Huntsman's Prey

by Marie Hall

“A signature is required. Just to make sure this all stays legal. Of course.”

  Lissa studied the document. “The signee and Rumpelstiltskin hereby enter into this legal, and binding contract. This the…” the empty space rolled with color until a date magically appeared, “twentieth of the month of February. The signee agrees to any and all terms, or face dismemberment, if not certain death by the hands of one, Rumpelstiltskin… What the devil?” she squeaked, “don’t sign this, Aeric.”

  “You worry too much,” Rumpel waved aside her concerns as if swatting at a fly, “this is a very standard contract, I can assure you. And have yet to actually dismember anybody. Though I would,” he eyed Aeric with lifted brow, “should the need ever arise. Though I trust that you Huntsman shall keep to your end of the bargain. N’est-ce pas?”

  “There has to be better terms than this, surely?” she pleaded again.

  Aeric’s jaw clenched as he said, “There’s not.”

  Then lifting his hand, he held it up to the parchment. A flash of white so brilliant it brought immediate tears to her eyes covered his hand, slicing a large groove across the center, bleeding him instantly.

  He didn’t stop to think it through or even look at her, Aeric pressed his palm to the paper. The moment he did, it burst into flame and Rumpel nodded, patting his coat.

  “Always a pleasure doing business with you, huntsman. And word of advice—”

  “I don’t need any from you,” Aeric growled.

  Mouth still open as if ready to speak, Rumpel finally shrugged. “Suit yourself.” And with the flick of his wrist his bike gave a throaty growl, spewing out flames and bellowing like a hound of hell. With a final salute, Rumpel rode off, disappearing into the veil of shadow that always followed with him.

  Suddenly the forest that’d been so quiet now echoed with life. Crickets chirped and birds sang. A sweet breeze swept through the thicket of trees, carrying with it the perfume of unfurling flower buds and Lissa’s now familiar scent of spring rain.

  The sun was weak, they’d spent a while hammering out the details with Rumpel. Already it was time to start thinking of setting up camp.

  “Aeric?” she whispered his name, almost afraid to speak too loudly because she might startle him. He was staring off into the distance, not blinking or moving.

  After several tense minutes, he nodded. “We must make camp.”

  “Yes,” she agreed. “We should.”

  She waited for him to say something else, anything else. But he didn’t. He just turned on his heel and walked away.

  Having Rumpel rip open his every wound right in front of her left Aeric feeling exposed and angry. His movements were jerky and hard as he climbed the tree. He hadn’t had a thing to eat or drink since last night. Perspiring wasn’t helping, he was parched and his throat so dry it was almost painful to swallow, if he didn’t find Chrysalis soon he’d be forced to leave Wonderland.

  He’d never failed at anything he’d undertaken, and he didn’t plan to fail now.

  “Aeric?” Lissa whispered again, hopping from one branch to another having switched yet again to feline form.

  “What?”

  “We should talk about this, shouldn’t we?”

  “No.”

  “But what Rumpel did to you—”

  He snarled, it was on the tip of his tongue to lash out at her, tell her it was all her fault. That she’d brought this mess on his head, but her furry little face was screwed up into one of wounded concern and just like every other time he couldn’t.

  He sighed. “Is over and done with. I’ll face that bridge when I come to it.”

  “I want to be with you.”

  Deep down he knew it was irrational for him to be so angry with her. She didn’t do it on purpose. But the fact that she’d called Rumpel to her, without even consulting him, why would she do that? Why?

  “Lissa, you’ve helped me out a lot and for that, I’ll be forever grateful. But ever since finding you nothing has gone right. I’m not this bumbling fool I’ve suddenly become around you. I think it’s time we parted ways.”

  Her mouth dropped. “What? You don’t want me around anymore?”

  He did. And that was part of the problem. Ever since finding her he’d found himself growing weaker and weaker. Touching her would soothe him, her words made him laugh. Rumpelstiltskin was right, he’d always been a sucker for a woman’s tears and fears, he couldn’t function right with her around. He had a job to do and he had to get out of Wonderland.

