The Rules of Ever After (13 page)

“I’m truly sorry to have missed it,” Daniel said with a laugh. “But you didn’t give us much warning. You met, proposed and married in the span of a week!”

“Well,” Robert said as he plopped back down on the throne, “I couldn’t run the risk of some other prince snapping up this little gem, now could I?”

“Oh, Robert,” Emmaline said with a chuckle, as she batted him softly on the shoulder, “it’s not like you had much competition. There was only one other eligible prince in the kingdoms that I wasn’t related to.”

“Oh! Him,” Robert said with a huff. “He was no competition. Why, that fish-brained prince—”

“Is here,” Emmaline said and pointed at Phillip.

“What?” Robert bellowed. He abruptly stood up, almost knock­ing Daniel over in the process. He leaned to look around Daniel’s shoulders at the two figures standing below. “Emmaline! Fetch me my sword! I am going to skewer that little fish and roast him on a fire!”

Daniel turned to watch Phillip back away from the thrones. He could see the fear in the other prince’s eyes as he fidgeted with the hem of his doublet. “Now, Robert, calm down. I’ve brought Phillip here to seek your forgiveness and aid. You simply can’t—”

“I can,” Robert raised his voice even louder. Leaning close to Daniel’s face, he spat, “Do you realize this shrimp has ruined the reputation of my dear sister, Dinah, and my beloved cousin, Gwen­dolyn. The whole kingdom is laughing at me and claiming that we all might be frauds! I think a sword through the belly is better than he deserves!”

“Cousin Robert,” Gwendolyn said, as she took a step toward the thrones.

“Dinah was so embarrassed by the whole tawdry affair that she has run off to who knows where!” Robert continued his rant as he clomped down the steps. “And no one has seen my beloved cousin since she was unceremoniously dumped out of your little seaside castle.”

“I can explain,” Phillip whimpered, as he cowered away from the king’s advancing form.

“Cousin Robert!” Gwendolyn stepped between Robert and Phillip. “I’m right here. You’d think if I’m so beloved you’d notice me in the room! Honestly.”

“Gwendolyn?” Robert gasped, then turned and swept the girl into his arms. “Oh, Gwen. You’ve come home! Your father will be so pleased!”

“Yes. I’m fine, and Phillip is the one who brought me home.” Gwen said huffily, as Robert dropped her back to her feet. “If anything, you should be thanking him. I mean, honestly. Those ruffians you and Daddy hired to escort me dumped me outside the castle. Not Phillip.”

“Why, those no good—I ought to round them up and have them baked into a—darling, I’m sorry. But he still ruined your rep­utation! Thanks to those blubbering idiots at the
King­dom Inquisitor
, everyone in Clarameer thinks you and Dinah are frauds!”

“It was never my intention to—” Phillip tried to enter the conversation.

“Hush, boy. I’ll deal with you in a minute,” Robert said and put his hand up in front of Phillip’s face.

“Cousin,” Gwen said, as she grabbed Robert’s outstretched arm, “if you will calm down and think about it, Phillip has done you a favor.”

“A favor?” Robert asked, his chin falling.

“Yes. Think about it. When Granddaddy split Dealonia between your daddy and mine, nobody intended it to stay that way.”

“Yes. The first of their children to marry and produce an heir would reunite the two halves.”

“Right. So, if anything, Phillip made it easier for you to have a child first. When my father is gone, you will rule both king­doms. Without a true princess to produce a child, you’ve got no competition.”

“It’s true, Robert,” Emmaline cooed. She stepped forward and grabbed her husband by the hand. Leading him back up to the thrones, she gently nudged him to his seat. “And if Gwen had married Phillip, you’d have her father to your north and her hus­band to your south. They could’ve made an alliance and tried to run you off the throne!”

“You’re not helping,” Daniel hissed at his sister.

“This minnow? Wage war on me? I’d like to see him try.”

