The Rules of Ever After (21 page)

“You were awfully quiet on the ride here,” Phillip replied as he leaned back to look at Daniel with concern. “I just figured you’re as scared as I am. I’m making jokes, but I’m worried.”

“I’m terrified,” Daniel said, “but not just of what may be waiting on the other side of that wall.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Phillip, I’m terrified I may lose you.”

“Daniel, I know there’s a risk, but I have to take it. My father’s life depends on it.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Daniel said, as he wrapped his arms around Phillip’s waist and pulled him closer. “We’ll succeed. I’ve no doubt about that. Fate, or destiny, or whatever would never have brought us this far just to fail. I know we’ll find her and save your father, but what about after?”

“After?”

“When your kingdom needs you. When your duty calls. When all of this is over and we return to life. Will I lose you then?”

Phillip stepped back and crossed his arms on his chest. He cocked his head and stared at Daniel with a bemused look. “Daniel, I know I told you I want to play this game by new rules, but I think there is still room for some of the old ones.”

“Such as?”

“The birthday fairies said the princesses all slept because of those magic peas that Cauchemar put under the bed, right? The pea took over the magic of the bed and the girls’ own heritage. The magic in that pea was stronger than the very royalty in their blood.”

“Yes, but I don’t see your point.”

“The way I see it, the magic in that pea should have been stronger than your curse. You should’ve slept, but you didn’t.”

“That’s not what my fairy said. Phillip, I don’t think that pea—”

Phillip reached up and placed his finger on Daniel’s lips to silence him. “Shh. You passed the test. You didn’t sleep. The rules said that the first one to pass the test is the one I should share my life with. So, I think that’s one rule we should follow.”

“Well, I guess—”

“No guessing. Your future king has spoken,” Phillip said, as he winked at Daniel and held out his hand. “Now, let’s go figure out a way over that wall.”

Daniel took Phillip’s hand in his own and twined their fingers together. As the two princes walked toward the shimmering glass wall, Daniel swung their hands back and forth freely between them. He looked down at his hand in Phillip’s, seeing their fingers clasped tightly together and he knew that his hand, his heart, and his very life had found their home. The unspoken promise in the other prince’s words washed over his skin like warm sunshine pushed by a breeze through the trees. Daniel wasn’t sure what his future would bring. Life as the whispered-about secret lover of the king. Life as the uneasily accepted consort of the king. Life ruling upon the throne beside the king and beloved by the citizens. Daniel didn’t care, as long as his life included Phillip. Should he lose him in the battle with Cauchemar and Thrigor, Daniel would gladly accept death at the end of the troll king’s sword. The fear of the battle ahead and the possible loss of his friends and of his own life faded under the sudden brightness of the light Phillip had brought into his life. Daniel squeezed Phillip’s hand and smiled when the other man squeezed back.

“So, James,” Phillip called out to the knight, who was staring at the glass wall that stretched above him with his sword dangling from his hands in defeat, “have you figured out a way to get us over?”

James scratched his head and shifted from foot to foot. He took a few steps back and eyed the wall up and down before stepping up to its face and knocking the glass with his knuckles. “As far as I can tell, it’s at least a hundred feet high and thick as a troll’s skull. Even if we had a rope long enough to reach the top, I have no idea how we’d get it up there.”

“Wouldn’t matter anyway, silly,” Gwen said, as she swatted at a fly that was buzzing about her head, “that’s a magic wall. From what I hear, as you near the top it just grows taller.” She turned to speak to the young scribe who sat on a boulder behind her. “Peter, you write about magic. How do you think we should get over it? If this was your story, what would you do?”

“Me?” Peter gave a short laugh as he stepped over to the wall and pulled the pencil from behind his ear. “Well, if this were my story, I’d let the writer be the hero for a change. I’d have the handsome but ignored scribe step up to the wall like this and draw a door.” Peter put the point of the pencil against the smooth surface and swung his arm in a wide arc over his head, leaving a faint line along the wall’s surface.

