A/N: New chapter! Yay! -throws confetti in the air- I've actually had all of this chapter written except the last few paragraphs for the past few months now, it just took me until now to finish it. -sigh- Again, thanks much to all my loverly reviewers. -hands out cookies- Um. There was something else I was going to say, but it went away. -beats self in head- Anyway…I'll shut up and let you read the story now. I'm sure you'd appreciate that.
Her bad luck kicked in almost as soon as she left the castle gates. One of the guards saw her fleeing the castle and shouted a protest; another, slightly overambitious, loosed a volley of arrows towards her, which hit not her but her horse, sending the mare down with a scream of equine fear. Leaping from the saddle, she grabbed her bag and began to run, leaving Nightfyre where she was; she was pretty sure the mare hadn't been injured too badly, and her father would no doubt hire a healer to attend to it. Gods forbid one of his beloved horses get injured--she often thought he loved them more than he loved his daughters.
The important thing was to get away from the castle, away from Rosa and hopefully out of range of her sorcery. Terlet was a day's ride away on horseback, but it shouldn't be that much further on foot--she would have to camp out, but that was about it.
There were some important things she had forgotten, but soon found out. First of all, she was entirely unused to walking this much; she'd barely been walking a half a candlemark and her feet were aching almost unbearably. Second of all, she hadn't brought anything for camping out--not a tent, not even a few blankets to make a bed on the ground. Third, she hadn't thought to bring a map--something she began to regret almost as soon as she entered the forest outside the castle.
She was certain she'd passed that same tree five minutes ago. Sighing, she plopped down on the ground and opened her bag, pulling out the mirror from within. "I don't suppose you know your way around this forest?" she asked without preamble.
Rayden snorted. "I've been to Torlemont once and only once, dear Princess. We've got a snowball's chance in hell of finding our way out of here."
"Isn't moss always supposed to grow on the north side of a tree?" She stared at the tree in front of her, which unhelpfully seemed to have grown moss on all four sides.
"It's supposed to, yes, but that doesn't mean it does."
"You're a real big help," she muttered. Suddenly, a thought occurred to her, and she didn't like it very much. "Do you think my sister will send someone after us?"
"Wouldn't surprise me. I'm sure you've managed to royally piss her off by now."
"Great." Sighing, she brushed a strand of hair off her forehead. "I'm lost in the forest with no map, no company but a smartass in a mirror, and the sun is starting to set and I don't have a lantern." Unable to repress a shudder, she added, "And I'm afraid of the dark."
Rayden sniggered, but tried to disguise it as a cough. "It's not funny," she informed him tartly, then shoved him back into her bag. Rising, she did her best to ignore her aching feet and continue walking in a half-hearted attempt to find her way out of here before the sun set and she could no longer see.
She seemed to have made no progress whatsoever (except to have passed the same tree twice more) by the time the sun set. She stood frozen for a moment when she realized how dark it was, shivers rippling across her skin as a cold breeze began to blow. At last she managed to open her bag and pull out her cloak, sitting down on the forest floor and draping it over her as a blanket.
Unable to sleep, she lay there with eyes wide open, staring out into the darkness.
Rosa strode out to the stables, seething inside. How dare that little bitch run off like that--and not only that, but she'd taken the mirror with Rayden in it, as well!
She had to get that mirror back. She had to.
She also wanted her sister taken care of, for good. Already mad at Snow for stealing her lover, the fight last night had been the last straw--plus discovering that she'd run off with the mirror, of course. It was time to take her revenge, once and for all.
Jon was out in the stables, grooming one of her father's horses. He glanced up at the sound of her footsteps, then went back to his job, totally ignoring her as he usually did.
"Jon." She eased a little bit of sorcery into her voice, making sure he would look up. When he did, she smiled, winding a spell of coercion around her voice. "I want you to do something for me."
"What?" he mumbled, unable to look away.
Stepping forward, she opened the stall door and eased inside, pressing their bodies together and holding his gaze with her own. "My sister has run away. I want you to go and find her."
"And bring her back here?" His voice was slurred, as though he was drunk--an unfortunate side effect of the spell.
"No. She has a mirror with her--silver, with an opal in the handle. Take it, and bring it back to me. Kill Snow."
"Kill Snow? But--" He struggled, fighting to move his gaze away from hers and break free of her spell. "I don't...want to...Snow is my friend--"
"I don't care what you want." Easing more power into her voice, she frowned as he continued to resist, and at last slammed him with the full force of her sorcery. "Find Snow. Kill her. Bring me the mirror."
