Before the Dawn (12 page)

"The witch," she whispered, "she has begun
her spell. I can feel it working through me."

Her sisters all looked stricken, but the
soldier rallied them together and urged them to go even faster.
Soon, they were running, barely seeing the gold and diamond groves
as they passed through the beautiful trees, until they finally
reached the lake. The boats were waiting for them and they stepped
into each one quickly, and Rosamund prayed that she wouldn't get to
the Prince too late. The witch's spell was beginning to burn in her
chest and she became afraid that it would kill her as well. Once
they landed on the opposite shore, she immediately started running
towards the castle’s ballroom while her sisters and the soldier
tried to catch up with her.

"Benwyr!" she cried out the Prince's name.
"Benwyr!" She looked for him, but he was nowhere to be seen in the
crowd of dancers. Then she thought she caught a glimpse of pale
hair, and she swiftly made her way to where she had seen it. After
struggling through the thick mass of revelers, she found herself
near the same balcony where they had argued the previous night. And
there he was waiting for her.

"You came back," he said.

"To stay," she told him, and the smile that
appeared on his face was brighter than the moon. "But there's
something you must know," she added desperately. "A witch has cast
a killing spell on you, and she is using me to do it. Please, if
you have the power to save yourself, do so for I cannot bear
knowing that I can cause you harm."

His eyes clouded with worry. He took a step
towards her and laid a hand on her arm. It was the one that had
been cut by the silver leaf earlier and the blood oozing from it
touched his skin. Almost instantly, he hissed and flung himself
away from Rosamund, his hand still held out in front of him. With
dawning horror, they both watched as her blood worked away at his
skin like acid, turning the pale flesh dark, and the black foulness
rapidly began to spread up his arm.

"No!" she moaned in pain and denial. "No!
Please! There must be something you can do to stop it!"

The smile he gave her was sad yet resigned.
"Not unless you stop loving me, and I would not wish for that," he
said gently. "Your father's witch has crafted a very clever spell.
It’s a working that only someone from the Strangelands could have
taught her. I wonder who it was." But he didn’t really sound like
he cared about who among his people may have betrayed him to his
death.

"No." Rosamund shook her head in defiance.
"You cannot die because of me. I will not let this happen!" She
felt like her whole world was falling apart around her. How had
things come to this horrible, horrible end?

"It is all right, Rosamund." She tried to shy
away from him but, in spite of the agony he must have felt, he
placed his arms around her and gave her a soft kiss. "Never forget
me."

She pushed him away in a panic. A mad idea
had come to her mind. She looked and she saw moonlight reflected on
the lake's dark waters beneath the balcony. She remembered the
warnings she had heard from him and the other people of the Court
about the lake's magic.

"Forgive me," she said, then she leaped over
the edge and plunged into the water.

***

Chapter 12

Somewhere, a bird was singing, and the soft
glow of the sun shone down on Aline as she sat by the clearing
while Raven's last few words faded away in the wind. But she felt
as if she was surrounded by cold and dark waters, drowning in the
memories of someone who was once herself. She had to struggle
through layers of colors and sounds before she could become fully
aware of who she was now. For a moment, she became afraid that she
had become lost but, finally, everything seemed to slip back into
their proper places and she looked up at Raven. His image was
blurry, and it took her a few seconds to realize that she was
crying.

"That was the truth?" she asked, her voice
scratchy. "That was what happened?"

He nodded. "Yes, I swear it."

"Did—did I die?"

"No," he shook his head. "The waves bore you
to the shore where your sisters and the soldier pulled you to
safety and took you back to your home. Afterwards, I broke the
enchantment because it had caused too much trouble for everyone by
then. The Prince would have followed you, but he was severely
weakened by the witch's spell, so it was not until three nights had
passed that he left the Strangelands to find you. I came with him,
and when we reached your father's castle, we saw that you had
recovered in body but your memories were gone. For all intents and
purposes, you were no longer Rosamund. She had been lost to the
waters of oblivion, and thus the witch's spell could no longer
threaten the Prince's life."

"So she did save him in the end," she said,
glad that Rosamund had been able to accomplish that much at least
through her sacrifice.

"Yes, but at the cost of her love for him."
Raven wasn't done with his story yet, and Aline gestured for him to
continue. "The Prince was furious with your father and the witch,
as well as whoever had taught the witch that particular killing
spell. He wished to curse them all, but your intrepid young soldier
managed to prevent that and save their lives, which is another
story that I will not bore you with. Benwyr also failed to discover
who had helped the witch with the working that almost ended his
life. He then tried to cast an enchantment similar to mine so he
could call Rosamund back to the Strangelands, but she was too
well-protected by the witch’s magic by then, and so were her
sisters. He never stopped searching for another way though, even
when Rosamund ended up marrying the soldier and living a full
mortal life, and then dying of old age."

"But why is all of this happening now?" Aline
asked, because she still didn’t quite understand everything. "It
already ended really badly before, so why are we all going through
it again?"

He shrugged. "The Prince eventually found
another way to get Rosamund back, even from death. Human souls, you
see, have this tendency to stay bound to the earth and be reborn
every once in a while. He then worked the enchantment you are under
in now because he believes that he would be able to reawaken
Rosamund's love within you. He has waited for centuries, studied
prophecy after prophecy, spell after spell, until the stars and the
worlds moved into the right alignments. He thinks that it will be
different for the two of you this time, that you will finally be
together and you will stay in the Strangelands with him forever. I
believe he has gone quite mad from his maudlin romanticism." For a
moment, this thought darkened his face, but he quickly shook it off
with a careless little laugh.

Aline scowled at him. "Well, what about the
rest? How come my friends don't seem to realize that they're all
being enchanted? And weren't there supposed to be twelve of us?
It's just me now, so the people I know shouldn't really be involved
in this."

