Once Upon the End (Half Upon a Time) (17 page)

CHAPTER 34

T
he ground shook every few seconds now. The air smelled of rotten meat and mountains of sweat-covered clothing. And shadows fell across the entire land as the fireball that was the sun was blotted out entirely.

The giants had arrived.

Phillip stood with his back to a chimney on the roof of a farmhouse as the first six slowly walked toward him, spread out with hundreds of feet between each one. He was alone, of course. Penelope had tried to come with him, but he had made her promise to stay back.

If he failed, after all, someone needed to go find May and bring her home.

“HUNGRY!” shouted the closest giant.

“EAT!” shouted another.

“KILL!” shouted a third.

A mile or two behind them, the seventh giant, this one towering over the others as if they were children, laughed. “You’ll get your fill, boys!” the seventh giant shouted, his voice traveling all the way to Phillip’s ears clearly. “Just make sure you leave the thief to me!”

That one would be trouble. But the first six were the primary concern.

But he still needed to wait.

The ground shook again and again, and as the giants approached, Phillip had to hold tight to the chimney to avoid being shaken right off the roof. Another few seconds, and they’d be in place. All he had to do was wait and make sure he wasn’t seen.

“Watch out that they’re not hiding in the houses there,” the seventh giant shouted.

Phillip sighed, then stepped out from behind the chimney.

Not two hundred feet away, a giant with a fire-red beard and hair stumbled backward in surprise. “HUMAN!” he yelled, and Phillip watched as the surprise turned to eagerness. It only took thirty seconds, which was quick for a giant. “EAT THE HUMAN!”

“Eat the human, yes,” Phillip said quietly, holding his arms out, his sword still at his side. The seventh one was too far back to see what was happening, which was fortunate, as this never would have worked otherwise. If it even worked to begin with.

The red-haired giant grinned and slowly reached down for Phillip, licking his lips. Off to either side, Phillip heard the other giants shouting about their own human treats, and from the corner of his eye, he watched five other giants reaching down to various houses with various soldiers waiting as well.

“TASTY HUMAN,” the red-haired giant said, and Phillip braced himself. The hand descended, growing to the size of a small cottage, and he could see entire feet of dirt beneath the creature’s fingernails.

“Very tasty!” Phillip told it. “Better hurry or I’ll get away!”

The message took a few seconds to reach the giant’s brain, but when it did, the giant redoubled its efforts and bent over the house, his hand spread wide to grab the tasty human.

Just as the hand came within a few feet of Phillip, the roof opened up, and the prince fell right through.

The giant’s hand followed, reaching right into the farmhouse after the disappearing prince.

“NOW!” Phillip shouted as he fell toward a large pile of hay on the floor of the farmhouse. The sewn cord noose hidden within the farmhouse’s walls pulled tight, trapping the giant’s hand just as Phillip slammed into the hay below.

“PULL!” he shouted, throwing himself out of the hay toward the barn door. Above him, the cord yanked hard, and the hand followed Phillip right out the barn doors.

Outside, teams of horses and riders galloped out of the haystacks they’d been hiding within, each one attached by a smaller cord to the large cord holding the giant’s hand. And just as was happening in five other farmhouses, Phillip’s horses all ran off toward the castle, yanking the giant forward.

The scream behind him was so loud, Phillip almost lost his footing as he ran, but he knew he did not have time to trip. The giant’s falling body would take exactly fifteen seconds to hit the ground, and anything on that ground would be crushed to a pulp. Phillip planned on being nowhere close.

But while the other five volunteers all ran sideways, out of the way of their falling giants, Phillip ran forward, toward the legs of his redheaded, toppling giant.

The giant’s collapse exploded a tidal wave of earth in every direction, and Phillip watched it coming as he sprinted toward the giant’s feet, then jumped at the last possible moment to avoid whatever he could. The earth leapt up to meet his feet and pushed him higher, sending him flying into the air.

Fortunately, this was not his first toppled giant, and he flipped in midair, then landed carefully on the ever-shifting ground, still running as quickly as he could.

Wave after wave of earth came rushing at him as the other five giants hit, destroying the farms of far too many of his people but never even slowing him down.

There was no time, after all. The seventh giant had already seen what was happening, and though Phillip often lost sight of the monster in the trees, the giant’s quick footsteps told him what was happening.

“I told you all to watch out!” the giant shouted. “The thief did this! He will pay, I will ensure it!”

