The Cursed Girl, #1

by Maria Vermisoglou

  He was right. It was an execution, but his word played over and over in my head. Who wanted them dead? “Because they are the enemy,” I said and then I realized something. “I am stupid.” I hit my head. “Stupid, stupid, stupid.”

  “Wait. Why are you stupid?” Jonathan asked.

  I started pacing. “Because this was a trap.”

  Alec stood. “A trap? From who?”

  I threw my hands in the air. “Everything. The letter, the fight, the stalking... even the execution was part of it.”

  Jonathan shook his head. “I don’t understand. A trap for whom?”

  “For you.” I pointed at them.

  “But who would know we are here?” Jonathan asked.

  “So now it’s over, isn’t it?” Alec asked and sighed. “They are coming.”

  I would never have believed that Alec had so little faith. I put my hands on my hips and stared at them. “It’s not over until I say so, and even then, it might not be true.”

  I unscrewed a little bottle. “We can set a trap that will be better than theirs, but I need your help and your consent.” They nodded. “The plan is simple: You just have to die.”

  Their expressions would have made a nice portrait. Ehh... just die. I like your plan,” Jonathan said.

  “Are you serious?” Alec asked.

  “Very and then you will be revived again. Plain and simple.” I smiled at their confused expressions.

  “I am sorry, but there are a few blanks here and there. There is obviously something we missed here,” Jonathan said.

  “Obviously.” I held the bottle high so they could see it. “This bottle is your salvation and my most valuable possession. There is enough for you only, and I don’t have the ingredients to make another.”

  “What does it do?” Alec asked.

  “It’s called sweet death. You drink it and you die. Then in some hours, you will miraculously be alive again.”

  “That’s great, but how does it help us?” Jonathan asked.

  After all this time, he still can’t form a simple plan. How did he become a king, I wondered. “Since they are after you, they will find you dead, be satisfied, bury you, and then leave. If this goes according to my ideal plan...” There. The gears have started working.

  “And if it doesn’t?” Alec asked.

  “Then I have enough plans to rescue you, hopefully.”

  Jonathan grimaced. “What exactly could go wrong? Except the fact that we could permanently die.”

  That wasn’t what I was worried about, but I didn’t tell them the tricky part of the poison. “That’s not the problem. The problem is if they decide to burn you or cut a hand. Then I will need to act, but let’s not be rash.” In my experience, if you think something will go bad, then it will, so I was going to think everything would go well.

  “All right, time to work then,” Alec said.

  I put their bags up in a tree, and they drank the potion. Within seconds, they fell over. I put my hood up and yelled at them and shook them. “Excuse me, sir. Sir. Are you all right? Young man!”

  Two heavily armed, unpleasant-looking men ran over and one said, “What happened?”

  “These two boys look like they have fallen, but I can’t wake them up.”

  They nodded to each other and they checked each boy’s pulse. They smiled at each other. The first man’s expression grew serious when he looked at me. “Unfortunately, miss, they are dead.”

  I put my hands to my mouth. “How horrible. Do you know who they are? Where are their families?”

  They shook their heads. “We don’t know. We should at least burn them to make a decent funeral. All people should have one.”

  I nodded and pulled out my tinderbox. “You are right. May the stars guide you to your next life and may you be luckier next time.” What sounded like a prayer was really a spell. My fire started and quickly grew around the boys. The two men backed off, but they watched. The fire grew rapidly, encompassing the boys’ bodies.

  “Well, miss, we are going to alert some officers so they can locate their families.”

  Now you think of that?

  “Good idea,” the other man said and they left.

  I was sure they would come back to check for ashes. I took a shovel and dug a hole in the ground while the fire—which was an illusion—continued to burn. When the hole was deep enough, I burned some tallow with other items and put the ashes in the hole. I covered the hole. On a large stone I wrote: TO THE TWO UNKNOWN YOUNG MEN THAT LOST THEIR LIVES TODAY. MAY YOU REST IN PEACE.

