TEN

 

"Good morrow, cousin."

Romein recognised Isaak's cheerful voice, but he did not let up. Parry, thrust, and parry again...if he was a better swordsman, perhaps she would reconsider, look upon him kindly, instead of...

"How goes your suit with Rosaline?"

Romein growled, and overreached. Mercutio stumbled back to avoid Romein's sword and landed flat on his back, with a sword at his throat.

Until a blade crossed his, and he was forced to contend with Isaak instead.

"I asked you how you fared with Rosaline," Isaak repeated.

"Out of her favour, where I am in love," Romein said, lunging at Isaak.

Isaak was the better fighter, and he had not Romein's lame leg to contend with, so he danced back, sword at the ready, with a grin still on his face. "Alas, that love, which I had thought so gentle, should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!"

"He would not be so rough with Princess Rosaline!" Mercutio said, clambering to his feet. He winced, for several of Romein's blows would likely bruise on the morrow.

"But Princess Rosaline will not have him, for she has her heart set on a political marriage, where she will be a queen like her mother. One such as she will never marry some country lord, whose first love is waterwheels, with which he means to save his country!" Isaak's grin never wavered. "You should forget her, cousin, and go home as you planned. You have learned much from the Queen and from Master Zimmerman. You must now take your knowledge home, and use it to save your people from the floods, as the Queen intended. Meanwhile, Rosaline will likely be married off to some old man who needs heirs, and when she is done labouring for him, she will hear tidings of your triumph, and regret the poor choice she made today. Because you, the hero of your people, will have your choice of ladies falling at your feet."

Romein dropped his guard, holding his free hand up in surrender. "I might save my people from the floods, but if you think I can love another as deeply as I have loved Rosaline, you are mistaken. She is one woman my heart can never forget."

Isaak sheathed his sword. "Ah, but we are both about to set out on impossible quests. You mean to save your people, a far harder task than winning one woman's heart, if it belonged to anyone but flint-hearted Rosaline, and I am supposed to find and save the Queen's eldest daughter, before my family's curse claims me, as it has all my predecessors. Yet you do not waver. I believe you truly will save your people, and I...the Queen is certain that I will save her daughter, though we both know I am no match for the formidable witch who stole her as a baby." He shook his head. "You speak of impossible quests, and yet..."

Romein sighed. Isaak's story was a pitiful one, with little chance of happiness before its end. "Forgive me, cousin. You are right, of course. The Queen has given me a task that may take a lifetime, but at least I know I shall have that. If you carry your father's curse, you will die young, like all the Rumpelstiltskin men. I pray that you may have your miracle, and that you shall find this girl, who your father believed could break the curse, so that you may live a long and happy life at your family estates, which the Queen will return to you after you find her lost princess. Perhaps one day I shall look forward to a visit from you, so that you can show your new bride my miraculous waterwheels, for surely the princess cannot help but fall in love with the man who saves her from the witch..."

Isaak's smile was sad now. "If that is so, then we will both have our miracles. I will introduce my bride to yours, as you show me the lands you have saved. Do we have an accord?"

Romein shook Isaak's hand, not wanting to let go, for he knew this might be the last time he saw his cousin. The Rumpelstiltskin curse had claimed every man in his line but him, and he had precious little time left before it would take him, too.

"Farewell, and may God go with you. For without Rosaline, I travel alone," Romein said.

"But not, I think, for long," Isaak said.

Romein could only shake his head. He could walk the world thrice over, and never find Rosaline's equal. But let Isaak believe what airy fantasies he would, for he had a far darker path to tread.