Laurell Hamilton - Never After

“They would not dare!”

“Sorceress, you said there was a secret way out.”

“I did, but what will you do, Elinore the Younger, by yourself, in the wide world?”

“I can sew and cook, and garden. I know my herbs and their uses.”

“So does every peasant woman,” the prince said.

“I bake the finest pies in our lands.”

“I bake a finer pie than you, girl.”

“I propose a different challenge,” the sorceress said.

“I propose that the two of you bake me a pie. If Elinore makes the best pie, then I will give her a dowry so she may set herself up in business, or wed a baker, or a weaver. If the prince is best, then Elinore may leave empty-handed, but she may go with my blessing.”

“And what do I win?” the prince asked.

“A lesson in humility, I hope.”

The kitchen was large and airy, and made Elinore wish she could give Cook such a kitchen back home. The moment she thought “home,” her chest tightened, and her throat closed around something hard and hurtful. She would never see home again, unless she won the prince his freedom and went back to be queen. But Elinore had been to court, though only once, with the other fifteen-year-old noble daughters. She had been introduced to the king and his queen. She had danced with their sons, tried to talk to their daughters. She didn’t think they would so easily give up their throne to a long lost brother and uncle.

She would not miss her father, but would miss her mother, and some of the servants, and she did have a friend or two, that it would matter to her if she never once spoke to them again.

She thought that she and the prince were the only ones in the kitchen, until something she could not see picked up an apron and offered it to her. She was startled for a moment, but then allowed the invisible hands to help her cover her dress and tie the bow in the back. She had laid her cloak on a bench to the side of the room out of the way of flour and ingredients.

She asked the air for a ribbon to tie back her hair and one floated to her. Things she could not see bound her hair back from her face.

Prince True in his own apron busied himself around the kitchen. His hands were strong and sure of themselves. He rolled his dough with sure, hard strokes, but not too hard. If you pressed too hard, you tore the dough.

Elinore realized she was spending too much time watching the prince, and not enough doing her own cooking. She formed her own dough, and began to roll it out carefully on her section of floured counter. She was not as quick as the prince, but she was careful, and thoughtful. There was no need to rush, because there was no time limit. Best to do it right, if there was no need to hurry.

Elinore thought about having enough money of her own to start a business, buy her own house. It was a frightening idea. It was an idea so new that her hands began to shake as she rolled out her dough.

“Why are you afraid, girl?” the prince asked.

Elinore folded her hands back against the apron. “I am not afraid, your highness; I am excited.”

He stood a little taller. “Are you having second thoughts about trying to rescue me?”

“I was thinking that your rescue was the only way I could ever see my family and friends again.”

He smiled, and it was such an arrogant look that Elinore knew there was no going back. There would be no living with this man, even if his brother didn’t execute them both.

“You will not best me at cooking, girl. I have mastered it as I have mastered everything I have ever tried to do in my life.”

She nodded. “As you say, Prince True, you are master of many things, but you are not mistress.”

He frowned. “What does that mean?”

“It means cook your pie, and I will cook mine, and we will see.” It was high summer, so there were berries on the table, in glazed bowls of many colors. Elinore tasted the berries to make certain they were as ripe as they appeared, because she had learned when making pies and jellies that a pretty fruit was not always the sweetest.

The prince was done long before Elinore. But she let nothing rush her, not even his taunts. For he did taunt, like all bullies. She ignored him, and as she shaped her top crust so that the edges formed that perfect waved edge that Cook had been teaching her since she was old enough to reach the counter on a stool, she was pleased. She knew she had done her best. She cut out a design of the crescent moon in the center, for it represented the maiden form of the Goddess, and Elinore was still a maiden in every sense. She prayed as she baked, for the other meaning for maiden, virgin, was a woman whole and of herself. A woman who depended on no one. She wished to be such a woman.

They carried their pies to a banquet hall, as rich and marbled as the throne room had been. The king himself had no room so fine. The sorceress was at the table, but so were the giant, and the ogre, and the sphinx. Elinore could not hide her surprise.

The giant said, “You did not expect to see the monsters sitting down to the table, did you, Elinore the Brave?”

“I did not, kind giant, and I am still Elinore the Younger.”

“No,” said the ogre. “Elinore the Brave, we name you, and a name given by the monsters you defeat is a telling name.”

“Yes,” said the sphinx, who crouched closest to the sorceress, “I approve of such a name.”

“As do I,” said the sorceress.

“You have not given me such a name,” the prince said.

“No,” she said, “we have not.”

He scowled, and put his pie before her with a little more force than needed. The edge of the crust broke, and fell upon the table.

Elinore placed her perfectly browned and unbroken pie before the sorceress.

“Elinore the Brave is the winner,” she said.

“But you have not tasted the pies,” the prince said.

“But hers is the prettiest, and appearances count.”

“Taste them,” he ordered.

She sighed. “It has been over fifty years, and though a good cook you have become, you have learned little else.” Everyone took a fork and tasted the pies. The vote was unanimous; Elinore’s pie was the sweetest.

“No,” said the prince. “I did not lose.”

“You did, but you lost to someone who was not bidding for your freedom.”

“Will you give me enough money to set up a shop of my own?” Elinore asked.

“A fine shop, but what shall you sell?”

“I think I will bake.”

The sorceress conjured a bag from thin air and the weight of it almost made Elinore drop the bag. “Our aunt the sphinx will show you the way out, Elinore the Brave.”

“But she has beaten me. She will be my queen, and I will be free.”

“She does not wish to be your queen,” the sorceress said.

He looked at Elinore, and he was finally perplexed. “How can you not want to be my queen?”

“You are not kind enough to marry.”

“Kind? A man is not kind. A man is strong.”

“It was gentleness that made the crust of that pie. It was too much strength that broke its crust. I want a husband who can bake a pie without breaking it in anger.”

“That makes no sense, girl.”

“My name is Elinore the Younger, named Elinore the Brave by a giant, and an ogre, and a sphinx.”

“Free me, Elinore.” A look passed his face, a look of pain at last. “Please, let me go.”

She looked at him, studied his fine blue eyes. She looked at the sorceress. “I have won the contest fairly, have I not?”

“You have; do you want him to husband now?”

“No, but could he be freed, and tell the story of how I died bravely in the attempt?”

“Why would you free him, Elinore the Brave?”

“Because he said ‘please.’ ”