A Grim Fairy Tale

Chapter Fifty-Six

If Striker had known about Desdemona's magic mirror then he probably wouldn't have tried to trick her with the heart of a pig. Especially when one had a temper as short and ill as hers. When the mirror revealed where he was, she had the guards track him down and shoot him with gold-tinted arrows though she ordered that he not be killed. He was to captured and brought before her in gold chains. He was thrown at her feet, bound in gold shackles, and when she dismissed the guards to leave them alone, she unleashed a storm of pure rage upon him.

"Liar! Traitor! Scum of the earth!" She screeched at him.

"What did I do?" He asked, his body burned and scorched by the gold material that was deadly to his kind.

"Don't play innocent with me! You know what you did! Charlotte is still alive! You didn't kill her!"

"Oh...That." He said. "How did you find out?"

"Never mind that! How dare you attempt to deceive me! I should have you hanged! Or drawn and quartered! Or better yet, encase you in molten gold!"

"Alright so she still walks the earth, but it wasn't my fault! Some freak of nature apprehended me and she escaped into the forest. But so what? She'll never get out of those woods. She'll never return to the kingdom. She no longer constitutes a serious threat to your throne. Why not forget her?"

"Because you imbecile, in the forest or in the kingdom she is still more beautiful than me! And that weakens my power!"

"You know as much as I take pride in my appearance, cause I'm one damn good looking alp." He chuckled. "Even I think that you take yours way too far. You really need to get yourself a hobby or something."

"Mock me all you wish, but remember that you're the one in chains here. I'd adjust my tone if I were you."

"Fair enough. So what are you going to do with me?"

"I should kill you but I still need you. I need you to find Charlotte and finish the job!"

"Are you serious? Find her in that forest? That's like a labyrinth of trees! It'll take me weeks maybe even months to find her!"

"Not my problem."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then you die."

"Fine and for my last words, I'll tell everyone that you hired me to kill the princess."

But Desdemona only laughed at his threat.

"I figured that you would try blackmail, so I did a little research on your past jobs and came upon one that was quite interesting."

"What do you mean?"

"Well let's just say afterward, I sent a message to the king of Poland. You remember him don't you? Hired you to do away with a little boy but he escaped, didn't he? Of course King Vincent didn't find out about that. Until now of course."

Fear and terror became evident in Striker's face as he finally realized that seriousness of the situation.

"What did you tell him?"

"Only that there's a young man running around in the forest who is about twenty-one years old, the exact same age the boy would be now, and that he has eyes as dark as a Moor's and wears a ring with a Scottish symbol. Now what do you think are the odds of Vincent thinking that all that is just a mere coincidence? Not in your favor I'm guessing."

"He can't know that I botched that job!" Striker was now panicked. "He told me twelve years ago that if I failed he wouldn't kill me, he'd sell me as a slave to the Americas!"