“No.” I shook my head nervously and stepped closer. “I mean, no, Your Highness.”
“The Golden Rose of Nerissette?” the mermaid asked, raising her left eyebrow at me.
“Queen Talia?” I rubbed my sweating palms on my skirts.
“I’ve waited so long to meet you, child. So very long.”
“Really? But I just got here…”
“Your arrival was foretold. Now come, and let’s dispense with the titles for now so we can get to know each other, queen to queen.”
“Okay.” I came close enough to sit on the bank beside her pool. “Are you sure? I mean, I was told to expect you to drown me, and now you want to chat.”
“Drown you?” She began to howl with laughter. “Why in the name of the great seas would I want to drown you?”
“I don’t know.” I shuffled my feet. “Disrespecting you, insulting you somehow by not knowing the proper way to bow, general stupidity on my part? That sort of thing.”
“I think, for tonight, you’re safe. Now sit with me, child. I promise there will be no drowning.”
“Sure.” I clenched my fingers in my skirt to hide the way they were trembling. “So, I’m Allie.”
“Allie?” she asked. “How do they say it in your world? It is a pleasure to meet you, Allie. I am Talia. Fifteenth bearer of my name, daughter of Mavalle, ruler of the Lost Sea of Gallindor.”
“I’m just Allie. It’s nice to meet you.”
“And your mother?” Talia asked. “How is she? Excited to see her only daughter take her rightful place as princess?”
“I’m sure if she had any idea what was going on she’d be great about it. Mom always loved a party, even if she had no idea what it was for. But the thing is she’s…”
“I see. I am so sorry. You must be so alone here, without your mother and father. I, too, have lost my parents.”
“I haven’t exactly lost them. I never knew my dad,” I said. “And Mom’s not dead, she’s just…”
There was no good way to explain about Mom that didn’t make people uncomfortable. If I told people that she’d been trapped in a coma for the past five years, being kept alive by machines, they just sort of got silent. Not that I really blamed them. Who knew what to say in that sort of situation? I didn’t, and she was my mom.
“She can’t take care of me right now because of her injuries,” I said lamely.
“Well, I’m sure wherever she is, you’ll make her proud. Now, when your consort visited us earlier he mentioned that you are quite an accomplished swimmer. A champion in your world. He seemed very impressed.”
“My who? Oh, you mean Jesse? He’s not mine. He’s actually my maid’s boyfriend. Or he was. Now he’s—” I ran a hand across the back of my neck in frustration. “Never mind, I don’t know why I’m telling you all of this.”
“Because I want to listen,” she said. “Indulge me, young queen.”
“But—”
“Let me treat you like the daughter I’ll never get to have. Now, unburden yourself to me.”
I nodded slowly and then gave her the lowdown on the drama that was currently taking place with Heidi and Jesse and the whole “Heidi being turned into a maid” mess.
“That is…complicated. What will you do about this boy and this girl who’s now your maid?”
“I don’t know. Nothing? If it weren’t for the fact I was a princess, he would still be paying no attention to me. It’s not me he’s interested in—it’s the title.”
“Is it?” she asked.
“He didn’t even know I was alive before. Not that it’s really surprising because the girls on the swim team aren’t exactly ruling the school if you know what I mean.”
“Do they not?” Talia grinned at me, her eyes twinkling. “Yet, here we are. Two born swimmers who are now queens when the most desired girl in your world is now a chambermaid. Perhaps Fate knows her business after all?”
“Maybe,” I said. “Or maybe this is all a mistake.”
“You are the rightful Rose, and while I would guess that your new friend is perhaps not as noble as you’d first thought, he might actually like you. The stars have seen crazier things happen when young men finally wake up and face the day.”
“I don’t think I want him to like me, no matter how crazy the stars decide to get with their matchmaking. Suddenly I’m a princess, and he’s telling me how pretty I am? Which I can tell you right now is going to be one heck of a surprise to my maid.”
“I imagine many things will come as a surprise to your new maid,” Talia said. “Just as I’m sure that there will be many things that will shock you, as well. But you are welcome here any time, queen of the land dwellers. My people will sing of the Rose who rests upon the water for one hundred times the length of your reign.”
“That’s really nice of you,” I said, “but I don’t really think I’m going to be here that long. Esmeralda told me that I’m here to end of this thing called the Time of Waiting and then that’s it. Then they’ll let us go home.”
“Home?”
“Well, yeah. I don’t know how to run a country, and everyone says you’ve got a Lost Golden Rose somewhere out there. So, once I help with whatever it is, then she’ll come back, and I can go home.”
“Queen Allie…when we say that the last Rose was lost, we mean that she will never return. You are the Rose now.”
“But why me? Someone’s had to run this world since she left. Someone had to do the job. Didn’t they?”
“The Fate Maker has been acting as regent until Fate decreed it was time for you to come.”
“See?” I held my hands out toward her. “He’s been running the place, and I haven’t seen a lot, but it doesn’t seem too bad. So I say we let him keep doing it. Trust me. You’re all better off that way.”
“It’s not too bad here?”
“Well, I haven’t been out of the castle yet, but it seems like he’s doing an okay job ruling Nerissette. Better than I would.”
