The 10th Kingdom

by Kathryn Wesley

  “Dad, are you all right?”

  She grabbed their only torch from the ground. It had burned out. She used several matches trying to light it. When she did, she realized she had used the last match.

  Then she heard a faint sound. It was her father. Tears were running down his cheeks. “I’ve done something awful, seriously, I’m not exaggerating, something went crack. I can’t move.”

  “I’ll help you,” Virginia said. “Try and—”

  “No!” He screamed in pain. “I think my back is broken.”

  Virginia crouched beside her father. He had a look of terror on his face. Prince was peering at him as well.

  “If we can’t go back up,” Virginia said, “we’ll just find another way out of here.”

  She held her torch up. It illuminated no more than twelve feet of blackness. The tunnel they were in forked almost immediately. Virginia looked down both tunnels, equally dark. She had no idea which was the best way to go.

  The torch started to flicker. It was only a stump, nearly done. There wasn’t more than twenty minutes left in it at the most.

  “I don’t want to die down here,” her father said.

  “We won’t,” Virginia said. “We’ll find the way out, and if the light starts to go, we’ll crawl in the darkness until we lind a way out.”

  “I can’t crawl,” Tony said. “I can’t move.”

  “Then I’ll drag you.”

  She put her hands under his shoulders, and he screamed.

  She eased him down. She didn’t know what to do. He would die down here, and she didn’t want to leave him alone.

  But she had no other choice. She needed help. It wouldn’t come from the Dwarves.

  “Okay, I’m going to go on and find a way out,” Virginia said. “And then I’ll come straight back for you. Maybe Prince can sniff out fresh air. I’ll go with him and—”

  “No,” Tony said, “there are hundreds of tunnels. You’ll get lost.”

  She shook her head. “Dad, we don’t have any choice.”

  He was shaking with fear. But she had to tell him the other thing, the one that would only make things worse.

  “And,” she said, “I have to take the torch.”

  “It’s pitch black in here,” Tony said. “You’ll never find me again.”

  He grabbed her arm like a drowning man. She pulled his fingers away one by one. He gulped. He looked about seven years old.

  “I will find the way out and come back for you,” she said. “I promise.”

  She dug through her rucksack and found the last of their bread.

  “I’m going to leave a trail of breadcrumbs so I can find you again.”

  He looked at her, and he was strangely calm. He knew— hell, she knew—that this was it. They would both probably die down here. But at least they would die trying.

  “You get out, Virginia,” Tony said.

  She nodded, then kissed his forehead. Prince Wendell watched. Then she stood and walked off into the darkness. When she reached the fork in the path, she chose the left one without hesitation. If she second-guessed herself now, this journey would take forever.

  And she didn’t have forever.

  Chapter Forty

  Who was it that told her the Dwarf Kingdom was a horrible place? Wolf? Virginia’s heart twisted. He was right in so many ways. She had walked for what seemed like miles now, marking her path with breadcrumbs, Prince padding along beside her.

  Her torch was still guttering, and even when the flame burned high it didn’t give much protection against the darkness. The cave tunnels were dark and cold and, for the most part, silent. She was grateful for Prince’s doggy presence beside her, for his warmth and his breathing.

  She had never been so frightened in her life. Her father’s back was broken. They were stuck in a place that had no medical facilities to speak of, and she had no idea how to get out of these caves let alone get out of the Nine Kingdoms.

  She wanted to go back to New York so badly, she could feel it. Or, at least, see a friendly face. Why had she turned Wolf away? If he were here now, she could have stayed with her father while Wolf found them a way out.

  The path narrowed up ahead. As Virginia got closer, she realized that it narrowed into a space about the size of a manhole. She stopped. She was done then. There was nowhere to go except back. How could she tell her father that she failed?

  Prince went through the hole. She peered after him, but didn’t see him. Then she waited for him to come back.

  He didn’t.

