Black Forest: Kingdoms Fall (34 page)

"Charming?" Cinderella barked laughter. "Friedrich? Charming, really? Did you intend to make him as such? For, if you did, you failed."

In all his anger, the storyteller had not looked as raving as he did in that moment. "You belong to him," he hissed.

"No, I do not," Cinderella asserted. "I do not belong to anyone. I do, however, belong with Rapunzel."

"You were never even to meet!" the man shouted.

"But we did," Cinderella returned, small smile coming to her lips at both the memory and the irritation the statement caused on the man's face. "We did
meet. And there is nothing you can do about that."

"You stupid girl." He shook his head. "You should have longed for your escape. You should have been ecstatic at what he offered you."

"Hmmm," Cinderella hummed, eyes sharpening upon the man's face. "Perhaps, cruelty and torment had a different outcome than you anticipated. After years of
fake beatings that, I assure you, felt very real, I learned there were no easy answers, so when an easy answer came, I was not so blind as to trust it."

"You think you have suffered?" he asked. "You will suffer more now, I promise you."

"I am sure," she replied. "But now I suffer at my will. Not yours."

"Oh!" He fell back with a light laugh that filled Cinderella with greater fright than any anger he had demonstrated. "You must try and try me, and make me
do things I do not want to do."

As the storyteller flicked his quill, Cinderella could swear her very soul froze in response. Glancing to Rapunzel beside her, she turned to find Sawyer,
Christophe and Norco and Togo still at their backs.

"Rhian!" Sawyer called suddenly, looking around in a panic. Dashing back into the palace, he returned a moment later with a shocked expression upon his
face.

"They are gone," he said, tears forming in his eyes. "Rhian is gone. Everyone... everyone is gone."

"Well," the man declared, raising his hands toward Cinderella. "Blame your new friend, for she has caused all this."

Eyes closing against the words, Cinderella opened them again when the reply was nothing like she expected.

"I do not blame her," Sawyer stated at once. "I blame you."

Scarcely believing it herself, Cinderella met the storytellers's surprised gaze, and felt a rush of power she could not quite place.

"Do you hear that?" she whispered. "It sounds like Sawyer has a mind of his own."

It was clear from his face, it was the last thing the man wanted to hear.

"He blames you. And I blame you. You caused all this pain. Christophe's, Sawyer's, Rapunzel's, and mine. I used to ask myself, why did my mother have to
die?" She took a step down, and, even knowing she could not touch him, the storyteller took a step back. "Why do my stepmother and stepsisters have to be so cruel?
Why does my father allow this? Now I know. The answer was you. I do not know what you are trying to do, but you are a vicious, sad man, and I will journey
through hell before I follow your plan."

"Oh, I will let you," he assured her.

With another flick of the storyteller's hand, the steps fell out from under Cinderella, and the earth came rapidly up to meet her. The cold, dead feel of
the grass scratching against her back, Cinderella reached out for Rapunzel's hand, breathing in relief when she felt it clasp her own.

Stepping over them, the storyteller's shadow loomed larger than life, and Cinderella felt fear truly grip her. "I may not be able to hurt you, but you have
made enemies, Cinderella, and they are coming for you."

Proud of the announcement, he stepped back in the moonlight, a silhouette on the horizon as he bent down with his broken quill to scratch in the dirt at
his feet. Glancing to Rapunzel, Cinderella found her in an agreeable enough condition, and turned her eyes to the others. Getting to their feet, Christophe
and Sawyer appeared unhurt, and Norco and Togo flew over them, sending the storyteller as angry of glares as their sweet faces could make.

As she returned her gaze to the man, he stood upright, grinning down at the dirt. "Until we meet again," he said, and, with the flick of his quill, he was
gone.

Standing together, Cinderella felt Rapunzel's hands upon her.

"I am all right," she assured her, fingers on Rapunzel's face finding her real and solid. "Are you all right?" she asked, and when Rapunzel nodded,
Cinderella knew it was testament only to her immediate condition and not her overall state.

"Christophe, Sawyer, are you all right?" Cinderella asked, and they too could only nod, as well as they could be, not a touch more.

