The Rose Chateau

by Rebecca Monaco

  She wasn’t sure if she was talking to the horse or to herself, but the advice was all the same either way. Corinna grabbed her blanket and saddle and geared her horse up for the trip. Alvar had said it had taken a few hours to find the path, but that was from the Paesaggia side. If Archimedes decided to slow down too, she had no idea how long this trip would take. She led Archimedes from the stable to the spigot for a drink, but the horse had other plans and cantered in a long oval around the farm as though he knew he wouldn’t see it for a long time and was saying goodbye to all the plants and animals on it. He was back before Corinna could even get some water for him, and the farm girl laughed lightly.

  “You would think God accidentally made you when he was planning for a bird. You’re so fast,” she said, praising the horse and rubbing its neck while it drank.

  “I wouldn’t doubt it,” Alvar’s voice said. Corinna turned and saw the old man walking toward her with her bag in hand. “I’ve never seen a horse colored like that anywhere else. Maybe he is a bird in horse form. One day you should see if he can manage to fly you back to us.”

  Corinna took her bag from her uncle and slid it over her head. “I will come back,” she said. “They can’t keep me forever. I’ll be back soon.”

  “See that you are,” Alvar said. “Now come here. You know I’m not one for hugs, but I may not get the chance to do it for some time.”

  He pulled Corinna into a hug, and Corinna remembered where she got her height from. Her mother’s family was average in height, and she had to bend ever so slightly for a proper hug. She hugged her uncle back as tightly as she could and then released him.

  “I’m going to miss you, Uncle Alvar,” she murmured and rubbed her dry eyes.

  “Me too… I know I’ve said it a thousand times already, but I am truly sorry. If not for my foolishness -,” the old man began but Corinna cut him off.

  “Uncle, don’t,” she said and smiled. “It’s alright. Really. Morgana said I’d be safe there, right? So relax. I’ll be back before you all even notice I’m gone… C-Could you tell that to mum for me?”

  “Sure thing. You know she loves you very much… but she’s already said goodbye to you twice this morning, in her own way. I don’t think she can do it again.”

  Corinna looked at the house and all its sun bleached state. It was old and it was dirty, but it had been hers. She could just make out the wire on the fence for the chickens. She could see the small brown stable and the expanse of field. She could see the fence that ran around it all and the garden that took up a good three yards along it. She could smell the flowers, and already she missed them.

  Her eyes glanced over her home again and the kitchen where her mother was always standing to cook something new. There she was, looking out at the two of them. She was shaded by the house and shivering, her hand covering her mouth. Her hair was unbrushed and scattered… but that was the mother Corinna loved. She tore her eyes from the sight.

  “Y-Yeah, me either,” she finally said. “I’d best be going. Don’t want to drag it out anymore, you know?”

  Alvar said nothing, only nodded. Corinna stepped into one stirrup and swung herself onto the back of her large horse, and then tugged Archimedes to attention. She nodded to her uncle, to her home, and then nudged her heels into Archie’s sides while making a ‘chkchk’ with her mouth. Archimedes began to walk and then to trot, like they were going to show and not to imprisonment.

  Corinna trotted across the edge of town, waving to people who were curious where she was going but not so curious as to ask. Corinna tried to memorize the fields and the people working in them. Such commonplace things suddenly seemed important, and she needed to remember them. Soon she left the town behind and came up the hill that led to the forest of childhood nightmares. At the edge, she stopped, hesitated. She looked behind her at her home while the breeze seemed to tug her in toward the forest. She thought she saw someone at the edge of the last farm, watching her, but she dared not believe it. Alastar had said his goodbyes and left. Why would he watch Corinna go after he said he didn’t want to?

  “See you all soon,” she said to no one in particular.

  Then she kicked the horse gently again and the two of them plunged into the darkness, no sign of fear in either of them. Four yards in, the light was so scarce that Corinna couldn’t see a thing. She squinted and willed her eyes to adjust while letting Archie lead their way. It was easy going, not covered in mud as Alvar had said, with Archie trotting along like he’d expected these conditions and knew exactly where he was going. It took five minutes for Corinna’s eyes to begin making out the shapes of the trees. It was another five before she could tell that the scratching noises she heard were the claws of tiny squirrel families running from the suddenly large animal with two heads in their habitat. In the distance, she heard an owl sounding the alert for all its friends to hear. It was odd. Besides that, Corinna saw no animals, but it was undoubtedly because of the poor lighting.

  Even at their comfortable pace, it took some time to make it to the split in the path. A full three hours of steady riding and she finally noticed how the dirt clearly showed two options, two recently used and maintained pathways, unlike the root ridden trail she’d come from. At the crossroads, a small shrub no larger than an infant berry bush sat and bloomed with small white blossoms, a symbol of good hope. Corinna had no doubts it had been erected through magic. No flower bush could survive the lighting conditions inside the forest.

  According to Alvar, Corinna’s path would go right, deep into the center of the wood, but Corinna stopped the horse at the split and looked out toward Paesaggia. She couldn’t see very far down the path, but she could imagine what was at the end. She’d never been to Paesaggia, had only heard the stories. If she went to the prince’s manor, she’d probably never get a chance to. She’d also probably become disillusioned with the mere idea of going. Unfortunate.

