A Tiara of Emerald Thorns

by R Cavanaugh

  Well, she thought, looking around for something that would open it. After all, in Earth movies, there was always a knob or button or book that opened the secret door; why wouldn’t that work for him? Taking a step closer to it, after looking all around it, she was looking to see if she could pry it open. Then she tripped over a loose stone in the floor and lost her balance and fell through the doorway and almost down some stairs before she stopped herself.

  “Ow,” she groaned and winced as she stood up. She had a few cuts on her arms from going straight through the wooden back of the frame. But she was more concerned by the semi-dark nature of the stairwell that lay before her.

  At that very thought, the tiara on her head began to glow again, illuminating the space and renewing her confidence as she started down the stairs. Rose had nearly forgotten she had been wearing the tiara, because the original plan had been for Rachel to wear it. Then, as she had been about to give it to Rachel, a rather wealthy family offered a similar-looking headdress of roughly the same size and color for Rachel to wear. This left the original in Rose’s possession and on her head.

  Farther on, the staircase was lined with torches, and it seemed as though they had been lit recently. Each step took her farther down the side of the castle, then the air got damp and cool, which told her that she was belowground. She even smelled fresh earth, which she found very strange.

  She couldn’t help thinking that this trip down these stairs was going to take her a lifetime, and as she walked, she could feel her heart pounding in her ears. Each throb of her heart matched the step she took the farther down she went. Then she didn’t see any more stairs.

  At last, she thought as she reached the bottom and was faced with yet another door. This was doing nothing for her anxieties and her mounting fears.

  Behind that door could be something truly terrifying, or worse: Igneous himself. It could be a trap. Yet, she thought, no going back, and not going in would be backing out on my own plan.

  She breathed deeply and looked at the plainest door she had seen since she had been on this planet. It was made out of wood, and it wasn’t anything special. It wasn’t as mysterious as the door to this world. Nor did it have the ingenuity of the bed frame door. This door wasn’t even as creative as the door she had fallen through to get to this door. She started toward it and reached out her hand.

  But before she could open it, it swung open, like the automatic ones back on Earth. There were no such doors here, though, she thought, Must be magic.

  Slowly and cautiously, she stepped through the door. The room smelled of fresh earth, and the ground was grass, and cut through it was a single path made of some dirt and gravel. It was filled with plants of about the same size, and they were all roughly the same build. Each plant was arranged in a pattern that followed the single path, which was leading to the center of the room.

  The room itself was a rough oval shape, and the walls weren’t covered in stone, like the rest of the building, but vines that held the earth in place. There were four large crystalline objects that lined the walls and emitted a strange yet pure white light.

  The center of the room was marked by a single large rock, oddly shaped but with a smooth top, as if someone had sat there constantly. The rock was not huge by any stretch of the imagination, but in thinking about the wear on it, she definitely felt a grown man could easily sit there.

  There was a sudden but soft thud, and she jumped slightly. The door had closed behind her, and with a quick look around, she could tell that she was still alone. Curiosity was starting to take hold of her now and was urging her to continue forward.

  She loved all plants and had learned about quite a few of them through her father and his flower shop. Her favorite were flowering plants, but those that didn’t flower were just as interesting.

  She began to venture into the room and toward the center. She wanted to get a closer look at the plant that was set right in front of the rock. While the light from the crystals was better than nothing, the brilliant green light her headdress emitted allowed her to be able to see the whole room.

  I must be under a garden, she thought, still admiring all the roots that followed the ceiling and walls. The smell of the fresh earth brought back wonderful memories of her father and their garden.

  “Don’t crowd them,” he told her, smiling. “They need their space, too, you know.”

  “Yay,” she said, smiling and looking at the evenly spaced plants around her. They needed their space too, she thought. She was only a few steps away from the bush now and was more sure of herself than she had been in the whole time she had been here.

  Once she reached the plant, she stopped admiring the simplicity of it all. Here was a room filled with plants, filled with life, and yet just above them death was in abundance. Yet this plant somehow seemed very important. She crouched down to examine it. As she did so, she saw immediately and unquestionably what this plant was.

  This plant, in fact all of these plants, were rose bushes. She could tell by the thorny stems and vines as well as the shape of the leaves.

  “They must all be rose bushes,” she breathed softly and stood up, examining the room before looking down at the bush again.

  She just couldn’t understand why it would have no flowers, since it seemed to be a relatively healthy plant. She knelt down and looked sadly at a plant that she believed to be on its way out. She reached out a hand and gently caressed one of the leaves.

  Then she felt a soft breeze and stood up to survey the room. Every plant began to move and rustle its leaves. Stems started to grow, and the kind of process that usually took days happened in an instant. Soon she saw some bushes start to climb trellises as buds grew on their stems, while others grew buds on stems of stationary bushes. Soon she was surrounded by rosebuds, hundreds of them, and one by one they began to open.

