As soon as the fairy said one hundred years I knew it was for me. Somehow the difficult tasks always ended up falling on me. Of course I had to solve it; everybody would laugh at me now and later but, deep inside, they knew I would be the only one able to solve it. Her parents protested: one hundred years, everybody would be dead and the poor little one would be all alone in a frightening unknown world! "Ah no!" beamed the fairy. "For only true love's kiss will awake her!" True love's kiss? I frowned. That shouldn't have been part of the curse. It would make my work a lot harder. I was clever enough to find a solution but becoming her true love had never belonged to the life I had planned for me. The fairies had been nice to me at my birth - 'I give him the gift of cleverness', 'He will be well-versed in the arts of the mysteries' - except for the tall and handsome from those two stupid fairies, Blue and Red - I never managed to catch their names, if they really had one. But then, looking at my uncle, small - to say the least - and with red tuffs as for hair, I thought that maybe Blue and Red hadn't been so stupid; being tall and handsome could help me in this second part of the task. I looked again at her in her cradle. Green had said she would be loving; this could help me also. Then I noticed her parents were looking at me with hope in their eyes. I wanted to protest - 'I'm only eight, I can't know everything!' - but I knew it was of no use. I concentrated; the problem was hard. One hundred years of sleep. Pink was looking at me with like scorn in her eyes then she seemed to recognise me and stiffened. One hundred years of sleep. Of course her father was right; she would awake alone. True love's kiss, indeed! How could she love someone in her sleep? Who could become her true love without having talked to her, without knowing her? No, that wasn't the right problem; this one was fully mine. The problem right now was her world. We needed to preserve her world. I chewed my lower lip then I smiled. The solution was obvious. "You should make everybody from here fall asleep with her," I suggested to Pink. "So when she awakes she will have around her those who love her. She will love them also, you know, because Gr... I mean, she has been given a loving heart." "That's true," agreed Green. "She will love dearly her parents and relatives. Even you, young man." She had a strange smile. I knew she had noticed my slip in her name, but Green was clever; she had given me the gift of cleverness, if I remembered it well. Maybe she had given the loving heart to help me. Green seemed to always know what to do. I was sure she already knew how to solve this exasperating riddle. "Oh!" said Pink. "If it can make you all happy, that's not a problem." I tried to remember what gift she had bestowed to me; she didn't seem very bright. Oh, I remembered: she had made me brave. I wondered if she was more stupid than Blue and Red. But now she looked like everybody's saviour. She would partially undo Black's spell and turn it into a harmless spell - sort of. Black wasn't such a bad person. She had given me the arts of mysteries and it would certainly prove useful. She was the most powerful of the thirteen fairies, how in the world had they managed to forget her at the naming ceremony? And Black was very clever, even cleverer than Green; in fact she was positively brilliant. Why then had she bothered to cast such a spell on an innocent child? I was thinking, chewing my lower lip during the process - mother often said, exasperated, that the fairy should have given me the gift of not chewing my bottom lip instead of those ridiculous arts of mysteries - not even listening to Pink casting her spell. Black had looked at me before disappearing dramatically, almost as if she was telling me 'Here you go, your turn now', but it was ridiculous. Black would never have said such things; her words were always spiteful, even when their meaning was nice. The fairies were all gone by now and I waited for my cue. One, two, thr... "We're all counting on you, Lancelot," said her father, patting my head. I was almost impressed with his timing: just perfect! I didn't even bother reminding him that my name was Liam and not Lancelot; after hearing the fairies' gift, mother had decided to use my second name - Lancelot - as my first, hoping having such a name would transform me into a brave and strong prince instead of a sickly dark wizard I couldn't fail to become. I hated responding to Lancelot - and half the time, I didn't, until someone called my real name. I didn't hide my bitter smile. I was hardly welcome in their castle, they had invited me because they had invited my parents and it would have been rude to let me out. I knew all the gossips, like what it wasn't fair that such a nice royal couple was inflicted with such a son like me. Nobody liked me; they feared me more than they feared Black. They remembered my presence only when they needed something that only I could provide - generally in relation with the mysteries. But in crisis, I was the saviour. After all, I was a man of decision, Lilac had seen to that. Even though if for the moment I rather felt like a boy of action, I couldn't deny that I always knew what was the right decision and no consideration stopped me when it was time to take the decision, no matter how horrid it was. So now I was to save the little newborn. I stepped toward her cradle, her parents watching me nervously. She was looking at me; one of the fairies - Red, if I remembered it well - had made her beautiful - after making me handsome, she couldn't do less! She looked like any other baby to me, except for her eyes of a dark green like leaves and the few hair on her head, hair colour of dead leaves. She gurgled when seeing me and I smiled to her, though mother often told me that my smile was frightening. I touched her little hand and she gurgled again, more happily, it seemed. Her name was Aurora Dawn Guinevere, but I decided that I would call her, in my thoughts, Eglantine. There was something about her that simply made me think of a flower. "So, little Aurora," I whispered, while thinking 'Eglantine', "I am your protector now. Well, we shall see that nothing happens to you, shan't we?" Her father came by my side and cleared his throat nervously. "She shall be known as Guinevere from now on, since you will protect her, Lancelot," he said and his voice was clearly begging me to get away from his child. I vaguely nodded and thought that Lancelot and Guinevere loved each other; I wondered if her father had thought of it. As soon as I was back to my own castle - or rather my parents' - I locked my door and opened the old book of magic that I had found on my bedside table two years ago. I knew it came from my fairy 'godmother', Black, and I had carefully concealed it since then. Pink's spell was written on the last page and I smiled. I could study it whenever I would like. But first I had other problems to solve. The first of them was: how in the world would I be able to awake Eglantine when the time would be right? Even though I was now declared her protector I knew her parents would hardly let me come near her, let alone become her true love - what was true love anyway? I was only eight, but I knew no princess in the neighbouring kingdoms would ever accept to know me. Eglantine would be no exception... I shook the head, frowning at myself. I knew this for quite a long time now. It didn't matter. The thing was, I would be dead when the hundred years would be over and once dead I wouldn't be able to do much. So somehow I had to live through those hundred years. That was no happy thought. I turned the problem over and over in my head and finally found the solution. It had been in front of me since the beginning, I even had given it to Pink: the years of sleep for everybody in the castle. I had to be in the castle by the time Eglantine would fall asleep. Then I would fall asleep with everybody else, of course, so I had to think a way to be able to awake before Eglantine, though nobody could awake if she didn't. That proved to be a thorny problem, but after all, I was clever, thanks to Green. I didn't like the final solution I came up with, two weeks after having being promoted to Eglantine's protector, but I hadn't to like it either. I was a man of decision and I would do what was right to do. It would require extra dedication in my work in the mysteries but, after all, that was the only thing I liked. Mother tried desperately to interest me in horses; I saw no problem in them, they were just fine, but riding a horse just for riding a horse seemed idiotic to me. Mother wanted me strong and warlike, though compassionate. I was quite strong, but I never let her see it, I wasn't aggressive at all and I totally lacked compassion. If at dinner someone was insulting me - somehow it happened more than often - if I had been what mother wanted me to, I would probably have killed them all. Instead of that, I looked at the lout with my wizard-like eyes - or so they said - had an engaging smile and asked politely if he had other clever remarks to make. Generally they were too mortified to say another word for at least two weeks. Nobody dared to contradict me too often. I never raised the voice nor threatened anybody but they always shrank in their corner when it appeared I wasn't agreeing with them. I hated to be wrong, of course, so I could perfectly understand it was the same for other people and, after all, they hadn't been made clever by a fairy. Mother mistook my behaviour for indulgence and modesty; it was pure pity and nothing else. During this time I kept a watchful eye on my little protégée, though she didn't know me, little Eglantine. In my room - locked in permanence - a spell was cast, informing me of everything happening in her life. If she was sick I was instantly aware of it. I distrusted doctors so I healed her myself, from a distance. Doctors were more than surprised when they found her perfectly healthy before their medicines had time to take effect. Somehow her parents never explained to them the presence of three seeds of pomegranate, my personal mark, on Eglantine's bedside table; but they knew whom to thank for their daughter's quick recovery. Strangely enough they never cared to thank me. It never occurred to them that I was only a child and that it would have been much easier for me to protect and cure her if I had been in the same castle as her. When they invited my parents - then only my mother when my father died - by a strange coincidence I was always too busy to answer the invitation. Or else I was travelling to a distant cousin. Or I was visiting my uncle - the small red-haired man - who was a castaway like me, for the same reasons: we both had predispositions for magic, though nobody in our line had magic blood in the veins. To him also the fairies had been nice and Black was the one to have given him his magic. When Eglantine was six she fell gravely ill. I was outside at that