  Hopping over onto the center of a thick branch, he grabbed hold of the branch above his head and stared her in the eye, saying as softly as he could, “I’m used to being alone. It’s how I operate best. I’m sorry, Lissa, but I can’t do this.”

  Her eyes were wide and luminous, but her jaw trembled. “I only tried to help.”

  Damn him to a thousand pits of hell if she started crying. Refusing to look at her any longer, he shook his head. “It’s the best way.”

  She sniffed and he clenched the branch tighter, wedging a jagged bit of bark into his already bloodied palm. He hissed.

  “After I’ve caught Chrysalis, I’ll return. To you. To help you. I swear it.” He wanted to look back at her, but sensed that she might be crying. Regardless that cats shouldn’t cry, she wasn’t a typical cat either. If he saw the tears he’d be ruined. “Good bye, Lissa.”

  Calling his sand, Aeric made a hasty escape, rolling so far into the distance he knew she’d never be able to trace to him. Tomorrow he would find the creature. Tomorrow he would leave Wonderland, and someday, when her tears no longer hurt him, when he’d paid his debt to the devil, he’d help Lissa to find whatever needed finding.

  That was a vow.

  ~*~

  “Was that not an adventure last night? That Lissa would walk him deliberately into that trap.” Reflection chortled. “He sold his soul to the devil, I honestly do not think we could do better! We must still kill her, but perhaps we can hold off on that for a bit longer as she’s suddenly become positively entertaining.”

  Chrysalis splashed the water, not feeling the joy reflection did.

  Blue eyes sparked like flames. “Toughen up. I sense your disquiet and it sickens me. Find him. Tonight we ruin him once and for all. You know the plan.”

  “I cannot find him. He’s traced, there are no tracks to follow.”

  “You are weak. Spineless. You could find him if you wanted to,” the words poured like venom through her soul, making her wince in response. “If you won’t find him, I will. Once Rumpel gets his hands on the huntsman he’ll be forever out of reach. He’s growing fond of Lissa, hit him where it hurts.”

  She shook her head. “I am not weak,” she muttered.

  Reflection blew out a disgusted breath. “I share your soul, I feel it. It clings to me like leeches, the only thing I cannot figure out is why.”

  Chrysalis grabbed her head, shaking it back and forth. Her wounds were already healed from the fight she’d had with the Huntsman, but something felt wrong with her. Inside of her.

  “Yes,” reflection nodded, “you sense it too, don’t you? The light creeping into the darkness? That light will kill us. Light obliterates dark. It will take us and consume us. You would condemn us to that because… why?”

  She shook her head again, hoping to drown out the words, to deny it. To escape the truth of what she felt. “No,” she moaned.

  Nostrils flared. “Why? Answer me!”

  “I can’t. I don’t. I—”

  “Yes, you do. You know. You know. You tell me now, tell me now.” The word was a sharp command, brittle and unyielding, demanding a response and Chrysa had no choice but to give it.

  “Because he’s innocent. I cannot do that to—”

  “Innocent,” reflection scoffed, “he’s a murderer by trade. Do you know who the Red Queen is? How many heads have rolled because of those two? Never mistake who he is,” she hissed violently and Chrysalis winced as if struck a blow.

  “I
vow by all that’s sacred that if you don’t do this, I will. I will find him.”

  “No!” She screamed it, splashing the water again. “No.” She hugged her arms to her chest, she ached, all of her. Everything hurt. It hurt bad. She couldn’t understand why, but each breath was a terrible pain that flared through her middle and tore down her arms and legs. Made her head feel like it might explode from the pounding, pounding, pounding.

  “Then you do it, you end this, Chrysalis, or I will.”

  Chrysa nodded, swiping at the hair clinging to her forehead and falling into her eyes. “I’ll do it, I’ll do it, I’ll do it,” she muttered over and over and over and as she said it the pain filled her deeper and deeper, to the point of bursting, making her skin feel tight and swollen, like something was behind it and trying to press outward. The mark on her cheek throbbed, she could barely stand the feel of her hair brushing against it.

  Reflection disappeared with a final smile of hate. Chrysa bent over the pool and it was her staring back at her and there were tears in her blue, blue eyes. She sniffed.

