“Let’s hope for one of each.” He kissed me deeply. In our earliest days together, we were never short of desperate to race right into sex. Now, I felt the tender passion, the patience in the way his lips slowly pressed into mine. He caressed my breasts gently, slowly running a hand down the curve of my waist and hip. “I know sometimes my mood gets pretty low, but I want you to know that I am still a very happy man. By some grace of fortune, I was born a prince in this beautiful country, and fate has bonded me to you.”
“Dorin…” It might have been the first time I really, really believed that he didn’t regret the way we had come together, at least a little bit. “I’m so happy, I feel like I could burst.”
“No,” he said sharply. “Do not burst. Keep those weird-looking babies safe.”
“Weird-looking babies?”
“Let’s be honest with ourselves. Blonde Yirvagnans? Yirvagnans without tails? What on earth are we in for?”
“Don’t you dare talk that way about our babies. I’m going to tell you they’re perfect even if they’re not!”
One of my favorite things to do was to walk the grounds to the training field and watch Dorin practice his fighting. He might complain that he wasn’t as good as the other men, but I wasn’t so sure. It seemed to me he was getting better by the day. It didn’t hurt that the guys usually got very warm training, even in the cool autumn air, and stripped off their shirts. Magdalena and I would both come out bundled up in shawls and drape our arms over the fence nearby, watching them practice every strong, graceful muscle. I was starting to get some idea why tails were considered unseemly, because sometimes the sight of Dorin gauging his next move, with his tail flicking back and forth, made me blush. That tail had done a lot of things to me.
Sometimes Dorin didn’t even know I was there for a little while. Maybe that was unfair. Well, well. Sometimes I didn’t care.
Other young court ladies would gather around, too. The young unmarried men would show off for the ladies. The servants brought out warm mugs of cider.
There was one young woman who didn’t seem to like me very much. She was Drina, just Drina without a title, but she carried herself like she was definitely somebody. Magdalena said she was Jarvin’s daughter and was supposed to train to be a mage, but wasn’t all that good at it.
“She just wants a rich husband,” Magdalena said. “That girl was born to swan around.”
Today, Magdalena was late joining me for our walk so I reached the training ground alone, and Drina ran up to meet me before I reached the grounds.
“Rapunzel,” she panted, clutching her corset. “You need to meet Magdalena in the woods. She might have found a cure for Prince Dorin.”
“Really?” I was a little befuddled that Drina would tell me this, since she and Magdalena weren’t friends.
“My father found something about a mushroom that might cure blindness, but you have to create the spell on the spot and the mushroom only appears for a short time in the fall. Magdalena went to go look for it right away before it gets dark. She said to meet her there and don’t tell Dorin.”
“All right.” Could it really be that Jarvin had turned up a lead after all? I gathered up my braids and hurried in the direction where she was pointing me, the woods to the west of the palace. She followed me to the edge of the path.
“Just down there,” Drina said. “I’m going to go get a basket. I’ll be right back.”
I had walked the path with Dorin before. The trees were thick but the path was kept clear for horses. It wound around the mountain all the way to the peak, so Dorin said, although we had never gone that far. I glanced back, watching Drina rushing back to the palace, before hurrying down the path myself.
“Magdalena?” I called. I wondered how far she had gone. She told me she found the forest a little foreboding; she was originally from a valley hamlet near the Dorvanian border, which was all fields of sheep. Not a forest girl, although she had to go there to gather spell ingredients sometimes. I knew she’d like the company as soon as possible.
A few rotting pinecones ground under my feet as I rushed along. It felt good to run with the fall air in my lungs. I did see some little mushrooms poking out on the side of the path. I wondered which ones we were looking for. “Magdalena, can you hear me?”
Still nothing. Which struck me as a little strange, since it was so quiet out here. My voice ought to carry.
