“Is this weird for you?” Corinna asked. She hovered her hand over a manuscript sitting on one of the desks. It was crinkled and curling on the top few pages. Corinna feared it would snap and crumble if she picked it up, though she knew that was probably silly thinking.
“Standing in this room? Quite. I was raised to believe it was haunted, a place someone evil had resided… and yet this woman was part of the reason I was released from my curse. She helped the kingdom until her untimely meeting with Morgause, and then she helped the two of us. I’m not sure what to believe anymore… not when it comes to magic,” Alexander said. He stood up from his examination of an old weighing instrument and looked at Corinna. The other nodded and smiled just before her hand knocked into a broom leaning against the table and sent it swooping for the floor, dust rising and abandoning its long time friend.
Corinna gasped and put her hand out toward it. Instantly, it froze mid-fall and hovered there. With a heavy swallow, Corinna set it back up. She cast bashful eyes over at Alexander and tried to appear innocent. Alexander shook his head and sighed. He stepped close to Corinna again and pushed her dark hair back from her face.
“You are a prime example of that uncertainty,” he said. His voice was quiet, a conspirator’s whisper. “Until I am king, I can offer you no protection from my father’s laws. Within Paesaggia, you are a criminal just for existing… and yet you’re staying here in the castle with me.”
“Well we all saw what happened the last time I left you to your own devices,” Corinna said. She leaned in close to Alexander and touched their noses together. She heard Alexander chuckle and knew the prince was smiling.
“That’s alright. I wouldn’t have wanted you to leave again anyway,” Alexander said. “There’s always a chance someone could snatch you away from me.”
Corinna pulled back and gave Alexander a curious look. “You’re talking about Alastar, aren’t you?”
“He’s still here until the party, and he made it rather clear how he felt about you. I can’t consider him harmless just yet.”
With a roll of her eyes, Corinna took Alexander’s hand and led him to the window that overlooked the entry courtyard below. A set of horses and a carriage had just entered the area. Two knights, dressed in blue, sat atop the horses. Alastar was sitting on the lowest stair of the steps leading into the main hall and watching the oncoming group. Only when they had stopped before him did he rise. The knights put their hands over their hearts, and Alastar waved dismissively at them.
From the carriage stepped a man a decent twenty years Alastar’s senior. His hair was white and balding. His skin was wrinkled and aging. His form was weighed down by a few too many cloaks of nobility, but he stood straight and tall and refused the aid of a servant that clambered after him. Alastar stepped up in front of this man, and for several moments neither figure moved. Then Alastar dipped down into an elegant bow, sinking to one knee, and stayed down. The older man, the aging Lord Ragnelle, pressed his hands together and stepped up to his son. He reached his hands down to set on Alastar’s shoulders and then lifted him back to his feet. As the two in the tower watched, the father and son embraced – something strong and powerful.
“Your father has recalled his troops from the border of Cavalleres. Alastar is reunited with his father, and they will soon return home to his younger sister. There are plenty of suitors for him to choose from now. I hope he never grows out of his love for me, but he’ll one day give his heart to someone new. You have nothing to worry about,” Corinna assured.
When she looked at Alexander, the prince was giving her a disbelieving stare. Corinna glanced around and then thought over her words. Why was Alexander looking at her like this?
“You want him to stay in love with you?” he asked and folded his arms about his chest.
“Not in love with me,” Corinna said quickly. “I want him to love me, but not be in love with me. I still love him but as a very close friend. I want him to be happy, not forever pining after someone who’s already found who they’ll be with forever.”
Alexander’s disapproving look melted into something smug and yet touched. He wrapped his arm around Corinna and pulled their bodies close.
“Forever?” he asked. Corinna felt her cheeks burn and turned her head toward the window. Alexander placed a hand on her cheek and forced her to look back into his eyes. “You fancy me enough for forever?”
“Unless you think I should start looking up spells and potions about amnesia,” Corinna said and left the statement vague. Alexander shook his head and pressed his lips to Corinna’s.
“Don’t be an idiot, Corinna,” he said. Then he added as an afterthought, “Although maybe you should take the time to look up healing spells.”
Corinna laughed at that, but a shivering on her wrist cut her short. She pushed away from Alexander and snapped her body around to face the rest of the room. Alexander tensed in response and looked as well.
Standing across the room was a woman facing the shelves. She was young, with long, dark hair and a simple, red dress. Her hands were small, reaching up to touch a book, and she wore no shoes. A brush of magic wafted off her and lifted the mistreatment of the years from the books and furniture in the room. The scientific instruments, containers, and old ingredients remained the same, however, and cast an odd parallel on everything in the room.
“Veronica?” Corinna asked. Alexander tilted his head as though the new perspective would reveal how someone had managed to enter the room unnoticed.
The young woman pulled her hand back from shelf before her and turned around. As she did, she gained a few inches in height and several years in age. Her hair was still black, her dress still red, her feet still bare, but she had curls to her bangs and a white, second layer beneath the dress. As she faced the two by the window, she smirked in a catty way and leaned back on the shelf.
