Someone was running across the Troll Bridge from Book End, directly toward the Jabberwock, and waving his arms. Trying to get the beast"s attention away from the girls shivering inside the bushes.
"No, Dad," Maddie said.
"Halloo and yoohoo!" called the Mad Hatter. "Nothing for you there, beastie! Come have a spot of tea with me!"
The Jabberwock took to the air and zoomed toward the Hatter. Maddie got up to run to him, to put herself between her father and the monster.
Kitty grabbed Maddie. "I know what you"re planning to do. I can hear your narration. But you can"t stop it now. Stay down."
"What"s he doing?" Maddie said. "The Jabberwock will take him, too, and-"
"He"s trying to keep the Jabberwock both away from us and out of Book End, to keep the story going," said Kitty.
The beast nose-dived at the Mad Hatter, picked him up with a clawed foot, and swooped away from Book End and back toward the school. It went straight through a wall, the stones toppling easily, falling lightly and soundlessly to the ground like empty gift boxes.
Maddie realized all three girls were holding her, hugging her. If they hadn"t been, she was certain she would have forgotten how to keep standing up and fallen to the ground. She had to keep observing, keep narrating, now more than ever, or the story would end with her dad captured by that monster.
"What about the other faculty?" said Cedar. "The ones on the field trips to the East, West, and South Winds. They"ll return soon. Right?"
Cedar madly tapped at her MirrorPhone, but the spreading of the Jabberwock magic had knocked them out-of-area again.
Maddie shook her head. She was struggling with yet another unfamiliar sensation: annoyance. Just where were all those responsible adults who should have been taking care of things like terrifying magically mad beasts that want to rearrange reality and steal your dad and transform your best friend into a bird and ruin an otherwise lovely afternoon?
Lizzie was staring back at the ruined Grove, her arms dangling at her sides, the sword dragging in the dirt.
When she turned, her expression was hard as boiled eggs.
"We do not need the teachers. We survived here with the broken things, the crooked things, the things Jabberwocked and gibbering. Time cannot be wasted waiting for them to return, when they"ll just be turned into chess pieces. That creature took Maddie"s dad and stole away our friends. The longer a thing is not what it is, the more likely it will forget the thing that it was before. The Jabberwock must be stopped."
"What do we do?" asked Cedar.
Lizzie held up the sword. "We take off its head."
LIZZIE"S HEART HURT. IT FELT WOUNDED IN there, barely pumping, as wilted and colorless as the beautiful plants of her Grove.
And that made Lizzie Hearts, who was already quite mad, even madder.
She stormed through the heart-shaped door with Maddie, Kitty, and Cedar on her heels. They were not greeted with bottom-of-the-well decor, restless furnishings, or shouting greeting cards, but with a simple white room with one normalish door and one dark purple carpeted opening that was door-sized. The normalish door bore a sign scribbled in orange crayon: JABBERWOCK NOT THROUGH HERE.
"That is not a trustworthy scrawl," Lizzie said. "Someone may be trying to trick us into not taking the correct door."
"Or someone may be trying to trick us into thinking they are tricking us, making us choose the trick door by saying it isn"t what it is," said Kitty.
"Stop saying atrick!" " Lizzie shouted. "I"m tired of that word!"
The shouting hadn"t cured her knee-tremble and belly-twistiness as she"d hoped. Lizzie gripped the sword hilt harder. That Jabberwock would pay for what it did to her Grove.
She turned back to the "trick" door (sorry, Lizzie), only to discover it missing, replaced with an empty wall.
"Did one of you steal the door?" Lizzie asked.
"Not me," Maddie said.
"Me neither," Kitty said.
The three girls looked at Cedar expectantly.
"Um... no?" she said. "I didn"t even know stealing doors was an option."
And then the wall sort of blinked and the door they had come through was also gone.
"Aha!" Lizzie said. "Unless one of you is lying, Cedar, the school itself is stealing doors."
