Rebel Children

Rose thought she was dreaming when she woke up. She was in a familiar room that she’d thought she would never see again; her own. She shifted and sat up, confirming that she was really here. Tobias was sitting next to her bed and the big man looked ready to weep as he leaned forward to clasp her hand.

“Rose! Oh, darling girl. You’re awake!”

“Did we win?” Rose asked, trying to remember what had happened. Tobias chuckled.

“We won,” he confirmed. “You did it, Rosebud. Er, I suppose maybe I shouldn’t call you that anymore, should I? Your Highness.”

“I’ll always be your Rosebud,” Rose said, squeezing his hand. She glanced around. “Where’s Eli?”

Tobias frowned. “I’m not…entirely sure, to be honest. There was so much commotion when Lorena’s guards fell.”

“But he was hurt.” Rose struggled to get out of bed, alarmed. “I hadn’t completely finished healing him, he might still need me.”

“Whoa! Okay, easy. Just sit tight. I’ll find out where he is. I’ll send Maria in to see you.”

Rose was still a little dizzy and nearly fell out of the bed as she got up. She was in no mood to “sit tight.” Maria burst into the room a few minutes later, beaming and crying as she embraced Rose. She filled her in about how she’d been summoned to the castle and what had been happening. She hadn’t seen Eli and the guards who’d collected her didn’t let Charlie come along, none of which put Rose’s mind at ease.

Tobias returned eventually, two guards in tow. Rose hopped up from the chair she’d been sitting in and they scrambled to bow to her, as if she cared about such propriety right now.

“These guards found an injured man who was asking for you,” Tobias said, looking almost pitying as he glanced at the two guards. “Given that he was injured and asked for Rose, I assume it must have been Eli.”

“Where is he?” Rose demanded.

“We, ah, directed him to the tent that was set up for injured rebels, Your Majesty,” one of them said.

“Charlie was out there somewhere too,” Maria frowned.

“What?” Tobias asked. “They didn’t let you bring him with you?”

“No, and I feel just awful about it. The poor thing was a bit shaken up. Eli must have found him there. Perhaps they went back into Deris with a bunch of the others.”

“Find them,” Rose snapped at the guards. “Bring them both back here.”

“I’ll look for them too,” Tobias volunteered. The guards quickly bowed again and beat hasty retreats from Rose’s glower, Tobias following them. Maria finally convinced Rose to get cleaned up and dressed in something that wasn’t ripped breeches and a blood stained tunic. They finished healing the last of her cuts and bruises, though the bone deep exhaustion she still felt would have to fade on its own. She was able to take a fairly luxurious bath and then Maria brushed her hair to a satiny shine. For good measure she pulled it back and filled it with little hairpins that looked like roses, which made Rose laugh softly. The pins had been a gift from her mother. She’d thought she’d never see them again.

Some of Rose’s old wardrobe still existed in the closet, but none of it would fit her now of course. Instead she dug out a trunk of dresses that had belonged to Queen Arabella. Rose and her father had found a mage to enchant them so they wouldn’t be destroyed by age or moths, after her passing. So that they’d be ready for Rose to wear when she was grown up. She cried at the sight of them and Maria gently hugged her.

“She’d be so proud of you, Rose.”

Maria helped her into a gold and crimson dress with billowing sleeves, finding that it was a perfect fit. Once Rose got herself under control, she left the sanctuary of her room to find rebel leaders and castle staff. People were gathered in the throne room, and Rose was glad to see that Lorena’s body had been removed. They’d managed to clean up the marble too, so there was no trace of her left. People hastily bowed to her, which shouldn’t have felt strange.

“Sir Dewer,” she said, relieved to see him. “I’m so glad to see you made it.”

“And I am overjoyed to see you alive, My Queen.”

“Technically I’m not an official queen yet,” Rose said. “There’s been no coronation.”

“Formalities,” Sir Dewer chuckled. “You are the queen, My Lady. No one would dispute it.”

“Tell me what happened with the battle.”

He recounted the events and told her what the casualties on their side had been, as far as they could tell so far. It was painful to hear, but at least it seemed that overall they had sustained more injuries than deaths.

“We owe it to you, Highness. Your defeat of Lorena was the real key to our win.”

“We owe it to good leadership and the bravery of my people,” Rose replied and he smiled.

“Modest and sincere. Just like your mother.”

Rose set about figuring out arrangements for how the surviving rebels would be taken care of, and how the dead would be laid to rest. She took care of Lorena’s rooms, calling on anyone who was at hand and knew something about magic to help her cleanse the chambers and remove all of the dark magic books and artifacts. She had them destroyed. She ran into Tobias and Charlie, and she hugged the boy enthusiastically.

“Where’s Eli?” she asked anxiously.

“We went back to the inn to find him, but he was gone,” Charlie explained. “The innkeeper there said some guards came and got him.”

She was about to question him more when a maid found her and told her the man she’d requested to see was in the parlor of the guest wing. She asked Tobias for the names of the guards who’d removed Eli in the first place, and then ran to the guest wing. She burst into the parlor to find Eli sitting dazedly on a chair, looking warily at the tiny teacup in his hand.

“Eli,” she exclaimed, and he nearly dropped the cup. He was still pale and she could tell that his wound hadn’t had a chance to finish healing. She must have blacked out before she could finish. She hurried toward him and he stared at her like he wasn’t sure this was really happening.

“Rose,” he said slowly. “Wow. You look great.”

