“It is real,” Madame Bertin said, but her tone was solemn. “This is your dream, and all of us who love you are here to keep you company. You don’t have to follow the rules anymore. You can set the tone for your own court. You don’t have to bow anymore, unless you wish to.”
“Where are Augustus and Axel? And Julia and Louisa?”
“We are waiting for the king’s arrival,” Madame Bertin said.
I backed up, slowly, to my bed and sat down. I felt very close to tears. Madame Bertin seemed to understand. She put her arms around me and gave me a tight embrace, but not for too long. She was still a dressmaker, after all, and not my nearest and dearest.
She walked over to my writing desk and picked up something. “I think you have a letter, my dear.”
“Oh…!” I saw my mother’s handwriting and I tore the letter open.
My Dear Rose,
If you’re reading this, you must be standing between the worlds. You must have fallen to the curse. Death came upon me stealthily, as she does, so I was never able to write you a final letter. I cannot wait for you here; I am too restless a spirit not to move on to other things, but I must say goodbye to my beloved daughter.
You don’t need me anymore. This I know. But affection goes beyond something we need, it is something that enriches our days. I want to tell you now that I love you, and I am proud of you.
I always knew that the ancient curse would someday catch you. I have scolded you so many times that I’m afraid you might not realize how much I am also proud of you. I sent you into that most difficult place, and you found a way to survive it and thrive in it. You found love with King Augustus. Whatever happens to you in your time of sleep, take heart in knowing that my love, and his love, and the love of everyone who has ever touched you, will never leave you…in any world.
I heard male laughter and I had to put down the letter and wipe tears from my eyes as Prince Josef and Lord Merdon came into the room.
“Rose! You’re here at last! I’ve been planning the most incredible party for the day you arrived!”
“Josef… Lord Merdon. You’ve been waiting for me too.”
“Well, we haven’t really been waiting, we can always keep busy,” Josef said. “But what is a court without a king or queen?”
Somewhere in my mind I understood that my friends were dead, but I couldn’t seem to speak of it. Or maybe I didn’t need to. This realm of my dreams felt warm. I was safe here, and I didn’t have to fear anything. I knew that none of the trauma of my old life would follow me here, only the joys, and yet, there were the spirits of real people here waiting, so it wouldn’t be boring either. There would be an element of unpredictability that would make this a real life.
My life for the next hundred years.
“Let me get the queen ready first,” Madame Bertin said. “I’m glad you’re happy to see her, but shoo. It’ll take me some time. My assistants could not do me the convenience of joining me in this realm.”
“You don’t need to do much to her,” Lord Merdon said. “She is our beautiful queen already.”
“Julia isn’t here, is she? Or your wife either, Josef?”
Josef shook his head. “I’m glad,” he said.
Madame Bertin adorned my gown with tender spring flowers and green ribbons, working swiftly with pins in her mouth, so we didn’t talk much. “And you’ll have to make do without your hairdresser,” she said.
I walked down the stairs, through the Hall of Mirrors, where courtiers milled the halls while seeming blurry, like they were more memory than flesh and blood. I walked out into the gardens and everyone was dancing and clapping their hands. We were all dancing around an empty throne that grew out of the garden, formed from vines and branches.
The musicians quieted down before long.
“He’s coming,” the ladies whispered. “He’s falling asleep.”
Everyone stopped dancing and fell into bows and curtseys, and Josef took my hand and led me to the break in the hedges where a bower entered into the rose garden.
Augustus walked under the arch of vines. He was dressed simply in his hunting clothes, like he was in my dream.
My heart was beating fast, as if I had not seen him in a very long time.
It was Augustus. My Augustus, through and through. There was nothing about him that seemed like a dream. He was so real to me, and he looked tired and sad even as everyone was paying him homage, and I ran into his arms.
He held me so tight, his strong arms wrapped around my shoulders and waist. “Rose,” he said. “You went and did it.”
“I’m sorry, Augustus. I had to try and do something to stop all the horrors. I thought if I went to sleep, the witch would lose her fight.”
“You were right,” he said. “But now we’ve lost you.”
“You haven’t lost me, Augustus. Whenever you go to sleep…and everyone is here. Everyone we thought we’d lost…”
“The ones we’ve lost,” he said, “are the ones who live. And the world we knew. But at least I have you. This was always our destiny, I suppose. You…and me…while the world transforms around us.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Augustus
When I woke up and found Axel stirring beside me but Rose gone from her place between us, I rushed out of bed.
“Rose?” I hoped she had some wild hair to make breakfast or pick berries. “Rose?”
A bird flew onto my shoulder and dropped a note toward my hand. I caught it and unfolded it, but I already had a feeling of what it would say.
Axel was getting dressed in the room behind me while I stood in the doorway. “She snuck out this morning to offer herself up to the witch!” I said. “She thinks it will save her friends from getting killed!”
“Well, she might be correct,” Axel said. “The witch has been playing up this curse for Rose’s entire life. You know that if Rose falls asleep, the revolution will stop being a game. The people will have to contend with the idea of building something, and that’s not as easy as tearing it down. Rose knew there was no good choice.”
