Rapunzel sighed heavily as she gazed out across the palace grounds beyond her window. In her hands she clasped a mostly full cup of tea. Stan had given it to her after helping Eugene back to his room a short time prior. The princess had insisted he return to his bed. He had developed a crick in his neck from his hour long nap in the wheelchair. She was alone in the room, preferring it that way. She had sent Pascal with Eugene back to his room. The young woman sighed again.
Just trapped in another tower, she thought. Gothel, father? Does it matter who it is? Are they really any different?
The blonde princess turned quickly to look at the door to her room. She had heard someone out in the hallway. The sound of the person moved off down the corridor without stopping. She let out a breath and turned her face back to the window and her view of the gardens below.
"Where is she?" she muttered.
Rapunzel was becoming more and more alarmed by Cass' absence. She should have at least sent back a report by that time, the princess figured. She had become quite agitated after waking from her nap and finding that her lady-in-waiting was still gone. Her agitation was the reason behind Stan bringing her the warm drink, to help calm her. Stan had assured her that Cass would be tracked down. She was probably just caught up with watching Mel Rose and didn't want to lose track of the dungeon warden.
"I sure hope that is the case," she said to herself.
Rapunzel stared out at the palace grounds. They were lush and beautiful and very tranquil. Quite the opposite of the churning ocean of thoughts that were flowing through the princess' mind. She closed her eyes and tried to calm herself and think clearly, but she just kept returning to her thoughts of the missing Cassandra.
I know Cass can take care of herself, she thought. But these people were still able to infiltrate the palace more than once. What if Rose spotted her?
She turned from the window and her thoughts at the sound of the door to her room opening. Queen Ariana quietly entered the room, closing the door behind her. She crossed the room and sat next to her daughter on the cushioned window seat.
"How are you doing, dear?" the queen asked.
"I'm worried about Cass."
"I know you are, dear," Ariana said. "There are royal guards out looking for her as we speak. She is a capable young woman. I'm sure she is just fine."
"I know she can, but these people have already killed. They'd do the same to Cass if they found her."
"Well, you're probably right about that," Queen Ariana admitted, uncomfortably. "But it won't do you any good getting yourself worked up about it. There's nothing you can do right now for your lady-in-waiting."
"She's more than my lady-in-waiting, mother," Rapunzel said. "She's my friend. I can't help but worry about her at a time like this."
Queen Ariana nodded and patted her daughter's hand.
"I understand how you feel, dear," she said. "I worried about you every day you were missing. It was hard to function at all some days, especially at the beginning and around your birthday…knowing that you were growing another year older without me to be there for you…" the queen had to pause to get control of herself, tears brimming in her eyes, "I didn't know if you were being cared for well. I didn't even know if you were still alive, I could only hope. It was crippling, the feeling of helplessness and emptiness."
Rapunzel reached over and squeezed her mother's hand.
"Gothel wouldn't have harmed me. I was too valuable."
"I know that now. I had no way to know that back then," Ariana said. "I know you are feeling frustrated by being restricted to the castle, but your father and I…"
"Frustrated? Restricted?" Rapunzel scoffed, jumping up from the window seat. "Those words don't begin to describe how I'm feeling! Eighteen year, mother! I was trapped in that tower and lied to by Gothel for eighteen years! You have no idea how that feels. You have no idea how I feel right now!"
Queen Ariana sighed.
"You're right, Rapunzel. I don't know how that feels. I just want you to understand why your father is doing what he is doing. He, and I, are only trying to keep you safe. We aren't trying to trap you. You have to understand that."
The princess sat back down on the bench and clasped her mother's nearest hand.
"I know. I just can't bear being cooped up anymore."
Ariana tucked a lock of her daughter's long hair behind her left ear.
"I wish I could make all this go away," Ariana said. "I think to myself, I should have been there to protect you when you were a baby. I could have prevented…"
"Mom, no, what happened to me wasn't your fault," Rapunzel said. "Gothel would have killed you without a second thought if you had been there. She didn't hesitate to kill Eugene when he got in her way and she would do the same to anybody who was in her way."
"You are the one who knew her, so I'm sure you are right," the queen said. "Even after all these years, I still struggle with the guilt, of not protecting you like I should have."
