An Unlikely Prince
By Gaeriel Mallory
I had a new assignment. Never mind that by rights, I still had at least a few more years to enjoy without having to Godmother another child to adulthood and happiness. Yet there it was in writing from the Fairy Godmothers Board of Directors.
Dear Seraphin, Fairy Godmother,
We of the Board believe that your unique skills will be most useful in dealing with this particular case. Therefore, in our wisdom, we pass it on to you. The charge is one Winellia of Darnbury. Her prince is HRH Prince Reginald of Gastburn. Enclosed is the file on Winellia and her case history.
Best wishes,
Meribelle
Fairy Godmother
Fairy Godmother Board of Directors, Head
I muttered under my breath about overbearing directors and went to fetch my wand.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Winellia of Darnbury had been trapped by her uncle the evil magician inside a glass ball. The uncle did that in order to steal the crown for himself, of course. He was so nefarious in fact that he had the glass ball made into the top of his royal scepter so that Winellia would be able to look out and see her subjects bowing to her uncle.
It was a very lonely existence.
Her previous Fairy Godmother had given up because Prince Reginald had been unresponsive to Winellia's plight, reason unknown. To give the poor fairy credit, she had tried. She had left pictures of Winellia lying around where Reginald would see them, had posed as a gossiping servant and whispered the story into the prince's ear... Had done nigh everything but drag the prince to Darnbury and put a sword into his hand.
No, that wasn't right. There had been something else she could have done. True, it flew in the face of everything we were taught in Fairy Godmother School. But I had done it for Cinderella's case and Winellia was even worse off than she had been.
I revealed myself to Reginald. Turns out I should have saved myself the trouble.
"What do you mean you won't help her?" I nearly shrieked.
Reginald turned toward me and shrugged eloquently. "Look, I'm very sorry. I feel for the poor girl, I really do. But I'm just not the adventuring type. I don't go haring off at the hint of some poor damsel in distress, especially one I've never met."
I felt my face turning red. "You-you-you... coward!"
He was in the midst of pouring himself a glass of wine. He turned around and frowned at me. "Hey now! I don't think the situation calls for name calling. Let's keep it civil, huh?"
"Argh!" I ran my hands through my hair and resisted the urge to pull it out. I stomped over and took the glass from his hand and downed the alcohol. Grabbing him by the collar, I bodily hauled him over to a chair and shoved him into it. "Now you listen here," I told him, holding my face close to his. "That girl has been trapped inside that glass bubble for three years waiting for someone to go rescue her. Now by some streak of wisdom, the Fairy Godmother Board of Directors decided that person would be you. Now I don't know how they came up with that half-assed conclusion because from what I've seen, you don't deserve her. You're a sniveling spoiled brat who wouldn't know what to do without half a dozen servants tending to your every need." I released his collar and stood up. "I'm done with you. I'll go find some other person—prince, commoner, or singing bat—to go rescue Winellia. You're not worth my time."
Just then the door opened and a young nobleman entered. "Reg, you have to help me. My mother is after me again—" He stopped when he saw me. He took in my tousled hair and the prince's disheveled appearance, and his face turned about six shades of red. "Excuse me," he said stiffly. "I didn't realize you had company. Silly me. I should have knocked." He turned and nearly ran out of the door.
Reginald bolted out of his seat and after the other man without a backwards glance at me. "Dev! Please wait. It's not what it looks like, I swear!"
I stared after the two of them in shock before making a discreet exit as only a fairy can. I popped out magically and reappeared in front of Halga's house. "Oh, please be home," I muttered as I knocked.
As soon as Halga opened the door, I pushed myself past her and walked into her work room. "Halga, do you still keep a list of all your charges in that book?"
"Well, yes, but what do you need it for?" She pulled a thick leather-bound tome off of a shelf and handed it to me.
I took the book and put it on an empty table with a thump. "Turns out that His Royal Highness Prince Reginald of Gastburn is entirely ill-suited to playing the shining knight on the white horse—at least, he is if the person to be rescued is female."
"Oh dear..." Halga covered her mouth in shock.
"Oh dear is right. How on earth did the board conceive of this match? Do they do no research at all?" I flipped through the pages rapidly, scanning the writing and then moving on.
"But what are you looking for, Sera?"
"Someone, anyone who lives in Darnbury who can rescue that poor princess. At this point, I could care less about marriage. I just want her out of that glass prison and on her throne."
Halga gave me an odd look. "When this is all over, you're going to have to explain this to me from the very beginning. And hopefully in more understandable terms than what you're using now."
"There!" I jabbed my finger at a line in the book. "He's perfect." I turned towards my friend. "Sorry, Halga but I have to run. Thanks again."
