Snow White and the Huntsman (14 page)

She moved through the trees, her hand clutching the knife. Anna was right behind her. Snow White could hear her feet pounding the earth. She thought again of that memory from so long ago. The little boy who’d climbed the apple tree with her, how his toy bow hung from his back. William. She’d seen traces of him in the young man’s face. They shared the same hazel eyes, the same smile. It finally hit her and she knew it was him. He was alive after all these years. But what was he doing in the village? How had he found her?

Snow White paused, glancing over her shoulder to look frantically for him once more. Anna and Lily had fallen back. Anna was hunched over a tree trunk, pulling a thorn
from Lily’s bare foot. The little girl was crying. Behind them, Snow White could see the destruction. The fire had spread. Most of the stilted houses were up in flames. Women darted through the trees. Melva, a young girl with freckles, flew past, clutching what was left of her belongings.

Then Snow White spotted Finn stalking up the bank, looking directly at her. “There!” he yelled to another soldier. He gestured for the mercenary to circle around.

Snow White turned to run, but someone grabbed her from behind. She slashed the air with a knife until she heard a familiar voice. “This way,” the Huntsman said. He pointed to a narrow path between trees. It snaked over the hill, to the east of the Dark Forest. “Come on!” Eric hissed.

“We have to help them!” She struggled against his grasp, trying to get to Anna and Lily. Maybe the Huntsman had abandoned them, but she couldn’t. She broke free and ran back, helping Anna up from the dirt.

Anna pushed her away. “You will,” she said. She pointed down the bank, to where Finn was less than fifty feet away. “Now go.”

Snow White looked into her face, realizing that Anna was serious. A mercenary was sprinting through the trees to their left. Finn was closing in. Snow White grabbed the Huntsman’s hand, and he pulled her through the woods, maneuvering down the dark path until the scene disappeared behind the thick undergrowth.

They darted through the trees. They covered mile upon mile, circling the shore of a giant lake, then moving east, to
where the forest thinned out. As the sun came up, the sounds of the battle were far behind them. Snow White finally stopped, her legs too tired to go any farther. She knelt down on the bank of a shallow stream.

Her hands were still trembling. She plunged them into the cold water, working the dried blood from her fingernails. The smell of smoke clung to her. She heard the women screaming even though the forest was calm, and the birds were silent above. She turned to the Huntsman, hating him right then. He’d
left
them. He’d slunk away in the black of night and left them. The women were defenseless against Finn’s men.

“Why did you come back?” she asked, standing to look him in the eye. “Why?”

Eric covered his face with his hands. “I led them there,” he said quietly. He was the one who’d brought Snow White to their village. He’d misjudged. He’d thought Finn’s men were farther off. Then, as he’d climbed the hill to leave, he’d seen the first arrow fly. He could smell the smoke, even a mile off.

“
I
am the one to blame.” His throat was tight, each word hard to get out. He should never have left her. It was just as it had been with Sara. He’d made a choice, and when he’d returned, it was already too late.

He covered Snow White’s hands with his. They were shaking. Her face was streaked with ash, and there was dry blood spatter on her arm—from what, he didn’t know. “I’ll take you to Duke Hammond’s,” he said. Whatever he faced
at the duke’s castle couldn’t be worse than what he felt now, seeing her like this.

She nodded, but said no more. He lay down on the bank, listening for the sound of hoofbeats in the forest. They could rest here for a few minutes—but not much more. The men would find their trail eventually. He closed his eyes, the exhaustion setting in. His body ached from the past few days. The wound in his side throbbed, the stitches pinching the skin. He felt more now without the grog. That hollow, numb feeling was gone. Was that a blessing or a curse? He couldn’t decide.

He looked up, watching the sunlight flicker through the trees. A shadow passed over him. He tried to stand when someone kicked him hard in the side. Another person nailed him in the face. He caught glimpses of small figures coming at him, some punching him, others rapping him with tree branches. They all wore carved wooden battle masks.

“Dwarves,” he muttered, knowing at once who they were. He tried to get to Snow White, but one of the nasty little things tied a rope around his ankles. Within seconds, he was being dragged across the bank. They strung him up by the legs. The world spun around him as he hung there, all the blood rushing to his face.

When he finally stopped spinning, he noticed Snow White on the ground beside him. Her arms were tied behind her back. The dwarves were lined up in front of him. They pushed their grotesque battle masks up onto their foreheads.

“Well, well, well … the miscreant Huntsman,” Beith said. He was the leader of them all and the nastiest, to boot. His
thick black hair came down in front, forming a giant
V
on his head.

“Come on, Beith.” Eric tried to laugh, narrowing his eyes at the little runt. “Is this how you treat a friend?” Anyone who’d traveled through the kingdom knew the dwarves. They hid in the woods, often getting drunk, ready to pick a fight with anyone who was willing. Eric was
always
willing.

Beith lunged at him, so close Eric could smell the toad guts on his breath. “No, you horn beast.” He grabbed a thick branch from off the ground. “
This
is how I treat a friend!” He struck him hard in the head.

“Stop it!” Snow White screamed. But the dwarves just chuckled.