moment, riding with a group of young noblemen. My spell alerted me instantly with such urgency that I almost fell from horse. Fortunately for me I had by now a good balance. Hastily I wove a new spell and I saw Eglantine's bedroom as if I had been there for real. I was only fourteen and riding blindly a horse while casting a spell and healing someone wasn't easy! Her room was empty; I knelt at the head of the bed. Her eyelids fluttered open; she looked at me with her dark green eyes and asked: "Who are you?" I was quite surprised. She shouldn't have been able to see me. "Hush," I replied. "I'm Liam, your protector." "You will cure me again?" she asked, interested. I almost frowned, before reminding myself the child didn't need to be scared. So she knew I had been there for her before! How could she know? "I will do what I can. But you must promise me not to breathe a word of any of this. Not even to your parents." "Oh, I never told them anything about you!" I had to reason myself while diagnosing her illness the fastest I could - I didn't want to be surprised in her bedroom! Her fever was making her say things that I interpreted differently. Maybe she thought I was a deity or... or her fairy godfather. Her secret friend. I was told once that children invented imaginary friends when they felt lonely. There. I had it. Naturally I was her imaginary friend and she had probably overheard something that her parents had said about her quick recoveries before. She had closed her eyes. Her breathing was difficult and I knew she shouldn't have talked. I cast a new spell, binding us together, my good health and her sickness. I was ready to leave when she asked: "Will you come back?" "Yes, I will," I replied and I broke the spell that had brought me in her room. I heard screams around me and realised my horse was galloping toward a cliff. I tried to slow my horse down but something must have frightened it because it didn't obey. I sighed. I hated to waste my energy, especially with the consuming spell for healing Eglantine. Under the influence of my spell my horse stopped at inches of the cliff, turned back to the castle and trotted gently to the group of noblemen waiting for me. "Are you alright, Lancelot?" asked one of them anxiously. He was two years younger than me and his parents had named him Gawain, destining him to be my companion at arms. I thought that he might genuinely like me and his concern was a new proof in his favour. "Yes, thank you," I replied politely - and politeness had not been a fairy gift. They insisted for going back immediately to the castle and I ended up following their advice, because they seemed truly frightened. As I didn't know what had happened for sending my horse in such a turmoil I couldn't figure out why they were so afraid but I did notice that this particular group was always kinder to me from now on than the others usually were. After that, though, mother stopped insisting for me to go out for a ride. I lightened up a mirror on Eglantine's bedroom. Doctors were around her bed, discussing loudly and I could see Eglantine's pain on her face because of their noise. They decided on some silly medicines and left the room, except one of them, who noticed the three seeds of pomegranate on the bedside table. "Pomegranate! Are you dosing her with this? This is ridiculous!" he exclaimed. As he was on the point of throwing them away Eglantine's mother commanded, her tone sharp as a sword: "No! Leave them where they are!" Eglantine's mother had never uttered a command from her whole life, nor said anything sharply. Both the king and the doctor started. "But certainly..." "No! You won't touch these seeds!" she replied fiercely. "Call this superstition if you want but I won't have the three seeds removed from here!" The doctor left the room uttering imprecations and moaning about the lack of seriousness of his sovereigns. "He may save her," the queen whispered to her husband. "He will save her," he replied, putting his arm around her shoulders in a move of comfort. Somehow I knew the 'he' stood for me and I was quite impressed by their faith in me, though it was tangled with silly superstition. The pomegranate seeds were for nothing in the healing process; they were just here as a mark of my visit. They could burn them for all I cared - and that was probably what they had done with all the previous ones. I went to bed very late that night; my spell was supposed to wake me up if Eglantine was going worse. Though I slept without interruption I felt drained when waking up. It should have meant the spell was working and normally Eglantine should have felt better. I turned on the mirror on her room and frowned. She seemed even paler than the previous day. Instantly I transported myself in her room. She hardly opened her eyes but half-smiled. I locked the door and took her in my arms. She weighed nothing. Her brow was damp and her breathing very shallow. I cooled her face with a wet cloth that I found by her bed and rocked her in my arms. Someone tried to open the door; protestations were heard when the door was found locked. Then the queen's voice: "Will you stop banging at the door? I will open it later." Then, softer, to the king: "He's in there with her." The doctors protested over and over, saying they couldn't be held responsible if something happened to their patient while the door was closed. Tired at the end the king sent them away, telling them coldly that they never did anything for his child. "The fairies probably forgot to give you tact at your naming ceremony," I murmured for the king, though he couldn't hear me. I bent down on Eglantine, pressing my brow against her. The magic should have driven the illness away from her body, using my health to restore hers. But it seemed that even my health wasn't enough to cure her. Maybe I hadn't given enough of it. I felt tired but I didn't care. Eglantine was the only one I cared for, I wouldn't let her die on me. Recklessly I called on high magic, harder to master and difficult to control, but wasn't my master in magic Black herself? I was exhausted at the end of the spell but Eglantine was breathing a lot better. I put her back into her bed with difficulty, left three seeds on the bedside table and left for my own room. I almost thought I wouldn't be able to. I collapsed on my bed, no strength left. My mirror was still showing me Eglantine's room. Two hours after I'd left they opened the door and everybody cried it was miraculous. Eglantine had her eyes opened and was smiling. Her cheeks were pink and the brightness of her eyes had nothing to do with fever. The queen looked surreptitiously at the bedside table and didn't seem surprised to see six seeds instead of only three. The following day mother knocked at my door, quite worried. I hadn't showed up since the previous morning. I told her through the door that I wanted calm to think. Telling her I was hardly able to move from my bed wouldn't have been a good idea at all. "The parents of Guinevere sent a message for you," she said then. Surprise almost made me gasp. "Read it aloud," I said. "Please." "Best wishes for your recovering. With all our thanks." I had a bitter smile. Of course the rumour had spread I was ill or something like that. Most probably everybody was wishing for me to die, so I wouldn't shame mother with my very existence. Mother didn't ask questions. She was perfect as for this point; she never asked questions, either because she didn't want to know the answer or because she knew she wouldn't receive any answer. "Please thank them for their concern," I replied and closed my eyes. I opened them again as soon as I heard her leaving the threshold of my room and looked at the mirror. Eglantine was getting out of bed; she took the six seeds of pomegranate and went to a big chest in a corner of her room. In the chest, she took a small casket in which she put the seeds. It seemed there were already quite a few in it. So that was where all my seeds had gone! It took me quite a long time to recover but finally I was well enough to get out of bed and cast spells. I cast one as soon as I was able; I had to know when Eglantine would fall asleep. Her illness had worried me for it had been quite a trial for me to heal her even though it seemed to me that my powers were stronger now. I had some time ahead of me before her long sleep so I could wait. I waited nine years. During this time I observed her in my mirror from time to time or else I trusted my spell to tell me if there was anything wrong. At the end of the nine years I sat in front of the mirror and watched her. She was beautiful, as Red had decided she would be. I thought she looked like a creature of the woods, with her dead leaf hair and her eyes like dark leaves. All the young noblemen were at her feet, though she was only fifteen. She would listen to their poems with surprise, laugh at their declarations of love and claim loud and clear she was too young to marry. But I knew she didn't believe it herself for I had begun to invade her dreams. The first time I had invoked a dream for her in which I actually appeared, she smiled at me. "I knew you would come back," she said. "Why are you so sure it's me? You didn't see me in nine years," I objected even though I was pleased to see she wasn't afraid of me. "The pomegranates. You smell like them." She seemed glad to have somehow trapped me. I smiled. "Clever girl." "Not as much as you," she replied. "I have to go." "Will you come back?" "Maybe, Eglantine." I left. I couldn't tell her she almost frightened me! I had never been frightened of anything - one of the fairy gifts, though I didn't remember how they had expressed it. It was only the following day that I noticed I had called her Eglantine instead of Guinevere or Aurora. I haunted her dreams from now on, every night or so, but I was now careful of never showing myself. I wanted to know her dreams so I could picture how her true love would be. I knew that my chances of being this true love were so dim that I didn't even count them, even though I was her 'secret friend'. When she would know who I was she would reject me, like everybody else had done before. Mother tried to remind me I should get married; I was now twenty-four. I looked at her and told her, gently, that no king wanted me as his son-in-law and not even the poorest shepherdess would accept to marry the wizard prince. Nobody liked magic, except perhaps from the fairies, and even then. My magic was improper since my parents had not a drop of magic blood in their veins. Maybe I was a changeling. Such were the gossips on my account. Mother knew this and she grieved for me because she knew there was no evil in me. True I was often cold and ironic, but then I had never harmed anybody, I had rather helped them even if I received their scorn for only thanks. Then, one week before Eglantine's sixteenth birthday, I said farewell to mother. She looked surprised. I reminded her that I was Eglantine's protector and that the time had come for me to