How many rhymes were there? What happened to the pig? Did she really like Wilhelm more than Jakob? Ack! so many questions! If you keep asking them then I will never get to the best part of the story! Now this is where things start to get exciting. Listen quietly and I will tell you about the brothers and their visit to...
The King of the Sleeping Castle
The following morning, Jakob and Wilhelm set off to see the King. As they made their way up the sloping hillside the bells of the great cathedral in the center of town rang half past ten. Because they had been up most of the night talking and planning with Katherine and Fredrick, they had slept in a bit too long.
Despite the fact they looked a bit weary, they had dressed in their best clothes once again and at least tried to look professional. Will chattered on as they walked trying to work out the best way to present their proposition to the King.
As they finally reached the castle and approached the open drawbridge, they noted that something peculiar was going on with the inhabitance of the castle. The two guards at the entrance were fast asleep. As they passed them and entered the great hall leading to the throne room, they saw that the courtiers were asleep as well. There were at least three dozen people scattered about in chairs and on the floor fast asleep. It looked as if they had fallen exactly were they had stood.
Will and Jake continued on, unopposed so far, into the throne room. They kept silent for fear of waking the sleepers. In the throne room the scene was mostly the same. Men and women in fancy court dress sleeping on the floor, in chairs and on the benches that lined three long banquet tables. The room was a nice mess, with cups, plates and food scattered everywhere on the tables and the floor.
The King himself sat snoring on his throne, leaning to his right with his head propped up on one arm. He was a rather large man with a round face and funny little beard. As Will approached him he kicked an empty wine bottle by accident and it rolled, clinking across the stone floor before coming to rest against the foot of a rather tall, thin man fast asleep at the bottom of the steps leading up to the throne. The brother's froze in their tracks and waited, but no one moved.
As they stood there the church bells rang 11 o'clock. They looked at each other and nodded. Not to do but wake someone and introduce themselves. They both headed for the tall thin man at the bottom of the stairs. They had only taken two steps forward when two very sharp spears appeared and crossed in front of their faces with a menacing clank making them stop dead. Staring at the spears, they began to follow the shafts back, each in the opposite direction, to see who was on the other end. However their curiosity was interrupted by a deep strong voice coming from in front of them. Their heads snapped forward towards the voice.
"Who are you two and what do you want here?" The King was now awake, none to happy he had uninvited guests.
"Uh we are…" began Will nervously. The spears were a little too close for comfort, so using two fingers he lightly pushed them down a bit and peered over the top, trying again, "We are here to make our introductions. We have heard about your plight and feel we can be of great service to you."
The King sighed wearily, "I've no time for introductions today and I have no need for any more servants about the castle." He tiredly raised his hand to dismiss them, "Guards, show them out."
The two guards took a step forward attempting to grab Jake and Will to drag them out of the room. The brothers put up their hands to stop the onslaught and Will fearing the loss of the opportunity and the money that would result, blurted out, "But we've come to save the Princess!"
"Wait!" commanded the King, his curiosity getting the better of him, "Let them come forward."
Everyone in the castle was now awake and a crowd had begun to form around the visitors. The guards backed off and Will stepped forward with confidence and a broad winning smile on his face. With an audience he was now in his element. Jakob was a bit more hesitant, but he tried to look as noble as possible while holding onto his satchel the contained his journal for dear life.
Will got the show on the road. "Your Majesty, ladies and gentlemen of the court. We are the famous Brothers Grimm! I am Wilhelm and this fine fellow is my brother, Jakob. We have fought dark-hearted witches, evil dwarves and cantankerous carnivores of all kinds. We have performed hundreds of exorcisms on every sort of vaporous spirit, odorous demon and ghostly nuisance imaginable! Apparitions are our specialty. Just recently my brother, Jakob dispatched the evil Mirror Queen of Marbaden with nothing more than blind determination and a large rock whilst fighting off at least a dozen large possessed ravens!" This elicited "oohs" and "ahhs" from the crowd.
"He then proceeded to break the evil spell over twelve enchanted young maidens with but a single kiss!" This line brought forth "Ohs!" and nervous giggles from the ladies and mumbled conversion among the gentlemen which was sounding quite positive for the moment. Jakob bit his bottom lip, tried not to blush and failed. Will thought that this should do well enough to stir up interest and finished it off grandly. "We have heard of your plight here in this wonderful kingdom of yours and we have decided to lend our services to you, for a reasonable fee of course, to expedite the return of your lovely daughter as well as the rest of those of the fairer sex who have also been spirited away and return your kingdom and the people to it's former state of peace! We are at your service!"
