Black Forest: Kingdoms Fall (Black Forest Trilogy)

by LaShea, Riley

  "You did not take my family," Christophe returned softly. "I do not blame you either."

  "Well..." Cinderella wished the words brought more comfort. "Perhaps, you should."

  The market district coming to an end, the cart path led on toward the town limits. Passing a glorious, glimmering, glass-walled castle, Cinderella wondered what was inside, if there was anything left, surprised it still stood at all. Beyond that, more humble residences flanked the path, until, at last, they came to the tiny abodes of the most destitute of the kingdom.

  It was at the last house that they stopped. Small as it was, the cottage offered the first sign of life in the town. A healthy billow of smoke from the chimney indicated someone had been home recently enough to stoke the fire, and the muted light of a solitary candle flickered in the window. Beyond the tiny cottage, the forest began anew. From their distance, they could hear the howls of the specters waiting for those who might invade their domain, and not one of them wanted to brave the forest again in the night.

  "Should we knock?" Norco asked, looking toward the cabin.

  "I think not," Cinderella sighed. "If he finds us in there..." She knew she need not finish the thought. Anyone they met, any place they went, they put in danger.

  "So, we sleep outside then," Togo proclaimed, flying off, and Norco followed him around the cottage. Shrugging to each other, the humans went after them.

  Stepping into the back yard, a low whistle met their ears, and the abrupt stops of Sawyer and Christophe before them brought Cinderella and Rapunzel up short. As they followed their steady gazes, Cinderella heard Rapunzel gasp beside her.

  "What is it?"

  "It looks like a beanstalk," Cinderella responded, following the colossal green stalk to the dark blue clouds overhead. "But it cannot possibly be. They do not grow so high."

  "This one did," Christophe called back to them, racing forward to touch it. "For a beanstalk is exactly what it is."

  Watching Norco and Togo circle the massive base, Cinderella moved closer with the others. "What are you doing?" she asked as they began to spin higher.

  "Do you not desire to know what is up there?" he asked.

  "No," Cinderella replied coolly, intense curiosity heeding to her better sense. For the last thing they needed were more surprises, and she could not see how climbing a giant beanstalk could yield anything but surprise.

  When she turned to Rapunzel, though, the first smile she had seen since the palace showed on her dirt-smudged lips. "I would kind of like to see what is up there," she admitted.

  "Would you?" Cinderella softly questioned.

  "You are not even a little curious?" Rapunzel returned, and, feeling as if she was making a momentous error in judgment, Cinderella nodded slightly.

  The hesitant confirmation was all it took to find herself being pulled to the base of the stalk, where Christophe and Sawyer, who looked to be contemplating their own climbs, smiled at their appearance.

  "After you, Ladies," Sawyer motioned to the stalk with a bow, and, glancing to him, Christophe bowed as well.

  "Be careful," Cinderella said softly as Rapunzel kicked off her fancy shoes, which Cinderella knew from those upon her own feet were most uncomfortable. Leaving her shoes next to Rapunzel's as Rapunzel began her skyward climb, Cinderella started after her, and, soon, they were all part of the cautious caravan making its ways toward the clouds.

  Much time and effort later, Rapunzel came to a stop above her, and, paused for too long, Cinderella continued to climb, hand sliding around Rapunzel's leg to grasp onto the stalk.

  "Why have we stopped?" she called over Rapunzel's head to Norco and Togo, who obstructed the passage.

  "Maybe we should not know what is up there after all," Norco declared.

  "Yes, yes, it is a bad idea to know what is up there," Togo agreed.

  "Why? What is it?" Cinderella asked, climbing further upward, one hand grasping the stalk above Rapunzel's head, as the other slid past her waist to better brace them.

  "What is going on?" Sawyer called from the bottom.

  "Norco and Togo have decided against this expedition," Cinderella called back.

  "Have they now?" Sawyer returned. "Well, since neither of them had to climb the distance to the sky, perhaps they should not get a say."

  "You heard him," Cinderella said. "Out of the way. This is not exactly the most comfortable position."

