Author's Note: Thank you Jimli, Akora17, and Arista Everett June for the reviews.

This chapter is a bit shorter but it reached a nice cut off point.

THE WIZARD'S PRICE

CHAPTER 13

Not long – or perhaps very long – after the girls had entered the garden Carl and Julietta announced their intention to get married as soon as they could leave the garden.

"I told you to get out when the fairies came," Artus said. "Who knows how long you'll still have to wait now."

"Only until the end of this day," Carl quipped. "It won't last forever."

"Won't it?" Artus asked.

He was waiting more impatiently than before for the girl whose love would set him free. He talked about it to Zita.

"I have the feeling that my life is decided by others since the day I became a beast. This garden was built for me and filled with magic and hidden by magic. Nobody asked me if I wanted it. Carl decide – twice – to share this life with me without consulting me. You did the same. I'm grateful, don't get me wrong, but I feel so helpless, taking all your friendship while I can't give anything in return. Worse still I can't do anything to end this curse quicker. I can only sit back and wait."

"Don't you realise that we get your friendship in return? I know what you mean to Carl. He makes that abundantly clear every time he talks about you, your mother and your life together. You're not just his friend. He's very light-hearted about it but he sees you as the person who saved him from terrible loneliness. He loved his parents and siblings but you and your mother were his family. For him staying here was not giving up his life. It was sharing the fate of his brother."

"And why did you stay? You didn't know me and you decided you would take Carl's place. Why?"

"So that Carl would be free to go away with Julietta. She is to me what you are to Carl. She's my only family. What my life would have been without her I do not know. I don't want to think about it either," Zita said.

"If only this mystery bride arrived soon. At this point I would take a dog-faced woman just so Carl and Julietta can start their life together. I can hardly wait for the day that gate opens to let her in."

Zita feared that day and hoped it would never come. She'd been troubled by her feelings for Artus. She had liked him from the moment they had met. Not long after she had feared she might lose her heart to him. This could not be. She was a girl without a name, without parents. For the first time in her life Zita had regretted that she was a nobody, merely the trusted servant of Princess Julietta, even though she was treated like an equal.

Eventually she had to acknowledge that what she felt for Artus was not friendship but love. She would do anything for him, wanted nothing for herself and in the end fervently hoped that his bride would arrive so he could be set free.

Artus too thought often about the girl who would break his curse. When would she come, what would she look like? But another girl occupied his thoughts even more, Zita.

Because Carl and Julietta had gone off on their own, Artus had spent a lot of time with Zita. The better he got to know her, the more he enjoyed her presence. He thought about the day his bride would arrive. He knew he'd have to marry this girl if he wanted to be free. After that Carl would marry Julietta. And Zita? She'd said that Julietta wouldn't need her anymore. Would she just go? Or would Julietta find her a husband? Some Lord who needed a wife, perhaps? But how could a man who didn't know Zita appreciate her like he, Artus, did. He felt a stab of jealousy at the thought that another man might marry her, one who didn't love her. Artus felt sick. He'd have to marry some girl he didn't know while he really wanted Zita. Yes, he loved Zita.

And hadn't Zita done what this mysterious bride was supposed to do? Of her own free will, she had stayed in the garden and had become a beast with him. She didn't expect anything in return, hadn't even insisted on marrying him, which was even more amazing to Artus.

From then on he looked at Zita differently. Was she the one who would save him? If magic really stuck to its rules then the girl who'd spent a year sharing his curse would break it. That girl was Zita, without a shadow of a doubt. Could she be his wife? Sure, she called herself a servant to the Princess, but Julietta treated her like a friend, a sister even. If Zita hadn't told him the truth, he would never have guessed. In everything she said and did, she looked as much a princess as Julietta.

The more he got to know Zita, the more Artus was convinced she would make a good wife. She was friendly, intelligent, courageous, a true friend and to top it all she was a real beauty – more beautiful than the Princess in his opinion, though Carl disagreed.

Soon he didn't care about the woman who might be sent to save him. He had made his choice. His heart had made a choice. The fairies, who were apparently running his life, could send the most beautiful woman on earth, he would send her right back.

One night Artus stopped Zita on the way to the house near the lake and asked her to be his wife.

"I can't and you know I can't," she answered. "I'm not a princess, nor am I a countess or even the daughter of a Knight. I'm an ordinary girl, a servant to Princess Julietta."

"I don't want a princess, or any other girl for that matter. I want you, Zita."

Then Zita said to him, "I have no family, no father and no mother."

She told him what her aunt had said about her grandmother and her mother, and added, "I can't be your wife. However broadminded you are, I'm sure it is not wise for a king to marry a bastard. What would you say if somebody made the remark that your wife is the fine descendant of a load of sluts?"

"Nobody would dare say that!"

"Perhaps not, but they would think it and show it ever so subtly by treating me a little less respectfully than is due to your wife."

Zita could not be convinced, so Artus asked for the support of Carl and Julietta.

As soon as he arrived at the house he told them, "I've asked Zita to be my wife-"

"That's wonderful!" Julietta interrupted him.

And Carl added, "Congratulations to the both of you."

"It's not that simple," Artus continued. "Zita refused me."

Carl and Julietta looked at Zita in total disbelief.

"But Zita, you love him!" Julietta cried out. "Anyone can see that from the way you look at Artus."

"You and Artus are just perfect for each other," was Carl's opinion.

Artus explained, "Zita thinks that she can't be my wife because she's not a princess or the daughter of a nobleman."

"As if that would be a problem. More than half the girls that came to mother's call were servants and she would have welcomed any girl that agreed to break your curse with open arms."

"See," Artus said to Zita. "There's no reason to say 'No'."

"Absolutely none. It's a great idea for Artus to marry you, Zita. It is rare enough that a future king or queen can marry for love," Carl said and Julietta agreed.

Then Artus went down on one knee and asked Zita again, "Zita, would you be my wife? Please, accept me, accept my heart. I cannot and do not want to live without you."

Zita accepted. It had been difficult enough to say 'No', but with her three friends as well as her own heart urging her to say 'Yes', it was a foregone conclusion. She did add one condition.

"If anyone decides that I am not a suitable match for you, then you'll have to let me go and choose a worthier wife. Promise me."

Artus promised, determined to make sure that nobody would question his choice.