The queen raised a hand to stop Rapunzel from countering her statement of guilt, excusing it away.
"It's just how I feel," Ariana said. "It isn't logical. But, I got help. I was able to function again, with time."
"How?"
"With the support of your father, the palace staff, my sister, friends and Dr. Mal."
"Dr. Mal."
"Yes, she helped me tremendously," Ariana said. "She can help you too. I had her summoned to the palace to talk to you."
Rapunzel frowned.
"Melody Rose was a patient of hers as well."
"Dear, Dr. Mal has many, many patients. I trust her. Would you be willing to talk to her?"
"That is true, she'd have lots of patients," Rapunzel said. "Still, Eugene seems suspicious of her."
"He's just worried about you," Ariana said. "If you don't want to see her, I'll send her away."
Rapunzel frowned, but finally nodded, "I'll talk to her for a little while."
Queen Ariana stood, smiling.
"I'll send her in. I'll check back with you in a little while, OK?"
Rapunzel nodded. Ariana kissed the top of her daughter's head before taking her leave. Rapunzel remained sitting on the window seat. She looked back out of the window, sipping her now cold tea. Her cup was nearly empty when a knock sounded on the heavy wood door to her room.
"Come in," she called.
Whoever it was responded by knocking again.
"Stan, you can let her in," Rapunzel said, slightly irritated. "Is it Dr. Mal? Dr. Mal, you can come in."
There was no response from the person on the other side of the door. Annoyed, the princess rose from her seat and crossed the room to her ornate double doors and flung one of them open. On the other side stood Dr. Veda Mal. The middle-aged woman had been standing with her left side to the door, her hands clasped behind her back. As Rapunzel opened the door fully, Dr. Mal turned to face the princess, smiling a smile that did not reach her eyes. The doctor said nothing.
"I said you could…come…in…" Rapunzel started.
She stopped speaking as her gaze moved from the mind doctor to the form lying by the older woman's feet. The guard Stan was lying, unconscious, on his stomach just outside her door. His helmet was lying on its side a few feet from his head.
"Stan!" Rapunzel cried, stepping forward to tend to the fallen guard.
Dr. Mal blocked her path, grinning slyly.
"What have you…" was all the blonde princess was able to say before Dr. Mal raised one of her hands and blew a cloud of dust from her palm into Rapunzel's face. Rapunzel clutched her nose and stumbled back.
"What have you done?" she coughed out.
"Oh, don't worry, it's just something to help you sleep," Mal said, stepping into the room after the princess.
Rapunzel fell back into a sitting position against the side of her bed. The last thing she saw as her vision dimmed was the smirking face of the mind doctor as the woman got closer and closer. Before she finally blacked out, one final thought came to Rapunzel's mind:
That's where I know her from. Her expression is the same as the one Gothel always had on her face…
"Hmm, maybe having some time off hasn't been so bad," the Captain of the Royal Guard muttered to himself, organizing items in a burlap sack.
When he had been informed that he would have to be on medical leave for three days, at the very least, the Captain had not been very happy, to put it mildly. After spending a few hours sitting around his rooms resting as his daughter had ordered him, he had grown exceedingly bored. He'd finally had enough of just sitting around and left to go on a walk around Corona. He'd ended up in the town square, shopping. Several of the downtown stores were clearing out their old inventory and he was taking advantage of the great bargains. He'd already bought two nice button up shirts, boots, sheets, a set of window curtains and a new mustache grooming kit.
He was considering checking out a few more booths when a group of people on the other side of the square began shouting.
"Watch out, lady!" someone close to the Captain shouted.
The Captain turned to look as a black horse galloped wildly into the square, everyone else on his side of the square turned to look as well. The rider was small and hunched over his or her saddle in such a way that the Captain couldn't see his or her face from his angle. The horse whinnied as the rider pulled up on the reins and stopped its progress just a few feet from where the Captain was standing. The rider sat up and turned to face the man.
"Cassandra!"
The Captain leapt forward and caught the rather ragged looking young woman as her foot slipped from the stirrup as she was getting down from the horse. He carried her over to a box and sat her down on it. He looked her over, noting her scorched hair, reddened cheek and the burns on her thigh.
