by Casey Lane
The barkeep didn't hesitate, and within seconds, Fenryk had a fresh drink in his grasp.
He cleared his throat. "Now where was I?"
Another patron piped up. "A monster was about to kill you and steal your souls!"
Fenryk sent another wink Colt's way.
The squire had been with his knight for half a decade. In that time, they'd been through some incredible adventures. He never dreamed that he and Fenryk The Great would slay monsters together and rescue princesses.
He also never realized that it was up to the hero to tell his own story... and apparently the truth was nothing more than the first draft.
"Without the power of my own sight, I used my keen hearing to detect the beast."
After tripping a few times.
"When I was sure the creature was before me, I grinned and swung my sword!"
Nearly taking my head off in the process.
"The monster was so fast it avoided my first few attacks."
You were way off and hit nothing but air.
"But after we exchanged blows for hours—"
A few minutes—
"The foul creature fell to my blade."
It literally fell. It tripped in the dark and accidentally stabbed itself to death.
The knight rifled through his pack and pulled out a shining golden pendant. "All that was left was the treasure we sought in the first place. Behold the Eye of Falconia."
The patrons "oohed" and "ahhhed" at the treasure. Colt looked up from his drink at the fake piece of jewelry. In reality, the dead creature did actually yield the very valuable Eye of Falconia, but it was about as rotten and disgusting as the crypt had been. Colt sold the original in Martone and used a portion of the proceeds to have a much shinier replica made. It was significantly more impressive than the real thing would've been.
Colt continued to nurse his ale as Fenryk shook the hands of every last drunk. With the barkeep just about ready to close up, the knight took the seat next to his squire for the first time that evening.
Fenryk leaned onto Colt's shoulder, putting nearly all of his massive weight onto the smaller, leaner man. "That will never get old. My leather armor will rot and decay. Even my body will someday fall to the ravages of time." He grinned an intoxicated grin. "But I will never tire of spreading my story throughout the world."
Colt raised his thin, auburn eyebrows. "A version of your story."
Fenryk slapped the squire's shoulder with a meaty hand. "Everything is a version of the truth, my boy. If the real story isn't worth sharing, then you need to create. You need to embellish. You need to make it feel more real than the original."
Colt pushed his drink away and chewed on his narrow cheek. "And you need to go to sleep." He pulled out a few coins and placed them on the counter.
The barkeep scampered over and made a gesture with his hands. "I sold five times as many drinks as usual while you told your tale. Don't even think about paying me."
Colt sighed. "At least somebody got their money’s worth."
Fenryk pushed himself up to standing, almost falling over in the process before grabbing the bar with his fingers. "See, nothing pays as well as a good story." Said as he attempted and failed to focus on the tavern's owner. "Thank you, my good sir."
The barkeep suddenly looked up and put a hand to his chin. "You know, I might actually have something for the two of you. It's no ferocious crypt monster, but it's our own little ghost tale that you might want to insert yourselves into."
Colt's heart sank. The Wooded Plains had been far less green than he'd hoped for, and three days in the nearly desolate area was more than enough.
Fenryk lurched forward with an almost maniacal smile. "A new quest? Tell me everything!"
The tavern's owner leaned his pudgy face toward them. "A few miles outside of the village, there's talk of an isolated tower with no way inside where a beautiful princess lives alone."
Fenryk looked over at his squire. "You know, I have been meaning to settle down."
Colt rolled his eyes. "You're about as likely to settle down as you are to get up to your room without me to help you."
The barkeep's voice dropped to a whisper. "Dozens of heroes had the same idea as you. Scale the tower. Save the princess. Except nobody has ever returned alive."
Colt snorted. "It's obvious. There's gotta be some mercenaries hiding by the tower who kill anybody who comes by."
"Legend says it's the tower itself who kills them." The barkeep wiped out one of the glasses. "And so far, nobody's been strong enough to get past it."
