Part Eighteen

Blue stared at the man Devon.  She looked at him for a long time, analyzing his face - his eyes, his mouth, the curve of his cheekbones and jawline.  By reflex she wanted to say no, to not believe these people - the woman from the hidden lab, the man from the balcony with no exit.

"B?" said Georgeanne.  Blue turned to look at her sister and felt a smile behind her lips, but then saw the woman beside her and the smile was stuck in limbo.  "B?" she said again.  Instead of answering, she rose up and walked away from the three of them.  Standing at the opposite side of the gazebo, she looked out at the garden and all of its blooms.  Her mind was racing, and she didn't know how to answer her sister.

"Are you all right?" asked Devon from somewhere behind her.

Defensively she snapped, "No.  I'm not all right."  She turned to face him where he stood at the gazebo's center.  "How can you ask me that?  After everything that's happened?  That we've heard?"  They stared at each other for a moment before she added, a little more calmly, "No, uncle," she said with a little sarcasm to it, "I am not all right."

Georgeanne rose from her seat and walked to her sister, trying to block her view of Devon.  "I know it's a lot to take in," she said, Blue's eyes falling to her sister's.  "I admit, I'm having a little difficulty myself understanding everything, but-."  She paused, searching for the words, but there really were none that fit.  Instead, she smiled that sweet smile Blue had grown up with and said, "Don't you feel it, B?  Just sift through all the crazy and strange, the anger and confusion, and there's something there underneath all of it that just seems to feel right."

She closed her eyes and let her sister's words settle in her mind.  With each breath, the anger dissipated, and that feeling rose up.  Georgeanne was right.  Blue wanted to trust in that feeling.  She just wanted to understand it.  She wanted to understand it all.  "It's just so much," she said looking into her sister's eyes.  Georgeanne reached out and smoothed her cheek with her thumb.  It was then that Blue realized she was crying.

"I know," she said, a few tears falling from her own eyes.  Blue wiped her sister's tears away.  With a sniffle, she added, "Having been lied to all this time.  We have a right to be angry."

"It's not just that," said Blue.  She stepped beside her sister and looked at their two companions.  "There's this new world we've been a part of but know nothing about."

"We'll teach you, dear," said Aggie.  "Both of you."

"Teach us what?" asked Georgeanne.  "I mean, everything that's happened lately... like..."

"Rooms that aren't really there," said Blue.

"Dreams that aren't really dreams," added Georgeanne.

"People that don't seem to have aged a day," Blue pointed out, eying Aggie and Devon.

The older woman quietly chortled.

"The book!" said Georgeanne.  "The book that has my writing in it."

"Okay," said Devon, his hands out, palms down, in a surrendering gesture.  "We realize it's all a bit much and that you have questions."  He held a finger up at Blue who was just about to say something sarcastic but remained silent.  "Obviously this is going to take some time."

"Something we don't have a lot of," said Aggie.  Devon and the girls looked at the woman worriedly.

"What's wrong?"

Aggie looked about her as if following a lightning bug only she could see.  Her wandering eyes stopped chasing whatever they were after, as if they had caught the invisible prey.  "She knows," said the woman, her tone serious.

"Who?" asked Georgeanne.

The woman's eyes fell on the girls, and neither liked what they saw in them.  Even more so when Aggie replied, "The Queen."

Part Seventeen

The Queen was making her rounds, making sure preparations for the upcoming party were under way. So far everything was progressing nicely - some items on her checklist on schedule, some ahead of – which pleased her (and all was well in the land when Her Majesty was in good spirits).

On her way to the kitchen, her small entourage of assistants in tow following closely behind her, she was met in the hallway by one of her ladies-in-waiting. As they neared one another, the Queen noticed the woman's countenance and demeanor.

I did not please her.

Reaching the entrance to the kitchens, the two ladies stood facing each other, eyes locked on the others'. The small group huddled behind the Queen patiently waited for orders and were rewarded a second later when they watched her casually extend her arms towards the door and flick her hand apathetically at it. Familiar with this gesture of privacy, they bowed to her and disappeared behind the door and into the kitchens.

“Naesa,” the Queen said calmly. “What causes you to look so troubled, my dear?”

The woman held her hands together as her Queen did though her white-knuckled twisted grip did little to lift the Queen's spirits. Finally, her voice coming in a somber yet tense tone, she said, “I cannot find her, Milady.”

Remaining calm, the Queen offered the idea of, “Perhaps she is at her lessons.”

“Her lessons ended hours ago,” replied the woman nervously.

Feeling a vein in her left temple twitch, she asked, “Have you checked her room?”

“Yes, Milady.”

“Well then. Perhaps she's running amok with her sister,” she suggested, the last word coming through a tightly clenched jaw. The woman's silence did not go unnoticed. “Nasea?”

The woman let her gaze fall (a sign of weakness the Queen hated though relished in when she bore witness to it from her cowering, cowardly subjects). In almost a whisper, the woman said, “I cannot find either of the princesses, Milady.” Immediately Nasea raised her head and began defensively babbling. “I have searched everywhere! Inside. Outside. Top to bottom. I've asked everyone. I've double and triple checked. No one knows where they are. It's like they just disappeared.”

The Queen eyed the woman who was too exasperated to notice.  Turning her face to one of sweetness, she placed a hand on the woman's shoulder which caught her attention.  Frantic eyes looked into the Queen's.  "Everything is fine," she told Nasea and the woman slowly began to calm.  "The princesses are just playing.  There's no need to worry."  The tension drained out of Nasea's body, and she smiled up at the Queen.  "Now I must return to my preparations."

"Do you need any help, Milady?" asked the woman, eager to please.

"No, dear.  I'm fine.  But thank you.  If I need any extra assistance, I shall let you know."  The woman curtsied and with a smile disappeared around the corner.

Alone in the hall, the smile falling from her face, her thoughts turned toward the missing children.  Before she could think too long on it, a crash erupted nearby.  "Can't leave them alone for a second, can I?" she muttered to herself.  She plastered her queenly smile on her face before proceeding into the kitchens.