Chapter Four

Arabella stood perfectly still and stared. A slight hot breeze whipped her skirt around her ankles. The man lay on his front panting. His sandy blonde hair hung to his shoulders. Arabella had the feeling that she had met him before. He rolled over onto his back and moaned. He threw one arm up above his head to shield his eyes from the sun. Arabella studied the man. Small scratches covered his face and hands. His tunic was filled with small tears. His brown leather boots had great slashes stretching from ankle to knee in them.  He moaned again and shifted trying to sit up. He seemed to be in great pain. Arabella rushed to his side and helped him sit up. She braced herself behind his back. He leaned heavily on her.

“Who are you?” Arabella asked. She held him gently careful of his wounds.

“I am Prince Lann,” the man whispered hoarsely. Arabella jumped and nearly dropped Lann. She did know him after all. She stared at him from the side. His brown eyes look haunted. Lann leaned forward and hung his head down between his knees. He groaned and then made retching noises. Arabella gently laid a hand on the back of his neck. She gathered his long hair in a queue and held it there as he threw up the bile stirred up by the trip across the desert.

“Oh, Lann,” she murmured in sympathy. She remembered the small worried boy that felt he needed to protect a little baby. The grown man did not seem to have much of the small boy left in him. Lann was gasping, fighting off waves of nausea. “It will be all right,” she said softly. Lann started in shock and then turned his head to look at her.

“What do you know?” his tone seethed with fury. “Who are you anyway?” Arabella backed up a little. She sensed that she needed to put a little distance between herself and Lann.

“I am Arabella,” she said. “I am,” she waved her hands as she thought of a way to make the connection with Lann’s memory. “I am Orinda’s daughter.” Lann glared and clenched his fists. Arabella scooted back even farther. “You should remember. I am the Gold Fairy,” she looked at Lann hoping that he would remember her.

“Oh,” he said. The tension drained out of him. He unclenched his fists. He closed his eyes in pain. “I remember you. You were the one who tried to uncurse the princess.” He shuddered. “I don’t feel so good.” He leaned over and heaved again. Arabella held his hair again. After several long minutes, he stopped. He seemed to have no more strength left. He leaned into Arabella’s embrace and signed deeply.

“Come with me,” she said. Lann nodded without looking up. Arabella stood up and grasped Lann beneath the arms. She helped him to stand then steadied him. Using Arabella as a crutch they quietly shuffled into the courtyard. Lann leaned against the hall doorway as Arabella went to see where her mother was. She peeked into her mother’s bedroom and found her asleep in the darkened room. Evidently, the past week had worn her out.

She hurried back to Lann. They struggled up the stairs and to Arabella’s room. Lann sat on the edge of Arabella’s bed. His shoulders slumped forward; his head hung down. He rested his forearms on his knees; his hands hung limply.

“Lann. Lann, look at me,” Arabella said. She put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a little shake. “Look at me!” She demanded. Mopping was not going to help the situation. Lann looked up and Arabella eyes widened at the tears streaking his face. “Let us get you cleaned up,” she said softly. She knelt on the floor and removed his boots. She tossed them off to the side. She carefully removed his shirt. Lann groaned when the material dragged along his skin. The shirt followed the boots. An ornate silver ring hung from a delicate chain around his neck.

Lann’s skin was covered with little bloody scratches. Here and there thorns were embedded in the tender scratches. Arabella retrieved her sewing kit from the bottom of her wardrobe. She swiftly searched through her box and came up with a long sewing needle. Lann’s gazed at her worriedly.

“It is okay,” she said. “I promise I will be as gently as possible.”

“I bet,” Lann snorted, and then jerked as Arabella began to tease the thorns out of the wounds.

“What happened? How did you end up with all these thorns?” she asked. For a moment Arabella thought he would not say anything. Or worse, just say that it was a long story. Lann’s stomach muscles tightened as Arabella worked.

“It was Princess Rosalina’s birthday. King Waldemarr has a big celebration for her each year. She was turning sixteen,” he said pausing to stare at Arabella who kept working. “Her sixteenth year?” he put emphasis on the sixteen.

“Yes, I heard you the first time,” Arabella said. Lann sighed.

“The whole palace was heavily guarded. I was late arriving because I was collecting her present.” He motioned to the ring. “The silversmith was resizing it for Rosa.” Arabella climbed up the bed and began pulling the thorns from Lann’s back. He jumped like a startled horse.

“Easy now,” she murmured. Gently she teased the thorns from his skin.

“Anyway,” he began again. “By the time I arrived as Kuhlbert, the whole court was fleeing the castle -- even the King and Queen. One of the knights told me that Rosa had opened a large present and that is was a spinning wheel. Before anyone could stop her, she had pricked herself on the spindle. She fell to the floor. But she isn’t dead, she’s just asleep.” Lann turned to look at Arabella. “You made sure of that. Your gift put saved her from death, but put her to sleep. Just how am I to wake her up?” He gazed at her.

“I don’t know,” she said. She pushed on his should to make him turn around. “At least not yet. That still does not explain the thorns.” Lann sighed again.

