Dark Snow White (Grimmoire Series)

Part XII

Eleanor transformed into the enemy man.

She walked back into the enemy celebration, blending in perfectly as one of their own. Eleanor approached five barrels of wine. The last barrel was just being opened.

“You helping wiv vis?” asked one of the men, gesturing to the barrels and some wooden cups. Eleanor, as the man, nodded. “Come of ven, grab a cup, start fillin’,” he instructed.

Eleanor grabbed a tray of cups and went over the barrels. She made sure nobody was looking, luckily everyone was distracted with celebrations. She balanced the tray on one of the barrels and pulled out a waterskin from under her coat, filled with liquid Dragon’s Blood. 

She poured some Dragon’s Blood into each of the barrels. It mixed in perfectly with the red wine.

"Oi, what are you doin’?” called out the man. Uh-oh, remain calm, thought Eleanor. She grasped the tray with one hand, ready to use it as a weapon. “Hurry with those drinks, vey ain’t gonna poor vemselves,” he complained.

 Eleanor breathed a sigh of relief and started filling up cups.

* * *

Later at the Enemy Camp…

The cups of tainted wine had been passed out to all the soldiers. Eleanor, still in disguise, stood off to the side of the tables, near the empty barrels. All the men sat attentively at their long tables as their leader spoke out.

“Today we go down in history. A surrender. Many lives lost, but now, many lives will be spared. Today we are are all victorious, we are winners. And tonight - winners get the good wine!” all the soldiers laughed.

“To victory and to our new home, RedCrest,” the leader raised his cup high. The rest of the men “cheers-ed” one another and they all drank it down. 

Like misfiring dominoes, everyone collapsed at the same time. Every single soldier had just drunk the curse.

Every soldier except two. Eleanor saw them over the other side, in the excitement they had dropped their drinks. “IT’S POISON!” one yelled. “LET’S GET OUT OF HERE,” yelled the other solider. 

As they ran toward the woods, away from Eleanor, Orion and some RedCrest soldiers emerged from the forest and quickly disposed of the two men. Eleanor crouched behind the barrels. Orion noticed an enemy solider ducking behind the barrels, “One over there.”

Eleanor, now transformed back into her true self, popped up from behind the same barrel. Orion looked confused. 

“My Queen, you did it, you really did it,” said one of the soldiers. One by one, all the soldiers knelt down and bowed their heads in respect. Orion looked around, shrugged as if to say “can’t argue with that” and joined the men in kneeling.

 "You may rise,” instructed Eleanor. 

The men walked around, inspecting the bodies. “Are they… are they actually dead?” asked Orion. “No,” said the Queen, matter-of-factly, “but they will never be alive again either.”

“How do you figure that?” queried Orion. “We shall bury them,” announced the Queen, flippantly. The soldiers were in shock. “I beg your pardon, Your Highness, but not allowing someone to pass on is an unspeakable act, even if they were the enemy.”

The Queen walked a few steps to position herself in front of her soldiers. “Do you know what these men would have done if they had made any gains on us? They would have killed each and every one of you, slowly and painfully. They would have burned your houses to the ground and you don’t want to know what they would have done to your women and children,” said the Queen, with dire seriousness, “These are men I never wish to cross paths with again in this life or any other.”