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: Wow! I cannot believe how many reviews I have gotten. Thanks guys so much. For those who are reading this, remember to press that button in the bottom left hand corner and review my story!
By the way, I typed this up in a rush to get it to you guys quickly, so I am sorry if there are any typos.
Liz, PrettyGal1212 and Chrisspy: Here is the next chapter! I hope you like it – sorry I took a bit long to update – it's coz I have been away.
Chapter 9:
Lessons and Dinner
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Sarah cast her eyes over the clothes that were hanging in the wardrobe. Practically every single colour and design ever made was there, yet she still cried in distress, "I have nothing to wear!"
Christian tried to choke back down his laughter.
"You women are all the same!"
"Don't be so rude. And so sexist!" Sarah lectured.
"Yes, mother."
Sarah finally settled on wearing a pink dress with short sleeves. It came in at the waist and then billowed out. Sarah twirled around and laughed as the skirt moved out with her.
"Can we go now? Being your bodyguard is not the most exciting thing in the world." Christian called.
Sarah had gone behind a screen to change so that the Prince could not see her. It was so annoying having to be always with Christian. She just wanted some personal time alone.
Sarah brushed her dress and straightened it.
She stepped out from behind the screen.
"Well it is about time!" Christian exclaimed.
Just then, Lydia entered the room.
"Sarah, would you like me to do your hair?" she asked.
"Oh no. It is fine." Sarah insisted. Lydia was always like this- sometimes she wondered whether she would have made a better princess.
"Go on. Who would not mind getting his or her hair dressed by somebody else? I dare say you need to do something with yourself."
"Thank you very much for that insightful comment!"
"And who would not love getting their hair done by such an enchanting young lady." Prince Christian continued. He held Lydia's hands and brought it to his lips.
Sarah put her hands up in defeat. Christian was such a flirt. She knew that he was only doing it to irritate her for making him wait so long.
"Fine. Lydia, you may dress my hair in anyway that you like."
Sarah walked out of the room feeling very ridiculous. Her hair had been piled on top of her head but instead of looking lovely, her hair had been puffed out and teased so many times that she resembled a poodle. (A/N: no offence to poodles - I think it is just an insult to anyone in general if they resemble a dog!)
As soon as Lydia was away from sight, Sarah undid her hair and pulled it loosely back in a bun.
"What has she done to my hair? I cannot seem to get rid of this puffiness. I am going to have to spend all night to get it back to normal."
"Well I think it looks very cute."
"Yes it does, if you find looking like a dog being attractive."
"I did not say that it was attractive, just cute. You know, the dictionary definition of cute is 'ugly, but interesting'." Christian smugly stated.
"Yes, I do know. I was privately tutored." Sarah retorted.
"So, what is the plan for today?" Christian said, changing the subject.
"I do not have anything to do until lunch. Do you have any ideas on what we should do?"
"What do you like doing?" He asked.
"Well, I would kill to have a good book at the moment. I love reading."
"You love reading, eh? Well I know just the place to go."
"B - but you do not mind?" Sarah questioned.
"I am your bodyguard. You can go wherever you want. Whether I complain about where we are going or not does not matter."
"I know, but it just seems like a waste of time. I should be out seeing Linnarch. I have heard so many legends about it..."
"No. Do not bother worrying. You must be tired from the past week's events. It is understandable that you would not want to do something exhausting. We looked around yesterday anyway, and we have lots of time to explore Linnarch later."
Sarah gave in and the Prince ended up taking her to the other end of the palace. At the end of a wide corridor, stood two massive white doors edged in gold.
The Prince got Sarah to close her eyes.
"Why?" Sarah asked.
"Just do it." he whispered urgently.
Sarah did as she was hold and anxiously waited as he opened the doors. He took her arm and led her into the room.
"Do not peak."
"I won't." Sarah smiled, this had better be worth it.
She could hear some curtains being drawn back.
She could then hear Christian walking over to her.
"Okay, you can open them now."
Sarah opened her eyes.
And gasped.
"Oh my Lord!"
All around her were books of all sizes. The shelves seemed to be several of hundreds of metres high. There were even staircases.
Sarah ran up a few steps of the nearest staircase and pulled out a book.
"Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen." she read aloud. She looked the other books. Some titles included: The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, and Faust by Goethe.