"The school must want us to go that way," Maddie said.
"Forward! Into the purple fur hole!" Lizzie said, then added, "So there!" because shouting did make her fluttery-tummy and noodley-knees feel a tiny bit stronger.
Tendrils of long purple carpet tickled Lizzie"s face and whispered against her arms as she scampered through the opening. But despite the grape-ish furriness, the tunnel felt welcoming, exhaling a cool, fresh breeze.
"It"s too easy," Lizzie said.
Cedar looked around nervously. "It"s also quiet, maybe too quiet. You think something is waiting to surprise us, or eat us, or something?"
"I hope so," Lizzie said, patting the sword. She tightened her lips and lifted her chin to look braver.
The purple-carpeted tunnel ended, spilling them onto the polished wooden planks of the Grimmnasium. At the far end of the huge room sprawled the lumpy, scaled shape of a beast. The school had brought them directly to the Jabberwock.
"Thanks, Ever After High," Maddie whispered, petting the wall.
The Jabberwock was using its clawed, three-toed paws to attach something to its head, but the Narrator couldn"t bear to describe it.
"It"s Maddie"s dad!" Lizzie whisper-shouted. "The thing is tying the Mad Hatter to its head with vines and sealing wax! It"s making the Mad Hatter into a hat-a Wonder-powered hat at that."
Maddie felt trembly. "We need to save him."
The Jabberwock made a jerky movement, and the girls pressed themselves back into the s.h.a.g-carpeted walls. Lizzie hid the vorpal sword behind her back.
"Just as soon as I cut off its head," she whispered.
She was certainly mad enough to do it, but just how did one go about slaying a beast that big?
The creature began to wiggle its hindquarters back and forth, patting its head as if showing off its Mad Hatter hat to an imaginary crowd of admirers.
"We have to save Maddie"s dad first!" Cedar whispered.
The beast picked something long and stringy from between its two enormous front teeth.
"This is my destiny," said Lizzie. "This foul beast is of Wonderland. Wonderland out of order. And my story is a story of order. I will march right up to the beast and sever its wretched head from its shoulders with one swift swing of the vorpal sword! Maybe two."
"What if you miss?" Maddie asked in a quiet voice. "What if your swing is off or if the Jabberwock moves? What if you hit my dad?"
"I won"t miss," Lizzie said, and Maddie"s gaze dropped. Cedar looked nervous. Kitty was trembling so hard she looked a little blurry. Hardly the enthusiasm she"d expect in the middle of her rousing battle speech.
"Imagine something," Cedar said. "Imagine that"s your dad up there."
Lizzie imagined. Her wonderlandiful dad. A tiny man in a huge crown and an impractical grin. Stuck on a monster"s head. And someone else swinging a sword about. And Lizzie understood.
Beware Empathy! Empathy forces you to Understand how others are feeling and to Care!
Danger! Danger!
But it was too late. Lizzie had Imagined. Lizzie had Empathized. And now Lizzie Cared.
"Of course we"ll free him first," said Lizzie. "By the jack of spades we will. After all, we are the Wonder Worms."
Maddie smiled at her. Lizzie smiled back and wondered if empathy wasn"t quite as bad as her mother believed.
LET"S GET ON WITH THE DAD-SAVING, THEN, so I can slay this beast," said Lizzie.
"Wait," said Cedar. "What happens when the Jabberwock dies?"
"Its magic will be undone," said Maddie. "Hopefully."
"All its magic?"
Cedar pressed a hand to her chest and felt that violent beating of her heart that meant she was scared. But also alive.
Wait, Cedar wanted to say again, but she knew they couldn"t wait. She could still save herself, outrun the Jabberwock and its magic and the changing-back, go home, and stay real forever after....
"I"m guessing we"ve got about twenty seconds before the Jabberwock notices us," Kitty said. She stood the farthest back of all of them, pressed into the purple s.h.a.g. "If you can manage to get all your fretting and questioning out before then..."
