Medley of Fairy Tales and Fables Page 13

  “Listen, fair maiden,” the voice continued. “I will help you get home if you will but make me one promise.”

  “Anything!” Hope filled Katheryne’s heart and she agreed before knowing what the promise might be.

  “I am the son of a king who is much greater than your own father,” the voice in the iron box claimed. “I will take you as my wife.”

  Katheryne gasped. She couldn’t marry an iron cage or whatever trickery lay within it! She had hoped to promise herself to Alexandir whom she had so longed to see and in whose embrace she felt at home.

  “I will send you to your kingdom, princess, but you must return to me with a knife, scrape away the iron, and free me from this spell. Then we will wed.”

  She wrung her hands. “I cannot marry you! My heart belongs to another.”

  The voice paused, then whispered, “To whom have you given your heart?”

  “To a prince at the ball. I danced with him last year and barely survived the year apart from him. We danced again last night, before the kingdom of Rayrin was attacked.”

  “Why do you love him?”

  Katheryne sat in the dirt and leaned her back against the iron cage. She closed her eyes, both from exhaustion and from the memory of Alexandir. “He is the most handsome prince I have ever met and to dance with him is bliss.”

  The old iron cage seemed to deflate. “Is that all?”

  “What else is there?” She yawned and felt herself slipping toward a strange oblivion.

  “Foolish girl.” Behind her closed eyelids, Katheryne imagined Alexandir’s copper head shake back and forth in sorrow. “You will learn of true love and feel the pain of losing it.”

  Chapter 4

  W hen Katheryne opened her eyes, she was no longer in the forest by the iron cage, but rested with her back against the trunk of a tree on the forest’s edge. Her father’s kingdom loomed before her, the great gates and towering arches a welcome beacon of safety.

  She ran to them and was taken by the guards to her father’s lounge where food and drink were served to rejuvenate her malnourished body. Her father left his affairs and hurried to her side.

  “Oh, Katheryne, my daughter!” He threw his arms about her and held her close. “I heard of Lord Geffrei’s attack and feared for your safety.”

  “I am well, Father, though I must tell you what has transpired.” She spoke of the ball and the attack on the palace, then of getting lost in the forest. Then she told him she found the iron cage and promised to return and marry it.

  “You what?” The king’s round, bearded face turned ashen.

  “I promised to return and marry the iron cage.” She ran her hand through her tangled hair. “I believe it is under a spell, but what I will find when I break the spell is a mystery.”

  “You mustn’t! You are my only child and your mother has long since passed. I cannot lose you, too.”

  “What must I do?” All she wanted to do was sleep, but the problem had to be solved.

  Her father sat on the sofa beside her and scratched his beard. “Here is what we will do. The miller’s daughter is most fair and has yellow hair like you. We will send her with the knife to break the spell of the iron cage.”

  Katheryne felt relieved at the solution. Her father sent her off to bed while he arranged to send the miller’s daughter.

  Two days later, the miller’s daughter returned with an ill report. “I found the iron cage as you described.” She bowed to Katheryne and her father. “I scraped at it all through the night, but by morning nothing had happened. Then a voice asked if it was morning. I said that yes it was and I thought I could hear the sounds of my father’s mill in the distance. The voice then told me to go home and send the king’s daughter instead.”

  Guilt wrenched at Katheryne’s heart. She had made a promise—a foolish one to be sure—and now she sought to break it. But she could not marry an iron cage or, if it was a spell, whatever horrible surprise she found instead.

  Her father dismissed the miller’s daughter, then stepped to her side. “We will try again, Katheryne. You needn’t remain bound to this fate.”

  They walked together to the window and gazed out upon the rose garden. The beautiful flowers bent their heads in the summer breeze. Katheryne wished to be free like the delicate blooms, not tied down to a thoughtless promise.

  “The shepherd’s daughter is even lovelier than the miller’s.” Her father patted her shoulder. “We will send her to break the spell of the iron cage.”

