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

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Worlds Collide

  There was a moment as they walked the snowy landscape, seeking without finding shelter, that Cinderella determined the probability of death higher than the likelihood of survival, but, as far as deaths went, there were worse she could imagine.

  Her stepsister, Tilly, had once exchanged a kiss to get a village boy to hold Cinderella's head underwater in a murky swamp. She believed she would die that day, and it was a most horrible way to death, until at last she lost consciousness, coming to again as the boy pounded upon her chest, seeming to realize he would get in some real trouble if she did not wake up, even if he had meant only to frighten her.

  So, though the cold was almost as painful as the fire that licked her skin the night her stepmother shoved her hand into the flames at the hearth, the feeling was not the same, for Rapunzel was there, holding her arm, and her presence alone gave death less power.

  "Do you see that?" Rapunzel exclaimed breathlessly beside her, yanking Cinderella's arm to pull her closer.

  "Ow," Cinderella uttered, though it did not truly hurt. "What?"

  Rewarded by the tender stroke of Rapunzel's hand upon her arm, Cinderella grinned into the heavy fall of snow.

  "Over there." Rapunzel ceased the caress to point, and, following the direction of her jutting finger, Cinderella saw it too. Swirling into a grove of trees, a puff of red that seemed to hover over the ground, mist out of place and miscolored.

  "What is that?" Cinderella asked, even as she moved toward it.

  Reaching the strange swirl of color, she was rather surprised it was still there as she reached it, and even more surprised when her hand passed through the mist, breaking it up for an instant, only for it to drift back together into a hazy line.

  "Should we follow it?" Rapunzel seemed delighted at the prospect.

  "Certainly," Cinderella returned, attempting to sound wise. "When one is already in an unfamiliar kingdom, hungry, freezing, and lost, I can think of no better idea than to follow a strange mist deeper into the wood."

  Glancing to Rapunzel, Cinderella watched the wide-open grin appear on her face, and, as one, they burst into laughter.

  "All right, then, let us follow it," Rapunzel pushed through her humor, and that is what they did.

  There was no sense in not knowing where one was being led, but walking anyway. The chance of danger was always greater than the chance of pleasant surprise, Cinderella knew. Yet, rendered dumb by cold and amused panic, she let the foggy trail guide them, knowing they were seeking nothing short of a miracle.

  "Do you see that?" Rapunzel asked suddenly, grabbing the front of Cinderella's dress to pull her to a stop.

  Glancing from where she watched her feet shuffle across the frozen ground, amazed how she could see them without feeling them, Cinderella's eyes alighted on the wisp of smoke that drifted toward the sky.

  "Fire," she groaned.

  "Do you think someone lives there?" Rapunzel asked.

  "Someone must," Cinderella returned. "A fire does not tend itself."

  "Who do you think would live out here?" Rapunzel questioned, looking at the mountains looming above them and the forest so thick it could belong only to those who preferred to stay hidden, like goons and robbers and people with extra eyes in the middle of their foreheads.

  "Who would live in a tree tower with no door?" Cinderella returned, and when Rapunzel turned wide eyes to her in response, they fell once more into laughter.

  "We have to go toward that house," Rapunzel giggled, pointing like a drunkard trying to give directions.

  "Yes," Cinderella agreed. "There is our shelter. That is where my feet will not fall off. Or will, if we are too late."

  That sent Rapunzel into another delirious bout of giggles, which Cinderella promptly caught. Bending forward as the laughter stole her breath, her hands slipped from her knees and, flailing helplessly, she tipped face-first into a mound of snow. As she lifted her head out of the fluffy cold, she sputtered a mouthful of wet powder in Rapunzel's direction.

  "Do you need a hand?" Rapunzel asked.

  "I already have two," Cinderella returned, rolling to her back. "But it would help with the juggling."

  Laughter coming so hard, tears tracked down her cheeks, Rapunzel moved over her, taking Cinderella's hands, which could barely feel Rapunzel's upon them.

  "Come on. Up." Rapunzel tugged, but frozen terrain working against them, they failed to stop upright, continuing over until Rapunzel landed on her back in a snowdrift and Cinderella fell atop her.

