The Sword and the Rose (5/5)
Summary: Aurora and Mulan must face the dead body of their prince….and the dark repressed memories of Aurora's past flood her mind.
AN: (Yeah, I re-imagined Maleficent a little bit…I just always pictured her as more of a dark-haired sorceress similar to Morgan LeFay) The last chapter, and probably my favorite :D Enjoy!
Also, there's some blood, and imagery of suicide in this one..Be forewarned. This chapter is the reason for the T rating, guys…
-x-
The cool expanse of the mosaic courtyards spread out surreally before them like some great tapestry, each stone a dapple of different colored tiles.
From the perspective of an ant, the mishmash of color meant little—it would appear as only a splotchy mass of spectrum strewn across the castle grounds-but from an eagle's eye view, the design came together. Reds, burnt umbers, purples, and golds all meshing and swirling, culminating into the enormously intricate patterning of a rising sun emblazoned upon the cracked groundstones. Each piece served a purpose. Each tile had its place.
"This garden was made for my mother when she was pregnant with me." Aurora murmured, blue eyes trained upon the four thorn-encrusted pillars that rose, finger-like, from the center of the sun's beaming tiled rays.
The bier sat, just as they both remembered it. Untouched. Unchanged.
If Mulan squinted, she could just barely make out the cold metallic glimmer of a spinning needle and the decrepit, boney hand of a corpse hidden among the slashed vines and crumbling stones.
"It's the place where they told her she was to have a daughter….and the place where she learned that her child was cursed to sleep eternally. It's the place where they…where they laid me…and the place where Phillip…" The princess's voice wavered and the wind changed. The smell slammed into the pair like a wall, seeping into nostrils and seeming to taint their very pores. It coated Mulan's tongue with a sickly thickness, and the warrior could feel her eyes start to burn. She wrinkled her nose and held her breath, fighting not to retch.
The breeze blew to their faces, filling the air with the sick reek of death. Sweet and rotten; bitter bile and maggots.
Whatever was left of the prince was no longer the smiling, youthful, stubble-faced fellow they had known. That man was gone; replaced only by bleached white bones and a corpse of rotting flesh.
Aurora's voice broke under the weight of the tears welling in her watery eyes. Her body trembled and she clutched her arms about herself as if trying to ward off a chill, though the air was hot and dry. Her face fell slack and a whimper slid from between her lips as her thoughts were engulfed in the shadowy fear-filled annals of her memories.
'Death.' Aurora thought. Everything here whispered of it. She could hear it as the wind whistled, moaning through the empty tower's spire. It was everywhere. The shadows of the darkened past clung like specters to these broken stones and high parapets…
She could feel it: the sickly electrical tingle singing across her skin. It made every hair on her arms stand on end and her veins feel itchy as the arcane whispers swirled darkly in her blood, wakening as the clock tolled out her doom. It was time. She had not succeeded, the curse was coming and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She had fought, but she had failed.
She felt herself almost floating, tottering dazedly towards the fireplace. Flames danced and twisted in their macabre ballet, tainted an ugly green and guttering out as the wall slid back to reveal a cavernous passageway.
Maleficent stood at the top of the stairs, beckoning with a perfectly lacquered finger and a serpentine smile splitting her lips. Aurora, in the throes of the witch's darkly spun sorcery, could do nothing but obey. Numb legs staggered up the steps of cold stone laboriously. The caverns felt as if all warmth had been sucked from the air and Aurora would have shivered, had she been able.
The witch grinned gleefully, flashing a row of perfectly whitened teeth, as she slunk close to the girl and circled. A snake toying with a captive mouse. The dark fairy inspected her prey, slitted pupils devouring every inch of the young princess that stood helpless before her. A spinning wheel sat, simple and dull in the center of the cold room.
Maleficent was a woman of awe-striking beauty. Her cheekbones were high and hard, boldly sweeping down to frame a strong angular chin. Her nose was straight and soft; her lips plump and vibrant. Her hair was an inky black cascade that poured down her back like a shimmering, ever-moving waterfall. The ebony tresses were like oiled glass, dark and fathomless like the depths of the witch's soul. A circlet of jet adorned her brow, hand carved by an artisan's touch. The coronet's intricacies spiraled upwards to resemble a pair of hellion horns formed from the cold, semi-precious stonework. In a different time she could have caught the eye of many a mortal man.
The only signifiers that the ancient temptress was far more dangerous than she appeared were the hard, golden eyes-ethereal and unnerving with their slitted serpentine pupils-and the forked tongue that flicked maliciously, hungrily dancing behind her incisors. She was enchanting, but terrifying. A lioness dressed in woman's form. Soft skin and the curvature of hips hid vicious venom, tooth, and claw.