“Excuse me?” Her eyes widened. “You don’t intend to rule?”
“What does it matter? It’s just a show, isn’t it?”
“A show?”
“Like the whole thing with the Queen of England. I’ll let them put a crown on my head and call me Your Highness, but in the end, the government makes all the decisions, and I just nod and smile.”
“I do not know how they do things in this England of which you speak, but I can assure you that the Golden Rose of Nerissette is not meant to be a figurehead. You are the government. You are Nerissette, and your word is law. The only law.”
“But the Fate Maker has been ruling for who knows how long.”
“Only because you, our true queen, had not reached your six thousandth day. When our last queen was lost, Bavasama—the Queen of Nightmares—threatened our lands, and Fate declared through her orb that the wizard was meant to keep the throne safe for your return.”
“How did she threaten you? With a war?”
“No.” She shook her head. “She would have marched on us but instead the Fate Maker challenged the Grand Vizier, the head wizard of Bathune, to a battle of magic and the winner would rule Nerissette. For three days and nights they fought, each of them conjuring spells, and in the end, the Fate Maker was victorious. Nerissette was safe and he became regent. But the Fate Maker’s regency was never meant to be a permanent solution for governing Nerissette. The people need you. Their rightful queen.”
“They really don’t,” I said. “I have no idea how to even start trying to be a queen. None.”
“That’s irrelevant.”
“I can’t even manage to keep my swim class kids in line without someone else around. So, trust me, I am definitely not the person for this job.”
“To do the job properly you must accept that who you are doesn’t matter. What matters are the people you’ve been tasked with protecting—and they are the only thing that matters.”
“Except I can’t protect these people. I’m just
the stupid girl who picked up the wrong book in the library. I’m not a warrior, and I’m most definitely not a queen.”
“Whatever you may think, you, Alicia Munroe, were born for this. There is no other queen who can save the people of Nerissette from the darkness that is coming for them.”
“What darkness?”
“No one knows what will come when the Chronicles end and the Time of Waiting is over. We don’t know what comes next. Fate has left us blind as newborn kittens, and you are the only one who can save any of us. All of us. You have been foretold.”
“I’m just a girl. If darkness is coming then you need someone who can truly protect you from it, and I’m not her.”
“What was it you told Rhys before you entered our grotto?” Talia asked. “Before he left you on this side of the maze and closed the door?”
“That everyone matters,” I said. “No matter who they are, everyone matters.”
“Does that include maids who may have hurt your feelings before you fell through the book?”
“Everyone matters. Even Heidi.”
“Then it sounds like you know more about being queen than you give yourself credit for,” Talia said. “But it is late now, Golden Rose of Nerissette, and you’ll have much to learn tomorrow. I have only one piece of advice to share with you.”
“Just one piece of advice?”
“A true queen never allows herself to become a figurehead. She always works to do what’s best for her people. Now, go and rest. Come back and enjoy our pool whenever you like. Before the end of your prophecies, and ours, are reached, you may need it.”
Chapter Ten
“So,” Rhys asked as I pushed the door open and joined him and Jesse on the other side of the hedge wall. “How did it go?”
“She invited me back to visit whenever I want,” I said.
“That is good.” Rhys nodded once, sharply, and then started down the maze, not bothering to wait for us. “Watch your step.”
“I think we’ll be fine,” Jesse said as we hurried to keep up.
“I’ll see you and your prince back to the castle so you don’t get lost along the way. I’d hate for one of the dragons to mistake you for a snack—especially the crown prince. That would be tragic,” Rhys said, completely ignoring Jesse.
“No one would hurt us,” Jesse said, panting slightly as we rushed after the long-legged lord general.
“How do you know?” I asked.
“This is your palace, and you’re going to be their queen,” Jesse said, his eyes gleaming in the darkness. “No one would attack you.”
“Am I?” I looked between the two of them. “Going to be their queen? Do you think that they’ll all just go along with it?”
“The Fate Maker and that cat both say you’re the queen,” Jesse pointed out. “Everyone in the palace is bowing whenever you walk in the room. You’re in charge. No one is going to go against you. They’ll do whatever we say.”
“Do you think if I ask the mermaids to follow me against Talia they will?” I asked. “Or do you think they would side with her?”
“Very clever, little Princess.” Rhys waved his free arm out in front of him, gesturing me forward before he let his hand rest on the hilt of his sword again.
“I wouldn’t say that,” I said. “I mean, she didn’t seem really happy when I told her that once the prophecy was fulfilled I was going to go home and let the Fate Maker run Nerissette again.”
“What?” Rhys’s face paled. “You’re going to do what?”
“After the prophecy thing is over. We talked about this. I’m going to let the Fate Maker run the country again so I can take my friends and go home.”
“And what do you think will happen here in Nerissette, Your Majesty?” Rhys sneered. “What happens if you go home? If we all just pack up and leave?”
“Nothing. Everything will go back to normal. It’ll be like nothing changed.”
“Do you know what normal is here?” He was yelling then. “Normal is living in fear of the wizards. Normal is waiting to have your children taken away from you or your home burned down.”
