The 10th Kingdom
Page 39
It was like an evil copy of Snow White’s tomb in the ice.
Only here Virginia wasn’t looking at a beautiful old woman.
She was staring at a rotted skeleton.
“Are you lost, my child?” the Evil Stepmother asked.
As Virginia stared down, she saw an awful vision....
Suddenly Virginia was in Central Park—only it was a slightly different Central Park. It took her a moment to realize it was the park of twenty years ago. Cans with ring tops had been discarded, and there was an old-fashioned skateboard with metal roller-skate wheels tossed to the side of the path.
Her mother, Christine, staggered into view. Her mother was younger too, exactly as Virginia remembered her, down to the expensive sweater and the long fingernails. Her mother was crying, sobbing so hard that she could barely get her breath.
She fell against a tree and slid down, staring at her hands as if they belonged to someone else.
“Are you lost?” a voice asked. Virginia recognized the voice. It was the one that had spoken to her a moment ago.
The Evil Stepmother.
Christine looked around. She was alone. But then the outline of a door appeared before her. Virginia recognized the shape. I It looked like the one she and her father had gone through from the park so long ago.
A gnarled hand appeared in that dark doorway, fingers encrusted with black jewels. The hand reached out. ‘ ‘Let me show you the way. ’ ’
Christine stared at the hand in horror and fascination.
f ‘Come with me, ’ ’ the Evil Stepmother said, ‘ ‘and you will forget your pain forever. ’ ’
Virginia, even though she knew this had already happened, found herself wishing her mother would leave. Ail she had to do was leave the park and go back to the apartment, to the family that loved her.
Christine extended her hand and grasped the gnarled hand. Virginia felt the disappointment as if it had happened just now.
The hand pulled Christine through the mirror and into the wooden shack in the middle of the swamp. An ancient woman stood before her—the Evil Stepmother in life. She smiled when she saw Christine, and at that moment, Virginia knew her mother had lost.
‘ ‘I am dying, but my work is unfinished, ’' the old woman said. “The House of Snow White survives. You will do my work for me, and I will give you all my power.
Virginia snapped out of the dream. She was queasy and heartsick. Now she knew what had happened to her mother. It didn’t make things easier. Somehow it made them harder. Her mother had had a choice, and she had chosen to come here, to this evil place.
Virginia looked down. The skeleton’s hand was curled into a fist, clearly holding something.
With shaking fingers, Virginia peeled back the crumbling bones. As the hand opened, Virginia found what she had been looking for: the jeweled silver comb from her dream. The teeth of the comb still looked deadly.
Virginia tore a strip of fabric from her own sleeve and wrapped it around her hand before she picked up the poison comb. Then she put it in her pocket.
As she went back up the stairs, she heard the dry dusty voice call after her, “You are nothing. She will crush you.”
Clay Face turned out to be a pretty good host. He gave them something to eat and removed the manacles. He wanted them to stay, but Wolf was the one who said thal they couldn't. Virginia didn’t argue. She knew they had to find Prince Wendell before things got too bad.
So Clay Face led the three of them to the slim veranda and pointed out the landmarks. “Straight ahead three hundred yards, then take a left by the rotting entrails, you’re out. Ten, fifteen minutes at most.”
What a relief. There was a way out of this place. They thanked him, and took off.
The first three hundred yards were difficult, but once they hit the rotting entrails—whose stench was indescribable—the ground got harder. Wolf stayed at Virginia’s side. She took his hand as they left the swamp and headed into the woodland.
She glanced over at her father. He was a few yards behind, maybe being sensitive, giving them time to talk.
Maybe not. She had told him what she had seen in the basement, and he had looked very sad.
“Where did you go after you left the Kissing Town?” Virginia asked Wolf.
“I, uh, went off for a while to think about a few things, then picked up your trail a few days ago.”
“But how?” Virginia asked. “We went through the mountain.”
“Virginia,” Wolf said, “I could follow your scent across time itself.”
It was poetry. No one had ever spoken to her like that before, and no one probably would again. She looked at him. He was so handsome, so serious. And to think she had almost thrown all of this away.
“You seem ... different,” she said.
“We are both different,” Wolf said.
She had to tell him how she felt. Wasn’t that what Snow White said? She had to take control of her life. “I didn’t mean to chase you away. It was just that everything was too much, happening too quickly. I do like you. I really like you.”
“Oh,” Wolf said.
They had stopped walking.
“And I never want to hurt you,” Virginia said. She touched his face. He leaned into her hand. “I think I love you,” she said.
Chapter Forty-Three
The Trolls had finally served their purpose. They brought Wendell to her.
The Queen watched as they dragged her nemesis, so doglike now that his eyes no longer looked human, down a corridor in his own palace. He was muzzled, but he still snarled and snapped at them.
The Huntsman stood beside her. He was better, but still not at full health. The girl had been tougher than any of them imagined.
But the Queen would not think of that. Instead, she watched the Trolls pull Wendell forward.
They had two iron chains on his collar, but he was strong and determined. He would escape if they gave him any chance at all.
She would give him no chance.
‘ ‘ So long have I waited for you,’ ’ the Queen said to Wendell. “So many dull prison days.”
