Cinders & Ash: A Cinderella Story (Passion-Filled Fairy Tales Book 3) (21 page)

Leith died in Ella’s tower. In a twist of fate or irony, he’d died on top of the loose board, the one Lady Kenna had pried up to take her stepdaughter’s hard-earned money. It was Lady Kenna’s theft of her earnings beneath that board that had started Ella’s journey. Perhaps it was fitting that Lady Kenna’s efforts to destroy Ella, even falling in with Leith, would end here as well.

When Ella and Ash arrived downstairs, they found Lady Kenna lying in a stupor on the floor. Leith had hit her on the head with something, as there was a large knot on the right side of Lady Kenna’s skull, and her eyes remained unfocused no matter what was said to her. They went outside and waited. Within the hour, Heinrich returned with a few members of the royal guard. Ashton quietly explained what happened. They both agreed the greater public couldn’t know. It was decided that they would say Leith died in a riding accident, and Lady Kenna simply fell and hit her head. There was no need to tarnish the reputation of either family by parading the truth among the kingdom’s citizens. Leith had paid for his crime with his life; there was no reason to ruin his family’s memory of him too.

Ella and the prince rode back to the castle, accompanied by the guards. They remained committed to their ruse, so the story was spread that the girl who owned the slipper had been found. Her name was Cinderella.

In three weeks, John Ashton and Cinderella married, before the eyes of the Queen and King and all their royal subjects. Faye was Cinderella’s maid of honor, and later took a job at the castle under Gertrude’s tutelage.

While Lady Kenna had survived the injury, it left her permanently docile and stupid, according to those who saw her afterwards. As a result, Bathilda and Lady Kenna were moved further out in the kingdom, where Bathilda lived to a ripe age caring for her addled mother.

As promised, Marigold married Charles Angleton, with the prince and his new princess watching as honored guests. And all who should have lived happily ever after did.

Cinderella was putting the children to bed. Young Princess Beatrice and Prince Edward were clamoring for her to tell them the tale of how their parents had met.

“It’s too late,” Cinderella said, hoping to sound firm.

“Please, mother,” said Beatrice, in that sweet affectation of gentility and desire that only young children can master fully.

Cinderella smiled. “Oh, fine, but you’ve heard the tale so many times before.”

“I know mother,” said Edward. “But it’s so exciting. I want to hear about how you met. How father was exploring when he came upon you at the Crystal Pond. And then how you charmed him with your book of drawings.”

“And I want to hear the part about how Faye Ray godmother brought you the magic dress and the fairy slippers so that you could go to the masquerade ball,” said Beatrice.

“Well she wasn’t your godmother at the time,” Cinderella interjected with a laugh. “You guys weren’t even born yet, so she wasn’t anyone’s godmother.”

“But she still knew fairy magic, right? You can’t be named Faye Ray and be as nice as her and not be a fairy,” said Edward.

“Well, actually you can,” Cinderella corrected with a laugh “Your godmother is not a fairy, but your father knows a very special fairy, one who sometimes roams this castle. But she doesn’t like to tell people she’s a fairy.”

Beatrice spoke. “Mother, I want to hear about how you ran off, leaving just your shoe and father sent the whole kingdom looking for you.”

“Don’t forget the carriage made out of a giant pumpkin and the magical mice,” Edward ordered.

Cinderella stared at the children, wondering if it was worth correcting the story they’d misremembered and made up to create some newish, grander version. She could never tell them the whole truth of how Cinders and Ash met, so perhaps it was best that they enjoyed their own little tale. “Sounds like you guys know this story best,” Cinderella said. “Perhaps I should have you two tell it to me as a bedtime story.”

Cinderella giggled at her little joke, but Edward and Beatrice looked mightily offended at her suggestion.

“Please mother,” whined Edward. “You tell the story the best.  So much better than we ever could.”

Ah, his father had taught him well. Flattery is always a good place to start. She cleared her throat and looked at the children as sternly as she could muster. “It’s already very late,” she started. “But since you’ve asked so kindly, I shall tell you the very quick version.”