“It was not the thief!” Phillip shouted, and climbed as quickly as he could up the nearest, tallest tree. He stood at the very top on two fairly sturdy branches and waved his arms at the approaching giant. “It was ME!”

The giant slowed its run and stared down at the insect-size human waving at him. “You smell of the thief, but you are not him . . . or of his blood, like the other one,” the monster said. “I have no time for you!”

“I just killed six of your kind,” Phillip told him. “One more, and I match my father’s record. Face me, if you are no coward!”

The giant stared down at him, then laughed. “Perhaps the thick air down here has clouded my mind, little human, but I guess a quick snack won’t turn my appetite.”

The others didn’t know the plan here. He had let Penelope and his mother both believe that they would capture all seven giants the same way. But they would not. Jack’s father had known this, and together they had come up with a plan.

Unfortunately, the plan needed someone to act as bait.

Phillip watched as the giant reached down for him, and he remembered the past few months, wondering when he would sacrifice himself for May, protecting her from the Wicked Queen or some other imagined evil.

But instead he had chosen his people. And for his people, he would make the ultimate sacrifice.

This time Phillip didn’t jump. This time he let the giant grab him, lift him hundreds of feet into the air, and swallow him whole.

CHAPTER 35

T
his was it. The Huntsman had come, and everything was happening exactly like the Story Book pages said. Jack watched and listened, glancing at the pages every few minutes even though he had them memorized now.

“Mmph!” the old man said from behind him, not really able to say much with the cloth tied around his mouth.

Jack sighed. “I really am sorry about this. I’ll cut you free right before I go, okay? There’s just a lot going on here, and I couldn’t have you telling people I was here.”

“Mmph,” the old man said, making Jack feel even worse.

“You know, this house is about to be very abandoned,” Jack told him. “Well, after it’s searched by seven dwarfs. Whatever you want in it, you should take. You know, to say sorry. In fact, just take the whole house!”

The old man stared at him suspiciously.

“No, seriously!” Jack whispered as he heard the Wicked Queen hurry down the stairs. He quickly checked his pages and realized that right about now, May would be getting surprised by the seven dwarfs. Part of him had to fight the urge to run up and help her. A big part.

Then, something exploded, rocking the entire house, and he knew May would be down soon either way.

“That the best you’ve got, Your Majesty?” shouted a man’s voice. “How long have you been saving that one up?” Jack glanced out the gap in the door leading to the living room and could see the Huntsman grinning at the Wicked Queen.

“You have no idea what you’re doing, Sebastian,” the Wicked Queen said. “This is beyond your understanding. You
must
leave me here!”

“Funny,” the Huntsman said. “I remember you ordering me to bring you Snow White’s heart, and I didn’t do that, either. But my family is already
cursed
, my lady. What else could you possibly punish a betrayal with now?”

“I was not . . . the same person,” the Queen said. “If you take me back there, the shadows will return, and I can’t be held responsible for what I do.”

“Too bad you broke the Mirror, my lady,” the Huntsman said. “Otherwise, the Wicked Queen would have seen me coming, wouldn’t she?”

“I tell you truthfully, that person no longer exists,” the Queen said quietly. “But there’s enough of her left to deal with
you
if you don’t leave
now
!” Tiny, pathetic little sparks of lightning passed between her fingers, intimidating no one.

Jack glanced at the old man, whose eyes were about as big as dinner plates. Jack just nodded with understanding. “You think that’s all weird, I should tell you about a witch and her house of candy sometime,” he whispered.

Upstairs, the dwarfs attacked May, and her shouts distracted the Queen long enough for the Huntsman to slap huge iron chains on her wrists. The sad sparks of lightning immediately disappeared, and the Huntsman smiled. “Looks like you’re all out,” he said, and fastened chains around her legs as well, then to her neck.

From upstairs, seven familiar-looking dwarfs carried down a struggling May, presenting her to the Huntsman like a gift.

“And who might you be, girlie?” the Huntsman said, a combination of confusion and amusement playing over his face.

May proceeded to share some names with the Huntsman, but none of them were hers, and none of them bore repeating.

The Huntsman gave her a look of admiration, then shouted at the dwarfs. “Get her back to the palace, or I’ll have your axes! Then find that crown; we need it to use the Mirror!”

