Royal Rebels

Rose wanted to go after Eli but knew she had to wait until the Akrethan royals had turned their attention elsewhere. She hadn’t even been aware that they were in the capital yet, which she doubted was an accident. They wanted to throw her off and were probably hoping to intimidate her.

“I do hope we didn’t cause your husband any offense,” Verlina said silkily, sipping at her wine. One of the castle servants quickly moved in to clean up the broken glass and spilled champagne.

“Is he normally so excitable?” Anders asked.

“He just went to tend to his hand,” Rose replied, keeping her tone polite. She was itching to turn Anders and Verlina into toads.

“Of course. So sorry to have interrupted your dancing. You two cut quite a striking pair out there, all things considered. I was rather surprised to hear you had married so soon after taking the throne. How ever did you and the…Duke, meet?”

“Eli helped with the rebellion.”

“Ah, so you married for young love,” Verlina said with a condescending laugh. “I would’ve expected a new queen to marry for alliances.”

“I’m not entirely new,” Rose said, her tone going a little icy. “As you may recall, I am the rightful heir to the throne of Norterra, and my bloodline has ruled this kingdom for fifteen generations.”

“Forgive me, Your Majesty,” Verlina replied, though she didn’t seem at all apologetic. “You’re right of course. We just never had dealings with Norterra until your predecessor was in power.”

“Until a murderous usurper was in power,” Rose corrected. “I know you dealt with Lorena for the several years you’ve been allied with us, but Lorena is no longer queen. If you wish to continue a relationship with this kingdom, you will have to come to terms with the fact that your dealings will now be with me. Though as I see it, Akretha doesn’t have much to offer Norterra.”

Verlina’s eyes flashed with annoyance and she looked about to argue with Rose, but thankfully Fillius chose that moment to intervene.

“Verly,” he said brightly. “Andy. Do you mind if I call you Verly and Andy?”

“Yes,” Verlina said, almost snarling.

“Great. It’s so nice to finally meet you, Verly. I was beginning to think you two never actually left Akretha. Can’t imagine why you’d want to stay there all the time, I’ve heard the summers are ghastly with heat. If you don’t mind, I need to speak with our Rosalie.”

He steered her away from Verlina and Andy, who looked quite scandalized. Rose flashed an amused look up at Fillius.

“Thank you for the rescue,” she said. He grinned and winked at her.

“Those people seem as awful as I’ve heard,” he replied. “I thought you could use a break from that conversation.”

“I’m going to find Eli,” she said, and he led her out of the ballroom so people would assume she was having an important conversation with him and hopefully not come looking for her. Then she went off in search of Eli, finding him sitting glumly in the library.

“Why are you hiding in here?” she asked, sitting next to him on the little couch. He lifted his head to look at her.

“I didn’t want to embarrass you again,” he mumbled.

“That’s silly. You could never embarrass me.”

Rose reached over and gently took his injured hand, brushing her fingertips over his palm to heal the little cuts from the broken glass.

“Everyone saw me shatter a champagne glass,” Eli said, watching the cuts seal closed.

“It was an accident. Those glasses are entirely too fragile.” Rose curled closer to him, brushing his hair off his forehead.

“I’m a big lumbering moron,” he said.

“You are no such thing, and I expressly forbid you from ever saying that again.”

He cracked a tiny smile and Rose leaned forward to kiss him.

“Those people just wanted to make you feel bad, and you can’t let them,” Rose said. “You don’t have anything to be ashamed of, and I’m very proud and happy to have you as my husband.”

“I’ll never understand why, but I’m really glad you feel that way. You should be getting back to the party.”

“We will go back, in a little bit. Having so many people visit at once is driving me crazy, not to mention we have the annual winter holiday festivities coming up which will mean more guests plus all the commotion that’ll be happening in the city. So I’m taking ten minutes to sit here with my adorable, handsome husband before I go back in there.”

