“We know,” said Celeste. “Oh, not that you had been restored, but rather that it had been some twelve years since the wind carried the vale away.-Here, have another glass of wine.”
“Well things are a proper mess in Riverbend,” said the youth to Celeste’s receptive ear. “People thought dead, their homes and lands occupied by others, businesses taken over, wealth given to heirs, and the like. I mean, the duke’s got a tangle to unsnarl, and a proper one at that.” Phillip gulped down the wine.
Borel said, “Ma cherie, we will ride out and soon, for I would ask your sire for your hand, and he must needs give you away at our wedding, wherever we hold it.”
“Winterwood Manor,” said Chelle. She looked at the moon on the rise and said, “And in the light of a full moon, for it has been our touchstone.”
Chelle turned to Phillip, “You will rest a day or two, and then, with fresh horses, I would have you ride in haste back to Roulan Vale, and tell my sire we are on the way.”
“Oui, my lady,” said Phillip, and then he put his hand to his head. “Woo, but I am dizzy.”
“Lack of food, no doubt,” said Celeste. “Come, let us get some good beef and bread into you.”
As Celeste led Phillip away, Chelle and Borel kissed deeply, and that night they danced in the light of the full moon for many long hours before finally going to bed.
Four days later, after Borel and Chelle and the full of Borel’s cavalcade made ready to ride away to Lord Roulan’s manse, with hugs and kisses they said good-bye to Alain and Camille and Liaze and Celeste. Then they stepped to Valeray and Saissa, and Borel said, “Father, Michelle and I are to be married, and I am notifying you not only as a king, but as a father as well. And we would like your blessing, and yours, too, Mother.”
“Post the banns,” said Valeray, grinning widely.
And Saissa embraced and kissed Chelle and said, “I could not ask for a better daughter. And thank you, my dear, for stringing the bow you should not have been able to string; and for drawing the arrow to the full of your pull, a pull you should not have been able to draw; and for loosing the shaft upon an unwoundable thing and wounding it severely… and for saving the life of my son.”
“But it was Buzzer who-”
“Pish, tush, Michelle, for had you not done those things the Demon would not have dropped its terrible black sword and would have used it to slay Borel the moment he got to his feet.” Again Saissa hugged and kissed Chelle, and then gave her over to Valeray.
And Valeray embraced her and said, “I welcome you to the family, Sleeping Beauty, you who were ensorcelled by a magic spindle and trapped within a vast tangle of thorns and awakened by a kiss from a prince. I think such a tale will become a legend someday, and I can only hope whoever tells it gets it right.”
Chelle laughed and kissed Valeray on the cheek, and then she and Borel mounted their steeds, and both slipped cocked hats on their heads; Flic and Fleurette came to land, one upon each. Buzzer flew up and ’round and took a sighting on the sun and shot off on a line. And with an entire rade following, and with a pack of Wolves ranging fore and aflank and aft, Prince Borel and Lady Michelle set out for the vale where grow pink-flowering shamrock and blushing white roses and thorn-laden blackberry vines.
Epilogue
And thus ends this part of the tale that began but three moons and seven-and-one days past, when Prince Borel of the Winterwood fell asleep and dreamt a dream-a special dream, a shared dream-upon a summer day.
In this dream he met a beautiful demoiselle with a shadowy band across her eyes. Of course, when he finally found her, there was no spellbound darkness masking, for he was seeing her in reality and not in a dream.
Perhaps the others caught in the thrall also dreamed; they were, after all, ensnared in the very same magie. Yet if they did, it appears they did not jointly dream with anyone outside the bounds of Roulan Vale there in the Endless Sands.
Only Chelle seems to have managed that, and then only with her truelove Borel. You might find that strange, but it is the way of enchanted sleep.
Neither awake nor in a dark dream
Are perilous blades just as they seem.