Maleficent(44)
“It’s done,” she said, her voice aching. The curse had been fulfilled. Somewhere inside that iron fortress, Aurora had found a spinning wheel and pricked her finger on it. And somewhere in there, she now lay in a sleep that would last forever. Unless…Maleficent looked down at Phillip. Kicking Diaval on, she raced toward the castle, holding Aurora’s last hope carefully in front of her.
NIGHT HAD FALLEN. Hours had passed since Maleficent had felt the pain in her finger and known Aurora was lost to sleep. Now, standing in front of King Stefan’s castle, Maleficent and Diaval, once more in his human form, stared up at the big iron gates. Behind them, Phillip slept on, propped up against a tree. The gates were unguarded and oddly quiet. Noticing that, Maleficent cocked her head. On one hand, that was good news, as it meant Maleficent could enter the castle undetected. But on the other hand, it meant she had no idea what to expect once inside.
“He’s waiting for you in there,” Diaval pointed out. He didn’t bother to say who, as Maleficent knew all too well. “If we go inside those walls, we’ll never get out alive.”
Maleficent continued to stare straight ahead, barely registering Diaval’s words. “Then don’t come,” she said absently. “It’s not your fight.” Using her staff, she lifted the sleeping Phillip and began to move on.
Behind her, Diaval let out a sigh. Once, just once, it would be nice if Maleficent were able to see what was really going on. It would be nice to hear her say, “Please come with me, Diaval. We can do anything as long as we’re together.” But Diaval knew those were words he would never hear. And while he wished it were different, he also knew he could never let Maleficent go into that castle alone. Letting out a little groan, he ran to catch up.
Inside the castle, the halls were quiet. News that the curse had been fulfilled had spread like wildfire, and servants and soldiers alike quaked with fear at King Stefan’s rage. He had already taken his anger out on the three dimwitted pixies who had let Aurora come back too early. After berating them for hours, calling them useless and failures, he had ordered them to find someone—anyone—who could give his daughter the kiss of true love.
What he didn’t know was that his own first love was now inside his castle, making her way closer with the one man who might stand a chance at waking up his daughter.
As soon as Maleficent had passed through the castle’s main gate, she had felt the weight of the iron on her. While she was able to avoid touching it, the dark metal was everywhere. It lined the walls, carefully sculpted into the shape of brambles and thorns, effectively making it appear like an iron version of her Thorn Wall. The iron thorns thrust out of the wall and jutted down from the ceiling, forcing Maleficent to walk carefully and keep her pace slow. Eager to get to Aurora, she chafed at the speed. But when they heard a guard approaching and had to duck back into the shadows, Maleficent realized that walking was not as bad as the searing pain she felt when the iron touched her back.
When the guard had finally passed and the coast was clear, Maleficent stepped away from the wall, gasping for breath.
“Are you burned?” Diaval asked, concern lacing his voice.
But Maleficent didn’t answer. Gritting her teeth, she simply said, “Carry on.”
For the next few minutes, they walked along in silence. Hearing still more footsteps, they once again hid in the shadows. But this time Maleficent was careful to keep her back off the walls. Peeking out, she saw that the footsteps belonged to two handmaidens. They carried clean linens in their arms as they scurried down the hall.
“How long will she sleep?” one of them asked.
The other shrugged. “Forever, I guess.”
Maleficent looked at Diaval and raised an eyebrow. The women could be talking about only one person: Aurora. Maleficent waited until the pair had moved past, then silently slipped back into the hall. Diaval joined her, holding Phillip up in his arms. They began to follow the handmaidens.