"So you're not going to throw Warden into prison?" Merrigan nearly laughed with the relief that made her lightheaded. Just for a moment or two.
"Far from it. I've been trying for years to erase some of Dulci's silliness, ever since Arabella dashed my hopes and ran off with that scheming prince from over the water. When she started showing a growth in common sense, along with a tendency to sleep later than usual every morning, I took to spying on her. It wasn't that easy to follow the dogs until I contrived a bag of birdseed and hung it on the back of her nightgown. The silly girl never noticed it. The next day, I followed the trail of birdseed to the inn, then that evening I waited at the inn until the dog returned, and determined what room he went into. Your soldier is rather a romantic, almost too noble for his own good." He sighed. "And that might just be what will save Seafoam."
"By showing some restraint and not taking advantage of your princess, he's counteracting the silliness curse?"
"In the distant past, a frustrated suitor cast a spell on the royal family, to punish them for not handing over whichever royal daughter he wanted. They've only had daughters for the last two hundred years or so, and every time the poor girl is seduced before the wedding, the silliness just grows and the king is sucked into the downward spiral."
"Serves him right," Merrigan muttered. "There's a proper way of doing things. If you want the princess and the kingdom, you have to earn them through daring, not seduction. I've made a study of fables of magic, and there's a sort of protective spell, not really mentioned, but hinted at, if the hero waits until the wedding night."
"I should like to meet your teacher."
"You will." She felt a little flutter at the thought of Morton and Bib together. The two would probably get along famously. She only hoped it wasn't so well that the chancellor would try to keep Bib in Seafoam, to advise him. "Can I presume you approve of Warden?"
"Oh, absolutely. The changes in him since taking up company with you are quite admirable. I should hire you out as a groomer for heroes and would-be kings. The only question is, what are you looking for when you sneak through the palace each night?"
"You know enough about me to know about my apprentice, Elli."
"Odd-looking, yet pretty. The innkeeper's boy is nearly lost for love of her. I'm guessing she has some sea folk blood?"
"Mermaid. The prince who married your Arabella gave a jewel-encrusted knife to King Devon. That knife was used to cut off Elli's hair when she refused to be seduced. Until we get the knife back, she's doomed to two legs and can't even swim."
"Is that so?" Morton nodded slowly, his eyes narrowing in thought. Then he laughed. "Serves him right, then. I was feeling a little sorry for Arabella's prince. The last reports from over the sea say the common sense in his kingdom is slowly fading. It seems the curse on the royal family isn't limited just to Seafoam."
"Most likely, he seduced Arabella."
"She was silly enough to let him." He sighed. "Well, I must admit to a great deal of relief. I've been living in fear the last few years that I would be forced to marry Dulci. That's part of why I've been trying to build up her common sense, to protect me and the kingdom. Do you know if she's in love with Warden, and he's in love with her?"
"Oh, he most definitely is. According to the dog brothers, he was ready to leave because he thought himself entirely unworthy of her, and the thought of running a kingdom properly terrified him worse than any battle he had ever been in."
"There's a man with the kind of common sense this kingdom needs."
"Indeed. Once I offered to help him become worthy, he jumped on it like a starving man on bread. The pains he has taken to learn deportment, to learn statecraft, it's quite admirable. If he weren't already so heroic—you need to ask him about the wars he's been in, you'll be impressed—if he weren't already so heroic, the work he has done ensures it." She sighed.
"What's wrong, Mistress Mara, king-maker?"
"He has one vanity that makes him rather endearing. Warden is rather nervous about seeing Dulcibella in the light of day. His gray hair, his weathered appearance, that scar. He looks older than he is, and he doesn't want to displease her. Candlelight does wonders for softening our flaws. You wouldn't happen to have a spell or a magic ring or something that would make him look a little younger, scrub away a few of the years?"
"As a matter of fact, I do." Morton held out his hand and they shook, though Merrigan did hesitate just for a moment. After all, they hadn't really agreed on any bargain. She had to trust that the chancellor was as honorable and sensible as he appeared.