After drawing a door shape, he quickly sketched a loop on the side for a handle and hinges on the opposite side. “Then I’d have him grab the handle like this…” Peter reached out and placed his hand where he had sketched the handle. “Um… by Gingerfair’s ribbons…” he stuttered as the picture of a handle suddenly become real in his hand. With a sharp tug, he pulled on the handle, and the wall swung open along the lines he had drawn. Peter stood with his mouth agape as he looked through the portal to the other side. “What did I do?”

“Peter!” Phillip dropped Daniel’s hand and ran to the open passageway. “You did it! Of course! The only way through a magic wall is with a different kind of magic!”

“But I was kidding,” Peter said, as he held the pencil up in front of his face and stared at the charcoal point. “I don’t know any magic. How did I do that? That fairy of yours! She must’ve done something to my pencil when she—”

“Who cares!” James pushed Peter into the passageway. “We need to hurry through before it wears off and closes again. And be quiet! We have no idea if there may be guards on the other side! Gwen, give me your hand.”

“I can walk fine by myself.” She drew her dagger from her belt and rushed past the knight into the portal.

James drew his sword and hurried in behind her, followed by Daniel and Phillip. As Phillip stepped out of the wall onto the dark green grass on the other side, the wall slammed closed behind him with a loud bang.

“Shhh!” James turned around quickly. “I said to be quiet.”

“I didn’t mean to slam it,” Phillip apologized. He stood and looked around in awe. His entire life, he had listened to his mother and Peter tell stories of the beauty of Cantera that the troll king had hidden from the rest of Clarameer by erecting the magic wall. He had heard tales of trees that bloomed sapphires and springs that flowed liquid gold, but as he scanned the horizon he saw only simple yellow brumblefruit trees, purple rumberry bushes and two tawny does running away. Though the land around him looked no different than the Western Woods he had just left, the fact that he was so close to finding Cauchemar and saving his father made it the most beautiful land he had ever seen. He turned to Daniel and said in an excited rush, “We made it! We’re over the wall. Oh, Daniel, my father is practically saved! I’m so happy!”

Daniel smiled back at him and chuckled. Phillip placed his hands lovingly on either side of Daniel’s face and pulled the other prince closer. Tilting his head slightly and closing his eyes, Phillip placed his lips gently on Daniel’s. Phillip felt the other prince lean into the kiss with an amorous moan and wrap his arms around Phillip’s waist. As Phillip’s heart fluttered at the shock of desire that pulsed through his body, Daniel suddenly became limp in his arms. Pulling back from the kiss, Phillip saw Daniel’s eyes were closed and his head drooped on his shoulders. As Phillip struggled to grasp Daniel’s falling body, he screamed out in terror, “James, help me!”

“Quiet!” James hissed through clinched teeth, as he rushed over to Phillip’s side. When he saw Phillip’s struggle with the dead weight of Daniel’s body, he helped him ease Daniel onto the ground. “You are going to attract guards! What did you do?”

“I just kissed him!” Phillip said, as he leaned over Daniel’s body and shook him by the shoulders. Panic growing in his mind, Phillip slapped Daniel’s cheeks lightly and begged, “Daniel? Daniel!”

“Someone’s coming!” Gwen said. “We need to hide!”

“We need to go!” Peter yelled as he ran into Gwen from behind. “There are guards coming over the hill!”

“Daniel?” Phillip wailed loudly as he draped himself over the other prince’s body. “Oh no, I’ve killed him. I’ve killed Daniel!”

D
aniel was sure he had probably had dreams every
night of his life, but with the excitement that a day of exploring the castle with James or sneaking into the kitch­ens with Emmaline would bring, he would forget them within moments of waking. Vague fragments of flying on a dragon’s back or climbing the tallest tree in the Western Woods would linger in his mind, but nothing that would not disappear before he closed his eyes the next night. Dreams were something he took for granted until they were gone, and he often wondered what the last dream he had ever had was about. Had he known it was the last, he might have tried harder to remember it.

