Once Upon a Faerie Tale

Chapter Five

Five:
The attack was rather unexpected for Cleo, despite the fact that she was looking for danger and finding it in every shadow and slight shift of underbrush. But she had wooed herself into thinking that there really wasn’t danger lurking in the forest, that she was just being silly. So when six hooded men materialized out of the shadows and surrounded them, it was a nightmare come true.
Cleo felt all the breath leave her body as she saw the wicked blades in the hands of the men. Her blood chilled and she felt a shot of pure energy, making her feel weightless. She had an urge to flee, to run as fast as she could to get away from these men. But there was nowhere to go. Eyes wide, breath short, she looked to Iseret for guidance. When there was ever a doubt Iseret always knew what to do.
But the look on Iseret’s face was just as terrified as the one she was sure was frozen on hers. “Bind their hands.” One of the hooded men said, his voice sounded strange, a little off. The words he spoke were the same, but they were pronounced with a slight lilt, almost like a melody. A harsh melody.
Two of the men came forward while the circle filled in their spots decreasing the remaining feet of freedom significantly. One of the men grabbed her arms and slid his hands down her arms, pulling them behind her back and looping a length of coarse rope around her wrists. Cleo breathed a sigh of relief when the man removed his hands from her arms. But they did not stay gone for long. The man who had spoken before made a motion with his hands and she was pulled off the trail and deeper into the forest. Iseret was led in the other direction.
After only ten minutes of walking the man holding her arm stopped her and indicated he wanted her to sit at the base of a tree. The man did not speak which added another layer of malice to his presence. “Don’t move.” He said when she was positioned against the tree. She had no intention of going anywhere as she was fully restrained and terrified out of her mind.
But as she sat, her arms began to get tired and shoulders sore. So she adjusted her arms, trying to find a more comfortable position and was surprised when one of her hands slipped out of the bonds. With one hand loose, the other came out just as easily. Though she was surprised at this turn of events, Cleo managed to cut through the fear that was fogging her brain. If she was free that meant that she had a better chance of escaping, she had a chance of getting back to the castle to alert someone that Iseret had been kidnapped. But she would have to sneak past the two men that had taken her in this direction.
With this discouraging thought creeping into her plans, Cleo chanced a glance over her knees to see the two men, their hoods pulled off their heads, eyes closed and their chests rising and falling evenly. Could they really be a sleep? She thought desperately. If they were, that would afford her the perfect opportunity to escape.
Not wanting to be caught escaping because the men weren’t actually asleep, Cleo shot her legs out in front of her, kicking up the underbrush that rustled with it. The men did not stir. With a sigh of relief, she lifted herself carefully to her feet, lifted up her skirt, and ran to a large tree in the general direction of where they had come from. Her breath was quick, her heart quicker, and her feet clumsy. When she reached the tree she flattened her back against it, trying to hide herself as much as possible from any one that might be in the forest with her that she didn’t know about.
Hearing no signs of life other than her breathing and the odd light feeling of her veins, Cleo turned again to head back along the path they had taken and find the trail that would lead back to the hole in the castle wall. A noise behind her, stopped Cleo in her tracks and she looked behind her to try to identify the noise. There was nothing there. Breathing a sigh of relief, she turned to start to run again, but found herself nose to chest with a very tall man in a black hood.
Fear gripped her heart and she could not imagine what would happen to her now. She knew that people were not very friendly to their slaves, especially slaves that ran away. She feared the possibilities of what this man would do to her. The only punishment she had ever had the truly frightened her was when she still belonged to Marbie. She had been fifteen and had spilled a large bottle of ink down the front of one of their customer’s dress. While the woman had been rather polite about it, Marbie had not been so forgiving.
For the rest of the day while she had been working, Cleo had dreaded when the shop would close and Marbie would have a chance to punish her. The memory of the harsh snaps of the cane would never leave her mind, and the welts remained on her back for weeks afterward. That had been a lesson learned, and Cleo was never punished so severely again.
