Once Upon the End (Half Upon a Time)

by James Riley

  “Finally,” he said, and swung his chains straight at Jack’s head.

  Jack ducked beneath them while May shouted a name.

  Phillip’s.

  Jack’s face pumped bright red, and he pulled his sword off his back, the weapon glowing white with just a hint of black around the edges.

  “Don’t make me do this, Phillip,” Jack almost spat. “You can’t win.”

  “I cannot?” the prince said, and swung out with his chains again, forcing Jack back a step. “How many stories end with the villain victorious?”

  “This is not a story!” Jack shouted, cutting right through the chains to keep them from hitting him. “And you’re not the hero!”

  “And you are?” Phillip asked him, circling around him, forcing Jack to circle as well. “You believe you fight for the good of all here? On the side of the WICKED QUEEN?”

  One of the goblins moved to strike Phillip, but electricity spat out of the Queen’s hand, sending the goblin crashing against the wall behind it. “I think we should let these two have their discussion,” she said, and Jack could almost hear her smiling.

  Phillip picked up the fallen goblin’s sword, the cut chains hanging from his wrists. “The tragedy of this is that I once considered you my friend,” the prince said, and swung out.

  Jack easily slapped the sword away. “Really? That makes one of us.”

  “Don’t do this,” May said, her voice low and hoarse. “Jack, please . . . don’t hurt him.”

  He threw a glance her way, saw her tearstained cheeks, and suddenly he had trouble breathing. Why were they here now? Why did they have to see this?

  “Kill him, Jack,” the Queen said. “Kill this prince, my Eye, and I grant you freedom from this world. I grant you a world without royalty, a world without magic, a world where a boy as clever as you would be admired far and wide.”

  Phillip struck again, then again, and Jack easily parried each time, his eyes locked on Phillip’s. And then, reflected in the prince’s eyes, Jack saw blue fire.

  Jack turned his head, and there, just like he’d seen six months ago in the middle of the sky in Giant’s Hand, when May had fallen right out of it, was a blue fire circle. And inside it . . . inside it were trees, a shining sun, and no sign of magic or princes.

  “Kill him, my Eye,” the Queen said softly. “And you will be free to leave this all behind.”

  Jack turned back to Phillip just as the prince launched a punishing series of blows. Over and over the prince struck with all his might, bashing Jack’s sword with his own, taking chunks out of his own weapon, he hit so hard. And with each hit, Jack stepped backward, toward the Queen and away from May.

  “You betrayed her!” Phillip shouted, fire exploding in his eyes. “She believed in you, and you betrayed her, me, your entire world! For your own selfish gains! And now you would run from your mistakes, from your betrayals? You would FLEE?”

  Jack gritted his teeth, having trouble focusing on anything beyond the prince. Who was Phillip to judge him?!

  Jack sidestepped the prince’s blow and slammed the flat of his sword into Phillip’s sword arm as hard as he could. “You have no idea who I am,” he whispered, then kicked Phillip in the stomach, sending the prince sprawling across the floor, his sword sliding back to its unconscious goblin owner.

  Jack advanced on the dazed prince, the glow of his sword slowly being replaced by a black emptiness. “You’re such a hero, Your Highness,” he said. “You’re so amazing, aren’t you? Doing good just comes so easily to you. We should all just love you, shouldn’t we?”

  “Kill him,” the Queen said quietly, and Jack gripped his sword so tightly his knuckles turned white.

  Phillip watched him advance, showing no fear, ever the perfect royal. “Kill me,” he said. “And with me, anything good or noble left in your life!”

  “You’re three months too late for that,” Jack said, then looked at May—he couldn’t help it, he looked at her, then quickly turned his head.

  It would have to be fast. Don’t think. Just do it as quickly as possible.

  “NO!” May screamed.

  “I knew this was who you are,” Phillip said, staring up into Jack’s eyes with absolute hatred.

  “You’re more right than you know,” Jack said, raising his sword in the air. He looked one last time at May, his sword right above Phillip’s head. “Good-bye,” he whispered, then drove the sword down.

