Once Upon a Time

by C J Preece

  “You were sent to the Farm?” She said at last. “And you went willingly?” She didn’t have to elaborate on that. Normally Goldie would have run to the ice kingdom if you told her to go to the desert, just to be contrary.

  Goldie slid off the bike. “Belle convinced me.”

  “Belle!” Red threw her hands up. “Why am I not surprised?”

  “What did she tell you?”

  “Not much. She said that something was coming, and then she gave me the message that you’d been captured and I didn’t really listen to the rest.” Feeling a little calmer, she walked back to the bike. “Why did you go?”

  “Ateer’s a mess.” Goldie got off the bike and leaned against it it. “You’ve been gone, so you don’t know. But things are really bad. Belle and Adam were looking into it, and they started to find things. So they called in as many of us as they could find. I know they had Kay and Greta, and Li-en, and I even think I saw Savitri.”

  That startled her. She could understand calling in Kay and Greta, but Li-en and Savitri were powerful and respected. Things had to really dire for Belle to think of asking them for help. “What was she doing?”

  “She sent us all out to look for any clues or hints as to what’s coming,” Goldie brought a map out of her jacket. Red noticed that she was wearing some sort of armour on her arm. It covered from the wrist to halfway up her left forearm, and seemed to have buttons and displays set in it. Goldie spread the map out on the back of the bike. “I went to the Farm, Kay and Greta to the ice kingdom. Li-en was searching the cloud palaces. I don’t know where Savitri was going.”

  “I bet it was nowhere good.” The map had another cross over the location of an old brick house, now long empty, on the way to the Farm. “Why did you go there?”

  “I was supposed to search several places. I couldn’t find anything in Ateer, so I was sent out to the pig’s house, then the Farm. That was a month ago.”

  “The pig’s house…” Red balled her fist. “Is He back?”

  Goldie put a hand on her back, steadying her, allowing her to breathe again. “I didn’t find anything. As far as I know he’s still out in the wild. Whatever’s coming, he has nothing to do with it.”

  “And neither does the rest of the Farm by the looks of it.” She folded the map back up and handed it back to Goldie. “But I need to talk to Belle.”

  Goldie raised an eyebrow. “Talk. Shout at. Possibly shoot at. What’s the difference?”

  “Very funny.” They got back on the bike. “I’m not going to shoot her. Unless of course it turns out she waited for me deliberately.” Renard’s words were still rolling round her head. Every second it was getting easier to believe Belle had sent her deliberately to cause chaos.

  “Would anyone else have been able to get me out?” Goldie said in her ear. This time when she put her arms round Red’s waist she relaxed into it.

  “Probably not. I do have a certain way with the animals.”

  “A joke?” Goldie poked her in the side again. “Maybe you have changed.”

  Red opened the throttle and they were away again.

  *

  They stopped an hour and a half later. It was still dark, and this time Red got out a powerful lantern and set it on the back of the bike. It would keep away most of the creatures that hunted in the dark.

  “What’s up?” Goldie asked as they slowed to a halt.

  “My arm,” Red grunted. It was getting jarred badly by the roads.

  “Let me have a look.”

  They had patched each other up before. Both of them had once had a tendency to get badly injured. Adam had taught both of them when they were both lonely fourteen year olds trying to find a place to stay. Red had never managed to work up the courage to ask why he and Belle had never had children, but she knew that was how he saw the two of them. He had once remarked that he had no idea which one was the wilder child though.

  Now she slipped off her jacket, exposing the tattered skin of her shoulder. Goldilocks took a knife from the bag and started to cut away the shirt beneath until the entire wound was clear of cloth. “There’s still some in the wound,” she said quietly. “Antiseptic?”

  “In the bag.” Red gritted her teeth in preparation of what came next, and was surprised when instead of a sharp pain in her shoulder she felt a metal flask being passed into her hand.

  “Drink that, you’ll need it.”

  It was dwarven whiskey, strong but smooth. It burned her throat for a second before settling in her stomach. She was still marvelling at the taste when Goldilocks poured water over the injury. She flinched and tried to move, but Goldilocks had pinned her down when she wasn’t paying attention, and now held her steady as she dug the knife into the wound and started to pick the bits of cloth out. After a minute that felt like an hour Goldie stepped back. “I got most of it out,” she said. “You’ll need to see someone to get this healed properly though.”

  Red wiped sweat off her forehead, trying to smile. “Still got that lovely bedside manner.”

  Goldilocks didn’t say anything, digging around in the bag for gauze and bandages. “We should have done this before we left the Farm.”

  “Yeah well I don’t trust any of the beasts. Better an infection than being ripped to shreds.”

  “It’ll kill you just as dead.” Goldie had found the small medical bag, and rested it on Red’s knee, taking out a small bottle of sickly green ointment. Ignoring Red’s protests about expense she took some out and spread it around the edges of the wound. “I don’t think he hit bone, that would be a whole other set of issues.” That finished, she took the bandage and wrapped it around Red’s shoulder and arm. “Think you can keep driving?”

  “Give me a minute.” She leaned back again the bike and looked up to the stars. You could only see them in the wilderness anymore. The thick smog that had once only hovered above the factories now covered Ateer all year round.