“King Robert,” Phillip said and stepped up to the throne again, “that was never my intention. I just want to rule my own kingdom in peace. Which is why I have come to ask your help with—”

“I’d have been happy to leave you in peace, son. If you’d married Dinah, I’d have an ally to the south and the use of your ports. But you had to go and—”

“Again, my intentions were—”

“Intentions. Ha! Your intentions have made my little sister just disappear! First she spent all her days locked up in her bedroom reading books on magic. Then one day she came storming in here in a downright fit. Dinah’s always been an ornery sort, but that day she was so mad I thought she would spit fire. Said there was no way she could’ve failed his test. Claimed there was some hokum pokum going on in that castle and, by Gingerfair’s crook, she was going to go and prove it. Stormed out of here like a Dealonian cyclone, and no one has seen her since. That is all your fault!”

“Robert,” Daniel said calmly, as he stepped beside Phillip and rested his hand on the other man’s shoulder, “you make Phil­lip sound so heartless. How could he know Dinah would fail the test? How could he know she would storm out of her own home? Phillip is not an evil man. I’ve seen evil. His step­mother attempted to kill us all and has cast a spell on King Henry. That is why we’ve come here, to seek your help in finding and capturing her.”

“A spell, you say?” Robert said with a frown. “Almost killed you all?”

Phillip nodded as tears began to form in his eyes. “My step­mother, she did something to him and now he’s… I don’t know… but I have to help him. I have no interest in conquering or ruining anyone.”

Daniel stroked his hand across Phillip’s shoulder. “I’ve watched him go through sheer torture in the last few days, and yet he’s been nothing but kind and caring to Gwendolyn. All he is asking is that you search your kingdom for Cauchemar. Help him bring her to justice and save his father’s life.”

“It’s true. He’s rescued me, clothed me and brought me to you. I mean, honestly.”

“Despite fearing for his kingdom and his father, he even agreed to help me on my quest. Phillip wishes no ill on you or your house.” Daniel looked at Phillip and smiled before turning back to the king. “True, Phillip’s not a warrior. But some men can conquer with kindness. Won’t you follow his example?”

Leaning down to bring her lips close to her husband’s ear, Emma­line whispered, “Leave them be, darling. I think you might be gaining a family ally in the south, after all.”

Turning his head to look his wife in the eye, Robert raised an eyebrow and whispered, “You mean—”

“I’m a wise woman, you old goat. I know my little brother. Just help them.”

“Well,” Robert said quietly, as he turned back to face the princes, “King Henry is a good man. A fine man. Yes. I will gladly send my men to search every corner of Grand Dealonia. However, I have to ask two favors in return.”

“Anything,” Phillip said as he grabbed Daniel’s hand.

“Take Gwendolyn back to her father. If some lunatic woman is roaming the kingdoms trying to kill royals, I can’t have my cousin wandering about like a wild filly.”

“Of course,” Phillip replied.

“Secondly, find my little sister. Bring her home to me, and I’ll forget what you’ve done to our family.”

“Consider her halfway home,” Phillip replied, as he loosened his grip on Daniel’s hand and stepped up to Robert’s throne. He reached out his hands to the king. “Your trust is not misplaced, and your forgiveness will not be forgotten.”

Taking Phillip’s hand in his own, Robert looked Phillip in the eye and said, “Bring her home.” Turning to his wife, he rubbed his belly and yelled, “Emmaline, I do believe all this hollering has grown me a fierce hankering for some sweets. What do you say we all head down to the kitchens for a little treat? My dumpling here has found one of the best pastry chefs in all the realms. Makes an éclair I’d slap my pappy for.”

“Sounds delicious,” Phillip grinned and followed the king toward the doors of the hall.

“Daniel,” Emmaline called to her brother as he followed Phil­lip, then dropped her voice as he slowed beside her. “While I’m glad you have found a companion for your travels and are helping Phillip with his task, please tell me you’re still working on your own little problem.”

“Yes,” Daniel sighed as he crooked his arm around his sister’s waist. “I’m looking still. James has been very… um… helpful, but so far, no luck. If only I’d been here to meet the fairies.”

“I should’ve asked them myself, but I was a little busy with the wedding and all.”