Sarah felt like she had died and gone to heaven.
"Christian, thank you!" she shouted back down to where he was standing.
"No problem." he called back up to her.
"Are these book all yours?"
"Yes, this was originally my father's library. He was a great reader himself. I think he was more suited to being a scholar than a leader. Anyway, he gave this library to me. I do not really use it that much." Christian told Sarah.
"That is a shame."
"Yes, it is another thing for my father to be ashamed about."
"Why would your father be ashamed of you? From what I have seen he adores you." This was not really the truth but she felt that Christian needed some cheering up.
"It does not really bother me." Christian replied, though he did not seem as if this was so.
He looked reluctant to discuss the subject any further so Sarah turned back to her books.
It was only until Christian told her that it was time to go that she noticed that she had been reading for over two hours.
"What have you been doing all this time?" she asked him.
"I looked at a few of the books."
"Oh. Is it lunchtime now?"
"That is why I said it was time to go, is it not?"
"You really are not are very happy person in general." Sarah answered back.
"Damn it! So what if I am not? What is it to you anyway?" Christian blurted out.
"Well I'm so sorry for just being concerned!"
Christian looked at Sarah's face and lowered his eyes.
"It is I who should be sorry. I have just been under a lot of stress lately, that is all." He said regretfully.
Sarah did not say anything. She thought it best not to. They started to walk down to the dining room.
Christian finally decided to pipe up, "Tonight, you will see Scarlet again. You will be able to meet her family."
"Really? Does her family know anything about my, er, quest?"
"Yes. The only people who know about it are my family, Scarlet's, a few other nobles and some well-trusted servants. Everybody else? Well, I think my father has managed to make up some reason as to why you are here."
"I wonder what he will say?" Sarah pondered.
"Maybe he will say that you are a princess that managed to wander into our kingdom."
"Maybe he will say that you rescued me from a band of pirates."
"Maybe he will say that YOU rescued ME from pirates, and so I have to be your bodyguard in return." Christian sniggered.
"Maybe he will say that he is going to renovate the palace, and seeing as I am the queen of fashion, he wants me to help him."
From then on, the sensibility of the reasons Prince Christian and Sarah came up with went downhill.
"Maybe," Christian paused to laugh. "Maybe, he will say that you are my long lost grandfather."
"Grandfather?! Why you little shit!"
"Princesses are not supposed to swear, your highness." Christian jeered.
"Yes, and I thought that princes were not supposed to insult their guests." Sarah cocked one eyebrow up as she said this.
"I am not like most princes."
Sarah snorted.
"You know, I think I have a better reason. Maybe the king will say that you are to be married and that I am to be your wife." Sarah proposed.
The two exchanged glances and burst out laughing.
"You are right - that is a better reason!" Christian exclaimed.
Christian and Sarah kept on chuckling as they walked into the dining room.
They ate their lunch in a comfortable silence, each deep in their own thoughts.
Sarah finally spoke up, "What reason do you think your father will actually give for my being in Linnarch?"
"To tell you the truth, I have no idea. I am sure that it will be plausible." Christian reached out to pat Sarah's hand.
She knew that it was only a gesture of comfort but Sarah still felt uncomfortable. She did not like him being too close to her and as subtly as possible, she removed her hand from the table and let it rest in her lap.
Christian seemed unaware of Sarah's reaction and just continued on eating his meal.
When Tom (or Mr. Lastrange) finally came in, Sarah was glad to be able to leave.
"Hello, Mr. Lastrange. How has your day been?"
"It has been okay so far but I am sure that after teaching you it will be much better."
Sarah batted her eyelids coquettishly whilst her teacher bent over and did an exaggerated bow.
She could see right through Tom and knew that he was being insincere but decided to play along. It was payback for what Christian did this morning.
Sarah noticed that the Prince was still sitting down and seemed to be frowning.
"Christian, are you going to come?"
"My father said that it was okay if I did not accompany you during your lessons – after all, you will have Tom to protect you."
Sarah studied Christian's face as he looked up. All traces of a frown had disappeared.
Sarah just shrugged her shoulders. She would have been the last to admit it, but she felt a bit hurt that he did not want to be around her.
Tom held out his arm and Sarah looped hers through his and exited the room.