  “I’m glad you came,” Goldie said.

  “I was hardly going to leave you, was I?”

  “I was starting to think I wouldn’t ever get out,” she said. “The Ass told me what he was going to do when he captured me, and how he was going to make you attack the Family first.”

  “I almost did. If Renard hadn’t stopped me…” She shivered. It didn’t bear thinking about.

  “I’m glad he managed to talk some sense into you.” Goldie sighed and frowned. “Why would he help you though? He could have got his book any time.”

  “He wasn’t sure which side would win. Whatever’s coming I think even he’s scared of it.”

  “He doesn’t scare easily.”

  “No he doesn’t.” Even if I don’t know what he actually is.

  “What about you?” Goldie asked, nudging her a little. “Scared?”

  “I still don’t know what I’m supposed to be scared of. When someone actually tells me anything I’ll decide whether I’m scared or not.” She looked back up at the stars, avoiding Goldie’s eyes. “How about you?”

  “How about me what?”

  “You wouldn’t have gone near the Farm when I left. Now you’re investigating it. What changed?”

  Goldie shrugged. “I guess I got more scared of not doing things than doing them.”

  “Right.” Red twisted and sat back on the bike. “Time to go.”

  “Red?”

  “Come on, we’ve got to get back.”

  Goldie climbed on behind her and they drove off again, once more awkward and uncomfortable.

  *

  It was still dark when they arrived at Ateer. Of course even if the sun had risen it would still have been dark. Red brought them in by the east gate. Once it had been a mighty entrance, wrought iron gates the height of two men, guarded at all times by the best of the royal guard. The great white stone wall that encircled the entire kingdom was now little more than rubble, and the gates themselves hung off the hinges, rusted and with half the bars missing. There was
a body hanging from the left side with a gang sign carved into it.

  Red pulled to a stop in front of the body. “Do you know this symbol?”

  Goldie nodded. “It’s the Witches.”

  “They’re new.”

  “There’s loads of new gangs the last few months. The Witches, the Dead Pigs, the Northern Boys. All of them are fighting for control of the city.”

  “And Charming’s men do nothing?”

  “They’re the Northern Boys. Most of the guard are anyway. Whoever’s left just stays in the castle.”

  Red started the bike again and they drove into the city proper. “It’s worse than I thought,” she shouted over the bike.

  “You need to talk to Belle,” Goldie shouted back.

  I intend to, Red thought grimly, turning onto the main road and speeding back to the Red Light District.

  *

  By the time they got back her shoulder was hurting again. She had planned to go straight to Belle, but she was in too much pain to think straight. If she wanted to have a hope of arguing with Belle she would need to have a clear head. Goldilocks went to make her report while Red went back to her room. She tossed her bag onto the bed and went to the secret compartment underneath, taking out a small tin. Inside were a couple of crystals in pale colours. She chose a pink one and held it in her fist until it warmed up. When it was warm she rolled it in her palm until it had been crushed into a fine powder.

  She slipped the jacket off and tugged the bandage away, exposing the wound to the open air. Gritting her teeth she sprinkled the crystal shards onto her shoulder. She let it rest, doing her best to ignore the stinging pain which gradually turned to numbness. Healing crystals were rare, rarer since the Fair Folk had begun to withdraw from the realm, but she had a feeling that whatever was about to happen with Belle, she would need her strength back. The crystal would knit her skin and replenish her lost blood, making her feel like her old self again in less than ten hours. The only cost was exhaustion and ravenous hunger. As magical prices went, not so bad.

  Still trying to decide exactly what she wanted to say to Belle she changed her shirt and took her revolvers out of the bag. As she had feared the one she had been forced to throw on the floor would need some work done before it would shoot straight again. She left it on the bed and instead reloaded the functioning one and her backup revolver, which she put into a holster in her boot. Long bitter experience had taught her to never be without at least one firearm, particularly in her line of work.

  Finally she was ready, and there were no more preparations to make. She put everything back into the secret space under the bed and marched out into the hall, heading for Belle and Adam’s quarters on the top floor.

  Adam was at the door, holding his hands up to try and placate her. “I didn’t know,” he said. “But I agr-”

  “Finish that sentence and I might kill you Beast, you know I can.”

  His eyes flashed in anger, but he stepped back, letting her go straight to the door. She shoved it open, finding Belle sitting behind a gigantic oak desk, examining papers with every air of calm.

  “Why did you do it?”

  She looked up, raising one elegant eyebrow. In that moment she looked nothing like the compassionate motherly figure who had rescued a scared young girl from the clutches of Snow White. She looked like a queen to rule all queens. “I have done a lot of things lately Red. Some I’m not so happy about. If you wish to accuse me, you will need to be more specific.

  “Sending Goldilocks out to the Farm. To the Bears.”

  Belle waited a long time before answering, long enough for Red’s anger to build almost to the brink. But even if she had been furious enough to truly consider it, she had no idea whether or not she could kill the woman before her.

