“You are lovely,” he said, “Like a just opened flower kissed with dew.”
Regina stood on the threshold, the light from her lamp forming a pool around her feet. She held it behind her skirts as if the light itself could become tainted by the scene in front of her.
“The most lovely?” Eirwen leaned on her broom
“The fairest one of all,” Horace leaned towards Eirwen, the firelight casting his face in sharp shadows. He was aging, just as Regina was, the plump of his cheek indented by a hollow, the line of his smile marked with creases.
Regina backed away from the room. Horace’s words hurt, but Eirwen’s cut her heart straight from her chest. Eirwen, who she had taken into her home. Eirwen, who she had treated as a daughter.
Pulling on her cloak, Regina unlatched the outer door. Snow blew in drifts, so white that it seemed to glow even in the darkness. “Fair,” she thought, “like Eirwen’s skin.” Regina shivered as she stepped out into the snow, sinking thigh-deep into the drifts. Her anger and hurt propelled her forwards to the place where she had been young and whole, the cabin at the edge of the woods.
She rapped on the door, the last of her energy spilling out of her lips in a splatter of blood, red upon the snow.
*******
Ferdinand was his name, although everyone simply called him Hunter, which was what he did. He spent so much time in the forest, that his beard grew green like the moss, and his face was still and wooden. But to Regina, he was always Din, the name she called him when they were children.
Never a deep sleeper, Regina’s knock woke Hunter. Finding his sister collapsed in the snow, he carried her in and laid her in front of the fire. He covered her with furs and sat beside her in a caned chair, nodding off even though he was upright. When Regina finally awoke, he was too stiff to do anything other than watch her cough, the blood all but invisible on the black fur of a bear pelt. “Din, will you do something for me?” she rasped.
“Anything,” he pushed himself out of the chair with a grunt.
“Horace has found someone fairer than I,” she looked into the fire, “Someone younger. Take her deep into the forest, and do what she has done to me . . . rip out her heart.”
“Ginny,” Hunter poured water from a pitcher into a tin cup, “You know that won’t solve anything. Horace will just find someone else.”
“But he won’t have Eirwen.”
“Eirwen,” Hunter’s eyes widened, “Your maid? The girl you speak of all the time?”
Regina nodded, taking a pouch out from under her robe, “Bring me her heart and I’ll give you this.” Loosening the drawstring, she poured the gold coins into her palm.
Hunter snatched the coins, putting the tin cup in their place. Before he could change his mind, he headed out into the snow, following his sister’s footprints back towards the town. Dawn was just arriving, painting the sky an icy blue. In front of a cottage, a woman with black hair swept the snow from her pathway, her lips red from the cold.
When he was in shouting distance, Hunter called out to her, “Are you Miss Eirwen?”
“Yes,” Eirwen paused, her eyes wandering over his leather clothing and fur coat, “Are you Regina’s brother?”
“I am,” he stopped five feet off from her, “She is ill. Will you come with me?”
Eirwen’s lips parted in a silent, “Oh.” She stuck her broom, stick down into a drift, “Yes, of course. I hope she is not too badly.”
They traveled in silence into the woods, the temperature dropping as they reached the canopy of trees. Eirwen showed no sign of fear as he led her deeper into the woods and further away from civilization. Finally, he stopped where the ground began to steepen, trees jutting almost horizontally from the earth.
“Where is your house?” Eirwen’s face was innocent, puzzled.
Hunter pulled his knife from its sheath, “Your mistress has sent me here to kill you. She knows you have betrayed her by seducing the master.”
“No! I mean, it wasn’t like that,” Eirwen quivered in front of him, “I didn’t mean to, I didn’t, with Horace. But he was so kind to me and gentle, and I couldn’t help it.”
“My sister loved you like you were her child,” the more he looked at Eirwen, the more Hunter remembered, “How old were you when you came to live with her?”
“Ten,” Eirwen’s eyes were glassy, unfocused, “and it was as many years ago.”
