PROLOGUE

Life has dark secrets

Eric was no midwife but the noises coming from the Queen's chambers were not normal and contained enough pain and anguish to make him pace in a furiously manic manner. He covered the rather wide hallway in only a few steps. His thick brow knit together in worry and he wished there was something he could do. No one stood out in the hall with the King, the servants and maids that did not keep the Queen under their watch were asleep, most of them unaware that their monarch was laboring away to bring the heir of Tabor into the world two months earlier than normal. While she had seemed strong throughout the pregnancy, for her labor to have started this early was entirely worrisome to the King. He did not care if it was a son or a daughter; he only wanted a healthy child that would one day rule with the same grace and generosity that its mother had managed to. While it had only been nine months since her coronation, and only seven since his appointment to King of Tabor, the dilapidated wasteland of the kingdom that'd been left behind in Queen Ravenna's wrath and delusional reign was breathing in new gasps of life. Color returned to the streets and the people found fewer woes in their day to day activities. Nothing was perfect yet, but no one said that the road to recovery was an easy one.

However, he still found hope in the tiny amount of progress that'd been displayed in only nine months of the reign of Snow White. Of course, he could not yet give credit to his own abilities as King. He was no born monarch, bred and groomed to rule a complex set of people with their own separate set of needs. Not to mention that seven months was hardly enough time for someone not born to be a ruler to figure out the intricacies that came with ruling multifaceted subjects such as those that claimed a stake of life in Tabor and surrounding villages. He was, after all, a common man with a common set of skills that did not exceed his own bravery. In the past, he had been wounded and blind, bitter and cold. Time, however, healed all wounds it seemed and the healing touch of a new found love was enough to tame the wild beast he had previously been.

When Snow White had originally told Eric that she, out of love and desire to rule beside him, would be appointing him as the King of Tabor he had been a little surprised. He was hardly royalty or of any noble descent. The closest his family had ever gotten to the throne was to dust it off and plump the cushions. Eric knew for a fact that there were far more suitable men to wear the crown that he wore, men like William and men from far off kingdoms with perhaps more charm and class than William himself. Yet in the end it was love and affection that won out over pedigree. However, William had not been entirely happy with his appointment and though he had been offered a very prestigious position within the castle as the ambassador to surrounding kingdoms and dukedoms, he chose to turn it down out of something that resembled childish spite rather than composing himself like the level-headed Duke he claimed to be.

At first, Eric wondered if William's reaction had been because he'd had expected his entire life to ascend to the throne of Tabor aside Snow White simply because he was her oldest friend or because the limited powers that being a Duke presented was not enough. However, in the end his new duties as a King beat out the desire to worry about one man; even if he really did want to befriend this one man. Eric had tried from the start to drop his calloused attitude and seek advice from the scorned Duke, but bad blood between the two prevented anything worthwhile from forming. Eric knew full well that if it was not because of Snow White and her ties to the opinionated Duke, Eric would not suck up his animosity whenever William was around. After all, he was no easily humbled man and it took a lot to accept the angry glares and undercutting sarcasm that William had recently developed around the King.

The King halted mid-stride as the grand double doors that barred him from seeing what was going on within the Queen's chambers squeaked open to reveal a slightly-pale faced, small midwife with blood splattered down the front of her apron. Eric felt his heart drop down and settle at the bottom of his stomach like a heavy stone. For a moment, the two stared at one another. He was far too afraid to ask what had happened and why there was so much blood. The room beyond her was dimly lit with the flickering light of several candles and from where he stood he could not see the bed where his beloved wife lay. Fighting down the worry that choked him, he squared his shoulders and lifted his chin to look down at the midwife, dwarfed by his size and cowering slightly in his long and menacing shadow cast by the lighting in the hallway, to finally ask in a voice that sounded far braver than he felt,

"Well?"

His snappy tone made the woman cast her wavering glance to the side to focus on portraits that lined the hall to reply in a quiet, shaky voice,

"It is a girl."

For a moment, Eric stood quietly and processed the information he had been given. His mood was slowly rising with the news of the birth being over, but the exact details were what he wanted the most. Shifting a little closer to the woman –who backed up slightly into the room with his approach- to ask,

"Is it healthy? And what of the Queen?"

