Once Upon the End (Half Upon a Time)

by James Riley

  “That’s amazing for you,” May said. “Tons of warm and fuzzy feelings while I’m waiting to die, so thanks for that.”

  “I have something for you,” the wolf said. “It is as much a risk as I am willing to take. And I do this for the sake of my Beauty, and for her sake alone.”

  May felt something soft and delicate in her hand, and she felt the Wolf King let go of her arm, then the goblin on her other side let go as well. She looked down at the object in her hand, and then up at the Wolf King, who once more stood in front of the open lightning portal.

  Was he serious?!

  “And what of this girl? What of this child who you would follow down the path toward destruction? If you would follow her, who will offer to take her place here now?!”

  The crowd below was silent, but May hadn’t expected much.

  The Queen gestured for the goblins to bring May forward, still looking out toward the crowd.

  Instead, now goblinless, May ran full-tilt straight into the Wicked Queen, knocking her off the platform and into the crowd. And from there, everything began to move very, very quickly.

  The crowd panicked, shouting and screaming and running all at once.

  The goblins shouted, struggling to reach their Queen, only to find the Wolf King’s hand on their heads, knocking them back down against the wooden platform. The wolf glanced at her once more, then disappeared into the crowd below.

  And May found herself with her arms still tied together, facing an unhappy dragon and a smiling Eye riding on his back.

  “That was it?” said the Eye, whom May had never seen before. “That was your entire escape plan?!”

  May snapped her ropes with the knife she’d stolen from the goblin guard, then leapt forward and sliced through the dragon’s saddle straps. The saddle slid straight off the dragon’s back, slamming the strapped-in Eye right into the wooden platform.

  “It’s a start,” May told the unconscious man.

  Behind her, the Wicked Queen slowly floated into the air over the platform, her eyes wild, and magic crackling all around her. “Dragons! Attack the armies! Kill them all!” She pointed at the enormous green dragon behind May. “And you . . . kill the girl.” She looked down at May, her eyes filled with rage. “You had your chance, May. But now I will burn your friends’ kingdoms to the ground!”

  And with that, the Wicked Queen gestured, and both she and the harp disappeared.

  The dragon shrieked at May, then launched its open jaws right at her head.

  And just like she’d seen Jack do six months ago, she took the flower bridle that the Wolf King had taken from Malevolent almost as long ago and given to her now, dodged to the right, and held the magical bridle out right where she’d been standing.

  The dragon bit down and began to shudder. May grabbed the end, then leapt up on the dragon’s leg to its back, pulling herself up by the bridle.

  Above her, forty or fifty dragons were beginning their attack dive on Phillip’s helpless armies below.

  In front of her lay a blue lightning portal to safety. All she needed to do was jump through it, and she could be away from all of this.

  It didn’t take even a thought.

  “What say you and me go for a quick flight?” May said to the dragon, then yanked back on the bridle.

  With a horrible shriek of rage, the green dragon beat its wings and shot into the air like a rocket—a rocket aimed right at the attacking dragons.

  CHAPTER 43

  Merriweather was the first to fall, but not the last. One by one, the fairy queens collapsed to the ground as Phillip watched in horror.

  And that is when he realized that this was all going exactly as the Wicked Queen had planned. After all, the fairy queens might have fought her if they had been spread around the free kingdoms. But here on the front lines, her magic had removed them all from the battle at once.

  Lian looked at her father, then nodded and disappeared completely from sight as the shrieking dragons overhead began to advance, breathing fire in their excitement.

  “You people do seem ta have a knack fer findin’ some dangerous-type situations,” Bluebeard said from Phillip’s side. “What’s the plan?”

  “Can your magic help us with the dragons, Your Majesty?” Phillip asked the Sea King.

  The merman shook his head, his shark growling up at the great flying monsters. “Not this far inland. If they were over the water, I could do something. Here on land, I might take down one, maybe two.”