“Niviene,” Corinna said. She glanced to Alexander, whose expression was stunned. The prince checked Corinna for confirmation, and then they both returned to looking at Niviene.
“Impressive work, Corinna,” she complimented. “You have managed to fulfill all of my expectations for you.”
“Explain yourself,” Alexander spoke, drawing the witch’s attention to him. “How did you get in here just now? And why did you appear as one of my servants?”
Niviene lazily crossed her arms before her and took a deep breath. She looked to Corinna with a gaze that asked her to explain the situation for her. For a moment, Corinna didn’t understand why Niviene felt she could explain anything at all, but then a spark of realization dawned in her. She raised her hand up, the one with the shivering bracelet, and pointed at Niviene.
“You are Veronica,” she said. Alexander didn’t seem to understand, but Niviene’s lips twitched into a proud smile. “That was why Morgause recognized Veronica. She knew.”
“But Veronica has been with me since the beginning,” Alexander countered. “And she has never shown any magical ability.”
“Hasn’t she?” Niviene asked, pushing off from the shelf. She held her right arm up in front of her. “Hasn’t she somehow managed to clean an entire room in record time?” She waved her hand so quickly that she left an afterimage.
Corinna thought back to helping Veronica clean. She had managed to clean so much in half the time it had taken Corinna. Veronica cleaned, polished, and scented every room in the house besides the kitchen. No average servant could handle such a load to the degree that Veronica had.
“Hasn’t she always been there right when you needed her and yet hard to find when you don’t?” Niviene pressed her hands together and set her blue gaze on Corinna. “Hasn’t she remained the same age for six long years?”
Corinna’s eyes were fixed on Niviene’s, and in them she saw them cleaning the floor. Veronica’s description of her childhood birthdays rang in her mind. Veronica had left the druids at fifteen and gone to work for the king. Veronica had been a servant to Alexander during his curse for six years.
By that math, Veronica would need to be at least twenty one, assuming she went to work for Alexander immediately after leaving the druids, but Veronica was only sixteen. Corinna glanced at Alexander, whose mind seemed to be figuring out the same math.
“If you had magic, why did you not try to break the spell?” Alexander asked.
“Perhaps you missed what Morgana said the other day. Morgause, in all her rancid simplicity, used most of her strength to cast a curse on me. Corinna can probably give some proof that my gifts surpass Morgause’s, but when a powerful curse is inflicted, there are none still living that could break out of it. I was reduced to a harmless serving girl, to live as such forever,” Niviene explained. “I ate the magic infused food of your small chateau everyday in an attempt to gain back my abilities and form, but it amounted to little. I could use my gifts for the everyday trick, such as Corinna’s bracelet or changing the color of Corinna’s room, but magic on a large scale was impossible. Any attempt was honestly painful. I could only appear in my true form for Corinna under immense concentration.”
“But breaking my curse took no magic,” Alexander pointed out.
Niviene smiled as one hiding a joke. Corinna felt her lips turn up as well and slid her hand into Alexander’s. “You’re not her ‘type’,” she said.
“Precisely,” Niviene agreed. She clapped once. The thrown books around the room began to resituate themselves. “I didn’t help you because I didn’t want to. Honestly, I’d seen you born. I’d watched you grow, and I wasn’t entirely impressed. You were turning into a miniature of your father, and I didn’t feel like binding myself together with you in some inane romantic relationship. It was much easier when Corinna arrived. I could sense he had a powerful destiny that literally collided with yours.”
“How poetic,” Alexander grunted. His expression was displeased, but not altogether angry. He squeezed Corinna’s hand and leaned against the wall. Then he jumped off it a moment later, remembering the dust and the cobwebs. He dusted himself off quickly, and Niviene laughed.
“Morgana,” Corinna said, drawing both of their attentions. “She said she was going to search for a way to free you. Did she know you were Veronica?”
“She had her speculations,” Niviene said, nodding. “Nothing concrete. I was exuding so little magic in that form that it is not surprising she barely noticed me. Even you outshone me in her mind after only a few meals.”
“Are you still cursed?” Corinna asked. Her eyes were on the last of the books sliding into place amongst the others. “Maybe I can help.”
“Dear Corinna,” Niviene began. “You already have.”
“I have?
Niviene held her hand out and a book that had been lying on the table hopped up into her hands. It opened and, just like the book from the chateau, flung its pages around like a book caught in a strong breeze. Niviene snapped her hand down on a page and the book laid flat. She scanned her eyes over the words she saw there and then read.
Her voice felt almost transparent as it dripped over each word. “Humility’s Girdle. Only selfless love can break such a powerful curse.”
“I think I see a pattern to the types of spells Morgause uses,” Corinna said. Niviene didn’t even look up.
