Chapter Seven

Into the Woods

The adult Grimms sat in a peaceful silence. Angelika had just set Aurora down for a nap so the house was filled with the soundless breath of sleep. All of them were enjoying the comfort of having the family together once more, especially Wilhelm.

"That was some story you fed Aurora," Jakob remarked suddenly, breaking the quiet. A smile graced his features as he glanced sideways at his brother. "You are getting to be quite a storyteller. I never could have dreamt up an excuse like that on the spot."

"If only it was an excuse," Wilhelm said darkly, dragging a hand back through his hair. Jakob and Angelika both looked at him questioningly. "That wasn't exactly a tale I fabricated. It was the truth, at least in part."

"You mean-?" Jakob stopped to sort his thoughts. "How so? Do you mean you really can't-?"

"That I really can't die?" Wilhelm supplied. "Yeah, that's pretty much what I mean."

"How do you know?" Jakob asked suspiciously.

Wilhelm tugged off his shirt, revealing bandages wrapped around his abdomen. Without a word, he slowly began removing the bandages and when the last had fallen away Jakob flinched in disgust and Angelika emitted a noise somewhere between a gasp and a shriek. There was a deep stab wound in his stomach, just below the right side of his ribcage, and crimson blood was visibly lining the inside of it.

"I received this wound three days ago," Wilhelm explained as he began replacing the bandages. "It doesn't bleed, and it hardly hurts. It's just - there."

"How did you come by that?" Jakob asked in horror.

"Simple mistake, really," Wilhelm said, unabashed. "Accepted the overtures of a woman who unfortunately neglected to mention that she was married. Let's just say her husband didn't find much humour in the situation when he came home. And he was a real an unsportsmanly fighter. Ripped me straight out of the bed, and when I tried to defend myself he got offended and whipped out his knife. I tell you when he stabbed me I was so ashamed. I thought I was going to die naked."

"But you didn't die," Jakob said in confusion.

"Good observation," Wilhelm replied with a dry laugh. "Astounded all of us, especially that poor guy who stabbed me. When I stood back up he dropped down in a dead faint. If I hadn't been so confused myself I might have found it funny, which thinking back on it now it really was amusing. I don't exactly know what happened, but I can only assume that it was caused by this." At this Wilhelm gently touched the scar on his chest, above his still heart.

"Of course this isn't the first time I've defied death," he added thoughtfully as he pulled his tunic back on. "Shortly after I left town I fell out of the back of a wagon and cracked my head against a rock. At the time I just assumed I had gotten lucky, but even the doctor said that after he had seen the injury he didn't believe that I would live. But sure enough, four days of sleep later and the gash had almost completely closed itself up, and I was right as rain by the end of the week. There's barely even a scar now."

"Remarkable," Jakob breathed, shaking his head slightly. "It seems that even after her death, the Mirror Queen's enchantments haven't left you."

"I tell you, Jake," Wilhelm said, suddenly very solemn, "she isn't gone. We may have destroyed her mirror, but it just doesn't add up that she would die that easily. Especially not with all this bizarre nonsense that's been happening over the last few years."

"And I will tell you once more, Will, that you are getting paranoid," Jakob said sternly, taking off his glasses and wiping them on his shirt.

"You'd be paranoid too if you didn't have a heartbeat," Wilhelm shot back sulkily, reflexively placing a hand on his chest. "Not just that but these damned dreams. They all tell me the same message, and I've seen them so many times that I could relay them without mistake. I tell you there's something supernatural to this."

"This is quite the reversal, isn't it?" Jakob commented abruptly with a bark of a laugh. "I remember the times when it was I trying to convince you that it was supernatural."

"Yes, and you are just as stubborn as I was then," Wilhelm said but his scowl had lightened ever so slightly.

"Oh I won't deny that it is supernatural," Jakob argued. "I simply think you are too ready to let your fears take hold and aren't looking at the logic. Do you really think that if the queen were alive that she'd have left us alone this long?"

"It must be part of a plan," Wilhelm stated, waving a dismissive hand.

"Yes, perhaps she's trying to turn you against each other with this persistent bickering," Angelika said, startling the brothers. "Please, let's leave such dark matters for another time. The family is all together again. This is a time for celebrating, not fighting."

The brothers eyed her in surprise and then turned to each other. Both of them abruptly broke into laughter, continuing until tears had formed at the corners of both sets of eyes.

"Oh Briar Rose," Jakob said gently as soon as he had regained speech, taking her hand fondly, "you are such a blessing. Where would we be without you?"

"Likely in a shallow grave," Angelika retorted with a smile. Both men erupted into laughter again. Through the noise Angelika caught the faint sound of a knock at the door and she rose to answer it. When she opened the door she was met by the large eyes of a sable fox that was leaning towards her from the shoulder of its owner.

"Hello Baldwinn," Angelika said, fondly patting the head of the fox.

