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The next morning, the Queen was breaking her fast with Verona in the morning room when the Huntsman brought Snow White in. She looked tattered, her rags soiled and torn more than usual, and her face was badly bruised.
“What’s happened?” the Queen asked as she stood from her seat almost knocking over a teapot. “My horse was spooked, I couldn’t control him.” The Huntsman interrupted Snow, “She was riding Lurid, my Queen, the new stallion. I warned her he wasn’t fit to ride, but she took him out while I was hunting.”
The Queen raged, “You could have died, Snow!
What were you thinking riding by yourself?” Snow didn’t answer.
“You were alone, were you not?”
Snow looked at her shoes.
“You were with him? After I expressly forbade you to ever see him again?”
Snow dropped her head in admission.
“Leave now, before I strike you; I cannot even look at you !” the Queen shouted.
Snow stood her ground. “He told me what you said, Mother! You lied to him, you said I didn’t love him. How could you?”
The Queen slapped Snow square in the face.
Verona looked horrified.
“My Queen, please!” Verona shouted.
The Queen whipped her head around like an angry viper and snapped at Verona, “Silence!”
Snow was in tears, sobbing so hard she couldn’t speak. Verona went to her side and wrapped her arms around her.
“I don’t even know who you are anymore,” Verona said bitterly to the Queen. “You have become a cold, wicked woman, and there is nothing of the friend I once loved within you.”
“Then you will have no trouble with my banishing you from this kingdom, dear Verona. Forever. And I have a mind to banish that incorrigible child along with you. But there is a life for her here. This castle has a use for her. The horse’s stalls have never been so clean. The outhouses have never smelled so fresh,” the Queen said sardonically.
“Majesty…” the Huntsman began.
“Silence! Or you will suffer the same fate,” the Queen barked at him.
Snow buried her face in the Huntsman’s chest and sobbed. He ushered her out of the room and Verona followed close behind. Then Verona asked the servants to gather her belongings, and after bidding good-bye to the familiar faces around the court she hadn’t seen in years, she left the castle.
The Queen watched her go, then quickly retreated to her chamber. She went to the mirror, but she feared the Slave’s reply. She couldn’t bring herself to ask him. She couldn’t bear hearing that she wasn’t the fairest, not this evening. So she retired to bed. And the next morning she awoke feeling a new rush of energy. Verona was far away from court. She was sure the Slave in the mirror would put her heart at ease.
“Magic Mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?”
“You are, my Queen….”
The Queen felt uneasy.
“I sense hesitation in your voice, Slave. Speak to me,” the Queen said.
“You are the fairest, Majesty. But do not ask me to advise on the state of your heart.”
The Queen spat upon the mirrored glass, then whipped up her cape and stormed from the room as the Slave in the Magic Mirror disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke.
“Show me Snow White!”
Snow White was running in the dark forest, full of fear and anguish. She was panic-stricken, alone, and heading back to the castle. Back to her stepmother, who would surely have the Huntsman punished for attempting to hurt her, and weaving lies that she plotted her own daughter’s death.
“Foolish girl.”
