Epilogue
Anduin looked nervously around him. "Are you sure this is going to work?" he asked worriedly.
"Positive," Joshua answered reassuringly. Lizzie elbowed him in the side, glaring at her husband. "Well, mostly," he amended. "What could possibly go wrong?"
"You could kill me, you could leave me with half a body, you could kill me, you could dry out my fins, did I mention that my life is at stake?"
"Worst comes to worst," Lizzie said brightly, "We'll just have a wonderful fish and meat dinner with your remains." Anduin turned faintly green.
"You know, there is a boundary to good taste," Joshua remarked.
"Funny how you only seem to notice it when I cross it," Lizzie shot back. They grinned at one another. "Seriously, Anduin, we do know what we're doing. Since it will undoubtedly hurt, we're going to put you in a special state of mind so that you won't feel the pain and when you wake up, you'll have legs instead of fins. We promise?"
"And no fillet dinner?"
Joshua and Lizzie laughed. "No fillet dinner," they said as one.
Marginally reassured, Anduin lay down and shut his eyes, marveling that he was going through this procedure again. It had seemed almost yesterday that he had first gone to Ursula and requested that a certain spell be placed on him. And now? Now he was receiving legs at the hands of two incredibly competent English mages so that he could attend the wedding of the woman he once thought himself in love with. So much had happened since they got back to England.
Anduin made a face as he felt a slight tingling in his fins, almost as if they were falling asleep. It was very easy to ignore, however, so he let himself drift back into the company of his recollections.
The first thing that had had to be done was to take one of Joshua's ships out on a pleasure cruise and drown the King's facsimile. That had been surprisingly easy to engineer. They hadn't even returned to Gilld castle, they had simply gone to the quay and walked onto the boat. The sailors kept their heads down in the presence of an unusually silent and brooding King, while the pair of lovers made sure to occupy any other attentions by taking long and slightly stumbling strolls around the deck. The sailors all agreed that Harry and Rose made a lovely couple and that the alliance between the two countries would undoubtedly be good, since Britannia never got along with France.And she was, after all, related to Duke Gilld, so that should mitigate some of the bad influences the continent may have had on her.
Anduin, who was swimming along aside the boat, chuckled at all these murmurs of approbation. It was true, they were a handsome couple. But not half so handsome as the one he and Diana would make when they were wed.
After a good half an hour, Anduin judged they were far enough away from the wharf and, as Joshua bade him, slowly used aerial magic to draw the King to the railing. From the boat, Joshua saw the simulacrum move and, since he would be the prime suspect should anything go wrong, decided to be violently sick over the side of the boat. Anduin laughed as he heard Joshua retch—that was no pretense. Joshua was, in fact, extremely seasick and it was a well-known fact that he hated nothing so much as stormy seas. He waited until Joshua stood up again and, grinning, made the water rise up in a violent storm. Skies that had just been clear turned dark and gray and the sea began to boil in fury. Joshua groaned and clutched desperately at the railings as one enormous wave rose up out of nowhere and turned the boat nearly vertical.
"I can't believe I'm doing this," said Joshua, letting go of the rails. He and the King fell forward into the stormy seas.
There were cries of consternation and fear from the boat; this had not been part of their plan originally. But Joshua had told Anduin at the last minute, so the merman was prepared and, even before Joshua had fallen beneath the waves, Anduin was at his side, helping him grab hold of one of the portholes that was nearly level with the waves.
"I told you this was a stupid idea," Anduin growled in the Duke's ear as both men clutched tightly at the window frame, trying desperately to get it open.
"Give me a minute," Joshua said, taking a deep breath in between each word. After another plunge into the water, due to the wild rocking of the ship in the waves, Joshua managed to magick open the window and grab hold of the inner sill. He held on for dear life, his hands wrapped around the very securely attached curtain pole and his feet braced against the wood of the ship. He cursed ship makers throughout the world for not making holes big enough for a human being to crawl through.
Anduin dropped back into the water, waiting beneath Joshua in case he fell and needed rescuing. But there were no problems and, after fifteen long minutes, the storm finally abated.
Joshua let go of the windowsill with a groan and, in the manner of one exhausted, began swimming towards a rather large piece of driftwood that had appeared when one of the barrels on board the ship had come free of its moorings. Anduin watched him, noting that the man was quite a good swimmer.
There was a shout of joy from the ship and, before long, a rope had been lowered and the Duke had been pulled to safety. Anduin smiled and began swimming back to shore, mission accomplished. He just wished he had been there when Diana found out that the whole pseudo-drowning of her father was, in fact, all part of the plan.
