Chapter Five

On the morning of the fourteenth day after Lann arrived, Arabella found herself awaking up in her mother’s chair again. She could hear the rattle and clank of the breakfast dishes arranging themselves for the upcoming meal. She stretched and moaned as cramps shot through her legs. A cup of herbal tea hovered before her. Arabella swatted the cup of the air. It sailed into the stone fireplace and shattered. The room smelled strongly of mint as tea ran down the wall. Arabella stormed up the stairs. She slammed her bedroom door open and marched to the foot of the bed. Lann lay peacefully snuggled beneath her downy blanket. His long hair spread across her pillows. He let out a peaceful little snort.

“Lann,” Arabella shouted. He burrowed further down under the blankets. “By all that is holy,” she cursed. “Lann,” her voice was loud and drawn out. Her war cry was accompanied by a quick grab and toss of the blankets. The blankets went flying down to the floor. Lann lay still for a moment gazing at her sleepily. The blankets floated up and headed to the bed. “No,” Arabella ordered and wrestled the blankets away from the invisible servant. She shoved the blankets back down to the floor and stomped on them. “You! Get up!” she pointed at Lann. “I need to talk to you now. Downstairs.” Arabella snatched the blankets out of the air once more and then threw them out of the window. She glared at Lann and then marched down to breakfast.

Lann appeared around ten minutes later. He looked handsome and presentable as normal. Instead of his normal sad expression, he wore a puzzled one. Arabella dished up with an angry clatter of dishes. She sat sipping a new cup of hot mint tea as she waited for Lann to get his food. Lann quietly waited for Arabella to say something. She just glowered over the rim of her cup at him. She needed to talk to him in a controlled manner. She took a deep breath.

“I want my room back,” she stated simply. She congratulated herself for sounding calm.

“Oh, okay,” Lann said slowly. He started eating his roll.

“This means my bed too,” Arabella said. “I want to sleep in my own bed.”

“Right,” Lann said. It was slow and drawn out. Arabella stared at him. Lann actually had a smirk on his face. He was not taking her seriously.

“I mean it,” Arabella slammed down her tea cup. The saucer cracked in two. “I am serious. I want to spend my nights in my own bed in my own room.” Her voice started to become louder. Lann just shrugged. “I’ve been sleeping in that uncomfortable chair ever since you came here.” He looked shocked then.

“But this place is big enough, there should be another bed somewhere that you could have slept in,” he stated.

“This is my home,” Arabella found that she was yelling at Lann. She also found that she could not seem to stop. “That is my room. I should not have to find another bed to sleep in.”

“But I’m a prince,” Lann said quietly. Arabella screamed and threw her tea cup at his head. Lann ducked and ran from the room. She heard him go upstairs. He went back to her room she just knew it. She sat down and wiped away tears of anger. The broken saucer and tea cup floated away. She sat staring at the table top as the dishes floated away to be cleaned somewhere in the castle.

“Arabella,” Orinda said from the doorway. Arabella jumped and then stared at her mother. Orinda’s hair was hanging free down her back. She had a black band encircling her head. She came over and sat down in the abandoned chair. She looked well and rested. Arabella on the other hand looked as if she had not slept in a month. “You should go an apologize to the prince.”

“What?” Arabella interrupted. Her jaw hung open.

“It would not be proper to antagonize the prince,” Orinda caught a full cup of tea from the air. She motioned for the spoon to add sugar to it. “You will be marrying him soon, so find some way to get alone with him.” She watched the spoon stir in the tea cup. Arabella grabbed the edge of the table.

“What?” Arabella gasped. “You can not possibly mean it. What makes you think that Lann will marry me?”
“Prince Lann, dear,” Orinda corrected. “He will marry you. That is all; a simple fact.”

“You think he is going to marry me?” Arabella’s voice shook with disbelief. “Why? He does not love me; he loves Princess Rosalina. It does not make sense that he would want to marry me.” Orinda set her tea cup down. It clattered on the saucer.