  What she saw took her breath away. There were roses of sapphire and of opal. Roses of red rubies and pure white pearls. One rose bush had blooms of breathtaking topaz. There were bushes of aquamarine, jade, and diamond. Some held many tourmalines, each bloom more beautiful than the next. While still others sported blooms of onyx, peridot, and garnet.

  Then the last of the buds opened into brilliant and breathtaking emeralds. The emerald roses formed on the bush right in front of her.

  She couldn’t believe her eyes. She was now surrounded by hundreds of priceless gems and jewels. These bushes had been a part of the story James had told her.

  “James was telling the truth,” Rose whispered in awe.

  “And apparently didn’t teach you a thing.”

  Chapter 35

  The King

  The Bejeweled Garden

  Rose swung around and found herself face to race with the life-size version of the individual in the painting up the stairs. The only thing was, he didn’t have any of the painting’s charm. The real Igneous Stipes was far more intimidating in person than she would have thought, and he was blocking her exit.

  “I’m not sure what you mean by that,” Rose said and was glad to hear the steadiness in her voice, because the rest of her was shaking.

  “No?” he said, smiling and looking her up and down.

  “No,” she retorted and glared back.

  “Well let me explain myself, then.” With those words he took a few careful steps toward her. She in turn took a step back.

  “He let you wander into this castle all on your own. Knowing full well who and what resided here.” He continued to smile and walk toward her, “And yet he still let you come and allowed you to think you could just walk around in here.”

  “See, you are wrong there,” Rose said, retreating one more step as he continued to advance. “He told me that I should allow him to come, but I told him no. That in order to maintain the illusion that I was across the way, he had to be there and not with me.”

  Igneous took t
wo more steps and raised his eyebrows at her as he did so; she couldn’t back up any further. He was now in the center of the circle with her, and only a few feet separated them.

  “Well,” he whispered, grinning evilly and looking at her, “I guess I was underestimating him then, wasn’t I? And…”

  He paused and took a few more steps, leaving only the rock between them, and Rose took a step back and put the rock and the emerald rose bush between them.

  “…wrong about you.”

  “Really?” Rose breathed and leaned back a little, keeping the distance and hoping that talking would give her a chance to conceive a plan.

  “Yes,” he said shortly, “really.”

  “In what way?”

  “Well, I thought he was the fool and that you, blinded by love, were just doing what he asked you to.” He paused and stepped around the rock, only leaving the bush between them. “Now I see that it is just the opposite of what I thought.”

  Here he drew his sword and stood very sturdily in front of her. She couldn’t help but think he looked quite impressive with his sword in his hands, and that she was in for a really long fight.

  “You see, I now know that you are the fool, and he is blinded by love and did as you asked.”

  He swung and she, barely keeping her balance, raising her own sword and blocked the blow. They then moved a quarter turn to her left, and now the door was within reach of them both.

  “I’m no fool,” Rose said, looking into those eyes filled with fire. “I know you killed my ancestor and that you intend to kill me.”

  This time Rose made a move, and he blocked, and they took a quarter turn to the right. They were back where they started, and the door was no longer an option.

  “Common knowledge.” He grinned. “Why don’t you tell me something a little more impressive, won’t you, because that wasn’t.”

  They took a couple more swings at each other, and she was now three-quarters of the way to the left and still in a fight for the exit.

  “How about this?” she said, almost getting his chest, causing him to back up slightly, and it gave her a firmer footing. “Your ultimate goal for the end of this fight is to destroy my bloodline.”

  “Ah,” he smiled a little unnervingly and continued, “twenty-one years ago that would have been true.”

  This time he swung, and it was her turn to jump out of the way. She was once again blocked from the door by him.

  “What’s changed your mind?” she said, trying to get him off balance, but he was a superb fighter.

  More clashing of the swords, and he got her just above her left shoulder.

  “Arghhh!” she cried out and backed up from him but quickly regained her composure.

  “Actually,” he said, smiling evilly and coming quite close to her, “my plans for you have since changed. You see, you finding that tiara changes the rules.”

  “The rules?” she asked with difficulty as she tried to back away and still fight.

  “Yes,” he said and moved toward her, intensifying his level of fight, “the rules of how this game of cat versus mouse is played. Because now, in order for my rule to continue, I need an heir of royal birth.”

  “Sucks to be you, then,” Rose said with a halfhearted smile, “because I don’t know of any royalty that’ll want you.”

  They took a couple more shots at each other, and Rose finally found herself facing the door with her back. Somehow I mustn’t let him know I’m where I want to be, she thought and continued the fight.

  “I don’t really care if you do want me,” he said and smiled at the instant reaction on her face. She clearly had given him the satisfaction of knowing she was caught by surprise.

  “Excuse me?” she stuttered and could feel the blood draining from her face.

  “I think you heard me.”

  “Yah, and I was hoping that I had heard wrong,” Rose said in a high voice and started to take a step back as he advanced.

