Chapter 6.
Note: This is happening while Aladdin, Jasmine, Eric and Ariel are still on their way to Paris.
In a castle, three princesses, three princes, and four fairies had just sat down to tea. Aurora, a graceful blonde girl in a light purple dress, had invited her friends Snow White and Cinderella to her castle to discuss the attempt on Snow White's life.
"It was awful!" Snow White began. "One minute I'm in the throne room minding my own business, the next that horrible man is trying to kill me! If it hadn't been for Friedrich I don't know what I would have done."
"You were doing all right with that hawk for a while, though," said Friedrich.
"What hawk?" asked Prince Phillip. "What species was it?" He was an avid falconer and kept several birds.
"I think it was a red-tailed hawk," said Snow White. "Anyway, it was outside the window, and I called it, and it knocked a dagger out of Jafar's hand."
"Did you say his name was Jafar?" asked Flora. She was the leader of the fairies, though the other fairies would never admit it.
"Yes. He said he was Sultan Jafar the Magnificent. I think he must be trying to get something from my stepmother, or he wouldn't have helped her. But what would Lorellia have that such a powerful sorcerer couldn't take for himself?"
"Lorellia is one of the Seven Cities. Legend has it that the Seven Cities have Gates of such power that anyone who held all seven would control the world. We always thought nobody would be mad enough to try. The ritual to control just one Gate is so difficult that only the greatest wizards can try it. Even the queen was not powerful enough to control hers without the help of the demon bound to her magic mirror. She was lucky to have done all her protective spells properly, or that demon would have killed her when she freed it for the Gate ritual. There have been some indications Jafar has been looking for the other ones. The Green Enchantress says he threatened her bookseller in Lecroix."
"I have noticed something odd in Sennotte. Cinderella, were your stepmother and stepsisters in the habit of traveling to Paris?" asked Cinderella's fairy godmother.
"Not when I lived with them, Godmother. Are they traveling to Paris now?"
"First Lady Tremaine, and then Drizella. Anastasia seems to have moved out, and works at a town bakery now."
"There's not much good news out of Paris these days," said Phillip. "They say even ordinary Parisians live in fear of Judge Frollo now. He was insulted by a gypsy girl at a festival and now he is tearing up the city looking for her."
"What do troubles in Paris have to do with us?" asked Aurora.
"Why, Aurora! I thought you cared about everybody's problems!" said Snow White.
"Sorry, that's me," said Cinderella.
"Every princess ought to," said Flora. "Sooner than you think, you and Phillip will be ruling your kingdom."
"And even if you're not ruling, you don't have to stand by and do nothing," said Cinderella. "I already increased the pay of our palace servants and made it clear to my court that mistreating them was not allowed, and Charming and I have begun overseeing the construction of a new hospital in Sennotte."
"But you're caring for the people in your kingdom. Even if we want to help the people in Paris, how can we? On one hand, we cannot leave our kingdoms, but on the other, if we sent money or goods for assistance, how do we know they would not be intercepted and used by Frollo?"
"I think we can leave our kingdoms," said Cinderella. "I know the king and the grand duke have the affairs of Sennotte under control. As for you, Aurora, Stefan and Hubert are still more than capable of running your kingdom." The kingdoms of Stefan and Hubert had merged upon Aurora and Phillip's marriage into one kingdom, with the capital in Stefan's city of Homburg.
"What about Friedrich?" asked Snow White. "His father is too ill for him to leave."
"I would hate for my father to die while I was away, but we do have a Prime Minister. He would keep the kingdom from going completely to ruins."
"Our magic cannot revive the dead, or cure your father completely," said Flora, "but we will try our best to keep him alive until you return."
"Thank you, Flora," said Friedrich. "I have always wanted to see Paris."
"As have I," said Cinderella. "My father brought me back a little trinket box from the city once. Neither of Lady Tremaine's daughters wanted it, thank goodness."
"I could be even safer in Paris than I am here," said Snow White. "Jafar knows where our palace is now. He may have even told the queen. I am sure they will be sending someone else after me any day now, and I do not intend to be here when they do."
"It may not be safe in Paris, either," said Phillip, "with what I've heard about Judge Frollo."
"I am willing to take that chance," said Snow White.
"But where will we stay in Paris?" asked Aurora. "The king and his court are not in that city this time of year."
"We don't have to stay at court. I am sure there is some kind of lodging house."
"Many. Have you heard of Princess Belle of Lecroix?"
"The inventor's daughter?" asked Aurora.
"Yes, her. She and her husband Adam are in Paris right now. They will be sure to help you, and the inn where they are staying is called the Golden Goose."
"Ask for the advice of a peasant?" asked a blandly handsome young prince (though that could have been any of them) with dark brown hair. This was Cinderella's husband, Prince Charming, though some still knew him by his birth name Michael.
"Charming, she's as much of a princess as you are a prince, even if her father was an inventor. And I would think someone who married a servant girl would have more sense," said Flora.
"It was different," said Charming. "Cindy is from a noble family, even if another noble family had sorely mistreated her."
