Of Enemies and Endings (8 page)

He grinned, and I could see why Gretel still thought of him as her annoying little brother. “I'd like to see that fight. My money's on you.”

“Hey,”
Chase said, clearly unaware that Hansel was just trying to rile him up.

“Rory, are you coming?” Mom called from near the door. Her voice was full of forced cheerfulness again. “I'm not sure I remember how to get to our new home.”

I opened my mouth. We'd gone over this already. I didn't want to fight in public, even if the training courts were nearly empty.

“We have a Canon meeting,” said Chase, who obviously still wanted to make up for this morning.

“I'm afraid it's required,” Hansel said. “Each grade sends a representative. Rory will be going for the rising ninth graders.”

Mom gave me a look that clearly said we would be discussing my responsibilities later. But at least she wouldn't follow me
this
time.

Chase jumped up on an empty bench and jumped again until his hands closed over the branches that formed the ceiling of the Canon's meeting room. He pushed his head through the leaves and then dropped back to his seat, grinning at me. “Just checking. No eavesdroppers.”

He did this before almost every meeting. It usually made me smile, but this time, I only remembered my first visit here when I'd spied with Chase, watching the Canon vote on whether or not to tell me about my own Tale. He had been close to Adelaide then too, and I hadn't liked him much at the time. I hated that it was starting to be true again.

Today wasn't the first time he'd “left” his M3 in his room. Unfortunately, that was only one of his excuses.

Twice, after failing to show with the rest of the grade for planned missions, he'd said, “Oh, that was today? I totally forgot.” Another was, “I lost track of time.” Once, when he missed rescuing an eleventh grade Character from some invading trolls, he'd said, “I just had so many mirrorcordings to watch.” That excuse was so lame that the stepsisters almost stopped talking to him.

When he took a seat, he didn't seem to have any clue as to what I was thinking, and that bothered me even more.

Lena dropped heavily onto the bench beside us. “The Director ordered way too many M3's. She must think that I can make each one in five minutes. I wonder if it would be worth it to explain the cooling process to her—”

“Shhhh,” hissed the representative for the Princess and the Pea, a finger over her lipstick-covered mouth.

The Director stood in front of her chair, the one covered with roses. Her long blond hair was braided, and she wore a shirt of golden chain mail over her blue silk dress. “Be seated. We have much ground to cover.” She turned to me. “Aurora Landon, you were attacked at home by the Wolfsbane clan. They used unknown magics against you. Please report.”

I forced myself to stand, flushing. I hadn't expected to open the meeting, but they needed the information. When I explained how the witches had stopped the comb cage from rising to the ceiling, Chase squirmed in his seat, clearly feeling even guiltier now that he knew more about the fight. When I told them how swiftly Lena's sleeping spell had taken out the Wolfsbane clan, Stu the Shoemaker and Rumpelstiltskin smiled at our favorite inventor. Lena was too busy shooting me a worried look to notice. Chase glanced pointedly at my hands. They were shaking again, so I put them behind my back.

The first response came from the Character whose chair was taller than all the others. Rapunzel's long silver braid hung over the side and trailed across the floor. “For every spell, there is a counterspell, but every weapon is revealed in its own time—a time determined by my sister.”

The other Characters glanced at each other, clearly confused. It wasn't
that
hard to figure out what she was saying. “She's right. They
prepared
to fight me,” I said. “They may have known how to stop the combs and block M3's for a while, but they didn't use those spells until today. They wanted to take us by surprise.”

“But they have lost that advantage today. We will question the Wolfsbane clan about these new methods,” the Director said. “Lena, where are you with those improved Bats of Destruction we spoke of? I asked to see a prototype last month.”

Lena gulped. “I've just been really busy. I've been trying to focus on the M3's and rings of return first. And Rory's magic shield was a great idea. I'd like to run it past—”

“Shields won't stop the pillars, Lena,” the Director said. “You have had almost three months for this. I expect to see a prototype in the next ten days, and I want to see the M3's and rings of return in five. Have I made myself clear?”

I narrowed my eyes. We wouldn't even
have
half these items if not for Lena.

Lena didn't try to argue again. “Yes, ma'am. I understand.”

The Director swung her gaze over to the Canon's champion, Chase's dad. She didn't even bother welcoming him back from his week-long mission to Atlantis. “Jack, what is the news from the Unseelie Court?”

Chase perked up, instantly interested. His mother, Lady Ayalla Aspenwind, lived there.

“King Mattanair hasn't changed his mind,” Jack said heavily. “He refuses to move against the Snow Queen as long as his son and heir is her prisoner.”

I shifted uncomfortably. I didn't like Fael, the Unseelie crown prince. He'd bullied Chase back when Chase still lived with his mom. But I kind of felt responsible for the Snow Queen getting her hands on him. When we were in her palace last spring, we'd watched Likon, the ice giant, carry him and the Seelie prince inside—I'd been so focused on rescuing my friends, and the kids the Pied Piper had kidnapped, that I hadn't even thought about rescuing
him
.

