"I know," Maddie said, grabbing her arm. "I already narrated it."
"Rrraaaagggh!" roared the Jabberwock. It had Cedar trapped against a wall. A torrent of its transforming breath blasted her. The pages of Cedar"s paper dress yellowed and curled at the edges.
"If the playsqueal meat will not tweak into something yummier," the Jabberwock skrittled, " "twill be simpler just to eat as is!"
"Absolutely not!" Lizzie yelled, wobbling to her feet. "That girl is under the protection of the Court of Wonderland. Any action against her will be considered high treason!"
The Jabberwock lifted one feathery eyebrow. "Hee! I see no Wonderland! We stand on Else. My Else. The Heartsp.a.w.n is a ruler of nothing."
"Wherever I am, there is Wonderland," said Lizzie, sure of it now. "A queen carries her kingdom always."
The fiend chuckled, flapping its claws around in a gesture meant to take in everything. "The Wonder here was wrought by Jabberwock. Seemings that where ere I am, there is the Land of Wonder."
"This is not Wonderland!" Lizzie said. "This is an abomination. A corruption. A poison. Your eyes are no longer fiery, which means you used up all the energy you stole from the Mad Hatter. You are getting weaker, and I wield the vorpal sword."
"The sword sings strong," the Jabberwock gurgled. "But a shoddy conductor are thee. You swipeswipeswipe and murder only air. Little missmissmiss could nary hope to sever this greatness of neck. And alas and alack, as the poem smacks, "tis the only way to defeat me. But to finish off tiny girlings, my Wonder-less paws are terror enough."
It launched itself at Lizzie, clawed paws out.
Lizzie, with muscles hardened by years of swinging flamingos and hurling hedgehogs, swung the sword with all the might, rage, and sovereign right she could muster, and parted the Jabberwock from an entire paw. A ripple in the air opened, and the paw dropped through. The hole snapped closed.
The great beast roared, and Lizzie smiled. Now it was hurt. It skittered away, pulling its wounded arm close.
Lizzie pulled on the hilt, but her colossal blow had buried the tip of the sword several inches into the floor.
Maddie rushed forward to help Lizzie free the sword. The Jabberwock whirled, still cradling its arm, but a tiny pink replacement paw was already sprouting from the wound.
"Hey, Jabberwocky!" Cedar yelled. She raced around, picking up odd b.a.l.l.s and loose floorboards, throwing them at the beast, trying to distract it from Lizzie and Maddie. "That sword opens doors to Wonderland. Don"t you want to go home, where there are real, tasty banders.n.a.t.c.hes?"
A bit of longing pa.s.sed through the Jabberwock"s eyes. But it lowered its wet gray eyelids and scowled. "In Wonderland I am endgame of the Galumphing Hunt. It is destiny rhyme-declared. But here the election is mine. Here I will be king! Once vorpal is mine."
The Jabberwock glared at Lizzie and Maddie, who were tugging desperately on the sword. It pulled its tail back for a mighty blow.
"Hold on," Maddie said.
"I will," Lizzie said, and kicked Maddie away from the tail whipping toward them. "Keep telling the sto-"
And then, pain. Lizzie didn"t think she had ever felt so ouchy. The impact lifted her off her feet even as it knocked the sword free from the floor. She was sliding sideways and half upside down, spinning past the Jabberwock, but she managed to keep hold of the hilt. The sword trailed dark lines through the air. She saw her fingers loosen on the grip and commanded them to stop, to tighten, to hold firm, to keep tearing an opening in the air. It would have to be enough.
At last the sword fell from her numb fingers and dropped into the hole it had made.
Lizzie struck the far wall and slid to the floor, the breath knocked out of her. The doorway the sword had torn was huge, tracing the entire path from where Lizzie had been struck to where she landed.
A scaly paw dipped into the divide and caught the sword.
"There, then, and now," the Jabberwock said with a bucktoothed, scaly smile. "My paws belong around such as this."
The hutling crashed into the Grimmnasium, front door/mouth open, coughing its student contents out. A raven dropped an apple on the monster"s head, caught it, and flew away. The Jabberwock stumbled back, its rear paws slipping on a golden lock and a bra.s.s egg. It attempted to steady itself with the clawed hand that did not hold the sword, and managed to cut that paw on an ax held up by a tree.
The Jabberwock roared as it tripped and tipped into the shrinking portal to Wonderland. Lizzie was certain the opening would snap shut on the beast and banish its top half back to its home world. But the Jabberwock brought the sword up, the flat of the blade sparking against the edge of the opening, forcing it slowly back open. The monster wasn"t falling. The hole wasn"t closing. The rip was like an open wound between worlds, the Jabberwock the infection keeping it from healing.