  She couldn’t go back. If she gave up now, her father would die. She took a deep breath and squeezed through the hole, torch first.

  For a moment, she thought she would have to crawl until the tunnel ended in front of her. Then she saw an opening. She crawled toward it, feeling a chill that was so incredible, it made the air in her lungs freeze.

  She stepped out of the hole into an ice cave. It was stunningly beautiful. Above her, stalactites glistened, giving off a magical light. She didn’t need her torch anymore. She was glad for the light. The darkness had creeped her out more than she wanted to admit.

  Prince Wendell was in the center of the cave. He barked when he saw her. She approached him, and realized he was standing near a circle about fifteen feet wide. A faint bluish light was coming from it. As she approached, she realized there was writing all around the circle.

  “For seven men she gave her life,” Virginia read. “For one good man she was his wife. Beneath the ice by Snow White Falls, there lies the fairest of them all.”

  Virginia looked into the circle. It was ice, and below the surface was an old woman with jet-black hair. She was beautiful in her long sleep, buried in the ice itself.

  “Hello, Virginia.”

  Virginia turned. The old woman was behind her, sitting on a throne built into the rock of the cave. She was even more beautiful in life, with her tissue-paper skin, wrinkled and soft, and her stunning blue eyes.

  “Who are you?” Virginia asked.

  “You know me,” Snow White said. “I was the old woman gathering sticks in the forest. I was the little Cupid girl in the Kissing Town. Your journey was once my journey, and I have tried to help you.”

  “Are you dead?”

  “Well, yes, I think you’d have to say so. I am more into the fairy-godmother occasional appearance sort of thing now. But I can still influence things. And I have protected you in other ways, shielding your image from the mirrors of the Queen. But soon you will have to see and be seen.”

  “I don’t understand,” Virginia said.

  The old woman opened her arms, and Prince Wendell went to her, tail wagging. She cuddled him and stroked his head. “What do you think of my grandson?”

  Virginia smiled. The old woman was Snow White. One of the five great women, Wolf had said.

  Snow White was waiting for Virginia’s answer. “I like him.”

  “I think being a dog has been very good for him,” Snow White said.

  “But he’s lost his mind,” Virginia said.

  “That’s why you must now take charge,” Snow White said. “He needs you to save his kingdom. We all do.”

  “Oh, no,” Virginia said. “You’ve got the wrong person.” “My mother was a Queen,” Snow White said, “and every day she sewed by a window, staring at the falling snow, longing to have a baby girl. But one day she pricked her finger with her needle, and into the snow fell three drops of blood, and she knew she would die giving birth to me.”

  Virginia took a step forward. Snow White’s words were compelling.

  “My father was sad for a very long time, but eventually he remarried because he was lonely. My new mother brought no possessions to the castle except for her magic mirrors.” Virginia frowned. Mirrors ware everywhere in this place. “And every day she locked her bedroom door and took all her clothes off and said, ‘Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?’ And the mirror would gaze at her, and shudder and scan all the othe
r mirrors in the world, and all the people looking at themselves and then answer, ‘My lady is the fairest of them all.’ ”

  The story was so familiar, and yet so intriguing to hear this way. Virginia walked to Snow White and sat down beside her. ‘ ‘This satisfied her, for she knew that the mirror spoke the

  truth. That is the function of mirrors, even wayward, willful mirrors, Virginia. To let you see yourself as you truly are. But you must be sure you wish to know the truth.”

  Virginia wrapped her hands around her knees and listened. Snow White went through the fairy tale, changing only small parts of it, from the moment she grew up to the moment the mirror told Snow White’s stepmother that Snow White was now the fairest of them all.

  When Snow White mentioned how her stepmother had brought in the Huntsman to kill her, Virginia shuddered and thought of the man who had been chasing them. She recognized so much of this as both a tale and as events she was now living.

