Chapter Ten

After Lanser had combusted, after Connelly, Lila, and Hook had shown up with Pascal— along with a full contingent of Coronan Royal Guard who had caught up with Rapunzel's trail in Osspot— and after the last of the bad guys had been captured and neutralized, it was all that Rapunzel and Eugene could do not to veritably pummel Griet with questions.

Her answer surprised them both.

"I'm a member of the Order of Sol too."

"The Order of Sol?" Rapunzel repeated. "Like Lanser?"

Griet's expression darkened. "No. Not like Lanser. He was a dissident, a traitor. A rogue." She paused, then, "Much like your adoptive mother."

Rapunzel exchanged an incredulous look with Eugene. "How come he didn't recognize you?"

Griet shrugged. "We're a very secretive secret society. The only other member I know by sight is my father."

"Hang on," Eugene pressed. "How is this order even still around?"

"Through centuries of utmost secrecy and meticulous attention to tradition."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"The Order exists for the preservation of the good, my lady, but as we've seen, the secrets we safeguard are dangerous in the wrong hands. If I'd had my way, you'd never have known."

"How did you know about that dart thing?"

"Ah. Lucky for me, it was still working." For the first time all morning, Griet looked chagrined. She glanced over at Rapunzel, shamefaced. "I— uh— read about it in the big red book."

"What? You can read it?"

"Yes, I can. And did. All of it. Usually when you were busy with elocution."

Rapunzel crossed her arms. "All those hours trying to figure out what was a verb and what was a noun, and the whole time you were standing right there!"

Griet snickered. "Yes, that was pretty torturously hilarious."

"You're lucky you saved our lives, or I might just dismiss you for the indecency of it. And you call yourself my friend!"

"What else do you know?" asked Eugene. "Those experiments that Lanser was performing on Rapunzel— the past records he was referring to— do you know anything about them?"

"The Order is scattered, and like any organization we have our share of power play. There's far less information sharing than we would like, my father most especially. I don't have all of the answers, but—"

"— but what?"

"There was one important thing that Lanser and his like always disregard."

She turned to face the dais, her expression pensive. Rapunzel and Eugene waited.

"No matter how many experiments you do or notes you take or theories you have, when it's all said and done we really don't understand the sun's gift. There's more to it than science. Lanser thought he could tap into your power with the right combination of words or sounds or potions. He never stopped to consider that every time your hair glowed it was because youwanted it to. I think you could have sung about beans and rye and it still would have worked, as long as it was your intention to use your power. The song is just one of our old traditions. Who knows when it was first written?"

"You're saying that part of it is belief?" asked Eugene.

Griet nodded, looking around. "This temple," she said, "was built as a focal point for the sun, yes— there is a dais for each equinox and each solstice—but it's also an acknowledgment."

"Of?"

"That there's some force beyond our comprehension, some force for good. A true initiate of the Order acknowledges and accepts that mystery."

"How did they know about the flower?"

Griet smiled. "I don't know how he knew it would come here, but I do know about the timing." She turned and pointed to the wall behind the dais. "Look closely, Fitzherbert. You might find something to your interest, if you were paying attention."

Eugene frowned and stepped closer.

"That's a star chart," said Rapunzel, who was also peering at the reliefs, "and a lunar chart, and— a calendar. Of lunar eclipses." She took a step forward. "This is the Crustacean, and that is the Royal Hand. One happened just before the eclipse and the other just after, in a year that there is an eclipse."

"A glove," Eugene said, stunned. "Not the Royal Hand, the Glove. And the Crustacean is the Crab." He looked at Rapunzel. "Was there a lunar eclipse this year?"

Rapunzel cocked her head. "Yes."

Eugene hurried nearer and pointed at each part of the wall in turn. "It's the story from the folk song! The eclipse represents the abduction of the moon. It follows closely after the appearance of the Crab in the sky, and then after that comes the Royal Hand, like the queen leaving her glove. It's so simple."

"Very good, Fitzherbert. I'm impressed."

"I spent a lot of time with that dumb song," he said.

"The song was a means for my people to preserve the knowledge in a way that would disguise what it truly was, doubly easy when the names of the constellations were changed. It is a very important and much-revered piece of oral tradition, so I'll thank you not to call it dumb again."

"I can't believe you kept all of this a secret," said Rapunzel.

Griet gave a worried sigh. "For the moment, I'm more concerned with that." She turned and gestured to the remains of the golden flower. "If it didn't violate the most sacred purpose of the Order, I'd be tempted to just destroy it and be done."

"But it could help so many people!" said Rapunzel, horrified.

"It could start a war," said Eugene. He and Griet exchanged grim, knowing expressions.

"For now, we should keep it a secret, at least," said Griet. "We'll have to move it somewhere safe, but not in Corona. If we take it out of Talvania, there could be very troublesome consequences in the future."

Rapunzel pondered the problem, but it was Eugene who had the answer.

"I know where we can hide it."

