Debra L. Rollins - Revenge For the Huntsman

The waltz ended on a graceful note and Wendell reluctantly relinquished Cierce’s hand to that of her cousin’s. He didn’t particularly care for the tall chap, but sometimes you had to take the good with the bad. Cierce was in Lord Llort’s care, so put up with the oaf he must… at least for the time being.

“It is hot in here, is it not?” simpered Cierce, cooling herself with a matching fan that came with the gown she wore. “Perhaps Your Highness would be so kind as to allow my cousin and I to tour your castle whilst I cool off?”

“I wouldn’t mind at all, my dear Lady Lupine,” Wendell stared awestruck at the vision before him. Cierce fluttered her fan over her bodice, drawing his attention to her ample bosom. “In fact, I would be honored to host your tour myself. That is, of course, if you don’t mind the intrusion?”

Cierce’s eyes lit up as her plan for the king to join them succeeded. Now all she and Burly had to do was to keep their eyes out for this magic mirror. Once located, they would sneak back later and enter the dimension to find the half-wolf and the girl, Virginia.

Seemingly endless corridors greeted the trio as they made their way up and down the wings of the castle, touring libraries, galleries and countless private suites famous for their previous occupants. None held the traveling mirror, much to the disappointment of Cierce. Burly on the other hand was ready to give up and throttle Wendell into giving them the exact location of the mirror when Tony turned the corner of the corridor.

Burly recognized Virginia’s father in an instant and whispered to Cierce to be on her guard. Tony appeared upset about something as he motioned to Wendell that he wanted to talk in private, much to the chagrin of the other two.

“Will you excuse me, Lady Lupine, Lord Llort…?” Wendell asked. “I must see what is wrong with my friend, Anthony.”

“But of course, Your Highness,” agreed Cierce, batting her eyelashes coyly. “You must see to your friend. It must be of the utmost importance as he appears to be quite upset about something.”

“Please return to the ballroom and stay there until I get back. I shan’t be long. Promise?” Wendell pleaded while he kissed her hand lingeringly.

Burly nearly went through the roof. He had enough of these nicey-nice, kissey manners. He wanted to grab both the disgusting little king and the little witch’s dad and create some real Troll damage. He knew he could make them talk. He had training from the best…his dad. His body jerked forward, his fingers itching to grab hold of Wendell and…in that instant Cierce blocked his path, forcing him to stop.

“I would love nothing better, my dear King Wendell than to wait for your return, no matter how long it takes.”

Wendell turned and nearly ran to Tony, motioning him inside an empty room and shut the door.

“No matter how long it takes! No matter how long it takes!” Burly mimicked. “How revolting can you get? Wendell is nothing but a puny, pasty-faced, wimpy human. Let me make him talk. I’ll beat the location of the mirror out of him, then I’ll carve that witch’s dad up until he tells me where she’s hiding!”

“Nonsense, you fool! The only thing that will happen is that we’ll end up in the castle dungeons for the next one hundred years.” Cierce searched the hall near the door Wendell and Tony had disappeared behind. “There, that settee is close enough to the room they are in. Quickly! I must set down and concentrate.”

“What are you doing?” barked Burly, as she positioned herself comfortably on the bench and closed her eyes. “Taking a nap? How’s that going to help find the mirror?”

Cierce glowered at him, her eyes turning an icy-blue, causing Burly to shiver.

“Quiet, you idiot! If I am still and concentrate hard enough, I can hear their conversation. Wolves have acute hearing you know. Perhaps I can get some idea of where the mirror is being hid.”

“Ahhh, smart! Very devious. You think like a Troll,” grinned Burly.

“Hardly,” she sniffed, then went back to concentrating on the two men behind the thick door. A faint mumbling, then two masculine voices sharpened in her ears as Cierce listened silently.

“I may have found her, Anthony,” said the voice she recognized as the king. “She’s perfect so far! She’s beautiful, graceful, smart and…well, there’s something unusual about her that I can’t put my finger on. I can’t seem to concentrate on anything but her when she’s anywhere close by. What do you think, Anthony?”

“I think you’re losing it. It’s much too soon for you to decide anyway. Take your time. I, on the other hand, have a real crisis going on.”

“Whatever has happened?”

