A Tiara of Emerald Thorns

by R Cavanaugh

  No one answered.

  Chapter 21

  Heartington Castle

  Heartington Castle, Decorus Regnum Corset

  Constance was lying on her canopy bed, which had curtains of red, and the wood that formed it was of a charred nature. The bed was set up in a small room that was connected to Jonathan’s room. It was most likely a nursery originally, she supposed. But what it once was really didn’t matter to her, because now it was hers. The room had no windows, so therefore it was lit by torches, but she knew that it was, like Jonathan’s, facing the Mountains of Treachery. It was also in one of the highest parts of the castle. This room was one of her favorite parts of the castle, as it was quite secluded.

  She lay there, admiring the many tapestries and the few paintings that filled up the room. They were old and were among the few things that had survived the king’s purge of everything that had been connected to the Heartington family.

  One thing in particular that would enrage the king if he had known of its survival would be a shield with crossed swords that held the Heartington family crest upon it, which was now hanging over her fireplace. The crest had a great winged unicorn in the center, with its head turned to face the onlooker. The unicorn was standing behind a single rose that seemed to just be opening and still held all of its thorns upon its stem.

  “Constance!”

  That will be Jonathan, she thought, who probably had just found all his papers on the floor. He was probably quite angry due to the fact that he had ordered her to close the balcony doors and she hadn’t—yet. It was her opinion that he had servants for that. I mean, she thought, stretching her front paws and slowly getting up, Why should I have to do such things?

  “Constance!”

  Ugh, she thought, he was such a different man after he has spent too much time with his brother. He had a tendency to get twitchy and irritable, and it would take very little to send him over the edge.

  “Constance!”

  “I’m coming,” she purred calmly but made her way slowly into Jonathan’s room, looking up at him with what would be considered by most as a blank and innocent expression.

  Jonathan’s room was far larger than hers and far grander. It had a great balcony facing the mountains and a large fireplace with his family crest held just above the mantle. Across from his fireplace was a great canopy bed with a frame that was intricately carved with dancing flames. The only similarity his had to hers was the charred nature of the frame and the red curtains; everything else was far more exquisite.

  He also had a bathroom with a grand bathing area in the floor made out of stone, a washing basin, and a mirror, which she was forbidden to use. His room included some furniture, two intricate wooden tables, several candelabra for special occasions, and two large sitting areas with furs leading from there to the bed area.

  His high ceiling was framed in gold leaf, and held in its center, a great amber chandelier. It would magically illuminate when darkness came, and it would extinguish whenever someone wished them to or if the sun was coming up.

  Now her attention came back to Jonathan’s less-than-pleased face. Instead of his more cheerful and playful clothes, he was wearing what Igneous would expect him to. He was wearing a shirt that was black and high collared, with red embroidery throughout the cuffs and edges. He was also wearing the black pants to match, with black boots that came up almost to his knees.

  “Constance,” he breathed coldly, “is it possible that you misheard me? Or did you just feel that I was speaking to the walls surrounding me?”

  “I thought that you meant ‘eventually,’” she said lazily, noting that his mouth had gone thin and was now twitching. “I didn’t realize that when you told me to close the doors, you meant right then and there.”

  Jonathan’s face went red, and he turned on his heel, took several long strides toward the balcony doors, stretched out his arms, and slammed them shut.

  “Constance,” he said very quietly as he turned around to face her, “let me make something very clear: my brother expects me to keep this place running the way he likes it while he is gone.”

  He paused, and as he did so, he walked so as to stand right in front of her.

  “Which means you are expected to share the duties we are responsible for.” He looked into her eyes and did so unblinkingly before continuing. “That includes, but is not limited to, following orders, defending this castle and this family’s beliefs.”

  “So raping, murdering, pillaging, and destruction to promote fear,” Constance growled. She never much liked being scolded for something as frivolous as this. After all, she was not a servant, and now that she thought about it, she had picked him out, not the other way around.

  “If that is how you read it,” he replied nonchalantly, looking out at the mountains before turning back to look at her, “then yes.”

  As if this conversation resolved the matter, he turned and walked into his bathroom. Here he took one look at himself in the mirror, and he strode over to the door leading to the hall. Turning toward her, he then smiled and said,

  “By the way, I would very much appreciate it if you would pick up my papers.”

  With that he opened the door and exited the room, practically slamming the door behind him.

  “Well,” she said huffily.

  This was not at all like him; he was usually very mousy with her and didn’t normally dare to tell her what to do. That being said, however, they didn’t normally stay here. These two rooms usually remained unoccupied due to the concept of remaining out of the king’s hair. They thought that the best way to do so was to remain at the Stipes’ summer home as opposed to staying here, where Igneous terrorized them.

  Sighing, she glared at all the paper on the floor. Technically it was parchment, but somehow the word “paper” had leaked into this world from that other one. Deciding that grabbing the documents and placing them in their proper place would be wiser than ignoring Jonathan a second time, she began to collect them carefully with her powerful jaws.

