This is a fanfiction based on the book and TV series The 10th Kingdom I've thrown in some original characters, but I can't claim any from the actual book or show. (You should know which ones I mean...)
It was night when they stepped through the mirror again, but even Virginia could tell that something was wrong. Wolf froze in his tracks and looked around like he'd caught whiff of something terrible. Virginia took his arm as a sudden chill touched her. The room with the traveling mirror was the same as it had been when they had gone through it only two weeks ago, but there was a feeling of unease there. They had been laughing when they went through, now they clutched each others' hands in silence.
It's so quiet for a castle full of people... Virginia thought. Then she threw it off and marched forward to the door of the mirror chamber.
"Let's go tell them we're back," she said to Wolf with false cheer. He wasn't fooled, and took her arm in a protective way that would have been sweet if it hadn't increased the fear that was clambering around in her heart. The stepped out into the hallway and looked both ways. It was dark and dingy and felt colder than it should have.
Wolf sniffed the air and pulled Virginia after him down the corridor. His expression was grim and his eyes were bright with that feral gold she wasn't quite used to yet. Finally they were passed by a very busy looking servant with his arms full of dusty parchments who went by muttering . Soon, they heard other activity and headed for it. At one stairwell, they both paused at a child's laughter, high and sweet in the strange place. Wolf furrowed his brow and seemed about to speak when a new voice made them all turn.
"You've come back..." It was a familiar voice, but so changed that they wouldn't have recognized it at all if it weren't for the face. Prince Wendell stared at them with a look of weary delight. Virginia almost gasped out loud, but Wolf wasn't so discreet.
"What happened to you??" he sputtered. There were lines around the Prince's eyes that hadn't been there before. His hair was thinner and so was the rest of him, really. He had a short beard that managed to be serious despite the situation. The biggest change was in his eyes themselves. They had aged twice what the rest of him had, and carried a strange grief that contrasted with the weak smile on his face as he came forward to crush them both in hug. Virginia was speechless. Wolf was just as amazed. Neither could imagine why the Prince would be so near tears.
"We saw the skins, but I always hoped..." he pulled back to look at them again. The new age difference made him look like an uncle greeting his favorite niece and nephew after a long separation. "Hoped somehow you'd escaped! And look! You're back again! Safe and sound!." He was practically weepy now. Wolf looked to Virginia who was almost green with dread.
"Wendell..what's happened?? Why is everything so dark? Why are you so..."she trailed off, looking at him with horror.
"Old," offered Wolf. Wendell's smile faded a bit and he looked at them more closely. A slow light of dawning dread broke on him and he let go of them to step back farther. He looked unsteady.
"We've only been gone two weeks...since the coronation..." Virginia had started to tremble. "Haven't we? Where's my dad?? Is he still here?" She broke away to pace through the halls calling for her father, getting more frantic as she went. Wolf hurried after her and was awhile herding her back to the room where Wendell sat with his head in his hands,
"This has happened before..." he said it without emotion. "Mirrors don't lie, but then why are they used for some many tricks? It's been 20 years since my coronation, Lady Virginia. You came back before...and lived here...but such horrible things happened..."
"What are you talking about?? Where's my Dad??" She was almost in tears now herself. He looked at her and the grief on his face stopped her short.
"When you were killed, Virginia," he said it softly. "Your father wouldn't rest until the murderers were found. When he found the truth, war was declared."
"What are you talking about?? I'm not dead..." Virginia let her voice trail off. Wolf looked furious at the very thought. Wendell bit his lip and looked at the floor. He was a long time in finding his voice.
"After a stay in the 10th Kingdom, you came back here and settled out in the woods near the border. You had a son, named after your father..." They both stared at him. After another long pause, he went on. "And eventually a daughter and eventually twins... Then someone from the House of Red, they say maybe Queen Riding Hood's huntsmen came...You..and Wolf...and your oldest boy were killed...and skinned."
Wolf reeled. He caught himself on the edge of a table. All the color drained from his face and he ended up sitting on the floor gasping. Virginia felt unable to react. Things like that didn't happen to people in her world, so she couldn't believe it like Wolf could. It just wasn't an acceptable answer. Wendell saw the disbelief on her face and motioned for them to follow him.
"I'll show you in the mirror." He lead the way down another dimly lit hall to a much smaller mirror than the traveling one. It was framed with what looked like abalone shell, polished and carved. the glass had a greenish tint and seemed to ripple as if it weren't completely solid. Wendell stood in front of it and touched the glass with the very tips of his fingers.
"Revealing mirror from the sea,
show the time we ask of thee."
