Of Blood and Roses

Chapter 16

Spring time in Rosailles was always my favourite.

It was when the flowers bloomed. They sprung free from the ground, reaching up to the sky in rows of wildness encompassing entire meadows, taking over gardens. Everything was awash in light, the sun brightest first thing in the morning through my chamber windows. When I was a child, I would wake early to escape the castle, often with Darren and Elliotte, and sometimes Blanche.

Until we didn't.

Back then sometimes Mother would spend more time on me. It was still usually to chide me or shape me into what was "becoming" of a princess. But still, when I look back, it was when she treated me most like her daughter.

I remembered how my skin was usually so full of freckles they would join together, leaving my nose so pink it would peel. "You need to act proper," Mother would say. "You will be the Queen of Garnette one day," her lips would be pursed, her eyes, just like mine, hot with temper. "You need to behave."

But as angry as she was, I missed that side of mother now. The mother that cared enough to come and speak to me herself. After I stopped misbehaving, Mother stopped coming to chide me, the distance yawning wider over the years.

On this day in particular Elliotte, Darren and I had escaped the palace. It was a day right on the cusp of summer when it only rained at night, the leaves and grass covered in a damp dew first thing in the morning. It tended to sodden my skirts so I would steal my brother's breeches. Back then each day had been an adventure.

The world behind the palace was one full of bursting meadows in the spring. Tall emerald trees the glowed in the morning sun, cool shadows curling at their feet where we could rest after running through the wildflowers.

It was said this was the place where Queen Roselle had held off the Garnetti during the Great War, the place in the pictures where everything was soaked in blood. But it had been years since then, the sacred place claimed back by nature.

We ran through it, yelping and calling to one another. We splashed through a stream that curled through the trees, getting lost in the shade. I still remember running through the trees from the boys in a game of the Great Mother. Darren had been named Queen for this round, and if he saw us we would be dead on sight. The game was won either when the Queen found all her enemies or was evaded long enough that they gave up.

I was not about to let Darren win.

The sunlight dappled the ground through the swaying trees, making the forest glow. I cursed it, drawing into the shadows, tucking my red hair into my shirt the best that I could. I had lost on more than one occasion because of how it stood out amongst the green. But today the blossoms colored everything red and pink and purple. I grinned. I knew just what to do.

Somewhere behind me, I heard twigs snap. Darren's tread was clumsy and awkward as he kept his gaze focused around him. I stepped lightly, careful of where I put my feet, moving in the opposite direction of where I heard my pursuer. I snuck through the trees until I came to a small clearing, a tree at its center. It was an old thing, its trunk almost three times the size of the trees around it.

I remember looking up at the massive thing, not thinking of it as our sacred Divine Tree, where it was said the Angels first touched the earth when they descended from the heavens hundreds of years ago. It was before Magierre even existed. When the Angels walked the earth, took to its skies, and sang in its forests. Before war and hunger had ravaged the Angel's lands. Before humans outnumbered them.

No, I looked at the tree, a sly smirk spreading across my face. It was in full bloom, as it did this time every five years. There would be a festival in a few days where we all gathered and lay painted red roses at its base to celebrate the Day of Angels. Its dark green leaves swayed overhead, red berries sparkling amongst them like sparkling jewels. If I climbed it and hid amongst its bows, even if Darren glimpsed my hair, I would blend in with the red.