Chapter 26
Here you go! For such a short chapter a lot happens. Please review. Your compliments are worth more to me than diamonds (Seriously).
The last time they used traveling stones, Robin was on the hosting side of it. This time he had to travel and it seemed to take an eternity before the purple light emitted from the rock and everyone transported to Regina and hopefully Roland. Johnson had not been easy to move close enough to the perimeter of the stone and Snow only begrudgingly went. Robin could see in her eyes she wanted to take advantage of the situation and escape, but something kept her from doing so.
The light from the stone was almost blinding. When it went out, Robin's eyes had to take a moment to focus but he soon realized it worked as he saw the new surroundings. Jumping up, he looked around for Regina but didn't see her immediately. Walking away from the merry men, Robin looked around the trees and shrubs, looking to see her form somewhere, anywhere. All he found was the bag she had carried.
"Where is she? Where's the queen?" Robin asked, the men hadn't noticed she was missing, they were trying to find a place to put Johnson and making sure his gag was in place. They couldn't risk him shouting and warning Kristolf.
Tuck looked over at his leader, seeing him holding Regina's bag. The queen never went anywhere without it. "Do you think…she went after Roland on her own?"
"Why would she not wait-" Robin had started but soon he had his answer. A scream. A child's scream. "Roland!" he shouted and immediately ran as he heard the sound again.
He was on the ground before he had taken three steps, John had flattened him while another merry man, someone he couldn't see, was grabbing his legs. Tuck ran over to help. "Robin, wait. We can't just go after them."
"Regina did! And Roland is being hurt!" Robin tried to shout but it felt like John was actually sitting on him. He hardly had any breath. Another scream and Robin tried to scream too. Now he knew for sure why Regina wasn't there. She wouldn't be able to sit and hear that anymore than he could.
Tuck looked conflicted as well. If Robin had the patience to really study the friar, he'd know his looks matched exactly the agony he felt at witnessing the death of Sade. But Tuck knew the last thing they needed to do was go rushing towards them without having the faintest idea what they were getting into. "No, listen, Robin, if dark elves can smell humans, Regina probably is already there and he knows we aren't far behind. Hopefully she can trick him into thinking it's just her. But if he smells anymore of us he'll know that's a lie."
Robin kept struggling, not wishing to agree with Tuck, he just wanted Roland back. Plus he was worried for Regina. Snow White whispered, "Listen, it's stopped."
Everyone became silent even Johnson. Not another scream was heard. John eventually got off of Robin and helped his leader from the ground. Robin shuddered, knowing that that the price to keep his boy safe might be whatever was happening to Regina.
Regina had never run so hard in her life. As she got closer to the screams they kept sounding like they were getting worse. All rational thought had escaped her mind, she couldn't let Kristolf hurt that young boy and her imagination was going wild with theories on what was actually happening to Roland.
She got to the edge of the camp, she was a few yards away. Kristolf had Roland who had his hands tied, tears streaming down his face. There was the Vukodlak besides him, tied up thankfully but Kristolf was swinging the boy near the beast. She knew by now the creature was starving and would gladly eat him. Every time he almost got Roland close enough, the boy would scream. It took all her strength not to shout out to him. She didn't have enough magic to do anything about it. She'd never felt so helpless.
"Come out, come out, come out!" Kristolf shouted. He knew she was there somewhere. He turned away from the Vukodlak who looked like he would actually prefer the dark elf instead. "I know you're here, human. Show yourself or I feed this boy to my steed!"
He nearly tossed Roland to the creature one more time and that scream clinched it for Regina. She ran out of the woods towards them. "No, STOP!"
Kristolf and Roland turned to her, a smile broke out on the elf's face while Roland shouted out something she didn't understand, he was sobbing now. The elf didn't walk away from the wolf, he took a step closer. "I expected a merry men or Robin Hood himself. Such a surprise to have your Majesty."