Holding tightly to Rapunzel, Cinderella moved them around the patch of earth where the storyteller had made his markings.

"The End," Rapunzel read aloud. "Grimm."

"Grimm," Cinderella growled.

Mind flashing through all the faces of death, the enemies and the fallen friends, Cinderella watched them meld into one face - the face of Grimm - and was
gripped by a kind of fury she had never known.

Waking into silence, Queen Ino looked about the unfamiliar room, gaze at last dropping to the comfortable, but common bed beneath her, and remembered where
she had fallen. In and out of consciousness, she did not know how many days had passed, for if the night outside the window was the first, the day must
have been abnormally long.

Stretching against soft sheets, she felt nearly recovered, despite the sound of the ball bouncing down the hallway and the firm, but affectionate, shushing
of the mother that had awakened her every so often to remind her why she needed to get up and back on her path.

As she finally did rise, pulling on the outer layers the stranger must have removed before putting her to bed, there was not a sound from within the house
to be heard. The queen could feel she was alone even before she even descended the wood stairs to find the rooms empty.

A knock coming at the door, she looked toward it with foreboding, reaching for the stone at her neck, only to discover it was not there. The pouch, crushed
in her fist, proved empty as the knock came again with such force, the entire house shook.

Reaching beneath her skirts, the queen found the dagger where it belonged, and the sharp ring of the metal leaving its sheath echoed through the empty
space as she pulled it free and went to meet the visitor.

Hand upon the door, Queen Ino yanked it open, but there was no one. Only the stone lay upon the ground before her. Fresh blood coalescing atop of it, the
stone trembled against the dirt as its magic began to swirl.

Without warning, the entryway of the house flashed from beneath the queen's feet, and she landed on one knee in high grass, as if genuflecting before the
stone.

The cosmos bursting, stars and moons orbited around her, and the queen was overtaken by the overwhelming energy. All weakness that remained turned to
power, all her power went black, and Queen Ino could smell the blood of her prey across kingdoms.

G
rimm had taken the protection of the palace, and then, it seemed, sent his ghouls in greater number. Still they walked, breaking through to the next
kingdom, meeting its unfamiliar specters with all the courage they could muster, because there was little else they could do.

Just as they had been foreign to the kingdom of Ceres, so were their packs, which survived the disappearance of the castle and its occupants. Standing in
the moonlight clearing, Cinderella could see the way back to Aulis on the map. Once in the shadow of the forest, though, all light abandoned them, and it
felt as if they were walking in circles, the same threats coming at them again and again.

"Watch that tree!" Cinderella shouted, and Christophe ducked just in time for the limb-fingers to ruffle his unruly hair. Before he could rise again, a
horrendous shriek sent them all diving into the damp, mossy soil.

Rapunzel's fingernails digging holes unintentionally into her palm, Cinderella felt red hot liquid erupt over her skin, and, stifling a groan, she tried to
see Rapunzel. Those bright eyes the only things visible in the pitch, she could tell Rapunzel was crying, could see the fright within them even in
darkness.

"I think it is safe," Sawyer whispered, getting slowly to his feet, and Cinderella felt hands upon them, as Sawyer and Christophe helped them from the
forest floor.

Safe, within the night forest, had become a relative term, meaning they were in no imminent danger, though danger remained all around them in the shrieks
and calls of the ghouls.

"This place is wholly dreadful," Norco announced, one furry wing smacking Cinderella in the cheek as he flew too close. "Oh, was that a face?" he asked.

"Yes," Cinderella snapped. "It was my face."

"I am sorry." From somewhere in the nearby darkness, he sounded truly apologetic.

"It is all right," Cinderella deflated. Norco was hardly to blame. If anyone was at fault, she was, for it was her decision to leave the light of the
familiar field to journey through unknown forest. She was the one who had taken Grimm's threats to heart. She was the one worried he would come back for
them.

"You are right, Norco," Togo said, as if just meeting the conclusion. "It is rather dreadful. That was our eighth shrieking ghoul in the last hundred
steps."

"This journey stimulates stress enough on its own," Cinderella declared, looking toward the sky scoldingly, before realizing they could see her no more
than she could see them. "We do not need your commentary."

"We are only trying to help," Norco muttered.

