The castle physician kept me in bed for a full week, which I believed to be excessive. He tried to attach a leech to my leg, but it refused to stick. This may have had something to do with the beeswax ointment I rubbed on before each visit.
Every night I dreamt of horses and how free I had felt. I never dreamt of the fall.
By the end of the week, being laid up in my bed had begun to feel like a punishment. All my meals had been served to me, and stories had been read well into the night, but I missed my walks in the garden and the busy castle life. When I was finally allowed out of bed, the first thing I did was to go downstairs and visit the horse. I wanted to make sure he was all right. The stable boy jumped when he saw me and said, “I’m sorry, Princess, but the queen has given me strict orders not to let you in here.”
Why was I not surprised?
He assured me the horse was fine. I tried to sneak a look, but he stepped to the side and blocked me.
I considered sulking for a few days, but that got tiring after only a day. Before the fall, I had truly enjoyed living every moment to the fullest, and I intended to keep that up. For the next few months I kept painting. My horses looked like ladybugs and my ladybugs looked like trees, but I was having fun. My plum cakes slowly improved to the point where we could almost fully enjoy them without the help of fairy magic. I read most of the books in the library, even the boring ones.
For my sixteenth birthday, my parents said I could choose something special to do. I was tempted to ask if I could ride a horse through the countryside but did not want to anger them. It had been years since we had taken a family trip, so I chose that. We decided to go visit the estate of Papa’s second cousins. They had a lake where we could swim, which was something I had not done since I was a child. The only body of water near our castle was the moat, and NO ONE wanted to swim in there, considering it was where one of the dung chutes emptied.
Sara was coming with us, of course. She had never been farther than the outskirts of town and we were both ready for a change of scenery. The ride was long, but we made it fun by singing silly songs and guessing what kind of animal would cross the road in front of our carriage next.
I asked Papa if his relatives minded that he was a king while they were just regular nobility. He said that not everyone wants the responsibility that comes with ruling. I had not considered that before. It took a special person to give up their personal freedom in order to protect and provide for hundreds of others. I reached over and gave Papa’s hand a squeeze.
The first thing Sara and I did when we arrived was change into our swimming dresses and jump in the lake. We splashed around like two little kids. My cousins joined us. They really WERE two little kids, so we had fun with them. For lunch we were served a whole platter of local delicacies outside on the veranda. We sipped cold tea and tried a little bit of everything. One of the dishes tasted so bad that Sara whispered, “Are you sure you didn’t cook this?”
After a game of croquet on the lawn, Sara yawned and suggested we both retire to the room we were sharing for an afternoon nap. I agreed, but when we got there I wasn’t the least bit tired. Sara fell asleep instantly. I put on some walking clothes and tiptoed out of the room. I felt slightly guilty for not telling Sara I was going out, but how much harm could I get into? Their whole estate was not much bigger than our Great Lawn!
I decided to explore the grounds. Even though the estate was small, it was quite pretty and well kept. I wandered toward a cottage with a thatched roof and a welcoming aroma. In fact, it smelled so good, I decided to knock on the door and ask for the recipe. It would truly impress my family if I could cook something as delicious-smelling as that.
An old woman answered the door and ushered me inside happily.
“You are here to pick up your dress, right?” she asked.
I shook my head.
“Oh,” she said, surprised. “When a young lady knocks on my door it is usually to pick up her dress for the big ball. All the eligible men in the area will be there. And you are of marriageable age, are you not?”
I nodded. By sixteen, many girls were engaged to be married. My old friends Bethany and Tabitha had been engaged for a year already. My parents had never tried to fix me up, though, for which I was grateful.
“Well, never mind all that,” the woman said. “What can I do for you today?”
I was about to inquire after the delightful aroma, when I noticed a big wheel on a wooden stand in the center of the room. I walked toward it, never having seen anything like it. “What does this do?” I asked.
She laughed. “Why, it weaves things.”
I had never seen a wheel that weaves things. “May I try?”
“Of course. Here, you just lift this and pull that and push this, and that’s all there is to it.”
So I sat down as she instructed, and lifted and pulled and pushed. Two large pieces of wool crisscrossed each other in a beautiful pattern. I’d finally found something I did well the first time. I repeated the steps.
“You are a natural,” the woman said. “You might put me out of business.” Smiling, she said, “Here, try this, it will make it go faster.”
I wasn’t watching what she was handing me because at that moment the door banged open and my parents and Sara stood there, out of breath. I grasped the object in my hand at the moment the three of them yelled, “NOOOOOOOO!!!”
I saw the confusion on the old woman’s startled face and looked down at my hand. Even though I had never seen one before, I knew without a doubt that what I now held could only be a spindle. I opened my palm wide to release it, but it was too late. A tiny drop of blood had already begun to form on my thumb. Mama ran over and tried to blot it away with her skirt. It stopped bleeding nearly instantly, since it was just the tiniest of holes.
