Black Forest: Kingdoms Fall (Black Forest Trilogy)

by LaShea, Riley

"I do not believe they are trying to trick us," Rapunzel whispered in Cinderella's ear, succeeding in pushing the dagger down by Cinderella's side as she moved around her.

  "Hello, Norco, Togo," Rapunzel gently greeted, and they looked at her with open, almost childlike expressions as she lowered herself to their level. "I am Rapunzel. And this is Cinderella."

  "You are humans," Norco returned in confusion.

  "Yes, we are humans, but human is not our names," Rapunzel said. "It is what we are."

  By the way Norco and Togo tilted their heads at each other, it was clear they did not understand the difference, and Rapunzel's breath caught as she tried to imagine a land in which what you were was insignificant and it was only who you were that mattered.

  "Where are you from?" Cinderella asked from behind her.

  "Not here, that is for sure," Togo answered quickly, looking around with fright in his eyes. "Somewhere else."

  "Another kingdom?" Rapunzel questioned.

  "Kingdom?" Norco muttered. "This is Kingdom."

  "There are other kingdoms," Rapunzel explained softly. "This is just one kingdom of the Black Forest."

  "Black Forest?!?" Togo cried. "I do not like the sound of that at all."

  Though he did not say anything in reply, Norco did not appear to like it much better.

  "You live here?" Togo asked.

  "No," Cinderella replied, at last dropping down next to Rapunzel. "We live nearby, but we are traveling now. We are on a quest."

  "Ooh, a quest." Norco's eyes grew wide.

  "May we come with you on this quest?" Togo asked. "For we do not know where we are, but you seem as if you might be kind beasts with whom to explore and quests are our specialty."

  "We are quite good at quests," Norco added, exchanging nods with Togo.

  Glancing to Cinderella, Rapunzel saw the traces of a smile, burdened heavily by doubt, and, jumping to her feet, she tugged Cinderella away. "I think..." she began, glancing toward Norco and Togo, unable to understand, let alone explain, her feelings.

  "We should bring them with us?" Cinderella whispered, and Rapunzel nodded, relieved that they seemed to share the same thought, that, despite their strange timing and appearances, Norco and Togo seemed most beneficial escorts.

  "All right," Cinderella said quietly, "but they must stay ahead of us."

  "I like to fly lead," Norco announced, as if he heard Cinderella perfectly, and, wings fluttering, he led the way.

  · · ·

  Cinderella did not confess her growing concern, but, hand stiffening and turning clammy in Rapunzel's, she knew Rapunzel must know.

  Late afternoon had come upon them quickly, and already the sky was beginning to give way to darkness. With no idea which route they should take, they had just started walking. They would have to come upon something eventually, Cinderella had thought, and, at times, she was certain they were moving between kingdoms, but the day passed and they had come to nothing since Hansel and Gretel's cottage, except for more and more forest.

  Cinderella was a breath from admitting she had made a terrible mistake when Togo suddenly rounded behind them, sniffing the air at their backs. Eyes trailing him without blinking, Cinderella watched for any sign of danger, but Togo seemed only interested in where his nose would take him.

  "We should go that way," he directed, pointing off into the distance, and Cinderella was quick to listen. Togo had to know more than she did, because she knew nothing.

  Then, within a series of steps, she did. She knew the smell of cooking on the air, the glare of light beyond the thatch of trees ahead.

  "How did you know?" she asked.

  "I am very helpful," Togo replied with a shrug, and Cinderella smiled appreciatively at him.

  Pulling Rapunzel hurriedly through the trees, Cinderella no longer worried about the sound of furry wings at their backs, and when the sprawling house came into view before them, she slowed with awe and trepidation. As certain as she was that the place had plenty of space to accommodate them, she was also certain such a perfect lodging was too good to be true.

  The light shining from the windows warm and inviting, the smell of soup cooking making four stomachs rumble in unison, Cinderella approached the house with caution, not sure if it was refuge or trap. Stepping before the door, her eyes locked on a sign with words so simple, she could make them out from her lessons with Rapunzel -

  Here all dwell free.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Caratasa

  Before any of them could move to knock, the door opened before them, and a tall, graceful presence stood shadowing the entrance. A soft smile adorned softer features surrounded by a dark halo of wavy hair, welcoming them in before the woman even spoke.

