Ashley's brain could not process this new, crazy information that HER MOTHER WAS A WITCH and simultaneously conceive and execute an action plan to rescue her upside-down friends who at this moment were inching toward bubbling cauldrons.

The High Priestess waved her hands as if trying to get Ashley's attention. "I grow tired of this, Ashley. Zippity zap your friends out of danger, and then we'll celebrate with a nice cup of chamomile tea and a slice of pumpkin-mice pie.

Acid bile rose into Ashley's throat. Chamomile tea tasted like soap.

"Or," Derek squeaked, "you could let us go, and I could give you some free decorating advice. Not to be rude, but this place looks like a troll designed it. Cobwebs? Grime? Dripping stone walls? Really? It's all so 1342."

"Trolls designed it," Marsha piped up.

The High Priestess growled. "We got a good deal on it."

"You get what you pay for," Derek said before his head sank into the bubbling liquid.

"No!" Ashley screamed, heart slamming against her chest. At least Derek hadn't been boiled alive, given the energetic spasming of his legs. She still had time to save him and the others.

"Yes!" the High Priestess countered. "Focus your feelings. Something is growing inside you. A power beyond measure. Let it go."

"The only thing growing inside me is an ulcer," Ashley said. But she did feel something. A gathering of moonlight in her belly. The taste of mulled wine on her tongue. Precisely the same feeling as the day when Charming had gifted her with the unicorns. She assumed Marveloni had cursed her with his magic. Perhaps it had been her magic stirring in the presence of his dark powers.

But why was she ruminating? Thinking wouldn't free her friends. And even though Derek had spent a lot of time as a frog, he probably couldn't hold his breath much longer.

She gritted her teeth.

Focused on the moonlight inside her.

Imagined a blast of power that would unknot the spider strands and fly her friends to safety.

Nothing happened.

Layyin and Sadira's heads submerged.

Derek's legs writhed.

She squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated so hard she got dizzy and lost her balance. As she fell, her shoe became caught between the uneven, troll-installed stones on the floor. The shoe stayed put, while the rest of her toppled. Her ankle exploded in pain. "Ouch!"

"She's hopeless," Marsha said.

"Wait for it," the High Priestess said. "Pain can help focus the powers."

Ashley bit her lip and pulled the glass slipper from the rocks. The heel had shattered. She cut herself on a sharp edge. "Oh, bejabbers!" she cried.

At that point, Princess Ashley, who was kind and sweet and well-mannered, a friend to animals and wenches and children, lost it. She threw the glass slipper at Derek's spidery cable. It hit so perfectly that the jagged edge sliced through the strands. Derek plopped into the cauldron. A split second later, his head popped out. "Great shot, Ashley. Wow! It's great in here. Like a jacuzzi. I mean, except for the smell."

"That's the sulfur in the water. It balances the humors. In humans," Marsha added, shuddering.

Ashley wasn't sure if Marsha's nervous reaction was due to the idea of humans, humors, or the water. But no time for random contemplation. "Well, I find nothing funny about any of this," she said, smashing her remaining shoe on the stones, breaking it in half. She aimed one at Layyin's bindings and the other at Sadira's. A perfect shot each time. Having strength and a good eye resulted from all her years of housework and evading her stepsister's attacks. And there was a certain amount of satisfaction that Ashley had discovered something no other fairy tale princess had ever managed—a practical use for glass footwear.

Ashley spun to face the High Priestess. "Alright. I freed them. We're going. Right after you explain all this nonsense about my mother being a witch."

"Not so fast," the High Priestess said.

"You made a deal," Ashley said, tugging her fists onto her hips.

"You cheated by not using your powers."

"I did use my powers." She flexed her biceps.

"Not those powers," the High Priestess stomped her non-glass-slippered foot.

"You didn't specify which powers in the agreement. Which means, ipso facto, you lose."

"What are you? Some kind of lawyer?"

"No, but I am a princess. I read up on the law so I could princess better."

"I am the law here, missy. And I say, you cheated. And therefore, I am going to have to lock you up until you come to your senses."

"No. Way." Ashley rushed toward the cauldrons. Her friends splashed water on the floor in their attempt to climb out. With each splash, the veiled witches gasped.

"Seize her," the High Priestess yelled as Ashley helped Derek out of his cauldron.

