Chapter 6- The Enchantress, and a Mystery
On the same evening, the Enchantress Delphine had transported herself to her opulent family home, and stood before her father, the Enchanter Quentin Dufresne. The old man, dressed in a long, emerald silk robe adorned with a golden fleur de lis pattern, held a Magic Mirror in his hands and scowled at it in irritation.
"What is the meaning of this?" he exclaimed, trying to contain his rage. He turned the Mirror around so his daughter could see.
The Magic Mirror replayed images of giant livestock stomping through a small village populated by mortal peasants. The image changed to an updated view, of the said villagers enjoying a feast of roasted lamb and celebrating.
"Delphine, you have made a mockery of the Dufresne dynasty of Enchanted sorcerers! What do you think you were doing there, of all Merlin-forsaken places? And you blessed the vermin mortals- you didn't curse them!" His pale old eyes burned into those of his beautiful daughter.
"I was trying to improve my yearly quota of curses, Father. I found a mortal who needed to be taught a lesson, so I cursed his animals. I performed the Shrinking Spell on them, but I then found it quite ineffective and petty. So therefore, I tried to create a greater impact by changing it to the Enlarging Spell. It made more damage that way. I… I didn't know it would backfire. I'm sorry, Father." Delphine bowed her head in reverence, her long golden hair falling around her exquisite face.
"You need to think before you act. Those mortals can be shrewd. Without our magic, they use their minds to invent and use weapons and objects that aid their lives. If their population is not controlled, they will evolve to be more clever than us, they will have advantages, our magical Race will die out, and be no more! Now, I think that this-" he gestured to the Mirror- "was a foolish waste of time, and I want you to concentrate on more important victims from now on. I want you to keep following our Prince Adam."
"Prince Adam? He broke the curse according to its laws. A maiden fell in love with him, before his twenty first birthday. He earned the right to be left alone from now on…"
"SILENCE!" boomed Quentin Dufresne. His daughter lowered her head again.
Monsieur Dufresne took the Magic Mirror in his hands gently and looked at it wistfully.
"The Beast. Your Beast. I was so proud of your achievement and I gazed upon him every day in this Mirror. I no longer see him. I miss him, Delphine. I want the Beast back."
Delphine was ashamed. "Again, I am sorry, Father. But he succeeded and-"
"Show me Prince Adam!" the dark Enchanter shouted.
The Mirror glowed. Delphine and her father gazed upon the moving images that played upon its surface in real time. Adam appeared, and he was embracing his ladylove, Belle, who looked up at him with pure love in her eyes. Adam was pulling out something from the pocket of his fine blue and gold coat...
"Adam, how did you ever-" exclaimed Belle. He had produced a beautiful ring, set with enormous diamonds.
"It was my mother's, darling. My father gave it to her, and his father before that. It bears the crest of the House of Rohan, the noble family which I am a part of. Not that I really care much about that anymore." Adam gave her a boyish grin.
"Belle…will you marry me?" He held the ring toward her finger, and gently slipped it on, nervously.
Belle's face lit up in a huge smile. "Adam, I'm…speechless!"
"Yes, or no?"
"Yes, Adam! Yes, a thousand times, yes!" Belle threw her arms around her true love, and they embraced again, this time with a lingering kiss. Adam's lips opened slightly, and the kiss was much deeper and more passionate than any time they had kissed before. Belle felt her knees weaken, and her cheeks burned rose-red.
"Oui, oui!" Lumiere's shout was heard from upstairs on the landing near the West Wing. Adam and Belle looked up to see Lumiere and Cogsworth, Lumiere raising a fist in the air with delight, and Cogsworth looking sheepish. They had been spying.
"We are getting married, everyone!" Adam announced, joyfully.
Quentin Dufresne's face was stern as the mirror glowed and the moving image evaporated.
"He learned his lesson, Father. I despise seeing the sans-magiques prevail as much as you do, but I feel I should move on and leave them be-"
"NO!" yelled Dufresne. "They are lowly mortals! Royalty or not, they are beneath us, and they shall not ever be allowed to prosper and vanquish the Enchanted Race of magically-blessed humans! If it weren't for Le Grande Merlin-" he sneered at the mention of the leader of all Enchanteds- "I would order each and every mortal in the world to be wiped off the face of this earth!"
Delphine thought of the advantages of a world populated only by magicals. Freedom, no need for secrecy, her family as well as other Enchanteds able to come out of hiding and conquer the wealth and land of the majority of the world. A new utopia...
