by Dawn Steele
Gorm and Metal Hat stripped Aein of all his newfound clothes. Just when he was getting used to wearing them too, a part of her brain noted abjectly. They strapped Aein to an upright rack, stretching his arms and legs to the limits before securing his wrists and ankles in leather bonds. Snow White felt her own joints popping as Aein’s face contorted.
“No,” she whimpered softly.
They ignored her.
Milky Eye poured coals into the brazier and lit a fire. Another man, whom Snow White christened Scarface for his bad acne scars, wrenched her arms painfully behind her back. He half-carried, half-dragged her to the iron chair. He threw her down on it, and chained her arms to its back as she tried to maintain her balance above the hole in its seat. She could only thank her lucky stars that there weren’t any spikes embedded in the chair.
Scarface turned her to face Aein’s bruised and stretched body, his washboard stomach heaving with each breath. Sweat beaded on Aein’s face. Milky Eye stoked the coals in the brazier with a poker. They began to glow a dangerous red.
“No,” Snow White cried despite herself, “don’t hurt him!”
Aein’s eyes arrested hers. His muscles were tensed and yet he held no terror.
Scarface ran a hand across Snow White’s throat. “And what would you do for me, my beauty, if we don’t?” His breath was sour as he whispered in her ear. He worked one calloused hand into her torn tunic and squeezed her breast.
My maidenhood is just a piece of flesh. If she had to give it up to save them, she would gladly do so. But on the other, what was to stop them from raping her, torturing Aein, and burning them at the stake thereafter for witchcraft? She had been warned about men like these by Hanna Cherry, who avowed that anyone who lived beyond the Enchanted Forest were brigands, thieves and murderers.
“They would taste your flesh,” Hanna said, “then leave you with child. And cut the babe from your belly before you are due.”
Seeing these men firsthand, Snow White could well believe that.
“Please,” she said, tears blurring her eyes. It was now time to play her trump card. “I can make you rich.”
Milky Eye picked up a glowing piece of coal with a tong. Aein flinched as he regarded the red-hot piece approaching his genitals. His thighs were clenched, braced for pain. He hates fire, Snow White abstractly remembered.
“Keep talking,” Scarface said, his lips brushing her ear, “or your boyfriend loses everything that makes him interesting to you in the first place.”
“I’m a princess,” Snow White said in a rush. “I’m a princess of Lapland. If you take me back there, the King will reward you greatly.”
“If you’re a princess,” Gorm sneered, “what are you doing in these woods?”
“Not to mention she speaks like a Bavarian native,” Milky Eye added.
“Good try, my beauty,” Scarface said, his hand sliding down her belly and worming its way into her pants. “But it won’t save your boyfriend.”
Aein’s glittering brown eyes held hers. He said, “She may not be a princess of Lapland, but she is right. We can make you rich.”
Snow White caught her breath in surprise. She couldn’t recall telling him who she really was. Was this a ploy? She opened her mouth to say something, but his eyes shot a warning: Trust me.
“This better be good,” Milky Eye growled. The glowing coal hovered just inches away from Aein’s rather impressive manhood.
Scarface slid his hand out, much to Snow White’s relief.
“You love gold.” Aein’s tones were measured. “The kingdom I come from has streets that are paved with gold. Every brick in a worker’s abode is made of gold. Gold is plentiful, strewn everywhere like pebbles. What you crave, we do not treasure. If you let the girl go, I can bring you there and you can fill every cart and chariot with gold.”
Snow White almost bit her tongue in shock. She had not believed Aein when he told her about his gold-paved home. Was it possible he was telling the truth? And oh, she had been absolutely beastly towards him. Why then was he negotiating with these killers to save her life?
Fearfully, Snow White appraised the robbers’ faces. Greed lit up Gorm’s features. Metal Hat, the cannibal, seemed undecided; perhaps gold did not sway his own personal monster. Milky Eye’s milk eye twitched as the tongs wavered in his grasp. At her ear, Scarface nibbled a tendril of her hair.
