Chapter 18

"Triton," Joshua murmured in a low, menacing voice. "How nice to see you again."

The King bristled at the lack of the honorific "Your Majesty" at the beginning of the address, though he said nothing. Their plan had just become far more risky now that the Duke had decided to appear. Admittedly, they had one hell of a bargaining chip – Gilld's eldest daughter and all the dirty secrets that were her past. Yet Joshua was a threatening figure in his own right and Triton was not at all sure that if it came down to him versus Joshua the latter wouldn't win.

"Why didn't you announce yourself?" Triton asked, trying to behave in the friendly manner of a shark about to eat a smaller fish. "I wasn't aware that the common courtesies have deteriorated so much since your father's time."

"Well, I had assumed that as you didn't bother respecting my progeny by issuing an invitation before bringing my daughter down here, I had no reason to show you any respect."

Anduin whistled slightly, which earned him a glare from his uncle. "Is this betrayal your fault?" Triton demanded of his nephew.

"How?" Anduin drawled. "I had lost my voice, remember?"

"Don't blame the boy," Joshua said. "You seem to have forgotten how powerful the magic in the Gilld line is."

"Oh, I haven't forgotten," Triton answered. "Why do you think I kidnapped your daughter and married her to 'Prince Harry'?" Triton laughed. "You'll be thrilled when you find out about that particular deception."

"That King Henry the Tenth is another in disguise?" Joshua said mildly. "I know that already." The glint in Triton's eye dimmed slightly. Triton had recalled Joshua as a neophyte, standing in his father's shadow. He would have to remember that it may look like caviar now, but if you leave it alone too long, you're left with one hell of a fish. And that spoke volumes for what Diana would be like when she grew into her powers.

"Do you know who he truly is?" Triton continued. "It was quite a masterful work of magic."

"Indeed it was," Joshua answered mildly. "Call the newlyweds in here please, I would like to speak to them." He walked up to Triton and whispered something in the monarch's ear, Diana keeping pace behind her father. She was grateful that the long, dark cloak swirled so well and hid her so completely from Triton's gaze. The witch, however, saw her perfectly. The woman's jaw dropped and then she began to laugh silently, doubling over until she was no longer visible through the window.

Triton blanched. "How did you know?"

"Call them in," Joshua repeated, smirking slightly. He took a few steps back and nearly tripped over Diana.

Triton turned around and stormed out as best as he could while floating on air, off to fetch Harry and his new wife.

"Well done!" said the witch, finally reappearing, her eyes wet with mirth. "Well done indeed. You even fooled me into thinking that the bride in there was Diana and I have a good eye for this sort of thing."

"Please keep it down," Anduin said with a sigh, glaring at the old woman. "I'd rather not ruin the surprise just yet."

"Of course not," the witch agreed. "Your uncle's had this coming to him for years."

"Whose side are you on?" Diana asked.

"Yours, dearie," said the witch with a smile. "And the name's Ursula."

"Pleasure to meet you," Diana said, grinning.

"No it's not," Anduin muttered.

"Watch your tongue," Ursula told him, clucking her own at his cheekiness, "Or I'll take it away again."

"You can't do that," Anduin protested. "It's the first rule of water magic!"

"What?" Joshua asked softly.

Anduin sighed. "The main difference between air and water magic. Air requires more effort to accomplish the same action since it's the weaker element, but it's also more stable. With water magic, you can only do a spell once. You've ever heard the saying that you can't cross the same river twice; it's the same idea. If you want to do the spell again, you have to change something – the person, one of the effects of the spell, anything. And this particular spell doesn't work in any other form."

"When were you planning on telling me this?" Joshua inquired nastily.

"When I had a voice," Anduin snapped back.

Joshua chose to ignore him. "Diana, please go and find the man in the disguise of the King of England and send him in here. Then wait outside the door until I call for you."

"What are you doing?" she asked worriedly.

"Setting up the dénouement," he answered, laughing. "Now go."

"One minute," Diana replied, then turned to the sea witch. "Ursula, what did you mean when you said that Anduin changed back because I had married another?"

