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"What for? All you would have done is to say no."

"I suppose you think you know me pretty well," I said.

"Well enough," said Ironheart with a smile.

We reached the bottom of the hill. The trees thinned out, and the pastureland began. After a few more moments of walking, we reached a road.

"Put me down, please," I said, and, at once, Ironheart obliged.

As if he understood my desire to return home, if it was still home, on my own two feet. The same way I had left it behind.

"What do you suppose will happen when we get there?" I asked.

Ironheart reached down to take my hand. “I don't know.

Would you rather go the other way? I suppose we could."

"No," I said swiftly, though I had to admit the offer was tempting. To put it from my mind I said, "No," once more. "I guess I just thought going home would be less mysterious than leaving it. Instead, it's more."

"I know exactly what you mean," Ironheart said, in such heartfelt agreement that I laughed in spite of myself, and suddenly, things didn't seem so bad anymore.

"I guess it's like taking medicine," I said. "The sooner you do it, the sooner you can get on to whatever comes next."

"Could be," Ironheart said. "Though I do hope it won't involve any throwing up."

"That's disgusting," I said. "Race you."

And with that, we were off.

It took less time than I remembered to get home from la Foret.

Home.

109

Could I really still call it that? I wondered. When I was far from certain what was waiting for me there? A home is more than just a building, after all, even if that building is a castle.

Stop thinking and just keep walking. You won't know if it's home until you get there, Aurore.

The closer we got, the more settled the land around us became. What had once been open countryside was now dotted with prosperous farms. People stopped working in the fields as we passed by them, running to crowd around Ironheart. It was plain that his great quest was quite well known, a thing that soon caused people to crowd around me as well. By the time we reached the place where the casde gates stood open to all who wished to enter, wed collected quite a throng. As we passed through them, farmers and townspeople streaming like a great living train behind us, a young man came out from the palace to meet us.

"You're back," he said to Ironheart. "You brought a girl with you." In both statements, the astonishmnent was plain in his voice.

"A princess," I said with a silent apology to both Maman and Ironheart. I knew it wasn't proper etiquette for me to speak first, but the truth was that the young man's tone irked me. He sounded so surprised. "And you must be Ironheart's brother, Valiant," I said, and watched surprise become bewilderment.

"That's right," he said. "How did you know?"

"From Ironheart's very accurate description," I said, not daring to look in Ironheart's direction, particularly when I heard him give a strangled snort.

"Grandfather wants to see you," Valiant blurted out. "He's in the audience chamber. The big one."

"Then we should go see him right away, don't you think?" I asked, giving him my very best smile. Still looking slightly bewildered, he stepped back. Ironheart and I mounted the palace steps and stepped across the threshold into the great hall, side by side.

"I think he means the royal audience chamber," Ironheart whispered as we bore left and climbed another set of stairs.

"Though I can't think why Grand-pere would be there. He never uses it, since he's not really a king."

"What do you mean he's not really a king?" I asked.

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But any reply he might have made was cut off by a sudden fanfare of trumpets so loud and jubilant I almost clapped my hands across my ears. In the next moment, the doors to the royal audience chamber were thrown wide open, leaving Ironheart and me no choice but to go right in.

This is the very room in which I was christened, I thought. So I suppose it only made sense that this was where my journey to and from la Foret should end. Down the length of the room Ironheart and I walked side by side, while the townspeople and farmers crowded in behind us, jostling the courtiers who were already assembled, for all the world as if they'd known we were coming.

I could hear the rustle of silks as bows and curtsies were performed all around us. I never once turned my head. All my attention was focused on the man who sat at the far end of the room, at the base of the royal dais.

Not at their top, I instantly noticed. All that rested there were two empty thrones. My father's. My mother's. I blinked rapidly, desperate to hold back a sudden rush of tears. When my eyes were clear again, the old man and I were face-to-face, and a silence more absolute than any I had ever known had followed in my wake to fill the audience chamber.

He was the oldest man that I had ever seen. Though how old that actually was, I did not know. He sat straight and vigorous, hands resting lightly upon his knees. Hair as white as the first winter snowfall tumbled across his shoulders. The unadorned chair upon which he sat was made of dark red wood, polished until it gleamed like a ruby. Papa had given me a box made from the same kind of wood, the day I turned ten. What had he called it? Ah, yes. Rosewood.

And at this sudden memory, I belatedly remembered my manners and sank into a curtsy, momentarily forgetting that I was wearing breeches and a shirt no doubt stained with Ironheart's blood.

"No," he said, in a clear voice. "No, you should not bow before me, Aurore."

"You know my name," I said, and, in my amazement, looked straight into his eyes. They were gray as a storm at sea, flecked with gold like unexpected sunlight. At the sight of them, my heart rolled over, once, within my chest and then lay still.

"Oswald."

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He smiled then. A flash of teeth that had remained unchanged through all the years that lay between us. And now my heart reared up and then began to gallop like a horse.

"I promised that I would wait for you, did I not, little cousin?"

Without warning, my knees turned to water and I sank to the floor at his feet.

For heaven's sake, Aurore, I thought. Now is hardly the time to turn all mushy. But by now a wild trembling had seized all my limbs. I could not have stood if my life depended on it.

"Valiant," Oswald said, his voice brisk. "Bring a chair for the princess Aurore."

This was done, and I was seated, with Ironheart standing beside me. Then my cousin reached to take my hand in his. And at this it seemed to me that he began to tremble also, though before his hands had been steady and sure.

