Black Forest: Kingdoms Fall (28 page)

"I am a sprite," Caratasa declared suddenly, looking directly at Cinderella, which did nothing to put Cinderella at ease.

"A sprite?" Rapunzel questioned in surprise. "But I thought sprites were..."

"Very small?" Caratasa finished with a smile, and Cinderella watched a blush creep once more across Rapunzel's cheeks as she lowered her gaze to the table.
"I can be," Caratasa said, "when such need arises. For a sprite is no more than spirit. I take many forms."

The statement further fracturing Cinderella's comfort, she stared at her bowl, too afraid to eat it, for it looked and smelled much too good. Gaze moving
again to Rapunzel, she watched her take another bite, worried she had already fallen under the spell of Caratasa or the house or both.

"I mean you no harm, Cinderella." The gentle voice drew Cinderella's eyes from Rapunzel, and the warm dark eyes upon her held her own captive. "I know it
is hard for you to trust that, to trust what is put in front of you."

"How do you know that?" Cinderella whispered.

"I have ways of seeing things others do not," Caratasa stated simply. "I know you have not had it easy. I know what it was like for you, the things others
did to you. I promise you, though, with all that I am, I mean you and those you care about no harm. I want only to help you."

"Can you help us?" Rapunzel was quick to ask in response, and a smile came warm and genuine to Caratasa's face.

"When morning light breaks, I will provide give you guidance," she responded. "I have created a map of the forest, which you will need to go forward and
backward, wherever you decide to go."

"Why? Why do you help us?" Cinderella could not let go of the fear, and when Caratasa's eyes again met her own, they looked on her with such compassion,
she felt ashamed for asking.

"Caratasa aids all those in need," Ruth stated, and, when they all looked to her, she squirmed in her seat, clearly unused to such attention.

"You and... your son?" Cinderella was almost certain the boy belonged to the woman, and she nodded in confirmation. "How did you end up here?"

"Seven years ago," the woman responded, "we were cast out into the wood, and we wandered. I happened upon an old alchemist who had been banished from the
village some years before for his dark arts. It was a lucky day, for usually the alchemist's house was cloaked by his magic, but that day his magic had
wavered. He was lonely, I think, and he took pity on us. George, being no more than a babe at the time, has no memory of those days." The woman rustled her
son's hair.

"Why were you cast out?" Cinderella questioned.

"My son was conceived as my husband, the king, was set to go off on a matter for the kingdom," Ruth replied. "When George was born, my husband's mother,
with whom I stayed, sent a letter to inform my husband of his birth. She would not tell me what exactly was in his reply, only that he ordered George and I
killed. She had always loved me as her own, my husband's mother, and she could not carry out the deed. Instead, she strapped my infant son to my back and
told me never to return, lest my husband discover she had not followed his orders."

"Why would he ask for that?" Rapunzel questioned.

"I do not know," Ruth replied, shaking her head. "But we stayed with the alchemist in that house on the outskirts until a few days ago when he had an
experiment go wrong. George and I were out walking when we heard the explosion, and when we returned..." She looked to her son and swallowed painfully, as
tears filled his young eyes. "We had nowhere else to go. So again we wandered, but this time things were different. We walked through the strangest changes
in weather and such plants we had never seen. Just when it seemed all hope was lost, we were led here, where Caratasa took us in without question. As she
took you in."

The reply a humbling reminder, Cinderella watched Caratasa smile graciously at Ruth, before glancing to Rapunzel, who did not appear frightened or worried.
If it was a trap, Cinderella realized, Rapunzel was already ensnared, and she at last took a bite of the soup that pleased her senses and warmed her down
to her toes. For, if they were going to be trapped for eternity, there were far worse places to be.

When Cinderella opened her eyes, the sun had not yet risen, but was on the verge of breaching the horizon. Stretching the sleep from her frame, she could
feel not a tired bone in her body, and, if she had not actually been there doing it, she never would have believed she walked all those leagues the
previous day.

Waking next to her, Rapunzel's eyes came into view. Even in the darkened room, they appeared clear and bright, without the residual traces of drowsiness
that usually lingered in them upon waking.

