by Drew Hayes
Carefully, lest he notice, Marie took the ring in her fingers and tried to pull it off. The trinket didn’t even budge, no matter how hard she pulled it stayed in place, as though she were trying to rip off the finger itself. If she’d still had the strength, she might have tried to do just that, however she was no longer capable on calling on the beast.
Godric soon noticed her efforts and pulled the blade a hair closer. “You really think it’s that easy? That’s fairy-made, of the highest quality. I wasn’t lying about what it does, Marie. The ring grants the truest wish of your heart. You can lie to yourself, pretend that you want it off, but the truth is you don’t. This is what you always wanted: to be a normal princess like so many others scattered across the lands. Even now, you can’t deny it’s true.”
He roughly dragged her further down the aisle, his pair of guards trailing by less than a foot. She could see Jack still in the rafters, and Frank standing off behind the crowd. Both would pounce the instant there was an opportunity, if she could only create one. Until then, they waited patiently, murder in their eyes begging for an outlet.
As she and Godric neared the balcony where they were to have greeted the world as a couple for the first time, he turned her slightly, so that she could look out to the sea of faces staring up from the courtyard. Fearful shouting soon filled the air as they noticed their princess in peril, too far away to do anything but watch in horror.
“See your people, so worried for you, and know that even their concern is still the ring’s doing. After all, how would they feel if they knew I was threatening a monster instead of the woman they adore? This is why you can’t get it off, silly girl. To be royalty is to rule, and all secretly burn with that desire. You’re no different. Look at them and be honest with yourself: would you rather be fighting me off with a curse that would make them turn away in revulsion? Or isn’t this better? The way things should be, properly. Be honest with yourself, Marie, in your heart of hearts, would you rather be a princess, or a monster?”
Confusion was drifting up from the crowd near enough to hear Godric’s taunts, though Marie paid them no mind. She instead did as Godric suggested and looked out to the crowd. Good people, living simple lives, whose peace could be easily shattered by those with ambition like Godric. In her time on the road, she’d met so many of them, been able to help so few. Only from the seat of a throne could she make lasting change, truly turn the kingdom into something better for all of those people. Godric had tried to steal that from her and her family. And if she’d learned nothing else from her time with Jack and Frank, it was that his kind would always try again. Until they were stopped for good, they’d keep coming, not caring how many of those nameless faces were hurt in the process. Godric was right; in the deepest part of her heart, Marie knew exactly what she wanted to be.
“A princess.” The words fell heavily from her lips, lifting a great burden as they came away. The victorious smile that split Godric’s face was short-lived, however, as another sound soon filled the air. Metal on stone, the gentle clatter of a ring slipping easily from Marie’s finger, as though it had never belonged there in first place, and tumbling to the ground. Godric barely had a moment to consider what was happening, and that turned out to be too bad for him. Because Marie was already in motion.
Her hands wrapped around Godric’s wrist and tore it back so violently she heard the bones creak, shoving the dagger away from her neck. Sights and scents came flooding back to her as her true senses returned, the sounds of tearing fabric filling the air thanks to her swelling body and muscles. All around, the guests were scrambling away in fear and shouts of terror rose from the courtyard, but Marie only had eyes for Godric.
“How… You just admitted that you wished to be a ruler rather than a monster. How did you get the ring off? How?”
“I said I wanted to be a princess.” One of the guards lunged forward toward Marie, thrusting with his blade. Barely paying attention, she slammed a still-growing fist into his stomach, denting the armor, and then tossed him unceremoniously over her shoulder, and the balcony, where his screams echoed until he landed, then cut off instantly. “To lead a kingdom doesn’t mean we are more important than our subjects, it means our lives belong to them. They trust us to care for them, watch over them, and keep them safe from would-be conquerors. No matter how much I might want to be human, right now my people need me to be a monster, because a monster is what can stand against someone like you.”
