Page 63 of The Beauty and the Griffin

“It’s not as easy to explain as you might think. I don’t dare tell you everything I know, because it could affect both the history and the future of our world. Pukai, the Gamekeeper, and I are the only living people who know about a certain approaching crisis, and we thought everything else was, well,manageableuntil the Mirror came along and messed up our timeline.”

“Then what can you tell us?” Prince Omar seemed more intrigued than worried.

I considered that question carefully. “Must we keep standing here to discuss the matter? I really need to sit down, and I will most likely need to stop and consider possible ramifications before I relate any detail. This could take some time.”

They all agreed, and soon we sat in a circle of chairs. No doubt out of respect for my age, I was given what was quite possibly the only padded armchair in the underground bastion. I looked from face to face, each one beautiful, earnest, and so very young.

“My family line in ancient times included mages and enchanters of all varieties . . . even some fairy blood from the days when humans intermarried with the fay. You must understand that not all fay creatures are evil or bent on invading and conquering our reality.”

“True enough,” Briar said, nodding. “They are much like us in good ways as well as evil.”

I nodded, pleased with his answer.

“More than a thousand years ago, kings all over this continent agreed that royal families should not maintain their positions through the use of magic. Obviously, in light of history, that pact was broken many times over. However, Adelboden was one country whose government remained magic-free. Around four centuries ago, the fay strain in my noble family appeared to have vanished, and some bureaucrats in Adelboden decided it would be safe for their crown prince, Niklaus I, to marry my great-grandmother’s sister. Now, I believe there must also have been secret magic somewhere else in the royal family’s line, because my third cousin—now known to history as Siegfried III, the last King of Adelboden—became one of the most powerful enchanters in the history of this world. Our mothers were quite good friends, so Othniel (the given name he answered to) and I grew up more like siblings—he was the annoying ‘baby brother’ I had to babysit. Our families hoped we would someday marry, but that was never going to happen.”

“How is all this pertinent to our problem?” Rosa interrupted.

Gardeners are annoyingly resistant to withering stares, so after a fraught pause I shifted my gaze to Princess Ellie, who has always respected me, and resumed my tale. “Niel, as we all called him, was well into his twenties when he took Queen Pukai and me into his confidence, requesting magical help.”

“Why?” Prince Briar asked. “I mean, why you two?”

“Because we were the two most powerful enchanters he trusted,” I said with a shrug. “Only Pukai and I knew of Niel’s magic—he was strong and smart enough to keep it hidden from everyone else. Back then, Pukai was the Crown Princess of her current realm, and I had already been a practicing fairy godmother for a good while.”

Briar nodded, and Ellie pleaded, “Go on,” her eyes bright with interest. She and her husband were holding hands, which I thought rather sweet.

“For any of this to make sense,” I said, “you need to know a few facts from the distant past. At Othniel’s christening, an unknown mage appeared and interrupted the ceremony with a proclamation that the Crown Prince’s future bride would be his Fated Mate, and that she would help him save his country and the world from a great evil. That story was subsequently banned by the King’s decree, so, of course, everyone knew about it back then. Few took the prophecy seriously since the seer was from some country on the other side of the world, and few people now living would even remember hearing rumors of it.”

I saw Rosa and Ellie exchange puzzled glances, but they didn’t interrupt.

“Before explaining how we might help him, Niel revealed to us that he had been visited twice by a girl from the future. The first visit happened when he was ten years old and she was seven. The child entered the palace gardens through a magical gateway, but she seemed to believe she was still in the garden of a resort. The children talked and played together, and Niel discovered with delight that she could communicate with cinder sprites. He even introduced her to Nelumbo, the monster that now inhabits Faraway Lake.”

Ellie exclaimed, “Oh, wow!”

“How long did she stay?” Rosa inquired.

“All morning, so it must have been several hours. After she went back through the gateway, promising to return soon, he tried to find her again, with no luck. Her second appearance happened one year after his father, Siegfried II, passed away. In fact, she appeared at Niel’s coronation ball.”

I quickly related their romantic meeting in the palace’s Great Hall. “He chose his mystery girl for the first dance, then slipped out of the ballroom with her, which everyone assumed would put my nose out of joint. The pity annoyed me, I’ll admit. Anyway, they soon recognized each other from their childhood meeting.”

My audience appeared spellbound with interest, even Briar. “I would never believe such a tale from anyone else,” he admitted.

I shrugged. “Frankly, neither would I. Anyway, I rather enjoyed watching Niel get a tongue-lashing from the Queen Mother afterward. He admitted nothing to her but confessed to me that the mystery girl vanished when he tried to kiss her. He made up some story about the mysterious girl running off, but he secretly grilled the two maids who’d helped her dress for the ball, and their stories convinced him that she was his Fated Mate. He was so convinced that he asked Pukai and me to meet with him and help him figure out a way to freeze his aging process until he could find and marry her in the future.”

That revelation seemed to suck all the air from the room. “The King of Adelboden asked you to help him freeze his age,” Prince Briar repeated.

“Yes, he did.”

“What did you say?” Prince Omar inquired.

“We thought it would be a fun challenge. Keep in mind, we were young and stupid, Niel was most persuasive, and it wasn’t illegal back then. After all, that prophecy seemed to give us permission to try something crazy and make it all come true.”

“And you succeeded?” Rosa asked.

“Not even close. We studied hard and made some attempts but always came up empty. Then Pukai inherited her ocean empire—which added just a tad more stress to her already turbulent life. She and I had never been as serious about Niel’s crusade as he was, but we kept trying for his sake and discovered some magical possibilities. Time passed, and in between all his royal duties, he kept studying and experimenting. He worked hard at being a good and fair king, but around us he was grouchy and worried. When he kept refusing all the potential brides his mother suggested, she got testy too, which exacerbated his moodiness. I was busy living my own life, so I didn’t see much of Niel. Pukai married and started a family, but she went through some really rough times too.

“Then the mystery girl appeared to him again, and their connection seemed even stronger . . .”

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