The stairs to the lower reaches of the mines were slick and treacherous, making the beautiful woman hold tightly to a rickety railing that looked as though it might collapse any moment. The dwarf ahead of her sneered and grunted on occasion, only asking once if she wished to proceed.
"I want to see him," she said with a determined set to her jaw. "I need to see him."
Seemingly lost without his pick axe on his shoulder or in his hands, the man shuffled toward the long tunnels that were lit by occasionally placed torches. He was well aware of the lectures and debate that had surrounded this little visit, as the queens had argued for allowing it and the former queen against it. As delicate as she had looked, Belle had stood her ground and stated unequivocally that she was to see the man she loved before they did anything to him.
Grumpy had agreed to accompany her, knowing clearly that there would be other guards there beneath the surface of the earth to ensure everyone's safety. Using squid ink and what were said to be a series of magically impenetrable bars and cages, it was told to those in power that Rumpelstiltskin could not and would not escape. Grumpy was never very optimistic about such things.
"How long do they plan to hold him here?" Belle asked, breaking the silence as the guard at the first gated area eyed them warily. "Forever?"
"Haven't asked," Grumpy retorted. "It's not my business. But if I had my way it would be. Can't kill the guy and can't let him free. What choice is there?"
Belle didn't answer right away, waiting for the gate to be opened before stepping through and gathering her skirts into her hands. They had to step over flowing water that would in some years cut through the rocks there and change the underground landscape from what it was today. The tips of her shoes were already wet and each step was a practice in balance and traction.
"You're not planning anything, are you?" he asked, startling her. "There's no changing that man. You may think…"
"I've lived in his fortress for years, done his bidding, and seen the horrors of what he can do. I assure you that nobody in his kingdom is as aware of that fact than me."
Incredulously, the dwarf grunted and adjusted the cap on his head as they continued forward. He'd had to ask, had to know if she was foolish enough to believe her own feelings were enough to break a curse that had been centuries in the making. But the determined and sad resignation in her beautiful eyes was enough to tell him that she was telling the truth.
It took nearly half an hour to get to the space where a cell stood carved into the walls. A large pit ran in front of it, no flames showing, but smoke and the unmistakable scent of sulfur wafted through the air. Grumpy gave Belle a sort of half bow and waved his arm in front of himself as if to show off the holding cell of her true love as something to be proud of and enjoy.
She took a tentative step toward it. "Not to close," he bellowed. "Updraft is nasty."
She nodded and waited for Rumpelstiltskin to look at her. He finally did, but it wasn't as she had expected. There was no kindness or softness in his eyes.
"I wanted to see you," she said. "I wanted you to know that I…I wasn't involved in this plan to keep you here, but I understand it. I…A child, Rumple? How could you do all this to threaten a child?" There was a trembling in her voice though she held herself up tall and strong.
She wasn't sure what she had expected, but his laughter was not it. It echoed off the stone walls and made even the surliest of the guards flinch at its maniacal quality. His head was thrown back and the long fingers gripped the bars to hold his balance. "It is a shame when I work so hard to achieve something only to be misunderstood. It was never about the child, Henry. He was just a means to an end. I would have sent him back to his mother once I was done."
"Don't believe him," Grumpy hissed. "He's lying."
"The dwarf knows me well," the Dark One said, jumping back from the bars. "Never trust anyone, dearie, least of all the Dark One. Trust is the key. The key to pain and heartbreak. Never a good idea if you want to keep your heart in one piece."
"I want to know why," she said, shaking off the words he had just said to her. "Why were you doing this?"
He spun the tale for her as well as he had once spun straw into gold, pausing for effect and making note of her facial expressions to determine her understanding. He told her of Baelfire and the night that he discovered his son's plans to escape from him and the world of magical things. Something, he explained, had happened. The portal opened too soon and carried his son away before Emma could arrive. All of it had meant that his son was lost to him and Emma believed he had left her intentionally. While he had arranged for Emma's son to be removed to the care of Regina, he had known that he would need the boy someday. And after years of searching and reading, he had found the one way to contact his son.
"He would never speak to me otherwise," the man explained, no emotion showing through the veneer of a mad man. "Henry was the key to breaking through."
"And Emma?"
"She agreed to try," he said without even the hint of being concerned. "She stood a chance and took it."
Belle twisted her hands in front of her. "You told me once that you loved power more than me. I didn't believe it, but maybe…What of your son? Do you love power more than him? There must be something that would pull you back from this brink of madness you've teetered on for God knows how long."
***AAA***
"How long did you serve?" David asked, his hand sweeping along the curve of the horse he had been riding in search of his daughter.