Her tone was thick now; the proper voice of a beast had returned once more. Godric and the remaining guard continued to backpedal, and from the corner of the grand hall she could see the surviving Nivelle soldiers scrambling into formation. From the other side of the hall, however, the royal guards were pouring in, eyes on the towering creature standing in the center of the aisle, menacing Godric.
“Guards of Villeneuve, the king of Nivelle has tried to steal this land via trickery and enchantment. He and all of his soldiers are to be dealt with as bloodily as the need demands. But anyone who touches so much as a hair on the head of that creature in the center will see only the inside of a dungeon for the remainder of their days. She is very much on the side of our kingdom.” Queen Belle waited only a moment after giving her order, noticing that no one jumped into action as the madness of scene caused them to hesitate. “I said deal with the people of Nivelle, now!”
The force in her voice spurred them forward, and the Nivelle soldiers hurried to get between the royal guards and Godric. For his part, the king of Nivelle took the opportunity to turn and sprint away as fast as he could, lunging into his crowd of soldiers and working to disappear in the confusion. Many of the soldiers turned to Marie, spears and blades at the ready.
Flexing her claws, she hunkered down, preparing to charge. The sound of a sword being unsheathed was all the warning they got before a figure swung down from the rafters on a freshly chopped rope, sweeping over them and slicing into every exposed neck he saw. Jack let go of the rope at its lowest point, tumbling across the ground with rapier still in hand until he sprang to his feet and stabbed a Nivelle soldier. The motion caused his hood to fall back, revealing that above Jack’s violent smile was only a single eye, with the other now covered by a dark patch.
While she didn’t yet know the details, Marie understood that whatever Godric had done, he’d cost Jack an eye in the process. Her righteous anger, already at a boiling pitch, burst over as she ran toward the cluster of soldiers. They learned very quickly that while Jack could be distracting, it never paid to take one’s eyes off the beast.
Frank darted in, helping her carve through the ranks, but Jack didn’t turn back. Instead, he ran off in another direction, out of the grand hall. She didn’t know what he was planning, and that was fine. Marie trusted these two, more than she had even before today.
Jack would go where he thought he most needed to be, and based on past experience there was a good chance that he’d end up right.
* * *
What had seemed like inevitable victory only an hour hence had now spiraled into a desperate race to escape. Nivelle’s soldiers were a loss. Godric counted himself lucky one of his personal guards had managed to keep up in the mad dash through the chaos. Still, all was not lost just yet. The necklace might have enhanced his talent for deception to magical levels, but he’d been making people do his bidding long before acquiring such a trinket. If he could just get away, out of the castle and into his own lands, Godric could spin the whole thing as a devious trap devised by the kingdom of Villeneuve. He’d say they’d lured him with the promise of peace, only to discover that the princess was, in fact, an evil monster meant to devour him. There were holes in the story, but the peasants would be too stupid to spot them, especially once word of Marie’s transformation spread across the land.
While it was an unquestionable setback, Godric might be able to use this as a reason to marshal his forces and lead a proper attack on Villeneuve. It was their own fault, really. Godric had tried to conquer the
m peacefully and they’d rejected his kindness, so now he’d be forced to do things the bloody way.
Turning down a hallway that was mercifully empty, Godric kept on sprinting, listening closely to the sound of his guard following steps behind. The man had been at his side for years, but if he grew too slow Godric would leave him for dead without hesitation. Escaping from an enemy castle was a stiff enough task as things stood. Thankfully, as a man of preparation, he’d laid a few exit strategies just in case. If they could just get to the courtyard, they’d have allies waiting to smuggle them back to Nivelle.
Another turn in the hallway, but as Godric took it he realized that the footsteps behind him had suddenly halted. Glancing back to check for enemies rushing them, Godric instead found himself staring at the unmoving body of his guard, looking entirely normal with the one large exception of the blade sticking out of his neck. In a flash the steel withdrew and the guard tumbled to the ground, revealing Jack’s violent smile as he flicked specks of blood from his rapier.
