The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell (27 page)

He climbed onto the armrest of the Troll King’s throne. His left leg was so close to the king’s face that Conner could feel the king’s warm breath through his jeans. Conner swung his right leg onto the armrest of the Goblin King’s throne and reached up for the crown. It was still too high. He would have to jump for it.

Alex had to cover her eyes. Her hands were trembling.

Conner jumped and tried to grab the crown, but he was just a few inches too short. He jumped again; the tips of his fingers touched it this time. He jumped once more—this time, the highest jump yet—and grabbed it. Unfortunately, on his way down, he missed the armrests and landed right in the lap of the Goblin King.

“Ahhhhhh!”
the Goblin King screamed.

Alex took her hands from her face just in time to see her terrified brother sprawled across the Goblin King’s lap, with the crown held tightly in his hands. Conner jumped up and ran as fast as he could, grabbing his sister’s arm on the way toward the exit.

“After them!” the Goblin King ordered. “Someone grab them!”

The entire room of trolls and goblins began waking up to the Goblin King’s yells.

Alex and Conner weren’t careful about what or who they stepped on. They ran straight through the common room and down the tunnel of stones. Dozens of trolls and goblins chased after them.

The twins ran past the two horrible statues at the tunnel’s entrance. The goblin statue suddenly crashed to the ground just as they passed it, blocking the tunnel. Alex screamed—had they been a second later, it would have fallen on them.

They turned to see the Tradesman, out of breath and holding his heart. He had just knocked over the statue and blocked the tunnel. The trolls and goblins had reached the end of the tunnel and were struggling to get past the fallen statue.

“That should keep them busy for a while,” the Tradesman said. “Now run!”

“Where’s everyone else?” Alex asked.

“They’ve fled to the tunnels! They’re safe!” he said.

“What about you?” Alex asked.

“I couldn’t leave without you,” the Tradesman said. “I’m old, children. I’d never outrun them anyway. You two still have a lot of living to do, so run before they get past the statue. Hurry!”

“We’re not leaving without you!” Alex said.

“I’m wanted in every kingdom,” the Tradesman said between deep breaths. “No matter where I go, I’ll end up behind bars. I’ve done a lot of bad things in my day, children. I’ve made a lot of trades and deals that I shouldn’t have. I deserve this. You don’t. Now run!”

Alex’s and Conner’s feet moved before their minds could decide whether to stay any longer. They ran ahead and found a series of tunnels leading in different directions. Each had a sign above the entrance that said where the tunnel led to.

“Come on,” Alex said, and grabbed Conner’s arm, pulling him into the tunnel that said F
AIRY
K
INGDOM
above it. They tucked the troll and goblin crown safely away in Alex’s bag.

“Did we do the right thing?” Alex asked Conner as they ran down the tunnel. “Should we have left him?”

“He wasn’t going to come with us; his mind was made up,” Conner said. He knew they had done everything they could, but he still felt guilty, too.

“How could a stranger give up so much for us?” Alex said.

“Maybe he thought trading his freedom for ours would be the only honest trade he’d ever make,” Conner said.

A
lex and Conner emerged from underground between a tree and a big rock. They were covered in dirt and cobwebs and were breathing hard and sweating profusely; it had been so stuffy in the tunnel.

“We made it,” Alex said. “We’re at the surface.”

“I never thought I’d be so happy to see the sun and the sky,” Conner said.

It was sometime around noon, and the twins had found themselves in a pleasant, grassy field next to a perfectly groomed path.

“Is that the path we should have taken after the Red Riding Hood Kingdom?” Conner asked.

“Yup,” Alex said, looking down at the map. “But think of all the fun we would have missed out on.”

They shared a laugh. The twins brushed themselves off and headed down the path. They felt very safe in this place. All the trees and fields were perfectly manicured and inviting. Then again, anything would have seemed inviting after narrowly escaping a lifetime of slavery for trolls and goblins.

“Are we positive that we’re in the Fairy Kingdom?” Conner said, looking around.

“I’d say it’s very possible,” Alex said, but she wasn’t looking down at the map.

“How do you figure?” Conner asked her.

“Well,
that’s
an indication,” Alex said, and pointed.

Grazing around a perfect little stream ahead of them, to their amazement, was a herd of unicorns. They were beautiful: white with silver horns, silver hooves, and silver manes.

Conner’s forehead wrinkled, and his mouth dropped open. “Oh, jeez,” he said. “That is the most obnoxious thing I’ve ever seen in my life!”

“I want to pet one!” Alex said, and ran toward them.

“Alex, be careful!” Conner said. “They could have rabies!”

“Unicorns don’t have rabies, Conner!” Alex said.

“You don’t know where those horns have been!” Conner called out.

Alex walked up to the herd, slowing her pace so she
wouldn’t spook them. They were so majestic and graceful, she just had to stop and admire them for a moment. One saw her and walked toward her.

Any sane person would have been scared by a wild animal approaching them, but Alex wasn’t. For whatever reason, she knew the unicorn wasn’t going to harm her. It lowered its head, and she petted its face.

Conner walked up and stood just behind her. All the other unicorns slowly surrounded them.

“Alex,” Conner said. “This is making me incredibly nervous.”