  Midnight took the bags down from the tree and I carried Jonathan and Alec. Midnight and I took the boys and our things to the secret tunnel entrance nearby.

  Now what? They were supposedly dead, but if someone saw them in public again, the murderers would be alerted. What to do, what to do? Then some of Ritta’s words come to mind. Can’t you stay? “You can be invisible or change appearance...”

  I mentally thanked Ritta for her idea. I would change the boys’ appearances. Ritta had given me a concoction that would change dark hair to blond hair, and I had taken it with me in case I needed it. I worked under the light of candles and painted the mixture of their hair. Now the mixture had to dry on their hair and then—Oh no! I had forgotten Jonathan’s mustache. Well, when he would wake up we would take care of it.

  I looked outside and I calculated that I had about three hours. I had two more things to do, but first I ate with Midnight. After we ate, I washed my hands and cut my hair. My hair had grown enough to reach the middle of my back. I used my knife and cut it to my shoulders. When I finished, I took a nap. Meow. Midnight woke me up. It was time to wake the boys. The tricky part, which I didn’t tell them, was that I had to wake them by breathing into their mouths. I breathed into Jonathan’s mouth first and then Alec’s. I waited for them to wake up. First, their chests started moving up and down, then their hands and legs started moving, and then they slowly opened their eyes. Midnight licked their faces. She was happy they were alive, but she knew they were not dead.

  “Ugh. Are we, uh, alive?” Jonathan groggily said.

  “Define alive,” I said and smiled.

  “Where... are we?” Alec asked.

  “The tunnels and my plan was a success. You are officially dead and burned.”

  They looked at me like I spoke a foreign language. “So, your plan... didn’t work,” said Jonathan.

  “If it wasn’t for me, you would be really dead and burned to crisp, so I would appreciate it if you were kinder... like Alec. Does he complain? No. Be nice like him. And actually, it worked, but I had to change it a little bit.” I told them what had happened with the two men and my fake fire.

  “Thank you, Eva, again,” Alec said.

  I noticed Jonathan had a strange expression on his face as he looked at Alec. Did he feel lucky to be alive? “Alec, what happened to your hair? It’s blond.”

  “What? Blond?” He touched his hair. “So is yours, Jonathan.”

  Jonathan’s expression is pure horror. “What. Why? What happened to my hair? Who did that?”

  Alec stared at me. “Eva? What happened to our hair?”

  “What did you do?” Jonathan asked.

  Why does he always have to suspect me? “I, uh...” I laughed, but when I calmed down, I said, “I painted your hair. You are officially dead, so you can’t show up again with your normal appearances.”

  Alec smiled. “Clever.”

  “I wonder how I look?” Jonathan asked.

  “Indescribable. Fortunately, we don’t have a mirror,” Alec said.

  I handed my knife to Jonathan. “What?” he asked.

  “Your mustache.”

  He seemed hurt. “Why? You don’t like it?”

  Honestly, I hadn’t thought about it, but I preferred when he didn’t have it. “It’s not about that. You can’t have blond hair and a brown mustache. People would think something is off.”

  “Oh. Well... can you help me?”

&nbs
p; I guessed he had never done it before because he had servants. “Why do I have to do everything? Now you will tell me you don’t know how to cut your hair.” I took the knife back angrily.

  “Do you?” Alec asked. I nodded, and Alec stood. “I will take a walk,” he said.

  “Don’t get lost.” I used the candle to light another candle and gave one to Alec. I started cutting Jonathan’s mustache, and he tried talking, but I stopped him. “If you keep talking, I will cut you. I am not an expert.” He closed his mouth. I carefully removed his mustache, and then I raised the candle to see if I had missed anything. “I think you are good,” I said. Meow. “What? I did it.” Meow. I took a closer look, and yes, I had left some, but no one would see it. “I am not an expert you know,” I tell her. Meow.

  “Your cat seems to be on my side,” Jonathan said.

  “Midnight is on no one’s side. Never forget that,” I said and went to wash my knife.