  Snow cocooning them as Rapunzel's arms wrapped around her, Cinderella thought it a rather soft place to fall and had the notion they should simply stay there, forget about forest houses and strange mists and whatever else might wait ahead.

  "Is laughter good for fighting winter?" Rapunzel asked, and Cinderella chuckled at the bizarre question.

  "Why would you think that?"

  "Because," Rapunzel returned weakly. "I am not cold anymore."

  A bolt of pure ice shooting through her middle, Cinderella lifted her head to look down at Rapunzel, who gazed up at her with a deep contentment Cinderella had seen only once in her life, when she was taken in to say goodbye to her mother the night she died. Long before most memories held, that one had rooted itself so deeply in Cinderella's mind, it was like the place from where all her other knowledge grew - what it was like to look into the face of death.

  "You should be," she breathed, heart galloping in her chest, sending blood outward until she had the strength to pull herself and Rapunzel back up. "Come," she led her by the hand, and Rapunzel gave a laugh as she followed, as if it was a joyful game.

  Moving faster than the frozen ground made safe, they slipped and slid down a hillside, wind whipping ruthlessly around them, stopping only long enough for Cinderella to make sure the strange red trail still led them toward the smoke.

  It felt like forever later when, Rapunzel's hand still solidly in her own, Cinderella knocked on the door of a cabin, loud enough to ensure anyone inside would hear over the howling wind and snow blowing against the windows, but no one came. When Rapunzel lifted her hand to knock, it barely produced a sound, and Cinderella grabbed the doorknob, grateful to feel it open at once, and pressed Rapunzel inside, shutting out the cold.

  Her eyes going instantly to the fire that blazed in the hearth, Cinderella tugged Rapunzel toward it, until Rapunzel came to an abrupt stop, her small gasp pulling Cinderella's attention from the flames to the lifeless girl on the floor by the table.

  "Is she dead?" Rapunzel softly asked, and Cinderella was just glad the question made sense.

  The memory of Rapunzel serene and fading before her clouding her senses, Cinderella refused to let her go, clutching tightly to Rapunzel with one hand as she felt for life on the girl's still-warm neck with the other.

  "No," she replied, finding a thready pulse beneath pale skin. "But she is barely alive."

  Lowering further, she put her ear to the girl's mouth, and Rapunzel crouched beside her, searching for signs of injury.

  "It is this bodice," she said. "It is pulled much too tight."

  Noting the blue tinge where the bodice hugged the girl's skin, Cinderella tugged at the laces, but, even well-versed in getting knots out of the strangest places, she could not loosen them. "They are so tight," she grunted. "We need something to cut them."

  As she moved to get up, Cinderella was held in place by a hand on her shoulder, and she worriedly watched Rapunzel walk off, still not sure she was in any condition to be walking on her own.

  "Here." Rapunzel returned with a pair of sewing shears, and Cinderella dragged her eyes from her inspection of Rapunzel to attend to the stranger, sliding the shears beneath the laces and loosing them with a snip.

  Leaned upon each other, Cinderella clasped Rapunzel's freezing hands as they waited for the girl to move, and, at last, with a shuddering inhalation, the stranger's chest rose and fell, brown eyes flickering open and tu
rning toward them with a hint of fear.

  "Hello," Cinderella uttered. "Sorry to just amble in, but you did not answer the door, and..."

  "Water," the girl whispered.

  "I shall get it," Rapunzel replied, getting up again and finding a cup amongst the pile of dishes in the corner. Looking around the room for a moment, she at last went to the door, pulling it open long enough to scoop a cupful of snow and shutting them back into the warmth.

  As she returned, Cinderella helped the stranger sit up, and the girl took the cup from Rapunzel's hand, sipping slowly as the snow melted within it.

  "What happened to you?" Rapunzel queried. "You could not have tied those laces yourself."

  Responding with a shake of her head, the girl took a clump of snow into her mouth.

  "What is your name?" Cinderella asked, and the girl took a deep breath that seemed to relieve her little.

  "Snow White," she replied, before a series of violent coughs racked her body.

  "Are you all right?" Rapunzel asked.

  Though she made no attempt to speak, Snow White smiled as she nodded, and Cinderella had the feeling for the first time since she and Rapunzel entered the new kingdom that they too might be all right.