She grinned, almost welcomingly, as Aurora stumbled to a stop in the middle of the tiny cell's floor. The princess twitched, her muscles flinching and straining against the pull of the dark arcane arts, fighting in silence to regain control.
"Oh, little princess." The witch teased in a sing-songy voice dripping with malice. "Did you really think that burning all those spinning wheels was enough to defeat me?" she swept around, dark smoke billowing from the hem of her shadowy cloak. Aurora flinched as the sorceress's hot breath flittered across the back of her neck, teasing the tiny hairs of her nape. "Foolish child. I will have my vengeance one way or another…My curse was absolute when I placed it on the day of your birth. It cannot be defeated, nor can I. I am the unkillable….and you were damned from the moment I laid eyes on you." She hissed.
Aurora did not rise to the bait. Her fiery blue eyes stared straight ahead, not even deigning to give the sorceress the grace of her eye contact.
"You know, princess…this is exactly how your mother looked when I cursed her. Pale eyes, soft ringlets of hair, and a face struck dumb with fear…I guess that's what happens when you're sent under the 'sleeping death': All your courage evaporates too." The witch wheedled, mockingly, a thick pink lip poked out as Maleficent feigned pity. "Such a sad story."
Aurora's muscles tensed at the mention of Briar Rose, her ice-blue eyes blazing fury. She wanted to strangle the sorceress, but all she could manage was a weak twitching in the tips of her fingers.
Maleficent's eyes noted the tiny motions and her tongue ran across her lower lip while her dark slitted pupils widened in pleasure. This was her favorite part of the game. Breaking the young girl would be a pleasure and the witch intended to savor every piece before she sent the spawn of her enemy to the oblivion.
"I wonder…did you ever get to see 'mummy' again, princess? Let me think…" The sorceress tapped her chin, miming as if she were deep in thought. "Oh, you didn't, did you? How tragic." The sorceress sighed,
"They say the Queen was never seen outside her tower room after the day she awoke under your father's kiss….Rumor has it that she went mad." Maleficent cooed, a hand fluttering to her chest in mock grief. She sighed theatrically."Why must the good always die young?"
Aurora exploded, her rage granting her the strength to wrest herself from the dark arcane thrall. "Shut up! SHUT UP! Don't you DARE speak of her that way! Don't you DARE! You vile, loathsome, evil WITCH. You're the one that killed her. YOU'RE the reason she's DEAD." The princess roared, seething with unbridled fury.
Maleficent stopped her pacing, whirling to face the princess. Her golden eyes narrowed as the maiden's icy gaze stared her down, unyielding. She flicked out a finger, and Aurora's jaw snapped itself shut, the princess's teeth nearly cutting the offending tongue in half.
"Now, now dear…Manners." The veiled threat was low and dripping with cold malice. Tension and magic crackled in the air like lightning before a storm.
Maleficent resumed her pacing, her tone flippant, but cutting. "Your mother's death was by her own hand. The dreams of the curse drove her to insanity, not I." The witch twisted the truth, using her words to drive hot poisonous barbs into Aurora's heart, letting the taint of fear sap the woman's strength.
The girl was crumbling. She could feel it…she just needed a bit more. One final push.
The sorceress paused in her pacing, a deadly sneer crawling across her blood red lips. She drew herself up close to the princess, their faces nearly touching.
"You know, princess ….perhaps if you awake, you'll go crazy just like your dear old mother. Such a pity to see her lovely little brains splattered across that courtyard wasn't it? Hmmm?
The witch hissed and Aurora trembled. Hot tears pricked at the corner of the princess's eyes, but she could not shut her ears to the sorceress' poisonous words.
"You know…the old scholars used to say 'like mother like daughter'"
Aurora's blood turned to ice, and she could feel her heart clench and jump to her throat. 'No..dear gods please no…' Her thoughts whispered. The images of her mother's body flashed before her mind's eye, limbs bent and crooked, bone jutting at odd angles. And blood. So much blood….it had pooled in the dingy cracks of the cobblestones and matted in the tresses of cornsilk gold, mingling with the dirt and mud.
'Not like that. Any way but that.' The princess begged, silently pleading with all her heart but the spirits above and below ignored her cries.
"...let's test that theory shall we?" The draconic sorceress hissed, grinning wide and cruel.
Aurora felt her hand raise of its own volition, pointer finger outstretching to touch the needle that glinted sharp and bright. She could feel a subtle sanguine pooling in her fingertips as the curse pulled at her, hungry to fulfill its duty.
