Author's Note: so here it is. The last chapter. Enjoy!

The Ratking

CHAPTER 14 – The end of …

King Frederick had followed the argument between his wife and the Danali royals. For just a moment his heart soared when he heard Natalie acknowledging her love for him. But he had heard King Derek's last words too and knew neither he nor his people would be allowed to live out their lives as rats.

Natalie went to the cage where Frederick was locked up and told him what he already knew.

"King Derek won't change his mind. He says he promised his daughter."

Natalie started to cry. Tears streaked her face and her body was shaking with the sobbing.

"All this is my fault. I should never have helped the princess. I should never have hinted that she might send you a double to marry. I have destroyed you … I have destroyed you all."

Natalie couldn't speak anymore. She didn't know how she would be able to live without Frederick. All she could see in her future was the gaping maw of loneliness. For the first time since their marriage King Frederick stroked her face. He said, "Don't feel guilty. We had a great time together. I found happiness when I thought I could never again be happy. And you didn't destroy us. You didn't bring the soldiers to our island. The princess did."

Natalie held his paw on her face.

"You don't hate me?"

"Never, my wife, I love you and I wish I had the time left to prove it to you."

Then King Frederick pulled Natalie closer to the cage and kissed her; and Natalie kissed the rat-king. Her lips touched his furry snout and then … she felt lips, warm human lips. Natalie opened her eyes and there was her husband; his eyes were looking back at her but no longer from a ratty face. He was a man … the man from the painting in the picture gallery.

Before either Natalie or Frederick could speak they heard the loudest thunderclap as lightning struck the ground and out of a ball of fire stepped the most amazingly beautiful woman. Her hair was long and golden – really golden, not golden-brown or very blond; silver streaks ran through it and it glistened with the reflection of the sunlight. Her eyes were strange, slightly slanting and violet, light and friendly when she looked at Frederick and Natalie, dark and threatening when she looked at Clarissa, but definitely violet. Her dress was like a piece of ocean wrapped around her body. Impossible to tell whether it was green or blue but it shimmered and moved like the currents of the sea.

"Good morning, Melina, making a quiet entrance as usual?"

"I've had enough practice, Frederick dear. Why in heaven's name did it take you so long to kiss the girl I sent to you?"

'What do you mean? My wife was not a noblewoman when I married her."

"Noblewoman? I never said noblewoman. Weren't you listening? I said noble … woman, the two don't always coincide," she said with a quick glance at Clarissa; "I first saw this girl in Eskmouth when she worked for the princess and I was rather pleased when she boarded the ship and I could get her to you so easily. Then you nearly spoiled things when you wanted to marry the wrong girl and I was not allowed to put you right – rules of curses, you see, no meddling allowed - well - not much. How could you ever think I wanted you to marry somebody as unpleasant as that Princess Clarissa? You would have been more miserable as her husband than you had ever been as rat."

The princess audibly gasped when she heard this.

.

Natalie turned to King Derek and said, "Sire, I think you have kept your word. All rats have disappeared. Can the cages be opened, please?"

With a big smile King Derek looked around at all the rat-people who had become human again.

"You are right, Ma'am, the rats have all gone. Guards! Open those cages! Immediately!"

"Papa, you can't mean that. You cannot let them go after all they did to me, the horror I had to go through and the bad treatment. I told you what that beast wanted to do to me. You can't let him get away with it."

"Shut up, daughter. I don't want to hear your lies any longer. This war is over, we are going home."

Princess Clarissa stamped her foot, moaned and cried bucket-loads of crocodile tears. When that didn't produce a reaction from her father, she rolled on the ground like a tantrum throwing toddler, for the first time in her life not worrying about getting dirty. King Derek yanked his daughter to her feet.

"Stop behaving like a child or I'll give you the spanking I should have given you years ago. Why can't you behave like your former maid? SHE is a queen; you're just an annoying brat devoid of honour. Lying to get us involved in this war as well. The cost for this will come out of your allowance and not out of taxes. You can count on that."

Melina made King Derek an offer, "I could put a curse on your daughter, Your Majesty, one that will disappear as soon as she learns to be more pleasant."

