DISCLAIMER: None of this is mine. It's all Gail Carson Levine's. Please don't sue.
A/N: Right, well, all you lovely people managed to convince me. The reason I originally didn't want to continue this was because I can't stand it when stories don't have a plot and don't go anywhere. But, a massive plot bunny jumped into my head the other week and threatened to murder my family if I didn't write it down. And so I wrote the first chapter, and realized it was ridiculously long before I split it up into a few decent sized chapters. So, more to come. Enjoy.
After a long moment, Char pulled back just enough to plant a soft kiss on my forehead.
"We had best get going," he said.
I nodded, tearing my eyes away from Mum Olga's manor to a few knights who were in the midst of an argument.
I watched them; curious to see how their behavior changed when they thought a woman wasn't watching.
"You dolt," one was saying to a taller fellow, "you're just going to have to quit slashing the sacks with your pretty little sword at every chance you've got. We can't repair them fast enough, and we need them as our targets."
"Don't act like you're ever going to find a use for the sorry combination of string and wood you call a weapon," the tall one said, "a simpleton would be able to tell you that in real battle, it'll be the sword that does the killing."
"I-"
The heated discussion faded as I turned away.
It wasn't quite as interesting as I thought it would be. I had thought it would be rude jabs at ladies rather than about the shortages of dummies at training.
Char was watching them as well, eyebrows raised in obvious amusement.
Suddenly, one of the knights tapped Char on the shoulder.
I recognized him as one of the few from Char's ogre raids; Sir Martin, I think he was called.
Char whirled around.
"Sire," Sir Martin said, sweeping a hasty bow, "the knights and I shall ride ahead and inform their Majesties of where you are. They will be worried."
Char nodded. "Thank you, Martin."
He walked away briskly, and joined the others who were already seated upon their horses.
With a final salute in our direction, they galloped off.
"Will the King and Queen be very angry?" I asked nervously, watching as the blue cloaks blended in as one with the night sky.
Char turned to me with a smile, adjusting the saddle on his stallion.
"Not once we tell them what happened."
I nodded, but something in my face must have betrayed my feelings, because he abandoned the reins and took me into his arms.
"You needn't be afraid," he told me, "it'll be no different than the first time you met them."
"Yes, but I'll be a different person this time," I said, "What if they decide that they don't want their son to be with a scheming rogue?"
He laughed. "You're anything but a scheming rogue."
"Lying wench?"
"Never." He kissed the tip of my nose. "You need only be yourself. They'll love you, I'm sure of it."
I tried to let his words comfort me, but I couldn't stop the worry that churned at the pit of my stomach like acid.
How could I possibly explain my deception?
They would understand. Curses were uncommon, but not unheard of. And they must have of heard of a fairy as carefree as Lucinda.
What if they didn't believe me? What if they thought that I was only pulling another charade to trick both Char and the rest of the kingdom? I had already fooled him once; who's to say I hadn't fooled him again?
Char knew the truth.
If worse came to worse, he would be the one that defended me.
That was all that was important, wasn't it? That he believed in me, and that everything that happened was all behind us?
They could dismiss anything he said as merely the delusional confessions of a lovesick young man under the spell of a harpy.
No. Char didn't look like he was under a love spell.
Did he?
What if they thought that I was a spy from Pu? With all the recent rumours of King Frederick plotting the overthrow of Kyrria, every eye and ear would perk up at the slightest hint of the abnormality of espionage.
Nonsense.
I was certain that Queen Daria knew Mother. She would never suspect me to be an enemy.
But what if King Jerrold did? She would hardly have any power over him if he were to come to the conclusion that I was an undercover servant to the King of Pu.
I shook my head. I was being preposterous. I was a Frellan. Anybody could tell them that. It wasn't as if I was a newcomer. I was born here, raised here. People knew my parents. People knew me.
Char was right. I needn't worry. I would tell them the truth as best as I could. They would have no reason to doubt me.
