Hi, everyone! Want more of Rosa? If you do, you’re in luck, because I’m posting Chapter Eleven! Need a refresher? Here’s Chapter Ten! And now, on with the tale!
Chapter Eleven
Many years later . . .
Rosa climbed quickly down the rope ladder. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she looked around. Then, spotting the patch of blueberry bushes she had been looking for, Rosa rushed over, her basket swinging on her arm. She had been living with the elves for almost five years now, and she wanted to do something special for them. When she had overheard talk of blueberry bushes near the tree house, she had decided that a blueberry pie would be just the thing.
As Rosa skipped towards the blueberry bushes, she didn’t feel the passage through Lady Clarellë’s web, and she barely noticed the looming closeness of the pines that showed she was out of the clearing. She blissfully picked berries, every now and then dropping one in her mouth, totally unaware of the pitch-black crow watching her. As she finished her picking and walked quickly away, the crow flew away towards the castle Rosa had once called home.
Far away, at the castle . . .
Prince Owen looked once more out the window towards the kitchen gardens. He, for the tenth time that day, thought Oh, how I wish that Rosa had been nobility, and that she hadn’t disappeared! Where could she have gone? Wait! The cook might know! He leaped up and dashed out the door, desperate to know about Rosa.
In her dark tower room, Queen Leila was consulting Cullen once again. “Cullen, are any fairer than I?” she asked.
Cullen frowned. “There is one, my queen. Do you remember the servant girl, Rosa?”
The queen nodded slowly.
“Well,” Cullen hissed, “She is apparently not as dead as you thought. She is alive, and living with the Allë clan of elves.”
“What?” shrieked Queen Leila. “How could she have evaded me for so long?”
“The elves have magic of some sort.” Cullen hissed. “But we can combat it. Here is what we will do. . .”
That night . . .
Mandy snuggled deeper into her bed, enjoying its softness. She felt better than she had since Rosa left. Maybe telling the prince was the right thing to do. She drifted off into a deep and dreamless sleep, the first she had had since Rosa left.
In his tower room, Prince Owen lay awake, wondering at what Mandy, the cook, had told him. Mentally, he cursed the king for turning from Queen Ellen and causing Rosa to grow up without her mother. His thoughts turned to Queen Leila. How could she have known about Rosa? He sighed and rolled over in his bed. He tried to sleep, but sleep evaded him, and Rosa continued skipping through his thoughts.
Up in her dark room, Queen Leila was also awake because of Rosa, but with entirely different motives. Ever since the sun had set, she had been busily mixing potions, herbs, and dubious looking liquids into a dangerous elixir. Watching her every move was Cullen, his mirror set in a holder on the wall. “Yes, yesss.” he hissed, his voice unusually low and evil-sounding. “You are doing it perfectly, my queen.” He laughed. It was an unnatural sort of sound, and Queen Leila shuddered a little when she heard it.
Shaking off her fright, Queen Leila took two plums from a basket of fruit. Then, she carefully submerged them both in the elixir, and let them absorb the poisonous substance.
“Two, my queen?” Cullen hissed in surprise. “Are two really necessary?”
“Yes.” Queen Leila said her voice tight. “If we are to lose one, we will still have the other.” Queen Leila picked up a pair of what looked like tongs and used them to lift the plums and place them back in the fruit basket. “No one will be more beautiful than I.” she whispered. “No one.”
What is Queen Leila up to? Is Rosa in danger, or will she remain safe? There’s only one way to find out: check back Thursday when I post Chapter Twelve! In the meantime, please comment and give me your opinions! I’d love to hear what you think!
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