Black Forest: Kingdoms Fall (39 page)

"How do you know what Snow White saw?" the queen asked, and it was only then that Cinderella noticed she too trembled.

"She told me," Cinderella returned. "She believed you were trying to protect her."

When the queen laughed, more in disbelief than amusement, it rumbled through both their bodies. "Why would she think such nonsense?"

"She said it was what her heart told her," Cinderella replied, and the queen flinched. Slight enough she never would have seen it with her eye, Cinderella
felt it just the same.

"She always did have a foolish heart," Queen Ino returned. "Always much too trusting."

"I do not think she was wrong," Cinderella uttered.

"Three times I came for her," Queen Ino countered at once. "And three times she suffered."

"She was stranded," Cinderella argued, "rescued, and now... she sleeps."

"I sent the huntsman to slay her," Queen Ino declared.

"The huntsman who swore to protect her and proved himself willing and capable on multiple occasions," Cinderella countered. "You never wanted Snow White
dead."

The beautiful face above her tightening with rage, Cinderella sucked in a breath as the dagger again drew blood. "You can kill me," she said, tears
streaming down her face as she wondered if Rapunzel would somehow know she had tried. That she had failed, but she had tried to come for her. "But if you
think I cannot tell you do it with a forced hand, you are wrong."

"You are as naive as she is," Queen Ino hissed.

"She is not as naive as you think," Cinderella returned. "And I am not nearly as naive as I would like to be."

At that, the queen's flinch did show, and Cinderella knew they shared something of a past, though, which parts, she could not know. Feeling the queen's
trembling in the scratch of the dagger against her skin, she lifted her head, expecting death at the blade's edge. "You are not what he makes you," she
said, staring into the depths of Queen Ino's dark eyes, which still seemed so familiar, as her hand wrapped gently around the queen's upon the dagger. "You
are what you make you."

"Enough talk!" the sorceress suddenly shouted. "Kill her or get out of my way!"

Whichever of the two options the queen might have chosen was lost to the piercing whinny that filled the air, and Queen Ino looked up, as surprised at the
sound as Cinderella, as a massive white stallion hurdled the underbrush, scattering Cinderella's stepmother, stepsisters and the sorceress.

The steed charging straight at them, a silver shield flew outward, knocking Queen Ino away, before a hand reached down to Cinderella and she looked up into
the face of Prince "Charming" Friedrich of Troyale.

"Come with me, My Beauty," he said. "We shall go to our palace and be together at last."

The past staring Cinderella in the face, everything crashed into place. Grimm never meant for her to reach Rapunzel. He did not even intend her to die. He
had simply gone to great pains, her own pains, of course, to facilitate Cinderella's surrender.

She should be delighted at the escape Friedrich offered her, that was what Grimm would say, what he would think. This was his chance to put everything back
exactly as he planned it, and Cinderella had only two choices. Stay and die. Or get on the horse and live.

On the horse. With the prince.

Queen Ino rising to her feet, Cinderella had no time to deliberate. Stay and die. Or get on the horse and live.

With no other choice, she took hold of Prince Charming's hand, and, with a firm tug, she wrenched him from the saddle, hearing his gasp of surprise as he
hit the ground beneath her as she flung herself onto the mount.

Rearing the steed in her direction, it knocked Queen Ino back off her feet, and Cinderella rounded on the sorceress and her stepfamily, sending them diving
once more to the ground.

Knee pressing into the stallion's side, it turned with the expected training of a royal mount and Cinderella raced across the Gulf, slowing only to sweep
the cocoon that held Norco and Togo captive from the sky.

"Wait!" Prince Charming cried from the forest floor.

"Young lady, don't you dare!" Cinderella's stepmother warned.

"Stop her!" the sorceress screamed, and began chanting words Cinderella did not understand, but that instilled more fear than all the words she did.

"Yah!" Cinderella dug her heels into the horse's sides, giving it a sharp slap with the reins.

Rearing back, the stallion took off at a mad gallop as a boom echoed in the darkness above and a tree fell at their backs.

