Could I tell her what she was? Should I?
God knew it was information no one had bothered to share with me. And I'd resented it - for centuries I'd resented it.
"What ails me," the beautiful creature went on, "no one knows. I only seem to grow weaker with every year and I've grown tired of being a young woman in the body of an old one. Whatever it is, it will take me sooner or later. I say, I prefer sooner. I wish to have done with it."
"I see."
"You cannot possibly see."
I hooked my finger beneath her chin, tipping her face up to mine. "But I do. By day, you tire easily, sleep often. Only come sundown do you feel any energy at all. When cut, you bleed profusely. And -"
Her small gasp silenced me. Her eyes met mine, wide and amazed. "How can you know these things?"
"Because I suffered from the same ailments myself, child. Long, long ago."
"And yet, you live," she whispered. "And you're strong. How did you cure yourself? Tell me!"
"I will, if you will tell me something first."
"Anything," she promised.
I nodded, and settled into a more comfortable position beside the fire, for my broken bones still ached.
"What do you wish to know, my prince?"
"Nothing so difficult." I told her. "Only just ...your name."
Sighing, she lowered her head. "My name?"
I nodded and saw the relief in her eyes. She had expected me to ask something else, something more difficult. She whispered, "Elisabeta."
"Beautiful," I told her. "Like you."
"I am often called odd looking. Never beautiful."
"Oh, but you are. The pale golden hair and those onyx eyes. It's a rare combination."
"Rare is odd."
"Diamonds are rare, Elisabeta. Not odd, but precious."
She lowered her head, and I saw her cheeks color. "Will you tell me now, what you know of my ailment?"
I glanced toward the cave's entrance, where the color of the sky was paling more than before. No longer purple, but violet near the top, and gray near the bottom. "The sun's rising. Do you feel it? The daylight coming, tugging at your senses, drawing you to rest?"
"Yes," she whispered. "Yes, I do. I thought I was the only one who could sense the dawn's approach."
"All those like us do. After the...the cure is taken, Elisabeta, it doesn't just call to you. It insists. I... must sleep by day. I cannot resist it, even if I try."
She lifted her head. "You're falling asleep even now, aren't you? But I so want to know ... I so want to know if I can be well."
"You can be...as well as I am. And I will tell you how, precious one. Stay with me, here. Sleep safe in my arms this day. And when night falls again, and I wake, I'll share with you all of my secrets.
Secrets...no one has ever known before."
I lay back on the stone, far from the entrance and a safe distance from the fire. Without my bidding, she came to me, and curled up beside me in the cradle of my arms.
"These secrets I will share - could cost me all that I have. Even my life," I told her. "They demand a steep price, Elisabeta."
"I'm poor. I have nothing to offer a prince," she whispered.
"You have everything to offer me, child. In exchange for my secrets, you must agree to stay with me...for always."