The Rules of Ever After (19 page)

Phillip paused and tugged at the sleeve of his shirt. Daniel’s heartbeat quickened as Phillip seemed to search for the right words.

“I was just about to ask you why you stayed when you pulled me close to your chest. I suddenly didn’t feel so scared, and for the first time since I can’t remember when, I didn’t feel alone. Your arms around me were so warm and comforting that I just felt safe. Before I knew it, I was waking up the next morning still in your arms and still safe.” Phillip raised his head and gazed into Daniel’s eyes. “I thought ‘maybe Daniel
is
him.’”

“Him?” Daniel asked with a quirk of his eyebrow, not daring to believe that Phillip meant what Daniel hoped he meant.

“The one who keeps a vigilant watch in the night.” Phillip held his breath while he stared into Daniel’s eyes. Daniel held his gaze while he felt excitement bubble up from his chest into his face. Before speaking, he took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing mind and heart.

“Phillip,” Daniel said, as he shifted his eyes up to the sky and blinked, “that night in the basket meant something to me, too.” Dan­iel lowered his face and locked eyes with Phillip. “You told me to surrender to the ridiculous, but I surrendered to
you
. The cour­age you showed putting us all in that basket. The abso­lute faith you put in the magic of that moment. The kindness you have shown Gwen and Marina, and your need to make things right with all the princesses. Your devotion to your father and your king­dom. These are all things I wish I had in myself. But if I can’t have them in myself, then I at least need them in my life.”

“As that basket sailed quietly over the mountains, I just looked down,” Daniel continued, as he cupped Phillip’s face in his hands. “I saw this beautiful face sleeping peacefully on my chest, and I thought, ‘I will gladly never sleep again if it means I can see this face every night.’”

“Oh, Daniel!” Phillip cried, as he flung his arms around Daniel’s shoulders and nuzzled his face into his neck.

“Hold on,” Daniel warned and pushed Phillip back. “Nothing has changed here. You still have your duties. You still have to marry and take the throne.”

Phillip threw his head back and laughed. “A wise, if somewhat blunt, woman recently changed my mind on that too! Daniel, those rules were written by and for different people. Not us. These are our lives. Why should we not write our own rules for happily ever after?”

“Can we do that?”

“Well, I
am
going to be king you know. Kings get to write the rules.”

“Well, you’ll be king if someone marries you.”

“I’ve got someone in mind,” Phillip replied with a wink.

“The one who keeps a vigilant watch in the night?” Daniel asked, as he tugged Phillip’s hands to bring the other man closer. Pulling Phillip into his arms, he whispered into his ear, “I’d like to be him.”

“Daniel?” Phillip asked, leaning his head back to look Daniel in the eyes, “can I do something I’ve wanted to do since I first saw this handsome face pretending to sleep in my bed?”

“Sure,” Daniel replied with a sly smirk.

Tilting his head, Phillip leaned his face closer and closer to Daniel’s waiting lips. Daniel held his breath as he waited for their lips to touch.

Just as their mouths were about to meet, the sound of some­one crashing through the bushes made both men jerk their heads aside.

“Prince Phillip! Prince Daniel!” Peter yelled. He rushed to them before leaning over and grabbing his side in pain. Desperately trying to catch his breath, he panted a few times before blurting out, “You’ve got to come back to the castle immediately!”

Daniel quickly pulled away from Phillip and grabbed Peter by the shoulders. “What happened?”

“Peter? What is it? Did Cauchemar show up there? Has she attacked Daniel’s castle?”

“My mother? Is my mother okay?”

Peter shook his head and gulped a few more breaths of air. “Sorry… I ran the whole way.”

“What is it?” Philip cried, his voice cracking in fear.

“Prince Andrew… Princess Marina…” Peter bent at the waist and rested his hands on his knees as he gasped for breath. “Whew, it was a lot farther out here than I expected.”

“Peter! Tell us!”

