between his legs. He crumpled, moaning.
Ms. Badwin reached across him and tapped Marc on the shoulder with the wand. Nothing happened.
Marc reached into the cabinet and grabbed the puppet with Anjali’s eyes. “I got Anjali! Run!” he yelled. I grabbed Aaron by the arm and hauled him to his feet.
“Run if you like. You won’t get very far. The door’s locked,” said Ms. Badwin, twisting one end of the wand. “How do I put this thing in reverse? It’s a royalty tester, but it should also work to—ah, got it.”
She reached out and tapped Marc on the shoulder again. He dropped Anjali and collapsed, shrinking like a lump of metal and falling to the floor with a heavy clunk. He appeared to have become a small brass statuette.
Jaya dove for her sister.
“Marc!” I yelled. “What did you do to him?” Aaron and I threw ourselves at Ms. Badwin, but she held us off with her wand. Neither of us wanted to become dolls.
“Don’t worry, it’s much better this way,” said Ms. Badwin, picking Marc up and putting him in the cabinet. “He’ll last far longer, maybe millennia. I don’t normally collect princes, but you have to admit, this one’s hard to resist. With any luck I’ll be able to trade him for a female version. I don’t have any west African princesses, which is a real hole in my collection. And it will be nice to have both Raos.” She spun around and struck Jaya with the wand.
Jaya convulsed and wavered, but she didn’t transform. My knot! She must still be wearing it.
Ms. Badwin shook the wand. “Shoddy thing. I knew I shouldn’t have cheaped out and bought the imported model,” she said, twisting the end again.
“Jaya, grab that wand!” If she could get it before her knot of protection gave out, maybe the three of us could overpower Ms. Badwin.
“No violence please, children,” said Ms. Badwin, easily shaking Jaya off and continuing to fiddle with the wand. “My liability insurance doesn’t cover . . . Wait, I thought I had already turned this up . . . Oh, here . . .”
“Quick, give me my backpack,” said Jaya urgently, handing me the puppet. She fished frantically in it, throwing things on the floor.
Ms. Badwin rapped her again. This time Jaya’s outline shook like Jell-O and she almost dropped her backpack.
“I hope you two won’t be disappointed, but I’m not planning to add you to my collection,” Ms. Badwin said to me and Aaron. “Some people collect scullery maids and swineherds, but I stick to royals. I have to be selective. Not that you aren’t very fine examples of the common horde . . . Ah, I think this will do it.” She reached out for Jaya again with the wand.
Jaya jumped back. She had something in her hand, which she snapped open—a fan. She waved it energetically at Ms. Badwin and yelled, “Get lost!”
A ferocious wind sprang up.
Papers blew off the desk. The chrysanthemums blew off the coffee table. A window burst and the curtains blew out of it. Ms. Badwin’s hair blew straight out behind her, exposing black roots. The wand blew out of her hand. Then the wind blew her away.
Jaya stopped fanning. The curtains fell limp and the papers fluttered to the floor like autumn leaves. We rushed to the window and looked out. There was no sign of Ms. Badwin.
“What was that?” said Aaron.
“A fan my auntie Shanti gave me.” She glanced at me. “Okay, she gave it to Anjali, but I borrowed it. We’re supposed to share it.”
“Is that the one I saw in Anjali’s room? It didn’t do that when you fanned me with it,” I said.
“You have to give a command. And fan really hard.”
“Where’s Ms. Badwin?” said Aaron.
Jaya shrugged. “Lost, I hope.”
“Let’s get out of here before she finds herself, then,” said Aaron.
“Good idea,” I said. I took Marc out of the display cabinet and stowed him in my bag. He had been turned into a three-inch-tall brass figure of a man beating a gong with a stick. Its features were very stylized, but it was still obviously Marc.
Anjali was bigger and much lighter.
“Here, I’ll take her,” Jaya said. “She’s my sister.”
I handed Jaya the puppet and picked up Marc’s backpack. “Let’s go.”
“What about the other princesses? We can’t just leave them here. What if Ms. Badwin comes back?” said Jaya.
“How can we possibly carry them all?” Aaron asked.
Jaya took another familiar object out of her bag: the inlaid box from Anjali’s shelf. “We can use this,” she said. “It’s bottomless, so they should fit.” She opened it and began packing in princesses.
“We don’t have time for that,” said Aaron. “We don’t know when Ms. Badwin could come back.”
“It’ll go faster if you help.”
“Jaya! Come
“We can’t leave them here,” said Jaya, tucking a delicate Japanese ivory into the box. “They’re people, just like you.”
“She’s right,” I said. “Plus, she’s stubborn.”
“And I’m royal, so you have to obey me.”
“Yeah, a royal pain,” said Aaron, but he went over to the cabinet and started reaching down princesses for us.
Jaya finished packing and snapped the box shut. “Get that wand,” she told Aaron. “Maybe we can use it to turn them back into people.”
“Good idea.” Aaron reached for the wand.
“Don’t touch it!” I yelled, but it was too late. He already had it in his hand.
“Why not?” he said.
“I thought you might turn into a doll. I guess it only works on royalty,” I said. “Maybe you really are a swineherd, like she said.”
“Yeah, right.” He draped a throw from the couch over the broken glass on the windowsill and climbed out the broken window. Jaya followed.
I sat on the sill and swung my legs over. “Why can’t we go out the door?” I asked.
“You heard her—it’s locked.”
“So? We have the door stick.”
“Just jump already. It’s faster,” said Jaya.
“Don’t worry, I’ll catch you,” said Aaron.
He tried, but we both fell over. For the second time that day, I landed with a crash in a pile of dirty, half- melted snow. At least this time I was wearing a coat.
“Was that entirely necessary?” I asked.
“Sorry! You know how I sweep girls off their feet.” He grinned at me and held out a hand.
I struggled to my feet, sloughing off slush.
“We did it! It’s over! We rescued Anjali!” said Jaya, making the puppet clap her hands.
“Not quite over,” I said. “Anjali’s still a marionette, and Marc’s a brass figurine, and we haven’t used the Golden Key yet. And I’m freezing, and my leg hurts. And what about Marc’s little brother? Somebody has to take care of him now that Marc can’t.”
“Let’s go back to my place and figure out what to do,” said Aaron. “We can ask the mirror.”
“