With the mention of Snow White, the midwife cast her glance back over her shoulder to fixate on the weak form of the Queen who lay back against plush pillows with a face whiter than usual. Finally, she looked back at her King and informed,

"The child is well, my liege. The Queen…she is weak. However, she has adamantly requested your presence. We are cleaning the child up and I told her that we will let you in after we wrap the child up and hand her to her moth-"

He had tuned out anything the woman had said when he heard that his presence had been needed. He did not care about the indecency; he did not care about tradition. He cared about the fact that his wife needed him. So instead of standing listening to the bleating woman drag on about what will be done and what will not be done he marched past her and right to Snow White's side. He approached her with caution and reached out with a shaky hand to run a soft finger against the oddly chilled skin that line her sculpted jaw. She opened her wary eyes and smiled as she recognized the worried and lined face of her husband. Reaching up with a weak hand she grasped at his arm and tugged on the silken fabric of his shirt gently. Following her gentle and persuasive tug he sat down beside her and pressed his lips gently to her pale forehead,

"My love, you look worn out. You need to rest."

Snow shook her head in a stronger manner than Eric had expected her to and her voice was raspy as she insisted,

"No, I want to see my daughter."

A strange look flashed across her eyes and for a moment something that might have been uncertainty flooded her features. Eric found himself unnecessarily confused by this before pushing the feeling away to assume that she was worried about the child having a deformity. After all, she had been born two months early. Speaking of his daughter, he let his eyes scan the room to find two huddled maids in the dark corner of the room, speaking in quiet tones amongst themselves with occasional glances back towards the King and Queen. Knitting his thick brow into a look of frustration he snapped at them,

"Well are you going to bring my daughter over for us to see?"

The taller of the two maids turned around and in her arms was a tightly swaddled child with closed eyes. Eric suddenly realized that the whole time he'd been in the room, something was missing. He was no expert on babies, but he had been present for plenty of post-birthing celebrations to know that the child in question was normally always crying. However the child in the maid's arms was quiet with a calm, untutored look on her tiny face. Feeling his breath catch in his throat and hearing Snow take in a sharp breath beside him he clenched her hand tightly and quietly asked with an angry undertone to his voice,

"Are you going to allow us to see her?"

The maid numbly nodded and quickly shuffled over to deposit the wrapped child in Snow's arms. The Queen reached up to take the quiet baby and ran a slim finger down the bridge of her nose. At the contact, the child's eyes opened and both Eric and Snow gasped. Most babies had blue eyes after birth, but instead the child in the Queen's arms had eyes as black as the night sky outside the window. Eric felt his soul grow cold and out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Snow's lips tighten into a thin line as she reached up with a cautious hand to remove the top linen from the child's head. Rather than a soft brown downy atop the child's head, a mop of hair as white as snow sat. For a moment, the pair stared down at the strange child as the baby looked at the two faces above her with a look on her face that held far too much sinister intent for Eric to feel comfortable to be near. Pushing up and away from the bed he ran a hand through his dark hair and with a shaky, angry voice he demanded,

"What have you done?"

Snow watched his furious pacing and swallowed painfully,

"I am so sorry…"

Eric's chest began to rise and fall heavily as he turned to her and shouted in a raised voice that finally roused the unnamed child to let out a strangled wail,

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"

He stood his ground as a shameful tear dropped down from the corner of Snow White's eye as she looked at her husband then looked away to say,

"It is not what you think, Eric…"

Shaking his head and letting out a harsh, single laugh, he asked,

"It's not? Then tell me what is going on, because that," he pointed angrily at the crying child held loosely in his wife's arms, "baby is not mine."

Snow White lowered her eyes and set the child down on her lap. With the sudden loss of being held close, the little girl quieted down immediately and transfixed her strange inky black gaze on the ceiling above her. For a short second, everyone in the room considered the oddity of this before Snow White as she quietly confessed,

"No…she is not yours."

Eric let out a strangled huff of disbelief. Who did the child belong to? With hair white like that, it could not have been William. Was it a guard? A soldier? It took all of his self control to just stand there and shake and shiver like the flickering candle flames that surrounded them to ask in an uneven tone,

"Then who's is she?"

The look that settled itself on Snow's face was a dark and painful one. She closed her eyes and brought up a hand to her eyes to wipe away the tears that had started to fall before whispering in a cold voice that chilled even the heat of Eric's anger,

"Finn."

The two maids that had been far too afraid of their Queen's fate with her angered husband in the room gasped and shuddered at the name. Eric, however, started towards her and sat down at the edge of her bed and reached out to touch her face and directed her gaze to his as he lost all anger in his voice as he asked,

"Finn? As in the dead brother of Ravenna?"

Snow's brow knit into a look of worry as she only managed to bring herself to nod slowly. Hissing at this, Eric stood up and began to pace again before swiveling around and demanded from his wife,

"Did he rape you?"

She nodded her head numbly and whispered, "Yes…"

"When?"

"The night before I escaped…I'm so sorry I never told you. I tried, Eric. I tried so many times to tell you but I could not bring myself to accept the truth. I felt so weak and so helpless. I'm so sorry you had to learn this way."

