“I gave up all hope,” Tony said.
“That was the right thing to do.” That wasn’t Virginia’s voice. It belonged to the Huntsman.
“Oh, my God,” Tony said. He couldn’t do anything. He was trapped here with this monster.
He was going to die.
“I move slowly,” the Huntsman said, “but I always get what I want.”
The Huntsman set down his lamp and gazed at Tony. There was no compassion in the Huntsman’s pale eyes. “Where did she take the dog?”
Tony didn’t answer. The only thing he had was his silence.
The Huntsman looked at the forked tunnels. “Which way did she go?”
“Go to hell,” Tony said. “You might as well kill me, with my luck.”
“I will not ask you again.” The Huntsman grabbed Tony by the throat. The movement sent ripples of pain through Tony’s back. The Huntsman put his knife to Tony’s skin.
“Go on, do it,” Tony said. “I don’t care anymore.”
“You’ll tell me long before you die.” He dug his knife into the skin near Tony’s Adam’s apple. Tony braced himself when suddenly—wham! Something hit the Huntsman over the head.
The Huntsman loosened his grip, his pale eyes moving. Then two more hits and the Huntsman went down. He lay completely still.
His torch had fallen with him. Tony peered into the flickering light to see Virginia, clutching her own torch, the iron top bent out of shape by the force of the blows. Prince Wendell barked his encouragement as Virginia looked down at the Huntsman.
“I think you’ve killed him,” Tony said, feeling more relief than he ever had in his life.
Virginia looked different. Distracted, almost distant. She didn’t seem as happy to see Tony as he was to see her.
“Get up and come with me,” Virginia said.
“My back’s broken,” Tony said. “I told you.”
“No, it’s not,” Virginia said.
“Yes, it—” He moved. There was no answering pain. He could lift his arm, bend his legs. He almost cried with joy. “It’s better. How did you know it was better?”
He stood up and grinned, feeling a bit goofy.
“That’s not possible. My back was broken.”
“I’ve found the most wonderful thing,” Virginia said. “Come with me.”
“Did you find the way out?”
“Better than that.” She picked up the Huntsman’s torch and went down the left fork. Tony followed. His body felt stronger than it ever had. Or maybe he was just noticing it for the first time, noticing how nice it was when everything worked right.
“There’s something better than a way out?” Tony asked.
She didn’t answer. She led him quickly through the tunnel to a place that became a man-sized hole. She crawled through it, and Tony followed.
They ended up in a huge cavern.
“Look,” Virginia said, holding up her torch.
It was a cavern. A few stalactites, some rocks. Nothing more.
“At what?” Tony asked.
Virginia whirled, clearly upset. “But it was ...”
“I thought you’d found the way out.”
“Yes.” She sounded distracted again. She raised the torch to her lips and blew it out.
The darkness was complete and immense. Tony had never wanted to see darkness like that again. ‘ ‘What have you done? We haven’t got any matches left.”
“Be quiet,” Virginia said. “Listen.”
All Tony heard was silence. Silence and darkness. At least his back wasn’t broken anymore. This was nightmare enough.
“Can you hear that?” Virginia asked.
“What?” Tony asked. “Hear what?”
Then he heard a faint sound. A rumble in the distance.
Virginia took his hand, and Prince butted his head against Tony’s free palm. Together they walked toward the rumble. It grew louder and louder, like the rumble of thunder.
Eventually the darkness ceased to be so complete. Tony began to realize he could see shapes of rocks, Virginia, and Prince. The light got stronger, and as they got closer to it, Tony recognized the sound as the rush of water.
Suddenly they stepped into the daylight. It blinded them after the darkness of the cave. Tony put a hand to his eyes, then brought it down and almost fainted.
They had emerged at the top of a waterfall which cascaded hundreds of feet below. Spray hit him in the face. The wind here was bracing, and the rocks they stood on were wet.
“Don’t look down,” Tony said. “Stay back from the edge, Prince.”