  May’s chains separated cleanly in half.

  “NO!” May shouted again, then stopped, looking at her now-free hands. “Wait . . . what?”

  Jack grabbed Phillip by his shirt and tossed him straight at May, then cut Penelope’s chains as well. A goblin swung at him, but he ducked, time slowing as he did. Four swings later, and four goblins lay unconscious on the ground.

  “GO!” he screamed at Phillip, pushing the prince into May. “Get them OUT of here!”

  The Queen sighed, and the goblins’ unaware bodies rose, picking up their swords, and attacked. “I truly had high hopes for you, Jack,” the Queen said as Penelope grabbed a sword and joined Phillip against the goblins. “I knew you planned this, but I still hoped. Yet, the Mirror is never wrong, as much as I might have wished it.”

  “There’s a first time for everything,” Jack said, turning away from the others, not able to look at them, knowing what was coming. “Phillip, GO!”

  “Jack, come with us!” May shouted as she defended herself from the unconscious goblin’s sword. Jack turned, not sure what he could say, and caught her eye. “Please,” she whispered.

  And then a goblin smashed his sword into her head, and she fell to the ground. The goblin brought his sword up, just as Jack had done to Phillip minutes before, holding it above May’s head.

  Someone screamed, but Jack couldn’t tell who it was. The goblin’s sword paused, and Jack looked at the Queen.

  She wouldn’t do it. She’d been after May this long, there’s no way she’d just let her die.

  The Queen smiled at Jack, and the goblin drove his sword down.

  And with that, Jack threw his sword right at the Queen’s heart.

  The Queen raised a hand, and the sword froze in midair, just inches from her chest.

  “Now, now,” she said. “You knew that wouldn’t accomplish anything, didn’t you?”

  Behind him, the goblins’ bodies dropped back to the ground, including the one attacking May. Phillip scooped May’s unconscious body up and ran toward the door with Penelope. “Maybe not nothing,” Jack whispered.

  “One will betray her, and one will die for her,” the Queen said, frowning at Jack. “If you won’t betray her, then that only leaves us one option.”

  And with that, Jack’s sword reversed in midair.

  Jack turned to look at Phillip and at May, her hair almost covering her face. He’d known this would happen from the moment the Queen had told May the Mirror’s words six months ago.

  He couldn’t have betrayed her, not in a million years.

  And with that, the Queen drove Jack’s sword right into his back.

  He gasped both in pain and shock as the world turned to nothing, collapsing first to his knees, then to the floor.

  “What a shame,” the Queen said, her voice sounding miles away. “You could have been truly great, Jack.”

  Jack smiled weakly. She saw it coming, and she still had no idea.

  And with that, Jack’s heart stopped, and he died.

  CHAPTER 23

  NO!” Phillip shouted. Penelope grabbed his arm and tried to pull him out of the room, away from the Wicked Queen and her minions, but he struggled against her.

  Penelope shouted his name, forcing him to look at her. “We need to go if we’re going to escape.” Phillip turned back to the room, back to Jack’s body. Lian, the Eye, stood over it, almost in a daze. She kneeled down and turned Jack over, then placed his sword on his chest and gently touched the blade, closing her eyes and dropping her head out of respect. Apparently they had been
closer than Phillip had known.

  Even after Jack turned to the Wicked Queen, even after he betrayed them, Phillip never wished this. He had fought Jack in a fit of anger, but this, this is where that anger had led. And Jack had done the one thing Phillip had not even considered he would: sacrifice himself for the others.

  Lian picked up Jack’s body along with his sword and bag. She gently, almost solemnly, carried him to the blue fire portal and laid him down within. “I hope you enjoy a world without any of this,” she said quietly as the portal flickered then collapsed, disappearing in silence.

  Then she turned toward the Wicked Queen and pulled out her sword.

  “Oh, Jillian,” the Queen said, not unkindly. “Are we finally here?”