"Yes, ma'am," he murmured, eyes slightly glazed over.
"Very good." She smiled at him. "Oh--just to be sure that you really did kill her, bring me back her heart as well."
Snow woke up all at once, heart pounding in her chest. The forest around her was completely pitch black; she couldn't have seen her hand in front of her face. Darkness pressed in around her, holding her immobilized by her fear.
It was then that she heard again the sound that had woken her up; fallen autumn leaves, crackling under the weight of someone's feet.
She froze, holding her makeshift blanket close to her chest as though it would protect her. Rayden had agreed that her sister would probably send someone after them; could that possibly be who she was hearing?
Making herself sit up, she grabbed her bag. She might have forgotten a few other travel necessities, but she wasn't stupid enough to have left without carrying some sort of weapon; there was a small knife tucked into a side pocket. Not like she really had any idea how to use it, but hopefully common sense would serve her well enough, and it was better than nothing.
It was this knife that she grabbed, glancing about in a vain effort to catch a glimpse of whoever's footsteps she might be hearing. As dark as it was, she couldn't see a thing; the footsteps did at least seem to be pretty far off, though, so maybe she would have time to get away before they reached her--
Someone stepped heavily, right in front of her. She screamed without meaning to, and as the footsteps from farther off stopped she slapped a hand over her mouth; Stupid! Now whoever that is knows exactly where you are!
The source of the footstep in front of her growled, low in its throat. Snow could feel the hair raise on the back of her neck. It was definitely some sort of an animal; probably large. Holding her knife and cloak close to her chest, she tried to back up and ran straight into a tree.
Abruptly, a cloud moved off the moon, spreading the forest with barely enough light to see by. The light was gone almost as quickly as it came, but it was enough for Snow to get a good glimpse of the creature in front of her. It was one of the large cats from the mountains; deadly hunters, and quite capable of taking down a full-grown man. They were said to be all but impossible to defeat, and although they rarely wandered as far south from the mountains as Torlemont, it did--obviously--happen occasionally.
Grabbing her cloak and her bag in one hand, she left the other free to hold the knife and began to run, never thinking that fleeing was the one thing she could do that was certain to make the giant cat give chase. Sure enough, it began to follow; as much as her feet already ached from the day's earlier hike, there was no way she could match its speed. It was gaining on her, it was on her heels, it was about to leap--
Someone practically ran into her, shoving her out of the way, and leapt towards the cat. There was a dim thud, a growl, and then a pained yell that made her pounding heart leap into her throat; then a scream of rage from the cat, and then silence.
Pressed back against the trunk of a tree, she sat with eyes wide open and heart pounding so loudly she was surprised the entire forest couldn't hear it, waiting for something else to happen. There was nothing but the sound of crickets chirping in the woods; the darkness began to press in around her again, holding her absolutely still, for gods only knew what might be hiding out there in the dimness where she couldn't see--
She screamed again, as a face suddenly floated into her view. The man grabbed her wrist, preventing her from fleeing. "Shh!" he urged her. "Do you want the whole damn forest to hear you?"
Panting slightly from fright and exertion, she managed to recognize who it was. It was Jon; stablehand and one of her sister's many jilted lovers, who'd become her friend after he and Rosa had split up. He held a lantern in one hand, which was what served to illuminate his face.
"Jon," she managed to get out. "What are you doing here?"
"Your sister--sent me here." He seemed to be struggling to get the words out, as though something was holding him back. "I'm supposed to--supposed to--" He looked at the bloodied knife in his hand as though he'd never seen it before, and shook his head. The next words came out in a rush. "I'm supposed to kill you and bring her back her mirror."
"Her mirror?" Involuntarily, her hand flew to rest on top of her bag.
"So you do have it. Snow--what the hell is going on?" The hand holding the knife raised as though he was about to stab her; he grabbed the wrist with his other hand and forced the knife back down to the ground.
Frightened by this odd behavior, she pushed as far back against the tree trunk as she could. "Rosa is crazy," she said flatly. "Prince Rayden is trapped in the mirror; she wants him back and she wants me dead because she thinks I slept with him while they were together."
He blinked, then began to curse fluently and inventively as his knife arm rose once more, and was once more forced to the ground. "Prince Rayden in a mirror? What the hell?"
"It's true!" Opening her bag, she pulled out the mirror. "Rayden--come out here!" She shoved the mirror in Jon's face, knowing Rayden would appear within.