  "Come," she requested simply, moving aside to let them pass through the doorway.

  Her tone was pure honey, the kind adept mothers used with their children at night to chase away the demons from bad dreams. Drawn in by it before she could consider the potential danger, Cinderella pulled Rapunzel inside, and Norco and Togo fluttered in to land at their feet.

  "I am Caratasa," the woman stated in the same soothing tone, and Cinderella felt the worries from the forest melt from her back.

  "I am Cinderella." Her voice nearly failed her. "This is Rapunzel, and Norco and Togo."

  Glancing down at them, Cinderella watched two sets of ears waggle back and forth, as Norco and Togo looked at Caratasa with what could only be described as utter adoration, and Caratasa bent to run her hand over each of their soft heads. With a quavering sigh, Togo's ears twitched faster, and Rapunzel's face buried against Cinderella's shoulder in laughter, increasing Cinderella's sense of ease as Caratasa smiled back up at them.

  "There are ample rooms upstairs," she said. "Take as many, or as few, as you would like. Then, please join us for dinner. It will be served shortly."

  "Thank you," Cinderella said.

  "Yes, thank you," Rapunzel added, and Cinderella was pulled instantly toward the stairs by an anxious hand.

  Despite Rapunzel's attempt at haste, they made it only a few steps before realizing they were not being followed. Glancing to each other, they turned to look behind them, finding Norco and Togo sitting at Caratasa's feet and a small, humored smile upon Caratasa's face.

  Sending her apologetic smiles, Cinderella grabbed Norco, Rapunzel took hold of Togo, and they hauled them to the wooden steps in the corner.

  · · ·

  Through the door of one large bedroom, Rapunzel dropped her bag on the wood floor and waited impatiently for Cinderella, who was making the useless effort of telling Norco and Togo, in no uncertain terms, not to harass their host. Staring up at her with identical expressions, Norco and Togo clearly had no intention of following the order as Cinderella shut them out in the hallway and dropped her bag next to the door, rushing back to meet Rapunzel in the privacy of the room.

  Hands sliding onto Cinderella's face, Rapunzel took a shaky breath at the familiar hair against her fingers as she met the eyes before her, worry releasing her as she found Cinderella's gaze as real as her touch. "I feel as if I have to keep checking just to make sure you are still here," she admitted.

  "I know," Cinderella returned, fingers hastening against the ties on Rapunzel's cape. "But you are here."

  The cape falling from Rapunzel's shoulders, Cinderella's fingers moved instantly to the fabric of Rapunzel's dress, pulling her closer, and her lips met Rapunzel's with dizzying urgency.

  "We should go downstairs," Rapunzel said, but her hands belied her intentions of decorum, grasping the fabric of Cinderella's dress and pulling it over her head in one careless motion. "We will keep everyone waiting."

  "Then we shall hurry," Cinderella returned, covering Rapunzel's lips again, cutting off all protests Rapunzel had no intention of making.

  · · ·

  As they made their late, sheepish return to the main room, Caratasa was ladling soup from the cauldron over the fire into bowls. At the table, a woman and young boy
they had not met sat with Norco and Togo, who Cinderella suspected rushed back down to be with Caratasa the moment she closed the door to the bedroom.

  "Sorry we took so long," she said, sliding into the seat next to Norco. "We were... unpacking."

  If they had actually succeeded in hurrying, it occurred to her, they might not have needed an excuse at all, but, as usual, once entangled, there was more desire to savor than to rush, and by the time they pulled apart enough for sense to return, darkness had fallen fully beyond the window.

  "There is no need for apology or explanation," Caratasa's soothing voice swept over the table. "I am sure whatever you were doing took precedence."

  Exchanging a fleeting glance with Rapunzel, Cinderella suspected from the blush that colored Rapunzel's cheeks that she also felt as if Caratasa knew exactly what they were doing.

