My Fair Godmother (30 page)

It hurt to do it, but I nodded.

Even after his speech, Tristan still took a step away from me as though I’d struck him. The crowd at once murmured, pressing toward us and throwing words of scorn in my direction.

“Hussy!”

“The way of such a woman is wickedness!”

“The downfall of he who held her dear!” I stepped toward Tristan, my hands out. My voice came out in broken spurts. “I’m sorry, but we’ll think of another way to defeat him.”

He shook his head. “Don’t you understand?”

“Tristan—”

I didn’t finish; the Black Knight spoke again. “And thus falls your most promising knight.” He held his sword out to the crowd and yelled, “All of you will like-wise fall if Prince Edmond does not accept my challenge soon. I tire of waiting. I give him a fortnight and no longer. Then I will return and you shall feel the wrath of the Black Knight.” He nudged his horse forward, and the 382/431

crowd parted before him. He called over his shoulder to King Roderick. “I leave it to the king to see that the consequences of Sir Tristan’s challenge are fulfilled. If his head isn’t posted outside the castle wall by tomorrow at nightfall I will consider it an act of war.”

“What?” I yelled and then screamed, “No!” I knew the Black Knight heard me. For a moment his head swung in my direction and he paused as he looked at me. I stepped toward him, half stumbling. “No!” I cried. “Have mercy!” But he spurred his horse on and rode toward the forest.

I turned back to Tristan, my head shaking, all of me shaking. “You didn’t wager your life. Tell me you didn’t wager your life.”

His voice, his manner was bitterly calm. “It was the only way I could get the Black Knight to agree to his own banishment if he lost.”

Above the rumblings of the crowd, I heard the king, his tone heavy with regret. “Guards, bring Sir Tristan to me.”

I couldn’t breathe. Everything looked dark and shadowy by the torchlight. The cold air grabbed at my throat.

The crowd at once erupted with protests. “It wasn’t a fair fight!” someone yelled.

“It should be
her
head, not
his
that hangs on the castle wall!”

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“We don’t answer to the Black Knight!” someone else shouted.

Instead of moving out of the way, the people stood their ground, blocking the way of the guards as they tried to come for Tristan.

I put my hand on Tristan’s arm. “You have to run.” I looked around the courtyard. “My carriage—I have twelve fast horses, at least they’ll be fast until midnight—”

He didn’t move. “And what will I do when the Black Knight seeks revenge on all of these people? Where will I run to then?”

“They’ll be able to handle the Black Knight. He’s not invincible anymore.”

Tristan still made no move to leave. His jaw was set.

He looked at the progress of the guards through the crowd.

I tugged at Tristan’s arm to get his attention again and kept my voice low so only he could hear me. “That’s how I stole his invincibility enchantment. I drank switching potion and now I’ll switch enchantments with anyone who kisses me this week.” I knew he didn’t understand but I went on trying to explain, trying to redeem myself.

“I kissed him, but I did it for you.” Tristan nodded but still didn’t look at me. I wasn’t sure if he believed me or not. “I remember that day. You 384/431

were worried you’d end up being the Black Knight’s downfall. Ironic, isn’t it?”

The guards were making headway through the crowd.

They yelled and pushed people out of the way, their swords gripped in tight fists. No one was putting up much resistance anymore. The guards would be here soon.

I reached over to Tristan’s waist and pulled his sword from its sheath. I held it in front of me, my senses already growing sharp. “I won’t let them take you.” He let out a sigh. “You don’t know how to use that.

Put it down before someone decides to chop it out of your hands.”

I didn’t.

Tristan reached out and took the sword from me. I could have stopped him. The world slowed as his hand came toward mine, every moment crawled by. I saw not only his hand reaching for the sword, but the guards and the crowd before us. One of the guards had his sword pointed at Hunter, was yelling at Hunter to drop his weapon. Another had just grabbed Jane by her arm.

I realized I could save Tristan, but I couldn’t save them all. If I stood here and fought for Tristan’s life, Hunter and Jane would lose theirs.

So I let Tristan take the sword.

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The world still moved in slow motion. I put my hand on Tristan’s shoulder and leaned in close to him. I pushed myself up on my tiptoes and kissed his lips.

