Rosalind - Amby Awards 2023 TOP PICK

65- The Slayer and the Watcher

The broken box lay at her feet, the sheets of paper at her sides and the blade rested on her lap. Rosalind sat and stared at them all until a knock came at her door. Clairie's voice called to her. For a moment, Rosalind did not move nor reply. When Clairie knocked again, Rosalind barely managed to tuck the knife under her bed just before the door opened.

"My lady," Clairie gasped. "You did not answer. I thought you were already downstairs." The maid's gaze roamed to the pieces of paper and splintered wood.

Rosalind's first thought was to grab the papers and hide them, but her maid had already seen them. Little good that would do now. "Come inside and close the door," Rosalind said weakly.

Noting her mistress' tone, Clairie tiptoed in and gently shut the door. "Are you alright?" she asked as she knelt by the other woman. "You have not been the same since your return."

Rosalind pushed the sheets to her maid and sat in turmoil as Clairie read. In those moments of silence, Rosalind thought of how she could never tell anyone her feelings for Caspian. But Lilly's words had frightened her as had the remembrance of the strange shock of light swelling over last night's horizon. "I think my kin carries madness," Rosalind whispered in broken syllables.

Clairie set down the last piece of paper with worry wrinkling her forehead. "No, my lady," she said soothingly. "There is no madness. Do you remember my mother?"

Rosalind thought back to when she was a toddler. She recalled Rue and Esther rather vividly but Rosalind could not recall their third maid. "Not much, unfortunately...I know she died about the same time my mother did, but I cannot remember her name nor face."

"Her name was Ava. Your parents, especially your mother, were quite fond of her, she cared for lady Heather when she fell ill with the fever. Before your mother died, I was promised a job at your home once I turned thirteen and your father kept true to his word."

"I do not understand what this has to do with the letters."

"My mother, as my grandmother before her...all the way thousands of years, have been in the service of your mother's kin. Ava looked after your mother, my grandmother Esther was your grandmother Seline's hand. We go as far back as the Van Voreen's and further still."

Rosalind looked at her confused.

"We are your Watchers," Clairie said. "Here to assist you when you find your truth yet unable to interfere with anything."

"The papers mention slayers before...," stumbling on her words, Rosalind paused, "before me but I have never heard of another Borgo Beast. This is all nonsense!"

"The Borgo Beast, the one which held you in his home, is the only Borgo Beast. That does not mean there have never been any other monsters. And if you please, my lady, not all of them are Transylvanian. As you know, your kin has not always lived here."

Rosalind shut her eyes but what she wanted to do what shut out the world.

"There will always be monsters in the world, my lady. Some rather powerful, some easily killed. Then there are ones like him who not only slaughter innocents but bring physical chaos to their land. This one brought the snow and from what you have allowed me to read, he will bring hell upon Transylvania if he is not killed, especially if he finds love."

"But who can love a beast, right?" Rosalind uttered painfully as she opened her eyes.

"No one in their right mind." Claire moved her face close to her mistress's and spoke so silently, Rosalind barely heard her. Yet her words were like a shard of glass through Rosalind's heart. "I pray you are still of sound mind and if anything has happened that you were drugged."

Maddening thoughts swirled in Rosalind's mind. Her nails dug into her palms as she balled her hands into tense fists.

Clairie spoke again, "Not all slayers are successful, Lady Lilly had not been. She was taken..." Clairie stopped to think back to the dates on the paper and to when the lord had been cursed, "a few weeks after she found what her own destiny was. The poor woman barely had time to blink."

"I am not convinced." Rosalind lied. "How did she know what would happen if the beast was not killed? Lilly could simply be making things up, hallucinating from fever."

"My lady," Clairie said gently, "a slayer sees... Have you not seen?"

The image of her straddling Caspian came to Rosalind like a slap. She saw herself with a shard of silver in her hand and now she understood what it was – the vorpal blade. As Rosalind squeezed her eyes shut the image became even more vivid. She saw herself lift the blade and dig it deep into Caspian's chest. Blood oozing down them both and onto the pristine white of the wolf's fur they had been sitting on. "No!" Rosalind said angrily as she opened her eyes. "I have seen no such prophecies of the future, no silly lies to fill empty heads." Rising quickly, she took the sheets and carefully tucked them in a drawer. "Please make up my bed, Clairie. Stefan was here last night and I fear we have made a mess." Trying to steer the conversation away from killing Caspian, Rosalind gestured to her bed.

"The beautiful Moldovan boy?" Clairie said half-hardheartedly. "With the red hair?"

Rosalind nodded and went to stand by her dresser. "You will be discreet?"

"Of course." Claire wanted to continue the conversation about the beast but knew she should hold her tongue. "Did he tell you his eldest brother was killed two weeks before your return?"

Rosalind looked like a rabbit caught in a snare. "He..."

Stripping the bed and bundling the sheets Clairie nodded. "Yes, he was ripped apart by the Borgo Beast, my lady."

As Clairie headed for the door, Rosalind grabbed her arm and stopped her. "You said you cannot interfere."

The maid sucked in a mouthful of air at the tight grip. "That is right, my lady."

"Not with this matter of slayers and monsters. You will not tell my father, brothers nor anyone else. Ever."

"I am only here to assist you if and when you need me. I cannot and will not do anything else."

"What do you mean by assist?" Rosalind asked as she lowered her hand.

"I will help stop you from going mad with what you know and what you must do." Giving a curtsey, Clairie exited the room.