The Princess and the Cat Ch. 01

Welcome to my newest work. This is your obligatory 'slow burn' warning. There's no sex in this chapter, and there may not be for a little while. Otherwise, enjoy.

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Chapter One

Once upon a time, in a kingdom not so very far away from here, there lived a princess. Fair of demeanour and fairer of face, she was the very picture of regal beauty and poise, charming everyone she met with her manners, her long golden hair, and her fluttering laugh, which was said to put the chiming bells to shame. By all accounts, she was the most desirable maiden in the kingdom, and lords and princes from miles around came to seek her hand in marriage. For not only would her eventual husband have the privilege to call one of the world's most beautiful women his own, he would also rule at her side when her parents passed on the crown to her.

There was just one problem: the princess was completely unmarriageable - or otherwise dismissive of every man she met. At least, so the rumours went among the common folk. This wasn't exactly the sort of personal issue that royalty made public, if it were even true. But why else would Princess Eliana have turned down every one of the dozens of eligible, handsome and downright charming suitors that had come to court her? There must have been something wrong with her, people whispered. Surely by now - approaching her twentieth birthday - one of the visiting princes, nobles, heroes or demigods would have fallen into her favour. But instead, she continued to pleasantly rebuff them, sending them all home with a smile.

In truth, Eliana had found many of her suitors very agreeable indeed. Sure, there was the usual assortment of prancing fools, stuck-up viscounts and sons of merchants with more money than sense, but a good number of them had been genuinely pleasant gentlemen. A second cousin that she used to play with as a child had dropped by to ask her to come and live with him in his dukedom; it had been a splendid reunion and the two had talked all day long, but he still left despondently when evening came. A square-jawed conquering hero from her father's army once caused quite a stir by staying in the princess's chambers all night, but as it turned out, she had convinced him to regale her with gory, blood-filled war stories, and they had both simply lost track of time.

Six months before Eliana's twentieth birthday, it would finally come to a head. Late in the evening, the king summoned his daughter to his chamber, far from the prying ears of servants in the throne room.

"Darling," he said with a heavy sigh, "this really must stop. Under normal circumstances, you would have been married off years ago, and that would have been the end of it. I have tried to respect your autonomy as much as we can, but at the end of the day you must marry if our kingdom's future is to be secure!"

Eliana sighed gently, her crystal blue eyes fluttering slowly as she seated herself opposite her father, hands folded delicately in her lap. She knew he was right, of course. As princesses went, she was pretty lucky to have understanding parents. In those days, princesses were commonly married off as young as thirteen, and betrothed far younger, in order to produce heirs and connect powerful bloodlines. Rather than rebelling outright, she had gone along with the endless visitations of men her father favoured; she had been polite, spoken with them at length, and then found some reason to dismiss them."I know this, Father," she said, her voice light and gentle as a trickling brook. "But I do not rule my heart; it rules me."

The king, for his part, sighed once again. "I have been through this with you, Eliana. Marriage for love is a wonderful thing, I know. Your mother and I were lucky, and it is only because we wanted you to find the same kind of love that we have allowed this to continue for so long. But if you have gone this long without finding the one you wish to marry, I am afraid that matters may be out of my hands."

Eliana did not frown - her brow must always, of course, remain regally unwrinkled - but her eyes betrayed confusion. "What do you mean, Father? You are King here, and no man's word is above your own."

Eliana's father shook his head. "Aye, my sweet child. But alas, it is not the word of a man that I fear. There is something I must tell you."

Eliana remained silent, impassively waiting for him to continue.

The king was silent for a time, looking more troubled than the young princess had ever seen him. At length, he spoke again, and his voice was heavy and dull. "Nearly twenty years ago, on the day of your birth, your mother and I were visited by a malignant spirit," he confessed, his brow thunderously dark with emotion. "It claimed you as the firstborn child of the summer solstice, under a dark and ancient pact that one of our ancestors made to secure the safety of this kingdom."

Eliana's throat hitched at her father's words. She had expected merely to be chastened for sending her latest suitors away, but this was starting to sound like something out of a nightmare. "You cannot be serious."

"Oh, I wish I were not. My father's grandfather was a good king, but the people fell on hard times. A drought, a bloody war, and torrential storms in quick succession devastated their crops and left thousands starving. In exchange for the soul of one child each year, he summoned a demon and employed its magic to save his people. A difficult choice, to be sure, but probably the right one."

Eliana pursed her lips. "It sounds so terribly cruel, but... if there really were no other options, I believe I may have done the same. The life of a few to save many? Far greater sacrifices have been made in the past, and to far worse ends."

"I did not think as you did, when my father told me of this tale," the king said wryly. "I came around eventually, but I was an idealist in my time. I wanted to find some way to save everybody. In any case, the problem is now. Or rather, twenty years ago. For four generations the demon had come to our kingdom each year and quietly spirited away the first child born on the summer solstice. On the night when you were born... your mother and I felt true fear for the first time."

"But he did not take me." There was an unspoken question in Eliana's words.

Her father nodded, his face grim. "The beast was delighted with the prospect of stealing a royal soul for his own, particularly since it was your ancestor who made the pact in the first place. It appealed to its twisted sense of humour, I think. But we pleaded with it not to take you."

"And it just agreed?"

"Not exactly. First, it offered to consider the debt paid in full and cease stealing infants if we let it take you. 'One soul for many', it said..."

A slight shiver passed down Eliana's spine, making her shift uncomfortably in her chair. It was a chilling echo of her own words just moments earlier. "But again, clearly you did not give me up to the creature. How were you able to thwart it?"