  But once she moved away from the mirror, away from the only way reflection could see her, she no longer cried.

  Now she was smiling, because everything was going according to plan.

  ~*~

  There were so many dreams. Aeric was perched on the uppermost branch of a cotton candy tree that could bear his weight. The smells were intoxicating and so tempting. His hunger was a ravenous beast inside him. But it wasn’t the hunger that kept him moaning throughout the night. It was his dreams, or rather his nightmares.

  Lissa was in danger. She’d been standing where he’d left her. Her furry tail waving back and forth, staring after him never noticing the malevolent shadow creeping behind her. If he’d just turned around, if he’d said good-bye one time, he’d have been able to warn her.

  His heart thundered when it pounced. She screamed as dark talons ripped into her back, shredding off her silky fur. She fought, she twisted and screamed with all her might. But the darkness was too strong, it had her in a death grip and wouldn’t let go and then it was wrapping itself around her, crushing like a python’s coils. Her eyes were the last thing he saw and her words echoed in his mind like a ghostly whisper.

  There are different shades of black…

  And now he understood it. Because he could see it too. Her eyes were pure and deep and full of wonder. The shadow was a greasy smear of wrongness that destroyed all it touched. In a blink, she was gone.

  He sat upright, panting and breathing heavily as dreams and reality converged. His head was spinning, his mouth dry and screaming for moisture.

  Dreams were just dreams, or so he’d always thought. But no matter how much he tried to convince himself of that, the more his stomach churned and his instincts screamed that he had to find her.

  Now.

  Calling his sands, he quickly shifted and shot like the speed of thought from the tree, back to where he’d seen her last.

  The vivid images of her broken and bloody body lent him an extra burst of speed. The world around him sped by in a blur of color that bled into each other. Dizzy with the rush of moving so fast, he landed in a funneling whirlwind of sand where he’d been last. When he’d gathered the pieces of himself together, he immediately looked at the ground and his heart sank to his knees.

  There were patches of blue fur embedded in the ridged edges of tree bark. Large patches, not the typical bit of fluff that a feline might naturally shed, but more than that… he knelt and studied the forest floor… mixed in with the brown and green needles of pine, were dark droplets.

  He picked up a handful and brought it to his nose, taking a long sniff. Immediately the scent of metal pricked his nostrils. This was blood, no doubt.

  And like magic, once he’d noticed the first drop, it was easy enough to spot the trail of it leading toward a dirt path that’d not been there the day before.

  The path was lined with still snoring primroses and baby’s breath.

  “Wake up,” he growled at the one nearest him.

  The red and white speckled rose gave a final loud snore, before yawning loudly and peering at him with angry, red eyes. “What?” It snapped in a hiss whisper of sorts. “There are babies present, keep your voice down, man.”

  Clenching his jaw, because only in Wonderland would a flower dare to reprimand him, Aeric jerked his head toward the path. “Did you happen to notice a blue cat last night or this morning?”

  The flower rolled its brilliant eyes. “You mean the one screaming and yammering like bloody murder ten minutes ago, aye! Bloody, damn feline nearly woke me babes.”

  “Ten minutes ago?” He jerked to a standing position and only just realized the tracks did indeed look fresh. “Which way?”

  The rose pointed a green petal straight ahead.

  Just then the patch of baby’s breath began bellowing and crying.

  “Argh!” The primrose snapped and bared its toothless mouth at him. “Away with ye, now, go, go, shoo.” It turned away from him. “Shh, children, mama’s here. Shh, now, shh…”

  Her whispered words of comfort followed him down the path. Aeric continued to scan as he walked, frowning as he realized there was only one set of human tracks. What in the hell had gotten her?

  She couldn’t be too far. If it was only just ten minutes, he should find her soon. Turning his stride into a jog, he followed the droplets of blood until he came to the end of the dirt path and the start of a large, flat, grassy clearing.

  Just ahead sat the remains of an abandoned hunting lodge. Many of the roof’s beams were missing, and the steps leading up to the ramshackle gray structure appeared termite infested and rotted out.

