AN~ This chapter is SCANDALOUSLY short, and I'm sorry, but it's been quite a week, and I wanted to get this up by Friday for you. Also cliffhanger. I may not update as often anymore, 'cause I just found out my dad has cancer, and my mom's going to need me to help out around the house more. So this will NOT be finished by the time book 9 comes out.
The Winner of Last Question of the Day: Velika Silvertongue, come up and claim your prize!
New Question of the Day: You have 1000 dollars and ONE DAY to get rid of it all or else. What do you do?
Dat Girl: That's a more honorable thing than most I've gotten, but because you didn't respond to the chapter at all, just the QotD, you're ineligible to win, sorry.
HUNGERGAMESFAN101: Do you have an account? 'Cause that's over 40 chapters worth of explanations, which I don't want to explode an author's note with. How about specific questions? I can do that. But that's a LOT to summarize, especially without PMs.
QN: Well, not with swords, because they both have their swords missing as of the Puck betrayal arc (that's important. Remember that), but with magic and big sticks. It irritates me, too, because that's not the type of girl Sabrina would be. No getting arrested for you? Nothing's worth it?
silverwombat: What do you mean, didn't get it was serious? Also, Sabrina putting her hair up? What?
PenguinLoverGurl: Good. I, too, would hate it if I killed off Puck. You're assuming that Blackjack has money, though. I don't think pegasi get paid...
Velika Silvertongue: IRL means 'in real life'. ...Are you on drugs? Where do you come up with these QotD answers?
"I want to get my sword back." Puck told Sabrina.
Sabrina, who was weeding a flower bed by the side of the house, looked up at Puck, brushing a piece of hair out of her eyes and ignoring the shadow of it that stayed behind. "I just got ungrounded." She reminded him, and went back to weeding. "I don't need to get grounded again."
"You don't need to, if you just rewind time or whatever." Puck pointed out.
"And what if that quits, too?" Sabrina snapped, throwing a thistle at him. "I don't want us stranded in the middle of who knows where without that to help. Besides, we don't even know where they are."
"I've thought it all out." Puck said. "It won't just be us, it'll be a whole bunch of the kids, and we'll go in, do some recon stuff, get our swords, and get out."
"This is a bad idea." Sabrina said.
"We need those back." Puck pointed out. "Besides, don't you want to prove you can fight? The only way your parents and the Old Lady will let you is if you go out and do something that proves you can."
Sabrina glared at him, sitting on the grass next to her weed pile. "No."
"Aw, come on, Grimm!" Puck complained. "Stop being mature here! Do something fun! You're getting boring and grown up!"
"Not falling for it." Sabrina reminded him.
Puck glared at her. "Well, if you won't go, I'll just go anyway. I need that thing back."
"This is not about getting a sword back." Sabrina accused.
"Yes it is!" Puck protested.
"No it's not." Sabrina responded. "You're as edgy as I am. You want some action. You're looking for a fight. And you know you're going to be stuck here the whole summer, so you've decided to drag me out to do some heroics. The swords are just an excuse."
"Of course not!" Puck snapped. "I miss having a real sword! The wooden one doesn't quite cut it anymore."
Then he paused, thinking about what he'd just said, and snickered. "That was good. I have reuse that later."
Sabrina rolled her eyes and said, "You're an idiot."
"So will you come?" Puck asked.
"You're talking like this is a trip to the beach or a birthday party or something!" Sabrina protested. "This is dangerous, and even if it wasn't, it would get us in trouble so deep we'd be grounded 'til I was thirty."
"They can't ground me." Puck said.
"No, you can just go back and live with your mom." Sabrina agreed. "Then she can ground you."
"Or I could run off again and live on my own." Puck said. "I'm perfectly capable of that."
"Yeah, you're good at leaving the people who care about you with no contact for ages." Sabrina agreed again.
"Hey!" Puck protested. "That was only... umm... five times? Maybe?"
"Five times?" Sabrina asked incredulously.
"I think." Puck said. "The first time I was really young, so I don't really remember if it was once or twice, and then there was the one ten years ago, and then right after the Midsummer incident I ran off for a while. It was just too embarrassing."
"Wow." Sabrina shook her head.
"So... you're coming, yes?" Puck said, bringing the subject back around to his topic of choice.
"No." Sabrina said. "I have too much to do around here."
"What can be more important than an adventure?" Puck asked, gesturing grandly.
"Yeah, except I don't actually like adventures all that much." Sabrina reminded him. "They're dangerous, and your opinion of what makes them more fun is my opinion of the danger scale going through the roof."
Puck made a face. "You're no fun."
"I'm sorry, but a sword isn't important enough for me to risk that much!" Sabrina explained. "And that's final."
"What if I told you Daphne had already said she was going with me?" Puck asked shrewdly.
"I'd say you were lying." Sabrina said. "And that I have to go back to weeding."
"Why would I like about that?" Puck said. "She wants an adventure."
Sabrina raised her eyebrows. "If Daphne goes, I'll come, too. But only if you prove it."
"Oh, don't worry, she'll be there." Puck said, already heading back inside.
"Marshmallow, I need your help." Puck said.
"What is it?" Daphne looked up from the paint-by-numbers she was doing with Red.
"I... kind of possibly told Sabrina that you'd be going with me to get our swords back..." Puck suggested. "And she said she wouldn't go unless you actually were."
"Why?" Daphne asked. "Why, Puck? Why? It's a sword! Not that big a deal!"
