It helped her stay sane, gave her something to focus on while Dorotyas broke her bones over and over again.
Ruxandra waited for the woman to get bored and give up, but Dorotyas reveled in the torture the entire night, muttering the words “whore, slut, animal” under her breath as she did so. Ruxandra held tight to the beast and retreated into her mind. She had not felt such pain since the Dark Angel had first changed her. She almost wished the creature was there, embracing her as she writhed.
It will end with sunrise. I just have to last until then.
As the sky lightened, Ruxandra lay spread out on the ground. Her arms and legs bent at the wrong angles, her head twisted backward on her neck, and the bones of her ribs stuck out through her flesh like jagged-tipped spears.
Dorotyas jumped and landed with both boots on Ruxandra’s pelvis. The bone shattered.
“Be thankful Elizabeth wants you for herself,” Dorotyas said. “Otherwise I’d fist you front and back until I reached your throat.”
She kicked Ruxandra’s head once more and walked out, locking the door behind her.
No more of this, Ruxandra thought, as the bones and muscles in her neck twisted back into place. I need to get the girls out of here, and then I must escape.
Somehow.
There was a light rap against the door.
“Ruxandra?” Kade called. “Are you all right?”
Ruxandra didn’t answer.
“I heard Dorotyas beating you,” Kade said through the door. “If you make me a vampire, you will be free of my magic. Then we can flee this castle together.”
What about the girls?
“I will come see you later today if Elizabeth lets me,” Kade said. “Until then, do think about it.”
“Wai—” Ruxandra’s jaw hadn’t healed yet, and she couldn’t speak properly. “Ju wai . . .”
Kade waited. Ruxandra heard his breathing quicken, his heart rate go up. Ruxandra closed her eyes and waited for her jaw to heal. At last, it popped into place. She moved her mouth back and forth a few times. It all seemed to work.
“Kade.”
“Yes, Ruxandra?”
“Why did Elizabeth bite her guards?”
There was a long pause. Kade had obviously been hoping for other words. It was enough to make Ruxandra smile.
“Thralls,” Kade said at last. “She made them into thralls. A person under the complete control of a vampire. The vampire makes one by draining most of a person’s blood. After that, they must do her bidding.”
Commanding them does that. Why make them thralls?
“What happens when a thrall becomes a vampire?”
“If the thrall was taken unwillingly, it becomes a vampire and very agitated, I would surmise. If the person agrees to be a thrall, and agrees to become a vampire, it becomes a slave to the vampire who made it. Like Dorotyas.”
She inhaled sharply as two of her rib bones retreated inside her body. The pain receded. “Is that in your books?”
“Not mine. Elizabeth’s.” Kade waited. “Is there nothing else?”
“No. Thank you.”
He stood there a bit longer, then turned and went down the stairs. Ruxandra listened to him go. She lay on the ground until her arms and legs straightened out. Then she crawled to the bed and closed the curtains. She didn’t sleep. Instead, she stared at the canopy.
I will not turn him into a vampire so I can escape.
I will not turn anyone into a vampire ever again.
But how do I get the girls out?
Two hours after sunrise, a loud, brassy horn broke the air and pulled her from her thoughts. Ruxandra rolled off the bed and went to the window. The horn sounded again. She closed her eyes and listened. The sound came from outside the gate. The horn sounded again. Then came a man’s voice, loud enough that it echoed off the castle walls.
“I have here a message for Countess Bathory and words for all who serve her!”
“We’ll send for her,” said one of the guards. “Will you come inside and wait for her?”
“No.” The messenger sounded repulsed by the idea. “Listen to my words and tell your fellows!”
He didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, he began reading aloud.
“Let it be known,” the messenger shouted, “that Elizabeth Bathory did willfully and with malice use most foul witchcraft upon the persons of His Majesty, King Rudolph, and Lady Czobor! Let it be further known that, having recovered his faculties after this foul attack, His Majesty has deemed all agreements signed and delivered in his name to be null.”
