"We wanted to thank you. We've only got a few treats to share, and you girls were especially nice to us, so we want you to have them." The woman shrank back into herself, once again short and crooked.
Moving in perfect unison, both sets of twins reached into the pockets of their oversized skirts and brought out enormous, brilliant red, perfect apples. In unison, the eight girls let out sighs of delight.
Merrigan frowned and concentrated on the apples, looking from one to the other. Something seemed odd about them, and not just the fact that old beggar women wouldn't have such large, perfect, beautiful apples this far past harvest. Certainly not eight apples, all exactly alike.
That's it, Bib said. Only one is real.
The fog filling her brain vanished as if before a chill, refreshing breeze. Seven apples turned transparent. Only one remained solid and glossy. She could actually smell the sweet-sour, rich perfume of the apple. It made her mouth water.
Nothing in the world was going to convince her to bite into an apple that was clearly enchanted. Did they really think she was so stupid?
"Just like with the peas," a richly malicious voice whispered, clashing with the shimmering that grew stronger in the air. "It's a test. Only a real princess can see the real apple. Only a real princess can pick it up. Only a real princess can bite into it. Don't you want to prove you're a real princess?"
"No," Belinda whispered. "Not ... safe."
"But one bite will fix everything," the woman whispered, and now Merrigan could see another image, behind the mask of the wrinkled little, smiling, harmless, beggar granny face. Dark eyes glittered with triumph over those full, cruel lips. "No more hiding. You and your prince, together forever. Don't you want that?"
"Yes."
"Then prove you're a real princess," one woman from the second set of twins whispered, her granny mask fading. She chuckled as Belinda reached out for the second apple in the row of perfect images.
What happens if she bites it? Merrigan thought, and then repeated it in case Bib wasn't listening. She found it hard to do anything except watch the movements in front of her, slowed like they were mired in frozen honey.
Standard sleeping spell, Crystal responded.
Meaning? Merrigan caught her breath. It was a basic curse, old enough to be an irritating cliché. To break a sleeping spell required true love's kiss. But her true love is gone.
Yes, another voice whispered, chuckling, the sound cold and sharp-edged. Like the image of her former self revealed in Crystal's surface. Gone. She'll sleep forever.
"Take it," one of the old women urged, black eyes glittering, focused on Belinda like a cruel cat focused on a fear-paralyzed mouse. "Prove you're a real princess and take a bite."
"I'm a real princess," Merrigan announced, fury unfreezing her mind and her muscles. She lunged across the table to snatch the apple just before Belinda's fingers touched it.
"How?" the first woman shrieked, her disguise shredding. Two beggar women vanished entirely as she reared up like an offended cobra and her eyes widened in shock. "Only a real princess—"
"You didn't hear me, you dunderhead!" Merrigan slid back and stumbled away, clutching the apple against her chest. "I'm a real princess. More real than you two ever were. At least I never tried to kill my sisters!"
"You can't stop the spell," the second one snarled, her disguise and illusion shredding. Two tall women stood there, dressed all in black, silver, and crimson, with hoods hiding their hair. Their faces were so twisted with fury that their resemblance to Belinda sickened Merrigan. "Once magic starts, it can't be stopped. The spell wasn't perfect when we stole it. Too many holes in it. Too many escape clauses. We fixed it, though. And Father will never know. She'll follow that apple to the ends of the earth, until she takes a bite." A cackle escaped her. "The princess has to sleep."
"The princess?" Merrigan sidestepped Belinda as her friend came staggering after her, eyes wide and unseeing, reaching for the apple. "Just a princess? Not a specific one? You couldn't weave it too tight, or the blood tie would make you vulnerable. So only a real princess could pick up the apple, find the real apple—but you didn't dare specify which princess did you?"
An unholy shriek erupted from the two women as they darted around the table, reaching for her. Merrigan stuck her tongue out at them, raised the apple to her mouth, and bit down hard. So what if it was an unladylike large bite? She had to make sure the magic worked.
Numbness filled her mouth. She almost laughed at her disappointment that the apple didn't taste nearly as good as it smelled. Merrigan forced down the mealy, bland mouthful and the numbness spread through her in one huge, overwhelming ripple. Belinda caught her as she fell, and sweet weariness swept over her and closed her eyes. Her last thought was that at least she was going to get a decent night's sleep. For however long that lasted.
Sleep.
Nightcap. Turn it inside out. Why hadn't she thought of that before?
Merrigan struggled against the sensation of falling into velvet blackness. She had to tell Bryan. If he took the nightcap from her magic box, and wore it turned inside out, he could go into Sylvanglade and reverse the sleeping curse.
Sleeping curse.
"Bryan," she whispered, shivering in a bitter, draining chill that she only felt as it evaporated.
"I'm here," he said.
Then he kissed her, slow and sweet, his lips warm and firm against hers, long enough for a delightful shiver to sweep through her body.
No, Merrigan realized, as her eyes fluttered open and Bryan sat back, smiling down at her. This was the second kiss.
He had kissed her awake.
"Hello, Merrigan," he said. "Fancy meeting you here."
"You know—" She sighed as he bent down and kissed her again. This time she managed to raise her hand, so heavy, everything about her moving slower than her thoughts, and she touched