"Go back to the area of Prince Adam's castle, and keep trying to watch over him. The minute he makes a curseworthy error, turn him back into the Beast. An addition, you must earn one hundred Curse-Points, whatever you can do to mortals you encounter. Just make certain nothing backfires! I will be observing you from time to time, with the Mirror. If you do not do such within this year of 1770, I shall curse you myself to remain forever in your disguise as a wretched, bone-thin hag and your Monsieur Lamont will not bear to touch you again! Unless, of course, he is one of those rare noble souls who believes that 'beauty is found within.' But I doubt that. Have I made myself heard?"
"Yes."
The threat of remaining an old ugly hag for the rest of her life and losing her longtime lover, the rogue Enchanter Lamont, was enough for her to give up her ethical reservations and vow to do evil from now on, at her father's command.
"And when you do return to the area of the castle and that charming little village you like to waste time in, beware of the presence of Fabien LaBarre and his sons. They have been alerted to the area as a result of your foolishness today. If you see any wolves, expect them to be the LaBarres in their characteristic disguises."
"But you always said that Fabien LaBarre was a bumbling fool."
"Yes, I have. A bumbling fool indeed. But the area of the Prince's castle is surrounded by forests and mountains. The ability of the LaBarre family to transform into wolves is a great and rare Enchanted gift and to their complete advantage. And from what I have heard, the two sons are emerging as talented Sorcerers of the Pro-Mortal faction's Law Enforcement. Do not underestimate them."
"Yes, Father. You have my complete obedience from now on."
Delphine looked up at her father as if he were a military commander, rather than her own parent. There had been no real love between them; her father was evil and cold as a winter's night. She herself felt bitterness and hatred grow toward the mortal humans as well, and Prince Adam, who had overcome her elaborate feat of magic, most of all.
Back in the village the next morning, Gilles Moreau stepped out of his cottage, looked into his livestock pen, and found all of his remaining sheep and three goats, back home and safe and sound. They were back to their normal size.
Gilles looked up and was certain he saw three large grey wolves near the border of the forest, at the end of the meadow. Their eyes glowed blue for a split second, then they turned and disappeared into the trees.
He decided he'd have to invest in a blunderbuss quite soon...
His thoughts were interrupted by his brother, who was heading up the path to his farm. Stanley carried a sack over his back which held a collection of knives, cleavers, and various other tools. Gilles' heart thumped out of his chest. He'd really hoped Stanley had decided to sleep in and give up on his crazy plan from the evening before.
"You ready?"
"Well, I guess so."
They went to the village square and soon found Dick and Andre. They also bore rucksacks filled with tools and supplies.
"Is Tom or Jacques coming?" asked Stanley.
"Non," replied Dick. "Tom's under the weather, he says. And Jauquet is tending the cheese shop. Fine with me, they'll slow us down."
"Okay, guess it's just the four of us. Let's take my wagon."
The four village men climbed into Stanley's wagon and headed out to the path that led through the forest, across a river, and finally uphill toward the castle in the mountainous highlands. Stanley's horse was in poor condition; he was not used to being exercised much, so the trip took over an hour before they could finally see the graceful spires of the palace peeking up over the treeline.
"There it is! Oh, Mon Dieu, I don't know about this!" Gilles said in a quivering voice.
"Oh stop blathering and be brave, Gilles. Now let's think- what do we remember about the castle, and which way did Gaston go when we first arrived? I think I remember he went to the west side, so if he killed the monster there, we'd have to look on... that side," reasoned Stanley, pointing and tying to strategically plan. "So let's circle around this clearing."
"But what if the Beast was buried already?" asked Andre.
"Who would have buried that thing? The demon-possessed candlestick? The knife-throwing stove? I don't think so! And I don't think it had many friends. Common sense." Stanley tapped a finger to the side of his head.
It was quite clear to the other men that Stanley was hoping to insert himself into the power vaccum left by Gaston's demise. What he lacked in physical stature, he made up for in grit and shrewdness.
They drove the wagon with the exhausted horse on the most level path, avoiding the main gate so as not to be seen. Steep rocky cliffs were on part of the west side of the castle, which made it impossible to go further. They climbed out of the wagon, Stanley gave his horse some water, and they began to hike on foot.
"Well, it's been five days. I'd say if there is a dead, monstrous Beast carcass on these grounds, we'd best follow our noses," offered Dick. Gilles and Andre nodded in agreement. They spread out and begin sniffing the air.
"WHO GOES THERE!"
Stanley, Andre, Gilles and Dick were startled to see four men, wielding muskets and crossbows.
