It’s my turn. I grab a quiver and do exactly what the others did before me. I pull an arrow from my pack and fire, shooting into the tree line. The rope yanks me forward without warning, whooshing me along with it. I expect to hit a tree and drop to the ground, but instead I keep going, picking up speed. Trees whiz by me, the arrow and the rope leading the way into the unknown. Lily sticks her head out of my ogre dress pocket and flicks her tongue in a way as if to ask Is this what’s supposed to happen? I’m not sure.

“Lily, we have to get off this thing!” I shout. “This can’t be…” Cough! Cough! “I think I just swallowed a fly!”

I continue to pick up speed. The arrow leads me up, down, over and around trees, mountains, even through a waterfall, though somehow I don’t get wet. Suddenly we’re descending, and I’m sure I’m going to crash. I close my eyes, hoping Lily is buried deep enough in my pocket that I’ll be able to cushion her in the fall and—boom! I land hard on my feet.

I slowly unclench my eyes to see I’m standing in… Hey. Is this Enchantasia Village?

“Lady Devin, you made it!” Robin applauds. A pack of ogres surrounds him. “It’s about time. We don’t have all day, you know.”

I try to catch my breath and look at Tara. “You…could…have…warned…me.”

She shrugs. “The surprise is part of the fun.”

“Too…fast…” Logan chokes out. He’s hunched over a rock where it looks like he just gave up his breakfast.

Heath pats him on his back with a large ogre hand and looks at Robin. “How do you make those arrows move like that? Do you think I could get a set? I want to hike Ice Falls this winter, and they would make the trip up a breeze.”

A beeping sound comes from Robin’s chest plate again. He looks down and taps it. “That’s my cue. I’ve gotten you as far as I can without being seen. Tara knows how to get you the rest of the way.” Robin pulls another arrow from his quiver. “I’ve got a date with a king’s carriage full of tax collections.” He winks at us, nocks an arrow, and aims. “See you on the Wanted posters.” The arrow takes flight and whoosh! He’s gone.

Chapter 8

The Power of the Quill

“Psst! Over here!” Prue calls.

Prue is huddled behind a broken-down patty-cakes cart.

I’ve never really understood people’s obsession with patty cakes (I’m more of a hot-cross-bun kind of girl), but the cinnamon-and-brown-sugar scent that lingers around this cart is heavenly.

We duck behind the cart, and I’m amazed at how much Prue has done in just a few minutes. She’s created her own command post. She’s got several gadgets I can’t identify laid out on a tarp in front of her, along with a panel of obscure buttons and pulleys that she’s moving in various directions with nimble ogre fingers. Four small hand mirrors hang on a board, showing different locations: the square in front of us, the exterior of Happily Ever After Scrolls, the Dwarf Police Squad headquarters, and a crowded room full of ogres, heads bent over large tables, writing furiously with quills.