"You can"t stay here," Lizzie shouted at it. "Ever After is home to the kind, and the friendly, and the brave, and you are none of those things!"
"Are you?" the Jabberwock scrissed.
It wrapped its tail around her ankle, and its eyes began to pulse a bright unsettling white. Lizzie felt energy sap out of her with each pulse, the Wonder draining from her bones. Shuffle, the last hedgehog remaining affixed to the Jabberwock, dropped off the creature and scuttled to Lizzie"s side, nuzzling her with her spikes.
"This world is mine!" the Jabberwock skreamled.
Lizzie couldn"t seem to sit up. She could barely catch her breath, but she managed to whisper, "Hatworm is go...."
Okay, Lizzie. Okay. I will finish this. Somehow.
THE JABBERWOCK HAD THE SWORD. LIZZIE was lying, hurt, on the floor. The Narrator was new at this, but she was certain an Ever After story should not end with the monster victorious. But she"d taken an oath to never, ever, ever interfere. It was an impossible thing.
Then again, she wasn"t only the Narrator. She was also Madeline Hatter. And Maddie imagined six impossible things before breakfast.
"You should go home," Maddie said.
The Jabberwock still held the rip between two worlds open with the sword, as if deciding which one to conquer first.
"Pardon beg?" it asked.
"There"s no pardon for what you"ve done here," said Maddie. "The best I can do is send you home."
"You," bellowed the Jabberwock, "send me home? Are you a girl-prince? Nay. A sword-swinger? Nay. Hatted thing stands around, letting other meatlings play while you watch. You are a sillypants of terrible degree."
"Thank you," Maddie said. She could see ripples of color and light through the tear. Wonderland was sick, but it was still beautiful. Scents rolled out-the sparkling zest of Tumtum trees, the cool crackle of broken water, the sharp oyster tang of the air. "You should be fizz-bobbled and glee-sprinkled to go to Wonderland. I would be."
The Jabberwock began its horrible, chittering laugh. Laugh? At Wonderland? Maddie clenched her teeth and decided to break some rules.
"The Jabberwock pushed against the edge of the tear, and it widened," Maddie said.
And it happened, just as she"d narrated.
The Jabberwock goggled the widening tear.
"What magic is this?" it bellowed.
"Storytelling," Maddie said.
The Jabberwock gnashed its teeth. "No puppet am I. Especially of a Tiny. Hatted. Girl."
"Hey!" said Maddie. "I count a puppet as a heart-twinned friend. You should be so lucky."
It pulled out the sword and advanced on Maddie.
The tear began to close behind it.
"Until it didn"t," Maddie said quickly. "Until the tear between worlds stopped closing, waiting for one more important thing to pa.s.s through."
At her words, the closing of the tear did slow down, but it did not stop completely.
The Jabberwock"s eyes pulsed white. "The Nothing in you echoes. I will claim your leftover Wonder. The Hat Girl is an empty sh.e.l.l."
Maddie sagged. She did feel empty and tired.
The Jabberwock towered over Maddie, the stink of its breath ruffling her hair.
"Whatever telling-story spark you have stolen is not enough. My will is strongest. My power law. You serve me now."
"That"s it," Maddie whispered, smiling. "I made an oath to serve the story and the reader and no other, be it king or queen or baker or candlestick maker. Or Jabberwock."
"m.u.f.flewords." The Jabberwock rumbled above her, saliva dripping from its lips. "Clearspeak now. Loudly."
Maddie straightened. "You"re right. My power is not enough. But their power is."
The Jabberwock snaked its head around, scanning the destruction it had wrought in the Grimmnasium, and found nothing it considered a threat. "Whose power?"
"Theirs," Maddie said, pointing at you. Yes, you. The ones reading this book. "I"m only half the storyteller. The Readers are the other half. After all, they take the words and make the pictures in their minds-make the story real. Isn"t that right, Readers?"
Feel free to nod, say yes or darn tootin" or absotively, or whatever feels just right.
The Jabberwock took a step back. "Brainfraught babbletalk! You are mad!"
Maddie smiled. "Why, yes, I believe I am! And you want to know a secret, little Wocking Jay?" Her voice dropped to a hush, and she leaned closer to the monster. "Madness is life."
Okay, Readers, help me. Think the words aloud. Or say them aloud. Narrate it to be true.