Will bowed low from the waist and threw in a little extra flair by sweeping one arm up into the air and flicking his wrist. 'Oh, he's good' thought Jake. They waited in deafening silence and all eyes in the room were on them. It seemed forever before the King spoke.
"Either you are the biggest con artists in Prussia or the biggest fools. Either way this should prove interesting. Just what is your plan for doing this?"
Will and Jake looked at each other with a bit of a loss. Somehow they had failed to think that far ahead. It was assumed he would accept the offer, no questions asked. After a couple of tense seconds, Will spoke up first, "Oh we have plan Your Majesty."
"A very solid plan indeed", put in Jakob
"Well, what is it?" asked the King, his patience growing thin.
"Yes Jakob, why don't you tell him what it is?"
Jake gave him a "damn you!" look and made a mental note to give his brother his just reward later for hanging him out to dry the way he did. "Yes..well..um…you see what we will do" he cleared his throat to waste time, but it really didn't help much, "What we will do is…go in…and dispatch the witch…and um, free the girls and bring them back home. Yes, it's very simple, you see?"
"Yes, very simple", added Will
"Yes, I see", said the King rubbing his chin in thought, "and just how do you plan on dispatching this witch when no one seems to have been able to so far?"
"Oh well, I'm afraid that's a bit of a trade secret Your Majesty." 'That should cover it', thought Will.
"Well I really don't see how..." began the King, but Will thought it best to change the subject away from that line of questioning for now until he could think of something better.
"Excuse me for interrupting Your Majesty, but I notice there is some disarray here in the castle. Some sort of celebration perhaps or is it as I fear, something more sinister?"
"Ah, but it were only a celebration", lamented the King, "sinister indeed. I know you have seen it in the town below. Those confounded rhymes turning everyone's life to chaos."
Will knew he had hit on something that he could use to thoroughly convince the King to pay them dearly. "Go on, Your Majesty."
"It started right after my beloved daughter was taken from me. Her betrothed, Prince Alaric bravely went out to find her and never returned. That's when it happened; the entire castle was hit with a terrible enchantment. It was done by that witch, no doubt, in order to keep us from sending anyone else to stop her. Now each day when the bells toll noon I am forced to recite a rhyme and one only, but that one is all consuming! Each day we are forced to banquet! We eat, we drink, we dance and we cannot stop nor can we leave the castle at any time to escape it. Anyone caught here after the banquet begins, can never leave!"
The brothers gave each other concerned glances as they listened to the King's words. "We are forced to go on until well after the moon has risen and then we fall into a deep sleep. Wherever we are, whatever we are doing it matters not. We fall and we cannot awake until the bells toll eleven the next day. Only one hour of peace do we get and then it begins again! Oh, but I would love to be able to just rule my kingdom peace once again!"
"Oh well, this is quite a predicament you're in, isn't it?" said Jakob sounding very concerned.
Will took this as his cue and thought this would be a good time to seal the deal. "Oh my, yes! I'm afraid this may require a little more enumeration on your part for it may have to be treated as a separate exorcism. I was thinking…"
"Don't listen to them Your Majesty. They are the worst type of con men imaginable. I thought their names sounded familiar, so I had my secretary look them up." The King's Chamberlain stepped up next to the throne and cut Will's proposal short. He was the tall, thin man that Will had hit in the foot with the wine bottle earlier. Awake he looked even thinner and more somber if that were possible.
"I beg your pardon sir, but we are truly here only to help." Jakob was trying to sound as honest as possible regardless of Will's speech earlier. "Your Majesty, really you must believe us. We only have the best interests of the kingdom in mind."
"Nonsense!" shouted the Chamberlain, "I have here three separate warrants that have been issued by various villages calling for their immediate arrest. One requests they be burned at the stake for the practice of witchcraft. It seems all the village goats took it upon themselves to jump off a cliff after the villagers refused to pay for a second exorcism when they claimed first one didn't take due to the fact the townspeople had supplied them with the wrong kind of wine for the ritual cleansing. Another for taking an exorbitant amount for what was later discovered to be an infestation of rats in the Miller's barn and a third, not for the work itself, but the short one seems to have sullied the reputation of one of the girls in the village!"
'The goats weren't our fault' thought Will, 'who knew that there was a beehive in the tree next to that cliff and it would choose that particular moment to fall.' However he didn't think the incident with the red-haired girl would come back to bite him. After all he had left her with a very broad and lovely smile on her face. Or was it the blond? He had no time to worry about it now. The whole affair was about to go south on them. 'Time to play the "intelligence" card', he thought.
