Almare - The White Mirror

“Are we there yet?” whined Tony from his seat up by the driver.

“Dad. I’m not going to tell you again. Shut. Up.” Virginia growled between gritted teeth.

“Excuse me? Who is the father and who is the daughter here?”

“And who is the king who can have the manservant thrown into the mud?” Wendell said dryly. Virginia got the impression he wasn’t joking.

“Hey!”

“Can we open a few windows?” Wolf asked, exasperated. “We have to take a hundred mile trip in one of these stuffy carriages, just when I was getting used to those cars.”

“Oh!” exclaimed Wendell suddenly, ignoring Wolf. “I just remembered. This is very important, everyone listen closely.”

Tony swerved around in the driver’s seat, and Virginia and Wolf leaned forward.

“We will be passing through the Sixth Kingdom on our way to the Ninth,” Wendell said. “In the Sixth Kingdom there is a sort of sub- kingdom.”

“Oh, no,” Wolf groaned. He knew all too well what Wendell was talking about.

“This kingdom,” continued Wendell, “belongs to Pinocchio.”

Virginia raised an eyebrow. She hadn’t heard this before.

“The only thing you must remember about Pinochio’s Kingdom is that while you are in it you must not tell a lie.”

“Gee, I wonder why that is,” laughed Tony.

“After Pinocchio the First became a human, he devoted his life to making puppets. But the fairy and the cricket wouldn’t have another bunch of naughty little puppet boys running around, so they gave them the same long-nose-if-you-tell-a-lie treatment that they gave Pinocchio. And then they figured, while we’re at it, why don’t we make the whole little kingdom full of people who never lie? So that’s what they did, and now whenever you are within the borders of Pinochio’s Kingdom, you can’t tell a lie. If you do, your nose will grow two inches every time. As you may have guessed, Pinochio’s Kingdom is sparsely populated, and those who do live there have unusually long noses.” Wendell finished his history lesson and laid his head back against the satin pillows.

Virginia was stunned. The Nine Kingdoms never failed to amaze her.

“Wait a second,” Tony said, “How long does this nose thing last?”

“Forever,” Wolf answered him. “There is some cure the trolls came up with (they’d need it), but you’d have to ask them for it.” He laughed. “Maybe you should just tape your mouth shut, Tony.”

“Oh, really? Well...”

“Entering Pinochio’s Kingdom now, your majesty,” the driver announced.

“Maybe Wolf is right. Let’s all just be quiet for a while,” Wendell suggested. Virginia nodded. Tony glared at Wolf, who just snickered.

Virginia pulled back the curtains covering her window. Outside, she saw farmers working in their fields. They stood up to watch the royal carriage roll by. Everything about this place seemed normal except that, as Wendell had mentioned, all the people had extremely long noses. She saw one man’s nose that looked to be almost three feet long. It was kind of funny. Virginia wondered why these people didn’t move away before their noses got too big for them to turn around.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the carriage wheels screeching to a halt. Everyone peeked out their windows to see a group of long-nosed villagers bowing to Wendell.

“Excuse us, your majesty,” one of them ventured, expressing the concern on all their faces, “But would you be kind enough to tell us why our mirrors aren’t working?”

The question surprised Virginia. She hadn’t realized that just anyone could own a magic mirror, but apparently this was the case.

Wendell hesitated. If he told them that the White Mirror had awakened again it would cause a panic, and he didn’t want that. But these peasants did not seem to have any intentions of leaving without an answer.

“The mirrors,” he began, his eyes straying to his companions for guidance. They all just shrugged. “Well, I don’t really know, but I assure you that - what?”

Wendell froze. Everyone was staring at him open-mouthed. It made him feel extremely nervous.

“What is it?” he demanded.

Wolf shook his head in disbelief. “And I was so sure it was going to be Tony.”

Wendell’s eyes widened. He ever so slowly brought his hand up to his face. His hand touched his nose much too soon.

“Ahh! That’s not fair!” he said. “I was going to tell them - um, sort of. ‘I don’t know’ was just a figure of speech...or...something...” He cursed. This was so mortifying! It was almost as bad as being a dog. In fact, this was worse because it was his fault and not his evil stepmother’s.

Everybody was looking at him, half sympathetically and half like they were about to break up into uncontrollable snickers. Wendell wished the carriage seat would swallow him up.

Oh, stop it, he thought to himself. He was a king after all. Just pretend nothing’s happened. “What are you all staring at?” he demanded, a little more angrily than he had intended. “We must get to Dragon Mountain. And you,” he said, addressing the peasants, “Don’t worry about the mirrors. They’ll be on again soon.”

“Yes, sir,” they mumbled and went back to their farm work still as confused as ever, but now with barely-contained grins.

Virginia, Wolf, and Tony each took deep breaths to keep themselves from bursting out laughing. Wendell glared at them venomously.