  It took her the better part of what would be an hour to locate and carefully replace the pieces of parchment where they belonged. She had decided that since she knew the correct term for the documents, she would use it.

  As she was just finishing up, Jonathan’s newest fancy, also known as a maid, walked into the room with her white cat, Damien. Damien was more of a soft gray when seen next to Constance, and his eyes were an orangey gold. The maid wasn’t the tall type and had long hair of the deepest auburn. Here warm brown eyes were in extreme contrast to her pale skin.

  She was here to ready Jonathan’s room for the evening. She had, like most of the others, volunteered to be Jonathan’s maid. Probably, Constance thought, because she thought he was handsome and far kinder than his brother. She would probably sleep with him, too, like all of her predecessors. Once that happened, her tour of duty would most likely be over, and she would have to cope with everything that happened and everything that didn’t.

  That, Constance thought with a frown on her face as she watched the girl turn over the covers, would be if she were lucky. Someone of her beauty might end up working for Igneous next, and that was considered a less pleasurable experience. Some women didn’t live through what happened with him, and those that did wished they hadn’t.

  Constance shook her head at such thoughts and walked past her as she headed to the balcony. She carefully opened one door by lifting her right forepaw and dropping it on the handle.

  “I’ll get that for you, Miss,” the maid said quickly.

  “I am perfectly capable. Thank you, Rachel,” Constance replied coldly. After all, she thought, I am not a common house cat, or leopard, for that matter. I am smart enough to open a door.

  The maid, as if she had heard what Constance was thinking, rolled her eyes and left the room. Her cat, Damien, stared at Constance for the smallest
of seconds and then followed his human out of the room.

  Constance rolled her eyes in sarcasm, but no one was there to notice, so she proceeded onto the balcony. Once on it she lay in the shade, enjoying the evening warmth. She had been there for quite some time when she heard a commotion down in the yard below. A bunch of horses were being led into the stable just below and to the right of the balcony.

  Strange, she thought, they had left only a few days previous. Why have they returned so soon?

  Maybe it is another group that has come back after going out for the day, she thought hopefully.

  However, all of her hopes were crushed when she saw the black, fire-tinged hair of Exotius Obscurum below, leading Infestus and Wildfire to their private rooms that were on the ground level right below the balcony.

  “This is not good,” she said, a note of panic in her voice, and she was clambering to get up and over to the balcony doors. She was in such a hurry that she knocked over a potted flower as she opened the door. Once in the room, the sound of nails on glass filled it as she hastily closed the door behind her. Moving quickly across the room, she was thinking just as hurriedly,

  I must find Jonathan; he’ll want to know Igneous has returned.

  Chapter 22

  The Island of Destinies

  The Pool of Hope

  Rose had finally reached the island after running across the great sand bridge. The island, only a few minutes previous, had seemingly appeared in a blink of an eye, with the bridge forming at her feet.

  “Damn,” she said through heaving breaths, “that was farther than I thought.”

  Still breathing very heavily due to her now-winded condition, she turned and looked for the shore she had left behind. Her jaw dropped; the sand bridge was now sinking back into the water and out of existence. It was as though someone had flipped over an hour glass, and the sand was flowing into the base.

  Well, she thought to herself, I guess there really is no going back now, is there? With a sigh she looked around and took in the world to which so many said she belonged. But she was not part of this world; she had come from and belonged to another world, she told herself.

  With that thought still fresh in her mind, she turned on her heel, took a deep breath, and walked into the wood.

  She was instantly met with complete darkness. In fact, it was so dark she could not even see the hand that she had placed out in front of her.

  “How in the world am I going to see where I’m going?” she frustratedly groaned aloud.

  Suddenly, as if in answer to her words, a faint greenish glow came from somewhere to her right. Turning, she saw that it seemed to be coming from a rock that was only a foot or so off of the ground.

  She started to move closer to it, moving with caution but filled with curiosity. Once near the glow, she could tell that it wasn’t the rock emitting it but an object sitting upon the rock. She picked it up and held it, still unsure as to what it was.

  I mean, she thought, still holding the thin yet surprisingly sturdy object tightly, it’s better than walking around in the dark, bumping into things. As she looked, squinting into the bright light, she saw that the source of the green glow was very small, sharp, protruding objects located in a seemingly basic central frame.

  She could not get over how terribly light it was, because in holding it, she could feel how strong it was. Yet, she observed, running her fingers along it, she found the frame to be very fragile in nature. The fact that it was brighter than her surroundings meant she really couldn’t see it properly. But while running her hands over it, she noticed that its shape wasn’t completely circular, yet it was still round.

  “Very strange,” she whispered. “I would never have believed such an object as this could exist, had I not seen it with my own eyes.”

  Nevertheless she was glad to have the light. The object, whatever it may be, was therefore a very welcome sight. Not to mention an addition to the few things she now possessed. With it she was now able to proceed farther into the thickening wood, and hopefully her journey home would now be clearer as well. Her hopes that the island’s center would hold some path back to Earth seemed to gleam in the darkness along with the object’s glow.

