The Surrender of Sleeping Beauty

by Lidiya Foxglove

  “So this is how flowers bloom and berries grow in the middle of winter,” I said. “The air is heavy with fertility and the magic is so strong. But magic like this breaks down in the real world…”

  “Yes, I don’t see much in the way of practical concerns,” Axel said. “You would be miserable here. You love practical concerns.”

  “For all the good it’s done for me,” I said. “No matter what I do, Axel, I’m never in the right place.”

  “That isn’t true at all,” Axel said softly. “Maybe none of us had exactly the life we dreamed of, but I still don’t regret a moment of it.”

  What is it that you’re afraid to see in the Waters of Truth? I wondered. We had both tried to avoid it. And is it the same thing?

  “We’ve lost Rose,” Axel said.

  “No, we haven’t,” I said. “She’s left a trail.” I easily followed where her feet had disturbed the path, and something else besides. I sensed her like a beacon, moving through the wood, her body tangled in the vines.

  “Pin her in place for me,” I whispered to the wood. “Like an animal in a trap.”

  Around me, the leaves rustled approval.

  “Are you talking to the forest now?” Axel asked.

  “I’m always at my happiest on the hunt,” I said. “Deep in the forest. Far from the world.”

  “So do you think you could stay here forever, if it comes to that?” Axel asked.

  “No,” I said firmly. “This place has its charms, but it’s no home for us. This is not our world.”

  “Even if your lives were in danger?”

  “I am the King of Ellurine,” I said. “I’m going back there. Even if does mean the end of me, I just can’t stay in a world like this. For tonight…” I turned the corner past a thicket of blackberries, where I felt sure she would be. But instead, we came to a small pond and I no longer saw any sign of Rose.

  “How did we end up here? This forest tricked us.” I turned around and the old path was gone.

  “The Waters of Truth,” Axel said. “Queen Alexandra did warn us that it has a way of revealing itself.”

  “We need to find Rose,” I said. “We don’t have time for that.”

  “Indeed.”

  We turned back down the path, even though it had changed, but before long we were back at the pool again.

  “It seems that it won’t let us go until we take a quick look,” I said, walking toward it.

  Axel grabbed my arm, stopping me. “Augustus…promise me…” His fingers dug into me before letting me go. “Whatever we see here, you won’t judge me for it.”

  “What will I see?”

  “I think you have some idea already.”

  Chapter Ten

  Augustus

  The dark waters swirled and rippled around a soft glow that rose up from under the surface, until they formed an image. Axel and I had both peered in at once. Was he seeing the same thing I saw, or did we each see our own desires?

  I was riding in a forest, with my bow and quiver of arrows. To my surprise, I rode alone, not with Rose or Axel. Nor were there any guards, and my clothes were much too humble for a King of the Sun Palace: sturdy trousers, boots, and a brown leather coat and hat. Just simple protection from the elements. I heard something rustle in the forest, past a thick tangle of thorns. Rather than give up, I left my horse and waved my hands. The thorns slid out of my way. I moved slowly, careful not to startle my prey, and notched an arrow to the string.

  I realized Axel had glanced at me, and that I had a faint smile. I dropped it, self-conscious, and shrugged.

  “I’ve always said you’d make a fine wood elf,” Axel said.

  “So we are seeing the same thing.”

  He nodded. “Where is your Rose?”

  The vision rippled and changed, answering our question, because now I was coming into a clearing and Rose was there playing with the children I knew must be ours. She sat, barefoot, in the grass, with a few lambs frolicking around, a few stains on her dress, a beribboned hat on her head. It made me think of when I first brought her into my country and we had a picnic, and she noticed how neatly one of the little girls of the court was sitting and eating. That poor little girl. At her age I would’ve still been running around the river bank.

  Now I could see Rose’s desire to raise her children the way she wished, playing freely, close to their parents. The children ran toward me, and I scooped them up in my arms and swung them around, much to their glee. But then they seemed to fade away, and it was just the two of us and we went into the house. The dwelling was modest by our own standards, although more than a cottage—in fact, it looked like the Lady’s Treat, I realized.