“Hooray,” they said in unison. Edward stood on his bed, but Cinderella frowned and he sat back down, and pulled his blankets on. Once the children had settled in quietly, with looks of anticipation on their little faces, she pulled up a chair, so it was in between both their beds.

“Once upon a time,” Cinderella began.

***
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Beauty & Her Beastly Love.***

Maurelle and Blissa lay huddled, frightened, and silent in the closet. Maurelle’s mother, Radella, had ushered the children into the room and told them not to make a sound. They were to close their eyes, not speak, not talk, not move. “Remain hidden and you will be safe,” she had assured them.

“But shouldn’t I go back to the castle, Auntie?” Blissa had protested.

Radella had shaken her head and said in a harsh whisper, “Child, that is the last place you should go. It is you they are seeking. Hide here and they will not suspect you are here. I am sworn to protect you. I will protect you. I am leaving my own daughter here with you, so you must believe me when I tell you it is safe.”

Blissa had nodded and then plopped onto the floor of the small closet. She and Maurelle wrapped their tiny arms around each other and slid into the corner. Radella draped a blanket over them and shut the closet door.

The girls were obedient. They said nothing. When the man came in and screamed at Radella, they remained silent. His voice was strong, yet dark, reverberating coldly through the room. Just hearing it made Blissa shiver. She stayed still, but the man’s voice filled her insides with fear.

“Radella,” the man said. “You cannot escape this. You are bound to help me. You remember the promise you made me.”

Radella cleared her throat. “Errol,” she said. “I am sworn to protect the princess, and I cannot help you murder her and her entire family.” Blissa clenched her cousin tighter, as what her aunt had said sunk in.

“Then know you will only be helping me murder the king,” Errol said. “My men need your power. You and the fairies you command will lay with my men. You have sworn an oath to do my bidding.”

“That was before,” Radella spat. “Before I knew what you intended.”

“It matters not,” Errol said. “What matters now is that you comply. We cannot fight fairies and win if we simply have the strength of men. We need the strength that fairies imbue to men after the joys of carnal relations. You will do this.”

“I will not help you,” she said.

“You will. You know the consequences. Your line will be cursed if you break your oath.”

Radella made no verbal reply, and Blissa wondered what was going on. The room had gone deathly silent. Even the blowhard, Errol, was hushed. Blissa wondered if Radella had agreed to betray her father. Had she left to strengthen the human men?

Then Radella said, “I know of my oath to you, and I know of my duty to the king and to my only daughter. I will have to beg her forgiveness in another life.”

Blissa didn’t know what that meant. The words made no sense.

A moment later, Errol spat, “You evil wench!” He called urgently, “Greywin, Greywin, hurry and bring the men.”

Footsteps, loud and thunderous, filled the air. Murmurs, gasps and hushed voices followed. “Quickly,” Blissa heard Errol shout over the din. “She’s slit her own throat to thwart me.”

Maurelle made a muffled sob next to Blissa, but stayed completely still. It was dark in this tiny closet, and despite their directive not to move, Blissa’s tiny arms pulled Maurelle closer and she sent out a wave of warmth and love to calm her cousin. Maurelle nestled deeper into Blissa’s arms, soothed for now by Blissa’s magic, the one she was named for: offering bliss.

“Quickly, men,” Errol said. “Daub your fingers in her blood whilst it’s still warm. Take it into your mouth, and it will give you strength. Enough strength to conquer this fairy kingdom.”

There were more footsteps and cheers followed by the sounds of swords leaving their scabbards, and then softer, less pronounced noises. Even without seeing, Blissa knew they were dragging Radella’s body to the center of the room, slicing into it for more of her blood.

Errol, the king from the world of men, seemed to know something of fairies. But not enough. He knew intimacy with fairies would strengthen mortal men. He also knew that the blood of a fairy was powerful to men. Unfortunately, he only knew half-truths. And Blissa supposed Radella had known that. She must have sacrificed herself knowing Errol only knew part of the story.

