"Show her," Crystal said from somewhere nearby. "But not with me—an ordinary mirror. Otherwise she'll think it's a trick." Her sigh bubbled with laughter. "Some people will never learn how to trust."
Bryan slid his arm under her back and helped her sit up. Merrigan took a deep breath and it cleared cobwebs from her brain. She was in her bed. She looked past Bryan and saw ... it seemed like nearly everyone in the orphanage had managed to crowd into the open area by her shelf bed. Belinda stepped up, her face pale and eyes red with weeping, but she smiled. Merrigan blinked and shook her head, then rubbed her eyes. Belinda had gone from a twelve-year-old to a grown woman. She handed Merrigan one of the mirrors from the bathing room.
"Oh." Merrigan sighed, seeing her own features for the first time in what felt like a lifetime. Her hair was just as black as before, her skin just as smooth and just the right combination of alabaster and peaches and roses, her eyes just as smoky dark brilliant.
"You've changed, Merrigan," Bryan said, taking the mirror from her limp hands. "The princess I knew would have erupted by now, demanding explanations, or at least demanding that everyone stop staring."
"That's because she's not the princess you knew," Bib said.
Before Merrigan could ask where he was, Bryan stood up and reached into the shelf bed over her head, and brought down the book and the mirror.
"I don't ... I don't really understand," Merrigan said. Yes, she wanted everyone to go away. She couldn't make herself meet those bright, inquisitive eyes, or face the expected expressions of accusation, the demands for an explanation. All those people she had worked with, lived with for so many moons, deceiving them. Surely they were furious with her.
"If you don't understand, how could you know that you could make the spell apply to you?" Nasius asked.
"Well, it worked against those idiot princes," she said. "And they said a princess could pick up the apple, not one specific princess, so I just ... guessed."
"You have a brilliant future as a magic-wielder ahead of you," Crystal said. "If you want to pursue magical studies."
"No, thank you. I've had quite enough magic in my life already."
"You're going to need to pursue some magical studies if you're going to help Belinda and Bryan find wherever Bayl went." The magic mirror sighed loudly. "Breaking the spell had enough backlash to give those two hags a comeuppance, but it didn't bring back the prince."
"Belinda ... I'm sorry." Merrigan put down the mirror on her bed and held out her hands. The other princess came to her and they held each other. "How much of a comeuppance?"
"Not nearly what they deserve," Bryan said, his voice a little hard, "but we've only just started." His sharp smile softened. "What you did for them, for us ..."
Merrigan fought down the sensation that a totally featherheaded kind of giggle was going to erupt from her at any moment. She couldn't do that. Not in front of her friends and the children. Certainly not in front of Bryan. She couldn't tear her gaze free of his. "You kissed me."
"Three times." His lips twitched and he shrugged. "I figured I should get as many as I could before you were awake enough to give me a black eye."
"No, but you woke me. How?" She fought the urge to lick her lips, knowing she would lose the taste of his kiss still lingering there. "I know enough about magic ..." She shrugged. "Shouldn't it be true love's kiss? There's no way you could ... you could ..." She hid her face in her hands, unable to say the words.
"Love you?" Bryan gently caught her hands in his, and they were wondrously warm and strong and gentle. He pulled her hands down, so she had to look at him. "Consider it a promise. A strong possibility. And maybe ... I like to think it wouldn't have worked if there wasn't something inside you, some hope, maybe you could try to ..." He reddened in that charming way of his that squeezed at her heart.
"All right, everyone," Nasius announced, waving his arms in a shooing motion. "I think that's enough staring. We're all sure that Mara—sorry, Princess Merrigan, is just fine now. Let's give her some room to breathe."
"It's just Merrigan," she called, as the people who had become her family turned around, some of them visibly reluctant to leave. "I'm no princess."
"That's what you think," Crystal said with a rolling, triumphant chuckle.
BRYAN HAD REALIZED what was happening when the two enchantresses struck, because of the lingering threads of magic still clinging to him. He felt the reverberations and followed them to their source. Bryan immediately ran to look for Belinda, since his brother wasn't there to protect her. He arrived in time to see Merrigan collapse, and then Bythia and Barbarina a moment later, in reaction to the shattering of their spell. He had the presence of mind to shout for the girls to sit on the nasty women while he used scraps of cloth and measuring tapes to bind and gag them. Then they searched Belinda's sisters and removed everything that might be used to hide a spell or some sort of inimical magic.
He had the presence of mind to turn Merrigan's magic box upside down and shake it until everything stored inside it had been shaken out. Everyone laughed later, when they examined the pile that covered the whole sewing table, ten feet long and five feet wide. Then he shoved the two enchantresses into the box, which obligingly widened enough to take them without hesitation. They were currently locked up in the box, sealed with several unbreakable leather straps that had come from it. They would stay there until he and Belinda and Merrigan could turn the enchantresses over to their father to face his judgment and their punishment. With Bib and Crystal researching and investigating, and trying to question the prisoners, perhaps by then they would have some clue as to what had happened to Bayl and where the nasty magic had taken him.
Making those plans had been easy. Just one little hitch: waking Merrigan so she could join them on the quest. Two full days had passed in discussing how to break the spell before Bryan got up the courage to admit how he felt about her, and try to kiss her awake.
Merrigan finally got up on her feet and went out to have supper with the orphanage family. She was more pleased than she could understand, when the children welcomed her just as boisterously as they had when she was Mistress Mara. She feared that regaining her own face would frighten them, would make her a stranger to them.