  The goblins atop the castle gates shouted insults and mockery, dodging arrows in between them. “They’re not coming out,” Penelope said from Phillip’s right. “That doesn’t seem like a good thing, them leaving us alone out here.”

  “She means for the dragons to burn us alive,” Jack’s father said. “Unless you can put some wings on those sharks, Your Majesty, I’d say it’s time to unleash our secret weapon.”

  “Drop them,” Phillip said quietly, and his general raised a flag in the air.

  All among the armies, soldiers with belts and straps dropped something into carefully dug holes, then stepped back. As the dragons descended toward them, the ground began to rumble, and the human soldiers readied themselves.

  “This is gonna be close,” Bluebeard said, squinting up against the rain.

  “It always is,” Phillip told him as the first beanstalk broke the ground.

  A moment later, a second, then a third beanstalk broke through, and soldiers began to strap themselves to the stalks, rising into the air as more and more beanstalks grew. Bluebeard was right . . . it would be extremely close, as the dragons would reach them before the stalks had fully grown.

  Fortunately, they’d come prepared.

  “FIRE!” Phillip shouted, and the soldiers riding the beanstalks took their bows off their backs and began launching arrows at the advancing dragons.

  “Shark-tooth arrowheads,” Bluebeard said with a grin. “That oughta knock a few scales off those things!”

  And then Phillip watched something explode up from the palace itself, flying straight at the advancing dragons. “HOLD YOUR FIRE!” he shouted, and the order went out.

  “What are you doing, Phillip?!” Jack’s father yelled. “You don’t change the plan in midplan! That is not how things go, not when I plan them!”

  Phillip just smiled as an enormous green dragon flew straight into the dragon in the lead, knocking it into the second one. “It appears that we have more friends around than we thought.”

  Bluebeard roared with laughter. “That’ll teach the Queen ta mess with our little princess, won’t it?”

  “Send the order up, General,” Phillip said. “Hit any dragon EXCEPT the green one. DO NOT hit the green one, even if it means not taking the shot. Am I clear?”

  “Clear, sir,” his general said, and ran off to speak with his subordinates. Within moments, the archers were firing again, this time nowhere in the vicinity of the green dragon, who now had its claws locked on to the back of a red dragon.

  Behind him, someone shouted, and Phillip looked up to find a burning beanstalk slowly crumpling to the ground. “Out of its way!” Phillip shouted, and everyone—sharks, mermen, human soldiers—scrambled out of the dying plant’s collapse. A dragon crashed into a second stalk, that stalk slammed against a third, and both toppled to the ground.

  “The dragons have the advantage, even with May up there,” Jack’s father said. “We need the fairy queens back up if we’re going to have a chance here.”

  “Any suggestions along those lines?” Phillip asked him.

  “I’ve got my only daughter on it,” he said with a smile. “But we still need to buy ourselves some time. And other than running for our lives, I’m all out of ideas.”

  Just then, the castle’s front gates opened, and goblins too numerous to count poured out of them, screaming for blood.

  “I take that back, I say we attack,” Jack’s father said, and Phillip nodded, while the golden fairy in Penelope’s hair shouted s
ome sort of battle cry, holding up a tiny sword and waving it frantically at the goblins.

  “Your Majesty?” he said to the Sea King. “Shall we?”

  The Sea King smiled. “I’m actually sorry I tried to drown you with a tidal wave, human.”

  “You apologized to him?!” Bluebeard shouted as they both rode away on their sharks toward the goblins. “You’ve NEVER apologized to me, and you apologize to him? He didn’t even DO anything! That princess of his and the little Eye did all the work!”

  “You saved me, Phillip,” Penelope said, and nodded at the goblins. “I think that was pretty amazing, personally. Now, are you ready?”

  “Very,” Phillip said, and together they spurred their horses toward the goblins, Phillip with his sword, Penelope with her splinters of wood.

  Lian slowly moved through the castle, the glow of her sword visible only to her. The harp had to be dealt with, or Phillip’s armies would be massacred outside. From the sounds of the dragons overhead, maybe now was a good time to hurry.