I raised my head from Char's shoulder with a small smile. "If what you say is true then we had best hurry. I should hate to keep their majesties from being able to fawn over Ella of Frell." I batted my eyelashes at him.
He gave a sudden shout of laughter, startling his horse.
"Quite right. We must give my parents the longest possible time to-as you say- fawn." He said, still laughing.
With a final squeeze, he let go and took a step back towards his horse.
"This is Achilles," he said to me, gesturing to the white-coated beauty towering before us.
Achilles neighed proudly, stomping his front hoof.
"Fitting name," I mused, eyeing the great sinewy muscles of his flank.
He snorted in the same way that one might in the event of a good-humoured joke.
Then he nudged me, putting his eyes right up to mine.
One blue, one brown.
His one blue eye seemed to shimmer with a light from within. As I peered closer, I could swear I saw the hazy image of three women with copper hair behind the pale iris.
Without warning, the blue eye blinked quickly in a wink.
Startled, I jumped back, but before I had the chance to recover, Char had lifted me onto the stallion.
"Mother named him when he was just a foul," Char said as he leaped up onto Achilles behind me, "she used to say that the only way that he could be killed would be through an arrow in his left eye."
I automatically scooted backwards, pressing myself to Char's front so that he could hold both the reins and I.
"You should use him as target practice" I said as we sped off, "that way, the arrows would just bounce off of him, and you needn't waste time repairing and building dummies."
I could feel the deep laughter rumbling in his chest before I heard it.
"It's only a story, Ella," he whispered in my ear, chuckling, "he's not actually invincible."
"But don't go telling him that," he added as a quick afterthought.
"You cannot be certain," I drawled, looking up at him as I leaned back into his chest.
"No," he said, looking down at me through hooded eyes, a smile dancing on his lips, "but I don't intend to ever find out."
We passed in the rest of the ride in comfortable silence as I used the sound of Char's steady breathing to calm my own nerves as we approached closer to the castle.
I was successful until the spires appeared and I could hear the distant strums of the orchestra.
My heart began to pound and a thin sheen of sweat appeared on the palms of my hands.
I gripped my skirts and clenched my legs even tighter around Achilles's flank.
He whined in protest.
Char noticed.
He moved the reins to one hand and took my hand in his free one.
"Ella," he whispered, pressing his cheek to mine, "nothing bad will happen to you, I promise."
"What if they don't like the real me?" my breath hitched in my throat, "what if they would rather me be a polite maiden with a taste in velvet?"
Maybe I could pretend that I liked the material of the Queen's gown and care about how I wore my hair for a while.
No.
The thought itself made me shudder.
I felt his cheek pull up as he smiled. "We're not so different, my parents and I." he said, "I like a lady that can speak for herself, just as my father does, and just as my mother is. Blank stares and fake smiles might do for most noble families, but a woman marrying into monarchy does need to be able to rule a country at one point. Contrary to what may seem, we're not all lavish balls and feasts."
Perhaps he was right. Perhaps I was better off just being myself.
I laughed. "How ironic you can be sometimes. Look at us, about to enter a lavish ball when only moments ago you claimed that this was not a reoccurring event."
He chuckled in my ear. "I just mentally bashed myself in the head for it."
"We'll go in through the back," he said as instead of stopping at the front steps when we passed through the gates, we took a sharp turn towards the stables.
"Does it really matter which side we go in through?"
"No, but I'd rather not face any courtiers right now," he said, cringing, "I did run out quite unceremoniously."
I now realized what it was that he did. To run out like that in the middle of a ball that was thrown in his honour, it must have been a very rude thing to do.
No doubt many of the guests had been left in various stages of annoyance and confusion.
I only had to worry about what the King and Queen thought of me. On the other hand, not only did Char have to face his parents, but he now had to fix his reputation as a fine prince.
I felt awful.
