Cursed: The Legend of Sleeping Beauty

Chapter Thirty Six - Defeat The Dragon

Copyright Ⓒ 2019 by B. R. Bailey All Rights Reserved

Outside of Skyfort the city of Stonesteeple was in a panic. They had heard rumors of a Curse about the Princesses sixteenth birthday and thought that it was striking. People fled their houses, running down the streets in terror.

Sir Leonard looked out the door of the Inn, after he put down his book, watching people run past in blind panic, tripping over each other. He had to pull a young boy into the doorway when he fell and was being trampled. 

Once he had the Innkeeper treating his wounds on a dinner table, he ran upstairs to look out a window in the direction everyone was fleeing from. Skyfort, which had been a clear outline that morning, was not a solid black mass from the ground up into the sky, buried under black clouds and an undeniable Curse.

A roar shook the pane of glass he was staring out before violet flames washed over a part of the castle, illuminating a broken ceiling for a few moments before dimming into darker violet which was just as quickly obscured by rising smoke. 

"Arthur!" He shouted, spinning on his heel to sprint down the hallway, unlock the door of their room with shaking hands. 

King Arthur wasn't inside reading at the desk like he had said he would be doing today.

Rushing to the window, Sir Leonard opened it, seeing that the roof dropped down to a stack of hay used for the stables. The center had an irregular lump. Clumps of hay scattered from the side, leading towards the stable.

Sir Leonard pushed open the window, jumped up and slid down the tile roof, dropping into the haystack on both feet. Kicking the hay out of his way, he ran to the stables.

The door slammed against the walls, startling the horses. Trotter snorted, stamping his hooves. His saddlebags were on the table, the side open, partially obscured under torn up wrapping paper and ribbon that Sir Leonard remembered helping teach King Arthur to wrap around a particularly valuable book. 

The book in question was on the table when he knew that it should be upstairs in Briar Roses room. He had seen King Arthur give her that present earlier in the day.

A letter was on the floor nearby, with neat scrawled writing he recognized as belonging to Briar Rose.

"ARTHUR!" Panic-stricken himself, he ran to the stall with his stead, freeing Gilly.

Together, after putting her saddle on, they broke down the front door of the stable, leaping onto a low chicken coop to propel themselves up onto the side of the Inn, where Gilly proceeded to jump over the street, landing on another low roof, heading towards Skyfort with their improvised path.

A matter that Sir Leonard was quite skilled in after spending ten years as a ferret.

Arthur was a good distance away, hacking at the thick vines covering the entrance of Skyfort along with two dozen guards.

Another dozen had lost their swords to vines, which grew back so quickly it had swallowed them whole.

"MOVE!" King Arthur shouted, brandishing his sword over his head. "EXCALIBUR IS MAGIC! IT CAN ABSORB CURSES!" 

Between the supernatural silver light, his sword put off and the fact that his area was already clear in the low light of the lanterns, they knew his words to be true.

Stepping back, they let him hack at the vines until the found the handle. Arthur went to open the door and pulled his hand back.

"Kick it down!" he commanded.