by Paige Elwood
“I have no idea,” Max shrugged,
“Well, it was silly anyway. Let’s forget about it,” Sarah said, handing him an enormous wrench.
“Forget about what?” Max said.
“I have no idea,” Sarah grinned.
Max and Sarah managed to occupy themselves building the prototype for a few hours, until Henry arrived.
“It’s time,” he said.
They hid the Onager under a sackcloth and smuggled it out via the passageways. Henry had arranged a distraction for the guards, which turned out to be the pen full of goats rampaging through the courtyard.
“We have a few minutes,” he said, hurrying them along. They wheeled the Onager to the street where the coach waited, and the driver helped them haul it into the carriage.
“How are you going to get it back in?” Sarah asked.
“If it works?” Max said. “through the front door. I’ll need my father’s blessing and assistance to build them, or this will all have been for nothing.”
“So why the secrecy getting it here?” she asked.
“Until I know it works I can’t persuade him,” Max explained. “If I can prove it works, then he will want to help me build them. Until then, it’s just my frivolous hobby.”
The carriage pulled to a halt, and Max climbed out first, helping Sarah and Henry down. That jolt as he took her hand was becoming familiar, and it wasn’t entirely unwanted.
He watched Sarah's face as she took in the wide-open countryside. There was nothing but fields for miles, with a little woodland visible in the distance. Even the castle wasn’t easily seen from here. The late afternoon sun beat down mercilessly on them, and Max wiped away a bead of sweat that trickled down his forehead and the center of his nose.
They set up the Onager at one end of the field, and Henry used small gray stones to lay six targets, each spaced several yards apart. Max set to work with Sarah, looking for rocks to load the catapult with.
"Where will you find the right size rocks for the full-sized version?” Sarah huffed, her arms straining at the weight of the two large rocks cradled there.
"We'll get men to break up large boulders to the right size,” Max said. "Or we'll find a way to make the fireball work."
Sarah dropped the rocks to the ground with a large thud. Max unloaded the three he was carrying next to it, relief spreading through his arms as he unburdened them.
“Ok, we're ready,” Sarah said, watching Henry laying the targets in the distance.
"He doesn’t like me much, does he?" she said, nodding towards the stooped figure methodically placing stones.
"I'm sure he does," Max said. "He just takes time to get to know, that’s all."
"No, I'm pretty sure he doesn’t like me," Sarah insisted. "I just don’t know why."
"You're just a mystery to him, and he's a cautious man," Max said. They both stopped talking as the figure on the horizon turned and started making his way slowly back towards the hill.
Max tilted his face towards the sunshine. It felt good to be outside, miles away from the castle, and in good company. He shaded his eyes with his hand and glanced across at Sarah. He saw that she was also enjoying the sun, her head tilted back, and her eyes closed.
Her neckline had slipped, exposing one shoulder, and he admired the shapely curve of it. There was definition there that was uncommon for a lady of good standing, but the effect on Sarah was very becoming. She was strong, in all senses of the word, and was someone he could rely on for intellectual debate or to carry heavy rocks around a field in an afternoon. He’d never known a woman quite like her.
Henry sat himself down next to Max. "All ready, Your Highness," he said.
Max surveyed the targets. In theory, all he should have to do to hit each target was to set the lever point on the Onager. It was designed to fire a set number of yards depending on the starting point of the catapult. If it was accurate, it would be invaluable in both close and far-range battles.
He loaded the first rock into the shallow bowl and set the lever for short-range. "Keep your fingers crossed," he said.
He released the lever mechanism and the machine sprung to life. A collective sharp intake of breath pierced the silence, followed by spontaneous cheering and clapping from his two friends when the rock landed square on the target.
When he tested the final, and furthest setting, their cheers were deafening as it landed smack in the middle, just like all the previous tests. The Onager worked! It was unfortunate that they hadn't perfected the fireball, but it was still a valuable weapon as it was. The afternoon was fast turning into evening, and it was time to get back to the castle.
The carriage ride home took almost an hour, and the sun had set so there was little in the way of view. Sarah gazed up through the carriage window at the moon, full and round in the sky.
"I had a nanny once who used to tell me tales about the moon," Max said.
She turned and smiled, and his heart somersaulted in his chest. Her cheeks were delicately flushed from an afternoon in the sun, and her freckles a little darker across her nose. Her hair had come lose in sections from her braids and strands tumbled over her shoulders. Her dress was modest, but the swell of her chest was peeking just slightly from the top, and it was all Max could do to keep his eyes off it.
"My gramma told me some too," Sarah said. "I was fascinated with the moon as a child. I would always look up out of my window and night to see it."
"Me too!" Max said.
"What stories did she tell you?"
"She told me that the moon was once a beautiful princess, but she was so beautiful that every suitor wanted to marry her. She fell in love with a farm hand, and her father threatened to have her banished if she didn’t marry the suitor he chose. The princess was so unhappy that her heart broke on the spot, and her soul flew up into the sky where she became the moon, watching down over all of the lovers in the evenings, giving them her blessings and mourning her own lost love."