"What part of
'The Prince has waited for
centuries until the stars and the worlds moved into the right
alignments
' don't you understand, Your Highness?" Raven looked
quite peeved. "He has made sure that conditions are as similar as
possible to the last time you fell in love with him so he would
have a greater chance of success. That means you're not the only
reborn soul wandering around in these parts, though he wasn't able
to secure everyone he needed, of course. Some of your sisters have
long moved on to other worlds, for instance, but the others are
still with you in the forms of your dearest friends. And as for
everyone else not realizing they are under an enchantment, well,
that was my suggestion in order to lessen the possibility of a
meddling witch showing up. And I am quite positive that we have
been able to shut her out of the spell. Though, for some reason,
you seem to be resisting the power of the enchantment, which is
quite aggravating of you, by the way. But no matter. You’ll succumb
to it in the end, I’m sure."

Raven then stood up, and the boulder he had
sat on sank back down into the ground. "Well, I've told you the
story you wished to know. Now, it's time for you to fulfill your
part of the bargain and find a way to free me from the Prince's
service."

"Whoa! Wait a freaking minute here!" she
exclaimed. "Exactly how am I supposed to do that? You want me to
just waltz up to your Prince and ask him to free you?"

He was thoughtful for a second, and then he
nodded. "I suppose that would work. Or you might ask him to free me
as a wedding present."

"What? Huh?" She was confused. "What wedding
present? Why are you talking about wedding presents?"

He let out a long-suffering sigh that clearly
told her he thought she was too slow to live. "The terms of my
service to the Prince clearly state that I would only be freed once
he has gained the heart of his true love, or until he has deemed I
have rendered a service of equivalent import. He bound me to those
conditions after your first lifetime when he made me start
searching for your reborn essence everywhere in the world. I have
to admit I was quite a fool for agreeing to be bound like that, and
that is absolutely the last time I do something for someone out of
a misguided sense of responsibility. Quite frankly, I believe I
have sufficiently fulfilled the spirit of those terms and, now, I
wish to be released from all my obligations to his Court so I may
live without any duties for a century or two at least." He looked
down his nose at Aline. "And, while I am endeavoring to be
scrupulously honest with you, I must also express my great desire
to be rid of all this romantic melodrama about lost loves and
second chances. You'll never see me acting like a besotted fool
over a silly mortal girl, of that you can be sure."

"Hey, you just wait another minute!" she
snapped. "Your story doesn't really help me at all! Yeah, I now
know how the first enchantment ended, but I still don't know how I
can break this new one. I can't channel Rosamund so that the
witch's spell would reactivate and threaten the Prince again, and I
certainly don't wish to stay with him forever so he'll release
everyone else. Isn't there any other option?"

Raven huffed. "I never said that knowing the
story would help you find a way out of your predicament. If I may
make a suggestion, emulate the example of your previous incarnation
and sacrifice yourself for the freedom of your friends." He then
gave her a little bow. "Until next we see each other again, Your
Highness." With a flourish of his coat, he transformed back into a
bird and flew off in an eye blink.

"You—" She shook her fist at his back,
feeling totally frustrated. "You jerk!"

"Aline, thank God!"

She heard a crashing noise and Trevor's lanky
form stumbled into the clearing. She blinked and the green-gold
haze that permeated the atmosphere during her conversation with
Raven immediately disappeared and ordinary afternoon sunlight
washed over her. She looked at Trevor with a bit of alarm. His hair
was a mess that stuck up in all directions, there were scratches on
his face and dirt stains on his clothes, and the expression in his
eyes was, to put it mildly, wild with worry.

"I can't believe you're just sitting here!"
he exclaimed as he pulled her to her feet and gave her a fierce
hug. "I passed by this place like three times, but I never saw you.
I've been going round and round for hours. I was going crazy
thinking of all the stuff that could have happened to you." He
peered into her face intently. "Are you okay? Did you catch up with
that bird?"

"I'm fine," she told him. "I was talking to
Raven. He told me so many things and—wait. You've been searching
for me for hours?"

"Yeah. I was getting really worried."

She groaned when she realized what must have
happened. "He did something with the time. It didn't even feel like
we had talked for an hour, but now it's afternoon. That jerk!"
Mentally, she placed a violent curse on Raven that would have
horrified Trevor if she had said it out loud. "Now we've got just a
few hours left before it's night and the spell acts up again. And
we don't even have the silver leaf anymore!" A fear she could not
begin to describe swept over her. Tonight, she would be called to
the Prince's Court once more, and she had no idea if she would have
the strength to keep her head and continue to resist the temptation
to surrender to the spell. And Trevor would most likely be
prevented from helping her. She'd be alone.

He must have guessed her thoughts because he
held her tighter and kissed her. "I'll find a way to get to you,"
he swore. "No matter what it takes, I'll find you and I'll get you
away from him."

She knew he meant it. She knew that if there
was a way to save her, Trevor would find it and he would do
everything he could to help her. For hadn't he always done that,
even before they met again in this life?

However, one question haunted Aline and made
her doubt her own faith in her feelings for him: what if he did
find a way to save her from the Prince, but she didn't want to be
saved? She didn't even want to consider the thought that she might
actually end up being trapped in this enchantment forever. A vision
came to her then of the years yet to come. She'd continue to grow
old, but she'd never have a real life of her own because of the
spell that would snatch her away every night and force her to dance
and dance with creatures who would stay young forever. And what if
she eventually chose to surrender to all of it, like Gracelyn had?
Would she just be found lifeless in her bed one morning without
anyone knowing what had really happened to her?

No. She could not let that happen. There had
to be a way for her to free herself from the Prince's magic. And
she had to do everything she could to free the people she knew as
well. None of them could go on like this.