A Royal Rose

Chapter Twelve

Easton was shocked, he knelt next to his father and looked into the dead King’s open eyes and slowly closed them with his hand.

“He was a good man! He was a good king!” Easton said, choking back the tears. Rose wasn’t sure what to do, she was never good with situations like this, she tried to rub his back to console him, but she felt awkward. Suddenly, she felt like that young girl who had got told by her grandparents that her father had died, and she wouldn’t be able to have cuddles with him ever again. The wave of grief overcame her, and Rose cried too. She looked at the old man who was surrounded by a puddle of blood, her shoes were stood at the edge of the pool of blood and if she moved her feet, her shoes became tacky to the floor. Rose decided to use her wand to light the huge chandelier on the ceiling. With the light on, they were able to see the full horror of what had happened. Dead members of staff wearing their blood covered uniforms, lay strewn around the room, Rose felt sick looking around. Next, she looked over at Lux, her shirt had blood over her front from where she’d been cuddling her father’s body. As well as the blood, Lux was covered in red marks which were just visible under the blood splatter, especially around her neck and wrists.

Easton was panicking and avoiding looking at his father, “I’m going to go find some members of staff who are alive,” Easton said, holding back the tears, he rushed off to find whoever he could. Rose could see that he was trying to distract himself. A few minutes passed, the sound of a door opening and in Easton came. He had returned with her mother’s best friend, Meredith who was rubbing her wrists and a red mark was across her cheeks which must have been from a gag.

“Meredith, go tell the men at the barracks that we are at war. Make sure the army are under the instruction that any enemy birds are to be shot down on sight!” Easton ordered. He was angry and pacing the foyer, avoiding looking at his father’s body, Rose could see he was hurting but he hadn’t asked poor Meredith if she was okay or not.

“Meredith? stop” Rose said walking towards the shaken woman, “Are you ok? What happened?”

Meredith looked at Rose, pleased that someone had asked her if she was okay. “I’m fine, just a bit shook up”

Easton stopped pacing the room and listened to Meredith reply, knowing that he should have asked that before everything else. Meredith looked pale and traumatised as she sat down on the grey chaise longue next to the wall, a dead body lay to the left of her, but she tried to ignore it. She ran her fingers through her greying brunette bob and exhaled loudly, “It was so quick, King Edwin was going to his weekly bowls club, I was stood briefing him about tomorrow and other various things…then suddenly they turned up. Armour clad, covering their faces, wands out… one shot from their wands and all the staff in here were dying and Edwin was dead. I arrived and I tried to help whoever I could, I managed to get an account of what happened from the fire stoker lady before she passed. I heard a noise behind me, they were back, they must have been looking for Lux and you. They tied me up after I told them you weren’t here and left just as quickly as they came. It was so quick… it was so quick” Meredith’s said shakily as her voice broke, she wiped her eyes and looked over at King Edwin’s body.

Easton came over to Meredith who was still crying into her hands and put an arm around her shoulders.

“I’m sorry Meredith,” he said as he consoled her.

A door swung open and shut with a bang, Lux had come back into the room, she was slightly less covered in blood so Rose figured she must have been to the bathroom, Lux sat next to Meredith and Easton sat down on her other side, the three of them hugged on the chaise longue.

After a while, they were talking about what a lovely man King Edwin was, Meredith, told the siblings she would have to sort all the preparations for his funeral. Rose had a quick look around the bottom floor of the palace to check there were no more members of staff tied up and awaiting rescue. Unfortunately, there were no more tied up, but Rose had found the door at the bottom of a stairwell that led to the servant’s quarters and kitchens. Rose knocked on the door and stated who she was, a heavy scraping noise could be heard and then the doors opened. Behind it was the rest of the staff who had been in hiding, Rose was so pleased to see they were unscathed.

“Come upstairs, they have gone but I am afraid the King has been slain,” Rose told the crowd. Who burst into tears?

A few hours later, the four of them jointly did magic and took Edwin’s body to the mortuary. It was the first time Rose had done any joint magic. It was a strange feeling to feel so tied together.

“Sorry to talk about such matters,” said Meredith, to Easton, “Your coronation will have to be held quite quickly and your father’s funeral would likely have to be next week due to the tensions between the kingdoms”

Easton looked over at Rose trying to gauge what she thought about it all.