"That's so beautiful, and so sad!" Sarah said, gazing back up at the moon with wide eyes.
"She told me a lot of stories," Max said, "I used to love hearing them."
"Tell me another one,” Sarah said.
"She told me one once about a vulture that carried away a young Prince to his nest, hoping to keep him there. Nobody could rescue the Prince because the vulture's nest was so high, and the vulture had powerful allies. Everybody thought he was doomed forever. But a brave young Princess heard of his plight and traveled for a long time to reach the Prince's land. She had a special weapon that she had forged, and with it she defeated the vulture and rescued the Prince. When they met, they fell immediately in love and were married the next day."
"That's so strange" Sarah said. "My gramma told me something a little like that one, but the story she told me was of a young princess who lived in a land far advanced beyond the others. One day she heard a story of a young prince who had been kidnapped, and she knew she had to help. She consulted the wisest leaders in her land and found the best weapon she could, and then she travelled a great distance to the prince’s land. By the time she arrived, everybody feared the Prince was already dead, but she would not give up. She found where he was being held captive and laid siege to the captor’s den. When the prince was freed she laid eyes on him and immediately knew that he was her one true love. They were married the next day."
"It's the same tale," Max grinned.
"But told from a different perspective," Sarah said. "I wonder if it was based on the same original tale?"
"Perhaps, there are often many versions of the same story that get told."
"I know, you wouldn’t believe how many versions of Cinderella exist in my land!" Sarah laughed. "I told you my favorite and one of the most common, but there are some very different versions of it floating around."
"I'd like to hear them," Max said. He glanced out of the window, noting that they were almost back at the castle. "Perhaps tomorrow we could share stories?”
He could feel her warm breath, her soft lips just a tiny movement away. Their eyes locked, and for a moment he thought he might kiss her. Then, a loud snore from Henry brought them both back down to earth, and they sprang apart.
“Sorry,” Sarah said. “I almost slipped.”
“You should take greater care,” Max said, ducking back into the carriage to wake Henry, and to take a moment to regain his composure.
He’d almost kissed her, in the street! There was nobody but the coach driver to witness it, but he couldn’t risk behaving like that. The whole kingdom knew he was betrothed to another. It would ruin Sarah’s reputation, and put his betrothal in jeopardy, making his father very angry. He needed to control himself better.
Henry woke with a jolt when Max shook him gently by the shoulder, and the two men pulled the Onager off the carriage. They wheeled it back through the castle courtyard, ignoring the strange looks from the guards. They didn’t need the secrecy anymore, and it felt strange. Max just hoped his father would get on board with his idea. But it was the perfect solution, so he was confident his father couldn’t refuse. Sarah snuck into the castle via the passageways, he didn’t want to implicate her in his hobbies in case his father didn’t approve.
Chapter 29
Sarah tossed and turned in the moonlight streaming through the window of her bedchamber. Her mind was on overtime and she just couldn’t quiet it down. The last twenty-four hours had been a rollercoaster ride. She’d gone from floating on air to having her heart ripped out, and then replaced repeatedly.
This love was impossible, and yet it was perfect. She couldn’t just let it go — that wasn’t an option. She thought of that second time she’d ended up in his arms. It was like coming home, his strong hands on her waist. She knew he felt something too; the electricity between them couldn’t be denied. And his eyes gave him away. She’d seen the longing looks he threw her way when he thought nobody was looking.
And he didn’t love Katherine. She knew it, had seen the sincerity in his eyes when he’d said it. He hadn’t written that poem, so that was a mystery. Katherine must have just found it. Who had it been written for?
She dug in the hole in the mattress for her ring. Panic gripped her when her hand didn’t immediately land on it, but after a few minutes her fingers touched the cold metal. She retrieved it, plucked off the strands of straw that were stuck to it, and slipped it onto her finger. She felt better with the ring on. More… complete.
Maybe the legend her gramma had told her was true. According to the family legend, it would lead the wearer to their true love in their twenty-fifth year. She’d been wearing the ring when she travelled, could it have been the ring’s power that brought her here? Max was the reason she was here all along. They were destined to be together, and if centuries couldn’t keep them apart, then the technicality of his betrothal couldn’t either.
Max had the other, twin ring to her own, and his nanny who had given him the ring had told him a similar story to the one her gramma had told her. That couldn’t just be a coincidence, could it? She held out her hand, admiring the ring. She needed to come clean and tell Max the truth about how she got here, where she was from, and where she got her ring.
Would he think she was crazy? Maybe, but love needed to be built on truth and trust. She wasn’t sure her heart could take it if he rejected her, but she equally could not live a lie. So, the truth was the best option. The only option, when you thought about it.
She just didn’t know how to tell him. She wanted to approach it as best she could and get the timing right. How would she position it without sounding completely insane? She ran through the possibilities in her head.