“How do we know this is not a trick?” Gorm said.
Snow White wondered the same.
“If I do not lead you to this place in three days, you can kill me and leave my body to the insects. But my condition is that you let the girl go now, unharmed.”
Silence weighed heavily in the cell as the robbers considered this. Snow White’s head spun. Her ears had not heard wrongly. Aein was really making a plea for her life at great cost to himself. And she had thought him strange, mad and slightly dangerous!
“You lie,” Gorm finally said.
“I do not lie. Look at my face. Is it not unblemished? Only the softest of creams from the Far East have adorned my body, and such can only come in trade with shiploads of gold. What have you to lose? My life hangs in balance if I deceive you. Even if you do not wish to kill me, you can sell me at the auction for a handsome price.”
“Gold.” Gorm’s eyes gleamed with its fever. Snow White knew he had taken the bait. “Perhaps it’s time to break away from Mother Baron’s clutches and come into our own. We can be kings, not chained to her foolish whims like slaves. Do this, fetch that. Truly, I tell you, there is nothing worse than blood ties!”
Once again, the other men seemed uneasy. Whoever this Mother Baron was, she must be a force to reckon with.
“That talk is sacrilege,” Metal Hat argued. “She has never been anything but mother to us all.”
“Better to be free men than be in thrall to a woman with teats as long as her knees,” Gorm said.
“Who happens to be our mother,” Milky Eye remarked.
“Well, stuff her!” Gorm puffed his huge chest. “You can stay with her and her new world order if you want to, but I’m taking the road paved to gold.” He began to undo Aein’s straps, starting with the ankles, and then the wrists.
Aein was visibly relieved. He massaged his strained shoulder joints. His eyes searched for Snow White’s.
“Are you with me as men,” Gorm roared to his brothers around him, “or are you going to slink back to her with your tails between your legs?”
The men exchanged glances. Nobody moved. For a long moment, the only sound in the chamber was of flames crackling on the brazier.
“I’m coming,” Milky Eye conceded. The coal piece fell to the floor with a clatter.
Metal Hat shook his head. “You will regret this,” he warned.
“Then we best be on our way,” Gorm said. “Culuth, give the boy his clothes. You coming?” he directed this to Scarface.
“Yes.” Scarface left Snow White’s side.
Aein stared into Metal Hat’s face. “A deal is a deal. Let the girl go now.”
Metal Hat glowered.
“Let her go,” Gorm said. Scarface took a knife to Snow White’s bonds. “There is still honor among thieves. Now go, girl, before I change my mind. Run into the forest and never look back.”
Now probably wasn’t a good time to ask them the direction to Lapland, Snow White thought as she planted a last despairing look upon Aein, and ran for the stairs. She took them two at a time, half-afraid Gorm or Scarface would run after her.
#
Snow White hurtled into the forest. A sudden chill descended and she wrapped the torn pieces of her tunic around herself. She didn’t dare stop until she had put some distance between herself and the robbers’ castle. Aein’s face danced like a wraith before her eyes, superimposed against the tree from which the crucified man hung.
“Oh Aein!” she cried in anguish. “Why did you have to do that?”
His eyes burned, accusing. And you wanted to ditch me by the wayside.
; She swung around a tangle of trees and stopped. Metal Hat was waiting for her on a horse.
“Took you long enough to get here,” he said casually. “I had to double back twice to see where you were.”
Snow White took a step back. The blood fled her cheeks. She remembered how Metal Hat had looked upon her flesh, as though she were a juicy calf instead of a human being. She turned and ran back the way she came from, but hooves thundered behind her as an approaching horse whinnied. An arm swept down and knocked her off her feet.
She fell flat on her face, stubbing her nose on the firm ground and slamming her lower lip against her teeth. She tasted her own blood. Specks of soil wormed their way into her mouth.
She lay there, too bruised and fatigued to continue. Metal Hat scooped her up, secured her wrists, and laid her across the horse.
