The Hunt for Snow (13 page)

I nodded and called Belle, Red and Grumpy over to me. “Take this group of people through the kitchen and get them out of here.” I explained where the weak spot was and asked Belle to send me a signal once she was able to get her half of the people out. Belle nodded and gathered half to take with her. By now, there were hundreds of people milling through the bar area and out in the hall, no doubt looking for a leader to get them out of this mess. Unfortunately, they got me, but I was doing the best with what I had.

I explained to everyone what was happening. No one was happy about it, but they understood we had no other options. Just a few minutes later, the lights began to flicker on and off.
Belle
.

I screamed at the rest of the people to mill out and scatter. The trolls by then were insistently beating on the windows above the doors, and glass was shattering all around us. The gods were on our side because they were too big to make it into the hotel and the majority of the bindings were still holding. But, they weren’t too big to notice dozens of villagers scrambling around them trying to get the hell away. Although the trolls were now divided, some by the kitchen and some by our door, it was still bad odds. The screams of my people rang out as the trolls scooped some up, chomping down on their bodies like M&Ms.

“Robin,” I barked. He materialized by my side immediately. “Do you have my back?”

“Always, milady.” He bowed, and for once it wasn’t mocking.

“Cover me then.”

His face registered surprise and he opened his mouth to speak, but I was out the door before he had the chance to argue with me.

The first thing I noticed was the stench. Trolls smelled.
Bad
. I tucked that away into my brain for future use. Smell was a sense many people failed to rely on, but to me it was one of the more important ones. Cologne, body odor, shampoo or perfume—these were all things that could be used to identify someone before you could see them. But trolls.
Ugh
. You could smell those things coming a mile away.

Once I was out the door and I realized the true expanse of just how big those things were, I had to swallow a big lump of regret and get my thoughts in order. I was a petite fiveish-foot woman. Trolls were about fifteen feet tall, give a take a couple of feet. And they were angry. I craned my neck up as far as I could and started screaming to try and get their attention. I had one hand behind my back waving it frantically to let everyone know to get out.

People were everywhere, screaming, crying, running in every single direction. I’d be lucky if the trolls could hear anything over that cacophony. So I did the next best thing. I started firing rounds off at the closest troll to me.

Let me tell you. That got its attention. Its wide blocky head swerved around trying to find me. I jumped up and down, wishing to God I had more weapons, and insulted its mother. The troll raised one massive beefy fist in the air and without so much as a how do you do brought it crashing down in the place I was standing. I lurched out of the way, stumbling, and fired off a couple of rounds. The bullets struck the troll in the chest and plinked off harmlessly.

Awesome
.

I could hear Robin’s hysterical laughter from somewhere behind me and saw massive amounts of flaming arrows launching into the air. The two trolls next to us swatted at them like gnats, but it didn’t stop him. We kept it up, annoying the shit out of the trolls for as long as we could until everyone on our side made it to somewhat relative safety.

Unfortunately, the sheer amount of chaos Robin and I managed to cause attracted the attention of the other trolls from the kitchen side. Thundering steps rumbled around the side of the building, but out of the door from our side came a much welcomed sight. Maleficent stepped out, strained and weakened, but holding a perfectly formed fireball in her hand.

“Duck!” she screeched as she lobbed it in the air in the direction of the one reaching down to pluck me up like a mid-afternoon snack. I tripped over an exposed root and landed flat on my back. Same effect as ducking, I guess. I watched in glee as it hit him right between his brows, causing him to stumble and flail to keep his balance. Maleficent kept lobbing those balls at the trolls gunning for me and Robin and the others coming around the corner, her aim perfect. It probably helped that trolls were slow and lumbering. And huge. Hard to miss them.

“Fall, fall, fall,” I chanted. It was like watching one of those cartoons where you know what’s going to happen, but it goes in serious slo-mo. I scrambled to get up before I became a troll pancake and started running as fast as I could into the forest. Several bodies littered the ground, but I couldn’t stop to think about that right now. My breath came in great gasps from the adrenaline and exertion, and just as I thought I was in the clear, I felt myself plucked in the air and face-to-face with a very angry troll.

