Disclaimer: I don't own the story of Sleeping Beauty, but I do own Joseph...hahahaha!
Roses Red
Curiosity
Chapter VII
Trista lounged on a chair, her husband standing in front of her, his pale face lit by the orange flames. Trista gazed at the angular features, wondering what thoughts were running through his mind.
"Trista, have you relocated the girl yet?" he asked, his cold voice barely raised above a whisper.
"Erm, darling, not quite...you see, Elaine figured out that she was being Searched and-"
"Elaine found out!" he hissed, turning swiftly to Trista and grabbing her arm and twisting it roughly. Trista let out an involuntary gasp as she was forced to gaze into the grey-black eyes of Lord Tyron.
"No, m'lord! Elaine only knows someone is trying to find the girl, not who's actually instigating it," Trista explained quickly, her voice coming out high from fear as she tried unsuccesfully to wrench her arm from his bruising grip.
"You don't think Deena could figure it out?" he hissed back at her, his hand digging in harder and his face coming inches from her own, "Deena would know the scent of your magick; she is no fool. She would figure out that one of her council members is betraying her and then what would happen? You would be out of there before you couls say 'See you in hell'. What do you think Ebony would think if she found out one of her most valuable spies has allowed herself to be found?"
"M'lord, I didn't mean for her to know! I'm working on retracing the girl and placing her into the hands of-"
"So not only did you help us to become discovered, you also lost the chit? As in you have not one lead?" he asked, rising back and taking a stance even worse than his threatening pose; one of disgust, "Trista, you are becoming careless. If you cannot learn to become more inconspicuous during your searches, there may be a price to pay..."
Trista felt her face pale, and her arms went to cross at her chest, "I won't make this mistake again, m'lord," her voice came out quietly, her silver eyes focused on her pale hands.
A woman of formidable height sat behind a large wooden desk, her golden head bent over one of many stacks of papers littering her desk. Taking a quick respite from all the words, she leaned her head back, slender hands massaging her temple as she closedgrey eyes, giving them a momentary break.
"Tsarina Siena," a servant began from the entrance, interrupting the brief moment she had with peace, "There is a woman here to see you."
"Who is it, Makita?" she asked tiredly, looking up slowly and brushing a strand of golden hair out of her face.
"The Lady Deena, come from court of Nimind with an urgent message from her Majesty, the Queen Elaine Numonde. May I let her in?" Makita asked, her small head bowed. Siena blinked at her slowly,graspingdesperately at the information beforegiving a small regal nod of consent to the girl andlistening for the tell-tale swoosh of Deena's footwear.
"Cousin!" came Deena's voice form the entrance and Siena opened her eyes, smiling up at her beautiful cousin. Deena swept in, her traveling dress dusty and spattered with mud. Her pale braid was curled up around her face in a coronet.
"Hello, Deena. How go things in court? Daniel's alright?" she asked, sitting up in her seat, new energy running in her blood.
"Yes, yes. Daniel's wonderful...did you hear he's engaged now? He finally proposed to Rhianna. But Siena dear, I have something important to tell you," Deena said quickly, taking the seat beside her cousin, "Elaine has reason to believe that Ebony is stronger than we thought...she's had news of a force coming to Rian to take care of you and your husband. There's also a suspicion that someone on the council is betraying us...things aren't going to get a lot better, even if Ebony is destroyed."
"We've found the princess haven't we?" Siena asked, confused.
"Well yes, but that's not our only problem now. First of all, Elaine was being Searched (along with a few other important women) whichmeans we must havea betrayer in our midst, and we're quite sure she has found the Stones- or is at least close to it. If Ebony can find the Stones and get her hands on Aurelia, then you and every other man or woman with a drop of blue blood or Magick good-bye. Everything and everyone would be under her power...and then there was that vision..."
"What vision?" Siena asked tiredly, feelingmore exhaustedthan before Deena had come, "What vision could make things more horrid than right now?"
"A child forseen to try and take up after Ebony...a child to be born soon."
Aurelia sat quietly on her gentle horse, gazing unseeingly ahead of her and concentrating on the exercises Elaine had ordered her to practice. Joseph rode beside her, his sandy hair blowing in the wind. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticedJoseph wouldglance over at her every once in a while and she would nonchalently touch her still-wet dress and give him a glare. He would grin slowly at her and turn back to gazing over the surroundings.
"My head is still wet thanks to Seph," Aurelia remarked to the general public, looking straight ahead and watching out of the corner of her eye for Joseph's remark.
"Well, that might be because you still have that sopping handkerchief on your soaking head," he said just as casually, flicking the reins a little and causing the horse to slow from a swift walk to a much slower pace.
"It's not sopping! Besides, the swamp water you were so kind as to dump me in has now soaked into my hair and left my brains a watery mush," Aurelai said, bringing a hand to her chest and trying her best to look appalled and hurt.
"Psh! Your brains can't be mush," Joseph said and Aurelia smiled, "You don't have any," he finished, grinning wickedly and letting a small bark of his odd laughter escape from him. Aurelia gave him a hurt look and turned away. Joseph flashed the man behind them another wicked grin, reaching up to try and yank off her scarf.
"Seph! Don't touch my head! Ever ever ever ever! I could be bald for all you know!" she yelled, panic rising to make her voice almost squeaky high, one hand reaching out to punch him and other rising swiftly to the edge of the scarf.
