Once Upon a Twist (8 page)

If either of them were nervous, they gave no sign. The weight of their trust lay heavily on Ella’s heart.

It was only as they left the big square she realized how eerily deserted it was. Surely there should be guards at the back?

“Keep behind me,” she whispered, extending the blade of the knife. Scanning the area, she neither saw nor heard anything untoward. Deliberately she blocked out the bloodcurdling sounds echoing from the front of the palace. She could not afford to think about it. She especially could not afford to think about anything other than reaching her home.

“All right boys, we’re going to run for it, okay?”

Itchy and scratchy both squeezed her shoulders; the horses nuzzled into her neck.

“All right then, let’s go.”

The bank was steep and it took every ounce of Ella’s concentration to remain upright. The horses ignored her instructions and galloped ahead, the frogs inhabiting their bodies no doubt delighting in this wonderful new experience made so much easier now they didn’t have the carriage attached to them. When they reached the bank they didn’t hesitate, plunging straight into the deep water.

For a moment they were both submerged. Ella’s pounding heart skipped with fear, but then their faces reappeared and they used all their froggy skills to get their new bodies across the water.

She skidded to a halt at the bottom of the grassy slope. Itchy and Scratchy did likewise, both falling onto their bottoms.

“Ready?” she asked.

The moonlight accentuated the terror on their faces but they both nodded. On the count of three they jumped.

The shock of the black, murky depths was so acute it almost paralyzed her. It took a few beats of total submersion before she kicked her legs and broke the surface, freezing water sloshing up her nose. She could only hope there were no nasty parasites lurking in it that would infect her brain. One deadly creature was enough to deal with for one night.

She swam as hard as she could through the reed-strewn water, hoping against hope that Itchy and Scratchy could swim in their new forms.

The frog-horses waited on the other side for them, their intelligent faces anxious. When she clambered out of the water and stood dripping and shivering violently before them, they nuzzled their great heads against her.

Her two human pets scrambled out after her, the living embodiment of drowned rats.

“We need to get home as quickly as we can,” Ella said through chattering teeth. Even her bones felt cold. “Can we ride on your backs?”

The horses nudged against her, displaying their acquiescence.

Thinking quickly, she decided to share one of the horses with Scratchy, leaving Itchy, who was the heaviest of them, to ride the other solo.

After helping her pets mount, she climbed up in front of Scratchy, accidentally knocking him with her swinging foot. Only by sheer luck did he remain seated.

Wrapping her arms around her steed’s neck, she whispered, “Run for your life gentle creature.”

And they were off, galloping over fields and meadows, the moon lighting their path, the crisp air cutting through them.

Scratchy clung to her, his head resting in the arch of her cold neck. Next to her she could see Itchy adopt the same position, his face practically buried in his horse’s thick black hair.

Soon the distant lights of Chauvigne, the town she called home, twinkled into focus. Cantering ever nearer, Ella refused to think of anything but the manor house she had lived in for her entire life. If she thought only of that, she would surely find safe passage to it, even if it was located at the far end of the town.

As soon as they entered Chauvigne though, it was obvious something was amiss.

The horses whinnied and made to slow down. “We have to keep going,” Ella yelled through the wind. Her words gave them the impetus to drive ever faster. As they galloped over the cobbled roads, images began to appear through the blur of her vision.

Dear God but the undead were there. Lights blazed in every house. Twitching bodies were strewn across the pavement.

How long had they been there? It was hard to imagine that this much destruction could have been caused in such a short time-frame.

She blocked her ears to the screams echoing through the whistling wind, praying their speed would prevent the wandering undead from fixing their attention on them.

It was a futile prayer.

One creature began to chase them. Like some sick game of dominos, its movement attracted the attention of others who, one by one, took up the chase until around a dozen were behind them.

“Faster!” she screamed. There was no chance of her extending the blade and using it, not unless she wanted to fall off.

