Half Upon a Time

by James Riley

  The wolf, though, completely ignored the prince as he slowly choked the life out of the fairy queen. Malevolent, now quiet, just stared down at the wolf, her eyes on fire with hate.

  Jack swore loudly, then leapt forward and grabbed the wolf’s arm, pulling with all his might. “Let go!” Jack yelled.

  The wolf barely gave him a glance. “Leave me be,” he growled, then turned back to the woman in his grasp.

  “Jack!” May shouted from the other side of the wolf. “This might be a problem!”

  “No kidding!” he yelled back. Jack backed up a bit, took a deep breath, then launched himself right at the wolf, driving his shoulder into the animal’s chest. The wolf tumbled over under the force of Jack’s assault, dropping Malevolent to the ground as Jack’s momentum sent them both to the floor. Jack landed hard, but the wolf had barely touched the ground before he was back on his feet and heading for the fairy queen once more.

  As the wolf stalked his prey the world began to slow down again for Jack. On the other side of the room, Phillip struggled futilely against his chains, his face a mask of enormous pain yet also stubborn determination. May, meanwhile, had inserted herself between the wolf and the fairy queen, trying to stop the animal’s attack.

  All this Jack took in as the wolf bent down, then leapt straight at the princess. The animal’s arc sent him right over May’s head, though, and straight for the fairy queen….

  Until Jack took a step forward, grabbed the wolf’s flowing fur cape, and yanked down with all his strength.

  Though the wolf’s head came to a stop, the rest of his body continued moving forward, completely flipping him. The wolf’s back slammed into the ground just past May, barely a foot short of Malevolent. This actually seemed to surprise the wolf; he lay on the ground for a fraction of a second, dazed, but even that amount of time was plenty for Jack, given how slowly time seemed to be moving.

  His mind strangely blank, Jack pulled out his sword and pointed it straight at one of the wolf’s glowing red eyes. As he stared down at the wolf, his face expressionless, the sword’s normal cloudy white glow changed to a deep, desolate black, as if it were sucking the light out of the very room.

  And just like that, time returned to its normal speed.

  The wolf stared at Jack and his midnight black sword for a very brief moment, then actually smiled. “You win,” he growled. “You learn quickly, Jack.”

  “That’s right he does!” May shouted, though she didn’t seem entirely sure what had just happened. Not that Jack understood either. When time had slowed, he almost felt like he had acted completely without thought … as if he weren’t the one making the decisions. How had he moved so fast? And why had the sword changed color?

  Except, just like that, the sword brightened from black to its usual dull white, like the sun emerging from behind a cloud.

  “What are you doing?!” May hissed, stepping over to him.

  “Do I look like I know?” he whispered back, still staring at the sword.

  “That doesn’t exactly make me feel better!”

  “Look out!” Phillip bellowed from across the room. Jack immediately grabbed May and dove to the floor, barely dodging a bolt of lightning that incinerated the stones just above the Wolf King.

  Jack quickly looked up from the floor to find Malevolent, her hair swirling around her as she stood in the middle of a tornado of wind and lightning. As he watched, the fairy queen’s lips parted, rising into a wide grin … except they didn’t stop there. Her mouth continued to pull apart as Malevolent’s entire face bulged and stretched grotesquely, almost as if there was something inside her, fighting to break free of its prison.

  “You pathetic little mortals!” the fairy queen snarled from her much-too-wide mouth, her voice deeper now. “You have no idea the power you have challenged!”

  As her face continued to grow in places it wasn’t meant to, two long, black claws abruptly sliced their way straight out of Malevolent’s back, twitching and shuddering with wild abandon at their freedom. As her whole body shook the fairy queen’s mouth suddenly unhinged, and her lower jaw dropped open far enough to almost curl up under itself. From inside her mouth emerged a black, reptilian head.

  The claws on her back continued thrashing around, growing as they pushed out farther and farther until, finally, long batlike wings unfurled, spreading from one corner of the room to the other, ripping apart the rest of the fairy queen’s body as they did.

