Page 38 of Switched

Jack’s eyes widen. “You got it to work for you?”

“Yes, and it showed me Anna. You were right,” I whisper. A Tom Thumb Catering cart wheels by us. “She looks so sad. I think she wants to leave, and he won’t let her.”

I notice Jax watching us and stop talking. I don’t want to fight with him again.

Jack nods. “Like Mum. We have to save them.” He takes my hand. “Listen, I think I have an idea of where they might be.” He hesitates. “I saw something in the mirror the other day—my mum being made to work in Cloud City.”

Angelina had mentioned the harp was in Cloud City. “What makes you think they’re there?”

Jack looks at me strangely. “It’s where I went when I climbed the beanstalk last time. Remember?”

“Oh right.” I hear a rumble in the distance. Maybe thunder? Strange, the sky is a clear blue.

He scratches his chin. “We just have to find a way up there.”

Another rumble of thunder makes the actual ground shake. A few Pegasi bust out of their barn and take flight. A flock of birds zooms by overhead.

“Wow, that’s some storm brewing!” Maxine says.

Ollie sniffs the air, licks his finger, and puts it up into the wind. “Funny, but I don’t smell a weather change.”

“If it’s not thunder, then what is that sound, pirate?” Jocelyn asks.

“Gilly!” AG comes running out of the tent toward me, her face flushed with excitement. “Are you coming in? Mother said I could invite my friends to sit at our table. There’s room for all of you,” she tells the others. “It sounds like it’s going to rain. Good thing we have the tent.”

Another rumble sends Jax, Maxine, and I colliding into one another. It’s quickly followed by a wave of earth-shaking sounds, each one making the ground move more than the time before. Something is definitely not right here.

The ground begins to crack, a line zigzagging from the lake to the castle.

“Earthquake!” AG cries as she and Jack reach for each other to keep from falling.

Kids are screaming as we run to get out of the way. Royals and commoners alike are streaming out of the tent as ogres trip over chairs to get away. We dive for cover behind a stone wall near the school, and I watch in horror as a large green weed begins to grow out of the crack at an alarming speed. It’s not an earthquake. It’s a beanstalk!

I’ve never seen an actual beanstalk before. Sure, I’ve read about them in Happily Ever After Scrolls and heard tall tales from kids who swear they’ve seen one, but nothing could have prepared me for the monstrous plant growing before my eyes. Dozens of electric-green roots burst through the ground near the party tent and quickly wind together into something that looks like a giant tree trunk, stretching and weaving as they grow taller and taller. Smaller branches and leaves burst from the stalks, pushing their branches sideways and breaking whatever is in their path.

“The giants are coming! The giants are coming!” a girl shouts as she runs by us frantically.

I look up, but with the low pink clouds, I can’t see the top of the stalk. Maybe it’s just a beanstalk. Not every stalk leads to giants, do they?

The Dwarf Police Squad is already directing people away from the stalk as the branches begin to twist and grow around the tent. Rapunzel and Snow are guiding students to safety while Wolfington, Harlow, and Flora start to shoot commands at the stalk to keep it from growing. Their spells don’t seem to be working. Snap! A thorn on one branch punctures a tent wall, causing the left side to come crashing down.

“We have to do something,” says Maxine.

“Look! My parents! They’re okay!” AG points to Beauty and Prince Sebastian hurrying a group of fairies out of the way of a falling branch. I can hear Prince Sebastian calling AG’s name. She stands up to run to them, but Jack holds out a hand to block us all from leaving.

“Wait!” says Jack.

“Why would we wait?” Jax demands. “People need help, and AG’s parents are looking for her.”

“Wait!” Jack watches the stalk closely. “You’ll get trampled.”

“Trampled?” I ask worriedly.

ROARRRRRRRRR!

I know that roar. I’ve heard it before.

ROARRRRRRRRR!