“He will marry you,” she said. Arabella shook her head. “It is quite simple. He might love the princess, but she is as good as dead. He does not have any hope of waking her. I made sure of that,” her voice was cold and calm. “Anyway, if he wants to live, then he will marry you.”

“You are threatening his life?” Arabella’s voice squeaked. “Oh mother really.”

“Arabella grow up,” Orinda snapped. “You and the prince will marry. You will bear him a son and you will be a Queen. You are now a princess. With the passing of Princess Rosalina, you are the heir to the throne of Kuhlbert. So you will merge the Prince’s kingdom and Waldemarr’s kingdom together. You will be powerful.” Orinda pointed at Arabella. “This is your destiny. You can not fight it. I have worked too hard to bring this about.”

“Mother, this is your desire, not mine,” Arabella said. “I will not do it. I do not love Lann. I am not sure I even like him.” She crossed her arms stubbornly. A scowl alighted on Orinda expression. Her eyes flashed with anger. Arabella was not scared of her mother. She glared right back at her enraged mother.

“You both will do as I say,” Orinda stood. She marched out the door. “I will make sure you do,” she yelled into the room. Arabella jumped as the door slammed. She ran to the door. It was locked.

“Mother,” she screamed. She heard Orinda on the stairs leading to her room. Orinda must be going after Lann. “Mother, stop it. Please,” she shouted at the ceiling. She tried the windows, but they refused to open. “Mother,” tears streamed down Arabella’s cheeks. Suddenly she heard Lann yell. It sounded as if he were in pain. Arabella stopped panicking.

Some quiet voice in her head whispered for her to try the window again. Arabella picked up a dinning chair and threw it through the nearest window. The glass shattered outward. She lifted her skirts and climbed out of the window. She placed her left hand on the frame to balance herself. Glass cut through the palm of her hand. She heard Lann scream again so she let it bleed. She ran through the entrance doors and hurried up the stairs. Lann’s screams were coming closer together. They were full of agony. Arabella crashed into her room.

Her mother stood over Lann with a wicked stiletto knife. Lann was tied to the bedposts. He wore only his pants. It looked as if he had gone back to bed after breakfast. Several thin slices on his chest oozed with blood. He was breathing hard and glaring with hatred at Orinda. Orinda stuck the tip of the knife into his skin and began to drag a thin line from his belly button to his right armpit. Lann’s eyes widened and he gritted his teeth. The pain soon got to him and he screamed with pain again. Arabella grabbed the knife from her mother.

“Mother stop!” she yelled in Orinda’s face. “Stop,” she clutched the knife to her chest with her right hand. Her mother took a step towards her. Arabella raised her left hand with her palm out to her mother. Orinda stopped and stared with horror at Arabella’s blood. The wound on her hand was still dripping blood. It ran down her hand and dripped on the floor. Everything seemed to freeze in time. Then Orinda abruptly turned and left. Arabella closed her eyes briefly. “Hold still,” she said to Lann, but it was unnecessary. He was not moving. He looked as if he was afraid to move because the pain would come back.

Carefully Arabella cut Lann’s bonds. She pulled the pillow case from her pillow. She cut a long strip from it and wound it around her left hand. She tucked the end under the other layers. She took the rest of the ruined pillow case and pressed it against Lann’s wounds. He moaned, but did not stop her. She held the cloth there trying to stop the bleeding.

“She was going to kill me,” Lann moaned.

“No she was not,” Arabella said. “She was just making a point.”

“Ha,” Lann grabbed Arabella’s hand that was holding the cloth to his wounds. “Normal people would make their points a little less bloodily. Only sadistic evil people torture someone else to make a point.”

“My mother is not evil,” Arabella snapped.

“Then at least we agree that she is sadistic,” he said. Arabella pulled away from Lann offended.

“Lann,” she stared at him. “You pig.”

