The Rules of Ever After (2 page)

“Should he be in her bedroom?”

“Oh! I can’t watch this.”

“Forget watching two boys fighting! A romance I can watch!”

Mitta watched as Phillip said something to the girl, stretched his arms above his head and mimed an obviously fake yawn. The girl shook her head and shrugged. Phillip reached into his sleeve and pulled out a small, green glass bottle with a shiny gold label. With a flourish, he showed it to the girl.

“What is that?”

“I know that label! That looks like a bottle of Dr. Hickenkopf’s Miracle Tonic!”

“Why would he give her
that
?”

“I think that’s Dima’s ward, Marina. If Dima were here, she would knock your wings off!”

“Shhh!” Mitta hissed at her sisters. She slid her glasses up and leaned closer to the bubble. “Little man, what are you doing?” she mumbled, with a slight feeling of worry in her stomach.

In the bubble, the girl sat up and read the label. She smiled at the prince and nodded her head before taking the bottle from him. After removing the stopper, she placed the bottle to her lips, turned it bottom-up and took three large swallows. She handed the bottle back to Phillip and dropped her head onto the pillow. They exchanged a few words, and the girl yawned. Phillip patted her hand, crawled over the footboard and descended to the ground.

“Ha! I knew I was right! He’s not interested.”

“That bed is absolutely ridiculous. There must be at least twenty mattresses! Really?”

“Is that a testing bed? It looks like a testing bed.”

“I haven’t seen a testing bed in years! I thought they were com­pletely out of use.”

In the bubble, the image began to fade as Phillip landed on the ground and walked away from the mattresses. As he reached the door, he turned and said something.

“What did he say?”

“Where’s the sound? Turn the volume up!”

“This is boring. I’m going back to watching the Sylvanian boys fight.”

Mitta knitted her brows as she repeated what she read from Phillip’s lips. “He said ‘Sleep tight. I’m sorry.’ Whatever could he mean by that? Does he think that tonic will… Oh! Oh, Phillip! Did you just… You sly thing!”

The image in the bubble faded away completely as the young man extinguished his lamp. Mitta kicked her feet and fluttered her wings and reached over to pop the bubble.

“Girls! Hold onto your wings! I have a feeling this is about to get interesting!”

T
h
e castle was silent, which was usual for a
testing
night. Cauchemar, Prince Phillip’s stepmother, had decreed it. The only sounds Phillip could hear as he crept down the hallway were the echoing shuffles of his feet and the pounding rhythm of his heart. He grasped his lamp tightly in one hand as he groped along the wall with the other to prevent himself from stumbling over the unevenly paved stones of the hallway floor. As he fumbled his way toward the large oaken door of the testing chamber, the acrid smoke and oil of his lamp made his nostrils sting. The lamp threw flickering shafts of light across the thick tapestries that blocked all outside light from the windows behind them. Hallways that had held so much light and carefree activity for Phillip as a child now were filled with dread as he thought about what lay waiting for him in the chamber beyond.

How different these halls are at night
. Phillip tripped over some­thing in his path. “Ouch! You’d think after so many times making this trip, I could do it blindfolded. Curse you, Stepmother, and curse your tapestries. Well, might as well get this over with,” Phillip mumbled, as he reached out and grabbed the large iron handle of the testing chamber door. He shoved his hip against the wood and let the weight of the door drag him into the chamber.

The room was not completely dark, as he had come to expect from his previous late-night visits. A small lamp burned atop the tall night table that stood beside the stack of mattresses in the center of the otherwise empty room. Beside the lamp sat a half-empty carafe of water, a large silver chalice and an enormous leather-bound book with the word “Kings!” inscribed in gold let­tering down its spine. The combined light of Phillip’s lamp and the one on the table lessened the gloominess of the room considerably, and he could see the large tapestries blocking every window. As Cauchemar had decreed, neither light nor sound would disturb the girl who waited somewhere atop the enormous bed.

The testing bed sat majestically in the center of the room in which his beloved mother had died several years before. Only Phillip, King Henry, Cauchemar and the royal scribe, Peter, had been in attendance at her death. The room had been gloomy then as well, since the lamps had been dimmed on his mother’s final night. She had lain in her bed and spoken to those in the room with a feeble voice.

“Peter,” the queen had wheezed, “you’ve been like a brother to my son. You must take down my final words and share them with the kingdom.” Turning to face her husband and son, she had gasped with her final breaths, “You must both guard your hearts. I see… I know…” Pointing at her son, she had said “Phillip, come out from behind your father and take my hand, my little love.”

Phillip had sat on the edge of the bed and taken his mother’s frail hand in his own. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he leaned close to hear her words.

“Hear me now,” she whispered. “Choose your partner wisely, my son. As the birthday fairy said, you must find the one who keeps a vigilant watch in the night. There is danger if you do not.” Then, she looked at Phillip’s father and said, “Henry, you must…” Gasping for breath she pointed at the other woman and sighed. “Cauchemar… she… marriage…” Then his mother shook her head, closed her eyes and left them.