At once the world sped up, crashed around me, with noise and motion.

But Tristan looked with wonder out at the crowd and I could tell his new senses had already kicked in. “What’s happened?”

“You’re invincible now. They can’t hurt you.” The guard who had grabbed Jane held his sword at the base of her throat. Her eyes stared at us, wide and frightened. “Drop your sword!” the guard yelled to Tristan.

Tristan held his sword upright. “Let her go first. Let all of my friends go.”

The guards were circling us now; several came around behind us. King Roderick walked toward us but stopped behind the protection of the guards. “You’re not in a position to make demands.”

The sword swayed in Tristan’s hands. He looked from Jane to Hunter and then at King Roderick. “You don’t have to fear the Black Knight anymore. He’s no longer invincible. I can defeat him for you. Isn’t that what you really want?”

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The king rubbed his forehead wearily. “We’ve already seen how you defeated the Black Knight. Don’t make us take the lives of your friends as well as your own.” To me, Tristan whispered, “How fast am I?”

“Not fast enough to save them both,” I said.

Tristan lowered his sword slightly. “Give me your word that you’ll let them go, and I’ll throw down my sword.”

King Roderick conferred with two of the guards near him. I wondered why he needed to talk to them about it.

“Don’t trust him,” I said. “After we’re gone, escape.

We’ll meet in the forest at the cyclops’s caves.” Tristan shook his head. “I just need to explain my power to them. If I save them from the Black Knight, they’ll make me a prince.”

“You don’t have to be a prince anymore,” I said. “I do.

I kissed you, so we switched enchantments.” It hurt to say the next words and they cracked in my throat.

“Chrissy will probably show up in a day or two to take you back home. Make sure you take Hunter and Jane with you.”

Tears flooded my eyes and I hated myself for crying instead of taking my consequences as stoically as Tristan had earlier. It only made it worse to see the alarm in his blue eyes.

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He bent over and brushed his lips against mine.

“There— now you have your power back. I won’t let you be left here forever.”

The tears came harder this time because he’d tried to sacrifice himself for me. I should never have been worried before that he would kiss me if he knew how easy it was for him to get rid of his enchantment. “It only works one way. We can’t switch back the same enchantments.” The king called over, “Lay down your sword and we will release your friends. You have my word.” Tristan didn’t look away from me. “I won’t let Chrissy leave you here,” he said and dropped his sword.

Immediately the guards flanked him, pointing half a dozen swords at his chest and head. One of them yanked me away from Tristan. He dragged me roughly farther away from the castle gates. “Get her coach ready!” he yelled to someone, though I couldn’t see who he was talking to. “Her ladyship is leaving.” He bent his head toward me and sneered at me with rows of crooked teeth. “Her ladyship, the viper. You cost a good man his life this night. I hope you’re satisfied with who you’ve been kissing.” I didn’t answer. It was hard enough to see where I was going in the dark and little rocks and pebbles bit into the soles of my feet. I grabbed my skirt with my free hand and tried to hold it up so I wouldn’t trip.

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The guard went on berating me so loudly that I didn’t realize Jane and Hunter were behind me until we were quite a ways from the castle gates and two guards pushed them in front of me.

Jane’s hair was mussed and her shoulders heaved up and down from crying. Blood dripped from the corner of Hunter’s mouth and he held one hand over his stomach as though in pain. I looked from them to the guards.

“What did you do to them?” I demanded.

My guard pulled me a step farther, his foul-smelling breath close to my face. “Nothing that I won’t do to you if you try and fight me.” He didn’t let me go the way Jane and Hunter’s guards had. His grip bit into my arm.

My coach pulled up in front of us. The horses pawed and panted as if they knew something was wrong. Instead of Scuppers, one of the guards sat on the box seat.

“What did you do with my coachman?” I asked.

The guard jumped off the box seat and held the reins out to Hunter. “He ran off like a frightened dog when he saw us coming for him. Your other man will have to drive the coach.”

Hunter winced, but he managed to climb up on the box seat and hold the reins. “Don’t worry,” I told him.

