Other Fan Fiction ❯ Reprise ❯ What Girls Are Afraid Of ( Chapter 30 )

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CHAPTER 30: What Girls Are Afraid Of

The girls marched him back to the boat. His hands were roped in Rapunzel's hair and tied in one of Elsa's sailor knots. Ariel pointed her trident at his back, the center point never more than an inch away from his flesh. She told him if she even felt a hint of magic, she'd blast him back to reality. Even if he could teleport or fly away, Rapunzel would snap him right back.

Once on the boat, Ariel stuck the trident in the water and propelled them back to the castle. Elsa and Rapunzel stood on opposite sides, monitoring their captive.

"Can't you untie me now? I'm not going to attack you," Lowther said. "You've got me captured. And my hands are starting to hurt."

"Tough," Elsa said.

"What if I lose circulation? My hands might get gangrene and need to be amputated. My blood circulation's not good-"

"You know what? All I need to do is think about any part of your 'castle' and that washes away any sympathy," Elsa said.

Lowther gave her a sidelong glance. "You know, I don't need my hands to use magic."

"I'm sure," Elsa said. "But I bet being tethered by magic golden hair has some effect against it. You want to prove me wrong? Go ahead."

Lowther wiggled his hips restlessly. "All I want to do is conjure up some wine. I'm so thirsty. And I think my leg might be broken."

"There's a leg under all that?" Ariel smirked.

Lowther stayed silent until they reached the dock. Rapunzel secured the boat while Elsa and Ariel kept watching him.

"Look, what do you want? Money? Food? Riches? I can give you anything. I mean literally anything . You want a unicorn? Just say what color."

"The only thing we want is answers," Ariel said. "We want to know about your magic. Where you got it, what it does."

"And especially," Elsa said, "what you know about Arcius Cansteth."

Lowther stiffened. "Ah." He looked around. "I understand now. Let's go to my study. No one's allowed there."

"You mean there's a room in this palace not dedicated to food or debauchery?" Rapunzel sneered.

Before that, Elsa demanded a set of clothes that would return their dignity. Lowther directed them to a closet near the harem's room. Elsa and Rapunzel found dresses similar to their purple and blue frocks. Ariel settled on a plain shirt and slacks.

They went up a flight of stairs (which Lowther complained about throughout the climb) to a corner room with more red carpet and walls of cherrywood bookcases. A sepia navigator's globe sat next to the long mahogany desk.

"I think you can untie me now. It's not like I have anywhere to go. You three have me."

Rapunzel scowled. "Forget it."

"At least give me some wine. I'm not saying a word until I get some wine."

"Sounds like you have plenty of 'whine'," Elsa said. "Don't take us for fools. You are the one who didn't recognize three women who had never been here. You didn't even ask why one had seventy-foot long hair."

"I thought you were just eccentric," Lowther shrugged.

"You got over-confident. You thought nobody could see through your illusion," Rapunzel said.

"A few hundred years will do that." Lowther walked around to the back of his desk. The hands clasped behind his back gave him the mistaken impression of a lecturing professor. "Okay. So what is it you girls want to know?"

"Why is there a gravestone with your name on it outside this palace? Is that just another distraction?" Rapunzel asked.

"How do you know Arcius Cansteth?" Ariel asked. "When did you meet him?"

"Which power do you have?" Elsa asked. "Is it his body? How did you control his power? Why is-"

"Whoa, whoa, one at a time," he said. "First, let's set the record straight. I'm not the real Lowther Vonde Brackridge. He died centuries ago."

"He died?" Ariel asked, stunned that anyone that powerful could be killed. "How?"

"Don't ask me. Some villagers said he was murdered, some said he took his own life. All I'm sure of is it wasn't a natural death. The town hated him. Kept talking crazy about finding great wealth or power. Probably died in his cabin. Townspeople said it was haunted so no one had touched anything. Didn't find his body, but I found his books. And a canopic jar."