Mama and I stared frantically into each other’s eyes, both wide with fear and panic. She was holding on to hope, but I was not. I already felt a subtle change in the air around me. Everyone started to seem far away, instead of crowded around me. They were screaming my name and weeping but I could only faintly hear them. I tried to tell them not to worry about me, that I would be all right. All I could croak out was “I love you.” Then all was black. Again.
Ever since Percival had heard me calling out for Rose, he had not left me alone. “I shall find out on my own,” he threatened, “so you might as well tell me.”
I refused. So Percival took it upon himself to use his many connections in town, and eventually found out almost as much of the story as I had. I knew this because every time he learned something new he was only too quick to share it with me. Half the time when I arrived at the old castle, no matter what the season or weather, he was already there with his own set of tools. He even had a special tool made for him by one of the engineers at the castle. Why hadn’t I thought of that? I wished the fleas of a thousand armies would take up residence in his armpits.
I watched as he used his new device to hack away at the vines. To my horror and dismay, they snapped! He turned to me with a huge gloating grin on his face, but in that second, the vines curled back in and reaffixed themselves. We couldn’t even see where the breaks had occurred. His smile faded.
I left him there, trying again and again, but getting the same result. It finally sunk in, after nearly two years, that neither Pervical nor I nor anyone else was getting in there until whoever or whatever was protecting the princess decided to let us in. That day’s events convinced me that until the ten decades had completely passed it was no use trying. The only problem was: I didn’t know when exactly that day would be. My only solace was that I was quite certain that Percival was still unaware of the whole hundred-years aspect of the curse. This gave me the slightest advantage.
Weeks went by without Percival ever going into the woods. He studied with whichever tutor was still there on a given day, or he played polo in the fields, or visited friends in town. I did not much care what he did, as long as he stayed away from the old castle. I tried to
convince Father to send him back home, but he pointed out that since Percival had arrived, I hadn’t run away once. Therefore, he felt Percival must be a good influence on me. I could not explain that the only reason I hadn’t run away was that I needed to keep a constant eye on him.
The night before my sixteenth birthday I could not fall asleep. My parents had begun talking of finding me a wife, and Mother even brought some women home for me to meet. One had a lazy eye and a limp, one was thirty years my senior, and another had such a large nose I could not see her mouth when she spoke. Mother, of course, thought they were perfect.
I crept out of the house and into the garden. I had grown much too big for the swing, but I sat on it anyway, hoping the chains wouldn’t pull out of the tree. I stared into the mermaid fountain, remembering the day I had filled it when my parents were away. It had been so pretty and soothing to watch. As I continued to stare into it, I thought I heard a gurgling sound coming from it. I peered closer and could swear that just for a split second I could see the water sloshing around. Was the moonlight pulling a trick on me?
I kept watching, but nothing happened. A cloud passed in front of the moon and I yawned. Before I left the garden I went to check on my hidden rosebush. Since it was nighttime, the roses should have been closed up. But one rose shone bright as day. I touched a petal and dew came off on my hand. At that moment I knew: Tomorrow was a hundred years. The fountain, the rose — that’s what they were trying to tell me.
I did not sleep all night.
The blackness that came after being stuck with the spindle was different than when I fell from the horse. I could still sense what was going on around me, but I could not explain how. I could not see or hear or feel the touch of hands, but when people were near me, I was aware of it. When they were not, time passed in a hazy, dreamlike way. I knew my family had taken me home. I knew I was in my bed and that the young fairy was somehow protecting me. I could still sense my parents. I knew they were not anywhere in the castle, but that they were still nearby.
Then one day — I did not know how many years later — I could not feel them at all. I wanted to claw my way out of the foggy darkness to find out why, but I could not.
I sensed new people, new families, but they were hazy and distant.
I slept on.
Once, while enveloped in my deep fog, I was aware of a young man outside the castle walls. I could not hear anything, but I knew he was trying to get inside. No one had come this close to me before. I sensed a kindness and a generosity of spirit. I was not frightened. I also sensed the young fairy’s presence. The young man left. Every few years he would pass nearby, but he never tried to get in again.
I slept on.
And on.
And on.
One night I sensed a boy outside the castle walls. He was lonely and scared, but curious. He came back often. For the next few years, his visits gently pierced the darkness. I sensed him growing from a boy to a young man. He grew stronger, yet his loneliness never abated. He had a great capacity for love and beauty. Another young man accompanied him sometimes, but I knew no friendship passed between them. I knew all this only in the vaguest sense, the way one knows characters in a dream.
I slept on.
The morning of my sixteenth birthday I waited impatiently for the sun to rise. At the first glimmer of pink over the hillside, I got out of bed and carefully picked out my clothes. If I were going to meet a princess today, I wanted to look as prince-like as possible. I put on a white ruffled shirt, a red tunic, and black britches. I affixed a small dagger to my belt, and even took a moment to comb my hair.
I crept to Percival’s room and pressed my ear against his door. I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard rhythmic snoring. With a happy wave to the early-morning staff, I walked steadily and purposefully across the lawn. My heart began to beat faster as I stepped into the woods. I was so familiar with them, I could have found the old castle with my eyes closed.
