Last Petal on the Rose and Other Stories Page 5

  Roland and Ambrus followed him into the passage, Ambrus shoving the stone wall back into place once he was inside. Janos moved quietly forward, resisting the urge to flail wildly about in response to the cobwebs he could feel brushing against his face and hair.

  This passageway dipped slightly below the ground floor, offering them a subterranean way out past the castle grounds. Once outside, they couldn't risk sneaking back in to try and get horses out of the stables, and they'd deemed it too risky for Abel to try and get three out to them. Instead, he was going to go out riding in ten minutes' time and 'lose' his steed due to an improperly tied knot. He would laugh it off at the stables and insist the mare would be back in a couple of hours' time, that he would keep an eye out for her.

  Janos had been embarrassed when Ambrus had brought up that even if the rest of them could make the trek to the western lands without a steed, Janos would most certainly need one. He knew that Roland was already well aware of the fact that he was weaker than most, but still, having it so blatantly pointed out had been humiliating.

  At least Roland hadn't smiled or laughed during the addition to the plan. He'd simply nodded, considering his frailty as something to be worked with instead of mocked.

  "I'm sorry," he said abruptly.

  "About what?" Roland asked, squeezing around a corner.

  "I didn't say anything. That first day I saw you being carried through the town square. I should have shouted at all of them for what they were doing to you."

  "You didn't know me then."

  "No, but I do know that throwing rocks at an unarmed man is wrong. I did not even have the excuse of being overwhelmed by seeing a battle I'd personally fought finally brought to an end. I can stand being weak in body but not in mind."

  "Janos. Look where you are. Think about what you're doing. I would hardly call this the act of a coward."

  "Nearing step fifty," Ambrus whispered. "Quiet now."

  None of them spoke until they reached the end of the tunnel, carefully raising the hidden door and peering around to find the area deserted. They covered the trapdoor back up with leaves and scattered rocks and then hurried to the place where Abel had told them he'd leave the horse.

  "By the swimming lake, next to the northern dock," he'd said.

  Janos had been grateful that his brother had left off 'the one you fell from when you were nine, remember?'. Not for the first time, he wished his past involved more dragon-slaying and expert swordsmanship and less tripping over his own feet.

  Sure enough, the horse was tied precisely where Abel said it would be. Janos was touched to see that he'd made sure to bring out his favorite mare. Old Snow was a sedate, gentle creature who was unlikely to throw him.

  He hauled himself into the saddle as Ambrus untied the rope, and then they headed west.

  *~*~*

  They'd come up with how to handle several possible scenarios once they reached Roland's village.

  Most likely, Ambrus said, their soldiers would see them coming in and demand an explanation. Solution: he would say that he and Janos had caught Roland nearby trying to get back home, and would like more security to help return him to the castle. Depending on how the soldiers behaved, Ambrus would either talk to them once tensions had lowered, or they would fight.

  Another likely option, Roland had pointed out, was that his people had overthrown the soldiers. In which case, they could explain what was actually happening right away, and Ambrus would negotiate for the release of their fighters.

  But when they arrived at the village, neither of those scenarios came to pass. Instead, they found Roland's people milling about as if nothing at all was the matter—even Janos had heard stories about the strict rules and curfews they were supposed to be living under—while the soldiers sat on front doorsteps or leaned against walls, looking baffled, their swords hanging sheathed at their sides.

  "What in the..." Ambrus began, but a look of realization came over Roland's face.

  "She's back," he murmured.

  "What?" Janos asked. "Who?"

  "Wait here," Roland told him, even as Ambrus went to have a word with one of the soldiers. "I'll explain what's happening, tell her you're here, and..."

  "Janos?"

  He nearly fell from the saddle in his haste to get down; would have hit the ground quite painfully had Roland's hands not been there to steady him. He knew that voice.

