1**********Chapter 10: Karl Tells
Karl found Rosemary in the kitchen with a few other women starting breakfast. He stood shyly in the shadow of the doorway and watched, unsure of how to interrupt. Rosemary didn't look up as she spoke. "Good morning Karl. I don't usually have the pleasure of seeing you this early. What's gotten you up so early?" Karl stepped out of the shadows. "It's more like I didn't go to sleep." he answered. Rosemary looked up then. "Is something wrong?" Karl looked down as he toed the floor. "Well yes, but not really... I don't know. Can I talk to you?" Rosemary nodded and started gliding toward him. One of the other women immediately took over the chopping Rosemary had been doing.
Rosemary led Karl to a small room down a corridor he had never seen before. She offered him a chair. As Karl sat in the chair, Rosemary poked at the embers in the fireplace. Placing a log on the dying fire that sparked up, she gracefully turned back to Karl. "What is that you need to speak to me about, Karl?" She took a seat in the chair across the fire from him. "Well, um, it's about Aeryn." Karl paused. "Yes?" Rosemary offered him a gentle smile. Karl fidgeted in his seat. "Um, well, um, I promised her I wouldn't tell anyone." Rosemary steepled her fingers in her lap. "I see. Well you can't break your promise." Karl sighed. "Yeah. I saw this movie on TV once when I was younger. I don't remember what it was about, but I remember one scene where the son wanted to tell his mother something, but he had sworn not to. The mother said that it's good not to break a promise, but it is okay to break a promise if keeping it will hurt someone." Rosemary nodded understandingly. "I see. Go on." Karl worried the edge of his shirt. "I-I think my promise could maybe hurt Aeryn someday if I keep it." Rosemary continued to smile gently. "Hmm. Well if you feel that it will help Aeryn to tell me something you promised not too, then please, tell me."
Karl leaned forward and braced his elbows on his knees. "Okay, I'll tell you, but Rosemary, this is something you probably have never seen before." Rosemary leaned forward slightly. "My child, I have many more years then you and I have seen many things in those years." Karl grinned grimly for a moment. "That may be true, but since you were born on Dinotopia, I doubt you've seen this. I just want you to be prepared." Karl launched into Aeryn's story. Rosemary's gentle smile didn't last through the first three sentences. Karl had never seen Rosemary's serene and gentle composure crack, but by the time he paused for his first breath, she had a look of pure horror and disgust fixed on her face. By the time Karl concluded that story, Rosemary looked as though she was about to be sick. "Poor, poor child. I could never even imagine anything like that. How brave she was to protect her sister for so long only to lose her." Karl swept his hand through his hair.
"Please don't tell her that I told you. It seems like I'm the only one she's starting to really trust. And I don't want her to think that I betrayed her." "Yes, of course. She does seem to be getting more comfortable. I don't want to risk something happening to her by making her feel betrayed and unsafe. Karl, I think you were right to tell me. Since you've been handed a huge burden and you've been up all night placing it on your shoulders, why don't you go sleep for awhile." Karl smiled gratefully as he rose from his seat. Rosemary continued to sit and think long after Karl had returned to his room and fallen asleep.