“I’m tempted to carve you up and eat you,” he said, “but I owe a debt to a great lady who doesn’t deserve a son like Gorm. When I was a child, my sister and I were abandoned in the woods. We crept to a cottage, which in turn housed a witch.”
Snow White could only listen fearfully.
“The witch tried to fatten us up for the slaughter, but my sister pushed her into her own oven. We ate everything in that cottage. When we ran out of food, we ate the witch.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Strung as she was on her belly across the horse’s withers, Snow White’s bile pooled into her throat.
“Mother Baron found us and took us in as her own. Despite our taste for human flesh, she never withheld her love for us. It is to this woman I owe a life debt. If she wishes to create a new world order, so be it. You are the prize I’ll deliver unto her.”
They galloped into the woods, the despair deepening in Snow White’s breast.
CHAPTER SEVEN
After an hour, they came to a village. The cottages here were large and handsome, with red shingles that gleamed like wet lips in the sun. Bright paint adorned their walls: mauve, yellow, green and turquoise. Bushes and shrubs were neatly trimmed into the shapes of farm animals. The whole place reeked of forced gaiety. Snow White almost expected the very hedges themselves to burst forth with maniacal, cackling laughter.
All the fear had been wrung out of her. In its place was a calm acceptance, as well as a slowly blossoming anger that refused to be put down.
I’m so tired of being afraid. I’m tired of being tired. If they wish to eat me, at least I’ll go down kicking up an indigestion storm.
The image of her doing this was so pleasing that she lifted her head with renewed vigor. She noted the curious women and children who came to watch them canter into the village square. The women’s faces were weathered and lined, and their bellies were swollen with child. They wore brightly patterned skirts of brocade, silk and velvet, all embroidered with rich laces. Many carried a baby or a toddler in their arms. Several richly dressed children clung to their skirts.
Snow White noted that they were all women and children. No men save Metal Hat. The children beside each mother strangely did not resemble their siblings.
This is a robbers’ village?
Metal Hat led them to the largest house of all – a sprawling T-shaped mansion with turrets. Ivy clung to its sturdy red brick walls.
A boy helped them dismount. His hair smelled of freshly baked bread.
“Hansel,” he said to Metal Hat, his eyes shining, “you’re home.”
Hansel ruffled the boy’s straw-colored hair. “Off with you now, son. Tell your aunt we’ve got a live one.”
“Yes, father.”
“Always call me Hansel.”
The boy nodded with reverence, then rushed off.
“You have a son?” Snow White remarked.
“Is that so strange to you?” Hansel pulled Snow White by the unwilling arm towards the main door.
“I had you pegged as a cannibalistic boor,” she said, wrenching away.
“Oh, so we’re no longer the frightened maiden now.”
“No, I decided that I’m going to die clawing your eyes out.” She swallowed. Anger was good.
“Bold words,” Hansel said. “Let’s hope you won't have to eat them when we’re finished with you.”
He locked her in a parlor decorated with gorgeous tapestries: scenes of ladies in printed clothes, fanning themselves amid cherry blossom trees and pagodas. The chairs were lined with velvet. Chandeliers dripped with gold and crystal. Exquisite objects were strewn on ornately carved tables – bejeweled music boxes, strands of pearls, figurines made from ivory and jade. Nothing like a dagger or a hatpin, however. Damn. They had taken away her hunting knife too, the one she used for slicing apples and threatening Aein.
Poor Aein. The least she could do was not let his sacrifice be in vain.
While she waited, she alternated between plans. Flee the house. Get caught and hauled back. Flee the house. Get caught and be eaten. Lapland seemed farther and farther away, a pipe dream that would never be realized. Aein’s beautiful face flickered before her eyes. A lump came to her throat. Was he being gutted even as she sat in this parlor, plotting a sketchy escape?
Don’t be a weak fool, she told herself angrily.
She seized a large jade figurine of an Eastern woman in long, flowing robes, and placed herself next to the door. God help Metal Hat if he didn’t have his hat.