I popped out and reappeared in some stables, frightening a number of horses. "Oh, shush," I told them as I walked down the aisle. My target was currently cleaning out the second to last stall and he looked up in surprise at the horses' outburst.
"M'lady," he said as he clumsily bowed. "What can I do for you?"
There was a quiet pop behind me. That wasn't entirely unexpected and I braced myself for-- "Seraphine! Just what do you think you're doing?" Halga marched up to me. "Of all the stupid things! The Board will have your wand for this, you know."
"If the Board had done their job in the first place, I wouldn't have to resort to this. Sterin, lad, come here please." The last was to the stable boy who had been mucking out stalls just a few moments before.
He leaned the sweep broom he was using against the wall and came forward cautiously. "M'ladies," he said again, bowing. "Are you witches?"
"Not quite." I studied the young man and approved of what I saw: intelligent eyes, a not uncomely face though not quite handsome either, and—best of all—a lack of inclination to run away from the two women that mysteriously appeared from nowhere. "Tell me, Sterin, how would you like to become a hero?"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"I don't think I'm cut out to be hero-material," Sterin protested.
"Nonsense," I replied as I half-guided him, half-pushed him through the halls of the palace. "Everyone could be a hero if given the opportunity."
Behind me, Halga rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you're doing this," she muttered.
"I don't see you trying to stop me," I answered back reasonably.
"That's because no sane person tries to stop a charging bull."
I pretended that I didn't hear her and turned back to Sterin. "Look, it's very simple. He's asleep. You grab the scepter he keeps on his nightstand and bring it out here. Tomorrow, you go into the court and throw scepter on the ground so that the glass ball on top of it breaks. Everyone in the court sees their princess, realizes the deception of the king, and the deed is done. You're a hero. You'll never have to clean up after a horse again."
He sighed ruefully as we stopped in front of the royal bedchamber. "But I like mucking stables."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Princess Winellia sat across from the three of us looking as if she had just come from a walk in the garden rather than three years of magical imprisonment. "I must thank you again," she told us. "Without you, I don't know how long I would have been stuck in that awful ball." She shuddered.
"Sorry for the long wait," I responded. "We would have gotten you out sooner if the Board hadn't mucked everything up so royally."
She held up a hand. "Don't apologize. My uncle has been executed and I've retaken my throne. All is as it should be."
"You mean you don't mind that you weren't rescued by a prince?" Sterin blurted out.
Winellia looked over at him with raised eyebrows. "What need do I have of a prince?" she asked. "I can rule just fine by myself and if I marry, I want it to be for love and not some obligation. It doesn't take a prince to rescue a princess as you so aptly demonstrated."
Sterin blushed and looked at the ground. "It wasn't all me," he said shyly. "There was that horse, too. If it hadn't come along and stepped on the ball, I would be in the dungeons right now." He frowned and looked at me suspiciously. "Just where did that horse come from anyhow?"
"It wasn't me." I looked over at Halga and noticed that her skin was three shades redder than it normally was. "Though it was rather a miracle that the horse stampeded through the palace when it did. To think that the ball didn't break when you threw it..."
"Wherever it came from, it has my gratitude as well," Winellia interjected. "Now, Sterin, as to your reward—"
His head flew back up. "But I don't want anything!" he protested. "I'm just the stable boy. I don't know why these two fairy ladies chose me to be their hero but I did it anyway. I didn't even want to do it at first."
Halga spoke up. "But you did. You had a choice, even though sometimes it seems like you don't when you're up against Sera here. And you're much more than just a stable boy, lad. Else I wouldn't have taken such an interest with you when you were younger."
Sterin looked at her in confusion. "What are you talking about, Lady?"
"Do you remember that beggar woman who came into your village all those years ago? No one wanted to put her up for the night but you hid her in the hayloft of your master's barn. You even snuck her food. It was scraps, true, but at least you cared enough to see she didn't go hungry."
His eyes widened. "You!"
Halga smiled. "You may be common born, Sterin, but you have the heart of a prince beating your chest."
"And you'll always be a prince to me," Winellia added. She smiled at him.
He blushed again. "M'lady," he stammered.
I grinned to myself. I had been happy to just see Winellia free but it looked as if she had become a bit smitten with the stable boy turned hero. And the reverse was true if Sterin's blushes were any indication. True, the lad was not royal or even noble and the Board would object to that fact but in the end, I knew they would not stand in the way of love.
I hoped Prince Reginald and his Dev had patched up their differences due to my disturbance. After all, it would be a shame to have that mess unresolved when the rest had sorted itself out nicely.
--fin--