“Drive on!” he ordered, and the carriage immediately lurched onto the road and they were on their way once again. Wendell quickly pulled the curtains across all the windows. The last thing he needed was any other royalty seeing him like this.

Wolf watched the sun set over the Great Southern Sea. It was very beautiful, with all the oranges and pinks painted on the sky in a silently gorgeous symphony. And, to top it all off, it wasn’t raining like it had been for so long in New York. Although nothing was the same with Patrick gone, he enjoyed the sunset. And every time he glanced over at Wendell, Wolf could hardly contain tears of laughter.

Tony was snoring, propped up by the handrail in his seat by the driver. Virginia was also sleeping, leaning against Wolf’s shoulder. The king was staring into space, obviously extremely humiliated by his three-inch nose. He looked like he was wishing it away with all the power of his being. Wolf swallowed his laughter and whispered to him, “Shouldn’t we stop for the night? It’s getting dark.”

Wendell turned his face away from Wolf as he answered, “Yes, of course. Where are we exactly?”

“The Southern Sea beach road,” Wolf said, consulting a map laid out on the opposite seat. “Well away from Pinocchio.”

“Thank God.”

“Oh, look!” said Wolf, pointing suddenly to a spot on the map and nearly waking Virginia, “We’re only a mile away from Cinderella’s palace. I’ve never been there before.”

“Excellent,” Wendell declared, “We’ll stay at Cindy’s place for the night.” Then his face twisted into an expression of complete embarrassment. “On second thought, perhaps we’d better not...”

“Oh, Wendell, Cinderella is one of the Five Women Who Changed History,” said Wolf, exasperated. “And she’s 201 years old. She’s been around enough to know that that stupid Pinocchio curse could happen to anyone. And more importantly, I’m not sleeping in this carriage.”

“But you have no idea how humiliating this is!” Wendell pointed at his nose, not wanting to touch it. It was kind of revolting, Wolf thought, trying so hard not to laugh.

“I would think being a dog is as humiliating as it gets,” Wolf answered, not hiding his disgust for dogs.

Wendell sighed. “I’d have to agree with you there, but I’m certainly not enjoying this.” He gestured toward his nose again.

Wolf tried to look sympathetic, but it came out as a snort. Wendell narrowed his eyes at him, but looked out the window. Wolf did also.

A little ways in the distance, they could see a large castle. It was not quite as big as Wendell’s, which he had inherited from Snow White, but it was still very impressive. The towers and turrets were edged in blue, and the huge clock that was centered in the middle of the highest tower was just about to strike seven o’clock. Cinderella’s palace was a famous place. It was the same one where Cinderella had gone to her first ball, the one where she had lost her glass slipper and met her prince. In the twilight, the palace looked eerie and welcoming at the same time.

Wolf shook Virginia gently to wake her up and poked Tony not-so-gently in the back.

“Wha-what?” Tony said groggily.

“We’re about to arrive at Cinderella’s palace where we will be staying the night,” Wolf explained, looking pointedly at Wendell, who just shrugged.

“Cinderella’s castle?” Virginia repeated in wonderment. “You mean where Cinderella actually lives?”

“That’s the one,” Wendell said dryly without looking at her. He was still staring dismally up at the castle, his head propped up with his hand.

“Wow,” Virginia murmured, leaning out the window to get a better look.

They were just arriving at the gates. The driver stopped the carriage, parking between two coaches that bore a striking resemblance to pumpkins. Wolf opened the door and helped Virginia out. His legs felt like water after so many hours of sitting. He was tired and hungry, just as everyone else obviously was. He hoped the initial greetings didn’t last too long.

Wendell strode up to the oversized doors, recessed in the towering walls of the castle, and banged the knocker twice. After a minute, one of the doors started to creak open. Queen Cinderella herself stood inside, flanked by two handmaidens. She wore an elegant dress that cascaded down to the floor in folds of shimmering orange, along with a crown on her head studded with priceless gems. Her face was creased with many wrinkles, mostly smile lines, but they seemed to compliment her naturally instead of being simply a sign of her very old age. And in her eyes was still the vitality of youth that her two hundred years could not steal from her. Joyfully, Cinderella’s lips broke into a huge smile when she saw Wendell and the others.

“Welcome!” she exclaimed happily, and started walking towards them with her arms open. She faltered when she saw Wendell. His face was scarlet and his head was down, hiding his nose. Cinderella’s momentary flicker of confusion vanished and she politely said nothing about it. Her smile disappeared, however, and she continued to welcome them.

“Do come in! What a pleasant surprise! What brings you here on such little notice? You look exhausted! Just have your driver put the horses in the stable, that’s it, love. Come, come, you must stay here tonight, I’ll have the feast prepared right away!” She herded them inside like baby birds under wings, and they lacked the energy to refuse anything she offered them.