Twice Upon a Time

by James Riley

  “Nothing I wouldn’t again,” Maarten said, wrapping his arms around Meghan protectively, despite her attempts to sneak out of them.

  “That explains the warning we received,” Farnsworth said quietly.

  Fford nodded, his eyes still on Maarten. “This is so like you,” Fford said. “You’ve been missing for forty years, and the day you come back, you bring a war to the very steps of your kingdom.”

  “I don’t CARE what I bring!” Maarten shouted. “I would do anything for this woman!”

  “At the expense of your people?!” Fford shouted. “Do you have any idea what is about to happen when the Sea King invades?”

  “I have quite a good one,” Maarten said, his eyes blazing. “Call the soldiers, I’ll lead them myself—”

  “You’ll lead nothing,” Fford said, glaring at his brother. “Fortunately for our people, I’ve already taken steps to protect them.”

  Maarten went deadly silent for a moment. “Tell me of these steps,” he said finally.

  “A visitor arrived just yesterday,” Fford said, a smile overtaking his face. “A visitor at the head of his own army, an army that could have overtaken the castle easily. Fortunately for us, we recognized him as the hero he is, and he brought warning of an upcoming incursion by the Sea King. Proof came with the tidal wave that brought you here, and our spotters reported churning beneath the waves approaching shore.”

  “This visitor,” Jack said, his eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Who was he?”

  Fford barely looked at Jack. “A great man. An ally of the long-lost Snow White.”

  Jack swallowed hard as a rough voice laughed behind him, sounding like rocks scraping against one another.

  “Oh, the boy knows quite well who I am, Your Majesty.”

  Jack, May, and Phillip all slowly turned around to find the Wolf King in human form standing in the doorway, two goblin guards flanking him. The wolf smiled at them, baring his teeth. “Good to see you again, children.”

  “Even without his heroism, it would have been hard to say no to the Wolf King’s offer of alliance,” Fford said with a hopeful smile. “After all, he didn’t ask for much, just a favor.”

  “Indeed,” the Wolf King said. “In return for destroying the merman army about to invade your shores, all I ask is that King Fford help me return some wayward children to their homes. Thank you for your aid, Your Majesty, but I can take them from here.”

  CHAPTER 38

  Bluebeard, we could use some help here,” Jack said as he, Phillip, and May backed away from the wolf. One of the guards had Jack’s sword on the other side of the room, which was the perfect place for it to be doing a whole lot of good.

  “Goblins? Here?” Maarten said, pushing Meghan behind him. “But the Wolf King was a hero!”

  “Some of those stories aren’t as up-to-date as we’d like,” Jack said. “He betrayed Snow White for the Wicked Queen.”

  “Preposterous!” Fford said.

  “The children will say anything to avoid going home, Your Majesty,” the Wolf King said with a knowing shake of his head. “I appreciate your assistance in this matter.”

  “Fford, do not do this,” Maarten said. “There seems to be more happening here than we know. Goblins are the Queen’s creatures!”

  “You’ve left me no choice, Brother,” Fford said. “Whatever he’s done, the Wolf King is our only chance against the Sea King’s armies.” He snapped his fingers, and his guards advanced on them. “Marispoptia, you should come with me quickly. I don’t think you’ll want to be here in a moment.”

  “Too late,” Maarten said as he bent down, picked up a wooden seat painted to look like gold, then threw it as hard as he could right at the wolf. “Time ta run, lads!” Bluebeard shouted, grabbing Meghan by the waist and plowing right through the Wolf King’s two goblin guards.

  Phillip and May scrambled to follow, the pirate monkey hanging tightly to May’s neck as she ran, but Jack leapt backward instead, then ducked beneath two guards’ hands and threw a shoulder into the guard holding his sword. The guard fell over as Jack grabbed his weapon, then turned to find half the guards and a very annoyed Wolf King staring at him.

  “I’ll get him!” the older man, Farnsworth, said, then clumsily grabbed for Jack. The man almost comically missed, tripping over another golden chair to fall at Jack’s feet. Jack gave him an odd look, which Farnsworth returned with a wink. “The window,” he whispered. “It’s a short drop, and you’ll catch up to Maarten just outside.”