"Hi, fellows!" greeted Gilles, waving. Stanley glared at him. The four guards came closer. Gilles adopted a friendly, casual stance. "We're from over in Molyneux. The village? Not too far from here. We are just hunting!"
"Yep, hunting," agreed Stanley. Andre and Dick nodded along.
"You must leave at once!" commanded Yann-Yves Noire, the captain of Adam's royal guard. "This is private property. Go back to your village." The stout bearded guard raised his musket, as did Jean Goulet, his leaner colleague. Noel and Luc Saggitaire, the younger, blond guards, raised their crossbows.
The four had no choice but to turn back around, get back into the wagon, and head away from the castle.
The guards watched them leave. "It is definitely men from the village. I don't trust them if it had anything to do with that dead man we found," said Yann to the other three.
The men from the village had different reactions to the curtailing of their adventure. "Well, wasn't that exciting," huffed Stanley, as they drove back in the same way they had come.
"We can still use our noses and sniff for it!" Gilles piped up, a little more cheerful then he'd been earlier. "Maybe the Beast was chased off by Gaston and he killed 'em right here in these woods!" Gilles stood up and started sniffing the air. Stanley grabbed his coat and pulled him back down. "Shuddup!" he grumped.
"Quiet- I see some couple walking over there in the distance!" said Andre, pointing. The men squinted back toward the area of the castle grounds behind them. They spotted a couple walking closely side by side, a tall man with long, fair hair dressed in a very fine blue and gold coat, and a young woman with long brown hair and a red cape over her blue dress.
"The girl looks familiar- but they're too far away to tell," noted Andre. "It almost looks like the DeFleur girl! Belle- the one who started all of the Beast business."
"So who's that she is with? It's not her hairy Beast friend- it looks like some high-born stuffed shirt!" exclaimed Dick.
"Poor Gaston. I should have known she was holding out for a rich guy," said Andre the baker. "Always in a dream world with those books of hers about castles. It figures, she got her wish. I wonder who that is?"
"It's the Marquis de Creeps, if that's his castle!" piped up Gilles. "Maybe the monster was his idea of a pet. Belle is his new paramour, and he saw her in our village, lusted after her, and sent his pet Beast to kidnap her and take her to him."
"That's crazy, but so is everything else about this. But why did she become friends with it? 'Kind and gentle,' remember? Wait- it was controlling her mind! It controlled all that furniture and candles- it could also force her to worship it!" Stanley exclaimed, grasping for answers. "Not only her, but her fancy friend there, those guards, servants, they are all under the power of the demon Beast, and the castle belongs to it now. I should have had Pere Gerard come with us, but I doubt he nor the Pope can do exorcisms like this!"
"No doubt it is still guarded by a hundred demons inside candlesticks and bureau drawers," said Dick. "Just can't explain it. It's either alive, or it's dead," he said, shrugging.
"You're a genius as always, mon ami," chuckled Stanley. "Well, I sure hope Gaston killed it, because then maybe he set that 'lost prince' people used to talk about free. And maybe all the demonic stuff is gone now, because Gaston got rid of it! That is what I hope- and what I want to tell that sad-sack little cousin of ours, Gilles. We all miss Gaston, but mon dieu- he was Lefou's whole reason for living. The poor fellow's devastated, and I kinda owe it to him to help. He's Auntie Jeanne's boy, after all." Stanley looked sad, as did the others. He halted his horse.
"Let's just keep going slow. Look around, and keep smelling for it. It's worth a try, we've come this far." The men quieted and drove the wagon through the shady, cool forest path, surrounded by tall evergreens.
Gilles leaned to one side of the wagon and peered optimistically into the woods.
"Hey! It's that lady!"
"What lady? What's a lady doing in the middle of the woods?"
"I just saw a little old lady walking through the trees. I swear I did! She looks just like some old lady I saw last week, on the night after the funeral. Hey! Madame! Hey, lady! You can have my sheep if you want! You can even have ten francs if you- ouch!" Stanley cuffed Gilles on the side of the head.
"Shut up! What are you going on about? There is no old woman-" Stanley squinted, and then was startled by something.
"AAAAAGH!"
The men screamed in horror. Three enormous grey wolves bounded out of the forest from the opposite side of where Gilles had been looking, and charged the wagon from all sides, bearing their sharp fangs.
The horse reared and whinnied in fright. The wagon tipped, and the terrified men were thrown to the ground. The horse galloped away, bumping the crude wagon behind it. The wolves ran in a circle around the men, who cowered in terror.
