Chapter 4: Everything you ever wanted to know about Silvertongues, but were too afraid to ask

Plus a healthy dosage of teenage rebellion.

Red decided it was time she veered the topic back to calmer waters. "What exactly has happened since I left?"

Snow sighed. "The wolves are no longer on our side. They serve a new master, and he's the Evil Queen's right-hand."

"Evil Queen?" Lacey repeated, sounding surprised.

Snow nodded. "Yes, she appeared not long after you left, probably an apprentice of the imp, who took the opportunity to snatch the kingdom for herself."

Red made a face. "I'm imagining that she earned that moniker?"

"I made that moniker," Snow said. "She...she cursed my beloved, David, to eternal slumber. Nothing has woken him up."

Lacey was even more confused. "Not even the kiss of true love?"

"Not even that. She is a despicable and desperate monster, desperately searching for a Silvertongue, so I'd be careful if I were you, Belle."

There was the slightest cringe at hearing her old name, but it disappeared as she said, "Not really, Emma is the one who should be careful."

At Snow's befuddled look, Lacey explained, "I transferred my powers to Emma."

"Why would you that? That was not part of the plan! You put her in danger for no reason!" Snow was back to fuming, and she seemed to be ready to burst and smack Lacey.

Lacey rolled her eyes. "There is clearly so much you don't know about Silvertongues, such as the fact that they cannot be an Author and a Silvertongue at the same time!"

That stopped Snow in her tracks.

"Now you understand? There's very little magic in that land, and if I were to return us to this land, I'd need someone else to read my words. Not to mention I had to first instate myself as the author by writing the damn book with that cursed quill."

Emma had absolutely no idea what was going on, and she voiced as much. "Er..in layman's terms, what the hell did you do?"

"Sivlertongues are very powerful beings, as I'm sure you know," Lacey said, to which Emma gave a vague nod-shrug. Finding that good enough, she continued, "But there is a limit to their power. They cannot write and then read their own words into existence. You need an Author for that."

"Which would be you?" Emma asked.

"Correct. But those can come a dime a dozen, the harder to find are obviously the Silvertongues, and we had a long history of persecution, being used by oligarchs and anyone who thought themselves fortunate to control us. They would ask us to read immense riches, opulent castles, immense power, all the things that your stereotypical villain would want.

"But of course, once we were deemed unnecessary, we were killed. They didn't want to risk us finding a way to exact our revenge by writing their riches and powers away. So Silvertongues are nearly extinct-"

"Extinct," Snow corrected. "As far as anyone is aware, Lacey is the last Silvertongue."

"In this case, me," Emma added with a gulp.

"Indeed." Snow said. "Which means that the Evil Queen is desperate to find you. Meaning we had best make our travel faster...as the wolves are more active at night, and they're all in her service, they'd certainly find Emma and take her back to the Dark Kingdom."

This was too much for Emma. "Wait hold up, what exactly does this queen want? I mean, maybe we can do an exchange, you know? I read something to life for her, and she can help me find Regina?"

Snow shook her head. "Not a chance! She will surely kill you! Look at what she did to David!"

Emma rolled her eyes. "Come on, this is crazy. I get Silvertongues are powerful, but we do have our pitfalls. You say she has magic, couldn't she just make it rain money or whatever it is she wanted?"

"Magic comes with a price," Snow recited, as if that explained everything.

With a scoff, Emma said, "Okay, because doing the Silvertongue schtick doesn't have a price of its own."

Lacey nodded. "The one for one rule. A living person for another person, a place for a place, and so on."

Red piped up at that. "Speaking of, there's something that's always bothered me. The imp and I came out into that world, but only Regina went in?"

Emma grimaced. "Snuffles the cat was also a victim."

Red made a face. "So I was the equivalent to a pet. Perfect."

Lacey waved that off as if it wasn't important. "Nonetheless, people have killed us out of pure fear. For the stupid and simple people, nothing is more frightening than magic. And Silvertongues are the sum of all that they fear. So I definitely wouldn't recommend trying to seek out this Evil Queen. We best hunker down and find another way to find your wife."

Emma nodded. "Okay, fine. Side note - I'm really curious at what you did back at the house...how did you get Rump-"

"Don't say his name!" Snow interrupted.

"What, is it a Voldermort type of deal?" Emma scoffed, to the blank face of her mother. "Right, no Harry Potter."

"Essentially worse than that," Lacey said. "It gives him power, and even sometimes beckons him to whoever calls him."

Emma nodded. "Gotcha. The imp it is. Anyway, how did you make sure that he didn't see the extra passage?"

Lacey shrugged. "I may have added a caveat to my final reading: if I clicked a pen ten times, I'd be able to write anything without him seeing, a failsafe in case he came calling."

"Smart," Emma said. "So what exactly happened after you read us out of this world?"

