Scarlet’s
Quest By
Tabatha Keeler
Copyright 2011 ©
Prologue
Escape
That fateful night was dark, full of
despair and ruin, screams and cries for loved ones, moans of death, the clash
of weapons, and the sounds of lives changing forever in the kingdom of
Alizarin.
The first of all these changes of fate
occurred when Lady Abigail, a lady in waiting, burst into the Queen’s
bedchamber, with news that would mark the beginning of the end.
“What is it?” the queen asked fearfully; she
had not slept at all that night. Her husband, the king, was said to be on the
verge of death and her kingdom at the brink of war.
“I came as soon as I could.” Lady Abigail
panted hard.
Queen Cerise begged, “Pray, tell me what
you have to say!” while getting out of her bed so as to be able to concentrate
more on what her panting and red-in-the-face lady in waiting was about to say.
“Is it time? Is my husband about to die? Please, I must go him, before it is
too late!”
“I am most sorry, my Queen,” Lady Abigail
muttered, bowing her head in a slow curtsy, “your husband, King Elvin, is
already dead. The physicians only allowed me to come to you now.”
These words shocked Cerise. “What? When?
No, no! Why didn’t you call me?! You were supposed to call me! Wha-?” The queen
collapsed on the floor is horrendous sobs.
Elvin had been sick for quite some time, beginning
when a large, blood-red lump began to grow on the side of his head, which
caused the young King to have problems with communicating and memory. The court
physicians had tried to pierce the bump once but resulted only in soaking Elvin
in a goblet amount of his own blood and causing a terrible infection to top it off.
And now, Elvin’s heart had stopped forever,
and Cerise had not been there to comfort him. They had been married for just
six years. After many difficult miscarriages and stillborns, Cerise had finally
conceived and delivered a healthy child to mark their love and to provide an
heir to the throne. A majority of the Kingdom did not even know the child had
been born yet, seeing as she, the queen, was still plump from pregnancy and her
husband too sick to publicly present the child to the people.
Remembering the babe, Lady Abigail
exclaimed “Hurry, your majesty. For surely you must leave the country now,
along with your child, if you wish to survive this oncoming war!”
Cerise leapt up furiously, as her emotions
immediately turned from sorrow to passionate anger.
“How dare you speak to me in that way! How
dare you keep me from seeing my own husband when he needed me most! You failed
to call me to his deathbed; the least you can do is let me mourn!” Cerise
physically shook with anger; her hands curled tightly into fists and her heart
pounding with adrenaline. She would probably never hit anyone, but she still
did not trust her own actions.
Lady Abigail squirmed in fear but reminded
the queen that “The castle’s ancient magic will fail to protect the kingdom as
of the king’s death.”
The queen knew this was true and that a
foreign kingdom had already been trying to force their way into the surrounding
areas. But still, Cerise was so heartbroken. She picked herself up and went
with Lady Abigail.
The castle had, and still has, a spell on
it. Legend says the ancient magic had been cast by the elves of old, from whom
the royal bloodline had originated. The only record of what the spell did was a
very simple phrase: whenever a good ruler
is ruling, the kingdom will be well. Few doubted the story for whenever the
ruler was of good heart, the kingdom of Alizarin truly did flourish and
opposing kingdoms could never cross the boarders. Because of the king’s death, the
spell would be lifted until another good ruler came to power.
During the King’s months of sickness, the
army of the neighboring Lord Kayworth had been fighting to obtain control of
the tiny yet very prosperous kingdom of Alizarin. While good King Elvin’s heart
still beat, the castle had been protected. But as of his death, Lord Kayworth’s
army surged forward, and nothing could stop them.
The walls of the castle boomed with the
sound of the oncoming army, which was accented by the sound of the looming
storm outside and the cries of gentle ladies running through the halls, knowing
not what to do.
Cerise and Lady Abigail ran to the nursery
door but found it immovable.
“No!” Cerise cried, “No, no! Fate will not
take any more of my family!” She beat the door with her fists and pulled with
all her might. “Cruel fate, you shall only take her from my own dead arms.
Someone open this door!”
