A Shade of Vampire 13: A Turn of Tides (6 page)

“The royal court,” Bella muttered.

Royal was certainly the word I would have used to describe it.

I could have remained admiring that room for another hour, but Bella tugged on me and we continued. The corridor we exited into was wider this time, less like a corridor than a wide passageway. More red drapery lined the walls. Bella stopped outside another large oak door. She pushed it open to reveal a kitchen. “This backs onto the royal hall. It’s where all the royals’ meals are prepared.” She led me further into the room. I stared at all the sharp cutlery, butcher’s knives, and various other instruments that looked specifically designed for hacking into meat, and massive boiling pots, even larger than the one I’d seen in the kitchen on one of the floors above.

“So, ogres… they eat humans.”

Bella bit her lower lip, then nodded.

“And I’m to be fattened because I will also be eaten?” I continued.

I could have sworn that tears glistened in Bella’s eyes. She looked down at the floor and nodded.

“That’s why you’ve been ordered to feed me so well. And this place is the realm of the ogres.”

I recalled the books I’d seen in the kitchen upstairs. They seemed to have human butchery down to a science, the way humans had animals, I supposed. We were no different than animals here.

Bella caught my hand again and led me out of the kitchen. My mind was buzzing as we continued walking.

“Bella,” I croaked. “You need to help me escape.” I stopped walking, tugging on her to stop too.

She looked at me with sad eyes. “I can’t do that, Miss Rose.”

“Why not? You just helped me cover up three murders. Why can’t you just let me go?”

“It’s not possible. We would both be caught before we ever reached the gate.”

I took in every detail I could as we walked for the next ten minutes, every passageway, every door, trying to get any clue as to how to escape. A good ten minutes had passed before she stopped outside another door.

“After this room, we head back, okay?”

I nodded, my mouth drying out.

She removed her chain of keys and opened up the door. I stepped inside. There was a double bed in the corner of the room with such a thin mattress it might as well have not been there. There were two grubby pillows and a patchwork blanket. The floors were made of stone, and there were no windows. The only light came from a couple of lanterns fixed to the walls.

I looked at Bella, raising an eyebrow. “This is your room?”

She nodded. “Mine and my husband’s.”

“You married again?”

She shook her head violently, staring at me as though I was insane. Then she led me over to the edge of the bed and pointed upward.

I felt like screaming and vomiting at the same time. I gasped, clasping a hand over my mouth. Strung to the high ceiling of her four-poster bed with thick rope was the corpse of a male ogre.

“My husband,” Bella muttered.

“What the—” I couldn’t keep myself from swearing.

The body was pale, its eerie eyes bulging wide open and staring downward. It was naked but for a loin cloth wrapped around the waist. It was the most vile sight I’d ever seen in my life, but I was surprised that there was no odor coming from it. I could only assume it had undergone some drastic preservative treatment to keep it from rotting.

“It’s what all of us widows do here.” She shrugged, looking up at the corpse of the atrocity that was her husband as though the scene was the most normal in the world. “Our husbands stay with us after death.”

I breathed out sharply, looking down at the floor. I felt like I needed to scrub my eyeballs with sandpaper. I wasn’t sure that the sight I’d just laid eyes on would ever leave me. “You mean you sleep beneath this corpse every night?”

She nodded, looking surprised at my reaction. “Of course.”

“For how long?”

She frowned, wrinkling her nose. “What do you mean how long? It’s forever.”

“My God. It wasn’t like you even loved him. He was a vile bastard. Can’t you just take it down?”

Again, she looked at me as though I was the mad one for such a suggestion.

“He is my husband. I can’t put him aside. It’s the law.”

I walked toward the door, leaning my arm against it, still fighting the urge to puke. When I turned around to see Bella still standing in the same position, her eyes cast upward as she gazed calmly upon the corpse, all I could think was:

We need to get you out of this place, Bella. You don’t belong here either.

I
awoke
the following morning to the smell of cooking. Rubbing my eyes, I walked into the kitchen to see Bella hovering over a pot. Stew again, by the looks of it. She looked down at me as I stood next to her. I glared up at her.

“You said I reminded you of your daughter… albeit less handsome. You don’t want me ending up dead too, do you?”

She turned around, conflict twisting her features. She shook her big head.

“Then why are you fattening me up? Why aren’t you doing anything to help me escape?”

