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Kristen Anne Glover

Five in Tow

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{30} You Came for Me

31 Days: From Enemy to Heir

As soon as she said the words, even before—as soon as it occurred to her to cry out for help, Jewel felt a hand reach out and snatch her up.  It carried her to a place of warmth and safety.  In her unconscious haze, she could not tell where she was, only that she never wanted to leave.

She heard the voice of her Advocate, and the voice of her enemy, although they seemed far-off in her mind.

“What are you doing here?” she heard the Enchanter sneer.  “We have a deal.”

“You know perfectly well I don’t make deals with you.”

“Well, then, what are you doing here?  Visiting?”

“You have something that belongs to the prince.”

“I do?”  The Enchanter’s insolence was palpable.  “I didn’t think I could take anything from you.  Oh, unless you mean that woman of his?  Well, I didn’t take her.  She wandered here all on her own.”

“She is his bride, and you will pay for your part in deceiving her.”

“Bride?  Oh!  I’m sorry.  I didn’t see a bride here, only a tramp.  A vile, worthless tramp who didn’t need much encouragement to forget all about him.”

“That is not true.  She is clothed by the prince, and you have no right to speak such words to her.”

The Enchanter looked at Jewel’s torn, stained garments with feigned surprise.  “Do all the girls get the pretty dresses, or just the friendly ones?”

“You can talk all you want but you know you have no authority over her anymore.”

“No authority?  Funny, for someone with ‘no authority’ I seem to doing a pretty good job of entertaining your people in my kingdom.

Don’t be sad, but I think she likes me better than your prince.  Look how quickly she abandoned him for me.  Not to mention the fact that you didn’t do a very good job of keeping her home yourself.  Weren’t you supposed to be her guardian, her Advocate?  Yet all I had to do was whisper a few pretty words in her ear, and she was gone.  I don’t think she loves you very much at all.”

“I am not here because of how much she loves me. I am here because of how much I love her.”

“Well, if you ever get tired of her, I could show you a dozen more just like her.”

“Do not tempt me,” the Adviser said through clenched teeth, “or nothing on earth will be able to  hold me back from giving you a painful reminder of how this ends.”

The Enchanter sneered.  “You wouldn’t dare.”

In a flash of steel, the prince’s adviser struck the Enchanter with the broad side of his sword.  The shadowy creature flew into the air and landed with an infantile cry.  “Stop!  Please, stop!” The Enchanter screamed like the coward he was.

The Adviser placed his sword under his enemy’s throat.  “You are fortunate I am a very patient man or I would gladly run you through.  But my father and I are not willing for any one of your captive souls to be lost.  There are still some in your kingdom who will answer when I call, some who will yet be rescued, and it is for them I stay my sword.  Not you.

“And if you think you can touch the bride of the prince without repercussion, think again.  I am keeping track of every single vile thought, word, and deed you have done to her, and I will repay you a thousandfold.  One day, you will see her, spotless like I see her, and you will know the gravity of the crimes you have committed against her and the justice of my punishment to you.  Because you will be punished, and in that day, you will regret ever having laid a finger on her.”

The Enchanter quivered under the Adviser’s power.

“I will be back for you soon enough,” the Adviser said, then he, Jewel’s own faithful advocate, picked her up in his arms and ran across the rocky, rough terrain toward home.

Jewel was just beginning to come to when she felt the swift and startling movement.  “You came for me,” she said in sleepy wonder. “You came back for me.”

“No, Jewel. I did not come for you.  I never left you.”

Where can I go from your Spirit

“No…no.  I didn’t see you there.”  It was hard to form the words, but harder to stay silent when her heart was so heavy.

“You were too preoccupied to notice, but I was with you all the way.”

Jewel thought about that a moment.  “I didn’t know you would follow me so far.  I mean, I didn’t think you would go there.”

“What kind of rescuer would I be if I didn’t go where you most needed rescuing?” 

“Then, why did you let me go so far?  Why didn’t you stop me from myself?”

“I let you go just as far as you needed to go.  I let you go until you had to turn around.”

Jewel knew it was true.  She would not have come back so willingly if she had not gone so far.  She was that obstinate, that stubborn, that much in need of rescuing…still.

“I’m sorry…I’m so sorry.”  The warmth enfolded her and Jewel slipped back into the haze, grateful, at least, that she had been able to say that much.

31 Days, Faith, From Enemy to Heir 3 Comments

{29} Beyond Rescuing

31 Days: From Enemy to Heir

Beyond Rescuing: Day 29 of 31 Days

For Day 1, click on the image above

Jewel fell back on her knees and stared at the box before her.  Dust and ashes, ashes and dust.  She could not understand it—she knew there was treasure here before.

“Didn’t find what you were looking for?” a voice said in her ear.

She fell down, terrified, and looked up.  It was the Enchanter, looking calm and collected next to her dirty, frazzled body.

“I don’t understand,” Jewel stammered.  “It was here.  I left it here.  I buried treasure in this box, but when I opened it, well, look!”  She shoved the box at the Enchanter, who clucked his tongue and shook his head.

