Cedar handed him the relay scroll, still wet from the lake, and he took off. Fast.

"He's good," Cedar said, watching Dexter pick up speed.

"Yes," Raven said. "Yes, he is."

"Hey, Raven," Cedar said. "Do you like like Dexter?"

Cerise made a m.u.f.fled grunt that turned into a cough, and Raven blinked.

There was a moment of silence, and Cedar wasn't entirely sure what was going on. It could be that Raven didn't want to answer, because Cedar, being who she was, would end up telling everyone. People only shared stuff with Cedar once everyone else already knew. Even standing there under the candy-blue sky, part of a relay team, Cedar felt locked up and alone.

No one was talking, and that made Cedar lonelier than ever. Into the silence, Cedar said, "I don't want to be the lone tree on the hill."

Raven wrapped her arms around Cedar in a tight hug. "No worries, little sapling," she said. "I will always be your forest."

Cedar smiled. She noticed the creaking noise her face made whenever it carved itself into a different expression, and pulled away from Raven, not wanting her to hear it, too.

"Speaking of forests," Cedar said. "We've got a field trip tomorrow, to the Dark Mountains, right? I'm running low on paints, and I was hoping to gather some berries there to make more. Will you guys help?"

"Totally," Cerise said.

"Sure thing," said Raven, and then her brow furrowed. "Unless Apple needs me first. She has some surprise something she's doing at the field trip that she said she might need help with if Briar falls asleep."

"That's okay," Cedar said, and it was true, but there was still a part of her that felt just the tiniest bit un-okay. There always was.

THE MORNING OF THE FIELD TRIP DAWNED AS yellow-gold as leprechaun treasure.

Ooh, Narrator, that's a pretty image! Well, if leprechaun treasure is pretty. Is it? I haven't seen any before. Oooh! What if leprechaun treasure is actually, like, something really, really gross? That wouldn't be pretty.

Madeline Hatter, you know I can't talk to you. Characters aren't supposed to be able to hear the Narrator, and it's so awkward for me that you can.

Mmhm, but that's called a simile, isn't it, Narrator? When you say that something is like something else to paint a picture in the reader's mind? The sun was like an egg frying on the sky, or the tea was as hot as dragon's fire, or the crab juggled like a six-legged man?

Yes, a simile, exactly. But I must get back to the narration. Many things are about to happen- Ooh! What things? Tell, tell!

Well, the drama will really start when a frightening-wait! You're not going to get me to spoil the story, Maddie, not this time!

Aw, Narrator, you're cute as a whole bag of b.u.t.tons. You're as cleverful as books that read themselves. This simile game is fun! You're as invisibilish as a ghost playing hide-and-seek. You're- Shh. No more interruptions, please. I must return to the narration. Ahem.

THE MORNING OF THE FIELD TRIP DAWNED AS yellow-gold as leprechaun treasure. The great castle of Ever After High seemed gilded with the light. Songbirds swooped and sang, b.u.t.terflies danced with fairies, goblins yawned and crept into the cellar to sleep.

In her dorm, Lizzie dressed carefully, as always, arranging her red-and-black hair under her crown. She peered at her mirror, painting a red heart around her left eye. Her mother bore a heart-shaped birthmark. Lizzie was born without the birthmark, so she drew one on each day to be a little more like her mother.

She slipped her pack of playing cards into her pocket and didn't bother to take anything else. Except for the b.u.t.ter knife. You could never be sure.

A field trip day was a bubbling cauldron of excitement. The corridors were raucous, the laughter constant. By the time Lizzie marched and shouted her way through the school and out to the wishing well, there was an enormous line. She could tell which students were going to visit the West Wind by their attire-all swimsuits and flip-flops, reeking of coconut sunscreen. In front of Lizzie, two fairy-G.o.dmothers-in-training prattled on endlessly about the supposedly spectacular hollowed-out mountain palace the East Wind lived in.

At last it was Lizzie's turn.

"The North Wind," Lizzie said to the fairy G.o.dmother directing traffic at the wishing well. She waved her wand, and Lizzie jumped in. After a rush of sparkly darkness and freezing-hot breezes, Lizzie hopped out of another wishing well in the Dark Mountains beyond the Dark Forest. She looked around for a royal sedan chair carried by four servants (preferably card soldiers), but when none appeared, she was forced to trudge up the mountainside like the rest of her cla.s.s.

"Hey, Lizzie!" Madeline Hatter hopped up on one foot. Maddie was dressed in layers of turquoise and purple, which matched her hair colors. Her striped and polka-dotted skirts flounced with each hop. "Hop with me!"

Maddie held out her hand. Lizzie's hand twitched, almost reaching back. But readily her mind called up her mother's advice: A ship is only as floaty as its leakiest timber, and friends are the leakiest timber of all.