“After going on and on about Marina being the most beautiful creature he had ever seen, Andrew proposed marriage to Marina. And—though I can’t believe it—she accepted! The birthday fairies have shown up to give their blessings!”

Daniel’s eyes grew wide. “You mean the fairies are in my family’s castle right now?”

“Yes!” Peter crowed. “I thought they might be able to help us find Katerina.”

“Daniel,” Phillip said, “maybe they will tell you how to end your curse!”

“Forget my curse! They may know how to help your father!” Daniel exclaimed, as he grabbed Phillip’s hand and began pulling him along the path back to the castle. “Come on! Let’s go!”

“Hang on, Father,” Phillip said, as they began to run, “help is on the way!”

“T
his party is a bit much, don’t you think?” James
said with a grunt as he sat down on the bench beside Gwen. The green velvet ribbons on his chest fluttered, and the heavy gold scabbard he wore around his waist knocked against the bench. The girl grabbed her goblet of wine to keep it from toppling over and shot an irritated look at the knight.

“We’ve never had this many candles burning in the entire castle in the whole twenty years I lived here. It has to be hotter in this room than in the kitchens, and Queen Rhea made me wear this ridiculous fancy tunic. Had I known Andrew would turn the room into an inferno…” James gestured around the large open hall, where hundreds of candles blazed in large brass candelabra shaped like trees. Three long tables stretched along the opposite wall, each covered with heavy brocade cloths in the Sylvanian colors of brown and green. Two of the tables were overloaded with bowls of fruits, trays of pastries and three roasted pigs. The third table held an enormous cake, decorated with ribbons and bows in Sylvanian green and Lipponian purple.

At the far end of the hall, behind the thrones where Andrew and Marina sat holding hands and gazing longingly at each other, minstrels played dancing tunes on their lutes. The seven birthday fairies sat at a table that spanned the front of the raised throne platform, each bobbing her head along with the music.

“I think it’s pretty,” Gwen said with a shrug. “An engagement is a special event, so it deserves something special. I still don’t know how the cooks managed to make that big cake on such short notice. Honestly, Andrew had only known Marina a few hours when he proposed.”

“Well, he clearly finds her attractive. He actually stopped looking at his own reflection long enough to notice her and propose. He even said Daniel was the first to finally find a girl beautiful enough to be his queen.”

“Honestly?” Gwen said with a sour face. James rolled his eyes in response. Gwen giggled before slumping and pouting. “I know she’s beautiful, but honestly.”

“Jealous?” James asked with a gasp of fake surprise.

“Well, I admit I was hoping to have a big party like this someday, but I guess now that I have no title and no kingdom, that isn’t going to happen.”

“Aw, come on, Gwen,” James scoffed. “You’d be bored just sit­ting around on a throne all the time. Admit it. You’ve had fun traveling about the kingdoms with us. How could you go back to just performing your little plays for the maids after you’ve faced down danger with a brave man like me?”

“True,” she said before slumping down even farther. “But it still would be nice for someone to think I’m the prettiest girl in the room.”

“Maybe someone does,” James mumbled, as he shifted on the bench. “Why, I happen to know that right now there is a dashing knight in this very room who is dying to ask you for a dance.”

“Honestly?” the girl craned her neck to look around the room. “Where?” Feeling James tap her on the shoulder, she turned to find him grinning broadly and pointing to himself.

“Milady, would you honor me with a dance?”

“Me?” Gwen said as her face brightened into a smile. James nodded his head as he stood and offered her his hand. “Why, Sir James, I’d be honored!”

As the couple stood to move to the center of the room, where other party guests spun in a dizzying array of swirling gowns and surcoats, Gwen stopped and tugged gently on James’s hand. Following her nod, James saw two birthday fairies fluttering toward them on tiny wings. The first fairy, clad head to toe in shimmering silver gossamer, glanced at James and said, “Hello, Ewan.”