"Pardon?" Killian asked, not sure what to make of the King's attempts at small talk. They had been riding for hours and felt no closer to any form of civilization than when they had left. It was enough to make a man mad, but Killian had tried to stave off the worry that was curdling inside his gut. "Serve?"
"In the Royal Navy," the man clarified. "Leo and Emma both told me several times that you hadn't always been a pirate. They said you had a military background."
"Aye, it was a long time ago. Achieved the rank of lieutenant before my departure." He hoped that the King would not question that any more, as he had long ago started using the word departure rather than retirement that would indicate a mutual split.
"And did you see any combat?" David asked. The King's voice was subdued and indicative of a man checking off a list of questions rather than truly interviewing.
"A bit, but most of my time was spent serving a dishonorable king and doing a bit of his leg work when he could not send soldiers in to do it." He hoped the bitterness in his voice was masked enough that the King did not hear it. "What about you? Have you ever sent men to their deaths in the name of expanding your kingdom or protecting your borders?"
With a nod, David bent to brush a bit of the earth off his high leather boots. Gone was the pretense and pompousness of royalty. There were no servants with them nor anyone serving tea and sandwiches to the rescuers. If the King noticed this, he said nothing of it though Killian surely did pay attention. It finally ate at him enough that he decided to mention the change.
"I'm sure that Emma has confided in you that I had humble beginnings." The sardonic tone to his laugh reminded the pirate of Emma and her way of brushing off anything that might be uncomfortable with the lilting titter and shy smile that hid so much. "I'm more than capable of being self-sufficient."
"That is admirable for a man with such a title. I'm afraid many royals depend upon others catering to them rather than their own devices. So I will admit that you have surprised me with that, your highness."
It was Red who interrupted them, noting that the trail to finding Emma was weak and that the forest seemed to envelop them in a shroud rather than reveal its secrets. In her own words it was one of the hardest trails that she had ever scouted, leaving her a bit perplexed and frustrated. "Perhaps we should have brought Snow. She's an excellent tracker. Or she was. I'm sure that tracking and spotting aren't exactly on the daily schedule for a queen these days."
"I think she would have preferred to have come, but I felt she is better equipped to deal with Regina's issues of being bound from magic again." David looked skyward, seeing none of the markings or stars that he would normally. "And this isn't a normal case of tracking either."
It was Graham who suggested making camp for the night but the King and the pirate were not of the same opinion. Red whispered to the huntsman companion that this trek was certainly making strange bed fellows.
"I don't believe he trusts me," Killian told the woman when David refused his suggestion of a certain path.
"I imagine not," the woman said as she took in another deep breath of air. "He's used to consorting with noble people either by birth or my countenance. You're not exactly what he would pick for…"
"A companion for his daughter?" Graham suggested under his breath. He'd known the royal couple since before they even met. Having watched Emma grow into the woman she was today, he too wondered about her choice in associating with a man known for murdering and stealing from the ships and port towns of the realm. While he had earned the trust of both royals, he would have never overstepped his bounds to question any of their judgment. "Sorry."
"No need," Killian said. "I am afraid that there is little I can do to convince him of my worth in that regard. I'm not sure I fully believe it myself." Despite his lack of a hand, he swung himself up onto the horse that was regarded as his for the trip. "However, I don't intend to rely upon the opinions of anyone other than Emma in that regard."
Red's hand smoothed down the head of Killian's horse and she smiled up to him. "My goddaughter is not a woman who will allow others to make that decision for her. So I feel you are in good stead there. No, I simply meant that David and Snow are two of the most honorable and gallant people you will meet. They don't typically associate with the enemy. It shows the desperation of the situation that they are willing to at this point."
"I assure you, Lady Red, I am not the enemy here. I wish to see Emma in the arms of her loved ones just as much as the King. And I will do what I must to ensure that happens."
***AAA***
Snow let the door close behind her with a delicate but resounding thud. Hours of being without her husband and daughter had left the woman in a state that she preferred not to name, as panic and distress seemed to breed more of the same once labeled as such. She had told herself that she would do anything to find her daughter, but David had been right that they could not both go on this adventure. For one there was their son who needed tending to and looking after.
He was asleep, having spent the afternoon and most of the evening playing rather than studying. Perhaps she had not had the heart to tell him to stop. Either way, she was sure that he knew something had happened. The whole palace seemed to be holding its breath for whatever it might be that was going to happen. Each sound of footsteps or horses drew fears of the message to be delivered. He could probably sense that.
She had checked on him earlier, ruffled his hair, and kissed his brow with motherly affection. Across from him on a makeshift bed was Henry. Her heart sank as she stared the boy, unbelieving that she had not seen her daughter in his small features. The boy was her grandson, a perfect combination that she should know better than she did. Emma and Leo had not had the benefit of grandparents. And thus far the young boy had been denied such as well.