Internally the princess screamed. She fought, she raged, she swore…but nary a sound escaped her lips, and her soft flesh continued its approach towards the needle's cold piercing edge.
Maleficent watched, black pupils expanding wide and fathomless as she relished her triumphant moment of glory. The forked tongue licked her crimson lips in hungry anticipation, savoring each precious second; watching hate roil and war with utter terror in the princess's clear azure eyes. Joy trilled in her balck heart, and eager blood pulsed loudly in the witch's ears. Her pulse raced, and her vision swam with the heady mix of adrenaline and pure satisfaction.
Her vengeance would be complete. After all these years, Stephen would pay for what he had done ot her. All the wrongs of years past would soon be soothed. She had kept her promise. She had utterly crushed him and had ripped away what he loved. She would have her justice…finally.
And all it took was a drop of blood.
Aurora felt the slice of skin and the trickle of her life'sblood spatter across the needle and dribble to the stone floor as her knees buckled and her mind whirled into darkness.
Distantly she heard the hissing cackle of Maleficent as the old sorceress howled her victory, arms outstretched to the heavens.
The rest was silence.
Mulan watched as the headstrong, independent princess faded in a matter of minutes, azure eyes wide with terror as the flashbacks took their hold on Aurora's mind.
She had to do something…but what?
Aurora was slipping through the warrior's grasp faster than sand through a sieve.
The swordswoman moved on instinct, stepping between the princess and the bier and blocking the lattice and the dead body of the prince from view. The reek of rotting flesh still hung on the torrid breeze, and Mulan's stomach rolled as she considered that Phillip's corpse had been baking in the desert heat for nearly 2 months.
She cupped her gloved hands beneath Aurora's chin, holding her face and claiming her attention; silently pulling her back to the here and now. The calloused gloved thumbs of the warrior rubbed in soft circles, sweeping across the maiden's fair tear-stained cheeks, while she spoke in hushed soothing tones.
"Aurora. It's ok. I'm here. I'm not going to leave you. Shhh. Everything is fine. What you're seeing is just a memory. It's not real…not anymore. You're safe now. You're safe with me. We're going to find a way through this together. I promise."
The dark pupils of Aurora's eyes were dilated into twin yawning blackened pits, wide with fear…but as Mulan's gentle words continued, the soft murmurs of reassurance seemed to have an effect. Pupils gradually constricted, and glassy gaze slowly regained some of its icy acuity. The breaths of the princess still came in shallow pants, and her frame still trembled like a leaf in autumn...but at least it was a start.
"Let's cross the courtyard, princess. I'll be with you. Step by step. We can take it slow. I'm not going anywhere." Mulan coaxed, gently tugging at Aurora, placing a guiding hand upon her back and prompting her to follow. "We can make it through this. Together. Close your eyes, princess. Let me guide you. I am your thorn and you are my rose. I will protect you every step of the way."
And so the warrior swore, both by word of mouth and by the whispering of her heart that she would never abandon the princess. Aurora did as the swordswoman bid, and clamped her eyes shut. Her fingers curled hard and fast, cleaving to the warrior's touch.
"Don't let go." Aurora whispered.
"Never." Mulan vowed. And together they stepped out arduously, to cross the yawning expanse of sun-soaked stones.
Together they walked, flesh touching flesh, across the courtyards to the stables. The swordswoman never lifted her touch from the maiden's skin, even long after the dais was out of view.
Mulan's hand never left Aurora's, even as she helped the princess up onto her horse. She strapped the heavy scabbard of Stephan's ancient sword to the saddlehorn, and swung up into her seat, still insuring that she was only an arm's length away from the young princess.
"We never did get the book…" Aurora whispered, fiddling absently with her skirts, and not making eye contact.
"Maybe…maybe it's better that way. Even if we had done it all- found the book, tracked down the wraith, and found a way to recover Phillip's soul-who is to say that he would still be whole? Who is to say that there is even a world left for him to return to?"
"True. Everything here is dead." The princess spat bitterly. Mulan fell silent, mulling over her words and choosing them carefully.
"…but there was good in this world once…and there can be good again. We can rebuild our home. When we are together….there is hope."
Aurora's eyes flicked up, studying the warrior's dark face for a long moment, before her soft lips perked into a crooked smile.
"Yes. A new beginning." She whispered, gazing poignantly into the hard brown eyes of her faithful swordswoman.
Together they moved, edging their beasts into a trot as they retraced their way back out of the dying castle. They stayed, close in spirit and in proximity even as they watched the sun set, casting its hopeful orange glow upon the western hills.