“Well, I’m going after her anyway.”
“I’m going with you, of course,” Axel said. “I just thought I would point it out.”
“Not necessary!” I grabbed my boots and my bow and we rushed to Queen Alexandra and King Ladinus to request passage back to our own world.
“It’s time to say farewell already.” Alexandra clutched her hands. “It was so good to have you here. Were you able to get the Magus’ spell to work?”
“Yes…for myself,” I said, gritting my teeth.
“But not…Count Farren,” she said. “I’m so sorry…”
“Don’t cry, my dear. Maybe his destiny isn’t complete yet,” King Ladinus said.
As with everything else, Axel seemed to hear this without much reaction. He seemed emotionless in the face of what was happening to us, which was very much the way of a high elf.
It seemed to take forever to cross the river and make our way through the groves. but finally, we came up through the passage into the fortress. Immediately, I heard shouting and clashing weapons outside.
“I don’t see the witch or Rose,” Axel said, looking out. “But there’s certainly a lot of commotion. And the cold winter seems to be breaking. I wonder if the witch’s hold over the people was broken after all.”
“Axel, will you really die happy if you never see her awake again?”
His breath came a little faster. “What do you want me to say, Augustus? That losing her makes me want to rage against the entire universe? That I’m not sure what I’ll be living for without the prospect of seeing her eyes meet mine or hearing her sigh in my ear? Of course…I will miss her.” He turned to me and his hands flew to my cheeks before I could even react. “I’ll miss you. I’ll miss the three of us. And there is no way around that grief, so I’d rather spare you.”
“Don’t spare me your grief.”
He kissed me, imposing his lips on mine, even when he
knew it made me nervous for him to kiss me in the real world. I tasted his pain.
“There,” he said softly. “You know how much I’ll miss her.”
I nodded, running my hand down the wool of his jacket before I straightened myself back up into a king and we went cautiously down the steps.
In the main hall of the fortress, hundreds of candles were lit, and I heard hushed voices from people gathered around the back of the room.
Merry was there, standing beside a spinning wheel, watching everyone carefully. And beside him, spinning thread, sat none other than Madame du Bariel. It looked like Merry was showing her how to work the wheel. “Your Majesty…” he said, coming up to us with a bow. “I must inform you that the queen has fallen to her curse. Twenty years ago, the Cobblestone Witch stole this spinning wheel from my father, the mage Rumpelstiltskin, so my family bears some responsibility for her curse.”
“You helped us. It was hardly your fault.”
“Well…” He shrugged. “We have had our own misdeeds to repay. I’ve been teaching Madame du Bariel some magic and I wouldn’t be surprised if she teaches me some herself. We are both prepared to protect the queen and the Sun Palace until the queen wakes up and her child is born.”
The people gathered around the back of the room moved away as they noticed me, and I saw Rose laying there, peacefully asleep.
The reality of it hit me. There was my wife. She might as well have been a corpse, still as she was. If the curse was as strong as we suspected, no touch or kiss or word could wake her.
“Gods…no…Rose.” I took her hand. “I’ll see you when I fall asleep, my Rose…”
But I felt close to losing control of my grief.
To see her in sleep wasn’t good enough.
“You can break this curse,” I said, practically demanding it of Merry. “If your father is some sort of mage, then…figure it out. She’s carrying my child. But even more than that…I need her. I hardly know what to do with myself without her.”
“Maybe it’ll be good for you to live on your own,” Jeanne said behind him, saucy as ever.
“What’s going on in the city?” Axel asked. “Has the northern guard arrived yet?”
“Just now, actually,” Merry said. “But no one knows what will happen now. I certainly don’t. I don’t think this country is ready to go back to business as usual, do you? I think you are still in some danger, Your Majesty. That is—I know you are a proud man who wants to do right by his people, but…”
“Maybe they need to figure out what sort of world they want on their own, without me getting in their way,” I said. “Is that what you’re going to say?”
“Yes, actually, that’s about right.”
“Where is the witch who started all of this?” I asked.
“She used some dark cloaking spell and escaped,” Jeanne said, crossing her arms. “That woman always has a trick up her sleeve.”
“I can’t let her dash off unscathed. I’ll go after her,” I said.
“You have a little magical skill of your own,” Merry said. “Don’t you?”
“Skill, maybe,” I said. “But as I am the king, I haven’t used it.”
“Let me offer you a path forward,” Merry said. “Now that I have the enchanted spinning wheel back, I could put the two of you to sleep with your queen. I don’t have the witch’s skill at curses, but this would be a choice and not a curse. Since she is tied to the spell, with a bit of will and magic, you could find the witch’s dream self…and do what you see fit with her in the realm where you’ll have control. If you truly love the queen as I sense you do, you’ll find her there.”
“I would sleep for a hundred years? But—I would be…” I felt my heart singing with joy at the idea that I could be with my Rose and our child, but it was at odds with my duty. “What would happen to the kingdom?”
“It wouldn’t be your responsibility,” Merry said. “The people asked for you to step down. They might live to regret that choice, but if they do, they’ll just have to wait for a hundred years. Or maybe they won’t, and when you wake up, you will no longer be a king and queen, and you’ll simply have to find a new path, but there is always the writing of memoirs, if you need money.” He laughed.
