Rescuing Rapunzel (2 page)

While it was an unusual thing indeed to find in the middle of the Black Forest, even more unusual was the beautiful sound emanating from it.

At first, he had thought it a trick of the wind blowing through the trees, but as he had closed in, he realized it was a melody–an enchanting one that pulled him as much as his horse, leading the way to the tower. As Ovet wove through the trees, they had come to the clearing–or rather, the abrupt end of the heavy tree line–where the outer wall stood, a good ten feet high. The music was so beautiful the desire to discover its source was no longer a want, but a need.

Finding foot- and handholds in the stone wall, he had heaved himself up the structure. Reaching the top, he pulled himself over, relieved and proud that he had scaled it.

Standing on the wall, the music was even clearer and he had immediately seen the source. A girl stood in a window of the tower, a circle of light around her. He had rubbed his eyes and blinked twice, for she so resembled an angel he expected to see wings.

He could not help watching her–this angel singing to the birds in the trees. The way her lips shaped each note, how she sang with complete abandon, her notes so free it left him in awe.

When the wind whipped around him, he had thought for a moment he would lose his footing. His cloak slapped against him and he fought to shove it out of his face. Once his cloak was under control, he had returned his attention to the tower.

The angel stared at him, her body rigid and the freedom she had been singing with gone.

She looked frightened.

Unsure what to do to ease her fears, he had smiled and started to raise his hand to wave when she had ducked back inside the tower.

Disappointment had replaced the awe. Surely she was not scared of him? Did she think he would harm her?

Who would harm such an angel?

Nick shook his head, trying to snap himself out of his thoughts. He needed to be getting home—it was probably a good hour to Castle Hohburg, the capital of his province.

His father’s province. Someday it would be his, but not until his father gave it to him. And if his mother had her way, Nick would never inherit. Or at least not until he agreed to her conditions. He patted Ovet’s flank before climbing into the saddle. She turned her head and snorted at him in apparent rebuke. He had kept her out past feeding time, so he guessed he deserved it.

He stroked her neck. “You are a good girl.”

The horse shook her mane, as if agreeing with him. She tugged at the bit but Nick fought for her head. He could not take his gaze from the window.

The angel did not come back, yet he continued to hope he would see her, hear that beautiful voice again. Perhaps he had frightened her by appearing so suddenly on the wall. Perhaps she had thought him an attacker? He shook his head at his stupidity. Of course that would frighten her. It would frighten anyone. Especially if she were alone up there.

Alone, in the woods.

He had seen no sign of another person in the tower. Nudging his horse toward the wall, he circled it while looking for a door, staying far enough away not to let the horse get tangled in the bramble that grew all around the perimeter. He rode around it twice before realizing there was no way through the wall. Hoping for another glimpse of her, he stopped in sight of her window.

He sat there as long as he could–the darker it got, the less safe the forest became. Even his horse began to get twitchy after a short while and, with reluctance, Nick turned the horse toward home.

He would be back, though. Of that he had no doubt. It was far too curious to find an angel alone in a tower that had no entrance.

As he headed through the trees, a fleeting thought crossed his mind.

Perhaps she was an angel in truth. For an angel would need no door to descend from the heavens.

Chapter 3

Everything was still. Even the birds had quieted. Hiding below the window, my knees pulled to my chest, I could hardly feel my fingers, much less my bottom on the hard stone floor.

Yet I did not dare move. He could still be out there.

My heart thundered in my chest, yet every other part of me remained frozen.
 

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so I may ascend thy golden stair,” echoed from the garden.

I yelped until I realized I knew the voice.

Mother had returned.

I leaped to my feet and threw the bundle of hair out the window, though I immediately looked to the wall for the boy. I felt a swell of relief. Mother was back and he was gone. I was safe.

Bracing myself against the window, I twisted my head back and forth to keep a small bit of slack in the braids. I tried not to wince at the pain, for every time she ascended it hurt. I continued to scan the ground for signs of the boy–a broken branch or rustling bush–but he had disappeared with no evidence.

Mother emerged at the window and I helped her inside. Although her dark hair was still pulled into its customary tight knot atop her head, the lines in her face looked deeper than usual and her back was hunched. She looked gaunt and depleted, but then she always looked most weary after she had been away on one of her missions.

She paused, raising an eyebrow just as she regained her footing. “Child, what is it? You look frightened.”

I shook my head. “No. I…”

“What?” Mother crossed the room and lifted my chin to look into my eyes.

Her fingernails scratched my skin but I kept my face still, not showing any sign of pain. “I thought…for a moment, I thought I saw someone outside.”

Mother spun, heading back to the window. “Where?”

I gestured to the wall, unable to lie. Mother always knew and punishment was swift if I tried such a thing.

“I see no one.” She turned back to me. “Are you certain?” Her tone suggested that I was mistaken, that I had merely imagined a person.

Maybe I had.

“I thought… Maybe…”

“You thought you saw someone, or you did?” She snagged part of my hair, jerking it. “Be certain.” Her fists tangled around one of the braids.

“I surely imagined it.” I winced. “Forgive me, Mother.”

For good measure, she jerked on the braid again, and I bit my lip to keep from crying out in pain. “Outsiders are dangerous, Rapunzel. You must be very careful.” She glanced out the window again. “Perhaps it is time, after all,” she murmured. She took a few steps away from me, hands clenched as she whispered to herself, before facing me again and pulling a small dagger from the folds of her dress.

