The Queen and her Slave - English Version

Chapter 10

Emma rode for hours, incessantly, as fast as she could, the fear to spur her to go on despite the tiredness and the cold. It was late night when che arrived near her parent's castle. Sweaty and dishevelled, her horse weary, she gallopped to the fortress' door. Despite her look, the guards immediately recognized her, letting her pass.
«Mother! Father!» she yelled while she was still dismounting. She then statred walking with decision towards the throne room, but in the middle of the hallway she found her father who, smiling, was welocoming her with open arms.
«Emma, you're here... it's been so long...»
Snow, joined her husband, went past him and stopped in front of her daughter, worried by the look on the woman's face.
«Emma... what are you doing here?» she asked, unable to hold back the joy despite the worry.
Emma didn't even bother to answer them. She pushed her father away with a thrust ad glowered at her mother.
«Where is she?» she gloomily asked.
«What's going on, sweetheart?» James asked, disoriented.
Snow White didn't take her eyes off of her daughter's. She turned serious, disappointed by her behavior.
«In the dungeons, of course.» she answered.
Emma opened wide her eyes.
«Did you hurt her?» she asked, her voice trembling, suddenly very pale.
Her mother watched her, surprised and confused. She didn't answer the question.
«Emma, dear, what's happening to you?» she sweetly asked, trying to get close to her.
«No...» the blonde muttered, shaking her head and stepping away from them. With a sprint she rana way, towards the dungeons.
«Emma!» the two sovereigns shouted together, chasing their daughter.

Emma stormed into the dungeons, frantically checking every cell. At the seventh try she found her. Her heart stopped beating when she saw her. Here yes filled with tears of anger and pain.
She clasped her fingers around the cold bars, as if she could break them with that simple, raging gesture.
«Regina...» she murmured.
The brunette suddenly raised her head, showing her battered face, covered in coagulated blood.
«Emma...» she whispered trying to lift. She fell back on the bunk, a hand over her ribs, moaning in pain.
Emma smashed her fist against the bars, stifling a sob. She didn't have the key, but she had to open that door. She thought it. She just thought it, and the door, somehow, opened.
She didn't waste any time wandering how did it happen. She went in and ran to her, gently caressing her face.
«I'm here, I'm here... I won't let enyone touch you ever again...» she said crying. « I'm sorry... I didn't know..»

