Hello lovely readers! ^_^
I can't even write any comments to this chapter. OMG MY SHIPPER HEART ; A ;
Just... yes, there you go.
Enjoy! (and tell me if you do)
*sinks in an infinite ocean of Jelsa feels*
-Ael
Chapter XI - The Peasant's Promise
Tudyk was waiting for him.
Indeed, he had set out a little picnic spread. From the knapsack that he always carried, he had taken a small handkerchief and on it he had placed two wine goblets. In the center was a small leather wine holder and, beside it, some cheese and some apples. The spot could not have been lovelier: a high point of the mountain path with a splendid view all the way back to Florin Channel. Elsa lay helpless beside the picnic, tied and blindfolded. Tudyk held his long knife against her white throat.
"Welcome," Tudyk called when the man in black was almost upon them.
The man in black stopped and surveyed the situation.
"You've beaten my giant," the Weseltonian said.
"It would seem so."
"And now it is down to you. And it is down to me."
"So that would seem too," the man in black said, edging just a half-step closer to the little man's long knife.
With a smile he pushed the knife harder against Elsa's throat. It was about to bring blood. "If you wish her dead, by all means keep moving," he said.
The man in black froze.
"Better," Tudyk nodded.
No sound now beneath the moonlight.
"I understand completely what you are trying to do," the Weseltonian said finally, "and I want it quite clear that I resent your behavior. You are trying to kidnap what I have rightfully stolen, and I think it quite ungentlemanly."
"Let me explain" the man in black began, starting to edge forward.
"You're killing her!" Tudyk screamed, shoving harder with the knife. Elsa gasped. A drop of blood appeared her throat, red against white.
The man in black retreated. "Let me explain," he said again, but from a distance.
Again the little man interrupted. "There is nothing you can tell me I do not already know. I have not had the schooling equal to some, but for knowledge outside of books, there is no one in the world close to me. People say I read minds, but that is not, in all honesty, true. I merely predict the truth using logic and wisdom, and I say you are a kidnapper, admit it."
"I will admit that, as a ransom item, she has value; nothing more."
"I have been instructed to do certain things to her. It is very important that I follow my instructions. If I do this properly, I will be in demand for life. And my instructions do not include ransom, they include death. So your explanations are meaningless; we cannot do business together. You wish to keep her alive for ransom, whereas it is terribly important to me that she stops breathing in the very near future."
"Has it occurred to you that I have gone to great effort and expense, as well as personal sacrifice, to reach this point," the man in black replied. "And that if I fail now, I might get very angry. And if she stops breathing in the very near future, it is entirely possible that you will catch the same fatal illness?"
"I have no doubt you could kill me. Any man who can get by Aster and North would have no trouble disposing of me. However, has it occurred to you that if you did that, then neither of us would get what we want you having lost your ransom item, me my life."
"We are at an impasse then," said the man in black.
"I fear so," said the Weseltonian. "I cannot compete with you physically, and you are no match for my brains."
"You are that smart?"
"There are no words to contain all my wisdom. I am so cunning, crafty and clever, so filled with deceit, guile and chicanery, such a knave, so shrewd, cagey as well as calculating, as diabolical as I am vulpine, as tricky as I am untrustworthy... Well, I told you there were not words invented yet to explain how great my brain is, but let me put it this way: the world is several million years old and several billion people have at one time or another trod upon it, but I, Tudyk of Weselton, am, speaking with pure candor and modesty, the slickest, sleekest, sliest and wiliest fellow who has yet come down the pike."
"In that case," said the hooded man, "I challenge you to a battle of wits."
Tudyk had to smile. "For the Princess?"
The man in black nodded.
"To the death?"
He nodded again.
"I accept," cried Tudyk in excitement. "Begin the battle!"
"Pour the wine," said the man in black.
Tudyk filled the two goblets with deep-red liquid.
The man in black pulled from his dark clothing a small packet and handed it to the Weseltonian. "Open it and inhale, but be careful not to touch."
Tudyk took the packet and followed instructions. "I smell nothing."
The man in black took the packet again. "What you do not smell is called iocane powder. It is odorless, tasteless and dissolves immediately in any kind of liquid. It also happens to be the deadliest poison known to man."
Tudyk was beginning to get excited.
"I don't suppose you'd hand me the goblets," said the man in black.
Tudyk shook his head. "Take them yourself. My long knife does not leave her throat."
The man in black reached down for the goblets. He took them and turned away.
Tudyk cackled aloud in anticipation.
The man in black busied himself a long moment. Then he turned again with a goblet in each hand. Very carefully, he put the goblet in his right hand in front of Tudyk and put the goblet in his left hand across the kerchief from the Weseltonian. He sat down in front of the left-hand goblet, and dropped the empty iocane packet by the cheese.
"Your guess," he said. "Where is the poison?"
"Guess?" Tudyk cried. "I don't guess. I think. I ponder. I deduce. Then I decide. But I never guess."
"The battle of wits has begun," said the man in black. "It ends when you decide and we drink the wine and find out who is right and who is dead. We both drink, need I add, and swallow, naturally, at precisely the same time."
