The Rules of Ever After (5 page)

“I guess.” Daniel shrugged and held his hand out to James. The knight grabbed his hand and pulled him up. “I just thought I would find the answer sooner. Speaking of which, what have you’ve found?”

“I’ve found the way to make you sleep!” James said and puffed out his chest.

“Again?” Daniel asked, with a roll of his eyes. “What is it this time? I still haven’t quite recovered from your last ‘answer.’”

“Look, I thought that tonic would work. The old man on the wagon said Dr. Hickenkopf’s Miracle Tonic would cure whatever ails you. It grows hair! It cures poxes! I watched it make a lame boy walk! I thought for sure it would make you sleep.”

“James, it didn’t make me sleep and it gave me the worst case of tumbly tummy I’ve ever had!” Daniel laughed as he grabbed at his stomach. “You are here to protect me, remember? I appreciate your helping me end the curse, but I don’t want to end it by going to my grave.”

“Okay, but this one is for sure going to work, and there is zero chance of death.”

“Go on.” Daniel crossed the path toward the woods where Rose­mary had wandered off. He clicked his tongue to call her and grabbed at the reins hanging from her neck. James grabbed his own horse’s reins and followed behind him, stumbling slightly as his boots sank into the sandy soil of the path.

“A little way ahead,” James said and pointed in the direction he had come from, “I found the castle of the ruler of this kingdom. King Henry, I think? We’re in Bellemer now, right? The castle sits on the cliffs right above the sea. Seahorses were drawn on everything.”

“Yes. A seahorse is the sigil of Bellemer. That would be King Henry’s castle. I’ve heard it is a beautiful place, with views of the Southern Sea from every window. Full of music and art and laughter. They say King Henry is the jolliest man in Clarameer.”

“Then maybe I got the wrong place,” James said, then cocked his head and thought. “It’s small and plain, and there was definitely no one singing. They had almost no guards on duty, so I was able to ride right in.”

“That’s not very wise. Did they learn nothing from the fall of Cantera?”

“Right! But I just rode right in. I thought maybe they had an inn, or maybe I could find a steward and get us some food and a place to stay tonight. That’s why I put on the surcoat with your sigil. I know how you royals like to entertain each other.”

“One of the perks,” Daniel said as he began brushing his hand down Rosemary’s side, knocking the dust from her flank.

“Exactly. But I couldn’t find anyone who would even look up at me. Everyone was moping around talking about another princess failing the test. Every time I tried to speak, they told me to be quiet and pointed at signs that said ‘raise your crops and not your voice.’ They were working away like crazy mice, almost as if they were scared to stop and speak.”

“Odd,” Daniel said. His interest piqued, he stopped grooming the horse and turned to look at his friend. “You said a princess failed a test?”

“I have no idea what they meant.” James shrugged. “But they were obviously focused on this princess guest, so I think they will be excited to have a prince like you, too. Finally, an old woman who was feeding chickens said the whole royal family was probably in the main hall seeing off the fake princess. So I just wandered around the castle trying to find the main hall or someone who would talk to me. And that’s when I found it.”

“Found what?”

“The answer to your no-sleeping curse. I just opened a door and there it was. It was really lucky that I stumbled across it.”

“Yes?”

“It’s huge.” James stretched his arm high above his head, the ribbons on his bicep fluttering in the light breeze. “And right in the middle of the room. And there was nothing else in there. Which was weird. But it was so dark, I knew it would be perfect for you.”

“James, what
is
it?”

“Oh. Sorry. A bed.”

“A bed?” Daniel scowled.

“Not just any bed. A huge bed. I mean, it’s taller than I am. There were at least twenty mattresses on it. And I thought, ‘that looks so comfortable, I bet anyone could sleep there.’ And then I knew.”

“You think a very tall bed will reverse my curse?” Daniel laughed and went back to grooming the horse’s side.

“Wait until you see it! It has to work. I mean, I was tempted to crawl up and have a nap myself.”

“I guess it’s worth a try. We need somewhere for you and the horses to rest tonight, anyway. Did you make arrangements?”

“No. I was so excited I rushed right back here to find you. It gets even sandier up ahead, so Lillianne was going slow.”

“Well, it’s almost dark. Lead the way, and if we don’t find anyone tonight, I’ll just present myself tomorrow and express my gratitude then. If my map is correct and this is King Henry’s kingdom, we should be welcomed. My father always said he was a fair and gentle man. He’s got a son about our age, I think. I bet this princess was to be his future bride.” Daniel picked up the map and tucked it back in the saddlebag. He grabbed his saddle horn and slung himself into the seat. Grabbing the reins, he turned his horse. “Anyway, maybe we can meet this fake princess that everyone is so up in arms about and learn more about this test.”