Regina stared at her in shock. She knew she didn't open the door, and she was pretty sure that Emma didn't have the keys. But she forgot everything when she felt Emma's hands on her face. She shut her eyes at that touch, that hurt and soothed the pain at the same time.
«What are you doing here?» she whispered.
The blonde smiled hearing her voic, even if it killed her to see her suffering.
«I'm taking you away... can you stand up?»
Regina weakly pushed her away.
«You can't...»
In that moment Snow and James bursted into the cell.
«Emma what are you doing? Get out of here!» the queen exclaimed.
The blonde ignored her parents and stayed next to the prisoner.
«Why?» she asked her, confused.
«Because your parents decided for my execution.» the brunette said lifting a little from the bunk. She looked at them for a brief moment above the woman's shoulders, then she layed down again. «Go home, Princess.» she coldly added.
«None's gonna kill anyone, I promise. And they won't stop me when we leave.» Emma said confidently, threatening her parents with a glare.
Her mother stared at her with dread in her eyes.
«Emma... you can't set her free, she'll kill us all...»
Regina sighed, exhausted.
«Can you talk about this somewhere else? I don't care about your family issues...» she said with a bored tone.
Emma looked at Regina, as if she was weighing her for a long, silent moment.
«Hold on.» she commanded then, rapidly taking her in her arms and standing up, barely ignoring her moans of pain.
«Let me down!» the brunette growled, in pain.
«No, Your Majesty.» the woman replied taking her towards the door.
«Emma, let her down...» James ordered, but Emma didn't listen to him.
Regina, exhausted, leaned her head against Emma's shoulder and closed her eyes as the blood started back flowing from the wounds, wetting the princess' clothes.
Emma gritted her teeth to stay calm feeling the lukewarm liquid seep through the linen and silk threads.
Standing before the cell door, the exit obstucted by the two sovereigns, Emma glowered at them. The two, however, didn't move.
«Move.»
«No, Emma. We can't let you do this.» James said, pained.
«Emma...» Regina muttered, fainting in her arms.
The blonde gazed at the woman she loved, making sure with that glance that she was still breathing, destroyed by her conditions. With her eyes full of tears and rage, she stared at her parents.
«Let me go or I shall declare war on you now.» she growled.
«Why are you doing it? Why do you care about that woman? She made you a prisoner!» the king shouted with anger. «I don't even want to imagine what she did to you.... And now you're defending her?»
Emma looked at her father. Rage was boiling inside her, and she was not intentioned to held it back.
She was disgusted by them, by their actions.
«Nothing I didn't want. Shes better than you, it seems.» she replied leaning towards him.
«What are you saying? What did that monster do to you?»
«Nothing!» she shouted, out of patience. «Now let me go, or I will keep my promise.»
James stared at her with suspect and sadness.
«You're under her control, there's no other explaination...»
«No, she doesn't have magic...» his wife objected. She stared at her daughter's eyes for long. Eventually, she moved, letting her room to pass. «Go, Emma.» she said.
Emma stared at her mother astonishingly. She finally calmed down. She smiled at her.
«Thank you. » she said before passing next to her, without looking at her father. As she was walking by, her mother hit her nape with her dagger's hilt. James caught her daughter before she could hit the floor, passed out. He let Regina fall, instead.
«What do we do now?» he asked his wife.
«Take her upstairs and lock her up inside her old room. I'll take care of Regina.» she answered. She nodded towards the guards, that grabbed the brunette and brought her back in the cell.
James nodded.
«Alright. But we need to talk about what's happening between them.»
«There's nothing to talk about. When Regina's dead, noting can happen.» Snow gloomily replied while locking the cell's door.


Emma woke up while she was still in her father's arms. She immediately tried to struggle, despite she was still dazed.
«Let me go!» she yelled struggling with all her strenght.
«Calm down!» her father said putting her on the bed. «You're safe now. Get some rest.»
Emma pushed hima way trying to run to the exit, but the king stopped her.
«No! Regina!» she screamed, struggling against the man's hold.
«Forget about her! She'll be dead soon!»
«No!» the girl yelled again. She tryed to punch him but James grabbed her hand and stopped her definitively.
«Emma, what the hell did she do to you?»
The blonde tried to kick him, weeping.
«Let me go!»
«Calm down, it will be fine... She's not hurting you anymore...»
«No! You don't understand! She nevr hurt me!»
«It's evident that she did...» James said hugging her. «But it'll pass... You're back now...»
Emma sobbed against him, trying again, uslessly, to free herself.
«You don't understand! Please, let her go... I love her...»
The man froze at those words. He stared at his daughter with his blue eye wide open.
«What? Emma, that's not possible...»
The woman looked at him, trying to focus his face beyond the thick veil of tears.
«It is so, father...» she whispered.
«You... you think you love her. You were her prisoner, you didi it to survive... but now you're safe and sound.» he said, hesitating, looking for a plausible explaination, an acceptable one.
«No! Please, I'm begging you, listen to me! You must set her free! She won't hurt anyone!»
«Just because we blocked her magic, or we'd be all dead.»
«If she wanted you dead we wouldn't be here to talk about it!» Emma shouted, desperate.
«The king sighed, trying to dissipate the confusion that was fogging his mind.
«Wait for me here, I'm going to talk to your mother.» he said, not knowing what else to do.
Emma watched him leave with hope. She started walking up and down the room, too agitated to stay still, painfully aware of Regina conditions.