  That was where Axel was waiting for us.

  Axel strode toward the two of us and it was clear to me that in the household, Axel was the one who ruled our pleasure. He made no effort to defer to us or dampen the arrogant way he held his head. With a coy smile, he gave Rose a deep kiss as he fondled her breasts in both of his hands. Then he walked to me and unbuttoned my trousers, taking out my cock and giving it two long deep strokes. His hand went deeper, cupping my balls, and he snapped his fingers at Rose.

  At his order, she began to suck my cock. When I was painfully erect, he ordered her away. He tied a small ribbon around my erection, in a determined way, and I could see that Rose was getting more excited as she watched.

  He gave her a look and she unbuttoned his trousers and pleasured him, deep and slow.

  Axel tugged at his cravat. “Is this my dream or yours?” he finally asked.

  “If we must ask…”

  He took a step back. “Since the first day I saw you and the queen, I thought, you both belong to me,” he said. “The Witch cast that spell on me to ensure that I belonged to you, a spell that has never broken, and never will. But before that, I knew you both wanted me.”

  I had tried to deny it before but I couldn’t deny it now. “You really are an arrogant high elf.” I started to turn back to the water, compelled to see how it all played out, but he stopped me.

  He turned to me, his face a mirror of the first time we met—the high cheekbones, blue-gray eyes that were both magnetic and a little sad, balanced by the teasing twist of his mouth. “You don’t need to see it in the Waters of Truth,” he said.

  He took my hands and kissed me, and I tried to pull away, even though I expected it. My heart was pounding. If I admitted this to myself—that I wanted my wife and I wanted Axel to be the master of us both—surely I could never be the king again. I was too far gone. He didn’t let me go, but forced himself on me, his tongue in my mouth, his masculine taste more appealing to me than I ever could have thought.

  “I already know who you are,” he said. “And I love you for it. I don’t care what the rest of the world says. I will always love Your Majesties. I will protect you…and keep you…and they’d have to tear me apart before I would leave your side, my wild, dark-eyed king.”

  There was a time when I thought I would be alone in the world. That I would be forced into a role I hated and would simply have to endure it. I didn’t think I would love my wife until I met her. But Axel had truly hit us like a thunderbolt. We had never expected him, but now I couldn’t imagine life without him.

  I hardly knew what to say.

  He pushed me away, casually now, and shook his head. “I think we’ve seen enough now. Maybe the forest will let us find our way back to Rose.”

  Chapter Eleven

  I was running through the forest leading Augustus on a merry chase when my outfit betrayed me. The vines whipped out and clung to a nearby tree, pulling me up and spreading me out into a web of vines. Two vines caught my wrists, two vines caught my feet, and a dozen more held my body in place, all of them wrapped around nearby trunks, roots and branches.

  “Hey!” I struggled with all my might and as I did, some tall ferns growing under me reached their leaves upward to tickle me between the legs, my costume sliding aside obligingly.

  “
Don’t struggle, little queen. The more you do, the more we’ll tease,” a tiny voice said beneath me, and I realized that some little rabbits with horns were holding the ferns in their paws.

  “What a very strange place!” I gasped, still struggling as much as ever. “Please let me go! I don’t want to be pleasured by rabbits!”

  “We’re not rabbits!” they said indignantly.

  “Well, what are you!?”

  “We’re fertility spirits, of course. We have horns, see? Do we look like rabbits to you?”

  “Yes!”

  “We can’t let you stray too far, little queen. We’ll make you ready for your lovers.”

  “Oooh, no, I don’t need fertility spirits. I’m already with child!”

  “Ahhh,” they said. “But isn’t it fun anyway?”

  “Ah ha…please stop!”

  “If you insist…” The horned rabbits jumped away, leaving me alone with the chirps and trills of the strange forest. I felt like I could hear it breathing, and I definitely caught movement in the fringes of my vision.

