The Black Rose (13 page)

When they arrived at the palace, the maids awaited their orders. Some were told to help move a bed into Edolie’s room, the rest were told to clean up. The maids did as told, except Milly.

“What’s going on? Where’s Wilhelmina?” Milly asked ignoring orders to clean up the mess in the ball room.

“It is none of your concern, get back to work,” King Wilhelm barked at her before heading up the staircase. He was carrying Edolie and Milly’s eyes widened in shock. The King had never yelled at her, so she did as told, but she knew something awful had to have happened. S
he would try asking someone else later.

King Wilhelm laid his
youngest
daughter down on her bed.
The guards
laid
Jerome down on the bed the maids had brought in. The maids then hurried back down to the ball room to help the others clean.

Queen Henrietta was still sobbing, but this time not only for the loss of Wilhelmina, but in fear that she might lose Edolie. She l
oved both her daughters dearly and did not want to lose
either of them.

As the doctor arrived to check on Edolie so did another visitor, Yolande. She entered the room without invitation. “So it has happened,” She said as she looked over Edolie.
No one said anything since enchantresses were known to come when they deemed it necessary. It was not a shock that Yolande should arrive when such chaos was happening in Aridale.

“Yolande, please, is there anyway….” Queen Henrietta begged and the enchantress put her hand up to stop her.

“There are two options at this point,” Yolande said, “Wilhelmina must die, or you must kill the source
of the magic
.”

“Who is it that has done this?” King Wilhelm demanded, “Who gave us this cursed child?”

“Wilhelm!” Henrietta exclaimed as she sobbed. Wilhelmina was her beloved daughter. She was their first born. It wasn’t he
r fault that she had been cursed
.

“You know him well,” Yolande said looking at the king, “It was my mistake to take him so lightly.”

“The cursed sorcerer,” King Wilhelm gritted his teeth as he remembered Lord
Endymion
Melanthius, “I should have known. I shouldn’t have let m
y
guard down.”

“You should also know,” Yolande began as she noticed Jerome and Edolie were waking up, “That what Jerome said was not true.”

“You don’t….” Edolie began turning to face Jerome.

“It was the curse,” Jerome said standing up, “I never… I didn’t…” Yolande raised her hand to silence him.

“Yes, the curse takes hold of any man who spends a great deal of time around Wilhelmina,” Yolande finished and smiled, “You truly love Edolie and any feelings you felt towards Wilhelmina should have faded by now. However, doctor….”

The doctor shook his head, “She’s very ill, I can only prescribe some medicine to help
ease the symptoms
, but I’m afraid it doesn’t look very good.”

Henrietta burst into tears and Jerome gripped Edolie’s hand. “I love you,” He said tears forming in his eyes, “I’m so sorry.”

Edolie smiled at him, “I love you too. I’ll-I’ll try to get better.” She couldn’t fight back the tears. She was scared and her whole body felt weak.
It was hard for her to even move her hand.

“Yolande…” King Wilhelm began, but she shook her head.

“Magic can’t heal the sick or the dead,” Yolande said, “You know that as well as I. The only way to end this is to kill Lord Melanthius
,
t
he banished sorcerer that lives in Fantasme Forest.”

“I’ll do it!” Jerome said, “This is my fault. I got t
o
o close to Wilhelmina. I’ll kill him and bring her back.”

Yolande nodded and using her magic created a sword, “This sword holds the power to destroy a sorcerer.” She said offering
the sword
to him. Jerome bowed and took the sword from the enchantress’s hand. “You must strike his heart
in order to succeed”, Yolande instructed,
“
You’ll need time to prepare. Edolie still has time, she won’t die soon,” She said noticing the way he looked at
the young princess
. Jerome was worried about her and he loved her dearly. Yolande smiled at his fondness for the girl.

“
W
hy can’t you kill him?” King Wilhelmina asked looking at Yolande. She was the most
powerful enchantress and yet she was leaving the duty to a prince.
He didn’t want to give the young man such a dangerous task in fear of hurting his daughter.

“He will expect me,” Yolande said, “With Jerome; we have the element of surprise. I will still assist. He’ll view me as more of a threat and that will give Jerome the chance to strike.”

King Wilhelm nodded in understanding
. He didn’t like the idea
since he remembered King Baudouin’s threat
, but saw the determination in Jerome’s eyes. He wanted to make amends for releasing the curse. He sighed,
“Yes you are quite right. We’ll
need
to get
an army
ready, the more we have,
the more distracted he will be.”

Yolande nodded in approval, “It is settled. I will do my best to help you these next few days
to
prepare for
an
attack. I will also watch Edolie’s vital signs in case we have to
strike
sooner than we plan. This curse is strong and unpredictable.
For now, we all need to rest. We’ll begin tomorrow.
”
Yolande then disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Jerome spent the rest of the night next to Edolie. He couldn’t leave her side. He felt so guilty. Queen Henrietta also stayed and sat
next to her daughter’s bed
in a red arm chair
that one of the maids had brought in
. The poor Queen looked awful. Her hair was a mess and her eyes had become puffy from tears. Jerome put a reassuring hand on his future mother in law.