  "It is not exactly the most uncomfortable position either," Rapunzel murmured, pulling Cinderella closer against her back, and grinning, Cinderella pressed her lips to Rapunzel's chilled cheek before glancing up at Norco and Togo once more.

  "Out of the way."

  "I really do not think..." Norco began to say.

  "Move!" Sawyer yelled from below, and Togo grumbled as he pulled Norco out of sight above the clouds.

  Slowly clambering up the uppermost of the stalk, Cinderella and Rapunzel at last poked their heads through the clouds, finding Norco and Togo flying agitatedly above them, before their gazes fell upon the same sight.

  "Wow," Cinderella breathed, for it was all she could say.

  Before them stood a palace, but not just any palace. It was a palace ten times the size of the one they passed some time before on the ground. The door was as tall as the tower Rapunzel had been kept in, and the turrets on either side of the unlatched gate reminded Cinderella of the steeple that topped the cathedral in Troyale.

  In the front lawn, a croquet game had been abandoned. Lying end to end, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Christophe, and Sawyer would just equal the length of the mallet sitting upon the grass, and the wicket stood such an immense archway, she was certain even Christophe could easily walk through it without stooping.

  The pieces before her coming together into a full picture, as hard as it was for her to believe, Cinderella knew they were looking at nothing less than the home of a giant.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  The Great Fortress in the Sky

  It was night above Earth as well, but clouds below them, the moon shone so brightly it was almost like day.

  If not for the steady beat of the heart at her back, the soft, strong arms that anchored her to the stalk, and the burn in her muscles from the tedious climb, Rapunzel would have been certain she was dreaming. Of course, she reminded herself, it was something of a dream, for it was not fully real. It was all illusion, all imagination.

  Feeling Cinderella shift around her, Rapunzel watched green eyes, dark with shadow, come into view, and it occurred to her that was not exactly true either. There were things in their world that were manufactured, that could no longer be denied, but also those things so genuine, there was no greater ache than the fear of losing them.

  "We should get out of the way," Cinderella softly whispered. "Before Sawyer gets any more frustrated."

  Nodding in response to her fleeting smile, Rapunzel watched Cinderella lean back, one hand skimming through the vapors and pressing down. "Solid," Cinderella uttered, though she still looked nervous as she moved into the puff of clouds, sitting somehow on the edge of nothing.

  As she watched Cinderella rise to her feet, Rapunzel leaned in, worried the sky might simply fall out from under her. Much to both of their amazement, though, the sky held, the cloud cover floating around Cinderella's ankles to make it appear as if she had no feet. Making a full circle around the stalk, Cinderella reached out, pulling Rapunzel up to the smooth, cool surface, and Rapunzel swallowed as she watched her own feet disappear into its churning mist.

  It was but a few beats later when Christophe's disembodied head appeared in the clouds, and, trusting he would stare as long as they had without intervention, Cinderella and Rapunzel pulled him up, waiting with extended hands for Sawyer, and helping him from the stalk as soon as he breached the surface of the clouds.

  Sidling up next to Christophe, Sawyer's eyes found the great fortress in the sky, and they stood together for some time, until Christophe at last took the first step through the cloudy terrain, and Rapunz
el felt compelled to follow, pulling Cinderella forward with uncertain steps. Beyond the stretch of sky, they at last stood upon the sprawling green lawn, which, though Rapunzel knew well was an illusion, felt far more solid than the clouds had beneath her feet.

  The gate onto the property barely ajar, all four of them could walk through side by side. Reaching her arm as they entered, enough space remained that Rapunzel's fingertips barely brushed the cold iron, a humbling reminder of how small they were in some worlds.

  As they crept past the croquet mallet and wicket, even Norco and Togo gave up flight for walking, but, drawn forward by their collective curiosity, they continued to creep until they stood at the edge of the massive front door.

  "Shall we have a look at what is inside?" Sawyer quietly asked.

  "How will we get in?" Christophe returned in an equally hushed voice, though Rapunzel doubted such whispers were necessary. Though their footsteps sounded the same as they walked across the massive lawn, and their voices retained their usual volume, looking up at the colossal door, she suspected to those who would live within such a palace they made no more noise than ants.

