by Payal Doshi
“I’m honored to have in my company our nectar’s offspring.” The petal-face bowed and hovered to the side to reveal the owner of the voice.
Out of the corner of her eye, Rea saw movement. She turned to see a figure sitting on the floor, enveloped in shadow. It wore a hooded cloak of autumn leaves. A swarm of sun-yellow butterflies flecked in violet covered its face such that only specks of shriveled skin lay exposed under the flutter of their wings. The eyes were a startling blue.
Rea’s stomach roiled at the grotesque sight. Xeranther let out a mini-scream and hurriedly covered his mouth. The fluttering voice laughed, although not unkindly. Rea stared at the two faces in front of her and realized that the person sitting on the floor was Oleandra. She was using the floating face of fire-rimmed petals almost like a puppet.
“Fear not, I am used to seeing folk shocked out of their skin,” she laughed, leaning out of the shadows. “So, what brings you so far inland to LOTOS?”
Her azure eyes watched as Rea, Leela, and Xeranther looked at each other, confused.
“The Land On The Other Side,” she explained, at ease in her dwelling of books and plants. “Where never-before-seen creatures roam wild! Now there, that’s simply a hoax to scare children to sleep. You needn’t look so afraid. I’m not as grotesque as I look.”
Xeranther mumbled words of apology and both of Oleandra’s faces smiled. Leela inhaled slow breaths to calm herself.
“We’ve come to learn about the location of the sacred flower’s missing petal,” said Rea. “I heard you tell the Queen you know where it is.”
Before Oleandra could interrupt or say no, Rea carried on.
“I also know you don’t care if my brother lives or dies, but you are my only chance. I’ve asked the flora and they pointed me to the willow, but the willow says the petal does not want to be found. I have one day left. Please, I’m begging you, help me, so I can save my brother.”
Chapter 25
Bloodoath
Oleandra stretched out on a cushion. Under her flowing leaf-cloak, she was a rather large woman. Rea tapped her foot against the floor, waiting for Oleandra to reply. Instead, with slow movements, she plucked a flower from a plant spilling with piglet-pink blossoms. Its petals undulated in a movement of dance, forming a petaled chalice, and Oleandra drank the sweet-smelling liquid that poured into it.
“I do apologize. If I don’t have my hourly brew of capuli, my head pulses like it’s been stung by a thousand beebats. Not a pleasant feeling.” She cringed. When she was done with her tea, the blossom reattached itself to the plant. “The truth is, Princess, I’m happy you’ve come.”
“You are?” asked Rea, surprised at Oleandra’s sudden change of heart. Hadn’t she told the Queen that she would rather have Rea and Rohan die than have her win?
Oleandra’s hood of autumn leaves slipped, and a rush of bright blue curls fell across her shoulders. She shook them out.
“When the Queen declared she no longer required my assistance in bringing her the petal, I was alarmed. After hectoring me for days to disclose the petal’s whereabouts, she revealed her plan of having you find it. Why would she do that, I wondered, when I’m the one who knows where the petal lies?”
Rea shifted in her spot.
“Ahh,” exclaimed Oleandra. “I realized she had me fooled. Had us all fooled! See, I had the knowledge of the petal’s location, but you had the motivation to get it.”
“But the Queen didn’t tell me about you,” said Rea.
“Are you sure, little bud?”
Her butterfly face, azure mane, and haunting eyes turned wicked and the words wilted in Rea’s mouth. She remembered the secret passage and the conversation between Oleandra and the Queen she had chanced upon. Could Oleandra be right? Was the encounter planned by the Queen and not an utter stroke of luck? Had she seen her go into the public rooms and then lured her to spy on their meeting?
“Oh, you see it too,” Oleandra clapped her hands. “Isn’t Razya’s web of cunning a thing to be coveted? She was devious, even as a child.” Oleandra twirled a vine of bristly leaves in her thick, creamy fingers. “Nevertheless, I questioned why she didn’t simply tell you to come to me? Why the grand charade?”
Leela looked like she wanted to attempt an answer but Oleandra ignored her and continued.
