Donkeyskin - ON HOLD

Of Family

*Of Family*

 The queen led her back down the labyrinthine halls and into a room decorated in cream and pink, a color combination that matched Elodie's attire well enough. The queen sank into a chaise-longue and gestured for Elodie to sit upon the divan opposite.

"I won't have you trifling with my son's heart," she announced stonily. "The poor boy is not some plaything for you and your ilk to amuse yourselves with."

Elodie stared at her. Surely the queen was mistaken! She was not the kind of girl who would do something like that. Regrettably, she wasn't the type of girl to speak up against authority, either.

"I know what you've done," Queen Annika went on. "You've worked your little spell on him, but as soon as you stop dancing for him, he'll come to your senses, but if you've ensnared him into marriage, it'll be too late."

"What?" Elodie cried, shocked. "Firstly, I won't ever marry, and His Highness is aware of that. And secondly, I have no idea what you're talking about."

The queen's fair eyebrows rose. "Oh," she said. "Well that does change things a bit, doesn't it? Would you like a drink? Tea, coffee?"

Elodie forced herself to take a deep breath. "Tea would be lovely," she said politely. "Thank you."

The queen lifted a little silver bell and rang it. With a smile, she said. "Good. I have a feeling you'll need it."

A maidservant popped into the room. "Your Majesty?" she inquired.

"A tea service, if you please, Silvia."

The girl curtsied. "Right away, Majesty." She hurried from the room, off, no doubt, to the kitchens or somewhere to fetch tea for the queen and her guest.

Queen Annika leaned back in her chair. "Perhaps I am mistaken, but, when you dance, do you feel, somehow, different than you do otherwise?"

Elodie let out a tiny gasp, because the queen was correct. She did feel differently.

The queen smiled. "I can see that you do. And I think your teacher, M. Beaufort, has, as well, or you wouldn't be nearly as controlled as you are." Seeing Elodie's confusion, she said gently, "Let me start from the top, then. I suspected, when my Alex first came to me, a few months ago, and told me he was in love with a girl he'd never truly met, that you had some kind of power woven into your dancing. Later, when I saw you in The Toy Soldier, I knew.

"There are some people, though they are rare and often unaware, who wield something like magic through an everyday skill–like you, with ballet. My mother was one; she worked through cooking, and her food could make people feel a certain emotion."

The world swooped and dipped, and Elodie felt that she would have collapsed had she not been sitting already. "And you, you think I have this kind of ability?" she asked.

Queen Annika's response was cut off when the maidservant, Silvia, came back, bearing a tea tray with her. She served both women, then retired. Elodie sipped at her tea, grimaced, and added sugar and cream. Normally, she would have drunk it black, but she decided she needed the sugar to ground her.

The sweetness revived her, and she glanced desperately at the queen.

"Yes," the other woman said. "And I think M. Beaufort–he was you teacher, wasn't he?–knew and trained you to have some sort of control, otherwise everyone in the audience would have been equally mesmerized. I think something about how you first perceived Alex had something to do with your loss of control on him. What was it that you first thought about him?"