“That could be exciting! I wonder what kind of test it is. I hope it involves swords.”

“From the few pictures I have seen in the
Inquisitor
, the prince is a handsome man, so I’m sure princesses are vying to marry him. I guess they want to make sure they get a true one. Well, at least it’ll be something different. Let’s go.”

Daniel knew the bed probably wouldn’t help. A birthday fairy curse could never be broken by something as simple as a bed. He knew from all he had read that strong magic required an even stronger response. However, humoring James’s ideas was the least he could do in gratitude for James coming with him on this journey. He turned to his knight and said, “Lead the way, brother.”

James swung himself back up into his saddle and turned his horse toward the south. “Just follow me.”

Daniel gently bumped his horse with his heels.
Who knows
?
Maybe it will work and I will dream again tonight. Or maybe I will find one of the things Mother told me to look for.

As Rosemary began her trot toward the distant castle, Daniel began counting their steps.

One. Adventure. Two. Answers. Three. Purpose. Four. Love.

K
aterina’s ears rang and her head spun as she
materialized in the queen’s bedchamber beside her aunt. As the last wisps of burgundy smoke whirled around her face, she dropped to her knees and covered over her mouth, trying her best to keep her last meal from making a reappearance. She was not sure what had just happened. One minute, she had been standing in the tower she had called home for the last eighteen years, and the next, she was spinning blindly in complete darkness before feeling her feet land softly on the stones of this room. She assumed she had traveled this way at least once before, when Cauchemar had brought her into the tower, but that had been so long ago she couldn’t remember it. After this dizzying experience, she wondered how she could have forgotten it, though.

“Up on your feet, girl,” Cauchemar chastised, as she grabbed Katerina by her elbow and yanked her to her feet. “That feeling will pass and eventually it won’t affect you at all.”

“It feels like that tingle of fear I get in my stomach when I look down from my window, mixed with…”

“The sensation you get after eating a bad frogberry?”

“Exactly! Oh, I don’t like this. I don’t ever want to do that again!”

“Well, if you stick to the things I have been teaching you, you’ll never have to leave these walls. You’ll have an entire kingdom waiting on you hand and foot, and you’ll eat lobsters, not frog­berries. Now let’s get you into something more suitable to meet your future husband.”

“I need to sit down a little longer,” Katerina moaned, as she dropped onto the bed behind her.

“Nonsense. You’ll be able to sit all you want once there’s a throne underneath your little backside. Up! Up!” She dragged the girl to her feet again and pulled her across the room to a large mirror and armoire. Opening the cabinet door, she pulled out a frothy, rose-colored dress and flung it over her shoulder toward Katerina, who caught the dress just before it landed at her feet.

“It’s so lovely!” Katerina cried, as she pulled the dress up to her shoulders and let it float down to her ankles. Looking at her reflection, she grinned, spun on her toes, and flared the skirt out around her legs. “If I put my hair up and wear this dress, I’ll be lovelier than Gingerfair the Beloved herself! Peter will never be able to resist me in this!” Her hand flew to her mouth as she realized she had said the wrong name.

“Phillip, you dolt. His name is Phillip.”

“Right! Phillip! I think I’m still a little foggy from the way we got here.”

“Well, snap out of it, girl. Now go back there and get dressed.” Cauchemar yawned as she pointed to a dressing screen in the corner. The girl carried the dress behind the screen and began to change into the new outfit. “I think maybe I should do all the talking until you’re totally over our trip. Can’t have you calling the prince the wrong name. You just stand there and look lovely.”

“I hope the prince will think I am beautiful,” Katerina said, as she walked from behind the screen and stopped in front of the mirror. She smoothed her skirts out and adjusted the neckline of her bodice until the dress sat perfectly. Looking up, she caught her reflection in the mirror and gasped. “Auntie! Look at me! I look like a real princess!”

“Shhh! You
are
a real princess,” Cauchemar snapped, as she flicked the girl lightly on the ear. “In the name of Godrick the Golden, please remember what I’ve taught you, or you’ll ruin this entire plan. Now let me get a good look at you.” She spun the girl around and ran her eyes up and down her frame. “Not that it matters, but here,” she said, as she slid the ruffles of the dress from Katerina’s shoulders down onto her upper arms. “Out here in the kingdoms, it’s in fashion to put a little more skin on display.”

“Doesn’t it get cold in the winter?” Katerina scrunched up her nose as she looked down at her chest.

