Excerpt: Sleeping Beauty

[Note: I is Rebel. The first two chapters already exist, and the following excerpt is from them. They will not be counted in the word total.]

They all turned to look at the arrival: all the Folk had by now determined what was going on, and they fell silent as she approached, this ill-starred lady. This was to be no minor offense, for the one they called Belladonna carried herself like a queen, straight and tall, with a staff of twisted vines in her hand. She was beautiful, regal, the pale green tint of her face exotic rather than sickly. Her hair and eyes were green as well, dark as pine needles. Her gown was a rich tapestry of dark leaves and purple petals, and above the waist at least, clung tight to her voluptuous form.

She approached the thrones and curtsied so deep she may as well have knelt.
”I am Belladonna,” she said, in a voice dark and lovely.

Felicia looked as if she might weep. “Belladonna, I greet you,” she whispered. “You are thirteenth.”

Belladonna smiled, and it was as if the room suddenly filled with the scent of roses and lilac. She rose and made to approach, but Honeybee stepped before her, a look of horror and pity on her face. Perplexed, Belladonna turned and looked around the gathered gentry, who all watched her with trepidation.

“I am thirteenth!” she protested. “The place of joy, the place of life! Why do you all stare at me so glumly – no!” As if by instinct, she turned to regard the place where her cup should be waiting, where it was not.

Silence fell over the hall, and the scent of flowers rotted all around them.