Within hours of the queen’s death, Cauchemar had taken the pages Peter had written, tossed them into a fire and announced her interpretation of the queen’s final words. She had gathered the kingdom’s citizens below the walls of the castle. With her long silver hair piled into elaborate braids about her head and her burgundy velvet gown laced high up on her neck, she stepped to the edge of the wall and spoke. “Queen Marie was beloved by you all, but by none more than me. Though we share no blood, my mother was the Mistress of Magic in her father’s castle and eventually his third wife. She raised me and King Rupert’s two daughters together like sisters and we spent many a happy day playing together in the fields of Cantera.” Pausing to take a deep breath, she lowered her head and pretended to wipe a tear from her cheek. A murmur of sympathy rumbled through the crowd below.

Raising her head to look at the people, she continued her speech. “Though she wished for me to join her here as the Mistress of Magic for Bellemer, my life took a different path serving our step­sister, Evelyn, as her Mistress of Magic. After barely escaping the tragic events in Cantera, I rushed to Marie’s side to comfort her through the loss of our stepsister. As she quickly grew ill from a rain plague, I knew I had to remain here to care for her and to help care for her son, Prince Phillip, and her husband, King Henry.”

Holding a blank parchment above her head, she raised her voice. “Even with her dying words, written here, she spoke of the future, and I understand her words. She demanded that I take her place by Henry’s side as his new wife and help rule this fair kingdom. My first act as your future queen will be to honor her other dying wish and guard the young prince’s heart.”

Grabbing Prince Phillip by the shoulders, she shoved him to the edge of the wall for all of the citizens to see. “This young man is her legacy and your future. But Marie reminded me of his birth­day fairy curse and the great tragedy that will befall the kingdom should he marry a false bride.” She paused for the crowd to gasp and murmur. “So, I have declared the return of a royalty test for any young girl hoping to lay claim to his heart and his throne. I know such tests have fallen out of fashion, but we shall find the one who keeps a vigilant watch in the night. This kingdom and the prince will thrive!” The crowd cheered her loudly, but Phillip rested his head on his father’s arm and sobbed heavily.

Within days, his father had fallen for Cauchemar’s interpretation of Marie’s final words, and his marriage to Cauchemar was formal­ized. Phillip had a new stepmother, and the kingdom had a new queen. Cauchemar refused to use his mother’s chambers and demanded her own bedroom be redecorated as the new queen’s chamber. She decreed that Marie’s room would be used for the testing of any princesses who sought to marry Phillip. Shortly thereafter, all signs of his mother had been removed from Marie’s room and the testing bed erected. All were forbidden to enter, and the room sat untouched until Phillip reached the age of marriage.

Phillip carefully pulled the door closed behind him and took a deep breath. Even though he had been in this room several times since the first night a girl was placed here, Phillip still missed his mother deeply each time he entered. Her spirit seemed to linger in every darkened corner.

Oh, Mother, I wish you were here to guide me now.
Phillip paused to look at the stack of mattresses in front of him. The bed itself consisted of twenty thick, downy mattresses piled high within a large wooden frame and covered with a brocade coverlet in the Bellemer royal blue. The footboard had been built with slats to create a ladder to the top of the pile and featured a seahorse carved into the last board. Phillip searched for the small hole beneath the bottom mattress where Cauchemar had shoved the pea. Though the test seemed absurd to him, Phillip had learned not to question his stepmother’s ways. He reached in to feel the tiny nuisance, but was distracted by the fall of a long, dark braid over the edge of the top mattress. The braid stopped around the third mattress down and swung slightly back and forth. Hoping not to waken the sleeping girl above, Phillip crept carefully and silently toward the end of the bed.
Thank Gingerfair, she’s asleep already. I better extinguish her lamp before she burns down the castle.
He set his lamp on the floor and began his climb up the footboard. As he neared the top, he could hear her speaking softly to herself and he froze on the spot.

“Seventy-six, seventy-seven, seventy-eight…”

Phillip’s foot slipped slightly on the highly polished railing of the footboard and he slammed into the frame with a loud thud.

“Who’s there?” the girl screamed, as she peeked over the foot of the bed.

“It’s just me, Prince Phillip,” he said as he popped his head up over the footboard, his hand shielding his eyes. “Are you dressed for a visitor?”

When she saw the prince, a large grin spread across her face, and she said, “Oh, Prince Phillip! Honestly! You scared me! What are you doing here? They said I wouldn’t see you until after the test!” Leaning forward on the bed, she fluttered her eyelashes at the prince and giggled, “You can uncover your eyes, silly. I’m dressed. Did you come to kiss me goodnight?”

Stifling a yawn at the girl’s clumsy flirting, Phillip shook his finger at her and said, “Now, now. Not until you’ve passed the test and we’re legally wed. I’m just here to make sure you’re comfortable, my lady. But I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage, for I don’t know your name.”

“Gwendolyn,” the girl said, batting her large brown eyes and smoothing the bright yellow fabric of her nightgown down her sides. “But you can call me Gwen. It’ll be your pet name for me when I pass this audition—I mean test—and we’re wed.”

