Sleeping Roses

Sleeping Beauty

Kilan's hands collided with the statue as soon as he was within reach and he stared up at the smoke-formed haze.

What did he do? How did he get through? Was it a secret entrance like the corridors in the castle? Why was there even a statue down here? Who had created it?

"Storyteller."

A whisper by his ear made him recoil in fright. There was no one beside him, least not someone who formed in the smoke. His fingers reached out and a hand rose to meet him, entwining their fingers together and holding him tight, keeping him there before he could try and pull away.

There was someone there and he couldn't see them!

The hand of a woman, the voice of someone he didn't know.

"It is a door, storyteller, simply walk through the door."

"What?" Kilan gasped and the hand around his faded away.

"Open the door, Storyteller."

Kilan reached out, trying to find the woman again but she was gone. He turned to the statue. It was a door?

He took hold of the arms of the throne and pulled, wrenching with all his strength but he couldn't move it, not even an inch. He grimaced; a pain in his ribs started to twinge before he adjusted his grip and pushed.

Hurling his weight into the palms of his hands, sweating, gasping for breath, and the statue started to slide away from him, curling back like on hinges. He pushed, and pushed, and pushed and he heard them again.

The voices; of Briar and Mother.

He lifted his head, the butterflies racing past, dancing away down a corridor. He followed without hesitation, hands out to guide him, following the voices and smoke.

"Whatever you want, Briar, but I cannot let you go, I shan't!"

"Why? What good does it do you to keep me here?"

"You wouldn't understand! You don't need to understand! Just stay here, where you're safe. You have the servants; you have your sister—"

"You can't keep my servants prisoners forever and my 'sister' is nothing more than a voice on the wind! Nothing you say will ever make me want to stay. Nothing. I want to see the world. I've always wanted to see the world!"

"This is all that man's fault!"

"It's not, I swear, Kilan had nothing to do with this, I've have always wanted to see the world."

Something loomed up out of the darkness ahead of Kilan and he stopped. It was a pair of door, huge, arching, double doors.

His mouth opened. He couldn't be under the castle anymore. Was this below the pasture?

He grabbed one of the door handles, forced it down and the door silently drew aside, opening up before him and he stood there.

The smoke shifted and settled, revealing what lay before him.

And he recognised it.

Slowly, he reached up, undoing the binds that kept his bandages in place, unwrapping the bindings and pulling them away.

Carefully, slowly, he opened his eyes, red and watering, aching... but working.

He could only squint but he could see.

He owed Daily his sight.

He looked ahead of him, gripping the doorframe, the bandages tumbling from his grip.