Thankfully the horrible Akrethan king and queen weren’t staying in the castle; they’d apparently arranged accommodations for themselves elsewhere in Lumafell. Rose knew it was meant to be an insult but frankly she was too relieved that they weren’t staying in the castle to feel slighted. Winter had set in full force, the castle grounds and the city beyond all covered in fresh white snow. Felicity loved going outside in her little puffy coats and trying to catch snowflakes. She also liked watching Fillius and Charlie undergo a snowman building contest, which was cut short when Fillius threw a snowball at Charlie and made him fall on top of his snowman. Eli laughed so hard he almost fell over and that made Felicity start shrieking with giggles too.

That afternoon Rose gave Felicity and Eli both a kiss before heading out for a ride. She hadn’t been able to give Tiberius a proper workout in weeks, and she liked to patrol the forest beyond the castle to make sure it was still recovering well from all Lorena’s dark magic. Her midnight blue cloak fanned out behind her as she settled into the saddle and nudged Tiberius with her heels. He happily set off at a crisp trot.

Rose rode out a bit farther than she’d meant to, and the sky was filling up with dark clouds. It would start snowing soon, so she turned Tiberius around and started cantering for home. The big horse slowed slightly as they were passing through a snow covered meadow, his ears flicking. Rose glanced around, wondering if one of Lorena’s monsters was nearby. They weren’t much of a problem anymore, but a few had survived after her death.

Rose urged Tiberius on, still searching for anything amiss. She heard a faint whistle and couldn’t totally dodge the arrow that hurtled toward her. Tiberius swung his head in agitation as Rose cried out and nearly fell off his back. The arrow had sunk deep into her upper arm and the pain seemed far more intense than it should have.

“Go, Tiberius,” she gasped and he lunged forward, moving at a full run now. More arrows flew at her; most missed but Rose flinched as one managed to nail her in the leg. When she emerged from the tree line close to the edge of the castle grounds, she nearly fell from her saddle again. She was growing dizzy. She yanked the arrows free, having to bite back a scream as she did so. The entry wounds felt like they were on fire. Rose tried to heal them as she clumsily dismounted but it was proving difficult. Between the pain and the world feeling fuzzy, it was hard to focus. Plus she was losing some blood now that she’d pulled the arrows out.

She carefully hid the wounds with her cloak and handed Tiberius off to a stable hand. She tried not to grimace or stagger too much as she made her way inside. Maria was a resident castle healer now, and Rose prayed she was in the infirmary. Every time she started healing one of the wounds, she’d get dizzy again and have to stop. She nearly collapsed as she came through the infirmary door and was relieved to see Maria.

“Rose! What on earth-“

“I need your help,” Rose said, her voice raspy from the pain. “I can’t heal it.”

Maria helped her get the cloak off and she gasped when she saw the injuries. She had Rose lie down and inspected them more closely as she began trying to heal them.

“Poison,” Maria whispered. “That’s why you were having a hard time healing these. Rose, I’m so sorry, but it isn’t going to feel good when I draw this poison out. But I have to hurry, it’s spreading.”

Rose let out a most unqueenly curse as red hot pain shot through her limbs. She winced as the door opened and Charlie walked in.

“Maria, can I talk to you about—holy shit what happened?!”

His eyes flew wide at the sight of Rose covered in blood and pale as a ghost.

“Charlie,” Rose said weakly. “Don’t tell-“

“I’m gonna go get Eli!”

He was gone before Rose could say anything else. She started to shake and she saw spots from the pain. Maria was murmuring to her soothingly as she tried to draw out the poison and close the wounds. Rose tried her best to lend her own healing magic to try and speed things up, but she was too weak to be of much help. She had to use most of her energy to keep from passing out. She managed to turn her head and glance at her arm, seeing an angry dark red color spreading from where the arrow had struck her. It was fortunate that it had hit her right arm; if it had hit her left the poison may have already reached her heart.

“I’m making some progress drawing the poison out,” Maria said. “It’s a slow process, so just hold on and keep breathing.”

“Trying,” Rose said, whimpering slightly at another sharp wave of pain. She was still shaking and that was making her nausea worse. Maria gave her hand a gentle squeeze, her face set in a determined frown. Rose closed her eyes to stop the room from spinning so much, and tried to breathe without throwing up.