The Key: Book 2 The Rose Tree Chronicles

Prologue: A Difficult Task Indeed

Three hundred years had passed and there were new rulers to the kingdoms on land and the empire under the sea. Gerardo had left his mark on the hearts of the seapeople and his name had gone down into history on land and throughout the five oceans. Gerardo's only child, a son he and Mira named Jaskaran, became emperor after he married a naiad named Renée. Renée was infertile, so she and Jaskaran adopted a mermaid and named her Nadia. After a ceremony to make her heir, Nadia became the only heir to the throne. It was not long after that Nadia became deathly ill and Renée refused to leave her child's bedside. A couple more months passed, and the miracle worker whom the emperor and empress hired said that Nadia was getting better and should be healthy again in a year, but when Renée looked at her daughter, she didn't believe the miracle worker and remained hopeless.

Month after month, Renée watched over her daughter waiting for her to show signs of healing, and as each day passed and Renée saw nothing changing in her child's face, she became more and more depressed, worried, and faithless. All possible negative emotions drowned her heart. The sounds of her constant wailing, her curses toward random people, and her obnoxious crying could be heard all over the palace and never ceased. After a year, the miracle worker returned to check up on Nadia.

"I find myself baffled, Your Majesties," he said. "She was making so much progress last I saw her. Now, I am sorry to say, it is hopeless. I estimate she has four years to live."

Every day since, the empress spent her time in Nadia's chamber crying. Nothing could make her happy and the more the merfolk tried to lift her spirits, the worse her mood became. Horrible thoughts possessed Renée's mind and she dwelled on them. After several months of extreme mourning, the empress herself became ill, which only worsened her mood.

The sorrow spread with the news throughout all the underwater kingdoms. The oceans were calm and the skies above the water became empty of life and weather. The world wondered why the seas were so quiet and the air so still. The naiads communicated with the forest inhabitants who communicated with those outside the forest. Then, in a little over a week, news about the mood of the empress of the five oceans and the condition of her child had spread throughout all the forest creatures and the sorrow followed with it.

When Jaskaran and the miracle worker walked in to find Nadia's chamber trashed and Renée on the floor weeping and bleeding, the miracle worker banished her to bed away from Nadia for the sake of Nadia's health.

"You cannot take me away from my baby!" she wailed. "I'll have you all beheaded! She's my baby and she's dying! You cannot take me from her!"

She thrashed at everyone who forced her into her bedchamber. She even tried to kill herself. That was when Jaskaran had her tied down.

"Will this end, Miracle Worker?" Jaskaran asked.

"I'm not sure, Your Majesty," the miracle worker answered. "I've seen this go away, and I've seen it last until death."

"With your experience and knowledge, can you make a guess?"

"I'll be honest, Your Majesty. Her condition can possibly last from ten years after Nadia's death to the rest of her life. She seems to have an extremely bad case of depression."

One day during Nadia's tenth year, when Emperor Jaskaran had the time, he came in and sat on the sponge mattress of their clamshell bed next to his wife. He reached over and gently stroked Renée's cheek, waking her. She blinked a couple times and looked up at her husband.

"You shouldn't be so upset, Renée," Jaskaran said.

"Our baby is dying, Jaskaran!" Renée replied. "Why don't you care?"

"I do care, Renée." There was a moment of silence when Renée started crying again. "You need to go see the Miracle Worker at Moss Canyon."

Renée stopped crying and gaped at Jaskaran. "What? The Moss Can—are you mad??"