Free Once Upon a Beanstalk by Kate Avery Ellison Page A

leave your cell.”
    She didn’t reply.
    “Jack,” the giant said, planting his massive legs in front of their way out and crossing his tree-sized arms. The smile that slid across his face made Gretel’s skin crawl. “I’ve been hoping you would come back to visit me. You disappeared like a little rabbit down its hole before we’d even finished our conversation.”
    “I’m pretty sure we’ve said all we need to.” Jack’s voice was steady, but his face had drained of all color.
    “Oh yes,” the giant growled. “We’ve said enough. But I haven’t had the pleasure of grinding you up to bake in my bread.” He took a step forward.
    Gretel’s fingers itched for a knife to throw. She glanced at Hansel, who looked as if he felt the same.
    The door to the dungeon groaned. Gretel glanced at it. The guards? But no.
    Wait, was that a tendril of green poking through—?
    Agathar hadn’t seen the straining door. He took another step, pulling a club from his belt and smacking it against his palm as he approached them. “It will only take a moment to kill you all. So let’s do this quickly, because I have a wedding that I can’t be late for—”
    A beanstalk the size of a tree shot through the door to the dungeon, shattering it as the tendrils launched across the room as if released from a slingshot. Agathar jerked back in surprise as Gretel shouted, “The beanstalk!”
    Everything happened at once. Gretel grabbed Alana and tumbled left, while Jack and Hansel ran right. Agathar stumbled as leafy tendrils shot up to the ceiling and stretched down to the doors. The beanstalk’s head, searching for sun, went straight for the window.
    “I think I dropped some magic beans in the basement,” she yelled to Jack over the sound of shattering glass. “My stupid habit, remember? One of them must have fallen in the dirt and grown until it reached a breaking point. It’s looking for the sun!”
    The tree-sized stalk writhed across the floor like a giant snake. Hansel reached Gretel and the princess. He pointed to the window, which the beanstalk had already broken. “Quick, get to the beanstalk and grab on.”
    They stumbled for the windowsill together. Hansel put both arms around Alana and the beanstalk. Gretel put both arms around him. “Where’s Jack?” Gretel screamed in his ear over the sound of cracking and snapping.
    They looked back. Agathar was running towards them, pushing the beanstalk leaves out of his eyes and swatting at growing stalks. He didn’t see Jack grab the beanstalk and tug it in front of him like a tripwire. The giant’s boots caught. He tumbled, eyes widening, and he hit the ground with a shuddering crash.
    Jack dropped the vine and sprinted towards them just as the beanstalk lifted them out of the window. Gretel reached back and caught Jack’s hand, pulling him behind her on the vine as if it were a horse. His arms tightened around her waist as the beanstalk pushed out over the moat like the tentacle of a living thing, swirling toward the sun.
    “We’re going to have to jump,” Jack panted, twisting to look down at the rapidly-shrinking ground. “Ready?”
    Below, they could see the worried faces of Brellek and his men.
    “Ready.” Hansel looked back at them, the wind whipping his hair.
    “Ready.” Gretel shut her eyes and let go.
    They tumbled into the grass as the beanstalk shot up higher and higher, disappearing into the clouds.
     
    ~
     
    The TV in the corner of the hotel room blared cheerfully, airing clip after clip of the peace treaty signing. Gretel lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling fan and listening to the reporter babble on.
    “In other news, the fast-growing vine that emerged from a window in Agathar Black’s house and quickly shot up to record-breaking size has been identified as a beanstalk, magic in origin. No word yet on what might have caused this massive growth, but scientists are speculating that the soil in the basement of Black’s house, which was imported