Snow White spoke up from her glass-backed chair. She'd abandoned her recruiting duties to serve as the Director's ambassador. “Queen Titania and King Oberon still refuse to even see me. But the other Seelie Fey say the same. They cannot fight until their prince is returned.”

We all knew what that meant. The only reason we'd defeated the Snow Queen's forces in the first war was because the Fey had joined our side. Without them, our chances of winning weren't so great.

Battles are about tactics,
Forrel had said,
but wars, they're won with numbers and weapons
. We were short on allies.

“I did visit the other EAS chapters, like you asked. Again,” said Sarah Thumb. Her chair and her husband's sat on a pedestal so that they could give dirty looks from a decent height, just like Sarah was doing now. “I think they're getting tired of seeing me, but they say that their position remains unchanged.”

The interchapter delegates had come to my first Canon meeting as a grade representative, soon after the attacks had begun. The man with silvering hair had given a long-winded speech, which I hadn't understood at all. The other delegate, his wife, a beautiful blond woman, had summed it up, saying, “The other chapters of Ever After School suggest that you search for a peaceful resolution with the Snow Queen, as they have. They regret they cannot enter this conflict.”

In other words, we couldn't even rely on the Ever After Schools on other continents for support. We were all alone in this.

After that meeting, I'd found out that the interchapter delegates were Adelaide's parents, and then I wasn't surprised that I hadn't liked them.

They had apartments at every chapter, but they mostly operated out of the oldest chapter, in Europe. That was the first and last time I'd ever seen them.

Chase and Adelaide dating made a certain amount of sense. They both had parents in the Canon. They were two of the few kids who had
always
lived here, not just when the Snow Queen threatened them. Their parents left them both alone most of the time. Their relationship shouldn't still feel like a puzzle I needed to figure out.

“The goblin priestesses?” the Director asked, moving down her list. “The mother of the four Winds?”

“Still in hiding,” said Gretel, “and even if they weren't, I suspect they would say they have done enough.”

The Snow Queen had found out about the letter the goblin priestesses had sent her allies, the one that told them not to underestimate me. She had sent almost as many troops after them as she had against us.

Probably safe to count them out too. They had other problems.

“The elves of Muirland will probably say no,” said Jack reluctantly. “Solange's wolves kidnapped their king. I heard some Fey discussing it in Atlantis.”

“This is unacceptable,” the Director said, like all these reports were the
Canon's
fault. “To date, the only alliance we've secured is with the MerKing.”

Chatty had convinced her dad. The mermaids had a bunch of skilled warriors, but they could only fight from the water. It wasn't a huge help.

“We've fought the war on our own so far,” Sarah Thumb protested. “We've done okay.”

Hansel shot her a pitying look. He was our general. “You wouldn't say that if you had survived the last one. This war hasn't taken hold yet. These are just skirmishes, not battles.”

Rapunzel glanced at me, her eyes sorrowful. “It's a hunt now, not a war. She hunts our numbers and our courage.”

Sometimes, news is so bad your body reacts before your mind can catch up. I reeled so hard I almost lost my balance, forgetting the bench didn't have a back. Chase turned my way, and Lena grabbed my arm, steadying me.

It was going to get worse. That was what Rapunzel was saying. It was going to get worse, and I felt like I was barely holding on as it was.

“What of the Living Stone Dwarves?” the Director asked Henry, the Frog Prince.

I didn't want to get my hopes up about it, but I did want to see Forrel again. We hadn't heard from the Living Stone Dwarves since April, when Miriam, Lena, Chase, and I had helped save their young prince and princess, Iggy and Ima.

The Frog Prince sighed. “The ice city of Kiivinsh is still abandoned. They haven't relocated to any place they'd lived before the Snow Queen gave them a new home.”

Canon members started suggesting areas the dwarves might be hiding.

I barely listened. I didn't blame the Living Stone Dwarves for not wanting to fight. They were still in mourning for Princess Hadriane. She had stood up to the Snow Queen in front of all her allies, telling them what a tyrant Solange was. Hadriane hadn't flinched when Solange raised her hand and threw those ice darts. I hoped I could be that brave.

Sarah Thumb's voice rose above the rest. “Too bad we can't help them resettle in their homeland in Arizona. We would at least know where to find them. If they had their petrified wood back, they would never budge.”

It had been a weak joke. Only a few people smiled.

“Why can't we?” It took me a second to realize I'd said it out loud, but judging by the number of Characters who turned to stare at me, I definitely had.

he Director had made it
very
clear that we young Characters were only there to give reports and receive orders. We were
not
supposed to talk. I tried to pretend that I had just been muttering something to Lena, but that didn't work.