Silver Rose

Queens

Tension hung in the air for the next few days. Everyone wondered if the queen would live or die. Most didn’t care either way, but they still wondered. Five days later, it was announced that Queen Rolina Anne Henrietta Flora Tansy Racquett DeLaney died in the night. Her funeral was held two days later in a lavish closed casket ceremony.

The country talked about the queen’s death for about a month and then went on with their lives as they lived them before. But they weren’t left long with nothing to gossip about. Seven months later another story was quickly circulating. It began at the ball the royal family had held in honor of Prince Sebastian’s 21st birthday six months after the death of the queen. It seemed that a young lady of no title, rank, or possession caught the eye of the prince. They danced together most of the night and when he wasn’t dancing with her, his father was. Somehow the woman’s shoe came off and she had to leave because she couldn’t dance with only one shoe. Later the shoe was found and a rumor of a royal marriage spread.

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Tara waited with the other servants. It was late afternoon and warm. All the servants of the palace stood in the great hall in two lines against the walls. The knights and soldiers stood in formation in the courtyard. Beyond them were all the citizens the courtyard could hold. Nobles, officials and clergy were in the great hall also, but they were in lines in front of the servants. The huge hall’s doors were wide open and a cooling breeze slipped through every once in awhile. Her legs began to ach from standing in one place for too long. She shifted her weight from one foot to another to relieve her muscles. They had been waiting for well over an hour. Many people were talking to their neighbors while they waited, but they all still stood in the same position: hands held in front, feet shoulder length apart. Some of the high officials paced the hall checking to make sure no one got out of line.

Tara closed her eyes. She wished she had something else to do besides standing there. She would talk to one of the girls standing next to her, but she couldn’t even remember their names and didn’t feel like having a “first meeting” conversation. The buzz of a fly flew into her ear. Automatically, her hand flung up to her ear to fling the fly away.

“Ahem!”

Tara opened her eyes. A frowning, stuffy, overdressed official of the court peered down at her. Smiling weakly, she locked her hands in front of her again. She rolled her eyes as he turned away.

“Bah bum! Bah bum!”

Trumpets blared. Everyone immediately became silent and stood up straight. The officials ran outside. The newlyweds were finally home. None of the servants had been allowed to attend the wedding. There hadn’t been a wedding feast and one was going to be held that night. After being wed, the bride and groom had gone to Giann, boarded a ship, and sent their month long honeymoon on the Sauyen Sea. Today they came home.

Tara heard the unsheathing of swords as the knights were ordered to present them.

“Their Majesties,--“ the herald began.

Then he was cut off as the civilians clapped and hurrahed. Tara looked at the faces on the other side of the hall. They were all excited and scared. Everyone was dying to know what she looked like. This girl who was from the same station of life as they and had done what few could accomplish by rising above it.

Outside the commotion became even louder. It sounded as if the entire country was out there shouting and clapping. People in the Hall leaned forward a little to try to see what was going on. Outside people began chanting,

“Brovan! Brovan!”

They stood trying to see for a few more minutes. Suddenly, everyone leaned back and stood straight. Footsteps could be heard entering the hall.

“Your Majesty,” a man’s voice announced, “may I present to you, your court.”

Tara heard the rustle and creak as all the nobles and courtiers bowed to the newest member of the royal family. After a couple minutes, the footsteps moved down the six feet separating the servants from the rest.

“Your Majesty,” the same voice said, “these are your servants.”

Tara was too far down the line to see her. She saw the officials though. All the servants bowed down with their eyes to the ground. She heard the stomp and rustle of walking. The movement stopped in front of her.

“And these girls here are your personal servants,” the man said.

They began to move on.

“Wait,” a female voice said.

The footsteps immediately came to a halt.

“I want to see their faces,” she said.

“That is not necessary, Your Highness.” The man said.

“But how will I know them if I can’t recognize them,” she said.

There was a short silence.

“Arise,” another man commanded.

No one was sure who he was talking to. So everyone rose.

“Only the personal servants!” It was ordered.

Faster than the wind everyone else fell back into a bow. Tara stood. The woman was very beautiful. From her blond hair to her pink lips to her figure she seemed almost perfect. She looked at each of them in turn. She saw Tara last. Tara smiled at her.

“That Your Grace, is your personal fairy,” the man said.

“A fairy!” She exclaimed.

“Yes, it is very rare, but we have managed one just for you.”

She was not her personal fairy, Tara wanted to shout.

