Fairy Thief (41 page)

Orji rolled his eyes and growled, “We would have been, if you had just done it, not announced to our captors that you were
going
to do it!”

The matron’s eyes widened; she shook her head hard. “No, my friends — you do not want to be outside of this cell tonight. The other partygoers have been set out into the night — but you, we shall protect, as His Highness has shown special interest in you.” The matron glanced at the betrothal cuff. Real fear had crept into her eyes. She cast a short glance at a high dungeon window. She could see the location of the moon from where she stood; it was high in the sky and gleaming full, though clouded over like a dead fish eye. She grasped their hands; Orji and Saffron stepped back into the cell.

Suddenly, they were both nervous. Rather, Orji was nervous, and Saffron was terrified. What was going on?

The woman let herself into their cell, locked the door, and turned to face them. She stroked Saffron’s cheek. “You’ll be safe in here — don’t look so worried. I’m sorry I scared you, but you need to realize the depth of the situation, and right quick. It’s almost time now.” Saffron stiffened at her touch, so the matron took her hand away. “Come, let us relax. I will tell you the story.”

“
M, m, my friends, they’re out in the woods — will they be okay? Saffron’s voice was rising. “My friends! Help me, please — we need to warn them!” Her growing hysteria was starting to attract and upset the cellmates around them.

“
Sssshhh,” the woman soothed. “Are your friends nearby?”

Saffron shook her head no.

“
Then they’ll be fine. This is a curse on the royal family. We take care of them. They will not go into the woods to feed. We take care of them.” Finally, she got Saffron to sit down. She put her arm around the frail girl’s shoulders. Orji sat right next to Saffron, almost on her, and took her hand.

Saffron stared at the stone floor. Not far from them, a bear hide rested on the stones. Four people settled on it to play cards. “What do you mean, ‘feed’?”

“
It doesn’t matter, Saffron, look….” Orji swiped his arm right through Saffron’s midsection, then solidified once more. “No one can do us harm. Don’t worry.”

Forcing herself to be calm, Saffron repeated, “What do you mean, ‘feed’?”

The matron licked her lips. “The prince…and his family…they ‘feed.’”

Her words were cut short by shouting.

Saffron jumped.

“
Cookies!” screamed the shouter. “Cookies and cocoa — line it up!” The hundred and fifty cellmates moved to the front edge of each individual cell and held their arms through the bars to receive their snack.

“
Oooooh,” cooed Miss Matron, and disappeared from Saffron’s side for her gimme. A handful of men and woman worked quickly to give the others their snack, then locked themselves into various cells.

Saffron had noticed earlier that there were cell cliques going on. She and Orji were in cell three. If you counted across the back wall from left to right — the pretty, bitchy girls were in cell one, surrounded by droves of good-looking guys. In cell two, there were pretty, nice girls — surrounded by several guys, who were all varying degrees of geek, scary, or just plain odd. In cell four there were a handful of older gossips. Cell five — stoic men. Cell six — artsy types writing on the walls and performing bad a cappella for each other. Cell seven — acrobats or perverts — Saffron wasn’t sure which, so she stopped looking over there. The wall rounded a corner, so she wasn’t sure about cells 8, 9, and 10. She had the gamblers in her cell. When the matron was done with her cookies, she glanced longingly at the boisterous, bear-rug players. But she shook her head and made her way back to Saffron.

“
My girl, I shall tell you the tale…” She looked away from Saffron when the boisterous, bear rug players hooted and hollered. Then she shook her head and made her way over to Saffron. “My girl, now, I shall tell you the tale of the cursed family…” Her eyes strayed to their farthest reaches. She looked so far over to the left, Saffron could only see the whites of her eyes. She looked like the chubby living dead.

The matron, cleared her throat, and visibly forced herself, once again, to face Saffron. “My girl….”

“
Oh, can it, lady — I don’t really care. Just tell me when we get out of here, then go play with your friends.”

“
Thank you, Miss! You know…if it was another night…” Her eyes glittered as she spied the lousy hand held by one of her mates. “…If it was another night I would have been happy to fill you in on monsters and death, and all that brouhaha, but, tonight, tonight is our championship game, you see, and….” She looked over at the players again.

“
Just go!” Saffron bit out. She took the woman’s elbow and pushed her off towards her friends.

“
She didn’t tell you when we can leave.” Orji pointed out.

“
Oh, I don’t care!” Saffron almost shrieked.

“
Of course you care — why do you keep
saying
that!” Orji stared hard at her. Did everyone in the Earthrealm say that? ‘I don’t care! I don’t care!’ He had never before met someone who
did
care so much — cared about
every,
tiny, little thing!

Saffron pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them tightly. She teetered on the edge of the bench. Orji stretched his long legs out before him and raised his arms up, resting the palms of his hands on the back of his head. From their line of vision, the moon was just starting to cross the narrow width of the very long window above. Actually, it was more of a slit in the castle wall — there was no glass.

They sat in silence, watching the castle staff go about partying in their individual cells. Saffron shook her head — what a bunch of freaks. Hiding in jail cells while monsters roamed the castle. Devouring cookies, playing cards, exchanging gossip — she looked over at the perverts/acrobats — even doing the limbo, while
things
were feeding upstairs. What things? Feeding on what?

Saffron mulled over the evening. After awhile she said, “You know what?”

“
Not really, I’m sure.” Orji turned his head and smiled.

Saffron crossed her eyes and stuck her tongue out. “No really — listen.” She took a deep breath. She was obviously struggling with what she was about to say.