"Temeris's essence," Ariel said.

"You know the legend. Very good," Lowther said. "Anyway, I read all his notes. They told me about the cult, his journey, magic as old as the world. Everything a growing boy needs to control the cosmos. After a little dabbling, I realize what I can really use it for." He gestured to his palace. "First few decades were trial and error, but I finally got what every man wishes for. I made my own personal Shangri-la."

"How are you able to keep it hidden? And why was I the only one to see it? I asked everyone in town and they all acted like it wasn't on the map. Even when it was right in front of their faces," Ariel asked.

"That would be the morimema." He pointed to a shelf with a glass display case.

Inside contained a floating eighteen-pointed crystal, glowing blue. The crystal looked so delicate the slightest touch would snap off a point.

Lowther said, "It's a little artifact I found. Makes it so no one can know this location. The memory just slides away like water off a duck's back. Except you, apparently. Let me guess, you've been touched by Temeris's magic?"

Ariel nodded. "Arcius lifted a spell off me."

"Oh, so you've met him. Lucky you."

"You haven't?" Elsa asked.

Lowther shook his head. "Found three letters poking up out of the ground with instructions to mail them, signed by Arcius Cansteth. I knew who he was from the notes. Don't know how he did it or why he didn't just show up."

"He's somewhere he can't leave," Ariel said. "We think."

"That's what I figured," Lowther said. "Anyway, I could've pretended I never saw it. But one thing I've learned from magic--you never piss off a magician. You never be beholden or obligated to him. First time I had to leave this place in centuries. Two were easy, just mail to different countries. The third I had to go into a specific spot in the ocean."

"Weren't you suspicious at all? Didn't you resist being dragged to the outside world? Even for a small amount of time," Elsa asked.

"Like I said. You don't piss off a magician. And you don't keep them waiting. I float over to the coordinates he gives me. Even has the longitude and latitude down to the seconds. I put it in a bottle, dropped it into a column of air so it doesn't drift away with the currents, drop it in, and zip back home."

"Except you used a bottle that was eight hundred years old."

Lowther shrugged. "I haven't had garbage in centuries. Anything I make here is half-figment. It vaporizes with a flick of my hand. Area's so saturated with magic, a transfiguration might not maintain outside. So I grabbed one I knew was real."

"It had an emblem on it that hasn't been used for centuries," Ariel said.

Lowther leaned back in his chair, letting his fat spread out. "That's what I love about the world. It keeps spinning, but everything here stays the same."

"That," Elsa said, "Should be the first thing to change." She pulled the morimema off the shelf. "How do we destroy this thing?"

"Destroy it? Uh... those buttons are a combination lock. If my hands were free, I could do it," Lowther grinned.

Elsa grimaced at him.

"Very well. Hit each button once."

"Simple combination," Ariel commented.

"No one but myself was ever going to be here. I haven't opened it for decades."

Elsa pressed each button once until it clicked. The girls hovered over the case, waiting for something to happen.

Bright light erupted. The three of them shielded their eyes. An invisible force blew them back like a cannon.

"I can't see!" Rapunzel said.

"What happened?" Ariel pawed for her trident. Rapunzel tried to move forward but something waist-high barred her way. The two others bumped into her back.

When they could see again, giant iron manacle encircled their waists. Ariel still had the trident, but it was pressed against her body, pointed up.

Behind the desk, Lowther held out his arms to one of the gnomelings, who was untying him. "Ha ha! You make it too easy. Fell right for it." Once free, he raised his jiggling arms in triumph. "Like I said, never piss off a magician. Now..." He rubbed his pale pink hands together. "Ooh, the things I'm going to do with you. You thought the tournament of freaks was bad? You ain't seen nothing yet."

Ariel and Rapunzel struggled to free themselves. But Elsa, the only one facing Lowther, stared him down.

