Chapter 34
THE TALE OF THE THREE SISTERS
The Queen took charge. As the eldest, she knew it was time to wield her power. She called for servants and ordered them to remove the man’s body.
‘He is a scourge,’ she said.
‘He has held each of us in our own private hells for centuries,’ said the Lord Chamberlain, looking at the man with contempt.
‘His reign is over,’ said The Baroness.
‘I shall deal with his body,’ said a familiar voice and the White Knight stood between The Baroness and the Lord Chamberlain. ‘We shall burn him as the sun sets and destroy his power forever.’
‘Who was he?’ said The Princess.
‘He was the personification of despair,’ said a voice from the bed. ‘He was inhuman, created alongside my curse, an aberration against nature, a shape-shifting creature of evil. He would choose his face to suit his malice.’
‘For me, he was a tyrannical master from my past,’ said the Lord Chamberlain.
‘For me, he was my cruel brother who claimed I was an aberration against nature,’ said the White Knight.
‘For you, my daughters, he was all the hurt I caused you when I chose your loveless unions for my own gain: my eldest, for you he was me as a younger man when I should have known better, when compassion should have guided my choices. My sweet middle child, for you he was the husband you should never have been forced to marry, and for you, my youngest girl, he was the man you loved, the man I should have allowed you to marry rather than the man who was the richest suitor in the land but with the blackest heart.’
‘He is dead, he can no longer spread desolation,’ said The Baroness.
The White Knight and the Lord Chamberlain hefted the man from the ground and between them carried his lifeless form away.
‘Is your curse ended, Father?’ asked The Queen.
‘Not quite,’ he replied, ‘but I am healing; look.’
The Three Sisters moved closer to the bed and saw him lift his thumb from the sheet, followed by each finger in turn until he could raise his arm.
‘I haven’t been able to move for hundreds of years,’ he murmured.
‘Your skin is repairing itself, too,’ said The Princess. ‘The redness is disappearing.’
As the sisters watched, the flesh which had been immobile lumps, wretched with open sores and wheals, scars and lacerations, was smoothing over, the blemishes disappearing before their eyes. The silver lines glowed with healing light before fading from his skin, the map of pain gone forever.
‘Is our quest at an end?’ asked The Baroness, with hope in her voice.
‘If you so choose,’ replied their father. ‘You have displayed love towards me, even when I did not deserve your compassion. I abandoned each of you to despair and abuse, unhappiness and pain, but you have forgiven me with love.’
‘Father, I shall remain here and help rule your kingdom while you recover,’ said The Queen. ‘It will be done with love.’
‘When I die, which will be soon now I am free, as my eldest child, you will inherit my realm.’
‘Father, I shall travel with my friend and companion, the White Knight,’ said The Baroness. ‘We shall return often to spend time with you but our lives and love shall be entwined in a future of our own choosing.’
‘I shall await to hear of your adventures,’ he said. Then he turned his head and gazed at his youngest daughter. ‘To you, I was most cruel. I knew you loved a worthy man, yet for my own greed, I forced you to wed another.’
‘My husband, the Prince, is dead,’ she said and her two sisters looked at her in surprise.
‘How do you know?’ asked The Queen.
‘The man told me,’ she said. ‘He believed it would hurt me to have this knowledge. Alas, the man I once loved is also dead.’
‘What will you do?’ asked The Baroness.
‘I shall find love again.’
She smiled, an expression of radiance, hope and belief.
The three sisters joined hands, reaching out to include their father in their circle, and with a whisper on the breeze and the caw of a rook, the castle disappeared into a cloud of brilliant white light.