I glanced behind me, battling my own sense of foreboding that had nothing to do with the forest. Drina hadn’t…tricked me, had she? I knew she didn’t like me, but I didn’t expect anyone would dare play tricks on the princess. Dorin would be so angry, and so would Queen Maria. That couldn’t possibly be…
And yet, I started to turn around. Maybe I should find someone to accompany me.
I heard bushes rustle, and spell words shouted out behind me. I whirled. A man had sprung up out of the brush, waving a hand, shooting a spell at me. It was Jarvin himself.
I had been tricked! I ducked with a shriek, and tripped over my own braids, which I hadn’t realized I had let go of.
I could really be a dunce sometimes.
He dashed out of the bushes, coming toward me, as my hand groped for a nearby fallen branch. I was having flashbacks to my first meeting with Dorin as I swung the pine branch at him, aiming for his crotch.
“You little peasant!” he growled, snatching my arm. He yanked the branch from my fingers, the bark scraping my hand. I battled against him like a wild animal now, kicking his legs, scraping his hand with my fingernails, trying to get him to let me go.
“Dorin!” I screamed. “Magdalena!”
“Hush, girl, or I’ll cast a spell on you. I could turn you to stone.”
Terror rushed through me. Did he really know such spells, and would he really use them on me? Was it a bluff? I knew little about him. I was afraid to try. “What do you want with me?” I asked.
He pulled a knife from his belt and slashed my arm with it.
“Ouch!” I cried, grabbing the cut, which immediately started bleeding.
“I think you might remember Dorin’s knife,” he said. “If it draws blood once, it will aim for the heart the next time. I have the twin of that knife. Now, walk up the path.” He hauled me to my feet and gently pressed the tip of the blade into the small of my back.
“Don’t make a sound,” he said, his voice firm and cruel.
He really did remind me of the Witch, telling me what to do. I always followed her orders without fighting or questioning much of anything. I had no choice. But I could feel the change within me. Maybe I would never be as regal as Queen Maria, but I was starting to feel like a princess now. I wasn’t going to submit without a fight.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Hush!” He was looking around and then up at the sky. He seemed nervous himself. The sky? I immediately thought of the dragon.
“Is the King of the Northlands coming for me after all?” I asked.
“Hush or I’ll gag you!” he said, but he would need two hands for that. I think he was afraid to put away the knife, and tails weren’t all that good at gripping things like knives.
Unfortunately, a short while later, Drina came running up to us. She stopped in front of Jarvin, panting with breath.
“Did anyone catch you?” Jarvin asked.
“N-no…”
“Good, good. Let’s hurry.”
“I certainly hope you’re right about all this. Kidnapping the princess?”
“Do you have a handkerchief?” he asked her. “Tie a gag around the girl’s mouth. I don’t trust her.”
“I’ll be good,” I said softly. “Please don’t hurt me.”
“I’m not too worried about her,” Drina said. “The king wanted her to be delivered safe and sound, didn’t he? He might get angry if we’ve gagged her.”
“Quiet!” Jarvin snapped, to Drina this time.
Drina shot me a tense look. “Be good.”
“I will, I will.” G
oodness, I hoped I could figure out a smart way to not be good, and get myself out of this. At least I knew now that they didn’t want me to be harmed. But as long as I felt the tip of that knife periodically poking my back, I was nervous to test that.
We walked and walked, father than I had ever gone with Dorin, uphill the whole way. Slowly, we scaled the heights of the mountain, passing rock ledges and trickling streams where we stopped to drink. I realized that I should have fought back while we were still close to the palace. I should have found a way to escape while someone could hear me.
The sun was going down. I should be getting dressed for dinner right about now. Instead, we passed an overhang where the towers of the palace loomed below us. My braids were full of leaves now, and pine needles, and bits of twig.
Someone should have noticed I was missing by now. So if I could just wait—
I have to protect my babies, too. I couldn’t even think about how Dorin would react if something happened to me, and us.
“So high!” Drina panted. “I don’t know how long I can keep going.”
“You certainly will keep going as long as it takes,” Jarvin said. “Just think about how well we’ll live when we get to the north.”