Rose shoved his shoulder slightly. “Why did you leave?” she demanded. “I was so worried about you.”

“I didn’t leave,” Eli frowned. “I woke up and the guards said the queen was too important to talk to me so they took me out to the medical tent and I found Charlie, and we went back to the inn. Which I have no idea how I’m going to pay for, but we were staying there and then the same guards showed up and hauled me out and threw me in a cart and brought me in here.”

“They what?” Rose narrowed her eyes. “I’ll deal with them later. I need to finish healing you, you’re clearly in pain. Come lay down on the couch.”

He was still holding the tiny teacup, which looked silly in his hands. Rose made him lie down and he held the cup up, trying not to spill it. Rose gave him a look of exasperation and took the teacup, nearly tossing it onto the table. She knelt next to him, moving his shirt to peel the bandage off the wound. She felt her eyes well up with tears again when she saw the cut and the fresh scar on his arm. The wound was still in slightly rough shape, though she had at least managed to heal it pretty well. Her hands shook a bit as she started trying to finish it, remembering that the wound was there because of her. She’d been the one to inflict this pain on him.

Rose felt the tears drip off her lashes as she focused on the spell, forcing the skin to knit back together and leave no trace of the wound behind. Eli glanced over and grew alarmed when he saw her crying, but she pushed him back down when he tried to sit up.

“Let me finish,” she said. Once the wound was completely healed, she sat back.

“Why are you crying?” Eli asked, sitting up gingerly.

Rose sniffed. “I brought you back here because I wanted to make sure you were alright, but maybe you didn’t want to come back.”

“What?” Eli looked confused.

“It’s all my fault,” Rose said, gently touching his other arm where the new chain scar had appeared. “Lorena possessed you, and then…Eli I almost killed you I’m so, so sorry. I knew I shouldn’t have let you come with me.”

“Hey.” Eli tried to pull her up onto the couch next to him but she told him not to move too much yet.

“Please stop crying, Rose,” he said quietly. “I told you, I chose to come with you. You couldn’t have stopped me from coming with you. And I told you to stab me. She would’ve made me kill you otherwise.”

Rose slowly got up and sat on the couch, and Eli hesitantly reached out to brush tears off her cheeks.

“I woke up and you were gone and Tobias didn’t know where you were,” she said. “I thought you’d left because you decided none of this was worth it.”

“Not worth it? Rose, I’d get stabbed fifty more times if it meant you survived and got your home back. Which you clearly did, because you’re looking very queenly. I wish I could’ve actually seen you take Lorena down.”

“So you don’t want to leave?” Rose asked, almost whispering.

“I’d be an idiot to want to leave you,” Eli said, laughing slightly. “But you’re a queen, so I would understand if you don’t want to be with me. I promised to get you home and now you are.”

“Not quite,” Rose replied. “It won’t properly be home if you and Charlie aren’t here, with me. I asked you to come with me, did you think it was my intention to just throw you out in the cold once I got here?”

“Well, no. But I’m not fit to be with someone like you.”

Rose scoffed. “I get to make the decision on who’s fit. And I’m in love with you, so that makes you fit.”

Eli blinked. “You are? Love? With me?”

“No, I meant the other extremely sweet and handsome man who risked his life to help me fight Lorena.” Rose rolled her eyes. “Of course I love you, Eli.”

“Oh. Well that’s fortunate, because I’m in love with you too. But Rose, no one is going to let you be with a lowly peasant-“

“Let me?” Rose interrupted, drawing up indignantly. “Excuse me, but who’s the queen around here?”

“You’ve taken to it well, I see,” Eli laughed. Rose cracked a real smile for the first time since she’d faced Lorena, then she leaned forward and kissed him. He pulled her a little closer and she clung to him like she was worried he’d disappear again. They didn’t break apart until there was a loud and exasperated sigh from the doorway.

“Can’t I go anywhere without seeing you two like this?” Charlie demanded. He was scowling at them as they reluctantly drew apart, but then his expression brightened.

“Wait, if you two are being gross again then does that mean…are we staying here?”

“Yes, Charlie. You and Eli are staying here,” Rose replied. She had a lot of queenly things to deal with in the aftermath of the battle; first she tracked down the guards who had removed Eli from the castle and yelled at them until she thought they might cry. Then she sent Tobias to get Edgar from the pub in Deris. The mage was crass and abrasive but she still made sure he was very generously rewarded for all his help.

Then she went into the courtyard where her father had died, and finally cleared the red stains away, leaving the stones gleaming white. Amid all that, she had to help with planning her own coronation. It had been four days since she’d defeated Lorena, and it still didn’t feel entirely real that she was going to be queen and had to address the people who were trickling into the capital in light of the news.

She was sitting nervously in front of her vanity table, unable to choose a way to style her hair when Eli found her.

“Why are you sitting there looking nervous?” he asked. “Your adoring public awaits.”

Rose made a face. “They don’t know if they adore me yet. There’s still a chance they won’t.”

“Oh, please. You were popular as a princess and you’ll be even more popular as a queen. Especially a rebel queen.”

“You’re biased.”

“Well I do find you pretty adorable.”

Rose laughed softly, feeling a little better. “You’re coming with me, right?”

“As I’ve said, my Rose. I go-“

“Where I go,” she finished, as he pulled her to her feet. He tapped her nose.

“I go where you go,” he confirmed. “Always.”

“Good.” Rose smiled, then bounced onto her toes to kiss him.