  He took a spoon and looked at his reflection. “It’s not that bad.”

  “Actually, it’s awful, but it could be worse.” I grinned. “It could have been red.”

  “Ugh.” I sighed and our candle went out.

  “Now what?” Jonathan asked.

  “Now you wait until I find the tinderbox.” I felt for my bag in the dark. I began to dig through my bag, but a soft glow began to fill the area.

  Alec had returned, and the closer he came, the brighter the light became. “I see you are done. Well, it looks nice.”

  I smiled. “You have good timing. Our candle went out.”

  “Midnight called me or rather she bumped into me, and I thought it was a rat.” He looked sheepish. “No offense, Midnight. So I returned and here I am. I am hungry. Is it time for lunch or dinner?”

  “I think It’s dinner time.” We prepared the food, and while we ate, we discussed the events of the day.

  “I didn’t feel anything. It was like I was sleeping,” Jonathan said.

  “Well, they say death is like sleep.”

  “What are we doing now?” Alec asked.

  “Now we wait. I sent some letters to the Hope People of Bologna and Paris. I don’t think everyone went to that meeting, right?”

  “How about our staying?” asked Jonathan.

  “I don’t know. I don’t like the tunnels, and it can be dangerous to spend the night in them. We’ll have to do it but only for tonight. We will keep watch and find something else tomorrow.”

  “What about this Demon?” Jonathan looked pensive. “He is the one who gave us up. He should be punished.”

  “I don’t think he is the one who gave us up. He was just the bait. We will punish him all right, but not now and not from here. Although the crowd may have already punished him.”

  “And what do you propose? I know you don’t like killings, but he helped setting the trap. He is at fault too,” Alec said.

  “Why kill him when there is so much more you can do? Death is easy; it’s life that is hard. The better way to punish someone is to make him do whatever he hates.” I smiled because I remembered something that had happened, and it was the example of this.

  “Something that he hates... as in?” Alec asked.

  I smiled mischievously. “There was a man who hurt cats and killed them because he was afraid of them and hated them. I think you can guess what punishment he received...”

  They shrugged. “Death?”

  It was always death with them. It was like their minds couldn’t think outside of the box and all they saw was white and black. My mind thought in between and saw the gray too. “We made him work with cats: feed them, wash them, and brush them.”

  “I guess it’s a kind of punishment,” Alec says.

  “If you were afraid of rats and I made you work with rats, how would you feel?” They grimaced. “Disgusted and awful. I see your point,” said Jonathan.

  After a while, I suggested they get some sleep while I took the first watch. “What? But you stayed all day without rest while we slept. Go get some sleep,” Alec said. I took Midnight and a blanket and I curled up. Jonathan lay down too on a blanket. Wasn’t he cold? It was December, and I could feel the cold from the tunnels. I was glad I had Midnight.

  Off we Ride

  I slept until it was morning, and Midnight woke me up. Alec was sleeping and Jonathan was up. “Why didn’t you wake me up?” I asked.

  “It was a tiring day for you. We thought it was better for you to sleep.”

  When he said those things, he made me feel bad. “I can stay up all night you know.”

  “I know, but it’s an unnecessary risk. If something happens—you are our savior, you think up the plans...”

  Sometime later, a pigeon arrived with a note. The note read:

  Dear informer,

  I am sorry to hear the bad news. There will be a gathering for exchanging goods in Bretagne. You can ask all your friends to come.

  Regards,

  H.P.O.P.

  “What does that mean?” Jonathan asked when we read it.

  “I sent an encoded message, and they are doing the same. Gathering is for meeting, goods are for news, all means I should tell this to Bologna, and friends are you and Alec probably. I didn’t mention names.”

  “I see, so where is Bretagne?”

  I pulled a map out of my bag. “I took this from the inn when I went for the food yesterday.” We searched for Bretagne. “Oh, no. It’s north. Too north. How are we going to get there?

  “It’s a shame we don’t have a carriage to travel,” said Jonathan.

