The Stepsister Scheme

the Duchess’ tower were little more than insects. The tower itself made her gasp. It rose like a stalagmite from the center of the lake, nearly as broad as the castle back home. The tower narrowed somewhat near the middle, then expanded again to merge with the rock overhead. Railings and platforms circled the tower, along with several light, narrow bridges which stretched from the tower to the cavern walls. Other bridges had been raised like drawbridges, pressing flat against the tower. If the Duchess wanted, she could raise every bridge, leaving the tower inaccessible save from the lake below.
    Danielle’s sword reflected the blue sparks of the water running through the walkway beneath her feet. The walkways were little more than wide gutters with open grates over the top. The light of the water illuminated the path as it flowed, spiraling down the walkways into the lake. Walkways and pipes and support beams lined the walls of the cavern, like the work of an enormous metal-spinning spider.
    The huge door the dwarf had broken had smashed the railing and dented the walkway itself, so a stream of water now trickled over the side. Danielle could hear the metal straining under the weight of the other dwarves.
    “Watch the enemy, not the scenery, Princess,” Talia snapped. She pointed her knife past Danielle.
    A short distance down the walkway, a handful of darklings fidgeted and danced. They appeared to be waiting.
    “So, the brave Sleeping Beauty returns.” Stacia stood farther up the walkway, near one of the few lowered bridges. “Shall we begin with you, Princess Talia? Throw yourself over the— ”
    Snow clapped her hands. A pounding sound echoed in Danielle’s ears, blocking out the last of Stacia’s words.
    Talia rubbed her ears. “Is there a less obnoxious way to do that?”
    Snow grinned and turned back to Stacia. A wave of her hand sent the dwarves of flame and light streaking ahead. Stacia fell back a step, her eyes wide. Perhaps the ghost of Rose was remembering the last time she had seen these creatures.
    Stacia recovered quickly. An invisible blow knocked the dwarves back. The figure of light simply stopped, but the dwarf of fire landed on his back. Steam soon shrouded them from view.
    “What’s she waiting for?” Talia shouted. The darklings still hadn’t moved.
    “Rose knows I can protect us,” said Snow. She began to walk toward Stacia. “She won’t waste any more power on attacks that would only fail.”
    As the steam began to dissipate, Snow’s dwarves returned to her side.
    Stacia backed away, moving to the foot of the bridge. “Tell me, Daughter, do you still hear your lover’s screams when you sleep? Do you think the anguish of your friends will overpower that memory, as I sear the skin from their bodies?”
    Snow took a step, but Talia caught her shoulder. “If you join her on that bridge, she gains a tactical advantage. She knows most of your dwarves can’t fly. Neither can you, for that matter. She can. Go to her, and all she needs to do is shatter the bridge. She transforms into a bird, and you fall to your death.”
    “I could fly if I wanted to,” Snow protested. “Probably.” But she stopped walking.
    Talia touched Danielle’s arm. “Find another bridge.”
    Danielle stepped to the railing. Most of the bridges had already been retracted to the tower. She spotted one lower down, where a group of hunched dwarves led a mule-drawn wagon toward the tower, but it would take far too long to get there. Another, high overhead, was already swinging upward, chains clanking.
    Several crowds had gathered to watch the confrontation. Danielle saw a group of goblins on one of the tower platforms, all pointing and staring. A handful of dwarves stood on the walkway below. Danielle couldn’t hear them, but it looked like they were making wagers.
    Once again, Snow sent the fire dwarf toward Stacia, and once again Stacia knocked him back.
    “Stacia is afraid of water,” Danielle shouted.
    Snow grinned and pointed. The water dwarf began to disappear. When Danielle looked closer, she saw that the dwarf was melting through the metal grate, joining the water below. Snow’s brow was wrinkled with concentration. “This would be easier if Stacia were standing downstream ,” she said.
    Thin, scaled vines shot up from the grate. They wrapped around Snow’s leg, yanking her to her knees. The vines looked like a cross between plant and animal. They moved with the speed of angry serpents,