Sail not on the Friend Ship, Lizzie, lest you drown in an ocean of tears!

"A princess of Wonderland never hops," said Lizzie.

She walked through the forests of the mountain path alone.

No blue-skinned North Wind (in swimming trunks or otherwise) waited at the top of the mountain. Instead an amphitheater of log benches faced a small stage.

"Ooh, are we watching a play?" said Maddie. "Tea-riffic!"

"This is just right," said Blondie Lockes, settling onto a bench alongside other Royals, including Briar Beauty and Holly O'Hair.

Lizzie started for the backstage. Behind the curtain, Apple and Daring were slipping on costumes over their clothes.

"Break an egg," Lizzie said to Apple.

"Excuse me?" Humphrey Dumpty squeaked as he pa.s.sed by, his white-pale cheeks turning so pink he seemed to be dyed.

"It's leg," Apple whispered. "Break a leg."

"Oh," said Lizzie. "That's actually much better."

"Now, students, quiet down, please," Headmaster Grimm was saying on the other side of the curtain. "You're probably wondering, aWhere is the North Wind, and what is this beautiful forest amphitheater?' And perhaps even, aI bet Headmaster Grimm is skilled in the theater arts, and when will we see an example of his genius?' "

Someone in the audience shouted something Lizzie couldn't make out.

"No, Mr. Hood, you will not be able to meet and speak with the North Wind, as you did last year with the West Wind-or the beach dude, as you call him. The Winds are part of the magnificent heritage and history in Ever After. But the reason why you can't speak with the North Wind herself is a tragedy, one I fear you all need to hear, especially now."

Lizzie straightened her crown. It wasn't her tall gold one with ruby red hearts that just screamed "Wonderland" (sometimes literally). This was the costume crown of Princess Aquilona, and while a shoddy representation of true royalty, it was still a crown and should be respectably oriented.

"To best communicate why the North Wind, though present, can no longer speak with humans, I have written a play," said the headmaster. "Behold, The Tragedy of Aquilona, performed by the Ever After High Royal Players!"

The curtain rose to thunderous applause. Faybelle Thorn shouted "Boo!" so loudly and brightly it sounded like a cheer. Lizzie, fl.u.s.tered, yelled the first line of the play that Apple had written for her, and the crowd silenced.

Grimm lifted his arm up grandly and intoned, "Long ago, Boreas, the great North Wind, ruled the mountaintops."

The headmaster's voice was suddenly high-pitched and trembly, like someone trying to sing soprano who really shouldn't.

"Why is he talking like that?" Lizzie heard Maddie whisper loudly from the audience. "Is someone choking him?"

Daring marched forward with his typical easygoing yet kingly demeanor. He was dressed in a white billowy wind costume that didn't completely cover his muscles. Some of the girls in the audience squealed.

"I, Boreas, rule the winds of the North!" Daring announced.

"The nature of wind is to be wild," Grimm said.

Apple rushed onstage in a fringed blue cloak. The audience applauded, several shouting, "Apple White! It's Apple White!"

"I am the wild wind," Apple howled. A few birds in the surrounding forest sang out in happy response.

"Shh, she's not talking to you," Maddie whispered at the birds.

"But Boreas was the shepherd of all the winds of the North, directing them hither and yon," Grimm continued in a tight, squeaky voice.

"I shepherd you," Daring said, pointing at Apple. "Go hither! And yon!"

Someone in the audience actually did yawn at this point. Lizzie had to admit the lines Grimm had written were a little flat.

"Boreas's companion in his great work was his daughter, Princess Aquilona," Grimm said.

"I am Princess Aquilona," Lizzie said, her fists on her hips.

The line was longer, but Lizzie deemed it too boring to finish. The headmaster waited for the rest, but Lizzie just folded her arms.

Grimm cleared his throat. "Princess Aquilona was destined to take on her father's responsibilities, but she refused."

"I will not take on your responsibilities," Lizzie said, pointing at Daring.

Daring opened his mouth in a parody of shock. "Ridiculous! It is your destiny! To deny your destiny would destroy everything!"

"Then I shall leave forever and go where the North winds cannot travel!"

The audience gasped. Lizzie smiled. Maybe this strutting-about-a-stage business wasn't so bad. She glanced at the anxious face of Headmaster Grimm for inspiration and decided to make up a few more lines. "I will not be the daughter who does nothing but watch her wrinkled father writhe with the agony of age and death, your voice slowly becoming more nasal and oddly high-pitched, as if you were being strangled by a possum or a really weak octopus or something."

Daring pressed his lips together, valiantly attempting to hold back a laugh, and ultimately failing.

He covered his face with his hands, and Lizzie knew she must do something to save the play.

