The girl had one of those faces that made her look younger than she probably was. She had a bright purple soulmark on her cheek just under her right eye. It was about the size of a half dollar and didn’t detract from her beauty. The girl was stunning, in that “good ol’ American countryside” kind of way. Something about her just spoke of cornfields and cows to Lydia. Her eyes were a dark tone of yellow, almost amber. Something about the purple marks made their eyes go yellow. Maverick, Gary, and now this girl. Weird.
“Yeah,” Lydia admitted weakly.
“Sounded like a nasty one,” the girl said. She had a tray of food in her lap and was already picking at it.
Oh, yeah, she was a country girl, judging by the accent. Somewhere in the Midwest, a land that was as foreign to Lydia as Norway, if she were honest.
“Lotsa mumbling.” The girl let out a noise that indicated she remembered her manners and laughed. “Sorry. Always getting away from myself. I’m Evelyn.” She stuck her hand through the bars from her neighboring cell. “But everyone calls me Evie.” Her face was brimming with a show-stopping smile that was gorgeous and innocent at the same time. “Nice ta’meetcha!”
Lydia found herself smiling in response even if she hadn’t meant to. Something was so gosh darn bubbly about the girl—who was also locked in a jail cell—that was infectious. She stood from the cot and moved closer to shake her hand. “Lydia. Or Lyd, either work. And…you too.”
“Pleasure.”
How could someone be so chipper in such a dire situation? Lydia would kill for an ounce of that level of optimism. It just didn’t come naturally to her, no matter how hard she tried.
Evie gave her hand a hard squeeze and a firm shake and was still grinning as they mutually let go. “Well, better get to that dinner of yours before it goes cold. It ain’t too good when it’s warm, and it sure ain’t any better when it’s not.”
“Adorable” was the word that came to mind for Evie. Lydia smiled at her and went to get her tray of food. She could have sat on her cot to eat, but instead, she found herself sitting opposite the bars from Evie, leaning up against the same wall and mimicking the girl’s pose, with the tray in her lap.
The redhead was still smiling broadly. She dropped her voice, mimicking the sound of a man, and gruffed, “So what’re you in for, bub?”
Lydia laughed, and man, she needed a laugh today. It sent her off in a peal of laughter that was so wonderfully cathartic. She let it trail off and found the girl was smiling at her, broad-faced and proud of her accomplishment.
“I’m here,” Lydia started, “because, apparently, the Ancients or whatever they are can’t make up their goddamn minds.”
Evie grinned. “I heard. I just hadda ask, anyway. Only get to make that joke a few times, y’know? The Priest was sittin’ here for quite a while, fussing over you, wonderin’ if you were gonna cash in your chips.” She let out a whuf and stuffed a piece of bread in her mouth, chewing on it even as she spoke, making everything afterward come out muffled. “Never seen him worried before.”
“Does this place only have one priest? Everybody calls him the Priest.”
“Only one that matters, only one worth the title,” Evie responded with a shrug. “Don’t pinch the details.” She shifted excitedly, nudging closer to the bars. “You got marked, you got fetched, you got thrown in, and then…”
“Nearly drowned, apparently,” Lydia said. The dress she was wearing had short sleeves, and when she looked down at her forearms, there was no mark on either arm. Well, one had a faint light patch where the healed skin was left from her home surgery attempt. Maverick did good work, she had to admit. “Now Edu has me locked up here. He thinks I’m a threat.”
“Psh, Edu may be a helluva baby grand, but that fella doesn’t think much before he acts. Stuck you in here until he could work somethin’ out.” Evie ripped off a chunk of bread again and shoved it into her mouth.
“Where’re you from originally?” Lydia asked, still finding herself smiling. She picked at the food on the tray, finding the fruit and a few pieces of cheese more interesting than the hunk of bread and the small bowl of…some brown stew.
“Montana,” she said with a bright grin. “You also got to learn to ask when, bunny.”
“All right,” she said with a shake of her head and chewed on a piece of cheese, realizing how hungry she was. “When’re you from, Evie from Montana?”
