“Some things,” he replied, “that you know of well, and we share.”
Rose felt a world pass between them inside his soft-spoken words, and found comfort in it. “Wanting revenge does tend to bind people together,” Rose agreed, finally stopping in her tracks. She laid out her cloak and sat down on the ground. She pulled off her gloves, running her hands along the mossy ground. “Even people like you and me.”
“You mean a princess and an orphan?”
She thought about it. “No, more than that,” she said. “Not just that. More like someone cursed and someone raised by the church. But I guess that’s wrong, too. You’re not a priest. Not yet, anyway.”
“All of mankind is cursed,” Theo replied easily enough, sitting down next to her.
“I guess you sound like enough of one it’s easy to forget,” she teased back. She sighed. “It’s not fair.”
He looked over at her, and not for the first time, felt the pull of her presence. She was beautiful, even as she desperately tried to hide it. He didn’t have the heart to tell her it was a waste of her time. With her chopped hair, the sunlight-kissed locks fluttered playfully, mysteriously; her eyes, as blue as the sky and unfathomable the sea, were framed by thick, sable lashes, and her lips, lips said to shame the reddest of roses, were as expressive and quirky as he knew her mind to be. Yes, he thought, life was not fair, even to the brightest among us.
Theo knew, having spent his adolescence in the palace, while Rose was angry at the curse placed on her at birth by the wicked fairy Magdalina, it was not the fear of a sleeping death that ailed her so much as the curse of relentless beauty. He smiled, recalling the day when an intended suitor, praising her with a song of her looks, had finally caused her perfected façade to fold.
Rose caught his smile. “What?” she snapped.
“I was thinking about the Prince of Crete,” he said. “When he came, and you took his instrument–what was it? A mandolin or something?–and bashed him over the head with it, saying he should be ashamed he’d forgotten to mention how the pearly gates gleamed second only to your smile.”
Rose laughed. “You remember his face? It was so red, I thought he was going to throw up.”
“He looked like he’d just swallowed some pig slaw,” Theo agreed. “But it was your mother’s face which I still picture the best. She looked like she was going to murder you.”
Rose giggled. “I guess that’s one upside to Magdalina's curse. It’s not like my mother’s going to get away with murdering me. And neither will anyone else.”
They fell back into an easy silence for a moment. Then Theo asked, “Is that why you like playing the mercenary knight?”
“It’s not for just that reason,” Rose assured him. She narrowed her gaze slyly in his direction. “You need the practice, remember?”
“Oh, I see now.” Theo shook his head, trying to hide his grin. “Here I thought I was getting pretty good at being your squire.”
“I told you months ago you were good enough to be a Rhonian knight,” Rose reminded him. “Or did you just want to hear me say it again?”
“No, I wanted to hear you admit I’d beaten you in your battle testing.” Theo smirked.
“Ha, it’s always a riot with you. But anyway, Sophia’s my official squire now.”
“When she’s not working on your armory.”
“She likes doing that. And you know blacksmithing is very important to knights like us. She might as well practice and put it to use.”
“She has been, and probably too much to really get in any knight training with the tournaments and the Eastern Warlord battles we’ve had recently.”
“Which we might not have had to fight at all, if the Lead General hadn’t been so demanding.” Rose squeezed a handful of dirt and watched it slip through her fingers, a mixture of dust and mud. “The people in Greece are already taxed enough. He had some nerve demanding more. Even people like Ethan and Sophia’s family deserve better.”
Theo nodded. “And you work for it. One way or another.”
“I like fighting, but I would rather see justice done, whether it’s on the battlefield or in diplomacy,” Rose said. “And if I get paid for it, all the better for us.”
“I know. Since you feel you will never have it for yourself.”
Rose shrugged. “I guess that’s true. I mean, I know Magdalina wasn’t invited to my party, but it’s not exactly my fault for the war between the humans and the fairies, is it?”
Theo thought about the Magdust and the fairies who had died as the humans had captured and killed them and the retribution the humans faced. “No, it wasn’t your fault.”
“It wasn’t fair of her to curse me.”
“It wasn’t fair of them to kill my family, either,” Theo agreed.
“When I am Queen of Rhone, we’ll find a way to deal with Magdalina and her magic,” Rose vowed. “I just need to break the curse she placed on me first.”
“Yes.” A fierce protectiveness surged through him. How the world would change without Rose in it, he thought. How much his own world would change. Despite the fatigue of the journey, a renewed sense of determination wormed its way through Theo. He sighed.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, or maybe everything. I’ve decided you’re right, so you win this time. We need to get down to Titania’s terrarium and find a way to dispel the curse on you.”
Rose allowed herself a rare moment of hesitation. She thought about how weary their battle finishing off the Eastern Warlord had been, just a few days before, and how tired everyone in the party was, trying to get to the edge of the northern waters of the Aegean. She looked up at Theo, and saw the usual reserves of coolheaded strength, all wrapped up seamlessly in the sharpened angles of his face. He was her rock, the epitome of reason and faith mingled together. She knew he wouldn’t have fought for the time off earlier if he hadn’t thought it needed.
There was a warm glow that softened in his emerald eyes, as if he could read her thoughts. “It’ll be fine, Rosary. There’s not one of us that hasn’t watched you shoulder someone else’s pain these past four years, regardless of your curse or the amount of time you feel you have. And there’s not one of us who wouldn’t do the same for you, if you will let us.”
She snorted and turned away, but his kind words struck her heart and brought a slim layer of grateful tears to her eyes.
“Let’s go get Mary and see if Sophia can rig up a makeshift raft for us. If Ethan can get in on it, all the better. For all his map skills he seems to be more of an architect in the making.” He stood up and reached down a hand for her.
Her palms felt smooth and strong in his own as he helped her to her feet, allowing Theo to feel the warmth of kinship.
“Okay. I thought I saw a fallen tree down there, by the edge of the forest. Sophia might be able to use that.” Rose grinned. “You’ll really let me win this time? Even against your better judgment? Despite your unconquerable logic?”
“There’s a good reason you’re ‘Rosary’ to me,” Theo teased, chuckling a bit, yanking playfully at one of her sun-colored locks. “Go get everyone ready while I say my prayers.”
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C. S. Johnson, The Heights of Perdition
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