Rose's Thorns

Chapter 6

The day of reckoning was upon us, it was early morning and we were getting ready to meet King Tyson, Queen Reymira and the princes. We were eating an unusually large breakfast consisting of porridge, eggs and bacon. Apparently brothels in the north were much cleaner and more decent than their counterparts in the south. The man in charge of the brothel came back with a grin pouring us more water. 

"How is the breakfast?" He asked the men only looking at our assets. 

"Better than I have had in a long time." Rayburn answered shoving his face like the pig his father looked like. Rayburn had more teeth than his father, but he had his large figure and it only got worse the more he ate. They had the same crooked nose and round face. When their skin wasn't red from the sun it was a sickly white color that made them seem ill all the time. Sigmond may have been thinner but he was no better looking, he may have been worse. He had a triangular face and small hairs on his face in patches. One of his eyes was slower than the others after getting punched by a rather large man with large muscles. His teeth were also yellow from not bothering to clean them every once and awhile. His nose was crooked and his lips were too large for his face, they were chapped and peeling which he would put pig fat on them later to look more presentable for their graces.

"Slow down boy." Roeger commanded his son before turning back to the owner of the brothel. "The food tastes good, Thank you."

"That is good to hear." He said with a sly smirk. "So are you leaving us today?" The man faked innocence with his question.

"If all goes well we will be headed back down south today." Sigmond laughed with his mouthful. The sight of these pigs eating was revolting. It was hard to keep the food down even though it was quite delicious. I used a rag on the table to wipe the excess grease from the bacon off the corner of my mouth like a proper lady does and the owner looked at me strangely.

"I have been wondering what brought you up here." He said looking back at the men. 

"Well look at these women, at least one of them has to be good enough for one of the princes." The fat man said stupidly. 

"I see. Any prince in mind, there are four of them. Prince Carson, the youngest is only 13, he is yet to mature but he will be strong. Then is Prince Zuko, he is 15 and quite the ladies man already, let's say he frequents this place quite often. Of course then you have the honorable Prince Henry, he is said to be the best looking of them all and at 18 years old he has already been training to be a fierce warrior. The last Prince, Wolfe, is an aged 24 years, he is scarred from the battle in Summerville where he served as a squire at 15 years of age. He is reserved and sticks to the same company, many think he prefers men over women, or perhaps his beloved dogs." The owner of the brothel informed us.

"His name is Wolfe?" The fat man laughed. 

"Aye, he changed his name to Wolfe after the last war, he was born Prince Aspen."

"Doesn't matter his name." Sigmond said, wiping his mouth with his arm. "You heard him, he likes boys and dogs, but not one of our bitches." The fat man laughed in agreement and I stood up slowly. I was finished with my food and pushed the bowl back before walking toward the door where the wagon was sitting, the metal was rusted and the wood rotting. The only comfort was the fresh straw in the back, instead of sitting in the wagon I went to the back of the brothel and listened to the gossip of the whores hoping to learn something useful, what I heard was more than that. 

Two hushed voices caught my attention, it was the voice of the owner and that of a woman. He sounded winded like he had been running while she sounded annoyed. 

"The hell did you pull me away from my paying client for?" She asked, so she was a w***e. 

"There are men here going to the castle to offer their women for the princes." He said quickly. 

"The princes wont accept a foreign bitch." The girl growled. 

"Maybe not, but the king and queen would, should they choose for the princes. You have to make an offer to Prince Zuko the next time he comes in which will be in a few hours I guess. Once he accepts and he will, kill Henry and the scarred wolf. Then you my dear sister will be queen of the Emerald Pines."

"Fine." She growled. I turned and left hoping I wouldn't get caught, I went to the wagon and climbed into the back where Petunia, Aster and Lily all sat. 

"Where have you been?" Aster asked. 

"Just looking around a bit." I said as the rest of our party exited the brothel. The fat man had his stringy hair pushed back on his head and his face was clean, yet he still looked disgusting, as did Rayburn. Sigmond looked more like a skeleton than man but at least he didn't have the stupid fuzz on his chin anymore. The men got on the front of the wagon and sat in silence as we rode to the castle. Once we arrived we were allowed in and we were quickly ushered into the grand hall where the King and Queen sat waiting for us. The Grand hall was absolutely magnificent. The pillars were made from trees that had been carved to depict tales. One I could see was a woman birthing a serpent, on another was a man riding a dragon. The floor was made of shining green stone along with creamy white swirls. The walls were made of pure stone, one the ceiling hung four chandeliers made of what looked like iron. 

My eyes finally fell to the king and queen. King Tyson wore a dark tight fitting shirt that showed the muscles he had. His hair was dark with white hairs displayed throughout, he had a thick full beard down to his chest adorning his strong jaw. Upon his head sat a golden crown that looked like branches in the center, above his forehead, there were emeralds in the shape of a spear, creating an emerald pine. 