Lady Abigail muttered fiercely to her,
“Stop your majesty! The servants’ entrance may still be yet unbolted. Why none
in there will unlock the door is a mystery, but you must calm down!” Cerise was
so surprised at Lady Abigail’s tone that she stared at the young woman for a
moment or two before dashing over to a heavy wooden door reserved for servants.
She found it unlocked, and the two hurried
through the servants’ entrance only to find the cambers entirely empty, save
the little baby, fast asleep in a scarlet cradle fit for a royal child.
“Where are they? Where is everyone? Why
did they leave my baby alone like this?”
“They left,” Lady Abigail replied evilly,
“like you should have done long ago. But now, it’s too late.” Lady Abigail
pulled out a key and locked the servants’ door in front of the now horrified
Cerise.
“You sold me out,” Cerise growled as she
took up a fire poker and took a swing at the lady in waiting.
“Sold you?” Lady Abigail growled as she
dodged the fire poker. “I was never on your side. Soon Lord Kayworth with be
King and I will become his bride. I WILL BE QUEEN!”
Throwing the poker aside, Cerise tackled
Lady Abigail to the ground, causing the traitor to be knocked unconscious as
her head slammed into the wall.
Cerise grabbed the keys and her little
baby.
She
ran.
Down the staircases she ran. Faster and
faster till she reached a large stone gargoyle. Cerise felt around its wing
until *click* she popped open the hidden panel. Underneath the panel lay a
piece of rope that Cerise pulled on, causing the gargoyle to slide open to
reveal the royal secret passageway.
She hurried in while clutching the baby to
her breast. She gagged from the foul odors that had built up in the passageway
from centuries of disuse.
Cerise followed the passageway in complete
darkness. She held out one of her hands so as to better follow the path but
soon let out a screech as something crawled over her fingers, causing her to
breakout into a run again.
The way was mostly straight. Cerise ran
until her foot caught on a stone step. She instinctively turned to protect the
baby as her momentum carried her to the ground. Her back slammed into the small
stone staircase.
She winced at the pain and tried to look
at her little bundle. She could not see anything in the pitch black. The baby
had not awoken despite her running, screeching, and crying.
Terrified, she listen to hear if the baby
was still breathing. Little puffs of air still came from the little nose;
Cerise sighed with relief as her motherly panic lessened.
Crawling up the steps, she reached a lightweight
panel above her head. It was then that she begin to think frantically over everything
that had just happened. How could she have been so stupid? She should have
looked for a few faithful servants that might have protected her before running
blindly into the dark. And now, what was on the other side of the panel? Was
she still in the castle? The Kingdom? The Country? Okay, so the last one was a
bit of a stretch. How could she be considered a good Queen when she abandoned
her post?
With her heart filled with despair, she
lifted the panel to reveal a disturbing sight. Death of the palace guards lay
all around. The sight and smell of it was enough to churn any stomach. The
passageway had led her right to the kingdom’s edge where the war had begun. It
really was too late. The enemy had come and gone, no longer in sight. Queen
Cerise had lost the kingdom.
Wiping
away her tears, Cerise ran as fast as she could toward the weeping forest.
Although it was dangerous, it was her only hope for survival.
Meanwhile, Lord Kayworth was lounging on
Alizarin’s throne, declaring himself the new ruler. Lord Kayworth was cunning
and smart. He knew how to gain power and how to keep it. He fought on the front
lines with his men in order to keep their faithfulness and planned some long
speech to tell his newly acquired peasants to keep the revolts to a minimum.
Yes, he was good. And he knew that as long as Cerise and the baby lived, there
was a chance that someday he would lose his newly acquired kingdom.
So, he called out the search dogs. If the
dogs couldn’t find her, at least the Queen would be scared off for good. In his
mind, all the royals were cowards.
Cerise wandered lost in the weeping
forest, forcing herself to think of a plan as the evil spirits of the forest
spun her in circles and wailed lamentations in her face. She had once heard of
the safest place in the world, a city called Jade. This is where she planned to
go if possible. She could remember the day she had learned of Jade perfectly.