"Yah!" Cinderella shouted again, dashing through dark trees toward the black nothingness of the Gulf wall, and, giving a mighty push with his hind legs,
the stallion carried them into the void.

A
flash of hope flared within Rapunzel's grief, but, glancing up, there was nothing but the vast wasteland in which she found herself hours before.

After an unpleasant journey in which she felt as if she was being yanked through time and space and the Earth at once, she suffered a brutal landing in the
gritty sand, feeling it bury into her hands and cheeks as she skidded across its surface.

For the first hours, she believed there had to be escape. Marching unceasingly over the unsteady terrain, she was certain, if only she walked far enough,
she would find its end. Taking more and more careless spills as her strength wore thin, she became painfully conscious of all the sharp points and edges
that waited beneath the deceptively soft surface.

Then, the sun came, and, though it was only earliest light, Rapunzel grew so thirsty she could feel it through her entire body, the desperation to drink,
from her mind that seemed to dry up to her toes that seemed to shrivel. But there was no water, nor plants she knew, and she could not walk further.
Sinking to the ground, her body was bruised and bleeding, but it was her spirit broken most of all. For when she put her head into her hands, she found
herself without tears, too dry to make them, and, when she opened her mouth to sing, her song was not only sad, but painful.

Yet, throat raw and burning, insides turning to dust, Rapunzel sang anyway.

For many moons, Prince Salimen had wandered, seeking shade on instinct when the sun would rise, drinking water from prickly sources when he suffered
thirst.

It was not as bad as he imagined it, blindness, for it taught him new skills. He could feel the sunrise before he could see it. He could hear the trickle
of water when it was nearby.

When it began, though it was distant, he could also hear the song, different than that he first heard in the forest. The notes were sadder, more longing,
but it suited him more now. He knew at once it was her, his love, the one he had been promised. All he had to do, a voice in his ear told him, was come to
the desert and wait.

The girl would be looking for rescue, his for the taking. She would save his eyes. She would be his wife. They would leave the desert and have two
children. They would start right away, of course, he thought with libidinous delight, hastening in the direction of her sorrow.

She had first heard it leagues away, the evocative melody that had drawn her deeper into the Naxos forest what felt like a lifetime before. Standing amidst
the leaves and the trees, they looked the same, felt the same, but something was off. She could sense Rapunzel's song as if she was right on top of it, but
it was tinny and distant, as if she was there, but not there.

"What did Grimm say?" Cinderella questioned Norco and Togo. "If you can get in, you cannot get out?"

Nodding their confirmation, Norco and Togo stepped closer to her, grasping the hem of Cinderella's dress as if expecting to go for a sudden ride.

"The secret is you," Cinderella realized, and, closing her eyes, she abandoned hope, gave into Grimm's unreal.

The tree she leaned against suddenly stabbing her hand, she opened them again to find a tall green pitchfork-looking plant thrusting upward out of ground
that, as she took a step back, felt wholly unstable.

Heat pouring down upon her in equal measure to the freezing cold of the Gulf, she turned to Rapunzel's song, so close now she could feel it flow over her
skin. Eyes at last settling on Rapunzel, sunken down upon the scorching ground, Cinderella feared her another illusion, a battered version of everything
she wanted to see. Her gaze was so focused upon the vision, she only noticed Prince Salimen staggering toward Rapunzel at the last moment.

"Halt yourself, or lose that limb," she threatened, and the prince heeded her warning.

Light blue eyes rising to her, the song died at once on Rapunzel's lips. "Cinderella," she breathed, and Cinderella approached her slowly, scared to
disturb her broken, bewildered state. Taking an off-path step, she delivered the prince a firm shove that settled him a more agreeable distance away.

"Hey!" he shouted at his unseen attacker, landing with a near soundless thump.

Sinking to her knees before Rapunzel, hands sliding onto the parched skin of Rapunzel's cheeks, Cinderella at last believed what she saw.

"You are not real," Rapunzel uttered, and, though her face clenched as if to produce them, no tears came. "You are not here. You cannot be here. There is
no border. I walked all night."

"There is no border," Cinderella said gently, "because there is no desert."