Virginia grinned. Then Tony laughed. They were alive. He hadn’t thought they were going to make it, and yet they stood here, in the light, outside of the caves. Whole.
“We’re back in the Fourth Kingdom,” Tony said.
Virginia looked back toward the cave. That distracted expression crossed her face again. She pulled a beautiful hand mirror out of her pocket.
“Where did you get that?” Tony asked.
Virginia held the mirror to her face and smiled. “Mirror mirror, in my hand, Who’s the fairest in the land?”
The mirror started to cloud. Tony leaned over and watched. Virginia’s smile faded. They both watched nervously as the outline of a person formed in the glass.
Then Virginia nearly dropped the mirror in shock. Tony had to grab her wrist to hold the mirror up.
“No, no, no,” Virginia said. “It can’t be ...”
Tony turned the mirror so that he could see the image. And what he saw almost stopped his heart.
“Oh, my God,” Tony said. “It’s your mother.”
Part Four
The Prince Formerly Known as Dog
Chapter Forty-One
She had been only seven when her mother left, but she would recognize that face, that form, anywhere. Her mother, wearing purple and looking a decade older, was in the Nine Kingdoms.
“No, no, no, it can’t be,” Virginia said.
Her mother walked toward the hand mirror. As she got closer, Virginia’s father grabbed the mirror and tossed it away. It flew into the waterfall before them and vanished under a white froth.
“It was Mom!” Virginia said. “She’s here. How can that be possible?”
Her father said nothing. He stared at the waterfall, shaking his head in disbelief.
For the longest time, they didn’t speak. They had to concentrate on the treacherous climb down the side of the falls. It took some maneuvering to get Wendell down, but they managed.
At the bottom, they found a ravine. The falls dumped into a river that frothed and boomed around them. Virginia was damp with spray. She kept walking, but she couldn’t stop thinking about her mother.
Neither, apparently, could her father. He looked sadder than she had seen him look in a long time.
“You said she was living in Miami,” Virginia said.
“I had to say something,” Tony said. “You kept asking me all the time.”
Prince Wendell sniffed the ground, tail wagging. He was becoming more and more dog-like.
“Why did you throw the mirror away?” Virginia asked. “If we could see her,” Tony said, “then maybe she could see us, and—”
“And what?” Virginia demanded. “What do you think she’s going to do?”
Her father shook his head. Wendell stopped before them and sniffed at a mound of dirt. His tail was wagging even harder. All around them the mountains rose. This was a gloomy place, even with the sun shining.
“How did she get here?” Virginia asked.
“She’s got the other mirror, hasn’t she?” Tony asked. “The one we’re after.”
Virginia had thought of that, but she hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it. What it meant. All the implications.
Her father stopped and turned around. Prince Wendell was still sniffing that one spot.
“Prince,” Tony called. “Here, boy.”
Prince bounded toward her father, wagging his tail. Her father crouched
and scratched the dog’s ears.
“Are we still going the right way for your castle?”
Her father cocked his head and then looked very sad. “No,” Tony said to Prince. “No stick throwing. Big things are going on. Your stepmother is my wife—what do you make of that? The Queen, your stepmother, is—”
He stopped as if Prince Wendell had spoken again. Then Tony shook his head. “More sticks,” he said to Virginia. “He’s going fast.”
Blabberwort held a torch and made her way through the darkness. She hated the mountain. She hated the Dwarf Kingdom. She hated the Dwarves. Pursuing the witch hadn't been fun. If the witch hadn’t killed her father, Blabberwort would have stopped long ago.
Her brothers held their torches tightly. They hadn’t whined in the past five minutes. It was time for them to start.
And then, as if he’d heard her thought, Burly said, “Suck an Elf. We’re completely lost. We’ve been walking round in circles for hours.’’
“No,” Blabberwort said. “Lookee here.” She pointed to the faint form she saw ahead. The Huntsman was lying on the ground, looking dead.
“How the mighty have fallen,” Bluebell said.