I swung to and fro trying to loosen my shirt from the meaty grip of the monster. Shouts from below reached my ears, but I was too intent on not being eaten to listen. The troll stared at me, its dead eyes unblinking. I figured if I fell fifteen feet I wouldn’t die, maybe just break some bones. Better than the alternative. I grabbed a clip from my waistband, loaded it into the Sig and fired off several rounds into its eye. The troll lurched, its roar of outrage deafening me, but its grip didn’t loosen.

I was going down. Hard. As the beast tried to keep its balance, I swung wildly around.

“Hold on!” The scream from below made me snort. I wasn’t really holding on to anything, as I was dangling from the fingertips of a monster. On our downward descent, I scrunched my face in concentration and prayed Cyndi and Belle would forgive me when they had to bury their best friend. I gritted my teeth and relaxed my muscles, hoping against all the odds that I’d somehow survive this.

After a moment, I was still alive so I cracked open one eye and saw the troll and I encased in a bubble of Maleficent’s magic. I breathed in relief as its fingers loosened and I was able to slide out of its grip. Its death knell rattled me to my core, but I and my friends were safe. For now. There was still the matter of the other trolls struggling to get back up after being struck by Maleficent’s fireballs, but we had some time to scramble out of here.

Once she lowered us to the ground, I holstered my weapons. There was no sign of Red or Grumpy, but the rest of the party was here. Those two could take care of themselves. I’d seen both of them in action before. “Ready to get the hell out of here?”

I didn’t wait to hear any answers as I took off into the cover of the forest.

* * * *

Even in daylight a forest can be creepy. The sounds of things slithering through the underbrush, the unfamiliar call of insects and the inevitable walking through of spider webs all combined to give me one major case of the heebie jeebies. Cyndi grumbled the entire trip, gasping every time a branch nudged her or some brave insect dared cross her path. Belle and Robin hung back, engaged in quiet, sometimes angry, conversation. Maleficent walked beside me, her staff puncturing the ground with authority every time she took a step.

“That was intense,” I finally said after I was sure we were far, far away from any more trolls. We still weren’t completely out of the woods (ha) yet, because we were still in their territory, but it wasn’t like a massive building had come plummeting down again. We were merely a few traipsing as quiet as we could through their forest. Trolls’ hearing was notoriously bad, so unless we decided to throw a party, I was pretty confident we were in the clear.

“It was.” Maleficent’s face darkened in thought. “Don’t you think it’s strange that she would dump us here? What’s her game?”

I’d been trying to figure that out for hours. “Maybe she hoped the trolls would take care of us. It’d be easier to take care of us here than on Earth.”

Maleficent shook her head. “But to take an entire hotel out of the area? That wasn’t even a little bit subtle. How is that going to be explained?”

I shrugged. “Who knows? The authorities always have a cover story for all the weird things that go on.”

“Something seems off. More so than usual with her. You can never tell what she’s going to do, but this time she seems to have really lost it.”

“Maybe she’s touched,” I said and laughed.

Maleficent smiled. “Maybe?”

“True. Maybe she’s lost what little sanity she had left when I showed up again.”

She shook her head. “Or maybe we’re missing something huge here.”

I was fearful she was right. We walked on in relative silence. I thought about the villagers we’d lost and where everyone else might be by now. By the time we took off, there wasn’t a soul to be found. I was glad they’d taken my advice to run, but now I was worried that we’d sent an entire village off into the woods with little to defend themselves. Again, it was better than what could have happened, and our options were little to none at the time.

We were on our way to Rumpel’s, decided unanimously as soon as we’d stopped to catch our breath. For some reason, the magic in this forest prevented Maleficent from teleporting us out, but once we reached the edge, we’d be able to quickly get to his house, get him to work with us, and get the heck back to my palace. I, for one, could use a shower and about four meals.

