But Ella wasn’t finished barking her orders. “Your soldiers need to warn the rest of our countrymen.”
“A delegation are already undertaking that task,” he assured her at the exact moment a distant crash reverberated through the walls. “Let’s get you to the cellar. We need to hurry.”
Too distracted by the nearing yells and screams, he paid scant attention to Ella’s uncharacteristic compliance, figuring she was too busy helping her injured stepsister to argue.
The crowd could hear the growing cacophony too, their movements becoming increasingly agitated. He fought to control his own agitation, although his stemmed from a need to be out there with his father and his men.
When they reached the cellar doors, he pulled her into an embrace, holding her as tight as he could, inhaling her scent, trying his hardest to imprint it into his senses.
“Be safe,” she pleaded.
“I will,” he said, a promise he fully intended to keep. The more he thought about it, the more convinced he was that Ella’s plan was perfect. From a short, bleak future, they now had the chance of a long, happy life. All they had to do was get through the night.
Closing his eyes, he kissed her, praying this would not be the last kiss they shared.
“I love you,” she whispered into his mouth, her hot, sweet breath tickling his skin.
“I love you too. Now go.”
He stood and watched as Ella, holding Izzy close, walked through the door and began to descend the stairs. His gaze stayed on her until she had disappeared into the palace’s bowels.
***
Despite its size, the cellar was packed. There was enough room for everyone to rest but it was a tight fit.
Ella helped Izzy onto the floor and made sure she was comfortable. Unfortunately the major flaw in her plan had revealed itself – under her direction approximately five hundred people had converged in a cellar that was, by its very nature, cold.
But they were safe. Given time, the shared body heat would warm them sufficiently. Or so she hoped. She wouldn’t be there to find out.
“Are you going somewhere?” Izzy asked when Ella remained standing, looking at the stairs.
“If I’m going to find Ana I need to leave now.”
Her stepsister’s eyes widened. “You can’t go back out there, Ella. You can’t.”
“I have to,” she replied simply. “I can’t wait here worrying about her.”
“Why? After the way she’s treated you, why?”
“Because she’s still a human-being.” Or at least Ella hoped she was.
“But…”
“And I need to get Itchy and Scratchy away from here.”
“They’re rats.”
“They’re the best friends I’ve ever had,” Ella contradicted. “And at this moment they have human form. If the creatures spot them, they won’t stand a chance.”
“Get the soldiers to bring them to safety.” Izzy’s voice had become shrill. “You can’t put yourself in such danger.”
“Itchy and Scratchy are terrified of humans – they won’t listen to anyone but me.”
At this, Izzy slumped forward and clutched at her hair with her good arm. “There’s nothing I can say that will stop you is there?”
On impulse, Ella knelt down and kissed her stepsister’s cheek. “I won’t be able to come back here until sunlight. I’ll see you in the morning.”
The glimmer of faith that resonated from Izzy’s eyes filled her with even greater determination.
Skipping back up the stairs, weaving in and out of the last people to file in, she reached the door and came face-to-face with the Queen. Her Highness was flanked by her maids and two high-ranking Knights. It was with some relief Ella noted Jonas was not one of them. There was no way he would allow her to leave. Even so, the Knights blocked her path.
“Going somewhere?” For someone so ill, the Queen’s face was positively alight with excitement.
“I have to find Ana,” Ella said, keeping her voice firm but polite. She didn’t bother mentioning Itchy and Scratchy. The Queen did not strike her as the sentimental type. “She knows nothing about the creatures or that there is any danger.”
“A foolhardy exercise.”
“Possibly,” she conceded. “But a necessary one.”
“You do realize that if anything happens to you, my son will be devastated?”
Ella’s throat closed. She really didn’t want to think about James, not when he was in so much danger. She nodded. “I know.”
“Then make sure nothing happens to you. This kingdom needs a Queen who can show these men we’re not all delicate little flowers.” To her Knights, she said, “Let her pass.”
After throwing Ella a most unladylike wink, the Queen descended into the cellar.
Despite everything, a bubble of laughter escaped from Ella’s mouth.
She hurtled through the corridor, the tightness in her chest loosening a fraction, only to constrict again when she reached the end and found two soldiers blocking her way.
“We have orders not to allow anyone to pass,” one of them said with pumped up authority. “You need to go to the cellar ma’am.”
She rolled her eyes. Where the heck did James find these men? Had Merlin cloned an army for him? Flashing her blade at them, she said in a voice that broke no argument, “Either you let me pass or I will poke this through your kneecaps. And don’t bother underestimating me just because I have breasts – I also possess a pair of balls; they’re just hidden from view. Now kindly let me pass.”
Whether her words had been enough to convince them to move would have to be debated another time, because the loudest explosion to date rent the air, startling the soldiers. Ella grabbed the opportunity and ducked between them, running as fast as she could away from the chaos and carnage at the front of the palace. Using only her sense of direction to keep heading straight, hiding from view any time a harried person came into view, she emerged outside a few minutes later in a large square at the rear of the palace.