protect her fully. She understood what I meant: the time of the hundred years of sleep. And she understood also that I had decided to share Eglantine's fate. She hugged me fiercely and though I had never doubted her love for me, it surprised me. I could see she was pained to see me leave. I thought that it pained me also but my decision was taken and, well, I was a man of decision, after all. Blame or praise the fairies, not me. I was ready to leave; I wanted to go alone, since I knew there would be no coming back. Yet Gawain was there, waiting by my horse. I eyed him quite suspiciously. Gawain was the closest of what I could call a friend and he was as stubborn as me. "Gawain, I have no time for gentle and sad farewells," I said hurriedly, turning to my horse so I would hide the fact that I would miss him. "Pooh! As if I had ever suspected my prince to know what were gentle and sad farewells!" he replied mockingly. I turned to him. He was smiling, his broad genuine smile that belonged only to him and I had discovered quite long ago that I liked that smile. "So what?" I said nervously. "Well, I'm coming with you, naturally," he answered, opening his wide blue eyes even wider in surprise. "I've known you more perceptive." "Bear with me, it's a decision quite hard to take." "Yet you're taking it, because you're a man of decision." "Thank you for reminding me this. I hear it only four times a day," I said scathingly. "There is no coming back from where I go, Gawain. Or, if we are lucky, the coming back is planned in a hundred years. Everybody you know will be dead by that time." "Then I shall have to make new friends," he said calmly. I was about to remind him of his family but I remembered in time that his family had died two years ago. I thought that maybe he had a sweetheart but I had never seen him with a specific girl. "No sweetheart?" I said. "My lady's here," he replied, patting the shoulder of his horse. "And she's coming with me." "You're crazy," I muttered. "No more than you." He was smiling even more broadly, knowing that I would surrender to his idea at the end. I shrugged. "I didn't know you were so tired that you were yearning for one hundred years of sleep!" I mounted in saddle and looked down at him. "I am leaving now. So if you're really coming, you better catch up!" He laughed and I sadly thought that I would have missed his laugh. I was becoming soft. Was there anything else I would miss? I looked around. No, I had been careful not to get attached to anything since I had taken my decision, so long ago. But Gawain hadn't been part of the decision, I had been careless about him and now... now I had a friend! When we reached Eglantine's castle, Gawain disappeared almost as once as we passed the main gates. The king himself, Eglantine's father, came to welcome me, quite nervously, as usual. "Lancelot! What a good surprise! Why didn't you send a word of your visit?" he asked. "Maybe because I didn't want to find the drawbridge closed to me," I retorted - the fairies hadn't given me tact either. He looked embarrassed. "May I know the reason of your visit?" he blurted then. "Oh, naturally! Because it is time for me to sacrifice my existence so that your daughter can awake in one hundred years." He winced twice. The fact that I had to give up my own life for Eglantine's had never occurred to him. "Surely there's another way..." he began. "Well, first I'm not sure to live one hundred years more. Then, you know how dangerous the life of a prince is: slaying dragons, rescuing endangered princesses, etc. and I don't speak of a wizard prince's life! I can hardly live the rest of my life trapped in my throne room, surrounded by thousand of spells just to keep me alive until the time is come for me to awake Guinevere." The arrival of Eglantine saved me from another excuse. "Father, will you not introduce me?" she said, her eyes laughing. "Guinevere, dear, this is... huh... your cousin Lancelot." I bowed to the princess. She laughed. "Cousin Lancelot, I am your cousin Aurora," she said, laughing again. "Guinevere, please! Will you behave properly?" "Then don't begin by telling lies from the beginning!" she replied shrugging. "Is he here to marry me?" she asked again with curiosity. "Good Heaven, no!" exclaimed her father, shocked. "I mean... no, dearie. He... huh... he just came to present his respects." "Why so? He's a prince, he's handsome and his eyes laughed with me." I was surprised. Nobody had ever told me that my wizard-like eyes were laughing. I would have to watch that closely. "Lancelot, tell her!" agonised the king. I took her arm and made a few steps with her. "I won't stay long," I said, half-winking to her. "Only a few decades..." She laughed again. "How are you, Liam?" she asked, frankly looking in my eyes. I smiled as her father gasped behind her. "Guinevere, what did you say?" "My name is Aurora, father, and his is Liam, not Lancelot. Though I feel that I have another name, more appropriate... Eglantine, perhaps?" she added, glancing at me. I was going from surprise to surprise. I tucked her arm under mine and walked away with her. "I have to say you would be very interesting to study, cousin Aurora," I said casually. She pouted. "Do you have to call me Aurora? And I'm not your cousin." "No, fortunately for you. Very well, Eglantine. You could have been nicer to your father. What did those fairies bestow upon you to make you speak like this?" I was more asking her about her inner knowledge she had always had about me and she understood perfectly. She smiled. "Grace," she suggested, her eyes twinkling. I couldn't help it; I laughed. She seemed delighted. "So, explain to me why you're not here for marrying me," she commanded. "I'm an old man," I replied, half-smiling. "Pooh! You're only eight years older than me. You should see some of my suitors! Compared to them, you're still a baby in your cradle!" "Did one of the fairies happen to make you hopeless romantic?" I asked mockingly. She blushed and glanced sideways to me. "Not everything comes from the fairy gifts. Your presence around me alone was enough," she whispered. "Be sensible! You saw me only twice and the first time, you were only six!" "I saw you at my naming ceremony. I remember." As I looked puzzled to her she added softly: "Memory. Violet gave me the gift of memory so I could remember the goodness of the others." "I hope the next fairy gave you forgiveness to go along," I commented. "So I remember your voice at my naming ceremony. The first time you spoke, it was resigned and yet wise. They listened to you. Then you came by my cradle and told me you were my protector. After that I tried to identify who you were but I could never find your voice again. Until you came when I was six..." She took a deep breath. "So, if you're not here because of... I mean, then you're here because of the sleep?" "You're not supposed to know about that." "Oh, my parents never told me anything. But the servants did. I thought it would be better to make friends with the servants, they always know more than my parents. That's how I learnt about the curse put on me, how you solved the problem and how you were declared my protector. Puzzled, I asked why you weren't at the castle with me since you were supposed to protect me. The servants grew uneasy but..." "You know who I am, then?" I asked brutally. "You are the prince Liam Lancelot, my protector, he who's giving his life for mine," she said fervently. "No," I growled. "I'm the wizard prince, well-versed in the arts of mysteries, disciple of Black, the fairy who cursed you! Didn't you know this part of my legend?" "You healed me when I was sick!" she pleaded. "You gave your health to me! I could feel you ill and exhausted while I was recovering thanks to you! You left the pomegranate seeds on my bedside table so I'd know I had a friend somewhere! Because you are the only friend I ever had! Nobody else wanted to get close to me, since I was to fall asleep for a hundred years! But you were always there! I could feel you watching me, taking care that nothing happened to me, like you promised to me at my naming ceremony! This I know and this is part of the legend I only know, for I've never told another soul, since you asked me to." I knew then that I had forgotten two things before coming. One was to look at the list of the fairy gifts she had received. The other was to solve the intriguing puzzle: why had Black cursed Eglantine when, obviously, she was a sweet child? "Maybe you're the evil wicked sorcerer they say you are!" she continued with what sounded like despair. "What do I know? You have always been kind to me! You held me in your arms as I was close to death and you gave me your life energy so that I would keep on living! They say you work only with dark arts, they say that you can bewitch people so they become your friends and you can trick them - they name a young man called Gawain as an example - they say you kill animals to perform black rituals, they even say you killed your father! Yes, you see, I know this part of your legend! So if you're really a wicked wizard, just tell me one evil thing you did, only one, and I will believe you!" I was speechless. I couldn't think of a thing that could pass for evil. She had named Gawain and father. "I didn't bewitch Gawain!" I protested, hurt. "He's my friend! Do you think I would have doomed him if I could have avoided it? And I couldn't save father! I was too young then, I hadn't enough magic to save him!" "I know!" she replied, smiling. "Don't you think I know? You're not evil, you've never been. Your uncle isn't either." "Are you very perceptive for your age or am I getting too old for this kind of sparring match?" I asked wearily. She smiled again. "You'll know tonight." As if she already knew I would look in my book to see the fairy gifts bestowed to her. Gawain was coming toward us. She looked at him with surprise, a strange look in her eyes, as he was bowing to her, then she looked at me again and her eyes were perfectly clear. Gawain smiled at me and winked. He was the kind of young man every girl was dreaming of and yet he hadn't had any sweetheart. Contrary to me Gawain liked horses and his mare was his favourite companion - me set aside. As he was leaving - he had come only to present his respects - Eglantine turned to me. "Was it a test?" "What sort of test could it be?" I grumbled. "To see if he's going to be my true love. I know about the solution of the curse, you know. That's why I refuse everybody." "And that's why you concentrated on me?" I growled. "Well, I thought it would make your task easier," she said, matter-of-factly. "Listen, child, for you are nothing more than a child, my powers are so great that if your true love was the king of the kingdom over the sea he would still come to you to wake you in a hundred years, just because I want it so! Is that clear?" She looked as if I had slapped her and I felt as if she had slapped me. "I'm sorry," she murmured. "Are you very upset with me?" I sighed. "Except