"Madam, I am tempted but I fear she would stay cursed for ever. This is my fault, I spoilt her too much. I could never refuse her anything. Mind you, her mother is not an easy person either. No, I have to find the solution to my problems myself. But thank you for the offer anyway."

.

And that was the end of the war, the only war the island ever knew. The islanders were set free. The captain himself removed the chains from Jacob and Benjamin and apologised to everyone over and over again for having brought the ships to the island. And everyone accepted his apologies over and over again because they knew the princess would have made some serious threats to get him to cooperate. Then the fugitives who had come down from the caves arrived and it was great to see how families found each other again, even though they had all changed. Even Selina was soon embracing her Graham, who still had great whiskers.

As soon as King Derek and Princess Clarissa were gone the celebrations started and people toasted, "To the end of the war!", "To the breaking of the curse."

"To the fact that nobody died or got seriously injured in the war," said King Frederick while he looked at Melina.

She answered that she had nothing to do with that; it was not allowed; rules of the curses and so. But Frederick knew the truth. Melina had been living with her guilt for a long time and a voluntary banishment from the island had not been enough to ease it.

Frederick took every opportunity to kiss Natalie. "I have a lot of catching up to do," he said. Then he added, "If I had kissed you at the end of the wedding ceremony, as I should have done, the curse would have been broken over a year ago. And Clarissa would have looked and even bigger fool. All her talk about terrible rats and there wouldn't have been a rat on the island. I should have realised all along Melina could never have sent a woman like Clarissa to be my bride."

Natalie laughed, "I even thought Melina was some evil witch to have sent you Clarissa. Sorry, Melina."

"Quite all right. I don't do curses anymore, though I would gladly have made an exception for that Clarissa."

"When I realised what sort of person she was I felt caught between the devil and the deep blue sea," said Frederick. "And if I'd been the only one cursed, I would have opted for the sea and sent the devil back to her father. But then I would never have married my wife and that would have been a real shame." Then he kissed Natalie again until everybody started whistling and clapping.

.

Of course Graham asked Selina to be his wife to which she answered, "Finally! I thought you'd never ask. Of course I will." They were married within a fortnight. The little milkmaid, who did have a cream-coloured skin and a mop of black curls instead of black ears, said "Yes" too when Benjamin asked her.

Melina, feeling she had no right to remain, had left Ilara again to continue her banishment. Frederick and Natalie kept asking her to come back and finally she succumbed to their requests. Melina and her husband returned to the island and opened up the house on the market square thus removing the last reminder of the curse.

A year later the Falcon brought her former captain and his family to Ilara. He was welcomed with open arms by all who knew him, especially when he told them how Princess Clarissa had made sure of his services. She had imprisoned his wife and young children in a filthy, dark dungeon. When he found out, King Derek became furious with his daughter and even her mother had been angry. She declared that a princess didn't do such things to innocent children. For once Clarissa's parents agreed she needed punishment. Together they devised the worst possible punishment for her. No parties for a whole year.

With the curse broken Frederick and Natalie started on a long overdue round of state visits to neighbouring countries. More than one prince envied Frederick. Of course the new queen of Ilara was talked about at every party. Eventually, once her punishment over, Clarissa too heard all this praise. She couldn't help herself and had to end the admiration for Natalie.

"Some queen. She used to be my scullery maid," she said to a crown-prince she rather fancied because of his wealth.

He looked at Clarissa with more than a little disgust and then said to his brother, loud enough for everyone to hear, "This is a strange country where scullery maids have more nobility in their little finger than the royal princess in her entire body."

Then they left Clarissa standing, more embarrassed than she'd ever thought possible.

.

And that is the story of the rat-king and his wife. Frederick and Natalie lived long and happily in their island kingdom – the best little country in the whole world. That at least is what people say who have been there.

And Princess Clarissa? Did her father, King Derek, ever succeed in making her a kinder person? Well …

... that is another story.

THE END

Thank you for reading my story to the end. I hope you enjoyed it.

Before you ask: No, I don't intend to write a sequel to this story. Feel free to imagine any kind of punishment you like for Clarissa. Feel free to imagine she finally redeems herself, or not.