I am so sorry, but I've been having a writer's block for all my stories lately. This one is short but a lot of things happen. I hope you enjoy!

Chapter XXV

The air is thick and filled with smoke, making William's lungs burn in his chest. He can hardly even see. He holds his arm tight around Greta's waist, but the girl is not nearly as afraid as he thought she would be. She is breathing calmly, shallowly to inhale as little smoke as possible. Her eyes are wide, though, and they are tearing up with the burning smoke.

"What do we do?" she says softly.

William thinks hard, trying very hard to find a solution, but the roof and the door are both on fire. That does not leave many options of escape. "Do you have any other exits?"

"No." she squeaks.

That is immensely helpful. "Oh dear. Let me think." He closes his eyes; they are hurting and it is very distracting. "Think, think, think." Then fate decides to play a part. Above them, the beams supporting the hay roof collapses, and burning rubble falls down on them. In an act of pure instinct, William pulls Greta down to the ground with him and he rolls them over until they are in the far corner of the house, him protecting her with his body. He looks up to see lots of smoke, and ash, but also...

The falling of the roof has caused part of the wall to collapse as well. A way out. He pulls Greta to her feet and smiles. "Go!" he says, pushing her ahead of him. She runs through the fires, and he follows, feeling the flames lick at his boots, and he knows that if he falls now, he will be done for. Sparks land on his face and her exposed arms, but they just press on, evading as much of the fire as they can.

Coughing and wheezing, they both emerge out of the sea of fire. William looks back at the cottage with wide eyes, just as it completely collapses in on itself. He turns to Greta to see if she is okay, and sees to his shock that the back of her dress is on fire. Yelling for her to get on the ground, he dashes over to her and starts stamping his boot down on the burning, quickly extinguishing the fire. "Are you alright?" he asks her, and she sits up, her eyes wide, but she nods.

"My house..." she whispers.

"It will be all right, Greta. Snow – the Queen will take care of you. You will be all right." He helps her up and whistles for his horse. It does not come to him. His loyal horse has probably gone back to the castle. "We have to walk, though."

"That is fine. I can walk." So they walk. All the way back to the palace, which is luckily not one mile away.

The castle is in chaos. Everybody is running around, trying to help the survivors of the burning village, and nobody can tell him anything of what happened to the village in the first place. His lungs, that are still burning, allow for very little air, so he simply walks straight to the throne room, with Greta by his side. He does not intend on leaving her alone right now. She does not even know where her father is. The throne room doors are open, and people are running in and out. Snow is leaning over a map, biting her lip worried. "Snow!" William calls, which causes him to cough again.

"William!" Snow exclaims, rushing over to him and embracing him tightly. "Thank God you are all right! What happened?"

"We do not know." He studies her face. There is something wrong, he feels there is. Of course, other than the burning village. "Snow, what is wrong?"

"Eric is missing." she whispers. "And I cannot think of him right now, I need to focus on my people, but I am so worried. His horse came back without him. He is somewhere in the woods but nobody knows what has happened." She is shaking all over. This is her first real crisis as a Queen. She had not been ready.

In a surge of honourable courage, William says, "I will find him for you, if you want."

Her eyes light up with gratefulness, but she shakes her head. "No, I cannot ask you to go into the woods alone."

"Snow, I want to help out. I will not be of much good here, because I have honestly no idea what happened. I will find Eric and bring him home." What has come over him? A few days ago, he would have killed to get Eric out of the castle. That is, of course, before he realised the Huntsman made Snow happy. Now he would kill for him to stay by her side. Why had he even been stupid enough to go out into the woods?

Snow smiles and pushes herself up on her tiptoes to press a tender kiss on his cheek. "Thank you, William. You are the best friend I will ever have."

"I know. That has always been my problem." he jokes, and she smiles. "Just...do me one favour. Take care of Greta for me. We have been through hell to get here. Literally. And she was talking about 'them'. I do not know if she knows something, but if someone will get it out of her, you will." Snow nods, and William bows, before turning to Greta. "I am going after the future king."

"I want to come with." she says, immediately, her eyes full of worry. Her voice is hoarse and her breath is still laboured because of smoke inhalation. "I can help."

"I know you can, and I would gladly take you with me. But you need help with your lungs. You have inhaled too much smoke. You will be all right. I promise. The Queen will take good care of you." He smiles at her, before turning around and leaving her behind in the throne room. So the Huntsman had gone out to hunt. In the woods. Idiot. His horse, that had indeed returned to the castle, waits for him in the courtyard, and he mounts it, patting the side of her neck gently. She always returns to where she comes from when she is without rider. "Clever girl. Now ride, ride like the wind. We have a king to save."