  And there, standing in the remains of what had seemed to be a normal human woman, was a dragon, her black skin shining like a glowing shadow.

  The terrifying beast whipped her long neck first to the left, then to the right, reveling in her freedom from her human-shaped shell. The dragon reared back on her hind legs and lifted her long neck straight up, then came crashing down to the floor hard enough to shake the foundations of the castle.

  Her head snapped down a second later, releasing a sickly green flame straight at Jack, May, and the Wolf King.

  Instead it hit the Magic Mirror.

  As May and Jack clutched the Mirror by the hanging wire on its back, the fire splayed off to either side of them, barely missing them and the Wolf King right behind them.

  The dragon roared furiously and doubled the intensity of her flame.

  The heat of the unnatural fire almost staggered Jack, and May didn’t look much better, but neither dropped the Mirror. Phillip, still chained to the wall, pulled himself as far from the flames as his chains would allow; even on the opposite side of the room, the prince was soaked through with sweat. The whole room’s temperature rose past uncomfortable, heading straight toward burning alive.

  Jack turned to May and nodded, shaking the sweat from his eyes. May nodded back, her entire face glistening in the firelight. They really only had one choice. They both took an uncomfortable breath, then began to slowly push the Mirror forward toward the dragon’s mouth.

  The dragon redoubled her efforts, and now the green flame completely filled Jack’s vision, but neither he nor May stopped pushing the Mirror steadily toward the dragon’s mouth.

  As they inched forward the flame actually seemed to lessen a bit … maybe she was running out of breath? And then the fire stopped abruptly as the dragon’s head snaked up and over the Mirror, her mouth open wide to devour both Jack and May in one bite.

  Instead she found herself staring at her reflection as the Mirror smashed up into her chin. The dragon let out a bellow of pain, then snarled and shot back down toward the two teenagers, her mouth open wide. The dragon latched her teeth onto the Mirror and ripped it from their grasp, realizing too late that she’d been set up. Jack and May had let go of the Mirror.

  As Malevolent stared down at Jack and May with the Mirror in her mouth, both humans smiled up at her, then raised their weapons—Jack with his sword, May with the broomstick from Jack’s bag.

  Malevolent reared back, but she was too late: Jack and May struck in unison, each using two hands to smash their weapons down as hard as they could right on the dragon’s head.

  Malevolent’s head smacked down against the floor, and she roared in pain, but Jack didn’t wait. There was no time; they needed some way to tie the dragon down, or she’d just fill the entire room with flame and that’d be it. But how could you tie down a dragon with a neck like a snake? And there wouldn’t be enough rope in the castle to keep that enormous body still. What could he—

  And then it came to him. As Malevolent started to raise her head up once more, Jack threw his hand into his grandfather’s bag and pulled out the reins they’d used on Samson, reins that supposedly could tame any horse, no matter how wild.

  Maybe it would work on something other than a horse.

  Jack dropped the bag, then leapt up onto the dragon’s neck as she raised it. Malevolent began to shake her head wildly from side to side, flame shooting out in spurts, but Jack just hugged her neck as hard as he could and inched his way up toward her head.

  Maybe she suspected what
he was doing, or maybe she just feared what he could do from his position, but Malevolent grew even more desperate, banging her body into the stone walls and ceiling hard enough to make them crumble in places. However she moved, though, Jack just kept climbing until he reached the back of the dragon’s head.

  From there, he gathered the reins in his hand and waited for his moment. It didn’t take long: The dragon immediately roared in frustration, opening her mouth wide. Just before she could let loose another torrent of flame, Jack grabbed the ends of the reins in both hands and swung the mouthpiece right into Malevolent’s open mouth.

  And just like that, the dragon’s entire body shuddered to a stop. Completely shocked, the dragon teased, trying to move. Failing that, she attempted to spit out the reins. When the magic of the reins kept her from doing even that, she began shrieking louder and louder as her entire body shook and shuddered below Jack.