  “I had no other choice,” Belle said eventually. “You have to see that.” She placed the paper in her hand carefully on the desk, leaning back in the chair. “There are two experts on the beasts, you and her. You were out playing bounty hunter so I used what I had.”

  “What gives you the right to put her in danger like that? Or any of us? You’re not a queen anymore.”

  Belle glared at her, and she took a step back. “I don’t have to be a queen to see that there’s something coming. And if no one else is willing to do anything then I have to.”

  “And you think that gives you the right to send the rest of us out to die for you? Or kill for you? I’m not an idiot Belle. You sent me to the Farm because you knew I’d cause the most damage. I’m not your hired killer.”

  “Given that they kidnapped Goldilocks I couldn’t be sure until now that they weren’t the source of whatever was coming. For all I knew they had contacted Him, or possibly found some weakness in the city’s defences I wasn’t aware of. Now that Goldilocks has made her report and you have apparently burned it to the ground I can be certain. Both that they were not the original cause of the problem and that they will not be a problem in the future.”

  “It wasn’t right,” Red said, coming up close and leaning up against the desk. “You sent me in there to slaughter them. But they were already dying. The Corruption has killed the ground and turned the beasts into shades of themselves.

  “Which I didn’t know before, and do now. I said I didn’t like some of the things I had done. The Farm’s fate is regrettable but unavoidable if we all want to survive the coming months.”

  She was being entirely too reasonable. Red had never liked the strategies of war, but she understood the necessity of sacrifice if nothing else. She subsided a little and paced in the centre of the room. “I thought it was just the way the city was going. It gets dirtier every time I come back.”

  “Well it’s not.” Belle took a deep breath and leaned forwards, sifting through the papers again. “Magical strength is increasing, which means the Dreamscape is stronger than ever. Some people have logged in and never logged out. We just find their bodies, still attached. We all knew it was dangerous, but I don’t think anyone suspected it could do this.”

  “Can we stop it?”

  Belle shook her head. “Beast found one still alive. He’d been on for nearly two days. The shock of removing him was too much.” She took a small computer out from her desk. It looked similar to the armour Goldie had been wearing. “Blue’s been making these for us. They give you access while avoiding addiction. It still has to be used sparingly, because Charming’s boys can trace the signal.”

  Red picked it up. It was heavier than she expected. The green view screen sprang to life at the touch of a button, the keys underneath glowing softly. “Keyboard’s a bit old school,” she drawled.

  “You know a better way to avoid the hand print connectors?” Belle asked dryly. “If you have this on your wrist when you use a Terminal it’ll help you avoid most of the negative effects, but it’d be like sending up a signal flare for the guards.”

  “Why are you showing me this Belle?”

  “Because I need everyone, and that includes you. So far nothing we’ve done has made any difference, and frankly there aren’t nearly enough of us in the city that I can call on.” She pushed a map across the desk. It showed the northern ice kingdom. “Kay and Greta went north on my orders. I suspected that if it wasn’t the animals then it could be the Snow Queen.”

  Red shook her head. “She may not like us, but the Snow Queen stays in her palace in the north. If no one bothers her, she doesn’t bother them.”

  “And I sent Kay and Greta right to her.”

  “Of course, why not send the two people she hates more than anything in the world right to her doorstep?”

  “They were the only two who knew the way. But I asked them to take a seeing stone with them.”

  “Which is why you have a map.” Red pulled it closer to examine it, realising that instead of the usual maps of the ice kingdom, which relied more on guesswork than cartography, this one showed paths through the mountains.

  “I need someon
e to go north and find them, rescue them if necessary, and bring them back safely to Ateer.”

  Red glanced up and saw the look in Belle’s eyes. “No. Not a chance. I’m going back to the forest where this madness can’t reach me.”

  “You think the forest is safe? Think of all that happened in there. The hag in the gingerbread house, the Family’s old house, your own cottage? And that’s not even talking about all the other things that live there. That forest is steeped in evil.”

  “No more than the city these days it seems.” Red turned and walked to the door. “I’m not going to be dragged into another crazy mission or plot by all of you. I’m going back to my home, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

  Adam was outside. “I won’t try and stop you,” he said, following her down the corridor.

  “But you’re still going to talk to me about staying.”

  “Actually I was going to wish you good luck.”

  She stopped and looked up at him. He smiled, though it seemed forced. “One way or another I have a feeling we’re all going to need it.”

  They clasped forearms, then he nodded and walked back to Belle’s room, leaving her alone in the hall.

  Chapter Seven: The Pure

  Red always tried to take a slightly different route back to her base every time. There were more than enough dark and scary paths in the woods, and a hundred ways to leave Ateer. She went by the old bridge, a narrow strip of crudely welded iron and steel that shook in a stiff wind, let alone with a bike moving over it. With the city now to her left she drove along the battered road that encircled it.

  It was a struggle to get Goldie’s face out of her thoughts. In fact all of them looked the same. Something had managed to scare everyone. So badly that Belle had been convinced she needed to search for some sign as to what was going on. And Goldie had believed her enough to go back to the Farm.

  She would never have gone anywhere I asked her to go. She pushed that thought aside the moment it entered her head. She thought she had left all of that a long time ago.