“When I got snatched,” she leaned back on the stone wall and looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully, “it was nineteen twenty-two.”
“Follow up.” Lydia found the girl easy to talk to. She had a casual, easy flair, and Lydia was happy to have someone that wasn’t…well, Evie wasn’t human. The mark on her face and yellow eyes were clear indications. But she wasn’t a stone visage like the Priest. “What’re you doing in here?”
Evie took in a big breath and let it out in a long, loud sigh. “I ain’t so bright. I tried to kill somebody. See, to not have a mask makes you a servant. You serve everybody. The…monsters too.” Evie shook her head. “I took it until I couldn’t take it no more, I guess.”
Whatever Evie was alluding to…wasn’t pleasant. “How do you serve a monster?”
“You feed them.”
There was such weight behind those three words that Lydia decided to sort out in silence what she meant. When it finally dawned on her, the result sent a cold chill down her back.
Oh.
They couldn’t die. Not by violence, anyway. Which meant servants were required to…to feed the monsters. Judging by the look on her face, she meant it in the worst way possible. Not “go get the dog chow.” Evie was saying she was the dog chow. Repeatedly.
Lydia swallowed thickly in her throat at the idea. Maybe this class system of theirs wasn’t a benign one. It didn’t really come as a surprise, to be honest.
“So I got sick of it. Refused to do it. Was told either to shut up and do my duty or I’d serve the monsters differently, if you catch my drift.”
Yeah. Lydia did. Her nausea went from bad to worse at what punishment meant in a world where death was so casual. No need to elaborate on what a worse punishment might be. “You tried to break free. I’d have done the same.”
“Yup. I figured, useless dewdropper boss of mine, it’d be easy to get the jump on ’im. I went to cut off his mark, and I just couldn’t do it. Never been much of an iron stomach.” She set her tray aside on the ground next to her. “Thought I had more gumption than I did.”
“Why would you cut his mark off?”
“The ones on our face, they’re important. You can’t kill somebody unless you take it off ’em first. Burn it, cut it, doesn’t matter. Then they can die,” Evie explained and was smiling, Lydia guessed more out of the happiness to be able to teach somebody something than the subject matter. “Otherwise, we just keep comin’ back.”
“That sucks.”
Evie laughed. “Only for us servants. To everybody else, it’s a sport.”
“That’s why it sucks.” Lydia leaned back on the wall and decided to try dipping a piece of bread into the brown stew and taking a bite out of it. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t great, either. It tasted a lot of flour and some over-boiled meat.
Wait…
“What’s the meat in this stew?” she asked Evie slowly, terrified of the answer as the question dawned on her slowly, connecting their previous conversation to this one. Oh, please, don’t let it be Soylent Green.
Evie cracked up at that, howling in laughter and slapping the floor next to her in great excitement. “Oh, boy! The look on your face! I should tell you it’s servant and really pull your leg.” Finally, she managed to calm down enough to explain, wiping tears from her eyes. “It ain’t a person. It’s from one of those monsters you probably saw come out of the lake. We eat them, they eat us. I just got sick of it being my only job around here.”
“But the monsters also used to be people.”
Evie sighed sympathetically and leaned up against th
e bars. “Yup. Bunny, welcome to Under.”
They sat in silence for a long time, and Lydia shook her head, feeling deflated and hopeless again. She didn’t know why she felt the need to confess to Evie how she was feeling. It was rare that Lydia made a fast friend. Maybe it was the fact that they were stuck in here together or the bright smile on Evie’s face that seemed to never waver for long, but she wanted to trust her. “This is all a nightmare. The only reason I’m not having a panic attack is because none of this seems real. Now I learn that Edu’ll probably kill me because of it. It’s bad enough that I have that asshole in black haunting my dreams.”
Shit.
She wasn’t supposed to say anything.
“Huh?” Evie turned to look at her, bright yellowy-amber eyes blinking in curiosity. “Who’s in your dreams?”
Lydia went quiet for a moment before speaking again, her voice low. “Can I trust you?”
“Of course, bunny.”
“Nobody can know.”
“An’ who’m I gonna tell?”
