Once Upon a Quest

by Anthea Sharp

  He set the crystal down on the table and touched one side of the glass box that sat in the middle of the table. “This contains the inn itself.” He waved a hand at the other vials. “And each of those holds one of the people you met at the inn—every guest, every member of the staff. Even the resident cat. And all of them will remain imprisoned until you agree to marry me.”

  “Where is my brother?” Maude asked. Much to her annoyance, her voice wavered on the last word. Not only had Roderick transformed Gerhardt, he’d captured all of those other people—and the cat. They’d all been turned into vapor because of this madman’s obsession with her. The young man she’d spoken with at the concierge desk that morning, the charming tailor, the pair of little old ladies… She swallowed.

  “Your brother, as I believe you surmised, has been turned into a stag,” he said. “He is now wandering the forest, eating daisies, or whatever it is that deer do.” He smiled. “I do hope he avoids the hunting party he and I saw earlier this morning. I don’t think they’ll recognize him in his current form.”

  She shivered and drew a breath. Roderick rested his hand on top of hers.

  “Just say yes,” he said, his voice soft. “Marry me, and I’ll transform your brother back to his human form, and will open all of these vessels. Every person, place, and thing will resume its former shape.”

  Maude swallowed. She should agree to marry him, even though every fiber of her being wanted to say no. But if he was willing to endanger her brother—and the other guests at the inn, as well as the staff—and the cat—and even the inn itself!—then would her agreement be enough?

  In addition to having to be the wife of such a man, she’d never be able to trust him. He might wake up one morning and decide to turn her into a frog because he didn’t like the way she’d parted her hair. Or suppose they had children together? Just the thought made her nostrils flare. What if one of the children threw a temper tantrum? Would he or she be banished? Would he make their ears double in size out of spite?

  “You are a horrible, despicable excuse for a man,” she said. She yanked her hand out from under his, and glared at him. “How dare you involve these other people in your futile quest? And how dare you try to coerce me? Even if I agreed to marry you willingly—which is clearly not an option, for you have chosen to imprison so many other people I couldn’t convince myself to want to be your bride no matter how hard I tried—I will despise you to my dying day. I will never, ever love you. Make me marry you if you must, but I will do so only because you have left me no choice.”

  Roderick snarled. “Don’t you understand, you little—“ He stopped in mid-sentence, and then composed himself. “I mean to say, my dear Maude, that you must want to marry me of your own volition. Otherwise it won’t be real.”

  “How can any forced marriage be real?” she asked.

  “Fine,” he said. He waved a hand in the air and a loud thunk sounded. Maude swiveled around. There were hinges on the other side of the box she sat in, and a lid—and the lid had begun to close. “If you won’t agree to willingly be my bride, then you will stay here, imprisoned, forever.”

  She reached out to grab the edge of the glass box again, but her hand missed. Her movements felt slow and sluggish, and her eyelids seemed heavy.

  “I don’t understand,” she said. She tried to lift her hand up again, but her movements were as slow as if she were trying to move through molasses. “I’m agreeing to marry you. I don’t want to, but I will. Please, please turn my brother back, and let everyone else go free.”

  Roderick sniffed. “That’s not acceptable,” he said. “You have to both agree and want to be my bride. And since you don’t, you will remain here for all eternity.”

  He waggled his fingers at her and turned around, his purple and black feathers swooshing in the air, and then vanished in a puff of purple smoke.

  Maude blinked at the place he’d stood, and then felt herself sliding back into the box until she laid down again. She tried to resist, but it felt as though her limbs had been filled with lead, and had become too heavy to move.

  Why wasn’t her agreement enough for Roderick? How did he expect her to want to marry him if he was forcing her to do so?

  She stared up at the tiled ceiling high above her. The lid of the glass box continued to close, the hinges creaking. She reached into her pocket, pulled out the clockwork bird, and fumbled with its switch. Her fingers were strangely clumsy, but she managed to flip the switch after a few tries.

