Heart of Silver, Soul of Glass By Stormlight Chapter Three It was deep into night, and the only movement came from the guards patrolling along the boundaries of the castle walls. Even the scullery maids, usually up well past dark washing dishes in the kitchen, had retired for the night. Somewhere, a dog barked, and was answered by a horse whinnying in the stable. All was at peace. "OW! Watch it, you dolt! Could you possibly be any clumsier?!" Well…Almost. "Well, excuse me, Your Majesty!" another voice hissed back. "Why don’t you try scaling a wall with a heavy bag hung around your neck!" "Shhhh! Keep up the noise, and you’re gonna get us all caught!" "Yeah, and even you aren’t gonna be able to sweet-talk your way out of the explaining we’ll have to do for this one!" "We were going for a midnight stroll?" "Up the side of a castle?!" "Oh. I see your point." "Whose crazy idea was this, anyway?" Miaka gasped as she shimmied up the rope a little further. "I believe it was our esteemed princess’s," Serena grunted, coming just behind her. It was she who had the bag around her neck, and it was this bag that had whacked said princess across the head and nearly knocked her off the wall. "Look," Rei assured them smoothly, "just calm down. This will be great! It will be the prank to end all pranks. All those jokes my brother and his friends used to play on us when we were children? This will make them look like…well…like child’s play!" "I doubt they ever had to climb up a castle to pull it off!" Serena gasped, blinking sweat out of her eyes. She was as much for pulling a great prank on Endymion as anyone, but even she had to admit that this was going a little overboard. "My fingers feel like they’re gonna fall off!" she wailed as quietly as she could. "Quit whining!" Rei grunted, pulling herself up further. "We’re almost there! Now move up!" She gave Serena a light smack on the rear, causing the other girl to squeal. "Shhhhh!" Finally, they reached the top of the turret they were attempting to scale, and climbed over the side, gasping for breath. "If I ever agree to do this again," Miaka wheezed, "you have my permission to shove me off the top of the castle!" "It’s all Endymion’s fault for having his chambers on the very top floor!" Serena replied, sprawling out on her back. "Can we take an hour break before we go to the next stage?" "I never knew you were such a chicken, Serena," Rei teased. "I’m not afraid. I’m exhausted!" the girl countered. "And we still have to get back down again!" "Why didn’t we just take the stairs like normal people?" Miaka asked dryly. "Because Rei isn’t normal?" "Very funny, Serena," Rei sniffed. "There are too many guards inside the castle, and too much light. Outside it’s more spread out, and there are more shadows to hide in. Now come on. Time is wasting. Have you got the sack?" "Noooo! I’ve been carrying a dead chicken around my neck all this way!" Serena retorted, sticking her tongue out at the princess. "Of course I have it, dummy! Let’s just get this over with so I can go home and get some sleep!" Needless to say, Serena was not a night owl. The three girls stood up and made their way softly to the door leading into the stairway inside the castle. There was no guard there, thanks to Rei who had bribed him into taking the night off, so they slipped inside with relative ease. Rei led them to a doorway, which in turn led them out to a balcony. "His room is this way," she whispered, tiptoeing over to another door which hung slightly open to allow the warm spring breeze to blow through. She opened it further and slipped inside, followed closely by Miaka. Serena hung back, feeling more and more nervous. She had never been in Endymion’s chambers before, not even once in her life, and she felt strange sneaking into them now. It was one thing to sneak into a mere boy’s bedroom, but Endymion was now nineteen, and far past boyhood. Wouldn’t they get into a lot of trouble if he caught them? "Serena, come on!" Rei hissed loudly, making her jump and wince at the same time. She hoped to high heaven that the crown prince was as heavy a sleeper as Rei claimed he was… The room was dark; only the single candle Rei carried gave it any light at all, and that she kept carefully away from her brother’s face. Serena opened the sack and reached inside, feeling her skin crawl at the touch of hard, cool scales against her hand. Shuddering, she withdrew the serpent in the bottom of the bag and held it up. The candlelight glittered off the smooth, black scales, the glittering eyes, and the fangs of its wide-open mouth. "It looks so real," she whispered, examining the coiled snake. "Yes, the taxidermist did a good job. It will scare the wits out of Endy! He hates snakes!" Rei gloated. She held the light up so that it shone off the gold-inlaid posts at each corner of Endymion’s bed. "If we put it over one of the posts, he’ll be sure to see it," she whispered. "Put it at the one right above his head!" "I can’t reach that high," Serena whispered back. "So stand on his bed and reach it that way," Rei huffed impatiently. "Miaka and I will keep a lookout for the guards. And for pity’s sake, be quiet! I couldn’t bribe all the guards to be gone for the night! There are at least two right outside the room!" She headed out onto the balcony again, while Miaka went to keep watch near the other door. "Now she tells me…" Serena muttered, rolling her eyes. She stepped closer to the bed