It took considerable doing to transport the flower safely to Muntz without killing it and without being detected. They planted it in the back corner of the tiny, walled yard behind Braddock's bakery.

Rapunzel waited outside the bakery door, happy to feel peace again after the last few days of fear, suspense, and exhaustion. It was cool outside, but very sunny. Some ways off, Connelly and Griet were waiting with the horses. She had commanded the rest of the guard to go ahead to the capital of Talvania, escorting the dark-haired lady and the other captives, and wait for them. As soon as she and Eugene were finished here, they would follow and hopefully be able to convince the king and queen that Eugene's tardiness had been unintentional.

After seeing Eugene safely settled, she would have to return home. She had until then to decide how much to tell her mother and father. It would be best to tell them everything, she knew, and she probably would, but she found herself in the strange position of sympathizing with Griet's secret, or rather, the burden of keeping it. Rapunzel had only seen the world outside for a little while, and even she could appreciate the potential calamities that could arise from knowledge of the flower's presence in the world. Her mother admitted that finding the first one had been nothing short of miraculous.

At least now she wouldn't have any trouble interpreting all of the books in the secret archive. For obvious reasons, Duke Herrington would no longer be able to help her.

The bell on the bakery door tinkled as someone came out. It was Lila.

"They're still talking," she said. "They could be in there all day." She rolled her eyes.

"It's okay. We're not in a hurry."

"I wanted to thank you. For taking care of Eugene. And I don't mean just coming to rescue him."

"You all took care of that part," Rapunzel said with a smile.

Lila gave a proud smile of her own. "We did do a pretty great job, didn't we?"

"I understand there were explosions."

"Yes, well. That's life with Rhodri." Lila hesitated. "I was jealous of you at first. Why would I have ever expected him to— well, you're a princess. It's hard to measure up to that."

"We didn't know I was a princess when we fell in love," Rapunzel pointed out.

"I know. That doesn't really help much." She sighed. "Anyway, it's hard to not like you, now I've met you. I'm glad. It's time for me to move on."

"Well, you're always welcome in Corona."

"Thank you, princess."

The door opened again, and this time both Braddock and Eugene came out, laughing heartily.

Braddock smiled his giant smile when he saw Rapunzel. "Well, now it's time to say goodbye, little miss." He stepped over and picked her up in a giant hug. "You take care of this one, you hear? Keep him in line."

"I'll do my best."

"Goodbye, Braddock," said Eugene, extending a hand. "Lila. Thank you both. You're taking a risk, but I know we can count on you. I promise it won't be long before we decide what to do."

"I'll hold you to that."

They made one last round of goodbyes, and Braddock and Lila went back into the shop. Eugene took Rapunzel's hand, and together they started walking slowly toward their party.

"Are you still nervous?" Rapunzel asked.

"About the job?"

"Yes. You were very fidgety about it before you left home, as I recall."

Eugene halted, considering. "Surprisingly... no. Not anymore."

She blinked. "Really? Why?"

He scratched behind his head. "I've been thinking about it a lot— what's been bothering me since we got together, when I realized that having a place in your life would come with a certain caliber of living." Eugene shook his head, smiling. "Seriously, do you know how intimidating it is to be in love with you? You're ridiculously smart, crazy talented, you inspire everyone, you get hardened criminals to eat out of your hand... and you're going to use all of that to run a kingdom someday. I don't know, I guess I was just feeling this enormous pressure to figure out a way to contribute or they'd kick me out to the alleys. Create a better economic plan, Fitzherbert! Invent something! Discover a continent! Negotiate a peace treaty!"

"Eugene, I put enough pressure on myself for those sorts of things. I would never impose it on you."

"It's all right. I had a breakthrough."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." He laughed. "It's so simple. It's just the same as it would have been if we were living in a sod house by the river and salting fish every winter. I just want to be wherever you are and make your way easier."

Rapunzel smiled.

He took both of her hands. "Thinking about what to do with the flower sort of summed it up for me. I'm so afraid it could tear us down, yet you want to use it to better the world. And if we don't do that, isn't it just a sad waste?"

"I think so."

"So how about this? You go out there and better the world." He leaned down and pressed his forehead to hers. "And I'll watch your back."

Rapunzel flushed from head to toe. "Agreed." She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him in plain sight of everyone. Again. Griet would probably have some kind of reprimand on the subject when they got home.

But Rapunzel didn't care.

THE END

A/N: Grr, I had already started writing this and then I hit something mysterious on my keyboard and lost it all...

Anyway, there you have it! The story in full. Writing it has certainly been a fun adventure. On of the challenges was keeping it moving along so quickly. Ordinarily my writing tends to be a little more drawn out, with more description, internalization, and more obstacles for the plot, but in this case I was deliberately trying to make it feel like a 90-minute animated movie in its pacing- a true sequel to Tangled.

Obviously, there is opportunity for continuing adventures here, but fair warning- I probably won't ever write them. I kind of feel like I scratched an itch getting this story out of my system, and my attentions are turned once more wholeheartedly to my original writing projects.

I hope you all enjoyed!