The Roses of Airon Read online

“I won’t find any answers here.”

  Airon’s Chapel was much smaller than the Great Temple. The room was round with a small round altar at the center. An acolyte was just refilling the incense bowl when Aden came in. Aden nodded in response to the boy’s bow and said, “Close the door behind you, I am not to be disturbed.”

  “Yes, High Priest.”

  The order was easy to obey for the first several hours. A cleaning lady almost walked in at sun down and would have broken Aden’s meditation if an acolyte hadn’t stopped her. By the next morning acolytes and scholars were hovering in the hallway outside the chapel – some were waiting to pray, others were waiting to see what was keeping Aden.

  When Aden hadn’t come out by dawn the next day King Celio himself came down to the temple complex to see what was happening. Of course no one in the hallway had any idea and Celio returned to the palace empty-handed.

  At the third dawn an acolyte found the doors to the chapel open and the room empty. A maid reported receiving a summons for food from Aden’s study. At sundown an acolyte was summoned to Aden’s study and given five scrolls, four to be taken to the aviary, one to be delivered to the palace.

  At last Aden slept.

  The Sun Temple was as centrally located on the island as was possible with a mountain range running down the center, stretching from the southern coast to within sight of the northern coast. Still, it took the Metalkin royal family and the Evergrowth royal family less time to make the journey than it did the Stone Clan and Animal People royal families.

  King Celio, Queen Sera, and Princess Vonica found themselves suddenly playing host to the visiting royals, and their guests as they waited for the stragglers to arrive. The week was tense as trade relations had all but broken down between the provinces and each was blaming the others for the current hardships. In that time Aden was unreachable, never answering a summons or responding to knocks on his study door.

  When King Adam and his family had finally arrived, scant days behind King Gavin, Aden called for all of them to join him in the Great Temple.

  The sun mosaic on the ceiling looked faded, that was the first thing Vonica noticed when she walked in. It was strange seeing the other princesses – though they were still dressed so differently they all had the red hair now and it made them look strangely similar, almost interchangeable. The thought made Ashlyn shiver.

  Aden was waiting by the altar as the five kings, five queens, five princesses, and their servants and guests gathered into the temple. “Airon is not pleased,” he said by way of greeting.

  “Is that why we had to drag all this with us?” Kenneth asked, gesturing to the guards, servants, and escorts behind him.

  “Yes,” Aden said. The simplicity and force of his answer startled everyone. “The pact worked. The Island is moved. But your discourse has caused complications. What you have brought with you are the bandages that will repair the pact.”

  “Nobles and trinkets?” King Adam asked. “How are these things going to repair the pact?”

  “And why does it need repair?” asked King Gavin. “Didn’t you do the ceremony right?”

  “The ceremony was done correctly, but which of you has held up the pact?” Aden didn’t give them a chance to argue. “Which of you has put aside your distrust, or your hostility, or your hatred? Which of you has made any effort to sustain the others? Which of you have stepped down and allowed your daughters, the chosen ones of Airon himself, to rule as the pact entitles them to rule?”

  “You expect us to allow fourteen-year-old, unmarried, females to rule?” Kenneth’s eyes were wide but his mouth was twisted in a sneer.

  Ashlyn’s eyes hardened but she said nothing.

  Celio had the good sense to look ashamed. “We did not feel they were ready to rule, not with the upheaval.”

  Florence nodded. “With so many changes, surely a stable government …”

  Aden shook his head. “I may be old and grey and nearing the end of my days but even I know better than to argue with Airon.” He gestured over another elderly priest. “This is Mikael; he will show you how to set up for the ceremony. The princesses and I have something to discuss. In private.”

  All five girls appeared subdued; even Ashlyn’s usually haughty expression was missing. They stood in the small side chamber in a semi-circle, facing Aden but each one looking at either their hands or their feet.

  Aden studied them. Even with the red hair they were still so different, especially in dress. They’re supposed to be different, he thought. As different as animals are from plants and stone is from metal. But the world lives in harmony and so must we.