for this childlike fascination you have for me - the worship of the poor unfairly-treated prince thanks to your loving heart - do you have a true love?" "No. Only a dream. The dream of a handsome stranger with adoration filling his blue eyes, sweeping me off my feet." "Someone like Gawain, then." "Yes... No! It's just a dream. The dream of a silly girl. I don't care if he's handsome or has blue eyes. I want someone..." "Someone so taken with you that he doesn't stop at the perspective of being separated from you for one hundred years," I completed. "Well..." She blushed and looked away. I sighed again. "Goodbye, Eglantine," I said, half-bowing to her. "My travel was tiring and I want to rest." "Of course! Why didn't I think of it? I'm sorry, Liam." I waved at her. "Do not bother, I know the castle. Fare you well, cousin." "Will I see you again?" she asked softly. "Oh, I would say you'll see me in a hundred years," I replied casually. She winced. "Would you answer a prayer then, before leaving?" "What is it?" "While I sleep, will you come in my dreams, like you did this past year? Appearing for real in it?" "If you want. I can bring Gawain also, if you wish." She shook the head. "No, this dream is to remain a dream. My only unfulfilled dream, so that I can be happy." "I pity your future husband, when he will know you dream of another man than he!" She shook the head again. "This dream will die when I'll marry. So, will you share my dreams?" "I will be asleep also," I said. She shrugged. "I know you can do this. Nothing's impossible to you. I'll see you tonight at dinner, Liam." I noticed her easiness when saying my name. Usually everybody was whispering it, looking around suspiciously, if even saying it at all. She had faith in me, unlimited faith, but it was the faith of a little girl. She had been too sheltered, she knew nothing of life. I closed the door of my room behind me and leaned on the panel. I was a fool. For a moment I had thought that she might love me - me, the castaway! - but it was only infatuation. She was just a little girl. I smirked; never mind, I had always known I had an eternity before me for me to 'sweep her off her feet'. One hundred years exactly. It should be more than enough. I had to think. The fairy gifts. I was sure I could guess some of them. What were those I already knew? Grace, beauty, loving heart and memory. I would have sworn she had received forgiveness also; and compassion, with her loving heart, it would nicely do for adulating the wizard prince. There was her sixth sense about me also. I opened my book. On the last page were now listed the fairy gifts bestowed to Eglantine. Grace, beauty - for Blue and Red, naturally - loving heart, compassion, singing, dancing, honesty, memory, forgiveness - there, I had been right! - art of flowers, clear-vision, plus the death from Black and the 'saving spell' from Pink, the hundred years of sleep. I frowned. Something wasn't right. I felt some of them were double-edged. Grace and beauty were the usual prerogative of a princess so I could put them aside. So were singing and dancing. Loving heart, compassion? It seemed quite aimed at me. I remembered Green's words: "She will love dearly her parents and relatives. Even you, young man." Memory, forgiveness. Eglantine had remembered my intervention at her naming ceremony and had probably forgiven me for being a wizard. But the sixth sense? Suddenly I saw it. Clear-vision. I had thought she would have a good sight but it could have another meaning also. Who had given this to Eglantine? Grey. Grey was mysterious, almost as much as Black, and she was as good as Black as for magic. Did she give this to Eglantine to protect her from me? Or for Eglantine to know what I did for her? I looked for other gifts with second meaning, harmless at first sight, but being much more than they said by looking at them. Honesty. I remembered how Eglantine had spoken to her father, almost standing up for me. Honest to the point of being blunt? Art of flowers... or art of plants? I closed the eyes and shook the head. I was getting confused. One piece of the puzzle was missing. What was the point of all this? I had the gifts to save Eglantine and she had the gifts to see beyond what I was. But why would have the fairies played such a game? Once again I wondered why had Black done such a thing. I knew she wasn't bad. She wasn't more evil than I was. Yet she had condemned Eglantine to death. No, she hadn't! Pink still hadn't given her gift! I flattered myself that I knew Black - or at least, I knew how she would think. If she had really wanted to see Eglantine die, she would have waited for Pink to give her gift and then she would have intervened. Black wasn't stupid; she had known one gift was still to be given. I breathed deeply. I was on the way to truth, I could feel it. What more? Pink wasn't very bright. But I had been there; I had given half the solution. I had powers comparable to theirs. Green had never seemed very disturbed by Black's gift to Eglantine. Could it have been only a trick to show off Pink a bit? It was ridiculous, especially at Black's expense. But then I thought that the only people to know Black for who she really was were those she had granted with the arts of mysteries, those who were as despised as she was. Gawain knocked at my door. "Dinner is waiting for you, Liam," he called. I growled. It was always the same, I could never think in peace without being disturbed for something as basic as a dinner. I was placed at Eglantine's right - a great honour, and more than one young nobleman looked at me with hatred in his eyes - and Gawain was on my right. Everybody called me Lancelot since Eglantine's father had introduced me as the 'cousin Lancelot' except, naturally, Eglantine, who persisted to call me Liam - as was doing Gawain, except that Gawain only said it in a whisper. After a while a young nobleman, obviously trying to get Eglantine's attention, said with a hint of bad-temper: "I hear you calling your cousin 'Liam', my lady. Don't you know that the only Liam is an evil wizard who sold his soul against the black arts?" Eglantine glanced quickly at me and leaned a bit forward on the table. "Is that true? Tell me more, it sounds fascinating." I almost pitied the poor fellow. Eglantine's tone indicated enough that she was waiting for him to trap himself. Compassion, I thought; where was it now? Gawain looked at me, quite surprised I hadn't retorted yet. At my mother's castle, I didn't wait so long before putting them in their place. "He's protected by the evil fairy who cast the spell of death upon you, princess," said the man, flattered of her attention. "Some even say he is her apprentice!" "As if she hadn't anything else to do," I said wryly. "I beg your pardon, Sir Lancelot?" "If you would give me my real name, it would be Sir Liam, or Your Highness, since, after all, I am a prince. Oh, yes, I forgot to finish the introduction." I stood up and looked at the people gathered around the table. Gawain's eyes were laughing and Eglantine was smiling. "I am Prince Liam Lancelot, supposedly apprentice of a fairy as for dark arts, and also, huh, let me remember, protector of Her Highness Princess Aurora Dawn Guinevere. I hope you're not too disappointed. I'm afraid I'm not distorted; the fairies made me handsome at my naming ceremony. Here's my friend Gawain," I added, putting my hand on his solid shoulder. "And, oh yes, I didn't bewitch him. Not that I need to, anyway. Any questions?" I sat down. Eglantine was trying desperately to keep her countenance. "Go away from him, fair princess!" exclaimed another young nobleman. "Surely he means you harm!" "Ah, the lyricism of the young men in love!" I said, mocking. "May I remind you that I am her protector? Why would I harm her? And, by the way, I'm not her cousin, I've never been her cousin and I will never be her cousin." "Liam, would you honour me with this dance?" asked Eglantine quietly, as the musicians began to play, maybe hoping to calm the minds. "With pleasure, Aurora." I stood up and offered her my hand. She took it while looking at me straight in the eyes; there wasn't any hint of fear. I led her to the dance floor. Everybody was speechless in front of my boldness. Naturally she danced perfectly, since she had received the gift. "You dance well," she said. "Are you gifted?" "No, but I practiced, since you were gifted," I lied lightly. "You discovered it only one hour ago," she remarked. "Your clear-vision is going to hinder me." She shrugged. "It is already more a burden than anything to me. Like the young fool exclaiming 'Go away from him, fair princess! Surely he means you harm!'. If he knew that I really know what he's thinking he would run away and never present himself in front of me." "Then I don't want to know what he was thinking, since you're supposed to be compassionate." "It's not really glorifying for any of us. He envied your place next to me and your power of being able to hurt me." "To make you surrender to him, I guess?" My tone was calm - Olive had given me the gift of impassivity - but I felt the urge of wringing the neck of the young nobleman. "He doesn't deserve your wrath, you know," she said casually, leaning her head on my shoulder. "I am your protector, after all. The limits of my function have never been specified. As I'm already considered like a monster I guess nobody would be surprised by such an outburst. Your father would certainly be forgiven if he was to kill me like he's thinking of doing right now." "I wouldn't!" she said fiercely. "Ah... yes, I would! Forgiveness and loving heart. I'm cursed. I wish Pink had never cast her stupid 'protective' spell. Did I ask her anything, frankly?" I laughed softly. "Maybe you don't want to die so soon," I suggested gently. "After all you're still young." "Do you think that in one hundred years it will be better?" she asked thoughtfully. "Honestly? I think young fools will still be young fools, that your father will still hate me as much as he does now and that they will pity you even more. 