Chapter Eight
The pumpkin carriage had been left in a neat row with dozens upon dozens of other moonlit carriages.
Ella looked up at the moon and wished she had paid more attention to the time. She rushed up to Itchy and Scratchy and threw her arms around them both. “Thank God. You’re both safe.”
All the other carriages were empty; the footmen all having been led to the cellar, the horses released to find safety for themselves. Only her faithful pets remained, loyally waiting for her to find them.
“Have you seen Ana?”
Unfortunately neither had mastered the art of talking human in the short time they had spent as men. Itchy shrugged.
“You haven’t seen her?”
He shrugged again.
“Do you even know what Ana looks like?”
Looking decidedly shamefaced, he shook his head. Ella knew why. The mere sound of Ana’s voice or footsteps had sent him and Scratchy diving for safety.
“Never mind,” she reassured him, rubbing his forearms. “Ana is in grave danger. We need to return home as quickly as possible.”
Itchy and Scratchy exchanged glances.
“I know she’s an evil bitch but beneath it all she’s still a human-being.” She didn’t add that it would be safer for them back at the house, especially in their current form. Itchy and Scratchy were nervous creatures at the best of times.
The reigns holding the horses that were really frogs to the carriage had already been unclipped. She stroked their loyal heads. “I hope you two can swim in this form,” she sighed. “The bridge at the front is, err, unavailable.”
If either of them were nervous, they gave no sign. The weight of their trust lay heavily on Ella’s heart.
It was only as they left the big square she realized how eerily deserted it was. Surely there should be guards at the back?
“Keep behind me,” she whispered, extending the blade of the knife. Scanning the area, she neither saw nor hea
rd anything untoward. Deliberately she blocked out the bloodcurdling sounds echoing from the front of the palace. She could not afford to think about it. She especially could not afford to think about anything other than reaching her home.
“All right boys, we’re going to run for it, okay?”
Itchy and scratchy both squeezed her shoulders; the horses nuzzled into her neck.
“All right then, let’s go.”
The bank was steep and it took every ounce of Ella’s concentration to remain upright. The horses ignored her instructions and galloped ahead, the frogs inhabiting their bodies no doubt delighting in this wonderful new experience made so much easier now they didn’t have the carriage attached to them. When they reached the bank they didn’t hesitate, plunging straight into the deep water.
For a moment they were both submerged. Ella’s pounding heart skipped with fear, but then their faces reappeared and they used all their froggy skills to get their new bodies across the water.
She skidded to a halt at the bottom of the grassy slope. Itchy and Scratchy did likewise, both falling onto their bottoms.
“Ready?” she asked.
The moonlight accentuated the terror on their faces but they both nodded. On the count of three they jumped.
The shock of the black, murky depths was so acute it almost paralyzed her. It took a few beats of total submersion before she kicked her legs and broke the surface, freezing water sloshing up her nose. She could only hope there were no nasty parasites lurking in it that would infect her brain. One deadly creature was enough to deal with for one night.
She swam as hard as she could through the reed-strewn water, hoping against hope that Itchy and Scratchy could swim in their new forms.
The frog-horses waited on the other side for them, their intelligent faces anxious. When she clambered out of the water and stood dripping and shivering violently before them, they nuzzled their great heads against her.
Her two human pets scrambled out after her, the living embodiment of drowned rats.
“We need to get home as quickly as we can,” Ella said through chattering teeth. Even her bones felt cold. “Can we ride on your backs?”
The horses nudged against her, displaying their acquiescence.
Thinking quickly, she decided to share one of the horses with Scratchy, leaving Itchy, who was the heaviest of them, to ride the other solo.
After helping her pets mount, she climbed up in front of Scratchy, accidentally knocking him with her swinging foot. Only by sheer luck did he remain seated.
Wrapping her arms around her steed’s neck, she whispered, “Run for your life gentle creature.”
And they were off, galloping over fields and meadows, the moon lighting their path, the crisp air cutting through them.
Scratchy clung to her, his head resting in the arch of her cold neck. Next to her she could see Itchy adopt the same position, his face practically buried in his horse’s thick black hair.
Soon the distant lights of Chauvigne, the town she called home, twinkled into focus. Cantering ever nearer, Ella refused to think of anything but the manor house she had lived in for her entire life. If she thought only of that, she would surely find safe passage to it, even if it was located at the far end of the town.
As soon as they entered Chauvigne though, it was obvious something was amiss.
The horses whinnied and made to slow down. “We have to keep going,” Ella yelled through the wind. Her words gave them the impetus to drive ever faster. As they galloped over the cobbled roads, images began to appear through the blur of her vision.
Dear God but the undead were there. Lights blazed in every house. Twitching bodies were strewn across the pavement.
How long had they been there? It was hard to imagine that this much destruction could have been caused in such a short time-frame.
She blocked her ears to the screams echoing through the whistling wind, praying their speed would prevent the wandering undead from fixing their attention on them.
It was a futile prayer.
One creature began to chase them. Like some sick game of dominos, its movement attracted the attention of others who, one by one, took up the chase until around a dozen were behind them.
