True Love's First by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-03-07T23:41:47.125000+00:00

"I had hoped you knew," Roland said and stretched, wincing. "I have slept long?" It was a question of sorts.

"Almost a year, I'd guess," Chas said and then, remembering the traditional wording of spells,

"Or more likely a year and a day."

The words, most likely similar to those in the witch's spell, woke panic in Roland's eyes. "She was here. It was... my twenty-first birthday. And my father had a dinner in my honor, venison and fowl, strawberries and sugars -- and then she came. She-- she didn't seem angry?" Confusion crossed his face and he turned his attention fully onto Chas again, pulling his knees against his chest and hugging them as if to make himself the smallest target possible.

Chas rose, angry. "She is my father's hag." He met Roland's confused gaze and said, "I am Prince Charles. My father's kingdom accepted your father's surrender about a year ago," and that explained both the unprecedented peace and Charles' smug expression. The country hadn't surrendered or accepted peace. The country slept, or was dead.

"Not almost a year ago," Roland said. He climbed to his feet, unsteady with his footing for only an instant. "A year and a day." He fumbled for clothes, grabbed breeches and jerkin and boots and a sword, and he ran, his cock bobbing, his naked feet slapping the castle flagstones.

"What is it?"

"Just run," he shouted. "It was near sundown, almost sundown. When she came. Run. "

Through the westering windows, Chas saw the light had begun to fade. The west wall with the wide window, all stone and stained glass and late afternoon light, suddenly wavered and dipped, dimmed and shimmered and simply broke apart.

The sense of it rushed in on Chas. His father's hag had cursed Roland a year and a day ago to sleep an enchanted sleep as his kingdom -- the kingdom his now-dead father would have left him

-- fell into an uneasy peace under the usurper. And at the end of the year? At the end of the year, when the country was securely in the hands of Chas' father, the kingdom would fade like a dream upon waking. Only there would be no waking.

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