“The horses know the way. It will be all right.” I tried to sound confident. Jane and Hunter didn’t know yet that we had a plan and a meeting place. They didn’t know 389/431

Tristan was going to be fine. I wanted to show them that I wasn’t worried, which was hard because my voice trembled anyway.

Once Jane saw that Hunter had made it up onto the box she opened the coach door and climbed inside, leaving the door open for me. I stepped toward the coach but my guard jerked me back. “Not you,” he said, and the next moment he pushed some bitter-smelling rag against my mouth. “We said we’d let Sir Tristan’s friends go. You don’t count as a friend anymore, do you?”

One of the guards slammed the coach door shut, then smacked the lead horse on the flank. The horses raced off down the trail, hauling the carriage behind them. I struggled to get away, but my last vision of them was Jane’s hands pressed up against the window and her mouth opened in a soundless “No!”

Chapter 26

I clawed at the guard’s hands, trying to move them away from my mouth. I kicked at his legs, but with my long dress and bare feet, I didn’t do any damage. The other guards converged around me. One held a rope in his hand. “The king still has need of you,” he told me.

“Doesn’t want us to kill you. It would be a regrettable thing if you struggled so much while we tied you up that we broke your neck.”

I stopped fighting after that.

They tied my ankles and wrists together, and even though I had stopped struggling, they still gagged me.

“It’s best for folk not to know we still have you,” the guard told me. “It looks bad for a king to go back on his word to a knight—aye, and one who’s given his life for the kingdom, at that.”

I didn’t like the way they talked of Tristan as though he were already dead. It made my heart pound even harder than it already was.

One of the guards picked me up and heaved me over his shoulder. The other guards took off their cloaks and draped them over my head and back. They walked me back through the castle gates and with each heavy 391/431

footstep I felt the guard’s shoulder jabbing into my stomach.

Then the guard stopped. I heard voices yelling but they sounded far away. The guard dropped me off his shoulder and without being able to put my hands out in front of me, I hit the ground with a painful thud. The cloaks fell from around me and at first I just saw boots.

Pairs and pairs of guard boots running toward—I strained my neck to see better—running toward the stables.

A horse emerged from the stables. The rider was young and handsome, with blond hair blowing around his shoulders. Tristan. I tried to call out to him but only managed to make a muffled noise. The guards had reached him. With a raised sword, he knocked away one weapon and then another from the men who ran up to him.

“Over here,” I tried to yell to him. I tried to catch his attention but I was just a dark mound lying in the shadows.

Tristan kicked a guard, who sprawled into the others.

Without a glance in my direction, he spurred on his horse and rode across the grounds and out the castle gate, leaving me behind.

• • •

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The guards took me to the king’s chamber. I struggled all the way there, hoping to catch sight of Edmond or even of Hugh, hoping they wouldn’t let their father hurt me.

But I didn’t see them.

I was dropped in a corner by an empty fireplace and left to sit there, bound, on the cold stone floor. I strained to hear voices in the castle around me. I wondered where Jane and Hunter had gone. I hadn’t been able to tell them they were supposed to go to the cyclops’s cave.

Would they go back to the inn? And would Tristan look there for them when they didn’t show up at the cave?

When they finally found one another and Tristan discovered I was still at the castle, would he come for me?

He wouldn’t know where to look and the castle was so big.

Chrissy had always been so late showing up, but she’d been right on time to send me to the ball as Cinderella.

What if she’d already come and taken the rest of them home? What if there was no one left who could save me?

I thought of the Black Knight then; I’m not sure why.

Perhaps because it seemed like the sort of thing fairy-tale knights would do—rescue damsels who were tied up in castles. The idea left me with no hope though, just sourness. I couldn’t forget the way he’d tricked Tristan 393/431

and then demanded his death, the way he’d just looked at me and ridden by when I’d begged him for mercy.

If the others had already been taken back home, well, I was just going to have to work on saving myself.

I pulled on the ropes, twisting my hands. The ropes didn’t give, not even an inch. I scooted over to the hearth and tried to find a sharp edge that I could use to cut through the ropes.

That didn’t work either. So much for saving myself. In a low muffled voice, I tried to call out, “Chrissy!” Silence. Nothing.