The Rose Chateau

by Rebecca Monaco

  She was almost to the door when, all at once, the music stopped. Silence reverberated around the area, pressing tightly in against Corinna’s ears. Had it stopped because she’d gotten too close? She tried backing up a few steps, but nothing changed. Well unless it was caused by magic, the person who’d been playing would still be in there. Maybe Corinna could convince them to play again?

  She took two steps forward and a shifting figure caught her attention to her right. When she looked, it was a window looking out at the garden. A woman with long, dark hair moved past the window, a cloak up to cover her head. Corinna squinted at them from the distance she was at. It looked like Veronica, but hadn’t she said the garden was Morgana’s territory?

  Corinna looked between the window and the ballroom, debating which one was more enticing. With a grunt of annoyance, she turned and strode toward the outside door to the garden. She left the lamp on the floor just inside. She wouldn’t need it where he was going, hopefully. The garden was more taunting than the music. She was more than a little curious what Veronica was doing in the garden after she had joined the others in telling Corinna to stay out of it. What was so bad about the garden anyway?

  Then she was outside, under the moonlight and surrounded by rose bushes. Even in the dark, Corinna could see what her uncle had seen. The roses were full and blooming and a succulent red. They almost seemed to give off their own light, as though they’d tricked the moon into giving away some of his shine. They were beautiful and mystical, more than Corinna could ever hope to produce, and they caught the eyes and charmed the hand into wanting to touch them.

  And Corinna did touch them. She knew too much touching would ruin a rose, the oil from one’s hands killing the petals, but she could touch a little bit. She lifted one to her nose and took a deep breath. The scents of the flowers were fascinating enough just standing among them, but sniffing at such close range was downright intoxicating. Corinna felt dreamy, like she could pick all the roses and make a bed for herself and it wouldn’t matter because they’d all grown back instantly, though she had no proof that was even possible; like she could swim on the air currents that carried their scents.

  Corinna shook her head and steadied herself with one of the posts holding up the glass roof. What kind of roses were these? She’d never gotten so entranced with a flower before. She looked around herself at the many roses and flowering trees, but didn’t see anyone standing around. Where had Veronica run off to? She had used the only connecting entrance to the manor, and she didn’t see the servant in the yard outside either.

  “Veronica?” she called out, walking forward through the shrubbery. It was quiet save for the returning calls of owls and insects outside. Inside, there was a slight sound of running water, but no people or animals.

  As Corinna continued to walk through the garden, she noticed the sound of water was getting louder. She moved carefully, wary of the missing servant and the drug-like effects of the flowers. What else was she going to experience in here?

  The source of the watery sound was a circular fountain at the back of the garden, near the backyard. It was a ring of water, no center. It was large enough and wide enough to sit on, but not much thicker, and it ran off into seven small pools spaced equidistant around the circumference of the ring. The fountain was raised two feet off the ground, and the water ran through passages hidden within the marble walls. It flowed back up and through the ring via three small, non-threatening dragon heads set up around the inside of the ring. It was unusual and yet beautiful all the same.

  Corinna walked up to it and dipped her fingers in the water. She let out a gasp and smiled. It was cold and so clear. Maybe it possessed the same issue as the roses, something magical that made it more desirable than normal water, and yet Corinna had no urge to drink it as she’d wanted to smell the roses.

  She pulled her fingers from the water and shook off the remaining droplets. Then she raised her eyes to look up at the moon, which suddenly seemed darker, shaded. That’s when she saw it, and she wasn’t sure how she’d missed it beforehand.

  It was a large tree taking up most of the space in the middle of the ringed fountain. Its branches blocked out the moon and its shine, and yet the water glimmered regardless. It had slim, beautiful leaves and bright red fruit hanging among the leaves like gorgeous, ghostly apples. Except they weren’t fruit at all. Corinna gasped and took a step back. They were roses! They were fully formed roses… on a tree!

  “H-how?” she asked the air. A figure moved behind her and the tree seemed the shiver in response.

  Chapter 7 – The Beast

  How she hadn’t heard her coming, Corinna didn’t know. How she hadn’t seen her on the way over scared the young woman even more. But when she made herself known, Corinna definitely noticed her.

  “Do you find pleasure in my fountain?” she asked, her voice almost strikingly average. She wore a long red cloak which covered her head at first, keeping her from being recognized easily, but Corinna recognized her as the woman she’d seen through the window. It wasn’t Veronica, that was for sure.

  “Who are you?” Corinna asked, though she was almost certain she already knew, and her heart rate agreed.

  The woman pushed back her hood and let it fall gently down to her back. Her hair was a beautiful ink black that had captured the nature of the moon in every soft wave. Around her face, her bangs curled delicately and made her appear even paler than she already looked in contrast. Her skin was milky but only a shade or so lighter than Corinna’s. Her eyes were a vibrant green, like someone had captured the clearness of a cat’s eye and sent lightning bolts through it. They were bright even in the late night lighting. Her skin was flawless, and her lips were a tender red.

  “I am Morgana Le Fae, daughter of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall. And you must be Corinna Faune. You are Alvar’s nephew, am I right?” she asked, and she seemed unusually innocent for one so obviously mystic.

