The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom (39 page)
Read The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom Online
Authors: Christopher Healy
Liam knelt down beside Frederic. “He’s too far gone,” he said somberly. “We can’t save him.”
With sudden determination, Gustav scooped Frederic back up into his arms. “But I know someone who can,” he said. “We need to travel fast. Duncan, go get your dragon.”
P
RINCE
C
HARMING
D
OES
E
XACTLY
W
HAT
H
E
S
AID
H
E’D
N
EVER
D
O
I
n a lush but secluded valley far to the south of Sturmhagen, Rapunzel returned to her rough-hewn wooden cottage after a long and tiring day of healing the sick and injured. She regretted the need to keep her location secret, but knew that if news of her special talents became common knowledge, every farmhand with chapped lips or gnome with a paper cut would show up on her doorstep, eager for a quick fix. She preferred to save her abilities to aid those truly in need. Rapunzel had a network of sprites and fairies that scoured the countryside, scouting out the sick and wounded for her. If there were a coach crash, wolf attack, or outbreak of slug pox, she’d hear about it and show up to fix things.
Earlier that day, she’d gone to a nearby village, where a batch of tainted gruel had given everyone a nasty stomach bug. After that she stopped in a forest vale to tend to a family of pixies that had been accidentally inhaled by a bear. Considering it a good day’s work, she was now eager to head inside for a quiet evening with a book and a bowl of turnip soup. But alas, it was not to be. She knew she was in for some overtime when a tremendous winged dragon set down in her yard. She wiped her hands on the apron of her white dress and stepped outside to light the pair of lanterns that flanked her front door.
Two riders slid down off the neck of the dragon. The first landed flat on his face, but stood back up almost immediately. The second, a big bald man who walked with a limp, was carrying a large bundle in his arms.
The men wore the black trappings of thieves and assassins. As they approached, Rapunzel realized that the bundle the bald man carried was actually a third person. The injured man had probably been hurt in the process of a robbery or while the trio was escaping from a prison somewhere. She was distressed; she didn’t like aiding criminals.
The bald man walked right up to her and laid his companion down at her feet. The smaller man stood back, out of the way. Rapunzel glanced down at the man on the ground and gasped. He looked
that
bad.
“Can you fix him?” the big man asked. Rapunzel knew that voice.
“Gustav?” She was stunned. Between the black clothing, the bald scalp, and the fact that she’d never expected to see him again, she hadn’t recognized the man who, just a few months earlier, the whole world expected her to marry.
“You cut your hair,” Gustav said. Rapunzel’s shimmery blond hair came down to her mid-thigh, but it was nowhere near the length it had been.
“So did you,” Rapunzel responded. She spoke with a twinkly, almost musical voice, reminiscent of wind chimes.
“My friend—can you fix him?” Gustav repeated. Rapunzel’s eyes widened at the sound of the word “friend.” She’d never heard Gustav use that word to refer to anyone.
“What happened to him?” she asked. She kept her eyes locked on Gustav’s. Their usual coldness seemed to fade away as he thought about the injured man.
“He saved my life,” Gustav said. “Twice, really. Maybe more. I don’t even know. Look, Frederic is a big goober, and he makes me feel like I’m going to sprain my eyeballs from rolling them so much, but he’s a good guy. He doesn’t deserve to die because of me.”
Rapunzel was amazed. Gustav was expressing some honest feelings. This might have been a bigger miracle than when she cured his blindness. “It’s okay, Gustav,” she said with a soothing, angelic lilt. “You can let it out. Don’t be afraid to cry.”
Gustav scowled. “I’m not going to
cry
,” he snapped. “
You
cry. You’re the one with the magic tears.”
He reached out and gave Rapunzel’s hair a quick, hard yank.
“Ow!” she yipped, pulling back from him. “That hurt.”
“I’m sorry,” Gustav sighed. “But would you make with the tears already? Before he dies.”
Rapunzel dropped to her knees beside Frederic. “To risk your life for a man as brutish and awful as Gustav, you must be a saint,” she whispered. “Your sacrifice may be the most noble I’ve seen.”
And tears fell from her eyes.
As the salty droplets hit Frederic’s body, he seemed to vibrate, and a low hum could be heard. Then his eyes popped open.
“Huzzah!” Duncan cheered.
Frederic sat up. “Gustav? Where are we? What happened?”
Gustav closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Thank you,” he whispered to Rapunzel. It was the first “thank you” she’d ever gotten from him.
“Duncan!” Frederic shouted. “Duncan, you’re alive!”
“I was never dead!” he responded gleefully.