'Poor princess,' they will say, 'she slept for one hundred years! Isn't this terrible? The poor child, she's probably traumatised!' Naturally they will never understand that it's for you the opportunity to... Oh God! It's obvious! How could I have been blind like this?" "What is it, Liam?" "The sleep. The curse. You have the opportunity of waking up in one hundred years, to see a new world, to find a true love courageous enough... No, this one doesn't count." Then I remembered something else I had noticed not long ago and I paled. "Could this be? Did she know this sixteen years ago?" I murmured. "Liam? What's happening?" "Nothing, Eglantine. Tell me, do you want this young fool to still be here when you'll awake in a century?" "Is he my true love?" I sneered. "If he is, just for him, I'll put a spell on you that will kill him if he only puts a finger on you." She laughed silently. "Then you can send him away if you want. I can find him a mission far away maybe." "That would be perfect. He has to be gone by tomorrow morning." "Is it so near?" I looked down at her. "Be brave, Eglantine. It's for tomorrow." She nodded and tried not to show her apprehension. I smiled encouragingly. If someone had bothered to look at my window this very night he could have seen that the light was on for quite a long time. I had to get ready for the events of the following day. I had taken the cartridge belt from my father and carefully I put little phials instead of cartridges. Each of them should last ten years but one never knew what could happen and I preferred to take my precautions. I put twenty of them. In an inner pocket of my doublet I slipped a paper with a recipe on it. I spent the morning looking through the window. Around noon the sky turned dark, streaked with lightning. Clouds built up above us and, in the distance, I could see something like dust swept up in the air by the hoofs of thousands of horses. It had begun. Calmly I went down to the main hall. Eglantine's father ran toward me, very agitated. "What is happening, Lancelot?" I raised my eyebrows; suddenly I was someone respectable. "Your neighbours decided to attack you," I replied casually. "What? How? It's inconceivable!" "Well, any wizard worth of this name knew that today there would be a major storm. Your good friend King Harold, you know, your favourite enemy, decided it was thus a very good day to attack you and so he does." "But what are we going to do? Why didn't you say anything, Lancelot? Surely, since you knew this already, you have planned something to help us! You are such a good strategist!" Strategy was Grey's gift to me. I sat comfortably in a nice armchair, being careful with the cartridge belt I was wearing. "Why should I? The fairies have already planned it all," I said nonchalantly. "What do you mean?" "Wait," I replied, raising a finger, before beginning to count: "One, two, thr..." A scream resounded in the whole castle, even louder than thunder. "Guinevere! She's..." "Sleep well," I smirked. I took a phial from the cartridge belt and drank it. Eglantine's father fell asleep right in front of me. I did also, I supposed, except that I didn't feel like it. I tried to move a foot; it was very hard but I smiled even so. I was still 'awake' and everybody else was sleeping. I murmured the word of power and suddenly I was out of my body. I looked down at myself, sleeping in the armchair, eyes wide-opened. My wizard-like eyes. I turned away; I had to find Eglantine. I hurried up the stair; floating in the air was a new experience for me, but not unpleasant. I enjoyed a lot being able to pass through the walls. What I enjoyed less was when I accidentally passed through the stair and discovered a hidden cubbyhole, full of spider webs. Ugh. I hated cobwebs. Eglantine was in her room, getting ready for lunch. Except that now she was sleeping on the chair before the dressing table, her brush still in her hand. I had a light smile while looking at her and then suddenly I heard a small cry behind me. I turned on my heels and saw Pink. "Oh, it's you! You gave me such a shock!" she said. "Well, you quite startled me also." "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to sleep with the others?" She looked again at me and frowned. "Oh, I see. Nice potion." "Thank you." "Now let me proceed. I have thousands things to do today and I want to get this straight the fastest possible." She went behind Eglantine, waved negligently her hand and Eglantine's hair brushed itself before gathering on her head. Then Pink had another move of the hand and Eglantine was lying on her bed. She looked sweet and innocent. "There," she said with satisfaction. "Everything's ready." "Thank the black fairy for me," I called after her. "You could speak of our queen with more respect," she remarked. "Your queen! I didn't know this! Tell me, then, why all this masquerade in your honour?" "She wanted me to feel more confident," said sheepishly Pink. "I'm the youngest, you know, and I always feel like the others have better gifts than me and more powerful magic. So our queen wanted to give me a great chance. I hope I didn't make any mistake." "Everything will be fine," I assured her. "If one of you has time, come see me. I think I'll get very lonely quite quickly." "I will tell them," promised Pink before disappearing hurriedly. I went to the window and was quite surprised. A thick fence of thorns surrounded the limits of the castle; from where I was I could see the thorns were at least long as my forearm and I shivered. I certainly didn't want to fall in them. "Good work, Pink," I said appreciatively. Around the fence, looking utterly dismayed, were the armies of King Harold. The king himself was infuriated and I chuckled. This was a good day. I sat on the windowsill - well, actually three inches above - and watched what couldn't fail to happen: King Harold sent several men against the fence. I could then fully appreciate the extent of Pink's work. The fence was alive. As soon as a sharp sword touched of one the flexible branches, the branch winded round the arm of the man and dragged him in the fence. I wanted to cover my ears with my hands. The screaming was horrible. The other men stepped back, their faces as white as death. Harold, not being put of by something so natural - after all, it was only thorns - commanded to light up a fire near the thorns. Even under the storm, that seemed to be a good idea but, more and more amazed with Pink's defence of the castle, I was sure she had thought of that. Indeed she had. The branches seized firebrands and threw them on the men. If one of them fell near enough them they would drag him in the fence. They were definitely alive and, well, murderous. That wasn't going to help me in my task. King Harold had lots of good ideas. During the storm he tried to direct the lightning to the fence by throwing metallic objects in it. As soon as one of the flashes of lightning fell on the fence, the thorns began to hurl back the metallic objects and they were a lot deadlier than the men of Harold. It seemed to me that each attack against the thorns made them become thicker and deadlier. If this fool of king continued so I would never be able to pass through the barrier. He tried salt; the answer was instantaneous: the branches grew longer and caught his men to drag them in their depths. The screaming was really becoming disturbing. Harold tried to water the thorns with strong acid. That was a good idea that I wouldn't have had. The thorns seemed at first not to like it. They retreated with a slow hiss, leaving several burnt trunks behind. Encouraged Harold's men stepped closer, still watering them with acid. Pink might not have thought of it but she had thought of something better: she had given her fence a mind and ways to adapt. After the first attack with acid, the fence reacted. New plants grew under the men's feet, winded round their ankles and pulled them toward the ground. To my stupefaction - and horror, I had to confess - the men effectively disappeared in the ground, as if swallowed by it. It was rather sickening. It was the last attack. Harold stopped the attacks and returned to his own castle, very disappointed and quite angered. I sighed with relief. It meant no more screaming for quite a while. I went down the stair, looking more closely at the fence. Prudently I extended a hand toward it; I touched a thorn. My hand passed through it. I stepped forward. My whole arm passed through them. The fence wouldn't hurt me. I could go outside the castle. Gloomily I looked behind me. I could go out, very well, but my body was still inside as well as Eglantine. I couldn't wake Eglantine without my body and I couldn't have my body back without someone from outside the castle. The situation was damnable. I went back to Eglantine's room. I would probably spend most of the hundred years in her room so I better had to make myself comfortable. I regretted not to have my book of magic with me, it would have given me plenty occupation during the years to pass. Longingly I went to my room, looking at my book on the bedside table. I held out the hand toward it, unable to help it, and, to my great surprise, my fingers didn't pass through it. "Thank you, Black!" I breathed, taking the book and holding it against me. I ran back to Eglantine's room. The first time I went into her dreams was one week after she had fallen asleep. I interrupted a reverie about a young man looking suspiciously like Gawain. "I can come back later, if you want," I said. "Don't be silly," she scoffed. "What took you so long?" "I was busy dreaming of a blonde beauty," I retorted. "Liar." "Honesty's not been given to me." "How long passed?" "One week. You could think it was hard for me to achieve this. I'm supposedly sleeping like you." She shrugged. Sometimes I had the impression she underestimated the difficulty of magic. Power was not easy to master and was a demanding friend. Eglantine and I fought most of the time. Actually we fought all the time. She wasn't bad-tempered, I wasn't either but we always managed to irritate the other. She hated when I teased her about Gawain and she seemed distressed at the idea I could dream of someone else than her. She was a very possessive little girl. One hundred years were a very long time to wait. Sometimes I wandered near the thorn fence and I could see the perfectly white bones of Harold's men on the ground. It wasn't a nice sight. Even so it didn't prevent other fools to come, trying to pass the fence in order to awake the sleeping princess sheltered behind the deadly thorns. I wondered how they had heard of Eglantine. The screaming was very disturbing and I could never study as long as they were screaming. I had stopped feeling pity for them; they were only young fools thinking themselves better than those who had come before them. They would mock the bones on the ground, not knowing they would add theirs only a moment later. They still had an immortality complex. Not all of them were as clever as King Harold and most of them rushed into the fence by themselves. Young princes died by the dozens in the thorns. I didn't even go anymore to the window, to see if it was someone I maybe knew. Until the day I heard a call outside. Someone calling my name. I jumped at the window and my breath caught. Mother. In just a heartbeat I was outside the castle, outside the fence. She started when seeing me. "Liam," she murmured. It was the sweetest sound ever. I had rarely heard mother call me by my real name. I knew she wanted to hug me fiercely, me, her only child, but she knew she could not. She looked much older yet not much time had passed. Guiltily I thought that my absence was destroying her. She smiled knowingly. "I know, Liam, I am sick." "I can heal you, mother! Why didn't you come earlier instead of letting the illness eating away at you?" She stopped my movement. "It's useless, Liam. I don't want to be cured. Your father is already waiting for me