"Cassandra, what happened?" he cried.
The raven-haired woman touched the back of her head gingerly.
"Ouch," she groaned. "Vince got the drop on me when I was following Melody Rose."
"What are you talking about? Who are Vince and Melody Rose?"
Cass remembered that her father hadn't been part of her plan to follow and keep tabs on Rose.
"I was following Rose, she's our suspect for the palace mole. Vince is one of the bandits from the attack in the forest. She was meeting him. Well, he snuck up behind me and I got captured and tied up in the shop at a manor out in the country. I managed to get free after they tried to torture me and left me for dead in the shop after it caught fire."
Cass looked at the burns on her leg as she finished speaking.
A horrified look came over the Captain's face.
"Torture? No one told me you were even missing. Where are these two now?"
"Vince got away. Hopefully, Rose is still tied up at the manor. But, right now, I need to get to the palace. I made a discovery. I found a book that will give us some answers, I believe. It's in the saddle bag."
A patrolling guard had been attracted by the commotion caused by Cass and her horse and had joined the father and daughter. The Captain turned to the young guard.
"Can you get the book my daughter put in the saddle bag for me?"
"Yes, Captain."
She pulled the ancient tome from the leather saddle bag and handed it to the Captain. He flipped through a few pages of the book. He only paused to read the poem at the beginning.
"Golden flower? Does he mean the sun drop flower? Was this Gothel's book?"
"It appears that way…mmm" Cass said, putting a hand to the back of her head. "Ouch."
The Captain picked her up, one arm under her knees and the other around her shoulders.
"Let's get you to the palace and a doctor. Steady that horse, soldier."
The Captain lifted her daughter into the saddle as the female guard held the black horse still. The man then swung up unto the horse's back, positioning himself so that he could hold the reins and make sure Cass didn't fall. He gave the animal a light kick with his heels, urging him on to a full gallop towards the palace. Cass clutched the saddle horn with one hand and her head with the other. The bobbing movement of the horse had nothing for her headache for the entire ride into Corona. She was just happy she had figured out the way home as easily as she had. She leaned back against her father. They reached the palace gates a minute or two later.
"Lady Cassandra, thank goodness, we've been looking for you," Officer Sullivan said, grabbing the horse's reins. "Are you alright?"
"I'll be fine," Cass said, carefully sliding down from the saddle. "We have information that the king and the princess need to see."
Cass turned to Sullivan.
"Send soldiers to collect Melody Rose, hopefully she's still tied up. She's in a nice manor house on the road running north and south at the end of the road east from Corona. The house is on the south fork, about a mile south, on the edge of the Elder's Woods."
"Yes, ma'am," Sullivan saluted.
"Also, we need to try and find a man named Vince," Cass said and gave the man a description of the dagger and of Vince.
Officer Sullivan summoned a couple of soldiers standing by the gate and set to work following Cass' orders.
Cass limped up the palace's wide front steps, around a dark colored coach with a driver, his hat pulled low over his eyes and through the front door.
"Cassandra, wait," the Captain called to her, hurrying after her.
He caught up to her in the foyer.
"You need to see a doctor, I'll summon the King, Rapunzel, whoever you need and you can talk to them in the medical wing."
"This will only take a few minutes and time is of the essence."
Despite her leg burns, Cass made good time to the king's office. King Frederic was sitting at his massive desk reading a scroll. He sprung to his feet as Cass entered and walked up to her.
"Cassandra, you're back, thank goodness," he said, relief evident in his voice. "Rapunzel, all of us really, were worried about you. What happened? You've been injured."
"I'm fine, it's just a scratch. I found a…"
"Your highness, permission to move this conversation to the medical wing?" interrupted the Captain.
"I think that would be a good idea," the king said, putting an arm around Cass' shoulders and gently turning her towards the door. "You are looking a little pale and very exhausted. Your wellbeing is important to me and your father. You can tell me everything while you are being treated."
As they walked down the corridor, Captain turned to the king and shot him a dark look.
"I would like to talk to the person who organized the search for Cassandra and didn't think to inform me when this is all over."