“It’s Wolf. He’s taken off by himself back to New York without Virginia.”

“Whatever for?”

“I don’t know.” Tony ran a hand over his face in frustration. “What do I look like…a mind-reader? Look, I think Wolf is upset about Virginia not telling me about the baby. I don’t know, maybe he thinks he’s not good enough for her or something. Then to top it off, some bozo looks down his uppity nose at him and practically tells him he’s not good enough to be here. But whatever the reason, Virginia’s in her room right now changing her clothes to go back and find him and…so am I.”

“You’re going too? Wendell asked, a bit surprised. “I thought you didn’t care much for Wolf?”

“Well, I guess he tends to grow on you after a while and besides, Virginia loves him and that’s what really counts.”

“That and the fact that she’s carrying his child?” Wendell asked curiously.

“Yeah, that too.”

Virginia changed into her New York street clothes and stuffed the last of her toiletries into her backpack when Tony and King Wendell arrived at her suite.

“You ready?” Tony asked her.

Virginia glanced around the beautiful room with its huge four-poster bed, despairing of precious time lost with Wolf during his stay in the dungeons while he rode out the full moon’s power over him. They could have shared memorable moments in a room like this that would have lasted a lifetime. Now, unless she could find him and sort out what was wrong between them, she feared he would be lost to her forever. She touched her abdomen with caressing fingers. Wolf, for whatever his reasons to return without her, owed her an explanation. She would find him, even if it meant searching the whole of New York City. Her spine stiffened with resolve.

“I’m ready, Dad.”

Cierce and Burly watched silently from around the corner of the hallway as Wendell turned the key, effectively locking the gold embossed door that Tony, Virginia and he had disappeared into not five minutes prior. Wendell rattled the knob, checking that the door was secure to his liking, then popped the key into his breast pocket and headed off, they presumed, to reunite with his “special guests” in the ballroom.

Three went in…only one came out. Was this the room they searched for? Cierce thought with excitement, causing her blue eyes to glow with a force of their own. There was only one way to find out.

“Come on, Troll. This must be the room we seek. But go quietly, I do not wish to engage in a fight with Wendell’s royal guards this late in the game. There is too much at stake…for both of us.”

She turned and glanced up at Burly who had been watching the trio over her shoulder the whole time. He had been unusually quiet for a Troll…that was until she noticed the glazed look in his eyes. Hound’s tooth! The transformed Troll was standing too close to her again. Her scent was affecting his reasoning. She boxed his ears sharply, snapping Burly out of his aphrodisiac coma. Cierce had suspected that the transformation Burly underwent to human was slowly overtaking his Troll senses. He too, was becoming more and more susceptible to her “animal magnetism” as time progressed. That was dangerous. He had enough liabilities as a Troll, let alone a moon-faced faced human. Their quest became even more dangerous and the possibility of failure loomed even greater. The mirror was tantalizingly close, too close to risk losing the chance to retrieve Wolf and regaining her freedom at long last. Better to lose the Troll once inside the Tenth Kingdom and bring back the half-wolf to her mistress by herself.

Burly blinked hard twice and shook his head to clear the pain of her cuffing.

“Why did you do that for?” he roared loudly.

“Will you keep quiet? The guards will hear and come to investigate,” Cierce shushed him. She pointed to the door. “There, that door…do you think you can get it open without tearing it off its hinges?”

“Yeah! Dad taught us all there was to know about picking locks. He always used to say: “You never know when a lock's going to need opening without the owner to torture into doing it for you, so a good Troll is a prepared Troll.”

Cierce watched, her features showing plainly her revulsion as Burly proceeded to whip out a needle, used primarily on leather, but sufficed as a lock pick if needed, so long and large were its proportions. He tinkered a few minutes on the lock until a telling “click” heralded his victory.

Quickly they swept inside, shutting the door behind them and locked it again. It was now well after midnight and the room was dark. Burly felt his way for a candle or lantern, muttering an oath as he racked his knee against the edge of a table. A crash and the tinkle of glass sounded like thunder to their ears as he grabbed the candelabra on the table and lit it with matches from his pocket. The room grew rosy, glowing softly from the flickering candles, casting shadows across the room.

“Suck an Elf!” he groaned as he collapsed on a settee against the wall, rubbing his knee woefully.