  "Ruth, George," Caratasa said, coming to the table to place two bowls of finely-crafted orange glass before Norco and Togo. "This is Cinderella and Rapunzel."

  "Hello." The woman at the table smiled, but there was a sadness and distance in the gesture that left Cinderella haunted in its wake.

  "Hello," Cinderella replied, looking to the young boy at the woman's side. His smile, unlike his mother's, was wide and joyful, the carefree look of youth that had been lost by all other human guests at the table long before.

  Dispensing the rest of the bowls, Caratasa at last joined them at the table, alighting in the chair at its head with a poise that gave Cinderella her first moment of true apprehension since she entered the house. For it was not the elegance of a very graceful woman with which Caratasa took her seat, but an inhuman poise. Glancing to Rapunzel to see if she noted it, the same hovering ease which the sorceress possessed, she found her too deep in a mouthful of soup to notice anything.

  "I am a sprite," Caratasa declared suddenly, looking directly at Cinderella, which did nothing to put Cinderella at ease.

  "A sprite?" Rapunzel questioned in surprise. "But I thought sprites were..."

  "Very small?" Caratasa finished with a smile, and Cinderella watched a blush creep once more across Rapunzel's cheeks as she lowered her gaze to the table. "I can be," Caratasa said, "when such need arises. For a sprite is no more than spirit. I take many forms."

  The statement further fracturing Cinderella's comfort, she stared at her bowl, too afraid to eat it, for it looked and smelled much too good. Gaze moving again to Rapunzel, she watched her take another bite, worried she had already fallen under the spell of Caratasa or the house or both.

  "I mean you no harm, Cinderella." The gentle voice drew Cinderella's eyes from Rapunzel, and the warm dark eyes upon her held her own captive. "I know it is hard for you to trust that, to trust what is put in front of you."

  "How do you know that?" Cinderella whispered.

  "I have ways of seeing things others do not," Caratasa stated simply. "I know you have not had it easy. I know what it was like for you, the things others did to you. I promise you, though, with all that I am, I mean you and those you care about no harm. I want only to help you."

  "Can you help us?" Rapunzel was quick to ask in response, and a smile came warm and genuine to Caratasa's face.

  "When morning light breaks, I will provide give you guidance," she responded. "I have created a map of the forest, which you will need to go forward and backward, wherever you decide to go."

  "Why? Why do you help us?" Cinderella could not let go of the fear, and when Caratasa's eyes again met her own, they looked on her with such compassion, she felt ashamed for asking.

  "Caratasa aids all those in need," Ruth stated, and, when they all looked to her, she squirmed in her seat, clearly unused to such attention.

  "You and... your son?" Cinderella was almost certain the boy belonged to the woman, and she nodded in confirmation. "How did you end up here?"

  "Seven years ago," the woman responded, "we were cast out into the wood, and we wandered. I happened upon an old alchemist who had been banished from the village some years before for his dark arts. It was a lucky day, for usually the alchemist's house was cloaked by his magic, but that day his magic had wavered. He was lonely, I think, and he took pity on us. George, being no more than a babe at the time, has no memory of those days." The woman rustled her son's hair.

  "Why were you cast out?" Cinderella questioned.

  "My son was conceived as my husband, the king, was set to go off on a matter for the kingdom," Ruth replied. "When George was born, my husband's mother, with whom I stayed, sent a letter to inform my husband of his birth. She would not tell me what exactly was in his reply, only that he ordered George and I killed. She had always loved me as her own, my husband's mother, and she could not carry out the deed. Instead, she strapped my infant son to my back and told me never to return, lest my husband discover she had not followed his orders."

  "Why would he ask for that?" Rapunzel questioned.

  "I do not know," Ruth replied, shaking her head. "But we stayed with the alchemist in that house on the outskirts until a few days ago when he had an experiment go wrong. George and I were out walking when we heard the explosion, and when we returned..." She looked to her son and swallowed painfully, as tears filled his young eyes. "We had nowhere else to go. So again we wandered, but this time things were different. We walked through the strangest changes in weather and such plants we had never seen. Just when it seemed all hope was lost, we were led here, where Caratasa took us in without question. As she took you in."

