddy green and slick with slime. His big, bulbous eyes spun in their sockets yet he had a dignified, almost smug expression on his face.
“Are these the troublemakers?” the frogman croaked.
“Of course,” the Nine of Diamonds said. “Let us pass.”
The frog eyed them all carefully. “I don’t know. You could be an impostor.”
“Impostor? You know me! I was at your wedding,” the soldier cried.
“One can never be too careful,” the frog croaked.
“Well, I would think that the fact that I have a playing card for a body would be evidence enough of my identity.”
“This conversation is too freaky,” Daphne whispered to Sabrina.
The frog eyed the card soldier up and down and then let out a harrumph. “Keep a close eye on your prisoners,” he warned.
The Nine of Diamonds scowled and pushed past the amphibious guard. He demanded the children follow closely and complained that they were pokey, as he led them into a damp and chilly tunnel beneath the castle. They emerged on the other side of the castle into a beautiful garden filled with exotic flowers in bright, vibrant colors and aromas. Several stone fountains sprayed crystalline water into the sky, creating shimmering rainbows. Everything was landscaped and manicured. The grass looked as if it had been trimmed by hand. Some of the details, however, were pure nonsense. As they stood beside the garden gate, Sabrina noticed a handful of card soldiers busily painting a bush’s white rose bulbs bright red. When one of the soldiers splashed paint on another, they all broke into an argument that nearly turned into a fistfight.
“The Queen! The Queen!” someone shouted, and then a large procession of people entered the garden. There were trumpeters, court jesters, jugglers, mimes, and balladeers followed by ten card soldiers, followed by princes and courtiers decorated in diamonds, then ten children dressed in silk outfits decorated in hearts, then a group of very royal-looking men and women who appeared to be kings and queens, and finally a white rabbit in a little red smoking jacket who shooed everyone aside to allow for a soldier to enter carrying a velvet cushion with a crown on it.