She heaved a sigh. “I told you, Miss Rose. There’s nothing I can do. My job is just to look after you, feed you and protect you until Master is ready for you to move into his quarters.”

Move into his quarters.
This was news to me. As much as I no longer allowed myself to be the victim, the thought sent chills running down my spine.

“Oh,” she grunted. “I’m telling you too much. You must promise me not to tell him what I’ve told you.”

“I won’t tell him. But you do realize that you’re taking part in my murder? Because I doubt Master would have as much interest in eating me if I was skinny. You’re preparing me for him.”

She averted her eyes back to the stew, and assumed a stoic expression. “I’m just doing my job. I don’t have a choice.”

I picked up a saucepan and slammed it down against the kitchen counter in frustration. Perhaps she was right that there was no way to get me out of here without being seen, but this wasn’t the answer I needed to hear.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

I ran back into the main room and stopped at the window, staring out once again at the bleak surroundings—the sharp mountains, the overcast sky.

“So what’s the plan then? How much longer until your Master will come for me?” When she hesitated, I said, “Just tell me. I already promised you that I won’t tell him you’ve told me anything.”

She still seemed wary, but I supposed she felt like talking to me was the least she could do for me.

“He gave me three days to start plumping you up, and he will check your progress on the third evening.”

“And if I refuse to eat?”

She looked at me with sad eyes. “He will come anyway. If you take too long to fatten up, he may still take you into his quarters and force-feed you there himself. Your last days will be better spent with me, Miss Rose.” She shuddered. “Trust me, you want to spend as little time with Master as possible.”

Last days. I hated the resignation in her voice, as though there was no part of her that had any flicker of hope that I might survive.

She poured out a bowl of stew and walked out of the kitchen, setting it down on my dressing table. “Eat,” she said.

No way am I fattening myself up for that monster. I’d rather starve to death first
.

I shook my head. “If Anselm wants me to eat, you can tell him he’ll have to feed me himself.”

She looked at me reluctantly. I walked up to her and gripped the hem of her smock, staring her right in the eye. “Go on. Tell him I’m waiting here.”

She shook her head. “No, Miss Rose—”

“Go now.”

She stared at me disbelievingly, but stopped resisting. She removed her apron and hung it up on a hook on the wall, then extinguished the fire beneath the stew.

I didn’t take my eyes off her until she’d plodded across the floor and exited, locking the door behind her. As soon as she was out of sight, I hurried to the kitchen. I picked up the two sharpest knives I could find from the drawer and, after replacing their sheaths, fastened them beneath my dress to my inner thighs with two silk scarves I found in the closet. Then I sat on the bed, staring at the door.

I wasn’t going to wait here like a sitting duck for him to come to me. I was going to start calling the shots about my fate. Even if it did mean inviting an early death to my door.

I
was
both relieved and frightened when the door finally opened an hour later. I held my breath as Anselm stepped into the room after Bella.

He wore a long dark cloak over his lean shoulders, and his hair was slicked back. His face was clean-shaven, revealing his sharp jawline, and his brown skin smelt of a faint musk. If I didn’t abhor him so much, I would have almost described him as handsome.

His orange eyes settled on me.

“Arabella tells me that you wanted to see me.”

I stood up as he closed the distance between us and stopped a foot away from me. I hovered my hand over the knife beneath my dress. I flinched as he slid his hands around my waist and placed a kiss on my neck. It was all I could do to stop myself from spitting in his face as he drew away, but I had to be careful. For now, if I was to have any chance of taking my revenge on this monster, I had to play a longer game.

“Yes,” I said, focusing on keeping my voice steady.

His eyes roamed my body. He turned on Bella. “How many meals per day has she been eating?”

“Three,” she lied.

“Increase it to four, and feed her more fats.” He turned back to me. “You’re privileged, girl. Not everyone who stays here receives the treatment you’re getting.”

I forced a smile. “I appreciate it,” I said, fixing my eyes on his. “But I was hoping that I might persuade you that I’m better off alive than a meal on your plate.”

He cocked his head to one side.

I cast a glance at Bella and nodded toward the door. “Leave,” I ordered her.

She looked at me as though I’d gone mad. She remained standing, waiting for Anselm’s reaction. When he nodded toward the door, she exited.

Curiosity sparked in the man’s eyes.