  The corridors were fairly empty, which was good, because she didn’t have time to run into a distraction. Goblins would be one thing, and easily handled. Another Eye would be a bit of an issue. And even worse would be—

  “Jillian,” said a voice from about her knee level. “I have to say I’m a bit disappointed in you.”

  Yup. That would be worse. Jill sighed and dropped the invisibility, as Captain Thomas could see right through it anyway.

  “I will accept your surrender, then,” Captain Thomas said, gracefully saluting her with his sword. “And then I shall take you to Her Majesty for your punishment.”

  “I’m going to pass on that one, sir,” Jill told him, and launched out with her sword.

  Unfortunately, Captain Thomas easily countered it and smacked it out of her hand. “You must have known that wouldn’t work. There’s been only one Eye who was ever my match with our swords, and you’re not even close to as good as the Charmed One.”

  The tiny man leapt up, grabbed Jill’s hood, and slammed her to the ground, then placed his sword to her throat. “Now, shall I accept your surrender?”

  Jill started to say no, never, or something suitably impressive along those lines, but before she could get a word out, Captain Thomas flew from her side and slammed into first one wall, then the other, then the first again, before dropping unconscious to the floor.

  “There’s your first problem,” Jack told Jill, giving her a hand to help her to her feet. “You know you’re supposed to hold on to your sword, right?”

  CHAPTER 44

  Didn’t you die or something?” Jill said, grinning despite herself.

  Jack shrugged. “What am I, some kind of hero?” With that, he walked right past her, and Jill, a bit startled, ran to catch up.

  “Where are you going?! What are you even doing here?”

  “It’s been a little longer than you think since I’ve seen you last.”

  “Longer than a week?”

  Jack smiled. “A bit. I’ve got a plan on how to take out the Wicked Queen, but if it doesn’t work—”

  “When it doesn’t work,” Jill corrected.

  Jack paused and looked at her for a moment. “I wish I could say I missed that.”

  “I wish I could say you’re making more sense than usual.”

  “I’ve got the Queen’s heart,” Jack told her, pulling out the wooden heart box and opening it. Jill gasped, then stabbed it with her sword.

  “Really?” Jack said when the heart kept on beating. “You really think I wouldn’t have tried that?”

  “Who knows with you?”

  “ANYWAY, I’ve got a plan. Snow White found out how to stop the heart, which is why the Queen poisoned her. So I’m going to go see what she has to say.”

  Jill froze again, and Jack grabbed her arm and yanked her to keep her moving. “But,” she said, “Snow White’s—”

  “Not so much awake,” Jack said with a nod. “I know. I did say I had a plan, didn’t I?”

  “The Charmed One,” Jill said, the pieces falling into place in her mind. “So you think you can somehow get both you and him into Snow White’s head and wake her up somehow? That’s a pretty stupid plan, Jack.”

  “Why break tradition with a smart one? Speaking of bad plans, how’s our father doing?”

  “Oh, he’s off fighting some war outside. I’m sure he’s fine. He’s got a good head on his shoulders.”

  “Let’s hope it stays there,” Jack told her. “I thought I heard dragons coming in. And the Charmed One thinks that the Queen’s using the harp I got—”

  “Yeah, I’m already caught up on things,” Jill said with a sigh. “So, Snow White’s in the throne room. You know who else will probably be there?”

  “Just offhand, I’d guess the Queen. Probably the Wolf King.”

  “Maybe a few guards, too.”

  “Maybe.”

  They reached the door to the throne room, and Jack glanced through the crack.

  “How many do you mean when you say a few?” he asked.

  “Three?” Jill said.

  “There’s more than a few,” he told her, stopping his count at around fifty.

  “And the Queen?”

  “I don’t see her. Maybe she’s busy.”

  “There was an execution going on,” Jill said, and Jack looked back at her questioningly. She realized what she’d said and quickly shut her mouth, but Jack just stared at her.

  “Who?” he whispered as loudly as he dared.

