Mary Anne Gruen - The House of Red

“Do you intent to sit up all night again?” Leaf Fall asked.

Matilde looked up from the big overstuffed chair she was sitting in toward her stepdaughter’s erect figure. “You know the answer to that question, so why bother asking?”

“Surely your crystal ball would let you know if anything important were happening.”

“Of course, but I’d have to drag it everywhere I went." She waved toward the crystal, which was nestled in a special white cloth on a table next to her. "And then because I hadn’t been watching, there would be a flurry of questions that I’d have to ask to find out what was going on. Time would be lost.”

“I’m sure Snow White is keeping an eye on them.”

“I’m sure she is.” Matilde leaned back into her chair once again and rearranged her legs on the great ottoman before her. “But Snow is dead and that limits the power she has in corporeal form. In case of emergency, someone needs to be ready to intervene.”

Leaf Fall floated daintily into the room and sat in one of the four remaining chairs placed strategically in front of the Mirror of Truth.

King Eranthis had taken to calling the group of them the Council of Truth. They met everyday, though not at specific times. And they either sat and watched the developments in the past as they unfolded, or they asked the mirror to show them later.

Cinderella was very intent on her duty and spent more time in the mirror room than anyone else except Matilde. However, her great age caused her to fall asleep a lot in her chair. Happily, her snoring was always very low and ladylike. When she awoke, whoever happened to be seated next to her would fill her in on what she had missed.

Leaf Fall spent a lot of time in the mirror room. But she was also keeping track of the elf spies that she had watching the borders of the troll kingdom. She wanted everyone, especially the Council, to be aware of what was going on there. Obviously the truth they were seeking in the past and the coming war were intertwined in some way. She wanted to be aware of how as soon as possible.

King Eranthis divided up his time between keeping a close watch on the mirror and helping Lord Rupert continue Tony’s work on the cannons. The dwarves believed totally in Snow White. If she said a great war was coming, then it was. And these new weapons seemed a good thing to develop. Eranthis had quickly appreciated the use of black powder. His people had used the explosive substance to some extent in their mining work for a very long time.

Old King Cole was probably the least involved in sitting before the mirror. Oh, he kept up with things and wasn’t derelict in his duty. But that was mostly because he knew his mother, the Lady Rapunzel, would come back from her grave and start haunting him if he did otherwise. Fact was, she’d done it twice already. When she was alive she’d always chided him for not taking things seriously enough, for partying too much, and not getting enough exercise. Well, maybe all that was true. But King Cole’s parents had done such an excellent job of handling the Fifth Kingdom. It was now the lead producer of meat and dairy products in the Nine Kingdoms. Cole figured there wasn’t much for him to do but enjoy his country’s bounty.

“Has anything important happened?” Leaf Fall asked.

“Not since everyone left.”

All five of them had been present to watch the meeting of the farmers in Emerald’s livingroom. When Emerald had clamped her hands around Virginia, Matilde had risen to her feet and grasped her cane in readiness. If things had gone wrong, she fully intended to zap back into the past and whisk the girl away.

“As you can see, the mirror has gone dark,” Matilde said. “That means there’s nothing happening that we need to see. Virginia has taken the advice of her ring and gone to bed. Emerald is putting together little bundles in her barn in preparation for the bounty hunters. Tony has fallen asleep in front of the fire at Aesophocles’s hut. Aesophocles himself is notifying the local wolves to be on guard. Topaz is asleep in her room. And Wolf is circling close to Emerald’s cottage, keeping watch over it.”

“I did some checking in the history books, but I couldn’t find any mention of this girl Topaz. It’s as if she never existed.”

“I know. I checked too. I myself wasn’t actually in this dimension at the time this all happened. I was off visiting another one. I did a lot of dimension hopping back in those days.”

Leaf Fall adjusted the filmy material in her skirt and said, “I’ve thought of asking Red if anyone in her family has ever mentioned Topaz to her, but I just haven’t gotten around to it.”

“You’re afraid to ask, aren’t you? You’re even afraid to let her know there’s an investigation going on.”

