The Curse of Windsor Castle

Chapter Twenty-one

After the exhausting train ride, all Rose and Amy wanted was sleep and to never wake up. Rose slowly trudged to the nearest inn. "Um, une chambre pour deux, please. I mean, s'il vous plaît." She would have been surprised if the words came to her in English, much less French.

"Do you have an adult with you?" The manager asked in perfect English.

"Oui, she is coming," Amy said after a quick glance outside. The three of them could see a stylish blonde lady haggling with a cab driver for a price. "She does this a lot?"

The manager raised an eyebrow. "Does she not know that the cabs here have fixed rates?"

"Of course she does," Amy said with a haughty laugh. "College students. They're so poor, they bargain for everything." Amy and Rose dashed to the steps before the manager could ask anymore questions.

"Amy Hawthorne, master liar," Rose whispered to her friend once they were out of earshot.

"It's what I do best, Rosie."

"Please don't say that again," Rose shuddered. "It's scary."

"Fine."

Once Rose fell asleep, she found herself in an unfamiliar place. A dream. Unlike the previous dreams, Rose wasn't in Windsor Castle. The strange thing was, Rose hadn't had a dream in quite some time. She was still in a throne room, but it was much larger and grander than the one in Windsor. Rose was standing next to a man with black hair and blue eyes. Both were extremely familiar to her. Even though Rose had never met the man, she somehow knew exactly who he was. "Dad."

"Rosemary." The man smiled and his eyes crinkled at the corners. Just like Mum, she thought.

"Dad, what am I doing here? Where are Amy and Tara?"

Her father sat down in the throne where she had sat in a previous dream. "Sit." He directed her to a smaller, but no less grander, throne."

"Aren't we breaking some sort of law by doing this, Father?" Rose asked.

"If I weren't the king, and you the crown princess, then yes, we would be."

Rose suddenly felt extremely dizzy. "What? I'm the-"

"-the crown princess," her father answered for her. "The next in line to the throne of Maagiline."

"Me?" Rose was astonished. "But why not Tara? Isn't the older sibling the one in line?"

"Yes, but Tara is not my daughter," her father said. "She was six when I met your mother. Seven when we had you. I would have been proud to call her my daughter, though. She is just as brilliant as her mother and sister. That I'm sure, is your mother's genes."

"Then whose-"

"I don't know," Her father said.

Rose suddenly felt a burst of anger. "You left me. You left Mum and Tara to care for me. How am I supposed to trust you?"

Rose's father sighed. "I admit, I left you, but it was never intention to. Once I met Melinda, I decided that I would stay in your world, never to step foot in Maagiline again. I told my mother, Viola, that I would raise you, and once you were old enough, I would take you to Maagiline and train you to become the next queen of Maagiline. Unfortunately, fate had other ideas. Viola died quite early, from the same sickness that took her mother. It was just after you were born, and since you weren't old enough, I was called to rule."

"Wow," Rose whistled. "So my mum is an engineer and my dad is the king of some unknown land. Wait until my classmates hear this- wait," she stopped. "How are you going to take me to Maagiline?"

"I've been thinking about that," her father said. "To come to your world, or what we call Adivin, one must sit on one of the seven chairs. If you sit on the chairs when you're in Adivin you will be transported to the country where the chair was enchanted to go to. To come to my world, Kalaad, all seven chairs must be assembled, and a drop of a Whisperer's blood and a drop of a Clearsight's blood must land on one of the chairs. I assume that's why Nuntius Mortis is collecting the chairs; he is trapped in Adunka and wants to come home. If you want to come to Kalaad, you will have to touch the chairs before he does."

"I don't think I'll be able to remember that," Rose admitted. "But Father, if Viola really died from the same illness her mother did, then is it genetic? Does that mean you will die too?"

"Everyone must die at some point," her father said. "I will just die much earlier than most."

"Father, what if you are dead by the time I come to Maagiline? What will happen then?" Rose could feel her heart rate increasing. She was going to wake up soon.

"You must hurry." Her father smiled. "But I'm afraid our time together grows short. Goodbye, Rose."

"Wait." Rose stopped him. "What's your name.

"My name," her father said, "is Harper."

The next day, the girls rushed out of the inn before the manager could ask too many questions.

"So, where in Nantes?" Rose asked.

"Just like before, I have no idea," Amy said. "Stop bothering me."

"Wonderful."

"But when in doubt, look for the chair in the largest town square. It's true because it rhymes."

Rose sighed. "I'll take your word for it."

"Well, do you see it?" Rose asked when they arrived in the central square.

Amy shook her head. "It's somewhere close. I can feel it."

"More helpful information."

"There are more apartments, Rose, if you want to break into them and check, be my guest," Amy grit her teeth.

"Please stop talking."

"Do you think there's a bookstore, somewhere?" Amy asked.

"I'm not Siri, don't ask me."

"Stop with the snarky remarks, Rose," Amy huffed. "You're using up some of my best material."

"If that's your best material, I don't want to hear your worst." Rose t.

"Shut up."