Her argument was cut short as an invisible wave raced through the crowd and forced a path from the center of the battle to the children. As the path cleared, Sabrina could see Merlin lying on his back, his empty eyes focused on the blue skies above. Standing over him was Mirror. Sabrina had seen his face full of rage before, but that was only when he appeared in the magic mirror. She had never seen the kind, soft face that she saw when she stepped inside the Hall of Wonders the slightest bit angry. She quaked with fear.
Daphne seemed just as terrified. Puck, however, stepped forward. For once his bravado and boasting were gone. She had seen him fight giants, dragons, and Jabberwockies with a gleam in his eye and a grin on his face; this time he was deadly serious.
“It’s over, Mirror,” he said.
With a flip of his hand, Mirror tossed aside hundreds of people in the courtyard. Then he strolled forward with a smile on his face.
“So the boy fairy comes to the rescue once more,” Mirror said. “When we first met, I would never have thought you to be the hero. But look at you—your hand is on your sword. Your face is hard. You’re like a smelly James Dean—a rebel without a clue.”
Puck said nothing.
“You’ve thrown your lot in with the Grimms. Not a bad decision. They’re good people,” Mirror continued. “If a little simple. Still, they would have treated you right.”
“ ‘Would have’?” Puck said.
“Oh, yes, but you wouldn’t give me the child, and I was forced to kill you,” Mirror said.
Puck smiled. “You’re welcome to try, you sorry excuse for a reflection, but I think you’ll find the Trickster King more than formidable. If I were you, I’d walk out of this story before I break you into a million tiny pieces of glass.”
“As stubborn as you are pungent,” Mirror said as he raised his hands. Sparks flickered out of his fingers, and his eyes glowed with power. “I’m afraid you are going to make one very smelly corpse.”
6
irror’s hand burst with light. Long tendrils of energy exploded out of his fingertips and crashed into Puck’s chest. The boy’s sword fell from his hand and he was shot backward several yards.
“Stop it!” Sabrina demanded.
Puck slowly stood up and a weak smile came to his face. “Your joy buzzer doesn’t hurt that much.”
Mirror shook his head and shocked Puck again, with similar results. “The three of you are becoming tiresome. I know you are upset with what I did, but as the saying goes, ‘desperate times call for desperate measures.’ I’ve been trapped in the Hall of Wonders for hundreds of years as the slave of others, including your family. I had nearly given up hope of ever having my freedom, but I saw an opportunity and I took it. If you had been locked in a prison with no hope of ever being free, you would do drastic things in order to escape too.”
Sabrina rushed to Puck’s side. “I wouldn’t kidnap someone’s parents and force their children into an orphanage. I wouldn’t steal an innocent child from his family and involve him in a twisted plan to take his body.”
She tried to keep Puck lying down, but he stood again. “Is that all you got?”
Mirror ignored him. “Starfish, my deception gave me no joy. If I could have taken another child, I would have, but your family is the only human family I’ve had contact with in decades. When I heard that your mother was pregnant, I knew I had to act.”
“So we were easy prey?” Daphne asked.
Mirror frowned and lowered his hands. The power in them faded and his anger seemed to go with it. “You can’t understand, and I don’t have time to argue about it. The Editor is probably preparing to revise this story as we speak.”
Just then, there was a horrible scream from behind Sabrina. She turned to find a mob of people rushing in her direction.
“They’re coming!” someone cried. “Run for your lives!”
The crowd stampeded through the courtyard while a few desperate knights struggled to raise the drawbridge. King Arthur passed by Sabrina in the crowd, his magical sword Excalibur raised and ready.
“What’s going on?” Sabrina said, keeping one eye on Mirror.
“The Editor hath sent his filthy creatures upon us,” he said.
“Revisers!” Mirror said. For the first time in her life, Sabrina could see fear in the little man’s face.
There was a terrible crunch, and when Sabrina turned around she saw that the drawbridge had come crashing down. A wave of pink revisers scurried on tiny limbs into the courtyard. Arthur and his knights raced to fight them back, slashing desperately with their swords. Mirror disappeared in the bustle.
“If any of you want out of this story, follow us,” Sabrina shouted. With her brother in her arms, along with Daphne and Duck and their companions from Wonderland, she followed the yarn as it weaved a haphazard path through the courtyard, circling columns and doubling back around fountains, until it led them into the castle itself and up to a long flight of stairs.