  “You will not have an easy task,” Aden said. The gentleness of his voice after the ranting he’d done in the temple startled the girls into looking up. “You are young and inexperienced. Our life here has changed very suddenly. And now these Dark Spirits threaten the people.”

  “But what are they?” asked Vonica.

  “They exist on the edges and when our island was moved we were no longer protected by the rest of the Big World. The edges got closer and so did the Dark Spirits. They are drawn to chaos, and to discourse. The squabbling between the provinces invited them in.”

  “I saw a man who had been taken over by one of these spirits,” whispered Betha. “They had brought him to the healer who is one of my teachers. The healer could do nothing and all the while the man cursed and swore and threatened us with horrible things. His wife was sobbing and apologizing. ‘That’s not my husband’ she kept saying.” She shuddered.

  The other girls had gone pale.

  Aden frowned. “They are possessing people and devouring their souls. As time passes the possessed person becomes wild, their darkest side starts to appear. They will say and do things no one thought possible of them.”

  “How do we stop it?” asked Taeya, her hands balled into fists. “What do we do?”

  “Didn’t you hear him?” Ashlyn snapped. “Our fathers keep fighting and that’s what’s making them come here in the first place. What do you think needs to be done?”

  Aden could see tempers rising but he said nothing.

  “Leave her alone,” Rheeya said. “She’s at least looking for a way to help.”

  “And I’m not?” Ashlyn said.

  “No,” Rheeya said. “You’re picking fights, just like your dad does.”

  “But I’m surrounded by idiots!”

  “Better an idiot than a fool,” muttered Vonica.

  Ashlyn turned on Vonica. “What did you call me?”

  Vonica’s eyes went innocent-wide. “I didn’t call you anything; I was just voicing my preference. I’d rather be an idiot than a fool. I wasn’t saying that anyone here was necessarily a fool …”

  “But if the shoe fits …” Taeya added, almost under her breath.

  “Your fathers are not the only ones to blame, I see,” Aden said. “Perhaps this was all for naught. Perhaps the pact will fall and our Island will drift so far from the Big World that it will be lost in the darkness and the Dark Spirits will devour us all.” He shuffled from the room leaving five very ashamed young girls behind him.

  In a soft voice Ashlyn said, “When I was young I found a tea set in the market. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, made especially for little girls with a little teapot and little cups. The colours were like nothing I had ever seen. Everything in the palace that can be metal is metal so our dishes are pewter or brass or even silver. These were the most amazing sea green colour with swirls of blue and flecks of black.”

  “Sea clay,” Rheeya said. “They add salt to the clay when they fire it in the kiln, that’s what makes the sea colours.”

  Ashlyn went on. “I bought them because the servants who were with me couldn’t stop me. I carefully unwrapped each piece. They were a marvel to me, so fragile and yet so heavy. When my father discovered them he was angry. No, he was furious. He told me only the craft of the Metalkin was worth anything. He took me out to the courtyard and he
smashed every single piece of that tea set. He wouldn’t even let me take a single shard back inside with me. The next day I had a little brass tea set. They were so cold in my hands but I smiled and I played with them and I forgot about the beautiful clay tea set for years.”

  “I had a pet rabbit once,” said Rheeya. “My parents gave it to the local huntsman when I started school. They said pets were a waste of time, that I had important duties to tend to, and that my people needed a strong queen.”

  Taeya nodded. “I used to sit and stare at the clouds and look at picture books but my parents said I needed to get out and see and do and be active, that our people worked, they didn’t daydream.”

  “There are still days that I’d rather spend in the gardens than in the library,” Vonica confessed.

  “It was a nice library,” Taeya whispered.

  Betha pulled at her braid. “I think the wrought iron fences around our gardens at home are beautiful. I know gold and silver are supposed to be the pretty metals but those strong black fences make me feel safe and at the same time they’re beautiful.”

  “Did they curve the tops or point them?” Ashlyn asked.

  “Curved, like vines,” Betha said.

  The girls looked at each other with new eyes and for the first time they saw girls, their own age, scared and now very alone. Except for each other.

  “I guess we’d better go fix things,” Vonica said. The others nodded.

  The altar was piled with the items the five royal