The Stepsister Scheme

soared past the top of the wall. She circled over the palace, climbing higher and higher until the people below were little more than specks.
    Danielle gasped as the ocean came into view. Sunlight sparkled on the water. Frost tipped the waves nearest the cliffs while, farther out, the sea appeared as rippled blue glass.
    Talia groaned. “If we survive this, I’m taking a horse back from Fairytown.”
    That if stuck in Danielle’s mind long after the palace shrank from view.

    CHAPTER 6
    Danielle had never realized how large the kingdom of Lorindar truly was. She lay on her stomach, hands folded beneath her chin as she stared through the cracks of the basket at the land below. Though the initial launch had been terrifying, now she barely noticed the faint tremor when Karina flapped her wings, or the shifting of the basket as she curved this way and that, following the whims of the wind.
    Talia, on the other hand, sat with her knees to her chest, taking deep, slow breaths. Sweat dampened her skin.
    “Don’t worry,” said Danielle. “I’m sure we’ll be there soon.”
    Snow shook her head. “It’s a two-day ride on horse-back. But see down there, where the King’s Road splits off to the east? That heads to the Coastal Highway, and it means we’re making much better time. We should reach Fairytown later today.”
    “Fairytown,” Talia muttered. “What a stupid name.”
    “That’s not the true name,” Snow said. “The fairies’ name means something like ‘Home away from home, trapped between two big rocks and surrounded by tasty mushrooms that make you feel like you’re turning into a puddle.’ But ‘Fairytown’ is shorter.”
    Talia caught a tuft of down that had slipped into the basket. She used both hands to shove the feather through one of the cracks, then brushed her palms on her trousers. “I’m never going to get the smell of bird out of my clothes.”
    Danielle rolled onto her side. “What did they do to you, Talia?”
    “Who?”
    “The fairies.” She had wanted to ask since they left the palace, but it had taken until now to work up the courage. “I’ve heard the tales, but there has to be more to it. You’re the one who told me stories don’t tell the whole truth.”
    “I don’t like to talk about it,” Talia said.
    “I understand. But we’re going to be in Fairytown. From what Trittibar said, we might be the only humans for miles. I thought—”
    “I’m not going to go into a berserker rage and start ripping the wings from pixies or tossing dwarves into the chasm, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Talia grabbed a skin of water and took several deep swallows. “Don’t trust them. That’s all you need to know.”
    “Trittibar helped us,” Danielle said. “Most of the fairies in your story tried to help you. Even after you were cursed, the last fairy did her best to protect you. Or is that not how it really happened?”
    Snow had been deliberately moving away from them, digging through a bundle Trittibar had thrown in at the last moment. She pulled out an irregular ball the size of her head. The skin was clear on one side, white on the other, and filled with a thick red fluid. Snow pulled her knife and poked a hole in the skin. “Pomegranate seed,” she said, sucking out the juice. She wiped her chin on the back of her wrist. “You should tell her, Talia.”
    “You should stay out of this.”
    Snow reached over to put a juice-stained hand on Talia’s arm. “‘Knowledge ranks first among all weapons. ’ King Phillipe the Second said that. The more Danielle knows, the better prepared she’ll be.”
    “Phillipe. Isn’t he the one who took a cloth yard arrow to the throat?” Talia pulled away from Snow’s touch. “Knowledge might make a good weapon, but it’s lousy armor.”
    “I don’t mean to upset you,” Danielle said.
    “Of course not. Everyone always has the best of intentions.” Talia snorted and tucked a few sweaty strands of hair behind her ear. “Sure, the fairies gave me their ‘gifts.’ Some of them take great pleasure in ‘improving’ us lowly humans. They gave me grace, beauty, the voice of an angel... everything a princess needs to satisfy her future husband.”
    She reached into her bag and pulled out the spindle-shaped zaraq whip she had taken from the palace. “Then there was the curse, that I would die by my sixteenth birthday.”
    “But you didn’t,” Danielle said. “The last fairy saved you. You can’t judge