His Abducted Bride

by Ruth Ann Nordin

  ***

  Sandy strolled down the corridor later that day, ever mindful of the flickering light provided by torches that did little to banish the shadows. She hated the shadows. Though she wasn’t one to get easily spooked, she quickened her pace, trying not to imagine something horrible lurking in them.

  “I can outrun you,” the guard a few feet away from her warned as she turned down another corridor.

  She glanced at the guard. He was so quiet, she barely remembered he was behind her. Right after breakfast, King Blackheart insisted she be guarded at all times.

  “Nothing personal,” he’d told her. “I just can’t have the queen running off on me.”

  Now as she thought of his ridiculous statement, she wanted nothing more than to go up to him and say if he was that concerned, he should be the one following her instead of making someone else do his dirty work.

  “Where are you going?” the guard asked.

  “If you follow me long enough, you’ll find out,” she muttered under her breath.

  “I beg your pardon, my lady. I didn’t hear what you said.”

  She groaned and stopped so she could face him. “All I’m doing is exploring my prison.”

  “Prison? Do you mean you wish to see the dungeon?”

  “No. I mean all of this,” she motioned to the walls. “This is my prison.” For emphasis, she added, “My dungeon.”

  “That’s ridiculous. You’re going to be the queen. This is your castle.”

  “That’ll be the day,” she muttered and continued striding down the corridor.

  “Forgive me, my lady, but I didn’t catch what you said.”

  “It’s nothing,” she called out over her shoulder and quickened her pace.

  Man, if only there was a way to get rid of the guard, then she could relax. Better yet, she could figure out a way to escape. She knew what the king was doing. He was making sure she didn’t get a chance to leave the castle. And that was what made this place a prison. A prison, by definition, was a place where one couldn’t leave. She decided not to explain this to the guard. What was the use? He was a lackey who was doing what he was told.

  She slowed her steps as an idea came to her. Turning to the guard, she said, “I must use the bathroom.”

  He furrowed his eyebrows. “Bathroom?”

  “Yes. The bathroom. It’s that place you go to when you need to...you know…” When he didn’t help her, she bluntly finished, “Go pee.”

  “Oh! You want to go to the water-closet.”

  She frowned. A water-closet? “I’ve never heard that term, so I know I didn’t write it into this story. How did you come up with it?”

  “It’s what the room is called, my lady.”

  “I gathered that much, but who came up with the word?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve known that’s what the room is called ever since I was a boy.”

  She studied him, wondering if he was baiting her, but he seemed sincere. Finally, she sighed. “Okay. Take me to the water-closet.”

  He nodded and passed her. She followed him and saw that the bathroom only had a sink and toilet, but at least the toilet was one she could flush.

  “I’ll give you some privacy while you attend to your needs, my lady,” the guard said then closed the door after she entered the room.

  She quickly did her business then washed her hands, surprised that a castle should have running water. When she wrote the story, she hadn’t envisioned the bathrooms this way. In fact, she hadn’t envisioned any of her characters doing something as normal as going to the bathroom. They were always running off to avoid a battle or running into one. She hadn’t thought of them as real people. She had, however, had them eat and drink food.

  With a shrug, she dried her hands on the cloth by the sink and ventured a look outside the window. At least there was a window in here. She stood on her tiptoes and peered down to the ground. Bummer. She’d never survive a drop like that. She was too high up in the castle. Her only other recourse was to outwait the guard. So she waited and waited and waited.

  After she was sure she had waited long enough, she ventured a peek out the door and saw that the guard hadn’t budged from his spot. She grimaced. This was one man who took his job seriously!

  Footsteps grew louder down the corridor, but she couldn’t see who was coming. The guard, however, straightened and bowed. “My lord.”

  King Blackheart came into view. “Where is she?”

  “In there, my lord.”

  He glanced in the direction of the water-closet, and she knew she couldn’t stay in there any longer. She reluctantly opened the door and stepped into the corridor.

  “I’ll take it from here,” the king told the guard. “You’re relieved of duty for the time being.”

  She crossed her arms but waited until the guard was out of hearing distance before talking. “I’m a duty?”

  King Blackheart clasped his hands behind his back and approached her. “Making sure you stay safe is his duty. You’re my challenge.”

  “Challenge? That’s an interesting way to describe me.”

  “Well, that is what you are. You won’t change the story so I can be the character I truly am.”

  “So you’ll force me into marriage?”

  “You have forced my hand to make it so. If you want out of the marriage, all you have to do is write the story the way it’s meant to be.”

  “I keep telling you that it’s not meant to go the way you want it to.”

  “Yes, it is. You just refuse to let your characters guide you. Why is that?”

  “Because it’s my story, and whether you like it or not, I’m the one in charge.”

  After a moment, he said, “As you can see, my hand is forced. You leave me with no other recourse but to bring our kingdoms together. It might be a simple matter to you if you kill me, but I refuse to let that happen.”

  “Then it seems we’re at an impasse.”

  “I suppose we are.”