Lowther said, "Yes... I'm going to make it slow too. Not to make an example of you. But I haven't had anyone so lively to play with for quite some time. I might even use you to breed a new generation. Lord knows I could use the variety. Yes, a new brood, just for me." Wet saliva dribbled from the corner of his mouth.

Elsa gritted her teeth. She curled her hands up, fingers wrapping around the manacle. Frost scorched the iron under her hands, spreading as quick as fire.

Lowther furrowed his brows, watching the metal glaze over.

Elsa grunted and tore off the section of iron in front of her. She tossed it aside.

"Uh-oh," Lowther said.

Before Elsa had taken her first step, Lowther picked up the gnomeling by his collar and threw it at them. The gnomeling squealed and fell like a thrown doll into the girls, collapsing them. In the meantime, Lowther ran out of the room.

Elsa led the pack after him. He was using some kind of float spell to move faster. Only his tip toes dragged along the carpet as he glided away.

They turned the corner into the grand hall, following the walkway that circled to the center staircase. But Lowther jumped over the railing. Rapunzel, Elsa, and Ariel slammed against the rail, watching him float like a piece of paper to the ground floor. He turned back and grinned.

Ariel and Rapunzel gritted their teeth in frustration. But Elsa didn't. She thrust out her hand. A flat plane of ice streamed out from the banister, undulating downward like a hair ribbon to the floor.

Elsa jumped on the ice and slid down to Lowther. Ariel and Rapunzel followed.

"Everyone! Attack them!" He pointed at the three girls.

The little creatures emerged from every nook and cranny around them. They pulled back woodwork panels, opened lamp hinges, crawled out from under stairs and beneath the rug. Some even pulled themselves from the indoor river, dripping and soaked. Lowther stepped out of the fray.

Rapunzel squeaked. Ariel and Elsa positioned themselves on either side, weapons at the ready--Ariel, her trident, Elsa, her hands. The four-foot tall thralls approached with random implements--knives, rocks, sticks.

Elsa froze the feet of one, but another took its place. Ariel blasted one, knocking it back where it stumbled, shook its head, and continued.

Elsa conjured a snowball and threw it. It smashed into the gnomeling's face, knocking it over.

"Look out!" Rapunzel shouted. She kicked one back that was about to close on Elsa, but it grabbed her leg. Rapunzel screamed.

Ariel poked it with the butt of the trident. The gnomeling lost its grip and flew away from Rapunzel's kicking leg.

As Elsa threw ice and snow, Ariel noticed Lowther backing up into an alcove door. "He's getting away!"

"What are we going to do?" Rapunzel shouted back. "We have to go after him."

"I'll go," Elsa said. "I have the most command of my power."

As if to prove it, Elsa clapped her hands together. Two tall pillars of ice grew in front of them. Each extended its sides into a wall. She thrust them out at different angles, knocking the gnomelings aside and dividing them. This left a neat corridor for Elsa to run through.

"Wait! What are we supposed to do?" Ariel asked.

"Keep them off my back." Elsa hiked up her skirts and sprinted to the alcove Lowther dove into. Some of the zealots followed, but many more stayed in the fighting circle.

Rapunzel, weaponless, backed against Ariel. The sea princess whacked one on the head with her trident. They were too close to shoot and she didn't want to hurt them.

"There's too many!" Ariel shouted. She scooped one up, using her trident as a shovel, and tossed it away.

Rapunzel gathered up as much hair as she could. "Run!" she shouted. With her free hand, she grabbed Ariel's.

Together, they barreled through a thin gap opposite Elsa. Ariel turned back and blasted a few of them off their feet. But more streamed in.

Rapunzel stopped in front of the harem door. "Hold it." She yanked the door open. "Girls! You're free!"

No response. A few perked up their heads at her.

"You don't have to suffer anymore. You can go where you want. Come help us. Take back the castle."

The women stared at her, glassy-eyed.

"Anyone?"

Nothing.

She shut the door. "Okay, that didn't work."