Eric held his head in his hands, rubbing the tender spot where Beith had hit him. The little rodents were no more than three feet tall—stocky, stinky men with tangled hair and rotting teeth. Beith had a knotted black beard and clothes that were too big. His pants were held up with an old piece of rope. Eric spotted Muir, the blind dwarf, in the back. Nion was right beside him. He was the most spiteful of all. If it were up to him, the whole world would’ve been run by dwarves, with the tallsters there only to serve.

Snow White worked at the rope around her wrists. “What did you do to them?” she whispered as the men consulted one another about Eric.

Eric rubbed his face. He was getting dizzy. Everything looked strange upside down. “I tried to collect a bounty on their heads … a few times.”

The girl rolled her eyes at him. “Is there no one you haven’t wronged?”

He glanced at her, loving the way her nose scrunched up when she was angry. Technically there
was
one person—her. He would’ve said as much had Beith not turned and started after him, punching him hard in the stomach.

“This is my lucky day!” Beith yelled. “The puttock I loathe most in the world lands in my lap.”

“It is your lucky day, Beith,” Eric said, trying to sound light. Finn’s men would be here soon. He didn’t have time to argue about who had tried to sell whom to the Queen. Those were
minor
details. “I’ve got enough gold to keep you in ale for a year. Cut me down, and I’ ll—”

Nion clapped him on the ear. “Shut your ugly mug, Huntsman. You had any pennies, they would’ve fallen out of your pockets by now.” Eric clutched his head, which was throbbing now. The ringing hurt too much.

Eric let out a loud grunt. “Just tell me what I’ve done wrong.”

“Tell me what you’ve done
right
first,” Beith replied. Spit flew from his mouth as he spoke. Behind him, the youngest dwarf, Gus, was staring at Snow White as if she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. He smiled, revealing his crusty yellow teeth.

Eric pointed to the girl. “I saved her from the Queen.”

Beith shook his head. “Doesn’t sound like you, Huntsman.”

“People change,” Eric tried.

Nion smacked him on the ear again. “
People
—not ruttish swine.”

A few of the other dwarves broke out into an argument. Coll and Duir, who were always fighting with each other, went back and forth, trying to decide if they should kill Eric or leave him tied up, waiting to die.

“Let’s skewer him and leave her to rot!” Duir suggested. Eric hated the gleeful tone in his voice.

“No!” a voice called out from behind them. Muir, the elderly dwarf, came forward. His eyes were covered in a thin white film. “She is destined,” he continued. He held up one finger to silence them.

Eric remembered the blind man from another visit in the woods. The others listened when he spoke.

Beith turned back to the girl, studying her with a new curiosity.

“Do you hate the Queen?” Snow White asked, seizing the opportunity. “My father was King Magnus.”

The group settled down. Eric watched the girl, amused. It was the same boldness she’d shown in the Dark Forest. He was beginning to wonder if there was anyone she
wouldn’t
challenge.

Beith tilted his head to one side.

“If you accompany us to the duke’s castle, you will be paid handsomely,” Snow White went on. “Your weight in gold. Each of you.”

Duir looked Coll up and down, taking in his spindly arms and legs. “I get more than you,” he whispered, smacking his fat belly.

“True,” Coll replied. He stifled a heavy cough. “But
because of your size, you eat more and drink more, which costs more, so—”

“All right,” Beith interrupted. “We’ll take you, but the Huntsman can hang.” He cleared his throat, then hocked a giant glob of phlegm in the dirt beside Eric’s head.

“Both of us,” the girl said. She glanced sideways at Eric and nodded, as if to reassure him.

Beith stroked his black beard as if he was considering it. As they waited, Duir, one of the dwarves Eric had tried to sell, pointed to a spot on the horizon. Eric followed his gaze, noticing the silhouettes coming over the hill. It was Finn and the mercenaries. They were coming for them. “Those are the Queen’s men, Beith,” Eric said. He twisted and kicked, trying to free his feet. “Better decide quickly.”

“One dwarf’s worth a dozen tallsters,” Beith snapped. “I’ll take my time, thank you.” But then Beith glanced up at the hill. Ten more men appeared on horseback, their swords drawn. A few of the dwarves shrank away, already running from the sight.

“You were saying?” Eric asked, narrowing his eyes at the little man. He could barely see anymore. All the blood had rushed to his head, making his temples throb.

“Cut him down,” Beith said, signaling to Nion. “Move out!”

Gus helped Snow White out of her restraints. Nion freed Eric with one slash of his knife. Then they started down the hill, Eric and Snow White following behind the dwarves, crouching low to avoid being seen.

S
now White glanced up at the cave’s giant dome. Mineral water dripped down the rock walls. A thin stream of light came in from a hole in the ceiling, highlighting the clusters of bats hanging side by side, their wings folded around them. The thuds of hoofbeats sounded above. Finn’s army shouted across the forest. “I found a rope!” one man yelled. Then the horses changed direction, galloping off until the woods were silent again.

Duir and Coll pointed to a long tunnel in the side of the cave, signaling for the rest of them to follow. The dwarves filed in. They fit easily into the narrow passageway. Snow White hunched over, trying to make herself as small as possible, but her elbows still grazed the walls. She glanced over her shoulder, watching as the Huntsman shuffled in sideways.