"Are they handsome?" Danielle.
"Some of them are. But some are just old and ugly," Sara replied, to which must giggling followed.
"Do they look nice?" Heidi asked quietly.
Sara shrugged. "What does nice look like? They don't really have a blood-thirsty, murdering look, but beyond that, I can't really tell."
"How does Father decide who goes first?" Xavia questioned.
"I believe it was done randomly," Danielle replied. "Picking numbers and such."
"Has anyone seen the obstacle course?" Aerin asked.
All the girls shook their heads, that is except for Xavia, who grinned widely.
"I ran down to look at it. It looked like great fun! At least, the part of it I saw. Which wasn't much. It looked very long."
"You went to look at it?" Sophia asked.
"Relax!" Xavia said. "It's not like I tried it myself. Then I would have fainted..."
The princesses grew silent.
"Well, I suppose we should begin preparations for dinner. Father will want us to look our best, I'm sure," Sophia said, quick to switch to a more comfortable topic.
There were murmurs of agreement and the girls got up to find clothes and jewelry and do their hair. Heidi, though, remained where she was seated.
"Heidi?" Xavia stepped over to her. No reply. Xavia noticed that the girl's eyelid was fluttering and blinking oddly. "Sophia..." Xavia called.
Sophia was there in a flash. "Heidi." She put her hand on the girl's arm. Still nothing. Sophia sighed, trying to remain calm. It was always hard to do when Heidi was like this, and couldn't snap out of it. At least it was only a minor one, though, not one where she was likely to hurt herself.
After a moment Heidi's eyes turned to look at Sophia and Xavia. She frowned. "How did I get here?" she asked.
Xavia through her arms around Heidi. "You're alright!"
Heidi glanced at Sophia. "It happened again?"
Sophia nodded grimly.
Heidi's eyes looked watery. She forced back the tears and let out her feelings in a sigh, instead. "It's so strange," she said, standing up. "The last thing I remember is walking up the stairs after all the men started to gather. What are we doing now?"
Sophia put a comforting arm around her sister. "We're getting ready for dinner. You didn't miss much anyways, it was really rather boring."
Heidi smiled fondly at Sophia; she always had a way of making things seem lighter than they were.
"Will you do my hair?" Xavia asked Heidi.
"Of course, Darling."
All the princesses were seated at the dinner table and staring—gaping—at the black-haired man seated next to their father. His name was Afzal, and it had been the general consensus that he was a rajah from the east, which made him quite an object of curiosity, even if he was old enough to be their father.
"Where are you from, Sire?" Sara asked bravely.
Afzal smiled; it was a very friendly smile. He was liked immediately. "From a very far away land, I doubt you've heard of it. It lies far to the east, in the land of the sun."
Xavia stared at the him. Every question asked of him had been answered very poetically and...storybook-ish. It made her want to see the strange places he talked of. He was so different. He smelled like exotic spices, and he wore bright red and orange silks.
"How do you get there?" Xavia asked.
Afzal laughed. "It is a long journey. I have traveled by camel, ship, carriage, and foot. Perhaps one day I will take you there."
"I would like that," Xavia replied. She felt a hard jab in her stomach. It was Della, reminding her that this man was a possible husband for them. Xavia blushed, she hadn't meant it like that.
The meal was a fairly quiet one; the princesses all felt rather uncomfortable, and Afzal could sense it. King Edward was the only one who spoke once, and he eventually stopped as no one replied.
When it was over with, they all clambered up the stairs, to the princesses chambers. An area had been partitioned off for Afzal, so the girls could have their privacy.
"Well, here you are," King Edward spoke. "Hope you can find things out. Goodnight, girls."
"Goodnight, Father," was the mutual answer.
"Sophia," the king said in a low voice, beckoning her to come out in the hall with him.
"What is it, Father?" she asked.
He handed her a small packet of powder. "Put this in a drink and give it to the man. It will knock him out for a time so the rest of you can get away. Go out to the back palace gates once he's out. A carriage will be waiting."
Sophia nodded. "Yes, Father."
"Good. See you in the morning."
Sophia stepped back into the room where the girls were all preparing for bed. Afzal was standing rather awkwardly by his cot. Sophia smiled reassuringly at him as she walked past.
"What did Father want, Sophia?" Heidi questioned.
"He just gave me this," she replied, showing the powder. "Make him go asleep, so we can get out."