  Lian nodded, and lightning erupted from the Queen’s hand. Lian slapped it away with her sword once, then again, advancing on the Queen. “I never knew him, because of you,” she said, her voice deadly quiet. “First my mother. You took her from me. Then my father, you took him too. And now you take my brother from me?”

  Brother?!

  Lian held up her sword, glowing a bright white, then disappeared, only to reappear directly in front of the Wicked Queen. Moving faster than Phillip could see, Lian swung her sword at the Queen’s face.

  The Queen, however, caught it easily in her hand. Where blood might have flowed in anyone else, the Queen’s hand was remarkably untouched.

  “Did you really think you could hurt me?” she asked the Eye softly. Lian rose into the air, struggling against the unseen force of the Wicked Queen’s magic, then screamed as she hurtled across the room, slamming against the wall right next to Phillip.

  Penelope was right. They had to go now, or they would never leave.

  But after what Phillip had just seen, they could not leave without Lian.

  “GO!” Phillip shouted, pushing May’s unconscious body into Penelope’s arms. He bent down and scooped Lian up and over his shoulder, then followed the other two right out of the throne room.

  “Oh, little Prince,” the Wicked Queen said from right behind him. “You can’t run from me.”

  He whirled around, ready to attack, but no one was there. Of course the Queen would have her tricks, her magic. He could not stop for anything, trick or not.

  Lian jerked, then kicked him hard in the back, knocking him to the floor. “What did you do that for?!” she shouted at him. “You do not rescue me. Not you. Not ever!”

  A goblin attacked, but Lian took it and four others out without even looking at them.

  “She would have killed you,” Phillip said, picking himself up. “And she will kill us all if we do not find a way to escape.”

  “You caused this,” she hissed. “You made him throw everything away like that!”

  Phillip’s anger bubbled back up. “I did nothing but confront him over his joining the Queen. Something you convinced him to do!”

  Lian snarled, then shook her head. “You have no idea how much I didn’t do this to him. This goes against everything. Everything!” She took a deep breath, then shook her head. “But now is not the time. You have one chance to get out of here, and it’s by following me.” She started off down the hallway to their left, one of five facing them, then turned back. “I do this because it hurts the Queen. I do not do this for you.”

  With that, Lian turned and ran off down the hall. Phillip reached out and took May from Penelope, who put a hand on his shoulder then ran with him to catch up.

  The Queen’s castle seemed almost empty in comparison to the garrisons of goblins they’d seen on their way in. Considering how many guards filled the city outside, he could not believe that there were none here. But they encountered no one, heard no one, sensed no one. The entire castle seemed dead inside, even if on the outside torches made it look lived in.

  Unfortunately, even dead, the castle still moved. Shadows flitted here or there, and red eyes looked out hungrily from corridors that Lian wisely passed. Her glowing sword seemed to make them flinch and back away, but not for long, and as soon as they’d passed, the shadows followed them.

  Down stairways they went, through hallways and random rooms, on and on until Phillip began to doubt that Lian knew where they were going.

  “She doesn’t, Phillip,” said the Queen’s voice in his ear, and Phillip whirled around, his goblin sword drawn, only to find no one there. “I will find you before you can escape. I’m on my way now. You can’t run, Phillip. You can’t hide.”

  “Don’t listen to her,” Lian shouted back. “She wouldn’t be trying to scare you if she could reach us.”

  “You all hear her?” Phillip said without stopping.

  Penelope nodded, while Lian just kept running, not looking back.

  Finally, they came to a large wooden door, which Lian opened by sticking her sword through the door’s lock. Three more doors followed, made of iron, steel, and brick, and each one unlocked as well.

  “We are too far underground to escape,” Phillip told Lian, but she just shook her head.

  “I need to get something first,” she said, and opened the last door, this one made of bone, revealing cages upon cages, one within another.

  All were empty.

  “No,” Lian whispered. “NO! Where did you take him?!”

  “Phillip,” said the Wicked Queen from everywhere. “I suggest you listen to me. If you care about your mother and your kingdom, you should listen to my warning.”

  Phillip stiffened. “She is threatening my people.”