Fenryk clenched his fists. "Not strong enough, eh?" He took a long, unsteady step away from the bar. "Colt? Get my horse ready. It's time to save a—"
Between the sudden burst of adrenaline and the lack of a bar to hold him upright, Fenryk was in no position to stay standing. He collapsed to the ground in a drunken heap.
Colt rolled his shoulders in preparation for the long trip upstairs.
The barkeep leaned over to look at the fallen hero. "You need a hand, son?"
"No thanks. Sometimes carrying him is the best training I get all day."
With a grunt, Colt got his hands under the armpits of the now-sleeping Fenryk.
The tavern's owner grinned. "You know, if you two save that princess, you'll practically be immortal."
Colt used his legs and lower back to get some momentum as he started to drag the hero toward the staircase. "Seems like there's always one way or another to get immortality. Problem is, sometimes you have to die to do it." The squire huffed as he pulled Fenryk The Great toward him. "Thanks again for the drinks."
The barkeep nodded as Colt continued the most difficult of his squirely duties.
Chapter 3
Rapunzel did everything she could to pry her eyes from the mirror that her possessed hair pushed into her face. When a solid 10 minutes had gone by, she finally gave in to the temptation. A thick collection of blond strands wrapped itself around the stem of the looking glass and held it up to Rapunzel at eye level. Despite the fact that she'd been crying ever since her curse had taken its latest victim, her eyes weren't puffy. They were as blue as the oceans she hadn't seen for decades. Her face was smooth, unblemished, and youthful, but the only people who'd seen it of late ended up dead. Rapunzel's lips were thick and naturally red, even though she guessed she'd never use them again.
Her voice was barely audible. "I'm beautiful."
The hair seemed satisfied for the moment before whisking the mirror away to an unknown corner. Ever since she tried to smash her face into the glass, her gatekeeper had hidden most of the deadly or damaging items in the tower.
After a long breath, Rapunzel picked herself up out of a comfortable wooden chair and walked to the dining area. As there was every morning, a small plate of delicious food had somehow made it to her table. She recognized the fresh berries as being native to the area. The roasted meat was from a local animal as well. Rapunzel tried not to imagine her hair reaching out into the forest and killing a woodland creature as easily as it had dispatched her latest "savior" the previous night.
She sat down in front of the food and began eating. Previous efforts to starve herself had ended about as well as the mirror incident. After a week of force-feedings, Rapunzel decided it was less effort to do exactly what she was supposed to do to maintain her beauty.
She would eat the three small meals each day. She would move around the tower to maintain her fitness. She would bathe each day in water prepared by her cursed hair. If she didn't, there would be consequences. She'd experienced every last one in over 30 years in the tower.
"It's not worth it." Rapunzel finished the last bite of meat. "It's never worth it."
She felt her hair shifting its shape behind her. Every time it moved, she could feel her scalp working like a puppeteer. At any given moment, the blond trail behind her could be hunting for lunch, patching a hole in a worn outfit, and killing the next hero-in-waiting simultaneously.
"And all the while, I'm the perfect, preserved toy."
Rapunzel hadn't aged a day from her 20th birthday. Truth be told, she even looked a little younger than that.
"And the only one I can blame for that… is myself."
Rapunzel dabbed the corner of her mouth with a napkin. As she set it down, she spied her hair working its way up the opposite wall. Rapunzel held her breath and narrowed her eyes at the warden of her world. With a swift kick, she sent the table flying into the wall, pinning the long blond strands against the stone.
The beautiful prisoner stood in a hurry and sprinted away. As her hair pulled itself free from the momentary trap, Rapunzel had made it halfway to the open window. Her heart beat so quickly, and she could feel the room darken as she made a flying leap for the outside world. The moment her skin warmed from contact with the mid-morning sun, four bunches of hair wrapped themselves around both wrists and ankles.
She struggled against the bindings. "Let me die! I don't want this anymore!"