Prince Wendell's voice was soft with a weary dread, as if he was showing them something he truly didn't want to see. The mirror clouded and from the clouds there came a face, It was wild-eyed and elvishly beautiful. Virginia found herself thinking of the lady of the Lake from the Arthur legend. Perhaps this is what that strange lady had looked like, she thought, and then the face shimmered and faded into a background, a forest with a cottage built into the roots of a huge tree. Something was nailed to the walls of one side and there was someone moving in the yard. The mirror's picture became clearer and they could hear the distant sound of grief-stricken howls.
"Your daughter, Luna," said Wendell. "Came home too late to help you." As the picture sharpened they could see that the things nailed up were roughly human in shape. Her stomach turned as the Prince's earlier words returned to her. We saw the skins, but always hoped you'd escaped... Those were someone's skins up there! One was supposed to be Wolf's. That thought sent prickled of horror and rage through her body. And one was supposed to be her son?? She folded her hands protectively over her stomach and stole a glance a Wolf.
He was wide-eyed and the muscles in his jaw were tight. The mirror revealed a teenage girl sobbing as if her heart would break in the grass near the skins. As they watched she raised her head to howl again, a heart-tearing cry of sorrow. In her arms lay a woman, who looked horribly like herself. Virginia realized that she was shaking her head to deny this thing, trying not to notice that the weeping girl had her face and her slim build, somehow combined with Wolf's dark hair and feral eyes.
"This can't be true..." She whispered softly. Wolf whined at her side, butting his head against her arm. She put a hand on it, as much to reassure herself as him. Mirrors don't lie, Wendell had said, but how could this be so?? The girl in the image jerked up with a snarl as a flaming arrow struck the house's straw roof. Voices came from through the trees and more fires flickered in the darkening night. The girl left the dead woman in the grass ands sprinted inside. Virginia felt her breath catch in worry. Why go in?? The roof was burning!
But only a second later, she reappeared, with a dark eyed toddler under one arm, and dark-furred wolf cub under the other. The twins, Virginia remembered suddenly. Wendell said that I had twins, too... That one was born as a wolf struck her as though she should think it odd, but she was too afraid for the child in the mirror to spend much thought on it. The girl (Luna, she had been called) tore thought the woods like a shot, squirming sibling under each arm. Shouts and arrows seemed to come out of nowhere. Virginia felt sweat break out and could hear Wolf panting beside her.
"She made it to my palace by dawn," Wendell said, a touch of pride in his tone now. Wolf gasped, staring. "Yes...it should be a two day trip, but she made it in a night." The mirror showed the girl running, through woods and fields, leaping from stone to stone over rivers and gullies, never stopping. "She ran her feet bloody and her footprints burned into the floor of my main hall. And before my court and before the throne, she claimed sanctuary for her sisters, claiming a debt for her par- for your past deeds. She needn't have. I would have helped her...
"She left after that. I couldn't stop her. And shortly after that, Queen Riding Hood's huntsmen began to die...No, I don't know if she is behind it, but in the times she has come back to see the twins, she has changed... At first she was thin and desperate looking, and I did everything I could to convince her to stay, but she would not. Lately, though, she's healthy and fierce looking...and wearing troll armor. She never tells me where she's been."
"Where's my father?" Virginia's voice was choking her. "You said you were at war. With who? The House of Red?" Wendell nodded and waved a hand over the mirror as the image grew dim.
"Sir Anthony was mad with grief at your deaths...He couldn't even find comfort in the twins and spent all his time trying to find a way to prove who had killed you. Finally, he found the key. Your ring, Virginia...was taken from your body."
"But it doesn't come off..." she raised her hand to look at the ring. That gaunt look came back to Wendell face and he nearly whispered: "Fingers do...And singing rings are valuable..." Wolf made a sound as though he was hurt and took Virginia's hand in his own to protect it. He kissed it repeatedly as if he might be telling it goodbye. Virginia snatched it from him, too stressed to comfort him. "My father," she repeated.
"Sir Anthony found your ring when it was sold to a jeweler. The jeweler didn't remember who had sold it to him, but the ring did, and it declared the huntsmen of the House of Red to be behind it all. The blow to Queen Riding Hood's popularity was severe, but she would not hand over her huntsmen to be judged. To silence the loudest of her critics, she called a bounty on them, and the wolves and half-wolves were either killed or driven from her kingdom. She declared you the witch offspring of the evil queen and a lying mirror thief. When I would not side with her, we went to war."