The sun threw shafts of light onto the roof of the castle, and dew still shimmered on every leaf and vine. My heart raced with anticipation.
“I wondered when you’d get here, old friend,” Percival said, appearing from around the corner of the building.
The color drained from my face. “But … but I just heard you snoring.”
He waved his hand. “Nah, that was my page, Henry. Sounds like a blacksmith banging on a sword when he sleeps.”
I had to swallow hard to keep from screaming. “What are you doing here, Percival?”
“You don’t think you’re the only one who knows what day this is, do you?”
I took a deep breath. Was this how it would all end? Percival would awaken the princess? I could not let that happen. “Stand aside, Percival. This is my land, and my destiny.”
He laughed. “Go to sleep, old friend.” Then I saw his arm rise up and felt it come down hard on my head. My legs gave way, and the ground beneath me swelled. I steadied myself with my hands and used all my concentration to shake off the blow. By the time I was able to stand again, Percival was directly in front of the castle door. Since he, too, had figured out it was an exact replica of our own, he knew where the door was hidden. He raised a hand and grabbed at a bunch of vines. He pulled back, clearly expecting them to snap off in his hands. They did not. He tried to let go of them but found them stuck to his hand. I watched in amazement as the vines began to thicken. Before either of us could blink twice, the vines had fully encased him! He screamed, but vines soon covered his mouth as well.
He fell to the ground and rolled a few feet. Looking up at me with pleading eyes, he tried to wrestle free. As much as I disliked him, I could not let him suffocate. I pulled at the vines, trying to loosen them from around his face and neck. I was able to clear a small hole where his nose was, so he could breathe easily. He snorted as he inhaled big breaths of air. I could dislodge nothing else.
“Sorry, old friend,” I said to him. “That is the best I can do.”
He glared at me as I stepped over him and up to the door. Just as I had always dreamed, the vines parted for me like they were no more than pieces of string. I pushed the heavy wooden door open, expecting it to squeak horribly from disuse. Instead, it glided open smoothly and nearly soundlessly. It felt incredibly strange to be walking through a place that was so familiar and yet so foreign at the same time. I recognized some of the same furniture and the silver tea set, although everything here was much brighter and cleaner. No dust or grime anywhere. The chandelier glowed brightly. How could the oil have lasted a hundred years? This was powerful magic.
I stood in the center of the Great Hall, wondering which way to go. I swore I heard the same faint humming sound as when I was a child. I had not heard it in years. I turned around and raced up the stairs. I hurried past the room that would have been my parents’ room in our castle and headed directly toward my chambers. When I reached the familiar door, I hesitated for only a second before pushing it open.
I knew he was coming before he knew it himself. I had been feeling different lately. Lighter, less foggy and confused. All my senses began to tingle as he approached. No one had been this close to me since time out of mind. The details of my life were still very hazy and disjointed.
I felt his hair graze my forehead. It was the first thing I had felt since Mama’s hands in mine. How long ago was that? I did not know. Then I felt his lips press against mine. It was as though he was breathing life back into me. The blood pulsed again in my veins. I heard a bird chirp outside and it was the most wonderful sound I’d ever heard. My eyes snapped open but my head had not fully cleared. Who was this strange man in my bedroom? He was kind of cute. In fact, he was very cute. Handsome, that was the word. And tall. I sat up and demanded he explain himself. Normally I would not have been so abrupt, but the situation was very confusing.
The young man told me he was a prince, and that I had been asleep for a hundred years. My eyes widened as I listened. The memories came flooding back in a torrent. My
gentle father, the king. My loving mother, the queen. The fairy’s curse. All the dreams where I wasn’t quite awake, yet wasn’t quite asleep. And now it was a hundred years later and I had been kissed awake by a handsome prince. Well, it was certainly better than having water thrown on my face.
I stumbled out of bed, and he caught me. His arms were strong. He felt familiar to me, and I was not scared. Then suddenly it was his turn to stumble. He turned white and backed away from me, toward my wardrobe. I tried to reach for him before he fell, but I was still too unsteady and could not get there in time. He fell hard against the wardrobe and slowly slid to the floor. Unsure what else to do, and with some cobwebs still in my head, I made my way into the sitting room and filled a bucket with the water that was still sitting, crisp and clear, in my cistern.
I returned to my bedroom, checked the Prince for a pulse, and dumped the bucket of water over his head. I poured the last few drops into my own mouth.
He sputtered and the color returned to his face. His eyes opened, and I could see relief spread all over his face.
Hands on my hips, I asked, “Who is supposed to be awakening who here?”
I laughed as I wiped the water from my face with my sleeve. How good it felt to laugh! I couldn’t remember the last time I’d done so. “So you are not a dream, then?” I asked.
Rose pinched her own arm. “Thankfully, no,” she replied. “I’ve had enough dreams for ten lifetimes. What happened to you? You became somewhat green and simply passed out.”
How embarrassing! I was supposed to be gallant and brave and strong, and instead I’d fainted right in front of her. “I, er, was hit on the head recently. It must have done more damage than I thought.”