Chapter 50
“Tattypoo! You can’t imagine how concerned I was.
I have been trying endlessly to reach you.
I thought that someone had ripped all my roses from your grounds,” Rosemarie said to Tattypoo, who had just arrived at Thorncrest, as she pushed through the waves of dizziness that still plagued her, though they had become less frequent.
Nan, wearing an unfamiliar kerchief wrapped tightly around her neck, had sweetly come to tend to her, though Rosemarie was surprised Languidere had allowed it.
Nan filled another cup from the pitcher that held the water from the fountain of the goddess.
“I’m so sorry,” Tattypoo said. “You can understand now why I was nearly impossible to reach. I must tell my staff to be more direct about urgent messages. I don’t know why they didn’t try to tell me.”
Rosemarie exhaled in relief that her dear friend had not in fact been compromised, but the relief was brief. Where even to begin? “Tatty, what can I do?”
“You must first rest. You are no good to anyone if you are this weak.” Tattypoo helped to fix the pillow behind Rosemarie so that she could take a sip. “Do you know of your child?” Tattypoo asked, without looking into Rosemarie’s eyes.
“The cramping and bleeding have stopped. I believe… I hope it is alright. I won’t be sure until I feel…” Rosemarie stopped. How long now had it been since she’d last felt the child roll within her? A hiccup? Anything.
“Time will tell,” Tattypoo said, picking up another pillow from the chaise.
“Here is what you must do. You must turn Evoldo in to the authorities. The Emerald City needs to know of this.” Rosemarie immediately glanced to her new maid, Nan, who seemed a bit surprised, her eyes widening, though she quickly nodded dutifully at Rosemarie.
A gesture to affirm her trust, without doubt.
“If I do so, what would stop him from revealing that I am a witch?”
“He is convening with Roquat, and Mombi, for all that is sacred! That’s the true crime! How my sister was freed from her cage is beyond me. But if she lurks about here, no one is safe.”
“I am more concerned for you, Tatty, that she will seek vengeance for her punishment,” Rosemarie said.
“My sister has been seeking vengeance her entire life. She is a wicked chaos harpy. Besides, I didn’t sever her gift. That was the Emerald City who dealt the punishment. I simply exposed the loon. Now,” Tattypoo turned with a glare, “your husband.”
“My hands are not clean,” Rosemarie whispered. “I have hidden my gifts to keep the throne. I have betrayed the people of Ev.”
“A stupid rule! No offense to Ev, but it doesn’t make a lick of sense. Your family has always had the gift. Besides, it’s part of the job, as queen, to hide things.”
Rosemarie shook her head. “But, Tatty, the truth is, where my gift comes from. It is my blood that is not clean.”
“Nonsense, dear! Anyone will understand that you come from a long line of sparked women. Perhaps it’s time you retired that archaic law here in Ev,” Tattypoo said, glancing to Rosemarie’s new mentee, Nan, who was now connected to Alice and Rosemarie by her dream of future sight.
“Tattypoo, please listen. You are not hearing me.” Rosemarie squinted away stars that were returning in her eyes. “It is where my spark comes from that would be the end of my rule, regardless of the law. The spark in me is of Roquat.”
Tattypoo’s back tensed, her head tilting slowly. “What is that you are saying?” Tattypoo seemed suspicious, nearly fearful.
“Below the grounds of Roseland, sealed behind the crypts are a series of tunnels hidden below the mountain. They lead directly from Roseland to Roquat’s crystal palace.”
“Dear Goddess…” Tattypoo’s eyes bulged, “Why!” She went to speak, but Rosemarie, who needed to be swift or she would not say it, stopped her.
“My mother was given her gift. An unmatched power to grow the roses with enough strength to send the roots through rock and mineral to the goddess source of water. A power that extraordinary would have been diluted over generations. But it was given newly to her…”
“Why would Roquat gift that to Nasrin?” Tattypoo whispered, with another glance to Nan.
“Because she was carrying his child, willingly, without my father knowing.”
Tattypoo’s eyes flooded with tears as she tried to maintain a look of composure.
“He loved her, and she him… for a time. Roquat had the gnomes build these passages so they could see one another. He wished for them to marry, to rule together. He showered her with gifts. Then, when she refused to leave her seat, to leave the king, he began to sever the land from the access to water.”
“The plague?” Tattypoo could hardly speak.
“Ev suffered Death because my mother refused Roquat.” Rosemarie leaned back into the down pillows as dizziness struck.
“My mother did not die as my father did. She fled by choice. She escaped. She confessed to me, and told me that she would be safe, in another realm.” Relief came with her breathing and confession.
Rosemarie waited a moment, but Tattypoo did not admit what Rosemarie knew of Tattypoo.
Rosemarie decided to press her. “But, I suppose, you may know some of this, for I have long believed you are the witch that helped her flee.”
Tattypoo shifted nervously.
“Tatty, I am not upset that you never told me, I know why you would not.”
“Nasrin was a dear friend; I did not know the extent of the things you’ve now just told me.
I promise you that. But she did what was right.
I maintain that. I helped her set up a life elsewhere.
I did not see her after that. Nor did I hear from her…
” Tattypoo was either collecting herself or justifying her actions. “She was no longer safe in Oz!”