“How far did you think you were going to get?” The man asked, grabbing her arm and pulling her with him, back the direction she had so desperately escaped from. Not quite sure if the man actually wanted an answer or not, Cleo kept her mouth shut. “Avery! Newbury!” The tall man yelled at the two men still sleeping soundly beneath the tree. They woke up immediately, their eyes wide when they saw their charge in the hands of their leader, her hands free.
In their haste to stand up, the two men made a rather clumsy pair, though neither were very graceful to begin with. “I left you with the simple task of watching one woman, a small one at that! And you can’t even keep track of her?” The tall man roared, his grip on her arm tightening as he yelled at them. It took all of Cleo’s will power to not cry out. Making noise when not directly spoken to was a horrible mistake for a slave.
“Sir, we thought she was secure, she’s really not that tough after all.” The shorter of the two men said. Cleo was still not certain which man was Avery and which was Newbury. “We thought we would just catch some sleep, seein’ as we went all through the night just to get here.”
The noise that seeped from the tall man’s mouth could only be described as a growl. It was terrifying, primitive, and got his message across. “We have no excuse, we should have been watching.” The other man said, looking slightly wary all the same.
The tall man nodded and then pulled Cleo’s arm and pushed her toward a log covered with underbrush, leaves, and moss. She quickly sat down and stared at her knees as it was the only polite thing to do. “What is your name?” The tall man asked, towering over her, his shadow blocking out a good portion of the light that had filtered through the canopy.
“Cleo, sir.” She said quietly, fighting fear and tears, still unsure as to what the motivations of these men were.
“You’ll have to speak up,” The tall man boomed. She cringed in fright. This man was not friendly and he certainly wasn’t going to show her any mercies.
Taking a deep breath, Cleo tried to think around the pounding of her heart through her head and said a little louder, “My name is Cleo…sir.” Her breath came quicker now, she fought to keep it from the tall man’s notice, but she was certain he had already seen it.
“Cleo, what is your connection to Princess Iseret?” He asked, his voice still menacing and loudly projecting throughout the forest.
She stopped thinking momentarily. She was shocked that this man knew who Iseret was. She had never considered that the man might actually know who they were and this changed things. What should she say? Would telling the man who she was endanger Iseret or herself?
***
Darby sat, wide eyed staring at her grandmother as she spoke of the situation. The idea was terrifying. “Grandma, I thought Andrew was going to be the night in shining armor. I thought he was going to rescue Cleo from slavery, but he just seems like a bully.”
Verona smiled and couldn’t help but think that her granddaughter was right. Andrew had been a bully, no one had liked him until circumstances forced him to be a better person. It had been interesting to see him change. “You’ll just have to wait and see what happens. I promise you’ll get what you want very soon. And I can assure you that you will get what you asked for when you first asked me to tell this story.”
The girl rolled her eyes. She understood all about tragedy, they had just finished reading Romeo and Juliet in school, supposedly the greatest tragic romance in history. She thought they were just stupid. She couldn’t imagine loving someone so much that she would kill herself if she thought they were dead. Why would anyone. “Promise?” Darby asked.
“I promise. Now listen to the story.”
“Fine.”
***
The tall man’s reaction when Cleo had told him that she was Iseret’s lady’s maid, as well as a slave owned by the kingdom had been unsettling. He had frowned and his face had twisted into an ugly mask of hatred. After glaring at her one last time he had commanded Avery and Newbury to retie her hands and bring her along.
That had been several hours ago. Now, she was perched on a horse in front of the man she assumed to be Avery. He had been the taller of the two who had been assigned to watch her but was much less harsh than his leader.
Although they did not speak, he had shown kindness in retying her hands in front of her, allowing her to assume a more comfortable position, as well as helping her adjust to the saddle of the horse. She had never ridden a horse before, and had only been in a carriage once, the day she had been brought to the castle away from the little castel that had been her home for many years.
But now, even as she sat in the uncomfortable saddle of this incredibly large animal, she began to feel herself fall into slumber.

Cleo came awake instantly when she heard the pounding of hooves getting closer and louder. She almost threw herself off the horse, startled that she was even on a horse. The sound got louder and louder and it took her a moment to distinguish where the sound was coming from.
