Red Hood's Revenge

work!”
    Snow closed her eyes, using her mirrors to see the fire all around her. In theory, the ring should function the same as the one Trittibar had created earlier in the day. But Trittibar’s ring had brought them to the outer gates of the palace, unable to pierce the wards of the walls. This one was strong enough to tear through those same wards as though they weren’t even there.
    Magic was magic. This thing might be powerful, but at its heart, it obeyed the same rules. A fairy ring was nothing but a hole in reality. In this case, a particularly big and deep hole, but a hole nonetheless. Snow reached out, using the connection between her choker and her mirror back at the palace to slow their fall. The ring of flames wobbled like a spinning coin. Smoke began to fill the circle.
    “What did you do?” Talia shouted.
    “Tossed an anchor over the side.” Snow coughed and dropped low. “I don’t know where this thing is sending us, but I didn’t feel like going there.”
    Roudette raised her war hammer. “You can’t!”
    Talia crouched to strike, but Snow merely smiled and said, “Go ahead. Kill us all. I hope you enjoy spending the rest of your existence trapped in a hole to nowhere.”
    “Can you take us back to the palace?” Danielle asked.
    “We’re still traveling, just slower than before.” Snow gestured to the fire. “I’m not strong enough to pull us back. Even if I could, I don’t know what would happen if I brought us out too close to the original ring. It could create a loop, a portal that leads only to itself. It would be an interesting experiment, but I’d rather not try it with us inside.”
    An unfelt breeze carried a new scent into the circle. A sweet, organic smell, like resin and sand and dried grasses.
    “Then take us somewhere else in Lorindar,” Talia said. “Somewhere far enough from the palace—”
    “Anywhere in Lorindar would still be too close.” Snow wiped her eyes and squinted at the flames. Was it her imagination, or had the ring contracted?
    “So what do we do?” Danielle asked.
    Snow waved at Roudette. “How about we start by taking away her hammer? She won’t fight you now. Not unless she wants me to drop her through the ring.”
    Roudette gripped her hammer more tightly. “You’re lying. Your power isn’t—”
    “I wonder where you’ll end up,” Snow said. “A hundred leagues above the ocean? The middle of the icy northlands? Or maybe you’ll just fall into the fairy realm and be trapped there.”
    Roudette tossed her weapon onto the grass.
    “Very good.” Snow waited for Talia to retrieve the hammer. “Now tell me where this thing was supposed to take us.”
    “Arathea.” It was Talia who answered. “Charlotte was supposed to help you bring me to Queen Lakhim. Alive, if possible, so she could be the one to carry out my sentence.”
    Snow pursed her lips. “This could be a problem.”
    “What’s wrong?” asked Danielle.
    “I’ve never been to Arathea! I don’t know what the silly place looks like.” She crawled toward Talia. The circle was definitely shrinking, and the smoke was growing worse. Snow grabbed Talia’s hand. “Congratulations, you’ve just become my apprentice.”
    Talia tugged away. “What are you talking about?”
    “A fairy ring is a hole in our world. At one end is the fairy ring we fell through. At the other side is a second ring. Unless you want to show up on Lakhim’s doorstep, I have to shift that second ring, but the farther I push, the more likely I am to destroy the whole thing.” Snow tapped her choker. “Stare into the mirrors and think of Arathea. Help me find a safe place to bring us out. Quickly, if you don’t mind?”
    “You’re mad.”
    “We can argue about that later,” Snow said.
    Talia bit her lip and stared into Snow’s choker. Snow closed her eyes, looking through the mirrors. For a moment she saw only Talia, her face sweaty and full of uncertainty. Talia’s image vanished, and Snow saw instead a path of crushed red stone leading to a covered well, a small room with a crumpled sleeping mat and worn blanket, a copper pot full of steaming rice and meat.
    With the memories came fragments of emotion. Fear, mixed with budding trust. Love and regret. Grief so sharp it brought tears to Snow’s vision.
    “Got it,” Snow whispered. She grabbed a mirror from the side of her choker, keeping the memories in her own mind. The mirror slipped free in her hand. She reached out to take