  “Care to try your luck against me again, Jack?” the wolf growled, a wide smile of anticipation crossing his face.

  “Nah,” Jack said, then leapt backward, straight out the window behind him. At least, that had been the plan. Instead his shoulder clipped the side of the window, and a huge wave of pain crashed over him as he fell, surprising a blackbird sitting on the windowsill. Down he went, watching the bird fly away and wishing he could do the same thing instead of heading straight down toward whatever might be below.

  Which turned out to be a large pirate captain. “Children be so plentiful that they be fallin’ from the skies now?” Bluebeard roared, grabbing Jack by the shirt before he hit the ground. “Stay with the group next time!”

  The group, with Meghan still under Bluebeard’s arm, was currently running for what looked to be a drawbridge leading out into the forest. “Wrong way!” Jack shouted, and yanked on Bluebeard’s arm to spin the pirate around. “We need to head for the ocean!”

  The others just stopped and stared at him. “Correct me if I be wrong, little man,” Bluebeard said, “but ye do be wishin’ to live, aye? And ye do know that the Fish King will gut ye like a trout if he gets ahold a’ye?”

  “Basically Bluebeard’s calling you stupid,” May translated helpfully. “We’re not going back to the ocean.”

  “We are if we want Meghan to be able to sing again,” Jack pointed out. “We need to get her back into the ocean. She’ll do her thing, and we’ll be off to the Fairy Homelands before the Sea King’s armies even get here!”

  Before they could argue, Jack ran the group back past a host of formally dressed royalty, who all leapt out of the way indignantly. Just past the nobles were the remains of a large open courtyard, once beautifully decorated, now slightly put off by the enormous pirate ship sticking halfway into it.

  “There!” Jack shouted, running over to the ship. “We’ll climb down from here, and—”

  He stopped abruptly, his mouth dropping open and words refusing to come.

  “What’s the problem?” May asked, absently struggling to free herself from the monkey’s grip. Then she noticed what he saw and fell backward, landing on her behind with a loud groan, her eyes still wide with shock.

  Covering the shore in every direction, mermen with human legs marched out of the ocean in tight formations, each wielding an ugly-looking trident and weighted net. They extended as far as Jack could see up and down the shore, and there seemed to be no end in sight.

  And the merman soldiers weren’t the worst part.

  As Jack watched, his mouth hanging open, enormous sharks emerged from the water, their mouths filled with teeth, mermen riding on their backs. And those sharks walked on legs, just like the mermen did.

  Somehow the Sea King had not only given legs to his mermen, but to all the creatures of the sea.

  Here and there eels slithered up the beach on centipede-like legs. Huge schools of piranha ran around the sand in a frenzy. And— No, that couldn’t be real. No. No fish was that large. Its reddish orange body completely covered in mermen, the forty-foot-long monster’s eight long tentacles walked it out of the ocean and up the beach, like the world’s largest spider. Its beak squawked something angrily, and a moment later, a second, then a third spider-like fish followed it out.

  “Those are giant squid,” May said quietly, standing back up next to Jack. “They’re… they’re huge.”

  “They’re attacking with the entire ocean,” Jack said, not able to beli
eve his eyes.

  Below them the castle gates opened, and battalions of goblins, trolls, and ogres filed out in formation, spreading out to protect the castle. There was going to be a war here, and it stood between them and the water.

  “We can’t… we can’t do this,” May said. “We have to go back! She can dunk her head into a pond or something!”

  “Too late,” growled a voice from behind them.

  They turned to find the Wolf King and a much larger group of goblin soldiers behind them, along with a host of uncomfortable-looking castle guards.

  “Give up now, and I’ll see to it that all three of you make it to the Queen unharmed,” the wolf said. “If you fight, I will make sure it hurts.”

  Jack looked to Phillip, who glanced back and nodded, then to May, who, despite her wide eyes, also nodded. “Okay,” Jack said. “Well, that’s it, then.”