“Perhaps, she thought I might not have looked favorably upon you had I known she had sent you to me.” The butterflies spread into a smile. “That left Razya with only one way to get the petal—you would have to find me yourself. A desperate girl wanting to save her brother might sway my convictions and get me to divulge the petal’s location...”
“But you don’t care about me or my brother,” Rea countered bitterly.
“Indeed. The fate of the realm is vastly more important than two of its inhabitants. Delivering the petal to the Queen would be akin to handing my only weapon to my worst enemy, to our realm’s worst enemy. I would never do that!” The petal-flames burned fiercely, and Rea simmered with rage. She should never have come here.
“Any who, I’ve changed my mind.”
“You have?” Rea exclaimed and Oleandra’s face contracted in pain.
“Ugh, this throbbing head. It does me no good.” A fresh flower-cup refilled itself and the smell of daffodils filled the hut. “Care for some?”
The four of them declined and Oleandra took a long sip.
“Did you say you’ve c-changed your mind?” Rea wanted to make sure she had heard her correctly.
“Over the years, I cultivated the skill of Vossolalia, the gift you were born with, Princess, except mine is a great many times stronger. Through it, I gleaned information about you and your friend, Mr. Thistlewort.”
Xeranther turned red, and Rea and Leela hid a giggle at the sound of his last name.
“Therefore, it is only fair I tell you a little about myself. I am Oleandra Ophrys and I’ve been helping a covert faction known as the Insurgency. They have been working to overthrow Razya and her posse of ministers while fighting for a person true and fair to reign our land... and I, as their ally, have a proposition for you. A barter if you like.”
“In exchange for the location of the petal?” asked Rea.
“Aye.”
“I accept!” She lurched forward, and some of the butterflies on Oleandra’s face fluttered away in surprise.
“Step back,” Oleandra shouted, and Rea meekly slid to her spot.
With the butterflies gone, a patch of charred skin marked with blisters lay exposed on her cheek. With a whisper, Oleandra summoned the butterflies back, and waited until they had settled. It took a minute for Rea to realize Oleandra’s face was burnt and the butterflies she wore were a mask to cover it.
“Before I lay out the terms of our trade, you must understand that by agreeing to assist the Insurgency against the reign of the Queen, you are labelling yourselves as rebels and can be tried for treason if caught. The punishment at the hands of the crown will be severe,” said Oleandra.
Rea glanced at Leela, Xeranther, and Flula. How could she put them in any more danger than she already had?
“It matters not that the Earthling is an alien in the realm of Astranthia and the pari belongs to the world of pari-folk. Your presence at this meeting embeds your involvement in our trade without exception.”
Flula peeked from Xeranther’s pocket, her glimmer flickering. “I-I will lose my place in Pariland if I betray the treaty of peace between the pari-folk and Astranthians. Ooh, Elder Pari will clip my wings and dry my glow if I’m part of your rebellion.” Tears glittered in her eyes. “I-I want to help s-s-save your brother... oh, oh, but I mustn’t, I can’t—” she sobbed and flitted out of the hut.
Rea got to her feet to stop her from flying away, but Xeranther held her back.
“She’ll wait outside until we are done,” he whispered. A moustache of sweat had formed above his lip and he turned to Oleandra. “W-What, may I ask, has the Insurgency achieved so far?”
�
�Pertinent question, Mr. Thistlewort,” Oleandra said and flicked her gaze towards Rea. “As an Astranthian princess, you should borrow a leaf from the barrow boy. Impulsiveness is deep-rooted in you as it is in your Aunt Razya. It won’t serve you well. You are fortunate I am of clear heart and simple motive. In the future, agreeing to a condition before knowing its contents will promise an unkind outcome.”
Rea felt embarrassed to her core. She apologized and Oleandra acknowledged her words like a teacher does an apology from a recalcitrant child.
“The Insurgency,” Oleandra continued, “has been responsible for providing courage to the failing hearts of the people. They have become a voice, a beacon of hope, a fight for a better and just future. Over the past several months, I have been working with them, helping them to rally thousands of protestors and preparing Astranthians to revolt against the crown.”