She wanted to scoop him up and protect him, get to know him, and love him as the son of her only daughter. But she couldn't do that yet. There would be time, she told herself. There would be time later when the Dark One was dealt with and their enemies quieted again. Then she would hold the boy close and count the features that she had missed before.
"He likes goat's milk," Johanna said with a tentative smile on her lips. "Prefers it actually. He's got a sweet tooth, but that's true of most wee ones like him. He loves to be read to and wants so much to be grown and useful."
Snow blinked, a hand coming up to her mouth. "I should know those things, shouldn't I?"
"You will," the woman said. "He's bright. Very bright."
"Like Emma?"
"Much like her. She was more stubborn, but he's quite determined himself. I'm sure that…I'm sure that he'll be fine once this mess is sorted out."
The Queen closed her eyes, imagining her daughter as a little girl again, cradling a doll in one hand as she waved the wooden sword like her father in the other. "I'm sure he will be too."
Swallowing the air that seemed so imposing, she almost choked at the stout governess smoothed her apron and cocked her head to the side. "Might I ask a question, milady. I don't mean to be rude or impertinent, but it is of some concern."
"Very well," Snow said, folding her trembling hands over themselves. "What is it?"
"Lady Regina was asking after something that belonged to the Princess. The staff was talking and assumed it to be for a locator spell. Yet the King and the others set out in search of her without such a spell to guide them. Is there a reason for it?"
***AAA***
Emma's hand shook as she sheathed the sword back in place and then pushed her loose hair back off her sweat and soot stained face. There was no mistaking the scent of burning flesh and singed fabric that assaulted her nose and made her feel as though even her insides were burning in the fire that the dragon had breathed out in long hot spurts.
"Now what?" she questioned herself, feeling the bile rise in her throat again. She'd already felt ill so many times since arriving at the fortress, questioning both her health and her sanity. Below her in the bowels of the once beautiful palace laid a wounded but still breathing dragon, its torso shredded by her sword. A twinge of guilt was bubbling inside her, the idea of bloodshed at her own devices something she had sworn she would never do without it being provoked.
Funny, she thought, sinking down to the dusty and damp floor with her head drooping. Her first thought was not of Baelfire or Henry, but of Killian. His words that he had shared, regret of violent acts in his past, seemed to echo inside and around her. The lilting cadence of his voice sweeping along and embracing those same emotions. She knew she was strong enough to overcome this obstacle, though she couldn't quite name it yet.
"I want to go home," she said, breathing in one last sickening gulp of incendiary air. "I want to be done with this."
Gathering herself and hiding what appeared to her to be an embellished golden egg, she climbed out of the maze of rooms and hurried as best she could into the darkest forest she had ever seen. The branches loomed in every direction around her, the path behind her disappearing into a nothingness that was as encompassing as any prison.
***AAA***
"We could just leave," Regina said with a bite to her words as she paced before the dwindling fire in the suite that she shared with her husband. "Roland and Henry would be fine with it. We could take the carriage and…"
Robin scratched at the heavy stubble along the line of his jaw and sighed. She was not answering his question, nor was she offering anything but escape plans. It wasn't that he had not thought of them. Henry was as close to his own son as he could be, but it wasn't simple. If the boy did belong to Emma, then arrangements and decisions were necessary.
"You didn't know?" he asked, feeling guilty for doubting her and incredulous that she might have been a victim as well. "No inkling?"
"I am a victim in all this, same as all of us," Regina said. "I can't believe that you of all people don't trust that. I didn't steal Henry. I wanted a child of my own and Rumpelstiltskin provided that for me. I love Henry. I wouldn't do anything that would…"
"You made a deal with the Dark One and expected that it would be as it appeared? That's a bit naïve." Robin could see the fiery disposition in her eyes as she flashed him a look and whipped her head back to the window. "It's not an insult, darling. I'm just trying to understand. The Dark One. The bloody Dark One gives you a child to care for as your own and you don't question the child's lineage?"
"I was gold that the child was abandoned," Regina practically screeched. "Why are you doubting me on this? It his fault, not mine. And what of Emma and Baelfire? Are they blameless in this? How could she not know what became of her child?" Dripping with anger, her words practically echoed off the walls of the room. "Anyone in my situation would have believed this to be a gift not a curse."
Robin nodded, remembering his own moments of fear when he had come close to losing Roland. He would have done most anything to believe that he could protect his child. Believing the impossible when it came to a child was what parents did. He had seen that Regina loved Henry, thought of him as her own flesh and blood. "I'm sorry, darling. I'm just trying to wrap my head around this matter. It won't go away. Emma will return and when she does…I'm afraid she has claim to Henry, more than you do."