I stood up on the bed and, reaching for his hands, replaced them on my waist. “You said I’m a princess, did you not?”

A smile curved the corners of his lips, though it looked more like a sneer than a smile. “Indeed you are.”

“And you are a prince.”

He nodded.

“Then”—I leaned closer to his ear, dropping my voice to a whisper—“wouldn’t it make sense if we remained together?”

Smirking, he pushed me back on the bed. “I’m not sure you could earn your keep. Whatever it was you offered me would have to be very, very good to forgo the taste of your tender flesh.”

I shivered as he leaned over me, his eyes locked on mine. He lowered his head and pressed his face against the crook of my neck, taking a deep breath as he breathed in my scent.

His body was almost flat against mine now. As discreetly as I could, I raised a knee so that he wouldn’t flatten me completely and I moved one hand down toward my right thigh. With the other hand, I gripped his collar and pulled him closer.

“Perhaps you underestimate me,” I said softly.

“I rarely underestimate people.”

Parting my dress, I slipped the knife from its sheath and brought it slamming upward. He choked, his eyes growing wide as he stared at me, dumbstruck.

“Is that so?” I look advantage of his momentary shock to grab the keys from his belt, roll him off me and leap out of the bed. I lurched toward the door.

Throwing a glance over my shoulder, I swore beneath my breath. I had thought I’d rammed it right into his stomach, but due to his proximity, I’d missed my mark. Instead he had a stab wound near his hip. Clearly not fatal, as he staggered toward me, fury filling his eyes. Now that he was alert to me, I dared not go near him again in case he wrestled the weapon out of my hand.

He let out a hoarse laugh as I fumbled with the keys, opened the door and began racing along the corridor.

“So you like things rough, Princess?” he called after me, his voice rasping as his footsteps sped up. “I can accommodate rough.”

My blood was pounding in my ears as I reached the end of the corridor and skidded round the corner. I ripped out the second knife from beneath my thigh, holding both handles upside down, the blades flat against my wrists, as I caught sight of two ogres at the other end of the corridor.

Anselm was almost twice my height and his legs were frighteningly powerful even after the injury he’d just sustained. I dared not look back, but it sounded like he was no more than a few feet away from me. On seeing Anselm and me, the two ogres stopped dead in their tracks and blocked the corridor entirely with their huge frames.

I supposed they thought that I would slow down. I didn’t. I sped up. Slipping out the two knives at the last minute, I dug them into both of their guts before they could even register what had happened. Blood spilled down the blades, soaking my hands and arms. I pulled the blades out again as they keeled over, allowing me passage just as Anselm grabbed the strap of my dress. I swiped out with the knife, narrowly missing his wrist as he withdrew his hand.

I didn’t know how long it would be before I came across more ogres in the passageway. Eventually, they’d catch me. I couldn’t keep running forever. And these knives would be no good against Anselm now that he knew my trick. He was too strong. He’d overpower me if I let him catch up with me, even if I was holding two knives.

I’d thought I’d be able to make the chase last a bit longer, but as I turned the next corner, I walked right into a dead end. I whirled around, trying to make it out before Anselm closed in, but I wasn’t fast enough. Placing both hands against the walls, he breathed deeply as he staggered toward me, dark blood dripping from his wound and leaving a trail on the floor.

I tried the doors closest to me, but they were locked. I backed up against the window at the end of the hallway, swallowing hard as I brandished the two knives.

I steeled myself as he approached within three feet of me. I didn’t believe that I could win this fight, but I had to go down trying. I held my breath, expecting him to launch forward and begin trying to wrestle the knives from my hands, when he stopped suddenly and looked directly over my shoulder, out of the window. His breath hitched and his lips parted. His eyes widened. I was shocked as he stepped back away from me.

What in the world?

I didn’t even have time to turn around to see what on earth he was distracted by when there was a sudden blow against the side of the mountain. The ground shook, and glass shattered. I fell, ducking my head between my knees, trying to protect myself from the sudden shower of shards of glass. My back stung as several shards pierced through the sheer fabric of my dress.

There was a deafening roar—that of no man or creature I’d ever witnessed before. It penetrated my eardrums and vibrated around my brain.

“Dragons!” Anselm bellowed toward the opposite end of the corridor. “The castle is under attack!”

Dragons?