She waited a long while, sweat slicking her palms. The figurine almost slipped from her grasp. Dire visions of being locked in this room forever danced in her mind.
Just when she thought her arms would drop from weariness, the lock clicked in the door. Snow White raised the figurine. She was suddenly aware of how weak she was, malnourished from a week of eating nothing but apples, dry bread and cheese. Why, she could scarcely carry the makeshift weapon above her head! Her arms and shoulders trembled with the strain, but it was too late to backpedal now. She was committed.
The door opened. The figure that strode in was not Hansel. Too late and it didn’t matter. With all her feeble strength, Snow White brought the jade figurine down on the mousy brown head.
Before it struck, a hand snaked out and rapidly caught her right arm. Two strong arms grabbed her waist. The figurine slipped and crashed onto the floor.
“Stupid girl,” muttered Hansel, twisting Snow White’s arms behind her back. “Leave her alone for an instant and she tries something stupid.”
“Ow!” Snow White cried. Hansel’s fingers dug into the soft flesh of her arms, already sore from previous manhandling.
The middle-aged woman whom Snow White attempted to brain appraised her with her hands on her hips. She had the demeanor of someone who was not easily fazed by anything. Indeed, Snow White reckoned, the woman would remain calm even when a blizzard swept the rest of this room away.
“This is my sister, Gretel,” Hansel said. “She doesn’t take kindly to impertinent visitors.”
He wrapped a twine cord around Snow White’s wrists that bit painfully into her flesh.
Gretel’s cheeks wore a spotty discoloration that was a sharp contrast to her ruby necklace. Her large breasts hung almost to her waist. When she opened her mouth to speak, Snow White saw that several of her teeth were missing.
“Exquisite,” Gretel said. She grasped Snow White’s chin with her sharp, scarlet-lacquered fingernails and turned it this way and that. “Amazing bone structure. Hips a little narrow, but she’ll do. Where did you find such a prize, brother?”
“Excuse me,” Snow White interrupted, struggling in Hansel’s iron grasp, “but I don’t care to be examined like a cow.”
Gretel ignored her and continued her inspection. She grabbed Snow White’s breasts through her tunic and squeezed them roughly, measuring their size and firmness. Snow White gasped. She wasn’t used to anyone fondling her.
“Why, you – ” she began, but gasped again when Gretel dove for her crotch.
“Long story, sister, but Gorm won’t be returning for a while, so it will be for you and me to ascend several notches in M
other Baron’s favor.”
“Her favorite has finally fled the roost?”
“Let’s hope so.”
Gretel seemed unconvinced. “He has returned before. And each time, she welcomes him like the prodigal he is.”
“No matter.” Hansel caught his sister’s faraway look. “You’ve been lost in your thoughts a lot more lately, little sister. What is it?”
Snow White was aware of an undercurrent here, but it was not something she could grasp at the moment.
“Think nothing of it.” Gretel’s face turned impassive again. She pinched Snow White’s arm, not unkindly. “She looks a little thin. Not to our taste. For supper tonight I have snared us a tender young virgin, only seven years old, plump and milk fed. It will be a feast well deserved.”
Despite her self-admonition to be strong in the face of danger, Snow White felt her stomach turn.
“Come with me, child. Mother Baron awaits,” Gretel said. She reminded Snow White of a stone wall.
She led Snow White down several passages swathed in damask, followed by a watchful Hansel. Every time Snow White stumbled, Hansel propped her roughly up. The bruises continued to accumulate beneath her skin. I must resemble a blue-and-black patchwork, she rued.
They entered a hall with crystal chandeliers and lighted wall sconces. A carpet that must have deteriorated the eyesights of a thousand weavers covered the entire floor, its red-and-black motifs too complicated to follow. An extremely old woman lay on a plush, high bed swathed with pillows. The bed sat upon a dais where you might expect to find a throne. A very strong scent of roses emanated from the woman, mixed with the smell of feces and decay. Several fat leeches sat on her exposed, skeletal arms.