“I’ll bring her back.”

Queen Henrietta gave him a faint smile before looking down at Edolie. A part of her felt that this was her fault. She didn’t protect Wilhelmina well enough. She knew her husband had lost his love for Wilhelmina when Edolie arrived, but to Queen Henrietta, Wilhelmina was still her daughter. She loved them both dearly and the thought of losing either caused her great heart ache.
However, the crazy events and the pain of possibly losing both her daughters eventually caught up to
her
, and she soon feel asleep in her chair. King Wilhelm
draped a quilt around
his wife
to
keep her warm and he sat down
in a chair next to
her
.

“My poor Edolie,” He said as
a
tear trick
l
ed down his cheek. Wilhelm was also exhausted by the events of the day and despite his desire to watch
over
his daughter, he too, had fallen asleep.

Milly began to worry more as Wilhelmina had not shown up. She
want
ed
answers as to what
had
happened, but no one would tell her.
Everything was a blur in her mind.
Finally she managed to run
into Jerome when he was leaving Edolie’s room.
She figured he was the only one that she could ask since the king and queen seemed quite upset.

“What’s going on?” Milly shouted in frustration as she grabbed Jerome’s shirt. She didn’t want him running off like everyone else and was determined to get answers.

“The curse,” Jerome said as Milly loosened her grip.

“What?” Milly’s eyes widened.

“
Wilhelmina was cursed. She
disappeared in a cloud of black smoke, Edolie’s sick, the kingdom is in chaos
,” Jerome said
quickly
and Milly fell to her knees.

“Mina’s gone,” Milly said feeling her heart shatter. Wilhelmina was her only friend and now she was gone.

“I’ll fix this mess,” Jerome promised. He was angry with himself. Yolande had told him
that it was
not his fault, but he knew it was. He just knew he should have tried harder to stay away from Wilhelmina.
He left Milly
and hurried
to his room
. He needed to get some rest if he wanted to be prepared for training tomorrow.

Milly stayed where she was. Tears were falling from
her eyes and onto the floor
. “Mina,” She sobbed. If she had told Wilhelmina everything then this could have been prevented. If Wilhelmina knew she was cursed, none of this would be happening. Tears poured from Milly’s eyes, “It’s
all my
fault.”

Chapter 10

Wilhelmina awoke feeling awful. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. Was it jus
t a dream? But when she opened her eyes,
she
realized
she
was not in her room
. H
er mind flashed back to her mother’s panic stricken face and
then she
remembered that someone had grabbed her. Where was she?
The
bed she was in had
green
sheets, which
had a
brown
swirl pattern along the bottom.

Wilhelmina looked down at herself. She was still
wearing her pink bridesmaid dress
.  H
er hair, which had
been done up,
had become a
tangled mess.
“
Why am I
here
?” She wondered as she
looked around.
The walls of the room were a dull shade of brown and there was hardly any décor. The
only thing she saw was
a
n ornate
mirror
that had a small table underneath it
.

It was
then
she
noticed a girl with white hair standing
next to the
bedroom door.
Wilhelmina
had never seen someone so young have white hair. Her y
ellow eyes took
Wilhelmina
by surprise
as well. Next to her was a girl with short violet hair
, who also had yellow eyes
. The violet girl looked at Wilhelmina and then left the room. Wilhelmina blinked in confusion. She remembered be
ing
grabbed, but who had taken her here and why?
Also, who were those girls?

“What on earth is going on?
”

“You’re awake,” A man’
s voice interrupted Wilhelmina from her thoughts
. A
young,
handsome
man wearing black pants
and a white shirt had entered. He had
hair as black as Wilhelmina’s
and
dark brown eyes. He looked vaguely familiar.

She
felt her heart skip a beat, “
Could it be?”
It was then she realized h
e looked like the man she had met at the Masquerade Ball, except this time he wasn’t wearing a mask. He walked closer to her and she could feel her heart pounding against her chest. It was.

“So you recognize me,” He smiled.

“You’re…” Wilhelmina began feeling even more confused.

“Yes, we met
at the Masquerade Ball.”

“Who
?
What?
” Wilhelmina
felt her head spinning as she tried to figure out what was going on.

“Lily, prepare our guest a bath,” The man spoke and a girl with orange hair appeared out of a room that Wilh
elmina hadn’t noticed before. Lily
nodded her head and quickly disappeared back into the room. Wilhelmina assumed that was the bathroom.

“You’re even prettier without the mask,” The man s
aid touching Wilhelmina’s face in order to catch her attention.

“
Who are you?” asked Wilhelm
ina.
Her heart pounded rapidly against her chest and she wasn’t sure if it was out of love or fear.

“You may know me as Lord
Endymion
Melanthius,”
t
he man s
poke as he moved
away from her, “My real name, however, is Edmund.”

Wilhelmina’s eyes widened. The man she had danced with was the sorcerer
that
she and
Milly had been so intrigued with
.

“Orchid, help clean her up,” Edmund directed
to
the girl with white hair and then turned his attention back to Wilhelmina, “They’ll do whatever you tell them, so if you need anything, just let them know.
They don’t speak, so don’t expect a conversation.
”