  A brush of wind whisked passed her, rushing down the right path like air being sucked in by a giant. The imagery caused Corinna to shiver and become unnervingly aware of how little she could see. The path ahead was barely visible to her, the animals startlingly silent. She could be mauled before she ever made it to the manor. She could be mauled once she got there, if the stories proved true. She really wasn’t ready to die. Live apart from her family, fine, but die?

  Archie snorted and pawed the ground of the right path. He tugged his head in its direction. Corinna took a deep, calming breath and pat the horse’s neck. Her eyes focused down the path, trying to make out more than the next five feet.

  “Do you know something I don’t?” she asked her companion. “Seems like you know exactly where we’re going even though I’m the rider and you’re the horse. I’m starting to think Morgana’s put a spell on you.”

  Archie snorted again, and Corinna nudged him in the sides to urge him forward. They walked now, no more trotting, and Corinna tried to concentrate on the swaying and the heavy, deadened clip-clopping of the hooves on the dirt. It was a sound that was lost to the world after it left the hooves, muted out by the closeness of the trees. That was what was so frightening. Something could be so close and yet Corinna would never be able to hear it. The trees would suck away the sound like hungry ghosts and leave her at the mercy of whatever had better eyesight than she did.

  Ten minutes passed in a heart beating, pulse pounding way that left Corinna more on edge than the first three hours. Her mind raced over the stories of a great beast that could slice you in half with its claws, eat you whole, and tear you limb from limb. She thought of her uncle’s description: large as a bear, strong as an ox, angry as a bull. A man Corinna could fight, but she would be no match against a monster. Still, the more she thought on the events the more she felt the anger bubbling up within her. This haughty prince didn’t have the right to threaten her family or to force them apart. He was just throwing a hissy fit because some witch put a curse on him. If he was living with Morgana, he could get rid of the curse himself, so w
hy trick poor old men into threats? What an unbearable prat.

  Corinna hoped her uncle had been tricked by a spell, that there really wasn’t a huge beast, that she’d be able to beat him up and release the sudden tension and anger inside of her. She surged with the new power she felt with her anger. It erased her anxiety over the darkness of the forest and the manor. She was going to give this prince a piece of her mind. She was going to let him have it, beast or not. Morgana had sworn to keep her safe, so there really was no danger, right? Either way, someone needed to teach this snob some manners.

  And it was after this thought that the trees began to give Corinna a wide berth. They spread out, rounding out the area she moved through and causing the path to be lined with grassy ditches and yard instead of trampled, fallen branches and seas of leaves. Corinna looked around, making sure they weren’t magical and actually moving on their own, and then cast her gaze skyward.

  The evening sky was showing through now. Alvar had been right. A huge hole sat in the middle of the woods. Corinna squinted in the sudden amount of light but adjusted to it immeasurably faster than she’d adjusted to the dark. She looked from the cloudy sky to the path ahead. There was a large, cast iron gate set in front of an even larger house. The house was white, three stories tall, and disappeared from Corinna’s line of sight before it reached the back yard. Its roof was black, as were the window trimmings and the doors. In the fading evening light, the house looked haunted, but in the daylight it probably looked all too welcoming… well, save for the iron fence that ran all the way around it. There were miniature gargoyles posted on the fence every eleven feet or so, looking like foreboding sentinels.

  This was it. Time to meet the monstrous beast and the devious Morgana. With a deep breath, Corinna walked Archimedes up to the front gate. She turned the horse so she’d be able to push it open, but her fingertips barely brushed the iron before it swung open for her.

  “I suppose that means come on in,” Corinna said aloud. Archie whinnied and strolled inside. As soon as they were clear, the front gate swung slowly closed again. “And I suppose that means there’s no getting out of here.” Corinna frowned but knew she should have expected as much.

  She crossed the front yard, larger than her family’s entire field, until she reached the many front steps to get to the door. She slid off of Archimedes and pat the horse gently as she stepped forward. Fifteen stairs to the top and then the ominous painted black wood stood before her, reaching up twice as tall as her head with her standing on the tips of her toes. Another deep breath.

  Corinna grabbed the door knocker and slammed it heavily down against the door four times. She could almost hear it echoing beyond the door. It took a moment or so, but then the door pulled open and a man stood in the doorway. He was tall, within an inch of Alastar, and muscled like he worked the hard ground every day. He had a mop of dark brown hair that was so achingly similar to Alastar’s that it made Corinna almost believe it was him at first, but this hair was brushed more and slightly shorter, and Alastar had more curl to his than this man.

  “Welcome to the Rose Chateau,” he said, voice smooth and deep. He didn’t seem to be a beast, but he was tall and strong. He didn’t look angry, but that could be because he’d gotten Corinna to trudge her way out here into the middle of the forest. He didn’t look mean or dangerous at all, but the manor was run by Morgana and the prince of Paesaggia, so this must be him. Corinna felt her decision to beat up the lord of the house waver for a moment.

