by Holly Hook
Terror rose, and I checked to make sure no one was coming up the hallway behind us. It was dark. Impossible to see down. As far as I could tell, the world comprised of this place and a void.
This place not only where Mother wanted to send me.
It was also Alric’s lair.
We had come right to it.
"What about the people?" I asked, standing next to a box of swirling blue vapor. I wondered if the victim had been wearing blue when Alric had done this to them. "We can't just leave them down here."
Stilt shook his head. "I don't think we can free them. It's not our story. Fable doesn’t work that way."
I smashed my fists on the box. The glass refused to give way. It looked so thin, so easy to break, like the shiny stuff on our mirror. Perhaps the mirror and this glass were the same material. But it might as well be stone.
“I told you,” Stilt said. “Not our story. I want to free all these people just as much as you do, but we can’t. Someone else must do that. At least, for the first kingdom Alric did this to. It might be a different story for anyone else down here.”
Hope rose in me. "Henry. He came this way if he followed the story." I couldn't leave without him. We could help these people later.
"Look," Brie said.
She stood over in the middle of the room, to where a lone pedestal and a long glass box waited. Stilt and I walked over there and my mouth hung open.
Trapped inside the box was a young woman close in age to Brie and I.
She wore a pink dress and a necklace of pearls and her chest rose and fell as if she were in a deep sleep. She must be unaware of her situation, trapped in that box. I wondered what it was like to stay trapped inside a prison for so long.
But I didn't need to wonder. That was a feeling I knew.
Brie faced Stilt. "Do you think this is the woman in Alric's story?"
"It has to be," Stilt said.
"Alric has a story?" I asked.
"He's not immune," Stilt said. "He does. According to Mary, this is the woman who rejected him. He imprisoned her and the entire kingdom around her for it. But he's trying to make it that way. A young man needs to come and free her and these people. Alric knows this. It's why he's trying to take over all of Fable and crush all the other stories before that can happen."
"This is her," Brie said. She felt around the glass box for a handle, but there was none. "Do you think we can break her out?"
"There they are!"
I jumped.
Turned to face the corridor.
The old elf stood where the hallway and this chamber met, his face as wrinkled and evil as ever. He grinned and his eyes sparkled with hate in the firelight.
And behind him stood Mother.
She looked worse than ever. Her eyes had gone black and her skin had turned the color of our dinner plates, dead and cold. Her purple dress had gone to black and her hair contained several fiery red streaks. I could barely recognize her. She had turned into the woman from my nightmares.
And right behind her stood a tall, imposing figure in a black robe.
Alric.
Our elf friend had gone and found him.
And sealed our fates.
Chapter Fifteen
"Well, well," Alric said, taking a step into the room. "The three of you think you can change the outcome of my story. None of you will break her glass coffin. It is not your place to do so. I'm surprised you're not more concerned about the new arrival to your right."
Alric raised one arm and pointed to the side of the chamber the three of us hadn't investigated yet.
There were more jars sitting here, away from the others, some on pedestals and many others on the floor as if Alric couldn't find a space to put them all. Vapor swirled inside each one and there was another tiny village inside another box, this one complete with a small castle on a hill. Brie muttered something when she saw it.
It was the village they had just mentioned.
Henry’s kingdom.
But it was what waited next to it all, closest to Alric, that caught my attention.
Another glass coffin. Another sleeping body. This one wore a green shirt and had freckles.
"Henry!" I shouted, running past Alric.
The dark wizard didn't stop me. I splayed my fingers out on the glass. Henry lie inside, chest rising and falling, unconscious. His eyes remained closed, but something was wrong with them. One eye had sunk inwards. Crusted blood held the other together. The thorns had injured them. Henry might be blind.
Alric continued talking. I could only stand there and stare at Henry. "He wandered out here, barely able to see, just as the story predicted," Alric said. "Now at last, this prince has joined his kingdom. Look close. That's his kingdom in that other box. His home. He was the missing piece to the collection."
I whirled around to face Alric. "Let him out. Now." I eyed Mother, waiting for her to say something, but she remained silent and expressionless behind the dark wizard. How could I have come from such a woman? Mother always told me that mothers and daughters shared the same blood. I was light. She was dark.
Alric continued. "I love knowing these stories and knowing what people like you will do every single time. It makes things much easier for me. Aren't you tired of milling around like ants lifetime after lifetime, following the same tales, doing the same things over and over? Don't you want to change things?" He turned to Brie and Stilt. "You know what it's like to do that."
Brie backed away. She didn't speak.
"I never got the chance to thank the two of you for allowing me to rise to power," Alric continued. "I would like to do that now. Without you, Henrik would have continued to rule the dark region. Getting rid of that foolish man was the best thing you could have done for me."
My heart about stopped.
Brie and Stilt had allowed this dark wizard to rise to power?
Stilt shook his head. "We didn't do it for you."
"You did it for yourselves. I commend that," Alric said.
It was no wonder Brie and Stilt were on such a mission to work against him. It all made sense now.
