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In the Land of Stories Old
Snow came down to breakfast late the next morning—although honestly breakfast had been late all the way around, because everyone had slept in—but before she could go into the dining room she was stopped by one of the older elves. “We brings you yous breakfast in the baths, Yous Majesty. We has it all ready for you.”
Snow blushed. “Oh, that’s…yes, I would like that, thank you.” She detoured back to the women’s bathing room, and found it pleasantly steamy and smelling of roses. Elana was already there, and Snow quickly got into her own tub and settled down into the water with a relieved sigh. “Oh, that’s…I needed that.”
“So did I,” Elana told her. “The triplets were…keyed up from all the dancing last night, and apparently because weddings were a big deal in Vinci. I was surprised I could even walk this morning, to be honest.” She raised an eyebrow. “So?”
Snow smiled dreamily at the ceiling. “It’s good to be married to a magician. It’s so good. I had no idea…” She sighed. “I’m pretty sure no one else has any idea either, or he’d never have made it away from the very first princess he rescued—she’d have locked him a tower with no pants and kept him there forever.”
Elana laughed. “Thank goodness no one else knows, then. He’s asleep?”
“For the next two days, by his estimate.” Snow trailed one hand languidly through the water, watching the rose petals drift along in its wake like dainty red boats. “Which is probably a good thing, because I think I need time to recover as much as he does.”
“The first time is always like that, but you’ll get used to it.” Elana picked up a teacup from the little table by her tub and sipped from it. “He’s young, so you’ll have plenty of opportunities to get used to it, believe me.”
“The triplets are only two years older than he is.”
“Exactly. Thank goodness I’m a quarter fairy.” The door to the bathing room opened and Serena came in. “And that’s the end of that conversation.”
Serena blushed, but she came the rest of the way in and claimed a tub of her own when Snow waved to her. “Oh, nice water. My feet are killing me. Who knew Arthur could dance like that?”
“You’d think anyone who’d ever been to a party on Avalon would have gossiped about it after, wouldn’t you?” Elana observed. “And I hope you still want to keep him, because I’m pretty sure his father is planning to have a conversation about how Avalonian betrothals work with your brother today.”
“Meaning King Uther’s just going to tell Jack he’s fine with Arthur marrying you if Jack is,” Snow explained. “And then Jack will lord it over Arthur because his father had to come to Jack to get permission for him to court you.”
Serena giggled. “And then I’ll turn into a wolf and chase them both around the castle until they stop. Full moon’s in four days.” She got more comfortable in the tub. “What’s Avalon like, do you know? Jack teases Arthur all the time about how uncivilized it is.”
“That’s just because Jack is from Fantastique, where being civilized means sleeping on silk and eating off gold and everyone critiques your fashion choices when you go out,” Elana said. “I’ve never been to Avalon, but I know the Queen of Fantastique and the King of Avalon don’t have a lot of use for each other. King Uther likes Jack just fine though, from what I’ve seen.”
“They all have a great deal of respect for King Uther,” Snow added, thanking the elf who popped in with tea and a small plate of warm pastries for her. “They used to go to Avalon pretty regularly for training when they were running around being the Fearless Seven, from what I understand. He wanted to make sure they weren’t getting into bad habits that could get them killed.” She sighed. “I’m pretty sure both he and Sir Bors mean to have words with Merlin when he wakes up. They kept exchanging these looks…”
“Because they’re his parents,” Elana reminded her. “Didn’t you see their faces last night when he released the guards? They’re just worried about him, Snow. Especially since he married into a kingdom that’s, to put it bluntly, running on magic and luck right now. The triplets said King Uther has already questioned everyone pretty thoroughly about whether it’s even safe for you and Merlin to stay here.”
Snow laughed. “I think it is, unless it’s the safety of the town’s women that he’s worried about. They look at Merlin like they want to devour him, and I just want to throw every single one of them off the pier. I think I’m going to turn into one of those jealous bitch-queens.”
Elana snorted and ate a pastry. “I don’t see a thing wrong with being a jealous bitch-queen when you’re married to a really pretty magician. Uther probably won’t either.”
In the dining room, Arthur was frowning at the empty chairs around the table. King White—well, Dowager King White, now—had mentioned the night before that he probably wouldn’t be down for breakfast, but…“Shouldn’t Serena be down by now?”
“Their ladyships are taking breakfast in the baths,” one of the elves piped up. “They are all sore from last night’s antics.”
Hans pushed Jack back into his chair. “He means the dancing, Jack,” he said tiredly. “At least where Serena is concerned, anyway. Arthur sat up for a time speaking to his father and Bors, she was asleep long before he went upstairs.”
Arthur glowered at Jack over his tea. “I wouldn’t have and you know it.”
“My baby sister is a beautiful young woman, and there was magic involved,” Jack pointed out, but he did relax again. “So much magic, once the dancing started. They will be talking about this in the town for months. And speaking of magic…Bramble, when will Merlin be up, do you think?”
“Two days, give or take,” the elf told him. “Rose is keeping an eye on him, she said he’s fine and he should be awake sometime tomorrow afternoon. Oh, and the Royal Bedchamber is just drenched in magic right now, so nobody except elves and the queen should go in there.” He raised an eyebrow at the triplets, who were snickering. “Yours is in a similar state.”
Everyone looked at the triplets, who did have the good grace to blush. “We are gentlemen, we will not speak of that,” Pino said primly. “But yes, it is, so do not go in there either.”
Hans leaned around Jack to stare at him. “Is that the reason there were silver squirrels cavorting in the halls this morning?”
“I caught them and took them back to the workshop,” Kio said with a careless wave of his hand. “But yes, it was.”
Noki didn’t say anything, just smirked into his tea, and Bors chuckled. “You boys.”
Kai had been somewhat sulking over his breakfast, and he abruptly blurted out, “I would like to court your sister, Prince Jack.”
Jack just kept eating. “Are you willing to meet me out in the courtyard after breakfast to make that request?” Kai rather obviously withdrew from that idea. “That is what I thought. Perhaps eating would serve you better than talking.”
Uther rolled his eyes, imagining all the ways he could kill his sister. “Apologies, Prince Jack. We shouldn’t have brought him.”
Jack shrugged. “He will not learn if he is not exposed to opportunities to do so,” he pointed out. “I do not mind providing an opportunity for such learning. Although today my feet are as sore as my sister’s, so perhaps tomorrow. Today I would be cranky and might accidentally kill him.”
Uther held back a laugh. He’d missed the boys. “It was quite a party last night. I do want to speak to you later about making my son’s unofficial arrangement with your sister more official.”
“It is already about as unofficially official as it can be,” Jack said. “She fell for him the moment they were introduced, and continued to like him even after getting to know him. I decided he would make an adequate husband.”
Arthur huffed and pointed at him with the sausage speared on his fork. “I am more than adequate, thank you very much.”
“Luckily she agrees with your assessment,” Jack told him. “But of course, King Uther, I would happily sit down to work out a betrothal contract with you. After breakfast? I will take you to my workshop so that we may be private.”
“Sounds good to me.” And Uther went back to applying himself to his breakfast, because the elves were every bit as good as Hans at cooking, and his son was already starting on seconds. He made a mental note to remind Arthur that if he was going to stick around the Black Castle for a while he probably needed to start training harder…
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