A Week with a Prince

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕿𝖍𝖎𝖗𝖙𝖞

"Garreth, I... I have the Excalibur, I don't have to marry your Prince Arthur! Take me home, I need to talk to my father. I'm going to marry Sir Lancelot of the Lake, or no one at all!"

Ginny's words echoed off the white walls of the ruin of Tintagel, before they drowned in the murmur of the distant sea, getting louder now when the restless, hungry waters swallowed the sun, and the twilight flooded the world with deep, cool shadows.

Letting go of her, Garreth ran his hand through his ginger curls, nearly as long as the prince's. They could be brothers, the princess mused, puzzled by her cousin's seriousness.

"Garreth, don't you understand? If you love Prince Arthur, and he loves you... you can... I'm not going to marry him, never! I have the Sword..."

She moved her hand holding the Sword towards him, looking at the strangely shaped, unusually dark blade incredulously. The gemstones set in the silvery hilt glimmered dimly in the faint light, as if they were pulsating with life. It made her shiver, she could almost feel their heat, the magic of the Excalibur seeping into her... How... Why did it choose her? But it didn't matter; it was hers now. She wished she had paid more attention to Myrddin's tales before, she had no idea what the Sword was supposed to do exactly...

"You may well have the Sword, Ginny," Garreth said finally. "But... what now? According to the legend, all the kings, princes, dukes and chieftains of our isles should accept the man who pulls Excalibur from the stone as their High King, follow him into war and drive the Saxons from our shores under his banner, once and forever. But... how is that to come about, I don't know. You are a girl, not a warrior. You can't just appear on a battlefield, brandishing a sword. I don't know either if this Sword will suffice to persuade your father to cancel the wedding, and let you marry some knight instead of a prince, his faithful friend's son, none the lesser."

Ginny shook her head, not wanting to accept his words. They sounded painfully true to her ears. "Take me home, Garreth. I need to talk to my father," she said finally.

She looked through the crumbling arch one more time, searching for the spot where the dragons had melted into the deepening blueness of the sky, her eyes welling up with tears. Her knight had only just left, and she missed him already... The princess wrapped her arms around her body for an illusion of comfort, which his arms had always given to her. Holding the Sword pressed tight to her side, she followed Garreth out of the castle and down the rocky path.

There was just enough light left when they reached the end of the trail to move the six horses to a more hidden spot at the foot of the hill, unload them for the night and pitch their tent. Refusing to eat anything, Ginny fell asleep wrapped in Arthur's blanket, with the Sword, and the pink wild rose she found in her hair, lying next to her.

The moment they were ready to leave in the morning-- Ginny, seated on her knight's black horse, the Excalibur and the wilted rose concealed in the midnight blue blanket tied to her saddle-- Garreth closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. And, even as he released his breath again, thick fog rose from the moors surrounding the causeway.

"So it was you," Ginny said, smiling at him as they rode into the fog, careful not to stray from the safe path.

He shook his head as he replied, "Not entirely. Say, I learned along the way, observing the peregrine falcon. It was him at the beginning."

Ginny looked around in search of the strange bird she had quite forgotten about-- she had not seen it since the previous morning in Aquae Sulis.

"He's not here..." Garreth said when he noticed. "Whoever it was, he must have followed the men to Celidon Wood."

"Where is it?" Ginny breathed, her voice trembling with desire to speak about her knight, or at least the place he had gone to.

"Far north, in Prince Arthur's Caledonia. It is a great forest growing along the banks of the river Tweed, not too distant from King Uther's castle in the town of Dùn Èideann..."

Ginny let Garreth's words lull her into a sort of a wakeful slumber as they rode through the mists, saying nothing, allowing her thoughts to take her where they would. She was quite surprised when suddenly the fog dissipated and the bright walls of her father's castle lay in front of them, gilded by the light of the setting sun.

"I don't want to be here... " she muttered unhappily as the sight brought her back to reality, but she let Garreth help her off her horse anyway. She was too tired to put up a proper fight.

"I must leave you here. I don't know what will happen now," he said, looking at the Sword hidden within the blanket. "Just promise me that you'll be careful." He pulled her in a quick embrace, then walked to his horse again.

"Where are you going, are you not staying with me?!"

He shook his head. "The prince offered me to join the Knights of his Company. I'll go home now, I need to speak to Mother. And then... I'll join the men in Celidon Wood."

"Take me with you," she looked at him pleadingly, but he only smiled, shaking his head again.

"Sir Lancelot told me to take you to safety. He would never forgive me if I took you into a battle. You are to wait for him, remember?" His eyes bore into hers as he added, "Please Ginny, promise..."

"I'll keep my horse, and his. You take all the others with you to Warwick," she said simply.

"Take care, Cousin," Garreth said, tying the three horses to his saddle, mounting his steed again and leaving, growing smaller, his figure getting blurred as her eyes filled with tears, then vanishing in the darkening forest.

"You, too," she mumbled to no one, then led the other two horses into the courtyard.

No one took interest in her, dressed as a travelling man as she was, until she took her hat off and sent a valet for her nurse. The man gasped, his eyes widening with recognition even as he ran inside, tripping over his feet.

Her old Arwen nearly fainted with shock when she saw her. The poor nurse summoned a small army of maids to help her take care of the princess, while Ginny issued orders for her two horses to be looked after, and the saddlebags brought to her chambers.

"Calm down, Arwen, it's nothing, just a little dirt from the roads," Ginny muttered unhappily as the maids peeled her travelling clothes off her, feeling sorry for her old nurse. Even though she had looked like this often enough when staying with Aunt Ealasaid, she had never before arrived home in such a condition.

So she obliged patiently when Arwen and her battalion of helping hands forced her into a bathtub, scrubbed her pale skin into a shining pinkness, unbraided her hair and washed it, once, twice... telling her off for having cut her fringe every time their eyes fell on it.

Only once that Ginny was out of the bath, dried and dressed in one of her best gowns, her hair brush out so well that it shone like the Excalibur's otherworldly blade, and she obediently swallowed a cup full of wine, she resolved to ask, "Would you tell my father that I need to talk to him, Arwen?"