  Stacked atop each other, they would still never reach the door knob, so they turned their attention nearer the ground.

  "I found a way in," Christophe called softly, and Rapunzel's stomach flopped as she walked over with Cinderella.

  "Is that a mouse hole?" she asked.

  "No big deal," Cinderella returned with a nervous laugh. "So long as we do not run into the mouse."

  The top of the hole hitting her at chest level, Rapunzel tried not to imagine the size of said creature as she quickly crawled through after Sawyer with Cinderella at her back. On the other side, she reached for Cinderella at once, helping her to her feet, and turned to look at the room before them.

  Odds and ends scattered from one side of the room to the other, the place looked an immense version of the dwarves' cabin after a most lucrative day of pillaging, with gold pieces the size of Rapunzel's head. A long table was situated at one end, two huge chairs standing nearby, the other four having been tossed to the floor around it. Though they could not see the surface from where they stood, there must have been a recent meal, for the smell of food was fresh about the room.

  At the low rumble beside her, Rapunzel glanced to Sawyer, who wrapped his arms across his stomach. "Sorry," he whispered.

  "We are all hungry." Rapunzel gently smiled at him.

  "Well, there is plenty to eat up here," Norco called to them, walking to the edge of the tabletop with Togo, a giant piece of poultry already in hand. "Some very tasty bird meat, all sorts of vegetables, cake, human..."

  "Human?!" they all shouted at once, glancing around when, combined, their voices bounded through the room.

  "Yes," Togo nodded. "A Christophe and Sawyer-type human."

  "A man," Rapunzel said.

  "A HU-man," Togo corrected her.

  "I saw the human leaned against the bird," Norco said. "I shall taste it next."

  "I should like to have a say in that." A shadow fell over Norco and Togo from above and they each let out a small cry, Norco toppling from the table's edge and dropping the food in his hand, before remembering he had wings with which to catch his fall.

  The poultry not so lucky, it plummeted down upon them, and Cinderella, Rapunzel, Christophe and Sawyer rushed backward as it splattered against the floor, spraying their fine clothes with enough meat for a full meal.

  "Thank you, Norco," Sawyer uttered, flicking meat from his clothes as the young man appeared at the edge of the table. Broader than Sawyer and taller than Christophe, he was still no giant.

  "You are quite welcome," Norco responded. "Would you like more?"

  "No!" The human's voices rose into chorus again, and the young man's laugh floated down to them, his face splitting into a broad grin.

  "You are alive." Rapunzel could hear the relief in Cinderella's voice.

  "Of course, I am alive," the young man said, flipping nearly-black hair out of his eyes. "I had only fallen asleep. Though, I do have to thank your strange companions for waking me. I would not have liked the giant to find me come morning."

  "The giant," Cinderella uttered. "The giant is here?"

  "Both of them," he nodded. "Asleep, though. It will be hours before they wake."

  "Can we come up there?" Sawyer asked anxiously, and the young man nodded, motioning them to the nearest chair.

  "I carved them myself," he stated with pride.

  Sawyer and Christophe ran at once to the chair, but Cinderella did not move. Glancing to her in the dim shadow of the table, Rapunzel could see her reluctance to meet the young man, for fear she would cost him his life. Tugging gently upon her hand, she coaxed Cinderella to join them, and they got to the chair leg as Sawyer was starting up the makeshift stairs.

  When the stairs turned up one of the chair's spindles, they grew steeper, and, as they reached the edge of the table, the stranger help them up to its surface, until they all stood amongst the leftovers of dinner, which were not leftovers at all really. The turkey carcass, twice their size, was nearly picked clean and only remnants remained in bowls and on plates. For a giant, only a pittance of food had been left, but tiny as they were in comparison, what remained was a giant feast.

  "Is it safe to eat?" Cinderella asked.

  "Yes." The young man nodded. "And wonderful to eat. The lady giant is a great cook. I have had more than my fill. Please, help yourselves."

  Though it was clear the young man had no right to offer such invitation, they dove straight in, Sawyer and Christophe rushing the turkey, as Rapunzel and Cinderella tilted the bowl beside it, scooping sweet potatoes in their hands and groaning at their perfect flavor.