"Hello to you too," Lorita said, mocking offence. Then a smile split her features.

"Come in," Angelika said, stepping back to allow her entrance. Lorita stepped inside and her glance was quickly drawn to the table where the brothers were still laughing.

"Mister Wilhelm," Lorita said in surprise. Wilhelm glanced at her, his shock matching hers. "I heard rumours that you had returned to town, but I didn't know they were true."

"Apparently so," Wilhelm remarked with a slanted smile. "You look well."

Lorita surveyed Wilhelm's face shortly before responding, "I wish I could say the same. You look as if you haven't slept in months."

"An observation that might bear some truth," Wilhelm answered. While Lorita's blatant honesty still annoyed him at times, he had gotten used to it and learned to accept it as just another part of her personality. He looked her over and found little difference in here. She had not grown more than an inch or two since they had met, and her braided hair was still as long as ever. Her eyes stared back at him with that deep maturity that sharply contrasted with her youthful face and turned most people off.

"How were your travels?" she asked, impervious to his searching gaze.

"Fair enough," Wilhelm lied. He was not about to share the details of his enlightening and personal travels with this girl, no matter the fact that he could tolerate her most days now. That was a matter for only his family.

"That's good news," Lorita said passively, as emotionlessly as if she had been inquiring about the weather. Then she diverted her gaze from his and added more quietly, "It is good to see you back."

"Thank you," Wilhelm said, caught off guard by the sudden gentleness and sincerity.

Lorita glanced up and the old gleam returned to her eyes. "Ah, so the brave warrior has learned some chivalry during his travels."

Wilhelm rolled his eyes at the slight. "I've always known chivalry, I just haven't bothered to exercise it on certain people. I see you still haven't learned manners in my absence."

"No, like you I choose to only use them on those who deserve them," she replied with a laugh. "You, to your misfortune, do not qualify. However I didn't come here to exchange insults with you." Lorita bestowed a generous smile on the eldest Grimm and then turned her attention to Jakob. "Actually I came to ask you something, if you have the time."

"Of course," Jakob said, gesturing for Lorita to take the remaining seat at the table. "What did you want to talk about?"

Lorita glanced around self-consciously, the first sign of it Wilhelm had ever seen in her, before starting. "Well it's really just a simple curiosity. Lately I've been having these strange dreams and since they are all quite similar, I was wondering if you might know something about them. After all, you do know the most about such magical things."

"Recurring nightmares?" Wilhelm asked in sudden interest, eyes wide with both fear and eagerness.

"I wouldn't call them nightmares, so much," Lorita said, surprised by the elder brother's curiosity. "Just very strange dreams."

"Of what?" Jakob asked, dreading the answer.

"I am walking in a wood when suddenly the air is filled with music - beautiful and terrible music. It makes me want to rejoice and weep all at once." Lorita paused, shuddering slightly. "I follow the sound until I come to a clearing. There is a stone house in the centre, and a young man is sitting on the ground in front of the house with his back to it, playing the flute. I step closer and he lowers the instrument, but the music always continues. Then he just stares right at me and says, 'Bring her the beans.' Always that. And then I wake up."

Jakob's face blanched as he listened to her recount, and when she finished and glanced up at him he covered his face with a shaking hand. Wilhelm and Lorita exchanged perturbed glances.

"Jake?" Wilhelm asked, touching his brother's shoulder in concern. The younger Grimm rubbed his face with his hand before looking up. The anxiety in his eyes makes unease settle over the room like a heavy shroud. "Jake, what aren't you telling us?"

"I haven't been completely honest with you, Will," Jakob admitted, a weary sigh escaping him and leaving him looking deflated. "I too have had nightmares, although not as often as yours, nor are they the same. But every few nights, I have the same dream that I had the night you awoke from your coma."

"The one about beans?" Wilhelm asked apprehensively. That particular dream had always caused a sting of guilt for him, having spend so many years pestering Jakob about those damned beans.

Jakob nodded, his face darkening. "But for a long time now, in the background of it I can hear music. Music that tempts my heart and also chills it. And lately Aurora has also complained about dreams of music. As she describes them, her dreams are much like Lorita's, only instead of the musician asking for beans, he asks her for 'the prince and the traitor.'"

"You and me," Wilhelm concluded instantly. Jakob's forehead furrowed questioningly. "The queen calls me her prince, and she blames her death on you."

Jakob's hands were pale and trembling on the tabletop, and as he spoke his voice shook along with his body. "The queen? It can't be true," he muttered, eyes focused on the wooden table. "She's dead, and she can't come back from the dead."

"I did," Wilhelm pointed out. "Several times now, actually. Why should she be any different?"

Jakob looked up, fierce determination burning in his eyes. "No. These are just illusions, and I will prove it." The sudden aggression in his voice startled the others. He flew to his feet and glared down at Wilhelm. "Come on."