  And then he saw her hurrying toward them both. Her once-pale skin was tanned from the sun, and she wore clothes in the manner of the women of this village; loose, draping fabrics and bare feet, not the elaborate gowns in which he'd always seen her. Her hair wasn't up in a bun or a braid but fell loose around her shoulders now, the gold liberally streaked with white.

  Her smile hadn't changed.

  "Mother?" he asked, and for once he couldn't be bothered with embarrassment at the fact that shock turned his voice into something resembling a mouse's squeak. He ran to her and she threw her arms around him, murmuring fragments of thoughts.

  "Ohhh, my boy, I'm so sorry, thought I'd never see you again, I'm sorry..."

  "What happened?" Janos asked, reluctantly stepping back. "Where have—where have you been? Have you been here? Father said..." He froze, the answer right in front of him. "You were exiled. He exiled you."

  She looked down at him with sad eyes, and then Ambrus's roar of surprise had them turning, both of them hardly able to move before he was there, pulling Valeria close.

  "You're alive! What are you doing here? How did you...you caught the Rats' Disease, you—"

  She shook her head. "No, it was..." she trailed off, and then laughed. "Look at you! You're even taller than me now!"

  "You always said I would be," he told her, voice sounding strained. It was all Janos could do not to stare. In all his life, he couldn't remember ever seeing his older brother with tears in his eyes. Even on the day of their mother's burial service, he'd been determined to 'be strong', as their father had insisted that was what the citizens would expect from their rulers.

  "And Abel?" she asked. "He's well?"

  "Yes," Ambrus said. "He stayed behind to distract father so we could get here. How are you here?" he asked.

  "Come inside," she said, gesturing to a large stone one-story building with a thatched roof. "I'll explain everything." She beamed as she saw Roland, who was leading the horse to a hitching post. "Roland!"

  "Hello, Valeria," he said, leaning down to give her a kiss on the cheek.

  "You...then you knew she was alive?" Janos asked.

  "Yes," Roland said. "I didn't say anything because before you got to know me, you would've thought I was trying to lead you into a trap. And after you got to know me...I didn't want you to confront your father or ride out here without thinking."

  "He deserves to be confronted! He—"

  "Confronted and more," Valeria said. "But he told me on the day he sent me away that if I fought, if my executioner came back with so much as a scratch on him that he...he would put one of you boys to death."

  Janos stared at her, for the first time realizing what she must have gone through. Knowing her children were within a five-day ride but unable to see them, terrified that if her presence was revealed one of her sons would pay the price.

  "Your executioner?" he whispered, following her inside the building.

  "I was quite fortunate," Valeria said. "Caban was a loyal King's man, and I feared that all my talk would be for nothing. But in the end I managed to convince him to simply leave me in the woods in exile, rather than take my life." She searched Ambrus's face. "Does he still live?"

  Ambrus shook his head. "Father claimed that Caban was the one who carried you upstairs once he realized you were sick. That he caught the Rat's Disease as well. Both...both of your bodies were supposedly burned." He leaned against the wall. "Father seemed so heartbroken."

  "Is that why you left this place?" Janos asked. "You didn't want our soldiers to see you and report back?"

  Valeria shook
her head. "I had no idea your father was going to invade. I've been gone for almost two years now, off with Tlali and Nevena, visiting the other villagee. We're trying to form an alliance. Most are amenable," she said, and then she smiled, swiping tears away from her eyes as a tall, dark-skinned woman with her hair in a multitude of braids came out from the back room of the stone house. "Queen Emese? Your son is home."

  Emese stood frozen for an instant, and then she let out a whoop of joy and for a second Janos thought she was going to clamber right over the table. Instead she ran around it, grabbing Roland's hands and inspecting his face.

  "Are you all right?" she asked. "They didn't hurt you?"

  "No, no, I'm fine."

  "Don't lie to me; I can see your nose was broken."

  "I wasn't hurt badly," he amended, pulling her into a hug. "And here? The soldiers have behaved themselves?"