  "I assume you found my beanstalk," the young man came between them to say.

  "Your beanstalk?" Cinderella asked between bites.

  "Yes, I grew it myself," he said with a proud sniff, before humbling beneath all the eyes upon him. "Well, I somewhat grew it. I traded my cow Milky White for five beans. The farmer, he swore to me they were magic. My mother, though, she was not too happy about it. She tossed them out the window, and, when we woke the next morning, there the stalk stood."

  "So, you just come up here to eat?" Christophe asked, putting his foot against the turkey in an effort to rip the leg off. When he struggled, Sawyer moved to help, and with a giant crack, the leg broke free.

  "Sometimes." Jack gave a small shrug. "I like it up here. I do not fit, but I do not fit in the world below either, it seems. My mother says my head, it lives in the clouds."

  "That is all right." Rapunzel smiled at him, for she had known the same accusation from her mother. "Sometimes the clouds feel the safest place."

  "Rapunzel, she lived in the clouds." Cinderella's clean hand slid across her back, and Rapunzel sighed into it.

  "Is that right?" Jack asked.

  "Near enough," Rapunzel admitted.

  "And what about you, Fair Lady?" Jack questioned over Rapunzel's shoulder. "Did you also live in the clouds?"

  "No," Cinderella responded softly. "I should say I was quite tethered to the earth."

  "That is too bad," the young man said, gaze turning thoughtful. "I am Jack."

  Thrusting out his hand along with his introduction, he retracted it upon the realization there was not a hand amongst them he wanted to touch. Even Norco and Togo were paw-deep in the leftovers of an orange-colored cake that Rapunzel had been eyeing for her next course.

  Flying free of it, Norco hovered above them, licking the crumbs from his paws. "Are the giants pleasant?" he asked, the question so calm it barely registered in Rapunzel's mind.

  "The giantess is pleasant," Jack replied. "She does not mind me coming here at all, so long as her husband does not find me. She says he would not care too terribly much for it, and would likely dispose of me as vermin."

  "And which is that?" Togo asked evenly, pointing off in the direction of the long hallway leading away from the dinin
g room, and each hand froze. Even Rapunzel's throat refused to swallow.

  Only Jack launched into motion, bounding up the broken turkey carcass to look down the hall.

  "Jack, please tell us it is the lady of the house," Cinderella pleaded.

  "That would be a spot of luck I am afraid we do not have," he returned.

  "Oh no," Rapunzel breathed, flicking the food from her hands, and turned at Cinderella's touch, running back down the table toward the stairs as the giant bounded down the hallway toward them.

  With each giant step, the table shook so hard they nearly lost their footing, and it occurred to Rapunzel that, no matter how fast they ran, they could never outrun a giant.

  "FEE-FI-FO-FUM," the giant bellowed as he closed in, and their escape was made for them. The mighty exhalation produced a violent wind across the surface of the table, and, clinging to each other, Rapunzel and Cinderella tumbled over the tabletop, until there was no tabletop left.

  Falling through the air, they came to an abrupt stop on the stone floor, and Rapunzel was instantly aware of how little impact she felt. Raising her head to look down at Cinderella, she shielded the body beneath her as Christophe, Sawyer, Jack, and debris rained down from the table's edge.

  "Cin?" she whispered in panic, hands gently shaking the frighteningly still form that had absorbed the brunt of the fall for both of them.

  Something heavy striking her across the back, Rapunzel groaned as she glanced to Christophe, Sawyer and Jack, relieved to see them all struggling to their feet.

  "Cin, wake up," she whispered, tears streaming in generous measure down her face, relief pouring through her when she felt Cinderella moan beneath her. "Please," she encouraged, and, with a great deal of effort, Cinderella forced her emerald eyes open, locking them on Rapunzel's. "We have to get you out of here."

  Remembering suddenly where they were, Cinderella tried to sit up, but barely lifted off the floor before reaching for the back of her head and falling back again with a groan. When she pulled her hand away again, Rapunzel swallowed at the amount of blood that covered it.