The king again fell silent for a minute, looking troubled as he rubbed his beard. "I am not proud of this tale, Eliana," he said solemnly. "I accepted a further bargain. A wager, if you will. The demon told me that if you were not wedded by your twentieth birthday, it would take you then - as well as undoing the magic that protects our land from famine and drought. If you were happily married to someone whom you could love with all your heart, then it would consider the debt paid and leave us in peace.

"I still do not know why the creature made the offer. At the time, I thought it an easy victory, a way to save you and end this demonic curse forever at the same time. I watched you grow into a beautiful, well-mannered, kind-hearted young lady, and my heart filled with joy and pride: both for your sake and for my own, for I believed you would surely be married in short order.

"I know not why you have not yet found somebody you can love, my child. As time goes on, I started to suspect that the demon played some cruel trick - changed something about you, made you incapable of falling in love, perhaps."

Eliana could not help but nod wryly. "That would explain a lot, actually. And after all this, I could almost believe it."

"I would do no such thing!" snapped a harsh voice. A cold wind swept through the room, flinging drapes and tapestries every which way, extinguishing candles and plunging the king's chamber into almost total darkness. Eliana flinched as a sudden, overbearing presence appeared before her, an indistinct, human-shaped smudge of darkness against darkness. "I do not cheat, I do not lie, I do not falsify. I may trick, I may seduce, I may obfuscate, but my word is my bond and a deal is honoured. You know this, do you not?" It turned to Eliana, fixing her with a glare from its unseen eyes.

Composing herself - it would not do to tremble now - Eliana lifted her chin defiantly to look right back at the apparition. "If you are what you seem to be, this is so," she said. "The demons of Hell are bound by their word according to an ancient covenant, and they cannot tell outright lies to a human. Or so it is said."

The demon laughs, a surprisingly jocular sound for a being of pure darkness. "Ooh, I do like this one. Book-learnedand endowed with a healthy sense of skepticism. You'll make a fine addition to my collection in three months' time."

"Why are you here, beast?" Eliana's father thundered, apparently finally finding his tongue. "Come to gloat over a bet you have not yet won?"

"Pretty much. Well, I was just planning to watch, but it looked like little missy here was having trouble getting her head round the whole thing, so I thought I'd come and prove it." Turning back to Eliana, the shadowy form waved, a barely visible gesture in the darkness. "And I have a name, by the way. It's not 'creature', 'beast' or 'demon' - although all three are technically applicable. It's Sinodai."

"Glad to meet you," Eliana said reflexively.Exchanging pleasantries with a demon. Whatever next?

"Yes, well, you'll be less glad if your soul belongs to me in six months." Sinodai sounded almost regretful. "Are you sure you aren't in love with anyone, Princess?"

Eliana narrowed her eyes. "Why do you want to know?"

"I'm simply curious." Sinodai paced - floated? He didn't seem to walk, really - around the room. "I've been observing you from time to time, you see. Your dear father has been trying so very hard to find you somebody to marry, but you keep turning them all down. Perfectly good gentlemen, too, some of them. You frigid or what?"

"What is your point?" she asked flatly, growing tired of the demon's prattling. Few people managed to get under Eliana's skin, but Sinodai seemed to know exactly how to irritate her.

"Nothing much." The demon did indeed sound largely indifferent. "Just making sure you know the game. I'm going back downstairs for some business now, you see, so I'll be back on the summer solstice. Your birthday, that is. If I turn up and find a kingdom with a still-unmarried princess, well... your soul is mine, and all that jazz. Capisce?"

Eliana did her best to stare levelly at the demon. The genesis of an idea began to form in her head. "Fine," she said levelly. "It is not as if I can refuse at this stage; my part in this bet was decided twenty years ago."

Sinodai chuckled, a set of sharp white teeth flashing into existence on his face for a moment. "Looks like you and your daddy are going to have some words after I leave. I love it! But I must leave now, so if you're going to play games, you have six months to come up with something. Ta-ta."

As swiftly as it had appeared, the demon was gone, leaving only Eliana and her father sitting in silent darkness. After taking several deep breaths to steady herself, Eliana stood and fumbled her way to a lamp, bringing some low, dim light back to the room. In the semi-darkness, her father's face looked even more haggard and lined with wear.

For some time, neither of them spoke. Eliana's mind was filled with questions as she paced the room with a measured stride that belied her internal confusion. She hadn't had time to process any significant emotions yet; she would leave those for later. At length she turned back to her father. "I will not judge you," she said, "difficult though it may be. I cannot say that I would have done anything different. But I do have to ask this: why did you not tell me of this earlier?"

"I wished to bear this shame alone," the king rumbled, his eyes downcast. "I was sure that you would fall in love and marry well before your twentieth birthday, so I kept silent, thinking you never needed to know. I wanted to tell you when you turned sixteen, but... your mother did not want to put any pressure on you. She insisted you live a normal life without knowledge of the great burden on your shoulders. I see now that it was foolish, but I went along with what she said. Especially after she passed, I could not bring myself to go against her wishes - but now I must, for it will soon be too late."

Eliana could not believe this was happening. She had never been entirely opposed to the idea of marriage, but none of the men who had come to ask for her hand had stirred even the faintest of romantic feelings in her. Ever since she was a child, Eliana had read dozens of books on love and romance, fairy tales and legends of star-crossed lovers whose hearts crossed oceans to reach out and touch one another. The stories had stirred her heart and made her long for the day when she too might meet that special person, but they had never appeared.

And now... she had no choice. She had to fall in love and marry someone within six months, or she - and the entire kingdom - was doomed.