Before I could even look up to see what had just smashed through the window, heat engulfed me. I cowered closer to the window frame as a blaze of fire shot through the corridor. Through the blaze I could just about make out Anselm running for his life and disappearing at the other end. As the fire died, I clutched my mouth to stifle a scream. I backed up into a corner and folded myself as small as I could as a set of sleek-reddish brown scales slid into the hallway.

I cast my eyes up and down the length of the gigantic creature. Its head was facing the hallway’s exit, so I couldn’t see it, but the rest of its body was formidable enough to make me tremble. It was perhaps five times the size of an ogre. Smooth bat-like wings grew from its back. Its legs were thick as tree trunks and each foot was equipped with four heavy claws. Its long tail was pointed and sharp, almost like a stingray’s.

Since I was backed up into a shadowy corner, the beast hadn’t yet noticed me. I jumped as it roared again, its whole body heaving as more fire shot down the length of the hallway. Then it started moving swiftly toward the exit, where it turned a corner and disappeared out of sight.

My knees trembling, I stood up, only to be knocked back down as a second tremor ran through the floors. Again glass shattered—in a room perhaps a few hundred yards away, in the corridor perpendicular to the one I was sitting in.

Gripping the edges of the window pane, I pulled myself to a standing position and stared out of the smashed window.

Beneath the grey cloudy sky were a spread of dragons, their heavy wings beating the air as they headed directly toward me. Their scaly oblong faces were clearly visible, as were their slanted yellow eyes. I looked left and right. Several had already made contact with the building, and another window smashed a few floors down.

“Oh, my,” I breathed, backing away and sprinting down the hallway.

I was in a daze.
Dragons? Ogres? What the hell is happening to me?

I even considered for a moment as I ran along that corridor, ducking down as another window smashed a few yards away from me, whether I was indeed in a dream. It would have to be a very long dream if it was. A dream that was impossible to wake up from.

As an ogre appeared before me in the hallway, he looked like he was about to throw himself at me, but on seeing another dragon climbing through the broken window and into the hallway behind me, he began running alongside me. I threw myself down a flight of stairs just in time to escape the wave of heat that gushed from the dragon’s mouth.

I looked around the floor I’d just dropped down on. I’d been expecting more winding passageways, more endless doorways to run my hands across, but instead I was in some massive open hall. There were dozens of ogres running to and fro, strapping on armor, brandishing weapons and running toward the windows. It was chaos.

I jumped as a heavy hand closed around my shoulder. Gripping the knife, I was about to strike when I realized just in time that it was Bella. Terror was written all over her face as she stared down at me.

“We need to hide!” she hissed.

She gripped me by my midriff and began milling through the crowd of ogres preparing for battle. Bella wore a long cloak and gathered me against her chest. I did my best to cling to her as she lowered the black cloak over me, hiding me from view.

She was so thick and heavy, it felt like if she fell, she’d crush me to a pulp. I had to just hope that wouldn’t happen.

“What is happening?” I gasped. I couldn’t see where Bella was running since the fabric was covering my face, and I couldn’t remove it for fear of losing grip on her.

“They come sometimes, the dragons. Erisard’s lot. To plunder us…” Her breath hitched. “They eat us ogres.”

The hallways echoed with shouts and screeches. I began to sweat beneath the fabric as I felt the temperature rising.

“Dragons,” I murmured. I still couldn’t believe it.

I was about to ask another question when Bella let out a blood-curdling shriek. She jolted upward, and if it weren’t for her clinging to my midriff, I would have fallen away from her. She… we… were being lifted into the air.

As more glass smashed, I thrashed against the cloth covering my eyes and stared downward. My stomach flipped. We’d just broken through a window and were flying through the air, away from the ogres’ mountain abode, over sharp black peaks. Heavy leathery wings thundered either side of us, lifting us higher and higher. Claws gripped Bella by the shoulders, and parallel to us, gripped within the dragon’s front right foot, was another ogre.

Several other dragons surrounded us, each carrying ogres of their own. They held them in their claws like hawks holding rats. I strained my neck to look at the dragon’s face, shiny and scaly and splattered with blood. Up close, these creatures were even more terrifying. And their scales gave off a musky, bitter odor.

“Where are they taking us?” I whispered.

Wincing, Bella grunted.

“Somewhere no good, Miss Rose.”