  Each time he felt the dragon’s body quake, Jack was sure that the reins’ magic would give out against Malevolent’s monstrous strength and rage. Yet, each time, the magic miraculously held the great beast in check. As Malevolent gradually gave up and settled down, Jack sighed deeply in relief.

  Sometimes, the simplest magical charms really did work the best.

  “I think I got her,” Jack told May, trying to hide the surprise in his voice.

  “Good job!” she yelled. “Now what?”

  “I’m open to suggestions,” he admitted.

  From the floor, May growled in frustration. “I really miss my sarcasm right now!” she said. “So what do the reins do, exactly? I mean, Samson did whatever we told him. Maybe she will?”

  “Maybe,” Jack said. “Worth a try, at least.” While May grabbed the Mirror and his grandfather’s bag to get them out of the way, Jack tightened his grip on the reins. “What should I tell her to do?”

  “Try something simple,” May suggested.

  “Right,” he said. “Malevolent, sit!”

  Immediately, the dragon dropped her haunches to the floor, sending Malevolent into a torrent of profanity Jack wasn’t familiar with, many of the words in languages he wasn’t sure existed anymore.

  “That is not my name,” the dragon growled. “My name is Mellifluent. My sisters gave me the name Malevolent to make your kind fear me!”

  “I don’t care what you’re called,” Jack said. “Let’s try something a little more complex. Mal … I mean, Mellifluent! Free Merriweather from the Mirror!”

  This set off the loudest bout of wailing yet, but the dragon obediently began to mumble words that Jack couldn’t understand. He suspected that even if he could make out what Malevolent was saying, he wouldn’t have been able to remember it to save his life.

  Of course, it wasn’t his life that was being saved right now. As Malevolent chanted Jack began to hear tones, melodies that played off one another in harsh, unpleasant ways. It reminded him of Merriweather’s magic during her fight with the genie, yet where Merriweather’s music had struck him as beautiful, Malevolent’s harmonies sent a chill running through his body.

  Despite that, the spell seemed to be working. As they all watched, a cloud of blue mist slowly leaked out of the spot where the Mirror had previously been cracked. As the blue gradually left, the greenish-yellow mist of the genie still trapped within the Mirror began to swirl uncontrollably. The genie grew more and more wild until the last of the blue was sucked out of the glass and into the air around them.

  The blue mist started to come together, looking as if it was going to form Merriweather’s shape. Jack almost thought he could see a smile where the fairy queen’s head would be. The fairy in May’s hair even began jumping up and down excitedly. Then, abruptly, the mist began to drift apart, dissipating into nothingness.

  “Wait!” Jack yelled to her. “Where are you going?! You’re safe, you’re all right now!”

  “She’s hardly that,” the dragon beneath him growled furiously. “Merriweather was barely alive. She most likely fled back to our homeland to heal herself.” At this, the dragon snaked her neck around until she was face-to-face with Jack, her green eyes burning into him. “Now, I did as you commanded. She is free. Release me!”

  Jack started to respond, then noticed that green mist was trickling out of the same crack that Merriweather had just escaped from. “Fix the crack in the Mirror!” he shouted, tugging backward on the reins. The dragon renewed her struggle, shaking her body so hard Jack had to grit his teeth to keep from biting his tongue. Just as he thought her head was going to whip around and bite him in half, Malevolent tucked her head down and began to chant again.

  This time the hole in the glass began to slowly knit itself together as if it were ripped clothing being sewn, cutting off the stream of green mist as it closed. Finally, it shut completely, leaving the Mirror’s glass as seamless as they’d first seen it. What little green mist that had managed to make it through the hole quickly rose toward the ceiling, then up and out the same grate Jack and May had come in through.

  “Is it …?” May asked, reaching out for the Mirror with a shaking hand.

  “Give it a try,” Jack said, his whole body shaking both from nervousness and from the dragon’s continued struggle. “You,” he said to the dragon, “don’t move unless I say so.”

  This cut out the shaking altogether, though Malevolent continued to shriek furiously every now and then. A few feet away the princess propped the Mirror up against a charred portion of the wall, removed her crown necklace, then pushed it into the Mirror’s frame, both hands shaking as she did so.