When she saw the rider on the white horse she was so struck by the beauty of the man that she almost fell off the horse again. But the handsome man did not seem happy. “ANDREW! He bellowed pulling his horse to a stop in front of them, forcing Avery to stop abruptly.
The man on the large white horse waited for the man called Andrews to pass up the others in the line, while he was doing so, Cleo watched through her lashes as he examined her from head to foot. She saw him frown when he saw her wrists were bound and opened his mouth to say something when Andrew, the man who had terrified her so greatly in the forest, came forward.
“What is the meaning of this, brother?” The handsome man asked, his voice fierce, his brow furrowed.
Andrew smirked pressing his shoulders back to make himself look bigger. “I’ve brought back a prize to show father that the raids on the West Kingdom are beneficial.”
“A prize? You call kidnapping a poor strange woman from her home was a good thing for this kingdom? Andrew, we have enough on our plate with King Youpeng trying to extend his borders onto our lands. We don’t need a silly crisis on our hands with an even bigger problem in another direction!” The handsome man yelled, he did not seem to care if the other men heard what he said, or what Cleo heard.
But Andrew was not about to be beaten, “Kempton, I did not just bring you a woman, I brought you the king’s beloved daughter.”
Iseret! Cleo felt horrible for forgetting about her. She had been so preoccupied with her troubles that she never stopped to think about what had happened to her friend. “This is not his daughter you fool!” Kempton said, gesturing toward Cleo.
“I am not a fool! This is her lady’s maid, also her slave. No, Princess Iseret is back there, she gave us a bit of a run around, but she’s all ready to be dealt with properly.”
“And what do you intend to do with her?”
“Use her as a bargaining chip! Father can use her!”
“Father has never used people as tools. He taught us against such things. If you do recall! Or have you forgotten about the baron’s daughter, kidnapped right out of their home, probably sold into slavery, and yet you would kidnap and use another human to make your point?” Kempton had taken to gesturing wildly with his hands. “This is unacceptable. We will take them with us to the castle and then the princess will be returned to her people in the morning.” With that final command, Kempton the beautiful rode off angrily on his magnificent white horse.
***
“Kempton the beautiful?” Darby snorted. “Cleo didn’t actually call him that did she?”
“She did indeed. To her, he was the most beautiful man she had ever seen, that was how she described him to the women of the castle later after Iseret was taken back to her kingdom.” Verona said. “Cleo stayed in the castle for many months because she could not go back to the West Kingdom, otherwise she would have been put back into slavery.”
Darby cocked her head to the side, “So she was a guest at the castle…does that mean she fell in love with Kempton the beautiful?”
“It does. And he loved her just as much they planned to get married as soon as they settled a dispute with King Youpeng, who ruled Riada at the time.”
“What’s Riada?”
“Riada was one of the larger of the more minor kingdoms that were scattered around the East and West Kingdoms. Youpeng was a very evil man, but that story is for another time.” Verona said, standing up to get a glass of water she stretch her back and legs, remembering times when she was much more agile.
“Okay, go on with the story of Kempton and Cleo!” Darby said, jumping on the bed enthusiastically. The love stories were always her favorite.
“Well, it wasn’t just Kempton that fell in love with Cleo,” Verona said, taking another sip of water from the green glass. “Andrew also fell in love with her. Many of the women in the castle wondered if he fell in love with her simply because he couldn’t have her, or because his brother had her. No one ever really believed that he truly loved her otherwise.”
“How sad.”
“It was very sad. But he was young and didn’t really understand life as it needed to be. But, desperate to win her heart he went searching for any remnants of her life before slavery, and he found it.” The older woman smiled at the look of surprise on Darby’s face.
“He found her parents?” She asked excitedly.
“Not exactly. You see, Cleo’s mother was fragile, she had been her whole life, it was a miracle that she survived childbirth, but when her daughter was kidnapped, her heart couldn’t take it. Cleo’s father passed three or four years before she ever went to the castle. But she did have an older brother. Who was quite excited to see his sister. He had a wife and children of his own and to have his sister return home meant a great deal to him.