Hunter threw his knife, hearing a thunk as it sunk into the trunk of a tree. Eirwen jerked, cowering in front of him. “Run,” he commanded, “Run away and never return.”
Eirwen scampered up the hill on all fours, clinging to the brush as she ascended. Hunter watched until she was out of sight, then pulled his knife out of the tree and headed back the way he had come.
******
Regina said nothing when her brother set the heart next to her. She thought she would feel happy, or at least relieved, but she still felt the same sorrow blossoming inside of her. With Hunter gone off to drink, she could only manage to bury the heart in the snow. Wearily, she headed back to her cottage, the bear fur draped around her shoulders.
******
Eirwen hadn’t gone far when she came across a house sitting crookedly on the hillside. As she approached, a man with a pickaxe exited the house. He was soon joined by another man, then another. From the distance, they looked like seven tiny men, standing in a row. As she drew closer, she realized that they were short in stature, each barely taller than their ax.
“Hello,” Eirwen huffed steam from the exertion of her climb.
“Hi,” one of the men stepped forward, his hair the color of flax, “Excuse me for asking, but where did you come from? We don’t really see a lot of women around the mine.”
“Mine?” Eirwen looked around as if one would materialize in front of her.
“It’s underground, you know, a coal mine,” the man held out a calloused hand, “I’m Axelrod. The guys here are Bartholomew, Naseweis, Puck, Cornelious, Dexter, and Eustace.”
“Eirwen,” she shook each of the men’s hands, “Is everyone here . . . short?”
The men laughed, except Axelrod, who crossed his arms over his chest, his mouth pursed in disapproval. Puck, a man with brown hair and a red beard, replied, “The mine looks for small men because there are a lot of tight spaces. If you are short and strong, you can make good money mining.”
“Oh, I guess that would be so,” Eirwen stomped her feet to keep her circulation going, “Is there a town nearby, then?”
Axelrod shook his head, “There is nothing out this way. You might as well turn back and go back the way you came.”
“I can’t,” Eirwen bit her bottom lip.
“Pah, don’t mind him,” Eustace chimed in, “You come inside and warm up.”
The house was warm inside, a coal fire burning bright in a pot-bellied stove. The men slept in a loft above the main room. Eirwen had no sooner warmed herself than she started to feel drowsy. As she drifted off to sleep, she was dimly aware of the men leaving the house, their voices raised in song.
******
It was the first thaw when Regina found out that Hunter had lied to her. “Oddest thing, I found a deer heart in a tree,” he held it up for her to see.
“That’s a deer heart?” Regina looked up from digging up parsnips.
“Yeah, it was in fir sapling off to the right of the cabin. Must have been frozen solid all winter.”
She could taste the blood inside her own chest, crawling up her throat, into her mouth, “Then what did you do with Eirwen?”
“Ginny,” Hunter sighed, “You haven’t seen her around have you?”
“I said, ‘What did you do with Eirwen?’”
“Last I saw, she was headed for the mines. Let it be, Ginny.”
“Let it be? You drank away my life savings in exchange for Eirwen’s heart, only to give me the heart of a deer?” Regina retched, blood spilling out of her mouth onto the ground. Hunter put his hand on her shoulder. “I trusted you!” Regina pulled away from him, picking up her basket and turning back towards the town. At the last moment, she changed her mind and headed deeper into the woods.
The mining camp was easy enough to find, coal fires created a black plume that hung over the encampment, trailing in the direction of the wind. Regina went from door to door, knocking at each. Her rapping went unanswered at each until she came to a house on the highest point of the hill. Eirwen herself opened the door, and in her surprise, Regina drew her cowl over her face and muttered through it, “Would you like to buy a parsnip?”
“How much?”
“Three for a copper coin.”
Eirwen pulled three coins out of her pouch, “I’ll take all of them.”
Regina took the coins as Eirwen folded her apron, placing each tuber carefully inside it.