  Katheryne agreed, though she knew it wouldn’t work either.

  Two days later the shepherd’s daughter returned with a report similar to the miller’s daughter. “I scraped at that old cage for a full twenty-four hours and not a thing happened. My knife could make no dent or scratch in it. When morning broke, a voice asked, ‘Is it morning?’ I replied that yes, it was. The voice sighed—a rather pathetic and mournful sound indeed—then said, ‘Go home and send for the king’s daughter. She must fulfill her promise.’ So I have returned.”

  Katheryne held her hand to her chest and closed her eyes. There was nothing else for it. She had to return and marry the iron cage. It would accept no one else.

  She heard her father excuse the shepherd’s daughter, and listened to her fading footsteps. Each one struck her heart and solidified the promise she had made.

  The following morning she donned her deep blue traveling cloak and joined the guards who would escort her into the forest to find the iron cage. She clutched the bejeweled knife her father had given her, then tucked it into her belt.

  After half-a-day’s journey through the thick pines of the forest, they stumbled upon the iron cage. It looked the same as it had when Katheryne first saw it. The other maidens’ knives hadn’t even scratched it.

  She pulled her knife from her belt and approached the cage. The other women had scraped for a full day without marring it, so she was surprised when one stroke of her knife scratched off a fleck of iron. After a quarter of an hour she had scraped away a fist-sized hole, though it hadn’t yet punctured through to the hollow inside—if the inside were hollow. Perhaps it wasn’t.

  Within an hour, she had scraped away a hole as large as her head and it burst through to the inside. She stuck her head in to take a look.

  “Good afternoon, dear Katheryne.”

  Chapter 5

  K atheryne screamed and withdrew her head from the hole in the iron cage. Her guards rushed forward, but she waved them back. She leaned her back against the cage and held her hand to her pounding heart while she tried to steady her breath. There was a man inside the cage! The light had been dim, but she had caught a glimpse of his features. She repeated them to herself while she considered the familiarity of his voice.

  Freckles, deep green eyes, auburn hair, and even the smell of sandalwood and rose mixed with the metallic smell of iron.

  “Alexandir!” She popped her head back into the hole and gazed upon him.

  “Dear Katheryne, why did you not keep your promise?”

  “I did! I am here.”

  “You first sent two others.” He frowned and she felt it stab her heart with the knife of guilt. He had counted on her and she had disappointed him.

  “Alexandir, forgive me! I couldn’t possibly have known it was you.”

  “I knew it was you from your sobs when you first leaned against the iron cage.”

  Shame burned within her. She should have recognized the comfort of his voice. When she hadn’t known who was in the cage, she had told the voice that she loved him, yet she hadn’t known him well enough to recognize him when he stood imprisoned before her. That couldn’t truly be love.

  “Please, Alexandir, I—”

  A half-smile turned up the corners of his lips. “Katheryne, we can discuss that and many other things when I am no longer entombed within this dark, magical cage that Lord Geffrei’s sorcerers placed me in. Please, continue your scraping. You are the only one who can free me.”

  “Of cou
rse!” Katheryne pulled her head out and scratched furiously at the cage, all the while considering her actions toward the man she claimed to love.

  An hour later there was a hole large enough for him to squeeze through. He did so, and stood before her, tall and strong. He looked so handsome that she nearly swooned, but managed to regain her composure—at least sort of. “Alexandir…I…um…”

  His countenance fell and he looked away from her toward her guards. “Come, Katheryne dear. We are to be wed.”

  Her heart pounded. She was to marry Alexandir! In all her fantasies and dreams of him, she had never considered that she might actually marry him. It felt too good to be true! Oh, how she desired to run straight home and tell her father of her glorious fate!

  She reached for his arm. “Before we wed, might I return to my father and tell him the wonderful news?”

  “What did you tell him before?” He took her hand in his.

  “I said I feared to marry the iron cage or whatever magic it contained. I must tell him that it is you.”