👑👑👑

"Derek, help the others," Ashley said. The witches raised their hands and chanted an incomprehensible spell. Colorful sparkles of magic discharged from their fingertips and hurled toward them. Ashley leaped behind Derek's cauldron. Waves of heat from the fire-cooked her face. She crouched, making herself as small a target as possible. Through her peripheral vision, Ashley watched as Derek managed to liberate Layyin and Sadira. Ashley held up her palm in the universal body language gesture for "stay put." Even though the cauldrons were only three feet apart, crossing even that distance could be deadly.

Her attention shifted when a flash of red hit the hem of her voluminous skirt, which stuck out from behind the cauldron, and suddenly her entire dress disappeared. Once again, she found herself in public in nothing but a shift, well, and a corset.

Her heart yammered. The place where her hairs attached to her scalp prickled. Adrenaline flowed like liquor at a wedding inside her veins. And something tingled in her mind. Something about witches and water and witches not liking water: that must've been why Marsha shuddered earlier and why the witches gasped with each splash.

On the upside, it became evident that Ashley was not a witch. Witches had problems with water, and Ashley did not, ergo, she could not be a witch.

Oh lord, she was lawyer-talking to herself.

Using the surge in adrenaline, Ashley, who had emptied many a tub over the years, pulled off her bloomers, and using them as makeshift oven mitts, she pushed with all her might. Sparks from the fire popped and nipped at her legs, filling the air with the smell of burnt hair. (Contrary to popular belief, even princesses have to shave. And Ashley couldn't remember the last time she had access to a razor.) She grunted, and one corner of the cauldron lifted for a second.

"Let me help," Derek said, dripping sulfurous water on to Ashley. The cold liquid soothed her skin.

"Me too," Layyin said.

"And I," Sadira piped up.

All three of her royal pals crawled toward her. She winced as they barely evaded a rainbow of spells. "I thought I told you to stay put," Ashley said.

"Sorry," Derek said, "we don't speak body language. And you needed our help." Her friends used the wet fabric of their clothes to get a purchase on the cauldron. "All together now. One, two, heave!"

They pushed with all their might, like a trio of wronged spouses blasted with sparkly bolts of magic. Slowly the kettle lifted, and then, when gravity decided to click in, it toppled, and water rushed over the stones toward the veiled witches. The royals rushed for cover behind Layyin's cauldron.

"Nooooo!" the witches screamed.

"Keep blasting them," the High Priestess hissed. "It's only water for goddess's sake."

"It'll melt us!" one of the witches cried.

"Technically, the term is 'dissolve,' not' melt,'" Derek shouted.

"It's an old crone's tale, you zounderkites!"* the High Priestess said, flinging spell after spell in their direction. "Given your level of stupidity, had you been that easy to kill, I'd have done it ages ago."

But her "assurances" did no good. The witches opened the heavy wooden door and scrambled out. Even Tina, the owl, departed. The last witch out slammed the door closed.

"You're a bunch of wusses! I can't believe you, Tina! You have a perch!" the High Priestess snarled. "Come out from behind there, you four. My spells don't curve."

"You want us to make it easier for you?" Layyin said.

"That'd be nice."

Sadira shook her head in disbelief. "Well, we don't plan to. Now it's four against one. How about a truce?"

"I hate to lose a perfectly good cauldron, but if I must." Ashley peeked over the rim in time to see the High Priestess send a streak of red glittery power straight at them. It exploded against the cauldron, and like Ashley's dress, it disappeared. The royals scuttled to another cauldron.

"We have to get past her," Ashley whispered.

"But how? She has MAGIC. And it's glittery and tends to cause the sudden evaporation of physical matter," Layyin said.

Ashley nodded. Although her stomach had relocated to somewhere near her throat and she had third-degree burns on her hands and legs, she had the presence of mind to know that now she had to focus on solutions and later she would have time for ointments and whining. She barely dodged a ball of blue light as she slid in beside the others hiding behind another cauldron.

The magic balls seemed to be slowing down, but a slow sword can kill you as permanently as a fast one.

After repeated hits, the cauldron they hid behind disappeared. They rushed to the last cauldron.

"We're running out of cauldrons," Derek pointed out.

Ashley pursed her lips and shook her head at this obvious, non-helpful comment. Think, think, think. A volley of spells streaked past, just over their heads.

"Wait," Ashley said. "Don't you think it's weird that not a single spell has hit us? And that all the cauldrons haven't been disintegrated?"