Now it was Ariel's turn to grab Rapunzel. As the gnomelings closed in, they ran further into the palace, passing corridors leading to unknown places. Paintings burst out, vases fell over, as gnomelings emerged, clutching at their hair. Rapunzel chugged along, holding her hair in front of her. They finally reached the door at the end of the hall.

Ariel shut it tight. "Phew. Where are we? A kitchen?"

"Looks like it," Rapunzel said.

The door rattled. Ariel thrust her shoulder against it, keeping it closed. "Find a way out," she shouted.

Rapunzel checked all the doors. The first led to a pantry. The second to a cleaning closet. "I can't find one. Who makes a kitchen with one door?"

"A crazy magician with no sense of interior design," Ariel responded through gritted teeth. The pounding grew louder. "I think we're going to have to make a stand here."

Rapunzel searched through cabinets and drawers for a weapon. Any weapon. She tossed aside spoons, wooden forks, bowls. There had to be something.

"Can't... hold... it..." Ariel let go of the handle and retreated further into the kitchen. She held out her trident.

"Come on, come on," Rapunzel muttered to herself. "Every kitchen's got at least one- ah."

Rapunzel reached above the stove and pulled down a frying pan. She returned to Ariel's side as the door burst open with thralls treading with zombie steps.

Rapunzel spun the cast-iron skillet in her hand. "Now you're all in big, BIG trouble."

Elsa entered a hallway that led to a dining room. The closed curtains bathed the room in dark indigo.

Only three gnomelings were pursuing, holding kitchen knives and sticks. She slammed the door shut, then sealed the frame in thick ice. Wherever they were coming from, they weren't going through here.

Lowther ran around the table. He had ceased floating so much as prancing across the carpet.

Elsa threw out her hands. A wall of white ice sprang up in front of him.

Lowther smacked against it and collapsed on the floor, his fat rippling.

"Look, look," he said, getting to his feet, "Just leave and we'll forget this whole thing. We can pretend this never happened, okay? You never tell, I'll never tell."

Elsa scowled. "How can I forget how shamefully you've treated these people? Especially the women. It's unconscionable that anything like this could happen in my world!"

"Well, aren't we judgmental?" Lowther said. "Face it, you would have done the same thing in my place."

"Do not insult me!"

"It's true. Give someone enough power, watch how selfish they get. Power allows you to do the things you would do anyway," Lowther said.

"You know nothing of power. You stole yours."

"And what about you? It takes decades to master the elements and you look barely twenty. What have you got, some kind of ring?"

"I may not have been given this power by choice. But I've earned the right to use it."

Lowther whipped out his hand. "Use it now!"

A flock of bats fluttered out from vapid space. Elsa cowered back and covered her eyes. The fleshy wings and fur brushing against her felt real. But when it stopped, they were gone.

Lowther uttered an incantation. A stream of mice poured out from his open hand like a faucet.

Elsa didn't blink. The small furry rodents rushed around her, some climbing on her feet, and scurried out the hallway.

Lowther mouthed another spell while she was distracted. This time, spiders cascaded out of the wall cracks, between the books, from under the candles. Orange, purple, long legs, hairy, glistening black eyes, thin needle-like legs. Their footsteps tip-tapped on the floor like an army.

Again Elsa didn't move. The spiders crawled past her.

"What is wrong with you?" Lowther said. "These are things girls are supposed to be afraid of."

"There's only one thing I'm afraid of," Elsa said, "and you're NOT IT."

A blizzard erupted from her hands. Biting ice-flakes stung Lowther's face, frosted his skin.

Lowther raised his hands. The giant dining room table tipped upward. Dishes and napkins avalanched onto the floor. The table rocketed toward her.

Elsa created a stiff ice wedge, like an axe blade. On impact, the table cracked, folded around her, and split into two slabs of wood. The pieces drifted past her, colliding with the wall.