"I'm sorry, Aurore," he said. "I should have realized that it would be a shock. It's just—"

"That you've been waiting for a hundred years," I filled in for him. I sat back, and he released my hand. I shook my head, hoping the action would convince my brain cells to function.

"Even with all the magic there is around here, I still don't understand how any of this is possible."

"Many things are possible, if you desire them enough," my cousin said simply. At which my mind calmed and I remembered a thing I had forgotten.

"Ironwill," I said. "Isn't that what they call you?"

"Indeed, they do," said Oswald."Iron seems to run in the family. Tell me, what do you make of my grandson?"

I answered without hesitation. "That although it may not have been the intention at the time, he is well-named also."

"Ah!" Oswald exclaimed. “I was hoping you would think so.

You will marry him and live happily ever after, then," he said, but this time, his eyes slid away from mine. At my side, I felt Ironheart go perfectly still. And now, at last, the trembling in my body ceased and I understood my story's outcome. For what I 112

held in my heart was as clear to me as a sudden glimpse of starlight on a cloudy night.

"I can't do that," I said softly. "If it pains either of you, I can only say that I am sorry."

Oswald's eyes jerked to mine. "But. . . " he began.

I leaned forward just far enough to place my hands on his.

"The answer is no, cousin. There are many things that I would do for you, that I will do," I said. "But this cannot be one of them.

Though make no mistake, Ironheart is as fine a prince as any princess could wish for," I went on, raising my voice. "But to live happily ever after, there must be love, and true love at that."

"But...," Oswald said again.

"Be quiet," I said firmly. "Or your iron will will have gained you nothing. I'm trying to say that it's you I love, Oswald."

And I leaned forward the rest of the way and pressed my lips to his before he could try to get another word in edgewise.

I felt his hands come up to grasp me by the shoulders, as they’d done the night when I left home. The sound was in my ears again, the same I'd heard when I’d pricked my finger in the Forest. But now the weeping faded away, leaving only one pure voice, singing high and joyful. Then, even that grew silent as the kiss ended and I opened my eyes. There were tears in Oswalds.

And extraordinary as this was, it still wasn't the greatest cause for amazement. For my cousin was transformed.

No longer old, but young.

His outward form once more matched the image of him I had carried in my heart for so very long. For this was what I had seen in the moment before my sleep began. It was Oswald I carried in my heart. And so it was that the words my godmother Chantal had uttered on the day of my christening at last made sense. The power of her magic had snatched me from death. But it was the power of my own love which would give me the life I wanted.

All around us, I could hear a great commotion among those assembled in the room. I kept my eyes on Oswald's. And so I knew the exact moment he saw himself reflected in them.

"Sweet heavens," he whispered. "Sweet merciful, mercurial Aurore. You are, and always have been, my strongest magic."

"Not me," I said. "Us. Together."

113

For who could deny, literally in the face of so much wonder, that love was the greatest magic of them all?

Late that afternoon, I walked in the garden with Ironheart.

The kitchen garden, to be exact. The same one in which I'd taken my first steps into the world, so long ago now, Oswald and I were to be married the next day, with as little pomp and as much celebration as possible. I suppose there were those who considered such haste unseemly. But then neither of us had ever cared very much what other people thought. And for ourselves, it seemed to us, in particular to Oswald, that the waiting we had already endured was more than long enough.

"Aurore," Ironheart said, as he folded his long form onto a bench beneath a row of orange trees. "Will you tell me something?"

"Of course I will," I said, as I sat down beside him. Indeed, I had a feeling I knew what was coming.

"If you hadn't known you loved Grand-pere, do you think—

that is—I've been wondering—"

"Of course I would have," I said.

He poked at the dirt with one booted foot. "Honestly? You aren't just saying that to sort of soften the blow?"

"You can probably answer that one yourself," I said. "Does that sound like something I might do?"

He gave a snort of laughter before he could stop himself. "All right," he said. "You've convinced me. I hope you'll be very happy, Aurore."

I linked my arm through his. "As happy as I hope you'll be someday. Come on now, admit it. You don't really love me, either. Not in a happily ever after kind of way."

"Don't I?" he said, then heaved a great sigh. "All right, it's true, I don't." There was a small but potent silence. "I thought it would make me miserable to say that," he went on after a moment."Instead I feel much better."

"Listening to your heart and telling the truth about it does that," I said.

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He made a face."You're not going to get all know-it-all on me, are you? Because if you are, I'm going to Grand-pere right now and tell him he'd be much happier marrying you off to Valiant."

"Don't tell me both my grandsons want to steal my bride away from me," Oswald's voice said. And there he was, suddenly standing beside us.

Ironheart jumped, then shook his head. "Did you hear him coming?"

"No," I answered. "But then sneaking up on people always was one of his best talents. Very well," I said, smiling up at Oswald.

"We won't tell you. I'll just choose the one I want and run away with him. We'll write when we get to wherever it is we're going."

"I'd like to see you try," said Oswald. "You couldn't bear to leave me again. You may as well just come right out and admit it, Aurore."

"Easy enough," I said. "Considering I never wanted to leave you in the first place."

I heard him catch his breath. And, just for a moment, he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, all I could see was gold. There was no gray in them at all.

"You have to warn me before you say things like that," he said." You make me lose my balance, Aurore."

"That's just because you're so old," I said, as comfortingly as I could. "Here." I scooted over. "I think the bench is big enough for three. Come and sit down."