Virginia quivered, ready to slap him if he didn't answer her question again. Her mind reeled. The first time she was away from her father and this happens. She needed him now, the stability of a parent, and she locked eyes with Wendell, for a second looking as fierce as Wolf at his worst. He sighed and pointed to a large statue in the he foyer behind them. Virginia turned and was a moment or two realizing that it was a heroic rendition of her father in dramatic pose. The plaque at the bottom read In Memory Of Sir Anthony Lewis The Valiant
"He can't be dead!" Virginia wailed, covering her face with her hands. "It's only been two weeks!! Oh God! Dad!" She felt hands on her shoulders and in her hair, petting, soothing. Murmured comforts ran through her ears, Wolf's voice and Wendell's, running together but she drowned them out with her sobs. She set down on something, a couch probably, and she was distantly aware of that, but unable to do anything for the numb grief that ripped trough her like barbed wire.
"How could this have happened??" she moaned as Wolf rocked her gently back and forth. "How?"
"Vanity," a new voice said and they looked up to see the ghost of Snow White stand before them. Virginia sniffled, wiping her nose on the back of her hand, getting a disgusted sound from the ring that no one noticed. She squinted through her tears at the apparition, slowly realizing that it was another mirror, hung to reflect the heroic statue, that the old queen appeared in. Wolf sucked in his breath with wonder. Wendell's sad face lit up at the sight of his grandmother. She gave them all a half-smile and looked keenly at Virginia.
"Vanity is what drove my stepmother to have me murdered, it's what drove your mother slowly mad, and it's what has caused this slip in time. You will find your answer in the woods, Virginia, like I did." Then she shimmered and was gone. Wendell and Wolf looked at her, as if they thought she might understand it better than they did. She didn't, but it gave her hope and she rubbed away her tears on her sleeve.
"In the woods," she repeated softly, even as her expression hardened. "Fine. We're going."
"We're at war," Wendell reminded them. "We can't just go wandering around the countryside!"
"You can't," Virginia's voice had gone as cold as her mother's. Wolf's eyes widened ever so slightly. "You have a kingdom to defend. Defeating the House of Red means nothing if the House of White falls first. Wolf and I will go."
They both looked ready to protest for about half a second, then they looked sideways at each other and seemed to come to the same conclusion. This wasn't something either of them wanted to have directed at themselves. Wendell went to arrange provisions for them. Wolf and Virginia faced each other, both wondering what the future really was. Virginia had never believed in fate too much. Now she was grateful for it. A small voice as thin as a mosquito's whine whispered that if it was, she would eventually end up dead in the grass, with Wolf's bloody pelt nearby.
I won't let that happen, she thought fiercely. It won't happen in real life. If we came forward in time, then we can go back, and put this thing right before it ever happens. She ran a hand over her belly, wishing she could sense the baby as well as Wolf could. It would grow up as safely as she could make it. Something very she-wolfish awoke inside her and she felt her teeth clench. Nothing would hurt her baby or her mate and they would pay dearly for hurting her father...
She was so lost in her fierce thoughts that Wolf's light touch on her arm made her jump and she spun on him before realizing who he was. He looked at her fondly, perhaps appreciating the feral turn her thoughts had taken. She calmed a bit then and managed a determined smile for him. He nodded, returning the smile. Words weren't needed. He had been as shaken as she was, but he had faith. In her, or Snow White's advice, or maybe just in happy endings, she wasn't sure.
They walked hand in hand to where Wendell was ordering two satchels packed with food and useful things. He look worried, as if he wasn't sure he should let them out of his sight. After a moment, he crept back to them, looking suddenly very much like a sheepish golden retriever.
"There's something you must know," he said quietly. "I've been trying to think of a good way to bring it up. You've had enough shocks for one day...but..."
"Just spit it out," Virginia sighed. Wendell almost fidgeted, but then remembered his princely bearing and straightened up. "Perhaps," he said crisply. "You would be interested in seeing your youngest children, who have been my wards this past year?" They both stared at him. Virginia's thoughts, so neatly gathered with her conviction, scattered away again like leaves before the wind.
The mirror had shown the twins being brought here, she remembered, feeling faint. Wendell had cared for them. A wild dread rose in her chest. To see them, to know them as her own would only prove the horrible story further. but...she thought again, of the dark wolf cub and the red-haired child. She remembered the piping laughter they had heard in the stairwell, and glanced upwards. Wendell nodded and motioned for them to follow him.
She wouldn't have made it if it wasn't for Wolf. He was as wild-eyed as her, but far more eager. If she hadn't been hanging on him like an anchor, he probably would have bounded up the stairs and sniffed his children out himself. They were led through a maze of corridors and brought to a room that was the only bright spot they had seen so far.