“Am I? I am the daughter of chaos. I am Roquat’s daughter.”
“Hogwash!” Tattypoo shouted. “I don’t give a damn where your gift came from!
You’ve never used it for anything but goodness.
You have nothing to do with him! And you’re more of a queen than any forsaken ruler we’ve got in Oz or its territories.
You care for your people. Now, what will we do with your husband and his family?
They could blackmail you out of the seat by exposing your power, so we must be smart about all this! ”
“If I give Evoldo to the Emerald City, he will expose that I am kin to Oz’s greatest enemy.”
“He knows all this?” Tattypoo’s shock sent flushing shame across Rosemarie’s body.
“We were in love once. I did not know to hide parts of myself. How foolish of me.”
“What interest would Roquat have in Evoldo, then?” Tattypoo said, though it was surely obvious.
“He’s a pawn that he keeps close, I assume, to have connection to me or keep watch of me.
He would want nothing more than for me to turn to chaos, which I’m sure is his plan,” Rosemarie said, then tried to shake the nauseated feeling that came from saying that out loud.
“The king is an imbecile!” Rosemarie sat up as her throat went dry, and Tattypoo reached for her water to help her take another sip.
“Thank you, but this isn’t what must be dealt with now.
Roquat has never come for me or even to me, but he does seek Alice!
She is in terrible danger. Please, Nan, tell Tattypoo of your dream. ”
Nan held her hand somewhat nervously at the kerchief she had tightly wrapped at her neck.
“Go on, Nan,” Rosemarie said.
“Alice was his bride. Upon a throne,” Nan said softly.
“Then he knows exactly what she is,” Tattypoo said out loud, though certainly she didn’t mean to.
“And what is that?” Rosemarie asked, knowing Tattypoo would try to remain tight-lipped. “Please, share with me. I have shown my soul to you. Allow me to hold your burden as you do mine.”
Tattypoo breathed deeply, still evading the request. “I was afraid of this. This is why I tried to…”
“She is bound,” Rosemarie finally said. “Something enormous is bound in her.” Rosemarie searched Tattypoo’s eyes, which remained cast on Rosemarie’s hands as she gripped them, then spoke in a hush. “Tell me what it is.”
“She is. But even with a bind, Roquat must know that in her are gifts more powerful than any of us could dream. More powerful potentially than his own. She is a chosen daughter.”
Nan moved closer to pour another glass of water for Rosemarie, though Rosemarie hadn’t finished the previous one. Rosemarie put her hand up to indicate that the water wasn’t needed, then gestured for Nan to come closer so that she could understand how her dream of Alice connected to all of this.
“Her gifts are powerful enough to protect her and all of Oz,” Rosemarie recited in a near-whisper what had become legend if not folklore, then turned to Nan to explain.
“The Great Goddess Lurline is said to have selected some and bestowed upon them unprecedented powers, to ensure that the magic in the land is revitalized. These scarce few, to whom she herself will appear in her human form, are chosen to lead Oz into its next age. These few are sometimes called the saviors of Oz—and of its magic.”
“If Roquat were to wed her, he could turn her to chaos?” Nan asked.
Rosemarie nodded, but it was far more than that. “He could leave the Under. With her gifts, he could undo the curse that keeps him from the sunlight. There is no end to what it could mean if she submitted to him or was forced to do so.”
“And Alice has no idea!” Tattypoo cried out. “No idea even what any of it means. No idea that she can or should manifest magic!”
“How is that possible?”
“Because of me!” Tattypoo began to well up.
“I knew she was chosen. I knew! I wanted to protect her, but I’ve lied and kept her caged.
I have done unspeakable things to keep her from here.
I intended for her to never come back!” Tattypoo’s tears streamed as shame twisted her face.
Never had Rosemarie seen her this way. She opened her arms and let Tattypoo lay against her.
“You are the one who has bound her?” Rosemarie knew, and Tattypoo let out a whimper at the shame of such an act, for to bind a witch was by custom and law only enacted as a punishment.
“Your gifts astound me, Tatty. From what I could sense in her, the light in her radiates like the sun is trapped inside a thimble.”
“She certainly can be a bit hot-tempered,” Tattypoo said, wiping her eyes.
“Now is when she needs your protection, my dear friend. What’s done is done.”
“How?” Tattypoo whimpered as her tears fell without pause. Rosemarie drew her closer, allowing Tattypoo to rest in the crux of her arm, with her hand on Rosemarie’s stomach. Suddenly, Tattypoo sat up.
“What is it?” Rosemarie asked as the shock on Tattypoo’s face caused her gut to churn.
Tattypoo firmly placed her hand against Rosemarie’s stomach, and, sure enough, her child pushed itself away from the pressure.
Rosemarie felt the flutter of its foot somewhere near her ribcage, and the joy and relief of it caught abruptly in her throat.
“There you are, dear one,” Rosemarie said, pressing her hand against Tattypoo’s.
“All that can be done,” Tattypoo said, “is to protect our children and protect those with the gift.” Tattypoo’s head lowered.
Rosemarie put her hand to Tattypoo’s tear-streaked face, raising her to meet her eyes. “Free her of the bind, and teach Alice how to protect herself,” she said.