The Golden Princess and the Moon

by Anna Mendell

  Cries broke from the crowds in a confused tumult, then Erik burst upon the courtyard on his night-black horse.

  THE crowd thronged ominously silent around the courtyard. The heart in Erik’s chest hammered with the fear that he was too late. He burst through the crowd and in an instant took in the scene before him.

  “Hold!” he cried.

  The torchbearer stayed his hand, anxiously looking up to the king. Lodestar snorted, and Erik directed him over to the dais, calling up to the king, “Father, you must not harm my wife. She is guiltless of all wrongdoing, and I am here to defend her innocence.”

  The king raised his hand, and his words were pitiless, his voice unyielding. “The sentence has been given and must be carried out. Stand aside or be proclaimed a traitor to the crown and share the traitor’s common fate.”

  Erik spun Lodestar around and cantered up to his wife strung up on the pyre, a stark white figure in her wool dress against the dark wood. He spoke so that only she could hear him. “Rosa, can you ever forgive me for my doubt?”

  Rosa’s translucent features lighted in radiance and love. Her voice murmured low with the gentle strength of joy safeguarded by peace. “Yes, my love. I am so happy that you have come back to me that nothing else matters. Erik, please stand aside. There is nothing more you can do, and I would not have you die.”

  Erik drank in the sight of his wife, and her courage strengthened his own resolution. Rosa’s eyes widened, and he saw their flicker of terror as she read the determination in his gaze.

  “Erik, no!” she cried.

  But he had already lunged forward and snatched the flaming torch from the surprised hands of the guard. He swerved his horse around, unsheathing his sword. “Whosoever wishes to harm the princess must pass through me first.”

  “And me as well!” Another voice cried as Dunstan pushed through the crowd on Embermane, his sword also held aloft.

  Riding up to the prince’s side, he said, “You didn’t think I would let you take all the glory, did you?” Their eyes locked, and Erik understood that this might be their last and greatest battle together, and he was glad that Dunstan was at his side.

  Both turned to face the king, and King Mark looked down on them from his elevation and said without a single tremor shadowing his face, “So be it. Guards, execute the crown prince and his companion as traitors to the crown.”

  The guards surged forward with gleaming swords and battle cries. The ringing clash of steel echoed through the mountain castle. Erik and Dunstan were mounted, while the guards were on foot, so they were able to defend themselves and disarm a fair number of soldiers. Then, out of the corner of his eye, Erik saw something streak past him towards Rosa. It was the queen, and she held a dagger of twisted iron.

  Erik urgently spurred Lodestar forward, and the prince and his horse burst through the circle of guards surrounding them. The queen reached the pyre, her arm lifted high to bury the ugly dagger in Rosa’s breast. Erik leapt from Lodestar’s back and ran her through the heart with his sword.

  The queen crumpled at the foot of the pyre and lay dead. Erik and Rosa locked eyes in horror. Their horror was echoed by the sharp cries of the crowd.

  Erik had no more time to reflect on what he had done and wheeled around to face the oncoming guards, incited to a greater ferocity by the queen’s death. He saw that Embermane had been brutally cut down from under Dunstan and that both he and his friend now had to fight on foot. They would soon be overwhelmed, and Erik steeled his heart to face his death.

  As he darted aside to dodge a blow to his head, he saw Dunstan go down out of the corner of his eyes. A fire coursed through his arm as his sword was knocked from his grasp. He was shoved to his knees beside Dunstan. His head yanked back by his hair, he felt cold steel rest against his neck.

  “Hold!” The command rang through the courtyard.

  It was Kenelm. The authority in the sword master’s voice stayed the guard’s hand. He called up to the king through the crowd. “Your highness, I beg of you mercy. Enough blood has been spilled! Show mercy and spare the life of your only son and heir!”

  An unnatural silence fell over the courtyard as the lords of the hall held their breaths and the guards waited for the king’s decision.

  But no word came.

  There was a stirring up in the dais and someone exclaimed, “The king is dead!”

