Emerald Rose

by Emma Hamm

  He hadn’t lied. The Emperor of the Dread had given her freedom.

  They drew back from each other, both gasping in air which had fled their lungs in the crazed frenzy.

  Danielle didn’t know where to look. She was uncertain if she should say something. What did someone say after kissing a monster? A beast? Her people were terrified of him and his kind, and yet she had felt more heat between the two of them than any man she’d ever kissed.

  The Emperor drew back and stared into her eyes. The yellow of his gaze had faded to a cool copper, one she didn’t quite recognize and yet looked far more satisfactory in his face.

  He stroked the high peak of her cheekbone with his thumb and murmured, “Raphael.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “My name is Raphael.”

  All the breath in her lungs left with a great rush of breath. Raphael. After all this time, he’d remembered his name.

  She reached up and framed his hands with hers, holding them against her jaw and neck. “Raphael, will you help me save our people?”

  He stared down into her eyes and searched for something hidden there. She didn’t know what he looked for, but perhaps he found it.

  He nodded, then squeezed her in his grasp. “Yes, princess. We’ll find a way.”

  “Together?” She needed to hear him say the words. To know he was with her, completely and entirely.

  The Emperor of the Dread, Raphael, grinned at her words. Then he repeated, “Together.”

  Chapter 25

  Danielle remained in Raphael’s private chambers for the duration of two weeks. At least, she thought. It was hard to tell the passage of time when there was no sun.

  The longer she went without rays of light, the more ill she felt. Danielle didn’t know why she missed the sun so much, but her entire being desired to see something other than flames or blue luminescence.

  When she couldn’t stand it any longer, she left the cavern.

  Two weeks. That was good enough, and if Raphael yelled at her for leaving, so be it.

  Blacksmith sat on the ledge, his feet dangling above the abyss. He held a chicken leg in his hand, although she didn’t know where he’d gotten it from, and a stone mug in the other.

  On queue, he said, “Good morning, Princess.”

  “How can you tell it’s morning?” she asked.

  “I just came from the Hills.” He took a large bite from the drumstick in his hand. “It’s morning.”

  He’d seen the sun. Every muscle in her body seized at the mere thought, and she eyed him with hope. “You were out of the caves?”

  “Mhmm.” He took a swig of whatever was in his goblet. “Sure was.”

  Danielle felt like a starving woman. She wanted to know everything he’d seen. What did the leaves look like? Were the plants blooming yet? Had the meadow turned emerald green, so colorful it made his eyes ache?

  A thought chilled her to the bone. Was this what her mother felt like when Danielle returned? The hunger for every detail, the desire to know the taste, smell, and feel of the sun.

  Gods, she’d turned into the same creature as her mother. A madwoman seeking escape from her own prison.

  She gulped. “I need to go above, Blacksmith.”

  “No can do.” He finished the remaining gristle on the bone. “Emperor’s orders.”

  “I can’t stay here any longer. I have to see the sun.”

  “You don’t. You’ll be fine if you go back in the cavern and don’t make anyone angry.”

  Danielle tried to breathe through the panic in her chest, but she couldn’t focus on anything other than the thought of sunlight. “If you don’t take me, I will throw myself off this ledge.”

  “You can try. I’ll catch you before you land, though. Won’t do you much good.”

  The panic welling in her chest threatened to drown her. She was stuck here. Enchained. Imprisoned. No one would listen to her, and she needed to see the sun.

  Danielle took a precarious step forward before another voice made her pause.

  “I’ll take her.”

  She recognized the Dread from outside her window. The one from the monstrous Dread female whose face seemed wrong. Of all the Dread to take her outside, this was the last one she wanted to come with her.

  The Dread flew up and landed on the ledge. Her warped face twisted to the side in what Danielle could only imagine was an attempt at a smile.

  How many times had she told herself to not be afraid of the Dread? They didn’t want to hurt her. They were people, just like her own. And yet, this Dread still made her afraid.

