Chapter 11: Villain Catch-up
Mk, in this chapter we're rewinding a bit, to around when Melody and Co. left the path and entered the gypsy camp.
"Yew moron! Yew moved so slow last night that we missed 'em at thar campsite!" Ranted Hedge, as he berated Cutthroat for his failure to go fast enough so as to catch Lena and Melody. They had been riding the whole night, and had only arrived at the campsite at midmorning.
"Don't look at me, lardbucket! 'Twas you trying to get us to stop every five minutes 'cause you were getting horsesick!" Hedge was about to punch him, but thought better of it.
"'Ey mate, I don't know if you've thought o' this, but if we don't catch those prisoners, then the Queen'll have our guts fer garters!" Cutthroat nodded. "Aye, we can't come back without those two, and we can't desert, or we'll be even worse off when the Queen finds us!"
The two continued on in this vein for a while, unaware that they were riding right past the way the two fugitives had come.
A Wyvern entered the darkly lit room, bowing its head to its mistress. With its furtive, intelligent eyes, it took note of which mirrors were covered and which were not. This was a good way to gauge the Queen's mood, which was important if one were to survive.
"Yes, what news do you have to report?" She said quietly, her back turned to the reptile. In response, it uttered a few high-pitched hisses, jerking its head at various intervals. A small smile creased the Queen's lips.
"So, you followed their tracks through the Disenchanted Forest, but lost them at a fork in the road? Well, I have an idea of where they may end up… If I know Rapunzel, they'll head west, to the coast. Order some of your brethren to move out to the remnants of Little Lamb Town, and make sure your force is versatile. It would be wise of you not to let them slip through your claws, Kar'Chez. You know what happened to the last Wyvern that failed to complete an order."
Kar'Chez's eyes flicked to a rotting carcass in the corner of the room. It was that of a Sand Wyvern, in the last stages of decomposition. A spider skittered out of an eye socket, and then quickly disappeared into one of the skull's nostrils. Kar'Chez turned his eyes once more to the Queen, not quite afraid but at least a little uneasy. He let out a few more rasping hisses, and then exited the room as quietly as he had come.
"So… They think to elude me… These children…" The Queen turned, pulling a cloth off of a large, oval mirror.
"Mirror, mirror, on a stand, where are the fugitives in this land?" She said, rhyming her question so that the mirror would respond. Its surface shimmered briefly, and then cleared, projecting a white background. On the white background, three figures appeared. First, a tall, blonde girl, leading the way along a path. Then, a short ways behind her, a young, black-haired girl. As the third figure's face cleared, the Queen gave a satisfied sigh. It was that of a redhead, with long, flowing hair.
"So… She wasn't lost after all… Well, how fortunate. It appears I will have more royal blood available to me than I had hoped…" She watched the mirror for a moment, observing the trio's antics. The blonde the most mature of the three, leading the way and taking charge, the redhead tousling her charge's black hair occasionally, acting like a typical big sister. And the black headed girl, taking everything in but doing and saying nothing.
After a few minutes, she draped the cloth over the mirror again, and retreated into a side chamber, no doubt to work on a plan that could forestall the 8th Kingdom's aggressive maneuvering.
In the deep caves of the 9th Kingdom, the dying howls of some immense beast could be heard. In the darkest of the quicksilver mines, lay a Dragon.
She had been fearsome in her day, and what days they had been. She was ancient, older than even the Disenchanted Forest. In her prime, she had been the Matriarch of her clan, presiding over all the Dragons that dwelled within Dragon Mountain. When the dwarves had invaded, several hundreds of years ago, most of her clan had been killed, although they put up a valiant fight. However, they were fated to lose, and those that were not killed had fled to the farthest reaches of the subterranean kingdom. What was left of her noble race had been exterminated when the Metal Wyverns came, and she was the last that they had found. After a long and bloody battle, she had managed to escape, but she was fatally wounded, and she knew her time had come.
As she gave her last, dying breaths, anyone who would have stumbled upon her would have been struck by her size. She was enormous, roughly the size of a small hill, and despite her enfeebled state, was a majestic sight to behold. Even on the verge of death, she looked every inch the dangerous beast that she was. Her deep green coat of scales shone, even in the darkness of the quicksilver mine.
However, the hypothetical observer would most likely have failed to note, she was guarding something. In the chamber behind her, hidden by her vast bulk, was a pile of silver stones, upon which rested several gray objects, each about the size of a beach ball. As a shaft of light entered the tiny chamber through a long, thin hole in the ceiling, it fell on one of the objects. The object shuddered for a moment, moving ever so slightly, and then stopped. A tiny crack soon became apparent at the top, and ever so slowly, a minute claw, barely as large as a cat's, emerged.