The night before, as they had bid their goodnights, Caratasa laid her hands upon their shoulders and wished them an "especially restful night's peace," for
which Cinderella and Rapunzel thanked her, though neither thought it to be of much use. There was far too much to think about, far too much to be done in
their impossible time frame.

Alert and without pain, though, Cinderella admitted it was simply the most restful night she had ever had. Just as Caratasa desired for them.

It was so restful, in fact, that Cinderella felt as if she had energy to expend on non-essential pursuits. Rolling into Rapunzel, she curved her hand
around an exposed thigh, shivering at the soft moan that rumbled through Rapunzel's throat as their lips came together. Rapunzel's fingers threading into
her hair to tug her closer, Cinderella got lost in the feel of her, until wings fluttered against the door on their way past. Remembering with matching
groans that they had little time to spare, they rolled off either side of the bed to get dressed.

Warm cereal awaited them when they got downstairs, and Norco and Togo were deep into their bowls, bits hanging from their furry faces as they grinned up at
Cinderella and Rapunzel.

"Good morning," Caratasa greeted, extracting an ancient-looking parchment from a chest next to the hearth.

"Good morning," Cinderella and Rapunzel returned, sitting before the untouched bowls of a cereal Cinderella did not recognize.

Taking up her spoon, Rapunzel took a bite, and, eyes going wide in delight, dug in with nearly the fervor of Norco and Togo.

"It is only kutya, Love." Cinderella felt a hand against her back, and glanced up at Caratasa's amused dark eyes. "It is not poison, I assure you."

That said, Caratasa glided around the table, and Cinderella took up her spoon, digging into the concoction that was every bit as good as Rapunzel and Norco
and Togo made it seem.

"Did you sleep well?" Caratasa asked.

"It was the best sleep I ever had," Rapunzel replied.

"But then," Cinderella took a break from eating to say, "you knew that, didn't you?"

A slow, lingering smile was the only response to the question as Caratasa spread the parchment before them on the table.

"This is where we are," she said, pointing to a sliver of a kingdom the size of her thumbnail, barely a dot in comparison to the kingdoms of much greater
size around it. So tiny it was on the map, it went unlabeled, while all the other kingdoms bore their names.

"What is the name of this kingdom?" Cinderella asked.

"Pith," Caratasa answered.

"Why is it so small?" Rapunzel scooted forward on her chair.

"Perhaps," Caratasa breathed, "it was never meant to be."

Leaving the cryptic statement unexplained, she moved on as if it was not floating on the air around them. She showed them where they had been in Aulis, how
they must have walked through Delphinia, which, Cinderella realized with a heaviness in her chest, must have been where Hansel and Gretel lived before they
were no more.

Spotting Troyale near the top of the map, she looked for Naxos, finding the two several kingdoms apart. When it occurred to her she never would have met
Rapunzel by chance, she found the sturdy thigh beneath the table and felt Rapunzel's hand wrap around her own.

The kingdoms of the Black Forest spread in an imperfect circle, some bigger, some smaller, some near the heart of the land, some nestled at the periphery.
Seeing how vast was the forest, and realizing they had traversed no more than a small portion of the kingdoms the day before, Cinderella deflated. Even
with towns marked, it would take many more days than they had to make their way through even half of it.

"Perhaps it makes no sense to go on," she uttered, seeing the world spread out before her. "The prince is already on his way, and we have only two days.
Perhaps, we should return and try to hold him at bay."

"Much can happen in two days, Cinderella," Caratasa murmured. "You find only what you seek. What you do not seek, you will never find."

Meeting Caratasa's gaze across the map, Cinderella felt as if Caratasa could see into her very soul, and, with a shiver, she dropped her eyes away. Noting
for the first time the black pool at the center of the kingdoms, unlabeled and contained, yet seeming somehow endless, the darkness swirled before her
eyes.

"What is that?" Cinderella questioned hesitantly. "In the center?"

"That is the Gulf of Broken Dreams," Caratasa uttered, her voice taking on a dismal quality that was most unnatural on her. "It is a frightful place, worse
than the Black Forest on its darkest night, a way of keeping the kingdoms separate, at least partly, should someone be so clever as to fracture all other
obstructions."

