Three miles along the path, after exiting the four-hour long passage into an unfamiliar forest, Gerda had found the angels. By six miles, she was arguing with them. She wasn't even sure how they'd gotten into her party of one.
The pair of them had been sitting off to the side of the path, perched on fallen frostbitten trees, like posh gentlemen at a party waiting on a lady hostess. Posh, eight foot tall gentlemen with silver-white hair and robes (with pants) and swords and wings. At the hypothetical party, they could have served as bouncers. They introduced themselves as Burke and Kramer.
She was having quite a time remembering which was which and suspected they had picked up the names merely out of deference to her humanity.
"And Bigby sent you," she said incredulously, after they had followed her two miles. "Good grief, I was hardly at the farm for a full day!"
One of them had taken on the role of explaining all the intricacies of their situation. It was this one that spoke now. "We approached Bigby when you were dispatched to the mission. Otherwise, he would have served as your guardian himself."
That made for a frightening mental picture. "But why do I need one at all? The Adversary's gone and while the Snow Queen's awake, the rest of the capital is supposed to still be asleep. That's what my packet said, and Frau thought that I would be let out somewhere uninhabited."
"Not entirely uninhabited. Everywhere in the Homelands poses a risk and we need you to get where you need to be. It's unfortunate that Cinderella is otherwise engaged, but the pair of us are more than capable of making up for her."
"Do you know where I'm to go, then?"
"Bodyguards, not cartographers, unfortunately. Bigby should have given you a map." The pair easily glided along next to her. Both of them preferred flying to walking and could hover impressively, wings motionless. She didn't want to tell them she had never had cause to use a map and, since she didn't know where the path had let her out, the map was all but useless anyway.
"So, Kramer—" she began.
"I'm Burke, actually."
"Is north the right direction?"
"If you believe that's where he is; I have no other suggestion to propose."
" 'He'?" She stopped in the middle of the road and looked at Burke. "I'm not looking for a 'he.' I was told to go looking for the Snow Queen."
"Oh." The statement didn't faze her companion in the slightest. "We only thought, with your original story unfinished—"
"Do you know where he is?" she demanded.
"Yes."
The answer was so simply put she almost ran over it. "He's dea—what did you say?"
"Yes, we know," Kramer said. "Also, point of interest, gypsies."
And she was travelling with two dangerous-looking winged men with swords, in a land full of goblins. "Hide!"
Without comment or protest, the pair vanished. No word of where, they just faded into the forest and she faced the travelling people on the road. They were loaded down with supplies and winter gear, heading south like a collection of black rags, scarves and bits of long dark hair fluttering in the wind. Natural shyness and anxiety made her duck her head to let them pass, but they didn't.
"We rarely meet another traveler!" a gaunt-faced yet jolly woman said. She was leading the group of five, two couples and a solitary man. "And heading north too, what a trek. Do you have food? Shelter? What a lovely coat." And her fingers were plucking at the unfamiliar texture of synthetic fabrics and blends. "How strange!"
Gerda drew away, trying to be polite but distinctly unsettled. "Yes, it is, and I have plenty of supplies, I think."
"You think?" The woman analyzed her as if she could see the chill developing in Gerda's fingers and toes. "Check, dear girl. The cold only gets worse as you head north. We have just come from there."
"You might have a point, I'll check." Gerda pulled the pack off her back and beginning to root through it for the first time. "If you have extra gloves, or a scarf, I may be able to trade something…"
Her seeking fingers closed around soft plush; someone had already packed two pairs of gloves (two? Why two?), and two scarves, and provisions enough for—surprise of surprise—two.
"I've actually enough to share—"
The gypsies were shaking their heads, the woman making a kindly dismissive gesture. "Clearly, you are fated to meet with another, and we could not take from that. Are you journeying to—"
"How far do you go?" the solitary man asked, interrupting.
"North," she replied nervously. "I don't know more than that. I'm seeking the Snow Queen."
This made the woman scowl, cloaked so she thought Gerda couldn't see, but the man thrilled at the answer. "Are you seeking Jack?"
"Who?"
"Her son, Jack of Fables. The child, not the father, who's a bit of a bastard." He was speaking quickly and Gerda tried to look interested. The man's companions were bustling about with their packs, making a great show of being ready to leave right now, and the man was not shy about ignoring them, even when the woman began plucking at his sleeve, catching it, letting it drop, catching it again, like a bird.
"Er, no," Gerda said. "No, I hadn't thought of going to him. Or heard of him. Is he a member of her court…?"
"An adventurer. His whereabouts change constantly, but her kingdom is usually farther than her son's adventuring domain, that I've known of. He would be able to get you in to see her."
"He's a good man, then?"
"Better morals than his parents', which is more than can be said of most."
"Where can I find him?"
"Our tales are old, dear," the woman interrupted. "Months gone since we heard of him and our companion here is only obsessed."
"It beats the tale of the woeful bear, three nights in the telling," the solitary man said with more than a hint of bitterness. "And I do know where Jack—"
"Oh!" the woman turned to Gerda with a predatory gleam in her eye, ready to make mischief. "The woeful bear, have you heard that one? It's very funny. Join us a day, we shall share stories."
"I actually need to keep moving," Gerda said. These people unsettled her with their interruptions and the feud that seemed to be brewing. No reason to get caught up in it if she didn't have to. "But I would like to know where Jack is. If he knows where the Snow Queen is, or could introduce me—"
"He had her powers once," the solitary man said, before the woman could answer. "Serves to reason that he would know her, wherever she was. But the path may be complicated, and you're new to the area—it would be better not to divert you from the path to the capital." He was eyeing her in near-apology, a prankster retracting his statement.
