Wicked Tales: Rumple’s Game

Hedwig stared at her for several seconds. "What are you talking about? Who needs to hear his name in a verse."

Caitlinn rose from the bed, wrapped herself in a robe and approached the door. She stepped around her husband and pulled Adrianna into the room with them. "Calm down Adrianna and tell us what you know."

"The wizard was hiding in the maze bushes. I don't know how he was missed, but he was. Obviously using some sort of magic. But I heard him singing and so I followed the sound of his voice. He sang a song. I know not all the words, but I do know you have a way out of his promise."

Caitlinn's eyes filled with hope. Hedwig grabbed Adrianna's arm and turned her toward him. "Where is he now?" he demanded of her. She squeaked at the force in his grip and Caitlinn touched his hand.

"You're hurting her, my love. Please give her time," she told him.

Hedwig growled, but did as his wife suggested and eased up on the handmaiden's arm. "I'm sorry Adrianna. Where is he now?"

"He's gone Sire. I became tangled in the bushes and he disappeared before I was able to free myself from the branches. But Sire. . .I know how to break the promise he forced on our Queen!" Adrianna turned back to Caitlinn and gripped her hands in her tight fists. "You have to say a verse, sing it possibly, but his name must be spoken three times. Only then will you break the oath you made to him."

"What is his name?" Caitlinn urged.

"Rumpelstiltskin," Adrianna whispered. "You have to sing his name in a song that rhymes my Lady. I swear it is true."

Hedwig raised his hands into the air. "A poem. It can not be that simple. Nothing can be as simple as coming up with a poem."

Caitlinn thought a moment. "It makes sense, my love. He wanted stories and songs as payment for his services and so why not one in his own name. Also," she whispered, "I'd forgotten about a wizard in one of my stories, so he obviously wants to be noticed. This poem of his, what else do you remember of it?" Caitlinn asked Adrianna.

Adrianna paled. Her voice dropped and she lowered her head. "Your Highness. I do not know all the words, but he means," she took a deep breath, "to kill Princess Amber and sacrifice her to gain his youth."

Caitlinn's fist rose to her mouth, stifling a scream. She wavered on unsteady feet and fell to the edge of the bed, where she sat motionless. Hedwig approached and got down on bended knee. He gathered her into his arms and held her close. "He'll not win, my sweet. We will not let him. We will play his game, sing his verse and then he will no longer hold anything over us."

"I'm sorry, Hedwig. I just wanted to be with you. I wanted to spare my father's life as well as my own. It took so long for us to have a child, I thought it a blessing when none came. Now though, I have our Amber. . .she is a curse to us, but I love her with all my soul."

Hedwig touched her cheek. "She is not a curse. She is a blessing. Now let us think of a song for this wizard that will continue on through the years."

She nodded her head and together they moved to the study, leaving Amber in Adrianna's care as well as under the watchful eyes of two royal guards.

Hours passed and wads of inked parchment littered the floor of the King's study. Sleep drove both the royals to bed after a light meal was prepared for them. They retired to their chambers, Amber's small and warmly swathed body lay between them. They stared at her sleeping features, both of them lost in thought.

It was a foreign sound invading the peace and tranquil moment that awoke Caitlinn. She opened her eyes and looked into the face of the old wizard. Crying out, she jumped from the bed, holding Amber close to her. Hedwig rose quickly, a blade was held tight in his capable hand. "You will not have our daughter," he told the man that stood just inches from his wife.

The cackling laughter could be heard throughout the castle, or so it seemed to Caitlinn whose skin crawled as the sound rolled over her. "The girl is mine. Queenie said it was so, some five years ago. Now I've come to collect. There is no way to break the oath of a royal to a wizard. The girl will be mine. It is written."

Hedwig felt the weight of the blade become feather light. It fell from his grasp and clattered to the floor. The old man laughed. "See, the binding of the contract will not allow you to harm me. It is legal. The girl made a promise and now the child belongs to me."

Caitlinn felt the strength in her arms lessening and she fell to the floor, trying desperately to keep a firm hold on Amber's wiggling frame. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

The moment she said his name, the first time, the wizard growled low and tried to launch himself toward the babe, but the oath cast five years ago, kept his feet rooted to the floor. Caitlinn's voice rose as she repeated the song two more times. Rumpelstiltskin shouted out his anger and screamed at the top of his lungs. "There is no way you know my name. Rumpelstiltskin always wins the game!"

The King called for his guardsman. Immediately the doors to his chambers were pushed open and the room was stormed by several of Hedwig's most elite men. Rumpelstiltskin spun around, hoping to cast whatever spell he used to enter and leave a room without a sound. He began to speak whispered words that were lost on those surrounding him. A breeze fluttered through the room and a chill ran up the spines of all that were blanketed by it. The cold air slammed into all of them and forced their heads down to ward off the chill. When the air died down the old wizard was gone.

Hedwig cursed and ordered the grounds, the enchanted forest and the surrounding lands searched. They did what they were ordered to do, spending days and weeks looking for the wizard but no sign of the troublesome magician could ever be found.

Hedwig, Caitlinn, and Amber. . .lived happily every after.