Chapter Twelve

The formerly glorious Red Queen made a pitiful sight in the dusty light of the single naked bulb. Her star-spangled hair hung limply around her wan face with no hint of its prior lustre. Even her red dress had lost its vital sheen, sagging dull and lifeless against her pale skin in the gloomy cell. She had no idea how long she'd been down here, but reckoned in the region of days, not hours. She trembled weakly with exhaustion. She was hungry, she was thirsty, and she was terribly, terribly cold. She closed her eyes to the sight of bare rock around her, taking a deep, calming breath.

She wasn't designed for captivity, and she felt as though the rock walls were closing in around her. She concentrated on keeping her breathing steady, trying to feel the moonlight through the miles of rock above her. Above ground, even in the daylight, she was aware of the lunar presence, but here, in the oppressive depths of the dwarf mines, her lifeline was out of her reach. She slumped back into the darkest corner, drawing her knees up to her chest and circling her arms around them tightly. She buried her face in her arms, pressing her forehead to the usually silken fabric of her dress, and lamented at the limp roughness of it against her skin.

She would die here, so far from the moonlight. She knew that without a shadow of a doubt. Her power was draining away by the hour. She sighed softly in resignation, her thoughts bitter. It didn't matter now, anyway...

She'd failed.

She'd arrived at the dock too late to warn Regina of the evil she'd sensed was coming, and been forced to watch, helpless, as the shadow-beast had cut her down. She'd tried to get past the creature to help her, but the Dark One had shown up out of the blue, wielding the Staff of Souls. Where he'd gotten it from, she couldn't imagine, but it had thrown her mission into complete disarray. She'd known that the Netherworld Beast would turn tail and run from the Staff, and she'd realised in the same instant that she would be directly in its path if it reversed its direction.

She'd had mere seconds of a head start before the Dark One had sent the nefarious creature bolting after her, and then she'd been too caught up in a mad dash for escape from the savage thing to get back to Regina in time. She'd had to run until her feet bled before she shook it from her trail - there was no evaporating in smoke away from a Netherworld Beast, it would catch you for certain in the between.

When she'd finally made her way secretively back to the docks, hours later, there was no sign of Regina anywhere. She'd checked her house, but the others hadn't taken her there, and, being not of this town, or world, she didn't know where else to look. She'd desperately prowled the streets in the darkness of the following nights for hours, searching for a hint of magic, but the pull from Regina never came.

She'd feared the worst, and her search became ever more careless in her desperation.

And then, the Dark One had caught her.

She'd been following a teasing vibration that she thought might have come from Regina, and she'd rounded a corner and walked directly into him. He'd been as surprised as she was to come upon her so unexpectedly, but he'd recovered quicker than she, and snapped a collar of magic around her slender neck before she could think to react.

She lifted her head from her arms and reached up to touch the vile thing.

It was still there, biting mercilessly into her throat. He controlled her through it, used it to void her magic. She sighed hatefully as she remembered having to obey his every command as he'd escorted her down into the mines and left her in this cell to rot.

She stiffened as a noise from the depths of the passageway broke into her reverie - speak of the devil.

A faint illumination was glowing from far down around the corner of the passage, and as it grew brighter, she became aware of footsteps approaching with it. She flared her nostrils like a trapped animal as two people rounded the corner; the Dark One, lamp in hand, and the blonde woman with the tan leather jacket who had been with Regina that fateful evening. The Red Queen shrank back against the wall, snarling at them, but the Dark One forced her to her feet with a sharp spike of power through her collar. She dragged her feet as they carried her resisting body towards the gate of her cell, and he smiled grimly at her as he forced her forward.

"She doesn't look like much now, does she?" the blonde woman said, resting her hands on her hips as she surveyed their prisoner. The Red Queen fixed her with the most vicious stare she could summon, lifting her chin defiantly above the bright snap of the collar.

"No," the Dark One agreed with a dark smile, "But she's had a bit of a tough time, dearie."

The blonde woman stepped closer to the bars of the cell, returning the glare coldly.

"Who are you, witch?" she bit out.

The Red Queen held her tongue. Smiling at her resistance, the Dark One held up a finger in warning. Uncowed, she glared at him icily, and he unleashed a crippling bolt of power through the collar that dropped her to her knees. She clawed at the choker, gasping for breath as the woman repeated her question. The Dark One gave her a moment to reconsider her silence, and then hit her again.

Dizzy, she tasted the sharp tang of blood in her mouth and heard a ringing in her ears. It took her a moment before she realised the sound wasn't imaginary.

The blonde woman reached into her pocket with a scowl of irritation at the interruption, pulling out her insistently ringing phone.

"It's not a good time, kid," she answered it darkly. But, there was a vocal barrage from the other end of the line, and her eyes widened in disquiet as she listened.

"You're not making any sense," she said sharply, "Put David on the phone."

A pause, and then a deeper baritone echoed out of the phone. The muffled words were slower, but by no means calmer.

"What do you mean, Regina is missing?" the woman barked, a note of panic rising in her voice, "We just saw her half an hour ago, too weak to sit up on her own!"

The Red Queen's eyes widened with a fresh surge of hope as she eavesdropped, and the Dark One tanged at her collar in warning. The blonde woman listened intently to the device a moment longer.

"No," she said, eyeing the Red Queen with vehemence, "She has nothing to do with it. I'm looking right at her. Find Regina, now. That thing is still out there somewhere! We're on our way!" She snapped at the Dark One as she spun on her heel. "This'll have to wait."

"Of course," the Dark One responded obligingly, "This one's not going anywhere, anyway." He held the lamp high to light the blonde woman's exit.

The Red Queen flung herself at the bars with a primal cry. "Wait!" She found her voice and howled after the retreating backs of her captors. "You have to release me!"

The blonde woman paused and threw her a scalding glower.

"We have to do no such thing," she snorted scathingly, "It's thanks to you that Regina's in this mess in the first place."

She turned and strode away. The Dark One didn't even spare the Red Queen so much as a fleeting backward glance as he disappeared around the corner.

"Wait, please!" the Red Queen wailed, "You don't understand! Let me out! Let me OUT!"

She beat at the bars of her cage until her fists were bloody, sobbing with fury and screaming curses after them down the dark passageway, but it was to no avail. The blonde woman and the Dark One were gone. Beside herself, she desperately threw out her awareness for the moon's power.

Unexpectedly, she found something far stronger instead.

Regina!

The pull flared like lightning in her breast, and its source wasn't far away. It came from the surface above, a little way off to the east, and it was growing steadily stronger. The Red Queen wept in relief, but the link abruptly faltered.

An indescribable taint of evil weaved its way through it.

No! She gasped, and choked on her fear. The Netherworld Beast had found Regina. Petrified at the implications, the Red Queen summoned every ounce of power she had. With a searing cry, she tore the collar from her throat, and the force unleashed as it burst shattered the bars of her cage, razing through the Dark One's reinforcing magic like a knife through a heart.

She took one heartbeat to gather her breath, her grey eyes wild as the stormy sea, and then, pulling red smoke around her, bolted into the between.