This dream was different, though. This dream, he would make himself remember. In this dream he had wandered the kingdoms with James at his side. He had seen a king attacked by a mad­woman, flown in a basket carried by birds, seen a princess sing in a tavern, and talked with his own birthday fairy. More than that, though, he had seen the face of love. He had opened his eyes in a bed to see the most breathtaking face he could imagine staring back at him, the face of a prince. He had watched this scared young prince grow into a valiant and adventurous king before his very eyes, and felt that king eventually pull him into a tender embrace. He had heard the king profess his love and felt the passionate fire in his chest as the man placed the sweetest of kisses on his lips. Yes, this dream he would make himself remember upon waking, because he knew he must find this man and make the love in this dream his reality. He would find him.

As Daniel’s eyes fluttered open, they darted around the room. Dark stone walls and a stone roof hovered above him, and a single flaming lamp swinging from the ceiling sent shadows and light dancing on the walls. He could feel the warmth of someone’s legs under his head and smooth fingers brushing hair away from his face. As the fog of sleep lifted, he saw clear blue eyes staring at him in fear and concern. As the face came into focus, Daniel recognized the handsome features of the man from his dream. With a quick intake of breath, he whispered, “Well, that was easy.”

“Daniel!” Phillip cried out, as he grabbed the prince’s shoulders and pulled him up into an embrace. “You’re back!”

“I left?” Daniel said groggily, as he pulled away from Phillip and slid into a sitting position. He looked around at the dark stone walls of the room. The damp, moldy smell of the room made his nose wrinkle, as his eyes struggled to adjust to the flicker­ing lamp­light. He could feel the dig of iron bars against his back; his bones ached from the cold, hard stone floor. “Where am I now?”

“The troll king’s dungeon,” Phillip said, as he shifted up to his knees and flung his arms around Daniel. “The troll king’s soldiers captured us. But you’re awake! I was so worried that you were gone forever.”

“I was asleep?” Daniel shook his head and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. “I’m sorry. I’m confused. I was having the most amazing dream about the most beautiful man, and I wake up to see him here.”

Phillip blushed and tightened his embrace. “I thought I killed you.”

“What?” Daniel said with a laugh, as he leaned back and stared into Phillip’s eyes. “How could you have killed me? The last thing I remember was rushing through the glass wall, celebrating, and then—Oh! Phillip, did you kiss me?”

“Yes,” Phillip said with an embarrassed duck of his chin. “I was just so happy to be so close to our goal, and you were standing there looking so handsome with the sunlight glowing behind you and I just couldn’t resist. But as soon as I kissed you, you slumped in my arms and I had to drop you to the ground. I thought you were dead and I had lost you forever.”

Daniel threw his head back and laughed. “While that was a fantastic kiss, you’re not getting rid of me that easily!”

“I don’t understand.”

“You cured me! Just like the fairy said, ‘true love’s first kiss.’ That’s the cure. I didn’t realize its effect would be quite that immediate. I knew it would come from you, but I thought I might have a little more warning.”

“My kiss cured you? Wait, did you say ‘true love’?”

“Yes, my love. Your kiss. True love’s kiss. ”

“Oh, Daniel, do you mean—”

“Well, look who finally decided to wake up!” James interrupted. He bounded over to Daniel’s side and knelt beside him. “Your timing was as terrible, as usual.”

“How long have I been asleep? And how did we get here?” Daniel asked.

“Well, since there are no windows,” Peter said as he joined the group, “I can only guess it has been a day or so. By Godrick’s curls, you snored like an Osterling boar.”

Daniel pulled his shoulders up around his ears and grinned sheepishly. “Sorry. Did my snoring get us caught?”

“Oh, no,” Peter said with a roll of his eyes, “you can thank Prince Killer Lips over here for that. When you collapsed, he started screaming that he had killed you with a kiss. He tried kissing you a few more times to reverse it. When that didn’t work, he started wailing again. All that yelling attracted guards, and they came over to capture us and bring us here.”

“Peter!” Gwen’s voice called out from the next cell. “You are leaving out the most important part! The battle!”

