The Ratking

CHAPTER 10 - Frederick's curse

Tilly too had been wondering. Her husband had said Princess Clarissa would have been married to a man. She would have broken a curse. It puzzled her. Frederick was obviously a kind person. He could have reacted a lot more violently after the wedding. The rat-people didn't display signs of uncontrollable cruelty either. Why had they been cursed then? Who had turned them from people into rats? And why would Princess Clarissa have broken the curse while she apparently couldn't?

It was on another fine day, during a walk in the park that Natalie finally summoned up the courage to ask Frederick when and why he and his people had been cursed.

"It seems such a terrible curse and I can't believe you or your people did anything to deserve it," said Natalie.

"Thank you for your trust in me, Natalie," said Frederick. "My only fault was that I was not in love. But for you to understand I've got to go back further."

He paused for a moment to collect his thoughts, then continued relating what had happened.

"When I was seven I met Melina, a girl about four years younger than I. She was running away from a dog and fell. I went to help her and took her home. She lived in the biggest house on the main square, the one that's all shuttered up now."

Natalie nodded. She remembered passing it a few times on her way to do the shopping.

"After that Melina kept following me and quite frankly I wasn't too keen on it at first. What could I do with a three year old girl in tow? I had to be careful all the time. My mother told me not to play too rough, not to go near water, not to climb on anything. Basically all the things a seven year old boy wants to do. But eventually I got used to Melina and as she grew up we became friends."

Natalie laughed. "I wish I could have seen you with this little girl following you. You had obviously become her hero after chasing the dog away."

Frederick laughed as well. "It was only a little dog, a pup really. Nothing heroic about that. Poor thing was more afraid than Melina."

"And the heroic boy played with the little girl."

"Yes, laugh about it. I got teased no end that I played with a little girl. I even hid at times when I didn't want to be with her. That was not easy. She would just suddenly appear behind me, and I would never hear her coming. As if she materialised out of thin air, which was more or less the case as I learned when I asked her one day how she did that. She told me she was a witch like her mother and of course suddenly she didn't seem so boring anymore. She didn't arrive silently anymore either. Fires she would walk out of, firework going off, flashes of lightning, plumes of smoke; it was never dull when Melina appeared. When I was fifteen I left the island to go to boarding school, like my father before me. Melina wrote to me about what happened on the island, and I would write her about the things that happened at my school. Later she would write about her own studies. To me they were always letters from a friend to a friend, nothing else. After boarding school I went to university and Melina and I kept the correspondence going. In all that time I came back to the island once when my father died rather suddenly. My mother said that one moment he was laughing, the next he was dead. She became regent and I went back to my studies, or more precisely to the student life I liked so much. I came back because my mother was ill; she died soon after my return. I was twenty-one then."

Frederick felt again the shock of his father's sudden death and the pain when his mother died as well, two years later.

He continued, "I took up my responsibility as king of the island and earned the trust and respect of my subjects. I was going to build a university on the island, invite scientist, promote culture and make my country a centre of excellence. I had so many plans … Then my young witch-friend came back to the island. Over the years Melina had developed a crush on me and she wanted to become my queen. That possibility had never even occurred to me. Of course I refused because I did not love her … I had never seen her so angry. I tried to soothe her and said she would surely meet a more suitable husband. That only made things worse. Just at that moment one of the maids came in to tell us the tea was ready. She smiled and Melina flipped. I never expected her to take revenge by changing me and my people into rats. Then she disappeared, leaving us no hope."

"But why? It seems so undeserved."

"Why?" Frederick shrugged his shoulders. "She was eighteen, had been bragging to her friends about the prince who would marry her. Then I refused her and when she saw the maid smiling, presumably she thought people here would mock her. She probably did it in a fit of anger, without thinking. As I said: she just lost it."

"I understand. Hell hath no greater fury …"

"Yes, something like that. She returned two years later with her husband and full of remorse. Unfortunately she could not undo the curse – apparently it's the first rule of curses: what is cursed stays cursed – but she could give us hope. I had to marry a noblewoman and our first kiss would break the curse. She also promised to bring a suitable wife to the island and that is why the storm brought your ship to our shore. Melina must have deposited it safely on the beach because that bay is the most remote and best protected part of Ilara. Princess Clarissa was clearly a noblewoman of suitable age so I tried to win her. When that didn't work I decided to force her into doing it for her people."

"And then I spoiled it by helping the princess to get away and marrying you in her place. I'm amazed you didn't chop my head off."

"You only wanted to help your colleagues to get back home and I now think the princess would never have married me. She didn't want me, just like I didn't want to marry Melina."

"Are you sure Melina has forgiven you completely? Princess Clarissa is not the kind of wife I would wish on my best friend."

"I thought of that too. When I heard Lady Selina wasn't married either, I wondered if she could be the one. She's a bit older than me but a lot nicer than the princess. Luckily I learned in time she and Graham had a thing going and I decided not to interfere in that. Basically Clarissa was the one. I think Melina had become desperate. It had been three years since she promised to help us. Perhaps she saw your princess as the only opportunity to keep her word."

"That must be the explanation."

"I know it is. Melina is not bad. She even went into a self-imposed banishment and she loves Ilara."

Natalie and Frederick walked on in silence for a while.

Obviously Melina has, or at least used to have, a bit of a short fuse, Natalie thought. And was it desperation or malice that had made her choose Princess Clarissa as a bride for Frederick? Natalie didn't know what to think of Melina.

Then she asked, "But why didn't you kill me when you found out you married the wrong girl? You could have called it 'high treason' and Melina could have tried to find you someone else."

"That never occurred to me at the time. I'm not so into killing and chopping heads off. And afterwards we'd become friends. I could never kill a friend, for whatever reason."

"And your people? Aren't they enough reason?"

"I'm sure there are other solutions that don't involve bloodshed. Anyway, we can always sort things out if another noblewoman gets washed up on our shore."

If Frederick was determined not to kill Natalie, she was just as determined to do what must be done for him and his people should the need arise.