“The bearer is one restrained in the form of another, stripped of all gifts, and living eternally until such time the curse be broken. The cursed one’s cure shall be to be whole-heartedly, selflessly, and unrelenting in the service of another until such a time as the other has felt the effects of the cursed one’s positive manipulations.”
Niviene snapped the book shut with a quick flex of her hand and then it sailed away to its assigned spot on the wall with the others.
“For all of my time as a servant, Corinna, you were the only person to genuinely care about me,” she said. At the edge of her words, Corinna could hear Veronica’s sweet voice.
“I’m sure that’s not true. Isabelle loved everyone,” Alexander said. “She spoke of you all the time.”
“Perhaps,” Niviene agreed, nodding. “But she treated me with the familiarity of a coworker and nothing more. Corinna helped me while wanting nothing in return. She took a genuine interest in me. I was moved by her strength. For the first time since I was very young, I felt a connection to someone, and I made up my mind to aid her in escaping her contract with Morgana.”
“And that was your selfless act?” Alexander asked. “You helped free both of us from our curses and you expected nothing in return, not even your own freedom?”
Niviene set an annoyed expression on the prince. “No, Prince Alexander. There wasn’t a moment of time I did not think of and wish for my release. I hoped my helping would fulfill the curse’s conditions, but I also became more fixated on helping Corinna. She was blessed in her upbringing with a sort of grace and compassion you cannot hope to ever achieve. Her passions clouded my idea of my freedom and morphed it into an idea of hers.”
“You should find Morgana and let her know you’re alright now,” Corinna said, cutting off a comeback she knew Alexander was preparing to shout. She placed a hand on Alexander’s chest as a restraint and locked her eyes with Niviene. “But now that you’re free, what are your plans?”
Niviene smiled at Corinna and walked forward to her main table. She touched her finger to the weighing instrument and it cleared itself as though it were brand new.
“I was planning on returning to my work, but a long time has passed, around a decade, and the king’s heart is hard against my kind. It would be social suicide for me to return without some grand show of peace, and I can take very little credit in the return of the prince. You did that, Corinna. I came up here to my room with plans to tidy it up, make it presentable. Then I was planning to bequeath it to you.” Niviene pulled her eyes from her instruments and walked around the table to be closer to the couple. “But I suppose an important question is what you are planning to do.”
“Me?” Corinna asked. She glanced up at Alexander. “I plan to stay here as long as I can.”
“Will you continue to practice magic?” Niviene asked.
Corinna pressed her lips together. She could end up arrested or executed by the king if she did practice magic. However, Alexander seemed supportive of the idea. He was willing to live with a magician despite his upbringing of magic being evil. It would be entirely self-study and involve a lot of secrecy. Yet Corinna felt the magic within her, swirling just below the surface of her skin, and she knew it would never leave her. She would be drawn to learn it, to come to know her father’s blood within her – perhaps even find her paternal family. She felt Alexander’s hand on her back in support and she nodded.
“Yes,” she said. “I need to practice so I can help Alexander and the kingdom. Morgana said there would be revenge attempts. I want to be able to help defend against them.”
“And the king?” Niviene asked. “What about him?”
“I’m not going to let anything happen to Corinna,” Alexander said, wrapping his arm around Corinna’s waist and pulling her close. “Consequences be damned.”
Niviene smiled then, something that felt genuine and powerful. Corinna felt a weight lift from her chest, as though that smile was the first milestone. Niviene turned to the empty room and clapped her hands together. The sound snapped through the room and all dust was gone, all cobwebs vanished. Instead of appearing as the forgotten, forbidden room that hadn’t been opened in a decade, the room now looked clean and ready for everyday use.
“Well then,” Niviene said, turning back. She lowered herself into a kneeling bow to Alexander. “Then with your permission, Prince Knight, I request the option to re-inhabit my quarters and become Corinna’s tutor in the ways of magic.”
“In secret,” Alexander replied, voice gruff.
“In secret.”
“And what about the king?” Alexander mimicked her questioning. “Surely he’ll recognize you.”
“Yes, he would; except that, to the merit of my curse, I now know the form of anot
her. I can hide as Veronica. I shall never harm a person within Paesaggia nor act outside of my station as a tutor without your permission.” Niviene raised her eyes and stared intensely back at Alexander. “Do you agree to the proposal?”
Alexander’s expression was a stone, hard and firm. Corinna slid her hand out of Alexander’s and moved it around Alexander’s back. She could almost hear the whir of Alexander’s mind as he deliberated. Niviene represented so much to the royal family, but Alexander had been far removed from such a family for a long time. Corinna trusted Niviene with her life, though she knew it was illogical. She hadn’t feared Niviene past their first meeting. Something about her was just so familiar, and it must be the magic within her. She radiated this oddly warm glow that resonated with Corinna’s budding powers. Corinna closed her eyes and rubbed Alexander’s back comfortingly. She hoped Alexander accepted. Having a teacher in magic would be so much easier than trying to learn on her own, and Corinna knew Niviene was trustworthy.
The Rose Chateau Page 36