"I hadn't thought about it," Derek said. "Been too busy trying not to be disintegrated."

The princesses nodded in agreement.

"Either the High Priestess of the Cloistered Witches of the Cloister needs to go back to witch school and learn better aim, or she isn't trying to kill us. She just wants us to cooperate. In which case, we probably don't have to worry about being zapped into dust."

"I have a problem with that plan?" Derek said.

"Which is?"

"The word 'probably.' And there's another problem."

"What?"

"Maybe she doesn't wish to get rid of you, but I don't think she gives a rat's arse about the rest of us." He pointed with his thumb to the metal hooks from which the royals had hung only a few minutes ago.

"You do have a point," Ashley said as the last cauldron disappeared in an explosion of sparkly green magic. "Follow my lead," she hissed to the others. "Stay behind me."

Ashley stood and spread her arms wide in the universal sign of surrender. "I guess you won."

Breathing hard, the High Priestess lowered her conjuring hands, stretching her fingers. "At last," she said. "The old zappers ain't what they were a couple of centuries ago. Now, if you'll kindly step aside so I can take care of your friends."

"Sorry, but I can't allow you to 'take care' of them. I'm pretty fond of them. Even Prince Derek."

"Hey," Derek muttered from behind her.

The High Priestess raised her hands once again.

"Now!" Ashley cried, heart slamming against her rib cage. She ran at the High Priestess; the others close behind. And before the witch could get off a single magical blast, she lay on the sulfury-wet floor, each limb pinned down by a royal.

"Now, what do we do with her?" Sadira said.

"Remove her veil."

"You don't want to do that," the High Priestess warned.

"Why not?"

"Because you'll turn to stone if you look upon my face."

"I'll risk it," Ashley said, tearing the veil away. Instead of an old crone with snakes for hair that Ashley had anticipated, the High Priestess's face was beautiful in a pale, black-shadows-under-the-eyes, spidery long eyelashes sort of way. "Guess we're not stone."

"It was worth a try," the witch said.

"Tie her wrists behind her with the veil so she can't aim any more spells at us."

They sat her up, Sadira and Layyin each holding a shoulder while Derek wrapped the witch's wrists with her veil.

"Let's lean her against the wall," Ashley said.

"Why?" Derek said.

"So her back doesn't ache if she's here a while before anyone finds her."

"I don't see why we should care about her comfort. She tried to drown us, remember?" Derek said.

The High Priestess furrowed her pale forehead. "What kind of a witch do you think I am?"

"The kind that kills for sport. Obviously," Derek said.

"I would never have killed you. Do you know what a bother a killing spell is? The paperwork alone is a nightmare. And not the good kind."

"So, you're the kind of witch who doesn't kill, but only because it's too much work?"

"Something like that," she said, coughing. They managed to drag the witch to a wall and prop her up.

"Someone will find you soon," Ashley said.

"You have your mother's eyes," the High Priestess whispered.

A lump formed in Ashley's throat. "You knew my mother?"

The sound of something crashing emanated from the room above, followed by a scream and chaotic footfalls. "Sorry, Ashley, but we better go," Sadira said. "What's going on? Maybe the other witches are returning."

"But I need to know about my mother," Ashley said.

More screams.

"Ash," Derek said gently.

"All right. But I will come back, High Priestess, and you will tell me about my mother," Ashley said.

"Well, that, my dear, will depend on whether or not you survive the prophecy," she rasped.

Ashley's stomach roiled. The stupid prophecy. "I told you. I made that up."

"Nevertheless," the witch said.

Derek yanked Ashley's arm.

"Come on!" Layyin said.

They opened the door and peeked out. No witches in sight. They ran.

👑👑👑

Halfway down the third freezing, drippy stone hallway, Ashley remembered something important about the fortress. "Guys!" she said, huffing and puffing. "There's a problem."

Pounding footsteps echoed through the hallway, getting closer. "We hear them," Sadira agreed. "But we can't slow down."

"It's not the people chasing us," Ashley said. "How do we get out of this place? There aren't any windows or doors to the outside."

"Now you bring this up?" Derek said.

A doorway loomed ahead. "In here," Ashley said. They made their way inside a large empty hall, perhaps an unused ballroom. Cobwebs adorned every nook and stone. They closed the door and latched it. "That should hold them." The room smelled of dust and neglect. Like the air that inhabited this place hadn't moved in centuries.