The Queen struggled, but the Huntsman just picked her up and threw her over his shoulder like she weighed nothing. He said something Jack couldn’t hear that sounded suspiciously like magic, and a blue fire portal opened on the wall behind the Huntsman. Through the portal lay a tunnel, just like Jack had seen in the Story Book, at the end of which waited a woman.

Rapunzel. It was Rapunzel at the end of the tunnel.

Knowing that six months ago would have changed so much.

“Leave her behind, she’s no one important!” the Queen shouted.

The Huntsman laughed. “If you care that much, the girl’s definitely coming along.” He started off into the portal, followed closely behind by the dwarfs carrying May.

The dwarfs would be coming back, so the portal would stay open. Jack waited in the house, knowing what was coming next.

One of the dwarfs tripped a bit in the fire tunnel, and May kicked out, throwing the lot of dwarfs right off balance. One tipped into the next, and May fell to the portal floor. She seemed confused, but the dwarfs leapt for her, so May backed away, then dove through the side of the fire tunnel, disappearing.

“You worthless axe-grinders!” the Huntsman yelled. “Can’t you do anything right?!”

The dwarfs looked from one to the other, then shrugged. “Who cares?” one said, this one a bit grumpier than the others. “She was just a girl. The Mirror is all that matters. Without it, we’ll never find a way to save Snow.” The grumpy dwarf turned around and walked back toward Jack. “Come, brothers. We need the crown, not some human girl.”

The Huntsman swore, then sprinted down the tunnel with the Queen, who watched everything without a word. Jack hid so the dwarfs could pass by, but he couldn’t stay long . . . their search would eventually lead them to him and the old man, given that they weren’t going to find the crown, currently hidden in May’s pocket in a note from her grandmoth—from the Wicked Queen.

“I’m going to let you go,” Jack told the old man. “Just run out the front door and don’t come back for at least a day or two. By then, the dwarfs will be back at the Palace of the Snow Queen, where we’ll find them later, and the Wolf King will fight them as we . . . well, that’s not really important.”

The man just stared at him.

“Right,” Jack said, cutting through the old man’s bonds but leaving the cloth over his mouth. “Now let’s go!”

With that, the two ran out of the small closet they’d been hiding in, and Jack whipped the front door open and gave the old man a friendly shove out it, then went for the blue fire tunnel—

Only to immediately jump back into the closet as the Huntsman strode purposefully back toward the point in the tunnel May had escaped through. The enormous man stopped, examining the area carefully, then nodded and stepped through at the same point May had.

Jack gave the Huntsman as much time as he could, then, hearing at least one dwarf heading back his way, sprinted into the tunnel and dove through in the exact same spot May had fallen.

He hit the ground hard and, for a moment, wondered if he would have to kiss himself awake. The moment passed, and Jack picked himself up off a road he hadn’t seen for half a year.

“Another one?” said a gruff voice behind him, then whoever it was gasped. “Jack?!”

Jack turned around to find his grandfather staring at him. “But . . . you just left!” the old man said. “And you look so . . . different!” And then his grandfather’s mouth dropped. “NO. An Eye? NO!” He shook his head, his beard tossing around wildly. “I kept you hidden from all that! You were never meant to follow your mother’s path!”

“Just forget I was ever here, Grandpa,” Jack told the man, struggling not to hug him. It had been so
long
!

“But . . . how?”

“I can’t say,” Jack told him. “But you said I just left? With the princess, right?”

Jack looked at the ground beside him to find Robert, the boy who’d bullied him his entire life, still lying unconscious, first from Jack’s knee in his face, then from Jack’s grandfather hitting the boy over the head with a food tray. The food still littered the ground, and Jack couldn’t help but smile. “I really
did
just leave, didn’t I.”

A clicking noise made him turn back to his grandfather, who was holding what looked to be a dagger-size sword that slowly grew into a full-size weapon. “I promised myself you’d never join her, Jack,” the old man said, aiming his weapon at Jack. “I
promised
. Your sister was a lost cause, but you . . . you were different.” He sniffed loudly, and Jack realized the old man was crying. “I thought you could redeem our whole family, boy! I thought you were
better
than this!”

And with that, his grandfather swung his sword, and Jack had no choice but to block it with his own sword, which once more glowed eerily in the dying light. The glow lit the tears on his grandfather’s cheeks, and Jack sighed, then put his sword back in its sheath.

“Sit down, Grandpa,” he said. “We need to talk.”

And with that, he showed the old man what was in the Queen’s wooden box.