“Yes. I like that name. Gwen it is then.” Phillip finished his climb up the footboard and crawled onto the bed beside her. “You should be sleeping, though. What were you counting?”

“Stones on the wall. Honestly! I can’t seem to find sleep any­where.” Pointing at a sheaf of papers discarded beside the pillows, she said, “I tried reading the
Inquisitor
, but it’s just story after story about my cousin Robert’s wedding to Princess Emmaline. That just made me think about our wedding, which made me more nervous. Also, not to complain, but you’d think a bed this tall would be all one could ask for in comfort, but it’s terribly lumpy. Honestly.” The girl pushed down on the mattresses with her fist.

“That’s unfortunate,” Phillip said with a slight frown. “You’ll need your rest tonight so you’ll be prepared for the test tomorrow. Don’t let my stepmother see that. She has banned the
Inquisitor
from the kingdom. She says it’s just garbage.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.” Gwen blushed and stuffed the paper under the coverlet. “Maybe it’s nerves that are keeping me awake? I’m so worried about this silly test. I hope it isn’t regal history. That’s my worst subject. All those Ruperts and Henrys and Georges, and who killed what monster with what sword. Honestly, it’s mind numbing! I was hoping it would be singing, since I’m an excellent singer, but that doesn’t really prove my royalty does it?”

“No, singing would never please
my
stepmother,” Phillip said. “She’s actually forbidden song in the kingdom. She says art dis­tracts the people from their labors and from keeping the kingdom well stocked with food and wine. She removed all the beautiful tapestries from the rest of the palace and hid them away here, so that no one would waste time staring at them.” Phillip paused to pick at a thread that was sticking up from the coverlet near his foot.

“They are beautiful,” Gwen said. “It’s a shame to hide them in here. We Dealonians are renowned for our hardworking nature, but we still take time to enjoy life’s entertainments. Your subjects would have such fun looking at them.”

“Fun,” Phillip snorted and pulled the thread loose from the coverlet with a jerk of his hand. “Fun is not a word my stepmother even knows. She even banished the kingdom’s scribe so he couldn’t produce distracting stories and songs. He was the only friend I had. I miss him terribly.”

Phillip wasn’t sure why he was telling this to Gwen or what had made him think of Peter. Gwen had no need to know anything about his kingdom, since he knew she would be gone by the morn­ing. Still, she was the first princess to show any interest in anything besides marriage. And although he had hoped to be in and out of the room as quickly as with the other princesses, he had to admit it was nice to talk to someone his own age. Phillip’s lower lip began to tremble as he thought about the day his friend had been sent beyond the castle walls. To distract himself, he began to pull at another thread.

“He sounds perfectly lovely,” Gwen said, reaching over and placing her hand on top of Phillip’s to stop him from picking at the loose thread. “Tell me more about him?”

Phillip glanced up at Gwen to see her staring at him with kindness and expectation in her eyes. Swallowing a lump of guilt that was rising in his throat, he said, “Peter and I used to explore these rooms as children, and he would make up the best stories. But now I don’t have time for friends or exploring. My days are spent preparing to be a husband and a king.”

“Oh.” Gwen sighed and dropped her eyes, “that’s so sad. My kingdom is filled with art, and my father made sure I was trained. I sing, dance, act and even sew my own gowns. I spent all of my days learning to be a cultured woman, though I’d never seen the world outside of our castle until I traveled here. It was so exciting to see strange trees and lands and people and their funny little houses. Dealonia is nothing but mile after mile of farmland. Bellemer is so much more interesting! The views from the cliffs and the windswept beaches are so beautiful.” As her excitement grew, Gwen began to wave her hands about, making the lacy sleeves of her nightgown flap about her arms. “And the Southern Sea! I cannot wait until you take me to dip my toes in the Southern Sea. It made me realize just how boring my life’s been! I would love to learn something more practical than singing and dancing, but I’ll do that when I’m your queen! I’ll bring art back to your kingdom, and you’ll teach me the joys of exploring. I can see from the tapestries that your family loves adventure!”

Phillip glanced at the tapestry closest to the bed, which depicted his father slaying a dragon. With a shrug he said, “These are just propaganda. My father didn’t slay a dragon. He could barely swat a fly. Adventure would be nice, I guess, but my step­mother says there is too much danger in the world for a future king. I’m for­bidden to go near the sea. I’m forbidden to go beyond the castle walls until after the wedding, though I sneak out to the stables occasionally and walk the walls to look down on the sea.” Real­izing he was telling her more than he intended, Phillip steered the conversation back to the test. “Of course, there’ll be the traditional stag hunt on the day after we’re wed, followed by a banquet where we eat my first kill. It’s been a tradition in the kingdom for hundreds of years. No one has bothered to teach me how to hunt, but I’ll figure something out. At least I’ll finally leave these walls for a day. But after the hunt, I’ll be back to just roaming these halls and waiting to be king.”