"It's all so simple," said the little man. "All I have to do is deduce, from what I know of you, the way your mind works. Are you the kind of man who would put the poison into his own glass, or into the glass of his enemy?"
"You're stalling," said the man in black.
"I'm relishing is what I'm doing," answered the Weseltonian. "No one has challenged my mind in years and I love it… By the way, may I smell both goblets?"
"Be my guest. Just be sure you put them down the same way you found them."
Tudyk sniffed his own glass; then he reached across the kerchief for the goblet of the man in black and sniffed that. "As you said, odorless."
"As I also said, you're stalling."
The Weseltonian smiled and stared at the wine goblets. "Now a great fool," he began, "would place the wine in his own goblet, because he would know that only another great fool would reach first for what he was given. I am clearly not a great fool, so I will clearly not reach for your wine."
"That's your final choice?"
"No. Because you knew I was not a great fool, so you would know that I would never fall for such a trick. You would count on it. So I will clearly not reach for mine either."
"Keep going," said the man in black.
"I intend to." The Weseltonian reflected a moment. "We have now decided the poisoned cup is most likely in front of you. But the poison is powder made from iocane and iocane comes only from the Southern Islands and the Southern Islands, as everyone knows, is peopled with criminals and criminals are used to having people not trust them, as I don't trust you, which means I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you."
The man in black was starting to get nervous.
"But, again, you must have suspected I knew the origins of iocane, so you would have known I knew about the criminals and criminal behavior, and therefore I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me."
"Truly you have a dizzying intellect," whispered the man in black.
"You have beaten my giant, which means you are exceptionally strong, and exceptionally strong men are convinced that they are too powerful ever to die, too powerful even for iocane poison, so you could have put it in your cup, trusting on your strength to save you; thus I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you."
The man in black was very nervous now.
"But you also bested Aster, which means you must have studied, because he studied many years for his excellence, and if you can study, you are clearly more than simply strong; you are aware of how mortal we all are, and you do not wish to die, so you would have kept the poison as far from yourself as possible; therefore I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me."
"You're just trying to make me give something away with all this chatter," said the man in black angrily. "Well it won't work. You'll learn nothing from me, that I promise you."
"I have already learned everything from you," said Tudyk. "I know where the poison is!"
"Only a genius could have deduced as much."
"How fortunate for me that I happen to be one," said the little man, growing more and more amused now. "Shall we drink then?"
"Pick, choose, quit dragging it out, you don't know, you couldn't know."
The Weseltonian only smiled at the outburst. Then a strange look crossed his features and he pointed off behind the man in black. "What in the world can that be?" he asked.
The man in black turned around and looked. "I don't see anything."
"Oh, well, I could have sworn I saw something, no matter." The Weseltonian began to laugh.
"I don't understand what's so funny," said the man in black.
"Tell you in a minute," said Tudyk. "But first let's drink."
And he picked up his own wine goblet.
The man in black picked up the one in front of him.
They drank.
"You guessed wrong," said the man in black.
"You only think I guessed wrong," said Tudyk, his laughter ringing louder. "That's what's so funny. I switched glasses when your back was turned."
There was nothing for the man in black to say.
"Fool!" cried the skinny man. "You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia,' but only slightly less well known is this: 'Never go in against a Weseltonian when death is on the line.'"
He was quite cheery until the iocane powder took effect.
The man in black stepped quickly over the corpse, then ripped the blindfold from Elsa's eyes.
Then she saw him. A man, some inches taller than her, slender, but definitely not puny, seeing how he lifted her, slashed her bonds away and put her on her feetl.
Elsa had heard everything, of course. "To think," she murmured, "all that time it was your cup that was poisoned."
"They were both poisoned," said the man in black. "I've spent the past two years building up immunity to iocane powder."
Elsa looked up at him. He was terrifying to her. She could not see his hair, for he wore a black hood, nor his whole face. The mask he wore barely shown his deep brown eyes. "Who are you?" Elsa asked.
"I am no one to be trifled with," replied the man in black. "That is all you ever need to know." Then he pulled her after him, and she could do nothing but follow.
They moved along the mountain path. The moonlight was very bright, and there were rocks everywhere, and to Elsa it all looked dead and white, like the moon. She had just spent several hours with three men who were openly planning to kill her. So why, she wondered, was she more frightened now than then? Who was the horrid hooded figure to strike fear in her so? What could be worse than dying?
They proceeded along the mountain path to an open space. The man in black stopped then. There were a million stars fighting for prominence and for a moment he seemed to be intent on nothing less than studying them all, as Elsa watched his eyes flick from constellation to constellation behind his mask.
Then, without warning, he spun off the path, heading into wild terrain, pulling her behind him.
She stumbled; he pulled her to her feet; again she fell; again he righted her.
She did her best to keep up. She was frightened as to what he would do to her, so she dared not fall again.
After five minutes, the man in black stopped dead. "Catch your breath," he commanded.
Elsa nodded, gasped in air, tried to quiet her heart. But then they were off again, with no warning, dashing across the mountainous terrain. They were running along the edge of a towering ravine, hundreds of feet deep, filled with lifting shadows. They seemed almost to be at the top of the world. When they stopped, Elsa sank down to rest. The man in black stood silently over her.
