The White Rose of Fiorazzurro (A Dvorak Novel; Complete)

Chapter 11 (or, "A Visit to the Faerie King")

Calimero was speechless. There was a faerie in their midst? Not just that, but a faerie princess? And she was going to have them go follow her to her faerie hole to go meet her dad, the king? He felt nearly ready to pass out — or, at least, he had before Daisy had dragged them all on this excursion.

They had spent an entire day getting ready. Milaya hadn’t minded losing the time, since most of it was spent planning out how to gather the rest of the magic users once they got the plans for the potion from Daisy’s father. They had packed basics, as it would be a day trip and might turn into an overnight if the details took too long to figure out. Milaya was in charge of food, Collodi would handle transportation, and Daisy would handle everything once they got to the Faerie Kingdom…or what was left of it.

“Isn’t your father going to be mad that you ran away from home to come here to the mainland?” Calimero asked under his breath as they took the D train inward, then took the A across the island to the East Side.

Daisy shook her head. “He’s actually really proud of me. He’s been suggesting I do this for years, try to start some sort of revival. Someday, he will die and I will become Queen as his eldest daughter, and he’s always wanted to see me take charge. It’s my mother who’s going to throw a fit.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s got her own opinion of what she wants a faerie princess to be, and I’m not having any of it. All big frilly dresses and special events and this and that. Can’t take it.”

They got off the A train at the end of the line, debarking the train. The East Side of Fiorazzurro was filled with luxurious homes and sprawling vistas. Daisy uncorked a bottle of something she had been hiding in her jacket. “Each one of you, take a small swig of this. It’s my own batch of Forgetful Fancy. I’m no pro like Calimero, so he should make us more, but…it should keep us covered until we can get past the East Side. Stay quiet. The people who walk by us should not notice us, but that doesn’t mean they can’t hear us. If we’re too loud, it’ll break the spell. Collodi, you can still give it to Blue and it should have the same effect. It operates off of magic, not off of livelihood.”

Milaya took the bottle of clear liquid from Daisy and took a small sip. It tasted like rubbing alcohol, but she mustered it down. She wiped her hands on the hem of her green dress and handed the bottle to Calimero, who did the same.

“I can make this taste a little better,” he said under his breath. “I can’t completely dull the taste of it, but I’ve got some strawberry flavoring back at the lab. I use it all the time if there’s something that tastes weird, or if I want to make something for a child.”

The potion kicked in, and Daisy led them soundlessly across the last neighborhoods of the East Side. Milaya had never seen homes like this before. There were single houses, huge in size and splendor, with every amenity one could consider and lots of land to go around. Luxurious cars sat in the driveway. Horses ran wild and free in the fields that they crossed. Wildflowers grew like crazy in the fields in between, unattended to. Milaya picked one of the flowers and put it into her hair, tying it back now that nobody could see her do so. The sky was so blue out here, it was hard to believe they were in the same place, on the same island.

“The trains don’t come out here,” Daisy said as they got to the edge of a huge wood. “I can start talking again now, but we still shouldn’t speak too loudly. Rumor has it that Queen Cendrillon has cameras out here, but they shouldn’t pick us up yet. They don’t have microphones, either.”

“She does a great job of persecuting in some areas and a horrible job in others,” Milaya noted.

“Yeah, well, she couldn’t completely get rid of the faeries. Len’s father decreed that we had a right to this island when he was king. The faeries were here before everybody else came to Fiorazzurro, to tell the truth. We were exiled from Europe in the 1500’s, and this was one of the places we came. We used to own the entire land, but now, we just have this area on the fringe. We do what we can with it, and it’s a little crowded, but we’re all waiting for the day when we can go storm Cendrillon’s castle and claim what is rightfully ours.”