  “Right,” Corinna grunted. She clenched her fists. “I’m the one you threatened and blackmailed into coming here.”

  “I did nothing of the sort,” Morgana said, crossing her arms. “You’re uncle was trespassing and stealing from my garden. If not for me, he would be dead. The terms of our contract were destined long before I had any say in the matter, so don’t rest the blame on me.”

  “Destined? You threatened his family and his livelihood!” Corinna growled. Morgana glared.

  “I saw it all in a dream before he ever set foot on this property. Your coming here couldn’t be stopped even if every sorcerer in the world tried to stop it. We don’t mess with fate,” she said. “Now I asked you a question, and even if I were not a sorceress, I am still of noble blood and so you must answer me.”

  “No,” Corinna huffed. “No, I was not admiring your fountain. I mean, I was, but not when you walked up. I was looking at the rose tree.”

  “Oh?” Morgana looked interested, like she saw something special in Corinna just now that she hadn’t seen before. “You saw the tree. Tell me, Corinna. What do you think of it?”

  Corinna ripped her eyes from Morgana and looked back at the odd bush. “It’s unusual. I’ve never see roses grow on a tree. Is it magical?”

  “Mostly, yes,” Morgana said, walking closer and sitting on the edge of the fountain. “How else could roses glimmer, right? But they are regular roses underneath – everyday flowers. I simply help them become the best they can be.”

  Oh, so that’s why these roses were brighter, bigger, and earlier than Corinna’s. That’s why they were intoxicating and enchanting. They were truly under a spell! Corinna felt her pride swell again. She was second only to a magician. That was like a trophy.

  “You like them, don’t you?” Morgana drew Corinna’s attention back to the tree. She reached out and held one of the roses in her palm. “They’re lonely roses, you know. They love being touched and held, but no one knows they can because normal roses wilt from such treatment.”

  “Of course. Who would want
to make these wilt?” Corinna asked. She could feel the tempting feeling of the roses around her again, but she didn’t fear it. In fact, it calmed her heart. The flowers were watching her, whispering to her, but she couldn’t hear anything they were saying if they were even speaking at all.

  Morgana smiled pleasantly at the younger girl. “Why don’t you hold one? I’m sure it would perk up more if you did.”

  Corinna tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. She felt confused and yet content with the idea. She stepped as close as she could to the tree and slowly raised her hand from her side and toward the flowers. She could swear the whisperings from the other flowers was growing louder, but she still didn’t hear anything.

  The tree itself was practically singing in Corinna’s head. It was unbearably pleasant, and yet Corinna felt her pulse quicken again. This tree was special, sacred, protected. The blossoms indeed called to her with their glimmering appeal, but something told her that to touch such a thing was a horribly bad idea. She couldn’t place why she felt this way. What could be so bad about touching a flower, a lonely, beautiful flower? It was one small brush from her fingers to just one flower.

  “It is not just a flower… It is a curse. The moment my fingers broke it from its bush, I cursed us all.”

  Corinna frowned as her uncle’s voice repeated and repeated in her head, replacing the whispers of the flowers. She ripped her hand back to her side immediately and clenched the fingers. Was it possible these roses were cursed? They were already fascinatingly unusual, growing on a tree, but could the magic making them grow actually hurt people? Is that what happened to the prince? Had he been enchanted by these roses as well and been cursed for it?

  “I don’t want to touch one,” she said aloud, voice strong and defiant, and as she said them she could feel the insufferable urge to do it fade away. Her heart rate was up again, back to how it was before Morgana offered the tree to her. She took a deep breath to slow it down. She felt released from something, but she didn’t know what. It may have been a spell on her, but Morgana hadn’t said any magic words.

  “Well that’s disappointing,” Morgana spoke up, standing from her position on the fountain and smoothing out her cloak. She sighed and pushed some of her hair back from her face. “You’re rather interesting, Corinna. I’m not quite sure what it is about you, but you’re not what I expected when I saw you in my vision.”

  “Well that’s really too bad. Maybe you should just send me home and try a different peasant.” She didn’t expect that to work, but she was willing to try anything. Oh, but then she would feel guilty if another person disappeared to take her place. No, she’d be here until she found out how to break this silly curse on her family.

  “I’m sorry. Truly I am, but that simply is not an option,” Morgana said. She frowned then, and it was beautiful. Corinna felt herself feeling sorry for the witch, as though perhaps Morgana was under a curse just as much as Corinna was. Perhaps she was under the spell of the roses as well. “Believe me when I say you truly will come to no harm here. You’re safe. You’re family is safe. My magic is making their land very plentiful. I promise.”

  “Land means nothing if my mother is too full of grief to harvest it,” Corinna said. She frowned too, her eyebrows knitting together, and her eyes fixing a stern and serious stare on Morgana. “Land means nothing if my uncle spends all his time away tending to patients instead of the land to distract him from what he believes is entirely his fault. Land for crops means nothing if there is no one there to use it.”

  “I’m sorry,” Morgana said again. She stood tall and straight, but her head was bowed ever so slightly. “It is all I can do for you. I saved your uncle from a lifetime in prison or an early death. I brought you here as the future foretold. I’m not evil, Corinna. I’m just following my destiny.”