"Do not blubber so, Father. When you stop weeping, I will be gone," Lizzie said.

Headmaster Grimm cleared his throat and lowered his voice to its natural pitch.

"And so, Aquilona ran away to be selfish, ignoring her great destiny so she could do whatever selfish things she wanted. Selfishly." Headmaster Grimm looked significantly at Raven Queen, who was sitting in the back row of the amphitheater. Raven rolled her eyes.

"Meanwhile," Grimm continued, "Boreas got old."

Daring pulled a white beard from his pocket, stuck it to his face, and began to shuffle around.

"And died," said the headmaster.

"I die!" Daring collapsed to the floor in a heap.

"Without a shepherd, the winds tore up trees and ha.s.sled hills."

Apple, her wind cloak flapping, danced around, spinning and leaping across the stage, shouting "Whoosh" and "Boom" and "Rustle rustle rustle."

"The winds, wanting a shepherd, blew all the way to Aquilona. But Aquilona was too selfish to claim her destiny, as previously mentioned."

Apple and Lizzie spun in the circles they had practiced, but Lizzie was not as good at remembering steps as words, and the ch.o.r.eographed dance turned into a sprawling slap-fight. From the floor, "dead" Boreas started to chuckle.

Lizzie shrugged into a ragged blue cloak like Apple's.

"In her struggle against the wind, Aquilona was stripped of her body, becoming wind herself," said Grimm. "She had no body after that, and without a mouth, you can't talk. And that is sad. And it was her own fault. So be warned: Those who run from their own destiny just might be chased down and turned into wind." He cleared his throat again and added grandly, "Or something! The end."

The headmaster began to applaud, and about half the audience followed his lead. The other half just silently glared, so Lizzie glared back until the curtain fell.

Daring laughed, his fake beard wiggling. " aA really weak octopus?' I just about lost it out there!"

"You did lose it," Lizzie said.

"Great job improvising, Lizzie," Apple said. "Turning his laughter into tears was perfect."

"Yes, turning laughter into tears is a skill I learned from my mother."

"I think your mother would have loved your performance," Apple said, patting Lizzie on the shoulder and heading off the stage. Lizzie held her breath, surprised by a knot of emotion in her throat.

Daring followed Apple. Lizzie heard him mutter "strangled by a possum" under his breath, letting out another chuckle.

Lizzie stayed in the quiet behind the curtain, fingering her ragged blue cloak. She was a princess separated from her kingdom, just like Aquilona. All portals between Ever After and Wonderland had been magically sealed ever since Raven's mother, the Evil Queen, went royally off script and infected it with some magical contagion. If the greedy witch hadn't rebelled and tried to take over everyone else's story, Lizzie would be home right now.

Unlike Aquilona, Lizzie yearned for her destiny. But cut off as she was, how could she become like her magnificent mother? If only she could be so scary and large and... and loud! If only she could live with Mother at home, where everything made its own kind of wonderlandiful sense, and rabbits talked and people didn't unless they were offering you cake and tea, Your Highness.

What if she was trapped in Ever After forever after? One day her mother would need Lizzie to take over, and if she couldn't get back... would a pack of wild playing cards worm their way into Ever After and steal away her body, just like the winds did to Aquilona? Would they carry Lizzie back, bodiless and mouthless, as insubstantial as a wind? The thought was terrifying.

She wished she had brought her hedgehog, Shuffle, with her. Even if it was unqueenly, just then Lizzie really needed a cuddle.

WHEN THE CURTAIN LOWERED, CEDAR WAS holding her wooden hands before her, though she couldn't bring herself to clap.

"Um, that was a bit obvious, and I can't lie," Cedar said.

"Yep," said Raven Queen, her shoulders slumped.

Cedar dropped her hands. "Headmaster Grimm might as well have called the play This Story Is a Warning to All Rebels about the Evil Consequences of Not Fulfilling Your Destiny-I'm Looking at You, Raven Queen."

Raven nodded. But she un-slumped her shoulders. "I'm not going to let him get me down anymore. I am okay with myself and my destiny-less future, and I'm ninety percent sure that I won't be turned into wind if I don't turn evil and try to poison Apple. Even so, I could really use a laugh about now. I'm going to go find Maddie. Be right back."

Raven sprang away.

On the bench in front of Cedar, Blondie Lockes whispered something to Briar Beauty. Briar snorted, bending at the waist and wiping laugh tears from under her pink crowngla.s.ses. Blondie giggled, hiccuping. Just hearing her friends laugh brought a creaky smile to Cedar's face.

"Hey, what are you guys laughing about?" Cedar asked, plopping down beside them, her legs clicking against the hard bench.

"Well, Blondie was just telling me-" Briar began, but Blondie elbowed her. "Oof! Blondie, what are you..."