The Black Rose (9 page)

She
quickly turned to
the page
that was listed next to the sorcerer’s name.
The name was n
ear the end of the book and it was then she
understood why the names were orga
nized by date rather than name. I
t was because a new page was added each time
a new sorcerer or enchantress became known. Milly
wondered who wrote the book since it had to be magic holding the book together. Otherwise they would have to make a new book every time they wanted to update a page
or add a new page
.
 

Out of curiosity, s
he
quickly
flipped
to the
last page of the book
and discovered that the book was magically updated by enchantresses around the world, so when a new one was born, they were added. Milly
thought that was cool and then returned
to the page that had
Lord Endymion Melanthius
in gold print at the top.
Underneath, in smaller print, was written “
Lord Endymion Melanthius was a sorcerer that worked for King Wilhelm Frederic of Aridale since
Wilhelm ascended the throne after his father King Frederic William of Aridale
.” Milly
eagerly
began to read.

Lord Endymion Melanthius
wa
s taken in at the young age of fifteen
, but
despite his young age
his powers were strong. Lord Melanthius
’s power is earth and he
came as a
recommendation
from the enchantress, Lenora
.
Since
Lenora was a trusted enchantress
by many of the kingdoms,
King Wilhelm
took on the young sorcerer.

Though the young sorcerer’s powers were
strong
in the beginning
, they continued to grow as he worked for
King Wilhelm
.
Lord Melanthius
used his powers to help the kingdom, making it rain in time of droughts and mixing herbs to heal the weak
. He
also used his powers to care for Queen Henrietta
Anne
’s garden. Queen
Henrietta, who lacked children at the time,
was fond of the boy and treated him like he was her own son.

Lord Melanthius
was
in
f
amous for being able to
enter and exit
Fantasme Forest
without harm
. He often brought back exotic plants for the queen, including her favorite, the blue rose
,
and the
mysterious lumaira, a flower that glows at night.

When Lord Melanthius
reached the age of eighteen, he began to
practice dark magic, a form of magic that is forbidden in the kingdom of Aridale. There was only one book in King Wilhelm’s library that even mentioned dark magic: “Celewyn’s Dark Demise.”
The book held the history
of Celewyn and its practice of the dark magic. To prevent the same situation from happening again, King Wilhelm had the book burned.

Milly was very interested now. She didn’t know the king and queen used to have a sorcerer.
She remembered the stories of Celewyn though. Celewyn was a kingdom that had existed to the north of Aridale. The kingdom had been replaced by a
forest, which was now
known as Fantasme Forest.

Fantasme Forest
was
said to be a magical forest full of strange plants and creatures. Milly
remembered stories of how people would enter the forest, but never return. At first, she thought it was a just a scary story parents told their children. However one day she noticed a group of kids daring one another to enter the forest. One of the adults quickly came running and scolded the children. She never saw such fear in a mother’s eye.
It was then she realized it might not be a story and that there was a real fear of the forest.

Fantasme Forest is rumored to be a result of the Black Demise. The Black Demise is the name the people of Aridale had given to the day Celewyn disappeared. 
It is said that they had created some kind of weapon and had planned to use it to take over the other kingdoms and rule the land. However, the plan backfired and instead it destroyed them. None of the people survived. It was a very haunting story and sometimes Milly wondered if it was a story or
if
it was the truth.
Milly
sighed and continued reading.

L
ord Melanthius was discovered
using
dark magic by the
palace
maids
. They claim
ed
he had taken a rose from Queen Henrietta’s g
arden and turned it into a beautiful maiden
.
Practicing dark magic was a crime and the punishment was exile.

King Wilhelm
was worried though that the young sorcerer might try to attack. He
called u
pon
the great Enchantress, Yol
ande
, in order to help him banish Lord Melanthius.
Yolande was willing to destroy Lord Melanthius if need be, but she hoped it would not come to that.
The sorcerer
did not put up a fight and disappeared into Fantasme Forest
for he had nowhere else to go
.

Milly was
extremely excited and desperately wanted
to know more, but there was nothing else written
.
She
had to share this book with Wilhelmina. It was a part of the kingdom’s history that both of them did not know. Why wasn’t the kingdom worried
about Lord Melanthius?
If he lives in
Fantasme
Forest, isn’t that close to Aridale? Wouldn’t they worry he might use dark magic to destroy the kingdom? Why didn’t the king and queen ever get a new sorcerer?

Milly wanted to read more about
Lenora and
Yolande, but feared that she would be caught with the book.
She didn’t actually
have permission to be looking through
books in the king’s library. Also, it was obvious
the king and queen did not want her to know
about Lord Melanthius
or else they would have told her the story a long time ago. Queen Henrietta used to tell
Wilhelmina, Milly, and Edolie
bedtime
stories when they were little about the kingdom of Aridale. This one was
never told.
Milly didn’t think it was
accidental
.
S
he grabbed the book and hurried to Wilhelmina’s room.