“I rushed to the castle and I found my Rosa lying on the floor just as the knight said. Someone had smashed the spinning wheel. I think it might have been King Waldemarr. He gets into these violent rages,” Lann said. “I was going to go to Rosa to see if I could help her, but suddenly rose bushes started to spring up out of the floor. They formed a hedge around Rosa. Then they enclosed her. I couldn’t see her through the roses. They kept growing. They filled the room and pushed me out of the doors. I started fighting to get back in,” he flexed his right hand. “I used my sword and hacked through the ones blocking the door, but the branches snatched it out of my grasp. I guess I offended the roses,” Lann frowned at his hands. “The overwhelmed me; started to tear into me.”

“Lann,” Arabella interrupted. “You need to take off your breeches.”

“What?” Lann shouted. He looked shocked; embarrassed. Puzzlement crossed his face. Arabella rolled her eyes.

“If the roses were attaching you then they must have gotten to your legs,” Arabella said. She go off the bed and went to a chest at the foot of her bed. She pulled out a lap blanket. I was soft and made of black wool. She handed it to Lann. “Wrap up in this after you remove the rest of your clothes.” Arabella turned her back and waited. After a moment, Lann rose and removed his pants. He gritted his teeth. His legs were covered with thorns. After Lann’s pants joined the pile of clothes, Arabella turned around.

“My God,” Lann shouted. Arabella whirled around, but the only thing moving in the room was Lann’s clothes. The shirt, pants, and boots danced away out of the room. Arabella supposed that the invisible servants had waited until they had all of the prince’s clothes.

“Please bring in the wash basin and some hot water,” she called after the floating clothes. She turned back to Lann. He looked horrified. “It is all right. I guess it is strange, but magic runs nearly everything here. Sit back down,” she pushed Lann unresisting down on the bed. She knelt and worked on the thorns in his legs. “How did you escape?”

“I didn’t,” Lann frowned. “Your mother flew down and pulled me up into her wind storm. The next thing I truly remember is that I was here.” He was paying more attention now and watched the thorns float off as Arabella threw them onto the floor. She put her needle back in her box and then put it into her wardrobe.

Lann pulled his legs onto the bed a large clay bowl floated by and landed on the small table beside the bed. Next a pitcher of steaming water poured its self into the bowl. A small cloth and then a towel settled on the stool in front of the table. Arabella soaked the cloth in the water. Once it was wrung out she handed it to Lann. Her cheeks turned a rosy color. She could tend to his wounds, but she just could not bring herself to wash him. Lann carefully dabbed at his wounds. He would hand the cloth back to Arabella who rinsed it out and passed it back. Finally he was clean on the front.

“Lay on the bed,” Arabella said. “Face down please.” Her cheeks flushed even redder. Lann paled and did as she instructed. Gently she washed his back and the back of his legs. “There all done,” she announced. Lann did not move. She leaned down to look. Lann was sound asleep and made soft snoring noises.

Before dinner, the servants delivered Lann’s clothes. They were mended and cleaned. Even his boots looked as if they were brand new. They gleamed with a high polish. Arabella carefully brushed out Lann’s hair then tied it back. She used the pink ribbon that she had taken from Rosalina’s crib. Lann watched her in the mirror without comment. She took him down to dinner. Her mother did not show herself. Arabella and Lann ate quietly. It seemed he was mostly talked out. Arabella could not remember a time where she talked as much to another person. Her mother tended not to talk very much, so Arabella kept most of her conversations to herself. It felt strange to have someone to talk with.

The next day set a pattern for the next two weeks. Lann would get up for meals and sleep between times. He seemed nearly as exhausted as Arabella’s mother. Her mother did not show up for the meals. Arabella assumed that she was eating in her room. Lann and Arabella would speak briefly during their meals. When Lann went to rest, Arabella would climb to the top of the tower and gaze at the mountains in the south. Something was bugging her, but she could not put her finger on it.

She felt uneasy and agitated around Lann. He seemed nice. She could see that he was heart broke. His spirit was wounded as well as his body. Arabella thought that his wound to his soul was worse than the scratches that he suffered from. He was handsome and made her heart jump sometimes. She thought that maybe any man would possibly have the same effect on her. She suspected that she was half in love with Lann, but it felt wrong. She had not done anything to turn Lann’s heart in her direction. She was sure that she did not want to do so. Lann was obsessed with Rosalina. They loved each other so it was as it should be. Arabella just was off kilter because of the newness of another living creature in Cardew.

The one thing that annoyed Arabella was that Lann seemed to have taken over her bed. She knew that the servants had made up another room for him, but he would not stay there. Every time she needed something from her room, there he was under the covers in her bed. He even spent the night in there. She would wander downstairs and sleep in her mother’s chair. In the morning she would wake with sore muscles. It seemed that Lann had chosen her room as a safe refuge. By the end of the second week, Arabella was tired of giving up her bed and her room. She did not want to have to collect her clothes and then dress in another room. She did not want to have to take her bath before her mother’s hearth anymore. Arabella knew that she was at the breaking point and was about to loss her temper with Lann.