"But I'm wandering. I don't know where I am right now, don't know the woman I'm going to see, and once I get there, she could just, I don't know, shut the door in my face. I need this Jack, if he'll get me in. And if it's so difficult for me to find him on my own—can't you just accompany me?"
He struggled for words a second. "The last reports had of Jack had him in Howandaland, hunting a dragon – beyond that, I don't know where he would be. And your best bet for finding Lumi is in the capital." This he said with a definitive air, as if saying 'can't miss it.'
"And she has woken. Right?"
"She's woken?" the solitary man blinked several times, looking surprised. He got over it quickly though. "Er, then, your task is simple. The capital is right off the road—"
"Why can't you come?" Because he hadn't answered that question and she was getting to think she would like to know him better without the woman tugging at his sleeve. He might enjoy not being with these people too.
"Yes, why don't you?" the woman said, then shifted her focus to Gerda. "Travelling companions make everything better, and for a girl alone on the road… we could all come north with you! Do exchange your name with us-"
"I don't think you should come," the solitary man interrupted. "It's too long a road and we'd bore you incredibly. We'll go now. Good luck."
"But a girl alone!" the woman protested.
"I'm not alone," Gerda assured the woman. "Two of my companions just stepped away a moment. Don't worry about me."
"Keep moving," the man assured her brightly, something in her statement having brightened his mood. "Stray not far from the path, as there are old enchantments and entrapments here."
"Oh, then my companions should be…"
"Right here." And Burke and Kramer came roaring up out of the forest, as dramatically as if they had magnificent motorcycles hidden under their suits. The swords had been bared, with queer ridged blades. The couples bristled, drawing away from the pair, and Gerda thought the solitary man's eyes were going to pop out of his head. The angels gestured fearsomely to the couples, who circled blackly around the solitary man of their group.
"Away!" Kramer ordered.
Black fluttering and protests. "We only took what was ours!" the woman protested.
"He made no contract, nor knew the trap," Burke said. Both glided forward, the temperature seeming to rise with the advance of their swords. The couples skittered backwards, leaving the man alone. Even he looked about to back away.
"Not knowing is no excuse!" the woman shouted, though her eyes darted away, nervous in losing the battle. "We've taken many that way!"
"And you keep them in their ignorance only through such state. You have no claim here."
And the couples shrank into their flapping scarves and coats, taking to the forms of crows. Gerda hadn't seen a transformation before and she didn't want to watch or think about the process after it was over. They flew, screeching blandishments, into the trees and left the angels with Gerda and the solitary man. The latter looked about to faint and kept touching his throat reflexively.
He spoke in a whisper. "I have been in their care some four months and that was all I had to do?"
"They bank on innocence," Burke said gently.
"I only stepped off the path a moment. I was on my way to be married, she probably thinks I'm—they learned my name by trickery and forced me to come. Like a dog, and I have been tramp ever since. And I could order them away?"
Gerda had heard of such curses but never seen one in working order. And they had only known his name...
"You were open to being captured, heading towards a wedding. They prey on such sentiments. You were not to be blamed for giving your name." Having said this, Burke stepped back to include Gerda in the conversation. "We did not act earlier, for some choose curses to achieve power."
"That Rumplestiltskin incident," Kramer muttered.
"The fairies tried to take care of that one," Burke said dismissively, though Kramer didn't seem comforted. The solitary man—
"What is your name?" Gerda said abruptly. "I'm Gerda, if that helps, but I can't keep calling you nothing if you're going to be travelling with me."
"Travelling with—oh, no. No, Gerda, thank you, but I have a fiancée who thinks I've—I have to get home. It was idle chatter, what I said. I'm sorry, I can't really go with you…"
"It's fine." Engaged. At least he would get a happy ending out of this. "Glad we could help you."
"Thank you," he said, with the emphasis of someone realizing he hadn't said it yet. "Thank you, so much. It's a bend in the path at Bridgedown Circle to get to the capital, to the left. And the capital will be four days' journey after that. Don't stay there long, the gobs have regular patrols and there's a comprehensive crime network."
"And I'll mind the dragon too," she joked, shouldering the pack again.
"Don't scoff – rumor hasn't included the outcome of that meeting with the dragon yet. Be careful."
"Thank you, all the same. You've been helpful."
He grinned, the meekness of new freedom. "As you've been to me. Take care. My path leads me in the other direction."
She let him jog the opposite way, waiting to move on until he was safely out of sight. The angels then sheathed their swords, looking proud and ominous—with good reason, Gerda now realized.
"Annnnnd that's why you're here."
"Yes, among other things. Consequences are unmerciful here. Do you want to press on now?"
"You said you knew where Kay was."
"Yes."
She waited.
"In the Snow Queen's castle," Burke said, taking the hint quicker than Kramer. On the whole, Burke seemed the quicker to answer questions.
"…is he dead?"
There followed a moment of odd and telling silence. The moment stretched into half a mile before Gerda finally got fed up and demanded: "well, is he?"
"…we don't really know. We think so, but he shouldn't exist at all if that is the case."
She said nothing in response to this, only walking faster. They fell in behind her and she found she liked the feeling of being at the helm.
"Are we pursuing Jack, then?" Burke asked, after another half a mile of this.
"If he's in the capital. I'd normally be the last one to propose attending a family reunion between an adventurer and the Adversary's right hand, but we've no choice." There would be no way to get in and destroy the weapon if she couldn't get past the doorman/doorgoblin. It was just a matter of finding Jack, coercing (or bribing) him to come back with her, and sneaking off to find the 'weapon' while they talked. Gerda was aware of the plan's terribleness.
Unfortunately, no one else had any suggestions.