Mistfall (30 page)

Luca hung his head. “For Pete’s sake Mags, do
you always have to be so difficult?” he asked, exasperated.

“Difficult?” I repeated. “Oh Luca, you really
should have spent a day or two around me before you threw me under
the bus. If you had, you might realize that this is me at my most
docile.”

He cocked his head in confusion but quickly
put two and two together. “Ah. The gypsies have paid you a visit, I
see.”

I shrugged my shoulders noncommittally in
response.

“It would make sense as to how you’re up and
about already,” he said while shoving his hands into his pants
pockets.

“Why are you down here?” I asked while taking
the five steps that separated us. “I would think that escorting a
prisoner would be below the king’s son and captain of the
Aelfadl.”

He reached out his hands, grabbed me by the
shoulders and shook me roughly. “Damnit Mags! I don’t have time for
this banter. Would you just listen to what I have to say?” He
lessened his firm grip on me. “Please,” he added.

I looked to the hands on both my shoulders
then back at Luca, raising an eyebrow. “I may not have my magic,
but you do realize I’m still dangerous don’t you?”

He quickly dropped his hands from my
shoulders and took a few steps back, turning away from me. I was
trying not to think about it, but I noticed the similarities
between him and his brother, from the shape of their hands to the
bronze tan of their skin. Even their facial expressions were
similar. I don’t know how I missed noticing that.

Luca’s head was back and he was staring at
the ceiling. “This is not how I wanted this to go,” he said.

Mental note: Unlike his father, Luca has
patience. I won’t be able to exploit his anger.

“What exactly did you think was going to
happen?” I asked, curious as to what he was playing at.

Footsteps and voices appeared and made their
way down the corridor towards us, stopping Luca from answering.
“Luca!” a familiar voice called out. “Luca, are you down here?”

Alarm registered on Luca’s face. “Quick, lie
down and pretend you’re asleep,” he hissed.

I folded my arms across my chest. “Why?”

The footsteps drew closer. Luca was getting
panicked. “I don’t have time to explain,” he said. “I know this is
going to sound ridiculous, but you’re going to have to trust
me.”

He was right. Trust and Luca went together as
well as spaghetti and peanut butter in my book. I hesitated a
moment, mulling over my choices. For one, I didn’t know what game
Luca was playing. Two, I wasn’t sure what Abel’s House of Horrors
had in store for me.

“Please!” Luca begged harshly.

I made the decision to go with Luca’s plan.
Better the devil you know…
Something clearly had him
spooked. If whoever elicited that type of reaction from his was
coming for me, I thought playing possum sounded like the right
choice.

The footsteps closed in and stopped in front
of my cell.

“Luca, didn’t you hear me calling for you
man?” the man said.

“Owen,” Luca acknowledged the interloper.
“I’m afraid I didn’t.”

“Your father sent me to see what was taking
you so long,” Owen informed him. “He wanted to make sure you
weren’t taking the bitch for one last ride.”

“Don’t be so crude,” Luca replied in disgust.
“You would do well to remember who you are speaking to.”

Owen! That flea ridden mutt worked for Abel?
I
knew
his reaction to David’s death was off, but now I was
left wondering how much more there was to the story.

“My apologies your highness,” Owen replied,
remembering his place.

Luca poked me gently with his boot. “Anyway,
as you can see, Seamus is wrong. She has yet to regain
consciousness.”

“You best be sure my lord, she is a sly one,”
Owen suggested. He then drove his point home by kicking me, hard,
in the ribs. Holy crap it hurt! I wanted to swear, cry, or hit
something it hurt so much. As it was, I found the new difficulty in
breathing slightly more overwhelming. Through it all, I made no
motion or gave any clue to the true status of my level of
consciousness.

Seemingly satisfied with my non-reaction,
Owen turned back to Luca. “There now, no one could have stayed
quiet through that.”

“Was that really necessary?” Luca asked in
return.

I believe so,” Owen replied. “Besides, it’s
not like your father would care.”

One of these days,
I thought,
I’m
going to get you and your little dogs too!