“He should have told you this would happen.”

“What do you mean?  Who should have told me what?”

“Your prince.  It’s a trick of his, you know.  Once you see his treasure, your treasure is like dust.  You can never come back to it and be satisfied.”

“You mean it just disappeared?”

“I mean, you never had it to begin with.“

Jewel looked at the box in disbelief.  “But I did!  I…I saved it myself.”

“You stole it.  Or at the very least, you did all sorts of things to earn it that would make a good princess blush.  You know it, and I know it.  That is not treasure, Jewel, it’s plunder.  Blood money.  It’s no good in his kingdom.”  He came a little closer to her and whispered, “If your prince knew where you got it, he would turn away from you in disgust.”

“How dare you, you who sold me first!  How dare you accuse me!”

“How dare you pretend I’m not justified in doing so,” the Enchanter laughed.  “Oh, Obscurity!  Do you really think you can erase your past, just because you put on new clothes and a crown?”

“My name is Jewel.”

“Ironic.  You do not look very much like a Jewel now.”

Jewel looked down.  She was covered in filth.  Blood oozed from scrapes and scratches, and she realized that one of her fingernails had been torn off completely.  Worse, her dress was ripped beyond repair.  She had worn her oldest dress, the very first dress the prince had ever given her.

It was her wedding dress. 

“You know,” the Enchanter cooed, “I have more riches than I know what to do with.  If it’s treasure you seek, I can make you rich beyond imagination.”

“I don’t want to be rich,” Jewel said.  “I came because I wanted to do something for him.”

“Of course you do.  He’s done so much for you, after all.”

“Yes.”  The thought of it made her wretched.

“Although, I can’t help but feel he got the better of me when he took you from me.  I’m not sure I’m ready to forgive him for that.”

“Please, if you have anything you can spare, anything at all.  I’ve come all this way, and I have nothing.  How can I go back like this?”

“How indeed,” the Enchanter said, looking her over with slitted eyes.  “I would not want to go in your place.  I can just imagine the look on his face.”

Beyond Rescuing

Beyond Rescuing

Jewel buried her head in her dirty hands and sobbed.  “What can I do?”

“Well,” the Enchanter’s smooth voice curled around her like smoke.  “There is one thing.”

“What?  Anything!”

His beautiful face contorted so quickly, Jewel gasped in surprise.  He grabbed her by the throat and hissed, “Bow down and beg for it.” 

Her eyes were wide and frantic.  He was fierce and ugly, like the dragons that swooped over his land.  Ugly like she had never seen him before.  Jewel clawed at him, expecting any moment for him to release her.  He was a friend!

“You see, Jewel, I have not forgotten your betrayal.  I have not forgotten how you traded me in at the first chance you had to become the bride of the one I hate.”  He spat the words at her like a viper.  “Do you really think we could be friends after that?  Do you really think I will help you?”

He was her friend!  He had said so himself.  But now there was no air!  Was she to die at his hand?

“No, Jewel, I will not help you, but you have certainly helped me!  You have led your people right out the gates and into my kingdom.”

He laughed then and released his grip just enough for Jewel to gasp for breath and feel the weight of his words.  It was true. 

“Do you know, Jewel, there is one thing I love almost as much as having my own kingdom.  Do you know what that is?  It’s having the prince’s people serve me when they think they’re serving him.  They wander farther and farther away from him every day and they don’t even know it.  In fact, they think they are more enlightened than ever before!  It’s almost too easy!

“What kind of pathetic prince can’t keep his people from traipsing over to the enemy just as soon as the gates are open?  Your prince, Jewel, that’s who.  He talks a big talk, but he has no power over the desires of men.  I do.”

The Enchanter looked into her eyes and scoffed.  “And you—you’re the worst offender.  ‘Jewel: bride of the prince.’  You came calling so quickly, I’m almost amazed the prince didn’t recognize you sooner for the harlot you are.”

“Let me go,” she begged, her voice hoarse and raspy.

“Let you go?  Tell me, Jewel, where would you go?  Do you think I am so kind as to take traitors back into my house?  I would sooner destroy you.  And if you think he will take you back when you have betrayed him like this then you do not know his holy fierceness like you ought.  It would be a kindness for me to kill you outright rather than to leave you to his justice.”

He was choking her again, but she was dying with the thought that she might be beyond rescuing by her prince.  Of course the Enchanter was right.  Why would her prince take her back?  She had been so foolish.

“You have been defeated, Jewel.  Admit it, and I might let you live long enough to see the embarrassment on your prince’s face.”

The darkness of that night became even darker.  The whole world spun and she felt her arms go numb.  Jewel could not breathe.  She could only exhale one last breath.  “Help me,” she whispered just before everything went black.

*Join us tomorrow for the exciting Day 30!

31 Days, Faith, From Enemy to Heir 5 Comments

I believe you can find grace for the mother you are and help to become the mother you long to be—a mom who has the freedom to choose the better things and enjoy her kids right now.

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