"Your Majesty really, these were all misunderstandings with the people. You know how superstitious these simple village folk can be and their intelligence level; well, let's just say they're not the sharpest sorts. What we do is very complex and scientific. It simply is beyond their true understanding."
Jakob jumped in to bolster the argument, "Not like you, Your Majesty. Clearly such a wise and benevolent ruler such as you can see what we do is a very necessary thing, given the current situation. After all you are a scholarly person, anyone can see that."
"Intelligent and bright", interjected Will.
"And brave!" Will shot him a "don't push it!" look. "Um, well yes, so you would know better than mere peasants that our services are honest and aboveboard."
"The Chamberlain shot back, "Your Majesty, these charlatans will only…" But he was cut off as the King raised his hand for silence.
After a few moments of again rubbing his chin in deep thought, he had made his decision. "Very well, I will allow you to take on this fool's quest and if you are by some far outside chance successful, you will be compensated well and by my decree all warrants shall be voided."
The Chamberlain was visibly upset, but the brothers were elated. "But there is a condition", he continued, "Guards, seize him!" He had pointed to Will and the guards were on him in seconds, scooping him up by the upper arms and holding him tight. He wore a panicked look as he found he couldn't move and his feet barely touched the floor. Jakob was thoroughly confused, "Your Majesty?"
"This will be my guarantee that this will be done and done properly. Your brother will be our honored guest lodged in the tower above us. You have thirty days in which to return my daughter to me and when you do; he will be released. If you do not return in that time, Herr Grimm, your brother will lose his head. You will be found and turned over to that village that wished to burn you at the stake. Do I make myself clear?"
All the color had drained out of Jakob's face and he felt a bit faint. This was not how it was supposed to go. This was supposed to be a very simple task, but it had now gone so far a field there was no way back. His promise to Will echoed in his head, 'the minute it gets too dangerous, we back off, right?' There was no backing off to be done here. They were now up to their necks in it and it was either sink or swim.
"But Your Majesty, I cannot work without Wilhelm", Jake stammered, "It takes both of us to do some of the things we do and this will not work unless we go in as a team! Please, I cannot do this alone!"
"Then I suggest you quickly learn how", the King drove home his point by leaning forward and looking at Jake through squinted eyes. "Again, do I make myself clear?"
Jakob was completely devastated. His shoulders slumped and the pain on his face was very evident. "Yes you do, Your Majesty."
The guards began dragging Will out the side door and away to the tower. He yelled all the way out and up the hallway, "You can do this Jake, I know you can! I know you won't fail me! I have faith in you Jakob, I have faith in you!"
Beautiful! For all the times he had counseled Wilhelm on the usefulness of faith, now had to be the time he took it to heart. However as he stood there, stunned as the guards took him away, he could hear the sound of ridicule in Wilhelm's voice. Even though he was a trained scholar and top of his class, Will had always treated him as an untrustworthy fool and now he felt as if he were mocking him in front of the entire crowd. Jakob would rather he just called him an idiot and boxed his ears. It would have hurt much less.
There was little time to think about it for at that moment, the church bells begin to toll noon. The sound was like a cold stake piercing Jakob's heart.
"I suggest you get on your way Herr Grimm or you will be joining us at banquet instead of completing your quest", advised the King.
Jake turned and ran for the throne room door. Behind him he heard the King speaking in forced tones.
"Old King Cole was a merry old soul!"
He tore his way across the great hall as the cursed bells continued to peal and the King continued on, the words forced from his lips.
The bells had almost finished ringing as Jake made it to the drawbridge at a full run. He could hear the King had only one line left before it was too late. The two door guards at begun raising the drawbridge as if in a trance. No matter how he shouted at them to lower it, they heard nothing. He had to get out now. Taking a few steps back he ran full speed at the great slab of closing wood and ran straight up it to the top. He took a giant leap into the air as the sound of the bells faded in his ears and was replaced with laughter and loud fiddle music accompanied by a drum, lute and whistle.
Jakob landed face first in the dirt on the other side of the moat that flowed around the castle. He got up spitting dirt and his glasses were slightly bent. After a bit of bending he put them back on and looked up at the castle. The sounds of a grand party came from inside, but he paid it no mind. His eye was on the tower where he knew his brother was now captive with no way out except to depend upon him to finish this task alone.
"Oh Will, I am so sorry", he whispered. There was nothing more he could do but get back to town, pack and get moving as soon as possible.
When Jakob had gotten back to Frederick and Katherine's cottage he was out of breath and visibly upset. He had run the entire way down the mountain back to town and had come charging into the house. He practically threw his satchel and jacket across the room. Kate was surprised and very concerned about the outburst.