“But why would they do that?”
“Normal,” Rhys said, ignoring me. “Normal is waiting for a war that may never come to pass. Normal here is a nightmare like nothing you could ever imagine. Nothing that you could have dreamed about in the World That Is could have prepared you for what’s normal here.”
“That’s why he should be in charge and not me. The Fate Maker knows how to keep all the bad stuff from happening. I don’t.”
“He’s the one who keeps making the bad stuff happen!” Rhys shouted.
“Why would he ruin his own country? A country that he’s supposed to be protecting?”
“Because he’s a wizard, and that’s what they do,” Rhys said. “What do you think comes after the Time of Waiting? What do you think it is we’re waiting for?”
“I don’t know. Talia said that once the waiting was over, then darkness would come, and no matter what’s going on here, it can’t be worse than that.”
“The darkness is already here,” Rhys said. “What you’re bringing is the spark.”
“What spark?” I asked.
“War. Rebellion. A chance to take Nerissette back from the wizards and finally be free. The rule of Fate ends with the Chronicles. Now that you’re here and the prophecies are going to end, we can finally rule ourselves—free of Fate and the wizards and everything that ties us down.”
“But Talia said that he defeated the wizard of Bathune to keep Nerissette safe.”
“For him! He defeated the Vizier and let the people place him on the throne as regent, then he turned out to be just as evil. He crushed the people underneath his feet as surely as Queen Bavasama would have. The same suffering, just a different dictator.”
“So why haven’t you fought him before? Why didn’t you stand up to him?”
“Because we’re ruled by Fate, and Fate decreed that the Fate Maker was meant to be regent.”
“So overthrow him anyway.”
“If we go against her we’ll die. She will kill us all, and it will be for nothing. So we bowed our heads and we waited for the day you would come and conquer Fate. The day you would set us free.”
“But I have no idea how to do that!” I wanted to shake him. No one was listening.
“Then you better figure it out, because I’m sick of watching people suffer while we sit and do nothing, waiting for you to save us.”
“You’re not listening to me. I don’t know how to save you.”
“I lost everything, gave up my life to keep people safe, and now that you can change things you’re just going to run away because it’s not convenient for you? Some queen you turned out to be.”
I stood there with my mouth hanging open as he turned on his heel and stalked away from us.
“Allie?” Jesse took my hand in his and squeezed my fingers. “He’s full of it, okay? He’s a crackpot. Or jealous. Maybe both.”
“Jealous?”
“Yeah.” Jesse began tugging me down the winding passageways of the maze. “He’s jealous because you’re going to be queen, and he’s stuck playing army man. So he’ll say whatever he can to make you feel bad about it. That’s what people like him do.” Jesse tightened his grip.
I slid out from underneath his arm. “Well, he’s kind of right. And what do you mean, people like him?”
He let go of my hand and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into his side. “Look, people get crazy jealous when you’ve got something they don’t, especially when they think they deserve it more than you do. The Fate Maker warned me about things like that here.”
“Maybe he does deserve to be in charge, though. I mean, what makes you think I deserve to be some sort of queen?”
“You do deserve it, more than anyone else I know. You’re smart, and you’re pretty. The mermaids seem to like you, and most important, you’re really nice to people, even people who haven’t earn
ed it.”
“Like Heidi?”
He stopped walking and looked over at me. “Yeah, I guess Heidi probably fits that description, but that’s just on the outside.”
“Is that much different from the Heidi on the inside?” I asked skeptically.
“Once you get to know her she’s not really the same person she is at school. She’s different, but the thing is she’s got all these expectations on her. All these things she’s got to live with. She’s not like you are.”
“You don’t think I have expectations I have to live up to?” Bitterness tinged my voice. “It’s not like Gran Mosely and I are rolling in money like Heidi’s family. My entire future depends on my grades and how quickly I can swim across the length of a pool.”
“Yeah, but Heidi has stuff, too.”
“I’m sure her worries about her nail polish and how popular she is at the moment are right up there with world hunger on the list of important stuff.”
“That stuff is pretty superficial,” Jesse said. “Not world hunger but the popularity stuff. But you don’t understand what it’s like for Heidi.”
“No, sorry, I don’t know what it’s like to be rich and beautiful and spoiled. Why don’t you tell me how horrible that is for her?”
“Did you know she watched her dad walk out on her mom because he said she wasn’t pretty anymore? Heidi’s new stepmom is, like, twenty-two, and her dad already has another girlfriend. One of the seniors from last year.”
“You’re kidding.” I felt a mixture of revulsion at her dad’s creep factor and sympathy for Heidi. What was with this day? Now I was pitying Heidi Spencer? Of all people?
“No, it’s really gross. So, Heidi just sort of realized that if she makes sure she’s the prettiest and the most popular then she won’t get hurt. Her parents aren’t like yours—all they care about is how she looks. They’ve taught her that’s all that matters.”
“So that’s why she’s a witch to everyone then? Because we don’t live up to her beauty standards? She thinks she has the right to trample on people because somehow she won a genetic good looks lottery?”
Everlast (The Chronicles of Nerissette) (Entangled Teen) Page 9
