Again, I'm very sorry about the delay. Being back at uni means I only have time to focus on one story in my spare time, and I'm afraid Doctor Who has to take priority. I've had to devise a plan which will allow me to finish this story instead of leaving you all hanging. It's basically called pressing fast-forward.
(Some of you have already reviewed expressing dissatisfaction. I really am very sorry. At some point in the future I may produce a sequel, but right now I don't have a choice. I am also put out because I loved this story, and you can tell by how much effort I've put into it. So please just enjoy this last chapter, since I spent three days trying to make it perfect for you, as a good enough send-off.)
Interlude
Snow White moved into her father's chambers. The traders that Hammond investigated turned out to be trustworthy, and Ravenna's hordes of riches made it relatively easy to continue their exchange. Snow White's people were saved from starvation for the foreseeable future.
In the meantime, Hammond and the Princess began to plan the agriculture of their land, as well as the enrolment of male citizens into their training army. The huntsman was still out with his band collecting food, but in his absence Snow White insisted that he become her permanent High Constable and personal guard when he returned. Hammond was put out by this, until he realised that it left an opening for William to become King, and so consented.
The huntsman and his band of gatherers did not return that night, or in the morning. In fact, they did not return until after William and his people did – thus he walked into the coronation late, and Snow White was evidently relieved to see him. He had brought back plenty of game, and just in time for the coronation's celebratory feast, in which the lowest peasant was allowed to fill himself to bursting.
However, in the short time that William had been back he had already confessed his love for the Princess. She delayed her answer to his proposal of marriage in a state of painful uncertainty. William's heart was true; it had belonged to her from childhood.
Hammond was so insistent that she chose the right husband to lead their people. Could the huntsman stand to become a tool of the kingdom, like her? Could his wild heart endure it? Could Snow White endure to injure William, when she knew well what she felt for him?
In the weeks that followed as she took the counsel of the Barons and Counts and Reeves, as she oversaw the development of her kingdom, from its peoples' new-found strength and confidence to the very flowers growing on the trees, as she watched each man and woman taking their place, learning their trade and learning to trust again, she found that she was running from her decision.
The huntsman stepped into his role as her guard and was forced to become much more formal under Hammond's gaze. Still she had not guessed his name.
William continued at her side with Hammond, helping her to run the kingdom, always watching for her long-awaited acceptance.
And then, a week later, one of their hunters came flying back from the woods like a hurricane with news that would force the Princess into action.
19
And my heart is a hollow plain, for the devil to dance again
And the room is too quiet, oh
I was looking for the breath of a life, a little touch of a heavenly light
But all the choirs in my head sang no, oh, oh.
"There is no more time. We must be ready. We must be strong."
The Duke's eyes were bulging with alarm as I silently clasped the hands of the exhausted messenger at my feet.
I knew what Hammond meant. I knew the game was up. He wanted me to accept his son as my King, and he wanted me to do it now.
It might be the only means of saving the people.
"Where is he?" My voice rang out like a blank wall, empty behind its defences. Giving nothing away. Now was not the time for sentiment. Only action. "Gather the people. All of them, as they are. As we are." I glanced about the bare hall from my seat upon the throne. "We don't have the luxury of proper ceremony."
I didn't know what I felt. I had hidden it even from myself.
"He is with the soldiers, overseeing their training." Hammond's voice was a hundred miles away, and yet it pressed down upon me like a density in the air itself.
"I will go to him. Ensure the people are collected. Summon the bishop and priests."
With that, I rose without a thought of demeanour and ran for my life towards the western arms of the castle, where the gardens lay transformed into a training ground. Where I would find him.
Not him. Them. The both of them. Where I would finally discover if he loved me just from the look on his face, as I uttered the words to William.
I was terrified that I would see it there – the anguish of love and treachery. But I was more afraid that there would be nothing. Selfish, selfish. I wouldn't be able to look into his neutral, passive blue eyes without crumbling at his feet.
The moments trembled like disturbed wings before my eyes, I couldn't get a hold on anything. I felt sick, so sick I might fall. But I had to keep putting my feet ahead of me. I had to reach William, the willing victim of the crown. I had to marry him. Even if it killed me. It was the people now, only the people mattered. The people needed a King. The people needed a real protector. Immediately. Immediately…
These repeated thoughts got me to the gloomy passage leading out into the gardens. I was almost there. William could carry me the way back, if necessary.
I only had to reach the garden. The garden.
And then a silhouette appeared from around the corner.
"William," I choked, and allowed myself to lean against the cool stone of the wall, breathing in jerks.
The figure stiffened, and then suddenly sprang towards me. He was with me in seconds, darting quicker than an animal despite his solid build.
His solid build.
His straight dark hair. The masculine heavy brow, the kind clear eyes narrowed in acute concern. The northern lilt shaping itself around my name, pitched higher than usual, still like thunder amongst the mountains. "Snow White!"
No. No. Not him.
