Black Forest: Kingdoms Fall (Black Forest Trilogy) Read online

  "Is this all?" she demanded as she took it.

  "I could not bring it all," Gurr said, knowing the answer would not be to her liking.

  "I suppose it will do," the queen returned, seeming to realize she could not expect more as she pulled the cap off and lifted the pouch to her nose.

  An unexpected growl passing her lips, Queen Ino launched the offering away, and it landed before Gurr, the red blood spilling into the snow at his knees, and he knew his mistake had been great.

  Watching the queen's hand rip from her glove and dip into the colored snow, Gurr flinched as the sickly-sweet stench hit him cold in the face. With a strength unmatched to her small form, the queen pulled him up by the throat, the sharp tips of her fingers digging into his skin, choking the will to fight from him. Not that he could fight much against the brute strength of her grip. Both hands going to the queen's, it felt like an iron vise around his neck.

  "Do you think I cannot tell the blood of a human from the blood of a deer?" she asked, face warping into something Gurr did not recognize. "Do you think I do not know Snow White's blood, that I do not know its smell, that I have not tasted it?"

  "What are you?" Gurr breathed, looking on the queen with new eyes. Seeing the sinister face beneath the beautiful exterior, he realized her beauty was like a snake's, cold-blooded, thick-skinned and ready to strike.

  "What I am is your queen," Queen Ino stated, and even her voice sounded like a serpent. Her hand around his throat squeezing, Gurr felt it everywhere, imagining she felt as a serpent must feel, crushing his ribs and squashing his innards. "And when I give you a command, I expect it to be followed."

  "Please, Your Majesty, please," Gurr forced from his depleted lungs, throat raw with the effort. "Take pity on me. Snow White -"

  "Do not say her name." The queen squeezed tighter, and Gurr struggled for the air to finish.

  "She pleaded for her life. And I was not strong enough to do it," he husked. "She said she will never return, and there is no way she will. She does not know these woods well enough. She could not survive alone."

  "Where did you leave her?" Queen Ino questioned, grip loosening enough to allow Gurr to answer.

  "More than half a league out," he replied. "She ran away from the village. She will not come back."

  He did not expect the queen to take him at his word, but released suddenly, Gurr fell to his knees, so weak before her she could have slain him with the point of a finger.

  "You disobeyed me," Queen Ino stated.

  "I know, My Queen," he returned. "I had to. I could not..." He remembered the surprise on Snow White's face, the look of betrayal in her eyes. "I could not."

  Glancing up when the queen gave no immediate response, Gurr went numb at the almost pleased look on her face, at the small smile that curved her lips.

  "Bring me your daughter," she said.

  "No." Gurr felt the cold seize him. "No. Please, Your Majesty, I beg you, not my little girl."

  "I did promise to take her if you failed me," Queen Ino returned.

  "Snow White is not coming back," he declared, tears falling down his face. "She is dead. I am sure of it."

  "If you had brought me her blood as I asked, I would be sure of it," Queen Ino responded. "Bring me your daughter, or I will kill you and enslave her anyway." Stepping forward, the queen's hand on his chin drew Gurr's eyes up. "Do not worry," she smiled. "She will not die. Not the first time."

  Releasing him, Queen Ino walked off, and Gurr sobbed at her back. Knowing she would keep her promise, that she would do as she wanted, he could not comprehend how he had not seen it in her a hundred times before.

  Doubled over the blood spilled before him, Gurr screamed into the quiet landscape, wishing he had used his own two hands to send Snow White to her grave.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Aulis

  There were natural ways to enter a world, and those most unnatural. Cinderella had experienced each, the first from her mother's womb into Troyale, the second from a warm bath, born of nothing and surrounded by strangers, into Naxos.

  Then, there were those ways of entering a world that were both of nature and not of nature, like two fully-grown maidens, clothed and disoriented, birthed in the after-fluids of a newborn calf. Cinderella was the first born, skidding into the slush like the second calf the cow undoubtedly believed her to be, and she sat stupefied at cow's end until Rapunzel slid out after her into the snowy field.