"What's wrong Jakob, what happened?" she asked, "and where's Wilhelm?"
"Oh, it's horrible, just horrible" lamented Jake. He went on to explain what had happened at the castle, his hands flying in all directions as he went from indignant to angry to desperate. He sat down heavily on a bench and holding his head in his hands he said sadly, "Oh Wilhelm, what's happened is entirely my fault. Why did I have to talk you into getting involved in this? Why?"
"Don't worry my friend", chirped Frederick, "You can do this. I know you can and guess what? I'll go along with you and take his place. Just tell me what to do and I'll do it! I'll help you get rid of that nasty witch and save the Princess! Then we'll get your brother back. You'll see!"
"That's very noble of you Frederick, but I can't let you get tangled up in this. What needs to be done is far beyond your scope."
"He's right Frederick", Kate said, "This is more than you can do alone. This is why I'm coming along as well. You'll need at least two heads to make up for the absence of your brother!"
"I should say not!" protested Jake, "It's too dangerous for the untrained to do something like this, least of all taking a woman along. I won't have it! I'm the one who got us into this predicament, not you. This is something I will have to handle myself!"
"Just what do you mean by that remark?" snapped Kate, "I am just as capable of helping out as anyone else is even though I'm "just a woman". Don't be foolish. This is not your fault and I won't hear of you going out there alone. I should think you'd want all the help you can get to save your brother."
Jake had launched into a list of, what seemed to her, hollow reasons why they shouldn't get involved. She could see she wasn't getting through, so she sighed loudly and looked forlornly out of the window at the castle above. "Oh poor Will, locked away up there in that tower all alone. I can't stand idly by day after day thinking about him and how he could die alone up there. He is such a good man and never meant anyone any harm. Well, we are both going to help you and save poor Wilhelm's life and that's that."
"Bravo Kate!" shouted Frederick.
Jake was taken off guard by that speech. The way she was pining over Will as if he were already dead was about nauseating. 'I must be in the ninth circle of hell', thought Jakob, "where they send those who betray their own kin.' Now having reached his maximum point of desperation, he supposed it couldn't be any worse with two novices along, so he relented to let them come. Anything to get this over with, save his brother and be rid of these people.
Frederick was ecstatic about it and practically danced around the room with joy. "Yes! I'm going to get to rescue the Princess after all", he spouted joyfully, "and help save Will as well! See, I told you didn't I Kate? I'm going to be a hero after all!"
Kate could see their offer didn't help lighten Jakob's mood any. He sat wearily down on the bench near the fireplace and stared at the dancing flames. As he watched the flickering light and listened to the crackling embers, he tried to shut out the world around him. The pain and self-loathing were evident in his eyes. What had he done?
Kate sat down on the bench beside him. After a few moments, she turned to him and in a gentle voice she said, "This turn of events is not you fault Jakob. Your brother is a grown man and he came here of his own free will. You didn't force him into this. Anything that he may have done in his past that may have come back to haunt him now were his own mistakes, not yours. You have to let this go and concentrate on the task at hand."
She went to the cupboard and pulled out a bottle of something a bit stronger than she usually served her guests and poured a glass.
"Drink it", she said handing Jake the glass, "it will help, trust me."
'This woman was a real enigma' he thought as he studied the dark brown liquid in the glass. He took a drink and it burned all the way down, but in a very pleasant way. He watched her as she fussed at Frederick for getting so overly excited at the prospect of the adventure. 'She doesn't really like me, I can tell and she seems so enamored of my brother, which is not anything new. He always seems to attract the attention of those of the fairer sex, but why should I care really. I don't like her either.'
He took another drink and it didn't burn quite so much this time. Kate came by and refilled the glass and this time she smiled down at him before moving off. 'But now here she is being nice to me. Why I wonder. So she can get her precious Will back no doubt.' He took a larger gulp this time and he began to feel numb around the edges, which was much better than the way he felt just moments ago. This sudden bout of caring and civility from the woman coupled with her gushing over Will earlier, was very confusing for some reason that he couldn't quite work out and it made him dislike her even more now than when he first met her. After studying the glass once again, he downed its entire contents in one gulp and turning once again to the flickering flames, he let the full numbing effect of the lovely brown liquid wash over him.
Well, it looks like they're into it now with no way out. Oh and btw, I know Jakob used the enchanted axe to shatter the mirror, but Will thought it would sound much more brave and dramatic if his said his brother used a rock. You can't argue with the main characters now can you? Poor Jakob. If you think he's stressed out now, just wait till the next chapter. Your reviews will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Woo Hoo! Finally a review! Thanks much JakobG!