Half Upon a Time

by James Riley

  Jack fell to the stairs and took a deep breath, waiting until his head stopped pounding to get back up. Within a few seconds it did, and other than a tiredness deep in his bones, Jack didn’t actually feel too horrible. Everything seemed a little less bright in the palace now, but other than that, things hadn’t changed much.

  May’s grandmother, though, looked as if she’d dropped a few years off her age. “Thank you, dear!” she said, her eyes burning brightly. “I apologize for doing it … as I’m sure it wasn’t pleasant, but as I said, you’ll recover quickly. Meanwhile, I believe it is time to find my granddaughter.” With that, Eudora strode up the rest of the stairway and down the subsequent hallway, leaving Jack out of breath and struggling just to keep up.

  With Eudora leading the way, they quickly found themselves back in the room with three doors. Just as they passed through the doorway into the room, though, something very large and very green came flying past them to slam into the wall just a foot or two from Eudora. The green object slid down to the floor, still breathing, but just barely.

  It was the Huntsman.

  From the hall leading to the courtyard, the Wolf King walked into the room in his human form, grinning his wolfish grin. The animal was breathing hard, and his left arm was hanging limply at his side, but otherwise, he looked fine.

  “That was invigorating,” the wolf said. He approached Jack and Eudora, then dropped to one knee in front of May’s grandmother. “Your Majesty,” he said in a low voice. “We have missed you.”

  “Oh, do get up, my friend,” she said to him. “You honor me too much.”

  The wolf stood back up, the grin still locked on his face. Jack hadn’t ever seen him look so happy. “You have no idea what this means to me, Your Majesty,” the wolf said to her, shaking his head as if in disbelief.

  She curtsied to him. “I’m pleased to see you as well, Your Majesty. However, we’re on our way to find my errant granddaughter and have little time for pleasantries. Please, do accompany us. By the by, you have my gratitude for bringing her to me.”

  “It was my pleasure,” the wolf said.

  “And now we are three,” May’s grandmother said. “Which door did my granddaughter go in, Jack?”

  Jack led them to the door. “This one,” he said, “though she might have doubled back and—”

  “No, no,” May’s grandmother said. “She’s down this hallway; I can feel it. Shall we?” The older woman led the way, followed closely by the wolf. Jack brought up the rear, though he did allow himself a second to quickly kick the unconscious Huntsman. Such a small thing, and yet it made him so happy.

  The hallway behind the door on the far right had a few doors on either side, yet May’s grandmother bypassed them all, striding confidently toward a door at the far end of the hall. This door she threw open and marched through.

  The room beyond the door was an opulent suite, filled with every shade of red imaginable, from the bed linens to the cushy rugs and heavy drapes. And there was May, standing in the middle of the room with her back to them. The princess was breathing hard as she whipped her head around, looking for something … or someone. “I know you’re here!” she yelled.

  “Jack,” Eudora whispered, then gently touched him on the forehead.

  Instantly, the whole room brightened into a sort of hyper-focus for Jack. The reds of the linens and rugs, the molten golden-orange of the flickering firelight, every color in the room grew so vibrant they almost hurt his eyes just to look at them.

  And then Jack saw her: The Red Hood, invisible to the naked eye, stood right in front of the princess, preparing to strike.

  “May!” Jack yelled out. “Go left!” Without waiting for a response, Jack swung his bag up and launched it right at the spot May had been standing only seconds before, the spot where the Red Hood had just thrown herself.

  May hit the ground to the left, and the bag slammed into the Hood, knocking her to the floor. As she landed the Hood’s head bounced against the hard snow below the red rug with a loud crack, knocking her unconscious.

  May jumped back to her feet and turned to the doorway. “Jack!” she yelled in surprise. “How did you …” And then she trailed off, finally noticing who was with him. “Grandma?” the princess asked in a very small voice.

  Eudora just smiled in response, her eyes glistening with tears.

  “Grandma!” May shouted, and threw herself into the arms of her grandmother, almost knocking them both to the ground. The two hugged and cried, each trying to talk to the other but not making much sense through the flowing tears.

