Page 8 of Zel (The GriMM Tales #2)

He had said his goodbyes to his parents before they left home, keeping the conversation during the journey light so as to not conjure more tears and add any redness or puffiness to Zel’s face.

He was to be the perfect bride, even if the day he was to wed the sorcerer was a month away.

He wanted so badly to hug his parents one last time, but he knew he would begin sobbing again if he did.

Instead, when they turned from him to head back down the path on their shared horse, he raised a hand in farewell, they did the same, and Zel steeled himself to approach the wall.

Woe to any bandits who attempted to accost his parents on their ride home, but Zel still worried the clear path to the tower had only been for him. He had to trust that his horse and the few belongings he’d brought with him would indeed be safe while he left them behind.

There had been a note with yesterday’s shipment of rapunzel telling him to leave whatever he brought with him and the horse he arrived on outside the wall when he approached the tower.

It was a guild horse, as was the one his parents rode back on, but the upkeep of any was difficult during a famine.

Zel didn’t like leaving his things unguarded, let alone a vulnerable animal when times were tough, but he dared not go against the sorcerer’s instructions.

The circumference of the tower was narrow, and the wall not much wider around it.

Zel’s parents had recounted how the garden within was not large either but so lush, it didn’t need to be.

Even once Zel was only a few strides from the wall, which had no opening, he could almost see around the perimeter where it curved left and right.

To the left, did he see a foot sticking out of the brush?

“Only emp—” A hand clamped down on Zel’s shoulder, and he seized its wrist, flipping the offender end-over-end to land hard on his back in front of Zel.

“Rudy!” Zel released his friend, allowing him to scramble to his feet. Rudy was bundled up as well, but the hood had fallen from his head. “What are you doing here?”

“Being reminded to finish our code in full before surprising you, apparently. How could I not come? When you didn’t meet me to say goodbye, I had to follow so I could see you one last time.

You wore my pendant.” The emerald had jostled loose from Zel’s surcoat, which Rudy could see after adjusting his spectacles.

“Of course I did.” Zel clutched it. “But Rudy—”

Rudy swept forward, lips already puckering, as he took hold of Zel’s cheek.

“Are you mad ?” Zel lurched away. “He could be watching us right now!”

Rudy glanced over his shoulder at the tower. Silent as it remained, when he looked back at Zel, he straightened his shoulders and nodded. “Forgive me. Then I am merely a friend wishing his friend farewell. Do you remember five years ago, I think, when Carl tried to kiss you like that?”

A smile tugged at Zel’s lips. He remembered.

While wariness of Zel had always been rampant among their peers, the more his beauty had grown as he reached maturity, the more the boys tried to press their luck.

Zel always rebuffed them beyond honing his skills of seduction, only willing to risk actual intimate activity with Rudy, but Carl had not taken no for an answer.

“You yanked him back from me by the hair and readied to punch him.” Zel chuckled.

“And you, with the speed and grace of an alleycat, seized me by the arm to stop me. As soon as Carl breathed relief, you punched him so hard yourself, his eyes watered for an hour.” Rudy chuckled too, and the familiar ease of his company almost helped Zel relax.

But he couldn’t relax. Not for the next month.

“Because I do not need rescuing,” Zel said, echoing the words he had said back then. He didn’t, not like when Rudy had given him the flower version of this pendant.

“I know. But I will always be here in the unlikely event that someday you're wrong. I will be thinking of you, Rapunzel. Zel . I love you,” Rudy finished in a whisper but looked Zel square in the eyes as he said the oft spoken words. “We will see each other again.”

As Rudy darted back into the trees to follow the path Zel’s parents had taken, everything in Zel ached.

He could only assume Rudy had his own horse hidden somewhere.

It had been foolish of him to come, and Zel couldn’t have said he shared Rudy’s affections, but it had still been nice to see his friend once more. The romantic fool.

Now for the task at hand. Zel’s eyes returned to the foot to the left of the wall.

He neared it, but before he could be certain if it attached to a body or was simply a lost boot, the stones in the wall parted, creating an entrance for Zel where none had been before.

Wary as he was, he stepped through the opening.

The wall immediately closed up behind him, and the chill in the air dissipated.