  Shouts and cries erupted madly from the crowd, and the guard loosed Erik’s hair. Everyone gazed up at the king on the elevated dais, his unseeing eyes staring opaquely before him.

  The king’s physician ran up the elevation’s steps, and the crowd hushed to a murmur, waiting apprehensively for his verdict. The physician turned to the crowd. “The king is indeed dead. There is no wound, no blood. There is no obvious cause of his death.”

  The tense silence of horror settled over the crowd. Kenelm seized the opportunity to dash up to the top of the dais. He raised his right arm, and his voice projected through the crowd. “An awful judgment has been passed. The princess was clearly innocent, and the king was struck down in his guilt.” He grabbed a horn from the nearest herald and blasted a loud trumpet call, then cried. “The king is dead, long live the king!”

  The crowd erupted into cheers, while the guards nervously released the prince.

  Erik blinked in shock. He was king.

  Bending over to pick up his sword, he laid his hand on Dunstan’s shoulder. “Are you all right?”

  Dunstan groaned, “I’ll live.”

  Erik then stumbled to the pyre, cut Rosa loose from her bonds, and she fell into his arms. They held each other wordlessly, his dark head bowed over her fair one, and Erik could not believe how near he had come to losing her. Slowly he loosed the tightness of their embrace and looked down on the dead queen.

  “I would have spared her, despite everything, but she left me no choice,” he said.

  Rosa shuddered and looked away. “Come, let us go down. Your people are waiting.”

  They stepped down from the pyre, his arms still wrapped around her, and they walked up to the crowd, which parted before them. Erik climbed up the dais and knelt before the dead king, gazing at him sadly, and then closed his unseeing eyes.

  By the time he returned to Rosa’s side, Kenelm had dragged forward the current Captain of the Guard. Erik recognized Edgard, the young boy others had laughed at as a child. Rosa clutched Erik’s wrist, whispering, “He is the one who captured me at the farm.” Erik felt a stab of guilt and wondered what else Rosa had suffered because of his doubt.

  “I saw the captain attempt to make an escape and I bring him before your highness to question,” Kenelm spoke.

  Erik looked at his old sword master, his heart filled with gratitude. Both he and Rosa would most likely be dead if it hadn’t been for his unwavering loyalty, a loyalty that Erik did not even know that Kenelm had felt until now.

  Edgard dropped to his knees before Erik. “I beg your mercy, my lord. Death has marked all those who acted against you, and I am next on his fatal list. I beg you to spare me and I will confess my wrongdoing.”

  “Speak! I will not take your life no matter what crime you confess,” Erik promised.

  “It was at the queen’s bidding. She stole away your children with her sorcery and gave them to me. I and a few others under my direct command were posted outside your door.”

  Rosa gave a cry and knelt by the guard, grasping his hand. “My babies, are they alive?”

  Edgard avoided her gaze and stared down at the ground. “Forgive me, princess, the queen did not want their blood on her hands, so she had me take them out to the forest and leave them to the mercy of the wild beasts. Since they have not been found, I can only presume that they are dead.”

  Rosa’s sobs strangled her cry, and Erik knelt down by her side and took her in his arms, his heart also weighed by grief.

  “Your highness! Look!” one of the guards cried.

  A most wondrous and strange procession was riding through the c
astle gate. Two lords and five ladies on horseback were richly attired in the most brilliant hues. They were tall, high-featured, and serene. Their limbs carried grace, and their eyes shone like lights from the sky. A tall woman with flaming red hair was at the front, and by her side paced a large, silver wolf. The rest followed two by two, and their horse’s bridles tinkled with small, silver bells. At the rear of the company rode two ladies, one dark and one light, one draped in the flowing green of springtime, the other in the lightest silver, and they both bore a little child in their arms.

  Erik and Rosa stood in amazement, and Rosa could not tear her eyes away from the two children, the smallest merely an infant in the Green Lady’s arms. Rosa sprang with a cry and ran to her godmother, who gently lowered the sleeping infant into his mother’s outstretched arms. Behind her, the Silver Lady handed Erik a little girl with dark curls and eyes as blue as her mother’s. Both Erik and Rosa smothered their little ones with kisses and then threw their arms around each other, and laughter mingled with the tears they tasted on the other’s lips.