  · · ·

  "This little piggy was wicked," Cinderella stated, glancing up at Rapunzel in the firelight, watching a small smile push winter-reddened lips up as she moved onto the next. "This little piggy a liar. This little piggy went mad as a goose. This one fell off in the fire."

  Tilting forward, Cinderella thought she deserved reward for her wittiness, but was granted an affectionate shove instead. "None are falling off," Rapunzel replied.

  "No," Cinderella acknowledged. "They do look better than expected. I imagine they will not. Still," she breathed, smile fading with the thought of how differently things could have turned out had they not found shelter. "I do worry about these feet."

  Pressing a kiss to the top of the left one, her personal favorite, Cinderella was drawn back into Rapunzel's gaze by a gentle hand against her jaw.

  "Thank you," Rapunzel breathed.

  "For what?" Cinderella questioned. "Dragging you through the dark forest? Through the waterfall? The cow? For getting you almost eaten by a wolf? Or for causing you to nearly freeze to death?"

  "For rescuing me," Rapunzel stated, and Cinderella wished she felt it as much as Rapunzel appeared to mean it.

  "Here." Snow White's approach saved her from response. "I found you some stockings."

  She tossed a set to each of them, but, like the pieces of clothing Cinderella and Rapunzel wore, the stockings were mismatched and in four different sizes for only two pair of feet. Three were everyday socks and the fourth was the sort a rich man paid considerable money to have sewn for him.

  Looking around the cabin once again, Cinderella could think of few legitimate ways to come across such an assortment of goods.

  "Thank you," Rapunzel groaned as she pulled the stockings onto her feet. "You really should rest, though."

  "I feel fine now that I can breathe," Snow White replied, dropping down next to them on the blanket and reaching out toward the fire.

  "Should they be getting home soon?" Rapunzel asked.

  "Not long now." Snow White looked worried.

  "And you are sure they will not mind us sleeping here tonight?" Cinderella questioned.

  "They let me stay," Snow White replied, but the smile she gave Cinderella was forced.

  Figuring she would learn of their fate soon enough, Cinderella grabbed the three cups from the floor and went to refill them. Before she reached the door, it opened before her, and a small man, no higher than her hip, hopped into the cabin. His eyes rising to hers, he stumbled back into the wall in fright.

  "I'm hungry!" Another stepped through the door to announce. "What's there to eat?"

  Hearing an ecstatic gasp go by, Cinderella watched Rapunzel rush past, reaching out for the first man.

  "No, no, no!" he cried as Rapunzel hefted him up.

  "He is so precious," she said.

  With a shout, the little man's feet attempted to run on the air, and Cinderella lost all composure, tears coming to her eyes as the wood cups in her hands clattered to the floor.

  "What is all this racket?" an old dwarf bellowed as he barreled through the door, tripping over a cup and taking a good bounce off his generous belly.

  "Put me down!" the dwarf in Rapunzel's hands finally formed coherent words, and Rapunzel set him quickly back on the floor.

  "Oh, I am sorry." Her contrition was sincere. "I only wanted to..."

  But the dwarf Rapunzel had picked up stepped forward and gave her a firm punch in the thigh.

  "Ow!" Rapunzel cried.

  "Hey!" Cinderella stepped in front of Rapunzel to protect her from further assault.

  "Chauncy!" Snow White reprimanded, and Chauncy growled up at them.

  "What is this?" the old dwarf demanded as Snow White helped him up from the floor.

  "They were stranded in the snow..." she replied. "They saved my life... They need shelter..."

  As Snow White tried to explain the situation in as few words as possible, three more small men came in, shaking snow from their coats, and Cinderella forced her eyes from their surprised stares to watch Snow White with the old one.

  "They need to stay here for tonight," Snow White pleaded on their behalf. "They will freeze out there. Big Papa, please."

  Trying to predict the outcome, Cinderella found it as impossible to know what would happen next as every turn they had already taken. The way Big Papa cast his eyes to them, though, lips pursed in suspicion, it did not look promising.

  "Cinderella was the cook in a royal hall." Snow White took to lies. "And Rapunzel, she was a famous seamstress in her kingdom."