Sarah turned around to try and see Christian's face again but saw that he had looked away.
"Now, I think that we will begin our study in the library." Tom announced.
"I was just taken to Prince Christian's today. I already know the way to it. It is magnificent, is it not?"
"You went to the Prince's library?" Tom looked amazed.
"Yes, why? What is wrong?"
"Nothing, I was just referring to the main palace library. Nobody has ever been inside the Prince's library. It is his special place of refuge."
"What are you talking about? Christian told me that he never used his library."
"Do you jest? The Prince loves reading! You are the only person to have been given the privilege of seeing what is inside. Well, there was one other person…" Tom's voice trailed off.
"Who was the other person?"
"Never you mind. She is not around anymore, anyway."
"She?"
"Lets talk about something else. Did you know that the Duchess Scarlet and her family are visiting for dinner?"
The rest of their conversation was pleasant and no more talk was about Christian. The matter of the library, however, never left Sarah's mind. She was determined to find out the mystery behind it.
The reached the main palace library and Mr. Lastrange led Sarah to a private room inside.
"There, now we have some privacy. We have a lot to teach you – as 'the one', you are able to do magic which I think is the first area of study that we need to focus on. You seem pretty adept at defending yourself but I think there is still room for improvement. Of course, I will also be teaching you about the history of Linnarch and its geography as well as any other relevant subjects."
Sarah just gulped as Tom said all this – she had a lot to learn.
"The legend says that I am to find the necklace but are there any clues to where it is?"
"Not really. You will need to travel to find it. All that is really certain is that you will. His majesty suggested that you be prepared and trained to make sure that you are ready for your quest."
"Okay. So what should we do first?"
"Well like I said, I think we better start with magic. I think you already know that legend of the necklace so there is no need for me to go over it. It will take a lot of skill to find the necklace. Those that do know of its whereabouts are either dead or are special creatures that rarely consort with the rest of the animal kingdom. But back to magic, were you ever educated in the study of magic?"
"No. I mean I do have a bit of fairy blood in my gene pool but not enough to be able to do magic. The only people that I know can do magic are fairies and sorcerers."
"Do you know and fairies?"
"I have a fairy godmother but Mother never told me who it was."
"Hmm. There are many pieces of writing written about 'the one'. I will read you a passage written by a famous prophet:
The seeker will need to be courageous, for there will be a long journey for her. She will need to be skilled in the magical arts for she will encounter many dangerous creatures. She will also need to know magic in areas such as potions and different cures.
She will need to know self-defence and to use her body to her greatest advantage. The sword will need to be of great familiarity to her. She will need to be comfortable when riding on horseback.
She must be educated with the folklore of our land – its history must be no stranger to her. She will also need to be educated in the geography of the world – not just of Linnarch for her journey may take her beyond the borders of this kingdom.
In general, she must be honourable and a great diplomat. She must be wise and educated. She must have wit and a great temperament.
Only then, will the quest for The Necklace be completed successfully."
Sarah sank down onto the cold hard floor beneath her. She had so much to learn.
"Do you, do you think that you will be able to teach me all this?"
"I am one of the few people in this land that have undergone a lot of schooling. The King knows that I have a lot of knowledge and I will be able to pass this knowledge onto you. I can teach you most things but some will need a lot of effort on your part. You are keen to do this, are you not?"
"Why yes –"
Sarah was cut short.
"Well then I do not see any problem. Now magic requires a great focus of the mind. You have been born with special powers unlike your other fellow humans (assuming that you are 'the one') but I do not think that you have ever realized it until now. I am going to have to try and unlock the door in your mind that holds all these powers. The gods know that this is going to take a lot of work.
"Now close your eyes."
Sarah closed her eyes but then decided to leave one open a little bit to see what her tutor was going to do.
"Close your eyes! No peeking." Tom hissed.
Sarah closed her eyes completely. She could hear Tom moving behind her. She nearly jumped when she felt his hands on her shoulders.
"Relax. You are going to have to free your mind of all thought. Let all these angry and tense emotions disappear."
Sarah tried to do what he said but she found this difficult seeing as Tom had begun to massage her back.
"Trust me, just relax."
Sarah leant back and let the feeling of his hands take over. She did feel better and was starting to really get into it when he stopped.