"I'm sorry, I just wanted to see why you bound the top of your head all the time," Joseph said, cocking his head to the side and sending her into an unratrional anger over the fact that his face bore no emotion, humor or otherwise.
"None of your business is why! You nosy, son-of-a..." she snapped, hurriedly making she every hair was hidden underneath the hood and turning the full force of the Aurelia-glare on him.
"I just wanted to know...sorry Nissey...you know, it's not like it'll be Pandora's box re-incarnate," Joseph said quietly, turning back to the front. Aurelia could feel her heart beating rapidly against her chest and breathed deeply, trying to calm the fluttering of it.
'Pandora's box? Pah, that wouldn't even be close to the problems he would cause.'
Aurelia looked down below at where the men were practicing arms. She glowered at where Joseph stood practicing his swordwork with one if his troop members,and watchedhim look at her every once in awhile. He wasn't the best with a sword, even with the glare of the sun to help him.
Looking at his long and muscular frame, Aurelia could see why he would have trouble wielding a weapon of a sword's dimensions. Joseph's arms were so long that he had trouble balancing the sword and not having whiplash; it was almost comical to watch him practice with it and whenever he wasn't looking, she allowed herself a small giggle at his mishaps. On the other hand, Joseph had almost god-like strength and was suprisingly light on his feet, unusual for him being so big, and could handle a staff pretty well. Aurelia caught sight of Joseph looking at her again and sneered coldly at him. He turned away, his sword flying violently at his opponent.
Aurelia lay back, closing her eyes and ears against the pollution around her, her mind soaring off to the Other world.
Joseph knocked downthe older man with a staff, calling down at him genially, "You lose, old man!"
"Old man?" he replied, "Sir, old I may be, but I am definately wiser!"
"Sure," Joseph said, chuckling and offering a hand, "Can I help you up, Undric?"
"Are you trying to say I'm so old as to not be able to help myself up?" Undric asked, taking the offered hand.
"Nooo," Joseph said, pulling Undric up and setting the ash staff down," Hey, I'll be right back, all right?" he asked, gazing up to where Aurelia's body lay.
"All right...when you come back down, be ready for an ass-whipping!"
Joseph laughed heartily, walking up to where Aurelia lay. He looked down at her slightly-pink face andvisually caressed the harsh, angular features andfull mouth. His eyes caught sight of where her scarf covered her head, where a small little curl of red-colored hair had snuck out of its bonds. 'Bald? I think not...why would she hide her hair if we already know she's nomad?'
He squatted down slowly, gently reaching to pull out the balled up strand. It was a long lock, lustrous in color. Breathing shallowly, he pulled slowly on the scarf that was hiding her hair and gasped at the braided and knotted mass falling out of the scarf, helped by a small breeze. Joseph gazed in wonder at the beautiful deep auburn hair, noticing the streaks of silvery-white that interrupted the smooth shock of color. 'Why would she hide her beautiful-' the thought died as he caught sight of a dark mark hidden by the scark but now showing dark against her pale skin. A five-pointed star encircled behind her neck; the nomad sign that was said to be on the missing Princess of Dyrria, Aurelia Tsarina Denise Du Voir.
There was a crunch of grass behind him and he wrenched his eyes from her neckup intoDenise's- Aurelia's grey-green eyes staring at behind him in shock. Jospeh turned to see Undric standing behind him, one of his underlings beside him, both staring captivatedly at where Aurelia's knotted hair billowed away from her mark.
"I was curious," he croaked out, turning almost as pale as Aurelia, his eyes never leaving the mark that branded her as Aurelia of Dyrria. Aurelia felt tears pour down her face
"What have you done?" she whispered helplessly up to where Joseph stood dumb-founded, the scarf whispering softly in the wind.
Author's Note: M'kay...yes, it has taken me, what, roughly a month to get this up? Well, I'm soooorrrrryyyyy! I've had a bunch of new story ideas roaming around in my brain (seriously though, I had four different stories just pop into my head recently...it's lovely). But I wasworking hard on this chapter because, well, frankly, I had loads of trouble with it. I was trying to make sure everything flowed and nothing seemed stilted and blah blah blah and it was just much harder with my schedule and stuff...and then I had all those other stories taking up my useful thought processes... tis the Green Pig's fault! He gave me these bloody new ideas! Well, anyways, I'll stop rambling now and just ask you to be so kind as to review and tell me how this went...now tis time to click that beauttiful blue little button...come on! Clickity-click...
Lulai: thanks for taking the time out of your schedule to read my stuff...I understand too well about the procrastination of homework...like now, lol.
iloveme2815: thank you, where is it confusing ,though...I'd like to know where I can make it clearer
Scoutcraft Piratess: lol, a new reviewer! w00000000ttttt! I'm glad you like my story and Joseph is unavailable...he's actually married to me...I'll share him with you, though!
kirstie: thank you for the critique...please continue reading and reviewing, I appreciate!
Glaze: lol, you're so clever, I liked the names Glitter and Poison...I also have Glaze and Green Pig jr. Know anyone who would like a cyberpig? They're up for adoption!
Ardelis Mercy: Thanks dear...I love writing Joeph and Aurelia!
Enjoy your cubercream, compliments of the chef!
±GT±