The approach of the prince muffled by the desert terrain, Cinderella glanced in time to see him reach out, only to get tackled back to the ground by Norco
and Togo.

"What is that?" the prince cried, swinging wildly above him. "Get these creatures off of me."

Ignoring the plea, Cinderella turned back to Rapunzel, whose eyes were wide and red as they watched the prince try to fight free. Gentle fingers on her
chin turned Rapunzel's gaze back to hers, and Cinderella smiled softly. "I am here," she said. "I am real. You are real."

Though Rapunzel looked very much as if she wanted to believe as her hand rose to Cinderella's face, it was clear she could not.

"I ran into some trouble along the way," Cinderella said softly. "Norco and Togo, they got wrapped up in a cocoon." She watched Rapunzel's eyes darken with
worry. "When I first tried to free them, my fingers refused to break the skin, and I was certain they would remain trapped in their forever. Then, I
realized the cocoon was not truly there, for it was an invention, but I am real, and that gave me power over it."

At Rapunzel's continued uncertainty, Cinderella pressed her lips to Rapunzel's, mindful of their cracked condition, and felt them scratch against her own.
As she pulled away, the desert wavered around them, and she took up a handful of sand. "This," she said, letting it run from her fist, "is not real."

Letting her hand open, the remainder of the sand vanished on the air, as if she was a magician, and the desert blinked in and out of existence.

"How did you do that?" Rapunzel asked.

"I did not," Cinderella answered. "You are doing it. The desert is illusion, and you see that now."

Her words more assured than Rapunzel's conviction, the greenery of the leaves and shrubbery still came into focus around them, and they found themselves in
the heart of Naxos forest. Looking to the small lake close by, Rapunzel looked as if she would like to dive right into it.

"I have been here the whole time?" she asked.

"Listen here!" Prince Salimen declared suddenly from his position as Norco and Togo's captive, and Cinderella sighed at the realization they had brought
him back to reality with them. "I do not know who you are, but you are not supposed to be here. This is my maiden."

"According to whom?" Cinderella queried, getting to her feet and pulling Rapunzel gingerly up from the forest floor.

"According to me!" Prince Salimen declared with all the snooty indignation to which he felt entitled. "I was promised..."

Cinderella's rumbling laughter quieted the prince as she walked up to him. "Do tell," she coaxed. "What were you promised?"

"She will be my wife." The prince tried to exert authority he did not have, and Cinderella rolled her shoulders, Rapunzel's hand in hers giving her
unmatched courage.

"All right then," Cinderella returned. "Ask her."

"What?" he said.

"Ask her," Cinderella replied. "If you would like her to be your wife, ask her if she will be your wife. That is the proper course of action."

Unseeing eyes looking about in confusion, the thought had clearly never occurred to him. Premature grin settling over his features, he moved to his knees,
Norco and Togo hovering close in case he made a sudden move.

"My Sweet Love," he began, looking the wrong direction. "Will you be my wife?"

"No, I will not," Rapunzel responded instantly.

"Wait! That is not what she is supposed to say," he argued.

"Well, we maidens are full of surprises," Cinderella declared.

"Why will you not marry me?" Prince Salimen demanded with a pout, trying to get to his feet, but Norco and Togo pushed him down at the shoulders.

"Because I love another," Rapunzel returned, and glancing to her, Cinderella's eyes skimmed the curve of her face, further imprinting it upon her memory.

"Another prince?" Prince Alluring asked, and Cinderella's laugh was light with relief.

"No, I feel quite satisfied in telling you, you have been outdone by an ordinary soul."

"No." Rapunzel's quiet exhalation drew her eyes again. "Far from ordinary."

The hand on the front of her dress pulling her into communion, Rapunzel's lips captured Cinderella's again, so real, all Grimm's illusions weakened at once
by comparison.

"Hello?" the prince called into the sudden silence. "What is happening?"

The question an unfortunate reminder that they did not know, Cinderella pulled reluctantly away, turning to the steed and helping Rapunzel onto its back.

"Where are you going?" the prince asked, a touch of panic edging its way into his voice at the clinks of metal against leather sounded around the clearing
as Cinderella climbed into the saddle.