"Okay, you can now open them. Tell me how you feel."
Sarah opened her eyes and faced Tom.
"I feel surprisingly peaceful. Kind of like, I cannot really feel any sorts of emotions."
"Good, good. That is what it is supposed to feel like. When you do magic, you do not really feel any emotions. Magic calms you. If something that normally makes you angry happens, all you can do is think that the incident would normally make you angry but you yourself actually aren't. Do you understand what I am saying?"
"Sort of. Basically, I think of the emotion that I am supposed to be feeling but do not exactly feel it."
"Exactly."
Tom smiled down at Sarah, who looked away. This was not so hard. Then something occurred to her.
"How do you know so much about magic?"
"I am a sorcerer and the only one in Linnarch. This is another good reason of why I have been chosen to teach you."
"A sorcerer! You sound more suited to finding the necklace than I."
"No. You should never say that. You do not know what I have done." Tom spoke bitterly.
"Done?"
"I would rather not talk about it, if you do not mind. I may tell you later but at the moment I would rather keep this to myself."
Sarah apologised.
"Do not worry. How were you to know? But lets continue with our lesson, shall we? I want you to keep on practising emptying your mind. You can do it just before you go to sleep or when you are bathing."
Sarah practised freeing her mind of all emotions a few more times until she was told to stop.
"I think it is time to move onto the next stage of magic. There are three stages to magic:
1. Magic using wands.
2. Magic using only either gestures or speech.
3. Magic only using thought.
The last stage is obviously the hardest and most advanced. In the meantime, we will start with simple magic."
Sarah was given a wand. It was basically a long stick; she never would have guessed that it was magical.
The task that Sarah was assigned was to make a feather move.
It was supposed to be easy because a feather was incredibly light and she only had to move it sideways, she did not have to levitate it or anything difficult like that.
An hour must have gone by and still Sarah had made to progress. She would move her wand in a sweeping motion and whisper what she wanted the feather to do. She grew very impatient and felt like breaking her wand in half.
"Do not worry. Many sorcerers have difficulty at first with performing magic as well. You will soon get used to it."
Sarah continued with the feather a bit further. At one point, she thought that she had seen a part of the feather ruffle but soon realized that this was because she had been breathing very hard down onto it.
Sarah finished the lesson in a bad mood and was relieved when it was finally over.
Mr. Lastrange tried to reassure her that her time would come but Sarah just wanted to never look at another feather or stick again.
She thanked Tom for his help and walked out of the room that she had been training in. She was glad to see that Christian had arrived at the library.
"So what did you think of your first lesson?"
"You do not want to know. If this is what it is going to be like for the next few months, then I am doomed."
Christian laughed at her theatrics.
"What is the time?" Sarah asked.
"It is five o'clock. You might want to get ready for dinner. I already have."
Sarah noticed that Christian was looking exceptionally smart. He was wearing black pants (again) with a blue jacket. The gold buttons had been done up. His hair had been gelled – it spiked up a little bit at the ends. Sarah thought that Christian looked exactly like the prince he was.
"You are not going to be in the same room as me whilst I get ready, are you?"
"I am afraid so. Don't you want me to be around you?" The Prince pouted.
"Not while I am getting changed!"
When they arrived at the Prince's chambers, Sarah ended up changing behind a screen again.
This time, a green dress had been laid down for her to wear. There were matching green slippers and a silver shawl for her to wear (the dress was sleeveless).
"I never thought that meeting your cousins would be such an occasion. "
Sarah hummed as she dressed and was irritated to find that Lydia had entered the room, armed with a whole set of hairbrushes and cosmetics.
"You are not putting all that make-up on me." Sarah declared.
"Fine, I will only put three-quarters of it on." Lydia retorted.
"Lydia can sometimes be like an old woman." Sarah thought.
Christian sat on his bed and watched them. They finally settled on Sarah wearing a little bit of powder to cover some of her spots. She also dotted a little bit of rouge on her cheeks and Lydia smudged the smallest amount of make-up onto her eyelids.
"You are so beautiful but you need to take care of yourself more." Lydia scolded for the umpteenth time.
Sarah rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time as well.
When it came to how Sarah's hair should be worn, there was an even greater dispute. Lydia wanted it to be elaborately braided but Sarah just wanted to wear it loose.