"Go home, Jabberwock," said Maddie.
Go home, Jabberwock. A chorus of unseen voices repeated her words from across time, s.p.a.ce, and the wiggly bits in between.
Three times more, Readers!
Go home.
Go home!
GO HOME!.
The great fiend that is the Jabberwock, terror of two worlds and bane of banders.n.a.t.c.hes, stumbled backward, pushed by voices it heard suddenly, powerfully, shouting in its own mind.
"NO!" it roared.
The tear widened, a monstrous mouth tall and wide, shimmering around the edges, brilliant with the light of Wonderland. The Jabberwock thrashed, but its head dipped into the hole.
"Yes," Maddie said.
"Impossible!" it screeched, its body tumbling through.
Maddie laughed. "Nothing is impossible, silly beastie!"
The Jabberwock, now completely in Wonderland, twitched and struggled, its muscles bunching and contracting as it fought against the inevitable.
Maddie"s smile dropped and her eyes narrowed. "No one hurts my dad," she said, and the tear between worlds closed.
PUDDING MAKES A TERRIBLE HAT! SNOOF PIDDLE DEE-h.e.l.lo? h.e.l.lo, testing, testing. Am I speaking reasonable words? No nonsense, no "crunchy lunches" and "utmost roast beef"? Yes! I am making sense again! The Narrator is back and doing a victory dance! Look out! Check my moves-I found them and I"m going to keep them. Oh yeah, doot doot doot- "Narrator, you"re back!" Maddie squeaked. "Yippee-potomus!"
Yes! I"m back, Maddie! That was horrible. I could think, but my words were nonsense and I was helpless to do anything but watch the chaos and... wait, I"m the Narrator. And I"m a professional. So no more victory dancing. Back to work.
Ahem. Yes, it was a glorious day in Ever After. Even the Narrator felt glorious! The Jabberwock had returned to Wonderland, and all over the Grimmnasium, things changed by its magic were un-magicking, untangling, and unbecoming into what they used to be.
A rosebush scrunched into a tight ball like a piece of paper crumpled up in your palm. The ma.s.s of pink blooms and brown th.o.r.n.y branches shaped into a tall, brown-skinned, and pink-dressed girl of distinguished height and fashion sense. She immediately ran, her high heels clacking on the Grimmnasium"s hardwood floor, and barreled toward Lizzie.
"Whoa, girl, you Rockabye-Baby rock!" Briar lifted her fist.
Lizzie was still lying against the wall, but she straightened and lifted her fist. She"d watched Briar performing her signature fist b.u.mps with her friends and so knew what to do-she knocked her knuckles against Briar"s, opened her hand, and then rained wiggling fingers down in a representation of a glitter bomb. She couldn"t quite suppress a pleased giggle.
"That thing was going to eat me," said Briar. "Actually going to gobble up my roses, but you wielded some seriously hextreme moves with that sword. I never knew you were so royally fablelous!"
"And I never knew that I"d bother to save your life." Lizzie cleared her throat. "I do not regret it."
"This is so wicked cool," said Briar. "Friends?"
Lizzie blinked. She looked at Briar, then at Cedar, Maddie, and Kitty.
Friends are one R away from fiends.
Avoid friends at all costs!
Also anyone to whom the R does not come naturally (pirates are okay).
Sometimes her mother"s advice just didn"t make sense in context.
"Friends would be aces," Lizzie said.
A gold padlock lying loose clicked open, lengthened, and widened into a girl of abundant golden curls. Her wide-set curious eyes looked around, and Blondie Lockes made a noise like the snuffle of a bear.
"This is going to make the best MirrorCast show I"ve ever done!" she said.
A pair of crystalline shoes flashed brightly in a ray of sunlight, a swirl of sparkling light slowly resolving into Ashlynn Ella. She blinked her large doe-like eyes twice before swooning into a graceful faint. Beside her, a st.u.r.dy tree melted into Hunter Huntsman, and he caught her fainting body in one hand and his ax in the other. From somewhere unseen, trumpets played a heroic fanfare.
In midflight, a raven sprouted a head full of long purplish-black hair. She squawked and dived to the ground, alighting atop a red apple before her wings lengthened and narrowed into arms. She was fully back to being Raven when the apple sprouted back into Apple. Raven Queen was sitting on Apple White"s head.
"You"re sitting on my head," said Apple.
"Um... how-" Raven started before wobbling and falling off, catching herself on a bright blue bicycle just as it changed back into Dexter Charming. No heroic trumpets played, but Dexter didn"t seem to mind.