Never After

Elinore shook her head, and finally forced herself to move her hand from her mouth. She tried to stand like a lady, and not a frightened child.



"I am a sphinx, and my kind loves to ask riddles and questions. I will ask you three questions, and if you fail to answer correctly, I will kill you."



Elinore's voice came out, breathy and afraid, but she could not help it. "Your nephew, the ogre, said you would eat me alive. Is that true?"



The sphinx smiled, and though a lady's mouth did the smiling, it was the smile a cat would have, if it could. Elinore knew the answer, and it was not good.



"I am part cat, and we like our meat fresh."



Elinore nodded again. "Ask your question, and when I fail, I would ask only that you kill me before you start eating me. Surely, I will be freshly dead, and that is fresh enough. I ask this one thing, dear sphinx."



"I am not your dear anything, girl, but I will think upon your request." She sat back on her curved haunches, so that her human upper body was very visible. "Here is my first question to you. Get it wrong, and I will kill you. Answer correctly, and you will have two more chances to die."



"Or to live," Elinore said, in a voice that sounded squeaky as a mouse, even to her.



The sphinx laughed, head back, face sparkling with joy. "Only two in fifty years have gotten past me, and I do not think it will be three before the calendar doth turn again."



Elinore nodded. "You are quite right. I am not bright enough to answer questions from such as you. But ask, sphinx; ask and let me die."



The sphinx turned her head to one side, the way a cat will when it's trying to judge a thing. "I thought you were here to rescue Prince True and become queen of all."



"That is supposed to be the goal, yes, but in all honesty, I came to die, rather than marry the Earl of Chillswoth. If I commit suicide, then my family is disgraced, but if I die trying to rescue the prince, then I am dead, and my family can go on."



"Is the earl such an odious man?"



"Yes, I believe he is, or I would not be here."



The sphinx looked at her. "What is your name?"



"I am called Elinore the Younger."



"Who is the elder?"



"My grandmother."



"Does she yet live?"



"No."



"Ah, then they will soon need another Elinore." The sphinx began to pace around her. She tried to hold still, but finally began to turn to keep the monster in sight. She could not fight it off, but at least she could see it coming. It was the best she could think to do.



"What was used to make the dye of your cloak, Elinore the Soon to be Dead?"



Elinore frowned at her. This couldn't be the first question, because it was too easy. Was it a trap? "Is this the first question?"



"Yes, unless you want a different one."



"No, this is a lovely question. Yarrow. Yarrow made the dye."



"Hmm," said the sphinx, gliding around and around her. "The ingredients for gingerbread, what are they?"



Gingerbread was a rare treat, very expensive, but Elinore's family had money enough for such luxuries. "Butter and sugar, spices and flour, eggs and molasses and milk."



"Did you supervise the baking at your home?"



"No, I would never dream of supervising our head cook; she would not tolerate it, not from me."



"Then how did you learn to make such a delicacy?"



"She allowed me to make it last Winter's Moon." Elinore almost reached out and touched the sphinx, then dropped her hand. "You must not tell Mother, for Cook would get in trouble for risking such expensive ingredients with me, but Cook says I have a good hand and eye for the kitchen."



"Indeed," said the sphinx. She looked Elinore up and down, and then said, "Let me see your shoes."



Elinore did as she was asked, because she was certain that now there would be some question of history or mathematics that would be too hard to answer, though she could not fathom what her slippers had to do with mathematics.



She raised her party dress and showed her dancing slippers with their jeweled embroidery. "Did you think dancing slippers were the thing to wear to fight monsters?" the sphinx asked.



Elinore hesitated, and then said, "No, ma'am, I did not."



"Then why did you wear them?"



Elinore almost pointed out that wasn't that a fourth question, but it seemed impolite to say that to someone who could gut you and eat you alive.



"I had to leave as soon as I announced I would rescue Prince True. If I had waited, even to change my slippers, my father would have found a way to detain me. Also, in truth, I wanted to be pretty when I died, so they would sing of it."



"Is it better to be pretty or brave, Elinore the Younger?"



A fifth question. Should she point it out, that she'd answered four already? "It is better to be brave, but since I am not, I thought I would be pretty for the bards and musicians, and jeweled slippers are prettier than muck boots."



"You own a pair of muck boots?" the sphinx asked.



"Well, yes; you can't wear dancing slippers to gather herbs and things for dyes. Also, how do you know the kitchen boy is giving you the best vegetables unless you go out into the fields for yourself?"



"Do you garden, then?"



Finally, Elinore braved the question, "That is the sixth question you've asked me, ma'am. Have I passed your test?"



The sphinx waved a careless hand. "Yes, yes, you pass. Go through the door by the fireplace and you have but one more task to complete."



"Only one more?" Elinore asked.



The sphinx nodded.



"Then I will live?"



"We shall see."



"I never really expected to succeed."



"Perhaps that is why you are doing so well." The sphinx walked back into the shadows and vanished.