  “Well your destiny sucks, no offense,” Corinna said and then scoffed. She sat on the edge of the fountain and let the water run over her fingers again. The water was cool and seemed to run right through her. It tickled her fingers playfully. “You spend all day in this garden, and no one ever sees you. If that is destiny, then I don’t want to be a part of it.”

  Morgana watched Corinna’s hand, the way she wiggled her fingers and the curve of her wrist. Morgana watched, her mouth opened like she wanted to say something but was distracted. Suddenly, her head snapped up and she looked toward the other end of the garden. She reached out and gripped the edge of Corinna’s collar.

  “You should hide,” she said, and pushed the girl toward the bushes. Corinna yelped, stumbled, and fell into the branches and the thorns… and yet they did not hurt her. She landed as though she’d fallen through a simple pile of leaves and not whole bushes.

  Then she heard it too, thundering steps, like some kind of giant. She turned startled eyes in the direction of the entrance to the garden, fear hammering in her chest like a greedy miner. She heard the door open and then the thundering steps were more like that of a heavy horse. Perhaps it was not so bad. The house floors had simply echoed the steps out here in the garden, making it sound worse than it was.

  But she saw the newcomer step into view and she scrambled back as far as she could, until she hit the side of the house. It was no man or horse that had come to join them. It was a… a beast! That was the only word to describe it. It almost seemed to crawl like a dog until it got to Morgana, then it stood up like a man, a large, ferocious man. It was two heads taller than Morgana, with bushy, thick hair covering every visible part of its body. It was blonde, the kind some got from standing under the sun too long in the fields for days on end. It had ears like a dog, but pointier and larger; ears for hearing the slightest sounds. It had hands, no… it had paws. They were as large as a bear’s and clawed in much the same way. They were paws made for mauling; good for little else besides grabbing people and ending their lives much too quickly. Its eyes were a dark color, but Corinna found it hard to notice their color in the current lighting, though they were shaped much like a cat’s, slit like an animal’s, but smaller than any bear’s or owl’s or even a cat’s. They were the most human thing about the beast.

  As it stood, Corinna saw it wore pants; large, bunchy pants that barely covered the monstrously strong hind legs and all of their hair. It was an odd sight and yet it scared Corinna even more. It almost seemed to pose the question – What poor man had it killed to get those pants? Corinna shook her head. That was silly. It hadn’t killed anyone… well… not to get their pants. It was supposed to be the prince, right? He probably had them made for him. Corinna took a deep, quiet breath, and tried to calm her beating heart.

  “Morgana,” the beast spoke, and his voice was like a roll of imposing thunder. “How is it?”

  Corinna could see its teeth when it spoke. They were long, pointed things, like tiny knives and tools made out of bone. Her heart sped up again despite herself. Oh god, she was going to die when the beast realized she was hiding in these bushes, listening in. There was no way Morgana would be able to protect her from this.

  “See for yourself, Alexander,” Morgana spoke, and Corinna’s heart paused in its panic, remembering she was there. She was a possible safety net, however unlikely it seemed. “The leaves are turning color. Soon even my magic may not be able to sustain its life.”

  “There is nothing you can do?” the beast, Alexander, asked. “For the tree or me?”

  Morgana stepped up to Alexander and placed her hand on his cheek. He seemed to turn to stone, but she was smiling. “Oh, Alexander,” she said. “I would cure you in an instant if I could, but that kind of magic is beyond my power.”

  “You can keep a bush alive, but you can do nothing for me?” Alexander growled and made Corinna’s heart skip a beat. “What use are you to me?”

  Morgana pulled her hand back and her eyes narrowed into a testy glare. She crossed her arms about her chest and turned half away from Alexander.

  “Of course, Alexander. What use am I to you? I only keep the forest from overrunnin
g the manor. I only keep your roses alive. I only make sure the yards continue to grow despite the lack of proper rainfall overhead. I only light the fireplaces and candles at night for you and your servants. What use am I to you? You may as well throw me out.”

  Alexander growled and Morgana glared. She showed no fear of him. She showed no hesitation at all. It was as though she knew he could not hurt her, that his hideous claws and teeth were no danger to her life. Maybe she really could keep Corinna safe. She was a powerful sorceress after all. Then Alexander huffed and turned away from her.

  “I hate your games, Morgana,” he growled. “I don’t have time for them. I’m running out of time! And no one can help me! I used to be handsome and now look at me!” He turned to a bush on the opposite side from Corinna and raked it with his large paw. Half a dozen roses scattered to the ground. “I’m a monster! And I’ll always be a monster! If you truly wanted to be helpful, you’d find out how to break this stupid curse!”

  He ripped a whole bush from the ground then and threw it down the aisle, back toward the door. Corinna felt her blood boil. She clenched her fists. What was this idiot doing? Alexander raised his arm back to take another swipe at the flowers, and then Corinna stood up. There was a lot of rustling as the bushes moved to make room for her, and the noise was not overlooked by Alexander. He turned, prepared to bring his hand down at the intruder, but he hesitated when he saw Corinna.