Sleeping Beauty

Chapter 24

It was long into the afternoon when they arrived.  Their army had travelled across the kingdom to find the open plain in front of them.  Maria looked down from the hill top and imagined what emotions would run through her head once Elijah and Bernard arrived.  She thought that maybe she would be scared for her life, though that seemed pointless.  Perhaps she would be happy to know her plan had worked, or maybe even angry that she had to see them again.  What she did not expect to feel all of them.

She feared not only for her own life but the lives of her brothers and her people.  She was happy that no matter how this ended Phillip was free of his family’s cell but angry as Elijah looked up at her with contempt and loathing.

Elijah had most definitely not expected the Princess to be there; in fact he considered her presence an insult.  The fact that they would let her come but to be in the position of a leader, a woman with power, it made him feel sick.

“What is she doing here?”  He yelled to his father.

“It seems she thought it would be novel to play general for the day.”  He joked.

“This is ridiculous; you cannot have a woman leading your army.”  He bellowed as he watched her with interest.

She beckoned one of the foot soldiers behind her to come forward.  They were far away but he could just make out a long thin object in the right hand of the soldier as well as a bow in the other.  He passed both items to the Princess and Elijah stared intently as she loaded the bow which what he now suspected as an arrow.  She then raised the bow and took aim, all the men in his army panicking as they watched her impassive expression.  He told them to calm but inside he was just as fearful, he had seen her handle a sword and if she was as well trained as he believed then that arrow was just moments away from piercing someone’s heart.

However it was not the intention of the Princess to kill with the arrow, only to strike fear into his heart.  She released the arrow and watched as it sailed to Elijah’s feet, making his horse whinny and shake with fear.  He ordered his own solider to fetch the arrow, noticing a piece of parchment attached to it.  Snatching it from his hands, Elijah opened up the note to reveal a message from Maria.

I always promised to slit your throat.

A shiver involuntarily ran down his spine.  Her threat echoed through his mind and part of him began to regret his actions though his ego soon put a stop to any form of fear.  He gazed into her eyes as she began to raise her hand, readying her soldiers to charge and before he could do the same he noticed something change in her.  The coldness in her eyes melted away and they became filled with tears of joy.

Allowing himself to break away from her gaze, he turned to see a horse racing out into the open from the edge of the woodland.  Phillip galloped into the middle of what should have been their battle ground.

He couldn’t believe his eyes.  His brother was there in front of him, sitting on the back of a horse, blocking his path to Maria.  Rage began to fill him again as he watched Phillip dismount his horse and refused to move. 

“What in god’s name is happening?  You should be dead.”  Elijah screamed at the top of his lungs.

“Believe it or not Elijah but today is not going to be about you or I.  I am here for Maria, the woman I love on her birthday.”  Phillip called back.  “A woman who has made a reckless mistake to save me” he added as he turned to gaze at her on top of the hill.

“Maria you are my everything, the week we have spent apart has been more than I could handle.  The only reason for not giving up was because I knew you were safe, that you were locked away in your castle away from Elijah.  My only wish is that we could have prevented this in the first place.”  Phillip declared as he watched her astonished expression.