Regained his faculties? Ruxandra frowned. Commands wear off?
So that’s why vampires make thralls.
Did Elizabeth know commands wear off? She mustn’t have, or she would have made Rudolph a thrall. She imagined Elizabeth’s reaction and shuddered.
“Further,” the messenger shouted, “let it be known that Countess Elizabeth Bathory is immediately placed under house arrest, where she will remain until such time as the army of King Rudolph arrives, at which time she shall surrender herself to face justice for her actions!”
What?
“Further, that until such time as she is in good custody, her children shall act as security against her actions, and shall, should she fail in her orders, be put to death!”
There wasn’t a sound from any of the guards on the castle wall.
“I have here the official letter for the lady,” the messenger shouted. “The king has forbidden me to enter the castle or speak to her, so I leave it here for you to deliver.”
A moment later, Ruxandra heard the sound of hooves clattering back down the hill at a canter. She leaned against the wall, thinking hard.
As soon as night fell, Elizabeth summoned Ruxandra to her council chambers. Elizabeth’s anger from the day before was a pale shadow of her fury at the messenger’s news.
“I will not be driven from my house!” Elizabeth shouted. “I will not!”
Three large candelabras lit the council chamber. Ruxandra stood in the shadows against the wall. Dorotyas, Kade, and Elizabeth’s knight commanders sat at the table. The knight commanders all wore gray beards and scars on their faces. They also all wore fresh teeth marks in their necks.
She’s made thralls of them all.
“In that case,” said one, “let us send scouts to see the size of Rudolph’s army.”
“From there we can arrange the appropriate defenses,” said the second. “Meanwhile, I will inventory our stores and supplies, should they attempt a siege.”
“If they have cannons, the walls will not hold,” Kade said. “This place was built before such things were a threat, and cannot defend against them.”
“I don’t care if they have brought all the armies of the empire together,” Elizabeth said. “I am not leaving!”
“The girls will serve as hostages,” Dorotyas said. “Rudolph will negotiate for their release before they fire upon us. That will give us time to plan a counterattack.”
“With what?” Kade asked. “We have no cannons here and not many soldiers.”
Elizabeth’s eyes narrowed. She looked at Ruxandra.
“Gentlemen, thank you. Please send scouts at once and see to our supplies. Kade, Dorotyas, Ruxandra, stay.”
The knights bowed and left. Elizabeth closed the door behind them.
“We do not need cannons,” she said. “We have Ruxandra, we have Dorotyas, and we have me.”
“Will it be enough?” Kade asked. “Against a hundred men? Or a thousand?”
“It does not matter how many,” Elizabeth said. “If it is a large force, we need not destroy it all at once. We wear them down, night after night, until they flee in terror at the very mention of this place.”
“That one”—Dorotyas shoved a thumb in Ruxandra’s direction—“won’t want to do it.”
“That one,” Elizabeth repeated, fury filling her voice, “is in disgrace for not telling me that Rudolph would return to his senses. She will do whate
ver she is told.”
“I did not know!” Ruxandra protested. “I only learned how to command people in Vienna. How could I know it did not last?”
“One more word from you and I give the youngest of the girls to my soldiers for a night.”
Ruxandra bit her lip and looked at her feet, fury pulsing through her.
“Get back to your room. Do not come out until I tell you. Dorotyas, lock her in and then return here.”
“Yes, my lady.”
They walked in silence through the halls of the castle back to Ruxandra’s room. Dorotyas’s desire to beat her again radiated from the woman. Ruxandra kept her mouth shut, even when Dorotyas shoved her against the wall.
“How does it feel to no longer be the favorite?” Dorotyas whispered. “To learn your true place in the world?”
Ruxandra said nothing. Dorotyas let her go and shoved her toward her tower.
“Walk faster. I’m sick of the sight of you.”
Ruxandra did so and as soon as she was back in her room, she threw open the shutters and the curtains. She sat on her bed, opening her ears and her mind.