The Trolls dragged him near, despite his struggles.
She stuck her hands in her sleeves, her gesture of calm. “In the summer I could see the sunlight on my cell wall. I longed for the summer to see the sun, and yet each time it came I knew I had lost another year of my life to you.”
She smiled. Prince Wendell was still now, glaring at her.
“When all of this is over,” she said, “I will put you in a little box until you curl up and die of despair.”
He growled at her through his muzzle.
She turned to the Huntsman. “Where was he caught?”
“About fifteen miles away, Your Majesty,” the Huntsman said.
“So near?” That surprised her. What had he been doing so close by? “What about the others?”
“Oh, we killed them,” Bluebell said.
She slapped him. “Liar. Idiot!”
“We are extremely stupid, Your Majesty.” Blabberwort bowed her head, revealing that ridiculous orange pouf. Poodles wore poufs, not Trolls.
“But we have the dog,” Burly said.
“You fool,” the Queen said, “the dog is not the threat to me. The girl is the threat.”
She shook her head, and knew it wasn’t over yet. “The girl,” she repeated. The Queen wouldn’t win until the girl was dead.
They had just crested a hill in the woods. Through the trees, Virginia could see Prince Wendell’s castle. It looked like a fairy tale castle, which, she supposed, it was.
Wolf came up beside her. “Journey’s end.”
She nodded. The castle was only about five miles away. It was shrouded in early morning mist and surrounded by acres of lakes and hunting land. How beautiful.
“We were following the mirror all over the place,” Tony said. “Who’d have thought we’d end up here?”
“We were always meant to come here,” Virginia said.
Her father gave her a startled look, but she didn’t care. She was trusting her instincts for the first time in her life.
Her father opened her rucksack and took out the kettle. He started carrying it to a nearby stream. “Let’s have a cup of tea before we do the final stretch. Does one of you want to get some firewood?”
“I’ll go,” Wolf said.
“I’U go with you,” Virginia said.
She didn’t really want Wolf to leave again. She hadn’t been able to take being separated from him before, but she was si ill having trouble admitting that.
It was dawn, beautiful and silent. The woods were lovely, but not as great as being with Wolf. He kept looking at her, and she couldn’t stop looking at him. She could feel the electricity between them.
“There is something I would really like you to do for me,” Wolf said, ‘ ‘and I think I deserve it, given my multiple savings of your life.”
She smiled. ‘ ‘I know what you want to do, and the answer
is yes.”
“Oh,” Wolf said, as if he hadn’t expected her to say that.
They were standing inches away from each other, in the lovely morning mist.
“Oh, cripes,” Wolf said. “I want you so much.”
“I know,” Virginia said. “I want you too.”
“All right,” Wolf said, “you run off into the woods and I will cover my eyes.”
“I’m sorry?” Virginia frowned. What had he just said?
“Into the trees and I will cover my eyes and count to a hundred.”
“Are you serious?”
“Oh, yes.” He seemed very serious. This whole thing seemed to mean a lot to him. “I won’t cheat. I promise I won’t cheat.”
“That’s not the point,” Virginia said.
“All right, maybe I will count a little quicker after fifty, but I promise you’ll get a proper—”
“I’m not playing hide-and-seek,” Virginia said.
He covered his eyes with his hands and started to count.
“No!” Virginia said. And then she wondered why she was protesting so much. He was a wolf, and everyone did things differently here. Besides, it sounded like fun.
She ran off. Behind her, she heard him counting.
‘ ‘Eight, nine, twenty-one, twothreefour five nine, thirty-one, two, three, four, forty, one, two, three—Commiinnng!”
She ran as fast as she could, crashing through brambles, into bushes, hurrying, hurrying. But she could hear him behind her. Eventually, the sound of his footsteps faded, and she stopped to catch her breath.
There was no sign of him. She couldn’t hear anything but her own breathing. Her heart was thundering in her chest. This was silly and stupid and exciting all at the same time. She listened—and became sensitive to everything. The birds were louder, the breeze through the trees, even the scent of the nearby pine tree seemed more intense.
And then she heard Wolf a long distance away. She smiled and ran again.
She ran until she thought she lost him. Then she found a good hiding spot behind a bush. She caught her breath again and thought about strategy. Should she let him catch her or not?
Suddenly he leapt out of the trees and knocked her over. They rolled through the undergrowth, pushing and shoving and kicking and hitting at each other, just like cubs at play. She grabbed him and was biting his ear and then they were kissing and pulling at each other’s clothes, and she laughed as the play turned into something she recognized, something she had been longing for.
“Wolf,” she murmured and lost herself to the sensation of loving him.
It took Virginia and Wolf a very long time to find wood. Tony had given up on the tea nearly an hour before and had searched the rucksack for some kind of snack. He missed Prince Wendell. He hadn’t realized how much he relied on that dog.
Then Virginia came out of the woods. She had leaves in her hair and grass stains on her jeans. She was smiling, but he had never seen her look so happy and distracted at the same time.
“Where’s the wood?” Tony asked.
“Yes,” she said.
“For the fire?”