“He said if they don’t already want me dead, they will when they learn he’s…somehow magically screwing around in my head.”
“Aon…” Evie’s eyes went wide. “It’s him, isn’t it?”
“How did you know?”
Evie ignored her question and leaned into the bars. “What has Aon been doing in your dreams? All the details!”
“He keeps showing up every damn time I fall asleep or pass out,” she grumbled and put the tray of food aside to pull her knees up toward her chest and rest her arms on them. “Harassing me or threatening me, last time he said he’s getting stronger and—”
“Oh, no…” Evie moaned and sank backward. Apparently, all the details weren’t needed. “Oh, no. Oh, this is no good.”
“What?”
“That means he’s waking up.” She sat back and put her head in her hands. “I’m doomed. We’re doomed!” she wailed.
“Whoa, whoa, slow down.” Lydia reached through the bars and put her hand on the girl’s thin shoulder. “Is he that much worse?”
“You have no idea! If Aon’s rising, then Edu and he will have to trade places, and Aon will be in charge. Oh, no…no, no, no!” she cried into her hands.
“Why is this so awful?” Lydia had met Edu and Aon now, and both seemed like complete jackasses. Why was one so much worse than the other?
“Edu was just going to execute me,” Evie exclaimed and finally looked up at her. “Aon…he prefers to torture the prisoners. Bunny, what gets sent back out of his cells ain’t the same as what goes in. He’s a sadist. He’s insane!”
“Torture? Like…what?”
“He peels people’s skin off in sheets. He bleeds them dry, again and again and again. He puts people up to their necks in boiling water and melts their flesh off their bones. He—”
“Stop, stop,” Lydia interrupted, her stomach twisting. That was who was in her dreams. “I’m sorry I asked.”
“Edu’s a lotta things, but he ain’t cruel. Aon…the only thing he loves in this world is causing pain. I’m a prisoner. So’re you. Don’t you get it?”
Lydia leaned back against the wall and tried to let it settle over her. Aon said others would describe him as the paramount madman and sadist in Under. And he was right. Lydia swallowed thickly and looked over at Evie. If Edu didn’t kill her first, something told her she still wouldn’t it make it very long.
When Lydia spoke, her voice reflected the fear she felt.
“Aon is coming for me.”
Chapter Twelve
“It is too soon. It cannot be!”
“You have seen the movements yourself. You know it to be true.”
“But he rises early.”
“But why? Why now?”
“It is because of the girl.”
“That is a safe presumption, yes.”
“If that is true, then it foretells dark days for us all.”
“Mind yourself, Kamira. As Master Aon rises soon, you may mark your words.”
“Mark your own, Navaa. Your master and I know each other quite well. My disdain for his methods is no news to him.”
Edu slammed his fist onto the tabletop, sending the goblets atop the wood surface rattling and rolling about. Otoi had to grab his goblet with both hands to keep it from toppling over. Edu had enough of their bickering, their rabble and noise. All six of them sat around the table, with Edu at the head, Ylena standing to the side behind his massive, rough-hewn wood chair. Her hands were clasped neatly in front of her as she waited to serve.
“Master Edu agrees that this timing is conspicuous enough to render a coincidence unlikely,” Ylena said from his side. “Somehow, the girl’s unique condition has awoken Aon, despite it barely being thirty years into his sleep.”
“What do you think he will do with her?” Maverick asked.
“Dissect her and add her to his collection, I expect,” Kamira said darkly and raised her glass to her lips, sipping the mix of blood and wine those whose masks did not cover their mouths could imbibe. Indeed, he was the only one who couldn’t share in it. It was an unfortunate side-effect of his seat of power. If he wished to be drunk, he must do so alone. With Aon rising from his crypt in short order, he felt the overwhelming need to release tension in any way he could.
“Do not presume to speak for my Master,” Navaa gruffly snarled from the other side of the table.
“Oh? And what do you believe he may do with the girl?” Kamira said with a snort. “Bake her a cake? Make her comfortable? Please, he would dice her organs out upon the slab to see what secrets she might hold.”