  After a while one tree seemed to look like all the others, with each being as massive as the next. They are even larger, she thought, than those she had read about growing in California. The canopies of the trees seemingly blocked all hope of natural light.

  The terrain was just as tough as the never-ending darkness. There were roots the size of her legs raised above a path that someone had long ago forgotten. However, she thought, at least there is a path, even if it is strewn with boulders and roots waiting to trip an unworthy traveler.

  She felt as though she had been walking forever and figured it must be daylight by now, though you could not tell since the canopy had seemed to have gotten thicker. My feet and my legs, heck, she winced as she stubbed her toe on a root, my entire body is moving in absolute protest. Her exhaustion was beginning to force her to a halt, and just as she was about to give in…

  “Finally,” she sighed, for there before her was a clearing.

  She moved faster to reach it and stubbed her toe a few more times before doing so. Here in this clearing was a general sense of peace. At its center was a little pool of water that was no more than five yards in length, and it was in the shape of the crescent moon. Its water seemed to illuminate the darkness. Perhaps this is the moon, she thought, and I’m walking on the night sky.

  “Don’t be silly, Rose,” she said, shaking her head at such a silly notion.

  No longer in need of it, she placed the object in her bag, not noticing, however, that it had ceased glowing.

  She yawned. Now that she had stopped, that exhaustion that had been slowly building up had fallen over her. Knowing it wasn’t the ideal place to rest seemed to make little difference at this point, as she once again let out a wide yawn.

  Slowly, cautiously, she entered the clearing and saw the only place she would find fit to lie upon. There was a little patch of grass that came to rest in the indent of the moon-shaped pool. She smiled as a memory of her father washed over her. He was drawing a moon just like this one, and there was a star hanging from its upper tip. The grass reminded her of that funny star, which always seemed to her to be holding on by a thread.

  She sighed and dropped her bag on the ground next to her and sat on the grass. It was a little cool but soft as silk. She lay down fully now and curled up to keep warm. She took one last look at the pool before closing her eyes and allowing the blanket of sleep to envelop her.

  “Ahhh!” Rose let out a terrified scream as she was awoken by something lifting her up and throwing her into a tree on the other side of the clearing.

  “What the—”

  But mere words could not begin to describe what she was now looking at.

  The thing that had just thrown her was over eight feet tall and was absolutely hideous. She counted several large appendages that included two slimy, scaly tentacles; six hairy legs, three on each side of its single torso; and two clawed arms covered in hair, with three appendages each. It had two mouths on its large pear of a head, one on top of the other, and it had one very long, gray tongue. One mouth had a pair of fangs baring at her, the other a set of very sharp, razor-like teeth. In between the two mouths, resting on the scaly head, was a pair of green eyes, with red veins pulsing through blackness that would normally be the whites. To top it all off, besides the arms and legs that were a furry dark gray, the rest of it was a black, scaly, and slimy.

  She opened her mouth in what would have been a scream, that is, had any noise come out. She stood up shaking, feeling that fight-or-flight thing she had once learned about start to take effect.

  The ground shook ever so slightly as the creature took a few large and clumsy steps toward her, its eyes never veering from wh
ere she stood. Its tongue seemed to be moving between mouths, licking first its lips, then its fangs.

  Not thinking clearly, Rose made a run for the other side of the clearing where the path was. This, however, seemed to be in her advantage because the creature, while swinging out with its clawed arm, didn’t stop in time and slammed into a tree. It was also successful, as it had sent Rose flying into the clearing and away from her intended destination.

  “Ah, OK,” Rose winced, dazed and standing up once more, thinking she could make another attempt at reaching the trees. She ran for it.

  “Ahhh!”

  Once again sent flying in the other direction, this time she landed near the pool of water. Quickly she rolled over and saw something utterly terrifying. There, in the back of that horrible creature’s head, parallel with the other pair, was a second pair of eyes glaring at her.

  “Ohhh, crap!”

  She stood up and tried to get around the pool and at least get out of the creature’s range, but it had turned around now and was somewhat coordinated. It swung out with its left clawed arm and got her left shoulder.

  “Arrrgghhh!”

  She fell to the ground and curled up for a second, groaning in pain. She started to try to get up but was pulled down again by one of the tentacles.

  “Get off!” She screamed at it and kicked it hard with her free foot. It let out a horrible sound that was a cross between a roar and a wail. It was so loud she covered her ears. Then realizing it let go, she scrambled to get out of its reach.

  This, however, was no longer possible, as the creature, having learned its lesson, had now wrapped its tentacle around both her legs. In fact it was almost up to her waist.

  “Help!” she screamed; why, she wasn’t sure. After all, who would hear her, let alone be a match for this terrifying creature?

  The creature, now realizing it held her fast, was now slowly standing up and readjusting itself. Once it seemed to have found a firm footing, it lifted her up so that she was now almost level with its face.