‘I know this sounds insane, but I traveled back in time from the 21st century because we’re destined to be together.” To the point, but perhaps a bit too direct.
Maybe she should lead into it by getting him to confirm he trusted her and had feelings for her. He would be more receptive then to the message. Was that manipulative? No, she decided. She had only one chance to get this right, and there was no way she could afford to get it wrong.
The next morning, after a fitful sleep, she met Max as they had arranged, for yoga and a self-defense lesson. She’d been impressed with his progress at yoga. He’d clearly been keeping up with daily yoga practice, even on the days she wasn’t there. He managed even the intermediate poses with ease now, so she’d have to step it up a little next time.
Her own progress at self-defense was slightly slower. They had moved on from dodging to her attacking him back. Sarah had attended a couple of Brazilian jujitsu classes at the local gym, so she wasn’t completely ignorant of the principles Max was teaching, but she was distracted and a little rusty.
“You can hit me harder than that,” Max laughed when she landed a weak jab to his chest. “And aim for the more vulnerable places. Throat, stomach perhaps. A knee to the gentleman’s area can be very effective as well.”
She nodded, throwing another half-hearted punch towards his stomach. He easily blocked it. “Come on. You can do better than this. Imagine I’m one of those bandits that attacked you!”
The air left Sarah’s lungs and she sat on the grass, all the energy drained out of her. “Sarah?” Max said. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you remember a bad experience.”
“No, it’s not that,” she said, her heart hammering in her chest. Now was the time. The ring burned on her hand — it had come alive as soon as she had seen Max. She couldn’t lie any more. “It’s just that I wasn’t entirely honest with you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I wasn’t attacked by bandits.” she said. She started to pick at her nails. “I woke up in the castle.”
Max frowned. “What do you mean, you woke up in the castle? How did you get there?”
She gave a helpless shrug. “I don’t know. One minute I was home, and the next minute I woke up here,”
“Where exactly is home?”
“The 21st century.”
A long silence stretched between them. Max rubbed at the back of his neck. “You traveled through time?”
“I believe so. Either that, or this is a really messed up dream,” she joked.
“We can’t both be having the same dream,” Max said.
“All I know is that I passed out and woke up here. And ever since I did, my ring has been behaving strangely. I also noticed that you have an almost identical one — as does Katherine.”
Max took her hand, tilting it this way and that, inspecting the ring. His touch sent a fire through her that she could hardly control. She swallowed. “This is… I thought I lost it!” Max said.
“How could you lose it? Isn’t Katherine wearing it?”
“I had a duplicate made for Katherine. When I met her and my ring didn’t react I wanted to hide the real ring. I had someone create a fake that I could give to Katherine. I had a fake version of my own created too, although I never ended up wearing that one.”
“I thought hers looked…wrong somehow,” Sarah mused.
“The real ring went missing days ago.” Max’s eyes flitted from the ring to her face and back again.
“When, exactly?” She asked. He looked at her blankly. “When was the last time you saw it?”
“The day before you arrived.” He held her gaze. “Did you take it?”
“No!” she said, indignantly, “My gramma gave me this ring. It was handed down through my family. She told me it would one day lead me to my true love. I thought it was just a fairy tale.”
“My ring reacts to your presence, too,” he
said, looking down at his own hand. “It’s been driving me mad!”
“So you believe me?” she said, tears pricking her eyes.
“I don’t… I don’t know.”
Crestfallen, she buried her head in her hands. Max continued to speak. “I’ve been able to tell you were hiding something. Early on I thought you might be a spy for King Benak, but then I got to know you and realized that was absurd. I thought you’d eventually open up about your secret but this…” He held up his hands as if in surrender. “It’s a lot to take in.”
“It’s been a lot for me to handle, too,” she said, wiping at the wetness on her face.
“I know, but at least you’ve always had the full story,” Max said. “Please understand, this is quite the revelation you’ve dropped on me.”
“But you feel it too? It’s not just the ring that reacts when I’m with you. I haven’t even had mine on for days.”
She looked at him, her eyes swollen and her throat thick with emotion. “It’s here,” she touched her breast over her heart. “Here is where I feel the difference when I’m with you.”
“I feel it too,” he said, his voice catching on the words.
“So, you agree? We need to do something, end the betrothal, find a way to be together?” she said, hope rising in her.
He held his hands up to stem the rising tide of her hope. “I need time, I can’t agree to this.” At her small, shaky sobs, he sat down next to her, so close their shoulders touched. “Don’t cry. There’s nothing we could do yet anyway. My father is due to return in two days. I can’t break off the betrothal without his blessing. Let me think this through and give you an answer before he returns.”
She gave him a small nod.
Sarah spent the next few days in a fog. She ran, she did yoga, she tried to meditate, but nothing could take her mind off the predicament. It was worse than waiting for her final Thesis grade. She could only hope and pray that Max would recognize what they had and that it was worth any fight.