The second fairy, wearing a simple drop-waisted gown in a deep orange velvet, pulled a pipe from her mouth and blew orange smoke into the air before elbowing the silver fairy in the ribs. The first fairy cast a guilty look at her sister, then leaned forward to fly past the knight.

“Sorry, ma’am, I think you’re mistaken. My name is James.”

“My mistake,” the silver fairy said as she sped by.

“You’ll have to forgive Marta,” the orange fairy said, “she’s a little bit of an idiot. Hello, Princess Gwendolyn.”

“Hello, Thora,” Gwen said and curtsied. “James, this is my birth­day fairy, Thora. She watches over all of us who were born on a Thursday. But I guess you’re done with me now that you know I’m not a real princess.”

Thora landed in front of Gwen and said “My dear, you are as much a princess today as the day you were born. That boy’s silly test has nothing to do with it. I’m not supposed to interfere with your affairs, but this has gone on long enough! As a matter of fact, there’s something else you should know.”

Daniel approached the birthday fairies’ table with his
hands tucked behind his back and his head bowed slightly. The two fairies seated at the table turned to face him as he stopped in front of them and cleared his throat.

“Daniel,” the fairy in a sky blue gown said, as she played with the large sapphire hanging on a chain around her neck, “you’re looking well.”

“With all respect, Fria, no thanks to you.”

“That’s my cue to exit this conversation,” the fairy in the pink taffeta gown said, as she stood and flitted across the room. “Think I’ll go check in on Phillip.”

Fria crossed her arms and wrinkled her face. “This is about the insomnia thing, isn’t it?”

“Yes!” Daniel hissed. “What on earth were you thinking? I haven’t slept in over two years!”

“Yes, but thanks to Saba, you didn’t die on your eigh­teenth birth­day either, did you? And from what I’ve seen, having insomnia has allowed you to learn all kind of things you never could’ve learned if you were wasting your time sleeping. I think my little curse may have been a bless­ing in dis­guise. Plus, your prince over there seems to like you being awake to watch over him.”

“That may well be,” Daniel said, his voice lowering as his anger faded, “but I haven’t dreamed in two years. Do you know what it is like to never dream?”

“I’m a fairy, Daniel. We’re the dream makers. We don’t dream. Why do you think we watch your daily lives?” Fria held up the sapphire and showed Daniel the image beneath its glimmering surface. He saw an image of Andrew nuzzling Marina’s neck. Looking up at the thrones, he could see the same scene happening in front of him.

“You watch our lives? So you’ve seen all the things I’ve been through in the last two years? It never occurred to you to step in and offer me some help or advice?”

“That’s against the rules, tootsie,” the fairy said with a shrug. “We’re only allowed to give you blessings and curses and then only on special occasions. We can’t interfere with your lives otherwise.”

“Fairies have rules?”

“Yes,” Fria said with a sigh. “We’ve been watching your kind for thousands of years, but it got a bit repetitious. Birth, life, death, repeat. So Luna, my oldest sister, decided we should liven things up by giving each of our wards blessings. The funny thing is, you humans are really boring when your lives are going well. So we decided that your birthday fairy would give each child some­thing not so nice, just to keep things interesting. But then it went too far the other way, and awful things that no one wants to see started happening. It just got gruesome. So we reached our current com­promise, one curse tempered by the last blessing. It’s been this way for thousands of years, Daniel. Those are the rules.”

“And you can just play with our lives like that?” Daniel pounded his fist on the table, making the fairy jump. “How is that fair? You have no consequences!”

“Oh, there you’re wrong, sweetheart. An unexpected conse­quence of our magic was that the fairy who placed the curse had to spend the rest of that child’s life giving small blessings. Birthdays, wed­dings, births, engagements. You name it, we have to haul our back­sides all the way across the kingdoms to give you a blessing. Even when you lose a tooth!”

“I thought that was the tooth fairy.”