It would be my fault if Char lost the kingdom's respect, and he didn't even seem to care.
When we got to the stables, a young boy dashed out to meet us.
"Sire," he said as Char jumped off of the horse, "their highnesses will see you in the drawing room."
Char nodded. "Thank you Peter," he said as he helped me off of Achilles.
"And Sire," Peter interrupted hastily as we began to walk away, "I've been instructed to take the Lady's belongings to the upstairs chambers."
My eyebrows shot up. How could they have found out so quickly?
Char chuckled, and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'Stephan'.
"Go on then," Char said to me, gesturing to Peter.
I handed my carpetbag to Peter in a daze.
If they had arranged a place for my belongings, then did that mean they had arranged a place for me as well?
Did the knights tell them enough that they had already accepted me as one of their own?
Or were they taking my carpetbag away to ensure that I didn't have any potential weapons in hand?
We walked around the castle as Peter led Achilles by the reins into the stables for a scrub and a feed.
"How much do you think the knights told them?" I asked as we walked by a fountain with water streaming from a hero and the horse he was saddled upon.
"As much as they knew, I presume," Char took my hand, squeezing it with his, "although I'm certain the words 'ogre tamer' came up quite a bit."
I smiled. "They'll have to let me stay now. Who can resist an ogre tamer?"
He laughed. "No one," he turned to face me and pressed his forehead to mine, "especially me,"
I looked down, the smile fading from my lips. He was too good. How he could still love me enough to run after me in the middle of a high class social gathering despite the risk of putting his dignity on the line after the horrible thing I'd done, I would never understand.
"Char," I said without looking up, "Why was it that you ran out after me? I wasn't exactly in your good books, and your parents are likely furious at you now."
He wrapped his arms around me and rested his chin on top of my head. After a moment, he spoke. "The only thing I could think of as you ran away was 'not again'. I'd lost you once already; I wasn't about to lose you again. I didn't care what the guests thought, nor do I now. If I could go back in time, I would do it a thousand times over. And the whole purpose of my parents throwing this ball was to let me find a bride; they have no business in being cross with me if I was doing just that."
"What a conversation that'll be," I murmured into his chest, "'Mother, the reason I decided to shed my remaining dignity by dashing like a lunatic out of a highly important social convention was because I was doing exactly what you had told me to do." I said, imitating his deep voice.
He threw his head back in laughter. I joined him, stopping only when he froze, his wide eyes looking at something in the distance.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me behind a tall hedge before I had the chance to turn around and see what he was looking at.
"Char what-"
He made a shushing motion at me as he peeked around the hedge.
Exasperated, I stuck my head around the bush as well.
There was a man walking down the stairs to the palace entrance, dressed in the uniform of the palace court.
As he walked past our hedge, I felt Char stiffen.
Who was this man that we were hiding from?
Determined to get an answer, I pressed my mouth right up close to Char's ear. "Why are we hiding behind a bush from this man?"
"That's Sir Albert," Char whispered, "He is my father's royal advisor. He means well, but he's always been a little sterner than he needs to be. I don't plan on facing his lecture on proper courtly behavior so soon after my fiasco. I plan on avoiding him until the words of the speech he's planned in his head transform from harsh and ego deflating to kinder and somewhat more studious."
"You're afraid of him?" I asked as we watched him pick a plump rose, and sniff it as he walked away, humming.
"We all are. He's not physically violent, but his words can cut you deeper than any whip ever could. Everyone but my father tries to establish as least contact with him as possible."
"My, whatever happened to bravery? Or does courage only exist in the Princes of fairytales?"
Char grinned. "Bravery only exists in men so long as there is a damsel involved," he said, dipping down to kiss the side of my face.
"Is that so?"
"Quite,"
"Then what about the courageous soldiers who fight battles in the name of their homeland?" I said, emphasizing courageous.
"Their wives and daughters are part of their homeland, aren't they?"