The blood of a fairy given freely would give mortal men strength. But the blood of a fairy taken without consent, taken with malice and force, was cursed. And surely Radella had not consented to this. She had done this to make them drink it. She knew the king of men would defile her corpse. Drinking of Radella’s blood would make them feel strong only for a short period of time. Perhaps a half an hour. At least, that is what the tutors had taught Blissa. She was heir to the throne, and protector of the kingdom. She had to know these things about fairies and men. So she knew that these evil men who drank of her aunt as if they were vampires would gain only temporary strength. And when their super strength did wear away, it would not go alone. It would sap them of their normal strength, too. They would be only half the men they once were.

The din from the other room slowly waned and finally stopped after several minutes. The men cheered, and Errol called them to march onward toward the fairy castle. “Slaughter them all,” he said. “The entire royal family must be murdered, if we are to truly claim victory. We will claim victory for our kingdom, for my son, for all of our sons.”

(Twenty years later)

Blissa sat on the throne, her right hand holding Edmund’s as their babe, Briar Rose, lay before them in her bassinet. She was the most beautiful baby Blissa had ever seen, and that wasn’t just the hubris of a mother’s love. Rose was a little round cherub with blue eyes, rosy cheeks and wispy blond hair.

Queen Blissa looked out at the rows of citizens who had come to the grand hall of the castle for Rose’s naming ceremony. It was a tradition both in the human and the fairy world that involved the reading of the baby’s name, followed by gifts from each side of her family. Dignitaries from the far reaches of the human kingdom came and lavished gifts on Briar Rose. And even though Blissa had abdicated her throne in the fairy realm, numerous fairies had come to welcome her daughter. Had the ceremony been held in the fairy realm, it would have been called a Nomorray and it would have been just as merry. While Blissa was so happy to see so many familiar fairy faces, there was one soul she knew would not attend — a soul whose absence she felt in the deepest recesses of her heart. She managed to set aside that sorrow and take joy in seeing so many of her beloved friends and acquaintances from childhood.

Several fairies had bestowed their gifts on Briar Rose already — a way with flowers, a kinship with birds, and the ability to listen to the wind when it spoke. While Edmund would think they were simple gifts that fairies bestowed upon each other, the way humans might bestow blankets or teacups, Blissa knew they were more useful than that. They were gifts that would help keep Briar Rose humble and wise. Gifts that would connect her to the earth the fairy realm was vested in protecting.

She smiled as her friend Dwennon and his wife Hilaria approached the bassinet. Hilly, as the wife was known to most, smiled down and was about to bestow her gift when Dwennon said, “Oh, let me go first.”

The old soothsayer bent down and said, “I bestow upon you the gift of dream sight.” He gently touched the infant’s forehead and Blissa smiled. When Blissa was just a babe, Dwennon had blessed her, too, with the gift of dream sight. It was a special gift that could only be given by a fairy whose gift was foresight. Dream sight allowed a person to communicate with others through dreams.

The gifts that were being bestowed upon Briar Rose were more ethereal, ones that didn’t require you to manipulate the world around you.

Dream sight was almost as useful as secret speak, though that was a fairy skill one either possessed or didn’t. Having dream sight tended to open one’s mind well enough that they might be able to pick up secret speak — the power to communicate during waking hours by simply thinking what you wanted to say. If the other fairy were accomplished in Secret Speak and willing to communicate, you could have a useful conversation without others in the room realizing.

The assembled crowd finished their applause at Dwennon’s gift, and now Hilly stepped closer to the bassinet once more. Blissa looked on as Hilly smiled down upon her child. Hilly put her hand to her chin, poised to speak, when there was a commotion in the back of the hall. The floor-to-ceiling doors opened faster than they should have, and in strolled someone Blissa thought she would never see again. For a moment, she actually smiled when she saw Maurelle.

Her cousin’s face was the same: long and thin, her lips ruby red, and today she wore the crown decorated with sharpened elk horns that had been Blissa’s father. But rather than wearing the royal fairy white, Maurelle was dressed in black, a long black cloak over a black dress. Maurelle did not smile.