“By winter, my dear, you’ll be in furs.”

Katerina looked back at her reflection. She had to admit, the dress made her look more like a woman and less like the girl she was used to seeing in the mirror in the tower. Though she had no interest in marrying Prince Phillip, she needed time alone with him to warn him of Cauchemar’s plans. She also hoped he might be able to help her find Peter. “In this dress, the prince will have to find me desirable!”

“Eh,” Cauchemar mumbled, with a roll of her eyes, “I wouldn’t bet on it.”

“What?”

“I said ‘you can bet on it.’ You look ravishing, my dear. Now let’s go present you to the king.” Cauchemar opened the door of her chamber and swept into the hall. Katerina followed as they hurried through the hallways of the castle. Though she couldn’t decide if it was from her recent magical travel or the twisting of the many hallways, her head spun with each step. She had never been out of the few rooms atop her tower; the size of the castle made her stomach flutter with excitement and a touch of fear. Her eyes darted, as she tried to take in each inch of the castle halls.
Look at all the doors
.
How wonderful to be somewhere with doors!

The farther they walked, though, the more Katerina noticed the castle was much less adorned than she had expected from Peter’s tales and her own dreams of a royal home. The walls were simple stone with little or no decoration other than the occasional patch of moss or an iron sconce holding a flickering torch.

“It’s not very fancy.”

“You should have seen it before I was crowned and did a major cleanup. It was just awful. Tapestries and paintings everywhere. Gold, silver, brass. Crystals and jewels on everything. Gaudy, flashy things everywhere. And seashells and seahorses on everything. Yes. You are the ocean-front kingdom. We get it.”

“It sounds lovely.”

“Distracting. That’s what it was. My stepsister was a true Can­teran, easily distracted by any shiny thing that passed her eye. The Canterans know plenty about enjoying life’s riches, but nothing about maintaining order and rule. That’s the danger of growing up in a kingdom with so many pleasures at every turn. My stepsister had absolutely no sense of how to rule and even less sense of style.”

“Prince Phillip’s mother?”

“Yes. Terrible woman. Spent her time singing, dreaming, wasting away her days. And she let the peasants get away with utter laziness. Instead of working the fishing boats and nets as they should, they dallied with her festivals, concerts and plays.”

“I’m sure they loved her.”

“Katerina! What is Rule Number Seventeen?”

“No matter what devotion a subject offers, a queen knows love won’t fill her coffers.”

“Correct. With King Henry following his silly wife’s advice, the peasants were loving and singing and dancing this kingdom right into poverty. Even worse, they were beginning to think themselves worthy of the same things we members of the royalty enjoy. That is a path to anarchy. I got here just in time to set things back as they should be. That nitwit child of hers is just as lost in dreams as she was. Which is why it is so important for you take his place.”

“About that…” Katerina mumbled, as she stopped and stared at her feet. “Do we really have to do what you said in the tower? Couldn’t I just marry him and promise to keep you here?”

Cauchemar stopped before a pair of tall doors and took a deep breath. “Remind me to give you some of my Prick Up Your Ears of Corn, because you clearly aren’t listening. I said the boy is just like his mother. If he ever takes that throne, he’ll lose this kingdom to the first fool who walks in with a sword. Now look pretty, and let me do the talking.” Plastering a large smile across her face, she pushed the doors open and swept into the room beyond. “Henry, my love! I have solved our problem!”

Katerina’s mouth dropped open as she followed her aunt into the throne room. She had never seen a room so large. Long wooden tables lined with chairs stretched along either side of the room from the doorway to the opposite end. Five chandeliers, each with at least fifty candles, hung over both tables and spread light throughout the room. A dark blue carpet flowed between the tables from her feet to a raised platform at the opposite end of the room, where sat three large, but rather plain, chairs that she assumed were thrones. Over the thrones hung an azure banner embroidered with a large silver seahorse. A portly older man with just a dusting of white hair at his temples rose slightly from the center chair as they entered the room. Under a simple golden crown, his face had the weary look of a dog anticipating the kick he knows will come from the cruelest of masters.

“Cauchemar, you’ve returned,” King Henry said with the slight­est hint of weary disappointment. “I’ve been looking for you ever since that imposter princess left. Someday you must tell me where you sneak off to. A hiding place like that would be handy.”

