Enter the Frey

Chapter 13

Adam woke to find a spider had created a web across his tent, and now sat swaying in the wind, inches from his head. The tiny arachnid looked like the garden variety spiders from home but was silvery white instead of mottled brown. He prodded it with his long, slender finger and watched it scamper away before leaving his tent. He found the others were already sitting around the campfire, discussing the next task.

Aim was warming her hands over the fire and telling the others a story about an obstacle course type trial. Her eyes lit up when she saw Adam approach and waved hello at him. 

The other turned to greet him, Ziel sighing, “Finally awake, Princess?”

“You could have woken me up,” Adam shrugged.

“Nobody dared,” Aim laughed. “Not even Ziel.”

Adam frowned. “Why not?”

“All that pend up unstable magic,” Aim said. She looked more impressed than scared, as though excited by the thought of danger. “Who knows what would happen if someone startled you from a nightmare.”

Adam looked down at his hands and flexed his fingers. He didn’t feel the slightest bit pent up or unstable. Surely they were overreacting.

“We have to enter some tournament to win the hand of a princess,” Aim said rolling her eyes in a dramatic fashion. “Apparently she’s sooo beautiful everyone wants her, and only the best warrior is worthy of her.”

“Hmm,” Adam shrugged. “So… who is going to enter? Ziel?”

“It doesn’t say only one of us can enter, so I guess we will all enter,” Ziel decided.

“Even us?” Aim said, posing beside Selena who looked sceptical.

“We can dress you up as men,” Ziel grunted, not giving much thought to the matter. He was more interested in mapping the route to the castle visible in the distance. 

“Are same-s*x marriages not allowed?” Adam asked.

This question earned him a round of laughter.

“Of course they are,” Ziel said. “But only between homosexual people.”

“Oh,” Adam cursed his own stupidity, “Of course, that makes sense.”

“Come on, it’s a good day’s walk and we need to register today,” Ziel said. He was holding a flyer that listed all the details of the contest and featured a picture of the princess. A doe-eyed beauty with long auburn curls wearing a green velvet gown. She had to be one of the prettiest girls he’d ever seen.

“She’s not that pretty? Right?” Aim asked, looking up at Adam with big, sad eyes.

“She ain’t all that,” Adam lied.

The lie seemed to placate Aim, who bounced off ahead to tell Ziel that Adam agreed with her.

Selena slid up beside him, appearing out of nowhere like a puff of smoke. She looked up at him with a knowing smile.

“What?” Adam grinned. “She isn’t that special. If it weren’t part of this challenge, I wouldn’t risk my life to marry her.”

“Then why are you grasping onto that flyer so tight?” Selena teased.

Adam looked down, avoiding her gaze. “It might come in handy.”

As they neared the castle the sounds and smells of a celebration wafted over to greet them. In Adam’s mind he was back home at the fun fayre, about to embark on rollercoasters, tilt-o-whirls, ride the bumper cars and eat hotdogs and cotton candy until he was fit to burst. Somehow, he knew this world would be as child friendly.

He saw women dancing, bands playing, stalls selling drinks and meats and at the centre of the town—a stage where the hero’s lined up to register for the competition. Dirty-looking kids wearing rags ran through the crowds, chasing after a beaten-up old ball. They almost tripped Adam as they shot past.

Adam stopped walking, closed his eyes and breathed in the smell of cooking. He let the cheerful music wash over him and the sound of laughter fill his ears. Something about this place felt familiar. Good. For the first time, Adam wasn’t going into the challenge filled with trepidation. 

“I have a bad feeling,” Ziel huffed, narrowing his eyes at the competition. A guy who looked like he could be cosplaying as prince charming and a younger guy in tattered clothing were stood at the front of the wooden stage, being tended to by women dressed similarly to the dancers. 

As a group, they pushed their way through the crowds to the front of the stage.

“We’d like to sign up,” Ziel told the official.

“Only one entrant per team,” the guy replied curtly.

“Well, in that case, I’d like to sign up,” Ziel said, without pause for thought. 

Before joining the other contestants, Ziel turned to Adam and whispered, “Go and explore. Investigate. All of you. Find out everything you can.”

“Righty-ho,” Adam nodded, and led the others back into the crowd. He had no idea what they should be investigating and hoped one of the others would have more inspiring thoughts on the matter.

He found a spare table by the food stands and grabbed it, hoping to form a plan of action with the others. Before he could open his mouth a group of regal looking men in coattails and curly white wigs stopped at their table and gasped.

“Prince Valaar,” one gasped and bowed. “You must accompany us to the palace to have tea with the Princess.”

“Light help us!” the other cried. “Sitting here with these peasants just won’t do.”

Before Adam could speak up in defence of said peasants, he felt Aim kick him under the table. ‘Go with them,’ she mouthed as discreetly as was possible for Aim.

“Certainly,” Adam said, trying to sound posh. “That would be delightful.”

He got up from his seat with as much poise as he could muster and followed the men back to their horse-drawn carriage. A short, older gentleman bowed as he opened the door, indicating for Adam to enter. He did so, taking the seat opposite a woman who was already inside.

As soon as she looked up Adam recognised her face from the poster. She was even more stunning in person, with sultry eyes the colour of honey, a full mouth and heart-shaped face. Her eyes suggested she was having similar thoughts about Adam’s visage—that and the way she wet her lips.

“Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Prince Valaar,” she said, offering her hand. “I am princess Grielda.”

Unsure whether it was custom to kiss the hand or shake it, Adam went with the second option, figuring it would be less of a faux par. She looked a little hurt when he briefly shook her hand, touching her as little as possible. 