  Immediately, the flat face of the genie surfaced on the Mirror’s glass as if it were emerging from underwater. The fire in its eyes glowed with a white-hot intensity, and the look it shot May could have burned what was left of the room.

  But then, the genie turned its eyes downward with an almost respectful look.

  “How may I serve you?” it asked the princess.

  Chapter 37

  “Stay,” Jack ordered the dragon.

  The dragon let out another howl.

  “And stop the screaming,” Jack added absently, and the howling stopped immediately. He tossed a leg over the dragon’s neck, then slid down her body to the floor. He could feel Malevolent’s green eyes boring into the back of his head, but he ignored her.

  “Uh, Jack?” Phillip said, still chained to the wall. “Might you have a moment to release me?”

  “Phillip!” May said, turning away from the Mirror for the first time since the genie spoke to her. “Oh my God, I can’t believe we didn’t—”

  “I’ve got him,” Jack said to her. “Just ask the Mirror your question before anything else comes up.” He hurdled the charred remains of a chair, then pushed half a table out of his way to reach the prince.

  Sadly, Phillip didn’t look too good. Between the torture and the dragon’s fire, Jack was actually surprised the prince was still conscious. As it was, one of his eyes was swollen shut, and the rest of his face was a mess of purple and red. His expensive royal clothes hadn’t survived any better—there were more tears and rips in his tunic than there were clean spots. And beneath those rips and tears were more bruises and cuts.

  “We’ll get you fixed up, Phillip,” Jack said softly as he carefully sliced through the prince’s manacles with the witch’s knife.

  The prince smiled, then winced at the pain. “I would like to say I have been through worse … but it hardly seems the most appropriate moment to begin telling lies.”

  “Nice,” Jack said, then gently helped Phillip to his feet. On the other side of the room, May took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and asked her question.

  “Mirror,” she said slowly, “please tell me where my grandmother is.”

  “Your grandmother is imprisoned within the Palace of the Snow Queen,” the Mirror replied in its monotone voice.

  “That must be one of Snow White’s strongholds,” Phillip said as Jack set him down next to May. Jack then moved back to Malevolent, whose eyes
hadn’t left him the entire time.

  Despite the success of the reins, Jack didn’t like this situation at all. Magic had a tendency to fail … and usually at the worst possible time.

  “Unfortunately, no one knows where those fortresses might be,” Phillip continued. “The locations were kept secret to keep the Wicked Queen from finding them.” He shook his head. “Apparently, that was in vain, if the Wicked Queen now holds your grandmother in one of her own castles.”

  “Where is the Palace of the Snow Queen located?” May asked the Mirror, carefully wording her question. Jack nodded in approval: The princess was learning. It was never good to be ambiguous with bitter magical creatures.

  “The Palace of the Snow Queen,” the Mirror said, “is located in the snowbound lands at the very top of the world, surrounded by mountains higher than the clouds.”

  “Uh-oh,” Jack said.

  “So, how do we get there?” May asked, panic edging into her voice.

  “The palace is unreachable under your power,” the Mirror responded.

  “What?!” May shouted.

  The Mirror repeated itself, and this time, Jack could have sworn the genie smiled.

  “Wait, May,” Jack said. “That doesn’t mean we can’t get to it. It’s just saying we can’t walk there. There’s obviously another way to get there without physically traveling the distance. After all, the Huntsman’s been there and back again, right?”

  “Mirror!” May said. “No messing around … Is that right? Has the Huntsman been to the palace and back? And if so, how’d he do it?”

  “The Huntsman has indeed traveled to and from the palace,” the Mirror stated. “He does so through the use of magic abilities that lie beyond your power.”

  May growled in frustration. “I’m gonna break this thing again in about two seconds!” she yelled.

  “That can’t be the only way,” Jack said to Phillip, since May seemed to be off on her own tangent.

  “Perhaps we could find Merriweather,” Phillip said. “Once she has healed herself, she might transport us to the palace.”