and in my turn, I will wait for you." "Mother..." She smiled, gently, and I felt I could cry of losing her. "I love you, Liam, darling. We will see each other again, my son, but not yet..." She turned and walked away from the castle. I wanted to follow her but I felt rooted to the ground. Ghosts didn't cry; wandering souls couldn't cry but it didn't prevent me of feeling torn. I crossed back the thorn fence. After nine years - I couldn't lose the notion of time, like Eglantine did - I went back to my body. It was covered with dust and worse. Ugh. I was looking disgusting. I slipped back into my body and called upon my power to force my arm to move. It was very hard but I was still conscious, there was no reason I couldn't defeat the stillness of my muscles. It was so hard that I felt my power fade away twice or thrice faster than usually. I had to drink the potion before it was too late. My clumsy hand seized a phial and I managed to take it out of the cartridge belt without breaking it. I forced my thumb to push the cap out and slipped the phial between my lips. Immediately I felt power running through my veins. I let my hand rest back near the cartridge belt - but not on it. I still remembered that day, as I was very young, when I had found a pretty splinter of blue glass and I was running toward my room to add it to my collection. In the corridors I had stumbled on a big bully who hated wizards in general and me in particular. I had fallen on the ground, my hand still closed on the shard. I still remembered his words: "Got something in your hand, huh, little wizard?" He had crushed my hand with his heavy buskin. The shard had entered in my hand and blood had run. He had laughed and left me bleeding in the corridors. I had run to my room, cradling my bloody hand with splinters buried deep in it, and I had wrapped it myself. I was maybe five or six years old by then. At dinnertime, mother had asked about my hurt hand and I had told her - not that denunciation was something I liked, but after all, I was just a child by then. Mother had been indignant and the bully had been severely punished. I didn't think he liked wizards more after that. Since then I still had an ugly scar in the shape of a half-moon in the palm of my left hand. As soon as I was full of energy I left my body and went back to Eglantine. I noticed then that she was as dusty as I was. I sighed and used my magic to wipe the dust away from her. I took advantage of the fact for undoing her hair and letting it spread around her face, a face like porcelain in the middle of the dead leaves. Then I took my book and read the last pages; the last pages were always the most interesting. The book kept adding pages at the end and sometimes, if I was lucky, I would find a word from Black herself. As I regularly came to talk with Eglantine in her dreams, I surprised her less and less often dreaming of Gawain and it seemed that she was waiting for my visits with impatience. "Are you feeling lonely?" I asked her once. "Aren't you?" she replied sadly. "But you can move, you can leave this castle..." "I am as doomed to stay here as you are. My body can't move, only my spirit." "How long to wait?" "Eighty-six," I replied. She sighed. "I would die." I tightened my jaws. I wanted to comfort her but I had promised myself I wouldn't touch her. She wasn't mine: she was Gawain's. I knew I had failed but what mattered was Eglantine. Taking once again a decision I didn't like I once came in her dream with Gawain. She looked surprised and glared at me with reproach. "I thought Gawain would drive away some of your loneliness and it might be good for him also," I said without emotion. "He's feeling very lonely too." Gawain half-protested - he hated to look like he was complaining - but I didn't listen. I trusted Eglantine's loving heart and compassion for the rest. I soon left them alone and resumed my reading. They couldn't communicate with me if I didn't want them to but I wove a spell so they could talk with each other whenever they wanted. I was out of their life. I regularly went to the fence, to check that I could still go out. The outside of it was surrounded with white bones, some of them still hanging in the branches. I didn't dare to use my magic for making them fall on the ground, for I didn't know what would be the effect of it and I certainly didn't want to be pierced by thousands thorns at the same time. The macabre surroundings of the fence didn't prevent new young men to tempt the adventure. Rescuing the sleeping princess seemed to be an obsession for the princes of all kingdoms. I wondered how the royal families could still be alive with the suicidal habit of their sons. But their persistence forced me to keep something in mind: Pink had done a solid work and I couldn't underestimate it. I had to think lengthily to the way of passing though her fence unharmed. There were still fifty years to go when I began looking for the spells. I already knew some of the spells I would need once I would have led here those I needed. But first I had to make them pass the fence. Lost in my work I almost lost track of time. During twelve years I worked on it. After eight years I had to drink a new potion, for the spell concerning Eglantine and Gawain was consuming my strength. On the way to my body, I dusted them; I didn't care for the others in the castle, but the princess and he who would kiss her had to be clean. It was amazing how much work I could achieve while being never disturbed by dinner, sleep or other insignificant things. It also pointed to me how lonely I felt when not disturbed. I clenched the jaws. No. I couldn't acknowledge the fact. I had magic; it was the only thing that mattered. At the end of the twelve years I thought that maybe I should check on Eglantine and Gawain. I wanted to work on the spell laid by Pink on us, the sleeping spell that didn't let us get hungry and that had stopped time inside the castle. The outside of the castle - beginning at the fence, though the fence was also belonging to the inside - continued to live normally; inside, I could watch them but time had no grasp on me. I knew that it would take me time to study Pink's sleeping spell and so I preferred to check on my friends first. Friends. The word was strange to me yet it sounded right. I wondered if they would be older and wiser. I felt so - even though it wasn't modest - but I could wander in the castle, I could look through the window, my body was asleep but my conscience was more awake than theirs. Maybe they would still be the young people they were before the spell, quite foolish, quite unconscious of the world around them, making their own world around them. I felt so old; after all, though my body was only twenty-four years old, I had more than eighty years of experience. It was quite a terrifying thought. Eighty years of loneliness. Even more terrifying. I ran to Gawain. He was like he had always been. He smiled at me when I came to him. "Liam! I'm glad to see you!" As usual he didn't reproach me anything, not even that I had abandoned him for so long, though he had come with me as my friend. We talked for only a few minutes for I felt quite uneasy with him. We had lost our friendship that had taken us so long to build and it pained me. I could see he was pained also but he didn't say anything. Nothing could be said. Slowly I went to Eglantine, fearing the same thing with her. When I arrived she all but threw herself at my neck, burying her head in my shoulder. "How dared you!" she exclaimed, her voice sounding quite thick with unshed tears. "I didn't see you in an eternity! Why didn't you come?" I looked surprised. "You had Gawain," I said, trying to gently push her away. She refused to release her hold on me and hugged me even more fiercely. "Do you really think that Gawain can replace you? Oh Liam, I've missed you!" I half-panicked. I couldn't understand. "Eglantine? I thought Gawain was what you wanted..." I said, frowning in confusion. She shook the head. "Liam, you have always been what I wanted. You thought it was only the infatuation of a little girl; maybe it was, but I've changed in my sleep. I've understood more things, I..." "And you concluded again that it would be easier for me if I was your true love rather than Gawain, I guess?" I said bitterly. "No! Why don't you believe me?" She stepped back from me and stamped her foot. "Since you don't believe me, when the hundred years are over, let nice Gawain kiss me and you will see if I awake! But if you try yourself, you will see what happens..." She breathed her last words her lips only inches from mine, tempting me and taunting me. I wanted to bend down of only these few inches but I knew I wouldn't. Crimson had given me control over myself, and who knew what could happen if the kiss happened before the hundred years were over? I turned the head away and, in the corner of the eye, I saw Eglantine's face lose its colours. "I didn't plan to have two persons kissing you," I said with difficulty, "but if it's what you want, then so it will be." "Do not bother. After all, maybe Gawain will manage to awake me," she said bitterly. I thought we were fools, hurting each other for nothing. "You alone know who makes your heart stir, Eglantine, and after all, who am I to discuss this with you, since I am the wizard with the cold heart, since I am the wizard who doesn't know the meaning of love?" "Those who say that, Liam, have never seen you fight death to save me, have never seen you give your strength for me! They never felt the fierce tenderness you held me with when you were only fourteen!" "I was young and foolish!" "You were true!" "I am your protector." I bowed to her, preparing to take my leave. She stopped me. "Cast a spell so I can come to you, please." "No. I have work to do and you have to make up your mind." I left, ignoring the hurt on her face and in her eyes. Fifty years ago I had understood I was made for loneliness and magic, like my uncle. It had taken me time but I was a man of decision and I was now resigned to my fate. Seeing Eglantine and having her trying to show me I could have another fate was a temptation hard to resist to. But I would: she was made for a life full of joy and light, a life with a man like Gawain, not a dark wizard. I went back to my studies, studying the sleeping spell. It was amazing, complex yet simple. Enthralled by Pink's work I forgot everything until a faint pain began to bother me. I looked around, wondering what was happening. When I looked down at my book, words were appearing on the page: 'You need to drink a new potion'. I started. I had totally forgotten, lost in my work. In my hurry I let the book fall on the ground and ran to my body. Drinking the potion was even harder than usually and I was furiously tempted of just giving up. But I had never given up on anything till now. Not now. "Not now," a voice whispered to me and I had the impression to see the wrinkled face of Black smiling down at me. The potion slid down my throat. I