Katerina’s attention was drawn away from the king by a loud, short laugh from the young man sitting beside the king. He sat with one leg thrown carelessly over the arm of his chair and twirled his crown on his finger. He stared at the ceiling and bounced his leg, which was clad in silver leggings tucked into a knee-high leather boot, against the side of his throne; the silver embellishments on his blue doublet glimmered in the candlelight with each bounce. From what she could see of his body in his carefree position, he was tall and lean. His nose was small and almost feminine, but his strong jaw flexed as he pouted his lips and blew his loose, brown bangs from his forehead. Katerina assumed this was her intended groom and was surprised by how handsome he was. He turned his attention from the ceiling and locked his clear blue eyes on hers. A shiver crawled down her spine as he smiled and mouthed, “Hello.” She smiled back before dropping her eyes to the floor.

“Pop,” the young man laughed, “I know every inch of this cas­tle and there isn’t a nook or cranny my dear stepmother could stuff herself into where we couldn’t hear her ordering someone around.”

“Ignoring you,” Cauchemar sing-songed, as she approached the king’s throne and shot an icy glare at the young man.

“Well, it must be quite the secret spot if you’ve kept a young girl tucked away in there, too,” Phillip said and gestured toward Katerina.

“Who do we have here?” King Henry asked and leaned forward to see the girl better.

“This is the answer to Phillip’s marriage problem.”

“I don’t have a marriage problem. I’m not married. No problem.”

Katerina couldn’t help but giggle at the prince’s joking tone.

“Son,” King Henry chastised, “you know you can’t take the throne until you’re married. Also, you’re being rude to a guest. Cauche­mar, where did you find such a lovely young girl?”

“King Henry. Prince Phillip,” Cauchemar said with a wave of her arm toward the girl, “may I present my niece, Katerina. Daughter of King Francis and Queen Evelyn of Cantera.”

Katerina jerked her head toward her aunt. This was an even more fabulous story than Katerina had expected. She was not sure she could convince people she was a princess, much less the missing daughter of the murdered royal family of the old central kingdom. As she opened her mouth to protest, she was interrupted.

“Cantera!” Phillip gasped, as he stood from his throne. “There is no central kingdom anymore. And you of all people know there were no royal survivors of the troll king’s attack.”

“Phillip,” Cauchemar said and sighed, “I can explain.”

“No,” Phillip raised his voice and stepped toward Katerina. “I think it’s cruel of you to try to pass off some girl as the child of your dead stepsister. If my mother were here, she would have you thrown in the dungeon for trying to use the memory of Queen Evelyn in this way.”

“Phillip!” Cauchemar interrupted. “If you will let me tell the story. Henry, you know I was serving as Mistress of Magic for Francis and Evelyn when Thrigor, the troll king, invaded.”

King Henry sighed and nodded. “One of the saddest days in Clarameer’s history. Phillip, your mother lost a third of her family that day. Including a niece named Katerina.”

“Yes. He captured my stepsister, her husband, and her son and he had them all killed. But purely by coincidence, I had taken Princess Katerina out of the castle for a walk in the woods. It’s the only reason either of us survived.”

“How did you get over the giant wall once the troll king raised it?” King Henry asked and shifted on his throne.

“Again, luck was on my side. We were standing just beyond the point where the wall rose. Everyone assumed Katerina was killed in the coup, and I realized that if I let anyone know otherwise, Thrigor might come after the poor girl. So I hid her away and have raised her like my own child ever since. That is where I have been sneaking off to all these years. I had to tend to my lovely niece.”

“Isn’t that convenient for you? A girl you claim is a long-lost princess and who is practically your daughter could be sitting on the throne of this kingdom and making sure you can take all you want even longer. And it just now occurred to you to bring her out of hiding?” Phillip scoffed as he flopped onto his throne.

“Phillip,” King Henry said quietly, hoping to avoid Cauchemar’s wrath. “There is no need to be rude to your stepmother in front of a stranger.”

“A stranger. Exactly. Pop, she is trying to pull one over on us!” Phillip raised his voice. “We don’t have any proof this girl is Queen Evelyn’s daughter. We don’t know who she is. A secret princess rescued from a slaughter? That sounds like one of the fantasy stories Peter wrote before she ran him off!”

Katerina’s ears pricked up at the mention of the name Peter. She gasped, “Phillip, do you know—“

Phillip ignored her and continued his tirade; his angry voice echoed off the high ceilings of the hall. “This could be the girl my mother warned about on her deathbed. This could be the false bride. Just some peasant girl she shoved into a pretty dress. Peter used to tell me stories about girls who claimed to be the lost princess!”

Cauchemar grabbed Katerina by the shoulders and pulled her to her chest. “Phillip, I will not stand here and let you insult this poor girl like that. She has been through enough in her life without you calling her names. This is precisely why I did not bring her here sooner. But since every other available girl in the realms has failed the test—”