“That’s okay, Ems. But don’t you worry, I will find a cure for this insomnia and I will sleep again.” As they passed into the hallway, Daniel looked up to see Phillip standing before him with a look of utter confusion.

“Insomnia? What do you mean insomnia, Daniel?”

“
I
can’t sleep. Tell me a story.
” T
he girl in the cell
next to Katerina groaned, as she slid off her bed to the floor. Katerina startled awake at the girl’s voice. In her exhaustion, she had almost forgotten the girl was there, and the girl had barely spoken to her until now. Katerina turned her head to look at her. The girl’s sandy blonde hair hung in loose clumps about her shoulders and fell onto the stained embroidery of wheat sheaves on the breast of her tattered burgundy gown. The flickering torches on the walls of their cells barely illuminated the girl’s face, but Katerina could tell that under the dirt and tear stains the girl was pretty. Katerina watched her out of the corner of her eye as the girl struggled to shuffle closer to the bars that separated them. “You keep moaning about somebody named Peter. Tell me about him.”

“I don’t want to talk about that,” Katerina mumbled, as she looked around the cell for a way to move away from the other girl’s complaining. The back wall was solid stone with a large slab embedded in it to serve as a bed. Foul-smelling water trickled down the wall and kept the bed far too damp for Katerina to sleep on it. The cobblestone floor had not been much better, but the moss that covered it made for a slightly softer bed. Thick iron bars stood between her and the cells on either side of her. The bars extended across the front of the room as well. With only one torch burning in the hall outside, Katerina could barely see another row of cells across the hall. Her teeth chattered as she shivered in the cold air of the dungeon; the thin, frilly gown she was wearing provided no warmth.

“That’s not very neighborly,” the other girl groused and glared at Katerina through the bars. “And you’re wearing that dress wrong. The ruffles are supposed to be down on your arms, not up on your shoulders.”

“Well, it’s so cold in here, it’s hard to think, much less tell a story.” Katerina wrapped her arms across her chest and tried to rub some warmth back into her limbs. “And I like the lacy parts better up here,” she mumbled as she pulled the frills higher onto her shoulders. “Why is everyone determined to make me feel half-naked?”

“If my hands were unbound, I could use my magic to make a fire,” the girl in the other cell said, as she lifted her hands to show Katerina the leather straps that bound her hands. “But I can’t do anything with these straps tying my hands together.” She lifted her chin to stare at the ceiling above and yelled, “Big bad troll king has to tie me up! If he’d show his face down here, I’d—”

“You can do magic? You can get us out of here! Come over here, and I will untie you!” Katerina cried out, She scrambled up and reached her arms through the bars into the next cell.

“Won’t work,” a man’s voice called out from across the dimly lit passageway.

Katerina jumped. She had forgotten the man was there. He had barely said ten words to her since the guards had dragged her down into the dungeons and thrown her into this room a few days earlier. She didn’t even know his name. She hurried to the door, hoping she could see his face.

“Those are magic bonds,” the man continued. “For every knot you untie, three more will appear. Eventually they will grow so tight her hands will fall off. Also, a fire would just choke us all on smoke. While I expect full well to die in here, I see no need to rush it. Now, could you both hush so I can try to get some sleep?”

“Oh,” Katerina cried, as she dropped back to the cold stone floor. Grabbing the ratty blanket, she pulled it around her shoulders and curled up into a tight ball. She sat shivering before turning to the girl and whispering through the bars, “Did they put you in here because of your magic?”

“To be honest, I don’t know much magic,” the girl said, as she shuffled on her haunches across the floor toward the bars. “I was just starting to learn, really. See, until recently I just assumed I’d marry a prince and do the same thing my mother and every woman in my family has done for generations. There aren’t a lot of options for us royal girls.”

“Oh! You’re a princess, too?”

“Yeah. My name is Dinah, Princess of Grand Dealonia. Are you a princess?” Dinah stopped her shuffling and leaned her face against the bars.

