[Half/Time 01] Half Upon a Time (26 page)

They found Phillip, or more accurately, his shoes, at the top of another enormous pile of snow. After some digging, Phillip emerged in one piece—at least relatively, considering he was still wounded from Malevolent’s torture. May and Phillip were completely numb, but the heat of the green dome
quickly helped, melting the snow from their clothes and warming them up.

“We’ve definitely found the snow part of the palace,” Jack said when they’d all regained feeling in their extremities.

“So where is it?” May said, glancing around.

“Mellifluent, show us the Palace of the Snow Queen,” Jack ordered the dragon, who for once complied without arguing. She chanted a few more words, and the green dome opened on one side to allow a tunnel to stretch forth. As they watched, the green-light tunnel extended farther and farther, finally stopping at what looked to be twin tornadoes of swirling wind and snow.

“That is the entrance to the Palace of the Snow Queen,” Malevolent said. “The walls are made of snow, the windows and doors formed by the wind. I have transported you here, now I
demand
that you release me!”

“Nah,” Jack said absently, staring with the rest of them at the doors to the palace. How could someone open a door made of wind?

Phillip stood up and brushed the remaining snow from his pants. “Well, my friends,” he said, “it appears that we have reached the end of our journey. With a few more steps, we
will finally rescue Snow White, the beloved grandmother of Princess May.” He smiled. “I am actually surprised we made it.”

Jack almost laughed. “Me too, honestly,” he agreed. “Not that we’re done or anything, but … wow.”

Even May grinned. “I can’t believe we’re finally here,” she said, a strange look on her face.

Jack put a hand on her shoulder. “Ready to rescue Snow White, Princess?” he asked, and now he couldn’t help smiling too.

She stuck out her tongue. “You’ve got no idea.”

Jack nodded, finding himself much more excited than he would have expected.
This must be how it feels to complete an adventure.
No wonder so many tried it. It was intoxicating!

“Can you make it?” Jack asked Phillip, who’d limped over to stand next to the princess.

The prince winced a bit, and even that seemed to be painful for him. “I am hurt, I admit, but I would not miss this.”

Jack stopped for a moment, then slapped himself in the head. “Mellifluent!” he said. “Heal Phillip!”

The dragon let loose a stream of obscenities, this one small act seemingly the last thing she’d
ever
be willing to do. Finally, though, the magic of the reins overpowered her will, and she
chanted the spell under her breath. Before their eyes, the bruises and cuts faded from Phillip’s body, and he stood up straighter, a smile coming over his face as he did. Even his clothes had been repaired.

“Those reins really are quite useful,” the prince said happily.

Jack nodded, looking from Phillip to May, and suddenly he felt the need to say something profound. “You know, this might be the last time we three are together without things going crazy, so I just wanted to say—”

“You can have a good cry later, girls,” May interrupted. “Time to go!” With that, she broke into a run for the green-light tunnel, leaving Jack staring after her with an open mouth. Phillip looked at him, shrugged, then sprinted after her. Jack grinned and shook his head, then ran to catch up to the other two.

As Jack reached the green dome’s tunnel he could just make out the outline of the palace on the other side, an enormous castle that didn’t look built so much as sculpted from snow, carved into place by whatever forces had designed it. Spirals of ice erupted from the snow walls on either side of the wind doors, gleaming with terrible beauty in the light of the green dome. The walls themselves loomed higher than Jack could see, carved to resemble stone. Besides the white color, the only thing giving
away the fake stone was the fact that the snow was so dense and smooth it actually glowed.

“This place is incredible,” Jack said, almost breathless from the sight.

“How do we get in, then?” May said, staring at the two tornadoes in front of them.

Before Jack could even open his mouth to respond, the tornadoes began to slowly pull away from each other, separating enough to open the way into the palace.

And there, in between the two doors of wind, stood someone dressed all in green.

The Huntsman grinned widely. “Well, then,” he said. “I hope you didn’t have too much trouble finding the place?”

Jack didn’t even pause at the sight of the Huntsman. Instead, he leapt forward, yanking his sword from his back with both hands as he sprinted straight at the man blocking the entrance to the palace. The Huntsman pulled out his own axe, ready for Jack to swing at him.