Blabberwort prodded his body with her foot. Her brothers did the same.
“I bagsie his boots,” Burly said.
“They’re mine,” Blabberwort said.
“You two,” Bluebell said. “Don’t start a stupid fight over my new boots.”
Burly shoved Blabberwort. She shoved him back. Bluebell got into the middle of it, and then they all shoved each other. Burly shoved the hardest and bent over the Huntsman. The Huntsman’s hand rose and grabbed Burly on the wrist.
“I am alive,” the Huntsman said.
Blabberwort leapt backwards, then bent over, staring at him. He was badly hurt and bleeding.
“Help me,” he said.
“Help yourself,” Buriy said.
“Yeah,” Blabberwort said. “Since when have you ever helped us?”
She walked off, and her brothers followed. There was a fork ahead in the tunnel.
“You will not find them,” the Huntsman said.
“What’s it to you?” Blabberwort asked. “You can’t hunt anybody now. You’re finished.”
“I cannot fight,” the Huntsman said, “but I can find them for you. There is a way. Get me to daylight.”
She stopped. She didn’t want to go through that tunnel and pick a direction. It had been getting harder and harder to track the witch in this darkness.
Her brothers turned toward the Huntsman.
“What if we do help you?” Bluebell asked. “What are you proposing?”
“A partnership,” the Huntsman said.
Virginia and her father walked down a narrow path on the other side of the mountain range. Below them, the river raged. Prince Wendell walked in front of them, stopping to sniff stones, lift his leg, or bring a stick back to Tony.
Her father ignored Prince as much as he could. Tony and Virginia were talking openly for the first time in Virginia’s life.
‘ ‘Christine was the kind of woman who woke up beautiful,’ ’ Tony said. “She never seemed to have to try. But she was so neurotic, she spent her whole life in front of a mirror. She said when you’re beautiful, you never know why people like you.”
Virginia had never heard this about her mother. Her father had barely spoken of her.
“It was my fault,” her father said. “I rushed into marriage because I couldn’t believe that this beautiful girl liked me. But she was sick, even then. She was seeing a shrink. Every day she was taking pills. I knew she slept with other guys. She wasn’t even discreet about it.”
Virginia closed her eyes. Her poor father. She’d had no idea.
“I was just crazy about her. But you don’t want to hear that. You want to hear how nice she was, because she was your mother. The truth is, she walked out on us when she’d had enough, and I don’t think she gave it a second thought.”
“I don’t believe that,” Virginia said.
Her father looked at her sadly, and then Prince started barking. She glanced up. Ahead of them was a woods that looked slightly cultivated, like the forests of England. Prince was standing in front of a fence that stretched for miles, and a wooden sign that said,
Prince Wendell’s Royal Estate Hunting by Permit Only
“Hey, Prince,” Tony shouted. “Recognize this? You own all this. This is your estate, your home.”
Prince barked and wagged his tail.
“What’s he saying?” Virginia asked.
“Sadly,” Tony said, “nothing. He’s just barking.”
Virginia was silent for a few moments. She and her father joined Prince. He bounded up to her father’s hand, and her father petted him absently, as one would do with a dog.
They walked along the path, which ran through the woods.
“I can’t remember the night she left,” Virginia said, wanting this conversation to continue. She felt as if she were finally beginning to understand her past. ‘ ‘But I remember the morning after because you were trying to make breakfast and you didn’t know where anything was.”
Her father nodded. “Your grandma came round to look after you because I had to go to work and she said, ‘Look, she’s playing with her bears. She’s coping fine.’ But you had three bears and you’d put one of them apart from the other two and told him he had to be all on his own.”
Virginia remembered that too. The indescribable sadness she had felt that day had never really eased. Sadness and betrayal. Her mother had left—Virginia had known it, deep down, and had always known that her mother had never wanted her.
But she had always hoped her mother would want her, someday.