If the hair had any sympathy for her plight, it certainly didn't show it. As she was brought back inside and lowered to the floor, a thick wall of Rapunzel's own blond strands covered the window from top to bottom.
She knew the drill. She'd get the sunlight back when she started behaving again. At least, that's how things had worked after her last few attempts to end her life.
Her pulse continued to race as the hair slipped itself off her ankles. "I won't give up. No matter how long it takes, I'll find a way out."
Rapunzel had regained her calm by the time night fell. She sat in the corner reading a book left by one of the fallen knights. Like most of the literature left by the deceased adventurers, it was hero worship through and through. Large, burly men saving pubescent damsels in distress.
From the outside, she imagined her imprisonment looked like the perfect scenario to live out heroic dreams. She wondered how many of the champions who approached her tower knew it was where dreams came to die.
Rapunzel heard a noise in the distance. She looked toward the window before remembering it was covered up by the hair. The captive tried to ignore the sound, but her ears and nerves were too sensitive for that.
She used her mind to picture the source of the sound. The cadence of the hooves was slightly off. It took a second for her to realize it was two galloping horses that approached.
"Two heroes headed my way." She sighed and looked back down at her book. "That means twice as much blood on my hands."
Chapter 4
Colt had done everything in his power to convince Fenryk to wait another day. But as mid-day arrived and the knight had eaten his way out of a hangover, the two mythmakers began preparing to save a princess. While Fenryk shined his armor and gargled a special potion a witch had given him to whiten his teeth, Colt asked around town about the girl in the tower.
Most of the townspeople he approached were too frightened to even discuss the legend. Others had obviously heard from the far-flung ends of rumor, alternating between a set of 50 dragons that guarded the tower or a portal that magically transported all approaching heroes to Hell. In hours of reconnaissance, Colt only met one person who was willing to parse fact from rumor. Unsurprisingly, it came from his ideal scouting source: an old man who had no time for fairy tales.
The man's bones seemed to creak as he spoke. "The rumors of a girl in a tower have been around these parts since I became a grandfather. If someone is in that tower, there's no way she's still a girl."
Colt cracked a smile. "Unless magic is involved."
"If a cow goes missing, your neighbor stole it. If anyone but a butcher has dried blood on his knife, he doubles as a thief. I ain't foolish enough to think magic isn't real, but 9 times out of 10, I go with the explanation that makes sense."
Colt took the old man by the bony shoulder. "So, what's the explanation that makes sense with the tower?"
The man snorted. "If there's a woman in this tower and heroes keep disappearing, then she's the one killing 'em."
As Colt and Fenryk rode toward the tower, the old man's words echoed in the squire's mind.
"You're weak for women. What if she stabs you in the back?"
Fenryk laughed. "That's what the armor is for."
Colt pursed his lips. "And if she gets you out of your clothes?"
The knight winked. "Then that's one heck of a way to be remembered."
Colt shook his head. He knew that in the heat of battle, Fenryk The Great didn't make many mistakes. In the bedroom, on the other hand, Colt had been the only thing keeping his master alive from thieves, assassins, and witches.
Of course, the squire rarely made his way into any of those bawdy tales.
As they reached the top of a sparse, half-green hill, Colt spotted the tower. It was a tall, stone structure in the middle of a dry field. If there were hidden bandits ready to ambush them, the only place they could hide was the tower itself. Colt's skin grew itchy underneath his tunic.
"Maybe the old man is right. We should turn back, Fenryk."
The hero pulled up his horse next to his squire's. "Oh, come on. We're not even going to see what she looks like?"
"Everyone who has laid eyes on her hasn't lived to tell the tale. Isn't that the main purpose of this little jaunt?"
Fenryk was about to cajole his horse to gallop, but Colt stopped him with an outstretched palm.
"Let me get a better look first."
Fenryk conceded as the squire withdrew a high-powered scope from his pocket. Colt focused the glass and peered out through the hole. The moonlight was just enough to illuminate the tower. The stonework from top to bottom was incredible, as if an expert craftsman had imagined the building into life.