I could have been strong, if it had been William I could have held myself like a princess and just said the words, as though I were saying any words. But here was his image instead. The only image that could break the iron will, the will that kept my soul from shattering into sharp, dangerous fragments, shards that pierced through my thudding heart and punctured my lungs.
"No," I rasped, breath like gravel in my tight throat. "Get William. Bring William. Please."
It was like a dream. An awful dream in which I was losing my strength, needed it more than ever but lost it, feeling the tension leaking out of my knees and my arms until my body was buckling and I fought with the wall to stay upright. Out of nowhere the misery came. The dull spell I had cast over myself was broken by his face. My eyes were hot and wet. I tasted it, as the beads plummeted in straight lines to my mouth.
His broad, warm, rough hands caught me under my arms and practically held me up like a doll. I swayed against his strength as I finally let go, trusting myself to his hold even as I was about to destroy myself, destroy us by disconnecting myself from him forever.
"What is it? What is it?" His usually placating tones were urgent, frightened. He was frightened. He swept me against him, his arms encasing me as he cradled my head under his chin with one hand. I could feel the pulse of anxious blood in his throat by my ear, hear the life quickening in his veins.
"Let me go," I wailed, though I couldn't stand on my own, "go and get William."
"Why, why William? What's wrong?"
The moment was upon me, the moment I'd been putting off ever since William had joined us in the forest. It crushed me now, like the troll's looming fists could have crushed me. I bit down against it and held my breath to prevent the scream. The pain was intolerable, too much and so suddenly.
I had known. I had known that I loved him. But I never imagined it was this much. It felt as though I were losing the life from my body, a body that refused to move, refused to function without the hope of him. The spark of his life had ignited me into action every day since he had thundered into my world and consumed it. Now there was nothing.
A rising pool of murk and desolation lapped about me, its dampness weighting me, chilling me through. In a moment I would have to let go of the rock I clung to, and surrender myself to it. I would sink to its bottom and my spirit would drown.
My silence disturbed him, for he shook me slightly as he held me at arm's length and repeated his question. "What's wrong?"
I forced myself to breathe, though it only brought me fresh strength to sob convulsively.
I couldn't cry in front of him. If this was going to work I couldn't show how it killed me.
"You are to assemble the soldiers in the hall," I was saying in utter monotone, gazing blandly at the centre of his chest, my eye level, trying to free the thickness in my throat. "For mine and William's marital ceremony."
"Excuse me?"
"I must marry William. Within the hour."
I was left floating in space as his hands suddenly loosed me, held up only by the sheer will of my mask. I bent my head to stare at my feet, and said nothing else. There it was. The bond cut like a cord. For the kingdom. For my people. For the kingdom.
He reeled from me, as though I were poisonous.
As though I had broken his heart.
As though I had broken his heart.
"No," his voice flowed over me, its touch like velvet despite its coarse harshness. "No, you are not. You can't marry him. Snow White."
I had broken his heart. He loved me.
It was his turn to support himself against the gloomy grey stone, one fist clutching his breast as though trying to hold his soul together. It was fracturing as much as mine. I could feel its glass splinters, splinters that had the power to mingle with my own shattered spirit and form a complete crystal whole, reborn.
Not allowed.
"You can't. You can't marry him. Take it back."
"I have to."
He crashed a fist against the wall, snarling through his clenched teeth. "Why?"
"Because they're coming back," I yelled so suddenly and sharply that he flinched before the words could sink in, "Payne is coming. And his army. And others."
"Snow White –"
"Others who heard about us, how vulnerable we are."
I tore my hand away as he reached for it, turning my face from him so he couldn't see the contortion of my raging sorrow. His chest jerked and heaved, betraying only the softest sound of despair. More painful to the ear than any scream. I railed against that noise, willing it into insignificance, smothering the sheer searing agony ripping through me.
"We can't afford to be weak. We need a King, we need a real leader, right now."
"Haven't I proven myself worthy of that?"
I froze, arrested by the thunder in his voice. The utter power of that rumbling landslide falling from his lungs. And despite myself, I looked at him.
His expression contradicted his words so violently that I nearly broke, there and then, before him. His lips were parted and loose in innocent grief, downturned; tears stood in the blue eyes that glowed even in the gloomy passage, incandescent with glistening emotion and beauty. His usually heavy brow was lifted and slanting towards bewildered anguish. His ragged breath hung in the air, like a question all of its own.
I wanted to snatch all my words back. I wanted to die rather than see his pain. He loves me. He loves me. It surged through me like an independent energy, like a life force, forcing me to look all the way back to our journey in this new light. That was why he had come back for me. That was why he had stayed even when William arrived. He loved me.
Did he look at me and see nothing beyond? Did he think I was the approximation of life to him? Like I saw him?
He did. There it was, unearthed in his misery, drawn plainly in the lines of his face.