“Pish,” Fria said with a roll of her eyes, “Tooth fairy. That’s a silly old wives tale. It’s just us. We don’t like some of it any more than you do, Danny. But, as I said, those are the rules.”

“Rules, rules, rules!” Daniel raised his voice. “All these silly rules. I’m sick of hearing about the rules!”

Fria began to laugh, and a faint blue light dazzled about her head. “Danny, a rule is what will let you sleep again.”

“What?”

“I really would’ve thought you’d have figured this out by now with all the reading you did. You have a standard sleep-based curse. Only one thing can reverse sleep-based magic.”

“Yes?” Daniel said, his impatience making his voice rise an octave.

“Silly boy, it’s true love’s first kiss. Everyone knows that.”

“Oh,” Daniel said, as he stood staring blankly at the fairy. “You mean I just have to…” Daniel turned to look across the room, where Phillip and Peter sat talking to the pink fairy. As he turned back to speak to Fria, he heard a shrieked “What!” from across the hall.

Phillip
watched
Daniel
approach
the
fairy
table
and
kicked his foot against the leg of the bench he was sitting on. He regretted that he had agreed to let Daniel confront his fairy first, and the entire evening was taking far too long for his taste. First they had had to sit through the seven-course dinner, with each course dedicated to one of the fairies. Then Andrew had made a long-winded speech about the beauty of Marina and the assured beauty of their future children.

Next, Marina had made her speech about the beauty of Andrew and the skills of the Sylvanian chefs who had prepared the evening’s meal, describing each course in detail, despite the fact that everyone in the room had just eaten every dish. Finally, Queen Rhea had asked Andrew and Marina’s birthday fairies to bestow their bless­ings on the marriage. After the usual wishes of fertility and long life and happiness were handed out, the royals were finally at liberty to speak to their fairies. Since Daniel was the one who introduced Andrew and Marina, and thus caused the engagement that brought the fairies, Phillip thought it only fair that he talk to his fairy first.

“You are about to shake me off this bench,” Peter grumbled, interrupting Phillip’s thoughts. “Just go over there and ask her to help us! These fairies can see what you royals are up to no matter where you are. She’ll be able to tell us where Cauchemar is and help us find Katerina. If I were a royal—”

“Honey pie, if you were a royal you’d what?” A lilting voice pulled Peter and Phillip’s attention from their conversation. They looked up to see a fairy floating a few inches off the floor in front of them. Her voluminous pink skirts shimmered around her feet as her small pink wings rustled the air. A pair of rosy glasses sat on the tip of her nose, and she looked down through them at the boys. “Peter, if you were a royal you’d never have time to write your delightful little stories.”

“You know my stories?” Peter said with a look of shock.

“Honey, you’ve been so close to Phillip all of his life that I have watched your life too. I am Mitta, Phillip’s birthday fairy. I appreciate you being such a good friend to him, especially during the sad times. I know the stories you told him cheered him up so much when he was missing his mother.” Mitta pulled the charcoal pencil from behind Peter’s ear and held it up. “Such wonderful magic you do with your little wand.”

“All I do is write stories. I’m not important like a king or brave like a knight,” Peter pointed across the room to where James and Gwen were speaking with another fairy.

“Hogwash!” Mitta said and waved the pencil as if shooing away Peter’s words. “Generations later, no one knows anything of a king unless someone writes down his deeds. As for knights, well, this pencil can be a mighty weapon, and you can fight many important battles with words. Have you never noticed that ‘sword’ is just the letters in ‘words’ rearranged?”

Mitta took her wand from the loop at her waist, waved it around the pencil twice and whispered a few words. The pencil vibrated in her hand and glowed with a faint pink light before she handed it back to Peter. “Yes, there is much magic in your little wand there. Keep a tight hold on it.” Mitta winked at Peter and pushed her glasses back up her nose with her index finger. “So, Phillip, it appears you’ve made a few new friends. One friend in particular.”