Orji’s cocksure smile faltered. Was she about to say something serious? To him?

“
I’m just glad that you’re here, that’s all. I aahhh…” she lowered her voice to an almost inaudible whisper. “…in case you haven’t noticed — we’re surrounded by freaks. And, well…I feel
comfortable
with you. These people, you know, they’re hinting that they’re saving us from something terrible that’s walking outside these cells, but I’m thinking, you know, they’re kind of freaky themselves, and I don’t feel safe, exactly, being shut in with them, you know, so I’m glad I have you. That’s why I feel safe.” She nodded, satisfied that she had explained herself to Orji well enough.

Orji nodded. He took her hand and patted it. “Are you trying to tell me you love me? Do you want to get married?”

Saffron snatched her hand back so she could slap him with it. The betrothal cuff slid around her slim wrist. “Ooooh!” She looked at him as if he’d been dunked in cow dung.

Orji smiled pleasantly, rubbed his slapped cheek thoughtfully, and relaxed against the wall. “Wanna do me a favor? Why don’t you go ahead and take off that damn betrothal cuff….”

Saffron nodded, “Gladly.” She looked for a clasp and couldn’t find one. She flipped the thing around and around and couldn’t find a catch or a way to get the thing off. She tried to shove it over her hand but it
shrunk
when it got near her knuckles and wouldn’t slide off. “Shit. Are you kidding me?” She looked at Orji with a desperate pleading in her eyes.

He shrugged, took her wrist, inspected the bracelet and shrugged again. He dropped her hand. “So, was your ball everything you dreamed it would be?”

Saffron shrugged and hugged her knees harder. “It was — at first. I mean, back at the woods, it was, getting ready and all. The twins and the magic, and all of that — it was surreal. Then, when we got there, there were beautiful woman
everywhere
. In the Cinderella story, she’s the most beautiful woman in the room…. In all the fairy tales, the main character is the ‘most beautiful in all the land’.”

Orji glanced at her. “Maybe,
to them
, you’re not ‘the main character’.”

Saffron was folded up like a pretzel under her golden gown.

He looked at her face under the dusting of gold and swallowed hard. She was absolutely the most beautiful woman at the ball tonight — the most beautiful woman in this realm, the most beautiful in all of the realms that they had visited. He ached to reach out and free her curls from the confines of Tai’s elaborate coif. “How do you know you weren’t the most beautiful woman at the ball? People were staring — they probably thought you were the most beautiful.”

“
It was the dress Orji; they were staring at the dress.” She punched at the garment puffing up in her face. “Look at me — I’m Viva Las Vegas La Cinderalita.”

“
Aaahh.” Orji had no idea what the hell she just said.

“
Put this dress on any one of those woman I saw in the corner, and
they
would have been the most spectacular girl at the ball. That doesn’t mean that
I
was spectacular — it was all smoke and mirrors. She started to undo her hair; it fell piece by piece.

Orji smiled softly. Saffron, as usual completely wrapped up in herself, didn’t notice his longing stare, or the quiet pleading in his eyes. He found it so seductive, this letting down of her hair.

“
I was so excited to go to this ball, you know, like finally my wildest fantasy was going to be fulfilled, and I was going to be happy — just like the girls in the stories…but no — I’m just confused.” She shifted and faced him. “Why is that? Why am I still so lost?”

“
You’ve dreamed of this ball for so long, and so hard. Sometimes, Saffron, the destination is not as important as the journey, the arrival not as spectacular as the quest….” He waited for the words to sink in.

After a moment of thought, Saffron frowned. “Yeah, Orji, Steven Tyler already told me that….” She sighed.

Orji shook his head, completely exasperated. “Who?” His eyebrows crushed together in a severe frown.

“
No, really,” Saffron crossed her eyes, and waggled her head, “Confucius say, blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!”

Orji pinched her arm. “You’re a vicious little thing! Maybe if you listened, for once, you wouldn’t be so miserable! You’re not lost, Saffron – you just refuse to wake up!”

But she
had
listened. His meaning disturbed her. Was he trying to tell her that her travels with him were going to be better for her than finding Markis? Wasn’t that what he was trying to get at?

The moonlight that filled the slit in the wall was suddenly snuffed out. Something had blocked the moon — something more than a layer of clouds. Something was filling the opening of the window far above their heads. Every single person in every single cell stopped talking. As one, they glanced upwards. No skirts rustled, no throats were cleared — the silence was pristine. Finally, the shadow moved and moonlight once again poured into the room. The crowd sighed all together, and resumed whatever it was that they had been doing.

Saffron locked eyes with the matronly servant woman on the bear rug.

“
He is searching for you.” Then, the matron simply returned to her cards.

Icy cold dread filled Saffron’s veins.

Suddenly, a howl filled the night — a screeching howl, followed by the death squeal of a screaming pig. There was slapping against the windowless slot — a meaty slamming sound, and after the third thump, blood rained into the room and spattered on some of the people below. It oozed down the sides of the wall. The small crowd that received the vile shower hurriedly moved over to the far corner of their cell and continued to wait with apprehension. The meaty slams kept coming, more blood rained.

Saffron’s eyes widened and slowly, slowly she turned her head towards Orji.

He took her in his arms and held her tightly.

The servant woman dropped her cards, begged out of the game, and came to Saffron’s side. “Well, now — that was gruesome, wasn’t it?”

Saffron gave her a dirty look and snuggled closer to Orji. He grabbed her up with ready arms.