"Come on, Daphne." Puck complained. "It'll be just the three of us. Like old times!"
"I don't think so." Daphne said. "That seems like a bad idea when you can get another sword out of the armory. Plus it'd be dangerous to go in a small group. Remember what Snow said about not going anywhere without a team?"
"Well, I'm going even if you don't go." Puck said. "And if you don't go, then Sabrina won't go, so I'll be alone."
"I'll tell Granny." Daphne said. "They you can't go."
"Oh, sure, tattle." Puck said. "That'll work. Like she can stop me."
"She can!" Daphne protested.
"You willing to bet on that?" Puck grinned at her, his smile growing as Daphne kept silent. "You have a choice, Marshmallow. You can come with me, or you can let me go alone."
Daphne sighed, blowing her cheeks out. "Now you know that's not fair."
"What's not?" Puck asked innocently.
"Now I have to go with you." Daphne complained.
"No you don't." Puck said. "I can go alone."
Daphne snorted. "No you can't."
"Well, he could..." Red said.
"But we're not going just the three of us." Daphne said. "We have to take Bella, in case one of us gets hurt, and someone who can fight."
"We can fight!" Puck said.
"Yeah, but you'll be busy finding your swords." Daphne pointed out. "We're taking at least two more people, and that's final."
"Fine." Puck made a face.
In the end, it was fourteen of them who went. Puck hadn't wanted it to be that many, but one thing led to another, and more people just had to be invited.
So they met at 11:15 behind the house and headed out, walking because most of them couldn't fly.
"This is going to take forever." Sabrina muttered. "We wandered around in these woods for days trying to find our way home."
"We know which way we're going now, though." Annie, who had tagged along because Bella insisted on bringing Marcus, said.
"It's still, like, ten miles." Sabrina said. "I don't want to walk all of that. But less than half of us can fly."
"We could fly and carry each other." Peaseblossom suggested. She hadn't been invited, but had overheard the trip being discussed, and refused to let her brothers go alone.
"Actually, that sounds like a great idea." Art said. "Daphne, c'mere, I'll carry you."
"I hope you know you're carrying more than one person." Bella said. "You're the strongest of the bunch, even with your chest muscles like that."
"I know. But I'm carrying Daphne." Art responded nonchalantly.
Sabrina ended up carrying Wendell, and decided that it wasn't actually much easier to fly, because they had to stay below the tree line so they wouldn't be seen, and it was hard to fly between branches with wings her size. But it was still faster than walking, so she didn't complain.
When they got within sight of the castle, Bella and Daphne both transformed into animals- Bella her token frog, and Daphne a bat- to search for sentries and take them out of commission, while the others waited in tense silence.
Bella returned a few minutes later, walking normally, and said, "Coast clear."
They followed her into the castle yard cautiously, on alert for any sign of life. Sabrina found herself at a disadvantage here, because she could see the ghosts of everyone who had ever walked across the pathways. They reached the door and Daphne after a few silent minutes.
"It's locked." She whispered.
"No problemo." Jonas whispered back, pulling a series of thin metal rods out of his pocket and kneeling down by the door.
Another few minutes went by (Sabrina was counting, eyes closed against a headache), and the door opened with a click. The group hurried inside, and Jonas locked the door behind them.
Everyone turned to look at Puck, then, and after a second he asked, "What?"
"Where are we going now?" Peaseblossom asked. "You do have an idea, right?"
"Of course I do." Puck said, and when they looked at him skeptically, he said, "No, seriously, I know."
"Lead away, then." Mustardseed gestured.
Puck led them down to the dungeon in silence, holding his crumpled map in front of him. When they reached the cell that had held Sabrina, Mr. Clay, and Peter, he stopped.
"What are we doing here, then?" Marcus asked. "Is this where they're keeping the swords?"
"No." Puck said. "Sabrina, c'mere for a minute?"
"What?" Sabrina asked cautiously, stepping forward. She did not like this place.
"Can you see where Mab was?" Puck asked.
Sabrina squinted at the shadows, trying to pick out individual ones: there she was, escaping, so... a few days earler... "Yeah, I think so. Why?"
"Follow her." Puck said. "She's taking the swords someplace. We need you to see where she took them."
"I'm not sure I can..." Sabrina shrugged. "But I'll try..."
"Well, if you can't, we'll just be wandering around looking for them." Puck said. "You're the only-"
"Shut up so I can concentrate." Sabrina snapped.
Puck opened his mouth to reply, then closed it, grinning a bit. Sabrina led the group on, pausing every now and then to squint at something none of the rest of them could see, but eventually she stopped for good in front of a particularly ornate door. Puck had been tracing their route on the map, and he marked it off with a pencil.
"She goes in here with the swords and then comes out without them." Sabrina told the group. "I don't know what's in there, though."
"I've never been in there." Peaseblossom said. "But I know there's something important and rare inside. And probably horrible, too."
"I walked by this part of the palace once or twice, but never went in." Puck shrugged.
"Well, let's go in, then!" Art said.
"Maybe not so fast?" Daphne suggested. "Just in case?"
Jonas was already picking the lock, though. Daphne shook her head and watched. Jonas stood up a few seconds later, though, and said, "It's already unlocked."
"Weird..." Puck said. "Well, in we go, then."
Jonas opened the door and stepped inside, followed by the others.
Once they were all inside and had shut the door behind them, a light pulsed overhead once, and then they were ambushed.