“So, how much longer do you think it’ll take?”

  “Kya, I already told you, I don’t know. We’re heading in the general direction of a crazy swan and I have no idea if it changed course in the x amount of miles it flew from here.”

  Kya sighed heavily and kept walking. They had left the castle an hour ago and were making their way around the lake. Birds chirped in the trees around them, hidden in their world of leaves and sunlight. There was a pleasant breeze rippling over the water. “So, how much farther until we get past the lake?”

  The small image of Saro rolled his eyes. “Kya, look. We’re not even out of sight of the castle.”

  “Okay, fine.” She wanted to ask him to pull up a book on the lake and look up how long it was, but she bit the words down. Quietly, she went back to walking. “None of the adventures in Dad’s stories are boring like this.”

  “Yeah they are. They just cut those parts out so impatient little kids won’t get bored and complain about them.”

  That made Kya go quiet. She bit back a retort and focused on the road again, wondering why she hadn’t considered that adventures would have a lot of walking. She sighed. “Still, it’d be nice if things happened a bit quicker.”

  Saro sucked in a breath. “Looks like your impatience is paying off.” He pointed to a spot in the woods. “Someone’s coming this way. Draw your sword—I mean get out of here, sis.”

  She peered at the trees, not seeing anything alarming. “Get out—Why? Who is it?” Saro had vanished, and she was speaking to an empty mirror. “Saro? That isn’t funny.”

  “Oh! What’s this?” An old woman had hobbled out of the foliage. She was wearing a baby blue apron and carrying a woven green basket. It was filled with various kinds of flowers, most of which Kya could not identify. “Oh, a poor girl lost in the woods!” she exclaimed. “What are you doing so far out here alone?”

  Kya, remembering scenes similar to this in her storybooks, wondered if the old woman was a disguised fairy. Being extra polite, she said, “Oh, I’m not lost. I know the way home.”

  “But it’s so late! Soon it will be dark out. The woods at night are no place for a child.” She clucked her tongue and her voice dripped with the sweetness of honeysuckle. “You must be starving and chilled to the bone. Come, dearie, you can spend the night at my house.” She held out a bony arm.

  Kya was hungry and she was getting cold, and not to mention tired of walking. A rest at a nice fairy’s house might do her a lot of good. Already smiling, she returned the empty mirror to her pack and then took the old woman’s hand.

  In a few minutes, they reached a clearing with a cottage in the center of it. There was a garden all around it, and the little house was covered with flowers, too. Most of the blossoms were no larger than a teacup, but some seemed too big to fit on dinner plates, and they all came in marvelous colors. Indeed, Kya was so taken aback by it all that not only was she too surprised to speak, but she nearly missed another marvel: the fact that it seemed to be raining on the garden in spite of the sunny day. It took a moment for her to notice the forlorn patch of gray cloud that hovered just off the path in front of the house, chained to the shed with a leash that went into its misty insides. “Oh dash it, you’ll drown half my garden if you keep that up,” the old woman mumbled, and she tugged the cloud into the shed. “Don’t mind him. He just gets grumpy sometimes,” she smiled at Kya.

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  The woman showed Kya into a cozy little room. “Why don’t you make yourself comfortable, dearie? Dinner’s at six, but I can fix up something sweet for you to pick on until then. We wouldn’t want to go hungry now, would we?” She shut the door and her footsteps faded.

  Kya produced the mirror. “Saro, she’s gone now. You can come out.”

  “What the heck made me bring you along on this?” Saro blinked into view in the mirror, looking exasperated. “You know what? I don’t want to know.”

  “Saro, I—what’s wrong with you?! That woman is nice!”

  “No, that woman is a creepy old witch. If you don’t believe me, it says so right here.” He produced a book showing a picture of said woman cackling over a vine-covered cauldron.

  “I…But she…” This wasn’t at all going how it was supposed to. “I was just trying to go on the adventure.”

  “No, Kya. You—Ugh. And I used to wonder how come little princesses kept getting kidnapped all the time.” He brandished the book. “Here. Next time when I tell you to get out of there, you listen to me. You know what? Make that all subsequent times. You know what? Just do what I say from now on, okay?”

  Kya nodded miserably. “Yes, Saro.”

  “Good.” He sighed, consulted his book, and looked up again. “Well, she’s going to try to get you to drink some special tea with one of her flowers boiled into it that’ll make you forget who you are and where you’re going. Very typical witchy stuff. If you can pretend you’re under her spell, she won’t suspect you and you can sneak out when nightfall comes.”

  “Okay, Saro,” she said, practically in tears.

  “Great. Now, I’m going to try to research some more while you’re doing that. Best put me away now; she’s coming back.”

  With that, her brother vanished. “Wait, Saro!” Kya started, and realized that she was already breaking her promise. Biting her lip, she put the mirror away.

  Had she done it a moment later, the princess would have been caught. As it was, when the old woman brought out the tray of cookies and tea, Kya looked guileless. She feigned a sip and immediately swooned. The witch looked down at her, seeming satisfied. “There there, my foolish little dearie,” she shook a bony finger. “Now let’s see about dinner.”

  The meal was vegetarian. Afterwards, the witch, being of the variety that prefers carrying out mischief during the day, went to bed. Kya was left in her new room, where she waited until the lights went out. For a few breathless minutes, she waited to see if it turned on again, but when all had been quiet for some time, she whispered, “I think she’s asleep now.”

  “Good,” Saro whispered back. “Let’s go.”

  They crept out of the room and Kya lifted the front door’s latch as quietly as she could manage. The hinges cooperated and did not squeak. When they entered the garden, Kya noticed that briars still covered the path. “Now what?” she asked.

  “I know you don’t have a sword, but did you bring any of my daggers with you?” Kya nodded and stepped towards the plants, but then paused. Silently, she moved over to the shed and undid the latch. “What are you doing?” Saro hissed.

  “Getting us out of here,” Kya hissed back. I sure hope this works, she thought.

  She was answered by an angry thundering. The cloud inside the shed shook and swirled, and Kya’s face was splashed with a spray of cool mist. “Shh, I’m trying to help you.” She started sawing through the damp rope with Saro’s dagger. “Could you—argh!” The cloud surged forward, breaking through the last of its bonds and soaking Kya thoroughly. The shed’s door flew open, flying into splinters, and the cloud kept going. It grew larger and larger, flooding the garden with a deluge that turned the earth into mud. The briar had disappeared under the water, along with most of the garden and the path.

  “My garden!” screeched the witch. She had appeared at the window, dressed in a floral nightgown. “No! Get back here!” She ran for the door.

  Kya scrambled over the mud that seemed to want to suck her down. The rain washed over her face, doing little to clear her vision, as she fought her way to the safety of dry land. When she reached the edge of the clearing, she saw a bright flash of magenta magic splash against a tree and heard another screech from the witch as the trunk withered. It swayed under the deluge and, unable to support the vast canopy of leaves that crowned it, bowed towards the princess. Kya’s scream was lost amid the roaring rain, cries of the witch, and shouted encouragement from her own brother. At the last second she dove out of the way, minus one shoe, and landed outside of the clearing. The rain hadn’t blasted that part of the forest yet, and the path was relatively dry. Kya gasped for a moment and caught her breath. “Saro. What do we do now?”

  “Run. Keep running, and don’t stop.”