Drina frowned. “I hope so. I don’t like this. It’s very cold up there.”
Something swept over us, flying low. The vivid light of the setting sun flashed golden on white scales.
“That’s the dragon. Hurry, hurry.” Jarvin shoved the knife in his belt and grabbed both of our arms, dragging us forward. The dragon swept around and landed on the path just in front of us. This dragon was twice the size of the one we had encountered before, and had a rider, perched in a saddle between the dragon’s wings. The woman climbed down the dragon’s neck and slid off just before she reached the dragon’s head. The King of the Northlands must have sent a messenger.
She wore a dark cloak trimmed with fur, and she pushed off her hood. She had bright blue eyes and hair in a dark braid. A very young woman, probably not much older than myself.
“Rapunzel,” she said.
Her voice, although young and clear instead of old and weak, was utterly familiar.
I took a step back.
Jarvin’s grip tightened on my arm, and the tip of the knife pressed against my skin.
No. This couldn’t be happening. I couldn’t be face to face with the Witch again. She had died, while I had lived. I had lived for the first time, really. Just hearing my name on her lips, and the past pressed in on me, wanting to drag me back to my prison.
“Forgive me,” she said. “I deserved that knife, didn’t I?”
“How are you alive?”
“I was almost lost, it’s true. One of the king’s dragons found me just in time. Now, you must come with me. You must. I’ve gotten my youth back; I’m well now. We need to fulfill our promise to the King of the Northlands.”
“Our promise? I never made any promise!”
“I suppose you have a right to feel that way, but don’t you have a promise to me? I raised you, fed you, clothed you. I told you stories and made you pots of stew. I cared for you like my own daughter.”
“You stole me from my real parents and kept me prisoner, and then you tricked me into blinding Dorin!”
“I grew your hair out and protected it to bring to the King of the Northlands, Rapunzel. Neither of us can go back on such a promise. But I love you, my child. I did it all because I had to, not because I didn’t love you all the same.”
Her words twisted inside me rather like too many pancakes. “You loved me? You might have convinced me of that once, but I know what love is now. It’s not keeping someone prisoner. It’s not making bargains to get something for yourself.”
“Sometimes, it can be both at once,” she said.
I would have to think of something, or that dragon was going to carry me away from Dorin forever.
Chapter Twenty
Prince Dorin
I was having a good afternoon, winning an impromptu boxing match with Dmitry, and I could tell he hadn’t let me win, because he was being a lousy sport about it, throwing his gloves on the dirt.
“Did Rapunzel see that?” I grinned.
“Rapunzel’s not here,” Adrian said. “She was earlier, but then she rushed off.”
“Hmm.” That dampened my mood a little. “Wonder what she’s up to.” Maybe she was studying spells with Magdalena. Frankly, I was feeling so good that I was thinking of squeezing in a quick session of lovemaking before dinner.
“Would you find my wife and tell her to come see me?” I asked one of the servants. “I think she might be down on the ground floor in the mage’s quarters.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And how about another round?” I asked Dmitry.
“Oh, stop gloating. I was up late last night…”
“Yeah, yeah.” I took a long drink of water.
“You really are improving by the day, brother,” Adrian said. “Maybe you’ll never be leading the army, but no one’s really talking about your injury anymore.”
“Sure, you always have to remind me that I won’t be leading the army. You better hope we don’t get in any wars because it’s on your head now and I’m going to criticize every move you make behind your back.”
We were still just messing around hassling each other when someone came running up to us with a frantic pace.
“Your majesty!” It was the servant. “I found Magdalena in Mage Jarvin’s rooms. She’s been drugged unconscious! He’s not there, and no one’s seen Rapunzel.”
“Shit. Shit! Which way did she go?” I turned to Adrian, but before he had even started to answer, I was heading for Viktor’s horse, snatching up my bow and arrows. I was already wearing my sword. My old tutor had a small cottage on a remote spot on the palace grounds and usually rode over to the practice area.