  Eyes moving rapidly, Rapunzel launched onto her at once, and Cinderella fell back as slimy arms closed around her neck. "You are all right," Rapunzel declared in an anxious rush.

  "You are all right," Cinderella whispered, relieved at the sensation of Rapunzel real and solid against her, even as she glanced past her as the cow gave a grunt to find a watchful, displeased eye upon them.

  "Your wound..."

  "It is fine," Cinderella assured her, flexing the muscles at her waist with surprising ease. "You fixed me perfectly. I scarcely even feel it."

  Sitting back on her heels, Rapunzel glanced into Cinderella's eyes for certainty, before letting her attention fall to her dress, her fingers running through the fluid upon the fabric.

  "Did we just..." Rapunzel's face blanched as she looked to where the cow pawed the ground.

  "Yes," Cinderella replied off-handedly.

  "From the beast's..."

  "Indeed," Cinderella quietly returned, rising to her feet and grabbing the dagger that had fallen at her side, before hauling a bewildered Rapunzel off the ground.

  "I think I am going to retch," Rapunzel uttered.

  "All right," Cinderella said. "On the other side of the fence."

  "What?" Rapunzel's face crinkled in confusion.

  "Run," Cinderella ordered. "Run!"

  Whirling with impressive agility, considering the triple birth it had just endured, the cow charged them, and Cinderella yanked Rapunzel with more force than she would have liked, thrusting her across the fence and letting the momentum carry her over behind her. As the cow crashed into the fence behind them, the top tie splintered, nearly giving way to its fury, and Cinderella watched it shake its head in disapproval, before returning to its true baby. The protective instinct of the mother turning to a loving caress as she licked her newborn clean, Cinderella wished both a long life, until she was distracted by the sound of Rapunzel doing exactly that which she said she would.

  Getting shakily to her knees, Cinderella crawled to Rapunzel's side, holding back the blonde hair that fell just past her shoulders, though some pieces, chopped shorter than the others in her haste, tumbled free as Rapunzel emptied the contents of her stomach.

  "That... that is a cow, right?" Rapunzel questioned as she sat back.

  "Yes," Cinderella replied, wiping a drop of something she chose not to identify from above her eye, before placing a hand carefully on Rapunzel's back. "Are you all right?"

  Looking at the surrounding landscape, Rapunzel did not seem to hear the question. A look of pure wonder setting in on her face, it was as if she forgot all about their birth and the queasiness of her stomach in an instant. "And this?" she questioned, scooping a handful of white powder from the ground. "It is snow?"

  "Yes." Cinderella's lip twitched into a smile. "It is snow."

  "It is so beautiful," Rapunzel stated, and Cinderella nodded her agreement, though, she thought, it did not compare to Rapunzel. Seeing her in sunlight for the first time, set against the snowy field, she looked like everything beautiful in the world. Even covered in cow.

  Dropping the handful of snow quite suddenly, Rapunzel brushed her hands together. "It is cold, though, isn't it?"

  "Yes," Cinderella replied, glancing around. It was worryingly cold. Chilled air biting her skin, snow in no short supply, she returned her gaze to Rapunzel's thin attire, realizing how ill-equipped they were for such unexpected weather. In Troyale, winter had not yet come, Naxos knew nothing of winter, and this one was as deep of one as Cinderella had ever seen.

 
Feeling the jelly-like covering turning to ice on her skin, she knew they would not survive long on Rapunzel's fascination alone.

  "We need to get cleaned up," she said, dipping her hands into the snow and sweeping them over her face to wash the birthing fluids away, smiling as Rapunzel mimicked her every movement. Hands and face clean, Cinderella found an untouched patch of snow and offered it to Rapunzel. "It is all right," she said, and Rapunzel took the snow into her mouth. "Better?"

  "Better," Rapunzel smiled softly. "Thank you."

  Taking a firm grip on her hand, Cinderella tugged Rapunzel to her feet, and Rapunzel stepped close, her arms wrapping around Cinderella's own for warmth, but she still gave a painful shiver when the frigid wind blew.