"Whoever built this thing could give the village lessons on design. Or they've got magic on their side."
As Colt examined the tower more closely, he saw something that gave him pause.
He passed the scope to the knight. "There's something wrapped around the stone. Any idea what it is?"
Fenryk grunted as he looked through the hole. "It's probably just rope. Have we done enough scouting to make you hap—"
"If there's a rope, she could climb down." Colt unhooked a large bow from the side of his steed. "I'm trying one last thing before we go closer."
Fenryk laughed. "You're the one who gives the orders now?"
Colt ignored the knight and pulled an arrow from his quiver. "Let me test one little theory."
With a strong pull and a high arc, the squire loosed an arrow into the night sky. He yanked the scope back from the hero and peered through it. As the arrow hit the crest of its path and headed down, its trajectory put it right into the center of the tower.
The knight folded his arms. "This is a waste of time. If you want to hide out here while I go ah—"
"Shhh."
When the arrow came within a few feet of the tower, the alleged rope began to move. Just before the projectile hit the stone, whatever it was that wrapped itself around the tower reached out and grabbed the arrow by the hilt. The wooden tip came mere inches from impacting the stone.
Colt handed the scope back. "At least we know it's not bandits."
As soon as Fenryk spied the arrow suspended in mid-air, his shoulders slumped. "Witchcraft. Fantastic."
"An approach from the front is going to get us killed."
Fenryk's lips curled up into a smile. Colt knew that smile. It was a smile bound to get them both in trouble.
"Don't worry, my boy. When a hero sees a door close… he calls in a favor."
Chapter 5
Rapunzel felt the light of morning on her face and she turned on her side to avoid it. While the two approaching riders hadn't come any closer the night before last, she couldn't help but wonder when the next victim would present himself. She sighed and was extremely surprised to hear another one in response.
"You're so beautiful when you're sleeping."
Rapunzel's eyes shot open as she turned to the sound. She'd recogniz
e that voice anywhere.
"Corryn? But how?"
Rapunzel's burly suitor shifted his solid jaw into a smile. "I know I'm not supposed to be up here, but I couldn't resist on your birthday."
The captive glanced up. She was no longer in the tall, isolated prison. Rapunzel was back in her room so many leagues away. So many years ago.
Her voice shivered. "Please make this last forever."
Corryn bent his broad shoulders toward her. "I'm not sure I'm ready for a proposal, Princess. But I could be persuaded."
Rapunzel let the real world slip away as she placed her hand on her suitor's stubble. She absorbed as much of the warmth from his face as she could. "Then you'll just have to stay unready. If it's my birthday, then I get what I want, not you."
The apparition before her raised his thick eyebrows. "And what if the thing you want and the thing I want are identical?"
Rapunzel took his cheek with her other hand and brought her lips so close to his, she could taste them. "I think you're trying too hard." She pushed off his face and rolled off the other side of her soft, forgiving mattress. "Now you better get out of here before my parents see you. You could be banished."
"You'd still travel to see me, right?"
Rapunzel looked down at her silky nightclothes. Even in a memory, they felt like magic on her skin.
"It depends. What did you get me?"
Corryn grinned, revealing the minor imperfection of a tooth he chipped in a sparring match. "Close your eyes."
As Rapunzel complied, a cool breeze pressed into her cheeks.
When she opened her eyes, she was somewhere else completely. The sound of lightly clacking hooves surrounded her. The red dress she remembered so well hugged her curves. Morning had given way to sunset. "It's going by too quickly again."
"I can ask him to go slower, my dear."
Rapunzel looked to her right and saw the perfect example of a gentleman in Roddick. He was much leaner than his rival for her affection, but he also had the family pedigree her parents might approve of. Rapunzel pushed away residual memories of his lesser qualities and focused in on what made him shine.