  "The ones who didn't, died for it," Emese said simply.

  "Mother," Ambrus said. "They're coming. More soldiers. Father's going to raze this entire place; he's—"

  "We won't let that happen," Valeria said. "When are they coming?"

  "It took us almost seven days to get here rather than the usual five," Ambrus said, and Janos ducked his head down, knowing that he was the reason for that. He quickly looked up, startled and grateful, when Roland took his hand. "Father had planned for them to start the march on the 15th. They'll be here within three days."

  "Your soldiers that were already stationed here," Emese said. "Send them forward to meet the oncoming troops. They can explain what's going on."

  "Queen Emese, I wish to apologize," Ambrus said. "I led some of the initial charges. If I'd known who—if I'd had any idea..."

  "You mean, if all the sordid tales you told about us had been true and if some of us weren't originally from your Kingdom, then what your soldiers did to us would've been all right?"

  "No, I didn't mean...I just..."

  "Once this situation has been settled," Queen Emese said, "we're all going to sit down and have a long talk."

  Ambrus nodded once, a quick jerk of his head before he retreated. "Yes ma'am."

  *~*~*

  "What do you mean she's gone?"

  "Precisely what I said," Queen Emese told him. "She and your brother left at dawn. Do not fret," she said. "They will soon have almost a thousand strong fighters to defend them. And anyone back in your Kingdom who intends to side with your father will change their minds once they realize the lie he told."

  Janos knew she was right. The citizens had all adored Valeria; they'd even taken six months of mourning after her death rather than the traditional three. Realizing that the King—who had gone on and on about how miserable he was over her death, which he had personally witnessed—had lied to them to such a great extent? It would be the end of his rule.

  Still, he barely heard most of Emese's reassurances; his mind kept tumbling over the words 'she and your brother'.

  Of course she'd taken Ambrus along.

  "Are you all right?" Queen Emese asked. "Valeria said if your breathing became labored, there's an ointment you can..."

  "I'm fine," he began, knowing even as he said it that the words wouldn't matter. They never had.

  Usually because he'd been unintentionally lying whenever he said them, he admitted silently. Instead of arguing further, he simply said. "Thank you for the offer. When do we expect to get news from them?"

  "I sent four of my fastest riders to act as messengers. We'll know what happened as soon as possible."

  It would still be ten days, Janos thought. Five there and five back...maybe three back, depending on how fast those riders were. Eight days at the very least.

  He could know what was happening right away, if only his body hadn't betrayed him. If he'd woken up early rather than collapsing from exhaustion and sleeping most of the day away.

  "While you're waiting," she said, a smile coming over her face, "there's someone here to see you."

  He turned, unsurprised but still pleased to see Roland hovering in the doorway. Then he had an awful thought. "How long have you been awake? Did you know..."

  Roland shook his head. "I slept until after sunrise and then went out on patrol. I knew the soldiers were heading back home, but I didn't know your mother and brother were with them until about half an hour ago." Then he opened his hand, revealing a brown-edged rose petal.

  Janos had seen the three rows of rose bushes at the outskirts of the village, or at least what was left of them. Most had been trampled, though a few plants had managed to survive.

  The petal Janos held was a brilliant blue, long-used by sailors or other travelers to invite their friends or lovers along on their next journey. The rose simply meant, 'come with me'.

  "Are you—do you mean—"

  "If we hurry, we should be able to catch up with them tomorrow."

  "I love you," Janos said, not even realizing the words were going to come out of his mouth until they were spoken. His first instinct was to freeze, babble some explanation, but instead he just scurried past Roland out the door, hoping that maybe the other man hadn't heard him. He wasn't laughing, so there was a good chance. Or that if he had heard, he was just as eager to ignore it as Janos himself was.

  They didn't speak of it as they packed for the journey. In fact, barely spoke at all. Only after they were almost an hour's ride from Roland's home did he ask, "Did you mean that?"