Elinore was left with another door, and another challenge, and no hint what lay ahead, but she had survived, and only one more task lay before her. She might actually rescue Prince True. All the stories made him out to be a womanizing bounder, and a scoundrel. Had Elinore run from one bad marriage into another? They never tell you in fairy tales that sometimes the prize may not be worth the effort. But she went for the last door, because what else could she do?>



It was a throne room, bigger than the king's room. The throne at the end of that long walk gleamed silver, and was studded with pearls and soft, gleaming jewels. A beautiful woman sat in the chair. Her long yellow hair lay in heavy, straight folds, like a second cloak to decorate the black dress she wore. The underdress was silver thread, and as Elinore got closer, she saw embroidery at the sleeves and collar. The bright colors contrasted with the silver and black starkness of the rest of the dress.



She kept expecting there to be guards, or servants, or someone, but the woman sat alone on the throne. This had to be the sorceress, didn't it?



When she was almost touching the steps that led upward to the throne, Elinore dropped a curtsy as low as any she'd given at the courts of the king.



"You may rise," the woman said in a deep, pleasant voice, as if she would sing low, but well.



Elinore stood, hands clasped in front of her. "Are you the sorceress?"



"I am she."



"I have come to rescue Prince True."



"Why?" the sorceress asked.



Elinore frowned at her, and then answered truthfully. She told of her father trying to marry her to the earl, and her decision.



"So, in truth, Elinore the Younger, you do not wish to rescue the prince at all. You merely wish to die in such a way as to free yourself from the earl, and not disgrace your family."



"That is true, but I have come so far through all your challenges, it has made me wonder if perhaps I might live, after all."



"So you do wish to try to rescue the prince?



"If that is the only way to free myself, yes."



"I will give you three choices, Elinore. I can offer you a quick and painless death. Does that please you?"



"You said there were three choices. I would like to hear the other two, if it's all right. A quick and painless death is not a bad choice, especially since at one point today I thought I would be eaten alive, but I would like to know my options, please."



"You are most polite, child."



"My mother would be pleased that you say so." The sorceress smiled, a small smile, and then continued. "The second choice is to show you a secret way out of my lair. You may go forth and never see your father or the earl again. You can make your way in the world, Elinore."



"I suppose I could do that, but I have never been out in the world. I'm not certain I would know how to make my way. What is the third choice?"



"That you try to rescue the prince."



"What happens if I fail?"



The sorceress clapped her hands, and two young women walked out, one from each side of the room. There must have been doors there that Elinore couldn't see, or was it the same kind of magic that had made the sphinx able to vanish and appear?



The women took up their posts on either side of the throne. One held a bowl of fruit, the other a jug of wine, and a goblet. The sorceress took the wine but did not touch the fruit.



"This is Princess Meriwether" - she pointed at the tall one with wavy brown hair - "and this is the Baroness Vanessa," she said of the raven-haired one.



Elinore gaped at them. "The Princess Meriwether and the Vanessa from the songs?"



"The very same," the sorceress said.



"The songs say they died valiantly."



"No. They failed to save Prince True, and as punishment they have served me these long years."



"So if I fail, then I will become your servant?"



"Yes."



Elinore thought about her options, and then asked, "Could I meet the prince before I decide?"



The sorceress smiled, and waved the two failed rescuers to posts at either side of her throne. "That is a wise question, Elinore. You wish to see if he is worth the risk, eh?"



Elinore nodded. "I do."



The sorceress drew a silver chain out of her bosom. There was a silver whistle on the chain. She blew it, one clear, birdlike note.



A man walked out of the wall just behind the throne. Were there no normal doors in this room or were they all bewitched so that Elinore could not see them?



The prince, for he still looked like his portrait in the great hall at court, knelt before the throne. "My mistress calls and I must answer."



"You have another rescuer, but she wished to see you first."



The prince looked over his shoulder, still kneeling, but definitely looking at Elinore. His brown hair was cut short, but still had tiny curls in it. His eyes were a blue as deep as her own. The brows that curved above those eyes were graceful and a little darker than his hair. He was pale of skin, though in the portrait he was tanned. But then, he had not been outside of this place for more than fifty years. He had grown pale in his long years of captivity. But beyond that, he looked as if he had just ridden through the doors. As with the two women who had come and failed, they had not aged a day.



"Stand up; let her see you better."



The prince came to his feet and faced Elinore. His face was arrogant, defiant, and almost angry.



Normally, she would have lowered her eyes from such a stare, but this was too important to look away. She studied his face, and found him handsome enough, and his spirit was not broken. So many years, yet he still stared out like that. This was a strong man, not just of arm, but of character, as her grandmother had said.



"May I ask the prince a question?"



"You may, though whether he will answer is another question."



"Your highness, are you worth the risk of my freedom, and maybe my life?"



The arrogance faltered, and she watched him have a thought. She wasn't sure what that thought was, but she saw it. "In all these long years no one has asked that. If you win my freedom, then you will be my wife, and queen of all. Isn't that worth risking your freedom?"



"Your brother has been king for over twenty years, longer than I have been alive. Do you truly think he will simply give up his throne to you and your queen, just like that?"



"Of course he will. I am the heir to the throne. I am his older brother."



"Prince True, your younger brother is as old as your father was when you vanished. He has two sons and two daughters of his own now."



"I am the heir, and our laws will force him to give up the throne to me."