Rose Red

Chestnut Red

We left the Serra Ocean the next morning, bringing Coral, Dol, and the men of their tribe. They rode well, and it wasn’t long before we were approaching the Oden, Coral and Cirrus alongside me.

‘We’re nearly there Rose,’ Cirrus told me. ‘The chestnut trees only grow in this territory.’

I smile and nod as we get closer to the banks of the river. Children run through cornfields towards us waving, and holding daisy chain crowns. I realise that we are fighting not only for ourselves, but for them. They have all known hardships. In my own clan, almost all children had lost a relative, and I realised that it was the same for them.

Finally we reached the riverbank and dismounted. I smiled as the children placed the daisy crowns upon our heads, but then I felt a shock as I looked about. There was a beautiful village, houses of straw and twigs. However, there was clearly awful poverty here. The children were skinny and their clothes holey. They did not have shoes, even though the fields in which they played were full of sharp rocks.

I felt a lump in my throat. I would have hated for any child of my own to be this way. Their eyes are a cornflower blue, and they contrast against their sun-darkened faces. I put on a smile.

‘Take me to your clan leader, please.’ I tell them. They laugh and run to fetch their parents and the chief.

When the adults come out, with a boy of around ten, I am surprised. Child chiefs seem to be common, but surely ten is ridiculous if he has been ruling since I was four. He would have been only one, if that.

‘Hello Rose.’ He says softly, and I feel a sense of disquiet. I recognise this boy. Then I realise.

There is a reason he knows my name. He is my half-brother, and he should be dead. My mother was so angry with my father for taking a mistress that she took the girl’s only son from her. My father must have saved him.

But I had forgotten him, and his mother. Why did I remember? What kind of a woman was my mother, even then, to attempt to kill an innocent child for the sins of his parents? She must have been so jealous, and to think that she did not even attempt to hide it from me, when I was just a child.

I look at him. ‘Brother.’

‘Do come in. This is my stepsister Lily, and of course you remember mother?’

‘It’s lovely to meet you. I am sorry for the discomfort my mother has caused you all, though I scarcely remember much of that life.’ I say, turning to the woman whom my mother had once so despised. She was beautiful, I realised, her hair long and dark, her eyes a colour that was near to black. Somehow, I detected little warmth from her, unlike her stepdaughter, who had the cornflower eyes of her own tribe. She was beautiful, around my own age. I wondered how my brother had come to be chief. His mother was not of the river, nor his father. Maybe I was wrong though…

‘Ardian, shall I show the princess to her room?’ Lily asked quietly.

‘Fine, but be quick.’ Ardian (which was apparently my brother’s name) replied, and she took my hand and led me towards a big cottage.

‘I’m sorry about the frosty reception.’ She smiled, as we entered the cottage, ‘My stepmother isn’t too pleased that you’ve turned up. She is rather inclined to climbing the social ladder, and she would have liked to use her own son’s claim to the throne. Unfortunately, he did not inherit the hair of kings.’ She told me wryly.

‘That’s fine. I didn’t expect him to be alive, to be honest. My mother is a ruthless woman, I am coming to understand.’

‘In the chaos that ensued with the death of your father, Ulrica, that is my stepmother, escaped with her son, and ran here, where she had allies. Her own tribe had allied with the queen already and she could not return there. She then married my father, who fell in love with her, on one condition – that her son became chief of the tribe when he died. He was dead within two weeks, and the two year old became her puppet. I lost my inheritance, and my father in one fowl sweep.’ Lily told me sadly.

‘What did you do?’ I asked, deep in shock.

‘I did the only safe thing. It swore allegiance to my stepbrother, and became their maid.’ Lily tells me.

It is yet another story of the devastation of the war. Lily is yet another orphan. I know now that I must do all in my power to get justice. I clench my teeth. It is getting colder, and I hope that the weather gets no worse. The cold will not help our side, and the Claribelle Clan will be prepared for these conditions. We, however, are not.

The night draws in as I eat with Ardian, Ulrica, Cirrus, Coral and Dol in the big house. Poor Lily is cleaning and does not eat until far later, when she has to eat leftovers. I eat only one bowl of her delicious chicken broth, so as to leave more for her. I shall arrange that we bring her with us as my handmaiden, I decide, before slipping out to go and see Midnight.

Hawthorn is brushing her as I arrive, her long mane blowing in the wind. I stop to pet her, and pick up a brush to help him.

‘You don’t need to do that.’ Hawthorn tells me.

‘I know, but in truth, I want to. I need something to do, and this is as good a task as any.’ I reply.

‘Rose…’ he murmurs, but seems to get the better of himself. ‘Fine, you can help. I could do with a hand anyway.’

‘Thank you’ I say quietly, as I brush through the tangled mane.

‘It’s okay. I have to go, don’t stay here too late Rose.’ He smiles, and walks away.

I sit and sing quietly to myself, brushing and brushing, although the tangles are no longer there, and her mane is smooth and silky. Suddenly, I hear footsteps, and I realise that I have been here a long time. A princess shouldn’t sit out on her own after dark, I think.

‘Rose! There you are!’ Cirrus says from behind me, and I jump in terror.

‘Sorry Cirrus, you surprised me.’  I say calmly.

‘Rose, you know how I feel about your safety, you need to be more responsible. You are the hope for all of these people, how do you think they’d feel if anything happened? How do you think I’d feel? You know what I promised your father, all that time back.’ He says angrily.

‘Sorry.’ I whisper.

Cirrus sighs. ‘It’s alright. I suppose I can be a little overprotective of you sometimes. You can look after yourself; I forget that you’re not a child anymore.’

‘Can we go now?’ I ask, feeling stupid in his presence.

‘Come on.’ He says, placing a hand on my forearm, causing my heart to flutter slightly as we walk back towards the cottage, where I return to the room which I have, yet again, to myself. Lily has placed roses throughout, and placed a hot tub of water there, for me to bathe in. I slide in to it, relaxing slightly. I assume that this is water from the Oden, which apparently has healing properties. I get out five minutes later, feeling calmer, before changing and getting into the large bed I’ve been allocated. It’s warm, and it smells like lavender, as I hold Bear close. Soon I am asleep again, in the house built of chestnut wood, my pale face lit up by the fire.