"Where do you take me?" Elsa gasped.
"Surely you cannot expect me to give an answer."
"It does not matter if you tell or not. He will find you."
" 'He,' Highness?"
"Prince Hans. There is no greater hunter. He can track a falcon on a cloudy day; he can find you."
"You have confidence that your dearest love will save you, do you?"
"I never said he was my dearest love, and yes, he will save me; that I know."
"You do not love your husband-to-be? Fancy."
"We are always very honest with each other. Not everyone can say as much. The Prince and I have never from the beginning lied to each other. He knows I do not love him."
"May I please tell you something, Highness? You're very cold."
"I'm not! Do not mock me-"
"Very cold and very young, and if you live, I think you'll turn to hoarfrost."
"Why do you pick at me? I have come to terms with my life, and that is my affair. I am not cold, I swear, but I have decided certain things: it is best for me to ignore emotion; I have not been happy dealing with it."
Her heart was a secret garden and the walls were very high.
"I loved once," Elsa added after a moment. "It worked out badly."
"Oh, sure, another rich man? Conceited and pompous like this Prince Hans of yours."
"No!" She replied angrily. "A farm boy, poor. Poor and perfect, with eyes like an autumn forest…" she paused. "But on the high seas, his ship was attacked, and the Dread Pirate Roberts never takes prisoners."
"I can't afford to make exceptions" he replied, and Elsa's face showed her terror.
"Hmm, it's possible that I did kill him. I've killed a lot of people." He added.
"You mock my pain!"
"Life is pain, your Higness. Anyone who says different is selling something."
The masked man paced around her, wondering.
"I remember this farm boy of yours, I think. This would be, what, three years ago?"
Elsa looked to the horizon, silent.
"He died well, that should please you. No bribe attempts, no blabbery. Simply said 'Please! Please, I need to live.' It was the please that caught my memory. I asked him what was so important for him here. 'True love', he replied. And then he spoke of a girl of surpassing beauty and faithfulness, I can only assume he meant you. You should bless me for destroying him before he found out what you really are."
"And what am I?" Elsa stood up angrily.
"Faithfulness he told me! Your enduring faithfulness! Now tell me truly: when you found out he was gone, did you get engaged to your prince on the same hour or did you wait a whole week for respect of the dead?" the man in black spitted.
"You mock me again, do not do that again!" But her crystal blue eyes shimmered wet not because of anger. "I died that day!" she cried.
He stared at her for a short moment, then heard the sound of horses approaching, and looked in the direction of the noise.
"And you can die too for all I care!" Elsa shoved him with all her strength remaining.
For a moment, the man in black teetered at the ravine edge. His arms swung and gripped the air but then he began his slide.
Down went the man in black, stumbling and torn and reaching out to stop his descent, but the ravine was too steep, and nothing could be done.
Down, down.
Rolling, spinning, out of all control.
Elsa stared at what she had done. But then some words flew to her.
Whispered from far, weak and warm and familiar.
"As . . .
. . . you . . .
wish . . ."
Oh no.
No.
It couldn't be.
Dawn sneaked in the mountains. Elsa stared down as, in first daylight, the man in black had lost his mask and his hood had fallen from his head during the fall, revealing his brown messy hair and the too familiar features of his face.
"Oh, my sweet Jack!" she gasped. "What have I done to you now?"
Elsa hesitated not a moment. Down she went after him, keeping her feet as best she could, and as she began, she thought she heard him crying out to her over and over, but she could not make sense of his words, because inside her now there was the thunder of walls crumbling, and that was noise enough.
Besides, her balance quickly was gone and the ravine had her. She fell fast and she fell hard, but what did that matter, since she would have gladly dropped a thousand feet onto a bed of nails if Jack had been waiting at the bottom.
Down, down.
Tossed and spinning, torn, out of all control, she rolled and twisted and plunged, cartwheeling toward her beloved. When she reached the bottom, Jack crawled toward her and wrapped her in his arms.
"Elsa!" He called lovingly, gently caressing her face. "Can you move at all?"
She blinked, getting rid of her dizziness. "Move?" she echoed, "You're alive! If you want I can fly."
They embraced tightly.
Elsa's gathered tears fell finally, but ran with the sweet realization that her dear Jack was alive and well. He pulled apart just a bit, enough to look directly at her.
"I promised I'll always come for you" he whispered, brushing her tears off her face, that face he had missed so much. "Why didn't you wait for me?"
"Well… you were dead."
"Death cannot stop true love" Jack stated, mingling his glance with hers. "All it can do is delay it for a while."
Elsa lifted her right hand towards his face, her fingertips caressing his skin. "I'll never doubt again."
"There would never be a need" Jack whispered, right before leaning towards Elsa.
Jack's lips grazed hers ever so delicately first, then his hunger for her became evident. Elsa's eyelids fell closed and her lips parted, unable to content her eagerness. She quivered with emotion when Jack kissed her deeply, tightening their embrace, her tremulous body pressed against his, not even a trace of air interposing between them.