“I knew she’d come back because she left all her clothes,” Virginia said. “She loved them more than anything, and I kept going to her room. And then, after a few months, you suddenly said we had to get rid of them. I remember folding them all neatly, and I kept thinking that a note was suddenly going to flutter out of one of them, written to me, just to me, telling me how much she loved me. And explaining the special, magical reason why she had to go. I still have this uncontrollable urge to go up to people and say, ‘My mother left me when I was seven’ as though that’ll explain everything.”
There were tears on her face again. How come she was crying so much? Was it all the stress? She wiped at her face. She had never cried this much in her whole life.
“I miss her,” Virginia said. “I hate her and I miss her. I feel like I was on a train and it crashed, and there was no one who came and rescued me.”
Her father was watching her. His expression was full of love. Maybe he’d been there for her, in his own bumbling way. At least he had tried.
She shrugged. ‘ ‘I always wanted my life to be like a fairy story, and now it is.”
Her father was looking uncomfortable now, as if there were more he had to say. “Even if you do meet her ...” he started.
“She never wanted me, did she?” Virginia asked. “That’s why she left.”
“It was my fault,” Tony said. “Our marriage was going wrong and she got pregnant and she wanted to get rid of you, because of her career.”
Virginia looked at him sharply. She had never known this.
Her father ran a hand through his thinning hair. “But I wore her down. She didn’t want to have a kid, and it was a mistake, and there you have it. That’s the mess that life is, because if you hadn’t been bom, then I wouldn’t have had you, but ..
“But you might still have her.”
He nodded, looking almost ashamed, then turned to her. Suddenly pink dust covered his face and he staggered backwards, coughing.
“Dad!” Virginia shouted. “No!”
Her father fell to the ground unconscious. The three Trolls emerged from the trees. They were firing packages of Troll dust. Virginia ducked as one hit the tree behind her.
She couldn’t even help her father. She reached for Prin
ce— and a package hit him in the face, followed by another. He got a look of doggy surprise and toppled over.
‘ ‘Kill our dad, would you! ” the Trolls shouted at her. ‘ ‘Well, we’re going to fix you proper now, you little witch.”
She started to run, but before she got too far, a package of dust hit her as well. It smelled like bubble gum, and it made her dizzy. She had to keep moving. She staggered, and then fell.
Footsteps surrounded her, and she felt dull thuds. Someone was kicking her. She was losing consciousness, but she struggled against it.
The last thing she heard was the voice of the Huntsman. “Get off her. You’ll get your chance later, after the Queen has finished.”
Virginia came around as if she were waking from a deep sleep. She was so groggy that she didn’t even know where she was. People were singing “Saturday Night Fever” at the top of their lungs, slightly out of tune. They were getting the words wrong. How annoying was that? Drunken people beneath her window mangling the Bee Gees. The bed beneath her bounced, and it took her a moment to realize she wasn’t on a bed, she was on a wagon.
She opened her eyes slightly. She was manacled to her father. He was still out cold. The Trolls were up front, singing. They were drunk. They had Prince Wendell with them. He was chained too.
The Huntsman was beside them, trying to rest. He was in a bad way. His head was covered with dried blood, and so was his leg. She couldn’t believe how hard he was to kill.
She was so groggy. She raised her head slightly, but that took too much effort. She closed her eyes, just for a moment— and dropped back into sleep.
She dreamed she was standing in the forest. It was nearly dark. She had a feeling she had had this dream before. Wolf was fifteen feet in front of her. She wanted to go to him, to touch him, but she didn’t move.
In the dusky light he looked very predatory. She closed her eyes. When she opened them again, he was closer.
“You moved,” Virginia said.
“No, I didn’t,” Wolf said.
He was standing absolutely still behind her. The dusk was becoming night. She reached for him.
“I miss you,” she said. “I miss you so much.”
Then she turned away from him. In her hand, she was holding the magic hand mirror. She raised it so that she could see behind her. Instead of Wolf reflected in the glass, she saw Snow White.
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