Once Upon a Time

by C J Preece

  Che looked back to Belle and Adam. “Any chance it died?”

  “Not likely,” Adam said. “It’ll take more than that to kill a dragon, especially this one.”

  “What is this one? What’s so special about it?”

  “Did any of you ever talk to Toma?”

  They all shook their heads. “Wasn’t he a prince or something?”

  “Yes. During the Ogre Wars he held the southern front while you were all off on the western. His fame and his reputation came from his slaying a dragon when he was younger, with the help of Dragan.”

  “Dragan?”

  “His wife.”

  Seriously?” Greta raised an eyebrow. “He married a woman named Dragan?”

  Belle shrugged. “Apparently her father had a sense of humour. He was the emperor so I suppose people had to humour him. Anyway they killed a dragon by discovering the source of its power. Within a lake there lay another dragon. Within that dragon lay a boar, and within the boar lay a pigeon. Within the pigeon lay the dragon’s strength.”

  “That’s pretty complex,” Che said.

  “Well until an old woman betrayed the dragon it must have seemed like a safe way to hide its strength. But now I believe that the dragon has been resurrected to serve our enemy, whoever they are.”

  “Belle, something’s on your mind. Just tell us what you think is happening.”

  She looked up and sighed. “There’s a pattern emerging, about power. Especially hidden power. Your tinderbox, now Toma’s dragon. The giants and their fortresses, even the land of the dead. Did Jack ever tell you who sold him those beans?”

  They all shook their heads.

  “He wouldn’t tell me either. I had to find out about it through my network. It was an old woman. She bought a cow for magic beans that allowed him to enter the sky fortresses.”

  “You think all of these women are actually the same woman,” Che said.

  “I can’t be sure, and I need to be sure. Because there’s something Snow said once…” she trailed off, obviously lost in thought.

  “You should all go and get some sleep,” Adam said. “We’ll pick this back up in the morning.”

  They left Belle still muttering and working through the files, Adam coming over to help her. Back out in the hall Che turned to them. “Do you all have somewhere to stay?”

  “My room should be free,” Red said. “I’ve only got the one bed though. If you don’t mind sleeping on the floor you’re welcome to use it.”

  “I think we’ll be fine,” Greta said. “We have friends around here.”

  “Fair enough. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Once Kay and Greta had gone Red showed Che to her room. “It’s not much,” she said as she undid her various holsters and buckles. “But it’s home.”

  “For who?” he asked, looking around. “A hermit?”

  “I usually don’t use this place so much,” she said, pulling her boots off and watching as he unbuttoned his jacket and folded it neatly into a pillow. “I’d rather be back in the forest by now, but someone talked me into helping.”

  “My apologies.” He took his boots off as well and lay back on the wooden boards. “Won’t happen again.”

  She tossed her sheet at him, lying back on the bed. They had made similar arrangements before, during the war. One took the bed and pillow while the other got the sheet. It actually gave her some comfort to remember those days. Che had always been stoic and unyielding, something she had once desperately needed.

  “I haven’t seen Greta and Kay in a very long time,” he said.

  “Me neither. I heard they’ve been travelling.”

  “Still searching for the ice glass?”

  “I guess so. They don’t like to talk to people about it though.” She bit her lip and tried to think of the best way to phrase her next worry. “I’m concerned about Kay,” she said eventually.”

  “How so?”

  The way he talks about the Snow Queen. It’s like he admires her. He defended her when I asked if she might be evil.”

  “The way I’ve heard her described she might not be.”

  “Okay, but she’s not exactly good. She did kidnap him and hold him hostage for nearly a whole year.”

  Che rolled onto his side and frowned, clearly thinking it over. “It is possible he saw a side to her that other’s do not during his imprisonment. Quite possibly he knows her better than anyone ever has. Maybe he is delusional, or perhaps optimistic, and believes he can see real good in her.”

  “Maybe,” she said, rolling onto her back. “But I think it’s for the best that she isn’t involved in what’s going on. I’d hate to have to worry about my allies as well as my enemies.”

  “I would have thought you of all people would know that an ally does not necessarily have to be trustworthy,” he said.

  She didn’t have an answer, and was grateful when a few minutes later his breathing became smooth and even as he fell to sleep. She lay awake for hours after, wishing she could bring her thoughts under any sort of control. All too powerful was the sensation that even despite the Farm and the dragon, the hard times were only beginning.

  *

  They were roused early by a furious hammering on the door. Red was up and across the room in a second, revolver in hand and pointed at the door. Che went to the other side, a knife in his hand. He nodded to her and she twisted the door handle, opening the door a fraction to see Adam. He pushed the door fully open and marched in. “We need everyone in the parlour as soon as possible,” he said. “Philip’s returned, and it’s not good news.”