I laughed. "Too right."
Much to my displeasure, we stayed put until Sir Albert disappeared from sight.
"Let's not tally any longer than we have to," Char said as he pulled me out from behind the hedge in the direction of the back doors.
"This is what I've been trying to tell you for the best part of the last quarter of an hour Char,"
"Yes, but we were forced to tally then,"
I shook my head in bemusement as we entered the castle the same way that Sir Albert had come out.
I held my breath for a second as we crossed the pool of light surrounding the doorway, expecting an empty ballroom and hoards of angry courtiers demanding to know the meaning of this nonsense.
Instead I found something that wasn't quite so different from what had been before I left.
The only thing that had changed was that there were fewer guests, and quite a bit more somber looking maidens, waiting to be asked to dance by a dashing prince.
"Shouldn't the ball be over by now? It's long past midnight," I asked Char.
"You took the words right out of my mouth," he gripped my hand tightly, "What exactly do you think the knights told them?"
"Maybe that the reason behind your hasty exit from the ball was not in fact as a result of a psychotic episode, but that of a young man merely in love, which calls for the ball to be continued on as normal?" I joked
"It had to be something that they would deem believable, Ella," he said chuckling.
"Your parents don't worry that you may have psychotic episodes?" I asked, keeping up my charade just to humour him for a while longer.
"I should hope not."
I grinned.
"To inform them that opposite to what they believed, the Lady Lela hadn't drugged you and she wasn't a sadistic murderer intent on slitting the Prince's throat?"
"I doubt that they worried you may be a bandit."
I'd run out of ideas.
"Maybe they didn't tell them anything."
He shook his head. "If Peter was instructed to take your belongings, then it means that they've already cleared one of the guest quarters for you. It doesn't make sense for them to not have said anything."
Just then, Sir Stephan walked by, a glass of wine in hand.
"Stephan!" Char called out.
The knight turned, a look of surprise etched on his face.
"I've been looking all over for you, lad. How long does it bloody take to ride a quarter of a mile on a horse?" he strode towards us, his words slightly slurred.
Char's eyebrows shot up, his eyes darting back and forth between Stephan and his goblet.
"How much have you had to drink, Stephan?"
"My dear royal spawn," Stephan said, stumbling as he drew close to us, "there is no limit to how much one can drink in a time of celebration. It would just be absurd!"
I stifled a bubble of laughter with the back of my hand.
Char sighed.
"Stephan," he said, gripping the knight my the shoulders so that he was forced to look into his eyes, "Stephan. I am going to ask you a question, and I need you to answer me. Can you do that?"
"Indeed."
"Do you know what the King and Queen were told when you and the other knights returned to the castle?"
"Ay, of course I do. It was I that spoke to their Majesties," he thumped his chest proudly.
"Go on," I told him. I desperately hoped he was sober at the time that he spoke to them.
"I told them everything I knew," he hiccupped, "Yes I did. I told them that our prince had found the Ogre Tamer, and that her stepfamily was starving her to brink of death. Then Her Majesty, Queen Daria-may God bless her to the ends of heaven- said that she couldn't stand to see such a useful and clever young lassie go to waste, so she arranged for you to stay here from now on. And then-" he hiccupped once more, "they asked why you had run out in such a hurry-what caring parents are they, bless them both to the ends of heaven-and so I said our prince never found his friend the ogre tamer after we arrived back in Frell and he didn't have nearly enough time to look before he left for King Oscaro's court, and so tonight he must've found out where she lived, and went dashing off to retrieve her from the clutches of the sour lady who tries to pass as buttermilk." He finished his speech with a broad smile at both of us.
I felt my jaw drop.
It explained why Peter took my belongings, and why the palace wasn't in an uproar.
I did try to tell Char that Sir Albert seemed in too good of a mood to be rehearsing a lecture on proper manners.
Char had frozen. "What did the other knights say?" he asked slowly, as if speaking to a child.