Wilhelmina hoped Jerome would be alright
. S
he went to find her sister to let her know that Jerome wasn’t feeling well. Maybe Edolie’s presence would cheer him up and help him recover faster. However, Edolie’s reaction to the news made Wilhelmina worry about her decision.
Her younger sister
had panicked
at the news
and ran off to Jerome’s room.

“Nice work,” Delaney joked as the other girls giggled.

“I just thought she should know,” Wilhelmina said innocently before leaving to check on Edolie and Jerome. She didn’t really fit in with Edolie’s group. As much as she loved Milly, she couldn’t help but wish she had more friends. Especially since
lately
Milly only seemed to care about finding
the gentleman that Wilhelmina had danced with.
She
wondered why Milly cared so much and sighed. She already knew the answer. Milly was her best friend
,
so
of course she cared.
She
just had a habit of taking things to the
extreme. Wilhelmina giggled
.
Overall, Milly was a good friend and Wilhelmina was glad to have her.

Edolie had sprinted to Jerome’s room, which was a miracle since she was
wearing gold high heeled shoes and a
white
dress.
When she arrived, she discovered he
was still sleeping so
she
sa
t down on the edge of his bed. Edolie
put her hand on his forehead. He didn’t appear to have a fever. Jerome began t
o move and she quickly stood up;
she hadn’t meant to wake him.

“I’m sorry,” Edolie stuttered as Jerome sat up.

“Edolie,” Jerome
said startled and then smiled.

“I heard you were sick, I was worried,” Edolie mumbled feeling embarrassed, “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“It’s alright, I feel much better now,” Jerome said resting his hand on Edolie’s cheek, “now that you’re here.” Edolie looked cute when she blushed and Jerome couldn’t resist kissing her. Her lips were soft and sweet. He wrapped his other arm around her waist
as
she rested her hands on his shoulders.

Jerome was glad Edolie had come to check on him.
She was
the only thing that could save him from his feelings toward Wilhelmina. Every time he kissed
her
, he fell more in love with her. Jerome knew that he had to avoid Wilhelmina at all costs and keep his feelings for Edolie strong if he wanted to avoid the powers of the curse.

Walking back to her room,
Wilhelmina noticed Jerome’s door was open and looked in to see how things were going, only to quickly walk away. Her face turned bright red from seeing such a scene and her mind quickly rewound to when she kissed
her mystery man at the
Masquerade Ball
.
She
blushed
and
hurried back to her room. She secretly hoped
Milly had given up searching for her mysterious man.
A good distraction was what she needed.

Chapter 7

When Wilhelmina arrived to her room,
she found a very excited Milly. Her
words
ran together
and Wilhelmina had no idea what she was talking about.
Milly
was walking
around Wilhelmina’s room
, sitting down on her bed, standing up, opening her dresser drawers, looking at her clothes, and even walking in and out of Wilhelmina’s bathroom. Milly must have found somet
hing
interesting
to cause this
much excitement. The last time she went this crazy was when
she
found out Wilhelmina wasn’t
to
be the next queen.
That, however, was angry crazy, this was
definitely
excitement.
             

“Milly!” Wilhelmina shouted to
quiet her friend
.
If she wanted to know what was going on, she’d need Milly to calm down.
Silence fell upon the room and Milly turned to face Wilhelmina. Wilhelmina sighed, “Slow down, now who is this Lord Melanthius?”

“Sorry,” Milly
said realizing she had been rambling. She
then
sat down on Wilhelmina’s bed
, which was where she had
placed th
e book she found in the library.
Milly
picked up the book,
“I found this book in the library.” She held up the book so Wilhelmina could see.

“
Enchantresses and Sorcerers
” Wilhelmina read the big gol
d le
tters on the front of the thick black
book. She then sat down next to
her freckle faced friend
.

“Yes and well
…” Milly
said trying to figure out how to explain it, “Oh well you have to read it!” She
opened the book to the page titled
Lord Endymion Melanthius
and then placed it in
Wilhelmina’s lap.
She had the page memorized since she quite intrigued by it.

“You’re not going to leave until I do are you?”

“I want to talk about it once
you’re
don
e, it’s not that long
,” Milly said pointing at the page. Wilhelmina
sighed and began reading. Though s
he didn’t appreciate Milly looking over her shoulder and breathing down her back, she couldn’t help but be interested in
knowing who Lord Melanthius was since he
had caused Milly to dance around the room like a crazy person
.

Like Milly, Wilhelmina became absorbed in the story. She
also hadn’t
know
n that
her parents
had
once
had a sorcerer. After reading the short
excerpt
in the book
, she wanted to
know more about Lord Melanthius, but
there that was the only information the book had
.
It was just a reference book after all.