The cool breeze wafted through the open castle windows and billowed the silky white curtains around the King while he paced in front of an ornately carved wooden door.
The door glowed silver and a tiny gray-haired woman cloaked in emerald green appeared as if from nowhere. "My Lord, the Queen and Princess are both healthy and safe," she said as she put a hand on his shoulder and the velvet of his robes shifted slightly under her touch.
He glanced at her for only a moment, long enough for the words to settle in, before bursting through the door and falling to his knees by the side of the canopy-covered bed. "Is it true, Amara? Are you well?"
The Queen's blonde hair was messy and strewn all over the many pillows behind her, but her crown still stayed in place, as if by magic. She looked up at her husband with a smile only a new mother could wear. The smile of an exhausted woman in the throes of a brand-new, life-altering love. "I am tired, Stephan. So tired. But my eyes will not close. I cannot tear them away from her perfect face."
She lifted the bundle of cloth in her arms so that their child could see her father for the first time.
The King's breath caught as he took in her large blue eyes and golden hair. He reached forward, placing one hand on the baby and the other on the Queen's face. "We can cancel the party tonight. I am sure the citizens would understand."
"No," the Queen said, her loyalty to her people always her first concern. "It will be fine. Aurora needs to meet the people she will one day serve."
"Aurora? You have already named her?"
The Queen smiled. "For the first rays of sun, as she is our light."
***
The people of the castle bustled around, busying themselves with preparations for the celebration. This child was long-awaited, both by the King and Queen and their subjects, for it was she who was destined to be the key to their survival. As stated by Mother Fate, she would bring about a hundred years of peace between their kingdom and the one to the east with nothing but her undying love.
But it wasn't just the arrival of their child they celebrated that night. No, they had planned the party long before the Queen went to the birthing bed. In fact, preparations for this event had started even before the new princess was conceived. As soon as the last notes of the final song of last year's Yule ball faded, the next was on everyone's mind.
Yule was a time when everyone in the near kingdoms set aside their differences and came together under the combined joy of surviving another year. Life had been difficult since the war, but for those 12 days around the Winter Solstice, everyone had the luxury to forget for a while.
The flags were raised. Every tree in the garden was decorated. Huge poinsettia and holly garlands trimmed in the hallways. The table places were set with crystal and diamond. Streamers and banners hung from the walls, the ceiling, anywhere they could get them to hold. The castle looked as if it was a festive fruit cake, ready to be devoured by the people who called it home.
All the Kingdom's royal allies trickled into the city, each one arriving in a carriage pulled by silver-trimmed white horses.
As if blown in by the breeze a golden carriage arrived and when it stopped in front of the castle doors, the citizens did not cheer and clap as they did with the previous guests. Instead, they stood with breaths held and hands trembling because within the carriage sat the King of the Eastern Kingdom and his son, Phillip, the princess' fated love.
Everything in the Western kingdom depended on their alliance. The crops had been failing for years, and without being able to trade their exorbitant amounts of minerals and jewels for food, it was clear they would not survive in this place much longer.
The King and Queen stood outside the doors to their daughter's nursery, both dressed in the finest clothes their kingdom could offer. The queen cradled Aurora in her arms as another short, gray-haired woman approached them. She was cloaked in sapphire blue and stumbled slightly on her stubby legs as she walked. "It is time," she said as she neared them.
"Thank you, Sister Fawn," the Queen said softly and began down the winding staircase to the waiting crowd of people below.
As she did, trumpets blew, and the crowd cheered as the newborn baby squirmed in her mother's arms, unused to the commotion.
When they placed Aurora in her golden, jewel-encrusted cradle between their thrones and sat down before the masses, the King of the East appeared, cradling his own bundle of blankets, Prince Phillip. "So it is said, Stephan, and so it shall be done. When they are of age to know their own minds. Our children shall join together and our Kingdoms will begin their time of peace. I look forward to working with you toward this fruitful era these next years. For this Yule, and all the rest we will spend together, I am thankful for your allegiance."
King Stephan nodded his thanks to King Hubert of the East, who quietly stepped aside to allow the next well-wishers to come forward.
"Sister Flora? Sister Fawn? Are you here?" the Queen asked once the red and golden carpet of the aisle was clear. The two gray-haired women stepped forward, nearly tripping over each other in their haste to answer the Queen's call.
"We're here," they said in unison.
"I believe you wished to present us with something?"
"Oh yes," Sister Flora, the woman dressed in green robes, said delightedly. "We very much do."