I’d asked Maleficent about the magic here. You could feel its press within the air. She suspected it had something to do with the sorceress who lived high upon the mountain miles away. Magic could be used, but not to escape. She thought she kept the trolls well fed that way. Her best defensive move was to keep them happy. As happy as you could keep a mindless beast. If some poor witch happened to wander their way into their territory, she could fight her way out, but she wouldn’t be able to magically escape.

Sorceresses were weird. We could use magic to fight, but not to get away. I guess she wanted to keep the fighting fair, somewhat. Fairytale ethics were a dangerous maze to wander around in. Cyndi stepped up beside us, her normally pristine blonde hair matted with dirt and twigs.

“Are we there yet?” she whined and then laughed at the look on my face. “Seriously, Snow. You sure know how to show a girl a good time.”

Boy, did I. All I wanted to do was to absorb some knowledge and get back home into my normal life. Now I was a princess on the run trying to save her people. Of course, I’d always been half of that—the on the run part, but seeing the people’s pain touched something deep inside of me I thought I’d lost. And, Max…he was part of it.

Knowing he was bound to Naomi and knowing how much he hated it spurred me on. If I could get rid of her, I could break his bindings. Whether or not he’d stay with me was up in the air. Yes, we might have had a good time, but he’d also physically hurt me a few times. Although, Belle and Cyndi’s words came back to me…if he ever really wanted to kill me, I’m sure he could have several times over. His strength impressed me. Not many people could fight a magical binding like that, and her hold sometimes seemed tenuous at best.

“You will see Max again,” Maleficent said, jarring me from my thoughts.

“Of course I will. I’m waiting for him to jump out of my closet with an automatic weapon, or to see his face smiling at me after he’s poisoned my wine.”

She snorted. “He has his own burdens. You must let him deal with those before you can help him.” I turned to stare at her strong profile. “He is flawed, yet heroic. Deadly, but loving. You know all this and yet you still yearn for him.”

I bristled, and she merely laughed. “It’s true. But his biggest burden is not one I can divulge.” Her tone sobered. “Snow, he will kill you if you get in his way. Let him fight his own battle with Naomi. If you take her down, good. But, if you get in his way and make it worse for him as he tries to fight against the hold she has over him, he will make your life a living hell. Even if he loves you.”

“You know why he stays?”

She nodded, her face betraying nothing.

“Is it worth throwing what we have away?” As much as I hated it, my voice betrayed me then.

She blinked but nodded, her mouth drawn in sympathy. “I’m sorry, Snow.”

“What could be so important you’d be willing to throw love away for it?”

Maleficent pulled ahead of me as we edged closer to the end of the forest. “Exactly. Think upon it, but know not everyone has what Max has. The…possession Naomi took from him is one he will fight to the death for. No matter who stands in his way.”

My footsteps slowed as I absorbed her words. I’m not sure I had anything that important besides Belle and Cyndi. I wouldn’t sacrifice them for the world. But Max? I didn’t know him well enough to know what was important to him. I hoped I was, but from Maleficent’s tone, it wasn’t enough. Maybe he was married. Maybe there was a woman who meant as much to him as Marian had meant to Robin. Was he holding on to a memory? I flushed as I remembered the feeling of him inside me. Was I merely a pause in his quest? An aside? Ugh. There were too many other important things to think about other than our brief fling. My thoughts burned with the desire to know him better, but I was getting tired of constantly fighting with him. The whole running for my life thing was getting a little bit tiresome, too.

After another ten or so minutes, we reached the edge of the clearing. I was sweating in every orifice and smelled like a horse stall. Everyone was too polite to say so, probably because they were all in the same boat. Except for Maleficent. She looked refreshed and happy. Sorceress luck, I guess. She paused at the edge, her staff lifted and pulsating with a deep violet light. She scanned the horizon and motioned us all to gather around her.

“I am tired, but I should be able to transport us all to the clearing outside of Rumpel’s house. I am not welcome there, so I will wait outside for you to deal with him. Everyone should gather hands.”

We all stepped closer and reached for each other. Belle and Cyndi were on either side of me, Robin held hands with both of them, and Maleficent stood in the middle. Again, I thanked the powers that be that she was on our side and not working against us. She’d saved us all multiple times. One day I’d figure out her story.