  The bird’s tiny gears began to click as they turned, and then it flew out of the box and out of her sight. She’d programmed it to find either Gerhardt or herself, but would it work out here in the wilderness? They’d never tested it at distances of more than a few hundred feet.

  Even if the bird led him to wherever she’d been imprisoned, Gerhardt had been transformed into a stag. He wouldn’t be able to do anything to free her. The two of them, as well as all of the innocent people from the inn, would never again be free.

  She watched the lid of the glass box—a glass coffin, really—close above her.

  And then she knew nothing more.

  * * *

  Maude opened her eyes to see the lid of the glass coffin she lay in rising slowly upward. A figure stared down at her, but the light of the underground hall was so bright she couldn’t make out who it was. She took a deep breath, pushed herself up, grabbed the edge of the box, and leapt out of the coffin. She dashed to the other side of the room, blinking while her eyes adjusted to the light. The hall seemed even colder than she remembered. She spotted a soft, dark gray cloak laid over a wooden chair. She grabbed it and put it on, and then squinted at the person who stood next to the coffin.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  “It’s Tom,” he said. “We met at dinner.”

  She caught her breath as she recognized the warm brown eyes of the freckle-faced tailor she’d met at the inn the night before—or had it been last night? Who knew how long she’d been lying unconscious in that horrible bed?

  “Are you okay?” Tom asked. He glanced at the coffin, and then back at her. “Why were you in that box?”

  “I was imprisoned,” she said. Why wasn’t Tom in a vial? “Did anything…odd…happen to the inn?”

  “Yes,” Tom said. He shook his head. “I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it happen. I had an early breakfast and then went for a long walk in the woods. I forgot to pick up a map, and got lost. After a few hours, I found myself on a hill looking back across the valley at the inn. And then the inn…disappeared.” He took a deep breath. His face had become pale, and the freckles that ran across his nose stood out more than normal. “It just vanished. I didn’t know such a thing was possible.”

  “Vanished?” Maude asked. Her eyes flickered over to the glass box where Roderick had said he’d put the miniaturized inn, and then to the collection of glass vials that sat next to it. If Tom hadn’t gotten lost, he might be in one of them right now.

  And she’d still be trapped in the coffin.

  “Roderick turned out to be an evil magician,” she said. “Not the traveling adventurer he claimed to be. You haven’t seen him, have you? He’s very dangerous.”

  “Oh, I know,” Tom said. He shook his head. “After seeing the inn vanish, I ran back down the trail, doing my best to head in the direction of the inn. I spotted Roderick ahead of me, and I ducked into the bushes. He didn’t seem like the kind of man who would be interested in hiking, and I’d just watched the inn disappear, so I felt it best to keep my distance. And then I saw a small, mechanical bird flit by. I turned my eyes to follow it. It landed on a chunk of rock next to a stag.”

  “My brother…” she said, her voice dropping to a whisper. She walked across the room, the sound of her boots on the stone floor echoing through the hall, and rested a shaking hand on Tom’s arm. Had Roderick killed Gerhardt? “What happened?”

  “The stag looked right at me, and then charged out into the middle of the trail jus
t as Roderick drew nigh,” Tom said. “Roderick tried to jump back, but the stag was too quick for him. The stag rushed at him with such fury that the ground seemed to tremble, and drove his antlers with such force into Roderick’s body that he fell to the ground with a terrific roar.”

  “Is Roderick…dead?” Maude asked. She clasped her hands to her chest.

  “I think so,” Tom said. “He laid on the ground for a moment, and then grew smaller and smaller until he was a dark, shriveled-up thing. And then that grew smaller and smaller until it disappeared.”

  “What about the stag?” she asked. She bit her lip, filled with both hope and fear.