“Come along, my dear,” King Elbert said, taking the woman’s arm. “It is time we had your feast.”

But the woman didn’t move.

“You are a fairy?” She asked. “A real one?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Tara answered with a curtsy.

“Are you a Fauye?” She asked.

Tara stared at her in shock. How did she know
about Fauyes?! How could any human know?!

“Answer your queen!” King Elbert ordered.
“I-uh, n-no, Your Majesty,” Tara stuttered in surprise, “I-I’m a Gommoth.”

Disappointment wiped across her face.

“Oh, I see…” she said.

“If you like I’m sure we can get one of these Fa-hays you speak of my dear.” The king said.

Despite trying, Tara couldn’t help an amused smile smear across her face. I would love to see you try to even find where a Fauye is! And to think you could actually get one to come with you! Tara almost laughed. The new queen saw her and grinned. For a moment they stood grinning, sharing a bit of knowledge few knew.

“All hail Queen Safie!” An official shouted.

Everyone clapped and cheered and the moment was gone.

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A week later Tara left to visit her sisters after king and queen’s arrival. They reminisced on their childhood and visited old friends. For the most part it was a fun, relaxing time. But her sisters and friends had some disturbing news. Her sisters first told her about it one afternoon as they sat around the table drinking hot cups of yomang.

“It’s the strangest thing, Tara,” her eldest sister, Glenda, began. “We have reports that creatures are attacking the country of Kirst.”

“Why?” Tara had asked.

“No one knows,” her sister, Helena said.

“It seems that one day they woke up and decided to attack,” Glenda said.

“That is strange,” Tara said, “none of the banned creatures have ever attacked an entire country.”

“The oddest thing is that they’re not hitting the capital hardest.” Jenna, Tara’s little sister, said.

“They’re focusing most of their energy on a small village by the name of Hedimott.”

“There’s hardly anything left in that entire region around Hedimott. Everything’s been killed or burned.” Glenda said. "As you know Hedimott was demolished well over a hundred years ago and recently was rebuilded. But now--"

“Surely, the armies of Kirst can stand against them,” Tara said. “After all a bunch of creatures can be easily defeated.”

Jenna shook her head.

“The creatures work as an army unto themselves. Klem said there are hundreds, if not thousands of them. They work together and are very skilled militarily. The Kirst army is barely surviving.”

“Yes,” Helena said, “my guess is that Kirst will fall to the creatures by the end of the month.”

“Well, is any one going to do anything about it?”
Tara asked.

“About what?” Glenda asked.

“About stopping the creatures from taking the Kirstese’s land!” Tara exclaimed.

“Oh, Tara, your pledge makes you so compassionate toward the humans’ plight.” Helena said. “But dear, remember that it was the humans who first took the land away from the creatures, the fantastic races.”

“That’s right,” Glenda said, “I see no reason why anyone should stop these creatures from taking back what was always rightfully theirs.”

“But they’re killing humans!”

“As the humans killed them hundreds of years ago,” Glenda said.

“But—“

“Oh come now, Tara,” Helena said, getting up to put her arms around her, “it is only one human country. Humans kill each other off all the time.”

“Yes, and if you’re worried about Brovan remember that Kirst is thousands and thousands of miles away from it.” Glenda said. “An army of any kind would be hard pressed to make such a distance intact. There are deserts and forests and lakes and mountains and many human countries between them.”

“And we’ll keep you updated if we hear anything else while you’re gone,” Jenna said.

Tara nodded. She was worried about Brovan. The creatures in Kirst didn’t worry her as much as Talis did. Talis, the Dark Forest, stretched across the entire east border of Brovan and continued south well into Fleib, (a country below Lagaloon, Brovan’s southern neighbor). Talis’s northern part ended at the Jaladar Mountains parts of which were at the north-east corner of Brovan. Talis had been one of the forests that creatures were banished to. It was the second largest enchanted forest in the world.

Tara couldn’t help thinking that if other creatures were coming out of hiding near the Forbidden Mountains and the Desert of the Banned area, then what was stopping creatures in other areas from coming out? She grew up in Talis and was even now in it at her sisters' tree. But most of the people of Talis had bad sentiments towards humans. If they were assured that others would reinforce them, the creatures of Talis might take up arms against the surrounding human counties.

Tara thought on this all night. By day break, she was convinced that Kirst was an isolated incident extremely far away from Talis and Brovan.