  She squared her shoulders and shook herself free from the discomfort. If this Dread wanted to help her, then she would take it.

  Danielle strode forward and lifted her arms to be picked up. “Then shall we go?”

  Blacksmith rolled to his feet. “You can’t do that, Soldier. It will anger the Emperor.”

  “He’s always angry,” the strange looking Dread responded. She reached out for Danielle and slipped clawed hands around her waist. “Let him be. She’s no prisoner, he’s made that clear.”

  And with that, they shot up into the air, away from the ledge and toward the upper part of the caverns where the tunnels led to the light.

  Danielle didn’t know if she should be thankful or uncomfortable. She could feel callouses on the other woman’s palms, and the strange ridges on her hands where the skin hadn’t grown right.

  She was so close to Soldier’s face that she could see the lines weren’t scars on her face, but a strange deformity where she hadn’t developed the correct features.

  “I was born like this,” Soldier said as they soared through the air. “If that’s what you’re wondering. It’s what most people want to know when they see me.”

  Danielle’s cheeks burned. She didn’t want to stare at the creature, even though she had her mouth open in shock. “Were you ill as a child?”

  “No.”

  “I’ve seen a few children like you in the streets before, but I always wondered if it was because of some illness they caught while growing.”

  Soldier shook her head. “No, we’re just the unlucky ones I suppose.”

  Danielle kept her mouth shut for the rest of the flight. They landed at the top of the caverns. Soldier pointed to the familiar tunnel. “Up there is your freedom, princess.”

  She didn’t hesitate, reaching up and yanking herself into the depths. But as she moved, she realized the Dread wasn’t coming with her.

  That would anger the Emperor.

  Raphael. She shivered at the thought of his real name.

  Confused, she turned around in the tunnel and stuck her head out into the Hollows once more. Soldier stood at the ledge, her back to the tunnels and her gaze on the surrounding air. As if she were standing guard.

  “You aren’t coming?” Danielle asked.

  Soldier glanced over her shoulder and shook her head. “No, Princess. I don’t like to go above.”

  “I don’t think I’m supposed to go anywhere without a guard.”

  Soldier’s wings spread wide, the knuckles at the top flexing with some unnamed emotion. “Are you afraid of the Hills?”

  “No.”

  “Then why are you hesitating? Go, find your freedom. If you don’t return in a few hours, I will return to my post and none will know.”

  Was the Dread giving her a chance to run? Danielle opened her mouth to argue.

  She couldn’t go home. Everyone in Hollow Hill would know she was disgraced by now. Even the peasants would try to drag her to the border of the kingdom and throw her to the wolves. She wasn’t a princess. Not, at least, to the people of Hollow Hill. She was someone who shouldn’t be given their safety nor remain within their walls. They knew who she was, her face, her voice.

  Which meant she couldn’t run. There was nowhere for her to go.

  But even as she thought to argue, she realized this was a blessing. Soldier thought so highly of her, she was giving her a choice. No
matter that the Emperor would be angry or that he might try to hurt Soldier.

  This was progress.

  A grin spread across her face as she turned and started the long crawl toward the sun. Earth caked underneath her fingernails and streaked her borrowed shirt and pants. Every slide brought her closer to the one thing she’d wanted since they brought her into the tunnels.

  The first beam of light that struck her face was like a kiss from the gods. She even paused in her frantic climb, tears burning her eyes as she savored the warmth and light against her skin.

  Then she raced toward it. Danielle no longer feared the tunnels would cave in. She could make it even if they collapsed. She’d get to the surface for one more glimpse of the sun, even if she had to crawl out of the earth as though she’d been put to the grave.

  Danielle pulled herself out of the tunnel and rolled into the meadow. Chest heaving, lungs gasping in warm fresh air, she laid on her back in the sunlight.