It had
been on a warm summer’s day. One of the other girls wanted to go to the library
and asked Cerise to accompany her. At that time, Cerise was not royalty. She
was simply a woman of high birthright, daughter of the King’s closest friend
and confidant.
Cerise
wished to see the towers of books that were said to be held in the enormous
library. She was slightly disappointed when she found the towers of books were
not towers at all, but normal shelves one would find in any of the castle
bedchambers.
The
books were old and dusty. It seemed impossible to find anything, but apparently,
that was why the castle had a bookkeeper. Cerise rang the bell, while chewing on
her lip. She was nervous in asking for the man’s help; he was said to be very
knowledgeable but...
The
man appeared from behind a stack of books. Cerise nearly vomited. The man was
the ugliest man Cerise had ever seen, and she had seen a fare few. Half of his
teeth were rotten, his hair greasy, his smell unbearable. He had two different
colored eyes, one appearing to be glass, and his hands were black with ink. He
walked with a stiff leg like he had recently broken it in a bar fight.
Indeed,
the bookkeeper looked more befitted for a pirate’s dungeon then for a castle
library. When he spoke, his words were lisped and sounded as though he had been
sucking on oil. However, they were not unkind words.
“What would you be looking for my ladies?” he asked. “A book in
particular, a script translated, parchment repair? I can help with all.”
The
other girl asked for a book on local birds. The man deftly found one and then
turned to Cerise with a grin.
“Come
now! Surely you must choose a book to read as well!”
Cerise
nervously replied that she whished to know of hidden cities; it was the first
thing to pop into her head.
“A strange request,” the bookkeeper replied, running his thick
fingerings through his dark, greasy beard, “but there is only one hidden city
and one book that speaks of it. Well, at least that we know of!” He laughed at
his own joke and then flipped through his cataloguing system until he came to
the section he was apparently looking for.
“Ah,” he said, “it will be on shelf twenty-seven, and I shall be right
over here if you need me.”
Cerise
hastily looked at the shelves for any sort of numbers. Sure enough, small number
marks had been carved into the bottom right hand corners of all the selves.
Leading her friend, Cerise found the book and thanked the bookkeeper.
The cover of the book was of a deep purple, but the letters were of a shiny
green.
It read, “The
Palace of the Mountains” compiled by travelers.
Wishing to ask so many questions, the
other girl was excited to know why Cerise had wanted to read such a strange yet
beautiful looking book. She tried to keep her voice down as she rambled out her
questions in order to hide them from the bookkeeper.
Shushing her, Cerise had opened the book and read from many passages
about a hidden city. The city was called Jade, the palace of the mountains, the
home of peace, and the protected valley. Whether it was in the mountains or a
valley, no one knew. It was said that “all those who went to the city would
never wish to return”. However, that was the end of the city’s description.
So,
the two had looked at the different ways to get there. The book told of a
ferocious beast which guarded the path to Jade. It also spoke of a wicked river
of purple poison that would let no one pass. You had to go the long distance
around, for the river would not let any bridges go across nor horses ford. All
would burn and be destroyed. Finally, it spoke of mountain passes that were so
steep and dangerous that no one had ever returned to tell the tale.
In the end, both of the girls had decided that they did not wish to
leave their home if the path was to be that dangerous.
Cerise
had been so deep in thought that it took her a moment to realize that the
spirits were no longer screaming; it was her baby crying in complete terror. It
broke Cerise’s heart. She had to get out of these horrible woods.
Then she saw it. The trees getting
thinner. She ran for them, so close to freedom.
The forest finally ended. Yes, she could
see the castle on the horizon and, close by, an old farm house. She began to
run for the house only to find a small river suddenly in her way.
The river was small enough that she felt
certain she could cross it, but one step in, she realized her horrible mistake.
The river sucked her in and under with a
powerful force she hadn’t expected it to have.
Baby.
She thought. My Baby!
With all her might, she threw the baby
from the water and onto the bank. She saw the child wriggle on the wet grass
and produced one loud scream herself before being sucked under and carried away
by the deceptive waters.
Twelve years later