  “The Huntsman said he was going to show me the wild animals,” Snow White said, “but the wild animals were in his eyes, and I knew as he took me deeper and deeper into the forest that he was going to kill me. Can you imagine that moment, Virginia, when you realize that you are so awful that your stepmother is going to have you murdered?”

  Virginia shuddered. She could imagine it.

  “As he drew his knife, I fell to my knees and I said, ‘Let me live. Let me live.’ And he put away his knife and on the way home he came across a young boar and killed it and cut out its lungs and liver and took them to the Queen. And that night she ate them, believing that by eating me, she would acquire my beauty.”

  Snow White reached out and took Virginia’s hand. Snow White’s hand was warm, surprisingly, and the skin was delicate and soft. Her grip was firm, though.

  “Have you ever been in the forest, all alone, in the darkest dark?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Virginia said, thinking just how recent that had been.

  “I was so terrified, I just ran in the darkness. I ran until I was exhausted, and there, in front of me, was a tiny cottage.” “The cottage we found!” Virginia said. She remembered how it had seemed like such a refuge.

  Snow White described it that way too. Again, the tale she told merged with the fairy tale and became eerily familiar. Virginia’s father used to tell her stories at bedtime, but her mother never had. This story-telling soothed something in Virginia, and made her feel loved.

  Snow White told Virginia all about the Dwarves, how the Dwarves were pleased to see Snow White and how they had a soft spot for children because of their height. She made Virginia laugh by telling her how Dwarves were champion windbreakers, always wafting their sheets at night and doing the “he who smelt it dealt it” routine.

  Virginia could imagine life in that little cottage with those seven men. She could also imagine how tedious it got, doing all the housework. But Snow White hadn’t seemed to find it tedious.

  “I thought I had found my true vocation and happiness,” Snow White said. “But in a strange way, they were just like my stepmother because they didn’t want me to grow up either. This is really important you understand, Virginia, because I had gone from something very bad to something very good, but it was only halfway right. They loved me, but they wanted me to stay small, like them.”

  Virginia nodded. Prince sighed and curled up closer to his grandmother’s feet, like a child enjoying a good story.

  Snow White continued, telling Virginia how she had warned the Dwarves about her stepmother, and how they became completely paranoid about her. And how their fears became her own.

  “She did come for you, though,” Virginia said. “You were right to be scared.”

  Snow White smiled faintly, sadly. “Her mirrors found me eventually. She dressed as an old peddler and walked over the seven hills to my house. Twice she came, once with a corset to crush my ribs, and then with a poisoned comb to drag me. Both times I fell for her tricks, but the Dwarves returned just in time to save my life.”

  Virginia had forgotten that part of the fairy tale. She leaned closer, listening.

  “But the last time she came with the most beautiful apples you ever saw,” Snow White said, voice trembling with the memory, “and this time she stayed to watch me die to make sure. She held me until I died in front of her, choking on a piece of apple.”

  Snow White paused, then sighed. Virginia squeezed her hand. Snow White squeezed back.

  “I often think, why did I let her in? Didn’t I know she was bad? And I did, of course I did, but I also knew that I couldn’t keep that door shut all my life, just because it was dangerous, just because there was a chance of getting hurt.”

  She smiled at Virginia, and her eyes filled with tears. She could barely tell Virginia how the Dwarves found her and mourned for her, and Virginia had trouble listening to a tale of such grief. The Dwarves mourned for three days and three nights, crying until their eyes bled. They couldn’t bear to put Snow White in the ground, so they made her a glass coffin.

  “They wrote my name on it in gold letters,” she said, “and that I was a Princess, which was something I had long forgotten myself. Then they put the coffin on the top of a hill at the base of this mountain.”

  “In the Kissing Town,” Virginia said.

  Snow White nodded. “One day a Prince came and fell in love with me and offered to buy the coffin.’ ’

  “The Dwarves didn’t sell, did they?” Virginia asked. “Not at first,” Snow White said. “They told him that he couldn’t have it for all the gold in the world, but he came back day after day for a year, and in the end they saw he had fallen in love with me just as they once had. And he brought his friends to move the coffin, but they stumbled and dropped me, and the jolt moved the lump of poisoned apple that had stuck in my throat, and suddenly I opened my eyes.”

