Part Eighteen
 
 

Three weeks had passed since the adventure with the young man and the monster.  Princess Sara learnt form her overhead messengers, the birds, that the youth had indeed been acclaimed as King, had recovered well from his wounds and was now betrothed to the lady originally intended as the monster's next victim.  She was happy to hear this.

For some time, now,  she had entertained doubts concerning her own role in the affair, letting him suffer so much hurt when she could easily have used the fairy ring to disable the ogre at once. The Princess had certainly experienced rather more than  a frisson of pleasure at the sight of the barave young man shedding so much blood, experiencing such pain and yet bravely refusing to submit.

It had always been the same with her.  Once, two young men had jousted to secure her favours and she had watched, fascinated by the sight of the  blood they had both shed and the horrible injuries they had inflicted one on the other. After the tournament, she had presented the weary, and half dead,  victor with a richly embroidered silk handkerchief, which he had promised to treasure for ever.  She had given him nothing else!  "All muscle and no brain - typical of his kind!" had been her sardonically dismissive comment to her dear companion Martha as they had left the scene of carnage together.

She certainly would not be so contemptuous about the new King, whose name she still did not know. He was not only brave, strong and marvellously handsome, but,  more importantly, he was a man of character and intelligence.  Yes!  She should assuredly have come to his aid earlier, and felt increasing shame that she had not.  She offered a petition to the Fairy expressing her willingness, her eagerness,  to make amends and perform some act of penance.

That night, as she prepared to rest, she felt that the air against her skin was very much colder than recently.  The path had been rising upwards for the whole day, as they crossed a range of high hills, and the height of summer was still some weeks off.  She rubbed her ring, expecting the two dogs to appear.  Instead, the familiar apparition of the Fairy began to take shape.  When she finally assumed solid form, she spoke,  after firstly and for some seconds,  looking sternly at the cold and shivering Princess as she lay on the ground.

"You were indeed most remiss in letting that poor, brave young man suffer so grievously at the hands of the ogre!  You were right to let him fight until exhausted and also to allow him to suffer some hurt, as his pride would have suffered had his efforts been been overshadowed by a woman's help.   You were very wrong to sit back and take pleasure in his pain as you did.  For that you will be punished.

This is the penalty you must pay! The power of the ring has been withdrawn from you for a certain time and you will not have its protection against harm until it is restored.  I hope you endure the trials of the next few days with the same fortitude as the young and  valiant King Alfonso did his."

"I accept your decision and I heartily and gratefully welcome it" said Princess Sara.  "The burden of guilt has been utterly insupportable these last days.  Any price is worth paying to have that burden lifted.  A cold night or two will be no hardship."

"You will have more than a few shivers to endure, Your Serene Highness.  Much more!"

And with these ominous words, the fairy dematerialised.

The by now seriously chilled Princess resigned herself to a night of discomfort, lying back on the ground, stretched out,  with her hands behind her head, looking up at the stars.  It was the first time for many long months that she had inspected so closely  the array of glittering and twinkling constellations up above.  She wondered  in childlike amazement at all the  mysteries that must be  hidden amongst those inscrutable multitudinous,  silent specks of light.  What an immensity of dramas, each far more thrilling than her own puny earthbound adventures, must be being enacted in those distant reaches of interstellar space, even as she lay there and shivered through the terrestrial night.

 Gradually, the temperatures dropped lower and lower, until frost began to form on the grass and even on her body hair.  Still she lay in wonder, her eyes lost in contemplation of the  marvels and mysteries above, utterly oblivious now to the cold.  By degrees, after  her long hours of cold contemplation of the infinity above her,  the eastern sky lightened and the sun majestically rose, extinguishing, one by one,  the lights of the sidereal host.  She rose stiffly to her feet, having neither had nor desired to have,  a  second's sleep all night.  She prepared the horse for the next day's journey.

Her Serene Highness had stoically endured a night, the most of goodness knew how many, without warmth or sleep.  What would the coming day bring?  The Princess knew full well that the challenges would be severe - knowing what she did, by this time, of  Fairy justice.  Nevertheless,  she faced them entirely without fear.

 This battle hardened young woman had passed through too much by this time for anything other than the most stupendous and horrific of ordeals to worry her.  A slender and fragile girl she might be, but she was descended from a race of warrior kings and,  though her effeminate father might have represented something of a divergence from this martial tradition,  the fiery red blood of a long and glorious line of heroic ancestors flowed vigorously through her veins.

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Three more nights followed, during which she was not able to call on the assistance of the warming soft comfort of the faithful white dogs.  After the icy penetrating cold of that night, the first of her punishment, and an incredible experience of sublime mental and spiritual elevation,  spent lying under the stars,  she passed from the high upland country back to the hot plains.

The proud Princess  no longer felt the need of any other-worldly aid.  "Who needs help  to live as I do, naked and homeless?", she asked herself repeatedly. "Not I, the Princess Sara!  I am no ordinary silly girl who screams at the sight of  spiders,  frightened,  even of her own shadow, screaming and sobbing at the slightest hurt!

"If it were not for my darling Prince, I would stay for ever under the stars and sky, banished from all habitation, denied all form of bodily covering, beaten and stung by the hail and rain, scorched by the fierce Summer sun, fighting off all dangers and braving the worst that the elements could do!

"How I dread returning to the hateful idle luxuries and sickening frivolities of my old life!  Oh! How I wish I were a man!  What a marvellous thing to be like that brave youth who is now a King , fighting long and bloody battles against all manner of fierce and mighty foes, finally to die gloriously in battle, one's name a legend for centuries to come!"

She looked longingly up at her splendid white horse.  When, oh when, would she be allowed to mount him and ride him into some fierce and bloody fight, daring her foes to do their worst, as she pointed her lance at the serried ranks of  the enemy hosts?  Why must she walk ever by his side, leading him as she did?  It just wasn't fair!