Page 7 of Zel (The GriMM Tales #2)

Two

ZEL

T he mirror in Zel’s parents’ bedroom was one of the more lavish things they owned, though they had not purchased it.

It was one of the few items his parents had stolen that had not been taken by the guild.

Certain things could be kept for a job well done, and the nearly full-length mirror with its hand-carved wooden frame was something Sophie had requested when she and Gregor wed.

Not really a reward for a job well done, but a promise for a job well done to come. Sophie had stood right where Zel was now in front of that mirror on the day of their wedding, in her wedding dress, with Zel a growing life inside her not yet large enough to show as even a bump.

Zel wore that same dress today.

“You really do look lovely, darling,” Sophie said, coming up behind Zel to kiss his cheek. “Whether you wear this again someday for your real wedding or are in breeches and a waistcoat, you will be equally as radiant.”

As fair as Zel had often been told he was, he had never looked as beautiful as he did today.

No one could have mistaken him for a man in the deep pink and black dress, with luminous sleeves trimmed in gold almost the same color as his hair.

A touch of green lace adorned the bottom of the bodice, which was also embroidered with a mix of the same pink, green, and gold, and an addition of violet that all came together with Zel’s violet cloak fastened at his neck.

Rather than a bonnet, Zel and his mother had affixed fresh flowers to a headpiece that was near enough to a crown.

The cloak, when pulled around him, would hide that he wore Rudy’s emerald pendant, but for now, it gleamed beautifully as a centerpiece on Zel’s chest. His hair was more intricately braided than usual, though it still hung past his knees, even with countless layers to his plaits.

“Ah, but trim that bit there, will you?” Sophie indicated an uneven strand of Zel’s fringe. She handed him a pair of shears, and he clipped the strand to better frame his face.

Perhaps, a month from now, Zel would finally slice it all off. But likely not. He no longer wanted that. He loved his hair. He loved the way he looked in the mirror this morn, garbed in his mother’s wedding dress. He just hated the reason.

Zel handed the shears back to Sophie and pulled his bundle of braids over his shoulder to stroke it.

It was his, and even if its splendor was from the eating of magical lettuce, he refused to let any part of him be taken away.

This pact would end with him gaining, not losing, even if he didn’t yet know everything he wanted.

“Are you ready, Rapunzel?” Sophie asked.

Zel fought the usual cringe at the use of his full name. After this was over, he would finally correct them. “I have to be. But may I see Rudy before we go?” He turned from the mirror to face her. “Besides you and Father, he is the only one I will miss if I never return.”

“Do not think like that.” Sophie brushed Zel’s cheek with her thumb and then ran her fingers down his braids as well. “Repeat your mantra, one last time. You will succeed.”

“I will succeed.”

“You are ready for this.”

“I am ready for this.”

“You are fierce and beautiful and capable.”

“I am fierce and beautiful and capable.”

“Now let’s find Rudy. But this time, no letting him into your corset.”

Zel laughed. “ Mother .”

“I am afraid there isn’t time for last-minute visits,” Gregor’s voice came from the hall. As he stepped into the room, he gasped and held a hand to his chest. “Oh, Rapunzel. You are a vision. As beautiful as your mother was those twenty winters ago.”

“Don’t lie, Gregor,” Sophie said. “Rapunzel is prettier.”

“If so,” Gregor countered, coming close enough to take one of each of their hands, “it is only because together it was inevitable we would create a child who is the fairest in all the lands.” He kissed first Zel’s hand and then Sophie’s.

“Flatterer,” Sophie said.

“I am sure there is at least one person in the kingdom who is fairer than me,” Zel said. “But wait. No time? I can’t see Rudy?”

Gregor’s smile fell. “Before we depart, Lothar demands an audience.”

***

The Thieves Guild halls beneath the shop were in a very different state from last night.

All signs of their reveling had been cleared away, and there were very few guild members about, as all had tasks to perform or missions to complete.

The few that remained were primarily guards, one of which led Zel and his parents to a sanctum several twisting corridors deeper into the guild where Lothar took audiences in private.

Zel’s one solace was that his parents were able to join him.

“Master Lothar,” Zel greeted and curtsied before the guild master, who sat in a grand chair like a throne at the back of the room, with two guards on either side of him. Just in case, Zel had made certain Rudy’s pendant was hidden.