  “She took him,” Lian said, ignoring him. “Why? What could she—” And then Lian froze, turning to Phillip, her mouth hanging open. “Oh no.”

  “She knows, Phillip,” the Queen’s voice said. “She knows what’s happening. She knows about the giant.”

  “The giant?” Phillip asked, and Lian dropped her gaze, not able to look at him. “The giant?” he repeated.

  “The one you’ve been looking for,” she told him without meeting his gaze. “The Queen, she must have taken my . . . taken the thief, the one who stole from him, and sent him to your kingdom. She’d hidden him away from the giant this entire time, but now that he’s out in the world again, the giant will find the thief, and tear apart anyone in his way.”

  “He will destroy everything, Phillip, and you’ll never return in time,” the Queen told him. “Your mother, your kingdom . . . all gone. Because the giant isn’t alone. He has six others just like him, and they’re on their way. I’d say they have perhaps a week? No more, certainly. And here you are, powerless to save anyone and much too far away to reach them.”

  “Monster,” Phillip whispered, gripping his sword. “I am glad you still live, that I might destroy you myself!”

  “They don’t have to die, Phillip,” the Queen said.

  “Don’t listen, Phillip,” Lian told him, but Penelope shook her head, strangely calm.

  “We already know what he decides,” the princess said, and gave Phillip a sympathetic look.

  What did she mean?

  “Tell me where you are, Phillip,” the Queen said. “I will send you home. You can face the giants. You really are the only hope your people have, the only hope your mother has. And you know that. You’ve killed giants, more than you can count. Who else could save them?”

  “You lie,” Phillip whispered.

  “NO!” Lian shouted. “Phillip, we need to escape!”

  “That’s not the choice he makes,” Penelope said.

  “I speak only the truth,” the Queen said. “I’ve never lied to you. You know this. I told you one would betray my granddaughter, and one would die. One has died, Phillip. And now it’s your turn. Give up my granddaughter. Release her back to me, and you can save your people. A kingdom for one person. The choice is simple.”

  Phillip swallowed hard and looked down at May’s face as he held her in his arms. He could not betray her. He could not . . . it was not even an option.

  But neither could he leave his kingdom, his people to die at the han
ds of a giant.

  Not when he could save them.

  And that was it. One life versus those of an entire kingdom. And the Queen would not hurt May. She had been hunting her for too long. There must be a reason . . . there must be.

  It did not matter. Betrayal was betrayal. But there was no choice here, not for him.

  “No, Phillip,” Lian said, her voice hoarse. “Whatever she’s promising you, this is worse.”

  Phillip tried to speak, tried to explain, but there were no words. There was nothing he could say or do, other than despise himself and the Queen both.

  “Only . . . only her,” he said, barely able to get the words out. “Penelope and Lian come with me.”

  “You drive a hard bargain, but one that I find acceptable,” the Queen told him. “Now. Open your mind to me.”

  Phillip opened his mind and, somewhere deep inside, felt a horrible presence flitter like a butterfly through his memories. He watched as if from outside as he followed Lian down the halls, through the castle, through the metal doors to the room with the cage.

  And then a circle of blue lightning opened, and the Wicked Queen stepped out.

  “A deal is a deal,” she said, and just like that, Penelope and Lian both disappeared, just as May’s eyes opened. Phillip carefully set her down, and she looked from the prince to the Queen.

  “Just in time,” the Queen told her. “Phillip just gave you up for his own freedom.”

  May turned to Phillip, her mouth opening without any words coming out.

  And then, before Phillip could even say one word, he disappeared as well.

  CHAPTER 24

  Phillip had . . . betrayed her? Still groggy, May stumbled backward to slam into something that felt like metal bars. Phillip had? Where was Penelope?

  Where was Jack?

  No. NO. If Phillip had, then . . . then Jack . . .

  The Queen just smiled at her.

  “It can’t . . .” May whispered, and just like that the room began to spin. She couldn’t breathe. She coughed, just trying to get some air, trying to grasp at any thought that would come.