Both sisters walked to the edge of the cradle, and Fawn raised her wand. "We would like to present to Princess Aurora one gift each. Her first Yule tidings. As my domain includes all warm-blooded creatures from the small to the large, I give her the gift of the bird's song and the bear's courage."
The King and Queen smiled down as rays of blue light flowed from Fawn's wand and into the cradle.
Flora lifted her wand and opened her mouth to speak, but the doors of the great hall flew open. The air chilled as a figure shrouded in black and red appeared.
The patrons of the party ducked their heads and covered their mouths to keep from screaming as the shadowy feature drifted through the center of the hall.
"Sister?" Flora and Fawn gasped. "You were—we thought you were dead."
The intruder removed her black hood and fire red hair appeared in place.
"We would have invited you had we known Sister Rephaela," the Queen blurted, knowing the high-tension between their Kingdom and this third sister. The sister of the cold-bloods.
Sister Rephaela finally spoke. "Invited me? To your little party?" Her jagged, needle-like teeth glinted in the candlelight, which seemed to flicker in fear at her presence as her eyes settled on the cradle. "I came to see if the rumors were true. If the West had truly birthed an heir."
She walked forward; her stare boring holes into the baby. "Isn't new life such a wondrous joy?" The poisonous tone to her sweet words turned them sour, like an apple left to rot in the sun. "It's a shame I'll never see my children grow. Since you murdered them."
Flora jumped forward, raising her wand to guard the royal family. "Your children burned the soil, Rephaela."
"And poisoned the wildlife," Fawn said as she hid behind Flora. She raised her wand as well, but it shook like a leaf in her trembling hand.
"And that gives you the right—" Rephaela stopped speaking and took a breath. "Sisters, put away your wands. I have not come to kill the child."
The two good sisters looked at each other confused before the tips of their wands lowered slightly, hesitantly.
Raphella strutted in a circle, carefully evaluating the King and Queen as she walked. "You see, the death of a child is painful, but even more painful is not being able to grieve the loss entirely. To walk the line between the losing and the lost. So I present this child a gift of my own, as my sister just has. The gift of a serpent's hibernation."
Inky black smoke poured from her wand, traveling over the feet of the good sisters before climbing into the cradle and wrapping the child in a cocoon of darkness. "Before the Yule of her sixteenth year, she will prick her finger on a needle clear. The land of dreams will be her home, as forever her true love roams. A winter's chill will freeze the land until the streets shall be unmanned."
As soon as the last word slipped from her venomous mouth, the smoke retreated and in an instant the wicked sister was gone.
A stunned silence washed over the great hall before Flora, realizing her wish gift was still ungiven, stepped forward to the terrified Queen.
"I cannot undo what she has done, for our powers are equal, but I can do something." She turned around to the babe and her wand glowed an emerald hue. "As my domain includes all the plants and flowers whose thorns may cut and whose blossoms may heal, I give her the gift of the aloe leaf, who's healing nature guides us through. So such as the kiss from her beloved will be and wake her from silent snooze."
The King and Queen looked between each other; their concerns not quite quelled by Flora's gift.
King Stephan stood and addressed the crowd. "I believe we should end the festivities this evening. Go forth merrily back to your homes, for despite the wicked ways of the evil, today remains a happy day of Yule celebration and the prosperity of the Kingdom is at hand."
King Hubert lingered until the last of the citizens departed before he addressed the royal family. Not one for ever skirting around an issue, he stood with his arms crossed. "What does this mean for our alliance? For my Phillip?"
Before King Stephan could answer the two good fairy sisters stepped in between the leaders of the two lands. "Do not worry your raven-haired head," Sister Flora said to King Hubert. "My sister and I have a plan. By the time Aurora is of age to be married, all of this will be forgotten."
"A plan?" Queen Amara asked as she lifted Princess Aurora from her cradle and held her close. "What sort of plan?"
Sister Fawna opened her mouth to speak, but before she could say anything, Sister Flora stomped her booted heel onto her foot and she closed her mouth quickly.
"No. No. We cannot tell you the plans. Raphella must never know, and if you know, it endangers you. Just please understand that the princess will be safe. We will make sure of it," Flora said as she held out her hands as a way of asking for the child.
The Queen looked between the sister's outstretched arms and the baby in her hands, torn between the immense strength of a mother's love and protectiveness and the desperate need to have that very child saved in a way she could not provide herself.
King Stephan laid his hand on her shoulder. "It is not ideal. But if the Sisters of Nature swear that she will be safe. We must trust them."
Tears fell onto the baby's pale blond hair from her mother's face as she gently placed her in the nature sister's arms.