Except Jack never swung. Midway through his run, Jack whipped his arms forward and threw his sword end over end right at the Huntsman.

The man’s eyes went wide with surprise and he ducked under the sword, bringing his head down to the level of Jack’s shoulder just as Jack’s momentum crushed the two together with a loud crack. Both dropped to the ground, Jack clutching his shoulder
in pain but smiling, the Huntsman clutching his head in pain and moaning.

The larger man shook it off quickly and jumped back to his feet with a fierce growl, only to have Phillip slam the broadside of the Huntsman’s own axe right into the man’s face. The blow threw the Huntsman backward, knocking him to the ground again. He landed hard on his back, the air whooshing out of his lungs.

Before the Huntsman could even take a breath, a shadow covered his face. The Huntsman blinked and looked up to find May standing over him, the point of Jack’s sword at his throat.

“We’re ready to see my grandmother now,” the princess said calmly.

There was a pause, and Jack briefly wondered if it could be that easy.

“No,” the Huntsman said, his eyes twinkling maliciously.

“I’m sorry?” May responded incredulously, pushing the tip of Jack’s sword into the man’s throat until a dot of red blood appeared. The Huntsman swallowed as the sword bit into him, its white glow lighting his face eerily. Yet again, he refused.

“She’ll do it, you know,” Jack told him. “Is this really worth your life?”

“That’s right,” May said. “I’ll do it!” She nodded to Jack, who nodded back.

“You have no idea what you’re playing with,” the Huntsman said. “If she finds out you have
his
sword …”

“We’ll worry about that,” May told the Huntsman. “You worry about the fact that this thing’s getting heavy.” With that, she lifted up the sword so it hung about a foot over the man’s neck. Then she dropped it.

Jack could have sworn the Huntsman’s eyes popped right out of his head before May caught the sword an inch above his neck. “I could do this all day,” the princess said with her half smile.

The Huntsman winced. “I’ll take you to your grandmother, all right?” he said. “Just let me up!”

May nodded, backing off a little to give the Huntsman some room … and he swept his right leg up, kicking May’s hand hard enough to send the sword flying from her grasp. A second later he was back on his feet with a grin.

“You kids are so gullible,” the Huntsman said, chuckling. He put a toe under the axe Phillip had dropped, then kicked the weapon up and grabbed it in midair. “Did you really think it would be
that
easy?”

Jack sighed. If only.

“I’m glad you kids finally figured out where we had your dear old gran,” the Huntsman said, casually twirling his axe in front of him in a figure eight. “I thought you’d
never
get here.”

“Shows what you know!” May shouted. “We
didn’t
figure it out! The Mirror told us!”

“Good one,” Jack murmured to her.

“I’m
useless
without my sarcasm,” May said, shaking her head.

The Huntsman took a step forward. “So!” he said happily. “Who’s first?”

Jack and Phillip both moved toward the giant of a man, but he kept them at bay by swinging his axe in a large arc, all the while keeping himself between May and the sword, which lay on the ground a few feet away. “Did you
really
think you could take me down like that?” the Huntsman asked incredulously. “It was just so
easy
to let you think so, thereby trapping you in the palace without all that fuss we’ve had the last couple of times we met.”

“Trapping …?” Jack said, then spun around to look behind him just in time to see the twin tornado doors whirling closed. And now, between them and the door appeared seven small, ugly creatures, the same ones that had attacked May in her home.
Each one hefted a nasty-looking pickaxe, and each one looked ready to use it.

They were trapped.

“And to think!” the Huntsman said. “I spent all that time hunting you down, girlie, when I should have just waited here!”

“We might be trapped,” May said, faking confidence, “but this isn’t all of us!”

“Who else … oh, you mean the wolf?” The Huntsman laughed loudly. “After the last time, I’d be surprised if he was fool enough to face me again!”

“Count me a fool, then,” said a voice from behind them. Jack turned around again just as the wind doors exploded into thousands of little breezes. Filling the now empty doorway was Malevolent, still in dragon form, with the human Wolf King riding on her back, reins in hand.

