Rose Tolan's Arc

Chapter 1 of 8

Rose Tolan wanted a crown she had only met in a bedtime story. The rainbow crown, her grandmother used to say, gave its wearer power over every color of magic in Tolania. But Rose didn't know where it sat, who guarded it, or if it was even real. She knew the story by heart and nothing else. She sat cross-legged in the loft bedroom of the log cabin, the family story shirt too big on her shoulders. Her purple bucket hat lay on the bed. Outside the window, the backyard pool held the last orange light. Rose pulled the blanket tight and repeated the story under her breath, hunting for a clue. "Beyond the water, past the sugar hills." That was all the story ever gave. Something thumped downstairs. Rose froze. She crept down the wooden stairs into the kitchen. A purple cat with small dragon wings had knocked a big striped ball across the floor. Beside it sat two matching bowls, one red and one blue, both empty. The creature looked at Rose and licked one paw, not sorry at all. "You're not supposed to be in here," Rose whispered. The cat-dragon batted the ball again. It rolled and stopped against the far wall, next to a door Rose had never opened. She frowned. She had lived here a whole month and never noticed that door. She pushed it. The door swung into a narrow room lined floor to ceiling with bookcases. Heavy chests sat along the bottom, their locks dull with dust. Rose stepped inside. The purple creature slipped past her ankles and hopped onto a low shelf, tail curling around a thin green book. Rose pulled the book free. The cover read Maps of the Colored Kingdoms. Her hands shook. She opened it on the floor and turned the stiff pages until she found a map of Tolania. A blue lake spread across the top. Above the lake, someone had drawn round hills and inked a small word beside them: Sugar. "Beyond the water, past the sugar hills," Rose breathed. The story was real. It was a place. A red X marked the far side of the hills. Under the X, in faded letters, someone had written: crown kept here, guarded. The purple cat-dragon leaned over her shoulder and pressed a paw flat on that exact spot. Then it looked at her, ears forward, like it already knew the way. Rose closed the book and held it to her chest. She was not chasing a bedtime story anymore. She had a map, a marked place, and one word she couldn't shake. Guarded.