  No owner in Troyale would have dared let a fertile cow out of sight, but, scanning the landscape, Cinderella saw nothing beyond the pasture except calm, white forest. No house. No barn. No farmer. So, she simply walked, heading toward the trees, trusting that such a healthy grove had to draw water from somewhere.

  "Is this your kingdom?" Rapunzel asked suddenly, voice rhythmic against the cold.

  "No," Cinderella replied. "I do not know where we are."

  Whatever Rapunzel thought about that was left to Cinderella's concern, and she found, without knowing, her concerns were great. It was easy to believe Rapunzel must wish she had chosen to stay in Naxos, that she still had the comforts, even if the captivity, of her tower, that Cinderella had never come to her kingdom and disturbed her relative peace.

  "Cinderella," Rapunzel whispered, and Cinderella swung her gaze to blue eyes that looked even more like gems against winter than they had in summer. With a strange grin, Rapunzel ran her fingers down Cinderella's cheek, before dropping her eyes to their joined arms. "We are disgusting."

  The statement pulling a shocked laugh from her, Cinderella felt the frightening thoughts fracture, and when Rapunzel kissed her softly, lips lingering upon hers for a single perfect moment, they faded completely.

  Walking a few beats more into the rolling hills of the foreign kingdom, Cinderella spotted the carved opening in a hillside and determined Rapunzel's kiss good luck, making a vow to seek them as often as possible.

  "A cave." Rapunzel sounded pleased to recognize the feature.

  "Yes, it is," Cinderella replied, leading the way down the sloping field into the gully where the cave was situated. Carefully guiding Rapunzel across the iced-over stream that cut the gully in two, Cinderella wondered how quickly the water had frozen, how quickly they might. "Let me check it," Cinderella said at the cave's entrance, but Rapunzel only held more tightly to her. "All right," Cinderella relented. "We will go together."

  Rapunzel's responding nod gave Cinderella the feeling she would be going nowhere alone for some time, and the realization brought a smile to her face, despite the unwelcoming environment. Dagger clutched tightly in one hand, Rapunzel clinging to the other, she was relieved to find the cave empty, and the air inside a good deal warmer than that beyond its opening.

  "This will do," she said. It would have to do. As they were, freezing was an inevitability. Cinderella could already feel the ache of it in her fingers where they wrapped around the dagger's hilt, the numbness of it in her feet. "Take off your dress."

  Looking to her with a hint of mischief, Rapunzel did as she was asked, releasing Cinderella to work apart the frozen closures, and Cinderella dropped the dagger at her feet, returning to the cave's entrance to gather her arms full of hard-packed snow, which she dropped in a pile between them before working the absurd number of clasps and ties on her own garment.

  Half-frozen dresses removed, they washed their hair and skin in the rapidly-melting snow, and Cinderella took off the first clean layer from beneath her gown, and then another, feeling blessed, for once, that she had been dressed for occasion rather than function and had so many unsoiled layers to spare.

  Settling Rapunzel amongst the excess pieces, made suddenly vital to their survival, Cinderella tugged a slip around Rapunzel's shoulders and returned to their dresses in her chemise, cleaning them with the haste of one who had spent a lifetime tending to the clothing of others, and hanging them from protrusions in the rock wall, hoping they would dry instead of freezing solid.

  When she returned to the makeshift bedding, dagger placed within reach, Cinderella was pulled between the layers of her dress with Rapunzel, the chilled skin that pressed against her own warming on contact, until, for the first time since they had entered the new kingdom, she knew comfort.

  "Now what?" Rapunzel asked, breath heating the exposed skin of Cinderella's throat.

  "Now, we wait," Cinderella replied, temperature further rising as Rapunzel's leg slid between her own, until the cave felt almost stifling.

  "However will we pass the time?" Rapunzel questioned, fingers gently checking the wound at Cinderella's side, though she sounded as if she had the answer.

  "By trying to keep warm." Cinderella tried to retain sense, but found it as fleeting as always in Rapunzel's presence.

  "I can think of no better way," Rapunzel smiled, and Cinderella tried to return it, but she felt the smile catch in her throat, choking her with worry.

  "Are you sorry you came with me?" she asked, and Rapunzel looked momentarily stunned by the question.