and peered down. Endymion lay there, sleeping deeply, with a pale shaft of moonlight shining through the door and illuminating his face with an eerie glow. Serena felt her heartbeat quicken as she stared at him. He looked so different when he was asleep. So…innocent. And very handsome… She shook herself out of her thoughts, scowling fiercely. Ever since the night of the Masque—almost a year ago now—things hadn’t been the same between her and Endymion. They still bickered, of course, but it seemed only half- hearted on the prince’s part, and sometimes Serena had the oddest feeling that he was watching her. When she’d look at him, though, his attention was always elsewhere. Still, she could not shake the feeling that he didn’t look at her in quite the same way that he used to, and she wasn’t sure if she was relieved or nervous about that. There were even times when he was almost nice to her, asking her how she was doing in an almost kind voice, but she acted so spooked when he spoke to her like that that he didn’t do it very often. Mostly…he just ignored her. Serena sighed and allowed her eyes to drift downward…where she discovered a most interesting fact. Endymion apparently didn’t wear clothes to sleep at night. He was bare down to his waist, where the silken sheets covered him from there. Her eyes went wide and a fiery blush crept up her cheeks. "Rei!" she hissed. "What?!" the princess hissed back from outside. "He isn’t wearing anything!" Serena wailed in a whisper, feeling absolutely mortified. If he should wake up now… Rei’s head popped around the corner. "What?" she exclaimed, her brow furrowing. "I said he…he isn’t wearing…well, look at him!" Serena whispered, pointing. Rei looked, and then she rolled her eyes. "Don’t be such a baby! My brothers never wear nightshirts at night this time of year," she replied. "Look." And she grabbed the sheet and yanked it down before Serena could stop her. "See? Nothing to worry about!" the princess added before turning to head back to her post. Serena peeked out between her fingers and heaved a sigh of relief to see that Endymion’s lower half was covered with velvet trousers. "I swear I am going to get her for this," she grumbled, inching forward with the heavy serpent, and climbing carefully onto the bed. It was a very soft mattress, and she found it difficult to keep her balance, but she managed to stagger to the post at the end of the bed and hook the coils of the serpent over the top of it, so that it hung down as though it was ready to strike. Well, now that was over, and all she had to do was to jump down and grab her sister and make her escape. Endymion would never know what hit him. For the first time, she allowed a grin to spread across her face as she turned to hop down from the bed. Unfortunately, her foot had managed to get twisted in the sheets, and as she raised it to step down, she ended up losing her balance. She gave a gasp of horror as she fell sideways, barely choking back a startled scream. Luckily for her, she landed on the bed rather than the floor. Or maybe it wasn’t so lucky, since Endymion was sleeping in it. She froze, her eyes widening in terror, her heart stopping for a full thirty seconds as she lay there, too terrified to even think of attempting to run away. That bouncing jolt would have shaken a dead person awake. She didn’t see how the crown prince could sleep through it! Any moment he’d open his eyes and see his worst enemy sprawled out beside him on his bed, and there were going to be a lot of questions about that… She supposed she could be grateful that she hadn’t landed on him… After a moment, she realized…he was still asleep. She couldn’t believe it. He was still laying there, with his eyes closed, and he was still asleep! She shook her head in disbelief. Rei certainly hadn’t been joking when she said her brother could sleep through a natural disaster! Which means I’m still alive as long as I get moving right now, Serena thought, nearly giddy with relief. I swear I will never play another nasty trick on anyone ever again if I get out of this in one piece! She held her breath and slowly began to ease herself off the bed. And that was when Endymion rolled over. Right onto her. Well, technically, it was only his arm and one leg that was on her, but the effect was the same. She froze like a startled rabbit, her breath coming in short gasps, and waited for him to wake up and realize that there was a strange woman in his bed. I am never going to live this one down. He will be telling this story to my children’s children’s children! she silently wailed. That is…if he didn’t have her banished from the kingdom, first… "Rei?" she whispered desperately, her voice little more than a breath. She grimaced. How was she ever gonna get her attention that way? But she didn’t dare speak any louder, for fear of waking him. "Miaka? A little help…" she whispered again, hoping her sister was closer. No such luck. She shifted slightly, and the warm, heavy weight of his arm across her abdomen caused a swarm of butterflies to take flight in her stomach. His solid leg hooked around hers wasn’t helping much, either. I am in so much trouble… She carefully eased her legs out from under him, a sheen of perspiration breaking out on her brow when he shifted and mumbled in response, his deep voice rumbling in her ear. She gulped and her eyes widened, turning to find that his dark head had shifted over closer to her