“But, one day, while he was staying at the castle, word came from a soldier who had been with several others at the border between the East Kingdom and Riada. They had all been killed except one, to deliver the message to the king that Youpeng wanted a battle for the land he had been trying to sneak away…”
***
“My lord!” A wear soldier cried out into the great hall upon seeing Kempton, “My lord, Youpeng’s army has taken the border. He wants a battle for the land.”
The young warrior nodded and called his right hand man to ready the soldiers, for they would make for battle and defend their borders. When the man left, Kempton looked to the woman he loved who had blossomed over the past year. “Cleo, my love, when I return, we shall be married.”
Cleo could not help but feel fear rising up in her heart. “Come back to me.” She said, tears welling up in her eyes. It was not the first time she had seem him leave, but this time it felt, different.
“I promise.” He said. He touched her cheek tenderly and left out the doors.
Cleo stood there for several moments, ringing her hands until she suddenly had a desperate need to see him leave. She ran up the stairs, desperate to make it to the south facing tower to watch Kempton go. She made it in time to see the horsemen gather and leave in a grand display. She stood at the window, watching them until the last horse and rider faded from her view.
For the next several days, Cleo would stand at the window, watching for her lover to return, waiting for the pounding of hooves on the bridge.
Nearly ten days after she watched Kempton leave for battle she saw the men return. Fewer than previous, but all she cared for was to see the man she loved. Desperate she gathered up her skirts and ran as quickly down the stairs as she could, slipping on the stone steps, but catching herself in time. She ran past her brother, not even giving him a look of notice.
Her brother followed her, ready to catch her if she happened to fall down the steep steps. Out the door Cleo ran and to the gate she stood, eyes wide, excitement flaring in her stomach, and her heart light with the knowledge that her lover would come home. But with each passing horseman, she grew more and more anxious until the last horse came through, a large white stallion, carrying two riders.
One was slumped over, his head jostling and jolting with each step the horse made, his face bloodied and bruised. A large bandage stained with blood covered his belly, Cleo recognized him immediately. “No!” She cried as she saw the lifeless body of Kempton. “No!” She yelled again and ran to the riders.
“He’s still alive, but he needs medical attention,” The desperate soldier said to her brother who was right behind her. Her brother gathered her lover in his arms and brought him into the castle.
They would not let Cleo see him for the first day after he had arrived back.
On the second she was allowed into his room. The man she loved lay sweating and feverish on the bed she had one day hoped they would share. “Kempton,” she said as she took his large hand in one of hers, “Kempton, please, you promised you would come back to me. Please.”
She sat there crying into his hand for several minutes before his eyes flickered. “Cleo.” He said weakly, smiling when she brought her tear streaked face closer to his. “I love you…” He said before falling back asleep.
On the third day, he died.
***
Darby was in tears as she heard of the great hero’s death. “He died?” She asked incredulously. “He just died!?”
Verona smiled sympathetically, it had been a tragic time for everyone who had known Kempton. “Yes, he died.” She said simply. “Andrew took his place as the heir to the throne of the East Kingdom, he even asked Cleo to marry him, so that he could offer her the same protection that his brother would have given him, but she refused, for she could only love one man as much as she loved Kempton.
“She left the castle and went with her brother to be with his family for a time before one day she decided that she needed a change and she left and never returned. To this day, no one knows where she went.”
Darby sight mournfully, “That’s just so sad! What a horrible way to end a story!” She said emphatically.
Verona laughed, “You wanted a story with an ending that wasn’t quite so ‘happily ever after’ and I gave it to you.”
“But why did it have to end so tragically?”
“Because life doesn’t always end the way we want it to sweetheart.”

Okay guys! I hope you enjoyed the story of Cleo! It was honestly very difficult for me to end it that way, but that's how it had to end. But don't worry! The tale isn't over yet! There's still more from Darby and Verona and I've got some more things planned! PLEASE COMMENT AND LIKE! It honestly is what gives me the motivation to keep writing. If you guys show me that you're reading it helps me to write a better story if I know people are actually going to read it! Thanks! I love you all so much! ♥Meradee