Ducking away from the door, Regina cursed herself. “I should have grabbed her by the hair and bashed her head into the frame of the door. I should have pulled her outside and threw her down the hill,” Regina ended the sentence with a cough that clawed its way through her chest. Wearily, she sank to the ground, noting the rusty color of the grass, and sticky nature of the soil.
*******
Eirwen was very sleepy. She had tried to keep herself busy, cleaning and tidying the loft, but it was to no avail. She placed the parsnips in a bowl, intending to clean them, then forgot to fetch water. She found herself staring at the bowl, wondering where they had come from. Then, she no longer knew what they were. Puzzled, she raised one to her lips, taking a bite.
“Apple,” was her last thought, before she crumpled to the floor.
*******
“We’re finding women strewn all over the place,” cracked Naseweis.
“How can you even joke about this?” Axelrod’s face was drawn as he took in the scene. Eirwen lay on the ground as if she had fallen asleep in the middle of the room. A parsnip lay next to her, a single bite missing.
“Poison,” Dexter picked up the parsnip gingerly.
“Maybe some cool air will revive her,” Naseweis grabbed Eirwen by the legs, “Help me.” The three men dragged Eirwen outside next to the other woman, who was sitting up talking to Puck.
“The basket,” Dexter pointed at it, “She’s the poisoner!”
“You,” Naseweis grabbed Regina by the arm, “You came here to harm Eirwen, didn’t you?”
“Do you know what I see when I look in my husband’s eyes? Skin, pale as the snow, lips, red as blood, and hair, black as coal. Yes, I came here to kill Eirwen, but I didn’t need to,” Regina plucked a brown leaf of grass, “The air is bad here, so bad that even the grass withers. If you love her, take her down the hill into the forest.”
Axelrod jerked as if he had been slapped by an invisible hand, “You would have us give her up.”
“You are like me,” Regina struggled to rise. Once on her feet, she continued, “You too, would rather see her perish than turn away from you.”
Regina headed up the hill, turning once only to see six small figures carrying a larger one down the hill. Satisfied, she resumed her climb, pulling herself up with the tangled bits of vegetation. Finally, she stood on a bit of rock, overlooking the mine amidst the trees. In the distance was a clearing that marked the town, and even further was the horizon. Setting her eye on the place where the earth met the sky, Regina took a step forward.
*******
It was almost dusk when Axelrod went down the hill. The others were easy enough to find; even this late in the day they were working, the sounds of their axes bouncing off the tree trunks. A rude coffin was taking shape while Eirwen herself lay on the ground, her chest moving soundlessly.
He had come, bereft of hope. Even if she were to awake, he could never be with her, not truly, unless she saw him not as a mishap or a curiosity; but as a man perfect in himself.
He knelt next to her, “Eirwen, it’s me, Axelrod. I came to say goodbye. I have just enough to buy a horse, enough to ride to a place where the grass isn’t brown and the sky isn’t black with smoke.” Leaning over her, he gently kissed her lips. As he pulled away from her, he saw a single tear slide down her cheek. Touching his own face, he found it dry.
“Couldn’t,” she mumbled, her eyelids fluttering, “Couldn’t your horse carry two?”
- - - - - - -
Notice anything different around here? I completely revamped my blog theme! After two or three years of the book background, I decided it was time for a change. The banner, background, and even my profile picture were all pictures I took and ran through PhotoGrid's comic book filter.
Snow White has always made little sense to me due to the sheer volume of randos. The hunter is just some random woodsman. The prince is just some random royal brat. The dwarves are just some random short dudes who happen to live together. Just what is going on in this story?
Snow White has always made little sense to me due to the sheer volume of randos. The hunter is just some random woodsman. The prince is just some random royal brat. The dwarves are just some random short dudes who happen to live together. Just what is going on in this story?
Oddly, after finishing this, I ran into an article about coal miners and silica dust (Here if you're interested), and how it's causing black lung much faster than coal dust alone. So maybe I need to rewrite this so that Snow White is working the mines and that's how she gets poisoned. My original idea was that it was Carbon Monoxide from a faulty stove that made her pass out.