But the creatures were gaining on them. Even as they left the main thoroughfare of the town and entered the suburbs, at the edge of which resided her home, they kept up the pursuit. Now they were running close enough that she could hear their pounding footsteps. What the creatures had lost in brainpower they had more than made up for with strength and speed.

In the distance behind them she made out the sound of clattering hooves. Before she could make sense of it though, the Chauvigne town clock began to chime the hour.

Both horses reared at the first clang. With a scream, Ella was thrown to the ground, landing in an undignified heap on top of Scratchy.

“Run!” she cried, scrambling to her feet. If she had suffered any injuries she could not feel them.

But Scratchy remained flat on his back, still. A trickle of blood seeped out of his ear.

To her horror, Itchy and the two horses were in no state to run either, all of them shrinking before her eyes. And the undead were barely two hundred yards away.

“Run!” she shrieked again, her voice hoarse, forcing her legs to move. It barely registered in her conscious that her feet now squelched in her old battered slippers.

She could never outrun them. Intellectually she knew that. But she was damned if she were going down without a fight.

Reaching into her bodice for her blade, she realized to her horror that it had gone. She was back in her ragged dress. This dress did not have a bodice. If the blade had survived midnight it was lying somewhere on the road.

The grunts from the undeads’ exertions were becoming louder but she did not dare turn back to look. All she could focus on was her house, the dim outline of which she could see in the distance.

Yells penetrated through the adrenaline, the distant hooves closing in but Ella could not afford to waste a single second wondering what it could be. Scratchy was lying prostrate on the cold ground, shrunk back into his natural form. Without pausing for thought, she closed a hand around him and scooped him up.

“Run,” she begged of Itchy and the two frogs, her legs propelling forwards.

Those revolting grunts were nearing and she felt the whisper of rancid breath on her neck. Then came the sound of a thud and before she had time to comprehend what was happening, a hand grabbed her ragged dress and she was lifted off her feet and thrown unceremoniously belly down across an enormous horse.

“Hold on,” James yelled, leaning his body forward to protect her.

But positioned as she was with her arms and head dangling over one side of the horse’s back and her legs the other, there was nothing for her to cling onto and no time for relief at her unexpected yet timely rescue.

In the suddenness of it all, she had dropped Scratchy.

Vaguely she was aware of riders accompanying them and the sound of swords carving the night air followed by dull thuds. Yet still those grunts followed in their wake.

They would never be able to outrun them she thought in despair. The magnificent horse was galloping so fast the road beneath her head was a cobbled blur. She had no idea how close they were to her home, could only pray they were nearly there. Then she realized the grunts were diminishing…

Maybe they had a chance.

“Get ready to jump off,” James ordered.

Jump off? She was lucky she hadn’t already slid off and crashed head first onto the cobbled ground.

Sooner than she expected, they came to a halt. James dismounted and pulled her down, wrapping a strong arm around her waist to keep her upright. Which was a good thing as her belly was rolling.

His terrified stead cantered away, closely followed by the dismounted soldiers’ horses. Even if they wanted to flee further they could not. With their horses gone, they were stuck.

She heard an intake of breath and lifted her head. The front door to the house was wide open.

“Jonas and Sebastien, come in with us,” James said, dragging Ella like a ragdoll up the steps. “Matthew, Gustave and Phillipe, you are to guard the front. I’m going to get Ella in the cellar.”

“No!” she screeched, spinning out of his hold and staring in terror at the dozen undead who were close enough for her to see the red in their eyes under the moonlight. “We have no time – we need to fight
them
.”

She had no weapon.

James must have had the same thought because he drew her behind him, sandwiching her between him and Jonas.

“Have you got a spare sword?” she asked at the same moment the nearest creature, who had streaked ahead of the others, pounced, leaping a good ten feet at Matthew, who swung his sword. Before the soldier could get a good enough aim he was knocked off his feet, the creature’s teeth already sinking into his face before his head smashed onto the ground.