own, only inches away. His lips were at eye-level with her, and she couldn’t help but notice how soft and warm they looked… Okay, I am definitely in trouble here! Think, Serenity! How do I get out of this mess? Miaka had always been the thinker in the family, and Serena had always preferred it that way, but now she was seriously wishing for some extra skill in that department. Maybe, if she rolled over quickly, she could land on the floor and roll under the bed before he looked over the side and saw her? Assuming she didn’t get the wind knocked out of her, that is. But the thump might bring her sister and Rei into the room, and she didn’t want them to get caught. Rei would kill her. Well, she’d just have to do it the hard way then… She gulped, and carefully gripped his arm, trying her hardest not to notice the smooth, warm skin under her fingers, and began to move it over next to his body. He murmured again, and his arm left her grasp. She froze. "Darling," he whispered in her ear, his arm once more settling over her, pulling her closer to his side and wrapping his other arm around her so that she was fully in his embrace, cuddled up against him like a…lover. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head, and her jaw fell open in shock. DARLING?! She was just about to give up the ghost and scream bloody murder when she noticed that his eyes were open…and fixed right on her. She went absolutely still, her blood freezing in her veins. This was it. This was where he leaped up, screamed for his guards, and at a grand ceremony bright and early the next morning, had her beheaded. She wondered if her mother would miss her, or if she’d be glad to have an extra room in the house. It certainly would cut back on food costs… "Beloved…" Endymion whispered again, "I’ve missed you. Where have you been?" She blinked. Huh? This wasn’t right. Where was the screaming for the guards and the yelling of "Off with her head!"? "Where have you been?" was not what she’d had in mind… And then it came to her…Endymion was dreaming. He was still asleep! She went limp suddenly, her relief overcoming fear for a moment, before she began to think again. There was still a chance she could escape, unscathed. "I…um…was picking strawberries," she blurted, saying the first thing that came to mind. His brow furrowed slightly. "In the middle of the night?" She winced. Curse it! "They…er…always taste fresher that way! The…night air and everything…" He seemed to accept that statement, and he gazed into her eyes, his own eyes lidded. "Is that why your lips seem extra rosy tonight?" he murmured, a hand coming up to trace along her lips. "You’ve been eating strawberries?" She swallowed audibly. Where the hell is Reeeeiiii?! she wailed in her head. Then, upon thinking over her current situation, laying there locked in the prince’s arms, she was suddenly very glad that her sarcastic friend wasn’t in the room, after all. "Well…uh…you caught me! I was eating strawberries. I just can’t hide anything from you, can I?" she muttered, squirming against his strong arms. He chuckled softly. "So where are they?" he asked. She blinked. "Where are what?" "The strawberries, silly goose! I’m suddenly hungry for some." She groaned and closed her eyes. Well, now what? "I took them to the kitchen already," she replied on a sudden burst of inspiration. "You’ll have them for breakfast!" He looked disappointed for a moment, but then a sly grin spread across his face, and his eyes took on a certain gleam. "Well, that’s too bad. I was really looking forward to a taste," he murmured. "Maybe I’ll just have to taste them some other way, instead…" She froze, realizing his intent a moment too late as his head dipped toward hers, and his lips caught hers in a sweet, lingering kiss. Oh yes. His lips were warm, all right, and they were definitely soft. She squeezed her eyes shut as the butterflies in her stomach erupted into a flock of extremely hyper starlings, and did her best not to be affected by the feel of his lips moving against her own. Of course the battle was over before it had even begun, and by the time he softly broke the kiss, it felt like her bones had all melted into jelly. Okay. That was it. She definitely was getting out of there! "I have to go," she mumbled, trying to slow her breathing. "I…uh…left some laundry hanging on the line, and…the air will mildew it if I don’t take it in." She struggled out of his grasp, and he let her go without struggle. Indeed, it seemed as though he had once again fallen deeper into slumber. My very first kiss, and he just sleeps through it?! she thought indignantly, stifling the urge to kick him. "Serena!" a voice hissed from behind her, making her jump and squeal in surprise. Miaka’s hand clapped down over her mouth. "Hush! Are you done yet? It’s been ages!" "Yes! I’m done! Let’s get out of here," Serena hissed, grabbing her sister by the hand and pulling her out the door. She had done it. Nobody knew about that whole scene, and she would carry that secret to her grave! How she would ever manage to face Endymion again after this night was beyond her, but she figured she’d face that problem when she came to it. As she shoved Miaka out onto the balcony, she refused to look back over her shoulder for a last glimpse of the sleeping prince. And upon refusing to do this, she was therefore unaware of a pair of shadowed, blue eyes staring intently at her back until she disappeared from sight.