Fragrant smells assaulted Zel. Grass and herbs and flowers.

It was the height of spring here, like another world from the autumn cold he had left.

As the sun finished setting into darkness, Zel remained in light with the rising of the moon.

He followed the same path he had been told about by his mother and eventually came upon a patch of familiar lettuce. He touched their leaves, verdant green with gold stems. He was overdue for his daily salad, but if the sorcerer wished for him to eat more today, he would provide, Zel assumed.

First stone over, third stone up, and—when Zel pressed it, a door into the tower opened just like the wall had.

The sorcerer probably could have opened it magically, but Zel knew his way up, almost as if he had been here before.

He had been technically, but as a still barely formed babe in the womb.

He also noted how, up close, the tower’s outer surface looked iridescent, like rocks or cave walls when wet.

Ascending the steps, each story up felt more and more like heading to the gallows.

He was everything he should be. Everything the sorcerer should want.

But he could not predict everything that would be asked of him.

He could not predict anything. The only weapon he carried was his dagger, hidden in a sheath on his thigh beneath his skirts.

He hoped to not need it until the month was up.

When he reached the top of the tower, the door was already open.

Everything beyond was dark, so before Zel stepped forward, he called out, “Master Sorcerer? May I enter and present myself to you?”

“You may,” a voice boomed back, deep and resonant enough that Zel felt it in his bones.

He dared to enter the tower’s room, and as soon as both feet crossed the threshold, candles and large sconces on the walls lit up to brighten the space like the dawn.

Zel gasped, for the sorcerer stood before him a mere stretch of his arm away, tall, dark, and terrifying, just as his parents had said.

And so... so beautiful.

“Quite beautiful,” the sorcerer said.

“M-my lord?” Zel sputtered. Had he said that out loud?

The ethereal man stepped closer to Zel. His skin had a violet tint to it, as did his long, wavy black hair.

Eating of his garden was clearly what had grown Zel's hair so long, for the sorcerer's also dusted the ground, only his was so like the void of the night sky that Zel could see stars moving in it.

His tapered elf ears were sharp, but his gaze was sharper, piercing with the swirling heavens in his eyes.

Elves, by nature, were not immortal, though one aspect of their magic seemed to age them more gracefully than their human contemporaries.

Zel couldn’t be sure if the sorcerer even was an elf or something else, but his outward appearance must have stopped aging from whenever he’d achieved immortality.

He could have as easily been mistaken for thirty as his supposed centuries.

He wore black and violet robes that covered most of his tall, broad body.

He was imposing to be sure, and Zel wondered what the rest of him looked like beneath his clothes.

“You are more beautiful than I could have envisioned,” the sorcerer said. “Twenty winters ago, nearly twenty-one now, your parents made an attractive pair, but you outshine them for how you are a blend of their fairness.”

“And a bit of something else?” Zel asked. He stood frozen as the sorcerer circled him, smelling like moonflowers and sage.

“Yes. A part of my magic is also in you. Much magic in fact.” He was behind Zel then and drew back Zel’s hood. How different to have the sorcerer do that instead of Lothar. Then he unclasped the cloak at Zel’s neck to remove it and bid him, “Remove your surcoat as well. It is warm here.”

It was the perfect temperature, just like in the garden.

The sorcerer continued to circle Zel, taking both surcoat and cloak, though he didn’t appear to hold either any longer when he came around Zel’s other side to stand before him. He looked Zel up and down in the wedding dress and flowered crown.

“Look at you. Ripe with my magic.”

“But why?” Zel asked when the sorcerer tried reaching for him. “To ensorcell me? Is that why you wanted me this way, to bewitch me into being the perfect obedient bride for you?” He had always feared that once here, the sorcerer would be able to control him without him having any agency at all.

The sorcerer lowered his hand, his left, while the right remained hidden in his robes. His expression looked almost amused. “Only weak minds can be bewitched without a magical device in play, and even then, never the heart nor soul. Do you feel bewitched by me, Rapunzel?”

“Please, my lord, call me Zel.” He felt immediate panic for having asked that. “Unless you prefer—”

“It is your name, and names are powerful. Your preference is what matters… Zel.”