“Rapunzel,” Lothar greeted back, already having forgotten to use the name Zel, but that was typical. “No man could resist your loveliness today, pretty petal, not even an immortal sorcerer.”

As it turned out, Zel preferred his full name to pretty petal . “I will do my duty, and I will succeed.”

“I know you will. But I did not call you here only to wish you well. I mean to offer additional incentive.”

“Incentive, Master?”

Lothar rose from his throne and approached Zel. “When you succeed and bring back to us all the tower’s secrets, you will become a different immortal’s bride.”

“What…?”

Zel wasn’t kneeling, but even standing, he only came up to Lothar’s nose.

Lothar tilted Zel’s chin up like he had last night.

“Did you think you would go unrewarded? Return to me with the sorcerer’s head, and it is I, a man poised to be more powerful than even the Queen, who will have you for his bride.

Something to look forward to.” He leaned so close that Zel feared the guild master might steal a kiss.

There would be no hiding his revulsion if Lothar did so, but thankfully, he merely stroked Zel’s cheek.

“What if I find no weaknesses?” Zel asked. “What if he cannot be killed?”

“I am reasonable. That is a possibility. If so, find the source of his immortality and steal that much from him to bring to me. Your family’s debt will be paid.

And make no mistake.” He gripped Zel’s chin again, this time harshly.

“No matter what you think that monster capable of, it is my debt you do not wish to be in.”

“Y-yes, Master Lothar.”

Zel remained numb the entire way back to their shop. Only once he and his parents were in the storeroom did his knees fail him and he crumpled to the floor, sobbing.

“Rapunzel!” His parents swept down to either side of him, holding him as he cried.

“I-I thought… if I succeeded… I’d be free. I would finally be free. But if Lothar wants me as his bride, when he finds out—”

“We will not let that come to pass,” Gregor said. “You will marry no one but who you wish to, if anyone at all. Finish your mission, and we needn’t answer to Lothar ever again.”

“Gregor?” Sophie questioned.

“We’ve discussed it, haven’t we?”

“As foolish fancy, but—”

“If we follow Lothar blindly even after our debt is paid, we condemn ourselves. We condemn Rapunzel.” Gregor held them both closer, gathering his “girls” into his arms. “We deserve more than that selfish brute. The guild deserves more. We could run it so much better than he does. We could save lives instead of only taking them and defy the Queen for superior reasons over just lining our own pockets.”

“What are you suggesting, Father?” Zel asked.

“Only what we always planned for as our contingency if worse came to worst. The Queen doesn’t care who runs the guild, so long as it appears to serve her.

She didn’t bat an eye when Lothar took over decades ago by unseating the previous leader.

He believes we will hand all that power over to him.

We will not. It is ours for the taking. Yours.

If you claim the tower’s secrets, we can finally stand up to Lothar.

We can be the ones who come out ahead, and you can have whatever life you wish.

Nothing else about the mission has to change.

” Gregor brushed the tears from Zel’s eyes and kissed his cheek.

“We can do this. You can do this, Rapunzel.”

Sophie looked just as supportive.

They were right, weren’t they? They had all feared and followed Lothar for so long, they knew no other way, but if Zel succeeded in claiming all that power and treasure for himself, there was no reason to give any of it to Lothar.

It had only ever been discussed as a last resort, but it seemed they had reached that end.

Besides, Zel’s parents could bring a new age to the Thieves Guild.

Zel could too if he chose it. He might even want that life once it was truly his choice to make.

Zel blinked back the last of his tears and nodded. “I can do this.”

And when he did, he could finally, finally be Zel.

T he trip out of the city, through villages, and along the appointed path into the wood and toward the sorcerer’s tower took most of the day, meaning they arrived just as the sun was setting, exactly as the sorcerer had requested.

Any travel into the wood was dangerous, on roads or otherwise, even before reaching what some considered the most perilous area—the Dark Forest—but Zel and his parents encountered no bandits nor nefarious magic. It seemed the sorcerer had cleared the way.

The layer of a hand-me-down surcoat lined and trimmed with fur had been added beneath his cloak to keep him warm.

It was well-made, if somewhat worn from wear, another item that had belonged to Zel’s mother that he was thankful for against the frigidness of autumn.

It made the skin beneath his layers no less prickly with gooseflesh when they arrived at the tower he had seen in the distance all his life like a monument to his fate.