  “Okay, you’re going to probably not take this well—”

  “WHO?!”

  “It’s probably too late anyway, and honestly, it was supposed to be a big public thing, and—”

  Jack growled and began walking away, out toward the courtyard.

  “Where are you going?” Jill demanded.

  “That might be the stupidest question I’ve ever heard you ask,” he said without turning around.

  She grabbed his arm, but he yanked it away from her. “You can’t go out there,” she hissed at him. “You’ve got a chance to kill the Wicked Queen once and for all, and you’re going to waste it by rescuing a princess?!”

  “Yup,” Jack said.

  Jill grabbed his cloak and slammed him against the wall. “THINK about this, Jack! Either she’s already gone, in which case there’s nothing you can do, or the best chance you have of saving her is getting Snow White back. That’s all you can do now—”

  “You don’t even care about her!” Jack shouted far too loudly.

  “NO!” Jill shouted. “I don’t! I care that the Queen killed my mother! That’s all I care about! That’s all I’ve cared about since I can remember!”

  Jack started to yell back, then sighed. “She was my mother too.”

  Jill nodded. “I know. She liked me best, though.”

  He glared at her, and she glared right back.

  “Help me with the goblins,” he told her, “then I’ll take care of Snow White, and you go rescue May. That’s the only way I’m doing this. Deal?”

  She gritted her teeth, and he repeated himself. “DEAL?!”

  “FINE! As soon as the goblins are out, I’ll go find your little princess. Happy?!”

  “Not for almost a year now,” Jack told her, and the two of them ran back to the throne room.

  Inside, over one hundred goblins watched as the throne room door slowly opened, only to reveal an empty hallway.

  “Hello?” one said, then flew backward into the guards behind him.

  “Who’s there!” another shouted, and this one fell forward, bashing his head into the floor.

  “It’s one of the traitor Eyes!” one of them yelled. “Strike out with your weapons, you’re bound to hit them!”

  And with that, the goblins began attacking anything and everything.

  Thirty seconds later, the number of conscious goblins had been cut in half, and within a minute, there were only two standing.

  Jack knocked their
heads together and almost laughed. “Okay, maybe I didn’t need any help,” he said to Jill, who reappeared next to him.

  “I’ve wanted to try that for so long,” she said, a huge grin on her face. “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. And a little knowledge might have been all they had.”

  “Go,” Jack told her, looking past the throne at the coffin of ice propped up next to it, the silhouette of a woman just barely visible through the frost.

  “If you mess this up without me, I’m coming back for you,” Jill told him.

  “Fair enough.”

  Jill shook her head, then ran off back down the hall. As soon as she was out of his sight, though, she reversed course.

  The harp came first.

  The sky filled with fire and dragons. May plummeted between beanstalks, claws, and teeth to slam into a blue dragon spewing fire on the merfolk below, then yanked up to fly her green dragon into the underside of a giant red dragon above her. Her dragon attacked with all four feet, and the red dragon screamed, then crashed into a beanstalk, sending both dragon and beanstalk toppling to the ground.

  Flames exploded just to her left, and May threw a look back to find two smaller green dragons chasing her down, both ridden by Eyes. She dodged right, then left, fire swirling around her on all sides, then yanked up on her reins to send her dragon almost vertical. She gritted her teeth and held on as tightly as she could with her knees as the dragon flipped upside down, then straightened back to horizontal, having looped behind both of the other dragons. May yanked on the reins again, and her dragon spat fire to the side of the green dragon on the right, crashing it into its partner, and both toppled to the ground.

  The Eyes might be faster than she was, but they hadn’t seen a lifetime of movies with plane stunts, either.

  But the dragons weren’t the only threat. She heard a shout and glanced down to see Phillip and Penelope surrounded by goblins on all sides, while Bluebeard fought crazily to try to reach them from one side, and the Sea King and his mermen did the same from the other.

  Without a thought, she dropped her dragon toward the ground, a blast of fire exploding behind her through the spot she’d just been.