The unicorns formed a perfect circle around the twins and bowed to them. Alex smiled from ear to ear. Conner raised a suspicious eyebrow.

“This is trippy,” he said.

“Maybe they’re welcoming us into their kingdom?” Alex said.

The unicorns stood still as if frozen and didn’t show any sign of moving. Conner grabbed Alex’s hand, and they left the circle and rejoined the path. The stream traveled beside the path as the twins traveled down it.

“Is it just me, or is that water sparkling?” Conner asked. He was right. The farther they walked along the stream, the more it appeared to glow and shimmer.

“That must mean we’re getting close!” Alex said happily. “That’s Thumbelina Stream. It should take us straight into the Fairy Kingdom.”

“I say we grab hold of the first fairy we find and call her
names like ‘oversized insect’ or ‘fish bait’ until she cries,” Conner said. “That’s how we’ll get the tears.”

“No! We should come up with a really sad story to tell,” Alex said, and then a thought occurred to her. “How are we going to collect the tears once they’ve been shed?”

Conner shrugged. “Maybe we’ll have to kidnap a fairy and keep her around until we need her to cry? What does the journal say to do?”

Alex opened the journal and found the section about the Fairy Kingdom.

“Surprise surprise,” Conner said.

Alex turned the book on its side and looked closely through the hole where the pages were connected to the spine. Deep inside the journal’s spine was a small glass vial with a cork stopper.

“Look at this!” Alex said, pulling the vial out of the spine. “It says to put the tear in this vial.”

“Great. Now all we need is an emotional fairy,” Conner said.

Alex stopped walking. “Do you hear that?” she said.

Tiny sniffling sounds came from close by. The twins looked around but couldn’t see quite where they were coming from.

“What is that?” Conner asked. He looked down beside him and had to blink a few times to make sure he wasn’t imagining what he saw. “No, this can’t be real. This is too easy….
Nothing
has been this easy.”

“What are you talking about?” Alex asked him. Conner turned her shoulders to face what he was looking at.

Sitting on a rock on the side of the path was a fairy… and she was
crying
.

She was only a few inches tall and had big, blue wings similar to a butterfly’s. She had dark hair and a purple dress made of leaves and shoes made out of flower buds. Her tiny hands were clasped around her big eyes, and tears were running down her face.

The twins just stood there and stared down at her. They were afraid their minds were playing tricks on them, they both wanted to see this so badly.

“What are you looking at?” the fairy said to the twins in a tiny, high-pitched voice.

“We’re sorry,” Alex said. “Why are you crying?”

Conner jerked his head toward his sister, and she knew he was thinking,
Who cares! Get a tear!

“That’s none of your business!” the fairy said, and sobbed some more.

“Forgive me,” Alex said. “I can tell you’re upset about something, and I wouldn’t be myself if I didn’t ask if there’s anything I could do to help you.”

“That’s sweet, thank you,” the fairy said, changing her attitude. “I’m just having a very rough day, that’s all.”

Conner kept trying to grab the vial from his sister’s hand, but she wouldn’t let him take it.

“What’s your name?” Alex asked the fairy.

“Trix,” the fairy said.

“Hello, Trix. My name is Alex, and this is my brother, Conner,” Alex said. “Would you like to talk about what’s troubling you?”

Conner was shocked. She was actually more interested in
helping
this fairy than collecting one of her tears.

“My trial is in a few minutes, and I’m scared,” Trix said.

“Your trial?” Conner asked. “Did you kill somebody?”

“Of course not,” said Trix. “I used magic on another fairy, and now the Fairy Council may ban me from the Fairy Kingdom.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that,” Alex said.

“What did you do to the other fairy?” Conner asked.

“I turned his wings into prune leaves,” the fairy said, and cried some more. “It was only for a moment! I turned them back! But he was provoking me! He kept teasing me about my size!”

“They’re going to ban you from the entire kingdom just
for turning someone’s wings into leaves for a couple seconds?” Conner asked.

“They’ve been very strict ever since that Enchantress put the curse on Sleeping Beauty,” Trix said. “The Fairy Council believes that every fairy is a representative of their order and should act as such.”

“Those are high expectations,” Alex said.

“I can’t leave the Fairy Kingdom,” Trix cried. “It would be so lonely, and I hate being alone! I don’t have many friends to begin with!”

Alex let Trix use the corner of her shirt to dry her tears. Conner turned bright red watching his sister dispose of the tears so carelessly. He had to make the fairy produce more.

“Being banned would really be terrible, though, wouldn’t it?” Conner said. “You’d probably have to live in an old bird nest in the Dwarf Forests and be chased by wolves and witches every day, and that’s only if an ogre doesn’t capture you in a jar and barbeque you first.”

Trix started hysterically crying at this.

“Conner, what is wrong with you?”
Alex yelled.

Conner snatched the vial from her hand and collected a tear from Trix’s face just as it dripped off her chin. Alex gave him a dirty look.

“Would you like us to go with you to your trial?” asked Alex, leaning down to be eye level with Trix. “For emotional support?”

“Yes, I would like that,” Trix said. “That’s so kind of you!”

“Well, I know what it feels like to think the whole world is against you,” Alex said.

“We’d better get going. I don’t want to be late!” Trix flew into the air and fluttered down the path. The twins walked after her.