Eric swiftly closed the distance between them and sat down again. Cupping her face in his calloused hands he planted a gentle kiss on her rosy red lips and quietly told her,

"You are not a weak woman. Finn was an evil man, I cannot be angry at you for falling prey to his malevolence…but I cannot love a child that was fathered by him. Nor should it deserve the luxury of royalty. It could be dangerous."

Reaching out a shaking hand to run nimble fingers through the fine, white hair of the baby, Snow pleaded with her husband, "I do not believe that she is dangerous…"

The two, at Eric's haughty words, looked down at the child who's gaze redirected from the ceiling to Eric. He fought the urge to suck in a sharp breath of air as he swore he saw a flicker of wickedness in the dark hued eyes of the child. He rationalized with himself that no baby barely an hour old should know how to make such a gaze. Standing up he backed away from the child,

"She is not natural."

"She is my daughter!" Snow quickly rose to the defense of the baby, pushing aside the unnerving feeling that had settled in her stomach since she'd first glanced at the child.

"She is Finn's daughter, as well! She has close ties to Ravenna! Can you imagine the problems that could quickly arise in the kingdom if the people learned that the niece of the most evil Queen Tabor has seen was birthed to you? We cannot keep her; she poses a threat to the peace that has only recently settled. I can see it in your eyes that you know this to be a truth as well." Eric was adamant about the danger that the child could pose, crossing his arms across his broad chest to make a point.

Snow White gazed at her husband for an agonizingly long time before retreating her hand from the child and then looked away to stare out the window, "I cannot send her off to live in a place I cannot watch her grow up in. I agree that there is something dark within her, but I believe that with a loving mother not distracted by the duties of a monarchy but equally living within the luxury that royalty brings we can bring out the best in her," she looked at the two women that had remained frozen since the admittance of who the child's father was and ordered in a soft voice, "please go find Marzena, the King's chambermaid. I believe that she too gave birth today to a stillborn."

The two women did not argue with their Queen and quickly scampered out of the room to locate the woman. Eric looked at them as they left before questioning,

"You think that by giving the child who is more or less perhaps born to be evil will prevent the shadows in her soul from rising up? Are you so willing to put the hard-earned peace of Tabor at risk just for a child simply because she is your daughter?"

Snow White sat up straighter against her throne of pillows and squared her chin in a defensive way that reminded Eric that by being the secondary monarch, his word was only suggestion to her. She was, in the end, the ultimate decision on everything. Her eyes lit up with a fire only ignited by the motherly nature within her heart as she carefully said,

"I agree that there is something unnatural about the girl. However, I cannot ignore that she is of my blood and I have always believed, as should you, that light will always outshine the dark. With the proper care and guidance I do not doubt that she will overcome any ghosts in her past. Though I will also agree that she must not know her heritage and that should the people of Tabor discover her origins, they will dissolve into panic. In due time, they will be ready for the truth as will my daughter, but until then she will lead a life free of the pressures of knowing of the good and evil that resides within her."

Eric opened his mouth to argue, but Snow held up a stern hand and looked at him with a hardened glare that he was not entirely used to as she forcefully said, "that is my final decision. However, I would prefer that you were not here when Marzena arrives. I do not want her to know that you know and I would appreciate it if you kept your knowledge to yourself."

Looking dismayed he let his gaze slide to the quiet child whose eyes had suddenly turned to a very light silver. Narrowing his own dark eyes he set his jaw in a harsh line and fought to find a tone of voice void of the frustration he felt boiling in his blood and finally nodded softly before blinking at his wife to quietly say, "I will respect your wishes; but please hear mine: I want us to have a child of our own."

Snow White smiled softly at his request and reached out a hand at him that beckoned him closer. Knotting her hand in his hair, he pulled his face down to hers to plant a passionate kiss and as she broke the embrace she smiled and said softly, "of course. In due time we will produce a proper heir and you will teach him or her all of your strength and I all of my wisdom; but until then you need to rest my love. You have been up for a while. I will meet you for breakfast."

Eric reached down and kissed her gently before doing his best to avoid shooting the baby on her lap a resentful look and said, "rest well, love. I will bring breakfast to you."

She smiled at him as he retreated, but her soft demeanor was quickly wiped away as a sallow-faced Marzena entered the room. Beckoning the two escorting maids from the room and waiting for them to close the doors behind them she motioned for the curvy woman to approach with a curling finger. Sitting up more than she'd been sitting before, she asked greeted her,

"I apologize for requesting your presence at such an unreasonable hour-"

The timid and submissive woman hastily cut her Queen off with a respectful, "it is not a problem."

Smiling slightly at this she reached out and placed her hand atop Marzena's and said, "I am so terribly sorry that your child born today was stillborn, but I must ask you to do something for me."