“That’s sort of hard to answer,” Katerina said with a grimace. “My name is Kitty. I think I may be a princess.”

“That isn’t a hard question. You either are a princess or not!” Dinah leaned back and rolled her eyes. “Everyone knows I’m a princess. At least, they did, until I failed Prince Phillip’s test.”

“Oh, I know Phillip!” Katerina said. She leaned closer to the bars and whispered to Dinah, “I was supposed to take his test, but some bad things happened before I could.”

“Well, be glad you didn’t. There was some funny business going on in that castle, let me tell you.” Dinah puffed a few breaths at her hair to move it out of her face, before lifting her bound hands and shoving it away. “No matter what Phillip’s stepmother says, I know I’m a princess, and there is no way I failed that test without someone making me fail.”

Katerina’s stomach flipped at the mention of her aunt. She decided that her relationship to Philip’s stepmother might not be the best information to share at the moment. “You know what the test is?” Katerina gasped. “I thought that was a very guarded secret.”

“Well, it took me a little while to figure it out, but eventually I got it. I’m smart that way.” Dinah shoved back her shoulders in pride. “Well, it seemed strange that they put me in that humongous bed. I mean, who has furniture like that? And then that prince kept asking me over and over if I was sleepy. He was obsessed with my energy level. He even offered me a sleeping tonic.”

“That is strange,” Katerina mumbled.

“Then I woke up and was told I failed a test I don’t even remem­ber taking. I don’t fail tests! Like I said, I’m smart that way. So I thought about it all the way home and I just couldn’t stop thinking about that big bed.”

“I saw it. It
was
very big.”

“So the minute I got home, I ran to our library and did some research.” Dinah lifted her bound hands and pretended to rifle through the pages of a book. “I found out that hundreds of years ago they used to test a girl’s royalty by putting a pea under a big stack of mattresses.”

“That seems silly,” Katerina said, hoping to change the subject.

“I know!” Dinah said. “But the crazy thing is that it’s true! I tried it. I put the tiniest pea I could find under a bunch of mattresses, and it felt like a boulder! That was when it occurred to me that someone must’ve used magic to make me fail, and I decided to prove it.”

“Prove it how?”

“Well, I tried to tell my brother, but he told me to be a good girl and keep quiet. After I hit him with my shoe, I started reading everything I could about magic to figure out how Phillip did it. I thought I could expose him for a fraud, ruin his reputation, and get my rightful title back. If nothing else, I could at least learn how to turn the twit into a toad. I was a woman on a mission!”

“Did you figure something out?” Katerina said meekly. She dreaded having to tell the girl that her aunt had been the one to make her fail.

“No,” Dinah said, as she leaned against the bars. “But some­thing strange did happen. I started to learn things no one had ever bothered to tell me. Useful things! Not just dancing and conver­sation and how to wear your hair. Did you know rumberries can cure rain plague? A dragon scale can cure hiccups! It’s fascinating!” Dinah’s face lit up with excitement as she thought about what she had learned. “I read everything I could in Dealonia’s libraries and I just needed to know more. So, I ran away in the middle of the night and sought out every person and book I could find to teach me more. I began to be able to do a few spells, and it was so amazing. I had power!” Dinah lifted her hands and wig­gled her fingers, making a few purple sparks glitter out of her fingertips.

“How exciting!” Katerina said, her eyes widening.

“Eventually I ran out of things to read. And the really powerful people won’t tell you their best secrets. So, I came here, thinking I could learn something from the troll king. I mean, anyone who can build a magical wall around an entire kingdom must be powerful.”

“But how did you get over the wall?”

“Not by choice. I was walking along the base of the wall looking for any way in, and some men grabbed me. They pulled me right through the wall, somehow, and then I woke up in here.” Dinah shrugged and kicked at the bars. “I tried to throw a few spells at them, but all I managed to do was shower them with rose petals. They bound my hands anyway,” she yelled at the ceiling again, “because the troll king is a spineless goat!”

“Dinah, please!” the man across the hall groaned. “Enough with the yelling. Can you both be quiet so I can think of a way to get us out of here?”