“Fleeing from your own wedding? As a friend of the bride, I hope you’ll understand why I can’t let you get away with that.” Jack stepped nimbly over the corpse, advancing as Godric carefully moved backward. His own blade was pulled out quickly, a true longsword befitting a king that had been crafted just for him.
“Be warned, mercenary. I don’t know what trick you pulled to survive that last blow, but this time I’ll take your head from your shoulders to be sure the job is properly done. I grew up with five brothers and the knowledge that we’d one day fight for the title of king, so I am well-acquainted with how to use my weapon. However, time is of the essence here, and I am a reasonable man. If you aid me instead of forcing me to kill you, I will happily pay an inordinate sum of gold. For saving the life of a king, I think nothing less than fifty thousand gold pieces would suffice.”
Another step forward from Jack, and this time Godric didn’t retreat. “You know, if I was the only one you’d killed, I might actually take you up on that. The price is fair, well more than what I spent, and I’m a practical man at heart. I don’t particularly care which kingdom comes out on top in any given conflict, and I owe no special allegiance to Villeneuve.” Jack halted, lifting his rapier as his weight shifted to an offensive stance. “But you also stabbed Frank, and put a dagger to Marie’s throat. I’m afraid there’s no amount of gold that can buy my forgiveness for that.”
“So be it.” Godric didn’t wait for the attack; instead he lunged forward, hoping to push through Jack’s guard with the greater weight of his blade. The thrust struck only air, as Jack turned out of the way, whipping his own sword forward on a crash course with Godric’s neck. A clang of metal filled the air as the rapier struck Godric’s wrist guard instead, adding a scratch to the dents Marie’s grip had left, and the two backed away momentarily.
“You wore real, functional armor to a wedding? I hate to admit it, but you’re not bad at this.”
“I am a man of strategy and thought over brute force. That is why I am the king of Nivelle and my brothers are either dead or subjugated. A mere criminal like you could never understand such complexity of thought.”
Godric attacked again, this time not settling for a single strike. His sword shone in the light from nearby windows, dancing through the air as it tried in vain to cut the man known as Jack. Some thrusts got close, yet he was always a touch too quick. It didn’t help matters that Jack was counterattacking the entire time, his rapier flashing as Godric did all he could to block blow after blow. When they finally parted once more, neither man was injured, although Godric’s wrist guard was scratched all over.
“Scoundrel, actually.” Jack still had his blade raised, ready for another assault.
“What?”
“You called me a criminal, and while that’s not untrue it’s more a general term for anyone who breaks the law. I prefer the term ‘scoundrel’. Carries more of an uninhibited air than someone who just holds up carriages for gold. Scoundrels aren’t better, per se, just more focused. We know what we want and aren’t above doing what’s necessary to get it. It doesn’t mean we’re evil, just not particularly good.”
Godric adjusted the grip on his blade slightly. He was wasting too much time with this; if escape was to happen he needed to flee soon. “The Blue Fairy told me about you. Not as much as I might have liked, but enough to plan my trap and a little more. She told me you’re a man who has had the chance at countless happily-ever-afters yet refused them all, and that means you’re someone who’s hard to predict. How do you fight a man who seemingly has no objective? Me, I think it’s simpler than that. You’re not some grand riddle, you’re just a reckless idiot who knows how to fight, but has no idea what to do when the battle is done.”
Leaping forward, Godric let loose his most furious attack yet. Jack was too quick to defeat through sheer might, so Godric’s only hope was to shake his enemy’s confidence. Get in his head, fill it with pointless thoughts, take even a small fraction of his edge away. It was a tactic Godric had used to great success many times before, but as his sword swung about uselessly through the air it became clear that the gambit hadn’t succeeded.
“Well, you’re right that I’m not a grand riddle.” Jack didn’t even bother to stop attacking this time, continuing the conversation even as he deftly avoided Godric’s strikes. “It’s very simple, actually. For a proper scoundrel, there is no happily ever after. The next journey, the next adventure, that’s where my happiness lies. If my adventures came to an end, be they atop the throne of a kingdom or in a mud pit with pigs, I’d be equally miserable. Riding on toward the next horizon or dying sword in hand, those are the only true endings for a man like me.”
