Page 44 of The Broken Mirror
Or are they? Internalizing this information, Filomena feels her brain go into hyper-planning mode. As long as Zera is alive, they can fix this… There’s a chance.
“Where is she? Did you find out who captured her?” she asks.
From behind his hands, Jack speaks. “Queen Christina.Zera is trapped in her castle. In the dungeon, probably.” He’s almost emotionless while saying this, which scares Filomena more than anything. He’s not crying, not angry. Just blank.
“Okay, well, as long as we know where she is, we can rescue her,” Filomena says. “Am I right?” The table is silent. “I said,” she says louder, standing up, “am I right?”
“Yeah!” they all cheer. All except Jack.
“Clearly we have to go get Zera,” Beatrice says, “but what do we do about the League of Seven situation?”
“We have news on that front, too, actually,” Gretel shares. “Turns out Rosie has seven brothers. Isn’t that right, Rosie?”
Rosie looks hesitant to speak. “I do, yeah. They were cursed by Queen Christina. She turned them into swans. That’s what we were working on today.”
“The Winter Witch told Rosie that she has to make her brothers shirts out of star flowers in order to reverse the curse!” Alistair tells them.
“You went to the Winter Witch?” Jack says, suddenly looking up from his hands. “That’s incredibly dangerous.”
“Trust me, I’ve been told,” Rosie replies. “But I had no choice. Anyway, these three think my brothers are the League of Seven.”
“That’s great!” Beatrice exclaims. “So first we reverse the curse on your brothers, then we rescue Zera.”
“Wow, I can’t wait to meet the League of Seven,” Alistair says dreamily.
Rosie just laughs nervously.
Jack still looks blank, but now it seems to Filomena that he looks a little angry, too. “I’m not so sure about this whole League of Seven thing,” he says.
“What do you mean, Jack?” Gretel asks.
“I just don’t like the idea that we have to wait around for these seven warriors to come save us.”
“I feel some relief, honestly,” Alistair says. “Knowing there are seven brave warriors out there takes some of the pressure off!”
“But we don’t even know who they are,” Jack says. “How are we supposed to trust them? How do we know they’re the ones to save us? Why can’t we just do this ourselves?”
Filomena tries to put her hand on Jack’s shoulder, but he shrugs her off.
“Jack,” she says, stern now, “you know why. The Prophecy says the League of Seven is the only way to save Never After. This is bigger than us; we have to find them. And so far it seems like Rosie’s seven brothers are our best bet. I think we should at leasttryto help Rosie break the curse. Then we can go with the League of Seven to rescue Zera.”
“Fine.”
Everyone quiets. It seems there’s not much to say, but a foul mood has certainly descended after finding out about Zera’s capture. Jack walks over to the couch and sits down, staring into the fire.
“Why don’t Byron, Rosie, and I make dinner?” Beatrice offers. “You four go unwind.”
On the couches, it’s quiet. Alistair breaks the silence, as usual.“Jack, you never told us who told you the news about Zera.”
Jack grumbles something Filomena can’t understand.
“What’s that?” Alistair says.
“Isaidit was Sadie. We went by her ranch. She’s always been a friend of Zera’s. I figured she might be keeping tabs on Zera while she’s in Snow Country,” Jack answers, his arms crossed.
“Sadie?TheSadie?” Alistair asks with eyes wide and eyebrows raised.
“Yes, Alistair,theSadie. Whatever that means.”