Knitting her brow together she shook her head and tensed beneath the gentle touch of her Queen, "anything, my Lady."

Sucking in a deep breath of air Snow White asked, "are you producing milk?"

Marzena only nodded at this. Withdrawing her hand from hers, Snow reached down and picked up the baby she held her out and motioned for the woman to take her, "then she is yours."

Marzena stared at the light-eyed child with a look of surprise and worried horror. She shrunk away from the bundle of silence and adamantly shook her head, "no…I cannot take her. I am not worthy of motherhood."

Sternly reaching over and forcing the baby into her arms, Snow White's dark eyes met Marzena's fearful green ones as she ordered, "she is yours, and you will raise her as yours."

The baby squirmed slightly in Marzena's stiff and nervous arms and out of pure instinct she pulled the baby closer to her and she whispered to the Queen, "what is wrong with her?"

Shaking her head and smiling sadly she asked, "You must keep a secret if I tell you."

Narrowing her eyes suspiciously Marzena nodded and waited for the answer,

"She is not Eric's daughter. Through unfortunate events nine months ago before I escaped the towers of this castle when Ravenna was still Queen of Tabor I was raped by her brother. The child you are holding in your arms is the result of the act."

Marzena suddenly grew fearful of the truth and held the child out quickly to Snow White and hastily said, "I cannot take her."

Snow White scooted away from the child slightly and said, "you must take her. I cannot provide her with the care and love that she would need to overcome the apparent darkness within her. I know that there is good within her, she needs an attentive mother and you are a kind woman with a strong heart. I believe that you can give her what she needs where as I cannot."

The maid swallowed hard and slowly drew the baby back to her and whispered, "who else knows?"

For a moment, the Queen considered telling the truth but in a split second of decision she decided that the child would be safer if her new adoptive mother did not know the number of people that knew and said, "just the two of us. I promise that when she is of age, I will tell her of her parentage and I will deem her a princess of Tabor, but until then she must not know. If she asks of her father, explain that your husband is her father. And for those that question what happened to my child, we will insist that my child was stillborn and yours had lived."

Marzena found herself uncomfortable by the already intricate web of lies that was being woven around this child but as she felt the tiny baby move against her chest she could not help but feel for the child's situation and pointed out, "she will be a changeling."

The Queen looked at the child in her arms before nodding and dryly saying, "yes."

The woman looked down at the baby for a moment, taking in her fine features and slowly found herself taken with the little child and finally looked up at Snow White to say, "I will humbly accept this gift you have given me."

Something hardened within Snow White's eyes and jaw as she said, "she is not a gift. I am giving her to you for the sake of the child and Tabor. Your job is important to the continued peace, I hope that you can keep up your word and avoid telling her the truth until I have a chance to reveal her history to her."

Nodding adamantly the new mother stood, clutching the baby to her chest, and said, "I will not let you down my Queen."

Turning she bid the Queen a good evening and began to walk out, however Snow White raised up on her elbows and curiously asked, "do you know what you will name her?"

Marzena slowly stopped and turned to look at the curious Queen and then down at her new daughter and smiled softly, "Cora."

Snow considered the name for a moment before saying, "it fits her well…Marzena; you have a truly honest and great heart. I will reward you well for this sacrifice you are taking."

Marzena smiled at the praise and shook her head, "I do not need to be rewarded for being a mother."

She then exited and left Snow White to her thoughts. Exhausted, she sunk down into her plush bed and fluttered her eyes closed, drifting off into an uneasy sleep full of nightmares of enemies long gone.

Author's Notes: So. I saw Snow White and the Huntsman about a week after it came out. This entire story was inspired by the scene where Finn entered Snow's cell to take her to Ravenna to have her heart eaten and I wondered to myself (though Finn said that he was always allowed to look but not touch) whether or not he could have really controlled himself and Snow was far too fearful of him to have not perhaps been assaulted in the past. I toyed with the idea of her being raped and thus, the story line that this fiction will follow was born! Yes, I am still writing my Avengers FF, Remember Everything, but at the same time I will have this project going as well. I warn everyone now that this story will be darker than perhaps what some SWATH fictions have been (I've read a few), and will focus on several OC's with the canon characters as supporting but important pawns in the plot. I cannot even voice how excited I am for this to play out. For now, obviously, the rating is T, but in future chapters I will bump the rating up to M for violence (you will be warned ahead of time as to what chapters are M and what are not). And with that said, welcome to On a Throne of Lies please review! I know that this prologue is a little slow but I had to set up the basis of the story :) Thanks for reading guys!

I do not own any characters except for those you do not recognize being from the movie

Chapter titles from the poem 'Secrets' by Letitia Elizabeth Landon