Alric turned to face me. "And you," he said. The cold energy of his presence hit me and my skin prickled. I hated the way it felt. "You wound up out here, too, just like your story said you would. I knew you would turn up eventually though I expected my ravens to dispose of you before then." He took a step towards me. "You're too troublesome. Too full of light magic I cannot step on and crush."
He let those words hang, low and ominous. I thought of the magical rampion he had stepped on. I was that plant now. Alric wanted me as dead as that blossom still in my pocket.
“Mother,” I said. “Stop him. Please.”
"Do not kill her," Mother said. She made no motion to stop him.
Alric faced her. "You are enjoying your dark power," he said. "Stop trying to hold on to what you're not. Did you like your life of pretending to be an ordinary woman? Of tending to that garden over and over when there are grander things out there? Of pretending to be this girl's mother?"
A pause hung over the room. The old elf leaned against the mouth of the hallway, enjoying the show. I remained over Henry, protecting him against whatever Alric had planned.
Pretending to be my mother?
I faced her. "Is that true?"
She had never hugged me.
Mother shifted leg to leg. Alric reached up, dropped his hood, and smiled.
"Why don't you tell her the truth about her past?" Alric asked her. "About where she's from? How you stole her from the young, scared couple because the husband stole your rampion? And how you've used her for an entire life and kept her prisoner?"
"Mother?" I asked. The world went out from under me. "Is this true?"
She backed away and swallowed. Her eyes remained as black as ever.
"See?" Alric asked me. He was enjoying this. He wanted to cause me pain before he killed me or shut me inside one of these glass prisons. "Your entire life has been a lie.
You should be glad it's about to end."
I trembled. Alric would kill me in front of Mother. Or the woman I thought was Mother. "You're lying," I said.
Alric took up everything. "I am not. Right, Gothel?"
Mother hesitated. She clenched her fists repeatedly as if fighting with something within herself. Her black eyes shone in the firelight, making her look like a demon. And then she smiled. "He is right. I took you from the poor couple after they stole my rampion. That prized plant is the reason you're filled with light magic, Rae. Your mother ate it before she had you, and its properties passed to you. Serving me is your purpose. You owe me this after what your parents did after what they took from me. It is only fair."
"What?" I asked. "You stole me? But that's what bandits do!" I looked to Brie and Stilt, but they hung by the imprisoned woman. Stilt tried to raise one foot from the floor, but he couldn't. It was as if the two of them had frozen.
"I didn't steal you," she said. "Your parents and I made a deal. I spared their lives for you in return."
"That's disgusting!" I shouted.
"Come on, Rae," Mother—no, Gothel—demanded. She cut past Alric and pushed him out of the way. "We will find another tower far from here and start over. I need to braid your hair. You don't like me like this, do you?"
She took my arm. Her energy was cold just like Alric's. The wizard watched with patience.
I wrenched it out of her grip. "You don't love me," I said. "I don't owe you anything. If you even care about me a little, let Henry out of here!" All thoughts of my safety had vanished. In the back of my mind, I knew Alric was waiting for the right moment to kill me.
"But the world," she said. She lowered her voice to something smooth and terrible at the same time. "You saw how awful it is. We can go somewhere far away and leave Henry here to sleep in peace. He is better off here in this box."
I struggled to find the words, but at last they came. "I'm not going with you."
"But the world," Gothel repeated. She raised one hand. Her fingernails were long and terrifying as long as they were in my nightmare. "If you haven't learned your lesson by now, I fear you never will. I must take you by force."
She swung.
I ducked and her nails scraped against Henry's glass prison. Alric laughed and the old elf giggled.
"Get out of here!" Stilt shouted. He still struggled against the dark magic, trying to move.
Not all the world was bad.
Just this part.
And Gothel.
I rummaged through my dress pockets to find nothing. No knives. Just the blossom from the rampion I'd forgotten about. A warm feeling swept through my hand as I closed my fist around it.
Could it be?
"Freeze her," Gothel told Alric. "Freeze her like you did the others!"
I stood, and she raised her hand at me again. Cold, sharp energy surrounded me and my legs grew heavy, but I screamed and kept sliding along the rows of jars. One toppled and rolled away, carrying its vaporous prisoner with it.
"I can't freeze her," Alric shouted. "Kill her, Gothel. Take her hair. That's all you need to do." He stood back, waiting for her to do something. “We don’t have all day for this.”
She raised her hand again, ready to strike with her nails.
I pulled out the blossom.
She paused. The rampion flower glowed with its faint purple light, veins of magic pulsating as if Alric had never stepped on its parent plant. I held the flower high and Gothel stopped there, the glow falling on her face. She dropped her hand, transfixed.
The blossom had healed right in my pocket.
I had brought it back to life.
"Do you want this?" I asked. "This is what you've been after the whole time. Take it!"
Her mouth fell open. Behind her, Stilt and Brie watched, still unable to move.
"I said take it!" I shouted. "You won't need me anymore. Take this and we both go free!" I would keep my silent promise to her even if I never returned to that life.
Gothel reached out towards it.
I lunged forward and pressed the flower to her lips.