  Adam grew no less calm as they yanked their boots on and followed him down to the parlour. When they entered they saw why. Philip was stretched out on a sofa, his skin drawn and pale. His eyes looked sunken and when he moved to accept a drink from Goldilocks his hand shook. She helped him to drink it, shooting a worried look to Red. He showed all the signs of someone coming out of the Dreamscape, and it didn’t look like he had been using his gauntlet computer to shield himself from the effects.

  “What the hell is this?” She asked Belle.

  Belle didn’t look any happier than she did. “Apparently when I told Philip to investigate Dreamscape users he took that to mean ‘log on unprotected and go snooping around Charming’s private files.’” She rubbed the bridge of her nose and glared at him. “What were you thinking?”

  He managed a weak smile. “You look very pretty when you’re angry?”

  “Now is not the time Philip. For God’s sake you could have been killed.”

  “But I found what you need.”

  A hush fell over the room as he took another drink. Belle and Adam clearly already knew, but the other three could only stare. “You know who is doing all this?” Che asked.

  Philip nodded. “I found the answer deep in Charming’s personal vault. Getting in was easy, but I forgot how he likes his games. Getting out with the information was what did all this to me. He’s got some of the strongest safeguards in place I’ve ever seen.”

  “How is any of that relevant?”

  “Because he couldn’t possibly have put these guards in place himself. We’re talking the highest power of magic.”

  “Philip if you don’t start talking straight I will throw you back in,” Adam growled.

  “Fine.” Philip struggled to sit, leaning heavily on the arm of the couch. “In Charming’s vault there was a sealed chest. Inside that chest were schematics for every version of the Dreamscape we’ve ever seen. Everything from how to log on, how it connects with people’s thoughts and uses them to power itself. How it became self-replicating once enough people had logged on. The way that so much other technology now relies on Dreamscape programming, like the guns or the cars or money exchanges. All the things we ever suspected about it were true. And it’s definitely magical. Right from the beginning runes have been woven into the basic programming.”

  “I don’t suppos
e you recognised any of the runes?” Belle asked.

  He shook his head. “Way above my head. But I could tell they were dark and old.”

  “That fits,” Adam said. “What else?”

  “There was a strongbox inside the chest. By the feel of it it was taken directly from Charming’s mind and placed within the Dreamscape right at the beginning. Cut out of his memories so even he wouldn’t know who he was in business with. That was when I had to get out, but I managed to take an imprint of the box with me. I opened it at my own terminal.”

  “What was inside?”

  “An apple, a symbol and a shadow.”

  Belle gave him some paper. “What do you mean a shadow?”

  He concentrated for a moment on the symbol, sketching it quickly and handing it back to Belle. “I can’t think of any other way to describe it. It was like there was some sort of after-image or impression. I could see it, but I couldn’t see it. Honestly I’ve never encountered anything like it in the Dreamscape before. But when I saw it I thought that maybe I had? As though the shadow had always been there I just didn’t know how to look for it before.”

  Belle was studying the symbol intently, turning the paper round in her hands to see it from all angles. Her face was grim as she looked back to the others. “We have a serious problem.” She turned the paper so they could all see the symbol. “Do any of you recognise this?”

  They studied it, but no one spoke up. Red thought some of it was familiar, though she couldn’t say why. They was a heart at the centre of the design, with a dagger stabbed through it from above. Around the edge were thorns, and the whole design was enclosed in a slightly misshapen circle.

  “This symbol is very old, from a time before there were any Pure. It was used as the crest of a very powerful witch. Some of you have met her, as a fairy who turned Adam into a beast, or an old woman asking for a tinderbox. Snow would know her in a second though.”

  That sent shivers through everyone there. They all knew the story of Snow White. In many ways it was the story of how Ateer had come to be ruled by Charming. “Didn’t she die?” Adam asked. “If not from Snow White then from Cheveyo?”

  “If she is truly who I suspect then she has died many times before. I think we have to acknowledge that she has entered into many more lives. Rapunzel’s tower used to bear this crest, and Jack got his beans from an old hag. How many of us have met with an old woman who sent us on some quest? Hilde’s power was beyond imagining when she was queen.”

  “But why do all those things? If she was so powerful why not just take the throne for herself?”

  Che was looking thoughtful. “It can’t be easy to bring yourself back from the dead, or whatever she’s doing to keep herself alive.”

  “Maybe whatever the dwarves did to her took too much of her power,” Goldie said. “What if all this time she’s been trying to reclaim it?”

  “That makes a bit too much sense,” Adam said. “If she had access to the giant’s palaces then she would be able to claim many powerful magical relics. And with Jack running around keeping them distracted she would have had plenty of time to take what she wanted. The tinderbox is clearly powerful magic as well.”

  Belle nodded. “I suppose I knew this was the only explanation. But it looks like the Wicked Witch is truly back.”

  To Be Continued

  © 2017 Christopher Preece

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.