  Birds sang all around her. Their trilling calls were a symphony dancing through every light breeze. Dappled sunlight played across her eyes through the leaves above her head. Emerald greens. The scent of summer. Long grasses tickling her ears and stretching up around her neck.

  She could smell the earth. The flowery scent of crushed grass beneath her head. The coolness of the stream nearby which burbled in happiness. The overpowering flavor of summer which was an unnamed scent but always came before the sunlight, the blooming, and the intense heat.

  Tension she hadn’t noticed knotted the muscles of her neck and shoulders, disappeared. She lay limp in the heat and listened to the sounds of summer.

  She used to come out here with her mother on the solstice, before the madness, when the kingdom had still been a place of safety. Her mother used to say the summer was a gift to people like her and Danielle. The season was a way to remember all the magnificent things which had happened during the year.

  “Remember that summer brings peace,” her mother had said. “No matter the year, summer will always remind us the sun will rise tomorrow.”

  Now, she wondered whether her mother had suffered at the hands of her father. She wondered if the summer had been an escape from the prison of the queen’s home.

  Someday, she would return to the palace. Someday she would collect her mother, her brother, all the people who meant something to her.

  Milo and Melissa would love to create clothing for the Dread. It was a challenge he would welcome. After all, he liked to clothe people whose bodies were perhaps a little different. Hadn’t he created an entire wardrobe for that fat friar who no one thought could wear a doublet?

  And her mother wouldn’t mind the darkness. The Queen had already spent so many of her years in the shadows, she wouldn’t notice the difference.

  Her madness might grow worse in the beginning. The Dread were the creatures she feared. But they were kind and patient. They would know how to bring her mother out of her shell and to prove they were worthy of her friendship.

  Diana, however, would be a problem. Danielle didn’t think her soldier of a sister could change her mind so easily.

  They’d have to leave her to her own devices. It broke her heart to think of saying goodbye to her sister, but Diana was under their father’s thumb.

  Maybe Danielle could convince her to live away from the palace, to be something other than a warrior.

  “I sound like a hypocrite,” she muttered, rolling onto her stomach and planting her face in her hands.

  Who was she to tell her sister to give up her dreams? How could she when Danielle shared the same desire?

  The tension in her arms and shoulders rose again, this time pressing down on her chest until she couldn’t breathe.

  Danielle forced herself to not think of the future, instead, she focused on this moment. She could control only her own life, but someday, she would help them.

  For now, she let the sun beat down on her back and absorbed as much of its heat and light as she could. She stayed for a few hours in the sun beams. She breathed in warm grass. Memorized the song of birds and squirrels chirping in the distance. Every detail of the world above the Hollows was precious to her.

  Eventually, the sun hit low on the horizon and she knew it was time to return.

  Danielle rolled to her feet and tried to swallow her sadness. She liked the Hollows. It was a beautiful place to live, filled with beautiful people, and yet...

  She didn’t want to return.

  She gazed at the line of trees, which was so beauty and calming. This would always be her home. This was where her soul was born and where she found her heart at ease.

  And yet, it wasn’t what called to her any longer. For now, the Hollows needed her more than the Hills.

  Thus, she would return.

  Danielle took her time crawling through the earthen tunnels until she found herself at the ledge once more. Soldier still waited for her there, although it didn’t seem like she would wait much longer. Her wings were spread wide and her hands were placed on her hips.

  Danielle dropped and landed hard on her hands and knees.

  Soldier turned at the sound and her mouth twisted in that strange warped smile again. “You’ve done that enough times now, I would have thought you’d get better at the landing.”

  “I don’t have wings to break my fall.”

  “No, but you have balance.” Soldier stooped and helped her to her feet. “Feeling better now, Princess?”

  “I feel more like myself,” Danielle lied.

  She felt like herself but also was infinitely sad to return here. She loved the people, the land and the glowing lights. Even the strange woven baskets hanging from each home. But the Hollows would never be Hollow Hill, and that would crush her, eventually.

