by John Moore
He found Wendell at a secluded spot, fishing from the river’s banks, and sat down beside him.
Wendell ignored him.
“How’s the fishing?”
“Fine.” Wendell did not look up.
“Catch anything?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
Pause.
“Want some cookies? Ann made them.”
“What kind?”
“Oatmeal.”
“Figures.”
They sat in silence. The silence stretched out. Finally Charming said, “Look, I guess you’re upset, right?”
“What do you think?”
“Come on, Wendell, it had to end sooner or later. We can’t just spend our whole lives running around the country seeking adventure. Sooner or later you’ve got to settle down, take responsibility.”
Wendell sat in silence for another minute while his face got redder and redder. Finally he leaped to his feet and flung the fishing pole into the river. “Is that what you think I want?” he shouted at Charming. “Is that all you think I care about?”
“Well, what?”
“I care about you. Look at you. You were the greatest Prince this country ever had. You were admired by everyone. You were my hero and the hero of every boy in the twenty kingdoms. And now you’re nobody. You were Prince Charming and you were going to be King Charming and you let them take it all away from you. You didn’t even put up a fight. Now you’re just another knight and you don’t even care!”
“Wendell!”
“And you don’t care about me, either! Look at me. I’m the seventh son of a Duke. You know what that gets me. Nothing! No land, no title, no inheritance, I won’t even get a gentleman’s education. Last week, people respected me because they knew I rode with you and someday I’d have a knighthood of my own. Now I’ll be living as a guest in my brothers’ homes and laughing at their jokes so they don’t get mad at me and cut off my allowance.” He picked up a stone and threw that into the river also.
“Wendell, you know I care about you. What did you want me to do?”
“We could go to war!”
“What?”
“I’ll help you!” Wendell ran to Charming and threw his arms around him. “We’ll go south. We’ll raise an army. Bear has some men. He’ll help us. There are at least seven kings who will support you! They’ll give you money and arms and men. And when we’re ready, we’ll march on Illyria!”
“Wendell!”
“You’ll force your father to recognize you as the true Prince and heir to the throne. You’ll make him give you back your birthright. And if he doesn’t, we’ll take the throne from him. We can do it. I’ll fight by your side, Sire. I’ll never let you down.”
“Wendell, I already am a king.”
“What?”
Charming disentangled himself. “Wendell, Ann and I were married last night. I’m now King of Tyrovia.”
Wendell sat back down. Charming could see that he had trouble digesting this. “Tyrovia? Why?”
“They need a king, Wendell. The people love Ann, but the country has real problems and she can’t do it all by herself. Ruby has always been too wrapped up in magic to be a good leader. She tried to rule through spellcraft and simply botched things up. But she did learn about the grail.”
“The grail again.”
“It really is a fertility grail. Remember how lush that valley was. Remember when Aurora said the girls in Alacia got pregnant real easily. That’s all because of the grail. But, like Mandelbaum said, it’s a male thing. It needs a king to work it.”
“But you’re giving up Illyria for a mudhole!”
“Illyria doesn’t need me, Wendell. Dad’s only forty years old. With luck, he’ll rule for another twenty years or more. I’d just be slaying and rescuing.
“But Tyrovia is in big trouble. It’s a blighted land. The soil is poor and the crops aren’t producing, the trees are dying, and the cattle are barren. They really need help. With hard work and the fertility grail, Ann and I figure we can turn that country around.”
“Ann isn’t queen, though. Queen Ruby is queen.”
“Ruby is abdicating the throne to Ann. She’s going to stay here and study magic with Mandelbaum. Magic is what she really cares about anyway.”
Wendell thought long and hard on this. “So the women actually planned this whole thing, right from the start. Queen Ruby didn’t just want the grail, she wanted you and the grail. I’ll bet she planted that story about wanting to kill Ann just to get you over there.”
Charming sat down beside him, putting his books on the ground. He plucked a blade of grass and split it with his thumbnail. “I don’t know, Wendell. I guess I’ll never know for sure. Maybe Ruby knew about Aurora and Cynthia all along, maybe she plotted out the whole scenario. Or maybe Ann had her own agenda and was moving things along, making new plans as the situation changed. She’s pretty smart.”
“She knows what she wants, anyway. And she’s loyal to her people. That’s good. I guess you could have done a lot worse.”
“I’m sure she’ll appreciate that vote of confidence, Wendell.” Charming flipped the blade of grass into the river. “I think Grandfather knew about the grail and he wanted it left alone. So he never let Dad go back with a team of magicians and take out the hedge. I think Mandelbaum was keeping tabs on the grail also. He wanted it left alone, too, until he thought someone like Ruby might get it.
“And then sometimes I just tell myself that nobody knew anything, that is was all just coincidence and random chance.”
“Maybe you just have a destiny to get in adventures. What are the books for?”
Charming showed them to him. “Economics and Political Theory. Dad’s having his ministers give us a crash course in how to rule a country before we go back. There’s a lot to it. Basics of agriculture and finance and diplomacy and military strategy. Illyria will guarantee Tyrovia’s borders so we won’t have to sink any money into an army for a while. And Dad’s happy about getting a buffer state to the north.”
“Then the King is happy too. Everybody is getting what they want.”
Charming grinned and stood up. “So are you, Wendell.”
“What do you mean?”
“Tyrovia is full of trouble, Wendell. Especially with bandits hiding out in the mountains. Plus, they’ve got a persistent problem with mandracores.”
“Oh, come on. Even I can handle a mandracore.”
“Glad to hear it. Because a King is busy all the time with affairs of state. He can’t go running around chasing after bandits and mandracores. He needs a paladin to fight for him.”
“Sire! You really mean it?”
“Of course. You’ll start your training when you come back with us to Tyrovia and you’ll be knighted when you turn fourteen. And… “ Charming unbuckled his sword belt. “You’ll need a good sword.”
Wendell took the sword with awe. “Prince Charming! I mean, King Charming! You’re giving me Endeavor?”
“I know you won’t dishonor it, Wendell.”
Wendell hugged him. “I don’t deserve all this.”
“Sure you do, kid. Come, let’s get out of here. The fishing is terrible in this spot anyway.”
“I threw my pole away,” said Wendell, looking out at the river. “Oh, well.”
“I need to take a break from studying this stuff. What do you thing we should do?”
Wendell considered this and nodded thoughtfully. “I think we should eat.”
ALSO BY JOHN MOORE
Slay and Rescue*
Heroics for Beginners*
The Unhandsome Prince*
Bad Prince Charlie*
A Fate Worse than Dragons*
*available as a JABberwocky ebook
THANK YOU FOR READING
This ebook has been brought to you by JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.
Did you enjoy this JABberwocky ebook? Please consider leaving a review! To see what other ebooks we have available,
visit us at http://awfulagent.com/ebooks/.
Help us make our ebooks better!
If you find any spelling, formatting, or other issues, please let us know! We’ll send you a free physical book of your choice from what we currently have in the office, by any of our clients, and do our best to correct the errors quickly. Send us an email at [email protected].
Keep up-to-date with our client news by signing up for JABberwocky’s newsletter!
Sincerely,
The JABberwocky Team