The Book of Love

Part 2

     The prince became the king. Tearfully, he pushed his father's blazing funeral pyre into the sea. Then his tears dried and he begged me to remain.

     With a bow, I shook my head. ¨I must return to my mountains, resume my place among my family. It is where I belong.¨

     ¨No,¨ Atlas said simply. ¨You belong here now. You will stay.¨

     Uneasy as I was, I could not refuse my king's demand. As the smoke from the sacrificial mourning fires cleared, word spread throughout the kingdom: the young King Atlas would take a bride.

     So it was: I learned I would be queen via a rumor. It occurred to me that the gossipwitches might have spoken the truth.

     Had true love entered into the story, I would gladly have exchanged my mountain life for it. Or, had I ever dreamed of power, perhaps I could have overlooked the absence of love. I had lavish chambers in the palace, where my every wish was granted. But when he became king, he spoke to me less, and the possibility of ever loving him began to flicker like a mirage.

     The wedding date was set. Atlas still had not proposed to me. I was confined to my chambers, a splendid prison whose iron bars were velvet-covered. Alone in my dressing room one dusk, I put on my wedding gown and the lustrous orichalcum crown I would were when I was presented to the kingdom. Twin tears welled in my eyes.

     ¨Tears suit you even less than a vulgar crown.¨  a voice said from behind me.

     I turned to find a figure sitting in shadows. ¨I thought no one could enter.¨

     ¨You'll grow accustomed to being wrong,¨ the shadowed figure said ¨Do you love him?¨

     ¨Who are you?¨ I demanded. ¨Step into the light, were I can see you.¨

     The figure rose from the chair. Candlelight caressed his features. He looked familiar, as if he were a fragment of a dream.

     ¨Do you love him?¨ he repeated.

     It was as if someone had stolen the breath from my lungs. The stranger's eyes entranced me. They were the color of the cove where i swam in the morning as a girl. I could not help wanting to dive in.

     ¨Love?¨ I whispered.

     ¨Yes. Love. That which makes a life worth living. That which arrives to carry us where we need to go.¨

     I shook my head, though I knew it was treason to the king, punishable by death. I began to regret everything. The boy before me smiled.

     ¨Then there is hope.¨

     Once I had crossed the blue boundary of his eyes, I never wanted to find my way back. But I soon realized I was trespassing in a dangerous realm.

     ¨You are Prince Leander.¨ I whispered, placing his fine features.

     He nodded stiffly. ¨Back from five years' traveling in the name of the Crown - though my own brother would have had the kingdom think that I was lost at sea.¨ He smiled a smile I was sure      Id seen before. ¨Then you, Selene, had to go and discover me.¨

     ¨Welcome home.¨

     He stepped from the shadows, pulled me to him, and kissed me with matchness abandon, Until that moment, I had not known bliss. I would have stayed locked in his kiss forever, but a memory returned to me. I pulled away, remembering a piece of the Gossipwitches' timeworn chatter.

     ¨I thought you loved-¨

     ¨I never loved until I found you.¨ He spoke sincerely from a soul I knew I could never doubt. From that moment into infinity, nothing would matter to us but each other.

     Only one thing stood between us and a universe of love...