  Neither seemed to care at all that they were still in danger, or that they hadn’t quite escaped yet, and Jack was hardly going to remind them. After all this time, May deserved her moment.

  For his part, Jack had to look away for a second to wipe his eyes. He caught the wolf looking at him, so covered his watering eyes by sniffing loudly. “Dusty room,” he said, and the Wolf King just grunted.

  And then Jack heard footsteps behind door to his left. “Jack?” said a voice. Jack twisted around, prepared for anything, but fortunately found only Phillip.

  The prince stood in the now open doorway … well, leaned against it actually, though he didn’t look like he was in pain. Other than looking a bit pale in the face, in fact, the prince looked as healthy as the day they’d met.

  “Phillip!” Jack said, smiling widely. “Look who we found!” He stepped away from the wolf so Phillip could witness the touching reunion of May and her grandmother.

  “Jack,” Phillip hissed, losing more color. The prince paused, licked his lips, and continued. “We have a very, very, very large problem.”

  “I know,” Jack said, moving to block the prince from May and her grandmother; they weren’t going to be interrupted if he had anything to say about it. “We’re not safe yet, but we can give them a minute, right? I mean, after all they’ve been through—”

  Phillip shook his head over and over. “It is not that,” he said, still staring at May, his eyes wide open. “I have … I have to show you something….”

  “What?” Jack asked, but Phillip just grabbed his arm and pulled him back through the doorway. Before Jack could protest, the prince yanked him into an adjacent room, this one empty but for a stone table in the center, covered by what looked to be a large block of ice.

  Jack looked questioningly at Phillip, but the prince just pointed at the stone table. Jack swallowed hard, then walked over to the table.

  The ice was too cloudy to see through, but there was definitely something inside it, something long and thin … almost like a body. In fact, the block of ice resembled nothing less than a coffin.

  “What …?” Jack started to say, turning back to Phillip, but the prince pointed down at a plaque on the floor in front of the stone table. Jack bent down to look.

  “‘Poisoned by the Wicked Queen,’” he read out loud. “‘Here sleeps the fairest—’”

  Back at the door, Phillip cleared his throat. “Jack,” he said softly. “You told me—”

  “Guys?” May said from the doorway, her grandmother and the wolf at her side. All three entered the room as Jack stood up. Phillip moved to stand near Jack, his face now as white as the snow walls.

  May immediately noticed. “Phillip, what’s wrong?”

  Before the prince could answer, the entire group heard footsteps coming from down the hall. The wolf stepped into the shadows to surprise whoever it was, while Eudora pushed her granddaughter behind her.

  A moment later a tall, imposing woman swept into the room, her deep blond hair longer than the woman was tall. Every conceivable method of tying that hair had been used in one place or another on the woman’s head, yet it still ran down her entire body, past her feet, and back up again like an unending golden rope. The woman’s thin body was covered by a luxurious gown of icy blue, while a circlet of white gold graced the very top of her head.

  Behind her in the hallway, guards drew their swords and prepared to at
tack. “I see you’ve escaped your cage, Eudora,” the blond woman said.

  “Oh, no,” Jack said as every bit of energy, every bit of hope, every bit of happiness drained out of him like water. “Oh, no, no, no.”

  “Apparently iron shoes weren’t enough,” the woman said, her blazing eyes betraying her calm speech. “We’ll be sure to do better this time.”

  “Grandma, is that the Wicked Queen?” May whispered to her grandmother.

  Eudora smiled sadly at her granddaughter, and inside, Jack died. He wanted to yell out, to warn May, to reach out and protect her from this. However much he wanted to, though, his arms and mouth just didn’t get the message. Instead, he could only watch, absolutely horrified.

  “Grandma?” May repeated.

  Eudora reached out a hand to brush an errant hair from May’s face. “No,” she said. “That’s not the Wicked Queen, my beautiful little month of May. At least, not the way you mean.”

  “Surrender, Eudora,” said the woman in the doorway. “Step away from the girl, and she won’t be hurt.”