“A battle?” Daniel asked, as he turned to look at Gwen poking her face between the bars. Another woman whose hands were bound in front of her stood beside her glaring at him.

“Well, it wasn’t much of a battle,” James said. “With you snuffed out like a candle and Phillip wailing over your body and Peter here not being much use with a sword, we were easily captured. I tried to fight them off and I stabbed at least four and Peter stabbed two, but they just kept coming over that hill.”

“You are leaving out the best part!” Gwen said with a stamp of her foot. “Daniel, I fought!”

“Oh, yeah,” James said with a wide grin, “Gwen took out a few herself.”

“What?” Daniel said with a look of disbelief.

“Honestly! You should’ve seen it!” Gwen said and waved her hands in excitement. “I was sitting beside Phillip trying to wake you up and then I started watching James and Peter sword fighting with some of the guards. As I watched them parry and thrust, I thought ‘that looks like the dance my father taught me when I played Brundigar the Battler.’ So I pulled your sword out of your sheath and walked right up to one of those nasty guards and started dancing the Brundigar dance. Before I knew it, I had stabbed two guards. Daniel, it wasn’t just a dance. I can fight! Honestly! Then I tried Hugor the Warrior’s dance and I knocked out three more. I was on fire!”

“That would be thanks to me,” a man’s voice boomed from across the passageway.

“That’s my father, King Edward!” Gwen said. “We found him! He was captured by the guards after he left Dealonia. That step­mother of yours wouldn’t let us be in a cell together, though.”

“I was coming here to see if I could take out Thrigor and claim Cantera for Gwen,” King Edward explained from the cell across the hall. “When she didn’t marry Phillip, I knew it was time, and I set out. I let myself get captured in order to get into the castle, but I didn’t know that sorceress would be here. I thought I would lead the way for Gwen to come in and conquer. That’s why I taught her that dance,” the old man said, beaming with pride. “I knew she would lose our little kingdom, so I wanted her to be ready to take over Cantera and have a kingdom of her own. Of course, you aren’t supposed to teach a princess how to fight, so I had to find a way to train her without making it obvious. So I encouraged her acting and taught her how to fight as if it were for a dance or a pantomime. What she thought was acting was actually training.”

“And I was wonderful!” Gwen crowed. As she danced around the cell and pretended to swing a sword, she bragged, “I was knocking them flat left and right! And I felt so powerful!”

“A lot of good it did you,” the woman beside Gwen said, before turning around to walk back over to the other side of the cell. “You’re still stuck in here just like the rest of us.”

“Well, they were magical guards,” Gwen said with a pout. “As soon as you stabbed one, he would split in half and become two guards. Before we realized what was happening, we had doubled the number.”

“Hmmph,” the girl grunted. “You needed someone magic like me.”

“Who’s that?” Daniel said as he strained to look around Phillip at the grumpy girl.

“That’s Dinah, King Robert’s sister,” Phillip said with a dismissive wave . “And she’s just as much a ray of sunshine as she always was.”

“I heard that, you guppy!” Dinah called from the shadows. “If my hands were free, I’d turn you into… well… I’d probably just shoot daisies at you, but still—”

“She’s still a little mad at me,” Phillip shrugged. “And evidently can do magic now.”

“Magic! That’s the answer!” Daniel jumped up. “Peter, why don’t you draw—”

Peter held up the two halves of his broken pencil. “It didn’t survive the battle. Dinah’s right. We’re stuck here. And what’s worse, Cauchemar has Katerina up in the castle. She plans to marry her to the troll! I finally find Kitty, and I am stuck down here helpless!”

“That is my sister and this is my kingdom!” James said, as he swung his arms out around him. “That
thing
up there and that woman stole my throne and my family from me. And I cannot do anything down here.”

“That evil woman,” Daniel sighed, as he leaned back against the bars behind him. He jumped as a hand reached through the bars and landed on his shoulder.

“What an unkind thing to say about your hostess,” Cauchemar snarled, digging her nails into the flesh of Daniel’s shoulder. “Not very princely at all.”

