The skid of feet on grass confirmed Marzell had arrived.
“Snow White!” Angelique slapped the princess’ cheeks, trying to get any reaction out of her.
Snow White didn’t stir.
Aldelbert popped out of the trees and sprinted to Angelique, his normally dopey expression tight with alarm and concern. “What happened?”
“Faina.” Angelique released her magic, feeling lost.
I don’t know what to do! I can’t find anything wrong with her!
She shook her head, then made herself glance up at Aldelbert. “I don’t know entirely what happened, but she put some sort of spell on her.”
Wendal popped out of the trees, shoving branches out of his way. “Is she still breathing?”
“Yes.”
Marzell—who’d been frozen like a statue—finally lurched into motion when Oswald and Rupert joined the group.
Gregori emerged from the woods behind them. “You said it was Faina?”
“She must have approached Snow White disguised as an old woman. I saw her drop her illusion as I came around the cottage.” Angelique impatiently pushed her jagged hair out of her face with a dirty hand.
“You say she put a spell on her?” Marzell asked.
Angelique helplessly stared at the deathly-still princess. “I can’t tell what—if we’re lucky, it might be a curse. Those are easier to alter.”
“But how could the Queen do such a thing?” Rupert crouched on Snow White’s other side and scanned the princess. “She hasn’t any magic.”
Wendal grimly pinched his daggers between his fingers. “The rogue mage controlling her?”
Gregori shook his head. “If that were the case, would the mage have not come here on their own rather than risk sending Faina?”
His words stirred an alarm in Angelique. There was a pearl of truth to them.
But the mage must have cast the spell through Faina. Snow White didn’t get this spell on her as a souvenir!
Marzell rubbed his eyes. “There must be a way to save her. There has to be. Was there anything else you noticed?”
Angelique sat back on her heels and stared at the spell. “Nothing that will help us wake Snow White up,” she said bitterly. “Only further proof that our own inaction with the Chosen may be the end of us yet.”
Marzell cocked his head. “What?”
“We should get Snow White inside,” Gregori said.
Marzell ran his hands through his hair. “Yes. If we can assess the situation, we might be able to figure out whom to send for.”
“I should be able to pin down what sort of enchantment was placed upon her,” Angelique said.
I don’t care if saying that is as good as admitting I am more than an herb wizard’s apprentice. Snow White is far more important than any disguise.
Angelique pressed her lips together and stared at the gray spell. “But it will take me a little while.”
“Please, do whatever you can. Aldelbert, Wendal, take Snow White inside,” Marzell said.
Aldelbert eased his arms under Snow White and carefully lifted her up, almost stepping on an apple piece left on the lawn.
The princess hung limply in his arms, resembling a lifeless doll.
“Rupert, Oswald, search the area,” Marzell said.
The normally ornery duo dashed into the forest, heading in opposition directions.
“Faina is gone.” Angelique leaned against the cottage for support as she felt a weariness settle all the way to her soul. “She used magic to leave.”
“Perhaps, but we’re taking no chances. Not after we’ve already—” Marzell abruptly cut off and took a deep breath before he pivoted, facing away from Angelique. “Gregori, can you stand guard outside the cottage—and prep a horse so we can send for help?”
Gregori nodded, then jogged off to the stables.
Angelique squared her shoulders and started to step into the dimly lit cottage, but paused in the door. “Fritz?”
Marzell’s furrowed brow was craggy with worry. “He’s still at least a day or two away.”
Angelique unsteadily sucked in a breath of air and stepped into the cottage. I’m going to rip this spell apart. I have to!
Angelique scrunched her brow, her eyebrows sinking so low it became harder to see. No matter what angle she looked at it from, she couldn’t make sense of the spell cast on Snow White.
She’d meticulously gone over the symbols used in the spell and the way the strands of it were arranged. With the exception of one or two symbols, the entire thing flummoxed her.
It’s brutish. While it’s twisted with the tang of dark magic, it is also fundamentally cast and created in a different way than the spellwork I was taught.
Shaping her core magic and twisting it into a usable spell was delicate work with lots of specifics to it. The spell cast on Snow White was almost primitive in comparison. It had fewer lines of spell work and used a much smaller variety of symbols, but Angelique didn’t recognize them at all!
Two of the symbols looked familiar. Arranged in that particular pattern, they were used to put the target of the spell into a deep sleep. (Angelique was particularly familiar with them given all the meddling she had done in the curse that made the Princess of Sole fall into a deep sleep.)
It wasn’t a perfect match to those symbols, but Angelique felt confident enough in it given Snow White’s condition.
Sleeping didn’t sound so bad. But unfortunately, due to the shortness of the spell and the way the strands of it crisscrossed—or didn’t—Angelique was confident the spell didn’t include anything that would support Snow White’s body during the sleep. In fact, based on the dark symbols liberally swirled in among the gray, it seemed the spell was set to deteriorate Snow White’s health as time passed.
This isn’t just black magic. It’s got some of that in there, but more than pure black magic, it just seems extremely powerful and ancient.
Angelique tried pinching a few strands of the spell, desperately looking for a spot that wouldn’t be dangerous to cut through. But the deterioration part of the spell likely meant it would instantly kill Snow White if Angelique altered it at the wrong place.
“Magic take it!” Angel snapped.
Marzell paused his nervous pacing. “What is it?”
Angelique planted her palms on the table—which was covered in a few blankets and had been converted into a makeshift bed for Snow White—and peered over the princess, trying in vain to scrutinize the spell once more. “This is the one time—the one time—I want it to be a curse so I can patch in a stupid ‘true love’s first kiss’ fix. But it’s not a ruddy curse!”
“I don’t understand,” Marzell said. “Can’t you tell what is doing this to her?”
“I can, of a sort. But it’s not good news. It’s a spell that has placed her in a deep sleep.” Angelique shoved her purposely-poorly-cut hair out of her face.
“And that is worse than a curse?” Some of the tightness in Marzell’s shoulders eased a little—because he didn’t yet understand how dire the situation really was.
Why did I leave her in the cottage? I should have helped her with those stupid mushrooms!