“Well, nothing is conclusive yet. There’s no point in angering her.”

“I agree.” Matilde rapped her cane on the beautifully polished floor for emphasis. “If Red’s kingdom is about to be thrust into a war, she should be concentrating on that. And hopefully she is.”

“Where do you think all this is leading?”

“I really have no idea.” Matilde shifted herself around so she could look more fully at Leaf Fall. “You know, I haven’t asked how your husband King Woodbine is. And how are your daughters Forsythia and Amaranth?

“They’re all fine. Woodbine stays at home and concentrates on ordering the servants about. The girls have left home and are trying their wings for the first time.”

“You sound worried.”

“Not at all. But I would like the girls to take more interest in the affairs of the kingdom. Even though we are starting to move toward a parliamentary system like the First and Ninth Kingdoms, Amaranth, as the oldest, will still be expected to attend functions and someday sit on the Council of the Nine Kingdoms.”

“Well,” Matilde said, tilting her head back, “it seems to me that you were pretty headstrong at that age too.”

“Perhaps. But I always thought of being Queen, first and foremost.”

Matilde laughed under her breath. “I can’t argue with you there. After all, you married Woodbine to strengthen your claim to the throne.”

Leaf Fall’s wings twitched a touch at this. “Not at all. I loved Woodbine.”

“Your father told me he was very concerned about your marrying Woodbine. It turned out all right, I suppose. But it worried him. He was afraid you did it because you were ashamed of your mother.”

“I was not ashamed.” Leaf Fall rose quickly to her feet. Her wings were beating stronger now.

“Maybe that was too strong a word. You loved your mother, but you were afraid your father’s elf subjects would never accept a half human as their queen. So, you married a man who was a good hundred years older because his family had a title and was well respected. You thought it would strengthen your claim to the throne.”

“I was a fool then,” Leaf Fall said pacing back and forth. “I was fifty. Cinderella and the rest of the Five Women Who Changed History were all the same age as me. They’d created great kingdoms and I wanted to do the same.”

“Well, it worked. Your people thought much higher of you after you married Woodbine. But of course that was before the Magic War. Before your father gave his life in the final battle with Mazarin the Wizard and banished him to another dimension. After that, the elves wouldn’t have cared if you were half-dragon and married to a dormouse. You were the only child of their fallen hero king. They wouldn’t have had anyone else for their queen.”

“I know.”

“Oh you weren’t the only one who got favored because of your father. I know I got elected President of the Council mostly because I was your father’s widow.”

“Not entirely. You fought in the war, remember. You were a hero in your own right.” Leaf Fall came to a stop in front of the Mirror of Truth and starred into its darkened surface. She couldn’t see her reflection. Since the mirror’s attention was directed entirely at the past, it could reflect none of the present. “Woodbine insisted we spend the war hiding under a water fall at the edge of the Ninth Kingdom."

"Well, his family may be old and titled, but they've never been famous for their courage."

"Ever since then I’ve been trying to make myself into a true queen and do the right thing by my people and the whole of the Nine Kingdoms.”

“Now, Leaf.” Matilde got up from her chair and crossed to her stepdaughter. “No one blames you for the choice you made during the war. You had two small children to think about. And as for your mother, she was every bit royalty, even if she wasn’t born with a title. Some elves and fairies think less of mortals because they don’t live as long as we do."

Elves lived somewhere in the neighborhood of four hundred years. And fairies close to a thousand. That is, if they weren't struck by horrible curses.

"They think the brevity of a human life somehow makes them less important. But that’s pure dragon dung. There’s not a butler or a scullery maid in this palace right now who isn’t worth a million times more than the Wizard Mazarin or the Evil Queen. Your mother was a great lady. And, even if I don’t like saying it, so are you.”

Leaf Fall turned to examine Matilde's clear blue eyes.

“There’s not a one in the Nine Kingdoms who thinks more about the greater good than you,” Matilde continued. “Even if you do let that attitude of yours get in the way sometimes.”

“Was that a compliment?”

“It’s as much as you’ll ever get from me.”