"Put him down, Kristolf," Regina said. "Let him go and you can have me instead." For the first time in a long time, her voice shook. She was so afraid but not of her own life. She was afraid that Kristolf could kill Roland at anytime and she was powerless to stop it.
"Trade this boy for a queen?" he asked. The wolf kept snarling and barking, he was so close to Roland he probably could taste the hairs on his head.
Regina started to walk closer but the elf held Roland tighter. "Stay there. I know your magic."
Could she bluff him? Pretend she still had magic? "Very well, then you know I could put a fireball into you right now along with your…dog." She glanced at the animal who practically paused just then like he understood her. "If you let the boy go, I'll let you live."
"The evil queen never lets people live," he sneered.
How dare he call her evil? She could deal with the title from the likes of the merry men, Snow White and peasants. But not him. "I don't kill children. I don't torture them-"
"I haven't tortured him!" he said, jerking the boy closer to him. "In fact, I've taken great care of him."
Without her magic, there was little to do but perhaps she could stall for time, though he'd probably be aware of the merry men once they got closer. "Why? Why did you come after Robin at all?"
"Because of him, I lost the battle. I lost my reputation." Kristolf said, daring to take a step away from the beast. Roland was still crying now and it was killing Regina but Kristolf was so used to it he hardly heard it anymore. "And my soul. When it came back to me, I knew that my old master was dead."
He must have expected Regina to respond to that but she didn't. He probably didn't know that it was she and Rumple who killed him, and she knew that fact would do little to help the current situation if she antagonized him. He went on. "I ran into Johnson, your former commander and he couldn't wait to tell me about the real leader of the army."
Regina rolled her eyes. "I'm sure he was eager not to take all the responsibility for actually fighting you himself."
Kristolf shrugged. "His injuries were not of battle, your Majesty, I trust you remember what you did to him."
She risked another step closer to him. "It's nothing compared to what I'll do to you if you don't let that boy go."
"You really do care for him. Johnson thought there was something between you and the outlaw to let him actually take over your army. I didn't believe him then but I'm starting to now." He then took a deep breath, inhaling for a long time. His eyes looking up to the sky above, it was dark now. When he finally stopped, he smiled. "And you've come alone. How very foolish."
Gritting her teeth, she took another step closer to him. "I don't need any help to take out an elf."
His eyes traveled over Regina, studying her. He took several steps towards her, now there was only about twenty feet between them. Being closer to her helped settle Roland down and Regina dared to take the time to look into the boy's eyes and smile. He tried to smile back. Kristolf took that moment to strike, not trying to hit her. But he had maneuvered his free hand and grabbed something out of his pocket. Whatever it was, he threw it at Regina and everything went black.
When she came to, she was tied up just like Roland. The boy was actually curled up besides her. Glancing around, she saw Kristolf by the fire while the dog was eating something. At least one bit of good news was it was obviously animal and not human She started to sit up and in doing so Roland wrapped his arms around her. Kristolf apparently was low on rope as he must have used the boys bindings on her.
Hearing them, Kristolf directed his attention to them. He started to approach and Regina wished she could at least perform an invisibility spell. "If you are wondering how long you were out, not long. Sorry to use some fainting dust on you. I'd rather have taken you out with this sword but, as you know, I had my hands full." He gestured to Roland.
"Why did you let me live?"
Kristolf shrugged. "I know you will find this hard to believe, but I don't kill everyone I meet. That was more like Skylar, the general who took over for me." He folded his arms. "Besides, I'd rather you be a witness to my next plan."
"Which is?" She was almost afraid to ask.
He gestured to the fire. "You must know by now. Surely you heard one of Hood's men was infected with the Nachzehrer blood?" When she didn't answer, grinning like a cheshire cat, he continued, "I planned that fate for his leader. But I made the mistake of allowing Johnson to hold the poisoned blade and he stabbed that young man with it before I could stop him. I was furious. Now I'm forced to make more. But it's almost ready now."
"Wouldn't you have to make more anyway?" Regina said, Roland was now sitting in her lap and she longed to put her arms around him. "Turning the human race into those soul sucking monsters?"