"Silly girl," Auntie Gretel said with a sigh and an exasperated shake of her head. "You've been growing younger for the past four moons, but it was so gradual that none of us really noticed. Not with the whirlwind of everyday living, when you're tending nearly a hundred children. It's not really that much of a change. We could see you under the gray hair and wrinkles. I have to admire you, managing as well as you did. It's hard enough growing old at the normal pace, but to be turned into an old woman all at once ..." She patted Merrigan's cheek. "Stronger women have crumpled."
Her words tumbled through Merrigan's thoughts for a full day, until she finally confronted Bryan.
"So ... you recognized me?" she said, finding him alone for the first time in what seemed like weeks.
Only two days had passed since she had awakened. Days full of planning, with King Auberg and Aubrey's eager help, and loads of advice from Bergomass. The enchanter was only too eager to help make sure the enchantresses faced their deserved punishment. Their vindictive magic had been interfering with the majjian springs throughout almost the entire continent. When the underground veins of magic water were blocked or soured, it unbalanced everything, the magical as well as the ordinary, everyday things and activities and people.
"Yes ... and no." His eyes twinkled and his lips twitched, threatening to change his somber expression into laughter.
The problem was that every time Bryan's lips twitched, she found herself wishing he would kiss her again.
"Just what is that supposed to mean?"
"We haven't seen each other since you were what, twelve? I only had a glimpse of the woman you would become. There was an echo of that woman underneath the old woman, so I always felt I knew you, but ..." Bryan shrugged. "My heart nearly stopped when I saw
you fall, the enchantment shattered, and you were yourself again. I knew who you were. I was frantic. I nearly—I actually thought of—" His gaze shifted to her lips.
"You wanted to kiss me right there? Right away?"
"I knew how I felt about you, but no idea if you even remembered who I was. True love's kiss doesn't work for strangers. Then I remembered all the things you said, talking about the boy you knew and ... I hoped."
"I'm glad you hoped," she whispered. "But just in case ... in case it was only a temporary cure ..." Merrigan's face heated and she could almost laugh at how timid she felt, afraid to speak the image that filled her mind and heart.
"Regular doses?" Bryan bent down slowly, his warm, strong hand cupping her cheek just as slowly, and kissed her, even more slowly, until she could feel the ripple of magic washing through her from head to toe.
END
Coming titles:
Book 2:
Majjian Springs
Book 3:
Thorns and Magic
About the Author
On the road to publication, Michelle fell into fandom in college and has 40+ stories in various SF and fantasy universes. She has a bunch of useless degrees in theater, English, film/communication, and writing. Even worse, she has over 100 books and novellas with multiple small presses, in science fiction and fantasy, YA, suspense, women's fiction, and sub-genres of romance.
Her official launch into publishing came with winning first place in the Writers of the Future contest in 1990. She was a finalist in the EPIC Awards competition multiple times, winning with Lorien in 2006 and The Meruk Episodes, I-V, in 2010, and was a finalist in the Realm Award competition, in conjunction with the Realm Makers convention.
Her training includes the Institute for Children’s Literature; proofreading at an advertising agency; and working at a community newspaper. She is a tea snob and freelance edits for a living ([email protected] for info/rates), but only enough to give her time to write. Her newest crime against the literary world is to be co-managing editor at Mt. Zion Ridge Press and launching the publishing co-op, Ye Olde Dragon Books. Be afraid ... be very afraid.
www.Mlevigne.com
www.MichelleLevigne.blogspot.com
www.YeOldeDragonBooks.com
www.MtZionRidgePress.com
@MichelleLevigne
Look for Michelle's Goodreads groups:
Guardians of Neighborlee
Voyages of the AFV Defender
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ALSO BY MICHELLE L. Levigne
Guardians of the Time Stream: 4-book Steampunk series
The Match Girls: Humorous inspirational romance series starting with A Match (Not) Made in Heaven
Sarai's Journey: A 2-book biblical fiction series
Tabor Heights: 20-book inspirational small town romance series.
Quarry Hall: 11-book women’s fiction/suspense series
For Sale: Wedding Dress. Never Used: inspirational romance
Crooked Creek: Fun Fables About Critters and Kids: Children’s short stories.
Do Yourself a Favor: Tips and Quips on the Writing Life. A book of writing advice.
Killing His Alter-Ego: contemporary romance/suspense, taking place in fandom.
The Commonwealth Universe: SF series, 25 books and growing
The Hunt: 5-book YA fantasy series
Faxinor: Fantasy series, 4 books and growing
Wildvine: Fantasy series, 14 books when all released
Neighborlee: Humorous fantasy series
Zygradon: 5-book Arthurian fantasy series
AFV Defender: SF adventure series
Young Defenders: Middle Grade SF series, spin-off of AFV Defender
Magic to Spare: Fantasy series
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About the Publisher
The slugline from our logo says it all: Two Olde Dragons Writing Wyrd Stories
www.YeOldeDragonBooks.com
We're here to have fun, and to share the weird and wonderful and sometimes funny and sometimes scary people and places and events that have been living in our imaginations for years. Maybe it's therapy, because maybe we are crazy, having all those voices in our heads, but hey, our imaginary friends have been telling us great stories that we want and need to share.
Aren't you lucky, that you've decided to wander in our direction and check out one of the tales we have to tell?
The Kindness Curse Page 32