Gustave and Phillipe both took a quick step backwards, back onto the steps of the house.

We’re all going to die,
Ella thought. There were too many of them. They were all going to die and it would be all her fault.

“Fight!” James roared, dashing forwards and slicing his sword through the feasting undead’s neck. Without missing a beat he then sliced it through the neck of his felled comrade and snatched Matthew’s fallen sword, jumping back up the steps and thrusting it into Ella’s hands. Not that she would be able to use it. Her prince and his soldiers had formed a perfect circle around her.

She was effectively blocked from seeing anything, which made everything much worse. Her hearing became hyper-sensitive. She could hear every slap of running foot, every leap, every whoosh as the pack of creatures pounced and soared into the air, and every dull thud as they impacted…

The circle around her parted slightly, allowing her to see between James and Sebastien’s shoulders at the very moment one of the creatures soared into the air and hit an invisible barrier, sparks flying in all directions upon its impact.

Chapter Nine

James stared in amazement at what was unfolding two steps below his feet.

“What is happening?” Jonas asked.

He shook his head, keeping a tight grip on his sword. “I don’t know.”

“It must be Christell’s enchantment,” Ella said, stepping between them. “She had it so I couldn’t get past the front steps of the house. My Fairy Godmother could only break it until midnight.”

All the undead were sprawled on the ground looking at them, stunned stupidity on their dumb faces. One, formerly a young teenage girl, got to her feet and decided to give attacking them another go. Whatever charge had careered through her on her first impact had knocked some of her strength, and it was unsteady feet that rushed at them.

The same occurred. Approximately one foot from the bottom of the steps she hit the invisible barrier and went flying backwards, landing in a crumpled heap on the ground.

James gave a shout of laughter. “They can’t touch us!”

Ella tugged at his sleeve and he was able to look at her properly under the moonlight. If she’d looked disheveled the last time he’d seen her in the palace… Now, her face was ashen and flecked with blood, her dress a too-short raggedy mess, her hair resembling a damp haystack caught in the wind. She looked adorable. Even better, she looked human.

Before he could act on his blessed relief and scoop her up into his arms, she said, “Is the enchantment trapping you?”

He caught Jonas’s eye.

His face expressionless, Jonas nodded then treaded cautiously to the base of the steps. There, he paused, seeming to psyche himself up before extending his left hand forwards to where the barrier should be. He met no resistance but stood back sharpish as his presence so close to the creatures’ galvanized them to try again.

“You know what to do, men,” James said, taking his place next to Jonas.

Who would have known Christell’s evil enchantment would turn out to be such a blessing?

Keeping behind the invisible barrier the soldiers incited the stupid creatures, who clearly had no capacity to remember pain, to charge feebly at them. It was actually rather fun watching them fly through the air but even better to decapitate them before they could impact the invisible wall. Heads bounced around all over the place.

Once all the creatures that surrounded them had been dispatched, he turned back to his fiancée, expecting to see gratitude and relief in her eyes.

She had vanished.

“Where is she?” he bellowed.

His soldiers all turned to him, their brows furrowed in identikit fashion.

“Ella. Where is my fiancée?”

From behind, inside the house, came a loud smash.

***

Ella stepped wordlessly into the house, sword in hand, blocking out the sounds of James and his soldiers decapitating the relentlessly stupid creatures. If James stayed within the boundaries of Christell’s enchantment, he could not be hurt.

It was time to find Ana.

The lantern in the reception was the only source of light. The rest of the house was in darkness. The door through to the drawing room was open. Everything appeared to be in order. Everything except the forbidding scent of iron pervading the air. And the silence. The silence was too… silent. There was not so much as a breath of noise.

Clutching her stomach with her free hand in a futile attempt to quell the rolls of nausea in it, she moved cautiously to the open door.

Should she proceed in the dark or go back for the light? Before she could answer that question she heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps in the kitchen at the back of the house.