Fear radiated off everyone in the castle, save Dorotyas and Elizabeth. Even Kade was afraid, though he hid it better than most. Ruxandra caught snippets of whispered conversations from the servants and guards.
“She’ll be hung, is my guess.”
“Or burned.”
“She’s brought it upon herself, but now she’s bringing it upon all of us!”
“I don’t want to be here.”
“Will they hurt us, Mummy?”
She stretched her mind as far as it could reach but sensed no one beyond the town.
They must still be far away.
Elizabeth won’t go.
Not unless someone makes her. And I cannot make her.
But I won’t let her hurt me anymore.
Ruxandra looked up at the bed curtains, then began pulling them down.
Sunrise won’t be long now.
COLD WINTER SUNLIGHT appeared between the mountains. Light spilled across a landscape of bare trees and wet snow. It crawled up the side of the hill on which Castle Csejte sat and scaled the walls until it peeked into the tower window.
Ruxandra closed her eyes and opened her mind. She sensed every person in the castle, from the guards on the walls to the prisoners in the dungeons. She felt the bright presences of Elizabeth, asleep in her room, and Dorotyas, sleeping in the girl’s dormitory.
The light spilled over the walls, over the empty bed and the bare posts where the bed curtains used to hang. It coated the wall with light that bounced and danced through the room, lighting up even the darkest corners.
Then the sun, lagging behind its light, breached the horizon. It climbed the sky, shining down on the town and the castle and the woods around it.
When the sun’s light touched the courtyard, Ruxandra leaped out of the tower window.
Long thin strips of bed curtain were wrapped over every inch of her flesh, from her feet to her head. Over the top of them, she wore her heaviest cloak. A thin strip of fabric covered her eyes to keep the sunlight from touching them.
She still felt like she was standing next to a blazing forge.
She dropped twenty feet and hit the ground running.
“Hey!” a soldier shouted from the wall. “What are you—”
“You must leave,” Ruxandra commanded. “Everyone must leave.”
She didn’t stop to see if he’d listened. She ran into the gatehouse, startling the soldiers.
“Open the gates,” she commanded. “Open the gates and leave. Now!”
The soldiers scrambled to raise the portcullis. Ruxandra ran up the steps to the next level. A knight commander sat at the table there. His eyes went wide at the sight of her.
“What are you—”
She punched him in the side of the head, and he flew across the room.
“Everyone,” she commanded. “Out!”
The other soldiers left without looking at their commander.
Good. Elizabeth only made a few thralls.
Around the walls she went, giving the command over and over. The soldiers on duty dropped their weapons and ran for the gates.
Ruxandra finished her circuit of the walls and went to the kitchen. She commanded the servants and cooks to get their families and go. She raced up the castle floor by floor, telling everyone she met. The only place she didn’t go near was Elizabeth’s apartments. After, she ran back outside to the stables. She told the stable boys to get out and take the horses with them.
“Ruxandra!” Kade’s voice echoed across the courtyard. “What are you doing?”
She ignored him, changed directions and put on a burst of speed. She jumped into the air, twisted, and slammed both feet into the door of the girls’ dormitory.
In the moment before she landed, Ruxandra saw the girls. They huddled together, shivering, in the corner farthest from the door where Dorotyas sat, a strap in her hand. She saw the fireplace, the ashes cold. She smelled fresh blood and spotted a dozen new open cuts on the girls.
Then Dorotyas jumped out of her chair and spun. Ruxandra hit the ground, claws out, and leaped again in a low, hard tackle. Her body flew across the ground, and she smashed into Dorotyas’s knees, snapping them with the force of the hit.
Dorotyas screamed and swung the strap. It smacked against the layers of fabric on Ruxandra’s back but didn’t go through. Ruxandra drove her talons into the backs of Dorotyas’s knees, and she jumped to her feet. Then she started dragging Dorotyas to the door.
“Get out!” Ruxandra commanded the girls. “Run to the village and keep running. Rudolph’s army is coming to rescue you, so run!”