She returned the volley, throwing out her own ice balls. Lowther deflected one, then another. Each flew into the walls and exploded into an urchin-like ball of spikes.

"God, that's annoying." Lowther swirled both his hands. A globe of pulsing fire surrounded him. The third and fourth volleys of magic ice fizzled against the shield.

Lowther laughed. "The problem with elements is they've always got a weakness. They've got-" He gasped. Then coughed. He fell to the ground, clutching his throat.

"Idiot," Elsa said. "Fire consumes oxygen."

Lowther dissipated the fire shield. He caught his breath and stood up.

"If you know so much about fire, have some." A cone of searing flame shot from his fingertips. Again, Elsa stepped back and crossed her arms. Snow and frost created an ice wall.

Lowther started throwing fireballs, sending each one with a maniacal laugh. The shield dented in as splinters of ice shrapnel burst out.

Elsa pushed forward. The wall of ice slid across the floor, threatening to press Lowther into the wall.

Lowther raised his foot and stomped. A tremor shook the room. Floor tiles spurted up, undulating toward her like a tidal wave. The ice barrier collapsed, shattering into a million sparkling pieces.

As the wave hit, Elsa's feet slipped out from under her. A bolt of ice magic loosed toward the ceiling. It hit the chandelier chain, which snapped. Elsa rolled out of the way.

The chandelier crashed in a bombardment of gold and diamonds. Elsa remained on the floor, shaky and gasping for breath. She seemed to have bad luck with chandeliers.

Lowther approached her. "I'm going to love having you in my harem. I don't know how to use you first," he said. "First, the brainwashing, like the others. I'll be the only one who ever knew you were this strong. You'll be so hard spoiled and you won't even know why. I bet you'll learn to love it. The others will get jealous of you spending so much time with me. Maybe even shun you. Trapped in a tiny room with no friends..."

Elsa seethed through her teeth. "NO!"

A shockwave of iced wind flew in all directions. Lowther flew across the room. His gelatinous body smacked against the wall. Bits of ceiling crumbled over him.

"I have had ENOUGH OF THIS." Elsa stalked toward Lowther. A trail of frost drifted behind her, small mounds of ice crystal grew from each footstep.

The room trembled. Frost spread over every wall, every piece of furniture. Candles blew out from the hurricane of snow.

The iced door burst open. Ariel and Rapunzel rushed in, holding a trident and a frying pan. They skidded to a stop when they saw Elsa.

"Elsa, wha-"

A giant icicle speared out of the left wall, angled downward. Gray bricks bounced outward, crashing into each other.

Another spear of ice crashed through the ceiling. Thick rock shrapnel crashed around them. The floor shivered and trembled as the wind roared.

"Elsa, this place is going to collapse. We've got to get out of here," Rapunzel said.

"I'm not running anymore," Elsa said. Her voice sounded deeper. "I'm tired of this chase. I'm tired of people I can't trust. I want to go HOME!"

Lowther uneasily stood back up. He thrust a fireball at her.

Elsa didn't move. The fireball shriveled to nothingness inches from her chest.

Lowther threw two more. Each disappeared before it reached within a foot of her aura.

Elsa brought up her two clutched hands. More icicles bayoneted the castle. The rumbling reached deafening proportions.

The wall next to Ariel and Rapunzel buckled forward. Ariel shot her trident. The blast propelled the rocks deeper into the room. Ariel and Rapunzel ran up to Elsa. "Elsa! It's going to fall! Now!"

Without looking, Elsa thrust her hand at them. A thick wall of opaque ice sprang around their feet. It grew taller, the walls drawing in. They were being sealed into an ice dome.

As the walls closed in, Rapunzel shouted. "Elsa! No, wait! Elsa!"

Elsa turned toward her.

Rapunzel gasped.

Elsa's eyes glowed white, bright as any lantern. Her eyes were ringed with magenta. Her hair had darkened to the color of candle fire.

Then the world became black.