‘Grielda?’ Adam thought. ‘It doesn’t seem fitting for her beauty. It sounds more like the name of an old witch or hag.’

“The pleasure’s mine,” Adam said with an awkward smile, feeling it was the correct thing to say. He had no idea how these people would expect him to behave, or even if they had met him before.

“I heard you have been travelling with the halfight. Such a curious pairing you make,” she commented. Her eyes sparkled, hungry for any information she could pass off as gossip. The poor girl must lead a boring and sheltered life if anything Ziel did was of interest to her.

“What is he like?” she asked. “I heard he entered the tournament.”

“Do you want the honest truth?” Adam asked.

“Hmm,” she nodded, leaning forward as though not to miss anything he might be about to tell her.

“He’s a monster,” Adam admitted. “Cruel. s******c. Thoughtless. Callous.”

“Oh,” Grielda looked worried for a moment before smiling. “My darling Prince Theo will win, so I have no need to worry.”

“Yeah?” Adam asked. “Can Theo transform into a forty-foot tall abyssal demon lord at will too?”

“Huh?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.

“Never mind,” Adam shook his head. It was best not to try sarcasm with these people, yet the urge to quip was so deeply ingrained in his personality he found it hard to switch it off. He felt bad that she wouldn’t get the fairy tale ending she was dreaming of, knowing the poor sap wouldn’t stand a chance against Ziel. He wondered if these people were like the boy in the fire—fabricated for the purpose of the test. He imagined them stuck in the same cycle of events for all of time, completely unaware of their predicament. 

Looking at the girl, the details of her, pearls on her dress, moles on her skin, he found it hard to believe she wasn’t ‘real’ in the same sense he was.

‘Maybe nothing is real,’ Adam thought. ‘We are all just fabricated phantoms acting out stories for the benefit of the observer above us.’ 

Adam sighed and shook his head, trying to clear out the overly deep and disturbing line of thought. 

‘Just concentrate on the task at hand,’ he told himself. ‘One thing at a time.’

“It sure is a shame you aren’t entering,” Grielda commented out of the blue, a sultry smile playing about her lips.

“Oh… tests of physical strength aren’t really my forte,” Adam smiled uncomfortably. Did she love this prince Theo of hers? Or would she be willing to trade him in for the first pretty face she shared a carriage ride with? Her blasé attitude wasn’t sitting right with Adam. He couldn’t put his finger on what exactly, but something about this girl was giving him the creeps.

When the carriage stopped moving, he got out and offered his hand to Grielda, who revelled in his touch. Instead of letting go of him once grounded, she clung to his arm, leading him toward her home in the castle.

“We shall put on a splendid tea,” she told the servants that hustled to meet her at the front gate. As most of the servants bowed, one of the younger females stood and stared at Adam, mouth agape and eyes transfixed. The older maid had to grab her, pulling her back to her senses.

“My apologies,” Grielda scathed. “I don’t know where they get some of these fools. I’ll have her stoned if you like?”

“That’s not necessary,” Adam said. “I’m sort of used to it.”

“Yes, well I guess you get a lot of female attention,” she said, sounding grumpy about the fact.

“Well, I mean, I get attention for being what I am, from males and females alike,” Adam corrected.

“Yes, of course, some people haven’t seen an elf before,” she sighed. “I really wish you would enter the tournament. Do you not find the prospect of running this Kingdom by my side appealing?”

“Honestly?” Adam asked. “I would love to stay here with you. But I am bound to another.”

“Hmm,” Grielda curled up her lips, looking away. She probably wasn’t used to not getting what she wanted. He got the feeling it was unwise to make her mad and had to remind himself the same could be said of him. Last time he’d become enraged a torrent of ice had engulfed his enemies in mere seconds.

A flurry of servants ushered Adam to his seat at the table and bought an array of foods and drinks—more than any one person could be expected to eat.

Grielda turned up her nose at the food, giving the servants scathing looks as they scattered, leaving Adam alone with the beautiful woman he was slowly coming to despise. He watched her pick at the feast with disdain—knowing there were skeletal children running about in rags just a mile or so away.

He stopped trying to make polite conversation, and instead plastered his face with the look the popular girls would give him in school. A look that said, ‘you are beneath me and not worthy of my effort.’ 

He noticed that as she ate, Grielda would periodically stare across the table at him, as though there was something she wanted to say.

“Do you live here alone?” Adam asked, figuring he might as well dig for information while here.

“Yes, my parents both killed in the war recently. Hence why I must marry a strong man to protect myself from invaders,” she said with an eye-roll, as if the whole situation was a minor inconvenience. 

“I’m sorry about your parents,” Adam said.

“We weren’t close,” she said, taking a huge bite of something that looked like a prawn. Considering her dissatisfied face at the start of dinner she was making a hefty dent in the platter of food. Adam noticed how her flesh bulged around the fitted corset portion of her dress and figured she secretly liked her food a bit too much.

Adam picked daintily at his food despite not having eaten all day. His elf stomach seemed to be smaller and more efficient than his old human one, a fact that meant he could survive on very little and appear standoffish before this gluttonous princess. The elf Ziel described him to be would turn his nose up at the best of foods.

“Would you like to stay here tonight?” Grielda asked.

“Erm,” Adam thought about it. It might be best to get away from her, but if he returned with no inside information Ziel might be mad. “That would be lovely, thank you.”

She smiled, letting her eyes linger on him for a little too long before leading him to the room.