Page 100 of Once Upon a Castle
“Then we cannot delay. We shall go with your plan,” she said firmly, “and commence our attack during the grand reception.” She shifted the tankards and bread rolls on the tabletop to indicate the castle. “While you and Brand mass the troops here along outside the wall, I will take a party of soldiers and…”
Cador was appalled. “You will do nothing of the kind! Do you think I would let you risk your life? No, you will be safe in our hidden camp until Lector and his men are vanquished.”
“I will not!” She rose and placed her hands on the table, facing him. “If I were a prince rather than a princess, you would let me ride to battle at your side. Indeed, you would think me a coward if I did not insist on leading my subjects.” Her eyes flashed magnificently. “Well, I am no coward, Cador! As Amelonia’s future queen, I claim my right to lead my people!”
Cador rose, too, towering over her with the width of the scrubbed planks between them. He was caught in the white heat of fury. Princess she might be, but she was still his love, and under his protection. And she was not trained to combat as he had been. “Do not pull rank with me,highness,or I will tie you to a tree until this is over! As it is, too many will die trying to breach the castle walls! There is not one good reason for you to risk yourself in this venture, and I forbid it!”
Tressalara was every bit as outraged. “You have no authority over me, Cador. And I haveeveryright!” She struggled with her anger. “You refuse to listen to reason, and my presence is vital to the plan. There will be no reason to breach the gates, with all the loss of life that entails. I can get them opened for you—from inside.”
“You are naive. Those loyal to you are either dead or Lector’s captives.”
“I see how little you think of my intelligence.” Her frustration burst out in blistering fury. “By the saints, when I am crowned queen of Amelonia, no man will tell me what I may do or not do!”
Cador’s face went hard and cold, as if a door had shut. “Yes—when you are queen. For now you are merely another rebel in hiding.”
The ice in his voice tempered her anger. She struggled for control. “I am also the key that will unlock the puzzle for you. I know a secret way into the castle and I know every hidden passage within its walls.”
A cold fist squeezed Cador’s heart. There was truth in her statement. She did indeed hold the key. By wounding her pride, he had pushed her too far. He felt as if he had tried to take a step on solid ground and found himself plummeting through thin air. She would not forgive him for it. Nor could he ever again forget that she was born to be a queen, while he was only Cador of Kildore.
Still, he had to try. “For the love of God, then, tell me the way in. I will go myself.”
“You are needed to lead the assault,” she said coolly.
His anger went almost as deep as his fear for her. “After the way you have taken over,” he said bitterly, “I am surprised that you feel you need me at all.”
She bit her lip and turned away, afraid to let him see how much she needed him, knowing that he could never understand that her duties to her people must come before everything. Even his pride.
Even their love.
“There is no other in whom I would place such trust,” she said simply. “We must return to camp and prepare.” The fate of Amelonia rested upon her shoulders.
The three of them rode back through the forest in constrained silence. When they reached the open grasslands by the lake, she spurred her horse and galloped across the countryside, trying to outrun their mutually angry words and their potential consequences. Cador would have to understand that she had no choice. Wouldn’t he?
That night Tressalara made up the blankets on the ground of Cador’s tent. He and his lieutenants were planning the best route of attack once they were within the castle walls. Since her identity must be kept secret until then, she had reluctantly agreed to continue in her role as Trev. His anger seemed to have dissolved, although he had seemed preoccupied upon their return. She felt that her own anger had been justified, though she tried not to remember the look in his eyes when she had defied him. If they were to have only this night and so few others together before the battle with Lector, she wanted them to be perfect.
Hours passed, and still Cador did not come to her. She lay with her head upon his pillow, inhaling his familiar scent and filled with thwarted yearning. She ached to feel his strong arms around her, his lips upon hers, and to know that their heated words had not formed a cold wedge between them.
It was almost dawn when she heard a rustling and called out his name. It was only faithful Rossmine, returned from her errand of carrying Tressalara’s urgent warning to Elani.
Opening the tiny tube, the princess saw that the pebble was gone. It had been replaced instead by a tiny pink seed pearl. She smiled. It had surely come from Elani’s ring. That meant her friend had understood the message. Her heart warmed.
Then she saw Cador sleeping a few feet away beneath the trees, rolled up in his heavy cloak. He had slept on the hard dirt like a common peasant, rather than share her bed. Tressalara turned silently and went back inside with leaden heart, knowing that whatever had been between them was over.
8
The black swanflapped onto the riverbank. “I don’t understand that stupid human of yours,” Illusius honked. “First she wants Cador, then she doesn’t.”
“Of course she wants him,” Niniane trumpeted, pecking at him with her bill. “And she is not a stupid human. After all, she is letting him be what he is born to be. Why ishetrying to preventherfrom doing the same?”
Illusius nipped back at her sharply. “You’re just as silly as your human. Why don’t you just fly off and leave me be?”
The white swan’s ruffled feathers stood out like rounded spikes. “Very well, I will!”
Instantly there was a puff of purple smoke. When it cleared, two frogs sat on the floor of the Caverns of Mist, glaring at each other. “Oh, no!” said the darker of the two.
“Oh, yes,” replied the Niniane frog. “Here we are again. But…something is different. Oh, look! Myrriden!”
Illusius turned his bulbous eyes toward the rear of the cavern and croaked in surprise. The great wizard was still frozen, but the block of ice that encased him was much smaller than before. A great puddle of meltwater lay over the floor like a quicksilver pool. He hopped closer. “Do you know what I think?”