This was my fault. I hadn’t told Rapunzel that we might have an enemy in the palace because I didn’t want to scare her. And she was so trusting…
“To the western mountain path, looked like,” Adrian said. “Wait—are you going alone?”
“I don’t have time to go all the way to the stables and saddle up Lightning! Viktor’s horse knows the way.”
“Shouldn’t you…let one of us go?”
“You said I was improving by the day,” I said impatiently. My need to protect Rapunzel had given me a surge of confidence. “Come after me, but I won’t wait. Wish me luck.” I urged the horse toward the mountain path.
I heard Adrian shouting after me that I’d kill myself. He sounded very angry. And of course, I’d be just as angry if he was dashing off into danger alone, but so it went. I knew these paths. They were well-kept and Viktor rode them often in the summer. I thought I could find my way. In fact, I’m not sure I was thinking at all. I was in a panic; I had to reach her before it was too late.
I rode as fast as I dared. Sometimes I steered the horse into the forest but as soon as I heard the packed dirt of the trail replaced by brush, I got him back on track. I wondered if I would feel it if Rapunzel died. I thought I probably would, but that was a part of the bond spell no one had mentioned. And if something happened to her, I would lose the twins, too—
I was sorry I had ever been angry at the thought of not seeing their faces. I didn’t care now. I just wanted her safe in my arms and nothing else would ever matter again.
The path was climbing higher up the mountain, and from this point it grew narrower and more treacherous, with some rocky drops. I could no longer ride safely; in fact there was an old guard post up here with a small paddock for horses for precisely that reason. I thought I sensed Rapunzel near, the way I had sensed her when I was following the bond spell for the first time. Perhaps I was picking up on her distress. I thought she must be close. I wasn’t sure if I should call her name. It might put her kidnappers on alert. I dashed up the rock path as fast as I dared, using my walking stick and keeping my hand along the rock faces. I heard voices in the distan
ce. It sounded like a girl complaining.
Drina?
And then I heard the dragon.
A snow dragon, I thought. The King of the Northlands had finally come, and the best thing for bringing down a snow dragon was an arrow or two to the underbelly.
Archers are sneaks of the forest, are we? A lot of good all that hand-to-hand does me now, Viktor.
Chapter Twenty-One
Rapunzel
She wants my hair.
With seconds to decide what to do, I laughed. I’m not sure exactly why I laughed, because I was pretty panicked. I sounded kind of crazy. “You want my hair? Take it!”
“No, I need you along with your hair. I made a promise. The King of the Northlands is under a curse and he needs a girl with hair as long as yours. I grew it for him in exchange for my youth. He has already given me my youth, or else I would have died, so I must bring you to him. Hurry.” She gestured to the dragon behind her and when I hesitated, she took out one of her potions.
“Shall I blind you just like that prince?” she asked.
I had no great powers. I really didn’t know what to do except lie. I was never able to lie to the Witch before, but just as Dorin had gotten better at fighting, I’d gotten better at etiquette and diplomacy. I’d been learning to be coy like Lady Celeste. And against the Witch, that might be a weapon. She surely expected the old me.
“If you hurt me, I’ll cast a spell that will make all my hair fall out,” I said.
The Witch shook her head. “You don’t know any spells.” She looked at Jarvin.
This uncertainty in her eyes showed me that she wasn’t entirely confident that I didn’t know a spell.
“I assure you that I never taught her any,” he said.
“Of course Jarvin didn't teach me, but I do know spells.” Magdalena had taught me the swift-healing spell. It was about all I knew, but since he had slashed my arm earlier, I had an excuse to use it. I waved my hand over the wound, chanting the spell words she had taught me, while imagining the smell of the healing balm I would ideally use. Magdalena said that if I didn’t have access to the physical balm, imagining the smell of it would help me access the magical energy of the plants anyway. The wound sealed before my eyes.
Rapunzel and the Dark Prince Page 11