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  Morgana stared them down. A small smile played on her lips, like the look a cat gets in their eyes once they’d caught a mouse.

  “W-we saved you!” Hanna gasped, eyes wide. She couldn’t quite comprehend it.

  “You killed my wolf, actually. A wolf that was meant to eliminate you.” The Queen said flatly, eyes raised. She was unimpressed, oddly enough. Hanna supposed she wouldn’t be particularly impressed if someone had slain her cursed lover. Dori held the satchel containing the Bracers tighter.

  With a wave of her delicate hand, fingers lined with many silver rings, the Queen whispered a spell that caused the roses in their trestles to darken, twist and grow into long, snake-like black vines within mere moments. They rushed from the soil and shot into the walls opposite to them. They crawled down the hall, and wrapped their dark tendrils around Hanna and Dori, holding them in place. Dori’s halberd rattled as she dropped it to the floor, a vine tightening around her wrist, the black petals from the roses that was once beautiful floated peacefully down on her and Hanna. There was a dark beauty to them. And, they were painful. With clenched teeth, Hanna gripped her sword, and yelled, “Blinding Light!”

  The thorns around them burnt away, freeing them for a few precious moments. A door to their left, leading to more corridors of cells would be their escape. The Queen shrieked as they darted out the door, and the sound of her smashing her own dark thorns echoed behind them as they sprinted through corridor after corridor.

  “Hanna, where are we going?” Dori cried, trying her hardest to hold onto both her halberd and satchel as they ran as hard as they could.

  “I can feel it! The Lavender Bracer, I think it’s calling to me!” Hanna responded, pointing her sword forward. In this stone maze of violet, odd smells and darkness, with a Queen hunting them down, Dori had no other choice than to trust the Rose Faelancer entirely.

  And so they ran, and ran, and ran.

  And as their legs tired and their wills began to fade, knowing sunrise would soon be upon them, they found it. A lone prison cell, with two sconces with flames flickering purple fire, either side of the heavy oak and metal door, which welcomed them inside. Dori slammed the door shut, and cast Wall Of Thorns. The Queen had never been far behind. She would be upon them any moment. Even now, dark beasts with howls that sent shivers down Dori’s spine were growing closer.

  “Uh…who might you be?” A warbly, young man’s voice said. Hanna and Dori spun around from the door covered in thorns, and found a young man. Even stranger, the prison cell seemed to have been transformed into a study. The silver haired boy sat at a desk littered with vials, plants and countless piles of books filled the cell, with books and notes even spilled over the tiny cot the boy must call his bed.

  And below a spyglass mounted on a silver stand, there was the Lavender Bracer.

  A dark hound had begun scratching on the door, barking and growling so fiercely the boy jumped to his feet from his desk.

  “We, are the Rose and Iris Faelancers. True owners of the stolen Bracer you hold.” Hanna said, her voice more serious and stern than Dori had ever heard it. She almost sounded like Dori. With little effort, Hanna snatched the Bracer from the boy’s trembling hands, and passed it to Dori.

  The two shared a moment. A single, hope-filled moment where tears threatened to shine in Dori’s eyes. The moment was quickly interrupted as the door began to shake.

  The Queen had arrived.

  There was no time to enjoy this moment. “Hanna, what’s the plan here? We won’t be able to make it back in time before the sun rises and the lantern won’t work. We’ll trapped down here with a very angry Queen and her army…and – and we’ll abandon our kingdoms…there will be no-one…Oh…by Harpsicord what are we going to do?” Dori panted, panic over taking her. Hanna, remained centred. Whenever fear or panic held Dori, Hanna’s sense of calm and control kicked in. The scratching on the door grew fiercer, and soon the thorns would begin to give way.

  “Dori,” Hanna said softly, taking her head into her hands. With hands soft and trembling lips, Hanna kissed Dori. She’d been about to speak, but those words melted away. A single moment became a million, and eternity stretched between them with this single kiss. A single kiss that reminded Dori of the abandoned cottage she’d secretly always hoped to go back to, to go back and drink their tea, eat their honey cakes and lie about in their fields of rolling grassy knolls and daisies.

  A bark from the beast outside the door snapped them back to reality.

  There were tears in Hanna’s eyes.

  “Han?” Dori said quietly, biting her lip, desperate to the hold onto the dream that lingered there.

  Hanna pulled two necklaces from the sleeve of her dress, holding them up to reveal two crescent moons. One gold, one silver. The door hinges were beginning to buckle. The Witch’s magic shrieked, and the boy with silver hair had curled up in his cot in a ball.

