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The House on Thornrose Lane: A Grimm Tale
Alicia Blade
Chapter 12: Blind
He escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell pierced his eyes.
Then he wandered blind through the forest and did naught but lament and weep over his loss.
from Rapunzel
"Zoicite, what happened?" Serena asked, rushing to the throne. The prince turned toward her and she could see red scratches across his face that disappeared beneath the collar of his tunic. His clothes, though clean, were covered in holes and tears.
"Who is this?" he asked as she kneeled down beside him. The two little men who had been speaking with Artemis, Malachite, and Nephlite, stopped to watch her, as did the three guardians, who Serena had failed to notice lurking in the throne's shadow.
"It's Serena," she answered.
"Ah, of course, Lady. I did not recognize your voice at first." He did not seem to be in pain and smiled in her direction as a maid sat down on a stool and began wrapping a yard of linen around his arm. On the ground beside her was a large pile of discarded, blood-stained bandages.
"Zoicite, what happened to you?"
"I found her," he said simply, his smile widening. "And you were right. Everything you said was right."
"What did she say?" Endymion growled from behind her.
"Many things," Zoicite answered, oblivious to the animosity in Endymion's tone. "She said that the girl in the tower would be beautiful, as beautiful as her voice. And that she could be the girl of my dreams, the girl I would love more than any other, and she was right. Serena also said that she was kept in the tower against her will by an evil witch." His grin faded. "She was right about that, too."
"Start from the beginning, dear," Queen Luna said, wrapping her hands around
Zoicite's freshly-bandaged fingers.
The prince inhaled a long breath. "While on our hunting trip, I left the group one evening and came upon a strange tower. I could hear singing coming from the top, yet could find no entrance. Then, an old woman approached and sang out a rhyme, which was followed by a waterfall of hair that reached from the single window at the top to the ground. The woman used it as a ladder to climb up.
"I was so baffled by this that I told Serena and Sir Andrew about it when we returned. Serena convinced me to go back and rescue the girl from the tower; in the case that she needed rescuing, of course."
Serena could feel Endymion glaring at the back of her head and wished that Zoicite had left her role out of his retelling.
"The next morning, I rode straight to the place where I remembered the tower being. I thought it would take me all day to find it again, but as I got closer, I could hear the singing. It was as if the wind was bringing the sound directly to me. Like she was singing for me alone.
"I followed the sound straight to the tower, but this time I did not bother to search for a door. Instead, I called out the same song I had heard the old woman sing. 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, that I may climb the lovely stair.' The singing stopped abruptly and there was a moment in which nothing happened. It was like the entire world had stopped breathing. Then, the same cascade of hair fell down beside me, the color of the ocean, like a waterfall.
"I took a deep breath, hoping I wouldn't weigh too much, then began to climb. Her hair felt like a silk rope—strong and healthy and softer than the most luscious velvet. As I got closer to the window, I saw that the hair was wrapped around a rod that was attached to the stones, which was why it didn't hurt her to have someone climb it. And then . . . then I saw her."
Zoicite sank into the throne, his face tilting up toward the ceiling as the memory returned to him. His smile had crawled up even brighter than before. "She was the most gorgeous woman I have ever seen. Not only was her hair impossibly beautiful, but she was looking at me with these huge, hopeful blue eyes. I almost dropped the rope . . . er, her hair . . . because the gaze made me so weak. I could think of nothing to say for a long time and just hung there, staring at her, and her staring right back. At first, I thought she might be afraid, but she seemed more curious than anything. Finally, she asked me in a voice that sang even when she was only speaking, 'Are you a prince?'"
Zoicite chuckled at the memory. "I couldn't help but laugh. Her voice was so sweet and innocent that it tickled my nerves at hearing it. I told her that I was, then, and she invited me inside. I told her my name and she said that she was called Rapunzel by her keeper, but that her birth name was Amy. After that, both of our times of silence were broken and we talked and talked. She was full of questions, about most everything, and I answered them as best I could. I soon learned that she had been put in the tower when she was very young and had no memory of the outside world. So I told her about our kingdom, my family, especially all my brothers. And I told her about feasts and dances, the marketplace, and the wheat fields—she could see only forest from her window. Then she told me about the birds that visited her and the perfect sunsets she could see over the horizons. Hours passed and dusk came and then we heard the old woman calling for her to let down her hair.
"Amy turned to me, looking suddenly very afraid, and said—I remember her words exactly—'My Prince, have you come to rescue me?' I told her that I would rescue her and bring her to my kingdom and marry her if she would have me, and she said that she would. She went to the window, wrapped her hair around the pole, and dropped it down to the witch.
"The woman climbed up muttering and cursing Rapunzel for taking too long. She didn't notice me at first when she entered the room, a basket smelling of fresh bread on one arm. But when she did see me, her eyes flared with anger and hatred." Zoicite shuddered visibly. "She began screaming, first at Amy, then at me. She asked if I'd touched her; she accused her of being indecent. She called her horrible things, then threatened that I would never see her again." Gritting his teeth, Zoicite touched the material over his eyes. "I had no idea how right she would be.
"Then the witch reached inside the basket and pulled out a bread knife. I began to draw my sword, but her aged look was deceiving and she was quick and surprisingly agile. She stabbed me in the shoulder, and before I could recover from the shock, she had grabbed my tunic and, with abnormal strength, pushed me from the window. As I fell, I saw my Amy weeping and clawing at the witch's back. It was the last thing I saw. The last thing I will ever see.
"The tower was surrounded by thorn bushes. I crashed into them and found them to be part blessing and part curse. They broke my fall, from which I certainly would have broken my neck. But then it seemed as if their branches came to life, grabbing and clawing at me. They tore at my clothes, my skin, my face." He paused, running an absent hand over the scratches on his cheeks and lips. "They tore out my eyes.
"Somehow, I managed to crawl away from them. I spent the night wandering aimlessly, trying desperately to cover my wounds. Without the heat from the sun, I didn't know which direction to go. All the forest sounds were dark and unfamiliar when they weren't drowned out by the sound of sweet Amy's crying still in my head. I've never felt more lost and helpless. Then, when it seemed I had walked for weeks—though I now know it was scarcely two days—I heard the sound of water: a joyful, bubbling sound. I followed it to a small brook. It wasn't deep, but allowed for me to drink and bathe my wounds. I lay down beside it, thinking I would die there. Thinking I had just met my love and now I would never see her again. I would rather have died than live forever deformed and without her, to live knowing I had failed the one request she had made of me.
"Then I fell asleep."
"An' that's when we found 'im," one of the short men said in a guttural, rough voice. Serena turned to the man who had spoken. He had thick red hair pulled back into a braid, and a longer beard hanging in two braids down to his stomach. Though he was roughly the size and shape of a barrel, his arms and short legs were composed of defined muscles. Both he and his companion wore soiled tunics in grays, browns, and blacks that looked to have been mended and patched time and time again. "'E was sleepin' like a baby."
"'An snorin' like an old man," chuckled the other man in a voice that was just as gruff. He had straggly black hair that was loose over his shoulders, making a full wall across his face with a beard and mustache. His gray eyes, mostly hidden beneath thick eyebrows, laughed in the afternoon light. "We tried to wake 'im, but 'e must of been dreamin' of some sweet lass. I don't think nothin' short of an earthquake woulda stirred 'im."
"So instead, we took 'im home, where Snowflake could take care of 'im," finished the red-haired man.
"Snowflake?" Serena asked.
Zoicite chuckled. "Her name is really Snow White, but these men and their five brothers call her everything but. She doesn't seem to mind. Actually, she calls herself Raye."
"Raye? Why Raye?"
Shrugging, Zoicite answered, "I asked her the same thing. She told me that when she was a child, her father had called her his little ray of sunshine. That, and she said that her given name brings back sad memories, so she doesn't like to use it."
The two small men exchanged uncomfortable looks—making it obvious that they knew exactly what kind of memories Raye was referring to—and Serena couldn't help but grin knowingly. She'd guessed as much, realizing that these could only be dwarfs, and the most famous fairy tale dwarfs at that, and while it was never mentioned in the fairy story, it made sense that Snow White would choose another name to ward off suspicious ears. After all, being a runaway princess must have been an identity hard enough to keep secret. "And what are your names?" she asked.
"I'm Qualakig," said the red-haired dwarf. "And this 'ere is Gralogwid."
"It's a pleasure to have you here. You are most welcome in our home and have our sincerest gratitude for bringing Zoicite home to us," King Artemis said.
"Of course, and this Snow White and all of your brothers, as well," concurred his wife.
Qualakig snorted, looking around at the finely decorated and furnished ballroom in contempt. "Thanks, but we won't be stayin' long. Too wide open around 'ere. Can't wait to get back to forests and coal mines." Gralogwid grunted in agreement.
"Please, tell us more," Hota suddenly interjected. "What happened when you brought Zoicite back to your home?"
The dwarfs looked startled, seeing the small winged girl on Seiya's shoulder for the first time, and looking at her with superstitious fear and curiosity.
"Well, lit'le miss," Gralogwid stuttered, tightening his leather belt, "Whitey fixed 'im right up. Took 'er but a minute to have 'is scratches all cleaned and tended an' he was wrapped up like a mummy. 'E slept through the whole thing, and just kept on sleepin' through the day and into the next. We were beginnin' to think 'e might be in some sorta coma, but then 'e finally woke up. 'E told us his story, an' asked us to bring 'im home. So we did, an' here we are."
"When's lunch?" Qualakig broke in, and they all heard the loud rumbling of his stomach. Serena hid her giggling.
"We'll have a feast prepared right away," Queen Luna said, waving at a couple servants standing not far away.
"No need to make a feast for us," Qualakig amended, but put up no further argument and made no effort to stop the servants before they left. "An' I must say, Miss, young Master Xylophone over there has healed up mighty nice."
"Xylophone?" Endymion admonished with a chuckle.
Zoicite shrugged. "They seem to have something against given names. I think it might have something to do with their own being so hard to pronounce."
Both dwarfs snuffed at that, turning up their noses. "Jus' 'cause you can't say them doesn't mean they're hard to say."
Zoicite grinned.
"I was sayin', though," Qualakig continued, tugging on his thick beard, "that although 'is wounds are doin' lots better now, we don' think he's ever gonna recover 'is eyesight. Snowball thinks as much." The dwarfs nodded seriously, looking for all like they were medical experts. From the looks of the bandages over Zoicite's eyes, though, no one thought to dispute them.
Jadeite looked back up at his brother Zoicite, still sitting on the throne. "Do your eyes hurt?"
Shrugging, the injured prince rubbed a finger over the cloth. "It's not so bad. Raye gave me some tea with a few special herbs before we left. I think they've been helping with the pain."
"We'll have some more solutions prepared if the pain comes back, of course," the queen said, carefully squeezing her son's hand.
"To lose your love and your sight in one day," Seiya's haunting voice sounded from behind the throne. "How very tragic." The sadness evident on his face almost made it seem that the tattoo tear was real, but beneath the gloomy overcast of his expression, the smallest hint of a smile glittered in his black eyes, as though he were seeing something beautiful that no one else could see.
"I wish I could meet this old hag," Hota said from his shoulder, folding her arms firmly against her chest. "She sounds like quite the character."
"Not to mention this girl of yours," Andrew pointed out, his pink lips curling mischievously.
Zoicite's head lowered, his face paling noticeably. "She is not my girl. I have lost her, before I truly had her. Lord knows where she is now." His voice began to shake. "Lord knows what that witch has done to her."
"Well, there's only one way to find out," Andrew said.
"Perhaps we should go on a little journey tomorrow," taunted Hota, her eyes glimmering. The three guardians simultaneously raised their gazes to Serena, who gulped beneath their burning gazes.
"Zoicite's right, you know," she said. "She could be anywhere by now."
"What else would you recommend?" Seiya drawled.
"Please," Zoicite said abruptly, rising from the chair. He grasped Jadeite's arm with one hand to steady himself and held up the other in protest. "I will not involve you all in this. This is my mess. This is my tragedy. I will not have you all risking your lives because I was weak. Besides," he sighed, "I cannot face Amy again. I failed her when she most needed me. She must hate me. Certainly she has no need of me."
"You can't possibly believe that!" Serena cried, grabbing onto Zoicite's hand. "You don't fall in love with someone because they can rescue you, especially when they're poised against a powerful sorceress! You fall in love with someone because they make you smile, because they bring a light into your life and fill something inside of you that no one else can. Did Rapunzel do this for you?"
Zoicite said nothing, but his body spoke loudly for him. Of course she had.
"Well I have no doubt that you did it for her. She called you her prince. Hers. If you don't go back to her, that would be the true failing. I'll go with you. I don't know what I'll be able to do, but I will do all I can. And Seiya, Andrew, and Hota will come with us, too."
"As will I!" Gralogwid shouted agreeably, holding up his fist. "I've been achin' for a good ol'-fashioned witch hunt!"
"An' I'm with you, too, Soy Breath!"
"I'll be with you, as well, brother," Jadeite said. "I'll be your eyes."
"Hold on a minute!" Endymion yelled, throwing up his hands. "Have you all lost your minds? We have no idea what this woman is capable of. Do you think those thorns just jumped to life of their own accord? Do you think that tower just built itself? And how many old women do you know who could single-handedly, effortlessly, throw Zoicite out of a window? We don't know where she is, who she is, or even what she is, and you all want to charge up there on some foolish crusade. And Zoicite has only begun to heal! Do you really want to send him on this mad goose chase wrapped up in bandages?"
"Would you rather he stay miserable and heartbroken the rest of his life?" Serena growled, both hands firmly on her hips. "I don't think we can afford to miss this opportunity. What if Amy's in danger?" Endymion rolled his eyes, making Serena seethe beneath her skin. "What if it was you, Endymion? What if you knew that you had one chance to be with the love of your life—the only woman that you will ever be able to truly love—and you let it slip through your fingers? His wounds will heal. His heart might not." She glared up at him and waited as he glared stubbornly back. Endymion clenched his jaw as he looked into the passionate fire in her blue eyes. Finally, exhaling an exasperated breath, Endymion returned his gaze to his brother.
"Are you really going to go along with this, Zoicite?"
Zoicite gulped. "What she says is right. It may be a huge mistake, but I see no other choice. If I ever want to be with Amy . . . or even just to know that she is safe, it will be worth it."
After sweeping a slow, bitter look at the group preparing to charge into the sunset and risk their lives against a witch, Endymion finally let his shoulders slump unhappily. "Fine," he growled, glancing heatedly at Serena, before folding his arms and looking up at the lofty ceiling. "If Jadeite is your eyes, then I am your sword." He glanced down at Serena again. "But I still think you're crazy."
"I can live with that," she responded.
A strange tenseness clenched Endymion's stomach as he looked at her, watching her anger melt away to gratefulness, perhaps even pride. Shaking his head, he turned away and began walking back toward the main hall. "If anyone needs me, I'll be sharpening my weapons."
Soon after, the servants announced the preparation of the feast, but Endymion did not come down to join them.
After supper was eaten and the travelers had made plans for the following morning, Serena set out to find their missing companion. He had left the ballroom angry—and she knew most of that anger was directed at her. Whether it was because she'd encouraged Zoicite to go find Rapunzel in the first place, or because she was encouraging him to do it again, she wasn't sure. And if it had been anyone else, she thought she could have let the misdirected resentment roll right off her, but the thought of Endymion harboring any such feelings made her lose her appetite and filled her stomach with nerves. Besides, she was sure it would be bad luck to start on such a crusade with ill will between any of the companions. She had to make amends with the prince before they left the next morning.
With that goal in mind, she'd decided to bring him food.
It certainly couldn't hurt any.
It wasn't difficult to find him as she traced her steps back to the weapon room she had earlier discovered. The forlorn suit of armor still lay collapsed and broken, half-concealed by the blue drape that hung over the stairway. At first glance the room looked undisturbed and Serena thought that perhaps Endymion had gone to another weapon room—surely the castle had more than one—but noting that the sconces were lit made her think perhaps he'd come through after all. Approaching the door, she pulled back the curtain and looked down at the armor. The gauntlet that had fallen off and tripped her before had been replaced haphazardly on its arm.
Pursing her lips, she quietly crept up the stairwell—which was now dark with the coming of night, but a warm orange light at the top kept her climbing. Finally, she reached the little round room and found Endymion sitting at the spinning wheel, polishing a sword in his lap just as he had said he would be. At his feet rested a few daggers and a short sword.
"What do you want?" he asked without looking up. His ebony bangs fell into his eyes.
"I brought you something to eat," Serena said, showing a plate of sliced meat and cheeses.
"Not hungry."
"Then don't eat it," she said, already feeling irritation welling up in her. Couldn't he be the slightest bit grateful?
Taking a deep breath, she shoved the emotion down and set the plate on the floor, directly in his line of sight. After a moment spent awkwardly teetering on her feet, she asked, "Do you come here often?" Then she flinched at the stupidity of the question.
"No," he answered. "I'd forgotten it was here, actually."
"Oh. But you knew about it before?"
He sighed and was silent for a long time, until Serena began to think he was ignoring her, until he finally answered impassively, "We used to play hide-and-seek when we were kids. Jade found it once and showed it to us, and we used to come up here to escape the servants or Mom and Dad, especially when there was a banquet or something that we were supposed to attend. But that was a long time ago." He looked up at her for the first time. "You know, there are servants who have been her for sixty years who probably don't know about this place, and you've been here for, what, six days?"
Serena kicked awkwardly at a pile of straw. "I kind of found it by accident."
"Obviously," he said with a snort and returned to his polishing.
"I wanted to thank you," she stuttered nervously, curling a lock of hair around her fingers. "…for joining us on this, um, mission. Everyone says you're the best hunter in the kingdom. Your skills will help a lot." Her heart was beating fast, her throat dry as she looked at him, desperately trying to forget his sinfully good looks and focus rather on her fading conversational skills.
"I'm not doing it for you."
"I know that."
"And I still think it's a bad idea. You do realize we got lucky before, right? That witch could have killed Zoicite. I'm amazed she didn't. And do you realize, Lady Serena, that any blood spilled on this witch hunt will be on your hands? This whole charade, everything that's happened, all comes back to you. You may have saved my niece's life, but I'm not so convinced you're the blessing to this kingdom that everyone thinks you are."
Serena tried to keep her breathing steady as anger and hurt welled inside of her—sinfully good looks forgotten. "How can you be so cruel? Zoicite is in love with her! Don't you think they should be together?"
Rolling his eyes, Endymion stuck the sword through the spokes of the wheel. The metal clanged hollowly against the wood. "Love, love, love. I'm so sick of hearing about love!"
"And what is so wrong with love?" Serena's voice rose to meet his.
"Oh, please. Love in this land is a joke. A guy sees a pretty face and is head over heels. 'She smiled at me, we must be meant to be together.' 'She can spin straw into gold, she must be the one.' 'Our parents want us to marry, so she must be the love of my life,'" he mimicked sarcastically, climbing to his feet and kicking the daggers away. "Well it doesn't always work that way!"
Serena's furiously beating heart began to slow, the redness ebbing from her face.
"Lord, don't look at me that way," Endymion growled, pacing around the room. "He's my brother. Of course I want him to be happy. I want all of them to be happy."
"You deserve to be happy too, Endymion."
He paused, fuming, before slowly turning to face her and allowing a crooked smile to make its way over his lips. "Yeah, that would just make your day, wouldn't it?"
Serena flushed. "Excuse me?"
"You seem to be on this mad crusade to make us all fall in love. First Nephlite and the scullery maid—"
"Lita's a chef."
"—and now you're pitching poor delusional Zoicite, newly blinded, mind you, against a witch. What are you going to do to me, Serena? Poison me with some love potion on my wedding day? Lock me up until I concede to try and break her curse?"
"You've only met Briar Rose once, and were you even old enough to remember? How do you know she's not—"
"The One?" Endymion laughed. "Let me ask you, Serena, have you ever felt it? This passionate romance you believe so strongly in?"
Serena gaped. "Look around you! How can you possibly not believe in it when it's everywhere. Your parents, Malachite and Mina—"
"I asked about you."
Serena gulped, staring up at his forebodingly serious gaze.
"I know what love is," she finally whispered, lowering her gaze.
"You're lucky then. I don't."
"Perhaps you choose not to."
"Perhaps." Endymion peered at her through tousled bangs a moment, before sighing and pacing to a window, staring out at a darkening sky. "You asked me earlier what I would do in Zoicite's position. If I had only one chance to find my true love, would I let it slip through my fingers? Well, no, Serena, I wouldn't." He chuckled wryly. "Instead, I would take that chance in my hand and throw it as far as I could, then run like hell in the other direction. Love is more trouble, and more pain, than it's worth."
Serena's throat went dry. It was the most cynical and dismissive view on love she had ever heard.
She shook her head. "You pretend to be brave, Prince Endymion, but only a true coward would be so terrified of the most beautiful thing in the world." His eyes flashed but she could not tell with what emotion. She sighed. "You may look, and talk, and act like the Darien I knew back home, but I see now you cannot possibly be him. He would never run away from love." She said it uncertainly, thinking back to the ever-popular Darien Shields—who never had a girlfriend.
"Then go back to him," Endymion muttered, interrupting her thoughts, "And leave us alone."
Silently, Serena left the room, the plate of food still on the floor. An hour later, the plate was empty.
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