He blinked once, then twice. "Gods damn," he whispered reverently.
She couldn't see Rayden's face, but she could hear his reply. "Can't think of a better way to put it myself," he agreed wryly.
Jon looked back up at Snow, face haunted. "That must have been what she did to me," he whispered. "A spell--to make me kill you, even if I didn't want to! I don't want to, Snow, I don't, but--" His knife hand rose once more. "Look at this shit! I can't stop myself!"
Panting heavily, he forced his hand down once more. "Snow--run. Run like hell and run like your life depends on it, because it does. I'll try not to chase you, but I can't guarantee anything--she told me to bring back your heart to prove I killed you, but I'll bring her back the heart of that cat instead. But--she told me to bring back the mirror too, so you have to give me that."
"Fuck that!" was Rayden's snarled response. "I am not going back to that gods damned bitch, not when I finally have a chance to get away--"
"Please, Snow," Jon whispered, eyes begging her to hand over the mirror. "I don't want to, but I don't want her to kill me either. Please."
She looked down at Rayden, who was glaring at her in a way that said quite clearly, Send me back to that bitch and if I ever get out of this mirror I'll kick your ass to hell and back, then back up at Jon, whose pleading she couldn't ignore. She couldn't wait around all day to make a decision, either; even as she thought, Jon had to force the knife to stay put once more.
"Hurry up, Snow!" he forced out through gritted teeth. "I don't think I can--stop myself--much longer--"
Reaching into her bag, her hand closed around the handle of her mirror. It was identical in every way to the one Rayden was imprisoned in; the two mirrors had been thirteenth birthday gifts from their father. Grabbing her mirror, she flung it at Jon, then tossed Rayden back into her bag and climbed to her feet.
Jon barely managed to catch the mirror. "Go!" he yelled at her, throwing her the lantern, which she caught and (amazingly enough) didn't drop. "Get the hell out of here!"
She obeyed willingly enough, running as fast as her feet could carry her. Jon began to chase her at first, but evidently his will was enough to overrule Rosa's spell; he stopped after she'd run barely more than a few feet, but Snow kept running blindly into the night, wanting nothing more than to get as far away from Torlemont castle as possible.
Her already tired feet couldn't carry her forever. Eventually she stopped and fell against the base of a tree, gasping for breath and soaked in sweat. She had to sit back up almost at once when she realized she'd sat in a bed of ants; swearing in frustration, she hopped around for a few minutes brushing the little black creatures off her. Once she was clean of them and her skin had mostly stopped crawling, she picked up her bag and started walking again, this time in search of a half-decent place to camp out.
Too bad this isn't an adventure novel, she found herself thinking as she trudged along. If it was, I'd stumble into a clearing with a pleasant little cottage, and there would be a nice old woman living there who would be more than glad to share her lodgings with me--it would probably happen right about now, when I'm ready to give up--
Looking up, she had to fight to keep her jaw from dropping as she realized that she stood in front of a small house in the center of the forest. It wasn't in a clearing, and it was a bit larger than the pleasant little cottage she'd been imagining, and gods only knew who might live there--but it was shelter, and that was all that mattered at the moment.
Stumbling forward, she knocked on the door and waited. There was no answer, so she tried opening the door. To her surprise, it wasn't locked; stepping inside, she found herself in the middle of a rather large living room.
There was a door off to one side, and a set of stairs to the right. Curiosity winning out over exhaustion, instead of collapsing asleep on the couch, she walked through the door.
This was evidently the kitchen. There was a large table in the middle, with seven chairs surrounding it, and a pile of dirty dishes in the sink. Another door led to an indoor privy; that seemed to be much the extent of the first floor.
Climbing up the stairs, she found herself in a hallway with seven doors. Each was marked with an engraved wooden symbol; walking down the hall, she examined each of them. A flame; a snowflake; a tornado; a boulder; a sun; a moon; and then at the door at the end of the hallway, a star. Pushing open the door marked with a star, she found herself in the empty master bedroom, furnished with nothing but a large four-poster bed and a dresser. At the sight of the bed, her exhaustion returned, and she dropped her bag beside the bed and collapsed into it, not even bothering to pull up the covers or even remove her shoes.
A/N: Yes, we DO finally get to meet the not-dwarves in the next chapter. Yayers and all that. Anyway, I'll have the next chapter up soon--and I really mean it this time! Really! -hides under her desk-