“Cauchemar,” Phillip said, as he stepped over to the bars and grabbed her hand, “someone needs to hang a bell around your neck, you old cow, so you can stop sneaking up on us.” He flung her hand off Daniel’s shoulder and glared at her through the bars.

“Some people,” Cauchemar said, as she withdrew her hand and turned away from the cell. “You do nothing but nice things for them and they never say ‘thank you.’”

“Thank you?” Phillip said with a look of disbelief.

“Why, yes.” Cauchemar sneered and gestured toward Gwen. “I have reunited father and daughter. I brought the orphaned prince back home. I have arranged a perfectly lovely marriage for Katerina, complete with an audience full of royalty. If you think about it, I’m even responsible for you and your darling prince meeting in the first place.” Cauchemar glanced at Daniel and sniffed. “True love’s first kiss. Isn’t that just precious?”

Daniel reached through the bars, grasping at the woman. Cauche­mar pointed her finger at his hands and sent a small orange bolt of light arcing at him. It sparked on his fingers and singed the hair on his arm as Daniel yanked his arm back into the cell.

“Uh, uh, uh,” Cauchemar tut-tutted as she shook her finger at Daniel. “I guess all this time groping your little prince has made you forget to keep your hands to yourself. Phillip, you may as well kiss him back to sleep one last time. Having two kings in Bellemer doesn’t really fit into my plans.”

“Plans?” Phillip asked.

“Yes,” Cauchemar said, as her eyes seemed to look into the past, “my mother was right. You royals cannot see past the end of your nose. You’re so secure in your present, you never think of the future, living each day and blithely floating along with no care for tomorrow or worry about your place in this world. Not me. I plan. Occasionally the plan has to be altered because of some little bump in the road, but it’s still a plan.”

Daniel watched as Cauchemar turned and flared her skirts as she began to stalk slowly back and forth in front of the bars of the cell. “When your grandfather died, Phillip, and your aunt shoved my mother and me into that tower out in the woods, I could see the writing on the wall. My mother died of a broken heart, leaving me nothing but the book of spells that had been handed down in our family for years. Mother had always told me that the book had come from the troll king himself.” The witch stopped and lifted up her hands, as if reaching for the stars. “I devoured it, learning all the magic I could to secure my future. In the very back of the book I found a spell I couldn’t understand, but I recited it anyway. As I finished calling out the words, the ground beneath my feet rumbled and opened and there he stood.” Cauchemar gestured to the open air in front of her as if someone were there. She shrugged, dropped her hands and began pacing in front of the cell again.

“Thrigor?” Daniel gasped. “But that cannot be! He’s just a myth.”

Cauchemar stopped and stared at Daniel with a condescending glare. “I thought so, too. But he was back, and he demanded I take him to his castle so he could reclaim his throne.” She began walking again as her mind wandered back to the past. “I pointed out that several thousand years below the ground had left him in no condition to conquer a queen and her army. I nursed him in our tower. He taught me magic and I helped him regain his strength. When a year had passed, I made him a deal. I would help him conquer the castle, and he would help me secure my own kingdom to the south. I could have the royal children and he could have his riches back. Eventually we would merge our two kingdoms and begin conquering all of Clarameer.” Cauchemar paused her pacing and took a deep, satisfied breath. She turned to the two princes and snapped her fingers in front of their faces. “So, that night I let him into the castle and he began creating his magical troll army. By the time I had escaped with the children, he had conquered the castle, imprisoned the citizens down here and raised that magic wall.”

James stormed up to the bars screaming, “You helped him mur­der my family!”

“Silly boy,” Cauchemar laughed, taking a cautious step away from the cell and turning away, “he would have killed your family with or without my help. I saved your life that day.”

“But why not marry him yourself?” Peter asked from the dark­ened corner of the room. “Why force Katerina?”

“Have you not been listening?” Cauchemar screamed as she spun back to face the group; flames ignited around her shoulders as her eyes flashed with anger. “He is a troll! A man who spent thousands of years underground! I wasn’t going to marry something that hideous! Absurd.”