I stepped back, though I knew it did no good.

Mother grabbed a plait of hair off the floor and, as she paced the room, let it slide through her fingers. “There are many who would wish you harm, Rapunzel. It is time, I believe, to be sure you are ready.” She found the very end of the braid, held it as though about to wield a paintbrush. The dagger glistened in the light from the window.

“Yes, Mother.” I gritted my teeth against what was coming.

The dagger was sharp, but it did not lessen the pain of Mother slicing off the bottom of my braid, though today she only took a hand’s width of hair.

Tears stung my eyes as the hair was severed but I forced myself to remain still.

Mother held the chunk of hair in her palm, examining the strands as she did every time. Then she turned her attention to me. “You must learn to defend yourself against intruders, my dear.” She dropped the rest of the hair. The braids landed with a thud on the floor.
 

My body sagged. It was over.

Then Mother did the most extraordinary thing.

She handed me the dagger.

“Mother?”

She waved off the question. “You need something to defend yourself with, if by chance someone did manage to get into the tower. You are almost eighteen. It is time you learned to protect yourself.”

“Of course, Mother. You are right.” The flicker of the blue cloak and the boy I saw were enough encouragement. I held the dagger, twisting it this way and that, watching the way the light shone on the blade. I imagined striking out with it, shoving the gleaming metal into the flesh of another human being, and I wanted to be sick. But Mother
was
right. I needed to know how to care for myself. Defend myself. Mother would not always be here–her journeys were taking longer and longer.

This last mission she was gone almost an entire moon cycle, and if she had not come back when she did I did not know what I would have done.

There was no other way to enter except by the window through which Mother came and went–and only then with the use of my hair. It was hard to fathom someone being able to scale the wall, let alone the tower, and I had always taken comfort in that.

Had he been there?

I thought he was.

But I could be wrong. I could have imagined him.

Yet if I had not… It sent a shiver through me, for if scaling the wall was possible, what else was?

I would have to learn what to do.

“I do not know how to use it,” I said.

Mother’s expression was dark she stared at the dagger in my hand. “I shall teach you.”

Chapter 4

Nick wiped the sweat from his eyes and, brushing his black hair from his face, raised his sword to the ready position.

“What is the matter with you today, Nick?” Count Bryan von Thalunburg asked, leaning against a tree, his stein of–whatever it was Bryan drank in the middle of the day–lifted to his lips, blond hair falling in his eyes.

“Nothing.” Nick stared down his opponent, Earl Penn von Eisenburg–whose sword was at the ready though he looked rather bored.

Mutual alliances had brought all three men’s families together a generation before, and Nick loved, and at times loathed, the two of them like brothers.
 

“Liar.” Penn slashed with his sword, the attack quick and lethal.

Nick slammed his sword against Penn’s shield in an effort to block him. Nick had size and strength but Penn, more lean and wiry, had always used his speed to his advantage.

Many days, they were evenly matched.

Today was not one of those days.

Two things threw their balance off. Nick had not been sleeping well, and Penn had an audience. The training practices were always quite a show for the women who stood in the windows overlooking the yard. Even now, soft feminine giggles flitted down, fueling Penn’s attack.

At least today no women were in the courtyard, circling like vultures.

Not that Nick cared. None of those women meant anything to him. Especially considering his sister Enrika and her little playmates were the prime watchers. They invaded every spring, claiming to visit Kiki whereas their true motivation was to land a husband, preferably a Charming Noble.

Penn and Bryan were there not because they were looking for wives but because they loved the attention. Even from girls barely out of the schoolroom. Kiki being one of them.

“You shall never win a lady with this performance,” Penn said, taunting him as he threw two more quick strikes.

“As if I would want such babies…” Nick blocked a particularly jarring blow from Penn.

Penn spun and, as he came around, sword at the ready, he winked at the women in the window. “Those babies are all legal to be wed, even your sister.”

Nick gritted his teeth. “Kiki is barely a woman.”

He slashed out with his sword. None of those maids were worth his time. They were all children, as far as he was concerned. They followed him constantly, giggling and whispering, which only served to emphasize their youth. Kiki, the ringleader, seemed to practically thrive on their foolish behavior.

“She is almost one and twenty,” Bryan added from the side, sipping his drink, a smile not quite hidden by his cup.

Nick glanced at Bryan. “I do not particularly like the idea of you paying attention to my sister. She is a girl. A child.”

Bryan snorted. “Thou shalt not covet thy friend’s sister.”

Penn swung his sword at Nick. “Someone should covet her. She is growing up.”

Nick snarled, countering as best he could, but with a few quick strokes Penn had him disarmed.

Again.

Nick lunged at Penn, shoved his weapon aside and wrapped a hand around his throat. “Go near her and we shall no longer be practicing, Eisenburg.”

Penn punched him in the side of the head, making Nick stumble and release him. “Even I know better than that.”

Nick growled, glaring at his best friend.

Bryan burst out laughing, accompanied by a few of the soldiers who practiced nearby. “It is good nothing is bothering you.”

The laughter would not have been quite so biting if he did not hear his sister adding to it. He glared at the tower and saw a wisp of her sleeve as she darted away from the window. He rolled his eyes. No doubt she was off to report this to someone–the girl knew more about the happenings at the castle than anyone. Rumor had it servants came to her with their gossip.