Duncan hoisted Frederic to his feet. “How do you feel?” he asked with a big, eager smile.
“Um, fine, I guess,” Frederic said, testing his legs and arms. “Great, actually. This is the best I’ve felt since I left Harmonia.”
“Oh, thank you, Miss Rapunzel!” Duncan sang out loudly, surprising Rapunzel with a grateful embrace that involved his arms
and
legs. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” He let go of her and hugged Frederic.
“Rapunzel?” Frederic was very confused. “You’re Rapunzel?”
“Yes,” she replied.
“Did you just, um, do some, you know … magic?” Frederic pointed to his eyes. “Did you make me better?”
She nodded and smiled at him. There was something warm and instantly likable about Frederic that made her feel very, very good about having helped save his life.
Frederic quietly took Rapunzel’s hand in both of his and kissed it gently. He didn’t know if it was part of her magic, or just the way he was feeling about her at that moment, but he would have sworn she was glowing. “You’re amazing. You know, with what you do,” he said. “Helping people the way you helped me—it’s very admirable. If you ever need any assistance … if there’s anything I could ever do…”
Rapunzel blushed. “I tend to do all right by myself,” she said. “But if I ever need a hand, I’ll know who to ask. If you see a sprite at your door someday, don’t shoo her away. I may have sent her.”
“Sprites, right,” Frederic said. “They’re the tiny bluish ones? With the antenna thingies?”
“They prefer to call them ‘feelers,’ but yes,” Rapunzel said with a grin.
“I’ll get an itty-bitty guest room set up. Just in case.” Frederic realized he was still holding Rapunzel’s hand. “Oh, my fiancée is going to be so excited to hear that I met you. Which reminds me: Where
is
Ella? And Liam? What about the witch?”
Duncan put his arm around Frederic. “Come,” he said. “I’ll fill you in.”
“One second.” Frederic turned to Gustav. “Thank
you
, Gustav. I know what it meant for you to bring me
here
, of all places.”
“It didn’t mean anything special,” Gustav said. “We’re supposed to be a team, right? I just did my part.”
“Well, thanks all the same,” Frederic said as Duncan led him away.
Frederic gave a startled little jump when he spotted the dragon, huffing small poofs of smoke from its nostrils as it napped on the grass.
“The dwarfs made the dragon all nice, right?” he asked.
“Yep, don’t worry. I got to ride her!” Duncan beamed. “So did you, actually. Although you were almost dead, so you probably don’t remember. And don’t worry about my driving—I promised Frank I’d just stick to left, right, up, and down.”
“You’re welcome, by the way,” Rapunzel said to Gustav.
“Huh? Oh. Yeah, whatever,” Gustav mumbled. “I’ve got to go.”
“Don’t you want me to fix you, too? You’re limping.”
“It’s fine. I don’t need your help,” Gustav said. It came out more bitterly than he’d intended.
“I’ll never understand you, Gustav,” she said.
“What’s to understand?”
“Frederic’s obviously a warm and kind human being. I could sense it in him immediately. And you and he care about each other.”
“Bah.”
“You still feel the need to be a gruff, emotionless, manly hero, as if that’s what everyone expects you to be. There are obviously other parts of you that you don’t feel comfortable admitting to. But they’re the
good
parts.”
“I’m
all
good parts, okay?” Gustav grumbled. “I don’t need you to tell me about myself.”
Rapunzel wanted to tell him that there was nothing wrong with letting people know you cared about them and that he didn’t need to push friends away if he felt them getting too close, but she dropped the topic. She had no desire to provoke Gustav into one of his childish arguments. But she was right: There were parts of Gustav that he didn’t want to admit to, especially the part that still sort of, kind of, liked Rapunzel.
Gustav and Rapunzel stood in silence for a few moments.
“So, why’d you cut the hair?” he finally asked.
“The only reason I ever kept it as long as I did was because Zaubera ordered me to,” Rapunzel said. “It was a rather inconvenient length once I was no longer confined to a single room.”
Gustav sniffed. “My haircut wasn’t exactly by choice. That’s my barber, back there.” He pointed over his shoulder to the dragon. Duncan had woken the creature, and he and Frederic were already mounted upon its neck.
“I need to go,” Gustav said brusquely.
“Gustav, before you leave—I have one question,” Rapunzel called. “How did you find me?”
“I’ve known you were here for months. I followed you when you first left, just to make sure you were safe. Then I went home.”
He turned abruptly and joined his friends on the dragon. Rapunzel shook her head as she watched them soar skyward. “Like I said, I will never understand you.”