"What are we doing, Jake?" Wilhelm asked, rising slowly. The women glanced between them uncertainly.

"You said she had rebuilt her tower and is living there," Jakob said, an almost accusing note in his voice. "We will go there and I will show you she's gone."

"Jakob, I don't know if that's a good idea," Angelika interjected, placing a calming hand on his forearm.

"I have to do this, Briar Rose," he replied shortly. "We have to know, once and for all."

"If you insist," Angelika consented stiffly. "But I won't join you. I'm not going in there again."

"I wouldn't ask you too," Jakob agreed, his voice softening slightly. "Come on, Will. This must end now."

"If this is the only way we can settle this, then I will do it," Wilhelm said reluctantly.

"I'll join you," Lorita said eagerly, leaping to her feet so quickly she startled the fox on her shoulder. "I want to see the place from my dreams in reality."

Jakob grunted a distracted approval and he kissed Angelika briefly before the three trooped out of the door. Although they each tried to maintain a casual appearance, the intensity of their preoccupations betrayed them. Instead of his usual youthful behaviour, Jakob moved in a purposeful manner, face set and path unwavering. Wilhelm walked slightly behind him, a peculiarity in itself, but he also lacked his charismatic swagger, replaced instead by cautious movements. Lorita walked behind them both, indifferent and bubbling with eagerness. It appeared to the townspeople that each of the three had absorbed the personality of another.

Jakob led the other two resolutely through town and the outlying fields. He didn't waved until they stood directly in the shadow of the ancient trees. The plants closest to the edge of the forest were young, growing up from the ashes of General Delatombe's burning. Beyond these fresh new lives, the malicious trees of Marbaden forest hovered above them in all their sinister beauty.

"You sure you want to do this, Jake?" Wilhelm asked, voice quavering slightly. Jakob glanced at his brother and was surprised by what he saw; Wilhelm was not looking up into the forest but instead at the ground, his eyes wide and his face pale. He looked near fainting.

"Will, are you all right?" Jakob asked nervously, his anger forgotten in concern for his brother's unsteady health.

"I'm not ill," Wilhelm responded as he cast a dubious glance at the dark trees, "But I won't deny that I still fear this place. Too many memories."

"You don't have to come if you don't think you can," Jakob said carefully. "I can go alone. I just - I have to see this place for myself. I have to know that your theories are false."

"I would never trust you to wander these woods alone," Wilhelm grunted, managing the faintest twinge of a smile. "Besides, I have to see this too."

Nodding, Jakob turned back to the woods and, taking a deep breath, plunged into their mysterious depths. Wilhelm and Lorita followed quickly, afraid of being separated. Even though it was not long after midday, shadows and twilight hung around them, the trees' fanning leaves blocking out the sun's gaze. Jakob trudged down the familiar path towards where the lone tower had once stood. Since the queen's death the trees had stopped moving so much, and the way was mostly unchanged.

After several long minutes, Jakob stopped, staring at something directly before him. Wilhelm glanced around his shoulder and recognised the mossy pond sunken into a hollow in the ground. The last time he had seen this pond he had watched Angelika sink helplessly into its black depths beneath a sheet of unbreakable ice. The elder Grimm felt a tremor shoot down the length of his spine.

"We're close," Jakob said, an ominous note in his voice. He led them around the water's edge and continued along a dusty track, moving far more slowly and carefully than he had before. Lorita tilted her head, listening attentively and then whispered for the brothers to stop.

"Is it just me, or can you hear that as well?" she asked, eyes panning the trees for the source of the noise.

"It's your imagination," Jakob said harshly and then began moving again. Lorita shook her head in exasperation - quite certain he was lying - but continued to follow his lead. Wilhelm listened eagerly for some sound but could hear nothing.

As they neared the clearing Jakob slowed again and gestured for the other two to keep quiet. On Lorita's shoulder, Baldwinn the fox arched his back, body quivering with pent-up anxiety. Wilhelm felt sure that had his heart been beating, it would have pounded clean from his chest. Jakob crept forward and brushed aside the remaining foliage blocking his view, and then froze in silent wonder. Wilhelm and Lorita pressed up behind him in a tight cluster, eager to relieve the expectancy and found themselves struck still in disbelief.

Standing before them in the centre of the clearing was a stone house, its chimney spouting curls of smoke up into the azure sky. The roof was thatched and the windows shuttered. Overall the place was pleasant enough, save for the hulking menace at its back. Rising from the ground was a stone tower, barely a third the height of the original but existent nonetheless. From the open window at the top of the tower issued an unearthly music, accompanied by a clear, honeyed singing voice.

For what felt like ages, the trio stared in amazement at the sight before them. Finally as the song came to a close, Jakob was the first to recover his voice.

"Impossible," he whispered, his mind grappling with the reality of the scene before him. "She's alive."