  Alexandir turned her until she faced him. “What does your father know of me?”

  Katheryne smiled up at him. “Last year I told him I had met the most handsome prince at the ball. I spoke of you all year long. He will be overjoyed to know it is you whom I will wed!”

  “How is it you have learned so little of me in a year’s time?” His gaze continued to hold a sadness that she didn’t understand.

  “What do you mean? I know you live in a kingdom far to the south and that your father is a greater king than mine. I know that your handsome face and skillful dancing could sweep any woman off her feet. I cannot believe we are to be wed! My dreams have come true!”

  He seemed to smile, but it looked a bit like a grimace.

  “What is it, Alexandir? Please tell me?”

  He didn’t speak at first. Instead he brushed her hair off her shoulder and gazed so deeply into her eyes that she felt naked before him. “I have learned so much about you, dear Katheryne, in two dances. I know that your mother passed away and you still hurt inside, though you try to be strong. I know you tease and play, but have a serious heart when confronted with trials. I know you love your father and value his opinion of you. I know you believe you love me, but you do not know the meaning of love.”

  Chapter 6

  K atheryne held her breath. Alexandir’s words rang through her head with the note of truth. Perhaps she hadn’t even realized those things in herself, but he had, and he was right.

  She did still hurt after her mother’s death and she did desire her father’s approval—probably to compensate for her loss. She had professed her love for Alexandir, but knew she couldn’t love him if she didn’t even know him.

  “Return to your father.” Alexandir released her hand and turned away. “Say no more than three words to him, then return here to me. I will take you to my father’s kingdom and you will be my bride.”

  “Three words? What can I say to him in three words?”

  “You must think carefully, my dear. Choose your words wisely.” He sat upon a stump beside the iron cage. “If you do what I say, then we will live together in happiness in my father’s kingdom.”

  Katheryne stepped toward her guards. “Thank you, Alexandir. I will return with haste.”

  He nodded and wished her safe travels.

  She thought on his words the entire journey back to her father. Three words. She wished to speak to her father for hours about her marriage. How could she speak only three words to him? What would she say? I will wed, or he is Alexandir. Maybe all is well, or do not fear.

  When her father’s palace came into view, she had decided on her three words. I wed Alexandir. That should suffice.

  Her father ran out to meet the group and she threw herself into his arms. The guards left them to their reunion.

  He held her tight. “Are you well, my daughter?”

  She nodded.

  “What happened? Did you break the spell? I thought you were to be wed, yet you have returned. What of the iron cage?”

  She released her father and held up her hand to stop his questions. “I wed Alexandir.” There. She had said her three words.

  “Alexandir? The prince you danced with last year and couldn’t stop speaking of?”

  Again she nodded.

  “He was the iron cage?”

  In the iron cage, but she did not correct her father.

  “When are you to wed? What kingdom is he from? Is he as wonderful as you remembered?”

  “Oh, Father! He is even more pleasing! I cannot believe it was him. And I am to be his bri—” She clasped her hands over her mouth. Three words! She had forgotten. “Oh, no! I have not kept my promise! I must go to him. What might have happened to him?”

  She turned away from her father and ran back toward the forest.

  “Katheryne!”

  “Goodbye, Father!” she called, but did not look back.

  She ran through the evening and into the night until she reached the place where Alexandir should have waited for her. The place was empty. He wasn’t there and neither was the iron cage!

  “Alexandir!” she yelled into the light of a full moon. “Alexandir! Forgive me! Where are you?”

  Only the hooting of owls and scurrying of mice answered her.

  She had lost him! Once again she hadn’t kept her promise and now he was gone. Overcome, she sank to the ground, buried her head in her arms, and cried herself to sleep.

  When the sun rose in the morning, she leapt to her feet and searched for him and the iron cage, but there was no trace of either. Night fell again and she slept fitfully.

