Snow White and the Huntsman: Revenge From the Grave

Chapter 17

It took Hannah longer than she thought it would to find Eric and once she did she hesitated telling him because she was terrified of what he would do. Mustering her courage she approached him slowly in the smokehouse shed where she had finally found him talking to one of the castle cooks about a roast pig for supper.

"M.. mas... master Eric?" Her voice quaked with fear and trepidation.

Eric turned and saw a young woman, probably in her early teens that looked very familiar and would have been beautiful if not for a large birthmark on her face. He didn't remember seeing her before.

"Yes ma'am, may I help you?" He smiled at the girl reassuringly who was obviously terrified of him and he wondered what had made her find the courage to approach him.

"Sss.. Sir I have ta tell ye somethin'." Hannah took a deep breath to steady her nerves as the intimidating but handsome man stared at her.

Hannah rushed to tell him, spinning through the tale so fast she only paused to take a breath once in the telling of it. As she told the story, Eric's warm and open expression changed to one of dark foreboding, and though her hands shook, she managed to get it all out before she fainted dead away.

Eric stood in shock for a moment as the gravity of what this girl had just said sunk in. Like William and Malcolm before him, he took off with nothing but the safety and wellbeing of Snow at risk running through his mind leaving the stupid unconscious girl behind in the grass. He reached the front castle doors just as William came bursting through them and they nearly collided in their haste.

"Eric! She's gone! One of the serving maids said she thought she saw someone with Snow head out the west servants' door about ten minutes ago." William yelled this as he ran past Eric on his way to the stables for his horse.

Eric turned in midstride and ran after William trusting that Will wouldn't be leaving the castle if he thought there was a chance Snow was still in there.

They sent the stable lads scrambling as both men burst through the stable doors at the same time. Neither took the time to wait for a saddle, only threw a bridle over their mounts heads, pulled up onto the great beasts and roared out of the yards in under sixty seconds. The stable lads fell over themselves to watch the two men tear off toward the west, the wind whipping their hair behind them.

"Whad ya' think gots them in so hell fire a hurry?" One lad of about ten asked the rest.

"I don't rightly know, but whatever or whoever it be they'z after, I would'na want to be them when those two catch up wit' em." This from a gangly teen.

"Git back to work ya lazy varmits!" The voice of the stable master broke up their gathering and they each rushed to get their jobs done before they ended up getting their hides tanned for nothing.

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Malcolm was petrified. He had been hanging on for dear life for what seemed like hours and he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep himself from falling off the coach. To make matters worse both women seemed to be in some kind of screaming match with each other but neither of them saying any words, just screams and groans that terrified him to no end. At one point he thought there may have been some kind of struggle between the two women but it didn't last long because the screaming had started again. He prayed Eric or William would find them soon, because he wasn't sure even if he managed to hold on he was going to have the courage to come out from under this contraption.

Snow was panting and groaning on the floor of the coach, trying to keep as much dignity in front of Ravenna as possible but the pain was worse than she had ever imagined. It felt as if someone had put a red hot fire poker through her abdomen and was trying to pull it out the other side. She was terrified something was wrong but there was nothing she could do about it now and no one she could ask for help. Her only solace was that Ravenna, for all her wicked and evil ways, didn't seem to be faring any better than she was at the moment. Ravenna's face was covered with sweat as she was sure her own was and the sounds she couldn't help letting out rivaled that of her own as they were each thrown around the back of the nearly runaway coach.