That evening, a messenger came from the palace with a small package for Merrigan. She tried not to let her disappointment overwhelm her, when the box was too small and too light to hold the knife. It contained a ring, with the instructions that if Warden wore it for an entire moon straight without taking it off, it would become invisible and impossible to remove until his death. Even more important, his physical appearance would improve gradually, so there would be no shock at sudden changes, for those who knew him.
Warden went down on one knee when Merrigan gave him the ring and explained the properties and rules for making the magic work. He caught hold of her hand and promised undying loyalty and gratitude all his days. It was a very pretty speech, and proved that Bib was an excellent teacher. The book deserved the title of king-maker far more than she did.
Two nights later, when the most drastic of the wrinkles had faded from Warden's face, Princess Dulcibella came to him with a small bag of silver shavings hanging from the belt of her robe. Rolf was on duty that night, and he told Merrigan about it before he went back to disperse the bits of silver. She told him about her talk with the chancellor, and advised him to leave the trail of silver, and trust that his master would be welcomed at the palace the next day.
The next morning, Merrigan was expecting a small squad of guardsmen to march up to the inn and follow the trail to Warden's room. Instead, a pretty servant girl in palace livery, her face swollen and red with crying, stumbled into the dining room where Merrigan, Elli, and Warden were having breakfast. Bib sat on an empty chair between Warden and Merrigan, where he could join the conversation without anyone realizing there was a talking book in the room.
"Dulci, what are you doing here?" Warden shouted, standing up from the table so quickly he nearly knocked it over.
The girl was indeed Princess Dulcibella. It showed her good sense that she snuck out of the palace in disguise. That good sense dissolved in sobs and a tidal wave of tears as she flung herself into Warden's arms. Somehow, Merrigan and Elli got the two of them into the sewing room without too much fuss. Rosa came running after them, with Bib cradled in one arm and holding a pot of soothing chamomile tea in the other. Dulcibella sobbed and sniffed and babbled disjointed sentences through the first cup, and spilled at least a third of it on herself, her hands shook so. After that, though, she managed to calm down enough to stop crying, wipe her face, blow her nose, and snuggle closer into Warden's lap before she started talking coherently.
"Of course I know how to get here, and of course I know none of our visits were dreams, you silly darling," she said, tucking her head under Warden's chin. "I might be doomed to be an utter featherhead someday, but Morton's been trying to make me smarter and I've been trying to read at least one educational book each week. Then I met you, and somehow it all seemed to stick better. Does that make any sense?" She raised her head enough to look at Merrigan, Elli and Rosa, who had had the good sense to close and lock the door so the curious couldn't intrude.
"Perfect sense," Rosa said.
"Maybe I'm a featherhead, but I'm hopelessly in love with you, and I hope you feel a little bit of fondness for me."
"Lost," Warden blurted. "Hopelessly lost. I'd do anything for you, Dulci. I wish there was an enchanter to defeat or a dragon to kill, to prove it to you."
"Idiot," Merrigan muttered. That earned a chuckle from Rosa.
"You'll get your wish," Dulcibella said. "Mor
ton announced at breakfast that his magic mirror revealed I am kidnapped every night with the aid of three enormous, fierce dogs. He put a magic bag on my robe last night and it created a trail, and any moment now, my father's guardsmen are going to come arrest you!"
"All for show," Merrigan interrupted, when it looked like the princess was about to burst into tears again. "All to save face. Chancellor Morton knows about Warden and the nightly visits and he approves of you two being together. The only problem is that you can't simply have a soldier walk up to the gates of the palace, a soldier no one has ever met before, and announce he's going to marry the king's daughter. It just isn't done."
"What am I supposed to do after I'm arrested?" Warden said. "Or shouldn't I let them arrest me?"
"Oh, definitely let them arrest you. I'd run upstairs and get your tinderbox and change into your new clothes, so you present a fine, handsome figure when you're taken to the palace. They'll probably march you on foot through town, instead of using a carriage. That will give everyone a chance to see you. The king will have to pretend to be furious—after all, you've been kidnapping his daughter every night."