  Maybe I shouldn’t have been so eager to send them away after all.

  “Axel!” I cried. “Augustus! Where are you? You were right behind me!”

  A faery girl came walking down the path, wearing an apron with deep pockets and a heavy cloak. She was balancing a basket on her head. “Would you like a sweet?” she asked.

  “No! I want to get down! I’ve lost my husband.”

  The girl looked me over and shook her head. “Queen Alexandra told me to come and find out what you want. Your men have found their way to the Waters of Truth.”

  “I thought they didn’t want the Waters of Truth.”

  “Well, if you come to the Wicked Revels, you don’t get what you think you want. You get the things you’ve tried to hide.” She rummaged in her cloak and took out a hand mirror. “What do you want, Queen Who Bowed? I bet I can guess, and it’ll be the opposite of bowing. You can set a clock to that sort of thing. Usually we get in girls who are too shy to admit they want anything at all, but you’re going to be a different sort of case.”

  “I don’t think this is necessary,” I said. “In fact, I think I want to be left alone! From the moment I left Osteria, I’ve been told what to desire, and now I don’t even know what it is I want anymore!”

  She held the mirror up to me anyway. “It is frightening to admit what you want sometimes, but that’s why this place exists.”

  In the mirror, I saw myself with two beautiful children. The oldest was a fair-haired girl, and I also had a dark-haired boy. I shut up about not wanting to see in the mirror. In fact, now I wanted to grab it out of her hands. “Are those my children?”

  “They could be.”

  All of us were dressed in the clothing I preferred: soft, comfortable linen and cotton, sun hats, ribbons and natural adornments. We sat in a little meadow of clover and wildflowers, with a few newborn lambs running around us. I saw my hands moving. I was telling the children a story or explaining something to them. When I was done, the girl started hunting for butterflies while I rolled on my back and bounced the little boy in my arms.

  I started to cry. It hit me out of nowhere. “My children…!”

  “You do look very happy,” the faery girl said gently.

  “This is what I want for them. Such a simple thing…like my own childhood. But they could never know a life like this in the Sun Palace.” I shut my eyes. “What is the use of showing this to me? Does this mean I am meant to stay here and raise my children in this realm?”

  “I don’t know yet,” the faery said. “You’ll have to figure it out for yourself.”

  The vision was still going on, in which I saw Augustus emerge from the woods, and he had brought us some game. I could see the visceral pleasure in his face that he could hunt our food for me and the children. We relied on him, in this vision. There was no sign of the abundant feasts of the Sun Palace, but I was happier with the single pig than with ten different types of fishes and birds and roasts.

  The children seemed to melt away now, and we were in the house, and that was where Axel was waiting for us. In this vision, he was more than just the Sword of the King.

  My master, I thought.

  Whatever Axel told us to do, we did. Augustus and I both.

  I wanted to linger on the children and lambs, but I couldn’t help it. I grew wetter and wetter, my nipples tight, my whole body straining with yearning, as I watched Axel command us, often with just his eyes and the smallest gesture. We knew what he wanted, but it also felt like it was still a surprise.

  After I had brought Axel to a release with my mouth and Augustus watched, he led us to the bedroom, and he tore Augustus’ clothes off and tied him to the bed, occasionally stroking him to keep him hard. He spread Augustus out on his stomach and then he went to me and whispered in my ear. I couldn’t hear him, but I could almost imagine sinful words coming from that beautiful mouth, warm breath on my ear.

  I wondered what Axel was telling me to do.

  “So that’s what it looks like…,” I murmured. “That’s the life I want.”

  In the dream, the King’s Vine shifted around me and Axel picked up a shaft of wood shaped like a horn and pressed it to my pelvis. Now I realized it was a phallus and my skin burned, feeling as if I should not watch as the Queen Who Bowed climbed atop her prone king, while Axel watched us both. I caressed Augustus’s muscular shoulders, my long hair tickling his ear, before I—

  I looked away.

  “What’s wrong, Your Majesty?” the faery asked.