Glancing up at Cinderella, there was a glimmer in her eye, and Cinderella dropped her gaze to her cereal.

"What happens in the Gulf?" she questioned.

"Legend says, in the Gulf of Broken Dreams all faith is lost. Everything you believe becomes suspect. Everything you fear comes for you at once," Caratasa
quietly stated. "Of course, it can only be legend, for the boundaries have never been down for someone to stumble into it. Until now."

"Do you know what is happening?" Rapunzel asked, hand tightening in Cinderella's.

"Not more than anyone else," Caratasa murmured. "I know only what I know."

Rolling the map back up, Caratasa tied it with string, and Cinderella continued to stare into her cereal, as if there was a world of interest to be found
inside it. Rapunzel's hand landing softly upon her knee liberated Cinderella from her internal solitude.

"Do you have any other questions?" Caratasa asked, and, though the question was posed at large, her gaze was intense on Cinderella, as if she knew the
questions that worried at her mind.

"We should be going," Cinderella declared, standing at once and grabbing her sack, avoiding Caratasa's eyes.

Upon the announcement, Rapunzel got up from the table, and Norco and Togo slurped their bowls completely clean, before hopping to the floor.

"You are coming with us?" Rapunzel asked in surprise.

"Are we not invited to this quest?" Norco questioned.

"I just assumed you would..." Rapunzel glanced to Caratasa, a small smile tugging at her lips. "Choose to stay."

"There is a quest," Norco said in response, attempting to heave Rapunzel's pack onto his arms. Wings flapping rapidly, he scarcely lifted it before it
pulled him back to the floor and he tumbled away.

"I shall carry it," Rapunzel stated, dropping down to stroke her hand over Norco's furry head as he got back up. "Are you all right?"

"Yes. Quite fine," Norco responded. "But, perhaps, you should carry it."

"Perhaps," Rapunzel agreed, pulling the pack over her shoulder.

"Here." Caratasa's voice close at Cinderella's side was invasive, and Cinderella could only face Caratasa or be rude. After Caratasa's generosity and aid,
there was no choice at all really and Cinderella timidly looked up. The instant Caratasa's steady eyes were upon her, though, her heart thudded in her
chest as she wondered what they saw.

"Are they going to be all right?" she finally voiced the most important question, head dipping toward Rapunzel and Norco and Togo, voice low so they would
not hear it.

"I believe they will," Caratasa whispered the less than satisfying answer. "In the end. Much of that depends on you."

The answer more troublesome than the question, Cinderella wished she had not asked.

"Shall we go?" She turned to the others, and Rapunzel, Norco and Togo followed her to the door with some reluctance, for Caratasa's home was not the kind
of place one was happy to leave. Though, Cinderella was suddenly eager to escape it.

"Will you tell Ruth and George we said goodbye?" Rapunzel requested.

"Of course," Caratasa replied, opening her arms to embrace Rapunzel.

As soon as she released her, Norco and Togo flew into Caratasa, furry heads burrowing against her shoulders, faint purrs humming through their bodies.

"Oh, I will miss the two of you," Caratasa said, kissing them each on an ear.

"If we cannot find our way home, may we come back here?" Norco asked.

"Of course, you can," she replied.

"Or, even if we can find our way," Togo amended. "Could we come back for a visit?"

"You can come here whenever you would like," Caratasa smiled.

As Caratasa at last turned to her, Cinderella set her face in a blank expression, but was certain Caratasa could still see all that lay beneath.

"Thank you for everything. We should be on our way," she uttered, keeping her distance, and Caratasa abided her wishes, allowing Cinderella to step over
the threshold into the morning mist without an attempt at embrace.

"That will be your best route," Caratasa counseled on their way out the door. "Do not lose faith."

Nodding her reply, Cinderella backed away, feeling some guilt for her cold treatment of the woman, who looked upon her with greater affection than her
stepmother ever had.

"Cinderella," Caratasa's voice drew her at once to a stop. "Your heart remains pure, despite countless brushes with those who are not so untainted. The
force within you, it is one of good. Never doubt that. It is only the doubt that can undo you."