It was a nursery, daffodil yellow and smelling like summer. A silver-haired fairy woman with frayed dragonfly wings peered nearsightedly at them through a pair of blue-tinted glasses. She bowed her shining head with a smile to the Prince and turned her attention back to the two creature rough-housing in the floor. Both of the youngsters looked up in glee and rushed Wendell, the wolf cub leaping up on him like the puppy it was and the girl grabbing him around the leg. Virginia felt her breath catch.
"Uncle Wendell!!" both of them crowed, and the shock of hearing a wolf speak with a human voice barely even registered. It was the little wolf that noticed them first. It peered around Wendell and its green-gold eyes widened. Wolf was sinking to his knees, making soft tender sounds she couldn't interpret. The red-haired child leaned around too and there was a moment of silence in which Wendell looked very awkward.
"You're back!" cheered the wolf cub, its voice that of a sunny child. It flew to Wolf and pounced on him, trying to lick his face. He moved to hug it, but it had dashed to throw itself on Virginia with the same glee. Its tail wagged so hard it could barely keep its balance. "Momma, Momma, Momma!" Virginia felt herself sinking down too. Perhaps her knees were giving out to this final shock, but suddenly her hands were full of furry enthusiasm.
She ran her hands into the fur, feeling tears sting in her eyes once again as it burrowed against her chest with an all too human look of joy. Its tail was pounding against her thighs. "My baby," she heard herself whisper as the tears fell on the black coat. "My baby..."
The human girl was slower to react and came forward more shyly. Since Wolf was already on the floor, she peered at him closely. He met her gaze for a long moment and slowly reached out a hand to stroke her cheek. A cherubic smile spread across her face and she took his wrist in her hands to rub her nose against it.
"It is you," she said, face a-glow. Wolf felt himself melt. He held out both arms and she climbed in to them to hug him around his neck. He squeezed her tight, half-afraid of hurting her but unable to help burying his face in her hair and snorting in great breaths of her scent. She smelled like him and Virginia, and lazy days in the grass. She squealed with laughter at his scratchy stubble and kissed him on the cheek.
The fairy nurse looked from the scene to Wendell with some confusion, but flitted her wings comfortably and settled down with the same tolerant smile. The Prince felt his eyes moisten watching. He remembered his own childhood days of wishing his parents would magically return from the grave. After a moment, he stepped over to introduce the cub as Ginny, ("Named after YOU, Momma!") and the child as Christine. ("After our grandmother.") Wolf and Virginia could only nod.
Then, a manservant in a silly hat and holding two satchels crammed to the bursting point appeared in the doorway. "Hullo, Marvin!" crowed Ginny. "That's Marvin. He takes us out to play in the garden on days when its too rainy for Nanny's wings and he always smells like fried chicken and the chambermaid with the curly hair." Marvin blushed bright, and the other adults all eyed him carefully. He tried to keep his poise though and announced very stiffly, that the secret passage was being opened for Virginia and Wolf.
Reluctant to pull away from the children, they both slowly got to their feet. Ginny whined a bit, sensing their unhappiness. Christine grabbed her sister's ear and rubbed. "Don't cry, silly. They're going to go get Luna back."
"Yeah!" the cub instantly brightened. "And brother Anthony too! And Grandpa! Everybody back again!!" She ran in a quick circle after her tail and panted eagerly. "Can I come too? I'll help!"
"No..." Virginia hated leaving them more every second, but the cub's words reminded her of all that had to be put right. "You stay here and help Uncle Wendell win the war, Ok? We'll be back soon." She looked to the Prince again, wondering how on earth she could thank him for this. He only smiled in an understanding way. Wolf gave both children a loving tussle under his arm and went to pick the heaviest pack to sling over his shoulder. Virginia took the other one and they both looked at the twins for a hungry moment before Wendell led them to the secret passage.
"It'll take you out into the forest," He was saying. "Be very careful, please...None of us can bear to lose you twice." He brought them to a bookshelf carved with ivy and reached over the top to trigger some mechanism that made the back of the third shelf open at one corner. He reached into it past his elbow and seemed to be counting mentally before hitting the next one. the whole book shelf swung open to reveal a musty passage way. The walls were stone, but even Virginia with her runny nose could smell the dirt far below.
She looked at Wolf, who looked back. they nodded and taking each others hands walked together into the darkness. Prince Wendell's good wishes followed them in and after a moment the secret door slid shut. There was nowhere to go now but forward.