Anduin cringed. "Simple magic," said Ursula. "When his true love married another, I ended the spell and he belonged to me." Diana turned the color of her cousin's namesake and Anduin flushed a brilliant shade of vermillion. "Unfortunately, it seems that his true love is still single, since she's right here in front of me." Diana turned and raced out of the room, unsure what to say or how, as Anduin managed to create a new shade of red for the color of his face.

"Thank you," he hissed through clenched teeth, "Could you have made that more humiliating?"

"Yes," Joshua answered. "I could have gotten involved."

Anduin cursed fluently under his breath.

Fortunately, that conversation had no chance to continue as Triton reentered the room with a very irate looking bridegroom and an extremely relieved bride.

"Gilld," Harry said with dripping sarcasm. "My new brother-in-law." Rose, hidden behind the veil, was about to ask what the import of those words were, but she held her tongue, afraid to make an un-Diana-like comment.

Joshua wanted to reply with something pithy and smart, but decided that actions spoke louder than words this time, so he turned to Anduin. "Will you do the honors?"

"With pleasure," Anduin replied, grateful they were no longer discussing his love life. "As soon as our friend shows up."

And, right on cue, King Henry the Tenth walked into the room. Father and son stared at one another, one in shock and revulsion while the other seemed almost smug.

"Now," said Joshua. Anduin took a deep breath and, with one fluid motion, stood up on his fins and shouted the words that would reverse the incantation put on the two men.

Diana watched in shock, peering through the doorway. King Henry the Tenth was beginning to change shape. His paunch slowly disappeared and his frame began to morph into a wholly different one, yet still totally recognizable. Diana covered her mouth with her hands as the man who she had thought to be king of England assumed a totally different shape, that of Prince Harry.

Anduin grinned with satisfaction as he saw the Prince resume his rightful form. He had felt bad for the poor man, stuck in the body of his father for two months while the older man concocted his plan. When Harry had told them what the King had done and how he had been forced to act as ruler, Joshua had been furious. Rose, on the other hand, had been instantly sympathetic now that she knew that the man who had been flirting so outrageously with Diana was not, in fact, the man who had so chivalrously rescued her.

Diana's eyes slowly moved to the other figure as her heart filled with dread. If the man impersonating the King had, in fact, been the prince, then the Prince could only be one man. Diana gasped softly as she saw her cousin, standing in pure white, next to her bridegroom, King Henry the Tenth of England.

"Impressive," said Henry, taking Rose's hand and clutching it, as if afraid his new wife would disappear if he didn't. "Very impressive, though a little late to do any good. You see, your daughter and I are already married."

"Not quite," Joshua said with a laugh. "You see, there is this law that says that a marriage is defined by the bodies, so if a mage or a magicked person were to wed in the form of a person other than their own, it is to that form that the other is wed. That is to say, regardless of whose mind was occupying the body of Prince Harry at the time, it is to the body of Prince Harry that this woman is married. So it appears you have a new daughter-in-law, congratulations!"

"That is preposterous!" Henry shouted. "Where is this law? Who signed it?"

"You did," Joshua answered mildly. "It has your signature and mine; which is all a magical law needs to pass."

"I never signed such a thing," Henry shouted, letting go of Rose, who immediately began to back away.

"I did," Harry answered, coming to stand behind Joshua. "In your body."

The king was left speechless, unsure how to proceed. Rose, seeing her opportunity, ran to Harry, who embraced her and smiled broadly.

"Well done," said Triton bitterly. "Oh, well done, Joshua."

"I try," he replied modestly.

"Not hard enough," King Henry screamed in reply. He drew the sword girt by his side and ran toward Joshua, who drew his own weapon and matched Harry's first thrust.

"Don't do this," Joshua said as the age old game of attack and defense began.

"Are you afraid to beat me fairly?" King Henry growled. "Afraid that you'll use magic and cheat?"

"And who will tell?" Joshua asked mildly. "Besides, it's not as though you have a chance even if I fight fairly." Both men were excellent fighters, though Joshua had the advantage of a good ten years and they both knew that the Duke would win. Henry simply was refusing to be beaten without a fight.