  And with that, he grabbed Meghan’s hand and pulled her over the edge of the courtyard, down into the oncoming invasion.

  CHAPTER 39

  The fall wasn’t long, but Jack’s feet still stung as they hit the sand. Meghan seemed to be in more pain than he was, but given how new her feet were, that wasn’t surprising. He quickly yanked her out of the way when, a second later, Bluebeard landed hard enough to shake the ground a bit, followed quickly by Phillip and May, who both landed relatively perfectly.

  They’d been lucky. The goblins, trolls, and ogres in front of them were concentrating too hard on the approaching mermen to notice what was happening behind them. If they could just move fast enough—

  “TURN AROUND!” the Wolf King shouted from the courtyard. “Take those children and that woman. Use whatever force is necessary!”

  Immediately the closest hundred monsters whirled around and ran toward the group, about every other mouth drooling hungrily.

  Goblins riding some kind of armored hairy monsters made up of half teeth and half fur galloped at them, black iron lances aimed directly for them. Jack pushed Phillip into the way of one of the monsters, nodding at the prince, then stepped into the path of the other. This would have to be timed just right.

  The goblin aimed his lance directly at Jack’s chest, smiling widely. Jack returned the smile, then sidestepped at the last minute, slamming the lance down with all his strength as it passed him. The lance hit the sand, knocking the goblins right off the back of whatever the hairy monster was.

  “Get on!” Jack yelled, and Meghan quickly climbed up behind him. Jack glanced over at Phillip, who was already on his monster, with May behind him.

  “GO!” Bluebeard yelled. “I’ll take care o’ these foul beasts meself!”

  “Captain!” someone screamed, and Skinny and the rest of the pirates emerged from the rocks surrounding the castle. “Ye won’t be fightin’ alone!”

  Bluebeard began howling with laughter. “BRING ON YER WORST!” he yelled to the Wolf King, then waded into a group of goblin archers who’d been aiming at Jack and Phillip from a distance.

  “GO!” Jack shouted, kicking at his monster, who tore off like an arrow from a crossbow… toward the castle. Jack yanked on the reins, but the monster didn’t seem to be interested in listening, so Jack grabbed a spear from a nearby goblin as he passed, then braced himself and dug it into the ground, grabbing the monster as tightly as he could with his legs. The monster swung around in a half circle and began galloping toward the water, the goblin army, and the oncoming merman invasion… which, sadly, was an improvement.

  Jack’s spear didn’t last long, as he quickly used it to bash a goblin in the face and the thing broke in half. The monster’s teeth seemed to be a much bigger deterrent, as most of the goblins leapt out of the way as a creature with a mouth bigger than their head came running at them. One troll swung a club bigger than Jack right at Jack’s face, but he and Meghan both ducked beneath it, and the club plowed into the group of goblins chasing after them.

  They were past the first obstacle, only now they were heading straight for a much more toothish one.

  “SHARKS!” Jack yelled, as if that would dissuade his ride, but the monster plowed right into the side of one of the enormous creatures anyway, knocking it over. The shark’s little feet scurried helplessly as the shark pinned three mermen under its weight.

  Tridents came flying at Jack from multiple directions as they ran forward, so he immediately slowed time down, grabbed two tridents out of midair, and stuck one into the ground. He dug his legs into the monster’s body again as the creature slid in the sand, and Jack used the pivot to spin them back in the right direction. The second trident he used as a lance, ready for whatever came at them.

  “You… move… fast!” the monster growled beneath him.

  Jack almost fell out of his seat in surprise. “You can talk?” he said as he swept his trident into a merman’s legs, clearing a path for Phillip and May right behind him.

  “Most don’t… understand us,” the creature growled, and Jack realized that, much like with the fairy, it wasn’t so much that the creature was speaking human but that he was understanding the creature’s growling. The sword. It was changing him.

  None of this was doing much to make him feel any better.

  There was no time to think about it now, though, not with wave upon wave of mermen, both mounted and infantry, all standing between Jack, Meghan, and the ocean.