  Danielle stepped closer to Soldier and wrapped her arms around the Dread’s waist. “I am exhausted now, however. If you could take me back to my chambers?”

  Soldier hesitated. Her arms came down around Danielle, almost like she didn’t know what to do with a hug. “As you wish, Princess.”

  They soared through the Hollows, but this time, Danielle didn’t look. She didn’t want to see all the people who had always been so kind to her, but the ones she couldn’t appreciate right now.

  She didn’t open her eyes until they landed on the ledge to Raphael’s chamber, and even then, she kept them half shut. His chambers were so different from her own in the palace.

  Although, she supposed she shouldn’t think of them as Raphael’s chambers anymore. He hadn’t returned to them since he gave them to her.

  Danielle had made a few changes, trying to make it feel more like home. She’d taken a strip of cloth which had been a makeshift blanket and hung it from the ceiling. It created a sense of privacy in the bedroom area. She’d moved more stones around the fire pit to give it more of a design, but it wasn’t anything like her old bedroom.

  Danielle missed her tower room. She missed staring out over the entire kingdom which would someday be hers and dreaming of what she could do for the people. She missed the open air and the sensation of vertigo if she got too close to the windows.

  Blowing out a slow breath, she regretted going above. Now she was reminded of all the things she didn’t have here.

  Danielle landed face down on the bed. She couldn’t think of all these things if she was asleep, so she would let the dreaming world take her away from the Hollows. Perhaps she would dream of the rolling hills and farmlands she’d seen every year on their regular tour.

  She drifted off into sleep, deep and dreamless.

  She didn’t know how long she slept, only that the dreams she desired were ever illusive. Instead, all Danielle saw in the sleep were evil things. Snakes slithering toward her and chains whipping in the distance. A snake slithered too close, then struck. It wrapped around her neck. The powerful body squeezed until she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t move.

  Danielle’s eyes snapped open in horror at the nightmare which held her
in its grip. But the nightmare didn’t let go.

  A strange man sat atop her. His red, bleeding robe pooled around them both. Something about his face was wrong, a nightmare all on its own, sunken eyes and scars creating a pattern like lace across his skin.

  His tattooed hands were wrapped around her throat. His wrists were so thin, like a skeleton reaching from the bloody fabric. He squeezed harder the moment their eyes met.

  The man opened his mouth and mimicked her own gaping lips. She tried to draw breath, and he mocked her with a wide grin filled with chipped teeth. Though his eyes lacked liquid, they were still filled with fanatic pleasure.

  He ground himself against her hip. His nails bit into her skin. She struggled, but the waif-like man was so much stronger than she was.

  Danielle tried to scream, but there wasn’t enough breath left in her lungs. She’d die if she tried to call for help, and it appeared the monster atop her knew that.

  He leaned down and whispered in her ear, “Now you will die, and I will devour your soul as it leaves your pretty lips.”

  Gooseflesh rose on her arms in fear.

  Was this how it happened? Breath stolen from her lungs. Soul sucked into a creature far worse than her own nightmares?

  Danielle let out a whimper and the man atop her let his head fall back in ecstasy.

  “Yes,” he groaned. “Make that sound again, princess.”

  She didn’t make the sound. Instead, a blast of wind pushed against the back of the man. He leaned forward with the force and his hands slipped.

  She gulped in air and then the man was yanked from her body. He hung in the Emperor’s grasp, swinging by the back of his robe.

  Raphael didn’t even look like himself. His eyes glowed red, his wings spread wide, and his horns appeared even larger. He snarled, fangs bared, and then carried the man toward the cave opening.

  “You may not touch her,” his booming call echoed the chamber. “Only one punishment is fit for your soul.”

  Danielle reached up and held onto her throat, slick with blood which had oozed from the creature’s robes.

  With a great heave, the Emperor of the Dread tossed the man through the chamber’s entrance and out into the abyss. She heard the man’s echoing scream and then the dull thud of a body hitting stone.