  On the morrow, she returned to the first place she had seen the iron cage. In frustration she kicked at the leaves on the forest floor. Her slipper collided with a hard object. She dropped to her knees and brushed away the leaves to reveal a large wooden box with an iron clasp, very much like the one she had seen on the iron cage.

  Her hands shook when she lifted the clasp and peered inside. She saw several things: a mattock, an ax, a small boat, a loaf of bread, and a wedge of cheese.

  She puzzled over what the items could mean, and where Alexandir could be. The sun prepared to set yet again, and she made up her mind. Alexandir had once searched for her when he hadn’t a single clue to her whereabouts. She had one clue to his: his kingdom was far to the south. She would find him.

  Chapter 7

  K atheryne gathered the boat and food into her pockets and hung the tools from her belt, then glanced at the setting sun and set off in a southern direction.

  She walked for seven days, pausing only to sleep and eat the magical food that remained the same size no matter how much she ate. She drank water each morning from dew gathered on leaves and petals, and found her thirst quenched until the next morning.

  On the afternoon of the eighth day she came to a glass crag. The towering cliff jutted up from the ground to a neck-kinking height, as though the earth itself had spewed it from its very depths to keep strangers from entering the lands beyond. The face was smooth and reflected back the mid-day rays of sun in a blinding glow.

  Katheryne covered her eyes and turned away. Then she sat on a rock and waited until the sun set. When a soft red burn filled the sky, she pulled the mattock from her belt and thrust it into the translucent surface of the precipice. A great chunk ripped away and several cracks appeared. They splintered and traveled upward, then broke away into a steep path that led to the top.

  Alexandir’s voice in memory floated to her. “Are you well, dear maiden?” He had always thought of her before himself. His kingdom had been in fear of Lord Geffrei, yet it was her he had worried over. He had been locked in a cursed iron cage, yet he asked after her wellbeing.

  “Yes, dear Alexandir, I am well and I am on my way to find you.” She placed her foot on the glass path and began her climb.

  She used the mattock to cling to the cliff-face while her feet traversed the slick path. Step after step a
nd whack after whack, she managed to progress. Sweat dripped from her brow and every muscle screamed, but she pushed herself on.

  Darkness fell, but a full moon bathed her path in a warm glow and reflected off the crag with nearly the blinding brightness of the sun. After what seemed like hours, she paused on a flatter bit of path, then made the mistake of looking down. Her vision tunneled down the cliff face to the ground so far below and shook in dizzying waves of moonlight as she tried to focus on something stable and supportive. She felt overcome with panic and had to shut her eyes and cling with all her remaining strength to the safety of the mattock.

  When her pounding heart slowed, she thrust up with the mattock again and took a step forward. Her foot shook and she couldn’t find a firm placement for it. The slick surface couldn’t hold her and she slipped. Her grip tightened on the mattock as her body spun and dangled in the air.

  “Help!” she screamed, though she knew no one was there.

  Fear made her fingers clammy and she felt them slip. Thoughts of Alexandir filled her head and she knew she had to reach him. With a burst of strength, she flung her foot back toward the path and found solid footing. She pulled her body flat against the crag’s slick surface and held herself there while sobs tore from her chest.

  When she felt calm again, she continued on. She dared not look down again and dared not look up to see how far she had left to go, but instead focused on each step until at last she reached the top. She pulled herself up on shaky hands and knees, then scrambled away from the edge and collapsed.

  When the early sun’s rays reflected in every direction off the glass, she awoke and covered her eyes. She turned away from the luminous light and continued her journey south along the gentle slopes of rolling hills and lush grasses.

  She thought of Alexandir and the dances they had shared. His arms had felt like returning home and she wondered at the sensation. It was how she felt in her own father’s arms when she had returned from the forest—the embrace of one who had worried over her and loved her. Alexandir cared deeply for her, like her father did, but she couldn’t decide if she worried about him in the same manner, or just desired to gaze upon his handsome face and be held in his strong arms. Perhaps she didn’t understand much about love after all.