  Wet hair tickling Cinderella's chest as she shook her head, Rapunzel's smile edged away. "No," she returned. "Should I be?"

  "I do not know," Cinderella replied honestly. "I do not know where to go. I do not know where we might find food or proper shelter."

  "We will," Rapunzel said simply.

  "I'm scared," Cinderella confessed with reservation, for it was the kind of thing she had learned never to admit. Her stepmother and stepsisters had always been so quick to jump at her weaknesses.

  "I am not." Rapunzel's breath was hot on Cinderella's lips before she kissed her firmly, leaving no room for other thoughts to invade the space between them.

  Some things, Cinderella had discovered, required no instruction, or else there were things within those books Rapunzel had never read to her, for Rapunzel always seemed to know exactly what to do to make Cinderella forget most everything, bad memories of the past and fears of the future.

  Even with the world so unfamiliar and full of potential hazards, Cinderella forgot where they were, all she did not know, and knew only the feel of Rapunzel's teeth scraping against her neck, of Rapunzel's hand slipping beneath the hem of her chemise to move slowly up her leg and steal her breath with a single caress.

  Yes, Cinderella thought, though it might have been out loud, surrendering to Rapunzel's intimate occupation. The touch of another could be good, and knowing such touches existed, it made even less sense that anyone would waste time on those touches meant to cause pain.

  Forcing her eyes open as Rapunzel pulled back from her, Cinderella stared into blue depths, breath catching as she realized it was not Rapunzel's touch alone that was so different than anything she had known before it.

  "Why do you look at me as you do?" she questioned, trailing off on a broken moan when Rapunzel's touch moved deeper inside her, as deep as anyone had ever been, yet never quite deep enough.

  "How do I look at you?" Rapunzel returned.

  Touch never ceasing, Cinderella thought it cruel she was expected to respond. "As if you..." she breathed. "As if you see something amazing."

  "Because I do," Rapunzel declared, lips dropping to Cinderella's jaw and trailing to her ear, her sweet breath blowing gentle across it. "I see you."

  Cinderella could say nothing in return. Grasping Rapunzel's shoulder, she felt the heavens pull at her, trying to wrench her from the mortal world, and she floated within their ecstasy for an extended moment before falling back against layers of silk and cotton.

  The Earth that should have been still beneath her as she returned to its plane continued to move, and Cinderella pressed her eyes open to find Rapunzel looking around in genuine surprise. Beside them, Cinderella's gown fell from its rock ho
ok to land upon the cave floor, and, deeper within the cave, the sound of stones crashed, as they held onto each other until the shaking finally stopped.

  "What was that?" Rapunzel questioned, but, without answer, Cinderella could only shake her head. "Did we do that?"

  "No," Cinderella returned uneasily. "I am certain we did not."

  Cave settling back into dormancy, Cinderella heard another noise, softer, but far more frightening in its proximity. Glancing toward the depths of the curving corridor, she watched orange eyes appear around the bend in the rock, a deep growl rumbling through the large, hulking body of a wolf as it slunk into view. Equal in size to the two of them together, the animal licked its lips, and Rapunzel gasped against her.

  "Do not move," Cinderella breathed, sliding her arm before Rapunzel as she felt the rock beside her for the dagger, finally finding its handle and raising it before them, knowing it would be of little use if the creature truly wanted a winter's meal.

  With a notable lack of interest, as if it had only been woken from a nap to which it would rather get back, the wolf turned and padded into the darkness of the cave once more, and Cinderella's arm dropped weakly to her side.

  "We cannot stay here," she uttered, jumping to her feet at once and blinking in confusion as she swept her gown from the cave floor and found it already dry.

  · · ·

  Queen Ino could depend on no one else. It was a hard lesson learned long before, but one she should have continued to heed. If she could not count on another to take care of her Snow White problem, she would take care of the girl herself.

  It was atop the last of the seven mountains that separated her from Snow White that she felt the quaking of the Earth. Feet giving way beneath her, she felt fear for the first time since she left the castle as she slipped down the icy embankment, at last clinging to the trunk of a thin tree and staring at the precipitous drop beneath her feet.