  “It’s for you, Dori. I bought them at the markets in Lunar Crestus. So we can always look to the same sky and remember each other.” The tears had begun to fall down Hanna’s cheeks. She put the golden moon around Dori’s neck, and pressed both rune crystal and Bracer into Dori’s arms. She placed the silver moon around her own.

  “Han…” Dori tried again. This time the words were trapped in her throat. She wasn’t even really sure what she wanted to say. Hanna brushed her cheek, and whispered a spell. The rune crystal began to glow, vibrating as a portal opened in the wall behind them. A wind, smelling of rain and dirt rippled from the portal as it crackled. Dori’s hair billowed about, black strands flying.

  The door broke, wood splintering and metal bending as they tore through the thorns.

  Hanna smiled that sweet smile of hers, tears glittering, and pushed Dori through the portal.

  And as the Lunar princess fell through into another realm, as the dark creatures descended into the room, all Dori could think, was that she had something important to tell her Rose Princess.

  Chapter Fourteen: The Dark Rose

  The portal closed with an uncaring zap. And just like that, Hanna was alone. In those few moments before the wall of thorns and the door had broken, she’d realised that only one of them was getting out of this. Only one could go through a portal at a time, with only one rune crystal.

  There’d only ever been one choice for Hanna. Even now, as the dark creatures circled her, and two knights gruffly shoved her to her knees, she didn’t regret it for a moment. Dori was safe. That’s all that mattered.

  Morgana, witch, queen, and lover of the cursed wolf, bent over and grabbed Hanna’s chin.

  “Oh, sweet princess child. You may have stolen my Bracer, but you have given me something much more valuable.” She hissed, a wide smile curling onto her pale lips.

  Hanna felt the shadows close in around her as the Queen’s words burrowed into her heart.

  “You have brought me my very own Black Rose.”

  Chapter Fifteen: An Iris, all alone in the World

  Earth was a big, scary place. Like out of a fairy tale. It had taken a few months to even understand some of it, but she was getting the hang of being a teenage girl, if only a little bit. Her satchel sat beside her, like always, but no halberd. Inside, the Bracers rattled lightly. There were dangers even in this world, and her identity as the Lunar princess was long behind her. But her duty as the Iris Faelancer had only begun. These Bracers needed to be delivered to those who could wield them, those who were deemed worthy. And her journey was nowhere near over.

  Dori sat with her head against the rattling glass panes of the bus, and looked to the crumpled notepad in her lap. There was a poem scrawled onto the page she’d written at the last stop. An old gas station, by the beach.

  In the waves, now long gone

  I still listen, for your call

  A melody in the waves, or a voice in the lake

  For the most part, I hear nothing

  But in the evening, when the sun curls at my back, the sand rolling beneath me
<
br />   I can still hear you, faintly

  Only once the sun is down

  And the moon is smiling down on me

  Do I hear you, and remember my Rose Princess

  The end, for now

  Thank you so much for reading The Rose Princess and the Queen of the Dark Salt Sea, the first short story in the Dawn of the Faelancers series. The first full-length novel Lavender and the Bubblegum Witch will be out later this year, where you can find out Dori and Hanna’s fate.

  Other short stories are also slated, and will be made free and available pre-release to those signed up for the Tea and Bookles newsletter, which will give you updates on the Dawn of the Faelancers and free books from other self-published authors.

  About the author

  Isabelle Quilty is a young up-and-coming author, with The Rose Princess and the Queen of the Dark Salt Sea her third self-published title. An Indian-Fijian born and raised in Australia, she is a fan of baking, flowers, and poetry. Be sure to check out her titles below, and keep up to date by giving her a follow on her author page on Amazon.

  Follow her on the official Facebook page here.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One: Tides twisted with Moonlight

  Chapter Two: The Dark Salt Sea

  Chapter Three: A Light in the Darkness

  Chapter Four: The Midnight Beast

  Chapter Five: The Witch and Her Wolf

  Chapter Six: To love a wolf

  Chapter Seven: Lunar Crestus

  Chapter Eight: The Princess of the Sea

  Chapter Nine: The Knight of Old

  Chapter Ten: Honey, dark and sweet

  Chapter Eleven: When the Moon is Fullest

  Chapter Twelve: The Queen of the Dark Salt Sea

  Chapter Thirteen: The Lavender Bracer

  Chapter Fourteen: The Dark Rose

  Chapter Fifteen: An Iris, all alone in the World

  About the author