Triton watched the scene before him unfold, wondering what he could do to help his ally. It seemed quite hopeless, Joshua Gilld had them outsmarted this time around and Henry would never be able to kill the man. Gilld would commit regicide and then, as soon as Anduin was ready, he would have the boy take them all home. And then Triton nearly laughed out loud. It was so very simple, so obvious! How could he not have thought of this before? The only way for any of them to return to the outside world was Anduin for he was the only one who could and would do both aquatic and aerial magic at Joshua's behest. If he got rid of Anduin…

He laughed and turned his attention to his nephew on whom he had had such high hopes. So much for those, he thought as he shouted a death spell at the young man.

Anduin heard the first words of the spell and looked up with dread. There was nothing he could do; the magical power it had taken to reverse the spell on the royal family had taken too much out of him and he just couldn't move far enough away with his fins. He tried to squirm aside, but Triton had set the diameter of the spell pretty large and there was no way he could escape it. In that eternity of five seconds it took to say the spell, Anduin felt an enormous regret for the two months he had spent chasing Rose when Diana was right there, waiting. Why hadn't he seen her? Was he both blind and mute ? He wished he had just one chance to fix that, to tell her how much he really loved her.

Joshua heard the words that were being shouted and looked up in horror. That was a mistake, as Henry, seeing his opponent's preoccupation, nearly slid his blade in between the mage's ribs. Joshua wanted to scream as he flung himself back into the sword fight, knowing that if he tried to stop and save Anduin, he would be dead before the first words of the counter spell left his mouth, which wouldn't help anyone much. And so, eyes prickling with tears, he fought back against his king with a vengeance.

Rose screamed as Triton finished the spell and loosed it against Anduin. True, they weren't still in love, but she didn't want to see him die and it was all too obvious what would happen if no one intervened.

Triton flung his head back and laughed in triumph as his victory seemed complete.

The entire room was suddenly illuminated by a flash of lighting and, a moment later, an enormous crash of thunder seemed to deafen them. And then all went dark.

T.B.C.

A/N – Erm, um, I don't actually have a decent excuse for what I've just done. Do you hate me yet? Because this is as worse as it gets. Not even I can manage to do anything more terrible.

That said, I hope I've cleared up all the mysterious men for you all and that certain people's actions are now clarified. Yes, Harry is redeemable, I did say that Rose was getting the man. So fear not…about that. But don't leave me now, you have to find out how the story ends. By the way, anyone else agree with me that the Hans Christian Anderson version of this is depressing? (I really hope someone out there is yelling "hypocrite!"). But stay tuned, this story isn't over yet. I predict three more chapters, but we'll see. And if you leave me now, you'll never find out what happens with Diana.

One more thing – when this ends, I will be beginning a new story about the next Gilld child, Jonathan. Each one of Joshua and Lizzie's children will have his or her own fairy tale, so please keep your eyes peeled for it when Diana's story ends.

Now onto the thank yous. I know it's only been one day since I last updated, I had a really easy day today and had time to write a whole chapter. That, and spending three hours watching a Bruce Springsteen Anthology is a great way to kill time. Anyway, so I apologize to anyone who didn't get the chance to review, rest assured you will get thanked in due course. Anyway…

Leotabelle13 – I'm sorry about the Rose/Anduin thing not working out. But if Anduin and Diana have their own ship – I like the sound of that. I feel like we should name it or something. Any suggestions? And yes, many of the names from Rose of a Beast were borrowed from Phantom since I liked them. As long as I'm stealing someone else's characters, might as well use a little variety. Well noticed!

Anarea Rose – I love trickiness in plots, as you may have noticed. So yes, I'm glad you're excited. And it is utterly terrifying to watch Joshua and Diana fight, I'm so glad I only had to read about it. Hope this satisfied your curiosity.

Love you all and, for those of you who I didn't give any time to review, I'm sorry. It's only because my professors haven't cracked down on us yet. Stay tuned!

Levana (Damian)