A few of the people we passed gave me appraising looks, checking, I suppose, to see what the king’s fiancée looked like, but most of the servants ignored us. They were preparing for a full assault, carrying pots of boiling oil and huge stones to throw down on the attackers.

We reached a set of circular stairs. They were in a different part of the castle than the other stairs I’d gone up, but they were identical: jutting stones, no handrail, so narrow we had to go up single file. Hudson went in front, holding the candle up so that light spilled back to me. His long legs strode upward, outpacing me. My breaths came in labored pants and my heart started bleeding again. I knew because I could feel my dress sticking to my chest.

Hudson turned, saw me struggling, and came back. He held out his hand for me, then noticed the blood on my dress. He grabbed hold of my arm as though I might tumble down the stairs if he didn’t.

“What happened? Were you stabbed? Why didn’t you say something?” Between breaths, I said, “Rumpelstiltskin gave me an enchantment so I could turn things into gold myself. That’s where it attached itself.” I wiped at the spot. “Apparently I’m too tenderhearted.” He didn’t let go of my arm. He kept staring at the spot.

“I’ll be fine in a minute.” I looked up the stairs. “Probably.” Hudson took hold of my hand and we walked up the stairs slower.

He kept checking over his shoulder to see how I was doing.

“What if King John is in his bedroom?” I whispered.

198/356

“I’ll tell him you were so worried about your safety that you begged me to take you inside the castle. I agreed and then you wanted to see him about something.”

“I can’t lie.”

“Then don’t,” he said. “Want to see King John. Think of something you want to tell him.”

Not hard to do. I wanted to tell him I wouldn’t marry him. I couldn’t say that though.

I thought about it for a few steps then decided I could tell him I had left some of the straw unchanged. People and animals both used it for bedding, so I could ask him if he wanted me to change something else into gold instead.

“What will we do once we have the Gilead?” I asked, half whispering, half panting.

“We’ll find a way over the walls.”

“During a siege?”

“It’s only a small group that’s attacking. It will be over soon.” Sooner than morning? “The fairy tale says my wedding is tomorrow.”

He glanced back at the book clutched against my side. “Isn’t that Clover’s Change Enchantment? I thought it was supposed to let you alter the ending so you could de-wed-ify tomorrow.”

“I’ve been trying to change the story, but I don’t know how.” I held the book up to look at it. “I’m not sure this thing is even working.”

“Sure it’s working.” He smiled back at me. “The original story has no mention of the handsome and dashing young guard who saved the miller’s daughter from her room on the last night.”

“Maybe the author left it out because he was killed tragically by falling down a dangerous staircase. Who built this thing anyway?” 199/356

Hudson’s breath was hardly even labored. “The stairs were made with defense in mind. People going up can’t use their swords in their right hands without banging them into the wall. So in a fight, the person coming down the stairs always has the advantage.”

“Great,” I said. “We’re going up.” I nearly stumbled, and his grip on my arm tightened.

He paused to let me catch my breath. I paused to hug the wall and consider all of the things a person could break while falling down the stairs.

Hudson watched my newfound affection for the wall. “You’re not afraid of heights, are you?”

“No, I’m fine with heights. It’s plunging to my death that worries me.”

He gave my hand a squeeze and pulled me slowly up the stairs again. “Just don’t look down and don’t think about it.” The best way to guarantee that you’ll think about something is to have someone tell you not to think about it. All I could think about were long, uneven circular steps that went up higher and higher so you could fall farther. “How did you learn that stuff about the stairs being built for defense?” I asked.

“I’ve been here for three months. You pick things up. I could tell you how they tan leather, forge steel, and salt meat.”

“Oh. All I’ve learned is how to take a bath with two inches of water.”

He laughed and I liked the warm sound of it.

Finally, we reached the third story, left the stairwell, and went down a corridor. The hallway was empty, but rows of tapestries hung on the wall. Wild-eyed unicorns and running boars stared at us through embroidered forests. We came to an ornate wooden door.

Hudson knocked. “Sire?”

200/356

I waited, heart still pounding from the climb, to see if King John would answer.

Please don’t be there. I pressed the book to my chest hoping this would magically help the wish come true.

No one answered. Hudson pushed the door open and we slipped inside. It was a sitting room of sorts, perhaps a place where King John met with visitors. We didn’t stop in this room, just walked through it to a door on the other side. Hudson knocked on this door as well.

“Sire?”

The seconds plodded by. No one answered here either. We crept inside and shut the door behind us.

Hudson held the candle up to better take in the room. The dim light revealed a large canopy bed—the original king size—a few chairs, a couple of small tables, a wooden chest, and dozens of gold spools.

They spread out over the floor. One had been unwound and lay draped across a chair. I wondered if it was my old friend Bob the spool.

Hudson and I padded around the room together, searching. I didn’t see any plants. We went to the table by the window. It was empty except for a bowl full of coins. I pointed at it. “I suppose that’s King John’s mad money.”

The corner of Hudson’s mouth lifted, but he forced back the smile and continued rummaging through things. As the candlelight fell on the gold, each spool shined.

“King John named all of those,” I said. “But then, that’s not surprising since he’s the sort of man who thinks money talks. Probably literally.”

Hudson was barely paying attention to what I said. His gaze swept around the room. “It’s got to be here. I’ve looked everywhere else.” 201/356

“Have you forgotten that King John is insane? He might keep it in his fish pond or his pantry or maybe he set up a little house for it with some friendly shrubbery.”

Hudson went back to the table by the window even though there were clearly no plants sitting on it. “He might be crazy, but he’s no fool. The plant is too valuable for him to—” He grunted as if he couldn’t believe how stupid he’d been, then bent down and looked under the table. At first I thought King John had thrown a robe down there, but once Hudson pulled the thing out, I realized we hadn’t seen the Gilead because we’d been thinking like people from the twenty-first century. In modern homes, you didn’t have to worry about keeping plants away from cold, drafty windows.

King John must have put the plant on the table during the day to get some sun, then covered it and moved it underneath the table to protect it during the night.

Hudson took the cover off, revealing a foot-tall bush. It seemed to be mostly twigs, with only a scattering of tiny oval leaves on its branches. Hudson smiled and took a knife from his belt. “There’s our ticket home.”

He cut a stem from the plant, making it look mournfully unbalanced. King John was bound to realize someone had hacked part of it off the moment he saw it.

Hudson tucked the stem into a pouch at his belt, placed the cover back onto the plant, and then pushed the pot back underneath the table. “I can almost feel the warm shower and taste the pizza. And yes, I do plan to do those things simultaneously.” I was just happy we could leave King John’s room. I didn’t want to stay in here one second longer than I had to. We hurried out of the bedroom and through the sitting room. Hudson reached for the door handle.