Page 70 of The Broken Mirror
“Well, I’ll be off! Nice seeing you, then!” Robin shouts, and sprints away.
“You’re leaving me?!” Little Jeanne screams after him, but he doesn’t turn.
Jack gives chase, but Robin is an expert at sneaky exits and after a few minutes in the hills, Jack loses him. Meanwhile, Filomena keeps Little Jeanne pinned to the tree with her sword.
“He left me!” the princess wails.
“You traitor!” Filomena shouts. “You betrayed your own sister. How could you do this? How could you?!”
“I didn’t!” Little Jeanne is sobbing.
But Filomena is sobbing, too. Lowering her sword, she crawls over to pick up Ira Glassman, who’s smashed beyond recognition. She loved her talking mirror, she realizes. Ira helped her to feel safe. And now he’s broken, completely broken. Robin took away her power, her fairy power. Every fairy can animate only one mirror, and this was hers. She cradles the talking mirror in her arms. There’s no smoky face to be found in its smashed surface. Only shards.
Just then, Jack, breathing heavily and cursing, returns from his futile chase after Robin Hood. Little Jeanne is still slumped against the tree, quietly crying. Jack keeps his sword pointed at her so she doesn’t move. The three are silent for a few beats as they take in what just happened.
Then Filomena speaks. This time she’s not yelling; her voice is measured. “Little Jeanne, how could you?” she whispers.
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” she says. “It wasn’t supposed to go this far. I thought if I gave Richard the crown, he would leave my sister alone.” She slides down the tree trunk so that she’s sitting on the ground, too. She puts her head in her hands.
“Little Jeanne, I think you owe us an explanation,” Jack says sternly but not unkindly. His sword is still pointed in her direction.
She looks up, her face covered in tears. “You know Princess Jeanne and Robin Hood were friends when they were kids?” she starts. They nod.
“Well, I was always jealous of them. Jeanne always ditched me for Robin, so I was jealous of him, but I also loved Robin, so I was jealous of her. And how do you think it feels to live in the shadow of a princess for your whole life? And being referred to only as ‘Little Jeanne’? I don’t even have my own name! I’ve never been my own person. I’ve always just been a shadow of her.
“When Robin approached me for help, I didn’t reallyknow what we were doing. I just knew that, finally, it felt like he was choosing me over her, likeI’dget to be the main Jeanne. I could do something different from her. Then it started to get out of hand. I didn’t realize how serious it all was, and then it was too late.”
“What was your uncle and Robin Hood’s plan?”
“They wanted me to steal the crown. So I did. It was easy. My sister trusts me,” Little Jeanne tells them. “But it wouldn’t fit Uncle Richard’s head. The magic in it rejected him. I know about the legend of the crown so I wasn’t surprised but I guess Uncle Richard thought he could fool the crown. But he didn’t. So he thought he’d just take the kingdom by force, but the Northphalian people still need to see a ruler wear the ancient crown of the North.
“So they came up with a new plan: They would put the crown on my head, and Uncle Richard would rule as regent. I mean, they already call him king as it is. He figured one Jeanne is as good as another. But the crown didn’t fit me, either. It wouldn’t accept me. So I was useless. Then I hoped Robin would run away with me, but instead he left me here. I’m so, so stupid.”
Jack and Filomena look at each other, unsure of what to do. She feels awful for Little Jeanne and for the crimes she was willing to commit. Filomena looks at the shattered mirror in her lap. The damage is done.
But there are still kingdoms to save.
“Where is your sister’s crown now?” she asks.
Little Jeanne slowly reaches into her skirt pocket. “Here.” What she reveals is a crown of twigs and leaves—a simple thing, not at all golden or bejeweled. It’s a crown from the fairies and the spirits that protect Never After.
“Little Jeanne,” Filomena says in a burst of realization. “I remember now—I remember from the books. You have to get that crown on your sister’s head. The minute she’s crowned, King Richard’s army will turn to dust.”
CHAPTERTHIRTY-SIXMARY, MARY, QUITECONTRARY
At least the Northphalian kingdom is safe. Princess Jeanne will be crowned queen. After assessing that Little Jeanne was no longer a threat, they let her go. But for now, Filomena and Jack still have a mission to fulfill.
Not only is the castle waiting in Westphalia; a person waits, too. Jack and Filomena walked in silence away from that fateful hill, and now, as they approach, they see afigure—a woman—in the castle’s open doorway who stands calm as a still lake.
“Are you finding this unnerving at all?” Jack whispers as they near.
The truth is, the woman isn’t unnerving. There’s something instantly soothing about her to Filomena. Her shock of white hair, her flowing robes, the warm, welcoming aura of her presence. Filomena’s prized possession was just obliterated, and this person feels like a vibe shift.
“I think I like her already,” Filomena whispers back.
“Let’s withhold any judgments until we know who she is,” Jack responds.
Despite her intuition, Filomena knows he’s right. Queen Olga’s spies are everywhere.