"It's not really kidnapping if I knew what was going on, is it?" Dulcibella cried.
"That's something you should only reveal to your parents." Merrigan's head hurt a little from thinking so fast. Honestly, why were people around her so helpless? "We will need some people to spread the story about how Warden has fallen in love with the princess and has been using magic to make himself worthy of her, and how terrified he is that the king will hang him for the insult to the throne. Oh, and they should talk about what a hero he has been all his life. Make him very admirable. By the time the court is convened, half the town should be banging on the gates, demanding that he be pardoned. And if we're lucky, demanding a wedding."
To Merrigan's relief, Princess Dulcibella showed some common sense by not crying out that she didn't have anything to wear.
MERRIGAN KNEW SHE SHOULD be pleased, flattered even, when the dust settled and Queen Adele insisted she be the one to create Princess Dulcibella's gown for the wedding. She fumed more than she had in moons as she and Elli and the four hired girls worked long hours to create a memorable gown in short order. Granted, they cobbled together the gown from ten gowns previous Seafoam princesses had worn, so that saved enormous time. Alterations were much simpler than creating from whole cloth.
Taking apart the heirloom bridal gowns and fitting the pieces together into something modern and fashionable was rather like working a puzzle, and Merrigan remembered she had adored puzzles when she was a child. That was the sticking point: she had loved them as a child. The adult didn't find them quite so fascinating. Maybe if her eyes didn't ache with dry weariness and her fingers hadn't been poked full of holes from needles and pins until she decided to wear gloves to keep the blood off the cloth, she might have relished the challenge just a little bit more. Her back ached and her head ached and she felt old and shriveled.
That was frightening.
Even more frightening, at times something inside her reared back like an offended cobra, and silently shrieked at her to stop. She was a queen—she shouldn't be reduced to slaving over a gown made of bits and pieces from ancient gowns that were unfashionable when they were new. And what was worse, creating a gown for a princess in a minor kingdom that wouldn't have been worthy of ten minutes of discussion in the council chambers of Carlion or Avylyn.
Hmm, I don't know about that, Bib commented. I've been doing a lot of reading, now that I have access to the palace library. Your father is an amazing ruler, with his eye on everything, every kingdom, every war, every merchant route. He likely has several books chronicling the history of Seafoam, just in case he needs the information someday.
"Eavesdropping is not nice," Merrigan snarled under her breath.
No one heard her, as they were busy exclaiming over Princess Dulcibella during that day's fitting. Merrigan focused on the princess. Smiling was easy. Yes, despite everything she had to work with, the gown was lovely. Dulcibella would be the loveliest bride this year. Not just among the small coastal kingdoms, but compared to any princess throughout the entire continent. Merrigan felt some pride in her design work. She did have talent, didn't she?
Isn't it nice to use that talent to make others happy?
For a moment there, she thought Bib had slipped that thought in when she wasn't alert and on guard. Then Merrigan sank back in the big, cushioned chair the queen insisted she use, to be comfortable during the long ordeal of sewing. Odd, that warm feeling soothed the achy, sharp, cold spots inside her, when she saw how happy Dulcibella looked. She had done that for her.
Well, didn't the girl deserve to be happy? She had been working harder than anyone guessed to overcome the curse of silliness some self-centered, nasty, frustrated suitor had cast over some ancestress of hers who had exercised good judgment in refusing to marry him. Dulcibella displayed uncommon good sense by falling in love with Warden. He could have used the tinderbox and the dog brothers to take advantage of her and manipulate circumstances to his advantage, but had chosen to woo the princess and be honorable. He was more than worthy to take over the kingdom after King Devon stepped down.
You do realize that helping people find happiness will go a long way toward reducing the severity of Clara's curse? Bib offered.
I thought you insisted we should call it a spell, not a curse, she shot back, with a bubble of laughter in her throat.
The magic book chuckled quietly, rippling his pages so his cover bobbed up and down but didn't quite flip open.