  In his joy, Erik gazed at the noble company before him. Some he recognized and some he did not, but he felt as if all were familiar somehow, as if each one had touched his life in some faint and elusive way. One of the Faerie Lords rode up beside him, and Erik looked into eyes swirling and shifting in color. The prince had a sudden vision of the old man in the boat on the Grey Lake, and the Faerie Lord gave the prince a mischievous grin.

  Erik turned to the Silver Lady. “Ninny Nanny, how is it that you have our children?”

  The golden-haired lord beside her said with bemusement, “Sister, is that the name you went by when you stayed behind in the Lothene wood? Surely the time has come for you to choose another?”

  “If you will, brother, it is the name I am most fond of.” Her eyes twinkled as she looked down at Erik, and they both smiled.

  “To answer your question, and this time I will speak clearly as the time for riddles is over, Mnemosyne has always watched over the margin between the castle and the wood. She saw the guard leave your children behind and brought them to me.”

  Erik looked about for the cat, but the Silver Lady said, “She is not here today, for she does not like large crowds. You will have your chance to thank her later.”

  Then a somber mood settled over Erik, and his voice took on a hard edge that caused little Orianna to duck her head in his shoulder.

  “Ninny Nanny, how did my father die?”

  The Silver Lady’s eyes gleamed in sympathy. “When the king had sentenced his only son to death, his heart turned to stone and burst his chest. The queen knew this and was not surprised, for she had been slowly turning his heart to stone since their wedding day.”

  Erik nodded soberly and turned to Rosa, who all this while had been throwing her arms around each of her faerie godparents, raining kisses down on the Silver Wolf, and somehow managing all throughout not to disturb the baby safely nestled at her breast.

  Just as he said to Rosa, “I want you to meet Ninny Nanny,” she turned to him and said, “I want you to meet the Green Lady.”

  They both burst into laughter.

  Rosa smiled up at the Silver Lady. “Are you one of my godmothers?”

  “I am, though I was not able to give you a gift on your Christening Day.”

  Rosa reached out and took the Silver Lady’s hand. “I know you. You made it so that I would sleep and not die and you gave me the gift of the singing pearls.” Then she said softly, “It is to you that I owe my many dreams, is it not?”

  The Silver Lady nodded. “Yes, I am the Lady of the Moon, and dreams are under my governance.”

  “You have watched over me, brought Erik to me, and saved my children. Oh, dear godmother, I can never thank you enough.”

  Erik gave Rosa and the Silver Lady a moment and turned to the Green Lady. As he gazed into those ageless eyes of dawn and dusk and all the time between, his heart grew hushed, and he knew that he stood before a great lady, very old and very wise.

  He knelt down before her, but he heard her say, “Erik, arise.” As he stood up, he saw that she was smiling and that her smile made her as youthful as a maiden.

  “O wise lady, you are ever welcome in my kingdom, and you will always possess my heart’s gratitude for keeping Rosa in your loving care.”

  The Green Lady laughed, and her laughter was like a singing brook and the wind rustling through wildflowers, and it made Erik laugh as well.

  Rosa joined him and took his hand.

  The Green Lady spoke. “You both bear our thanks as well. For you have undone an old curse that was cast long before the princess was born, back at the founding of the kingdom in the dreaded hall of the Lord of the Glass Mountain. At that time, a young king feared the powerful faerie lord and betrayed his wife unto him, and, ever since, the seeds of jealously and discord have divided this kingdom. But, when the prince laid down his life for the princess, he redeemed the first king’s offense, and now the kingdom will be renewed.”

  Erik and Rosa gazed in wonder at each other, and Erik humbly realized that they had played a part in much larger story than he would ever understand.

  The Green Lady spoke again. “We of the Faerie Company would remain with you for the evening and then crown you king and queen of Lothene on the morrow.”

  “My lady, do as you will. You honor me and the kingdom.”