  The reply a humbling reminder, Cinderella watched Caratasa smile graciously at Ruth, before glancing to Rapunzel, who did not appear frightened or worried. If it was a trap, Cinderella realized, Rapunzel was already ensnared, and she at last took a bite of the soup that pleased her senses and warmed her down to her toes. For, if they were going to be trapped for eternity, there were far worse places to be.

  · · ·

  When Cinderella opened her eyes, the sun had not yet risen, but was on the verge of breaching the horizon. Stretching the sleep from her frame, she could feel not a tired bone in her body, and, if she had not actually been there doing it, she never would have believed she walked all those leagues the previous day.

  Waking next to her, Rapunzel's eyes came into view. Even in the darkened room, they appeared clear and bright, without the residual traces of drowsiness that usually lingered in them upon waking.

  The night before, as they had bid their goodnights, Caratasa laid her hands upon their shoulders and wished them an "especially restful night's peace," for which Cinderella and Rapunzel thanked her, though neither thought it to be of much use. There was far too much to think about, far too much to be done in their impossible time frame.

  Alert and without pain, though, Cinderella admitted it was simply the most restful night she had ever had. Just as Caratasa desired for them.

  It was so restful, in fact, that Cinderella felt as if she had energy to expend on non-essential pursuits. Rolling into Rapunzel, she curved her hand around an exposed thigh, shivering at the soft moan that rumbled through Rapunzel's throat as their lips came together. Rapunzel's fingers threading into her hair to tug her closer, Cinderella got lost in the feel of her, until wings fluttered against the door on their way past. Remembering with matching groans that they had little time to spare, they rolled off either side of the bed to get dressed.

  · · ·

  Warm cereal awaited them when they got downstairs, and Norco and Togo were deep into their bowls, bits hanging from their furry faces as they grinned up at Cinderella and Rapunzel.

  "Good morning," Caratasa greeted, extracting an ancient-looking parchment from a chest next to the hearth.

  "Good morning," Cinderella and Rapunzel returned, sitting before the untouched bowls of a cereal Cinderella did not recognize.

  Taking up her spoon, Rapunzel took a bite, and, eyes going wide in delight, dug in with nearly the fervor of Norco and Togo.

  "It is only kutya, Love." Cinderella felt a hand against her back, an
d glanced up at Caratasa's amused dark eyes. "It is not poison, I assure you."

  That said, Caratasa glided around the table, and Cinderella took up her spoon, digging into the concoction that was every bit as good as Rapunzel and Norco and Togo made it seem.

  "Did you sleep well?" Caratasa asked.

  "It was the best sleep I ever had," Rapunzel replied.

  "But then," Cinderella took a break from eating to say, "you knew that, didn't you?"

  A slow, lingering smile was the only response to the question as Caratasa spread the parchment before them on the table.

  "This is where we are," she said, pointing to a sliver of a kingdom the size of her thumbnail, barely a dot in comparison to the kingdoms of much greater size around it. So tiny it was on the map, it went unlabeled, while all the other kingdoms bore their names.

  "What is the name of this kingdom?" Cinderella asked.

  "Pith," Caratasa answered.

  "Why is it so small?" Rapunzel scooted forward on her chair.

  "Perhaps," Caratasa breathed, "it was never meant to be."

  Leaving the cryptic statement unexplained, she moved on as if it was not floating on the air around them. She showed them where they had been in Aulis, how they must have walked through Delphinia, which, Cinderella realized with a heaviness in her chest, must have been where Hansel and Gretel lived before they were no more.

  Spotting Troyale near the top of the map, she looked for Naxos, finding the two several kingdoms apart. When it occurred to her she never would have met Rapunzel by chance, she found the sturdy thigh beneath the table and felt Rapunzel's hand wrap around her own.

  The kingdoms of the Black Forest spread in an imperfect circle, some bigger, some smaller, some near the heart of the land, some nestled at the periphery. Seeing how vast was the forest, and realizing they had traversed no more than a small portion of the kingdoms the day before, Cinderella deflated. Even with towns marked, it would take many more days than they had to make their way through even half of it.