stood up and slowly went back to my book. After a while I wondered about the length of the sleep. Why one hundred years? It was awfully long and I somehow didn't think that Pink had planned for me to entertain Eglantine - for not speaking of the other people of the castle. I knew now that Black had cast her curse so that she would protect the inhabitants from King Harold's, thus preventing them of being wiped out of the world. This at least was clear to me - but why would Black care for Eglantine's fare? Under my eyes the book of magic began to list all the names of the princes who tried to pass through the fence - or attack the castle, for some had wanted to destroy it. As the name of their father was given also I quickly noticed something: all the heirs of King Harold had tried to attack the castle. The last one was but two years ago. So, even after so long, King Harold's descendents hadn't forgotten the idea of destroying this castle! Thus the hundred years of sleep, I guessed. Maybe just before the end of Eglantine's sleep Harold's family would get extinct and thus Eglantine would awake in a world safe for her. I would soon know. Quite interested in the subject - now that Black had pointed out to me one of her motivations - I watched the people coming at the castle. All were trying their strength and wits against the fence and all were failing. I got so used to the screaming that I could watch them be torn apart by the thorns without flinching. Sometimes I wondered who was the evil fairy: Black who had 'condemned' one innocent baby or Pink whose spell was killing dozens and dozens of fine young men. I could agree that Eglantine wasn't responsible at all but that the young men were defying death in full knowledge. Was it an excuse? I saw Harold's last descendant come to the fence with half an army. He had no more success than his ancestor but had the same bad temper - except that King Harold knew how to control himself. His descendant jumped down from his horse and ran to the fence, sword in hand. The thorns seemed to take a malicious pleasure in making him regret it dearly. I had to turn away. It was over; Eglantine could awake, safe from Harold's family's threat. Only five years were left. I had to leave the castle, hoping everything would go fine. I hesitated: should I warn Eglantine that I was leaving? She was probably still angry with me; would she care if I left? Probably not. I shrugged and went back to my body. Cautiously I drank a new potion before crossing the fence. Nobody knew what could happen. I walked through the thorns as if they were harmless and then, for once in so long ago, I continued my path, leaving the castle behind me. During five years I looked for what I needed. I took my time: I couldn't make any mistake. I didn't want Eglantine to sleep forever. I had no idea of what would become of Pink's spell once the hundredth year had passed. Would everybody awake even so or would we all continue to sleep, but start to age? Somehow the idea of dying during a one-hundred-years-long sleep didn't appeal to me. I doubted it would be appealing to Eglantine or Gawain, who were both so full of life. My quest was hard; except for my mother, because she knew me so well, nobody could see me during the day and people had a tendency to lock doors and shutters at nightfall. I had heard the gossips and the castle surrounded with a fence of thorns was considered evil, especially considering the bones among the thorns. None of them wanted to hear about the sleeping princess and they were all trying to make the young fools renounce. None of those fools listened to them, naturally. Still their immortality complex. After four years I had found what I wanted so I went back to the castle. I sat by Eglantine, watching her. Soon my sleeping princess would be free. I closed my eyes; I had to go see her before leaving once again, before she awoke. Somehow those years of sleep had made her more mine than before and as time was passing by it was harder and harder to me to deny the feelings I had for her. I clenched my jaws and cast the spell. She was curled up in a corner and alone. I squatted by her. "Why don't you make up your own dreams anymore?" I asked her gently, quite concerned, afraid the long sleep had somehow traumatised her. "My dreams are dead," she said, half-sniffing. "They can't fly anymore; nothing can fly anymore!" She looked up at me. "It is time?" "Yes and soon you'll be able to dream again." "How could I? I don't know how to raise the dead." "Because you will be free," I replied, caressing her cheek, first move of tenderness I had allowed myself in one hundred years. "Dreams soar only when you are free." "Where will you be by then?" Her face was so anxious that I couldn't fight anymore. "Wherever you want me to be, I swear it." I stood up. "Wait for me," I told her. "Soon I shall free you." She stood up also and caressed my cheek in turn. "I hope it will free you at the same time," she whispered. "Yes, I will wait for you." I left her, dusted her a last time and went back to my body. Once again I drank a potion, for the last time, I hoped. For the best or the worse, the sleep was almost over. I travelled east at the beginning and went to find an old woman, a witch. She was, fortunately for me, still alive and her neighbours didn't look like witch hunters. She was one of the rare persons I had seen who let her door opened for the weary traveller. Night had fallen and she was sitting on the bench by the threshold of her door when I came near her. Somehow she heard me come and looked up at me. "Good evening, young man," she said as I bowed to her. "Good evening, my lady." "My lady!" She laughed. She was an old woman but she had the laugh of a maiden. "My name is Magda. Old Magda, they say." "I am Liam," I said, finding my voice only with difficulty. "And you came to see old Magda for a love potion? I cannot believe that with your handsome face the girl can resist you." She hadn't identified me as a wandering soul. For her I was just a normal young man, who had waited for nightfall before venturing to the witch's house. "If it had been so, Lady Magda, I wouldn't have waited for sunset to come here. Dissimulation is not like me." "Then why did you come, Liam?" she asked, intrigued. "You are right, I am in need of your specific skills. But I must ask you to come with me first, for I have to find two other persons before needing your skills." She frowned and looked at me more closely. "Who are you, young Liam? I have never seen you in town and I thought I knew everybody." I shook the head. "I'm not from the town. I come from the sleeping castle." Her breath caught. She held out her hand toward me but stopped before she could touch me. "No... It cannot be... Nobody can cross that fence..." "I have, and more than once. Will you come with me, please, Lady Magda?" "It is important for you, then?" "It is the fulfilment of a task begun long ago, the achievement of my life." She nodded and stood up. "Tell me what plants I... you will need." "They are not to be found in your stocks, Lady Magda. But I will tell you where to find them." "I will follow you, then, Liam." Magda didn't ask questions, though she had probably guessed who - or rather what - I was. She came with me and didn't seem surprised to see me disappear with dawn. We went to see a woodcutter, who lived very near the sleeping castle and wouldn't hear anything about it. He was harder to convince than Magda, but seeing that an old woman like her was involved in the quest also, he thought twice and finally agreed, taking his huge axe with him. He wasn't in his prime youth anymore and couldn't be taxed of foolishness. I long wondered why he had come with us; maybe because he had nothing left to lose or maybe did he understand all that I had to lose if he were to refuse. His name was Ender. The last one I needed was a blacksmith, quite young, gruff but always helpful. We had certain difficulty catching him at nightfall, since he liked to go to bed earlier - and wake up early also. He listened to my plea, chewed his bottom lip - that same habit I had - and shook the head. "You three are crazy," he said. "The castle is cursed, everybody know this. Do you think you are better than all those young fools who tried and miserably failed? I don't want to add my bones to the collection already over there. I lost my brother in those thorns." I bit my lower lip. I didn't know that and obviously, it made it more difficult. "I'm sorry, I didn't know. I came here three years ago, I thought it would be fine." "My brother died last year." "I'm sorry," I said again. "I can't differentiate the old bones from the new ones; they're all the same once the thorns are done with them." I looked at Ender. "We can do this even so. It... it will just take longer." Ender nodded. The blacksmith looked at us. "You are crazy," he repeated. "You are going to die." "Not if I can help it," I replied. "But what can you do, with an old woman and a woodcutter? People died by dozens at those thorns and they had swords that could split stones in two. He has only his axe and... you have only his axe." "That's why I wanted your hammer also," I shrugged. "Come, we must start now. We've already lost enough time." He watched us as we were leaving and then, shaking the head, called us back. "Alright, you win, I'll come with you! I prefer to die with you than letting you go to death alone. Maybe I can help prevent it." Ender smiled broadly. "That's a good lad! My name's Ender," he said, extending the hand. "Hers is Magda and his Liam." "Mine is Dreadan." So we went to the fence and I instructed Magda to pick up some herbs and mix them. Nobody wondered why I wasn't doing anything; I hated to stand idly but I didn't think they would like to see my hand pass through whatever I would be trying to pick up. Once the ingredients were properly mixed, Magda spread the mixture on Ender's axe and on Dreadan's hammer. "Are you sure of you?" asked Dreadan, eyeing suspiciously his hammer glowing green. "As a matter of fact, no," I admitted. "I never tested it before. If you see it's not working or if I tell you to run back, do so and don't bother with me. I fear nothing from them." Ender and Dreadan nodded. Then I turned to Magda and gave her new instructions. Surprise made her raise her eyebrows as the plants I needed. "Keep this preciously," I said. "Now let's go. Ender, Dreadan, you go first. Magda will be just behind you and I will close the march. Never look back except if you have to run away." The blacksmith and the woodcutter stood side by side, axe and hammer in hand. They were apart enough so that the swing of their tool would not hinder them. I began to sing a spell behind them - Yellow had given me singing, exactly the same gift as Eglantine - and followed them closely. I had to give them credit: though they were probably scared to death none of them flinched. Ender and Dreadan went on swinging axe and hammer while Magda followed them, not looking left or right. The