The funeral for King Henry the Tenth was every bit as lavish and extravagant as it should have been. Anduin had listened to every detail from Diana, who had been forced to go, though she still hated the man. There were a surprising number of people who took the very philosophical attitude of 'at least we can replace the king', since good mages were obviously hard to come by.
The crowning ceremony for Harry, soon to be King Henry XI, was set for tomorrow. It was going to combine both his investiture as king as well as his marriage to the beautiful princess since it was vital that there be an heir as soon as possible. Lizzie had pointed out that holding the wedding at the same time as the coronation would be an excellent opportunity to invoke an ancient and long forgotten law that the Prince could not marry until one month after his father's death. The wedding would occur tomorrow and, one day later, Joshua and Harry would erase the law. That was the only way to get around the fact that they were asking the Archbishop to marry two people who were already married to one another. It might not be specifically against Church Law, but to ask would be to attempt to explain why they needed the knowledge and no one was anxious to try and do that.
Harry had asked Anduin to stand beside him as best man, which had naturally meant that Anduin needed legs. It might have been easier to simply decline and leave the magic off for a later date, but Diana Gilld was going to be bridesmaid and the chance of standing up there next to her was too good to pass up.
That was why he was sitting here, on this long operating table, with his eyes shut as he waited for Lizzie and Joshua to finish the magic. He was tempted to look up and check to make sure everything was working, but one of the mages had had the foresight to blindfold him, making him utterly reliant on their actions.
The tingling in his legs slowly faded away. He felt someone untie the blindfold and he sat up and carefully swung his new legs off the table. Someone had had the good idea to make sure he was wearing breeches and he hoped desperately that Lizzie had not seen him without them, but that couldn't be helped.
"Well?" Lizzie asked almost impatiently as Anduin rose carefully to his feet.
"Perfect!" he said happily, taking three steps, and then tripping. Joshua caught him, trying not to laugh.
"I suggest you get used to them first," he suggested dryly.
"What, you don't like my idea for a new dance step?" Anduin asked with a smile.
"Anduin," Lizzie said, trying to hide her amusement, "You are a man of many talents, but dancing isn't one of them."
"Oh well. There is more to life than dancing. By the way, are their any caveats that come along with this spell?"
Lizzie was about to say something, but Joshua cut her off. "Yes. If you ever hurt my daughter, you will lose your legs." Anduin looked blankly at him. "As in, I will rip them bodily from your frame." Lizzie groaned and rolled her eyes.
"Your Grace, I think I can safely say that I will never give you any reason to rend any of my appendages from their proper place."
"At least until his wedding night," Lizzie muttered in Joshua's ear. Fortunately, Anduin didn't actually hear what she said, but the speed at which Joshua blanched told him that it might be a good idea to get out of there before the Duke and Duchess started one of their renowned rows.
"I'm going to exercise my legs," he said as he beat swift retreat from the room. It seemed that in the face of danger, his legs were perfectly capable of functioning.
Anduin made his way slowly down the hall, using the wall for support. He reached the stairs and realized that he was going to need some help. Fortunately, just at that time, Diana appeared and, smiling delightedly, asked how he was doing. They made small talk as she helped him down the stairs and they soon found themselves in one of the many sitting rooms. Diana was on the couch and Anduin had opted for an ottoman at her feet. He had been meaning to do something for a while and now seemed like the perfect time for it.
"Diana?" he said, interrupting her description of Rose's dress.
"Hmm?"
"I, um, have this strange talent for making up songs." She looked at him curiously, wondering where this was going. "And, when I first met you, you made me write this song in my head…and I would like to sing it to you, if you don't mind?" It was mostly true. After all, the girl that had inspired the music was Diana inhabiting Rose. It wasn't his fault he had sung it to the wrong girl at first.
"I'd love to hear it," Diana replied, thinking that even if the song turned out to be terrible, it was still an adorable gesture. Luckily for her, Anduin was every bit as good as he intimated, maybe even more so.
He took a deep breath. "No beauty could move me, no goodness improve me.
No power on earth if I can't love her.
No passion could reach me, no lesson could teach me,
How I could have loved her, and make her love me too.
If I can't love her, than who?"
On and on it went, Anduin's voice growing in power as he became surer of himself. By the end of the song, his voice had reached its full potential and the strong bass seemed to thunder throughout the room.
"But it's not to be.
If I can't love her,
Let the world be done with me!"
Diana stared at him, openmouthed. Had she been the kind of girl who cried, she would have been sobbing. As it was, it seemed as if her heart was overflowing and there was nothing she could do about it. Anduin looked up at her with hopeful eyes.
"Did you like it?" he asked, sounding almost shy.
"Like it?" she sputtered. "Anduin, that was amazing!"