“Don’t! Do not even call me names when your mother is the one clearly at fault here,” he said. “Open your eyes girl. Your mother is not a nice person.” Arabella can back to Lann and lightly pressed down on his wounds again. They had nearly stopped bleeding. A black shiny jar floated in front of her. Arabella reached out and took it. When she opened the lid she was hit by a pungent smell that was nearly overwhelming.

"What is that?" Lann said covering his nose.

"It is healing salve." Arabella smiled. "I wonder if my mother sent it."

"Well if she did then I don't want it," Lann turned his head away.

"Stop it," Arabella said. "At least she does not intend for you to die. You use what is offered sometimes. This stuff works." Arabella removed the blood soaked cloth. The invisible servant had brought in fresh clothes and clean water. She cleaned up Lann's wounds. "When I was ten, I fell down the tower stairs. I was lucky that I did not break an arm or leg. I was scrapped up pretty badly though." Lann started at the open window, but Arabella could tell her was listening. "When I went to my mother, she washed me up and then put this," she held the jar in front of Lann's face, "on my scraps. They healed almost instantly."

Arabella dipped one finger into the salve and traced one of the cuts on Lann's chest. He shivered as if with cold, then jerked around to look. The wound had healed completely. Not even a scar was left. He let Arabella smooth the salve into his other wounds. Lann's skin was smooth again and his pain had disappeared. Lann sat up and rubbed his chest as if he were trying to rub away the memory of Orinda's torture session. Arabella sat on the bed beside Lann. She unwrapped her hand. The cut was still bleeding and had started to turn black around the edges.

"Demon-spawn," Lann cursed. He grabbed Arabella's hand. "How did you do this?"

"I broke one of the windows downstairs and cut myself," she said. She had no desire to discuss her mother's plan with Lann. "I think there is a piece of glass in it." They both bent over her hand; the tops of their heads nearly touching. Arabella became extremely aware of his closeness.

"I see it," Lann said softly. He pulled the long sliver of glass out of Arabella's hand. The glass shone black. Lann tossed it on the table top. He held the water basin as Arabella soaked her hand.

"I do not think you should stay here much longer," she said. Lann's head jerked up.

"Are you talking about escaping? How? Do you have a plan?" he questioned her quickly not giving her any time to respond.

"No I do not have a plan yet," Arabella dried her hand. It was cleaner but the black ring around the cut was still there. She gently applied the salve. "I think that you need to go and save Rosalina."

"How?"

"I do not know, but you have to try," she said. "I think that you need to find the other fairies and ask them about it." Lann rolled his eyes.

"King Waldemarr tried that and they weren't much help." He put the basin back on the table and then watched it float away.

"Yes," Arabella said, "but that was before Rosalina fell asleep. Now that the curse has taken affect everything has changed. They should be able to see an answer now." Lann turned to her. Hope light up his face. "Now you need to escape and find them."

"Finding the fairies is easy. King Waldemarr knows where they are," Lann said. "Getting away from you mother, well..."

"She will probably stay in her bedroom again. She is trying to give us time to get to know each other," Arabella looked down at her hand embarrassed. Lann looked at her puzzled. "It is not important," she sighed. "You can just march off across the desert anytime you like. She will not notice; at least not right away. I can get some supplies that will help."

"That's all right, but what is stopping her from chasing me down with her whirlwind when she does notice that I'm missing," Lann said. Arabella gently touched her hand. The wound had closed most of the way, but the black ring scarred the palm of her hand. It was still painful to the touch. She kept the black jar in her lap for fear that if she set it down it would float away.

"I know. I will leave as well." Lann looked ready to say something. "I will go south while you go north. Once Mother realizes that we are gone, she will be too busy chasing me down to go after you. She will come after you though," Arabella looked Lann in the eyes, "once she has caught me." Arabella rose and stuck the jar in the bottom of her wardrobe where she knew it would not be touched. "Now," she turned to Lann. "What do you take on a long trip through the desert?"