  She slowly released her breath, knowing he wouldn’t budge. “I had no idea characters could be such a pain in the butt,” she told him before she shoved past him and hurried down the hall.

  “You won’t get rid of me so easily.”

  She snorted.

  He caught up to her. “I meant right now. We’re due for dinner in an hour, and you can’t show up wearing those clothes. Tonight, I’m making the announcement that we are to wed, and I expect you to wear a dress fitting for a queen.”

  “And if I don’t?”

  “Then I will go into your bedchamber and force you into the dress. It’s your choice, Sandy. Either you can allow your lady’s maid to do it or I’ll do it.”

  “How cute. Another ultimatum. But I don’t believe you’ll be able to do the job.”

  “As I said, you are a challenge, but unfortunately for you, I happen to enjoy a challenge.” He took her hand and turned her around. “Your bedchamber is this way.”

  She removed her hand from his. “I don’t want you to touch me.”

  “In that case, you’ll willingly put your gown on?”

  Crossing her arms, she debated her options. King Blackheart had a lot of nerve abducting her, bringing her into the realm of her story, and demanding he either change her story or force her to marry him. And now she was expected to wear clothes to please him?

  As if he could read her thoughts, he stepped closer to her. “My people won’t treat you like a queen if you don’t dress like one.”

  Despite her discomfort from having him so close to her, she refused to back away. Doing so would only let him know she had a weakness, and she’d written him to be someone who would exploit any weakness he detected. “When my knights come for me, I will let them know you forced me into the marriage.”

  His lips curled up at the corners, as if he enjoyed her threat. “We’ll see.”

  “You doubt I will?”

  “Oh, I believe you fully intend to, right now.”

  “But you don’
t think I will,” she pressed.

  “A lot can happen between now and then.” He motioned for her to join him down the corridor. “Are you coming or should I carry you?”

  She almost insisted he’d have to carry her but then decided she didn’t want him to pick her up. With a heavy sigh to let him know she didn’t like this one single bit, she trudged after him. Fine. So she’d have to play by his rules, at least for the moment. She still had to investigate the castle and see how she might make her escape. If the castle had been exactly the way she envisioned it, she would be able to slip out the secret passage, but it wasn’t as she wrote it. Somehow, he had changed it, something she suspected he did on purpose in order to prevent her from leaving. But little did he realize that when she was determined to do something, she would find a way to do it, no matter what obstacles someone threw her way. Somehow, she’d escape. It was merely a matter of time.

  Chapter Five

  “It is my pleasure to announce my engagement to Queen Goldenvalor,” King Blackheart said when Sandy arrived at the banquet hall. “With our marriage, Havenshire and Crystaline will be united.”

  The applause from the group of men and women in the room were so loud that no one heard Sandy’s low groan. She didn’t bother smiling. This was a forced marriage. She saw no point in pretending she was happy about it. Besides, she was wearing a ridiculously elaborate purple gown. The shoulders puffed out and sequins lined the part of the skirt that formed the shape of a bell. She didn’t know what contraption Noel used to make the skirt spread out like that, but whatever it was, it was designed to torture women. Then to top it off, she had on matching purple gloves. She felt like she was nothing more than a pawn for King Blackheart to get what he wanted.

  “Once we marry, you’ll get a crown to match mine,” he told her.

  She glanced at the gold crown with the rubies in it. She guessed her crown would be smaller, but she had to admit that it was an attractive design.

  He extended his arm to her. “I’ll escort you to your chair.”

  She debated whether or not to hold onto his arm but decided she would find a way to escape soon enough, so there was no reason to fight him.

  The people in the banquet hall bowed as they headed for their chairs. When she saw that their chairs were together, she momentarily stopped walking but quickly picked up her pace. Of course, they would sit next to each other. If he was planning on marrying her, he’d want to sit by her while they ate.

  She dutifully sat in her chair and did her best to ignore the triumphant smile on his face. Talking to him hadn’t worked. He was determined to see the marriage through, and she knew better than to keep trying to reason to someone who couldn’t understand logic. For goodness’ sakes, he wasn’t even a real person! He was a character—a figment of her imagination. And everything around her stemmed from her imagination as well. So what if aspects of it were different from how she visualized it? But she guessed that was because she wasn’t the type of writer who went on and on about details in the settings of her book. At least not the one book she’d been writing. As things were going, she didn’t know if she’d get the chance to write another book or not.

  As the king sat beside her, he leaned toward her, and though she tried not to squirm to get away from him, she did anyway. To his credit, he acted like he didn’t notice. “You’ll be pleased to know that we have entertainment during all of our meals. This evening, we brought in a historian. Considering the fact that you’re the author, I thought you might enjoy hearing the establishment of the kingdoms from our point of view.”

  “Our point of view?” she asked.

  “Your characters’ point of view.”

  “There can be no point of view other than my own since I wrote the book.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. In every event, there are different ways of looking at it. It’s my pleasure to acquaint you with history as we see it.”

  Amused, she smirked. “Whatever.” What did she care that her characters had modified the background of her story?