For the first time, Oleandra betrayed real emotion. “But yesterday, the Imperial Guard paraded your brother, the true heir, across the streets and villages, squashing the will of the people to a pulp.”
Rea exchanged a worried look with Leela and Xeranther.
“With his blood, Razya’s reign will continue. Hope has withered. Souls have shattered. The only weapon left is the location of the missing petal—a petal Astranthians don’t know is missing, not even the Insurgency. Only I know its true location.”
“But won’t Rohan need to awaken his nectar before his blood is sacrificed on the sacred flower?” asked Rea. Since the sacred flower was to rise to replenish its nectar, it only made sense Rohan’s nectar needed to be awoken.
“An astute observation, Princess,” said Oleandra. “And a potential stumbling block for the Queen. The flora have been whispering that Rohan’s nectar has not awakened.”
Rea felt a rush of bitterness toward Amma and Bajai, who had left them unprepared once again. Without knowing anything about it, how was Rohan going to awaken his nectar? She was certain the Queen would punish him if he couldn’t do it.
“The Queen has been a step ahead of us,” Oleandra said, her voice turning grave. “The Som does not discriminate against pure, awoken nectral blood. It cares not if an heir sheds his blood on it or a pauper from the streets. It has been a time-honored tradition for the heir to fulfil this role, but it is not the nectar’s requirement. If your brother fails to awaken his blood, the Queen will turn to you.” The butterflies on Oleandra’s face rested their fluttering wings, and for a moment, they looked at peace.
Defiance rose within Rea. “I’ll never do it.”
Finally, she had some power against the Queen.
“Alas, little bud, when the Queen threatens to kill your brother, you will walk to the sacred Som and willingly sacrifice your blood to save him. Trust that the Queen has prepared for every instance. It would be foolish to think otherwise.”
Rea sat in her place, deflated. Olenadra was right—if the Queen threatened Rohan’s life, she would give anything to save him.
“But—how did this happen? How did the Som lose another petal? And how come nobody knows about it?” Xeranther asked. The fear of what was to become of his beloved realm was evident on his face.
“The Som shed her third petal twelve years ago when Razya stole the throne from Queen Yuthika, the Princess’s grandmother. I was informed of it by the flora only in the last few days.”
Rea was still getting used to the idea of Bajai and Amma being royalty, let alone having their throne stolen. What had they done to hurt the Queen that she betrayed them so harshly?
“Covenant 4086 says: ‘If the crown be wrongfully worn, the fate of deception shall befall the kingdom until such time as the faith of the realm be restored,’” recited Oleandra. “The general belief was that a rebellion would rise against the false power in the event of a wrongful ruler. But when the flora warned me of a lost petal, I realized the sacred flower had sacrificed another petal in retaliation to the wrongful claim to the crown, causing the realm to suffer until the petal is found and the wrong is righted.”
“Has there ever been a wrongful ruler before?” asked Leela.
“Never in our history. The right have always triumphed eventually. We’ve suffered losses no doubt—wars claimed many lives and we carry the burden of losing two of the Som’s five sacred petals. The first, sixteen hundred years ago, during the Great Revolution, when a drop of blood was not given in time and a petal turned to dust. The second, six hundred years later, during the Shadow Wars, when the Som sacrificed a petal to prevent a battle-tired Astranthia from burning to ashes. Now, the third petal is missing, vanished with no trace of ash or ember, and we can feel Astranthia’s elixir receding. As our folklore says, one cannot cheat the moon or her flower for they see all.”
Rea finally understood why Bajai used to ask her to make promises to the moon or say the wisdom of the moon saw the truth. It happened so often, she had made a habit of it and she wondered now how many references to Astranthia and its customs she had missed growing up.
“Our hope is for the people to burst forth with fury when they behold the third missing petal,” declared Oleandra. “The people’s revolution will topple the crown and the Queen shall fall.”
“What if she doesn’t?” asked Xeranther.
“That is where our barter comes in.” The petals blazed in a surge of flames and Oleandra faced Rea. “I want you to assassinate the Queen.”