"Soon you will learn that the circumstances of someone's birth often matter little. Judge Frollo is from a noble family, and he is cruel and hateful, while the deformed orphan boy he keeps locked in the bell tower is hopeful and has a good heart."
"I hope he will be able to escape from Frollo soon," said Cinderella.
"Will our fairies help us get to Paris?"
"I don't think that's such a good idea," said Phillip. "Frollo and his guards will surely be on the lookout for anything unusual, and the six of us appearing out of nowhere qualifies as very unusual indeed. We will ride, or use a carriage."
"We must get a carriage," said Aurora. "I am not a very good rider." Truth be told, none of the princesses were; they had all been raised as peasants, so had not had a horse. Snow White's ability to talk to animals made her the best rider of the three, especially on her faithful mare Cinnamon, but there were still many aspects of riding skill she was untrained at.
"Then I will ride," said Phillip.
"You are well named, Prince Phillip," said Flora. "Did you know your name comes from the ancient Greek for one who loves horses?"
"Sorry, I studied Latin," said Phillip.
"I will ride as well," said Snow White. "I am not an excellent rider, but I can manage, and more importantly, my horse is my friend. I would hate to leave her behind."
"Your horse is a horse," said Charming, who seemed to have a hard time living up to his name. "How can it be your friend?"
"I can talk to animals," said Snow White. "Horses don't always have a lot to say—they aren't nearly as talkative as birds—but they are friendly creatures."
"Well, I don't think there will be many animals to talk to in Paris besides rats."
"Rats are quite intelligent. They aren't always friendly, but if you get them to like you, you can have a good conversation. They notice almost everything, though they can't always put the same meaning on it as a human. We could ask them for information."
"And I thought we had it bad asking a peasant."
"Charming—or should I say 'Prince Michael of Sennotte'—I have had quite enough. Your dismissing perfectly valid sources of help will cause us no end of trouble in Paris, and if you can't realize that, you aren't going."
"Why, Cindy! I've never seen you put your foot down that way! I'm surprised you never stood up to Lady Tremaine now!"
"If you lived in her house, it would not surprise you. It is one thing to tell someone you love and who loves you that he's being a bit silly, and quite another to defy Lady Tremaine."
"I'm not quite sure rats are valid sources of help either, Cindy. We'll stick to asking Belle," said Aurora.
"Maybe her father has some invention that can help us," said Cinderella.
"I heard he was an eccentric who built junk that either didn't work at all, or took more time and effort to run than doing the chore without the invention would," said Phillip.
"He was nearly imprisoned in a madhouse," said Flora, "but he is sane. He is just unusual. Not all odd people are mad. Locking Maurice up was just the cruel plan of a village man who was intent on marrying Belle."
"Nobody who truly loved her would do that to her father," said Aurora.
"And she realized that. She realized long before she even met Prince Adam that the hunter Gaston loved only himself, and wanted her as a trophy to show off rather than for who she truly was. I hope you find her; she is knowledgeable and courageous as well as beautiful and kind-hearted. I believe she may help solve Paris's problems. All of you will."
The servant Aurora had sent to get the carriage ready returned to the throne room. He shrugged apologetically and said, "I am sorry, your Highness, but the wheel is broken, and the cartwright is home ill."
"That's all right," said Cinderella. "I'll take a look at it."
"What kind of work is cart repair for a princess?" asked Aurora.
"I don't know, but whenever anything broke at home, Lady Tremaine always made me fix it. She never wanted to hire a cartwright or a house repairer. All the money she could spare went to her daughters."
Cinderella followed the servant to the cart house and looked at Aurora's carriage. The wheel was broken, but the axle wasn't, and there were spare wheels in the cart house. After prying the broken wheel off the carriage, Cinderella grabbed one of the spare wheels and nailed it in place.
"That should get us to Paris," she said, and returned with the servant to report the carriage's repair.
"Couldn't one of the princes have done that?" asked Aurora.
"I had servants to fix carts for me," said Friedrich.
"I had servants to fix carts for my servants," said Charming.
"Show-off," muttered Snow White.
"I am sure we'll have many obstacles on our journey," said Phillip, "and since all of us have different skills, we'll have to set tasks to whoever will be best at them."
The journey from Homburg to Paris would take a few days, so at nightfall the traveling princes and princesses stopped to make camp. Phillip gathered some firewood and built a roaring fire, then carried a large soup pot over to it. Snow White began making a vegetable stew while the others discussed their trip.
"I have not done much fighting," said Friedrich. "I hope we will not have to fight in Paris."
"I could teach you some simple swordfighting moves, though I doubt those will be much use against a sorcerer," said Phillip. "I heard of this sorcerer in one of the neighboring kingdoms who would turn knights' swords into deadly adders or, if he was in a more playful but no less wicked mood, cucumbers or fish."
"And I heard about a sorcerer who would increase the temperature inside knights' helmets so high their brains boiled," said Prince Michael.
"Didn't you kill a sorceress?" Friedrich asked Phillip.
"Maleficent was not a sorceress. She was a demon, and I would not have been able to kill her without the good fairies' help. I truly hope we will not have to fight Jafar in Paris."
They finished their stew and went into their tents. Few of them could sleep, thanks to their anticipation of arriving in Paris.