  The man wearing a long blue robe came to the center of the room while servants presented food to the fifty-some people sitting at the tables. She wondered why there were so many people eating with the king but decided she didn’t care enough to ask. At the moment, her stomach was growling and the meat and vegetables were tempting her taste buds. If this was half as good as breakfast, then she was in for a treat. She turned her attention to the man standing in the center of the room.

  “I, Gen Evermore, have come to present to the future Queen Blackheart the history of our world.” The man gave a solemn bow, something Sandy thought was going overboard with the formalities. “Long ago, we were once one country, one continent, one people. All swore allegiance to King Fairview, a fair and just man who held the respect of all in his kingdom. He had seven sons, but there was one who didn’t want to share the kingdom with his brothers after their father’s death. His name was Leo, and he swore to all who would follow him that he’d reward them with wealth and land for their service.”

  Sandy turned her attention to the food on her plate and sipped the wine while Gen Evermore continued to go into detail about the Twenty Year War. So far, he wasn’t telling her anything she didn’t already know. If King Blackheart thought this was giving her something new to think about, he was sorely mistaken. As she ate the succulent buffalo meat, he continued to speak.

  “The ravages of war took its toll on the inhabitants of the world and the end to the destruction was not in sight. Then,” Gen paused dramatically, lifting his hand up to the ceiling, “one night, Leo traveled to a lake reported to have immortal properties in it, thinking to give the drink of immortal life to him and his men. With this, victory would be assured since you can’t kill a man who can’t die.”

  Surprised by this twist to the tale, Sandy stopped eating and focused on what the man was saying.

  “He was warned never to venture to the lake, for all who do, do so at their peril. The path there is a dangerous one, and only one other has reported to have survived the trek. But instead of getting immortal life as a man, he was turned into a unicorn, the only one living of its kind. So one must be careful what one requests when reaching the lake.”

  “I don’t understand,” Sandy interrupted, not sure if protocol smiled upon someone speaking up during the presentation but figuring it was her right as the author to know what was going on. “What did this man do or say to become a unicorn? And I wasn’t aware there was a unicorn on this world.”

  “There are many things about this world that you aren’t aware of,” King Blackheart told her.

  “So you brought in someone to demonstrate that, hmm?” she replied, unable to hide the sarcastic tone underlying her exasperation.

  “It would help if you understood what is truly here. You might have imagined all of this, but once you did, it took on a life of its own.”

  “Then I can un-imagine all the new things that popped up without my permission.”

  Offering an amused grin, he lowered his voice. “Once the world is created, it’s out of your control. You think you’re in the driver’s seat, but the truth of the matter is, you’re merely the passenger.” He motioned to Gen. “You may answer the queen’s questions.”

  Gen bowed his head in acknowledgement to the king’s statement. “The lake is located in the country currently known as Reinhold. King Petros named it the Lake of Many Woes. There is a group of blue fairies who guard the lake, and while one might think it’s to protect the lake, it’s really to protect the poor souls who chance upon the Grim Reaper’s Path. Those who have passed through the fairies’ enchanted barrier walk the path at their own peril. The man who became a unicorn survived the obstacles and tasted the water from the lake. Once drinking the water, he had to state what he wanted his immortality to be like. He wished to run faster than men, to have strength stronger than a bear, and to never lose his way. The request bound him to the body of a unicorn, a noble horse known for it
s speed, its strength.”

  “And its horn,” Sandy added.

  “Its horn works like a compass, leading those who find it to the correct way.”

  “And where is this unicorn?”

  “The unicorn is a creation of enchantment. It is neither here nor there but appears at a hero’s most perilous moment.”

  “Does this man who became a unicorn have a name?” Sandy pressed.

  “No one knows what it is,” Gen replied.

  “Of course not,” Sandy muttered. The world, as King Blackheart put it, might have taken on a life of its own, but she couldn’t help but notice it left some holes in the plot.

  “There is a legend,” King Blackheart began, undeterred by her lack of enthusiasm over the tale of the unicorn’s genesis, “that claims the person who finds out the name of the unicorn becomes its master.”

  “Naturally.” Why wouldn’t there be some ridiculous legend like that?

  “Please continue,” King Blackheart told Gen.

  “Yeah,” Sandy continued. “Are Leo and his band of men running amok on this world as immortal men?”

  “No, my lady,” Gen replied. “Leo never made it to the lake, but he did chance upon the dark magician who lives off the Grim Reaper’s Path. Leo and his men promised their service to him if he’d grant them victory over King Fairview. The deal was struck. The magician raised up his scepter and hurled it into the ground. Everything grew silent before a deep rumble emerged from the land. That was how the world became divided into four territories: Havenshire, Crystaline, Reinhold, and Floracrest. With the division of the lands, King Fairview and his allies were forced into Reinhold. Leo and his men organized an attack on all sides of the large island and finally conquered them. But there was a price Leo and his men paid for their victory. The magician changed them into trolls to do his bidding for the rest of their days, so while they were given victory, they did not have the pleasure of enjoying it.”