  “He turned to face the spot in the bushes where I hid,” he said. “Blood stained the tips of his antlers, and ran down to pool in the fur on the top of his head. He nudged the mechanical bird with a hoof. The bird rose in the air and began to fly away. The stag bounded over to me, and then forked me up with his great antlers and threw me on his back. He set off at full gallop after the bird, dashing over hedges and ditches, across hill and dale, through wood and water. All I could do was cling to his neck.”

  “Gerhardt—the stag, I mean—wasn’t hurt?”

  “He must not have been hurt too badly,” Tom said. “Considering how fast and how far he ran with me on his back. The bird finally stopped in front of a rock face. The stag kneeled down so I could slide off his back onto the ground. He kicked at a spot on the rock with his back hooves, and a portion of the rock began to slide away, revealing a dark cavern. The stag stared at me. I felt as though he meant me no harm, that he just wanted me to do something for him, so I walked into the cavern. As I stepped inside, the sconces on the wall lit up as if someone had lit them with a match. I walked out into the middle of the hall and stood on a large stone. Suddenly the stone began to move. By the time I realized what was happening, it had sunk so low beneath the level of the floor that I couldn’t get off of it. I rode it down to this hall, and then I saw you lying here in the glass box. I rushed over and opened the lid.”

  “Thank you,” Maude said. She glanced back at the coffin and shivered. “Who knows how long I would have been left in there.”

  “Why would a magician seal you up in a glass coffin in an underground palace?” Tom asked.

  “Roderick wanted to marry me,” she said. “But I refused to say yes. Then he turned my brother into the stag you encountered, and imprisoned the inn and the people working there.” If Roderick had been killed, why hadn’t Gerhardt regained his proper shape? She had to get out of this strange palace and try to find him.

  “I didn’t like the way he looked at you last night,” Tom said. “I mean… I wanted to speak with you more than I was able to, but he also felt wrong, somehow.”

  “I wanted to speak with you more too,” Maude said. She felt her cheeks grow hot. She pulled her eyes away from his and walked over to the glass box and vials that sat on the wooden table. Each crystal vial looked as though it contained a tiny, colored cloud. Some were bluish, some rose-colored, and one was a bright green—perhaps that one contained the cat. The glass box contained a miniature version of the inn they’d stayed at.

  “Let’s carry these outside,” she said, waving a hand at the imprisoned people—and cat—and the box containing the inn. “They contain the inn, and all of the guests and staff as well. Roderick said if I yielded to his wish to marry me that he’d open these vessels and everything would return to their normal selves. Hopefully this will work the same way if we open them.”

  Tom picked up the glass box and set it on the large stone that he’d ridden from the floor above, and then grabbed several of the vials. Maude picked up the rest. They set everything on the stone, and then stood on it themselves.

  Nothing happened.

  She tilted her head, looking down at the chunk of granite. Could this stone really be powered by magic? She crouched down and squinted at it, and then noticed a tiny button on one side of the stone. She chuckled, recognizing one of the types of machinery Gerhardt had been talking about the night before. The stone was mechanical, not magic. She pressed the button, and the stone rose up to the top level of the palace. They carried the glass box and the vials out into the sunshine and set them on the ground.

  It took three trips to get all the vials up from the underground chamber. They stared at the collection. Sunlight glinted off the crystal. What if there was some magic spell that had to be cast, and if they opened a vial without it, the person or people inside would drift away in the wind and never regain their real form?

  She squared her shoulders, and then knelt down next to the glass box and peered inside at the tiny version of the inn. They could try with this one, and at least if things went wrong no one would be hurt.

  She took a deep breath, and then pulled the lid open and jumped back.

  The miniature inn lifted out of the box and floated in the air, twirling around in circles. It began to grow larger, and larger, and then floated away to the south, toward the east, where she knew the inn was—or had been—located.

  “I guess that worked,” she said. She grabbed a glass vial that contained pinkish-purple smoke and pulled the stopper.