Queen Reymira was on his right, she was wearing a gorgeous golden gown that was adorned with pine green stitching. Her hair looked like brown silk upon her head, her crown was also made of gold, only instead of rising up it sat flat on her head before a large green emerald shaped like a tree dropped onto the center of her head. Her pale skin was a shade lighter than mine, her eyes were a bright shade of blue that looked like ice. Her lips were thick and the color of a pink rose, as was her cheeks. Her nose was shaped in the roman fashion, her smile was tight and a dimple showed on her left cheek.  

We stopped just shy of them and we all bowed our head in respect to the powerful aura of the royal couple. The room smelled of pine, I noticed behind them two saplings were planted in large clay pots. 

"Rise." Came the soft voice of the queen, we all raised our heads and my eyes met hers, she raised an eyebrow and smirked before looking at the men. "Why have you come here?" She asked the fat man. 

"We are hoping that one or more of our girls could marry your sons." Sigmond said from beside the fat man. 

"Why should any of my sons marry any of your girls?" The king asked. His voice was deep and firm, I looked at him and smirked. "My wife and I know nothing of these women, not their names, where they are from, nor what their intentions are." In my opinion this king was the smartest I had met so far. 

"Tis true, you do not know them, and I do not know how to make you think they are right for your sons. This kind of question has never been asked before." The fat man admitted. 

"Tell me man, how do these transactions usually go?" The queen asked, I shivered at the bite of cold in her tone. 

"Most men take one look at my flowers and pluck the prettiest one." Roeger said stupidly, the queen looked at us all and I gave her a small nod in confirmation. 

"Our kingdom cannot afford to be that idiotic. However I will allow my sons to meet your "Flowers" as you call them." The queen remarked. "Our eldest son is away but will be back at dusk. We will begin with your names."

"All respect your grace, Rose is a mute and cannot speak." Roeger said pointing at me. I looked at him with narrowed eyes before casting them to the floor. 

Once introductions had been made the queen and king gave us free roam of the gardens and the western part of the castle. The rest was off limits to us, I wandered down into the gardens and looked at the flowers that still lingered even though the air was beginning to chill. After a while I went back into the castle and explored. I came across a door that was slightly ajar, from the inside of the room came the feral snarls of a dog. I entered the door and laying on the floor was a golden dog with grey eyes, it was baring its teeth and snarling at two men holding sharp instruments that appeared threatening. I entered slowly and the dog looked at me quickly before looking back at the two men. I took notice of one of the dogs paws, it was enlarged and thick looking. 

"What are you doing here?" One of the men asked. 

"I heard the growls from down the hall." I said honestly. "Is the dog going to be alright?" 

"I think not woman, he is too feral to get close to, we will have to end his misery." The second of the two men said. I nodded and walked closer to the dog, I looked around and in the end pulled the ribbon holding back my hair. I held the ribbon out to the two men who were looking between the growling canine and I. 

"Those things you hold are scary for him, especially seeing as he is injured. put them down and tie his mouth shut." The man closer to me nodded and set the needle he held down before taking the ribbon from my hand. He was allowed to approach. "You should hold his neck, he won't be happy once he realizes what is happening." The other man put his things down before going over and holding the dogs jaw together while the other tied. The dog was snarling and trying to break free when they were done so I carefully approached with my eyes on his injured paw. 

I was able to lift the paw and inspect it, and just like the dog on the road, this one was suffering from a bur between the pad and the toes. I looked back at the men before carefully stroking the top of the dogs head. "I'll need a basin of warm water, once the bur is removed the wound will have to be cleaned and wrapped with clean cloth to keep it from festering again." 

"How do you know this?" One of the men asked, narrowing his eyes. 

"I saw another with this affliction, much to his master's despair, it was discovered what was ailing him only after the man had his dog killed." I said looking at the dog who had stopped snarling and settled for a low growl. "I know of the aftercare seeing as I have had my fair share of splinters and burs." The younger, it seemed, of the two men nodded once and left the room. The other man looked at me, assessing what he saw before speaking. 

"Cedar is very important to his man, you will be owed a great debt for saving him."

"He would be important to me as well, look at how handsome he is." I smiled softly at him and he again lowered his growl so it was barely there. "Cedar....A strong name, for a strong warrior."

"That it is." We sat in silence the rest of the wait for the other man to come back. When he did Cedar lifted his head and again began to growl. I looked at him with an apologetic look before dipping his paw in the water, which was warm enough to be painful for infected wounds. Cedar tried to stand and pull his paw away but the two men held him down. Once his paw was cleaner I used my nails to get out the bur. Cedar yelped while growling. When I was done and the bur was out I placed his paw back in the water and cleaned the remaining infection from him. I then wrapped his paw with the clean cloth and set it down before motioning for the men to move away. 

Once they were cleared away I took the ribbon from his mouth and moved back. He growled and snapped at me before turning his attention to his paw and ripping at the bandage. After a minute he gave up and resumed snarling at us. I breathed a small sigh of relief and left the room as the men kept observing Cedar. After leaving the men I made my way back to the Grand hall where I would come face to face with the princes.