"But William." I wanted to fall into death and never have to make this decision. I couldn't bear his pain, but I couldn't stand William's either. It still stirred something in me, meant something to me. The rightful King, my rightful partner.
"What? What is it about William?" Again his countenance was altering, the angles hardening, eyes narrowing in spite. "Who stood by with his father, while Payne convinced you to release him? If you hadn't listened to me, we wouldn't even have defences. Would you have him make decisions for you?"
His anger flashed against something in me. I bristled, and realised that I was angry too.
"We were supposed to be together!" I snapped, so abruptly I didn't know I was thinking it until the words were there between us. "William and I were always going to be. You – you have ruined everything!"
"Me? I've ruined everything?"
"Did you think you could rob me of the future I was meant to have? Don't you know how much I've fought against you for his sake?!"
He was straight and stiff as though made of stone, just an addition to the grey hues of the walls. "Fought against me? You mean – you mean you've –"
"It doesn't matter what I mean! You interfered with what was supposed to happen. He is the rightful King, and my true love, and I refuse to hurt him for you!"
It was so sudden that I didn't even scream. His shape blurring as he shot towards me, my arms clenched between his large hands, my back against the cold stone. His face so close. His power overwhelming. "Your true love?" he snarled, though I could hear his voice cracking through it, "Is that what you believe? Your destined path? You don't think that our journey happened for a reason? You don't think that we were meant to meet, that the path you started on was the wrong one?"
I struggled a little, but his grip was solid. I didn't want to answer because I didn't want to lie. I didn't know what to think any more. I was so incensed, so outraged, because he had complicated everything that should have been simple. Because he was himself, and therefore impossible not to love. It was his fault.
But there was nothing beyond him. Life was not life without him. I knew that. I knew that if I married William I forfeited my soul. I knew that just because William had been my betrothed, it didn't make him my true love.
I couldn't see. I couldn't get around it. The anger clogged up my senses and my thoughts. And his beauty, his closeness, filling my vision with stunning blue and soft bronze and dark tawny brown. His essence shimmering through the image to envelop all else. My soul barely intact, still responding to him.
"Snow White," his lips were mere inches from me, torturing. "Don't you remember? Don't you remember what happened, when you were poisoned?"
"No."
"He kissed you. He kissed you and you didn't wake up."
The tears finally flooded over and fell from his eyes. And then from mine.
Just like that, I was crying. And I hadn't even expected it, I hadn't felt it coming. Silent, heavy beads. Coming from an unconscious place. Unconscious and true... I had wept like this before.
"You." The whisper slipped from me, as I reached up to his face, touched his cheek. "You found me in the dark. Your voice came. You said – you said –"
He had said that he loved me. That I reminded him of her. That I allowed him to rediscover the man he wanted to be, that I had saved him. "And then…"
The softest caress, in the blackness. The touch of his lips against mine. True love's kiss.
I knew. Because until then I had been crushed by that darkness, a prisoner... Only him. I had broken free, only because I needed to go back to him. Because our separation was impossible. It was not allowed. It could not be. The force that had grown between us would not be defeated or denied. He was mine. My true love. His was the real path, off the beaten track that had been planned for me, William's track. The Huntsman's path led into the forests, into the real wilderness of my heart and the freedom that still pulsed in my spirit. Only, only him.
I stirred. I had been still for what felt like an eternity, there in that memory, in the realisation of him. And he was still there, pressing me against the stone but lightly now, lightly like a lover's touch, as he watched me in silence. As his gaze slowly lifted mine I was brought back into the present like a ghost from another world. He filled me like a clear light and there was nothing but him to think about. Nothing but him being here, and staying, forever.
"I remember you," I said into his eyes, "Huntsman."
"Erik."
"Erik," I echoed, the word delicious on my tongue, "I came back, for you."
"I know." His mouth lifted in a small smirk. "This is what I've been trying to tell you."
The chains had been shattered. Nothing stood between us now. We could have been anywhere. We were floating. Alone. And I couldn't resist any more.
With a groan of pure relief he leaned into my kiss, his lips perfect and as I remembered them, shaping around my own like they were made to fit there, churning up my soul with his sheer intensity, the singular sensation of this touch, something beyond everything, transporting me outside myself into pure light.
I didn't have to say it. I didn't even want to. He knew. Instead as I slowly broke away from him I slipped my hand into his. The hand that sheltered mine, broad and warm and strong. As he would be, forever, for me. For my kingdom.
"Go to the hall. Tell Hammond. He will not fight you." All I could see was my father's crown resting on that dark head, where it belonged. "The people will already be gathering."
"Where are you going?"
I kissed him once more, lingering, feeling him breathing all the life that had been bleeding away from my soul back into me. Then I loosed my fingers from his grasp and smiled, concealing the slow flickering pain that welled up as I realised what marrying Erik meant. I willed him to understand. To know that it would be alright after this last thing was over. As soon as this last obstacle - person - was moved aside.
"I'm going to tell William."
The End.