Silver Skeletons: Book 3 The Rose Tree Chronicles

Chapter One: The Glory of Aimonbay Estate

"The Law maintains the sanction, endowed upon it by God, to classify all citizens as Persons or as Slaves, as well as the authority to define the words in question."

The Southern sun shone its hot rays onto Rein Bow's eyes and rudely awakened her from a shallow sleep. Such a nuisance was why she generally preferred to sleep somewhere that enclosed her in sanctuary, but she didn't have the heart to leave the abandoned Princess Nadia alone in a world in which she had not been prepared to live. After the miracle worker of the Aquamarine Ocean had left the princess in the cave the night before, Rein had decided that she would personally escort Nadia to the palace in Helvetica where she was to live with King Darren and Queen Ariana for the rest of her life; a life which was expected to be more pleasant than the life she was forced to live with her severely unhappy mother in the ocean.

Rein glanced at the once-mermaid princess to find her in a deep sleep beside the warm embers left over from last night's campfire. The pixie couldn't find it in her heart to disturb the child just yet and decided to fly off in search for some breakfast. Hopefully there were some type of berry bushes not too far from the shore.

However, Nadia awoke not long after Rein had left. She slowly sat up in the sand and brushed her messy crimson hair from her pale face. When she finally managed to open her sapphire eyes, she noticed the pixie missing. All the sorrow from the night before quickly returned to fill the empty cave with a melancholy ambience. She had hoped that by some miracle she would awaken in the comfort of her oyster bed in the Obsidian Palace that was her original home. Instead, the misfortunes that the miracle worker had explained to Nadia were confirmed to be true when she found herself still in the cave with two legs replacing her mermaid tail. No more bathing in bubbles, no more shellfish meals, no more tutoring sessions with her octopus governess. None of this was a nightmare; it was all real. She scanned the rocks around her one last time; it seemed that Rein had abandoned her as well.

Nadia's next thoughts were the instructions that the miracle worker had given her before they parted ways. Since the princess could think of nothing else to do and nowhere else to go, she thought she might as well do as she was told. What had she been told again? Her name was Sierna. She was ten years old. She was only allowed to take on her mermaid form every... three weeks, was it? For a total of two weeks? Because she needed to eat more crystals every... four years?

Nadia shook her head in frustration; she would figure out those minute details later. Her name was Sierna, she was ten years old, and she was not a mermaid. Her eyes fell onto the golden ball beside her.

Your mother has cursed you. The miracle worker's strange accent resounded in Nadia's head. This golden ball is your life. If someone touches it, you lose your strength and you have a month to touch the ball again before you die.

After this recollection, Nadia did not hesitate to frantically bury the golden orb in the back of the cave behind a rock. Sand flew from her fingers as she clawed the ground, tearing it apart to create a hole deep enough to cover the orb completely.

Keep it hidden at all times.

She even placed another rock on top of the spot to make it appear as though nothing had been buried there at all, and she prayed that nobody would find it.

No one can know it exists, echoed the miracle worker's voice. No one.

Nadia stared at where she had hidden the ball to make sure that the area appeared natural and unmolested. She hoped it wasn't obvious that something had been buried there. She sighed, wiped away a stray tear with the back of her hand, and then left the cave in the direction the miracle worker had told her to head. Her new home was another palace, which shouldn't be too difficult to find.