"That's why we must take him and Roland and leave this place. We should have never come here. We should have handled this on our own. Snow and that husband of hers forever botch things that should be simple. We could be gone before light."
"Regina, you can't mean that," he said, well aware that she did. Regina was in a self preservation mode at that point, not one of fairness or concern for anyone else. "Emma can't lose her son again."
"Emma has lived these years with the knowledge that her son was lost to her. She chose to believe that. She chose to close that chapter of her life. How do we even know that she wants…"
The words hung in the air. They both knew.
***AAA***
It was Red that first noticed a sign of something different, sniffing out the scent of smoke and ash despite seeing none of it. Graham left his horse behind as he ran after her, leaving the bewildered King and pirate in his wake. Those two soon joined the others and they ran in what seemed to be circles for more than an hour until it was David who spotted a bit of the material from Emma's ball gown. It was torn smartly and had been dampened with water from a stagnant creek.
"No blood on it," Killian said, expelling a breath he had not realized he was holding. "Maybe she's…"
"She must be close," Red confirmed, tilting her head back and letting the chestnut curls drape down her back. "The cloth is still wet and there are fresh tracks."
Graham grabbed ahold of the woman's forearm, his own breathing a bit labored and heavy. "Wait. Let's look at what direction before we just dart off again."
Looking annoyed at being questioned for her abilities, Red fisted her hands at her narrow hips and glared. "Her prints are leading just over that rise over there. Come if you wish, but I intend to find my goddaughter."
David was fast on her heels, calling out Emma's name along with Killian who took the third spot. A moment later the huntsman was following suit. It took another few minutes before they saw her, tired and dirty but already drawing her sword for the fight if necessary. Red, always more pragmatic, immediately scanned her for signs of injury or wounds as David began to ask her on what had happened and where she had gotten to in all this. She was not looking at either of them though, as she launched herself into Killian's arms and ignored the fact that her father would probably not be happy at the display. Later she would hug him and tell him that she was glad to be going home, but in that moment she needed Killian to remind her that she was not at the end of her rope.
"You are not hurt?" he asked into her hair, his ringed fingers wrapping around the hair that curled at the nape of her neck. "Love, I need to know that you are alright."
The way he said it made her feel that he physically and literally did need to know she was well before he could even draw another breath. She nodded against his shoulder, refusing to back up in order to look into his eyes and confirm her state at that moment. He took that as confirmation though and began whispering thanks to the gods above for her.
"You came looking for me," she stated between his grateful praise. "In this awful forest."
"I came to rescue you," he said, a bit of the sarcasm and mirth making an appearance in his tone. "But it seems you did not need it. You would have found your way back without the searching party."
"It is nice to be thought of though," she commented. Finally pulling away, she wiped at her soot stained face and tilted her head to her father. "I got the vial that the Dark One wanted. I wasn't sure…I wasn't so sure it was the right thing to do, but I thought it better to have it than leave it with that dragon."
Her father nodded mutely, his relief in finding her leaving him weak as he braced himself on his own sword. There was a tentative smile about his lips before his hand covered his eyes and half his face. "Let's get you home."
"That sounds like a fine idea, sire," Graham said, waving an arm back toward the trail they had taken to get to her. "I believe I have marked the way back to the horses. However, if the lady would care to lead I will be happy enough to follow."
Red brushed past him to place herself nearer to Emma, shouldering Killian out of the way as she drew the Princess into a hug. She cupped the blonde's face in her hands and stared hard before releasing her. "We've got a long walk back. Can you make it?"
"Of course. I made it this far. But aren't we in the…"
"We'll find our way to your palace, Emma," Killian said, kneeling to retrieve the sword she had drawn and dropped. He refastened it to her side, letting his hand linger at the handle for a moment longer than necessary. "You've got your son to get home to, love."
"I…I never thought that…I thought he was dead." Her voice shattered into pieces and fell around her like destruction after a storm. "I never imagined that I would be seeing him. And now he calls another woman mama. I don't know that I can take that from him. I don't know how to do this."
Killian lifted her arm with his hook and looped it through his own arm to guide her as they walked. "I do wish I had the wisdom of knowing what the right course for such a situation would be, love. I don't. I fear no one truly does. But your boy is alive. And no matter his upbringing in these few years, he has the right to a mother who loves him and wants to know him. Hold to that."
She ducked her head under one of the thick branches he lifted with his hook, her head brushing his shoulder. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him what this all meant. He had shown her affection and indicated that he did feel more for her than unlikely friendship and comradery. While he had spoken of not dwelling on their pasts, she wondered what that meant now that her past had caught up with her future. He was a pirate who had set his sights on a princess. Would he want a broken one with darkness inside her and a son by another man?