  "You don't say," Big Papa uttered, his demeanor lightening, but only just. "I still do not trust the tall folk, but I suppose they might stay this one night. I imagine Sponk might be interested in the skills of the seamstress."

  Looking to Rapunzel, Cinderella shared her concern, as they both knew Rapunzel had no expertise in the pants of small men, or any men for that matter. When the one called Sponk walked up to them, though, the smile on his face quite genuine, neither could help but smile back.

  "You are the seamstress?" he asked, and Rapunzel had no choice but to support the lie with a nod. "I have a big job for you," he said, turning to show them.

  Eyes widening as a very round, naked bottom peeked out at them from the split in Sponk's britches, Cinderella put her hand to her lips to stop her bark of shocked laughter and glanced at Rapunzel as her mouth fell wide.

  "Ripped them clean through this time," Sponk said, giving a wiggle of emphasis, before turning to face them.

  "I... I see..." Rapunzel managed, and Sponk grinned before finally walking off to join the other dwarves at the table.

  "Well, well..." A new voice came from behind Cinderella with a hiccup. "Three to the seven. These odds are getting a little more even, I say."

  Then, Cinderella felt a small hand slap her on the backside.

  Spinning at once, her foot caught the newcomer's chest, and he flew right back out the door and deep into a snowdrift.

  A clatter of chairs resounded as the dwarves jumped to their feet, rushing past Cinderella to watch their friend dig himself out. As soon as he was free, the dwarf with the wandering hands came barreling back into the cabin, arms swinging at Cinderella, and, watching him close in on her, Cinderella put a hand on his head as his arms flailed madly between them.

  "I'm gonna get... You nasty, stupid, mean... nasty...," he muttered.

  "What are you going to do?" Cinderella countered. "Punch me in my knees until I cannot run off?"

  At the question, the man stopped swinging. A moment later, he realized he had been insulted and lunged at Cinderella again, only to be caught and held at bay by his housemates.

  "Ahhhh!" he shouted. "Out of my house! Out of my house! Get out of my hoooouuuusssse!"
/>
  "They need to stay here, Esteban," Snow White said.

  "That was before the beast got aggressive!" Big Papa proclaimed, raising his hand as if testifying to some great truth.

  "Esteban did start it," Snow White returned.

  "She kicked me out in the snow!" Esteban shouted in disbelief.

  "After you touched my..."

  "Cinderella," Rapunzel cut in.

  "She's got to go! She's got to go!" Big Papa ordered. "That one is stark mad."

  Finger thrusting up at her, Cinderella glanced at the other dwarves, who looked at her as if she was a most horrific sight, and wondered if Big Papa was not right. In the past, it had often been her inability to submit that had gotten her into her greatest trouble. If she had only let her stepmother say those horrible things against her real mother, she never would have earned her fiery punishment. And, if she had just let Esteban touch her at his will, she might have survived the coming night.

  It was only in turning to meet Rapunzel's eyes, though, that it occurred to her what she had done, and the realization overwhelmed Cinderella so she could scarcely speak.

  "You will have to stay here," she said, every fear she felt since they entered the kingdom coming back to grip her.

  "Not without you," Rapunzel whispered.

  Cinderella shook her head in protest, but reaching out to her, Rapunzel stilled the motion. "We survived a few hours," she declared. "We will survive a few more." But the tears that formed in her eyes contradicted the words.

  "Lady-cries!" one dwarf shouted suddenly.

  "No, no, no," cried another. "No lady-cries!"

  Eyes falling from Rapunzel to the mass hysteria suddenly at their feet, Cinderella had no idea what they went on about, but she knew she would not allow Rapunzel to follow her into the snow. She would tie her to the loft's ladder if that was what it took to keep her from going back out into the deadly storm.

  "If they go, I go." Snow White's voice came as surprise, and Cinderella looked over to find her bellybutton-to-nose with Big Papa.

  "Fine!" Esteban raged. "Go then, Traitor. No one will miss you..."

  "Esteban, close your stinking mouth," Big Papa ordered. His eyes turning to Cinderella, he clearly saw her something of a beast, but Cinderella was less concerned with what he thought of her than with what he chose to do. "Just this one night," he returned to his original decision.