  The smoke oozed out of the bottle, and then began to coalesce into the form of the young man who was the concierge at the inn. He hung in the air in front of them as if he were a human cloud, gave them both a little wave, and then floated off in the direction the inn had gone. Tom and Maude watched him until he was gone from sight.

  “He seemed okay,” Tom said finally.

  “He’ll be fine,” a familiar voice said from behind them.

  Maude whipped around to see her brother—in his human form!—walking out from the forest. He wore his hiking outfit of brown trousers and sturdy boots, and had a small pack slung over one shoulder.

  “Gerhardt!” she cried. She ran over and threw her arms around her brother, squeezing him so tightly her arms ached. She took a step back and blinked her tears away. Gerhardt was safe! “I was terrified you would be stuck a stag forever. Were you hurt in the battle?”

  “Just a few scratches and bruises,” he said. “And I’m pleased to prove your worries about me were for naught.” He nodded to the collection of glass bottles. “Roderick went on and on about these. All you have to do is pull the stopper from each one, and the people inside will return to their normal forms in exactly the same spot as when he cast the spell that transformed them.” He grinned. “Although it is probably a good thing that you opened the box containing the inn first. I’m not exactly sure what would have happened if the order had been reversed.”

  Tom picked up a bottle and uncorked it, and then grabbed another. He shot Maude a smile so warm it made her heart thump.

  “I’ll free everyone,” Tom said. “You two have had to deal with enough for one day.”

  Maude laid her hand on her brother’s arm. “I am so happy you’re okay,” she said.

  “So am I,” Gerhardt said. “But I’m even more glad that you’re safe.”

  “How did you turn back to your human form?” she asked.

  “Roderick left the counter-spell in a jar in the forest,” Gerhardt said. “He placed it high up in the crook of a tree, and made me watch him put it there, knowing that while I could easily reach the jar and open it as a human, there was no way I could reach it as a stag.” He grinned. “But the mechanical bird you made could.”

  “But how did you reprogram the bird without any tools—or fingers?” she asked.

  “It had been set to find you,” he said. “Once I dropped Tom off, hoping he would be able to release you, I picked the bird up in my mouth and carried it back to the tree where Roderick had put the counter-spell. I flipped the switch to make the bird find me instead of you. It became confused, since I was right there, and flew in circles around me until it knocked the jar over. I shattered the glass with my antlers, released the counter-spell, and then I transformed back to my human shape again. My clothes and pack were still where they’d fallen off w
hen I’d been transformed to a stag’s shape, so I found them without any trouble.”

  “I’m glad I thought to bring the bird along,” Maude said. She squeezed Gerhardt’s arm.

  “We’re safe because you mixed a tiny bit of work with vacation,” he said. He grinned and waggled an eyebrow. “I think I’ve earned the right to do the same, and would like to discuss why we should switch to copper wire for our next project.”

  “So I did,” Maude said. She chuckled and shook her head. “That seems fair. Perhaps we can discuss your proposal at dinner.”

  She turned to watch Tom. He picked up bottle after bottle, pulling the stoppers and freeing the people who had been trapped inside. Each one floated in the direction of the inn. She and Gerhardt still had most of their vacation left, and it would be fun to explore the forest and the mountains—as long as they gave the underground palace a wide berth.

  Perhaps Tom would be interested in joining them.

  * * *

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  I wanted to base my story on a fairy tale in which the main character was a woman who took action and didn’t wait for things to happen. Finding a quest fairy tale like this proved to be a bit of a challenge until I came across “The Glass Coffin,” a Sleeping Beauty-type tale collected by The Brothers Grimm. The protagonist in their version is a man who ends up in the right place at the right time, frees a lovely maiden who has been imprisoned in a glass box by a magician, and of course she rewards him with her hand in marriage. What caught my attention was that before being captured, the woman had resisted the magician’s advances, and fought him—even after the magician turned her brother into a stag. She had exactly the type of determination and strength that I’d been looking for, so I wrote my story from her point of view.

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR