Disclaimer: I do not own anything written by the fantastic Gail Carson Levine. The only things that are mine are anything that you do not recognise – i.e – most characters and the plot.

Summary: Sarah, Ella's daughter, is kidnapped on the night of her debutante ball. At first she does not know what her captors want from her, but when she does her life is changed forever. What follows is an adventure featuring magic, mayhem, romance, elves, balls and a prince in disguise!

A/N: A few of you mentioned that Sarah actually means princess. Now that you have said it, I do vaguely remember reading that somewhere. I had totally forgotten that when I chose the name Sarah. It must have been in my sub conscience ;).

Also, one reader wanted to know Fin's real name and you are about to find out in this chapter.

Chapter 7:

Surprises

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"Sarah, are you okay?" Fin's face looked concerned. No, the prince's face was concerned. Fin was no bandit - he was a prince.

"Mmm hmm. I think I should go back to the palace and find Manna; I think I just hallucinated - she might have some special herbs " She murmured.

She got back up and turned to look at Fin. His concern had gone and the mask was in place again.

"Manna left the palace this morning; you were asleep and she did not want to wake you up. Besides, you did not hallucinate."

"So, you are the prince." Sarah shook her head in disbelief; she could not believe that she had been fooled so easily.

"I meant to tell you, but I seemed to never get round to it. I did not want you think differently of me."

"Fin, I am a princess. So why would I do that?"

Fin looked away. "I hate acting like a prince – there are so many rules and regulations. I just wanted us to act like normal people."

"Fin, you told me that you were from Bamarre- "

"I had to tell you something, it was the first name that came to my head."

"Fin? Who is Fin?" piped in Tom, desperate to be included in the conversation.

"I guess I better tell you my real name. It is Christian."

"Prince Christian. I am honoured to meet you, your highness." Sarah curtsied, lifted her skirts and swept away.

"Sarah, please don't walk away." Christian pleaded. He knelt down and tugged the hem of her dress. "Please listen."

"I cannot believe you. You lied to me!" Sarah was furious. She had been betrayed by the man she loved.

"Hang on," spoke a voice in Sarah's head, "I am not in love with him, am I?" She barely knew him. As it now turned out, she knew him less than she thought. It was just some silly little crush.

"I think I might leave now. You two should sort things out." Tom spoke. He did not like this conversation and he left before he could become involved.

Sarah nervously chewed at her bottom lip. "Okay. Explain."

Sarah walked over to a patch of grass and sat down. She did not care whether her dress became dirty or not.

"Look, I could not tell you my real name and who I was when I first met you for obvious reasons. If we had been caught, I could not have afforded for them to find out about Linnarch. When we came here, I wanted to tell you but every single time I tried to do so, I found that I could not."

"Why couldn't you? Aren't I good enough for you?" Sarah growled.

"No, of course not. It is just that every time I reveal to somebody my actual identity, my relationship with him or her changes. They always seem to regard me in a new light and I end up losing them as a friend. I did not want to lose you to." Christian pleaded.

"Really? Well you could never lose me, Christian, because you can't lose something you never had."

Sarah blundered off through the crowd. She could hear Christian calling her name.

"Damn it, why does he have to caress my name like that, whenever he says it?" Sarah stumbled along a rocky road.

She had managed to escape from the stampede of people and was now trying to find her way back to the palace. She still could not believe that Fin was actually Prince Christian, a prince of Linnarch. Would she have to call him "your highness" from now on?

Sarah continued walking along the same road. She reasoned that she was heading towards the right direction of the castle, and she would eventually bump into more people along the way who would be able to direct her there.

Sarah happened to be in luck because no sooner had she thought this, had she seen somebody. It was a girl of about nineteen years of age. She had bright golden hair and fair skin. Her lips were a luscious red and her cheeks were scarlet with exercise. What was unusual about her appearance was the darkness of her eyes. They were large and black, the blackest black ever imaginable. They were enchanting and yet hypnotic. Sarah stopped walking when she came to the girl.

She hesitated as to what to do but finally decided to break the silence with, "My name is Sarah."

The other girl grunted. She was certainly of noble birth but she acted as if she had never been given a single lesson in etiquette (which all the nobility had to unfortunately undergo). This was yet another reason why Sarah had befriended more commoners.

"I was wondering which way the palace was?"

"The palace?" The girl repeated, blinking her eyes.

"Yes, the palace. Do you know where it is?"

"Continue walking down this road and you will come to another. Turn left and then keep on going. You will eventually reach it."

"Thank you." Sarah curtseyed and the girl continued to stare.

Sarah could still feel the girl's eyes burn into her back as she walked away.

It was night and the moon was shining high in the sky. Sarah was still ambling along.

"I should never have listened to that girl. I am so foolish. I will never get to the palace."

Sarah's legs were aching. She could feel her face and arms stinging from being sun burnt. Sarah could imagine that the picture she painted was not a very pretty one.

"Just as well it is dark." she chuckled. Sarah tried to see if she was anywhere near there yet, but she could not see more than a couple of feet in front of her. Sarah stumbled and fell flat on her face.

"Urgh! Why do I have to be such a klutz all the time."

Sarah burst into tears. She was not normally the kind of person to do something like this, she rarely ever cried, but she felt that the occasion called for it. She imagined herself being found the following day. She could see her dead body strewn along the ground with crows biting her flesh, fighting over who got to eat it.

This thought seemed to make Sarah cry even harder.

"I will not cry. I will not be such a sook." Sarah sniffed.

"Oooh. Is the poor baby crying?" somebody teased gently.

Sarah tried to see who it was.

"Don't you remember me?" the owner of the voice moved closer.

"Flame! I had completely forgotten about you. Are you alright?"

"Yes. You need not have worried. Nobody else was, I never have been caught. I have been back since midday. Where have you been? Everybody has been sick with worry."

"I - got - lost." Sarah blew her nose into her handkerchief.

"Come here." Sarah stepped forward and felt Flame's arms wrapped around her. "You remind me of a friend I once had." Flame confessed.

"A friend you once had?"

Sarah felt Flame's body tense. "Yes." Sarah knew not to ask any more questions.

"Lets get you back home."

Home. The palace was not her home, but for the next few months, it was going to have to be.

"I want to thank you, Flame."

"That's okay. I have been trying to look for you all day. By the way, my real name is Scarlet."

"No kidding?"

"No, I am quite serious. I am a duchess, and Christian's cousin."

Sarah had to pinch her own arm to stop herself from fainting again.

"What you did was inexcusable!" yelled Christian. "You could have been killed."

"I do not really see what the big deal is. All I did was run off. I found my way back in the end anyway."

"You found the palace after Scarlet found you!" Christian's face was dark and moody.

"I am so sorry." Sarah apologized sarcastically.

"You will stay in your room from now on. You will not be allowed out of it until further notice. I will have your food brought up to you."

"You cannot ground me. You are the one that is in the wrong – you lied to me! Besides, you are not the King."

"I am the Prince of Linnarch. I can ground you and I just have. Now go away."

"You cannot punish me like this. You are not my father!"

Sarah stomped out of the room. "Stupid! Stupid man." She cursed him.

Lydia was there to lead her back to her bedchamber.

Lydia looked at Sarah's tear stained cheeks. "Do not cry. It will be alright."

"No, it won't. I really miss my parents and I feel so alone. The only reason I am staying here is to find the necklace."

"Sometimes life hurts. But do not worry, the Prince does not hate you, he is just scared that you might run away."

"No he isn't. I bet you that he is hoping I will. He cannot wait to get rid of me."

"Sarah, I think that I can safely say that Prince Christian wants anything but that."

They had reached Sarah's room. Sarah wanted to ask her what she had meant but Lydia left before she could do so.

Sarah went to her window and saw Christian talking to somebody. Sarah could make out that the person he was talking to was the beautiful blonde girl who had given her directions. She could see that they were talking closely together and they were laughing about something. Sarah clenched her hand as she saw the girl's hand grab hold of Christian's.

Sarah ran to her bed sobbing.

Sarah was lying in bed, trying to sleep when she heard somebody move onto her bed.