The fairy queen marched down the center aisle, towards the bassinet, the crowd murmuring at her cool approach. The entire air of the room changed, a chill overtaking the crowded hall. Blissa realized there was no reason to smile. Maurelle’s presence couldn’t be good.

Blissa stood and moved forward, forcing a smile to her lips, trying to remember the cheer she’d felt — even momentarily — when she saw Maurelle. Blissa knelt briefly, then stood. “Your highness,” she said. “I’m honored that you have come to my daughter’s Nomorray ceremony.”

Maurelle stared at her, venom in her eyes. “Honored?” she asked, her voice high and brittle. “I’m surprised, given that you didn’t bother to invite me.”

Blissa bit her lower lip, holding back the things she could say. About how she’d tried to leave on good terms, how Maurelle had been her very best friend in the world, and she’d cut Blissa to the core with her final declaration three years ago. Her declaration after Blissa had returned her powers to the Sacred Pool, after Blissa had begged her once more to please forgive her.

“Blissa,” Maurelle had said when they last spoke. “Never speak to me again. I will mourn you as if you are dead, because as far as I am concerned you are. You died the moment you chose a man over your own people.”

Blissa swallowed and focused in on Maurelle, realizing that her cousin wore the exact same look now as she did the last time they’d spoken. Blissa felt broken inside. She hated being looked at with such venom by someone she loved so much. “Maurelle,” she started.

“Call me Queen,” Maurelle said.

“Queen,” Blissa started again. “The last time we spoke, I gave you my word I wouldn’t contact you, and I have kept it by not sending you an invitation. But if you have found it in your heart to attend anyway, I am more than glad to welcome you. I hope it is the beginning of a new peace between us.”

Maurelle, a tall, statuesque woman with jet black hair that flowed to her waist, turned and surveyed the room, before returning her glare to her cousin. “You thought it wise to keep your word of not speaking to me by not inviting me to the Nomorray, the most sacred of ceremonies we have in the fairy realm. Yet you saw no problem in breaking your vow to renounce claim to my throne for yourself and all your descendants.”

Blissa widened her eyes, confused. “Maurelle, I have made no such claims. Not for me, and not for Briar Rose.”

Maurelle squinted at Blissa, as if trying to discern if she were telling the truth. A few moments passed, and Maurelle sighed. She reached into her cloak and pulled from it a small folded paper. It was trimmed in gold leaf and Blissa realized it was the invitation. Only it wasn’t the one she’d sent out to the fairies. This was a different one. Maurelle handed it to her cousin.

Blissa read the invitation silently:

King Edmund, son of Errol the great and Queen Marguerite

and Queen Blissa, daughter of King Roldan and Queen Belinda of the Fairy Realm

invite you to the Nomorray of their daughter:

Briar Rose,

Heiress to the thrones

Blissa’s heart sank when she read it. She turned to Edmund, who sat there looking slightly frightened of Maurelle’s appearance but having no idea what he’d done. Having no idea of the seriousness of what he’d set in motion. He’d given her this invitation, and she’d told him emphatically not to list Briar Rose as heiress to the thrones. Both thrones. For humans, it was simply a matter of respect, but in the fairy realm it was a claim. She wanted to fume at him, but there was no time for that. She had to try to fix this. Immediately, or Maurelle would …. She didn’t even want to think about what Maurelle would do.

Blissa closed her eyes and tried something she hadn’t done since she’d left the realm. She wasn’t even sure it would work. She’d given up fairy magic of a physical nature. But this wasn’t physical magic, and it was related to a gift she’d been given — dream sight — by Dwennon as a babe. In her mind, she spoke to Maurelle. “
I swear to you, I didn’t know. I didn’t do this. Edmund did it, but he didn’t understand what it meant. In the human world, these things are just titles, just words. There is no magic in them. My husband does not understand that there is magic in titles in our realm, that listing her as my father’s heir is more than descriptive, that it binds her claim to the throne, should she choose to exercise it. But I swear to you, this was not me being deceitful or false. It was a mistake, one made by my husband, who doesn’t understand fairy customs well enough.”

