The three of them turned to see a figure standing between the trees. Clad almost entirely in black, with a scarf turned to a hood and shawl around his pale angular face and dark hair, the silhouette of the warrior was stark against the snow and ice. He carried a polearm like that of the soldiers, but with a larger end. From around his neck dangled a crystal amulet like Coppelius's, colored violet rather than azure blue. 

His fair, freckled face was similar to Coppelius's, Gwynn realized, and they shared the same indigo starry eyes. Those intense, blazing starry eyes were aimed directly at Coppelius.

"I've followed you far, Coppelius, but you still can't outrun what is inevitable." The warrior twirled his polearm. "Her Majesty is merciful—you still could come home to the dark, if you wished it, and spare yourself the destruction."

"I'm not like you, Versailles," Coppelius spat. "You know what the Spider-Queen is, and you still made a deal with her for your own selfish reasons, damn everyone else!"

The Spider Queen? Gwynn looked to Sorrel, to find her looking back with the same confusion. Gwynn recalled the name in the stories their father used to tell, the generic villainess of every story across the Society of Worlds and beyond. 

How could any of this be?

"Watch your tone." The warrior—Versailles— his face darkened. "You know nothing of my reasons." 

"The Spider Queen?" Sorrel's voice cut between the two outlanders. "But she's just a fairytale, a myth."

"How far the knowledge of magic has fallen in the Society of Worlds." Versailles turned his attention to Gwynn and Sorrel. "Stand aside. The Queen and I have no quarrel with you."

"No." Sorrel moved to join Coppelius's side. "The Spider Queen is a villain in all the old stories. If she's really real and you're working with her, then you're not up to anything good." 

"I would prefer not to fight any who are not necessary to the Queen's commands." Versailles' violet amulet began to glow brighter, a swirl of matching light surrounding him like an ominous mist. "But I cannot stop you from acting recklessly and I must carry out Her Majesty's wishes."

With that, he raised his polearm, pointing toward Coppelius and the sisters. The violet light plunged toward them, and it was all Gwynn could do to grab the collars of Coppelius and Sorrel's jackets and pull them to the ground with her. 

The light soared over them, narrowly missed the ancient tree, and hit a thinner pine behind them, causing it to burst into flames. 

Coppelius shot to his feet, weaving a spell of arcane symbols in azure light. As he did, Versailles stalked toward him, clearly in no rush. It reminded her of a predator, in perfect control and self-assured in the inevitability of catching trapped prey. 

Coppelius released the spell, and Versailles merely raised his electrified polearm and swatted at it. The light scattered and died as embers in the snow. Coppelius's hands moved quicker, mumbling something that Gwynn couldn't quite make out or understand. 

Gwynn heard movement behind her, and turned her head to see Sorrel remove the crystal blade from the tree hollow.

Before Gwynn could say or do anything, Sorrel charged at Versailles. He only spotted her just in time, hastily blocking her and turning away from Coppelius. Sorrel forced him to stumble back, and readied her swing again, meeting Versailles' blade at its electrified tip. 

The force of the blow sent the polearm flying, only to land several feet away in the snow, the tip buried in the ground. 

But that was the least of Versailles' problems. 

"Coppelius! Catch!" Sorrel tossed the blade to Coppelius. He caught the hilt out of the air and he strode forward to the champion of the Spider Queen, now disarmed.

That didn't mean, however, that Versailles was out of tricks. 

With a sweep of his arms, violet light appeared in the blink of an eye, pushing both Sorrel and Coppelius back and onto the ground. The sword fell out of Coppelius's hand, clattering to the ground beside him. 

Versailles then raised his hand, and Coppelius was raised high into the air, only to be slammed to the ground with a sickening sound.

"NO!" Sorrel screamed in anguish, and she scrambled over to his side. Coppelius stirred, but his eyes were unfocused, and he was bleeding again. The wound on his head had reopened, and something was wrong about his right leg.

Gwynn felt frozen in all the chaos, as everything slowed to the pace of her ever-beating heart. She had to do something, anything. She couldn't let Versailles hurt Sorrel or Coppelius. Like a wolf once again, he was heading straight for them, weaving a spell in his hands. 

Gwynn looked around for something, anything that she could use—and her eyes locked on the discarded polearm. 

That was when she knew what she had to do. 

She sprinted through the snow, faster than she'd ever moved in her life. Everything, or so it seemed, hinged on this one thing. 

Out of her peripheral vision, she saw Versailles stop, caught off-guard by her action. Footsteps crunched in the snow, he was coming, and fast. But she was certain she could get there first.

She outstretched her long, pale fingers as she closed in, and the awakened spark inside of her sang. The polearm lifted itself out of the ground and into Gwynn's hand. Her fingers closed around it, and her thumb found the button that turned on the electricity. She slammed it and turned just in time to thrust the electrified end at Versailles' chest.

He didn't even have time to scream, he crumpled to the ground, unconscious. 

Gwynn blinked. For a few moments, her enemy was deathly still. 

Did I kill him?

Right then, she could see the rise and fall of his chest, but no other stirring. Gwynn breathed a sigh of relief. He was out still, alive but unconscious. But he wouldn't be for long, 

She turned off the polearm and dropped it, hurrying over to Coppelius, her sister, and the crystal blade. 

"Are you alright?" She asked them both as she crouched in the snow.

"I am, but I don't think he is." Sorrel's voice was shaky from panic.

"I'll be fine," Coppelius groaned in a voice that suggested otherwise. "Hang on, I think—" 

He raised a hand and cast another spell, bathing him in a shower of what looked like stardust. As it made contact with the cuts and Coppelius's leg, his skin shone like a small sun. Gwynn had no choice but to shield her eyes and avert her gaze.

When she could see him again, the cut was gone and his leg was put right again. But he sank into the snow, with dark circles under his eyes that weren't there before and a paler, weary face. 

"Sorry, that took more out of me than I expected." With the help of Sorrel and Gwynn, he sat up and looked around him. "I really didn't want you to get caught up in all of this."

His eyes locked on Versailles and he stiffened. "We have to get out of here, before he wakes up."

Sorrel picked up the sword and wordlessly offered it to him. Coppelius said nothing. He did not take it, but rather stared at it. 

"I really had hoped he would be here, not a sword." He sighed finally. "But I guess that it's for the better. It means Versailles hasn't found him."

"What is the deal with your father—and well, everything?" In the new quiet of just the wind between the trees and the renewed snowfall, Gwynn's head was spinning. Spider Queens and ancient magic and mysterious swords—it was all beyond what little fantasy Gwynn knew existed in this world. 

"I will tell you, I promise." Looking into his eyes, Gwynn found she believed him. Even if she knew that the 'but' was coming. "But not here. Not until we're far away from him."

"You said that you had a ship that the Annwynese took," she said, looking skyward. "We'll need to get you that, won't we?"

Before he could answer, however, there came a roar unlike anything Gwynn had ever heard, and she could see in the clouds what looked like a thousand falling stars. 

But even Gwynn knew that those weren't falling stars.