“You should concern yourself with what I
think,” Luca admonished him, his voice full of steely reserve. “My
father will not be king forever. As his eldest, on the day he dies,
the crown passes to me. I will not tolerate this kind of treatment
of our prisoners. Do you really want to start off my lengthy rule
on my bad side?”

I couldn’t see it, but I sure heard the
submission of the alpha in Owen’s voice. “No, your highness, I
don’t.”

“Come on. I’ll have my lieutenant keep me
updated on the prisoner’s status,” Luca informed Owen as they
left.

I waited until their footsteps had completely
receded before I moved a muscle. Rolling over on my back, I lay
there, on the moldy, straw covered ground for a few minutes while I
tried to breathe. Every time I inhaled, a sharp pain would make my
breath catch. I felt like I was drowning.

My ability to heal quickly depended strongly
on my magic. I wasn’t sure how long it would take to heal from this
with my magic subdued.

After thirty minutes or so, I was able to
pull myself up into a seated and slightly more comfortable
position. I rested my head against the stone wall of my cell,
wondering what lay ahead for me next.

“They’re broken.” Elijah had just finished
examining me. Well, his bobcat did.

I had been sitting in the same position for
hours. I tried to move around, but that only caused me more pain
and difficulty breathing. A moth had found its way into my cell. It
was rather nondescript, butter yellow in color. I hadn’t paid it
too much attention until if flew in my face.

I swatted at the thing repeatedly, which only
caused me to wince in pain. The moth got away. A masterful flyer,
the moth darted and dove, evading my attacks. Finally, it landed
out of arms reach at my feet. That’s when things got weird. The
moth slowly grew larger before is became disfigured as it changed
shape. Two minutes later, I was staring down a bobcat.

Neither one of us made a move at first. He or
she (I wasn’t going to try and find out) was sizing me up. I, on
the other hand, was wondering how long I could fend it off. Now I
know bobcats aren’t much of a threat, but if this thing sensed I
was injured, I might have a problem on my hands.

Elijah chose that moment to appear at my cell
door. “Oh quit being such a bully Jess,” he scolded the cat.

“You know this animal?” I asked, not taking
my eyes off the overgrown housecat for a second.

He knelt down next to Jess and rubbed it
behind its ears. Jess purred in response to Elijah’s
attentions.

“Yes,” he chuckled. “I know Jess well, she
being my familiar.” Elijah then turned to the cat. “What’s it been
old girl, fifty years?”

The cat meowed loudly in response. Whatever
she said, Elijah understood. I guess he spoke cat.

I became less apprehensive. Though I didn’t
trust the feral pussycat, I did trust Elijah’s control over the
critter.

“Elijah, I thought familiars were the thing
of human mythology,” I said, wincing at the sharp, jabbing pain in
my side. I swear it felt like someone was poking me in the lung
with a fork. I may have found myself newly naïve to the goings on
of the Otherworld, but this was something everyone believed.

Elijah gave me a big, toothy grin. “And
that’s how we’d like it to be kept,” he replied.

He gave me the basics on familiars. Contrary
to popular belief, familiars did indeed exist. Instead of Witches
though, they preferred gypsies. They were rare. A familiar always
took animal shapes, though they always had one or two they
preferred above others. Also, the familiar chose the person and not
the other way around.

Once Elijah had me convinced that Jess wasn’t
going to use me as its next year’s sustenance, he threw me for
another loop. He wanted his sidekick to examine me.

“Wouldn’t an x-ray be a little more, um,
accurate?” I suggested.

Elijah looked at me like he had been sucking
on a sour lemon. “Bah. That human magic is dangerous stuff. They
don’t understand or respect their power. It could hurt you.”

Now I knew how an x-ray machine worked and
how not dangerous it was. He did have a point though. Humans’ magic
lay in technology and they sure knew how to abuse their powers.

“Trust Jess,” he encouraged me. “She can help
heal you.”

Since I wasn’t in a hospital, I had no choice
in the matter of my medical specialist. Elijah gave the cat a pat,
motioning her to me. I still wasn’t convinced, but I was at a
disadvantage, my body had no intention of moving.

So here we are. Dougie Mouser, M.D. just
diagnosed me with a matching set of broken ribs. Elijah helped me
into a resting position on my uninjured side and suggested I cuddle
up with Jess for the night. He laughed when I asked him if he was
crazy.