“I shouldn’t worry about the creatures and Kirst should I?” Tara asked the next day.

“Of course not, dear,” Glenda said.

“I mean after all, they only seem interested in Kirst, right?” Tara asked.

“For now.”

“Quiet Jenna!” Glenda said.

“And the creatures in Talis wouldn’t know about something so far away.” Tara continued, even though her head told her that if her sisters knew, everyone knew. “If they were going to do something we’d know, right?”

“Yes.” Helena said. “We'd probably be a part of it.” She laughed.

"Seriously," Glenda said, glaring at Helena, "we will let you know if anything happens. But I'm sure it won't."

Tara breathed a sigh of relief.

“Let’s talk about something else,” Glenda said.

“I know,” Jenna said, “you can tell us about your new queen!”

“Oh yes,” Tara said, brightening a little, “Queen Safie. I forgot all about her. Well, she’s an innkeeper’s daughter from Wedimell. I don’t know too much about her yet, though. The king has taken her all around the country to show her off to everyone. The maids and I only had one meeting with her alone.
“She told us that her sister is a governess to Sir Landie’s children. It was his eldest daughter’s first ball and she wouldn’t go unless her governess came with her. The governess wanted her sister to come so she wouldn’t be the only commoner. So Sir Landie allowed them both to join his party. And that’s how two commoners got into a royal ball.”

“Is it true that she lost her shoe at the ball?” Jenna asked.

“Yes, but it’s not like the stories say. She told us that she took her shoes off because her feet were swelling. She was sitting down and no one could see it under her skirts. Then the prince wanted to dance and she only had time to slip one shoe on before he whisked her away. Well they were dancing fast and she twisted her ankle. So she left early. Later, her other shoe was found under a bench. Everyone knew it belonged to her because she said she had lost it. She had been staying with her sister in town and the prince brought it to her.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Jenna said. “Why did she marry his father?”

“I think she wanted to marry the prince over the king, but she said the king had ‘more influence’.”

“So you think he threatened her or something?” Jenna asked.

Tara nodded.

“Unlike his son, King Elbert will do whatever it takes to get what he wants. My guess is he threatened the wellbeing of her family to get his way.” She said.

“Poor prince,” Helena said, “do you think he was in love with her?”

“Yes,” Tara said, “after the ball, he visited her everyday to apologize for hurting her. No DeLaney takes time out of their day for a commoner unless it is very important to them.”

“That’s very unfortunate for the queen and prince.” Jenna said. “Do they talk much to each other? The king, prince and queen, I mean?”

“I haven’t been there long enough to observe much. But the king and prince weren’t very close to begin with. And the prince is too afraid of his father to say much about the matter. It’s too bad. I think Safie would have been good for him. From what I know, she’s nice and considerate enough not to scare him. But firm and intelligent enough to help him rule the country. If he doesn’t marry someone like her, I fear the high officials and priests will actually being ruling when King Elbert dies. That could be a dark time for Brovan.”

Her sisters nodded their heads in agreement.

“Oh, but you’d never believe it!” Tara exclaimed.

“The day I first saw Queen Safie she asked me if I were a Fauye! Can you believe that she actually knew what one was?!”

“Are you sure, Tara?”

“A Fauye? How would she know about them?”

“A Gommoth or a Riea, I could believe that. But a Fauye?”

“I know it sounds impossible, but she asked me and when I said I wasn’t, she was very disappointed.”

“Did you ask her how she knew about the Fauyes?” Glenda asked.

“No, I didn’t get the chance.” Tara said.

“Well, there must be an explanation,” Jenna said.

“The only way she could know that there was a difference is if she knows a fairy,” Helena said.

“But why would any fairy take the time to tell her?” Glenda said.

“Maybe they were close,” Tara said.

“But a pledge is about as close as you get to a human,” Helena said, “unless you marry one… Oh! I’m sorry Tara. I mean that in a good way!”

“Helena, you should keep your mouth shut!” Jenna scolded. “Are you alright Tara?”

“Of course I am,” Tara said. “That was a long time ago.”

They sat in awkward silence.

“You know, the Annual Gommoth Convention is coming up in two months.” Glenda, finally, said.

“The committee is trying to decide what this year’s theme should be.”

Tara was grateful for the change of subject. But she talked very little for the rest of the day.

She stayed with her sisters for seven years until the queen was pregnant with her first child. Then she returned to Akinsis to join in the celebration of Brovan’s baby princess.