Free Once Upon a Dream by Liz Braswell Page A

trotted off, glad to have an order to follow and give her body something to do.
    But her mind wasn’t on the dance. It was on the fairies and traitors and what the Outside really looked like. It was on what had happened to the minstrel and the feather and her aunt. Her feet were merely going through the motions with no joy. No one noticed, however; the princess’s innate grace and skill and beauty and poise made her the most beautiful dancer in the room without her even having to try. Golden torches were reflected a thousand times in the soft golden folds of her dress; her golden shoes sparkled like candle flames.
    Count Brodeur avoided her like the plague, not even looking at her face when they twirled around each other in the middle of a set.
    In the middle of an endless chain dance, Aurora saw Maleficent get up quietly and slip away from the throne, out of the room.
    Maybe it was a good time to take a break. Get a mug of cider. Clear her head. Over by the bowls of punch, Lady Astrid had a grim smile on her face and a flagon in her hand and was nodding at something the much older Countess DeShabille was shouting in her ear. Just a week—or whatever—ago, the princess wouldn’t have given a second thought to either one of them. She would have danced, flirted politely with the cuter boys and men, and done anything she could to impress her aunt.
    But now…
    Lady Astrid seemed like a breath of fresh air in the tightly locked castle and Aurora’s own head. At the very least, the lady deserved to hear the truth about what had happened with the minstrel and where the feather had come from.
    And then two of Maleficent’s servants came up to the lady. The cockscomb one and the doggish one—very obviously flanking her. They spoke tersely and gestured with their spears; the lady looked confused.
    Aurora apologized to her partners, disentangled herself from the other dancers, and made her way over as quickly as she could. But by the time she got there, all three were gone. No one else seemed to have noticed. Countess DeShabille stood still, nodding to herself, humming quietly.
    “DID YOU SEE WHERE LADY ASTRID WENT?” Aurora asked carefully and loudly, knowing the woman was mostly deaf.
    “VERY COURTEOUS AND NICE WOMAN,” the countess shouted back. “SHE CHECKS IN ON ME EVERY DAY, YOU KNOW, TO MAKE SURE THAT I AM ALL RIGHT.”
    “WHERE DID SHE GO?” Aurora repeated, trying not to be rude.
    “ALL OVER, I THINK. SHE AND HER HUSBAND LIKE TO TRAVEL. NOT ME.”
    The princess couldn’t stop one huff of disappointment, but she forced herself to nod courteously before rushing off to the closest stairs.
    Where were Maleficent’s guards taking Lady Astrid? And
why
?
    Maybe there was something wrong with one of the residents of the castle. Lady Astrid was the closest thing the nobles had to a nurse.
    But as Aurora looked all over, running through the castle halls and ducking into every likely place—and finding nothing—she began to suspect that it wasn’t for so noble a cause.
    With a sickening twist of her stomach, she thought about the feather. Of her ill-advised revelation to Brodeur and then Lady Astrid…and the implications of where the feather had come from….
    The minstrel was gone, Count Brodeur was on edge. Astrid herself had said the whole matter was dangerous. And now the lady had been whisked away by royal guards.
    Praying she was wrong, Aurora hurried up the last flight of stairs. The one that had originally led to her father’s solarium, which Maleficent had claimed as her own chambers. She chose it out of respect for Aurora—not wanting to appear to replace her parents entirely, especially in their own bedroom. Plus, it was a little removed from everyone else and in a tower, just the sort of thing a fairy queen would like.
    Aurora paused just outside the door and took a deep breath.
    She moved to go in…
    And then stopped.
    Whatever she had expected to see—Maleficent talking with her guards, Maleficent