The Other Girl in the Tower: Ch. 2

Continued from Chapter 1. . . .

Rouge slipped out of bed and made her way downstairs, clutching a coil of knotted rope. With her dark hair, black dress, and pale skin, she could have almost been mistaken for the shadow of a night-bird gliding over a moonbeam. She had a remarkable ability to move swiftly and silently, even for a witch. She had just reached the iron door at the front of the castle and set her hand on the knob when she heard a rustle of movement behind her.

"Going somewhere?" Gothella asked coldly.

Rouge whirled around and found herself face-to-face with the witch. In the darkness, only her deathly white face was visible. Her green eyes were like empty holes in a field of snow.

"Gothella" Rouge choked out. "I was just . . . going to see Rapunzel."

"At one o'clock in the morning, with a rope?" Gothella said dryly. "What were you planning to do, tie her up?"

"I . . ."

"You were going to help her climb down."

Rouge rarely lost her temper, but sometimes her sense of justice did get the better of her. "Yes, I was!" she snapped. "You have no right to keep her locked up there like a wild animal. If for once in her life she wants to be a participant in the world instead of just a spectator, is that so wrong?"

"That's for me to decide," Gothella hissed.

"Not anymore," Rouge shot back. She threw open the door. "Rapunzel isn't a child, and neither am I. Goodness knows we've both let you control our lives long enough." She stepped outside, then turned around. "From this point on, we are--"

At that moment, an invisible force yanked her feet out from under her. She tried to get up but was unable to move.

"You're what?" Gothella said in a deathly quiet voice, palm upraised. She twitched her index finger, and Rouge felt herself rise off the ground. "You should have gotten your wand before you got out your soapbox. You want to disobey me? Well, you and Rapunzel will have plenty of time to plan your coup d'etat together."

Rouge felt a rush of wind around her. Then her head struck something hard, and everything went black.

~

"No! No, no, no, no , no!"

Rouge beat her fists and head against the stone wall, ignoring her bruised knuckles and the growing knot on her brow. "No, this can't be happenning!"

"You're just hurting yourself, Rouge, dear," Rapunzel said gently. Only this time, she was on the other side of a wall, and Rouge could only see and talk to her through a little opening about six inches wide.

Just five minutes ago, Rouge had awakened in the top room of the tower. Sometime during the night, Gothella had brought her up here and erected a stone wall between her and Rapunzel, probably with the aid of magic. Rouge's side held nothing but a blanket on the floor. There was not even a window. Her only light was that which squeezed in from Rapunzel's side.

"She can't do to this to me!" she screamed.

"It's really not that bad once you get used to it," said Rapunzel. "Though I will admit, I'm disappointed my plan didn't work out."

"Plan? Plan?!" Rouge slumped to the floor, laughin hysterically. "We are stuck here. Trapped. Imprisoned. For all practical purposes, we are buried alive fifty-odd feet off the ground!"

"At least we're together," Rapunzel said brightly.

Rouge groaned.

~

About the time that all this was going on, another pair in the forest was having a somewhat spirited discussion. Armand and Adrian, the twin sons of the king and queen of Frealla, had been wandering in the forest for three consecutive days and nights, and neither were in the best mood.

"We're lost," Adrian, the younger twin, stated.

"You're the one who's lost," Armand replied. "I could get us back to the palace whenever I wanted to."

"Well, who don't you, then," Adrian said irritably. "Our food is almost gone, in case you haven't noticed--which would be strange, considering you're the one who ate most of it."

"I have a physique to keep up," Armand retorted. "You're practically a stick. You don't require food."

Adrian opened his mouth to deny this, then remembered that it was more or less true. "Well, if we don't go home soon, neither of us will be eating anything. What do you want to stay out here for, anyway? We've already missed our chance to catch any deer."

Armand was silent for a moment. Then he said, "I've been hearing singing."

Adrian stared at him, unable to make heads or tails of this. "Okay . . . I think we need to get you home."

Armand abruptly stopped his horse. "I'm serious. It sounded like a girl. She had the most beautiful voice."

"You've got enough girlfriends already, Armand," Adrian assured him. "What is it this week--six, seven, forty?"

"I won't go back until I find her." Armand's face wore the stubborn look that Adrian had been putting up with for sixteen years. They weren't identical twins, though people often said they had the same nose. Armand was what girls were always calling "tall, dark, and handsome." He was the best swordsman in the kingdom. He sang, danced, and played the mandolin. He actually knew how to talk to girls without making a complete idiot of himself. Worst of all, he had biceps.

Adrian was about as tall but nowhere near as dark. As for the handsome part, he had no idea and it didn't really matter anyway, considering he saw himself as a loser living in his perfect brother's shadow.

He had only one advantage. He was smarter. Or at least, so it would seem.

"She must be as beautiful as her voice," Armand was saying dreamily. "I have to find her."

"Well then, let's get to hunting for her, by all means," Adrian said sarcastically. "Wouldn't want to miss out on girlfriend number sixty-two, now would we? No, we would not. Lead the way, Your Worshipfulness."

Armand did lead the way. Of course.

They rode in silence for several hours, Armand listening for the voice, and Adrian listening for the rustiling of bushes that would accompany the venison they desperately needed. Neither heard anything.

The sun was nearing the horizon when a clear voice rang out not very far away. Adrian looked at Armand, who was already spurring his horse toward the sound. Adrian followed close behind.

They came to the edge of a small meadow with an ivy-entangled tower in the middle of it. Armand moved forward, but Adrian caught his arm and held him back. "Wait."

Armand shook him off. "She could be in trouble."

"Yeah, I guess she has a habit of singing whenever she's about to be devoured by a dragon." Adrian slid off his horse and positioned himself behind a thick tree. "We should watch for a few minutes so the dragon doesn't get us too."

Armand grudgingly agreed to this, and they waited for several minutes. Just when they were fairly certain the coast was clear, someone entered the clearing from the opposite side. It was a tall, thin, middle-aged woman with raven-black hair and a dress that seemed to shimmer and change colors as she moved. She stood under the tower's lone window and called, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!"

The twins gasped simultaneously as a thick golden braid tumbled down all the way to the ground. The woman grasped it firmly and climbed up with surprising agility.

"Did you see that?" Adrian hissed.

Armand nodded dumbly. Adrian could tell what he was thinking just by looking at him. He was rather interested himself.

After about ten minutes, the woman came back down, and disappeared into the woods.

"Come on," Armand said.

They tied their horses to the tree and ran to the base of the tower.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel," Armand shouted, "let down your hair!"

To be continued. . . .