Sarah screamed as he put his hand over her mouth. She bit down on it but she could not weaken his grip on her.

She started to thrash her arms and legs about as he grabbed her hair and dragged her over to the window. Then, he picked her up and threw her outside.

Her head made a sickening sound as it hit the ground below……

Sarah woke up. She found that she was shaking. "What a horrible dream."

She tried to settle her breathing. Her dream had seemed so real.

Sarah lay back down and tried to relax. However, her body froze as she heard somebody walk over to her bed and lay down upon it. Sarah knew what was going to happen next and she knocked his hand away from her as he was about to bring it to her mouth. She fell out of her bed and she saw the man run towards her. Sarah kicked at what she thought were his private parts (it was hard to see in the dark). The responding groan that her attacker made showed that she had been correct.

Sarah punched him in the stomach. The man bent over and ran like lightning towards the window. He jumped out of it.

Sarah ran over to it and looked outside. She could not see him. "Where has he gone?"

"Where has who gone?"

Prince Christian had entered the room and he lit a few candles.

"I – I – somebody came in here and tried to kill me."

"Are you sure you were not dreaming?"

"Yes! I had dreamed that somebody was going to attack me but I then woke up. The funny thing is that what I had dreamt warned me about what was going to happen."

Christian's face turned pale. "He did not harm you, did he?"

"No, luckily."

Fin touched her chin a brought her head up. "Look at me."

Sarah looked up. His mask was gone and the expression in his eyes frightened her.

"Why do you plague me?"

Sarah was not sure that she had heard correctly. She was about to ask him to repeat what he had said but his mask was back in place.

"We better go and see my father. He will know what to do."

Sarah and Christian stood before the King. "This is a very serious matter. As much as I would like to keep you heavily guarded and to stay in your bedroom for the rest of your visit to Linnarch, I simply cannot do this. You need to start your training so that you can start your quest to find the necklace."

"Your highness, who do you think attacked me?"

"I have no doubt that those two times (just then and when 'Fin' had been struck with a spear) you were attacked were by an old enemy who is preparing to attack our city."

"Rapat?"

"Yes. Despite hundreds of years he has still managed to live. He must have found some elixir to keep himself alive for that long. If you find the necklace, you will restore our land. This is something that he does not want. He is a crazy man."

"What do I do?"

"I am going to assign a bodyguard to you. You are extremely precious to our kingdom and we cannot let anything happen to you. I have many skilful men and women but I think that you need the best fighter in the city."

The King smiled at his idea.

"Prince Christian can guard you."

Christian and Sarah looked at each other with their mouths wide open.

"You are to be my bodyguard?"

"Does this mean she has to sleep in my room, or I have to sleep in hers?" Christian asked.

"If it is okay with you Sarah, you can sleep in Christian's. We will set up another bed for you. Your room is too small to have two people sleeping in it." The King announced.

Sarah still had her mouth wide open. "Me and Christian are to share a room?" she squeaked.

"I think you mean Christian and I. Yes, you are to share a room. That is, if it does not bother you." The King glanced at Christian. "You are to stay with her or at least near her at all times."

"But Dad!"

"No buts. The future of Linnarch depends on her. I am sure you can give up a few months of your spare time in order to have years of peace and harmony. Now off you two go."

Christian sighed.

"I'm sorry. If I had never said anything, none of this would have happened." Sarah stared at a spot on the floor.

"No, you should have told us. I am sorry too for acting so harshly before. I had no right to do what I did. You could have been killed and we cannot afford that. Besides, my father is right. I am the best fighter and you deserve no less than the best. By the way, your dream warned you that you were going to be attacked, didn't it? Does that normally happen to you?"

Sarah took a deep breath. "It is a long story. Basically, there once was a fairy called Lucinda..." (To be continued).

A/N: I am having so much fun writing this story – I am glad you all like it. Anyway, review guys. It makes my day! (Geez, that really is sad...) Thanks so much to all of your reviews. They are great!

By the way, what do you guys think of Sarah? (As in the character?) Do you think I should make her a stronger character? I mean, I am not trying to make her a wimpy female or anything, I'm just trying to make her like a normal teenager. Give me any tips or ideas!