«We have a problem.» the king annouced gazing at his wife.
«Is Emma fine?» Snow asked, worried about her daughter's conditions.
«No, she.. said things...» he tried to explain, failing.
«What sort of things?» the queen asked leaning a hand over her husband's arm.
«She said she loves Regina!» he said all at once, unable to hold it back anymore. Snow turned pale.
«I must have hit her too strongly...» she whispered.
«I don't think so... she did nothing but repeat it while she was desperately crying, she only wants to see her..» the king plowed on.
«That's not possible.» the queen said.
«She must have done something to her while she was keeping her prisoner.. even if she denies it.» James explained.
«Of course she does, she must have instructed her.» the woman stated.
«Buti f we kill the queen we could destroy our daughter.»
Snow sighed staring thoughtfully at her husband.
«You're right. So, what do we do?»
«We must wait for her to recover so that she will want to kill her herself...» he suddenly said.
The woman kissed him.
«You're a genius.»
«I know, now we must understand what to do with them. Emma wants to visit her!» he said trying to find a solution.
«We can't allow her. We must keep them separated.» Snow replied with determination.
«This way, though, we could increase her attachment to her...» James objected.
«So what do you suggest?» his wife asked, out of patience.
«We should let them meet...»
«What?» Snow goggled.
«I don't like it either.» the kind replied. «But it's the only way to keep her calm.»


Emma abruptily turned hearing the door open.
Her parents stepped into the room.
«We took a decision...» her mother announced. «You can visit Regina, occasionally.»
«What?» Emma asked, astonished.
«We love you, we just want to protect you...» her father explained.
«So can I see how's she? She's wounded...» Emma asked with impatience, looking at them.
«Yes, come.» James sighed, accompanying her to the dungeons then.

Emma ran to the prisoner'scell.
«Regina!» she called her clinging to the bars.
The brunette barely moved her head, dazed by the strong headache and nausea.She barely opened her eyes, giving her a brief glance before shutting themclose.
«Let me in!» the blonde asked her parents, without looking at them.
«We allowed you to see her but you can't go closer to her.» James saidseverely.
«She's hurt! She needs cures, she might die!» she shouted.
«It's not our problem.» her father simply answered.
«We'll get her cured...» his wife corrected him. «But you can't go closer toher.»
Emma stared at them for a moment, then she locked herself up into the cell nextto Regina's-
«I'm staying here until you send a doctor to cure her.» she annunced, challengingthem.
«You can't stay here. You're a princess, a queen!» James exclaimed, indignant.
«Emma, stop it... Guards, the key.» Snow commanded.
«I'm not moving until I knwo she's fine.»
«You're stubborn...» James commented. He then ordered the guard to go call adoctor.
«What did she do to you to reduce you to this?»
«Nothing.» Emma articulated.
«You weren't like this before, you went there to kill her...» her father replied.
A the three of them were discussing, the doctor came and, as commanded, startedto cure the prisoner's wounds. Regina weakly moaned at his touch.
Emma stopped listening to the sovereigns and turned to watch her. She silentlychecked every move of the doctor, clinged to the bars that separated them.
As the man, once he finished to clean and bandage the wounds, was washing hishands in a bucket full of clean water brought by his assistant, Regina wasfinally able to open her eyes. She looked beyond the bars, meeting Emma'sstare. The queen looked back at her, relieved but still worried. She couldn'thold back the tears.
«Don't worry...» she whispered to her. «Everything's gonna be fine.»
Regina weakly nodded then closed her eyes as a tear ran over her face.
Emma leaned her forehead against the bars, going on crying silently.
Snow White opened the cell's door. She gazed at her daughter. Her heart brokeseeing her that way.
The blonde stayed as long as she could to watch the prisoner, but she had toexit the cell eventually.
«She shall have food and water, or I will refuse to eat and drink. I'm askingyou nothing more.» she said under her voice, in order to don't disturb Regina.
snow gritted her teeth, but nodded.
«Alright.» the king capitulated, clenching his fist. «But now go back to yourroom.»
Emma gave Regina alast glance before walking away withouth answering him,headed to her room.