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“Should I do it now?” Daphne asked.
“Yes. When I turned it on the Black Knight, I concentrated on having the power affect him only. I think the wind will do what you ask it to,” Sabrina encouraged her sister.
Daphne raised the kazoo to her lips and blew. The wind blasted out of it, upending the dolls, tea set, and anything else that wasn’t nailed down. The people, however, seemed unfazed, except for their hair flying around.
Red Riding Hood glanced around her and started to laugh. “Bad weather!” she shrieked. “Very bad weather.”
The wind swirled around her like a snake. It crept around every limb, embraced her tightly, and then pulled back. Red cried out in pain as the group watched something horrible and black seep out of her. To call it a person would be wrong. It was more like an animal, with fangs and with eyes like bottomless pits. To Sabrina, it looked like some horribly mutated worm seeking revenge on a fisherman. It whipped around in midair, desperate to reach Red Riding Hood, but the wind kept it at bay. It shrieked angrily.
“Now, Sabrina!” Gra
Sabrina opened the glass jar and reached out to the creature. It thrashed about as Daphne forced it into the jar. Once it was inside, Sabrina quickly tightened the lid and the wind vanished. She watched her sister look at the little kazoo and slip it back into her pocket. Then she turned to Red Riding Hood. The strange girl had collapsed to the ground and lay still.
“She’s hurt,” Robin Hood said, as he rushed to her side, but his concerns proved to be unwarranted. Red opened her eyes slowly and looked up into the face of Gra
“Grandmother?” she asked.
Sabrina’s heart sank. She had been wrong. She believed they could really heal the girl, and that she in turn could save Mr. Canis, but Red was just as crazy as before. The weapon had not done what she had hoped it would.
The door to the room flew open and slammed against the wall. Sabrina looked up and saw Bluebeard and Nottingham barging into the room, along with half a dozen card soldiers armed with swords.
“Sorry, Grimms!” Nottingham said. “We have to take our witness to the trial.”
One of the card soldiers dragged Red to her feet and pulled her from the room.
“I do hope you had enough time to question her,” Bluebeard said. “Though I suspect you didn’t get too many straight answers out of her.”
Nottingham and Bluebeard roared with laughter as they left the room.
“See you in court,” Bluebeard cried back over his shoulder. “The trial starts in fifteen minutes.”
The family rushed to the courthouse and pushed their way through the crowd at the entrance. There were no seats left and they were forced to stand in the back of the room.
Mayor Heart made her way over to the family. She had a wicked grin on her face. Her crooked yellow teeth made Sabrina’s stomach turn more than her mean-spirited comments. “Looks like today’s the day we wrap this all up, Grimms. I suspect your Wolf will meet the nooseman by this time tomorrow.”
Gra
Judge Hatter entered the courtroom and made his way to the front where his desk once stood. Since he had smashed it with a sledgehammer the day before, it had been replaced with a stack of milk crates. He didn’t seem to notice. The Four of Spades called for order and a
“Let’s get started,” Judge Hatter said. “We can’t exactly get ended can we? No, I suppose we can’t. Can we? Or is it, may we? We may. No, we may not. Mr. Bluebeard, do you have a new witness?”
Bluebeard stood up from his desk and surveyed the crowd. He had a smug look on his face and he beamed at everyone, including Sabrina and her family. “Indeed I do. In fact, she’s our last witness. I call Little Red Riding Hood to the stand.”
The crowd fell silent as if their words were forcefully stuffed back into their mouths. The double doors in the back opened and a card soldier escorted Red to the stand. He helped her into her seat and stood nearby, watching her closely.
“Does the witness need to be watched?” Hatter asked.
The card soldier nodded. “This one is especially dangerous. She’s mentally deranged, sir.”
“Oh,” Hatter said with delight. “How exciting! What does she do? Eat people? Push people out of windows? Throw knives?”
“All of the above, I believe.”
The judge clapped like a happy child. “It’s nice to not feel so alone. Bluebeard, ask your questions.”
The lawyer approached the little girl, but even he kept a safe distance from her. When she looked up into his face he smiled, but she sat there, stone-faced and gazing around as if lost in thought.
“Precious girl,” Bluebeard started. “You have been through so much. I hate to put you through any more but we need to get to the truth. We have a . . . ahem . . . man on trial for his life, so I hope you’ll be brave and answer some questions.”
Red continued gazing about. Sabrina had seen this expression before. The little lunatic was probably having another delusion.
“Red, we’ve already established that your parents sent you to see your grandmother and asked you to take a basket of food and medicine. Do you know why they sent you?”
“Momma told me Gra
“Your grandmother was sick? How sad. So you went through the woods following a path to her house. When you got there, what did you see?”
“A monster,” Red said.
Bluebeard smiled. “Can you point out that monster?”
Without as much as a glance, Red pointed at Mr. Canis.
“Let the record show that the child pointed at the accused,” the lawyer said, then turned his attention back to Red. “Where was your grandmother when you arrived?”
“The Wolf ate her,” Red said softly.
“That’s terrible,” Bluebeard said overdramatically. He looked as if he might burst into tears, but Sabrina knew he was acting. “I’m sure you know this, but the story of what happened has been spread far and wide. In one version you came into the house and found the Wolf hiding in your grandmother’s bed. Is that what happened?”
Red nodded.
“Why would he do that?” Bluebeard asked.
“He wanted to trick me so he could eat me, too,” Red said.
“Luckily, a woodcutter came and saved your life,” Bluebeard said as he turned to the jury. His face was pure confidence.
“No, that’s not what happened.”
Bluebeard’s face fell. He spun around to face Red once more. “I’m sorry, child. Maybe you misunderstood what I said. I was talking about the brave woodcutter who saved your life.”
Red shook her head. “I heard what you said. I said that isn’t what happened. I found the woodcutter hiding in the fields.”
“Then how did you escape the Wolf?” Bluebeard asked.
“Because he saved me from himself,” Red said, pointing at Mr. Canis.
The crowd broke into excited chatter. Hatter pounded a gavel down on the stack of milk crates. They collapsed before him. With nothing to pound on, he slammed the gavel into his own head. “Order!”
“The jury should be careful about what the witness says. She’s mentally ill,” Bluebeard said.
“Objection!” Robin Hood cried. “If her testimony can’t be trusted then why is she here? She’s either telling the whole truth or telling a whole lie.”
“Order!” Hatter demanded, slamming his head against a wall. “Mr. Bluebeard, do you have any more questions?”
Bluebeard looked frantic. “No, sir!”
Judge Hatter, however, had some of his own. “You say the creature who murdered your grandmother saved your life?”
Red nodded. “My grandmother was trying to heal me. I’ve struggled with my sanity since I was a baby. She was a witch, and she had a plan, but it blew up around her. The result was she created the Big Bad Wolf, and that poor man, the one they call Mr. Canis, was the real victim. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He didn’t mean to kill my grandmother but he couldn’t stop himself. Lucky for me, he got control over himself for a brief moment and begged me to run.”