"They're witches," Layyin said. "Does anything hold them?"

"Good point. Run!" Ashley said.

"Where?" Sadira said.

"Over there!" Ashley said, pointing to an enormous fireplace across the room.

"I'm not going inside that," Derek said. "It's filthy."

"We're not going to stay in the fireplace long," Ashley said.

"That's good."

"We're going to have to climb up the chimney."

"What? That is insane. Are you familiar with the statistics on annual chimney deaths?" Derek said.

"Santa does it every year," Layyin said. Everyone turned to look at her. "What? He does."

"Look, I've cleaned the chimneys at my Stepmonster's house for years. It's a matter of the proper sequence of elbows, back, and knees. And this one doesn't look like it's been used for a long time. Probably won't be too much soot. Cobwebs though, they'll be everywhere. Do what I do. Layyin, Sadira, I suggest you remove your skirts."

Bang, bang, bang, came frenzied blows against the door.

Sadira turned to Ashley. "Ash, why don't they just zap their way inside?"

"Just because evidently, my mom was a witch, doesn't suddenly make me an expert."

A squeal from an upper floor reverberated down the chimney. It wasn't a sound of anguish but rather the sound of passion.

"If the chimney hasn't been used in centuries, maybe it's unsafe," Derek said.

"Give me another plan," Ashley said.

"How about you get those witchy powers the High Priestess mentioned, and zap us outta here?"

"If I could do that, don't you think I would've already? I'm not a zappy witch. I'm a 'talk to animals' kind of witch. There's a difference."

"Now you're an expert?"

"Up!" Ashley commanded.

Derek pushed the ladies aside. "I'm going first," he said with sudden chivalry.

"But you don't know how," Ashley pointed out.

"I'll figure it out."

He began climbing, followed by Layyin and Sadira. Ashley brought up the rear. When she was ten feet up, it sounded like the door in the abandoned ballroom had fallen off its hinges and slammed against the stone floor. The chimney shook. "Hurry," Ashley hissed.

"What was that?" Sadira said.

"They're in the room. Go!"

They shimmied up the chimney. Broken stones, twists, and turns gave them an occasional foothold and place for momentary rest. Cobwebs accumulated in Ashley's hair, dust rained onto her clothes and in her eyes. She blinked hard, trying to remove the grit, only succeeding in blurring her vision with tears.

In the areas where the stones had broken off, Ashley got a fuzzy glimpse into the witches' rooms. Some held stores of potions and ingredients. One had a menagerie of caged rats, snakes, and lizards. While Ashley contemplated how to free them, Derek cried from above: "watch out!" She looked up. A fist-sized chunk of rock ricocheted off the sides of the chimney as it fell.

Layyin and Sadira barely managed to twist out of the way in time. Ashley wasn't fast enough. It hit her shoulder before tumbling the rest of the way and hitting the bottom with a bang. Her shoulder exploded in pain. Beads of sweat formed on her face as she fought gravity. "The chimney is attacking me!"

"You okay, hon?" Sadira said.

"I'm fine," she said, gritting her teeth. She needed the others to concentrate. Not worry about her. "Keep going."

"Stupid troll masonry. Who hires trolls for anything other than the mindless clobbering of your enemies? You could've been killed," Derek ranted. "Never trust a troll to build your fortress. It's Construction 101, people!"

Derek's rant calmed Ashley. One of the best things a friend can do for you is to complain on your behalf. It's like they've taken on the frustration, so you don't have to.

A slash of blue sky peeked out of the chimney top, only about thirty more feet to climb. Derek let out a gasp.

"What is it?" Layyin said.

"Nothing," Derek snapped. "Whatever you do, don't look through that crack."

"Why?" Sadira said, panting from the effort.

"Trust me," he said, continuing his climb.

Neither Sadira nor Layyin looked. But of course, Ashley did. She would've lost her breakfast if she'd had any. It felt as if her eyes bled, but they were only hot tears falling against her cheeks.

Finally, they made it out and stood on the roof, the cold wind blowing snowflakes through their hair. Derek whistled for the unicorns.

Ashley sat on the icy roof, drawing her legs to her chest, trying to get warm. "It was all for nothing," she moaned.

"What was for nothing?" Sadira said.

Derek shook his head.

"Nothing," Ashley lied.

"Tell us. What was in that room?"