  Janos glanced over at him, surprised. He'd been expecting Roland to perhaps make a teasing comment, or at the very least just continue to ignore that it had ever happened. But he actually sounded...nervous?

  He'd planned on laughing it off if it was brought up, but was too thrown off by the uncertainty in Roland's expression to be able to do it.

  "Yes," he admitted. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything, it just slipped out; I know you don't feel the same way and..."

  "Do you, now?"

  And now the easy confidence was back in his voice, the smile back on his face, and Janos pulled his horse to a halt, unable to believe what he'd just heard. "You...what?"

  "If I had red roses, I'd give them to you," Roland said, grinning as he maneuvered his own steed to a halt next to Old Snow. "Since I don't, suppose this'll have to do." And he reached over and caught hold of Janos's collar, pulling him closer for a kiss.

  *~*~*

  Six months later, Roland and Janos stood at the front of the massive throne room, facing each other. Bouquets of red roses and blue roses surrounded the altar. On the thrones at the very head of the room sat Queen Valeria and Queen Emese, wearing matching necklaces of pink-and-white roses. Ambrus and Abel stood on either side of them, casting each other pleased looks as their little brother said his vows. Mariska stood at the front of the crowd of well-wishers, a wreath of white roses in her hair and tears shining in her eyes.

  King Lorand was still in the castle. He was simply several levels down in the dungeon. The practice of exiling had stopped—it had been one of the things agreed upon when Queen Emese had proposed that their lands be intertwined, and the great barricade had subsequently been torn down.

  Janos finished his vows and smiled up at Roland expectantly. The two of them had already shared a kiss at the beginning of the ceremony—one at the start, their last kiss as single men, and now one at the end, their first one as husbands.

  As much as he enjoyed the kisses today, and all of the many they'd shared since arriving back at the castle, much of the time Janos thought that his favorite kiss between them would always be that one in the forest, each still surprised that the other shared their feelings, the adrenalin coursing through them from the race to catch up with the soldiers.

  He wondered if it would still be his favorite kiss one year from now, or ten, when he would have so many more to choose from.

  "And what are you thinking about?" Roland whispered, smiling and curling a hand around the back of his neck.

  "How glad I am that I kept that passage in the gardener's shed a sec
ret."

  "So am I," Roland said, and Janos tilted his chin up for another kiss.

  "All right, wedding's done, enough of that adorable stuff," Abel said. "There are about twenty casks of wine in the dining hall that are begging to be drunk."

  "Well then," Janos said. "It'd be a shame to keep them waiting."

  "That it would," Ambrus said. "And I've got a sack of silver that says this is the year I'll finally outdrink you, Abel."

  "I'm not sure whether to admire your optimism or laugh at your foolishness."

  "What do you think?" Janos asked quietly, grinning as his brothers continued to mock-argue. "Do you want to join the competition?"

  "I think I'll just referee this time," Roland said. "The plans I have for tonight definitely require me to be sober."

  Janos laughed and slid his arm around Roland's waist, pressing himself close to his side, and together they walked out of the throne room, surrounded by the laughter and conversation of their guests.

  Snow White and the Seventh Bodyguard

  I'm so sorry for your loss, Makana. I don't know if you remember me or not, but my name's Randy Foss. We used to play together all the time when we were kids.

  Makana thought about it until xe was able to put a face with the name. Randy had been one of the children xe'd used to play with when xe had been about eight or nine. He'd loved playing Space Pirate Stowaways with xyr and xyr father.

  Xe leaned against the kitchen counter, remembering how xe and Randy and the other neighborhood kids used to charge around the house until xyr mother inevitably sent them into the backyard. Xe looked out the window above the sink into the backyard, wondering what had happened to the children xe'd used to play with. One by one, they'd all moved away. Xyr manager kept urging xyr to get into Facebook, rather than just letting xyr publicist post updates for xyr; maybe xe'd finally take Alyce's advice.