  “She’s my granddaughter,” Eudora said loudly to the new woman, her calm demeanor disappearing for the briefest of moments. She immediately steadied herself, though, and the calm returned. “She will be coming with me,” Eudora said, quite evenly this time.

  “What …,” May said, backing away from her grandmother, Jack, the blond woman—everyone. “What is going on, Grandma?” she asked, her voice shaking. “Please tell me.”

  “Hush, May,” Eudora said, her attention elsewhere.

  “This witch is not your grandmother, child,” the blond woman said, “no matter what lies she told you.”

  “I am her grandmother,” Eudora said, her voice rising in volume as the air around her sparked and sizzled. “And she is my granddaughter! She will come with me!”

  May looked from her grandmother to the blond woman and back again. Finally, she turned to Jack. “You know what’s happening, don’t you?” she asked him quietly.

  He nodded in response, not knowing what else to do.

  May took a step toward him, her face a mask of puzzled concern. “Jack, tell me what’s going on. Please.”

  Jack licked his lips and tried to breathe. For a second, he thought he might not be able to, and he almost choked, but a moment later fresh air spilled into his lungs. He sucked air in, closing his eyes as he did.

  “Jack,” May said, and he felt her hand grab his. “I need to know.”

  Jack opened his eyes again, though he found he couldn’t actually look at the princess. “I know you do, May,” he said, staring at the ground. “Your grandmother is the Wicked Queen.”

  Chapter 42

  Jack quickly looked up to see May’s reaction, but she wasn’t looking at him. In fact, she was staring at the ice coffin, her mouth hanging open slightly.

  “May,” he said softly, but she didn’t move. “May,” Jack said again, a bit louder this time. “We need to get out of here.”

  “You will do no such thing,” Eudora said, taking a step toward May. “This is my granddaughter. I care little what you told her, what stories you filled her head with.” Eudora held out a hand toward the princess. “May, dear, come here.”

  May finally moved, turning to look at her grandmother, though she still said nothing.

  “Child,” said the blond woman, the proper queen of the West. “Come away from her. I have no wish to see you harmed, and I doubt she will surrender peacefully.”

  Eudora smiled gently. “Oh, there will be no more surrendering, Rapunzel,” she said. Her eyes flashed crimson for a brief moment, and suddenly a wall of red fire filled the doorway behind the blond woman, blocking off all entry and exit. “It still galls me that you, the least of your pathetic little band of rebels, would be the one to capture me,” she continued. “But now you face me on your own, without your precious Huntsman or those little dwarf allies of his. Do you really think you can challenge me?”

  Phillip quietly stepped over to Jack and May. “Princess,” he whispered, “blame me. I should have realized—”

  Jack shook his head. “No, it was me who—”

  May whirled around to face her grandmother. “Tell me.”

  Eudora’s eyes narrowed as they turned toward May. “Tell you what, dear?” she said, her voice calm.

  “Tell me what you did here,” May said, just as calmly. “Tell me why they call you the Wicked Queen.”

  Eudora sighed. “May—”

  “No words could do her deeds justice, girl,” Rapunzel said, her gaze locked on Eudora. Slowly, she drew a sword from her back, where it had been held in place by a scabbard shaped out of her own hair. “The evil performed in her name would make you shudder. But if you want proof …” She pointed her sword at the ice coffin in the middle of the room.

  “There lies the Wicked Queen’s stepdaughter,” Rapunzel said, her voice now shaking. “The same stepdaughter the Queen ordered the Huntsman to kill, child. You see, the Magic Mirror foretold that Snow White would someday help bring down her reign, so the Wicked Queen ordered her murdered. The Huntsman couldn’t do it, though, thankfully … so the Queen had no choice but to trick Snow White, poison her. That poison still runs through her veins, and there she lies, but a hair from death’s embrace.”

  May never took her eyes off Eudora during Rapunzel’s speech. “Is … is that true, Grandma?” she said softly.