“Couldn’t find any,” Virginia said as she walked right past him.
“You couldn’t find any wood in a wood?”
She didn’t answer him, but she didn’t have to. Wolf came out of the woods, looking just as stunned as Virginia.
“Hello, Tony,” Wolf said.
“You haven’t got any wood either, I suppose,” Tony said.
He walked past Tony toward Virginia. “Yes, thank you.”
Tony watched him, feeling utterly confused. Then he gasped. Wolf’s tail was sticking out of his trousers, wagging jauntily back and forth.
It took some coaxing, but Tony finally got his breakfast. It almost felt as if he were eating alone, however, since Wolf and Virginia didn’t really have much to say.
All during their meal, they heard the distant rumble of carriage wheels. When they had finally finished eating, they walked to the edge of the woods.
Before them was a cobblestone road. The castle was less than a mile away. Guards patrolled the battlements.
There was more rumbling, and Wolf made them go back into the trees. A wagon passed, carrying supplies. Not a minute later, an incredibly beautiful black coach clipped by.
‘ ‘They are all going to the castle for Wendell’s coronation,’ ’ Wolf said.
“Why don’t we just walk in there?” Tony asked.
“Because if I’m right,” Wolf said, “this is no longer Prince Wendell’s castle. It is controlled by the Queen. And his guards may now be her eyes. We can trust no one.”
“Wolf, I have to tell you something,” Virginia said. “The Queen is ...”
“Is what?” Wolf asked.
“She is my mother,” Virginia said.
“I have guessed this since the first moment I smelt you.”
Tony didn’t need to hear that. He glared at Wolf, but Wolf didn’t seem to notice. Wolf was taking off his coat.
“We will wait until it is dark before we try to enter the castle,” he said.
“What are we going to do all day?” Tony asked.
Wolf bunched up his coat into a little ball and lay back on it, and closed his eyes. “Sleep. We are exhausted, are we not?”
‘ 'Definitely.” Virginia lay down and put her head on Wolf ’s chest.
“Have I missed something here?” Tony asked.
The Queen stood in front of the window, watching the sun go down. She was trying to get a sense of the girl and her companions, but couldn’t. It frustrated her.
“Shall I signal the start of the Coronation Ball?” the Huntsman asked.
“They will come amongst the others,” she said, “when they think they are safe.”
Fireworks illuminated the sky. The castle was ablaze with lights, making it look even more like a fairy tale. The strains of a waltz floated on the night air.
Virginia walked beside Wolf and her father. They had joined the guests who were going to the palace by foot. Everyone was well dressed but them. Their clothes were mud-stained, and for the first time, Virginia was aware of the twigs in her hair.
Behind them, Virginia heard the rumble of carriage wheels. All of the guests left the road as a golden coach went by. She caught a fleeting glimpse of the girl inside.
“A princess,” someone whispered.
More coaches passed. The road was going to be impossible to walk, so they walked beside it. Virginia almost thought they could get through until she saw the guards at the edge of the drawbridge, looking at invitations before allowing people to enter.
“What do we do now?” Virginia whispered.
Two guards noticed them and their filthy clothes. One of the guards pointed and went to talk to a man who seemed to be in charge.
Wolf grabbed her arm and led her under the drawbridge. Tony followed. He nodded toward a grill at the other side, then got into the water and started swimming.
Virginia sighed. She guessed it wouldn’t be any worse than some of the other things she had done on this trip.
She got into the cold water. Her father followed, cursing under his breath. Thank heavens he had taught her to swim in city pools. They used to play a game, seeing how silently they could swim across a pool. It came into play now.
Wolf reached the sheer castle wall a moment or two before they did. He gripped the grill and pulled on it. As Virginia reached him, treading water, she realized he couldn’t get it open.
“I was hoping it might be loose,” Wolf said.
“This isn’t going to work,” her father said.
“It’s a portcullis,” Wolf said. “Perhaps we can swim under it. It’s bound to lead into the castle somewhere.”
“Somewhere?” Virginia asked.
She peered through the grill. Inside was a passage, but the water level reached the ceiling. It was too dark to see where it led.
“Forget it,” her father said.
Wolf ignored him. ‘ ‘Follow me. If I don’t come back within a minute, I will either have got through or got stuck.”
“No!” Virginia said.
But he didn’t listen to her. He dove under the water and disappeared. He could drown in there. How could she bear it if he drowned?
She peered through the grill, but saw nothing.
“There is no way I am diving underwater in the dark,” her father said, “in the hope that I might surface somewhere.”
He wasn’t coming back. She had waited long enough. “He must have found the way.”
“Why do you assume that?” Tony asked. “He’s probably run out of—”
But she didn’t hear the rest. She took a huge breath and dove underwater, into the darkness. For a moment, she felt like she was doing the stupidest thing in her life, and then she realized she had to keep going.
She felt her way along the slime-covered stones. She had never been in water this dark. She moved forward, using her legs to propel her, searching for any kind of light.
Once she was under the grate, she went up, remembering that the passage was full to the ceiling. She could touch the ceiling stones. If she hadn’t been touching them, she would have bumped her head on an overhang. This had once been a real passage.