"I'm good when I have a wonderful muse," he said with a smile and affectionately took her hand. They sat like that for a long time, content just to be in one another's presence and know that all was right with the world. They had time to get to know one another, to talk and flirt and to learn how to dance together. And then, who knew? Perhaps, one day soon, they would be the ones waiting nervously in front of the Archbishop as he proclaimed them husband and wife. But there was time. They had no clock to race, no spell to break. The future was all theirs.
0o0o0
"Why did you say that?" Joshua groaned, turning to Lizzie, who couldn't help but laugh.
"You know its true," she responded.
"I know, but that doesn't mean that you had to remind me." They grinned at one another.
"I think they got off lightly," Lizzie said after a while. Joshua looked at her with one eyebrow arched. "Compared to us, I mean."
He laughed. "Think whatever you will. By the way, do you still have the fairy tale book by Hans Christian Anderson I had got you?"
"Of course! Do you think I would dare lose a book like that?"
"What do you think about giving Diana a certain story to read?"
Lizzie chuckled. "Why don't we commission an illuminated copy, it will make a good wedding present."
"For when we all live happily ever after?" Joshua teased.
"At least until our next child falls in love." Joshua and Lizzie turned to one another and he embraced her.
"Seventeen years ago, could you have even imagined this?" he asked, his chin resting atop her head.
"No, I still thought you were an obnoxious prat then."
"You still think I'm an obnoxious prat now," he pointed out.
"True. But it's an affectionate term…somehow." Joshua kissed her on the nose.
"Impudent wench!" he teased.
She was about to reply, when a small bell in the corner of the room rang.
"I think my brother-in-law and sister have finally arrived," Joshua said, drawing ruefully away from Lizzie.
"Then let's go down and greet them," Lizzie suggested archly.
They descended the stairs and allowed themselves to be swept up in the excitement of the wedding. And much later that night, two woman who were reputed to be great beauties and two men who had, long ago, worn the guise of a beast, discussed the story of The Little Merman.
Finis
A/N – Dum dum dum – I did it! It's amazing, the last story took me about three years, this one took me six months. See what happens when I actually apply myself to something (looks guiltily at two half-finished novels sitting in hard drive). Anyway, thank you to all of you who came along for the ride, one of the best parts of being an author is knowing that someone out there (other than yourself) appreciates what you do and enjoys it. So even if you didn't review, thanks for having read this far. And let me just mention that this would be the perfect time to start reviewing. (grins hopefully).
I will do Thank yous in a minute, but first I would like to talk about the next step from here. By the time this chapter goes up, the first chapter of a new story will be posted. It won't be in the BATB section, since I doubt that Belle, Vincent, Rose or either of her brothers will be in it. Maybe, if I ever get around to it, they'll get a ficlet, but I seem to have created a monster with the Gilld family, so there will be a Chain of Tales that begins with the Little Merman and Diana and that ends with Anthony (I don't know which fairy tale he gets yet). The next story is Jonathan's and will be called Dogskin. Look for it in the fairy tale section, I promise that by the time this is posted, that will be up as well.
And now for the thank yous!
FutureFamousMovieDirector – Glad you approved. And you know me too well, I just can't kill off certain characters, it's against my moral code. I can't believe it's over either. I just hope that Jonathan is a good replacement, since he gets the next story. Thanks so much for reading and reviewing, it meant a lot to me and it always made me happy to see you had liked it so much.
Trudirose – Yeah, I can't help happy endings. I'm pleased you liked the way things worked out and thank God I'm not the only one who hates the original little mermaid. Belle and Vincent get a slight cameo here, but it was kind of hard to give them a huge part without writing the wedding, which would just be boring. Thank you so much for reading this, especially since you hadn't finished Rose of a Beast. Your reviews really made my day. And, by the way, Diana and Maurice had two legitimate children. Belle had a younger brother who died when he was young in the same disease that took Diana, his name was Jonathan and the eldest Gilld boy is named after him.
Soofija – I'll forgive you, computer problems can be terrible (especially when someone spills seed beads on your laptop, then pries up half the keys to find them – not that that happened to me). Glad you're still reading and loving, and of course Anduin got his legs back. They're just too good a couple to be star-crossed lovers. And I'm glad you liked the scene between father and daughter, it was the one that worried me the most, as far as "how the hell am I going to write this" was concerned. And thanks for being such an awesome reviewer. I think you might be my oldest reviewer ever and it makes me so happy to know that you're still here and loving it. So thanks so much!
Thank yous also go to leotabelle13, Anarea Rose, Shortstef, Lesalanna and anyone else who reviewed this at some point in time. Remember, it's not too late. Review here and you'll get a thank you in Dogskin.
I'll see you in the sequel!
Levana (Damian)