Page 25 of Lily of the Valley

The world blurred again, shifted, and this time the two men were standing at the window, older now, holding each other in a way that spoke of years together, gold rings gleaming in the fading sunlight that was bathing them.

Whatever they were talking about, it was intense. Tears trailed down the pale man's face, to be delicately wiped away by the taller, broader red-haired man. There was a finality to them, as though some grave decision had been made, a decision there'd be no coming back from.

Briar and Reynard. That's who this was. Everyone knew the old story of how they'd died to save the kingdom from an evil witch. That was how the castle had been lost, only found again by Briar's descendent, the great great grandchild of his sister, Queen Priscilla.

Legend had it that once this forest had been all but dead, the Dark Forest instead of the Laughing Forest it was again now. That Briar and Reynard had died to save it, to seal away the evil witch who had been determined to destroy everyone and everything.

This must be the night they died, the last hours of sunlight they ever enjoyed, a final sunset to echo their own looming end.

Lily wiped away tears. Briar had not been king, but he had been a prince, and his sister Queen Priscilla had been a fierce leader in her own right. She'd never shied away from a fight, never hidden away in the woods while everyone else did the work. Briar had given his own life to protect her, his kingdom, and protected it even now as a spirit of the woods.

She couldn't even get into an argument without running away. "Why are you showing me this?"

The world blurred again, giving her a faint headache, and then she was standing in the ruins once more—but as she looked around the room, she saw that something had changed. On the wall, above what might have once been a dresser or table, brilliant red roses had bloomed in a perfect rectangle, as though the frame of a mirror.

Approaching it, Lily ran her fingers delicately over the roses and then the space they framed—and felt something give. Pulling away the moss and other detritus revealed a hollow in the old stone. There'd been a secret cache here once. She shooed away the insects she'd disturbed, cleared away cobwebs and one petulant spider, and saw a box, the kind meant to hold a ring or earrings, some other small bit of jewelry.

Despite the age and ruin of the castle, the box could have been brand new.

Blowing the dust and debris off, she opened the box, its delicate hinges creaking ever so faintly.

A ring. Gold, a wide, heavy band, set with bejeweled flowers she would know anywhere: lily of the valley. She swallowed. Her mother had picked that name because of the valley they lived in and because it was her father's favorite flower. But she'd also chosen it because Lily of the Valley was a beautiful flower, and symbolized purity, protection. They were regarded as a symbol of hope and new beginnings, and could ward against evil. They were an important part of medicine…and could also be a deadly poison, more than capable of protecting itself.

Now here was a ring with her namesake, in an ancient castle largely forgotten, in a secret cache nobody would have ever found on their own. What was it's significance? She set the box down to turn the ring over and over, examining every minute detail. The flowers themselves seemed to be made from mother-of-pearl, the stem from silver, leaves from tiny emeralds.

There were words inscribed on the inside of the band. For Love.

The scent of roses filled the room again, a breeze compelling her to turn—to see the ghostly spirits of Reynard and Briar. "It's you. Really you."

"Your usurper has power he should not. Take it from him, as we once did, before he becomes the evil we died to cage."

"I will," Lily said softly.

Briar stepped forward and, despite his wispy state, gently plucked the ring from her grasp and slid it onto the middle finger of her right hand. Right where her ring of state would normally rest.

She looked at Brier, his eyes the blue of a sky edging into night, sunlight still clinging to the edges. "Why a lily of the valley? I thought roses were your thing."

"They were roses in my day. The magic does as the magic pleases. Stand strong, Your Majesty. The Laughing Forest will stand for and with you, as long as you stand for and with the forest."

"I understand. Thank you for everything."

Briar smiled, and soft, fond laughter filled the room before the two figures were gone.

Lily took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then set her shoulders and headed back to camp. If they thought she had given up returning home with them, they were about to be disabused of that notion.

When she returned to camp, the others were gathered, standing and sitting, as though waiting for her arrival. "Your Majesty…" Scout said, taking a step forward.

"I'm coming," Lily said, and presented her right hand, the ring on it glimmering. "I declare it, the forest wills it. I am Queen, and I say I go."

"You're so fucking stubborn," Scout said with a sigh, running her rough fingers over the knuckles of Lily's hand before squeezing gently and letting go. "As you wish, then. Far be it for me to argue with a queen and her ghosts."

"Just do as we say, all right?" Josiah asked. "I swear no matter the years that pass, the stubbornness remains strong in your line."

Lily's brows vanished into her hair. "You knew my ancestors? Which ones?"

"Several of them, many of whom should have been queen but were never permitted due to laws that your father was smart enough, and good enough, to throw out. They would have been proud of you, Your Majesty. Let me see that ring you're now wearing. Tell me how you got it."

Amused by the ordering around, Lily obeyed. Josiah gently took her hand as the others crowded around to see as well, running his thumb over the pearl-carved Lily of the Valley. "I wasn't around for the fall of the kingdom, I was on a different continent entirely, but it was a story that spread far and wide. The beautiful prince and his thief lover, returning home to save Queen Priscilla and their home, home to the woods that loved the wily thief known as the Fox and the kind-hearted Briar, woods that bound themselves to the two of them in exchange for their lives, and bound an evil witch until their descendants vanquished her for good.

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