Wolf-Shifter

Dancing among the Stars 43

A knock sounded on the door, soft, but somehow still conveying the panic of the visitor. Rose looked into the fire as the knock sounded louder, more alarmed. "Come in," Rose called absently; slipping a ribbon back into the book she was reading to mark her page.

The door swung open to reveal Chu'si. The immediate contempt Rose felt in her throat promptly vanished when her cousin stumbled into the room, hardly able to stand. The light from the candles illuminated her face: Scratched and mottled with bruises, with obvious tear streaks making tracks in the dirt and blood on her face, Chu'si looked as if she were about to collapse. Rose gasped and jumped up, grabbing the wyvern's arm, leading her to the bed. "Gods, Chu'si!" she cried. "What happened!"

Chu'si sank onto the bed and let out a choked sob, covering her face with her hands. "Rose, I'm so sorry..." Her breaths were ragged, nearly hysterical. "I've been so horrible! I can't believe I ever wanted him to hurt you..."

"Chu'si." Rose tilted her cousin's head up to look her in the eye. "Take a deep breath and calm down. Tell me what happened."

But the wyvern only shook her head. "I'm a traitor, Rose, and now I know it was wrong. Will anyone ever forgive me? Can you forgive me?"

"Let's not talk about that right now," Rose whispered. She went to her washing stand and brought the water bowl and cloth to the bed, where she sat down and began to clean off Chu'si's face. "Why are you like this?" she asked, "And don't tell me you just fell down, I know it was more then that."

When the shadow crossed her cousin's face, Rose remembered that she hadn't taken her father's death well at all. Overcome with grief and perhaps savvy to information that the rest of the Court was still trying to discover, she had isolated herself from everyone else. But why so much anger? It was as if she had blamed herself, blamed everything she had done.

Then something clicked and Rose realized--"Oh, Gods. Did Ralon do this to you?"

Chu'si turned her face away and Rose took the miserable silence as a yes. "No..." she breathed. The enemy of her mother and Nyesh's father was closer then ever.

The wyvern closed her eyes to stop more tears from leaking out. "He said he didn't mean to, that he had to k—-" She stopped, unable to utter the fact that Ralon had murdered her father. "I thought he actually loved me," she rasped.

Rose put a hand on her cousin's shoulder, "When you love someone...they may not be all they seem. Ralon was that type of person."

Chu'si nodded slowly, "He was using me, just like I'd used you." She turned her golden gaze to Rose's. "I'm so sorry," she repeated.

Even though Chu'si had wronged her beyond forgiveness, Rose sighed and accepted the apology in a whisper. She took her cousin's hands they were cold and trembling in her own. "How did Ralon hurt you?"

"It was my fault," Chu'si maintained stubbornly. "I went after him. I needed to know why—-But I was so angry. I yelled at him and we fought. Then I came to you." She wiped the wetness from her cheeks. "Rose, what do I do? Mother won't forgive me, I know it. I can no longer take the throne. But I wish I could do something...anything that would make our people stop despising me."

Rose sat beside her. "First of all, the whole Court doesn't know you were part of this. And my mother will certainly pardon you if she knows what has happened."

Chu'si shook her head, "Rose, stop it."

Rose was taken aback, "I'm only trying to help you."

"I know." Chu'si sighed, "That's why I'm going to tell my mother that I'm giving you Wyvern's Court's throne."

Rose stared at her, "You can't!" "It's your birthright!"

Chu'si squeezed her cousin's hands, "I am and that's final, and don't go changing my mind, Rose."