Cedar took a deep breath, air filling her up. She was no longer "cursed" with kindness. So this is who Cedar really was. The kind of girl who did not run away. Who faced the monster. Who said, "How dare you hurt my friends? Prepare to feel the wrath of the puppet."
A hand squeezed hers, and Cedar squeezed back. There was a lot of comfort in knowing that the Narrator was on her side.
The Narrator, meanwhile, was avoiding describing the Jabberwock and the sad parody of a hat upon its brow. The Narrator did not comment on how this made her feel, as that is not something Narrators do. But Maddie put a hand over her trembling chin and tried very hard not to fall apart.
The Jabberwock was sniffing the rosebush that used to be Briar. The roses bent and tugged by its inhale, and the entire bush began to quiver. The Jabberwock opened its huge maw as if to take a bite.
"No," Cedar whispered.
"Beast!" Lizzie ran into the Grimmnasium. "Step away from the irritating bush! You"ve destroyed enough plants today!"
The Jabberwock swung its head around, its white-blind eyes fiery now, looking right at them.
Kitty went semitransparent.
"Thoughtful-" the Jabberwock skurbled.
"Yes, I am," Lizzie interrupted. "Now, remove your hat and present your neck for chopping, or it will go badly for you."
The Jabberwock dropped to its stomach and used its legs to slide itself forward, and continued, "-to trawl me up a Wonderling three-batch for squeezing."
Its voice was low and raspy, and shrieked into Cedar"s ears the way fingernails scratching chalkboards do. Surely it hadn"t yet recognized the sword in Lizzie"s hands, as it seemed unworried, playful, spinning itself around on its stomach.
"Why is it doing that creepy walk?" Kitty whispered from the purple tunnel. "I don"t like it, I don"t like it...."
The Mad Hatter had slumped over on its head, visibly breathing but limp with exhaustion, and the Jabberwock pulsed with a pale sickly light. Strengthened and fearless, it was leaching the Hatter"s Wonder.
"Kitty, transport yourself onto it, untie Maddie"s dad, and then vanish yourselves away," Lizzie whispered back at them.
Kitty turned fully invisible. "I"m not good with knots," she peeped.
"Wee-wee meaty food-legs, food-legs, food-legs," the Jabberwock sang, slithering closer. It was nearly upon them.
"Kitty..."
"I can"t I can"t I can"t..." Kitty whispered from the air.
"Fine, scaredy-cat," Lizzie said. "I will distract it, and Cedar will save the Mad Hatter."
"Me?" Cedar was supposed to be the girl who was quiet and friendly and painted pictures. In the stories, Pinocchio never slew a dragon.
"Prepare to face the wrath of the puppet," she whispered, trying to give herself courage.
"I said your neck, slivy creature!" Lizzie was shouting.
"Neck?" it grinkled, backing toward her. "All is inside out. Upside down. Leftways right. Frontwards back. Here is my neck." It batted its tail sa.s.sily.
"That"s just too disturbing," Kitty whispered.
The Jabberwock poked Lizzie in the belly with the tip of its tail. She swung the sword and missed. Its tail continued to poke, pat her head, slap her cheek, nudge her in the ribs.
"Stop it!" Lizzie shouted, awkwardly swiping the sword, touching nothing but air.
The beast began chittering like a giant chorus of drowning crickets.
"There is no laughing at your future monarch!" Lizzie hollered.
"Go," whispered Kitty, giving Cedar a nudge. "Now"s your chance. I"ll... er... keep a lookout."
Cedar crept forward, achingly aware that she was no longer made of nice, safe, painless wood.
The frightened and confused thoughts spilling out of Cedar helped distract the Narrator from what was truly terrifying: her father, strapped to a monster"s head. The Narrator had to stay focused. If she stopped narrating, the story would stop, and her father would never escape.
"Please help him," Maddie whispered.
"If I have to work my way back-end forward, so be it!" said Lizzie.