Sleeping Roses

Every Rose has its Thorns

"Boys! Please don't play around that!"

Mary's shout carried across the gardens, making the servants working out there glance around, just to see what was happening.

It was some of the children, boys racing wildly around the bottom of the briar bush, chasing each other with sticks that had been cut from trees.

"You boys should be careful playing so close to briars," Kilan said from where he knelt by a flower bed, carefully removing old leaves. "One fall the wrong way and you'll be coming away with all sorts of nasty cuts."

"Exactly! Listen to Kilan boys and help instead of distracting everyone," Mary snapped, lifting up the basket that they had taken the branches from.

"Ah! We ain't scared of no bush!" one of the boys, Charlie, shouted, laughing, "A plant can't do anything!"

"You haven't met many plants, I see," Kilan said as he straightened a small pansy, the runt of the group.

"I bet you could just cut it down!"

"I wouldn't care to try it," Kilan said.

"Have you seen anything like it before, Mr Denny?" one of the boys asked as two of the three sat down beside Kilan.

"No, I admit I haven't," Kilan said, smiling at them, "Briar bushes tended to remain a reasonable size on all my other adventures." He turned to his basket then to take out a small pair of scissors and stopped.

The large sheers were missing.

"Where-" he started, only to spin around at Mary's shriek of fright.

"Charlie!"

Everyone looked around and rushed to their feet at the sight of Charlie a good fifteen feet up the briar bush, Kilan's sheers tucked into his belt.

"Charlie!" Kilan shouted, rushing forwards, staring up at him. "Get down! Are you trying to get hurt?"

Charlie ignored him and Mary's orders, pulling the sheers from his belt.

"Don't!" Kilan screamed and Charlie sliced through one of the thorns. It fell like a dagger; Kilan pulled Mary aside as it hit the ground, point first and buried itself a least half a foot into the earth.

He and Mary stared at the thorn for a moment, then Mary stormed to the bottom of the bush, opened her mouth and a voice cut in.

"Are you trying to be hurt?"

Everyone looked around to see Master Luka standing behind them, looking up at the boy, his hands in his pockets, his eyes as cool and cold as usual. The servants stepped back, bowing and Charlie's face paled.

"Perhaps you should come down," Luka said.

"Yes Sir, sorry Sir," Charlie muttered, carefully making his way down.

Luka looked down at him when he was on the ground again. "Did you think that clever?" he asked.

"It was a dare, Sir," Charlie said.

"Is that so?" Luka said, glancing to the other two boys. "I wonder if you thought about the repercussion that could come with tampering with enchanted items?" He then looked at Mary and nodded to her. "They're all yours," he said, turning away, calling for the head gardener and leaving the boys to their fate.

Mary smacked Charlie around the back of the head, shouting at him for the harm to could have caused to himself, to her or to Kilan and she marched all three boys back to the castle to face Jem.

Kilan yanked the thorn out of the ground and looked at it. The point could easily kill a man. He looked at where it had been cut and frowned. There were specks of red on the surface.