"That wasn't the plan at all!" the elf said. "Rowan wanted to absorb powers, especially of that of the dark one. He chose Nachzehrers because he knew we had powdered their blood and he could do experiments on them. It was actually fascinating to watch him."
Regina turned her nose up at that. She looked around, knowing Robin and his men were out there. He'd be planning something for sure. She just needed to buy time.
He went on, "I can't speak for why Skyler wanted to help Rowan but I wanted to see if he would truly succeed. The dark one vanished from this land meant the dark elves could return. This was our land before it was yours."
"There is no way Rumple would have let you succeed." At least she knew that was true.
Kristolf smiled. "I knew it was possible for Rumple to defeat Rowan, but that's why I brought this." Kristolf held up the blood, it looked like it was ready to be used. "If I infected enough humans, the dark one would be too distracted with destroying them. Then I could target him and take over the land on my own."
She rolled her eyes. Was everyone insane? "So you create unstoppable monsters to unleash hell and take out your biggest threat. But then you're stuck with the monsters you were using and what then?"
He chuckled. "Having this powder for so long, your Majesty, we've been able to alter it. Those monsters we'd use would wind up dying out on their own. They could try to suck as many souls as they wanted, but nothing would sustain them. I'd say they would die within 24 hours if not less."
"Well, I guess you've thought of everything." Roland hugged her tighter. She watched the boy as he peeked at his kidnapper to make sure he wasn't watching. Satified the elf's attention was back to his potion, he looked up at Regina. "Why don't you fire him?"
She knew Roland meant using fireballs. Regina kissed his head. At least Kristolf had told the truth, there showed no harm on Roland that she could tell. "I can't. I've used up my magic."
Roland didn't know that was possible. "It's gone? Forever?"
"No," she would do anything to have it back. "But gone for awhile. When I use a lot of it at once, it drains. And after some time it will come back but I have to wait awhile."
Roland frowned. "If you had it, you could take him out no problem!"
She sighed, her eyes scanned the camp. There wasn't anything around that she could use. Roland was watching her. He hugged her again, this time very tight. "I'm sorry, Gina. I don't want you hurt."
"Oh, Roland." She gave into the boy then, allowing him to hold her. She could practically feel the love radiating off of him. The one person she'd met that loved her almost immediately and without prejudice and she couldn't save him.
As they sat like that for awhile, Regina closed her eyes, she felt better. Much better. Strange considering the circumstances. Opening her eyes, she could swear this was a white sheen to everything. It wasn't too bright, but it was coming from Roland. Looking down, she saw white light coming from him and her mouth dropped. Was he healing her? "Roland!"
"I just want you to be okay, Gina," he said softly. She looked up, Kristolf had his back to them and hadn't appeared to notice. Taking a deep breath, she concentrated on her bound wrists and in an instant they were free. She didn't dare move though, her eyes looked past the elf to the wolf who was done with the deer he had been fed. He was ready for more. If she could do one good blast, she could kick the elf right into the wolf and they'd be done, but she wasn't sure if she had gotten that much strength back, and with Roland on her lap, it made such a spell harder.
Then she realized one thing she could do. Quickly wrapping her arms around Roland, she said, "Roland, do as I say, be very quiet. I have some of my magic back and we're getting out of here!"
He jerked his head up but Regina pressed it back to her chest. Picking him up, she cast the invisibility spell and they vanished, at least from Kristolf's eyes. His back was still to them so she tip toed around, trying to keep from making any noise but unfortunately it was hard to maneuver as Roland was bigger than she was used to carrying. She knocked over a pot.
The dark elf wheeled around and saw his prisoners gone, he immediately pulled his sword. "So you have some magic after all, eh?" He smiled. Dipping the sword into the pot, his weapon was now coated and Regina knew they could waste no more time. She took off.
She got several yards when she heard it. He released the Vukodlak.
Heh, another cliffhanger. But finally we have Roland! Dear child. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I await your reviews/comments!