  “Don’t show me this.”

  “I’m not. The mirror reflects your own mind, that’s all.”

  “I have never thought such a thing!”

  She raised an eyebrow at me. “But you will think of it now, won’t you?” She rummaged in her cloak, which seemed to have many pockets in the lining, and found what looked like the exact wooden horn in the dream. She lifted it up and the vines reached for it, pulling it against me, so it looked as if I had grown a cock. The base rested snug against my clit, the vines holding it securely in place.

  I heard the soft footsteps of two men who knew how to navigate the forest, even in the dark. Axel and Augustus came down the path, and the faery girl dashed off.

  “No—wait!” I cried. “Don’t let them see me like this! I don’t want this!”

  Chapter Twelve

  “Poor Rose. How long have you been hanging there?” Axel asked. Then he noticed what was between my legs. “What’s this? We can’t leave you alone for five minutes, can we? The queen has grown a cock in our absence.”

  Augustus looked at me with his eyes burning. “What did you tell them, Rose?”

  “I didn’t ‘tell them’ anything,” I said. “A faery girl appeared and— Well, it doesn’t matter. Get it off me. I mean—“ I faltered because I could see Augustus getting hard, wanting me, even as his skin turned pink as quick as the end of a sunset. “That is—I know that we have occasionally turned the tables on our roles…but surely this…”

  “Gods, I can hardly stand the two of you anymore,” Axel said, shoving Augustus toward me as he put his other hand around my ass. “We’re in another world, far from home, a world where our true selves will be revealed, like it or not. Let her down, my lord. She’s too high up for us to do anything to her.”

  This small exchange revealed a shifting dynamic, where Axel was no longer afraid to give an order to Augustus. Not that Augustus took the order meekly. “That’s hardly true,” he said, lifting a hand to hold Axel back while he walked up to me. I was hanging in the trees so that my breasts were level with his eyes. He slid his fingers between my legs. “Your sex is soaking wet. Tell me exactly what you’ve been thinking of.”

  “I saw a vision…in the mirror…the faery girl showed me…”

  “Yes?”

  “First you went hunting and I was playing with the children. That was all quite lovely.”

  “Yes, that was an idyllic
vision. And then the children went off to play with a nurse,” Augustus said. “I saw that too.” He worked his hand back and forth along my folds and then gave the horn a little tug that teased me. It made me feel as I had a cock, and that turned me on much more than I wanted it to. “Then what?” he asked.

  “Axel…bade me to suck your cock…and then…”

  “He looked awfully smug, didn’t he?” Augustus gave me an amused look and traced the edge of my nipple with his tongue.

  “I…suppose he did…”

  “And then?”

  I flushed. “He wouldn’t let me satisfy you…he…made me take him instead…and then we were in the bedroom and…Axel made us…”

  “So we have all seen the same thing,” Axel said.

  “No wonder you look smug,” Augustus said. “You were the master of the whole situation.”

  “Was I? Only because Your Majesties wished it,” he said, with a sideways glance at Augustus. “We haven’t ever really been honest with each other before, but now it’s all been laid out for us, like it or not. And yes, I am very pleased with the arrangement,” he said, giving Augustus a look that was shamelessly hungry and bold, the opposite of how anyone should treat the king. “The Queen will master you, but only if it pleases me.”

  “What kind of a man am I to want that?” Augustus asked.

  “A man who knows what he wants,” Axel said. “A man who knows how he likes to be pleased. A man who has spent his day riding, hunting, and working hard, and would like to succumb at the end of the day to sheer abandon. Even if that vision never comes true, at least let me take care of you tonight, my lord. Give yourself and your queen over to me.”

  Augustus shut his eyes. “Once. While we are all together.” Augustus lifted his hands up and the vines lowered me into his arms.

  The way he held me felt different than it ever had before. The dynamic between us was shifted now, in some way that was hard to explain, but it made me feel a rush of my own strength, even as I felt how firm his grip was, how strong his body was, compared to my slight and feminine form.