mixture she had put on the tools didn't break the branches, but only bent them. I could feel them taking back their place in my back and I had to control my fear. Since we were not attacking them they weren't attacking us but still the spell I was still weaving by singing would keep them away the time for us to pass. Normally they should have taken their place just behind Ender or Dreadan. I told them to wait for me to pass first. Crossing the thorns, though usually not taking me that long, seemed to last an eternity. I could feel my strength fade away quickly and I prayed it would last long enough for me to reach Eglantine. The others could hear my voice becoming strained and Ender murmured: "Hold on, lad." His strength and Dreadan's were amazing. Their arms seemed tireless though it would have been more difficult for Ender if Dreadan hadn't come. They never slowed down and kept going on regularly: step, breath, swing, breath, step, breath, swing... I was beginning to get dizzy. How long had we been in the fence? I didn't know anymore. I wanted to give up, but... "Not now," said Black's voice in my ear, encouraging. "Not now... A few more steps..." A few more steps and we were out of the fence. The last branches closed behind us and I stopped singing. My throat would have been in fire if I hadn't been a wandering soul. They looked at the fence with dread in their eyes. "We're trapped," murmured Dreadan. "No," I said, my voice hoarse and weak. "It will disappear when the castle awakes. We have to go, now." "We can wait for dawn. We've been in there almost the whole night long." "No, we can't wait for dawn. If not, everything we've done will be useless. We must do it now. Follow me." "You know where the sleeping princess is then?" asked Ender. I didn't answer. They followed me but stopped when seeing the first sleepers. "They're all dead!" "No, they're asleep. I hope," I added sotto voce. "Come," I added impatiently, irritation showing in my voice. I was on the point of falling down but I couldn't drink another potion. It was too late. If I did I would be doomed to be a wandering soul for the rest of my body life. We climbed the stairs till Eglantine's room. I closed my eyes. "Magda, the potion... now, please." She took the phial containing the philtre I had asked her to prepare before we entered the fence and she spilled the content of it on me. My silhouette became more visible and I knew that now I could touch things. I looked at Eglantine for a brief instant and thought of Gawain. Then I noticed something that made me look closer: between her fingers was a necklace made with pomegranate seeds. She didn't have it when I had left. I closed my eyes and, before I could clearly think again, I bent down and kissed her. I doubted my kiss had anything to thrill a girl, even a sleeping girl, since it was my first kiss, but it didn't prevent Eglantine to slowly open eyes filled with wonder. She sighed my name. I felt I was fading away. "Liam, is it over?" she asked, her voice slightly hoarse. I tried to smile. "No, it's the beginning..." Ender, Dreadan and Magda were looking at me. I could see the floor through my hand. "A ghost..." murmured Dreadan. "A wandering soul," rectified Magda. "Liam!" Eglantine cried out. I disappeared from her sight as I was holding the hand toward her. I opened the eyes in the main hall. I moved my hand. The muscles were a bit stiff but it wasn't comparable with the difficulty I had encountered when still being a soul. In front of me I could see Eglantine's father awake. "The attack!" he exclaimed. "How is it we are still alive?" He stopped, confused. "Lancelot? What..." "The sleep. You've just slept one hundred years." "Guinevere! Is she alright? Who awoke her?" Quick footsteps sounded in the corridor; his question was soon to be answered. Eglantine appeared, followed by Ender, Dreadan and Magda, quite out of breath. "Guinevere!" He took his daughter in his arms with genuine joy and relief then he looked at Ender and Dreadan with curiosity. "Which one of you woke my daughter?" he asked. They both shook the head; they still hadn't seen me or, rather, hadn't noticed my presence. I would have this effect on people sometimes. "The man who kissed me, the man who is my true love has a scar in the shape of a half-moon in the palm of his left hand," said Eglantine. Nobody knew I had this scar; I had always been careful to hide it, even to mother. "Open your left hand, all of you!" commanded Eglantine's father. Ender and Dreadan obeyed then, reluctantly, I did also. Ender's hand was callused but there was no scar. Dreadan had a scar, a long white line crossing his palm from the thumb to the little finger. Eglantine's father looked down at my hand and was stupefied. The others noticed my presence and Magda had a knowing smile. "Lancelot... I... I don't understand." "Liam!" whispered Eglantine. "So this wasn't a dream..." I had a sad smile; when waking up and seeing me next to her she hadn't known if she was still sleeping or not... "A wizard!" exclaimed Eglantine's father with spite and rage. "A prince," rectified calmly Eglantine. "My prince." "My friend," added a new voice. Gawain. Everybody was awaking and thus coming in the great hall. Pink appeared in the middle of everybody and looked surprised of the tension. Then, to everybody's fear, Black herself appeared next to Pink. Her wrinkled face smiled at me. "You certainly did a good work here, Liam," she said and her voice contained a note of pride. "You!" glowered Eglantine's father. "How dare you come here after having doomed my sweet daughter?" "I didn't condemn her, I saved her. Well, with the help of my young friend here. Good work also, child," said Black to Pink who glowed with pride. All the fairies appeared and gathered around us. Somehow, without me knowing how, Eglantine and I found ourselves standing side by side and her hand found her way in mine. Our fingers entwined as we listened to the discussion. Her father was enraged against Black and me. He called me pawn of evil, dark wizard and other names. Black only nodded knowingly. "Wizard or not," intervened a new voice, "he protected our lives." Everybody turned to Dreadan. Gruff but always helpful. Gruff but honest. Eglantine smiled at him with what looked like tears in her eyes. I noticed the necklace of pomegranate seeds around her neck. "Without him," added Ender, "we would have died in the thorns." "Without him," concluded Magda calmly, "you would still be sleeping." "I entrusted him with my daughter's safety!" "I kept her safe." "Get away from her!" "Father, this is enough. If you want Liam to go away, then you want me to go away also for where he will go I will go. How can you deny him after all he did for me? How can you deny him when he makes my heart soar? Drive him away and you will drive all joy away from me. Drive him away and you will condemn me to an empty and lonely life." She turned to me. "I promised you I would wait for you. I will always wait for you." Pink stepped forward. "Time for you to marry, young ones," she said, smiling and winking to me. "But..." protested Eglantine's father. She turned to him. "Without him you would be dead. Eglantine only had to be saved." "Why?" Eglantine asked. "For him, child, so he would have someone to walk with the path of life." Black smiled at me from behind Pink. The fairy queen had taken me under her protection. "I did a mistake with your uncle," she agreed. "I didn't want to make a second one with you." "All this... because of me?" "Think of all he owes you now. How many times you saved Aurora's life, how you saved his life. Think you had to let your mother die alone." Eglantine squeezed my hand. "I didn't know this," she murmured. "Oh Liam, I'm so sorry!" "It happened soon after you fell asleep." The fairies were getting impatient so Yellow started singing a bridal hymn while the others gathered around us, including Gawain, Ender, Dreadan and Magda, but excluding Eglantine's father. Red changed our clothes into ceremony clothes, Lilac gave flowers to Eglantine and Black and Green stood in front of us to lead the ceremony. Gawain came by my side as my witness and Magda volunteered as Eglantine's. I lost track of what was happening. I guessed I said 'I do' somehow since soon after I was looking at the gold ring around my finger. Eglantine was smiling to me and never had I seen her eyes shine so brightly with joy. She turned to her father. "Will you deny me, now that you know where my heart leads me?" she asked defiantly. He shook the head. "I could never deny you. You are my only child." Soon after he left the room and I heard the last words he muttered under his breath: "This long sleep had traumatised her, my poor child! She's running to her doom..." Black winked at me and I knew she had heard also. Green laughed and murmured to me: "She loves you dearly, young man." "Because you gave her a loving heart," I retorted. "I did what I could to give you a little help. Giving her love for you since her first breath was too much; I don't think you would have liked that." "No," I breathed. "You're like our young sister. Lacking so much confidence in yourself!" She disappeared on those words, with a last gently ringing laugh, and the other fairies disappeared also. Eglantine smiled at me and I murmured: "Why did you marry me?" "Because I love you, Liam," she replied easily, but seriously. "Why?" "We are made for each other. The fairies made us this way." As I was frowning in perplexity, she added: "Clear-vision. I know the gifts they gave you." "Then you know I have everything to be a perfect wizard with a cold heart." "Because you're a man of decision and a strategist? True. But you are also a man of honour, thanks to Orange..." "I had forgotten..." I murmured. "They gave me gifts so I could walk your path." "Compassion, forgiveness and a loving heart," I said bitterly. "Clear-vision and art of the plants, so I can help you in your work." "And I would bind you forever to my shame and loneliness?" I asked indignantly. Light played on her wedding ring and I realised she was already bound to me. She grinned. "You better realise it quickly. The longer you'll take the harder the fall will be. I would hate to shock you each time I want to kiss you." She brushed her lips against mine and I started. She turned away and took hold of Ender and Dreadan's arm, who were both grinning at me. "You are staying with us, of course!" she exclaimed joyfully. "I can never thank you enough for what you did!" She looked at me with love filling her eyes. I glanced sideways at Gawain; she didn't even have a look for him. She was mine, fully mine, even more than she had been during her sleep and this time, she had chosen to come to me. I had won her believing I had lost her since the very beginning. Fairies could build miracles from a curse, I realised, puzzled, as my Eglantine was taking my hand - and this time I didn't start.

All texts © Azrael 2002.
Parure Deva Lake, by Moyra/Mystic PC. Copyright © 2000. All rights reserved.