"Understood," King Frederic nodded.
Eugene pushed himself up from his mountain of pillows and stretched. The crick in his neck had lessened significantly, but there was a lingering tightness where his skull met his neck. He blinked the sleep from his eyes and turned to the door as it was swiftly opened. Pete stepped inside.
"Eugene, Cassandra has returned," the young guard said, excitedly. "She's being treated in the medical wing. The King and the Captain are with her."
"She was hurt? How bad?"
"Didn't hear, I came right in to tell you. Want to go with me to tell the princess?"
"You bet I do, help me out of this bed will you? Rapunzel will be relived I'm sure."
It took only a few moments for Pete to help Eugene into his chair and push him out of the room and into the hallway beyond. They moved off to Rapunzel's room next door.
"Hey, where's Stan?" Pete asked, looking around the empty hallway. "He was standing outside the princess' door last time I saw him."
"He must be inside her room," Eugene said, wheeling himself up to the door.
Eugene knocked firmly on the door.
"Rapunzel, it's Eugene and Pete, can we come in? We have good news!"
There was no answer. Eugene knocked again.
"Stan?" Eugene called. "Can you hear me?"
There was still no answer from within. Pete tried the door, it was unlocked. The pair entered the silent room as the door came to a halt with an ominous thunk on the wall.
"Stan?" Pete called out.
There was no response and no sign of Stan. On the bed in front of them, a form lay, covered by blankets. Eugene and Pete could hear the soft snoring of the person in the bed.
"Princess?" Pete called out to the bed, assuming that was who was there.
Pete pushed the other man forward, leaving him nearly up against the bed. Eugene pulled the covers down from over the person's head.
"Blond-no-Stan?" he cried.
The middle-aged guard lay on Rapunzel's bed, his head on the pillow, drool dripping down his chin. Pete shook the unconscious guard, yelling his name as Eugene looked frantically around the room for signs of Rapunzel.
"I think he's been drugged," Pete exclaimed. "I'm going to get help!"
"Ask around for Rapunzel too!" Eugene called after him.
But, Stan like this... Eugene thought. He was definitely attacked and drugged. Rapunzel wouldn't do this, even to escape the castle.
Eugene felt bile and panic rising in this throat. Someone had most definitely disabled Stan and kidnapped the princess.
"Who could it have been?" he whispered to himself.
He turned from looking at Stan's slack face to the noise coming from the corridor. Several people came rushing into the door, headed by Pete. Just behind him was Queen Ariana and behind her were three royal guards, one of whom was Lt. Hauser, the Captain's second in command.
"What's going on?" Queen Ariana exclaimed.
The woman hurried to the bed, a look of alarm taking over her face as she looked at the fallen Stan. She frantically looked around the room, just as Eugene had only a minute before.
"Where's Rapunzel?" she asked. "When I left her…"
The queen trailed off and turned toward the door where another guard was standing, his attention grabbed by the raised voices emanating from the room. The queen turned to Lt. Hauser.
"Summon the king, he's in the medical wing speaking to Cassandra and the Captain," she ordered. "Start a country wide search for Rapunzel and Dr. Veda Mal…"
"Dr. Mal?" Eugene cried, his face turning pale. "You let her into the castle?"
Queen Ariana's face darkened, she stared at Eugene, angered by his impudence.
"I'm the queen, I can do as I see fit. Yes, I summoned Dr. Mal here to tend to my daughter. She was upset. I had no reason to doubt her."
"Dr. Mal is our number one suspect for the person behind the attacks on Rapunzel," Eugene said. "The person also known as the Serpent."
"What are you talking about?" Ariana asked.
Eugene quickly told the queen all they had learned over the previous few days. The queen knew some of it, but not everything. As Eugene spoke, the king, the Captain and Cassandra entered the room, along with a young nurse who went straight to Stan.
"And I gave her the chance she needed to take Rapunzel," Ariana said, her eyes tearing up.
King Frederic took the queen into his arms, hugging her tightly.
"We'll find her, Ariana, we'll find her."
"Whip those horses, they need to go faster! We must get out of the city before she is missed!"