He quickly dropped the reins, then leapt down from her back, landing directly on two of the small monsters—dwarfs, they looked like. Without even a pause, the wolf kicked those two hard enough to send them flying into the snow walls, where their helmets crashed into the snow stone with loud
gongs
.

Two others leapt for him, but the wolf jumped straight into the air, leaving the dwarfs to collide below him. He came
down on top of the second pair of dwarfs, knocking both to the ground. He reached down slowly to pick up an axe in each hand, twirled them around for a moment, then launched both right at the Huntsman.

The Huntsman knocked the pickaxes straight to the ground with his own axe. “Are you
challenging
me?” the Huntsman asked disbelievingly.

“I hardly think it will be a challenge,” the Wolf King said, an evil smile on his face. “You caught me unaware the last time we met. Do you dare fight me face-to-face this time, coward?”

The Huntsman returned the smile. “I think we both know the answer to
that
,” he said, as dwarf arms grabbed the wolf’s cape from behind, yanking the animal off balance. “You see,” the Huntsman continued, “I
would
face you man to … well,
dog
, but why take the chance when I can take you down underhandedly?”

As the wolf fell backward he pushed off with his feet to land hard on the dwarfs behind him. The one remaining dwarf drove its axe toward the wolf’s face, but the wolf kicked up, knocking the axe into the air and the dwarf off balance. By the time the Wolf King caught the axe, he’d slammed the dwarf back against the snow wall, knocking it out. “I believe it is time you took that chance,” he said to the Huntsman.

The Huntsman shrugged. “I’ve faced worse.”

“The real question is,” the wolf said, a large grin playing over his face, “have you been
distracted
by worse?”

The Huntsman frowned, then spun around, his axe at the ready.

Unfortunately for him, Jack, May, and Phillip were gone, the wind door on the opposite end of the courtyard blowing wildly as it swung open.

Behind them, the Huntsman bellowed in rage, a roar that ended abruptly as the wolf let out his own howl. Jack didn’t bother looking back; whatever was happening, the Wolf King was on his own. If the wolf could keep the Huntsman distracted for long enough, the three of them might actually have a chance to find Snow White and get out alive. Of course, there was also the Wicked Queen to deal with, but Jack was trying to stick to one thing at a time.

It didn’t help, therefore, that the hallway beyond the courtyard ended in a room with three different doors.

“Nothing can ever just be
easy
!” May shouted in frustration.

“Should we split up?” Phillip asked.

Jack nodded. “May, you go right,” he said to the princess. “Phillip, you go straight; I’ll take the left. If you don’t find anything, come back and follow someone else.” Jack pushed Phillip toward the center door, but grabbed May by the shoulder. “Here,” he said, giving her the witch’s knife. “You might need it. Just remember—”

She snorted. “Yeah, it cuts everything but people. You know, I
so
had a sarcastic comment ready there.”

Jack smiled, then gently pushed her toward the door on the right. After watching the other two leave the room, he turned and ran through the left-hand door.

Jack found himself in a long passageway with multiple doors on either side, each of which he ignored for the time being, as at the end he saw a spiral staircase going down. Hopefully, Snow White had built her castle like any other civilized person would have done, putting the dungeon underground.

He took the stairs two at a time, doing his best not to slip on the snow stone the stairs were made of, despite the fact that the snow seemed as dry as rock. As Jack passed floor after floor he realized that he was so deep in the castle now, he’d be absolutely no help to May or Phillip if this was the wrong direction.

And it was. The stairs abruptly ended in a solid wall of ice, a wall he plowed right into, smacking his head against it with a loud
conk
.

“Owwwwwwwww!”
he yelled, stumbling backward to trip on the step behind him. He landed hard on his bottom, and for a second, he wasn’t sure which hurt more, his rear end or his throbbing head. And then the shock of the impact wore off, and he quickly declared his head the winner as sharp pains spread like lightning bolts through his skull. This brought on an even louder scream, one that, in his frustration, he didn’t bother holding back.

As the pain gradually subsided Jack pushed himself to his feet and stared angrily at the offending wall. Who in their right mind would ever build a wall smack in the middle of a stairway?!