Axel gripped my shoulder. “Augustus, I want you to do this. She needs you with her. I will stay here in this world and make sure that whatever happens, you’re protected.”
“Axel…didn’t you listen to the man? For all our worries, the Magus’ spell never mattered. Merry can send us both to sleep with Rose with this spinning wheel.”
“I couldn’t sacrifice myself for my mother,” Axel said. “I know she died a terrible death, and until I met the two of you, there was no person on earth I loved as much. You’re not a fighter, Augustus. But you do have the heart of a mage, and you’re well-suited to navigate the land of dreams. I belong in the real world, with my hand on a sword, to protect the people I love. Please…allow me this, and trust me to watch over you. Go and be with our queen.”
“Damnit…but the dream we saw in the water…” I wished I could embrace him, but I was still the king and the citizens who had been paying their respects to Rose’s sleeping body were now watching me. The king couldn’t throw his arms around—
Then again—none of these people will still be alive by the time I wake. So to hell with it.
I embraced Axel so tight it was like I was trying to absorb the feel of him to carry back to Rose. At first he was stoic, probably aware of his own duty to follow the rules, but then his rigid muscles loosened and he put his arms around me too. I took in the scent of him, his clothes having absorbed the sweet smoke of our hearth back in the cottage in the Wicked Revels.
“I love you, my lord,” he said. “Tell the queen I love her too.”
“She knows.”
“You can never hear those words too many times.”
I nodded. “And…I love you, Axel…”
Reluctantly, I stepped back. I heard people whispering, gossiping about what they’d seen, and it made me think that leaving this world wasn’t all bad.
A century inside the dream that Rose created…not a bad fate.
Merry whispered, his fingers dancing along the spinning wheel as he worked magic from the air, until the spindle gleamed.
“It’s ready,” he said.
“I’ll catch you,” Axel said, putting a hand on my back.
“Can I make one request?”
“Well, of course,” Axel said. “You are doing this of your own accord so you can make a hundred requests if you wished.”
“Put us inside the Lady’s Treat to sleep. If something happens to the Palace of the Sun, so be it…it’s a beast to maintain that place anyway. But that is Rose’s home.”
“Gladly,” Merry said.
“Although I intend to protect the Sun Palace, myself,” Jeanne said, still sounding prickly, but I could tell she really cared about the place, and maybe she had cared for my grandfather more than I realized.
I lifted my hand. I thought I would be nervous, but I was wrong. My world was Rose, and I had to let Axel make his own choices, as deeply as I would miss him. In the new world, we would all be free men, and a part of me was eager to see what I would find when I woke up again, in a hundred years.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“I’m here with you for the length of your sleep,” Augustus said, his grip firm at my waist, like he never intended to let me go. “So if you thought you could escape me…” His voice was flirtatious and soft in my ear.
“But this is my dream,” I said. “So you won’t escape me either. Maybe tonight, I will tie you to the bed.”
He grunted, yanking me against him so I felt his shaft throb against my stomach. The King’s Vine stirred to life again, giving just a hint of future pleasures.
“So Axel…is well?” My throat tightened again, imagining the perfect face, the loving eyes that could also turn cruel in the most tempting ways, when given the chance. For now, I coul
d still conjure up his image and the way it felt to be trapped between them, but in a hundred years, I wondered if I would forget.
“He’s alive and he is with us…in that world,” Augustus said. “That’s was…his request.” Augustus’ fingers curled over mine, as his eyes lowered. “I think the only way to honor him and his sacrifice now is to love each other as best we can.”
“Oh, no.”
Augustus bent down and lifted my chin so our lips met. His kiss was tender. “We have a witch to catch.”
“Is she here?” My grief over losing Axel made me feel a new resolve.
“When she dreams, we’ll find her. Are you ready for a hunt?”
“Are going to shoot her?”
“I was thinking more like a trap,” he said.
Madame Bertin walked up to us with a bundle of clothes. “Here are my lady’s hunting clothes.”
Augustus gave me a look that meant trouble and made my knees tremble. I knew right then and there that I would be a new sort of queen in my dreams. A slave to my own desires as much as the rules of the court. There would be no tight corsets anymore, and no more secret releases during dinner. There would be many moments when he belonged to me, and I reminded him of it.
But there would still be countless moments when I belonged to him.
“Thank you, Madame Bertin. Let’s get them on you,” he said, catching my wrists behind my back. He unlaced my gown at my back, and tugged it off my shoulders, baring my breasts. When he let go of my wrists, the gown fell off of me to the floor, and beneath it I wore nothing except the vine and my slippers.
Then, quite tenderly, he put on my hunting clothes as he had done in private many times before, and the entire court watched the King of the Sun Palace serve his queen. When he was done, he kissed my hands.
I wanted more. Was it his gentle ministrations or the way he tore off my dress in front of everyone? They seemed so opposite each other, but Augustus had always been a man of contradictions.
The Surrender of Sleeping Beauty Page 40