They finally settled on her hair being worn half-up and half-down. A small silver clip at the back held her hair in place.
When Prince Christian and Sarah finally emerged from the room, it was quarter to seven. This was convenient as dinner was to begin at seven tonight.
They walked into the dining room and were greeted cordially by everyone.
Sarah felt somebody tap her on the shoulder and saw that it was Scarlet.
"Scarlet, how are you? It is so nice to see you."
"I am well. It is nice to see you too. I would like you to meet my parents. Mother, father, this is Princess Sarah. Sarah, these are my parents – "
Scarlet was interrupted by her mother.
"Lets not worry about all these titles. They make everything so formal. Just call me Victoria and him John."
"Good evening, Victoria and John." Sarah smiled and took a great liking to them instantly. She could see that they were going to get along just fine.
Sarah was also introduced to Scarlet's two little twin sisters. They both looked like miniature versions of their older sister. Their names were Rose and Iris.
"Mother was going through a flower obsession at the time." Scarlet whispered.
Sarah looked at the two cheeky twins, wondering how on earth anybody could tell them apart.
As if Scarlet knew what she was thinking, she said, "Iris has a beauty spot next to her lip which Rose does not have."
"Oh!" Sarah could see what she meant.
Scarlet took her over to another corner of the room and introduced Sarah to a boy of about fifteen. He would be quite handsome with his dark features except he had a bad case of acne, particularly around his nose.
When he saw Sarah approaching him, he kept on covering his acne with his hand. Scarlet noticed this and giggled.
"Don't be shy now." She teased.
"Hello." The boy managed to say.
"Hello." Sarah greeted in return, all the while wondering what was wrong with the boy.
"This is my younger brother Philip. Philip, this is Sarah." Scarlet said.
They walked away from Philip, who was beginning to blush.
"What was wrong with him?" Sarah asked.
"You are sometimes so daft." Scarlet just shook her head and refused to say anymore.
Sarah was introduced to a few more of Scarlet's relatives including her grandparents.
She was then taken to see the Queen. She too insisted that Sarah call her by her first name, which was Amanda.
The Queen had big chocolate brown eyes and blonde hair that was piled on top of her head. She was wearing a dress of the deepest red and looked very regal, which was the exact opposite of her friendly manner.
After Sarah had been introduced to everybody in the room, Scarlet said to her, "I also have a brother your age but he is running a bit late and will be coming later."
Everybody went to the table and began to seat themselves. It was clear to Sarah that they had done this dozens of times and knew where to sit.
"Where do I go?" Sarah asked Christian.
"You can sit between Scarlet and me." he replied.
The King sat at the head of the table with the Queen on the left and his son on the right. Sarah sat herself next to Christian and Scarlet sat beside her. Across from her sat Scarlet's grandfather – a small wrinkled old man that seemed as if he would doze off any second.
Sarah eagerly waited for the first entrée to be brought it. This entrée featured all kinds of dips and breads. In between mouthfuls of food, Sarah answered questions about Kyrria and her lessons. The people in the room were to be the only few people who were to know of Sarah's quest.
Sarah thought of Tom – she found it hard to think of him as Mr. Lastrange. He was very charming and mysterious – just like Christian. Sarah hoped that at least these lessons would mean that she would get to know him better. Sarah also thought about how he had not wanted to talk about the things that he had done. She did not think that he could be that bad a person.
The second dish to be brought in was a seafood entrée. Sarah ate this with relish.
"One thing that I do not mind about being kidnapped," she thought to herself, "Is the good food."
Sarah was being served the main meal, which was crab soup, when the door behind her opened.
"My brother, Damon, has finally decided to grace us with his presence." Scarlet murmured to Sarah.
Sarah grinned and turned around, expecting Damon to either look like Scarlet or Philip but instead was shaken by what she saw.
The man who entered the room looked exactly like Christian.
A/N: Well that has been the longest chapter that I have EVER written.
I am sorry that I took so long to update.
Please review!
All my reviewers have been really great and have really been supporting me - especially about things such as updating!
By the way, I better add a disclaimer for the scene in this chapter where Christian takes Sarah to his library – that scene was based on a scene in Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
PrettyGal1212: I am actually planning to include one or two songfics in this but they will be coming a bit later into the story.