“Faster!” she screamed. There was no chance of her extending the blade and using it, not unless she wanted to fall off.
But the creatures were gaining on them. Even as they left the main thoroughfare of the town and entered the suburbs, at the edge of which resided her home, they kept up the pursuit. Now they were running close enough that she could hear their pounding footsteps. What the creatures had lost in brainpower they had more than made up for with strength and speed.
In the distance behind them she made out the sound of clattering hooves. Before she could make sense of it though, the Chauvigne town clock began to chime the hour.
Both horses reared at the first clang. With a scream, Ella was thrown to the ground, landing in an undignified heap on top of Scratchy.
“Run!” she cried, scrambling to her feet. If she had suffered any injuries she could not feel them.
But Scratchy remained flat on his back, still. A trickle of blood seeped out of his ear.
To her horror, Itchy and the two horses were in no state to run either, all of them shrinking before her eyes. And the undead were barely two hundred yards away.
“Run!” she shrieked again, her voice hoarse, forcing her legs to move. It barely registered in her conscious that her feet now squelched in her old battered slippers.
She could never outrun them. Intellectually she knew that. But she was damned if she were going down without a fight.
Reaching into her bodice for her blade, she realized to her horror that it had gone. She was back in her ragged dress. This dress did not have a bodice. If the blade had survived midnight it was lying somewhere on the road.
The grunts from the undeads’ exertions were becoming louder but she did not dare turn back to look. All she could focus on was her house, the dim outline of which she could see in the distance.
Yells penetrated through the adrenaline, the distant hooves closing in but Ella could not afford to waste a single second wondering what it could be. Scratchy was lying prostrate on the cold ground, shrunk back into his natural form. Without pausing for thought, she closed a hand around him and scooped him up.
“Run,” she begged of Itchy and the two frogs, her legs propelling forwards.
Those revolting grunts were nearing and she felt the whisper of rancid breath on her neck. Then came the sound of a thud and before she had time to comprehend what was happening, a hand grabbed her ragged dress and she was lifted off her feet and thrown unceremoniously belly down across an enormous horse.
“Hold on,” James yelled, leaning his body forward to protect her.
But positioned as she was with her arms and head dangling over one side of the horse’s back and her legs the other, there was nothing for her to cling onto and no time for relief at her unexpected yet timely rescue.
In the suddenness of it all, she had dropped Scratchy.
Vaguely she was aware of riders accompanying them and the sound of swords carving the night air followed by dull thuds. Yet still those grunts followed in their wake.
They would never be able to outrun them she thought in despair. The magnificent horse was galloping so fast the road beneath her head was a cobbled blur. She had no idea how close they were to her home, could only pray they were nearly there. Then she realized the grunts were diminishing…
Maybe they had a chance.
“Get ready to jump off,” James ordered.
Jump off? She was lucky she hadn’t already slid off and crashed head first onto the cobbled ground.
Sooner than she expected, they came to a halt. James dismounted and pulled her down, wrapping a strong arm around her waist to keep her upright. Which was a good thing as her belly was rolling.
His terrified stead cantered away, closely followed by the dismounted soldi
ers’ horses. Even if they wanted to flee further they could not. With their horses gone, they were stuck.
She heard an intake of breath and lifted her head. The front door to the house was wide open.
“Jonas and Sebastien, come in with us,” James said, dragging Ella like a ragdoll up the steps. “Matthew, Gustave and Phillipe, you are to guard the front. I’m going to get Ella in the cellar.”
“No!” she screeched, spinning out of his hold and staring in terror at the dozen undead who were close enough for her to see the red in their eyes under the moonlight. “We have no time – we need to fight them.”
She had no weapon.
James must have had the same thought because he drew her behind him, sandwiching her between him and Jonas.
“Have you got a spare sword?” she asked at the same moment the nearest creature, who had streaked ahead of the others, pounced, leaping a good ten feet at Matthew, who swung his sword. Before the soldier could get a good enough aim he was knocked off his feet, the creature’s teeth already sinking into his face before his head smashed onto the ground.
Gustave and Phillipe both took a quick step backwards, back onto the steps of the house.
We’re all going to die, Ella thought. There were too many of them. They were all going to die and it would be all her fault.
“Fight!” James roared, dashing forwards and slicing his sword through the feasting undead’s neck. Without missing a beat he then sliced it through the neck of his felled comrade and snatched Matthew’s fallen sword, jumping back up the steps and thrusting it into Ella’s hands. Not that she would be able to use it. Her prince and his soldiers had formed a perfect circle around her.
She was effectively blocked from seeing anything, which made everything much worse. Her hearing became hyper-sensitive. She could hear every slap of running foot, every leap, every whoosh as the pack of creatures pounced and soared into the air, and every dull thud as they impacted…
The circle around her parted slightly, allowing her to see between James and Sebastien’s shoulders at the very moment one of the creatures soared into the air and hit an invisible barrier, sparks flying in all directions upon its impact.
Once Upon a Twist Page 6