  Eudora reached out and took May’s hands in her own. “May,” she said, “all I ask is that you remember the love I’ve shown you. Did I not raise you to be the young woman you are today? You must listen to your heart, my little May. You belong with me. We lived happily for so long, the two of us against the world!” Her voice raised, then quickly softened to the point where Jack could barely hear her. “Don’t let them take you from me, May. Don’t let that happen.”

  May took a step closer to her grandmother, her eyes wide, though with anger or something else, Jack didn’t know. “Is it true?” she asked again.

  There was a pause, and then the Wicked Queen nodded. “Yes, May,” she said, “and much more, besides. Every story has a basis in truth. But you don’t understand why—”

  “It’s enough that it’s true,” May said, then took another step toward her grandmother.

  “Back away, child,” Rapunzel said, bringing her sword to bear on Eudora.

  “May, please!” Phillip said. Desperately, the prince turned to the Wolf King. “We need to get the princess out of here,” he pleaded with the animal. “Get her back to the dragon. We can escape.”

  The wolf just smiled. “I’m not sure whose side you think I’m on here, boy,” he said. And with that, the wolf stepped over to stand by Eudora.

  “What … betrayer!” Phillip screamed in astonishment.

  “That one betrayed us long ago,” Rapunzel said, her eyes on the Wicked Queen. “Despite swearing allegiance to Snow White, he switched sides when we broke into the Queen’s castle for the Mirror. If the Charmed One hadn’t joined us, we’d all have died. Since then, I’ve had men tracking the wolf, but he’s always managed to elude them.”

  “He was in the Black Forest,” Jack said quietly.

  Rapunzel paused, then nodded. “Clever, wolf. You hid in the one place we couldn’t follow.”

  The Wolf King bowed mockingly, then turned to Jack. “I would have you know, children, that I never betrayed you. I did exactly as I swore I would: I helped your little princess free her grandmother—no more, no less.”

  He then shifted his gaze to Phillip. “As for the dragon, princeling … I released Malevolent from the reins.” He grinned widely. “She did betray my Queen Eudora after serving her loyally for many years, but how could I kill so engaging a foe at her weakest? Instead, I shall hunt her down wherever she hides, paying her back for her disloyalty.” Nodding toward the room where the half-visible Red Hood still lay, he said, “I see someone already caught my last prey.”

  “Another one I owe you, monster,” Rapunzel said, h
er eyes burning with rage and tears. “Not only did the wolf betray Snow White, he terrorized her sister, Rose,” she said, pointing back toward where the Red Hood lay. “Rose Red gave up everything to hide the Mirror from the wolf, day after day, year after year.” Her sword raised, Rapunzel stepped toward Eudora and the Wolf King. “I will not let her sacrifice be in vain.”

  “You always were a melodramatic little girl,” Eudora said with a faint smile. “I sometimes think Snow kept you around for entertainment. Still, you grow tiresome, and it’s far past time that I taught you your proper place.” With that, the Wicked Queen reached down, and suddenly Jack realized she was holding his grandfather’s bag. She must have picked it up when he’d thrown it at the Red Hood.

  And then his blood went cold. The bag still held the Mirror.

  Eudora reached in and withdrew the Mirror, glancing at herself in the glass. “And thankfully,” she said, fixing a stray hair, “I have my most powerful weapon back in my hands. Oh, don’t worry, it’s working quite well now, thanks to these children. You have no hope of defeating me, Rapunzel,” Eudora said, her voice as monotone as the genie’s. “You will lose.”

  Rapunzel smiled softly. “Isn’t that what you said the last time?” With that, she lunged for the Queen, thrusting her sword straight at Eudora.

  The Queen didn’t even bother moving. Instead, the Wolf King leapt forward, blocking Rapunzel’s blow with a sword of his own, a sword glowing with swirling white fog. Jack’s feet went cold as he quickly checked the scabbard on his back, only to confirm it was empty. The wolf must have taken it while Jack was distracted.

  Jack wasn’t the only one who noticed the sword. “That sword!” Rapunzel said, her eyes wide as she fell back away from the wolf. “Where did you—”

  Eudora smiled again. “It wouldn’t be the first time Snow’s late husband served me. Let this make up for his subsequent betrayal.”