  None of that mattered to Jack’s ride, however. As he galloped full tilt straight at the line of mermen, all their tridents aimed right at the creature, Jack realized that this could end very, very badly.

  “Wait!” Jack yelled. “We need to stop!”

  “No stop!” the creature growled. “Fight… fish!”

  Getting the feeling that arguing wasn’t going to do much good, Jack twirled his trident around, desperately searching for an opening, somewhere to direct his ride toward, but the mermen left no gap, no weakness….

  And then out of nowhere, arrows began falling through the air right into the forward flank of the mermen.

  “Get away from my love, you miserable day-old fish!” Bluebeard screamed from behind them, surrounded on every side by his pirates, each armed with a goblin bow and firing as fast as they could.

  A few arrows narrowly missed Jack, which enraged Bluebeard even more, but the majority landed right on target, ensuring that the mermen were too distracted to worry about maintaining a united front against the charging monster.

  His ride slammed into the line of mermen, and Jack quickly got lost in a sea of tridents, fur, and huge shark mouths. He swung the trident out, over and over, easily moving twice, three times as fast as the mermen, attacking anyone who interfered with their forward progress. Each strike desperately fended off teeth, blades, and claws as much as possible, but there were just too many to block entirely.

  Not to mention, as bad as the sharks and mermen were, the monster seemed intent on racing straight at something much worse. The creature was practically galloping right toward one of the giant squids, whose tentacles launched out toward them with an alarming speed.

  “NO!” Jack screamed.

  “OH YES!” the monster growled, leaping onto the back of a shark, then pushing off and jumping straight at the giant squid, all four paws and his mouth spread wide. The monster, Jack, and Meghan all slammed into the squid, knocking it backward off its eight legs, sending mermen flying off in all directions.

  “Watch out!” Jack yelled as the enraged squid hit the ground, its bladelike tentacles wrapping themselves around Jack’s mount. The monster roared in pain as the tentacles squeezed, even as one of the squid’s tentacles wrapped around Jack’s waist and yanked him off the creature’s back, his sword flying out of its sheath into the ocean. Meghan fell off as well, though where she landed, Jack couldn’t see, as he was a bit busy being squeezed around the middle.

  The squid tossed Jack’s ride into the air as if it weighed nothing, then dragged Jack straight down toward its open-beaked mouth. The one eye that Jack could see was furiously watching
its incoming meal get closer and closer.

  “I’M NOT GETTING EATEN AGAIN!” Jack yelled, driving the trident down into the beak. The trident hit something soft in the squid’s mouth, and just like that, Jack was airborne, flying out toward the ocean as the squid angrily tossed him away.

  He landed hard in the waves, spraying water everywhere. His monster, meanwhile, was nowhere in sight. Jack turned back to the ocean—

  And slowed down time just quickly enough to avoid getting his head cut off, a glowing white sword sweeping right through the spot where his neck had been a moment before.

  CHAPTER 40

  Jack landed hard on the sand beneath the waves, rolled to his side, and came up with the trident aimed at…

  Well, nothing. There was no one there.

  “It’s a pity you never learned to use this properly,” a deep male voice said from behind him. Jack pivoted off the trident, throwing himself forward just as something metallic rang out as it hit his weapon. He pulled the trident from the sand as he landed, glancing around frantically but still not seeing anything.

  “I should have killed you when I had the chance!” the Sea King yelled from Jack’s side, and again Jack threw himself out of the way of his own sword. The blade disappeared, then reappeared on his other side, striking out again, barely giving Jack any time to dodge.

  “You need to listen to me!” Jack tried to shout, but something kicked him in the chest, and he flew backward, landing in a wave. He rolled into the water, coming up a bit deeper in the ocean, glancing around frantically for the merman.

  “You and your Queen think you can tell me what I need to do?!” the Sea King yelled, and something hard splashed in the water to Jack’s right.

  Jack threw his gaze down at the water, then back up at nothing. And suddenly he knew what to do.

  As the waves came in, they separated around two invisible legs. The glowing sword appeared right above those legs, slashing out at him, but Jack was ready, driving his trident up to block.