“She is yet mortal,” Maverick dutifully reminded. “To do so would end her mystery immediately. I do not feel that Aon, mad as he may be, would be so…rash.”
Navaa sneered at Kamira, who could only glare at the studious gentleman in purple for interceding in her argument with Navaa. Maverick shrugged and took a sip of his own glass, unflinching in the face of Kamira’s anger. The Elder of Moons was often angry. It was not an unusual condition for any of them to navigate.
“Aon has just as much say in her fate as any of us,” Navaa finished and leaned back in his chair. The Elder of the House of Shadows would step down as soon as his master rose. And in turn, Edu would return to his own crypt beneath his keep. Oanr, his second in command, would then rule for the Flame.
Such was the treaty they had struck at the end of the war that had cost them all so very much. It was that reminder of the consequence of bloodshed that had kept the treaty unbroken for all those hundreds of years.
But for Aon to rise early, what might it portend with the mystery of the girl who had been rejected by the Ancients? Could Edu allow himself to sink into over a century of sleep?
Perhaps the girl was a freakish mistake. She may be nothing, a fruit fly to creatures like them. Or something could dwell in her, some deep reasoning that could spell doom for all of them if the key to such things fell to Aon’s control.
“Master Edu reminds you that Aon has not yet risen. Edu is still king. Therefore, it is for the council to decide what to do with the girl.”
“What are our options?” Kamira asked then lifted a hand to count off on her fingers. “Kill her, release her to Earth, throw her back to the Ancients for a second try, or keep her as a human pet.” Kamira shrugged. “I care not what happens to her.”
“Be wary,” Ziza warned. “The Ancients have chosen this path for her for a reason. Death may be imprudent.”
“Do you know that for certain?” Maverick asked, peering at the woman in blue curiously.
“I have had no visions on the matter, no. But I can feel their hand working heavily in these matters,” Ziza replied.
“Keep her alive until Aon wakes,” Navaa recommended. “Convene again when a king with more knowledge may provide his opinion on her fate.”
Edu growled low in his throat, wordlessly warning the Regent of the House of Shadows to watch his tongue, lest he wind up without
one in short order. Edu rattled off in his mind a colorful description regarding precisely where into Navaa’s anatomy he was going to install the man’s head if he were not silent.
“I will opt not to voice that, my king,” Ylena chided him silently.
Even Navaa shrank back in his chair at Edu’s change in posture. Some things could be conveyed without words.
“I don’t think we should kill the girl,” Otoi said, rubbing his hand across his upper lip. “Seems a waste. She’s the first damn interesting thing to come out of that pond in a long time. The Ancients put her here. I say we keep her and watch her.”
“You spoke with the girl.” Kamira glared at Maverick. “What say you?”
“I did, but briefly. Hardly long enough to discern salient details. Lydia has spirit, conviction,” the Regent in Purple answered.
“We learned that when she buried a bullet into Edu’s skull,” Navaa said with a sneer. Edu rose from his chair, glaring a hole through Navaa where he sat. The man in black raised his hands in surrender. “No offense, my king. Any of us would have been taken off guard. The hunt is not usually so eventful.”
“Sit, Master Edu,” Ziza said quietly. “Spill his blood later if you must. But we are in need of all houses to cast a vote.”
Edu sighed darkly and sat back down. Yes, he would break Navaa’s legs later. But now, Edu needed the cretin not screaming in agony. Very well.
“We are agreed that the girl’s expulsion from the ceremony while remaining a mortal is linked to the warlock’s early rise,” Ylena said from beside him.
“But he cannot force the hands of our creators,” Otoi countered. “The Ancients did this. Not he. Perhaps they simply wished him awake for someone that may change our world.” The fat little man sniffed dismissively.
“Master Edu has had enough of the debate,” Ylena said firmly, Edu’s own emotions leaking into her own. “We shall vote. Who wishes to spare the girl’s life?”
Otoi, Ziza, and Navaa each lifted a hand. Three votes to spare her life. That left Edu and Kamira voting against. Maverick was looking thoughtfully down at the table, tapping a finger on the gleaming polished wood surface.
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