Snow POV

The moment William leaves, Snow takes Greta aside and starts questioning her. At first the girl does not want to talk, and it frustrates Snow to no end. The most important farming village just burned down to the ground and Greta knows something, but she does not want to tell.

"Greta, please, we are talking about lives here."

"I do not know what you are talking about. I know nothing." But Snow, always the pure-hearted girl, sees straight through lies – she has been confronted with them too many times – and Greta is surely lying. Her eyes are wide and her forehead is covered with a sheen of sweat. If Snow were to feel her pulse now, she would probably feel a raised heartbeat.

"William said you talked about 'they'. 'They are burning down the village'. It sounds like you know something." Greta opens her mouth, but instead of words, a stream of coughs comes from her mouth. Oh, this is not working. Greta needs help first. "Healer!" The Healer is by her side immediately and she gives the girl to him to care for. She knows nothing about medicines. Then she returns to her maps. She has actually no idea what she should look for, to be honest. The village is in the middle of a far open field, they – whoever they are – could have come from anywhere. She is not someone who strategizes. That is William's area of expertise, but he went after Eric, who is better at strategizing than both William and Snow combined. They would both know what to do.

"Duke Hammond! Please join me." she calls out to William's father, who is immediately by her side, looking worried. "I have no idea what to do, dear Duke. Please, I need your assistance."

"Of course, m'lady. What do you need from

"What do we do?"

"I suggest we start methodically. Send two squadrons, one moving from the west back to the town, and one moving from the east back. We have to search everything for the culprits. M'lady, we need to find them, the people are expecting you to act swiftly."

Snow nods immediately, seeing the logic of this plan. "Very good idea indeed. Thank you, Duke Hammond."

Within a few minutes, she has two squadrons of soldiers gathered on the square of the castle, orders received and ready to go. "I am sorry your Captain is not here, but he is on a quest of his own." Snow says. "But his father, Duke Hammond, will oversee everything. He is your Captain, is that clear?"

"Yes, Your Highness." the soldiers shout in unison, and Snow excuses them with a nod. Within a minute, they are all gone, with one last nod from Duke Hammond. Snow clasps her hand in front of her dress as the good Queen she is – outwardly – and returns to the medical wing, where Greta is being taken care of.

She looks absolutely horrible. "Your Highness!" she says, and tries to move up from the bed and courtesy.

"Please, stay in bed. You look terrible." Snow says softly, sitting down next to the bed. She decides to simply confront the girl, here and now. "Greta. You need to tell me what you know. I do not want to abuse my power as Queen, but I will if you do not tell me right now. I can have you locked up in the tower for lying to the Crown."

Tears pool in the young woman's eyes, and for the first time, Snow sees fear in those grey eyes. She is afraid. "My Queen, I cannot..."

"You have to. I can protect you from anything you are afraid of. I promise. Now tell me." Snow feels that she is close to the truth. Or at least part of it.

Greta closes her eyes. "It was my uncle. He is part of...an organization. A rebel group against the Crown. He burned down the village. He came to me this morning with an ultimatum. Either I join him, or he'd burn me along with the rest of the village. I refused to join him. I told him I am loyal to the crown." She looks at Snow defiantly, as if daring her to claim otherwise. Snow wisely keeps quiet. "So he knocked me unconscious, left me for dead, burned down my house. If William had not shown up when he did...well, I would be dead."

"Yes. He does that." Snow smiles gently, taking Greta's hand in hers. "You have been very brave telling me this. We will find your uncle, and we will stop this organization." She pats Greta's hand once and then returns to the Throne Room. "You there." she addressed a soldier in the back of the room. "You are new, are you not?"

"Yes, m'lady. My name is Everhart, at your service."

"I have an assignment for you." He straightens up immediately, pride shining off his face, making Snow smile a bit. "I need you to go after Duke Hammond, and tell him that this is concerning an organized group of people. They are against the Crown, they burned down the village and they are dangerous."

He repeats the message, nods solemnly and then strides out of the castle with his head held high. Snow chuckles lightly. She loves seeing young men so excited over their first assignments.

And now she only has to wait. For news of Eric and news of the Duke.

That should be easy.

(It is not.)

A reviewer said the relationship between Greta and William is going too fast, and I agree. But these two have a connection that neither of them understand. I'm keeping them apart for now, but I'm not sure where this is going.

Review?