Forgotten Magic

Chapter 32

I woke up stiff and with a sword pointed at my throat. Not ideal.

"What did you do with the queen?" Nickolas's voice demanded.

"What?" I asked. "Nothing! I think I passed out with her!"

"Oh, clever," he snaps. "Tell the truth. We can stay here all night."

"Oh great," I rolled my eyes. "What do you think I did with the queen?"

"Oh, how would I know?"

I sighed. "This is gonna be a waste of time. So I think we can head down to the throne room and see what's going on"-I could hear some shouting from that direction-"or we could waste our time here."

He sheathed his sword and dragged me out of the chair, saying "Shoot, I'm late."

I was pulled all the way down to the large, golden thrown room filled with what seemed like a mob.

"Citizens!" King Fredrick calls. "Please! Listen to me!"

Maximus neighs, silencing most of the crowd. Nickolas and I make our way to the front where he whispers something to Stan.

"I will not lie to you any longer," the king declares. "Corona is in grave danger. The queen has been taken. Over half our royal guard lay wounded. And these black rocks draw ever closer."

His announcement causes more outrage amongst the citizens.

"But I look at you," he adds, "and I don't just see subjects. I see friends. Family. Strong, brave individuals who have stood by each other's side and have never ever backed down from a fight. Today we face a challenge like none before. As your king, your friend, and as your brother, I ask you to fight one more time! For Corona!"

"For Corona!" everyone echoed.

And I just watch, certain something was going to go wrong with this. Something very wrong indeed.

. . .

As everyone begins to file out of the courtyard, I pull away from Nickolas and run towards the princess. He didn't chase after me. In fact, I though he'd just seen something quite startling.

"Princess!" I call.

She stops, and the king eyes me apprehensively.

"Let me come with you," I plead. "I know Varian better than anyone. I know what's happened to him. I know the way around his lab. I can help you."

"I-I don't know," Rapunzel stammers, glancing at her father. "Dad?"

The king sighs. "What do you think?"

A confident smile crossed the blonde's face. "Yes. Ann, you can come with us."

I smile in thanks. "Let's go."

. . .

"Varian's lab should be right above us,' Rapunzel whispers. We had traveled through some underground tunnels under Old Corona while the others approached from above. The same tunnels that Varian had built the boilers in. The ones that I thought had collapsed.

After scaling a conveniently placed ladder, the two started of them to approach a Varian shaped silhouette at the window. Varian didn't have pants that went much farther than his knees. Either he was trying to throw us off and he would turn around at the last second and trap us...or...

"What is this?!" King Fredrick asks in frustration. There's some clunking, and some raccoon traps soon leave our feet stuck to the ground.

A dark chuckle approaches us and a staff is swung into view, bathing Varian's sinister smile in lime green light.

'Welcome back, Rapunzel."

At that moment, I hated him. I hated him so so much. How could he do this? How could he have done all this? It was wrong. That was something I'd never thought before, but I knew it was true. What he was doing, no matter how desperate he was, was wrong.

"Varian, I demand you release us. And tell me where the queen is," King Fredrick orders, glaring daggers at the scrawny alchemist who's locked Pascal in a cage.

"Your majesty," he begins, much more than a hint of sarcasm dripping from his voice, "I know it's hard for you, but for the first time in your life, you are in no position to demand anything."

He walks over and calmly picks up Shadows from my shoulders. She ended up in a cage too, hissing her threats. Honestly I didn't understand why he'd given me my cat only to take her away again.

"But," he adds, "in the spirit of compromise, how 'bout I meet ya half way?"

He backs up and pulls away a curtain to reveal...

"Mom!"

It was Queen Arianna alright.

"I'm okay, Rapunzel," she assures her daughter.

"Let her go, Varian!" the princess begs. "Please!"

The alchemist puts himself between us and the queen. "First, you're going to do something for me."

"What do you want?" King Fredrick spits.

"Oh." Varian rolls his eyes. "So now you care about what I want? Haha!" He grabs the queen by the shoulders. "All it took was threatening the things you love the most." He gives the king a glare that could cut through black rock.

"Varian, please!" I yell, reaching out a hand. "This isn't right! Please! I know you." I can feel tears prick at my eyes. Not now, please not now. I thought I was angry at him, but now I was just...

"Yeah," he shrugs. "Well, you see the thing about that is..." He nods at Rapunzel. "she did too, and well..." He waved his hands about. "You can see where that put me."

I hated how simply he stated it.

"Varian, I know you! Not like Rapunzel, not like your dad! I know you! You're not like this. You want the best for the village! You don't want this war. You want to make your dad proud. Well will this make him proud? Varian, I know this-"

I'd taken one step too far.

"Shut up!"

Glass shattered against the wall behind me.

"You don't get to tell me what my dad thinks! You don't get to tell me what I want! You don't get to say you know me when YOU'VE BEEN GONE FOR FOUR WHOLE MONTHS!!!"

The glass got me frozen solid. I'd lost. Not like how I did before. I hadn't lost before. I'd run. But this was a true loss.

. . .

"What are you going to do, Varian?" King Fredrick asks as the alchemist pushes over an invention covered with cloth.

"Yeah, I-I'll spare you the details about the Sundrop and darkness, blah blah blah, and get to the good stuff." He pulls off the cloth to reveal what I can only describe as a drill.

"Unbreakable." He taps some black rocks protruding from the floor. "Unbreakable." He holds up Rapunzel's braid. "To put it plainly, with assistance from my drill, Rapunzel's hair should be able to shatter the amber and free my father."

"What do you mean 'should'?" the king demands.

"Well, I suppose it's just as likely the amber shatters Rapunzel, I mean the properties of her hair..." He mutters the last part.

"Absolutely not!"

"It's not your choice, dad," Rapunzel interjects.

Varian walks over and leans against the king's chest, saying to his face, "She's right, dad." He then backs up, pulling a vial from the pocket of his apron. "Oh! And I almost forgot, we're kind of on a time crunch here, so I'm gonna need to speed things along." He uncorks the glass container and pours the glowing liquid onto the rocks near the queen. And do you want to know what grows from that serum? Honey colored amber.

"Varian, stop!"

"Well." He lets Rapunzel go. "Shall we get started?"

I was frozen in shock. In shock at how a boy so kind, so loving, could turn into the ruthless monster I saw before me.