  I smiled wide at him. “That’s it. You are a genius.”

  “Thank you, but why?” He beamed.

  “We will use horses.”

  “Luckily you know how to ride one.”

  I pushed him with my shoulder and he pushed me back.

  “Good morning. What is happening?” Alec yawned.

  “We are going riding,” Jonathan informed him while I prepared breakfast.

  “Huh?” Alec asked.

  After we ate, we went to the spot in the city where Alec had seen the horses at a shop named “Horse Rider.”

  We entered the shop. “Hello. We would like to buy horses, please,” I said to the man.

  Fortunately, he spoke Spanish. “You are leaving? Good, miss. Please don’t go south if you permit my advice.”

  I nodded as he guided us back to where the stables were. “Going south was not my intention,” I said in a supposedly horrified voice. “My brothers and I will take our sick mother up north; the air will do her some good.”

  He nodded politely. “I understand. Here.” He pointed to three horses. “These are good.”

  Jonathan and Alec mounted two of the horses and walked them in a circle. “Yes, they are perfect,” Alec said.

  The last horse wasn’t so perfect. It backed away from me and wouldn’t come close. “Maybe it’s because of the cat?” Jonathan asked.

  Yes, blame the cat. Midnight wasn’t the reason. Some animals could sense witches and didn’t like them at all. I didn’t know why since we were good and good to the animals. Maybe they were afraid of non-human beings? “I guess. I will have to find another way to go,” I said, but then a horse walked from the back. It was kind of short and white with black lines. It was peculiar. I didn’t know much about horses, but the ones I had seen were only one color and certainly did not have lines. I liked it. It was short like me and different like I was, and it liked me.

  “Oh. That horse seems to like you,” the man said. “Unfortunately, its leg is damaged, so I can’t give it to you.”

  I took out my herbs and made a medicine right away. “She is a healer,” Jonathan said. “She is very good. I think you can give her the horse.” Of course, I was good. Once I applied the medicine on the horse’s leg, it started walking normally like every other horse. It even jumped once.

  “Maybe she was waiting for you. You are the only one who cared for her and the only short person who came. You won’t have trouble m
ounting her.”

  I didn’t like the comment about short people. “If I ever come here again, you will not call me short or any other person that comes here that. We don’t like it. Understood?”

  He nodded seriously and I paid him. “Their names are Blackie”—he pointed to Alec’s horse—“Sunshine”—he pointed at mine—“and Blueberry,” he said and pointed at Jonathan’s brown horse.

  None of us could contain our laughter after hearing the names of the horses. The man’s face flushed. “I know it’s stupid, but my son named them, and he is little so...”

  I waved. “It’s all right.” Once we were all mounted, we left.

  Sunshine was a good horse and sensed my wishes. If I wanted to go right, she went right. If I wanted to go faster, she went faster. The horses galloped and we quickly left Paris behind. We passed fields with horses and cows, but I had no idea where we were. We stopped at a field to eat. “Do you know where we are?” I asked. They had traveled more than I had and might know where we were.

  “I don’t know exactly where we are, but I know we are in Normandy,” said Jonathan.

  I searched the map. “Oh. We are kind of close, but how will we know when we would have reached Bretagne?”

  “There is the sea. We can’t miss it. You have to see it, Eva. It’s amazing,” Jonathan said.

  “All right, the sea. Well, that is a good point to start. If we see the sea, we stop and ask questions.”

  “What is this?” Jonathan asked, pointing at some food in my bag.

  “I don’t know. They sold it in the French market. It’s a kind of sausage, I think.” He took a bite of it. “It’s a good choice.” Alec tried it and agreed with Jonathan. I ate the cheese and bread since I don’t eat meat.

  After riding some more, I saw the beach ahead of us, but there was no water. “Where is the sea?” I asked.

  “Isn’t that strange? It’s a phenomenon that only happens here: the sea pulls itself away in the afternoon, and in the morning, it’s here again. It’s the tide,” said Jonathan excited.