"To be honest, I'm not sure myself. I had never tried to read someone, much less myself and a toddler, to another world. And I guess it's harder than it looks. I ended up an entire state away from you. By the time I had heard the news about the mysterious baby that had appeared in the middle of the city, you had been placed in foster care. I had no ID nor anything that would allow me to adopt you. By the time I had gotten all of that straightened out, you had been adopted. And after that, I lost touch with you. I did one year find that you had been sent back to foster care, but by then I figured it was futile. I'd never be able to tell you the truth, and trying to get you to read us back home even less possible."

"Kind glad you didn't. I'd never have met Regina otherwise." Emma smiled.

Lacey nodded. "So I made the book, hoping one day things would work out."

"Yeah. Got to marry the woman of my dreams."

Snow smiled at that. "Was it magical?"

Emma grinned, nostalgia flowing through her. "Yeah. Wonderful and magical and surreal. It was the first time I belonged. I took Regina's name, after living so long under someone else's name. It felt liberating."

"I'm so sorry that you had to live such a lonely childhood, Emma," Snow apologizes.

But Emma can't bring herself to accept it, not yet. She had a family. Nevermind the circumstances, but she had parents who supposedly loved her. She tried to keep the bile from rising as she asked. "Why did you send me away?"

"The imp was closing in on you. For some reason, he was needing you for something, no one ever found out what it was, and we couldn't risk him getting to you. So we sent Belle away to somewhere only she would know, and told her that in 8 years, she could come back. We knew we would miss many milestones, but we were expecting to be reunited with our ten year-old child, never had I imagined things would advance to the point I'd be meeting my daughter who is almost my age with a family and life of her own."

Before Emma could answer, she heard hooves, and Lancelot approaching fast. "The boy has run off! He just took off!"

Emma paled. She didn't even wait until Lancelot had fully finished stopping before she reached up and pulled him right off the saddle. "Sorry man, but I won't lose my kid too. Which way did he go?"

Lancelot took a moment to get his bearings before pointing westward from where they were walking. "That way. Towards the Dark Kingdom."

That was all Emma needed to hear. She spurned her new steed, thankful for the riding lessons that Regina had provided once upon a time.

The sun was setting, but Emma wouldn't stop. Wolves be damned. She would find her child before she even thought about stopping.

An hour later, she found him on a slow canter.

"Henry Mills! Where do you think you're going?" Emma roared, making her way to gallop beside him.

Henry groaned, trying to will his horse to go faster. "Oh come on! How did you find me?"

Emma instantly grabbed the reins from him and tied them to her own, ensuring that he wouldn't run off. "I'm your mother, now explain yourself."

"I want to find my mom," Henry muttered.

"I do too!" Emma added.

"No you don't! If you had, you'd have found her years ago, instead of letting me think she was dead!"

Emma sighed. "Look Henry, I'm sorry again I lied to you. But I made the decision I thought was best. When you become a dad, you'll understand. Sometimes we want to protect our children as best as we can, even if they don't see it."

Henry just harrumphed.

"Look, I've told you about my life in foster care. If anything were to happen to me, there'd be no one to take care of you. You'd go into foster care, and I promised myself I'd never allow a child of mine to live through what I did."

"Yeah, but look at how finding out about your own mom gutted you. And don't tell me it didn't. I can see it did."

He did have a point.

"Alright, alright, fair enough. How about we call if a bad idea, and we end this topic?" Emma extended her hand, and after a beat, Henry shook on it.

"So are we going to find her?" Henry asked.

Emma nodded, knowing just who he was talking about. "I have no idea how to do it though."

Henry hummed as he thought. "Does this place have any magical people-finding spells or potions?"

With a laugh, Emma shrugged. "Beats me kid. From what I hear, people are pretty afraid of magic."

Henry snapped his fingers. "What about you reading us to her?"

"Someone needs to write it first. I don't suppose you have some pen and paper?"

"Nope, my bag's back home." Emma then noticed how unprepared they were for this. Henry was still wearing his school uniform, and Emma was wearing sweatpants and a simple shirt. At least she had been wearing shoes. It'd have been awkward to traipse around barefoot.

They saw the approaching lights of a village, and Emma decided they could maybe rent a room.

"With what money?" Henry asked. He whipped out his wallet from his pocket. "I don't suppose they take Visa?"

Emma glared at him. "That is for emergencies only."

"If this doesn't constitute as an emergency mom, I don't know what would," Henry countered.

Emma sighed. "My only other option had been to try and ask this Evil Queen lady for help. She wants my powers for something, and I need her to do something for me, we could do an exchange."

Henry sounded ecstatic at the idea. "That's a great idea mom, let's go!"

So Emma untied their reins and they picked up the pace, approaching the castle just before nightfall.

"Alright, what's the plan?" Henry asked as they dismounted and huddled under a tree behind a bush that offered them a good view of the castle without being seen.

"The plan is for you to wait here while I go talk to this queen."

"What! Come on!"

"No 'come on's kid. She is dangerous, and I'm not putting you in harm's way more than I already have. You are to wait here and, what does your watch say?"

Henry checked it. "6pm."

"Great. If by 7 I am not back, you are to ride right back to Snow and tell her everything, am I clear?"

Reluctantly, Henry nodded.

"Wish me luck," Emma said, before mounting her horse again and riding for the looming and imposing castle.