"The others weren't there."
"Why?"
"Well you see, the King was in a right fit by the time we came back, so we though it'd be best if only one person went in to explain, so that he wouldn't be anymore agitated than he already was, and I was the one who volunteered."
Poor Stephan. How distracted must one be that he could miss the fact that I screamed 'I shan't marry the prince' at the top of my lungs?
"And so you came out to celebrate."
"Right too. And why shouldn't I? It's not everyday that you have an ogre-tamer by your side."
"Tell me, Stephan," Char narrowed his eyes, "Do you mind telling me what exactly happened tonight? It seems that my memory has left me"
"Certainly, we all have those days."
"In detail," Char hissed.
"What other way is there to tell a story? You, young lad, ran up to me earlier this evening and rambled on in a mad man's speech about how you'd found Ella the Ogre Tamer. And so of course, I did get a wee bit excited-I do like the Ogre Tamer, you know-and so of course I followed. When we got to Dame Olga's manor, you ran in and demanded that you see everyone in the household. After you found Ella-or the lass that seemed to be Ella, because that awful Hattie claimed that her name was Cinders-you began to converse quietly with her, which I could not hear. As I waited, the hall-although impressive-became hazy and stuffy, so I stepped outside momentarily for a gulp of fresh air. When I returned, you had announced that Ella couldn't be allowed to stay with her stepfamily any longer, and that she was to come with you."
Perhaps Stephan wasn't as distracted as I thought.
He simply hadn't been present long enough to know the entire truth.
Char straightened up and squared his shoulders. "Right. You're going home,"
"What?" Stephan's eyes widened, "No, but I haven't yet begun to celebrate. You can't send me home-"
"It'll do you no good to walk around like a drunken fellow," Char interrupted, "and if you don't get into bed now, your Lady will smack you for certain when you do eventually go back to your manor."
"My Lady can't smack me for doing a good deed-"
But Char had already signaled to one of the squires.
"Escort Sir Stephan to a carriage, and instruct the driver to head to his manor, please," Char handed Stephan to the young boy, "Keep a good firm grip on him so that he doesn't run off."
The boy nodded hurriedly before taking Stephan by the arm.
"Also," Char added as an afterthought, "When you do come back, please inform his wife that he had had too much to drink and that I sent him home. And that if she doesn't mind, to prepare him a sage and bay bath in the morning for the brutal head pains he's going to wake up with."
Char chuckled to himself as the squire all but dragged Sir Stephan down the hall.
I looked at Char. "Sage and bay?"
"Come now, Ella. I spend quite a bit of time with my cook, and I've picked up quite a bit over the years." He took my hand as we made our way to the drawing room.
"Rose and lavender are more effective when dealing with the after effects of alcohol."
"Yes, but I don't think an esteemed knight would appreciate smelling like a bride's bouquet until his next bath."
I laughed. "It could be revenge for landing us in the mess that he did."
"Don't remind me," Char groaned, "It would've been much easier to start from the beginning of the tale, rather than unravel every false bit of information that Stephan has fed my parents."
"Well," I said nervously, "At least I'm sort of on their good side, I think."
"I should hope so," Char trailed as we came to a halt in front of a set of tall doors.
I took a deep breath.
My fate loomed behind those doors.
But as we made to enter, the guards stopped us.
"The King and Queen have requested the presence of the prince alone," one said.
Alone?
Char raised an eyebrow. "I think you are quite mistaken. My parents are aware that there are two of us."
The guard took a look between Char and I, and his eyes softened. "I am only obeying the orders that I was given, your Highness," he said more kindly.
"I'm not going to leave her out here by herself!" Char said indignantly.
They paused.
"We'll keep an eye on the little lady if you wish," the other said.
Char sighed, deeming the battle lost. He turned to look at me. "I'll be back before you know it," he said softly. With a final squeeze of my hand, he disappeared into the drawing room.