“That’s my uncle, King Edward. He’s an old grump. They cap­tured him outside the wall too. How did you get in here?”

“My aunt brought me here to marry the troll king,” Katerina said. “I refused. I told her I already loved someone else and wouldn’t accept a life of misery married to some old troll.” Katerina stared up at the torch on the wall across the cell and tried to stop the tears she could feel burning in the corners of her eyes. “She had the troll king’s guards toss me in here and said I’d see what true misery is, so I’d appreciate my life as his queen.”

“Well,” Dinah said, as she shuffled back into the darkness of her cell, “this place is awful, but I’d take it any day over marriage to a troll.”

“Yes. It’s awful. I wish I were back in my tower,” Katerina said with a whimper, as the tears began to roll down her cheeks. “Everything was better in my tower. I was safe. I had Peter’s stories.” Her breath caught, as she sobbed and closed her eyes. “Things moved so much slower when I measured the days by sunsets. This is all moving so fast now. I just want things to slow down. Slow down. Just slow down.”

“Phillip, please slow down,” Daniel pleaded, as he raced
his horse up to Phillip’s side. “Your horse can’t take this pace and, frankly, neither can I.”

“She’s fine,” Phillip muttered, with a glare in Daniel’s direction. “We’re all fine.”

“Please, just let me explain. Slow down and let me explain!”

“There’s nothing to explain,” Phillip said with a glare, his anger making his voice tremble. “You lied to me. All clear. Now, can we please just get Gwen back to her castle so I can go home and tend to my father?” Though he knew it wasn’t true, Phillip added another twist of his verbal knife. “I only came along because I thought you might have passed the test. But that was just a lie.”

“I never lied to you! I tried to tell you several times, but we kept getting interrupted. It’s like someone wants me to always get—”

“Oh! Look!” Gwendolyn squealed as she trotted up between the two princes with her arm gesturing to the horizon.

“—interrupted.” Daniel sighed and rolled his eyes.

“What am I looking at?” Phillip said. He turned away from Daniel to look where Gwendolyn was pointing. They had agreed it was safer to stay off the main roads, and the dirt road they were following wound its way back and forth in front of them across golden wheat fields. It met the main road at the gates of a small castle. The fields were in full fruit, but not a soul could be seen working in them. Phillip was surprised at how tiny the castle seemed, compared to his own. He was also surprised to see no banners flying from the towers, and the gates sitting half-opened.

“It’s my home!” Gwen shouted, as she popped her horse’s reins and sped off toward the small castle with the golden gown Emma­line had forced her to change into fluttering in the breeze behind her. “Look at our pretty little castle! Daddy, I’m home!”

“Gwen!” James yelled, as he and Peter rode up to the two princes. “Wait! You need one of us with you. That crazy woman could be in there!” Kicking his spurs into his horse’s side, he sped after Gwen. With a glance back over his shoulder, he called to the others, “A little help here! Before she gets herself killed.”

“Some of us won’t particularly miss her.” Peter sighed, as he trotted after James.

“Come on,” Phillip said icily to Daniel. “Let’s make sure she’s okay. Something doesn’t look right about that castle.”

“Fine, but we’re not finished with this conversation.”

Phillip rolled his eyes before clicking his tongue at his horse and setting off toward the castle. As he approached, the hair on the back of his neck bristled. The windows along the front of the castle seemed like empty eye sockets staring back at him. The gate hung half-open like the mouth of a fish pulled from the water. Glancing at the empty sentry box by the gates, Phillip asked, “Where are the guards?”

“Where is
anyone
?” Daniel whispered, as he slowed his horse and dismounted. “Something is definitely wrong here.”

“Whoa, girl,” Phillip murmured to his horse and patted her neck. He dismounted and grabbed the loose reins to lead the horse to the gates. The horse whinnied and chuffed as Phillip led her into the courtyard of the castle. With a pat on her hind leg, he sent the horse to stand with the rest of the traveling party’s horses in a corner of the courtyard, where they shifted from hoof to hoof.