“Will you be still?” Cierce hissed. “Sssh! Someone’s coming!”

Burly and Cierce held their breath as footsteps stopped right outside the door. They watched as the knob turned slightly, then rattled as someone tried to make their way inside. The pair prepared to do battle, Burly happily grabbing a heavy chair and Cierce, hackles raised, bared her teeth, ready to lunge for the first person to walk through the door.

There was a pregnant pause, then the footsteps faded away.

Cierce breathed a sigh of relief. She certainly did not wish to be caught in such an awkward position just when they were so close. Burly, on the other hand, looked very disappointed as he placed the chair back on the floor. They glanced about the room for the first time, spotting the tall mirror almost immediately. It had been turned off, but Madam Tatler had warned them that it might have a secret way to turn it on again. Her slender fingers caressed the gold leaf, probing for the catch. Surprisingly, she found it quite easily; stepping back into Burly’s lean form as a picture formed tall buildings and bright lights in its framework, startling her.

His arms came down around her waist, steadying her as they both stared transfixed at the picture before them.

“It’s beautiful,” she gasped, as the lights of New York City twinkled colorfully even in the hours of early morning. Never had she expected such a world existed, nor that she…a lowly wolf, would ever have the chance to explore such a wondrous place. It was…breathtaking.

“Nicey-nice,” said Burly, his voice low and more raspy than usual.

His voice broke the visual spell before her and she realized that his hands and arms still rested around her shoulders and waistline. Hastily she stepped away from his grasp, moving her person across the room until he could clear his head. This was becoming monotonous. She had to be rid of him…and soon. Rummaging through her handbag she pulled a small mirror out and called to her mistress.

Madam Tatler, her wrinkled face distorted by the mirror’s energy, appeared after a brief moment.

“Were you successful in your quest for the traveling mirror, Cierce?”

“Yes, we stand here before it as we speak. Apparently we have just missed a visit by your Wolf and his Virginia to King Wendell’s castle. No doubt they were invited to the ball, but apparently something ran awry, for they left quite early and in a hurry. The wolf left first alone, then the girl with her father. I am positive they returned to their dimension for the girl and her father entered the mirror room and never came back out.”

“Excellent!” cackled the old witch with glee. “Your journey towards your freedom is one-third of the way over. You have but to locate the half-wolf and bring him to me, only then shall I set you free!”

“Don’t forget the little witch!” Burly barked. “She must come back too!”

“Do not worry, Prince Burly,” Zenda responded, soothing him like a mother would a fretful child. “If she loves him, she will follow and you shall have your kingdom. Now, be off with you both and remember where you entered their dimension. If you lose your way in their world you shall never find your way home.”

The small mirror’s surface smoothed out once again, reflecting that of Cierce’s striking features. She dropped the mirror back into her handbag, not sure if the mistress would be able to reach them by the magic of her mirrors into the other dimension. Quite possibly, no contact would be made until their return…if they returned. If only she knew which way to go once they entered the unknown kingdom. She had no illusions of how hard tracking one she never met would be. She would have to rely on the Troll to point out the half-wolf when they ran across his path. That was, if the Troll could track him at all. If she had his actual scent, she could find him…it would be but a matter of time.

“Hey, what’s this?” Burly stepped on something soft underfoot and reached down to retrieve the object. “Ahhh, its just someone’s jacket and its not even leather. Much too flimsy if it’s not good leather.”

Cierce eyed the garment in the candlelight. A scent rose on the night air to her sensitive nostrils.

“Let me see that, Troll.”

She smelled the unwanted piece of clothing, a handsomely cut jacket…gray, with silver embossing. The scent was unmistakably wolfen…but not totally. There was human mixed in the scent. A half-breed. She smiled slowly. The luck of the full moon was with her today…she hoped it stayed that way.

“Well? Are you going to the Tenth Kingdom or what?” snarled Burly, impatient to be off and complete his quest. “We can’t let them get away!”

“That shan’t be a problem Prince Burly. No problem at all.” Cierce sidled up to Burly’s chest, her seductive smile freezing him where he stood, his chest straining to take a breath. He closed his eyes but a moment to break her spell and when he opened them, she was gone.

Cierce had entered the Tenth Kingdom without him.