She opened her eyes and looked at Maurelle, who stared blankly back at her. Then, Blissa heard the response in her head.
“Cousin, I told you these humans are vile backstabbers. He wants my throne. If not for him, for this thing he’s made you bear him.”

“My child is not a thing,”
Blissa declared.
“And she doesn’t want your throne. Please, Maurelle, do not act in haste. We are cousins. We share the same blood. We spent our childhood playing together, sharing each other’s secrets. I would never hurt you. I wouldn’t lie to you. Please let this go. I am not trying to hurt you.”

Maurelle took a step toward the bassinet and looked down into it. Then Blissa heard her cousin in her mind.
“Leave him,”
Maurelle said, reaching into the bassinet and gently stroking Rose’s cheek.
“You could come back to the kingdom. We could ensure this child wasn’t sullied by her human half. Look at how well our friend Eldred turned out. You don’t have to stay with this awful man. You could be happy again, Blissa.”

“I am happy, Maurelle!”
she shouted in secret speak. Maurelle put a hand to her head, as if that had pained her. Blissa concentrated, remembering how to modulate her tone for secret speak.
“Maurelle, I am not leaving my husband. I love him, and I love my child. AND I love you. Please just be happy for us. Please don’t take offense at what was a simple mistake. Stay for the celebra—”

“I have a gift for the baby,” Maurelle spoke aloud.

Panic flooded Blissa. “
What are you going to do?”
Blissa pleaded in her head.

“For the princess Briar Rose,” Maurelle said aloud
.

“Please, Maurelle. She’s just a baby,”
Blissa begged.

Maurelle turned her icy eyes to Edmund. “Your wife doesn’t believe that you understand fairy customs,” she said.

The king looked affronted, but sat up straighter and spoke politely. “I have taken an interest in the customs of my wife’s homeland, but I am sure that not being a native, some nuances escape me.”

Maurelle smiled wickedly and Blissa tried secret speak again.
“Please. Just because you don’t like him, don’t take it out on my baby.”

“There is magic in words Edmund, even when they’re not spells,” she said.

Edmund nodded, and Maurelle looked down at Briar Rose.

Blissa took a step toward Maurelle. She reached out and touched the arm of her cousin. In her mind, Blissa thought “peace and forgiveness.” Not a message in secret speak, but just the thought of it, the feeling of it. She tried to send that to Maurelle, the way she used to, back when she was young, back when she had fairy powers.

Maurelle pulled her arm from her cousin.
“Even now you are reneging on your agreement. You are trying to muster fairy powers you no longer have in order to control me.”

“I’m not doing that,”
Blissa replied, trying to seek understanding both with her eyes and with their secret talk.
“I just want you to understand how much I love you, how much I want us to be the way we used to be: friends, family. I want you to have peace.”

Maurelle sneered aloud, but spoke secretly.
“I’m about to have peace.”

“Briar Rose,” she said aloud, in a voice that carried through the hall. “On your seventeenth birthday, you shall prick your finger on a spinning wheel and fall into a deep sleep, one that will last a hundred years. The world will continue to age and grow old. So will you. You will age in your sleep, but will not awaken until the hundred years has passed. You will not awaken unless …” she paused and turned to Blissa
. “What is it that you told me this worthless husband of yours was? Oh wait. I remember.”
She turned back to the baby and spoke aloud. “You may be awakened by a kiss from your true love.”

“Maurelle,” Blissa said aloud. “I’m begging you. Please take it back. Please don’t
do this.”

“True love,”
Maurelle sneered in secret speak.
“That’s what you told me was so important, what would make everything alright. Well, let’s see how it works. Your true love violated your promise. A fairy’s rule is a hundred years. Your daughter will sleep through mine.”

Maurelle turned and walked away.

END SAMPLE.
You can read the rest of this story in
Dream Trysts: A Sleeping Beauty Story
, available on
Amazon
. (Book is FREE to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.)