The hut went silent.
“A-Assass-inate?” stuttered Leela.
“The Queen?” gasped Xeranther.
“Aye, I want her dead. The Insurgency wants her dead.”
As much as Rea disliked the Queen, she had never thought about killing her.
“Why?” she asked. There had to be another alternative.
“The Queen and I have a past which warrants my seeking such revenge, but that is a personal matter. As for her insidious and cruel reign of Astranthia, death makes for a lesser punishment. You can vouch for that, can’t you, Mr. Thistlewort?”
Xeranther looked down at the weeds and nodded. Clearly, Oleandra had known about his father.
“How would we d-do it?” mewed Leela.
“I failed to kill the Queen. Her guard is too strong. She has dwarves and soldiers who wield copezium weapons, chambermaids who are more scared than flies, and spriggans who are loyal beasts. And her magic, of course, is far greater than mine.”
Oleandra’s fiery face glided towards Rea. “The only way is a battle between the nectars. Pure against tainted. Good against evil. Yours against hers. It was a chance we didn’t have until you set foot in the realm, royal one.”
Rea held her breath. She had come to Astranthia to take matters into her own hands and find her brother. But the truth was she was a pawn in everyone’s game. Ignorant daughter of Amma and Bajai. Petal-finder for the Queen. Queen-slayer for Oleandra and the Insurgency.
“When do you want it done?” she asked. If this was her path to rescue Rohan, she was going to take it.
“Tonight, on the Night of Nilaya, when the sacred flower rises before Astranthia.”
Rea stuck out her hand to shake on it.
“What? Are you sure?” Xeranther asked in shock.
“I swore to do whatever it takes to save Rohan.”
He pulled her aside. “You think you’re capable of killing the Queen?”
“I don’t know. All I know is she’s going to tell us where the petal is and that’s what matters right now.”
Rea’s eyes pleaded with him to let her do this. Knowing she could never go back to a normal life after agreeing to Oleandra’s cruel condition, she needed his and Leela’s support.
Xeranther sighed, and returned to his spot. “What happens if we—er—she—fails?”
“You become plant feed.” Oleandra didn’t bat a butterfly-winged-eyelid.
“M-me too?”
“That is the burden of a witness, Mr. Thistlewort.”
The life dropped from Xeranther’s face.
“No,” Rea said, fi
rmly. “I won’t put them in danger again. I accept your terms, but you have to leave Xee and Leela out of it. Else, the deal is off.”
“This isn’t a negotiation, Princess. Either you accept the terms as they are, or you may continue without my aid. The choice is yours.”
The clock was ticking, and Oleandra was her best shot at getting to the petal. Rea desperately wanted to accept the terms so she could free Rohan soon, but she wasn’t going to be selfish anymore. She looked at Leela and Xeranther. They had done everything they could to help her, even put their lives on the line. It was time she stood up for them and acted as their friend.
“I’m sorry,” she ultimately said. “I can’t accept the barter. Finding the petal is my quest, not theirs. They have already done more than I could have hoped for.” Rea stood up to leave but Xeranther stopped her.
“We accept,” he said grimly, but in solidarity. “We’re not letting you do this alone. I have my own reasons for justice, and I will assist you in any way I can.”
“And I promised to help you get Rohan back,” said Leela. “You’re stuck with me till the end.”
Rea didn’t know what to say. Her heart trembled, thinking of the dangers they would face because of her, yet knowing they were going to be by her side made her feel so fortunate. For the first time, the burden of saving Rohan was not just hers to bear; she was sharing it with Xeranther and Leela. The load on her heart was lighter, but her resolve and courage stronger because they were in this together.
Rea felt within her the desire to avenge Xeranther’s Par, to bring the Queen to justice not only for what she did to Rohan but also for all of Astranthia, especially Xeranther. And for Leela, she felt a rush of love—love for a sister, for a friend, the greatest kind in the world. From that moment, Rea knew she could never live without Leela. This is what true friendship looks like, she thought: a promise to always be there for one another.