More strikes to Godric’s wrist guard, but now it was starting to feel as if Jack was hitting it on purpose. Was this… Was he toying with Godric? This whole time, had there been a fight at all, or just an elaborate stalling tactic?
“Why won’t you fight me properly!” Godric’s swings were getting wilder, frustration and desperation overriding the cool head he prided himself on.
“Because you’re a king and I’m a scoundrel. We both know I can’t kill you. The Narrative would never permit someone as lowly as me to end a man like you.” Jack’s smile was getting wider with every dodged blow; each bit of tooth he bared felt like a mocking dagger in Godric’s gut.
“Then why did you bother to fight me?”
“So that someone who could kill you, perhaps a wronged princess, would have time to catch up.” With that, Jack leapt out of the way, revealing the massive, furry form of Marie at the other end of the hallway.
The bastard, he’d kept Godric too distracted to notice the approach. Worse, he’d baited the king of Nivelle into the center of the hallway, much too far from a door to run. With no other option, Godric raised his sword to fend off the charging beast. It wasn’t even past his shoulder when he felt a stinging pain in his hand, dropping the longsword to the ground with a clatter. Sticking out from between his fingers, through the chainmail glove, was a small, strange blade not quite like any he’d ever seen. Glancing up, past the barreling monster bearing down on him, Godric was just able to make out the cloaked figure at the other end of the hall, similar blades clutched between his fingers.
“You people are the worst,” Godric said.
“And don’t you forget it,” Jack replied before ducking out of the way.
Marie slammed into Godric so hard his armor dented around his chest, making it hard to breathe. The issue became compacted further as she slammed her fists into his limbs, cracking them through the protective metal. When that was done, she began to squeeze, crumpling the armor in on itself until Godric was little more than a twisted mound of shattered bones and bent metal.
“What do you think? Keep him as a prisoner, or finish it here?” Jack asked.
“He’s got a slippery tongue. I don’t think we need more of his lies.” Hefting Godric up, Marie stared into his bruised face. “How did he try to ge
t rid of you two?”
“Stabbed us through the heart and tossed us in the moat.” Frank had approached quietly during the scuffle, arriving more for support than aid. It was clear Marie already had the task well in hand. “I should also mention that, given his injuries, there’s a minimal chance he won’t die of internal bleeding.”
Marie looked Godric up and down once, then broke into a toothy grin that nearly rivaled Jack’s. “Guess that means we can skip the stabbing part.” With one punch, she shattered the nearest window and looked outside, to the moat below. “Can’t imagine he’ll be a good swimmer with all that armor and those shattered bones.”
“Almost seems unfair,” Jack noted. “Are you okay with taking these actions, as a princess?”
There was a moment of hesitation, and then Marie tossed Godric unceremoniously out the window, watching as he crashed in the moat with a sizable splash. No sooner had he landed that the water began to roll, the moat’s inhabitants grateful for an unexpected meal.
“My whole kingdom just found out what I really am. There’s no going back to the deception, so if this is my last day as a true princess, I think it’s only fitting I that I spent it taking out a major threat to our kingdom.”
From down the hall, they could hear armor rattling and footsteps bounding, and soon the royal guards of Villeneuve burst into view. One of them, the bravest by no small measure, took a step forward to address the trio. “King Adam has requested you meet him in the throne room.”
“We’ll need to stop by my chambers first,” Marie said. “That dress wasn’t enchanted to change with me, so I’m going to need to pick up some new clothes.”
“The king expressed his desire for you to come immediately.” The guard’s resolve on carrying out that order lasted less than five seconds under the withering glares of the Bastard Champions. “But it would hardly be appropriate to ask a princess to attend a formal summons in the nude, so we will of course wait while you fetch new clothes.”