Dorotyas twisted and ripped her legs free. Ruxandra grabbed her feet, her talons going through the woman’s boots and into the flesh beneath. She ran backward, dragging Dorotyas straight into the sunshine in the courtyard.
Dorotyas hair went up in flames with a whoosh. The skin on her face and neck turned bright red, blistered, and split open like a sausage’s skin splitting as it burned. Ruxandra let go of her boots, sank her claws through the fabric of the woman’s dress and tore it wide open.
Dorotyas’s screams echoed through the courtyard and off the hills around them.
Ruxandra leaped back, letting go of Dorotyas and standing in the sunlight between Dorotyas and the running girls. Dorotyas ran the other way, heading for the great hall. Ruxandra let her go.. Dorotyas slammed through the door and disappeared into the darkness beyond.
“You can’t do this!” Kade yelled.
“I already did,” Ruxandra turned her back and headed for the dungeon.
“Elizabeth will kill you!”
“No, she won’t,” Ruxandra said, and inside her the Beast snarled agreement. “Elizabeth has no idea what it takes to kill one of us.”
Ruxandra left Kade behind. She ran to the dungeon and, room by room, tore the doors off the cells. Girls, all naked, all terrified, cowered together on the cell floors.
“Get out,” Ruxandra commanded. “Run from here and go to the village.”
She turned and dashed out before they stampeded her.
“Stop!” Kade stood in the courtyard, his eyes wide. “For God’s sake, stop for a moment!”
Ruxandra slowed to a walk but kept moving.
“Why?” Kade ran in front of her. “Why this?”
“Because I’m not a pet,” Ruxandra said. “I’m not a slave. Without bargaining tools, Elizabeth can’t make me do anything.”
“You still won’t be able to leave!”
“Neither will you.” Ruxandra stepped forward and hugged him tight, pressing her body against his. Kade froze.
That’s what I thought.
“As long as I’m not hurting you,” Ruxandra said, “I can still touch you. And as long as I can touch you, I will bring you back here again and again and again, until you die of old age.”
“You think Elizabeth won’t stop you?”
>
“No.” Ruxandra’s voice was flat. “She won’t.”
She felt Kade trembling, felt his knees give way. She let him drop to the ground and walked into the great hall.
The smell of burned hair and flesh filled the room. Dorotyas wasn’t in sight. Light streamed in from the high windows, creating patches of bright and dark. In the middle of it, in the shadows covering her chair, sat Elizabeth.
“What,” she said, her voice clear and strong, “have you done?”
“The girls are gone,” Ruxandra said. “So is everyone else except Kade.”
“Not everyone,” said a man’s deep voice from behind them. Ruxandra turned and saw the six knight commanders standing in the doorway, the holes in their necks red and bright against their pale skin. “You called, my lady?”
“I’ll kill them all if they attack,” Ruxandra said.
“Then what?” Elizabeth rose from her chair. Like Ruxandra, she wore a long hooded cloak. Under it, a long robe covered her body, the sleeves longer than her arms. “You can’t leave me. You know that. I will draw you back every time.”
“Kade’s magic will draw me back,” Ruxandra corrected.
“Since you can’t hurt him, it’s the same thing, isn’t it?” Elizabeth said. “It is a pity he didn’t extend the same courtesy to me.”
“He didn’t trust you.” Ruxandra began circling the room, moving to a place where she could see the knight commanders and Elizabeth at once.
“How shameful.” Elizabeth’s scourge uncoiled from her hand. The metal glinted where the sunlight caught it. “I will have words with him.”
“Tell him to release me,” Ruxandra said. “Please, Elizabeth.”
“And if I refuse?” Elizabeth asked. She stepped down from the dais, moving with slow, deliberate steps. “What then?”
“I will kill you.”
Elizabeth stopped. Her eyebrows went high on her forehead. Then she started laughing. The sound rang through the great hall. Ruxandra waited.
“You? Kill me?” Elizabeth said at last. “You can’t kill me, my dear. I made you what you are.”
Not Everything Dies Page 22