Veda Mal turned from the front window by the driver and settled down in her seat. She eyed the still form lying on the bench seat on the other side of the coach. The sleeping drug she had used on Rapunzel was working well. The princess lay still on the seat, out cold and showing no signs of waking up any time soon.
The dark-haired woman dabbed at her forehead with a dainty handkerchief. She had worked up a sweat lugging the princess and her seventy feet of hair through the palace to her darkly painted coach which was waiting for her at the front door. The princess had her hair braided up in its usual style. Mal had briefly pondered how Rapunzel managed to lug all that weight around with her every day.
The mind doctor had dealt with the strain of carrying the young woman. She knew this would be her final chance to grab her. When Melody Rose and Vince had shown up on her doorstep with an unconscious Cassandra, she had not been well pleased, reasoning that if Rose and Vince had been spotted taking the lady-in-waiting, they would lead her enemies directly to her. But then, a royal guard had shown up at her house, summoning her to the palace on the queen's orders to tend to her daughter. It was her chance to grab the princess without her bodyguard's interference.
Mal had nearly been caught though. As she was about to step into the castle's front hall, Cassandra and the Captain of the Royal Guard entered the palace. Mal felt a quick flash of rage.
Those two idiots let her escape! She thought. They better be dead.
Cass would be sending soldiers to her manor soon, if she had not done so already. Mal waited until the father and daughter had disappeared farther into the interior of the palace before she rushed out to her coach which was parked immediately beside the front steps, Rapunzel draped over her shoulder like and as limp as a sack of potatoes. She ordered the driver to start moving even before she had the door to the cab all the way closed.
She breathed a slight sigh of relief as her coach passed through the final gate out of Corona and to relative safety. Now, she just had to figure out where to go. Her manor was out of the question, undoubtedly there were soldiers headed there already. Mal knew all the words of her grandmother's book by heart, so she didn't need to go back to get it. She just had to go somewhere they'd never think to look for her, some place that was very out of the way.
"Milady, we have company!" the voice of her driver rang out, interrupting her thoughts.
Peering out a side window, she spotted two soldiers on horseback barreling down on her coach. The driver whipped the reins, urging his horses to run faster. The pair of black horses grunted and put on a burst of speed that Mal guessed they wouldn't be able to maintain for long. Reaching under her seat, Mal pulled out a crossbow and small quiver of bolts. She only briefly reflected on the fact that she hadn't been practicing her marksmanship much lately.
Fitting a bolt into the firing mechanism, she stuck her upper body out of the window and aimed her weapon. She missed the soldier, but hit his horse in the front of its right shoulder. The animal made a distressed whiny, stumbled and threw its rider. Mal didn't hesitate to fire off another bolt. The remaining soldier and his horse dodged out of the path of the projectile, putting on a burst of speed. The soldier managed to overtake the slower, heavier vehicle, approaching the driver from the other side of the cab from where Mal was hanging out of the window.
The mind doctor scrambled back inside the coach and to the other side window. Sticking her head out, she found that the soldier had already swung up into the driver's seat and was wrestling with her driver over the reins.
"Stop the coach!" Mal shouted.
She braced herself as the coach skidded to a stop, the horses rearing and loudly protesting. Mal quickly jumped out of the cab as soon as it slowed enough for her to safely do so. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she put and bolt in her crossbow and fired. It hit the soldier between the shoulder blades. He grasped weakly at his back and then fell from the driver's seat.
"Unharness one of those horses," Mal ordered the driver, stepping back to the door of the coach.
As the driver did her bidding, she pulled the still unconscious princess from the cab and laid her on the ground. She turned as the driver approached her. The handed her the horse's reins. Before he could react, Mal thrust her ever present concealed dagger into his ribs. He gasped and stared at her in surprise.
"Sorry, John," she said. "I thank you for your years of loyalty, but I to go it alone now. I can't risk you giving them any information."
She pulled the dagger free and quickly cleaned if on the newly deceased man's shirt. She returned the dagger to its sheath. With some effort, Mal draped Rapunzel over the horse's shoulders and climbed onto its back. Turning off the road and into the woods, she set a northwesterly course, towards the mountains and the safety they offered. There, she would hide out for as long as she needed to.