  Virginia found that she was holding her breath, spellbound by a story she had known all her life.

  “At our wedding, the Dwarves gave me away, and I saw in their eyes that gleam of pride and hurt, and I realized 1 had received something very special. The love of people who do not give their love easily, or do not give it often. But I had to leave them to fulfill my destiny. There are a great many lies, but the biggest of them is the lie of obedience.”

  Snow White was speaking forcefully now. Virginia frowned. She knew that Snow White was making a point, but not exactly sure why she thought this point would be important to Virginia.

  “Obedience is not a virtue. I wanted to please everyone but myself, and 1 had to lose everything to learn that lesson. For my pride I had to lie in a glass coffin for twenty years to learn my lesson. By the time I was released, I understood. My husband was a good man, but he did not rescue me. 1 rescued myself.”

  “What’s all this got to do with me?” Virginia asked. “Everything,” Snow White said. “You’re cold, Virginia. How have you let yourself become so cold?”

  Virginia shivered. Snow White put her arms around her, and Virginia felt tears stream down her face. It was as if she had melted. The tears fell and became sobs, and Snow White held her and rocked her like a child.

  “You’re still lost in the forest,” Snow White said. “But lonely, lost girls like us can be rescued. You are standing on the edge of greatness.”

  “I’m not,” Virginia said, trying to stifle her tears. “I’m useless. I’m a nobody.”

  “You will one day be like me,” Snow White said, “a great adviser to other lost girls. Now stand up.”

  Virginia stood up. She wiped the tears off her face with the back of her hand.

  Snow White reached into her pocket and gave Virginia a beautifully carved hand mirror. “This mirror will show what you do and do not want to see.”

  Virginia looked at it, but turned the glass away so that she couldn’t see herself.

  “Poison is the way the Queen will strike,” Snow White said. “And the way she must be defeated. You must find the poisoned comb my stepmother tried to kill me with.�
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  “But what can I do on my own?”

  “Do not cling to what you know,” Snow White said. “I turned away from ordinary life myself. I know the price. Do not think. Become.”

  Virginia nodded. Then her torch flickered. How much time had she been here? She only had the one light.

  “My light is going out,” Virginia said. “I’m going to die down here.”

  “Let the light go out,” Snow White said. “Embrace the darkness.”

  “I can’t find my way out in the dark.” There was only a tiny flame left. She wouldn’t be able to find help now.

  Snow White put a gentle hand on Virginia’s arm. “Now you may ask for one wish and I will try and grant it.” Virginia looked up. Snow White had given her hope. Snow White smiled. “But ask for the right thing.” Virginia knew what she had to ask for. “I wish Dad’s bad luck was over and his back wasn’t broken anymore.”

  “Strictly speaking, that’s two wishes,” Snow White said, “but it’s done.”

  Suddenly, she turned and looked away from Virginia. Her pale skin grew even paler, as if a terrible thought had crossed her mind. “Your father is in danger. Go to him.”

  “I know, but—”

  “Go to him. Now. Immediately,” Snow White said.

  And Virginia did.

  Tony had never experienced pain like this before, pain so severe that it was actually a companion. He’d heard that such pain would fade because the body couldn’t handle it, and it was true. If he didn’t move, he didn’t feel anything below the neck at all.

  Sometimes that terrified him even more.

  He had to find things to do in the darkness. He counted his breaths. He tried to sleep.

  He had no idea how much time had gone by when he saw a faint light in the distance. His heart leapt. He had thought he was going to die here, slowly and alone.

  “Virginia,” Tony said. “Oh, thank God. I was going out of my mind.”

  His cheeks were wet. He wished he could reach to his daughter, but it would hurt too much.