"I hope it doesn't hurt him," Heidi said sweetly.
"It won't, Dear, it will only last a while."
After most of the girls were in bed, Sophia quickly mixed the powder in with some water and brought it over to Afzal.
"A drink before you sleep, Sire?"
He glanced at it and nodded. "How nice."
Sophia smiled and dipped her head. "Goodnight, Sire."
She joined the rest of the princesses in going to bed. They slept in two rows, six on each side, their headboards against the walls. There was much giggling and tossing around, in anticipation of the night's goings on.
When they were certain that Afzal was soundly asleep, they all crawled out of bed. "Where do we go?" they questioned.
"To the gates," Sophia said loudly. "Father told me."
They followed her on tip-toe out into the hall and to the shining palace gates. The heavens shown with bright stars that sparkled and shone.
"I've never been out at night before!" Nora said.
"Isn't it wonderful?" Xavia excitedly remarked.
"It is very pretty," Heidi said, her gaze roaming over the barely illuminated fields and the distant forest, a silhouette in the darkness.
"Are you ready, miladies?" their driver, Benjamin, called from the carriage in front of them.
"Yes," Sophia said.
They all climbed in. It was a little crowded for twelve; they were tightly jammed together, but it was a very merry ride. They drove for some time, as fast as the horses could go and finally came to a secluded hillside.
It was surrounded by trees for the most part, and a also deep ravine. The obstacle course was down in the ravine, they could make out a maze of trees and pushes that stretched nearly as far as they could see. Beyond that, there was a high stone wall. Getting over it from the other side did not look promising.
"I will be back just before dawn," Benjamin said, though he looked uneasy about leaving them there alone.
"Thank you, Ben," Sophia said. "You may go."
He nodded and turned away.
For several moments after he had gone, they stood, just staring at the obstacle course, searching in the darkness for all that they could see, and wondering if Afzal would find them. They could see no one, though, so after a time they sat down in a circle on the grass.
"Well, what do we do now?" Lily asked.
No one had an answer.
"Its a bit chilly out here," Belinda spoke.
Everyone nodded.
Sara sighed. "I'm bored!" She looked down into the ravine and saw a shadowy figure slowly walking up towards them. "Its Afzal!" she shouted.
"Where?" the others asked, running over to it.
Sure enough, it was him; he'd made it through the obstacle course, and quickly, too.
"You made it!" Xavia exclaimed.
"Yes, that I did. But, girls, this does not look like the work of some strange spell. It is a trick, is it not? Because of your illness?"
Heidi looked startled. "You know?"
Afzal smiled warmly. "I am a rajah, I know many things, though not why or how. I also know that none of you would desire to have me as a husband, and I would not ask it of you. Tomorrow I will tell your Father that I was unable to find out why you danced each night, then I will go. But for now, I think it would please you to hear stories of my homeland, yes?"
The girls all smiled and nodded.
Long into the night he told them stories, stories of gold, of treasure, love and hate, pirates that sailed across the seven seas, stallions that ran free in the sandy deserts, the magical sands of time, that lay deep in a crack within the earth, never to be seen again.
"Well, I ought to be heading back now, so I'm not found out here," Afzal eventually said.
The twelve princesses all nodded their agreement, and he had soon disappeared back into the ravine.
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"Well, did you find the answer?" King Edward questioned Afzal.
"I'm afraid not," he said, with a wink at the girls, who all smiled to themselves.
The king sighed. "I thought as much," he said with a dramatic air, which received a great deal of eye-rolling from the line of princesses.
Afzal simply nodded and turned to the girls. "I bid you all a fond goodbye. I doubt that most of us will meet again, but I wish you the best of luck."
Xavia ran to him then. "You must come back! Or take me with you! To your land, it's so strange and magical, I want to see it!"
Afzal smiled down at her. "You and I, I think we just may meet again. And we will go, and you will see my land. But that it not for this day."
Xavia nodded solemnly and ran back to her place at the end of the line. Afzal smiled and turned to his big, black horse. He mounted it, and rode away, leaving the princesses there, wondering who would be next.
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I realized that from this chapter you may have gotten the idea that the obstacle course is really rather simple. Don't get the wrong idea: it's not. Afzal is a rajah and has some sort of special powers, though don't ask me to go into detail about it, I really haven't thought about it much. I'm considering maybe having him in another story later...but not for a while, I need to finish my other stories first.