  Erik and Rosa then led the faerie company within the castle, and all the noblemen and women, all the castle servants and guards, all the people from the city and the country, looked after them in awe, for living myth and legend stood in their midst.

  The kingdom held its breath at the mystery of it.

  AS the company left the courtyard, it was as if a cloud of reverent silence had been lifted, and Dunstan looked about him. “Where is Emma?” he asked sharply.

  Kenelm held up the circle of jangling keys he had lifted from Edgard. “I believe she was imprisoned when the princess first escaped.”

  Dunstan snatched the keys and ran speedily down to the dungeons and found the princess’ handmaid. He saw that she had been crying, and, when he opened the door, Emma exclaimed, “Oh, Dunstan! Have you found the prince? Everything is terrible! The princess is imprisoned and will be sentenced to death.”

  He took her outstretched hand and said, “You don’t have to cry anymore, Emma, for everything is marvelously changed. The king and queen are dead, the prince and princess have been saved, and a faerie company stepping out from one of the old stories is staying at the castle. Erik and Rosa will be crowned King and Queen of Lothene on the morrow.”

  Emma face was full of disbelief, but then she gave a cry and bent over to look at one of his wounds. “You’ve been hurt! How did this happen? You must let me bind this for you.”

  “In a moment, my ministering angel,” said Dunstan, taking both her hands and drawing her close to him.

  “Danger seems to find me more often than not. How about you marry me, so that you can make sure that I survive all my wounds?”

  Emma did not answer him in words, but she said “yes” all the same.

  THE Silver Lady waited in her rose garden and looked up at the moon. Its gentle light illuminated the flowers and cast her fair hair in a silver sheen. The faerie lady turned when she heard footsteps, and her eyes lighted upon the Golden King as he stepped into the moon’s light. Both the king and the faery gazed at the other for a long while, and finally the faerie lady said, “Your golden hair has grown white, my lord.”

  “It grew white with sorrow watching the suffering of mortal kind.”

  “You have seen much in your wanderings.”

  The king approached her and took her hands gently into his. “I have wandered much and seen much with a weary heart, for all was broken and forgotten, and I was far from home.”

  Then the Silver Lady spoke. “But now all is healed, and Erik and Rosa’s love will renew the broken kingdom. The seeds of their love will supplant the seeds of jealousy pl
anted long ago, for love is without measure, and jealousy will eventually expend itself. How long it takes for mortals to learn what is truly beautiful and lasting in the world.”

  “It takes a lifetime, and, when it is discovered, our lives are over, and the young pay no heed to words of warning learned from bitter suffering and tears.”

  “Time’s wheel has come around full circle, and no revolution is ever the same. Yet there is always hope. Though the faerie and mortal realms will never again be one, here we see a new beginning. The mortal realm will continue to wrestle and strive for its full growth in governing its dominion, but Faerie will always whisper in the mystery of things for those who have hearts that listen. Both Rosa and Erik have such hearts, and they will govern the kingdom well.”

  Auryn smiled at his faerie lady, and his dark eyes took on the light of faerie kind. “And at the completion of the wheel’s circle, my time in the mortal realm has ended. May I return home with you, my lady?”

  “Indeed, my lord, for the faerie realm is also no longer my home unless you are in it. I took on mortal guise, so that I could in some way partake in your suffering.”

  The Golden King kissed the Silver Lady and said, “But now the time for tears is over, now is the time for joy.”

  The two stepped out of the rose garden and into Faerie.

  THE next morning Erik and Rosa were crowned King and Queen of Lothene in the great hall of Midloth castle. The Green Lady placed golden crowns upon their heads, and the faerie lords and ladies bestowed new gifts on them and their children.

  Erik looked at the gathering before him and saw Dunstan and the dark-haired Emma both smiling at Rosa, their faces alight with their own happiness. He saw the Grey Hawk and his men, for the Lord Gavin had heard that Rosa was in danger and had mustered his forces in her defense. He had arrived a day too late to save her, but just in time for the coronation. Beside the western lord stood Kenelm, wearing the insignia of the king’s chief steward, second only to Erik in all the realm.