Left alone, with only a large cat for
company, my mind started to wander. Elijah’s potion had long since
worn off, taking my thoughts to dark places.
John and
Melissa.
My emotions ran the gamut of hurt, anger, and
disbelief, repeatedly.

I allowed myself a few tears, but didn’t
allow my soul to cloud over with heartache. I would have to let it
go for now. My thoughts would constantly distract me if I didn’t.
Of course there were lingering questions that, one day, I’d hunt
them down for.

Why had they kept the truth from me? Why did
Willa involve them knowing who they were? Probably the one I needed
the answer to the most was: Why would the both of them develop
close relationships with me built on lies?

The heat from Jess was like having a warm
water-bottle pressed to my side, comforting me. Not long after I
had put thoughts of John and Melissa on the back burner, I found it
easy to sleep that night.

My dreams were a bit off though. In one I
stalked a squirrel for miles. Once I cornered it, I jumped on top
of it and threw it around. I played catch and release with it for
awhile. In the end, and this is the most disgusting part, I ate it,
raw.

Dreams aside, I slept well. I was even able
to breathe normally when I woke up. All that remained was some
light bruising. I would have to rethink being a dog person. Jess,
her work done, was already gone and I was alone once again.

My stomach grumbled. I wasn’t too sure how
much time had passed since I ended up down here. I figured
somewhere around a week. Not once I had eaten, yet I hadn’t been
hungry until now. What was I going to do for food? They gypsies had
a plan in place, but I couldn’t impose on their goodwill
forever.

If I was going to eat, I’d have to give away
the fact that I was awake. If I didn’t eat, I’d get weak. Weak
people can’t escape from prison.

“Seamus! Barra!” I shouted into the
corridor.

“Hey, you’re awake.” It was the other guard,
Barra.

This made me happy. If Seamus was the boss
that meant Barra had to be the more dimwitted of the two. Hopefully
I could accomplish a few things without him noticing.

If Seamus was ugly, poor Barra was downright
grotesque. Even Hades wouldn’t have a creature like him. Barra’s
eyes were on the side of his head and he only had slits for a nose.
Open sores festered and oozed, the smell made my stomach acid boil.
When he didn’t want to make me throw up, I felt sorry for him. He
couldn’t have an easy existence.

It was time to get out of this cell for
awhile. “Yes I am,” I said. “I take it Abel’s going to want to see
me so whenever you’re ready we can go.”

Barra scratched his head, or the sores on his
head. I wasn’t too sure which one and I wasn’t going to take a
closer look. “I dunno. I’m just ‘spose ta tell tha cap’n.”

This was going to be a piece of cake.
“Barra, you don’t want your king to find out he had to wait, do
you?” I asked, adding sweetly, “I wouldn’t want to see you
punished.”

Barra flinched when I mentioned the word
punishment. I guess he spent a lot of time as a whipping boy around
here.

He tossed the idea around in his head for a
few seconds.
Come on. Please me as dumb as I think you
are.

“Okay,” he agreed giving me a toothless,
rotting gum grin. “I don’t wanna make tha king angry.”

Great, his sense of dread won out.

Barra fumbled with the keys until he found
the right one. He paused a moment before opening the door. “You’re
not gonna do anything are ya?” he asked.

Not quite the dull boy,
I thought. “I
lifted my wrists, showing Barra my golden, magic-restraining cuffs.
“Nope. I couldn’t, even if I wanted to.”

Appeased, he opened the cell door, allowing
me out.

“Don’t worry,” I assured him. “I won’t do
anything to get you into trouble.”

Barra gave me another horrifying grin. I
doubted he got the chance to smile much. I was serious about
behaving. I would wait until his job was done before I began my
shenanigans.

Elijah mouthed a silent good luck as I passed
by his cell. Being a psychic he already knew what I was up to. The
lack of worry on his face made me hopeful that my foray into the
castle would go well.

I mapped the way through the castle in my
head, as we walked. Thankfully, Barra took me through the servant
areas. I was able to steal a few pieces of fruit and a knife when
we walked through an unattended kitchen.