"If you want to help, how about telling us a way out of the wood?" Cinderella returned. "For we do seem to be getting nowhere fast."

"Certainly," Togo responded at once. "Seize a ghoul."

"Seize a ghoul?" Rapunzel repeated.

"Yes, seize a ghoul," Togo replied. "They find us easily in the darkness, so they must be able to see in it. Seize a ghoul and borrow its sight."

The thought pure madness, Cinderella hadn't the time to determine it as such before another shriek pierced the air and the rest of her troupe fell to the
ground around her. Rapunzel's hand slipping from her own, Cinderella turned, feeling the sensation of the entity bearing down upon her, though she could
see nothing.

"Cinderella!" Rapunzel cried, trying to pull her down by the foot as Cinderella took the ghoul full on, feeling cold cape-like wings close around her as
they tumbled over the forest floor. Frustration driving her to action, she was not quite prepared for the attack. Shadowy head bowing toward her, the
ghoul's snarl was much too close, and she felt the sharp edge of fangs ooze a thick substance against her face.

"A little help!" she called out, and heard the others rushing toward her voice. From above, someone pulled the ghoul's head back, and Cinderella released
the terrified breath she had been holding. "Watch his fangs," she warned.

"Here." Togo's voice came from beside her, and Cinderella felt a thick branch thrust against her arm.

Taking it, she felt for the ghoul's fangs in the darkness, evading its sudden bite on fear alone, and shoved the branch into its mouth, effectively
prohibiting both its shriek and its bite.

"Get him on his back," she directed, twisting with the ghoul as the others peeled it off, and, together, they managed to pin it in place as its cold wings
struggled to get free beneath Cinderella's knees.

"Now what?" Sawyer asked, but Cinderella had no idea. Feeling Rapunzel's hand fumble onto her shoulder, she knew only that she needed to find a way out of
the forest, to get Rapunzel to safety.

"Now..." She tried to sound threatening. "If you bite me, I am going to be very unhappy. What is the fastest way out of the forest?"

Removing the branch from the ghoul's mouth, it snapped at her at once and Cinderella swung the branch into the side of its head, knocking its fangs away,
before following the sound of its responding growl to press the branch back into its mouth.

"Let us try this again," she said. "What is the fastest way out of here?"

As she pulled the branch free again, the ghoul opened its mouth on a shriek, but, another sharp knock from the branch stunned it long enough that
Cinderella could stuff the branch back into its mouth.

"Let me talk to it," Norco stated.

"Be careful, Norco," Cinderella returned, listening to Norco's soft footsteps approach the ghoul's head.

So softly whispered were Norco's words to the ghoul that Cinderella heard none of it, but when she felt the ghoul go strangely slack beneath her, she
wondered if Norco had somehow put the ghoul to rest.

"It shall show us to the forest's edge," Norco said.

"Are you certain, Norco?" she asked.

"As certain as certain can be," Norco replied, and he sounded so confident that Cinderella pulled the stick from the ghoul's mouth. Hearing the soft click
of fangs, though the ghoul made no effort to bite her, Cinderella realized it was not dead or asleep, but simply subdued.

"How did you do that?" she questioned.

"We do many things," Norco responded from just beside her shoulder, and Cinderella jumped.

"We are very helpful," Togo added.

"Yes." Cinderella smiled into the darkness. "You are that."

A few hundred paces later, they stood in a clearing outside a small village, the ghoul back to usual form, shrieking its resentment at them from the edge
of the trees. Whirling at the noise, Togo let fly a rock he had found in the dirt. It walloped the ghoul on his left fang, and the ghoul looked stunned for
a moment, before retreating back into the forest without another sound.

"Nice shot," Cinderella complimented, grateful for the moonlight overhead with which she could witness the event.

The sensation of soft fingers tracing the lesions on her palm drew her attention away, and Cinderella watched Rapunzel inspect the wounds. Catching the
fingers in hers, Cinderella raised dirty knuckles to her lips, drawing blue eyes with them, before pulling Rapunzel into true embrace, where she could be
certain of her existence. Residual fear shivering through Rapunzel's frame, Cinderella wondered what she thought of the world now.