Chapter Ten
That evening as the seamstresses left the palace, Merrigan felt contented enough that the little niggling sensation of something wrong caught her attention. The feeling of something out of balance, rather plaintive, a touch of loneliness in the air, had been there every time she visited the palace, but until then she had so much on her mind, she ignored it. Now, with the knife promised to Elli and the dress nearly ready for the wedding, she could pay attention. Elli and the other girls were chattering away about their own dresses for the wedding, and didn't notice when Merrigan slowed her steps. No one saw her when she stopped. Odd, how she had never noticed that door in the wall of the long hallway leading from the royal family's wing to the main body of the palace. She looked up and down the length of the hall and calculated the placement of the wings and rooms. If she wasn't mistaken, there should be an area behind that door as large as an entire wing of the palace. It was in the exact middle of the palace, surrounded by wings on all sides. In fact, just the right place for ...
"A queen's garden," Merrigan whispered.
Her knees tried to fold and she stumbled forward, to clutch at the doorknob, as a waterfall of memories spilled through her mind. Her mother's garden had been in the center of the palace of Avylyn, as all proper queens' gardens should be. The heart of the palace, the heart of the kingdom.
"Bib ... was this door here before?" she whispered, and reached into the bag to pull him out and open him. His "sight" improved greatly when his pages were open. The book was silent so long, Merrigan feared something was wrong. Perhaps wrong with her.
"Forgive me, Mi'Lady," he said, so quietly he could have been speaking into her head. "I believe you are very right. This door was not visible until now. The changes in the palace, in the royal family, have caused other changes."
"It's been invisible, just like—" She choked, but forced the words out. "Just like the door to my mother's garden vanished. Not just locked up, when she died. It vanished when there was tampering."
"When your Nanny Tulip tried to use you to open the door contrary to proper timing, when conditions were wrong."
"She did no such—" Merrigan closed the book and slowly, carefully slid him back into his bag hanging at her hip. "Please, Bib, tell me it wasn't my fault that the door vanished, and the garden filled with thorns. Please?" She took a step backwards, then another, then another as the book stayed silent, until sh
e pressed against the opposite wall.
Elli and the other girls were gone. By now they were likely waiting outside for the carriage to come and take them home. Merrigan couldn't hear them. Of course, part of that could be blamed on her thundering heartbeats.
"It is your fault, Mi'Lady, in the same way that a needle is to blame for ugly embroidery. You were a tool in the hands of someone who considered herself justified to tamper with the magic." The book shuddered inside the bag.
"How do you know all this?" she whispered.
"I know almost nothing, Mi'Lady. I'm sorry. There is so much written in the magic tangling you, so many layers, all of it smoke-filled and nearly impossible to read. You thought of the garden and the door that vanished, and the thorns that filled the garden, so you couldn't even stand in the nursery balcony and look down. I saw bits and pieces of your life."
"So I was used. Dratted majjians. It has to be majjians."
"I believe so. They used your royal blood, they used your magical position as the youngest. They attacked the magical heart of the kingdom through your mother's garden, and it shut itself up and shut itself in and shut the world out, to protect itself."
"But Nanny Tulip wasn't a majjian. Was she?"
"I cannot see clearly in your memories, Mi'Lady. You were a child. Lonely. Feeling unloved, even though your father and brothers and sisters loved you greatly."
Merrigan snorted at that, and didn't care who heard her. She had eavesdropped often enough through her late childhood and teen years, she knew exactly what her brothers and sisters thought of her, and what a trial she had become to her father. Only her mother and Nanny Starling and Nanny Tulip had ever fully loved her, with no reservations or conditions. Leffisand had adored her, but she doubted he loved her any more than she loved him.
Stop nattering and whining, Merrigan. You're thousands of miles away from Avylyn. There's nothing you can do about Mama's garden, and you certainly can't show your face at home looking as you are. Break the curse, then go home. Then maybe you can find some answers to fix the mess you helped make. Even if you were used horribly, abominably.
The Kindness Curse Page 17