“That’s right, sweet princess,” said the Dragon. He stood behind her, and his face was also beautiful, though not so beautiful as hers. “Now you know the truth. You’re not what they have all feared. You’re not the mountain monster. You are more lovely than their mortal eyes could bear to look upon. Thus your mortal father hid you in rags and veils; thus your guardian told you that you must never show your face. People would see at once that you are Faerie and not meant for their world.”
“Faerie,” she breathed. She touched her face with both hands, gently prodding the soft skin. How clear and sweet was her complexion. How radiant were her eyes. How unreal . . .
“You understand now what you may be, unveiled,” said the Dragon. “Fairer than the fairest blossom. Thus you are named Varvare, the loveliest rose.”
His hands were on her shoulders, lost in the thickness of her hair. Slowly he turned her from the mirror to face him. “They would have kept you captive, Princess Varvare. They would have kept you bound by lies. But I reveal who you truly are. Beyond rival. Beyond compare.” His face was close to hers now. “Let me kiss you, my sweet.”
Rose Red met him eye to eye.
“No,” she said.
The Dragon vanished. So did the mirror, the chandeliers, the polished stone floor on which the dragons had danced. Rose Red found herself once more in her servant’s dress, though the veil was gone from her face. Despair threatened to overwhelm her. Her lantern was gone, and the darkness, the potent smell of poison from every corner, grappled with her senses. She turned about, seeking some sign of her whereabouts. Was she yet in the Village of Dragons? Or had he transported her elsewhere by some dark art?
The Dragon’s throne caught her eye.
It was a hideous creation, up on a black marble pedestal and carved like intertwining dragon skeletons, polished and dreadful. Bloodstained, it stank of death.
Seated on the pedestal, her feet dangling over the edge and her hands folded in her lap, was Lady Daylily.
“M’lady!” Rose Red cried and darted toward her. The pedestal was taller than she expected, and when she reached it she could not touch Daylily’s feet as she stretched up her hands.
Daylily looked down at her, moving her feet slightly away. “So you’ve come,” she said. “I told you not to.”
“I’m here to fetch you home, m’lady,” Rose Red said. “Please, come down!”
“Your veil is gone.”
“I can catch you if you jump. I’m stronger than I look.”
“It doesn’t matter. I knew the secret behind your veil long ago.”
“Hen’s teeth,” Rose Red muttered. She glanced about and saw a small stairway cut into the marble block. She hurried up and came around beside the Lady of Middlecrescent. “I don’t know where he’s gone off to, m’lady. But we’d best get while we can! I think I can find the way out of here. I’ve walked Faerie Paths before, though none like this.”
Daylily’s eyes were colder than stone when she turned her gaze on Rose Red. “The poison does not affect you, does it, goat girl.”
Rose Red didn’t know how to answer. It affected her, to be sure, but it did not shatter her inside the way she saw it shattering Daylily. “Please, m’lady,” she said. “I’ve got to get you back. What would Leo do if you—”
“Leo? Ha!” Daylily’s laugh was harsh. “Do you think Leo cares for me?” Her face twisted into such an expression of bitterness that Rose Red would not have recognized her. “I’ve watched my dreams die. Every one of them, burned to oblivion. I will never marry Prince Lionheart. I will never fulfill the expectations placed upon me. I wish—” Her eyes narrowed, and her hands twitched as though she might want to hide her face. But she did not. She stared into Rose Red’s eyes, and the Lady of Middlecrescent was as unveiled as the chambermaid. “I wish you would go and let me die.”
“You see what would happen were you mortal as she, princess.”
The Dragon appeared before the pedestal, within reach of Daylily’s feet. Rose Red clenched her jaw and, with strength her tiny frame should not possess, hauled the lady up and back, positioning herself between Daylily and the Dragon.
The Dragon smiled. “Everything would be so much easier were you a mortal child,” he said. “The poisons would work faster on your brain. You’d have asked for my kiss ages ago!”
“I ain’t askin’ now.”
“No, you are not.” He folded his arms. His face was not beautiful now as it had been when they danced. It was ghastly white, and his eyes were black save in the depths of his pupils, where the fire glowed. “It would have been different, too, had I won Prince Lionheart in the game. But no. My sister must take him, manipulate him for her own pleasure.” He snarled, and sparks shot between his teeth. “She’s so selfish sometimes, I wonder how she can live with herself.”
“I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about,” Rose Red said. She felt Daylily sagging behind her and turned just in time to catch the girl and hold her upright. She was not fainted, merely too worn out to stand anymore. Her spirit was broken, and her body failed as well. Rose Red gnashed her teeth in frustration and turned to the Dragon. “I only know that my good master has gone to find out how to kill you.”
“I know.”