Two Kisses

ONCE UPON A TIME there was a beautiful princess who had everything she wanted but for one thing: love. Princes from neighbouring kingdoms and far off lands came to offer themselves for her hand in marriage, but not one of them pleased her. They saw only that she was the sole heir to the richest kingdom in all the known world. And some, true enough, saw that she was beautiful, but what she wanted was a man who would truly love her. She wanted a man who would love her if the world turned upside down and they woke one morning to find that they had become pig farmers.

So, she waited and every morning a simple sparrow would fly up to her window at dawn and wake her gently with its song. One day the princess rose, beautifully disshevelled from sleep and said to the sparrow, "If you were a prince, I would marry you today."

And the sparrow huffed in a tiny breath and song twice as high and twice as sweetly.

The princess said, "for you are a simple bird and you know nothing of riches and titles. The lord clothes you and feeds you and you are happy. And each morning you come to share your happiness with me so that my day starts always with beautiful music."

And the bird sang more sweetly still, till the princess' heart was won.

She lifted the sparrow to her lips and bestowed upon it the most gentle of kisses. As she did, the sun broke on the horizon and as its first rays touched the bird and dazzled her eyes, she saw that it was not a sparrow, but a prince.

He stood before her and he said "You have broken the spell that was placed upon me that I should find no love till I found the love that wanted me for who I was without thought for rank or rule. Each morning now for ten years I have flown the land in search of a love who would set me free."

"Oh dear," said the princess, "I have dreamed these past ten years of meeting such a man as you. We must be married at one." and with that she stood gently on tiptoes to kiss him again, but he stepped back.

"The spell from which I have returned lingers still," he said, "If we kiss, I shall be changed again, but this time to your heart I will be neither the bird that won it, nor the man to keep it. I shall love you and we shall wed, but we must never kiss."

"I promise," said the princess, "to love you as you are."

But promises sometimes are too lightly made, as we shall see.

The prince and princess were married that evening in the highest tower and even the sun set more slowly to see them wed. All night and all of the next day, there was rejoicing in the land. For many months the couple seemed blessed and the kingdom prospered as does a body with a strong heart. And never once did they kiss.

Soon a baby was born and kings and sultans from far off lands came to lay gifts at his feet. They came from every corner of the world where the sun shines and the moon watches over those who sleep. But the world is large and even as the message of joy and love is swift, so is the cruel retort not limp to drag a step.

Last of all, after the sultans in their brushed silks and the royal knights in golden armour had gone, came a caravan from a far off land and at its head rode a great man dressed in the rude manner of the barbarians who haunt the moonless north where the sun never rises.

When the prince heard the music of the caravan, he leapt to his feet, for this great man was his father, who had travelled long and hard to see his son. As the caravan approached the city, the people who had run out to meet it fell silent. In the dying light of day, the silk drapes blew back to reveal the blood scourged backs of the slaves who carried the great train. The people saw the warriors, lean and hungry from battle and they shrank back, for their's was a peaceful land.

The prince walked out to meet his father. He looked so small standing in the road before that great slave-borne throne. His father laughed mockingly.

"So this is what you became my great son. When you left, you vowed that you would become the leader of a great nation and I said that there was none greater than that which you left behind." He looked slowly around him "And I see that I was right. You are nothing but the lord of peasants and pigs."

"You are wrong," said the prince.

"Return to me," said the barbarian king, "you will be a slave, but better the slave of warriors than the dandy prince of weaklings."

"I shall not." said the prince.

"Then I shall destroy this kingdom. In three days no man shall be left alive, no stone shall stand upon another, your fields will be sowed with blood and you shall reap nothing but the wind come autumn."

But the prince stood firm,"you can tear down the castles," he said, "and raze the towns, but you cannot destroy us for we have something that your swords cannot cut, nor your fires burn."

"Silence!" The father stood up and the evening sun made his skin burn like bronze. The people cowered before it, but the prince did not flinch.

"When I left you, I thought like you that I would forge a nation in the fires of war, but on my travels I was enchanted by a witch whom I had robbed so that I would learn of love, if learn I could."

"Silence!" roared the father again, for he could not bear to hear such words upon the lips of his son. He leaped down from his blood-drenched throne. He strode towards the prince, his hair and beard were matted and spiked with dried blood and there were fearsome scars upon his body. He looked at the prince. "You cannot be my son," he said.

"I have learned to love," said the prince.

"You have learned nothing. You have forgotten everything. I shall destroy this land and the fires shall burn for a thousand years so that this time none shall forget the lesson. Then I shall raise my grandson to rule beside me. Who is this?"

The princess had joined her husband. She had seen the army and knew that the kingdom could not stand against them. "I am the princess of this land," she said, "I beg you, please leave."

"And who shall turn me away. Who here could stop me for a moment?"

"I," said the prince. The princesses eyes grew wide. "I shall fight you, and I will win." Then he turned to the princess. "I have loved you from the moment that I saw you and I have loved this land, but now I must go to save it. I would gladly die, but I cannot, for dead I can do nothing. I must give up that which I have long sought and most treasure and live with that knowledge. Kiss me," he said, "Love's last kiss shall complete the spell. Take my heart." The princess looked deep into his eyes and saw what had to be done.

"What is this?" said the father, "She kisses him goodbye." and he laughed, and the whole army laughed.

"Go now," said the prince, "do not look back. Raise our son to love, and pray that love now is strong enough. I no longer know."

The last light of the setting sun struck the prince's face. It twisted in the blood light and the army's laughter faltered. The dying sun made a giant of his shadow and the old man's face paled.

"I shall destroy you," said the prince and with a single savage thrust of his sword, he tore the old man's head from his shoulders. "I hereby claim, by the blood that I have spilled, my father's crown. I shall not sleep till the ground is frozen, till the rivers of ice grind our enemies to dust and the sun sets forever." He mounted the steps to his father's throne, now his. But he did not sit till the kingdom was far behind him.

He stared out into the darkness and there were no tears in his eyes, but in his heart, the memory of love burned. Just bright enough.