  But there was music coming from inside. The tinkling strains of bawdy piano playing, and there were candles aglow in the shadowy hollows of opened windows.

  He wasn’t sure whether to enter, or not. A heavy wind would be capable of causing its collapse. But there was music, and laughter, and the trail of blood led to the door.

  There was nothing for it, but to follow the blood. His only and best chance of capturing Chrysalis was through Lissa. He’d come to that inevitable conclusion last night.

  She was right, he knew nothing of the dangers of Wonderland. Running away as he had had been more about keeping the tattered remains of his pride intact than truly needing to be on his own to draw the creature out.

  Expecting the wooden step to turn to dust the moment his booted foot landed on it, he didn’t bear down with much weight. But it held fast.

  Shrugging, he hopped up the next three steps and those held too. Not only did they hold, but they were solid. Which meant this was nothing more than another illusion.

  The moment he stepped through the swinging doors, all movement stopped. Many faces he did not recognize, and some that he’d seen in other bars in other parts of Kingdom before, turned to stare at him.

  But this place was unlike anything he’d ever seen in Kingdom. The walls and floors, panels and beams, everything was made of wood. Even the chandeliers hanging from the rafters were wood. A man stood behind the bar. He wore a white and red stripped shirt, a black felt hat, and there was a black band wrapped around both biceps. A gray handlebar mustache twitched as he gazed back at Aeric.

  The patrons were similarly dressed in fashions the Huntsman had never seen. The women wore shimmering dresses of crimson and hunter green, boldest blues, and royal purples, all with plunging necklines and obscene make-up that looked better suited to a harlequin. Their hair was either hanging long and heavy down their backs, or caught up in a strange twist behind their heads.

  The inside of the place defied logic and reason. It seemed to stretch for miles in every direction.

  Back at the bar an obscenely large man with folds upon folds for a neck, shook his head. Causing his rolls to quiver. Something about the way the man moved, in a waddling up and down sort of motion had Aeric thinking of a walrus—that and the way his front two teeth curved
out of his swollen pink lips like curled tusks. Adjusting his black frock coat, he snorted. “Who invited the mundane?”

  “Whoo, indeed?” The owl-eyed, bespectacled man sitting beside him sniffed.

  “I guess, Pillar lets in all sorts now,” Walrus curled his grotesque lips up.

  The ringing of clapping hands echoed through the establishment. “Music maestro!” A deep feminine voice cried out.

  All eyes turned to the woman coming down the long stairway. Unlike the other women inside, there was not much about her that looked normal, apart from her hair which was a rich, almost nutty brown color and her eyes that were a jewel green. But that was where the similarities ended.

  Sprouting from her head were two curled antennae. She had a face that could never be called beautiful in any possible form. It wasn’t even plain. In fact, she had the most hideous face he’d ever seen. It reminded Aeric of mashed dough, with two slits where nostrils should be, and the barest trace of lips.

  He blinked, realizing it wasn’t the dim lighting that made her skin appear pastel green, because the nearer she drew, the more obvious it became. Her arms were stubby and short, and the vivid purple and blue dress she wore dragged on and on behind her. But not like a train, or even a voluminous mass of fabric. It glided along with a sensuousness of motion that brought to mind the crawl of a caterpillar.

  Aeric shuddered, and she lifted a brow, curving her lips into a wide smile.

  “The Huntsman,” she said in a deep, bassy voice that sent shivers of heat down his spine. What she lacked in beauty, she made up for in presence.

  “How do you know my name?” he asked the moment she was beside him.

  The tinkling array of banging piano keys resumed, as did the conversation. Walrus and owl were no longer interested in him and had resumed their drinking.

  Pillar tapped the bar top. “Two, Earl,” she looked at the strangely dressed bar keep, before turning back to Aeric.

  “Because I have your girl. Or, your cat.” She smiled and cocked her head. “You’ve a fetish for the bizarre as well I see.”

  She moistened her lips and it was all Aeric could do not to grimace in disgust. Women, no matter where they hailed from, or how they looked, all had that slice of vanity in them—that desire to be admired by others. He did not want to anger her, she had Lissa and that was enough to keep him focused on the task at hand.