She groaned, but then gave up all resistance, chewing on the flower and swallowing it. The enchantress dropped her hands and swallowed the flower, but not before I caught the black in her eyes softening and the color returning to her skin. The rampion was chasing away her darkness.
Behind her, Alric moved closer. His cold energy grew more intense as he stared me down with hatred. I should get frozen like Brie and Stilt. He reached up, grabbed Gothel's shoulder, and shoved her out of the way.
"How dare you resist my magic, girl," he said. He reached into his pocket and drew out a dagger. "I must finish you myself. Then I'll finish this useless enchantress and imprison your friends."
I backed away into the jars. Two more toppled and went rolling. Alric closed the distance between us with the dagger.
And then I leaned against Henry’s glass box.
I would die here. And Henry would sleep for the rest of time.
I fumbled around and grabbed one jar, lifting it with both hands. I threw it at Alric as hard as I could. It cracked, but none of the vapor inside escaped. He cursed and kicked the jar aside as if it were nothing but trash. “There’s no need for that,” he said. “I don’t need you breaking up the Henry's kingdom.”
He raised the dagger.
And Gothel rammed into him from behind.
She wrapped her arms around him and pulled the dark wizard back. The two of them crashed towards Brie and Stilt, who only now could move their feet from the ground. Stilt dodged around the two of them as Gothel—or Mother—pulled Alric to the ground.
“Rae!” she shouted. “Get out of here!”
She was the Mother I had known all my life again, full of color. Alric struggled against her and tried to stab down with the knife, missing her arm by inches. He struggled for breath.
“Come on,” Brie said, waving me to the hallway.
“Not without Henry.” I turned towards his prison. Henry remained unconscious and unaware.
“You can’t break him out,” Stilt said. “Come on!”
Mother grunted behind me. Alric might hurt her.
She was doing this for me.
Alric had only said it wasn’t our place to break out the woman and her old kingdom.
Henry was my place. It was different. I glanced at the cracked jar from his kingdom that still lay on the floor.
I turned and smashed my fists down on his prison as hard as I could.
And the glass cracked.
“Stop, girl!” Alric shouted from the other side of the room. Another wave of cold energy washed over me, and I could sense it trying to freeze my limbs, but a surge of warmth started in my scalp and spread through me. I was holding off the dark magic. Resisting. The light inside me was more powerful than I thought.
I slammed my fists down again.
Another crack. Henry’s ruined eyes fluttered.
Again.
The glass broke with a roar and Henry blinked as shards rained on him.
“Henry!” I shouted.
He sat up and blinked like he wasn’t sure where he was. Glass fell off him and turned to dust. Another surge of sharp cold shot through the room and Stilt froze next to me. So did Brie. Alric had regained his focus.
“Where am I?” Henry asked. He tried to open his eyes but the bloody one stayed shut and the other had nothing inside of it. It was a horrifying sight. “Rae? Is that you?”
“Henry!” I wanted to wrap my arms around him and give him a hug, but time was of the essence here. “Your kingdom. It’s here!”
I helped him down. Henry whirled in a circle. Mother still held Alric down and she had blood seeping out of her forearm. Alric had stabbed her. She grit her teeth with the effort. She was buying me as much time as she could.
“What?” Henry asked. “I see light and that’s all.”
It was true. He was blind.
The cold energy wavered a
nd Brie pointed to the encased village and castle that stood next to Henry’s former prison. I wasn’t sure what would happen if I smashed the box, but I had to try something.
“Your kingdom!” I shouted. I rushed over to it, pulling him with me.
Mother cried out in pain. “Rae—run!”
Warmth rushed into my hands.
I smashed the glass as hard as I could, aware that Alric’s footfalls were closing in.
“Rae!” Brie shouted.
I smashed again. Glass rained down on the tiny buildings and trees and the castle that stood on a hill that must have once been imposing.
Warmth rose from the village and filled the room. Light exploded and I blinked, lost in a void of gold and white. I was falling. I flailed and found Henry’s hand. Then I pulled him close and we wrapped arms. Hugged. I didn’t know what was happening. Perhaps Alric had killed us both and we hadn’t realized it yet. A breeze blew against me, fresh and clean, and I pressed my face up to Henry’s. Tears flowed from my eyes and mingled with his. We were falling together.
I closed my eyes.
And then, silence.
Chapter Sixteen
“Rae, what just happened?” Henry asked.
We still hugged. His heart raced against mine and I never wanted to let him go. If we were dead, then this wasn’t so bad. Alric wasn't shouting anymore. Light shone on the other side of my closed lids.
“I don’t know,” I said. I lifted my face from his and opened my eyes.
It was daylight.
Henry blinked at me. His one green eye and one brown eye were whole. Amazed.
“I can see again,” he said. “I can see!” He let go of me and whirled around, staring at all the bright trees and the fields and the houses that surrounded us.
Trees. Houses.
We had been in Alric’s secret chamber seconds ago.
Now the sun shone overhead, and a shadow raced across the ground as a cloud moved through. I followed Henry’s lead and whirled around. We stood in a village and Brie and Stilt leaned against one house, whispering to each other. A small castle on a hill overlooked everything and a gentle wind blew through the trees, making them whisper.