  She could see where this was going, and it wasn’t someplace that she wanted to go. He wasn’t her type, anyway. She saw him about to swing and ducked. She swung at him and kicked out. She got him in the knee, and he stumbled back, and he seemed more than a little surprised.

  She knew that this was her chance and ran toward the door; the challenge of the stairs lay ahead. She bolted across the room and through the door that opened for her and up the stairs.

  With each stair her armor got heavier, and her footsteps echoed off of the walls. She could barely breathe when she reached the hole in the painting and had to quickly but carefully clamber through it.

  Out of breath, she made a run for the door that led back to the hall, hoping that by getting ahead she might gain the advantage. But in her haste, she tripped over the same stone she had earlier and hit the floor hard. She swore.

  She was about to get up when someone grabbed her by the hair and dragged her to her feet.

  “I don’t care how hard you scream or fight, sweetheart, you are going to have my kid,” Igneous said with the effort of holding her in his voice.

  “Over my dead body!” she cried, and holding her hands together in a fist, hit him hard in the gut.

  He made some form of a grunting noise and released her. Scrambling to her feet, she ran for the door once again, but a hand caught her foot, and she met the hard floor once more.

  “Oh,” she groaned, dazed by the sudden impact. She rolled over, her head continuing to spin.

  “You fool!” he growled, and she could just see his outline as her vision was slightly blurred, “Running isn’t going to help your cause!”

  She continued to moan and suddenly felt a sharp tug on her arm as he lifted her up and threw her onto the bed.

  “Come now, Rose,” he taunted, using magic to cut off everything but the underwear layer on her upper body and her pants, “where’s your fighting spirit?”

  “Right here, sire!”

  She kicked him in the head as hard as she could and tried to get up off of the bed.

  He recovered rather fast, however, and was now standing up with a cut over his right eye.

  “Wretch!” he hollered and whacked her across the face, and she fell halfway on the bed.

  He lifted her gruffly and threw her on the bed, getting on top of her.

  “It’s over, sweetheart,” he said, holding onto her wrists and smiling down at her, “I’ve won. You, those people out there fighting because they think you had a chance against me. You’ve all lost.”

  “Not yet, we haven’t,” she said, and reaching into her hair, she pulled out the dagger and stabbed him in the arm.

  He let out a yell and released her.

  Realizing the mistakes of her last two attempts, she bolted fast. She then grabbed her sword and ran to the door.

  “This is not good,” Rose hissed as she ran down the hall and toward the stairs.

  She could hear him swearing, and then there were hurried footsteps behind her that told her he was chasing her.

  Oh yah, she thought, I’m in big trouble now. Nightsky, where in the hell are you?

  She continued down all the stairs until she reached the entrance hall. The doors were open, and people and animals alike were now fighting in the halls. Some were even fighting on the stairs that she had just run down.

  Then it struck her: Nightmare should be in the throne room. If I can get there, I’ll have some help available to me, she thought and ran in the direction she believed would lead her there.

  “Stop her!” The king yelled from behind her, and she knew that she needed to move faster and picked up the pace. Soldiers, however, were forced to continue their own fights, as they were having troubles of their own. She ran down one hallway and then the next until she reached what she believed to be the throne room.

  “Nightmare?!” Rose called but soon saw that she was
going to have to figure things out on her own.

  Nightmare was fighting a snow leopard with bloodred spots, and Vengeance was fighting a man with similarities to Igneous.

  “Rose!” Vengeance said in the midst of the struggle and ducking only just in time, “Rose, get out of here!”

  An arm grabbed her from behind and turned her around gruffly. She had a sneaking suspicion of who it was before she saw him.

  “Oh, she’s not going anywhere!” Igneous breathed in her ear as he leaned in near her face.

  “I haven’t had my last say yet!” Rose groaned and took the heel of her boot and rammed it into his foot.

  “Argh!”

  Rose didn’t get time to use her sword, however, because he sent her flying into a pillar.

  “Aw!”

  She groaned and saw in horror that he was now sending flames in her direction. I guess he’s changed his mind about wanting me alive, she thought. Well, she thought and closed her eyes as the flames drew closer, this really is the end. Her heart was breaking; she now knew that her best wasn’t good enough.

  Why hadn’t the fire hit her yet? She opened her eyes and saw, with great relief, the form of Nightsky.

  “Hang in there, Rose!”

  “Nightsky,” she sighed and gave her a loving look.

  She watched as the fire spread over the two of them in a dome, and it was as if they had fallen into a giant ember. Nightsky continued to point her horn at the flames.

  “What took you so long!” Rose hollered, finding her aggravation at last.

  “I was busy!” Nightsky responded and went over to help Nightmare as Rose started to fight with Igneous, who had gone to help the other man.

  “Busy with what!” she said, giving the fight her all.

  “Can’t you two discuss this later!” Nightmare yelled as the leopard bared her teeth and swiped at her.

  “No, keep going—don’t mind us,” the other man yelled and almost lost his head.

  She could see that Igneous was distracted by what must be his brother and his very skilled opponent.