  And then Corinna couldn’t help herself. She punched her greeter in the face.

  Chapter 4 – New Cage

  “I am so sorry,” Corinna said for what felt like the hundredth time. She was inside now, closed off from the outside world and sitting in the dining room, way back on the bottom floor near the center of the house. She sat on a stool while the man who’d greeted her sat across the table in a chair.

  “It is alright,” the man groaned, holding the entire left side of his face captive with a bag of ice. “I might very well have done the same thing.”

  “Yeah, but I should have known you weren’t the master of the house. You’re not beastly at all,” Corinna said, rubbing her fingers between each other in a nervous way and shifting anxiously on her stool. The brunette male shrugged.

  “Well, I believe that would depend on your definition of beastly,” he said and winced. “You have got a strong right punch. Remind me not to make you angry while you are here. What is your name again?”

  “Corinna.”

  “Pleasure to meet you, um, mostly. I am Gavin.”

  Gavin held out his hand to shake, and Corinna took it quickly. She felt horrible for bruising the servant’s face. She should have known there would be servants living here. She shouldn’t have assumed the first guy she’d see was the one responsible for her being here. Gavin lapsed into silence and gingerly pressed on his face to find where the actual swelling was starting. He touched just to the side of his eye, down on the cheek bone, and flinched. Corinna jumped too. Gavin frowned and put the ice back on the spot.

  “I really am sorry,” Corinna said again.

  “It is forgotten,” Gavin assured. “No need to apologize. Just give me a moment, and I will show you to your room.”

  “Take as long as you need.”

  “No. I have duties to get to, so I must get you to your room as soon as possible.” Gavin set down the ice, tested the bruising spot, and then nodded. He looked determined, like he wasn’t going to give in to the pain of a simple punch, and stood from his seat. “Follow me, please.”

  Gavin led Corinna out of the dining room, which was a large hall with a long table, but they’d been sitting at a smaller table back near the kitchen entrance. They left the dining room and entered the main hall. Corinna noticed that most of the bottom floor was taken up by this expansive center hall, which was only cut off on the back sides by the dining hall, kitchen, wash room, and ballroom. The rest of the hall was wide open. Between the kitchens and the front door, there was a grand staircase. It arched up, leaving the hall below it untouched save for the pillars holding it up and making its look more impressive.

  Windows broke the wall in places, showing the world outside to the few occupants of the manor. They offered no view tonight, though, as their curtains had been shut. Candles lit the hall from their holders on the walls, casting flickering light all about the house. It was dim but more than manageable. High above, a crystal chandelier hung with many candles waiting to be lit. Corinna was certain that if they were, the whole place would be infinitely more appealing. Red and gold banners hung from the walls around the main hall and two hung from each of the following floors, one on each side of the gap. They bore the symbol of Paesaggia, a knight standing proud. They just looked silly to Corinna right now. She couldn’t truly care about them in her current situation. All awe for things from Paesaggia was masked in the reality that she would be kept in this house against her truest will.

  Gavin led Corinna up the marble staircase, and Corinna dragged her hand along its red oak balustrade. It reminded her of home, and she could almost imagine she was stroking her headboard instead of a smooth, foreign banister. At the top of the stairs, two floors up from the entrance hall, Gavin turned right and led Corinna down a long side hall. From anywhere on the hall, you could see the entrance way. It was just a similar, red oak railing that kept one from walking right off the hallway and to their death.

  “Your rooms are here,” Gavin said, stopping in the middle of the hall by a decorative wooden door. “If you require anything, my room, along with the rooms of the other two servants in service here, are just below you on the second floor. We are in the first three rooms. The others are vacant. On the left side of the second floor you will find a few rooms used for a variety of purposes. I am sure you will find interest in looking into them, so I will not spoil the surprises. The master lives on the left side of this third floor, but I would not bother him too much if I were you. He is usually busy doi
ng something, and he hates being interrupted.”

  “No problems there. I don’t want to talk to him anyway,” Corinna grumbled, clocking her knuckles against her new bedroom door.

  “Well, hopefully you will change your mind. He is planning on meeting you for dinner tonight,” Gavin said, shrugged and trying to look empathetic. “He is not honestly as bad as you might believe. Sometimes he is actually truly nice.”

  “Yeah, well the rest of the time, he’s probably a royal pain in the rear.” Corinna frowned deeply, creasing lines into her forehead. Gavin let out a sad chuckle.

  “Well yes. He can be rather difficult. I apologize, but I must get to my duties. I will see you at dinner, I hope,” he said as he began to walk away.

  “Don’t hope. I won’t be there,” Corinna called after him. She turned the knob to her door and then paused. She looked back where Gavin was just getting to the stairs. “And I’m sorry about your eye.”

  Gavin waved over his shoulder dismissively and then half bounced as he descended the stairs. Corinna frowned, but less severely than before. She’d made a great first impression. Welcome! and she punched the poor man in the face! Shaking off her self-disappointment, Corinna entered her room. Or… should I say rooms?